With the exception of one canvas, the pictures on walls B and D
are by J. Alden Weir, another roadbreaker, and an experimenter with new
effects of light and atmosphere. In such canvases as "June" and "White
Oak" one finds some of the best that American art has built on the
theories of Monet.
Gallery 50 contains some good landscapes, but nothing that demands
special attention aside from Sergeant Kendall's refined figure studies.
Gallery 51 is given over in general to the independents and extremists
of American art. Here are canvases by Glackens, Sloan, and Breckenridge,
rather disappointing to one who has watched hopefully the movement they
represent. Certainly their exhibits are suggestive of a rather
undisciplined vigor and freedom. On wall C the five canvases in the
lower row are by Robert Henri. They are the experiments of a master,
rather than his best works. The truly representative Henri picture is
the "Lady in Black Velvet," on wall D. This has a wonderful synthetic
quality, a suppression of detail and a spotting of interest at the
important point. There is, too, a spiritual quality that is lacking in
the other canvases. On the other side of the doorway is Gertrude
Lambert's "Black and Green," a notably fine canvas.
The only other general rooms of the contemporary American section are
those at the far north end of the building, beyond the foreign sections,
numbered from 117 to 120.
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