International studio (16.1902)

American Studio Talk

The annual exhibition of
THE PENNSYLVANIA ACAD-
EMY.

We are accustomed to expect much of the annual
e^hibitions of the Pennsylvania Academy ; and the
present one. the seventy-first, fully maintains the
usual high standard. The exhibition abounds in
Samples of good craftsmanship, and is sane and
interesting throughout.
Here are two important figure subjects, respec-
hvely, by Edwin A. Abbey and by Dagnan-Bouveret.
1 he former’s is The Penance of Eleanor, Duchess of
Gloucester, which was seen at the exhibition of the
Carnegie Institute, and is now the property of the
Institute. It is a picture that grows upon one’s
aPpreciation, — very dignified in color and compo-
sition, with perfection of drawing and skill of brush
w°rk, and full of mental suggestion that is at once
nnpressive and tenderly pathetic. What it lacks is
an interesting scheme of lighting ; the scene is filled
"nth cold light that has no out-of-door quality of
utmosphere, being harsh and formal, without the
nuatice of real light and without the cunning distri-
bution and juxtaposition of contrasts that would
niake the lighting an integral part of the composi-
tlQn. By so much it falls short in pictorial charm,
and less suggests a picture than a very handsome
lustration. Consequently one’s first impression of
, e canvas is apt to involve disappointment; and it
ls only by freeing one’s self from the influence of its
deficiency that one can bring one’s self into a mood
fit receptivity of the many good qualities that it
‘Actually presents. These are so conspicuously good
Ciat by degrees the intrinsic dignity of the picture
asserts itself. I mention this because in a previous
Notice of the picture in The Studio I did not speak
f° enthusiastically of the picture as further study of
^ assures one that it merits ; and I expect that
others beside myself have felt at first a similar dis-
aPpointment, based upon much the same reason.
'I'be ultimate charm of the picture is its weighty
Ser>ousness and the intensity of emotion expressed
ln the figures of the wife and husband. The hunger
°r love in the woman’s face that swallows up even
consciousness of her shameful suffering, and the
^Uib, shamed pitifulness of the man’s answering
^aze ; the impetuous indignation of his two com-
panions ; the coarse mouthing and gesticulation of
e ignorant rabble; and the stern immobility in
le faces of the guards,;—these make up a com-
P'exity of emotions, free entirely from all taint of
eatricalism, penetrated through and through with

depth and sincerity of meaning. As one becomes
better acquainted with the picture, the complete
reasonableness of the scene captures one’s imagina-
tion. It does not bear the trace of having been
concocted, as so many historical pictures do, but
of having grown naturally out of a deep and heart-
felt comprehension of the incident. Moreover, it
has in a marked degree that capacity of recalling
vividly to the imagination the character and feeling
of the period represented. Mr. Abbey’s faculty of
thus reconstructing the atmosphere of the past has
been often noted, and cannot be too highly com-
mended. He does not betray himself as being
infatuated with the past, still less as viewing it
through the medium of modern thought; but he
projects his imagination back with such penetration
and singleness of vision that he brings himself to see
and to feel the incident as a painter of the period
might have realized its significance.
In Dagnan-Bouveret’s Consolatrix Afflictorum we
shall find the precise opposite of this. The theme
is the old one of Our Lady of Sorrows, and the
painter seems to have tried to give it a guise that
shall be in the fashion of modern thought. Or,
perhaps, it would be more true to say, that he has
sought to weave into one fabric the old and the
new, and to treat his subject symbolically and
naturalistically at the same time. He places his
Madonna in a green wood, wherein the light and
atmosphere alike seem to have sucked up the
greenness of the vegetation, while three angels stand
behind her playing upon instruments. She sits,
perfectly immobile, with a greenish velvet cloak
spreading from her shoulders wide to the ground.
A fawn lies beneath its fold, in complete confidence
of safety; little birds flutter near her breast, and
the Christ child on her knee holds out his hands
to them ; at her feet crouches a man, nude to the
waist, in an abandonment of sorrow; but her gaze
of unruffled, girlish serenity, regarding nothing of
the persons and things near by, is fixed steadfastly
on distance.
Perhaps you will find the prevalence of green in
the picture suffocating; for there is little freshness
in the hues, they swim in an amber, almost gluti-
nous, atmosphere. Not improbably the faces of the
angels will seem trivially pretty; the expression of
the Virgin’s face too abstracted from all experience
of earth and motherhood; and so, by degrees, the
whole treatment of the subject will be felt to be
not only mannered but weak in manner. Com-
pared with the old Italian sacred pictures, the thin-
ness of the painting and the diaphanous quality of
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