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with's boldly painted likeness of President Fellows, of the Maine State University in his academical robes.

Charles S. Parker's interesting head of Elbert Hubbard is also a good specimen of accurate portraiture, while a remarkably effective and well-executed painting of an attractive subject is Mrs. Catherine D. Wentworth's portrait of a handsome. young lady arrayed in gray furs.

One of the choicest and cleverest pieces in the exhibition is Mr. John W. Alexander's "The Green Gown." Like Whistler, Mr. Alexander seldom aims to produce a likeness; he concerns himself chiefly with colors and textures, and in his knowledge of values, and the delicacy of his methods, he very often suggests Whistler, in his work. This figure of a girl with a rather subtle face, posing in a thin, black and green

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tone, of the Dutch peasant woman, finely conceived, and executed with unmistakable fidelity.

Mr. Frank W. Benson of the Boston Museum School of Art has sent his familiar picture, "Summer Sunlight," representing a child in white. standing in the full light of outdoors. Mr. Benson's sole aim in this peculiar and charming picture is evidently the effect of sunlight and color, and he has gained it by methods peculiarly his own. Mr. Benson's work is nothing if not individual.

But the Poland Spring collection does not consist entirely of figure paintings and portraits. Some of its choicest contributions are landscapes and marines, the place of honor being given to Mr. H. H. Gallison's mammoth canvas, depicting the sand dunes of Annisquam. This has been termed Mr. Gallison's finest painting, and well it might be, for the artist has caught the very spirit of the open. Sky and sea and breezy upland are here presented with a freedom and breadth of spirit, a boldness of technique, and a truth and richness of color that make it a truly impressive picture.

John W. Alexander has sent an oddly charming sketch, a group of tall, slender birches standing in relief against a clear sky. J. Alden Weir is also represented by two compositions, very poetic in feeling and satisfying in color, "Autumn," and "Spring, Windham, Conn."

Mr. Ben Foster's "Glimpse of Lake Ontario" is a particularly wellmade piece of work; and Mr. H. Bolton Jones's "Spring" and "An Afternoon in Summer" are especially delightful. Mr. Dwight Blaney sends two paintings in his characteristic, impressionist manner, "October," and "Toward the Sand Dunes."

Two other young artists who paint in a somewhat impressionist style, are also represented; Mr. Wilber Dean Hamilton by a study of the Public Garden, called "Arlington Gate," a very attractive bit, full of atmosphere and subtle color; and Mr. Herman Dudley Murphy by a small canvas, "The Strand, London, England," a difficult composition, successfully handled.

Among the marines, Mr. Charles H. Woodbury's "Ogunquit" and "After the Equinox" take first rank. Mr. Woodbury shows the ocean in its moods of sublimity and cruel grandeur, as few artists have succeeded in doing, and his work is more individual than that of any marine artist before the public. By what process of magic brush-work he gets his results is a mystery, but his surging billows express all the restless sweep and power of the ocean, and his wonderful color effects, while always true to nature, could never be attributed to any other artist. Boston claims Charles H. Woodbury with pride.

Walter L. Dean has also sent two characteristic marines. Those who are acquainted with their Gloucester know how well he has caught and imprisoned its spirit in his charming painting, "Gloucester Harbor." His other work is the well-known picture of two fishermen lost in the fog, a painting that never fails in its appeal to the imagination. For the "story" element is strongly in evidence, and though the lovers of art "for art's sake" may rail at "literary purpose" in a painting, such compositions as this one of Mr. Dean's hold a rightful place in the world of true art. Would that more of our modern painters would deign to inject a few ideas into their "pictorial" but empty canvases!

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Two other marines, very distinctive and marked by local fidelity, are Mr. W. J. Bixbee's "After the Storm, Marblehead," and Carlton T. Chapman's "Fishing Boats, English Channel."

"Sunrise" and "sunset" paintings have a never-failing charm for the popular mind, for, next to pictures with the "something happening" implication, those that reproduce, or attempt to, nature's own wonderful color effects as seen in the morning and evening sky, have a peculiar attraction for the unpretending lover of art. Perhaps in no kind of painting is there a wider scope for the imagination to get in its work than

in a "Sunset." A wonderful dreamy and poetic charm may be expressed or suggested in its subtle variations and nuances of color. On the other hand, it may easily degenerate, under an unsure brush, into a ludicrous or painful travesty. Mr. W. P. Burpee, in his two paintings at Poland Spring, "Sunrise at Capri" and "Sunset," and Mr. H. W. Faulkner, in his "Sunrise in Venice, Salute," have each expressed, in his own individual way, much of that ideal charm and satisfying color relation that I have in mind.

Of paintings of animals there are few at Poland Spring, chiefly for the reason that the painters themselves

are rare. To paint animals acceptably implies a very unusual order of talent.

Mr. J. A. S. Monks, is a Boston artist who has made the painting of sheep his specialty. His landscape with sheep and his "Ewe's Head" at Poland Spring justify the high rank he has attained in this line of work. They are realistically and finely painted, and betray a surprising knowledge of his interesting and difficult subjects.

In the midst of this collection of large and striking canvases that insistently claim the attention, the small, delicate and unobtrusive art of the miniaturist which also has a place here, is in danger of being overlooked. But not by the discriminating critic. It is noticeable that most miniature painters are women. Those represented here include Ethel Blanchard, Sally Cross, Jean N. Oliver, Lizzie Frances Waite, Elizabeth Taylor Watson, Nellie L. Thompson, Emma G. Moore and Ava D. Lagercrantz. All have contributed work of high quality. Miss Blanchard's three miniatures, including a portrait of Roswell M. Field, should be especially commended, as also Miss Cross's charming "Portrait of Miss L." Very noticeable, too, are Mrs. Watson's

"Suggestion of a Flower," Miss Wait's portrait of "Elmer Wait" and Miss Oliver's head of a lovely

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child.

A word or two must be said regarding the exhibit of sculptures, a relatively small but creditable showing. Bela L. Pratt has sent four basreliefs, including his already wellknown reliefs of Dr. Shattuck's children and the Herbert Sears children, singularly charming and faithful representations of childhood. Herbert Adams's "Figure of a Bather" is fine

MINIATURE (PORTRAIT OF MISS L.), By Sally Cross.

in sentiment and execution. Samuel J. Kitson is represented by a bust of E. S. Converse and one of Col. Henry Walker, and Thomas Brock by a bust of Henry W. Longfellow, all excellent and characteristic work.

In a final summing up of the Poland Spring Art Exhibition of 1904, it cannot be said that it contains no work deserving of unfavorable criticism, and no work that does not add distinction to the gathering. Mistakes will creep into the best regulated art exhibitions. Yet it

must be said that the mistakes hanging in the gallery at Poland are few indeed. It has been the present writer's task to praise a small part of what has seemed worthy of praise, leaving much meritorious work per

force unmentioned.

Art, as somebody has said, is, after all, a personal matter. Every eye forms its own beauty, every mind its own criterion, and the question of what is good in art will always be

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