DOI Artikel:
James Henry Moser, A Painter’s Impression of the Washington Exhibition
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.30316#0052
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which one could readily see were, notwithstanding their defects, the
work of highly intelligent and artistically sensitive minds. These were like
some charming and very artistic paintings which one leaves with the deep
regret that a sound academic training was absent in artists otherwise, and in
higher things, so very individual and skilful.
There was prominently shown a snow-picture of extraordinary pre-
Raphaelite technique, and well nigh faultless in composition. This is a
good starting-point. It is the holding of the mirror up to nature in most
impersonal fashion; but one is never satisfied with an art so complete.
There is no atmosphere in such a point of view for the fairies Corot saw in
the landscape. Microscopes are useful and valuable, but they have no place
in a poet’s outfit, and the artist, either camerist or painter, who is not a poet,
should procure “a show-case for the foot of the stairway.” He should get
into business where he belongs, and he need not feel lonesome, either, for
he will find there many congenial painters to keep him company—clever,
companionable people they are, too—sometimes poets are not.
It was good to learn that many pictures of this collection had passed so
triumphantly from art-center to art-center in the old world, winning praise and
honors from famous painters and the most exacting critics alike, for, while
a conscientious artist will stand by his convictions as to the status of an art,
he finds such confirmation of his own estimate something more than
agreeable.
Now that this important exhibition in America of the work of the
Photo-Secession has passed into history, there lingers in the mind an impres-
sion rather of the camera’s splendid possibilities, limitless as painting itself,
than of its great accomplishment, remarkable as that undoubtedly is.
Personal differences, unhappily, often mar the rugged way of art-workers,
but it is the truth that every man who penetrates a note farther into the
realm of beauty will find all of his fellows receiving that achievement with
sincere applause. The world may be slow to acknowledge that achievement,
but it must, and eventually will. When it does, that is fame ! One smiles-
fame is not to be thought of; it is the incomparable joy of the doing that
makes art forever worth while.
JAMES HENRY MOSER.
46
work of highly intelligent and artistically sensitive minds. These were like
some charming and very artistic paintings which one leaves with the deep
regret that a sound academic training was absent in artists otherwise, and in
higher things, so very individual and skilful.
There was prominently shown a snow-picture of extraordinary pre-
Raphaelite technique, and well nigh faultless in composition. This is a
good starting-point. It is the holding of the mirror up to nature in most
impersonal fashion; but one is never satisfied with an art so complete.
There is no atmosphere in such a point of view for the fairies Corot saw in
the landscape. Microscopes are useful and valuable, but they have no place
in a poet’s outfit, and the artist, either camerist or painter, who is not a poet,
should procure “a show-case for the foot of the stairway.” He should get
into business where he belongs, and he need not feel lonesome, either, for
he will find there many congenial painters to keep him company—clever,
companionable people they are, too—sometimes poets are not.
It was good to learn that many pictures of this collection had passed so
triumphantly from art-center to art-center in the old world, winning praise and
honors from famous painters and the most exacting critics alike, for, while
a conscientious artist will stand by his convictions as to the status of an art,
he finds such confirmation of his own estimate something more than
agreeable.
Now that this important exhibition in America of the work of the
Photo-Secession has passed into history, there lingers in the mind an impres-
sion rather of the camera’s splendid possibilities, limitless as painting itself,
than of its great accomplishment, remarkable as that undoubtedly is.
Personal differences, unhappily, often mar the rugged way of art-workers,
but it is the truth that every man who penetrates a note farther into the
realm of beauty will find all of his fellows receiving that achievement with
sincere applause. The world may be slow to acknowledge that achievement,
but it must, and eventually will. When it does, that is fame ! One smiles-
fame is not to be thought of; it is the incomparable joy of the doing that
makes art forever worth while.
JAMES HENRY MOSER.
46
