BOOKS BY PROF. JOHN C. VAN DYKE
Art for Art’s Sake. University Lectures on the Technical Beauties of Painting. With 24 Illustrations. 12mo.
The Meaning of Pictures. University Lectures at the Metropolitan Museum, New York. With 31 Illustrations. 12mo
Studies in Pictures. An Introduction to the Famous Galleries. With 40 Illustrations. 12mo
What is Art? Studies in the Technique and Criticism of Painting. 12mo
Text Book of the History of Painting. With 110 Illustrations. New Edition. 12mo
Old Dutch and Flemish Masters. With Timothy Cole’s Wood-Engravings. Superroyal 8vo
Old English Masters. With Timothy Cole’s Wood-Engravings. Superroyal 8vo
Modern French Masters. Written by American Artists and Edited by Prof. Van Dyke. With 66 Full-page Illustrations. Superroyal 8vo
New Guides to Old Masters. Critical Notes on the European Galleries, Arranged in Catalogue Order. Frontispieces. 12 volumes. Sold separately
Nature for Its Own Sake. First Studies in Natural Appearances. With Portrait. 12mo
The Desert. Further Studies in Natural Appearances. With Frontispiece. 12mo
The Opal Sea. Continued Studies in Impressions and Appearances. With Frontispiece. 12mo
The Mountain. Renewed Studies in Impressions and Appearances. With Frontispiece. 12mo
The Money God. Chapters of Heresy and Dissent concerning Business Methods and Mercenary Ideals in American Life. 12mo
The New New York. A Commentary on the Place and the People. With 125 Illustrations by Joseph Pennell.
AMERICAN PAINTING
AND ITS TRADITION
AMERICAN PAINTING
AND ITS TRADITION
AS REPRESENTED BY INNESS, WYANT, MARTIN, HOMER,
LA FARGE, WHISTLER, CHASE, ALEXANDER,
SARGENT
BY
JOHN C. VAN DYKE
Author of “Art for Art’s Sake,” “The Meaning of Pictures,”
“What is Art?” etc.
With Twenty-four Illustrations
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
1919
Copyright, 1919, by Charles Scribner’s Sons
Published October, 1919
PREFACE
THE painters about whom these chapters are written helped to make up the period in American painting dating, generally, from about 1878 to, say, 1915. That period has practically closed in the sense that a newer generation with different aims and aspirations has come forward, and the men who broke ground years ago in the Society of American Artists have turned their furrow and had their day. Indeed, those I have chosen to write about herein, with the exception of Sargent, have passed on and passed out. Not only their period but their work has ended. We are now beginning to see them in something like historic perspective. Perhaps, then, the time is opportune for speaking of them as a group and of their influence upon American art.
Not all of the one-time “new movement” originated and died with these nine men. Dozens of painters became identified with American art just after the Centennial, and many of those who came back from Munich and Paris in the late seventies and the early eighties are still living and producing. But while the nine were by no means the whole count they were certainly representative of the movement, and their works speak for almost every phase of it. The value of the movement to American art can be rightly enough judged from them.
During their lives these nine did not lack for praise—some of it wise and some of it otherwise. They were much exploited in print. I myself joined in the chorus. I had more or less acquaintance with all of them, lived through the period with them, and from 1880 on wrote much about them. My opportunities for seeing and hearing were abundant, and perhaps such value as this book may possess comes from my having been a looker-on in Vienna during those years. To personal impressions I am now adding certain conclusions as to what the men on my list, taken as a body, have established. They wrought during a period of great material development—wrought in a common spirit, making an epoch in art history and leaving a tradition. The pathfinders in any period deserve well of their countrymen. And their trail is worth following, for eventually it may become a broad national highway.
J. C. V. D.
Rutgers College,
1919.
CONTENTS
| PAGE | ||
| [I.] | The Art Tradition in America | 1 |
| [II.] | George Inness | 19 |
| [III.] | Alexander H. Wyant | 43 |
| [IV.] | Homer Martin | 65 |
| [V.] | Winslow Homer | 89 |
| [VI.] | John La Farge | 115 |
| [VII.] | James Abbott McNeill Whistler | 147 |
| [VIII.] | William Merritt Chase | 185 |
| [IX.] | John W. Alexander | 217 |
| [X.] | John S. Sargent | 243 |
ILLUSTRATIONS
| FACING PAGE | |
| George Inness, “Evening at Medfield” | [32] |
| George Inness, “Sunset at Montclair” | [34] |
| Reproduced by the courtesy of F. F. Sherman, publisher of “George Inness,” by Elliott Daingerfield | |
| George Inness, “Hackensack Meadows” | [38] |
| Alexander H. Wyant, “Mohawk Valley” | [52] |
| Alexander H. Wyant, “Broad, Silent Valley” | [58] |
| Homer D. Martin, “View on the Seine” | [78] |
| Homer D. Martin, “Westchester Hills” | [84] |
| Reproduced by the courtesy of F. F. Sherman, publisher of “Homer Martin,” by Frank Jewett Mather | |
| Winslow Homer, “Undertow” | [102] |
| Winslow Homer, “Marine” | [104] |
| Winslow Homer, “Fox and Crows” | [108] |
| John La Farge, “Paradise Valley” | [130] |
| John La Farge, “The Muse” | [134] |
| John La Farge, “The Three Kings” | [138] |
| James A. McNeill Whistler, “Nocturne. Gray and Silver. Chelsea Embankment” | [158] |
| James A. McNeill Whistler, “The Princesse du Pays de la Porcelaine” | [162] |
| James A. McNeill Whistler, “The Yellow Buskin” | [168] |
| William Merritt Chase, “The Woman with the White Shawl” | [202] |
| William Merritt Chase, “Afternoon at Peconic” | [204] |
| William Merritt Chase, “Child Dancing” | [212] |
| John W. Alexander, “The Ring” | [230] |
| John W. Alexander, “Walt Whitman” | [236] |
| John S. Sargent, “Mrs. Pulitzer” | [256] |
| John S. Sargent, “Carnation Lily, Lily Rose” | [260] |
| John S. Sargent, “Carmencita” | [262] |
I