International studio (33.1907/1908(1908))

National Academy of Design


BY WM. T. SMEDLEY
formula in his repetitions of these Delaware winter
scenes—he had two others of similar subjects no
less admirable, but offering nothing new—one is
none the less strongly impressed with the virility

The winter
EXHIBITION
OF THE NA-
T I O N A L

ACADEMY OF DESIGN
B Y J. NILSEN LAURVIK

While there were some
interesting and even dis-
tinguished portraits and
figure pieces in the ex-
hibition, it is to the land-
scape painters that one must
look for work reflecting
the best spirit of American
art.
In this particular field we
are fast producing a group
of men who can measure
up to the best that has been
and is being done in land-
scape painting anywhere.
These are by no means all
represented here, of course
—many potent names are
absent—but the work of
such men as Redfield, Eric-
son, Ochtman, Schofield
and Paul Dougherty give
one a fair notion of what
is being accomplished by
our landscape painters.
Most of these paint the
fine prose of nature in a
virile, resonant manner that
is truly refreshing. Few do
this better than E. W. Red-
field, whose canvas called
February is a straightfor-
ward, sonorous piece of
prose painting that places
the scene before you with
an almost startling reality:
a long sweep of frozen
canal in the first process
of thawing, revealing the
heavy leaden water in
purple-gray streaks, which Carnegie Prize
helps to accentuate the the booklovers
long, curving line of the
left-hand, violet-shadowed bank, that is flecked
here and there with broad bands of cool sunlight.
While this painter is in danger of becoming man-
nered and reducing his art to a sort of ready

cxxxix