The Brooklyn Museum had a major retrospective of the 19th century landscape painter that had been shown originally as a fiftieth anniversary event at the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum in Springfield, Mass. Inness then, as now, was considered one of the American greats of his time.
On April 17, the thirtieth annual of the Brooklyn Society of Artists also went on display. It contained 174 oils, gouaches, watercolors, drawings, prints and sculptures chosen from about 700 submissions from artists living or teaching in Brooklyn. Times art critic Edward Alden Jewell wrote that the show was uneven with the outstanding work only making the relative weaknesses of others more apparent. He noted an abundance of paintings in the "primitive" style, which was very popular at this time, due in part to the works of Grandma Moses. He singled out a canvas by William Thon, one of the jurors, as a high spot, also praising oils by Clare Wade, Stephen Csoka, Lillian Port, Nell Witters, Vicky Jankowski, Frances Reswick and Nancy Ranson. He thought "Studio Siesta: by Shirley Hendrick was "a dubious jury choice for the oil prize" but concurred with the choice of Margaret Brassler Kane's "Torso" for sculpture. He also liked the sculptures by Ernest Costa, Arthur Okum, Beth Blyn, Ben Tatti and Dorothy L. Offner. Among the notable prints was "Pegasus" by Henry Mark and an etching by Csoka. He singled out the water colors of Nell Choate Jones, Luis Arenal, Dorothy McEntee and Minna Citron. Other winners included Abram Tromka for a gouache "The Bridge" and Victor Candell for a drawing "Florida Boy." The prizes were modest, ranging from a $100 savings bond to Ms. Henrick to $10 in saving stamps to Candell. Other artists singled out by the jury includes Raechel Levy for "My Idiocyncrasy" and Silas Fox for "Blue Grapes."
The Brooklyn Museum opened in 1897 in a grand Beaux Art edifice as one of the last monuments to civic pride before the city of Brooklyn was swallowed up by the City of New York. Despite having one of the most notable collections in the United States, it lived somewhat in the shadow of the Manhattan institutions, being off the usual tourist path. It sponsored numerous civic cultural events for the city's most populous boroughs.