International studio (44.1911)

The American Water Color Society

THE AMERICAN WATER COLOR
SOCIETY
BY ALICE T. SEARLE
The New York art season annually
opens and adjourns with an exhibition of water
colors. That of the Water Color Club in the
autumn has rather the advantage of the later
show in that it is presented to the public at a time
when it is in its most appreciative mood, before the
satiety born of an overcrowded exhibition season
sets in.
Probably with a realizing sense of this handicap
the management of the American Water Color
Society this year, in its forty-fourth annual exhibi-
tion, ventured to limit the number of pictures to
less than one-half the usual number and hung them
for the most part in one line on the walls of the
south and center galleries at the Fine Arts Build-
ing. The result of this innovation was, on the
whole, successful, though it cannot truthfully be
said that the “tact of omission” on the part of the
jury gave the expected strength and dignity
to the display. The exhibition lacked variety,
vigor and originality, and this was in large part
due to the absence of black-and-white work, illus-
trations, prints, etc.
An impressive group of twelve characteristic
sketches by Wins¬
low Homer in the
center gallery
stimulated the
tone of the show.
Although several
had been seen
earlier in the year,
the public never
wearies of these
brilliant, colorful,
truthful interpre¬
tations of the pe¬
culiar character
and charm of our
own coast scen¬
ery. The studies
of the black bass
of Florida, with
their literal rend¬
ering of wondrous
color, and glitter¬
ing surfaces, were
notably conspicu-
ous. The cen¬
ter picture in the

group, entitled Negro on Boat, Nassau, was wholly
representative of the master’s highest achievement
in this medium. It depicted a skilfully composed
group of fishing boats in harbor at the sunset hour,
with idling, half-clad negroes on the decks. The
force and directness with which this was painted,
and its expression of beauty combined with abso-
lute truth, were remarkable. Another owned by
Dr. Alexander C. Humphreys, called Peril of the
Sea, was in this same class. These, with the
two or three examples typical of the Maine
coast, loaned for the occasion, made up a collec-
tion which proved to be the significant feature of
the exhibition and one of important educational
value as well.
The Evans prize, for the most meritorious water
color painting, was awarded Charles H. Woodbury
for the Evening, a study of a stretch of the dunes
near Ogunquit, Me. In the same gallery were two
other contributions by Mr. Woodbury, in his bet-
ter-known style, The Wave, a splendidly drawn,
dramatic marine, and A Clear Day, with conspicu-
ously beautiful color. Jules Guerin showed one of
his studies of the Holy Land; Childe Hassam, an
impression of a thunderstorm; Jerome Myers, The
Calico Market, a street note, and near by was dis-
covered a beautifully idyllic study of the nude, by
Albert F. Schmitt, called A Spring Morning. The


STRANGE PORTS

BY HENRY REUTERDAHL

XXXV