"Drummer Boy" shows good composition, and J. H. E. Partington's study of
a man's head is as fine a piece of painting as was ever done in the
eighties.

Gallery 64.

In a big central gallery we meet the more meritorious work of our
painters dependent upon foreign influence. Portraits, genre pictures,
landscapes, and marines tell the story of many individual men working
out their salvation in more or less original fashion. I have spoken at
some length about the pitfall of genre painting, but Thomas Hovenden's
"Breaking Home Ties" redeems the entire school. Irrespective of the fact
that it is a picture very popular with the large public by reason of its
sentimental appeal, it is well painted, and it will always be considered
a good painting. It is devoid of colour, in the sense of the modern
painter, but its very fluent and simple technical character recommends
it highly. Hovenden was a master of his trade. Anybody who doubts this
from his large canvas can easily be convinced by studying the "Peonies"
to the left of it on wall C. The large area of this wall is covered with
six canvases by Thomas Eakins, showing a variety of subjects. His
"Crucifixion" is very good as an academic study but of no other
interest. In the "Concert Singer" he added an interesting subject to
very admirable painting. His other canvases are all sincerely studied
and well done, and they will always be sure of their place in the
history of American painting. Opposite the "Crucifixion," Church's
"Niagara" reminds one that the painting of water involves more than mere
photographic facility. All that one can say about this serious effort is
that if it had been painted under a different star than that which
guided the painters of his time in outdoor studies, it would doubtless
look more like water. Another canvas on the right, a marine by Richards,