15- 



The Driving Clubs of Greater Boston 



the minutest "runner" or "billet" on the 

 straps, true to the dot. 



Gean Smith's work lacks versatility, yet 

 one thing he does do, and it is to have the 

 driver actually driving. The "Cobwebs" at 

 speed that hangs in Hon. Nathan Straus' 

 office is one of his best. You can tell a Gean 

 Smith at one glance always. No more rapid 

 worker lives in the field of horse portraiture, 

 and he easily can sketch in a 24x30 canvas 

 and rub in the sky and landscape all inside 

 one workday. 



A very capable painter is Miss E. L. 

 Seavey, formerly of Vermont or Quebec, I 

 forget which. She did "Bellini" rarely well, 

 and, variously, has painted horses, though 1 

 would consider her field lay in cattle work, 

 after having seen a complete set that she 

 painted to the order of Howard Willetts, of 

 Gedney Farm, at White Plains. Her land- 

 scape work is almost beyond criticism. 



At Mr. Hamlin's Delaware Avenue Stables, 

 in Buffalo, I several times saw a mammoth 

 canvas, "Mambrino King," on parade, led 

 by a darky, or, better, "lugging" the colored 

 groom along as he strode the turf. W. W. 

 Cross painted it, and it must be 10x15 feet in 

 area. It was a spirited pose painted in Cross' 

 broadest manner, the work largely having 

 been done with his palette knife and the 

 paint was actually "caked on," so heavily 

 daubed was the landscape division of the 

 piece. Many have seen it, and reproductions 

 have adorned, in half-tone form, the Village 

 Farm catalogues man}- times. All that Cross 

 painted for the "grand old man of Buffalo" 

 pleased the owner, though, compared to a 

 Leighton, they were crude indeed. 



Never to have known Cameron or A. J. 

 Schultz, though I've seen the latter sketch- 

 ing Wedgewood, 2:19, years ago at the 

 Bates Farm, I must pass them. Many of 

 Currier & Ives' reproductions are signed 

 "Cameron," and are of horses prior to the 

 2:10 era. A colored draughtsman, hardly 

 artist, named Johnson, did stipple work years 

 ago, though hardly finished work. Herbert 

 S. Kittredge. lamented by all who have seen 

 his black and white at work in the latter 

 70's and at the close of the Wallace's 

 .Monthly's career, recall his splendid outline 

 and anatomical understanding, yet I've never 

 seen anything by him in color. Kittredge's 

 drawing of Beausire I think his best. Also 

 there was Cecil Palmer, whose Study of 

 Nutwood on stone is grand, even to that 

 white splash on the inside of the hock, where 

 is the "issue." He did stallions for stock farm 

 owners in black and white, though T never 

 saw a painting Erom his studio. 



At Stonv Ford, in the old smoking room, 



one can see many examples painted by a 

 man named "Scott," I think. All are very 

 good, as concerns the horses, though lacking 

 in sunshine effects or excellence of landscape 

 work. Yet they were painted thirty or more 

 ye rs ago, I suppose, when our leading 

 I ainters considered it beneath them to do 

 animals, and but "rummies" were supposed 

 to paint a horse, even on an order. 



Today Boston has in Wilbur L. Duntley 

 one win 1 is doing excellent work. I have 



WILBUR L. DUNTLEY 



Secretary Metropolitan Club 1908-14 (inclusive) 



always thought he followed Marsden in his 

 endeavors, so likely he was a pupil of the 

 Maiden, Mass., artist. It is likely the best 

 effort of Mr. Duntley was the painting "A 

 Dash for a Fortune." the illustration of 

 Allen Winter winning the $50,000 American 

 Trotting Derby; and the work in oil of the 

 noted Uhlan, holder of the world's trotting 

 record. The "Alta Axworthy," with .Mr. 



Thomas up at speed, and his portrait of the 

 lamented "Nightingale," have created favor- 

 able criticisms. In A. J. Furbush's stable at 



Brighton is a superb crayon and wash por- 

 trait of Chief Wilkie, entitled "King of the 

 Speedway," which is true to life. A paint- 

 ing, similarly posed of the same subject, also 

 is clever. Air. Duntley is kept verv busy the 

 year round at his Boston 1 studio. 



Robert L. Dickey and George Ford" 

 Morris do excellent work in oils, while Ford 

 Morris is indeed proficient in water color 

 work and sepia. Air. Dickey's portrait of 

 "( )akland Baron" was much admired up at 

 Poughkeepsie, in Mr. Ruppert's house at the 



