International studio (23.1904)

The Artistic Ensemble of the World's Fair

to the imagination. Nothing that I have ever seen
by this sculptor has given me so much pleasure.
Fortunately, it is to be rendered into marble as a
permanent to the embellishment of the Fine Arts
Palace.
The latter, executed in gray limestone and buff
bricks from the design of Cass Gilbert, is charac-
terized by refinement and dignified sobriety;
though one may be inclined to question the artistic
advantage of carrying the attic over the central
portico to such a height. It is an adaptation of the
baths of Caracalla, and in the interior gives a hall
of imposing magnitude, but unfortunate for the dis-
play of sculpture, owing to the multiplicity of cross-
lights. In this permanent building the American
exhibit is installed, while, for the accommodation
of the foreign countries, temporary structures have
been disposed to right and left and back of it.
These in their front fagades harmonize in color and
general design with the main edifice, forming alto-
gether upon their balustraded terrace a very monu-
mental group. At the back their tiled roofs project
with broad eaves over a carved and colored frieze
that is particularly charming.
One has alluded, not ungenerously I hope, to
matters in the general scheme of decorative plan-
ning, which somewhat diminish the effect of grandeur
that was proposed ; more particularly with reference
to the inordinate size of the whole and to the pro-
fusion of the parts, characteristics which involve
their own necessary drawbacks. But I must not be
understood as wishing to separate myself from the
general chorus of enthusiasm which this magnificent
setting evokes. True, we shall not find here any-
thing so completely satisfying, so bound to continue
in our memory, as the Court of Honor at Chicago;
nor anything so charming in its intimate intelligi-
bility and well-ordered fitness as the planning of the
Buffalo Exposition. Instead, there is a multiplicity
of effects which impress us more gradually by their
accumulative force. Because of its size and variety,
many visitors will agree that the display is best at
night, when the darkness contracts the scope of the
picture, outside incongruities disappear, and the
beauty of the foreground passes back into conjecture.
The architecture is lined up with electric bulbs, a
popular but, I venture to think, inartistic method
of illumination. Far finer is the effect when these
lights have been extinguished and only the lower
ones remain which light the bridges and terraces.
Then the great palaces lcom up with a vagueness
which is mightily impressive; all detail becomes
merged in a majestic oneness of effect; it is no
longer the brain that is struggling to comprehend

their vastness, but the imagination that absorbs
their mystery and is lifted up. And far in the
distance, beyond the spectral ranks of the columned
arcades, poised against the violet sky, glimmers the
phantom dome of Festival Hall, illusive, spiritu-
alized. Then the essential dignity of its composition,
shorn of the crockety ornaments which belittle it
by daylight, is made apparent. Hovering high
above, with the Arcade of the States extended like
wings below, it presents a spectacle of mystery and
sublimity that, for myself at any rate, will be the
abiding memory of this great scene ; the soul, as it
were, of all this varied striving after beauty ; elim-
inated of what there may be of grossness, super-
fluity, and confusion of motives.
The grouping of the Foreign Buildings involves
no artistic scheme. The German, which is a copy
of the Charlottenburg Schloss, is finely placed upon
a spur of Cascade Hill, but the others are ranged in
a section of the grounds which has no trees or any
natural beauties. Individually, however, some are
interesting; the French, for example, being a
replica of the little Trianon, with a fine display of
various works of art in its spacious salons. The
English, again, is a copy, the Orangery at Kensing-
ton Palace having been selected as the model ;
while the Chinese reproduces the country seat of
Prince Pu Lun and Siam the Ben Chama Temple.
The Austrian Building, at the time of writing not
yet opened, presents in its exterior a rather fasci-
nating example of L’Art Nouveau design ; a festive
combination of elegance and grotesqueness. Japan,
on the slope of a hill, is busily finishing a little com-
pound of architecture and landscape, which is likely
to be one of the most attractive spots in the Fair.
A very striking feature of the present occasion is
the assemblage of State Buildings. They occupy
the hilly ground along the south of the grounds,
where knolls and dells abound. Perched here or
nestling there, in every direction embosomed in oak
groves, and approached by winding roads, free from
dust and turmoil and, most notably, from mosquitoes,
they offer as charming a series of pictures as one
could desire. And individually, also, the majority
are of distinct interest. Happily few exemplify the
ordinary features of exhibition designing, the showy
and more or less unmeaning adaptations of classical
scraps. Some by timber construction proclaim the
character of the State, while still more reproduce in
whole or part some building of historic or artistic
interest, and continue the idea with similar appro-
priateness in the interior furnishings. Indeed, there
is no section of the Fair which offers more beauti-
ful suggestion to the visitor than this. And here

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