DOI issue:
No. 55 (September, 1901)
DOI article:Caffin, Charles H.: The picture exhibition at the pan-american exposition, [3]
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22775#0306
American Studio Talk
very pleasant surprise ; for usually our exhibitions in
this medium have little to interest; presenting a
suggestion either of amateurishness or of misplaced
effort. So seldom does one meet the essential
qualities of the water color,—spontaneousness of
motive, fresh and facile execution, the happy im-
provisation that records some fragmentary or fugi-
tive effect, — that when these qualities occur they
are apt to be swamped in the prevailing humdrum
of tediously elaborated pictures. But this gallery
represented only the survival of the fittest, and
almost without exception the exhibits have the true
water color feeling. Undoubt-
edly a cachet is given to the
collection by a dozen examples
of that master of the medium,
Winslow Homer. It is, indeed,
a disappointment that he did
not choose to be represented
also by some of his oil paintings,
especially by some of his mag-
nificent ocean studies made
upon the coast of Maine, —
pictures which place him fore-
most in the ranks of modern
marine painters. But still his
exhibit is of real value, direct-
ing attention to the individual
qualities and charms of this
much-perverted branch of art.
It consists entirely of studies
made in the Bahamas and Ber-
mudas ; vivid impressions of
blue water, of surf breaking
upon rocks, of rich velvety or
juicy vegetation, of clear or bil-
lowy skies, of space, purity, and
the exuberant vitality of the
semi-tropics. And done with
such a verve ; the color flooded
on to the paper with such assur-
ance, transparent and atmos-
pheric, and the paper also
playing its part in the effect;
never a dirty scramble or evi-
dence of labor, everything done
with enthusiastic directness.
And looking round the gallery
one noticed with pleasure that
there are many others also work-
ing in the same spirit. There
are several brilliant pictures by
Maurice B. Prendergast, such
as his Crescent Beach, a Holiday,
a parterre of bright color full of
animated figures, and enveloped
in limpid atmosphere. A Sun-
day Morning Flower Market,
Mexico, by Ross S. Turner, has
EXHIBIT OF PICTURES, PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION
" the BLACKSMITH,” by J. MCNEILL WHISTLER
{By permission of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts) Copyright, 1897, by Foster Bros., Boston
xxiv
very pleasant surprise ; for usually our exhibitions in
this medium have little to interest; presenting a
suggestion either of amateurishness or of misplaced
effort. So seldom does one meet the essential
qualities of the water color,—spontaneousness of
motive, fresh and facile execution, the happy im-
provisation that records some fragmentary or fugi-
tive effect, — that when these qualities occur they
are apt to be swamped in the prevailing humdrum
of tediously elaborated pictures. But this gallery
represented only the survival of the fittest, and
almost without exception the exhibits have the true
water color feeling. Undoubt-
edly a cachet is given to the
collection by a dozen examples
of that master of the medium,
Winslow Homer. It is, indeed,
a disappointment that he did
not choose to be represented
also by some of his oil paintings,
especially by some of his mag-
nificent ocean studies made
upon the coast of Maine, —
pictures which place him fore-
most in the ranks of modern
marine painters. But still his
exhibit is of real value, direct-
ing attention to the individual
qualities and charms of this
much-perverted branch of art.
It consists entirely of studies
made in the Bahamas and Ber-
mudas ; vivid impressions of
blue water, of surf breaking
upon rocks, of rich velvety or
juicy vegetation, of clear or bil-
lowy skies, of space, purity, and
the exuberant vitality of the
semi-tropics. And done with
such a verve ; the color flooded
on to the paper with such assur-
ance, transparent and atmos-
pheric, and the paper also
playing its part in the effect;
never a dirty scramble or evi-
dence of labor, everything done
with enthusiastic directness.
And looking round the gallery
one noticed with pleasure that
there are many others also work-
ing in the same spirit. There
are several brilliant pictures by
Maurice B. Prendergast, such
as his Crescent Beach, a Holiday,
a parterre of bright color full of
animated figures, and enveloped
in limpid atmosphere. A Sun-
day Morning Flower Market,
Mexico, by Ross S. Turner, has
EXHIBIT OF PICTURES, PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION
" the BLACKSMITH,” by J. MCNEILL WHISTLER
{By permission of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts) Copyright, 1897, by Foster Bros., Boston
xxiv