The Book of the Fair - Chapter 21-A



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Chapter the Twenty-First Part A:
Fine Arts

In this era of international expositions there is perhaps no department in 
which their stimulating influence has been more strongly felt than in the 
fine arts; for nowhere else can be compared to such advantage, which, life 
the development of railroad systems and electrical appliances, are among 
the features of the age, one of the effects has been to give to art whence 
new departures might be taken, where artist and public alike might 
discover how much they have yet to learn, how much to unlearn. 

While the display of art at the Centennial Exposition was not its 
strongest feature, it served, among other purposes, to give impetus to 
professional education, and for that reason, apart from the question of 
merit, it is and will be remembered. That since 1876 we have acquired a 
better knowledge of what constitutes real art, together with more ability 
to produce it, there is sufficient evidence in the home exhibition here to 
be passed in review. Notwithstanding its defects and shortcomings, we have 
now at least a school of our own, with a large and intelligent 
constituency among whom there is no want of culture and discrimination. 
Even to those whose homes are far removed from art centres, such 
exhibitions tend, as in other departments, to quicken the sense of 
comparison and appreciation, to define more clearly our position in the 
scale of modern achievement. 

In the number, and in some respects the quality of the exhibits, none of 
the former collections will bear comparison with that which is the crowing 
artistic feature of the Columbian exposition. Never before were there so 
many participants both national and individual, covering the entire realm 
of art, and some of whom, as Brazil and New South Wales, have found no 
place at previous exhibitions. While in painting and statuary it may have 
been excelled by the Parisian display of 1889, this cannot be said of 
other departments. In engravings, etchings, drawings, and architectural 
designs, the galleries are especially strong, and this is as might be 
expected, for only in these and kindred branches, all of comparatively 

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modern growth, has any decided progress been made within recent years. 
Engraving, it may be said, is as much as art peculiar to the nineteenth 
century as devotional paintings were to the middle ages, one especially 
developed by the demand for illustrated works, publishers and readers 
fixing the standard of excellence in the nineteenth century, as did 
priests and worshippers in the fifteenth. Thus it is that progress has 
been rather in artistic processes than in art itself; for here is a branch 
in which new modes of treatment are being constantly evolved to keep pace 
with the exigencies of the times, and hence with a certain freshness and 
vigor that does not pertain to art in its highest sense. The latter, 
though with new tendencies and developments, has been far less 
progressive, the improvement being almost restricted to countries where 
art is still in its formative period, while in the great centres, as in 
Italy and France, art, whether plastic or pictorial, remains at best where 
it was. In architecture treated as one of the fine arts there has been 
perceptible progress, and of this no further proof is needed than the 
hundreds of scholarly and appropriate designs contained in the exhibition. 

Of the city of the Fair it has been well remarked by one of its artificers 
that in these leviathan structures architecture in its highest sense is 
not represented. "Rather," he says, "are they a scenic display of 
architecture composed of models executed on a colossal state, and with a 
degree of apparent pomp and splendor which if set forth in marble and 
bronze might recall the era of Augustus or Nero." But however just may be 
this remark, it does not apply to all the buildings, and especially to the 
temple of fine arts, a gem of the purest water, and reproducing in its 
graceful outlines the chaste and classic features of the Ionic school, 
taking as the keynote of the plan the temple of Athena Polias in the 
Erectheum, though with traces of the Corinthian and Doric orders. Among 
those who have beheld this edifice, of itself a work of art, their 
pleasure was not impaired by regret that within a few brief months it was 
doomed to demolition; for here was no ephemeral structure, but one with 
walls of bricks; with merely a coating of staff, and with roof of iron, 
steel, and glass, one which after the close of the Fair would remain as 
among its monuments, to be used for museum purposes and for the safe 
keeping of the many valuable exhibits presented to the management. 

The Art Palace, suitably located in the norther section of the grounds and 
dividing the main edifices from state and foreign pavilions, is the only 
windowless structure of the Exposition. By the glazed ceilings a 
sufficiency of light is furnished, and through the structural design of 
the interior so modulated as to display to the best advantage the various 
classes of exhibits without conflict of shadow or reflection. To relieve 
them from monotony the exterior facades were adorned with mural paintings 
representing the history of art, and to give to them a play of light and 
shade the building was partially surrounded with a colonnade, its pillars, 
eight feet from the wall and nearly thirty in height, forming a covered 
walk or piazza extending from the central portal to the corner pavilions. 
To this portal broad flights of stairs, flanked by balustrades and 
terraces lead from a landing place on the northern arm of the lagoon. 

The general plan, apart from its decorative features, may be described as 
that of a continuous series of compartments, flat-roofed, sky-lighted, 
somewhat less than 50 feet high, and resting on a basement raised nine 
feet above ground, the entire structure forming an oblong, 500 feet in 
length by 320 in width, and covering an area of nearly five acres. At the 
corners are projecting pavilions of similar height, giving accent to the 
design. The clear stories and roofs over the several courts are fashioned 
with level sky-lines, and from their 

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central point of intersection rises from a spacious rotunda to an 
elevation of 125 feet, and with nearly half that diameter, a dome 
surmounted by Martiny's heroic statue of Fame. The principal entrance-
ways, in the centre of each of the main facades, are in the form of 
porticos, with columns of the Ionic order, and above them are attics, on 
the pilasters of which are figures resembling those of the temple at 
Agrigentum. In the middle of the end facades are similar porticos, but on 
a less imposing scale. 

By the Exposition architect already quoted the exterior design of the Art 
Palace is thus described: "The objects of this building seemed very 
clearly to invite a monumental expression, set forth in terms connected 
with the evolution of the highest civilizations in history, associated 
with the greatest triumphs of art, established by the usages of the 
greatest masters and formulated by the schools and academies of all 
nations. It was necessary that it should be pure, formal, and stately, 
entirely free from caprice or playfulness, refined by scrupulous elegance 
of detail, and enriched by every device of decorative sculpture which 
could be consistently recalled by historic art, so that when completed it 
should be fit to enshrine the figures and groups in marble and bronze, the 
paintings in oil, water color and fresco, the carvings in ivory, wood, and 
marble, the bas-reliefs engravings, etchings, and drawings by which the 
century is taking its rank in history. It was a part of the scheme to make 
the numerous statues, friezes, and other decorations, in the round and in 
relief, replicas of the greatest masterpieces of Greek and Renaissance 
art, so that the building itself should be a museum, not of historic 
sculpture only, but of painting." 

In the interior the fundamental plan was not, as in other buildings, a 
great central hall, but a continuous series in two divisions of courts and 
galleries, one devoted to plastic, the other to graphic art, and each with 
suitable arrangements as to size and shape. On either side of the nave and 
its intercepting transepts are grouped the exhibits of sculpture and 
statuary, while from the longer courts there is access to transverse 
picture galleries, their outer doors opening into larger galleries, 
forming a continuous promenade and communicating with the corner 
pavilions. Thus is afforded, with excellent facilities for classification, 
a hanging space of about 150,000 square feet. Some 25 feet above the main 
floor is a gallery 40 feet wide surrounding the entire building, and over 
this another gallery, containing among other exhibits that of the society 
of Polish artists, presently to be described. In these galleries are most 
of the water colors, the etchings and engravings, the pastel, pen and ink, 
charcoal, and other drawings, the architectural themes, and the overflow 
of paintings in oil, the majority of which, together with nearly all the 
statuary, find a place on the ground floor. 

To Charles B. Atwood, designer-in-chief of the bureau of construction, we 
are indebted for this reproduction of the purest of classic models; and if 
we behold with a tinge of regret its perfect outlines, its wealth of 
artistic embellishment, it is only that these stately colonnades, with the 
ornamental statuary of the building 

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and grounds adjacent, were not fashioned of some more lasting material 
than wood and staff. While the chaste simplicity of the design owes little 
to its decorative scheme, that little is in perfect taste, and the 
exterior aspect of this edifice cannot be better described than in the two 
expressive words which Horace applies to the Roman maiden, simplex 
munditiis. 

On the frieze are figures by Martiny, works representing Sculpture, 
Painting, Music, and Architecture treated as one of the fine arts; between 
them are medallion portraits of the old masters from the hand of Olin 
Warner, and on either side winged female forms with floral garlands. 
Sculpture is the most robust of the four sisters, with opulent form of 
strong and massive proportions. Painting is a somewhat sensuous muse, as 
it appears from the lines of her face and figure. Music is skillfully 
personified, chaste and refined as to features and drapery, and of serious 
aspect. Architecture is a stately personification, with earnest, 
thoughtful face, on which is the stamp of intellectual power. On either 
side of the main portals are female forms supporting the pediments, and 
near them lions couchant. 

The exhibits contained in the Art Building are classified under the 
following groups; sculpture in marble or bronze, with models, monumental 
decorations, and casts from original works; paintings in oil; paintings in 
water colors; paintings on ivory, enamel, metal, porcelain, or other 
ground work, with fresco paintings on walls; engravings, etchings, and 
prints; chalk, charcoal, pastel, and other drawings; antique and modern 
carvings, engravings in medallions or gems, with cameos and intaglios, the 
final group being devoted to private collections, which are distributed 
throughout the galleries and include some of the finest works of the great 
masters. For architecture as a fine art there is no separate group, this 
branch being included, or rather touched upon in connection with other 
groups, though forming a prominent feature in several of the national 
collections. As in other departments, the exhibition will be treated by 
nationalities, and without special regard to location; but among the many 
thousands of contributions gathered from every quarter of the world, it 
will be impossible here to make other than briefest mention of the more 
prominent works. 

In the interests of the Art department, and of American artists in 
relation to that department, there were established, as I have said, in 
the principal art centres of Europe and the United States advisory 
committees, forming the nuclei of juries of selection. Of these committees 
and juries organized in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Paris, Rome, 
Florence, and Munich, the members were for the most part not only artists 
of repute, but the most competent and impartial critics that could be 
found in the several branches of the profession. Competitors were required 
to forward their works to the nearest or most convenient point where a 
jury was established, New England contributors, for instance, sending 
their exhibits to Boston, and those of the middle states to New York or 
Philadelphia. Thus was afforded a wide range of jurisdiction, and the cost 
and delay avoided of sending to Chicago for approval numerous paintings 
and drawings of which only a small proportion could be accepted. Moreover 
foreign artists were unwilling to submit their canvases to a jury composed 
mainly of American critics, and especially of western critics. As matters 
were thus arranged the 

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Chicago jury was little more than a hanging committee, assigning to each 
work its space in the order of merit as determined by the juries of 
selection, from whose decision there was no appeal, those marked No. 1 
being first provided for, and then the other classes as room permitted. In 
December 1892 the work of collecting was finished, and early in the 
following month the jurors began their unwelcome task. No sooner were the 
results made known than a storm of indignation arose among the thousands 
of unsuccessful candidates, and for several weeks the newspapers were 
filled with groundless charges. That mistakes were made is not denied; but 
Quis judicabit ipsos judices? Certainly it is not my purpose here to pass 
judgment upon the judges, whose duties appear to have been faithfully 
performed, and with no indications of prejudice or partiality. 

To the chief of the department, Halsey C. Ives, his aids and advisory 
committees, is largely due the success of this rich and varied display of 
graphic and plastic art, forming as it does the culminating features of an 
exposition which is of itself the most striking manifestation of art that 
the world has ever witnessed. In the United States section are the 
choicest works that could be obtained from the painters, engravers, 
etchers, sculptors, and architects of the day. In Europe the chief visited 
all the principal countries represented at the Exposition, conferring with 
the more prominent artists, professional and amateur, with the directors 
of art schools and museums, with government officials and the 
commissioners appointed for his department. The result was that European 
applications exceeded by 130,000 square feet the amount of space at the 
disposal of the management. 

Before proceeding it may here be stated that while one of the most 
elaborate and attractive exhibitions recorded in the chronicles of art, it 
has suffered, in common with other departments, from the imposition of a 
tax on all articles that might be sold for delivery at the close of the 
Fair. In the organic act which gave to the Exposition its government 
sanction it was provided that all such articles should be subject to the 
duty imposed by the revenue laws in force at the date of importation; that 
all the penalties prescribed by law should be enforced against them, and 
against persons who might be guilty of any illegal sale or withdrawal. 
Here in truth was the genius of protection, its evil genius, be it said, 
and no wonder that in these spacious galleries with all their rich display 
were lacking some of the choicest productions of foreign artists. 

Of a French master of world-wide repute it is related that when asked by 
one of his American brethren of the craft to send a few of his choicest 
canvases, he thus declined the request: "No, sir, I thank you, I do not 
propose to pay your government thirty percent of the value of pictures 
which I can probably sell to better advantage in Paris, or to take the 
chance of losing them, or having them returned in damaged condition." 
While through the precautions of the management risk of loss or injury was 
reduced to a minimum, the Frenchman's complaint as to this assessment on 
the products of his labor was not without justification. Save perhaps for 
the poll tax, a relic of the dark ages, there is no more barbarous impost 
than that which thus was laid on Exposition works of art. As well might we 
tax the cardinal virtues or the ten commandments. 

But to provide for a creditable display of American art was the main 
purpose of the department, and in this connection its chief remarks; "The 
position held in this Exposition by our artists, as compared with those of 
other nationalities, will have to do with determining the general 
estimation of our art by our own countrymen, as well as by foreign 
visitors, for many years to come. It is therefore of the highest 
importance to every American engaged in artistic pursuits that the 
exhibits of American art work should be of the highest quality obtainable; 
that each example shown represent the highest achievement of the artist, 
and that the 

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collection as a whole present in a dignified manner the best productions 
of our native art." Certain it is that if careful selection could 
accomplish this end, we have in the United States galleries a worthy 
expression of domestic art; for of the 1,350 works which New York painters 
submitted for approval only 325 were accepted, while of 600 each from 
Massachusetts and Pennsylvania artists, 139 and 112 respectively were 
chosen by the juries; this for oil paintings only, which formed little 
more than one third of the entire collection. Western candidates fared 
even worse, only 73 painting in oil being selected from 638 that were 
offered, with 18 out of 177 water colors. 

While by no means "the best display of art from any nation," as the 
vainglorious among our countrymen would have us believe, the galleries 
devoted to domestic art contain much that is of value and interest, with 
more of promise yet to be fulfilled. By American visitors to the Fair none 
of its departments were inspected with closer scrutiny, with greater 
solicitude and curiosity, for never before had American art received 
adequate expression at an international exposition. That we could hold our 
own in the mechanic and liberal arts, in agriculture, mining, stock-
raising, and other branches of industry was not for a moment doubted; but 
in pictorial and plastic art how would we compare with the painters and 
sculptors of European nations, their works evolved amid the fostering 
influences of a civilization compared with which our own is but of 
yesterday? Must it not be admitted that in art as in literature, we were 
not old enough to bear such comparison; that our brief cycles of national 
existence, with their recurring phases of commercial and industrial 
progress, have not been sufficient to afford a national perspective; that 
our line of horizon is too near the point of vision, and that only as 
personages and events recede into distance could be fully developed the 
ideal faculties essential to our historic art, as to history itself, to 
poetry, and even to the higher class of fiction? But these questions we 
will leave our foreign critics to answer; for with a nation, as with an 
individual, few can judge aright their own achievements. 

Of all the criticism pronounced on the American section none were so 
severe as those of the Americans themselves, and while some were just, 
more were partially or altogether unwarranted. First of all it was 
objected that the pictures were too large; that here was not art in its 
essence but art by the acre, the average dimensions of the canvases rising 
far above the usual standard. To this it may be answered that, while size 
is not of itself a merit, the general effect of a series of large 
galleries, permitting a focus of long range, is better when filled with 
paintings proportioned to their dimensions. Then it was said that too much 
space was occupied with a redundancy of commonplace portraiture. Another 
cause of offence was the imitation of French sensationalism and straining 
after effect, with the florid coloring and jejune composition of modern 
Parisian schools. While this may be true in a measure, so that here and 
there the visitor would ask himself whether he was in the French or 
American galleries, there are many canvases which rise far above the 
mediocrity characteristic of 

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Salon exhibitions. At least it can fairly be claimed that within the last 
score of years there has been a decided improvement in the better class of 
American art, while of French art, except for the works of the great 
masters, it can only be said at best that it remains about where it was. 
In truth it may almost be asserted that this nation of artists, which has 
taught all the world how to paint, it itself in danger of forgetting the 
highest principles of art. 

But from the charge of alienism the American display cannot be entirely 
exculpated, and especially is this true of works which take for their 
theme historic events and characters. Among all this collection of more 
than 1,000 paintings in oil there is not one of special excellence, and 
there are not a dozen in all, which treat of the annals of our country. 
The same remark applies also to our statesmen and diplomats, our drama, 
music, and literature, none of them finding adequate representation at the 
hands of our artists. Landscapes there are in abundance, which if not in 
the style of a Corot or a Daubigny are of unquestionable merit. There are 
marine and other views, faces and figures of man and beast, flowers and 
fruits, moonlight and melody ad nauseum. But we search in vain for 
anything that reminds us of the stirring episodes in our national history, 
of Lexington or Gettysburg, for instance, of Yorktown or Appomattox. In 
statuary and paintings many of our historic personages are better 
represented in the foreign sections than in our own, and in this, our 
Columbian Exposition, Columbus and his times are almost excluded from the 
galleries of the United States. To call attention to these defects is but 
an unthankful task; but as with other departments of the Fair, it is my 
purpose to described them as they are, or were, and not as we would have 
them to be. "Do your artists care nothing for your republic?" inquired one 
of our foreign visitors; and said an American, "After I had made a tour of 
the galleries, and compared the exhibits of European nations with our own, 
I felt like a man without a country." 

In sculpture and statuary the United States appears to good advantage, 
considering the slight regard for plastic as compared with graphic art. 
While there are few who share Emerson's opinion that sculpture must now be 
numbered among the lost arts, it may be said that in its highest sense it 
is practically limited to the French and Italian schools, and even these 
are not here represented as at European expositions, so far at least as 
contemporary art is concerned. While from the former are many of her most 
finished works, including a valuable collection of casts of historic 
sculpture, the display has been far surpassed at previous exhibitions; and 
apart from ancient bronzes, Italian statuary, pretty though it be, is 
stamped by the trivial and inane. 

Small, but full of promise, and with several works where promise and 
performance meet, is New England's display of statuary, which it need not 
be said is almost entirely from Boston, the cradle of American art. Among 
the best of her specimens are Alice Ruggles' bronze figure of an Italian 
child, "Aux bords de l'Oise," one which, though somewhat faulty in 
attitude, is not without grace of form and feature. By the same artificer 

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are plaster casts of "Young Orpheus," and "A New England Fisherman," From 
Henry H. Kitson comes a piece of bronze statuary whose theme is "Music of 
the Sea," with two plaster casts and a portrait bust in marble; but this 
sculptor is better known by his memorial fountain, executed for the Roger 
Williams park in Providence, representing the figure of primeval man in 
conflict with an eagle, symbolic of nature's forces. A work of 
unquestionable power is "The Angel of Death Arresting the Hand of the 
Sculptor," by Daniel C. French, a resident of New York but a New England 
artist. In the features and figure of death as thus personified, there is 
nothing of a repulsive aspect, but rather a classic dignity and repose, 
without the least suggestion of violence. In contrast with its stately and 
commanding presence is the alert and vigorous form of the sculptor, whose 
mallet is at once arrested by the touch of a resistless hand. In his face 
is no expression of fear; only of astonishment and regret that his task 
must forever remain unfinished that his life and work are ended. 

Of the contributions by William Ordway Partridge, one is a plaster replica 
of the statue of Shakespeare erected in Lincoln Park, Chicago; and there 
are busts of James Russell Lowell, Edward Everett Hale, and other 
personages real or imaginary. In his "Head of Christ" the features are 
portrayed with a spiritualized beauty, but rather of Norman or Teutonic 
than of oriental type. Yet there is nothing of the subdued expression of 
power which the subject invites; it is rather the face of a dreamer, of 
one lacking in moral force, in a word it is Christ estheticised rather 
than deified. In contrast with this is Max Bachman's plaster bust of "The 
Son of Man," its intent and earnest features of purely classic outline 
attenuated by the consuming soul within. Other works by this artist are 
his plaster bust of a young lady, and a bas-relief of Mrs. Sheldon. 
Wesselhoeft, sends his "Titania and Bottom;" Anne Whitney, her "Roma," and 
Katherine Prescott, her "Joy to the New Year, Peace to the Old;" these and 
a few minor studies completing the list of what New England has to show in 
this direction. 

"Christ and the Little Child," by Thomas Ball, is a marble group whose 
place is beneath the central dome. Both in conception and execution it 
differs widely from the delineations of the New England sculptors. It is 
of the conventional type, life size, but with little else of life in its 
cold, emotionless expression, cold as the marble of which it is wrought. 
As a study in what may be termed ecclesiastical statuary it is not without 
merit; but it has no other merit than this. Christ is supporting on a 
baluster the figure of the child, to which the left hand points in 
application of the gold-lettered text beneath: "Whoever, therefore, shall 
humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom 
of heaven." But there is no love in these serene and dignified features, 
and the lines of drapery and figure are stiff and 

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formal, precise, but almost with a mathematical precision. The same remark 
applies also to Ball's colossal bronze statue of Washington, and his 
equestrian statuette of Paul Revere. 

A most vigorous composition is Gelert's "The Struggle for Work," 
representing three figures contending for a work ticket thrown from a 
factory window, with a woman and child at their feet. A brawny operative 
is holding aloft the ticket which a feeble and aged man is trying to wrest 
from his grasp, and on another side a sinewy youth is stretching his hand 
toward it. Admirable is the expression of pity for weakness and age 
mingled with satisfaction over the possession of a prize which means to 
him daily bread. The woman takes refuge between the feet of her husband, 
the central figure, holding in her arms a babe, which thus she saves from 
being crushed in the melee, while a boy is clutching him around the leg, 
himself in fear that this only chance of obtaining food will be taken from 
him. 

Paul W. Bartlett, well and favorably known for his small figures in marble 
and plaster, has a bust of his wife, and a medallion portrait of Doctor 
Skinner. In "Bohemian and Bears" and "The Ghost Dance," he shows what he 
can do with more ambitious themes. The former represents a Bohemian youth 
teaching a young bear to dance, with another cub enjoying himself, as bear-
cubs will, by rolling on the ground. Its strongest feature is the 
expression of amusement in the young man's face while watching the clumsy 
antics of his pupil, and its puzzled look as it strives in vain to find 
out just what his master would have him do. "The Ghost Dance," a study of 
the nude and by no means a pleasing study, shows the figure of an Indian 
balanced on one foot, with the other raised behind him, arms extended in 
front and hands hanging limp, wide-open mouth, and in the features an 
aspect of brutish ignorance mingled with the frenzy of superstition. The 
muscular treatment is perfect, each thew and sinew rendered with striking 
fidelity, so that we almost pity the model whose posing must have 
suggested to him that torture and the fine arts were somehow in close 
relation. 

"The Young Sophocles Leading the Chorus of Victory After the Battle of 
Salamis," by John Donoghue, is of the French school, adapting modern 
treatment to studies of the antique. It is not an attractive composition, 
and is in more than questionable taste. True, that after the battle of 
Salamis he was chosen to head the chorus of boys at the celebration of 
that victory; but one cannot imagine the great dramatist posing as a lad 
nude and with a lyre in hand. Though lads went naked on such occasions, it 
is not the guise or attitude that one is apt to associate with this the 
great master of tragedy. The figure is well enough in its way, with erect 
and supple carriage, head thrown back, and earnest thoughtful features; 
but it is not suggestive of anyone in particular, and certainly not of 
Sophocles, either as a youth or at any other period of his life. 

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Bush-Brown sends his plaster group, "The Buffalo Hunt," one of the 
strongest compositions in plastic art displayed in the United States 
galleries. Triebel has several of his works on exhibition, one of the best 
of which is a marble statue of a young boy taking from the hook his first 
fish. Well portrayed is the expression of mingled delight and perplexity 
as he tries to hold on to his slippery, squirming prize. Tilden's figures 
of a young acrobat, a tired boxer, and a baseball player are truthfully 
delineated; but the best of his compositions is the bronze group 
representing an Indian bear hunt, with the brute seizing the arm of his 
assailant and crushing it, bone, flesh, and sinew into a shapeless mass. 
Among other works of merit which cannot here be noticed in detail, are 
Adams' "Primavera" and "St. Agnes Eve;" Bringhurst's "Awakenings of
Spring," in terra cotta; Elwell's bronze group of Charles Dickens and 
Little Nell, and his marble group of Diana and the lion, symbolic of 
intellect controlling brute force; Rogers' plaster cast of Abraham Lincoln 
in seated posture; Ruckstuhl's "Evening," Niehaus' "Athlete;" Wuertz' 
"Murmur of the Sea;" Dallin's portrait bust of Doctor Hamilton, and 
equestrian statue, "Signal of Peace," and a dozen of groups and figures by 
Edward Kemeys, most of them in animal sculpture. 

Of painters in oil and water colors many were found worthy to represent 
New England art, and if among them a large proportion are as yet of 

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only local repute, this does not detract from the merit of their works. 
First of all may be mentioned the pleasing and individual compositions of 
Edmund C. Tarbell, whose portraiture of face and figure, especially when 
taking for his theme the typical American girl, with her changing moods 
and fascinations, has won for him a foremost rank among American artists. 
"In the Orchard" is especially true to life, reproducing with breadth of 
expression and intense vivacity of coloring a summer scene where beneath 
orchard foliage is a group of comely maidens engaged in converse during an 
afternoon's repose. The picture is full and cheerful, wholesome life, of 
freedom from car, of smiles and sunshine. "Girls and Horse" by the same 
artist represents a young woman standing by the side of her saddle-horse 
as he drinks from a roadside watering trough. In "My Sister Lydia" is a 
portrait which shows to excellent advantage his skillful treatment and 
freedom of execution. 

In different vein is the portraiture of Frank W. Benson, a Salem artist, 
whose "Portrait of a Lady in White" and "Girt with a Red Shawl" are 
greatly admired for their delicacy of style and purity of sentiment. I. H. 
Caliga, an acknowledged master of his art, is represented only by a full 
length portrait of a Brookline lady by whom it was loaned for exposition, 
and while not unworthy of its artificer, it is to be regretted tat he did 
not send some of his more ideal conceptions. Of the four life size 
portraits by Frederick P. Vinton, his "Portrait of a Lady" is remarkable 
for vigor and realism of execution. In Mrs. Lilla C. Perry's paintings are 
types of childhood, such as none but those who sympathize with children 
could depict. "The Doll's Bath," by J. H. Hatfield, is also a pleasing 
subject from child life, and in his "Letter from Papa" is an excellent 
specimen of drawing, though somewhat cloudy of hue. Among Frederick W. 
Freer's portraits, his "Lady in Black," loaned by the Boston art club, is 
one of the gems in the New England collection. In Stacy Tolman's "The 
Etcher," which is something more than a portrait, is expressed with vivid 
effect the artist's concentration on his work. "Carnation and Black," by 
Joseph De Champ, though not without promise, is faulty as to coloring and 
in questionable taste. 

Among Sargent's portraits are two of young children, one the son of the 
sculptor, St. Gaudens, seated in a chair while listening to his mother's 
reading. In both is portrayed the true expression of childhood, and with 
the finest touch of this accomplished but somewhat variable artist. Less 
to be commended is his "Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth," a full length 
picture of the great tragedienne in the act of placing the crown on her 
head. The pose is stiff and the features merely repulsive, without the 
sublimated expression of evil which the subject invites. Then there is too 
much blending of hues in the blue and green of the drapery and in the 
auburn hair, such as Scotch women never wore, and with tresses belonging 
rather to the English type of womanhood. In other portraits Sargent is 
seen to better advantage, and shows himself well worthy of his rank as one 
of the foremost painters of the age. 

Whistler's canvases are hung in the United States section, for he is a 
native of Lowell, and in this country were his earlier studies, though 
since thirty he has lived abroad, first in London and later in Paris. 
Notwithstanding Ruskin's adverse criticisms as to the works of this 
artist, there is but one opinion among more impartial judges, and that is 
that they rank among the first of their class. Of his six paintings two 
are portraits, remarkably suggestive of character and with excellent color 
scheme, giving emphasis to the more salient points while minor details are 
not neglected. "Nocturne, Valparaiso" is a beautiful night scene, with its 
graceful forms appearing indistinctly amid a delicate symphony of 
coloring. It is a tender, plaintive subject, musical in key to him whose 
ear is attuned to the music of art. 

Thayer has two excellent portraits of a lady, and of a brother and sister 
together; but his best and largest painting is the "Virgin Enthroned," 
where the subject is treated with tenderness and spirituality. It is not 
in the conventional style, but in his own original vein, as best we like 
to see him; for Thayer never studied in the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and had 
he done so it is doubtful whether he would have adopted its technique. So 
with Brush's madonna, which nevertheless is a beautiful picture to look 
upon, revealing all the joy and glory of motherhood, the perfect love and 
trust of childhood. Let those who are technicians and nothing more cavil 
at such work, for here are qualities that cannot be overlooked, and none 
the less valuable that they are not in imitation of the French; for of the 
French school, with so many of its defects and so few of its merits, there 
are enough and more than enough in these galleries of domestic art. 

Much admired are J. M. Stone's "Leukopis" and "A Summer Dream," the former 
a half-length figure of a girl with the pure complexion and chiseled 
outline of feature which sometimes gives to the well favored among 
American damsels almost a classic mold. Both figures are somewhat scantily 
draped, with flesh tints 

Page 679

sufficiently pronounced, "A Summer Dream," representing a brown-haired 
maiden lost in reverie, and in reclining posture, with eyes half closed 
and slightly parted limps, one hand resting on her bosom and the other 
holding in her lap a cluster of roses. "Love Awakening Memory" and "The 
Annunciation" by Mrs. M. L. Macomber are contributions that rise far above 
the mediocrity inseparable from large exhibitions. There is also 
noticeable an absence of the labored artificiality characteristic of 
religious and emblematic themes as portrayed by modern artists. Here 
rather is the stamp of an earnest individualism, with all the grace and 
delicacy of a woman's touch. A religious motif, but of another kind, is 
displayed in Frank H. Tompkins's "Good Friday," which illustrates in the 
figure of a woman kissing the crucifix one of the rites of the Bavarian 
Catholic church; but a work more generally preferred is his "Mother and 
Child," an ideal expression of motherhood. Among Ernest L. Major's 
canvases, his "Saint Genevieve" depictures in the character of a 
shepherdess the patron saint of Paris. 

"Charity" is the masterpiece among Walter Gay's productions, which also 
include as religious themes, "A Gregorian Chant," "A Mass in Brittany," 
and "Dominican Monk." "Charity" represents a group of aged peasantry, and 
a little girl receiving alms in the form of a breakfast of dry bread. The 
features are full of expression, and the light and color in perfect taste, 
gray and black costumes contrasting with warmer tones. Charles Sprague 
Pearce's "Village Funeral in Picardy" is a truthful composition, depicting 
in faithful and well studied types a number of provincial dames seated 
outside a house of mourning, their garments as subdued in color as is 
their assumed expression of grief, - decorous, but without trace of real 
emotion. By the same artist are "Mother and Child," "The Annunciation," 
"The Shepherdess," and a couple of portraits, all showing the precision of 
style for which he is noted. In common with others whose works find a 
place in the United States galleries, Pearce is sojourning in foreign 
lands; for to the true artist there is no home save that of his art, and 
many of those whom I have mentioned as American painters no longer reside 
in the land of their nativity. 

"The Communion," by Gari Melchers, is a painting of remarkable 
individuality and strength. Worship is its theme, pure and reverent 
worship, a simple and trusting faith unclouded by the faintest shadow of 
doubt. The story is forcibly told, with dignity of expression and absolute 
truth and directness of treatment. For this and other of his works the 
artist has gathered about all the honors that European schools and salons 
have to offer, and that these honors have been worthily bestowed there is 
here sufficient evidence. His "Sermon," for instance, is full of 
sentiment, but without trace of sentimentality, of beauty and power 
without undue striving after effect, and if there is also realism, it is 
an unconscious and not over-studied realism. The scene represents a number 
of Dutch peasants, most of them women, listening to a sermon in a village 
church, and that it is a lengthy sermon may be inferred from the fact that 
one of them has fallen asleep. There is nothing beautiful about these 
women, and there is nothing very remarkable, except that they are 
thoroughly Dutch and thoroughly devout women; but their faces are full of 
character and meaning with a master's touch. And so 

Page 680

with his "Pilots," where men are seated around a table in an upper chamber 
of an inn, whence is a view of red-tiled roofs and the blue sea beyond. 
They are merely talking and smoking, except for one who is at work on a 
model of a ship; but there is a wealth of character in these rugged 
features, in which one may see at a glance what manner of men they are. 

In "Married" and "Skaters" by this artist are traces of the French school, 
but only as to coloring, in which he never goes to an extreme. A young 
Dutch peasant is walking proudly and with uplifted head, as though 
thankful for the blessing as his side, a young woman with downcast eyes, 
but none the less proud and thankful, as it seems, that her love has been 
requited. "Skaters" is a love scene amid ice and snow, but with a warm and 
cheerful home waiting to receive the maiden and her swain with genuine 
Dutch hospitality. In still another key is "The Nativity," where the 
subject is treated in original vein. In a stable lies the newborn infant, 
the mother resting her head on the father's shoulder. It is daybreak and 
soon the shepherds will be here, and the wide men and the kings; but there 
is no suggestion of the supernatural, not even a halo, though with a 
peculiar light around the child, while the rapt expression in Joseph's 
face suggests only the mystery that always possesses him who first becomes 
a parent. The story of the nativity it told, but told in a style very 
different to that of the older masters. 

Among paintings that are the theme of general comment is Carl Marr's 
"Flagellants," exhibited in many a European salon before it found its way 
to Jackson Park. The procession of the flagellants, it is said, dates back 
to the days of Saint Anthony, and in the thirteenth and fourteenth 
centuries spread throughout southern Europe, where the devout, with 
vigorous self scourging, weeping, and groaning, hoped to obtain the 
deliverance from war and pestilence which their prayers had failed to 
afford. Such is one of the scenes that Marr describes, with literary as 
well as pictorial fidelity to truth. The canvas is of mammoth size, and 
yet it is almost crowded with figures, most of them stripped to the waist, 
as they pass in procession a cathedral in northern Italy, where some turn 
aside and others go on their way in a frenzy of fanatical enthusiasm. Old 
men and children are here, and in the foreground a child is being carried 
in a litter, with maidens fair of aspect lustily applying the knotted lash 
to naked backs and shoulders. Notwithstanding its repulsive theme, one 
cannot but admire this composition for its drawing and coloring, and 
especially for the grouping of figures and faces, each of which, when 
viewed at a proper distance, is of itself a study. 

"Breaking Home Ties," by Thomas Hovenden, is one of the few works of merit 
whose theme is descriptive of American life; for as I have said the United 
States galleries are crowded with depictions of foreign scenes 

Page 681

an incidents, to the exclusion of the rich and varied subjects which the 
artist might have selected almost without stepping from his door. It is a 
simple and touching story of New England life in days not long gone by. In 
the "living room" of an old-fashioned farm house, a mother with sad and 
anxious look is taking leave of her son, who bravely struggles to mask his 
home-sick longing and lingering. Near by are his sisters and his father, 
the latter carrying his carpet bag, and in the background his dog. The 
members of the family have just risen from the last meal which for a time 
they will take together, and the table is set with the quaintest of china 
ware, the ingrain carpet and the straight high-backed chairs completing a 
picture which the New Englander knows so well and loves so well to see. 

On two of C. Y. Turner's canvases are described the oft-told stories of 
John Alden's letter and the courtship of Miles Standish, both familiar to 
the public in reproductive etchings. In the former the puritan captain is 
standing in front of the fireplace, bethinking him how to indite his tale 
of love to the bashful scribe who is acting as his amanuensis. In the 
other John is pleading his rival's cause with downcast look. He is seated 
as far away from Priscilla as space will permit, and yet not far enough, 
it seems, for he is the very picture of embarrassment. The maiden is at 
her spinning wheel, over which her head is demurely bent, for she is not 
yet ready to utter the words which Longfellow puts into her mouth: "Why 
don't you speak for yourself, John?" The story is told exceeding well, and 
the entire composition, with all its accessories, is full of the 
atmosphere of New England life. Another of Turner's New England scenes is 
"The Days that Are No More," where a young widow is leading her little 
girl from the graveyard where her husband sleeps. She is moving slowly and 
reluctantly, trying in vain to stifle her sobs, as she goes forth alone 
with her child to take up the weary life that must still be lived, without 
the strong arm and loving heart that are laid forever at rest. 

McEwen's "Witches" deals with a tragic incident in New England annals. The 
scene is at Salem, where, manacled in her prison cell, stands a beautiful 
girl confronting the executioners who are about to lead her to her doom. A 
withered hag is leaning toward her with uncanny leer, for she also has 
been condemned, and takes comfort in the though that this fair young life 
will be crushed out before her own. In the central figure is an expression 
of pain and surprise but not of terror, for she will meet her fate with 
dignified resignation, as the victim of superstition or perchance of 
jealousy, prompting some rival to bear false witness against her. 
Excellent is the light effect from a window in the background, encircling 
the maiden's head as with a martyr's halo. In "The Absent One" is a 
similar play of light in a Dutch interior, where on All Souls' day a young 
woman is reading to her father from holy writ the passages that tell of 
the life to come, upon which already his wife has entered. Other works by 
this artist are "Telling Ghost Stories" and "Judgment of Paris;" but 
rather would we have had more of his domestic themes. 

"The Bathers," by Alexander Harrison, represents a number of women, in the 
water or on the sand, beckoning to each other and enjoying themselves to 
their hearts' content in nature's garb and in communion with nature. The 
coloring is excellent, especially that of the water, for in his rendition 
of moving waters and the play of light upon them Harrison has no superior. 
It is this quality also that has given to his "Crepuscule" a wide 
celebrity. Beautiful is the glow of the setting sun reflected from the 
tranquil waves, whose aspect 

Page 683

suggests the majesty of ocean even in its restful mood. These gently 
curling billows and the foam that crests them seem to be permeated with 
light, an effect most difficult to produce, and which can only be 
accomplished by a master of his art. "En Arcadie," pronounced by an able 
critic one of the best works of the "plein air" school, is a picture of a 
forest glade peopled by fairies, whose forms are bathed in a soft golden 
atmosphere of sunlight glancing through the trees. Here again the light 
and air are perfect; but as with his other compositions, the figures are 
somewhat lacking in grace and refinement. 

"A Surprise," by Birge Harrison, has for its scene the forest of Compiegne 
in autumn tide, the ground covered with russet leaves, of which only a few 
remain on the branches above. A peasant girl is gathering wood, and 
glancing upward for a moment sees an antlered stag within a few rods of 
where she stands. They are looking at each other, and admirable is the 
expression of astonishment and fear in the face of each, for both girl and 
stag are thoroughly alarmed, and a moment later will be running from each 
other as fast as their limbs will carry them. In "The Return of the 
Mayflower" a puritan maiden is gazing intently at the approaching vessel, 
on board of which is her lover. She is a comely damsel, though with 
features worn with sickness and suffering, love sickness it may be, for 
their expression is of tender, earnest longing, of impatience that can 
barely wait until the ship shall reach its haven. 

Of the eight canvases from the brush of F. D. Millet his "Window Seat" is 
one of the best illustrations of his effective and scholarly style. It is 
a simple story simply told, with sufficient detail and a happy combination 
of quiet, restful colors. George W. Maynard, by whom is an excellent 
portrait of Millet, is also noted for harmony of coloring and strength of 
delineation, as is observed in his "Pomona" and "Civilization," the latter 
a dignified interpretation of its title. "A Card Trick," one of J. G. 
Brown's contributions, and "Soap Bubbles," by Elizabeth Gardner are also 
among the pictures that tell their own tale, the facial expression in both 
being admirably rendered. "A Dream," one of the smallest of Charles C. 
Curran's canvases, represents a number of fairy-like forms grouped around 
a soap bubble radiant with prismatic hues. In "Night Market, Morocco," by 
Thomas S. Clarke, the scene, except for its Moorish figures, might have 
been in any city where peddlers hawk their goods amid the flare of smoking 
torches. William Keith and Toby Rosenthal are among those who represent 
California art, the former with his "Autumn Sunset" and the latter with "A 
Dancing Lesson of our Grandmothers," a study full of life and action and 
with evidence of his well-known skill in drawing and coloring. But Pacific 
coast art was seen to better advantage in the state buildings, and is seen 
to still better advantage in the Midwinter Fair in San Francisco. 

Of Tryon's thirteen landscapes all but two are loaned by their purchasers, 
and in each is the refinement and delicacy of touch characteristic of this 
popular artist. More pleasing than powerful, they are for the most 

Page 685

part in minor key, with effects of early morn and evening light, of spring 
and autumn tide, of the rising moon and the setting sun. Similar in 
technique, though differing widely as to general results, are Murphy's 
"November Grays" and the "Hazy Morn." In contrast with these, and not for 
their merit, but as samples of the impressionist paintings of the purple 
and lilac school which disfigure the walls of these galleries, may be 
mentioned Twachtman's canvases, one of which is aptly styled a "Decorative 
Landscape," decorated that is with the all-pervading hues of purple and 
lilac, relieved here and there by a dash of vermillion or a streak of 
yellow and white. Not that I would pronounce a sweeping condemnation on 
all painters of this class, for Corot and Daubigny were impressionists, as 
are many of the most gifted of American artists; but they are not of the 
purple and lilac school. One may paint a scene, as at the moment it 
impresses him, without orange-colored grass or foliage, and without 
shrouding waters, hills, and plains in filaments of gauze. It is mainly 
this striving after atmospheric effect at the expense of form and texture 
that makes such depictions seem blurred and dim, their figures flat, and 
the entire composition a counterfeit resemblance of its subject. Such 
paintings may be well enough as artistic fantasies, but they are not as 
nature paints. 

Twachtman's compositions are by no means the most pronounced of the ultra-
impressionist school, and viewed at a proper distance his landscapes are 
not without their attractive features. More striking examples, for 
instance, will be found in Vonnoh's canvases, and especially in his 
"Duxbury Bay," with its gaudy, disintegrated coloring; in Dannat's bold 
looking drawn, we cannot tell whether the crepuscular light which surround 
it is that of early morn or eve. To the same class belong, among others, 
Pearce's "Annunciation" and Du Mond's "Christ and the Fishermen," both 
painted in modern style. In contrast with these is Blashfield's "Christmas 
Chimes," with its ideal and somewhat daring treatment, yet in perfect 
harmony with the subject. 

To return to landscape scenes may here be mentioned those of John J. 
Enneking, who with Tarbell, Vinton, and Thomas Allen, all represented in 
the New England collection, was appointed to the Massachusetts jury of 
selection on paintings in oil. While in all of Enneking's canvases is 
fully justified his high repute as an artist true to nature, perhaps in 
his "October Twilight in New England" is the most striking expression of 
his power. Through a bare network of boughs is depicted with remarkable 
depth and warmth of coloring a golden sunset scene, with foreground of 
grayish rock, moss-covered and fringed with autumnal leaves. Other of 
Enneking's works are "Autumn Afternoon," "November," "Salting Sheep," and 
"South Duxbury Clam Digger." Of the canvases of Charles H. Davis 
"Abandoned" shows to excellent advantage his subdued and scholarly style. 
The scene is a deserted farm house, its crumbling walls and desolate 
environment in keeping with the sentiment of the theme. In all the 
paintings of this artist may be noticed a certain gravity of tone and 
expression, an absence of strong coloring or striking contrasts of light 
and shade. By those whom such 

Page 686

things please he has been accused of dullness and monotony of treatment; 
but one turns with a sense of relief from the sensationalism all too 
common in American art to the repose and refinement of these dignified 
compositions. 

A powerful, if somewhat trist and melancholy scene, is Charles H. 
Woodbury's "North Sea Dunes," showing a wilderness of sand hills thrown up 
in unnumbered aeons by the ceaseless action of wind and wave. Here is the 
very genius of desolation, the sketch being taken from the landward side, 
and with Liliputian figures of peasant women contrasting with the 
gigantesque proportions of the dunes. In other vein is Woodbury's "Tide 
River," with its breadth of treatment and richness of coloring. A pleasing 
combination of landscape and genre painting if Knight's "Hailing the
Ferry," a loan from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. "Moonrise," by 
Thomas Allen, is a well conceived and executed composition, full of repose 
and tranquility, one in which the stillness and intangible hues of 
twilight have been rendered by a master's hand. Of the four paintings by 
D. J. Elwell, "Moonlight at Domburg, Zeeland" was executed while a student 
at the Antwerp academy. Its weird and sombre tones, suggesting rather than 
portraying an almost invisible landscape, at once established his 
reputation among Belgian critics when displayed at the Cercle Artistique. 

A prominent rank among marine painters is conceded to William G. Norton, 
among whose works the "Return of the Herring Fleet" is worthy of special 
note. The scene is on the coast of Holland, where a number of fishing 
smacks, roomy and broad of beam, are running under full sail toward the 
beach. Awaiting them is a group of figures essentially Dutch as to 
feature, figure, and costume. The picture is full of color, life, and 
motion, the sky filled with swirling clouds and the sea of the dingy cream 
color peculiar to the coast, changing to a light blue as the horizon is 
approached. "Rhode Island Coast" is a faithful and unpretentious study by 
W. Whittredge, by whom also are "The Plains" and "The Old Hunting Ground," 
both of them loan contributions. "The Seiners' Return" and "The Open Sea," 
by Walter L. Dean, are in the best vein of this well known artist, the 
former especially, with its depth of space and vitality of color, showing 
thorough familiarity with the details of his craft. A more ambitious work 
represents, under the somewhat inappropriate title of "Peace," the white 
squadron of our navy anchored in Boston harbor. Unless it be for a New 
Bedford whaler there is no more unsightly craft than a modern iron-clad, 
and worthy of all praise is the skill which has given to these frowning 
leviathans of war an element of the picturesque, grouped as they are in 
placid waters and under a summer sky. This picture, it may here be 
mentioned, is the largest of its class, nine feet in length by more than 
six in width. "Danger Ahead," by Albert H. Munsell, represents the bow of 
an ocean steamer running at full speed toward the on-looker, who to grasp 
the realism of the scene must imagine himself on board a vessel lying in 
her path and in imminent danger of collision. In contrast with this may be 
mentioned Jules L. Stewart's sketch, "On the Yacht Namouna. 

Military subjects are but slightly represented. One of the smallest and 
best among them is "Driven Back," by De Cost Smith, whose time has been 
largely devoted to the study of Indian life. It represents a party of 
Sioux warriors emerging from a river by which they are separated from a 
pursuing squadron of cavalry. 

Page 687

"Charging a Battery" and "Silenced" are from the brush of Gilbert Gaul. 
"An Innocent Victim," portraying an episode in the Franco-Prussian 
campaign, is by Seymour Thomas, who appears to have gone far afield in 
search of inspiration, while neglecting the stirring incidents of the 
civil war. Among the engravings, etchings, and drawings are also a few 
illustrations of soldier life. 

Water colors are plentiful in the United States galleries, forming a 
copious but not a very comprehensive exhibition; for several of the 
leading masters, such men for instance as John Lafarge, are here without 
representation. Among the best of the landscapes and sketches are Minor's 
"Moonlight;" Mente's "Evening Pastoral;" Ochtman's "Frost;" Eaton's 
"Autumnal" and "Indian Summer;" Cabot's "Wind-Swept Beeches, Naushon 
Island;" Pierce's "New England Pasture;" Fidelia Bridges' "In an Old 
Orchard;" Hallett's "Winter Moonlight;" Hardwick's "Looking Inland;" Alice 
Stackpole's "Late Afternoon in Beverley," and Fanny W. Tewksbury's "New 
England Homestead." "Portal of Ruined Mission, San Jose, Texas," is by 
Thomas Allen, who in common with several others is also represented in the 
collection of oil paintings. Among other architectural themes are Blaney's 
"Temple of Neptune;" Rotch's "Limburg Cathedral," and Colman's "Mosque" 
and "Ruins of a Mosque," at Tlemcin, Algeria. 

"A Sioux Camp," "Mountain Trail," and "Got Him," are by Henry F. Farny, 
the last illustrating a mode of dealing with the Indian question which 
should commend him to the notice of the government. F. Hopkinson Smith has 
four of his canvases, among which are "The Rialto" and "Venetian Fishing 
Boats." Edwards sends "An Interesting Subject" and "In the Dunes,
Flanders," both of them somewhat broad in style. Abbey's "Mariana," a 
study from Measure for Measure, was recently exhibited at the New York 
Academy of Arts. Clara T. McChesney's "Still Life" and "The Old Cobbler" 
are suggestive of the Dutch school. Of the three canvases by Rhoda Holmes 
Nicholl's "The Scarlet Letter" is specially to be commended. Pleasing 
studies also are Church's "Pandora;" Hassam's "Fifth Avenue" and 
"Springtime in the City;" Guerin's early morning scene in a village street 
in Kentucky, and Smedley's contributions, several of them relating to the 
Exposition grounds and buildings. So also are Turner's "Flood Tide;" 
Richards' "An Atlantic Beach;" Silsbee's "Monadnock;" Ellen S. Dixey's 
"Dresden in January;" Rosina Sherwood's "September;" McIlhenny's "Old 
Friends;" and Kathleen H. Greatorex' "Carnival." While in these and other 
works the American school is fairly represented, it must be admitted that 
the galleries devoted to domestic art appear to better advantage in oil 
paintings than in the lighter medium of composition. 

In etchings may first be mentioned the works of James McNeill Whistler, 
one of the most finished etchers since the days of Rembrandt, and one of 
the few who have achieved a world-wide repute in two important branches of 
art. In his etchings, as in his paintings, the merit is not only in what 
he puts into them but in what he leaves out, seizing on the central points 
of interest and giving them suitable emphasis, yet with a sufficiency of 
detail in subordination to the general effect. In proof of the esteem in 
which he is held, it may here be mentioned that of the works exhibited in 
this collection, not one is from his own studio, all of them coming as 
loans from many cities and from many owners; but as they are three-score 
in number, touching on a great variety of subjects, they cannot here be 
reviewed in detail. Stephen Parrish, Charles A. Platt, J. Alden Weir, 
Alexander Schilling, Charles A. Vanderhoof, Charles F. W. Mielatz, and 
Mary Nimmo Moran are also liberally represented among the more prominent 
etchers of original themes. 

In engravings, and especially in wood engravings, a leading rank is 
conceded to American artists, the highest honors at the Paris Exposition 
of 1889 being conferred on a Massachusetts wood engraver, with minor 
awards to others of his craft. From this artist, whose name is Elbridge 
Kingsley, is a choice collection of prints, several of them reproducing 
the works of acknowledged masters. Portraiture, landscape, marine views, 

Page 688

historical subjects, and works in lighter vein are well represented in 
this department. Among the best of them is the portrait of Jean Baptiste 
Corot, by M. Lamont Brown, reproducing with singular fidelity and 
clearness of outline the well-known features of the great landscape 
painter. W. B. Closson has one of the largest and most valuable exhibits, 
several of his wood engravings produced by a method of his own invention, 
the nature of which is still a secret, but of which it may be said that 
the work is largely done by hand, and has no relation to photo-mechanical 
processes. All his specimens are of the highest class, representing such 
masters as Rembrandt, Murillo, Jean Francois Millet, Bonvin, George 
Fuller, and A. H. Thayer. William J. Dana has landscape studies after 
Corot and Appleton Brown. Of excellent workmanship are William P. Cleaves' 
engravings whose themes are mainly taken from White Mountain scenery. 
Prominent among the marine views is the "Ship in the Fog," by Harry E. 
Sylvester, whose prints are also illustrative of church and cathedral 
architecture. 

As loans from a New York publishing company are a number of works by 
Timother Cole after Michael Angelo, Raphael, Paul Veronese, and other 
Italian masters. There are not only among the best engravings in the art 
display but among the best of modern times. Frank French has studies after 
Martiny, Barye, Fortuny, and others, together with original compositions. 
Thomas Johnson is strong in portraiture and figures, as also are Henry 
Wolf and Gustav Kruell. John P. Davis, Francis S. King, H. F. W. Lyouns, 
and Caroline A. Powell are represented by a variety of themes. In a steel 
engraving by S. A. Schoff is a marine subject after De Haas, with a copy 
of Rowse's well known portrait of Emerson. 

Of pastel drawings the collection is larger than in any of the foreign 
sections; but in the United States as elsewhere, except perhaps in France, 
this medium is seldom employed and rarely to good effect. Of the famous 
New York Pastel club only one of its prominent members is represented, and 
that one by a single contribution - "Good Friends," by William M. Chase. 
Appleton Brown has several landscapes; Jules L. Stewart, Jacob Wagner, 
Cecilia beaux, and Anna E. Klumpke have each a portrait; Caroline F. 
Hecker, a couple of flower pieces; Adelaide Wadsworth, a Venetia scene; 
Birge Harrison, "Evening on the Seine;" Charles A. Corwin, "Oat Harvest;" 
and Julius Rolshoven and other skillful pastellists are represented by 
various subjects. 

Of pen, charcoal, and other drawings there is a large collection of 
excellent quality, one to which the only exception that can be taken is to 
its size. C. D. Gibson, for instance, has no less than six and thirty pen-
drawings on exhibition, together with three wash-drawings. All of them are 
of unquestionable merit; but if this eminent artist had sent only a few of 
his best, I cannot but think he would have appeared to better advantage. 
By Abbey are fourteen Shakespearian illustrations. Pennell and Fenn's 
liberal contributions relate almost entirely to architecture. Pyle deals 
largely with landscapes; Blum, with Japanese, and Castaigne, with 

Page 689

Provencal scenes. Reinhart's charcoals are among the best of their class, 
especially his portrait of Charles Dudley Warner. Remington inclines to 
animal and military themes, and Smedley's drawings cover a wide range of 
subjects. The Boston school is represented by Woodbury, Small, and 
Attwood; but in this department as well as in engravings and etchings, 
some of the most prominent names are omitted from the list of New England 
contributors; nor are these branches here so much in favor as in New York 
and Philadelphia. 

In architecture in connection with the fine arts, New England appears to 
excellent advantage, as might be expected from a country which contains 
among its citizen some of the foremost members of the profession. In 
monumental and city architecture Boston has almost created a school of its 
own, though as yet its works may not be fully appreciated, for men have 
become so accustomed to faulty architecture that they cannot readily 
accept designs of a superior type. While not original, except for the 
originality which combines old forms with new compositions, the members of 
this school have discarded all obtrusive and fantastic elements, 
reproducing without servile imitation the classic features of earlier 
days, so far as they can be adapted to modern conditions. If we are to 
have in this country a renaissance of architecture, it is probably that 
Boston will be its birthplace, while the dawn of that renaissance may 
possibly have been forecast in the ephemeral city of the Fair. 

The best display of architecture as a fine art is in the Exposition 
buildings themselves, two of which, apart from state structures are, as I 
have said, from the designs of Boston artificers. By the firm of Peabody 
and Stearns, to whom were intrusted the plans for Machinery hall, is 
exhibited a sketch of its southern portal, with office sketches, all in 
water colors. From Edmund M. Wheelwright, city architect of Boston, are 
several designs for public edifices, showing the purity and symmetry of 
proportion characteristic of his compositions. Of special interest are 
Longfellow, Alden, and Harlow's designs in photograph for the Carnegie 
library and music hall at Pittsburgh, and the city hall at Cambridge. 
Church, school, and college architecture find expression in drawing from 
Walker and Kimball; Andrews, Jacques, and Rantoul; Cram, Wentworth, and 
Goodhue, and the water colors of Sturgis and Cabot, the first of these 
firms also showing its plans for the Omaha public library and telephone 
exchange. Of the three water colors shown by Julius A. Schweinfurth, one 
is a competitive design for the American Fine Arts society's building in 
New York. From Arthur W. Wheelwright is also a suggestion 

Page 690

for a school of fine arts in connection with a university. H. L. Warren 
has several handsome compositions, one for a conservatory of music as an 
appendage to a female seminary, and others for the orphan asylum at Troy, 
built from his plans. Nearly all the larger cities of the United States, 
and not a few of the smaller ones, find expression in these galleries, 
with plans in every style and for every conceivable purpose; but as they 
are nearly 300 in number I cannot here present them in review. 

An interesting feature in the galleries of domestic art is the 
retrospective exhibit of American paintings, some of them dating far back 
into the eighteenth century, and consisting largely of portraiture, though 
covering a variety of themes. The oldest of all is a picture of Bishop 
Berkeley and his family, painted by John Smybert in 1729. This is the 
property of Yale University, and is said to be the first canvas from the 
brush of an American artist containing more than a single figure. Of 
George and Martha Washington there are portraits executed between 1790 and 
1792, with one of Jonathan Warner in 1761, of David Garrick in 1772, of 
Counselor Dunn in 1795, and of members of the Dana family depicted in the 
closing years of the century. There are landscapes painted as early as 
1810; there is an Indian scene in northern Texas the date of which is 
1833; and about this time began to appear more ambitious subjects, as 
Allston's "Paul and Silas in Prison" and his "Danae and the Shower of 
Gold." Thus the collection is continued until it touches on the sphere of 
contemporary art. 

But the centre of interest in the entire art display is the loan 
collection of foreign works contributed by their owners throughout the 
United States. This is officially styled a collection of foreign 
masterpieces, and such in part it is; but among these masterpieces are 
many inferior pictures masquerading under that title and many others 
which, though first-class paintings by artists of acknowledged merit, 
cannot properly be classed as masterpieces. Rather should is be termed an 
exhibition of the control which French art has acquired over American 
collectors and connoisseurs; for of its 126 specimens about three-fourths 
are French, most of the remainder coming from Dutch and English studios. A 
serious defect in these chambers is the grouping; and this is the more to 
be regretted that here was supposed to be the finishing touch of the art 
display, the brightest jewel in the artistic crown of the Columbian 
Exposition. The arrangement shows neither scale, proportion, symmetry, nor 
even due attention to the first principles of classification, some of the 
largest and smallest paintings hanging side by side, and with little 
regard to quality or subject. Thus Corot's "Orpheus" was placed in close 
proximity to the most daring studies of the nude, and Daubigny's "Cooper's 
Shop" hung next to a portrait of Madame Modjeska by Carolus-Duran. Here 
and there, however, the combination is better, 

Page 691

as in one of the chambers where side by side are the smaller works of 
Millet and Meissonier, Daubigny, Corot, and Theodore Rosseau. 

Of the twelve paintings by Corot, each is a masterpiece, and yet all are 
different, not only showing the versatility of the great landscape 
painter, but explaining his potent influence as a factor in the history of 
art. From 1827, when his first picture was hung in the salon exhibition, 
until the time of his death in 1875, his works were never absent from its 
wall, and however important were the works themselves, they were far more 
important as lessons in contemporary art, as developing antecedent 
tendencies and pointing the way to a more faithful rendition of nature's 
truths. By those who have misconceived his style it is alleged that he 
merely idealized nature, than in his softly intoned effects of foliage and 
light he suppressed many details which he did not or would not observe. 
Rather should it be said that he separated from its minor features the 
central idea which he intended to convey. As one of his biographers 
remarks: "What he wanted to repeat was not nature's statistics, but their 
sum total; not her minutiae, but the result she had wrought with them; not 
the elements with which she had built up a landscape, but the landscape 
itself, as his eye had embraced and his soul had felt it. 'Truth,' he 
declared, 'was the first thing in art and the second and the third.' But 
the whole truth cannot be told at once. You cannot paint summer and winter 
in a single canvas. Not even two successive hours of a summer's day are 
exactly alike, and you cannot paint them both," Certain it is that no man 
worked harder at his task, with more earnest conscientious study, long 
unrequited even by the scantiest recompense. At thirty he lived on a 
pension of $300 a year which his father allowed him; at fifty this pension 
was doubled and still formed his only income; at sixty he had not sold a 
single picture, except to his brother artists. "Alas," he cried, as the 
first of his patrons carried away his purchase from the studio, "my 
collection has been so long complete, and now it is broken." 

"Orpheus," with its strong and yet delicate rendering, is one of the most 
idyllic of landscapes, and in the highest style of classic art. The god of 
the lyre is greeting the morn, whose soft roseate colors are painted on a 
crystal sky as only Corot could paint them, and with the sombre tones of 
the foreground in perfect contrast. Almost beneath the shade of a stately 
tree whose foliage is tremulous with light, stands the figure of the great 
musician, his touch giving emphasis to the harmony of the scene, so that 
nature herself appears to listen. It is impossible to imagine a more 
beautiful conception or one more delicately executed. Here is the poetry 
of art, nature's own poetry, interpreted and accented by the touch of a 
master who was himself in closest communion, with nature. 

"Evening" is in another mood, with radiant sunset sky, whose glow is even 
on the shadows of the trees beneath which, their figures bathed in the 
mellow light, maidens dance to the low soft music of foliage attuned by 
the zephyr's breath. A second picture bearing this title, together with 
his "Landscape," "The Path to the Village," and other canvases represent 
different styles and periods in the life-work of Corot. But a stronger 
contrast than any is in "The Flight from Sodom," a work in which there is 
a wide departure from his usual mode of treatment. The landscape is here a 
subordinate feature, the figures grouped in the foreground forming the 
objective point of the composition. Lot and his family are well 
delineated, with suggestion of rapid flight from the devoted city on which 
his wife is gazing with fatal indecision, hoping perhaps that its doom may 
not involve the destruction of her home. "Danse des Nymphes" is a 
beautiful combination of landscape and figure painting, second only to his 
"Danse des Amours," the former with graceful buoyant figures grouped 
around a classic 

Page 692

temple buried in the woods, representing an ideal world with its fair 
suggestions of infinite joy and peace. "Environs of Ville d' Avray" is a 
study from the neighborhood where most of his days were passed, and whose 
summer foliage amid the soft evening light he loved so well to paint. Here 
he lived alone with art and nature, for he never married, taking in place 
of wife, as he said, "a little fairy called Imagination, who came at his 
call and vanished when he did not need her." 

With the name of Corot that of Charles Francois Daubigny will ever be 
associated, not only as intimate friends, but as leaders of the school 
which delivered art from the barren conventionalism of the pseudo-classic 
period, and carried it far into the domain of reality and truth. Their 
style had much in common, though in both was marked individuality, Corot 
having more of sentiment in his works, throwing into them his own poetic 
imagery, while Daubigny aimed rather at reproducing the impression of the 
moment in all its freshness of form and coloring. Both were preeminent as 
landscape and figure painters, and both were more than that, their range 
extending to many subjects, all of them treated with the strength and 
beauty of touch which rank them among the classic masters of the age. 

"The Banks of the Oise at Auvers," in the loan collection, was exhibited 
at the salon in 1863, and is one of several themes portraying under 
various aspects the scenic beauties of this stately river, with its broad 
and fertile valley. "Boat on the River Oise," hung in the salon of 1851, 
was one of the works which made his fame. For his "Banks of the Oise," 
displayed in 1859 was awarded the legion of honor, and still another is 
"The Banks of the Oise near Bonneville," which graced the salon of 1866. 
It was in the former year that Daubigny, wearied of following the stream 
afoot, and sleeping at hotels to catch his sunrise effects, bethought him 
of building a studio-boat with cabin in the stern which served as 
workshop, bedroom, and kitchen. This he christened the Botin, and in his 
little craft voyaged at will along the Oise and Seine with their adjacent 
waters, where, free from care, he communed with nature, and produced those 
famous studies of river scenery and river life on which his fame so 
largely rests. The summer of 1876 he spent on the Normandy coast, and the 
result is seen in several of his later compositions, one of which is here 
exhibited under the title "Coast near Dieppe." 

As with Corot, the contributions from the brush of Jean Francois Millet 
are histories of his art life, beginning back in the days when a Boston 
connoisseur accorded to the then struggling exponent of the Barbizon 
school the recognition which his own countrymen persistently withheld. The 
price that was paid for the two-score of pictures which the Bostonian 
purchased from Millet, including some of his greatest works, it is not 
given to us to know; but we may be sure it was not much, for at this time 
they were almost unsalable. Parisians would have none of them, even as a 
gift, until the story of their sale was noised abroad, and not until many 
years afterward did they fully appreciate one of the foremost genre and 
landscape painters of the age. 

Among his eight canvases in the loan collection, "After the Bath" is 
almost diminutive in size but large and strong in art. It is a study of 
the nude, as were most of his earlier works, until, as is said, the 
reading of a bible which his grandmother gave him when he left her to try 
his fortunes in Paris, caused him to exchange these subjects for the 
portrayal of peasant life. This is to be regretted, for in the undraped 
figure as Millet painted it, and as few else could paint it, there is 
nothing at which the most prudish could take offence. But we are more than 
recompensed in his later works, for here is a breadth of treatment and 
expression which won the hearts even of Parisian connoisseurs. 

Page 693

Profound was the sensation created in the salons by his "Man with the 
Hoe." It is merely a peasant at his task in the field; but in this 
unpretentious theme is a wealth of suggestion. The man s of repulsive and 
almost brutish aspect, with uncouth, muscular frame and low, retreating 
brow, almost hidden beneath a shock of coarse, matted hair. He is panting 
for breath with open mouth and stooping form, as of a worn-out beast of 
burden, and in that face, bent over the hoe on which he leans for rest, 
there is no human expression, no trace of mind or soul. It is merely the 
face of an animal, and of a savage animal, goaded by toil and suffering. A 
more pleasing study, but a less powerful one, is "The Sheep-shearers" with 
a richness and warmth of coloring which is not always found in the 
canvases of Millet. "The Pig Killers" is one of the gems of the loan 
collection, as also is "Peasants Carrying a New-born Calf." Perfectly 
modelled are the figures of the cow and the sturdy young peasants, with 
their play of limb and muscle, while as to coloring - here is another 
example of what Millet can do when the subject is in harmony with his 
mood. 

Of the "Reconnaissance" and "View near Poissy," the latter a beautiful 
landscape with color scheme in light green tints, it need only here be 
said that they are by Meissonier. From Rousseau, who with Dupre, Diaz, 
Corot, and Huet, all but the last represented in this collection, began 
the good work which Daubigny took up, there are four of his landscape 
paintings, though none of them are quite at his best. Nevertheless in all 
of them, and especially in his "View on the Seine" and "Landscape in
Berry," there are evidences of the strong technique of the great master, 
whose pictures no one would have, for none could fathom, as he did, the 
depths of nature's mysteries. Diaz' subjects are "La Danse des Almees," 
"Turkish Women," and "The Descent of the Bohemians," while of Dupre's 
three canvases two are studies of the sea. In this connection though of a 
different school, may be mentioned Claude Monet's "Harbor of Havre," with 
its smiling waters and quaint, old-fashioned houses; his "Morning Fog," 
with its iridescent sea breaking on a dimly outlined cliff; his "Dawn on 
the Coast of the North Sea," with its pale crimson sunrise; and his "Snow 
Scene," with its bleak and desolate pathway. In all but the last the light 
is delicately intoned, giving to nature the soft, dreamy aspect in which 
she is seen at her best. 

In his "Odalisque" and his portrait of Modjeska Carolus-Duran appears at a 
disadvantage as compared with his paintings in the French section. Rosa 
Bonheur is well represented in her "Pastoral" and "Sheep," especially in 
the latter, with its fleecy clouds, in a clear blue sky, and its play of 
sunlight and shadow. While not among her more ambitious canvases, they are 
by no means unworthy of her brush. Cazin has four of his studies, among 
which "The Expulsion from Paradise" is depicted with startling realism. 
"Tiger Quenching his Thirst" and "Turks Abducting a Girl" are in the well 
known style of Eugene Delacroix, whose works too often border on the 
extravagant and sometimes on the grotesque. In his "Christ at the Tomb" 
the tragic elements are portrayed for all they are worth. There are the 
stains of blood, the pallid hue of death, the unspeakable agony, and 
around all the awesome gloom of the sepulchre. 

Of the three Raffaellis here exhibted, "Absinthe Drinkers" represents two 
wrecks of Parisian humanity in the shabbiest of apparel, unkempt, 
unwashed, unshaven, with hardly a trace of the human in their sodden and 
ghastly features. They are seated at a table against the bare white wall 
of a cafe, and at the side of either a slender glass, filled with a pale 
yellow liquid, tells the tale of wrecked and hopeless lives. L'Hermitee's 
"Washerwomen on the Banks of the Marne" is resplendent with sunlight hues; 
Lefebvre's "La Cigale" is in his most imaginative vein; "Nymphs Bathing," 
by Monticelli, is remarkable for its coloring, its strains resembling the 
lacquer paintings limned on old cabinet work. Jules Breton's "Song of the 
Lark" shows the face of a peasant girl raised in wonderment at the sweet 
music overhead. In his "Colza-gatherers" the laborers are hard at work 
over their task, all save one who gazes for a moment on the glories of a 
summer day. A work of exceptional power and character is "The Spy," by 
Alphonse-Marie de Neuville. Near a table where a group of German officers 
are taking their evening meal, a Frenchman, disguised as a hunter, is 
being searched for papers that will doom him to a shameful death. 

Page 694

In Manet's "Dead Trocador" are skillfully combined the elements of the 
picturesque and the repulsive in the old time Spanish bull-fight, the 
costumes portrayed in brilliant tones and the figures brought into strong 
relief without elaboration of detail and with strength and simplicity of 
treatment. The two marine sketches by this artist are in his happiest 
style. The "Dogs and Hare" is an excellent study by Gustav Courbet, as yet 
but little known in America, as also is Dagnan-Bouveret, from whom are 
"Brittany Peasant Girl" and "La Bernoise." Fromentin's "Falconer" and 
"Women of Sahara" are here, and among Troyon's canvases are two of his 
choicest animal paintings. Degas' "Race-horses" and "The Dancing Lesson" 
are of little value except as specimens of the impressionist school from a 
man seldom completes a picture, and yet is hailed by his brethren as one 
of the most talented and original artists of the day. The latter 
represents a number of ballet girls with circling arms pirouetting on 
satin-covered toes, among them a portly bald-headed ballet master, and 
seated in the foreground, reading a newspaper, a coarse looking woman 
attired in blue-spotted cotton gown. There is no attempt at theatrical 
display; simply a group of bare-legged lasses practicing on a bare floor 
the art which brings them a livelihood. 

Sisley's "Village Street, Moret" is a neatly executed composition, with 
pleasing color scheme, especially in its pink roofs contrasting against 
violet-tinted clouds. A picture by Helleu shows a beautiful light effect 
in the interior of St. Denis cathedral, with a recess full of dim purple 
shadows, in the depths of which a stained glass window sheds on a wall and 
effigied tomb tints of variegated hue. Worthy of note also are Gericault's 
"Study of a Cuirassier," Greuze's "Pouting Child;" Bastien-Lepage's 
"Reverie" and "The Thames;" Detaille's "Flag of Truce;" Ribot's "Young 
Politician;" Michel's "Plain of Montmartre" and "The Horseman; Decamps' 
"Oriental Kiosk," and Fantin-Latour's "Vision of Tannhauser." 

England is represented in the loan collection by Watts' portrait of 
Joachim, the greatest of modern violinists; Alma Tadema's "A Reading from 
Homer;" three of Constable's studies; a landscape by Barrington; Morland's 
"Contentment," and three of Swan's famous animal paintings. From Germany 
are canvases by Ludwig Knaus and Fritz von Uhde. From Holland the most 
noticeable works are "The Flock," by Antonin Mauve, and "A Frugal Meal," 
by Josef Israels, whose "Alone in the World" is one of the most graphic 
studies in the Dutch section and in the entire art display. Jacob Maris in 
his "Canal in Holland" has expressed about all that can be got out of this 
favorite theme among Dutch artists; but such paintings are not all like 
this; only by the brush of a Maris and other masters of his school could 
so much expression by thrown into a commonplace subject. From Belgium 
there are "The Book Stall," by Hendrick Leys, and "You are Welcome," by 
Jan Van Beers; while from Sweden comes a single painting by Anders L. 
Zorn, showing the interior of a Stockholm brewery. 

In Italian art there is Michetti's "Springtime and Love," the spring and 
love, that is, of Italy's sunny clime. The scene is by the sea-shore, with 
grass-covered cliff, verdure reaching almost to the water's edge, the 
figures, though a little singular in delineation, standing forth in 
perfect harmony with nature's kindly mood. "Beach at Portici," by the 
Spanish artist Fortuny, is a masterly rendition of sky and sea, with 
fleecy sunlit clouds flitting across a light blue atmosphere, and on a 
foreground of glistening sand, figures in gay attire blending with the 
brilliant hues of flowers and foliage. Finally, there are a few pieces of 
statuary by the Parisian sculptors. Jean Leon Gerome and Auguste Rodin, 
the former represented by his tinted marble group of "Pygmalion and 
Galatea" and the latter by his "Andromeda" and two marble groups of 
"Francesca and Paolo," - "L' Amour" and "La Rapture," - all executed under 
commission for the Museum of decorative arts. 

Page 695

Among foreign participants the largest space was allotted to the French 
exhibits, which, except for one of the American loan contributions, occupy 
the entire eastern annex. While, as I have said, the works of some of the 
great masters are not here represented, the display is a fair 
representation of the productions of the various schools, though from it 
more than a thousand eligible works were excluded merely though want of 
space. To the lighting of the chambers and the grouping of the pictures 
and statuary, under the direction of Roger-Ballu and his chief assistant, 
the former one of the art commissioners and inspector-general of fine 
arts, no exception can be taken. To give to the entire exhibition and to 
each of the exhibiting schools an appropriate expression, no pains were 
spared to insure the artistic grouping of the collections, the galleries 
being closely veiled until the last painting was in the appointed place. 

A feature in this section is the cosmopolitan character of the display; 
for here are presented not only the works of all the French schools, but 
many in which there are unmistakable traces of foreign methods of 
treatment. Almost side by side with the finest landscape paintings of old-
school masters are the broadest expressions of modern sensationalism and 
impressionism. Studies from the nude are plentiful, and as in all French 
exhibitions, among the best of the works. In most of them, however, there 
is no suggestion of indecency; for as Thackeray remarks, the draped figure 
is often more unchaste than that which is depicted as nature made it. 
Portraiture is well represented, and with many new names on the list of 
contributors in this as in other departments; for apart from loan 
collections, the French exhibits, whether of oil paintings, water colors, 
or drawings, of pastels, engravings, etchings, or architectural 
compositions, are restricted almost entirely to modern schools. 

By Frenchmen and by those who for many years have attended the salons of 
France, it is conceded that never before, not only in the United States 
but in the salons themselves, was so varied a representation of French 
contemporary art. But while one of the most exhaustive collections, it is 
by no means the best that France could have furnished, and for reasons 
already stated, falls somewhat short of expectation. Especially is noticed 
in many of the paintings a certain monotony of coloring, in light and 
florid tints, without warmth or richness of hue. Though at first the 
effect is not displeasing, it is impaired by sameness and repetition, just 
as in the Russian section we turn with a sense of disappointment from the 
exaggerated and sometimes gaudy strains that mar the style of its 
depictions. Then there is observed an effeminacy of treatment, a lack of 

Page 696

originality in motif and of vigor in execution, giving to some of the 
compositions the stamp of hopeless mediocrity. 

But to the majority of French paintings these remarks do not apply, while 
in sculpture none of the groups will compare with those which France has 
contributed. Though, as I have said, her display of statuary has been 
surpassed at former expositions, several of the great masters find 
expression, and among nearly 150 works, their subjects ranging from cock-
fighting to classic and historic symbolism, there are many of 
unquestionable merit. In addition to these is a collection of 
architectural and other casts from the museums of Comparative Sculpture, 
of Decorative Arts, and of the Louvre, better known as the Trocadero 
collection, from the name of the palace in which most of the originals are 
contained. This is of special interest as the most valuable pieces have 
been presented to the Exposition authorities, and will form the nucleus of 
an art collection. Here may be traced through several centuries the 
development of French architecture, and especially of church and cathedral 
architecture, including the Romanesque, the Gothic, the renaissance, and 
the designs of more modern schools. 

First among the groups is the sculptured portal of the church of Notre 
Dame du Port at Clermont-Ferrand, an eleventh century composition, the 
angular rigidity of the figures of Isaiah and John the Baptist on either 
side of the entrance revealing traces of Byzantine influence. Of the 
monastery of Charlieu is reproduced a portion of its facade, with 
diminutive windows, and large double door-way, the lintel surmounted with 
decapitated images of Christ and his apostles, the mutilation noticeable 
in these and other figures being probably the work of iconoclasts during 
the revolutionary era. On the tympanum is a seated form of Christ, with 
hand uplifted in blessing, and above it a richly ornamented arch. A facade 
of the church of Saint Gilles is also in part reproduced, its frieze 
representing in relief scenes from the passion; on the lintel and in the 
embrasures of the portal are other scriptural scenes. In each of the 
embrasures are figures of the disciples, their feet resting on lions in 
the act of devouring man or beast, and elsewhere in the decorative scheme 
are hunting scenes. The profane, it may here be observed, enters largely 
into the ecclesiastical architecture of the middle ages, with beasts 
portrayed in arabesque, saints and angels intermingling with heroes and 
demigods, while from Pompeiian ruins have been unearthed the winged 
seraphim characteristics of Christian monuments. 

In the casts above described are represented eleventh and twelfth century 
architecture. To the thirteenth century belongs the cathedral of Notre 
Dame de Paris, from which are portions of its 

Page 697

western doorway, with figures of prophets and kings on either side of the 
virgin, whose entombment and coronation are also symbolized, angels 
holding the winding sheet and in the background Christ and his apostles. 
From the cathedral of Bordeaux there is a large reproduction of the portal 
of its northern transept, where is a figure of Bertrand, archbishop of the 
diocese, afterward Pope Clement V. The arch is adorned with delicately 
executed forms of angels, apostles, prophets, and patriarchs, and in bas-
relief superimposed are portrayed on the tympanum the last supper, the 
ascension, and Christ triumphant. By an unknown artist is a delicate piece 
of workmanship whose theme is a stone gallery in the cathedral of Limoges. 
In the decorative scheme are winged heads of angels, headless figures 
emblematic of the cardinal and other virtues, with monstrous beasts and 
images sacred and profane, all in the choicest symbolism of the 
renaissance period. Elsewhere are represented the cathedrals of Amiens, 
Laon, Reims, Rouen, Lyons, Sens, Aix, Chartres, Bourges, Nantes, and 
Beauvais, with chapel, cloister, and chateau architecture from the 
eleventh to the nineteenth century. 

Tombs are a feature in this collection, representing among other 
sepulchres that of the children of Charles VIII, fashioned in 1506, the 
figures of the princes lying on the top, with angels at either end, and in 
relief the exploits of Hercules and Samson. Here also is shown the 
sarcophagus of Francis II and his wife Marguerite de Fois, contained in 
the cathedral of Nantes, and executed, it is said, in 1507. But a more 
remarkable work than either is from the tomb of the seneschal, Louis de 
Breze, the husband of Diana of Poitiers, erected in 1540 in the cathedral 
of Rouen. In the original the body rests on a slab of black marble; at its 
head is the form of his wife and at its feet the virgin and child, all the 
figures being flanked by pairs of Corinthian columns supporting an 
ornamented entablature, above which is an equestrian statue of the 
seneschal in full armor, the entire composition forming a choice 
illustration of renaissance art. 

In contrast with these sombre themes are figures of the graces by German 
Pilon, resting back to back and with joined hands on a triangular base. A 
cast of a nude statue of Diana by Houdain, with remarkable symmetry of 
outline, represents the goddess poised on her left foot, and with orthodox 
bow and arrows. "Voltaire" by the same artist, the bronze original of 
which is in the foyer of the Comedie-Francaise, is a composition full of 
power and character. There are also casts of fourteenth and fifteenth 
century statues of Guillaume de Chanac and Phillippe de Morvillier, with 
one of King Philippe VI, all from the Louvre at Paris. Animal sculpture 
finds a place in the collection, especially in the works of Barye, and 
there are nympths and nereids, tritons and other fabulous creatures, for 
the most part of somewhat inferior execution. 

Page 698

Passing to contemporary art, may first be mentioned the statuettes of 
Meissonier, several of whose less known works are reproduced in bronze or 
casts in cire perdue. Among them is the figure of Marshal Duroc from 
Castiglione's painting of the "Campaign of Italy, 1796." On this he was at 
work when overtaken by the illness which ended his career. A spirited 
group by the same artist is the "Heraut de Murice," a trumpeter of the 
time of Louis XIII, the attitude of his steed showing the tension of 
extreme excitement. Others are his "Wounded Horse, Siege of Paris," 
"Dancing Muse," and "Design for a Fire-place," the last intended for his 
own atelier, its shelf supported by renaissance figures. In the "Four 
Figures from the Tomb of Lamorciere' to which Paul Dubois gave several 
years of earnest work, is a rare combination of the natural and the ideal. 
Faith is personified in the form of a young woman of virginal purity; 
charity in a woman with infants in her arms; meditation in a man with 
bowed head, with downcast features of strong, intellectual mold, and 
military courage in a youth clad in complete armor, over whose shoulders 
is a lion's skin. 

A reproduction of "David the Victor," by Antonin Mercie, a pupil of 
Dubois, though dissimilar in pose, is suggestive of Donatello's famous 
statue; but here we have rather a promise than an expression of his more 
finished style, for this was one of his earliest works. In better vein is 
his "Quand Meme," the original of which was executed for a monument at 
Belfort. Its theme is Alsace, symbolized by a young woman grasping the 
rifle of a wounded French soldier, who clutches the hem of her garment as 
he falls. "The First Funeral," by Barrias, is one of the masterpieces of 
French sculpture, even its mutilated condition detracting but little from 
the force and dignity of this well conceived and powerful composition. 
Adam is carrying to its resting place the lifeless body of his son; Eve 
stooping to kiss the brow, and in both a subdued but intense expression of 
grief, too strong for words or tears. "Mozart as a Child," in the act of 
tuning his violin, is a beautiful figure, its costume, pose, and suggested 
motion full of life and truth. Chapu's "Jeanne d' Arc" in kneeling 
attitude is in the best style of this well-known artist, whose themes are 
mainly from the antique. Falguiere's "Republican France" is a symbolic 
statue, ordered for the occasion by the French government. In his figures 
of Diana is a better illustration of his skill and delicacy of technique. 
Of the colossal group in bronze, whose theme is Washington and Lafayette, 
it need only be said that it is one of Bartholdi's works. A modest and 
unpretentious work by Raoul Larche is "Jesus Before the Rabbis," 
representing its subject looking upward at the doctors as though 
questioned or bethinking him how to answer a question. His attire is of 
the plainest, consisting only of a single garment, and in the features and 
figure there is no suggesting of the divine, except for the divinity which 
belongs to childhood. 

A strong and impressive work is Saint-Marceaux' "Spirit Guarding the 
Secret of the Tomb," for which was awarded the medal of honor at the Paris 
salon in 1879. In the features and figure of the genius, his face turned 
backward as though resenting intrusion, while grasping in his arms a 
funeral urn, is a wonderful depth of expression. Rodin's "Burgess of 
Calais" recalls the familiar story of the siege of that city in the days 
of Edward III, with the figure of one of its heroic defenders, on which is 
the impress of stern resolution, portrayed in almost Gothic simplicity of 
outline. Boucher's "On the Ground" is one of the best examples of a man 
digging around a stone with his shovel, and had the form been draped, the 
effect would be merely that of a common laborer at his daily task. Of nude 
woman, Idrac's "Salammbo" is a well executed type, though expressive of 
nothing in particular. In Marquestre's "La Cigale" is portrayed with 
startling realism the sensation of cold. By Delaplanche "Security" is 
symbolized in true academic vein by the figure of a woman clad in armor, 
with sword in hand, and in her lap a sleeping infant. In Lanson's "The Age 
of Iron" is expressed by a warrior and his vanquished foe the spirit of 
the age when might was right. "The Blind Man and the Paralytic" is the 
subject chosen by Jean Turcan and Gustav Michel, the latter of whom has 
two other statues on exposition. 

Page 699

In animal sculpture Emanuel Fremiet stands almost alone in his profession, 
though his choicest works, as the equestrian statue of Jeanne d' Arc in 
the Place des Pyramides at Paris, are not reproduced in the French 
collection. His wounded dog, while a faithful delineation, is one of his 
minor works. In his "Man of the Stone Age" is symbolized the prehistoric 
era of the human race, the figure, clad in the skins of wild beasts and 
grasping a huge hammer with head of stone, standing forth with tense 
rigidity of outline, and yet in the features is a certain aspect of 
intelligence and even of dignity. The life-sized groups by August Cain are 
accurate representations, but lacking in vigor of expression, and would be 
more in place in a zoological museum than in a gallery of fine arts. One 
of them represents a rhinoceros goring a tiger, while a second tiger 
springs at his shoulder. The others are entitle "Eagle and Vulture 
Quarreling over a Dead Bear" and "Lion Strangling a Crocodile," the latter 
a feeble composition as compared with a similar theme by Barye in the 
Trocadero collection. 

Turning to the picture galleries, with nearly 500 oil paintings and a 
large number of water colors, drawings, etching, and engravings, we find 
here almost every conceivable subject that has occupied the brush of the 
painter. While a large proportion are in lighter vein, with something too 
much of the frivolous and altogether too much of the nude, graver themes 
are well represented. Of portraits, landscapes, mythologic, military, and 
historic scenes there is a large collection, some by acknowledged masters 
and others of unquestionable merit, while even religious subjects are 
treated with all the pathos and seriousness of which the Frenchman's 
mercurial temperament is capable. 

In portraiture and figure painting may first be mentioned the three works 
of Carolus Duran, one of which excited much comment at the salon of the 
Champs de Mars in 1892. It represents in truthful rather than 
complimentary vein a wealthy middle-aged American woman, seated in state 
against a background of yellow plush curtains, attired in satin and velvet 
and bedecked with jewels, her feet resting on a silken cushion, and her 
face and hair suggestive of powder and rouge. Another portrait is that of 
a young girl; and a third shows a pleasing figure in gray, both in the 
happiest style of this master of his special art. Bonnat's "Cardinal 
Lavigerie" has more of the Turkish than the episcopal aspect, the red sash 
and black soutaine beneath his scarlet robe giving to this African primate 
almost the appearance of a pasha, which is further enhanced by his fez and 
his swarthy complexion. "Renan," by the same artist, shows a heavy 
thickset figure and sensuous face peering forth from their enveloping 
shadow. Chartran's portrait of Leo XIII is an excellent work; but not, as 
has been claimed, the only one taken from life. 

Raffaelli's three canvases do not fairly express the power of this eminent 
master, who appears to much better advantage in the loan collection. "The 
Grandfather" is over bulky in form, as also is the child by his side. "In 
the Plain" does little credit to his brush, and his depiction of Brittany 
peasants is somewhat hard in tone. Of Henner's "Portrait of My brother," 
"Lola," and "Slumber," the two last are female heads reproduced in his 
dreamy, langorous style. Rondel's "James Gordon Bennett" is one of the 
gems of the collection, as also is Gustave Courtois' "Madame Gautherau," 
both of them life-like and strong conceptions. One of Wencker's paintings 
is said to produce the refined and sensitive features of Madame Giroa, 
another is of Boulanger; but a work more admired than either is his large 
painting of the Basilica, with its rich Byzantine theme. "Portrait of M. 
G. A. E.," is the only canvas from Eugene Antoine Guillon, one of the most 
celebrated painters of historic portraits, among which are "Napoleon's 
Adieu to France," "Napoleon at St. Helena," and "John Brown and His 
Accomplices on Trial." Alfred Guillon, though a sculptor by profession, is 
also represented by a single picture, the subject of which is "My Little 
Brother." Another master of historic portraiture is Jean Paul Laurens, who 
has long stood at the head of his profession, and has exhausted all the 
honors which his country had to offer. His themes are "Christopher 
Columbus" and "The Seven Troubadours." Layraud's portrait of Liszt 
represents the great composer standing by the side of his instrument.

Page 700

"Young Girl of Tougourth, Algiers" is by Charles Landelle, a most prolific 
painter, not only on canvas but on everything else upon which paint can be 
laid. 

A pleasing composition is the "Reverie" by Jules Emile Saintin, a 
medallist of 1866 and with remarkable facility of adaptation, his themes 
extending from the soubrettes of the Comedie Francais to the dignitaries 
of the church. The "Portrait of Professor Charcot" is by Saintin the 
younger, who appears to better advantage in marine and landscape scenes. 
Henri Gervez' three canvases are in the familiar style of this well known 
portrait and genre painter, among whose more famous works are "Diana and 
Endymion" and "Communion at the Church of the Trinity." In the 
compositions of Jean Francois Gigoux there is much to remind us of this 
veteran artist whose "Jean d' Arc," "Charlotte Corday," and "Death of 
Cleopatra" are among the masterpieces of the age. So also with Jean Joseph 
W[c]rts and Louis Picard, the former represented in the salons since 1867 
and the latter for nearly half a century. "The Old Peasant" and
"Dreaming," are by Edouard Sain, from whose facile brush are many truthful 
scenes of everyday life. "The Death of Archimedes" is from Edouard Vimont, 
whose figure paintings range from pagan myth to Christian martyrdom. 

One of the strongest subjects, though something more than a portrait, is 
"Marat, Friend of the People," representing this incarnation of the reign 
of terror seated at a table while writing his despatches, his coarse 
animal features and fell shock of unkempt hair giving to him almost the 
appearance of a beast of prey, so that we could wish his career had sooner 
been ended by the knife of Charlotte Corday. The work is by Daniel Leon 
Saubes. Adolphe Yvon's "Carnot" is a full length portrait of the president 
of the French republic in cabinet session. "Japan" is a decorative fantasy 
by Louis Abbema, showing a woman in Japanese attire amid a group of 
porcelains and embroideries, around which is a border of chrysanthemums. 
While a pleasing subject, it is somewhat commonplace as compared with 
other works of this famous artist. "The Falling of the Leaves" represents, 
amid an autumn landscape, the figure of a pretty woman such as none know 
better how to paint than Madelaine Lemaire. A fine conception also is her 
"Chariot of the Fairies," hung in the southern gallery. "The King of the 
Forest" and "The Overthrow" from the brush of Rosa Bonheur, and "Diana" by 
Helen D'Etoilles Leroy are among the best of women's works, the latter a 
beautiful composition, though with features suggestive rather of a court 
beauty, than of the stately Artemis. Of the three canvases from Virginie 
Demont Breton, one has for its subject the training of a young sailor 
taking his first surf bath as he clings to the arms of his mother. "Young 
Girl," by Fanny Fleury, has all the delicacy of treatment characteristic 
of this painter, the only one of a family of artists represented in the 
French galleries. 

"Repose" and "The Friend of the Lowly," by L'Hermitte, are in the best 
vein of this well known artist, whose style is suggestive of Jean Francois 
Millet, represented, as are other great masters, only in the loan 
collection in the United States galleries. In the latter the form of a 
little child appearing 

Page 701

amid a group of peasantry is the strongest feature in this thoughtful 
composition. "Young Girls" and "Women on the Grass" are from the brush of 
Alfred Philippe Roll, a pupil of Bonnat, but with strong individuality of 
style. In Montzaigle's "Deux Amies" two young women tastefully attired are 
chatting and sipping their favorite beverage at a cafe. The faces are not 
displeasing, and the pose and drapery show the touch of a finished artist. 
"In the Sunshine" and "Spring" are the works of Albert Fourie, whose vein 
inclines rather to decorative and genre paintings. "Still Life," by Amand 
Gautier, is the only contribution from this family of painters. Amand, it 
may here be said, is one of the few artists who have made lithography 
almost akin to the fine arts. Munier's "Cupids Resting" is a spirited 
interpretation of the subject, one of the figures with wings outstretched, 
and in his face the mischievous expression characteristic of the god of 
love. "The Cold Bath" is one of the later works of this celebrated 
painter, whose canvases have found a place at the salon exhibitions for 
nearly a quarter of a century. A similar theme is Delobbe's "Breakfast 
After the Bath," in which a child is offering a handful of fruit to a 
young woman in seated posture. 

"In Sicily" is a typical theme by Aman-Jean, descriptive of peasant life, 
of sunny skies and landscapes. "The Last Load of Wheat" is by Jules 
Jacques Veyrassat, an artist known in the salons since 1848, and with 
wonderful versatility of theme. In "Japanese Chrysanthemums" Jean Benner 
displays his well known skill as an executant of flowers and fruits. 
"Solitude" is from the same artist; and "The Alarm" comes from the 
versatile brush of his twin brother, Emmanuel, "My Birds" and "Decorated 
Panel, Flowering Laurels" are also from an artist famed for his delicate 
rendering of flower and fruit subjects, for accuracy of conception and 
harmony of coloring. His name is Ernest Quost. "Drowsiness" is the subject 
chosen by Etienne Tournes, whose portraits and figure paintings have long 
been familiar to frequenters of the salons. "A Singing Lesson in a Public 
School in Paris" is a pleasing sketch by Auguste Trupheme. "Intemperance" 
is strongly treated by Duverger, whose figure paintings are suggestive of 
character and incident. "Don Juan in Hell" is a fair specimen of Andre 
Rixen's method of treating idealistic and mythological subjects. In 
similar vein is "The Dead Conversing in the Other World," by Charles 
Ronot, whose earlier works were scriptural subjects. Among his later works 
is "Napoleon in Egypt," the original of which is the property of the state 
department. "Satyr at Bay" is by Louis Priou, whose "Family of Satyrs" was 
strongly commended at the Paris Exposition of 1878. 

One of the largest paintings in the French section, and among the best of 
its kind, is "The Blind Man and the Paralytic," by Auguste Barthelemy 
Glaize. With staff in hand, striding vigorously over a rough country road, 
a man with sightless orbs is bearing on his back one stricken and wasted 
by paralysis, whose piercing and lustrous gaze gives stronger accentuation 
to the theme. Of Jules Breton's canvases, one of the best represents a 
group of women on their way to a procession. It is a fine illustration of 
the sculpturesque mode of treatment which won his fame and has found so 
many imitators. "Returning from Circumcision," and two other works, are 
the contributions of Felix Joseph Barrias, the father of Barrias the 
sculptor, and better know as a decorative artist. Among subjects 

Page 702

addressed to American sensibilities are Fournier's "Washington and His 
Mother" and Benjamin Constant's "Triumph of Christopher Columbus," the 
former a work full of tender expression. 

In nude art one of the most dainty productions is Albert Maignan's "The 
Birth of the Pearl," representing a female figure reclining in a shell, 
with arm resting on the head of a boyish figure descending from above. By 
the same artist are "William the Conqueror" and "The Siren's Couch," the 
latter far down in ocean's depths, amid a bower of sea-weed and coral. Of 
Rosset-Granger's three works, his "Young Girl Chasing Butterflies" is a 
pleasing subject. In "The Stray," showing the undraped figure of a woman 
cast on the beach by the tide, the drawing is excellent, but the purple 
tints of coloring are untrue to nature. "Cupid and Psyche" are treated by 
Thirion in somewhat vaporous hues. Rochegrosse, whose canvases too often 
incline to coarseness, has two of his chaster works. In "La Toilette," by 
Mousset, "Myrrha," by Loewe-Marchand, and "La Fourme," by Dubufe fils, the 
subjects are apparently chosen merely for the purpose of introducing the 
undraped figure; and why "La Fourme" should be so scantily clad amid 
wintry snows does not appear to the observer. In better taste is Raphael 
Collin's "On the Sea Coast," the subject of which is a group of young 
women dancing 

Page 703

on the sands, one of them with slight drapery of lilac hue. It is a 
sprightly composition, with all the finish characteristic of the Ecole des 
Beaux Arts, and less indelicate than Aublet's "Women on the Seashore," 
whose scant attire displays rather than conceals the form. "Youth," by the 
former artist, is a voluptuous theme, and though strongly drawn is 
somewhat too broadly pronounced. 

"Sea Birds and Wave," by Delacroix, shows a young woman exceeding plump of 
form, who, whatever she is supposed to represent, cannot be mistaken for a 
sea-nympth. "Une Restoration," by Edouard Dantan, tells its own story with 
sufficient clearness. Saint Pierre's "Saadia" displays the full-length 
figure of a houri reclining on a tiger skin placed over a divan of Turkish 
rugs, her face in striking contrast with the head of the brute on which it 
rests. There is no soul in these soft, dreamy features, and there is 
little intelligence; simply the expression of a beautiful animal, 
seemingly without vice or virtue, and as void of conscience as a mermaid. 
"Soudja-Sari," by the same artist, is also an oriental woman, with an 
expression of tender melancholy in her mournful brooding gaze. A face with 
wondrous subtlety of charm is portrayed in Jules Machard's "Ready for the 
Garden Party," the figure standing erect attired in white, with lips 
slightly parted and laughter lighted eyes, the very incarnation of joyous 
womanhood, radiant with innocence and beauty. 

Animal paintings and sporting themes are somewhat rare in the French 
galleries, and for the most part of no special merit. Besnard's "Two 
ponies Harassed by Flies" are standing in a 

Page 705

purple light which must be at least as unwelcome as their insect pests. 
"Wild Boar Hunt," by Jules Bertrand Gelibert, is well worthy of this 
celebrated artist, whose works in similar vein have won for him more than 
a national reputation. It is to be regretted that there is no forest 
landscape from his brush, for none can interpret more truthfully the 
language of the woods. "My Start in Hunting" is by Gabriel Thurner, who is 
better known for his graphic depiction of fruits and flowers. "Boar on a 
Farm" is a fair specimen of Leon Charles Hermann's skill in animal 
painting. A Spanish bull fight is depicted in Morot's "El Bravo Toro" with 
all the vigor and vitality for which this artist is noted, portraying with 
startling realism the fury of the tortured brute and the frenzied 
excitement of spectators almost as brutish. 

In landscapes and kindred subjects the works of several of the great 
masters are represented in the loan collection in the United States 
galleries, an