Evening Star Newspaper, May 10, 1931, Page 88

- | NOIES G Calendar of Exhibitions CORCORAN GALLERY OF ART, Seven- teenth street and New York avenue. Frescoes by Eben F. Comins. Paint- ings and drawings by Natalie Hays Hammond. Opened April 20. Cari- catures and Prints by Daumier, May May 4 1o 31. PHILLIPS MEMORIAL GALLERY, 1600 Twenty-first street. Modern Art and Its Sources. ., Spccial Exhibilions. Paintings by Marjorie Phillips, May 1 to 31, NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, Tenth and B (Contitution avenue) streets northwest. Permanent collection. SMITHSONIAL INSTITUTION, Tenth rand B streets southwest. Etchings by C. Jac Young. April 27 to May 26. FREER GALLERY OF ART, Tuwelfth and B strects southwest. Permanent collection. Recent Acquisitions. Art of the Near East and of East India. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, Print Divi- sion, First street between East Capitol and B streets southeast. Early Ameri- can Engravings from the Mabel Brady Garden Collection, Yale Universily. To end of May. * ARTS CLUB OF WASHINGTON, 2017 1 street morthwest. Circuit Exhibition, Southern States Art Lcague, May 3 to 16. TEXTILE MUSEUM, 2330 S _street northwest. Rugs, tap:stries and other textiles of the Near and Far East. Open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fri- days, 2 to 5 o'clock. Admission by card, obtainable at the office of G. H. Muyers, 1508 H sireet morthwest. LITTLE GALLERY, 1731 Connecticut avenue. Paintings by a group of young Washingtcn Artists. ,OKIE GALLERIES, 1640 Connecticut avenue. Paintings by Michael Cali- fano, April 30 to May 14. HE Greeks in ancient times had a saying, “Nothing in excess,” which might well be applied to many things today, and among them works of art. We have so many exhibitions, so much in abundance, that oftentimes it secms as though a great deal passed unseen. If, instead of trying to see everything in an art gallery or museum on one visit, we would cqntent ourselves with one group of exhibits, or the works contained in one gallery, we would, instead of being fatigued in body and in spirit, find genuine recreation and leave refreshed. “The little exhibition of lithographs by Daumier now on view in the upper atrium of the Corcoran Gallery of Art furnishes excelle_m. example. These prints alone are of a quality and character well calculated to supply an hour of delight. They are the works of one of the greatest caricatures that the world has produced, and also one of the most competent artists. They give a vivid and amazing picture of life in Paris in Daumier’s time, and they are so full of real human nature that they are as engaging today as when they were produced. Some are in black and white, others have been colored, and beautifully cclored, by hand. For the most part they were not produced as works of art but with illustration purpose, and were sold in connection with the publications for which they were made. In other words, hers we have examples of art for the masses, art of an extraordinary quality, which was produced in quantity and without the consciousness of its worth, either on the part of the producer or of those who delighted in it. These lithographs by Daumier admirably {llustrate that Willlam M. Ivins of the Metro- politan Museum means when he urges us today to collect prints from newspapers, magazines and thé like which have artistic quality, rather than the works by past masters which have attaincd high markets values. To an extent the color prints of the great print makers of Japan were of this same sort, produced at a trifiing eost in quantity for the enjoyment of the masses—popular art., However, we need not forzet that Hokusais and Daumiers are scarce, even in Japan and Prance. And also that Daumier used his art of satire for the correc- tion of ills and evils, as well as for the amuse- ment of the many. Onc series of prints now on view at the Corccran Gallery consists of humorous pictures of usu2l and unusual people in a public bath house—amusing enough in that day as in this. Another series, however, is more satirical and was a2imed at the meanness of the commercial world, apparently of no greater integrity then than now. When it comes to unadulterated caricature his drawing of Fulchir is superb, a beautiful piece of draftsmanship, an amazing portrait in which every inch of the man'’s figure se>ms to indicate character, and the exaggera- tion of the caricaturist is so subtle as to almost b3 unobserved. with delight one finds in this charming loan collection a drawing of one of the lawyers, familiar through the group of three so masterly painted in the little picture in the Phillips Mcmorial Gallery, Here, with an armful «f legal papers, he is descending the steps of the Palais de Justice, his colleagues lingering on the upper platform. Obviously there are the merry jests at marital life-—jcalousies, lovers, surprises, ete. But there is always & touch in Daumier’s works which shows him to be sympathetic toward human- kind in its fraflties, and never in his humor docs one detect the least suggestion of a sneer. Daumier made his living as a caricaturist, an iilustrator, but he was supremely great as a painter, and he modeled with uncommon skill, ‘rom the catalogue of the Corot-Daumier exhibition held last Fall at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the following notation is taken: “Honore Victorin Daumier was born in M%rseilles in 1808. His father was a glazier wio moved to Paris in 1823 bent upon a literary career after one of his decidedly mediocre pocirs had been published in his native city. « - THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, MAY 10, AL N\H 1931. ' AND % LELA MECHLIN Daumier Lithographs on View at Corcoran Galleryof Art Lxhibitionof R gient Work of Marjorie Phillips— Other Notes. o B Lithograph by Honore Daumier. In collection on view at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. ‘The young Honore developed a prodigious talent for drawing, studied for a short time at Boudin's Academy and fell in finally with a lithographer named Ramelet, who taught him the new art at that time just reaching its crest of popu- larity. By 1828 he had published his first lithograph and three years later had joined 5 the staff of ‘Caricature’ under the fanatical Philipon. Already in 1831, the year after the revolution, the new government under Louis Philippe had completely disillusioned politically conscious observers by its stupidity and eor- ruption. Daumier immediately delighted Philipon by a series of cartoons of grafting “Nita of New Orleans,” a painting by Mabel Ebersole. Included in circuit exhi- bition of Southern States Art League. A AK politiclans—among them the King himself as Gargantua, feeding upon gold pieces. This proved so exasperating that Daumier was sen- tenced to prison in Ste. Pelagle for six months. But after his release early in 1833 he became an even greater affliction to the ruling order by satirical portraits of ministers and legisia« tors. Their exact detail and dense black model= ing are characteristic of Daumier’s early lithoe graphic technique, * * * ‘Caricaturc’ was sup= pressed in 1835, but Philipon’s ‘Charivari® continued to depend upon Daumier's services for many years afterward—and unfortunately Daumier had to depend upon ‘Charivari.’” For 40 succeeding years Daumier gave the greater part of his time to illustration and caricature. The writer of this essay traces in the works of Daumier a certain far Eastern technique and suggests that he may possibly have studied the works of great Oriental artists. But it seems more likely that the similarity arises as coincident—great art having but one source. Daumier died in 1879 a poor man, indebted to Corot for the house in which he had lived for the last few years of his life, and buried for 12 francs at public expense. A year later his body was moved to the cemetery of Pere Lachaise beside the grave of Corot. REATER variety in subject than heretofore is shown in the exhibition of recent works by Marjorie Phillips which opened at the Phil- lips Memorial Gallery last week and will con- tinue until the first of June. Heretofore Mrs, Phillips has chiefly shown landscapes, some- times with figures and still life, but in the present collection are included not only these subjects, but interiors, flowers and subject pic- tures—that is, pictures of out-of-door life in which figures in well composed groups are promlPently featured. Mfs. Phillips paints somewhat in the style of the French artists of today, but without the least trace of conscious following. Like them, she is extremely sensitive to nuances of color, color as played upon by atmosphere and tempered light. Her works invariably are atmospheric, reticent, naive, sincere. They take one out of the world of noise and bustle, comm= mercialism and confusion, and into an atmos- phere of beauty and repose. Occasionally & note of gayety is introduced, but for the most part they are serious, characterful. : In a gallery adjoining that in which Mrs, Phillips’ works are shown at the present time & group of paintings by Weir and Twachtman are on view. There is a certain suitability in this juxta-position, as there is not a little similarity, in style between Mrs. Phillips’ paintings, whickh are to an extent in modern mode, and those of the great and sensitive poet-painters who passed away before the word modernism was coined. Both Twachtman and Weir saw the outdoor world through veils of atmosphere and gave it subtle expression. Perhaps the works by these men which are now on view are more subtle and less virile than many which they produced, but undoubtedly they were selected to illustrate a particular phase of painting, and the selection was wisely made. Happily in the midst of these landscapes is shown one of Weir’s great portraits, that of a young woman, gravely but superbly painted. Both of these exhibits will continue through- out the month. HE exhibition of paintings by members of the Southern States Art League, which opened at the Arts Club a week ago to con- tinue through May 23, is proving of exceptional interest. There is scarcely & work included therein that would not hold its own in any of the leading exhibitions, and the average upheld throughout is far higher than that of the usual current showing. Two local artists are represented here—Clara Saunders, by a water color of & vase of flowers, beautifully painted, to which the Southern Continued on Eighteenth Page ART SCHOOLS. HILL SCHOOL of ART 6 DUPONT CIRCLE Sketching out of doors Saturday afternooms Under Benson Moore. Felix Mahony’s National Art School Interior Decoration, Costume Design, Commercial Art, Color. 1747 R. 1. Ave. North 1114 & THE ABBOTT SCHOOL of FINE and COMMERCIAL ART Summer Session 1624 H St. N.W. Nat. 8054 Commercial Art School Summer School—Children’s Class Tune in on “WMAL,” Thursday, 9 A.M. ACADEMY—~— 1383 ¥ ST. N.W. ME. 2883