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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40604 ***
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF A LADY.--[JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY.]]
+
+
+
+
+ART IN AMERICA
+
+A CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL SKETCH
+
+BY
+
+S. G. W. BENJAMIN
+
+AUTHOR OF "CONTEMPORARY ART IN EUROPE" "WHAT IS ART" &c.
+
+_ILLUSTRATED_
+
+[Illustration]
+
+NEW YORK
+
+HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS
+
+FRANKLIN SQUARE
+
+1880
+
+Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by
+
+HARPER & BROTHERS,
+
+In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
+
+ERRATUM.
+
+The cut on page 28, attributed to Rembrandt Peale, should be credited to
+John T. Peele.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The aim of this book has been to give a historical outline of the growth
+of the arts in America. But while this has been the dominating idea in
+the mind of the writer, criticism has necessarily entered, more or less,
+into the preparation of the work, since only by weighing the differences
+or the comparative merits of those artists who seemed best to illustrate
+the various phases of American art has it been possible to trace its
+progress from one step to another.
+
+It is from no lack of appreciation of their talents that the author has
+apparently neglected mention of the American artists resident in foreign
+capitals--like Bridgman, Duveneck, Wight, Neal, Bacon, Benson, Ernest
+Parton, Millet, Whistler, Dana, Blashfield, Miss Gardner, Miss Conant,
+and many others who have done credit to American æsthetic culture. But
+it was necessary to draw the line somewhere; and to discuss what our
+artists are painting abroad would have at once enlarged the scope of the
+work beyond the limits of the plan adopted. An exception has been made
+in the case of our sculptors, because they have so uniformly lived and
+wrought in Europe, and so large a proportion of them are still resident
+there, that, were we to confine this branch of the subject only to the
+sculptors now actually in America, there would be little left to say
+about their department of our arts.
+
+The author takes this occasion cordially to thank the artists and
+amateurs who have kindly permitted copies of their paintings and
+drawings to be engraved for this volume.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                  PAGE
+
+I.
+
+EARLY AMERICAN ART                  13
+
+II.
+
+AMERICAN PAINTERS (1828-1878)       39
+
+III.
+
+AMERICAN PAINTERS (1828-1878)       66
+
+IV.
+
+AMERICAN PAINTERS (1828-1878)       97
+
+V.
+
+SCULPTURE IN AMERICA               134
+
+VI.
+
+PRESENT TENDENCIES OF AMERICAN ART 164
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+SUBJECT.                                  ARTIST.                PAGE.
+
+PORTRAIT OF A LADY                     _John Singleton Copley_ _Frontispiece_
+
+FAMILY OF BISHOP BERKELEY              _John Smybert_              16
+
+DEATH ON THE PALE HORSE                _Benjamin West_             19
+
+DEATH OF MONTGOMERY                    _John Trumbull_             23
+
+GENERAL KNOX                           _Gilbert Stuart_            25
+
+"BEGGAR'S OPERA"                       _G. Stuart Newton_          27
+
+"BABES IN THE WOOD"                    _Rembrandt Peale_           28
+
+FANNY KEMBLE                           _Thomas Sully_              29
+
+ARIADNE                                _John Vanderlyn_            30
+
+THE HOURS                              _E. G. Malbone_             32
+
+JEREMIAH                               _Washington Allston_        34
+
+DYING HERCULES                         _Samuel F. B. Morse_        35
+
+"MUMBLE THE PEG"                       _Henry Inman_               40
+
+PORTRAIT OF PARKE GODWIN               _Thomas Le Clear_           43
+
+PORTRAIT OF FLETCHER HARPER            _C. L. Elliott_             45
+
+AN IDEAL HEAD                          _G. A. Baker_               48
+
+THE JUDGEMENT OF PARIS                 _Henry Peters Grey_         50
+
+MIRANDA                                _Daniel Huntington_         53
+
+A SURPRISE                             _William Sidney Mount_      55
+
+TAKING THE VEIL                        _Robert Weir_               57
+
+DESOLATION. FROM "THE COURSE OF EMPIRE"_Thomas Cole_               59
+
+A STUDY FROM NATURE                    _A. B. Durand_              61
+
+NOON BY THE SEA-SHORE.--BEVERLY BEACH  _J. F. Kensett_             63
+
+ALTORF, BIRTH-PLACE OF WILLIAM TELL    _George L. Brown_           64
+
+BROOK IN THE WOODS                     _Worthington Whittredge_    67
+
+LANDSCAPE COMPOSITION                  _R. W. Hubbard_             70
+
+"THE VASTY DEEP"                       _William T. Richards_       72
+
+HIGH TORN, ROCKLAND LAKE               _Jasper F. Cropsey_         74
+
+THE PARSONAGE                          _A. F. Bellows_             75
+
+LANDSCAPE WITH CATTLE                  _James Hart_                77
+
+SUNSET ON THE HUDSON                   _Sandford R. Gifford_       80
+
+A COMPOSITION                          _Frederick E. Church_       82
+
+A WINTER SCENE                         _Louis R. Mignot_           84
+
+SHIP OF "THE ANCIENT MARINER"          _James Hamilton_            85
+
+"WHOO!"                                _William H. Beard_          87
+
+LAFAYETTE IN PRISON                    _E. Leutze_                 89
+
+PORTRAIT OF A LADY                     _William Page_              91
+
+THE REFUGE                             _Elihu Vedder_              93
+
+CARTOON SKETCH: CHRIST AND NICODEMUS   _John Lafarge_              95
+
+VIEW ON THE KERN RIVER                 _A. Bierstadt_              99
+
+THE YOSEMITE                           _Thomas Hill_              100
+
+THE BATHERS                            _Thomas Moran_             101
+
+LANDSCAPE                              _Jervis M'Entee_           104
+
+COUNTY KERRY                           _A. H. Wyant_              105
+
+THE ADIRONDACKS                        _Homer Martin_             107
+
+A LANDSCAPE                            _J. W. Casilear_           109
+
+SHIP ASHORE                            _M. F. H. De Haas_         111
+
+A FOGGY MORNING                        _W. E. Norton_             112
+
+A MARINE                               _Arthur Quartley_          114
+
+ARGUING THE QUESTION                   _T. W. Wood_               116
+
+THE ROSE                               _B. F. Mayer_              118
+
+DRESS PARADE                           _J. G. Brown_              120
+
+A BED-TIME STORY                       _S. J. Guy_                121
+
+THE MOTHER                             _Eastman Johnson_          123
+
+SAIL-BOAT                              _Winslow Homer_            124
+
+THE SCOUT                              _Wordsworth Thompson_      126
+
+ON THE OLD SOD                         _William Magrath_          127
+
+"A MATIN SONG"                         _Fidelia Bridges_          129
+
+STUDY OF A DOG                         _Frank Rogers_             130
+
+LOST IN THE SNOW                       _A. F. Tait_               132
+
+EVE BEFORE THE FALL                    _Hiram Powers_             135
+
+ORPHEUS                                _Thomas Crawford_          137
+
+COLUMBUS BEFORE THE COUNCIL.   }
+  FROM THE BRONZE DOOR         }       _Randolph Rogers_          139
+  OF THE CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON }
+
+THE GHOST IN "HAMLET"                  _Thomas R. Gould_          141
+
+GEORGE WASHINGTON                      _J. Q. A. Ward_            143
+
+MEDEA                                  _William Wetmore Story_    146
+
+THE PROMISED LAND                      _Franklin Simmons_         147
+
+LATONA AND HER INFANTS                 _W. H. Rinehart_           150
+
+ZENOBIA                                _Harriet Hosmer_           152
+
+EVENING                                _E. D. Palmer_             153
+
+BUST OF WILLIAM PAGE                   _William R. O'Donovan_     155
+
+ABRAHAM PIERSON                        _Launt Thompson_           157
+
+THE CHARITY PATIENT                    _John Rogers_              158
+
+THE WHIRLWIND                          _J. S. Hartley_            159
+
+ADORATION OF THE CROSS BY}
+  ANGELS. ST. THOMAS'S   }             _Augustus St. Gaudens_     160
+  CHURCH, NEW YORK       }
+
+THOMAS JEFFERSON'S IDEA OF A MONUMENT                               162
+
+THE MOWING                             _Alfred Fredericks_        165
+
+BIRDS IN THE FOREST                    _Miss Jessie Curtis_       169
+
+REPRESENTING THE MANNER OF
+  PETER'S COURTSHIP                    _Howard Pyle_              171
+
+SOME ART CONNOISSEURS                  _W. Hamilton Gibson_       173
+
+WASHINGTON OPENING THE BALL            _C. S. Reinhart_           175
+
+MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON                                         178
+
+THE ASTONISHED ABBÉ                    _E. A. Abbey_              181
+
+A CHILD'S PORTRAIT                     _B. C. Porter_             184
+
+A BIT OF VENICE                        _Samuel Colman_            185
+
+THE OLD ORCHARD                        _R. Swain Gifford_         187
+
+A LANDSCAPE                            _George Inness_            188
+
+LA MARGUERETTE--THE DAISY              _William M. Hunt_          189
+
+MOONLIGHT                              _John J. Enneking_         191
+
+HAVING A GOOD TIME                     _Louis C. Tiffany_         192
+
+SOUTHAMPTON, LONG ISLAND               _C. H. Miller_             193
+
+A STUDY                                _Frederick Dielman_        195
+
+THE BURGOMASTER                        _H. Muhrman_               197
+
+BURIAL OF THE DEAD BIRD                _J. Alden Wier_            200
+
+THE APPRENTICE                         _William M. Chase_         201
+
+THE PROFESSOR                          _Thomas Eakins_            204
+
+THE GOOSE-HERD                         _Walter Shirlaw_           205
+
+A SPANISH LADY                         _Mary S. Cassatt_          208
+
+STUDY OF A BOY'S HEAD                  _W. Sartain_               209
+
+
+
+
+ART IN AMERICA.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+_EARLY AMERICAN ART._
+
+
+The art of a nation is the result of centuries of growth; its crowning
+excellence does not come except when maturity and repose offer the
+occasion for its development. But while, therefore, it is yet too soon
+to look for a great school of art in America, the time has perhaps
+arrived to note some of the preliminary phases of the art which, we have
+reason to hope, is to dawn upon the country before long.
+
+As the heirs of all the ages, we had a right to expect that our
+intellectual activity would demand art expression; while the first
+efforts would naturally be imitative rather than original. The
+individuality which finds vent in the utterance of truth under new
+conditions is not fully reached until youth gives place to the vigorous
+self-assertion of a manhood conscious of its resources and power. Such
+we find to have been the case in the rise of the fine arts in this
+country, which up to this time have been rather an echo of the art of
+the lands from which our ancestors came, than distinctively original.
+Our art has been the result of affectionate remembrance of foreign
+achievement more than of independent observation of nature; and while
+the number of artists has been sufficiently large, very few of them
+stand forth as representatives or types of novel methods and ideas; and
+those few, coming before their time, have met with little response in
+the community, and their influence has been generally local and
+moderate, leading to the founding of nothing like a school except in one
+or two isolated cases. But many of them, especially in the first period
+of our art, have shared the strong, active character of their time;
+and, like the heroes of the Revolution, presented sturdy traits of
+character. And thus, while the society in which they moved was not
+sufficiently advanced to appreciate the quality of their art, they were
+yet able to stamp their names indelibly upon the pages of our history.
+But within the last few years the popular interest in art has grown so
+rapidly in the country--as indicated by the establishment of numerous
+art schools and academies, art galleries, and publications treating
+exclusively of art subjects, together with many other significant proofs
+of concern in the subject--that it seems safe to assume that the first
+preparatory period of American art, so brilliant in many respects, is
+about closing, and that we are now on the threshold of another, although
+it is only scarcely three centuries since the first English colonists
+landed on our shores. The first professional artist of whom there seems
+to be any record in our colonial history was possessor of a title that
+does not often fall to the lot of the artist: he was a deacon. This fact
+indicates that Deacon Shem Drowne, of Boston town, was not only a
+cunning artificer in metals and wood-carving, as the old chronicles
+speak of him, but also a man addicted to none of the small vices that
+are traditionally connected with the artistic career; for people were
+very proper in that vicinage in those days of austere virtue and
+primness, and deacons were esteemed the very salt of the earth.
+
+During the first century of our colonial existence local painters, often
+scarcely deserving the name, are also known to have gained a precarious
+livelihood by taking meagre portraits of the worthies of the period, in
+black and white or in color. We should know this to have been the fact
+by the portraits--quaint, and often rude and awkward--which have come
+down to us, without anything about them to indicate who the artists
+could have been who painted them. Occasionally a suggestion of talent is
+evident in those canvases from which the stiff ruffles and bands of the
+Puritans stare forth at us. Cotton Mather also alludes to a certain
+artist whom he speaks of as a limner. But in those times there was,
+however, at best no art in this country, except what was brought over
+occasionally in the form of family portraits, painted by Vandyck,
+Rembrandt, Lely, or Kneller. These precious heirlooms, scarcely
+appreciated by the stern theologians of the time, were, however, not
+without value in advancing the cause of civilization among the wilds of
+the Western world. Unconsciously the minds of coming generations were
+influenced and moulded by these reminders of the great art of other
+lands and ages. No human effort is wasted; somewhere, at some time, it
+appears, as the seed sown in October comes forth anew in April,
+quickened into other forms, to sustain life under fresh conditions.
+
+The first painter in America of any decided ability whose name has
+survived to this day was John Watson, who executed portraits in
+Philadelphia in 1715. He was a Scotchman. It is to another Scotchman,
+who married and identified himself with the rising fortunes of the
+colonies, that we are perhaps able to assign the first distinct and
+decided art impulse in this country. And for this we are directly
+indebted to Bishop Berkeley, whose sagacious eye penetrated so far
+through the mists of futurity, and realized the coming greatness of the
+land.
+
+[Illustration: FAMILY OF BISHOP BERKELEY.--[JOHN SMYBERT.]]
+
+Berkeley is associated with the literature and arts of America in
+several ways. He aided the advance of letters by a grant of books to
+Yale College, and by founding the nucleus of what later became the
+Redwood Library at Newport; thus indirectly suggesting architectural
+beauty to a people without examples of it, for in 1750 a building was
+erected for the library that sprang from his benefactions. The design
+was obtained from Vanbrugh, one of the greatest architects of modern
+times; and although the little library is constructed only of wood and
+mortar, its plan is so pleasing, tasteful, and harmonious, that it long
+remained the most graceful structure in the colonies; and even at this
+day is scarcely equalled on the continent as a work of art by many far
+more costly and ambitious constructions after the Renaissance order.
+And, finally, we owe to Bishop Berkeley the most notable impulse which
+the dawning arts received in this country when he induced John Smybert,
+the Scotchman, to leave London in 1725 and settle in Boston, where he
+had the good fortune to marry a rich widow, and lived prosperous and
+contented until his death, in 1751. Smybert was not a great painter. If
+he had remained in Europe his position never would have been more than
+respectable, even at an age when the arts were at a low ebb. But he is
+entitled to our gratitude for perpetuating for us the lineaments of many
+worthies of the period, and for the undoubted impetus his example gave
+to the artists who were about to come on the scene and assert the right
+of the New World to exercise its energies in the encouragement of the
+fine arts. It is by an apparently unimportant incident that the
+influence of Smybert to our early art is most vividly illustrated. He
+brought with him to America an excellent copy of a Vandyck, executed by
+himself; and several of our artists, including Allston, acknowledged
+that a sight of this copy affected them like an inspiration. The most
+important work of Smybert in this country is a group representing the
+family of Bishop Berkeley, now in the art gallery at New Haven. A flock
+of foreign portrait-painters, following the example of Smybert, now came
+over to this country, and rendered good service in perpetuating the
+faces of the notable characters and beauties of the time; but none of
+them were of special moment, excepting, perhaps, Blackburn and
+Alexander. But their labor bore fruit in preparing the way for the
+successes of Copley. The first native American painter of merit of whom
+there is any authentic record was Robert Feke, who was of Quaker
+descent, and settled in Newport, where portraits of his are still to be
+seen, notably that of the beautiful wife of Governor Wanton, which is
+preserved in the Redwood Library. What little art-education he received
+resulted from his being taken prisoner at sea and carried to Spain,
+where he contrived to acquire a few hints in the use of pigments. Feke
+was a man of undoubted ability; and the same may be said of Matthew
+Pratt, of Philadelphia, who was born in 1734, in respect of age
+antedating both Copley and West, although not known until after they
+had acquired fame, because for many years he contented himself with the
+painting of signs and house decorations.
+
+But the latent æsthetic capacity of the colonies displayed itself
+suddenly when John Singleton Copley, at the early age of seventeen,
+after only the most rudimentary instruction, adopted art as a
+profession. But, although a professional and successful artist at so
+early an age, Copley seems to have been preceded in assuming the calling
+of artist by a Quaker lad of Pennsylvania, one year his junior, but
+evincing a turn for art at an earlier age, when hardly out of the
+cradle.
+
+The birth of a national art has scarcely ever been more affecting or
+remarkable than that recorded in the first efforts of Benjamin West. He
+was born at Springfield, Pennsylvania, in 1738, a year after Copley. The
+scientist of the future may perhaps show us that it was something more
+than a coincidence that the six leading painters of the first period of
+American art came in pairs: Copley and West in 1737 and 1738; Stuart and
+Trumbull were born in 1756; Vanderlyn arrived in 1776; and Allston
+followed only three years later.
+
+The descendants of the iconoclasts who had beaten down statues and
+burned masterpieces of art, who had cropped their hair and passed
+sumptuary laws to fulfil the dictates of their creed, and had sought a
+wilderness across the seas where they could maintain their rigid
+doctrines unmolested, were now about to vindicate the character of their
+fathers. They were now to prove that the love of beauty is universal and
+unquenchable, and that sooner or later every people, kindred, and tongue
+seeks to utter its aspirations after the ideal good by art forms and
+methods; and that the sternness of the Puritans had been really
+directed, not so much against art and beauty legitimately employed, as
+against the abuse of the purest and noblest emotions of the soul by a
+debasing art.
+
+As if to emphasize the truth of these observations, as well as of the
+famous prophecy of Bishop Berkeley, the artist to whom American art owes
+its rise, and for many years its greatest source of encouragement, was
+named West, and was of Quaker lineage. Such was the rude condition of
+the arts in the neighborhood at that time that the first initiation of
+West into art was as simple as that of Giotto. At nine years of age he
+drew hairs from a cat's tail and made himself a brush. Colors he
+obtained by grinding charcoal and chalk, and crushing the red blood out
+from the blackberry. His mother's laundry furnished him with indigo,
+and the friendly Indians who came to his father's house gave him of the
+red and yellow earths with which they daubed their faces. With such rude
+materials the lad painted a child sleeping in its cradle; and in that
+first effort of precocious genius executed certain touches which he
+never surpassed, as he affirmed long after, when at the zenith of his
+remarkable career.
+
+How, from such primitive efforts, the Quaker youth gradually worked into
+local fame, went to Italy and acquired position there, and then settled
+in England, became the favorite _protégé_ of the king for forty years,
+and the President of the National Academy of Great Britain--these are
+all matters of history, and, as West never forgot his love for his
+native land, entitle him to the respectful remembrance not only of
+artists, but of all his countrymen. American art has every reason, also,
+to cherish his memory with profound gratitude, for no painter ever
+conducted himself with greater kindness and generosity to the rising,
+struggling artists of his native land. No sooner did our early painters
+reach London but they resorted, for aid and guidance, to West, and found
+in him a friend who lent them his powerful influence without grudging,
+or allowed them to set up their easels in his studio, and gave them all
+the instruction in his power. Trumbull, Stuart, Dunlap, and many others,
+long after they had forgotten the natural foibles of West, had reason to
+remember how great had been the services he had rendered to the aspiring
+artists of his transatlantic home.
+
+Since the death of West--whom we must consider one of the greatest men
+our country has produced--it has become the fashion to decry his art and
+belittle his character. This seems to be a mistake which reflects
+discredit upon his detractors. Men should be judged not absolutely, but
+relatively; not compared with perfection, but with their contemporaries
+and their opportunities. In estimating men of the past, also, we need to
+put ourselves in their places, rather than to regard them by the
+standard of the age in which we live. In no pursuit are men more likely
+to be misjudged than in art; for artists are liable to be guided by
+impulse rather than judgment, and the very vehemence of their likes and
+dislikes renders their opinions intense rather than broad and
+charitable. Benjamin West appears to have been born with great natural
+powers, which matured rapidly, and early ceased to develop in excellence
+proportionate to his extraordinary industry and fidelity to art.
+
+[Illustration: "DEATH ON THE PALE HORSE."--[BENJAMIN WEST.]]
+
+But while a general evenness of quality rather than striking excellence
+in any particular works was the characteristic of the art of West,
+together with a certain brick-red tone in his colors not always
+agreeable, yet a share of genius must be granted to the artist who
+painted the "Departure of Regulus," "Death on the Pale Horse," and "The
+Death of Wolfe." It unquestionably implied daring and consciousness of
+power to brave the opposition of contemporary opinions and abandon
+classic costume in historical compositions as he did; to win to his side
+the judgment of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and create a revolution in certain
+phases of art. Notwithstanding this, however, West was emphatically a
+man of his time, moulded by it rather than forming it, and inclined to
+conventionalism. When he entered the arena, art was in a depressed
+condition both in Italy, where he studied, and in England. But while
+Reynolds and Gainsborough gave a fresh impulse to art, West's genius,
+ripening precociously, early became incapable of achieving further
+progress.
+
+West established himself as a portrait-painter at the age of fifteen;
+and in the following year--1755--Copley also engaged in the same
+pursuit, when only seventeen. The former lived to be seventy-nine; the
+latter was seventy-eight at his death. The art-life of Copley must be
+considered the most indigenous and strictly American of the two.
+Although receiving some early instruction from his step-father, Pelham,
+and enjoying opportunities denied to West, of studying portraits by
+foreign artists, yet Copley's advantages were excessively meagre; and
+whatever successes he achieved with his brush, until he finally settled
+in England at the age of thirty-nine, were entirely his own, and can be
+proudly included among the most valued treasures of our native art. So
+highly were the abilities of Copley esteemed in his day, that years
+before he crossed the Atlantic his reputation had preceded him, and
+assured him ready patronage in London.
+
+It is said that Copley was a very slow and laborious worker. The
+elaboration he gave to the details of costume doubtless required time.
+But if the popular opinion was correct, we must assume that many of the
+paintings now reputed to be by his hand are spurious. It is a common
+saying that a Copley in a New England family is almost equivalent to a
+title of nobility; and this very fact would lead many to attribute to
+him family portraits by forgotten artists, who had, perhaps, caught the
+trick of his style. But there yet remain enough well authenticated
+portraits by this great painter, in excellent preservation, to render
+the study of his works one of great interest to the art student. There
+is no mistaking the handling of Copley. Self-taught, his merits and
+defects are entirely his own. His style was open to the charge of
+excessive dryness; the outlines are sometimes hard, and the figures
+stiff almost to ungracefulness. The last fault was, however, less
+noticeable in the formal, stately characters and costumes of the time
+than it would be under different conditions. In Copley's best
+compositions these errors are scarcely perceptible. He was far superior
+to West as a colorist, and was especially felicitous in catching the
+expression of the eye, and reproducing the elegant dress of the period;
+while we have had no artist who has excelled him in perceiving and
+interpreting the individuality and character of the hand. A very fine
+example of his skill in this respect is seen in the admirable portrait
+of Mrs. Relief Gill, taken when she was eighty years old. Gilbert Stuart
+remarked of the hand in the portrait of Colonel Epes Sargent, "Prick
+that hand, and blood will spurt out." It is indeed a masterpiece. No
+painter was ever more in sympathy with his age than Copley; and thus,
+when we look at the admirable portraits in which his genius commemorated
+the commanding characters of those colonial days, in their brilliant and
+massive uniforms, their brocades and embroidered velvets, and choice
+laces and scarfs, the imagination is carried back to the past with
+irresistible force, while, at the same time, we are astonished at the
+ability which, with so little training, could give immortality both to
+his contemporaries and his own pencil.
+
+While the fame of Copley will ultimately rest on the masterly portraits
+which he bequeathed to posterity, yet it will not be forgotten that he
+was one of the ablest historical painters of his time. The compositions
+entitled the "Boy and the Squirrel," painted in Boston, the "Death of
+Major Pierson," and the "Death of Chatham," will contribute for ages to
+the fame of one of the most important American artists of the last
+century.
+
+Charles Wilson Peale, the next artist of reputation in the colonies,
+owes his celebrity partly to accidental circumstances. Of course a
+certain degree of ability is implied in order that one may know how to
+turn the winds of fortune to the best account when they veer in his
+favor. But in some cases, as with Copley and West, man seems to wrest
+fate to his advantage; while in others she appears actually to throw
+herself in his way, and offer him opportunities denied to others. At any
+rate it seems no injustice to ascribe the continued fame of Charles
+Wilson Peale to the fact that he was enabled to associate his art with
+the name of Washington: and that his son, Rembrandt, by also following
+art pursuits, was able to emphasize the fame of the family name. Peale
+the elder was not a specialist; he was rather, like so many born in
+America, gifted with a general versatility that enabled him to succeed
+moderately well in whatever he undertook, without achieving the highest
+excellence in any department. Inclining alternately to science and
+mechanics, he finally drifted into art, went over to England and studied
+with West, and returned to America in time to enter the army and rise to
+the rank of colonel. His versatile turn of mind is well illustrated by
+one who says that "he sawed his own ivory for his miniatures, moulded
+the glasses, and made the shagreen cases."
+
+It was the good fortune of Peale to paint several excellent portraits of
+Washington, representing him during the military part of his career,
+both before and during the Revolution. Lacking many of the qualities of
+good art, these portraits are yet faithful and characteristic likenesses
+of the Father of his Country, and as such are of great interest and
+value.
+
+It is to another Revolutionary soldier of superior natural ability,
+Colonel John Trumbull, that the country is indebted for a proof of the
+national turn for the fine arts. The son of Jonathan Trumbull, Colonial
+Governor of Connecticut, he received a classical education at Harvard
+University. But here, again, observe the far-reaching influence of one
+act. That copy, already alluded to, which was executed by Smybert after
+a work of Vandyck--the great painter who was welcomed to the banqueting
+halls of merry England by Charles I. and Henrietta Maria--was again to
+bear fruit. It inspired the genius of Trumbull with a passion for color
+while yet in his youth, and ultimately led to his becoming a great
+historical painter.
+
+But first he had to undergo the discipline of war, which gave him that
+experimental knowledge of which he afterward made such good use. Of a
+high spirit and proud, irascible temper, Trumbull served with
+distinction; first as aid to Washington, then as major at the storming
+of the works of Burgoyne at Saratoga; and he had reached a colonelcy,
+when he threw up his commission and went over to England, and became a
+student of West, whose style is perceptible in many of the works of the
+younger artist.
+
+If inequality is one sign of genius, then Trumbull possessed it to a
+marked degree. The difference in merit between his best paintings, which
+were chiefly composed in England, and those he executed in this country,
+in the later years of his life, is remarkable. This probably was due in
+part to the lack of any appreciable art influences or patronage in his
+own country to stimulate the artistic afflatus. The talents of Trumbull
+were conspicuous in portraiture and historical painting. The energy of
+his nature is illustrated in such powerful portraits as those of
+Washington and Hamilton. Deficient in drawing, and unlike in details of
+feature, they are life-like in their general resemblance, and seem to
+thrill with the spirit of the original. We see before us the heroes who
+conducted the struggling colonies successfully to military independence
+and political freedom. Trumbull's miniatures in oil of many of the men
+who were prominent in the Revolution are also very spirited and
+characteristic, and of inestimable historic value. He was less
+successful in the representation of feminine beauty. His talents moved
+within a limited range, but within that narrow circle displayed certain
+excellences quite rare in the Anglo-Saxon art of that period, exhibiting
+a correct feeling for color, keen perception of character, and great
+force of expression. But let him stray beyond the compass of his powers,
+as in the representation of woman, and his coloring becomes unnatural
+and his drawing inexpressive.
+
+The art of this great painter, for so we must call him in view of some
+of his works, culminated in the historical compositions entitled "The
+Signing of the Declaration of Independence," "The Siege of Gibraltar,"
+and the immortal compositions representing the "Death of Montgomery" and
+the "Battle of Bunker Hill." The last two were not surpassed by any
+similar works in the last century, and thus far stand alone in American
+historical painting.
+
+[Illustration: DEATH OF MONTGOMERY.--[JOHN TRUMBULL.]]
+
+Cabinet in size, they combine breadth and detail to an unusual degree.
+The faces are in miniature, in many cases portraits from life. They
+could be cut out and framed as portraits; each also is stamped with the
+individual passions of that terrible hour--hate, exultation, pain,
+courage, sorrow, despair. And yet with all this truth of detail the
+general spirit and effort of the scene is preserved. The onward
+movement, the rush, the onset of war, the harmony of lines, the massing
+of _chiaro-oscuro_, the brilliance and truth of color, are all there.
+One first gazes astonished at the skill of the artist, and ends by
+feeling his heart stirred and his emotions shaken as the leaves of the
+forest are blown by the winds of October, and his sympathies carried
+away by the grandeur and the terror of battle. Yes, when John Trumbull
+painted those two pictures, he was inspired by the fires of genius for
+once in his life. His later historical works are so inferior in all
+respects as scarcely to seem to be by the same hand.
+
+Trumbull lived to see a taste for the arts growing up among his
+fellow-countrymen, and the awakening of the first feeble attempts to
+furnish art instruction in his native land to the artists of the future.
+He was President of the Academy of Fine Arts, of which he was one of the
+founders.
+
+In the same year with Trumbull was born the greatest colorist and
+portrait-painter we have seen on this side of the Atlantic, Gilbert
+Stuart. The town of Narragansett, in the little State of Rhode Island,
+was the birth-place of this painter, who came of Scotch and Welsh
+descent, an alliance of blood whose individual traits were well
+illustrated in the life and character of the painter.
+
+Fortune was becoming a little kinder to our artists. Stuart's dawning
+genius was directed at Newport by Cosmo Alexander, a Scotch
+portrait-painter of some merit, who took his pupil to Scotland and
+placed him in charge of Sir George Chambers. After various vicissitudes,
+comprising, as with so many of our early painters, an art apprenticeship
+in the studio of West, the young American artist settled for awhile
+abroad, and acquired such repute that he rivalled Sir Joshua Reynolds in
+the popular esteem: his brush was in demand by the first in the land;
+and the unfortunate Louis XVI. was included among his sitters. After
+this, in 1793, Stuart returned to America, painted the portraits of the
+leading citizens in our chief cities, and finally settled in Boston. The
+most important works he executed in this country were his well-known
+portraits of Washington, including the famous full-length painting,
+which represents the great man, not in the prime of his active days, as
+represented by Peale and Trumbull, but when, crowned with glory and
+honor in the majesty of a serene old age, he was approaching the sunset
+of life.
+
+The character of Stuart was one of marked peculiarities, and offers
+points of interest scarcely equalled by that of any other American
+artist. The canny shrewdness and penetrating perception of the Scotchman
+was mellowed almost to the point of inconsistency by the warm and supple
+traits of his Welsh ancestry. An admirable story-teller himself, he in
+turn gave rise, by his oddities, to many racy anecdotes, some of which
+have been treasured up and well told by Dunlap, who, although inferior
+as a painter, deserves to be cordially remembered for his discursive but
+valuable book on early American painting.
+
+[Illustration: GENERAL KNOX.--[GILBERT STUART.]]
+
+As regards the art of Stuart, it can be safely affirmed that America has
+produced no painter who has been more unmistakably entitled to rank
+among men of genius as distinguished from those of talent. We assume
+that the difference between the two is not one of degree, but of kind.
+In the intellectual progress of the world the first leads, the other
+follows. One may have great talents, and yet really not enrich the world
+with a single new idea. He simply assents to the accepted, and lends it
+the aid of his powers. But genius, not content with things as they are,
+either gives us new truths or old truths in a new form. The greatest
+minds--Cæsar, Shakspeare, Goethe, Franklin--present us with a just
+combination of genius and talent: they both create and organize. Now,
+one may have great or little genius, but so far as he tells us
+something worth knowing in his own way, it is genius as distinguished
+from talent.
+
+And this is why we say that Stuart had genius. He followed no beaten
+track, he gave in his allegiance to no canons of the schools. His eagle
+eye pierced the secrets of nature according to no prescribed rules. Not
+satisfied with surfaces or accessories, he gave us character as well.
+Nor did he rest here. In the technical requirements of his art he stands
+original and alone. That seemingly hard, practical Scotch nature of his
+was yet attuned like a delicate chord to the melody of color. Few more
+than he have felt the subtle relation between sound and color--for he
+was also a musician. In the handling of pigments, again, he stands
+pre-eminent among the artists of his generation. Why is it that his
+colors are as brilliant, as pure, as forcible, as harmonious, to-day as
+when he laid them on the canvas nearly a century ago? If you carefully
+examine his pictures you shall see one cause of the result explained. He
+had such confidence in his powers, and such technical mastery, that he
+needed not to experiment with treacherous vehicles; and, rarely mixing
+tints on the palette, laid pure blues, reds, or yellows directly on the
+canvas, and slightly dragged them together. Thus he was able to render
+the stippled, mottled semblance of color as it actually appears on the
+skin; to suggest, also, the prismatic effect which all objects have in
+nature; and, at the same time, by keeping the colors apart, to insure
+their permanence. Stuart generally painted thinly, on large-grained
+canvas, which gave the picture the softness of atmosphere. But
+sometimes, as in the case of the powerful portrait of General Knox, he
+loaded his colors. But even in that work he did not depart from his
+usual practice in rendering the flesh tints.
+
+It has been alleged by some that Stuart was unable to do justice to the
+delicate beauty of woman, especially the refined type which is
+characteristic of the United States. He may have more often failed in
+this regard than in other efforts; but the force of the accusation
+disappears when one observes the extraordinary loveliness of such
+portraits as that of Mrs. Forrester, the sister of Judge Story, at
+Salem. But, indeed, it seemed to make little difference to him who the
+sitter happened to be. He entered into the nature of the individual,
+grasped the salient traits of his character, and, whether it was a
+seaman or a statesman, a triumphant general or a reigning belle, his
+unerring eye and his matchless brush rendered justice to them all.
+
+Gilbert Stuart Newton, the nephew of Stuart, is a painter well known in
+England, where he early established himself; and, having been born at
+Halifax, and always remained a British subject, he more properly belongs
+to foreign art. But his education was gained in the studio of his uncle
+in Boston, and his style shows unmistakable traces of the teacher's
+methods. Newton executed some good portraits before abandoning his
+native land, including one of John Adams, which is in the Massachusetts
+Historical Society. He is known abroad chiefly as a _genre_ painter of
+semi-literary compositions.
+
+[Illustration: "BEGGAR'S OPERA.--[G. STUART NEWTON.]]
+
+James Frothingham was also a pupil, and in some degree an imitator, of
+Stuart, who possessed unusual ability in portraiture, but it was
+confined to the painting of the head. Whether from the lack of early
+advantages--which was so remarkable that he had not even seen a palette
+when, self-taught, he was able to execute a very tolerable likeness--or
+because of natural limitation of power, Frothingham's talent seemed to
+stop with the neck of the sitter. The face would perhaps be reproduced
+with a force, a beauty of color, and a truth of character that
+oftentimes suggested the art of Stuart; while the hands or shoulders
+were almost ludicrously out of drawing and proportion.
+
+[Illustration: "BABES IN THE WOOD."--[REMBRANDT PEALE.]]
+
+Besides Frothingham, there were a number of American painters of
+celebrity, contemporaries of Stuart, but of unequal merit. Colonel
+Sargent acquired a repute in his time which it is difficult to
+understand at present. He seems to have been more of an amateur than a
+professional artist. His ablest work is the "Landing of the Pilgrims,"
+of which a copy is preserved at Plymouth. Rembrandt Peale obtained a
+permanent reputation for his very able and truthful portrait of
+Washington. He bestowed upon it the best efforts of his mature years,
+and it received the compliment of being purchased by Congress for
+$2000--a large sum for an American painting in those days, when the
+purchasing power of money was greater than it is now. His "Court of
+Death" is a vast composition, that must candidly be considered more
+ambitious than successful. In such works as the "Babes in the Wood,"
+Peale seems to foreshadow the _genre_ art which has been so long coming
+to us. John Wesley Jarvis, a native of England, also enjoyed at one time
+much popularity as a portrait-painter. He was possessed of great
+versatility; was eccentric; a _bon vivant_, and excelled at telling a
+story. It is melancholy to record that, after many vicissitudes, he
+ended his days in poverty.
+
+Thomas Sully was also a native of England, who came to this country in
+childhood, and lived to such a great age that it is difficult to realize
+that he was the contemporary of Trumbull and Stuart. Sully had great
+refinement of feeling, and reminds us sometimes of Sir Thomas Lawrence.
+This is shown in a certain favorite ideal head of a maiden which he
+reproduced in various compositions. One often recognizes it in his
+works. His portraits are also pleasing; but in the treatment of a
+masculine likeness the feebleness of his style and its lack of
+originality or strength are too often apparent. John Naegle, of
+Philadelphia, was a pupil of Sully, but first began his art career as
+apprentice to a coach-painter. Like many of our artists of that time, he
+tried his hand at a portrait of Washington; but he will be longest and
+best remembered by his vivid and characteristic painting of Patrick
+Lyon, the blacksmith, at his forge. This picture now hangs in the
+elegant gallery of the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, where several
+of the masterpieces of our early painters may be seen hanging in company
+with it, among them West's "Christ Rejected," Vanderlyn's "Ariadne," and
+Allston's "Dead Man Restored to Life."
+
+[Illustration: FANNY KEMBLE.--[THOMAS SULLY.]]
+
+Born the year of the Declaration of Independence, John Vanderlyn, like
+most of the leading artists of this period of whom we are writing, lived
+to old age. His days were filled with hardships and vicissitudes: and,
+unless he has since become aware of the fame he left behind, he was one
+of many to whom life has been a very questionable boon.
+
+[Illustration: ARIADNE.--[JOHN VANDERLYN.]]
+
+Vanderlyn was a farmer's boy on the Hudson River. It was one of those
+curious incidents by which Destiny sometimes makes us think there may
+be, after all, something more than blind action in her ways, that Aaron
+Burr, passing by his father's house, saw some rude sketches of the
+rustic lad with that keen eye of his. Burr discerned in them signs of
+promise, and invited him to come to New York. When Vanderlyn arrived
+Burr treated him kindly. Eventually the painter made a portrait of
+Theodosia, the beautiful and ill-fated daughter of his benefactor; and
+when Burr was under a cloud and found himself destitute in Europe, it
+was Vanderlyn who received and gave him shelter.
+
+Much of the art-life of this painter was passed at Rome and in Paris.
+His varied fortunes, and the constant adversity that baffled him at
+every step, obliged him to resort to many a pitiful shift to keep soul
+and body together. It is owing to this cause that he so rarely found
+opportunity to do justice to the undoubted ability he possessed.
+
+But Vanderlyn left at least two important creations, marked by genuine
+artistic feeling and beauty, that will long entitle him to a favorable
+position among American painters. "Marius Among the Ruins of Carthage" I
+have never seen, and can only speak of it by report; but that it is a
+work deserving to rank high in the art of the time seems to be proven
+not only by the applause it received at Rome, but also by the fact that
+it carried off the gold medal at the Salon in Paris. Such is the irony
+of fate that the artist was twice forced to pawn this medal. The second
+time he was unable to redeem it.
+
+The "Ariadne" has unfortunately begun to show signs of age, and the
+browns into which the flesh tints are painted are commencing to discolor
+the delicate grays. An oil-painting, if properly executed, should hold
+its qualities for a longer time; but unhappily the works of too many
+good artists are affected in the same way. The "Ariadne" is, however, a
+noble composition, quite in classic style; and if not strikingly
+original, is a most creditable work for the early art of a young people.
+
+Newport, Rhode Island's charming little city by the sea, once a thriving
+commercial centre, but now a favorite resort of culture and gayety and
+wealth, but always opulent in delightful Colonial and Revolutionary
+associations, and doubly attractive for the artistic memories that cling
+to it, and the treasures of our art which it contains--this was the
+birth-place of Edward G. Malbone, who, after a successful art-life in
+his native town and at Charleston, died at Newport, in 1807, at the
+early age of thirty-two. Miniature-painting was a favorite pursuit of
+our early artists. Some of our best portraits have been done by that
+means; but among all who have followed it in the United States none have
+excelled Malbone, although some, like John Fraser, of South Carolina,
+have been very clever at it. He succeeded in giving character to his
+faces to a degree unusual in miniature; while the coloring was rendered
+at once with remarkable delicacy, purity, and fidelity. His best works
+are probably the likeness of Ray Green, and the exquisitely beautiful
+group called the "Hours," which is carefully preserved in the Athenæum
+at Providence.
+
+With the general public the name of no American artist of that time is
+probably more widely known than that of Washington Allston. He owes this
+in part, doubtless, to the fact that as a writer he also became
+identified with the literary circle at that time prominent in Eastern
+Massachusetts. He was born in 1779, at Waccamaw, South Carolina. Sent
+at seven years of age to Newport, both for health and instruction, he
+lived there ten years; and very likely associated with Malbone, and
+perhaps met Stuart there.
+
+[Illustration: "THE HOURS."--[E. G. MALBONE.] ORIGINAL SIZE.]
+
+Subsequently Allston visited Italy, and then settled in London, where
+his talents received such ample recognition as to gain him the position
+of Academician. The mistake of his art-life--although it was perhaps
+advantageous to his fame at home--was probably his return to the United
+States while yet in his prime. The absence of influences encouraging to
+art growth, and of that sympathy and patronage so essential to a
+sensitive nature like that of Allston's, had a blighting effect on his
+faculties; and the many years he passed in Boston were years of
+aspiration rather than achievement. Allston has suffered from two
+causes. Overrated as an artist in his day, his reputation is now
+endangered from a tendency to award him less than justice. The latter
+may be due in part to the fact that Allston himself adopted a course of
+action that tended to repress rather than develop his art powers. In his
+desire to give intellectual and moral value and permanent dignity to his
+productions, and in his aversion to sensationalism in art, he treated
+his subjects with a deliberate severity which takes away from them all
+the feeling of spontaneity which is so delightful and important in works
+of the imagination. If his genius had been of the high order claimed by
+some, such a result would have been impossible. The emotional element
+would have sometimes asserted itself, and given to his finished works
+that warmth and attraction the lack of which, while they are
+intellectually interesting and worthy of great respect, prevents them
+from inspiring and winning our hearts, and has impaired the influence
+they might have had in advancing the progress of art in America.
+
+That Allston might have produced paintings of more absolute power, seems
+evident from his numerous crayon sketches and studies for paintings,
+which are full of fire, energy, and beauty, delicate fancy, and creative
+power. One cannot wholly understand Allston's ability until he has seen
+those studies; and it cannot be too much regretted that he did not allow
+a freer rein to his brush when composing the works upon which he desired
+to establish his fame. When he did so far forget himself, we get a
+glimpse of the fervor and grandeur of the imagination that burned in
+that brain, whose thoughts were greater than its capacity for
+expression. It must also be granted that the works of Allston have the
+quality peculiar to the productions of original minds: it is not until
+they have been seen repeatedly that they reveal all that is in them.
+"Uriel in the Sun," "Jeremiah," and "The Dead Man Restored to Life," are
+probably the best of the finished works by which the solemn, mysterious,
+and impressive imagination of Allston can be best estimated. Without
+giving us new revelations regarding the secrets of color, as he was
+rather an imitator of the Venetian school than an originator, Allston
+can be justly considered one of the most agreeable colorists America has
+produced.
+
+[Illustration: "JEREMIAH."--[WASHINGTON ALLSTON.]]
+
+[Illustration: "DYING HERCULES."--[SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.]]
+
+Few of those who recognize the late Samuel F. B. Morse as the inventor
+of our telegraphic system are aware that in early life he was an
+artist, and gave evidence of succeeding both in sculpture and painting.
+Although his preference was for the latter, we are inclined to think
+that he was best fitted to be a sculptor. He became the pupil of Allston
+in London, and modelled at that time a statue called the "Dying
+Hercules," which won the prize of a gold medal offered by the Adelphi
+Society of Arts for the best single figure. From that statue he
+afterward composed a painting of the same subject, which is now in New
+Haven, a work of unquestioned power, showing thorough anatomical
+knowledge and a creative imagination. But, while there was reason to
+predict an interesting art career for the young American, circumstances
+beyond his control drifted him away from the chosen pursuit of his
+youth, and his fame and fortune were eventually achieved in the paths of
+science. It is interesting in this connection to read the words which
+Morse, suffering from the pangs of disappointment, wrote to one who
+asked his advice about becoming a painter: "My young friend, if you have
+determined to try the life of an artist, I wish you all success; but as
+you have asked my honest opinion, I must say that, if you can find
+employment in any other calling, I advise you to let painting alone. I
+have known so many young men--some of them of decided talent, too--who,
+after repeated trials and failures, became discouraged, gave up further
+effort, and went to ruin." Notwithstanding that such were his views when
+he abandoned art, did not Morse, in the prosperous hours of his life,
+sometimes look back to his early art with a pang of regret? But while he
+continued in the profession of art, his activity was such that the
+National Academy of Design owes its origin to him, and with him closed
+the first period of art in the United States.
+
+We see that this division of our pictorial art--with the exception of
+Thomas Birch, of Philadelphia, a marine painter of some repute, and a
+few others of less note--was devoted to the figure; and, if sometimes
+feeble in result, was inspired by lofty motives. In historical art and
+portraiture it was, if not strictly original, yet often very able, and
+fairly maintained itself on a level with the contemporary art of Europe.
+Owing to the entire want of opportunities for professional education at
+home, our leading artists, with few exceptions, were forced to pass a
+good part of their lives in foreign studios.
+
+We also find that a feeling for the beauty of form, as indicated in
+black and white, or in sculpture, was scarcely perceptible in this stage
+of our art. With the exception of Shem Drowne and Patience Wright, who
+modelled skilfully in wax, the sense for plastic art was altogether
+dormant in the country; while any progress in architecture, until in
+recent years, was hopelessly ignored. It is true that the active,
+restless intellect of Thomas Jefferson sought to endow the nation with a
+sixth order of architecture, called the Columbian, and patriotically
+resembling a stalk of Indian-corn. The small pillars made after this
+design are in one of the vestibules of the basement of the Capitol at
+Washington, where the ardent patriot may visit them, and see for
+himself the beginning and the end of the only order of architecture ever
+attempted in this country.
+
+Through much tribulation, much earnest faith, and enthusiasm for art,
+our early painters prepared the way for the national art of the future.
+They met only moderate appreciation in their native land at that time.
+But we owe much to them; and in our preference for present
+methods--which must in turn be superseded by others--let us not forget
+the honor due to the pioneers of American art. In the first articulate
+utterances of a child, or in the dialect of an aboriginal tribe, lie the
+rudiments of a national tongue eventually carried to a high degree of
+culture; and the first rude art or poesy of a young people sometimes
+possesses touches of freshness, charming simplicity, or virile force
+which are too liable to be softened away beyond recall by the
+refinements of a later civilization.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+_AMERICAN PAINTERS._
+
+1828-1878.
+
+
+The generation immediately succeeding the American Revolution was
+devoted by the people of the young republic to adjusting its commercial
+and political relations at home and abroad. Early in this century,
+however, numerous signs of literary and art activity became apparent,
+and in 1815 the _North American Review_ was founded. We mention this
+fact, although a literary event, as indicating the point in time when
+the nebulous character of the various intellectual influences and
+tendencies of the nation began to develop a certain cohesive and
+tangible form. It was about the same time that our art, subject to
+similar influences, began to assume a more definite individuality, and
+to exhibit rather less vagueness in its yearnings after national
+expression.
+
+Gilbert Stuart, one of the most remarkable colorists of modern time,
+died in the year 1828. In the same year the National Academy of Design
+was founded. These two events, occurring at the same time, seem properly
+to mark the close of one period of our art history and the dawn of its
+successor; for notwithstanding the excellence of Stuart's art, and the
+virile character of the art of some of his contemporaries, yet their
+efforts had been spasmodic and unequal; much of it had been done abroad
+under foreign influences; and there was no sustained patronage or art
+organization at home which could combine their efforts toward a
+practical and common end. The first president of the new institution was
+Samuel F. B. Morse.
+
+The National Academy of Design superseded a similar but less wisely
+organized society, which had led a precarious existence since 1801. With
+the new institution was collected the nucleus of a gallery of paintings
+and casts; and from the outset the idea suggested by its name was
+carried out, by furnishing the most thorough opportunities for
+art-instruction the country could afford.
+
+[Illustration: "MUMBLE THE PEG."--[HENRY INMAN.]]
+
+Although seemingly fortuitous, the establishment of the Academy of
+Design really marks the opening of a distinct era in the history of
+American art; during which it has developed into a rounded completeness
+to a degree that enables us, with some measure of fairness, to note the
+causes which led to it, which have nourished its growth, and which have
+made it a worthy forerunner of new methods for expressing the artistic
+yearnings of those who are to follow in years to come. It has indicated
+a notable advance in our art; it has, in spite of its weakness or
+imitation of foreign conventionalisms, possessed certain traits
+entirely and distinctively native; and has been distinguished by a
+number of artists of original and sometimes unusual ability, whose
+failure to accomplish all they sought was due rather to unfortunate
+circumstances than to the lack of genuine power, which in another age
+might have done itself more justice.
+
+It is interesting to observe at this juncture that our art was
+influenced by exactly the same causes as our literature of the same
+period; and, like our national civilization, presents a singular
+reaching after original expression, modified sometimes by an unconscious
+imitation of foreign thought and methods.
+
+There is one fact connected with the early growth of our art which is
+entirely contrary to the laws which have elsewhere governed the progress
+of art, and is undoubtedly due to the new and anomalous features of our
+social economy. Elsewhere the art-feeling has undeviatingly sought
+expression first in earthen-ware or plastic art, then in architecture
+and sculpture, and finally in painting. We have entirely reversed this
+order. The unsettled character of the population--especially at the time
+when emigration from the Eastern to the Western States caused a general
+movement from State to State--together with the abundance of lumber at
+that time, evidently offered no opportunity or demand for any but the
+rudest and most rapidly constructed buildings, and anything like
+architecture and decorative work was naturally relegated to a later
+period; and for the same reason, apparently, the art of sculpture showed
+little sign of demanding expression here until after the art of painting
+had already formulated itself into societies and clubs, and been
+represented by numerous artists of respectable abilities.
+
+The art-feeling, which made itself apparent, vaguely and abortively,
+during our colonial period, began to demand freer and fuller expression
+soon after the new Republic had declared its independence; and, with
+scarce any patronage from the Government, assumed a degree of excellence
+surprising under the circumstances, and rarely reached by a nation in so
+short a time.
+
+We recall no art of the past the order and conditions of whose growth
+resemble those of ours, except that of Holland after its wars of
+independence with Spain. The bane and the blessing of our art have been
+in the enormous variety of influences which have controlled its action.
+This has been a bane, because it has, until recently, prevented the
+concentration of effort which might lead to grand results and schools.
+It has been a blessing, because individual expression has thus found a
+vent, and mannerism has not yet become a conventional net, so thrown
+around our art as to prevent free action and growth. The American art of
+the last two generations has resembled the restless activity of a
+versatile youth, who seeks in various directions for the just medium by
+which to give direction to his life-work. If there has been, on the
+whole, a national bias in one direction more than another, it has been
+for landscape-painting.
+
+Our intellectual state has also resembled the many-sided condition of
+Germany in the Middle Ages, waking up from the chaos of the Dark Ages,
+but broken up into different States, and representing different
+religions and races. But our position has been even more agitated and
+diverse; a general restlessness has characterized the community--a vast
+intellectual discontent with the present. Although strongly moved by
+pride of country, we have also been keenly sensitive to foreign
+influences, and have received impressions from them with the readiness
+of a photographic plate, although until recently the result has been
+assimilation rather than imitation; while internally we have been trying
+to harmonize race and sectional differences, which as yet are far from
+reaching homogeneity.
+
+Together with all these individual influences must be included one of
+general application, to which nearly all our artists, of whatever race
+or section, have been subject in turn. In other countries the people
+have, by a long preparation, become ready to meet the artist half-way in
+appreciating and aiding him in his mission, either from the promptings
+of the religious sentiment to which his art has given ocular
+demonstration, or from a dominating and universal sense of beauty. With
+us it has been quite otherwise; for the artists have been in advance of
+public sentiment, and have had the misfortune to be forced to wait until
+the people could come up to them. In addition to the fact that in New
+England Puritan influences were at first opposed to art, the restless,
+surging, unequal, widely differing character of our people, brought face
+to face with the elementary problems of existence, founding new forms of
+government, and welding incongruous factors into one race and nation--in
+a word, wresting from fate our right to be--made us indifferent to the
+ideal, except in sporadic and individual cases, which indicated here and
+there that below the surface the poetic sentiment was preparing to
+assert itself; and that we, in turn, were preparing to acknowledge the
+great truth that art is an instinctive yearning of the race to place
+itself in accord with the harmony which rules the universe.
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF PARKE GODWIN.--[THOMAS LE CLEAR.]]
+
+The result has been that a very large proportion of the artists of this
+period of our history have been compelled to endure far more than the
+traditionary hardships of the profession. They have been obliged to
+devote some of the best years of their lives to trade, and have not been
+able to take up art until late. To accuse American artists, as a class,
+of being mercenary--a charge made quite too often--is really something
+akin to irony, so much more successful pecuniarily would the majority of
+them have been in mercantile pursuits. The heroism of our early
+painters, struggling, in obscure corners of the country, for
+opportunities to express their yearning after the ideal, without
+instruction, without art-influences, meeting little or no sympathy or
+encouragement, and in spite of these obstacles often achieving a
+respectable degree of excellence, is one of the most interesting,
+instructive, and sublime episodes in the history of art.
+
+Growing out of this hesitating condition of our early art may be
+discerned a secondary cause, which occurred in so many cases as to be
+justly considered one of the forces which formed the careful, minute,
+painstaking style of much of our landscape art. We refer to the fact
+that many of the best of our early painters were first engravers on wood
+and steel. This gave them a minute, formal, and precise method of
+treatment, which led them to look at details rather than breadth of
+effect.
+
+When we turn to the influences from abroad which stimulated American art
+during this period, we find that, while they fostered the growth of a
+certain æsthetic feeling, they at the same time instilled conventional
+methods and principles that deferred the development of a higher kind of
+art. It is greatly to be regretted that, notwithstanding the friendly
+relations between the United States and France, our art, when it was
+first looking to Europe for direction, should not have come in contact
+with that of France, which at that time, led by Gericault, Rousseau,
+Troyon, Delacroix, and other rising men, was becoming the greatest
+pictorial school since the Renaissance. But Italian art at that time was
+sunk to the lowest depths of conventionalism; while the good in the
+English art of the time was represented less by a school than by a few
+individuals of genius--Turner, Wilkie, Constable--who were so original
+that they failed to attract students whose first art ideas had been
+obtained in Italy.
+
+The influence of Italy on our early art was shown by the tendency of our
+painters in that direction--as now they go to France and Germany--and
+this was due primarily to Allston and Vanderlyn. The latter, when at
+Rome, occupied the house of Salvator Rosa--apparently a trivial
+incident, but if we could trace all the influence it may have had on the
+fancy and tastes of the young American artist, we might find it was a
+powerful contributor to the formation of the early style of the
+landscape artists who followed him to Italy. This bias was also greatly
+assisted by the many paintings imported at that time from the Italian
+peninsula, which were either originals, bought cheaply during the
+disturbances which then convulsed Europe, or copies of more or less
+merit. These works made their way gradually over our country, from
+Boston to New Orleans; and, with the rapidly shifting fortunes of our
+families, have often been so completely placed out of sight and
+forgotten, that it is not an unfrequent instance for one to be unearthed
+in a remote country village, or farm-house that would never be suspected
+of harboring high art.
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF FLETCHER HARPER--[C. L. Elliott]]
+
+The larger portion of these foreign works came first to Boston, and
+were hidden away somewhere in that vicinity, as in the case of the
+collection bequeathed to Bowdoin College by its founder; whose best
+specimens were eventually sold and scattered for a mere song by a
+faculty who were ignorant of their value, and thought they might at the
+same time aid morality and add an honest penny to the funds of the
+institution by selling its precious nudities, and thus remove them from
+the student's eye. As Allston and Stuart, who were colorists, also
+settled in Boston, after years of foreign study, these two circumstances
+contributed to make the Boston school from the first one of color--a
+fact less pronounced in the early art of New York.
+
+It is to West and Allston and Trumbull that we are to attribute the
+English element in our arts. The prominent position they then occupied
+before the American public made their example and opinions of great
+importance with their countrymen, and undoubtedly contributed to suggest
+one of the most characteristic traits of American art, that is, the
+tendency to make art a means for telling a story, which has always been
+a prominent feature of English art. May we not also trace to English
+literature the bias which unconsciously led our painters to turn their
+attention to landscape with a unanimity that has until recently made our
+pictorial art distinctively a school of landscape painting? Cowper,
+Byron, and Wordsworth introduced landscape into poetry, and undoubtedly
+impelled English art in the same direction; and it was exactly at that
+time that our own poet, Bryant, undoubtedly influenced at the
+turning-point of his character by Wordsworth's solemn worship of nature,
+was becoming the pioneer of American descriptive poetry; while Irving
+was introducing the picturesque into our literature; and Cooper, with
+his vivid descriptions of our forests, was, like Irving, creating a
+whole class of subjects that were to be illustrated by the American
+artists of this period.
+
+The influences cited as giving direction to the struggling efforts of
+art in our country during the early part of this century are illustrated
+with especial force by five portrait, figure, and landscape-painters,
+who may almost be considered the founders of this period of our
+art--Harding, Weir, Cole, Doughty, and Durand.
+
+[Illustration: AN IDEAL HEAD.--[G. A. BAKER.]]
+
+Chester Harding was a farmer's son, who, after an apprenticeship in
+agriculture, took up the trade of chair-maker at twenty-one, the time
+when the young Parisian artist has already won his _Prix de Rome_. After
+this he tried various other projects, including those of peddling and
+the keeping of a tavern; and then took his wife and child and floated
+on a flat-boat down the Alleghany to Pittsburgh--at that time a mere
+settlement--in search of something by which to earn a bare living. There
+he took to sign-painting; and it was not until his twenty-sixth year
+that the idea of becoming a professional artist entered his head. An
+itinerant portrait-painter coming to the place first suggested the idea
+to Harding, who engaged him to paint the portrait of Mrs. Harding, and
+took his first art-lesson while looking over the artist's shoulder; and
+his first crude attempts so fascinated him that he at once adopted art
+as a profession, and in six months painted one hundred likenesses, such
+as they were, at twenty-five dollars each, and then settled in Boston,
+where he seems to have been taken up with characteristic enthusiasm. On
+going to England, Harding, notwithstanding the few advantages he had
+enjoyed, seemed to compare so favorably with portrait-painters there
+that he was patronized by the first noblemen of the land. Although
+belonging also to the latter part of the period immediately preceding
+that now under consideration, yet Harding was, on the whole, an
+important factor in the art which dates from the founding of the
+National Academy, and was one of the strongest of the group of
+portrait-painters naturally associated with him, such as Alexander,
+Waldo, Jarvis, and Ingham. There was something grand in the personality
+of Harding, not only in his almost gigantic physique but also his
+sturdy, frank, good-natured, but earnest and indomitable character,
+which causes him to loom up across the intervening years as a type of
+the people that have felled forests, reclaimed waste places, and given
+thews and sinews to the Republic that in a brief century has placed
+itself in the front rank of nations.
+
+While Harding, with all his artistic inequalities, fairly represented
+the portrait art of Boston at that, period, Henry Inman may be
+considered as holding a similar position in New York. As a resident of
+that city and a pupil of Jarvis, he enjoyed advantages of early training
+superior to those of most of our painters of that day. Exceedingly
+versatile, and excelling in miniature, and doing fairly well in _genre_
+and landscape, Inman will be best known in future years by his admirable
+oil portraits of some of the leading characters of the time. He was a
+man of great strength and symmetry of character, who would have won
+distinction in any field, and his early death was a misfortune to the
+country.
+
+New York became the centre for a number of excellent and characteristic
+portrait-painters soon after Inman established his reputation--such as
+Charles Loring Elliott, Baker, Hicks, Le Clear, Huntington, and Page,
+the contemporaries of Healy, Ames, Hunt, and Staigg, of Boston, and
+Sully, of Philadelphia--all artists of individual styles and
+characteristic traits of their own. Sully, owing to his great age,
+really belonged also to the preceding period of our art.
+
+[Illustration: "THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS."--[HENRY PETERS GREY.]]
+
+In Elliott we probably find the most important portrait-painter of this
+period of American art. It was a peculiarity of his intellectual growth
+that only by degrees did he arrive at the point of being able to seize a
+simple likeness. But it is not at all uncommon for genius to falter in
+its first attempts; and Elliott was one of the few artists we have
+produced who could be justly ranked among men of genius, as
+distinguished from those of talents, however marked. Stuart excelled all
+our portrait-painters in purity and freshness of color and masterly
+control of pigments; but he was scarcely more vigorous than Elliott in
+the wondrous faculty of grasping character. Herein lay this artist's
+strength. He read the heart of the man he portrayed, and gave us not
+merely a faithful likeness of his outward features, but an epitome of
+his intellectual life and traits, almost clutching and bringing to light
+his most secret thoughts. In studying the portraits of Elliott we learn
+to analyze and to discern the essential and irreconcilable difference
+between photography and the highest order of painting. The sun is a
+great magician, but he cannot reproduce more than lies on the
+surface--he cannot suggest the soul. He is like a truthful but unwilling
+witness, who gives only part, and not always the best part, of the
+truth. But then the genius of the great artist steps in, completes the
+testimony, and presents before us suggestions of the immortal being that
+shall survive when the mortal frame and the sun which photographs it
+have alike passed away.
+
+Baker, on the other hand, has excelled in rendering the delicate color
+and loveliness of childhood, and the splendor of the finest types of
+American feminine beauty. The miniatures of Staigg are also among the
+most winning works of the sort produced by our art. Among other
+excellent miniature-painters of this period was Miss Goodrich, of whose
+personal history less is known than of any other American artist.
+
+William Page occupies a phenomenal position in the art of this period,
+because, unlike most of our painters, he has not been content to take
+art methods and materials as he found them, but has been an
+experimentalist and a theorist as well, and therefore belongs properly
+to more recent phases of our art. Thus, while he has achieved some
+singularly successful works in portraiture and historical painting, he
+has done much that has aroused respect rather than enthusiasm.
+
+If less refined in aim and treatment than Page in his rendering of
+female beauty, Henry Peters Grey, who was also an earnest student of
+Italian Renaissance art, succeeded sometimes to a degree which, if far
+below that of the masters whom he studied, was yet in advance of most of
+such art as has been executed by American painters, at least until very
+recently. "The Judgment of Paris" is certainly a clever if not wholly
+original work, and the figure of Venus a fine piece of form and color.
+
+Daniel Huntington, the third president of the National Academy of
+Design, is a native of New York city, and has enjoyed advantages and
+successes experienced by very few of our early artists. A pupil of Morse
+and Inman, he is better known by the men of this generation as a
+pleasing portrait-painter; but the most important of his early efforts
+were in what might be called a semi-literary style in _genre_ and
+historical and allegorical or religious art, in which departments he has
+won a permanent place in our annals by such compositions as "Mercy's
+Dream," "The Sibyl," and "Queen Mary Signing the Death-warrant of Lady
+Jane Grey."
+
+While portraiture has been the field to which most of our leading
+painters of the figure have directed their attention during this period,
+_genre_ has been represented by several artists of decided ability, who,
+under more favorable art auspices, might have achieved superior results.
+Inman was one of the first of our artists to make satisfactory attempts
+in _genre_. If circumstances had allowed him to devote himself entirely
+to any one of the three branches he pursued, he might have reached a
+higher position than he did. But the most important _genre_ artist of
+the early part of this period was William Sidney Mount, the son of a
+farmer on Long Island. Associated first with his brother as a
+sign-painter, he eventually, in 1828, took up _genre_ painting. Mount
+lacked ambition, as he himself confessed; he was too easily influenced
+by the rapidly won approval of the public to cease improving his style,
+and early returned to his farm on Long Island. Mount was not remarkable
+as a colorist, although it is quite possible he might have succeeded as
+such with superior advantages; but he was in other respects a man of
+genius, who as such has not been surpassed by the numerous _genre_
+artists whom he preceded, and to whom he showed by his example the
+resources which our native domestic life can furnish to the _genre_
+painter. This American Wilkie had a keen eye for the humorous traits of
+our rustic life, and rendered them with an effect that sometimes
+suggests the old Dutch masters. "The Long Story" and "Bargaining for a
+Horse" are full of inimitable touches of humor and shrewd observations
+of human nature. F. W. Edmonds, who was a contemporary of Mount,
+although a bank cashier, found time from his business to produce many
+clever _genre_ paintings, showing a keener eye for color, but less snap
+in the drawing and composition, than Mount.
+
+[Illustration: "MIRANDA."--[DANIEL HUNTINGTON.]]
+
+In other departments of the figure at this period of our art, Robert W.
+Weir holds a prominent position as one of our pioneers in the
+distinctive branch called historical painting. Of Huguenot descent, and
+gaining his artistic training in Italy, after severe struggles at home,
+his career illustrates several of the influences which have been most
+apparent in forming American art. Although not a servile imitator of
+foreign and classic art, and showing independence of thought in his
+practice and choice of subjects, Weir's style is pleasing rather than
+vigorous and original. It shows care and loving patience, as of one who
+appreciates the dignity of his profession, but no marked imaginative
+force, nor does he introduce or suggest any new truths. Such a massive
+composition, however, as the "Sailing of the Pilgrims," while it
+scarcely arouses enthusiasm, causes us to wonder that we should so early
+have produced an art as conscientious and clever as this. The portrait
+of Red Jacket, and the elaborate painting called "Taking the Veil," are
+also works of decided merit. Enjoying a serene old age, this revered
+painter yet survives, still wielding his brush, and annually exhibiting
+creditable pictures in the Academy.
+
+[Illustration: "A SURPRISE."--[WILLIAM SIDNEY MOUNT.]]
+
+In the works of the figure-painters we have spoken of there is evident
+an earnest pursuit of art, attended sometimes with very respectable
+results; but, with the exception of here and there a portrait-painter of
+real genius, we do not discover in their paintings much that is of value
+in the history of art, except as indicating the existence of genuine
+æsthetic feeling in the country demanding expression in however
+hesitating and abortive a manner. But when we come to the subject of
+landscape-painting, we enter upon a field in which originality of style
+is apparent, and a certain consistency and harmony of effort. Minds of
+large reserve power meet us at the outset, moved by strong and earnest
+convictions, and often expressing their thoughts in methods entirely
+their own. Thoroughly, almost fanatically, national by nature, even when
+their art shows traces of foreign influence, and drawing their subjects
+from their native soil, they have created an art which can fairly claim
+to be ranked as a school, whatever be the position assigned to it in
+future ages. English, French, Irish, African, and Spaniard have alike
+vied in painting the scenery of this beautiful country, and mingling
+their fame and identifying their lives with "its hills, rock-ribbed and
+ancient as the sun," its mountain streams and meadow lands, its primeval
+forests, and the waves that break upon its granite shores.
+
+It is to three artists of great natural ability that the origin of
+American landscape-painting can be traced--Cole, Doughty, and Durand.
+Although the youngest of the three, the first seems to have antedated
+Doughty by a few months in adopting this branch of art professionally;
+while Durand, older than Cole by several years, yet did not take up
+landscape-painting until some years after him.
+
+Thomas Cole died in the prime of life, at the age of forty-seven, but
+there are few characters in the history of the country that have made a
+deeper impression. Singularly versatile, inspired by a powerful
+imagination, possessing a pure and lofty character, and animated by the
+noblest of sentiments, we feel before his greatest works--through all
+the imperfections of his art, through all the faltering methods with
+which his genius sought to express itself--that a vast mind here sought
+feebly to utter great thoughts (which he has doubtless already learned
+to utter with more truth in another world); we see that unmistakable
+sign of all minds of a high order, the evidence that the man was greater
+than his works. It is not dexterity, technique, knowledge, that
+impresses us in studying the works of Cole, so much as character. One
+feels that in them is seen the handwriting of one of the greatest men
+who have ever trod this continent.
+
+[Illustration: "TAKING THE VEIL"--[ROBERT WEIR]]
+
+Thomas Cole, the first artist who ever painted landscape professionally
+in America--unless we except the few faltering landscape-paintings of
+John Frazer, the miniature artist of the previous century--was born in
+England, but he was of American ancestry, and his parents returned to
+this country in his childhood. The difficulties with which he had to
+contend at the outset of his art career form an affecting picture. From
+infancy he had been fond of the pencil; and the tinting of wall-paper in
+his father's factory at Steubenville, Ohio, gave him a slight practice
+in the harmony of colors. In the mean time he took up engraving, but
+was diverted from this pursuit by a travelling German portrait-painter,
+who gave him a few lessons in the use of oil-colors. He began with
+portraiture, and resolved to be an artist, although the failure of his
+father's business brought the whole family on him for support. The
+struggles through which the youth now passed make a long and painful
+story. Through it all he retained his bias for art, and at twenty-two
+began to draw scenery, from nature, along the banks of the Monongahela.
+Dunlap has well said, "To me the struggles of a virtuous man endeavoring
+to buffet fortune, steeped to the very lips in poverty, yet never
+despairing, or a moment ceasing his exertions, is one of the most
+sublime objects of contemplation."
+
+After several years of this severe hardship, Cole finally drifted to New
+York, and eventually attracted notice. When the National Academy of
+Design was founded in 1828, Cole and Doughty were simultaneously winning
+success, and giving a permanent character to the art which for half a
+century was destined to be most prominent on the walls of the Academy.
+
+So far as foreign technical influences can be traced in the compositions
+of Cole, they are those of Claude and Salvator Rosa. He revisited
+England at the time when Turner and Constable were establishing their
+fame, and producing such an influence on the great school of French
+landscape art which has since succeeded. It is interesting to think what
+would have been the character of our landscape art if Cole had been
+favorably impressed by the broad and vigorous style of these painters.
+But he does not seem to have been ripe for the audacious and sometimes
+more truthful methods of modern landscape, and expressed himself with
+warmth regarding what he considered the extravagances of Turner.
+
+The art of Cole was however, largely biassed by the literature of
+England. The influence of both Bunyan and Walter Scott can be traced in
+his works; while the serious turn of his mind gave a solemn majesty and
+a religious fervor to his compositions, which command our deep respect,
+even when we fail altogether to concede complete success to his artistic
+efforts. For this reason Cole has wielded, more than most of our
+artists, a powerful influence outside of his art with a people which,
+with all its volatility, yet maintains the traditions of a deeply
+religious ancestry. It was in this many-sidedness of his genius, that
+brought him into contact with widely varied sympathies, that Cole's
+chief power consisted; for if we look at his work from the art point of
+view alone, we are impressed with its inequality, the lack of early art
+influences which it exhibits, and an attempt sometimes at dramatic force
+which occasionally lapses into mere sensationalism. But in all his
+compositions there are evident a rapturous love of nature, and the
+energy and yearning of a mind seeking to find expression for a vast
+ideal. Cole was what very few of our artists have been--an idealist. The
+work by which he will be longest and best remembered in the art of his
+country is the noble series called the "Course of Empire," consisting of
+five paintings, representing a nation's rise, progress, decline, and
+fall, and the change which comes over the abandoned scenery as the once
+superb capital returns to the wildness and solitude of nature. The last
+of the series, entitled "Desolation"--a gray silent waste, haunted by
+the bittern, with here and there a crumbling column reflected in the
+deserted harbor, where gleaming fleets once floated, and imperial
+pageants were seen in the pavilions along the marble piers--is one of
+the most remarkable productions of American art. But with all the
+enthusiasm which Cole aroused among his contemporaries, his influence
+seems to have been to give dignity to landscape art rather than to
+impress his thoughts and methods on other artists. It is true that he
+seized the characteristics of our scenery with a truth which came not
+only from close study, but also from deep affection for the land whose
+mountains and lakes he painted, and thus led our first landscapists to
+observe the great variety and beauty of their own country. But, on the
+other hand, a certain hardness in his technique probably rendered him
+less influential as a leader than Doughty and Durand. The former, if
+inferior in general capacity to Cole, was more emphatically the artist
+by nature.
+
+[Illustration: "DESOLATION."--[FROM "THE COURSE OF EMPIRE," BY THOMAS
+COLE.]]
+
+Thomas Doughty was in the leather business until his twenty-eighth year,
+when, without any previous training, he threw up the trade, and adopted
+the profession of landscape-painter. There is an audacity, a
+self-confidence, in the way our early painters entered on the art
+career, without instruction in the theory and practice of their art,
+which is charming for the simplicity it shows, but would tend to bring
+the efforts of these artists into contempt if the results had not often
+justified their audacity, for they were sometimes men of remarkable
+ability. There have been many greater landscape-painters than Doughty,
+but few who have done so well with such meagre opportunities for
+instruction. He seems, also, to have been successful in attracting
+favorable notice in England as well as here, although at a time when
+English landscape art was at its zenith. The soft, poetic traits, the
+tender, silvery tones, that distinguished Doughty's style, were entirely
+original with him, and have undoubtedly had much influence in forming
+the style of some of the landscapists who succeeded him.
+
+In Asher B. Durand, a Huguenot by descent, and the only one of the three
+founders of American landscape-painting who survives to our time to
+enjoy a green old age, we find a nature as strong as that of Cole. The
+equal of that artist in the sum of his intellectual powers, we discover
+in him a different quality of mind. Similar as they are in high moral
+purpose and a profound reverence for the Creator, as represented in his
+works, Cole was the most imaginative and inspirational of the two,
+stirred more by the fire of genius; while Durand, with a more equable
+temperament and a larger experience, produced results that are more
+satisfactory from an art point of view.
+
+[Illustration: A STUDY FROM NATURE.--[A. U. DURAND.]]
+
+Few artists have shown greater capacity than Durand in successfully
+following entirely distinct branches of art. As a steel-engraver, who in
+this century has produced work that is much superior to his superb
+engraving of Vanderlyn's "Ariadne?" Who of our artists has been able
+both to design and to engrave such a work as his "Musidora?" After
+employing the burin so admirably, he took up portrait-painting, and by
+such portraits as his head of Bryant placed himself by the side of our
+leading portrait-painters. Still unsatisfied with the success won thus
+far, Durand, in his thirty-eighth year, directed his efforts to
+landscape-painting, and at once became not only a pioneer but a master
+in this department. The care he had been obliged to give to engraving
+was undoubtedly of great assistance to him in enabling him to render the
+lines of a composition with truth; while his practice of studying
+character in portraiture gave him insight into the individuality of
+trees--he invested them with a humanity like that which the ancient
+Greeks gave to their forests when they made them the haunt of the
+dryads. It is to this that we doubtless owe the massive handling, the
+fresh and vigorous treatment of trees in such solemn and majestic
+landscapes as "The Edge of the Forest," in the Corcoran Gallery at
+Washington. The art of Durand is wholly national: few of our painters
+owe less to foreign inspiration. Here he learned the various arts that
+gave him a triple fame, here he found the subjects for his compositions,
+and his name is destined to endure as long as American art shall endure.
+
+[Illustration: "NOON BY THE SEA-SHORE."--BEVERLY BEACH.--[J. F.
+KENSETT.]]
+
+Among the most prominent of the landscape-painters who succeeded the
+founders of the art among us, and were, like them, inspired by a
+reverent spirit and lofty poetic impulses, John F. Kensett holds a
+commanding position. Like Durand, he began his career with the burin,
+and after working for the American Bank-note Company, drifted into
+painting. Circumstances seem to have favored him beyond many of his
+compeers, and he was early permitted to visit England and the Continent,
+and spent seven years abroad. Notwithstanding so long an association
+with foreign schools, especially the Italian, we find very little
+evidence of foreign art in the style of Kensett. He was fully as
+original as Durand, and saw and represented nature in his own language.
+His methods of rendering a bit of landscape were tender and harmonious,
+and entirely free from any attempt at sensationalism. So marked was the
+latter characteristic especially, that before the great modern question
+of the values began to arouse much attention in the ateliers of Paris,
+Kensett had already grasped the perception of a theory of art practice
+which has since become so prominent in foreign art; although, naturally,
+it is not in all his canvases that this attempt to interpret the true
+relations of objects in nature is equally evident. We see it brought out
+most prominently in some of his quiet, dreamy coast scenes, in which it
+is not so much things as feelings that he tries to render or suggest. In
+them also is most apparent an endeavor after breadth of effect, which is
+a sign of mastery when successfully carried out. Mr. Kensett's art
+consisted in a certain inimitably winning tenderness of tone--a subtle
+poetic suggestiveness. His small compositions, as a rule, are more
+satisfying than his larger pictures, in which the thinness of his
+technique is sometimes too prominent. The career of Kensett, who died
+but a few years ago, is one of the most complete and symmetrical in our
+art history.
+
+[Illustration: "ALTORF, BIRTH-PLACE OF WILLIAM TELL."--[GEORGE L.
+BROWN.]]
+
+A contemporary of Kensett, but still surviving him, George L. Brown, of
+Boston, struggled heroically and successfully with the early
+difficulties of his life; and, yielding to the seductive influences of
+Italian scenery, devoted his art to representing it, with results that
+entitle him to an honorable position. The effects he has sought are
+luminousness and color. Mr. Brown's method of using colors was formed,
+to a certain extent, on that of the Italian landscape art of the time;
+and, while often brilliant and poetic, reminds us sometimes of the
+studio rather than of the free, pure, magical opulence of the atmosphere
+and sunlight of the scenery he portrayed. It can be frankly conceded,
+however, that he has been no slavish copyist of a style; but while
+acknowledging the force of foreign influences, has yet given abundant
+evidence of a personality of his own: and in such works as his "Bay of
+New York," which is owned by the Prince of Wales, and some of his views
+among the liquid streets of Venice lined with mouldering palaces, and
+skimmed by gondolas darting hither and thither like swallows, he has
+shown himself to be a true poet and an admirable painter.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+_AMERICAN PAINTERS._
+
+1828-1878.
+
+
+No school of art ever came more rapidly into being than the landscape
+school which owes its rise to Cole, Doughty, and Durand. Up to this time
+portraiture had been the field in which American painters had achieved
+their most signal successes. But now the majority of our artists of
+ability turned their attention to the representation of scenery; and for
+forty years a long list of painters have made the public familiar with
+their native land, and have thus, at the same time, stimulated a popular
+interest in art.
+
+It is impossible to mention here more than a few of those who, as
+landscape-painters, have won a local or national reputation among us.
+Nor is it essential, while recognizing the great importance and
+undoubted merit of our landscape art, to exaggerate its relative value
+and position. While it has, in most cases, been the result of a true
+artistic feeling and a genuine, if not very demonstrative, enthusiasm
+for nature on the part of the artists who have devoted their lives to
+its pursuit, and while it has given us much that is pleasing, much that
+is improving, much that is poetic, and occasionally some examples of a
+high order of landscape-painting--yet, as a whole, our school of
+landscape seems scarcely to be entitled to the highest rank. The wonder
+is that it has been of such average excellence, for the environing
+conditions have apparently not been favorable. The influences among
+which it sprung have been so often prosaic or uninspiring, that,
+notwithstanding its fertility, we find the result to lean to quantity
+rather than quality. The ideal and emotional elements in art have not
+been sufficiently dominant; while the topographical and the mechanical
+notions regarding the end of landscape art have prevailed.
+
+[Illustration: "BROOK IN THE WOODS."--[WORTHINGTON WHITTREDGE.]]
+
+Until recently this school has contented itself with the superficial
+aspect of nature rather than with the subtle suggestions by which it
+appeals to the soul. An absence of imaginative power has been too
+apparent, and a lack of the energy and earnestness born of large natures
+and absorbing enthusiasm; and the abundant variety or individuality of
+style, while indicating self-reliant, independent action, sometimes has
+also been a result of the want of solid training, or failure to grasp
+the accepted principles which underlie art practice. There has been a
+general average of native ability in the artists--a certain dead level
+of excellence in the quality of the works offered at our annual
+exhibitions--which was good as far as it went; but, except on rare
+occasions, it seldom arrested and enchained attention by the expression
+of daring technique or imaginative power, as the outcome of concerted
+influences exerted in one direction, and resulting in typical
+representative minds of vast resources, bounding into the arena and
+challenging the admiration of the world. Artists we have undoubtedly had
+occasionally, during this period, who have been endowed with genius to
+win renown; but they have, like Cole, either lacked the training and
+influences--the long succession of national heredity in art practice
+which are well-nigh indispensable to the highest success; or, like
+Church, yielding to the impulse of a prosaic environment, they have
+stopped short of the highest flights of art, and their imagination has
+been curbed to the subordinate pursuit of rendering the actual rather
+than the ideal.
+
+In technique, also--if we may be permitted modestly to express an
+opinion on the subject--this school has seemed to be, on the whole, weak
+and vacillating, being impelled by no definite aim. It has dealt with
+detail rather than masses; it has concerned itself with parts rather
+than general effect. Thus, while the rendering of details has sometimes
+been given with great fidelity, the spirit of the scene has eluded the
+artist, and a work which dazzles us at first, fails, therefore, to hold
+the imagination of the observer, and becomes flat and insipid on
+repeated inspection. The reverse is the case with works of art of the
+first order.
+
+We also find in the art of this school weakness in a knowledge of--or at
+least in the power of appreciating--the vast significance of the line in
+art. Too many American paintings, which have been clever in color, have
+been almost ruined by the palpable ignorance they display of the
+elements of drawing. Inability to compose effectively--or, in other
+words, to perceive the harmony which is the dominant idea of true
+art--has also been too frequent a characteristic of this school. While
+in the application of colors a lack of nerve has been exhibited which
+gives to many of these works an appearance of thinness, that becomes
+painfully apparent when they have been painted a few years. These
+observations apply no less to the figure-painting than the landscape art
+of this period of American art; and a general absence of warmth and
+earnestness is the impression which a survey of the field leaves upon
+the mind of the candid observer.
+
+[Illustration: LANDSCAPE COMPOSITION.--[R. W. HUBBARD.]]
+
+There is nothing in this to surprise or to discourage, if we frankly
+consider the surrounding circumstances. Great art is the child of
+repose; the restlessness, the feverish activity of the country,
+eminently encouraging to some pursuits, is, if not fatal to the arts, at
+least opposed to their highest development; the vast multiplicity of
+aims agitating the people has thus far prevented that concentration of
+effort which meets with a response in the enthusiasm of artistic genius.
+Instead of being discouraged, therefore, by the quality of the art we
+have already produced, we accept it as strong evidence that the American
+people have a decided natural turn for the arts, which only awaits a
+more favorable condition of the nation to reach a higher plane of
+excellence.
+
+Nor does the general absence of imaginative power in our art seem to us
+proof that we are by nature destined to remain a prosaic people. Aside
+from the fact that already years ago we had such imaginative artists as
+Hamilton, Lafarge, Vedder, and others, we consider that the wonderful
+inventive quality of the American mind toward scientific and mechanical
+discovery argues a highly creative imagination. Herbert Spencer it is
+who proves somewhere that imagination must enter into the working out of
+the problems of inventive science. Hitherto the nation's needs have
+stimulated the imagination in that direction; but under new conditions
+there is little reason to doubt that the same faculty will become
+subservient to the creation of an original and powerful school of art in
+America.
+
+But while admitting the weak points of our landscape art, and that the
+highest flights of which landscape-painting is capable have not always
+been reached by our artists, we should be careful, on the other hand,
+lest we fail to award them the merit which is justly their due for
+persevering endeavor, and frequently for great natural ability. Let us,
+in justice, ungrudgingly allow the discriminating praise that some out
+of a large number are undoubtedly entitled to claim. If we mention them
+individually rather than by the classification of schools, it is simply
+because, for the reasons already stated, scarce any of our artists have
+founded schools; although we may, perhaps, without inconsistency, speak
+of the efforts of artists of altogether different styles, but treating
+the same class of subjects, as a school. It is in this sense that we
+allude to our school of landscape.
+
+With certain important exceptions, to be noted in another chapter, the
+American art of this period has, on the whole, been concerned chiefly
+with the objective; and it could not have well been otherwise, for any
+other form of art at such a time would have utterly failed to carry the
+people with it, and thus missed of producing that gradual æsthetic
+education which is the province of a national art.
+
+Not only for this reason has our school of landscape art vindicated its
+right to be, and established its claim on our respectful attention, but
+also because it has owed little to foreign influences--springing rather
+from environing circumstances, as naturally as the flowers of May follow
+the departure of winter.
+
+[Illustration: "THE VASTY DEEP."--[WILLIAM T. RICHARDS.]]
+
+And thus, as after a long winter a few warm spring days cover the
+orchard with an affluence of blossoms, so at this time from many
+quarters of the land artists appeared, especially in the field of
+landscape art; and one can hardly believe that where, but a few years
+before, the Indian and the buffalo and the wolf had roamed at their own
+wild will, artists now arose, armed with an ability to discern the
+beauties of their native land, to direct the prosaic thoughts of the
+pioneer to the loveliness of the nature which surrounded him, and to
+make for themselves an enduring name. Ohio, the Massachusetts of the
+West, for example, which became a State as late as 1800, was in the
+early part of this period especially prolific in artists, who, if they
+did not find instruction or a public on the spot, were at least enabled,
+with the increasing means of communication, to go to New York and
+Boston, or to wander over to the studios and art wealth of Europe. In
+other lands and ages the poetic sentiment has first found a vent in
+lyrics and idyls; but with us the best poetry has been in the
+landscape-painting which was created by the sons of those whose ploughs
+first broke the soil of this continent with a Christian civilization. At
+this period, also, we note the advent of an influence which doubtless
+aided to promote a more rapid pursuit of the new art impulse of the
+nation. Steam, the mighty magician which drives the locomotive and the
+steamship, is in bad repute with the conservatives who are not in
+sympathy with the progressive movements of the age; and yet among all
+the other results of which it has been the wonderful agent, we must
+ascribe its patronage of art. It is undoubtedly to the far greater
+facilities for going from place to place, which followed the
+introduction of steam, that we must partly attribute the rapid success
+of many of the artists who appeared in our country at that time in such
+unexpected numbers.
+
+It was in 1841 that Leutze went to Düsseldorf to study, and thus
+introduced a new influence into our art, which hitherto, so far as it
+had acknowledged foreign influences, had been swayed by the schools of
+Italy and Britain. The effect was evident when, a few years later,
+Worthington Whittredge, a native of Ohio, went to Düsseldorf, and
+studied under the guidance of Achenbach. Very naturally his style showed
+for a time the effect of foreign methods; but he was guided by a native
+independence of action that enabled him in the end to assimilate rather
+than to imitate, like most of our artists at this time, and his later
+landscapes are thoroughly individual and American, although doubtless
+improved by foreign discipline. As a faithful delineator of the various
+phases of American wood interiors, Mr. Whittredge has deservedly won a
+permanent place in the popular favor. Some of his landscapes,
+representing the scenery of the great West, have also been large in
+treatment and effective in composition; but his skies sometimes lack
+atmosphere and ideality.
+
+Like his master, Durand, J. W. Casilear began his career as an engraver;
+and the success he achieved in this department is attested by his very
+clever engraving of Huntington's "Sibyl." Since he drifted into
+landscape-painting, Casilear has produced many delicately finished and
+poetic scenes, distinguished by elegance and refinement rather than dash
+or originality; and somewhat the same observations would apply to the
+tender landscapes of James A. Saydam. In such dreamy, pleasant, but not
+very vigorous paintings as that of his "Valley of the Pemigewasset,"
+Samuel L. Gerry has also attracted favorable attention.
+
+[Illustration: "HIGH TORN, ROCKLAND LAKE."--[JASPER F. CROPSEY.]]
+
+The work of a genuine poet is apparent in the canvases of R. W. Hubbard.
+Repose and pensive harmoniousness of treatment characterize his simple
+and winsome, if not stirring, transcripts of the more familiar phases of
+our scenery. They are idyls in color. What Hubbard has done for New
+England landscape, J. R. Meeker, of St. Louis, has attempted for the
+"lakes of the Atchafalaya, fragrant and thickly embowered with
+blossoming hedges of roses," and the live-oaks spreading their vast
+arms, like groined arches of Gothic cathedrals, festooned with the
+mystically trailing folds of the Spanish moss, along the lagoons of the
+South-west, where the sequestered shores are haunted by the pelican and
+the gayly colored crane, and the groves are melodious with the rapturous
+lyrics of the mockingbird, the improvisatore of the woods. If not always
+successful in the tone of his pictures, it may be conceded that Mr.
+Meeker has approached his subject with a reverent and poetic spirit, and
+has often rendered these scenes with much feeling and truth.
+
+Still another aspect of our scenery has been reproduced with fidelity by
+W. T. Richards, of Philadelphia. We refer to the long reaches of
+silvery shore and the sand-dunes which are characteristic of many parts
+of our Atlantic coast. He has often painted woodland scenes with great
+patience, but, as it seems to us, with too much detail, and with greens
+which are open to a charge of being crude and violent. But in his beach
+effects Mr. Richards maintains an important position; and if slightly
+mannered, has yet developed a style of subject and treatment which very
+effectively represents certain distinguishing features of our solemn
+coasts. Some of his water-color paintings have scarcely been surpassed,
+as, for example, the noble representations of the bleak, snow-like,
+cedar-tufted dunes along the Jersey shore.
+
+[Illustration: "THE PARSONAGE"--[A. F. BELLOWS]]
+
+The extraordinary variety of the effects of American landscape is again
+shown by the gorgeousness of our autumnal foliage. It has been objected
+by some that it is too vivid for art purposes. We consider this a matter
+of individual taste. There is nothing more absurd in trying to render
+the effects of sunset, or the scarlet and gold of an American forest in
+the dreamy days of the Indian summer, than in undertaking to paint the
+splendor of many-colored drapery in an Oriental crowd, which is
+considered a legitimate subject for the artist who has a correct eye
+for color. It is not in the subject, but in the artist, that the
+difficulty lies. Some of our painters have seized these autumnal
+displays with fine feeling and excellent judgment. Kensett is an
+example; another is J. F. Cropsey, who, beginning life as an architect,
+became eventually an agreeable delineator of our autumnal scenery, and
+at one time executed a number of paintings remarkable for their truth
+and artistic beauty. His later work has scarcely sustained the early
+reputation he justly acquired. At its best, his style was crisp, strong
+in color, and sometimes very bold in composition. Mr. C. P. Cranch, who
+was associated with Cropsey in Italy, and who is well known as a writer,
+has exhibited in his Venetian landscapes a correct perception of color,
+while his method lacks firmness of drawing, and shows traces of foreign
+influence more than that of many of our artists who studied abroad at
+this time. R. H. Fuller, who was a night-watchman on the police force of
+Chelsea, Massachusetts, and died in 1871, was an artist whose
+educational opportunities were excessively meagre. But he had a fine eye
+for color and atmospheric effect, and some of his landscapes are painted
+with a full brush, and are tender and beautiful. F. D. Williams, before
+he left Boston for Paris, also developed a strong scheme of handling and
+color which was at once pleasing and original. F. H. Shapleigh has
+likewise shown an excellent feeling for some of nature's more quiet
+effects, and his coast scenes are attractive, although lacking somewhat
+in force.
+
+[Illustration: LANDSCAPE WITH CATTLE.--[JAMES HART.]]
+
+As one considers this field of American art, he is increasingly
+astonished to find how strikingly it exemplifies one of the leading
+traits of a national school in the entire originality and individuality
+with which each of our prominent landscapists of this period interprets
+nature, even when he has studied more or less in Europe. Whatever may be
+the general defect of refinement rather than strength, and other
+weaknesses characteristic of our school of landscape art, it must be
+admitted that its representative artists have been often sturdily
+independent, and that their merits as well as their defects are entirely
+their own. What difference there is between the carefully finished but
+rich, massive foliage of David Johnson, suggesting the strength of the
+old English masters of landscape, and the dreamy, mellow pastoral meadow
+lands, wooded slopes, and dimpling lakes of our Green Mountains, veiled
+by a luminous haze and steeped in repose, which are so delicately
+portrayed by the brush of J. B. Bristol! Few of the landscape-painters
+of this school have produced more agreeable results with their brush.
+What points of divergence there are, again, between the landscapes of W.
+L. Sonntag and A. F. Bellows!--the one adopting a scheme of tone and
+color apparently out of the focus of nature, yet so using it in
+rendering ideal compositions as to achieve results which place him by
+the side of our leading poets of nature. To him landscape-painting seems
+to be not so much a means to give faithful transcripts of actual scenes
+as to represent the ideals of his fancy; and as such we accept them with
+thankfulness, for they not only serve to give us pleasure, but also to
+illustrate the many-sided phases of art. Bellows, on the other hand,
+both in oil and _aquarelle_, has attempted minute reproductions of
+nature; and, while sometimes suggesting the impression of labor rather
+more than is consistent with breadth of effect, has faithfully and
+charmingly interpreted the idyllic side of our rural life. If he had not
+been a poet in color, we might have expected of him pastoral lyrics
+imbued with the spirit of Cowper or Thompson. Early study at the school
+of Antwerp, and the pursuit of _genre_ for some years, have enabled Mr.
+Bellows skilfully to diversify his attractive village pictures and
+representations of our noble New England elms with groups of figures. He
+is justly entitled to be called the American Birket Foster.
+
+It is instructive, in this connection, to observe the first landscapes
+of George Inness, which properly belong in style to the early and
+distinctively American school of landscape, while his recent method has
+identified him with the later graduates of the ateliers of Paris. Samuel
+Colman is another landscape-painter whose art is identified both with
+this school and with that of the period on which we are now entering.
+Educated here, and influenced by a fine eye for color, foreign travel
+has broadened his sympathies, modified his technique, and led him to
+look with favor upon later methods.
+
+The landscapes of William and James Hart represent still another phase
+of our art. Both began life as apprentices to a coach-painter, but
+gradually identified themselves with the great throng of all ages who
+have become the votaries of nature. There is cleverness and dexterity in
+their work, a fine perception of the external beauty of the slopes and
+vales and woods of our land, and brilliant color; but it is sometimes
+marred by hardness of handling, and lack of juiciness or warmth of
+feeling; in other words, it is too exclusively objective, as if only the
+physical and not also the mental eye had been concerned in the painting
+of their works. James Hart has of late years added cattle to his
+landscapes with excellent success, and holds a prominent position among
+the very few respectable painters of animal life whom the American art
+of this period can justly claim.
+
+[Illustration: "SUNSET ON THE HUDSON."--[SANDFORD R. GIFFORD.]]
+
+Mr. Horace Robbins, successful in seizing certain aspects of mountain
+scenery, with a fine feeling for atmospheric grays, and Mr. Arthur
+Parton, who very pleasingly renders trees, and some of the sober effects
+of our dim November days, although among our younger painters, justly
+belong to this period, as do also Messrs. James and George Smillie, who
+have been equally happy in water and oil colors. The former is another
+of our many landscape-painters who began as engravers on steel. The
+later style of these talented brothers has been evidently modified with
+advantage by the influence of foreign technique, although they have
+studied wholly in this country; and they now display an attractive vigor
+and freshness in their landscape pieces, and a somewhat original choice
+of subjects.
+
+The style of each of the artists we have mentioned can be distinguished
+at once. Individuality of expression is stamped upon the canvas of all;
+but among them there is no one more thoroughly original than Sanford R.
+Gifford, who, if he had lived in Persia or Peru two thousand years ago,
+might well have been an enthusiastic fire-worshipper, or daily welcomed
+the rising sun with reverent adoration. To him landscape-painting,
+whether of scenes in our own Far West, or on the legendary Hudson, or in
+the gorgeous East, has been alike the occasion for giving expression to
+his feeling for glowing atmospheric effects, for lyrics which on canvas
+reproduce the splendor of the sunset sky. But it would be a mistake to
+suppose that Mr. Gifford's poetic sense has been confined to the
+contemplation of serene and glowing atmospheres: he has also
+successfully rendered the lazy mist, the trailing vapor of morning
+enmeshed in dusky woodlands by the silent lake. His style combines to a
+remarkable degree deliberation and inspiration--a happy union of the
+analytical and emotional elements in art.
+
+The objective school of American landscape-painting has found its
+culminating excellence, as it seems to us, in the art of Frederick K.
+Church. In his art-life the tendencies and aims of the chief national
+school we have produced during the last half century have been typically
+represented. In his works the technical weakness of this school is
+apparent, and, at the same time, its noble sympathy with nature, and its
+love for the grander aspects of the external world. It also represents
+the restless, unsatisfied genius of our people during this period, ever
+reaching out and beyond, and yearning, Venice-like, to draw to itself
+the spoils, the riches, the splendors, of the whole round globe. To our
+art the paintings of Mr. Church are what the geographic cantos of
+"Childe Harold" have been to the poesy of England, or the burning
+descriptions of St. Pierre and Châteaubriand to the literature of
+France. If such a topic is permissible in letters, may it not also be
+allowed sometimes in painting? Whether the one is as lofty as epic
+poetry, or the other as great as historical painting or subjective
+landscape, is a question which we do not need here to analyze. It is
+sufficient that each holds an important position; and to carry off the
+palm in either can only be the result of consummate genius. Yes! what
+"Childe Harold" did for the scenery of the Old World, the art of Church
+has done for that of the New. The vastness and the glory of this
+continent were yet unrevealed to us. With the enthusiasm of a Raleigh or
+a Balboa he has explored land and sea, combining the characteristics of
+the explorer and the artist. A pupil of Cole, he has carried to its full
+fruition the aspirations of his master, first gaining inspiration along
+the magical shores of the Hudson, and amidst the ideally beautiful
+ranges of the legendary Catskills. Our civilization needed exactly this
+form of art expression at this period, and the artist appeared who
+should teach the people to love beauty, and to find it among the
+regions which first rang with the axe of our pioneers.
+
+[Illustration: A COMPOSITION.--[FREDERICK E. CHURCH.]]
+
+But, although dealing not so much with nature, as such, as with some of
+her little known and more remarkable and startling effects, there is a
+very noteworthy absence of sensationalism or staginess in the paintings
+of Church; while, on the other hand, the somewhat too careful
+reproduction of details has not prevented them from possessing a grand
+massing of effect and a thrilling beauty and sublimity. "Cotopaxi," the
+"Heart of the Andes," or "Niagara," may transgress many rules laid down
+by the schools, but the magnificent ability with which they are
+represented disarms criticism. Church's first painting of Niagara
+occupies the culminating point in the objective art of this period of
+our history, executed by an artist who up to that time had never crossed
+the Atlantic, and whose merits and defects were entirely his own.
+
+Mr. Church's "Niagara" is doubtless familiar to many through the fine
+chromo-lithographic copy made from it; but those who have not seen the
+original have only an incomplete idea of the grandeur of this great
+painting. It grows on acquaintance somewhat as does the cataract
+itself, until we seem to hear even the roar of the mighty waters that
+rushed over those tremendous cliffs ages before this continent was
+trodden by man, symbolizing the endless, remorseless, and irresistible
+sweep of time. The green flood pouring evermore into the appalling abyss
+veiled by mist wreathing up from the surging vortex below; the distant
+shore lined with foliage, touched by the burning tints of October; the
+rosy gray sky over-arching the scene, and the ethereal bow uniting
+heaven and earth with its elusive band of colors--all are there,
+rendered with matchless art.
+
+The subjects of Mr. Church's more recent works have been taken from the
+storied shores of the Mediterranean. We perceive in them no sign of
+failing power, but more breadth and less opulence of detail. The artist
+has treated the splendors of classic lands with the dignified reserve of
+matured strength and a higher sense of the ideal. The melancholy
+grandeur of the Parthenon in ruins has been painted with a stately
+reticence in consonance with the character of the subject; and the
+magnificent composition called the "Ægean" may well hold its own by the
+side of some of the superb Italian canvases of Turner.
+
+A landscape-painter who chose a range of subjects similar to those of
+Church, and accompanied him in one of his South American trips, was
+Louis R. Mignot, of South Carolina, who died in London some eight years
+ago. He was inspired by a rapturous enthusiasm alike for the tender and
+the brilliant aspects of nature, and appears to us to have been one of
+the most remarkable artists of our country. He can be justly ranked with
+the pioneers who first awoke the attention of the nation to a
+consciousness of the beauty, glory, and inexhaustible variety of the
+scenery of this continent, which had fallen to them as a heritage such
+as no other people have yet acquired. Mignot was at once a fine colorist
+and one of the most skilled of our painters in the handling of
+materials; his was also a mind fired by a wide range of sympathies; and
+whether it was the superb splendor of the tropical scenery of the Rio
+Bamba, in South America, the sublime maddening rush of iris-circled
+water at Niagara, or the fairy-like grace, the exquisite and ethereal
+loveliness of new-fallen snow, he was equally happy in rendering the
+varied aspects of nature. It is greatly to be regretted that the most
+important works of this artist are owned in England, whither he resorted
+at the opening of the civil war. "Snow in Hyde Park," which he painted
+not long before his death, is one of the noblest productions of American
+landscape-painting.
+
+[Illustration: "A WINTER SCENE."--[LOUIS R. MIGNOT.]]
+
+The American marine art of this period has been represented by a number
+of artists, although they have been by no means so numerous or capable
+as the maritime character of our people would have led us to expect.
+William Bradford, by origin a Quaker, has made to himself a name for his
+enterprise in going repeatedly to Labrador to study icebergs, and has
+executed some effective compositions, which have won him fame at home
+and abroad. Some of his coast scenes are also spirited, although open to
+the charge of technical errors. Charles Temple Dix, who unfortunately
+died young, painted some dashing, imaginative, and promising
+compositions; and Harry Brown, of Portland, has successfully rendered
+certain coast effects. But our ablest marine-painter of this period
+seems to have been James Hamilton, of Philadelphia, who was beyond
+question an artist of genius. His color was sometimes harsh and crude;
+but he handled pigments with mastery, and composed with the virile
+imagination of an improvisatore. Errors can doubtless be found in his
+ships, or the forms of his waves; but he was inspired by a genuine
+enthusiasm for the sea, and rendered the wildest and grandest effects of
+old ocean with breadth, massiveness, and power. We have had no
+marine-painter about whose works there is more of the raciness and
+flavor of blue water.
+
+When we turn to the department of animal-painting, we discover what has
+been hitherto the weakest feature of American art, both in the number
+and quality of the artists who have pursued this branch of the
+profession. T. H. Hinckley at one time promised well in painting cattle
+and game, but his efforts rarely went beyond giving us Denner-like
+representations of stuffed foxes with glass eyes. The hairs were all
+there, the color was well enough, although perhaps a little foxy--if one
+may be permitted the term in this connection; but there was no life, no
+characterization, there. William Hayes showed decided ability in his
+representations of bisons and prairie-dogs and other dogs. Weak in
+color, he yet succeeded in giving spirit and character to the groups he
+painted, and holds among our animal-painters a position not dissimilar
+to that of Mount in _genre_.
+
+[Illustration: "SHIP OF 'THE ANCIENT MARINER.'"--[JAMES HAMILTON.]]
+
+Walter M. Brackett, who has been able rarely well to enjoy the triple
+pleasure of catching, painting, and eating the same fish on a summer's
+morning by the limpid brooks of New Hampshire, has justly won a
+reputation as an artistic Walton. If he would but paint his rocks and
+trees as cleverly as he renders the speckled monarch of the stream, his
+compositions would leave little to be desired. Henry C. Bispham has
+given us some spirited but sometimes badly drawn paintings of cattle and
+horses; and Colonel T. B. Thorpe, an amateur with artistic tastes, in
+such semi-humorous satires as "A Border Inquest," representing wolves
+sitting on the carcass of a buffalo, struck a vein peculiarly American
+in its humor, and carried to a high degree of excellence by William H.
+Beard, whose brother, James Beard, can also be justly ranked as an
+animal-painter of respectable attainments. Mr. Beard, although
+remarkably versatile, has made a specialty, if it may be so termed, of
+exposing the failings and foibles of our sinful humanity by the medium
+of animal _genre_. Monkeys, bears, goats, owls, and rabbits are in turn
+impressed into the benevolent service of taking us off, and repeating
+for us the old Spartan tale of the slave made drunk by his master as a
+warning to his son. Of the skill which Mr. Beard has exhibited in this
+novel line there can be no question. The "Dance of Silenus," the
+pertinacious, iterative, pragmatic ape called "The Bore," and "Bears on
+a Bender," are masterly bits of characterization. There is also a deal
+of comic satire in "The Bulls and Bears of Mammon's Fierce Zoology,"
+which, with a multitude of struggling fighting figures, takes off the
+eccentricities of the Stock-exchange. Beard can justly be called the
+American Æsop. It is asserted by many that this is not art. The fact is
+that it is exceedingly difficult to draw the line, and to prescribe what
+subjects an artist shall choose. In art the result justifies the means.
+And this certainly seems as legitimate a subject for the brush of the
+artist as the graphic pictorial satires of Hogarth, or the mildly
+comical genres of Erskine Nicol.
+
+[Illustration: "WHOO!"--[WILLIAM H. BEARD.]]
+
+In a previous chapter we alluded to some of the figure, historical, and
+_genre_ painters of this period. William Mount was the precursor of a
+number of _genre_ artists of more or less ability, among whom may be
+mentioned Thomas Hicks, a pupil of Couture, and one of the first of our
+painters who studied at Paris. In this admirable school Mr. Hicks became
+an excellent colorist, although of late his art has appeared to lose
+some of this quality. He has painted landscape and _genre_, meeting with
+respectable success in the latter, but portraiture has chiefly occupied
+his attention. His portrait of General Meade is a striking and
+satisfactory work. Then there was Richard Caton Woodville, who followed
+Whittredge to Düsseldorf, and promised much in _genre_. His paintings
+show very decided traces of German influence, but behind it all was a
+strong individuality that seemed destined to assert itself, and to place
+him among our foremost painters. But he died young, and (shall we not
+say?) happily for him, since little fame and less appreciation are
+destined to the artists who come ere the people are ripe for their art.
+George B. Flagg at one time promised well for our _genre_ art, but his
+abilities were too precocious, and unfortunately the splendid
+opportunities he enjoyed as a pupil of Allston, and as a long resident
+in London, do not seem to have been sufficient to give growth or
+permanence to his talents.
+
+About this time our frontier life was coming more prominently into view,
+and that picturesque border line between civilization and barbarism was
+becoming a subject for the pen of our leading writers. Irving, Cooper,
+and Kennedy, Street, Whittier, and Longfellow, were tuning the first
+efforts of their Muse to celebrate Indian life and border warfare in
+prose and verse, while the majestic measures of Bryant's "Prairies"
+seemed a prophetic prelude to the march of mankind toward the lands of
+the setting sun. "Evangeline," the most splendid result of our poetic
+literature, attracted not less for its magnificent generalizations of
+the scenery of the West than for the constancy of the heroine, and the
+artistic mind responded in turn to the unknown mystery and romance of
+that vast region, and gave us graphic pictures of the rude humanity
+which lent interest and sentiment to its unexplored solitudes. It is
+greatly to be regretted that the work of these pioneers in Western
+_genre_ was not of more artistic value; from a historical point of view,
+too much importance cannot be attached to the enterprise and courage of
+men like Catlin, Deas, and Ranney, who, imbued with the spirit of
+adventure, identified themselves with Indian and border life, and
+rescued it from oblivion by their art enthusiasm, which, had it been
+guided by previous training, would have been of even greater value. As
+it is, they have with the pencil done a service for the subjects they
+portrayed similar to what Bret Harte has accomplished in giving
+immortality with the pen to the wild, picturesque, but evanescent mining
+scenes of the Pacific slope. In this connection the fact is worth
+recording that the important mutual life-insurance association called
+the Artists' Funding Society took its origin in a successful effort to
+contribute to the support of the family of Ranney after his death.
+
+Our historical painters of this period rarely created any works
+deserving of note or remembrance. Here and there a painting like that of
+Huntington's "Republican Court" was produced, which is a graceful and
+elegant composition, and one of the best of the kind in American art.
+Peter F. Rothermel, the able portrait-painter of Philadelphia, also
+composed a number of historical works, of which the last is probably of
+most value. His "Battle of Gettysburg" is a bold and not ineffective
+representation of one of the critical moments in the world's history,
+although open in parts to severe criticism. J. G. Chapman, well known at
+one time as a skilful wood-engraver and _genre_ painter, also aspired to
+the difficult field of historical painting; but it is to an artist of
+German extraction, Emmanuel Leutze, that we owe our best historical art
+previous to 1860, excepting perhaps some of the compositions of Copley
+and West and two or three of the battle-pieces of Trumbull. Although
+born abroad, Leutze may be justly claimed as an American painter, for he
+was taken to Philadelphia in childhood, and remained in this country
+until thoroughly imbued with a patriotic love for the land and its
+history and the spirit of its institutions; and although he
+subsequently passed a number of years at Düsseldorf, whither he went at
+twenty-seven, the last ten years of his life were here; here he died,
+and the subjects of his art were almost entirely inspired by American
+scenes, and have become incorporated with the growth of our
+civilization.
+
+[Illustration: "LAFAYETTE IN PRISON."--[E. LEUTZE.]]
+
+Leutze was a man who was cast in a large mould, capable of a grand
+enthusiasm, and aspiring to grasp soaring ideals. Although his art was
+often at fault, it makes us feel, notwithstanding, that in contemplating
+his works we are in the presence of a colossal mind which, under
+healthier influences, would have better achieved what he aspired to win.
+He drew from wells of seemingly inexhaustible inspiration. He was
+Byronic in the impetus of his genius, the rugged incompleteness of his
+style, the magnificent fervor and rush of his fancy, the epic grandeur
+and energy, dash and daring, of his creations. It is easy to say that he
+was steeped in German conventionalism, that he pictured the impossible,
+that he was sometimes harsh in his color and technique; and so he was at
+times, but, with it all, he left the impression of vast intellectual
+resources.
+
+We would not be understood as saying that all the works of Leutze are
+worthy of unqualified acceptance; we refer rather to their general
+character. His art was very prolific, and as a pupil of Lessing and
+Schadow it bore the unmistakable stamp of Düsseldorf. Much of his work,
+partaking also of the grandiose style of Kaulbach, was of a
+semi-decorative character, like the "Landing of the Norsemen," which
+represents two fresh, sturdy Scandinavian rovers stepping out of an
+impossible ship, bearing aloft a noble princess, and in the very act of
+landing snatching the grapes "hanging wanton to be plucked." Spirited as
+it is, the manifest absurdity of the composition as a representation of
+reality yet requires us to accept it as decorative in design. "Godiva"
+is a somewhat coarse but characteristic work of Leutze, and the
+"Iconoclast" one of his most interesting and artistic works. In America,
+Leutze will be remembered longest by his large and magnificent painting
+of "Washington at Princeton," his "Emigration to the West" (a decorative
+composition in one of the panels of the stairway of the Capitol at
+Washington), and his "Washington Crossing the Delaware." The latter was
+executed at Düsseldorf, and the ice was painted from an unusual mass of
+shattered ice floating down the Rhine on the breaking up of the winter.
+It is another illustration of the apparent caprice with which man is
+treated by destiny, that scarcely had Leutze closed his eyes in his last
+sleep, at the early age of fifty-one, when a letter arrived from Germany
+bringing official tidings that he had just been elected to succeed
+Lessing as president of the Düsseldorf Academy of Art.
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF A LADY.--[WILLIAM PAGE.]]
+
+While we find in Leutze the qualities we have described, it cannot be
+said that he sought out any new methods of expression, or that he
+undertook to suggest the deeper and more subtle traits of human nature;
+he was content to work after the manner of the school in which he
+studied. It is to another painter (already referred to), of great
+intellectual resource and a thoroughly American discontent with the
+actual, that we turn for aspirations after a higher form of art. William
+Page, a native of Albany, who studied law, and for a time also theology,
+at Andover Seminary, was from the first biassed in favor of art. His
+mind presents a combination of the speculative and the practical, and it
+is the union of these antithetical qualities which has alternately aided
+or hindered the success of Page's efforts and experiments. He is
+deliberate rather than inspirational, guided by an exquisite feeling for
+color and an admirable sense of form, but too often unduly controlled by
+the logical and analytical faculty. Had his fancy only been more
+childlike, and been left more to the guidance of its own natural and
+correct instincts, Mr. Page's works would have oftener moved us by their
+beauty rather than by the dexterity of the technique. Still, it is by
+the aid of a few such questioning minds that art makes its advances, and
+interprets the secrets of nature. As a portrait painter, Page has placed
+himself among the first artists of the age. We see in his portraits a
+dignity and repose, a grasp of character, and a harmonious richness of
+color that are wonderfully impressive. In attempting to represent the
+beauty of the feminine figure Mr. Page has been influenced by great
+delicacy and refinement of motive, although in the celebrated painting
+of "Venus Rising from the Sea," he gave cause for much discussion as to
+the merits of his theories.
+
+[Illustration: "THE REFUGE."--[ELIHU VEDDER.]]
+
+When Page was in his prime, our literature had already become
+distinguished by several writers of thoroughly original and mystically
+creative imagination, native to the soil, and drawing sustenance from
+native inspiration: they were Charles Brockden Brown, Judd, Hawthorne,
+and Poe. In point of originality in conceiving of scenes powerfully
+weird and imaginative, these writers have had no superiors in this
+century. With a style essentially individual, they analyzed the
+workings of the human heart, and dealt with the great problems of
+destiny. Their genius was cosmopolitan, and for all ages. Our pictorial
+art, in a less degree, began soon after to be prompted by a similar
+tendency.
+
+Most prominent among these artists whose faltering efforts have most
+distinctly articulated the language and aspirations of the soul are
+Elihu Vedder and John Lafarge. It cannot be said that either of these
+artists has yet accomplished with complete success the end he has
+sought; but their efforts have been in the right direction, and as such
+are highly interesting, hopeful, and suggestive.
+
+Mr. Vedder's early _genre_ and landscape compositions are full of subtle
+attempts at psychology in color. Outward nature with him is but a means
+for more effectively conveying the impressions of humanity; and his
+faces are full of vague, mystic, far-off searching after the infinite,
+and the why and the wherefore of this existence below. Since Mr. Vedder
+took up his residence permanently in Italy, he has improved in
+technique, and there is less dryness in his method of using color, as
+witnessed by his remarkable painting called a "Venetian Dancing Girl, or
+'La Regina;'" but he has not in recent years produced anything so
+marvellously imaginative as his "Lair of the Sea-Serpent," or so grand
+and desolate as his "Death of Abel." The man who painted the "Lost
+Mind," the "Death of Abel," and the "Lair of the Sea-Serpent," did not
+need to borrow from the ancients--at least so far as regards forms of
+expression. The vast, solemn, appalling solitude of the primeval world,
+the terrific sublimity of its first tragedy, are rendered in Mr.
+Vedder's painting with the sombre grandeur of Dante; while as a work of
+imaginative art, the steel-colored monster reposing his gigantic folds
+on the dry grass of a desolate shore by the endless seas, is a
+composition of wonderful simplicity and mysterious power, a creation of
+pure genius.
+
+[Illustration: CARTOON SKETCH: CHRIST AND NICODEMUS.--[JOHN LAFARGE.]]
+
+Mr. Lafarge is by nature a colorist; to color, the emotional element of
+art, his sensitive nature vibrates as to well-attuned harmonies of
+music. For form he has less feeling; his drawing is often very
+defective, and the lines are hesitating, uncertain, and feeble. But we
+have had no artist since Stuart who has shown such a natural sympathy
+for the shades and modulations of chromatic effects. But, while his
+drawing is open to criticism, this artist is inspired by the general
+meaning of form, and has sometimes produced some very weird and
+startling compositions entirely in black and white, or camaieu. But
+whether it be form or color, the various elements of art are regarded by
+Lafarge not so much for what they are as for what they suggest; he is
+less concerned with the external than with the hidden meaning it has for
+the soul. It is because of his subtle way of regarding the beauty of
+this world that he has given us such thoughtful landscapes as "Paradise
+at Newport," and such exquisitely painted flowers, rendered with a
+tender harmony of color that thrills us like a lyric of Keats or of
+Tennyson. It is this serious, reflective turn which has given a
+religious hue to his art, and has enabled him to succeed so well in the
+most ambitious attempt at decorative-painting yet undertaken in this
+country--the frescoes of Trinity Church, in Boston; in which, it should
+be added, he was ably assisted by Mr. Lathrop. In these compositions we
+see the results of a highly ideal and reverent nature, nourished by the
+most abundant art opportunities the age could afford. It is not
+difficult to find in them points fairly open to attack; but the promise
+they show is so hopeful a sign in our art, the success actually achieved
+in them in a direction quite new in this country is so marked, that we
+prefer to leave to others any unfavorable criticism they may suggest.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+_AMERICAN PAINTERS._
+
+1828-1878.
+
+
+The discovery of the gold mines of California was a signal for
+enterprise, daring, and achievement, not only to our commerce and the
+thrift of our shifting millions of uneasy settlers, but also to the
+literature and landscape-art of the United States. "To the kingdom of
+the west wind" hied artist and author alike; and the epic of the
+settlement of California, of the scaling of the Rocky Mountains, of the
+glory of the Columbia River, and the stupendous horrors of the
+Yellowstone was pictured on the canvas of the artist. Taylor and Scott
+conquered the Pacific slope; Fremont pointed out the pathway over the
+swelling ranges of the Sierras; and our painters revealed to us the
+matchless splendor of a scenery which shall arouse increasing
+astonishment and reverential awe and rapture in the hearts of
+generations yet to be. In the gratitude we owe to these
+landscape-painters who dared, discovered, and delineated for us the
+scenery of which we were hitherto the ignorant possessors, criticism is
+almost left in abeyance, for the service done the people has been a
+double one--in leading them to the observation of paintings, and
+informing them of the attractions of a little known possession. If the
+art of these paintings of our Western scenery had been in all respects
+equal to the subject, the country would have been rich indeed. Among the
+artist explorers to whom we are most indebted, Messrs. Bierstadt, Hill,
+and Moran are the most famous. The former, by his great composition
+entitled the "Rocky Mountains," threw the people into an ecstasy of
+delight, which at this time it is difficult to understand, and bounded
+at one step to celebrity.
+
+Albert Bierstadt is a native of Düsseldorf, but came to this country in
+infancy. Subsequently he studied at Düsseldorf and Rome. On returning to
+America, he accompanied the exploring expedition of General Lander that
+went over the plains in 1858. Fitz Hugh Ludlow, the well-known
+_littérateur_, was associated with him in a subsequent trip, and several
+graphic articles in which he afterward described the journey undoubtedly
+helped to bring Mr. Bierstadt into notice.
+
+The "Rocky Mountains" is not the representation of an actual scene, but
+a typical composition, and, thus regarded, is an interesting work,
+although it seems to us somewhat too theatrical, and scarcely true in
+some of the details. Local truth is desirable in topographical art,
+although of quite secondary importance in compositions of a more ideal
+character. Since then this artist has executed a number of similarly
+ambitious paintings of our Western scenery, including a colossal
+painting of the gorge of the Yosemite Valley. All of them are
+characterized by boldness of treatment, but sometimes they are crude in
+color and out of tone. Of these we prefer, as least sensational and most
+artistically correct, the painting of a storm on Mount Rosalie.
+Bierstadt's smaller California scenes are generally more valuable than
+his large ones for artistic quality: one of the best compositions we
+have seen from his easel is a war sketch representing Federal
+sharp-shooters on the crest of a hill behind some trees. This is an
+excellent piece of work, fresh, original, and quite free from the
+Düsseldorf taint; and confirms us in the opinion that Mr. Bierstadt is
+naturally an artist of great ability and large resources, and might
+easily have maintained a reputation as such if he had not grafted on the
+sensationalism of Düsseldorf a greater ambition for notoriety and money
+than for success in pure art.
+
+[Illustration: "VIEW ON THE KERN RIVER"--[A. BIERSTADT.]]
+
+Some of the qualities we have learned to look for in vain in the
+canvases of Bierstadt we find emphasized in the paintings of Thomas
+Hill, who succeeded him as court painter to the monarch of the Rocky
+Mountains. Hill began life as a coach-painter at Taunton, Massachusetts.
+After deciding on a professional art career, he visited Europe, and
+benefited by observation in foreign studios, especially of France,
+although his style is essentially his own. His method of using pigments
+is sometimes open to the accusation of hardness; there is too often a
+lack of juiciness--a dryness that seems to remind us of paint rather
+than atmosphere, which may be owing to the fact, as I have been
+informed, that he uses little or no oil in going over a painting the
+second time. But Mr. Hill is a good colorist, bold and massive in his
+effects, and a very careful, conscientious student of nature. He has
+been happy in the rendering of wood interiors, as, for example, bits
+from the Forest of Fontainebleau. One of his most remarkable New England
+landscapes represents the avalanche in the Notch of the White Mountains,
+which was attended with such disastrous results to the dwellers in the
+valley. But Mr. Hill will be identified in future with California, where
+he has become a resident, and has devoted his energies to painting some
+of the magnificent scenery of that marvellous region, where the roar of
+the whirlwind and the roll of the thunder reverberate like the tread of
+the countless millions who evermore march to the westward. As he sat on
+the edge of the precipice, the forerunner of coming ages, and painted
+the sublime, solitary depths of the Yosemite, did the artist realize
+that with every stroke of the brush he was aiding the advance guard of
+civilization, and driving away the desolation which gave additional
+grandeur to one of the most extraordinary spots on the planet? In his
+great painting of the Yosemite he seems to have been inspired by a
+reverential spirit; he has taken no liberties with his subject, but has
+endeavored with admirable art to convey a correct impression of the
+scene; and the work may be justly ranked with the best examples of the
+American school of landscape-painting.
+
+[Illustration: "THE YOSEMITE."--[THOMAS HILL.]]
+
+[Illustration: "THE BATHERS."--[THOMAS MORAN.]]
+
+The first fever of the California rush had subsided when the uneasy
+explorer again stirred the enthusiasm of adventurous artists by
+thrilling descriptions of the Yellowstone River, its Tartarean gorges,
+and the lurid splendor of its sulphurous cliffs and steaming geysers.
+Once more the landscape artist of the country was moved to go forth and
+make known to us those unrevealed wonders; and Thomas Moran, "taking his
+life in his hands," in the language of religious cant, aspired to
+capture the bouquet, the first bloom, from this newly-opened draught of
+inspiration. We all know the result. Who has not seen his splendid
+painting of the "Gorge of the Yellowstone," now in the Capitol at
+Washington? Granting the fitness of the subject for art, it can be
+frankly conceded that this is one of the best paintings of the sort yet
+produced. The vivid local colors of the rocks, which there is no reason
+to doubt have been faithfully rendered--for Mr. Moran is a careful and
+indefatigable student of certain phases of nature--appear, however, to
+give such works a sensational effect.
+
+This seems to us to be the most valuable of the numerous paintings of
+Western subjects produced by this artist. It would be a mistake,
+however, to judge him wholly by the more ambitious compositions
+suggested by tropical or Western scenery. Some of his ideal paintings
+are very clever, and show us an ardent student of nature, and a mind
+inspired by a fervid imagination. But while conceding thus much to the
+talents of this artist--who belongs to an artistic family, two of his
+brothers being also well-known painters, one in marine, the other in
+cattle painting--we can not accord him great original powers. He has
+studied the technique of his calling most carefully, and has bestowed
+great attention to the methods of several celebrated artists; but we are
+too often conscious, in looking at his works, that his style has leaned
+upon that of certain favorite painters. There is great cleverness, but
+little genius, apparent in the landscapes of Mr. Moran, for the
+imitative faculty has been too much for him.
+
+[Illustration: LANDSCAPE.--[JERVIS M'ENTEE.]]
+
+Contemporary with our school of grand nature, if we may so call it, and
+represented by artists native in thought and education, we find
+evidences of another beginning to assert itself, of altogether a
+different character. The former deals wholly with externals, and the
+subject is the first end sought; it concerns itself altogether with
+objects, and not with any ulterior thoughts which they may suggest to
+the sensitive imagination. The latter, on the other hand, searches out
+the mystery in nature, and analyzes its human aspects. It is the vague
+suggestions seen in hills and skies, in sere woods and lonely waters,
+and moorlands fading away into eternity--it is their symbolism and
+sympathy with the soul that an artist like Mr. Jervis M'Entee seeks to
+represent on canvas. This is, in a word, the subjective art to which we
+have already alluded. To him the voice of nature is an elegy; the fall
+of the leaves in October suggests the passing away of men to the grave
+in a countless and endless procession; and whenever he introduces the
+agency of man into his pictures, it is as if he were fighting with an
+unseen and remorseless destiny. Exquisitely poetic and beautiful are the
+autumnal scenes of this artist, the reaches of russet woodlands, the
+expanses of skurrying clouds, gray, melancholy, wild. His art sings in a
+low minor key that finds response in the heart of multitudes who have
+suffered, to whom the world has been a battle-field, where the losses
+have outweighed the gains, and have left them gazing into the mysterious
+future like one who at midnight stands on the brink of a tremendous
+abyss into which he must be hurled, but knows not what are the
+shuddering possibilities that await the inevitable plunge.
+
+A young artist of Boston died in Syria, four years ago, at the early age
+of twenty-five, before he had acquired more than local repute, who gave
+promise of standing among the foremost of American landscape-painters. I
+refer to A. P. Close. Certainly no artist we have produced has evinced
+more abundant signs of genius at so early an age. Nor was he wholly a
+landscape-painter; the figure was also one aim of his art, and it was in
+the combination of the two that he excelled. He also had an eye for
+color that has not been too common in our art; and, wholly untaught,
+expressed his moods and fancies with a force that, even in its
+immaturity, suggested the master. But the one point in which he
+surpassed most of our artists up to this time was in the singular and
+inexhaustible activity of the imaginative faculty. It is strange that
+one so young should have so early manifested in his art a serious,
+almost morbid, view of life. It may have been because he found himself,
+before the age of twenty, forced to provide for a fatherless family, and
+to devote the greater part of his energies to what was to him the
+uncongenial work of drawing on wood.
+
+[Illustration: "COUNTY KERRY."--[A. H. WYANT.]]
+
+Less subjective and morbid, but moved by a similar feeling for the
+suggestions of nature, A. H. Wyant displays a sympathy with scenery and
+a masterful skill in reaching subtle effects which place him among the
+first landscape-painters of the age. In the suggestive rendering of
+space and color, of the manifold phases of a bit of waste land, or
+mountain glen, or sedgy brook-side, simple enough at first sight, but
+full of an infinitude of unobtrusive beauty, he works with the magic of
+a high-priest of nature; his style is broad in effect, without being
+slovenly and careless, and gives a multitude of details while really
+dealing chiefly with one central and prevailing idea. Mr. Wyant's work
+occasionally shows traces of foreign influences; but he is an artist of
+too much original power to be under any necessity to stunt himself by
+the imitation of the style of any other artist, however great.
+
+Homer Martin is another painter who views nature for the sentiment it
+suggests, while he is impressed chiefly by color and light; for form he
+seems to have less feeling. But he is a lyrist with the brush, and his
+sympathy with certain aspects of nature is akin to idolatry. With a few
+intense and telling strokes, he brings before us the splendors of sunset
+or the quietude of twilight, the gray vapors of morning creeping over
+dank woodlands or the sublime pathos of lonely sands, haunted by wild
+fowl and beaten by the hollow seas. But we have no painter whose art is
+so unequal: in all his works there is absolute freedom, freshness, and
+originality; his scheme of color is altogether his own, full of
+luminousness and purity; but he is weak in technique, and thus he
+alternately startles us by the brilliance, beauty, and suggestiveness of
+one painting, and the palpable failure to reach the desired end in
+another. However, this very irregularity in achievement shows that he is
+subject to inspirations, and thus partakes of the character of genius,
+which, if it were of a higher order, would be more often successful in
+its attempts.
+
+In the works of these painters we see abundant reason to believe in the
+permanent vitality of American landscape art, and evidence that it is
+not inclined to run in a conventional groove. Just so long as the
+artists who represent it continue to assert their individuality with
+such nerve and keen perception of the essential truths of nature, art is
+in a healthy and progressive condition. If further evidence of this were
+needed, we might cite the landscapes of J. Appleton Brown, who, after a
+rather discouraging servitude to Corôt, is at last beginning to show us
+the reserve power of which he is capable when he is more concerned with
+nature than with imitating the style and thoughts of another. Ernest
+Longfellow, a son of the poet, is another exemplar of the sturdy and
+healthful personality which everywhere crops out in our landscape art.
+While it cannot be said that his paintings suggest greatness, they
+breathe a true spirit, and possess a purity of color that is very
+attractive.
+
+D. W. C. Boutelle, long resident at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and rarely
+exhibiting in public in late years, is well known by such works as "The
+Trout Brook Shower" and engravings of other paintings by him, as an
+artist of originality and force, who seems to combine in his style some
+of the best traits of the American School of landscape-painting.
+
+[Illustration: "THE ADIRONDACKS."--[HOMER MARTIN.]]
+
+E. M. Bannister, of Providence, is also a man of genius. In the matter
+of drawing he is weak; but, although he has never been abroad, we
+recognize in his treatment of masses, and the brilliance of his method
+of managing light and color, the progressive transition through which
+our landscape art is passing, even when it does not pay allegiance to
+foreign influences.
+
+[Illustration: A LANDSCAPE.--[J. W. CASILEAR.]]
+
+Our marine art of the last fifteen years has shown that the illimitable
+aspects of the sea are also receiving increased attention, and are
+calling forth some of the best art talent of the country. It may be
+partly due to the advent of M. F. H. De Haas, who came here from Holland
+already an accomplished artist, who had done so well in his native land
+as to be appointed court painter to the queen. An artist of brilliant
+parts, although sometimes inclined to sensationalism, he has undoubtedly
+created some splendid compositions; and his influence must have been of
+decided importance during this period. While he has been working in New
+York, two marine painters of Boston have also executed some striking and
+beautiful works. I refer to John E. C. Petersen and William E. Norton.
+The former died young, in 1876. He was by birth a Dane, and in personal
+appearance a viking: tall, handsome, tawny-haired, with a clear, sharp
+blue eye, and a bearing that reminded one of an admiral on the
+quarter-deck of his frigate swooping down with flying sheets across the
+enemy's bow and pouring in a raking fire. Those who have seen him will
+never forget the grand figure of Petersen, the very impersonation of a
+son of the sea. When he first began to paint in Boston his pictures were
+weak in color and rude in drawing. But he improved with marvellous
+rapidity, and at the time of his death had few peers in marine art.
+Every inch a sailor, to him a ship was no clumsy mass laid awkwardly on
+the top of the water, as too many painters represent it, but a thing of
+life, with an individuality of its own, graceful as a queen, and riding
+the waves like a swan. "Making Sail after a Storm," representing a
+clipper ship shaking out her top-sails in the gray gloom that succeeds a
+storm, and rising massively but easily against the sky on the crest of
+the weltering seas, is a very strong picture. So also is his "After the
+Collision," and "A Ship Running before a Squall." When shall we see his
+like again?
+
+Mr. Norton began life as a house-painter, and is related to a family of
+ship-builders. He has himself made several voyages before the mast, and
+is therefore well equipped, so far as observation goes. He has painted
+many works, sometimes with more rapidity than comports with artistic
+success; and his style is occasionally hard, mannered, and mechanical.
+But he is an enthusiast for his art, and sometimes a happy inspiration
+enables him to turn off a painting that entitles him to a high rank
+among the marine painters of the age. He has been most happy in quiet
+effects and fog scenes, and a composition called the "Fog-Horn,"
+representing two men in a dory blowing a horn to warn away a steamer
+that is stealthily approaching them out of the fog, is a very
+interesting work. "Crossing the Grand Banks" is the title of another
+painting by this artist, in which the luminous haze of a midday fog and
+a large ship threading her way through a fleet of fishing-schooners, are
+rendered with a truth of color and majesty of form that give this work
+an important position in contemporary American art.
+
+[Illustration: "SHIP ASHORE."--[M. F. H. DE HAAS.]]
+
+Inferior to these artists as a draughtsman or in knowledge of ships,
+Arthur Quartley has, however, won a rapid and deserved reputation for
+coast scenes and effects of shimmering light on still water. Prettiness
+rather than beauty is sometimes too evident in his work; but he composes
+with decided originality, showing a real passion for the effects after
+which he strives, and his skies are often very strong. A "Storm off the
+Isles of Shoals" is one of his most important compositions. Mr. Lansil,
+of Boston, seems to be practically ignorant of the first principles of
+drawing and perspective, but he has shown a feeling for color and light,
+and we have at present few artists who equal him in painting still
+harbor scenes, marbled with reflections wavering on a glassy surface.
+Among our more clever coast painters we cannot omit the mention of A. T.
+Bricher, who renders certain familiar scenes of the Atlantic shore with
+much realistic force, but little feeling for the ideal. J. C. Nicoll
+seems to show more promise in this direction. The color and technique of
+his pictures are very clever and interesting, and well illustrate the
+sea as it looks to a landsman from _terra firma_. Both of these artists
+have painted extensively in _aquarelle_, in which medium they have
+achieved some important results; which may justly be added regarding the
+marine paintings of F. A. Silva. As a water-colorist Mr. Nicoll is not
+excelled by any of our artists now concerned with coast scenes; and
+some of his landscapes in _aquarelle_ sometimes rival his marines. What
+we observe in most of our marine-painters, however, is weakness in the
+matter of original composition. One would think that no object in nature
+would stimulate the imagination and expand the mind more than the sea.
+But it does not seem to have that effect in our marine art as yet,
+excepting here and there a solitary instance.
+
+[Illustration: "A FOGGY MORNING."--[W. E. NORTON.]]
+
+No fact better attests the active and prosperous character of American
+art than the rapid success which the culture of water-colors has
+achieved among us. In 1865 a collection of English water-color paintings
+was brought to this country, and exhibited in New York. It attracted
+much attention; and although a few artists, like Messrs. Parsons and
+Falconer, had already used this medium here, generally as amateurs, this
+seems to have been the first occasion that stimulated our artists to
+follow the art of water-color painting seriously. A society, headed by
+such men as Messrs. Samuel Colman, G. Burling, well known
+notwithstanding his early death, as a painter of game birds, J. M.
+Falconer, and R. Swain Gifford, was formed within a year; Mr. Colman was
+the first president, and the first annual exhibition was held in the
+halls of the Academy of Design in 1867. Twelve exhibitions have now been
+held, and Messrs. James Smillie and T. W. Wood have in turn succeeded
+Mr. Colman in the presidency. A numerous school of artists has sprung
+up, finding expression wholly in water-colors, like Miss Susan Hale or
+Henry Farrar, the able landscape-painter; while many of our leading
+artists in landscape and _genre_ have learned in this short period to
+work with equal success in _aquarelle_ and oil. The later exhibitions
+have been characterized by an individuality and strength that compare
+most favorably with the exhibitions of the older societies of London.
+
+Another interesting feature of the last part of the period under
+consideration is the increasing attention bestowed on the drawing of the
+figure. The number of _genre_ artists has notably increased; and the
+quality of their work has, on the whole, been on a higher plane. The war
+gave an impetus to this department, with its many sad or comic
+situations, and the increasing immigration of the peasantry of Europe,
+and the growing variety of our national types and street scenes, have
+all contributed to attract and stimulate the artistic eye and fancy. To
+mention all the artists among us who have, especially of late, achieved
+more or less success in this line, would be to enumerate a long
+catalogue, and we must content ourselves with the brief mention of a few
+who seem, perhaps, to be the most noteworthy, and, at the same time,
+indigenous in their style.
+
+[Illustration: "A MARINE."--[ARTHUR QUARTLEY.]]
+
+J. B. Irving, who has but recently passed away, executed some very
+clever cabinet compositions, delicately drawn and painted, somewhat in
+the modern French style, generally interiors, with figures in old-time
+costume. A very favorable specimen of his work is represented in a
+painting entitled "The End of the Game." B. F. Mayer, of Annapolis, has
+also devoted himself to a similar class of subjects successfully. He is,
+however, very versatile, and gives us at will a gentleman in Louis
+Quatorze costume, elaborately painted, or a bluff tar on the forecastle
+on the lookout, or aloft tarring down the rigging, or a religious
+ceremonial in the wigwams of the North-west. Marcus Waterman, of
+Providence, has displayed much dash in _genre_ combined with landscape,
+and is fresh and vigorous in style; while such a carefully executed work
+as his "Gulliver at Lilliput" is highly creditable to our art. J. W.
+Champney studied abroad under Frère, and also at Antwerp, and is one of
+the most broad-minded of our younger artists; indeed, it is refreshing
+to meet an artist so unbiassed by prejudice. His foreign studies have in
+no wise narrowed his intellectual sympathies. His small _genre_
+compositions, especially of child life, often together with landscape,
+have been carefully finished--latterly with an especial regard to the
+values. Professor John F. Weir, who comes of an artistic family, and is
+Superintendent of the Academy of Art at New Haven, has shown capacity
+and nerve in his well-known painting called "Forging the Shaft,"
+forcibly representing one of the most striking incidents in a foundry;
+and A. W. Willard, of Cincinnati, has struck out in a similar vein.
+Energy of action, and an effort after effect verging on exaggeration and
+caricature, are the characteristics of the style with which he has
+attempted such novel compositions as "Yankee Doodle" and "Jim Bludsoe."
+They suggest in color the literature of Artemus Ward and Walt Whitman.
+At the same time, we recognize in such thorough individuality a very
+promising attempt to assert the possibilities of certain phases of our
+national _genre_. These traits have been treated with less daring but
+with more artistic success by two of our best-known _genre_ painters--T.
+W. Wood and J. G. Brown. Mr. Wood, who is president of the Water-color
+Society, and employs both oil and water colors, spent several of the
+first years of his career at the South, and discovered of what
+importance our colored citizens might prove in our art--their squalor,
+picturesqueness, broad and kindly humor, and the pathos which has
+invested their fate with unusual interest. This artist's first
+successful venture in _genre_ was with a painting of a quaint old negro
+at Baltimore; and since then he has given us many characteristic
+compositions suggested by the lot of the slave, although he has not
+confined himself to this subject, but has also picked up excellent
+subjects among the newsboys in our streets, and amidst the homespun
+scenes of rural life. Mr. Wood's style is notable for _chiar-oscuro_,
+and his drawing is generally careful, correct, and forcible, and his
+compositions harmonious.
+
+Mr. Brown has also found that success and fame in _genre_ can be
+obtained without going abroad to seek for subjects. To him the _gamins_
+of our cities are as artistically attractive as those of Paris, and a
+girl wandering by our sea-shore as winsome as if on the beach at Nice or
+Scheveningen, and an old fisherman at Grand Menan as pictorial as if he
+were under the cliffs at Etretât. Fault is sometimes found with the fact
+that the street lads painted by Mr. Brown have always washed their faces
+before posing, which is according to the commands of St. Paul, but not
+of art canons, if we accept Mr. Ruskin's dictum regarding the artistic
+value of dirt. Bating this apparently trifling difficulty, however, it
+must be admitted that he often offers us a very characteristic and
+successful bit of _genre_. Gilbert Gaul and J. Burns, pupils of Mr.
+Brown, merit a word of praise in this connection, for giving us reason
+to hope in time for some satisfactory work from their easels.
+
+Child life finds a warm friend and delineator in S. J. Guy, who has made
+many friends by the kindly way in which he has treated the simple pathos
+and humor of childhood. He is an admirable draughtsman, and finishes his
+work with great nicety--sometimes to a degree that seems to rob the
+picture of some of its freshness and piquancy; but it cannot be denied
+that Mr. Guy has often struck a chord in the popular heart, not merely
+by his choice of subjects, but by legitimately earned success in his art
+as well. Scenes of domestic life have also been treated sometimes very
+interestingly by Messrs. B. F. Reinhart, Ehninger, Blauvelt, Satterlee,
+Howland, Wilmarth, and Virgil Williams. Oliver J. Lay, although a slow,
+careful artist, has executed some thoughtful and refined in-door scenes,
+taken from domestic life, which show a thorough appreciation of the fact
+that art, for itself alone, is the only aim the true artist should
+pursue. E. L. Henry surprises one by the elaboration of his work, and is
+open to the charge of crudeness in color and hardness in outline; but
+occasionally he gives us a well-balanced composition, like the beach
+scene, with horses and a carry-all in the foreground, entitled "Waiting
+for the Bathers."
+
+[Illustration: "ARGUING THE QUESTION."--[T. W. WOOD.]]
+
+But it is in the works of Messrs. Eastman Johnson and Winslow Homer that
+we find the most successful rendering of American _genre_ of the present
+day as distinguished from that which bears unmistakable evidence of
+foreign inspiration. Mr. Johnson, as a student at Düsseldorf and other
+art centres of Europe, might be expected to show the fact in his art;
+but, instead of doing so, we have no painter who has a more individual
+style. There is uncertainty in his drawing sometimes, but his color and
+composition are generally excellent, and the choice of subjects are at
+the same time popular and artistic. We have had no painter since Mount
+who has done more to elevate the character of _genre_ art in the
+community. Successful in portraiture and ideal heads, Mr. Johnson has
+achieved his best efforts in the homely scenes of rustic negro life, or
+from a thorough sympathy with the simplicity and beauty of childhood.
+None who have seen his painting called the "Old Stage-Coach,"
+representing a rollicking group of boys and girls playing on the rusty
+wreck of an abandoned mail-carriage, can ever doubt again the
+possibilities of _genre_ art in this country, although some of his
+simpler compositions are more to our liking. There is, however, nothing
+startling or especially novel in the style of Mr. Johnson. It is quiet
+and unsensational.
+
+It is to the eccentric and altogether original compositions of Winslow
+Homer that we turn for a more decided expression of the growing
+weariness of our people with the conventional, and a vague yearning
+after an original form of art speech. The freshness, the crudity, and
+the solid worth of American civilization are well typified in the
+thoroughly native art of Mr. Homer. No artist has shown more versatility
+and inventiveness in choice of subject, and greater impatience with
+accepted methods. Impatience, irritability, is written upon all his
+works--he is evidently striving after the unknown. But the key-note of
+his art seems to be a realistic endeavor to place man and nature,
+landscape and _genre_, in harmonious juxtaposition; never one alone, but
+both aiding each other, they are ever the themes of his brush. His
+figures are often stiff or posed in awkward attitudes, and yet they
+always arrest the attention, for they are inspired by an active,
+restless brain, that is undoubtedly moved by the impulse of genius. It
+is the values, or true relations of objects as they actually appear in
+nature, that this artist also seeks to render; while in his reach after
+striking subjects or compositions he not rarely borders on the
+sensational. But in some of his masterly water-color sketches, which are
+almost impressionist in treatment, or such more finished works as "The
+Cotton Pickers," a scene from Southern plantation life, Mr. Homer
+asserts his right to be considered the founder of a new school of
+_genre_ painting. The repose which is lacking in his style at present
+may come to him later, or be grafted upon it by those who come after
+him.
+
+George Fuller, of Boston, is another artist in whose works we see an
+additional proof of the growing importance attached to the painting of
+the figure in our art. His paintings indicate the presence among us of a
+vigorous, original personality, that is, of a genius striving for
+utterance. They are incomplete, rarely altogether satisfactory; but we
+feel, in the presence of such a subtle, suggestive, mysterious
+composition as the "Rommany Girl," vaguely thrilling us with the deep
+meaning of her weirdly glancing eyes, and weaving a mystic spell over
+our fancy, that a mind akin to that of Hawthorne is here striving for
+utterance, and unconsciously infusing new vitality into our _genre_ art.
+
+[Illustration: "THE ROSE."--[D. F. NAYER.]]
+
+As an influence in the same direction, the compositions of William
+Magrath command sincere attention. It is not so many years ago since he
+was painting signs in New York, and now we see him one of the strongest
+artists in _genre_ on this side of the Atlantic. Mr. Magrath generally
+paints single figures, associated with rural life--a milkmaid, or a
+farmer. Naturally there is inequality in the results achieved, and
+sometimes manifest weakness. But we note a constant progress in the
+quality of his art, and an evidence of imagination which has been
+unfortunately too rare in American _genre_ since the days of William
+Mount. By this we mean the identification of the artist with his
+subject, which renders it dramatic, and inspires it with that touch of
+nature that makes the whole world kin. In this respect he occasionally
+suggests the inimitable humanity which is the crowning excellence of the
+paintings of Jean François Millet.
+
+It is with additional pleasure that we note the works of some of our
+more recent native _genre_ artists, because we see indicated in them a
+growing perception of the fact that abundant subjects may be found at
+our own doors to occupy the pencil of the ablest minds. It is not
+uncommon to hear young artists who have studied in the ateliers of Paris
+and Munich, and who have returned here to work, complaining that they
+find no sources of inspiration here, no subjects to paint at home. This
+dearth of subjects certainly would be a very grave obstacle to the
+ultimate development of a great American school of art, if it actually
+existed. But on examining the question, it seems to us that the
+difficulty lies not in the lack of subjects, but in the way the artist
+has learned to look at things, and the range of sympathies to which he
+has become accustomed by his foreign experiences.
+
+The artist who is the man of his time and his country never yet lacked
+material for inspiration in the every-day life and every-day objects
+around him. Goethe has said that the truest poetry is that woven out of
+the suggestions gained from simple things. There has never yet been such
+a state of society or such an order of scenery that the artist who was
+in sympathy with it could not find some poetry, some color, some form or
+light or shade in it that would stir the finer elements of his genius,
+stimulate his fancy, and arouse his inventive powers. Some quality of
+beauty is there, concealed like the water in the rock; the magician
+comes whose rod can evoke the imprisoned element, and others then see
+what he had first seen.
+
+As we stroll, for example, through the streets and squares of New York's
+metropolis, by its teeming wharves, and among its dilapidated avenues of
+trade, we are astounded to think that any one could ever look on this
+seething mass of humanity, these various types of man, and the various
+structures he has erected here, and find in them no inspiration for his
+brush or his pen. What if there are no feluccas or painted sails in our
+harbor; one has but to cross the river on the ferry-boat at sunrise or
+sunset to see wonderful picturesqueness and beauty in our sloops and
+schooners, our shipping thronging the piers, all smitten by the glory of
+the rosy light, or over-canopied by scowling gray masses of storm-driven
+scud.
+
+Or if one saunters up our streets and gazes on the long vista of
+Broadway toward nightfall, as the lazy mist gradually broods over the
+roofs and delicately tones and softens the receding rows of buildings,
+he shall see effects almost as entrancing and poetic as those which
+charm the enthusiast who beholds the sun, a crimson disk, couching in a
+gray bank of smoke at the end of the boulevards of Paris, on an evening
+in October.
+
+Is there nothing picturesque and artistic in the Italian fruit venders
+at the street corners, especially when after dark they light their
+smoking torches, that waver with ruddy glow over brilliant masses of
+oranges and apples?
+
+[Illustration: "DRESS PARADE."--[J. G. BROWN.]]
+
+There is yet another scene which we often encounter, especially early in
+the morning, at a time when perhaps most artists are yet wrapped in
+dreams. We refer to the groups of horses led through the streets to the
+horse-market. Untrimmed, unshorn, massively built, and marching in files
+by fours and fives with clanging tread, sometimes thirty or forty
+together, they present a stirring and powerful effect, which would
+thrill a Bonheur or a Schreyer. Why have none of our artists attempted
+to paint them? Have we none with the knowledge or the power to render
+the subject with the vigor it demands?
+
+[Illustration: "A BED-TIME STORY."--[S. J. GUY.]]
+
+[Illustration: THE MOTHER.--[EASTMAN JOHNSON.]]
+
+No, we lack not subjects for those who know how to see them; while
+nothing is more certain than the truth that a national art can only be
+founded and sustained by those who are wholly in sympathy with the
+influences of the land whose art they are aiding to establish. Those who
+are familiar with American art will easily recall a number of our
+artists, educated both at home and abroad, who have no difficulty in
+finding material around home, and at the same time take the lead among
+us in point of artistic strength.
+
+While indicating, however, some of the many subjects which address one
+at every turn in our land, and render it unnecessary for artists to go
+abroad for a supply of fuel for their fancy, we would not, on the other
+hand, imply that an artist should, in order to be an exponent or leader
+of a native art, be confined exclusively to one class of subjects.
+Although it is one of the most remarkable and indisputable laws in
+literature and art that those who are identified with nature and human
+nature, as it appears in their native country, are at the same time most
+cosmopolitan, still it is, after all, not so much in the subjects as in
+the treatment that the individuality of a national art is best
+demonstrated. It is when the artist is so thoroughly imbued with the
+spirit of the institutions of his native land that it appears in his
+art, whatever be the subject--it is then that he is most national. We
+hear a great deal about the French school and the English school; but it
+is not because each school finds its subjects invariably at home that it
+possesses an individuality of its own, but because we see unconsciously
+reflected in it the influences of the land that gave it birth. For this
+reason, if an English and a French painter shall each take the same
+scene, and that a wholly foreign one, say an Oriental group, although
+the subject be a foreign subject and identical in each canvas, you can
+discern at once that one picture is English, the other French in
+treatment. Each artist has stamped upon his work the impression of the
+influences of the people to which he belongs.
+
+[Illustration: SAIL-BOAT.--[WINSLOW HOMER.]]
+
+Patriotism, a wholesome enthusiasm for one's own country, seems, then,
+in some occult way to lie at the basis of a native art, and native art
+founded on knowledge is therefore always the truest art; while the
+artist who is thus inspired will generally find material enough to call
+forth his æsthetic yearnings and arouse his creative faculties at his
+own door.
+
+In passing from _genre_ to our later portraiture we do not find the same
+proportionate activity and intelligent progress that we see in other
+departments of our art, although some creditable painters in this
+department can be mentioned. Harvey A. Young, of Boston, has shown a
+good eye for color, and seizes a likeness in a manner that is
+artistically satisfactory, while he does not so often grasp the
+character of the sitter as his external traits. Mr. Custer, of the same
+city, charmingly renders the infantile beauty of childhood, its merry
+blue eyes, the dimpled roses of the cheeks, and the flaxen curls that
+ripple around the shoulders. There is, however, too much sameness in his
+work--a too apparent tendency to mannerism. Mrs. Henry Peters Grey has a
+faculty of making a pleasing likeness. She has executed some portrait
+plaques in majolica that are remarkable evidences of the progress
+ceramic art is now making in the United States. Mrs. Loop is one of our
+successful portrait-painters. Her works are not strikingly original, but
+they are harmonious in tone and color, and poetical in treatment. Henry
+A. Loop has also executed some pleasing portraits and ideal
+compositions; of the latter, his "Echo" is perhaps the most successful
+rendering of female beauty he has attempted. George H. Story should be
+included among the most important portrait-painters of this period. His
+work is characterized by vigor of style and pleasing color; he seizes a
+likeness without any uncertainty in technique. His _genre_ compositions
+and ideal heads are also inspired by a refined taste and correct
+perception of the principles of art. William Henry Furness, of
+Philadelphia, who died in 1867, just as he reached his prime, was allied
+in genius to the great masters of portraiture of the early stages of our
+art. He matured slowly. His first efforts showed only small promise; but
+he had the inestimable quality of growth, and has been equalled by few
+of our painters in the study and rendering of character. When he had a
+sitter he would give days to a preliminary and exhaustive study of his
+mental and moral traits.
+
+In Darius Cobb, of Boston, great earnestness is apparent in the pursuit
+of art, together with an exalted opinion of what should be the aims of
+æsthetic culture. Mr. Cobb has attempted sculpture, monumental art,
+portraiture, and the painting of religious compositions. We consider it
+a promising sign to see an artist of such energy seeking to exalt the
+character of his pursuit. His works seem, however, to show the lack of a
+systematic course of training in the rudiments of technique; but in such
+strong and characteristic portraits as that of Rufus Choate he has
+exhibited decided ability.
+
+[Illustration: "THE SCOUT."--[WORDSWORTH THOMPSON.]]
+
+The historic art of the period has been neither prolific nor attractive,
+with a few exceptions. The late war has given rise to some important
+works, like Winslow Homer's notable "Prisoners to the Front;" and Julian
+Scott has been measurably successful in such paintings as "In the
+Cornfield at Antietam," representing a charge in that memorable battle,
+which belongs to a class of pictures of which we hope to have more in
+the future. There is a striving after originality in his paintings that
+is in the right direction. Mrs. C. A. Fassett, who has executed some
+excellent portraits, has also recently composed an important painting of
+the "Electoral Commission," of whose merits the writer can only speak by
+report.
+
+[Illustration: "ON THE OLD SOD."--[WILLIAM MAGRATH.]]
+
+In Wordsworth Thompson we find an artist who seems to realize the
+possibilities of American historical art. Although a pupil of Gleyre,
+and for a number of years a resident abroad, there is no evidence of
+servile subserviency to any favorite school or method in the style of
+Mr. Thompson. He is an excellent draughtsman, his color is a happy
+medium between the high and low keys of different schools--fresh, cool,
+and crisp--and his work is thoroughly finished, and yet broad in
+effect. He evidently has no hobbies to ride. As a designer of horses he
+has few equals in this country. If we have a fault to find with him, it
+is in a certain lack of snap, of warmth, of enthusiasm in the handling
+of a subject, which renders it less impressive than it might otherwise
+be.
+
+[Illustration: "A MATIN SONG."--[FIDELIA BRIDGES.]]
+
+Mr. Thompson, in his Mediterranean wanderings, gathered material for a
+number of attractive coast scenes, effective in atmosphere and in the
+rendering of figures, feluccas, and waves, all tending to illustrate his
+versatility. But he deserves to be most widely known on account of
+scenes taken from Southern life, and historic compositions suggested by
+the late war, or illustrating notable events of the Revolution. For
+pictures of this description Mr. Thompson seems to us to rank next to
+Trumbull, whose masterly paintings of the "Death of Montgomery" and the
+"Battle of Bunker Hill," now at New Haven, have hitherto been by far the
+most remarkable military paintings produced by an American artist. There
+is less action, fire, and brilliance of color in Mr. Thompson's works,
+but they possess many admirable qualities that entitle them to much
+respect. Among the most notable is an elaborate composition representing
+the Continental army defiling before General Washington and his staff at
+Philadelphia. The group of officers and horses in the foreground is one
+of the best pieces of artistic work recently painted by an American.
+
+[Illustration: STUDY OF A DOG.--[FRANK ROGERS.]]
+
+When we come to a consideration of animal painting in this period of our
+æsthetic culture, we find that it is the most barren of good results of
+any branch of our art. We are at a loss to account for this, especially
+as the evidences of promise are also less prominent than in landscape
+and _genre_. Not only has the number of the artists who have pursued
+this department been proportionately small, but the quality of their
+work has been of a low average, and lacking in the originality elsewhere
+apparent.
+
+In the painting of pastoral scenes, with cattle, Peter Moran, of
+Philadelphia, probably shows the most originality and force; and Thomas
+Robinson, of Boston, has displayed exceptional vigor in painting the
+textures of cattle, but without much invention in composition. James
+Hart for the past twelve years has made a specialty of introducing
+groups of cattle into his idyllic landscapes. They are often well drawn
+and carefully painted, and are in general effect commendable, although,
+like most of our animal painters, Mr. Hart does not seem to have got at
+the character of the animal as Snyders, Morland, or Landseer would have
+done. Mr. Dolph has painted some creditable cats and pugs in combination
+with interiors; and two young artists, Messrs. George Inness, Jun., and
+J. Ogden Brown, have executed some promising cattle pieces.
+
+Miss Bridges must be credited with developing a charming and original
+branch of art, of which thus far she seems to enjoy a monopoly. There is
+exquisite fancy, as well as capital art, in the method in which, with
+water-colors, she composes stalks of grain or wild-flowers in
+combination with field birds, meadow-larks, linnets, bobolinks,
+sparrows, or sand-pipers, balancing on the apex of a wavering stalk, or
+flying over the wheat or by the sands of the sea-beat shore.
+
+Mr. Frank Rogers, who is still a very young man, takes especial interest
+in painting dogs, although not intending to confine himself to that
+branch of animal life, and has already achieved considerable success in
+his attempts to represent canine traits. He has trained several dogs to
+pose for him for ten to fifteen minutes at once. In the decided ability
+and success already shown by Mr. Rogers we can see that it is now
+possible for our artists, availing themselves of influences already at
+work here, combined with an intense love of nature and the ideal, to do
+strong original work without devoting half their lives to foreign study,
+and thus carry on to a higher stage the national art for which so many
+clamor unreasonably, not considering that new schools of art are not
+born in a day, nor evolved without the conditions which have invariably
+prepared the way for the national art of other people. Art travels by no
+royal road.
+
+[Illustration: "LOST IN THE SNOW."--[A. F. TAIT.]]
+
+Our continent is not so plentifully stocked with wild beasts and game as
+some parts of the Old World, but we yet have the panther and the bison,
+although now fast fading into a mere traditionary existence before the
+rifle of the pioneer. R. M. Shurtleff has a pleasant fancy for
+catamounts and deer, and has been a careful student of their habits, of
+which the results appear in dramatic bits of the wild life of the woods
+introduced into effective paintings of forest scenery; "A Race for Life"
+is the title of a weird, savage, and powerful composition by this
+artist, representing a flock of ravening wolves pursuing their victim
+over fields of frozen snow, behind which the low red sun is setting;
+and A. F. Tait has also devoted his life to rescuing from oblivion
+species which are rapidly becoming extinct, unless our game-laws are
+better enforced than they have been hitherto. There is often too
+finished a touch to the style of Mr. Tait, which deprives it of the
+force it might otherwise have; but he has, on the other hand, painted
+both game and domestic animals with remarkable truth, and he brings to
+the subject an inventive fancy that greatly adds to the variety and
+interest of his works. We might add in this connection an allusion to
+the ingenious carvings of Alexander Pope, a young artist who not only
+cuts out groups of game from a block of wood with much cleverness, but
+also truthfully colors the grouse and teal his skilful knife carves out
+of pine.
+
+There is a branch of art which latterly has attracted much attention in
+this country. We refer to still-life. George H. Hall, who is also known
+as a _genre_ painter, justly earned a reputation years ago for effective
+painting of fruit and flowers, in which he has hitherto had few equals
+in this country; and M. J. Heade has devoted his attention successfully
+to the rendering of the wonderful gorgeousness of tropical vegetation.
+The ideal flower-painting of Mr. Lafarge we have already mentioned. Miss
+Robbins, of Boston, is at present one of the most prominent artists we
+have in this department. She composes with great taste, and lays on her
+colors with superb effect. Some of her paintings suggest the rich,
+massive coloring of Van Huysams. Messrs. Seavey, of Boston, Way, of
+Baltimore, and Lambdin, of Philadelphia, have produced some interesting
+results in this direction; and Miss Dillon and Mrs. Henshaw must be
+credited with some very beautiful floral compositions. The list of
+ladies who have been measurably successful in realistic flower-painting
+is very large, and indicates the strong tendency toward decorative art
+in the country, which must result ere long in a distinctly national type
+of that branch of æesthetic culture.
+
+In arriving at the close of the second period of American painting, we
+are encouraged by abundant evidences of a healthy activity. While some
+phases of our art, after a growth of half a century, are passing through
+a transition period, and new methods and theories are grafting
+themselves upon the old, there is everywhere apparent a deeper
+appreciation of the supreme importance of the ideal, and a gathering of
+forces for a new advance against the strongholds of the materialism that
+wars against the culture of the ideal, combined with a rapidly spreading
+consciousness on the part of the people of the ethical importance of
+art, and a disposition to co-operate in its healthful development. At
+the same time new influences are entering into the national culture of
+æsthetics, and branches which have hitherto received little attention
+from our artists are coming rapidly into prominence, suggesting that we
+are about entering upon a third stage of American art.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+_SCULPTURE IN AMERICA._
+
+
+It is a generally conceded fact that since the death of Michael Angelo
+the art of sculpture has made little progress in the expression of the
+ideal. It has rather indicated, until recently, a lack of steadiness of
+purpose, and a want of freshness and intellectual grasp that place the
+plastic art of the last three centuries in a lower rank than that of the
+Classic and the Middle Ages. It is, therefore, a matter of surprise that
+in a people apparently so unideal as our own, and engaged in struggling
+to win for itself a right to exist among the wilds of a new world, that
+we find that so much evidence has already been shown of an appreciation
+for sculpture. It is true that we have not yet produced any masterpieces
+that can rank with those of antiquity; but, on the other hand, some of
+our plastic art compares favorably with the best that has been created
+in modern times.
+
+But what might have been expected under the circumstances has proved to
+be the case. Originality has been the exception and not the rule, even
+with our best sculptors. Naturally led to study the antique in Europe,
+and also to master there the technical elements of the art of sculpture,
+owing to the entire absence of facilities for art education here, it was
+only to be expected that they would at first yield to the art influences
+whose guidance they sought. It was not their fault that, until recently,
+those influences were conventional, and based upon a false perception of
+the principles of art.
+
+[Illustration: "EVE BEFORE THE FALL."--[HIRAM POWERS.]]
+
+Some of our most successful sculptors have never been abroad, or at
+least have not systematically placed themselves under the tuition of a
+foreign master; while a number of them have indicated in their
+tendencies a natural sympathy with the later movement of modern
+sculpture, which is rather in the direction of allegory, portraiture,
+and _genre_ suggested by domestic life. When the ancients represented
+Venus or Jove in marble, they sculptured a being in whose actual
+existence they believed, and thus a profound reverence inspired the work
+of the master. When the sculptor of the Middle Ages carved the deeds of
+the Saviour, or the saints, or represented the Last Judgment, he was
+moved by deep love or reverential awe, and an unquestioning belief in
+the events he was commemorating. But when the sculptor of this century
+undertakes to revive classical subjects and modes of thought, he
+encounters an insurmountable obstacle at the outset, which checks all
+progress, and relegates his art to a secondary rank, without even the
+benefit of a doubt in his favor. The laws and limitations of mind make
+it impossible for an art to be of the first order which depends upon the
+imitation of other art. It is only by copying nature directly, under the
+inspirations of its own age and country, that a school of art has the
+slightest chance of immortality. Thorwaldsen, the greatest sculptor
+since Michael Angelo, exemplified this truth to a remarkable degree.
+Moved by a realization of classic art which no other modern sculptor
+except Flaxman has approached, we yet find his classical subjects
+inferior to those allegorical subjects in which he gave expression to
+the impulses of his own times. A slowly dawning consciousness that art
+cannot by any force of will or free agency escape from these limitations
+of growth is becoming at last evident in recent sculpture, especially in
+the emotional and sometimes sensational sculpture of France. Lacking
+repose, it is yet fresh and original, and is destined by continued
+self-assertion to reach a high rank.
+
+It is in imitations of the antique or in allegory, and portraiture, that
+our sculpture has exerted its best efforts, until within a few years.
+General Washington has also proved a sort of Jupiter Tonans to our
+sculptors. Elevated to a semi-apotheosis by the people, he has hitherto
+been the most prominent subject of the plastic art of the West, and has
+thus afforded a fair standard of comparison between the merits of
+different artists, since very few of them but have tried their hand with
+the national hero. As regards popular appreciation or pecuniary reward,
+it must be admitted that our sculptors have relatively little cause for
+complaint.
+
+The art of sculpture was by no means unknown here when the white man
+first stepped foot on our shores. The pipe-stone quarries of the West
+are an evidence of what had already been attempted by the aboriginal
+savages. Tobacco, so much maligned by certain zealous philanthropists,
+was at least an innocent cause of some of the earliest attempts at
+sculpture made on this continent. The writer has in his possession an
+Indian pipe carved out of flint, which represents a man sitting with
+hands clasped across his knees. Simple as it is, it indicates good skill
+in stone-carving, and considerable observation of race characteristics
+and anatomy. Evidences of great technical skill in the plastic arts, but
+with an unformed perception of beauty, are being constantly discovered
+among the relics of the extinct Mound-builders of the West and South.
+
+[Illustration: "ORPHEUS."--[THOMAS CRAWFORD.]]
+
+Before the Revolution, however, excepting in the carving of
+figure-heads, plastic art, unlike painting, seems to have been hardly
+known in the United States. And so little sign was there of its dawn
+that John Trumbull declared to Frazee, as late as 1816, that sculpture
+"would not be wanted here for a century." But even then the careful
+observer might have noticed indications that a genius for glyptic art
+was awakening in the new republic. In the early part of the last century
+Deacon Drowne made a vane for Faneuil Hall, and one for the Province
+House, in Boston, which appear to have gained him great repute in his
+day in New England. The latter work, although turning with the wind on
+an iron spindle, was a life-size statue of an Indian sachem holding a
+bow and arrow in the act of aiming. It was hollow, and of copper, and
+would seem, from the impression it made, to have been a work of some
+merit. Somewhat later, Patience Wright, of Bordentown, New Jersey,
+displayed considerable cleverness in modelling miniature wax heads in
+relief, and by this process succeeded in making likenesses of Washington
+and Franklin, among the celebrities of her time. William Rush, who was
+born some twenty years before the Revolution, had also shown already
+that even in ship-carving the sculptor may find scope for fancy and
+skill, as Matthew Pratt, in the previous generation, had proved that
+even in the painting of signs genius can find vent for its inspirations.
+Rush was undoubtedly a man of genius; for, although all the art
+education he ever had was confined to an apprenticeship with a
+ship-carver, his figure-heads of Indians or naval heroes added a
+singular merit to the beauty of the merchant marine which first carried
+our flag to the farthest seas, and the men-of-war that wrested victory
+in so many a hard-fought battle. Hush worked only in wood or clay; but
+original strength and talent, which under better circumstances might
+have achieved greater results, are evident in some of his portrait
+busts, and in a statue of a nymph at Fairmount. A bust of himself,
+carved out of a block of pine, is remarkable for a realistic force and
+character that entitle it to a permanent place in the records of
+American sculpture.
+
+Sculpture, however, was much more backward in gaining a foothold in the
+country than the sister arts; for it was not until 1824 that the first
+portrait in marble by a native was executed--that of John Wells, by John
+Frazee, a stone-cutter, whose sole art education was obtained during an
+apprenticeship in a yard where rude monumental work was turned out for
+the bleak cemeteries in use before such sumptuous retreats as Greenwood
+and Mount Auburn were planned. There was a feeling after the ideal in
+the nature of this unassisted artist which enabled him to be potential
+in influencing younger artists; while his opportunities were unfavorable
+to the just development of his own abilities.
+
+Rush began to model in clay in 1789, and at that time not one of the
+artists who have since given celebrity to our native sculpture had seen
+the light. Frazee was born in 1790; and Hezekiah Augur, of New Haven, in
+1791. The latter was engaged in the grocery trade, and failing in that,
+took up modelling and wood-carving, without any guide except his natural
+instincts. Like many of our first sculptors, his efforts are interesting
+rather as evidences of what talent entirely uninstructed and untrained
+can accomplish, than for any intrinsic value in his work. Many of the
+artists who have succeeded him have also begun life in some trade or
+profession altogether at variance with the art to which they afterward
+consecrated their lives.
+
+It was not till the year 1805, long after Copley, West, Malbone,
+Allston, and Stuart had demonstrated our capacity for pictorial art,
+that the genius of the country seemed inclined to allow us a plastic art
+of our own. In that year Hiram Powers was born, one of the best known
+sculptors of the century. The same year witnessed the birth of Horatio
+Greenough. In the remote wilds of Kentucky, still harried by the
+Indians, Hart was born in 1810; and Clevenger, Crawford, and Mills
+followed in 1812, 1813, and 1815--all artists of note, even if of
+unequal merits, and important as pioneers in the art rather than the
+creators of a great school of sculpture. Thus we see that without any
+apparent previous preparation a strong impulse toward glyptic art and
+the men to direct and give it strength simultaneously sprung up in the
+land. When one considers the disadvantages under which they labored, and
+that, so far as can be known, they were not even aided by any heredity
+of genius in this direction, criticism is tempered by surprise that
+they achieved the results they did, and that two of them at
+least--Powers and Crawford--succeeded in winning for themselves a
+European renown which made them almost the peers of some of the leading
+foreign sculptors of the age, who were born amidst the trophies of
+classic and Renaissance art.
+
+[Illustration: "COLUMBUS BEFORE THE COUNCIL."--[FROM THE BRONZE DOOR OF
+THE CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON.--RANDOLPH ROGERS.]]
+
+Hiram Powers must always be assigned a commanding position in our
+Western art, even by those who are not enthusiastic admirers of his
+works. A farmer's boy of the Green Mountains, he early exchanged Vermont
+for the bustling streets of Cincinnati, where an ampler scope was
+offered to the aspiring energies of the founder of American sculpture.
+Like many of our sculptors, a turn for mechanics, characteristic of the
+inventive mind of the people, was combined in him with a capacity for
+art, and this, which at first found vent in a study of the inventions of
+the time, enabled him in maturer life to facilitate the means of art
+expression by valuable inventions. Palmer and several other American
+sculptors have also aided the art in a similar way. From modelling in
+wax, which aroused great local interest, young Powers proceeded to
+modelling in plaster, under the tuition of a German artist resident in
+Cincinnati, and, aided by the generous patronage of Mr. Longworth--to
+whose liberality toward our artists American art is greatly indebted--he
+soon received numerous commissions for portrait busts of some of our
+most notable public men, such as Webster, Jackson, Marshall, and
+Calhoun. Notwithstanding his lack of training and art associations,
+Powers executed some of these portraits with a vigor worthy of the
+subjects, and scarcely equalled by any of his subsequent work.
+
+In 1837 Powers decided to go to Italy, whither Greenough had already
+preceded him, led thither, like many since, by superior art advantages
+and economical reasons, which still sway our sculptors at a time when it
+would seem that it would be more profitable, so far as native art is
+concerned, for them to remain here. Several of our sculptors have
+acknowledged to the writer that the time has come for their art to grow
+up under the home influences which are to regulate the art of the
+future, but that the question of economy forces them to live in Florence
+and Rome.
+
+Residing in Florence until his death, Powers devoted his long career to
+the creation of many works of high finish, and occasionally of a merit
+comparing well with the works of an age whose plastic arts were
+conventional. Who has not seen the famous "Greek Slave," inspired by the
+enthusiasm for the Greeks struggling with the Turk for existence? The
+"Penseroso," "Fisher Boy," and "Proserpine" are also among the most
+pleasing works of this artist. The "California," a nude, symbolical
+female figure, is less satisfactory in conception, and is also open to
+criticism as to its proportions. In these works we see expressed the
+thoughts of an artist skilled in the technical requirements of the art,
+and moved by a lofty ideal, but marked by tender sentiment rather than
+force, and suggesting sometimes a dryness of style and a coldness or
+reticence of emotion inherited from the undemonstrative people of New
+England, as if when the artist was executing them the stern genius of
+Puritanism, jealous of the voluptuous or the passionate in art, had
+stood Mentor-like at his side and said, "There, that will do; beware
+lest your love of beauty lead you to forget that you are an American
+citizen, to whom duty, principle, example, are the watchwords of life."
+But sometimes genius proved superior to tradition even with Powers, as
+when he composed the two great ideal statues of Eve before and after the
+fall. By these noble works, inspired by true, untrammelled artistic
+feeling--which we must consider his best ideal compositions--he earned a
+rank very near to that of Gibson and Canova, and rendered his art worthy
+of lasting remembrance.
+
+[Illustration: "THE GHOST IN HAMLET."--[THOMAS R. GOULD.]]
+
+The art of Powers was best exemplified in his portrait busts. His
+imagination was not prolific or active, as one may infer from the
+following expressions of his own: "I could never satisfy myself with an
+ideal in a hurry. The human form is infinite. It is the image of God. I
+have found that, do my best, there was always a _better_ in nature. Once
+knowing this, I have hesitated and sought to find it, and this is the
+way to fame. One may fail with all his care and labor, but it is the
+only way. Not they who have produced the most, but they who have done
+the best, stand foremost in the end. I never felt that I had the power
+to charge a hundred statues. I exhaust myself on a few. This accounts
+for the fact that I found it necessary to give nearly a year's time, in
+all, to the model of your statue of 'Paradise Lost.'"
+
+The early educational advantages of Horatio Greenough were superior to
+those of Powers; and as one of the first in our country to assert
+himself in marble, he won a name which we are reluctantly obliged to
+consider in excess of his merits as an artist. He impresses one as a man
+of intellectual force and culture, but without any special calling to
+sculpture. The work by which he will be known the longest is the Bunker
+Hill Monument, whose stately proportions he designed. Greenough executed
+a number of vigorous and striking busts, like those of Lafayette and
+Fenimore Cooper, which deserve favorable mention. But in venturing after
+ideal expression he cannot be said to have accomplished satisfactory
+results. The elaborate group called "The Rescue," on the portico of the
+Capitol at Washington, is ambitious, but leaves one to regret that so
+prominent a position could not have been more appropriately decorated.
+
+Few statues have ever given rise to more conflicting criticisms than
+Greenough's "Washington" in the grounds of the Capitol. Colossal in size
+and on a massive throne, seated half nude and holding out a Roman sword
+in his left hand, some one has jocularly observed that the august hero
+of the republic seems to say, "Here is my sword; my clothes are in the
+Patent-office yonder." It certainly seems an absurdity in this age to
+represent so recent a character in a garb in which he was so rarely seen
+by the public, or so closely and incongruously to imitate the style of
+the antique. Benjamin West showed more originality and courage when, in
+the last century, and in defiance of the opinion of such men as Sir
+Joshua Reynolds, he dared to break loose from the conventional, and
+created a revolution in historical art by permitting General Wolfe to
+die in the clothes in which he went to battle. But in justice to
+Greenough, whose statue is in some respects meritorious and important,
+especially in the bass-reliefs on the elegant chair, it should be said
+that he never designed to have this statue placed in its present
+position, but under the dome of the Rotunda, where it would undoubtedly
+be far more impressive, and being sheltered from the winter snows, its
+nudity would be less incongruous.
+
+[Illustration: GEORGE WASHINGTON.--[J. Q. A. WARD.]]
+
+Last year a sculptor died at Florence who was born in Kentucky nearly
+seventy years ago. His education was confined to three months in a
+district school, and his first occupation was chimney-building. James
+Hart, although successful in portraiture, was also an idealist, who,
+after settling in Italy, produced numerous pleasing works, like his
+"Angelina" and "Woman Triumphant." There is a delicate, winning sense of
+beauty and a refined emotional tendency in his art, which pleases while
+it fails to master us, because it was a facile fancy rather than a lofty
+imagination that conceived his creations.
+
+Shobal V. Clevenger, a stone-cutter of Ohio, presents another instance
+of the sudden yearning toward the plastic art which early in the century
+sought vent in various parts of the country. Like so many others, he
+turned his face to Italy to find the knowledge which it was impossible
+for his native land to give him at that time. The nation owes a debt of
+gratitude to him, as to several of our early sculptors, for many
+truthfully realistic portraits of our leading statesmen and poets.
+
+In point of date as well as in ability we find that Thomas Crawford, a
+native of New York State, was one of the first of our sculptors. If
+Powers was remarkable for the refinement of his work, in the sculpture
+of Crawford we find a certain grandiose style not too common in our art,
+and at the same time so harmoniously rendered as to avoid exaggeration.
+Crawford occupies among our sculptors a position corresponding to that
+of Allston among our early painters. There is a classic majesty about
+his works, a sustained grandeur that is warmed by a sympathetic nature,
+and brought within the range of the throes and aspirations of this
+tumultuous century. He had what most of our sculptors have
+lacked--genius. Were he alive to-day, when a new order of sculpture is
+bursting its bonds, he would have few peers. Among his most important
+works are the impressive equestrian statue of Washington at Richmond,
+and the colossal statue of Beethoven in the Music Hall at Boston. They
+were cast in the foundries of Müller at Munich, and were hailed by all,
+artists and sovereign alike, with a dramatic enthusiasm which speaks
+eloquently for the estimate placed upon them in one of the most notable
+art tribunals of Europe.
+
+The bronze door of the Capitol at Washington, containing panel groups
+illustrative of the American Revolution, has been considered by some to
+be a masterpiece of Crawford, and it certainly indicates imagination and
+technical skill unusual among us until recently; but the statue of
+Orpheus descending into Tartarus in search of his wife Eurydice seems,
+on the whole, to be the most symmetrical and just representative work of
+this great sculptor. His stately and graceful statue of "Liberty" on the
+dome of the Capitol is also entitled to high consideration, but one can
+hardly think of it without indignation, for certainly nothing was ever
+devised quite so absurd as to create a work of imagination like this,
+and then to perch it up in the air three hundred feet above the ground,
+where it is a mere shapeless spot against the sky, its beauty almost as
+completely snatched away from human ken as if it were buried as far
+beneath the surface of the earth.
+
+[Illustration: "MEDEA."--[WILLIAM WETMORE STORY.]]
+
+The art of the Capitol at Washington presents, indeed, a most
+extraordinary farrago of excellence and eccentricity and ignorance. Some
+of the alto-relievos in the Rotunda are of such exceptional uncouthness
+that one is astounded to think that some of the men are still living who
+permitted them to be placed there. They might easily be passed off for
+rude Aztec relics. The Sculpture Hall adjoining displays the same
+amazing incongruity. Its existence suggests a dim perception in the
+builders that at some future time we should need a national gallery of
+statuary; while the inequality in the merit of the sculptures already
+placed there would indicate that they had been chosen entirely by lot
+rather than by deliberate selection. Not until a permanent national art
+commission like that of France is appointed can we hope, in the present
+unæsthetic condition of Congress, to have such art collected at the
+national capital as will be entirely creditable to the country. Such a
+commission, owing to the frailty of human nature, might perhaps show
+partiality at times toward a favorite school; but what it did admit
+would at least be of a higher average merit, and mere tyros in art would
+have no chance to storm the public Treasury by the sheer force of
+lobbying.
+
+[Illustration: "THE PROMISED LAND."--[FRANKLIN SIMMONS.]]
+
+It is to the then absolute ignorance of art on the part of the people
+that we owe the equestrian statues of Clark Mills--a contemporary of
+Crawford--of which the most noted is probably the statue of General
+Jackson opposite the White House, and the one of George Washington, for
+which he received $50,000. The former is chiefly notable for the
+mechanical dexterity which so balanced the weights that the prancing
+steed is actually able to stand in that position without other support
+than its own ponderosity. That Mr. Mills has ability is unquestioned,
+for it is said that before ever he had seen a statue he was able to take
+a portrait bust of Calhoun which is pronounced a striking likeness; but
+it is dexterity and talent rather than genius which he possesses. There
+is little evidence of art feeling in his works, and the prominence that
+has been given to them is a just cause of regret to the lover of art.
+
+It is pleasant among so much poor art to find here and there works like
+those of Crawford, Ward, Brown, Randolph Rogers, and Ball, which
+indicate an earnest striving after a lofty art ideal. Henry K. Browne,
+one of our earliest sculptors, will probably be best known by his two
+equestrian statues--of General Washington, in Union Square, New York,
+and General Scott, at the capital. It is extremely difficult to tell
+what it is which makes such monuments so rarely satisfactory. If the
+horse is anatomically correct, it is, perhaps, ungraceful; or if
+pleasing in that respect, then the horse-fancier comes along, who tells
+you that it cannot be justly admired, for it is incorrect in the
+details. Between these two objections one is often at a loss to give an
+opinion; and in point of fact the famous statue of Colleoni by
+Verrochio, made in the Middle Ages, seems thus far to be almost the only
+wholly acceptable equestrian work since the classic times, so thoroughly
+does it seem in its firm, massive, yet energetic lines to embody the
+description of the war-horse given in the Book of Job, and so nobly does
+his mailed rider bestride him. The cause of the difficulty appears to be
+the same as in marine painting. To paint a ship one should love it
+intensely, and if he does, he is likely to comprehend the action; to
+design a horse in motion one should love horses, and in such case the
+study of them begins instinctively in childhood. But most sculptors have
+no natural equine bias, and, after accepting a commission for an
+equestrian statue, they begin to study the horse for the purpose of
+information, rather than from sympathetic, enthusiastic feeling.
+
+[Illustration: "LATONA AND HER INFANTS."--[W. H. RINEHART.]]
+
+Mr. Browne has struggled with these difficulties with very creditable
+success. Neither of the statues mentioned above gives complete
+satisfaction, but they are doubtless among the best yet exhibited in our
+country. That of Scott represents the finest horse, and very graceful
+and interesting it is, although the proportions are rather those of an
+Arab steed than of an American war-horse; while that of Washington is
+the most spirited and attractive. It is heroic and impressive in its
+general effect. This artist, who still resides at Newburgh, enjoying a
+green old age after a successful career, has accomplished much ideal
+work, like the pleasing statue of "Ruth," and has shown a fine artistic
+feeling in his conceptions, although hardly entitled to a foremost rank
+in this branch of the art.
+
+Thomas Ball, who was originally a portrait-painter, and who continues to
+adorn our public squares with meritorious sculptures, is another artist
+to whom we are indebted for one of the most spirited and correct
+equestrian statues in the country. We refer to his "Washington," in the
+Public Garden in Boston. Pleasing when regarded artistically, cavalrymen
+also like it for its truth to nature. The group called "Emancipation,"
+in Lincoln Park, at Washington, is also by Mr. Ball.
+
+An equestrian statue that is destined to occupy a high position in our
+native art is that of General Thomas, by J. Q. A. Ward. It is of
+colossal size, and has been cast in bronze at Philadelphia. There is a
+force in the action, an originality in the pose, a justness in the
+proportions of both horse and rider, that render it exceptionally
+excellent. In Mr. Ward we see one of the most vigorous and individual
+sculptors of the age. As an influence in our art his example is of great
+importance, because while placing at its true value the good that may be
+obtained by familiarity with the models of classic art, whether by the
+study of casts at home or abroad, he recognizes the basal principle of
+all true art--that its originating force must proceed from within, and
+that culture can only supplement, but cannot supply the want of, genius
+in the artist or the people. And thus, while thoroughly conversant with
+foreign and antique art, Mr. Ward has worked at home, and drawn the
+sources of his inspiration from native influences. He has a mind
+overflowing with resources; his fancy is never still; he is ever
+delighting to sketch in clay, if the term may be so used. Many are
+familiar with the noble statue of Shakspeare and the "Indian Hunter" in
+the Central Park. The latter, although not in all respects anatomically
+correct, is in spirit and design one of the most notable works produced
+by American plastic art. But the bronze statue of Washington recently
+set up at Newburyport is, perhaps, the best existing specimen of Mr.
+Ward's skill. The subject is not a new one; in fact, it has been treated
+so many hundred times in one form or another that especial originality
+was needed to render it again with any degree of freshness and interest.
+But the effort has been crowned with success. There is in this statue,
+which is of colossal size, a sustained majesty, dignity, and repose, and
+a harmony of design rarely attained in modern sculpture.
+
+Among the foremost of American sculptors in point of native ability we
+must accord a place to Benjamin Paul Akers, of Portland. He was indeed a
+man of genius, of a finely organized temperament; but he died before the
+maturity of his powers, ere he was able to achieve little more than a
+promise of immortality. His "Pearl Diver," which is indeed an exquisite
+creation, original, and tenderly beautiful, represents a youth whose
+corpse the tide has washed on the rocks, where it lies wrapped by the
+sea-weed, and tranquil in the repose of death. The anatomy and
+composition of this work are evidently the offspring of a
+finely-organized mind well grounded in the principles of his art, and
+inspired by tender sympathies and a strongly creative imagination; and
+his "St. Elizabeth" is also a lovely piece of sculpture. The noble ideal
+bust of Milton, and the "Pearl Diver," are grandly described by
+Hawthorne in the "Marble Faun." The admirable description of Kenyon, the
+young sculptor mentioned in that weird romance, is intended for a
+likeness of Akers.
+
+Edward S. Bartholomew, of Connecticut, who died in his thirty-sixth
+year, was another of our most gifted sculptors. There was an affluence
+of fancy in his art, rare in our sculpture, which needed pruning rather
+than urging by foreign study. Naturally his works are unequal in merit;
+but the "Eve Repentant," "Ganymede," and "Hagar and Ishmael" will long
+perpetuate his fame. It is a noteworthy circumstance that Bartholomew
+was totally color-blind. This, in the opinion of many, is no
+disqualification in a sculptor; but some sculptors not only think
+otherwise, but are also conscious of a sense of color when creating a
+work.
+
+[Illustration: "ZENOBIA."--[HARRIET HOSMER.]]
+
+[Illustration: "EVENING."--[E. D. PALMER.]]
+
+Italy, which has been the home and second mother to most of the artists
+we have named, has long given a home to and inspired the art of a number
+of our most prominent sculptors, who are now permanently residing in
+Florence and Rome--Randolph Rogers, Story, Rinehart, Meade, Gould,
+Thompson, Miss Hosmer, and several others, all of whom merit more than a
+passing notice. Rogers, who has executed many exquisite works
+indicating fine sentiment and fancy, is most favorably known for the
+bronze doors in the Rotunda of the Capitol at Washington. Eight panels,
+representing scenes in the history of Columbus, have afforded abundant
+scope for the exhibition of a genius which, while it borrowed the idea
+from Ghiberti, had yet ability sufficient to give us an original work.
+The "Angel of the Resurrection," for the monument of Colonel Colt at
+Hartford, is also an important and beautiful creation by this artist.
+Larkin J. Meade, of Vermont, has justly won a wide reputation for
+portrait and monumental works, like that to Abraham Lincoln at
+Springfield, Illinois. It is of colossal dimensions, costing nearly
+$300,000, and in size and importance ranks with the majestic monument at
+Plymouth designed by Hammatt Billings. One of the noblest art
+opportunities of the century was offered when that monument was
+proposed. If Mr. Billings's original design had been fully carried out a
+work would have been erected of which the country might justly be proud.
+Lack of funds and a pitiful lack of enthusiasm resulted in reducing the
+dimensions of the work by half. Martin Milmore has also executed some
+very important civic monuments, and has turned the late war to account
+by numerous military memorials erected to our dead heroes. The one
+recently finished at Boston is the most noteworthy. The art represented
+in these works is, however, not of a high order, perhaps because such
+subjects are so trite that even an artist of very unusual ability would
+be staggered in treating them. Franklin Simmons, whose abilities have
+been chiefly devoted to a similar class of works with those of Meade and
+Milmore, often exhibits true art feeling, and a sense of the beautiful
+that makes his art exceptionally attractive. The monument to the Army
+and Navy, at Washington, which he has designed, is not wholly
+satisfactory, but it contains some effective points. One of his best
+works is the statue of Roger Williams. Another Americo-Florentine artist
+who has created some remarkable and beautiful ideal works is Thomas R.
+Gould. Among these may be mentioned "The Ascending Spirit," at Mount
+Auburn, "The Ghost in _Hamlet_," and "The West Wind." The latter is
+fascinating rather for the delicate fancy it shows than for technic
+knowledge, for it is open to criticism in the details; the drapery, for
+example, is so full as to draw away the attention from the figure. This
+is a blemish quite too common even in our best sculpture. Mr. Gould has
+also been very successful in portraiture, and is now engaged on a
+full-sized statue of Kamehameha, late King of the Sandwich Islands. In
+the ideals of this artist we notice a powerful originality, and an
+attempt to render in marble effects usually left to the higher orders of
+pictorial art. Allegory he treats with marked power, and such ideal
+conceptions as the heads of Christ and of Satan suggest possibilities
+scarcely yet touched by sculpture.
+
+Another of our sculptors, working near the quarries whence comes the
+marble into which he stamps immortality, was W. H. Rinehart, of
+Baltimore, one of the truest idealists whom this country has produced.
+Criticism is almost disarmed as one gazes at his "Sleeping Babes," or
+the tender grace of "Latona and her Infants."
+
+[Illustration: BUST OF WILLIAM PAGE.--[WILLIAM R. O'DONOVAN.]]
+
+In all these artists we find more or less dexterity of execution and
+delicacy of sentiment, but are rarely impressed by a sense that any of
+them indicate great reserve force. In William W. Story this idea is more
+clearly conveyed. No American in the art world now occupies a more
+prominent position or shows greater versatility. Possessed of an ample
+fortune, and originally a lawyer, and preparing legal tomes, he then
+devoted himself to poetry, the drama, and general literature, and has
+succeeded as a sculptor to a degree which has caused a leading London
+journal to call him the first sculptor of the Anglo-Saxon race since the
+death of Gibson. He certainly occupies a commanding place, fairly won,
+among the prominent men of the age. But here our praise must be
+qualified; for it may be seriously questioned whether we are not dazzled
+by the sum of his abilities rather than by any exceptional originality
+and daring in anything Story has done. Of his sculpture it may be said
+that it indicates the work of a rich and highly cultivated mind; it is
+thoughtful, thoroughly finished, and classically severe. But it commands
+our respect rather than our enthusiasm. There is in it nothing
+inspirational. It is talent, not genius, which wrought those carefully
+executed marbles--talent of a high order, it is true. "Jerusalem
+Lamenting," "The Sibyl," and "Cleopatra" and "Medea," are works so
+noble, especially the first, that one is impatient with himself because
+he can gaze upon them so unmoved. The "Salome" is, perhaps, the most
+perfect work of this sculptor, who might have done greater things if he
+had not depended so exclusively upon foreign inspiration.
+
+Miss Hosmer, who has resided in Italy ever since she took up art, has
+achieved a fame scarcely less than that of Mr. Story. This has doubtless
+been owing in part to her sex, for from the time of Sabina Von Steinbach
+until this century it has been exceedingly rare to see a woman modelling
+clay. But Miss Hosmer has a strong personality, and if her creations are
+not always thoroughly successful as works of art, they bear the vigorous
+impress of individual thought and imagination. She is best known in such
+versatile works as "Puck," "The Sleeping Sentinel," "The Sleeping Faun,"
+and "Zenobia," in whose majestic proportions the artist has sought to
+express her ideal of a woman and a queen. Miss Hosmer took her first
+lessons in sculpture with Peter Stephenson, an artist who died too early
+to achieve a national reputation, although not too soon to be esteemed
+by his fellow-artists for his abilities. He studied awhile at Rome, and
+left a number of portrait busts, and a group of "Una and the Lion,"
+which indicate undoubted talent. Other ladies who have essayed sculpture
+with success are Miss Stebbins, the biographer of Charlotte Cushman, and
+Mrs. Freeman, of Philadelphia, who has executed some beautiful works.
+Miss Whitney, who studied abroad for a time, but has wisely concluded to
+continue her work in this country, has shown a careful, thoughtful study
+of the figure, and is moved by a lofty idea of the position of sculpture
+among the arts. Among her more important works is an impressive statue
+of "Rome," in her decadence, mourning over her past glory; a statue of
+"Africa;" and one of Samuel Adams, in the Capitol at Washington.
+
+[Illustration: ABRAHAM PIERSON.--[LAUNT THOMPSON.]]
+
+[Illustration: "THE CHARITY PATIENT."--[JOHN ROGERS.]]
+
+There are other American sculptors deserving more than mere allusion,
+like Dexter, Richard Greenough, Barbee, Volk, Edmonia Lewis, Van Wart,
+Ives, Macdonald, Kernys, Ezekiel, Calverly, and Haseltine, who in
+portraiture or the ideal have won a more than respectable position; but
+our space limits us to a notice of several artists who, like Ward,
+combine great natural ability with traits distinctively American. One of
+these is Erastus D. Palmer, of Albany, who has won transatlantic fame
+by the purity and originality of his art. The son of a farmer, and
+exercising the calling of a carpenter until nearly thirty, Palmer did
+not yield to the artistic yearnings of his nature until comparatively
+late in life. When he at last took up the pursuit of art, it was in his
+own town that he studied and sought fame, and his success was rapid and
+entirely deserved. Few of our sculptors have been such true votaries of
+the ideal, few have been able better to give it expression, and none
+have shown a type of beauty so national, or have more truly interpreted
+with an exquisite poetic sense the distinctive domestic refinement or
+religious thought of our people. It is beauty rather than power that we
+see expressed in the works of this true poet--moral beauty identified
+with a type of physical grace wholly native. It is an art which finds
+immediate response here, for it is of our age and our land. Among the
+notable works of Palmer are his "Indian Captive," "Spring," "The White
+Slave," and "The Angel of the Sepulchre;" but we prefer to these the
+exquisitely beautiful bass-reliefs in which he has embodied with extreme
+felicity the domestic sentiments or the yearnings and aspirations of the
+Christian soul. The radical fault of Palmer's art is that he has
+depended more on his fancy than upon a direct study of nature for his
+compositions. The natural result has been that he soon began to lapse
+into mannerism, which has become more and more prominent in his later
+works.
+
+Another sculptor of great ability owes his first instruction in the
+plastic art to Palmer--Launt Thompson. He was a poor lad who early
+showed art instincts, but was employed in the office of Dr. Armsby,
+until Palmer stated one day that he was in search of an assistant, and
+asked Dr. Armsby if he could recommend any one. The doctor suggested
+Thompson (who was in the room) as a youth who had a turn that way, but
+had been unable to find opportunity to gratify his art cravings. Thus
+began the career of one of our strongest portrait sculptors. In the
+modelling both of the bust and the full figure, Thompson has been
+equalled by very few American sculptors. Among many successful works may
+be mentioned his Napoleon, Edwin Booth, General Sedgwick, at West Point,
+and President Pierson, at Yale College. It is a cause for just regret
+that, after having achieved such success at home, Thompson should have
+deemed it necessary to take up his residence permanently in Italy.
+
+[Illustration: "THE WHIRLWIND."--[J. S. HARTLEY.]]
+
+[Illustration: "ADORATION OF THE CROSS BY ANGELS." ST. THOMAS'S CHURCH,
+NEW YORK.--[ST. GAUDENS.]]
+
+Another artist whose work is entirely native to the soil is John Rogers,
+whose numerous statuette groups in clay have made him more widely known
+in the country than any other of our sculptors. A native of Salem,
+Massachusetts, and for awhile engaged in mechanical pursuits, this
+artist was at last able to turn his attention to plastic art, and went
+to Europe, where he seems to have gained suggestions from the realistic
+and impressional school of the later French sculptors; but this was
+rather as a suggestion than an influence, and, finding his mind more in
+sympathy with home life, he soon returned, and has ever since worked
+here, and from subjects of homely every-day _genre_ around him. The late
+war has also furnished Rogers with material for many interesting
+groups. The art of Rogers is to the last degree unconventional, and in
+no sense appertains to what is called high art, but it springs from a
+nature moved by correct impulses, beating in unison with the time, and
+occupying the position of pioneer in the art of the future, because he
+has been true to himself and his age.
+
+Daniel C. French, a pupil of Ward and Ball, is a young sculptor who,
+like Rogers, finds inspiration for his ideals in his native land, and
+gives promise of holding a prominent position in the field of American
+sculpture. He made a sudden and early strike for fame when, with scarce
+any instruction, he modelled the spirited and original, although
+anatomically imperfect, statue called the "Minute Man," which is at
+Concord.
+
+Another strong representative of the new realistic school of sculpture
+that is gradually springing up in the community is W. R. O'Donovan, of
+Richmond, Virginia. Fighting sturdily on the side of the South during
+the late war, he as earnestly gives himself now to the pursuit of the
+arts of peace. He is not a rapid worker, but handles the clay with
+thoughtful mastery, and the results are stamped with the freshness and
+individuality of genius. Mr. O'Donovan's efforts have been most
+successful in portraiture, of which a striking example is given in the
+bronze bust of Mr. Page, the artist. Another bust, of a young boy, is as
+full of _naïve_ beauty and refined sentiment and character as this is
+vigorous and almost startling in its grasp of individual traits.
+
+[Illustration: THOMAS JEFFERSON'S IDEA OF A MONUMENT.]
+
+The transition stage through which our plastic art is passing is also
+indicated by the stirring, realistic, and sometimes sensational art of a
+number of earnest and original young sculptors who have studied abroad,
+but have wisely concluded to return home, and to found, and grow up
+with, a new and progressive school of sculpture. One of these was the
+late Frank Dengler, of Cincinnati, who had studied at Munich, and was
+professor of sculpture at Boston; and others are Olin M. Warner, of New
+York, and Howard Roberts, of Philadelphia, who made the singularly bold
+statues of "Hypatia" and "Lot's Wife." To these may be added J. S.
+Hartley, who was recently Professor of Anatomy at the Art Students'
+League, and is now president of that flourishing institution. He began
+his career in Palmer's studio, and afterward studied in London and
+Paris. The art of these young sculptors is still immature and highly
+emotional or lyrical, and often verges on the picturesque rather than
+the severely classic. But if it lacks repose, on the other hand it is
+imaginative and powerful; its faults are those of an exuberant fancy
+that teems with thought; and these artists are undoubtedly the
+forerunners, if not the creators, of a thoroughly national school of
+sculpture. Superior in technic skill, moved by a genius thoroughly
+trained in the best modern school of plastic art, that of Paris, St.
+Gaudens, a native of New York, has given us, in the exquisite groups
+called "The Adoration of the Cross by Angels," in St. Thomas's Church,
+New York, one of the most important and beautiful works in the country.
+The Astor Reredos behind the altar at Trinity Church, designed by Mr.
+Withers, and partly executed here, is also a very rich addition to our
+plastic art, and is another sign that it is taking a direction little
+followed heretofore on this side the Atlantic. Dr. William Rimmer, who
+has recently died, powerful in modelling, a master of art anatomy, and
+author of a valuable work on that subject, also exerted an important
+influence in directing the studies of our rising sculptors. Having
+little sense of beauty, he understood art anatomy profoundly, and
+modelled with energy if not with grace. His statue of "The Gladiator"
+aroused astonishment in Paris; for as it is impossible for a living man
+to keep a falling position long enough for a cast to be taken, this
+masterly composition was necessarily a creation of the imagination based
+upon exhaustive knowledge of the figure.
+
+Wood and stone carving and monumental work, and the decoration of
+churches and civic structures, have rarely been satisfactorily attempted
+here until recently. A curious paper and design left by Thomas
+Jefferson, of which we give a reduced fac-simile, is one of the earliest
+attempts at original monumental art in the United States. Here and there
+one of our sculptors has executed some good work in this field, but
+costly monuments have too often been erected in the country without much
+pretension to art. The increasing attention given to wood and stone
+carving, as in the new Music Hall at Cincinnati, the State Capitols at
+Albany and Hartford, and in some of our later churches, is a favorable
+sign that a broader field is opening at last for the fitting utterance
+of the rising genius of sculpture; while the numerous schools for
+instruction in this art that have been founded within the last decade,
+and the well-stored galleries of casts of the masterpieces of antiquity,
+are increasing the facilities for the growth of a home art. Enough has
+been said in this brief sketch to show that sculpture, if one of the
+latest of the arts to demand expression in the United States, has yet
+found a congenial soil in the New World.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+_PRESENT TENDENCIES OF AMERICAN ART._
+
+
+At the close of the fourth chapter of this volume it was briefly stated
+that new influences and forms of art expression have recently become
+prominent in our art, and are rapidly asserting their growing
+importance. With perhaps one or two exceptions, these new influences so
+gradually shade out of our former art that it is difficult to tell the
+exact moment when they assume an individuality of their own, and appear
+as new and distinct factors in the æsthetic culture of our people.
+
+It is only when we take a retrospect of the whole field, and compare one
+generation with another, that we discern the vanishing point of one set
+of influences and the genesis of new schools, with the introduction of
+new branches of art culture in the community. Considering the progress
+of American art from this point of view, we find it divided most
+decidedly into periods, advancing with regular pace from one phase to
+another like the tints of a rainbow, shading off at the edges, but
+gradually becoming more intense. Thus we are able to trace in
+geometrical ratio the progress from primitive silhouettes and rude
+carvings up to the present comparatively advanced condition of the arts
+in this country.
+
+And yet a closer inspection into the history of American art enables us
+to detect in its growth the same rapid spasmodic action, when once a
+start is made in a certain direction, as in other traits of our national
+development. There is a tropical vivacity in the manner in which with us
+bloom and fruition suddenly burst forth after a period of apparently
+unpromising barrenness. Thus West and Copley appeared almost
+full-fledged in art genius and capacity to adapt themselves to occupy
+prominent positions in Europe, and yet there were but few premonitory
+signs to indicate that the country was prepared for the advent of such
+artists.
+
+[Illustration: "THE MOWING."--ALFRED FREDERICKS.]
+
+Until recently, also, owing to some cause yet unsolved, we have not
+seemed able to develop more than one or two forms of art at once. At one
+period it was historic painting and portraiture; then portraiture,
+including for a time very marked success in miniature painting, headed
+by Fraser and Malbone, and continued by such able artists as T. S.
+Cummings, J. H. Brown, Miss Goodrich, and Mrs. Hall; then, all at once,
+landscape-painting made its appearance, and almost at a bound reached a
+good degree of merit. Hand in hand with landscape art came remarkable
+facility in line engraving. How rapidly excellence in this art was
+achieved in this country may be judged from the fact that in 1788 the
+editor of the _American Magazine_ said apologetically, in presenting an
+incredibly rude plate of a dredging-machine in the magazine, "The editor
+has given the plate of the new machine for clearing docks, etc., because
+he had promised it. The want of elegant plates in a work of this kind is
+extremely regretted, and will, if possible, be supplied. If it cannot,
+the editor flatters himself that the infancy of the arts in America will
+be accepted as an apology for the defect." And yet not twenty years from
+that time Peter Maverick was doing good steel-engraving in New York; and
+scarce ten years later Durand was executing the masterly engravings of
+Trumbull's "Declaration of Independence" and Vanderlyn's "Ariadne." And
+from that time until recently engravers like James Smillie, senior, A.
+H. Ritchie, and John Marshall have carried this art to a high degree of
+excellence; while John Sartain has attained celebrity in mezzotint.
+
+Strange as it may seem, while portraiture, landscape, and steel
+engraving were pursued with such success by our artists, a feeling for
+the other arts could hardly be said to exist. A sympathy with form,
+generally the earliest art instinct to show itself, was long in
+awakening, as proved by the tardiness of the plastic arts to demand
+expression among us; while to the resources of black and white, or
+_camieu_, or a perception of the matchless mystery and suggestiveness of
+_chiaro-oscuro_, the people have, until within a very short time, seemed
+altogether blind. Water-colors, also, were almost hooted at;
+wood-engraving was for long in a pitiful condition; and as for
+architecture and the decorative arts, nothing worthy of the name, and
+scarcely a sign of a perception of their meaning, could be said to exist
+on this side of the Atlantic.
+
+Some years ago W. J. Linton, one of the most distinguished
+wood-engravers of the century, came to this country to live. Whether
+that had anything to do with the very rapid development of
+wood-engraving here since that time cannot be stated with certainty;
+but, judging from analogy, we should say that he has exerted a marked
+influence in stimulating the remarkable progress already reached by our
+engravers within a very few years. A.V.S. Anthony was one of the first
+to respond to the awakening demand for good wood-engraving here, and has
+shown great delicacy and skill in interpreting the drawings of our very
+clever artists in black and white. Charles Marsh is also an engraver of
+remarkable character and originality of style. In the rendering of a
+decorative or highly ideal class of subjects he brings to his aid an
+artistic genius not surpassed by any engraver we have produced. Messrs.
+Morse, Davis, Hoskin, Wolf, Annin, Juengling, Kingsley, Müller, Cole,
+Smithwick and French, Kreul, Dana, Andrew, and King, among a number who
+have distinguished themselves in this art, are especially noteworthy,
+not only for correct rendering of the spirit of a drawing, but often for
+individuality of style.
+
+One of the most interesting phases of the development of wood-engraving
+in this country has been the discussion as to its position among the
+arts, and the merits of the recent method of engraving drawings or
+paintings photographed directly on the wood. This discussion has been
+interesting and valuable as another evidence of the activity and
+importance which the art question has already assumed in the community.
+That engraving is an art, one would think could never be disputed, if
+the question had not already been raised with a certain degree of
+acrimony on the part--strange as it may seem--of those who are often
+dependent upon the genius of the engraver for the recognition of their
+abilities by the public--the artists themselves. It seems to us to be
+sufficient answer to those who consider it purely a mechanical pursuit,
+that the simple fact that the higher the artistic perceptions of the
+engraver the better is the engraving he does, proves it to be a work of
+art.
+
+[Illustration: "BIRDS IN THE FOREST."--[MISS JESSIE CURTIS.]]
+
+On the other hand, it appears that the engraver may in turn assume too
+much when he claims to improve upon an illustration, or objects _per se_
+to cutting photographs on wood. While granting to engraving the rank of
+art, it cannot justly be forgotten that it is, after all, a means to an
+end,--an art, it is true, but an art subordinate to other arts which it
+is designed to interpret. Once this is allowed, it follows, as a matter
+of course, that it is the duty of the engraver to render faithfully the
+drawing or painting that is to be cut; and to magnify himself not at the
+expense of the artist who made the drawing, but by rendering, as nearly
+as possible, a fac-simile of the original picture. If this be granted,
+then is it not clear that, instead of opposing, he should hail with
+satisfaction any new process which enables him to give on wood or any
+other material a closer copy of the style and spirit of the artist whom
+he is interpreting. That this can be done by a clever engraver by
+photographing a pen-and-ink drawing or painting directly on the wood,
+and then studying also the original work as he cuts it, seems to be no
+longer an open question. It has been demonstrated by too many excellent
+engravers within the last five years.
+
+Another advantage of what we cannot but consider an advance in this art
+is, that it admits of a larger variety of styles, and a freer expression
+of the designer's methods of thought and feeling, and also enables many
+who do not care to work in the cramped limits of a block of wood to make
+a large composition in black and white, whether with Indian-ink or
+monochrome in oil, which is then photographed on the wood. In this way
+far greater freedom and individuality of handling is obtained, and a
+nobler utterance of the truths of nature. Can there be any question that
+a process which allows of such variety of expression must inure to art
+progress, and still more to the instruction of the people, who are
+directly benefited by the illustrations which are brought to their own
+doors, and placed in the hands of the young at the time when their
+tastes and characters are forming, and their imagination is most plastic
+and impressionable?
+
+It would seem as if the art of wood-engraving had received in the most
+direct manner the action of some unseen hand, impelling it suddenly
+forward in this country by concerted action with the genius of
+illustration; for apparently by secret agreement that branch of art has
+within the last decade developed a comparative excellence yet reached by
+none of the sister arts in the land. And this turn for illustration has
+naturally been accompanied by an active movement in black and white
+drawing, particularly in crayon.
+
+Samuel W. Rowse was one of the first to give an impetus to crayon
+drawing by a style of portraiture especially his own. As such he ranks
+with our leading portrait-painters; while the fact that he employed
+crayon as a medium for a time gave him a position almost entirely alone
+in this country. There is a wonderful subtlety in his power of seizing
+character and the rendition of soul in the faces he portrays. Equally
+happy in all the subjects he treats, he will be longest remembered,
+perhaps, for the many beautiful children's portraits he has executed.
+The success of Rowse naturally led to similar attempts by other artists;
+and in all our leading cities one may now find crayon artists who are
+more or less successful in the department of portraiture, among whom may
+be mentioned B. C. Munzig and Frederick W. Wright. Out of this has grown
+a school of landscape-artists employing charcoal--a medium that Lalanue
+and Allongé had already used with magical results. John R. Key, who is
+well known as a painter in oil, has, however, done his best work, as it
+seems to us, in charcoal. There is great tenderness in his treatment of
+light and shade, together with harmonious composition. J. Hopkinson
+Smith, known as a water-colorist, also handles charcoal like a master.
+He seizes his effects with the rapidity of improvisation, treats them in
+masses, and shows a feeling for _chiaro-oscuro_ that is almost unique in
+our art.
+
+[Illustration: Representing the manner of PETER'S Courtship.
+
+[Howard Pyle.]]
+
+When we come to the book illustrators we encounter a number of artists
+of merit, and occasionally of genius, who are so numerous that we can
+select only here and there a few of the most prominent names. Felix O.
+C. Darley was one of the first to show the latent capacity of our art in
+this branch. His style soon became very mannered, but, at the same
+time, undoubtedly showed great originality and invention in seizing
+striking characteristics of our civilization, and a refined fancy in
+representing both humor and pathos. His linear illustrations to "Rip Van
+Winkle" and Judd's "Margaret" placed him, until recently, among our
+first two or three _genre_ artists. Less versatile and inventive,
+Augustus Hoppin has, however, earned an honorable position among our
+earlier illustrators. Louis Stephens also won distinction for an elegant
+rendering of humorous subjects. Then followed a group of landscape
+illustrators, among whom Harry Fenn holds a high position for poetically
+rendering the illimitable aspects of nature and the picturesqueness of
+rustic or Old World scenery and ruins. Under the guidance of his facile
+pencil how many have been instructed in art, and learned of the varied
+loveliness of this beautiful world! Thomas Moran ranks with Mr. Fenn as
+a master in this field. It appears to us that in this branch he displays
+more originality and imagination than in the elaborate paintings by
+which he is best known.
+
+Within a very few years--so recently, in fact, that it is difficult to
+see where they came from--a school of _genre_ illustrators have claimed
+recognition in our art, educated altogether in this country, and yet
+combining more art qualities in their works than we find in the same
+number of artists in any other department of American art. It is a
+little singular that, notwithstanding the recent interest in black and
+white in this country, the _genre_ artists who represent it should at
+once have reached an excellence which commands admiration on both sides
+of the Atlantic, while our painters in the same department have rarely
+achieved more than a secondary rank.
+
+[Illustration: SOME ART CONNOISSEURS.--[W. HAMILTON GIBSON.]]
+
+Alfred Fredericks has distinguished himself by combining landscape and
+figure in a most graceful, airy style; and Miss Jessie Curtis, in the
+delineation of the simplicity and beauty of child life, has delightfully
+treated one of the most winsome subjects which can attract the pencil of
+the poetic artist. Miss Humphreys, in the choice of a somewhat similar
+class of subjects, has yet developed individuality of method marked by
+breadth of effect and forcible treatment. Of the ladies who have found
+scope for their abilities in the field of illustration perhaps none have
+excelled Mrs. Mary Halleck Foote. We cannot always find her style of
+composition agreeable, and in invention or lightness of fancy she seems
+deficient, while her manner is strong rather than graceful. But she is a
+most careful student of nature, and the effects she aims at, and
+sometimes reaches, are inspired by an almost masculine nerve and power,
+and show knowledge and reserve force. Some of her realistic landscapes
+are almost as true and intense in black and white as the daring realisms
+of Courbet in color, but showing fine technical facility rather than
+imagination. Miss Annette Bishop, who died too early to win a general
+recognition of her talents, was gifted with a most delicate poetic
+fancy, and singular facility in giving expression to its dreams.
+
+F. S. Church is an artist of imagination, painting in oil and
+water-colors, but perhaps best known for striking and weird compositions
+in black and white, often treating of animal or bird life. He is an
+artist whose advent into our art we hail with pleasure, not because his
+style is wholly matured or always quite satisfactory, for it is neither,
+but because it is inspired by a genuine art feeling, and yet more
+because it shows him to be--what so few of our artists have been--an
+idealist. What is art but a reaching out after the ideal, the most
+precious treasure given to man in this world? It includes faith, hope,
+and charity. To search after the ideal good, to live in an ideal world,
+to yearn after and try to create the harmony of the ideal, is the one
+boon left to man to give him a belief in immortality and a higher life.
+The more of an idealist the poet or the artist, the nearer he comes to
+fulfilling his mission. The idealist is the creator, the man of genius;
+and therefore we hail with joy the appearance of every idealist who
+enters our art ranks, and infuses vitality into the prose of technical
+art, and inspiration into the dogmas of the schools. The most hopeless
+feature of American art has always been hitherto, as with our
+literature, the too evident absence of imagination; and wherever we
+recognize an idealist, we set him down as another mile-stone to mark the
+progress in art. It is through the idealists that Heaven teaches truth
+to man; and hence another reason why we regard with such importance the
+present school of artists in black and white. In no department is there
+more scope for the imagination than in the drawing of the pure line or
+in the suggestions of _chiaro-oscuro_. Therein lies the enormous power
+of the art of Rembrandt. He dealt with that seemingly simple but really
+inexhaustible medium, light and shade: in the hands of a master, potent
+as the wand of a magician to evolve worlds out of chaos.
+
+[Illustration: "WASHINGTON OPENING THE BALL."--[C. S. REINHART.]]
+
+Barry, Bensell, Shepherd, Davis (who is also known as a decorative
+artist), T. A. Richards, Eytinge, Frost, Merrill, Ipsen, Shirlaw,
+Lathrop, Lewis, Perkins, and Davison are other artists who have justly
+acquired repute for success in the department of black and white, or
+book illustration. Kelley has a sketchy style that is very effective,
+and of which the correct rendering on wood would have been well-nigh
+impossible with the old processes; but there is danger of carrying it to
+the verge of sensationalism. The facilities afforded by photographing
+a design on wood has seemed to be the occasion for aiding the
+development of a class of artist-authors who both write and illustrate
+their own articles for the magazines. How remarkably well this can be
+done is proved by such clever artists as Howard Pyle and W. Gibson, who
+display at once fertility of imagination and technical facility as
+draughtsmen. C. S. Reinhart has become widely known as one of the most
+versatile illustrators we have produced. Excelling as a draughtsman, he
+brings to his aid an active fancy that enables him vividly to realize
+the scenes he undertakes to represent; and he seems equally at home in
+the portrayal of quaint old-time scenes, or the brilliant costumes and
+characters of the present day, combined with forcible delineations of
+scenery. The Puritan damsel or the belle of Newport may alike be
+congratulated when Mr. Reinhart ushers them before us with the grace of
+a master. The success of this school of artists, who have made their
+mark in the department of illustration, has doubtless been due in part
+to the increasing study of the figure in this country, and the greater
+facilities afforded for drawing from the life. Most of these artists are
+young men, whose abilities have been vastly assisted by their studies in
+life schools, which it would have been well-nigh impossible for them to
+find in the earlier periods of our art. Although perhaps better noticed
+under the head of Ethics rather than of Æsthetics, we may allude to the
+surprising growth and influence of caricature-drawing in this country,
+represented by such able artists as Nast, Bellew, Kepler, or Cusack, as
+associated with the development of our black and white art.
+
+An artist who seems to combine the qualities we see more or less
+represented by other artists in black and white, who has already
+accomplished remarkable results, and gives promise of even greater
+successes, we find in E. A. Abbey. It must be taken into consideration
+that he is still very young; that he now for the first time visits the
+studios and galleries of Europe; that his advantages for a regular art
+education have been very moderate, and that he is practically
+self-educated. And then compare with these disadvantages the amount and
+the quality of the illustrations he has turned out, and we see
+represented in him genius of a high order, combining almost
+inexhaustible creativeness, clearness and vividness of conception, a
+versatile fancy, a poetic perception of beauty, a quaint, delicate
+humor, a wonderful grasp of whatever is weird and mysterious, and
+admirable _chiaro-oscuro_, drawing, and composition. When we note such
+a rare combination of qualities, we cease to be surprised at the cordial
+recognition awarded his genius by the best judges, both in London and
+Paris, even before he had left this country.
+
+If I have spoken strongly in favor of our school of illustrators, it is
+because I think such commendation has been rightly earned, and to
+withhold it when merited would be as unjust as to give censure when
+undeserved. Criticism need not necessarily be the essence of vitriol and
+gall, as some critics seem to imagine it to be. A jury is as much bound
+to approve the innocent as to condemn the guilty.
+
+[Illustration: MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON.]
+
+In another department of our arts we also feel called to award praise to
+a degree that has never before been possible in the history of American
+art. I refer to the department of architecture. It is difficult to say
+exactly when the new movement toward a fuller expression of beauty in
+our civic and domestic building began; but we are conscious that about
+ten years ago what was for a time a mere vague feeling after more
+agreeable examples of architecture shaped itself into a definite and
+almost systematic impulse. The Chicago fire, and more especially the
+great fire in Boston, accelerated the action of the forces that already
+directed the people to demand nobler forms and types in the
+constructions that were henceforth to be erected in our growing cities.
+The advance of landscape-gardening, as evidenced in the Central Park of
+New York, and the public parks of other cities, doubtless aided to
+increase the yearning for material beauty. But whatever the influences
+at work, there is no question as to the results already apparent. I
+would not be understood as approving all the buildings of importance
+that have recently been put up in this country--very far from it. But,
+on the other hand, one cannot avoid seeing that the general tendency is
+toward improved styles, and that here and there groups of buildings or
+single structures have been erected which are at once elegant,
+commodious, and artistic; and, if not strictly offering new orders of
+architecture, presenting at least graceful adaptations of old orders to
+new climatic and social conditions in a way that gives them the merit of
+originality.
+
+So prominent has this improvement in architecture already become in
+American cities, that already their external aspect or profile has begun
+to partake of the picturesque character hitherto supposed to belong only
+to the Old World, and to present that massing of effect so dear to the
+artistic eye. We can illustrate this by mentioning only two or three
+examples among many. One who looks toward Philadelphia from the railway
+station on the east side of the Schuylkill, may see a cluster of spires
+and domes centering around the Academy of Fine Arts, which is so
+agreeably composed that one would almost imagine the position of each to
+be the deliberate choice of a master in composition. Twenty years ago
+one would have looked in vain for any such harmonious outline of
+structural beauty in this country. The small, quaint fishing-port of
+Marblehead has also found itself suddenly transformed into one of the
+most pleasing cities of the Union, as viewed from the Neck across the
+harbor; for on the very crest of the hills upon which the place is built
+a town-hall has been erected, of brick, neatly faced with stone, and
+surmounted by an elegant tower. At once the old town has emerged from
+the commonplace into the region of the picturesque. The new structure
+has given character and symmetrical outline to the city by producing
+convergence to a central point of effect; and when the sun sets behind
+it, and brings its outline into bold but harmonious relief against a
+golden background, while a mist of glowing rays glazes the whole into
+tone, the view is in the highest degree artistic, and so resembles some
+of the scenes one so often sees in the Old World that he can hardly
+believe he is gazing at an American prospect.
+
+We find a somewhat similar effect, but on a much larger scale, presented
+by the new Capitol, or State-house, at Albany. This city, as beheld from
+the opposite banks of the Hudson at Greenbush, has always been one of
+the most pleasing of American cities, situated as it is on several lofty
+hills, divided by ravines in which purple shadows linger when night is
+approaching; but the addition of the vast structure now in course of
+completion there adds greatly to the glory of the spectacle. It
+dominates over the city of eighty thousand inhabitants with superb
+dignity; and the whole place borrows beauty from it, and is elevated
+above prose into poetry. Again one is reminded of the cathedral towns of
+Europe, where some lofty, venerable minster guards through the ages the
+roofs that cluster below. Not that this pile, which is rather hybrid in
+its style, is to be considered equal to the masterpieces of old-time
+architecture; but it is a long step in advance compared with the civic
+buildings formerly erected and admired in our cities, and its presence
+at the capital of a great State cannot but have an ennobling and
+educational influence upon rising generations.
+
+The styles, whether pure or modified, that are most employed by our
+architects in this new movement have been chiefly the Romanesque, the
+Palladian Renaissance, the French Renaissance of Mansard and Perrault,
+and the later Elizabethan or Jacobean. The first two have entered
+chiefly into the construction of civic buildings; the second has been
+followed in religious edifices; while the last has been used with
+excellent effect in domestic architecture. A fine example of the success
+achieved in the employment of the Romanesque is seen in the new Trinity
+Church on the Back Bay lands, in Boston, designed by Gambrel and
+Richardson. This is one of the most conscientious and meritorious
+buildings erected on this continent, although less imposing than it
+would have been if the original design had been fully carried out. There
+is, also, an affectation of strength in the massive blocks of undressed
+stone under the windows, in a part where such strength is
+disproportionate to that employed in other portions of the building. But
+the general effect is excellent, and the covered approaches or cloisters
+are quite in the spirit of true architecture. Color enters judiciously
+into the selection of the stone used to aid the general effect; and the
+same observation may be applied to the very elegant tower of the new Old
+South Church, close at hand, designed by Peabody and Robinson, in the
+Italian Gothic style, and which for grace, beauty, and majesty has
+not been surpassed on this side of the Atlantic. The church edifice to
+which it is attached, although sufficiently ornate--perhaps too much
+so--is lacking in that repose of outline or just proportions that are
+required to bring it into harmony with the campanile.
+
+[Illustration: "THE ASTONISHED ABBE."--[E. A. ABBEY.]]
+
+Other towers and churches are clustered in that neighborhood, erected
+within ten years, which present an effect that is really intrinsically
+beautiful, without taking at all into question the rapidity of the
+transformation which has come over the spirit of our architecture. And
+the effect is heightened, to a degree never before attained on this
+continent since the Mound-builders passed away, by the excellence of the
+domestic architecture which has entered into the construction of the
+dwellings of that vicinage, especially on Boylston Street and the
+adjacent avenues. Beauty, taste, and comfort are there found combined to
+a degree that promises much for the future of architecture in our
+country. The gargoyles, gables, cornices, and carvings one meets at
+every turn carry one quite back to the Middle Ages. It is interesting to
+observe that the sham cornices formerly so common here are gradually
+being discarded, together with all the other trumpery decoration so much
+in vogue. Good honest work is shown in external decoration, together
+with a feeling for color that is adding much to the cheerfulness of our
+cities. Brick is made to do service for ornamentation as well as for
+mere dead walls, and string courses, or bands of colored tiles or
+terra-cotta carvings, all of an enduring character, enter into the
+external decorations of private dwellings.
+
+[Illustration: A CHILD'S PORTRAIT.--[B. C. PORTER.]]
+
+Not only is the love of beauty shown in domestic architecture, but it is
+found displayed in the construction of banks and stores; and it is again
+in Boston that we find whole streets of buildings of rich and elegant
+design, and conscientiously constructed, devoted wholly to business
+purposes. But a building which, perhaps, more than any other is typical
+of the architectural movement now passing over the country is the Museum
+of Fine Arts in Boston. It is not so much after any one style as a
+choice from different schools of later Gothic adapted to modern
+conditions. The terra-cotta groups in relievo in the façade, temper what
+would be otherwise too large an expanse of warm color, for it is built
+of red brick. The grouped arches, turrets, and oriel windows, and the
+numerous terra-cotta decorations at the angles and on the gables, are
+elegant, but perhaps so generally distributed as to be a little
+confusing. The effect is scattered, and thus weakened, instead of being
+massed at one or two central or salient points. This is the most
+glaring error we discover in the present importation or adaptation of
+foreign and ancient styles to our needs here. It is an error which we
+share with the modern British architect, and was forcibly illustrated in
+the new Houses of Parliament, by Sir Charles Barry. No buildings of this
+century are so profusely ornate as some of the magnificent cathedrals
+and town-halls of the Middle Ages; but at the same time all this
+sumptuousness of decoration was massed upon one or two effective spots,
+surrounded by large spaces comparatively simple and free of
+embellishment. Thus grandeur and nobility of outline were preserved,
+while extraordinary beauty in color and sculpture could be added without
+disturbing the general effect or cloying the imagination. But our
+architects, not having yet fully grasped the ideas after which they are
+searching, scatter instead of concentrating the external decorations of
+their buildings.
+
+[Illustration: A BIT OF VENICE.--[SAMUEL COLMAN.]]
+
+Interior decoration has also naturally assumed importance as the quality
+of our architecture has advanced. Elaborate wood-carvings are entering
+into the decorations of the houses of our citizens, and painting is
+called in to adorn the walls of private and civic buildings, sometimes
+with more affectation or extravagance than taste; although it can be
+conceded without hesitation that a remarkable and decided improvement is
+noticeable within a very few years in the decoration of interiors in
+this country. M. Brumidi made a beginning, some twenty years ago, in the
+frescoes of the Capitol at Washington; and quite recently Mr. Lafarge
+has beautified the interior of Trinity Church, Boston, and other public
+buildings, with sacred designs in fresco, and other decorative work in
+gold and red, which are very interesting. Among the last, and probably
+the most important, works of the late William M. Hunt were the mural
+paintings in oil for the new State-house at Albany. Other artists who
+have shown promise in this department are Francis Lathrop and Frank Hill
+Smith.
+
+It is not surprising to find that this advance in decorative art,
+together with the increasing luxury accompanying it, should create a
+demand and develop a talent for toreutic art, or art in metal-work,
+especially the precious metals; and such we find to be the case. The
+success achieved in this department is, perhaps, the most remarkable yet
+attained in American art, excepting possibly that of some of our artists
+in black and white, and has justly merited and obtained unqualified
+applause abroad as well as at home. It is to such designers as Messrs.
+Grosjean, Perring, Wilkinson, and Moore, assisted by the most skilled
+artisans of the age, that our toreutic art is indebted for the
+recognition it received at the French Exposition.
+
+Another sign of the rapidly increasing activity of the interest taken in
+the art question in America is presented by the art museums or galleries
+which have almost simultaneously arisen in Boston, New Haven, New York,
+and Washington, founded at considerable expense, and entirely without
+State aid. With the former two are connected important schools for art
+instruction, combined with fine casts of the masterpieces of ancient
+plastic art.
+
+Another evidence of the awakening art feeling of a great nation is the
+demand for art education--a want which has been met by the establishment
+of numerous schools or academies of art in our leading cities all over
+the land, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It is true that in
+Philadelphia, Boston, and New York academies were founded early in the
+century, and the last especially had become a very important factor in
+stimulating the latent love for art in our people. The Massachusetts
+Normal Art School, under the able direction of Mr. Walter Smith, while
+devoted chiefly to the advancement of industrial art, has also by its
+example greatly assisted the growth of the art feeling in the popular
+mind. While much may be urged with reason against compulsory instruction
+of art in the public schools, it would seem that few could be found to
+object to the education of art instructors, and the addition of an
+optional art branch to the State schools for the benefit of those who
+are desirous of art instruction, but are too poor to avail themselves of
+the advantages offered by such admirable art schools as those of the
+Cooper Institute and Artists' League in New York, the National Academy
+or the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, or the Academy in Philadelphia.
+It may, then, be conceded that the founding of the Massachusetts Normal
+Art School is not only a strong indication of a growing demand, but that
+it has also been a very powerful agent in the diffusion of art knowledge
+in the United States.
+
+[Illustration: "THE OLD ORCHARD."--[R. SWAIN GIFFORD.]]
+
+Thus we see that by a cumulative effort the arts are making sudden and
+rapid progress in America. And there is still another movement which
+strikingly indicates this. Slow to be recognized, and meeting in some
+quarters with but cold welcome, it is yet by no means the least
+significant indication out of many that we are in the full tide of
+æsthetic progress, and have fairly entered on the third period of
+American art. From the time of West it has been not uncommon for our
+painters to go to Europe for study and observation; but they either had
+the misfortune to form their style after that of schools already
+conventional and on the wane, or they were not yet sufficiently advanced
+to accept the methods and principles of new masters and schools. A
+possible explanation, that is more philosophical, but which some may
+decline to accept, may be found in the general laws directing human
+progress, that obliged us, unconsciously, falteringly to tread one after
+the other the successive steps which others have followed before us. For
+the same reason, when an artist of unusual ability, like Stuart,
+appeared in the country, he had little or no following, because he came
+before his time.
+
+[Illustration: A LANDSCAPE.--[GEORGE INNESS.]]
+
+But it has been evident for some years that a new element was entering
+our art ranks and demanding expression, which has at last reached a
+degree of vigor and organized strength that challenges respectful
+attention, if not unqualified acceptance. By associations, schools, and
+exhibitions of its own, it has thrown down the gauntlet to conservatism
+and conventionalism, and the time has arrived when we can no longer shut
+our eyes to the fact that a new force is exerting itself with
+iconoclastic zeal to introduce a different order of things into American
+art. We cannot justly consider this movement in the light of reform, for
+up to this time our art has been very creditable, and, considering the
+environing circumstances, full as advanced proportionally as the other
+factors of American civilization. We regard it simply as another stage
+in our art progress, destined, when it has accomplished its end, to be
+in turn succeeded by yet higher steps in the scale of advance; for,
+notwithstanding the somewhat demonstrative assumptions of some of its
+promoters, the new movement does not comprehend within itself, more than
+any other school, all the qualities of great art. To no school of art
+has it yet been given to demonstrate and include in itself all the
+possibilities of art, or to interpret all the truths of nature and man.
+Perhaps some future school may arise, with all the knowledge of the ages
+to choose from, which may comprehend the whole sphere of art in its
+compass. But they are probably not yet born who shall see it, or give to
+it the symmetry of perfection. Until that time, it behooves those
+neophytes and disciples, who proclaim that their art includes all that
+art has to tell, to be modest in their claims, and to be satisfied if
+they have been able by fasting and prayer to enrich the world of art
+with one or two new truths. Nowhere is humility more becoming than in
+art; arrogance and assumption dig its grave sooner or later; while
+humility is by no means incompatible with earnestness, zeal, and
+progress.
+
+[Illustration: "LA MARGUERETTE--THE DAISY."--[WILLIAM M. HUNT.]]
+
+The ripeness of our art for a change before the new movement actually
+assumed definite shape had already been suggested and welcomed in
+advance by such artists as Eastman Johnson, Homer Martin, and Samuel
+Colman, the admirable painter in oil and water colors, strong in
+_chiaro-oscuro_, brilliant in color, and, although without academic
+training abroad, of a most excellent catholic spirit in all matters
+relating to art, ready to accept the good of whatever school, and to aid
+progress in the arts of his native land by whomsoever promoted. Benjamin
+C. Porter, whose massive characterizations in portraiture, broadly
+treated and admirably colored, have been among the most important
+achievements in recent American art, and Winslow Homer, A. H. Wyant, and
+E. M. Bannister are also among the artists whose sympathies are
+naturally with the new movement, although receiving their art training
+chiefly in this country, and who have thus indicated and prepared the
+way for the assertion of new influences in our art.
+
+R. Swain Gifford should be added to the list of the noteworthy
+landscape-painters who have thrown the weight of their influence in
+advance to welcome to our shores new elements of progress and change
+whereby to quicken American art to fresh conquests. This artist at one
+time devoted his efforts to marine-painting, in which he did and still
+does some creditable work, his knowledge of ships being sufficiently
+technical to satisfy the nautical eye; but since his sojourn in Algeria,
+and the observations made in the Continental galleries and studios, he
+has devoted himself to landscape, and adopted a bolder style and a truer
+scheme of color. The influence of French art is perceptible in his later
+methods, but altogether as an influence, and in no sense as an
+imitation, for in his works there is always evident a sturdy
+self-assertion, whether in subject or treatment. In catching the gray
+effects of brooding skies receding in diminishing ranks through an
+aërial perspective of great distance and space, and giving with fine
+feeling the Druid-like spirit of clumps of sombre russet-hued cedars
+moaning by the granite shore of old Massachusetts, and identifying
+himself with the mysterious thoughts they suggest, Mr. Gifford has no
+superior on this side of the Atlantic. As a professor in the Cooper
+Institute, his influence is of great importance to the future of
+American pictorial art.
+
+[Illustration: MOONLIGHT.--[JOHN J. ENNEKING.]]
+
+George Inness is another painter who, although without training in
+foreign studios, should be included with the artists just named, whose
+sympathies have gradually led him to exemplify in his works some of the
+most characteristic traits of later Continental methods. At first his
+style was not unlike the prevailing style of our middle school of
+landscape-painting; like that, giving careful attention to the
+reproduction of details. But his emotional nature, and intense
+reflection upon the philosophical principles of art, gradually led him
+to a broader style and a more free expression of the truths of nature,
+dealing with masses rather than with details, and handling his
+subjects--especially atmospheric effects--with a daring and an insight
+that has never been surpassed in our landscape art. To these he has
+added a feeling for light and color that place him, at his best, among
+the masters of the art. But there is inequality in his works, and
+sometimes a conflict of styles, as when he dashes off a composition, in
+two or three sittings, that is full of fire and suggestion; and then,
+perhaps with a relic of his first method still lingering in his memory
+like a habit, goes over it again, and smooths away some of those bold
+touches which, to an imaginative observer, gave it additional force.
+
+[Illustration: "HAVING A GOOD TIME."--[LOUIS C. TIFFANY.]]
+
+In his latest works Mr. Inness has shown a disposition to yield more
+and more to a style at present called impressionist. Impressionism pure
+and simple, as represented by its most extravagant supporters, is like
+trying to represent the soul without the body. This may be well enough
+in another world; but in this a material body is needed to give it
+support. But, philosophically considered, there is no question that
+impressionism--or the attempt to represent nature according to the
+impressions it makes upon the mind's eye, rather than the mere
+reflections left on the material eye--undoubtedly presents the
+quintessence of the spirit of art; and therefore all good art must have
+in it more or less evidence of subjective influence. But just so long as
+art finds expression with material means, the artist must make
+concessions to the limitations of substance. Naturally, of all the arts,
+music comes nearest to the ideal which the impressionist is seeking to
+grasp.
+
+It is useless to deny that, extravagant as some of the works of the
+contemporary impressionists appear to many, they undoubtedly present a
+keen appreciation of aërial chromatic effects, and for this reason are
+worthy of careful attention. That they are not carried nearer to
+completion, however, indicates a consciousness on the part of the artist
+that he is as yet unable to harmonize the objective and subjective, the
+material and the spiritual phases of art. A perfect work of art combines
+the two; but, alas! such achievements are as yet rare, although that is
+the ideal which the artist should keep in view. The artist who gives us
+what is called a finished painting is so far right. He represents what
+appears to the material eye. In proportion as he combines with this a
+suggestion of the intellectual impression also made on his mental
+vision, he approaches the ideal in art execution. On the other hand, the
+artist who is impatient of details, and deals wholly with a broad, and
+sometimes, we regret to say, dauby and slovenly interpretation of
+nature, is yet so far right, because he is endeavoring to interpret the
+wholly imaginative and intellectual side of art. When to this bias he
+adds the balance of power which enables him to give something of the
+other phase of art, he in turn approaches the ideal aim of art. Turner
+was an impressionist; so was Corot; so, to go farther back, was
+Velasquez; so, also, are the Japanese. But these artists, especially
+Turner and Velasquez, had the supreme faculty of uniting the two
+opposite poles in art in their best works, and hence the commanding
+position which they hold, and always will hold, in the art world.
+
+[Illustration: SOUTHAMPTON, LONG ISLAND.--[C. H. MILLER.]]
+
+So far as can be ascertained, it is to the late William M. Hunt that we
+must ascribe the initiation of the third period in our pictorial art,
+and perhaps, in a secondary manner, the general impulse toward foreign
+styles now modifying the arts of design in this country. When Mr. Hunt
+went to Düsseldorf to study, in 1846, he did no more than many of our
+artists had already done. But when, dissatisfied with the
+conventionalism of that school, he turned his steps to Paris, and
+became a pupil of Couture, and was one of the first to discover, to
+admire, and to emulate the art methods of Millet, then, unconsciously,
+he became a power, destined by his somewhat narrow but intense
+personality to influence the destinies of our art--especially by
+returning to Boston, a city easily brought under the magnetism of a
+strong individuality, and more ready than any other city in the land to
+surrender the guidance of its opinions to those whom it condescends to
+admire.
+
+The going of Mr. Hunt to Paris meant that technical knowledge and the
+perception of the underlying principles of art were now, as never
+before, to be systematically mastered and imported to America by our
+artists, together with the most advanced theories, truths, or
+discoveries in the technical part of the subject. It did not mean that
+all our artists who went abroad to study would necessarily be great, or
+that any of them would be especially original, but that there would be a
+general harmony of action toward improving the means of art education in
+America. Regarded in this light, Mr. Hunt must be considered to have
+been a most important promoter of the development of art in America. He
+was probably not a man of genius--unless great force of character be
+considered as such--but he had a true perception of the character and
+aims, the limitations and possibilities of art; and the intolerance he
+sometimes exhibited was not unusual in those who are introducing new
+methods, and have to create a circle of influence. In his own works, as
+a landscape, portrait, _genre_, and decorative painter, it cannot be
+said that he added greatly to the sum of the world's art by anything
+strikingly original; but he exhibited a true perception of the
+importance of the ideal in art; and one feels, in contemplating his
+works, that he was ever striving to overcome the difficulties of
+material means of expressing the ideal. Moved, like most leading
+American painters, by a feeling for color rather than for form, yet, in
+such compositions as "The Bathers," representing a boy about to dive
+from the shoulders of another, who is half immersed in a pool, vanishing
+into the green gloom of the wooded banks, we have an admirable example
+of the manner in which this artist sometimes combined form,
+_chiaro-oscuro_, and color, with a delicacy, force, and suggestion of
+outline and tint, to a degree rarely equalled before by American art;
+with a technique essentially that of the later French school, yet
+modified by individual feeling.
+
+[Illustration: A STUDY.--[FREDERICK DIELMAN]]
+
+But the life-work of Mr. Hunt was, after all, not more in his paintings
+than in that influence by which he gathered about him a school of
+admirers and disciples who disseminated his opinions and imitated his
+style, although rarely with his success. Among those who directly
+profited by his style and influence may be mentioned Mrs. Darrah, who
+effectively paints gray coast scenes and landscapes in a low, minor key;
+Miss Helen M. Knowlton; Miss Bartol; F. P. Vinton; and S. S. Tuckerman,
+the marine painter.
+
+The power of Mr. Hunt was still more widely felt in directing a large
+number of young art-students to visit Paris, and eventually also Munich,
+at each of which the tendency has been for some years toward bolder
+methods in the technics of art. The result has been to introduce to this
+country a truer perception of the vital importance of style in the
+present stage of our art, and to emphasize the truth that he who has
+anything to say will make it much more effective if he knows how to
+give it adequate utterance.
+
+Of the many Boston artists who have profited by foreign study and are
+now resident in that city, we can mention but three or four. John J.
+Enneking, a graduate of the studios of Munich and Paris, can hardly be
+called an idealist. There is little evidence of imagination in his
+canvases; but in seizing the effects of the brilliant lights of sunset,
+or the varied grays of a lowering sky on a cloudy day, he shows himself
+equally happy in color, _chiaro-oscuro_, and technical skill in handling
+pigments. His versatility is remarkable. He can render the figure from
+life with a vigor and freshness scarcely less than that of his
+landscapes. There is, unfortunately, an evidence of haste in too many of
+his works, which cannot be too much regretted, for he thus fails to do
+justice to the very decided ability he possesses. Having studied both in
+Munich and Paris, and given careful attention to all the European
+schools of art, and adding to this knowledge sturdy independence of
+opinion and great earnestness and energy, Mr. Enneking ought to be
+strongly influential in the present stage of American art.
+
+We find much that is interesting in the paintings of E. L. Weeks. They
+are marked by a powerful individuality, which delights in glowing
+effects of light, and revels in the brilliant coloring of tropical
+scenery or the varied splendor of Oriental architecture and costumes.
+There is something Byronic in the fervor of this artist's enthusiasm for
+the East, and the easy adaptability that has enabled a son of New
+England to identify himself with the life and scenery of lands so
+exactly the opposite of his own. Although a pupil of Bonnât, and an
+ardent admirer of the excessive realism now affected by some of the
+followers of the later French school, Mr. Weeks is, in spite of himself,
+an idealist, and no imitator of any style. This has, perhaps, been an
+injury to him, for he finds difficulty in mastering the technical or
+mechanical problems of his profession. A lack of knowledge or feeling
+for form, a weakness in drawing which is too often perceptible in his
+works, and sometimes an apparent opaqueness in his pigments, impair the
+quality of compositions which are inspired by the fire of genius.
+
+[Illustration: "THE BURGOMASTER."--[H. MUHRMAN.]]
+
+J. M. Stone, who is one of the professors at the Museum of Fine Arts,
+and a graduate of the Munich schools, indicates considerable force in
+rendering the figure, both in color and drawing, and a touch of genius
+in the painting of dogs and horses. His service in the army during
+the war intensified his interest in equine art, and will probably result
+in important compositions suggested by that conflict. C. R. Grant has a
+delicate poetic feeling for color and form, and a pleasant fancy tinged
+with quaintness; and in his choice of treatment and subject suggests the
+works of G. H. Boughton. In T. W. Dewing, a pupil of Lefévre, who has
+recently settled in Boston, we find much promise in figure-painting, but
+altogether after the clear-cut, well-drawn, but somewhat dry method of
+Gérôme.
+
+J. Foxcroft Cole, who has been a careful student of the best phases of
+French landscape art, but has formed, at the same time, a sufficiently
+individual style of his own, is an artist whose works command a growing
+esteem. Although adding groups of cattle to his compositions, he is
+essentially a landscape-painter. We receive from a study of his works an
+impression of sameness, like that conveyed by the landscapes of Corot,
+chiefly because they are generally on one key, and refer to a class of
+subjects so quiet and undemonstrative that only he who observes them
+repeatedly and reflectively discovers that each work is the result of a
+distinct inspiration, and possesses suggestions and qualities of its
+own. Exquisite feeling for space and atmosphere, for the peaceful
+effects of pastoral life, and the more subtle aspects of nature,
+especially in color, are the characteristics of the style of Mr. Cole.
+
+In reviewing the Boston school, we note in its development much activity
+and earnestness, too often combined, however, with crudeness; while the
+foreign influence that is, on the whole, most evident in it is that of
+the contemporary French school. As Boston is intense rather than broad
+in its intellectual traits, and is inclined to follow the lead of its
+own first thinkers and artists, it is the more unfortunate that one
+influence should predominate, because in such a case the errors as well
+as the good qualities of a style are liable to receive too much
+attention; while free growth depends on the catholic eclecticism which
+supplements the study of nature by culling the good from different
+schools, and correcting one by comparison with another, thus enabling
+the artist to arrive at a more just and profound view of a question that
+proceeds upon irreversible laws. The mind thus educated learns by
+balancing the merits of different schools, and the results are not so
+much imitation as assimilation, yielding healthy growth and development.
+
+[Illustration: "BURIAL OF THE DEAD BIRD."--[J. ALDEN WIER.]]
+
+In New York there seems to be, with no less activity than that of
+Boston, an art movement which is based on broader grounds, and offers
+more encouragement for the future of our art. The artists who are the
+most influential in this advance are more equally divided between the
+French and the German schools than those of Boston, and indicate more
+breadth of sympathy and art culture, together with a cosmopolitan love
+for the good in the art of all schools, which is one of the most
+encouraging of signs in a dawning intellectual reform. So decided had
+the tendency toward Munich become soon after 1870, that the colony of
+American art students in Munich soon grew sufficiently large to
+establish an art association, having stated days of meeting, at which
+contributed paintings were exhibited and discussed, and carefully
+prepared papers on art topics were read. Opinions were exchanged in this
+manly, earnest, sympathetic manner, and breadth and catholicity were
+reached in the consideration of the great question in which all were so
+profoundly interested. Thus were gained many of the influences which are
+destined to affect American art for ages to come.
+
+[Illustration: "THE APPRENTICE."--[WILLIAM M. CHASE.]]
+
+The writer regards as among the most improving and delightful evenings
+he has enjoyed those passed with some of these talented and enthusiastic
+art students at the table where a number regularly met to dine--at the
+Max Emanuel café in Munich. Dinner over, huge flagons of beer were
+placed before each one, and pipes were lit, whose wreaths of
+upward-curling smoke softened the gleam of the candles, and gave a
+poetic haze to the dim nooks of the hall that was highly congenial to
+the hour and the topics discussed. The leonine head of Duveneck,
+massively set on his broad shoulders, as from time to time behind a
+cloud of smoke he gave forth an opinion, lent much dignity to the scene;
+while the grave, thoughtful features of Shirlaw, and the dreamy,
+contemplative face of Chase, occasionally lit by a flash of impetuous
+emotion, aided by an eloquent gesture, made the occasion one of great
+interest. Others there were around the board whose sallies of humor or
+weighty expressions of opinion made an indelible impression.
+
+Among the resident artists of New York who have recently studied abroad,
+Louis C. Tiffany, a follower of the French school, holds a prominent
+position. He has done some very clever things in landscape and _genre_
+from subjects suggested by his trip to the East, and has succeeded
+equally in oil and water colors, and is now giving a preference to
+American subjects, and also turning his attention to the pursuit of
+decorative art. He is essentially a colorist, to whom the radiant tints
+of the iris seem like harmoniously chorded strains of music. William
+Sartain, a pupil of Bonnât and Yvon, has also proved himself an
+excellent colorist, and shows vigor and truth of drawing both in figure
+and architectural perspective, as well as pleasing composition in work
+which he has done abroad.
+
+The new phase into which our landscape art is passing under foreign
+influence is well indicated by the paintings of Charles Miller, a
+graduate of the Munich school, who is inspired by a stirring, breezy
+love for nature, especially for her more intense and vivid effects,
+strong contrasts of light and shade, glowing sunsets, and masses of dun
+gray clouds rolling up in thunderous majesty and gloom over landscapes
+fading off into the infinite distance. As a draughtsman Mr. Miller is
+less interesting than in rendering such effects as we have suggested
+with broad, free handling, in which he is often very successful. He is a
+poet moved by a powerful imagination, idealizing what he sees, and
+possessed of a memory similar to that of Turner; and thus some of his
+most striking canvases are the result of a tenacious memory allied to a
+vigorous observation. Some of his canvases suggest the landscapes of
+Constable.
+
+[Illustration: "THE PROFESSOR."--[THOMAS EAKINS.]]
+
+[Illustration: "THE GOOSE-HERD."--[WALTER SHIRLAW.]]
+
+Frederick Dielman, who has pursued his studies in Munich, is destined to
+make his mark in _genre_. In color and tone, and especially in drawing,
+he has already shown decided ability, and some of his compositions are
+very promising. Messrs. Weir and Muhrman, both young artists of much
+promise, and both figure-painters, represent the influence of two
+different schools. The former comes from an artistic family, his father
+being Robert W. Weir, one of our oldest painters. Young J. Alden Weir
+studied in Paris. In portraiture he has a remarkable faculty for
+seizing character, painting the eye with a truth and life wholly
+original. In _genre_ he is sometimes quite successful, although inclined
+to mannerism. Mr. Muhrman is from Cincinnati, and has spent two years in
+Munich. While there, he placed himself under no master, but observed
+keenly, and devoted himself wholly to water-colors. Avoiding the use of
+body color, he yet shows dash and originality in technique, and a fine
+eye for form and color. The realistic vigor of his work is quite
+exceptional among our water-color painters. The brilliance and purity of
+his colors, and the delicious _abandon_ with which he handles the brush
+to such admirable result, seem to promise that he will become a master
+in this art. Frank Waller, Wyatt Eaton, W. A. Low, A. P. Ryder, J. H.
+Twachtman, J. C. Beckwith, A. F. Bunner, Miss Helena De Kay, and Miss M.
+R. Oakey are among the leading artists who are aiding the new art
+movement in New York.
+
+But among the later influences which have entered into our art and
+promise striking results, there is none more worthy of our consideration
+than the return of Messrs. Shirlaw and Chase from a thorough course of
+study in Germany. One of the points of most importance in this
+connection is that whereas our art for the last thirty years has been in
+the direction of landscape, its tendencies are now rather toward the
+painting of the figure, and this is strikingly illustrated by the
+circumstance that both of these artists have done their strongest work
+in this department, and their influence will undoubtedly give a fresh
+impulse to figure-painting. Mr. Shirlaw was for a year professor in the
+Students' League, but has now abandoned teaching in order that nothing
+may interfere with original work. Trained in the school which has
+produced such artists as Defregger, Diez, Braith, and Brandt, he has
+mastered all the technical knowledge which Munich can give an artist in
+_genre_ in our day. There is no uncertainty or weakness in his method of
+handling color; his lines are clearly and carefully drawn, and he
+undoubtedly achieves excellent results when he attempts simple
+compositions. One of Mr. Shirlaw's best known compositions, representing
+a sheep-shearing in Bavaria, has attracted favorable attention at home
+and abroad. In compositions which include animals, dogs, and birds, he
+has been especially happy. His inclinations to delineate the
+characteristics of bird-life are akin to those of the artists of Japan.
+
+[Illustration: "A SPANISH LADY."--[MISS MARY S. CASSATT.]]
+
+The genius of Mr. Chase is rather for single figures than elaborate
+compositions; and his independence of action is shown by the fact that,
+although he studied with Piloty, the master whom he made his model of
+excellence was Velasquez. A noble sense of color is perceptible in all
+his works, whether in the subtle elusive tints of flesh, or in the
+powerful rendering of a mass of scarlet, as in his notable painting of
+the "Court Jester." In the painting of a portrait he endeavors,
+sometimes very successfully, to seize character, although occasionally
+rather too impressionist in style. His art-life is fired by a lively
+enthusiasm, which must result in genuine and exalted art. "Waiting for
+the Ride" is a fine, thoughtful ideal figure of a lady by this artist.
+
+[Illustration: STUDY OF A BOY'S HEAD.--[W. SARTAIN.]]
+
+In Philadelphia the new movement has some powerful allies, among whom
+should be prominently mentioned Thomas Eakins, a pupil of Gérôme, and at
+present professor in the Philadelphia Academy of Art. One of Mr.
+Eakins's most ambitions paintings represents a surgical operation before
+a class in anatomy. It is characterized by so many excellent artistic
+qualities, that one regrets that the work as a whole fails to satisfy.
+Admirable draughtsman as this painter is, one is surprised that in the
+arrangement of the figures the perspective should have been so
+ineffective that the mother is altogether too small for the rest of the
+group, and the figure of the patient so indistinct that it is difficult
+to tell exactly the part of the body upon which the surgeon is
+performing the operation. The monochromatic tone of the composition is,
+perhaps, intentional, in order to concentrate the effect on the bloody
+thigh and the crimson finger of the operating professor. But as it is,
+the attention is at once and so entirely directed on that reeking hand
+as to convey the impression that such concentration was the sole purpose
+of the painting. In similar paintings by Ribeira, Regnault, and other
+artists of the horrible, as vivid a result is obtained without
+sacrificing the light and color in the other parts of the picture; and
+the effect, while no less intense, is, therefore, less staring and
+loud. As to the propriety of introducing into our art a class of
+subjects hitherto confined to a few of the more brutal artists and races
+of the Old World, the question may well be left to the decision of the
+public. In color Mr. Eakins effects a low tone that is sometimes almost
+monochromatic, but has very few equals in the country in drawing of the
+figure. Some of his portraits are strongly characteristic, and give
+remarkable promise. Miss Emily Sartain is devoting herself with good
+success to _genre_ and portraiture; and Miss Mary Cassatt merits more
+extended notice and earnest praise for the glory of color and the superb
+treatment and composition of some of her works.
+
+When we review the various forces now actively at work to hasten forward
+the progress of American art, we see that they are, with one or two
+exceptions, still immature; while, on the other hand, the sum of their
+influence is such as to prove that they are already sufficiently well
+established to give abundant promise of vitality, and of a career of
+success that seems destined to carry the arts to a degree of excellence
+never before seen in America. While the ideal is a more prominent
+feature of our art than formerly, the tide also sets strongly toward
+realism, together with a clearer practical knowledge of technique. And
+while we do not discover marked original power in the artists who
+represent the new movement, we find in them a self-reliance and a
+sturdiness of purpose which renders them potential in establishing the
+end they have in view. It is to their successors that we must look for
+the founding of a school that shall be at once native in origin, and
+powerful in the employment of the material to express the ideal.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+Abbey, E. A., 177.
+
+Academy of Fine Arts (of New York), 24.
+
+Akers, Benjamin Paul, 151.
+
+Alexander, Cosmo, 16, 24.
+
+Alexander, Francis, 49.
+
+Allston, Washington, 16, 29, 31, 44, 47.
+
+American Art Students' Association, Munich, 200.
+
+Ames, Joseph, 49.
+
+Andrew, John, 168.
+
+Annin, P., 168.
+
+Anthony, A. V. S., 168.
+
+Architecture, 178.
+
+Art Education, 186.
+
+Artists' Funding Society, 88.
+
+Artists' League, 186.
+
+Athenæum, Providence, 31.
+
+Augur, Hezekiah, 138.
+
+
+Bacon, Henry, 7.
+
+Baker, George A., 49.
+
+Ball, Thomas, 149, 150.
+
+Bannister, E. M., 106, 190.
+
+Barry, Charles A., 174.
+
+Bartholomew, Edward S., 152.
+
+Bartol, E. H., 195.
+
+Beard, James, 86.
+
+Beard, William H., 86.
+
+Beckwith, J. C., 207.
+
+Bellew, Frank H. T., 177.
+
+Bellows, A. F., 79.
+
+Bensell, E. B., 174.
+
+Benson, Eugene, 7.
+
+Berkeley, Bishop, 15, 17.
+
+Bierstadt, Albert, 97.
+
+Birch, Thomas, 37.
+
+Bishop, Annette, 174.
+
+Bispham, Henry C., 86.
+
+Blackburn, 16.
+
+Blashfield, Edwin H., 7.
+
+Blauvelt, C. F., 115.
+
+Boutelle, D. W. C., 106.
+
+Bowdoin College, paintings of, 47.
+
+Brackett, Walter M., 85.
+
+Bradford, William, 84.
+
+Bricher, A. T., 111.
+
+Bridgman, Frederick A., 7.
+
+Bridges, Fidelia, 131.
+
+Bristol, John B., 76.
+
+Brown, George L., 64.
+
+Brown, Harry, 84.
+
+Brown, J. Appleton, 106.
+
+Brown, J. G., 115.
+
+Brown, J. H., 167.
+
+Brown, J. Ogden, 131.
+
+Browne, Henry K., 149.
+
+Brumidi, M., 185.
+
+Bunner, A. F., 207.
+
+Burling, Gilbert, 112.
+
+Burns, J., 115.
+
+
+Calverly, Charles, 156.
+
+Casilear, John W., 73.
+
+Cassatt, Mary, 210.
+
+Catlin, George, 88.
+
+Champney, J. W., 113.
+
+Chapman, J. G., 88.
+
+Chase, William M., 203, 207.
+
+Church, Frederick E., 81.
+
+Church, F. S., 174.
+
+Cincinnati, Music Hall of, 163.
+
+Clevenger, Shobal Vail, 138, 145.
+
+Close, A. P., 104.
+
+Cobb, Darius, 125.
+
+Cole, J., 168.
+
+Cole, J. Foxcroft, 199.
+
+Cole, Thomas, 47, 66.
+
+Conant, Cornelia W., 7.
+
+Colman, Samuel, 79, 112, 190.
+
+Copley, John Singleton, 16, 17, 88, 138, 164.
+
+Cooper Institute, 186.
+
+Cranch, Christopher P., 76.
+
+Crawford, Thomas, 138, 145, 149.
+
+Cropsey, Jasper F., 76.
+
+Cummings, T. S., 167.
+
+Curtis, Jessie, 172.
+
+Cusack, S., 177.
+
+Custer, E. L., 125.
+
+
+Dana, W. P. W., 7.
+
+Dana, William J., 168.
+
+Darley, Felix O. C., 171.
+
+Darrah, Mrs. S. T., 195.
+
+Davis, J. P., 168.
+
+Davis, T. R., 174.
+
+Davidson, Julian O., 174.
+
+Deas, Charles, 88.
+
+Decorative Art, 186.
+
+De Haas, M. F. H., 109.
+
+De Kay, Helena, 207.
+
+Dengler, Frank, 161.
+
+Dewing, T. W., 199.
+
+Dexter, Henry, 156.
+
+Dielman, Frederick, 204.
+
+Dillon, Julia, 133.
+
+Dix, Charles Temple, 84.
+
+Dolph, J. H., 131.
+
+Doughty, Thomas, 47, 56, 59, 66.
+
+Drowne, Shem, 14, 37, 136.
+
+Dunlap, William, 18.
+
+Durand, Asher B., 47, 56, 59, 66, 167.
+
+Duveneck, F., 7, 203.
+
+
+Eakins, Thomas, 208.
+
+Eaton, Wyatt, 207.
+
+Edmonds, F. W., 52.
+
+Ehninger, John W., 115.
+
+Elliott, Charles Loring, 49, 50.
+
+Enneking, John J., 196.
+
+Eytinge, Sol, 174.
+
+Ezekiel, Moses J., 156.
+
+
+Falconer, John M., 112.
+
+Farrar, Henry, 113.
+
+Fassett, Mrs. C. A., 127.
+
+Feke, Robert, 16.
+
+Fenn, Harry, 172.
+
+Flagg, George B., 87.
+
+Foote, Mrs. Mary Halleck, 172.
+
+Fraser, John, 31, 56, 167.
+
+Frazee, John, 136, 138.
+
+Fredericks, Alfred, 172.
+
+Freeman, Mrs. J. E., 156.
+
+French, Daniel C., 161.
+
+Frost, Arthur B., 174.
+
+Frothingham, James, 27.
+
+Fuller, George, 117.
+
+Fuller, R. H., 76.
+
+Furness, William Henry, 125.
+
+
+Gardner, Elizabeth I., 7.
+
+Gaul, Gilbert, 113.
+
+Gerry, Samuel L., 74.
+
+Gibson, W., 177.
+
+Gifford, R. Swain, 112, 190.
+
+Gifford, Sanford R., 80.
+
+Goodrich, Sarah, 51, 167.
+
+Gould, Thomas R., 152, 154.
+
+Grant, C. R., 199.
+
+Greenough, Horatio, 138, 142.
+
+Greenough, Richard, 156.
+
+Grey, Henry Peters, 51.
+
+Grey, Mrs. Henry Peters, 125.
+
+Grosjean, Charles T., 186.
+
+Guy, S. J., 115.
+
+
+Hale, Susan, 113.
+
+Hall, Mrs., 167.
+
+Hall, George H., 133.
+
+Hamilton, James, 71, 84.
+
+Harding, Chester, 47, 49.
+
+Hart, James, 79, 130.
+
+Hart, William, 79.
+
+Hart, Joel T., 138, 145.
+
+Hartley, J. S., 161.
+
+Haseltine, H. J., 156.
+
+Hayes, William, 85.
+
+Heade, M. J., 133.
+
+Healy, G. P. A., 49.
+
+Henry, E. L., 115.
+
+Henshaw, Mrs., 133.
+
+Hicks, Thomas, 49, 86.
+
+Hill, Thomas, 97, 98.
+
+Hinckley, T. H., 85.
+
+Homer, Winslow, 117, 190.
+
+Hoppin, Augustus, 172.
+
+Hoskin, Robert, 168.
+
+Hosmer, Harriet, 152, 156.
+
+Howland, A. C., 115.
+
+Hubbard, R. W., 74.
+
+Humphrey, L. B., 172.
+
+Hunt, William M., 49, 185, 193.
+
+Huntington, Daniel, 49, 51, 88.
+
+
+Impressionism in Art, 192.
+
+Ingham, C. C., 49.
+
+Inman, Henry, 49, 51.
+
+Inness, George, 79, 190.
+
+Inness, George, Jun., 131.
+
+Ipsen, L. S., 174.
+
+Irving, J. B., 113.
+
+Ives, C. B., 156.
+
+
+Jarvis, John Wesley, 28, 49.
+
+Johnson, David, 76.
+
+Johnson, Eastman, 116, 189.
+
+Juengling, F., 168.
+
+
+Kelley, J. E., 174.
+
+Kensett, John F., 63, 76.
+
+Kepler, Joseph, 177.
+
+Key, John R., 170.
+
+King, F. S., 168.
+
+Kingsley, E., 168.
+
+Knowlton, Helen M., 195.
+
+Kreul, G., 168.
+
+
+Lafarge, John, 71, 94, 133, 185.
+
+Lambdin, George C., 133.
+
+Lansil, Walter F., 111.
+
+Lathrop, Francis, 96, 174, 186.
+
+Lay, Oliver I., 115.
+
+Le Clear, Thomas, 49.
+
+Leutze, Emmanuel, 73, 88.
+
+Lewis, Robert, 174.
+
+Linton, W. J., 167.
+
+Longfellow, Ernest, 106.
+
+Longworth, Nicholas, 140.
+
+Loop, Henry A., 125.
+
+Loop, Mrs. Henry A., 125.
+
+Low, Will H., 207.
+
+
+Macdonald, J. W. A., 156.
+
+M'Entee, Jervis, 103.
+
+Magrath, William, 117.
+
+Malbone, Edward G., 31, 32, 167.
+
+Marsh, Charles, 168.
+
+Marshall, John, 167.
+
+Martin, Homer, 106.
+
+Mather, Cotton, 14.
+
+Maverick, Peter, 167.
+
+Mayer, B. F., 113.
+
+Meade, Larkin J., 152, 153.
+
+Meeker, J. R., 74.
+
+Mignot, Louis R., 83.
+
+Miller, Charles, 203.
+
+Millet, Francis D., 7.
+
+Mills, Clark, 138, 149.
+
+Milmore, Martin, 154.
+
+Moore, E. C., 186.
+
+Moran, Edward, 103.
+
+Moran, Peter, 103, 130.
+
+Moran, Thomas, 97, 100, 172.
+
+Morse, Samuel F. B., 33, 39, 51.
+
+Morse, W. H., 168.
+
+Mount, William Sidney, 52, 86, 117.
+
+Muhrman, William H., 207.
+
+Müller, R. A., 168.
+
+Munzig, B. C., 170.
+
+Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 186.
+
+
+Naegle, John, 29.
+
+Nast, Thomas, 177.
+
+National Academy of Design, 37, 39, 49, 51, 58, 186.
+
+Neal, David, 7.
+
+Newton, Gilbert Stuart, 27.
+
+Nicoll, J. C., 111.
+
+Normal Art School of Massachusetts, 186, 187.
+
+Norton, William E., 110.
+
+
+Oakey, Maria R., 207.
+
+O'Donovan, W. R., 161.
+
+
+Page, William, 49, 51, 90.
+
+Palmer, Erastus D., 140, 156, 161.
+
+Parsons, Charles, 112.
+
+Parton, Arthur, 80.
+
+Parton, Ernest, 7.
+
+Peale, Charles Wilson, 21.
+
+Peale, Rembrandt, 28.
+
+Pelham, 20.
+
+Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 29, 187.
+
+Perkins, Charles, 174.
+
+Perring, 186.
+
+Petersen, John E. C., 110.
+
+Pope, Alexander, 132.
+
+Porter, Benjamin C., 190.
+
+Powers, Hiram, 138.
+
+Pratt, Matthew, 16, 137.
+
+Pyle, Howard, 177.
+
+
+Quartley, Arthur, 111.
+
+
+Ranney, William S., 88.
+
+Redwood Library, Newport, 15.
+
+Reinhart, B. F., 115.
+
+Reinhart, C. S., 177.
+
+Reynolds, Joshua, 19.
+
+Richards, T. Addison, 174.
+
+Richards, William T., 74.
+
+Rimmer, William, 163.
+
+Rinehart, William Henry, 152, 154.
+
+Ritchie, A. H., 167.
+
+Robbins, Ellen, 133.
+
+Robbins, Horace, 80.
+
+Roberts, Howard, 161.
+
+Robinson, Thomas, 130.
+
+Rogers, Frank, 131.
+
+Rogers, John, 159.
+
+Rogers, Randolph, 149, 152.
+
+Rothermel, Peter F., 88.
+
+Rowse, Samuel W., 170.
+
+Rush, William, 138.
+
+Ryder, A. P., 207.
+
+
+St. Gaudens, Augustus, 163.
+
+Sargent, Colonel Henry, 28.
+
+Sartain, Emily, 210.
+
+Sartain, John, 167.
+
+Sartain, William, 203.
+
+Satterlee, Walter, 115.
+
+Seavey, G. W., 133.
+
+Shapleigh, F. H., 76.
+
+Shirlaw, Walter, 174, 203, 207.
+
+Shurtleff, R. M., 131.
+
+Silva, Francis A., 111.
+
+Simmons, Franklin, 154.
+
+Smilie, George, 80.
+
+Smilie, James, 167.
+
+Smilie, James, Jun., 80, 113.
+
+Smith, Frank Hill, 186.
+
+Smith, J. Hopkinson, 171.
+
+Smith, Walter, 186.
+
+Smithwick and French, 168.
+
+Smybert, John, 15, 22.
+
+Sonntag, W. L., 79.
+
+Staigg, Richard M., 49, 51.
+
+Stebbins, Emma, 156.
+
+Stephens, Louis, 172.
+
+Stephenson, Peter, 156.
+
+Stone, J. M., 196.
+
+Story, George H., 118.
+
+Story, William W., 152, 154.
+
+Stuart, Gilbert, 17, 20, 24, 39, 47, 49, 187.
+
+Sully, Thomas, 28, 49.
+
+Suydam, James A., 73.
+
+
+Tait, A. F., 132.
+
+Thompson, Launt, 152, 159.
+
+Thompson, Wordsworth, 128.
+
+Thorpe, T. B., 86.
+
+Tiffany, Louis C., 203.
+
+Trumbull, Colonel John, 17, 21, 47, 88, 130, 136.
+
+Tuckerman, S. S., 195.
+
+Twachtman, J. H., 207.
+
+
+Vanderlyn, John, 17, 29, 44.
+
+Vandyck, Sir Anthony, 14.
+
+Van Wart, Ames, 156.
+
+Vedder, Elihu, 71, 94.
+
+Volk, Leo W., 156.
+
+
+Waldo, Samuel, 49.
+
+Waller, Frank, 207.
+
+Ward, J. Q. A., 149, 151.
+
+Warner, Olin M., 161.
+
+Water-Color Society, 112.
+
+Waterman, Marcus, 113.
+
+Watson, John, 15.
+
+Way, A. J. H., 133.
+
+Weeks, E. L., 196.
+
+Weir, J. Alden, 204.
+
+Weir, John F., 114.
+
+Weir, Robert W., 47, 52.
+
+West, Benjamin, 17, 29, 138, 142, 164.
+
+Whistler, J. A. McN., 7.
+
+Whitney, Anne, 156.
+
+Whittredge, Worthington, 73, 86.
+
+Wight, Moses, 7.
+
+Wilkinson, George, 186.
+
+Willard, A. W., 114.
+
+Williams, F. D., 76.
+
+Williams, Virgil, 115.
+
+Wilmarth, Lemuel E., 115.
+
+Wolf, H., 168.
+
+Wood, T. W., 114.
+
+Woodville, Richard Caton, 86.
+
+Wright, Frederick W., 170.
+
+Wright, Patience, 37, 136.
+
+Wyant, A. H., 105, 190.
+
+
+Young, Harvey A., 125.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+TIMELY AND IMPORTANT BOOKS
+
+ON
+
+ANCIENT AND MODERN ART.
+
+
+American Art.
+
+     By S. G. W. BENJAMIN. Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $4 00.
+
+Contemporary Art in Europe.
+
+     By S. G. W. BENJAMIN. Copiously Illustrated. Square 8vo, Cloth,
+     Illuminated and Gilt, $3 50; Half Calf, $5 75.
+
+Art Education Applied to Industry.
+
+     By GEORGE WARD NICHOLS. Illustrated. Square 8vo, Cloth, Illuminated
+     and Gilt, $4 00.
+
+Art Decoration Applied to Furniture.
+
+     By HARRIET PRESCOTT SPOFFORD. Illustrated. Square 8vo, Cloth,
+     Illuminated and Gilt, $4 00; Half Calf, $6 25.
+
+Cyprus: its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples.
+
+     A Narrative of Researches and Excavations during Ten Years'
+     Residence in that Island. By General LOUIS PALMA DI CESNOLA. With
+     Portrait, Maps, and 400 Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, Extra, Gilt Tops
+     and Uncut Edges, $7 50.
+
+Pottery and Porcelain.
+
+     Of All Times and Nations. With Tables of Factory and Artists'
+     Marks, for the Use of Collectors. By WILLIAM C. PRIME, LL.D.
+     Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, Uncut Edges and Gilt Tops, $7 00; Half
+     Calf, $9 25. (In a Box.)
+
+Caricature and other Comic Art.
+
+     In All Times and Many Lands. By JAMES PARTON. With 203
+     Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, Gilt Tops and Uncut Edges, $5 00; Half
+     Calf, $7 25.
+
+The Ceramic Art:
+
+     A Compendium of the History and Manufacture of Pottery and
+     Porcelain. By JENNIE J. YOUNG. With 464 Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth,
+     $5 00.
+
+Modern Dwellings in Town and Country.
+
+     Adapted to American Wants and Climate. In a Series of One Hundred
+     Original Designs, comprising Cottages, Villas, and Mansions. With a
+     Treatise on Furniture and Decoration. By H. HUDSON HOLLY. 8vo,
+     Cloth, $4 00.
+
+
+PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK.
+
+==>HARPER & BROTHERS _will send any of the above
+works by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, on
+receipt of the price_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Art in America, by 
+Samuel Greene Wheeler (S.G.W.) Benjamin
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40604 ***