at Stieglitz's gallery elicited a strongly negative reaction, and he did not think highly of The Eight. A critic for whom Cézanne and Matisse became the most significant painters of the time wanted something more than Bluemner's strident color effects and the urban realism of The Eight. He also disliked the dark, brooding paintings of Max Beckmann, today recognized as the greatest of the German Expressionists. Neither a scholar nor a specialist, McBride wrote in an impressionistic, conversational, even chatty and at times fey style. Reviewing an exhibition that contained the first Florine Stettheimer painting he had ever seen (he would become a great fan and close friend of the painter), he wrote admiringly and drolly about her whimsical picnic scene, La Fete a Duchamp. He concluded his review by noting that "Miss Stettheimer appears to be a good provider. The more I think of it, the more miffed I am that I wasn't asked to that party." McBride meant that statement both literally and metaphorically: modern art was a great party, he had decided, and he did not intend—or want his readers—to miss out on the fun. Some collectors, like Duncan Phillips, were so taken with McBride's judgment and captivating style that they waited to read his reviews before making a purchase. Even into the 1940s and 1950s, at an age when many people are less open to new cultural experiences, McBride continued to search for young talent to praise. He was one of the first champions of Milton Avery, whose playful sense of form and gentle color effects thoroughly charmed him. When he referred admiringly to Avery as "the W.C. Fields of painters," the artist knew what he meant. Humor is an element in Avery's work, not fully noticed even today. He also wrote approvingly of the work of Pollock, Rothko, Morris Graves, and Bradley Walker Tomlin. "Although McBride's life and era were drawing to a close, he remained receptive to the next phase." Friendship with the artists he wrote about was an important part of McBride's life. He made reference to "Gertrude and Alice" in his columns, attended the midtown salon evenings at the Stettheimer apartment, and relished the company of Matisse, Duchamp, Stieglitz, O'Keeffe, and Peggy Bacon. Like Demuth, McBride was gay, though not openly so, and found a welcoming circle of friends in the cosmopolitan world of modernist New York and Paris. Portraits Florine Stettheimer