BUCKINGHAM MEMORIAL

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EXHIBITION

N January 12 a memorial exhibition of prints from the collection of the late Clarence Buckingham will be installed in the galleries of the Art Institute.

Mr. Buckingham, who was for many years a Trustee of the Art Institute and until his death in August, 1913, one of its most zealous supporters, was an ardent and discriminating collector of Japanese color prints and of etchings by both old and modern masters. His collections are notable for their extent and for their quality.

After Mr. Buckingham's death his sisters, Miss Kate and Miss Maud Buckingham, deposited the prints with the Art Institute for safe-keeping, and Mr. Frederick W. Gookin was appointed their curator. Although the prints have been shown by special appointment with the curator, they will now be placed on public exhibition for the first time.

The Japanese prints form one of the finest collections that have ever been assembled. All of the great Ukiyoe print designers are represented by many of their choicest works. The collection is especially rich in the early prints generally classed as primitives-a term which includes the black-and-white and the hand-colored prints produced between 1660 and about 1750, and also the earliest color-prints, made from two or three color-blocks only, which were issued between 1742 and 1764, when full color printing was perfected. Of the large single-sheet prints issued during this period and of the charming beni-ye in rose and green, Mr. Buckingham was fortunate in securing an unusually large number. These early works are rare in any state and extremely rare in the fine condition of many of those owned by Mr. Buckingham. His efforts to secure choice examples of the prints of Harunobu and Kiyonaga were rewarded by the acquisition of many works by these great masters. Kiyomitsu, too, is repre

sented by a rather exceptional showing in quality and range of subject. It would be difficult to name another collection possessing such remarkable prints by Okumura Masanobu and Ishikawa Toyonobu. This list of artists' names might be extended much further if space permitted; but what has been said will suffice to give a general impression of the wealth of the collection.

Almost seven hundred Japanese prints -about half the number in the Buckingham collection-will be exhibited in the eight galleries in the south wing used for

current exhibitions of the Art Institute. As nearly as circumstances permit they will be arranged chronologically with the works of each artist grouped together, thus affording a good opportunity for studying not only the style of each of the greatest artists, but also the development of the Ukiyoe school from the time of Moronobu to its culmination.

While these Japanese prints are being exhibited in the south galleries, and for a month or so longer, there will be an exhibition of Mr. Buckingham's etchings in the Print Room, Gallery 45. Here will be installed about three hundred prints, exceptionally fine proof impressions, including early states of many of the most important plates of Rembrandt, Durer, Van Leyden, Aldegrever, Schongauer, Ostade and other early masters, as well as etchings by Whistler, Haden, Jacque, Buhot, Jacquemart, Cameron

and other modern handlers of the etch

ing needle.

mothers and babies and young girls predominate, composed with a keen feeling for grace of line and sculptural mass. Mrs. Vonnoh was a student at the Art Institute under Lorado Taft. She is represented in the collections of the Museum by a group of statuettes, in plaster, presented by the Arché Club in 1895.

Marines by Charles H. Woodbury, one of America's most distinguished painters of the sea, hung with liberal space in Gallery 25, present a very impressive appearance. No less interesting than the larger and more important canvases are the vivid sketches of tropical

fifty landscapes and a group of thumb box sketches, entirely of Italian lakes and villas. In their bright color and illumination Mr. Eaton strikes a new note not familiar to us from his contributions to the annual exhibitions of American art.

Miss Jane Peterson's work will be remembered from her exhibition at the Art Institute about five years ago, when she showed the product of several years painting in Europe and Northern Africa. The present exhibition is composed of about twenty refreshing studies in light and color illustrative of Miss Peterson's recent painting in the gardens of American estates.