International studio (30.1906/1907(1907))

T-Square Exhibition

tiles, leather work and the like were solicited and
given prominence. The artisan also is the archi-
tect’s co-worker, and because an object comes from
a factory and is produced in quantity it need not be
inartistic or unworthy. This part of the exhibition
might well have been enlarged and probably will be
in subsequent seasons. While not all that had been
hoped for it, at least a step was taken in the right
direction and promise given of better things to come.
And still three features of this great exhibition
remain to be noted : the water colours and photo-
graphs made during foreign travel by American
architects of the great architectural works abroad,
the work done in the several architectural schools of
America during the past year; and a group of works
contributed by eminent French architects—Che-
danne, Duquesne, La Peyrer and Marcel. I have
purposely left these to the last for consideration, as
they seemed less a part of the whole than the rest,
and more nearly allied to one another. It is, after all,
to the Old World that we go for example and for
learning; the world’s great monuments of architec-
ture are there, and our effort is not to invent new
styles, but to properly and appropriately adapt the
old ones to our present needs. The promise of the
future may be in America, but the seed was sown
in foreign soil. We have good reason to be proud of
our architectural schools ; no.man need now go
abroad to study, but we must acknowledge our
indebtedness to the Ecole des Beaux Arts for the
sound training it has given our young men, and to
those of its graduates who have helped to introduce
its thorough methods of instruction in our present-
day schools. Good teaching and broad knowledge
are the sure foundation upon which the best work is
built, and if we have real ability we need have no
fear of being overtaught or overwise.
The work of the distinguished French architects,
which, by the way, was sent over expressly for this
exhibition, was of a distinctly scholarly type and
manifested not merely searching study, but a deter-
mination to give serious thought to the least detail.
And this was in itself a lesson if not misconstrued.
We need not imitate the Frenchmen, but we can
with advantage, like them, be chary of our reputa-
tions and do no work slightingly; we can finish bet-
ter than we do, and we can in the end make the
work itself reward us.
The strength of art lies in the unity of its several
branches and it is only by recognising the breadth
of its field that real progress will be made. The
architects, sculptors, painters and craftsmen, if they
are to accomplish large results, must work together,
and the tendency of such an exhibition as this was

not merely to exalt their productions, but to bring
them into closer and more sympathetic relationship.
But beyond this, as Sir Aston Webb has said, we
must believe in our art if we are to advance it, and to
the public mind this exhibition gave reason for faith.
Certainly, from even such a brief summary it can be
seen that our architects are building wisely and
well, our sculptors are standing on the threshold of
accomplishment, and our mural painters and de-
signers are in the vanguard of the forward move-
ment—and more than this should not be asked.
THE PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF
THE FINE ARTS holds its one hun-
dred and second annual exhibition this
month. The exhibition remains on view
till February 24.
The Corcoran Gallery of Art opens its exhi-
bition of contemporary American oil paintings on
February 7, closing March 9. This exhibition is
quite in the nature of an innovation for Washington
and is not to be confused with any previous exhibi-
tions held there. It is the outcome of action taken
by the trustees of the gallery in January, 1906,
which aimed to turn to account the prestige of posi-
tion in the national capital in gathering a showing
of American oil painting definitely national in
scope.
The Chicago /Art Institute is holding its
annual exhibition of works of artists of Chicago and
the vicinity, to continue till February 24. Other re-
cent exhibitions held by the Institute have been
those of the drawings of a group of illustrators—
Frederick Richardson, Ernest C. Peixotto, Orson
Lowell, William D. Stevens; mural decorations and
other paintings by William Penhallow Henderson;
water colours by George F. Schultz; paintings by
Frederic Clay Bartlett, Birge Harrison and Her-
mann Dudley Murphy and miniatures by Miss
Anna Lynch.
The Pratt Institute, of Brooklyn, New York,
has held an exhibition of landscape paintings by
William Longson Lathrop. Mr. Lathrop is a
native of Illinois and lives in Pennsylvania. He is
an associate of the National Academy of Design
and a member of the New York Water Colour
Club. He is represented in Carnegie Institute and
in the collection of the Minneapolis Society of Fine
Arts.
The Architectural League, New York City,
is holding an exhibition, closing February 23.

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