International studio (81.1925)

mceRnACionAL

"SIR THOMAS BEECHAM" BY IVAN MESTROVIC

In the Tate Gallery, London

character studies. His head of A. G. War-
showsky, the Cleveland painter, achieves a color
effect in the hair as delightful as that of Rodin, and
the summary lines of eyes and lips, and the cheeks
blocked out in broad, sure masses, form a figure
with fine breadth and vigor. This is an undemon-
strative face, but one very appealing in its direct-
ness and sincerity. Of greater charm and nicer
craftsmanship is his portrait of Mrs. S., where the
rough patine breaks up the light in entrancing
flecks, like sunshine falling through leaves. Here
again the face is constructed firmly and surely,
with stylization in the raised eyebrows and eye-
lids, and subtle individuality in the full, rich,
drooping lips. The hair is sketchily massed in
heavy strands, exquisite in catching the light.
This is a portrait, but more—it is a harmony,
both delighting the senses and satisfying the
mind.

Two years ago Gaetano Cecere was considered
one of the most promising students at the Amer-

ican Academy in Rome, where he was the Rine-
hart Fellow. One of his portraits made at that
time, the head of a Roman peasant girl, is as
powerful in its repose as a Renaissance tomb
portrait. Cecere, like Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux,
found his model in the campagna, a girl of that
sombre countryside who had doubtless had her
share of suffering. Here she is in severe Carrara
marble, the modeling suave and cool, with a
restrained pattern stated in the kerchief over the
head, the stylized hair, the eyebrows in relief.
Cecere has done other interesting work, but none
which is the equal of this in vitality.

Cecere, like most of his confreres, especially

" SAPPHO " BY ROY SHELDON

APRIL I925

twenty-seven