The art world of New York is peculiar¹. It was then and for some time after, broken up into cliques² with scarcely any unity³. There was a world of sculptors⁴, for instance, in which some thirty or forty sculptors had part—but they knew each other slightly, criticised each other severely⁵ and retired⁶ for the most part into a background of relatives and friends. There was a painting world, as distinguished⁷ from an illustrating⁸ world, in which perhaps a thousand alleged⁹ artists, perhaps more, took part. Most of these were men and women who had some ability—enough to have their pictures hung at the National Academy of Design exhibition—to sell some pictures, get some decorative¹⁰ work to do, paint some portraits. There were studio buildings scattered¹¹ about various portions of the city; in Washington Square; in Ninth and Tenth Streets; in odd places, such as Macdougal Alley¹² and occasional cross streets from Washington Square to Fifty-ninth Street, which were filled with painters, illustrators, sculptors and craftsmen¹³ in art generally. This painting world had more unity than the world of sculptors and, in a way, included the latter. There were several art clubs—the Salmagundi, the Kit-Kat and the Lotus—and there were a number of exhibitions, ink, water color, oil, with their reception nights where artists could meet and exchange the courtesies and friendship of their world. In addition to this there were little

分享到：