International studio (49.1913)

INTERNATIONAL
STUDIO
VOL. XLIX. No. 193 Copyright. 1913, by John Lane Company MARCH, 1913

ASHIONS IN ART
BY CHRISTIAN BRINTON
THE MORGAN COLLECTION
I. THE OLD. The placing on public
view in the new wing of the Metropolitan
Museum of twenty-nine paintings from the
collection of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, to-
gether with the impressive exhibition of Rae-
burns at Knoedler’s, and certain recent purchases
at unprecedented figures lead one to infer that
America will shortly be able to compete on fairly
even terms with the old world in the possession
of masterpieces of art both ancient and modern.
Announcements of purchases of pictures in excess
of a hundred thousand dollars no longer thrill us.
We are, in short, addicted to the masterpiece

habit, and our appetite in this direction requires
constant whetting.
There is much that is worthy and not a
little that is pretentious in this. The simple
appropriation by a plutocratic purchaser of a
celebrated canvas means little or nothing. One
must know, and know intimately, the parti-
cular individual before arriving at any specific
conclusion on such a delicate point. Yet, never-
theless, really discriminating and ardent con-
noisseurship is one of the rarest of all faculties,
and one which flourishes but sparsely in a com-
munity primarily addicted to commercialism and
the eager pursuit of materialistic ideals. Still,
it is not the mental attitude of these moneyed art
patrons, which is of cardinal moment, but rather
the ultimate effect upon the public at large.



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