International studio (36.1908/1909(1909))

CHARITY

BY ARTHUR KAAIFF

tabie charges of bias or ywff ^rL. None of the
weH-known factions, such as the Kunstgenossen-
schaft, the Kunstlerbund, the Secession, the Luit-
pold-Gruppe, the Bayern or the SchoIIe has been
accorded the least suspicion of favoritism. One
room has practically been reserved for the works of
the four great spirits who have died since the begin-
ning of the century—Menzel, Bocklin, Lenbach
and Leibl. In all the others one is, with a single
exception, brought face to face with the work of
living artists only. Numerically, Munich pre-
dominates, with Berlin a close second; yet taken
in its entirety the selection redects liberality of
taste and variety of choice.
In the retrospective section Menzel is represented
by a quintet of small canvases, dating from vari-
ous periods. Of chief moment is the LAeafre Gyw-
WMe, sketched during those few stimulating weeks
he passed at Paris in 1855 and completed the follow-
ing year, a picture which, for sheer ease and spon-
taneity, the indefatigable externalist never sur-
passed during a lifetime of prodigious industry.
The Macaberesque portrait of himself with Death
playing the violin is Bocklin's main contribution,
while Leibl's Duc/MM ILoMzeM best redects

that vigorous and expiicit command of actuality
which was alone attained by the solitary and embit-
tered hermit of Aibling, who to-day ranks as one of
the supreme painters of the last century. And,
hnaliy, the grave, portentous art of Lenbach, which
is better known to the American public than that of
his colleagues, hnds its most congenial expression in
the trenchant of which Mr. Reisinger is
the fortunate possessor. Among contemporaries
the work of the Munich men is both imposing and
diverse, rangingas it does from thearistocratic mor-
bidezza of Kaulbach and the dignihed severity of
Samberger to the joyous color fantasia of Putz,
Munzer and Erler, those genial extremists who de-
light devotees of the novel and the advanced. Nor
would any survey of these fervid Miinchener be
complete without reference to the blatantly horrihc
fyw&rzwrM of Stuck, to the sane and monumental
mastery of Ziigel's animal studies, or to outdoor
impressions which are brooding and romantic with
Benno Becker and crisply accurate with Petersen
and Paui Crodel.
At the head of the Berlin contingent rightfully
stands Max Liebermann with his FLtx af
Lurczz, which has already won its place in the his-

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