HONOLULU ACADEMY OF ARTS Volume Five March -1937 Bulletin One

Girl with her Doll Paul Cezanne

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March CALENDAR To Mar. J,........, Paintings by Tom E . Lewis. To Mar. 28,........,Exhibition of Chinese art.

2,........,9 :30 a.m.,........,A.A.U.W. lecture series.* 2,-.-,3 :30 p.m.,........,Honolulu Art Society, music for children. 2,-.-,8 :00 p .m.,........,Opening, Honolulu Artists' show. 2 to Mar. 14,........, Honolulu Artists ' annual show. 2 to Mar. 14,........, Brush drawings by Lilian Miller. 4,-.-,4 :00 p .m.,........,Public phonograph concert.f 4,-.-,8 :00 p.m.,........,Honolulu Art Society talk, Dr. Wing Tsit Chan. 7 ,-.-,4 :30 p.m.,........,Concert, Academy Chamber Music Ensemble.

12,-.-,3 :30 p.m.,........,Concert by Junior Musicians of Honolulu. 16 to Mar. 21,........,Oils, drawings, ·prints by Cornelia M . Foley . 16 to Mar. 28,........, Hawaiiana prints, collection of Donald Angus. 16 to Mar. 30,........,One man shows by Alf Hurum, John Young, Alberta

Baker and Nancy Fennel. 19,-.-,3 :30 p .m.,........, Y.W.C.A. membership tea. 21,....:,4 :30 p .m.,........,Public vocal recital, Willard Wilson. 23~J8 :00 p .m.,........,Concert, Hilo High School Alumnae Glee Club. 25,........,8 :00 p.m.,........,Honolulu Art Society modern music program. 28,-.-,4 :00 p.m.,........,Public symphony talk by Fritz Hart. 30 to Apr. 11,........, Important 1937 accessions, Print Department. 30 to Apr. 11,........, Watercolors by Robert Lee Eskridge . 30 to Apr. 11,........, Paintings by F . Kunai. April

l,-.-,8:00 p.m.,........,Honolulu Art Society talk, Dr. Chas. Moore. 4,........,4:30 p.m.,........,Concert, Academy Chamber Music Ensemble.

13 & Apr. 14,........, Honolulu Garden Club flower show. 18,........,4 :30 p.m.,........, Public vocal recital , Milton Fisher. 20 to May 2,........, Annual exhibition, Camera Pictorialists. 22,-.-,8 :00 p.m.,-.-,Honolulu Art Society talk, Gregg Sinclair. 23,........,3:30 p .m.,........,Concert by Junior Musicians of Honolulu. 25,........,4:00 p.m.,........, Public symphony talk by Fritz Hart. 25-4:45 p.m.,........, Public 'cello recital, Willard Warch. May 2-4 :30 p.m.,-.-,Concert, Academy Chamber Music Ensemble. 4 to May 9,........, Art by elementary schools, exhibition. 5,........,8:00 p .m.-Japanese Boy Day program.

11 to May 16,........, Art by secondary schools, exhibition. 16-4 :30 p .m.,........, Public concert by Lyric Ensemble. 18 to May 30,........, Art by University of Hawaii. exhibition. 30,-.-,4 :30 p.m.,........, Public concert, Honolulu Gleemen.

* One of a series, given bi~weekly at the same hour. t One of a series, given each week at the same hour.

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Temptation of St. Anthony·• F igure 1

" GIRL WITH HER DOLL"

On April 8, 1937, the Honolulu Academy of Arts cele,., brates its tenth anniversary. To mark this event the Academy has made one of its most important purchases­a painting of a " Girl with her Doll" by Cezanne.

Most of the books and articles on Cezanne have been written to justify a point of view; hence much of the great volume of exegesis has either lauded him to the skies or condemned him to mediocrity. Venturi's new book is one of the first to treat the artist from the point of view of objective criticism. 1

Cezanne is no longer a name with which to propagan,., dize. He no longer is considered a menace to painting , but an accomplished fact , as it were. Criticism is placing him high among the ranks of painters, not only of his gen,., eration, but of all time. In a sense, he no longer belongs

1 Lionello Venturi, Ce:::anne, Son art, Son Oem·re, Paris, 1936. * The photographs used to illustrate th is article are after Venturi.

to our petty quarrels as to whether he could or could not paint, but he "belongs to the ages".

The painting of a " Girl with her Doll," reproduced

, on the cover of this bulletin , is an oil painting on can~ vas, 23¾ inches x 28 ½ inches. The girl is seated on a low stool in the center of the canvas holding the doll in her lap. She wears

t _ an orange yellow hat with Seated Nude Figure 2

a red band, and a bluish white shirt over which is a blue bodice. Her hands are folded quietly in her lap and in her arms lies the doll wrapped in dark blue. The doll's face is entirely devoid of detail , being merely a spherical mass in the composi~ tion. The stool upon which the figure is seated is cov~ ered with a dark blue cloth and appears to be placed on a hill. The rigid simplicity of the pose and composition of the figure sets the key for the landscape background which is stylized into a complex series of color forms . A road seems to turn away to the left, a few trees can be dimly made out, but the effect is one of a rich vari~colored tapestry in browns and greens, against which the figure stands out with remarkable clarity and yet in a perfect unity with its background. The painting is neither signed nor dated, but Venturi places it between l 900~ 1902. 2 It has been in the collections of the Barbazanges Gallery, the Bignou Gallery and that of Mme. Lilli Lippmann~ Wulf.

2 The reprod uction of this pa int ing in Venturi (vol. II pl. 228) is numbered 6~9 . This is a _typogr?'phical error. T he n umber shodld be 699 'to correspond with the de_scn pt10n m the catalogue, vol. I , p. 215. The painting is also reproduced m Wedclerkopf Ce:::anne, Leipsig, 1922; Cic. 1922, p. 689; and in the catalogue of the LeFevre Gallery exhibition in 1924.

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Paul Cezanne was born in 1839 and died in 1903, only a few years after our picture was painted. This is not the place to discuss his life. That has been done often.3 It is important, however, to review some of his work in order to find the relation of this painting to it and to understand clearly its significance.

Cezanne passed through what history will probably call three or four periods. Fortunately for his reputation as a draftsman he was once an Academic, producing the kind of drawing that is familiar to everyone ( Fig. 2). This was not sufficient as a vehicle of expression, however. He was, for a short time, a Romantic, copying the works of Dela­croix and painting such subjects as "The Poet's Dream" (Fig. 3) , or "The Temptation of St. Anthony" (Fig. 1 ). The latter is evidence of the power behind the painter 's brush. The forms are bulky and suggestive of emotion and strength, but the colors are dark and the contrasts of light and shade almost shocking in their intensity. There is a curious dissatisfaction in it. Venturi analyzing it finds the painter too passionate to see clearly. 4 His style is not yet formed. He is learning that art is one thing, nature another, and is not yet able to reconcile the two.

Cezanne passes from the emotional excesses of Romanticism through the discipline of what we call Impressionism. Cezanne' s relation to impressionism has of ten been misunder­stood, for he has been classed as one of the post­impressionist group of paint­ers . To clarify this relation­ship, impressionism must be The P oet's Dream Figure 3

3 The most recent biog raphy is Gerstle Mack, Paul Ce:::a'lll1e, New York, 1935 .

.i Venturi, op. cit., vol. I , p. 22.

The Bathe rs Figure 4

clearly defined. It is more than the technique of painting in broken colors. That technique is only a means. Impres~ sionism might be defined as painting which strives to re~ produce scientifically, color and light. The term is used specifically to describe painting from about l 870~ 1880 and includes such men as Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Manet and Monet. According to this definition Cezanne must be in~ eluded as well since critics agree that light and color and the exact harmony between them was , perhaps, his great~ est interest. Furthermore, Cezanne called himself a "humble impressionist painter" .[;

This period of his life I have called a discipline, for it was then that Cezanne learned three things which charac~ terize his manner of expression. First of all he strove for and began to achieve objectivity. Objectivity in this case does not imply the lack of a personal point of view, but

5 Venturi, op. cit., vol. I, p. 27.

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rather a profound respect for the object painted, be it an apple or a mountain or a little girl. He saw a certain beauty, a certain character in each object, and he saw it clearly enough to paint it not only in itself, but to relate it as a work of art to nature. Compare "The Bathers" ( Fig. 4) with the "Temptation of St. Anthony." There is a calm and poise utterly lacking in the earlier painting. Cezanne here has begun to reconcile nature and art. He no longer invents forms, painting what he knows, but does not see. He relies entirely on his eye, painting only such impressions as reach his brain by way of vision. At the same time he glorifies that object by drawing from it its essential underlying character ,....... its "motif' as Venturi calls it. This is the second thing which the discipline of impressionism taught Cezanne. He began to study motifs. These became all important in any painting. Any­thing likely to distract from or falsify the essential charac­ter of an object he ruthlessly eliminated from the picture and on the other hand no exaggeration was too much if it served to bring out the motif.

A comparison of a photograph ( Fig. 7) and a painting ( Fig. 6) shows this clearly. He respected the facts of nature. The outlines are there, but the character of the mountain is brought out. There is a singleness of ef­fect lacking in the photo­graph.

The third lesson which he taught himself is that of a unity of conception. Per­haps this comes as a result of his study of objectivity. At any rate it is typical of his work after 1880 to a re­markable degree. I mean by The Ruined House Figure 5

Mt. St. Victoire F igu re 6

a unity of conception that if he painted an old house ( Fig. 5) , everything in the picture was conceived in the same manner-trees and rocks partake of the character of the house. What are called distortions often result, but they achieve an effect otherwise impossible.

During the latter part of his life, from about 1890 to his death, Cezanne becomes a constructionist. He builds his paintings from color and light and form , and portraits seem to be his main vehicle of expression. They were not, like his earlier ones , painted with a thickly loaded brush or palette knife. At this period he sought form through the medium of color as he does in the "Girl with her Doll," in which he carves her form from space by such passages as the transition from the dark hair to the face or the bodice as it goes over her shoulders. Cezanne was in a sense an architect building his landscapes with blocks of space and his forms with color and light. From the perfect unity of

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Mt. S t . V ictoire- A P hotograph F igure 7

form, color, light and space emerges a "Girl with her Doll" or a "Mt. St. Victoire." He carried painting to its limits , but never went beyond them. "To paint," he said, "is not to copy an object slavishly, but to catch a harmony among its numerous significances."

By seeing reality in this way-painting the harmonies and essentials in nature-he created a new language through which he could express the grandeur of his world, and which became a basis for modern pictorial art.

The picture of the "Girl with her Doll" appears to be simplicity itself, but it is that ordered simplicity which has been forged ruthlessly from the infinite complexity of na~ ture. It is a simplicity which cost the painter much agony of mind and which he achieved only near the end of his life.

The Honolulu Academy of Arts considers itself for~ tunate to be able to own such a painting by an artist so important and so significant in the history of art.

E. C. S.

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Japanese Textil e T okugawa Period

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Honolulu Academy of Arts will be At Home to its friends on the afternoon of April 8 and a special pro­gram has been arranged to celebrate this tenth anniversary.

As a permanent record of the occasion, a book contain­ing eighty-five photographs of the Academy's most notable possessions will be published and distributed to those whose names are on our mailing list. Copies may be pur­chased at the information desk.

EXHIBITIONS FOR SCHOOLS The following special exhibitions for schools are an­

nounced for the months of March, April and May:

March To Mar. 7----The Chinese home.

2 to Mar. 14----Model of an American Indian ( S.W.) village, baskets. blankets, pottery, etc.

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2 to Apr. 4~Exhibition of woodwork. 9 to Mar. 21 ~ The Korean home.

23 to Apr. 4~ Methods of communication; old charts, globes, ancient writing , paper and book-making, etc. (Especially for the 6th grades.)

30 to Apr. ll~The Japanese home.

April 6 to May 2~ Exhibition of metal-work. _

20 to May 2~ The modern home in Hawaii. 20 to May 16~ The Budget house.

May 4 to May 30~ Textiles and leather-work.

EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT ACTIVITIES

Mrs. Dorothy R. Schenck, educational director, sails from Honolulu in March on a six months' leave of absence. She will travel through the Scandinavian countries, Scot­land, Ireland and England, studying the museum work and the folk arts which are being carried on in these places. No classes in her subjects will be scheduled during March, April and May. It will be possible, however, for teachers to borrow slides for some of her lessons. These will be lent for twenty-four hours if arrangements are made in advance with Mrs. Corbett of the Educational Office.

In Mrs. Schenck' s absence, exhibitions of craft-work in wood, metal, textiles and leather will be arranged in her lecture room for periods of one month each. The exhibits are shown for the enjoyment of young people who are working in these materials. It is suggested that teachers in manual arts schedule visits for the series, since in all three exhibits emphasis will be placed upon structural and deco­rative design, the use of material , handling of the tool with the material , the function of the object and standards of good taste which govern all craft-work. The discussions will be conducted by Mrs. John M . Kelly, well known to artists of Honolulu.

Mrs. Elizabeth Thesmar Watson, art instructor , will also be on leave of absence during the spring months. She

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will visit museums and progressive schools on the mainland in which outstanding art work for children is being carried on. No classes in creative art will be hel<;l in April and May.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF SUMMER CLASSES

Mrs. Watson will give classes in creative art for chil­dren in the primary grades during the Academy's summer session, from June 28 to August 7.

She will also conduct a credit course for teachers in "Art for the Classroom," similar to that offered last summer by the Academy and the University of Hawaii.

Etching Anthony Van Dyck

Under the direction of Mrs. Elsie Das a class in pottery for students of high school age will be held again this year. It will in­clude a weekly lecture in the History and Apprecia­tion of Pottery Forms by Miss Alyce Hoogs.

Other summer school ac­tivities-a class in creative dramatics for the intermed­iate group, and one in out­door sketching for the high school group--will be con­ducted by Mr. Ben Norris, instructor of art at the Ka­mehameha Boys ' School.

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HONOLULU ART SOCIETY

MEMBERS WHO HA VE JOINED SINCE NOVEMBER, 1936

CONTRIBUTING MEMBERS

Bennett , Mrs. George Y.

ANNUAL MEMBERS

Abbott, Mrs. John W. C.

Austin, Mr. H . A. R.

Bergstrom, Mrs. J. W .

Boynton, Peter

Brockman, Mr. John F .

Caldwell , Mrs. John W .

Childs, Mrs. Florida B.

Chinn, Mrs. James T.

Cooper, Mrs. Bartlett

Cunningham, Miss Helen

Denison, Mrs. Harry N .

Doolittle, Mrs. Stewart E .

Eaton, Mrs. Charles

Fullerton, Mr. Rutherford

Gartley, Mrs. R. H .

Gauden, Mrs. Frank H.

Hind, Mrs. John

Holt, Mr. and Mrs. W alter

Hardaway, Mrs. W . A.

Jamieson, Mrs. Fred

Kishida, Mrs. T .

Lacy, Mrs. Mabel

Lam, Mrs. Eddie

Lee, Mrs. Kam Tai

Livingston, Mrs. Stanley

Lowrey, Mr. and Mrs. F . D.

Marsily, Mrs. G. R.

Mattson, Mrs. J. Harry

Mizuta, Mr. lwao

Nelson, Mrs. Walter

Paris, Mr. and Mrs. Irvine H.

Piikoi, Miss Maria

Porteus, Mrs. S. D.

Rice, Mrs. Arthur, Jr.

Rolph, Mrs. Hosmer

Smith, Mrs. N elson

Stewart, Mrs. S. G.

Tanaka, Mrs. Conrad S.

Thirlkeld, Miss Virginia J.

Triplett, Mrs. William

Van Brundt, Mr. Myron

Walker, Mrs. H astings

White, Mrs. W . A .

Wilder, Mrs. Charles T.

Wize, Mrs. S. C.

Wood, Mrs. Sanford B. D .

Y asumori , Mrs. Katsutaro

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PERMANENT COLLECTION GIFTS

Anonymous,........,Pair of white ceramic figures by Geza de Vegh, contem~ porary artist.

Mrs. Theodore A. Cooke,........, 18th century Japanese textile; Korean bronze vase, 2 bronze spoons and pair of bronze chopsticks from Li Choo period; Chinese bronze staff ~end, Han period.

Mr. A. Koizumi,......-,2 pieces of Chinese lacquer, Han period; Japanese brocade Noh robe; Japanese pottery vase by Shoji Hamada , con~ temporary.

Miss Jessie Keith,........,18th century Japanese textile.

PURCHASES Oil painting by Paul Cezanne, "Girl with her Doll, " c. 1902. Rubbing from bronze memorial plaque in what was originally City

Chapel of the Convent of the Barking Nuns, London, c. 1553. 8 Japanese textiles, 18th century.

LIBRARY GIFTS

Mr. Horace Brodzky,........,Brodzky : Henri Gaudier~Brzeska, 1891~1915. Miss H. E. A. Castle,........, Latham : In English homes, 2 vols. Mrs. Theodore A. Cooke,........,Chao~Meng~fu : Scroll of birds and flowers;

Chiang Sun : Landscape scroll; Chiang Ts'an : One thousand li river and mountain picture scroll; Lothrop : Pottery of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, 2 vols. ; Nippon Seikwa, 11 vols.; Seeger : Pageant of Chinese history; Werner : Dictionary of Chinese mythology.

S. & G. Gump Company,........,Gump : Khmers. Mr. Fritz Hart,........,Brodzky : Forty drawings. Mr. Y. Nomura,........, Nippon kokuho zenshu, volume 73. Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai,......-,4 pamphlets. Mrs. Philip E. Spalding,........,Firth : Art and life in New Guinea. Marquis Tokugawa,........,Reproduction of the Genji Monogatari scroll.

PRINT DEPARTMENT GIFTS

Dr. and Mrs. C. M. Cooke,........,5 wood engravings: Helen Binyon, "The Message"; Budogosky, Four illustrations for Dickens' "Great Expectations"; Marjorie Lucas, "Night" ; Thomas Nason, "Land~ scape with Sheep"; Buckland Wright, "Composition No. 3."

Miss Elizabeth Keith,......-,color woodblock print : Elizabeth Keith, "East Gate Pyeng Yang. "

Mr. John Kelly,........,drypoint : John Kelly, "Moi Water." Mrs. Philip E . Spalding,........, 18 Japanese woodblock prints : Insho, "Eight

Views of Kyoto"; Kagen, ten views after the Chinese manner.

PURCHASES

Barker, Albert W .,-,lithograph : "The Tapestry of Spring. " Burrage, Barbara,_, lithograph : "Coal Town. " Chadwick, Tom,-,wood engraving : "The Introduction." Gornyska, W . J.,-,wood engraving : "Fencing."

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Keith, Elizabeth,-,6 color woodcuts : "Songaro Shigiyama in Sam-ba­so," "Songaro Shigiyama, Kiyogen study, " " Kongo I, Noh Actor in Okina," "The Korean Bride," "Old House Malacca, " "Center Isabella Convent, Manila. "

Kelly, John,-,drypoint : "Kanani. " Kent, Rockwell,-,lithograph : "Communing with N ature." Landacre, Paul,-,wood engraving : " Monday. " M a jors, Robert,-,lithograph: "Wing , Little M exico." Silbert, Ben,-,etching : "Water Carrier" ; drypoint : "Olive Trees." Washburn, Cadwallader,-,2 drypoints : "A Barbados Mother, " "Old

Canarian Fisherman. "

SCHOOL LOAN DEPARTMENT

GIFTS

Claire Eloise Cartwright Memorial,-,watercolor: Eloise Short, "The Green Horse."

C. Alfred Castle Memorial,-,3 color woodblock prints : Elizabeth Keith, "Japanese Children of Yesterday," " Manchu Official of the Last D ynasty," "Manchu Lady of the Last Dynasty"; drypoint : Hue M . Luquiens, "Morning,-,Kualoa Fishpond."

John Poole Memorial,-,color woodblock print : Lilian Miller, " Pagoda at Dusk, Kyoto."

M rs. Norman C. Schenck,-,Early American butter mould of wood.

Mrs. Philip E . Spalding,-,water­color : R. L. Rutt , "Horse."

PURCHASES

Obj ects,-,4 plaster models of ani­mals.

P ictures,-,6 photographs of Japa­nese ceramics; 13 reproduc­tions of paintings by Manet, Corot, Maes, Monet, Unold,

Grosz, Glackens, D erain, V an Gogh, Gauguin.

Slides,-,200 illustrations of Ori­ental and Occidental a rt. Korean Bronze Vase Li Choo P eriod

HONOLULU ACADEMY OF ARTS TELEPHONE 6281 900 SOUTH BERETANIA STREET HONOLULU, T.H.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES DR. C. MONTAGUE CooKE ..... ........... . ........ .... ..... ..... .... .... .. .... ......... President MRS. THEODORE RicHARDS ...................... ... ........................... Vice~President MR. CLARENCE H. CoOKE ................ ............................................ Treasurer MR. THEODORE A. CooKE ... ........... ..... ........ ........ ... .. .... Assistant Treasurer

Mrs. Philip E. Spalding Mrs. Isaac M . Cox Mrs. Theodore A. Cooke Mr. Richard A. Cooke Mrs. Stephen A. Derby Mrs. Alva E. Steadman Mrs. Livingston Jenks Mr. Edgar C. Schenck

THE STAFF EDGAR C. S c HENCK ............... .............................................. . A cting Director DOROTHY R. ScHENCK .............. . .... . .. ... ........ ... ...... . .... .Educational Director KATHRINE McLANE JENKS .......... ....................... ·········· ···············consultant ELIZABETH THESMAR WATSON ....................... ./nsfructor in Creative Art ALYCE HooGs ..................................................... .lnstructor in Oriental Art MARGARET HOCKLEY KAr... .. .......................... .Instructor in Primitive Art ANN J. CORBETT ....................................................... .Educational Assistant ALICE F. PooLE .............................................................. .... Keeper of Prints MARION MORSE ............................... ....... .............. ........................ .... Librarian BIM MELGAARD ......................... .............. ..... : ....... Secretary to the Director MARVEL N. ALLISON ....................................................... .Editor of Bulletin GEORGE W. DuNCAN ...................................... Superintendent of Buildi.ng

EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT The loan collection, for all teachers, contains pictures, slides,

phonograph records, textiles, and a range of objects for the study of different cultures. Teachers who wish to bring classes to the Academy for talks by staff members may arrange for them by telephoning the educational office. Instruction in art and crafts is given to children during the two semesters of the school year and for a six~weeks' term in summer. The classes are held after school hours on week days and on Saturdays.

LIBRARY AND PRINT DEPARTMENT Books and current magazines on art may be had for study by

the public, during Academy hours, in the reference library. The privi~ lege of taking out certain books is extended to members of the Hono~ lulu Art Society only. Membership cards may be obtained in the library. All prints in the collection are available, by appointment, in the print study room.

ACADEMY HOURS Sunday .................... 3 p.m.~6 p.m. Thursday ............... .10 a.m.~9 p.m. Tuesday ........ ......... .10 a .m.~5 p.m. Wednesday ........... .10 a.m.~5 p.m.

Friday ... .................. .10 a.m.~5 p.m. Saturday ................. .! 0 a.m.~5 p.m.

Admission is free. Staff members will conduct visitors through the Academy if desired. Wheel chairs are available. Bulletins, pub~ lished quarterly, are free. Copies will be mailed upon request.