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certain contemporaries; a set of n^^^^^ i

3 1924 020 533 448

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CERTAIN CONTEMPORARIESA SET OF NOTES IN ART CRITICISM

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JOHN SLOAN: HIS GRAPHIC WORK

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JOHN SLOAN: HIS GRAPHIC WORKWITH A CONCISE ICONOGRAPHYBUT few American etchers have been inter-

ested in the portrayal of people and in thestudy of their chara6lers, as was the case withRembrandt and Whistler and is the case withZorn. Rather have they, like Meryon, D. Y.Cameron and Muirhead Bone, found their in-spiration in pi6luring cities or rural landscapes.Eugene Higgins has etched a number of platesthat show his interest inhumanity; Ernest Has-kell has etched a few, as have one or two othersJerome Meyers and Childe Hassam have re-cently taken up etching, and they, too, are inter-ested in the study of people, although it is truethat the latter more often than not is chiefly con-cerned with the figure as merely pattern in hisdesign. Mr. John Sloan, however, is concernedwith nothing else: his interest in humanity is hispassion in life.A brief note on Mr. Sloan's early artistic ac-

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[ 24 ;]tivities will suffice: we will pass on to a consid-eration of his mature work in the graphic artsomitting, because it does not fall within thescope of this paper, to make more than men-tion of his paintings, which now command mostof his attention. Subjefts found in the streets ofNew York, and material for pi6lures discoveredin and around Gloucester, Massachusetts, prin-cipally landscapes seen under summer skies,many containing figures, are what attract him.

Mr. Sloan was born in the town of Lockhaven,Pennsylvania, in 1871 , and received his trainingat the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Since1905 he has made New York his home, andmuch of his inspiration has been derived fromthe distri6l around Washington Square and onSixth Avenue. Just previous to this removalto New York he was much interested in theposter movement, which was then at its height,and from his pen came several posters of note,in which the Beardsley influence is discernible.Three of the best known were for Moods, Cin-

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L 25 3der Path Tales and The Echo. That early in hiscareer he was interested in etching, numerousplates bear witness.The artist's first work worthy of especial note

was a series of over fifty etchings, besides a likenumber of wash drawings, for a sumptuous edi-tion of the novels of Paul de Kock, which waspubhshed from 1902 to 1905. Wilfiam Glack-ens and George B. Luks, it may be mentioned,were among other artists who contributed to thetask. These etchings and drawings are all veryspirited and refle6l the flavour of the text to aremarkable degree. As with John Leech, who isone of Sloan's artistic gods, and as with Row-landson, Hogarth and Daumier, his point of viewis quaintly humorous. He could, however, becalled a caricaturist only by discourtesy, for thishe is not.

Following these notable illustrations came,from 1 905 to 1 91 1 , a superb set of thirteen etch-ings with scenes of lower life ( for the greaterpart) in New York as their theme. Their char-

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C 26]a6lerization of the neighbourhoods depi6led isexcellent, their good-natured point of view con-tagious, and their sure and summary executionmost admirable and engaging. As faithful rec-ords of a certain aspe6l of contemporary customsand manners, to be consulted by the historianof the future, they have the same value as thedrawings and etchings of Leech, Cruikshankand Keene, or the lithographs of Gavarni.Among the artist's other etchings, which are

listed at the end of this note, there are severalwhich stand out as being particularly fine inquality. Such a plate is the Mother, a splendidchara6ler studyalthough this can be said ofall his etchings. Another is that which the artistcalls Memory, 1905, which contains portraits ofMr. and Mrs. Robert Henri, of himself and ofhis wife. This is one of the finest plates, as isalso the Anschutz Talking on Anatomy, and theBarber Shop.

Mr. Sloan's lithographs are only six in num-ber, but they display quite a knowledge of the

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C 27 Jartistic possibilities of this delightful and mostautographic medium of artistic expression. To1905 belong the lithographs entitled Ping-PongPhotos and Gold Fish, while his other four ef-forts in this direftion, which, like the etchings,are listed in the catalogue that follows, weremade three years later.

In illustration the artist has achieved consid-erable fame, especially for his drawings madefor a socialist paper: as is the case with Steinlen,his interest in sociology is absorbing ; like Stein-len, also, his sympathies lie with the working-man. "His art," writes a critic of his work,"points its moral quietly, with no trace of thebitterness of the over-zealous reformer." Hismany studies of the figure, drawn in black orin red chalk, serve very well to illustrate hisgifts as a draughtsman. These rapid sketches, inwhich the model is seen sometimes undraped,sometimes partly draped, are quite masterly inexecution and altogether free from the academictaint.

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C 28 JCATALOGUE OF THE ETCHINGS AND LITHOGRAPHS

OF JOHN SLOAN(The si2es are given in inches, the height first)

I. ETCHINGSEarly Work, of only historical interest:Dedham Castle, after Turner circa 1888Head, after Rembrandt circa 1888George Eliot 1890Westminster Abbey, seven views fi-om photo-

graphs 1891Several calendars 1891Homes of the Poets, six etchings from photo-

graphs 1891George W. Childs, from photograph 1892Schooner on the Schuylkill 1895

Etchings for the Novels of Paul de Kock (Boston:Frederick J. Quinby Co.), made for the following:

1, 3 Monsieur Dupont4-8 The Gogo Family

9-11 Jean12-15 Frere Jacques16-25 The Flower Girl average size26-29 Madame Pantalon S% x 5}i30-34 Adh^mar35-41 Andr^42-50 Monsieur Cherami51, 52 Memoirs

1902to

1905

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C 29 J53 Girl Seated. Dry-point. 7x5 190354 C. K. Keller. 3^^ x 5 190355 Paul de Kock. 14 x 12 190456 Bradner. Portrait of Man. 7x5 190557 Old Flute Player. 3% x 2% 190558 James B. Moore. 11% X 9^ 1905New York Set:59 Fifth Avenue Critics. 4^4 x 6^^ 190560 The Woman's Page. 4}4 x eH 190561 Turning out the Light. 4^ x 6^ 190562 The Man Monkey. 4>^ x 6}^ 190563 Man, Wife and Child. 4?/^ x 6}4 190564 The Show-Case. 4^^ x 6% 190565 Fun, One Cent. 4% x 6% 190566 Connoisseurs of Prints. 4/^x6% 190567 The Little Bride. 4}ix6% 190668 Roofs: Summer Night. 5x6% 190669 Night Windows. 5>^ x 6% " 191070 Girl and Beggar. 4^ x5% 191071 The Picture Buyer. 5^5^ X 6% 191172 Mother. 8% x73< * 190675 Memory, 1905. 7x8>^ " ' 190674 Jewelry Store Window. 4^ X 3 J^ 190675 Old Woman and Ash Barrel. 4x5H , 190776 Copyist at Art Museum. 7^ x 8^ 190877 Christmas Dinners. 2% X 4% ' 190978 Expecting a Turkey from Uncle. 3%x2% 191079 Anschutz Talking on Anatomy. 7}i x8% 1912

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C 30 ]80 The Serenade. 3}i x S 191281 Swinging in the Square. 4 x 5/i 191282 Woman Hanging Clothes. 2% x sH 191283 Rag Pickers. 2% xsM 191384 Combing Her Hair. 3^x2^ 191385 Prone Nude. 3^ x 6}4 191386 Head of Girl, with Necklace. 3% x 23/8 191387 Girl in Kimono. 4x5>^ 191388 Two Little Girls, Running. 3% x 2^ 191489 Woman and Child on Roof. 4^ x 5% 191490 Love on the Roof. 5]4 x 4^ 191491 Isadora Duncan. 8 ?4 X 7^ 191592 Barber Shop. lOx 12 191593 Greetings, 1915. sH x 2^ 191594 Girls Sliding in Washington Square. 4}( x 5}i 191595 Return from Toil (Girls). 4}i x 3% 191596 Cops and Bacchante. 4J{ x 5^ 191597 Isaac L. Rice (Dead). lOx llj4 191598 New Year Greetings, 1916. 3% x 2}( 1915

II. LITHOGRAPHS1 Ping-Pong Photos. 8 x6^ 19052 Gold Fish. lOjS^ X 14 19053 Sixth Avenue at Thirtieth Street. 14^ x 11 19084 Lusitania in Dock. 14}4 x 18 19084 a Second state of above cut down. 14/^ x 14}( 19085 Amateur Lithographers. 16>^ x 15 19086 Prehistoric Mother. 13}i x 18 1908

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JOHN SLOANPjng-Pong Photos

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SOME MASTERS OF THEWATER-COLOUR

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SOME MASTERS OF THEWATER-COLOURVISITORS to the Metropolitan Museum of

Art and those that keep in touch with theofferings of New York pi6lure-dealers had ex-cellent opportunities during the winter of 191 5-1 6 to study the work of the modern masters ofthe water-colour. At the Museum was hung anextremely fine sele6lion of Winslow Homer'sdrawings in this medium, as well as a groupof Mr. Sargent's water-colours, chosen by thepainter himself froni his more recent works.Forming a part of a most comprehensive exhi-bition of Mr. Childe Hassam's works, there wereto be seen at the Montross Gallery an assem-blage of his recent water-colours, this exhibitionbeing followed by a room full of Cezanne's, amaster whose pi6lures are not very frequentlymet with in America. At the diminutive galleryknown as 291, presided over by Mr. AlfredStieglitz, where so many Americans have made

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C 34 ]their first acquaintance with the most vital incontemporary European art, as well as that oftheir own country, was shown a seleftion of Mr.John Marin's water-colours.The artists mentioned in the foregoing para-

graph are all masters of their craft Whistlerwas another, but the list is not a long one. Andfor two reasons: first, because but few artistshave taken the water-colour seriously and as ameans to an end ( they have preferred to leave itto the lady amateur) ; secondly, because, exceptin rare instances, workers in water-colours areentirely ignorant of both the limitations and thepossibilities of their medium. Winslow Homer'swater-colour entitled Tornado, Bahamas is,how-ever, as much a masterpiece as any of his paint-ings.

Historically speaking, the use of the water-colour as a means of artistic expression is of veryancient origin ; the Egyptians employed it to dec-orate their rolls of papyrus, and in the MiddleAges it was water-colour that the monks used to

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i 35 ]embellish their vellum manuscripts. Artisticallyspeaking, however, painting in water-colourshas been pra6lised only during recent times,because formerly it was laid on in a solid andopaque impasto, while the modern method, atleast when properly employed, is to paint intransparent washes. Girten and Turner wereamong the first artists to develop the moderntechnique, although it should not be overlookedthat there had been several spasmodic attemptsfrom time to time, notably by Diirer, who, paint-ing in body colour, used the medium in quite amodern spirit and executed some marvellouslybeautiful water-colours.

Unquestionably, there are as many diflferentways of employing water-colours as there aredifferent techniques which may be used in paint-ing in oils, but the t7'ue method of painting inwater-colours, it seems to me, is that employedby such masters as Homer and Whistler broadand transparent washes, full of suggestion, inwhich simplification and spontaneity are neces-

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C 36 :sary qualities. The water-colours of Rosetti andBurne-Jones are as much a violation of the lim-itations set upon this medium (they have imi-tated oils ) , as are Mr. Brangwyn's colossal etch-ings a wrong understanding of this medium. Werecall Whistler's Proposition: "That in art, itis criminal to go beyond the means used in itsexercise."

Mr. Sargent's work in water-colour and hehas made hundreds of drawings, it being afavourite medium with him is a lesson andexample of what water-colours should be: rapid,spontaneous sketches, painted in broad and vig-orous washes. He has always known when tostop. More work would only have taken the lifeout of them and smothered their note of inspira-tion and their freshness, for spontaneity is thesoul of the water-colour. They are dazzlinglyclever performances, although without, perhaps,quite the quality of Mr. Hassam at his best orWhistler, and the Museum is to be heartily con-gratulated upon having acquired ten very fine

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I 37 ]examples. What with the large colle6lion in theMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the splendidset, mostly of Venetian subje6ls, in the Brook-lyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, Mr. Sargent'sefforts in this dire6lion are most worthily shownin America, as is only proper.

Winslow Homer's genius is certainly as ap-parent in his water-colours as in his paintings.Such of his aquarelles as the Tornado, Bahamas,the Sloop, Bermuda and the Palm Tree, Nassauare as great expressions of his art as any of hiscanvases. Thesejoyousdrawings, so fullof brightcolour, are veritable masterpieces. Of course, asis the case with all the really great men, his pic-tures vary very much in quality, but the water-colours as a whole seem to me even finer thanthe paintings. It is interesting in this connec-tion to record the fa61 that at the Pan-Ameri-can Exposition ( Buffalo, 1 901 ) the artist ele6ledto be represented solely by his work in thismedium.

Whistler painted a portrait of his mother, one

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C 38 ]of Carlyle, and one of a Miss Alexander, whichtake their place not far below the masterpiecesof Titian and Velasquez, but the greater part ofhis work is far more fragile in chara6ler thanthis. In many cases the lithographs, etchings,pastels, water-colours and paintings are morenotes than anything else. Taste and style andinspiration are always present, but his was nota vigorous art and in consequence the water-colours are not only masterpieces technicallyspeaking, but they are as well perfe6t expres-sions of his genius.

Mr. Childe Hassam is another master of thewater-colour. His Isles of Shoals series, of re-cent date, which was shown during the winterof 1915-16, is full of sensitive vision. Thesewater-colours of rocky coast and blue waterare glorious in colour and are even greater in-terpretations of nature than Mr. Sargent's. Hisconcern is with colour, not with form. He is anartist in every sense of the word: in love withpainting and in love with beauty ; his art is con-

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c: 39 ]tinually advancing, his technique becoming moresimple.

Cezanne is another master, as is Mr. JohnMarin, who has been so influenced by him.They have both understood how to use theirmaterial. Very abstract in character, impossibleat times to follow them, their art is neverthelesspregnant with beauty, sele6lion and taste.

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JOHN S. SARGENTSpanish Fountain

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WALTER GAY'S PAINTINGSOF INTERIORS

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WALTER GAY'S PAINTINGSOF INTERIORSONE enjoyed the opportunity presented inNew York during the spring of 1913 to

view a colle6lion of Mr. Walter Gay's delight-ful pi6lures of French eighteenth century interi-ors. H\s genre subje6ls of former days have beenentirely discarded ,and in their place he now givesus a succession of views of rooms already beau-tiful by reason of their proportions and decora-tions, but made even more so by the amateurand colle6lor of taste andjudgment.lt is only oc-casionally that Mr. Gay portrays anything but asalon, a library, a vestibule or a boudoir : amongthe forty-one paintings and seventeen water-colours shown there was a view of a sunlit gar-den seen through an open window, a view of thehouse-tops of some old Paris houses, and thefa9ade of an eighteenth century pavilion, but therest of the pi6lures, excepting a few decorativestudies of Louis XVI garden statuary, were of

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C 44 ]interiors. Mr. Gay was born in Boston, in 1856,but has long been a resident of France, and thiswas the first opportunity that America has hadto see a representative group of his paintings.

These portraits of rooms,and this is whatthey are,besides being an expression of theirowners' personality, are a most unusual note inart, and a most engaging one. Vermeer's paint-ings contain numerous interiors of old Dutchhouses, in Delft and elsewhere, with quaint fur-niture, curious musical instruments and the al-most inevitable map hanging upon the wall, andthey are easily the most beautifully painted inte-riors in the whole range of art. The dignified andstately Georgian rooms that Hogarth so loved topaint are also masterly delineations. But seldom,as is the case with Mr. Gay, has an artist chosento paint a room entirely for its own sake, as theraison d'etre of his pi6lures; hitherto, as withVermeer and Hogarth, a room was painted onlyto serve as the stage setting ( as it were ) for thepi6lure. A whole school has grown up around

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C 45 ]Mr. Gay, interiors are to be seen in every Salon,but not one of his followers possesses his geniusand accomplishment.

Arthur Symons has written somewhere thatto him cities have souls : can not one also say thathouses and rooms, certain ones at least, havesouls also.^" Assuredly they have personality, andhow marvellously this has been suggested in thepi6lures now under consideration : they are farremoved and have absolutely nothing in commonwith the tedious and uninteresting drawings ofthe archite6l or the laboured studies of a decora-tor, devoid of all charm ( I am not speaking, ofcourse, of the time when the archite6l and thepainter, as well as the sculptor, worked in har-mony ) . As works of art, in sheer manipulationof pigment and in breadth of treatment, theyrank their author very high among contempo-rary painters. These interiors, so bathed in at-mosphere, possessing so much style, have noth-ing of the academic about them, neither is thebrush-work and the execution clever and asser-

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C 46 ^tive, as is the case with so many present-daypaintings. They are delightful pi6lures to livewith.Never do we get even a glimpse of the occu-

pants of these salons of Mr. Gay, for there isnever any one in them ; but they are far frombeing deserted. They are unoccupied only forthe moment: some one has just stepped into thenext room, or out into the blaze of sunshine thatcomes in at the low French window. The per-sonality of the people who live in these chateauxhas been suggested and indicated in a mostsubtle manner: we can almost feel their pres-ence. M. Henri Lavedon observes with much in-sight that the artist studies the physiognomy ofinanimate things, that to him the faded silk of asofa betrays confidences, reveals gay memories.

It is not only in the panelling and decorationsof the rooms and in the marble floors of thevestibules that we find aesthetic delight, butalso in the wonderfully beautiful contours of themeubles: bergeres covered with old faded silks,

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[47 ]tabourets, commodes, consoles, carved and gildedtables of the Regence. On certain walls we seetapestries or paintings, on others are hung san-guine drawings by Boucher and Fragonard,withstriped blue mats and elaborate old gilt frames.Scattered about in great profusion, but arrangedwith unerring taste, we see wonderful old Chi-nese porcelain, mounted in carved and gildedbronze of the time of Louis XV, glorious redlacquer and lacquer of black and gold, spiritedbusts of marble or terra-cotta, crystal chande-liers, ormolu clocks. The rendering of all thesevarious materials is amazing. In a word, we havepreserved in these paintings the very essenceof the art and the rare taste and charm of thisengaging epoch. .

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WALTER GAYLa Commode

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A FRENCH SALON DES HUMORISTESIN NEW YORK

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A FRENCH SALON DES HUMORISTESIN NEW YORK

WITH A NOTE ON STEINLENI

SEARCHING out the occasional painting ofdistin6lion, from an interminable array of

blatant canvases, at the two Salons each springin Paris is apt to become tedious. But how verydifferent and how refreshing is always the showover at the Palais de Glace, for it is there, whereall Paris has been skating during the winter,that the amiable members of the Salon des Hu-moristes hold sway.What an entrancing and what a gay exhibition

this always is ! These engaging drawings, paint-ings and statuettes, so audacious and so alive, arenot unworthy offspring of the brains of the de-scendants of Boucher, Watteau and Fragonard.New York was therefore fortunate in having

a little Salon des Humoristes of her own duringthe winter of 1914, in the gallery of the Mu-

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seum of French Art. It was quite like a breathof Paris in the spring.Among others, the colle6lion boasted exam-

ples of the work of Prejelan, Fabiano, Gerbault,Touraine,names very familiar to those whosee the French humorous journals. These artistsare the recorders par excellence of the mostchictypes of the present day Parisienne,and theirdrawings, so delightfully graceful and spirited,are executed with a line swift and living.

Charming portraits of the Parisienne are alsoto be found in the designs of Bac,Willette, Faivreand Vallet, all of whom were represented. Oneadmired in addition the military drawings ofthe famous Caran d'Ache, the humorous dogsof Benjamin Rabier, the pathetic children of Mi-rande. . . .With Forain, Ibels, Steinlen and RafFaelli a

more serious note has been struck. Besides beingdraughtsmen of great ability, these men displaya deep insight into human nature. It has beensaid that there is such a thing as impressionism

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n 53 Dof line, and certainly the line of Forain suggestsmovement. His political and social cartoons andetchings, made as a rule in some court-room,as well as a recent series of military lithographsexecuted on the French front, are brilliantlyclever and pregnant with chara6lerization. Hispaintings are not killed by being placed in prox-imity with those of Daumier, with which theyhave much in common. Ibels and RafFaelli arealso realists, who have studied many of the sametypes that have been immortalized by Steinlen:the inhabitants of Montmartre, the humble toil-ers of Paris, the vagabonds.

II

In Steinlen 's tragic portraits of the various typeswhich are to be found in the region of the for-tifications we see all the misery and squalor ofthese quarters depi6led in a masterly manner ; inall his studies of bohemians, vagabonds and thepetite bourgeoisie, there exists only tendernessand sympathy.

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C 54 ]At the very comprehensive Steinlen exhibi-

tion held in London during the spring of 1914,in which the artist made his debut to the Britishpublic, one was impressed with his really greatpowers as a draughtsman. In this colle6lion ofdrawings, lithographs and etchings it was ap-parent that his concern had not been with anyof the problems of the painter, but solely withdrawing, the rarest quality in art. His drawingsare beautiful in themselves, as are those of Hol-bein, Leonardo, Diirer, Ingres and Beardsley.His etched line is as incisive and trenchant as thatof Zorn, while many of his lithographs are asdelicate and full of feeling as Whistler's Songson Stone.With much pertinence Steinlen has been called

the Millet of the streets, for in his studies of thetoiling workers of Paris, of the inhabitants ofwhat is called Bohemia, of the destitute, we findthe same understanding that we find in the peas-ants of Millet. . .

Steinlen's artistic output has been enormous:

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C 55 ]his pencil is nearly as a6live as was Daumier's.During his early manhood he emigrated from hishome in Switzerland to Paris, where he has re-mained. During 1891-92 there appeared a longseries of drawings in Gil Bias, followed by hun-dreds of illustrations for the books of Fran9oisCoppe, Guy de Maupassant, Anatole France andother artists, as well as for the songs of Bruant,the cabaret singer, and the chansons entitledDans la Route. Of extreme beauty and full ofsentiment is his set of lithographs entitled Chan-sons de Montmartre, inimitable is his book ofdrawings called Des Chats. Then there are nu-merous posters, such as the famous Lait purSterilise, showing a little girl drinking from abowl of milk, with three cats intently regardingher, as well as one of Yvette Guilbert, with thelong black gloves that belonged to the Cafe desAmbassadeurs days. The effectiveness of theafftches, as well as many of his drawings, hasbeen enhanced by the employment of two orthree flat masses of colour.

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C 56 JSimplicity is the keynote of his art, for he is

interested only in the essential. An anonymouscritic, discussing his genius [vide Steinlen andHis Art, a volume of twenty-four drawings pub-lished in London in 1911 ), makes this apt quo-tation from Voltaire: "The art of being a boreis the art of saying everything." And this fromSchopenhauer: "The effe6l produced by a com-plete pi6lure is often far less profound than thatof the simple rough sketch on which the pi6lureis based."

Steinlen's gifted pencilhas alwaysbeen wieldedon the side of justice, and he has fought manybattles for the oppressed. Certain issues of theChambord Socialiste containing powerful andtragic cartoons on a strike of the miners weresuppressed by the government.

HaldaneMacfall in his history of painting saysof Steinlen that he is "one of the giants of hisage, a man who has bettered the world, liftedhis generation, and brought honour to his greatpeople." Certainly he has put Paris before us as

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C 57 ]has no other artist, and without employing anyof the mockery of Lautrec or the bitter satire ofForain, for above all this Swiss protestarit is ahumanist.

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BOARDMAN ROBINSON

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BOARDMAN ROBINSONTHE drawings of Mr. Boardman Robinsoncompel attention by reason of their boldand sure draughtsmanship, their simple tech-nique : everything has been omitted that was notessential.

After a course of study in America, Mr. Rob-inson most wisely went to Paris, which is, afterall, the most stimulating place for artistic en-deavour. It is evident from his work that duringthis sojourn he fell under the spell of Forain,whose work in turn has Degas and the Japaneseas artistic forebears. But he did not slavishly copyForain: he absorbed much useful knowledgefrom studying the technical side of his work, atthe same time retaining his own individuality.His drawings could never be taken for the workof Forain; for one thing, we do not find in hisswift notations, clever as they are, the greatknowledge that is back of Forain's drawings.The great mass of Mr. Robinson's work is in

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C 62 ^black and white, being cartoons and drawings forthe daily and weekly press: this was the audiencesought also by Daumier, Gavarni, Leech, Keene,Forain and Steinlen. His drawings are sketchedin with charcoal or black chalk and completed insepia, while occasionally Chinese white has beenemployed for emphasis. Many of the cartoons,such as the impressive one reproduced here,of the Austrian Emperor, a drawing which waspublished at the time of the assassination of theCrown Prince and Crown Princess, are on rathertoo large a scale; consequently they appear tobetter advantage, and gain in force, in the re-duced reprodu6lion.

Mr. Robinson has quite recently returnedfroman adventurous sketching trip through the Bal-kan States and Russia, bringing back with hima most interesting series of drawings, many ofwhich were placed on view in New York in Jan-uary, 1916. These sketches of types and scenesalong theway show that all the pi6luresque feat-ures of warfare have not entirely disappeared;

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C 63 3the drawing of the head of a Serb, reproduced inconnexion with this note, belongs to this set. Itis a very fine and a very strong drawing, lesshasty and abrupt in execution and containingmore substance than is often found in his work.It makes one hope that such a talent will be stillfurther cultivated and taken more seriously, forMr. Robinson is one of the most adroit ofAmer-ican artists whose work is in black and white.

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A,/:BOARDMAN ROBINSONThe Serb

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BY A. E. GALLATINWhistler's Pastels and Other Modern ProfilesNew edition, enlarged. A Volume of Notes on Whistler, Ernest

Haskell, Zorn, Winslow Homer, ''Max,'' Frieseke, EverettShinn and Other Artists. With 16 illustrations.Mr. Charles Matlack Price in Arts and Decoration, JVew YorkMr. Gallatin is always a welcome essayist, not only in his genial andenthusiastic style, but in his capacity for finding much interest in thebyways and less frequented paths of artistic achievement. His is thepen appreciative that finds either a new and admirable phase to admirein the work of a much-known artist, or that discovers a less-knownartist outright and allows us to share in the fruits of the discovery.His criticism is selective to a degree even captious at times withthe fortunate result tliat such gleanings in the field of art as he choosesto present to the public are always worthy of tlie public's most politeattention. . . . For short and distinctly illuminating flashes of geniusthese scattering notes make an enjoyable bit of reading.

Mr. Richard Le Gallienne in The International, JVeno YorkMr. Gallatin, need one say, lias an uncommon talent for crisp com-ment, for catching the essential quality of a thing of art in a brief, sen-sitive plirase. It is a remarkable thing to concentrate such a varietyof skilled chai-acterization of artists so diverse in so few pages.

The Connoisseur, LondonMr. Gallatin is a writer who has achieved the art of saying somethingpertinent in a short space, and saying it well. ... A crisp, piquantstyle. Illuminative and always happily expressed reviews.

[over

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The Portraits and Caricatures ofJames McNeill Whistler

An Iconography. With 20 illustrationsMr. Royal Cortissoz in JVew York Tribune

This carefully framed iconography is a solid achievement for whichevery collector of Whistlerana will be duly grateful. . . . AltogetherMr. Gallatin has distinguished himself.

Miss E. L. Gary in JVew York TimesAn iconography to be prized by every one interested in the most re-nowned of American artists, and one that wovdd be sufficiently enter-taining and enlivening to any observer keen to note character in physi-ognomy.

Scotsman, EdinburghScholarly and endlessly interesting. . . . Will always have authorityamong collectors and always be delightful to look over.

Transcrifit, BostonMr. Gallatin's little volume shows a great deal of research. He hasa happy faculty of expressing himself with clearness and brevity andhis descriptions are admirable.

Academy, LondonMr. Gallatin's iconography will prove an invaluable book of referenceand mine of knowledge.

Arts and Decoration , N'em YorkThis iconography is a masterjjiece of completeness and should be inthe possession of every sincere admirer of Whistler.

Notes on Some Rare Portraits of WhistlerWith 6 illustrations

NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANYLONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD

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