The only way in which to justly and adequately describe the T. B. Walker Gallery at Minneapolis, is to say that it teems with great works of art, chosen with great discrimination from the field of paintings, ceramics, carved jades, porcelains, pottery, and Roman and Egyptian jewelry; the paintings alone, however, are considered in this report. And it may be safely asserted that not only among private collections, but also as compared to the leading public galleries, it ranks among the greatest, in comprehensiveness, variety of subjects, and artistic quality. The gathering of this superb collection has obviously been made with persistent care for what is representative, expressive, and beautiful alike, the owner not having committed the all too common mistake of so many guileless collectors, to whom any work by a painter of reputation is ipso-facto of artistic worth. Primarily, this is the collection of a man who, above everything else, satisfied his strongly developed aesthetic sense, thereby stamping his individual taste upon his accumulated treasures.
The tawdy, gaudy or the sensational, so often met with in American collections as well as abroad, find here no place; a restrained note of refinement characterizes this very remarkable aggregation which, owing to the very subtlety of its appeal, dis closes to the student, gradually, but increasingly its many fine atheistic assets. The pleasant memory of the retrospective European section of the Panama Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco in 1915, gleaned with great care from the leading galleries of the Continent, pales into insignificance in comparison with the choice works of European art in the Walker Collection. For nearly two weeks I have most carefully examined the paintings and after recommending the removal of some few among them (and these few were removed), I have no hesitancy in saying that the collection is composed of genuine examples of the masters whose names they bear. In conclusion, I wish once more to refer to a phase of art appreciation which is so often given too much emphasis; that is the question of genuineness, or authenticity of pictures.
I may say at once, that when one considers the astonishing number of great names met with here, it is a pleasant and gratifying task to discuss the matter of the authenticity of the pictures in the Walker Gallery. Practically all the pictures carry the most convincing marks of veracity, and even when there may be some slight doubt, one can at any rate honestly say that aside from the question of genuineness all canvases are intrinsically beautiful. I am fully aware of the common prejudice of the old world against American collections, a prejudice which I admit is often warranted, but in the case of the Walker Collection, a notable exception must be made, even by those who believe that their reputation must be upheld by a mysterious attitude of doubt. If this collection of paintings is kept intact, and I hope it never will be scattered, their assemblage will constitute one of the greatest accomplishments in the field of ideal achievement. While Mr. Walker has enjoyed a life-long gratification from his treasures, he amply deserves in addition the gratitude of a nation, which is so rich in material wealth, but still is in so much in need of the treasures of the spirit.
Mr. Eugene Neuhaus, Professor of Art in the University of California,
after a protracted and critical survey of the paintings comprising the T. B. Walker Gallery
1927
