among men of their time or of today, in
the field of objective and illustrative painters. We turn to them with
pleasure after a journey through the museums, for their reticence let
us say, and for the refinement of their vision, their beautiful gift
of restraint. They emphasize the commonness of much that surrounds
them, much that blatantly would obscure them if they were not
pronouncedly superior. They would not be discounted to any
considerable degree if they were placed among the known masters of
landscape painters of all modern time. They would hold their own by
the verity of feeling that is in them, and what they might lose in
technical excellence, would be compensated for in uniqueness of
personality. I should like well to see them placed beside artists like
Maris and Marees, and even Courbet. It would surprise the casual
appreciator much, I believe.

OUR IMPRESSIONISTS

I have for purely personal reasons chosen the two painters who
formulate for me the conviction that there have been and are but two
consistently convincing American impressionists. These gentlemen are
John H. Twachtman and Theodore Robinson. I cannot say precisely in
what year Twachtman died but for purposes intended here this data is
of no paramount consequence, save that it is always a matter of query
as to just how long an artist must live, or have been dead, to be
discovered in what is really his own time.

John H. Twachtman as artist is difficult to know even by artists; for
his work is made difficult to see either by its scarcity as determined
for himself or by the exclusiveness of the owners of his pictures. It
requires, however, but two or three of them to convince one that
Twachtman has a something "plus" to contribute to his excursions into
impressionism. One feels that after a Duesseldorf blackness which
permeates his earlier work his conversion to impressionism was as
fortunate as it was sincere. Twachtman knew, as is evidenced
everywhere in his work, what he wished to essay and he proceeded with
poetic reticence to give it forth. With a lyricism that is as
convincing as it is authentic, you feel that there is a certain
underlying spirit of resignation. He surely knew that a love of
sunlight would save any man from pondering on the inflated importance
of world issues.

Having seen Twachtman but once my memory of his face recalls this
admixture of emotion. He cared too much for the essential beauties to
involve them with