“Met any of our American artists?”
“I have in Europe, yes. Quite a number of them, and very talented gentlemen some of them are, too.”
“I suppose Europe lays over this country in the matter of art, don’t it?”
“I beg your pardon.”
“Knocks the spots out of us in pictures?”
“I don’t know that I quite follow you. Do you mean that we produce pictures more rapidly than you do here?”
“No, I just mean the whole tout ensemble of the thing. They are ‘way ahead of us, are they not, in art?”
“Well, you see, as I said before—really, I am not in a position to make any comparison, because I am entirely ignorant of American painting. It seems to me that certain branches of art ought to flourish here. There is no country in the world with grander scenery than America.”
“Been out to the Rockies?”
“Where is that?”