International studio (21.1903/1904(1904))

beneath a sincere attempt to have represented the
truths of nature there always lacks that appeal to the
Imagination, which is one of the elements of pbeticai
work ?
Now that Biakelock is dead, Robert C. Minor
Stands out almost alone among our painters as a
complete example of the landscape painter whose
motive is unreservedly and justiüably poetic. It is
not as embodying facts of nature that one views
his pictures; the facts supply only a basis for the
elaborated symphony of color and emotion ; the
facts of nature are not in themselves precious to
him as they were, for instance, to Wordsworth ; like
Byron, rather, he uses them as a convenient frame
on which to hang the pageantry of his own imagina-
tion. There were three examples in this exhibi-
tion: CYcMi/y and

the first named a particulariy noble and
thrilling picture.
How little we are accustomed over here to see a
work of pure imagination in our exhibitions, and
consequently how unprepared to appreciate them,
one could gather from the comments aroused by J.
Humphreys Johnston's ^ Sky
and sea merge into a vista of moonlit blue, inter-
rupted by a dark rock and by swirls and ripples of
white foam ; and in the foreground, like a statue on
a pedestal of rock, is a woman's ßgure, nude, except
for some thin drapery over her head and right side,
so thin that as it clings to the form it leaves the
face and leg clearly defined. Some found an
abruptness in the introduction of the hgure; what
did it mean? the picture would have been the
better by its omission, and so on. Curious snap-

ccxiv