International studio (31.1907)

The Exhibition of the Ten American Painters


Copyright, 1907, by N. E. Monlross.
LE JASETJR BY X. AY. DEWING

sure to be in bringing the picture up toward the
plane of the canvas for such decorative effects
as the Fantasy; intent on carefully considered
schemes of colour, as in the somberer cast of
autumn leafage in this painting or the interplay
across the spectrum of violet tones and the
warm glow of lamplight in the painting here re-
produced.
Mr. Chase contributed a still life, remarkable
for a trait, rare in this sort of work, the air of ease
with which the observation of minute niceties of
effect is sustained. He showed also a landscape,
Flying Clouds, and, as did Mr. Benson, a portrait.
Mr. Tarbell’s fine Interior was catalogued as “un-
finished.” One of the most interesting of the Ten,
he exhausted his stock this year by his one-man
show. This was all very well in itself, but it must
not be allowed to continue or he will pervert the
supposed principle I have assumed above to com-
mend.

Mr. Dewing’s three paintings carry the usual
marks of his charm. His canvases are studied
from a land where it is always afternoon and in-
formal evening dress always de rigueur; where the
furniture and the ladies are slim; where the orna-
ments of a room are kept stored away and dis-
displayed to view in Japanese fashion, singly or in
pairs, only a few at a time; where panelled screens
extend their panels in indeterminate series and a
subdued and iridescent light makes its entry with-
out windows, while a keen and poignant languor
pervades the secluded air. In this delectable re-
treat no breezes ever blow, the sun remains
obedient to the command of Joshua, the cares of
hasty days never ruffle the even tenour of medi-
tation or accidents interrupt the sprightly quiet of
aesthetic pleasures; and here the eye becomes
aware that the world is beautifully fashioned of
mother-of-pearl and that, creation once complete,
man was intended for repose.

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