Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/artinamericacrit00benj_0 t PORTRAIT OF A LADY.-CJOHN SINGLETON COPLEY.] AET IN AMEEICA A CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL SKETCH BY S. G. W. BENJAMIN AUTHOR OF “CONTEMPORARY ART IN EUROPE” “WHAT IS ART” &c. ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK HARPER it r>ROTlTERS, rUP>LT?;nERS F R A N K IE N SQUARE 1880 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879', by HARPER & BROTHERS, In the Office of the Liljrarian of Congress, at Washington. ERRATUM. The cut on page 28, attributed to Rembrandt Beale, should be credited to John T. Peele. PREFACE. The aim of tins book has been to give a historical outline of the o;rowtli of the arts in America. But while this has been the dominatiiio' idea in the mind of the writer, criticism has necessarily entered, more or less, into the preparation of the work, since only by weighing the differ- ences or the comparative merits of those artists who seemed best to illus- trate the various phases of American art has it been possible to trace its progress from one step to another. It is from no lack of appreciation of their talents that the author has apparently neglected mention of the American artists resident in foreign capitals — like Bridgman, Dnveneck, Wight, Aeal, Bacon, Benson, Ernest Barton, Millet, Whistler, Dana, Blashfield, Miss Gardner, Miss Conant, and many others who have done credit to American aesthetic culture. But it was necessary to draw the line somewhere ; and to discuss what our artists are painting abroad would have at once enlarged the scope of the work beyond the limits of the plan adopted. An exception has been made in the case of our sculptors, because they have so uniformly lived and wrought in Europe, and so largo a proportion of them are still resi- dent there, that, were we to confine this branch of the subject only to the sculptors now actually in America, there would be little left to say about tlieir department of our arts. The author takes this occasion cordially to thank the artists and ama- teurs who have kindly permitted copies of their paintings and drawings to be engraved for this volume. CONTENTS. I. Page EAllLY AMERICAN ART .... 13 II. AMERICAN PAINTERS (1828-1878) . . o » . . 39 III. AMERICAN PAINTERS (1828-1878) 66 IV. AMERICAN PAINTERS (1828-1878) 97 V. SCULPTURE IN AMERICA 134 AM. PRESENT TENDENCIES OF AMERICAN ART 164 ILLUSTRATIONS Subject. Portrait of a Lady Family of Bishop Berkeley Death on the Pale Horse Death of Montgomery General Knox “Beggar’s Opera” “Babes in the Wood” Fanny Kemble Ariadne The Hours Jeremiah Dying Hercules “ Mumble the Peg” Portrait of Parke Godwin Portrait of Fletcher Harper An Ideal Head The Judgment of Paris Miranda A Surprise Taking the Veil Desolation. From “ The Course of Empire A Study from Nature Noon by the Sea-siiore. — Beverly Beach . Altorf, Birth-place of William Tell . . Brook in the Woods Landscape Composition . . ., “ The Vasty Deep” High Torn, Rockland Lake The Parsonage Landscape with Cattle . Sunset on the Hudson A Composition A Winter Scene Ship of “The Ancient Mariner” . . . . “ Whoo !” Lafayette in Prison Portrait of a Lady The Refuge Cartoon Sketch: (,’hrist and Nicodemus View on the Kern ILver The Yosemite The Bathers Landscape County Kerry The Adirondacks Artist. John Singleton Copley John Srnybert .... Benjamin West .... Jolcn Trambnll .... Gilbert Stuart .... G. Stuart JSfeu'ton . Rembrandt Peale . . . Thomas Sully .... Jolm Vanderlyn E. G. Mcdbone .... Washington Allston . . Samuel F. B. Morse . . Henry htman .... Thomas Le Clear . . . C. L. Elliott G. A. Baker Henry Peters Grey . . Daniel Huntington William Sidney Mount . Robert Weir Thomas Cole . . . . A. B. Durand .... J. F. Ke'usett .... George X. Brown . Worthington Whittredge . R. W. Hubbard .... William T. Richards . . Jasper F. Cropjsey . . . A. F. Bellows . . . . James Hart Sandford R. Gifford . Frederick E. Church . . Ixjuis R. Mignot . James Hamilton William If. Beard . E. Lvutze WilVuon Page . . . . BJlihu Vedder . . . . John L((farge .... A. Iiierst((dt f'homas Hill Thomas Moran .... Jervis MJhitcc . . . . A. If Wyant . . . . Jfomer Martin . . . . Page Frontispiece . . . 16 . . . 19 . . . ‘23 . . . 25 ... 27 . . . 28 ... 29 ... 30 ... 32 ... 34 . . . 35 ... 40 ... 43 . . . 45 ... 48 . . . 50 ... 53 ... 55 ... 57 ... 59 ... 61 ... 63 ... 64 ... 67 ... 70 ... 72 ... 74 . . . 75 ... 77 . . . 80 . . . 82 ... 84 . . . 85 ... 87 . . . 89 ... 91 . . . 93 . . . 95 . . . 99 . . . 100 . . . K»1 . . . 104 . . . 105 . . . 107 10 ILLUSTRATIONS. Subject. Aktist. A Landscape . . . . Ship Ashore . . . . A Foggy Morning . . A ]\Iarine Arguing the Question . The Rose Dress Parade . . . . A Red-time Story . . The Mother . . . . Sail-boat J. W. Casilear . M. F. H. De Haas W. E. Norton , Arthur Quartley T. IF. Wood . . B. F. Mayer . J. 6r. Broum . S. J. Guy Fastninn Johnson Winslow Homer. The Scout On the Old Sod “ A !Matin Song ” Study op a Dog Dost in the Snow Rye before the Fall . Orpheus Columbus before the Council. From the Bronze Door OF THE Capitol at Washington The Chost in “Hamlet” (Jeorge Washington Medea The Promised Land Latona and her Infants Zenobia Wordsworth Thompson William Mag rath . Fidelia Bridges .... F'rank Rogers . . . . A. F. Tait Hiram Rowers . . . Thomas Crcuoford . Randolph Rogers Thomas R. Gould J. Q. A. ]lard jniliean Wet more Story . Franklin Simmons . . . . IF. H. Rbiehart Harriet Jlosrner Evening Bust of Wmlliam Page Abraham Pierson The Charity I'atient The ^VHIRLWIND Adoration of the Cross by Angels. St. Thomas's Church, New York Thomas .Jefferson’s Idea of a Monument The Mowing Birds in the Forest Representing the Manner of Peter’s Courtship . . Some Art Connoisseurs Washington opening the Bali Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Astonished Abbe A (Child’s Portrait A Bit of Venice The Old Orchard A Landscape La Marguerette — the Daisy Moonlight Baying a (Jood Time Southampton, Long Island A Study The Burgomaster Burial of the Dead Bird The Apprentice The Professor The Goose-herd A Spanish Lady Study of a Boy’s Head F. 1). Ralrner . . . . William R. O' Donovan . Launt Thompson . John Rogers J. S. Hartley . . . . Augustus St. Gaudens Alfred, Fredericks AUss Jessie Ctirtis Howard Pyle Jl" Hamilton Gibson . . . . 0. S. Reinhart E. M. Abbey B. C. Porter Samuel Colman .... R. Swain Gijford . . . . George Inness William AT. Hunt . . . . John J. Enneking . . . . Inmis C. Tiffany . . . . C. II. Aliller Frederick Diehnan II. Aluhrman J. Alden Wier William AI. Chase . . . . Thomas Eakins Wedter Shirlaiv Alary S. Cassatt . . . . B^. Sartain Page . 109 . Ill . 112 . 114 . 116 . 118 . 120 . 121 . 123 . 124 . 126 . 12Y . 129 . 130 . 132 . 135 . 137 . 139 . 141 . 143 . 146 . 147 . 150 . 152 . 153 . 155 . 157 . 158 . 159 . 160 . 162 . 165 . 169 . 171 . 173 . 175 . 178 . 181 . 184 . 185 . 187 . 188 . 189 . 191 . 192 . 193 . 195 . 197 . 200 . 201 . 204 . 205 . 208 . 209 AET IN AMEEICA ART IN AMERICA. I. EARLY AAIEEICAN ART, T he art of a nation is the result of centuries of growth ; its crowning excellence does not come except when maturity and repose offer the occasion for its development. But while, therefore, it is yet too soon to look for a great school of art in America, the time has perhaps arrived to note some of the preliminary phases of the art which, we have reason to hope, is to dawn upon the country before long. As the heirs of all the ages, we had a'riglit to expect that our intel- lectual activity would demand art expression ; while the first efforts would naturally be imitative rather than original. The individuality which finds vent in the utterance of truth under new conditions is not full}^ reached until youth gives place to the vigorous self-assertion of a manhood con- scious of its resources and power. Such we find to have been the case in the rise of the fine arts in this countiy, which up to this time have been rather an echo of the art of the lands from which our ancestors came, than distinctively original. Our art has been the result of affectionate remembrance of foreign achievement more than of independent obser- vation of nature; and while the number of artists has been sufficiently large, very few of them stand forth as representatives or types of novel methods and ideas; and those few, coming before their time, have met with little response in the community, and their influence has been gener- ally local and moderate, leading to the founding of nothing like a school excej)t in one or two isolated cases. But many of them, es[)ccially in the first period of our art, have shared the strong, active character of their time; 14 ART IN AMERICA. and, like the lieroes of the Eevolntion, presented sturdy traits of character. And tlms, while the society in whicli they moved was not sufficiently ad- vanced to appreciate the quality of their art, they were yet able to stamp their names indelibly upon the pages of our history. But within the last few years the popular interest in art has grown so rapidly in the countrv — as indicated by the establishment of numerous art sclmols and acade- mies, art galleries, and publications treating exclusively of art subjects, to- gether with many other significant proofs of concern in the subject — that it seems safe to assume that the first preparatory period of American art, so brilliant in many respects, is about closing, and that we are now on the thresliold of another, although it is only scarcely tliree centuries since the first English colonists landed on our shores. The first professional artist of whom there seems to be any record in our colonial liistory was possessor of a title tliat does not often fall to the lot of the artist : he was a deacon. This fact indicates that Deacon Shem Drowne, of Boston town, was not only a cunning artificer in metals and wood-carving, as the old chronicles speak of him, but also a man addicted to none of the small vices that are traditionally connected with the artistic career; for people were very proper in that vicinage in those days of austere virtue and primness, and deacons were esteemed the very salt of the earth. During the first century of our colonial existence local painters, often scarcely deserving the name, are also known to have gained a precarious livelihood by taking meagi’e portraits of the worthies of the period, in black and white or in color. We should know this to have been the fact by the portraits— quaint, and often rude and awkward — which have come down to us, without anything about them to indicate who the artists could have been who painted them. Occasionally a suggestion of talent is evident in those canvases from which the stiff ruffles and bands of the Puritans stare forth at us. Cotton IMather also alludes to a certain artist whom he speaks of as a limner. But in those times there was, however, at best no art in this country, excei>t what was brought over occasionally in the form of family portraits, painted by Yandyck, Kembrandt, Lely, or Kneller. These precious heirlooms, scarcely appreciated by the stern the- ologians of the time, were, however, not without value in advancing the cause of civilization among the wilds of the Western world. Uncon- sciously the minds of coming generations were infiuenced and moulded by tliese reminders of the great art of other lands and ages. Ko human EARLY AMERICAN ART. 15 effort is wasted ; somewhere, at some time, it appears, as the seed sown in October comes forth anew in April, qnichened into other forms, to sustain life under fresh conditions. The first painter in America of any decided ability whose name has survived to this day was John Watson, who executed portraits in Phila- delphia in 1715. He was a Scotchman. It is to another Scotchman, who married and identified himself with the rising fortunes of the colonies, that we are perhaps able to assign the first distinct and decided art im- pulse in this country. And for this we are directly indebted to Bishop Berkeley, whose sagacious eye penetrated so far through the mists of futurity, and realized the coming greatness of the land. Berkeley is associated with the literature and arts of America in sev- eral ways. He aided the advance of letters by a grant of books to A ale College, and by founding the nucleus of what later became the Bedwood Library at Newport; thus indirectly suggesting architectural beauty to a people without examples of it, for in 1750 a bnilding was erected for the library that sprang from his benefactions. The design was obtained from Yanbrngh, one of the greatest architects of modern times; and al- though the little library is constructed only of wood and mortar, its plan is so pleasing, tasteful, and harmonious, that it long remained the most graceful structure in the colonies; and even at this day is scarcely ecpial- led on the continent as a work of art by many far more costly and ambitious constj'uctions after the Benaissance order. And, finally, we owe to Bishop Berkeley the most notable impulse which the dawning arts received in this country. .when he induced John Smybert, the Scotchman, to leave London in 1725 and settle in Boston, wliere he had the good fort- une to marry a rich widow, and lived prosperous and contented until his death, in 1751. Smyhert w^as not a great painter. If he had remained in Europe his position never would have been more than respectable, even at an age when the arts were at a low ebb. But he is entitled to our grat- itude for perpetuating for us the lineaments of many Avorthies of the period, and for the undoubted impetus his example gave to the artists who were about to come on the scene and assert the right of the New ATorld to exercise its energies in the encouragement of the fine arts. It is by an ap- ])arently unimportant incident that the infiuencc of Smyhert to our early art is most vividly illustrated. He brought with him to America an excellent coj)y of a Yandyck, executed by himself; and several of our ar- 16 ART IN AMERICA. lists, including Allston, acknowledged that a sight of this copy affected them like an inspiration. The most important work of Smybert in this country is a group representing the family of Bishop Berkeley, now in the art gallery at New Haven. A flock of foreign portrait-painters, following the example of Smybert, now canie over to tliis country, and rendered good service in perpetuating the faces of the notable cliaracters and beau- ties of the time; but none of them were of special moment, excepting, perhaps, Blackburn and Alexander. But their labor bore fruit in pre- paring the way for the successes of Copley. -The first native American FAillLY OF BISHOP BERKELEY. [jOHN SMYBERT.] painter of merit of whom there is any authentic record was Bober t Feke, who was of Quaker descent, and settled in Newport, where portraits of his are still to be seen, notably that of tiie beautiful wife of Governor Wanton, which is preserved in the Bedwood Library. AV hat little art-education he received resulted from his being taken prisoner at sea and carried to Spain, where he contrived to acquire a few hints in the use of pigments. Feke was a man of undoubted ability ; and the same may be said of Matthew Pratt, of Philadelphia, who was born in 1734-, in respect of age antedating EAELY AMEEICAX AET. IT botli Copley and West, although not known until after they had acquired fame, because for inany years he contented himself with the })ainting of signs and house decorations. But the latent aesthetic capacity of the colonies displayed itself sud- denly when John Singleton Copley, at the early age of seventeen, after only the most rudimentary instruction, adopted art as a profession. But, although a professional and successful artist at so early an age, Copley seems to have been preceded in assuming the calling of artist by a Quaker lad of Pennsylvania, one year his junior, but evincing a turn for art at an earlier age, when hardly out of the cradle. The birth of a national art has scarce!}" ever been more affecting or remarkable than that recorded in the first efforts of Benjamin West. lie was born at Springfield, Pennsylvania, in 173S, a year after Copley. The scientist of the future may perhaps show ns that it was something more than a coincidence that the six leading painters of the first period of American art came in pairs: Copley and West in 1737 and 1738; Stuart and Trumbull were born in 175G ; A^andeifyn arrived in 177G; and All- ston followed only three years later. The descendants of the iconoclasts who had beaten down statues and burned mastei-pieces of art, who had cropped their hair and passed sumpt- uary laws to fulfil the dictates of their creed, and had sought a wilderness across the seas where they conld maintain their rigid doctrines unmolested, were now about to vindicate the character of tlieir fathers. They were now to prove that the love of beauty is universal and unquenchable, and that sooner or later every })eople, kindred, and tongue seeks to utter its aspirations after the ideal good by art forms and methods; and that the sternness of the Puritans had been really directed, not so much against art and beauty legitimately employed, as against the abuse of the purest and noblest emotions of the soul by a debasing art. As if to emphasize the truth of these observations, as well as of the famous prophecy of Bishop Berkeley, tlie artist to whom American art owes its rise, and for many years its greatest source of encouragement, was named West, and was of Quaker lineage. Such was the rude condi- tion of the arts in the neighboifiood at tliat time that the first initiation of AVest into art was as simple as that of Giotto. At nine years of age lie drew hairs from a cat’s tail and made himself a brush. Colors he obtain- ed by grinding charcoal and chalk, and crusliing the red blood out from ‘3 18 ART IN AMERICA. tlie blackberry. Ilis inotlier’s lamiclry furnislied him with indigo, and the friendly Indians who came to his father’s house gave him of the red and yellow earths with which they daubed their faces. With such rude mate- ]-ials the lad painted a child sleeping in its cradle; and in that first effort of precocious genius executed certain touches which he never surpassed, as he affirmed long after, when at the zenith of his remarkable career. How, fi’om such primitive efforts, the Quaker youth gradually woibed into local fame, went to Italy and acquired position there, and then settled in England, became the favorite i^rotkje of the king for forty years, and the President of the IS'ational Academy of Great Britain — these are all matters of history, and, as West never forgot his love for his native land, entitle him to the respectful I’emembrance not only of artists, but of all his countrymen. American art has eveiy I’eason, also, to cherish his mem- oiy with profound gratitude, for no painter ever conducted himself with greater kindness and generosity to the rising, struggling ai-tists of his na- tive land. No sooner did our early painters reach London but they resort- ed, for aid and guidance, to West, and found in him a friend who lent them his })owerfnl influence Avithout grudging, or allowed them to set up their easels in his studio, and gave them all the insti'iiction in his power. Trumbull, Stuart, Dunlap, and many others, lung after they had forgotten the natural foibles of West, had reason to remember how great had been the services he had rendered to the aspiring artists of his transatlantie home. Since the death of West — Avhom Ave must consider one of the greatest men our country has produced — it has become the fashion to deci*y his art and belittle his character. This seems to be a mistake which reflects discredit upon his deti’actors. Afen should be judged not absolutely, but I’elatively ; not compared Avith ])erfe(dion, but Avith their contemporaries and their op|)ortunities. In estimating men of the j)ast, also, Ave need to put ourselves in their places, rather than to I'egard them by the standard of the age in Avhich Ave live. In no pm’snit are men more likely to be misjudged than in art; for artists are liable to be guided by impulse rather than judgment, and the very vehemence of their likes and dislikes renders their opinions intense rather than broad and charitable. Benja- min West appears to have been born Avith great natural powers, Avhich matured rapidly, and early ceased to develop in excellence proportionate to his extraordinary industry and fidelity to art. EARLY AMERICAN ART. 19 Blit while a general evenness of quality rather than striking excellence in any particular works was the characteristic of the art of West, together with a certain lirick-red tone in his colors not always agreeable, yet a share of genius must be granted to the artist who painted the “ Departure “dkatii on the pale horse.” — [benjamin west.] of Begulns,” “ Death on the Pale Horse,” and “ The Death of Wolfe.” It unquestionably implied daring and consciousness of power to brave the opposition of contein[)orary opinions and abandon classic costume in his- torical compositions as Jie did; to win to his side the judgment of Sir Joshua Peynolds, and create a revolution in certain phases of art. Kot- withstanding this, however. West was emphatically a man of his time, moulded by it rather than forming it, and inclined to conventionalism. AVhen he entered the arena, art was in a depressed condition both in Italy, where he studied, and in England. But while Reynolds and Gainsbor- ough gave a fresh iiiq)ulse to art. West’s genius, lujiening precociously, early became incapable of achieving further progress. West established himself as a portrait-painter at the age of lifteen: and in the following year — 1755 — Copliw also engaged in the same ]uir- suit, when onl}^ seventeen. The former lived to be seventy-nine; the latter wtis seventy-eight at his death. The art-life of Copley must be considered the most indigenous and strictly American of the two. Although receiv- 20 AET IN AMERICA. iiig some early instruction from his step-father, Pelliam, and enjoying opportunities denied to West, of studying portniits by foreign artists, yet Copley’s advantages were ex^iessively meagre; and whatever successes he achieved with his brush, until he finally settled in England at the age of thirty-nine, were entirely his own, and can be proudly included among the most valued treasures of our native art. So highly were the abilities of Copley esteemed in his day, that years before he crossed the Atlantic his reputation had preceded him, and assured him ready patronage in London. It is said that Copley was a very slow and laborious worker. The elaboration he gave to the details of costume doubtless recpiired time. But if the popular opinion was correct, we must assume that many of the paintings now reputed to be by his hand are spurious. It is a common saying that a Copley in a New England family is almost ecpiivalent to a title of nobility; and this veiy fact would lead inauy to attribute to him family portraits l)y forgotten artists, who had, perhaps, caught the trick of his style. But there yet remain enough well authenticated porti’aits by this great painter, in excellent preservation, to render the study of his works one of great interest to the art student. There is no mistaking the handling of Copley. Self-taught, his merits and defects are entirely his own. Ilis style was open to the charge of excessive dryness; the outlines are sometimes hard, and the figures stiff almost to ungracefulness. The last fault was, however, less noticeable in the formal, stately characters and costumes of the time than it would be under different conditions. In Copley’s best compositions these errors are scarcely perceptible. He was far superior to West as a colorist, and was especially felicitous in catching the expression of the eye, and reproducing the elegant dress of the period ; while we have had no artist who has excelled him in perceiv- ing and interpreting the individuality and character of the hand. A very fine example of his skill iu this respect is seen in the admirable portrait of Mrs. Belief Gill, taken when she was eighty years old. Gilbert Stuart remarked of the hand iu the portrait of Colonel Epes Sargent, “Prick that hand, and blood will spurt out.” It is indeed a masterpiece. No painter was ever more iu sympathy with his age than Copley; and thus, when we look at the admirable portraits in which his genius commemorated the commanding characters of those colonial days, in their brilliant and mas- sive uniforms, their brocades and embroidered velvets, and choice laces and scarfs, the imagination is carried back to the past with irresistible force, EARLY AMERICAN ART. 21 while, at the same time, we are astonished at tlie ability which, with so little training, could give immortality both to his contemporaries and his own pencil. While the fame of Copley will ultimately rest on the masterly portraits which he bequeathed to posterity, yet it will not be forgotten that he was one of the ablest historical painters of his time. The compositions entitled the “Boy and the Squirrel,” painted in Boston, the “Death of Major Pier- son,” and the “Death of Chatham,” will contribute for ages to the fame of one of the most important American artists of the last century. Charles Wilson Beale, the next artist of reputation in the colonies, owes liis celebrity partly to accidental circumstances. Of course a certain degree of ability is implied in order that one may know how to turn the winds of fortune to the best account when they veer in his favor. But in some cases, as with Copley and West, man seems to wrest fate to his advantage; while in otlieis she appears actually to throw herself in his way, and offer him opportunities denied to othei’S. At any rate, it seems no injustice to ascribe the continued fame of Charles Wilson Peale to the fact that he was enabled to associate his art with the name of Washington ; and that his son, Bemhrandt, by also following art pursuits, was able to emphasize the fame of the family name. Peale the elder was not a spe- cialist; he was rather, like so many born in America, gifted with a general versatility that enabled him to succeed moderately well in whatevei’ he undertook, without achieving the highest excellence in any department. Inclining alteniately to science and mechanics, he finally drifted into art, went over to England and studied with West, and returned to America in time to enter the army and rise to the rank of colonel. Ilis versatile turn of mind is well illustrated by one who says that “he sawed his own ivory for his miniatures, moulded the glasses, and made the shagreen cases.” It was the good fortune of Peale to paint several excellent portraits of Washington, representing him during the military part of his career, both before and during the Bevolution. Lacking many of the qualities of good art, those portraits ai’o yet faithful and characteristic likenesses of the Father of his Country, and as such are of great interest and value. It is to another Bevolutionary soldier of superior natural ability. Col- onel John Trumbull, that the country is indebted for a pi’oof of the na- tional turn for the fine aids. The son of Jonathan Trumbull, Colonial Govei'iior of Comiecticnit, ho recei\'ed a classical education at Harvard 22 ART IN AMERICA. Universit}^ Eat here, again, observe tlie far-reaching influence of one act. That copy, already alluded to, which was executed by Sinybert after a work of Yandyck — the great painter who was welcomed to tlie banquet- ing halls of merry England by Charles I. and Henrietta Maria — was again to bear fruit. It inspired the genius of Tj’umbull with a passion for color while yet in his youth, and ultimately led to his becoming a great historical painter. But first he had to undergo the discipline of war, which gave him that experimental knowledge of which he afterward made such good use. Of a high spirit and proud, irascible temper, Trumbull served with distinction; first as aid to Washington, tlien as major at the storming of the works of Eurgoyne at Sai'atoga ; and he had reaehed a colonelcy, when he threw up his commission and went over to England, and became a student of West, whose style is perceptible in many of the works of the younger artist. If inequality is one sign of genius, then Trumbull possessed it to a marked degree. The difference in merit between his best paintings, which were chiefly composed in England, and those he executed in this country, in the later years of his life, is remarkable. This probalfly was due in part to the lack of any appreciable art influences or pati'onage in his own country to stimulate the artistic alflatus. The talents of Trumbull Avere conspicuous in portialture and historical ])ainting. The energy of his nat- ure is illustrated in such ipowerful portraits as those of Washington and Hamilton. Deficient in draAving, and unlike in details of feature, they are life-like in their general resemblance, and seem to thrill Avith the spirit of the original. ATe see before us the heroes avIio conducted tlie struggling colonies successfully to military independence and political freedom. Trumbull’s miniatures in oil of many of the men Avho Avere prominent in the lie volution are also very spirited and characteristic, and of inestima- ble historic value. He Avas less successful in the representation of femi- nine beauty. His talents moved Avithin a limited range, but Avithin that narroAV circle displayed certain excellences quite rare in the Anglo-Saxon art of that period, exhibiting a correct feeling for color, keen perception of character, and great force of expression. But let him stray beyond the compass of his poAA^ers, as in the representation of AAmman, and his coloring becomes unnatui-al and his draAving inexpressive. The art of this great painter, for so AA^e must call him in vieAV of some of his AAmrks, culminated in the historical compositions entitled ‘"The Sign- EAKLY AMERICAN ART. 23 ing of the Declaration of Independence,” ‘‘The Siege of Gibraltar,” and the immortal compositions representing tlie “Death of Montgomery” and tlie “Battle of Bunker Hill.” The last two wei-e not surpassed by any similar works in the last century, and thus far stand alone in American historical painting. Cabinet in size, they combine breadth and detail to an nnusnal degree. The faces are in miniature, in many cases portraits from life. They could be cut out and framed as portraits; each also is stamped with the individ- ual passions of that terrible hour — hate, exultation, pain, courage, sorrow, despair. And yet with all this truth of detail the general spirit and effort DKATll OF MONTOOMFUY. [jOHN TKUMBULL.J of the scene is preserved. The onward movement, the rush, the onset of war, the harmony of lines, the massing of chiaro-oscitro^ the brilliance and truth of (iolor, ai‘e all there. One lirst gazes astonished at the skill of the artist, and ends b}^ feeling his heart stirred and his emotions shaken as the leaves of the forest are blown by the winds of Octobei’, and his syni})a- thies carried away by the grandeur and the terror of battle. Yes, when John Ti’iimbull [)ainted those two [)ictui’es, he was inspired by the tires of 24 : ART IN AMEEICA. genius for once in liis life. Ills later historical works are so inferior in all respects as scarcely to seem to be by the same hand. Trumbull lived to see a taste for the arts growing up among Ids fellow- countrymen, and the awakening of the first feeble attempts to furnish art instruction in his native land to the artists of the future. He was Presi- dent of the Academy of Fine Arts, of which he was one of the founders. In the same year with Trumbidl was born the greatest colorist and portrait-painter we have seen on this side of the Atlantic, Gilbert Stuart. The town of Narragansett, in the little State of Rhode Island, was the birth- place of this painter, who came of Scotch and AYelsh descent, an alliance of blood whose individual traits were well illustrated in the life and char- acter of the painter. Fortune was becoming a little kinder to our artists. Stuart’s dawning genius was directed at Xewport by Cosmo Alexander, a Scotch portrait- painter of some merit, who took his pupil to Scotland and placed him in charge of Sir George Chambers. After various vicissitudes, comprising, as with so many of our early painters, an art appienticeship in the studio of West, the young Ameri<;an artist settled for awhile abroad, and acquired such repute that he rivalled Sir Joshua Reynolds in the popular esteem: his brush was in demand by the first in the land; and the unfortunate Louis XVI. was included among his sitters. After this, in 1793, Stuart returned to America, painted the portraits of the leading citizens in our chief cities, and finally settled in Poston. The most important works he executed iu this country were his well-known portraits of Washington, in- cluding the famous full-length painting, which represents the great man, not in the ])rime of his active days, as represented by Peale and Trumbull, but when, crowned with glory and honor in the majesty of a serene old age, he was approaching the sunset of life. The character of Stuart was one of marked peculiarities, and offers points of interest scarcely equalled by that of any other American artist. The canny shrewdness and penetrating perception of the Scotchman was mellowed almost to the ])oint of inconsistency by the warm and supple traits of his Welsh ancestry. An admirable story-teller himself, he iu turn gave rise, by his oddities, to many racy anecdotes, some of which have been treasured up and well told by Dunlap, who, although inferior as a painter, deserves to be cordially remembered for his discursive but valua- ble book on early American painting. EARLY AxMERICAN ART. 25 As regards the art of Stuart, it can be safely affirmed tliat America lias produced no painter who has been more unmistakably entitled to rank among men of genius as distinguished from those of talent. We assume GENERAL KNOX. [GILBERT STUART.] tliat the difference between the two is not one of degree, but of kind. In the intellectual progress of the world the first leads, the other follows. One may have great talents, and yet really not enrich the world witli a single new idea, fie simply assents to the acce[)ted, and lends it the aid of his iKiwers. Ihit genius, not content witli things as they are, either gives ns new truths or old truths In a now form. The greatest minds — Cmsar, Shakspeare, Goethe, Franklin — jircsent ns with a just combinatipn of genius and talent: they both create and organize. Aow, one may have 26 ART IN AMERICA. great or little genius, but so far as lie tells us something worth knowing in his own way, it is genius as distinguished from talent. And this is why we say that Stuart liad genius. He followed no beaten track, he gave in his allegiance to no canons of the schools. His eagle eye pierced the secrets of nature according to no prescribed rules. Not satisfied with surfaces or accessories, he gave us character as well. Nor did he rest here. In the technical requirements of his art he stands original and alone. Tliat seemingly hard, practical Scotch nature of his was yet attuned like a delicate chord to the melody of color. Few more than he ha\’e felt the subtle relation between sound and color — for he was also a musician. In the handling of pigments, again, he stands pre-emi- nent among the artists of his generation. Why is it that his colors are as brilliant, as pure, as forcible, as harmonious, to-day as when he laid them on the canvas nearly a century ago? If you carefully examine his pict- ures you shall see one cause of the result explained. He had such con- fidence in his powers, and such technical mastery, that he needed not to experiment with treacherous vehicles; and, rarely mixing tints on tlie ]'>alette, laid pure blues, reds, or yellows directly on the canvas, and slight- ly dragged them together. Thus he was able to render the stippled, mot- tled semblance of color as it actually ap])ears on the skin ; to suggest, also, the prismatic effect Avhich all objects have in nature; and, at the same time, l)y keeping the colors a[)art, to insure their permanence. Stuart generiilly painted thinly, on large-grained canvas, Avhich gave the picture the softness of atmosphere. Hut sometimes, as in the case of the powei’ful portrait of General Knox, he loaded his colors. But even in that work he did not depart from his usual practice in ]-endering the flesh tints. It has l)een alleged by some that Stuart was unable to do justice to the delicate beauty of woman, especially the refined type which is character- istic of the llnited States. He may have more often failed in this regard than in other efforts; but the force of the accusation disappears when one observes the extraordinaiw loveliness of such portraits as that of Mrs. For- rester, the sister of Judge Story, at Salem. But, indeed, it seemed to make little difference to him who the sitter happened to be. He entered into the nature of the individual, grasped the salient traits of his character, and, whether it was a seaman or a statesman, a triumphant general or a rei-gning belle, his unerring eye and his matchless brush rendered justice to them all. EARLY AMERICAN ART. 27 Gilbert Stuart Newton, the nephew of Stuart, is a painter well known in England, where he early established himself; and, having been born at Halifax, and always I’emained a British subject, he more properly belongs to foreign art. But his education was gained in the studio of his uncle in Boston, and his style shows unmistakable traces of the teacher’s methods. Newton executed some good portraits before abandoning his native land, including one of John Adams, which is in the Massachusetts Historical Society. He is known abroad chiefly as a genre painter of semi-literary compositions. James Erothinghain was also a pupil, and in some degree an imitator, of Stuart, who possessed nnnsual ability in portraiture, but it was contined to the painting of the head. Whether from the lack of early advantages — which was so i-emarkable that he had not even seen a palette when, self- taught, he was able to execute a very tolerable likeness — or because of natural limitation of power, Erothingham’s talent seemed to stop Avith the neck of the sitter. The fa(;e would ])erhaps be reproduced with a force, a heauty of color, and a trutli of chai’acter that oftentimes suggested the 28 ART IN AMERICA. art of Stuart; while tlie hands or shouldei's were almost ludicrously out of drawing and proportion. Besides Frotliingham, there were a number of American painters of celebrity, contemporaries of Stuart, but of nnecpial merit. Colonel Sar- gent acquired a repute in his time which it is difficult to understand at present. He seems to have been more of an amateur than a professional “babes in the wood.” [llEMBRANDT PEALE.] artist. Ilis ablest work is the “Landing of the Pilgrims,” of which a copy is preserved at Plymouth. Pembrandt Peale obtained a permanent I’epntatioii for his very able and truthful portrait of AVashington. lie be- stowed upon it the best efforts of his mature years, and it received the compliment of being purchased by Congress for §2000 — a lai*ge sum for an American painting in those days, when the purchasing power of money was greater than it is now. Ilis “ Comb of Death” is a vast composition, that must candidly be considered moi’e ambitions than successful. In such works as the “ Babes in the AVood,” Peale seems to foreshadow the genre art which has been so long coming to us. John AVesley Jarvis, a native of England, also enjoyed at one time much popularity as a portrait- painter. He was possessed of great versatility; was eccentric; a ban vi- vant. and excelled at telling a stoiw. It is melancholy to record that, after many vicissitudes, he ended his days in poverty. Thomas Sully was also a native of England, who came to this country in childhood, and lived to such a great age that it is difficult to realize that he was the contemporary of Trumbull and Stuart. Sully had great EARLY AMERICAN ART. 29 refinement of feeling, and reminds ns sometimes of Sir Thomas Lawrence. This is shown in a certain favorite ideal head of a maiden which he repro- duced in various compositions. One often recognizes it in his wmrks. His portraits are also pleasing; but in the treatment of a masculine likeness tlie feebleness of his stjde and its lack of originality or strength are too of- ten apparent. John Naegle, of Philadelphia, was a pnpil of Sally, bnt first began his art career as apprentice to a coach-painter. Like many of onr artists of that time, he tried his hand at a portrait of Washington ; bnt he 'FANNY KKMBLE. [tHOMAS SULLY.] will be longest and best remembered by his vivid and chai’acteristic paint- ing of Patrick Lyon, the blacksmitli, at his forge. This picture now hangs in the elegant gallery of the Philadelphia Academ}^ of Fine Arts, where several of tlie masterpieces of onr early painters may be seen hanging in company with it, among them West’s “Christ Pejected,” Yanderlyn’s “Ariadne,” and Allston’s “ Dead Man Restored to Life.” Born the year of the Declaration of Independence, John Yanderlyn, like most of the leading artists of this period of Avhom we are writing, lived to old age. His days were filled with liardships and vicissitudes: 30 Airr IN AMERICA. and, unless he has since become awai’e of the fame he left behind, he was one of many to whom life has been a veiy questionable boon. Yandei-lyn was a fai'iner’s boy on the Hudson Eiver. It was one of those curious incidents by which Destiny sometimes makes us tliink there ARIADNE. [.TOIIN TANDERLYN.] may he, after all, something; more than blind action in her ways, that Aaron Ihirr, passing by his father's house, saw some rude sketches of the rustic lad Avith that keen eye of his. Burr discerned in them signs of promise, and invited him to come to New York. AVhen Vanderlyn ar- rived Bui’r treated him kindly. Eventually the painter made a portrait of Theodosia, tlie beautiful and ill-fated daughter of his benefactor; and when Burr was under a cloud and found himself destitute in Eui'ope, it was Yanderlyn who received and gave him shelter. Much of the art-life of this painter was passed at Borne and in Baris. IBs varied fortunes, and the constant adversity that hathed him at every step, obliged him to resort to many a pitiful shift to keep soul and body together. It is owing to this cause that he so rarely found opportunity to do justice to the undoubted ability he possessed. EARLY AMERICAN ART. 31 Bat Yanderlyii left at least two important creations, marked bj gen- uine artistic feeling and beauty, that will long entitle him to a favorable position among American painters. “ Marins Among the Bains of Car- thage ” I have never seen, and can only speak of it by report; but that it is a work deserving to rank high in the art of the time seems to be proven not only by the applaase it received at Borne, bnt also by the fact that it carried off the gold medal at the Salon in Paris. Snch is the irony of fate that the artist was twice forced to pawn this medal. The second time he was nnable to redeem it. The ‘^Ariadne’’ has nnfortnnately began to show signs of age, and the browns into which the flesh tints are painted are commencing to discolor the delicate grays. An oil-paintiag, if properly execnted, shoald hold its qualities for a longer time; bat unhappily the works of too many good artists are affected in the same way. The Ariadne” is, however, a noble composition, quite in classic style ; and if not strikingly original, is a most creditable work for the early art of a young people. Newport, Bhode Island’s charming little city by the sea, once a thriv- ing commercial centre, bat now a favorite resort of culture and gayety and wealth, but alwa^^s opulent in delightful Colonial and Bevolntionary assO' ciations, and doubly attractive for the artistic memories that cling to it, and the treasures of our art which it contains — this was the birthplace of Ed- ward G. Malbone, who, after a successful art-life in his native town and at Charleston, died at Newport, in 1807, at the early age of thirty-two. Miniature-painting was a favorite pursuit of our early artists. Some of our best portraits have been done by that means; but among all who have followed it in the United States none have excelled Malbone, although some, like John Eraser,vof South Carolina, have been very clever at it. He succeeded in giving character to his faces to a degree unusual in min- iature ; while the coloring was rendered at once with remarkable delicacy, purity, and fidelity. II is best works are probably the likeness of Bay Green, and the exquisitely beautiful group called the “ Honrs,” which is carefully preserved in the Athenmum at Ih'ovidence. AVith the general public the name of no American artist of that time is probably more widely known than that of ATashington Allston. He owes this in ]>art, doubtless, to the fact that as a winter he also became identified with the literary (jircle at that time prominent in Kastern Afassa- chusetts. He was born in 1771), at AVbiccamaw, South Carolina. Sent at ART IN AMERICA. “the Houns.” — [e. a . malbone.] oiuginal size. seven years of age to Newport, both for healtli and instruction, he lived tliere ten years; and very likely associated with Malbone, and perhaps met Stuart there. Snbsequently Allston visited Italy, and then settled in London, where his talents received snch ample recognition as to gain him the position of Academician. The mistake of his artdife — -althongh it was perhaps ad- vantageons to his fame at home — was probably his return to the United States while yet in his prime. The absence of influences encouraging to art growtli, and of that sympathy and patronage so essential to a sensitive EARLY AMERICAN ART. 33 nature like that of Allston’s, had a blighting effect on his faculties; and the mail}" years he passed in Boston were years of aspiration rather than achievement. Allston has suffered from two causes. Overrated as an ar- tist in his day, liis reputation is now endangered from a tendency to award liim less than justice. The latter may be due in part to the fact that All- ston himself adopted a course of action that tended to repress rather than develop his art powers. In his desire to give intellectual and moral value and permanent dignity to his productions, and in his aversion to sensation- alism in art, he treated his subjects with a deliberate severity which takes away from them all the feeling of spontaneity which is so delightfid and important in works of the imagination. If his genius had been of the high order claimed by some, such a result would have been impossible. The emotional element would have sometimes asserted itself, and given to his finished works that warmth and attraction the lack of which, while they are intellectually interesting and wortln- of great respect, prevents them from inspiring and winning our hearts, and has impaired the infiu- ence they might have had in advancing the progress of art in America. That Allston might have produced paintings of more absolute power, seems evident from his numerous crayon sketches and studies for paint- ings, which are full of fire, enei’gy, and beauty, delicate fancy, and creative power. One cannot wholly understand Allston’s ability until he has seen those studies; and it cannot be too much regretted that he did not allow a freer rein to his brush when composing the works upon which he desired to establish his fame. When he did so far forget himself, we get a glimpse of the fervor and grandeur of the imagination that burned in that brain, whose thoughts were greater than its capacity for expression. It must also be granted that the works of Allston have the quality peculiar to the ])i’oductions of original minds: it is not until they have been seen re]’>cat- edly that they reveal all that is in them. “Uriel in the Snn,” “Jeremiah,” and “The Dead Man Bestored to Life,” are prohabl_y the best of the fin- ished works by which the solemn, mysterious, and inq)i'essive imagination of Allston can be best estimated. AVithout giving ns new I’cvclations re- garding the secrets of color, as ho was rather an imitator of the Venetian school than an originatoi’, Allston can be justly considered one of the most agreeable colorists America has produced. Few of those who recognize the late Samuel V. B. Alorse as the in- ventor of our telegi’aphic system are aware that in early life he was an 34 : ART IN AMERICA. ‘ ‘ J KKKM I A H. ’ ’ [ W A SIII.NGTON ALLSTON. j artist, and pivo evidence of succeeding both in sculpture and painting. Altlion<2;li liis preference was for the latter, we are inclined to think that he was best fitted to be a ecnlptoi’. lie became tlie pupil of Allston in London, and modelled at that time a statue called the “Dying Ilercnles,” which won tlie prize of a gold medal offered by the Adelphi Society of Arts for the best single figure. From that statue he afterward composed a painting of the same subject, which is now in Xew Haven, a work of unquestioned power, showing thorough anatomical knowledge and a crea- l)YIN(i IIKKCULKS.” [SA.MI KI, K. 1$. MOKSK. ] EARLY AMERICAN ART. 37 live imagination. But, while there was reason to predict an interesting art career for the young American, circumstances beyond liis control drifted him away from the chosen pursuit of his youth, and his fame and fortune were eventually achieved in the paths of science. It is interesting in this connection to read the words which Morse, suffering from the pangs of disappointment, wrote to one who asked his advice about becoming a painter: “My young friend, if you have determined to try the life of an artist, I wish yon all success; but as you have asked my honest opinion, I must say that, if you can find employment in any other calling, I advise you to let painting alone. I have known so many young men — some of them of decided talent, too — wlio, after repeated trials and failures, be- came discouraged, gave up further effort, and went to ruin.” ISotwith- standing that such were his views when he abandoned art, did not Morse, in the prosperous hours of his life, sometimes look back to his early art with a pang of regret ? But while he continued in the profession of art, his activity was such that the National Academy of Design owes its origin to him, and with him closed the first period of art in the United States. We see that this division of our pictorial art — with the exception of Thomas Birch, of Philadelphia, a marine painter of some repute, and a few others of less note — was devoted to the figure ; and, if sometimes fee- ble in result, was inspired by lofty motives. In historical art and portrait- ure it was, if not strictly original, yet often very able, and fairly main- tained itself on a level with the contemporary art of Europe. Owing to the entire want of opportunities for professional education at home, our leading artists, with few exceptions, were forced to pass a good part of their lives in foreign studios. We also find that a feeling for the beauty of form, as indicated in black and white, or in sculpture, was scarcely perceptible in this stage of our art. AV^ith the exception of Shem Drowne and Patience AVright, who modelled skilfully in wax, the sense for plastic art was altogether dormant in the countiy; while any progress in architecture, until in I’ccent years, was hopelessly ignored. It is true that the active, restless intellect of Thomas Jefferson sought to endow the nation with a sixth order of archi- tecture, called the Columbian, and patriotically resembling a stalk of Indian-corn. The small pillars made after this design are in one of the vestibules of the basement of the Capitol at AVashington, where the ardent 38 ART IN AMERICA. patriot limy visit tliem, and see for iiimself the heginning and the end of the only order of arehitectnre ever attempted in this eountry. Through much tribulation, much earnest faith, and enthusiasm for art, our early painters prepared the way for the national art of the future. They met only moderate appreciation in their native land at that time. But we owe much to them ; and in our preference for present methods — which must in turn be superseded by others — let ns not forget the honor due to the pioneers of American art. In the first articulate utterances of a child, or in the dialect of an aboriginal tribe, lie the rudiments of a national tongue eventually carried to a high degree of culture; and the first rude art or poesy of a young people sometimes possesses touches of freshness, charming simplicity, or virile force which are too liable to be softened away beyond recall by the I’efinements of a later civilization. AMERICAN PAINTERS. 39 II. AMERICAN PAINTERS. 1828 - 1878 . ^'^IlE generation immediately succeeding tlie American Itevolntion was ^ devoted by the people of the young republic to adjusting its commer- cial and political relations at home and abroad. Early in this century, however, numerous signs of literary and art activity became apparent, and in 1815 the North American Revieiu was founded. We mention this fact, although a literary event, as indicating the point in time when the nebulous character of the various intellectual influences and tendencies of the nation began to develop a certain cohesive and tangible form. It was about the same time that our art, subject to similar influences, began to assume a more definite individuality, and to exhibit rather less vagueness in its yearnings after national expression. Gilbert Stuart, one of the most remarhable colorists of modern times, died in the year 1828. In the same year the National Academy of De- sign was founded. These two events, occurring at the same time, seem properly to mark the close of one j'leriod of our art history and the dawn of its successor; for notwithstanding the excellence of Stuart’s art, and the virile character of the art of some of his contemporaries, yet their efforts had been spasmodic and unequal ; much of it had been done abroad under foreign influences; and there was no sustained patronage or art organization at home which could combine their efforts toward a prac- tical and common en d. T1 le flrst president of the new institution was Samuel E. E. Moi’se. The National Academy of Design superseded a similar but less wisely oig’anized society, which had led a ])recarious existence since 1801. A\hth the new institution was collected the nucleus of a galleiy of paintings and casts; and from the outset the idea suggested by its name was car- 40 ART IN AMERICA, “mumble the peg.” — [henry inman.] ried out, by funilsliing tlie most tliorougli opportunities for art-Iustruction tlie country could afford. Although seemingly fortuitous, the estahlishmeut of the Academy of Design really juarks the opening of a distinct era in the history of Ameri- can art; during which it has developed into a rounded completeness to a degree that enables us, with some measure of fairness, to note the causes Avhich led to it, which have nourished its growth, and which have made it a vrorthy forerunner of new methods for expressing the artistic yearnings of those who are to follow in ^^ears to come. It has indicated a notable advance in onr art; it has, in spite of its weakness or imitation of foreign AMERICAN PAINTERS. 41 conventional isins, possessed certain traits entirely and distinctively native; and lias been distinguished by a nninber of artists of original and some- times nnnsual abilitjg whose failure to accomplish all tliey sought was due ]-atlier to iinfoitunate circumstances than to the lack of genuine power, which in another age might have done itself more justice. It is interesting to observe at this juncture that our art was influenced by exactly the same causes as our litei’ature of the same ])eriod ; and, like our national civilization, presents a singular reaching after original expres- sion, modified sometimes by an unconscious imitation of foreign thought and methods. There is one fact connected with the early growth of onr art which is entirely contrary to the laws which have elsewhere governed the progress of art, and is nndonhtedly due to the new and anomalous features of onr social economy. Elsewhere the art-feeling has nndeviatingly sought ex- l)ression first in earthen-ware or plastic art, then in architecture and sculpt- ure, and finally in painting. We have entirely reversed this order. The unsettled character of the population — especially at the time when emigra- tion from the Eastern to the AVesterii States caused a general movement from State to State — together with the abundance of lumber at that time, evidently offered no op])ortunity or demand for any hut the rudest and most rapidly constructed hnildings, and anytliing like architecture and decorative work was naturally relegated to a later period ; and for the same reason, apparently, the art of sculpture showed little sign of demand- ing expression here until after the art of painting had already formulated itself into societies and oluhs, and been repi'esentcd by numerous artists of respectable abilities. The art-feeling, which made itself apparent, vaguely and abortively, during our colonial period, began to demand freer and fuller expression soon after the new Eepublic had declared its independence; and, with scar(;e any })atronage from the Government, assumed a degree of excel- lem^e sm*prising under the circumstances, and raixdy i-eached by a nation in so short a time. We recall no art of the past the order and conditions of whose growth resend)le those of ours, exce])t that of Holland after its wars of iiule[)en- dence with Spain. The bane and the blessing of our art have been in the enormous variety of influences which have controlled its action. This has been a bane, because it has, until recently, prevented the concentra- 42 ART IN AMERICA. tion of effort wliicli might lead to grand results and schools. It has been a blessings because individual expression has thus found a vent, and mannerism has not }^ct become a conventional net, so thrown around our art as to pi-event free action and growtli. The American art of the last two generations has resembled the restless activity of a versatile youth, who seeks in various directions for the just medium by wdiich to give direction to his life-work. If there has been, on the whole, a national bias in one direction more than another, it has been for landscape- painting. Our intellectual state has also resembled the many-sided condition of Germany in the Middle Ages, Avaking up from the chaos of the Dark Ages, but broken up into different States, and representing different re- ligions and races. But our position has been even more agitated and di- verse ; a general restlessness has characterized the community — a vast intellectual discontent Avith tlie ]>resent. Although strongly moved by pride of country, we have also been keenly sensitive to foreign influences, and have received impressions from them Avith the readiness of a photo- graphic })late, although until I’ecently the result has been assimilation rather than imitation ; Avhile internally Ave have been trying to harmo- nize I'ace and sectional differences, Avliich as yet are far from reaching homogeneity. Together Avith all these individual influences must be included one of general application, to Avhich nearly all our artists, of whatever race or section, have been subject in tui']i. In other countries the people have, by a long preparation, become read}' to meet the artist half-Avay in appreciat- ing and aiding him in his mission, either from the promptings of the i‘e- ligious sentiiuent to Avhich his art has given ocular demonstration, or from a dominating and universal sense of beauty. AVith us it has been quite otTei’Avise; for the aifists have been in advance of public sentiment, and have had the misfortune to be forced to wait until the people could come up to them. In addition to tlie fact that in New England Puritan influ- ences Avere at first opposed to aif, the I’estless, surging, unequal, Avidely differing character of our people, brought face to face Avith the element- ary problems of existence, founding new forms of government, and Aveld- ing incongruous factors into one race and nation — in a Avord, Avresting from fate our right to be — made us indifferent to the ideal, except in sporadic and individual cases, Avhich indicated here and there that beloAV AMERICAN PAINTERS. 43 tlie surface the poetic sentiirient was preparing to assert itself; and that we, ill turn, were preparing to acknowledge the great truth that art is an instinctive yearning of the race to place itself in accord with the har- niony which rules tlie universe. Tlie result has been tliat a very large proportion of the artists of this period of onr history have been compelled to endure far more than the traditionary hardships of the profession. They have been obliged to devote some of tlie best years of their lives to trade, and have not been able to take up art until late. To accuse American artists, as a class, of PORTRAIT OF PARKE GODWIN. [tHOMAS LE CLEAR.] being mercenary — a charge made quite too often — is really something akin to irony, so much more successful pecuniarily would the majority of them have been in mercantile pursuits. The heroism of our early paint- ers, struggling, in obscure corners of the countiT, for opportunities to cx- jiress their yearning after the ideal, without instruction, without art-inllu- ences, meeting little or no sympathy or encouragment, and in spite of these obstacles often achieving a respectable degree of excellence, is one of the most interesting, instructive, and sublime episodes in the history of art. Growing out of this hesitating condition of our early art may be dis- 44 : AKT IN AMERICA. cerned a secondary cause, which occurred in so luauy cases as to be justly considered one of the forces which formed the careful, uiiimte, pains- taking style of much of our landscape art. We refer to the fact that many of the best of our early painters were first engi-avers on wood and steel. This gave them a minute, formal, and precise method of treat- ment, which led them to look at details rather than breadth of effect. AVhen w’e turn to the iiifiuences from abroad which stimulated Amer- ican art dui'ing this period, we find that, while they fostered the growth of a certain resthetic feeling, they at the same time instilled conventioual methods and principles that deferred the development of a higher kind of art. It is greatly to be regretted that, notwithstanding the friendly re- lations between the United States and France, our art, when it was first looking to Europe for direction, should not have come in contact with that of Fi-ance, which at that time, led by Gericanlt, Rousseau, Troyon, Uelacroix, and other rising men, was becoming the greatest pictorial school since the Renaissance. But Italian art at that time was sunk to the lowest depths of conventionalism; while the good in the English art of the time was represented less by a school than by a few^ individuals of genius — Turner, Wilkie, Constable — who were so original that they failed to attract students whose first art ideas had been obtained in Italy. The influence of Italy on our early art was showm by the tendency of our painters in that dii’ection — as now^ they go to France and Germany — and this was due primarily to Allston and Yanderlyn. The latter, when at Rome, occupied the house of Salvator Rosa — apparently a trivial inci- dent, but if we could trace all the influence it may have had on the fancy and tastes of the young American artist, we might find it was a powerful contributor to the formation of the early style of the landscape artists who followed him to Italy. This bias was also greatly assisted by the many paintings imported at that time from the Italian peninsula, which were either originals, bought cheaply during the disturbances which then con- vulsed Europe, or copies of more or less merit. These works made their Avay gradually over our country, from Boston to New Orleans; and, with the rapidly shifting fortunes of our families, have often been so complete- ly placed out of sight and foi’gotten, that it is not an nnfrequent instance for one to be unearthed in a remote country village, or farm-house that would never be suspected of harboring high art. The larger portion of these foreign wmrks came first to Boston, and POllTIlAn' OK KI.KTCUKl! IIAKl’Kll. [('. I, KU-IOl'l. | AMEKICAX PAIXTEES. 47 were hidden away soinewliere in that vicinity, as in tlie case of the collec- tion bequeathed to Bowdoin College by its founder ; whose best specimens were eventually sold and scattered for a mere song by a faculty who were iirnorant of their valne, and thought thev might at the same time aid mo- rality and add an honest penny to the funds of the institution by selling its precious nudities, and thus remove them from the student's eye. As Allston and Stuart, wlio were colorists, also settled in Boston, after years of foreign study, these two circumstances contributed to make the Boston scliool from the first one of color — a fact less pronounced in the early ai’t of Xew York. •It is to West and Allston and Trumbull that we are to attribute the English element in our arts. The prominent position they then occupied before the American public made their example and opinions of great importance with their countrymen, and undoubtedly conti'ibuted to sug- gest one of the most chai'acteristic traits of American art, th.at is, the ten- dency to make art a means for telling a story, which has always been a prominent feature of English art. May we not also trace to English lit- erature the bias which unconsciously led our painters to tuni their atten- tion to landscape with a unanimity that has until recently made our pic- torial art distinctively a school of landscape painting? Cowper, Byron, and AYordsworth introduced landscape into poetry, and undoubtedly im- pelled English art in the same direction ; and it was exactly at that time that our own poet, Bryant, undoubtedly infiuenced at the turning-point of his character by AVordsworth’s solemn worship of natui-e, was becom- ing the pioneer of American descriptive poetry; while Infing was intro- ducing the picturesque into our literature; and Cooper, with his vivid descriptions of our forests, was, like Irving, creating a whole class of sub- jects that were to be illustrated by the American artists of this period. The infiuences cited as giving direction to the struggling efforts of art in our country during the early part of this century are illustrated with •es})ecial force by five portrait, figure, and landsca[)e-paintcrs, who may al- most be considered the founders of this peilod of our art — Harding, AYeii\ Cole, Doughty, and Durand. Chester Harding was a farmer's son, wlio, after an apprenticeship in agriculture, took up the tiade of chair-maker at twenty-one, tlie time when the young Parisian artist has already won his Pri,v de Pome. .Vfter this lie tri6d various othei’ pi-ojects, including those of }>eddling and the keep- 48 ART IN AMERICA. iiig of a tavern; and tlien took Ids wife and cldld and floated on a flat- boat down the Alleglianj to Pittsburgh — at tliat time a mere settlement — in search of sometliing by whicli to earn a bare living. There he took to sign-painting ; and it was not until his twenty-sixth year that the idea of becoming a professional artist entered his head. An itinerant portrait- painter coming to the place first suggested the idea to Harding, who engaged him to paint the portrait of Mrs. Harding, and took his first art- AN IDEAL HEAD. [g. A. BAKER.] lesson while looking over the artist’s shoulder ; and his first crude at- tempts so fascinated him that he at once adopted art as a profession, and in six months painted one hundred likenesses, such as they were, at twenty-five dollars eacli, and then settled in Boston, where he seems to have been taken np with characteristic enthusiasm. On going to England, Harding, notwithstanding the few advantages he had enjoyed, seemed to compare so favorably with ])ortrait-paintei‘S there that he was patronized AMERICAN PAINTERS. 49 by the first noblemen of the land. Althongli belonging also to the latter part of the period immediately preceding that now under consideration, yet Harding was, on the whole, an important factor in the art which dates from the founding of the National Academy, and was one of the strong- est of the group of portrait-painters natm’ally associated with him, such as Alexander, Waldo, Jarvis, and Ingham. There was something grand ill the personality of Harding, not only in his almost gigantic physicpie but also his sturdy, fraidc, good-natured, but earnest and indomitable char- acter, which causes him to loom up across the intervening years as a type of the people that have felled forests, reclaimed waste places, and given thews and sinews to the Republic that in a brief century has placed itself in tlie front rank of nations. While Harding, with all his artistic inequalities, fairly represented the portrait art of Boston at that period, Henry Inman may be considered as holding a similar position in New York. As a resident of that city and a pupil of Jarvis, he enjoyed advantages of early training superior to those of most of our painters of that day. Exceedingly versatile, and excelling in miniature, and doing fairly well in genre and landscape, Inman will be best known in future years by his admirable oil portraits of some of the leadiim characters of the time. He was a man of ^reat streno'th and O O O symmetry of character, who would have won distinction in any field, and his early death was a misfortune to the country. New York became the centre for a number of excellent and character- istic poi’trait-pai liters soon aftei* Inman established his reputation — such as Charles Boring Elliott, Baker, Hicks, Be Clear, Huntington, and Rage, the contemporaries of Healy, Ames, Hunt, and Staigg, of Boston, and Sully, of Philadelphia — all artists of individual styles and characteristic ti’aits of their own. Sully, owing to his great age, really belonged also to the pre- ceding period of our art. In Elliott we probably find the most inq^ortant portrait-painter of this period of American art. It was a peculiarity of his intellectual growth that oidy by degrees did he arrive at the point of being able to seize a simple likeness. But it is not at all uncommon for genius to falter in its lirst attempts; and Elliott was one of the few artists we have ])roduced who could b(i justly ranked among men of genius, as distiuguished from those of talents, however marked. Stuai’t excelled all our ])ortrait-painters in purity and freshness of color and masterly control of [)igments; but he 4 50 ART IN AMERICA. was scarcely inoi-e vigorous than Elliott in the wondrous faculty of grasp- ing chai'auTer. IFerein lay this artist’s strength. lie read the heart of the man he portrayed, and gave us not merely a faithful likeness of his ^nitward features, but an epitome of his intellec-tual life and traits, almost I'lntching and bringing to light his most secret thoughts. In studying the portraits of Elliott we learn to analyze and to discern the essential and iri’econcilable difference between photography and the highest order of “the judgment of PARIS.” [lIENRY PETERS GREY.] AMERICAN PAINTERS. 51 painting. TJie snn is a great magician, but lie cannot reproduce more than lies on the surface — lie cannot sno-gest the soul. lie is like a truth- fill but unwilling witness, who gives only part, and not always the best part, of the truth. But then the genius of the great artist steps in, com- pletes the testimony, and presents before ns suggestions of the immortal being that shall survive when tlie mortal frame and the sun which photo- graphs it have alike passed awa\\ Baker, on the other hand, has excelled in rendering the delicate color and loveliness of childhood, and tlie splendor of the linest types of Ameri- can feminine beauty. The miniatures of Staigg are also among the most winning works of the sort produced by our art. Among other excellent miniature-painters of this period was Miss Goodrich, of whose personal history less is known than of any other American artist. William Page occupies a phenomenal position in the art of this period, because, unlike most of our painters, lie has not been content to take art methods and materials as he found them, but has been an experimental- ist and a theorist as well, and tlierefore belongs properly to more recent phases of our art. Thus, while he has achieved some singularly successful works in portraiture and historical painting, he has done much that has aroused respect rather than enthusiasm. If less refined in aim and treatment than Page in his rendering of female beauty, Henry Peters Grey, who was also an earnest student of Italian Penaissance art, succeeded sometimes to a degree which, if far be- low that of the masters whom ho studied, was yet in advance of most of such art as has been executed by American painters, at least until very recently. ‘‘The Judgment of Paris” is certainly a clever if not wholly original work, and the figure of Venus a fine piece of form and color. Daniel Iluntington, the tliird president of the Xational Academy of Design, is a native of Tsew York city, and has enjoyed advantages and successes experienced by very few of onr early artists. A ])iipil of ^lorse and Inman, he is better known by the men of this generation as a pleas- ing ])ortrait-painter ; but tlie most ini[)ortant of his early efforts were in what might be called a semi - literary style in (jenve and historical and allegoric.al or I’eligious art, in which de[)artments he has won a perma- nent ]dace in our annals by such com})ositions as “Mercy’s Di'oam,” “The Sibyl,” and “Queen ]\Iary Signing the Death-warrant of Jauly Jane Grey.” 52 AKT IN AMERICA. While portraiture has been the field to which most of onr leading painters of the figure have directed tlieir attention during this period, (jenre has been represented by several artists of decided ability, who, under more favorable art aiis[)ices, might have achieved superior residts. Inman was one of the first of our artists to make satisfactory attempts in genre. If circumstances had allowed him to devote himself entirely to any one of the three branches he pursued, he might have reached a higher position than he did. But the most important genre artist of the early })art of this period was William Sidney Mount, the son of a farmer on Long Island, xlssociated first with his Imother as a sign-})ainter, he eventnall}", in 1828, took up genre painting. Mount lacked ambition, as he himself confessed; he was too easily infiuenced by the rapidly Avon approval of the public to cease improving his style, and early returned to his farm on Long Island. Mount Avas not remarkable as a colorist, although it is cpiite possible he might have succeeded as such Avith superior advantages; but he was in other respects a man of genius, Avho as such has not been surpassed by the numerous genre artists Avhom he preceded, and to Avhom he shoAved by his example the resources Avhich our native domestic life can furnish to the genre painter. This American Wilkie had a keen eye for the humorous traits of our rustic life, and rendered them Avith an effect that sometimes suggests the old Dutch masters. ‘Mdie Long Story” and ‘‘Bargaining for a Horse” are full of inimitable touches of humor and shrewd observations of human nature. F. W. Edmonds, avIio Avas a contemporary of Mount, although a bank cashier, found time from his business to produce many clever genre paintings, shoAving a keener eye for color, but less snap in the draAving and composition, than Mount. In other departments of the figure at this period of our art, Robert W. AYeir holds a prominent position as one of our pioneers in the distinctiA'e branch called historical painting. Of Huguenot descent, and gaining his artistic training in Italy, after severe struggles at home, his career illus- trates several of the infiuences Avhich have been most apparent in forming American art. Although not a servile imitator of foreign and classic art, and shoAving independence of thought in his practice and choice of sub- jects, AVeir’s style is pleasing rather than vigorous and original. It shoAvs care and loving patience, as of one Avho appreciates the dignity of his pro- fession, but no marked imaginative foi*(;e, nor does he introduce or suggest any ncAv truths. Such a massiA’e composition, hoAvever, as the “Sailing of “ MIRANDA.” [dAMKI. Ill NTINDTON. ] AMERICAN PAINTERS. 55 the Pilgrims,” while it scarcely arouses enthusiasm, causes us to wonder that we should so early have produced an art as conscientious and clever as this. The portrait of Red Jacket, and the elaborate painting called ‘^Taking the Veil,” are also works of decided merit. Enjoying a serene old age, this revered painter yet survives, still wielding his brush, and annually exhibiting creditable pictures in the Academy. “a surprise.” — [william SIDNEY MOUNT.] In the works of the figure-painters we have spoken of there is evident an earnest pursuit of art, attended sometimes with very respectable results; but, with the exception of here and there a portrait-jiaiiiter of real genius, we do not discover in their paintings much that is of value in the history of art, excc'pt as indicating the existence of genuine a^stluTic feeling in the country demanding expression in however hesitating and abortive a man- ner. Hut when we come to the subject of landscape-painting, we imter upon a lield in which originality of style is a.p[)ar(Mit, and a certain ciuisist- ency and harmony of effoi’t. Minds of large reserve jiower meet us at llu' outset, mo\ed by strong and eaiaiest com ictions, and often ('.xpressing their 56 ART IN AMERICA. tlionglits ill methods entirely their own. Thoroughly, almost fanatically, national by nature, even when their art shows traces of foreign influence, and drawing their subjects from their native soil, tliey have created an art v.diich can fairly claim to be ranked as a school, whatever be tlie position assigned to it in future ages. English, French, Irish, African, and Spaniard have alike vied in painting the scenei’y of this beautiful country, and min- gling their fame and identifving their lives wdth “its hills, rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun,” its mountain streams and meadow lands, its primeval forests, and the waves that break upon its granite shores. It is to three artists of great natural ability that the origin of Ameri- can landscape-painting can be traced — Cole, Doughty, and Durand. Al- tlioiigh the youngest of the three, the first seems to have antedated Doughty by a few months in adopting this branch of art professionally; while Dui-and, older than Cole by several years, yet did not take up land- scaj)e-painting until some years after him. Thomas Cole died in the prime of life, at the age of forty-seven, but there are few chai'acters in the history of the country that have made a deeper impression. Singularly versatile, inspired by a powerful imagina- tion, })ossessiiig a pure and lofty character, and animated by the noblest of sentiments, we feel befoi-e his greatest works — through all the imperfec- tions of his art, through all the faltering methods wdth wdiich his gen.ius sought to express itself — that a vast mind here sought feebly to utter great thoughts (which he has doubtless already learned to utter wdth more truth in another wmild); w’e see that unmistakable sign of all minds of a higli order, the evidence that the man w\as greater than his w'orks. It is not dexterity, technique, knowledge, that impresses us in studying the works of Cole, so much as character. One feels that in tliein is seen the hand- wu‘itim»’ of one of the greatest men who have ever trod this continent. Thomas Cole, the first artist who ever painted landscape professionally in America — unless wm except the few faltering landscape-paintings of John Frazei*, the miniature artist of the previous century — was born in England, but he was of American ancestry, and his parents returned to this country in his childhood. The difliculties wdth wdiich he had to con- tend at the outset of his art career form an affecting picture. From in- fancy he had been fond of the pencil ; and the tinting of wuill-paper in his father’s factory at Steubenville, Ohio, gave him a slight practice in the harmony of colors. In the mean time he took up engi’aving, but w^as AMERICAN PAINTERS. 57 TAK1N(J TlllO VKJL.” 1 KOBKRT WKIK. | diverted from tliis ])ursuit by a travellinij^ (ierman ])(>rtrait-|):iiiit('r, wlio gave him a few lessons in the use of oil-eolors. lie began M’illi ])(n*trait- nre, and i-esolved to l)e an artist, altliongli the failure of his fatlier’’s busi- ness hroiiglit the whole family on him for support. The struggh's through whieh the youth now passed make a long and [)ainful story. Through it all he retained his bias foi‘ Jirt, and at twenly-two Ix'gan to draw’ seenery, fi’om natiii'(*, along th(3 hanks of the IMonongahehi. I)unhip has w(dl said, ‘‘ d'o me the striigghis of a \ irt uoiis man endeavoring to bullet (ortuue, 58 ART IN AMERICA. steeped to tlie very lips in poverty, yet never despairing, or a moment ceas- ing his exertions, is one of the most sublime objects of contemplation.” After several years of this severe hardship. Cole finally drifted to Aew York, and eventually attracted notice. When the National Academy of Design was founded in 1828, Cole and Doughty were simultaneously win- ning success, and giving a permanent character to tlie art wliich for half a century was destined to be most prominent on the waills of tlie Academy. So far as foreign technical influences can be ti-aced in the compositions of Cole, they are those of Claude and Salvator Kosa. He revisited Eng- land at the time when Turner and Constable were establisliino- their fame, and producing such an influence on the great school of French landscape art which has since succeeded. It is interesting to think what would have been the character of our landscape ai't if Cole had been favorably im- pressed by the broad and vigorous style of these painters. But he does not seem to have been ripe for the audacious and sometimes more truth- ful methods of modern landscape, and expressed himself with warmth regardiim; what he considered the extravairances of Turner. The art of Cole was however, largely biassed by the literature of Eng- land. The influence of both Biniyan and Walter Scott can be traced in his works; while the serious turn of his mind gave a solemn majesty and a religions fervor to his compositions, which command our deep respect, even when w^e fail altogether to concede complete success to his artistic eftorts. For this reason Cole has wielded, more than most of our artists, a powerful influence outside of his art with a people which, with all its vola- tility, yet maintains the traditions of a deeply religious ancestry. It was in this main^-sidedness of his genius, that brought him into contact with wfldely varied sympathies, that Cole’s chief power consisted ; for if we look at his wmrk fi-om the art point of view alone, we are impressed with its in- equality, the huflv of early art influences which it exhibits, and an attenq>t sometimes at divamatic force which occasionally lapses into mere sensation- alism. But in all his compositions there are evident a rapturous love of nature, and the enei’gy and yearning of a mind seeking to find expression for a vast ideal. Cole was what very few of our artists have been — an idealist. The work by which he will be longest and best I’emembered in the art of his country is the noble series called the “Course of Empire,” consisting of five paintings, representing a nation’s rise, progress, decline, and fall, and the change which comes over the abandoned scenery as the AMERICAN PAINTERS. 59 once superb capital I’eturns to the wildness and solitude of nature. The last of the series, entitled ‘‘Desolation” — a gray silent waste, haunted by the bittern, with here and there a crumbling column reflected in the de- serted harbor, where gleaming fleets once lioated, and imperial pageants were seen in the pavilions along the marble piers — is one of the most I’emarkable productions of American art. But with all the enthusiasm which Cole aroused among his contemporaries, his influence seems to have “desolation.” — [from “the course of empire,” by THOMAS COLE.] been to give dignity to landscape art rather than to impress his thoughts and methods on other artists. It is true that he seized the characteristics of our scenery with a truth which came not only from close study, but also from deep affection for the land whose mountains and lakes he painted, and thus led our first landscapists to observe the great \ai-iety and beauty of their own country. But, on the other hand, a certain hardness in his technique probably rendered him less inlluential as a leader than Doughty and Durand. The former, if inferior in general capacity to Cole, was more emphatically the artist by nature. Tliomas Doughty was in the leather business until his twenty -eighth year, when, without any previous ti'aining, ho threw up the ti’ade, and adopted the profession of landsca[)e-painter. There is an audacity, a self- 60 ART IN AMERICA. confidence, in the way onr early painters entei'ed on the art career, without instruction in the theory and practice of tlieir art, which is charming for the simplicity it shows, but would tend to bring the efforts of these artists into contempt if the results had not often justified their audacity, for they were sometimes men of remarkable ability. There have been many great- er landscape-painters than Doughty, but few who have done so well with such meagre opportunities for instruction. He seems, also, to have been successful in attracting favorable notice in England as well as here, al- though at a time when English landscape art wvas at its zenith. Tlie soft, poetic traits, the tender, silvery tones, that distinguished Doughty’s style, wxu'e entirely original with him, and have undoubtedly had much influence in forming the style of some of the landscapists who succeeded him. In Asher B. Durand, a Huguenot by descent, and the only one of the three founders of American landscape-painting who survives to our time to enjoy a green old age, we find a nature as strong as that of Cole. The equal of that artist in the sum of his intellectual powers, we discover in him a different quality of mind. Similar as they are in high moral pur- pose and a profound reverence for the Creator, as represented in his w’orks. Cole was the most imaginative and inspirational of the two, stirred more by the fire of genius; while Dui-and, with a more equable tempera- ment and a larger experience, produced results that are more satisfactory from an art point of view. Eew artists have shown greater capacity than Durand in successfully following entirely distinct branches of art. As a steel-engraver, who in this century has produced work that is much superior to his superb en- graving of Yanderlyn’s ‘‘ Ariadne AVho of our artists has been able both to design and to engrave such a work as his ^^Musidora?” After employing the burin so admirably, he took up portrait-painting, and by such };ortraits as his head of Bryant placed himself by the side of our leading portrait-painters. Still unsatisfied with the success won thus far, Durand, in his thirty-eighth year, directed his efforts to landscape-painting, and at once became not only a pioneer but a master in this department. The care he had been obliged to give to engraving Avas undoubtedly of great assistance to him in enabling him to render the lines of a composi- tion wuth truth; Avhile his practice of studying character in portraiture gave him insight into the individuality of trees — he invested them with a humanity like that which the ancient Greeks gave to their forests Avhen rm sni>v FROM NATURK. — [a. U. DLRAND.J AMERICAN PAINTERS. G3 they made them the liaimt of tiie dryads. It is to this that we doubtless owe tlie massive handling, tlie fresh and vigorous treatment of trees in such solemn and majestic landscapes as “The Edge of the Forest,” in the Corcoran Gallery at Waslnngton. The art of Durand is wholly national; few of onr painters owe less to foreign inspiration. Here he learned the various arts tliat gave liini a tilple fame, here he found the subjects for Ills compositions, and his name is destined to endure as long as American art shall endure. Among the most prominent of the landscape-painters who succeeded the founders of the art among ns, and were, like tliem, inspired h}’ a rev- “NOON 15Y THE SEA-SHORE.” BEVERLY BEACH. — [j. F. KENSETT.] erent spirit and lofty poetic impulses, John E. Kensett holds a command- ing position. Like Durand, he began his career wdth the burin, and after working for the American Bank-note Company, drifted into painting. Circumstamjes seem to have favored him beyond many of his compeers, and he was early permitted to visit England and the Continent, and spent seven years abroad. Notwithstanding so long an association with foreign schools, especially the Italian, we find very little evidence of foreign aiT in the style of Jvensett. lie was fnlly as original as Durand, and saw and ret)i’esented nature in his own language. II is methods of rendering a bit of landscape were tender and harmonious, and entirely free from any attempt at sensationalism. 8o marked was the latter characteristic especially, that l)efoi'e the great modern question of the values began to G4: art in AMERICA. arouse niucli attention in tlie ateliers of Paris, Kensett liad already grasp- ed the perception of a theory of art practice which lias since become so prominent in foreign art; althougli, naturally, it is not in all his canvases that this attempt to interpret the true relations of objects in nature is e(piallv evident. We see it brought out most prominently in some of his (piiet, dreamy coast scenes, in whicli it is not so much things as feelings that he tries to render or suggest. In them also is most apparent an endeavor after breadth of effect, which is a sign of mastery when success- fully carried out. Mr. Keusett’s art consisted in a certain inimitably winning tenderness of tone — a subtle poetic suggestiveness. Ills small compositions, as a rule, are more satisfying than his larger pictures, in which the thinness of his technicpie is sometimes too prominent. The career of Kensett, who died but a few years ago, is one of the most com- plete and symmetrical in our art history. A contemporary of Kensett, but still surviving him, George L. Brown, of Boston, struggled heroically and successfully with the early difficulties “ALTORF, BmTH-PLACE OF WILLIAM TELL.” [OEORGE L. BROWiN.] of his life; and, yielding to the seductive inffuences of Italian scenery, devoted his art to I'epresentmg it, with results that entitle him to an hon- AMERICAN PAINTERS. G5 orable position. The effects he lias sought are Inininonsness and color. Mr. Brown’s method of using colors was formed, to a certain extent, on that of the Italian landscape art of tlie time; and, while often brilliant and poetic, reminds ns sometimes of the studio rather than of the free, pure, magical opulence of the atmosphere and sunlight of the scenery he portrayed. It can be fi-ankly conceded, however, that he has been no slavish copyist of a style ; but wliile acknowledging the force of foreign influences, has yet given abundant evidence of a personality of his own; and in such works as his “ Bay of Kew York,” which is owned by the Prince of Wales, and some of his views among the liquid streets of Venice lined with mouldering palaces, and skimmed by gondolas darting hither and thither like swallows, he has shown himself to be a true poet and an admirable painter. G6 ART IN AMERICA. III. AMERICAN PAINTERS. 1828 - 1878 . 'O scliool of art ever came more rapidly into being than tlie landscape school which owes its rise to Cole, Donglity, and Durand. Up to tliis time portraiture had been the held in Vvdiich American painters had achieved tlieir most signal successes. Dnt now the majority of our artists forty years a long list of painters have made the public familiar with their native land, and have thus, at the same time, stimulated a popular interest in art. It is inipossihle to mention here more than a few of those who, as land- scape-painters, have won a local or national reputation among us. Nor is it essential, while recognizing the gi'eat importance and undoubted merit of our landscape art, to exaggerate its relative value and position. While it has, in most cases, been the result of a true artistic feeling and a gen- uine, if not very demonstrative, enthusiasm for nature on the part of the artists who have devoted theii* lives to its pursuit, and while it has given us much that is pleasing, much that is improving, much that is poetic, and occasionally some examples of a high order of landscape-painting — yet, as a whole, our school of landscape seems scarcely to be entitled to the highest ran.k. The wonder is that it has been of such average excellence, for the environing conditions have apparently not been favorable. The influences among which it spiMing have been so often prosaic or unin- spiring, that, notwithstanding its fertility, we And the result to lean to quantity rather than quality. The ideal and emotional elements in aiT have not been siifiiciently dominant; while the topographical and the mechanical notions regarding the end of landscape art have prevailed. Until recently this school has contented itself with the siiperflcial as- of ability turned their attention to the representation of scenery; and for lUlOOK IN TIIK WOODS. [WOKTIIINOTON AVIIiTTUKDOK. | J ■ ' " ■' - l-V C**i . j- ,J -■ . --. ; ;,vf landsca})e. AVith certain important excc[)tions, to be noted in another chapter, the American art of this period has, on the whole, been concerned chietly with the objective; and it could not have well been otherwise, for any other form of art at such a time would have utterly failed to carry the people ART IN AMERICA. witli it, and thus missed of producing tliat gi'adual cestlietic education which is the province of a national art. Not only for this reason has our school of landscape art vindicated its right to be, and established its claim on our respectful attention, but also because it has owed little to foreign inhuen(;es — springing rather from environing circumstances, as naturally as the flowers of May follow the departure of winter. And thus, as after a long winter a few warm spring days cover the orchard witli an afliuence of blossoms, so at this time from many quarters of the land artists appeared, especially in the field of landscape art ; and “THE VASTY DEEP.” — [wiLLIAM T. RICHARDS.] one can hardly believe that where, but a few years before, the Indian and the buffalo and the wolf had roamed at their own wild will, artists now arose, armed with an ability to discern the beauties of their native land, to dii'ect the prosaic thoughts of the pioneer to the loveliness of the nature w’hich sun’ounded him, and to make for themselves an enduring name. Ohio, the Massachusetts of the West, for example, which became a State as late as ISOO, was in the early part of this period especially prolific in artists, who, if they did not find instruction or a public on the spot, were at least enabled, with the increasing means of communication, to go to New York and Boston, or to wander over to the studios and art wealth of AMERICAN PAINTERS. Europe. In other lands and ages the poetic sentiment has first found a vent in lyrics and idjls ; but with us the best poetry has been in the land- scape-painting which was created by the sons of those whose ploughs first broke tlie soil of this continent with a Cliristian civilization. At this period, also, we note the advent of an influence which doubtless aided to promote a more rapid pursuit of the new art impulse of the nation. Steam, the mighty magician which drives the locomotive and the steam- ship, is in bad repute with the conservatives who are not in sympathy with the progressive movements of the age; and yet among all the other results of wdiich it has been the wonderful agent, we must ascribe its patronage of art. It is undoubtedly to the far greater facilities for going from place to place, which followed the introduction of steam, that we must partly attribute the rapid success of many of the artists who a[)peared in our country at that time in such unexpected numbers. It was in 1811 that Leutze went to Dlisseldorf to study, and thus in- troduced a new influence into our art, which hitherto, so far as it had acknowledged foreign influences, had been swayed by the schools of Italy and Britain. The effect was evident when, a few years later, Worthington Whittreclge, a native of Oliio, went to Diisseklorf, and studied under tlie guidance of Achenbach. Yery naturally his style showed for a time the effect of foreign methods; but he was guided by a native independence of action that enabled him in the end to assimilate rather than to imi- tate, like most of our artists at this time, and his later landsca|)es ai‘e thoroughly individual and American, although doubtless improved by for- eign discipline. As a faithful delineator of the various phases of Amer- ican wood interiors, Mr. Whittredge has deservedly won a permanent I place in the popular favor. Some of his landscapes, representing the scenery of the great West, have also been large in treatment and ef- fective in coni[)Osition ; but his skies sometimes lack atmosphere and ideality. Juke his master, Durand, d. W. Casilear began his career as an en- graver; and the success he achieved in this department is attested by his very clever engraving of Huntington’s “Sibyl.” Since he drifted into landscai)e- painting, (,’asilear has produced many delicately finished and [)oetic scenes, distinguished by elegance and relinement rather than dash or originality ; and somewhat the same observations would a|>j)ly to the tender landscapes of James A. Suydam. In such dreamy, pleasant, but 74 : AET IX AMERICA. not very vigorous paintings as tliat of liis ‘‘Yallev of tlie Peinigewasset,” Samuel L. Gcjtj lias also attracted favorable attention. HIGH TORN, ROCKLAND LAKE.” [ JASPER F. CROPSEY.] The work of a genuine poet is appai*ent in the canvases of R. W. Ilnbbard. Repose and pensive harmoniousness of treatment characterize his simple and winsome, if not stirring, transcripts of the more familiar phases of our scenery. Tliey are idyls in color. What Hubbard has done for ReAV England landscape, J. R. Meeker, of St. Louis, has attempted for the ‘Gakes of the Atchafalaya, fi'agrant and thickl}^ embowered with blos- soming hedges of roses.” and the live-oaks spi’eading their vast arms, like groined arches of Gothic cathedrals, festooned with the mystically trailing folds of the Spanish moss, along the lagoons of the South-west, where the sequestered shoi’es are haunted by the pelican and the gayly colored crane, and the groves are melodious with the rapturous lyrics of the mocking- bird, the impi'ovisatore of the woods. If not always successful in the tone of his pictures, it may be conceded that Mr. Meeker lias approached his subject with a reverent and poetic spirit, and has often rendered these scenes with much feeling and truth. Still another aspect of onr scenery lias been reproduced with fidelity by W. T. Richards, of Philadelphia. AYe refer to the long reaches of AMERICAN PAINTERS. 75 silvery shore and the sand-dinies which are chai'acteristic of many parts of our Atlantic coast. He has often painted woodland scenes with great patience, but, as it seems to us, with too much detail, and with greens which are open to a charge of being crude and violent. But in his beach effects Mr. Bichards maintains an important position; and if slightly man- nered, has yet developed a style of subject and treatment which \evy effectively represents certain distinguishing features of our solemn coasts. Some of his water- color paintings have scarcely been surpassed, as, for example, the noble representations of the bleak, snow-like, cedar- tufted dunes along the Jersey shore. The extraordinary variety of the effects of American landscape is again shown by the gorgeousness of our autumnal foliage. It has been objected by some that it is. too vivid for art purposes. We consider this a matter of individual taste. There is nothing more absurd in trying to render the effects of sunset, or the scarlet and gold of an American “tiik I’aks()NA(;k.” — [a. k. isku.ow s. forest in tlie di’camy days of tlie Indian summer, than in undertaking to paint tlie splendor of many-colored drapery in an Oilcmtal crowd, which i.s considei’ed a legitimate subject for the artist who has a cor- 76 ART IN AMERICA. rect eve for color. It is not in the subject, but in the artist, that tlie difficulty lies. Some of onr painters have seized these antnmnal displays with tine feeling and excellent judgment. Ivensett is an example; an- other is J. F. Cropsey, who, beginning life as an architect, became event- ually an agreeable delineator of our autumnal scenery, and at one time executed a number of paintings remarkable for their truth and artistic beauty. His later work has scarcely sustained the early reputation he justly acquired. At its best, his style was crisp, strong in color, and some- times very bold in composition. Mr. C. P. Cranch, who was associated with Cropsey in Italy, and who is well known as a wiiter, has exhibited in his Venetian landscapes a correct perception of color, while his method lacks firmness of drawing, and shows tiiices of foreign influence more than that of many of our artists who studied abroad at this time. P. II. Fuller, who was a night- watchman on the police force of Chelsea, Massachusetts, and died in 1871, was an artist whose educational opportunities were ex- cessively meagre. But he had a fine eye for color and atmospheric ef- fect, and some of his landscapes are painted with a full brush, and are tender and beautiful. F. D. IVilliams, before he left Boston for Paris, also developed a strong scheme of handling and color which was at once pleasing and original. F. II. Shapleigh has likewise shown an excellent feeling for some of nature’s more quiet effects, and his coast scenes are attractive, although lacking somewhat in force. As one considers this field of American art, he is increasingly aston- ished to find how strikingly it exemplifies one of the leading traits of a national school in the entire originality and individuality with which each of our prominent landscapists of this period interprets nature, even when he has studied more or less in Europe. Whatever may be the general defect of refinement mther than strength, and other Aveaknesses charac- teristic of our school of landscape art, it must be admitted that its repre- sentative artists have been often sturdily independent, and that their mer- its as well as their defects are entirely their own. What difference there is between the carefully finished but rich, massive foliage of David Juhu- son, suggesting the strength of the old English masters of landscape, and the dreamy, mellow pastoral meadow lands, wooded slopes, and dimpling lakes of our Green Mountains, veiled by a luminous haze and steeped in repose, Avhich are so delicately portrayed by the brush of J. B. Bristol! Few of the landscape-painters of this school have produced more agreea- LANUSCAPE WITH CATTLE. — [.TAMES IIAUT.] AMERICAN PAINTERS. 79 ble results with tlieir brush. What points of divergence there are, again, between the landscapes of W. L. Sonntag and A. F. Bellows! — the one adopting a scheme of tone and color apparently out of the focus of nature, yet so using it in rendering ideal compositions as to achieve re- sults which place him by the side of onr leading poets of nature. To him landscape-painting seems to be not so much a means to give faith- ful transcripts of actual scenes as to repi’esent the ideals of his fancy; and as such w’e accept them wuth thankfulness, for they not only serve to give us pleasure, but also to illustrate the many-sided phases of art. Bellows, on the other hand, both in oil and aquai^elle^ has attempted mi- nute reproductions of nature; and, while sometimes suggesting the impres- sion of labor rather more than is consistent with breadth of effect, has faithfully and charmingly interpreted the idyllic side of our rural life. If he had not been a poet in color, we might have expected of him pastoral lyrics imbued with the spirit of Cowper or Thompson. Early study at the school of Antwerp, and the pursuit of genre for some years, have enabled Mr. Bellows skilfully to diversify his attractive village pictin-es and repre- sentations of our nohle Aew England elms with groups of figures. lie is justly entitled to be called the American Bii-ket Foster. It is instructive, in this connection, to observe the first landscapes of George Inness, which pro[>erly belong in style to the early and distinctive- ly American school of landscape, while his recent method has identified him with the later graduates of the ateliers of Baris. Samuel Colman is another landscape-painter whose art is identified both with this school and with that of the period on wliidi w^e are now entering. Educated here, and influenced liy a fine eye for color, foreign travel has broadened his s^unpathies, modified his technique, and led him to look with favor upon later methods. The landscapes of William and James Hart represent still another phase of our art. Both began life as apprentices to a coach-paintei’, but gradually identified themselves with the gi'eat throng of all ages ^vho have Ijecome the votaries of nature. There is cleverness and dexterity in their w’ork, a fine i)er(^e[)tion of the external beauty of the slopes and vales and woods of oui* laud, and brilliant color; but it is sometimes marred by bardness of baudliiig, and ladv of juiciness or warmth of feeling; in otbei* words, it is too exclusi\ely objective, as if only the physical and not also the mental eye laid been concerned in the })ainting of their so ART IN AMERICA. works. James Hart has of late years added cattle to his landscapes with excellent success, and holds a prominent position among the very few respectable painters of animal life whom the American art of this period can justly claim. Mr. Horace Robbins, successful in seizing certain aspects of mountain scenery, with a fine feeling for atmospheric grays, and Mr. Arthur Parton, who very pleasingly renders trees, and some of the sober effects of our dim November days, although among our yonnger painters, justly belong to this period, as do also Messrs. James and George Smillie, who have been erjuall}- happy in water and oil coloi’S. The former is another of our ‘'SUXSET ON THE HUDSON.” [SANDB’ORD R. GIFB’ORD.] many landscape-paintei's who began as engravers on steel. The later style of these talented brothers has been evidently modified with advantage by the influence of foreign technique, although they have studied wholly in this country; and they now display an attractive vigor and freshness in their landscape pieces, and a somewhat original choice of subjects. The style of each of the artists we have mentioned can be distinguish- ed at once. Individuality of expression is stamped upon tlie canvas of all; blit among them there is no one more thoroughly original than San- ford R. Gifford, who, if he had lived in Persia or Peru two thousand years ago, might well have been an enthusiastic fire-worshipper, or daily wel- comed the risimr sun witli reverent adoration. To him landscape-painting, AMERICAN PAINTERS. SI whetlier of scenes in our own Far West, or on the legendary Hudson, or in the gorgeous East, has been alike the occasion for giving expression to his feeling for glowing atmospheric effects, for lyrics which on canvas repro- duce the splendor of the sunset &\\V. l>ut it would be a mistake to su}v pose that Mr. Gifford’s poetic sense has been conlined to the contempla- tion of serene and glowing atmospheres : he has also successfully rendered the lazy mist, the trailing vapor of morning enmeshed in dusky woodlands by the silent lake. His style combines to a remarkable degree delibera- tion and inspiration — a happy union of the analytical and emotional ele- ments in art. The objective school of American landscape-painting has found its cnl- minating excellence, as it seems to ns, in the art of Frederick E. Churcli. In his art-life the tendencies and aims of the chief national school we have produced during the last half century have been typically repre- sented. In his works the technical weakness of this school is apparent, and, at the same time, its noble sympathy with nature, and its love for tlie grander aspects of the external world. It also represents the restless, nn- satisfied genius of our people during this period, ever reaching ont and beyond, and yearning, Yenice-like, to draw to itself tlie spoils, the riches, the splendors, of the whole round globe. To our art the paintings of Mr. Church are what the geographic cantos of “Childe Harold” have been to the poesy of England, or the burning descalptions of St. Pierre and Cha- teanbriand to the literature of Fi’ance. If such a topic is permissible in letters, may it not also be allowed sometimes in painting Whether the one is as lofty as epic poetiy, or the other as great as historical painting or subjective landscape, is a question which we do not need here to an- alyze. It is sufficient that each holds an important position ; and to cany off the palm in either can only be tlie result of consummate genius. Yes I what ‘^Childe Harold” did for the scenery of the Old AVorld, the art of Church has done for that of the New. The vastness and the glory of tliis continent were yet nnrevealed to ns. AVith the enthusiasm of a Paleigli or a Palhoa he has ex[)lored land and sea, combining the diarncteristics of the ex[)lorer and the artist. iV piq)il of Cole, he has carried to its full fiuiition the as[)irations of his master, first gaining inspiration along the magical shores of the Hudson, and amidst the ideally beautiful rang(\s of the legendary Catskills. Our civilization needed exactly this loiun of art expression at this period, and the artist ap[)cared who should teach the 0 82 ART IN AMERICA. people to love beauty, and to tind it among the regions which first rang with the axe of onr pioneei’S. But, although dealing not so much with nature, as such, as with some of her little known and more remarkable and startling effects, tliere is a very notewortln^ absence of sensationalism or staginess in the paintings of Churcli ; while, on the other hand, the somewhat too careful reproduction of details has not ])revented them from possessing a grand massing of effect and a thrilling beauty and sublimity. “Cotopaxi,” the “Heart of the Andes,” or “Niagara,” may transgress many rules laid down by the schools, but the magnificent ability with which they are represented dis- A COMrOSlTlO.X. [fKEDKKICK PL CHURCH.] arms criticism. Church’s first painting of Niagara occupies the culminat- ing point in the objective art of this period of our history, executed by an artist who up to that time had never crossed the Atlantic, and whose mer- its and defects were entirely his own. Mr. Church’s “Niagara” is doubtless familiar to many through the fine chromo-lithogrnphic copy made from it; but those who have not seen the original have only an incomplete idea of the grandeur of this gi'eat painting. It grows on acquaintance somewhat as does the catai’act itself, a:\iericax painters. 83 until we seem to hear even the roar of the iniglitv waters that rushed over those tremendous cliffs ages before this continent was trodden by man, symbolizing the endless, remorseless, and irresistible sweep of time. The green flood pouring evermore into tlie appalling alw^ss veiled by mist wreathing up from the surging vortex below; the distant shoi-e lined with foliage, touched by the burning tints of October; the rosy gray sky over- arching the scene, and the etliereal bow uniting heaven and earth with its elusive band of colors — all are there, rendered with matchless art. The subjects of Mr. Church’s more recent works have been taken from the storied shores of the Meditei'ranean. AYe perceive in them no sign of failing power, but more breadth and less opulence of detail. The artist has treated the splendors of classic lands with the dignitied reserve of matured strength and a higher sense of the ideal. The melancholy gran- deur of the Parthenon in ruins has been painted with a statel}" reticence in consonance with the character of the subject; and the magnificent compo- sition called the ‘CEgean” may well hold its own by the side of some of the superb Italian canvases of Turner. A landscape-painter wdio chose a range of subjects similar to those of Church, and accompanied him in one of his South American trips, was Louis P. Mignot, of South Carolina, who died in London some eight years ago. lie was inspii'ed by a rapturous eiUhusiasm alike for the tender and the brilliant aspects of nature, and appears to us to have been one of the most remarkable artists of our country. He can be justly ranked with the pioneers who ffi’st awoke the attention of the nation to a consciousness of the beauty, glory, and inexhaustible variety of the scenery of this con- tinent, wliich had fallen to them as a heritage such as no other people have yet accpiired. Mignot was at once a fine colorist and one of the most skilled of our painters in the handling of materials; his was also a mind fired by a wide range of sympathies; and whether it was the superb splendor of the tropical sceneiw of the Pio Pamba, in South Ameilca, the sublime maddening rush of iris-cinded water at Xiagara, or the faiiw-like grace, the exapiisite and ethereal loveliness of new-fallen snow, he was equally haj)])y in rendering the ^■aried aspecfs of nature. It is greatly to be ]‘Cgrett(Ml that the most im])ortant works of this artist are owned in England, whithei* he i-esorted at the opening of the civil wai‘. “Snow in Hyde Ikiik,” whi(di he ])ainted not long before his death, is one of the noblest productions of Ameri(;an landscape-painting. 84 ART IN AMERICA. “a winter scene.” — [eouis r. mignot.] Tlie American marine art of this period has been represented by a mnnber of artists, although they have been by no means so numerous or capable as the maritime character of our people would have led us to expect. William Bradford, by origin a Quaker, has made to himself a name for his enterprise in going repeatedly to Labrador to study icebergs, and has executed some effective compositions, which have won him fame at home and abroad. Some of his coast scenes are also spirited, although open to tlie charge of technical errors. Cliarles Temple Dix, who im fort- unately died young, painted some dashing, imaginative, and promising compositions; and Harry Brown, of Portland, has successfully rendered certain coast effects. But our ablest marine-painter of this period seems to have been James Hamilton, of Plnladelphia, who was beyond question an artist of genius. Ilis color was sometimes harsh and crude; but he handled pigments with mastery, and composed with the virile imagina- tion of an improvisatore. Errors can doubtless be found in his ships, or the forms of his waves; but he was inspired by a genuine enthusiasm for tlie sea, and rendered the wildest and grandest effects of old ocean with breadth, massiveness, and power. We have had no marine -paint- AMERICAN PAINTERS. S5 er about whose works there is more of the raciiiess and flavor of blue water. AVhen we turn to the department of animal-paiutiiig, we discover wliat has been hitlierto the weakest feature of American art, both in the num- ber and quality of the artists who have pursued this branch of the profes- sion. T. II. Hinckley at one time promised well in painting cattle and game, but his efforts rarely went beyond giving us Denner-like re])resenta- tions of stuffed foxes with glass eyes. Tlie hairs were all there, the color was well enough, although perliaps a little foxy — if one may be permitted the term in this connection ; but there was no life, no characterization, there. William Ilajms showed decided alnlity in his representations of bisons and prairie-dogs and otlier dogs. Weak in color, he yet succeeded in giving spirit and cliaracter to tlie gi-oiips he painted, and holds among our animal-painters a position not dissimilar to that of Mount in genre. Walter M. Brackett, who has been able rarely well to enjoy the triple sun* OF ‘ tiik ancikxt makinkh.’ ” — [ jamks iiamiltox. | pleasure of catc-hing, painting, and eating tlie saim^ lish on a summer's jnorning by the limpid brooks of Xew I lampshire, has justly won a I'l'pu- tation as an artistic AValton. If he would but paint his rocks and trees as 86 ART IN AMERICA. cleverly as he renders the speckled monarch of the stream, his composi- tions would leave little to be desired. Henry C. Bispham has given ns some spirited but sometimes badly drawn paintings of cattle and horses; and Colonel T. B. Thorpe, an amateur with artistic tastes, in such semi- Immorous satires as “A Border Inquest,” representing wolves sitting on the carcass of a buffalo, struck a vein peculiarly American in its humor, and carried to a high degree of excellence by William IL Beard, whose brother, James Beard, can also be justly ranked as an animal-painter of respectable attainments. Mr. Beard, although remarkably versatile, has made a specialty, if it may be so termed, of exposing the failings and foibles of our sinful humanity by the medium of animal genre. Monkeys, bears, goats, owls, and rabbits are in turn impressed into the benevolent service of taking us off, and repeating for us the old Spartan tale of the slave made drunk by his master as a warning to his son. Of the skill which Mr. Beard has exhibited in this novel line there can be no question. The “Dance of Silenus,” the pertinacious, iterative, pragmatic ape called “The Bore,” and “Bears on a Bender,” are masterly bits of characteriza- tion. There is also a deal of comic satire in “The Bulls and Bears of Mammon’s Fierce Zoology,” which, with a multitude of struggling fight- ing figures, takes off the eccentricities of the Stock-exchange. Beard caii justly be called the American AEsop. It is asserted by many that this is not art. The fact is that it is exceedingly difficult to draw the line, and to prescribe what sulqects an artist shall choose. In art the result justifies the means. And this certainly seems as legitimate a subject for the brush of the artist as the graphic pictorial satires of Hogarth, or the mildly comi- cal genres of Erskine NicM. In a previous chapter we alluded to some of the figure, historical, and genre painters of this period. William Mount was the precursor of a number of genre ai'tists of more or less ability, among whom may be men- tioned Thomas Hicks, a pupil of Couture, and one of the first of our paint- ers who studied at Paris. In this admirable school Mr. Hicks became an excellent colorist, although of late his art has appeared to lose some of tliis quality. He has painted landscape and genre^ meeting with respectable success in the latter, but portraiture has chiefly occupied his attention. His portrait of General Meade is a striking and satisfactory work. Then there was Bichard Caton Woodville, who followed Whittredge to Diissel- dorf, and promised much in genre. His paintings show very decided AMERICAN PAINTERS. S7 traces of German influence, but behind it all was a sti’oiii;: individiialitv that seemed destined to assert itself, and to place liini among our foi-e- most painters. But he died young, and (shall we not say ?) happily for him, since little fame and less a[)preciation are destined to the artists wlio come ere the people are ripe for their art. George B. Flaa’g at one time promised well for our genre art, hut his abilities were too precocious, and unfortunately the splendid oi)portunities he enjoyed as a pupil of All- ‘iwuoo!” [william II. BEAKI).] ston, and as a long resident in London, do not seem to have been sutli- cient to give growth or jKu-manence to his talents. About this time onr frontier life was coming nu>re prominently into view, and that pictnresipie border line between cA ilization and barbarism was becoming a subject for the ])en of onr leading writers. Irving, ( 'oo- ])er, and Kennedy, Street, AVhittier, and Longfellow, were tuning the first efforts of their IMnse to celebrate Indian life and bordm- warfare in prose and verse, while the majestic', measure's of Liwant’s “ Ih-airic's " seimu'd a j>)’0])hetic prelude to the march of mankind toNvard the lands of the set ss AET IN AMERICA. ting sun. “Evangeline,” the most splendid result of our poetic literature, attracted not less for its magniticent generalizations of the scenery of the West tlian for the constancy of the heroine, and the artistic mind responded in turn to the unknown mystery and romance of that vast region, and gave us graphic pictures of the rude humanity which lent interest and sentiment to its unexplored solitudes. It is greatly to be regretted that the \vork of these pioneers in Western genre was not of more artistic value; from a historical point of view, too much importance cannot be attached to the entei*[)rise and courage of men like Gatlin, Deas, and llanney, who, imbued wdth the spirit of adventure, identified themselves with Indian and border life, and rescued it from oblivion by their art enthusiasm, which, had it been guided by previous train- ing, would Iiave been of even greater value. As it is, they have with the pencil done a service for the subjects they portrayed similar to wliat Bret Ilarte has accomplished in giving immortality wdth the pen to the wdld, picturesque, but evanescent mining scenes of the Pacific slope. In this connection the fact is wmrth recoi-ding that tlie important mutual life-insurance association called the Artists’ Funding Society took its