While these men were creating sculpture to be proud of, younger men were conning with all their might the vigorous lessons proffered in the French schools, or on French soil, by Falguière, Mercié, Dubois, Chapu, Saint-Marceaux, Rodin,--a mighty host. At the Columbian Exposition, our country had abundant good work to show in sculpture from the hands of returning youth. Between 1876 and 1893 were packed most of the essential lessons our sculpture has learned, either at home or abroad. No subsequent exposition has disclosed so great an advance as that noted in 1893. There has indeed been a further development of basic principles, as well as a recent genial stylistic efflorescence in manner, favored by many of our younger sculptors under the influence of sincere post-graduate study of archaic models. And there have naturally been occasional obscure ultra-modernistic experiments not without service in the zigzag of progress; such works are neither to be despised nor unduly exalted because they proclaim themselves revolutionary. An advance as rapid as that made in sculpture during the seventeen years between the Centennial and the Columbian is not to be expected in the near future. Such an advance could occur only as a strong reaction from a feebleness not now evident, or from a retrogression not now casting its shadow. Many thoughtful painters have pointed out that sculpture by its very essence is far less subject than painting to the more unfortunate inroads of ultra-modernism. We sometimes worry ourselves unnecessarily because our arts and letters are not what is called “distinctively American.” But being distinctively American is not in itself a merit. The distinctively American voice, for example, has not yet been hailed as the international model. Give our sculpture time for still further expression, and it will become as distinctively American as need be. A just and happy exchange of culture between peoples should not be stigmatized as mere imitation. Oddly enough, the first timid flowering of our American painting and sculpture took place among the Quaker Philadelphians and even among the Puritan Bostonians. It did not follow the footsteps of the earlier settlers of French or Spanish blood. Culture has its curves and curious weavings forward and back. Already in our ideals of art education a change has been noted. Many who have studied this subject for a lifetime now believe, as they could not with wisdom have believed a generation ago, that it is better for the student to get his technical training in the schools of his own country, and to learn the beauty of foreign art and the value of foreign culture through eager vacation study abroad, rather than through prolonged residence abroad. The vacation schools of music and painting at Fontainebleau are watched with deep interest. Thus far, their results speak well for this new point of view in art study.