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Essays

on

American Art and Artists

F. Hopkinson Smith
Alfred Trumble

Frank Fowler

Nym Crinkle

William McKendree Bangs
William J. Baer

Henry Eckford

George Wharton Edwards

by

J

George Parsons Lathrop
Alexander Black
Marguerite Tracy
Perriton Maxwell
Frances M. Benson
Allan Forman

Charles McIlvaine
Lillie Hamilton French

Charles de Kay W: Lewis Fraser
Frederick W. Webber Clarence Cook

Charles M. Skinner Elizabeth W. Champney
Charlotte Adams Royal Cortissoz

Edgar Mayhew Bacon Will H. Low

Arthur N. Jervis Henry Russell Wray
Cromwell Childe Henri Pene du Bois
John Gilmer Speed Henry Milford Steele

Hillary Bell

Eleven Hundred Illustrations

by

Celebrated American Artists

American Art League

Chicago

MD-CCC-XC-VI
 
FANésI0

1£9¢

Introduction.

?

ry clk Ors. 22

See) MERICAN Art has advanced so rapidly in excellence of late years that

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1 America now rivals the great art centers of Europe. No one can afford to
mie be ignorant on this important subject. It is discussed and forms the theme
OG ih 3 2% : : : .

hy of conversation in every drawing-room and parlor, and at every gathering of

 

the intellectual and refined. Essays on American Artists and their work
are therefore an absolute necessity to those who desire to be informed on the greatest
of all subjects of everyday conversation, namely, Art. These Essays are prepared by
some of the brightest minds in the Art world, including such men as EF. Hopkinson
Smith, Clarence Cook, John Gilmer Speed, Charles De Kay and Alfred Trumble, who
will discuss the works of such famous artists as Wm. M. Chase, J. G. Brown, Geo. H.
Smillie, Bruce Crane, E. L. Henry, Carlton T. Chapman, Geo. H. Boughton, J. Carroll
Beckwith, Frederick M. Treo and 300 others, whose work is worthy of attention, through

nearly 1,100 examples—in black and white—of their paintings.

380
 

 
~NART STUDENTS! LEAGUE OF NEW YORK, THE,

CONTENTS

ALL AROUND ARTIST, AN. By F. HoOPKINSON SMITH,
With original illustrations by Charles S. Reinhart.
AMERICAN ART AND FOREIGN INFLUENCE. By W. LEwis FRASER,
With original illustrations by Albert E. Sterner.
AMERICAN LANDSCAPIST, AN. By ALEXANDER BLACK,
With original illustrations by Julian Rix.
AMERICAN MILITARY ARTIST, AN. By GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP,
With original illustrations by Gilbert Gaul.
ARABS OF NEW YORK, THE. By NyMm CRINKLE,
With original illustrations by J. G. Brown.
ARTISTIC DISCOVERER OF LONG ISLAND, THE.
By LirLLiE HAMILTON FRENCH, :
With original illustrations by Charles H. Miller,
ARTIST IN BUSINESS, AN. By HENRY MILFORD STEELE,
With original illustrations by James Symington.
By CHARLES DE Kay,
With original illustrations by prominent members.
BOHEMIAN ART CLUB, A. By HENRY RUSSELL WRAY,
With original illustrations by many members.
CLEVER WOMAN ILLUSTRATOR, A. By Frederick W. Webber, .
With original illustrations by Alice Barber Stephens.
DECORATIVE ARTIST, A. By Royal CorrTissoz,
With original illustrations by Frank Fowler.
DECORATIVE ILLUSTRATOR, A. By PERRITON MAXWELL,
With original illustrations by George Wharton Edwards.
DELINEATOR OF LIFE, A. By PERRITON MAXWELL,
With original illustrations by Albert B. Wenzell.
ENGLISH-AMERICAN ARTIST, AN. By CLARENCE COOK,
With original illustrations by George Henry Boughton.
FIVE WOMEN ARTISTS OF NEW YORK. By FrRANCEs M. BENSON,
With original illustrations by them.
FROM FINANCE TO ART. By CHARLOTTE ADAMS,
With original illustrations by Stanley Middleton.
FROM MANY STUDIOS. By CHARLES M. SKINNER, :
With original illustrations by twenty-two well- row artists.
GLIMPSES OF PICTURESQUE PLACES. By GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP,
With original illustrations by Harry Fenn.
HALF HOUR WITH STUDIO BORES, A. By CHARLES DE Kay,
With original illustrations by numerous artists.
ILLUSTRATOR OF CHILD LIFE, AN. By WiLriam McKENDREE BANGS,
With original illustrations by Maud Humphrey.
LOVER OF THE SEA, A. By |No. GILMER SPEED,
With original illustrations by E. M. Bicknell.
MAKING OF MASTERPIECES, THE. By EpcArR MAYHEW BACON,
With original illustrations by prominent American artists of their post
pictures.
MAN OF ARTISTIC IDEAS, A. By ArTHUR N. JERVIS,
With original illustrations by Dan Beard.
MODERN MARINE PAINTER, A. By HENRY MILFORD STEELE,
With original illustrations by Carlton T. Chapman.

PAGE

121

69

57

183
144
48
217
05
166
37

45

185

213

95
135
153
162
245

109

92

101

MORAN FAMILY, THE. By Frances M. BENsoN,
With previously unpublished illustrations by most of thir.
MY FAVORITE MODEL. By GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP,
With original illustrations by numerous artists.
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF DESIGN, THE. By JNo. GILMER SPEED,
With original illustrations by prominent members.
NEWSPAPER ART AND ARTISTS. By ALLAN ForMAN,. : J
With original illustrations by leading artists of the American press.
ORIGINAL MARINE ARTIST, AN. By EpcarR MAYHEW BACON,
With original illustrations by Frank de Haven.
PAINTER IN BLACK AND WHITE, A. By PERRITON MAXWELL, .
With original illustrations by Thure de Thulstrup.
PAINTER OF MARINE SUBJECTS, A. By JNo. GILMER SPEED,
With original illustrations by James G. Tyler.
PAINTER OF PRETTY WOMEN, A. By CROMWELL CHILDE,.
With original illustrations by De Scott Evans.
PAINTER. OF SUNSETS, A. By Charles M. Skinner,
With original illustrations by George H. McCord.
PAINTER’S PROGRESS, A. By ALFRED TRUMBLE,
With original illustrations by Leonard Selithan,
PEASANT AND PICTURE. By GEORGE WHARTON EDWARDS,
With original illustrations by the writer.
PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS, THE.
By CHARLES MCILVAINE, . .
With original illustrations by frominest members.
PICTURES THAT HAVE INFLUENCED ARTISTS. By CHARLES M. SKINNER,
With sketches from memory by well-known artists.
POET IN LANDSCAPE, A. By ALFRED TRUMBLE,
With original illustrations by Bruce Crane.
REFORMER AND ICONOCLAST. By WiLLIAM J. BAER,
With original illustrations by William M. Chivse and BY
SHADOWS OF THE ARTIST'S IDEAL. By MARGUERITE Tracy,
With illustrations selected from our last prize competition.
STORY TELLER ON CANVAS, A By CroMWELL CHILDE,
With original illustrations by W. Verplanck Birney.
STUDENT OF DRAWING, A. By Henry PENE DU Bois,
With original illustrations by Alfred Paris.
STUDIO AND THE STAGE, THE. By HirrAry BELL,
With parallel and contrasting illustrations.
VERSATILE ARTIST, A. By ALEXANDER BLACK, z
With original illustrations by Carle J. Blenner.
WILSON DE MEZA. By FrRaANK FOWLER,
With representative examples of the dereased artist's work.
WOMAN IN ART. By EvrizaBern W. CHAMPNEY,
With original illustrations by numerous artists.
WOMEN ARTISTS IN CANADA. By ALEXANDER BLACK,
With original illustrations by members of the Woman's Art Avtnel
tion of Canada.

PAGE
25

169

73

148

105

120

165

200

137

190

242

262

201

195
Abbatt, Agnes D., 171, 187, 188, 204.

Adney, Tappan, 352.

Anshutz, Thomas P., 227.

Ashe, E. M., sz.

Baker, J. Carleton, 133.

Baker, Martha S., 204.

Bancroft, Milton H., 141, 143, 220.

Barnes, Culmer, g6, 179.

Barriti, Leon, 131.

Beal, H. Martin, 99, 176, 180.

Beal, Reynolds, 241.

Beard, Dan, 92, 93.

Beckwith, J. Carroll, 48, 51, 83, 159.

Bell, E. A., 1/6.

Bellew, Frank P., 117, 131.

Bensell, E. B., 223.

Bicknell, E. M., 171, 245, 246, 247.

Birch, R. B., 03, 155.

. Birney, W. Verplanck, 111, 190, 191, 192,
193, 104, 227, 228.

Blashfield, Albert D., 175.

Blashfield, Edwin H., g8.

Blenner, Carle J., 116, 159, 160, 161.

Bodfish, W. P., 118, 173.

Boston, Joseph H., 110.

Boughton, George H., 185, 186, 187.

Bradley, Horace, 53.

Breck, George W., 50, 159.

Bristol, J. B., 30, 157.

Brooks, Maria, 12, 15, 20, 113, 179, 210.

Broughton, Charles, 52.

Brown, Ethel Isadore, 204.

Brown J. G., 233, 234, 235, 236, 237.

Brownell, Matilda A., 241.

Budd, C. ]., 175.

Bunner, Rudolph F., 113.

Burlingame, Charles A., 110.

Burr, CG. E.; 178.

Buttles, Mary, 149, 207.

Cariss, Henry T., 219.

Carlin, Frances, 207.

Carr, Lyell, 153, 170.

PCarter, F. A., 17%

Cawein, F. W., 98.

ILLUSTRATIONS

ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY BY ARTISTS’ NAMES.

Chapman, Carleton T., 101, 102, 103, 104,
53

Chapman, Mary Berri, 179, 201.

Chase, William M., 237, 238, 239.

Child, Edwin B., 350, 55, 157.

Christy, Howard Chandler, 239.

Claghorn, J. C., 223.

Clarke, Daisy E., 196.

Coman, Mrs. C. B., 17, 18, 210.

Cook, Josephine M., 211.

Cooper, Colin Campbell, Jr., 139.

Corson, Katherine Langdon, 202, 204.

Couliaus, H. C., 126.

Cox, Walter B,, 131.

Craig, Thomas B., 176.

Crane, Bruce, 89, 00, 91, 110, 153.

Cropsey, Jasper F., 110.

Curran, Charles C., 100.

Curtis, Elizabeth, 239.

Daecke, Erich, 171.

Davenport, Homer C., 129.

Davidson, J. O., 117.

Davis, Georgina A., 111, 173.

Davis, Warren B., 101.

Day, Joseph R., 225.

DeGrimm, C., 125, 132.

DeHaven, Frank, 112, 116, 231, 232.

DeLipman, M., 131.

DeLuce, Percival, 33.

DeMeza, Wilson, 60, 61, 62, 63.

Denslow, W. W., 129.

DeThulstrup, T., 21, 22, 23, 24.

Dignam, Mrs. M. E,, 113, 116, 190, 195, 197,
201.

Dixon, Mrs. M. R., 113, 173, 205, 210.

Doggett, Allan B., 935, 98, 153.

Dolph, J. H., 73.

Dougherty, Parke C., 228.

Drake, G.. B., 173.

Drake, William H., 109.

DuMond, F. V., 172.

Dunk, Walter M., 223.

Dustin, S. S., 99, 173.

Eaton, C. Harry, 114.

Eaton, Hugh M., 179.
Edwards, George Wharton, 37, 38, 39, 40,
118, 181, 198, 199, 200.
Eisele, Frederick, 22s.
Elliott, Benjamin R., 225.
Elliott, Emily Louise, 195.
Emmett, Jane Erin, 241.
Emmett, Lydia Field, 182, 210, 241.
English, F. F., 142, 210, 222.
Essig, George E., 217.
Evans, DeScott, 105, 106, 107, 108.
Fenn, Harry, 135, 136, 130.
Ferris, Jerome L. G., 140.
Ferris, Stephen ]J., 25, 20.
Field, Edward Loyal, 189.
Fithian, Frank, 139, 219.
Fitler, W. C., 109.
Flagg, Jared B., 75, 177.
Fleming, Thomas, 127.
Fogarty, T. J., 50, 08.
Fowler, Frank, 73, 166, 167, 168.
France, Eurilda, 203.
Fraser, John A., 114, 174.
Fraser, Malcolm, 53, 55, 159.
Freer, Frederick W., 85, 176.
French, Frank, gg,
Gaul, Gilbert, 57, 58, 59, 60.
Getchell, Edith Loring, 220.
Glackens, L. M., 141.
Glackens, William J., 142.
Goist, P.. F.; 323.
Goodes, William M., 141.
Gordon, F. C., 55, 157.
Gormley, Anna, 198.
Grafly, Charles, 137.
Greene, Gertrude, 203.
Gribayedoff, V., 133.
Gruelle, Richard B., 97.
Gruger, F. R., 142, 228.
Grutzner, Eduard, 158.
Gunn, Archie, 114, 179.
Harley, Charles, 142.
Harper, W. St. John, 178, 100.
Hart, Mary E., 208.

Hartley, J. Scott, 73.

Haskell, Ida C., 208.
Hasselbusch, Louis, 225.
Hatfield, J. H., 171.

Hays, Frank A., 228.

Heller, Eugenie, 210.
Helmick, Howard, 9s, 101.
Hemming, Edith C. S., 103.
Hemsted, M. J., 196.
Henken, J. Henry, 96.

Henri, Robert, 141.

Henry, E. L., 34,383, 100.
Herts, H. B., 153.

Hirst, Claude, Raguet, 208.
Hofacker, William, 127.
Holme, Lucy D., 208.
Hooper, Will Philip, 176, 190.
Hovenden, Helen C., 130.
Hovenden, Thomas, 142.
Howarth, F. M., g6, 189.
Howland, Georgiana, 239.
Hudson, Grace, 203.

Hudson, William L., 8o.
Huger, Katherine M., 201, 206, 211.
Humphrey, Maud, 162, 163, 164.
Hurd, Louis F., 04.

Huston, C. A., 217.
Hutchens, F. T., 100.
Jamison, Henriette Lewis, 210.
Jeffrey, Helen, 207.

Johnson, Charles Howard, 98, 131.
Jordan, David Wilson, 219.
Keep, Helen E., 203.

Keller, A. 1., 157.

Kellogg, Amy L., 52, 153.
Kelly, J. Henderson, 225.
Kelly, James P., 137.

Kemble, E. W., 169.
Kendall, W. Sergeant, 56.
Kerr, George F., 176.
Klepper, Max F., 169.

Knickerbocker, J. H., 99, 126, 133, 134.
~ Knight, Daniel Ridgway, 141.

Kytko, Theodore, 132.
Lamb, Ella Condie, 48.
Lampert, Emma, 208.

Lander, Benjamin, 110, 189.
Langley, Charles E., 241.
Lanman, Charles, 83.
Lansdale, W. Moylan, 227, 230.
Lathrop, Clara W., 201.
Lauber, Joseph, 48, 53, 54, 154.
Lederer, Charles, 126, 133.
Lesley, Edith, 2o1.

Lesley, Ellen F., 179,201, 207.
Lindsay, A. M., 210.

Linson, Corwin Knapp, 169.
Lippincott, Margarette, 203.
Little, |. Wesley, 37.
Livingston, Roland H., 175.
Lyman, Joseph, 87.

Mackubin, Florence, 201.
Mann, Emily S., 211.

Mauch, Carl, 127.

McCarter, Henry, 137.
McChesney, Clara T., 203.
McConnell, Mary, 198.
McCord, George H.; 74, 119, 120.
McDougall, Walter, 131.
McNeill, A., 132.

Meeker, E. |., 130.

Meyer, Ernest, 241.

Middleton, Stanley, 178, 213, 214, 215, 216.

Millar, A. T., 132, z40, 241,
Miller, Charles H., 73, 183, 134.
Minor, Robert C., 37.

Mitchell, Ida, 195.

Moeller, Louis, 83.

Moessner, Thomas F., 128.
Moran, Annette, 31.

Moran, Edward, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 34.
Moran, Emily, 35.

Moran, Leon, 31, 34, 35.
Moran, Mary Nimmo, 28.
Moran, Paul Nimmo, 26, 30.

ILLUSTRATIONS (CONTINUED)

Moran, Percy, 34.

Moran, Peter, 25, 26, 29, 36, 137, 138, 176,
217.

Moran, Thomas, 32, 33.

Morgan, George T., 217.

Mortimer, Charles, 126.

Mowbray, H. Siddons, 48.

Neely, I., Jr., 225.

Newcomb, Marie Guise, 14, 15, 16, 201,212.

Newman Carl, 142, 217.

Nicholls, Rhoda Holmes, 9, 10, 11, 13, 114.

Ochtman, Leonard, 165, 166.

Ogden, Henry A., 117.

Osler, Clara D., 196.

Paine, B. D., 227.

Palmer, Walter L., 75.

Paris, Alfred, 242, 243, 244.

Parkhurst, Harry L.., 175.

Parrish, Clara W., 50, 173, 207.

Parsons, Charles, 8o.

Parsons, Orrin S., 95.

Pell, Ella F., 111, 169, 190, 2083.

Penfield, Edward, 55.

Pennell, Joseph, 137, 140, 220.

Pérard, Victor, 48, 50, 56, 118, 155.

Pezant, Aymar, 213.

Phillips, Burt G., 75.

Phillips, Mary M., 198.

Pitts, Fred L., 141, 227, 220.

Plumb, H, G., 176.

Poore, H. R., 32 141, 221, 225.

Porter, Benjamin C., 73.

Porter, W. A., 220.

Provost, Charles H., 178.

Rado, Ilona, 99, 169, 189, 207.

Randolph, Grace, 204.

Redman, John J., 132.

Redmond, Frieda V., 211.

Redwood, A. C., 51.

Reid, G. A., 155.

Reid, Robert, 52.

Reinhart, Charles S., a1, 42, 43, 44, 77,
87, 155.

Relyea, Charles M., 98, 175.

Remington, Frederic, 178, 131.

Rhees, Morgan, 117, 173.

Richards, F. T., 223.

Richards, T. Addison, 77.

Richards, W. T., 130.

Rix, Julian, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 113.

Robbins, Horace Walcott, 75.

Roberts, Howard, 223.

Roseland, Harry, 116, 175.

Rudell, P. E., 116.

Ryder, P. P., So.

Sandham, Henry, 169.

Sartain, William, 87, 139, 223.

Satterlee, Walter, 77, 113, 155.

Schell, FE. B., 220.

Schell, F. Cresson, 141, 217.

Scott, Mrs. E. M., 13, 19, 200.

Seiss, C. Few, 227.

Sellers, Horace W., 225, 226.

Shurtleff, R. M., 77, 86, 117.

Simon, Hermann, 156, 218.

Smillie, George H., 32.

Smith, C. Moore, 52.

Smith, D. D., 170.

Smith, Gean, 157.

Smith, Harry T., 132,133.

Smith, Millicent Grayson, 196.

Snell, Henry B., so.

Sonntag, William L., 78, 83.

Southwick, Jennie Lea, 208.

Stennett, Helen, 195.

Stephens, Alice Barber, 64, 65, 66, 67, 137.

Stephens, Charles H., 219.

Sterner, Albert E., 121, 122, 123, 124.
Stumm, Maud, 51, 99, 210.

Sullivan, Mabel Ansley, 193.

 

Symington, James, 144, 145, 146, 147, 171.
Tait, Arthur F., 31.

Tewksbury, Fanny W., 211.
Thompson, Wordsworth, 75, 79.
Thompson, W. 'I., 224, 225.
Thouron, Henry, 141.

Tiffany, Louis C., 8o.

Traver, G. A., 55, 56, 96, 157.
Trego, William T., 137.
Trowbridge, J. W., 130.

Tyler, James G., 116, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152.
Underwood, Abby E., 210.
Upton, Florence K., 204.

Van den Broeck, Clemence, 196.
Van Deusen, A. W., 187.

Van Hofsten, Hugo, 129.

Van Sant, J. Franklin, 120.
Varian, George, 173.

Villaret, G. E., 220.

Waldeck, Nina V., 198.

Walker, Sophia A., 204.

Ward, J. QO. A., 73.

Washburn, C. L., 241.

Watson, Harry S., 96, 117, 178.
Webster, Fred, 159.

Wenzell, Albert B., 45, 46, 47.
Wheaton, Francis, 111, 181, 187.
Wheelan, Albertina R., 175, 211.
Whitmore, Charlotte, 207.

_ Wiles, Irving, R., 49, 75, 35, 87, 157.

Wiles, L. M., 40.

Williams, Mary R., 211.

Wilmarth, L. E., 37.

Wirt, Dr. Marvin A., 223.

Wood, George B., 219.

Wood, Thomas W., 76, 83, 85, 155.
Wray, Henry Russell, 220.

Wright, Charles H., 127, 132.
Yeoell, W. G., 127.

Zeigler, Lee Woodward, 95, 171.
ABBATT, AGNES D.
ALLAN, WILLIAM R.
ATTWOOD, F. G.
BARNES, CULMER.
BEAL, H. MARTIN.
BEARD, DAN.
BEEBE, A.

BELL, E. A.

BELLEW, FRANK P.
BERAUD, JEAN.
BICKNELL, E. M.
BIRCH, REGINALD B.

BIRNEY, W. VERPLANCK.
BLASHFIELD, ALBERT D.

BODFISH, W. P.
BOSTON, JOSEPH H.
BOUGHTON, G. H.
BUDD, CHARLES J.
CALVERLY, CHARLES.
CHAPMAN, CARLTON T.

CHAPMAN, MARY BERRI

COAST, OSCAR R.
COFFIN, WILLIAM R.
COLIN, MAXIMILIAN.

PORTRAITS

CORSON, KATHERINE LANGDON.
CRAIG, THOMAS B.
CRANE, BRUCE.
CUMMINGS, THOMAS S.
CURRAN, CHARLES C.
DAINGERFIELD, ELLIOTT.
DAVIDSON, JULIAN O.
DAY, FRANCIS.

DE HAAS, M. F. H.

DE HAVEN, FRANK.

DE LONGPRE, PAUL.
DIGNAM, M. E.

.DIXON, M. R.

DOLPH, J. H.

DRAKE, W. H.

DUBE, L. THEO.
DURAND, E. L.

EATON, HUGH M.

EDWARDS, GEORGE WHARTON.
FENN, HARRY.

FITLER.'W. C.

FRASER, MALCOLM. ‘
FREER, FREDERICK.

OF ARTISTS

GUNN, ARCHIE.
HATFIELD, J. H.
HAWLEY, HUGHSON.
HUDSON, C. W.
HOLMAN, LOUIS H.
HOWARTH, F. M.

HULBERT, KATHERINE ALLMOND.

JOHNSON, CHARLES HOWARD.
KELLOGG, AMY L.
KEMBLE, E. W.

KOTZ, DANIEL.

LANDER, BENJAMIN.
LANMAN, CHARLES.
LAUBER, JOSEPH.
MIDDLETON, STANLEY.
NEWCOMB, MARIE GUISE.
NICHOLS, H. D.
OCHTMANN, LEONARD.
PALMER, WALTER L.
PENFIELD, EDWARD.
PERARD, VICTOR.
PLUMB, H. G.

PRATT, ROSALIND C.

REINHART, CHARLES S.
RELYEA, C. M,
REMINGTON, FREDERIC.
ROSELAND, HARRY.
RUDELL, P..E.

SANDHAM, HENRY.

SCOTT, MRS. M. E.
SHURTLEFE, R. M.

SMALL, FRANK O.

SMITH, C. MOORE.
SONNTAG, WILLIAM L.
STEPHENS, ALICE BARBER.
THOMPSON, WORDSWORTH.
TRAVER, G. A.

UPTON, FLORENCE.

VAN DEN BROECK, CLEMENCE
WATSON, HARRY S.
WHEATON, FRANCIS.
WHITMORE, CHARLOTTE
WILES, IRVING R.

WOOD, THOMAS W.
ZOGBAUM, R. F.

ZEIGLER, LEE WOODWARD
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

FIVE WOMEN ARTISTS OF NEW YORK.

By FRANCES M. BENSON.

THE colony of women artists in New York has established itself wherever there
is to be found a good north light among the housetops of the long lane of ambi-
tion, just off the high road to success. Its members are mostly young and
enthusiastic, working for very love of their art; economizing with tea-pot and
cracker jar, teaching and doing odds and ends of designing and decorating to
make ends meet, and put by the wherewithal for journeys to the promised land
across the sea—the Mecca of all true disciples of Color and Form.

They come from all over the country, attracted by the art atmosphere of
certain quarters of the city ; the prospect of touching elbows with already famous
painters ; the frequent exhibitions and noted sales, and the big windows where
gems from renowned brushes may be studied without money and without price.

 

grr y 2 PBT

From Water Color Sketch by Rhoda Holmes Nicholls.

‘“ A STUDY IN PINK.”

The women artists have a little world to themselves, partly because society
does not know the way to the sky parlors, nor understand the jargon of tech-
nique, and partly because the necessity of catching a gleam of light on the instant,
demands the improvement of each shining hour and mood. Work means concen-
tration, and concentration means solitude. They depend on the exhibitions and
various stores to dispose of their sketches, because among all their friends could
not be taken up a collection sufficient to purchase them.

  
   
   

As they get on in the world, their
prosperity is marked by the addition
of dull old squares of tapestry, pieces
of quaintly carved furniture, a jar of
marvellous mould, or an extra rug, and
on certain days an effective light is
turned into the studio and the presid-
ing genius, in picturesque array, places
before congenial spirits the tangible
results of her inspiration, and maybe
a cup of tea.

When a woman steps boldly be-
yond pretty copying and does work
that is strong and imaginative, she is
admitted to comparison with and the
companionship of brother artists ; she
may not be elected to active member-
ship in the Water Color Society, but
she may hope for honorary member-
ship in that august organization, and
more than content herself with being
an officer of high degree in the Water
Color Club.

v

From Water Color Sketch by Rhcda Holmes Nicholls.
Copyright, 1892, Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

‘‘ VENETIAN BATHERS."

 

 

» : $id i
From Water Color Sketch by Rhoda Holmes Nicholls.
Copyright, 1892, Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

‘ VENETIAN SCENE.”

Such a woman is Rhoda Holmes
Nicholls, one of New York’s best-
known artists, although she has been
here but eight years. She is an English-
woman, who pursued her early studies
at the Bloomsbury School of Art, Lon-
don, where she won the Queen's
Scholarship of forty pounds a year for
three years, and an additional ten
pounds from her Majesty's private
purse, so pleased was that lady with
the pictures sent for her approval
Mrs. Nicholls had also the advantage
of three years in Italy, studying the
human figure in the studio of Camme-
rano and landscape with Vertunni, be-
sides attending the evening classes of
the Circolo Artistico, where artists of
all nations teach and criticise each
other. Here a Spaniard gave her hints
of wonderful color, and a vigorous
10 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

German taught her tone. She was
elected a member of the Roman
Water Color Society, being the
second woman on whom was con-
ferred so great a distinction, and
Queen Margherita personally com-
plimented her on her studies of
Venice, exhibited at the Annual
Display. .

Then she went to Africa for its
wonderful lights and sombre
grandeur of mountains seen amid
cloudless skies; its stretches of
parched vegetation, and its flat-
roofed dwellings with arched doors
and enclosed courtyards. She set
up an open-air studio among the
Kaffirs and ostriches, and brought
back innumerable sketches true to
life.

After a honeymoon in ideal
Venice, she came to this country
with her American artist-husband,
and her water colors attracted im-
mediate attention from the brill-
iancy of their execution. - Within
a year she received a medal in the Boston exhibition for a small picture of
“Venetian Sunlight,” and shortly after, the gold medal from the A. A. A. (Asso-
ciated American Artists) of New York, for “ Those Evening Bells.”

Mrs. Nicholls has the rare talent of painting with a breadth of observation
and a strength of touch almost phenomenal; as one of the judges remarked:
“She sees like a woman, and paints like a man,” Her Venetian pictures are
among her finest bits of work, and she did some exquisite illustrations for W. D.
Howells’s “ Venetian Days,” two of which are reproduced on these pages. She
seems to get the “serene, sunny moods of the sea city,” with its transparent
atmosphere and the still heat of its unflinching sun, and the most vivid contrasts
are made with a skill that blends without obliterating. Her pictures not only
appeal to, but they hold the attention, until some hidden meaning comes out
point by point, and the beauty grows with the beholding.

There is bound to be a certain personality of the artist in any picture, and in
these you find suggestions of a keen understanding, a close sympathy, and a touch
of motherly pride and love; for the bright-faced, sweet-voiced little woman is
nearly as devoted to the children of her imagination as to the two babies play-
ing about her studio. ]

Mrs. Nicholls is still a young woman, notwithstanding the work she has accom-
plished, and she has all the youthful capacity for viewing the world from its bright
side. There is nothing gloomy, nothing cynical in her treatment of subjects.
Her pictures are not a daily grind for bread and butter, but the exercise of a great

3 5 HE g
From Water Color Sketch by Rhoda Holmes Nicholls.

‘“A ROMAN SHARP-SHOOTER.'

 

gift in connection with her duties as wife and mother. Her studio joins her hus-
band’s on the top floor of their cosey home, and the flaxen-haired boy and girl are
not the least of the treasures to be found therein.

Maria Brooks is another little Englishwoman recently come to our shores, and
the way of her coming was distinctly pointed out by the hand of fate. Some
wealthy Canadians, through their London agent, purchased several of her pictures,
and were so taken with them that they wished to meet the artist. In their whole-
souled fashion they invited her to spend a winter season with them, and suggested
that if she felt she could hardly spare the time for a mere visit, she might make it
a semi-professional one, and they would issue cards for a private view of such pic-
tures as she would care to dispose of in Montreal. Learning through her solicitor
that. her unknown friends were people of high standing as well as lovers of art,
Miss Brooks accepted their in-
vitation, and has never been

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
    

back.to the other side, except
onttbusiness, There was a
niche in New York waiting for
a portrait-painter, and Miss
Brooks fitted it perfectly. Her
likenesses do
not merely rep-
resent—they
are the people
before‘her. She

 
 
 
 

ro tive

* From Water Color Sketch by Rhoda Holmes Nicholls.

‘“ A DECORATIVE FIGURE."

has the faculty of painting a man at his best—of
catching and transferring to canvas the expression
friends love to see. ‘You have a hundred faces,” she told a subject one day,
“and every time you come you bring a different one. Now we will talk awhile
until you get around to the one I want ;” and there she sat, work in hand, chatting
away about her pictures, her glossy green parrot, anything, everything, until the
young lady, unaware, lost her self-consciousness, and the desired expression could
be deftly introduced into the picture. She says the hands have as much char-
acter in them as the face, and are really more difficult to do well, because the
sitter is seldom willing to give the same time for them as for the head. Just now
she is doing a series of little girl pictures, full-length but very tiny—just a dash of
vivid coloring and a suggestion of a childish whim.

It is to a child that she owes the turn her life-work has taken. She had been
in the South Kensington school five years, designing, decorating, illuminating ; no
woman student there had ever stood so well in perspective and anatomy, and she

 
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 11

 

From a water-color sketch by Rhoda Holmes Nicholls.

IN THE CHRYSANTHEMUM SEASON.
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

12

 

From Painting by Maria Brooks.

From Painting by Maria Brooks.

‘“ HUSKING CORN."

“ SHELLING CORN."

 
AMERICAN ART AND

2 ; had won gold, silver, bronze, national, and
Ye ] ; local prizes beyond count, but had no definite
line of work. A copy of her “ Angel 'Heads”
attracted a lady who wished a picture of a
little son, and though Miss Brooks had never
painted a portrait, nothing would do the
mother but that the small boy should be made
to appear as angelic as possible. The result
was that the artist was overwhelmed with nine
orders at once for portraits, and of these seven
were afterward hung in the Royal Academy.
Her work was exhibited for fourteen successive
years at the Academy, until now she is content
to show itin her roomy studio in The Sherwood.

Marie Guise Newcomb is the only woman
in this part of the country who makes a spe-
cialty of painting animals, and abroad she is
known as the Rosa Bonheur of America. She
studied horses and dogs under Shenck, the ani-
mal painter of Paris, and sheep with Chaielliva,
and does a bit of landscape now and then as
a divertisement or a background. She is a
great lover of animals, and spends hours at a
time among them, familiarizing herself with
their moods and habits.

At an up-town riding academy a box-stal,
was given her for a studio, and wealthy owners
gladly tied their high-bred horses to the door-
post for her to study. Mrs. Newcomb paints
a horse’s portrait as seriously as Miss Brooks would do a bishop’s, and with as
much relish; and as her sisters in art study anatomy of the human form, so did
she dissect quadrupeds in her mother’s conservatory, a quarter or a half at a time.
She was fortunate in having a friend in the lady owner of a stock farm, and
together they investigated the secrets of animal construction.

Having become acquainted with the animals subdued by civilization, Mrs.
Newcomb decided to go to Arabia and study the wild horses and the perfect Ara-
bian steeds. She spent a winter in Algiers, adding to her collection sketches of
Bedouins and camels. It is against the Arab’s religion to be pictured, and their
fear of it is greater than of the Evil Eye, consequently they distrust the people
who pretend to paint merely the picturesque street scenes and interiors. Not
knowing this, Mrs. Newcomb one day attempted to copy a corner with an orange
stand and a toothless old hag guarding it. The old woman kept her eyes on her,
peaceably enough, until she got a glimpse of her scarlet shawl going in the sketch,
when, with a lot of unintelligible gabble, presumably Arabic oaths, she tore the
canvas from the easel, swung it around her head with incantations, rent it, and
stamped on it in the wildest fury. The innocent artist was frightened half out of
her wits, but the gendarmes were attracted by the mob collecting, and rescued her
from an unpleasant position.

 

From Water Color Sketch by Rhoda Holmes
Nicholls.

‘ THE KNITTER.”

 

ARTISTS. 13

The Arabs learn to speak some French
from the military stationed among them, and
in that way they can converse with the ordi-
nary traveller. Mrs. Newcomb finally made
friends with them, and was invited to eat kous-
kous—a really palatable mutton broth—from
the common bowl on the ground, with wooden
spoons they carved themselves. The head of
the family ordered the oldest of his eight wives
to bring from a hole in the wall a piece of price-
less tapestry, upon which the guest was to sit
cross-legged ; and, after the kous-kous, was
served the delicious Arabian black café, a fine
powder with hot water poured over it, nothing
the like of which is imported to this country.
They were much interested in our country-
woman's fashion of wearing gold ornaments
in her teeth, and explained to her very care-
fully what their custom was in such matters.
They also wanted to stain her fingers from tip
to middle joint—a mark of very great distinc-
tion—assuring her that it would never wear off.
From such inside experiences as these Mrs. Newcomb made a quantity of valuable
sketches, such as are seldom secured by the artist traveller. From Algiers she
went to the oasis of Biskra, travel-
ling by night in a seven-horse dili-
gence on account of the heat. The
nights were as light as day from the
white sand and thickly starred sky,
and while out in the desert she
learned the meaning of the Arab’s
love for his horse. He watered and
fed the animal before seeking his
own rest, and he would ‘as soon
think of mutilating his own flesh
and blood as of beating the faithful
companion of his journey, or of
“bobbing” the beautiful mane and
tail in ugly British fashion.

The first picture Mrs. Newcomb
—then Marie Guise—sent to the
Paris salon was a golden haying
scene, with sturdy farmers and
strong Brittany horses, and to her
great joy it was accepted and well
hung. Her greatest work, as she
considers it, is entitled “The Work-
Horse’s Need,” and is of life-size

 

From Water Color Sketch by Rhoda Holmes
Nicholls.

‘THE LITTLE MAID.”

 

Water Cotor Sketch by Rhoda Holmes Nicholls.

‘“ A SUMMER BOY."
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

Irom a painting by I Guise Newcomb.
SPORTS AF

 
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

heads of four horses drinking from a street fountain. This picture represents
several months’ close work, and into it she has put all her love of the animal and
knowledge of its nature. The eager, thirsty beast, forgetting the heat and the
weight of the load harnessed to it in the craving for water, and the grateful, satis-
fied animal waiting for the word to toil on again, are shown with almost human

 

From Painting by Maria Brooks.

‘‘ PORTRAIT OF FATHER HOWES."

pathos in the dumb faces. This picture is to be sold for the benefit of one or two
small drinking fountains, as a special relief for work-horses.

Mrs. Newcomb is a cheery little woman, with an easy, cordial manner and a
winning personality—one of the chosen few who gain the confidence of strange
animals and children. She understands them, and they trust her.

When Mrs. C. B. Coman began the study of landscape, she supposed that all
good work must abound in detail, but an exhibition of French pictures was a reve-

15

lation to her, and she gradually came to believe that detail was useful only so far
as it enhanced the value of the great qualities of light, air, and space. She studied
in the French schools, spending her summers in Normandy and Holland, indulging
her intense love of nature and outdoor work. She says her idea of perfect happi-
ness is fair weather, some trusty colors, and a quiet spot where none can intrude.
Of course the indoor painter does not have to brave the elements nor contend with
a constantly changing scene, neither does she have the varied beauty of earth and
sky spread before her eyes. The Dutch painters say that half an hour is all one
can safely work at the same landscape, while from still life all one has to take in
consideration is the waning light,

Mrs. Coman has a sketch that was obtained under special difficulties. It was
her last day in Holland, and she walked three miles through rain and wind to a
wayside shrine standing between two gnarled old trees. The limbs of the trees
had been blown one way by the strong sea winds, and formed a slight protection
for the crucifix, where
many a poor sailor’s
wife had knelt implor-
ing safety for the ab-
sent one. The sketch-
ers tied their easels to
the trees and kept one
foot on the palette,
while they put in the
rough ‘water for the
background and out-
lined the wind-carved
crucifix. The stormy
day harmonized per-
fectly with the pa-
thetic subject, but by
and by, when the cali
for home was sounded,
the wind caught easels
and trappings, wafted
them out of sight for-
ever, and literally

blew the sketchers
home. These interest-
ing experiences are

denied the figare-
painter.

Shortly after Mrs.
Coman’s return from
abroad, she lost by fire
all the products of her
six years’ labor—
studies, notes, etch-
ings, photographs,

 

Prom Water Color Sketch by Marie Guise Newcomb.

* NOONTIME."
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

From Painting by Marie Guise Newcomb.

‘ PLAYED OUT.”

tapestries, and bric-a-brac from Holland, Italy, and France. This was an irre-

trievable loss, and she has been obliged to paint entirely from memory all her

pictures, such as “A French Village,” “Street in Cernay,” which have received

much favorable comment. Her

% studio now is in her Adiron-

: dack cottage, where she gathers

around her friends and pupils,

who, like herself, are enthusi-

astic over the open-air and im-
pressionist schools.

Mrs. E. M. Scott finds her
inspiration in flowers, and par-
ticularly in roses. One of the
best critics has said : “ She has
a special understanding with
roses. They seem to like to
have her paint them, and look
their loveliest and tenderest
: for her.” At one exhibition she
CTT ae 5 We . had a spray of Mermets, fresh

he and dewy, in exquisite tones
of pink, placed in a vase that
came from a cardinal’s collec-

 

 

Drawn by Marie Guise Newcomb. 2 5 3
From Painting by Marie Guise Newcomb. tion in sunny Italy, the bluish

“ LISTENING." “ WAITING.” gray of the pottery melting
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 17

 

 

From a painting by Mrs. C. B. Coman.

—

N HOLLAND.
18 AMERICAN ART AND *ARTISTS.

tures in her summer home.
In the winter she devotes
the morning to teaching and
the afternoon to the thou-
sand and one things that go
toward the education of an
artist in. every. direction.
They have an entertaining
little club of a dozen or so i
ladies and gentlemen, who
meet fortnightly and criticise
unsigned work. Of course
each piece is torn to tatters,

 

but they are careful to say From Water Color Sketch by Mrs. E. M. Scott.
what they like about it as HC PETUNIAS.”

well, so there is always some

crumb of comfort for the artist.

Mrs. Scott has such a pretty studio, with its books, bric-a-brac, and roomy seats
buiit in, with shelves overhead filled with pottery. Of course there are pictures
everywhere—on the walls, on easels, on the floor, leaning against anything that
will support them—even behind the door. In one corner is a collection of blue
delft from Holland ; another is devoted to fragile glass in iridescent urns and
vases of quaint device, amber jugs and wine bottles from vineyard lands.

 

From Painting by Mrs. C. B. Coman.

‘“A FLORIDA ROSE GARDEN,”

into the delicate color of the roses. At the Boston exhibition her cluster of
stately peonies in a glass pitcher, hung in the centre of the end wall, was observed
of all observers for the extreme delicacy of treatment.

: Mrs. Scott says her first attempt at
drawing was the copying of fashion
plates, because, when she was young,
pictures in the family were few and far
between, and even chromos were scarce.
It is the memory of her early struggles
that impels her to help ambitious young
girls. Having no daughters of her own,
she takes her pupils to her summer
home in the Fishkill hills, where, from
May until October, 1,400 feet above
the sea, they work together on views
in the surrounding valleys, or from
flowers culled from her old-fashioned
garden. Max goes, too, and welcomes
visitors to the mountain-top studio with
the same dignified grace that he shows
New York friends. Max is only a cat | ta :
but he has learned a thing or two from i Sah : Sa Sima
association and travel; he is a very Lm $i : on
cultivated cat, indeed. From Water Color Sketch ri Vos, . M. Scott.

Mrs. Scott does the most of her pic- “ ROSES.”

 

 

From Painting by Mrs. C. B. Coman.

‘* ADIRONDACK WOODS.”’
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

EARLY R

 
ND ARTISTS

MERICAN ART A

A

20

 

Drawn by Maria Brooks.

Drawn by Maria Brooks.

"

“ PINK SLIPPERS.

‘ MAKING FRIENDS,”
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 21

A PAINTER IN BLACK AND WHITE.

By PERRITON MAXWELL.

HURE DE THULSTRUP, a pen draughtsman of posi-
tive touch and facile execution, a painter of marked tech-
nical ability in the monochromatic mediums, an @®sthetic
industrian closely identified with American illustrative
art, and a man well versed in wars and travel, comes to
us from the chilly clime of storied Sweden, where he
was born, at Stockholm, in 1848.

Of Mr. de Thulstrup’s personal character and career
but little need there be said; it is the character and ca-
reer of his art, rather than that of the artist, which most

It will therefore suffice to remark that the youthful De Thul-

 

concerns the writer.
strup received one kind of education at the Royal Military Academy of Sweden,
from which institution he was in due time graduated with the usual honors ex-

pected of men predestined to renown and riches. Soon afterward Mr. de Thul-
strup took his first lessons in the larger school of life, and began that broader
education which is called experience, and which ends only with death. It was an
eventful period of our artist’s life when he went to bed one night an ordinary citi-
zen of Stockholm and awoke the neXt morning to find himself a soldier entitled to
wear the imposing uniform of a Swedish lieutenant of
artillery.

Then, tiring of this honor, he left his birthland and
journeyed southward. After knocking about the prin-
cipal cities of the Continent for a time, his military
predilections came to the surface again, and asserted
themselves so strongly that he joined the French army
and went to Algiers with the famous “ Legion Etran-
geres.” At this point of his life the future picturist of
American periodicals was quite convinced that he had
been born a warrior, and with this conviction firmly
fixed in his mind, he suffered but slight difficulty in
finding an abundance of rare entertainment and con-
genial employment during the Franco-Prussian con-
flicts of 1870-71. Perhaps it was because he experi-
enced some sudden revulsion against the grim carnage
and prosaic business of European warfare, or perhaps
it was merely to gratify a long-cherished desire to be-
come acquainted with the men and things of America,
that he set sail for this country in 1873. At all events,
the trend of his thoughts changed radically as soon
as he touched these shores. War and soldiery com-
pletely fled his mind, and very soon after his arrival
here the embryo illustrator was installed as a student

 

Thulstrup’s art career. It soon became evi- ol
dent that he would have no more of military
life excepting on paper and canvas. He had
relinquished his carbine for a stick of charcoal ;
he had abandoned his bayonet for a brush, and
henceforth his only battles were to be fought
with the none too easily conquered problems
of his new vocation.

Mr. de Thulstrup’s life as an illustrator
really dates from the publication of his first
drawings made for the old Daily Graphic of
New York. He remained in the service of —==
this journal for several years, and when he =
finally severed his connection with the Graphic, = | \
it was to become a special staff artist for Frank 7
Leslie’s periodicals. There is sufficient evi-
dence in this fact that Mr. de Thulstrup’s gifts
of versatility and sound workmanship were
early displayed and early appreciated. In 1881
he was engaged by Harper & Brothers as a
general illustrator for their publications, and
by this concern he is still actively employed.

Mr. de Thulstrup’s black and white productions are not to be too severely sub-
jected to the critical analysis which may more properly be bestowed upon his
work in color. And yet there are but few of his colored canvases that one would
willingly exchange for a single bit of brilliant technique from his pen point or one
of his spirited and broadly-executed paintings in black and white. More than
any other illustrator of the day is Mr. de Thulstrup a thorough technician. He is
a painter of pictures for the press. His illustrative work,
executed for the most part under high
pressure, has all of those nice artistic
qualities which the cultured eye first
looks for in a painting—honest brush-
work, good composition, and large sug-
gestiveness—and seldom are these pri-
mary paintorial virtues wanting. While
this holds true, it is also to be noted

    
 
   

    

  

“ SKETCH OF A MODEL.” BY T. DE THULSTRUP.

Er

             
     

hn
BRS

 
 

Sr

  

J oR
that the greater public of artless folk, 0
who ask only that their eyes be de- 7h
lighted, find full enjoyment in the con-

templation of Mr. de Thulstrup’s work.

There is a happy union of suave
subject and vigorous execution in all
he does. His men, women, and horses 4 Foes
are well-groomed and high-bred. nT 5
There does not seem to be any par-

  

in the then recently organized Art Students’ League
of New York. This was the initiatory act in Mr. de

   

Sketched from nature by

“STUDY OF AN INDIAN.” BY T. DE 7. de Thulstrup.

THULSTRUP. ‘SWEDISH PEASANT GIRL."

ticular reason for their existence, but
you are glad that they are alive, if it

Sketched from nature by 1.
de Thulstrup.

‘‘ SWEDISH PEASANT GIRL.”
22 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

is only because they offered acceptable material for Mr. de Thulstrup’s richly-
dowered tools. It would at first appear, if one may judge an artist's mental
equipment by means of his pictures, that here was a man whose perception of life
is as broad as Shakespeare's own. But Mr. de Thulstrup’s view of life is all upon
one side. He has met many persons whose manners charm. His characters have
many faces, and fall in admirably with their surroundings. The people of his
pictures are never tragic or morose ; they are remarkably well-behaved. They
smile and bow and make themselves agreeable to each other all the day, and you
long to see the spell of amiability broken. You cannot help wishing at times that
something calamitous would happen to disturb their oppressive equanimity. Still,
they are such worthy persons, and their characteristics are so well presented, that
you dismiss the desire for disturbance as something quite ungenerous, though
warranted. It would be a pleasurable experience to find in any drawing or paint-
ing of Mr. de Thulstrup’s making, some show of honest sentiment. He seems to
be either supremely contemptuous or studiously careless of the subtleties of
human emotion. It is hardly just to assume that he purposely ignores what may
be termed the sub-surface qualities of a picture—the psychical and sensory side.
And yet in none of his picturements, charmingly conceived and superbly executed
as most of them are, is it possible to find a fleck of poetic feeling.

It may be that Mr. de Thulstrup has no regard for what is called the spirituelle
or soulful part of a painting, and he is not to be condemned off-hand for that in
these days of numerous artistic dreamers who are without the power to acceptably
embody their fine visions on canvas. But be all this as it may, we have the fact
unmistakably fixed in pigment that the clever artist under consideration here,
elects to present in his own strongly individual way the common scenes of contem-
porary life in this and other lands ; the daily doings of the best persons in these
lands, and the whole presentment made surprisingly
real and vivacious as to the externals of things. In
the representation of soldiery and horses the story
om Mr. de Thulstrup has to tell is invariable, engaging,
; KYL and curiously dissimilar to his renderings of other

animated subjects. Especially in the violent action
of the horse does he display rare powers of obser-
vation and a knowledge of equine peculiarities
quite uncommon. His horses trot or gallop, rear
or plunge, balk or stand immovable but alert, at
the will or whim of his brush ; this vital activity. is
also part and parcel of his pictures of military life,
and one cannot refrain from inquiring, when view-
ing these stirring scenes, why some of the same viva-
cious movement and asserted feeling is not put into
the artist’s pictures of ordinary men of health and
lively affairs ?
Mr. de Thulstrup’s talent for recording the
bright facts of nature is unsurpassably fine, and it
Mg is with a deal of local pride and self-satisfaction
From a pencil sketch by T. de Thulstrup. that one calls to mind that the talent is a flower
“STUDY OF A GIRL.” native to our soil though sprung from an exotic

 

seed. What Mr. de Thulstrup lacks in divination and emotion he more than liber-
ally repays in profusion of themes and a never-failing cheerfulness. There is a
visual delightment in the familiar poses and no less familiar faces of his men and
women. Delightful are the grace and light-heartedness of his women, and
equally delightful the sturdy build and athletic proportions of his men.

It is beyond the grasp of mediocre skill to obtain such brilliant effects with so
small an expenditure of artistic effort as Mr. de Thulstrup is continually doing.
His is a consummate artistry, inherent to his nature ; as truly of himself as is his hair
or his complexion. It is to be expected that the alien who comes to this coast and
takes up with the necessarily unfamiliar ways of our life, should always retain a
few of his home-acquired habits and betray in one way or another his foreign
birth, and that upon the most momentous as well as upon the most insignificant
occasions.

But Mr. de Thulstrup has been saved from the common embarrassment because
he learned the artistic speech of the place of his adoption before so much as the
first principles of his own racial language of the brush and pencil had been taught
him. Though somewhat advanced in manhood when he came across the brine, he
was sweetly unconscious of the eminence he was one day to attain in the field of
American art. That he has fairly won his way to the top and holds at the moment
a position among the foremost illustrators of the day, is due altogether to his own
unceasing industry married to a singular acuity and vigor of pictorial perception.
The firmness of his touch and the charming idiosyncrasies of his method were
taught him in no school. His perfect drawing is purely the result of observation
and practice. There are no affectations or ob-
trusive mannerisms in his work. The pictures
he puts out of hand in these latter days are ac-
curate, clear, and frank expositions of objects
as they appear to normal eyes. He resorts to
no cheap subterfuge of art, and seeks to charm
more by his rugged sincerity and close adher-
ence to natural truths than by the subtler
schemes of pen point and brush.

The best work that Mr. de Thulstrup has
done is to be seen in the long gallery of black
and white paintings and sketches formed by
the recent volumes of the Harper periodicals.
Especially in the larger supplementary designs
issued with Harper's Weekly do we see him at
his best, and are afforded a closer view of his
present artistic capacity. To say that he will
perform many more brilliant feats of artistry in
the limited medium he has chosen to employ,
requires no special gift of prophecy. Such a
robust talent as that which is the happy posses-
sion of Mr. de Thulstrup must of necessity
expand and reach out after loftier things. He

 

Painting by T. de Thulstrup. : : :
Traced from the original by the artist. takes life very seriously now, but his serious-

“A SUMMER GIRL.” ness is that of a conscientious student absorbed
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 23

 

we

From a painting by Thure de 7 hulstrup.
THE TROIKA OR RUSSIAN THREE-HORSE SLEIGH.
24 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

in his studies. We cannot complain of his indifference to our pictorial incli-
nations. Though we get from him nothing but the hard realities of life, we get
them with a verve and freshness which warrant no dissatisfaction. The most casual
examiner of Mr. de Thulstrup’s effects must realize that his remarkable precision
of handling and assurance of outline does not come to him by a succession of happy
accidents ; the persistent la-
bor and careful analytical
study he puts into the sim-
plest of his drawings would
make the tyro at illustration
gasp with awe and admira-
tion. To what extent Mr.
de Thulstrup carries his
care for absolute truth, the
sketches and studies which
accompany this limited re-
view of his powers will
afford some comprehension.

The bold and free out-
lines of the young woman
seated on a camp-chair, with
her back toward the specta-
tor, is as good an example
of the artist’s supple man-
ner of pen-manipulation as
could be given. The close
studies of draperies in his
pencil memoranda, and the
spirited action of the me-
dieval cavalry-man and his
fiery mount, display the ver-
satility of the true illus-
trator, and show what sim-
plicity of style, coupled
with soundness of drawing,
will do for the depictor of
the ordinary. Very much at
ease is Mr. de Thulstrup in
his pictured environments.
Whether he be on the deck
of a transatlantic steamer, in the brougham of a Moneybags, or before the
belching cannons of fort or cruiser, the accessories of his illustrations are
just what they are in reality, and not composed in the studio for the bare
purposes of picturement. You entertain no doubt of his familiarity with the
ever-varying backgrounds against which his figures are posed. You soon learn
to trust him in the minor parts of a picture as you rely upon the veracity
of the camera. But the difference between the realism of the camera and the
realism of art is the difference between mechanism and thought—matter and

‘“ AN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY TYPE.” BY T. DE THULSTRUP.

 

 

mind—and when individuality stamps fancy and originality upon the thought,
comparison ceases absolutely.

The sphere of book and magazine illustration is one which yearly widens and
gathers to itself complexity. There are few men engaged professionally in the art
of illustration to-day who feel free to wander in every path which offers pictorial
posies for the mere plucking. The art is divided into specialties; this man is at
his best in character delineaments, and that one has shown himself a master in por-
trayals of marine life and oceanic episode. Still another illustrator is noted for his
skill in picturing the gay life of the metropolis, while the man in the studio next to
him confines himself to suburban views and people, or perhaps portrays with ex-
quisite delicacy the doings of an imaginative world and its fancied populace. None
but the men of widest experience and broad-
est culture are en- trusted to run the en-
tire gamut of modern illustration, and those
who are given this liberal privilege are
not only the men most worthy in their
art, but are the ones who would be most
easily ruined by con- finement to a solitary
spot in the broad do- main over which they
are wont to wander at will, absolute masters
of all they survey. In this choice company
of versatilists Mr. de Thulstrup holds a
prominent and re- spected place, and
very few of his pro- fessional compgers
are indeed more deeply deserving of
the high honors thrust upon them.

The habitation of Mr. de Thulstrup’s
genius is the America of to-day—of the
present moment—and thus domiciled he is
never at a loss for amusement amid his
congenial surround- ings. From his castle
of contemporaneity he reaches out a

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

strong arm of art, and Study for a painting by T. de Thulstrup. selects for his own
peculiar uses such Crh FaUnAL pave strong types and
pleasing phases of every-day existence

as most winsomely appeal to the numberless delvers in current illustrated jour-
nalism. He is still a young man, is Mr. de Thulstrup—young as artists go—with
a mind constantly engaged in conjuring new ideas and planning new campaigns
in the realm of art. Life has a favorable aspect to him now, for to succeed
in one’s calling and receive the substantial awards which ride with success is
more to the aspiring workman than all other pleasures. Happy in his life as
in his art—if it be permissible or even necessary to separate the two—Mr. de
Thulstrup is most deserving of congratulation. Of his future career as either a
monochromatic or multichromatic artist one may forecast many things agreeable.
Certain it is that further enlarging his scope of subjects and attuning his art to
the deeper and more resonant chords of human nature, he may be sure in the
future of holding the affection of the people whose present regard for him is
purely one of admiration.
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

THE MORAN FAMILY.
By FrRANCES M. BENSON.
(With previously unpublished illustrations by most of them.)

“ NopiLiTy and genius run in families,” it is said; but in this country, where
titles point to a man’s profession instead of his ancestors, genius ranks higher than
One man of
arts, letters, or sciences will raise a family from obscurity ; two may immortalize it.

It is rare indeed that any one family can boast of more than two clever mem-
bers. It sometimes happens that when one member has distinguished himself to
such an extent as to make the family name known in the land, a half dozen em-
ulators spring up amongst his kindred, who immediately begin preening themselves
in his reflected light, deceiving only themselves and the disinterested. When,
however, the several members mark out separate and distinct lines for themselves

any mere patent of prefix or possessions, and is the real nobility.

as individuals, and attain prominence in each particular line, the radiance is no
longer the flickering light of a single ray, but the fixed brilliancy of a many-pointed
star.

The Moran family is the most famous one in this part of the country for the ex-
tent and variety of the divine gifts lavished upon it by the custodian of genius. There
are sixteen members of
scape, animal, portrait,
etchers,and illustrators,
these are so near the
they are known as the

It is pretty generally
possible for an artist to
drudgery of labor is
genius, but the Apostles
humblest branches of
it is on record that
his younger days, was
house the customary
mings, and that he did
dreamer, carried a cam-
best known out-door
continent ; and Peter, the etcher, served an
apprenticeship with a lithographer, drawing
on stone the foundations of flaming advertisements. Thomas, the student, was the
delicate boy, but his later ambition stimulated his strength to such a degree that
for thirty years he has averaged twelve and thirteen hours a day of close work,
doing—besides his work in color—as much magazine and book illustrating as any
living man except Doré.

These four may be called the original Morans, Their wives and sons have
kept up the family traditions and extended its numbers by taking up painting

it who are marine, land-
and genre painters,
and an even dozen of
head of their class that
“Twelve Apostles.”

believed that it is im-
be practical; that the
beneath the dignity of
have not disdained the
their calling, Indeed,
Edward, the elder, in
not above giving a
three coats and trim-
it well ; that John, the
era until he became the
photographer on the

 

From an original etching by Stephen
¥. Ferris.

‘“ GRANDMA MORAN.”

 

25

under the tuition of husband and father, and, with the aid of family criticism, have
done wonderfully good work. The severest test for a Moran picture is the family
conclave, with its abundance of expert objection, and occasional bit of friendly
praise ; but in spite of discouragements, there is something in the atmosphere of the
Moran studios that insures success.

The original Morans, being musicians as well as artists, invariably married into
musical families. One wife has a magnificent voice, another is a superb pianist,
and the children have the genuine Moran touch upon stringed instruments. What

 

WY dha he
From etching by Peter Moran.

‘A SUMMER AFTERNOON.”

reunions this versatile family can have! Besides the common meeting ground of
pictures and music, there is among them a rare story-teller, brimming over with
reminiscences ; they have been the world over and brought back trophies and
memories exhaustless ; they have an intimate acquaintance with books and the
makers of them. Most of them have a close knowledge of stage people and appur-
tenances, and have played in small parts enough to get the inner life of that form
of the representation of nature.

It seems very like a poetic dream-life to go into the studios where velvet-coated
genius divides its attention between a palette and a pipe. There are luxurious
rugs, priceless tapestries, collections of swords, pipes, and musical instruments, with
26

here and there a gay bit
of color or the glint of
jewelled glass. You will
notice, however, that
there are not many
divans or lounging
places in these work-
shops. The occupants
are toilers to whom the
eight-hour system
would be a vacation.
They have made their
way to the front by no
freak of fortune, but by
constant application.
The elder Morans pio-
neered the way through
discouragements of poverty and environment; the younger generation, though
more favored in the selection of helpful surroundings, have had to work for an
individuality that would save them from being considered mere copyists. “That
is why we boys have cut loose from the marine and landscape of our fathers and
gone in for figures,” said one of the cleverest of the sons. “We were constantly
hearing about ‘second editions’ and ‘chips of the old block.” People criticised us
according to what our fathers accomplished before us, and from the start we were
handicapped by the great things expected of us. If our names had been Smith
instead of Moran, it would have been vastly easier for us to make ourselves known
on our own account.”

In spite of the artistic trend of the family, Edward Moran, the leader and teacher
of them all, does not believe in heredity ; he claims it is all due to circumstances.
Back of him, so far as anybody knows, there wasn’t even a sign painter. The

From painting by Peter Moran.

“ SUMMERTIME."

 

From painting by Peter Moran.

‘ PLOUGHING.”

  

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

From painting by Paul Nimmo Moran.

A SIESTA.”

ancestors were handloom weavers in and about Lancashire, England, and the
children of each generation grew up in the factories, with lives woven in and out
with the woof of the week’s work.

Edward was the eldest of fourteen children, and began to be a wage-earner from
the time he could reach the web, as was customary in that district. His first lesson
in art was from a French neighbor who was famous the country round for decorat-
ing the interiors of the modest homes with animals and sprawling vines, when he
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 27

PO Bic

 

From a painting by Edward Moran.
HENDRICK HUDSON, FIRST SHIP ENTERING NEW YORK HARBOR, SEPTEMBER II, 1609.
AMERICAN

28

was not wheeling potatoes to support his fam-
ily. He found time to teach the nine-year-
old Edward to cut marvellous figures from
paper, and afterward to draw the outlines of
them on walls and fences. Boylike, Edward
did not stop there, but was guilty of tracing
them even on the white cloth in his loom. One
day, when his piece of cloth came to the
measurement by hooking, it was found that
fifteen yards had been disfigured with charcoal
sketches, and the graceless weaver, instead of
being reprimanded as he probably deserved, was dismissed with the advice to drop
the shuttle and take up the crayon altogether.

Soon after that the entire family came to America in search of new fortune and less
They settled in Mary-

   

From painting by Edward Moran.

)

‘“ BELL BUOY.’

crowded factories.
land, but the prospect of a continual grind
was too much for Edward. There would
still be no opportunity to study, nothing
to learn but machinery. He did up his be-
longings in one big red handkerchief, and,
with twenty-five cents in his pocket, walked
to Philadelphia, begging food as he could by
the way. Then came the tug-of-war ; with
no money, no friends, no trade except the
despised one of a factory hand, it was a pro-
longed struggle between starvation and the
determination never to go back to the loom.

He went to work with a cabinet-maker and afterward in a bronzing shop, and
to this day the skilful artist is quite at home with the tools of those trades.
him a glue-pot and a piece of string, and he will accomplish wonders.

   

From painting by Edward Moran.

‘“ SEA MELODIES.”

Give
However,

there was no painting in that, and he gave up a comfortable berth to take a job of

 

 

 

 

From etching by M. Nimmo Moran.
‘A LONG LANE.”

ART AND ARTISTS.

house-painting, believing it to be a step along the line he had marked out for
himself. Outdoor work in cold weather with a three-pound brush stiffening in his
hands was more than he bargained for, and he finally went back to the factory,
where the future painter of some of the grandest ocean scenes of his day was
seemingly swallowed up in a superintendent of machinery, at the munificent salary
of six dollars a week. It was his business to keep the looms in repair and in
action, and if he was smart enough to do that and draw a little besides, he explained
One

day the proprietor walked in while he was industriously engaged in finishing off a

to his conscience that he was fulfilling the spirit of the law, if not the letter.

most interesting bit of black and white, and then there was a cool acknowledg-
ment that the artist had been appropriating whole half-hours whenever the super-
intendent was able to crowd them in, and that he felt perfectly justified in defy-
ing man’s regulations to make use of the talent the Creator had given him. Strange
to say, the proprietor agreed with him; asked permission to call at his little bare
room to look over the sketches already made, and finally gave him a letter of
introduction to James Hamilton, a Philadelphia artist.

That was really the beginning of the end. Edward opened a studio in an attic
room over a cigar store, with an entrance up a back alley, furnished it luxuriously
with one chair and a New York Herald to sleep upon, and for three months alter-
nately worked and starved. When he was the hungriest a lithographer asked him if
he could draw on stone, and as he would have considered it flying in the face of
Providence to acknowledge that he had never seen the stone referred to, he cheer-
fully accepted the conditions and the position, depending on his mother wit to
help him through. He succeeded in earning seventeen dollars before the firm
went to pieces, and in the meantime painted two pictures that were purchased

by a Philadelphia collector. This gentleman gave him his first commission,

 

From etching by M. Nimmo Moran.

‘ UNDER THE OAKS."
AMERICAN ART

 

‘“ AN OLD NEW ENGLAND ORCHARD.”

agreeing to pay him one hundred dollars for a certain amount of work properly
executed.

When the family heard of this turn of fortune, they moved to Philadelphia in
order to give the younger boys a chance. One after another they went into
Edward’s studio, and took their first lessons from the big brother who had been so
brave-hearted and persevering, and to this day he is very proud of having started
them on careers so successful.

It was in this studio, years after, that the celebrated “ Bohemian Council” met
once a week. The class was composed of actors, literary men, and musicians, and
after rehearsal on Wednesday afternon such men as Joe Jefferson, Couldock, Louis
James, F. F. Mackey, Bishop, and like celebrities visiting Philadelphia, formed a
semicircle around the teacher, who for one hour did all the work and all the talk-
ing. The first lesson was devoted to putting black and white together in irregular
forms, teaching the use of the pigment. Next, each form was turned to account,
as the students chose, to show how easily a definite object could be made from
indefinite outlines. After that the three primary colors and white were used, then
another color added, and so on, until in ten lessons the distinguished gentlemen
were turned out full-fledged painters in theory, if not in practice. After each les-
son was finished, there was smoking, music, readings, and story-telling until time to
adjourn to lunch across the way. Newspaper men reported the witty sayings of
the “ Bohemian Council,” and if the minutes were in existence to-day, they would
be eagerly pounced upon by publishers and readers.

There is a very amusing illustration of the grit of the founder of the family,
which, it is safe to say, pervades the whole. Edward became a member of the
Academy of Fine Arts, which received a charter from the State of Pennsylvania,

AND ARTISTS.

 

From etching by Stephen F. Ferris.

‘THE CONNOISSEUR "DOMINGO.

and was supposed to encourage home talent. Unfortunately for native artists,
some of the directors had made a collection of German pictures, and when the
exhibition opened, it was found that these importations filled the line to the
exclusion of American artists, whether Academicians or not. Edward decided that
he had some privileges as a member, and one of them was to show his contempt
for cheap foreign pictures and the collectors of them. Varnishing day came; he
had been invited to varnish, and as the committee did not specify the kind of var-
 

30 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

Za

From painting by Edward Moran. From water-color sketch by Paul Nimmo Moran.

 

“ LEIF ERICKSON'S EXPEDITION TO AMERICA IN THE YEAR 100L " ‘ THE SOCIAL COLUMN."
.nish te be used, Mr.
Moran concluded to var-
nish his pictures to suit
himself. He boiled to-
gether beer and bottled
porter, adding dry light
red until he had two
quarts of an opaque
liquid that was war-
ranted to tint a canvas
a beautiful red, without
injuring the colors be-
neath it. Taking his
“varnish” and a ladder

i
Fk a UR

““ A STATEN ISLAND STUDY.”

best way to punish the impudent artist was to

throughout the exhi-
bition, placarding
them to the effect that
the artist had deliber-
ately defaced them
after hanging. The
daily papers took it
up, arguing for or
against the American
pictures that had been
skied : people flocked
to see the cause of the
commotion and to side
with foreign or domes-
tic art, and, after all,
the red pictures were
the feature of the

From painting by Edward Moran.

From painting by Annette Moran.

AMERICAN ART

 
   

‘ NEW YORK, FROM THE BAY.”

provided by the Academy, he
went to each of his pictures,
carefully obliterated them with
the red, and climbed down to
view his latest work with a sat-
isfaction that was appalling to
the by-standers, who thought
him suddenly demented. The
sixth picture was hung over an
opening where the ladder would
not go, so he took a pocket-
knife and neatly cut the canvas
from the frame.

Of course, there was a bed-
lam of indignation among the
directors, but they decided the
let the blurred pictures hang

 

From painting by Edward Moran.

‘‘ RIDING OUT A GALE.”

 

AND ARTISTS. 31

 

From water-color sketch by Leon Moran.

‘THE MATADOR.”

exhibition. The attendance was so large, the directors advertised to keep the
exhibition open two weeks longer, but on what was to have been the closing day
Edward Moran removed his pictures and let the directors continue the two weeks
with the German views. The red canvases were laid on the studio floor, and with
a bucket of water and a floor mop their faces were washed clean and bright,
apparently none the worse for the unusual treatment. Matthew Baird, an art
lover, whose patriotism and sense of justice had been aroused by the controversy,
purchased the entire lot, rented prominent windows, and during the two weeks
disvlayed them as “expatriated pictures.” It was the best advertisement the artist
32 AMERICAN

ever had, and instead of being crushed by the action of the hanging committee,
Moran came out triumphant, richer by far in fame and pocket than when he went
into the contest.

He had decided to leave Philadelphia, but before going wanted to show his
good will toward the place. The government was asking help for the sufferers of
thé Franco-Prussian War. Moran gave an exhibition of all his pictures he could
get together; got up the first illustrated catalogue printed in this country, drawing
the reproductions on stone himself, and gave the proceeds of admission fee and
catalogue sale to the fund, besides painting a special picture, called “The Relief

 

From pcinting by Thomas Moran

‘“A LONG ISLAND LANDSCAPE.”

Ship entering Havre,” which the Union League Club purchased for eight hundred
dollars.

Annette, the wife of Edward, was a Southern girl who had merely dabbled with
paint tubes in boarding-school fashion before she met her husband. Now she is
his severest critic and, he says, his ablest one. Some of her landscapes have been
reproduced as studies for others, but of recent years she has béen content as a
home-keeper rather than as an artist.

Percy and Léon, their sons, are the youngest painters of prominence in New
York. They work together until it is almost impossible to even pronounce the
names separately, and yet there is a striking individuality in the work of each.
One delights in figures of modern ladies, and the other in last-century gentlemen.

faithful copying of what the eye sees.

ART AND ARTISTS.

v

 
   

From painting by Edward Moran.

)

‘‘ LIFE-BOAT GOING TO THE RESCUE.’

Both have made a study of early English, French, and American costumes, and are
in such demand for historical work that they have little time for anything else.
They are conscientious workers, never descending to fantastic catchpenny meth-
ods to attract public favor, and with an exquisite use of color combine an unusual
grace of motive.

Thomas Moran is the landscape painter of the family, and he is the hardest-
working one of the lot. Although not of robust build, his endurance is marvellous,
and he may frequently be found in his studio from early morning until midnight.
There is not a process of photography, lithographing, or etching, but he is famil-
iar with it, and his experiments since 1860 have been embodied, by request, in a
collection of over four hundred pictures, prints, plates, and sketches, which will be
exhibited at the Denver Art League as a complete history of the development of
an American artist during the last thirty years. For his mastery of the processes,
and his exact knowledge of cause and effect in nature, Thomas Moran has been
dubbed the “scientist-artist,” and his pictures of the Yellowstone are almost authori-
tative on rock formations and waterways. He does not believe in the merely
For that reason he spends months at a time
studying how the hills are builded and the valleys cut away, and then comes home,
to paint from memory and the laws of nature, the pictures that have no equal in
American landscape.

Mary Nimmo Moran, who is one of the best women etchers in the country,
never touched a brush to canvas until she married Thomas; but she found if they
were to be congenial she must understand her husband’s pursuits. Under his guid-
ance she took up drawing, water-color and oil, and the family, children and all,
went off on sketching trips, working out of doors during the long summer months.
When Thomas went West for three months’ roughing it among the Rockies, he
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 33

 

Livom a painting by Thomas Moran.

SCENE IN VENICE.
34

coated six plates and suggested that his wife
try her hand at etching while he was gone. It
seemed utterly absurd to her to attempt it in the
absence of her teacher, but as he had carefully
explained the theory of the use of the point,
the least she could do was to put it in practice.
No indoor copying for her, though; she took
her plates right out of doors, made a little pre-
liminary drawing on paper, and went to work.
When the husband returned, he pronounced these
plates to be funny-looking things, and two of
them not worth putting under acid. The other
four were bitten, and there was a good deal of
Moran amusement over what the perpetrator
was frankly informed were “jolly queer etch-
ings.” She did not think much of them herself,
but, strange to say, the Society of Painter-
Etchers of New York decided them to be of
great artistic merit, and on the strength of them elected the lady to membership.
Then the same four were sent to the exhibition of Painter-Etchers of London,
where they were all well hung, and the committee, supposing M. Nimmo Moran
to be a man, voted him—or rather her—into membership with that august body—
the first woman admitted to the charmed circle. Since then, Mrs. Moran has done
about seventy plates, which have put her in the front rank of New York etchers.
Thomas and Mary Nimmo are perhaps the most noted couple of the family,
but their two daughters inherit the talent for music and not for art. The son
Paul has both gifts to a generous degree,
being a remarkably fine violinist, one of the
best mandolinists in the city, and an artist
as well. He has not had the life-long studio-
training given his cousins, because his father
was afraid of biassing his career, insisting
that he would rather his son should be a
good bricklayer from choice than a poor
artist from influence. In obedience to the
parental wish, Paul went about the world
searching for an education and a vocation,
but finally returned with the conviction that
he would rather be a poverty-stricken artist,
if need be, than make money in any other
profession, and now father and son are work-
ing side by side. Paul is essentially a painter
of American subjects, believing there is
ample opportunity for the native brush in
the varying types of different sections.
Peter Moran is the animal painter and
etcher. Being the youngest of the original
four, he followed the example of his elders,

 

From water-color sketch by Percy Moran.

‘ WAITING FOR BREAKFAST."

 

From water-color sketch by Leon Moran.

‘“ THE MINUET.”

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

learning lithographing and engraving, but the
studio of Edward and Thomas had more attrac-
tion for him than the store, and he spent every
spare moment making experiments with his
brothers’ paints. He tried marines with Edward

  
  
  

and landscapes with Tom, and soon became

  

convinced that he would succeed in neither.
Animals were undoubtedly his forte. He began
the study of animal anatomy, and in the mean-
time earned a living as a scene painter and as
an actor of small parts with Mrs. John Drew in the Philadelphia theatre.
he had put by sufficient means for a trip to England, he went over to study the
works of Landseer and Constable, with an occasional landscape as a background,
and when he returned, received a medal at the Centennial Exhibition for his pict-

 

From painting by Edward Moran.

‘* HENRY HUDSON."

When

ure, “ The Return of the Herd.”

In those days etching was an entirely neglected art, and Peter's collection of
one on exhibition in
ment. . Since then,
of the revival of etch-
more prolific with the
two hundred plates
signature, including
extreme West, where
years among Indians
is now president of
Society of Etchers,
Art Club, and teacher
ahd composition in

fourteen was the only
the American depart-
in all the enthusiasm
ing, few have been
point than he, over
going out with his
many views of the
he lived for several
and Mexicans. He
the Philadelphia
vice-president of the
of painting, etching,
the Woman's Art School, keeping up the family reputation for industry.

Peter Moran's wife was one of his best students, but has always been reluctant
to enter the public lists. She has done a large number of etchings, noticeable for
boldness of line and picturesque effects, but it has been more to keep in touch
with her husband than to acquire fame or fortune. Their son Charles, like a
true Moran, began making pictures before he was out of his swaddling clothes,
and bids fair to become one of the illustrators of the future.

John Moran was the first,
and for many years the only ar-
tistic landscape photographer
in America. He was sent by
the government on the expe-
dition to the Isthmus of Darien,
and around the globe to Cape
Town during the transit of
Venus. The family bent was
strong in him, however, and
he developed into a landscape
painter after all. His pictures
are rarely seen, because he is

  

HSE

ad iy < »
From painting by Edward Moran.

‘“ THE PATROL.”

   

From painting by Edward Moran.
** SHRIMPERS."’
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 35

one of those delightfully impractical geniuses one reads about—he is in the. world
but not of it. His life is bound between book covers, and when he comes in
contact with the outside existence, it is as a leaf torn from the binding, flutter-
ing aimlessly in the wind. Of his two sons, Horace is a designer and Sidney an
illustrator.

There is one other member of the Moran family who deserves mention, because
as a sister of the original four she brought into the family, by marriage, the best
portrait painter and etcher in Philadelphia. Elizabeth Moran Ferris has done little
herself with brush or pencil, but, as she once expressed it, she has “held the light
for husband and son to work by, standing between them and the petty cares of
life, that they might pursue their work unhampered.” Stephen J. Ferris, the
husband, is equally well known for his portraits in oil or water color ; and etchings,
both originals and reproductions. Gerome Ferris, the son, is an exceedingly good
colorist, with the true artist soul. His figures are the daintiest creations imagi-
nable, and his drawing is strong and free.

Such is a brief outline of the working members of the Moran family.

Known chiefly as manipulators of brush and pigment, they are, almost to an
individual, practised and original illustrators. In this difficult and exacting
branch of art not a few of the Morans have won their first laurels and earned
their first dollars. Of the entire family, however, Thomas Moran is the most
widely known and most versatile illustrator. Long years ago-—in the fifties, to
be definite— Thomas Moran, after a fashion of his own, necessarily crude and unsat-
isfactory at that time, produced effects with metal plates and printing blocks that
are to-day, in a more perfect form, in almost universal employment. Mr. Moran’s
predilection in the graphic arts was—and, indeed, is now, unless mistake has been
made—for etching and plain lithography. With the other members of the Moran
clan, reproductive work has been confined for the most part to pen-and-ink drawing.

 

From painting by Leon Moran.

‘ THE BACHELOR'S BREAKFAST,”

Percy and Léon Moran have won great distinction as illustrators, the deftness of
their execution and the daintiness of their themes making their work exceptionally
attractive to publishers.

What one has to consider in reviewing the achievements of this remarkable
family of artists is not so much the vastness of its collective genius as the
unceasing industry and enormous production of its individual members. In all
the years that the Morans of one branch and another have engaged in artistic per-
formance there has been no discoverable waning of either power or accomplish-
ment on the part of any of them. With the passing of each year the oldest as
well as the youngest of this gifted circle of relatives give indications of ripening
knowledge and more extended skill. It is as if these Morans were a tribe of
hunters who yearly went in quest of precious prey, each of the tribe betaking him-
self or herself to a section of the land left unexplored, and all returning to a
common rendezvous at a given time, tumbling their treasures before the delighted
eyes of the public, and seeking for themselves so little credit for their pains, that
many are led to forget the contented explorers in viewing the outcome of their
intelligent exploration.

But to cast off metaphor for lucid facts, let it be noted, in summing up the
value of the Moran family to contemporary art, that whatever their failures, their
shortcomings, or their fruitless ambitions, they were at no time guilty of
insincerity or intolerance for the ways of others. To what extent this breadth
of mental view has enabled them, one and all, to attain artistic honor and renown
it is not for the writer to assert. That each one of them is deserving of whatever
part of beneficent fortune has fallen to his or her lot, cannot be denied by those
who know the common geniality, the fresh talent, and the honesty of effort which
so strongly characterizes this group of blood-bonded artists. The history of the
Moran family is to a great extent the history of American art. That the future
@sthetic production of this country will also embrace a long line of Morans is not
improbable, and if the Morans of the future are as gifted as those of the present
their coming is to be earnestly hoped for.

But, come what may, the work which bears the signature of any of the Morans
will unquestionably be worthy of notice and have upon it the thumb-marks of
talent. They are a rare company, are these Morans, and what they have done in
the past, as well as what they are likely to do in time to come, will at least be
individual, if not wholly remarkable. But what commendation could be greater?

   

From etching by Emily Moran.

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From a painting by Peter Moran.

 

 

  
A DECORATIVE. ILLUSTRATOR.

By PERRITON MAXWELL.

(With original illustrations by George W. harton Edwards.)

SoME months less than thirty years ago there lived and frolicked in the little
town of Fairhaven, Connecticut, a bright-eyed, brown-haired youngster who devel-
oped, along with a remarkably robust appetite and an equally robust love of fun, a

richly dowered fancy
for decorating local
and dog-houses with
charcoal and in the
of untutored boy art.
happy, no longer exists,
tion, his aptitude for
ures, and his whole-
humor still remain and
the person of the man
knows to-dayasGeorge
lustrator, painter, and

About the time that
the awful discovery
doors and curb-stones
borhood of his home
period offered a smooth
for his budding art-

 

and a decided penchant
barn-doors, well-curbs,
the aid of chalk or
most approved style
The boy, careless and
but his brisk imagina-
limning pleasing pict-
some affection for
flourish vigorously in
whom the art world
Wharton Edwards—il-
writer.

young Edwards made
that there were no more
in the immediate neigh-
which had not at some
and tempting medium
istry, he tendered to

those who would give him ear a complete confession of his innermost desire to
wield the artist's brush, live under a roof of glass, and wear a palette on his thumb.

It was not very long after this

 

 

 

‘“ SANS CUPID.”

open avowal of his chief ambition that there

 

‘“ FISHER BOY.”

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

began to appear in the magazines odd bits of illus-
tration, sparkling, strengthful, and wholly new.
These drawings gave birth to no little comment in
circles of art, and speculation was fired by the query
as to who this new man brandishing the name of
Edwards could be, and from whence he hailed.
Curiosity upon this point was soon appeased. The
name of the new-comer appeared with pleasing fre-
quency upon charming sketches in all the foremost
periodicals of the day, and now—well, it is quite
exceptional if one can pick up an important illus-
trated magazine at random and fail to find between
its covers at least one picture done in line or “ wash,”
and signed by George Wharton Edwards.

With the sprouting of his first mustache Mr.
Edwards came to New York, bringing with him a
shrivelled purse and a generous fund of hope for

37

 

Caray ANURIIN ESWARSS

CHARACTER SKETCH.

great artistic success. He made decorative designing his specialty at the outset,
believing that in this department of practical esthetics lay the pleasantest and

 

‘THE BALLET GIRL."

most immediate monetary
rewards. In this special
line he displayed at an early
day that rare good taste,
that refined feeling for form
beauty, and the same acute
and subtle imagination
which have all along distin-
guished his work. The
effect of this early practice
in the department of the
decorative has been unmis-
takably exploited in every
one of the artist's serious
productions. However irk-
some may have been these
early endeavors, the amount
of good it has done Mr.
Edwards in an artistic way
is quite incalculable, and
not to be regretted by those
who discern and understand
the best that is in his pic-
torial output. To be sure,
his style has changed per-
ceptibly with the passing of
theyears; thereisless florid-
ity and frillment now than
in by-gone days, but none
 

AMERICAN ART

of his fellow-illustrators—or
brushmen, for the matter of
this—has surpassed him in the
freshness of his fancy or the
gracefulness of his execution.

It was the good fortune of
Mr. Edwards that he was not
compelled to waste the valu-
able hours of his youth in a
foreign art-school. He would
have gained but little from the meagre curric-
ulum of the big Parisian or Munich ateliers.
His touch might have become more bold, but
then the rare quality of delicacy which we most
admire in this man’s work would be absent. He
handled the draughtsman’s tools by a sort of
instinct, and by instinct learned to draw. He
taught himself how to swim in the great and turbulent sea of art by first plunging
into the deepest part of it. His courage and industry have enabled him to keep
upon the surface almost from the start.

It was a happy day when the youthful Edwards threw off the shackles of one
publisher to work for the whole fraternity of book and magazine makers. The

 

“ unc’ REMUS.”

 

‘OLD SETTLER.”

 

Society of American Artists, 1891.

‘“ EARLY MOONRISE.”

AND ARTISTS.

 

SR TaN Zon Rvy,

*“ A PIECE OF NEWS.”
latter were not slow to appreciate the products of his facile pencil. When assured
of the sweets of success, he decided to be something of a painter as well as an
illustrator of merit. Though to-day illustrative work is Mr. Edwards’ prime voca-
tion, painting is to him something more than a mere matter of recreation. Year
after year witnesses the completion of at least one notable canvas, to say nothing
of a dozen or more breezy water-colors and an occasional pastel. The most pleas-
AMERICAN ART

ing thing about Mr. Edwards’
monochromatic pieces is the dash
he gets into them ; the deftness
of his handling and the cunning
of his conception, which tickle
the fancy and delight the eye.
In these accomplishments he
reminds us to a certain extent
of Louis Leloir, with something
of the fruitful fantasy and rich
grotesqueries of Doré’s earlier
period. But in Mr. Edwards’
work is that which Leloir never
owned, and that which Doré
sought but could not attain—the force of feeling in the first; the knack of linear
accuracy in the last. Mr. Edwards’ pictorial expression is that of the man who has
something to say, and understands how to convey his message with the clearness
of graphic speech and the precision of artistic statement.

About ten years ago Mr. Edwards made an unconventional journey in search of
the picturesque through Belgium, Holland, England, France, and Spain : a journey
that inspired many clever illustrations and a score of brilliant short stories ; for be
it known of those who are not informed in the matter, that Mr. Edwards is quite
as ready and refreshing with his writer's pen as with his artist’s brush and pencil.

 

‘“ BRITTANY PEASANTS, ST. MALO.”

 

‘“ THE SISTERS."

 

 

AND ARTISTS. 39

He has since spent three years in
Holland and several summers in
the less frequented parts of France,
to the vast enrichment of his pri-
vate portfolios and the pages of
the periodicals. Among the good
things of life that have fallen
within the grasp of Mr. Edwards
are a luxurious studio, an intense
affection for his work, an amiable
temperament, and a boxful of
medals won by the merit of as
many charming pictures. Though
still a comparatively young man,
he has turned out of hand much
that an older artist might claim with pardonable pride. His art is his own.

It remains for the future to reveal whether or not the indications which now
point to an exceptionally brilliant career will be fulfilled in Mr. Edwards. To
say that his accomplishments up to the present moment have been as notable as
they have been praiseworthy does not carry with it the implication that Mr.
er Edwards has not in store for
/ us numerous novel and brilliant
picturements. ~The subjects
selected by him are in the main
simple in character, though
often daring in composition
and unique in treatment. But
in mentally reviewing all his
work I can recall nothing that
is not in a cheerful vein; and
one owes much to the man who
can cast a ray of sunshine from
his brush. There is something
more definite than mere ex-
pectation—something, indeed,
that is tantamount to a con-
viction of greater things to
come—springing from an ex-
amination of Mr. Edwards’
more notable feats in black
and white. An illustrator who
has the boon of an exuberant
imagination and the acquired
faculty of abounding artistic
skill is lifted much above his
professional fellows even in
these days of wide-spread tal-
ent and manifold endeavors,

 

‘ BRITTANY PEASANT." ** BRITTANY PEASANT.”

 

‘“ A DUTCH SEWING=GIRL."
 

40 AMERICAN ART

and such is the present status of George Wharton Edwards
in the thriving kingdom of native art. To men of his mould
one may confidently turn for a clear and concise exposition
of the best that exists at the moment in American illustration.
It has often been feared, none the less, by those who are

at the pains to closely study and analyze the handicraft of
Mr. Edwards, that a talent so diversified as is his may event-
ually lead him from whatever strength of personality he now
possesses ; that the very charm of his drawings—this
charm being definable as unlikeness and novelty of
execution—may prove their ultimate unacceptability. >
While it might be an easy task for Mr. Edwards to -
unwittingly demolish himself by his own versatility, such a
fate is quite unlikely to befall him now, for he has shown in
his work of late a jealous regard for certain peculiarities of
style denoting clearly his recognition of a possible calamity.
The sketches which form an accompaniment to these remarks
very forcibly demonstrate the mobile quality of Mr.
Edwards’ artistry. While his many methods of ob-
taining similar results do not in any instance sug-
gest the work of others, there is such a wide vari-
ance in.their general appearance that one must
needs look for Mr. Ed- wards’ signature to assure
himself that this and that drawing are from his hand.
~The perfect ease with which the artist has secured
his effect in the sketch of a fisher boy on page 83;
the pleasing c¢/4ic of the character notes in his Brit-
y tany peasants on page 9o,

and the fine decorative
quality of his painting
ol Early Moonrise,” repro-
duced on page 87, declare
their maker a man of singular artistic acumen. It would
be difficult indeed to get greater expression with slighter
effort than Mr. Edwards has done with a few swift

  
  
 
  
 
    
  
 

* DANCING FIGURE.”

 

“ FAUN.”

 

pen ‘strokes in his little ‘sketch of “ Unc’ Remus.”

In the “Old Settler” the character is much more

Lon laboriously obtained, and the whole effect less

: spontaneous and forceful, but the truth of nature

is faithfully recorded. Based on the actualities

of nature, Mr. Edwards builds his pictorial themes

A as Aldrich, Dobson, and Swinburne build their

i: gl \ rhymes—fusing with facts that subtle something
Ni 1] which, for lack of terms more comprehensive, we

\ —~ call the poetic instinct or a feeling for the finer
Be uy A ener] harmonies of art. No happier union in art can

\
r be imagined than that which comes about at long

“AN OLD AUNTIE.” intervals between fancy and fact; it is like the

 

ARTISTS.

AND

marriage of Adonis and the grocer’s daughter
on the next block.

After all, one can only take what is put
forth, and if an artist has done his work with
some show of sincerity, he is worthy of the
highest praise. A conscientious person is
bound to accomplish many creditable things,
and when with conscience an artist mixes
uncommon natural gifts he befits himself for
the most coveted places of his profession.
To George Wharton Edwards must be ten-
dered the praise of those who love art for its
sake as well as for its utility. He has grasped
the lessons, severe and inspiring, taught by
art, and has welded to such knowledge the
information vouchsafed those only who have
battled on the field of commercial affairs.
In a phrase, Mr. Edwards has in him those
laudable ‘qualities which, rightly cultivated,
produce great artists who occasionally are
also great men.

The commendable care with which Mr.
Edwards turns out of hand his most trifling,
as well as his most ambitious picturements, is
a fine lesson to tyros. It is not enough for
him to paint an important picture with a
lavishment of his greatest skill ; he is entirely unsatisfied unless he has-put in his
minor efforts the same consideration, the same solicitude for the general effect of
the finished production. Not by this, however, do I mean that his work is labored
and overwrought, for the contrary is true; and in the cc and airy execution of
both his paintings and illustrations lies his main power.

‘ CHEVALIER SANS PEUR.”

 

 
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 41

women with a touch of allurement
hidden somewhere beneath their eye-
lids or corsage. The religious devo-
tee will outline his heroine in serene
AN. ALL AROUND ARTIST. and lofty pose, and the purely clas-
sical, intellectual student will give
her the brow of Diana and the poise

 
 
 
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
  

By F. HOPKINSON SMITH.

(With original illustrations by Charles S. Reinhart.) and coldness of a Greek goddess.
Between every touch of each man’s

THE successful illustrator of to-day must be a man brush one will read something of the
of pronounced originality of thought. He must not artist’s inner self.
only see clearly, interpret unerringly, and express forci- The painter, therefore, who has

bly the subject matter of the author, but his own the purest and best ideals of life is

personality must be strong enough and pro- safest to be entrusted with the work

nounced enough to make his work individual, if of an equally pure and high-minded

not wholly unique. This personality may be a author: it would be difficult to imag-
\ disagreeable personality, either upon the ground ine Ary Scheffer illustrating Zola’s
of good taste, morality, or refinement, but it will “Nana,” or Vibert making serious
never become commonplace. studies of the early martyrs.

A coarse-minded man will invariably depict his In this connection the illustrator
1s to a certain extent a critic, or, to
be more exact,
an essayist. One
false stroke un-
settles the read-
er’'s mind, and ‘“ A STREET IN CORNWALL."
destroys the writ-
er’s conception. The responsibility then becomes a grave one ;
public, publisher, and author being interested in a perfect
harmony of thought and interpretation between the pen of the
writer and the brush of the draughtsman.

Next to the equipment of heart comes the equipment of
mind. An all around illustrator, to be perfect in his art, must

 
   
 
 
   
  
 
 
 
  

 

 

 

 

  
    
     
 
  
 
 
 

be a _ historian, must oo know costumes and furni-
ture, arms, implements ki _4 and interiors, architecture,
topography of the sev- [i i= & eral localities, habits of the
Al |
GT a
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Lua —— Se

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ai

re

\)

    
  
 

 
 

    

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42 1 re
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RE) lil] es

Ss. RN i . Mids Cans ae
A) Wan ya
* A PATIQ IN GRANADA.” ES

‘ MOORISH WATER-WHEEL, VALENCIA.”
42 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

peopleand their economies
of life. He must, at the
same time, be thoroughly
conversant with all the
forms and requirements of
the society immediately
about him. He must be
a man of the world, know
the clubs, the cafés, and
counting-rooms as well as
he does the boudoir, after-
noon tea, and tennis field.
He must keep pace with
the fashions, and recog-
nize the difference between
a Prince Albert coat worn
with a silk hat and high
collar, and the enormity
of the same garment with
a turn down collar and a
Derby. He must be able
to harness a coach, yoke a
pair of oxen, or tuck the
pillows in a baby carriage ;
must hunt, fish, and ride
cross country ; in short, be
thoroughly equipped to
express, at a moment’s no-
tice, in form and color,

 

A PORTRAIT.

every single item in a
daily paper, whether it
is a murder, a wedding,
a horse race, or the
opening of Congress.
Of course, if he
chooses, he can be a
specialist, and only do
pretty girls in flowing
gowns, without back-
grounds or accessories.
Or he can be an aniinal
painter, with a limited
experience of coaching
parades and dog shows,
with all the beautiful
women and correct
“LE TREPORT.” fashions left out; or a

 

 

‘“ A FIGHT IN A CANADIAN SHANTY."
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
 
  
 
  
 
 
  
  
 
 
  
  
 
 
 
 
  
 
  
 
  
  
 
 
 
   
  
 
 
 
 
 

nautical man, and paint yachts and ocean craft ;
but if he is to aspire to the position of an all
around illustrator, he must be as thoroughly
equipped as the leading editor of a great metro-
i politan daily, who in five minutes after
the receipt of news from any quarter
of the globe, can give you a thoroughly
digested, thoughtful commentary,
which will carry interest and perhaps
convictions the next day to a city
full of readers.
It will be admitted at once that
however rare such a man may be in
journalistic fields, even when only a purely
intellectual outfit is required, it is infi-
nitely more rare to find these same quali-
ties in a man with the additional knowledge of
the painter’s art. A knowledge, too, that is not
superficial or half acquired, but as thoroughly
mastered as the keyboard of the instrument of
a great pianist, or the type on a printed page.
That the world has given us few such men
is not to be wondered at when we realize that
the art of the illustrator is hardly twenty years
old, and that only in the past decade has it taken
its place as one of the great progressive arts of
the century. It really has only kept step with
photography on wood, with the modern school
of wood-engravers, and the more recent photo-
reproductive processes ; and last, and by no
means least, with the development of the three
or four great magazines which spread broad-
cast, every year, over the length and breadth
of our land literally millions of copies filled
with pictures of a quality, finish, and artistic
excellence never conceived of a score of
X years ago.

Among the men of our time who, through
this very equipment of heart, mind, and
training, have risen to the very first rank in
their profession, and who by their strong
personality, thorough artistic qualities, and
felicity of expression, still hold that po-
sition by the side of the foremost
illustrators of the day, stands our
own Charles Stanley Reinhart.

Were there space, it would be quite within the province of one who has known
him intimately from his very earliest art life, and who has during all that time been

‘“ A COQUETTE OF OTHER DAYS.”

tional delight in this paper, made brilliant as it

43

associated with him in the closest and tenderest
ties that bind brothers of the brush together the
world over, to speak unreservedly of him as a
man and a painter. And it would be an addi-
is by little scraps of inspiration torn from his |
sketch books and hot from his heart, to even |
slightly analyze the make-up of the man himself, so |
that those who only know the touch of his pencil ||
and brush may know something of the intellect
behind them. And something, too, of that kindli-
ness of heart and sympathy with men and things ;
that innate love and appreciation of what is sweet
and good and true ; that ample and thorough train-
ing of eye and hand which makes his brush obey him
like a flute with open stops; that wide experience of life
in all its phases, social, material, and intellectual, both
here and abroad, among many peoples and in many lands ;
and last, that quick, receptive, and thoughtful mind which
seizes the salient features of any subject, bringing to its
adornment all the stores of knowledge that years of
research have made available.

  
   
 

 

‘“ WATCHING FOR THE ABSENT.”

NoTe.—Mr. Reinhart is a
native of Pennsylvania, and was
born in Pittsburg in 1844. He
isrelated to that very admirable
patriot and craftsman, Benja-
min Franklin. The particular
branch of the Reinhart family
from which our illustrator comes
has been noted for several gen-
erations for its artistic proclivi-
ties. The story runs that young
Charles’ father was wont to hold
the future illustrator on the
paternal knee and guide the in-
fantile hand through the intrica-
cies of picturement. The mother
of Charles was not, however, in
favor of art as a career. To
her it was a pursuit in which
the emoluments were out of all
proportion to the skill and effort
necessitated.

While young Reinhart was
debating in his mind whether he
should take up the cross of art
and drag it to the bitter or vic-

 

¢ EXPECTANCY.”

 
44

torious end, the War of the
Rebellion broke forth, and
turned the thoughts of all men
into one common channel. In
the full flush of his youth Rein-
hart entered the corps com-
manded by Col. Tom Scott,
which had as its chief duty
the construction of railroads
for the transportation of the
Union troops. Notwithstand-
ing the severe responsibili-
ties thrown upon him and the
strange vicissitudes of war,
Reinhart never lost sight of
his early ambition, and devoted
every moment of his leisure
to sketching from nature and
mapping out his future career
of art. After three years’ ser-
vice in the army, with the “late
unpleasantness’ quite on the
wane, Reinhart turned seri-
ously to art, and though for
some time his thoughts were di.
verted by his engagement in a
Pittsburg steel factory, he eventually broke loose from all commercial undertakings
and sailed for Europe and artistic renown. This was in 1868, and from that time
forward he has travelled and studied in various parts of the world, chiefly in the
interests of the publishing house of Harper & Brothers, in whose publications the
bulk of his work has appeared.

It is interesting to know that the first drawing of any positive merit ever made
by Mr. Reinhart was suggested by a question of religion which agitated the coun-
try shortly after war times. This ambitious effort of the embryonic illustrator
was sent to Harper's Weekly, and the artist sat down in fear and trembling to

‘“ IN HONFLEUR."”

 

 

 

 

 

‘“ IN BRITTANY.”

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
   
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

await the decision of the art editor of that noted journal.
A response soon came back, and the substance of it was
that, while the nature of the drawing made it impossible to
publish it as an illustration to the Weekly, the submitted
picture was of such decided artistic value that the
Harpers would be pleased to have the clever but
unknown draughtsman enter their establishment and
illustrate their several periodicals. This was the step-
ping-stone to Mr. Reinhart’s successful career. From
these early days he has climbed upward with unswerving
purpose and commendable aims. His work is in the
main of a serious, thoughtful character, though no one
would think of denying him a fine sense of humor.
His women are dainty, well-dressed persons who, you
are certain, can engage you in pleasant conversation,
and his men are hardy but gentlemanly persons. Indeed,
of all the many hundreds of types of men and women
that Mr. Reinhart has delineated, there are few whose
pencilled presentments do
not convince one that they
have blood in their bodies
and marrow in their bones.
There are many illustra-
tors in these days, and skill
with the draw-
a lacking qual-
world of art;
are most of
ous black-and-
few can claim
equality with

ing pen is not
ity in the
but gifted as
our industri-
white artists,
anything like
Mr. Reinhart
in the matter of versatility and general knowl-
edge of the world and its proper reflection
through the medium of the pictorial press.
He has a ready grasp of needful essentials in
monochromatic work. His study of human
nature has not been a vain pursuit. He is a
prober into the mysteries of human motives
and emotions, and frequently he brings to the
surface a hidden phase of feeling which he is
not slow to exploit pictorially. He
appreciates the whimsicalities of the
great human play in which most of us
have a lively part. He is an artist of
many accomplishments, and these, with
his genuine and assertive personality,
make him artistically eminent, which
he is likely to be to the end.—ED.

¢ HONFLEUR BOAT.”

- ‘‘ THE TILE CLUB EXCURSION.”
(WILLIAM M. CHASE AND J. H. TWACHTMAN.)
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. ba

A DELINEATOR OF LIFE,
By PERRITON MAXWELL.
(With original illustrations by Albert B. Wenzell.)

HARACTER and individuality are no common attributes of cur-
rent illustrative art. The men whose monochromatic produc-
tions may be instantly recognized apart from their signatures
are few and far removed in thought from one another. Great
as is the output of the pictorial press to-day and lofty as is the
standard of picturement in black and white, a mere maniple of
illustrators stand conspicuous among their fellows by reason of
decided origi- 5 nality of view and pronounced
methods of ; working. It must be granted
that the medi- _ ocrity of the moment is more
than equal to the genius of the past in the
field of il- lustration. But this being
true the fact but serves to empha-
size the talents of those who in our hour succeed in
reaching above the common- place.

¥rom the level of the ordinary, the work
of Albert B. Wenzell towers with pleasing strength
and grace. His is an artistic proficiency which
fears no competi- tion; he has a distinction
quite his own and yet makes no great boast of his fe-
licitous
crafts-
manship.
His com-
petence
of hand
and eye
finds nourishment in the poetry, humor,
charm, and grace of existing things and
persons. His deepest interest lies in
modern men and women and their exhi-
bition manners. The woman of society
is his especial joy. In her he has dis- :
covered a replete vocabulary of the brush and pen,
from which he constructs an engaging reading. He
happily records for our pleasure the refinements of
her manners and surroundings, and this with an in-
finite skill. Mr. Wenzell has a keen and appreciative

 
     
 
 
   
 
 
  
  
 
 
  
  
 

“IN THE CONSERVATORY."

 

eye for a petite woman, or one who is at least well Se TR
gowned, and can make a handsome man in funereal evening > >
dress appear positively picturesque. We need no extraneous ~ dal

FROM THE SKETCH-BOOK OF CHARLES S. REINHART. assurance that prettiness and elegance are inevitably part “ AN UNFINISHED POSE.”
46

and parcel of Mr. Wenzell’s personages. We can be very
certain that his figures are at all times naturally occu-
pied. Their ways are tinctured with the expected affec-
tation of consciously beautiful women and consciously
clever men ; but they do not bring to mind the profes-
sional posturers of the studio, who are graceful (in their
hired robes) at fifty cents per hour.

Mr. Wenzell may be most aptly described as a con-
scientious historian of American polite society ; a chron-
icler who fixes facts with pigment and draughting pen.
He is a reflector of drawing-room episodes, trifling per-
haps in the light of intrinsic meaning, but wholly agree-
able in their sparkling execution, in their suggestiveness
of gayety and good living ; in their effect of many colors
conjured from a simple palette of black and white.

 

“ REFLECTION.”

AMERICAN

 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
  

Schooled in Munich,
Mr. Wenzell is nat-
urally prone to solid
methods of brush
manipulation. He
has apparently rid
himself of the less
commendable traits
of German art and
teaching, and holds
to that which may be
logically proven
good. There .is co
more gladness in
his heart over the
successful drawing
of a woman's back
hair, the rigidly creased trousers of a carpet
knight, a Renaissance scroll or a Louis XV.
screen, than in the making of twenty lofty
themes foreign to his accepted sphere of art.
It gives Mr. Wenzell an exquisite pleasure to
note the sheen of a silken skirt, the curve of a
well-proportioned arm, the soft, white shoulders

‘“ A PHILOSOPHER FROM RURALVILLE."

, of a healthy woman, and the mirrored blaze of

a hundred waxen candles. There is a sort of
ravishment for him in gilt-legged chairs and
silver-ornamented divans ; his fondness for the
long thin shadows thrown on highly polished
floors asserts itself continually. His drawings
are like pictured panels ingeniously inlaid with
jewels.

Personally considered, Albert B. Wenzell is

ART AND ARTISTS.

frank in manner, courteous, considerate, and broad-minded. He is somewhat
above the medium stature, has the bearing of a man of the world, is on the

sunny side of thirty, and lives in Flushing, L. IL

 

Nn

“*AN UNFINISHED POSE.”

produced from colored originals.
As an illustrator Mr. Wenzell is
highly distinguished, and this dis-
tinction has come through pains-
taking, thoughtful effort. This
offers rare encouragement for his
future as a painter pure and sim-
ple. .As it is, Albert B. Wenzell
is an artist to whom we may confi-
dently look for the upholdment of
the best principles and highest aims
of the illustrators’ ever-enlarging
profession, and one in whom those
who recognize art as an essential
factor of life find many just reasons
for pride.

With a style which, if not abso-
lutely unique, is, however, wholly
of himself, and a future prospect
in his art that might reasonably be
coveted by many of his confreres,
Mr. Wenzell is advanced well
along that great highway which
leads to the city of success.

 

Mr. Wenzell was born in
Detroit, Mich., and left there at an early age
to study under various masters in Munich.
His most notable work has graced the pages
of Life, though many recent and very excel-
lent drawings have appeared in The Century,
The Cosmopolitan, and Godey’s Magazine.
Interrogating nature at every stroke, re-
cording the brighter realities of easy life,
indefatigably courting the true, the bright,
and the graceful, it is not to be questioned
that his work has vastly influenced the man
and formed his thought to a cordial way
Despite the fact that
Mr. Wenzell works almost entirely in mono-

of viewing things.

chrome, his color sense is deeply developed.
Of late many of the brilliant pictures of this
artist seen in the magazines have been re-

* LISTENING.”
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 47

 

ee
a I

RE Nira - BBE

Drawn by Albert B. Wenzell.
A COMPOSITION STUDY.
43 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

   
 
   
   

ART STUDENTS
LEAGUE, OF NEW YORK.

By CHARLES DE Kav.
Be. (With original illustrations by prominent members.)

THERE are many schools of art in the United
States, but when I have done I hope that no one
will grudge the Art Students’ League of New
York the place of honor at the head of all
those schools, which it is the purpose of this
magazine to chronicle in turn.

Several broad claims may be advanced at
once to set at rest any lurking doubt as to
the right of this school to carry the banner.
In primis it has never been beholden to any
amateur or outsider for aid, but has always
paid its own way. [Zn secundis it presents the
type of a perfected democracy in which each
person does something for the good of the
whole ; officers are not paid and as few offices
as possible exist. Zn ftertiis it is already old
enough to be the model on which most of the
independent art schools of the country have
been formed,
and to antedate
the Society of
American Art-
ists of New
York.

The Art
Students’
League was
called into ex-
istence eighteen
Drawn by Joseph Lauber. years ago this Drawn by Ella Condie Lamb.

‘‘ POLYHYMNIA." June in Mr. Wil- ‘ PRAYING ANGEL.”

 

 

Drawn by Victor Perard.

‘A FIELD OF BLOSSOMS.”

American Artists ;
but rather was the
reverse the case.
For not a few of
those who started
the League aided
in establishing the
Society two years
later. The League
began before the
Centennial Exhi-
bition in Philadel-
phia ; the Society
followed it. And
even now, when
the Society has
become so strong,
when the Archi-
tectural League
has been estab-
lished, and these
two in alliance
with the students
have so gallantly
and cleverly
founded the Fine
Arts Society—
which of these
organizations, I
agk the reader
to guess, does
most to shoul-
der the burden

Drawn by %. Carroll Beckwith.

marth’s studio, No. 51 West
Tenth Street, by thirty per-
sons, who from their point of
view saw no hope of reform
in the methods of the Acad-
emy of Design, and resolved
to have complete freedom
from interference on the part
of the conservative artists who
ruled the Academy. It isthe
general impression, which I
confess to have shared, that
the League grew from, or was
promoted by, the Society of

 

 

“DAY DREAMS.”
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

- by Drving R. Wiles. rom a painting by L.
a
AT PEACE WITH ALL THE WORLD. ; S LIMPID LI

 
 

  

Drawn by Edwin B. Child.

 

Drawn by Thomas Fogarty.

Drawn by Victor
Perard.

Drawn by Victor Perard.
A PAGE OF PEN AND PENCIL SKETCHES.

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

   

Drawn by George W. Breck.

EST

 

Drawn by Henry B. Snell.

‘“ WITH A FAVORABLE WIND.”

of debt and annual expenses? Assuredly, the Art

Students’ League.

In its present quarters, 215 West Fifty-Seventh

 

 

Street, the League pays a rent of $6,000, yet has to Drawn by Victor Perard.
have rooms outside to accommodate the overflow “A FAIR ARTIST.”
of scholars. Last year its income was $50,000 ;

 

Drawn by Clara Weaver Parrish.

* GOING TO MARKET.”

yet, by a peculiar system of fees, an earnest
worker gradually reduces the annual cost
of his tuition to a nominal sum. At first
the charge is eight dollars per month, but
if the student becomes a member of the
League—quite another matter from being
in the schools—the cost is diminished one
quarter. At the end of five years the
member pays but four dollars a month.

Again, all materials used by sculptors
and painters are for sale on the premises
by the League's shopkeeper at very near
the cost prices; a lunch counter is run
on the same principle, and for eight cents
food is cooked and dishes are washed, so
that excellent food can be had close at
hand at the lowest cost, making it difficult
for scholars to ruin their health by neglect-
ing their meals, as they did once upon a
time.

The League has no debts. During the
school year to April, 1893, the enrolled
pupils numbered 1,124, and the average
daily attendance was 450. Artists inter-
ested in the League give their time with-
out charge for instruction. There is a
monthly meeting of the members for busi-
ness and relaxation, and once a year the

 
season ends with a ball in fancy
dresses. The League has a library
and reading-room ; during the last
year it has saved so much on its
various coOperative departments as
to permit of a reduction of the fees
from pupils, and an increase of
wages to models and servants.

A word as to the school day.
What are called antique classes,
that is, elementary classes in draw-
ing, are in progress morning, after-
noon and night. Two painting
classes, which are practically for
instruction in portraiture, are in
session every morning, two every
afternoon. At 4.30 P.M. two sketch
classes begin work from the draped
model.
from the nude or draped model

Of life classes working

there are no less than eleven daily ;
namely, six in the morning, two in
the afternoon, and three at night.

on
Ui Hits
Drawn by A. C. Redwood.

‘“ A FOLLOWER OF CONFUCIUS.”

 

~~

Drawn by Maud Stumm.

 

AMERICAN

ART

“ SWEET REVERY."’

These classes vary from fifteen to
thirty in number, according to the
size of the room. . Details like these
are necessary in order to understand
how so many pupils are able to get
instruction in that small portion of the
Fine Arts Society, where the League
disposes of 12,000 square feet of floor
how it is that the
League is so prosperous in its finances.

3ut the sphere of influence of this
school has not merely embraced the
United States; it has moved with
even greater certainty eastward across
the Atlantic, and infected Paris and
Munich with a communistic, demo-
cratic leaven, so far as the students of
art are concerned. The philosophic
observer may even point to the split in

only, and also

the great artistic army of Paris into the
new Salon and the old as a movement
which may be traced back through the
Society of American Artists to the Art
Students’ League in New York. Mu-

AND. ARTISTS. 51

 

 

Drawn by ¥. Carroll Beckwith.

¢ AN AMERICAN QUEEN.”’

nich and Berlin have caught the infection of independence, while in the immediate
American art colony of Paris, codperation and self-support have been fairly suc-
cessful. These things being so, what school in America has a better right to lead
the van? j

The President of the League is Mr. Joe Evans; the Vice-Presidents are Miss
Emily Slade and Mr. George W. Breck. The corresponding secretary is Miss Vir-
52 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

gmia Fitz Randolph. ;
In the government He
are the Misses Caro- |}
line C. Peddle, Wil-
helmina Walker and
Matilde de Cordova ;
Messrs. Charles Mil-
ler, Victor Graff and
George Brustle
Note that five of these eleven are women, and that women are in a majority among
the pupils. Mr. Evans has made some mark as a painter. Miss Emily Slade

   

 

Drawn by Charles Broughton.

‘ NURSERY BLOSSOMS.”

 

Drawn by C. Moore Smith. Drawn by Amy L. Kellogg

‘“MAID MARIAN." ‘“ A TENNIS DEVOTEE."

 

From a painting by Robert Reid. Drawn by Tappan Adney.

‘“ HER FIRST BORN.” ** AN ADIRONDACK LAKE.”
contributes to most of the current
exhibitions, and Miss Peddle is
a sculptress with talent. Many of
our foremost painters and sculpt-
ors of the younger generation
have worked in the League classes,
either when they were held in Fifth
Avenue near Sixteenth Street, or
later in East Fourteenth Street,
or still later in East Twenty-third
Street.

The unfortunate state of sculpt-
ure has of late had the President’s
attention. But the budding sculpt-
ors at the League number thirty ;
Mr. Augustus St. Gaudens visits
the sculpture classes at least once
a week, and generally oftener ; re-
cently Miss Mary Trimble Law-
rence has gained the distinction of
supplying for Chicago a colossal
statue of Columbus, while Mr. Bela

Drawn by Malcolm Fraser.

AMERICAN

Drawn by Horace Bradley.

‘“ AT WORK."

‘* THE PARISH PRIEST.”

ART

 

 

AND ARTISTS.

 

Drawn by Joseph Lauber.

53

¢* KNICKERBOCKER COURTSHIP.”

Pratt, another pupil, has been at work at the World’s Fair. The sculpture classes
of the League are indeed in a flourishing condition at the present time.
The League is a buoyant place where young people of both sexes can afford to

be merry over their bread and cheese.

They are too busy to think of much else
54 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

 

 

 

 

From a painting by Joseph Lauber.

RAKING THE SEA-WEED, NEWPORT.

 

 
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

beside their work, save from time to
time when they agree to clear away
the easels, turn drawing-boards and
canvases to the walls, and enjoy them-
selves in simple fashion, even as
Pepys would say: “and in our mirth
I sang and sometimes fiddled (there
being a noise of fiddlers there), and
at last we fell to dancing, the first
time that ever I did in my life, which
1 did wonder to see myself to do.”
But though there is a certain disre-
gard for elaborate courtesies in this
big school, although in their classes
the young men and women meet on
terms of comradeship like so many
cousins in a huge family, two things are
very clear. A student who wishes to live to
himself or herself is nowise molested; there
are no scenes of riotous fun and horse-play, such
as still occasionally break out at the Ecole des
Beaux Arts, or at the Julian studios in Paris. And
again : there is no instance recorded of anything happen-

/
:
1
i

   
 
  
   
 

eT ing at the Drawn by Edward Penfield.
League
which
would tend to disgust the
women students. Care is taken
to have for models the most
respectable persons in the pro-
fession, and the antecedents
of pupils are inquired into
before they are accepted. Fort-
unately the League does not
need to take pupils to enlarge
the school for an income. On
the contrary, it has so large
a waiting-list that many com-
petent pupils are debarred
through lack of room.
Nevertheless there are cer-
tain most desirable things
which the League itself can
never hope to obtain without
. the help of liberal givers, and
of these the most important for
the moment are scholarships
enabling students to live in or

‘* A NEW SONG.”

 

Drawn by E. M. Aske.

‘“IN THE wooDs.”?

 

near New York while pursuing
the course. The League offers

 

Drawn by F. C. Gordon.

  

‘‘ AN ITALIAN TYPE.”

 

free tuition in two cases, one = Prewr ly G4. Traver,

being ' that of ‘the Art. Stu-
dents’ League of Buffalo, which is allowed to send a free scholar to the schools of
its New York prototype ; the other is the Slater Art School of Norwich, Conn.
But the parent League can hardly extend this hospitality ;
very far, no matter how many similar clubs are formed
in other cities of
the Union, for,
after all the
League exists on
the income from
pupils’ fees. What
the school needs
urgently, there-
fore, is a set of
scholarships for =
the most promis- =
ing students who
have no means.
These might be
established by
liberal men of other cities, and with respect
to a particular scholarship a preference given
to students from a particular city. The
matter seems trivial, but it is not. To speak
broadly and candidly, we have hitherto put

‘“ RESTING BY THE ROADSIDE."

=

 

 

a
i]
4
{
id

Drawn by Malcolm Fraser.

¢* MISCHIEF." -

 

Drawn by Edwin B. Child.

‘‘ HIS PORTRAIT."
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

the cart before the
horse in teaching art
in America. We have
sent our students to
Europe, l'ttle or
badly prepared, and
kept them there too
long, trusting to the
fallacy that art has
no country.

If the usual proportion of time spent in study at home
and in Europe were reversed, if an artist gave most of his
years of drill to such a school as the League, and used
Europe as a means of refreshment, I maintain that we
would take a long step toward that goal which the artists of
Drawn by G. A. Traver. no land reach ; namely, the placing of the fine arts definitely

“THE PROFESSOR.” in the ranks of arts which express the ideals of a people.

 

SproRRREeR

 

Drawn ly Victor Perard.

‘ THE OLD RAIL FENCE.”

 

SN vaney
1G §

 

=

 

Lrrom a painting by William Sergeant Kendall.

Drawn by G. A. Traver. \

““ PENITENTS.” FOR WARMTH IN WINTER.
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

AN AMERICAN MILITARY ARTIST.

By GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP.

(With original illustrations by Gilbert Gaul.)

GILBERT GaurL—one of the best known of our American
illustrators as well as of painters in oil, who has gained renown
in the treatment of two almost distinct classes of figure sub-
jects—must have been born, one would think, with a brush
in his hand and a pencil behind his ear, so clever is he in
the handling of those artistic implements, and so natural to
him seems their use.

He began painting at a very early age; and it was a good
while ago that I saw the first of his pictures, which comes
back to me as having made an impression that has not since
been effaced. He was then already a skilled exhibitor at the
Academy. This picture (the title of which I cannot give with certainty, though it
may have been something like “ The Color Guard”) represented an episode of stub-

   

* TORCH-BEARERS.”

 

‘ WINTER SPORT.”

born fighting in some
battle of the Civil
War. A broken line
or group of Union
soldiers, evidently
hard pressed, was
seen facing—if I
recollect rightly—
the spectator, who
thus occupied the
position of the sup-
posed attacking
force. The attack
was not shown in
the picture, or at
most was barely in-

57

 

‘ NIGHT IN CAMP.”

dicated. The defenders were the whole subject : they only were placed before us,

 

“A WELCOME DRAUGHT.”

If I refer now to a poem of
mine, it is as a connecting link
between Mr. Gaul’s painting
and his black-and-white illus-
irative work. This poem,
“ Marthy Virginia's Hand,”
for which he made a drawing,
appeared in The Century Mag-
azine some three years since.
It related an actual incident
of the war ; how a Confederate
soldier was found dead in a
strip of woods on the battle-
field of Antietam, grasping a
letter in which his wife had
told of the birth of a baby and
had made a tracing of the

powder-stained, resolute, firing, re-
loading, or grasping their weapons
in expectancy of closer combat, and
evidently determined to sell their
lives dearly or retreat only when
overpowered. From the presenta-
tion of this one side of the fight, the
other side could be realized easily
and with great intensity. The pic-
ture, therefore, in addition to its
merits of drawing, painting, vivid-
ness, and character, was a fine in-
stance of imaginative power and

~also of the power of exciting imagination in the beholder.

   

“ THE SHARP-SHOOTER.”
58

From a painting by Gilbert Ga

 

se 27

ul.

‘“ THE CAPTAIN.”

AMERICAN

 

ART AND ARTISTS.

 

Ds

From a painting by Gilbert Gaul.

HIS

 

 

WORK IS DONE.
child’s hand on the paper. In
his illustration Mr. Gaul de-
picted the soldier lying dead
there, neglected, amid the
trees, near a mossy rock ; the
tangled rootlets and thick,
small branches, the glints of
sunlight, the shattered gun,
and the leaves and twigs flung
down about him by a shell
which had burst there, all add-
ing to the grimness and pathos
for which his war scenes are
remarkable.

But, as has been hinted, Mr.

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

‘“ THE WATER SELLER.”

Gaul is by no means confined to this sort of theme, and is, indeed, distinguished in

two “lines,” as we sometimes call them.

It is true, I think, that he has by nature

a special penchant for these severe and sad yet highly picturesque and stirring reali-
ties of armed combat. Yet he is also extremely apt and graphic in the delineation of
more peaceful domestic scenes involving both earnestness and humor, brightened
by the costume and the romance of a century’s antiquity, or belonging to the

 

 

¢ SCOUTING.”

although they often had a spice of
tempered wit.

It is the ability of Mr. Gaul to
portray things opposite in themselves,
and not only to draw the contrast,
but also to emphasize it by his treat-
ment, which gives him a mastery of
genre—that is, of dealing with sub-
jects that may be rated as exemplify-
ing a “species,” a * kind,” or to take
another word, “the characteristic.”
He knows how to seize a character
in many of its bearings at once, and
to give it the proper accent.

The manner in which he uses land-
scape detail in some of his work is
also very effective. Evidently the
result of careful study, and, like many
of his touches in the elaborating of
figures, subtile in resources of art, it
never loses that energy and solidity

which pervade his illustrations. See, -

for example, his drawings for “ Per-
sonal Impressions of Nicaragua,”
where he accompanied himself with

59

vigorous out-door and in-door
reality of to-day. Seldom
does one find the genius for
reproducing military phases
united with so versatile a
faculty as Mr. Gaul’s for pic-
turing, in his illustrations,
glimpses of daily human life
in a variety of surroundings.

Meissonier prided himself
upon his military achieve-
ments—on canvas; but his
military pieces had not the
true war-like quality ; they
merely multiplied the pol-
ished little men of his interior
scenes, and transferred them
out-of-doors. Nor did his
“interiors ’’ contain much di-
versity of human traits, or
genuine feeling and humor,

J

 

   

THE CONFEDERATE RAFT.”

“TOP OF THE CLIFF.”

the pen, supplying his own text.
ART

AMERICAN

60

The “ Parrot Sellers at Corinto,” in that little
group of sketches, is very striking in its com-
bination of boats, outspread bird-wings, the
weird hooded figure of a woman standing
upright, and the swirl and stretch of moving
waters. So, too, one may find a good deal of
his various skill in his pictorial contributions
to Thomas Bailey Aldrich’s “ Old Portsmouth
Profiles.”

Mr. Gaul’s work, often spirited, is always
, forcible and interesting. Moreover, while by
no means a posexr in art or given over to any
special
fashion
or school,
he has a
happy
faculty of
posinghis
subjects from unexpected points of view, bring-
ing out their value at once by a bold stroke,
often in a way which at first one would hardly
have thought he would venture, yet a way that
proves to be natural as well as effective.

 

‘“ A WEST INDIAN MOTHER.”

   

** THE DOORWAY.”

 

‘A PLAIN NARRATIVE."

AND ARTISTS. v

 

CRITICS.”

v

WILSON DE MEZA.

By FRANK FOWLER.

(With representative examples of the deceased artist's work.)

AMERICAN illustration as it stands to-day is perhaps the most potent proof of
the advance our art has made within the past fifteen years. In technical address,
in the skill with which the various mediums of black and white are now employed
by our artists of the press, we easily hold our own with the most brilliant crafts-
men abroad. 2

It is not, however, only on the side of execution that we have so greatly pro-
gressed. In the more intellectual matter of character, of rescuing from oblivion
rapidly disappearing types, and of defining the many phases of our complex civili-
zation, the American illustrator of to-day is accomplishing wonders.

The man with whom this deals, whose untimely death at a period when his
talents seemed to have reached their readiest and most delightful play, was one
whose temperament revealed a rare distinction. Studying in Paris under Boulanger
and Lefebre, Mr. De Meza’s first essay in art was in the branch of portraiture.
In the French schools he had acquired an effective method which was of the
greatest value to him when finally he directed his attention to illustrative draw-
ARTISTS.

ART AND

AMERICAN

X

W

RR a
RD

 

Drawn by Wilson de Meza.

IN THE PARK.
62 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

ing ; for mastery of material

brushwork may be freer, hand-
and readiness of execution

ling in pen and ink more sure ;
but the indefinable charm that
comes from right feeling is too
often lacking, while with De
Meza it is always there. I am

are nowhere more needed
than in the regularly recur-
ring work of the illustrator.

Before seriously devoting
himself to art, Mr. De Meza tempted to emphasize the air

had studied civil engineering and of refinement and distinction in

read law, so that by the time he

this artist's work, as there is so
began to depict life in its various

constant a call for it from the

   
 

phases he had already touched

illustrators of to-day, and with
it, intellectually, at several points. This

   
    
 
 

but a few exceptions, it seems
experience so little responded to in kind.

served only
as an advantage ;
for what we find
in Mr. De Meza's

“THE HOTEL VERANDA.” work in distinction

‘* DAISY WAS DRIVING WITH ONE HAND.”
It is not enough to dress a

model in fine things and call him fine. If it be necessary to
resort to such aids, and it surely is, the artist has a respon-
sibility beyond the graphic reproduction of the person before

  

him. A model in a dress coat is not exactly the type one
from that of many

other men in the same field is, perhaps, the note of in-
telligence beyond the merely technical, that is sure to
be the property of him who has some knowledge of
the learned professions outside of the one he is fol-
lowing.

Mr. De Meza’s work also brings one into an atmos-
phere where good breeding reigns. His charming
women, lovely girls, and well-groomed men are not sim-
ply people who have donned good clothes in order to fig-
ure as the dramatis persone of some social function or
incident in romance. His women have about them the
charm which comes only from a fine habit of life, his
men are fellows who have good
traditions behind them, and we
know that the lovely girls they
talk to are safe, even though t
their chaperons should fail in ** FIVE O'CLOCK TEA.”
vigilance. These girls them- representations of social life, where the
selves, indeed, are of a sweet- work was above reproach, but where
ness and serenity that inspire the whole tone was bourgeois. Mr. De
chivalry; and it would seem Meza was fortunately not one to be re-
that in their presence nothing proached in the matter of taste. He
unmannerly could quite exist. had also an adequate command of his

Now a quality of this kind medium, and has given us sunny and
in illustrative art is as rare as effective studies of out-door life that show with how)
it is delightful, and De Meza faithful a reference to nature he always worked. His §§
distinctly gave us this. Other pencil was employed in such a variety of ways that we are 1s
illustrators may show greater safe in speaking of his artistic talent as versatile; for,
oy Tin ROAD Tia at THE WINDOW.” command of their material, beside the society scenes by which he is best known, Mr.

meets at a reception at the Embassy, or at a diplomatic dinner.
The character and bearing of those who go yachting in the
Mediterranean appear something different from that which
is paid for at so much an hour for standing or
sitting in smart clothes in a studio. Mr. De
Meza, in common with other artists, had this
hard fact to contend with, but he also appre-
ciated that there was an intellectual as well as
a teehnical side to art. In this case good form
is more than clothes, and style more than fine
raiment. [I have heard laymen protest against

 

A REQUIEM IN MEMORIAM.”

       

‘A FAVORITE THOROUGHFARE."
AMERICAN

 

‘“ BEFORE THE PLAY.”

De Meza has embellished and illustrated
several books for children, where the draw-
ings were made by him on the stone. These
books not only show a decorative sense,
but, better still for their purpose, a delicate
and charming sympathy with the whims and
fancies of child life.

Work on the New York Ledger, in most
of the leading magazines, in Life, and
latterly in The Cosmopolitan, make up the
sum of what this spirited young man has
left of artistic effort ; while quite recently,
as though to emphasize the versatility of
his gifts, Mr. De Meza published a story of

* MIS

 

   

i

S$ ENDOR WAS WEEPING."

ART AND ARTISTS.

such force and interest that it has
attracted the attention and received
the approbation of one of the foremost
of our writers and critics. Through-
out this story the alert sensibility of an
artist is clearly visible, and the interest
of the work itself is enhanced by the
graceful drawings with which he has
graphically illustrated the text. Of
talents like these it would perhaps have
not been difficult to predict still finer
things. Enough has been said, how-
ever, to show how peculiarly fitted this
artist was for the work he had chosen.
As a tribute to Mr. De Meza’s power
of will and tenacity of purpose, it may
not be out of place to mention the fact
that most of the work recorded here
he accomplished while handicapped
by great bodily infirmity. By taste
and breeding he seemed naturally the

 

63

LAT
or
5 Vogts, civ A 6s

“LOST IN THE WOODS.

graphic interpreter of social life, and this side of illustrative art has lost in him a

singularly refined and distinguished delineator.

NotE.—The late Wilson De Meza was born in Tarrytown, N. Y,, in 1857,

 

*“ A DECLARATION OF LOVE.’

and after a collegiate course
at Lehigh he came to New
York. In 1333 Mr. De Meza
went to Paris, and in 1885 ex-
hibited his first important pict-
ure in the Salon. About five
months ago Mr. De Meza was
stricken with consumption, and
died at Lakewood, N. J., on
April 27th. Much of the earli-
est work of Mr. De Meza was
done for Mr. J. A. Mitchell of
Life, and several of the char-
acteristic illustrations here re-
produced were made for that
clever periodical. Later the
artist gave his efforts to the
enrichment of The Cosmopoli-
tan Magazine, through the
courtesy of whose proprietor,
Mr. John Brisben Walker, we
are enabled to republish a series
of recent drawings executed by
the dead draughtsman.—ED.
 

64 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

Lrom a painting by Alice Barber Stephens.
A GROUP OF TAILORS.
AMERICAN

A CLEVER WOMAN ILLUSTRATOR.

By FREDERICK W. WEBBER.

(With original illustrations by Alice Barber Stephens.)

O be ordinary is as possible for the illustrator as it is for
the chronicler. The clever writer's story is piquant ; the
clever artist’s picture is unique. Novelty is not an abso-
lutely necessary element in the subject, but the treatment
derives value from the originality displayed therein. Every-
day occurrences acquire interest when described by one
whose feelings or imagination can imbue the statement of
fact with realistic movement and warmth ; and every-day
scenes cease to be commonplace when depicted by an artist

expression, grouping and color suggest a thought to be embodied in the

There are so-called pictures that are lifeless because of their lack of

motive ; as barren of idea as the village photographer’s portrait of the country

bumpkin in his Sunday suit and “ now-look-pleasant ” smile. There are many lim-

ners who can draw a face or a figure, but it is only the artist who can make the

face betray character and the pose become narrative.

 

to whom
picture.

 

** SPOOLING THE YARN.”

ART AND

of Design for women.

  

ARTISTS.

Alice Barber Stephens is
particularly fortunate in this
respect. She has achieved pro-
nounced success as an illus-
trator, and is aided in her art
by practical knowledge of the
mechanical processes incidental
thereto. Her first training in
her chosen calling was a thor-
ough course of study in wood
engraving, which she pursued
at the Philadelphia Academy
The
fact that for two and a half
years she was constantly en-
gaged on Scribner’s—now The
Century Magazine—attests the
artistic as well as the mechan-
ical excellence of her work as
an engraver. She was not sat-
isfied to remain a mere repro-
ducer, however, but essayed the
role of an illustrator, for which
she prepared herself by the
study of drawing at the Penn-
sylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

It is only within a few years
that women have been permitted to attain prominence in the ranks of artists and
illustrators, although there have been individual women who have compelled recog-
nition by the strong merit of their productions. But those who won place were
for a long time ex-
ceptional instances of
whom it is necessary
to mention only Rosa
Bonheur as a type. But
in this as in many other
things, the close of the
century has witnessed
a change, and the field
of art. is as widely
open to woman as it is
to man. There is: no
reason why this should
not be so; on the con-
trary, there are many
reasons why it is really
an advance, for woman
with her more delicate

 

Frasers g

 

“IN THE STUDIO.”

‘“ ALMSHOUSE SHOEMAKERS."
 

66

‘LADY ELEANOR'S MANTLE.’

 

’

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

sensibilities and her natural love of
the beautiful is apt to have a closer
sympathy with nature and life, and
a quicker perception of the poetic
element which is so strong an in-
spiration for artistic effort.

Mrs. Stephens has experienced
the advantages of changed condi-
tions in the success that has at-
tended her in her new field. Her
services were almost monopolized

 

for several years by Harper &
Brothers, whose high standard of “ A SPRING MORNING."

BR requirentent is universally known.
: During the past two years she has
furnished illustrations for other pub-
lishing firms, and her work appears
in The Century, The Cosmopolitan,
Frank Leslie’s, The Ladies’ Home
Journal of Philadelphia, and various
Boston publications. She has been
a student as well as a worker, and
her studies in American schools of
art have been supplemented by in-
struction obtained in the schools of

 

‘“ SEWING CARPET BALLS."

    
  

Julian and Carlo Rossi in Paris, and by
careful inspection of galleries in the
French capital and the leading art cen-
tres of England, Holland, Belgium and
Italy. Her work in black and
white is strengthened by her study
of color, and she has achieved dis-
tinction as an artist in both oil
and water colors. She is a regular
contributor to the annual exhibi-
tions in New York, Philadelphia,
and Boston, and her “ Portrait of

‘“ AN INTERESTING BOOK."
a Boy,” exhibited at the Pennsylvania
Academy of Fine Arts, won the Mary
Smith prize—not so small an honor as
the name may suggest.

In her drawing, Mrs. Stephens adheres
most closely to nature, and she is always
accurate in her delineation of detail.
Her faces are expressive, her figures ani-
mated, and the surroundings assist ma-
terially in the presentation of the sub-
ject. So careful is she in every part of
her work, that almost invariably her fig-
ure pieces are enriched by interesting
studies of still-life, and the inanimate
combines with the animate to tell the
story. She has a delicate mastery of light
and shade which enables her to reveal
complexion in a countenance, texture in
fabrics, and material in surroundings.
The finish of her pictures is so elaborate

AMERICAN

ART AND ARTISTS.

 

‘A PORTRAIT STUDY.”

67

of the country. Homely subjects attract Mrs. Stephens
most, and her pictures of the old men and women of
the Philadelphia almshouse, and the simple-minded
people of other localities, are among the best works she
has executed. She has a liking, too, for subtle effects
of sunlight, and her studies of interiors are as accurate
in detail as the catalogue of a furniture dealer, and as
pleasing artistically as a portrait by Rembrandt. To
this combination of painstaking execution and a keen
sense of artistic freedom, Mrs. Stephens may safely
assign her present prominence. She has individuality
and industry, and with such gifts treasure-laden king-
doms have many times been conquered.

A cheery future for artists of the gentler sex is fore-
told in the successes attained by Alice Barber Stephens.

The example she has set by her constant industry and her fortitude in the face of

discouragement
rest of the world,
of life's unpleasant-

(for she, with the
has had her share
ries) are qualities
tious woman artist

that nothing is left to the imagination
except the motive of the work, and that

‘“A BIT OF ANTWERP.”

is so artistically suggested that the pict-
ure cannot fail to convey the idea embodied in it. She is always sincere. Her
work may be conventional now and again, in some respects, but it is honest in its

 

‘“ SHOE BINDING."

dealing with the governing motive, and
pleasing in the fidelity with which every
feature is made to contribute to the natural-
ness of the general effect.

One cannot forbear the wish, at times,
that the artist would be less scrupulous in
her care for general minutie, but in the
light of her thorough knowledge of the
subject in hand, and her certainty of touch,
her close attention to the small things of
nature gives pardon to what often ap-
proaches a technical failing. Within the
past few years there has appeared a decided
strength in the execution, whether of brush
or pen-point, of the greater mass of Mrs.
Stephens’ work, and that she has advanced
in skill with the flight of time no one can
honestly gainsay. She has acquired a facil-
ity in the management of her artist’s tools
that is but seldom displayed among the
more serious picture-makers of her sex, and
at the present time she stands with the
foremost women painters and illustrators

 

which any ambi-
would do well to
a mere accomplish-
many women look
but a difficult and
the learning. of
greater part of one’s
ging application.
her obscurity to the
Mrs. Stephens has
that was certain to
now that she has
throughout the land and has acquired a rare skill
and pencil she is a worker and enthusiast just the
same. Her life amid all her work is a happy one,
for she loves her occupation, and the pleasure she
finds in making a picture is almost of itself a suffi-
cient compensation for the labor involved. Of such
temperament the real artist is born, and Alice Barber
Stephens is certainly a genuine artist. She has the
fine feeling for color which denotes the real
painter. In portraiture Mrs. Stephens has also
achieved no small success. She has the unusual
faculty of fixing the character as well as the contour
of her model's features, and has a way of infusing life
and artistic attractiveness into her portrait paintings
that make them desirable possessions, even though
the person whose face is limned is unknown to one.
In short, Mrs. Stephens has the abilities of an experi-
enced portrayer of real things and live people.

“ A COLONIAL DINING-ROOM."’

 

with brush

emulate. Art isnot
ment—and too
upon it as such—
arduous profession,
which requires the
life and an unflag-
From the days of
present moment
toiled with a zeal
bring success, and
become known

  

 

 

** A LONG SPIN."’
63

 

Lrom a painting by Julian Rix.

 

AMERICAN

ART AND ARTISTS.

 

 

OLD HAY RICKS IN NEW JERSEY.
AMERICAN

 

AN AMERICAN LANDSCAPIST.

BY ALEXANDER BLACK.
(With original illustrations by Julian Rix.)

THE development of American art within recent years has been marked by no
phase more cheering and prophetic than the steady improvement of quality in
landscape. We still have artists who go abroad and come home with the blues—
or the pale grays, as the case may be—and who seem for a time to have made up
their minds to paint Seine boats and Brittany mud-puddles for the rest of their nat-
ural lives. But these, happily, are outnumbered by the men who paint American
landscape, not because there is really any such thing as patriotism in subject, any
geography in sentiment, but because American landscape is the landscape they act-
ually know most about, and because painting Brittany is a temptation to thinking
Brittany.

Among the American artists to whom we most naturally turn for an expression of

American art ideas and ideals is Julian Rix. If, as I have suggested, there is no

such thing as nationality in art, there is such a thing as a national temper—a
quality which we can easily understand when we look over groups of pictures as
And I think that the work of Julian Rix might

now exhibited at the World's Fair.

 

‘* WHEN THE TIDE 1S oUT.”

ART AND ARTISTS.

  

69

be picked out—as illus-
trating the fact that the
expression of a national
feeling does not neces-
sarily involve the ac-
ceptance of any ham-
pering conventions.

Mr. Rix is a land-
scapist who represents
our wholesomest tradi-
tions modified by a
strong personal and
modern touch. This is
said with a full under-
standing that it is say-
ing a good deal. In an
era when there is a ten-
dency toward freakish-
ness in landscape as
well as in figure themes,
and when there are not
a few inducements to
that sort of thing, Mr.
Rix has kept his head
clear, and his purpose
well in hand. He quite
evidently appreciates
the value of holding
fast to that which is
good in art expression,
while acknowledging
and wisely yielding to
It doesn’t make much differ-

  

%

‘“ OLD OCEAN'S WRATH.”

purely personal impulses toward original methods.
ence whether we class a man as a conservative or a radical in art, if we admit
that that which is purely individual governs all ; and I think we can say this about
Julian Rix,

Two facts are quite apparent in Mr. Rix’s work—that he has studied many of
nature's moods, and that he has observed closely. His pictures show no tendency to
repetition. They each express a distinct idea. This flash of moonlight, this bit of
the river, this sand sketch at low tide, this drenched road in the storm, this bleak
vista in the pines, each has its
own idea, its own story. Each
thus declares that the artist is
not making the picture the
excuse for duplicating either
a jaded decorative sentiment
or a narrow theory of natural
charm, but rather that, taking

 

“ WINTER'S MANTLE.”
70 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

art to be, not the
reflection of nature
but the expression of
ideas about nature,
the painter has taken
many phases as voic-
ing nature's widely
ranging symphony.

I do not mean to
say that Mr. Rix has
formulated any defi-
nite theory of this
kind. Most of the
strong men in any art
are found explaining
what they do by a
theory, rather than following a preconceived notion of requirements. Theories
come lagging along after the impulses. Mr. Rix strikes out in a fresh, ener-
getic, masterful way that is very enjoyable to the onlooker. He always knows
what he is after and goes straight to the mark. Moreover, he tells one story at a
time. The transcripts accompanying the present article are sufficient to illustrate
the presence of this quality in Mr. Rix’s work. The brook at the edge of the wood-
land is a simple story in which our attention is not distracted by any conflicting
elements. The moonlight on the beach is firmly and broadly expressed. The

 

* SILENCE.”’

 

** MOONLIGHT.”

stream stealing through the
valley exhibits a well-centred
simplicity that leaves the color
to exert its fullest charm.
The schooner sleeping at low
tide is the central element
of a picture admirably terse
yet unsensational in its style.
Everything in the artist's
treatment of the subject tends
to emphasize the effect of
quietude, of peace. The same
feeling is very differently set
down in the stretch of water
across which the soft sunlight
falls until it reaches the old
skiff with its nose in the tall
grass. There is something
delightfully summery about
this study, something tranquil
and alluring. In his river
scene Mr. Rix uses the few ele-

ments—sky, water, schooner, a stretch of

 

“A RUSTIC BRIDGE."

 

** WINTER IN THE WOODS."

sand, and an ancient pier head—with

highly interesting directness,
and with a lively sense of the
character in each element.
But in addition to all this,
in the interpretation of win-
ter moods Mr. Rix shows
not less sagacity and feel-
ing. The crisp touch which
he knows so well how to use
with good effect is here well
placed.

In fact, Mi. Rix’s pict-
ures remind us that it is the
power not merely to observe
but to read nature that gives
significance to art. It is the
power behind the eye that
brings us the eloquence.. Mr.
Rix delights in a storm, in
a scene which shows nature

aroused. He displays rare
dramatic tact in arranging
the material of such a scene
as comes, for example, with
an atmospheric row in the
71

ART AND ARTISTS.

AMERICAN

 

by Julian Rix.

o
S

‘om a parniin

Fr

NGLAND,

E

DARTMOUTH,

STORM,

RING

SATHT

AC
72 AMERICAN

Rockies, when the old trees are groaning and the bowlders are crashing through
the brush and over the cliffs into the valleys below.

It is this keen sense of the dramatic, as well as his feeling for the decorative, that
has added materially to Mr. Rix’s success as an illustrator. Work in black and
white is greatly dependent upon its decorative interest, a circumstance which may
explain why every successful artist is not capable of being a successful illustrator.
Mr. Rix uses water color with a facility and a felicity that make his wash drawings
singularly attractive, and make his success as an illustrator seem easy to him. He
accentuates discreetly, and has a versatility that enables him to use a different
brush dialect, if we might put it that way, for each theme. His style is distinc-
tive ; no painter escapes, nor wishes to escape, from a manner personal to himself.
But he is as free from the suspicion of mere mannerism as any painter with whose

‘ ON THE EAST RIVER, NEW YORK,"

work I am acquainted. He is always pictorial, and, as even the most casual
study of the outward and visible signs may tell us, he is always refreshingly candid.

He goes directly at the heart of his subject, and extracts from a collection of
general natural facts the best elements that compose gracefully on canvas. One
cannot remember just how broadly or how thinly any of Mr. Rix’s pictures were
painted, but then one cannot forget the deep enchantment they exercised over the
senses ; and this power to excite emotion, it would seem, is after all the final test of
art,

Norte.—The artist whose work is here reviewed is known in the world of art
chiefly as a painter of American landscapes, though he has travelled in most
foreign lands and found an abundance of rich material for his brush wherever
inclination has led him. Nothing in the way of landscapic charm, however,
bids so strongly for his best effort as the scenery of our own country. Not

 

ART AND ARTISTS.

because he is an ardent patriot, and not
because he believes there is nought that
is worthy in other lands, does Mr. Rix
persistently present the varied aspects
of local scenery. It is rather because
he has become convinced through
much experience that American land-
scape is the most diversified, the most
luxuriantly strengthful, and the most
attractive from a purely pictorial view-
point, that he has set his palette for
native motives, and confines his search
for the beautiful in nature to home
attractions.

Sensitive to the charms of woodland
and seashore, Mr. Rix is not afraid to
portray the commonplace scenes of a
commerce-clogged river front, or the
peculiar picturesqueness of wharfage
and shipping. An example of the
artist’s power to infuse art value in a
view of but ordinary worth in nature,
is well shown on page 186 of this num-
ber, where a pier, some heavy boats, and
a clouded sky make up a picture of
real beauty. From the interior of New
Jersey Mr. Rix has obtained many of
his choicest effects. He has sketched in the Black Forest of Germany and painted
on the dikes of Holland, but nowhere abroad has he found such a wealth of foliage
or so many vistas tempting to the true artist as in the lowlands and hills of Jersey.
The rugged scenery of California engaged the brush of Mr. Rix for many years, and
his early reputation was founded on his stirring delineations of wild Western land-
scapes. For the greater part of the year Mr. Rix lives in the open, painting direct
from nature. His home is in New York, and his studio is one of the cosiest in the
big metropolis.—Ed.

 

)

‘THE THUNDERSTORM.’

  

* SILVER AND GREEN."
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 73

   
   

Drawn by Frank Fowler.

“‘ MUSIC AND DANCING.”

THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF DESIGN,

By JouN GILMER SPEED.

 

(With Original Illustrations by Prominent Members.)

 

THE people in America may have had a high re-
gard for abstract art sixty-seven years ago, when the
National Academy of Design came into existence as
the successor of the New York Drawing Association, by artists themselves, nor was there in reality much encouragement of art study.
but artists themselves were not held in great esteem The first president of this academy was Chancellor Livingston, the second was
by the rich merchants who formed the bourgeois DeWitt Clinton, and the third Colonel John Trumbull the painter. But Trumbull
society of the metropolis in the earlier years of the appeared to see less reason for placing the casts and pictures in the academy at
century. A chronicler of those times has told how a the disposal of students than his lay associates, and said when appealed to on the
young artist made love to the daughter of one of subject: “ When I commenced the study of painting there were no casts in the
those haughty merchants. She listened favorably :
to his suit, but her father was dreadfully scandalized.
Such an alliance—the daughter of a tradesman with
a mere artist—was a disgrace to the merchant’s fam-
ily. He could not be reconciled to the union until
he was assured by an authority in whom he had con-
fidence that the young man was not very much of

From a painting by Benjamin C. Porter. By J. OQ. A. Ward.

‘ MOTHER AND SON.” “ STATUE OF HENRY WARD BEECHER.”

By J. S. Hartiey.

BUST OF T. W. WOOD.

an artist. This anecdote illus-
trates the attitude of the rich
and influential among the mer-
chants of New York towards art
and artists when the National
Academy was born. Previous to
1826, the year alluded to, there
had been for something like
twenty years an American Acad-
emy of Fine Arts in New York,
but this had not been managed FRIENDS.

 

Drawn by Charles H. Miller.

“MILL AT BAYSIDE, L. 1.”
74 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

C

 

Lrom a painting by George H. McCord.

ROUNDING THE BUOY.

 
I was obliged to do

’

country.
as well as I could.

Several students and young
artists, rebuffed by the Ameri-
can Academy, appealed to Sam-
uel F. B. Morse, the invento-
of the magnetic electric tele-

 

Drawn by Burt G. Phillifs.

‘ THOUGHTS OF THE WORLD."

by academicians them-
selves. There is a dingy
and somewhat battered
register of students still in
use at the Academy, with a
list of the students who
held tickets for the year
1826. Mr. Morse’s name
heads the list, and follow-
ing his are the names of
Henry Inman, Thomas S.
Cummings, A. B. Durand,
and others who in the be-
ginning and for many years
thereafter had a control-
ling influence in the affairs
of the Academy. The
first exhibition was opened
in May, 1826, and consisted

AMERICAN ART

   

From a painting by Walter L. Palmer.

‘“ AUTUMN MORNING.”

graph, but at that time an artist, and he suggested
a society “for the Promotion of the Arts and the
Assistance of Students.” This led to the formation
of the New York Drawing Association, of which
Mr. Morse was president. Later this association
was changed into the National Academy of Design,
of which Mr. Morse was president until 1845, and
again for one year from 1861 to 1862. The found-
ers of the Academy were twenty-four in number,
and consisted of sixteen painters, one sculptor, two
architects, and five engravers. A class for the
study of the antique was begun, and this was
attended not only by students and amateurs, but

 

From a painting by Horace Wolcott Robbins.

“ FARMINGTON RIVER.”

AND ARTISTS.

 

Drawn by Irving R. Wiles.

‘“ GRANDMAMMA.”

of 170 works,
these ‘being
both copies
and origi-
rals,and com-
prising oil
paintings,
water - colors,
drawings for
machinery, ar-
chitectural
drawings, and
engravings.
This exhibi-

tion attracted something like 1,200 pay-
ing visitors, but it failed to meet ex-
penses, and each of the thirty members
was taxed seven dollars to pay the

debt incurred.
hibition was not quite
during fifty-seven days t

The next year the ex-

so large, but
he attendance

averaged thirty-eight paying visitors

daily.
do so from then till now.

From a painting

75

 

by Jared B. Flagg.

‘“ THE BUTTERFLY.”

This year the exhibition paid its way, and the exhibitions have continued to

This second exhibition was attacked with great violence
by writers in the public press, and probably it deserved nearly all of the uncom-

 

From a painting by Wordsworth Thompson.

“IN A WEARY LAND.”
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

i fa fol 1 #

From a painting by Thomas W. Wood.

** CHEER UP, NEIGHBOR!”

 
AMERICAN

 

From a painting by Walter Satterlee.

“THE NEW ALTARPIECE.”

plimentary things that were said of it. But in considering the history of an insti-
tution like the National Academy, the environment of the artists must be considered
as well as the works they painted before judgment be passed upon the value of such
works, The main purpose of an academy is educational. Educational progress is
slow and gradual, not instantaneous. The knowledge and appreciation of art in
New York and in America sixty years ago was, as has been intimated, very limited.
The academicians did not know much ; the public knew less. But the Academy

 

Drawn by Charles S. Reinert.

‘“ A BIT OF BEMIS’ HEIGHTS.”

ART AND ARTISTS.

 

77

was then in advance
of general public
knowledge and gen-
eral public taste, and
it has continued to
be so up to the pres-
ent time. Some of us,
who do not always
recognize that art can-
not prosper without an
appreciative public,
have sometimes been
impatient at the con-
servatism of the Acad-
emy, and have cried
out in anger because
our views were not
the views of the ma-
jority. Thishas never
done any good, and is
not likely to do any. The Academy in the future is certain to progress as it has in
the past—slowly but surely.

Before the holding of the third exhibition there was a great advance, for it was
decreed by the council that none but original works should be exhibited. This
rule has continued. Speaking
of it, General Cummings, the
historian of the Academy, has
said : “ The rule was adopted
for the purpose of placing all
exhibitors on an equal footing.
It had been found that young
artists, returning from abroad
and exhibiting copies of works
of established eminence, had
frequently been placed, by the
want of discrimination in the
public, far in advance of the
more meritorious artist at
home, exhibiting his own orig-
inations ; an injustice it was
thought the duty of the Acad-
emy to remedy. The restric-
tion was a proper one, and
ever very justly received
favor.”

From a very early date in
its career the Academy was
bothered about a home. It

 

From a painting by R. M. Shurtleff.

¢“ A WOODLAND POOL.”

From a painting by 1. Addison Richards.
‘ GORGE DE FRIEND, MARTIGNY, SWITZERLAND.’
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

From a painting by W. L. Sonntag.
SUNSET IN DIXVILLE NOTCH, N. H.

 
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 7°

STAIR
i

 

From a painting by Wordsworth Thompson.

PLACE D’ARMES, CONCARNEAU, FINISTERE,
30

changed from place to place
many times, and once, through
efforts to get a house of its
own, became bankrupt. This
was the second bankruptcy.
The first was caused by the
generosity of friends of the
Academy travelling in Eu-
rope. A New Yorker in Rome
would see a cast or a statue
and admire it. Forthwith he
would think of the Academy
and its school of art, pur-
chase the work, and ship it to
New York. Rome was a far
cry from New York, and the
freight charges on these gifts
exhausted all the funds of the
Academy, and left the insti-
tution insolvent. A rule had
to be adopted that no presents
would be accepted unless the
freight charges were paid in
advance. In those days the
Academy, with thirty-five

 

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

Drawn by W. L. Hudson.

‘ OLD FISHERMAN."

members, sailed very close to the wind, and the financial sea was often ruffled.
But the finances were managed with skill and prudence, and in 1863 the corner-

From a painting by J. B. Bristol.

‘ DOWN THE

HILLSIDE.”

 

stone for the Venetian
building at Fourth
Avenue and Twenty-third
Street was laid with im-
posing ceremonies. The
speakers were Parke
Godwin, William Cullen
3ryant, and George Ban-
croft: and. Mr. Daniel
Huntington, who had be-
come president the year
before, swung the stone in
place,using asilver trowel
to spread the mortar.

It seems not a little

Drawn by Louis C. Tiffany.
‘“ THE BURIAL.”

that they have never since realized.
The exaggerated prices incident to dis-
turbed social conditions and an inflated
currency have spoiled the future career
of more than one member of the Acad-
emy. The exigencies of the war were
such that even the knights of the brush
and palette were called on to do service.
Under the facetious head-line ¢ Draw-
ing-Draft,” in The Evening Post of
August 21, 1863, we find this record :

“ Among the persons drafted yester-

 

  

 

Drawn by Charles Parsons.

‘“ ABANDONED.”

strange that the Academy should have been
built during the Civil War, when labor and ma-
terial were at very high prices. But the artists
themselves at that time were unusually prosper-
ous, and received for their canvases sums that
would have seemed enormous ten years before.
Indeed, some of those who were then in their
prime received in those troublous days prices

 

From a painting by P. P. Ryder.

‘‘ A FAITHFUL SERVANT."
51

ART AND ARTISTS.

AMERICAN

 

TIIE TWINS,

Tait.

y

From a painting by Arthur F.
82 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

From a painting by George H. Smillie.

OUTLET OF LITTLE HARBOR, COHASSET, MASS,
day in the Fifteenth Ward
were ten artists, as follows :
W. PW. Dana, W. |. Hen-
nessy, Daniel Huntington,
William Hart, John O. B. In-
man, John Pope, Albert Bier-
stadt, J. BE. Griffith, George
H. Hall, and Theodore Pine.”

I have found no record as
to how many of these sent
substitutes, and how many
shouldered muskets and went
to the front. It would prob-
ably make an interesting
chapter in the annals of the
Academy. General Cummings

   

From a painting by Charles Lanman.

“ FUSUJAMA.”’

book is the fact that many
men who afterward became
conspicuous in other pro-
fessions and in business
spent some time as students
in the schools of the Acad-
emy. Probably not ten
per cent. of the students in
these schools have devoted
their lives to art: but
surely, as amateurs, they
have been of much advan-
tage in spreading a love
and a knowledge of art
among the people. But
among the small minority
of names of artists we

tin

From a

a a JL
ainting by Percival de Luce.

AMERICAN

  

“THE KING'S HEALTH.”

RT

at that time appears to have
been more interested in the
financial affairs of the insti-
tution, and the merits and

advantages of several pro-
posed building sites, than
anything else, and so he

passed the war period by with
only a very few allusions to
the great conflict.

Turn we now again to the
old register of students.
What will first strike any
one who looks through this

 

From a painting by Louis Moeller.

‘“ poLrTICS.”’

 

ART AND ARTISTS.

 

 

 

Drawn by T. W. Wood.

‘‘ WHEN WE WERE BOYS TOGETHER.’

come across many who have become
truly distinguished. In the class of
1826 was Thomas Cole ; in that of 182%
William Page ; in 1835 Daniel Hunting-
ton’s name is first entered ; and so on
and so on. It will no doubt surprise
many to know that Thomas Nast was a
student at the Academy in ’56, ’57, and
’58. In the class of 61 were Walter
Shirlaw and R. M. Shurtleff, and in that

of '63 Elihu Vedder.

83

  
  

 

From a painting by H. R. Poore.

¢ NORMANDY WOMAN.”’

A number of artists who attained a certain ephemeral dis-

tinction, and a few whose work promised well, but waned in worth as the years
went by, and who are now unknown, are registered with a fine flourish and boldness

From a painting by W. L. Sonntag.

** THE STORM.”

 

   

of writing in
TET the quaint old
% roster. Singu-
larly enough,
many of these
early strug-

glers for ar-
tistic fame
have become

successful
business men.
In’ 1865 Hist
appears among
the students
the name of
Augustus St.
Gaudens ; and
the person who
kept the regis-
ter saw so lit-
tle promise
04 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

pe

From a painting by E. L. Henry.

ON THE TOW PATH.
of genius in this most gifted aca-
demician that he did not take the
pains to spell the name correctly. It
would be interesting to go through
the whole list, but the space at my
disposal is inadequate.

Among the present members
and associates are the best men in
the country. All the schools of art
are represented, though the conser-
vatives may still be in the majority.
This is as it should be. The con-
servatives in such an. institution
should always rule, so that by mak-
ing haste slowly genuine progress
will be made year by year. In the
last year of his life George William
Curtis spoke at the annual banquet
of the Academy. He said: “Artis
but a form of expression, but in
every art the mute Milton of Gray
or the Pictor Ignotus of Browning

From a painting by Freaerick W. Freer.

‘“ HER CONOUESTS."

 

From a painting by 17. W. Wood.

‘‘ THE DIFFICULT TEXT.”

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

is a pathetic figure of the imagination, not of life.
The living Milton, in whatever form of art he
may appear, seeks first to sing, but the instinct of
song is unsatisfied if his singing be not heard.
Mr. Emerson was once asked why his interest had

declined in a youth who had seemed
to him full of promise. With his wise,
kind smile he answered: ‘When 1
found that he did not crave an audi-
ence, I doubted his genius.” The Acad-
emy does not give the artist genius,
but it gives his genius play. It-gives
him the audience that his genius
craves; and all the artists, combin-
ing and concentrating their common
interests in the Academy, surround
themselves with ever-accumulating and

 
 
  
  
  
  
 
 
 
  
     
   
   
   
 
    

From Falun by Cherie Cc Convo
‘‘ AT SUNSET.”
placed in the ball-room of one of the
great New York hotels. The sculptured
presentment of T. W. Wood (the vener-
able president of the Academy) is from
the facile’ chisel of J. Scott Hartley, one
of the few sculptors whose work is regu-
larly exhibited in the annual displays of
the institution here referred to. The

85

 

Drawn by ¥. Carroll Beckwith.

‘Ua sTupy.”

richer traditions, make themselves
felt in the community as an ag-
gressive force, and give themselves
the splendid advantage of organ-
ized power.”

Not1e.—The illustrations which
accompany this article call for
brief mention. - The decorative
drawing by Frank Fowler is the
artist’s first draught for a large
mural painting which was recently

   

Drawn by Irving R. Wiles.

‘* A PHILOSOPHER.'
86 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

    
   

WINTER WOODS.
H. Dolph

 

Drawn by §¥. Wesley Little.

‘ FIGURE STUDY.”

From a painting by Joseph Lyman.

‘“ VIEW ON SARANAC LAKE.”

Palmer, Horace Wolcott Rob-
bins, R. M. Shurtleff, T. Addi-
son Richards, J. B. Bristol, R.
C. Minor, Joseph Lyman, and
Charles Lanman are each repre-
sentative and characteristic. In
figure work specimens are shown
of the trained artistry of T. W.
Wood, Wordsworth Thompson,
Walter Satterlee, P, P. Ryder,
Lows C. Tiffany, Irving R.
Wiles, Jared B. Flagg, H. R.
Poore, Percival de Luce, Louis
Moeller, Charles C. Curran,

* Friends” of J.
is an
example of that
inimitable animal
painter in one of
his happiest
moods. ‘ Mother
and Son,” a digni-
fied, suave,
careful piece of
portraiture,comes
from the easel of

Benjamin

C. Porter,

whosename

is associ-

ated witha 7. .
long line of paintings (chiefly por- Drawn éy C. S. Reinhart.
traits) of similar character to the one

and

 

Drawn by L. E. Wilmarth.

‘“CAPTAIN NATHAN HALE ON THE MORNING OF HIS EXECUTION."

 

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

‘“FROM MY STUDIO, VILLERVILLE."

here shown. John Quincy
Adams Ward is a notable
figure in American art his-
tory, and the noble statue
of Henry Ward Beecher is
one of his most dignified
and artistic accomplish-
ments. In the “Mill at
Bayside, L. 1.,”” Charles H.
Miller’s versatile hand is
cleverly displayed. The
landscapes by Walter L.

 

 

and I. IK.
Wilmarth.
\ Those stu-

8 dents who
have studied for a
period in the Acad-
emy’s schools, and
whose work reflects
honor on its meth-
ods of instruction,
are ably represented
by Will H. Hudson,
Burt G. Phillips, and
J. Wesley Little,
each of whom has
contributed to the
illustrations here
offered. William
Sartain’s “ Bedouin
Chieftain?’ "is cet-
tainly as good a pict-
ure as he has ever
produced ; Fred. W.
Freer’s pleasing and
studious style was
never more fully ex-
emplified than in his
painting called “Her
Conquests.” = The
drawings from the

 

From a painting by Robert C. Minor.

‘ LOOKING SEAWARD."

From a painting by William Sartain.

87

 

‘ BEDOUIN CHIEFTAIN.”

gifted pencils of Charles
S. Reinhart and J. Carroll
Beckwith are graceful and
strongly individual of
these two artists’ methods.
In marine art the page re-
production of George H.
McCord’s ‘‘ Rounding the
Buoy,” and the tender,
sentimental bit of water-
view and drifting hulk by
Charles Parsons, are as de-
lightful in their conception
as they are sound in exe-
cution. All in all, a decid-
edly eclectic array of sub-
jects is presented.—ED.

 
mp

 

88

From a painting by E. L. Henry.

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

A HALT AT THE TAVERN,
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 89

A POET IN LANDSCAPE. He knows and loves the or-

ganic vitality which burns in
the mighty bosom of the earth,
and sends the life-blood pul-
sating through tree and grass

THE painting of landscape is subject to perhaps the greatest abuse of any and flower. He reads the
department of art. There is certainly no other in which the hand of incompetency romance of summer showers,
so boldly displays itself. To paint the figure requires a serious knowledge of sweeping over parched fields
form and of the most exquisite niceties of color, light, and shade. The same rule and meadow lands, and of the
applies to the painting of cattle, time of the snow, which blan-
and all forms of still life demand kets and protects the inces-
accuracy of observation, skill of santly progressive life of na-
draughtsmanship, and a mastery of ture against the fangs of the
the rendition of colors and text- frost. The true landscape
ures. In landscape, the tyro who painter is, in short, a poet as well as an artist. He might be a painter of the
can neither draw nor paint, but who figure if he chose, but he turns
has been schooled to a few tricks to nature in the form in which
of brush and palette by an instruc- : she appeals to him most elo-
tor, himself frequently, if not com- : quently. He reaches forth for
monly, incompetent, produces what [EEE his ideal according to his intel-
passes for an effect, and is supposed lectual bent, and whether he
to constitute a picture. Who that paints his poems in the Homeric
attends our exhibitions, or visits or the Horatian mood, he is

By ALFRED TRUMBLE.

(With original illustrations by Bruce Crane.)

 

‘ THE GRAY HILL.”

 

‘ A NEW ENGLAND MEADOW.”

the dealers’ galleries, is not familiar with the weary waste of libels on the great
art of Claude and Ruysdael, of Turner, Constable, Rousseau, Corot, Diaz, and the
masters whose genius has carcaneted the brow of nature with gems of art, which
pass the criticism of juries and tradesmen and are given contemptible publicity ?
The true landscape painter, however, remains as great an artist as the painter
of history. Indeed, what is his vocation but the chronicling of the history of
nature, so infinite in its varieties, so endless in its alternations of the lightest

 

““ RIPENING GRAIN.”

always the poet above all.

It is among the gentler poets
of American landscape paint-
ing that Bruce Crane is to be
ranked. Predisposed by hisown
nature to idyllic rather than
heroic themes, this inclination

gayety and tragic gloom? To him nature is as living a thing as humanity itself. was no doubt confirmed in him by his early association with the late A. H.
Wyant, under whom he worked as a pupil, and whose own art was distinguished
by its poetic tenderness = ; 2 : 5
of thought and feeling.
# Born in New York in
3 #2 1857, Mr. Crane made
od his first exhibit at the
National Academy of
Design in 1878, in a
shape which demon-
strated that the influ-
ence. of the veteran
artist who had - been
his guide had not been
exercised in vain. Im-
mediately thereafter he
went to Europe, where
he remained several

    

* THE HARVEST.” »
‘“ BROWN AND SERE.
 

90 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

Ge
rhe

AR

 

From a painting by Bruce Crane. :
2 go WINTER.

TT TT Td a,

 

 
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

years, painting principally in France,
and with surroundings and associa-
tions favorable to the development
and rounding off of his art. Thus
the earlier works which attracted pub-
lic attention to him were mainly of
French subjects. They were charac-
terized by picturesqueness of selec-
tion and excellent local color, were
executed with boldness and spirit,
and secured for the artist prompt
recognition as one of the strong men
of the advanced school, which found
expression in the formation of the
Society of American Artists, of which
Mr. Crane was an early member.

In 1882, upon his return to America
and the establishment of his studio in
New York, Mr. Crane gradually turned
his attention to native subjects, always
in the simpler field of pastoral land-
scape, and generally drawn from New Jersey or Long Island. And now he began
the series of charming pictures of whose highest expressiveness the accompany-
ing illustrations will serve to convey an idea. Summer meadows dappled with
wild flowers; winter pastures sheeted in snow ; denuded nature, shivering in the
chill breath of autumn, or awakening at the reviving caress of spring ; the vaporous
glimmer of dawn, the tender glory of sunrise, the broad, bold glare of noonday,
the splendor of sunset, and the mystery of moonlight and the scintillant flash of

 

‘ LANDSCAPE STUDY.”

r

 

‘ROAD BY THE HAYFIELD.”

91

stars, in turn invited his
fancy and challenged the
powers of his brush. For
some years, while still
maintaining a studio in
York, Mr. Crane
worked chiefly at his coun-
try home in Connecticut,
surrounded by scenes
which afforded an
sant temptation to his art,
and provided him with an
infinite variety of mate-
rial congenial to his taste.
This intimate and sympa-
thetic communion between
the artist and his vocation has resulted in giving us one of the most original, sensi-
tive, and characteristic painters of American landscape to whom our art can lay
claim. He is a strong and spirited draughtsman and painter in black and white,
and has contributed many illustrations to our great magazines. His impressions of
nature are not merely visual. What he sees he feels, and he paints it as he feels it,
without either excess or neglect of detail, and without that affectation of technical
dexterity which demands that surface shall do duty for soul.

New

inces-

 

‘ WASTE LAND.”

 

“A BLACK CLOUD.”
92 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

A MAN OF ARTISTIC IDEAS,

plant life seems to suggest its own growth.
The dash and vim of his execution reminds
those who know the man of his rugged,
vigorous nature.

He has a strong featured and frank
countenance, and it is framed by a strag-
gling beard. His every tone and gesture
manifest a native sincerity and earnestness.
From his early camp-life he has preserved
the off-hand donkomie of the woods and
plains, while with it is coupled the courtesy
of the natural gentleman. In his character
is combined the virility of a Viking with
the gentleness and quick sympathy of a

By ARTHUR N. JERVIS.

(With original illustrations by Dan. Beard.)

O connoisseur or bumpkin, pictorial art holds nothing
more affecting than the thought and feeling it stimu-
lates in the beholder. In illustrative art it is peculiarly
true that the spirit and significance of a fact in its rela-
tion to human life and sentiment are everything, while
the fact of itself is nothing. Embodiment of the spirit
and development of the meaning of the thing portrayed
is a result invariably attained in the drawings of Dan
Beard, artist and author. When looking at any piece of

his work, the conviction is imposed that it was done by a man who was thinking of

something. It is evident that some distinct and positive conception preceded and woman. Of all the gifted Beard family,
accompanied the execution. He is one of the most ideaful of American illustrators. 4 Dan was the tardiest in coming to the fore

He brims with ideas. One is refreshed by his PEE Tum as an artist. After passing his school days

drawing as by a new thought. Oftentimes it may in Cincinnati, where he was born on June 21, 1850, he went with his parents across

be easy, and just also, to point to faults of tech- the Ohio River to Covington, Ky. During the troublous times of the Morgan
nique, but if he was any less untrammelled by raids, when General
formula he probably would be less Kirby Smith was be-
forceful in expression. The popu- sieging Covington,
larity of his drawing is his vindica- Dan was at home as
tion. In his personality Dan Beard the only man of the
is truly an all-around man, and much house. His father, the

of his character is shadowed in his late J. H. Beard, N.A,,

work. His drawing carries always the animal painter, was

an impression of the executor’s ear- serving on the staff of
nestness. Sometimes itis an earnest- General Lew Wallace ;
ness that is almost fierce, but Harry Beard was south

  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

usually it is lightened by the
play of fancy, and the result
is poignantly suggestive.
He works while the idea has
mastery over him, and in
subjects of especial interest
to him his touch yields a
thrill. If chance had not
led him into the aisles of art he
might have been a naturalist. His
love of nature and familiarity
with it are expressed in many of
his sketches, especially on sketch-
book pages, those diaries where
artists confide their truest and most
secret affinities. Another feature of
Beard’s work is the intense action
that hangs in every line; even his

¢ WAITING.”

   
 

with the Thirtieth Mis-
souri Regiment; Frank
Beard was in West Vir-
ginia acting as special
artist for Harper’s, and
J. Carter Beard, whose
middle name is the
maiden name of his
mother, was in camp
on the Ohio with the
one-hundred-day men.
Exact sciences give ex-
cellent discipline to the
imagination, for the
poet must be an ana-
lyst, and Dan with his
lively fancy and quaint
conceits took a thor-

 

¢ YANKEE DOODLE CAME TO TOWN."
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

ough course in mathematics. After his studies ended he obtained employment
in an engineer's office, and subsequently was given an opportunity to set out
upon insurance surveys in different parts of the country. This chance for
travel he eagerly grasped, and the succeeding five years were spent by him in
acquiring much of the resources which he has since drawn upon in his art work.
His sympathies broadened rapidly, and his independence of thought led him into
the fertile fields of new ideas in which he has since revelled. It was during his

life as surveyor, also, that he studied the ways
of insects, of birds, beasts and fishes. He

is essentially a sensitive to the facts of life,
and his pieces are inspired by the impressions
made upon him. He has, when he chooses, a
way of showing the implications of facts
which others are too phlegmatic to perceive.
All sights and sounds of nature woo and
charm him ; problems of human life and con-
duct have in him an enthusiastic student.
Miseries and injustices bite him to the quick.
With pen and pencil he reports his deduc-
tions, and the spirit of much of his work is
due to the sting of his feeling.

He has a strong leaning toward allegori-
cal and symbolical drawing, and toward deli-
cate caricaturing. His subtle perception of

 

‘“ A WOODSMAN.”’

concepts. The travesty of the fact upon the
principle affects him keenly ; such situations he intuitively analyzes and represents
vividly. As an illustrator he explores the subject thoroughly, and reaches subtle
meanings. The idea behind the subject is always his model. Much of his best
work was done in Mark Twain’s book, “ A Connecticut Yankee
in King Arthur’s Court,” and probably no better appreciation
of his power could be induced than by reading the book with-
out illustration first, and then note how much his work illumines
the text, and brings out sharply the points which otherwise
might be missed, or at least not fully relished. The circum-
stance which made Dan Beard a devotee of the Bristol-board
was his meeting, in the summer of 1879, with the art manager
of The Century Magazine. Beard had some studies of fish
which had been drawn for his own edification, and to his sur-
prise they were eagerly taken and paid for. Since then drawing
and writing have occupied his time. The “ American Boy’s
Handy Book,” his first literary production, is still having a
steady sale. He wrote the Tom, Dick, and Harry stories for
St. Nicholas, and has contributed to the Youth’s Companion
and the Scientific American. ‘Six Feet of Romance,” orig-
inally printed in The Cosmopolitan, has been included in one
volume with “ Moonblight,” his latest literary effort, which is

 

** AMUSED.”

¢“ TYPES OF LUMBERMEN.”’

the humorous and sharp sense of the ridicu-
lous unite with a fertile fancy in yielding odd

     

illustrated by himself. In his writing are
dominant the same characteristics as in his
drawing ; sharp, decisive strokes, which make
you recognize the rugged, virile earnestness
of the man, set before you the thought which
moved the writer. No misinterpretation is
possible ; there is no equivocation in the ex-
pression, it is bold, keen, and clear. Whether
or not you agree with what he says, you are
impressed by the clarity and the emphasis
with which it is told, and you remember it.
The town studio of Dan Beard is a delight-
ful place to spend an hour or so. It is over-
flowing with old books, old armor, old guns,
old swords, and a hundred and one quaint
and artistic relics picked up in his travels
and unearthed in odd places; his summer
studio is in a rugged mountain nook in Pike
County, Pa. He resides at Flushing, 1. 1,
where, after many unsuccessful efforts, his
fellow townsmen eventually succeeded in
persuading him to serve as a school trustee.

 
94

wa

From a painting by Louis

F. Hurd.

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

SOUTHERN CROSS, GRAND MANAN, NEW BRUNSWICK.
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 05

FROM MANY STUDIOS. cord. Nor, it is to be feared,

does he realize that the quality
of work now done in America is
(With original illustrations by twenty-two well-known artists.) as high as that of any nation, for
he talks now and then about the
“ HE isn’t writing as good poetry since he had his hair lack of “art atmosphere,” and
cut,” was the allegation as to a certain versifier ; but, per about European precedence.
contra, we may say that the artists are painting better pict- Gammon! Most of Europe is
ures since they snipped their locks. Long hair looks well bragging over pictures that
on some people, but the world no longer accepts it asa sign were painted three hundred
of genius. This fact has an ultra-tonsorial significance ; years ago, and precious bad
namely, that a man must win by achievements rather than ones many of them are.

By CHARLES M. SKINNER.

   

Dian By Hoird Holiedol by claims. Our Amer- The American artist, since

ican artist has always : he has “lined up ” with the rest
been a good fellow, of the working world, paid his
usually a smart fellow, and always a gentle fel- bills, and dropped his class dis-
low, but there have been times when he did not tinctions—he was always too
work. He waited for inspiration. Those times honest for cant—has produced
are no more, Every studio is a workshop now, work of technical excellence
and the man who occupies it toils as hard as a® and high motive. Where he
mechanic and as conscientiously as a preacher. has found room, as in Chicago,
He does not write his art with a capital A, but to spread himself, he has aston-
he paints it with one. ished not only the natives, but
\ the nations. Heisdaily a better :
N\ American anda more individual: = 2207% 4 Lee Woodward Zetstor,

‘AN OLD NEGRO.”

 

a Ia er

stylist. The breadth and mag- “ THE CRUSADERS.

oo

Sv

 

Drawn by A. B. Doggett.

‘“ INTERESTED.”’

The outsider does not compre-
hend the amount of energy that
goes into the making of pictures,
the lives that are given to it, the
miles of canvas and paper that are
annually covered, because the lay-
man sees only fragmentary results.
He does not realize that an artist
who is fairly well on in years has
painted enough to supply every
p iia ne family in a small town with a
Dron ty BB Birk. LEG picture, and that his studies and i etre ts fa

“A MODERN GIRL.” sketches might be measured by the Eni

 
Dicer 95 G. 4  Tnver,
‘ WINTER MARKETING.”
pleased by his workmanship and de-
lighted by his play of fancy. We are
better satisfied when we know what the
man or woman is like who has captured
our notice and won our approbation
through any achievement of worth.
In a brief way, the comments which
follow are intended to supply this
want. That the commentary is not
elaborate is more the fault of limited
space than any studied intention to
curtail the remarks passed upon the
artists whose accomplishments in many
mediums are here reproduced. Culmer
Barnes has a way of putting on paper,
with a few direct lines and well-placed

 

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

nificence of this country, its higher aims and
destiny, are getting into his subjects. The
period of the blue peasant with wooden
shoes is passing. Every exhibition in our
cities offers a surprising variety of matter,
and imagination is taking higher rank.
American art is not only conscientious art
as to technique, but it is art that expresses
the mental sanity and independence and the
sound morals of the people. It is whole-
some art, and clean. Let the American
citizen cease his complaining and buy Ameri-
can pictures. If he has no confidence in
his own judgment, he has friends who will
judge for him, and their verdict must be for
the art of America.

Note.—It is not enough to see the
product of a clever artist’s hand and brain.
One longs to know something of the per-
sonality of the painter or illustrator who has

 

Drawn by Harry S. Watson.

‘ READY TO START.”

 

masses, the episodes of youth—its play-
hours and its mild passions—which is
clearly indicative of the artist's sym-
pathy with his wee models. His chief
work has been in the line of illustra-
tion for juvenile journals. His spe-
cialty is a broad one and admits of
endless study—and amusement. H.
Martin Beal is best known in the East-
ern sections of the land. He is a famil-
iar exhibitor in the Boston art shows
and an industrious contributor to the
illustrated periodicals of the “ Hub”
and thereabouts. His work is marked S508 :
by refinement of manner and conscien-
tiousness of execution. A portrait of
Mr. Beal appears elsewhere in this number, and one
ures the distinguishing traits of the man and artist.
Reginald B. Birch has the rare gift of a creative

 

Drawn by Culmer Barnes.

‘ A FRIEND IN NEED.”

can read in his reflected feat-

 

 

 

 

 

>

fo
ESS
Ro

   

x

TANS
Drawn by F. M. Howarth.

Drawn by J. H. Henken.
‘ THE EQUESTRIENNE.”

*“ A DRENCHING CASE OF THOUGHTLESS=
NESS.”
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

From a painting by Richard B. Gruelle.
MOONRISE.,

 
93

mind, and a sensitive hand that
is quick to realize in substantial
form the imagery of his fertile
brain. Birchis an Englishman
by birth, an American by train-
ing, and a Frenchman in his
ready grace and his aptness
with the pencil. He regards
the result as a greater thing
than the method, though he is
a man with a decided style of
his own and a deep feeling for
all that is genuinely artistic.
As a monochromatic portrayer
of children he is quite alone.
Edwin Howland Blashfield
puts. forth in. his highest
achievements a stateliness of
style and a certain old-world
feeling. His manner and
thought are of a distinctly
medieval flavor. His ten-
dency is toward idealism in
all things. He has a fresh-

 

Drawn by Charles Howard Johnson.

‘“ AN ELIZABETHAN.”

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

Drawn by E. H. Blash field.

‘ THE GENIUS OF ART.”

ness of fancy that is somewhat rem-
iniscent of Doré, though the differ-
ence between Blashfield and Doré is
the difference between the trained
draughtsman and the unskilled de-
lineator. F. W. Cawein is a Southern
artist whose principal work has been
in the line of illustration. He draws
with decision and has predilections for
out-of-doors scenes. He has studied

Bs itn

 

Drawn by 1. J. Fogarty.

“ THE ARCHWAY.”

character in the South until he has familiarized himself with
its peculiarities, but, like a good illustrator, he has not con-
fined himself to any one class of subjects. Warren B. Davis
is one of our young illustrators to whom the future must
have a promising aspect, if present honors count for any-
thing. His best work has been done with the pen, and
many of the leading periodicals have given place to his
illustrations. Mr. Davis is not alone a worker in black and

 

white, for he has executed and exhibited many pictures, in Ter

oil and water-colors, which have found genuine favor in
critical eyes. A. B. Doggett is an illustrator who is not

Drawn by A. B. Doggett.

*“ CONTENTED.’

afraid of multiple themes; he would as soon be versatile as not. His method of

 

Drawn by F. W. Cawein.

“ HUNTING.”

drawing is unhackneyed, and his humor is
neither vulgar nor super-refined. If one
may read a man by his work, Mr. Doggett
believes in the livableness of life and the
picturesqueness of the present period and
the people who make it. S. S. Dustin is
given to picture-making in which the ele-
ment of timeliness is very pronounced.
Mr. Dustin would in all probability make
as clever a newspaper editor as he is an
artist, had chance and inclination moulded
his life differently. His drawings have a
serious, business-like air about them that
cannot fail to impress itself, but which

does not in any degree destroy their artistic force. Thomas J. Fogarty is a name
frequently met with in the corners of eye-tickling illustrations. He is a sincere

worker and is something of a stylist.

His drawings generally fit the text which

they accompany, which cannot be said of all work one finds in the pictured papers
of the day. Frank French is trebly gifted : he can draw a clever picture, engrave
it on wood in most exquisite style, and write an article to accompany the engrav-

ing with a literary grace that
betokens the born writer. Mr.
French holds forth for the
dainty, the pure, and the pict-
uresque in each of the sister
arts to which he gives his time.
It is an achievement to master
three arts in one life-time—an
achievement which many have
endeavored to reach and but
few have succeeded. Howard
Helmick made his reputation by
the cleverest character studies
of the Irish peasantry ever given
to public view. His paintings
have been exhibited in the

  

Drawn by C. M. Rel

    

lyea.

‘“ ALONG THE RIVER.”
Royal Academy of London
and #k¢ Salon of Paris.
He is now doing for the
negroes of the South what
he has done for the west
coast peasant-folk of the
Emerald Isle. Mr. Hel-
mick is a graduate of the
Ecole des Beaux Arts and a
pupil of Cabanel. J. Henry
Henken is skilled in figure
work, though he is not un-
graceful in his picturing of
landscape. To a natural
talent for careful obser-

 

Drawn by S. S. Dustin.

AMERICAN

   

‘‘ HIS LORDSHIP.”

AND ARTISTS.

mood as in the drawing which is here
published. J. H. Knickerbocker has
accomplished more in the department
of newspaper illustration than in the
more exalted but not more exacting
spheres of painting and magazine pict-
urement. Many of the skilfully ren-
dered transcripts from nature, animate
and inanimate, which have come into
light in the ephemeral newspaper would
easily do credit to the better magazines.
Orrin S. Parsons is a painter of attrac-
tive women and social pastimes. He
delights in out-of-door effects, and takes
more pleasure in painting a fleck of
sunlight as it falls on the face of a

99

vation he has added the acquired gift of sound draughts-
manship and ready imagination. The picture from his
hand which is printed with these comments is a charac-
teristic bit of illustration. F. M. Howarth has a style
as firmly rooted to his name as the mountains are rooted
to the earth. He works entirely on the humorous
phase of humanity, and his fun is irresistible. While he
disclaims any distinction as a true artist, he is as cer-

 

Drawn by J. H. Knickerbocker.

“IN THE GARRET.”

pretty girl than most artists can extract

   

tainly

an art

: maker

Drawn by Ilona Rado. as any
‘ GREEK MAIDEN."

profes-

sion-proud painter, for he has
pleased a world of people; and,
after all is said, the true end of
art is the pleasure to be got from
it. His fun is clear-cut, original,
wholesome, and good tempered.
Mr. Howarth attained renown
through his “serial comic pict-
ures.” He is identified with Puck
at the present time, and the ex-
amples of his facile pen here given
are as good as anything of their
kind thathasyet appeared. Charles
Howard Johnson is a versatilist or
nothing. He is equal to any sub-
ject, and essays every phase of illus-
tration. It is not often, however,
that we see him in so thoughtful a

 

Drawn by H. Martin Beal.
‘ THE BOOKWORM."

   

from an ela-
borate and
long-studied
historical or
episodal
Gr i lh composi-
Drawn by Maud Stumm. tion. One

‘“ THE WATER-COLORIST.” of the best
things yet

achieved by Mr. Parsons is the charming painting
here reproduced. Ilona Rado is one of New York's
clever woman painters who have obtained their artis-
tic education abroad, and combine this with their
native culture to the end of making their accomplish-
ments take rank with the work of the sterner sex.
In pictures of the kind here reproduced Miss Rado
excels. C. M. Relyea has made his best drawings
for Life. He is astudious illustrator. His penchant
is society episodes, in which well-dressed men and
semi-dressed women largely figure. Mr. Relyea’s
talent may be analyzed in the accompanying draw-
ing, which is somewhat out of his ordinary vein.
Miss Maud Stumm is a painter of portraits and

 

on

Drawn by Frank French.

“ A CHRISTMAS VIGIL.”
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

From a painting by Charles C. Curran.

 
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 101

‘A MODERN MARINE PAINTER.
By HENRY MILFORD STEELE.
(With original illustrations by Carlton 7. Chapman.)

IT has been estimated that at the present time fully one-half of all those who
use the artist’s brush have worked, to a greater or less extent, in the field of illus-
tration, and, it may be added, not a few have made in it reputations in no sense
inferior to those gained in painting pictures.
There are many illustrators who never work in
color—capable artists who are not painters;
but illustration has become of late years so
important a means for reaching the public, as
well as a means for providing an income, that
every year sees a constantly increasing number
of painters represented in the magazines.

Among those painters who draw more or
less for reproduction is Carlton T. Chapman.
There can be no question but that Mr. Chap-
man is a painter of a high order. He long ago received the recognition as a
ho” z delineator of marine subjects to which his merits fully entitle him. His pictures,
a as ~ ie. hE ¥ familiar to those who attend the exhibitions, bear ample witness to his powers.
His fine perceptions, his deep sympathy with his subjects, and his vigorous

 

4 FISHERMEN'S HUTS.’

 

Drawn by Howard Helniick.
‘“ THE PRODIGAL’S RETURN.”’

figures, mostly in idyllic style, and her work is noticeable chiefly for its refinement
of color and delicacy of drawing. Her pictures are frequently found in the exhi-
bition halls, and her name is yearly becoming more familiar to
art followers. G. A. Traver is an illustrator whose liking for
rural characters is strongly asserted whenever opportunity offers,
and in no other class of subjects does he appear so much at
ease. The old fellow in the picture here given from Mr.
Traver’s hand is a capital study, capitally made. Harry S.
Watson, the bulk of whose illustrative work has been pub-
lished in Outing, is fast becoming one of the strong person-

alities of current monochromatic art. His style is

 
 
  

a certain, and his information accurate. The old lady
= of his picture here produced is a swift and
Gs. eign. clever bit of pen-work, and is one of his most
[ Ni charming line sketches asyet given to the pub-

lic. Lee Woodward Zeigler is as industrious

~\& as he is talented. He is, to judge from his
picture in this issue, a delver in books as well
5, % © as a student of the human countenance.
bs NE by The output of many studios is so fully
illustrated by the reproductions which
Drcun fy Warren B. Dads, accompany these words that no further eA
“ POSING.” comment is requisite. —ED. oNe OF TAL WATTR SOUABTON”

 

 
 

102

 

¢‘ FISHING BOATS.”

confusion of docks and ships and the tangle of

completely at home.

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

methods of handling them, no
less than his thorough under-
standing of the sea and ships,
and his keen and sensitive feel-
ing for color, give to his work a
strength and individuality that is
admirable.

Although Mr. Chapman is a
true sailor and knows thoroughly
the open sea, the wilder and
rougher moods of the ocean do
not appeal to him so strongly as
do the picturesque aspects of
coasts and harbors, where in the
ropes and spars he finds himself

The American navy of earlier days appeals powerfully to his imagination, and

perhaps the very best picture he
has ever painted is a recently
completed work representing the
famous battle between the Con-
stitution and Java—a remarkable

composition, full of spirit and

action, and beautifully painted ;
certainly in strong contrast to his
quiet and restful harbor scenes.
While itis true that Mr. Chap-
man is known chiefly as a painter
of marine subjects, it is equally
true that as a painter of street
scenes, architecture, and land-
scapes he is bold, original, and

 
 
 
 
 
  
 

‘ ON THE BEACH AT ST. IVES.”

successful. The water-colors representing a long summer’s work at St. Ives are

among the best things that he has ever done.

The quaint architecture and the

various aspects of the old town are expressed with a freshness, grace, and delicacy

£

 

‘‘ THE BUOY.”

that is charming. His picture
of Somersby Rectory, the birth-
place of Tennyson, presented to
the Players’ Club of New York,
and now in the club’s gallery,
displays a tenderness of feeling,
a breadth of view, and a cer-
tainty of treatment that is re-
markable. It is a striking ex-
ample of his skill as a painter
in a different vein from that in
which we are accustomed to look
for him.

As an illustrator Mr. Chapman is perhaps
not so widely known, for his work in this
field is of recent date; but what he has done
has been so surprisingly good that he has
immediately taken his place in the front
rank. His work in connection with a series
of articles on ocean steamships, which ap-
peared in one of the magazines a year or two
ago, was a revelation to many people who had
previously considered him purely as a painter,
These were almost the first drawings he had
made for reproduction, but they were so suc-
cessful that he soon found himself in demand
by the publishers of other magazines, and
since then his work in black and white has
come to occupy a conspicuous place in mod-
ern American illustration. His cleverness in
the handling of his subjects, the delicacy and
precision of his methods, and his beautiful
feeling for what is called the artistic quality,
have made a deep and lasting impression.

 

¢‘ON THE WAYS.”

It may be said also that Mr. Chapman possesses in no small degree one quality
which gives him great advantage as an illustrator, a quality which it is to be
feared is sometimes overlooked by certain of his contemporaries—he knows how

¢“ THE LIGHTHOUSE.”

 
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 103

 

From a painting by Carleton 71". Chapman.

ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN THE CONSTITUTION AND THE JAVA.
104 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

was so skilful as to justify the opinion that he
might profitably devote more time to this
branch of art.

Finally let it be noted that Carlton T. Chap-
man has thus far sedulously avoided the pitfalls
that abound in the path of the figure painter,
and in this he has shown his wisdom. The
field that he has chosen is certainly broad
enough, and he is working in it with a rare
amount of intelligence and skill.

Norte.—No better material was ever ob-
tained by Mr. Chapman than that which he
gathered during a recent visit to many of the
picturesque coast towns and fishing villages of
Eng-
land.
T he
quaint,
ungain-

‘¢ FISHING SMACKS."’ ly, yet
‘“ WINTER MORNING.” colorful

 

and paintable craft of the English fisher-
to draw. A painter, by a clever manipulation of
his color, may to a certain extent cover up defi-
ciencies in drawing, or, at least, succeed in direct-
ing attention away from them. But the man who
works in black and white has no such resource ;
his drawing must stand for what it is, good or
bad; and as a strong and certain draughtsman
Mr. Chapman is especially noteworthy.

As an etcher Mr. Chapman occupies fully as
high a place as that which he holds as a painter.
Some years ago he
etched a number of
marine subjects, on
rather a large scale,
which were very well
received: but at the ‘“ OFF EAST GLOUCESTER.
last exhibition
of the New York Etching Club, held in con-
nection with the annual show
of water-colors, he displayed
a half-dozen or more small
etchings of such excellence as
to command the admiration of
the critics and the public. The

z subjects were both marine and ’
*‘LOW TIDE—ISLE OF JERSEY.” landscape, and the execution ‘ HEADED FOR BEDLOE'S ISLAND.”

man, and his humble ways of living and
unpretentious surroundings, offered to Mr.

 

Chapman's ready brush a veritable mine of
interesting material, and kept him in a state
of exultation most of the time.—ED.

‘“ A COUNTRY COTTAGE.’

 

   
   
   
  

  

 
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

A PAINTER OF PRETTV WOMEN,

By CROMWELL CHILDE.

(With original illustrations by De Scott Evans.)

 

TE

‘ DAY DREAMS.”

Tue East, and the country at large. are
indebted to the wide-spreading West in art
as well as in literature. That important
characteristic, virility, is not seldom prairie-
and-plain trained, so to speak. Oftentimes
it flourishes best because it has been nursed
far away from gas-lit drawing-rooms. It
gains its freshness and its strength from the
absence of conventional things. Such sur-
roundings made possible the poetry of
Eugene Field—exquisite in delicacy as well
as perfect in fire—and gave birth to the ro-
mances of Edward Eggleston. The plains
of the Southwest gave Frederic Remington
his point of view, and sharpened his un-
erring pencil.

Nevertheless, the Scottish ballad tradi-
tion of the brave “young Lochinvar” com-

ing out of the West is not so very often repeated here. The palette-and-brush

that he gathered together his Lares
and Penates, his studio furnishings
and canvases, and travelled East.

The characteristics of his work as-
sert themselves at once in broad lines.
One particular task he has set himself,
and made it his great aim. That is
the depiction of femininity—the fem-
ininity of our day as one sees it a thou-
sand times a year, femininity in its
prettiest and daintiest form, the hey-
day of young girlhood. And here an
important distinction arises. The girl
that is generally shown by the art
world, in color or in black and white,
is the Miss of the “ Avenue,” exquis-
itely modish, beautifully robed, ever
with tip-tilted nose.

Quite another girl looks out of the
canvases of Mr. Evans. She is none
the less dainty and fair, none the less
attractive, but the girl rather of the
“upper middle class,” a maid more

105

 

* STUDYING."

Lochinvar of the Middle and Mississippi
States more frequently stays where he is.
He fears—and wisely, too—to enter the
push and crowd of the art mart of Manhat-
tan Island. The saying is right, he thinks :
‘ Better be the first man in a country town
than the second in’ Rome.”

And yet the Western talent has made
a broad mark in New York. To the dash
of the “open-air cities” is added the deli-
cacy that comes from a daily contact with
purple and fine linen. The blending of
these two qualities produces, more than all
else, the fin de siecle man of art.

Such a type of painter is the subject of
this sketch—De Scott Evans. Forty-one
years ago he was born in Boston, Indiana.
The whole of his earlier manhood was spent
in Cincinnati and Cleveland, with the ex-
ception of one year, late in the seventies,
devoted to work in the ateliers of Paris.
In these Western cities he painted and
studied, teaching art and music meanwhile
in the academies. It was not until 1887,
when he had reached his thirty-fifth year,

 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
   

Ls

‘THE LAST K18S.”

=

a . = SE

familiar, but without a Van to her name, an ancestry, or the hope of a famous
bridal.

It might fairly be said that De Scott Evans has mirrored the truly American
girl exactly as she is, and as we like her best.

He sets her, always, in the midst of dainty surroundings, most frequently in a
corner of a studio. He robes her in delicately toned fabrics, and prettily poses her.

It follows without saying that he who can successfully portray the maid of our
times must be a consummate master of “stuffs.” The painting of fabrics, one is
tempted to declare without fear of contradiction, is Mr. Evans’ chief hold as a
man of art. His can-
vases show that he
has studied textures
thoroughly and well.
The sheen of silk, the
soft folds of ¢répe du
Chine, the cool of the
challie, dear to the
heart of woman now-
adays, are all shown
with something better
than photographic ac-
curacy ; one feels the
texture as if it was
under his hand.

‘SPRING SUNSHINE.” His modelling may
106 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

 

GREEN COCOANUT SELLER, JAMAICA.
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 107

at times be at fault, but the fault is seldom glaring. All this is swallowed up,
when it does occur, in the charm of the blending of colors, those pale, harmon-
izing tones that seem to belong especially to girlhood. In one of his canvases I
recall a filmy window-curtain of a pale hue of yellow, through which the houses
across the way were distinctly visible. It needed, it seemed, but a breath of air to
set it a-swaying.

And all his pictures, modern though they are, seem to call back a memory—
that ever-present one to most men—of ‘the girl I used to know.”

They are painted very simply, with little attempt at “composition,” in the full
sense of that term. No story is attempted, except that deeper one that comes by
inference. In nearly all, the single girlish figure is alone. In at least one picture
Mr. Evans has gone from girlhood to old age. This painting shows the artist in a
different and unaccustomed vein. It is his mother, done with scrupulous fidelity.
But the charm is simply the rendering of the black dress; the balance admits of
not nearly so much praise. Itis the “eternal womanhood,” as Goethe says, that
leads us on, and one cannot but be grateful at the setting of that, realistically,
before our eyes.

Nore.—The range of De Scott Evans’ art is not held within the limits of bou-
doir scenes and portraits of young women. He is a landscapist of no mean ability,
an animal painter with much merit in this class of work, and as a portrayer of dis-
tinctly dramatic effects he has more than once scored unusual success. In this
latter character he is best represented by his touching picture “ The Last Kiss,”
which is reproduced on page 279. There is true dramatic spirit in this painting,
and a sentiment which is subdued though not subordinated. Mr. Evans is a con-
tributor to most of the important art exhibitions, and has attained popularity chiefly
through his delicate and sympathetic studies of girlhood. —Eb.

¥

RE LR FE a AT

 

‘THE FINISHING TOUCH.”

 

“COUSIN FROM TOWN."
108 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

  

|

is

 

 

From a painting by De Scott Evans.

THE BOTANISTS.
AMERICAN

THE MAKING OF MASTERPIECES.
By EDGAR MAYHEW BACON.

(With original illustrations by prominent American artists of thelr best pictures.)

 

DownN the banks of the Dove, or by some
rushing Norway river or placid Adirondack
lake, Izaak Walton or one of his gentle disciples
goes a-fishing. Many are the salmon, grayling,
trout, and pickerel displayed when the anglers
meet to compare and discuss. But the biggest
fish ?

“Let me see. That fellow that I landed in
the rifle was a beauty, but he was nothing to
the one that I hooked just below the fall. You
should have seen him! What did I do with
him? Why, don’t you understand, he got away.”

The biggest fish always does get away ; and
the biggest inspiration gets away, and so does everything else that is absolutely
worthy and perfect and inestimable. The best thought (let it be said for our com-
fort and encouragement) has never been uttered. We expect a messenger
through the ivory gates, and lo ! he comes through the gate of horn. That
does not mean that something nearly approximating mechanical perfec-
tion may not be attained. Technique is mastery of J material, and if
the artist could merely be a mechanic, as the watch- maker is, or the

   

 

 

 

Drawn by F. T. Hutchens.

 

“MY GUITAR.”

   
   
        

cabinetmaker, he could calmly erase the non fi \\ from ‘his. crest
and sell his birthright for the first mess of pottage / ih \ that offered. The
watchmaker makes a hundred watches, each per- / | fect, each like

every other, and he is satisfied. The artist makes /
ures, each different from every other, each im-
is vastly and forever dissatisfied. If he could
which he and the world agreed in considering
perfect he would not be willing to duplicate
it. Rather, like Thor-
waldsen, he would throw
down his hands and weep
because there was noth-
ing left to strive for,
There is’ the deep and
impassable gulf which is
forever fixed between the
mechanic and the artist.
But the fisherman brings
to the meeting of his peers =f :
not only the story of the Re ee
fish which he failed to pr se

land, but the actual body =

Drawn by W. H. Drake.
of the best and largest ‘“ MISTY WEATHER.”

a hundred pict-
perfect, and he
execute one

 

ART AND ARTISTS.

 

that he did succeed in cap-
turing. So the artist brings
not only the description of
that vision which has eluded
him, but the best actual ac-
complishment of which he
has been capable so far, his
high-water mark of success.
Nor let any one suppose
that he offers that which in
his innermost heart he
thinks the worthiest. Be
sure that, if closely ques-
tioned, the contributor
would own at last, in con-
fidence, that somewhere—
in his studio, or perhaps, better still, hanging on the wall beneath which is the desk
of some sweet correspondent who occasionally looks up and remembers him—that
somewhere there is a picture, “a little thing but his own,” in which he has more
nearly expressed his highest thought. But he will say, also in strictest confidence,
that the critics would have none of it. ;

His modesty forbids that he shall rely upon his own judgment, which friends
and critics conspire to convince him is absolutely worthless—as though a man
could see to create and then suddenly be too blind to compare. He offers his
most successful work, that which in the scales has tipped the greatest number of
ounces of public approbation—or of dollars, which is only another way of saying.

 

 

Drawn by W. C. Fitler.

“ EARLY SPRING.”

WINS
~

WR

 

Drawn by E. L. Henry.

¢ yACATION TIME."
AMERICAN

110

the same thing. It is more than interesting to
hear what an artist, conscious that his best
cannot be exhibited, has to say about that
which the world calls his best, and concerning
which he himself is only conscious that it is
not his worst. In the following pages these
imaginative, sensitive artists meet and tell us
what they know about that which they best
know (and know best), and concerning which
we cannot do better than know. And we may
listen and learn, and be conscious still that
back of all that they have said there is vastly
more that they know, unsaid, and that cannot
be said, or that they might say and we could
never comprehend.

Note.—The finest and most generally ex-
cellent piece of monochrome art turned from
the brush or quill-point of an accomplished
illustrator must needs give the latter as full a
measure of self-satisfaction as does the most

 

praisewor-

thy canvas ™ mE nL

NT Drawn by Joseph H. Boston.

give ats 8d wi 2
a GLADYS,

ambitious

is a difficult task for the illustrator
to pick out from the mass of his black and
white productions that drawing which, from
every point of criticism, may be said to be his
best pictorial attainment.

This difficulty has so stoutly confronted
Frank P. Bellew (“Chip ”) that he cries in his

maker. Tt

      

nS

Drawn by Jasper F. Cropsey.

‘‘ VIEW ON THE HUDSON.’

confusion, “ Here are
two or three sketches
of which I can only
say they are not quite
so condemnably bad
as most of my other
pictures.” Butthecry
is that of healthy mod-
esty,*for “Chip” has
banished many a fit of
indigo demons from
the fun-famished souls
of comic-paper read-
ers. WW, P. Bodfish,
versatile with pencil
and pen-point, has ac-
complished at

Drawn by Benjamin Lander.

least “THE NEW MOON.”

 

 

ART AND: ARTISTS,

two satisfactory pieces of art work— ©
one an illustration drawn for the New
York Ledger, the other a painting ex-

  
 
 
  

hibited some nine years ago in the
National Academy of Design. The
painting is called ¢ After
the Haying,”
by its maker chiefly for its

and is prized

tonal qualities and its ex-
cellently rendered twilight

effect. The artist’s interest

in his model posed in this ;

awn by Bruce Crane.
picture has much to do 200% ore Crone

. . Sr 2 ‘‘ THE WANING YEAR.”
with his liking forit. “ As

one’s dest painting does not sell,” says Mr. Bodfish, “and this one did not, it is per-
haps the best thing I have yet done.”

William Verplanck Birney, popularly known as a painter of
hold episodes, and pretty women prettily posed within old English rooms and amid

charming house-

the most picturesque furnishings, believes that his finest canvas is the one which
shows him in his most unique mood—that of sorrow and tragedy. In the large
painting, “ Deserted,” there is as much dramatic force as can be seen upon the
stage, and as a work of art pure and simple it is par excellence. Some idea of the
principal characters in this pictured drama may be gleaned from Mr. Birney’s
pencil sketch, which is printed with this.

Carle J. Blenner, though young in years, is an artist whose careful work has
brought him into notice and popularity. His best picture is the one he has here
portrayed, and in it one may find the true reason of his art advancement and his
ever increasing scope.

The most important work of Joseph H. Boston is his portrait of a child—
“Gladys.” The painting is now in the World's Fair art exhibition. The little
girl, rosy-cheeked and large-eyed, dressed in some dark brown stuff, stands before
a dark green background.
The picture is of the size of
life, and is an admirable piece
of brush-work.

Says Maria Brooks, whose

 

special line of art is the por-
traiture of children, referring
to her best picture: “Itis a
difficult matter for me to say
anything about my master-
piece—the picture which 1
think the best of all I have
painted—for my finest pic-
ture, my masterpiece, is as yet
unpainted. I did once hope
to paint such an one, and at
the time ‘Wayfarers’ (which

 

 

ERB oindeme. >

 

Drawn by C. A. Burlingame.

‘* UP FOR REPAIRS.”
AMERICAN

is my best up to date) was finished, what ;
might have been my masterpiece was Eee
planned and some sketches made for it.

“The subject was a grand Biblical pro-
cession, and one which, as far as I know,
has never been put on canvas. But circum-
stances over which I had no control obliged
me, though with reluctance, to abandon the
idea.” Miss Brooks’ “Wayfarers” is by all
odds the cleverest and most soundly artistic
canvas she has yet finished, and too much
can scarcely be said in its praise.

C. A. Burlingame is not what one
would call a prolific painter, though
the pictures which leave his easel :
are full of that fine feeling for composition
and color that denotes the born artist in
the striving man. The accompanying sketch
is from a water-color drawing, and Mr. Bur-
lingame believes it is his best bit of picture-
making, though he declares his liking for : ho
the thing is wholly undefinable. Drawn by W. Verplanck Birney.

A little picture, low in tone and aglow
with a quiet charm of color, is Rudolph
F. Bunner’s “In Doors,” exhibited at the Academy some years ago.
says it is his best production up to the moment. It belongs in the class of subjects
which particularly appeal to this painter, and in the fixing of which he has more
than once achieved a most satisfying result.

 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

‘“ DESERTED.”

Mr. Bunner

 

Drawn by Francis Wheaton.

A FLOCK OF SHEEP.”

ART AND ARTISTS.

111

That master landscapist, Bruce Crane, when the query was put to him, “ Of all
your canvases, which do you consider the very finest?" replied in a somewhat
evasive vein, but with perfect candor : “ My best picture? Sometimes I give my
best picture a coat of white. What is the best is always an open question, and I
am not prepared to decide on my own case. But I can speak positively of the
picture that brought me much reward. In 1878 I painted some green canvases,
with apple-blossoms and geese. Real green pictures
were something of a novelty then, and the public took
kindly to them ; in fact, they would look at nothing
else from my brush, and the belief was well grounded
that I could only paint ¢ green pictures.” Mr. Richard
H. Halsted, a generous amateur and a good friend to
many young artists, gave me a commission for a very
large November landscape, after having seen some
fall studies that I had just made. The result was ‘ The
Waning Year,” exhibited in the Spring Academy of
1882. This was considered my first serious produc-
tion. Anyway, it brought me considerable praise and
some emoluments. The production of this Novem-
ber landscape put an end to ‘green pictures.’

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Drawn by Georgina A. Davis.

‘A MAN IN ARMOR.”

Concerning ‘The Waning
Year,” I can only say that it
is one of my best efforts, and
thank the good fortune that
came to me through the faith
of the generous amateur who
helped me out of my pea-
green predicament.”

Jasper F. Cropsey is one
of the pioneers of art in this
part of the country, and he
has been painting since 1844
a long time to be handling
a brush. In all these years
he has covered many can-
vases, and the best thing he
has done is the Hudson River
scene, a sketch of which ac-
companies these lines. Mr.
Cropsey has a charming home
at Hastings-on-the-Hudson,
and the country round about
offers many an inspiration for
his persistent brush.

 

 

Drawn by Ella F. Pell.

* SALOME.”
AND ARTISTS.

ART

AMERICAN

112

 

HT.

TWILIC

AT

From a painting by Frank de Haven.
One of the pleasant surprises of illus-
trated journalism was the publication, in
Frank Leslie’s Weekly, some months ago, of
the first and only portrait ever published of
Ruth Cleveland, the much talked about
daughter of President Cleveland. This
portrait was sketched from the life, and was
published at a time when every illustrated
newspaper and magazine in the land was
striving, by some means, to secure the coun-
terfeit presentment of the youthful Miss
Cleveland. The portrait referred to was
drawn by Georgina A. Davis, and was made
at the President’s summer home at Buz-
zard’s Bay. The popularity which this piece
of work brought to the artist was undoubt-
edly pleasing to her, but the picture which
has given her most self-satisfaction, and
won for her greatest applause among her
fellow-artists, is the painting of a man in
armor, a sketch of which is printed with this.

The ¢ Battle between the Constitution
and Guerriere” has often been referred to

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

Lik Tidak

Drawn by Rudolph F. Bunner.

‘“ IN DOORS.”

by competent critics as the masterpiece of Julian O. Davidson, the marine painter,

although the artist himself insists that this

 

Drawn by M. R. Dixon.

‘ INTO EACH LIFE SOME RAIN MUST FALL.”

picture is but his second best. Curi-
ously enough, this painting forms a part
of the drop curtain in the Macdonough
Theatre, at Oakland, California, which
does not alter the fact, however, that
it is a superbly executed picture. The
canvas which Mr. Davidson believes to
be his most successful bit of brush-
work also depicts an American sea-
fight, and is rich in the finer qualities
of color and composition, though there
is less of vim in it than is displayed in
the artist’s curtain painting.

Anent the prime artistic effort of
Frank De Haven’s life, he tells that it
was exhibited at the famous Prize Fund
Exhibition held in the American Art
Galleries of New York in 1889. “The
picture,” says Mr. De Haven, “ attract-
ed more attention than has any other
work of mine before or after this event.
The scene is a sunset view looking
eastward across great sand dunes, the
tops of which are bathed in golden

 

light, while the base of each creamy hum-
mock and the marshes thereabout are in
cool shadows. The whole effect is reflected
in a broad pond separated from the indigo
sea just beyond by the pyramidal sand
dunes. The sky is filled with thin, vaporous
clouds, blue-tinged at the horizon by the
on-creeping night, but blending into warm
reddish grays at the zenith.” The picture
differs radically from any other work
produced by Mr. De Haven. It has been
warmly praised by this artist’s fellow-brush-
men, and commendation from such a source
is full of meaning. The picture is called
“ Evening at Manomet,” and reveals the
character of certain portions of the wild
Maine coast with pleasing fidelity. The
sketch of the painting that Mr. De Haven
has made but inadequately suggests the at-
tractiveness of the original.

A representative Canadian woman artist
is Mrs. M. E. Dignam. She has accom-

 

Drawn by Walter Satterlee.

113

SR
Sd

¢ THE LIGHTENED LOAD.”

plished much that is good in the way of artistic portraiture. Speaking of her

work, she remarks :

“No picture has given me any sudden acquisition of fame. My first work as
an amateur was well received, and my reputation has kept gaining with each year’s
work. My first essay was in portraiture, which brought me only a local reputation.
While studying at the Art League in New York, I painted flowers in the studio

of Mrs. Julia Dillon, merely for recreation.

During the last ten years, my pictures

of native flowers and garden scenes have won for me wide recognition. I paint

 

Drawn by Maria Brooks.

‘ THE WAYFARERS."

no studio pictures, for
all my work is done
out-of-doors, and
painted from direct
contact with nature.
I am much too fond
of landscapure to sac-
rifice it to the figures
which go with it.
Whatever they may
be, my pictures must
be characteristic of
the landscape environ-
ment. As the result
of out-of-door study
in simple landscape
painting, the picture
‘Clouds and Sunshine’
114 AMERICAN ART

is, according to public judgment, my
most ambitious and most successful
effort.” Mrs. Dignam’s pictures have
in them a breadth and vigor that make
them exceptionally grateful to con-
noisseurs.

A sweet, poetic theme, delicately
but straightforwardly executed, is the
painting by Miss M. R. Dixon which
bears the title, “ Into Each Life Some
Rain’ Must Fall.” The picture was
shown in the Spring exhibit of the Na-
tional Academy of Design, and elicited
favorable comment from many lips and
pens. A sketch of this charming com-
position is published with this. That
acute picture judge, Thomas B. Clarke,
is the pleased possessor of the canvas,
and when recently he was offered double
the price he had paid for it, he stoutly
refused to sell.

Will H. Drake is chiefly noted by his
illustrative work, but his main profes-
sional occupation does not prevent him from painting, now and again, some choice
landscapic theme or interesting group of figures. The drawing reproduced with
this article is from his master effort, and it is unfortunate that its exquisite coloring
cannot be shown. Mr. Drake is most at home in water-color work, the beautiful
medium in which his best picture was painted.

A landscape limner of great virility and keenly sensitive perceptions is C.
Harry Eaton. His careful essays in the interpretation of nature have found
appreciation in many art displays, and it is safe to remark that few painters of Ameri-
can scenery are so
thoroughly familiar
with local out-of-door
life as this artist. He
is a student of weather
moods, and to him the
woods and meadows
are open books, whose
contents are of absorb-
ing interest. Even the
little sketch of his mas-
terpiece which is given
with these notes re-
veals that fact.

George Wharton
Edwards, who writes
as charmingly as he

 

John A. Fraser.
‘IN THE HEART OF SCOTLAND.”

 

 

 

 

Drawn by C. Harry Eaton.

‘‘ A MARSH MEADOW.”

AND ARTISTS.

paints, and pursues both arts with more than ordi-
nary results, describes a well-known work from his
brush in the following entertaining manner : “ The
story of the inception of the writer's best picture and
its reception at the Palais d’Industrie at Paris may
be interesting to the layman as well as to the artist.
The writer reached Belgium early in the summer of
1882, and at once sought the sea-coast, where he was
persuaded he would find the class of subject in which
he was most interested. He finally found himself at ;
a small town, Blankenberghe, a few miles north of ae

Ostende. Imagine a collection of small, yellow. Prev & Archie Gunn.
stuccoed, one-story houses situated behind the dunes,

and clustering like a flock of chickens about a venerable gray-towered church. A
flat stretch of sandy beach, upon which, arranged in orderly rows, were nearly forty
of the most picturesque, blunt-bowed, lee-boarded fishing-boats, which for an artist’s
purposes were unequalled. The tide was washing up about them, and here and
there the fisherwomen were slowly walking shoreward, basket laden, waist deep in
the pale green surf. These women were brawny, bronzed, and costumed in white
caps and sombre, low-toned bodices and skirts, the latter held well up toward the
waist, so as not to impede the
wearer’s movements. The sky
was gray and stormy, and the
reflections of the boats, with
their velvety tanned brown
and yellow sails, were deep in
the wash of the beach.

“Two women were coming
towards him laden with huge
baskets of glistening fish, and
as they got in line with some of
the boats the writer saw his
picture. For weeks he painted,
and finally his picture was
completed—out of doors—and
to the wonderment and ap-
plause of the townspeople, who,
perhaps, were as much inter-
ested in the work as the paint-
er. It was his ambition to ex-
hibit it at the Salon in Paris.
Well he knew that thousands
sent their pictures in, only to
achieve the success of refusal.
He journeyed to Paris with
the precious picture securely
rolled and packed in a coffin-
shaped box. In Paris he knew

 

“ MY FAVORITE MODEL.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drawn by Khoda Holmes Nicholls.

‘ EVENING BELLS.”
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 115

 

From a painting by M. FE. Dignan.

ALONG A COUNTRY LANE.
116

few of the painters, and these encouraged him in his
resolve to exhibit it. In company with his friend, the
late Arthur Quartley, who was also making his pilgrim-
age to the Mecca of art, he obtained a blank applica-
tion from an artist color man on the Seine, and to the
latter the precious first picture was intrusted. The
writer called the picture ‘Le Retour de la Peche’
Then it was sent to the Salon, and then—then he
waited in a fever of impatience with intervals of blank
despair. He learned that more than five thousand pict-
ures were sent in every year, and of these five thousand
some nine hundred only were hung, and that the pict-
ures were simply carried before the seated members of
the jury, who eyed them coldly, and if they attracted
them not, uttered no word. The weeks passed.
The ambitious artist could not sleep or eat, such
was his anxiety. One morning he returned to
his hotel ; there in the rack containing his
key and candle he saw a long envelope—a
pale yellow envelope. It lay upon
his table for hours, with the recipi-
ent seated beside it, fearful to
open it.

“With an energy born of
despair the envelope was torn
open at last ; a pale greenish-
white ticket dropped out and
a paper whereon was printed,
‘M. le Ministre des Beaux Arts has the honor of informing you that your picture,
“ Le Retour de la Peche,” is registered under the
number 887,” etc. His picture was accepted !
That day all the world was in a rosy glow to
the writer. His picture was hung on the line,
and M. Albert Woolf, the celebrated critic of
the Figaro, was pleased to commend it in the
columns of that journal.

“The writer received commissions for other
pictures, and the following year he achieved a
medal. All this was eleven years ago, but he
will never forget the sensation of standing in
the Salon, oblivious to all surroundings, before
his first Salon picture—picture No. 887, which
hung on the line—Zheu fugaces.”

Just what this important painting was like
is easily seen by referring to Mr. Edwards’
sketch. It is a bold and breezy work, and well
deserved the honor put upon it by the Salon

jury.

   

o [PPR ve
Drawn by Carle J. Blenner.

‘‘ CONTENTMENT."’

  
 
 
 
 
  
  

Drawn by Jas. G. Tyler.

‘THE THREE CARAVELS.”

Drawn by M. E. Dignam.

‘“ CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE.”

 

 

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

W. C. Fitler is a landscape painter who loves the
tender aspects of nature, and woos the wild life of the
air when the weather is balmy and the breeze is asleep.
His pictures are in great demand, for art followers are
more enamoured of the calmly picturesque than of the
noisy in natural transcripts. Mr. Fitler’s best picture
is forcibly characteristic of all that went before its
execution or have followed after.

John A. Fraser is one of the very few of our elder
artists who have kept themselves in touch with the later
days of their lives—a truly refreshing thing to see.
Says Mr. Fraser by way of comment upon an artist’s best
picture and its evolution :

“Tt is difficult for one who is always in earnest to say
which work he considers his best, but there are reasons
why I may consider ¢ The Heart of Scotland’ my most successful painting. First,
it is a majestic motive, and failure to convey its full spirit would be absolute. It
is unusually large for a work in pure water-color without a trace of ‘body’ color or
pastel ; but I used the knife freely and
fearlessly, especially in the sky, and se-
cured that luminosity which only trans-
parent water-color on white paper can
give. In spite of the serious individuality
of its style, and consequent non-conform-
ity to the frivolous and formulated man-
nerism of the landscape & Ja mode, the
highest jury in the world, at the most se-
lect and conservative exhibition held for
years at the Salon in the Champs ‘Elysées
in Paris, gave it the very best place among
the aquarelles. The French journals
were unanimous as to its possessing the greatest desirable qualities—in a French-
man’s eyes—originality and strength. Such recognition proves that it is still pos-
sible to command intelligent respect and admiration by honestly and independently
expressing the thought that is one’s
own. But then I have yet to paint
my best picture, and you know, ars
longa, vita brevis.”

“ Archie” Gunn is an illustrator
whose name has been associated for
two years past with Truth, the New
York illustrated weekly. His fancy
turns most strongly to pretty women
and the average “ man about town,” of
whom much is written and pictured,
and but little seen. Mr. Gunn has an
airy imagination and a decisive way
of drawing, which gives his illustrative

   

Drawn by Harry Roseland.

‘‘ CONFIDENTIAL CORRESPONDENCE.”

—

2

Drawn by F. De Haven.

‘ EVENING AT MANOMET."

 

 

Drawn by P. E. Rudell.

‘IN A DEVONSHIRE FOREST.”
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

work a more than casual
interest.

The most important
painting produced by E.
L. Henry, whose specialty
is quaint figures of quiet
people quaintly depicted,
is the large nine-foot can-
vas illustrating the initial
excursion of the first rail-
way ever constructed in
New York State. The pict-
ure contains fifty figures,
and abounds in historical
details, carefully painted. Another picture, not quite so important as the railway
subject, but more characteristic of the artist, is the “ Vacation Time,” here re-
produced.

The simple title “Study of a Guitar ” conveys but little sense of the beauty of
Frank T. Hutchens’ best picture. The
original is a large water-color painting,
and represents the tuneful instrument
so dear to the Spanish heart, sur-
rounded by colorful draperies. The
picture was shown in a recent exhibi-
tion of the National Academy of De-
sign, and brought forth much praise.

Benjamin Lander’s drawing of
“The New Moon ” is considerably the
most interesting of his numerous fine
productions. Of the picture he says:
“It is my most influential landscape,
as the success of the large etching I
made from it led me to lay down other art tools for those of an etcher. I should
be sorry to say, however, that it is my greatest achievement, since it was one of
my early efforts. The scene is laid at Flatlands, L. I. The original picture is
owned in Brooklyn, and the etching was published in 1885. A selection of my
works was exhibited at the International Exhibition
of the Vienna Graphic Arts Society in 1886, and
‘The New Moon’ was selected for representation
in the illustrated catalogue, for which I made a
small etching.”

Rhoda Holmes Nicholls’ greatest picture is
“Evening Bells,” a sketch of which she has made
from her notable painting. The picture was first
shown in the American Art Galleries of New York,
and received a gold medal at the Prize Fund Ex-
hibition there given in 1886. Mrs. Nicholls’ mas-
terpiece has been etched, and the reproduction in

Drawn by J. O. Davidson.

‘“ BATTLE BETWEEN THE CONSTITUTION AND THE GUERRIERE.”

 

. Morgan Rhkees.

Drawn by

<

“THE YOUTH OF LINCOLN.”

Drawn by Frank P. Bellew.

‘“ ONE CONSOLATION.”

   

 

117

this form became immensely popular
all over the country. The “Salome”
of Miss Ella F. Pell’s creation is an
admirable picture and may well be
considered her finest general achieve-
ment. Of this picture the artist says :
“ Although not the greatest, I con-
sider it one of my important works.
It was painted in Paris and exhibited
in the Salon of 1890. I brought it to

   

 

Drawn by Harry S. Watson.

** WHEELING."

 
   
 
  
  
 
    
  
   
  

New York, and the following year showed it
at the Spring Academy Exhibition. Since “
then it has been displayed in Western cities.
The picture represents Salome at the mo-
ment when she first discovers the head of
John the Baptist. The purely physical
nature of Salome revolts against the
ugliness of the decapitated head. She
is unable to perceive the spiritual light
emanating from it, a light which illu-
minates herself, and by which alone she
is visible in history. My other im-
portant works are ¢ Adam,’ painted for
and exhibited in the Salon of 1889, and
afterward in the New York Academy
of Design, and a new picture, recently
completed, and entitled ‘The Storm
Gods of the Rig-Veda.””

The most satisfactory drawing which Victor :
Perard has made up to date is a view of the Be
great naval parade last April. The drawing
ment to Harper's

yy
FA

—

5 —T

Drawn by H. A. Ogden.

    
   
   

“ WASHINGTON AT NEWBURGH."

Weekly. Next to this drawing,
the scene in Printing House
Square, New York, on the eve
of the last Presidential election,
is Mr. Perard’s cleverest bit of
black-and-white work. Julian
Rix has painted many subjects
in many ways, but never has he
succeeded in excelling himself
since he completed his beautiful
canvas, “A Misty Morning.”
The poetry and soothing silence

og — - : = —
Drawn by R. M. Shurtleff.
‘“ THE SILENT WOODS.”
AMERICAN

of an-early morning effect is realized
with marvellous fidelity and artistic
feeling. In the original painting
one feels the reality of the pictured
scene, and forgets for a while that
the effect is only the result of a
clever artistry.

The two pretty country girls in
Harry Roseland’s picture, “ Con-
fidential Correspondence,” have
caused him as much visual satisfac-
tion on canvas as they must have
caused him in thelife. The picture
is much the best thing that Mr.
Roseland has yet completed, and it
has all the niceties of his style and
handling without any of the painter’s occasional faults.

P. E. Rudell, writing of his best picture, “ A Devonshire Forest,” says: “It is
a reminiscence of a spot in the forest near Chagford, Devonshire, England, and
was painted purely from memory. I was wont to sketch near the banks of the
source of the river Teigne, and one afternoon, on my way back from sketching,
walking along this old path, I was particularly attracted by the beautiful play of
this afternoon sunlight. I was so strongly impressed that the scene became a
part of myself. It was not until one afternoon the following winter, while idling
away my time in my Paris studio, that my thoughts wandered back to Devonshire.
Then this scene came upon me so vividly that the desire to paint it became very
strong. Late as it was, I seized my brushes and palette, and painted until com-
pelled by the gathering darkness to stop ; my picture, however, was nearly
completed. : :

“The following day I set about to put on the finishing touches, but somehow
there was something disappointing. It
failed in that fine stereoscopic quality I so
strongly felt and desired. In the keenness
of my disappointment I became desperate,
and deliberately went to work to paint out
the picture. It was while doing this that
the beauty and strength of the scene came
upon me. I stopped the work of destruc-
tion, wiped off some of the paint, and ere
dark finished the picture, not touching it
again, as I felt I had accomplished my de-
sire, though I painted only about seven hours
on the canvas. I felt it was my best pict-

 

Drawn by Victor Perard.

‘* PRINTING HOUSE SQUARE."

   

   
 
 

Ts
: a OREN
ure, because it so truthfully conveyed the ih Go RE
beauty of the scene.” p= =
Li fil

The best picture that Walter Satterlee
has thus far painted is his Brittany subject,
“The Lightened Load.” He has striven to

A>
| EES

Drawn by W. P. Bodfish.
‘ AFTER THE HAYING.”

  

ART AND ARTISTS.

 

convey in the picture that
strange mixture of hard toil
and pure sentiment frequently
found among the peasantry of
France. The old man in Mr.
Satterlee’s painting is a type
of the Breton grandparent, a
type not frequently encoun-
tered nowadays.

¥ The Silent Woods’ is the
expressive title bestowed upon
the masterpiece of R. M. Shurt-
leff, one of the best painters of

 

 

 

JET

 

wood interiors that we have to- Drawn by Julian Rix.

day in this country. Concern-
ing this picture, Mr. Shurtleff writes : “In this painting I felt that I had got atmos-
phere and light—Ilight that pervaded even the darkest parts ; that the anatomy of
the ground was well felt, that the picture was more of a unit than any I had done
before.” The picture is certainly the finest of a long line of similar subjects dealt
with by Mr. Shurtleff.

James G. Tyler, painter and lover of the sea, has at least one great picture
which satisfies his self-imposed criticism. This is the popular canvas, “ The Dream
of the New World,” his largest and most important work. Harry S. Watson is
forging to the front as an illustrator of the magazines. He is a young man of
great promise, and the best picture he has produced is the one sketched for this
article and published herewith. Francis Wheaton touched the high-water mark of

‘“ A MISTY MORNING.”

his achievement when he put forth the landscape here reproduced. Thus runs the
tale of how a few of the notable “best pictures” were conceived and executed.
There is a wealth of instruction, both inferential and direct, to be gleaned from
such a symposium
as is here arranged.

> /

oS
eT =

ES IC 7

 
   

‘‘ LE RETOUR DE LA PECHE.”
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 119

    

 

 

  
   

From a painting by George H. McCord,

OLD SAW MILL, CLUNY, SCOTLAND.

 

 

 
120

STREET SCENE.

this agreeable, if restricted, theme
after a trip or two abroad and some

 

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

A PAINTER OF SUNSETS

By CHARLES M. SKINNER.

With original illustrations by George H, McCord.

SuNseT McCorp, his studio neighbors used to call
him, but that was in the days before he had begun to
give them a surprise every year. In private life his name
is not “ Sunset,” but George Herbert McCord. He got
his nickname because he so gloated over color and light
that nothing less than the western glories enabled him
to express himself. There are natures that vibrate to
certain colors and effects just as the strings of an instru-
ment respond to the tones of a voice or a bell, and this
painter was
particular-
ly suscepti-
ble to the
charm of |
sunset. He
broadened
away from

ON THE BEACH.

earnest study of Nature in New Jer-
sey, for he began to find pleasure in the quieter effects and softer tones of the land-
scape. Those who have watched his course are still sensible, however, of a con-

 

BOATS CARRYING HAY.

 

tinuity of the same sentiment that he
showed in his work of fifteen years
ago, and even in these black and white
copies of some of his pictures it will be
suggested—the sadness, the mystery,
‘the atmospheric glow and tenderness.

Do you not feel it? Richness and
solidity you are sure to feel in that
view of the hay barges drifting down
the river toward that world of cloud
which hangs above the horizon. Earth
and sky contrasts, too, are obvious

   

CARISBROOKE CASTLE.

luxury in this commonplace century—
a thrill. The painter of sunsets has
moved us as by a drama.

Especially are these qualities shown
in McCord’s winter-scenes, taken often
just after sunset when night is closing
down but the snow gives back what
brightness remains in the sky. A shud-
der as from creeping cold comes over
sensitive people when looking at these
mournful yet fascinating scenes. They
form a pleasing contrast of emotion
when they hang in some cozy library,
warm with a log-fire, softly bright with

lamps. It is like witnessing in a com-

fortable theatre the woes of King Lear,
or like sitting, not on the ground but
on soft rugs, “to tell sad stories of the
death of kings.” The melancholy note
so common in English poetry reappears
in the American painter of sunsets.

 

IN SALT MEADOWS.

in the castle, planted like an Alp
above the town and the teeming
river. The very composition in
this work—the repetition of aspir-
ing lines—instances a loftiness that
is symbolic of its history and mean-
ing. We drop down to humbler
themes and methods in the shore
views and the rainy day, but, let us
praise humility all we will, we turn
again to that glowing picture where
The splendor falls on castle walls,
And hoary summits, old in story,

and thank the artist for that rare

 

THE CASTLE TOWER.
AMERICAN ART

AMERICAN ART AND FOREIGN INFLUENCE.

be, without the aid of the
theologians, to define a re-
ligious one. 1 suppose in art, as in re-
ligion, one “ought to be able to give a
reason for the hope that is within”; but
art has not had its colleges, its assemblies
of doctors to dogmatize, to settle just
what one ought or ought not to believe
in. This is fortunate or unfortunate ac-
cording to one’s individual temperament.
It is an axiom that he
who thinks deeply thinks well.

 

apply; for Art is a
fickle goddess, who
smiles upon whom she
will — the “banal”
sometimes more sweet-
ly than the serious;
the untaught boy
oftentimes more will-
ingly than the ad-
vanced student.

Are there, then, no can-
ons in art in which we may
trust? No exponents of its true principles
to whom we may look? Plenty, if we ac-
cept the “fads,” the fashions of the passing
moment. Iam sure the Byzantine painters
had them, and I doubt not that the cog-
noscenti of their time bowed down before
them and worshipped them. But away
off in central Italy there lived a shep- i
herd’s boy, who drew pictures of his

 

 

 

By W. LEwis FRASER.
(With original illustrations by Albert E. Sterner.)

It is as difficult to define our individual art creeds as it would

 

“A SKETCH IN HOLLAND."

Unfortunately, in matters of art,

this does: not always ov. oo oo loa

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

 

* UNUSED SKETCH FOR ‘PRUE AND L’”

AND ARTISTS. 121

sheep on stones and fences, and with Giotto the
canons of the Byzantines were forgotten, and later,
with his new methods, there came new canons. So
it has been since. The heretic of to-day becomes
the canonized saint of to-morrow, to be set aside
by new heretics and new saints.

We are fortunate in our country in having in
art no past, and therefore few traditions, or tra-
ditions so recent that they have not had time to crystal-
lize. They 5
are still in
the waters
of crystal-
= lization,
and are therefore apt, by the addi-
tion of a strange substance, to crys-
tallize into a new, a strange shape.
Our Copleys, Stuarts, Allstons,
Turnbulls, and what has been
sneeringly characterized as ‘the
Hudson River school,” were all
waters of crystallization. They had

   

 

 
122

   

Drawn by Albert E. Sterner.

‘ HEAD OF A YOUNG GIRL.”

a

AMERICAN

"Tr

/

  

ART AND

>
er

 

 

 

ARTISTS.

their half-formed canons based on English models ; but the soil of
a new world introduced the new substance, for it is not favorable,
by dint of its indigenous growth, to the propagation of old world
plants in old world forms. And before these had time to properly
root, the indigenous had, happily for us, choked them.

It is the fashion to bewail the lack of Americanism in our art.
I wonder what is meant by this. American art is intensely Ameri-
can. Our nation has grown by assimilating the best that the whole
world afforded—the making of it our own, the pruning and trimming
of it, and then incorporating it into our system—and our art has
grown on these lines.

It would be an insult to those who bewail the non-national char-
acter of our art, to suppose that because our artists have not yet
painted Jersey barns with “ Use Brown's
Liniment,” or “ Smith Salvation Oil,”
on their roofs, they -== are not American. The
truth is, that where the picturesque is to
be found (a matter of personal equation),
our painters have painted it. If this
is not the case, then j what of our In-

 
 
 
 
 
 

nesses, our Davises,
scape, our Homers,
in figure? Surely
dividual as it is

 
 
 

our Tryonsinland-
Kappes, and others
these are as in-
possible to be in

  

this age of steam
Is it not barely

and electricity.
possible

that we are apt to take too
seriously in our ex- hibitions,
the tentative efforts " : of the
Js THROUGH THE WINDOW, i
student just from Paris,

and, because they echo the master under whom he has studied, raise
the cry, that American art is un-American ?

Our country is a large one, cosmopolitan in its population and
customs. When Albert E. Sterner made the charming pictures
which accompany the Balcony Stories, lately published in The Cen-
tury, he drew types of Americans—the Americans of New Orleans.
These are as untrue to New England as they would be to Timbuc-
too; but yet New Orleans and New England are both American.
In “ Prue and I,” types which would have been utterly false for
New Orleans. But it may be said that in the handling of these
drawings he is not American. This is equivalent to saying that
Sterner has learned his trade—that he can handle his medium
without the restraint of imperfect knowledge, without that impet-
fection which characterized much of the American art of thirty

years ago.
Sterner is a type, and an excellent one, of the American artist—not

 

 

 

 
fashioned by France — but properly directed by

French precept and example. - He had secured a
footing in our art ranks before he went abroad ; and |
while his place in those ranks was but that of \
a private, we knew that he was certain of
promotion. He came back wearing the epau-
lettes and with the brevet of the Salon. The
artist had been awakened in
him. He saw things with wide-
open eyes—eyes not dazzled by the
glitter of the yellow and the blue of

  
   

Fru
ods

¢“ STREET IN HOLLAND.”

 

“A PORTRAIT.” is an admirable painter,

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 25

ft

om

   
        
  

impressionism, yet profoundly
impressed by the spirit of
modernity. He was a stronger
draughtsman, a better color-
ist, a more artistic artist, a
conservative radical in art. : \
His later visits to Paris have but strengthened these
qualities.

Artists do not, save with rare exceptions, arrive at the
maturity of their powers at Sterner’s age, thirty. He at
present thinks better than he
does ; his works are sometimes
faulty in drawing, occasionally
show impatience of their sub-
ject, and now and then are
worried and teased in execu-
tion; but, whatever their
faults, the artist is apparent,
and possessing this quality,
they are always valuable.

Sterner is a keen observer
of character, as is well shown
in the note-book sketches
which accompany this article.
What could be more admir-
able than the thumb-nail
sketches which surround page
5, or the head of the French
ouvrier on page 7. Unfortu-
nately his quality in composi-
tion is suggested rather than
shown in the unused sketch
for “ Prue and 1,” one of the
most charmingly illustrated [
books ever issued from
the American press. He

  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
    

       
  
 
   
 

Re Ta

mE RR RN

* A PAGE OF SKETCHES.”
124

Drawn by Albert E. Sterner.

*¢ ANDANTE.”

AMERICAN

ART

 

AND ARTISTS.

a soft, rich, and brilliant colorist. This quality
of color finds its way into his black and white.
But when he is thus characterized, it yet re-
mains to be said, that his chief quality is his
artisticness ; a quality which cannot be defined
or formulated, but without which no great art
work was ever accomplished.

Note.—Albert E. Sterner, whose work is
reviewed so gracefully in the foregoing paper,
is a Londoner born, with a Parisian temperament and an American earnestness
of character. He first saw the sun on March 8, 1863, and came to America
when he was eighteen years of - age. He lived in New York for a while,
studying in the line of picture- making—mostly by himself—until one
fine day he pulled up his tent stakes and sailed for
Paris. There he stud- ied under Lelebvie
and Boulanger. Since ; this time he has forged
to the top of his stu- _ al oe ®: dious . vocation. Mr.
Sterner ‘is a mem- ? ber of the New York
Water Color Society, and has frequently ex-
hibited at the Acad- emy and the
American Fine Arts Society.
His picture of “ The Bachelor” received honorable mention at the
Salon in 18gr. Mr. Sterner’s draughtsmanship is distinguished by
a nervousness of handling and an economic
directness of touch. He goes to his subject
clear-headed and free-handed, and tells his
story simply. He is a vigorous objector to the. ————
catch-penny frills of “ popular” picture-making, and even in his earlier days tried
to be conscientious in his simplest work.

 

    

    

 

‘“ A LABOR QUESTION."
125

ARTISTS.

ART AND

AMERICAN

 

THE SURRENDER.

men.

C. de Gr

Drawn by

 
126 AMERICAN

NEWSPAPER ART AND ARTISTS.
By ALLAN FORMAN.

(With original illustrations by leading artists of the American press.)
\

  

3 ro A /AID Goethe : “ We should look on a picture every day.” But
io it is hardly probable that the German poet anticipated the
achievements of latter-day American journalism. We are
surfeited with pictures, many of them pretty bad pictures, but
a good many of them far better than the enemies of illustrated
daily journalism are willing to admit. There have been vast

Z strides in this line of illustrative art within the past few years
(years of productiveness), and our modern newspaper artist often manages to
get a good deal of real art in the few pen scratches he is obliged to make pass for
a picture. When one considers the limitations under which they work, the produc-
tions of the better class of newspaper artists are surprisingly good. Everything
must, in the first place, be done in a hurry. Rapid work is the prerequisite in the
modern newspaper office. Then the sketches must be open. If they are closely
drawn, the lines will fill and the picture be a smudge, owing to the spongy paper,
poor ink, and rapid press-work used in producing our newspapers. For these rea-
sons newspaper illustrating sg :
has come to be a separate 3 ‘
branch of art.

Occasionally, in illustrat-
ed critiques of art matters
and the like which appear in
the daily papers, the clever
work of men whose brush
and pencil products make
the carefully prepared pages
of the magazines eloquent
with beauty, lose every charm
of style and subject when
given to the world through
the blurred and uncertain
medium of the hurriedly

printed newspaper.
James Gordon Bennett,
Sr., with The New York Her-
ald, led in the matter of news-
paper illustrating, as he led
in every sagacious advance
step in American journalism.
The first cut he published
was in 1837, just after the
great Wall Street panic. It
represented Satan playing at

 

 

 

 

Drawn by Charles Lederer.
‘“ LEFT-HAND CUFF SKETCHES AT THE WORLD'S FAIR.”

 

ART AND ARTISTS.

 
   
  

ten-pins in Wall Street. This was followed from time to time
by others, and when General Taylor won the battle of Buena
Vista, Mr. Bennett scored a signal beat over his contemporaries
by printing a first-class portrait of the victorious general. The
Herald's war maps have always been a famous feature
and have added much to the prestige of the paper.

Horace Greeley, who always knew a good thing <2,
when he saw it, began to enliven the pages of the
old New Yorker with occasional portraits. In The Trib-
une, which he founded later, he published the first political
cartoon ever seen in a New York daily. It was after a
Whig victory, and showed an old coon fiddling while the
young ones were dancing.

* With a few spasmodic exceptions, newspaper illus-
trating fell into desuetude with the larger papers until,
one Sunday morning in February, 1884, Mr. Pulitzer’s
rejuvenated World burst upon an astonished public
as a veritable picture paper. Pretty bad pictures some
of them were, too, but they sent the circulation sky-
rocketting toward the zenith of pecuniary affluence.
I happen to know, personally, that at that time it was Mr. Pulitzer’s design to use
the pictures as a “sensation ” to attract public attention, and then to quietly weed
them out until The World should be brought back to the terra firma of newspaper-
: ial dignity.

Mr. Pulitzer departed for
Europe one day, and left or-
ders for the weeding process
to begin. It was a bit of pro-
prietorial finesse characteris-
tic not alone of Mr. Pulitzer.
If the circulation of The
World dropped under the
picture elimination process, it
was because of the absence of
the great editor; if it kept
steady or grew, the great edi-
tor was making a great paper.
The circulation fell. In those
days Business Manager
George W. Turner used to
revel in a series of charts of
circulation which closely re-
sembled the government
weather maps. As the pict-
ures were taken out the circu-
lation line went lower, until
it looked as if Turner would
have to put a sub-cellar on his

Drawn by H. Coultaus.

‘“ A POLITICIAN.”

Drawn by C. Mortimer.
‘ THE NOBLEST ROMAN.”
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 127

color pages of The Recorder and The World will
prove the starting point for great progress in news-
paper art. So long as the human brain can grasp
the details of form more readily through the me-
dium of a drawing than through a printed descrip-
tion, so long will newspaper illustration continue
and increase. So long as the cartoon and carica-
ture are the most potent weapons in political war-
fare, so long will they be used in the daily press.
Where there were a dozen competent newspaper
artists in the country five years ago, there are a
hundred to-day. The limitations of paper, press-
work, and time will prevent the daily from ever
encroaching on the field of the illustrated weekly,
but it will compel the weekly and the monthly to
keep well in advance. This sounds like an absurd
statement when one compares the illustrated daily
newspaper and the monthly of to-day. But com-
pare the pictures in the daily with those in the monthly of thirty years ago.

Mechanical improvements ?

Yes; but the world is still moving.

NoTE.—A truly remarkable change has come over newspaper illustration
within the brief period of a half decade. It may be true or not, as you like it,
that this vast business of picture-making for the press is being carried to a ridicu-
lous extreme, but the fact still remains that the intelligent demand of the hour is
for newspaper illustrations and many of
them—so that they be well made. We
are a picture-reading people, and we
crave the constant and profuse pictorial
elucidation of current events; but, let
it not be forgotten, we are much be-
yond that stage in the evolution of
newspaper art where an inverted cut of
a war map may be printed without fear
of criticism in illustration of a ball-

chart, so to speak. Finally he and Col-
onel Cockerill grew desperate, and they
determined to reverse the old seaman’s
maxim, and disobey orders rather than
break owners. They illustrated every-
thing and everybody, from Mrs. Astor's
diamonds to the ball of the Lady Flash-
ers, and the circulation shot up again
in an almost straight line.

There has never been a second at-
tempt to make The World an unillus-
trated paper. One after another, the
other dailies were compelled to follow
The World's example. The Sun sneered
and scoffed, and then came out with a series of illustrated watering-place letters,
and pictures of new fancies in ladies’ hosiery and underwear which excited the

envy of Town Topics and sent the office cat
into the sub-cellar, where that devoted ani-
mal blushed a beautiful and permanent scar-
let. The Telegram, with the skilful pencils
of De Grimm and Gribayedoff, had long been
doing the best art work in town, and Mr.
Bennett, quick to see the drift of public taste,
set them at work on The Herald.

To-day I do not think there is a daily
paper in New York or in any of the larger
cities, with one or two exceptions, which has
not its own engraving plant and staff of
artists.. The Recorder, The Chicago Inter-
Ocean, and The World
have successively put in
rapid presses which will
print in several colors at
one impression. The ef-
forts of The Recorder and The World

CM

1¢
i

j=

; 2

Ti

 

Drawn by C. 2. Wright.

‘“ A GIRL 1 KNOW.”

 

Drawn by Thomas Fleming.

‘*A FIN DE SIECLE DUDE.”

 

 

 
 
 
 

Drawn by Carl Mauch.

‘ A CHARACTER."

have, so far, been hideous in the extreme.
Mr. Kohlsaat, of The Inter-Ocean, has
evidently secured a man trained in the
French school, for by careful drawing
and the use of tints instead of splotches
of vivid color, he has produced some
very pleasing effects.

The question has often been asked,
“Will illustrations in the daily papers
last?” and I reply unhesitatingly, “ Yes.”
Newspaper illustrations have come to
stay, and they will keep on improving in
the future as in the past. Even the wild

 

Drawn by W. J. Yeoell.

‘“ A LIVELY TALK.”

 

 

 

 

Drawn by William F. Hofacker.
‘SUNDAY MORNING AT QUARANTINE,"

 

room scene, or a coarsely engraved
shoe advertisement used in lieu of the
President’s portrait. Such impudent
practices, once countenanced, if not
commended, in highly civilized parts,
have long since been left to the en-
lightening press of struggling Western
villages. The newspaper illustrations
of to-day are, in the main, worthy of
careful scrutiny, and in a few notable
instances are of positive artistic merit.
The men whose facile draughting pens
are responsible for the best of these
ART AND ARTISTS.

AMERICAN

128

 

Drawn by Thomas F. Moessner.

Drawn by Thomas F. Moessner.

WOODLAND AND BROOK.

BOATS AT DOCK.
AMERICAN

press pictures occupy a position in the world of art that is

not, perhaps, an exalted one, but one which is certainly as esti- 2 f
mable and influential as that held by the majority of our art
industrians. The newspaper artist must of necessity be a
man of many resources and an apt pencil. His ability to draw
anything or everything at a moment’s notice must be coupled
with that prime qualification of a thorough journalist—the
newspaper instinct. Of the men whose accomplishments in
newspaper art have awakened comment and given them high
position in the sphere of illustrative journalism, any piece of
personal history or professional experience must be of
general interest, and to this end the following notes,
arranged for the most part from data furnished by the
artists themselves, are given in the alphabetical order
of the latter’s names.

John Carleton Baker is one of the artistic lights of
the New York World He stepped into existenice at
Knoxville, Tenn., in 1867. He has had many experi-
ences. Under the able direction of Lloyd Branson, this newspaper picturist
learned the essential principles of art, which knowledge fired his ambition to be at
work in his chosen field. In 1887 Mr. Baker went to Memphis, Tenn., and accepted
a position as reporter and artist on the Appeal-Avalanche.
The illustrations of that paper were made by the tedious
and soul-trying chalk-plate process, which process, Mr.
Baker thinks, is an excellent developer of industrious hab-
its and profanity. In 1888 Mr. Baker found him-
self assistant editor of that brisk little weekly, the
Sunny South, of Atlanta, Ga. In the early part of
1889 Mr. Baker returned to his native town, Knox-
ville, and associated himself with the Journal of
that place. In the fore part of 1391 Mr.
Baker came to New York, and for a time was
a journalistic free-lance, writing special arti-
cles for various papers, and illustrating his
own writings. Before he was in Gotham
many weeks Mr. Baker joined the staff of
artists employed by the New York World,
and is to-day one of the cleverest cartoon-
ists connected with Joseph Pulitzer’s very

enterprising journal. i

Drawn by W. W. Denslow.

““ THE BRAVE.”

Circumstances have peculiarly fitted
Leon Barritt for the work of a cartoon-
ist, as he has had a life-long association
with newspaper work. He was a sh

 

news-boy during the latter part of ~ =. a GA on
the civil war, and later a reporter, Prelims rm

business manager, and proprietor of
a newspaper. Such knowledge as

Drawn by Homer C. Davenport.
‘“ A BUCKING BRONCHO.”

ART AND ARTISTS.

  
  
   
  
  
  
   
      
 
 
 
 
 
   
 

129

he has of art matters has been ac-
quired in leisure time from newspaper
work, and for ten years or more past
he has happily combined his art and
literary labor. Mr. Barritt was born
at Saugerties-on-the-Hudson, Novem-
ber 5, 1852. He early displayed a taste
for art, and served a brief apprentice-
ship with a jewelry engraver in New
York, acquiring such a knowledge of
this art industry that he has (at such
times as circumstances demanded it)
made it a source of lucrative return.
Mr. Barritt came to New York in 188g,
from Middletown, N. Y., where he had
been engaged in the publication of the
Middletown Daily Argus. During the
first year of his stay in New York Mr.
Barritt did a general line of newspaper
work, but finding an increasing demand
for his cartoons, he opened a studio in
the business quarter of New York, and now devotes his time entirely to the making
of cartoons. For two years past this artist has been under contract to give the
sprightly New York Daily Press all of his political cartoons, furnishing them with
one large drawing every day. His work on social and other topics has appeared
in Truth, and also in the Herald, Telegram, Mail and Express, Commercial Ad-

Gor vertiser, and the
Brooklyn Eagle
and Standard-
Union.

As clever as any
kind of newspaper
draughtsmanship
now being done for
the big dailies are
the expressive and
wholly artistic out-
line sketches of
Henry Coultaus,
the “H.C.” of the
New York Herald.
Mr. Coultaus is a
Gothamite of pur-
est water, being
born (in 1861) in
the ninth or “old
blue-blood ” ward
of New York City.

 

Drawn by H. Von Hofsten.

‘ HAPPY OLD AGE."

Jrawn by J. F. Van Sant.
‘“ THE FIRST SUMMER BOARDER.”
130 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

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A SUMMER DAY’S SPORT.

 

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AMERICAN

At the outset of his career
he was a cash-boy in the
famous dry-goods house of |
A. T. Stewart, but was suf- =
ficiently skilful with his pen-
cil at the age of nineteen
to become a special artist
on the staff of The Daily
Graphic—at that time the pace regulator
of American illustrated journalism.
When Mr. Coultaus left The Graphic it
was to join forces with W. F. G. Shanks
and his newspaper syndicate bureau. When Mr. Shanks became manager of the
ill-fated New York Star, “H. C.” was his chief art adviser. During the notorious
Flack trial Mr. Coultaus furnished some startling court-room scenes and a series
of striking portraits of every one directly interested in the case.
These drawings were purely outline sketches, and were the first of
their kind published in any New York newspaper. A deal of favor-
able criticism was passed upon these unique illustrations, and “ H. C.”
was immediately placed in a higher class among news-
paper artists. Not long after this “ hit,” the New York
Herald made a bid for Mr. Coultaus’ services, and he
has been with that paper ever since. His style is a
perfectly simple one, and his method is direct. All in
all, “H. C.” is a strong individuality in the busy world
of newspaper art.

One of the youngest of successful newspaper artists
employed on a large journal is Walter B. Cox, whose
drawings, reproduced in the New York Tribune, are
always brimming with spirit and show the touch of a
sensitive hand. Mr. Cox is but twenty-two years old,
and the story of his life, as naively related by himself,
runs like this: “I was born November 26, 1871, in Pascagoula, Miss., and spent
the first few years of my childhood in Mississippi. Then my parents moved to
Louisville, Ky., where we lived about three years. We then
moved back to Mississippi,on the gulf shore. While we were
staying there my father died, and our family went to New
Orleans, La. It was while in New Or- :
leans that my art education began.
After attending an art school
for about four months, work-
ing two hours a day and at-
tending a sketch class on Sat-
urdays, I came northward and
settled in Northampton, Mass.
Realizing the difficulty of mak-
ing a living as an artist in
Northampton, I took a trip to

Drawn by Walter B. Cox.

¢ BARTHOLDI STATUE.”

   
  

Drawn by Walt. McDougall.
“ THE COUNSELLOR.”

4

— ee

Drawn by M. de Lipman.

‘ NATIVE HUT IN THE TROPICS.”

ART AND

   

 
 
   
   
    

131

ARTISTS.

the metropolis. With specimens of my
best work I tramped around the city

J

  

0 for two months, getting nothing per-
oe q manent in the way of employment. While
Ca Zb I was hunting work a friend came to me and
"4 brought me to the Tribune office, where I

was regularly installed. This was the first news-
| paper work that I had ever done; accordingly I
had everything to learn, but under proper guidance
I soon learned the method required in making
newspaper illustrations.” It would appear that
this is the sort of perseverance which makes success yield to its desire. It is hardly
disputable, at all events, that the sketches made by Walter B. Cox and printed in
the Tribune rank with work of similar intention found in any of the illustrated
sheets of the metropolis.

In the evergreen valley of the Willamette, Homer C. Davenport, whose work in
the Chicago Herald is attractive and artistic, was born in 1867. On the Waldo
Hills, covered with verdure and watered by cool springs, his boyhood days were
spent. Almost from his cradle days the house walls suffered from his baby carica-
tures. The father, having some knowledge of the earlier American artists and the
narrow margin between most of them and starvation, tried to turn his son’s energies
into what he considered a more lucrative channel.
But the paternal persuasion was not yielded to by the
would-be artist. A brief course in a commercial col-
lege resulted in a set of books highly ornamented
with pen pictures of animated nature, but which the
principal of the school declared were hopelessly un-
balanced. In a fit of
despair, the father
sent the

Drawn by Charles Howard Foknson.

‘‘ THE FLIGHT OF TIME."

  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

 

boy to

Drawn by Walt. McDougall. the San =
‘ AT SEABRIGHT." Francis-
co Art

School, at which date, 1889, his cred-
ited tuition began. A few months
there, and he began drawing for the
Portland (Ore.) Sunday Mercury. Six
months in that employ, and a transi-
tion to the San Francisco Exam-
iner came about. A short expe-
rience as one of the artists of the
San Francisco Chronicle, and up
to the present moment an engage-
ment with the Chicago Herald,
completes to date the brief but
rich career of one talented news-
paper artist.

Drawn by Leon Barritt.

“A SOCIAL WALK.”
AMERICAN

132

Everyone who has scanned
an illustrated newspaper must
know the name and artistry of
Constantin de Grimm. There
are few newspaper artists more
prolific, and none more original
in thought and execution. He
was born in the Winter Palace at
St. Petersburg, December 3o,
1845, when his father was chief
instructor to the children of the
Czar Nicholas ; the Czar Alexan-
der II. was one of his pupils.
The father removing to Berlin in 1860, Constantin’s further education was had
there at the College Francais and at the Dresden Gymnasium. He incurred his
father’s displeasure by refusing an opportunity to enter the diplomatic service, and
went to Leipsic to furnish articles and illustrations for the magazine Daheim,
In 1867 he entered the army, and in 1868 was made a lieutenant in Emperor Will-
jam’s own regiment, the First Regiment of Guards. In the Franco-Prussian war
he received the Iron Cross for bravery on the field of battle.
At Sedan, on September 1, 1871, in command of two companies
of the First Regiment, he captured an entire battalion of the
French rank and file. He resigned from the army in 1873 to
become assistant editor of the Kladderadatsch, the leading comic
German paper. A year later he founded Puck at Leipsic. In
1879 he removed to Paris and was for a year a student of the
Ecole des Beaux Arts. In 1881 he resumed journalism as a
society reporter and dramatic critic, founded in 1883 the sump- ~~
tuous Club Alman-
ac, and for a year
was the Paris cor-
respondent of four London papers.
Baron de Grimm was transplanted from
Paris to New York in 1884 by James
Gordon Bennett, and did his best work
for The Evening Telegram. He quit
Mr. Bennett's employ after three years,
but six years later—October, 1892—
was voted, by New York Herald read-
ers, that paper’s prize of $2,000 for the
most popular cartoonist. He is the art
director of Hallo, the popular German
comic illustrated weekly, an English
edition of which begins publication
this autumn. He has in press at the
moment the De Grimm Portrait Sou-
venir, which contains some one thou-
sand portraits of noted personages, all

 

Drawn by C. de Grimm.

‘ THREE OF A KIND.”

  

Drawn by

‘“ THE BATHER.”

 

Drawn by H. T. Smith.

“SKETCHES IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE.”

 

Charles H. Wright.

ART AND ARTISTS.

drawn by his own hand. Baron de Grimm is an inde-
fatigable worker. In the nine years of his residence
in New York he has not taken a formal vacation of
even one day.

Another press artist who was born beyond the
Atlantic is M. de Lipman. He comes from Heiligen-
stadt, a suburb of Vienna, Austria, where he first saw
light on the 4th of July, 1863. In speaking of his
career M. de Lipman says: “ My first artistic efforts
date away back to the fourth year of my existence,
when I began making, to me highly satisfactory, at-
tempts at drawing portraits
of my brothers and sisters,
especially of the latter, in-
asmuch as they were pa-
tient enough to pose
for more than half a
minute at a time. Later on, when I had demon-
strated to the satisfaction, or rather dissatis-
faction, of my parents, who wanted to make a
business man of me, that art was the only pro-
fession in which I was at all likely to get along,
I was permitted to take a course of instruction
at the Academy of the Fine Arts in Vienna.
Occasionally I contributed drawings to the
lotal newspapers, but just where my maiden
effort in that line was published has slipped
my memory.” A talented special artist, whose
reputation is more
extended in the West than elsewhere, is W. W. Dens-
low of the Chicago Herald. Mr. Denslow’s work is
marked with a certain enthusiasm of touch which
makes it sufficiently dissimilar to the ordinary efforts
of the newspaper artist to call forth praise. His per-
sonal history is that of the busy newspaper
worker the region round. Thomas Fleming of
The Commercial Advertiser is well known in
New York newspaper circles. Born in Phila-
delphia thirty-nine years ago, he was originally
a lithographic artist, but achieved so much
success as a pen portrait artist that he studied
newspaper illustration for the purpose of mak-
ing it a life vocation. When Col. John A.
Cockerill left The New York World to buy out
the ancient Commercial Advertiser and estab-
lish The Morning Advertiser, Mr. Fleming was
with him at the start. For many reasons Va-
lerian Gribayedoff is hailed as the father of

 
 
 
 
 
  

 

Ser Trey

Drawn by A. McNeill.

‘“ PUSHED FOR MONEY."

Drawn by T. Kytko.

‘“ AN ARIZONA HORSEMAN."

  
 
 
  

Drawn by ¥. Redman.

¢ A SUMMER GIRL AT PLAY.”
AMERICAN ART

daily newspaper illustrations. In a
broad way it is the truth, and to no
other man in newspaperdom is honor
so richly due. “V. G.,” as he sions
himself, is a busy man, for his work is
that of pictorial reporter; he can talk
as he works, however, and he always
finds time to offer his friends a cup of
Russian tea or a glass of nalioki, a
delicious Russian cordial. In addition
to his newspaper labors, he does a large
amount of work for Harper’s, Scrib-
ner’s, The Cosmopolitan Magazine,
and other large publications. As a
portraitist with pen and ink he is un-
excelled. A greatnumber of carefully
considered and spiritedly executed il-
lustrations have come from the hand
of W. F. Hofacker within the past
four years. Mr. Hofacker’s experi-
ence as a newspaper artist began with
his engagement on The New York
World. After two years’ service with
this newspaper he joined the staff of The New York Recorder, and has signed
drawings which the best of Ameri-
can newspaper illustrators might
claim with pride. Hugo Von Hof-
sten is a newspaper illustrator who
comes from Sweden, but whose
ideas are quite American, and
therefore breezy and original. In
1885 he came to America, hoping
to find a wider field for his pro-
fession as illustrator, and has since
then been connected with various
publications in Chicago.

Charles Howard Johnson isnot,
strictly speaking, a newspaper art-
ist, though many of his finest illus-
trations have been given publicity
in The New York Herald. But
twenty-six years of age, Mr. John-
son is widely known as a profes-
sional illustrator. Perhaps the
very best drawings by Mr. Johnson
are those published in Life.

Thirty-three years ago in Roch-
ester,  N. Y., ]. H. Raickerbocker

Drawn by Valerian Gribayedoff.

‘ THE GRAND OLD MAN.”

 

Drawn by ¥. Carleton Baker.

‘“ IN THE TENNESSEE MOUNTAINS,”

 

133

AND ARTISTS.

was born. In 1879 he came to New
York City and went to work on
The Graphic. He remained with
The Graphic nine years. He has
since drawn for Frank Leslie's
Weekly, The New York: Herald,
and the American Press Associa-
tion. T. Kytko is not very widely

known as a newspaper artist, though ~~ i
he is a man of high artistic talents. Ue
Charles Lederer is The Chicago Tl i
Herald's star art- [3
ist. He notonly
makes pictures
of all sorts—pict-
ures serious, sad,

   
 
 
 

    
  

 

      
 

ju
)
J

HII
li

5
yi
dl
“1

   
  
  
   
 

Drawn by H. T. Smith.
‘“ A GAME OF CARDS.”

satirical, humorous, illustrative—
but he leads and inspires writers.
Carl Mauch is one of the successful
foreign artists who have made the
United States their permanent home.
Mr. Mauch has lived here ever since
the Franco Prussian War. A very
busy man is Walt. McDougall.
What he calls his speckled career
began at Newark, N. J., in 1858.
He was reared in

luxury unti] he was i 2.
ZZ

fifteen years old, when he was thrust out into
the cold and became an engraver. In 1833
Mr. McDougall tells us he made the first car-

   

<

Drawn by J. H. Knickerbocker.
‘ A COUNTRY ROAD.”

—

toon ever printed in a daily paper. He was the = Ta mE
first artist to make news sketches for a daily | =<)

gurroN

sheet. He has been on the stage, has written
two books, and has drawn about seventeen
thousand newspaper illustrations. Charles
Mortimer is a World artist whose achievements
are among the good things of current news-
paper illustration. J. Franklin Van Sant is a
newspaper caricaturist. J. Redman’s range is
wide and his method finished. C. H. Wright is
an artist who can handle any subject with the
pencil. H. T. Smith hails from the land of the
Briton. W. J. Yeoell is an expert news illustra-
tor. With careful presswork, and the use of fine
paper, the illustrated news-sheet may some day
rise to the dignity of a public art teacher.—ED.

 

Drawn by Charles Lederer.
** TREASURY (ART) NOTES."

 
ART AND ARTISTS.

AMERICAN

134

EA

UR IN \
ANY |
IN ER

 

BLACKSMITH SHOP.

VILLAGE

THE

Drawn by J. H. Knickerbocker.
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. | 135

GLIMPSES OF PICTURESQUE PLACES
By GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP.
With original illustrations by Harry Fenn.

Many of our readers will recall Helen Hunt Jackson’s delightful
little book, years ago, named “ Bits of Travel,” which gave in litera-
ture what this handful of Harry Fenn’s sketches conveys to
us in graphic art. These, like those, open some long cov-
ered loop-hole or little casement of memory, disclosing
briefly, yet fresh as they were the first day, glimpses from
old loiterings in foreign lands.

Mr. Fenn is as well known to the world as some con-
siderable portions of it are known to him ; which is saying
a great deal. Although born in Richmond, Surrey, Eng-
land, in 1841,
he must decid-
edly be count-
ed as an Amer-
ican artist;
since all ‘his

career has been made here and his works

      

THE LOOKOUT.
CHARACTER SKETCHES.

 

have been brought out and published a years more in Europe—half of that time being spent in Italy in the practice of
here. All of which resulted from a En water-color painting—he returned to the country of his choice and produced his
sketching tour that brought him hither ; first illustrated book, Whittier’s

 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
     

“Snow Bound,” which was
soon followed by the “ Ballads
of New England.”

In 1870 he made an extend-
ed tour of the United States,
gathering material for “ Pict-
uresque America.” In 1373
he accomplished a similar tour
in Europe for “ Picturesque
Europe,” and later went to

in 1861, with the intention of remaining six months, and ended in his staying six
years. The land won him and he, meanwhile, won an American wife. After two

 

 

 

 

 

 

MARGATE HARBOR.

the Orient with J. D. Wood-
ward, making a long stay there
in preparation for Picturesque
Palestine, Syria and Egypt.”
During some fourteen months
of this long trip he never once
slept under a roof. :

THE GOLDEN SHELL, The faithful “Lookout” dog THE BARREL MAKERS.

 
136 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

seems still to be await-
ing the wanderer’s re-
turn. But this is all in
recollection now, for
Mr. Fenn long since
came home ; leaving se-
ductive regions like the
Golden Shell — as the
bay and city of Palermo
are called—where pi
Monte Pelegrino towers

 

 

like a massive dream— i ; VETS BOATS

note the drawing here. : . :

So, too, like living mile-stones ; on the traveller’s track, these
half dozen Oriental figures stand fixed ; not the Wise but, rather

the Lazy Men of the East, apparently divided as to taste and occupation between
militarism and music,

The humdrum and the purely useful have their picturesqueness to the artistic
tourist’s eye ; and so we pass
from the Orient to England’s
shore, and note with new
surprise the interest attach-
ing to a broad-beamed old
hulk in Margate harbor; or
visit the barrel-makers, who

  
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
 
 

 

WAITING FOR THE MASTER.

   

Ea poy {rons .

Lalor

WAY DOWN EAST.

busily “hoop her up” at the rate of
fifty a day. Among the cosiest im-
pressions of foreign journeys, also, are
those solid, roomy kitchen interiors
with wide fire-places and portly bake-
ovens, such as we here behold again.
American Eastport traces itself in light-
er, sketchier lines ; but how suggestive
of English rivers is the old boat with
fish-weir baskets, and how strong the
lonely sea-washed Donegal head-
land !

Mr. Fenn was one of the founders
of the Water Color Society, and still,
though busily engaged in illustrating,
gives about one quarter of his time to

 

OLD-FASHIONED KITCHEN. water-color painting. CARRIGAN HEAD, DONEGAL.
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. | 137

THY. PENNSVIVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS, Academy.
In their
far-reaching
thoughtful-
ness they
did not for-
get that the
success of
a people de-
pends upon
its enlight-
enment;
thateachen-
lightenment
isan art,and
that the
greatest of
these is Art.
This; heri-
tage—the
oldie st
American
Art Acad-
emy—is the Pennsylvania Academy of
Fine Arts, honoring its parentage, re-
taining its fostering protection, and pro-
jecting a future for American Art which

By CHARLES MCILVAINE.

With original illustrations by prominent niembers.
S 7)

   
    
  
    
   

THERE is a veritable
savor of 1776 about’ the
Pennsylvania Academy of
Yine Arts. Pounded in
1803, but little over a cen-
tury’s quarter after
the State House bell
rang out its immor-
tal peal of American
Independence, the
first meetings of its
founders were held
under the same roof
sheltering the Congress
of Patriots that gave the
bell its special tongue.
One of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, George Clymer, was its
first president.

Of those who fathered a nation were the parents of the first American Art

   

From a painting by James P. Kelly.

 

By Charles Grafly. “OLD AND KNOWING.”

 

ROCA
Drawn by Henry McCarter.

‘“ THE FISHERMAN.”

 

Drawn by Alice Barber Stephens.

% a i, “A PASSING COMMENT.”

 

 

4 shall give it first place among the nations of the earth.
As early as 1791, Charles
% A Wilson Peale, “captain. of
fw N meg g volunteers, member of the leg-
font ; i islature,
~, A saddler,

. clockmaker,
silversmith,
ipainter,
modeller,
jengraver,
. glass-mould-
er, taxider-
mist, den -
sist,’ father
of a multi-
tudinous

progeny, |.4. / a
gathened I 775

 

i
|

 

————

Drawn by Peter Moran. about him Drawn by Joseph Pennell.

“ THE CHARGE,” “TIRED.” those inter- “ THE LANDING PLACE.”

From a painting by William 1. Trego.
ARTISTS.

CATTLE HOME.

da
Z
<
fro
oe,
<C

DRIVING THE

AMERICAN

by Peter Moran.

ing

7

From a pain

 
AMERICAN

ested in giving to the
sparsely feathered nation,
by the impetus of organiza-
tion, a school for American
Art.

This organization,
named the Columbianum,
was successfully completed
in 1794. The walls of In-

dependence Hall were hung

 

Drawn by Frank Fithian.
$A TIFF,”

with its first public exhibition of paintings. The
historic thread is strong, but frayed in places, which
holds the Columbianum to an honored sheep-skin,
yellow and horny as glue, preserved among Phila-
delphia’s sacred relics, which tells how seventy men
wrote their names in 1805, and pledged themselves
“to promote the cultivation of Fine Arts in the
United States of America.” And tells, too, of what

   

Drawn by W. Sartain.
¢ sTUpY.”

 

From a painting by Colin Campbell Cooper, Jr.

“BY THE RIVER.”

ART AND ARTISTS.

they would buy, and what they
would build, and what they
would do, for love of that
gracious Genie—Art.

The boots of history are
seven-leagued. The strides
reach 1893. The building of
1807 has been carted away.
On Philadelphia’s broadest
street, the name,—The Penn-
sylvania Academy of the Fine
Arts, is carved on stone over

 

 
   

Drawn by Jerome L. G. Ferris.
‘“A GENTLEMAN OF YE OLD SCHOOL.”

his life, and whose hand, though palsied,
and whose eyes, though dim, directed
for eleven years the Academy’s classes
within his own ambitions, but to possi-
bilities beyond ; Edward and Thomas
Moran, always delighting with etchings
of cheery life; James Hamilton, he of
hilarious memory, and snatcher of the
sun’s secrets ; Wm. T. Richards, who
coaxes into silent places, and paints Na-
ture’s whispers ; John Sartain, the grand-
father of steel engravings; D. Ridgway

From a painting by W. T. Richards.

139

 

  

‘“ THE BELL BUOY, NEWPORT.”

the grand entrance to a fitting palace
where Art is queen.

Pointing with well-earned pride to
the long list of world-famed men and
women, one time students under the
Academy’s tutelage, she names Peter F.
Rothermel, stirring patriotism in all
who stand before his picture of Patrick
Henry ; Samuel B. Waugh, indicator of
attractiveness in American scenery ;
Christian Schussele, whose surname fitted

 

From a painting by Helen C. Hovenden.

$ OF HIGH DEGREE.”
140 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

A PICADOR. ST. PAUL’S CATHEDRAL.
Drawn by D. Ridgway Knight.

‘ EDGE OF THE LAKE.”

   

7

Drawn by Milton Bancroft.

 

Knight, broad
as the Contin-
ent in his early
portraiture of
American sub-
jects, but deli-
cate as the
daintiest por-
trayer of
French life and

“atmosphere,

wearer of the
ribbon of the
Legion of Hon-
or and medals
of the French
Salon ; Stephen
J. Fersis, at:

sgl
gl
2

‘“ CHESTER CATHEDRAL.”

Drawn by Louis M. Glackens.

¢ RESTING.”

 

 

the
conscientious,
now teacher of
theclassesdraw-
ing from the an-
tique ; Joseph
Pennell, whose
pencil gives so
accurately to
the resident
what his eye
sees abroad;
Frank D. Bris-
coe, at home
with brush, pen,
or pencil, any-
where where
sight is worth

Anshutz,

AMERICAN

Ha

    

 

ih i

Vidal?

From a painting by Robert Henri.

¢ FIELD DAISIES.”

ART

 

tractive in whatever he essays;
Milne Ramsey, a cherished
recorder of pleasant things ;
Kenyon Cox, full of the spirit-
welle ; and Abbey, telling of
daisies and meadows, and

lasses 0

Thomas

f long ago.

Eakins, founder

of his school at the Academy,
long time instructor; Thomas

ug
From a paint

““

   

7 2

ing by Henry R. Poore.

BURNING BRUSH,”

  
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
    
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

AND ARTISTS.

   

=

Drawn by William M. Goodes.

‘“ CONDOLING.”’

indelibility ; a score of others equally
faithful to their calling as artists and
the nest of their hovering—Lovell Birge
Harrison, Robert Blum, George W.
Plait, John J. Boyle, James P. Kelly:
Carl Newman, now member of the
Academy's Faculty ; Henry R. Poore,

Drawn by Fred. L. Pitts.

¢ COOPER’S POINT.”

in sympathy with our household pets,
Herman F. Deigendesch, M. R. Trotter,
Wm. T. Smedley the illustrator, Benj.
F. Gilman—and the list stops not there.

The Academy has not given a Rosa
Bonheur to America, but of its women
pupils stand forth Ida Waugh and
Emily Sartain, as fathered by it. Also

Drawn by F. Cresson Schell.

From a painting by Henry Thouron.

‘‘ NEW BRITAIN FARM YARD,” ¢“ CONSCIENCE.”
142

     
 

 

Drawn by William J. Glackens.

¢ ON LOGAN SQUARE.”

the chicken yard, for the prominent publications of

 

Drawn by F. F. English.

“THE VILLAGE TAVERN.”

Alice Barber Stephens and
Cecelia Beaux, women loved
where art in magazines is
dear.

There is evolution in art-
ists as well as in art. America
might claim primogeniture of
architects in the Cliff Dwell-
ers, bass-relief moulders in
the Mound Builders, artists
upon the painted skins worn
by the Aborigines. She cares
not to do that ; she is content
with her Academy.

Springing,
spreading themselves notori-
ously over the continent are
her recent offspring—the
grasshoppers in art — those

winging,

who are chirpy, assertive, de-
vouring, and destined to suc-
ceed their fully-fledged pred-
ecessors. Among them are
EF. 1. Fithian, doing black
and white chromatics most
acceptably, from the heights

of society to the comedies of

the day ; Goodes, MacCarter,

‘IN DEEP STUDY.”

No such clutch
within the cen-
other single art

While holding
Keystone State as
the Academy has
without recogni-
Academy has ever
good work by its
the contributions
the blood and
honored founders.
broods to-day the
will advance her
glory—a glory
all generations to

Drawn by F. R. Gruger.

     
    
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
    
 
 
 

and Daggy, al-
ready climbing to
the top of humor-
ous delineators,
pointed at futur-
ity as successors
to the inimitable
A. B. Frost, with
an individuality
bred curiously by
a common parent
mated with poly-
morphic genius.

 

From a painting by Thomas Hovenden.

‘ IN THE ORCHARD.”

From a painting by
Charles Harley.

$A STUDY.”

has been hatched
tury from any
nest.

the name of the
first to its title,
honored the State
tion from it. The
been held to its
own earnings, and
of those holding
independence of
The Academy
generation that
own and their
that will live in
follow.

 

From a painting by Carl Newman.

¢ ASLEEP.”
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

Drawn by Milton H. Bancrofi
BREAKFAST IN THE COOLIES’ FORECASTLE OF A PACIFIC LINER.

 
144 AMERICAN ART

AN ARTIST IN BUSINESS.
By HENRY MILFORD STEELE.
(With original illustrations by James Symington.)

THE old notion that an artist or a man of letters must
necessarily be unfitted for a business life has been pretty well
exploded during recent years. Perhaps the most interesting
demonstration of the falsity of the old theory is furnished by
the career of the firm composed of James Symington and F.

Hopkinson Smith, who are successfully engaged in the emi-

nently practical business of building lighthouses, break-

5 waters, sea-walls, and other stone construction. Both these
men are painters of estab-
lished reputation, and one
of them is a famous
2: author as well.
Be James Syming-
3 \ ton was born in

Maryland in 1841,

and early mani-
fested a fondness for drawing, in which he
was encouraged by a Presbyterian minister
who took a fancy to him and who was
himself a draughtsman of considerable

skill. In 1853 Sy-

mington went to
Cincinnati,
and at the 2
age of fourteen or fifteen found himself engaged in
writing out the opinions of the judges of the Superior
Court for the official reports. This occupation gave his
thoughts another turn, and he began regularly to study
law. But his love for drawing did not leave him ; on
the contrary, it was strong enough to lead him to
enter a night class, where he worked steadily for a
year or two, making satisfactory progress.

At the beginning of the war, he joined

the 18th Mississippi Regiment of the

Confederate army as a private, and

served until the war ended in 186s.

During the latter part of the war he

became an ordnance sergeant, and was

quartered for a time near Richmond,
where he had charge of some blast
furnaces. Iron was extremely scarce
p in those days, and whenever the Ord-
4 nance Department heard of a furnace

 
 
  
 
 
  

 

  
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

AND ARTISTS.

anywhere in the mountains
some one was sent off at once
to investigate and report
upon the quantity and qual-
ity of the output, and upon
the facilities for its transpor-
tation. This difficult, and at
times exceedingly dangerous,
duty usually fell to Sergeant
Symington, and during this
period a great deal of his time
was spent in the saddle.

On more than one occa-
sion. he had experiences
which nearly cost him his

life.. He tells the following

# One day I received orders
recting me to look up an iron
where in the mountains of Patrick

property of a man named
Samuel Hairson, was one
ginia, and the owner of
dred slaves; a veritable

¢ Although the furnace
the iron produced was re-
ingly fine in quality; -
from Danville, the
tion. I should have
ville, but the quar-
that I would have no

Henry Courthouse,

= ’
£3 \

 
 
   
 
  

   
   
 
  
 
 
 
  

 

story of a winter’s adventure :
from . my quartermaster di-
furnace he had heard of some-
County. The mine was the
: Hairson, whose father,
_, of the richest men in Vir-
more than thirty-seven hun-
colony of servile blacks.
was only a small one,
ported to be exceed-
but it was sixty miles
nearest railroad sta-
taken a horse at Dan-
termaster assured me
difficulty in finding one at
and advised me to take
-%: a stage from Danville to
A "that place. 1 did so,
Henry Courthouse was

forty miles from Danville. It was winter, and soon
after we started snow began to fall and contin-
ued steadily all day. When we reached Henry
. Courthouse the snow was six inches deep,
and still falling as if it never meant to stop.
I put up at the little country tavern; there

were only two stoves in it—one in the
kitchen and the other in the parlor—
but I managed to get through the night
in reasonable comfort. The next
morning the snow was more than eigh-
teen inches deep. I spent two days
looking for a horse, but there was not
one to be had, and I finally determined
ARTISTS.

ART AND

AMERICAN

ES

Et

Ba Xt

 

“ MARTINIQUE GIRL.”

‘ A MARTINIQUE BELLE,”
AMERICAN

146

to push on afoot. Accord-
ingly, the next morning
I set out on my twenty-
mile walk. After I had
made about six miles I
came to a river which I
was obliged to ford. The
water was fully four feet
deep and very cold. I got
across somehow, soaked
through, of course, and
nearly frozen. Here 1
found that an uncle of
Hairson’s lived about two
miles up the stream, and
I started at once for his plantation. I was about the sorriest looking tramp imagin-
able when I arrived ; but I explained who I was, and received the warmiest sort of
a welcome. I stayed there two days, resting, for I was pretty well
used up. They wanted me to stay a couple of weeks, but I knew
¥ that I ought to be going.

“ My host offered to lend me a horse to go a part of the way,
and he sent a darky boy along with me to take the animal back.
His parting instructions were to the effect that I must send the
boy back as soon as we reached a point beyond which he did not

know the road. We started off bravely enough ; but at the

end of nine miles the boy turned back and I clambered along
up the mountain on foot. It was mighty hard travelling.

The snow was [EEEEEEEERCEE EET rr

covered with ice |

about an eighth
of an inch thick,
which broke
through at every
step and made any-
thing like satisfac-
tory progress im-
possible. Several
times I was on the
point of giving up altogether; but I
floundered on, and at last, to my great
joy, and by one of those lucky acci-
dents which sometimes happen, I met
Hairson and his son on horseback.
Hairson took the boy up behind him
and gave me the lad’s horse, and to-
gether we made our way to his house.
I was so completely exhausted that it
was all I could do to keep from falling

“A BIT OF TRINIDAD.”

 
   
 
 
  

ot

¢ FULL DRESS, MARTIN-
IQUE.”

‘A DUTCH CHAT, SCHEVENENGEN,"

   

 

ART AND ARTISTS.

off the horse ; but we reached the house
at last, where I was immediately put to
bed.

“It was two weeks before I was
able to leave that place.”

Mr. Symington’s adventures in the
wild mountain country of Virginia fur-
nished him with an abundance of ma-
terial for an unusually interesting book,
which it is hoped he may some day be
prevailed upon to write.

When the war was over, in 1865, Mr.
Symington came to New York and en-
gaged in business with his present part-
ner, Mr. F. Hopkinson Smith, to whom
he is distantly related. He studied for
some time at the Academy of Design,
generally at night, and his water colors
soon began to attract attention. He
made drawings for Frank Leslie’s Illus-
trated Newspaper, and at one time Mr.
Leslie sought to engage him as one of

 

PIN

‘ ALONG THE SHORE, WINDWARD ISLAND,”

pen iY

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
  

¢ APPLES ARE RIPE.”

the regular staff of artists perma-
nently employed on the paper. He
joined the Water Color Society in
1878, and has been its treasurer for
the past nine years. He is reélected
every year, and has come to be re-
garded as the permanent treasurer
of the society.

In 1887 Mr. Symington made an
extended trip through Europe, paint-
ing industriously all the time. In
company with Thulstrup and H. W.
Ranger he wandered through Eng-
land, France, Germany, Sweden, and
Norway, and brought back an im-
mense number of studiesand pictures.
He has travelled all over this country
from the coast of Maine to South-
western Texas, investigating differ-
ent varieties of building-stone, and
painting by the way. Mr. Syming-
ton is one of the most popular men
in the profession, and he deserves it.
AND ARTISTS.

AMERICAN ART

 

Drawn by James Symington.

Drawn by James Symington.

SOME NORWEGIAN WOMEN.

WHAT ARE THE WILD WAVES SAYING ?
148

AMERICAN ART AND

A PAINTER OF MARINE SUBJECTS.

 

“ SUNSET GUN.”

ence to what critics may say and other artists
think, and he speaks out his mind with a manly
freedom which seems to count silence as cow-
ardly. One of his friends, commenting on this
characteristic in reproving tones, said, “Jim
Fortunately for those who

talks too much!”

By JNo. GILMER SPEED.

(With original illustrations by James G. Tyler.)

WHEN an artist has enthusiasms, and the courage
of them, he is likely to get a good deal of happiness
out of his art “ whatever woe betide.” When these
enthusiasms, and the following of them, lead to suc-
cess, the artist thus possessed and thus guided is to
be envied among men. This reflection has been sug-
gested by the work and the personality of James G.
Tyler, the well-known marine painter, for both the
man and his pictures are alive with enthusiasms which
will not be denied, but on the contrary are apt to be-
come contagious.
He paints in just
the way he thinks
he ought to paint,
without refer-

 

 
  
  
  
 
   

 

 

ARTISTS.

great sincerity. In Mr. Tyler's
case we have not only courage-
ous enthusiasms and frank sin-
cerity, but genius as well, and,
therefore, both the man and
his work are potent with
charm. So much of the space
allotted to this article is wisely
given up to the reproduction
of Mr. Tyler's pictures and
sketches that it is not possible
for me to enter into any dis-
cussion of the merits of his
work. Through these repro-
ductions, however, his pictures
speak with an eloquence that
no writer could command.
Therefore, I shall be content
to say a few words about the
man himself and his career as
an artist.

Mr. Tyler began painting
in 1870, when he was fifteen
years old. He was then living
in his native Oswego. He
gained some little local fame

 

¢ A TEN-KNOT BREEZE.”

before he had been at work a year, and when a

come within his circle, Mr. Tyler does not agree
with this friend, and therefore his acquaintances
are not denied the pleasure and the profit of the

 
 

thoughts of a mind all untrammelled. Such
characteristics can only be accompanied with

 

Ci

 

“IN PORT.”

 
 
  
   

 

ROUNDING CAPE ANN.”?
AMERICAN ART AND

 

“ GREETING A STRANGER.”

member of the National Academy visited the town he was taken to see the youth-
ful celebrity. This Academician, though a man of genuinely well-earned fame, is
not a handsome man in the eyes of strangers, nor does he clothe himself with any
degree of smartness. His fame had not reached young Tyler’s studio, and the
man himself did not look in the least as the boy artist thought an Academician
should look. The elder and somewhat shabby man looked at the lad’s canvas
through his glasses and said kindly : “ Your boat moves, my boy, but your clouds

should move with it.”
The young man
thought that there
was a deal of sense in
the comment, but
atthe time he was
suspicious that a
joke was being
played upon him,
and that a cas-

ual tramp had

been pressed

into service to play
the part of visiting
Academician. At this
day, some twenty
years later, Mr. Tyler
is not sure that the
shabby gentleman
who called on him in

i

Oswego is not the ablest of all American landscape painters.
At all events he has many admirers.

ably sure that he is.

ARTISTS,

oy Ter

>
3,

 

|

«gg
—
4a
NG
i

 

‘ THE BREAKWATER.”

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
  
  
      
  

The writer is toler-

The next year Mr. Tyler
painted about three months
in the studio of A. Cary
Smith, then well known as
a marine painter, though
at present he has deserted
the pictorial art to be a
designer of yachts. This
is the only instruction Mr.
Tyler has ever had save
that which he has given
himself. And to himself
he has been a hard and
exacting master, for never
yet has he produced a work
that was to himself entirely
satisfactory. Recognizing,
however, that what he did
was as good as he at the
time had power to make
it, he has given his works
to the world with a clear
conscience.

Mr. Tyler, like Mr. Al-
bert Ryder, for whom, by
the way, he has a very warm
150

admiration, paints from his
imagination, and his imagin-
ation should be spelled with
a big 1 He, therefore, es-
capes the commonplace, and
in this achieves no mean dis-
tinction. It must not be un-
derstood by this that Mr.
Tyler is a painter of the un-
canny. It is true that in an
exhibition at the Academy a
few years ago he had a pict-
ure of the “Flying Dutch-
man,” and Mr. Ryder, by the
way, treated the same sub-
ject for the same exhibition.
But even in putting on canvas

AMERICAN ‘ART

 

¢“ A BRIGANTINE.”

such a baffling subject as this, Mr. Tyler was equal to the occasion, and came
near to satisfying the very severest critics who were gifted with any imagination.
It was most interesting at this exhibition to contrast the conceptions of Ryder and

 

‘ MOONLIGHT,”

Tyler and their methods
of treatment. The opin-
ion of connoisseurs was
about equally divided,
and of critics as well.
This was without doubt
Ryder’s masterpiece,
and Tyler has said with
characteristic frankness
that he greatly preferred
it to his own. Tyler's
was a study in gray, the
phantom ship half re-
vealed in a bank of fog ;
Ryder’s phantom ship
was seen in a blaze of
glorious color. Both
were poetical, both were
satisfying. Mr. Tyler’s
masterpiece, according
to his own judgment, is
a painting recently fin-
ished, and called “The
Dawn of the New
World.” Thispicture is
the result of much hard
work and study. It is
an effort to represent

AND ARTISTS.

 

¢ BECALMED.”

the little fleet of Co-
lumbus just as land is
discovered. Mr, Tyler
made this picture be-
fore the Columbian car-
avels had been built,
and he needed to find
his models in the old
records. He has suc-
ceeded most admirably,
and in this picture there
seems to be a happy
combination of the real
and the ideal. Without
this combination, prob-
ably no picture is quite
worth while to be made.
It would be a pity for
such a picture as this to
be buried in some pri-
vate collection, and it
is to be hoped that the
movement to secure it
for the Capitol at Wash-
ington will be success-
fully pushed. There is
room in that great pile
for many pictures, but

there are unfortunately not many now there worthy of national ownership.

Mr. Tyler is an impressionist, and sacrifices nothing whatever to the finicky
detail upon which many realists waste all their time and power. Painting from
within himself, instead of copying merely that which he sees, it is only natural that
he should frequently produce results incomprehensible to those who have no head
above their eyes. But this lack of appreciation, manifested now and again by

hanging committees, bothers
Mr. Tyler not in the least, for
he feels that it is his mission
in life to paint his own pictures
in his own way ; to please him-
self and satisfy his own sense
of beauty, and what Carlyle
called “the eternal verities,”
without reference to a few
busy nobodies who have el-
bowed themselves. into place
and authority for the sake of
the cheap fame which passes
almost as soon as it has come.

 

¢ AMPHIBIANS,”
 

151

ARTISTS.

AMERICAN ART AND

 

ASHORE.

Lrrom a painting by James G. Tyler.
152 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

From a painting by James G. Tyler.

MOONLIGHT AT SEA.

No longer do the skies on his canvas cloud over, and the waves lash in fury at
any bidding save that of the inspiration of the moment. His free-winged boats
move on a self-appointed mission, and the salt winds have blown away the mists
of conventionality. Mr. Tyler loves the changeful sea for its own sake first, and for
art’s sake afterward : surely much may be forgiven the ardent admirer, if he paint
both the realities and the possibilities.

When Mr. Tyler sees his own
picture rejected, and the half-
finished offering of his pupil
hung upon the line, he merely
laughs and sells his own canvas
for five hundred dollars or so.
He has his money, and his
sustaining enthusiasms remain
with him always. These en-
thusiasms would go far toward
making Mr. Tyler happy with
his lot, even though he had to
do without very much of the
money. Not that he despises
money—not at all. Even

 

REET

‘“ ASHORE.”

though gifted with an imagination that soars and soars in newer atmospheres, and
sails and sails on undiscovered seas, he is too human to despise money, though he
confesses freely that he has hated to have to make many of the pot-boilers to which
he has signed his name. Fortunately for him and for his art, the pot-boiling era

has been passed.

 

oi

“ DUNRAVAN FISHERMAN.”
AMERICAN

A HALF-HOUR WITH STUDIO BORES.
3Y CHARLES DE KAY.
(With original illustrations by numerous artists.)

“ THERE it goes again!”

The painter strode testily to the door, swept aside the portiere,
opened a crack and chanted rather than remarked, “ Thank you,
no, not to-day.”

“They are always coming,” he continued, craning back his
head to look at his canvas. “If it’s not a beggar, it's a peddler ;
and if it’s not a model, it’s the worst of all—the amateur who wants
to pose.”

“ Danielson told me,” I remarked, “that one of the best models
he ever had was a young .lady, a rank amateur, who earned pin-
money unknown to her family. She was shapely as Dian, and as
Ao irreproachable.”

\ “ Danielson’s in luck. Generally they are far from well

formed, bore one to death before coming to the point, and
hate you forever when you politely say you cannot use them.
If they really needed to work, I would not mind.

   

By Amy L. Kellogg.

‘ HIS HOLIDAY CLOTHES.” But, any-

om painting by Bruce Crane.

“% MID-SUMMER,”’

ART AND ARTISTS.

how, give me a professional,
every time.”

“They do need the money
—oftener than you think,” 1
answered. “But, 1 suppose
it’s generally vanity of the
person. Now, the vanity of
women is a caution—to men !”

“Well, now—see here—I
know exceptions.”

“ Of course—and the men,

too. Did you ever notice row-

Drawn by H. B. Herts.

{REAR OF ST. THOMAS’ CHURCH, NEW YORK.’

and he paints now as well as
he draws. There it goes
again!”

A sound .at the door. A
timid scrabble at the knocker.

“Five dollars or a dinner
it’s a lady who wants to pose
for the good of art—draped,
of course—but will at last
condescend to take pay for
her services!”

# Donel’

The door opens, and in
hobbles a wonderful old trot,

-

 

Drawn oy Carlton 1. Chapman.

   

 

R23

Drawn by A. B. Doggett.

““ SCENE IN VENICE.”

ing men and boxers, how they stand around
stripped after their bath to be admired, puffing
out their chest muscles and clinching their fists
to bring up the biceps?”

“I'm not: much in that line; All I have
time for is an hour with the foils round at the
fencing club when it’s too dark to paint. That
gives me just the right glow in muscles, and
makes me sleep like a top.”

“ Carroll Beckwith has a good model,” said
I, “and Irving Wiles has the monopoly of some
very lovely sitter—romantic but not a bit
silly,”

“Beckwith’'s a good draughtsman, and no
mistake,” said he pensively and as if with re-
luctance. “At one time I thought the French
had swallowed him forever—Carolus Duran
and all that—but he’s struck out for himself,

‘A SEA FIGHT.”
154 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

From a painting by Joseph Lauber.

THE SHORTEST WAY HOME.
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 155

who speaks English that * Well, that's just it,” said
sounds like a cross be- the other. “You never do look
tween Cape Cod and -at anything, and that’s why the
Cadjen. She is dressed public buy your pictures—a
exactly like one of the fellow feeling, you know.”

old wrinkled country- * Tt makes no difference,’
marms President Wood said I, coming to his aid,
paints for the Academy. * whether you artists see any-
She sits down on the thing yourselves or not. All
edge of a chair and mys- you have to do is to find out
tifies us not a little, until what and how much the public
I get a chance to whis- sees, and then paint with the
per in the painter's ear, eyes of the public. Then you're
“Look at its boots!” made.”

The painter marches A wad of paint-rags whistled
up to the crone, tweaks
off a bon-
net and
wig, and
takes by
the ear
the in-
habitant of
another studio
on the floor above,
who thereupon breaks
into a yell of laughter
and throws himself on a divan.
“I've won, I femark. “So
far as exterior goes, it’s a lady,
and she came to pose. She
and I will dine with you to-night.”

“Ishould think you knew I had interruptions enough,” severely,
to his friend the painter, “without playing any chestnuts like this! c
If I'd taken the trouble to look at you, I'd have seen right through B8y Victor Perard. “Speaking of animals,”
you. “Bah!” "HS STROLLER." sald the painter, glad to escape.
from a painful subject, “did
you ever notice how much mule
Reinhart gets into his South-
ern illustrations—the sublime
patience of his beasts, and the
look of waiting for the right
time to kick?”

“Reinhart is a Virginian, I
believe, and grew up with
mules and darkies ; or, if not

iin] - Ronis =
Drawn by Chas. S. Reinhart. ay irginiag, he belongs to South From painting by G. A. Reid.
“A TANDEM TEAM ern Pennsylvania, which is “ THE GARDEN WALK.”

  
   

 

brom painting by T. W. Wood.
“THE CUP THAT CHEERS.

 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   

by my ear. The masquerading artist sat up
very stiff and shook his fist, uttering oaths in |
Italian, Spanish, French and German. ;
“ Regular art-critic talk. You make me ill.” :
“ Nothing wounds like the truth. I'm only
agreeing with you.” ~
“ Half-truths do more harm than lies.”
“You'll acknowledge that artists must live,”
I interposed ; “that few are supported while
they are waiting to be discovered in a business
way, and that most of you are trying to guess
what the public wants. As one animalier of
note remarked : ‘ Yes, cats are still doing some-
thing this year, but I think dogs are stronger.”
Find out the fashion and plunge in.”

 
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Drawn by R. B. Birch.
“ PATHWAY OF LOVE.”

 

From painting by Walter Satterlee.

“THE MONK IN PRAYER.”
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS

From a painting by Hermann Simon.

INNOCENCE ABROAD.

 
 

Drawn by, F. C. Gordon.

‘ WATCHING THE GAME.”

ings. Here are a laughing monk, drawn with
much pains as to wrinkles, by Fred Webster ; a
seated youth, by George W. Breck; a “regular
boy” with his hands in his pockets, by FI.
C. Gordon ; a Venice water-color by Dog-
gett; and sketches by young Malcolm
Fraser, by H. B. Herts, by Edwin B. Child,
Morgan Rhees, C. M. Relyea, Archie Gunn,

Drawn by Gean Smith.

  

AMERICAN

  
   
 
   
  

much the same—mules,
buzzards, drawl, pickanin-
nies and the rest.”
A yawn from the paint-
er is interrupted by a per-
emptory tattoo on the
knocker. There is an
obscure sound beyond
the portiere like the
rustling of skirts and
subdued coughing.
The door is thrown
open, and a tall young
lady enters, with a
most belligerent boa
of cock’s feathers :
round her throat; |!
she is followed by 7
a stout elderly
lady in furs. They

march in with an air of owner-
ship, regard the old woman
with condescension and
me with evident distaste.
Abashed, I retire
to a corner of the

studio, where I open

a portfolio of draw-

Drawn by E. B. Child.

, ‘* PENSIVE.”

 

Drawn by Irving R. Wiles.

“ows 7 IEW ” ’
WELCOMING THE NEWCOMER, ¢ PAULINE.’

 

ART AND ARTISTS.

and others more or less known like them as
illustrators or as painters in oil. As I raise my
head, the handsome but high-nosed young lady
with the boa is surveying the walls of the studio.

“1 like that,” she exclaims, stabbing the air’

with her parasol before a landscape with pool,
lily-pads, partly denuded tree on the right, and
a charming effect of distance back to the hori-
Zon.

“Yt is by a friend of mine, Bruce Crane,”
remarks the painter in an uncertain voice. The
dubious one and I exchange glances, and the
former feels it necessary to double up and
tie a shoe-
string. 1
have to
sneeze
andcough
ati the
Ss ame
time.

The
young
lady with

re Cho: rg Se
i § %

 

Drawn by J. B. Bristol.

‘ LAKE GEORGE,”

 

eyeglasses.

 
 

 

Drawn by G. A. Traver.

‘ THREE TO ONE.”

a boa regarded us suspiciously through her
Something told her (it was not

the fear of using up the painter’s time) that
it was the moment to leave. I noticed that he lingered in the hall, perhaps apolo-

gizing for the queer pair of loafers in his studio.

The silence was thick enough to cut with a palette knife when the artist

returned to his easel rather red in the face and preoccupied.

“Neighbor!” squeaked pum
the old woman, in comedy .
voice, “a dunt know nuthin’
beout picturs, but a dew know
what a li-ike. Now that ther’
pictur o’ yourn, I swow, it’s a
cheff-dover !” and he pointed
to a drawing by Reginald
Birch pinned against the wall.

But the painter was too
sulky ‘to rise to this bait.
Finally he said:

“You remind me (opposites
suggest each other) of a story
Gean Smith tells. He began

as a painter of high-bred prawn by Arthur I. Ketter.

horses, in Chicago, before he

 

“ ABOUT FINISHED.”
158 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

From a painting by Eduard Grutzner. Drawn by Henry Sandham.
HAPPY IN OBLIVION, SALMON FISHING CAMP ON THE RESTIGOUCHE.
AMERICAN

went in so much for cattle. g ; i
One day the trainer, Splan,
introduced him to Rarus
loose in his box-stall,
After seeing him installed
(no pun) the trainer went
out and happened to be
called away from the stable.

  
 

 

\._  Rarus got so fond of Gean, %
NX or else he was so almightily te, rn
\ . z /
VN tickled to be | Wh
spy painted atall,that Zl 0 ol
™ when Gean tried to Drawn by Fred Webster.
Sr b leave, the horse ¢ MONK’S HEAD.
pr ih t wouldn't let him.”

“And is this yer a parable?” asked the
* other, feigning not to understand the hint.
“It means I won’t prevent your going,
as Rarus did,” remarked the painter, sourly.
He made a flying leap at the other wall,
pulled down a duelling-sword ==
with a button on the tip, and, ;
throwing himself into position,
began to lunge at me and his
\, friend—who gathered up: his
\ skirts and fled.
\ I retired in
good order on
the door,
covering the
retreat with a freshly painted canvas as a shield.

   
 
 

Drawn by J Carroll Beckwith.

¢“ A FAVORITE.”

“And the lady in the cock’s-feather boa?
You were polite enough to her. Social racket,
eh?” >

 
   
   

“That lady, sir, is my betrothed.” Drawn by G. W. Breck.

“ Great Scott! Congrat , good-by !”

 

“ THE SKETCHER.”

~77
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Drawn by Malcolm Fraser.
“ WHEN THE CURTAIN RINGS DOWN,”

ART AND

 

ARTISTS. 159

A VERSATILE ARTIST
BY ALEXANDER BLACK.
(With original illustrations by Carle J. Blenner.)

CARLE J. BLENNER belongs to that interesting group of American artists which
we sometimes vaguely describe as “the younger men,” or as vaguely again as “the
rising men.” A Virginian by
birth, an alumnus of Yale, he
has, within the space of a very
few years, exhibited a capacity
to be cosmopolitan in style to
a degree such as only Ameri-
cans, perhaps, ever can. He
received his art education—or
perhaps, in the case of a stu-
dent so indefatigable, we
should say the academic part
of this education—at Paris,
under Bouguereau, Schenck,
and other masters, from whom
he returned with a firmly indi-
vidual style.

His work displays a great deal of versatility, ranging from the most delicate
forms of landscape to spirited portraiture. At the World's Fair he exhibits “ Con-
tentment,” and a portrait of Sefior Don Roderigo de Saavedra of the Spanish
Legation, both admirable examples of his style. That Mr. Blenner will always be
effective in portraiture is hinted in the force and character of his figure studies,
which contain subtle draughtsmanship and wholesome phases of color. The head
of an old woman reproduced in one of the illustrations to the present article is a
piece of clever realism in which there is a keen reading of the human nature lying
beneath the surface
“ Country Life” tells the
simple yet always fresh-
ly eloquent story of the
farm and its unexciting
routine, . The'elements
of the picture are skil-
fully brought together,
and the work through-
out is sincere and direct.
How neatly Mr. Blenner
manages sentiment may
be indicated by “ After-
noon Tea,” which be-
longs to the vers de société
of painting, and which
makes no attempt to

 

¢ AN OLD-FASHIONED GARDEN, CONNECTICUT.”

“IN THE CABBAGE FIELD.”
AMERICAN

160

give to the old romance anything
more than its natural charm. This
is one of the stories that always are
told best when they are told without
flourishes—though, after all, it might
be difficult to fancy a subject of
which this could not be said.

During his residence in Paris,
Mr. Blenner appears to have become
acquainted with many phases of
French life and character. Certain-
ly his studies of Parisian scenes and
people are marked by a quite evident
appreciation of something more than
the shell of things. The “ Luxem-
bourg Garden,” for example, strikes
a truly Parisian note, and the same
may be said of the glimpse into the
grounds of the Musée de Cluny.
Mr. Blenner enters with zest into the
treatment of subjects nearer home.
He has put real poetry in his “ Old-
Fashioned Garden,” one of those
quaint, inartistic but delightful nooks of Connecticut, where there are stone walls

“ A STUDY OF AGE.”

’

PARIS,’

‘“ GARDEN OF THE MUSEE CLUNY,

 

 

ART AND ARTISTS.

for vines to grow on, and na-
ture has a strongly distinctive
cast. These nooks are so often
neglected that it becomes a
real pleasure to find them well
treated by a discerning artist.
“In the Cabbage Field” car-
ries the eye across a stretch of
cultivated country. These sub-
jects are not fantastic; they
do not bid for that dangerous
adjective “ingenious.” They
deal with the fundamentals,
and deal with them without

 

“ LUXEMBOURG GARDEN, PARIS.”
sensationalism of any kind.

As an illustrator, Mr. Blenner has shown highly favoring gifts. The facility
with which he eliminates unnecessary detail gives pertinence and clearness to his
work. Illustrators are perhaps particularly under the necessity for studying the
Too many of our ambitious illustrators
Mr. Blenner

element of proportion in the use of detail.
are missing the essentials of the art by overloading their pictures.
appears to be in no danger of hampering himself by making this radical error.
During the past summer he had charge of the Yale art school, and is now settled
again in his New York studio in the Sherwood, where the winter days will be too brief
to work up the thousand and one sketches treasured in his well-worn note-book. In
his wide range of subjects, Mr. Blenner will easily avoid sameness of execution.

~~

 

”

s* AFTERNOON TEA.
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 161

 

COUNTRY LIFE.
162 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

AN ITLLUSTRATOR OF CHILD LIFE,

By WiLLiaAM McKENDREE BANGS.

(With original illustrations by Maud Humphrey.)

So fleeting are the expressions
of a child’s emotions, that success-
ful and artistic representation of
children has always been a diffi-
cult task ; but, when it is success-
fully accomplished, pictures of
children are almost invariably
beautiful. And not only are chil-
dren’s pictures, therefore, very
pleasing to those who love beauty
—whose number, it is to be hoped,
is growing and extending—but
representations of our future men
and women, which are at all adequate, must be interest-
ing and gratifying to all who love children, and their
number is certainly legion.

Very beautiful indeed, and very interesting, are the
pictures of child
life to be found
in the original

 

   
 
 
 

Ba
AE

 

drawings

ed .
“ JOSEPHINE.” and paint-
ings of

Miss Maud Humphrey, or in her
work as reproduced in the books
she has illustrated for children or
representing them. That an artist,
or any one else for that matter,
should “work along the line of least
resistance” to accomplish the largest
and best success possible, is a truth
.s0 obvious that
2 Nod perhaps to state it is to
ANN perhaps to state it is
go -~ express a common-
place; but it is
+ evident that
along that happy line
has Miss Humphrey
worked, for, as her many
: and various representa- Miss Humphrey was born in Rochester. Inher very earliest childhood she drew
3 tions of child life are and made pictures as best she could. Her early hope was to become a painter of
examined, one cannot animals, and her youthful enthusiasm was for Rosa Bonheur. Before she was twelve
al fail to be impressed with “ SWEET CLOVER.” she had begun to take lessons in drawing ; but her eyes failing her in some measure,

 

‘ BUBBLES."

      

the manifest pleasure she finds in the work, or to feel that her love for her subjects
must be very real, and her sympathy with them deep and sincere. Otherwise, I
take it, it would not be possible for her to so represent the characters of her little
people, and to so suggest their thoughts and quick emotions. Her pictured chil-
dren are not merely children of handsome faces and pretty clothes. They have
something more.
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 163

she was compelled for a while to desist.
A few years later, however, she had so
progressed that she became a pupil at
the Art Students’ League. While a stu-
dent here she made illustrations for a
children’s magazine published in Bos-
ton. Her first work in color was done
about this time ; and soon thereafter,
now about six years ago, she was re-
quested to illustrate a holiday book
then about to be prepared, Miss

y . z Pp 7
Humphrey’s pictures were of 7
children, and were drawings in i
color, from life. This work 2.2

 

received favorable notice and J rey
, ; 4p

, attention, and, it may almost “vere YoDELY
j Hi be said, determined her aim

fl #) and the manner in which she should pursue her art. Her efforts,

/ Iy itis true, have not been limited to pictures of children alone.

’ &

q 3

x

   

Ss

77 . Many other figure subjects, including notably charming pictures
7 _* of young women, in black and white, and in color, have been the
; product of her pen or brush ; but it is as a painter of child life
that Miss Humphrey has
achieved unquestionable, and
her greatest, success.

While it may appear to the
uninitiated that the picturing of
children is a simple, straightfor-
ward task, the contrary is the
truth. To begin with, the chil-
dren’s artist has a twofold diffi-
culty to contend with, The
brain-whirling restlessness of
the young model is a thing to
discourage the tyro in this line
of art work, and the difficulty of
fixing with pen or pigment the
ever-changing expression of a
child’s countenance—the por-
trayal of the sweet, unsullied
soul of such wee characters as
engage the talent of Miss Hum-
phrey, is an accomplishment
both arduous and thought-pro-
voking.

It is true that the artist here
; considered often falls short of
“IN SNOWBALL TIME,” her ideal ; that her pictorial em-

amt

ey er

¢“ MEDITATION.”

 

¢# A FINE LADY.”
164 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

bodiments of small boys
and girls lack spirit and
expression ; but none the
less there is a sparkle of
style in her delineations
of childhood that amply
recompenses one for the
missing qualities of her
work.

To her work Miss
Humphrey brings a gay and joyous fancy. There is
an evidence of zest in her drawings. She has the gift
of placing rightly delicate and pleasing qualities of [A
color. She also appreciates the limit to which an art- NE on A
ist, dealing solely with one class of subjects, may go. i 1 ih vod
One is convinced in viewing her children on paper dil
and canvas that the artist’s heart pulsated warmly for
the tiny models from whom she drew her inspiration.

It is clearly evident, too, that Miss Humphrey is «DEAD BROKE.”
partial to the miniature men and women of a past
epoch ; for while her children are modern enough
in face, form, and occupation, they are more
often than not arrayed in the quaint attire ‘of
youngsters long since passed into great-grand-
parenthood and gathered to their forefathers
in weedy church-yards. This is, of course, be-
cause of the great picturesqueness of old-time
garbing ; for the clothing of the fin de siecle child,
like the attire of its parents, is more funereal or
grotesque than artistic
and eye-pleasing.

It has often been re-
marked that while women
are supposed to thorough-
ly understand childhood
above all other phases of
life, they rarely paint it
exclusively, and when
they do, it is in a strictly
ideal light.

Miss Humphrey, it is
plain to be seen, has a
decided preference for
child women, and dainty
little women at __..

 

hi
A

RN

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
  
 
 
  

 

1
y “A SUDDEN SHOWER."

A ] enough to please her fancy, perhaps, or pranks and naughtiness have no humor in
\/ them for her. Oddly enough, however, another child painter, and a man at that,
invariably chooses these neglected boys for his most engaging pictures.

But dominating all Miss Humphrey's work is the note of seriousness. Her pur-
pose is the picturing of child nature in its best moods, without affectation or a falsi-
that, The. small fying of visible facts. In her own peculiar undertaking in the field of art she has
boy of to-day is attained a much-deserved distinction, and as a student of childhood—its foibles
“THE CARES GF MOTHERHOOD.” not picturesque “ GOOD-BY.” and pleasantries—she is alone among women painters and illustrators.

 
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

A PAINTERS PROGRESS.
By ALFRED TRUMBLE.
(Zllustrated from original paintings by Leonard Ochtman.)

SOME ten years since a young artist came to this city from Albany, and estab-
lished himself in a modest studio under the roof of an old-fashioned house around
the corner from Union Square. He was not known among the guild here, but his
pictures, which appeared in different exhibitions, attracted some attention, and
there were those among our older painters, who are generous in recognizing and
acknowledging youthful and new merit, who singled them out as the work of a
man with a future. These pict- =
ures were landscapes, familiar
pastoral scenes, of a charming-
ly peaceful character, simply
painted, without any preten-
sions to technical display, but
fresh and pure in color, and
lively with the spirit of the sub-
ject. They commenced to fig-
ure at the National Academy
of Design in 1882, were mod-
estly priced, and found a ready
market.

The artist, Leonard Ocht-
man, was a native of Holland,
but had from childhood resided
in Albany. It was hereabouts that he began to draw and paint from nature, guid-
ing himself entirely by the suggestions afforded by the pictures which he saw
in the art dealers’ galleries, in occasional public exhibitions, and in such private
collections as he could gain access to. He was, practically, feeling his way, and if
his progress was not as rapid as it might have been had he received a regular
course of instruction, it
at least resulted in his
painting like no one
but himself. He pos-
sessed the advantage
of a highly sensitive
artistic temperament,
which rendered him in-
stinctively appreciative
of true beauty in form,
line, and color. ‘The
late Alexander H. Wy-
ant once remarked to
me of one of his small
canvases at the Acad-
emy : “ Here isa young

   

* A RUTTED BY-WAY.”

 

“ THE GRASS-ROAD,”

man, now, who was born to be an
artist. He is only learning to paint,
and his work is weak and thin. But
notice how he grasps the picturesque
qualities of his subject, and how
tenderly he renders them. He is
painting his own heart here, you may
be bound. He will soon arrive.”
This prediction, uttered by one
of the veterans and masters in Amer-
ican landscape, upon the suggestion
of an unostentatious study of some
bit of an Albany suburb, has been

 

   

¢ ACROSS THE WATER.”

165

 

‘ THE BOAT-LANDING.”

amply fulfilled. From the time
he settled in New York, Mr.
Ochtman’s progress was rapid.
To the slender, reserved young
man, with the refined and deli-
cate face, whom many took to
be a poet, as, in his way, he in-
deed is, every gallery among
whose treasures he wandered,
silently observant and studi-
ous, was a school. He had
already, by a natural process
of development, learned to
think and paint for himself.
Now, learning how others

thought and painted, he unconsciously gathered strength. His inspirations ex-
panded, his growing confidence strengthened his hand. At each succeeding exhi-

bition his productions pg y
revealed more force
of execution, and
grew steadily upon
the favor of those
who saw them. One
of our dealers in pict-
ures, a man not then
much given to en-
couraging native tal-
ent, said to me, at an
Academy show :

“Do you know
this man?”

I told him that I
had met him, and
gave him what infor-

 

$A RIVERSIDE VISTA.”
166 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

mation I could as to who he A DECORATIVE ARTIST,

was. He listened attentively,
with his eyes upon the picture
all the while. Finally he said :
“1 like his work. He's
going ahead. I shall go and
hunt him up.” a
The artist, however, was nn, Se ete?
beyond his reach. He had ac- 5
cumulated sufficient capital to
venture on a trip to Europe,
and there he remained a couple
of years. The pictures which
he sent over from time to time
demonstrated that his voyage “ THE COLD, COLD SNOW.”
was not being wasted. They
elicited critical commendation and rose steadily in the favor of collectors. Most
favorable indication of all,in the practical sense at least, for art must feed on some-
thing more substantial than air, the prices his pictures commanded went higher
and higher.
I should add, to Mr. Ochtman’s honor, that while he returned from Europe with
his art broadened and fortified by experience and study, he brought back with him
also that individuality which belongs to him as to all men whose education has

3Y RovAL CoRTISSOZ.
(With original illustrations by Frank Fowler.)

SOONER or later an artist gets his opportunity. Mr. Frank
Fowler returned to America about fifteen years ago, after a
sojourn abroad which had been chiefly distinguished by experi-
ence under Carolus Duran. He had been chosen by that
eminent Frenchman to aid him in the painting of a
fresco in the Luxembourg, “ The Apotheosis of
Marie de Medici.” I do not know that the dec-
orative faculty which Duran must have divined
in Mr. Fowler had never been employed in this coun-
try until lately. I do know that his reputation here
has been founded on his work in portraiture. At the
World's Fair his contributions to the exhibit of paint-
ings were all portraits. But any one who sought out
the section devoted to architecture at the Fair must
have noticed some studies of draped and nude figures
by Mr. Fowler. A few fragments belonging to the
set appear in these pages. They were made inthe
)  prepa- ration of three panels for the ball-

 
 
  
 
 
  

 

    
 
  
 

been self-won. He paints now, as before, not like a student of the French, the room mi. ceiling of the Waldorf Hotel, and
German, the Dutch, or any other schools, but like Leonard Ochtman. I know no 7 they | represent Mr. Fowler's opportu-
higher praise to be extended to him, or I should extend it. nity. 3 In his portraits he has demon-

truths of structure and his skill
appeared to the same good
studies other than portraits,
ed from time to time. His

in the frescos to which

strated his acquaintance with
in brushing. He has o
effect in the figure
which he has exhibit-
full measureis given, however,

 
 
 
 
  
 
 
    
 

I havealluded. In them there | Hy Nis the simplicity of com-
position which would be ex- NN z pected of one who has
achieved success as a teacher ~~ through the good sense
andclearnessof hisinstruction. They have also piquancy and
effectiveness. Three figures occupy each of the panels.
In the central division are the violin- A ist and lyrist repro-
duced with these remarks, and anude cherub, N bearing

a page of music. The panels to the right and left |

are assigned to both musicians and dancers. Id

the nude trumpeter, illustrated herewith, isaccompanied by a manad
in yellow, dancing, and a semi-nude bacchic youth, beating time with
a ribboned wand as he joins in the measure. A cellist in
the last panel is draped in yellow, and the dancer and tam-
bourinist grouped with her arerobed, onein blue, the
other in white and lavender. Each one of these fig-
ures is an image of grace and animation, and <r
they are thrown against a background of fleecy

 

“ GARNERING THE HARVEST.”
167

SUMMER.

From a painting by Frank Fowler.

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

From a painting by Frank Fowler.

 

 

 
168 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

1889, in Paris, he was awarded a
' bronze medal. He is still young, hav-
ing been born in Brooklyn in 1832.
On the foundations of an art educa-
tion, sought first with Edwin White
in Florence, and then in the
Ecole des Beaux Arts and the
studio of Duran, he is building a creditable super-
structure through constant cultivation of his gifts.

That in this superstructure there will be incor-
porated the fruits of further decorative attempts in
i the vein which Mr. Fowler has re-
opened at the Waldorf, is highly prob-
able. In the first place, because these
frescos have proven his ability as a
mural painter. In the second place,
= because an ever-widening
BD. field is being spread before
decorative artists in America.
years a long-dormant impulse
and the school of fresco

clouds and delicate blue sky with a harmonious adjustment to the latter of the
flesh tints and of the draperies I have mentioned. The workmanship shows self-
possession and energy, and the coloration is delightful. The decorations are ex-
tremely clever, in short, and, what is perhaps most pleasing, they are thoroughly
‘decorative. Though Mr. Fowler has not heretofore attained distinction as a mural
painter, he has not lacked appreciation in other directions. He is valued as a
teacher. He is a member of the Architectural League and the Society of Amer-
ican Artists, and is an Associate of the Academy. At the Universal Exposition of

 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
  
  
 
 
 
 
 

 

  
 
 
  

 

Within the past few |
has been awakened,
painters, prefigured
Morris Hunt, at
of formation. Signs of it ph
were to be observed at the
World's Fair, where a
group of American artists
~pro-
"duced
some
~ Lif cxtremely
# interesting

many years ago by William
Albany, is even now in course

 

essays in
mural decoration
on the domes of
3 the Liberal

Arts and
— ~ Adminis-
~~ A tration
3 build-
Sings. When the new Public
Library building in Boston is
completed it will be one of
the most magnificently embellished edifices in the
world, for such artists as Puvis de Chavannes, Whist-
ler, Abbey, and Sargent have been commissioned to /
people its walls with painted figures. Mr. Fowler's (
work indicates a welcome movement in American art.

 

   

‘* WITH EYES SERENE,”
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 169

“MY FAVORITE MODEL.’ and among il-
lustrators, for
example, the
recurrence of
a special type
or model is
very marked
in such wide-

ly divergent

By GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP.

    
       

Wno, on visiting the studios of
different artists, or observing a num-
ber of pictures by the same man
“25 -. Or woman, has not been struck

= / by the fact that in all of any workers as
: PE Se a y .
cr ele 3 one person’s work there is usual- Abbey and

Vedder. [It
was a happy
thought, then,
on the part
of THE QUAR-

ly some prevailing type, whether
this relate to human nature or
some other kind of nature, how-
ever versatile the craftsman or craftswoman may be?
In the paintings of Van Marcke we seem to recog-

Drawn by Mary Buttles.

¢ BERTHE.”
lr Pel =
z %

Me £

Drawn by Ella F. Pell.

      

VICTORS,”

  

nize certain “old original” cows whom we can almost : TERLY ILLUS- [0 93

call by name, though they appear under slightly varied 27ew= & E. W. Keméle. TRATOR, to ask a number of our characteristic = Drawn by /lona Rado.

forms, as clearly as we trace one particular model in “"® A ew and productive artists to send in drawings show. “A MODEL TO MANY MASTERPIECES.”

all the angelic maidens of Botticelli. So, likewise, it is : 5 ing, in each case, “ My Favorite Model.”

true of landscapists, that each has his favorite aspects of trees or shapes of cloud ; This is, perhaps, a little like asking a poet or a novelist to point out a fixed

favorite among his poems or stories. Still, in such a collection as this, we get at a
great deal which is suggestive and true.

Thus as Dvorak tells us that the negro has produced the only genuine Ameri-
can music, so E, W. Kemble pins his faith to the
negro as an unique, unfailing source of the pict-
uresque and
humorous;
with capital
success, as his
many and
~ popular delin-
eations in
The Century
and St. Nicho-
las testify. In
this field, also,
Mary Berri
Chapman has
planted and
plucked lau-
rels, although
she makes this
confession : “ My favorite model is also my
latest model, of plural gender as well as num-
ber.” Yetshe admits that a negro “ auntie,”
such as we find here in “ Old Kittie,” might . prawns by ¢ &. Linson.

“ MOTHER AND SON.” be called “the favorite model of her friends.” LIKE A LITTLE DUTCHMAN,”

 

Drawn by Henry Sandham.

¢ A MODEL OF GRACE.”

 

Drawn by Max F. Klepper.
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

From a painting by Lyell Carr.
TIME,

 
AMERICAN

Enough of classification. Let us rather
look upon these figures and scenes as they
appear before us, at hazard ; as though we
were taking a walk along the street or in
he country, a stroll through “society,” or,
for that matter, making an excursion
into dreamland. Is not this world of
art, in a fine and lofty way, something
like a masquerade? Sundry of the
shapes it presents seem perfectly real
) and well known ; others attract us by
their strangeness, their
air of fantasy. This
mare and her pretty
foal—are
they not
familiar to
us? Max F.
Klepper
says they
were ‘the
result “of
study on a
farm, last summer.” We were not there ; but we are there
now—we are sure of it ; and if we could raise live stock as
easily as he does, with a few passes of the brush—and such
good live stock—we would be content. Next come the
man and the horse together; a nude rider, half classic,
possibly Gallic, with a mythical touch, on a contorted steed.
But this does not claim to be Miss Ella F. Pell’s “ favor-
ite ;” for, while she
generally begins
her pictures with a
model, she finishes
them “out of her
head,” though re-
maining perfectly
sane.” From horse
and horseman we
graduate to the
purely human in
the next apparition
—an abundant yet
gracefully posed
woman, in simple
Greek or goddess
garb, whom Mr.
Henry Sandham

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

Drawn by James Symington.

¢ MUSIC HATH CHARMS,”

SIN
Drawn by E. Daecke.

‘¢ MONARCH OF ALL HE SURVEYS,

Drawn by Agnes D. Abbatt.

‘ ROYAL FAVORITES.”

   
  
   
 
 

7.

 

ART AND ARTISTS.

skilfully introduces to us.
It is odd—yet quite in the
nature of masquerading—
that alongside these repre-
sentatives of a remoter
ideal should
chance upon the vivid yet
phlegmatic “little Dutch-
man,” whom Mr! C. K.
Linson makes known, and
the serious-eyed young
woman with a sort of fil-
leted hood, whom Ilona
Rado vouches for. With
her large, firm, yet emo-
tional features she might
pass for a Charlotte Cor-
day.

world we

171

 

Drawn by E. M. Bicknell.

‘“ A CAPRICIOUS MODEL.”

Whoever this mysterious personage may be, Ilona Rado says she prefers
her among many hundreds, and that sne has been “ the model to many masterpieces.”

 

    
 
  

Jf 7 fF AA.

v/

Drawn by J. H. Hatfield.

‘ HELPING PAPA."

= 7 It will be observed that, as these
1 people pass before us, they do not
always unmask.” With the very first

 

one in the procession, though, it is
otherwise; for Mary Buttles, in an
aside, makes us acquainted with hex
as “ Berthe,” a native of Alsace-Lor-
raine, as her
costume
hints... Ber-
the, now of
Paris, is an
accredited fa-
vorite, “tall,
rather angu-
lar, with good
features and
delicate col-
oring, to-
gether with a
curious mix-
ture of refine-
ment and
hardness, at-
tractive in
many points

 

 

both artistic
and inartis- Drawn by Lee Woodward Zeigler.
tic.” She has “ONE OF MANY POSES.”
 

i Cr A

From a painting by Frank D

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

CHRIST AND THE FISHERMEN.
“a face that is sweet,
with an expression
both sad and wistful,
yet her main effort in
life is not to let any-
body get ahead of
her.” Truly 1t is. a
curious study, this of
the artists’ models—a
study in character not
only of the models,
but also of the artists
themselves, their mo-
tives and tastes.
James Symington
reveals his sympathy
with art in general by
his choice of a woman
violinist for his sub-
ject, op, rather, his

 

Drawn by

F. A. Carter. representative at this
mee. entertainment; Mr.
SKETCHES.

 

Drawn by Clara Weaver Parrish.

‘ MELANCHOLY,”

Drawn by George Varian.

AMERICAN ART AND

 

‘““ HER FIRST GRIEF.”

On the
other hand, Agnes D. Abbatt is inclined
to give the human interest a secondary
place, claiming a superior and perennial

Daecke sends a little child.

youth for /er favorite model, who, “

years go on, grows more beautiful.

as
She

has become a fashionable lady, with
She holds great
Do you know

gorgeous costumes.
receptions every year.
her? Sheis
the royal
chrysan-
themum.”
But still
more
personal,
more inde-
pendent of
mere hu-
manity, is
E. M. Bick-
nell, whose ;
favorite Tee
model is
possibly a

im-

Drawn by Morgan Rhees.

“ ON THE BEACH.”

 

ARTISTS.

wave of some sort, since he is
devoted to marine views. So,
too, it would appear with Mr. W.
St. John Harper, who declares
that his favorite is Cynthia,

““ That orbéd maiden, with white fire
laden,”

the moon. But Mr. Harper jug-
gles with us a little ; for he dis-
closes not a man in the moon,

 

Drawn by W. P. Bodfish.

“THREE OF A DIFFERENCE.”

but a beautiful, mystical woman in the moon, Sphinx-like, yet devoid of the

Sphinx’s bitterness.

   

$i on

Drawn by M. R. Dixon.

“ THAT DAUGHTER OF MINE.”

Zeigler’s lady in a listening attitude, we nat- ”
urally await interesting disclosures,
which have not yet come to hand.
But F. A. Carter is interested in an-

other phase of suspense—that
of a man trying to tie his shoe
—which, indeed, is one of the
problems of life, even when
presented only in outline.
Another problem, though by
no means vexatious in appear-
ance, is Morgan Rhees’s buxom
young woman in a bathing dress
and scarf-tied hat, standing on
a beach; against which we have,
by contrast, a young girl in

He finds it difficult, however, to persuade her to pose.

“Just
as I was about to complete this study I send

you,” he writes, “she sailed behind a silver
cloud. This accounts for the vagueness of the
sketch.”

Then, again, we are brought face to face
with the most intimate of human interests, in
J. H. Hatfield's drawing of his daughter Dot,
who has figured at
the Salon and the
World's Fair. ‘She
sometimes wishes
not

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

her papa was
an artist, but when
once interested is
willing to lend him a
helping
hand.”
From Lee

Woodward

Drawn by Miss Georgina Davis. |

¢ A MODERN MODEL.”
174 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

ON A SPRING MORNING.
AMERICAN ART AND

  
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
  
   

“ Marguerite” attire,
with a handkerchief in her
hand, at a casement which
she is about to open. This
is a sketch by George
Varian, who, rising from
the ranks of photo-engrav-
ing work, has begun
to achieve ideals of
his own, and shows
romantic sentiment.
A weird woman in
black, with her
hands clasped, and
an open folio fallen
at her feet, whom
Clara Weaver Par-
rish brings to our view, has a tinge of decided
melancholy ; and herein we see the varied scope
of artistic vision and sympathy.

Frederic Remington rides into the arena (though he himself remains invisible)
on a thin, war-worn steed which looks almost like a hybrid ; and he disguises him-
self further under “A Study of Legs”—horses’ legs, it should be explained. I
fancy that Remington also indulges in humor, when he offers this jaded animal

and a few scat-
tered fore-legs
as his favorite
models. Still he
may be quite
serious, for, like
the famous nat-
uralist who re-
constructed an
extinct animal
from a bone or
two, Remington
has shown the ability to
produce a whole new
world of horses in
graphic art, from the
race of animals that had

Drawn by C. M. Relyea.

“oN purty.”

Drawn by Albert D. Blashfield.

‘ WHERE 1S HE?”

Pr

/
been going around in a Drawn by
Po . Parkhurst.
neglected condition he. Zerit & Feriinrs
“A STUDY.”

fore he cast his eye

Drawn by Harry Roseland. a pony in a different style. They “keep

‘ UNDER THE ROSE,”

 

    

upon them and aimed his pencil at them.
William Bodfish treats his two dogs and

up the pace,” though he complains that a small boy teaching a still

ARTISTS.

 

Drawn by C. J. Budd.

‘“ AN ORIENTAL

BELLE.”

wicker chair.

under a parasol (and
“under the rose”),
but the sequel is
not given; and
Mr. Harry L. Park-
hurst vaguely indi-
cates a nude woman
dressing her hair.
One is inclined to ask why he should select
this as his favorite model... Mr. C. J. Budd,
who, as an illustrator of stories of adventure,
has used models ranging from the ugliest to
the most beautiful of creatures, declares in
favor of woman in general, and
seems to prefer her as seen in Ori-
ental costume. R. H. Livingstone,
however, contents himself with

! N
Drawn by G. B. Drake.

“ MY UNKNOWN MODEL.”

tume, seated in a plain modern = = =~

C. M. Relyea tells no! story,
but submits a charming feminine
seated figure in cape and hat.
Harry Roseland does tell a story
of a pretty girl reading a letter

they do not
alwayskeep
the pose;
and _he
seems to
have caught
them.

Again
the scene
changes.
Here are
two charm-
ing young
women—
one sitting, the other standing with one
hand leaning on a window-sill. Who
are they? M. R. Dixon explains that
the fair damsel seated is her daughter
and her favorite. The other giil,
Georgina Davis’s creation, prefers to
ask you for an explanation.

Albert D. Blashfield gives us as his
favorite a lady in simple modern cos-

    

~ eR] wgsTons

nis!
Drawn by R. H. Livingsione.

I

 

 

“TWO CRONIES.”

  
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
  
     

Vix
~0
A W i

fr

an Allerg et hu
re «192
Drawn by Albertine Randall Wheelan.

“ BUDDING GENIUS,”
176 AMERICAN ART

smaller boy
how to smoke;
but that this
does not quite
correspond to
his ambitions
for the future, ;
I judge from 2
the. fact that,
so far, he has
had no regular
artistic train-
ing, but ex-
pects to begin serious study soon. G. B.
Drake places before us the modest glimpse
of a shyly beautiful yet pensive face, with
abundant hair falling and draped over the
bust. Albertine Randall Wheelan refreshes

us with a quietly joyous little nude boy
vv

YL playing a mandolin, while a kitten, a pug-
fr Freirritk JW. Freer. : Lr

Drawn by Frederick W. Freer.

‘ A SUMMER GIRL.”

 

Drawn by E. A. Bell.

‘““ WITH HEAD BOWED DOWN.”

 

 
  
  
  

dog, and a newly hatched chicken cluster
round his pudgy feet.

Now, what are we to make of all these
contrasts and contradictions ? What are we
to conclude ?

AND ARTISTS.

Drawn by Thomas B. Craig.

  

ol ior head bowed, her hair
" bound succinctly—a sug-

gestion of sadness; then,

in the next breath, H.

G. Plumb’s laughing boy,
on the broad grin, and George F. Kerr's dashing
woman of fashion, in fur-trimmed cape and high
plumed hat, reposing on a broad, curved bench. We
also surprise H. Martin Beal's old Pepita, in her
Italian costume, asleep near the end of life's toil, even
while trying to maintain an attitude for the artist's
benefit. And at the same moment we detect Will

 

Drawn by H. Martin Beal.

¢ PEPITA.”

 

¢ SHEEP'S HEAD.”

 

   

 

  
  
 
 
 
  

 

Wait a moment ! There are some more es ih ah

z : : Sa 3 eR

pictures to be examined. Again > f ae SS a

the phantasmagoria; again the | Ju Drawn by Will Phillip Hooper.
masquerade. = ! Ii pa “MY FAVORITE MODEL—MY MOTHER.”
We have here | 7 por
Frederick | Phillip Hooper's grace-
W. Freer’'s fully habited dame of
thoughtfully \ more conventional soci-
gay woman, \ ety, examining a port-

folio or a canvas
on a working
easel. Her back
is turned to us.
She is a study of
draperies. Some-
times draperies
are the whole of
existence, to cer-

with a broad J
hat tipped z= [ \
slantingly
over her head,
and eyebrows
slightly
strained ; E.
Drawn by H. G. Plumb. A. Bell’'S WO- Drawn ty Geo. F. Kerr.

man with her “UP TO DATE.”

  

Drawn by Peter Moran.

S$ TICKLED,” ¢ WAITING FOR DINNER."
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 177

 

From a painting by Javed B. Flagg. From a painting by Javed B. Flagg.

A SERIOUS SUBJECT. THINKI OVER ITS CONTENTS.

 
178 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

tain people ; and the artist has perhaps
typified this truth here.

But, just as we have become inter-
ested in these phases of “the human
form divine,” we are led firmly to the
contemplation of Peter Moran's lean
heifer, Thomas B. Craig's strong yet
rather mournful sheep’s head, Silas D.
Dustin’s bull belligerently gazing at a
leafy background of trees, and Francis
Wheaton’s charming studies of innocent
lambs. The barnyard and the field re-
assert them-
selves, in con-
trast with both
the frivolous and
the ideal ele-
ments of human-

ity

Drawn by Stanley Middleton.

‘A REAL IDEAL.”

Speaking of
draperies— there
are none to speak of, in the case of Charles H. Provost's
decorative nude female figure. But in Stanley Middleton's
beautiful, serene, and delicately modelled profile head of a
woman in her prime, with her neck and shoulder exposed, her
back turned toward the spectator, and the fold of a loose
garment encircling her, we touch high-water mark of purity
and sweetness. The seriousness of Mr. Middleton's artistic
purpose is well indicated in these words of his: “ Of the
many models I have used, there are but two or three, per-
haps, that I could call ‘favorites '—owing to the fact of
always deriving better results
from them, their refinement,
“and, above all, the interest they
show in the work they under-
take. To have a so-called

   

Drawn by
Charles Hope Provost.

“ DECORATIVE.”

 
 
 
 
  

   
      
  

7 wo Remungtd™
Drawn by Silas S. Dustin. redo © Tenis

““ IN HIS SOLID DAYS,”

 

 

adi of Reqs — > Aaa
~_~ Drawn by W. St. John Harper.

  
   

Drawn by G. E. Burr.

‘“ THE HOUSE BY THE HIGHWAY.”

model about me, who comes merely for
the dollar and a half, is not in the least
calculated to stimulate my inspirations,
and I give a sigh of relief when I can
bow them gracefully out of the studio
forever.”

It is pleasant, also, to be reminded
that there are keen, sympathetic eyes
always on the watch for the homely or

4 CYNTHIA.”

-

¢¢ ON STRICTLY CORRECT

LINES.”
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 179

a very different and a grim phase of
truth which Mr. D. D. Smith illustrates
in the still—very still life sketch be-
low ; if it be proper to speak of bony
structure as having life ; for here the
artist sardonically. shows us an empty
skull lying upon a perhaps equally
empty daily paper, with an empty pipe,
an idle pen, and equally idle bank-
notes close at hand. Who shall say

this 1s not

*# Truth,” as

much as the

lovely woman
above? But that
the grimness hinted
here is not. Mr,
Smith’s habitual mood
may be in-
ferred from

domestic, and skilful hands to depict the same ;
as in G. E. Burr’s old-time American farmhouse
by the highway, with its immense tutelary tree
(an elm, I suppose) and its quaint well-sweep.
That bit of bucolic landscape is fitly compan-
ioned with the excellent old lady, bonneted,
bespectacled, and wrinkled, whom Harry S. Wat-
son so faith-
fully por-
trays. Mz.
Burr says
openly that
his favorite
model is
landscape,
and that the
old farm-
house which
he puts in evidence is the sort of theme which
most appeals to him. Mr. Watson says nothing,

Go except with
“Ril his erow-
quill; but
his drawing
speaks vol-
umes for his

love of the Drawn by Archie Gunn. pK
wholesome, Rite ih LAG
the domes- |
tic, and of integrity in character. He is good.

Mr. Archie Gunn goes to quite another ex- |i
treme ; and one may be forgiven for smiling and |[l[lll/f
starting to think of the surprise and horror with
which Mr. Watson’s decorous old maid or matron
vener-
able (whichever she may be) would re-
gard her next door neighbor as ushered
in by Mr. Gunn, without a stitch of cloth-
ing. This is but another episode in the
bizarre masquerade of art, at which we
are glancing. Mr. Gunn’s reason for
presenting this delicately rendered nud-
ity is that his chief and favorite study is
that of the female figure. But we do
not quite understand why it should be the
function of “Truth” to reveal herself :
precisely in this form to a small Nubian pu, 4 PD. Sen,
slave squatting in the foreground. It is “FACTS.”

   
   
    

|

 
  
   
    
 
  

   

Drawn by Maria Brooks.

¢ IN THE DUMPS.”

his writing to us:
“ All models are
Draen 4y EM, Latom, favorites of mine

LE who can, by dis- —
tinction of pose,
motion, Or expres-
sion, throw them-
selves into the
character
represented.”

After thesetwo
very decided un- Drawn by Mary B. Chapman.

   

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
      

 

maskings “OLE KITTIE.”
~  —one of
= the bare body, the other of a bare skull—
— one turns with interest and appreciation to
Maria Brooks's charming and cleverly
characterized little girl “In the
Dumps,” her face forever hooded
E and concealed. Who
gis this tiny #ncog-
get , nita ? Why, she may
AE = be any one of our
friends or ourselves :
>... are we not all very
much like her at
times? - E. 8, Les-
ley’s odd group of a

Drawn by E. S. Lesley.

   
 

   
  

“ A USEFUL OUTFIT.”

 
 

al

W) i) / /
iThls 1 hi
Bl

v3,

         
 
 
  

   

Gi i} Ei
AF §
7

 

Drawn by Culmer Barnes.

* FAIRY TALES,”
180 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

E

A

 

From a painting by Harry Fenn.
YORK HARBOR, MAINE.
AMERICAN ART AND

ARTISTS.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
             
  

tumble-down chair supporting a travelling-
bag, an umbrella, and a feminine hat seems,
however, to warn us that the time of departure
is near, that the show is almost
over. And here, once more, we
note the universal interest, the live-
ly perception of graphic art, which
can invest a plain bit of furniture
and two or three ordinary articles
of use or wear with so much move-
ment and suggestion of story.

 

“A SPRING MODEL.”

Mr. Hugh M. Eaton is both
quaint and discerning in his effect-
ive drawing of a medieval no-
ble or gentleman holding in his
two hands, by hilt and blade, a
sword.

Illusion leads to fairyland,

whither Culmer Barnes now trans-
ports us, in his delightful conceit of
a lovely girl reading from some
legendary volume, with her feet rest-
ing on a live tiger, who obligingly
offers himself as.
a rug, while a
child, nestled
on the floor beside him, is gently enfolded
and supported by his tail.

And now the masquerade is over. It
ends, aptly enough, with a humorous small
boy and a dog, devised by Yrank P.
Bellew (* Chip”), who bring up the rear
in the manner usual to processions, to-
gether with Remington’s for-
lorn and hungry quadruped,
which we have spoken of
before. Bellew’s small boy
seems astonished and inquiring,
as his canine friend is, also;
yet somehow they both
appear to have a secret
knowledge con-

Drawn by Francis Wheaton.

‘“ A SUMMER MODEL.”

 

= 2 Ps .
er i
i Jz) I hi
OL 3
\) ~ hy) ly
=

   

   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

Drawn by Frank P. Bellew.

“ LOVE ME, LOVE MY DOG.”

cerning this whole
riddle of illustra-
tive art.

Drawn by Frederic Remington.

¢ AN OLD FRIEND.”

   

Drawn by George

Wharton Edwards,

ii

 

 

‘“ A DUTCH

PEASANT GIRL.”
182 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

From a painting by Lydia Field Emmelt. From a painting by A. T. Millar.
IN THE ORCHARD. IN THE §

 

 

UDIO.
AMERICAN

THE ARTISTIC DISCOVERER OF 1ONG ISLAND

By LiLLiE HAMILTON FRENCH.

(With original illustrations by Charles H. Miller.)

THE most important art movement of recent years
among us owed its immediate inspiration to an action by
Mr. Miller, who was then, with Mr. Wadsworth Thomp-
son, on the hanging committee of the Academy of De-
sign. This was in 1877, we think, though possibly a
year earlier. The vitality and breadth of the younger
painters having strongly impressed these two gentle-
men, they at once broke through the long-established
customs of the Academy. The pictures of the new gen-
eration were hung upon the line ; those of the Academi-
cians in the spaces left, without regard to the sanctities
of ancient precedent or privilege.

This action on the part of Mr. Miller and his col-
league won from the younger painters an immediate re-
sponse, while it created among the elder men both indignation and dismay. The
Academicians met and agreed upon a rule by which each member should hereafter
be entitled to so much space upon the line. The younger artists also met, but out
of their agreement developed that which with its noble building has since been
known as the “ Society of American Artists.”

For this early recognition of their work the younger painters have always held

 

“THE ENCHANTED MILL BY MOON-
LIGHT.”

 

“ STEWART’S POND, NEAR JAMAICA, LONG ISLAND,”

ART AND ARTISTS.

Mr. Miller in loyal regard. One
feels that whenever his name is
mentioned among them. That for
which the public who have lost
recollection of these things esteem
him, however, is his sympathy for
the picturesque and beautiful in
the Long Island landscape, a pict-
uresqueness and beauty of which
he has been so distinguished an
interpreter. Bayard Taylor used
to refer to this lover of the out-of-

 

“THE MILL ON THE BAY.”

of versatility—a versatility that extends outside his own immediate profession.
is an enthusiastic worker in political and social fields.

more of an artistic workshop
than a mere painting parlor;
no cumbrous bric-a-brac belit-
ters his walls or floors. Mr.
Miller has made a life-long
study of the picturesque part
of old Long Island, and many
are the artistic records he
has torn from the leaves of
nature's book, spread open
upon this rich little con-
tinent — torn, not rudely,
but with careful, sympathetic
touch.

183

   

¢ GATHERING LEAVES.”

doors as the artistic discoverer of that inter-
esting country. But Mr. Miller has grown to
be something more, so strongly is he imbued
with the spirit of its quiet loveliness, so eager
a student is he of its old landmarks and tra-
ditions, and with such appreciation has he
translated them on canvas for us. His effects
in color, the richness and depth of which bear
testimony to the better Munich influence, are
lost in their reproduction into black and
white, the splendor of his sunsets fades, but
one has always left the charm of the composi-
tion, and that which nothing destroys, the
sense of a very delicate and rare appreciation
of the picturesque felt in all of Mr. Miller's
works.

NortE.—In person Charles H. Miller is
ruddy, robust, and royal tempered. His laugh
is as vigorous as his painting. He is a man
He
His studio in New York is

 

$ SUNSET AT EAST HAMPTON.”
184 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

From a painting by Charles H. Miller.

THE OLD MILL.
AMERICAN ART AND

AN ENGLISH-AMERICAN ARTIST
By CLARENCE COOK.
With original illustrations by George Henry Boughton.

WHEN an artist owes his reputation to the genial environment of an English
mother-country, and is at the same time indebted to his foster-mother, America,
for the early impressions which crystallized into a natural bent and influenced his
subsequent career, he is apt to be somewhat divided in his allegiance. English in
his methods he may be, but the American inspiration persistently creeps into his
pictures, giving them an international interest.

Few living painters have enjoyed so wide-spread a popularity in our country as
George Henry Boughton; a popularity with which, it may be said, a feeling of
something like personal friend-
ship is mingled. Until the
question was finally settled at
the Philadelphia Exhibition in
1876, when Boughton’s work
was shown in the British sec-
tion, there had always been a
belief that he was an Ameri-
can, transplanted for a time
only, it was hoped, to England ;
and even now it is likely that
nine out of ten of our people
outside the profession, who en-
joy his pictures, think of him
as a countryman and have a
patriotic pleasure in the belief.

Nor are they without a rea-
son for their belief. He was
born, indeed, in England, at
Norwich in 1834, but his par-
ents brought him to this coun-
try when he was three years
old and he lived here until he
was twenty-five. In 1859 he
went to Paris, where he studied
for two years, and in 1861 took
up his residence in London,
and has remained there ever
since. He is a great favorite
among the artists and literary

men in London, as well as in come, Sal?

 

ARTISTS.

general society ; he has mar-
ried an English wife, and in
1879 he was elected an Asso-
ciate of the Royal Academy.
It is understood that he wishes
to be considered an English-
man, and, to emphasize the
fact, he chooses to pronounce
his name English-fashion, call-
ing himself Bought-on, instead
of Bough-ton, as is usual in
this country.

With the exception of a few

Ta

 

A SPRING-TIME POSY.

185

 

less important pictures,
almost all Boughton’s
subjects have been
found on American
soil ; and this, added to
the fact that during all
his formative years he
was living in this coun-
try, has added natural-
ly enough to the gen-
eral belief that he is
an American. He is
known in this country
chiefly by engravings
from his pictures illus-
trating scenes in the
history of the Puritans
in America : The March
of Miles Standish, The
Departure of the May-
flower, New England
Puritans Going to
Church. His subjects
taken from .the.* His-
tory of New York,” as
chronicled by the ve-
racious Diedrich Knick-
erbocker, have not
been so: successful;
partly because that
clever and amusing
book is less read than
it ought to be, and part-
ly because as a mere
186

story-teller the artist is not al-
together in his element. Some-
times, too, he errs, as many an-
other painter has done, in tak-
ing a story or anecdote that
no skill would suffice to tell
with the brush, except for
those who already know the
story. Thus in one of his most
important pictures drawn from
this source : ‘The burghers
of New Amsterdam protesting
against Governor Stuyvesant’s
decree forbidding tobacco-

 

A MOMENTS REST.

Irving’s history to understand
what is the relation between the
crowd of smokers and the an-
gry man who stands gesticulat-
ing before them.

We are inclined, however, to
seek for the real Boughton, not
in these semi-historical subjects,
but in the pastoral and idyllic
themes he has found in the rural
life of England, Holland and
Brittany, to which some of the

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

AN ENGLISH TYPE.

smoking, by sitting down in a body before him
and smoking with might and main ”—it would
be impossible for any one who had not read

 

THE DAYS THAT ARE NO MORE.

illustrations that accompany this notice
belong — Black-eyed Susan, “Coming,
Sir ! ” A Spring-time Posy, Rose, and
Care-free. In these sketches the ar-
tist’s ideal of the female figure and of
female beauty is indicated ; the seem-
ing too-great height ; the square jaw,
often unduly pronounced; the pose,
sturdy rather than graceful, the hands
and feet strongly modelled, and some-
what larger than suits the more atten-
uated taste of our time. The exces-
sive height of his figures, with which
Mr. Boughton has often been re-
proached, in some cases is due, we be-
lieve, to the clinging draperies and
tightly adjusted details of the dress.
The period most affected by the artist
for illustration is the latter half of the
eighteenth century ; in this he is most
at home, and we opine he would spend

WINTER NIGHTFALL ON THE MARSHES.

his time there if he were allowed, with Pamela and
Sophia Western, Clarissa, Olivia and other gentle
heroines of that day’s romance, rather than paint
historical anecdotes for the market. He must not,
however, be charged with subordinating his talent
to the will of others to any reprehensible degree.
His interest in the England of Goldsmith's day is
very genuine and hearty, and his pictures furnish a
pleasing accompaniment to the stories of a day not
so distant as to be strange, and not so near as to
have lost its power to charm the fancy and touch
the heart.

 

   
 

CARE-FREE.
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 187

PICTURES THAT HAVE INFLUENCED ARTISTS.
By CHARLES M. SKINNER.

Tue growth of the big oak from the
little acorn is a trite symbol of development,
but it is pat to the case of the mental life
of almost every human being. Some trifle,
seen, heard, or believed, has given a new
turn to thoughts, ambitions, and convictions,
and from that germ of experience the indi-
vidual marks the deciding point in his career.
There are men who start out as sneaks who
end by becoming philanthropists, and there
are men who begin life as good boys who
bring up in Congress, or the penitentiary. In this article we
find how and why it is that certain painters are what they are,
and these disclosures have a deeper interest than they realize
—the interest of a psychologic revela-
tion. Had not Irving R. Wiles seen a
Fortuny, he might have been playing in
an orchestra or raising watermelons ; and
but for the fortunate attraction of a
Chinaman done in colored chalks, in a
tea store window, Mr. Howarth might at
this day have been putting up oolong in
half-pound parcels behind the counter of
that very shop; and where, then, would
Puck be? A successful man says that
he owes all his prosperity to a kick.
His father gave it, instead of a blessing, Zrewn &y Pravces Wieaton.
when he led him to the door and told “THE SHEPHERDESS.”

 

Drawn by Agnes D. Abbatt.

¢ A ROCKY COAST.”

    
 

Ns

SH
I ry=% = oY

= lily

A 1

   

BLACK-EYED SUSAN. ¢ REZONVILLE.”
188 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

From a painting by Agnes D. Abbatt.

IN PASTURES GREEN.
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 189

   
  
 
  
   
    

him to “ hustle ” for his living. He had to earn
that living or die. Artists, poets, musicians,
actors, all interpreters of the beautiful, are not
to be kicked into greatness or efficiency. Artis
a tender and lovely mis-
tress, and to work for her
is a delight.

But the same causes
operate to make a good
painter that produce

No, friends, that is not the way to look
at it. The assimilative faculty is a divine
one. If we accepted no
teachings, followed no hints,
the safe and proper con-
servatism that holds us to-
gether could not be, and in-
—L 4 stead of society we should
1 TA :’| have anarchy. It is the
“vr + «|| glory of every one whois

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 

  

J

0g

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

v oy Drawn by
a good farmer or an living usefully and honor- F. M. Howarth.
esteemed President. ably, that he has, though uncon- “ME.”

Those causes are
largely assimilative.
Such of us as are oc-
casionally tempted
into the unhealthy ex-
ercise of introspection
touch a point of lucid-

wh sciously, absorbed something good

7, of other men and is endeavoring, again unconsciously,
to leave something better for his successors to copy.
All advance is but a series of improvements on old
models. There would be

no artists to-day, had there been none yesterday.

7 This series of confessions is of especial moment, be-

ity in that view when Drawn by Benj. Lander, cause the impressions made on the

we exclaim in aston- afters. 8. C. Cm. emotional nature: of artists are
ishment, “ For deeper than those projected
goodness’ sake, have I an ¢go » Is there anything against themore callousconscious-

Reg to me? I knew that I got my complexion from ness of ordinary mortals. They

wmn— my mother, and my temper from my father, and are more highly sensitized than

Drawn by F. M. Howarth.

¢ MY PATRON SAINT.”

    
  
  

¢ IN THE FOREST.”

he my squint from one grandfather, and my miserly the latter. Suppose it had been

Loerasiy byl, A an habits from the other; but now I find that I owe a plumber instead of Mr. Bolmer,
. Tradilla. Yu i; a . . . . .

Ran my political views to the Daily Terror, my choice who, on his day of inspiration

in eating to my cook, my religion to disgust at a among the lonely dunes and

tract that I found in a horse-car, my poverty to an acquaintance in school, my marshes, had felt that affiatus Th
re. oe y 22 : Zo
taste in music to an accidental talk with a second-rate fiddler, my pugnacity to a through which nature lights and TE Eh

  
 

bl
thwack on the sconce that I glitters as in apotheosis; what Drawn ty E. J. Mecker.

had twenty-odd years ago, my
way of shaving—but there!
1 am simply a feeble prey of
influences. Thereisn't enough
originality in me to choose the
pattern of my own trousers.”
At that moment the consola-
tion suggests itself that our
neighbors are as petty and
imitative as we are, and that
humanity is, after all, but a
large machine composed of
many parts, but doing the same
work year in and year out, and
leaving the best things unat-
tempted.

“ FROST BOUND.”

 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

then? He would merely have reckoned it in to
the next man’s bill. Would that bleak lake shore
that lingers in Mr. Meeker’s memory have so
pursued the imaginings of an alderman? Nay,
nay. Would the Corot, that Mr. Lander owns and
loves so, charm the stentor who roars fish through
our street? Alas and alack, and again, nay.

In certain cases these impressions have been
vivid and fleeting, but in others the effect has
been of life-long and fortunate endurance.
Who does not see the relation between
: Thomas Moran’s early admiration for Tur-
Drawn by Ilona Rado, after Hoffmann. ner and his “ Dream of Venice” and his

“ THE ADULTERESS western landscapes * Who that has felt

 

‘ A NOVEMBER MEMORY.”
  
   

190 AMERICAN ART

   
  

ward faces of sand-dunes ? It willusually be found
in pictures, as in other things, that the exceptional

and surprising are
er not the things that
live with us long-
ll est. We assimi-

I late most quickly aE
il what we feel tO Drawn by M. E. Dignam, after Joseph Israels.
'| bethenormal and ‘ THE BASHFUL SUITOR.”

the true. llona
Rado and Mr. Poore illustrate one of the inevitable and
educating experiences. In no set of pictures, then, has
I taste and character been more exactly discovered than
in these illustrations. Tranquillity is the theme in the
sea view by Agnes D. Abbatt, as it is in Francis Whea-
ton’s shepherdess. A. W. Van Deusen is a soldier
—— in esse, as you see from his choice of Morot’s fiery
k= battle-piece. H. Martin Beal is more the soldier
in posse, his booted and girded swashbuckler ex-
pressing strength in repose. The thoughtful charm

 

 

Serr
eT its — TS ~ % A .
Driven By WLI Pilly: Huger. of Corot is repeated by Benjamin Lander ; and in
3 after the picture fell. the drear skies and leafless trees of E. L. Field
SYTHE LANDING OF THE PILOBIMS.” and E. J. Meeker we have the sad sentiment of
I~ a 1 November. Grace and feeling pertain to the figure by

     
  

\

| Miss Rado, and violent feeling without grace is the ex-
| perience and expres-
sion of Will Phillip
Hooper. It is ob-
viously the homely
beauty of life that
allures Mrs. M. E.
Dignam, while the
majestyof the classic
is potent with W. St.
John Harper. Ella F.
Pell summarizes, in
her drawing, the arts
that have influenced
the world for good,
taking for her types
the Venus of Milo,

> =)
[ Mewonene. § the Moses of An-

Drawn by W. St. John Harper, 1 :
nd th int-
after Panel Decoration by Paul ge o, and e ba = !
Baudry. ings of Ra Pp hae 1, Drawn by Ella F. Pell.

‘ MELPOMENE,” Corot and Turner. *“ SOURCES OF INSPIRATION.’

 

AND ARTISTS.

A STORY-TELLER ON CANVAS

By CROMWELL CHILDE.

With original illustrations by W. Verplanck Birney.

 

 

Ir there is one fault in the world of art to-
day, it is the tendency toward “faddisms” of
impasto and the worshipping of mere ‘ pretti-
nesses ” of subject and style. The grand and
simple methods of coloring and treatment in the
old masters too often find their echo nowadays
in catchy trivialities of the moment, clever bits
of painting indeed, born of undoubted facility
with the brush, but of little definite value. Art
in its broadest and truest sense needs a plain
motif, and each canvas as it leaves the easel
is fulfilling its purpose if it shows not mere-
ly a surface of dainty tints and tones, but a
thought.

"There is literature in art, as there is art in
literature, The exquisite canvas of “The Last

Token” at the Metropolitan Museum reveals, in its portrayal of the girl stoop-
ing for the rose among the savage beasts, a whole history of human passions—

 

WHILE THE TEA IS BREWING.
 

From a painting by W.,

Verplanck Birney.

AMERICAN

 

ART AND ARTISTS.

LOVE LETTERS.

191
192 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
  
  
  
  

love, religion and the faith of the Christian martyr. In brief,
it tells a story.

A story, told in its salient facts and not left to be guessed at
by the viewer with his pince-nez, implies a thought, and an intel-
lectuality that is literary and of the world of men and women,

} behind and directing the brush. The story-teller in art, far from
3 v sacrificing his devotion to color and form, needs both of these as
aids to his success. They are the stage accessories to the drama he is
about to “ring up.”

The art exhibitions and “ private views ” of the past few years have
given to W. Verplanck Birney, beyond the cavil of a doubt, a recognized

THE TWILIGHT PRAYER.

HIS PRIVATE RETREAT,

and a representative place among story-tellers on canvas. Should his tale be one
of modern times, his maids are in the daintiest of furbelows and would charm
without adventitious surroundings. ILike the silk frocks of the ladies of early in
this century, they can “stand alone.” But Mr. Birney makes them, each and all,
show a glimpse of their lives and of themselves.

Should he portray a bit of peasant life, the mainsprings of human action, what-
ever may be its trend at that moment, are unfolded. In one of his recent canvases,
“ Deserted,” a village girl, her whole frame shaken with grief, kneels at a bench
AN ENGLISH ALE CELLAR. beside a tiny paned window. An elderly woman rests a pitying hand on the girl's

 
shoulder. Without is seen a vine-covered
English church, and a wedding party
is entering. In the figure of the groom
one recognizes the girl's lover of the
past.

The story is different in “ Decorating
the Old Flag,” where a table is spread
with gay flowers, and a band of bright-
eyed children and girls are fastening
them on the Stars and Stripes. A Place
Wherein to Think ” shows a bewitching

PLEASANT THOUGHTS.

From grave to gay Mr. Birney’s
stories go. He runs the whole gamut,
but most truly, most delicately, does he
touch the notes of sentiment and sadness.
His range is unrestricted over Europe
and America. Germany, Italy, the Tyrol,
France, England, especially the sweet
rural life of Britain, all these are as fa-
miliar to him as is his own land. His
birthplace was Cincinnati, and so he, too,
has “ come out of the West.” But it has
been the East that has inspired him, for
his school-days were spent in Washing-

 

AMERICAN

ART

  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
     

A HEAD.

girl in the brown-toned parlor of a
quaint old English inn. Once more,
in a Tyrolese sitting-room, a queer
capped old woman sits and knits,
while a dove, the symbol of the Holy
Ghost, is above her head.

THE CHIMNEY CORNER.

details.
the majority of his studies are

AND ARTISTS.

ton, his student-days in Boston, Philadelphia and Munich.
He spent four years in this latter city, varying the time
by months in England, Italy and the Tyrol.

It was at the International Exhibition in Munich in
1883 that he scored his first success, being one of the
His canvas was

two Americans who sold pictures there.

a German peasant scene—an interior called “A Quiet
In this, even so early in his career, he clearly
A story was told in

Corner.”
showed the motif of his art life.

this picture—a simple one, a tale of girlish day-dreams,

alone—yet it determined his course.

A few of the
mark the trend of his thought.
To

accomplish this

 

2

the spot, and each bit of *sur-
put in with the most reverential

It is this that gives his pic-
value and their strength. In
Wherein to Think >’ he has con-
to canvas the inn of romance
that little town of Worcester-
an Abbey of a modern day has
taken for his
in his Shake-
In “Deserted”
Shakespeare’s
ecuted with all

Nor is com-
his brush. “1
he told me
sions, jollity,
canvas of this
“A Fool and

DUTCH KITCHEN.

 

CASTLE KITCHEN.

 

 

 

 

articles in his “creed of the brush”
First of all, he is a
believer in truth—the truth that exists even in the tiniest

CHARCOAL HEAD.

painted on
rounding” is
care.

tures: their
*A Place
veyed bodily
in Broadway,
shire, which
hallowed and
mise-en-scene
spearian black and white.
the bed that is seen is
own, copied faithfully, ex-
fidelity.

edy beyond the reach ot
like to paint comical ideas,”
once, “laughing expres-
and wit.” Perhaps the best
kind he has turned out is
His Launch,” in which a
merry jester smacks his lips
and winks his eyes over a frugal meal
of onions and sausages.

As a colorist he is strong and
virile, as a composer graceful and
observant of detail, but his name will
go down as a master of ideas.

Few Academy exhibitions of late
have lacked a message from his easel.
He is one of the young men on whom
Academicians have their eye when
they consider recruits for the jealously
guarded rank of Associate.

LONG ROOF LINES,
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

From a painting by W. Verplanck Birney.

 
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 195

The Woman's Art Association of Canada,
WOMEN ARTISTS IN CANADA - the first and only national art association of
women in that part of our continent, was
organized at Toronto in April, 1890, holding
With original illustrations by members of the Woman's Art Association of Canada. its first exhibition in the same month.
There had long been an obvious need for
THE tendency toward organization which has become so general an organization of this sort in Canada,
and so conspicuous during the last few years is quite as characteristic and the success of the initial movement
of the arts as of the trades, and it must be admitted that the results left no doubt of the wisdom of the plan,
of the tendency appear to be beneficial even in the minds of those who wish to be
in more than one direction. An artist extremely
may choose to look slightingly upon the sure before
sentiment of association with his fel- they go
lows, but he cannot afford to despise ahead. The
the practical advantages. women ar-
This fact is one that women, per- tists of the
haps more particularly than men, have Dominion
seemed to be prompt in taking into had needed
account. The associations of women a rallying Drawn by M. Ansley Sullivan.
which have sprung into life within the point. The AN

years of this twilight decade, not to go Royal Canadian Academy and the Ontario Society
: flit so short a distance backward as the pre- of Artists are not constituted so as to permit the
ee [IMT ceding decade, have abundantly justified encouragement of which the women artists as a
/ their own existence. Whatis true of the class felt themselves to be in need. With a view
United States is probably true of other to taking practical steps, Mrs. M. E. Dignam, who
had studied at the Art Students’ League in New
York and afterward at Paris, called together a
company of women at Toronto and the Woman's
Drawn by Helen Stenneis, Art Club was organized. Within a short time more
aay than one hundred prominent women had become
patronesses and honorary members. Aid and counsel were given bya number of
women artists in the United States, including Mrs. Julia Dillon, Mrs. E. M. Scott,
Mrs. E. 1. Coffin, Mrs. C. B.
Coman, Mrs. Rhoda Holmes
Nichols, Miss Rose Clark, Mrs.
Emma Lampert; and the
gratifying success of several
exhibitions suggested the ex-
tension and incorporation of
the club. Thus the club be-
came the Woman's Art Asso-
ciation of Canada, and carries
with grace and dignity the
honor of being an incorporated

and a national body.

The Association is sup-

. ; 7 # ported entirely by members’ a Mn
After a painting by M. E Dignam. IN CLOVER. fees, and the proceeds of OLD FRIENDS.

By ALEXANDER BLACK.

   
    

 

|
[i
I

   

3 Drawn by Edith C. S. Hemming.
Drawn by A LEISURE HOUR.
Lmily Louise Elliott.

PATIENCE. countries in which the same conditions prevail. Certainly the most
important instance offered by our neighbor Canada emphatically supports this view.

 

   

 
196 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

lectures and exhibitions, the business being transacted at the monthly
meeting. An interesting feature of the Association’s plan, and
one that certainly is to be considered eminently practical, is the
providing of studios for the members, with a view to supplying,
as far as may be possible, the needs of those who have studied
abroad and who wish to keep up their academic train-
ing. The classes have been excellently supported, and
they have naturally tended to popularize the Associ-

 
 
 
 
  
  
 
 

ation.

The output
from this cen-
tre of art ac-
tivity is marked by
considerable variety.
Portrait painters, land-
scapists, illustrators,
copyists, decorators, all
find community of inter-
est in the now flourish-
ing enterprise. The ex-
hibitions show a growing tendency to work
by direct methods. Studies from nature Drown ly Clare D. Oster,

Drawn by Daisy E. Clarke.
“NO OBJECTIONS TO COLOR.”

 

   

figure work is simple and effective. Miss
van den Broeck’s student of destiny in a
coffee-cup is a charming figure. The field
studies are quite as felicitous in displaying
a candid and untheatrical habit in looking
at nature.

The Association is young, but full of
vitality. Already it has enjoyed .the sin-
cerest flattery of imitation. An association

( in Indiana
is said to
have been
organized
upon the
same lines
and an-
other in
Ohio is
now form-
ihg: “For
the en-
courage-

 

Drawn by Clara D. Osler.

 

   

gx or aa Z -
From a painting by Clemence van den Broeck.

<,

READING THE FUTURE.

ON THE HORIZON.
out-of-doors become more frequent, and

improve in quality. A glance at the accompanying sketches will reveal the
earnestness of the work these ambitious Canadian women are doing.
position to be faithful is sufficiently apparent to require no comment.

 

Drawn by M. J. Hemsted.

TWILIGHT GREY.

THE DIVIDING LINE.

ment of local clubs,” says Mrs. Dignam, “we
send collections of work to their exhibitions.”

The leaders of the movement are, indeed, eager to establish “a bond of union”
among women artists in Canada and to commend themselves to the fellowship of
women artists throughout the United States and England. That such a work,
even for those who have happened upon “a long felt want,” is accompanied by

many discouraging diffi-
culties need scarcely be
said. But Canada does
not seem to be without
women who are ready for
pioneering in art, and
unlikely to be distracted
by first successes.

This is all the more
notable because the po-
litical air of Canada fav-
ors that of Great Britain
in matters of the fine
arts. There is a ten-
dency to look to the Gov-
ernor-General for sup-
port and benefits. Many
Canadians have been
knighted ; why not an
artist ? But these ladies

    

Shade fed” ge
Sogo us

    
 
 

of

Za Pins

   

Qld] Grupa Mr

Drawn by Millicent Grayson-Smith.

SHAFTESBURY SKETCHES.
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

From a painting by Mrs. M. E. Dignam.
DING THE HEIFER.

 
198 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

look only to their own energies and
bright, capable minds.

A peculiarity of the work of Cana-
dian artists in general is the absence of
any appreciable influence upon it of the
leading artists of Great Britain. Nei-
ther the old Pre-Raphaelites nor the
later school of London, which may be
called the classical British school ;
neither the interesting output of Sir
Edward Burne-Jones, Bart., newly en-
nobled, nor the Flemish archaeological

   

— = From a painting by Mary McConnell.
SEEING DOUBLE.

school, ably represented in London by
Alma Tadema, seem to find much re-
sponse among our cousins to the north-
ward. French art has had more in-
fluence, but, singularly enough, the French
population of Canada furnishes hardly any
artists. Ca-
nadian art

    

 

  

 

Tr ~
{gs

” Pr = od >

: i seems to be

Drawn by Mary M. Phillips. :
STREET OF A CANADIAN VILLAGE. moving €X-
actly on

the same lines as the art of the United States.
Examination of the sketches after work by Cana-
dian women in this paper will show that the same
is true of the feminine side of the house. English
tendency to anecdotic art is not apparent. Whether
this is a good thing or ill need not be discussed ;
it is enough to mark the fact.

 

STUNTED, BUT STURDY.

There was a time when Bos-
ton artists were infected by a
suspicion that they were not
welcome guests at New York
Exhibitions ; but the accept-
ance of thousands of pictures,
the winning of many prizes
in New York, have pvroken
: : down this imagined grievance.
Drawn by Anna Corny, : Why should not Canadians try From a painting by George Wharton Edwards.

DOWN THE RAVINE. their chances in New York ? ‘ALL IN THE CLEAR LIGHT SHE POSED.’

 
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

From a painting by George
5S S

THE VILLAGE SABOT SHOP.

 
200 AMERICAN

PEASANT AND PICTURE

BY GEORGE WHARTON EDWARDS.
With original illustrations by the writer.

Ix the clear dusk that was upon the dike I saw her first out-
) lined against the dark mass of the village church. The roofs of
| the small one-storied peasant houses that lined the crooked way
along the dike were blurred against the tender sky, and here
and there a thorn-bush showed its ivory-like blossoms, shaking
3 in the wind. The tiny pools of water beneath the willows at
Ny 7 the edge of the polder were yellow as topaz. Swallows whirred
¢- a the light and skimmed the eaves, and there was the sound

   

}
}
{

of voices and laughing from a group of peasants at the

21 edge of the sea. 1 1 was
sketching with the last
HAN light, and a maid stood be-
Hh " side me, her cap ends

Lia

% stiffly starched and

, / J blown coyly back at her
Mhgyeee temples, where
==> gleamed two shining

plates of gilded silver marking the head-dress of
Breskens. Across her bosom lay a kerchief, its ends
tucked cunningly between the buttons at her waist,
and her skirts were ample and of a blue woolen
stuff. Her arms were bare to above the elbow and
were burned brown by the sun. There she stood
against the yel-
low of the sky,
smiling down in
wonder at my
rapid brush strokes.

 

 
 
 
 
 
  

The wind blew salt
from the sea, and from the inbound boats,

blunt bowed, lee boarded, and brown

sailed, came clinking of chain and rattle
A of block, in harmony with the softened

voices of the fishermen. “Stand thee well
before me, little Misje,” 1 said in her
tongue, “and I will give thee a silver
gulden for thy pains.” At which her eyes
twinkled, the gilt ornaments above them
gleamed in the light, and she became part
of my picture.
Yih g “Who is thy father, little maid?”
{ “My father was Stornik Appel,” sh
said, “and one day he went forth in his
boat from the dike end, upon the early

 

ART AND ARTISTS.

tide. It was the herring season, and the storm came up,
the great storm of '87—the Heer will remember, perhaps.
The wind blew, the water swept the dikes, and his boat
came never back from the sea. So all that night and day
did the bells ring at Breskens, at Vyle Vliet, at Hoornen,
and even Huisdyk. Thus were forty boats lost, and thus I
am an orphan it is now six years since. My name is Lotje
Appel, and of brothers I have two, Jan and Arrie. ’Twas
Jan that brought thee here before yestereen in his boat
from Hoornen.”

The light failed fast, and from the harbor reach came
forth twinkling flashes from the beacon light, that broke into
dancing ruddy sparks at the wet edges of the dike stones.

I packed my box with moist uncleaned palette and
brushes, and my easel in its convenient straps, while the
maid tightly gripped a silver gulden as we parted, she to
come to me at early day for a fresh pose indoors.

Days passed; as I painted I had no thought of time,

yw and my picture grew. Sitting in ‘the

i wide window-seat, against fresh lawn curtains, all in the clear

Lis ) light, she posed while I sought the solution of the prob-

lem of tone I had set against my hand’s

cunning, and it availed me much that

boy Al 18.2 she truly kept her pose.

Ee { Often came to us the curious vil-

EL arr lagers to watch the progress of the

ing AE picture, never failing to properly and

respectfully or their clumsy wooden klumpjes (shoes) at

the doorstone, and doff the hat as they entered, and I knew of their pres-

‘ence only by their heavy breathing or a chance whispered criticism of the

picture, so quiet and considerate were they as they watched

its growth. Thus and so the picture grew and was finished,
and the reason of my stay among them was at an end.

So one morning I came away from Breskens, when the
wind blew fresh, the gulls flew high, the tawny yellow
waters of the sea were tumbling and tossing, and the
white-caps showed far out, while the few boats ely
the harbor sheltered were nodding in a line, all
headed to the westward, tugging at their moorings.
My luggage was snugly stowed in Appel’s blunt-
bowed tjalk. I had said farewell to little Lotje
and the villagers, of whom some had a hand-grasp
and God-speed for me ; the red roofs of Breskens
and the pier head where the peasants had fore-
gathered in my honor became blurred in the dis- /
tance, and Appel held the tiller in his strong hand
as the tjalk, well heeled over and her brown sails
rounded out, bounded away for the distant shore.

 

  

    

 
  
  

  

  
 
   
  

Ley

A — ly ibaa
AMERICAN ART AND

  
  

 

ORIENTAL SKETCHES.

Drawn by Katherine Huger.

WOMAN IN ART
By ErLizaABETH W. CHAMPNEY.
With original illustrations by Numerous Artists.

ONE of our prominent instructors in art, during a class criticism,
wishing to deprecate the excessive finish and delicacy of the work of
one of his students, a young man, said, with A equal truth and gal-
lantry—

“A few years ago we would have
as that effeminate. We no longer
that the women do so well.”

When the very masters, the
and business it is to find
pupils’ work, are convinced, and the girl
off the prizes at art schools and exhibi- JU£="
home and abroad, they U
right to be considered se-

That such an artist as Gérome, a
sceptic in regard to the mission &
of women in art, should have ;
been won by the genius dis-
played in the oriental sketches
of Miss Katherine Hu-
ger to accept her as his
pupil, is ranking her at
the outset very high,
and Miss Huger has
more than fulfilled the
prophecy of her mas-
ter. Sheisan all-round
painter. Her exquis-
itely decorated fans
were the vogue in Paris
when she began the

   
   
 
 
     
  
 
   

called such painting
use the word, now

 

Drawn by
Ellen Lesley.

men whose aim
fault with their
== students carry
tions both at

have won the

2% es
A riously.

 
  

= ee
er

:

   

  

1%"
\ =

 

N

Drawn by

Edith Lesley. Drawn by Marie Guise Newcomb.

A LOCAL HERO. A GOODLY COMPANY,

 

 
     
 
    
 

ARTISTS.

study of grande peinture with Gérome,
and her negro studies in the Southern
States are as characteristically ren-
dered as her memories of Venice. We
do not know that she accepts pupils;
but if so, her many-sidedness, admira-
ble training, sympathy and magnetism

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
     
 

Drawn by M. E. Dignam.

A SEQUESTERED SPOT.

would make her a most desirable
teacher.

Another woman who has had the
advantage of the best European train-
ing and has profited by it is Mrs. Marie
Guise Newcomb. Her studies of dogs
and horses show in their handling the
virile strength of her master, Schenck,
plus a womanly sympathy in her un-
derstanding of the individual character
of her models, a quick—almost humorous—appreciation of doggish vices and virt-
ues, and a fine enthusiasm for the horse, which she considers one of the noblest of
creations. She is our best-known ani- pe 3
mal painter among women, and well 3
deserves her honors. Elizabeth Strong,
whose skill in painting dogs has won

 

Drawn by Flovence Mackubin.

IT’S SCOTCH, YOU KNOW.

    

Noland

> Te Ly Lashiofe ¢

 

 

 

Drawn by Clara W. Lathrop. Drawn by Mary Berri Chapman.

BY HER OWN FIRESIDE., THE SENTINELS,
ART AND ARTISTS.

AMERICAN

202

 

BROOK WILLOWS.

From a painting by Katherine Langdon Corson.
AMERICAN ART

recognition in Europe, and who was a pupil of Van Marcke, £E A

is also in New York this winter.
have studied animals more seriously, though Florence Mack-
ubin shows much facility in her portraits of dogs, and Grace
Hudson introduces them cleverly in her illustrations of In-
dian life, as does Ethel Isadore Brown in her dainty sketches

of society.

After Paris, more of our art students go for instruction

   

Drawn by Marvgarette Lippincott.

A BIT OF FRAGRANT COLOR.

No other American women

to. the
Nether-
lands than
toany oth-
er country
of Europe,
draw nn,
doubtless, Tn by Helen E. Keep.

by the ex-

cellence of

the academies, in which women
have an equal footing with the
men; Dy the art movement
among the younger painters ; by

 

 

THE BUGLER.

the exquisite Dutch landscapes duplicated in the amber reflections of the quiet
canals, such as Mrs. C. B. Coman loves to paint, and by the galleries of delightful
old masters. We have two women of exceptional
ability—Clara T. McChesney and Clara W. Lathrop
—who have responded to this fascinating Dutch in-
fluence. Miss McChesney’s water-colors have the
charming tone of the Dutch masters, quiet and seri-

 

Drawn by Gertrude Greene.

UP. TO DATE,

ous, with a de-
lightful feeling
of earnestness
and conscien-
tiousness in their
simple subjects,
mostly dim inte-
riors of peasant
homes painted
with a sentiment
which has noth-
ing to do with
sentimentality,
and gives “a
sense of near-
ness? to the
poor people rep-
resented, which
the artist must

   

From a painting by Grace Hudson.

ON GUARD.

AND ARTISTS.

From a painting by Eurilda France.

IN FLANDERS.

203

 

 
204

have felt in painting them.

ingly rendered, writes :

“We were in a little out-of-the-way fishing vil-
lage, known only to artists, where the peasants were
The color was
charming, with the dull red walls, shining copper pots
and rows of old delft plates
There was always a
window, and often a quaint

willing to pose in their own homes.

and pans, "
over the 2
low, wide

    
 

fireplace.

old

“Drawn by Ethel Isadore Brown.

AFTER THE BALL.

eyes in weary days of absence to see mother in the old
her delicate fingers busy with her accustomed work, or

 

From a painting by Sophia Walker.

WALL STREET NEWS,

china which she brought into the family
as a bride ; or father in his easy-chair at
his writing-table looking up from his news-
paper, with his pet books about him.
Such canvases will never be sent to the
garret or the auction-room, for they are
full of living associations to friends and
are interesting as pictures to strangers.

Miss Lathrop, describ-
ing the sketching grounds which she has so charm-

everywhere
bits of pottery
in dull yellows
and greens.”

AMERICAN ART AND

clock, and

   

bs
by Grace Randolph.

Drawn

A STUDY IN STRENGTH.

Mrs. France is another artist who loves
to touch the heart and who has the power

Miss Sophia Walker treats portraiture
from the stand-point of the genre painter;
and such a portrait of a loved face must
be inexpressibly precious to its possessor.
How the blessed tears must spring to the
familiar corner,
breaking the seal
from her boy ; or
taking tea from

[
=
|

ofa letter
grandmamma

    

Drawn by Agnes D. Abbatt.

PICTURESQUE NEW YORK,

ARTISTS.

Another portrait-
painter with another
style, distinctively man-
ly (in its best sense) is
Grace Randolph. She
has but recently re-
turned from the Paris-
ateliers, and her
figure paintings and
portrait busts have the
latest traditions. Pos-
sibly her study of mod-
elling has contributed
to her skill in depicting
the planes which gives
her painted heads their
1 ; BW sense of reality as all-
b round objects and
not flat surfaces.
A 280 The drawing of the
LS human figure, conceded to be the most difficult branch
of art, is also the favorite one with the ambitious stu-
dent, and one in which she frequently succeeds. Mary
Buttles is a portrait painter. Edith and Ellen Lesley, Helen E. Keep, Gertrude
Greene, Florence K. Upton, Helen Jeffrey, and Abby E. Underwood draw figures
very cleverly for illustration. Martha S. Baker, of the Chicago Art Institute, is in-

1an

  

Drawn by Martha S. Baker.

A PEASANT TYPE.

 

Drawn by Florence K. Upton.

HER LAST NEW GOWN.

terested in illustration as a teacher.

 

Re : 5 Eliade
From a painting by Katherine Langdon Corson.

NOVEMBER WOODS.
 

IDLE HOURS.

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

From a painting by M. R. Dixon.

DIST

TURBING

THE

PEACE.

 
206 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

Drawn by Katherine M. Huger.

AMUSEMENTS OF THE GRECIAN MAIDENS.
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 207

 

pastels and water-colors have been
received with enthusiasm by the
New York Water Color Club when
those of many an old professional
were rejected. She is a woman of
conscience as well as feeling, and
of a fine scorn for all shams. When
asked what style she proposed to
adopt, she replied: “If I cannot
have a style
of my own, I
trust I may
be spared an
adopted one.”

It is a lit-
tle remarkable that landscape—usually first attempted by the
tyro in art as its easiest branch (an inch or two more or less
on the branch of a tree does not signify, but on a man’s
nose it does)—landscape, so overrun by men, should be af-
fected by few women painters. Mrs. M. E. Dignam, Mary
IW B. Chapman, Ida C. Haskell, and Eugenie Heller, indeed
5\ find figures and landscape of equal interest; but Mrs,
” Charlotte Whitmore is one of a few in her devotion to
landscape pure and simple. She dislikes to have figures in-
troduced in landscape, and says that for her they take away

   
  
   
     
 
 

   

Veit

 

From a painting by Clara Weaver Parrish.

Drawn by Ilona Rado.
A DECORATIVE PANEL.

INNOCENCE,

Mrs. Dixon's skill in the composition of important figure paintings has obtained
for her a wide and enviable reputation. Her pictures of young girls and of child-
life are also deservedly popular—a field in which
she meets a rival worthy of her steel in Miss Maria
Brooks, an English lady, who has captured New y/
York by her charming rendering of children. It
must have been before one of Miss Brooks’s can- {
vases that the poet
wrote—

With merry dancing eyes
and flying curls,

 

Ne on Drawn by Helen Jeffrey. the real restfulness of nature. “Figures are a constant re-
nd. rohes =o snining . . i “
white. e DERATING, minder of suspended animation, and are even more tire-
Oh! very beautiful are lit-

tle girls,

Drawn by Ellen Lesley.
AN INTERESTED LISTENER.

And lovely to the sight.

 

Drawn by Mary Buttles.

A STUDY.

Some of the most talented
of the women of the day are
among the youngest, and some
who have never profited by
the European schools have yet
found their own expression in
a most acceptable manner.

: : 2 Mary R. Williams is one of
CORPO Prlces Cri these an artist with rare Po- From a printing by te Whitmore.
THE OLD MILL. etic instinct and feeling. Her ON THE BIG CHAZY.

  

   
208

some than real people, and almost ev-
eryone is glad to get away alone.”
Emma E. Lampert, herself a land-
scapist of merit, advises women not to
make landscape a specialty, unless they
have great physical strength and per-
fect health. She says: “The difficul-
ties encountered by a woman working
alone in the fields is rarely realized by
one who has not had the experience.

Drawn by Ida C. Haskell.

WHERE TROUBLES END.

snow, making festoons of swan’s-down
on the bare branches, of glittering ice,
and dark pools of freezing water, safe
alike from tramps and rheumatism. She
has another for the spring-time, a little
house eight by ten feet, which can be
taken apart and put up in any place, in
which the easels and other parapher-
nalia of sketching may be locked over-
night.

Mrs. Whitmore’s prejudice against
figures in landscape will be voted down
by all who know the paintings of Lydia
Field Emmet. The plein air of the
school she represents, with its dazzling
effects of scintillating light, the best of

 

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

CONSOLATION.

The weight of the necessary outfit, the
long walks in the hot sun, and the danger
of working alone in just the wild sort of
places that are especially paintable, are
reasons why so few women elect this
branch of art.”

Katherine Langdon Corson has over-
come these difficulties by her portable
studios. She has two; one on runners

for snow, fitted up so that it can be heat-
ed, and with a glass front, From this she
can paint the charming effects of soft

 

From a painting by Lucy D. Holme,
A FIELD LABORER,

 

impressionism, a realism which does not dis-

dain beauty, a knowledge of fin-de-siccle meth-
ods, with a touch of her own sweet personal-
ity, will bring back in her canvases, to all who
have been so favored as to know them, the
charming girls and sunny downs of Shinne-
Annie B. Shepley, who is very skilful
and successful in portraiture, also testifies to
her liking
for figures
landscape. “The
effects of sunshine,
air and color, to me
make out-of - door
work the most desir-
able existence in the world.” Among other ladies
notably successful in this field are Mrs. Julia Hen-
shaw Dewey, Emily Slade, Josephine Wood Colby,
Lucia Fairchild Fuller, and Ellen F. Stone.
Montgomery Sears, of Boston, and Mrs. Egerton
Adams, of Chicago (E.L.S.A.), are accomplished
water-colorists, and have won laurels for their dash
and finesse in the treatment of the head and figure.
From landscape with figures there is but a step

cock.

From a painting by Emma Lampert.

UNDER SUMMER SKIES.
to land-

scape with architecture, and for such
subjects Venice is the Queen city.
Jennie Lea Southwick is one of a doz-
en or more of our American painters,
among whom Rhoda Holmes Nicholls
is a shining example, who have felt and
interpreted acceptably the charm of
this bewitching city. Miss Southwick’s
nature is intensely artistic. Everything
Venetian is dear to her, from a row of
old fish-baskets to the Salute, shower-

   

TC ——
From a painting by Claude Raguet Hirst.

AN OLD COPY.

 

t
&«
or

 

4 ev
= d

Drawn by Jennie Lea Southwick.

SALUTE DI VENEZIA.

Mrs.

Drawn by Ella F. Pell.

EVOLUTION OF THE SOUL.
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

rom a painting by Mrs. E. M. Scott.

 
210 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

   
  
    
  
 
 
 
 
    

Cox’s charming figure
studies, and Ella Con-
die Lamb’s noble de-

signs for church dec-
oration.

ing back all the glory of an
Italian sunset from its dome
and marbles and reflected again
in the iridescent water.

Venice is the connecting link
between landscapes and ma-
rines. Few of our artists, men
or women, attempt the change-
able, difficult sea; but Helene

Everyone of the ex-
hibitors at the Wom-
an’s Art Club deserves
mention, as well as
other artists whose
work is represented
in this article, but
of whom we have
not space to write.
Many another highly

 

8
Drawn by Abby
Underwood.

 
 

From a painting by Mrs. C. B. Coman. A MANIKIN,

IN HOLLAND. w

Niclay can give the curl of a breaker as seen from
shore ; and Fanny B. Tewkesbury acknowledges

 

Drawn by Henriette Jamison.

A CASUAL VISITOR.

herself fascinated by “the
vastness, distance, atmosphere,
endless movement, and ever-
varying effects of the ocean,”
and is especially successful

From a painting by Lydia Field Emmett.

SPRINGTIME.

in harbor and shore subjects.

Our review is little more
than a catalogue. We have no
space to tell of the high ideals
and achievements of such ar-
tists as Mary Cassatt, of Mrs.
A. McG. Herter’s playful fan-
cy and beautiful pictures of
Japanese life, of Dora Wheeler
Keith's admirable portrait and
decorative work, of Louise

Drawn by Eugenie Heller.

From a painting by Maria Brooks.

REVERIE. TIRED OUT.

   

From a painting by M. R. Dixon.

AN INTERESTING MOMENT.

gifted woman whose name will
occur to the reader of this ar-
ticle, may seem an almost
unpardonable omission. They
have proved their right to wear
the paint-bedaubed apron, and
to thrust paint-brushes like Jap-
anese hair-pins in their pretty
Psyche knots, for in nearly
every woman who paints, as
was said of Madeleine Lemaire,
there are two wom-
en: “the woman
of the drawing-
room, who smiles
at compliments,

  
 
  
  

and the
atelier
woman,
who will not lis-
ten to them.’’
They have won
their place in art
without slighting
a single womanly
duty or losing a
single womanly
charm.
In'still

life women .
have done Drawn by Maud Stumm.

SOME. Tre- IN GREEK ATTIRE.
AMERICAN

 

markable work. Claude Raguet Hirst, ;
who, by the way, is generally supposed
to be a man, has made a reputation
for “bachelor subjects,” collections of
bachelor comforts, particularly pipes
and rare old volumes (copying the worn
and stained places exactly). Two such
pictures were in the spring water-color
exhibition, suggestive of college life,
the toil and solace of the book-worm
and the grind.

Frances Catherine Challenor is a
student of still life and flowers, with a
preference for Venetian glass and all delicate and exquisite objects, and possesses
a fine touch in representing them.

Frances S. Carlin paints roses in a broad and
simple manner, but has lately made very acceptable
studies of the homes of French peasants and of
the peasants themselves.

Mary E. Hart has made the violets her very

 

Drawn by Emily .S. Mann.

OLD FISH HOUSE,

 

7 Eis

Drawn by Frieda Weller Redmond.

Drawn by Mary R. Williams.

A FRIENDLY SITTING, WHEN THE FROST IS ON THE PUMPKIN,

ART AND ARTISTS.

   

own, because she loves them
and has found

A daintiness about these early flowers
That touches one like poetry.

Agnes D. Abbatt enjoys
the distinction of being a
member of the Water Color
Society. Her flower paintings
are too well and favorably
known to need comment here,
but she has lately taken up a new line in landscape and architecture.

Margarette Lippincott is frankly and simply a flower painter, for she feels that
“no more delightful practice can be found than in the rich warm hues of flowers.”

Maud Stumm, though successful in this line, enjoys most of all studying the
figure in Grecian drapery.
Frieda Redmond uses flow-
ers decoratively, and loves
the freedom given her by
large wall spaces. Josephine
Cook treats a rose tenderly,
as do Mrs. E. M. Scott and
Mrs. Dillon, as though it
were a gage d'amour.

   

Drawn by Josephine C 00k.

FALLEN QUEENS.

The sweetest flower that grows
I give you e’er we part ;

To you it is a rose
To me it is my heart.

 

Fant We TT nabdey

i This indeed can be said of
nearly all of woman’s work
inart. To the critic the can-

vas is a display of brilliant virtuosity ; to the artist, more particularly if she be a

woman, it is often her heart.

Drawn by Fanny Tewksbury.

YACHT * SAGAMORE.”

   

Albe rTige
Rad all
Whee am,

eal

Drawn by Albertine Randall Wheelan.
“OH, DON'T GO! IT’S EARLY!”
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

212

 

GRAZING BY THE ROADSIDE,

-

Newcomb.

15¢ /

From a painting by Marie Gu
AMERICAN ART

 
  
  
   

A CATTLE

 

PAINTER FROM FRANCE

SN +
- By HENRY ECKFORD a
2 < =z : Gin
I EI With original illustrations by Aymar Pezant.
’ 2TIN . . .
i % aN CHARACTER in beasts and birds—the bovine

in cattle, the swinish in pigs, the self-complacency

betrayed by geese in their waddle—is one of the traits of Japanese art. It is large-
ly due to the glad, unfettered study of external nature by artists of Japan that men
of the West have taught themselves to see character in animals. At the same time,
the great movement of philos- TT ..ophy on the track of evolution
has made the public more tol- im  erant and observant of our
humble fellow-mortals in fur, ¢ (1% feather, and scales. Artists
have helped in this work by showing that beast, bird, and fish are beautiful and
worthy of deep study for their colors and forms.

Among the French artists at the World's Fair new to Americans was the maker
of “The Road to Vaudancourt,” a cattle-piece with the herd coming forward by
the dusty road. Realism is at its best in the varied groups of kine by M. Aymar
Pezant. Cows prone and standing, cows in movement and sluggishly chewing the
cud, fetlock-deep in water. The lively gait of steer and heifer, the slow, sagacious
look of udder-bearing kine, the menace in the uplifted muzzle and wide-spread ears
of bull or ox—all these traits he knows how to give in summary scratches of the
and to paint in oils. M. Pezant is a worthy successor of Troyon and Van

arcke.

 

-—
Ayn loarit

x

 

THE ROAD TO VAUDANCOURT,

   

 

AND ARTISTS. 213

FROM FINANCE TO ART

By CHARLOTTE ADAMS.
With original illustrations by Stanley Middleton.

THE fine flower of idealism flourishes on the
most arid soil, or rather on soil that seems arid
to the class that does not possess or sympathize
with the insight of genius. It is given as yet to
but a small circle of writers and painters to ap-
preciate the fact that the highest of all forms of
idealism, namely, that which springs from real-
ism, lies at the root of American literary and
artistic expression to-day. The quickening of
the American creative faculty came at the time
of the great war of freedom ; and in the case of a
few strong individualities, like that of Winslow
Homer, for instance, the subjective and objective
sides of American life met in splendid harmony.
Then followed a period of factitious or eclectic
cosmopolitan development, which by degrees re-
solved itself into the study of the national life,
without reference to the impulse from without
except as regards technical methods.

The existing art system contains numerous
individualities reacting upon American life and
reacted upon by it, all going to form an inchoate,
chaotic, but hopeful and promising mass of creativeness. Mr. Stanley Middleton,
clerking it in Wall Street and drawing portraits and caricatures of the American

A FRENCH PEASANT.

ROWING PARTY. LAKE CHAMPLAIN.
214 AMERICAN

types of character that unconsciously posed for him, was himself unconsciously de-
veloping, in his modest individual way, the nationalistic side of American art.
There are many such men in America, all working along the same lines of
nationalism, with varying depth of purpose and under different conditions, but

A POEM,

all animated by the same conviction, that the period of organic production in
American art has arrived.

Mr. Middleton has not been spoiled by his foreign studies. His preliminary
training in American art-schools led him to Paris, where he developed himself on
all sides under Harpignies, one of the most significant of French landscape individ-

 

ART AND ARTISTS.

   
   

ualities ; Dagnan - Bouveret, a famous
realist and modernist ; Benjamin Con- |
stant, who feels beauty in woman even
more keenly than most painters, and
apotheosizes it, and under Jacquem de
la Cheuvreuse. Excellent influences for
a broad - minded painter —none better.
The result of this choice of instructors
has been the formation of a well-round-
ed, evenly balanced talent, as much at
home in the rendering of Nature as of
Humanity. There is no trace of imita-
tiveness in Mr. Middleton’s work. One
feels that the painter has placed himself face to face with his subject, has grasped
it solidly with due regard to detail, and with absolute truth. In his landscapes he
shows special feeling for light and at-
mosphere, and entirely
without the mannerisms of which the
pupils of distinguished masters are fre-
quently unable to rid themselves. Very
fresh in color and true in atmosphere
and tone is the Rowing Party, Lake
Champlain, with its three figures in
bright costumes. The foreground is
carefully studied, and the sky, with its
fleecy clouds, shows brilliant painting.
In the Indian Camp, Excelsior Mill,
Milford, Pa., Old Toll-bridge, Middle-
burg, N. Y., the style is fresh, true, sparkling, and, above all, exact, with that fine
exactness which is the result of French training as well as personal temperament.
Returning from the Woods has excellent work in the foliage, and is a very good
example of this painter’s land-

scape style at its best. “As

She came Ower the Stile”
pretty girl standing on a stile
under interlaced tree-boughs—
is crisp and strong in treatment
and well painted.

From Benjamin Constant Mr.
Middleton has caught the spirit
of the eternal feminine in its
most gracious aspect. How
charming are these heads of
young beauties; these delicate,
well-poised heads of the high-
bred American type — blonde,
auburn, chestnut, thoughtful,
gracious, and charming. Beau-

INDIAN CAMP.

is, ‘moreover,

EXCELSIOR MILL, MILFORD, PA.

 

a

 

OLD TOLL-BRIDGE, MIDDLEBURG, N. Y.
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 215

 

 

     

From a painting by Stanley Middleton.

SOME FRANCONIA MOUNTAINS.
216

tifully poised and balanced in composi-
tion and general style is the quarter-
length called A Poem, an auburn-haired
girl reading from a book. The purple
dress is kept well subordinated to the
head, which is delicately and strongly
modelled against a dark background.
This is a work full of distinction. A
Flemish Belle is a graceful head en-
cased in a quaint Flemish bonnet,
trimmed with a broad red band of fig-
ured ribbon and a white cape curtain.
A reddish shawl round the neck sets
off the delicate oval face and fine

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

RETURNING FROM THE WOODS.

straight profile. An Oriental is a head somewhat in the Constant vein, with a

black and gold veil bound about the hair.

Mr. Middleton should devote himself to

painting beauties of a classic and romantic type, for in this line he shows the dis-
tinctive temperament, combined with technical skill and fine comprehension of his
theme. En Soirée presents a fair example of the painter’s ability in the direction

A TYPE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

 

of portraiture. The dark, grace-
ful head is seen in profile against
a luminous dark -blue back-
ground. A white lace bertha
is tastefully disposed over the
yellow gown.

More important is the large
portrait reproduced in these
pages, which for grace in com-
position and nice balance of
line may be warmly recom-
mended. The pale blue dress,
the crushed strawberry and er-
mine cloak, form a scheme of
color that commends itself to
the beholder at first sight. The
head is dignified, well-bred, and
graceful. Allowing for differ-
ences of age, time, and method,
there is something of Copley in
the manner in which this por-
trait is handled. We recom-
mend to Mr. Middleton the
study of the suave and beauti-
ful female portraits of the eigh-
teenth century in England and
America. There are few ac-
complished painters of high-
bred women in America, and

 

the demand for them is on the increase.
Mr. Middleton has the suavity of the last
century combined with the cic of the
close of the nineteenth. In A French
Peasant an example is given of Mr. Mid-
an artist’s

 

dleton’s ability with charcoal
achievements in that direction is often
more useful to the student than his more
finished work. If asked wherein Mr.
Middleton is liable to fall below the lev-
el of his own best work, one may answer
that his danger lies in a certain facility,
which is partly natural, partly the result
of training. All that teachers can do is
to encourage
their pupils
to use certain
processes of
composition,
drawing, and

AN ORIENTAL.

ing. They
get into a habit of thinking processes
everything, and sneering at “literary ”
art. Now Mr. Middleton is not exact-
ly in this category, for we see how he
has taken hold on American scenes and
American types. But his danger lies in
that abyss all the same. He is now so
facile, so quick and smart with the brush,
he may readily forget to keep a firm
hand on the helm, and steer that diffi-
cult course between art for the crafts-
man and art for the public, between art
for art’s sake and art with a message to
the world. Summing up, we may say
that Mr. Middleton has already shown
the qualities which go to form an accom-
plished artistic personality, and it is
probable that the maturity of his tal-
ent will present still more creditable
results.

 

A FLEMISH BELLE.

painting. They can give them a good example some-
times if they possess the necessary brains and hearts,
but this example is a silent one. Paris is the place to
learn how to use the tools of art, but when they are
learned comes the question : * What have you to say?”
Most of our young artists in Paris have nothing to say
except what the Frenchmen round about them are say-

 

¢¢ AS SHE CAME OVER THE STILE.”
AMERICAN ART AND

 

From a photograph.

SKETCH CLUB CRICKET TEAM.

A BOHEMIAN ART CLUB.
By HENRY RUSSELL WRAY.

With original illustrations by many members.

   

; Tue word Bohemian, in its modern application, has
~~ been robbed of much of that romance which was wont to
"cast a halo about it in the times written of by M. Henri
Murger in his Scenes de la Vie de Boheme.

i The word in our day has been dwarfed to illustrate the char-
acter who sips champagne fragpé with a souvenir spoon, smokes
enly imported cigars, wears foreign-cut clothes, elevates his

 

Drawn by Peter Moran.

HARD HEADED.

# i z Fr
From a painting by F. Cresson Schell.

FERRY-BOAT IN NORTH RIVER, NEW YORK.

ARTISTS.

nose at the very mention of vulgar beer,
and, because he deprives himself of the
services of a valet, declares himself, and
is recognized by many as, a Bohemian.
This, naturally, is
anextreme. Bah!
“To what base
uses,’ etc., as the
yoet cried.

La vie de Bo-
| ome ine America,
however, is not
dead, though its
name has been
misappropriated
by “swelldom.”
It exists, and,
magnet-like, draws to a common centre
the student and graduate in art, litera-
ture, music and the sciences.

  
   
 
 

From a bronze cast
by George Morgan.

JUSTICE.

 

ON THE HILLSIDE.

not forced, like a hot-house
plant, but thrives in a nat-
ural state, and where fellow-
ship exists without becom-
ing tiresome.

The Philadelphia Sketch
Club was organized Novem-
ber 20, 1860, by six young
enthusiasts who met in the
studio of George F. Ben-
sell. Meetings were to be
held every Saturday night,
and, ag one of the rules
stated, “ when the treasury

   

Drawn by George E. Essig.

217

RI ul

From a painting by Carl Newman.
INCOG.

To one of these groups credit is
given of forming and maintaining to
this day one of the oldest art organi-
zations in the United States, and of
graduating from its garret rooms some
of the brightest lights in the profes-
sion.

To staid old Philadelphia, then,
attention should be directed, while a
review is made of its now famous
Sketch Club, where Bohemianism is

BEACH PATROL.
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

218

 

 

 

A QUARTETTE,

77072

a.

by Hermann

From a painting
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 219

: dale, the lawyer-artist presi-
Lint oo dent of the club, wrote as fol-
He / : ly : lows of its early life; “The

A club was planted at a time not
conducive to the growth of the
germ of an artistic association,
The civil war broke
out before it was six
months old (and
7 almost every
; member enlist-
, ed), and dur-
/;ing the next
five years py
» matters Drawn by Frond Zz. Fithian,
x sthetic RESTIN’ A SPELL.

  

 
 
  
 
   

   

 

little place in the public
mind ; nor did Philadel-
phia at that time furnish

   
   

¥y)

Drawn by David

Drawn by A. M. Lindsay.

i a Willson Jor dir, the conditions or atmos-

5 WARRIOR POL: phere congenial to art-

is in need of funds it is to be replenished by a subscription levied on each member, ists and the growth of
not exceeding twelve cents.” The struggle for life was hard, despite such dues. art. It.is to the Academy of Fine Arts, inci-

The first exhibition of the club was held April, 1865, and to make a better dis- dentally, that the Sketch Club owes its exist-
play it moved from the studio to a room on Chestnut Street. This very nearly ence, for it was at her classes that the idea of :
cost the organization its life, for one year later it stood on the brink of disbanding, founding a club was first thought out, and it Drown by Geo. B. ond.
and only saved itself by moving back to garret quarters. William Moylan Lans- was the students who furnished the first mate- IN SCRUB LANE.
rial of
the mem-
bership,
and have
aided in
replen-
ishing
it ever
since.”

The
rise of
the club
into the
realm of
 prosper-
ity and
“influence
‘dates

from De-

 

 

 

 

 

Drawn by F. F. English. Drawn by Charles H. Stephens. Distr by Henry T. Cariss.
MIDWINTER. WHITE GHOST, cember, FIRST LESSON IN DRAWING.
220 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

1869. In 1874 a journal called
the Portfolio was published, 5
and lived a trifle over one hn
year. About this time a life 4
class was inaugurated, and
has existed to this day,
Thomas Eakins was instructor,
and anatomical lectures were
delivered by Dr. Harrison
Allen. A trust fund was also
started, and placed in the
hands of two trustees; the

disbursing of this fund, the From an etching by Henry Russell Wray.
AT ANCHOR.

 

manner of
which is known
only to the
trustees, has
saved many an

 

Drawn by Milton H. Bancroft.
CLOISTERS OF CHESTER CATHEDRAL.

J .

= ti artist member

E $8 from going to
(ad

igh c the wall.

3 : | Herkomer,

the English
painter and
etcher , after
visiting the
Sketch Club,
wrote of it:
“1 have never
seen its equal
for hospitality,

3
«
»

   

Drawn by William A. Porter. goo d-fellow- Drawn by Gustave E. Villaret.

THE TANGLED PATH, shi p, pictu- OLD STREET, LYONS, FRANCE.

resqueness, and typical Bohe-
mianism, although I've been in
» almost every art and social
club in America and abroad.”
Before touching its life of to-
day, mention should be made
of some of the artists, now
known the world over, who are
either active or non-resident
members, and whose enthusi-
i Des ie astic support forded the club
Drawn by Fred B. Schell. over trying times: F. T. Rich-
A BIT OF SUNSHINE, SURF AT HIGH TIDE. ards, Camille Pitou, Alexander

 
  

   

Re i

 

From an etching by Edith Loring Getchell.
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 221

 

From a painting by Henry R. Poore.

IN THE BRUSH.
222 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

Drawn by F. F. English.

A FARM-HOUSE BY THE SEA.
 

Drawn by P. F. Goist.

PROSE AND POETRY.

Harrison, Clifford P.
Grayson, A. M. Lind-
say, Henry T. Cariss,
Léon Delachaux, Fred.
Schell, Fred. Pitts,
Birge Harrison, D.
Ridgway Knight, Fred.
James, Chas. E. Dana,
Milne Ramsey, F. Cres-
son Schell, Joseph Pen-
nell, prince of pen- pd
and-ink men, Frank Rs
Moss, A. B. Frost, &
Peter Moran, Pros- 7

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. = 223

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
  
 
 
  

~

7
7
Zz

per L. Senat, 8S. |.Z2Z2=~

Ferris, Will Lip- 7.
pincott, Ber- 2
nard Uhle, and
a score more.
Two rooms on the fourth floor of a building at
Eleventh and Walnut Streets, Philadelphia, form Ln STIDY,

the attic abode of the club to-day. Moneyed
men have offered to erect a building for these
Bohemians, but it is safe to predict that a
garret will always mark the club’s prosperity.
Hanging on the walls are sketches, etchings,
models’ coats and armor, tapestries, draperies,

Drawn by J. C. Claghorn.

‘“ IN MAIDEN MEDITATION,”

 

and tro-
phies, in
artistic dis-
order. A
huge fire-
place in one
room was
designed by
members,
and the cen-
tral figure
was mod-
elled in clay
by John J.
Boyle, the
sculptor
who made
the figures
outside the
Transporta-
tion Build-

 
 
 
 
  
 
  

    
 

   

Hi Hp

Drawn by Walter M. Dunk. From etching by William Sartain.

 

A QUAKER WEDDING, A QUIET MOMENT.

ing at the World's Fair. About this great fireplace members smoke their long
clay pipes and sip beer from earthen mugs, or mix a toddy from the huge kettle
swinging on the crane.

Monday night is the life class, and Saturday night the regular club gathering.
It is about eleven o'clock that members and guests ascend the many flights. A
great table is filled with art journals and periodicals, with a part cleared for
the groups
working off
impromptu
sketches. An-
other table
has the mod-
est “spread”
of crackers,
cheese, sar
dines, olives,
etc: In: the
other room is
the piano.
W Every person
® crossing the
threshold of
the club is

= for his enter-
tainment

 
 

 

Drawn by E. B. Bensell.

THE DRAGON AND THE BEE-MAN

Drawn by F. T. Richards. W hen called
upon by story,

From a statue by Howard Roberts.

LA PREMIERE POSE, WAITING.
224 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

 

Drawn by W. T. Thomson.

SURPRISED AT THE WAYSIDE INN.
song, recitation, or criticism, and lights of
the drama and opera are gathered together
weekly in the rooms.

There is a club within this club known
as the Grub
Club (one of
the Life vari-
ety). It num-
bers to-day
thirteen. These
men, for rea-
sons of fellow-
ship with a
suggestion of
economy, meet
daily in the
rooms at noon,
prepare coffee,
consume their
lunch, and en-
joy the after-

 

Drawn by Joseph R. Day.

TUNING UP,

‘pipe.

 

Drawn by Horace Wells Sellers.

IN DEEP THOUGHT.

AMERICAN ART AND

Drawn by Henry R. Poore.

CARICATURE OF SKETCH CLUB MEMBERS.

The “ shot ” per man per lunch is too small for mention.

A subject is given out monthly in
the club for a competitive sketch;
work is brought in at the stipulated
time, and thoroughly criticised before
ballot for award is taken.

The active membership of the
Sketch Club numbers over four hun-
dred, including such names as Thomas
P. Anshatz, Charles H, Stephens, and
Henry R.
Pooere, in-
structors at «¢
the Acad,
emy of Fine ¢
Arts; Frank ‘
DD. Briscoe,
the marine
painter;
John J.
Boyle,
Thomas
Robertson,
and George ;
Frank Ste- 1"
vens, sculp-
tors ; Henry

 

/
: Pf
YI ig Vi

Drawn by Louis Hasselbusch.

FATHER WILLIAM.

   

    

ARTISTS. 225

rey

  
  

Drawn by J. Neely, [r.

Drawn by J. Henderson Kelly.

HARVEST TIME. THE OLD BARN.

T. Cariss, David Wilson Jor-
dan, Joseph PF. Reed: FT F
English, the water-colorist ; C.
Few Seiss, the illustrator of
scientific journals at home and
abroad; Alex. F. Harmer, who
illustrated Crook’s campaign
and Captain King’s novels;
George Wright, T. S. Sullivan,
William Thompson ; Carl New-
man, professor at Academy of
Fine Arts; F. Cresson Schell,
G. B. Wood, Herrman Simon,
C. ‘H. Spooner, J. Liberty
Tadd, Wilson Eyre, Jr., among
the cleverest architects of the
country ; Lewis E. Faber, Hal Hurst, A. M. Lindsay, A.
Houston, J.! Neely, Fred. Pitts, Colin
Campbell Cooper, D. A. Partridge, Angus
Wade, Joseph Day, Julius Necker, T. P.

ed

 

Drawn by W. T. Thompson.

AFFAIR.

STRICTLY A FAMILY

      

=
—

Drawn by Benjamin R. Elliott.

Drawn by Frederick Eisele.

A SKETCH CLUB ROSE, STILL LIFE,
226 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

J

 

Drawn by Horace Wells Sellers.

A STUDY OF A POSE.
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 227

Chandler, Walter M, Dunk, Frank H. Taylor, John V, :
Sears, and George Morgan and James Blakie, both Mint
designers. The range of ideas which pictures the artist
as a being who ekes out a scanty existence on dry bread

in a garret ; or which

 

 
 
 
 
  
 

portrays him a
princely being,
living in lux-
urious apart-
ments, decked
out with vel-
vet coats and
Tam:0 +
Shanters to
: : correspond,
Ae is focused
od to the truth
when meet- ~—
ing the real =
being at
such a club.
He does not
prove to be a half-starved creature nor a
reveller in luxury, but one with a jovial na-
ture, a strong handshake, a big heart, and a
versatile spirit.

If we seek for reasons why Philadelphia should have kept so long a club of this
informal type, there are many at hand. Not-
withstanding its constant growth, Philadelphia
changes less than the other great American
cities ; all its institutions have a permanency
not found in other great centres of population

 

From a painting by Thomas Anshutz.
A BIT OF THE LAST CENTURY. Drawn by B. D. Pazne,
A SUDDEN SQUALL.

     

a

n Lansdale.

B

Drawn by W. Moyla

AT GRAND MANAN.

 

Drawn by C. Few Seiss.

From a painting by W. Verplanck Birney.
CHINA DECORATORS.

UNITED STATES CRUISER ‘NEW YORK.”

QUEER FISH,
228 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

in America.
Dull and
monoto-
nous social
horizons,
which make
Philadel-
phia like
London
without
Mayfair,
seem by no

 

means un- ; ad aly
propitious | > be

to the for- >
o ie lor- Drawn by Fred. R. Gruger.
mation of

 

 

 

Drawn by Pirie C. Dougherty. SE wo : Cozy Covmms,
artists.

The rough-and-ready character of
the Sketch Club is seen to be a natural reaction from certain things in the
social fabric of the Quaker City which are not less unchanged. On the
one hand we have a large population of steady-going, dull citizens, formed
on the stamp set upon Pennsylvania by the Germans, those “ Dutch” for
whom Charles Godfrey Leland devised a jovial hero-type in Hans Breit-
mann. On the other, we have a small, exclusive, and very worldly society,
whose members, when they emigrate to New York, outdo the most snob-
bish natives in snobbery. Is it any wonder that the artist and journalist,
the musician and architect, must have some place where he can escape
the choking atmosphere of these two bodies of citizens? It was at the
Sketch Club that Thomas Janvier learned to write his “Ivory Black”

stories. Bohemia existed in New York thirty years ago, with head- %)°
quarters at Paff’s; but with the destruction of the old intolerant,
narrow social spirit among the rich, and a broader culture that rose
from the breaking
up of all the old
social lines,
by aswamp-
ing of old
social fac-
tors and
of fetiches
and ideals,
Bohemian-
ism disap-
peared. In
Philadel-
: phia it lin- kimi]
From a painting by Hermann Simon. gers. Vive Drawn by Frank A. Hays. Drawn by W. Vevplanck Birney.

SUNNY DAYS. la Boheme! COOMBS ALLEY.

OLD CEDARS.

 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

 

   
    

»

   

iH

A TYROLESE SITTING-ROOM.
 

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 229

i 7

i

5
7

B5

—

 

LOW TIDE AT SOMET’S POINT.
2% AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

Drawn by W. Moylan Lansdale. -
RUINS OF THE CASTLE, HEIDELBERG.
AMERICAN ART AND

AN ORIGINAL MARINE ARTIST

By EDGAR MAYHEW BACON.

(With original illustrations by Frank De Haven.)

UNLIKE the old-time voy-
agers, whose journeyings were
commenced with salvos of
artillery and concluded amid
popular acclaim, Mr. Frank
De Haven goes on his voy-
ages of discovery so quietly
that not one of the black
bottles on Governor’s Island
salutes him, and it is doubtful
if even the mayor and city
fathers know when he returns.
But where his prototypes were
well content to fetch back re-
ports of what they found, he
filches from the Maine coast whole acres of sand-dunes and miles of breaking surf
and brings them bodily to New York. The sea breezes to which he sets his can-
vas are perpetuated by some magic which the earlier navigators did not know.

Mr. De Haven’s face is familiar to the readers of the ILLUSTRATOR. The early
struggles, of which he had his share, have only served to strengthen his character,
and the upward growth of his forehead alone tells of approaching middle age.
The quaint Maine studio, cooled by the sea breezes, has also been pictured in these
pages, and we have learned from his own pen how his best picture, of sunset and

  

 

¢“ AN OLD CABIN IN SUSSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.”

““ A RYE FIELD,”

 

231

ARTISTS.

sand-dunes, was painted and received.
His serious artistic nature is apparent
in his work, yet a sense of humor
brightens his personality. He relates
with relish a joke of which he has felt
the point, as when a pupil of three
months’ standing had a picture ac-
cepted at the Academy and hung on
the line, while his own less favored con-
tribution was skied directly above it.
This has occurred more than once, too.

He is a musician as well as a painter, the violin being his favorite instrument,
and his collection boasts one priceless Cremona. The alembic in which the raw

 

A NEW ENGLAND POTATO FIELD.

   

   

Fossa a RA SAA — = - s FR

SURF NEAR BALDHEAD CLIFF.

material of art is converted to its finished product is his Twenty-fourth Street
studio, dedicated to the god of work, In this studio, or in the home where his
: charming wife pre-
sides, Mr. de Haven is
a genial host and his
friends are many and
appreciative. He may
be fairly said to be
only at the commence-
ment of his career. It
would require a bold
soothsayer indeed to
cast for him any other
than an auspicious
horoscope.

 

MOSS-GATHERER'S HOME,
232 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

SPRINGTIME,
AMERICAN

THE ARABS OF NEW YORK

By NyMm CRYNKLE.
With original illustrations by J. G. Brown,

I THINK J. G. Brown though English born is more distinctly
a New York painter than any other of our well-known artists.

I should not like to have you think I am circumscribing and
localizing his genius in saying that, because in painting what is
characteristic and true of New York he has shown the veracity
and ability to paint anything that comes within the measurement
of that ability.

I remember once hearing a vivacious young lady at an ex-
hibition say, while standing in front of one of his can-
vases, that she loved Mr. Brown because he painted the
ballads and not the laws of art.
That, on the whole, is a good criticism, because it is instinc-
tive and not pragmatical. Most of Mr. Brown’s pictures sing
themselves, as one might say do “Sally in our Alley ” and “ Bonnie
Doon.” Their messages are concrete, direct and simple, 1 can-
not at this moment recall one of his canvases that tried to
make a sentiment welter in paint with mere technique.
One and all, they transferred some gleam of humanity from
the street to the studio, and then /
kept it burning like one of those
lowly, but inexhaustible, tapers /
that Devotion used to leave upon
its shrine.

I said to a New York painter :

Well, will you kindly tell me of

another who has so successfully

caught what one might call the
elf-light of New York—that flickering phantasmal hu-
manity of our streets and alleys? You know his boys
when you see them, don’t you? not because they are all
alike, but because they have all flitted before your eye
in real life. You don’t have to be introduced. There
is no need of an explanation that this is a New York
boy. You could not by any possibility mistake him for
a Chicago, or a London, or even a Philadelphia boy.
It doesn’t make any difference where you are—say
you are at an exhibition in Munich, and you come
upon this boy—presto! you will hear the cry of
the Zvening 7Telagrime and feel the throb of the
Seventh Regiment band, and sniff the hot waffles on
the corner.

I suppose the New York street boy has more

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

ON THE DEFENSIVE.

THE KITE-FLYER.

ART AND

ARTISTS.

233

 

Sorgright

JB Brawn Nb : > %

AN EXCHANGE OF COURTESY.

He is

liberty and more incorrigible independence than any other boy in existence.
very often a nuisance, but he is always a self-supporting and immeasurable possi-
bility. The late Chas. L. Brace once taught me to tolerate, if not to respect him,
for he took down a register in the Newsboys’ Home, and pointed out to me a long
line of respected and influential men who had fought their way up from the New
York pavement.

There are great possibilities of sturdy life in the school of the street. It pounds
sentimentality out of a fellow to begin with. I never knew one of these fellows to
ARTISTS

A
ZZ
7
—
or
=

\ERICAN

AN

by J. G. Brown.

panting

From a

 
AMERICAN ART AND ARIISIS. 235

  
 
 
 
   
 
  
  

be mawkish. It brings an ur-
chin ruthlessly up to the awful
but benign law of the survival
of the fittest.

Brown's picture of “ On Dress
Parade ”’ is more than an oc-
tave of vital tones. One
might call it a jolly mad-
rigal, in the major key of
course. I don’t think it worth
while to subject it to a spec-
trum analysis, because the char-
acter is more important than
the coloring, and I am chiefly
delighted at the delicious way in
which the artist has made each
boy in that platoon look his own
unmistakable individuality. Af-
/ ter all, as Emerson says, “It is
& LOVING CORNER. only man that interests us,” and AFRAID,

     

RT i “

SUNDAY MORNING,

“YOU'RE A BEAUTY!” OUT AT THE POCKETS. THE INVENTOR.
 
  
   

CALLING THE GANG.

 

consciousness and the waggishness that are differen-

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

here are as many men as will make up a proverbial
tailor, who have been put into line with quite as many
characters, temperaments and shades of cussedness,
as clearly marked and distinctly separated as are the
black and white keys of some softer and politer
instrument.

There is a delightful essay for somebody
who has sympathy and sense, and
no knowledge of hue and color and $2
“arrangements,” if he will sit down &3
and pick out the bully, the brains, the self-

 
 
 
 
  
  
   
 
  
 
 
  

\

tiated in that platoon.

Of course I know that most of Mr. Brown’s com-
positions are story pictures, an objection that holds
good against certain groups in the Sistine Chapel,
and that being story pictures they appeal
less to the technical critic than to the sen-
sibilities of the human being. But I for one
persistently like story pictures, just as I like
story poems or story marble. I don’t sup- :
pose Mr. Brown undertakes to paint allego- EE iipais

 

RT mm i amr
CA GBD AG Nb

Bie : wil

A DEEP-LAID SCHEME.

ries any more than Burns undertook to write epics, and there is a two-volume ro-
mance in Burns's “wee, crimson-tipped daisy.” But what Mr. Brown undertakes to
do he does unmistakably, and nearly always delightfully. He can summon the boot-
black from the curb-stone and make him tell his own story. I don’t think anybody
has unloosed this fellow’s lips as Mr. Brown has. Take any one of those studies or
finished pictures and see how frank and direct it is. Sometimes it is like one of
Berenger’s songs—oftener it is like one of Whittier’s minor poems. (Do you remem-
ber Whittier’s “School Days?) The charm of the fellow accoutred with muffler

¢“kegp up!”
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

and armed with shovel for the

“Clean your side-walk, ma'am?” REFORMER AND ICONOCLAST
lies in the subtle story
of the situation no less
than in the verisimili-
tude of the type, and
the handsome urchin
who is being “made
up” by his pal
is about as
limp and Gf
submissivea J
victim of su- {ig
perior skill J
as you dan

By WiLLiam J. BAER.

  
 
  
 
  
  
  

With original illustrations by William M. Chase and others.

ey Euripides ex-

i mmm pressed to the Athenians,
B who criticised his works, ‘1
do not compose,” says he,
‘my works in order to be
corrected by you, but to in-
struct you” © It is true, to
have a right to speak thus a
man must be a Euripides.
However, thus much may be

     

imagine, i
5 : allowed, that when an artist
n most o liso . .
TY a ; is sure that he is upon firm
these boot- From a painting by William M. Chase.
lack i ground, supported by the
studies THE END OF THE SEASON. : " >
oes authority and practice of his
Mr. Brown J Drawn by
[ott predecessors of the greatest reputation, he may then assume the bold- William M. Chase,
1 , a :
GRATIFIED. AMBITION, Secsonig ae ness and intrepidity of genius; at any rate, he must not be tempted STUDY.

jocund side
of youth, which laughs at misfortune. He has portrayed
the boy’s love for a dog in almost every attitude. He fig-
ures as the master, the trainer, the proprietor—never as the
persecutor or enemy. Nor do we detect in these urchins
the dark side of their lives. For the most part Mr. Brown
sees them in the sunshine. They are exuberant, sportive, reckless, mischievous,
never vicious, deformed, or awry with an inheritance.

AN EARLY CALLER,

 

Drawn by William M. Chase.

 

N THE STUDIO.
238 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

From a painting by William M. Chase.

A LADY IN BLACK.

out of the right path by any tide of popularity that always accompanies the lower
styles of painting.”—SIrR JosHUA REYNOLDS.

The subject of this sketch is so well known" that nothing we might say of his
life and struggles would be new. Nor shall the accompanying illustrations be en-
larged upon. Let us rather consider how we may better appreciate the living pres-
ence of one who is at once a master in his art and in his capacity as an instructor.
That individual or public whose love for music or painting is limited by the literary

part contained in it, or cannot justly
discern which qualities are to be con-
sidered accessory, or even superfluous,
in the work undertaken, will surely be
robbed of much pleasure as well as in-
struction in viewing such art as has
strong tendencies toward individual in-
terpretation.

The ordinary conception of the pub-
lic agrees on three points, viz., literary
art; topical songs, waltz music and

   
   

From a painting by William M. Chase.

ROBERT BLUM.

our views on art are rather apt
to be too literary and out of bal-
ance to appreciate anything not
descriptive. No one will deny
that subjective matter cannot
lend special interest. There is,
however, no great art, nor will
there be, which will require an
explanatory text to aid its inter-
pretation. The Venus of Melos is
just as fine to us, without know-
ing what she may have repre-
sented. Michael Angelo’s Moses
is equally great, apart from its
subject. Velasquez was Velas-
quez whether he painted Philip

From a painting by William M. Chase.

 

5 om painting by William M. Chase.

REFLECTION.

marches ; and the commonplaces in litera-
ture. Our early training in reading causes
us to read too much and to see too little
for ‘ourselves ; or at least not to be wary of
that which may follow a prejudice. Hence

IN CENTRAL PARK.
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 239

while he may have added he has never
intruded. Because of his strong con-
victions as to his domain, he has been
praised, and on the other hand raked
over coals of literary fire. To do this
is to rob Peter to pay Paul, so that we
are all unhappier for the doing, losing
much that is both beautiful and profit-
able to contemplate.

As suggested in the introductory
quotation, Mr. Chase has looked nei-
ther right nor left, and has “arrived,”
even for some who once denied him

   

From a painting by Georgiana Howland.
his proper place. To-day he is suc-
cessful in many ways. His sitters
and patrons are people of judgment in art matters, who do Noh
not carry with
them the air of i Lo
the “generous vik
patron.” His
landscapes
have found a
ready place in
many collec-
tions of art.
His studios
are visited by
promising tal-
ents, both
menand wom- T° ~ee}

en, anxious to Drawn by Howard Chandler Christy.

A FLOWERY PATH.

     

From a painting by William M. Chase.

 

  
  

SUNLIGHT AND SHADOWS.

or a Spanish beggar. But does not the Sistine
Madonna lose much of its hold when we rob it
of its divine sentiment? Mr. Whistler’s por-
trait of his mother moves us by a something
—we sometimes think we know—but we don’t
worry about the why. In short, the domain of oy
art is strongest where it depends on its own From a painting by William M. Chase.
peculiar strength, and I hold that he who can THE LaDy IN WHE

manage his art in its own peculiar field, and allow kindred art to simply add and
not supplant, is surely on neutral grounds. Mr. Chase has gone his own way, and

      

From a painting by Elizabeth Curtis.

A QUIET POOL.

learn something from their gifted master. And does A LANDMARK.
not the summer school on the

Shinnecock Hills assure us of his i
prowess ? Furthermore, to hold
and have held the high distinc-
tion of President of the Society
of American Artists, is an honor
second to none.

The art of Mr. Chase may be
said to base its existence on form
and color. It affects us more
like music than any other kin-
dred art. Those of us who are
familiar with such musicians as
Schumann or Hindel can feel
better what is meant when it is From a painting by Howard Chandler Christy.
A STUDY IN CURVES. said that many appreciate but A SHINNECOCK GARDEN.

  

From a painting by William M. Chase.
240 | AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

A. SUMMER DAY SURF,

 
AMERICAN

few quite understand. There are those mas-
ters who are matter-of-fact and scientific, and

produce as successfully as the dreamers do.
Hindel wrote his “ Messiah” as he wrote ope-
ras before it, in an apparently matter-of-fact
way—why ? because he could turn anything
into music and had no need to await an inspi-

ration.

Like them Mr. Chase possesses a freshness

  

 

From a painting by Matilda A. Brownell.

A SHINNECOCK MEADOW,

ure’s.

From a painting by Lydia Field Emmett.

WHERE WILD BIRDS SING.

  

and ele-

mental,
it is to the painter free from foreign sup-
port suggestive of any school but Nat-
While it is false to throw away
that which modern impressionism has
given us, it is death to the painter whose

   

of spirit
that is un-
compromis-
ing in its
convictions ;
always hap-
piest in large and simple comprehension of the
color schemes which he resolves into a unity
of effect. Nothing seems to enter such work
which could be dispensed with. As it is fresh,
direct

From a painting by Ernest Meyer.

INDIAN SUMMER.

From a painting by Charles E. Langley.
WASH-DAY.

: From a painting by C. L. Washburn.

FLOWERS AND TREES.

   
   
   

ART AND ARTISTS.

power of absorbing other qualities cannot over-
come its force enough to make it additional
rather than supplanting or superseding. Mr.
Chase has not forgotten anything he has learned
in passing from hfs earlier to his present style.
Too many of our talented men have, in latter
years, made appalling changes of conviction ; it
has accentuated the worth of those who never
forget that art and its phases are ever vary-
ing, and that no art is bettered by anything

From a painting by Reynolds Beal.

ON SHINNECOCK BAY.

From a painting by A. T. Millar.

THE ‘CABBAGE PATCH.

—_-_ iis REE # ar ll,
From a painting by Jane Emmett.

  
   
   

   

ON SUMMER SANDS.

short of its broad and elemen-
tal truths. Impressionism and
plein-air, so called, are truths—
great truths—but surely not
the only ones.

To Mr. Chase many things
have an artistic value, for he is
an ardent student of Nature in
its every phase. Lavater said :
“The enemy of Art is the en-
emy of Nature. Art is nothing
but the highest sagacity and
exertions of Human Nature ;
and what Nature will he honor
who honors not the Human ? ”
242

A STUDENT OF DRAWING

By HENRI PENE DU Bois.
With original illustrations by Alfred Paris.

A GREAT man of letters—William Dean Howells, to be pre-
cise—said to me, “ The artist, the only person in the world who
is in the right, is made by our social system the only person who
is in the wrong.” He said it in his profoundly sympathetic,
persuasive manner, and I, the veriest Philistine, had never
thought that the artist was in the wrong !

The artist
lives in the
midst of our
civilization in

1 & a desert her-
metically closed to everybody,
but pompous, charming, varied,
strange, splendid and ever sur-
prising, which he calls his studio.
There, in a vast and silent soli-
tude, where nothing recalls house-
keeping, politics, visitors, sayers
of nothings and vile preoccupa-
tions—everything—antique and sumptuous furniture, tapestries representing gods
and heroes, Oriental stuffs the color of sulphur, of pale azure, of dolorous and

 

A TILLER OF THE SOIL.

 

THE LAST LOAD.

 

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

 

STRENGTHENING THE OUTPOSTS.

tender pink that gold and silver traverse like shivering rays, fine coats of mail,
swords which were at Culloden, bows and arrows of monster-killers, musical instru-
ments refined or barbarous, playthings of the eighteenth century, everything has
the calm and triumphant seduction that the quality of complete uselessness gives
to things.

It is there that one may and one must forget the abominable mechanism
of utilitarian civilization, drink the nectar of dreams, careless as shepherds of La-
conia listening to the murmurs of fountains in the shade of hedges of laurel-trees.

There is in the life of every artist, however, a symbolical aspect. Théodore de
Banville relates that in a corridor which was dimly lighted by three gas-jets he
saw Ingres seated near an open box which a sort of Hercules was engaged in
filling with huge logs. In the box, which was empty and sonorous, the wood fell
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 243

with the frightful tumult of an ava- tramped over many leagues and when he saw

lanche. Banville was, I think, in a beautiful scene, without weariness, on any

presence of a myth, for if the piece of paper that he found, he drew what
= 7" scene was perfectly real it was at he saw with the ardor, the ignorance and the

the same time symbolical. None marvellous instinct of genius.

may deny seriously that for a man There were : a cavalier on a horse at full

gallop coming straightway toward him; a i
peasant bent on a plough drawn by two
horses in a landscape lined by trees blent in
an indistinct mass of foliage ; a two-wheeled
cart overflowing with its weight of hay,
drawn by two horses in tandem; a man
patiently building a fence at twilight round
a sheepfold to be
protected against the
wolves in the night, and
two dogs
on guard—one a stolid sentinel,
the other an interested spectator
8% of the man’s labor.

There were: a big Norman
boy in wooden shoes rolling a

of genius life is noth-
ing but waiting in a black
corridor where a torment-
or, under pretext of filling
a bin, throws against his y

legs a great quantity of blocks. é

The artist is hindered by more :
stumbling blocks than any-
body, but the crime of the
artist is much more serious
than that of the Titans.
Crios, Hyperion and Iape-
tus simply wished to take
back by violence the sovereignty which others had usurped,
but artists have a graver pretension. They propose to them-
selves the superhuman problem of learning /ow to draw.

To draw is to realize an impossible miracle. It is, with a”
line, purely chimerical, with traits that have neither form nor
color, to represent forms, colors, movements, life, nature, and
beings a prey to their appetites and to their passions. Itis a
marvel so difficult in itself that most artists never
attempt it; or, having attempted it, abandon their > trees the branches of which were still
project and resign themselves to amiable common- ; bent by their loads that a woman, bent
places. 4 BAW pecvarn toward the ground, picked up when they

It is evident that Alfred Paris has not yet renounced the ambition fell ; a young surveyor in his uniform, the
which was that of Ingres. He knows that the slightest sketch must rhyth- : ample folds of which fell
mically vibrate, and have, like a poem, its special beauty. He is quite gracefully ; the mag-
incapable of perpetrating the heads eacircled with wire, so neatly nificent gesture of
shaded that they seem to the Curé of Bar-
be made of velvet, which seilles, kneeling
Academicians give as between the

models. He prefers angry battal-
the Eclogues of ion of gen-
Virgil rather than darmes
the Aneid. Evi- and desperate workingmen on strike, pointing

 
 
  
 
 
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

    
 

DRYING THE HAY,

 

FROM ORCHARD TO CIDER PRESS,

~ )
~TLkE \ —
Ns

din SN
pH

/
oA
i
S

GATHERING UP THE BUNDLES.

1] wheelbarrow filled with fruit, away from

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
  

    
   

A STRONG TEAM.

dently, to heaven his wrinkled hand, firm as a steeple

he went of granite.

from the § There were many more : some of them

drawing- : may be studied in the drawings herewith.

class in- The artist immediately immobilized on
f ‘ tothe paper movements, impressions, expressions

FRIEND IN NEED. of faces in sketches rapid as the flying in-

»

LE CURE DE BARSEILLES. fields. He BURNING THE BRUSH.

.
244

 

THE THRESHER.

Then he trained himself to carry images in his brain, and to put them on
He questioned features of the passers-by and noted in his memory

stants.
paper at home.
the tales that he had read in them.
the images of these passers-by, he questioned them in their turn, and if their tales

Then, when with his pencil he had reproduceds==

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

BINDING THE GRAIN,

of the harshness, the ferocity and the tenderness that are *.,
required to obtain an impression of Nature.

 

were not exactly similar to those he
had heard in the first place, he tore
his design and began a new
one. Soon he
worked with
self - assurance,
reading souls
like a morning
journal.
He walked in
the forests, joyful,
his pipe between
his teeth, and load-
ed like an ox. He
carried an umbrella,
an easel, a folding-
chair, all the apparel
of a painter, and a
lunch basket.
He perpet- “©
ually thought 5

“rm
iE

  
      
  
 

He perpet-

ually said to himself that man is never pure enough, faith-

ful enough, sincere enough to deserve the name of artist,

THE ARTILLERYMAN.

which is grander than anything.

   
   
 
 
    
  

tagnan, whom Dumas.
immortalized. The
first block thrown in
the way of his voca-
tion was his father’s
decided objection to
his becoming an artist.
He was sent to South
America, where he was
a merchant

50 for twenty-
RX four years.
Nw He returned to
Paris in 1885,
became a pupil of De-
taille, and is blessed
with poverty,a whole-
some preventative of
mere dreaming, lack-
ing which one maynev-

er become an artist.

PROMOTED,

Alfred Paris was born in 1848 at Tarbes, the birthplace of d’Ar-

 

SOWING THE SEED.
AMERICAN ART AND

A LOVER OF THE SEA

By Jno. GILMER SPEED.
With original illustrations by E. M. Bicknell.

IN going through a gallery of paintings
a student of art does not need a catalogue,
nor even examine the signatures, to know
the painters of very many of the canvases.
The style, the coloring, the method of treat-
ment and the subject are usually so marked
in one who is possessed of a haunting ideal,
that the authorship of the work is as char-
acteristic and easily identified as familiar
handwriting.

The first impression one gets in seeing
any number of paintings by Mr. E. M. Bick-
nell is that he has this haunting ideal. By way of practice, like every sincere stu-
dent of art, he has tried many and varied subjects, and he keeps on trying them.
He makes a study in portraiture now, and again the vine-covered cot of a French
peasant ; he paints a landscape, and then an interior ; but even a casual observer
will note very quickly that from each and all of these Mr. Bicknell quickly harks
back to the sea—to the sea of which he is a genuine lover. He paints many kinds
of craft upon many kinds of water ; and though there is a loving touch in all, we
feel instinctively that even yet Mr. Bicknell is not doing that which he best loves

 

STUDY IN FRANCE.

 

OLD BUILDING NEAR BARBIZON.,

 

 

245

ARTISTS.

to do—he is not embodying his ideal
on the canvas, though he is near to it.
He always achieves a certain measure
of success, but his pictures of the
breakers rolling in, and the wash going
out over the sand, are so capitally done
that the others seem almost amateur-
ish in comparison with them. During
the summer
months that
he spends on the Maine coast he accumulates ample ma-
terial for the winter work in his studio, about which there
always seems to be something nautical, something that
tells of the sea with almost audible force and directness.
Mr. Bicknell, who is a native of New York—having
been born in Westchester County about thirty years ago
—is not an artist by accident or chance, though he was
not intended for his present profession by those who
started him out in the world. For eleven years he
worked in a banking office, and heard much more of
cent per cent and the quotations from the exchanges
than of that
art patter
which is the
language of the studios—a language
the full meaning of which no outsider,
however much he frequent those pleas-
ant places, ever entirely masters. While
in the banking office, he spent all his
leisure in painting, and also attended
the classes of the Art Students’ League
in the evening. Even as an amateur
he sent pictures to the exhibitions of
the Academy and of the Society of i
American Artists. These he had the
satisfaction of seeing hung on the line, and thus encouraged, he determined to say
good-by to the banking office and depend upon his art for both fame and fortune.
; mr , This was seven years ago. Mr. Bick-
nell is not yet famous, nor has he yet
made a fortune; but as he has lived
generously upon the sales from his
studio, and as he bids fair to make a
great name for himself, he does not in
the least regret the step he took when
he gave up uncongenial work for an
employment to which all of his inclina-
tions called him. Friends shook their
heads when the step was taken.

 

BY THE SEA.

ON THE ROCKS,

 

NEAR WHITBY,

LANDING.
246 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

 

Lidice TA

From a painting by E. M. Bicknell.

NOT FAR OFF SHORE.
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 247

Before settling down
to work in a studio in
New York, and after
throwing off the binding
commercial garments
that he had worn so long,
Mr. Bicknell went to Eu-
rope for a period of study
and preparation. He
sketched and painted in
both France and England,
and some of the pictures
that have been repro-
duced to accompany this article were made during this stay abroad. The picture
of the old buildings near Barbizon shows us whither his footsteps led him in
his wanderings in France, and many
sketches in his studio show that he
must have lingered long in this neigh-
borhood, even though the music of the
sea was ever in his ears and its fas-
cinations called him to its shore.

- It is a gratification to write of Mr.
Bicknell’s work for more reasons than
one, but the chief pleasure is because
we have, in an unreasoning way, be-
come somewhat in the habit of think-
ing that the workmanlike professional
could not grow out of the gifted ama-
teur. This really never was the case,
and Mr. Bicknell’'s pictures illustrate
the falseness of this foolish assump-
tion—an assumption, however, which amateurs themselves have had more to do in
creating than the skeptical professional or the unbelieving critic.

 

NEWBURYPORT SHIP YARD.

 

ROSALIND C. PRATT. G. A. TRAVER. F. M. HOWARTH.

 

AMONG THE ICEBERGS.

 

BRUCE CRANE. F. G. ATTWOOD. ALICE BARBER STEPHENS.

 

GEORGE WHARTON EDWARDS. HARRY ROSELAND. ALBERT D. BLASHFIELD.

EVENING BY THE SEA.
248 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

 

4 . H. D. NICHOLS. KATHERINE ALLMOND HU .
VICTOR PERARD o VLEBRY. CARLTON T. CHAPMAN. EDWARD PENFIELD. JULIAN O. DAVIDSON.

 

CHARLES S. REINHART. HARRY S. WATSON. CHARLES HOWARD JOHNSON. MARIE GUISE NEWCOMB. FRANK O. SMALL. J H. MARTIN BEAL.

 

I. H. DOLPH. M. R. DIXON. FRANK DE HAVEN. C. M. RELYEA. FRANK P. BELLEW. AGNES D. ABBATT.
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 249

 

FREDERICK W. FREER.

 

ELLIOTT DAINGERFIELD.

 

CLEMENCE VAN DEN BROECK.

  

MRS. E. M. SCOTT. JEAN BERAUD.

DAN BEARD. CHARLES C. CURRAN,
AND ARTISTS.

ART

AMERICAN

 

ATON.

M. E

HUGH

HOLMAN.

LOUIS H.

DE HAAS.

F. H.

M.

ZOGBAUM.

R. F.

HUGHSON HAWLEY.

CRAIG.

THOMAS B.

 

W. P. BODFISH.

BEEBE,

A.

WM. A. COFFIN,

PLUMB.

H. G.

BEN]. LANDER.

BIRCH.

REGINALD B.

 

ZEIGLER.

WOODWARD

LEE

KELLOGG.

AMY L,

JOSEPH LAUBER. FREDERIC REMINGTON,

CHARLOTTE WHITMORE.

WHEATON.

FRANCIS
AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 251

  

WM. L. SONNTAG. WALTER L, PALMER. E. M. BICKNELL.

J. H. HATFIELD. CHARLES J. BUDD. E. L. DURAND,

  

STANLEY MIDDLETON, ARCHIE GUNN, MALCOLM FRASER. M. E. DIGNAM. W. H. DRAKE. C. MOORE SMITH,

 

LEONARD OCHTMAN, JOSEPH H, BOSTON, CULMER BARNES,

G. H, BOUGHTON. MAXIMILIAN COLIN, DANIEL KOTZ.
252 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

R. M. SHURTLEFF. KATHERINE LANGDON CORSON, CHARLES LANMAN. HARRY FENN. FLORENCE K. UPTON. C. W. HUDSON.

 

MARY BERRI CHAPMAN, W. C. FITLER. HENRY SANDHAM. PAUL DE LONGPRE. CHARLES CALVERLY. P. E. RUDELL.

soy
yer

i

 

E. A, BELL. THOMAS S, CUMMINGS. E. W. KEMBLE. IRVING R. WILES, W. VERPLANCK BIRNEY. THOMAS W. WOOD,
AMERICAN

PHOTOGRAPHIC APPENDIX
CONTRASTS ‘OF LIFE AND ART,
By WiLL H. Low.
(With Parallel Illustrations.)

Tue world in general agrees beyond doubt with Robert Burns when he opines
that Nature “ her prentice hand she tried on man, and then she made the lassies,”
and no class appears to share this opinion more heartily than the painters if we may
judge by their choice of subjects, in which woman predominates to such a marked

degree. Again, if one happens to be a painter, the fact that nine out of ten models
who knock at the studio door to offer their services are apt to be women, must, by
the law of supply and demand, be an indication of the average painter’s taste.
The direct relation between a given picture and its model is naturally dependent
on the temperament of the painter ; if he is an uncompromising realist the similarity

 

pb a =
From a photograph of Miss Caroline Miskel.

From a painting by C. von Baudenhausen.

“NYDIA, THE BLIND GIRL OF POMPEIL"

Copyrighted, 1893, by Harry C. Jones. All rights reserved.

ART AND ARTISTS.

 

253

between the model and the picture may be very great, but if on the contrary he is
possessed of a certain idea and works as it were from within outwards, his indebt-
edness to the model may be quite as great as with the realistic painter, but the
result is less obviously portrait-like. In these pages, however, we have a problem
which is neither that of the realist nor, for want of a better word, that of the idealist.
Here we have certain well-known pictures in comparison with which we have direct
photographs from nature as nearly identical in position, costume, and expression
as possible; and the few words which follow in an attempt at the critical considera-
tions suggested by the contrasting pictures are hardly necessary, so vividly do the
pictures speak for themselves. At the outset, indeed, a difficulty offers itself, for
while one can speak without fear or favor of the painted picture, how can one treat
the fair women who have lent themselves to these contrasts in the same impersonal
manner ? Fortunately, it is chiefly in a complimentary way that the charms of the

 

From a photograph of Miss Teresa Vaughan.

From a painting by J. J. Henner.
‘ FARIOLA.”

fair models permit one to speak, but if in the course of this paper critical considera-
tions should overweigh the scale of judgment on the less gratulatory side, the
writer begs pardon in advance and pleads in his favor the fact that for the nonce
the personality of the model is merged in the character portrayed. The first of the
series contrasts the well-known picture by C. V. Baudenhausen, entitled “ Nydia,”
the blind girl of Pompeii, with a photograph of Miss Caroline Miskel, who certainly
gives Bulwer’s heroine quite as much grace and sentiment and considerably more
reality than the original picture. The slight difference in the poise of the head, and
the fact that Miss Miskel is somewhat less “ divinely tall ” than the painter has
imagined ‘ Nydia,” only serves to show that painters as a rule are more generous
in the proportion of length in comparison to the size of the head than nature.

The next of the series reproduces “Fabiola,” by J. J. Henner, in contrast to
which Miss Teresa Vaughan has lent her gracious personality. The difficulty of
so simple a subject is that no two heads are likely to be of exactly the same type,
254 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

         

From a photograph of
Miss Estelle Clayton.

From a photograph of From a painting by Murillo.

Miss Teresa Vaughan.
“ MAGDALEN.”

and the difficulty is added to in this case as the painter habitually renders an arbi-
trary and somewhat artificial effect of light. In the painted head the shadow
under the chin is quite as dark as the dark drapery and represents a degree of shadow
to which Miss Vaughan’s fair complexion—very properly, one must admit—refused
to descend. The question of similarity of type again arises in the reproduction of
Murillo’s “ Magdalen,” and is further complicated by the fact that Miss Estelle
Clayton appears in friendly rivalry with Miss Vaughan in rendering the fair peni-
tent. Both of the ladies appear rather to the disadvantage of the original picture
in point of character, the greater firmness of modelling and the slight angularity of
certain lines in contrast with the rotundity of others, making either of the heads
preferable from a realistic point of view to the over-pretty and softened-to-nonentity

 

a

alr SU :
From a photograph of Miss Estelle Clayton.

From a painting by Frank Dicksee.

% CYNTHIA.”

 

head of Murillo. Miss Clay-
ton reappears at the bottom
of the same page, but here a
difference in lighting and the
poise of the head bending to-
wards the reader, while Frank
Dicksee’s * Cynthia,” with
which it contrasts, is inclined
in the other direction, hurts
the parallel. With the next
two pictures we come to a sad
realization of the limitations
of a painter—of certain paint-
ers—and it may be considered
unkind to Oscar Begas, the
author of the Greek girl here
reproduced, to place his work
in contrast with the picture
for which Miss Marguerite
Cortillo has posed. The liv-
ing quality of the photograph
from nature, not to insist on

From a painting by Oscar Begas.

“ THE GREEK GIRL,”

 

  
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
   
  
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
    
    
 
  
 
 

From a photograph of
Miss Marguerite Cortillo.

more evident superiorities to
the original in point of beau-
ty, make Begas’s painting
seem commonplace to the last
degree.

Sichel’s Pompeiian girl on
the next page finds two pro-
totypes, in the upper one of
which Miss Miskel reappears,
while Miss Vaughan furnishes
the other subject. In both
these, charming as they are,
will be noted a certain vari-
ation in line and proportion,
which if the object sought
was an exact reproduction of
the original would be difficult
to avoid, but the painter
would have been fortunate
had he found such models to
his hand. A few pages back
Miss Miskel was told by in-
ference that she was not “ di-
vinely tall,” but the head for which she
has posed in imitation of Joseph Lieck’s
“Lydia” affords the opportunity of finish-
ing the quotation by adding “most divine-
ly fair” in reference to it. In the repro-
duction of the “Judith” of Ch. Landelle,
Miss Teresa Vaughan appears in a tragic
réle which we fear certain souvenirs of her
success in “1492” have disturbed. Holo-
fernes would hardly need fear such an ap-

 

From a painting by N. Sickel.

‘THE POMPEIIAN,”

parition, and in truth in such subjects as
this one finds the defect of the’ system
which has afforded these charming pict-
ures. Where the subject of the picture is
mainly occupied with “ existing beautiful-
ly,” results as good as these can be arrived
at; but in pictures of a different, of possi-
bly a higher grade, where action or strong
emotion is to be expressed, the quality
must, in almost any case, reside in the
painter and be expressed by him on the
canvas, It would only be by the most

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 

From a photograph of Miss Teresa Vaughan.

fortuitous circum-
stances that the ele-
ments of exact repro-
duction of line and
movement would coin-
cide with that of ex-
pression, and not once
in a thousand times
would the inconscient
camera render what the
emotion of the trained
painter would detect in
the same model. To
bring to a close this re-
view, to which a strict
sense of truth has given
an almost fulsomely
complimentary tone,
mere mention must be
made of a reproduction
of Baudenhausen’s
“Listening to the Fair-

ies,” for which Miss Miskel has posed.

From a photograph of Miss Caroline Miskel.
It is with pictures like this, even with the

 

 

LL

 

variations which are obvious here, that this system is most successful, and the re-

 

From a painting by Joseph Lieck.

“7 YDIA.”

sult as in this case is
certain to produce an
agreeable picture.

In a certain sense,
indeed, from the nov-
elty of the idea and
from limitations of
time, the pictures re-
produced here may be
considered as first
steps in an interesting
direction. With great
expenditure of time
much more might be
attempted and be
made as successful, or
even more so, than
these. The tableau vi-
vant, crystallized as it
were, and by the aid of
the camera made per-
manent, offers a wide
horizon of possibili-
ties. The limitations
256 AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

noted above, in speaking of the “ Judith,” could be in a degree overcome by care-
ful consideration of subject and sentiment. It would, doubtless, require much
preparation in disposition of backgrounds and the manner of lighting, and on the
part of the model a complete submission of personality, to enter into the exact
sentiment of the figure represented. Pictures representing groups or several de-
tached figures would still increase the difficulties, but with time, patience, a studio
capable of affording a variety of lights, and, above all, that quality of genius which
we name taste, the task would be an alluring one, and would undoubtedly give
most interesting results. In these days, when the amateur photographer is abroad
in the land, no better means of acquiring one of the qualities which cannot be pur-
chased, with even the most expensive camera, could be found than in thus endeavor-

 

 

230

From a photograph of Miss Teresa Vaughan.

From a painting by Cherkes Landelle.
“yupITH.”
ing to reproduce good pictures. In this way principles of composition, of light
and shade, of that which we must retain in nature, and that which we must reject
or relegate to a subordinate plane, would be learned, and unconsciously the ama-
teur, in attempting original work, would after such a training apply the principles
thus acquired. When once we approach the subject of originality, however, we
step beyond the limits of this article, though the transition is a natural one. The
amateur takes upon himself, with each new plate, to make a picture which has never
existed before, and, if by careful attention the discoverable qualities which go to
make up a work of art are acquired, each of these plates might represent the re-
sult of such study. Leaving out of the question absolutely original subjects, such
as would require on the part of the amateur the creative, imaginative faculty which
is not lavished on the first-comer—few artists even possessing it—there remains the
whole range of subjects to be gleaned from literature and illustrations by the

camera of such themes would
more than repay him who would
attempt them. No hand-and-
foot rule can be given for such
picture-making, but one would
go far in first looking over the
range of subjects, choosing that
which really interests one, the
simpler the better at first, and
then making an effort at realiz-
ing how such a character in the
story would naturally live, move,
and have his being. All details
given by the author should be
noted and followed where such
detail helps to make the char-
acter visible, or suppressed if
such details are more individual
than typical, for it must be re-
membered that the author only
has to do with the mental vision,
and cannot always be followed

From a photograph of Miss Caroline Miskel.

¢ LISTENING TO THE FAIRIES.”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
    

From a painting by C. von Baudenhausen.

when it comes to the realization
of the picture in his mind’s eye.
Then, a characteristic type of
model having been found (no
easy task), there would come in
the considerations of placing the
figure on the plate, the effect of
light and of line, the thousand
and one considerations which
must all be taken into account
if you would make a work of
art. Repeated attempts would
be necessary, and many plates;
but the growth of appreciation,
resulting from study, would lead
one on until, in the hands of the
intelligent amateur, the camera
would become more than the in-
conscient toy which it is too often
at present. Hence I may con-
clude in saying, think for your-
self; and then—and only then
—1let the camera “ do the rest.”
AMERICAN ART AND

SHADOWS OF THE ARTIST'S IDEAL
By MARGUERITE TRACY.
With illustrations selected from our last photographic prize competition.

eo 0 Te would Tain
(But could not) see me always, as befell
His dream to see me, plucking asphodel
In saffron robes on some celestial plain.”—E. R. SILL.

THROUGH its ever-changing environment the poet looks straight into the deeps
and shallows of human life and reproduces them unhampered ; but the artist, forced
to interpret through the visible
“form, longs for another day when
dignified and simple folds shall
drape without distorting the
figure.

The artists, the poets, the
historians of Greece have pre-
served for us the type of a per-
fection in form and costume from
which we have strayed—the ar-
tists among us looking back re-
gretfully. And it is their looking
back that has kept the Greek
influence alive through all the
excesses of elaborateness and
severity that have overshadowed
it... It has been a restraining
hand, invisible and seeming to
accomplish little ; but who can
tell to what a pass we might have
come without it?

Among the accompanying il-
lustrations “ Are They the Real
That Blossoms and Passes,” pho-
tographed by Gertrude Kasebier,
to which was awarded the prize
for selection of model, pose and
general composition in our prize
competition, fulfils the require-
ments of this type in many essen-
tials. It possesses an intrinsic
charm of poetic composition. As
the girl in “ Are They the Real”
looks down on the blossoms in
her hand, one cannot but think of
Echo, the wood nymph who loved

Photographed by Gertrude Kasebier.

‘“ Are they the real that blossoms and passes,
The flowers that fade and the withered grasses,
Or only the shadows of form divine ?

 

ARTISTS. 257

Narcissus and pined for him, growing day by day more ethereal, until she became
only a soft voice calling him through the woods and by the river brink. Narcissus
never answered. With heart breaking for his dead sister, he haunted the streams
and fountains, dreaming that his own reflection was the lost face that had resembled
his. In sweet compassion the gods changed him at last into the flower which
bears his name and that still loves to bend its head above the water edges.

The costume, with its simple, ungirdled chiton or tunic, belongs to a well-known
form of Greek dress which consisted of two very long pieces of cloth pinned or
clasped at the shoulders, letting the superfluous length fall like a mantle over the
breast and down the
back. The chiton was
sometimes shortened by
being drawn up over a
girdle, and sometimes,
as in “Are They, the
Real,” left to hang in
its own full, loose folds.
Often two girdles were
worn, the widest one
very low and the nar-
rowest very high, giving
a new set of folds be-
tween. Miss E. F. Farns-
worth’s picture “ When
Evening Cometh On,”
which received the prize
for historical accuracy,
shows the double girdle,
although, as she ex-
plains, it does not con-
sist of two separate
belts. % The dress,” she
says, “was pale violet
trimmed with silver —
the metal belt in front
being continued with
braid which crossed in
the back and went over
the shoulders. ‘There
is little I can add besides
the picture. It is a cor-
rect dress of a. Greek
lady when Greek art
was at its height.”

And indeed there is little that one need add about a picture which speaks with
such lofty, serene eloquence. While very different in thought, the beautiful har-
mony of costume and composition is even more felt than in “ Are They the Real.”
One sees the hushed tones of the western sky, the deepening purple of the hills, the

 

 

Photographed by Miss E. F. Farnsworth.

“When evening cometh on anear doth life stand to the great unknown,
In silence reaching out her sentient hand.”
258

dun shadows that steal across the lin-
gering glory of the water, and one feels
the insistent mystery of twilight press-
ing close.

The chiton was the most important
garment and was worn next to the
body. For greater warmth the hima-
tion, or cloak, a little shorter than the
chiton, was worn above, and sometimes
the himation was worn without the
chiton. Sometimes the free, mantle-
like drapery of the long chiton was
separate and often much modified in
form into cloak or fitting jacket. The
peplum, a long shawl or scarf, was
wound outside all the other garments
according to the taste and conven-
jence of the wearer. The chiton,
the himation and the peplum are the
elements of the Grecian costume,
their many changes and modifications
showing the rise and fall of Grecian
art. Great richness of ornamentation
marked the early, more barbaric, years,

Photographed by Charles E. Fairman.

““ What vision, born

AMERICAN

 

Photographed by Carrie B. Hicks.

““ If once my thought were told,
All men would feel it warm at heart.”

 

of unfulfilment, fades in mere self-scorn,
Or grows from that still twilight stealing round ? *

 

ART AND ARTISTS.

and was recurred to in more refined form
in the extravagant centuries just preced-
ing the Christian era. At the time of its
highest development, however, the cos-
tume was extremely simple and una-
dorned, its beauty depending on the
softness of the material and the exqui-
site grace of its folds. .

As in “Are They the Real” this
simplicity is observed in “ Thine Eyes
too Wise,” photographed by Miss Dora
Winter Jaixen. She says of it “I wished
to portray the idealistic and spiritual in
one subject, and perhaps a touch of the
Byzantine school.”

The Byzantine traces, if any, are very
slight, as Byzantine dress was much
influenced by oriental taste — weak-
hearted, shuttle-cock Byzantium, always

 

Photographed by Dora Winter Jaizen.

“Thine eyes, too wise, are heavy with life's dole.”

 

   

|

Photographed by Charles E. Fairman.

 

“ When Hope is enthroned above.”

being swayed by new conquerors and
isolated by enmity from all that could
teach it; yet it was through Byzantium
that the art of the East was first taught
to the West, and the prosing Byzantine
historians alone have kept record of this
connecting link in the great general
chain of art.

Returning to the Greek, however,
Miss Jaixen has succeeded so well in
portraying the idealistic and spiritual
that one could fancy her Greek woman
to be Helen, looking down on the battle-
scourged plains of Troy.

“ When Hope is Enthroned Above,”
photographed by Charles E. Fairman, is
another model of Greek simplicity, show-
ing only the twice-girdled chiton with-
out the shoulder drapery. There is ex-
quisite grace in the figure, but the type
is not as perfectly Greek as that of “ Are
 

“the dead, and the bough she holds must

They the Real,” and the general feeling
of the figure is more modern, in spite
of the plain robe and sandalless feet.
Sandals, by the way, were often the
most expensive items of the toilet ; the
thongs, and the ribbons which bound
them by intricate windings to the feet,
giving opportunity for exquisite extrav-
agance of ornament.

“Only as Dreams,” photographed
by Miss Jennie C. Peet, is full of the
Grecian spirit which strives to make all
calm and beautiful that is connected
with death. The dead have drunk, in
the waters of Lethe, forgetfulness of all
sorrow and strife, and perhaps, when the
peace of Elysian fields has entered their
souls, they will return for another life
upon the earth. The Athenian maid
carries a funeral urn to be placed with

|

Photographed by Jennie C. Peet.

‘“ Only as dreams that are dreamed,
Only as tales that are told,
Now all the joy that I hold
Is but a vision that seemed.”

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
    

Photographed by Wm. H. Kibbe.

“ We have worshipped the moon with our hymns,
And low we have sung to the dance
When the dusk of the twilight dims
And the world grows fair in her glance.”

be the golden one which alone entitles
a living being to cross in Charon’s boat.

It is much to be regretted in this
picture that the chiton escapes in folds
of such even length from under the
mourning-bordered himation or cloak,
giving the effect of a single garment
with the unpardonable anachronism of
a ruffle on the hem.

William H. Kibbe’s enraptured fig-
ure does not have the wreath of Erato,
and is undoubtedly Euterpe, the giver
of pleasure. She does not hold the
characteristic double flute, but then
Euterpe was not confined to that, mak-
ing music on many instruments.

The expression of the face and the
pose are what give charm to this figure,

for the costume, while simple and cor-
rect, errs like that of “1f Once my
Thought were Told,” by Carrie B.
Hicks, in being almost contempora-
neous in the conventional arrange-
ment of its draperies. But it is won-
derful how much conventionalizing
the costume will bear without losing
its beauty or individuality. A touch
of the Grecian does much for a tea-
gown or ball dress, and it seems a
thing not too remote to be wished
that every leisure garment should feel
it. The Greek dress, with its inex-
haustible possibilities of interpreting

its wearer, would be a very gracious

substitute for the stereotyped evening
costume.

If students are correct in gather-
ing from Pausanias, against the au-
thority of other historians, that vir-
gins were admitted to witness the

Photographed by W. B. E. Shufeldt.

259

 

Photographed by W. B. E. Shufeldt.

“Who is losing ?
‘Who is winning 2 ”’

“ After the games.”
260

Olympic games, then W. B. E. Shu-
feldt’s first group is one of maid-
ens watching the contest; the sec-
ond, the confidential discussion of
it afterward.

The bands worn about the head,
as shown in “After the Games,”
often rivalled the sandals for ex-
travagance. There are no exam-
ples among the illustrations of the
mitra or bushel-shaped crown, which
women copied from Ceres, nor of
the tiara worn by Juno and Venus ;
but the net supporting the hair at
the back appears in “ When Even-
ing Cometh On,” and Charles M.
Carter’s “Maiden Binding Roses”
wears, in addition to the fillet, the
wreath of flowers which the Greeks
loved so well.

None of Mr. Carter’s pictures
have any fault of modernness in

 

Photographed by Charles M. Carter.

AMERICAN

   

Photographed by Charles M. Carter.

“Tell me, maiden binding roses,
Art thou binding hearts as well 2”

‘“ Wake into voice each silent string,
And sweep the sounding lyre.”

ART AND ARTISTS.

robe, but it could be wished that the
general tendency of the hair-dressing,
not only in these, but in most of the
photographs, had been more toward
the softly waving locks about the fore-
head of the blonde in “After the
Games.” The dress which Mr. Car-
ter’s figures wear returns to the long
chiton with ends folded over, forming
drapery at the shoulders. This drap-
ery is shorter than that of « Are They
the Real,” with a plain, unbroken bor-
der and a loose girdle. In the last of
his pictures given here, the chiton is
shown dropping from the shoulder, as
it was free to do if the wearer desired,
for there was great liberty as to the
amount of fastening about a chiton.
Sometimes the draping was brought
over the arm and fastened by but-

 

Photographed by Charles E. Fairman.

SALUTE OF THE ROSE.

 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 

Photographed by A. W. Wilson.

   
   

“If dream, turn real ! if vision, stay!”

tons or clasps, so as almost to form
a sleeve, while often among athletic
women there was only one shoulder-
clasp, leaving the other side entirely
free. Spartan women at one time left
one or both sides of the skirt open for
greater freedom of motion, and the
huntresses drew the chiton through
their girdles, shortening them to their
knees.

In “The Salute of the Rose” Mr,
Fairman gives us another of his spir-
ited, graceful figures. At once it takes
us wandering far a-field, amid the beau-
tiful emblematic customs of the Greeks,
who fitted everything with a symbol
and found no beauty of form without
its corresponding beauty of thought,
no thought without its expression in
 

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS. 261

 

Photographed by Charles M. Carter.

“The ghost of vanished joys pursues us everywhere.”

form. It was that constant searching for the correlation between material and
spiritual beauty that made Greece what she was. No common artisan, making the
commonest articles for daily use, but worked at them constantly with the thought

— perhaps unformu-
lated — “ what is fit-
test, what is most
beautiful for this
use?” They knew
well that beauty
means fitness if it be
true beauty, and they
would not cumber
their rougher tools,
crockery and gar-
ments with the awk-
ward burden of ugli-
ness, nor fancy that
ugliness was strength.
When even the com-
mon people of a na-
tion know this price-
less lesson of art, the
influences that sur-
round genius are such
as to foster its fullest
development. Yet the
fascinating ¢ Salute
of the Rose ” has the
same latter - day ex-
pression in the face
that is seen in “ When
Hope is Enthroned
Above,” and to a less
degree in “ What Vis-
ion?” The’ setting
of Mr. Fairman’s pict-
ures. is so correct,
however, and their sentiment so clearly expressed, that he is even forgiven for
their one lack, since ancient Grecian faces are not met at every turn in our nine-
teenth century.

The photograph sent from England by A. W. Wilson, like two of those by Mr.
Carter, has palm-leaves as an appropriate background for the face. The girl's
wrapt eyes are fixed on something beyond our sight, and though her costume is not
as perfect in detail as many of the others, she seems to be seeing some shield-
bearing hero of old Greece whom the rest of us may never see, even though we
haunt the world like Echo, looking as well as calling for him.

These fair visions of another day have occupied the space of this article almost to
the exclusion of a word as to their conjuring. They are shadows in a double sense ;
they give only a suggestion of the form which had a variation for every mood and
thought, and like marbles they leave color to the imagination. Yet, brought
together here, they spread the ideal which the artist is always trying to establish.

 

Photographed by Gertvude Kasebier.

‘ Divinely isolate in mournful thought.”
 

262

THE STUDIO AND THE STAGE
By HILLARY BELL.

With parallel and contrasting illustrations.

IN the discussion of this novel and ingenious theme, it may seem to the unpre-
judiced mind that the painter has been placed ata disadvantage. Through his
judgment in selecting models whose exact depiction by the camera shall hold to
strict accountability the correctness of the brush, the editor brings forward instances
of nature which art finds it difficult to discover. If the studio had those opportu-
nities which are now felicitously employed by the magazine, there would be more
triumphs on canvas and fewer anxieties at the easel.

The young women who, in the illustrations of this paper, have embodied the
ideas of several famous palettes, are particular types, not general examples, of the
graces of their sex. Such a complete and agreeable union of feminine form, color,
mobility, beauty and variety of expression cannot be engaged by the most ambi-
tious artist. The painting is a composite, while the photograph is an entirety.
The canvases herewith reproduced may be, and no doubt are, studies of various
models blended into a symmetric portrayal of thought in the alchemy of the artist’s
imagination. But the actresses whose abundance of mental intelligence and phys-
ical charm has enabled us to draw these decisive contrasts between life and art,
contain the whole matter in themselves. They are extraordinarily endowed by nat-
ure as well as thoroughly equipped by training for the visual expression of senti-

 

From a photograph of Miss Isabelle Urquhart.
IPHIGENIA,

From a painting by Paul.

AMERICAN ART AND ARTISTS.

ment. Their gifts of inheritance have
been improved by a study of taste.
The constant portrayal of simple and
complex emotions necessitated by their
profession, renders them qualified to
represent with ease and thoroughness
any theme that may be required. The
stiffness of pose, awkwardness of line
and dulness of expression that the
painter has to combat in his hired mod-
el, would not confront his brush if it
were engaged in delineating the graces
of women whose business in life it is
to depict every temperament save their
own. Further than this, there is a con-
siderable difference between the ease
of sitting before the camera for two
seconds, and the hard work of posing
in the studio for a month.

Being thus assisted by nature, art
and accident in the illustration of all
the moods of womanhood, it may be
observed that an actress who has in-
creased her native gifts by judicious education is hindered by no such difficulties in
the expression of an idea as those that frequently beset the painter. In the re-
productions of Paul’s canvas and a modern photograph there can be no question

 

From a photograph of Miss Viola Allen,
suggested by the painting by NN. Sichel.

SUMMER.

From a photograph of Miss Jennie Goldthwaite.
IN TURKISH COSTUME.
of the general superiority in
pose, line, drapery and expres-
sion of the player’s “ Iphige-
nia >’ over that of the painter.
It may be urged with some
reason that in this picture
Miss Urquhart resembles Cly-
temnestra more than the hap-
less daughter, whose death
was demanded by Diana. But
in the maturity of the face we
find a pathos of woe and elo-
quence of expression that
seem as natural to the char-
acter as they would be incon-
gruous in early girlhood.

AMERICAN

  

   

From a photograph of Miss Gladys Wallis.

SAUCY.

Miss Urquhart’s pose is more unconsciously graceful,

the carriage of the head is easier, the curve of the back is more subtly shown, and
the right arm and hand are nearer to nature than in Paul’s celebrated work. There

is more poetry in the canvas than can be discovered in the photograph.

But the

actress has a tragic reality that the cunning of the artist was not quite able to

convey.

Miss Viola Allen, whose dramatic skill is employed in channels wholly separate

IN THOUGHT.

 

From a photograph of Miss Jennie Goldthwaite.

and removed from those of her sister
actress, is not so successful in imitating
Sichel’s “Summer.” This lady, although
one of the cleverest and most attractive
performers on our stage, has not fully
grasped the idea of the artist. In the
poetic feeling of Sichel’s brush we find
memories of spring, while in the photo-
graph we have suggestions of autumn.
The painter has given us the bloom and
beauty of womanhood softened by tender
sentiment, but the actress offers us a sum-
mer that is past and already touched by
the early frosts of sorrow. As a compo-
sition, the photograph compares favorably
with the painting, but in the expression of
a theme so genial as this the brush is more
eloquent than the camera.

A painter could have found no finer
model than Miss Goldthwaite for “In
Turkish Costume,” nor could a hundred
charcoal studies have expressed the luxuri-
ous languor of the figure more admirably
than it has been told by this engaging
actress. Yet it is easy to note various
faults of the lens that might be amended

ART

AND ARTISTS. :

by the brush. There is a certain stiffness in the
head and right hand which would not be allowed
on canvas; the left arm is not wholly graceful,
and there is a lack of modelling in the drapery
that destroys the artistic importance of the legs.
In the torso and hips the photographic depiction
of life has a realism that can scarcely be sur-
passed in beauty and interest by idealistic art.
But in many matters of this composition the
camera does not discomfit the palette.

Miss Gladys Wallis, the pocket Venus of the
stage, could scarcely retain this subtle sensuality
of expression long enough for the painter to catch
it with that fidelity which the lens conveys. But
although an artist might have failed in seizing
thetempt-
ing sauci-
ness of
her eyes,
mouth

 

  

From a photograph of Miss Ada Lewis,
suggested by the painting by P. Thumann.

ELLEN.

that in small, evanescent things the
camera comes nearer to reality than
the brush. But having caught the ex-
act spirit of an expression, it generally
retires from a task that can be com-
pleted only by the painter. We have
no artist who could arrive at the mis-
chievous look in this young woman’s
half-closed eyes, or depict the allur-
ing pout of her lip, or convey the
diaphanous nature of her drapery so
easily as these particulars are shown
by photography. Yet the ensemble of
the photograph is awkward and mean-
ingless, two qualities that must un-

gracefully.

263

  

4

From a photograph of Miss Annie O’ Neill,

suggested by the painting by J. Leick.

TRANQUIL HAPPINESS.

and quivering chin, he would depict the
pretty girl’s nose, hair and arms more
In this, as in all other photo-
graphs of the female figure, we observe

From a photograph of Miss Viola Allen,
suggested by the painting by M. Nonnenbruch.

IN GEDANKEN.
264

consciously be avoided by anyone
who made a lengthened study of the
young actress.

In an art that relies on fancy as
much as on fact Miss Goldthwaite
would not have been posed exactly
in the attitude she assumed before
the camera for her portrayal of “In
Thought.” Thinking she certainly

1s. But it is evidently not the rev-
erie of girlhood that a painter would
convey in carrying out such a theme.
If this photograph were a charcoal
sketch ready to receive its first wash
of color, the artist’s friends would

 

From a photograph of Miss Ada Lewis,
suggested by the painting by G. Schaltegger.

IN GEDANKEN,

we discover a young woman who
is beautiful alike in person and in
mind, a graceful, slender arm against
which the brow is easily resting, the
requisite curve of the neck, a youth-
ful form, and a face full of sensibil-
ity and imagination. Miss Lewis as
“Ellen” is not so successful as the
painter's study. Yet it is a most
interesting head that she gives us,
which only requires a finer grada-
tion of lights and a better treatment
of shadows to become as artistic to
the eye as it is fascinating to the
mind.

This is a very excellent illustra-

From a photograph of Miss Gladys Wallis.

AMERICAN

 

TRANQUIL.

exhort him to cut off part of the right
hip, to throw the abdomen back an
inch or so, and to lend a more grace-
ful repose to the right arm. These
errors corrected, the pose of the head is
capital and the simplicity of the drap-
ery is delightful. Miss Viola Allen’s as
Nonnenbruch’s “In Gedanken,” which
is the same theme, conveys the idea
better. But here, also, we observe an
ungraceful method of the hands and a
certain fixed quality in the lower drap-
ery which the painter would hasten to
alter. The most complete and pleas-
ing portrayal of this subject is offered
in the pose of Miss Ida Lewis for
Schaltegger’s “In Gedanken.” Here

 

From a photograph of Miss Jennie Goldthwaite.

TIRED.

 

ART AND ARTISTS.

tion by Miss O'Neill of Leick’s ¢ Stilles Gluck.”
The painter has drawn a more sensitive nostril
than the actress shows in her photograph ; but
he has managed the pose, the soft shadows, the
faint suggestion of muscles in the neck and the
careless hair with no better skill than the camera
has repeated. Miss Gladys Wallis in repose,
after the lively expression of her earlier mood,
is a suggestion of perfect ne¢g/igé which a paint-
er might carry into story-telling, but which he

     
    

wr ol
From a photograph of Miss Gladys Wallis,
suggested by the painting by IN. Sichel.

could not easily surpass in the feeling of las-
situde. Miss Jennie Goldthwaite, fatigued by
her effort at thinking lies on a neighboring
lounge in an attitude that even the impres-
sionistic artist would not waste time to consider.
Miss Wallis worth serious thought in its relation to art, inasmuch as the manifest
The final contest

WOMAN OF THEBES.
Nor is the smaller picture of

awkwardness of the arms would be impossible in the studio.
between the lens and the brush, in this instance, has resulted in another triumph
of Miss Urquhart over the model who preceded her for Sichel’s “In Bondage.”
Here we find the distinction between life and art very strongly marked, with the
merits of the composition generally in favor of the actress. The realist and the
idealist can choose between these rival treatments of a single theme.

By these parallel examples of real life and its artistic presentment it will
be seen that, however clever the camera may be, our painters are in no serious
danger of its rivalry. The studio model is amiable, beautiful and seductive, but
seems to be in the bondage of love rather than of fetters.

a“

From a photograph of Miss Isabelle Urquhart.

From a painting by N. Sichel.

   

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