Gallery 69.

“Phyllis” here represents John W. Alexander, that most capable artist, lost to the world recently at the height of a very useful career.  John W. Beatty’s and Francis Murphy’ landscapes, on either side, are both beautiful, in the Barbizon spirit.  Howard Russell Butler’s “Spirits of the Twilight” is very luminous, and Lawton Parker’s “Paresse” in its sensual note runs “Stella” a close second in a colour scheme and design of such beauty that one cannot help getting a great deal of aesthetic satisfaction from it, aside from its too apparent sensational character.

Gallery 68.

This large central gallery averages unusually high in the large number of excellent things it contains.  Four big, well studied marines by William Ritschel make one feel proud of the contribution they make to the field of American marine painting.  It is very hard to say which one of our four well-represented marine painters, Carlsen, Waugh, Dougherty, and Ritschel, is most captivating.  However, a canvas like Ritschel’s “In the Shadow of the Cliffs” will always hold its own among the best.  Ritschel’s work is easily recognized by this robust, healthy tone; it reveals sound values and intimate study.  One of Johansen’s small landscapes, and another one by H. M. Camp, on the second line of this wall, grow in one’s estimation on longer acquaintance.  They are in fine style and very big for their size, largely by reason of their monumental skies.  Howard Cushing’s group in the center is full of skillfully presented detail, without losing in breadth in the many different subjects he paints.  His portrait of a lady, in the center, is distinguished in every way, not least so in expression.

Johansen’s main group of pictures, all on one wall, stand for breadth and intimate study alike.  The Venetian square canvas in the middle is one of the jewels of this exhibition.  There is no end of distinctive canvases in this gallery, as one must conclude on going over to the two big Daniel Garbers, which are more of the typical American type than his others in the group.  The one on the right is a perfect unit of colour, atmosphere, and pattern.  In between, Spencer’s backyard pictures reveal a sympathetic younger painter who, for reason of his choice of proletarian subjects, does not get the attention he more than deserves.  Most original in technique and charming in tone, they interest wherever one meets them in the exhibition.

On the second line a delightful Speicher landscape should not be overlooked.  On wall D an important winter landscape by Schofield reminds one forcibly of the many excellent painters of ice and snow we have in this country.  They are really the backbone of our American outdoor artists, and all of them, with the exception of Gardner Symons, can be found in the exhibition.  To this group, beside Redfield and Schofield, before mentioned, belong Charles Morris Young, John F. Carlson, Charles Rosen, and others.  Leon Kroll’s “River Industries” and “Weehawken Terminal,” on the second line, are so typically American in subject that they would have been unacceptable to the public here twenty years ago.