International studio (43.1911)

Society of Western Artists


GLACIER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

BY L. H. MEAKIN

Exhibition of the society of
WESTERN ARTISTS
BY ELIZABETH KELLOGG
The Society of Western Artists has
reached the milestone of its fifteenth anniversary,
and is to be congratulated in that with a need far
less pressing than when its members first banded
themselves together for mutual comfort and the
glory of art its current exhibition gives evidence
of the stable and live character of the organiza-
tion. From a total membership of eighteen in
1896 and sixty-one in 1897, it now numbers one
hundred and thirty-five (seventy-two active, fifty-
three associate and ten honorary members), and
the two hundred and thirty pieces shown display
not only a high average of knowledge and skill, but
many instances of fresh vision and individual
taste, and of that honest grappling with the un-
controlled provinces of a difficult domain in which
lies always the hope of the future.
At such a time one turns with especial interest
to the pioneers of the movement and the groups of
paintings by Messrs. Steele, Adams, Forsyth,
Wuerpel, Meakin and Kaelin gain in interest when
from a review of the fifteen exhibitions of the So-
ciety it is discovered that these men have been

represented in every one, while Messrs. Stark,
Wolff, Sylvester and Sharp can show a roll almost
as complete. Some of the big names are missed
this year, as Messrs. Duveneck, Barnhorn, Farny,
Julius Rolshoven and Charles F. Browne, but, on
the other hand, some of the younger artists, and of
those infrequently represented, are welcomed.
The Fine Arts Building prize of $500 was
awarded to Mr. William Forsyth this year for his
group of four landscapes, in which he is faithful to
the chosen problem of the “Hoosier Group” of
painters—the study of light. Seen through their
eyes the solid forms of nature are largely masked
and the pleasure of the observer is derived from the
dazzle of sun on shifting foliage, or broken water,
or from distance made more faint by veils of mist.
The landscapes of Mr. Steele and Mr. Adams
show their close kinship as fellow members of this
“ Hoosier Group ”—strongly influenced by Monet
at the start—and furnished a theme with unend-
ing variations in the vibrating atmosphere of their
native State. In sharp contrast to these are the
decorative landscapes of Mr. E. H. Wuerpel, in
which the hill, water and sky have been reduced to
their simplest term as the elements of varying pat-
terns, carried out in a few deep tones. As far re-
moved in another direction are Mr. Kaelin’s woods

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