FIG. 108.—WHISTLER. WHITE GIRL.FIG. 108.—WHISTLER. WHITE GIRL.Please click here for a modern color image
Please click here for a modern color image
The number of good portrait-painters at present working in America is quite large, and mention can be made of but a few in addition to those already spoken of—Lockwood,McLure Hamilton,Tarbell,Beckwith,Benson,Vinton. In figure andgenre-painting the list of really good painters could be drawn out indefinitely, and again mention must be confined to a few only, likeSimmons,Shirlaw,Smedley,Brush,Millet,Hassam,Reid,Wiles,Mowbray,Reinhart,Blashfield,Metcalf,Low,C. Y. Turner,Henri.
Most of the men whose names are given above are resident in America; but, in addition, there is a large contingent of young men, American born but resident abroad, who can hardly be claimed by the American school, and yet belong to it as much as to any school. They are cosmopolitan in their art, and reside in Paris, Munich, London, or elsewhere, as the spirit moves them. Sargent, theportrait-painter, really belongs to this group, as does alsoWhistler(1834-[23]), one of the most artistic of all the moderns. Whistler was long resident in London, but has now removed to Paris. He belongs to no school, and such art as he produces is peculiarly his own, save a leaven of influences from Velasquez and the Japanese. His art is the perfection of delicacy, both in color and in line. Apparently very sketchy, it is in reality the maximum of effect with the minimum of display. It has the pictorial charm of mystery and suggestiveness, and the technical effect of light, air, and space. There is nothing better produced in modern painting than his present work, and in earlier years he painted portraits like that of his mother, which are justly ranked as great art.E. A. Abbey(1852-) is better known by his pen-and-ink work than by his paintings,howbeit he has done good work in color. He is resident in England.
[23]Died, 1903.
[23]Died, 1903.
In Paris there are many American-born painters, who really belong more with the French school than the American.Bridgmanis an example, andDannat,Alexander Harrison,Hitchcock,McEwen,Melchers,Pearce,Julius Stewart,Weeks(1849-1903),J. W. Alexander,Walter Gay,Sergeant Kendallhave nothing distinctly American about their art. It is semi-cosmopolitan with a leaning toward French methods. There are also some American-born painters at Munich, likeC. F. Ulrich;Shannonis in London andColemanin Italy.
FIG. 109.—SARGENT. "CARNATION LILY, LILY ROSE."FIG. 109.—SARGENT. "CARNATION LILY, LILY ROSE."Please click here for a modern color image
Please click here for a modern color image
LANDSCAPE AND MARINE PAINTERS, 1878-1894:In the department of landscape America has had since 1825 something distinctly national, and has at this day. In recent years the impressionistplein-airschool of France has influenced many painters, and the prismatic landscape is quite as frequently seen in American exhibitions as in the Paris salons; but American landscape art rather dates ahead of French impressionism. The strongest landscapist of our times,George Inness(1825-[24]), is not a young man except in his artistic aspirations. His style has undergone many changes, yet still remains distinctly individual. He has always been an experimenter and an uneven painter, at times doing work of wonderful force, and then again falling into weakness. The solidity of nature, the mass and bulk of landscape, he has shown with a power second to none. He is fond of the sentiment of nature's light, air, and color, and has put it forth more in his later than in his earlier canvases. At his best, he is one of the first of the American landscapists. Among his contemporaries Wyant (already mentioned),Swain Gifford,[25]Colman,Gay,Shurtleff, have all done excellent work uninfluenced by foreign schools of to-day.Homer Martin's[26]landscapes, from their breadth of treatment, are popularly considered rather indifferent work, but in reality they are excellent in color and poetic feeling.
[24]Died 1894.
[24]Died 1894.
[25]Died 1905.
[25]Died 1905.
[26]Died 1897.
[26]Died 1897.
The "young men" again, in landscape as in the figure, are working in the modern spirit, though in substance they are based on the traditions of the older American landscape school. There has been much achievement, and there is still greater promise in such landscapists asTryon,Platt,Murphy,Dearth,Crane,Dewey,Coffin,Horatio Walker,Jonas Lie. Among those who favor the so-called impressionistic view areWeir,Twachtman, andRobinson,[27]three landscape-painters of undeniable power. In marinesGedney Buncehas portrayed many Venetian scenes of charming color-tone, and De Haas[28]has long been known as a sea-painter of some power.Quartley, who died young, was brilliant in color and broadly realistic. The present marine-painters areMaynard,Snell,Rehn,Butler,Chapman.
[27]Died 1896.
[27]Died 1896.
[28]Died 1895.
[28]Died 1895.
FIG. 110.—CHASE. ALICE.FIG. 110.—CHASE. ALICE.
PRINCIPAL WORKS:The works of the early American painters are to be seen principally in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Athenæum, Boston Mus., Mass. Hist. Soc., Harvard College, Redwood Library, Newport, Metropolitan Mus., Lenox and Hist. Soc. Libraries, the City Hall, Century Club, Chamber of Commerce, National Acad. of Design, N. Y. In New Haven, at Yale School of Fine Arts, in Philadelphia at Penna. Acad. of Fine Arts, in Rochester Powers's Art Gal., in Washington Corcoran Gal. and the Capitol.The works of the younger men are seen in the exhibitions held from year to year at the Academy of Design, the Society of American Artists, N. Y., in Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, and elsewhere throughout the country. Some of their works belong to permanent institutions like the Metropolitan Mus., the Pennsylvania Acad., the Art Institute of Chicago, but there is no public collection of pictures that represents American art as a whole. Mr. T. B. Clarke, of New York, had perhaps as complete a collection of paintings by contemporary American artists as anyone.
PRINCIPAL WORKS:The works of the early American painters are to be seen principally in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Athenæum, Boston Mus., Mass. Hist. Soc., Harvard College, Redwood Library, Newport, Metropolitan Mus., Lenox and Hist. Soc. Libraries, the City Hall, Century Club, Chamber of Commerce, National Acad. of Design, N. Y. In New Haven, at Yale School of Fine Arts, in Philadelphia at Penna. Acad. of Fine Arts, in Rochester Powers's Art Gal., in Washington Corcoran Gal. and the Capitol.
The works of the younger men are seen in the exhibitions held from year to year at the Academy of Design, the Society of American Artists, N. Y., in Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, and elsewhere throughout the country. Some of their works belong to permanent institutions like the Metropolitan Mus., the Pennsylvania Acad., the Art Institute of Chicago, but there is no public collection of pictures that represents American art as a whole. Mr. T. B. Clarke, of New York, had perhaps as complete a collection of paintings by contemporary American artists as anyone.
In this brief history of painting it has been necessary to omit some countries and some painters that have not seemed to be directly connected with the progress or development of painting in the western world. The arts of China and Japan, while well worthy of careful chronicling, are somewhat removed from the arts of the other nations and from our study. Moreover, they are so positively decorative that they should be treated under the head of Decoration, though it is not to be denied that they are also realistically expressive. Portugal has had some history in the art of painting, but it is slight and so bound up with Spanish and Flemish influences that its men do not stand out as a distinct school. This is true in measure of Russian painting. The early influences with it were Byzantine through the Greek Church. In late years what has been produced favors the Parisian or German schools.
In Denmark and Scandinavia there has recently come to the front a remarkable school of high-light painters, based on Parisian methods, that threatens to outrival Paris itself. The work of such men asKröyer,Zorn,Petersen,Liljefors,Thaulow,Björck,Thegerström, is as startling in its realism as it is brilliant in its color. The pictures in the Scandinavian section of the Paris Exposition of 1889 were a revelation of new strength from the North, and this has been somewhat increased by the Scandinavian pictures at the World's Fair in 1893. It is impossible to predict what willbe the outcome of this northern art, nor what will be the result of the recent movement here in America. All that can be said is that the tide seems to be setting westward and northward, though Paris has been the centre of art for many years, and will doubtless continue to be the centre for many years to come.
(For additions to Index see page289.)