International studio (49.1913)

Fashions in Art

Exhibited, at the Metropolitan Museum, by courtesy of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan
THE GODSAL CHILDREN BY HOPPNER


At bottom remains the question as to just how
this brave array of masterpieces Italian, Spanish,
French, Flemish, Dutch, or English is going to
influence the esthetic feeling and practice of the
nation as a whole. Whether assembled in a spirit
of snobb ery, of speculative sagacity, or for pure love
of the thing itself, this immense influx of foreign
paintings is something to reckon with.
As pre-eminently the organ of modern artistic
endeavor, The International Studio is not
so deeply impressed by this glowing galaxy
of canvases as are certain of its more staid and
scholarly contemporaries. While the idea of pos-
sessing such splendid examples of ancient art
may augment not a little one’s patriotic pride,
yet taste and patriotism are scarcely synonymous
terms. Leaving entirely aside the appeal of
Raphael and Rembrandt, and coming down, say,
to Reynolds, Gainsborough, Lawrence, and
Floppner, each of whom is magnificently repre-
sented in the Morgan collection, it may be ques-
tioned whether even these artists awaken any-
thing more than an agreeably perfunctory
response in the mind of the casual observer.
Everyone admires their incomparable grace of
attitude and poetic charm of presentment. We
each instinctively recognize that inimitable
blending of elegance and rusticity which is the

chief characteristic of this
particular school, but do
these canvases possess for
us any specific esthetic
potency? Are they en-
dowed with that progres-
sive vitality which reaches
forward to our own day
and helps us to see better
and to paint with more
vigor? It seems not; and
in proof of this you have
only to recall the recent
work of such men as
Franzen and Funk, to
visit the exhibition of the
National Society of Por-
trait Painters at Knoed-
ler’s, or to drop into the
Blakeslee Galleries and
note the wholly insipid
and sterilizing influence
which these same eigh-
teenth-century English
masters had upon the once
individual talent of the
late Robert MacCameron. You will obviously
contend that it is not the fault of Sir Joshua
or Thomas Gainsborough that they should,
even at this day, foster a school of uninspired
imitators, and yet such an attitude is altogether
beside the point. What we are seeking to
disclose is the fact that altogether too much
importance is attached alike by press and public
to the coming to our shores of these same indis-
putably superb canvases. They are essentially
retrospective and reminiscent in appeal. They
do not materially advance native creative effort,
and they furthermore, as we have seen, actually
serve to perpetuate faded and effete pictorial
formulas. Each age must strive to evolve its own
artistic expression, and each artist must courage-
ously seek to reflect the spirit of his time. We
must therefore look not alone with pardonable
pride, but also with a certain wholesome mistrust,
at the overpowering prestige in our midst of these
same old masters and their inordinately high-
priced masterpieces.
THE MCMILLIN COLLECTION
Just as it is the mere power of money which is
uppermost in the thoughts of the average in-
dividual in discussing or surveying the Morgan
collection, so it was largely the speculative in-

IV