International studio (56.1915)

Notices

A profound feeling for rhythm and proportion,
coherency and flexibility are characteristics of
Mr. Berge’s style. His compositions generally
are exceptionally well balanced and if his model-
ling be smoother than that of many present-day
sculptors, it is eloquent of a light understanding
touch and is none the less virile and assertive.
He is very serious and at the same time en-
thusiastic, and these factors coupled with his
great natural talent, his huge capacity for work,
make it reasonable to predict for him increasing
success. His Muse and four of his bronzes are at
the Panama-Pacific Exposition.
REVIEW
When Mona Lisa Came Home. By
Carolyn Apperson Leech. (Ralph Fletcher Sey-
mour Company, Chicago.)
A suggestion of suppressed eagerness, of breath-
less hush of expectation, emanates from the open-
ing pages of this little book, in which the writer
draws us near to Florence. Like wandering
Dante and Virgil, at one in comprehension and
consciousness of beauty, do the two wayfarers
who participated in the wondrous homecoming
of Mona Lisa approach, one afternoon, through
rain and mist, the valley of the Arno. “Florence
in the distance, a shining city, the winding
Mugnone like silver lace twisted in the green.”
There is a glimpse of the picturesque Florentine
crowd, high officials of the army and men of low-
est rank, artists and artisans, “a typical Tessa,
gay in coloured head-dress and apron, coral beads
and gold ear-rings, her pink corsets belting in the
bright blue blouse and skirts.” The pulse of
Fiesole throbs through these few pages, it beats
in quick response to the dramatic spectacle of
the great procession tensely waiting till the tas-
selled cord that bars the great doors is dropped
and the crowd sweeps like a human tide into the
Uffizi. “In one corner, barricaded by the heavy
oak benches of the Uffizi, under the shadow of da
Vinci’s portrait, stood a velvet-draped platform
and easel on which, in a carved and gilded frame,
glowed Mona Lisa, enthroned in smiling peace.”
The remaining pages flow on in contemplation,
touching in comparison La Joconde, in the Salon
Carre of the Louvre, one of many works that
“dissipated our energies,” and Mona Lisa in
Florence, where one can “drink a deeper and
more quickened homage to the woman who so

tempted art ...” There is a suggestion of the
personality of Leonardo—“for there was a pagan
Leonardo who revelled in Apollo’s laurels as he
reverenced Christ’s red thorns.”
Into this little volume of somewhat less than
twenty pages a mood is wrought which traces
like a golden thread the magic of an event that
illumines to radiance the temperament and the
idealism of the Italian people.
SSOCIATED ARTISTS OF
PITTSBURGH
This Society will hold their sixth annual ex-
hibition of paintings at the Carnegie Art Gal-
leries, from October 23 to November 22.
Press view and reception on October 22. The
jury as usual will award first, second and third
honors, in addition to which there will be the
Rowland prize of $200.00, presented by Mrs.
Richard A. Rowland, for the most popular paint-
ing, every visitor being allowed a vote.
rT'1HE IMMIGRANT IN AMERICA
An exceedingly interesting and in-
structive exhibition has been announced to take
place on November 15, lasting until December
15 at 8 West 8th Street, New York, the studio
of Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney, subject being
The Immigrant in America. To increase still
further the interest among painters, sculptors,
illustrators, and cartoonists, Mrs. Whitney is
offering many valuable prizes in these different
departments of art. Her desire has not been
solely to stimulate art and artists, but through
their exhibits to demonstrate the meaning of
America to the immigrant, and of the immigrant
to America, at the same time drawing public
attention to the need of Americanization at a time
when this knowledge has never been more necessary.
AKING ART POPULAR THROUGH
THE LIBRARY
In a little brochure with a coloured
frontispiece and many illustrations by students,
Mary McLachin Powell, chief of the department
of Art Work in the Saint Louis Public Library,
has shown how an up-to-date library is capable
of diffusing information about art and developing
appreciation of it in the general public.



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