N Cornell University Library N 6536.G16 certain contemporaries; a set of n^^^^^ i 3 1924 020 533 448 CERTAIN CONTEMPORARIES A SET OF NOTES IN ART CRITICISM Oh o < o l-H CERTAIN CONTEMPORARIES A SET OF NOTES IN ART CRITICISM BY A. E. GALLATIN ^ NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD MDCCCCXVI NOTE My remarks on Mr. Sloan and Mr. Lawson are re- printed from The International Studio., those on Mr. Gay and M.'Steinlen from Art and Progress. The notes on Some Masters of the Water- Colour originally appeared in Arts and Decoration., and those on the Salon des Hu- moristes held in Mew York in the Bulletin of the Museum of French Art. Those on Mr. Glackens are reprinted Jrom The American Magazine of Art, while several of my comments on Messrs. Sloan, Glackens and Robinson were first published in the Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum oj Art. This material is now repyinted through the courtesy of the editors oJ these various publications. CONTENTS WILLIAM GLACKENS 3 ERNEST LAWSON 13 JOHN SLOAN: HIS GRAPHIC WORK 23 WITH A CONCISE ICONOGRAPHY SOME MASTERS OF THE WATER-COLOUR 33 WALTER gay's PAINTINGS OF INTERIORS 43 A FRENCH SALON DES HUMORISTES IN NEW YORK 51 WITH A NOTE ON STEINLEN BOARDMAN ROBINSON 61 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS These,, excepting the Frontispiece, are placed together at the end of each essay WILLIAM G^LACKENS THE PONT NEUF, PARIS. Dry-fioint. A. E. G. Collection Frontispiece SHOP GIRLS. Pastel. A. E. G. Collection PORTRAIT OF ERNEST LAWSON. Lithograph. Owned by F. J. Gregg, Esq. RACE HORSES. Charcoal. A. E. G. Collection RACE TRACK. Oil. Dr. A. C. Barnes Collection GREAT SOUTH BAY BEACH. Oil. A. E. G. Collection FAMILY GROUP. Oil. Projierty of the Artist PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG GIRL. Oil. Property of the Artist ERNEST LAWSON ROAD AT THE PALISADES. Oil. City Art Museum, Saint Louis Sq^UATTER's HUT. Oil. A. E. G. Collection WINTER. Oil. A. E. G. Collection JOHN SLOAN ILLUSTRATION FOR PAUL DE KOCK. Sepia. A. E. G. Collection FIFTH AVENUE CRITICS. FJching. A. E. G. Collection C viii J CONNOISSEURS OF PRINTS. Etching. A. E. G. Collection PING-PONG PHOTOS. Lit/iografih. A. E. G. Collection JOHN S. SARGENT SPANISH FOUNTAIN. Water-colour . Metropolitan Museum of Art WINSLOW HOMER TORNADO, BAHAMAS. Water-colour . Metropolitan Mitseum of Art CHILDE HASSAM THE DARK POOL. Water-colour. A. E. G. Collection WALTER GAY THE SALON OF THE CHATEAU DU BREAN. Oil LA COMMODE. Oil THE RED SOFA. Oil STEINLEN COVER DESIGN FOR DANS LA VIE. Pen and crayon. A. E. G. Collection BOARDMAN ROBINSON CARTOON. Charcoal. A. E. G. Collection THE SERB. Charcoal. A. E. G. Collection WILLIAM GLACKENS ^^. <3. n w z o > n 5 > > n w a; WILLIAM GLACKENS Portrait of a J^oung Girl !* S ERNEST LAWSON ERNEST LAWSON A STRONG school of painters has of late . years grown up in America, in which the landscapists much more than hold their own. This particular group is certainly equal to-day to that existing in any other country. Wyant, Inness and Martin were among the pioneers : the pres- ent leaders of this very numerous school include Mr. Childe Hassam and Mr. Alden Weir, who may be termed the veterans, insomuch that rec- ognition came to them some time ago, and that their place among the more important of con- temporary American painters is firmly estab- hshed. These two artists possess not only indi- viduality, style, sensitive vision and a splendid colour sense, but also freedom from mere clev- erness and any taint of the academic. • With regard to the landscape artists who have only very recently come to the fore, whose rep- utations have yet to be won, there is one painter that easily detaches himself and rises well above C 14 ] his fellow artists, who possesses unmistakable genius, individualism and true inspiration: I refer to Mr. Ernest Lawson. Another artist, not far behind Mr. Lawson in accomplishment, who also belongs in this category, is the brilliant Mr. Hayley Lever. Mr. Lawson enjoys the unstinted admiration of those artists whose opinions are most to be valued; the critics have been unanimous in pay- ing the highest tributes to his ability; the ama- teurs, although the class, as distinguished from collectors, in America is an extremely small one, have been eager to obtain examples of his work. Recognition by the larger public has, however, as yet been withheld, although, now that their opinion has been formed for them, the public is rapidly coming to see the genius of this man, col- lectors are on his track, the principal museums are acquiring his canvases, and the exhibitions are accepting his pi6lures and awarding him medals. Within a year ( 1915) the Metropolitan Museum, ever ready to welcome the really vital [ 15 H in contemporary painting, has purchased one of his pi6lures, and the Panama-Pacific Exposi- tion (San Francisco, 1915) awarded him a gold medal. This tardy recognition of a talent so really sin- cere and genuine is all the more remarkable when we consider the modern fashion of acclaim- ing and booming the half-baked beginner, of displaying his immature and mediocre efforts, of writing about him at length; when we consider that even the Cubists for a time were taken se- riously. Not many painters to-day seem to have the inclination to perfe6l themselves in their art: they insist upon the short cut, they are content to parade their box of tricks. This is why the average exhibition of modern pi61:ures is so de- pressing, so tedious. With Mr. Lawson we have an artist who paints for the joy of painting, whose reward is seeing his art advance to greater heights. Fame and success mean about as little to him as they do to Degas: they have come to him, but he has not sought them. Certainly it is a pleasure, then, to consider the paintings of such an artist, as it has also been to write the first consideration of his work. '' The French Impressionists above all other artists of modern times made the greatest con- tribution to art. The portrait painters of the past two or three hundred years have given us noth- ing as fine as what went before: in fa6l, if we except a few pi6lures, such as the portrait of a woman by Degas belonging to Mrs. Gardner in Boston, and Whistler's painting of Miss Alex- ander, pronounced by George Moore to be the most beautiful and perfe6l portrait in the world, the art has steadily declined. In landscape, how- ever, thanks to the discoveries of the Impression- ists, something new has been said. Landscape art as we understand it to-day is a modern develop- ment, very few of the old masters ever essaying a landscape for its own sake, but only as a back- ground for their pi6lures. The exceptions were Hobbema, Ruysdael, Rembrandt, Claude and a few others, including Vermeer, whose View C 17 ] of Delft is far and away the greatest landscape ever painted. These men were prodigious artists, but they did not have the faintest conception how to introduce vibration into their landscapes, how to flood their canvases with light and air ; neither had the Barbizon men, or Constable and his school, the latter the first artists to take their easels out of doors. This was the discovery of the Impressionists, of Monet, Pissarro, Sisley. The Impressionists' technique, however, was at first more scientific than artistic. Later they de- veloped it, still employing the colours of the spec- trum, but abandoning the technique of painting in dots. Mr. Lawson, an innovator, like all art- ists of real genius, has pushed these discoveries anddevelopments even further. There is as much sparkle and sense of outdoors in his pi6lure en- titled Winter as there is in an early Monet, but there is nothing at all eccentric or unpleasant in his technique. Nor is there in the Squatter's Hut, painted in 1914, a year earlier than his Win- ter. He has always gone straight to nature for i 18 ] his inspiration and painted his pi6lure in a sane and sincere manner, combining strength with a lyric quality, virility with tenderness. Such a can- vas is the scintillating Road at the Palisades, sold at the Reisinger sale early in 1 9 1 6 and now beau- tifully hung between two Monets at the City Art Museum in Saint Louis. His brush work and his use of the palette knife are forceful and vigor- ous, full of spontaneity. He has a great sense of colour, and there are in his paintings delicious passages of greens and blues, but never even a suggestion of "sweetness." As drawing and stru6lure have not concerned him as much as has colour, it is inevitable that black and white reprodu6lions of his paintings give only a hint of their great beauty. Mr. Lawson has ever been a searcher after beauty, one of the most important attributes of great painting. His art is realistic, but he abhors the sordid and the ugly (so many moderns wrongly think this is synonymous with charac- ter). He paints the prosaic, but seen through the c; 19 ] eyes of an artist, not through the lens of a cam- era. This is what Whistler did, waiting for the poetry of the evening mist on the embankment, or for darkness, as he said, to change the poor fadlory into a campanile. And Mr. Lawson has also found beauty at home: for many years he lived in the northern part of Manhattan Island, near the Washington Bridge, and this is where he has painted many of his pi61:ures, even as Rembrandt found beauty in the Jewish quarter in Amsterdam. pa > en O 3 w w en O w 2! M CO O JOHN SLOAN: HIS GRAPHIC WORK JOHN SLOAN: HIS GRAPHIC WORK WITH A CONCISE ICONOGRAPHY BUT few American etchers have been inter- ested in the portrayal of people and in the study of their chara6lers, as was the case with Rembrandt and Whistler and is the case with Zorn. Rather have they, like Meryon, D. Y. Cameron and Muirhead Bone, found their in- spiration in pi6luring cities or rural landscapes. Eugene Higgins has etched a number of plates that show his interest inhumanity; Ernest Has- kell has etched a few, as have one or two others ; Jerome Meyers and Childe Hassam have re- cently taken up etching, and they, too, are inter- ested in the study of people, although it is true that the latter more often than not is chiefly con- cerned with the figure as merely pattern in his design. Mr. John Sloan, however, is concerned with nothing else: his interest in humanity is his passion in life. A brief note on Mr. Sloan's early artistic ac- [ 24 ;] tivities will suffice: we will pass on to a consid- eration of his mature work in the graphic arts — omitting, because it does not fall within the scope of this paper, to make more than men- tion of his paintings, which now command most of his attention. Subjefts found in the streets of New York, and material for pi6lures discovered in and around Gloucester, Massachusetts, — prin- cipally landscapes seen under summer skies, many containing figures, — are what attract him. Mr. Sloan was born in the town of Lockhaven, Pennsylvania, in 1871 , and received his training at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Since 1905 he has made New York his home, and much of his inspiration has been derived from the distri6l around Washington Square and on Sixth Avenue. Just previous to this removal to New York he was much interested in the poster movement, which was then at its height, and from his pen came several posters of note, in which the Beardsley influence is discernible. Three of the best known were for Moods, Cin- L 25 3 der Path Tales and The Echo. That early in his career he was interested in etching, numerous plates bear witness. The artist's first work worthy of especial note was a series of over fifty etchings, besides a like number of wash drawings, for a sumptuous edi- tion of the novels of Paul de Kock, which was pubhshed from 1902 to 1905. Wilfiam Glack- ens and George B. Luks, it may be mentioned, were among other artists who contributed to the task. These etchings and drawings are all very spirited and refle6l the flavour of the text to a remarkable degree. As with John Leech, who is one of Sloan's artistic gods, and as with Row- landson, Hogarth and Daumier, his point of view is quaintly humorous. He could, however, be called a caricaturist only by discourtesy, for this he is not. Following these notable illustrations came, from 1 905 to 1 91 1 , a superb set of thirteen etch- ings with scenes of lower life ( for the greater part) in New York as their theme. Their char- C 26] a6lerization of the neighbourhoods depi6led is excellent, their good-natured point of view con- tagious, and their sure and summary execution most admirable and engaging. As faithful rec- ords of a certain aspe6l of contemporary customs and manners, to be consulted by the historian of the future, they have the same value as the drawings and etchings of Leech, Cruikshank and Keene, or the lithographs of Gavarni. Among the artist's other etchings, which are listed at the end of this note, there are several which stand out as being particularly fine in quality. Such a plate is the Mother, a splendid chara6ler study — although this can be said of all his etchings. Another is that which the artist calls Memory, 1905, which contains portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Henri, of himself and of his wife. This is one of the finest plates, as is also the Anschutz Talking on Anatomy, and the Barber Shop. Mr. Sloan's lithographs are only six in num- ber, but they display quite a knowledge of the C 27 J artistic possibilities of this delightful and most autographic medium of artistic expression. To 1905 belong the lithographs entitled Ping-Pong Photos and Gold Fish, while his other four ef- forts in this direftion, which, like the etchings, are listed in the catalogue that follows, were made three years later. In illustration the artist has achieved consid- erable fame, especially for his drawings made for a socialist paper: as is the case with Steinlen, his interest in sociology is absorbing ; like Stein- len, also, his sympathies lie with the working- man. "His art," writes a critic of his work, "points its moral quietly, with no trace of the bitterness of the over-zealous reformer." His many studies of the figure, drawn in black or in red chalk, serve very well to illustrate his gifts as a draughtsman. These rapid sketches, in which the model is seen sometimes undraped, sometimes partly draped, are quite masterly in execution and altogether free from the academic taint. C 28 J CATALOGUE OF THE ETCHINGS AND LITHOGRAPHS OF JOHN SLOAN (The si2es are given in inches, the height first) I. ETCHINGS Early Work, of only historical interest: Dedham Castle, after Turner circa 1888 Head, after Rembrandt circa 1888 George Eliot 1890 Westminster Abbey, seven views fi-om photo- graphs 1891 Several calendars 1891 Homes of the Poets, six etchings from photo- graphs 1891 George W. Childs, from photograph 1892 Schooner on the Schuylkill 1895 Etchings for the Novels of Paul de Kock (Boston: Frederick J. Quinby Co.), made for the following: 1, 3 Monsieur Dupont 4-8 The Gogo Family 9-11 Jean 12-15 Frere Jacques 16-25 The Flower Girl average size 26-29 Madame Pantalon S% x 5}i 30-34 Adh^mar 35-41 Andr^ 42-50 Monsieur Cherami 51, 52 Memoirs 1902 to 1905 C 29 J 53 Girl Seated. Dry-point. 7x5 1903 54 C. K. Keller. 3^^ x 5 1903 55 Paul de Kock. 14 x 12 1904 56 Bradner. Portrait of Man. 7x5 1905 57 Old Flute Player. 3% x 2% 1905 58 James B. Moore. 11% X 9^ 1905 New York Set: 59 Fifth Avenue Critics. 4^4 x 6^^ 1905 60 The Woman's Page. 4}4 x eH 1905 61 Turning out the Light. 4^ x 6^ 1905 62 The Man Monkey. 4>^ x 6}^ 1905 63 Man, Wife and Child. 4?/^ x 6}4 1905 64 The Show-Case. 4^^ x 6% 1905 65 Fun, One Cent. 4% x 6% 1905 66 Connoisseurs of Prints. 4/^x6% 1905 67 The Little Bride. 4}ix6% ■ 1906 68 Roofs: Summer Night. 5x6% 1906 69 Night Windows. 5>^ x 6% " 1910 70 Girl and Beggar. 4^ x5% 1910 71 The Picture Buyer. 5^5^ X 6% 1911 72 Mother. 8% x73< * 1906 75 Memory, 1905. 7x8>^ " •' 1906 74 Jewelry Store Window. 4^ X 3 J^ 1906 75 Old Woman and Ash Barrel. 4x5H , • 1907 76 Copyist at Art Museum. 7^ x 8^ 1908 77 Christmas Dinners. 2% X 4% ' 1909 78 Expecting a Turkey from Uncle. 3%x2% 1910 79 Anschutz Talking on Anatomy. 7}i x8% 1912 C 30 ] 80 The Serenade. 3}i x S 1912 81 Swinging in the Square. 4 x 5/i 1912 82 Woman Hanging Clothes. 2% x sH 1912 83 Rag Pickers. 2% xsM 1913 84 Combing Her Hair. 3^x2^ 1913 85 Prone Nude. 3^ x 6}4 1913 86 Head of Girl, with Necklace. 3% x 23/8 1913 87 Girl in Kimono. 4x5>^ 1913 88 Two Little Girls, Running. 3% x 2^ 1914 89 Woman and Child on Roof. 4^ x 5% 1914 90 Love on the Roof. 5]4 x 4^ 1914 91 Isadora Duncan. 8 ?4 X 7^ 1915 92 Barber Shop. lOx 12 1915 93 Greetings, 1915. sH x 2^ 1915 94 Girls Sliding in Washington Square. 4}( x 5}i 1915 95 Return from Toil (Girls). 4}i x 3% 1915 96 Cops and Bacchante. 4J{ x 5^ 1915 97 Isaac L. Rice (Dead). lOx llj4 1915 98 New Year Greetings, 1916. 3% x 2}( 1915 II. LITHOGRAPHS 1 Ping-Pong Photos. 8 x»6^ 1905 2 Gold Fish. lOjS^ X 14 1905 3 Sixth Avenue at Thirtieth Street. 14^ x 11 1908 4 Lusitania in Dock. 14}4 x 18 1908 4 a Second state of above cut down. 14/^ x 14}( 1908 5 Amateur Lithographers. 16>^ x 15 1908 6 Prehistoric Mother. 13}i x 18 1908 I o a CO O K Z O JOHN SLOAN Pjng-Pong Photos SOME MASTERS OF THE WATER-COLOUR SOME MASTERS OF THE WATER-COLOUR VISITORS to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and those that keep in touch with the offerings of New York pi6lure-dealers had ex- cellent opportunities during the winter of 191 5- 1 6 to study the work of the modern masters of the water-colour. At the Museum was hung an extremely fine sele6lion of Winslow Homer's drawings in this medium, as well as a group of Mr. Sargent's water-colours, chosen by the painter himself froni his more recent works. Forming a part of a most comprehensive exhi- bition of Mr. Childe Hassam's works, there were to be seen at the Montross Gallery an assem- blage of his recent water-colours, this exhibition being followed by a room full of Cezanne's, a master whose pi6lures are not very frequently met with in America. At the diminutive gallery known as 291, presided over by Mr. Alfred Stieglitz, where so many Americans have made C 34 ] their first acquaintance with the most vital in contemporary European art, as well as that of their own country, was shown a seleftion of Mr. John Marin's water-colours. The artists mentioned in the foregoing para- graph are all masters of their craft — Whistler was another, but the list is not a long one. And for two reasons: first, because but few artists have taken the water-colour seriously and as a means to an end ( they have preferred to leave it to the lady amateur) ; secondly, because, except in rare instances, workers in water-colours are entirely ignorant of both the limitations and the possibilities of their medium. Winslow Homer's water-colour entitled Tornado, Bahamas is, how- ever, as much a masterpiece as any of his paint- ings. Historically speaking, the use of the water- colour as a means of artistic expression is of very ancient origin ; the Egyptians employed it to dec- orate their rolls of papyrus, and in the Middle Ages it was water-colour that the monks used to i 35 ] embellish their vellum manuscripts. Artistically speaking, however, painting in water-colours has been pra6lised only during recent times, because formerly it was laid on in a solid and opaque impasto, while the modern method, at least when properly employed, is to paint in transparent washes. Girten and Turner were among the first artists to develop the modern technique, although it should not be overlooked that there had been several spasmodic attempts from time to time, notably by Diirer, who, paint- ing in body colour, used the medium in quite a modern spirit and executed some marvellously beautiful water-colours. Unquestionably, there are as many diflferent ways of employing water-colours as there are different techniques which may be used in paint- ing in oils, but the t7'ue method of painting in water-colours, it seems to me, is that employed by such masters as Homer and Whistler — broad and transparent washes, full of suggestion, in which simplification and spontaneity are neces- C 36 : sary qualities. The water-colours of Rosetti and Burne- Jones are as much a violation of the lim- itations set upon this medium (they have imi- tated oils ) , as are Mr. Brangwyn's colossal etch- ings a wrong understanding of this medium. We recall Whistler's Proposition: "That in art, it is criminal to go beyond the means used in its exercise." Mr. Sargent's work in water-colour — and he has made hundreds of drawings, it being a favourite medium with him — is a lesson and example of what water-colours should be: rapid, spontaneous sketches, painted in broad and vig- orous washes. He has always known when to stop. More work would only have taken the life out of them and smothered their note of inspira- tion and their freshness, for spontaneity is the soul of the water-colour. They are dazzlingly clever performances, although without, perhaps, quite the quality of Mr. Hassam at his best or Whistler, and the Museum is to be heartily con- gratulated upon having acquired ten very fine I 37 ] examples. What with the large colle6lion in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the splendid set, mostly of Venetian subje6ls, in the Brook- lyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, Mr. Sargent's efforts in this dire6lion are most worthily shown in America, as is only proper. Winslow Homer's genius is certainly as ap- parent in his water-colours as in his paintings. Such of his aquarelles as the Tornado, Bahamas, the Sloop, Bermuda and the Palm Tree, Nassau are as great expressions of his art as any of his canvases. Thesejoyousdrawings, so full of bright colour, are veritable masterpieces. Of course, as is the case with all the really great men, his pic- tures vary very much in quality, but the water- colours as a whole seem to me even finer than the paintings. It is interesting in this connec- tion to record the fa 61 that at the Pan-Ameri- can Exposition ( Buffalo, 1 901 ) the artist ele6led to be represented solely by his work in this medium. Whistler painted a portrait of his mother, one C 38 ] of Carlyle, and one of a Miss Alexander, which take their place not far below the masterpieces of Titian and Velasquez, but the greater part of his work is far more fragile in chara6ler than this. In many cases the lithographs, etchings, pastels, water-colours and paintings are more notes than anything else. Taste and style and inspiration are always present, but his was not a vigorous art and in consequence the water- colours are not only masterpieces technically speaking, but they are as well perfe6t expres- sions of his genius. Mr. Childe Hassam is another master of the water-colour. His Isles of Shoals series, of re- cent date, which was shown during the winter of 1915-16, is full of sensitive vision. These water-colours of rocky coast and blue water are glorious in colour and are even greater in- terpretations of nature than Mr. Sargent's. His concern is with colour, not with form. He is an artist in every sense of the word: in love with painting and in love with beauty ; his art is con- c: 39 ] tinually advancing, his technique becoming more simple. Cezanne is another master, as is Mr. John Marin, who has been so influenced by him. They have both understood how to use their material. Very abstract in character, impossible at times to follow them, their art is nevertheless pregnant with beauty, sele6lion and taste. JOHN S. SARGENT Spanish Fountain Si Z I i r O w X > CO WALTER GAY'S PAINTINGS OF INTERIORS WALTER GAY'S PAINTINGS OF INTERIORS ONE enjoyed the opportunity presented in New York during the spring of 1913 to view a colle6lion of Mr. Walter Gay's delight- ful pi6lures of French eighteenth century interi- ors. H\s genre subje6ls of former days have been entirely discarded , and in their place he now gives us a succession of views of rooms already beau- tiful by reason of their proportions and decora- tions, but made even more so by the amateur and colle6lor of taste andjudgment.lt is only oc- casionally that Mr. Gay portrays anything but a salon, a library, a vestibule or a boudoir : among the forty-one paintings and seventeen water- colours shown there was a view of a sunlit gar- den seen through an open window, a view of the house-tops of some old Paris houses, and the fa9ade of an eighteenth century pavilion, but the rest of the pi6lures, excepting a few decorative studies of Louis XVI garden statuary, were of C 44 ] interiors. Mr. Gay was born in Boston, in 1856, but has long been a resident of France, and this was the first opportunity that America has had to see a representative group of his paintings. These portraits of rooms, — and this is what they are, — besides being an expression of their owners' personality, are a most unusual note in art, and a most engaging one. Vermeer's paint- ings contain numerous interiors of old Dutch houses, in Delft and elsewhere, with quaint fur- niture, curious musical instruments and the al- most inevitable map hanging upon the wall, and they are easily the most beautifully painted inte- riors in the whole range of art. The dignified and stately Georgian rooms that Hogarth so loved to paint are also masterly delineations. But seldom, as is the case with Mr. Gay, has an artist chosen to paint a room entirely for its own sake, as the raison d'etre of his pi6lures; hitherto, as with Vermeer and Hogarth, a room was painted only to serve as the stage setting ( as it were ) for the pi6lure. A whole school has grown up around C 45 ] Mr. Gay, interiors are to be seen in every Salon, but not one of his followers possesses his genius and accomplishment. Arthur Symons has written somewhere that to him cities have souls : can not one also say that houses and rooms, certain ones at least, have souls also.^" Assuredly they have personality, and how marvellously this has been suggested in the pi6lures now under consideration : they are far removed and have absolutely nothing in common with the tedious and uninteresting drawings of the archite6l or the laboured studies of a decora- tor, devoid of all charm ( I am not speaking, of course, of the time when the archite6l and the painter, as well as the sculptor, worked in har- mony ) . As works of art, in sheer manipulation of pigment and in breadth of treatment, they rank their author very high among contempo- rary painters. These interiors, so bathed in at- mosphere, possessing so much style, have noth- ing of the academic about them, neither is the brush-work and the execution clever and asser- C 46 ^ tive, as is the case with so many present-day paintings. They are delightful pi6lures to live with. Never do we get even a glimpse of the occu- pants of these salons of Mr. Gay, for there is never any one in them ; but they are far from being deserted. They are unoccupied only for the moment: some one has just stepped into the next room, or out into the blaze of sunshine that comes in at the low French window. The per- sonality of the people who live in these chateaux has been suggested and indicated in a most subtle manner: we can almost feel their pres- ence. M. Henri Lavedon observes with much in- sight that the artist studies the physiognomy of inanimate things, that to him the faded silk of a sofa betrays confidences, reveals gay memories. It is not only in the panelling and decorations of the rooms and in the marble floors of the vestibules that we find aesthetic delight, but also in the wonderfully beautiful contours of the meubles: bergeres covered with old faded silks, [47 ] tabourets, commodes, consoles, carved and gilded tables of the Regence. On certain walls we see tapestries or paintings, on others are hung san- guine drawings by Boucher and Fragonard,with striped blue mats and elaborate old gilt frames. Scattered about in great profusion, but arranged with unerring taste, we see wonderful old Chi- nese porcelain, mounted in carved and gilded bronze of the time of Louis XV, glorious red lacquer and lacquer of black and gold, spirited busts of marble or terra-cotta, crystal chande- liers, ormolu clocks. The rendering of all these various materials is amazing. In a word, we have preserved in these paintings the very essence of the art and the rare taste and charm of this engaging epoch. . 2 to g o WALTER GAY La Commode ■^^KSaiBfySSlc ^S^iBiK, A FRENCH SALON DES HUMORISTES IN NEW YORK A FRENCH SALON DES HUMORISTES IN NEW YORK WITH A NOTE ON STEINLEN I SEARCHING out the occasional painting of distin6lion, from an interminable array of blatant canvases, at the two Salons each spring in Paris is apt to become tedious. But how very different and how refreshing is always the show over at the Palais de Glace, for it is there, where all Paris has been skating during the winter, that the amiable members of the Salon des Hu- moristes hold sway. What an entrancing and what a gay exhibition this always is ! These engaging drawings, paint- ings and statuettes, so audacious and so alive, are not unworthy offspring of the brains of the de- scendants of Boucher, Watteau and Fragonard. New York was therefore fortunate in having a little Salon des Humoristes of her own during the winter of 1914, in the gallery of the Mu- seum of French Art. It was quite like a breath of Paris in the spring. Among others, the colle6lion boasted exam- ples of the work of Prejelan, Fabiano, Gerbault, Touraine, — names very familiar to those who see the French humorous journals. These artists are the recorders par excellence of the most chictypes of the present day Parisienne, and their drawings, so delightfully graceful and spirited, are executed with a line swift and living. Charming portraits of the Parisienne are also to be found in the designs of Bac,Willette, Faivre and Vallet, all of whom were represented. One admired in addition the military drawings of the famous Caran d'Ache, the humorous dogs of Benjamin Rabier, the pathetic children of Mi- rande. . . . With Forain, Ibels, Steinlen and RafFaelli a more serious note has been struck. Besides being draughtsmen of great ability, these men display a deep insight into human nature. It has been said that there is such a thing as impressionism ■ n 53 D of line, and certainly the line of Forain suggests movement. His political and social cartoons and etchings, made as a rule in some court-room, as well as a recent series of military lithographs executed on the French front, are brilliantly clever and pregnant with chara6lerization. His paintings are not killed by being placed in prox- imity with those of Daumier, with which they have much in common. Ibels and RafFaelli are also realists, who have studied many of the same types that have been immortalized by Steinlen: the inhabitants of Montmartre, the humble toil- ers of Paris, the vagabonds. II In Steinlen 's tragic portraits of the various types which are to be found in the region of the for- tifications we see all the misery and squalor of these quarters depi6led in a masterly manner ; in all his studies of bohemians, vagabonds and the petite bourgeoisie, there exists only tenderness and sympathy. C 54 ] At the very comprehensive Steinlen exhibi- tion held in London during the spring of 1914, in which the artist made his debut to the British public, one was impressed with his really great powers as a draughtsman. In this colle6lion of drawings, lithographs and etchings it was ap- parent that his concern had not been with any of the problems of the painter, but solely with drawing, the rarest quality in art. His drawings are beautiful in themselves, as are those of Hol- bein, Leonardo, Diirer, Ingres and Beardsley. His etched line is as incisive and trenchant as that of Zorn, while many of his lithographs are as delicate and full of feeling as Whistler's Songs on Stone. With much pertinence Steinlen has been called the Millet of the streets, for in his studies of the toiling workers of Paris, of the inhabitants of what is called Bohemia, of the destitute, we find the same understanding that we find in the peas- ants of Millet. . . Steinlen's artistic output has been enormous: C 55 ] his pencil is nearly as a6live as was Daumier's. During his early manhood he emigrated from his home in Switzerland to Paris, where he has re- mained. During 1891-92 there appeared a long series of drawings in Gil Bias, followed by hun- dreds of illustrations for the books of Fran9ois Coppe, Guy de Maupassant, Anatole France and other artists, as well as for the songs of Bruant, the cabaret singer, and the chansons entitled Dans la Route. Of extreme beauty and full of sentiment is his set of lithographs entitled Chan- sons de Montmartre, inimitable is his book of drawings called Des Chats. Then there are nu- merous posters, such as the famous Lait pur Sterilise, showing a little girl drinking from a bowl of milk, with three cats intently regarding her, as well as one of Yvette Guilbert, with the long black gloves that belonged to the Cafe des Ambassadeurs days. The effectiveness of the afftches, as well as many of his drawings, has been enhanced by the employment of two or three flat masses of colour. C 56 J Simplicity is the keynote of his art, for he is interested only in the essential. An anonymous critic, discussing his genius [vide Steinlen and His Art, a volume of twenty-four drawings pub- lished in London in 1911 ), makes this apt quo- tation from Voltaire: "The art of being a bore is the art of saying everything." And this from Schopenhauer: "The effe6l produced by a com- plete pi6lure is often far less profound than that of the simple rough sketch on which the pi6lure is based." Steinlen's gifted pencil has always been wielded on the side of justice, and he has fought many battles for the oppressed. Certain issues of the Chambord Socialiste containing powerful and tragic cartoons on a strike of the miners were suppressed by the government. HaldaneMacfall in his history of painting says of Steinlen that he is "one of the giants of his age, a man who has bettered the world, lifted his generation, and brought honour to his great people." Certainly he has put Paris before us as C 57 ] has no other artist, and without employing any of the mockery of Lautrec or the bitter satire of Forain, for above all this Swiss protestarit is a humanist. .I'v;;.^-, :-:u:/ • ■*■/,- 1 tft. H to m I 3 ^-^^<^^>^^ BOARDMAN ROBINSON BOARDMAN ROBINSON THE drawings of Mr. Boardman Robinson compel attention by reason of their bold and sure draughtsmanship, their simple tech- nique : everything has been omitted that was not essential. After a course of study in America, Mr. Rob- inson most wisely went to Paris, which is, after all, the most stimulating place for artistic en- deavour. It is evident from his work that during this sojourn he fell under the spell of Forain, whose work in turn has Degas and the Japanese as artistic forebears. But he did not slavishly copy Forain: he absorbed much useful knowledge from studying the technical side of his work, at the same time retaining his own individuality. His drawings could never be taken for the work of Forain; for one thing, we do not find in his swift notations, clever as they are, the great knowledge that is back of Forain's drawings. The great mass of Mr. Robinson's work is in C 62 ^ black and white, being cartoons and drawings for the daily and weekly press: this was the audience sought also by Daumier, Gavarni, Leech, Keene, Forain and Steinlen. His drawings are sketched in with charcoal or black chalk and completed in sepia, while occasionally Chinese white has been employed for emphasis. Many of the cartoons, such as the impressive one reproduced here, of the Austrian Emperor, a drawing which was published at the time of the assassination of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess, are on rather too large a scale; consequently they appear to better advantage, and gain in force, in the re- duced reprodu6lion. Mr. Robinson has quite recently returned from an adventurous sketching trip through the Bal- kan States and Russia, bringing back with him a most interesting series of drawings, many of which were placed on view in New York in Jan- uary, 1916. These sketches of types and scenes along the way show that all the pi6luresque feat- ures of warfare have not entirely disappeared; C 63 3 the drawing of the head of a Serb, reproduced in connexion with this note, belongs to this set. It is a very fine and a very strong drawing, less hasty and abrupt in execution and containing more substance than is often found in his work. It makes one hope that such a talent will be still further cultivated and taken more seriously, for Mr. Robinson is one of the most adroit of Amer- ican artists whose work is in black and white. w o O o A,/: BOARDMAN ROBINSON The Serb ^)<^ TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY COPIES PRINTED DUR- ING APRIL, 1916, BY D. B. UPDIKE THE MERRYMOUNT PRESS, BOSTON, U.S.A. BY A. E. GALLATIN Whistler's Pastels and Other Modern Profiles New edition, enlarged. A Volume of Notes on Whistler, Ernest Haskell, Zorn, Winslow Homer, ''Max,'' Frieseke, Everett Shinn and Other Artists. With 16 illustrations. Mr. Charles Matlack Price in Arts and Decoration, JVew York Mr. Gallatin is always a welcome essayist, not only in his genial and enthusiastic style, but in his capacity for finding much interest in the byways and less frequented paths of artistic achievement. His is the pen appreciative that finds either a new and admirable phase to admire in the work of a much-known artist, or that discovers a less-known artist outright and allows us to share in the fruits of the discovery. His criticism is selective to a degree — even captious at times — with the fortunate result tliat such gleanings in the field of art as he chooses to present to the public are always worthy of tlie public's most polite attention. . . . For short and distinctly illuminating flashes of genius these scattering notes make an enjoyable bit of reading. Mr. Richard Le Gallienne in The International, JVeno York Mr. Gallatin, need one say, lias an uncommon talent for crisp com- ment, for catching the essential quality of a thing of art in a brief, sen- sitive plirase. It is a remarkable thing to concentrate such a variety of skilled chai-acterization of artists so diverse in so few pages. The Connoisseur, London Mr. Gallatin is a writer who has achieved the art of saying something pertinent in a short space, and saying it well. ... A crisp, piquant style. Illuminative and always happily expressed reviews. [over The Portraits and Caricatures of James McNeill Whistler An Iconography. With 20 illustrations Mr. Royal Cortissoz in JVew York Tribune This carefully framed iconography is a solid achievement for which every collector of Whistlerana will be duly grateful. . . . Altogether Mr. Gallatin has distinguished himself. Miss E. L. Gary in JVew York Times An iconography to be prized by every one interested in the most re- nowned of American artists, and one that wovdd be sufficiently enter- taining and enlivening to any observer keen to note character in physi- ognomy. Scotsman, Edinburgh Scholarly and endlessly interesting. . . . Will always have authority among collectors and always be delightful to look over. Transcrifit, Boston Mr. Gallatin's little volume shows a great deal of research. He has a happy faculty of expressing himself with clearness and brevity and his descriptions are admirable. Academy, London Mr. Gallatin's iconography will prove an invaluable book of reference and mine of knowledge. Arts and Decoration , N'em York This iconography is a masterjjiece of completeness and should be in the possession of every sincere admirer of Whistler. Notes on Some Rare Portraits of Whistler With 6 illustrations NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD