International studio (49.1913)

In the Galleries

The American Museum of Natural History for
five weeks past have been showing the result of
eighteen years pictorial labor in Alaska by
Leonard M. Davis, who stands today as the pion-
eer painter of that truly wonderful country, and
who has shown the people of New York the
beauties of an unknown region in a number of
large canvases and thumb-box sketches of real
merit. This marvelous collection should be
bought outright; it should never be broken up.
At the Photo Secession Gallery, No. 291, Mr.
Stieglitz has been showing caricatures by Marius
de Zayas, who goes far beyond Picabia in his quest
and treatment of the ab¬
stract. Where he has con¬
descended to outlinesand
representation, as in the
case of Rodin and Stei-
chen, we can follow and
approve, but where he
uses symbols we feel
lost. For instance, we
discern smoke arising in
volume as from a burn-
ing haystack, through
which are drawn some
zigzag lines suggestive of
forked lightning, beneath
which is a row of fanci¬
fully designed balusters
topped by a rail. This is
GabyDeslys. The extra¬
ordinary thing is that
when shown to Mr. Stieg¬
litz he recognized the orig-
inal in a moment! The
fault must be ours.
One of our illustrations
represents a piece of statuary by a rising young
artist, Mr. Cartaino Scarpitta, who exhibited at
the National Academy of Design. It represents
Leo Tolstoi, in peasant’s garb, pronouncing grace,
Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread. Mr. Scar-
pitta has executed several portraits in statuary,
one being an exceptionally fine rendering of Mr.
W. R. Wilcox, public commissioner, while another
is the late Mr. J. P. Morgan.
The MacDowell Club gave their fifteenth group
exhibition, opening April 17 and closing April 29,
the following artists being represented: A. S.
Baylinson, Homer Boss, Mary Butler, May
Ellery, F. W. Hutchison, J. C. McPherson, John
F. Parker, J. A. Paskins, W. Sherman Potts,
James Preston, John Sloan, Ethel Wallace.

Typical city life was shown by John Sloan in
such subjects as women hanging out clothes on
roofs, a bustling crowd of workers wending their
homeward way, time 6 p.m., February. He also
contributed a glimpse of studio life in his nude
looking out of the window. Some excellent out-
of-door sketches by James Preston, a marine by
Homer Boss and a bold character study, entitled
Paddy Leary, demanded applause. W. Sherman
Potts was well represented with a group of por-
traits, the palm being given to his picture of Edwin
Arlington Robinson.
May 20 saw the conclusion of an exhibition
of water colors, pastels
and drawings by four
groups of artists, show-
ing all kinds of work
good, bad and indifferent,
but quite enough good
to give a distinctive tone
to the exhibition. It is a
pity that the Club gives
so much hanging space.
About 100 pictures
would have been better
than 330. One of the
best things there was
Modra’sOZd Town Veere,
the lurid sky and stormy
weather being capitally
expressed. Cherries, by
Rhoda Holmes Nicholls,
is far above most of the
pictures shown. Eugene
Higgins showed some
good work, especially his
clever sketches entitled
Group in Doorway and
Maternity. Typical of our meaner streets is
Bessie Marsh Brewer’s A Story in a Few Lines—a
study in clothes lines. Hilda Ward showed some
good animal studies, A Friend of Mine being a
nondescript dog of the good-natured type. Farm
Horses is a good drawing, with plenty of character
in it. Clara Tice delights in bizarre fancies, which
would rend an Academician’s heart. Stuart
Davis, too, loves themes which are decidedly out
of the common. The Musician is one. Imagine a
sordid attic occupied by a sordid couple—the
man has donned his rags and is sucking at his
thumb, which is running with blood and dripping
on to his forearm, the while his wife or sweetheart,
of very unsavory appearance, sits up in bed and
leers at him. John W. Alexander contributed


Courtesy of the Ralston Galleries
PORTRAIT OF LA SALLE

BY JEAN RAOUX

LXXXIV