International studio (34.1908)

The Hearn Collection

to catch the momentary aspect of the constantly
changing scene, the mood depending upon the
relations of color and light and mist that inevitably
must shift and change never again to reappear in
precisely the same proportions and arrangement.
One painter is more literal in his transcript of facts
than another; Mr. Wyant’s Diisseldorf training,
for example, gave him an appreciation of the
solidity of the material world less evident in the
work of Mr. Ranger or of Mr. Walker, but in each
case the vaporous atmosphere plays an important—
the most important—part in the picture, and its
character is different from that Dutch or English
air that wraps buildings and lowlands in a palpable
cloak. To the painter the secret of representation
—finding out how to do the thing—is always of
first interest, but the untechnical public receives a
certain amount of innocent pleasure from the result
on its purely emotional side, and will note with
interest that the American climatic conditions lend
to American landscapes that subtly stimulating
element which is absent from the landscapes of the
Dutch and English. The American landscape
painter studying his own country becomes con-
scious that its beauty must be caught on the wing.
No charm, however mild and gracious, lingers.
Our twilight evenings pass swiftly into night, our
exquisite mornings change no less swiftly into day.
And this sense of imminent change gives to the art
that embodies it a poignant note.
If we turn from Gainsborough’s elegiac land-
scape to that by George Inness, entitled Peace and
Plenty, we see this characteristic clearly marked.
In the latter, the sunlight lies broadly on the fore-
ground fields with that luxuriance seen in a hilly
country on the plateaus and intervales. The
cerulean sky is irradiated by golden clouds; the
yellow patch of standing grain, the sheaves lying
in clumps on the ground and the shining river are
strong accents of light. The color scheme is appro-
priate to late summer or early autumn before the
frosts have changed the color, and the foliage and
grass are at their ripest. Nothing contradicts the
sentiment of the title. But the peace is not that
deep repose resting on the canvas of the English
painter. The impression made is too intense for
quietness. The exalted fervor of well-being sug-
gested by the scene is familiar to the American
mind which seldom loses its consciousness that the
moment passes.
Homer Martin’s Sand Dunes is an imaginative
canvas of another order, larger in composition and
treatment and austere in suggestion, but with this
same note of transitoriness of effect united to

adequate recognition of permanent structure and
stability in earth and sky. Winslow Homer’s can-
vases reveal a quite different American type of
landcape and painter. They have the accent of
realism that comes from positive and definite state-
ment. They are renderings of foreground rocks
and distant sea, and though unlike in composition,
have each that look of naked, uncompromising
truth that characterizes the work of this artist in
his most fantastic moments. The great strength
of their impression lies in the fact that no detail is
admitted to the picture that does not contribute to
the bold emotional effect.
When we pass from the landscapes to the figure-
paintings we find one bit of delicious Dutch crafts-
manship in the Dutch Interior, by Pieter de Hooch.
The arched doorway, with the pleasant outdoor
scene beyond, the quiet figure of the housewife, the
beautifully drawn architectural details, are fully
expressive of that meticulous cleanliness and stolid
repose which the life of Holland still fosters in its
long-kept tradition.
Five of the nineteen portraits are given to Sir
Joshua Reynolds. Of these the Master Francis
George Hare, a lovely blond child, with white skin
and vermilion lips and cheeks, painted against a
cloudy blue background, has most of Sir Joshua’s
charm, while the “Lady” of the Quaker-colored
mantle with the pale blue bodice and skilfully
painted laces has a very different charm. Dainty,
sober and restrained, the mild elegance of the
bearing, the careful cognizance taken of the details
of costume, the conventionality of the pose and
expression, bring to mind the work of Francis Cotes
and make one realize how easily the two painters
may be confused in the portraits where they come
nearest to one another.
Hogarth’s Peg Woffington shows a light touch,
and that delicacy of observation that in his portraits
contrasts so oddly with the broad satire of his
social studies. The subject of this bewitching
portrait looks out of the canvas with expressive
Irish eyes, the mouth has humor and tenderness,
the head is well poised on the strong young neck,
the ruffling of the bodice lies softly against the fair
flesh. Passing to Constable’s Mrs. Pulhain, we
find an elderly woman with ruddy cheeks, glossy
brown hair and a complicated blue bonnet. The
brush work is broad and free and the color fresh,
something of that breeziness which the painter
achieved in his skies having entered into his
portraiture.
The dignified portrait of the Baron Arnold de
Roy, of Zuiderwyn, by Van Dyck, and Daniel

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