International studio (31.1907)

Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh

intimate glimpse of his subject, that one feels al-
most a delicacy about intruding in the room. The
pose of the figure is natural and unaffected, the
quiet colour scheme is entirely fitting and the artist
seems to have been genuinely inspired with his
theme, painting with enthusiasm, directness and
power. Of Mr. Alexander’s fine decorations, that
greet the visitor as he enters the Carnegie Institute,
we shall have occasion to speak in a later paper.
Of the other portrait painters, canvases by
Frederick MacMonnies easily demand first atten-
tion, if for nothing else, as the work of a man
who is considered one of the first of living sculp-
tors. That a sculptor should be able to lay aside
his modelling tools and make so remarkable a
performance in painting is in itself a wonder, but
these canvases challenge the most serious con-
sideration, not on that score, but as really among
the fine things here. The unusual brushwork,
the fine sense of colour and the brilliancy of the
achievement are all astonishing. Robert Henri


IN PROFILE BY IRVING R. WILES

has a charming portrait of his wife and Wilton
Lockwood has his remembered portraits of John
La Farge and Grover Cleveland, while Irving
Wiles has one of a lady in profile that is of rare
refinement and technical excellence. Robert W.
Vonnoh has painted his wife, the sculptor, Bessie
Potter, as has William M. Chase, and J. Alden
Weir has several portraits as well as work in other
directions, while all of the foregoing have been
seen before. One meets familiar canvases from
Abbott H. Thayer, George De Forest Brush, Miss
Cassatt, Hugh Breckenridge, Thomas W. Dewing
and Whistler, along with Abbey, Benson, Henry S.
Hubbell and Frank Duveneck, and Gari Melchers
has here a group containing many of the pictures
he had recently at the Philadelphia Academy of
Fine Arts.
The landscape men are strongly in evidence, such
painters as J. Francis Murphy, Henry W. Ranger,
Robert Reid, William A. Coffin, Leonard Ocht-
man, E. W. Schofield and Dwight Tryon being
adequately represented. Emil Carlsen has a large
The Sands at Ogonquit, that is of rare delicacy of
colour observation, being a simple theme of sky,
sea and earth, but so seriously rendered as to call
for much praise. The beauty of the opalescent
tones, the subtlety of the modelling of cloud forms,
the play of light on sand and sea, and the technical
excellence of the canvas are all unusual and disclose
a nice appreciation of the world out of doors, while
the picture is delightfully decorative and full of air.
Willard L. Metcalf has a dreamy moonlight, full of
poetry, a poetry that seems to permeate the entire
canvas and affects the spectator, and Childe Has-
sam attempts the same effect with much success in
his The Old House. Note should be made of
Everett L. Warner’s agreeable Brooklyn Bridge in
a Snowstorm, and of Charles H. Woodbury’s fine
The Bark, with its great expanse of open sea and
fine sky. With mention of William A. Coffin’s
agreeable The Oaks, than which he has done noth-
ing better, this review must close, though it is ad-
mittedly inadequate to describe all the offerings in
this large exhibition, throughout which a feeling of
sanity and seriousness seems to prevail, with evi-
dence of a healthy desire on the part of the men to
evolve from nature something of its beauty, poetry
and sentiment. It remains open until June 13.
A. H.
Pittsburgh’s first Carnegie Institute was com-
pleted and dedicated twelve years ago. The new
Carnegie Institute is the final development of an
offer made by the great ironmaster twenty-six
years ago.

CXII