Art: What They Liked

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Very placid is the river Housatonic as it winds through the Berkshire valleys. So even, so quiet is its flow that it is easily able to mirror the gentle, green elevations of ground which the Berkshire dwellers call hills, and which enthusiastic tourists like to call mountains. As gentle as the hills, as placid as the river, the Berkshire villages rise to break the pleasant monotony of the landscape. Their generous houses, most white and clean, front on broad streets with here and there a stretch of New England common. Their lawns slope gracefully to the languid river. Such a village is Stockbridge.

Stockbridge colonists like to tell the story of their new playhouse, where last week was held the 20th annual Stockbridge Art Exhibit. Twenty years ago, when Edward L. Morse, son of Telegrapher Samuel F. B. Morse, began the tradition of Stockbridge art exhibits, it was natural that he stepped-across the street from his own "White Lodge" to the Casino which stood opposite. Like all colonists, he was proud of the Casino.

Here, until last year,-Stockbridge artists displayed their wares. Dean of the colony, of course, was Sculptor Daniel Chester French. Every colonist, every tourist, knew his Minute Man at Concord, N. H. It was in his Stockbridge studio that he modeled the great Lincoln of the Memorial at Washington. The design of the Minute Man was accepted in 1873. Last week, his daughter, Margaret French Cresson, viewed with pride his latest figure in bronze. It was called Whence, Whither, Wherefore. As chairman of the exhibition, Daughter could draw attention to Father's fine mastery of detail. But she allowed others to point out her own bronze portrait bust of Commander Richard E. Byrd.

Next to the family of French, the family of Johansen has added most distinction to the exhibitions in the old Casino. Painter John Christen Johansen came first to Stockbridge to visit his good friend Walter Leighton Clark. Enchanted, he remained to colonize, paint. Great and friendly is the rivalry between Painter Johansen and Painter Jean MacLane. Both rank with the foremost U. S. portrait painters, whose canvasses are held bargains at $5,000.

Last week, Painter MacLane exhibited many a watercolor, and oil portraits of Mrs. D. Percy Morgan Jr., and of 14-year-old Samuel F. Thomas, son of Mr. and Mrs. Finley Thomas of the Stockbridge colony. Sparkling, vivid with life, this portrait attracted particular comment. But some visitors preferred Painter Johansen's study of his 12-year-old son. Not all visitors knew that Painter Johansen and Painter MacLane are man and wife.

Last year, a crisis came in the affairs of the Stockbridge art colony. Spinster Mabel Choate bought the property on which the Casino stood, and proposed to erect a memorial to her famed father, Lawyer-Ambassador Joseph Hodges Choate. She offered the Casino to anyone who would cart it away.