Devoted to recent art, and a testing-ground for doubtful reputations in painting, this museum periodically shifts its contents the accepted few to the Louvre, and the rest to obscurity. It gives a fair sampling of all the chief present-day styles and tendencies, conservative and radical. The best examples of the impressionist movement, radical in the seventies and eighties, have recently been transferred to the Salle Caillebotte in the Louvre. There remain four main distinguishable groups. One is the conservative, academic tradition of exact representation and story-telling interest. It fills the first few rooms near the entrance. Farther on are the remaining impressionist works: chief of which are L’Eglise de Vetheuil, by MONET; Les bords du Loing, by SISLEY; and Liseuse, by RENOIR. Then come the neo-impressionists and early post-impressionists. The former are represented by SEURAT, with The Circus, and by SIGNAC, with Le chateau des papes; both in large, distinct, regular, contrasting spots of color that sparkle vividly. Among the latter are TOULOUSE-LAUTREC, with Jeune femme accroupie, bizarre in linear pattern but delicate in shimmering pastel tints; GAUGUIN, with Le cheval blanc, a decorative screen in blunt primitive drawing and flat, exotically clashing color-areas. In Room 8 and neighboring rooms are shown the contemporary radicals who have achieved a certain degree of established reputation. Beside the one discussed below, there are examples by UTRILLO (Vue d’Anse), BRACQUE, DE SEGONZAC, ROUAULT, VLAMINCK and DERAIN.
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