Evening star., 1947-12-14


ton of an important painting, H,
gift from Stephen C. Clark OF New
his boat, grasping the antlers Of a
deer he has shot, and looking at
his hound, swimming in from the
left.
Hound and Hunter" like the
National Gallery's other Homer.
"Breezing Up," required several
years to paint, according to John
Walker, chief curator. 1t was COM
pleted in 1892, the second year
Homer spent summer and early
autumn months In the Adirondacks.
painting scenes connected with wild
animal life, especially trapping and
hunting. Mr.. Walker considers
Hound and Hunter" one of the
outstanding achievements Of this
period. at is a masterpiece of dra-
matte painting he said, "as COL
loquial and American in feeling as
the stories of Mark Twain or Of
Ernest Hemingway"
Art for Christmas
Christmas is a joy to cartoonists,
among many others, because they
can always count on a sizable pro-
portion Of the population opening
gifts that set their teeth on edge.
For the taste Of the average receiv-
er Of gifts seems to get more par
ticular each year. Nevertheless,
local artists are endeavoring to meet
part of the gift demand.
Formerly the Corcoran and the
Phillips Memorial galleries had an
nual Christmas sales shows of paint
ings, prints and other works. They
have abandoned the custom this
year, and the Artists Cooperative
and Washington Workshop Coop
erative have taken their places, in
a manner of speaking.
The Workshop has set q price
gamut of S. to $50, which would
seem to be bargain prices for origi-
nal works Of art. Nearly 80 of the
81 works shown are by Jack PERL
mutter; II are by Laura Douglas;
from one to five each are by Jacob
Kainen. John Gernand, w. r. Car
nelli and Ralph De Burgos.
The concessions they have made
to popular taste can be counted on
one hand. AS a matter of fact, who
ever plans to give an original paint
ing for Christmas would be well
advised to take the prospective re-
cipient along and subtly elicit his
or her reactions.
A short foreword (by Joseph G.
CowelD to the catalogue of Mr.. PERL
mutters large group Of paintings
says in part: The value Of a work
of art for any one person is its power
to open his eyes to the attractions
OF expanding awareness, and to
arouse him to realize his living po-
tential."
Frankly, it seems to me that the
value of painting for the average
person, is dependent upon how well
it looks hanging on his living room
wall Cor wherever). The subject
ought to be pleasant, or at least
nonirritating, the colors harmoni-
GUS, the composition good and the
execution clean-cut rather than
smeary.
Works which struck me as having
qualities the public might like are
Mr.. Perlmutter's painting, Moon
Over Naylor Gardens" Mr.. de Bur-
gos' little Nude" and Mr.. Kainen's
etching, THE Street."
X + X Y
A. G.. Christmas Gift Show
The Artists Cooperative has ap-
proximately $50 items. One room is
given over to paintings and craft
work ranging in price from less than
81 to SIS; paintings in other CALLER
les have no limit. Throughout the
show, there are pleasing items most
Of us would enjoy opening on Christ
mas morning.
AS large proportion of the paint
ings were not identified Cat least, on
the opening day. 1t seems invidious
to mention any names. Nevertheless,
Of those which were signed or
I noted colorful flower ar
and still life by Florence
Morgan, Lima Larson, Grove, Jean
Sargent, X. Safer and Teung -Mer-
Do; a cool river view by Roy Roberts
in grays and tans; Snake River
Country, Idaho" toneful scene by
Kameron Kent, and moody but
restful landscape by John c. Lewis;
an excellent red chalk figure study
by Samuel Bookatz and ink and
water color studies of Chinese dane
ers by Edwin Chung Lum.
A collection Of handmade dolls in