Art: THE GOOD & BAD OLD DAYS

ONE word that trips lightly from the tongues of connoisseurs and often falls flat in company is the term "genre" (rhymes roughly with honor), a harmless, precise and useful term from the French. Webster defines genre art as that "in which subjects of everyday life are treated realistically." A brilliant exhibition of 37 American genre paintings from 1835 to 1885 is now touring the country under the auspices of the American Federation of Arts. Called "A Hundred Years Ago," it opens next week in New Britain, Conn.

A minor art form, genre is now...

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