Tuesday, May 2, 1916:

Christian Science Monitor

[Special to The Christian Science Monitor]

Concord, Mass. - The second annual Concord art exhibition opened in the town hall here today to continue through May 9, closing with an auction of sketches by Elizabeth W. Roberts and others for the benefit of the Belgian relief fund. A small admission fee is charged, which also goes to the fund. There are 88 numbers in the catalogue, representative of many well known New England painters and etchers, quite surpassing in general interest and importance the Concord show of last year.

A central position is awarded to Charles H. Davis’ “L’Allegro” [20], a noble landscape in his best naturalistic vein. Beautifully individualized clouds fill the expanse of sky and dapple a rugged seaside hill country, with light and shade. A little inlet of blue water in the foreground gives a strong repeated accent to the azure shore, and a curving bit of road carries the eye over a little hillock into the beauty of it all.

“The Cove” [87], by C. W. Woodbury, is one of his Ogunquit series with surging flood tide, timorous bathers and towering cliffs. An early work by Edmund C. Tarbell, “My Family at Cotuit” [80] is a painting often seen in exhibitions that grows in interest with the years and matching the high quality of this artist’s admired painting, “In the Woods,” now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Philip I. Hale’s “White Roses” [32] and “Pink Dogwood” [33] make dainty spots on the wall.

Louis Kronberg shows “In the Dressing Room” [42], the oil in blue green and pink harmonies recently admired at the Boston Art Club show. John J. Enneking shows one of his many studies of the “Trout Brook” [23], this is in a silvery aspect, when new fallen rain has transformed every little point into a glittering jewel. George I. Noyes shows “Gray Day at Gloucester” [53], in which the artist has subordinated all obvious technique to setting down the portrait of a place and a mood.

Arthur C. Goodwin shows two winter scenes that capture with considerable conviction elusive aspects of two well-known spots in Boston. Miss Elizabeth W. Roberts shows “Concord, May” [71], which pictures the green, lavender and mauve buddings of spring by the brimming Concord river on just such a day as Monday. Charles Hovey Pepper shows a strong little work, “A Certain Person” [64].

Adelaide Cole Chase shows a distinguished portrait in black and white and a melting still life. “The House of the High Trees” [4], by Alice Worthington Ball, is a large, romantic and well-made work. Marion P. Waitt shows a small landscape with great brooding trees and a truthful bit of turf and road. This work is not [ ? ], nor is Wilbur Dean Hamilton’s [suavely?] agreeable “Venice.”

Mary Butler shows two of the rich, dark-hued well made Irish landscapes she paints so convincingly. Frank W. Benson is represented by “September Afternoon” [8], in which he evidently was chiefly interested in the play of light and shade on the young woman seated under a tree, and has painted the play with surpassing skill. Mr. Benson’s 14 stirring etchings dominate the anteroom for the small exhibits. William S. Kaula shows one of his poetic landscapes.

Other painters represented are:

In the print room Elizabeth Shipman Green Elliot shows two illustrations “The Night Wind” and “The Dryad,” distinguished for their imaginative qualities. W. H. W. Bichnell’s three etchings, “Edge of the Woods,” “Row of Birches” and “The Four Trees” are representative of his best work and have long been popular prints with collectors. Alexander R. James has three of his workmanlike and tasteful portrait heads in red chalk on view. Charles H. Woodbury shows five etchings, including one of a lobsterman putting out to sea that is full of vigor. There is lively action in Gertrude Fiske’s “Trees.” Other staple work is shown by

Concord’s Art Show
Boston Evening Transcript, May 2, 1916

One Hundred and Forty-three American Pictures in Second Annual Exhibition in Town Hall From: W. H. D. The Fine Arts, Concord’s Art Show.

The second annual exhibition of works of art in Concord, Mass., was duly opened today, in the Town Hall, to continue for a week or until next Tuesday evening. It is open daily from 2 to 6 and from 8 to 10 p.m. The catalogue contains 143 numbers, of which eighty-eight are oil paintings, and the rest drawings, etchings and bookplates. There are, however, some eleventh hour additions which do not figure in the catalogue, so that it is safe to say the collection will run towards 160 items. The “committee of selection” was composed of Frederick A. Bosley, Elizabeth Shippen Green Elliott, Ethel G. Hoyle, Charles H . Pepper, Elizabeth Wentworth Roberts, and Alice Ruggles Sohier. The hanging committee was composed of Miss Roberts and Miss Gertrude Fiske.

The hall makes a very fair picture gallery. The cross-lights do not seem to “swear” at each other very much. The majority of the paintings shown have been seen either at the Guild or at other Boston exhibitions within the last year or so. On the wall opposite the entrance there are works by Charles H. Woodbury, William James, Louis Kronberg, Charles H. Davis, Frank W. Benson, Adelaide Cole Chase, Philip L. Hale. Elsewhere are examples of Mr. Tarbell, Mr. Hawthorne, Mr. Hopkinson, Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Goodwin, Mr. Enneking, Mr. Kaule, Mr. Major, Mr. Little, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Noyes, Mr. Paxton, and other Boston painters.

Mr. Woodbury’s “The Cove” is a striking piece of rich color, but it does not look like any cove outside of a dream. Mr. Davis’s “L’Allegro” is one of his most impressive landscapes, and answers well to its title. Two admirable landscapes are Mr. Noyes’s “Gray Day at Gloucester” and “Spring Landscape.” --Alice Worthington Ball leaps into sudden prominence with a large upright picture called “The House of the High Trees,” which has been given a place of honor on one of the walls of choice and original piece of glowing color is W. D. Hamilton’s “Venice.” Mr. [?] “Springtime” is a good example of his work. Marian P. Waitt exhibits a handsome landscape sketch. Miss Robert’s “Concord, May” is very appropriately exhibited here. The two Boston street scenes by Mr. Goodwin look extremely well with their slushy snow under foot and their green skies overhead. There is a dashing breezy marine piece by Mr. Hopkinson, in which everything is a flutter.

As most of the figure pieces and portraits have already been under fire, it is not worth while to waste much ammunition on them now. Mr. Benson’s “September Afternoon” is the same pleasant and joyous outdoor effect of sunlight upon summer girls in white muslin smocks that it has ever been; and Mr. Tarbell’s “My Family at Cotuit” is the same delightful summer vision it has always appeared. Mr. Hale’s “White Roses” and “Pink Dogwood” help to accentuate the felicitous note of so many summertime pictures. The portraits by Mrs. Chase, Mr. James, Mr.. Nordell, and others, with the figure composition of Mr. Bosley, Mrs. Sohier, Miss Rogers, Mrs. Page, Mr. Paxton, Mr. McLellan, Mr. Kronberg, Mr. Hawthorne, Mr. Churchill, Mr. Major, Miss Fiske, Mrs. Kaula, Miss Pooke, Mrs. Perry, Mr. Pepper, Miss Richardson, Miss Smith, Mrs. Van Ness, and others, go to make up a real Boston Salon.

But perhaps the most enjoyable and interesting feature of the exhibition is the roomful of black-and-white pictures, fifty-five in number, the great majority of them etchings. Here we find a group of no less than fourteen of Mr. Benson’s etchings including his “Nan.” “Whistlers,” “The Landing,” “Sunset,” and “Clam Diggens.” Here also is a group of five of Mr. Woodbury’s etchings, including his “Blowing Trees” and “Porpoises.” Three remarkably fine landscape etchings by W. H. W. Bicknell, full of pungent style and sententious expression, are the “Edge of the Woods,” “Row of Trees.” and “The Four Trees.” A group of three sanguine drawings of heads by Alexander R. James, the portraits of Miss Henderson and of Mr. Alsop and a study of a young girl are masterly works. There are two most interesting and lovely drawings by Mrs. Elliott. “The Dryad” and “The Night Wind,” the last-named work one of those illustrations which would be the making of any story, with its romantic appeal to the imagination.

This cabinet of black-and-white also brings to view many other delightful things, among them four of Dwight C. Sturges’s etchings; three of Sears Gallagher’s etchings, including his “Windsor Inn”; a group of etchings and drawings by Lester G. Hornby, including his “Notre Dame de Paris”; a drawing by Lillian W. Hale, entitled “Floretta”; an etching, “Trees,” by Gertrude Fiske, and works by Susan H . Bradley, Ethel Blanchard Collver, Christine T. Curtis, William H. Dwiggins, Ethel G. Hoyle, Mary B. Jones, George T. Plowman, Hermann Paterschein, Elizabeth W. Roberts, Amy M. Sacker, and Stanley W. Woodward.

On May 9, in the evening, there will be an auction of war posters and relics, together with sketches by Miss Roberts, in aid of the war sufferers. Not only is the Concord exhibition an event of high artistic interest in itself, but all Concord, that most interesting and beautiful of towns, is now at its springtime best--an exhibition in itself that is always well worth seeing.

W. H. D.

From the Catalogue Concord Annual Exhibition Second Year. Town Hall, Concord, Mass. May 1 to May 9, 1916

Oils

Drawings, Etchings and Bookplates

Concord Art Association for its permanent collection; four Parisian studies by Frank Brangwyn, and five drawings by Elizabeth Shippen Green Elliott.