"Last
week, with the Chrysler collection opening at the County Museum and
the City Art Festival, was a wearying one, but also one which provided
a number of delightful experiences.
"The
happiest occasion, among several lesser ones at the Chrysler and Festival
affairs, was provided by Cowrie's Gallery in the Biltmore Hotel, where
I saw for the first time the work of one Jean Tabaud.
"Mr.
Tabaud's Cowie show is mainly portraits and I am hard put to recall
if I have ever seen more arresting pictures. It has been, at this
writing, some three days since I looked at his work and still their
memory lingers in a most pleasing way. This strong recollection is
rooted, probably, in the fact that I like little children and Mr.
Tabaud has a haunting technique in painting them. It is quite obvious
that the artist likes the little ones too.
"He
gives their faces marvelous expressions. As if they are, in a spiritual
sense, on the threshold of adult experiences and as if some unknown
force is pulling their thoughts into a world they would much rather
back off from.
"These
sad little things are conveyed through the eyes, the mouth, and the
faint hunch of a shoulder. Most people will agree that Mr. Tabaud
is an expert portraiture and a colorist of high talent."
