International studio (43.1911)

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INTERNATIONAL
• STUDIO •
VOL. XLIII. No. 170 Copyright, 1911, by John Lane Company APRIL, 1911

PAINTINGS AT THE PENNSYLVA¬
NIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE
ARTS EXHIBITION
There were few types or manners of
painting currently practised that did not find a rep-
resentation in the exhibition just closed (March 26)
in Philadelphia at the Academy, the one hundred
and sixth of that institution. The exhibitions dur-
ing our observation have maintained with a good
deal of consistency a reputation for marking an in-
dex to what is going on. Such an attempt is always
conditioned partly on what can be got together, and
between these two elements of choice the line is
drawn in the last analysis by a variable factor, what
one is actually willing to show. Mr. Trask, to
whose tact and executive enterprise the preliminary
raking together for the Pennsylvania shows has
been due for some years past, has shown himself
ready to present a great deal to his grand jury. Yet
he—or is it the jury?—might go further. In the
recent exhibition there were 303 artists, mainly
painters, of course, represented by 544 exhibits. Of
the exhibitors 44 per cent, were accorded more than
one exhibit, 80 had two each, 36 three each, 12 four
each, 3 five each, 2 seven each. At the risk of being
gently advised that we are harmlessly but hopelessly
demented, we venture to suggest the policy of limit-
ing the jury to a choice of one exhibit from each ex-
hibitor. A master cannot, of course, be judged by
one painting, but neither can the lesser men ; and the
exhibition, taken as a whole, approaches a repre-
sentative character so nearly that it seems a pity not
to widen the scope to the full extent that the gallery
space will allow. This, it may be said, is letting
down the bars. Let the experiment be tried; let the
next season’s jury be limited to such a choice, and we
will wager this season’s hat that the exhibition will
be neither smaller in quantity nor inferior in quality
and will take on an added significance.
On this point it might be noted that if the sculp-
ture, which for all its interest is in these shows the

tail of the kite, were excepted the same result might
be looked for. Of painters there were 239 exhibit-
ors represented by 396 exhibits, and 39 per cent, of
the painters had more than one canvas shown, 145
having one each, 62 two each, 27 three each, 3 four
each, 1 five and 1 seven. In short, we hazard the
guess that, on the basis of these figures, there may
be some 157 painters for whom space could have
been found on the walls, with profit to the acknowl-
edged primacy of the annual Pennsylvania collec-
tion, and this without any general jail delivery or
the institution of a chamber of horrors.
When it comes to horrors it is still true that one
man’s meat is another man’s vegetarian diet.
“Doth not a man’s taste alter?” asked Benedick,
without waiting for the answer, which was more
obvious than the question. One of the first thoughts
which address themselves to the visitor to such an
exhibition is a mild sense of wonder that our tastes
do move on so rapidly, and, perhaps, if the visitor be
of a doubting mind, a mild apprehension, too, that
they may never stop in their progress. The men
who were the insurrectos a few years past, waging
open war against constituted esthetic authority, now
appear quite respectable and have become with
some air of distinction members of a staid though
virile fraternity. Where shall we be in a few years
more? one asks, and shudders. But, perhaps, the
disconsolate gentleman in the ballad had the right
idea when he addressed the unpausing planet with
the wise remark: “Never you mind, roll on.” In a
few years more we shall be half-way round the circle
again, or more or less according to our undeter-
mined orbit. The technique that seems to suggest
at times a brute rage at the limitations of pictorial
expression is not the last word, for no technique is
that. It sets complacency at defiance and liberates
a certain amount of vigor. It throws some conven-
tions into the melting pot. They will not be al-
lowed to stay there. Presently they will be poured
out white hot into new molds, cool off and take on a
certain air of permanence until they throw some