International studio (48.1913)

In the Galleries

Courtesy of the Fischer Galleries
A PRINCESS OF THE BY ANT. MORO
HOUSE OF BRAGANZA


Little was known of this clever artist in America
until his exhibition at Pittsburgh, with thirty-six
paintings, in 1911. He is certainly greater as a
portrait painter, although his Tangier canvases
reveal good color and masterful technique. His
work is influenced both by Whistler and by Vel-
asquez. Other paintings of importance are a
Harpignies, The Lake, a rich, solid foreground,
with misty view of water at dawn, in his best style;
a blond Diaz, 1871, and a gem by Monticelli, en-
titled Fountain of Love, a veritable blaze of color.
The elegant Herter Galleries on Madison Avenue
have been harboring a number of dry-point etch-
ings and pencil sketches by Mr. A. G. Learned.
Owing to moving early in January to 709 Fifth
Avenue, only few pictures were on view at the
Kleinberger Gallery, but these were most import-
ant—a typical Rubens, entitled Woman Taken in
Adultery. Ferdinand Bol’s, The Fortune Teller,
with strong feeling of Rembrandt both in the
landscape and in the figure of the soothsayer; the
gold dress of the young woman has surely served
as model to many eighteenth century portrait
painters. We noticed a fine full-length portrait
of Carreno de Miranda, by himself, the rich browns
and blacks in true Velasquez manner; a St. John
Holding the Child, by Murillo. The infant’s face

is beautiful in sleep, but not that sickly sort of
beauty that mars the work of so many old masters.
This picture once belonged to Louis Philippe.
Mr. F. Hopkinson Smith had some thirty large
watercolors on view at the Knoedler Galleries,
which attracted considerable attention; notably,
five views of a charming old Norman inn at Dives,
Cabourg, from which William the Conqueror
embarked on his memorable trip to England.
Some of his Dordrecht work has almost the
strength of oils and displays marvelous skill in the
handling of light and shade.
A one-man exhibition at the Montross Galleries
disclosed the watercolor work of the late Mr.
Henry Bacon, embracing the results of fifteen
winters in Egypt, where this skillful artist found
his true expression. A pupil of Gerome and of
Cabanel at the Beaux Arts, he did good work in
England and France, but his “road to Damascus ”
lay evidently in Cairo and the Nile Valley, as up-
wards of seventy pictures testify. He was. the
first artist who depicted the country in broad
washes. His sense of space and atmosphere are
very marked in the large desert tracts so ably
portrayed and his caravans, camels, sheep,
Bedouins, sphinxes, ruined shrines, sandstorms,
obelisks and tombs are faithful chronicles. His
charming picture of the ruins of Phylae has a
separate value in that those ruins are now under
water for all time.
A visit to the Photo-Secession Gallery is always
interesting. Mr. Stieglitz believes in every artist
having a chance, and delights in launching out
young talent on that dubious path that leads to
glory, or in another direction. Notable displays
have been held under his aegis, to wit, Rodin draw-
ings and Matisse, so why not Walkowitz? At first
sight the drawings seem so quaint, so crude, so
revolutionary, that we pause and wonder whether
we have not been trifled with; we almost imagine
some one laughing at us from behind the wall for
wasting one precious minute with such trash.
This feeling wears off, however, and as we look
further into his work we see genius struggling to be
free and at times freeing itself. People laughed at
Whistler, yelled at Manet and ridiculed every
artist who dared to be original. Nous verrons.
Four portraits by Sir W. Beechy, with one each
by Owen and Sir J. Reynolds have been on view
at the E. M. Hodgkins Galleries. Beechy’s por-
trait of Miss Calcott is a charming specimen of
this popular eighteenth-century court painter; a
peculiarity about it is the fact that in spite of
careful, almost meticulous finish to coiffure, robe

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