Art: Sargent Notes

Prominent persons flocked to the Metropolitan Museum, Manhattan, for the opening of a memorial exhibition of the paintings of John Singer Sargent—59 of his best oils, 62 of the deft little watercolor sketches that were his travel-notes on Spain, Italy, Switzerland.

On the same day the Reinhardt Galleries announced that they had just sold Mr. Sargent’s portrait of Princess Demidov to Mrs. Edward D. Libbey, widow of the Toledo glass manufacturer, for $40,000.

In London, the Royal Academy exhibition of Sargent’s work opened at Burlington House. U. S. tourists pointed their noses and their pencils at painting after painting, eager to point out the superiority of those borrowed from the U. S. to those owned in England. But alas, although 615 paintings were hung, not a single one came from the U. S. “Why not?” tourists asked indignantly. “Why do you go out of your way to ignore the superb U. S. collections?”

“Because,” answered W. R. M. Lamb, Secretary of the Academy, “we knew that the Sargent exhibition in Boston* would make it impossible for us to borrow any large number of works in possession of American owners. There are 300 in that exhibition, but it hasn’t so many oils as we have. An American friend of Sargent who has seen the collection here remarked on its magnificent brightness, which makes the American Sargents look drab. That’s because we have brilliant uniforms and brilliant ceremonies.”

If some disgruntled tourist should soak his catalogue in kerosene, light it and set fire to a picture, fanning the conflagration on until the flame, leaping from masterpiece to masterpiece, kindled the whole collection and turned Burlington House first into an inferno and then into a pile of ashes, insurance companies would pay the owners of the pictures $3,000,000. The portrait of Lord Balfour, loaned by the Carlton Club, was alone insured for $100,000.

* It closed Dec. 27.