Evening star., 1950-07-09

American Professional" Just
opened at the Corcoran Gallery of
Art, as its special attraction for
District of Columbia Sesquicen-
tennial visitors, is the best his
torical exhibition I have seen. The
nearest approach was Three
Centuries of Life in America" at
the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York City, in 1889.
American Professional" de-
serves large attendance, for it
is an authentic survey of our
history which brings together 311
pictures, valued at more than SO
million, lent by museums, art
galleries, universities and private
owners, representative of 36 States
and the Government. The exhibi-
ton was prepared with a grant of
$4,000 from the National Capital
Sesquicen tennial Commission,
which enlisted art experts who
spent months in research. tracing
the works of art, contracting their
owners and visiting distant gal
leries. Such a collection is not
likely to be brought together again
in one place.
The fact that the exhibition
comprises contemporary represen-
tatisns of the various events and
personages (to a large extent) is
of major Importance. For these
pictures are windows opening right
into the 18th century Tor what
ever the respective period, some
thing that later reconstructions
cannot do. However crude. quaint,
awkward or circumscribed in their
talents some of those early paint
ers were, they had over more gifted
successors the great advantage of
first-hand familiarity with events
and persons depicted. also the
emotional and intellectual har-
mony with their milieu that is
A11hOSOl61C W 4C-S1Cd
History of America.
The exhibition tells through
paintings, engravings and draw
ings, by artists of five centuries,
the progress of the United States
from Christopher Columbus, whose
well-known portrait by del Piombo
from the Metropolitan Museum of
Art. opens the show.
The flavor of the exhibition is
as American as apple pie. 1t is
grand fun not only for students
and others with special interests,
but for the general public. All
any one needs to enjoy the show
is nodding acquaintance with
our own country's history: yet
even this is not necessary. in view
of the excellent labelling. Never
theless, the more one has absorbed
in ones past, the more entertain
ment the show will provide.
Whether the well-worn axiom,
"a picture is worth 10000 words, :"
applies here depends on the
visitor. For example, many who
see Queen Elizabeths portrait (by
Nicholas Hilliard, c. 1600) will
surely remember Sir Walter
Raleigh, the lost colony of
Roanoke Island and many other
ties connecting her with America.
French and Spanish settlements
in the New World are also illus
trated in 18th century engravings,
and the fascinating story of Capt.
John Smith and Jamestown by
the portrait of Pocahontas done
from life in 1916. now happily
owned by the National Gallery of
Art. And what a neat little place
New Amsterdam was in 1850: no
later New York City artist could
possibly conjure it up as did a
17th century Dutchman in this
picture lent from The Hague,
Holland.
American Indians.
Two paintings of treaties with
Indians illustrate Cat least for mel
something of the contrast between
artists handling of contemporary
and reconstructed happenings.
Benjamin Vests large well-known
painting of "Penn's Treaty With
the Indians" has the drama, cos
tuning and arrangement of a
stage production. "The Indian
Treaty of Greenville," a primitive
little work by an unknown artist
presumably of the time, shows a