In the current Maine Antique Digest, an article by Hollie Davis and Andrew Richmond takes an honest view of commodifying antiques.

The antiques marketplace seems to be struggling for an identity, and we have to be really careful that in that search we don't give away the heart of who we are. Antiques are beautiful, special, unique, but they're also not always practical, not always good investments, and not always the easiest option. That Chippendale chest is nice, but in many ways, it's a lot easier to go to Target.

If we regard antiques as "rent to own", as suggested by the author, the capability of retain the values makes antiques good choice of life enrichment, but that capability is far from value appreciation. True, works by some artists or some period decorative objects have gone record high, but there are others that have seen a sharp deline of demand.

There are still dealers, the number of whom still proves antiques dealing can be money-making, if not in the short run. But as individual, I think the two tenets mentioned in the article should be combined into one: Buy the best which you love and you can afford.

No word than the nature dreamer can better describe Blakelock, whose poetic paintings are now exhibited in National Academy. “The Unknown Blakelock” brings some of the key works of Ralph Albert Blakelock from the museums and collectors of the country into the National Academy.

The three moonlight paintings, one of the two major subjects that associated with him, were hung side by side in the gallery. The silhouetted massive trees, the greenish bluish sky, and the high-keyed moon of heavily impasto vividly display mysterious scenery which is at once intimate, personal yet surreal. It is almost monochrome. Its two dimensional graphic pattern was laid down on super rugged surface: the texture itself provides an additional layer of viewing: abstract, accidental yet fascinating like a magic spell.

The scales of the paintings are medium or small, yet my heart was still immersed in the poetic moon light when I stepped out of the museum after the research on Henry Golden Dearth in the museum archives. I knew a second visit was a must. It didn’t take me that long to go back: in fact only about 24 hours. Daingerfield, his first biography writer remarked that Blakelock only depicted two phases of nature: twilight and moonlight. If so, moments of solitude and silence are a requisite of appreciation. For a long time, there were only Eric and me surrounded by the paintings of Blakelock. (Though next to Guggenheim, the National Academy was not crowded on Saturday.)

There are two pieces of facts that really contrast with the underappreciated status of the artist and draw my attention: Blakelock is the one of the most forged American artists if not the most forged artist in America. And his work in the collection of National Academy and Sheldon Museum of Art are among the favorites of the artist members and local practicing artists.

However, Blakelock stands by himself as one of the less known artists from art history point of view: A follower of Hudson River School at his early career; an outsider of the Barbizon school. And even though was paired with Ryder for the abstract patterns, forms in their works, in general only Ryder is credited as the precursor of the American abstract modernism.

In those moonlight or twilight paintings, I saw the sculpted layers of paint being built up and scrapped down and the forming of paint partially by consciousness, partially by subconsciousness and accidents. No doubt Blakelock lived in his own realm which is quite different from those of Barbizon school: Dwight Tryon and Alexander Wyant belong to the old world, even though they have abandoned the keen observation of nature and favored a more evocative personal expressiveness. Blakelock, by painting from his internal feeling and insights, had gone further to show the dream world that did not has its prototype in the real world. If Henry Ward Ranger dabbed the color with varnish to advance the range of oil paint from translucent to opaque, Blakelock’s obsess with the ruggedness of canvas anticipated the 20th century modern art when the surface structure of paint speaks as loud as the content itself.

There are other works that surprised me by their being un-Blakelock. A painting of sunset with seals has dazzling colors: The warm orange red on top of blue sky and sea water is not something untypical. However, if the pattern of the tree branches surrounded by the yellowish cloud echoes Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata in his painting which bears the same title, here the range of the colors that he adopted plays dramatic music scores. (I could almost hear the hymn of the splendid sunset sung by those seals painted suggestively.) A still life painting of bee on thistle blends the hi-fi effect of blowing up details with its mysterious background. It does not have the exactness and perfection as Georgia Keefe, but the light pinkish/purple flower out of the hazed dark green accented by a oversized bee is so audacious in its high-contrast that highly decorative flowers boldly attacked by John Lafarge would look from the old world.

The second room in the exhibition displayed works in a more coherent style. The Pegasus with a few others seems to be more about patterns, forms and shapes than what they really represent. A few were painted probably in a rush that the wood panel corner was left unpainted; others seem to have lost the original colors due to the coal tar ingredient used by Blakelock. (His paintings must be disastrous project from conservator’s point of view.) The moonlight owned by and Sheldon Museum of Art, hung above fireplace of the room. If color (or devoid of color) and music can be used to describe the three moonlight paintings grouped together in the first room, this undated moonlight reminds me of late Blakelock’s mental illness. The clouds around the moon bear striking contrast between fire-burning neuroticism and suppressive coldness. Like the thistle, the clouds popped out visually and physically. I looked up: it was hung high and not much detail can be obtained. The natural light shone onto the surface, but the night is still dark, irresistible and chilled my spine. It is a lonely night, and like his other paintings, there exudes a sense of unease and insecurity. Beyond that, words fail; only emotion stirs like the burning clouds. A plaque on the painting next to it comments:

What if the clouds one short dark night, hide the blue sky until morn appears
When the bright sun that cheers soon again will rise to shine upon earth for endless years

The Unknown Blakelock is on view at National Academy Museum till Jan 4, 2009.

When you walk through the Met or the National Gallery, you might notice a number of names affixing painting labels quite frequently: Mellon, Morgan, Frick and Vanderbilt. One you don't see as often is Charles M. Schwab. Yet one can only imagine that the 75-room French Chatteau on Riverside Drive in Manhattan was filled with art. Almost as impressive, and still existing, is Schwab's 990-acre, 18 building Immergrun estate at Loretto, Pa.

Among the reasons we don't see Schwab's name often in museums is not he didn't like or collect art. A reason could be because he had a different philosophy of spreading wealth than Andrew Carnegie (Carnegie aimed to give it away before he died, Schwab aimed to spend it before he died). Schwab died bankrupt, having departed with many of his most important paintings. (While I can't verify the ones I know about are the "most important," by their caliber I can probably assume as much.)

One such painting is "Rockets and Blue Lights" by J.M.W. Turner. Schwab paid $250,000 for it in 1917. The art dealer Duveen paid $129,000 for it seven years previous. The painting is now at The Clark in Williamstown, Ma. The museum web site says it was acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark in 1932. Schwab died in 1939, so I am guessing he sold it to them.

The second painting I have found a newspaper reference for is Rembrandt's "The Accountant," also known as "St. Luke" being sold by Schwab to the Holland Museum. A New York Times article indicated the reporter reached Schwab at his Loretto, Pa estate, but Schwab declined to comment. The painting was in the Hudson-Fulton Exhibition at the Metropolitan in 1913.

Certainly there must have been many more paintings. A diagram of Schwab's Riverside Drive Mansion shows a gallery filled floor to ceiling with paintings. A 1904 article about the construction of Riverside mentions more than 100 artisans engaged in building and finishing it. One artist, Jose Villegras, completed a painting entitled "Prosperity in America." The article also mentions two gigantic bronze statues by Gerome, symbolizing metallurgic and scientific engineering.

Other references to Schwab and his art include his commissioning of Chartran to paint portraits of Admiral Dewey and his wife. The work of Paul Manship could be seen at the Loretto estate in urns embellished with an Indian carrying game from the hunt; a centaur holding his bow poised to shoot; an old man riding a donkey, and a cow scratching its nose with its hoof.

Much of Schwab's collections likely made it into museums around the country and throughout the world, but also likely passed through one or more private owners first. There is one place where you can see Schwab's name associated with items he owned, at the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, adjacent to his former Loretto estate, where some Tiffany lamps are held.

Schwab's wife had died in the Riverside estate, and so he no longer desired to live there and also shuttered Immergrun. "Now I have no home," he would be quoted as saying, and in the same breath felt compelled to "start life anew" in a Park Avenue apartment. Schwab himself said the site could be adapted well to an apartment house. And eight years later Riverside would be razed for an apartment building. According to a 1947 article, it took two months to remove the wood paneling, chandeliers, organ and stained glass windows before demolition could begin.

"No one wants to live in it," Schwab had said. Today some 2,000 apartments crowd the site.

I'm spending the morning watching auctions on ebay live, a service that is discontinuing December 31, 2008. My observation is some early American furniture is going for remarkably low prices. Chinese export porcelain is coming in inline with the estimate. One Item I noted went way above estimate is #1267 at Freeman's, a Needlework mourning picture dated 1823.

Here's the description:

Depicting a young girl in white dress, bonnet and coral necklace holding a ball, the background with weeping willow and lake with swans, eglomise mat inscribed 'M.A. Pray in her 13th month daughter of J &C Pray Worked by her sister C. Pray, 1823', eglomise mat, in silk and chenille threads, heightened with watercolor on silk ground, gilt frame.
H: 31 1/4 in. W: 37 3/4in.

PROVENANCE:
Deaccessioned from a Pennsylvania Historical Institution.

Estimated at $10,000-$15,000, it closed at $38,000

In the 20th Century there have been a number of approaches to painting industrial America. It took some time for artists to work their way up to the task, and some of the first attempts were corporate. In fact, the notion of corporate sponsorship remains in much of industrial art throughout the century.

One place to start is in 1855 with "The Lackawanna Valley" by George Inness. The painting, now in the National Gallery, was commissioned by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and depicts the company's first roundhouse at Scranton, and integrates technology and wilderness within an observed landscape. As his career progressed, Inness would not continue to depict a landscape blended with industry.

The word "industry" in the 21st Century (and late 20th), might just as easily be referred to as technology. A pioneer at bringing technology to his art and work is the photographer William H. Rau. Like Inness, Rau was commissioned, this time by the Pennsylvania Railroad. As revolutionizing as the technology of the steam train was on transportation, photography was as much on the art world. The picturesque images taken by Rau introduced Americans and Europeans to the scenic countrysides not easily accessible before the train. Curiously many of Rau's photographs do not show trains. The images show a peaceful co-existence between nature and human civilization. They are not unlike a landscape by William Wall, or a painting by Russell Smith. The difference is in the Wall painting, there's a sense of timelessness, as if the state of things would remain that way forever. That's a popular notion in sentimental paintings, but not one embraced by Rau. Many of his images provide a clear sense that there is a steady march of progress. An obvious example is in an image of a half-built Philadelphia City Hall.

Corporate commissioning of industrial art may have reached its climax in a series of calendar prints done by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1930s-1950s. During the war effort, the images even incorporated politics, and as government and industry merged in the market, so did they in the commissioned art. One of my favorite by Dean Cornwell shows Uncle Sam rolling up his sleeve as smoke billows and trains thunder below. There's a certain fascist element to it, one that has repeatedly surfaced into the 21st century in war time. Through the mid-century, smoke had been alligned with progress. The sentiments of the Hudson River painters are completely absent from this image, and never again would industry and the pollution it created be so glamorized.

Some of the best images of industrial America can be found in the work of Aaron Henry Gorson, who painted Pittsburgh's steel mills. Gorson seems unmotivated by the politics that often invade art, the sense of progress, environmental damage or workers rights. When you look at his work, you don't see a march of progress, rather an attempt to see industry for what it was physically. Gorson finds the beauty in industry and captures it. The smoke, the colors, the reflections in the water-Gorson seems to look at it all as if it were a tree or sunset. Gorson's work was commissioned, however, by Andrew Carnegie, Mrs. W. S. King, the wife of a glass manufacturer; the Mellon family; and Charles Schwab. Like many of his benefactors, Gorson later moved to New York and began painting scenes of the city and views of the Hudson River, but continued to create works showing the steel mills of Pittsburgh.

Most associated with industrial art today is Charles Sheeler. I found it amusing that a web site about "Objectivist Art" listed Sheeler as an Objectivist artist. Objectivism is the philosophy of writer Ayn Rand. I felt like emailing the creators of the site this quote I located by Sheeler.

"I find myself unable to believe in Progress--Change, yes. Greater refinements in the methods of destroying Life are the antithesis of Progress. Where is the increase in spirituality to be found?"

I'm in my infancy in regards to my knowledge about Sheeler, but it would seem he is more likely being critical of the depersonalization of industry, or just depicting the way in which we can see the world around us.

Sheeler was also commissioned, by Ford Motor Company to photograph and make paintings of their factories and by Fortune magazine to "reflect life through forms…" that "trace the firm pattern of the human mind." Sheelers paintings were based on photographs, and so even the more personal painting had its origins in the mechanical photograph. I don't know for sure if Sheeler, known as a precisionist and modernist, was criticizing the loss of humanity in the modern world. To me there's elements of both admiration from the shape and form of architecture and machinery, and some sense of loss. However, when he painted the barns in Doylestown, the technique is no different. We may, on the other hand, be thinking too much about it.

"To a man who knows nothing, Mountains are Mountains, Waters are Waters, and Trees are Trees," Sheeler wrote. "But when he has studied and knows a little, Mountains are no longer Mountains, Waters are no longer Waters, and Trees are no longer Trees. But when he has thoroughly understood, Mountains are again Mountains, Waters are again Waters, and Trees are Trees."

The Pier Antique Show, continuing through today in Manhattan, was one of the most enjoyable shows I have attended in some time. There I found a wide variety of merchandise, and knowledgeable dealers. One of the nicest things is when you come away from a show with new knowledge or new interest. I had valuable conversations about antique ceramic tiles, Wedgewood and Royal Doulton in the 1876 Philadelphia Exposition. What I didn't see was much 19th Century American furniture. Talking with one local dealer about this, he said "brown furniture is out," and he couldn't bring it to shows anyway, because it's too heavy. One piece I did see was a 19th Century Classical sofa, with circa 1970s black plastic upholstery. "I can't believe they did that to it," I said to the dealer. She seemed somewhat defensive, so I added, "I bet it wouldn't have sold otherwise though." She responded with "probably not."

Westmoreland Museum of American Art (WMOAA) dedicates another exhibition "Scenic Views: Painters of the Scalp Level School Revisited" to the western Pennsylvania region starting from Nov 9 to Feb, 1 next year (see the Nov 2, 2008 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article "Profile rises for landscapes from Scalp Level School" by Mary Thomas about detailed information of the exhibition).

This time the museum is celebrating their 50th anniversary by assembling paintings from private lenders, different museums and from their own collection. An exhibition can stimulate research, show, forum and public interests in the topic and thus increasing the market value of the artists. Scalp Level painters, except George Hetzel, who is often associated with Hudson River School, have not reached the same market value as their contemporary fellows along the east coast. In a recent article of The Magazine Antiques, Barbaba Novak is credited with bringing the Hudson River School to an unprecedented level of public awareness and appreciation through her pioneering book published in 1969. The "American Tonalism" exhibition held at Metropolitan Museum of Art and Montclair Art Museum in 1999-2000 brought another American school in life and their market values increasing ever since. So how would the current exhibition at WMOAA impact the future of Scalp Level? That's something I would be interested in as we move into the future.

Here are some of my thoughts

1 Exhibitions in Museums
Scalp Level paintings are not widely displayed in major museums. Most museums collecting and exhibiting their paintings are in the Western Pennsylvania area. The current limited availability in major institutes does provide one advantage: One can do much of his research or seeing the majority of works in public within the Ohio Valley area.

The West Wing of the first floor in WMOAA exhibits permanently the best examples of the school. Southern Allegheny Museum of Art features a painting of George Hetzel on their website, but I didn't see their permanent collection during my visit to Loretto branch last year.

Carnegie Museum of Art (CMOA) groups the paintings by the decades during which they were created. Therefore a few of Hetzel's paintings, one still life of K. F. King and several paintings by William Coventry Wall are all separated. CMOA probably has a much larger collection of Scalp Level paintings, nevertheless the scope (from Medieval to Modern and from different continents) and the strength (after 1900 especially after 1940s) of the collection make it less likely to add more regional-related works into tight permanent space.

The grand lobby of the Carnegie Music Hall, next to the museum is a great place to examine Scalp Level artworks although the lighting is not designed for art appreciation. Even worse, like most of the paintings collected when Pittsburgh was still a smoky manufacturing city, these paintings are all behind the glass, which sometimes makes the painting hard to see. Nevertheless, I quite enjoyed the opportunity of examining them closely without being disturbed by the pesky museum staff. (Among them, a deep autumn forest painting by A. S. Wall is my favorite. )

The Heinz History Center in strip district of Pittsburgh also has some Scalp Level paintings in the collection. Because the center is focused on the cultural heritage of Pittsburgh region, a lot of paintings are not on view.

Butler Institute of American Art is a gem in the Ohio Valley. The depth and breadth in its American collection will rival any national level museums. It is there I saw one of the best Jasper Lawman paintings: a harmony of rural scene: mundane but pastoral, exceptional composition and colors.

These places are also great for research purpose because each of them have important archives and documents. A good start would be Carnegie Public Library, which is much easier to access than museums. I went through their archived documents of Scalp Level two years ago. Among them there are critics articles from local newspaper dated as far back to 1900's as to 1980's.

2 Auctions and Galleries
Eric and I have been watching the auctions of Scalp Level paintings for a while. George Hetzel and Charles Linford come into the market once a while. I have not noticed the active change of ownership for other painters. It may be because my biased alertness to the painters who I know more. I didn't look hard enough for the auction records of other painters in this case.

George Hetzel is the only painter among Scalp Level school to achieve national fame. Although still more affordable compared to Hudson River School painters such as Cropsey or Kensett, a painting by Hetzel can easily fetch more than 10,000 dollars. One of our friends who is a vigilant collector told us his paintings sometimes ask for $100,000 in the market.

Our own experience proves such an upswing trend. Two years ago, when an interior wood painting by George Hetzel came to an auction in Maine, we were stunned that it was sold for 11,000 dollars (hammer price) , almost 8 times as high as its estimation. (Interestingly, a painting by George Inness in the subsequent lot fetched the same amount of money.) Later, Maine Antique Digest summarized the lot as a mistakenly estimated. We have also seen a spring blossom scene painting offered by Aspire Auction, which, according to the same friend, was very unusual. I was not convinced to see the signature even with a magnifying glass, which according the auction house was possibly due to the over cleaning done in-house. It was sold much lower than the regular market value eventually. Later, we saw the same painting in its newly gilded frame in an upscale gallery at Shadyside, with a price tag $20,000 more.

Concept Art Gallery is probably the most reliable auctioneer source to resort to if one is destined to own a painting by George Hetzel. And nowhere else can one witness the rising price of paintings by George Hetzel better than at this auction house. In this year, two paintings were offered by Concept Gallery, one fetched $22,000 while the other went to $42,000. Just three years ago, three paintings by George Hetzel were auctioned on Nov 5 and the highest was $11,000. (It is noteworthy that in the same year one of his paintings in Concept Gallery was sold above $50,000 because of its exceptional quality.) *

Charles Linford can sometimes be found in the auction houses on the east coast such as Freeman's in Philadelphia or Skinner's in Boston. Linford lived in Philadelphia for quite a long time and possibly frequented New York and Boston. In his Philadelphia times, he exhibited in Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and befriended with Thomas Eakins who left a imposing portrait of Linford whose weary looking gives hints of his coming end of life in a fairly young age. Linford's paintings are almost invariably interior forests. In a September auction last year offered by Concept Gallery, a painting on wood panel was sold for $1800. Later on another similar painting also on wood panel was sold by Skinner for $1200. Both are small, heavily soiled, with surface crazing and some paint lift; nevertheless both are charming and exemplary. The most recent auction records show that there is a higher appreciation of Charles Linford's untamed woodland beauty: In September 2008, Alderfer auctioned one of his paintings for $4000 and Concept Gallery sold a horizontal format painting last month for $3750. In both cases, the estimated price was still between one to two thousands, and in both cases, the realization beats the estimation by around 2 to 1.

The Wall family doesn't appear in the auction houses quite often. At his best, paintings by William Coventry Wall recalls the style of luminism: tightly controlled river view under magnificent light. One of his painting offered by the Concept Gallery three years ago was sold for $12,000. I have not seen auction records by A. S. Wall yet. As an influential person to Carnegie Institute, I am sure that some of his paintings will come to the surface eventually. I have also seen some paintings by Jasper Lawman in some auctions, but they were not his typical works.

Besides auction houses, there are a few galleries around Pittsburgh with Scalp Level paintings in inventory. Gilliand Fine Art in Ligonier, PA has been dealing with Western Pennsylvania Art for two generations. It collaborated with WMOAA in the past and still serves as the best source for scalp level paintings. Another gallery - Artifacts - located right off the West End Bridge has a few Scalp Level paintings.

3. The Painters

It is said that George Hetzel and Charles Linford together founded the rural retreat in Scalp Level, a place near Johnstown, PA. The school was not defined by the style as is Hudson River, American Baribizon or Luminism. Instead it is defined geographically by such a group of painters (mostly from Pittsburgh) who made their trips to Scalp Level to find the natural beauty which was diminishing in Pittsburgh at that time. Similar regional school also appeared in Old Lyme, CT and New Hope, PA where painters, attracted by the local scenery, painted together.

Among them, George Hetzel was trained academically in Dusseldorf, German. From some existing drawing (some are actually figures) of his early training time, one can sense that he mastered great skills at fairly early age. Over his long career span, he gradually loosen up a Hudson-River-School-like detail-oriented style and adopted to a more tonally harmonious one, but nevertheless he never gave up a more scientific, rational approach, similar to that of his contemporary Dewitt Clinton Boutelle from Bethlehem, PA. His rendering of nature reminds me of Asher Durand because forest under his brush is both realistic and poetic. It is no joking that with paintings by George Hetzel one can study the vegetation of Scalp Level before Johnstown was flooded, which terminated the summer trip for the school. It is no accidental that one of the book about Hudson River School actually chooses one of his major works (now in WMOAA) as the cover illustration. However, unlike the Cole or Church, Hetzel found the interior of forest as much captivating as the panorama views of the Ohio Valley. He is a keen observer: quite often, the interplay between light and shade not only enhances the depth of the scene, but also tells the time of the day. Under his brush, Scalp Level may seem to offer less excitement than that of Catskill, NY; but its restrained tranquil scenery is timeless and transcendental.

Each member of Wall family is different.

William Coventry Wall is the eldest. One can easily get tired of his meticulous details in his tightly controlled pictures. My favorite is a small painting in CMOA. "Pittsburgh after the Fire from Boyd's Hill" was painted in 1846, an early but important work in his career. The dominating orange red color of debris and walls has an almost psychological effect on viewer's eyes. The panorama view is a jarring contrast between roofless houses lined repetitively and relentlessly in an unnatural patten and the formless hills on the other side of the river. The slightly exaggerated color of the burnt wall anticipated his rich pallet of autumnal scenes decades later. But while the minutiae and exacting style in depicting mountains may seem primitive in those landscape paintings, in this small urban picture however, the orderly rhythms formed by the pointed walls and chimneys and the painstaking rendering of the remains from the scorching flames under another layer of warm sunlight link the viewers with his own sympathy toward the unexpected loss and suffering.

A. S. Wall is my favorite painter among the Wall family. Alfred Wall was appointed by Andrew Carnegie as one of the original members of board of trustee of Carnegie Institute but didn't serve long before he died. His style is more painterly compared to his brother. It would be great to put his paintings next to those by Charles Linford to show a similar style, more intimate and looser, that began to gain the momentum after the civil war. Once CMOA showed one of his watercolor pictures, I was amazed by its simplicity and refined suggestive mood. Unlike Hetzel, A. S. Wall often depicted human traces in the landscape: barns, crops or straw thatched houses. For a painter who grew up in Mount Pleasant, it is not the humanized nature that he is afraid of - which must be abundant throughout Western Pennsylvania area; it is the industrialization and machine age that he and his fellow were escaping from.

Based on the biography, one of the members of board of trustee for Carnegie Institute, the son of A. S. Wall, A. Bryan Wall had no formal art lesson except from his father and his uncle. Although coined as a sheep painter, I have seen the picture of the portrait that he painted for Henry Frick which fits quite well for the society portraiture standard. Like Carlton Wiggins, A. B. Wall found his true romance in the warm textured and docile temped animals dimly lit in nostalgia light. In his numerous shepherd scenes, there is a sense of accomplishment of landscape design through his direct brush stroke, vivid, free yet effective. If A. S. Wall, by eliminating the rich palette that his elder brother used, achieved a tonal impression echoing French Barbizon style, A. Bryan Wall's directness advanced the painterly style in Scalp Level school to impressionism, a popular style of his times.

Among all Scalp Level painters, Charles Linfod is my favorite. I have not found any reference about his early life, but his paintings certainly reflects the French Barbizon style. Since he spent years living in the east coast, it is possible that he had seen imported French paintings by person. His interior forests bear similar composition as that of Diaz de la Pena; but his colors are more somber and close to that of Rousseau. Consistently, he favored an overall warm brown color for earthy atmosphere and in general took a lower position for a more intimate foreground. The sky, opening up at certain area, casts just enough light for the magic wood interior. If William Coventry Wall painted the scene while George Hetzel painted the nature, then Linford painted the mood that make one feel more than see. Maybe Scalp Level looked no different from other western Pennsylvania state parks nowadays; but in the vision of Linford, every tree is magic and sentimental that demands looking and contemplating.

Like A. B. Wall, A. F.King was another second generation of Scalp Level school. But I have not seen a convincing landscape painting by King. His light was too tried, and his brushstroke too tight. Years ago, I saw a large scale painting by him in Eclectic Gallery on Ohio River Blvd. Its overwhelming tranquility almost borders stylish stillness that are common in primitive landscapes. But such calmness becomes his biggest strength in his much acclaimed still-life paintings. "Late night snack" displayed CMOA is one of my favorite in the whole museum. The lucidity of the glass, the cloudy texture of the beer and tiny holes in the biscuits gives beholders an illusion that the satisfaction of delicious food can come from the visual joy. Unfortunately, King outlived his contemporaries, which means for an artist living out of the fashion. Ironically, when A. B. Wall sat in the board of trustee to select permanent collection for Carnegie Institute which devoted a museum to old masters of tomorrow, King, by sticking to the tradition of tightly controlled Landscape and still life in the vein of Hudson River school and Raphael Peale was forgotten in his last few years.

Jasper Lawman is another painter among the Scalp Level School who reflectd a more European tradition. Like the French Barbizon painters, he often incorporated human figure as an integral part of the pictures. But the human figures under his paint, are not laboring in the fields, instead they possess a kind of attitude of repose and ease. Thus his paintings look light and fresh, unique among Scalp Level painters.

I am in no position in discussing Woodwell, but certainly he is very versatile and some of his paintings look almost impressionism. I will also skip other painters such as Eugene Pool or a few second generation painters whom I know little of or whose paintings I have only seen one or two in person.

4 The Critics

In the article in Post Gazette, it was commented by the director of WMOAA, Judith O'Toole, that the complete infrastructure of the museums, dealership along the east coast branded the Hudson River a national school. (In comparison, the first art museum in Pittsburgh was established from the first Carnegie International in 1896.) It is true that artists probably could achieve their fame easier or higher in big east coast cities, however i disagree that Scalp Level would be raised to a national level even if those painters had been painting there.

Cole, Durand and other painters are the first American painters who brought the American wildness into the view of the public. Even though their subject matters are limited to the scenes along the Hudson, the grandeur of the scenery, the optimism that is shone through the canvas carries a national appealing and pride at its time. Their paintings, almost universally painted in panorama, sent a unquestionable message that the god has blessed the country with unrivaled beauty and abundant resources. Thus Hudson River School, with a mission of edifying the public and elevating the status of the homeland, were boasted and praised not only for their exceptional techniques, but also their moral discourse offered silently yet unequivocally.

Scalp Level school did not start their first trip until the end of the civil war, at least one decade later than when major painters of Hudson River school began to stun public with their enormous canvases. By the end of 1890's, Pittsburgh was a giant machine for steel and glass manufacturing. Instead of embracing the American wildness that were everywhere in the first half of the 19th century, Hetzel and his likeminded fellow saws the Scalp Level an outlet from eroding urban mundanity and thus were more inclined to walk into the forest than to look down at the mountains. Their paintings are more personal. However although the viewers are intrigued by the otherworldly beauty, a reminiscence of the past grandeur, they were conscious what has been displayed is painters' mecca forest, not accessible to the general public.

Secondly, it is common that a regional school bears a recognizable style. Old Lyme at one time was the center of American tonalism. New Hope represents a group of Pennsylvania Impressionists. But the painters in Scalp Level School differ greatly in their artistic style. If it is not because of the regional preference, it is hard to believe someone, who likes A. B. Wall, will also collect his uncle's paintings. Not only is the style unable to descend along bloodline from its first generation, but also individual had also gone through style changes in their careers. King's late period still life paintings roughen up and reject the convention of nicety. In his later life, Woodwell used large solid color blocks in some plein-air paintings that would not challenge the notion that he is a member of Scalp Level school.

This also answered the question asked at the very beginning of the blog? Will the market values of Scalp Level increase to the next tier in the next few years? In my mind, the answer will be yes and no. The Pittsburgh region has not seen an increase of affluence or people. The art and antiques that are associated with the region, hence would not change dramatically. The sharp increase in the recent auction records is partially caused by the fact that the availability of artworks is still limited and major works are yet to be discovered. The Post Gazette article said paintings that have been in artist and collector families for decades are entering the market for the past few years as the original owners gradually die out. If this is true, more scalp level paintings will appear in the market and the market may stabilize before the price surges up to balance the demand and the supply.

But more importantly, the market for individual painters may probably go through different route. In a lukewarm market, the medium ranged category is affected more than two extreme end. Therefore some may not see the rise of appreciation in monetary value, while others will keep the steady pace with more research, publication available.

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*Note, all attributed works were not considered in this analysis.

Here is the information about Pier Antiques Show on Nov 15-16, 2008.

And wear a good pair of shoe since there are 500 exhibitors.

The trip to Montclair Art Museum was quite smooth. There is no commuter train running on the weekends, but Decamp bus runs every hour from Port Authority, Manhattan to Montclair, NJ. It only took about 40 minutes by bus to get to the museum, which is situated almost at the top of a hill, with a view of Manhattan. Down the hill, we found a Turkish restaurant (quite upscale), a WholeFood store and a few antique stores further down which unfortunately did not seem to open on Sunday.

Montclair Art Museum is not as big as Newark Museum, but it dedicates a full room to George Inness who spent his last decade in the town. Like all other townships near NYC, Montclair has lost its rural beauty that Inness favored in his paintings; but it is surprising that there is such a wonderful museum filled with some best American art.

Besides the Inness room, I was quite impressed by two paintings. Early Morning in Cold Spring, a painting by Asher Brown Durand shows a perfect balance between naturalism and romanticism. The fact that I just visited Cold Spring, NY a few weeks ago made the painting more personal to me. There is always a sense of freshness in Durand's painting: The nature, depicted truthful but poetic, exists in harmony with minds of intellectual. In this painting, Durand was inspired by a William Cullen Byant's poem:

And o'er the clear still water swells
The music of the Sabbath bells

The other painting is a little gem by Edward M. Bannister, an African-American painter from Rhode Island who founded Rhode Island School of Design. Passing Storm is a vivid demonstration that by the late 19th century Barbizon has been transformed into a unique style that can almost be coined as American-born tonalism. Like Inness, Bannister said "artists become an interpreter of the infinite, subtle qualities of the spiritual ideals of nature... revealing glimpses of absolute harmony." There are not as much details as are almost everywhere in Cropsey's painting next to it, but I was immediately drawn to the overall effect: the untamed nature revealing its austere beauty: It is easy to understand that now I appreciate the brownish soil under still-looming sky more when working in a place that almost every inches of earth is covered by concrete and every feet of sky is blocked by skySCRAPErs.

Philip Pearlstein's exhibition "Objectification" takes almost half of the first floor exhibition space. The figure paintings demonstrate a sense of objectivity with cut-off faces, obtruded features. He treated the human body with the same degree of coolness as other objects from his collections that were painted with the bodies. They are marvelous in the techniques but to see Pearlstein after Inness (that's how the exhibition rooms are arranged) is like to read a math dissertation after reading essays by Heinrich Heine. From the short video, Eric commented the way Pearlstein works on his paintings is almost the opposite to how Inness created his own imagination on the canvas.

Before we left, Eric asked how often the museum rotates the paintings by Inness since at least half of the collection are not on display. Unfortunately, we were told the rotation has not been done quite often. Maybe in the curator's point of view, the nine paintings in that room give the audience a complete image of Inness' style in different periods and of course his association with the town when at his peak power. We will probably go back in the near future on a Saturday when those antique stores may open. And after all, "Christmas Evening" by George Inness is Eric's favorite painting!

On the bus back from Montclair, NJ to the city, I happened to have a glimpse at one of the advertisement page on the current issue of “Art and Antique” magazine. What is featured is something unusual: an almost life-size bronze statue in the 22nd Dynasty.

A lot of residence-cities of Third Intermediate have suffered almost total destruction or lie beneath Delta silt, therefore there are not a lot material remains from the palace site. (This statues are almost certain from some temple.) But Libyans, more advanced than Egyptians with respect to smith works, brought their special skills in bronze, silver and gold. Therefore, if any object survives, they could show considerable artistic merits.

The 22nd Dynasty was marked by those pharaohs with foreign names: Shoshenq or Osorkon. But they were not the Libyan described in the wall relief of the New Kingdom with the stupid side locks with beards; instead they adopted the Egyptian way naturally since they had been living in Egypt since 19th Dynasty.

In the ad, the identity of the bronze statue is a Divine Consort of Amum, a religious official post usually held by a female member of royal family. I have seen a picture of Queen Karomama from Louvre. The dress and the short wig are similar to this statue and appropriate to the period, but the details of the floral collar and the embroidered gown on the queen are far more stunning while this one is quite plain. As usual, the sistra that she is supposed to hold in both hands are missing.

I wish I can know more about this particular piece for sale. First, her feet are just shoulder-width apart. Most of the standing gods or goddesses that I have seen have left foot ahead. Secondly, if she was a Divine Consort of Amum, then there must be some records or traces because she is a wife of the god and most likely a member from royal family. The large scale size and her inlaid eyes and gold necklace indicate this is not meant for some commoner. But the statue is only dated to the dynasty, not to some specific king. And lastly, her face features, to me, actually look more like Kushite than Libyan. And it is known that Kushites kept the established Divine Consort practice. Is she a kushite?

I cannot find this particular object on the gallery’s website. But they have great inventory of antiquities. The website is www.royalathena.com.

“We are all the subjects of impressions, and some of us seek to convey the impressions to others. In the art of communicating impressions lies the power of generalizing without losing the logical connection of parts to the whole which satisfies the mind.”
George Inness

The first time I really noticed a painting by George Inness was in the Butler Art Gallery in Youngstown, Ohio. The Butler has a very good collection of American Art, and I was busy looking at some Hudson River landscapes when I turned and looked straight at it. I wasn't quite sure what drew me to it at first, it was kind of blurry, sort of like a dream I guess, or maybe more like a memory. The landscapes in the other room tried to capture the grand details of nature, sometimes untouched by humans. Here, in the foggy outline of a tree, there was clearly human communication.

An early Inness work, Lackawanna Valley (National Gallery), shows a clear departure from the Hudson River painters. It shows some trees that have fallen to human activity, a steam train and a boy sitting hillside looking yonder. It might be more in line with Currier and Ives, or akin to Norman Rockwell. I'm not sure if it communicated any sort of harmony with nature. nature is something that exists on the same level as the boy, the tree stump and the train.

On the surface this painting doesn't have much in common with his later works, yet the idea that many parts make a one. The natural world, and the human world, and perhaps even the industrial world, are inseparable.

Inness lived and painted in Montclair, New Jersey from 1885 to 1894. Today the Montclair Art Museum has 24 of of his works, about half of which are not on display. Of those on display, five are exceptional. One is of the same era as the one in the National Gallery, another Inness considered his finest work.

When you enter the Inness Gallery at the Museum, the words "Knowledge must bow to spirit" is written above the doorway. If you turn around it's also above the doorway from which you entered. Inness believed "the true end of art is not to imitate a fixed material condition, but to represent a living motion." Life in art is a "subtle essence of a moving spirit. This is what satisfies the craving of the intellect, not the excesses of our senses."

I couldn't help but compare his work to Jasper Cropsey, who I learned today was an architect before painting full-time. Crospey's work is engaging on one level, but the strict attention to detail somehow doesn't travel far from the realm of a pictorial representation. An Inness painting not only speaks, but pulls you in and makes you one with it.

The Hudson River School started with Thomas Cole, and some say ended with George Inness. It's an interesting observation that while both Cole and Inness incorporate figures, most Hudson River works showed nature absent of human presence. It's also curious that many of Cole's figures were allegorical, and in works by Inness, the figures are not only hard to separate from the landscape, it's hard to tell if their presence is physical or spiritual. One painting today showed the figure of a woman. It seemed that figure was no more than a light imprint on the landscape. Like the way a human spends 75 or so years on the earth, then leaves, but much of their being remains, in the impact they had on the world, and in the minds of others.

The painting that, according to a label at the museum, Inness considered his best work is Early Autumn, Montclair. It is striking. The vibrant intense colors make it seem full of life. Yet a dark cloud hovers above. Nothing in the painting seems young. The tree is old, the barn withered and the red color of the tree in the center indicates winter is coming. Yet it's more stunning than it has been all year. It came to my mind that the mental and creative climax of life comes near the end. It would seem that way for George Inness.

The painting I most wanted to see was Christmas Eve. The night before I described the painting as "being cold and warm at the same time." It could be the figure in the painting is undergoing some sort of religious transformation, but from my own memory one of the best aspects of Christmas is the absolute quiet late at night. It may be cold, but there's peace, or at least the possibility of it in our hearts.

Even when the art and antique markets have slowed down, there are always some surprises in an auction.

The auction offered by Thomaston Place Auction Galleries Books and Ephemera, Fine Arts and Antiques on Nov 8 has quite a few surprises. The biggest hit was a Greek marble head of a noble female. It was estimated at $2000 to $3000, but went for $19,000 as the final hammer price. (Check lot number 405 for detail.)

The marble bust has an immediate appeal with its Greek curly hair and delicate face features. The nostrils, tucked mouth corners, rounded chin and sensual lips show a certain degree of realism. In particular, the neck of the bust was sculpted with neck lines to indicate some slack skins. But her slightly upward face displays a mixture of purity and reserve on a convincing youthful face. Looking at her stares which are straightforward, but not protruding, I feel she is almost ready for communication!

The bust was from James P. Baxter's collection in 1894, so it is free of trouble from UNESCO 1970 Convention. James P. Baxter was the first president of the Portland Society of Arts. James was an avid collector who owned a Marie Antoinette sideboard. Like other early collectors, Mr. Baxter was also a scholar who wrote the book "The Pioneers of New France in New England". It is possible that how the beautiful marble bust came to a home in Portland, ME one hundred years ago is not known as the early practices of antiquity acquisition mostly ignored written records, however, knowing that it was once cherished by a famous collector adds another layer of joys of collecting and appreciation.

Like artist William Merritt Chase during his life, I have often enjoyed the beauty of Prospect Park in Brooklyn. In the days before the park was developed, city dwellers (living ones) might have found retreat in nearby Green-Wood Cemetery. Founded in 1838, this "park" for the dead was often enjoyed by the living.

I had known Chase painted scenes in Prospect Park. What I didn't know on my first trip to the cemetery was that Chase was buried there. In fact, he is one of a number of artists for whom Green-Wood is a final resting place.

The map you can pick up in the gatehouse lists several of these artists including Louis Comfort Tiffany and John LaFarge, both known for their stained-glass, as well as Jean-Michael Basquiat. I had also known cabinet-maker Duncan Phyfe was buried there and made a point to find that spot (I wondered if he might be laid on a lyre sofa inside). [Update 11-09-08. Yesterday I learned Joseph Meeks is also there].

On further inspection the list grew. Both Thomas and William Hart, New York landscape painters, are in Green-Wood; as are Currier and Ives. While Asher B. Durand's most famous work may be on its way to Arkansas, his grave is in Green-Wood. The painter of urban life, George Bellows is there along with John Frederick Kensett, a luminist painter and founder and trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The list goes on... Eastman Johnson, Thomas Crawford, Violet Oakley, George Catlin, William Holbrook Beard, Edwin Forbes, I suspect there are more. And this doesn't touch poets, architects, singers, musicians or actors.

Some might think it morbid to visit a cemetary. Yet these resting places are filled with art and sculpture, both in the monuments and the landscape. Green-Wood Cemetery in particular is also apparently filled with artists. I can understand why they might have thought this was a good place to spend eternity.

"Where can I see it? "
"Why can't you put them into DVD and make them available?"

These are the two questions from the panel discussion of Jesper Just's Romantic Delusion exhibition last Saturday at Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Just tried to answer them in a positive way, while the curator Patrick Amsellem kept silent about the touchy questions. It is another moment of romantic delusion when public's naive questions are averted through careful phrasing. (In this case, Just's just-so-so English helped a little bit.) I looked at Eric when hearing such questions. We both smiled, but said nothing. But we know: Artworks exhibited in major museums are not meant to be affordable, or should I rephrase this way--artworks that can be bought in mass production with abundant availability won't be exhibited in museums?

It is true that no gig-lee prints can substitute an original painting even though the coloration is identical. Photos and sculpture are more tangible. Photos can be reproduced from the negative films or now a digital file infinitely and sculpture can be cast hundreds years after the molds were made. On the other hand, the audience have their legitimate reasoning. Videos are a different type of art media. The copy process from one disk/tape to another does not diminish the quality of the artwork. So why not if one of the goals of his art is to outreach the public?

Nothing is more controversial when the originality of the video comes to the panel discussion. If all arts are supposed to be consumed, the consumption of video art is the closest to the commercial activity: Between the clear defined start and end, the minds watch the specific clips as time goes by. Some people may get confused or bored, but that may happen in commercial movies too.

The difference between the consumption of commercial movies and of art videos lies in the density. The density of information, emotions and subcontexts in Just's Bliss and Heaven is so great that the second time I watched it brought me some new thoughts and understandings. of equal amount as the first time. Seldom do people go to watch the same movie twice, because blockbuster movies are meant to be easily grasped and lightly consumed with coke and popcorn. The length, on the other hand, goes the opposite. I doubt one can concentrate more than one hour for a movie made by Just. He himself admitted that he would probably never make a commercial one. The ambiguity lies in the concise format and the richness of the emotions will be diluted if a story is told in clarity and well-defined Hollywood style.

"The market for this type of movies is small. " Jesper confessed in the end. "And the cost to make such movies is large." But the question is who betrays who facing the embarrassing result that art movies cannot find audience while audience cannot find art movies? Just said he would have another show in a gallery next March, before that all New Yorkers will have to come to Brooklyn Museum for the four short movies. (He has made more than 20 movies. so far)

From a collector's point of view, I have no desire to own a movie, even if I can have it autographed, even if I can watch it a dozen times and still find something new. I may, if possible, go to the gallery to watch them and thus consuming them. A necessary channel should be built to connect the two parties who complains "the man who is not there".

Jesper Just has a website. If you are interested, visit Jesper Just.