Excerpt from Illustrated Catalogue of Paintings, Pastels and Water Colors by the Late Robert C. Minor, N. A

IN the early seventies a group of young American art students, pursuing the exacting curriculum of the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts, found themselves persuaded that there was something beyond the horizon which bounded the crypt-like class-rooms of that venerable institution, and began to look outside into the world of art, which they were soon to enter upon with the youthful anticipations of speedy success. The mentor of this little coterie of enthu siastic young man was a newcomer, himself a student, but a student with a more settled purpose and a more reason able and logical ambition than any of us. Compared with his enthusiasm, our emotions seemed tame and cold; we dreamed over processes, he gloried in results. We believed in the school of the Netherlands with a faith that was al most religious; he awakened our interest and developed our belief in the school of France. Our ideas were cramped and narrow because we had been long preoccupied with the absorbing study of the rudiments of the profession; his views on art were broad because, although he could not yet claim a place in the ranks of artists, he had been in close touch with some of the eminent men in the profession and had gained from this intercourse a balance of judgment which no student in the Academy possessed. That new comer was Robert Crannel Minor, and, although he came as a stranger to most of us, his influence made itself felt at once.

He had been painting a year or two in America, latterly under the direction of Alfred C. Howland, whose proficiency was a great stimulus to his ambition. While work ing with Howland he began to feel that if he was to make a success as a landscape painter, it was necessary for him to seek his inspiration at the fountain head. This idea grew until he could no longer resist the call, and he left New York and joined the colony of painters in Barbizon at the time when that school was in the apogee of its suc cess. He worked hard for a season there under the per sonal influence and more or less under the direction of Diaz until, probably overpowered by the splendor of the accomplishment of his master and recognizing his own lack of training, he came to Antwerp to study under Van Luppen, a landscape painter of Wide renown and with an admirable technique. From him he learned the deliberate method of the Netherland school, and for a time it seemed as if he would be so influenced by this method that he would be in danger of losing that' point of view in art which distinguished him above his fellow student' Lit he was only acquiring the alphabet, and he had the good judg ment to strike out for himself as soon as he had become familiar with the method which the Flemish master was so well qualified to teach.

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