Vol. Ill, No. 10 
NEW YORK AND SYRACUSE 
February J 902 
HE New York Society is to be congratulated, 
not only on its artistic exhibition, but for its 
successful management regarding all details. 
Of course experience has taught the execu- 
tive committee what to avoid ; and they, 
as well as the members, deserve credit for 
the financial as well as artistic success of the exhibition. 
Owing to the tremendous expense of a New York exhibition, 
the New York Society does not always show such a balance. 
An experiment was tried with the catalogues this year. 
They were given away instead of being for sale, as usual. 
The Committee met with more success from advertisers in 
this way, and the catalogues, after all, netted the society a 
balance. Then again, while there was an unlimited supply 
of complimentaries, yet there were more tickets of admission 
sold than ever before, and while the exhibition drew a fashion- 
able crowd, yet the artists and professional people were in 
greater numbers than ever, showing a thorough interest taken 
by the art-lovers. 
o o o 
The design of " Fruit Bowl in Plums" illustrated in our 
January number was by Miss Jeanne M. Stewart, Chicago, 
111. The artist's name was inadvertently omitted. 
o o o 
SKETCHING IN HOLLAND 
[Written for the New York Society.] 
Mary Alley Neal 
SKETCHING in Holland is not unlike sketching in America ; 
there are two very essential things in out door sketching, 
one is an angelic disposition, the other plenty of patience. 
Here you have many things to contend with, such as too 
much mud, or the sun is out when you want it gray, or vice 
versa, and mosquitoes and midgets, and no one knows what 
these latter are until you meet them while you are sketching; 
in Holland, you have added to these the pest of the children, 
and the difficulties that arise from not speaking the language, 
German is of very little use and only the' educated people 
speak French. You occasionally meet with English, and the 
Dutch language is difficult, but you can readily pick up a 
few words and sentences so you can be understood. The 
cities I did not find very paintable, The Hague being the 
most picturesque. Here you have the beautiful wood, the 
trunks of the trees having an intense green, through which runs 
the road that Napoleon laid out to the fishing village of 
Scheveningen. The most interesting city to paint is Dor- 
drecht, Hopkinson Smith's Dort, which you all know from his 
writing and paintings; in all the country around are some of 
the oldest wind-mills, some of them built in the fifteenth cen- 
tury, and many lovely picture subjects. I found the country 
towns more paintable perhaps because I love the green fields 
and country scenes. Holland has its drawbacks, one great 
one is that it is not considered healthy in some parts. Vol- 
endam, one of the most picturesque places in Holland, and to 
me, the one having the prettiest costumes, is most unhealthy, 
many people having fever there. 
I spent nearly a month in the little town of Laren. This 
is where Krever and Newhuys have their studios, and where 
Mauve found many of his subjects. Some are the same now 
and some have changed much by the growth of trees and 
shrubs. The country is interesting, it has pine woods, beyond 
which are beautiful sand dunes, and in the Fall, heather in 
the greatest abundance. It has only one wind-mill. 
Everything in Holland is a picture, in America you often 
have to hunt your subject. Artists say it is not the subject, 
but how you paint it, that makes the picture. But I find that 
the people who want to buy, as a rule, look for the subject 
rather than the technique. There the people with their quaint 
costumes, whether it is the man in his velveteen trousers, blue 
shirt and clumpen or wooden shoes, plowing in the field, or 
the woman coming down the lane with her milk cans hanging 
from a wooden yoke on her shoulders, or the children, all 
blend in with the low toned coloring of the landscape. 
Each little town in Holland has its own particular cos- 
tume and different caps, the unmarried women wear a differ- 
ent cap, the still older women wearing the crullers, the richer 
they are the more twists they have to them. But these will 
soon pass away as my frau told me it was impossible to get 
the young girls to wear the caps now, they have so many of 
the modern ideas. ' 
As it rains in Holland a great deal, it is always well to 
have interior subjects on hand, and Laren is noted for its in- 
teriors. As many people are doing the same thing you have 
to watch your chance to engage the house and models you 
want, and the people think nothing of it when you knock at 
their doors and in the best Dutch you know, you ask them to 
let you look at their interior and ask to see themselves and 
what poses they have. If you like it you decide to work one 
or two weeks or the length of time you desire, and engage 
them, then that interior and the models are yours for the 
small amount of one gulden a morning, which is 42 cents of 
our money. No one can paint there or use your models 
while you are there. 
For landscapes, I went to Rizzoord, and staid with the 
dearest old Frau, Frau Noorlander, in a little wooden cottage 
on the River Naal. As Holland is alow country your horizon 
is naturally placed low on your canvas, which gives you a 
fine opportunity for the study of clouds and sky : and what 
skies they are! always beautiful in effect. It often rains with 
the sun out. Having no fences the fields are divided by slotes 
about three feet wide and very deep, which the cows never 
think of crossing. Here you have the opportunity of studying 
the figure with the landscape, as the men and women work 
together in the fields at the time of flax gathering, and haying 
and milking time: there also are the beautiful Holstein cows. 
The little town is built on the banks of the River Naal and 
the low cottages with their thatched roof and the beautiful 
tree forms with reflections in the water give many subjects. 
Other interesting places are Alkamaar, with its cheese market 
on Fridays, people coming with thousands of cheeses to 
