International studio (54.1914/1915)

In the. Galleries


CRUCIFIED BY LOUIS RANSOM

IN THE GALLERIES
Whether this is the winter of Art’s discon-
tent or not can hardly be determined, but
there is no doubt that art in America, as
elsewhere, is ‘‘marking time.” This fact, how-
ever, does not show on the surface, and exhibitions
large and small are as plentiful as in days of yore.
Only the dealers and artists know where the shoe
pinches. The most important shows are the win-
ter exhibition of the National Academy of Design
and the Fifth Biennial at the Corcoran Gallery,
Washington, D. C., both of which will receive
special notice in our next issue.
The Macbeth Galleries have just concluded an
exhibition of home pictures, with fine contribu-
tions by Emil Carlsen, including a still-life; a good
Tunisian street scene by F. C. Browne; a freshly
painted canvas by Gardner Symons, entitled
Evening Light-, Robert Henri’s exquisite little

Chinese girl, Tam Gan; Sunshine and Mist, by
T. E. Butler, evincing fine colour in sky and dis-
tance.
The picture Crucified, by Louis Ransom, aged
eighty-three, is an extraordinary attempt to de-
pict, by a solitary and terrible detail, that
great human drama which from other hands
has always demanded an array of figures, cen-
tral and detached, aided by many accessories
and big scenic effects. Whether the artist has
succeeded or not, the canvas is a striking example
of the length to which elimination can proceed in
depicting a great event. Greater simplicity cannot
well be imagined. In the descriptive words of H.
B. Fosdick, who kindly submitted the print from
which our reproduction was made: 11 Crucified—
A blue-black cloud for a background, suggesting
night and tempest. At the left, on the horizon,
a dull red where the sun has set, showing like a
lake of blood. In the foreground a rough, unfin-

xcix