The Mentor: The Metropolitan Museum of Art 5

The Mentor: The Metropolitan Museum of Art 5

Modern French Artists_

 

Some of the modern French artists were appreciated by Americans before

their genius was recognized at home. Certainly the Modern French

Section is one of the strongest in the Museum. Romanticism, realism and

impressionism are all to be seen in the work of their chief exponents.

An afternoon might profitably be spent with the men of Barbizon

(bar´-bee-zong). Corot’s (kor´-ro) poetic outlook upon nature is plain

in each of twelve landscapes. The “Lane Through the Trees,” with a

sense of cool shadow after the heat of a dusty road, is perhaps the

best of them.

 

[Illustration: ENGLISH LANDSCAPE. By Thomas Gainsborough]

 

[Illustration: LANDSCAPE WITH FIGURES. By George Morland]

 

Rousseau (roos-so) speaks a more rugged and direct language in

the fifteen subjects by him. The sober “Gorges d’Apremont (gorge

da´-pre-mong); Evening,” with a still luminous sky above the hills, is

magnificent. Millet (mee´-yay) is represented by the famous “Sower,”

with its rhythm and swing, an almost equally fine “Water-Carrier,”

the impressive “Autumn” in the Fletcher Collection, and half a dozen

others. Dupré (dyu´-pray) and Diaz (dee´-ath) have good pictures, and

when has Troyon ever surpassed his superb “Holland Cattle”? Daubigny

(daw-been´-yee), though he comes a bit later, is usually associated

with these men. There are eight or nine of the subjects he used to find

in punting about among the streams and back-waters of the Seine (sane)

and Oise (wahz)--how intimate they seem!

 

[Illustration: LADY WILLIAMS. By Ralph Earle]

 

[Illustration: BOY WITH A SWORD. By Edouard Manet]

 

[Illustration: LANDSCAPE. By Charles François Daubigny]

 

The Museum is fortunate in owning a number of pictures that are

recognized as the masterpieces of their respective artists.

Bastien-Lepage’s (bas-tee-en lah-pazsh´) “Joan of Arc” is one of

these. Realism?--yes, but so combined with imagination that the

result is gripping. Rosa Bonheur’s “Horse Fair” is one of the

best-known pictures in the Museum. Many are familiar with it in black

and white reproduction, in which it shows to good advantage. The

original painting is somewhat disappointing in color. Meissonier’s

(may-sone-yay) “Friedland, 1807” is an example of his careful

brushwork, but is less successful than some of his smaller panels that

are shown in the Museum. Regnault’s (rane´-yoe) “Salome,” a daring

harmony in yellow, shows the dancer awaiting her reward from Herod.

“Madame Charpentier (shar-pen´-tee-ay) and her Children,” by Renoir

(ren´-wahr), is one of the most charming groups to be found anywhere.

Renoir employed the methods of the impressionists, but he never

allowed his subject to become secondary to the medium--a thing his

brother-impressionists sometimes seemed to do. There are pictures by

the other exponents of these principles to speak for themselves, and

some of them speak very well. Manet (mah-nay) in the “Boy with a Sword”

is following Velasquez to good advantage. A portrait by Fantin-Latour

(fahn´-tang-la-toor´) depicts the wonderfully sensitive face of a lady

in black. A turquoise brooch gives a piquant touch of color that is

repeated in the other jewels she wears. There are many other pictures

that one could ill afford to pass by--Couture’s “Day Dreams,” for

example, and “Arabs Crossing a Ford” by Fromentin (fro-mahn-tang), or

the pictures by Delacroix (del-lah-krwah), Courbet (koor-bay), Jacque

(zshock), and Dagnan-Bouveret (dahn´-yahn-boo´-ver-ray), to mention

only the more important. Last, but far from being least, is the group

by Puvis de Chavannes (poo´-vee de sha-van´) to show the power of that

great mural painter.

 

[Illustration: FORENOON, ADIRONDACKS. By Alexander H. Wyant]

 

 

_American Artists_

 

Naturally, American artists are well represented in the Metropolitan

Museum. Nine pictures stand sponsor for Gilbert Stuart’s skill, and

several are surprisingly fine. Such work as John Singleton Copley’s

“Mrs. Bowers” and Stuart’s “Mrs. Anthony” do not suffer from comparison

with the productions of the English School of their time. Indeed,

Ralph Earle’s “Lady Williams,” sometime previous to its purchase in

London, masqued as a Gainsborough! Its simplicity and slightly awkward

directness are captivating. Do not fail to observe, however, that

the table accessories are exceedingly well painted. One of the most

interesting of these early pictures is a group of pupils in the studio

of Benjamin West. As president of the Royal Academy, his aid was sought

by almost every American with any artistic ability who could obtain

passage money to London. Matthew Pratt, one of those whom West helped,

here shows him criticizing the sketch of one of a group. Prominent

among the men of the next generation is Morse, the inventor of the

telegraph, but also a painter of no mean order, and the author of good

portraits of Henry Clay and De Witt Clinton. Sully, another man of

exceptional taste for his time, has ten pictures, including the sketch

for his portrait of Queen Victoria.

 

[Illustration: MARBLE QUARRY AT CARRARA. By John S. Sargent]

 

Nowhere else can the “Hudson River School”[4] be studied so well. To

our eyes these beginnings seem a bit hard and crude, but such canvases

as F. E. Church’s “Heart of the Andes” and “Parthenon” are really

impressive. But most of these men interest us today chiefly as the

forbears of a later group. Inness, Wyant, Homer Martin and Blakelock

have only a point of view in common, and yet they form a transition

group that leads out of the “Hudson River School” to the landscape

men of the present day. In no other gallery is the work of these four

artists so well represented. In some of the canvases the inspiration

of the Barbizon men is very apparent. Inness succeeds best, perhaps,

in his oft-reproduced “Autumn Oaks” or his “Delaware Valley.” Wyant’s

work is very even--“An Old Clearing” is the best of his ten pictures.

Blakelock’s “Pipe Dance” is fine in a very different way. Homer Martin,

perhaps the most interesting figure of them all, reached his highest

level in the “View on the Seine,” or as his wife named it, “The Harp of

the Winds.” That picture may fairly claim to be the best-known and most

loved landscape by any American artist. His sight was almost gone when

the last touches were added. No less impressive, to some, is his “Sand

Dunes, Lake Ontario.” All the desertedness and barrenness of the dunes

seem to have been caught and expressed on his canvas.

 

[4] The Hudson River School of Art is considered at length in

Monograph Six, Mentor No. 136, “The Story of the Hudson.”

 

Sargent, Whistler, La Farge, Chase--all are here, and in many phases.

Sargent’s portraits are fine, but do not miss his water-colors, or

his “Marble Quarry at Carrara.” Winslow Homer was one of the first

Americans to realize the possibilities of the sea as a subject,

and there are eight paintings by him, as well as a dozen forceful

water-colors. Carlsen, Dougherty (dock´-er-tee) and Waugh (wah) are

sea-lovers too. And as for the figure-painters, Dannat’s (dan´-nah)

“Quartette,” Abbey’s “Lear” and Mary Cassatt’s “Mother and Child”

should not be omitted. Among the landscapists come Twachtman and Tryon,

Groll with his Arizona mesa, Lie with “Culebra Cut” for his subject,

and Ben Foster with a fine “Late Summer Moonrise.” Here is a rich

assemblage of American art.

 

[Illustration: SAND DUNES, LAKE ONTARIO. By Homer Martin]

 

 

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

 

THE ART OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF NEW YORK _By David C. Preyer_

 

WHAT PICTURES TO SEE IN AMERICA _By Lorinda M. Bryant_

 

A HISTORY OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART _By Winifred E. Howe_

Issued by the Museum.

 

CATALOGUE.

Issued by the Museum.

 

⁂ Information concerning the above books may be had on application to

the Editor of The Mentor.

 

 

 

 

THE OPEN LETTER

 

 

[Illustration: THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK CITY]

 

The story of the Metropolitan Museum of Art begins with an address by

John Jay before a company of Americans at a Fourth of July dinner in

Paris in 1866. In the course of his address Mr. Jay stated that “it

was time for the American people to lay the foundation of a national

institution and gallery of art.” This suggestion commended itself

to a number of notable American gentlemen who were present, and who

formed themselves into a committee for inaugurating the movement. This

committee subsequently addressed an appeal to the Union League Club of

New York City, urging the importance of founding a permanent national

gallery of art and museum of historical relics for the benefit of

the people at large, and suggesting that the Union League Club might

properly institute the means for promoting this great object.