Art: In Missouri

It was all very confusing to middle-aged Missourians. For years they had been taught that the local artist of whom their fathers had been so proud was an artless fellow who did not know how to draw. Yet in Manhattan last week the Museum of Modern Art was proud to give a great retrospective show to the work of George Caleb Bingham (1811-79). Critics fell over themselves with such phrases as "a modern Delacroix," "last of the Renaissance tradition," "rival of David and Ingres." Only cautious bang-haired Royal Cortissoz sounded a note...