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THE DRAWINGS OF CARL SPRINCHORN

Some nine years ago, a painting by a young artist, nineteen years of age, was, to quote the New York Times, "the bone of contention" in connection with the Winter Exhibition of the Academy. Its rejection led Robert Henri to compare "Mr. Sprinchorn's case to those of Wagner, Walt Whitman, Degas, Manet, Whistler and many others who were at first laughed at."

In the intervening years, the work of Carl Sprinchorn has won recognition from those discriminating critics who are always the first to appreciate unusual talent. Mr. Sprinchorn was born in the country town of Broby, Sweden, in 1887. In 1904, he came to New York to study art, an unusual procedure worthy of note. He began his studies in America under Henri, at the New York School of Art. By 1908, he had become the manager of the Henri School of Art, where he remained for two years. In 1910 he visited Paris, Denmark, and Sweden. The next year found him back in New York, and in 1912 he went to California where he became instructor in the Art Students League of Los Angeles. Then followed a second trip to Europe; and in 1915, he was again in America. 

Mr. Sprinchorn's work has been shown at various exhibits during the years 1908 to 1915. The Special Exhibition of the Contemporary Arts Club; the Exhibit of Young Artists, at Fay's Art Galleries; the Exhibit of Independent Artists, arranged by Arthur B. Davies, and others; the Pennsylvania Academy Show; the famous International Exhibit in 1913; and, more recently, the Panama Exposition in San Francisco and San Diego, are among those that may be mentioned. Until now, however, there has been no separate exhibition of the drawings of Mr. Sprinchorn; and it may be added that this is the first time that these galleries have been placed at the disposal of any artist for the exhibition of his drawings.

The quality of line showed by Mr. Sprinchorn in his drawings is an achievement rarely met with. In the sketches that are in black and white, as well as in the the more decorative color studies, there is manifest that swift interpretative genius (so difficult of definition) in which resides the wonder of original drawings. Many are the subjects which have provided Mr. Sprinchorn with inspiration; and everywhere, even in drawings that, for all their modernness, are reminiscent of Egyptian and Greek art, the originality of the artist is apparent. He has the secret of presenting in line the essential significance of both character and attitude; and he has that further mastery over light and shade which adds so much to the delight of drawings.

It is a mistake to think that the great draughtsmen are all of the past. If we will but look, we shall find them in our very midst; as witness, for instance, the drawings of Davies, which Mr. Huneker, I believe, has called the most wonderful ex-