International studio (59.1916)

Anne Goldth/waite as a Portrait Painter

apart from craft—the work of the woman I have
named remains forever in my memory. And in
1915 to this mental gallery I added the portraits
of Anne Goldthwaite, an American, from Paris.
In her exhibition at the Berlin Photographic gal-
leries she also showed the landscapes, chiefly of
her native state, Alabama, but these did not
strike me as very vital. To me they were sim-
ply very sincere studies in the manner of the
French artists at the beginning of this century.
For me there was more distinction in her etchings
and of these there was one which I particularly
admire, a Parisian cafe, and the rhythm in
the two dancing figures—the common abandon
and recklessness restrained only by the rules of
the dance—is as vivid to me now as it was when
I saw it four months ago.
But it is as a portrait painter that Miss Gold-
thwaite’s work interested me most. One critic
laid great stress on the debt she owes to Cezanne,
and in the freedom of her outlines, the directness
of her touch and the simplicity of her paint, cer-
tainly there is more than an indication that she
is a post-Cezanne. Another critic asserted that
she had “studied Cezanne deeply.” She said to
me, “It has been unconsciously.” This point is
interesting because I have found that women
artists work much less consciously than men,
and have fewer theories about their work. The
work of women in this direction seems almost
completely a case of intuition becoming uncon-
sciously articulate. Women reason less, and in
time when they attain a greater freedom they
may prove to be nearer to the unreasoning spirit
of creation than the more trained mentality of
the male can ever be.
Signs of a growing freedom and abandon are
in the portraits of Anne Goldthwaite; in fact,
she and Olga de Boznanska, different as they
are in age and style, seem to satisfy what I am
looking for in portraiture better than most male
painters and better than any other women. At
the same time do not let us be led into exaggera-
tion. Anne Goldthwaite would be the first to
tell you her own shortcomings, and there is no
need to dwell on them here. She is young and
this is her first important exhibition in New
York. Much may be expected of her; judging
the work she brought from Paris by the side of
what she has since done, it is clear that she is
developing rapidly. So far I do not find in her
pictures any very deep psychological insight, or
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any strong feeling for the interior character of the
personality, nor does she seem to feel very
strongly the marks of her sitter’s life-history.
She works rapidly and what she gets is the vital
impression of a mood and an appearance.
In the portrait of The Little American perhaps
she gets near to essential characterization—more
(possibly) of childhood than of the individual
child—though the likeness is striking. What she
conveys in this portrait is the wonder and mys-
tery of a child’s innocence, never more wonderful
than in the expression on the faces of little boys.
This little boy is at a delightful age too, emerging
out of babyhood so quietly. The most striking
work in the galleries to me was the portrait
of herself which has since found a purchaser.
This is quite unlike any portrait I have ever
seen. Most of her work is freshly inspired and
this, more than the rest, strikes a new note.
Again, it lacks depth of insight, but it has a
strength never seen in, for instance, the work of
Cecilia Beaux, who is completely outstripped by
this post-impressionist.
Beauty in quality of paint and in colour is
another of Anne Goldthwaite’s values. Of Harold
Bauer she made two studies, one, the direct one,
was exhibited, but I infinitely prefer the one she
calls an extract of the other. Having finished
working from the sitter she took a fresh canvas
and made a portrait from memory, and this is
the one which I think has in it the real Bauer.
Mr. Charles Caffin liked best of all the portraits
exhibited the one of Cardinal Gibbons—which
certainly is the most complete and final of her
statements; and after all the many portraits of
cardinals it was remarkable that she should have
been able to present a fresh point of view. She
certainly does see with her own eyes, and her
seeing is clear and to the point.
There is something very American in her out-
look and her racial characteristics come out in
all her work. For she is Southern to the finger-
tips; her Parisian education has not perverted
her national spirit.
She is essentially an American painter, with
American quickness to grasp surface qualities and
reduce them to a common factor, with American
directness and clear-headed cut-and-driedness.
There is no uncertainty about Anne Goldthwaite’s
work, no mystery, and there is very much skill;
skill, too, in the total neglect of the unessential,
and it is skill of a very high order.


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