Studio: international art (13.1898)

Some American Artists in Paris

•society, solely devoted to his art, he has executed
much that has brought him fame. Columbus, a
colossal figure with power expressed in every line
of the face, in every fold of the cloak, is one of
the most commanding works produced of late
years, and the American Government may be con-
gratulated on having secured it for the Con-
gressional Library in Washington. It is the first
time that the Government has taken an interest in
matters artistic. This clever sculptor steers clear
of "specialities," that dangerous rock on which so
much talent has foundered, for he is as great in
his Torso of a Girl, in his Dead Lion, as in his his-
torical figures. His poetical organisation and deli-
cate touch are exemplified in a door of a mausoleum,
with the ethereal form of a woman surrounded with
poppies and leaves. I also recall the figure of a
man bent with grief, the muscles on the back and
.arms standing out with the force of the passion that
apparently overpowers him. In this work there is
a grandeur in the clasp of the knees, in the bowed
head, that reminds us of the Italian masters.

"THE STUMBLING-BLOCK" BY P. MARC I US-SIMONS

248

John W. Alexander is a follower of William Page
in his love of experiment, in his desire to realise
new truths, but unlike his predecessor in his search
for novelty, he lives in an age where the public try
to discover a meaning in a new form of expression
and often arrive at an appreciation of an artist's
intentions—an appreciation just or otherwise, but
which at all events is the outcome of study. Alex-
ander was remarked from the moment of his debut
in the Champ de-Mars Salon of 1893. His five
contributions were all hung on the line and favour-
ably criticised. They were chiefly portraits, and it
is in portrait painting that he excels. He certainly
has rendered a great service to art by breaking away
from the conventional background, which, from a
plush curtain to a Japanese screen, is always a
question of arrangement. Alexander paints a
woman standing against a wall, bending to pluck
a flower, or walking through a room, just as the
fancy takes him, without thinking of the effect, and
ends by giving us a portrait with determination
and individuality in each mark of the brush.
He shows remarkable skill in suggesting
texture, and it is in daring schemes of colour
and in the treatment of surfaces that he calls
forth especial admiration, more perhaps than
in the portrayal of the mind. But then he
may be excused, as few, very few painters
are psychologists. Alexander has mapped
out a course of his own, a course of inde-
pendence, and he has arrived, by his courage
and energy, to be looked upon as one of the
best portrait painters America has.

Alexander Harrison is another of the
American painters in whom we feel inter-
ested ; another seeker, but on different
ground. His strength lies in the delicacy of
his perception of colour ; his wide seas with
rippling waves, his brilliant sunsets and
incoming tides are all great in their colour
effects. Although most of Harrison's later
works treat of the sea, drawn from mental
notes and impressions during the five years
he spent upon the waters, he started, as far
back as 1873, with a passion for painting
children. He has painted them of all
shapes and sizes, but always happy, laugh-
ing children, and chiefly bathing, splashing
boys, with the light of sea and sky reflected
on their dripping forms. His first success
was with Chateaux en Espag?ie, a boy
" dreaming the happy hours away," stretched
upon the sand. His curly head rests upon
his hand, his arm is bare, he is poor and ill