UNIV. OF

The Year in Art

The keynote of the progress in art appreciation was struck at the 1912 convention of the American Federation of Arts by Robert W. de Forest in his address on "The Importance of Art Museums in Our Smaller Cities," which is reprinted in full in this volume of the "American Art Annual." The unanimous election of Mr. de Forest as President of the Federation and the selection of The Small Museum as one of the chief topics for the 1913 convention, prove the importance of this subject.

During the season of 1911-1912 four art museums were dedicated-the Delgado Museum at New Orleans, the Toledo Museum of Art, the Hackley Art Gallery at Muskegon, Mich., and the Bevier Memorial at Rochester, N. Y. New art museums are being planned or have already been begun at Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Rochester and Seattle; while important wings are in course of construction at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Morgan Memorial at Hartford.

The gifts to art during the year include $1,500,000 to the Boston Museum from Francis P. Bartlett; the F. C. Hewitt bequest of a similar amount to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to which Francis L. Leland gave more than $1,000,000, the largest amount ever received during the lifetime of the donor.

One of the important events of 1912 was the transportation of the valuable art collections of J. Pierpont Morgan from London to New York, where a group of thirty of his paintings is being shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Changes in directors of museums are the appointment of William H. Fox, at one time director of the Indianapolis Museum, as Curator-in-Chief of the Museums of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences; Frederic Allen Whiting, late secretary of the Boston Society of Arts and Crafts, was appointed Director of the Herron Art Institute at Indianapolis; J. E. D. Trask, director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts accepted the post of Chief of the Art Department for the Panama-Pacific Exposition to be held at San Francisco in 1915, thus leaving vacant the directorship of the Pennsylvania Academy; Robert A. Holland, who had been Acting Director of the City Art Museum of St. Louis since the death of Halsey C. Ives, in May, 1911, was appointed Director, January 15, 1913.

Art societies organized in New York include the Association of American Painters and Sculptors, the National Association of Portrait Painters and the Museum of French Art. The Michigan State Federation of Art was formed in October, 1912. Utah was the first State to organize for the purpose of sending exhibitions to smaller towns and cities. This was in 1898; Minnesota organized a State Art Society in 1903; the Washington State Art Society was incorporated in 1906, and Indiana, though not officially organized, has had traveling exhibitions arranged by the President of the Richmond Art Association since 1907. This makes five States which are systematically

cultivating our appreciation for beauty. Municipal Art Commissions were established in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Milwaukee, and are under discussion for New York State and New Haven, Conn.

The broadening of interest is shown in the exhibitions of foreign art that have been held. Heretofore the Carnegie Institute at Pittsburgh held the only international exhibition of paintings. In the autumn of 1911 works by modern French painters were exhibited at the Albright Gallery in Buffalo and later in other cities. The American-Scandinavian Society showed their native work in New York in December, 1912, and it is now traveling to other cities; a German Applied Arts exhibition was organized by the Newark Art Museum, shown there in March, 1912, and sent on a tour; while the new Association of American Painters and Sculptors has an important international exhibition in New York at the present time, and the French Museum announces an exhibition of modern French paintings for the spring of 1913.

During the year ended October, 1912, 3,634 paintings were sold at auction in the United States for $1,150,119, according to the records published in this volume. Of this number 2,265 brought $50 or over. The highest price was $85,000 for "Lake Nemi" in the Newcomb sale. European sales of the year were more important; the Doucet sale in Paris brought over $2,750,000 and in Berlin the collection of Edward P. Webber was sold for over $1,125,000; it included the "Virgin and Child," by Andrea Mantegna, which brought $150,000, the highest price for a single picture during the year.

"Who's Who in Art," the biographical directory of living American painters, sculptors and illustrators, which forms part of this volume of the "American Art Annual," was published in November as a separate book. It contains 3,769 names and addresses; 1,202 names are of new exhibitors appearing here for the first time; 770 have been dropped. This directory will not be repeated until 1915, its place in Volume XI being taken by a list of deceased American painters and in Volume XII by a biographical directory of architects.

The 88 illustrations in the present volume include a series of views in small museums, prize pictures of the year, and portraits of 49 members of the National Academy of Design.

The sinking of the "Titanic" caused the death of three artists-Frank D. Millet and S. Ward Stanton, painters, and the architect, Edward A. Kent.

With this volume the "American Art Annual" begins its career as the property of the art societies of the United States. The first issue, in 1898, was the result of a personal conviction that art history was being made 30 rapidly that only by a regular publication could the essential facts be accessible to those to whom they were necessary in carrying forward the art development of this country. In 1902 a small group of public-spirited citizens formed a company to strengthen the publication and this in turn has given way to the greater power, the American Federation of Arts. The editor hereby extends hearty thanks to all who have aided in bringing the "American Art Annual" to its present standing.

March 1, 1913.

FLORENCE N. LEVY.