The Art of Dwight W. Tryon - An Appreciation

The End of Day very notable quality of inevitableness characterises A theart of Dwight W.Tryan. His art has developed so IogicaIly from within himself, and, moreover, in so close relation to the outside causes and effects which have determined the development of modern landscape, that he is more than a singularly individual personality. His art is also highly representative of the modern spirit the ripest harvest, in fact, of forces that have been gradually maturing during the Iate century. For from the vantage point of today, looking over the space of nearly a hundred years since the beginning of the Barbizon movement, one can discover a complete chain of cause, and effect that was bound to culminate sooner or later in such a kind and quality of Iandscape as this of Tryons. That the conclusion should have been reached in his case is because the premise of his own temperament that he has so logically followed, happened to be in direct accord with the premise of his age. He has, indeed, so far as principles are concerned, said the last word that had to be said in the development of the naturalistic school of landscape painting. Already a new motive of landscape art has risen above the horizon, of which I may have something to say presentIy but the logic of the old one, as I read the signs of the times, has come to its conclusion in Tryon. For the landscape movement, initiated by the artists of Barbizon, under the influence of Constable and the Dutch School of the seventeenth century, had its basis in natural representation. Its motive was to visualise the facts of nature, as seen in their own natural environment of lighted atmosphere. From the start, too, the motive was in the true sense of the word, affected by impressionism. It aimed at a synthesis, derived from analytical study of facts in which the facts should be, not literally presented but interpreted through suggestion. And the suggestion, from the first, was directed not only to the eye of the spectator but also to his minds eye. It recorded an impression of how nature had been felt, as well as of how it had been seen. Moreover, from the beginning, the degree of feeling varied in its amount and quality of objectivity or subjectiveness. In the first half of the century, in fact, all the principles of modern naturalistic landscape had been firmly rooted it was but their subsequent gowth that was affected in the later half of the century, by the men first called 66 impressionists. The influence of the latter was in the direction of a closer study of the natural phenomena of light an analysis more scientific of its varied qualities and a more scientific rendering of them by the conscious use of values. Under the new aspect of impressionism, initiated by Manet and Monet, landscape has grown into a still closer relation to natures coloring, while in this subtler interpretation of light phenomena a more elaborate and extended keyboard has 2 been opened up to the artist for the expression of his personal moods of feeling. On the other hand, in the attention given to the play of light on surfaces there was a disposition to ignore the underlying structure. In the analysis of values the facts of form were often overlooked, and thus one truth was sacrificed to another. Further, the painter, intent upon suggesting the momentary or fugitive impressions of a scene, would often stop short of achieving also the finer qualities of technique. The craftsmanship was often inefficient and unbeautiful..