International studio (35.1908)

The Ten Americans


Copyright, 1908, by N. E. Monlross
ELEANOR BY F. W. BENSON

wade through a
mass of tiresome
envois to get some-
thing worth the
while.
Only twenty-
seven canvases
were hung at the
Montross gal-
leries, at least two
of the men send-
ing but one con-
tribution each,
these being Wil-
lard L. Metcalf
and J. Alden W eir.
The former had
his Trembling
Leaves, seen in
Philadelphia and
commended heart-
ily there. It was a
remarkable inter-
pretation of a
simple phase of
nature, a render-
ing of that most
difficult color,
green, which Mr. Metcalf succeeded with admir-
ably. Mr. Weir’s The Peacock Feather was of a
young girl—titles count for little among these
Ten—with a feather in her hat. Perhaps Joseph
De Camp attracted the liveliest attention with
three works, all of excellence, all rendered with
delicious feeling and wonderful technical ability.
A large canvas at one end of the room was his
The Guitar Player, and showed a woman on a
sofa with the instrument in her lap. The lighting
here was attractively managed, the drawing of great
power, and the conception of rare simplicity.
Another canvas was of a young girl wearing The
Brown Veil, and this was of feminine loveliness, a
portrait head, painted with great spontaneity and
directness, in agreeable color, the type being of fine
American womanhood, while a third work, The
’Cellist, showed still another woman playing. This
partook of the feeling of some of the little Dutch
masters and was greatly admired.
Possibly, after Mr. De Camp, Childe Hassam
attracted the visitor’s attention, and he showed his
variousness immediately with a nude, a lovely land-
scape, Newport—October Sundown, wherein he has
rarely succeeded better, and a representation of the
corner of Broad and Wall Street,, showing the great

structures, the Stock Exchange, and the crowd of
brokers and populace generally, like so many flies
crawling about. His manner of suggesting all this
difficult architecture was an object lesson to his
fellows, for it was indicated intelligently, indeed
scientifically, and gave immediately the sense of the
place. Incidentally, it disclosed the possibilities of
this city as a fertile working ground for the painter
and, time out of mind, the artist has best succeeded
with the things about him, with which he is most
familiar. The two sketches by Edward Simmons
did not, unfortunately, fairly represent his talent
and endowments. No one among the Americans
is better equipped than is Mr. Simmons. He has
in the years back produced work of the first order,
but recently and, indeed, almost never in these days
does he do himself justice in these displays of the
Ten, which is a pity, for with the one show a year it
might reasonably be expected he would make some
sort of an effort.
Frank W. Benson, however, who is fecund,
showed to advantage, one of his subjects J>eing a
portrait group of his daughters, loaned by the
Worcester Museum of Fine Arts. The joyousness
of this performance was contagious, the sparkling
pigment, the beautiful young women, the sense of

Copyright, 1908, by N. E. Monlross
ELEANOR

XXV