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International studio — 56.1915

DOI Heft:
Nr. 222 (August, 1915)
DOI Artikel:
Brinton, Christian: American painting at the Panama-Pacific exposition
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43459#0108

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American Painting at the Panama-Pacific Exposition


and, with the exception of the portrait already
mentioned, the subjects are restricted in size. The
effect is none the less one of welcome propriety.
It is a secluded little sanctuary to taste-, a corner
where one may commune with a frail though
ardent spirit, one whose legacy to the world is
slender, yet imperishable.
We shall not presume to characterize each of
the above artists. Abbey, who never found paint
a congenial or spontaneous medium, and LaFarge,
who ranks at best as a studious, eclectic amateur,
call for scant comment. The salutary naturalism
of Winslow Homer is but insufficiently indicated,
though one has, in compensation, a serene, clear-
toned wall from which shine the radiant master-
pieces of Theodore Robinson. The pioneer Ameri-
can impressionist painted modest themes—bits of
winding canal, glimpses of white cottage nestled
against green hillside, peasant girls musing under
spreading apple boughs or stretched prone upon
the grass. There is no pose, no hint of pretence
here. Robinson went straight to the heart of the
scene, however simple and unambitious it may
have seemed. Out of little he made much. He
painted light, air, and colour. The purest lyric
talent we have thus far produced, he sang a song
steeped in outdoor brightness and objective tran-

quillity. Starting from a somewhat similar point
of view, that which in Robinson remained analy-
sis, became with Twachtman a species of creative
synthesis. His opalescent panels are veritable im-
provisations wherein the essentials of impression-
ism have been superseded by a subtle abstraction
strongly suggestive of the Japanese. Both men
died in the fullness of attainment, and you have
merely to survey the walls of any current exhibi-
tion in order to realize how sadly we miss certain
elements of taste, sensibility, and aesthetic integ-
rity which were the touchstones of these two brief
but significant careers.
There can be nothing invidious in the conten-
tion that the chief success among living American
painters represented at San Francisco has been
achieved by Frank Duveneck. Though reminis-
cent of the Munich Academy manner and the murky
tonality of Piloty and the Italo-Bavarians of some
four decades ago, Air. Duveneck’s work is by no
means devoid of personality. You will doubtless
recall Leibl in confronting certain of these por-
traits. You may here and there encounter echoes
of von Lenbach or the sumptuous Venetians, yet
always you will meet the eye and hand, the mind
and manipulative mastery of Duveneck himself.
As far as the general public is concerned, and the

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