American art and American art collections; essays on artistic subjects . ny one thing, and exhibits the superficial elements of an artists nature withas much insistence as it exhibits the moods that are more vital and more peculiar to himself,there is danger in its very force, a siren power of destruction in the charm it exerts uponJiim. At first sight, we may think that there is some danger of this with Mr. Chase. There isso little sameness in his work that we are for a moment unable to form a distinct idea of hisindividuality, further than that he is a very strong painter, and a hater of sha
American art and American art collections; essays on artistic subjects . ny one thing, and exhibits the superficial elements of an artists nature withas much insistence as it exhibits the moods that are more vital and more peculiar to himself,there is danger in its very force, a siren power of destruction in the charm it exerts uponJiim. At first sight, we may think that there is some danger of this with Mr. Chase. There isso little sameness in his work that we are for a moment unable to form a distinct idea of hisindividuality, further than that he is a very strong painter, and a hater of shams and senti-mentalities, a painter with a dignified conception of his art and sufficient self-respect never todescend to trivial things. Whatever qualities may be lacking in some of his canvases, we shallnot find one, I think, that lacks sincerity, and in many the sincerity becomes an obviousenthusiasm. When we take a narrower survey of Mr. Chases works, however, we find a morepersonal accent than this in some of them. To define just what it is, — and so define the. m < X oa 3 s < £ c o Ph < o < x o 0 p = D u: Ch S m j* m < X | Eh a AMERICAN ART 227 channel into which he will most probably turn his strongest work and his sincerest efforts inthe years to come, — we must consider the sentiment of his pictures apart from their technicalexecution. This is especially necessary, for it is just the strength and flexibility of this execu-tion that make his varying canvases appear so nearly alike in value. His methods adapt them-selves so well to different needs and to the expression of different sentiments, that it is ratherhard at first to look below their surface, and say which need has been the greatest, which senti-ment the most individual, and so the most valuable to our art. Technique, I need hardly say,has an absolute intrinsic value of its own, whatever may be the theme to which it is applied, avalue which outranks all others perhaps, or, at all events, wit
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