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| HAILING THE FERRY - This magnificent oil
painting is the property of the Academy of the Fine Arts, of
Philadelphia, and was exhibited by that institution in the collection
of the United States. It hung on the east wall of Gallery 8, which
was in the extreme northeast corner of the main Art Palace. Two French women approach the
river. One beckons and the other calls loudly. The ferryman runs to
his scow and soon will be over. This scene is depicted with the
sterling integrity of the Barbizon school of French art, and will
fill the historian with satisfaction, if not the idealist. If these
pictures of peasant life shall be preserved during the march of
progress, the sociologist will have authentic measurements of his
success. It was for a time believed that the faithful artists who
thus depicted the life of the lowly, aimed their canvases against the
possessions of the wealthy, but it came about that the deadliest
danger of the rich man was his ambition to possess pictures so true,
owing to the rapid increase in their valuation. This canvas was the
work of D. Ridgway Knight, of Paris, and was the only specimen of his
art on exhibition at Chicago. The enduring patience and skill of the
modern school are testified in the entire treatment. |
