International studio (56.1915)

American Painting at the Panama-Pacific Exposition

garden of De Nittis, and from Manet and Monet
onward the sun has flooded art with increasing
brilliancy. While one cannot describe the paint-
ings at the Panama-Pacific Exposition as being in
any degree radical or modernistic, still they are
sufficiently indicative of the fact that art in
America is progressing along normal, wholesome
lines. Cubism, Futurism, Orphism, and the like
have been excluded from the native section.
Those who visit the Palace of Fine Arts will not
encounter upon these walls any third or fourth
dimensional experiments. There are, it is true, a
few arsenical nudes in evidence, yet as a rule there
is nothing that could possibly perturb the cautious
or timorous.
We appear, on the whole, to display less fervour
and less creative fecundity than do our foreign
colleagues. The sense of style is with us not so
prominently developed, nor do we seem so indi-
vidual in our general outlook. Such considera-
tions are not superficial. They are fundamental.
Our art begins at the top instead of surging irre-
sistibly up from the wellsprings of nature and
character. We still betray the effects of an im-
perfectly established social equilibrium. We lack
on one hand the sturdy substratum of peasant
endeavour which the Europeans so abundantly
possess, and, on the other, that central authority
which must always constitute the final court of
appeal. While, as is so eloquently demonstrated
at San Francisco, we have accomplished memor-
able things in architecture, sculpture and painting,
we must not be misled by mere exposition enthu-
siasm into believing that the prize of beauty has
been, or can ever be, definitively captured.
And as you linger outside the galleries in the
fading light, with the stars mirrored in the surface
of the pool and the swans gliding silently about,
you will doubtless think less of Cythere than of Die
Toteninsel. The dream of a splendid exhibition of
contemporary painting, something uniquely edu-
cational and uniquely inspirational will, perhaps,
have vanished. The architect, with the perspec-
tive of the ages behind him, has, in his visible sug-
gestion of human aspiration and human futility,
given us something more subtle than that vouch-
safed by the art director. The one was a proph-
ecy, the other merely a promise.
Note.—The papers by Dr. Christian Brinton
upon the Panama-Pacific Exposition commenced
with the June issue, and comprised articles upon

the San Diego and San Francisco Expositions,
June and July, followed b> the present article
upon the American paintings. Following these
articles will be two upon foreign paintings,
and a concluding paper covering the sculpture,
all from the pen of Dr. Brinton, also one by
Mr. William Francklyn Paris upon the wo'k of
the great French modern, M. Albert Besnard,
whose work has stirred the imaginations of all
who have been privileged to see it.
The many subscribers who are following with
interest the Panama-Pacific Exposition articles
will be glad to know that the Brinton material
is to be issued in the form of a brochure, di-
rectly reprinted from the International Studio.
Only a limited edition will be issued. Order from
booksellers or John Lane Company, New York.

P anama-P acific International Exposition
PORTRAIT OF MRS. HUTH BY JAMES MCNEILL WHISTLER


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