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Art in Buffalo 
 
 BY 
 
 Lars Gustaf Sellstedt 
 
 MCMX 
 
 THE MATTHEWS-NORTHRUP WORKS 
 BUFFALO 
 
Copyright, 1910, 
 By Lars Gustaf Sellstedt 
 
 IHt GETTY CENTti. 
 
PROLOGUE 
 If the following pages have any historic value, 
 or are found to be of any interest to the lovers 
 of art or to the general public, thanks are due to 
 Mr. James N. Johnston, a friend of all the 
 Muses, without whose encouraging importunity 
 they probably never would have been written. 
 True it is, that the writer has long had it in 
 mind to leave behind him some kind of record 
 of his familiarity with Buffalo's early art and 
 artists; but, owing to his more urgent duties, 
 the inception has been allowed to remain in 
 abeyance until the "more convenient season," 
 a time which seldom comes. No one is more pain- 
 fully aware of the imperfection of the work than 
 the writer. The principal purpose was to keep in 
 vivid memory things concerning the early art of 
 the city which now are fast fading into utter 
 oblivion; but the subject ''grew by what it fed 
 upon," and what was first intended to be only 
 data for the future historian, increased till it 
 embraced a general review of Buffalo's art up to 
 the present day, as far as the writer's memory 
 (in want of early authorities, if any existed) 
 could assist him. 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 In recording the facts concerning the Buffalo 
 Fine Arts Academy, the author has been greatly 
 assisted by an earlier work, **The Buffalo Fine 
 Arts Academy, A Historical Sketch, Compiled 
 by Willis O. Chapin," and especially by Mrs. 
 Sellstedt's scrap-book, in which nearly all 
 published matter concerning the institution 
 was preserved. 
 
 [ 4 ] 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 Although the development of the love of the 
 fine arts and their culture as a refining element 
 in a city devoted to commerce, but with lofty 
 aspirations, is the writer's main purpose, justice 
 to the subject would seem to require a glance at 
 the material circumstances and at the actors 
 that made possible the city's evolution from 
 ordinary and commonplace nature to umbra- 
 geous streets, noble edifices filled with articles of 
 virtu, and choice intellectual and artistic prod- 
 ucts redolent of an atmosphere of elegance and 
 refinement, and which also gave to the city its 
 magnificent parks with their crowning glory — 
 the Albright Art Gallery — where the Buffalo 
 Fine Arts Academy, after many changes and 
 vicissitudes, has at last found a permanent 
 home. 
 
 Siirely, it w^ere fitting that Joseph Warren 
 and William Dorsheimer, in bronze or marble, 
 should from some prominent point look down 
 upon the fruits of their prophetic imagination. 
 
 The projectors of such daring aesthetical 
 innovations did not get their ideas into a con- 
 crete form without much opposition; they did 
 
 [ 5 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 not belong to the wealthy class of our citizens, 
 but they were foresighted men of culture and 
 high ideals whose prominence and social influ- 
 ence were always to be reckoned with. Some, 
 whose chief aim was the gratification of their 
 physical nature, or of adding dollar to dollar, 
 looked on the scheme as an unnecessary tax- 
 increaser; one of their wealthy friends even 
 remarking, when the subject was talked of in 
 his presence, that they lay awake nights to 
 find out how to spend other people's money. In 
 the meantime a great landscape architect, the 
 wizard Olmsted, was invited to look over the 
 ground, with the result that the swaley swamp 
 through which the sluggish Conjockety Creek 
 meandered was converted into a glorious land- 
 scape with a beautiful lake, environed by arbo- 
 real and horticultural wealth, to the delight of 
 all, both young and old, of this and future 
 generations. 
 
 [ 6 ] 
 
I 
 
 Until the beginning of the second decade of 
 city Hfe, Buffalo was as void of reliable annals 
 of its art as the cliff-dwellers of Arizona of 
 those of their origin. All that is known is that at 
 an early day it contained four portrait-painters, 
 and that a goodly number of its citizens were 
 willing and able to pay the price of a stunted 
 immortality in oil. Were it not for the remaining 
 fruits of those artists' skill, and that their names 
 are embalmed in the sporadically published 
 directories of the time, the historian of Buffalo's 
 art would be at his wits' end in searching for 
 material. 
 
 According to the New York Gazetteer, pub- 
 lished in Albany in 1842, the census of 1840 
 gave Buffalo a population of 18,213, while that 
 of New York City and county was 312,710. 
 
 When the size and age of the city is taken 
 into account, it will be seen that portrait-paint- 
 ers, at least, had small cause to complain of 
 want of patronage, since in a place of less than 
 20,000 inhabitants four resident artists, and 
 doubtless others of whom no record is left, could 
 find profitable employment. The ntmierous 
 
 [ 7 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 portraits of our early settlers, still to be seen on 
 the walls of their descendants or relegated to the 
 portrait gallery of the Buffalo Historical So- 
 ciety, are here in evidence. 
 
 Indeed, there was little else but portrait 
 work to keep an artist from starving outside of 
 the older cities on the seaboard; landscape 
 painting was at a low ebb ever3rwhere. It was 
 later revived by Mr. Thomas Cole, an English 
 painter, whose headquarters must have been in 
 Albany when he painted those two remarkable 
 series of poetic landscapes which have gained 
 national reputation: ''The Course of Empires,'* 
 and ''The Voyage of Life," later the property 
 of the New York Historical Society. He also 
 painted from nature scenes on the Hudson River. 
 That he must have been sincerely devoted to his 
 art the following anecdote proves ; the late Mr. 
 Frederick S. Church, his distinguished pupil, 
 being authority for it. They were in a boat on 
 the Hudson for the double purpose of studying 
 and fishing, both having their painting materials 
 with them. While thus occupied, their fishing 
 lines were left out with only moderate success. 
 While Mr. Cole was absorbed in the study of a 
 fine sunset, his witty pupil, naturally prone to 
 
 [ 8 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 joking, drew in his master's line and affixed a 
 dead fish to the hook, having first painted it 
 with the bright colors on his palette, then he 
 put it back into the water. Soon after he ex- 
 claimed, **Mr. Cole, I think there is a fish on 
 your hook." The old artist at once began to pull 
 in and seemed quite excited at his catch, but 
 taking it up to unhook he noticed the strange 
 coloring, ''Dear me," he said, "this must be a 
 new species of fish for I never saw the like 
 before." Just then, looking at his hands and 
 finding them smeared with paint, he dropped 
 the fish and without a word quietly returned to 
 his study. 
 
 Besides scenes from the Hudson, other 
 points farther west seem to have been attrac- 
 tions for his brush, for he also made a painting 
 of the Genesee Falls near Glen Iris, that spot of 
 beauty now belonging to the State through the 
 princely generosity of our former president of 
 the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, the Hon. 
 William Pryor Letchworth, who, besides his 
 other altruistic labors, had found time to be 
 of so great assistance in the development of art 
 in our city. 
 
 The better class of the early Buffalonians 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 were mostly from New England or other of the 
 older Eastern States, a moral, church-going 
 people of general intelligence and culttire; in 
 matters of art, those who were not ignorant were 
 conservative, adhering to the ideas of their 
 forefathers that the fine arts were luxuries that 
 might easily be dispensed with — at least ''till 
 a more convenient season." Nevertheless, they 
 brought from their Eastern homes, besides their 
 kitchen utensils, furniture, and penates, their 
 parlor ornaments as well. Thus it came to pass 
 that occasionally meritorious works of art were 
 to be found in their houses. The writer even 
 remembers to have seen a fine portrait by the 
 celebrated Gilbert Stuart in a sailor boarding- 
 house, of the landlord, one Captain Black, a 
 former shipmaster from Massachusetts, who in 
 his youth had been a pupil of the great portrait- 
 painter and who, judging from an accompanying 
 likeness of his wife by himself, showed no small 
 advance in art. 
 
 The writer can also recall other paintings 
 of sufficient interest to merit the attention of 
 an art critic. It is true, his knowledge of the 
 requirements of good art was at the time quite 
 inadequate to judge either of its financial value 
 
 [ 10 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 or of its artistic merit, but more than three 
 score years of art study to which he has devoted 
 his life must indeed have been spent in vain if 
 he be incompetent to give a reasonably correct 
 idea of the dif¥erence between a fairly good 
 work of art and a daub, and his opinion is not 
 based entirely on immature judgment, for some 
 of the pictures referred to are still hanging in 
 the dwellings of the grandchildren. 
 
 Before their destruction by fire in the old 
 city building, many interesting, and among them 
 some good, portraits of the earlier makers of 
 Buffalo were seen. Most, if not all, were por- 
 traits of former mayors. While his modest salary 
 was twelve hundred dollars, the reigning mayor 
 was expected to disburse it all, or nearly all, 
 for his counterfeit presentment in oil, to become 
 public property, the honor of the office being 
 held in those primitive times sufficient reward 
 for his services. 
 
 Many of these portraits were by Mr. A. G. D. 
 Tuthill, an Englishman who had studied art 
 under Benjamin West. He had many good quali- 
 ties as an artist, such as careful and correct 
 design and natural coloring, though a certain 
 primness and stiffness of pose often marred his 
 
 [ 11 1 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 work. Others were by Jackson, whose portraits 
 are readily recognized by sharpness of outline 
 and minute attention to dress and detail, espe- 
 cially in his women; they probably were what 
 in those days, before the discovery of Daguerre, 
 were considered very good likenesses. Of the 
 portraits by Mr. Carnard Carpenter, the fourth 
 of the quartette before mentioned, little is 
 known; but that he had good qualities as an 
 artist, a sign over a tobacco shop on Main Street, 
 which was much admired, said to be his work, 
 proved him to have been artistically clever. 
 The sign represented four smokers enjoying the 
 weed. It may have been a copy, but certainly it 
 was a good piece of color. One or two by Mr. 
 Wilgus, of whom more hereafter, were among 
 his best works and superior to all. These painters 
 were far ahead in their art of the common 
 limners that perambulated the country, whose 
 paintings seemed to have had no other merit 
 than to prove that their owners had progenitors, 
 male and female. 
 
 Among the artists of this period that were 
 not residents of the city, Mr. Alva Bradish 
 deserves prominent mention. Nothing is known 
 by the writer of his early history except that, 
 
 [ 12 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 judging from some work of his younger days, he 
 gave a promise of excellence which was not 
 fulfilled, though this probably was owing to the 
 necessity of providing for a large family, render- 
 ing haste obligatory, rather than lack of knowl- 
 edge. Mr. Bradish was an educated gentleman, 
 well connected and thoroughly conversant with 
 all that might be learned from art literature. 
 For many years he filled the chair of professor 
 of fine arts in the University of Michigan. He 
 was a rapid painter and must have been the 
 author of a prodigious number of portraits, 
 especially in the western portion of the country, 
 where he painted full-length pictures of several 
 governors and other dignitaries. His home was 
 in Fredonia, whence he used to make occasional 
 professional visits to Buffalo and the surrounding 
 country. 
 
 Perhaps the most noteworthy event in Buf- 
 falo's early art-history was the return of a youth 
 of eighteen to the city from the studio of Presi- 
 dent Samuel F. B. Morse, of the National 
 Academy of New York, where he had spent 
 three years in faithful study. William John 
 Wilgus, than whom Buffalo never had a painter 
 more accomplished in the technique of his 
 
 [ 13 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 profession, established himself in a studio in 
 the building recently removed to give place for 
 the offices of the American Express Company, 
 corner of Main and Erie streets. The portraits 
 that he painted while located there during the 
 last three years of the third and the two first 
 of the fourth decade of the last century, were 
 greatly superior to any painted in Buffalo at 
 the time. Such excellent work from a youth 
 of eighteen gave growing hopes to his friends and 
 admirers of a brilliant future which, had he 
 not been handicapped by failing health, would 
 doubtless have matured. His death took place 
 in Buffalo, after some years spent in Southern 
 climates, in his thirty-fourth year. 
 
 Among his best works were a number of 
 Cattaraugus Indians, painted on their reserva- 
 tion, nearly all of which were destroyed by fire 
 in the home of Caleb Lyons of Lyonsdale, Essex 
 County, to whom he had sold them, and where 
 they had been a choice part of the collection of 
 this eccentric but cultivated gentleman, scholar, 
 and poet. 
 
 In 1842, Bulfalo had emerged from the 
 depression caused by the collapse following the 
 speculating mania of the early thirties, and the 
 
 [ 14 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 subsequent business disturbances caused by the 
 failure of the United States Bank. On the docks 
 business was brisk; they were cumbered with 
 apples, stoves, hollowware, and railroad iron 
 ready for shipment to Cleveland, Chicago, Mil- 
 waukee, Detroit, and other Western cities; 
 wheat and flour being the return freights in the 
 small sailing craftj! that crowded the harbor; 
 while steamboats gaily decorated in gorgeous 
 colors plied up and down the lakes in the 
 passenger business, then the swiftest mode of 
 reaching the Far West. Art, also, generally in 
 the form of portraiture, was in a fairly flourishing 
 condition, and was, especially among ladies, a 
 subject of conversation and care. 
 
 Naturally, the beautiful art which came 
 from the refined nature and skilled hand of 
 young Wilgus brought fruit in orders, to which, 
 perhaps, the uncommon beauty and gentle man- 
 ners of the artist not a little contributed. But he 
 was not without a rival. There was a difference 
 of opinion among the would-be connoisseurs, 
 the majority, perhaps, adhering to Mr. Wilgus ; 
 while some were greatly taken up with the work 
 of a man by the name of Gale, whose pretentious 
 claims and flamboyant pictures impressed the 
 
 [ 15 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 ignorant, although they were utterly lacking in 
 true artistic value; but, though il^ drawn and 
 meretriciously colored, they were large in size 
 and gorgeous in reds and yellows. 
 
 Mr. Gale's genius was not satisfied with so 
 low a form of art as portraits ; he affected history 
 also. The writer remembers an exhibition of 
 two of his chefs-d'oeuvre in the old American 
 Hall: Adam and Eve in paradise, and poor old 
 Job prostrate and equally void of covering, 
 ^ unless the numerous boils in various stages of 
 / growth with which the body was decorated 
 I might be thus designated. Mr. Gale's career was 
 ^"^oiot of long continuance, a cloud covered his dis- 
 appearance from the city and he was never 
 heard of more. 
 
 While awakening the memories of these 
 departed days, the writer recalls the scruples of 
 conscience that agitated him sometimes. Had he 
 done right to adopt art as a profession? Cut 
 Bono? In the light of youth and ignorance, art 
 appeared wholly an expression of sensuous 
 beauty. Was it worth the sacrifice of a life? 
 True, his first attempt, a death-bed scene, 
 seemed a denial of this postulate; but was not 
 even that but a tribute to a semi-poetic tempera- 
 
 [ 16 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 ment without religious or altruistic base? He 
 felt the beauty of pathos, color and line, but 
 even if success had attended the work, it would 
 have had no higher motive. He had yet to learn 
 that art's perfect ideal requires the union of these 
 at least in its most exalted form, and that its 
 mission, whether expressed in stone, color, tone, 
 or poetic frenzy, is to drag the soul out of the 
 mucky mire of earth into the pure life-giving 
 atmosphere of worthy aspiration. 
 
 That the exhibition of Mr. Gale's two afore- 
 said paintings could have had any measure of 
 success is hardly creditable to our city's idea of 
 art at the time, though perhaps a sort of side- 
 show may have been the principal attraction. 
 This was the work of a young man from Canada, 
 and consisted of some beautiful wood carvings, 
 representing Noah's ark with its animals as 
 described in the biblical account of the flood, 
 which were greatly admired. The young sculptor 
 was a brother of our deeply mourned and 
 deservedly remembered Amos W. Sangster, a 
 self-instructed painter and etcher, too modest 
 to claim the position in art to which his quiet 
 studio work entitled him. 
 
 Another excellent artist whose works demand 
 [ 17 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 a green memory in the annals of Buffalo's art 
 was James M. Dickenson, a miniature painter, 
 whose work equaled the best in that branch of 
 art. A fine portrait of Major-General Peter B. 
 Porter painted by him has been copied in oil, 
 life size, and generously donated to our Histori- 
 cal Society by his daughter, the late Miss Eliza- 
 beth L. Porter, of Niagara Falls. Though the 
 writer never made the acquaintance of Mr. 
 Dickenson he saw him often and well remem- 
 bers his appearance as he walked the streets 
 of our city, a rather undersized old gentleman 
 with silver locks and wrapped in a blue cloak. 
 
 On his return from Mayaguez, Porto Rico, 
 where he had spent a profitable winter, Mr. 
 Wilgus took a studio in New York, which left 
 Buffalo without a resident artist worthy of note, 
 during which time there seems to have been a 
 lull in the interest for art — the desire to look 
 into the intangible mysteries of hypnotism, or, 
 as it was then called, animal magnetism, to a 
 considerable extent supplying its place. In 
 occasional exhibitions of pictures, however, the 
 writer remembers a large canvas, "The Open- 
 ing of the Seventh Seal," by Benjamin West, 
 and a full-sized copy in oil of Leonardo da 
 
 [ 18 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Vinci's "Last Supper " ; both were exhibited in 
 churches. He also recalls two excellent por- 
 traits by Wilgus on exhibition in his father's 
 book-store, one a three-quarter length of an 
 Indian called Captain Cole, the other a superb 
 portrait of the late Mr. Joseph G. Norton, one of 
 Buffalo's most prominent citizens. 
 
 In the meantime the writer had ventured to 
 offer himself to the public as a painter of por- 
 traits and had taken a studio on Seneca Street 
 near Main, where he painted a ntimber of por- 
 traits, such as they were, his customers being of 
 a class that did not ask for too great a degree of 
 excellence. Here he divided his time between 
 painting, dissecting in the new medical college 
 near by, and studying anatomy and art litera- 
 ture in his lonely evenings by a single tallow 
 candle. Ah! more light is now required since 
 gas and electricity have spoiled our eyes. 
 
 [ 19 ] 
 
II 
 
 T HE arrival of Mr. Thomas Le Clear, in 1847, 
 gave new impetus to art — to portrait-painting 
 at least. Mr. Le Clear was a native of Owego. 
 His early studies had been under Mr. Bradish, 
 but later he had been a pupil of Henry Inman, 
 at that time New York's most popular portrait- 
 painter, in whose studio he had acquired not 
 only a first-class technique and grace of pose of 
 the sitter, but many other elements which go 
 to make up an excellent artist. Almost as soon 
 as he found a studio, the writer received a call 
 from him, and the first encouraging words from 
 a real artist. 
 
 The return of Mr. Wilgus to Buffalo in the 
 same year found his former studio occupied by 
 the writer, who gladly exchanged it for a smaller 
 and less convenient one to please his friend, for 
 a friendship had already sprung up between 
 them which became an intimacy only to cease by 
 death five years later. William John Wilgus was 
 the uncle of the distinguished engineer, later one 
 of the vice-presidents of the New York Central 
 Railroad, who was named after him. He was 
 born in Troy, whence his father moved to Buf- 
 
 [ 20 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 falo when his son was nine years of age. In New 
 York, at Mr. Morse's school, he formed an inti- 
 macy with the late Daniel Huntington, for many 
 years president of the National Academy of 
 Design, who was a fellow pupil with him. A 
 short time before Mr. Huntington's death, the 
 writer called on him, when the conversation 
 turned on Mr. Wilgus. ''Ah!" said the old 
 gentleman, '* I remember him well, he was very 
 talented ; he painted a very fine portrait of me, 
 which I am very sorry to have lost." 
 
 Mr. Wilgus did not remain in the city long at 
 this time, the condition of his health appearing 
 to require a Southern climate. On his return, in 
 1849, found his old studio occupied; but he 
 caused a large and commodious one to be con- 
 structed, which, after his death, in 1853, was 
 taken by Le Clear. 
 
 In proof that Mr. Wilgus was not confined 
 in his art to portrait-painting alone, may be 
 instanced two remarkable landscapes, one a 
 scene in Mayaguez, Porto Rico, and the other, 
 ''Chautauqua Lake by Moonlight"; and also 
 his himiorous representation from Irving's story 
 of Ichabod Crane, painted at the age of fifteen 
 in Mr. Morse's studio, which was later made 
 
 [ 21 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 popular by a reproduction in oil printing said 
 to have been the earliest specimen of chromo 
 work in our city under Mr. Hemming's direc- 
 tion. 
 
 The appearance of William H. Beard, in 1851, 
 and the return from Europe of Matthew Wilson, 
 an English gentleman who had begun to study 
 art in Buffalo, coming back fresh from the studio 
 of Couture in Paris, produced a sort of revival of 
 art, three portrait-painters competing for the 
 lucre if not the honor. To these may be added 
 the appearance of Augustus Rockwell and 
 Joseph Meeker; and later a young and gifted 
 artist by the name of Libby, whose pictures in 
 genre, painted with great care from models, 
 gave promise of a future eminence which only 
 his early death prevented. Mr. Rockwell had 
 considerable success as a painter of portraits, 
 and he also painted acceptable landscapes, 
 chiefly from studies in the Adirondack Wilder- 
 ness made on fishing and hunting excursions. 
 The writer has no knowledge of where he studied 
 his art nor the place of his birth. His gentle man- 
 ners and honorable conduct made him a great 
 favorite of all who came within the circle of his 
 acquaintance. Perhaps the best example of his 
 
 [ 22 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 art is the excellent likeness of the late ex-Presi- 
 dent Fillmore, painted a short time before that 
 gentleman's death, now the property of the 
 Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. 
 
 Mr. Rockwell's sudden death, in 1880, as he 
 was entering his house on Linwood Avenue, was 
 a great shock to his friends and, we may add, to 
 the whole city, as he was well known and uni- 
 versally respected. Mr. A. B. Nimbs, a pupil of 
 Wilgus, and Albert W. Samuels, who studied 
 under Le Clear, also belong to this period ; both 
 painted portraits. 
 
 Up to this time no regular school of art had 
 been formed in the city, but there arrived an old 
 and experienced actor who, besides his duty as 
 stage-manager of the Eagle Street Theater, 
 found time to conduct a school for landscape 
 painting, having himself taken lessons in that 
 branch of art from the late Mr. Cropsey of New 
 York. His stage name, by which he was known 
 at the time, was Andrew Andrews, his real name 
 being Isaacs. By birth he was a Hebrew, of 
 Jamaica. He was one of the most liberal of men 
 and exceedingly companionable. His capacity as 
 artist, limited wholly to the imitation or copying 
 of prints, consisted in a very neat and artistic 
 
 [ 23 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 touch of foliage in the style of his quondam 
 instructor. He painted with great rapidity, being 
 able to cover a large canvas with quite a remark- 
 able landscape in a day, a celerity which he 
 modestly attributed to spiritual aid, in which 
 he fully believed. His class in painting was quite 
 large, often as many as thirty pupils, mostly 
 society ladies who filled their walls with their own 
 pictures, every one of which received the finish- 
 ing touches from the instructor's own hand. If 
 a figure was wanted, either Mr. Beard or the 
 writer, who often visited the school, was asked 
 to supply it. It was here that Buffalo's distin- 
 guished artist, Charles C. Coleman, now of Capri, 
 being then a boy, got his first lessons in painting. 
 
 Notwithstanding the shortcomings of An- 
 drews, well understood by his artist friends, he 
 was a great favorite among them. On one occa- 
 sion, when he was to play Benedick for his 
 benefit, all his brother painters appeared in a 
 box together. He had, as a stage-manager, 
 incurred the displeasiire of some of the actors 
 and feared that he might need protectors after 
 the play. It was a j^talwart lot that occupied the 
 stage box that evening, and fun was looked for. 
 
 At the end of the play. Benedick was called 
 
 [ 24 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 out to speak, upon which he addressed the audi- 
 ence with the assurance of an old hero of the 
 buskin. His remarks ended with a defiance to his 
 enemies : I have heard that I am to be assaulted 
 this evening, but I would have my enemies know 
 that I am not without protectors," pointing at 
 the same time up to the box where his artist 
 friends were seated. On leaving the theater, at 
 the stage door he found them, each provided 
 with a stick, at either side of the outlet, but no 
 enemy appeared. The party adjourned to a cer- 
 tain subterranean saloon under the American 
 Hotel, whence they did not emerge till the small 
 hours of the morning. 
 
 The writer cannot consider his duty as histo- 
 rian of Buffalo's Art fulfilled without some 
 grateful allusion to the benevolent merchants 
 who furnished the most needed materials for its 
 development. Their faith in the future of their 
 customers was indeed without bounds. How else 
 could impecunious budding genius bring fruit? 
 Beefsteak and pie might sometimes be luxuries, 
 and even bread and milk were not always 
 despised. Lager-beer " and ''free lunch" were 
 not yet to be had, and the desire for any stronger 
 potation than cafe-au-lait had not developed. 
 
 [ 25 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 The cheapest tobacco could fill the pipe as a 
 solace for all evils ; but canvas, paints, brushes, 
 and kindred materials must be had. Here it was 
 that the good, confiding Messrs. Coleman, who, 
 in addition to their drug store, kept artists' 
 materials, came to the fore. It is to the credit of 
 their young struggling debtors, whom they 
 never dunned, that their inability to make 
 themselves multi-millionaires was not caused by 
 lack of artistic honor. Nay, the writer recalls a 
 pleasant evening when Mr. William Coleman 
 made a feast in his bachelor apartment to the 
 resident artists, presenting at the close of the 
 banquet a new palette to each of the guests; 
 this was more than half a century ago, but the 
 souvenir is still in daily use in the writer's 
 studio. A poem written for the occasion by Mr. 
 Matthew Wilson is considerately spared the 
 reader, but the writer cannot leave the subject 
 without a description of the most beautiful sum- 
 mer night that ever was granted to the city of 
 Buffalo by the powers above. 
 
 ''And they were not that fou," either, ''but 
 just a drappy in their ee." When they left their 
 host and could breathe the pure air again, a 
 most beautiful aurora borealis met their gaze. 
 
 [ 26 ] 
 
4 
 
 ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 From the zenith a complete tent of iridescent 
 colors seemed to be suspended over the whole 
 city. Every tint of the prism was there, shifting 
 from side to side with lightning rapidity, as if 
 the angels were dancing around a celestial may- 
 pole. After enjoying the spectacle to the end, 
 the merry company separated, each to find his 
 own keyhole. 
 
 Perhaps it may be of interest to the young 
 reader to know that the flexible tube that holds 
 the pigments was then an invention less than a 
 decade old, artists' paints theretofore being sold 
 in small bladders in which a pinhole was pricked 
 to squeeze the paint out, a method generally in 
 use in Europe as late as 1853. The invention is 
 said to have been by a Scotchman in the employ 
 of Dechaux, the artists' colorman of New York. 
 
 As the subject of art was becoming popular 
 and public attention began to be called to it, 
 some of the prominent artists thought the time 
 ripe to form an association on the lines of the 
 New York National Academy of Design, with 
 public exhibitions in a permanent exhibition 
 room. The result of their cogitations was a meet- 
 ing called by Mr. Matthew Wilson, who was not 
 only a popular artist fresh from a Paris studio 
 
 [ 27 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 but a favorite leader in society. Mr. George W. 
 Rounds, agent for the North Western Insurance 
 Company, and Mr. Wilson's intimate friend, 
 offered his rooms at the ''Phelps House " as the 
 place of meeting. Those present were Messrs. 
 Thomas Le Clear, William H. Beard, Mr. 
 Matthew Wilson, Mr. Joseph Meeker, and the 
 writer. All seemed to be in harmony and ready 
 with their support, till Mr. Rounds, who also 
 was a member of the meeting, rose to propose 
 Mr. Wilson as the president of the association. 
 An ominous silence followed, broken by the 
 present recorder, who made the suggestion that 
 for many reasons it might be best that the 
 president should not be one of the artists, but 
 some influential and willing citizen, as not only 
 art but finances too, as well as other business 
 requirements, were to be considered. He there- 
 fore suggested delay in appointing officers. Mr. 
 Wilson moved to adjourn, and nothing more was 
 heard of an art association till the Buffalo Fine 
 Arts Academy was established a whole decade 
 later. 
 
 Buffalo had passed its infancy and was 
 putting on airs as a city of some consequence, 
 and fast losing its village habits. A hole was 
 
 [ 28 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 bored in the rocky bottom of the Niagara River, 
 which was made to contribute of its Hmpid cur- 
 rent to fire protection and domestic uses, instead 
 of the old and not always odorless city pumps, 
 the use of which later, for hygienic reasons, was 
 altogether discontinued. 
 
 Business seemed on a safe footing, and the 
 time had come to attend to things less tangible 
 if not less important. Buffalonians had learned 
 the sweet power of music from Jenny Lind, and 
 even Patti, then a child of nine, had given 
 promise of future greatness ; nor was the city 
 without its native talent and indigenous love 
 for music. In the spirit memory of the writer 
 there lingers yet a faint echo of the sweet tones of 
 Albert Bigelow in home concerts. Under the di- 
 rection of Everett L. Baker, the organist, student 
 and pupil of old Mr. Barton, organist of Trinity 
 Church, the Saint Cecilia Society was formed, 
 whose sweet concerted voices gratified the lovers 
 of song; to this must be added the Liedertafel 
 and Mendelssohn societies, the Christy Minstrels, 
 a native Buffalo chorus, and first heard here; 
 also the home opera, directed by that versatile 
 histrionic sage, Andrews. Mr. James N. John- 
 ston's beautiful tribute to home poetry proves 
 
 [ 29 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 that neither was the worship of Euterpe nor her 
 graver sisters neglected. 
 
 Painting, sculpture, and architecture were 
 the only members of the great family of the 
 Muses that were yet without temple or congre- 
 gation. Their votaries practiced their ^vocations 
 with zeal and energy and not without encour- 
 agement; they fraternized, ate and drank, and 
 criticized each other without ill-feeling or rancor, 
 though art, per se, was seldom the theme when 
 at their pipes or simple libations. 
 
 No general public exhibition of v/orks of art 
 had hitherto obtained in Buffalo, at least none 
 worthy of record, for though dealers in art from 
 New York and elsewhere brought pictures and 
 articles of virtu more or less — generally less — 
 genuine to Buffalo, such mercantile ventures 
 may well be passed by as they added little to its 
 art culture. Exceptions must be made, however, 
 to Dubufe's "Adam and Eve," exhibited in 
 McArthur's Hall, and later his ''Prodigal Son.'* 
 They were beautiful pictures, both in composi- 
 tion and color, good specimens of the French 
 school of their day, when realism was less insisted 
 on than later. The writer remembers sitting near 
 two ladies who were admiring ''Adam and Eve 
 
 [ 30 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 in Paradise," and commenting on them. Said 
 one to the other, I wonder why Adam did not 
 stop at his tailor's on his way from the bar- 
 ber's!" alluding to the carefully groomed locks 
 of our supposed progenitor. 
 
 [ 31 ] 
 
Ill 
 
 As the fifth decade of the nineteenth century- 
 was drawing to its close, the pohtical horizon 
 began to be darkened with storm-boding clouds. 
 True, no one dreamed of the extent of devas- 
 tation they were destined to bring, or of the 
 lamentation that would be heard throughout 
 the land for the death of first-borns before the 
 roaring tempest could clear the sky and leave 
 the whole country to breathe the pure air of 
 perfect freedom. And yet few believed that war 
 would really come till the echo of the first gun 
 from Fort Simiter reverberated through every 
 part of the United States. Up to this time there 
 had been an uneasiness that interfered with all 
 kinds of peaceful development, and in which art 
 had its full share, which at once gave place to a 
 feeling that all other interests must remain in 
 abeyance, or be sacrificed in defense of the 
 Union, or what was deemed the right. 
 
 Perhaps it was fortunate for the develop- 
 ment of the art spirit of Buffalo and the conse- 
 quent birth of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy 
 that it was coincident with the beginning of 
 the war for the Union. The dormant patriotism 
 
 [ 32 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 of the North was awakened as nothing but the 
 defiance of the slave States could have aroused 
 it. Many were willing to give their all for the 
 safety of the Union. At all costs the rebellion 
 must be crushed, but few realized at what cost. 
 The first practical lesson came from Bull Run. 
 As by magic, silver and gold disappeared from 
 trade, yet money, and much money, must be 
 found to meet the exigencies. It is to the honor 
 of Buffalo that its representative in congress, 
 Mr. E. G. Spaulding, chairman of ways and 
 means, was mainly instrumental in financing the 
 enormous undertaking by the invention of green- 
 backs, as everything indicated a long and san- 
 guinary war ; the necessity of a great army, and 
 the necessary equipments for the same, brought 
 about a business movement the effect of which 
 was felt in every department of industry. An era 
 of prosperity, with its attendant luxuries and 
 enjoyments, took the place of despondency. 
 Money was easily made and spent liberally; 
 subscriptions for almost any altruistic purpose 
 were made without murmur, and assistance to 
 the Red Cross or the Sanitary Association in 
 behalf of the army was freely given. The claim 
 of art, too, as a factor in culture and refining 
 
 [ 33 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 influences, was easily recognized and generously 
 met. 
 
 Club life for social enjoyment had not yet 
 taken root in the city. The Buffalo Club, which 
 was organized about this time (1867), became of 
 much use in the interest of art, as within its 
 comfortable rooms were originated and dis- 
 cussed many practical means for achieving 
 success in art matters. 
 
 A year or two before the above mentioned 
 portents had made their appearance, a young 
 man came from Albany to this city to become a 
 member of the editorial staff of the Buffalo 
 Courier. At first he was the city editor, but 
 being a man of high culture and strict sense of 
 honor, and endowed by nature with an uncom- 
 mon amount of good sense and breadth of judg- 
 ment, he soon became editor-in-chief, and sub- 
 sequently a principal owner and sole manager 
 of the whole important establishment. This was 
 Joseph Warren, a gentleman whose influence 
 could always be depended on for the promotion 
 of any good and useful work — material, ethical, 
 assthetical, or intellectual — in the city. How 
 much the lingering life of the Buffalo Fine Arts 
 Academy owes to his encouragement, generous 
 
 [ 34 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 aid, and sound judgment, only the present 
 writer knows. 
 
 Mr. Warren was the president of the Young 
 Men's Association at its twenty-fifth anniversary 
 in 1 86 1, and it was at this time that the fortunate 
 idea of the executive board of that society, that 
 a regular public exhibition of art ought to form 
 a part of its quarter-century commemorations, 
 was suggested. 
 
 The project was approved, and to the Young 
 Men's Association belongs the honor of being 
 the sponsors of the first regular art exhibition 
 ever given in the city of Buffalo. Its general 
 direction was in the hands of Mr. Edward S. 
 Rich, the chairman of the art committee, but he 
 was greatly assisted by Mr. H. Ewers Tallmadge, 
 a well-known and highly esteemed young lawyer 
 then resident in the city, who assumed the office 
 of secretary of the exhibition and through whose 
 endeavors many fine works of art were secured. 
 The following description by Mr. Warren, writ- 
 ten at the time, tells the story of the prepara- 
 tions too graphically to be omitted, the writer 
 will only add that a better exhibition has seldom 
 been offered to the public in Buffalo. It was 
 easier to obtain good pictures from native 
 
 [ 35 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 artists then, as the idea was novel, and though 
 more are painted there are so many cities which 
 have followed the lead of Buffalo in establishing 
 art institutions that have regular exhibitions 
 every year that it became more and more diffi- 
 cult to procure good works of art for exhibitions. 
 
 Mr. Warren said: "American Hall was 
 engaged, draped, and somewhat inartistically 
 extemporized into an art gallery. A confiding 
 gas-fitter was discovered who engaged to put in 
 the pipe and fixtures and remove them at the 
 close of the exhibition at a merely nominal 
 expense. The secretary of the gas company, 
 Mr. O. G. Steele, with characteristic liberality, 
 contracted to make no charge for the lighting 
 of the hall, and the Hon. William G. Fargo 
 neglected to collect the express bills for bringing 
 pictures from New York and returning them to 
 their owners. Members of the committee waited 
 on those of our citizens who were owners of 
 paintings and begged them for the exhibition. 
 Portraits of citizens were borrowed, artists at 
 home and abroad were asked to contribute, and 
 as a result the hall was strewn with works of 
 art. The days preceding the opening were busy 
 and anxious ones. Members of the committee 
 
 [ 36 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 organized by the indefatigable Sellstedt, who 
 adds to artistic genius the rare ambition to 
 work for the public without compensation, 
 brought order out of chaos and the pictures at 
 last were hung. Would anybody come to see 
 them ? Men of influence were quietly smuggled 
 in and requested to say a kind word for the 
 exhibition. Ladies of taste were asked to lend 
 their countenance to the doubtful enterprise. So 
 fearful was the committee of failure, that on the 
 evening previous to the opening the chairman 
 of the committee, Mr. Edward S. Rich, gave a 
 modest spread in the hall, to which eighty ladies 
 and gentlemen were invited. They came, ad- 
 mired the pictures, tested the sandwiches and 
 punch, and voted the exhibition a success, and 
 so it proved. Two hundred and eighty-five paint- 
 ings and eight pieces of statuary were included 
 in the catalogue. The gross receipts were eight 
 hundred and thirty-five dollars, and from the 
 net proceeds a landscape from the easel of 
 Geo. L. Brown, of New York, was purchased for 
 the association." 
 
 The project of forming an art association by 
 the artists of Buffalo, though dormant since the 
 first abortive attempt above recorded, was by 
 
 [ 37 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 no means dead ; and the success which attended 
 the venture of the Young Men's Association was 
 well calculated to awaken it. It was evident 
 that the interest of the public was very much 
 alive to the subject of art, and therefore that 
 the time was propitious. 
 
 While the means of putting their idea into 
 concrete form was agitating the minds of the 
 hopeful projectors, a fortuitous event not only 
 removed some of the difficulties but placed the 
 whole matter on an immediate practical footing. 
 
 A Mr. Josiah Humphrey had attempted to 
 establish a permanent art gallery in Rochester 
 without the desired success, and, in some way, 
 learning that there was thought of founding 
 a permanent gallery in Buffalo, came to Mr. 
 Le Clear, whom he justly considered the most 
 prominent artist in Buffalo, offering to remove 
 his whole collection here if a guarantee of success 
 could be assured him. 
 
 The Young Men's Association had always 
 had a committee on art, had even thought of 
 an art gallery as a complement to their library. 
 Some pictures they had, mostly portraits do- 
 nated by friends, and the landscape referred to 
 by Mr. Warren, was expected to be a beginning 
 
 [ 38 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 of a real art collection to which an annual exhi- 
 bition would contribute. For this reason the 
 idea of a new association with a permanent 
 gallery and regular exhibitions was not received 
 without feeling, and trouble was feared, but 
 wise counsels soon put an end to whatever dis- 
 cord there may have been, and perfect harmony 
 resulted. To this much-desired decision, doubt- 
 less, Mr. Warren, ever an opponent to strife and 
 a far-seeing man, largely contributed. Instead 
 of opposition, every necessary aid was freely 
 tendered the artists and their friends in their 
 new enterprise. 
 
 Mr. Humphrey's proposal was readily con- 
 sidered by Mr. Le Clear, as it opened a way for 
 the formation of the desired association or 
 academy without further delay, with a nucleus 
 ready at hand around which a good permanent 
 gallery of art might cluster ; it only remained to 
 agree on the terms. Anticipating substantial aid 
 from lovers of art, Mr. Le Clear took into his 
 confidence Mr. Tallmadge, who, besides his expe- 
 rience as secretary of the Young Men's Associa- 
 tion exhibition, by which he had familiarized 
 himself with the subject, would also, through 
 his legal knowledge, be a safe guide in matters 
 
 [ 39 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 of business and assist in making proper and 
 legal arrangements with Mr. Humphrey. 
 
 A night was spent in Mr. Tallmadge's office 
 preparing a sketch of a constitution and by- 
 laws for the projected institution. A list of 
 names of gentlemen who were thought pos- 
 sessed of influence and to be lovers of art was 
 prepared, and each of the two midnight con- 
 spirators agreed to present the subject to his 
 respective friends. 
 
 On the night of November loth, 1862, Mr. 
 Le Clear called with Mr. Humphrey at the office 
 of his friend, Mr. Henry W. Rogers, upon whose 
 aid he had good reasons to believe he could rely, 
 and the subject was discussed between them. It 
 was agreed to convene a meeting of such men 
 as were likely to favor the enterprise, to talk 
 over the matter. The following gentlemen met 
 at 7 P. M., November nth, in Messrs. Bowen 
 & Rogers' office, at 28 Erie Street: Henry W. 
 Rogers, John S. Ganson, Orsamus H. Marshall, 
 Grosvenor W. Heacock, Josiah Himiphrey, 
 George S. Hazard, John Allen, Jr., Thomas 
 Le Clear, Sylvester F. Mixer, Harmon S. Cutting, 
 James M. Smith, L. G. Sellstedt, Silas H. Fish, 
 H. Ewers Tallmadge, and Anson G. Chester. 
 
 [ 40 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Mr. 0. H. Marshall was made chairman of the 
 meeting and Anson G. Chester, secretary. 
 
 The meeting being called to order, it was 
 resolved to organize an association for the culti- 
 vation of the Fine Arts of Buffalo, to be called 
 the Academy of Fine Arts, but Mr. Anson G. 
 Chester offered as amendment that it be called 
 the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, which was car- 
 ried. The proposed constitution and by-laws 
 prepared as above was, after a few amendments, 
 adopted, and the following officers were elected 
 to serve for one year: Henry W. Rogers, presi- 
 dent ; George S. Hazard, James M. Smith, and 
 George B. Hibbard, vice-presidents; Josiah 
 Humphrey, corresponding secretary ; H. Ewers 
 Tallmadge, recording secretary ; John Allen, Jr., 
 treasurer. Sixteen curators were chosen to serve 
 for two years, viz : Millard Fillmore, Sherman S. 
 Jewett, Grosvenor W. Heacock, John S. Ganson, 
 0. H. Marshall, L. G. Sellstedt, W. H. Beard, 
 S. V. R. Watson, William Dorsheimer, Silas H. 
 Fish, Asher P. Nichols, Sylvester F. Mixer, W. 
 Wilkeson, Harmon S. Cutting, Thomas Le Clear, 
 Anson G. Chester, and George B. Hibbard. 
 All but Mr. Hibbard consented to serve, and 
 Bronson C. Rumsey was chosen in his place. 
 
 [ 41 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Thus the infant was baptized and left in care 
 of its sponsors. 
 
 Mr. Humphrey had claimed, as a sine qua 
 non, that the sum of $6,000 must be raised to 
 purchase one of the pictures of his collection, 
 "The Departure of the Pilgrims from Delfts- 
 haven for America, A. D., 1620," by Charles 
 Lucy, of which he exhibited a steel engraving; 
 but, though it might be a desirable possession, it 
 was thought that if the money were raised it 
 would be unwise to expend it all on one single 
 work of art. However, as a compromise, Mr. 
 Humphrey at last consented to bring the 
 whole collection if assurance were given that 
 the $6,000 would be expended on paintings 
 which he owned or controlled. A commit- 
 tee was appointed to get subscribers for 
 this fund, consisting of Messrs. Hazard and 
 Rogers. 
 
 These gentlemen started out on their mission 
 on the morning of the nth of December, and 
 before 6 P. M. had twelve subscribers of $500 
 each, to which another $500 was added later. 
 Their names were: Henry W. Rogers, Geo. S. 
 Hazard, Sherman S. Jewett, David Bennett, 
 Bronson C. Rumsey, Lauren C. Woodruff, 
 
 [ 42 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Stephen V. R. Watson, Charles Ensign, Chand- 
 ler J. Wells, John Allen, Jr., Pascal P. Pratt, 
 Francis H. Root, James Brayley. 
 
 On the 4th of December, 1862, the Buffalo 
 Fine Arts Academy was incorporated by the fol- 
 lowing incorporators : Millard Fillmore, Silas H. 
 Fish, Grosvenor W. Heacock, William G. Fargo, 
 P. P. Pratt, H. E. Howard, S. S. Jewett, William 
 Williams, John S. Ganson, Julius Movius, L. 
 
 G. Sellstedt, Henry W. Rogers, Oliver G. 
 Steele, Asher P. Nichols, John Allen, Jr., Bron- 
 son C. Rumsey, William Dorsheimer, Orsamus 
 
 H. Marshall, Harmon S. Cutting, Stephen V. 
 R. Watson, Henry A. Richmond, S. F. Mixer, 
 H. Ewers Tallmadge, Coleman T. Robinson, 
 Anson G. Chester, James M. Smith. 
 
 The essential facts in the history of the 
 institution up to the close of the nineteenth 
 century are so well and correctly recorded in 
 Mr. Willis O. Chapin's historical sketch of the 
 Buffalo Fine Arts Academy that little is left for 
 the writer but to fill out its outlines and broad 
 lights and shades with details which may or may 
 not add interest or value, however relevant 
 they may be to the subject. Matters of financial 
 nature may be found faithfully recorded in his 
 
 [ 43 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 book and will be omitted here. The chief aim of 
 the writer is centered in a desire to call attention 
 to some of the difficulties attendant upon the 
 means, whether altruistic or intellectual, of 
 keeping up the interest of the public in the 
 novel experiment. 
 
 In the published address by the superin- 
 tendent at the opening of the Gallery at its first 
 decennial in 1872, the preparation and inaugu- 
 ration of the Gallery are thus described: 
 "Rooms were selected for the Gallery in the 
 building known as the Arcade, on the southeast 
 corner of Main and Clinton streets. They were on 
 the third floor, which consisted of five apart- 
 ments, the two largest of which were lighted 
 from above. A large clothing store now occu- 
 pies the site. They were painted, carpeted, and 
 furnished with gas lights, and other necessaries 
 for an art gallery, and so energetically did 
 the committee in charge (Messrs. Humphrey, 
 Rogers, and Sellstedt) push the work, that by 
 the middle of December the rooms were ready 
 for the removal of the art works from Rochester. 
 In the meantime, Messrs. Le Clear and Hum- 
 phrey had been to Rochester for the collection, 
 and the work of hanging commenced." 
 
 [ 44 ] 
 
IV 
 
 T HE formal inauguration of the Buffalo Fine 
 Arts Academy took place on the evening of the 
 23d of December, 1862. No one who has not ex- 
 perienced the difficulty of such an undertaking 
 with such limited means can believe with what 
 joy they who had labored for its success saw 
 the completion of their work. 
 
 On the evening mentioned the rooms were 
 crowded with an expectant throng of the lovers 
 of art and the best society in the city in its 
 finest clothes. After a musical prelude by Pop- 
 penberg's band, the venerable and honored 
 ex-President of the United States, Mr. Millard 
 Fillmore, as chairman of the committee of 
 reception, arose to introduce Mr. Henry W. 
 Rogers as president of the Academy. Mr. 
 Rogers' address was a brief review of the various 
 enterprises which had been instrumental in 
 forming the culture of Buffalo. 
 
 After more music by Poppenberg's band, 
 Mr. Anson G. Chester read a poem written by 
 himself for the occasion.* The happy evening 
 
 * The poems written in honor of the various festive occasions will be 
 found in their order at the end of this volume. 
 
 [ 45 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 closed by a reception given by the president at 
 his home, attended by the officers of the new- 
 born enterprise and other friends. 
 
 Some of the pictures which Mr. Humphrey 
 had brought to the Gallery were the property of 
 Mr. Frodsham of New York, the former being 
 his agent. ''The Departure of the Pilgrims," by 
 Lucy, was Mr. Charles Frodsham's property. 
 That the hope of selling this picture had been 
 the principal object in offering to bring the 
 collection to Buffalo was evident by the con- 
 dition imposed by Mr. Humphrey, that $6,000 
 (the exact sum asked for it) must be provided. 
 Mr. Frodsham was in need of money, and since 
 he could not sell his picture to Buffalo insisted 
 on its return to New York at once. The removal 
 of this attraction, which filled a whole wall, 
 would be a blow to the success of the exhibi- 
 tion ; and a compromise was effected by loan- 
 ing Mr. Frodsham $2,500 on his picture for a 
 year, thus saving it to the Gallery for that 
 time. Later on, an offer was made to sell to the 
 Academy ''The French Revolution," costing 
 $3,500, taking the money loaned and $1,000 
 in cash for it. This offer was accepted, Messrs. 
 Allen and Captain Dorr advancing the money. 
 
 [ 46 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 ''The Pilgrims" was afterward sold to the 
 New England Society in New York. 
 
 It was found that the expense of maintaining 
 the exhibition rendered the original dream of a 
 free gallery a dream indeed, though hopes were 
 held out that something would turn up in the 
 distant future to make it real. 
 
 The first donation of any work of art was 
 by the late Albert Bierstadt, an artist of broad 
 and liberal views, a fine landscape, represent- 
 ing a view of the rocky coast of the Island 
 of Capri with the Faraglioni Rocks in the 
 middle distance, a beautiful and carefully 
 painted picture. 
 
 Differences between the Academy and Mr. 
 Humphrey began early, and a committee was 
 appointed to adjust them. This resulted in the 
 purchase of two pictures, ''The Captive Soul," 
 by J. A. Oertel, and a landscape by Jolivert. 
 Mr. Humphrey also resigned, on the condition 
 that Mr. Le Clear took charge of the Gallery, 
 and not Mr. Sellstedt, against whom, for some 
 reason now forgotten, he had taken umbrage. 
 Among the works of art brought from Rochester 
 was "The Dead Pearl Diver," by Paul Akers, 
 a recumbent statue in marble belonging to 
 
 [ 47 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Mr. Akers' widow. It is now the property of 
 the Portland Library. 
 
 Mr. Le Clear removed to New York a few 
 months afterwards, and the writer was requested 
 to take charge as superintendent. The bi- 
 monthly exhibitions which then obtained re- 
 quired frequent trips to New York in search of 
 new material, and, as few if any pictures were 
 sold, the artists soon became unwilling to lend 
 their works. Nevertheless, for a while, all went 
 fairly well. It was a hard task to get boxes of 
 pictures up to the Gallery, and unpack and 
 hang them, as no assistance was at hand but 
 the janitor, the young lady clerk, and such men 
 as could be found in the street to lend a hand. 
 Generally, the pictures were placed on the wall 
 by the superintendent alone, unless help was 
 needed to lift them. The principal wall was 
 brick without wooden sheeting, and the bricks 
 must be drilled for nails, which proved laborious 
 and slow work. The superintendent seldom left 
 the building until midnight, and he remembers 
 hanging pictures a whole night, mostly without 
 assistance, to be ready for the announced open- 
 ing in the morning, but he was young and 
 strong, full of vigor and deeply in love with art. 
 
 [ 48 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Mr. George S. Hazard succeeded Mr. Rogers 
 as president in 1 864. The opening ceremony took 
 place on the 13th of February, when a poem 
 was read, written for the occasion by our richly 
 gifted and sweetly remembered David Gray, a 
 young poet and all-around literary man, of 
 whose memory our city will ever be proud. 
 
 The breakers that had threatened the em- 
 barkation no longer showed their frowning 
 forms, and the hopes entertained that the rest 
 of the voyage might be, if not with constancy 
 of fair and pleasant winds, at least without 
 destructive storms, seemed reasonable. 
 
 The country was now in the midst of war 
 and great efforts were made by the patriotic and 
 benevolent men and women who could not take 
 part in field operations to care as much as pos- 
 sible for the sick and wounded soldiers. During 
 January, 1864, a fair was held by the ladies of 
 the Christian Commission in their behalf. A 
 communication from its president, Mrs. William 
 G. Fargo, requesting the use of the Gallery as 
 an auxiliary aid to the fair was answered by 
 a resolution introduced by ex-President Fill- 
 more, and unanimously passed by the board of 
 curators, that the Gallery be given up to the 
 
 [ 49 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 ladies of the Christian Commission for a week. 
 Extra attractions were furnished, comprising 
 pictures, articles of virtu, and curios, borrowed 
 mostly from citizens wherever anything of 
 interest might be found. 
 
 The writer remembers with pleasure an 
 incident which took place about this time. This 
 was a visit by the Ministers of several European 
 countries, with Mr. Seward, the United States 
 Secretary of State, who was escorting them on 
 a jaunt through the country. Among the works 
 of art to which special attention was called 
 were Page's "Venus," Rothermel's ''St. Agnes," 
 "Twelfth Night," and Tenier's "Village Festi- 
 val," these being borrowed from the Cooper 
 Institute of New York. 
 
 In January, 1865, a disastrous fire destroyed 
 the American Hotel and adjoining buildings. 
 This destructive calamity is sadly remembered 
 by those who knew the three of Buffalo's most 
 esteemed young men whose lives were sacrificed 
 while doing their duty as volunteer firemen on 
 that dreadful occasion, James H. Sidway, George 
 H. Ti&t, and William H. Gillett — all youths 
 of promise, of bright future, and belonging to 
 the best society of the city. 
 
 [ 50 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 The Art Gallery, being directly opposite, was 
 felt to be in danger, as the heat was so great 
 that the windows were bent, and it seemed as if 
 the building must take fire. In great haste the 
 most important pictures were taken from the 
 walls ready for instant removal, the large canvas, 
 "The Departure of the Pilgrims," was rolled up 
 and packed ready for shipping, as the arrange- 
 ment for its return was pending, and it was 
 never put up again in Buffalo. 
 
 The Young Men's Association with its libra- 
 ry, which since its foundation in 1835 been 
 gradually outgrowing its first headquarters in 
 an upper room near Swan Street, afterwards 
 moving to the second story of a modest brick 
 building on South Division Street near Main, 
 thence into temporary quarters in the American 
 Block, had found safer and more commodious 
 accommodations in the new building back of 
 the old Court House, recently erected to accom- 
 modate the needs of justice, but vacated after 
 the erection of the present City Hall, and being 
 at a later date also removed to make room for 
 the present ornate structure, in which its library, 
 now the property of the city, is housed. 
 
 In the meantime it began to be felt that the 
 [ 51 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 growing needs of the Association required better 
 and permanent quarters of its own, and by the 
 liberality of a few prominent citizens it became 
 the owner of the St. James Hotel property, 
 where now stands the Iroquois Hotel. As soon as 
 the Association acquired possession, the Buffalo 
 Fine Arts Academy was invited to move its 
 Gallery there. The terms were liberal and the 
 invitation was accepted without hesitation. 
 Room was assigned the Academy and the 
 necessary alterations were to be made by the 
 Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, the cost of which 
 was to be counted as rent. This was but nominal, 
 the understanding being that a perpetual home 
 for the institution should be given as long as it 
 needed or chose to retain it. Mr. S. V. R. Wat- 
 son, president of the Young Men's Association 
 at the time, was the leading spirit in this move- 
 ment, and in consultation with the superin- 
 tendent of the Gallery, as to the wants of the 
 Academy, he suggested a plan of alteration in the 
 building which would give the necessary con- 
 veniences for exhibition rooms, ofhce, storage, 
 etc. The plan was accepted by the committee 
 appointed for the purpose and the work began 
 under the supervision of Messrs. Henry A. 
 
 [ 52 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Richmond and Captain Eben P. Dorr, who 
 themselves advanced the necessary funds for 
 the work. 
 
 Though Mr. S. S. Jewett was elected presi- 
 dent in January, 1865, the new Gallery was not 
 opened until February of the same year, the 
 preparatory alterations not being completed till 
 then. The dedicatory ceremony opened with 
 music from a band, and an address was delivered 
 by the Hon. William Dorsheimer, followed by 
 the reading of a poem by the Rev. Albert 
 T. Chester. 
 
 The moving from the old Gallery of ''The 
 Dead Pearl Diver " is remembered most vividly. 
 The stairs of the new building could not be 
 trusted with its weight, nor was the flooring of 
 the Gallery, which was on the third story, strong 
 enough, even if it could be got in. The latter 
 difficulty was overcome by building a platform 
 of heavy plank resting on cross-beams, and the 
 first by hoisting it up and taking it through a 
 window. Here the superintendent's sailor ex- 
 perience came into play. A tackle and the serv- 
 ices of a couple of sailors were borrowed from 
 Captain Dorr, a piece of timber pushed out from 
 the fourth-story window and secured inside, a 
 
 [ 53 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 double tackle with new manila rope attached 
 outside, three or four stout men at the fall, and 
 amid a host of curious spectators the beautiful 
 stone, weighing over 3,000 pounds, rose grace- 
 fully and slowly to its elevated location. 
 
 Although the friends of the Buffalo Fine 
 Arts Academy were by this favorable arrange- 
 ment with the Young Men's Association hopeful 
 for its future, being thus conveniently homed 
 and substantially rent free, it was not long 
 before it was discovered that the infant could 
 not live without its bottle, seeing that it had no 
 natural mother to give it needed sustenance. 
 The expense necessary to carry on successfully a 
 permanent exhibition was found to be too great 
 to render it self-sustaining, especially when 
 the public seemingly continually required new 
 objects of interest to induce their needed attend- 
 ance. The expense of transporting works of art 
 from New York or elsewhere was great, and even 
 though Mr. William G. Fargo, a liberal contribu- 
 tor to all good endeavors (on one occasion well 
 remembered by the writer, who was an invited 
 guest at the Astor House in New York City, 
 where the representatives of all the express 
 companies were in the habit of lunching), pro- 
 
 [ 54 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 posed to transport the pictures for the Buffalo 
 Fine Arts Academy free of charge, the conces- 
 sion could not be accepted, as the insurance 
 would have to be borne by the Academy, for 
 the express companies could not be expected to 
 be responsible in the matter of insurance. 
 
 Sometimes very heavy charges were made 
 for transporting pictures. The writer remembers 
 that, in one case, $300 was charged for taking a 
 large picture from Buffalo to Boston. Indeed, it 
 was difficult to get the express companies to take 
 large pictures at any price. Later, another way 
 was found, viz, to ship by what was called the 
 Merchants Despatch, which, though slower, was 
 equally safe and much cheaper. Still there 
 remained the insurance on the paintings, which 
 in such a building was heavy, and other con- 
 tingent matters, such as care, heating, lighting, 
 etc., made the expense far beyond the usual 
 income. Thus it was that a crisis was near; in 
 some way money must be obtained or the whole 
 enterprise abandoned. At a meeting called for 
 the purpose, the situation was explained by the 
 superintendent, and the consultation which 
 followed made it plain that some sort of endow- 
 ment must be made to cover the regular annual 
 
 [ 55 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 deficit. As the deficit was mostly due to insur- 
 ance, the annual sum of $700 was thought to be 
 sufficient, and it was resolved to raise by sub- 
 scription $10,000, the interest of which at seven 
 per cent., legal at the time, being the sum 
 required. Mr. Sherman S. Jewett, ever a liberal 
 friend of the Academy, headed the list with 
 $1,000, this was followed by Bronson C. Rumsey 
 and Henry A. Richmond with equal amounts, 
 when a committee was appointed to raise the 
 remaining $7,000. Mr. 0. G. Steele, who was the 
 chairman of the committee, reported later that 
 they had not succeeded in raising the full 
 amount, whereupon Mr. Jewett informed Mr. 
 Warren that he would increase his subscription 
 to $10,000. This put a new face on the matter 
 and resulted in an attempt to make the fund 
 $20,000, which eventually succeeded, after which 
 Mr. Jewett 's generous contribution was set 
 aside and called the ''Jewett Picture Fund." 
 
 In 1866, Captain E. P. Dorr, one of the most 
 devoted friends and patrons of the Academy, 
 was elected president. A scholarly address on 
 "The Aristocracy of Art " was delivered by the 
 Rev. Dr. Albert T. Chester, after which Mrs. E. 
 A. Forbes' beautiful poem was read by the Hon. 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 William Dorsheimer. Captain E. P. Dorr was 
 reelected in 1867. The customary address was 
 delivered by the Hon. Asher P. Nichols, one of 
 the most learned and popular members of the 
 city's bar. The poem by Miss Amanda T. Jones 
 was charmingly rendered by Mrs. Rogers, who, 
 before her marriage, for a short time had adopted 
 the dramatic profession. She was the beautiful 
 daughter of Mr. G. H. Goodrich, one of Buffalo's 
 oldest and most respected citizens. 
 
 In 1868, Mr. C. F. S. Thomas was elected 
 president. The annual opening was held in St. 
 James Hall. The principal address was by the 
 writer, and the usual poem by Miss Julia H. 
 Forbes, entitled ''The Nursery of Arts," was 
 beautifully read by the late Hon. James O. 
 Putnam. The annual opening of 1869 was again 
 held in St. James Hall. Mr. H. W. Rogers, the 
 president, being absent, the vice-president, 
 Hon. Wm. Dorsheimer, presided. After his 
 introductory remarks, the Rev. Frederick 
 Frothingham, of the Unitarian Church, de- 
 livered a beautiful address on "Tastes in Art," 
 which was rapturously received; but on this 
 occasion the exercises closed without a poem. 
 
 Mr. Henry W. Rogers was again elected 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 president in 1870. An able address by Mr. J. 
 N. Larned and a poem by Mrs. S. F. Mixer, 
 read by Mr. Anson G. Chester, were the prin- 
 cipal literary features of the occasion. 
 
 Mr. William Pryor Letchworth was elected 
 president of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy 
 in 1 87 1. The opening this year was marked 
 by an able address by Mr. Joseph Warren, 
 and a sweet poem written for the occasion by 
 Miss Ellen M. Ferris, a highly poetically gifted 
 young lady, whose early death was greatly 
 regretted and deeply mourned by all who 
 knew her. 
 
 In 1872, Mr. Letchworth was reelected. Mr. 
 Chapin's description in his history of the opening 
 ceremonies of this year is so complete that the 
 writer takes the liberty of giving it verbatim: 
 "The decennial anniversary of the founding of 
 the Academy was held in the Gallery, December 
 23, 1872. A large and brilliant assemblage 
 witnessed the exercises. Mr. Letchworth in- 
 troduced Mr. Sellstedt, who read a carefully 
 prepared historical sketch of the Academy 
 (given in the Courier and Republic, December 
 24th). After music furnished by Poppenberg's 
 band, Mr. Hazard read the poem by Miss 
 
 [ 58 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Matilda H. Stuart and Mr. Letchworth read a 
 brief address. 
 
 *'At this meeting the fine portrait of Mr. 
 Sellstedt in his studio, painted by himself, was 
 unveiled and formally presented to the Acad- 
 emy; a merited recognition of Mr. Sellstedt 's 
 long and faithful services to the institution. 
 This portrait had been exhibited in the New 
 York Academy of Design, where it had been 
 greatly admired. In 1876, it was sent to Phila- 
 delphia with Beard's 'March of Silenus,' as 
 Buffalo's contribution to the exhibit of the Cen- 
 tennial Exhibition. The portrait was purchased 
 from Mr. Sellstedt for $1,000 and presented to 
 the Academy by the following gentlemen : — 
 Hon. Millard Fillmore, John Allen, Jr., S. S. 
 Jewett, Bronson C. Rumsey, P. P. Pratt, Dr. 
 T. F. Rochester, Austin Hart, Albert H. Tracy, 
 William G. Fargo, Henry A. Richmond, William 
 Wilkeson, S. S. Rogers, Josiah Letchworth, 
 James Brayley, Joseph Warren, David Gray, 
 Gen. R. L. Howard, and William Pryor Letch- 
 worth." 
 
 The proceedings of this meeting were after- 
 wards preserved in pamphlet form by Mr. 
 Letchworth. The occasion was the more worthy 
 
 [ 59 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 of particular notice as it brought hope of per- 
 petuity to the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy by 
 the generosity of the subscribers to the necessary 
 endowment fund, which was headed by Mr. 
 Jewett with $10,000. Later, Mr. Jewett's gift 
 was set apart for a picture purchase fund with 
 the name of its donor, and from which some of 
 the Academy's choicest paintings have been 
 bought. These matters, however, are things 
 that properly belong to the Academy's finances, 
 the details of which may be found where all that 
 concerns its material interests are recorded. 
 
 The writer spent a large part of 1875 in 
 European travel, and on his return the following 
 year was elected president of the Academy. His 
 opening address was largely a plea for the ad- 
 vancement and support of American Art, 
 together with an earnest appeal in favor of the 
 speedy establishment of the Art School in con- 
 nection with the Academy, which had always 
 been a desideratimi in view from its inception. 
 Mr. Arthur W. Austin was the poet at the usual 
 annual ceremonies. 
 
 A sad event of this year was the death of 
 Joseph Warren, one of the most efficient friends 
 of the institution. In his history, Mr. Chapin 
 
 [ 60 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 says: "At a meeting held November 15, 1876, 
 resolutions on the death of Mr. Warren were 
 passed. Instrumental in establishing the per- 
 manent funds of the Academy and at all times a 
 zealous worker in its behalf, Mr. Warren pos- 
 sessed the happy faculty of inspiring others with 
 his own enthusiasm." 
 
 By this time our citizens had received some 
 light on the elements that constitute good art, 
 and had begun to be adverse critics on the col- 
 lection as a whole. The necessity of filling the 
 walls which the general public, on whose pat- 
 ronage the Academy had hitherto mainly relied, 
 demanded as a sine qua non that every avail- 
 able inch of the walls should be covered with 
 pictures, had compelled the acceptance of pic- 
 tures of little or no real merit. Invidious com- 
 parisons with the great galleries with which 
 their foreign travels had made them familiar 
 were often heard. Doubtless the zeal for the 
 institution was thus materially dampened in the 
 minds of some who really desired its success. 
 Especially was American Art thought little of, 
 and this finally even went so far that at least 
 one generous testatrix barred American Art in 
 her will. 
 
 [ 61 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 A memorable loan exhibition of works of art, 
 curios, etc., was held this year at the spacious 
 residence of the late O. L. Nims, then the prop- 
 erty of Mrs. Dean Richmond, for the benefit of 
 the General Hospital, to which the Buffalo Fine 
 Arts Academy contributed some of its treasures. 
 
 This being the year of the Centennial Fair 
 at Philadelphia, which naturally attracted the 
 lovers of art, the interest in home art for the 
 time was lessened. 
 
 Till early in the seventies, the Art School had 
 not materialized, but there was a general interest 
 in the subject which manifested itself in the 
 form of societies or clubs, especially among the 
 ladies and gentlemen of leisure. 
 
 The first effort of the Academy to establish an 
 Art School was at a meeting called by president 
 William Pryor Letchworth early in 1874. All 
 agreed that something must be done; but two 
 obstacles had hitherto stood in the way, lack of 
 money to purchase the necessary casts and 
 other accessories needed, and want of room. A 
 subscription was taken up on the spot to defray 
 immediate expenses, and a large room heretofore 
 used as an office was devoted to the school; 
 other arrangements were made for office work. 
 
 [ 62 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 The subscribers were: William Pryor Letch- 
 worth, $25 ; Thomas F. Rochester, $25 ; George 
 S. Hazard, $25 ; Francis H. Root, $25 ; Oliver G. 
 Steele, $25; Miss Rebecca Townsend, $50; 
 Watson A. Fox, $10; A. P. Southwick, $10; 
 Ammi M. Farnham, $10; Richard A. Waite, 
 $15; Pascal P. Pratt, $25; H. M. Clay, $20; 
 James Brayley, $25; Mentz, $5; Gruener, $5; 
 making a total of $300. 
 
 This was considered a fair start. The office 
 was vacated, casts were purchased by the super- 
 intendent, and Mr. Farnham, having knowledge 
 of the Munich schools, kindly undertook the 
 instruction. For a time the infant enterprise 
 had fair success, but after a few months, Mr. 
 Farnham having resigned, there being no one 
 to take his place, the school dwindled into 
 * ' innocuous desuetude . ' ' 
 
 Soon after, finding the room empty. Judge 
 Clinton took possession of it for the use of the 
 Natural Sciences. The school was not dead, but 
 sleeping, and revived when the Buffalo Fine 
 Arts Academy, in 1887, found shelter with the 
 Young Men's Association, and here one of the 
 rooms not well suited for exhibitions was 
 appropriated to it. New casts were added and 
 
 [ 63 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 the necessary fittings, gas, etc., were paid for 
 out of what remained of the above fund. For a 
 short time the writer acted as critic, but as he 
 could not well give his time and was, in fact, not 
 sufficiently acquainted with proper academic 
 instruction, a regular teacher must be procured. 
 After much trouble, a young artist from Niagara 
 Falls, who had received European instruction in 
 a regular way, was found and he consented to 
 come to Buffalo and rule the school. His name 
 was James Francis Brown, and for some time all 
 went well. The school was well attended by 
 both men and women. Of the former, some were 
 connected with printing establishments who 
 were anxious and earnest in their endeavors to 
 overcome the difficulties of design, so useful 
 in their business, which had already begun 
 to be a necessary part of the daily press re- 
 quirements, in illustrations demanding artistic 
 skill. 
 
 In 1 88 1, the Academy had moved to the 
 building owned by the Austin Estate, corner of 
 Franklin and Niagara streets, and Dr. Thomas 
 F. Rochester, ever a friend to everything good 
 and useful, became its president, an office held 
 until his death in 1887. Addresses at this open- 
 
 [ 64 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 ing were by J. N. Larned and the Hon. E. C. 
 Sprague, but there was no poem. 
 
 Mr. Chapin says: "The twentieth anniver- 
 sary of the Academy was celebrated December 
 20, 1882. As on its decennial anniversary, so 
 again Mr. Sellstedt reviewed the history of the 
 Academy during its early years, paying tribute 
 to Henry W. Rogers, Captain Dorr, Joseph 
 Warren, John Allen, Jr., Sherman S. Jewett, and 
 others, whose work for the Academy had made 
 its existence possible. Another speaker would 
 have added to this list, for constant devotion 
 and indefatigable work for the Academy, the 
 name of Mr. Sellstedt; Mr. Richard K. Noye 
 read a poem by Miss Annie R. Annan, "A 
 Village Raphael." 
 
 In 1887, Mr, Sherman S. Rogers was elected 
 president. At this opening Bishop A. Cleveland 
 Coxe gave the address and Mr. James 0. Put- 
 nam read a beautiful poem written by Robert 
 Cameron Rogers, entitled ''The Dancing Faun." 
 
 This was the last contribution in verse to the 
 Academy till some years later, when Richard 
 Watson Gilder read his remarkable poem at 
 the inauguration ceremonies of the opening of 
 the new and permanent home of the Buffalo 
 
 [ 65 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Fine Arts Academy, the noble gift of J. J. 
 Albright. 
 
 In 1885, a few earnest lovers of art formed 
 themselves into a club for the practical study of 
 design and painting. It became known as the 
 Art Students' Club. The original members num- 
 bered only seven. Their names were Misses Helen 
 M. Horton, Harriet Taber, Grace Taber, Emma 
 Johnson, Mary Streeter and Messrs. Gates and 
 Cramer. At first a small room was found on the 
 corner of Court and Franklin streets, but as 
 the membership increased better accommoda- 
 tion was needed and the school was moved to 
 the Dennis Flats on Allen Street. Annual exhi- 
 bitions were held. 
 
 In December, 1891, the Buffalo Fine Arts 
 Academy, mostly composed of business men 
 who believed in art as a necessary part of 
 advanced culture, believing that the best results 
 would come from a union of the schools, pro- 
 posed a merger, offering to defray the expense 
 of putting the rooms already secured by the Art 
 Students' Club in a part of the Buffalo Savings 
 Bank, on the corner of Washington and Broad- 
 way, into a proper condition for a first-class art 
 school, together with the casts and other belong- 
 
 [ 66 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 ings of the school hitherto kept by the Academy. 
 The offer was accepted and about $i,6oo was 
 spent by the Academy in the necessary altera- 
 tions and improvements. Thus the two schools 
 were united under the name of the Art Students' 
 League. It has since found a permanent home 
 under the wing of the Buffalo Fine Arts Acad- 
 emy, of which it constitutes an important, if not 
 an official, part. 
 
 In these reminiscences the writer has been 
 materially assisted by Mrs. Robert Fulton, for 
 many years secretary of a kindred society, The 
 Buffalo Society of Artists, herself an artist 
 and writer. The following communication the 
 writer takes pleasure in giving in her own 
 language : 
 
 "The Art Students' League opened its 
 classes January, 1892, with George Bridgman 
 as critic and instructor of the life and painting 
 classes. The wisdom of this step has been long 
 time demonstrated, its outcome the splendid art 
 school in the Academy with an average of 300 
 students, and its various departments of Arts 
 and Crafts second to none in this country, the 
 students taking a majority of the prizes offered 
 by the New York League and other well-known 
 
 [ 67 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 institutes. Great credit should be given to Miss 
 Helen M. Horton who, from the origin of the 
 small art school, has aided and encouraged the 
 organization in every way. 
 
 ''To Miss Mary B. W. Coxe, instructor for 
 many years of the afternoon antique classes, is 
 also due much of the success and high standing 
 of the pupils of the Art School. She studied 
 under Kenyon Cox, and was a favorite pupil 
 of William M. Chase." 
 
 This picture of the school, though glowing in 
 color and replete with graceful handling, is in no 
 material sense overdrawn. It is a well-arranged 
 school with classes from the beginning of study. 
 Drawing from the object, the antique as well as 
 life, painting, composition, and modeling are all 
 carefully taught by competent artists, and the 
 results of a season's work as exhibited at the 
 close are as creditable as those of the New York 
 schools. Indeed, there is no reason why they 
 should be relatively inferior, considering the 
 ignorance of accepted beginners compared with 
 the requirements for admission into the more 
 advanced and older institutions, when the pupils 
 are in the care of equally well-instructed artists. 
 When we add to this other important studies in 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 the department of Arts and Crafts, such as wood 
 carving, designs for wall-paper, lace, leather 
 embossment, jewelry, etc., it will be seen that 
 the scope of the school takes in a field much 
 needed in art, — for Art should embrace beauty 
 of every kind. Every human production that 
 contributes to our aesthetic sense, or the grati- 
 fication of those wants of the soul that lie beyond 
 the necessaries of life, should be classed as Fine 
 Art, even though it does not aspire to the 
 loftier reaches of the Muses. 
 
 Another important development of the spirit 
 of art in our city was ''The Society of Artists." 
 This was the outcome of an informal talk in the 
 studio of Mr. James Francis Brown, that sub- 
 sequently took definite form in that of Mr. Farn- 
 ham, where it was formally organized. It was 
 named as above, The Society of Artists, and a 
 constitution and by-laws adopted, with the 
 following list of officers: President, James 
 Francis Brown ; vice-president, Ammi M. Farn- 
 ham; secretary, Mark M. Maycock; treasurer, 
 John C. Rother. It was decided that the exhi- 
 bitions should consist of colored work only, 
 but this was later modified by the additional 
 admission of black and white, and sculpture. 
 
 [ 69 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 A council was also elected. The members were: 
 Amos W. Sangster, Miss Rose Clark, Mrs. 
 John Clark Glenny, Mr. George B. Bridgman, 
 and the officers of the society. Two exhibi- 
 tions, one of paintings and sculpture and one 
 of black and white, were held in the first year 
 (1892). In January of the following year the 
 society moved into the large room formerly 
 occupied by the school, which the Buffalo Fine 
 Arts Academy had invited it to make free use 
 of, and here it remained till by the courtesy of 
 the Academy suitable and commodious rooms 
 were tendered and prepared for the society in 
 the basement of the Albright Art Gallery. 
 
 From the beginning, The Society of Artists 
 has been a popular institution. As its name 
 implies, a large portion of its members are pro- 
 fessionally engaged in art, but the greater 
 majority of its 400 supporters are ladies and 
 gentlemen in what is called society, lovers of the 
 beautiful, whether in concrete form or its more 
 subtile essence, served up by the instructive and 
 eloquent speakers after the festive cup that 
 inebriates not, and friendly exchanges of ideas 
 on the topic touched on at stated occasions of 
 the society's ''at home." 
 
 [ 70 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 On one of these festive occasions, when Mr. 
 Reginald C. Coxe was its president, the writer 
 was treated to a great surprise in the form of a 
 magnificent silver loving-cup bearing the fol- 
 lowing inscription : 
 
 GIVEN TO 
 
 Lars Gustaf Sellstedt 
 
 ON HIS 84th birthday 
 APRIL 30th, 1903 
 BY HIS FRIENDS, OLD AND YOUNG, 
 WITH LOVE AND HONOR 
 
 That the success of the society is chiefly due 
 to the active efforts of the intelligent ladies, of 
 whom the larger number of members consists, 
 goes without saying, and where all are entitled 
 to credit, one name, that of Mrs. John Clark 
 Glenny, should forever be held in florescent 
 memory for the zeal and active assistance 
 she has constantly exhibited, not only in this 
 society but in the League, or Art School, 
 of which she was in early days a student. 
 Mrs. John Clark Glenny was elected presi- 
 dent of The Society of Artists in 1894 and 
 continued to hold that office until 1907. 
 The same year, Mrs. Robert Fulton was made 
 secretary and she, too, continues to give her 
 
 [ 71 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 valuable aid and influence in the office to which 
 she was elected. 
 
 The society's rooms are artistically furnished. 
 They contain a well-selected art library of about 
 500 bound volumes, besides all the best art 
 magazines subscribed to by the society, the 
 use of which are free to the members of the 
 society and the members of the Art Students' 
 League, for consultation, study, and reference. 
 All is in charge of the assistant secretary, Mrs. 
 Cleveland K. Horton, a cultivated lady, efficient, 
 tactful, and polite, and of deserved popularity. 
 
 The society also has a Board of Fellowship," 
 and it is from the interest on that Fellowship 
 fund that a prize is given annually for the 
 picture selected by three of its members at the 
 spring exhibition. During the winter, monthly 
 receptions of The Society of Artists are held 
 when works of its active members are exhibited. 
 A Thumb Box exhibition of small sketches is 
 also held each year in November. 
 
 The veracious historian of Buffalo's early art 
 must not forget that in 1892 a small but select 
 society, whose membership included professional 
 artists, amateurs, and other intelligent lovers of 
 art and soul enjoyment, was formed under the 
 
 [ 72 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 name of the ''Bohemian Sketch Club." Its ex- 
 istence v/as brief and its demise probably due to 
 lack of cohesion, or perhaps even to lack of fuel 
 to feed the fires of genius, etc. Whatever the 
 cause, it died, and its fires left not even smolder- 
 ing embers. 
 
 Before the general interest in art had found 
 vent, its study introduced into the public 
 schools, and societies or clubs more or less pre- 
 tentious and short-lived had been formed, it is 
 pleasant to record the modest though persistent 
 efforts to start the young beginner on the path 
 supposed to lead to the temple of fame by Miss 
 Sara Chesnutwood, whose little institution has 
 survived through the changes of decades. A 
 mild approach to a school of art was the studio 
 of the writer also, who in the early seventies 
 admitted a few earnest young people as pupils. 
 It thus became a small art-center. Here he 
 attempted to instil into their minds broad views 
 of their profession, while he did his best to guide 
 them in its technique; especially were high 
 ideals insisted upon, but the mechanical exe- 
 cution was left to the student's idiosyncracies 
 and inceptions after the alphabet of art was 
 learned. 
 
 [ 73 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Among those who honored him with their 
 confidence it is gratifying to be able here to point 
 out a few who have attained a mark far beyond 
 mediocrity. Mr. Burr H. Nichols and Miss 
 Annie I. Crawford have both acquired an 
 enviable reputation among those whose judg- 
 ment is most entitled to value. Miss Crawford 
 began her studies when she was thirteen years 
 of age, and remained the writer's pupil for three 
 years, when she left for Rome, completing there 
 and also in Paris her European studies. She 
 became deeply attached to the works of the 
 Italian renaissance, and made many successful 
 copies of works of that period, but never became 
 an imitator of any; and on her return to 
 America struck out for herself a new path in 
 technique, the originality of which and the 
 success she attained in it have deeply inter- 
 ested older artists. 
 
 The landscapes of Miss Emma Kaan, studied 
 from nature in oil or water, are especially fine. 
 She shares the studio with Miss Crawford, her 
 intimate friend, whose late pictures in pastel 
 have been remarkable for their beauty and 
 finish. 
 
 As the writer proceeds in his study of the 
 [ 74 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 rising art spirit of the city, the field widens 
 and the difficulty of tracing its ramifications 
 becomes more apparent. Not only was the love 
 of art, per se, increasing, but its uplifting influ- 
 ence in the home had begun to be acknowl- 
 edged, and its necessity as a serious factor in 
 broader culture realized. Its commercial value, 
 too, was increasing, not only **as a thing of 
 beauty and a joy forever " but as an adjunct to 
 the press, whether in permanent or ephemeral 
 literature. 
 
 Whether the recent introduction of the 
 daguerreotype and its rapid advance into pho- 
 tography has in the main been a valuable boon 
 to an art worthy to be reckoned among the 
 higher achievements of man may well be a 
 moot point, but it is certain that as an educating 
 element to the masses in design, whether in 
 portraiture, genre, or landscape, it had a large 
 share in opening their eyes to nature's truth and 
 beauty, thus becoming more intelligent judges 
 of the artists' work. 
 
 The ignorance of art prevailing in the early 
 days of our Academy among some people of 
 ordinary intelligence in other matters, illus- 
 trated by the following anecdote, would hardly 
 
 [ 75 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 be possible now : A well-dressed man called upon 
 the writer, then superintendent of the Buffalo 
 Fine Arts Academy, and informed him that his 
 daughter had just completed a fine picture 
 which she was willing to loan to the Gallery. 
 Reading doubt, probably, in his countenance, 
 the visitor assured him that it was a real fine 
 picture, that the Academy would be glad enough 
 to have. Being told that no picture would be 
 received without previous inspection by the 
 superintendent, he offered to bring it. The next 
 day he came loaded with a large canvas intombed 
 in a sheet. Having carefully unrolled its cere- 
 ments, he stood the picture up against the wall, 
 with full confidence of approval. One look was 
 sufficient ; he was told the Gallery does not want 
 it. ''Why not?" he gasped. "It is not good 
 enough," was the reply. "Why is it not good 
 enough ? " was his next question. " Because it is 
 not good at all, it is not original, it is not 
 natural." " Is not that a good sky ? " " Did you 
 ever see a sky like that ? " was asked. " No, but, 
 you see, this is only a painted sky and of course 
 it is not just like real." "Did you ever see trees 
 like those or could you tell what trees they are 
 meant for?" "No, but they are only painted 
 
 [ 76 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 trees." "Those horses, there? " (The picture was 
 a copy of Gainsborough's'' Crossing the Brook.") 
 ''Well," he said, "of course they don't look like 
 real horses." "Now, you see for yourself that 
 there is nothing natural about it. A picture 
 should resemble nature to be a scene in nature." 
 He said no more, and requesting that the canvas 
 might remain till he came for it, he took his 
 leave. 
 
 The discovery by Daguerre is still within the 
 memory of the oldest among us. Only three- 
 quarters of a century has elapsed since Morse, a 
 portrait-painter and teacher of art in New York 
 City, practically relinquished his easel for the 
 study of two scientific subjects, one of which has 
 made his name immortal. Both seem to have 
 been nearly twin-born ideas of his brain, the 
 magnetic telegraph and the practical develop- 
 ment of Daguerre's discovery — two first links 
 of a chain of surprises with which the latter half 
 of the century was to be filled. They have ban- 
 ished time and space and forged imperishable 
 chains which by common interest and enlight- 
 ened public opinion have bound the great 
 nations of the world together. Both rest on 
 scientific ground, and while within one we 
 
 [ 77 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 recognize our kinship on earth, the other has 
 enabled us to count the stars and study their 
 history ! 
 
 True, photography cannot project the poet's 
 idea, nor construct the architect's plan, nor 
 delineate the ideal cathedral of his imagination, 
 but it can do what the type does for the author — 
 render permanent the thought in the faithful 
 reproduction of the artist's ideals; nay, live 
 while nought of the temple but ruins remain, the 
 statue destroyed, or the canvas rotten. 
 
 Nevertheless, though it cannot justly be 
 classed among the fine arts, in the hands of one 
 of poetic sentiment it may be the means of true 
 artistic expression, as is evidenced in some 
 charming landscape work and even in por- 
 traiture. 
 
 Except in the school of Andrews, mentioned 
 previously, little but portrait work was at- 
 tempted in Buffalo at the earlier development 
 of its art, and from him or his pupils came 
 nothing worthy of the name, since all were 
 copied from engravings, even though often 
 agreeably colored. None were from out-of-door 
 studies, or original. Wilgus had painted his 
 ''Ichabod Crane" in Morse's School at New 
 
 [ 78 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 York, and his noble attempts in landscape were 
 never finished. All else of any note remembered 
 was a clever genre picture by Le Clear till the 
 arrival of W. H. Beard. The earliest landscapes 
 from nature in the writer's memory were by 
 Joseph Meeker, who struggled without much 
 success with out-door nature on the wooded 
 banks of Conjockety Creek, now a part of Forest 
 Lawn, then Granger's Grove. Mr. Meeker soon 
 moved to St. Louis, where in after years he 
 blossomed out into quite a successful landscape 
 artist and something of a leader of art in that 
 city. 
 
 The natural scenery about Buffalo was little 
 calculated to awaken interest in landscape, and 
 the influence of Turner's poetic treatment of 
 common nature, Corot's atmospheric marvelous 
 subtleties, his broad and scientific treatment of 
 her most beautiful if evanescent features, or even 
 the less ideal products of the so-called Barbizon 
 School, had not yet been made familiar to, or 
 made the impression on, our art idea that recent 
 and repeated European travel has done. It is 
 scarcely too much to say that the arrival of Mr. 
 Edward Moran in the early seventies gave the 
 first real impetus to out-of-door work among our 
 
 [ 79 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 then resident artists, although some excellent 
 interpretations of nature in landscape had been 
 wrought by Mr. W. H. Beard a decade before, 
 but they were generally studio pictures from 
 memory or ideal compositions in connection 
 with his domestic animals or imaginary deni- 
 zens of out-of-door nature. Some others there 
 were, but these works were not of sufficient 
 interest to require mention. 
 
 For a long time the public lovers of art had 
 been easily satisfied with the pabulum with 
 which it was served in the obscure days of its 
 decadence, while as yet there was no promise of 
 the measures of excellence to which it might be 
 brought by men of genius who dared to free 
 themselves from the shackles of rules often 
 deduced from the study of mediocre examples of 
 the works of painters of greater or less celebrity. 
 These men found in the study of Nature pure 
 and simple, the guide to the true secret of her 
 charms and her poetic value. 
 
 The liberty thus obtained gave rise to many 
 diversities of manner of interpretation, according 
 to the idiosyncracy of the artist, though all 
 claimed Nature as their mistress. 
 
 During the latter half of the nineteenth 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 century the iconoclast had his own way, the 
 house refurnished, all old things relegated to 
 a mental attic, never more to be uncovered 
 from the dust of ages. Nor has art escaped 
 this general house-cleaning; but while the 
 intelligent observer admits that good has been 
 done by this second renaissance, it ought not to 
 be forgotten that in the general destruction of 
 hoary idols some valuable ideals may have suf- 
 fered. The reformer is seldom satisfied, he would 
 be regenerator also ; it is here he sometimes dis- 
 plays lamentable ignorance of the first principles 
 of art. 
 
 Sometimes a man of talent selects a new 
 path which, in spite of its deviation from well- 
 trod and established roads, may be a short cut 
 to a lovely aspect of nature's beautiful variety; 
 but this requires a perfection of technique and 
 keenness of observation possessed by few, and 
 stamps its owner a man of genius, and it is the 
 privilege of genius to make its own rules. In such 
 cases the less-gifted imitator generally comes to 
 grief. History tells us that the earliest attempts 
 at art were decorative and descriptive, and 
 though this is no place to trace its development 
 into poetic significance, or its use in the service 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 of religion as exhibited in most of the works of 
 the so-called preraphaelite painters, attention 
 may be called to their successors who discovered 
 that the greatest art consisted in the true union 
 of nature and poesy, the work of an exalted 
 imagination, as shown in those of Leonardo 
 da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, and their con- 
 temporaries. These were the halcyon days 
 of the humanists, when classical learning and 
 art were in the ascendant and appreciated; 
 days when gigantic intellect occupied itself 
 with picture-making, architecture, sculpture, 
 poesy, and the days that saw the birth of the 
 Lord's Supper, the cartoons, the marvels of the 
 Sistine Chapel ; of Dante and of Shakespeare. 
 
 Not many years ago a brilliant philistine, 
 little versed in plastic art, invented a catchword 
 which has not, to say the least, been helpful to 
 real art, though perhaps of no real injury, since 
 its vagueness is equal to its brevity — "Art for 
 art's sake." Though lacking in sense, the 
 catchword has misled many a shallow brain into 
 adopting it as almost a truism. Another poor 
 artist, but clever writer, says, " Painting is not 
 an intellectual pursuit." These both belong to 
 the same category and may well be allowed to 
 
 [ 82 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 pass into the same limbo, for it is certain that 
 artists worthy of the name are repudiating the 
 heresy. No one who visits the pubhc art exhi- 
 bitions of any country will fail to note this. It is 
 true that many pictures in some of our exhibi- 
 tions of a few years ago gave a sort of sign of 
 what may be termed atavism (a return to the 
 darker days), but we are rapidly changing all 
 that. 
 
 It was the good fortune of the writer to 
 become acquainted with the late Edward Moran 
 on a steamboat excursion on the Niagara River. 
 Sketchbook in hand, he stood near the bow of 
 the boat keenly noticing all invitations of the 
 magnificent stream to pose for his pencil. After- 
 wards he concluded to spend some time in our 
 city; and being offered the hospitality of the 
 writer's house and studio, he proved during a 
 part of the summer a delightful and companion- 
 able guest. 
 
 For various reasons, the Canadian side of the 
 lake had become familiar, especially had an old 
 dilapidated windmill standing near the lake 
 shore on a rocky ledge, dominated by a pictur- 
 esque sand-dune and a few scattered trees ; this 
 seemed a good motive for a landscape, and this 
 
 [ 83 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 the writer and guest concluded jointly to inves- 
 tigate. There was at the time no public convey- 
 ance by which it could be reached, but the dif- 
 ficulty was solved by John Allen, Jr., then in 
 charge of the Western Transportation Company, 
 always a friend of art, who sent them up to 
 Windmill Point on one of the company's tugs. 
 Several sketches were made, and at least one 
 large picture was painted by this distinguished 
 artist. Mr. Famham, then a pupil in the writer's 
 studio, followed suit; and after the railroad 
 skirting the shore was built and access made 
 convenient, the place became a favorite camp- 
 ing-ground for many art students of Buffalo. 
 Later, other motives were found, and the fashion 
 of composing studio landscapes began to go into 
 a deserved oblivion. 
 
 To this result contributed also the master- 
 pieces in landscape which the increasing re- 
 sources enabled the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy 
 to possess, and which became concrete proofs 
 to the earnest art student that our common 
 nature, if seen through true artistic eyes, could 
 furnish every needed motive to the highest 
 reaches of art. 
 
 Story-telling art, much favored by artists of 
 [ 84 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 the earlier days of the century, though not 
 extinct, has ceased to be popular. It is now 
 almost wholly in the hands of the illustrator of 
 books and magazines, where it has become an 
 almost necessary adjunct, often requiring the 
 intelligence and skill of artists of the first class. 
 When, however, the painter invents his own 
 story, or expresses his own poetic ideals, in the 
 best of technique with nature's proper environ- 
 ments studied direct from the fountain head, 
 whether in studio or plein-air, with proper 
 chiaroscuro and color-value, his work will be 
 duly appreciated, though it may lack the cele- 
 brated signature so highly valued by the col- 
 lector. 
 
 Water-colors, especially when they seek to 
 vie with oil in realism, have a charm of their own, 
 delicately suggestive to the receptive mind of 
 the soul of Nature, leaving the imagination at 
 liberty to complete the pictures. As yet but 
 little of this has taken root in our city, but there 
 are happy signs that even this refinement of art 
 may not be long wanting. 
 
 Portrait-painting has always been prominent 
 over other art in our city. Perhaps with the old 
 pictorial writings, and merely decorative work, 
 
 [ 85 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 it was one of the earliest efforts in human evolu- 
 tion towards the ideal. At least the remains of 
 the most cultured nations of antiquity go far to 
 indicate that this may have been the fact. 
 
 In a city as young as Buffalo, men were too 
 busy with its material growth to give them- 
 selves to intangible and artistic study; but in 
 the absence of present mechanical or scientific 
 methods of perpetuating their identity, the 
 limner's art was the only means to employ ; and 
 thus, not only was occupation given the artist, 
 but it enabled him, nay, compelled him, to use 
 that close study which has not only led to the 
 best of portraits, but furnished him the needed 
 deftness of hand and acquaintance with the 
 subtleties of color and light and shade and 
 values necessary for the production of larger, 
 and, to him, more important works. 
 
 Although the art of some of our early por- 
 trait-painters has not been eclipsed by their suc- 
 cessors, a general advance cannot be questioned ; 
 to this improved condition, credit is greatly due 
 the excellent teaching of our Academy school, 
 where some of our most prominent men and 
 women began their studies. There Dufner and 
 Wilcox received their first instructions in art. 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 There, too, began Mrs. John C. Glenny and 
 Mrs. Charles Gary, both good portrait-painters. 
 The portrait painted by Mrs. Gary of her friend, 
 the late Charlotte Mulligan, he rdmembers as 
 wonderfully true, a sad poem full of love and 
 resignation and looking as if painted through 
 tears. Miniature painting, which since the 
 discovery of Daguerre seems for many years 
 to have gone out of fashion, has of late had 
 a revival. With the exception of Mr. Dicken- 
 son, referred to before, the writer can recall 
 none practicing this art in Buffalo till the 
 arrival of Miss Clara E. Sackett from her studies 
 in Europe. Her excellent work in this direction 
 is well known and recognized. Mrs. Anna Belle 
 Kindlund, a talented young woman native 
 to Buffalo, has lately devoted her time to 
 miniatures also, and with much success, hav- 
 ing by her exhibited work in New York attracted 
 the attention of the metropolitan art critics by 
 a departure from the common in her technique, 
 giving her pictiires a charm of their own. 
 
 Engraving, to a limited extent and chiefly 
 for commercial purposes, was practiced under 
 the auspices of the Courier Company by Mr. 
 Benjamin Van Duzee, who also had studied 
 
 [ 87 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 portrait -painting under Mr. Wilgus and others. 
 Later, a good deal of attention was given to 
 etching on copper, Mr. Sangster, mentioned 
 heretofore, having produced a series of interest- 
 ing views of the surroundings about Lake Erie 
 and Niagara River. Mr. Farnham also did some 
 etching besides his landscape painting while 
 resident here. 
 
 When the bequest of the late Mr. Jesse 
 Ketchum in regard to medals and testimonials 
 for the public schools was to be executed by his 
 executors, the late Bishop A. Cleveland Coxe 
 and the testator's son-in-law, the writer was 
 requested to furnish the drawings from which 
 the medal was to be cut, As there existed no 
 portrait or photograph of the testator except in 
 full face, and a profile likeness being required, 
 the task was far from easy, but in the end proved 
 a success, the writer having been well acquainted 
 with the old gentleman. The reverse was sug- 
 gested by the bishop and consisted in a youth 
 receiving light from the city represented by a 
 young lady in Greek costume. The engraving of 
 the testimonial was confided to the American 
 Bank Note Company, the medal was cut at the 
 mint in Philadelphia, Mr. J. N. Larned and 
 
 [ 88 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 the writer being commissioned to go to New 
 York and Philadelphia to make the necessary 
 arrangements. This little jaunt is marked as a 
 white day, since in it was confirmed a friendship 
 for life with one of Buffalo's most valued 
 citizens. 
 
 The history of the art of color-printing, at 
 present in vogue in book-making, is part of the 
 ''art preservative of all arts," and does not 
 properly belong to the initial object of these 
 reminiscences; but the writer feels justified in 
 calling attention to its intelligent develop- 
 ment in the office of the Buffalo Express, under 
 the present owners and directors. Special notice 
 is due to the ingenious inventions of Mr. Mat- 
 thews of a sort of tabulated direction as to the 
 values and harmonious disposition of colors 
 which enables the workman to arrive at some- 
 thing very near perfection ; but, of course, this 
 is a subject for a whole volume and can only be 
 hinted at here. 
 
 In the same connection it may be of interest 
 to the public to recall the enormous quantity of 
 show printing in the Courier establishment in 
 Mr. Warren's time, when that plant produced a 
 moiety at least of all the artistic show-bills in 
 
 [ 89 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 the United States, doing nearly all of Barnum's 
 requirements of that nature, besides printing 
 his book. 
 
 Another subject of Buffalo's art may here be 
 noticed — the beautiful postal advertisements 
 designed by several of our women artists. 
 
 Architecture as a fine art was one of the 
 luxuries the inhabitants of Western New York 
 seem to have chosen to dispense with altogether. 
 The early traveler on the Erie Canal might 
 now and then behold, as the boat leisurely 
 pursued its way, a glittering spire of a church or 
 the cupola of a courthouse radiant in brand- 
 new tin, but this was the only tribute of respect 
 paid the noble art. Nor need one carp at that, 
 for ornate architecture must wait for material 
 prosperity even though the development of the 
 higher qualities of our mind may recognize its 
 desirability. Here and there in Buffalo, however, 
 might be seen some feeble attempts to go beyond 
 absolute necessity: a Greek portico with pedi- 
 ment and columns of wood occasionally broke 
 the monotony of the square boxes which our 
 forefathers thought good enough for all practi- 
 cal uses. Some of the churches also bore evidence 
 of the desire for better things. Perhaps, in the 
 
 [ 90 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 earliest years of the fourth decade of the last 
 century, the old St. Louis Church, a roman- 
 esque brick building, was the most entitled to 
 notice in this respect. Its interior, too, had the 
 arrangement and air of an old-country Catholic 
 church, and the writer remembers well with 
 what pleasure he enjoyed the sight of a fine 
 copy of Ruben's ''Descent from the Cross" 
 on one of its walls. He has later, when more 
 capable of judging of the merits of a work of 
 art, sat through the whole morning service in 
 the cathedral of Antwerp in full view of the 
 original, with senses filled with music and in- 
 cense, all calculated to raise the soul to its 
 highest pitch; but he doubts if he got more 
 real enjoyment from that noble picture than 
 the copy in St. Louis Church used to give him 
 in his time of ignorance. 
 
 Old Trinity was an attempt at Greek style, 
 and Doctor Lord's old church] on Genesee 
 and Pearl streets, a sort of nondescript in a 
 similar style, though elliptical in form, thought 
 to be in accord with the reverend pastor's 
 own architecttiral ideas. Doctor Johnson's cot- 
 tage, somewhat original in form and structure, 
 was not without a certain picturesque pretti- 
 
 [ 91 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 ness. The First Methodist Church on the site 
 now occupied by the Masonic Temple on 
 Niagara Street was an ugly stone structure 
 without pretense to architectural suggestion, 
 though later a bell- tower was added, which 
 was afterwards destroyed by lightning. 
 
 The building of St. John's Church, in 1846, 
 brought to the notice of the writer two com- 
 peting architects residing in the city, Messrs. 
 Calvin N. Otis and Henry G. Harrison. Both 
 presented plans for the church, and that of the 
 former was accepted, perhaps because it was 
 more simple and would cost less. A large hotel 
 now covers the ground on the southeast corner 
 of Swan and Washington streets. ''Sic transit.'' 
 The church was never a handsome edifice, and in 
 time was thought to be badly located by some of 
 its congregation, a division of which took place, 
 and the wealthier part built on Delaware 
 Avenue, uniting afterwards with Trinity's con- 
 gregation, which also had outgrown their old 
 quarters. The remaining part of St. John's con- 
 gregation could not afford to keep up the church 
 and sold it, to move up-town also. 
 
 In the course of a few years Mr. Harrison, 
 after having built some of the better class of 
 
 [ 92 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 residences, left for New York, where his talents 
 found more scope. He was an Englishman of 
 decided imagination, a well-informed man, al- 
 though somewhat eccentric. He afterwards 
 became the architect of Mr. Stewart's Memorial 
 Church on Long Island. 
 
 Mr. Otis joined the army in defense of the 
 Union as captain of volunteers, and at its con- 
 clusion made his home in Cuba, N. Y., where he 
 died. 
 
 Perhaps the earliest example in Buffalo of 
 architecture worthy of the name was the new 
 St. Paul's, by Mr. Upjohn, the architect of 
 Trinity Church in New York, though this, in 
 point of fact, is not a part of our city's art, since 
 it, as also the St. Joseph's Cathedral with its 
 beautiful historic windows, were the work of 
 artists who did not claim Buffalo as their home ; 
 still they are both noble proofs of the increasing 
 art spirit of our city even in its youthful days. 
 The increase of wealth that has made possible 
 the present appearance of the city was then 
 scarcely dreamt of by the most hopeful. Mean- 
 time the few architects the city boasted did 
 what they could to foster the desire for more 
 beauty in new private dwellings, or for improve- 
 
 [ 93 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 ments in the older ones. There lived in the city a 
 couple of architects, the Rose Brothers, English- 
 men, who with many oddities of manner were 
 credited with superior knowledge in their pro- 
 fession, which they diligently pursued when they 
 were not fishing on Black Rock pier. The archi- 
 tects of the costly Fargo mansion were from 
 Boston. Mr. Ferguson superintended the work. 
 Houses of this style are now out of date. 
 Later came Mr. Richard A. Waite, a well- 
 appointed artist, and still later some of our 
 own young students returned from the Parisian 
 school with excellent training and brimful of 
 new ideas. Young Marlin died early; but we 
 still have the brothers Kent, Edward and 
 William, the latter being now a member of an 
 important firm in New York ; George Gary, and 
 Green & Wicks, the architects of the Albright 
 Art Gallery, home of the Buffalo Fine Arts 
 Academy, still in active business and constantly 
 employed in their profession. To these may be 
 added Mr. Edgar A. P. Newcomb, to whose 
 genius the city owes some of its finest residences ; 
 and doubtless there are many others of equal 
 acquirements not personally known to the 
 writer. 
 
 [ 94 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 As the city continued to grow in popularity 
 and wealth a gradual improvement in its 
 appearance became marked. New buildings of 
 a better type took the places of the old utilita- 
 rian structures ; but it was not till a new genera- 
 tion had risen, and the city's commercial ad- 
 vantages had brought new blood full of vigor and 
 enterprise, that a marvelous change in its 
 appearance was wrought. A recent traveler has 
 placed Buffalo only second to Washington in 
 beauty among all the cities of the United States ; 
 and who, after having leisurely walked along 
 Delaware Avenue on a bright midsimimer day, 
 will dispute his dictum ? Civic pride boils over in 
 beholding the generous gift of Mr. Albright, not 
 only for the fact that we have among us so 
 liberal a friend to art, but also for the possession 
 of that noble palace of marble — that beautiful 
 suggestion of the halcyon days of Greece — 
 which is the work of our own home architects ! 
 
 The times have indeed changed! No longer 
 will wealth entrust the building of its home to 
 the common builder. The artist's idea is now 
 invoked, and instead of mere utility to satisfy 
 necessities, beautiful villas nestle ivy-draped in 
 graceful verdure throughout many residence dis- 
 
 [ 95 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 tricts ; and even the humbler homes of our hard- 
 working bread-winners in the remoter parts of 
 the city bear witness to an awakened love of the 
 beautiful, which fairly justifies the saying that 
 Buffalo is a city of happy homes. 
 
 [ 96 ] 
 
V 
 
 It has been thought best not to interrupt the 
 narrative of Buffalo's art development by per- 
 sonals, but as history cannot be complete with- 
 out its human interest, a few pages will be 
 devoted to reminiscences of the lives and 
 characteristics of some artists and promoters of 
 the art spirit of our city. 
 
 Among the early lovers and devotees of art, 
 none was more enthusiastic than the late Fred- 
 erick Young, of Williams ville. True, few of the 
 present generation who were acquainted with 
 him knew him as an artist, for it was only in 
 youth and early manhood that he thought of 
 adopting art as a profession. Failing health, 
 which could only be arrested by out-of-door life 
 and occupation, compelled the relinquishment 
 of his beloved art studies; he laid aside his 
 palette and brushes to take up the material life 
 of a farmer, but though he managed fairly well a 
 fine farm inherited from his father, who prob- 
 ably had small sympathy with his son's ideals, 
 his whole soul protested against a bucolic2or 
 pastoral life. 
 
 In point of fact, his ego lived in a dreamland 
 [ 97 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 of the beautiful, whether expressed in poesy, 
 music, nature, or art. The writer, who fully 
 enjoyed his friendship, will ever remember him 
 as one of the gentlest and loveliest of men. His 
 farm at Williamsville was at all times an hos- 
 pitable resort for artists, people of culture, and 
 men of science, for, not only was his home situ- 
 ated in a grove of magnificent trees pleasing to 
 the eye, but in the limestone quarries on his 
 farm and that of his elder brother was to be 
 found much to interest the latter class; every 
 stone was a tale from a world existing eons 
 before the appearance of man. Here were fossils 
 found nowhere else; here once lived and died 
 the eurypterida; and here now was the ever- 
 obliging owner ready to aid his scientific friends 
 in finding the coveted treasures. 
 
 When the labors of the day were ended, it 
 was touching to behold the artist-farmer (for 
 artist he was in his soul notwithstanding the crass 
 out-of-door duties) on his veranda in muddy 
 boots and overalls, with his numerous and 
 delightful family and intimate friends, just as 
 he came from attending to the needs of his cattle 
 and chickens, seated with his beloved guitar, 
 tenderly touching its strings in accordance with 
 
 [ 98 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 his sweet and mellow voice, his magnificent 
 black eyes courting the coming stars, while 
 singing Moore's melodies, and other pathetic 
 records of the heart, among which the faint echo 
 of ''Meet Me by Moonlight Alone" still lingers 
 in the writer's memory. Ah ! it is not long since 
 his gentle spirit, after an earthly pilgrimage of 
 three score years and ten, was permitted to join 
 the angelic choir which was probably seldom 
 absent from his inward senses, and which, per- 
 haps, often caused him to forget everything. 
 
 There are artists who cannot paint, poets 
 that cannot express ''fine phrensy," idealists 
 who fail in practice, delightful companions in 
 all sorts of clever workers. Mr. Young was an 
 eminent example of this class, and thus it was 
 that to the company of cultivated people of the 
 finest fiber he was ever a welcome addition. 
 
 The writer first made his acquaintance 
 through Mr. Thomas Le Clear, with whom he 
 was on the friendliest footing. The meeting 
 with Mr. Le Clear as an artist has been already 
 described, but a few words of respect to his 
 memory as a man are justly due. 
 
 The name suggests a French origin. The 
 writer has no data at hand-as to where the family 
 
 [ 99 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 came from, but it is believed that it was of 
 Canadian origin. At any rate, there was about 
 Mr. Le Clear, personally, much that pointed to 
 the best of the French characteristics. This 
 idea was, perhaps, in part, suggested by his 
 slight and agile figure and polish of manner, 
 which made him conspicuous. In reality, what- 
 ever his origin, he was ever a model American 
 gentleman in every respect. A sincere and reli- 
 able friend, and, though a good hater when he 
 thought his cause good, he never permitted his 
 dislike to another artist to warp his judgment 
 of his work or descend to ignoble detraction. 
 While the writer and he were looking at a por- 
 trait by a man he deeply disliked, after carefully 
 examining the picture he broke out, Dem 
 'm; I hate him, but it is good." He was a fair 
 critic of other men's work, and always ready to 
 point out the best in it. 
 
 When Mr. Le Clear arrived in Buffalo with 
 his young wife and a six-months-old daughter, 
 he for a while occupied a modest home in the 
 lower part of the town on Carroll Street ; but in 
 time he was able to buy a small house on 
 Franklin Street, a much more desirable locality, 
 where his neighbors were among the most 
 
 [ 100 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 respected in the city, and where he could gather 
 around him his family and enjoy the comforts 
 of a home suitable to his refined personality. 
 
 Here his hospitality was unbounded and in 
 this he was fully sustained by his wife, a highly 
 cultivated lady of excellent family. There was 
 no more desirable home to visit than theirs. The 
 writer recalls an instance of Mr. Le Clear's ''hos- 
 pitable intent" which tried his patience, but 
 which was borne with admirable equanimity. 
 An old artist who had wealthy admirers in the 
 city was invited to paint the portraits of some 
 of them. As Mr. M. was an old gentleman, Mr. 
 Le Clear invited him to make his home with him 
 during his stay, as he thought he could make 
 him more comfortable than he would be at a 
 hotel. He accepted, and the best spare room was 
 allotted to his use, and his meals were taken 
 with the family. The old artist brought with 
 him a guitar on which he used to play in the 
 evenings and at other leisure times. Being an old 
 bachelor of an unsocial disposition, the growing 
 children sometimes were an annoyance to him, 
 and caused him to frequently grumble and find 
 fault. This was bravely borne until he was ready 
 to leave, when he asked for his account. The 
 
 [ 101 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 poor man's home was in a part of New England 
 where free entertainment of strangers was un- 
 common, and doubtless his surprise was great 
 when he found that he could not pay, having 
 been an invited guest. Mr. Le Clear, in speaking 
 
 to the writer about it, exclaimed, ! did 
 
 he think I kept a boarding house?" 
 
 Later, after the writer's visit to Europe, in 
 1854, on his arrival in Buffalo, Mr. Le Clear 
 extended an invitation to him to stay at his 
 home until he could get settled, and one of the 
 pleasantest fortnights in his life was enjoyed 
 there. 
 
 At this time Mr. William H. Beard was pre- 
 paring to go to Europe for improvement in his 
 art, and as he thought a little French would come 
 in handy he concluded to take up its study. A 
 class was accordingly formed at Le Clear's house, 
 consisting of Le Clear, Beard, Miss Carrie Le 
 Clear, Miss Flora Johnson, and the writer, Mr. 
 Charles Malhoubie being the teacher. The 
 results were not great, though Manesca was 
 faithfully studied most of the winter. 
 
 One of Mr. Le Clear's most frequent visitors 
 at this time was Mr. Albert Brisbane, then living 
 at Batavia. He made it a regular practice of 
 
 [ 102 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 coming there to dinner when in Buffalo, keeping 
 a bottle of claret for his special use in the side- 
 board. Sometimes he remained and gave talks 
 or lectures on the higher art of the great masters, 
 with which he seemed as familiar as if he had 
 lived with them. These lectures were, to those 
 who had not seen the originals (and none of his 
 audience had yet seen them), very interesting, 
 as he spoke with the full assurance of a master 
 of the subject. 
 
 The writer met Mr. Brisbane and his family 
 at Paris many years later, when the old philoso- 
 pher informed him that he was about to publish 
 one of the greatest books, if not the greatest 
 book, ever written. It must have died at birth, at 
 least the writer never saw or heard of it since. 
 
 After Mr. Le Clear moved to New York, as 
 mentioned elsewhere, he was elected a member 
 of the National Academy of Design, and became 
 celebrated for the strength, color, and excellent 
 qualities of his portraits. He painted the por- 
 traits of a large number of the country's most 
 distinguished citizens, such as the poet Bryant, 
 Professor West, etc. A magnificent full-length 
 portrait of General Grant was the last important 
 work from his easel that the writer remembers 
 
 [ 103 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 to have seen. His somewhat sudden and unex- 
 pected death, in his sixty-fourth year, took 
 place in Rutherford, N. J., where, after a second 
 marriage, he had lived. 
 
 One evening in the autumn of 1851, a con- 
 cert was given at what was then called the 
 Concert Hall (perhaps the Courier building now 
 covers the site on Main Street) . Here the writer, 
 accompanied by a lady, was patiently waiting 
 for the commencement of the programme, they 
 the while in happy admiration of a couple of very 
 pretty young ladies, a blond and a brunette, 
 seated directly in front of them. The arrange- 
 ment of the hall was such that the little stage 
 was near the entrance, so that every comer was 
 plainly seen by the audience. Just before the 
 beginning of the concert, a tall and remarkably 
 handsome man with abundant flowing chestnut 
 curls, which evidently had never known the 
 barber's shears, on a head held high with a sort 
 of defiant hautetir, entered. He wore a befrogged 
 sort of talma, not without considerable sign of 
 wear, and in his hand he carried a stout and 
 curiously formed stick, more like a defensive 
 weapon than the support of a gentleman. His 
 appearance provoked a whispered remark by 
 
 [ 104 1 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 the writer to his companion : That man thinks 
 himself an artist." 
 
 The following day, while struggling with the 
 details of ''The Anointing of David," a some- 
 what daring historical subject for an ignorant 
 tyro in art (though ignorance is often the father 
 of success, **but that's another story "), a knock 
 at the door, with a cheery Come in," brought a 
 lady friend and with her the identical mystery 
 of the concert. ''Mr. Sellstedt, permit me to 
 introduce to you my friend and cousin, Mr. 
 Beard, the artist I spoke to you about the other 
 day." Imagine the surprise of the writer, and 
 the pleasure he felt when he realized that his 
 judgment of the night before was wholly at 
 fault. Instead of a proud upstart, he found him 
 modest and with every mark of a cultivated 
 gentleman, who took a kind interest in the 
 writer's work, even to approval ; a sort of love- 
 at-first-sight and a friendship that was unbroken 
 until his death four decades later, when the 
 writer had the mournful satisfaction of bidding 
 him the last good-bye, a few days before the 
 sad event. 
 
 It did not take Mr. Beard long to become the 
 favorite of Buffalo's best society, in which he 
 
 [ 105 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 finally married. His choice chanced to fall upon 
 the brunette beauty before mentioned, though 
 at the time of the concert they had never met. 
 This was Flora Johnson, a granddaughter of the 
 first mayor of Buffalo, and cousin of the late 
 Miss Louise Wilkeson. This union, favored by 
 all and of happiest augury, was unfortunately 
 of short duration, for his beautiful partner only 
 lived about nine months, dying, after a short 
 illness, of a violent attack of peritonitis. The 
 writer believes that it was at Mr. Le Clear's 
 house the acquaintance began. At all events, as 
 she was a member of the French class there, it is 
 fair to suppose that these occasions were favor- 
 able to his love. 
 
 William Holbrook Beard was born in Paines- 
 ville, Ohio, where his father, a former merchant- 
 ship captain, had settled with his family, moving 
 thither from Buffalo, where he had lived some 
 time in business. His eldest son, James H. 
 Beard, well known and deservedly popular 
 among all who came in contact with him, and 
 who was celebrated for his genius and skill 
 among his professional brethren, was bom in 
 Buffalo ten years before his younger brother, 
 who doubtless owed much of his facility as a 
 
 [ 106 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 painter to his brother's example and instruction, 
 though it does not appear that he was his regular 
 pupil. 
 
 As James Beard, owing to his removal from 
 Buffalo in early boyhood, does not figure in its 
 early art, the writer regretfully leaves him out 
 as an actor in this little drama; but tradition 
 says that when a boy he made a drawing on 
 paper of the first steamboat on Lake Erie, the 
 redoubtable ''Walk in the Water," built on the 
 banks of the Niagara River. 
 
 It appears from what the writer learned from 
 random conversation that William H. Beard 
 must have divided his time pretty equally 
 between painting and roaming alone in the 
 woods near his native town and neighboring 
 villages, for his knowledge of natural history 
 was extensive, and the details of the forest had 
 become so familiar that he rarely if ever had 
 need of special study in his landscape homes 
 for the animal nature he so loved to paint. 
 
 Mr. Beard moved from Buffalo in 1862, soon 
 after his return from Dusseldorf and Rome, 
 where he had spent some time in study. The 
 fact that he was elected associate academician 
 the same year proves that his standing as 
 
 [ 107 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 an artist was duly acknowledged among his 
 "co-mates." 
 
 Of his genius there can be among artists but 
 one opinion ; but, ah ! there is always a but — 
 this time, curiously enough, it was too great 
 facility. Nearly everything he did was done 
 with ease ; not needing models, he seldom used 
 them ; his ideals were animals with human souls, 
 and, of course, he must create them. This he did, 
 and well. And he always created. Many success- 
 ful painters have to find names for their pictures 
 after they are finished, not so Mr. Beard. He 
 never put his hand to a clean, new canvas with- 
 out having in his mind the clear idea he wished 
 to embody by his art, and the name of the pic- 
 ture was usually announced in advance of the 
 first touch. 
 
 There is always, or nearly always, something 
 in the make-up of a self-educated man, and 
 Beard really belonged to that class, at least 
 professionally, even though he may have gained 
 some practical knowledge of the art by the 
 example of his brother when watching him 
 paint. But these opportunities must have been 
 very infrequent, as his brother's work took him 
 to many di^^erent cities in the Southern States, 
 [ 108 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 where he painted many portraits, and where his 
 popularity was great. Almost every person who 
 has not in his youth had the advantage of a 
 college course feels the want of it, even though 
 in the main his career may have been a success. 
 There are things which must be learned in early^^ 
 youth or not at all. This is true, to some extent, ( 
 in letters and in science, but especially so when 
 success depends on deftness and education of the 
 senses. The hand and eye of the successful 
 painter requires the same early training in his 
 practice as do the ears and nimble fingers of a 
 Paderewski in music to do full justice to a God- 
 given genius. Here the writer is practically and 
 even painfully aware that he touches no uncer- 
 tain notes. Early and painstaking study with 
 persistency is the only way to do full justice to 
 innate genius. 
 
 Perhaps a lack of this early training may 
 have stood in the way of a full expression 
 of Mr. Beard's natural powers, but none who 
 knew him well could doubt the greatness that 
 was in him, and that with equal advantages he 
 would have had few superiors. Confessedly 
 without rival in his chosen field, there were 
 those, too, who regretted that, instead of devot- 
 
 [ 109 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 ing his life to poetical-animal paintings, he had 
 not chosen a humanitarian field for his talents ; 
 but to paint men and women with success 
 requires much training, such as Sargent, Abbey, 
 and their equals have had in youth. Even Sir 
 Joshua Reynolds lamented his early lack of 
 academic training. 
 
 Some of Mr. Beard's works which exhibit his 
 peculiar talent are the property of the Buffalo 
 Fine Arts Academy, to which he also presented 
 a large nimiber of original charcoal drawings 
 intended for illustrations to a book of unique 
 character, the literary part to be short poems or 
 other brief sketches by the most distinguished 
 literary and scientific men of our country, many 
 of whom had promised him their aid, but this 
 fell through for reasons not necessary to men- 
 tion here. 
 
 Probably one of his best works, if not his 
 chief one, is owned by the Buffalo Club, through 
 the generosity of the late Mr. William G. Fargo. 
 The whereabouts of one of his most cele- 
 brated pictures, Bears on a Bender," for 
 which he received $6,000, is imknown to the 
 writer. 
 
 One of Beard's characteristics was unfavorable 
 [ 110 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 to the continuance of the success he might 
 have had (but that's to his honor), which was 
 an unyielding opposition to what he deemed 
 wrong, or in the least degree dishonorable; he 
 seemed without ability to compromise in his 
 judgment between what he considered duty and 
 the contrary. Without being a religious bigot, he 
 must have inherited traits from his Scotch fore- 
 fathers akin to those which are generally attrib- 
 uted to the old Covenanters. This brought de- 
 tractors and adverse criticism of his work 
 among the younger men whose art-ideas were 
 formed by a few months study in the schools of 
 Paris, and who were wholly incapable of under- 
 standing the real spirit of his work. Besides, 
 fashion had changed ; although it seems strange 
 that there should be a fashion in art, but so it is. 
 
 Mr. Beard's talent in drawing without 
 models, by which he was able to make very 
 clever pen-and-ink sketches, was of great ad- 
 vantage to him in the illustration of a book on 
 "Motion in Art," pubhshed not long before his 
 death. At his decease he left a manuscript 
 volume of verse, being a humorous comment on 
 the faults and weaknesses of men in general, 
 which is yet unpublished. 
 
 [ 111 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 The survivor of this fraternal trio, who is 
 now writing this contribution to the history of 
 Buffalo's art, has already in his autobiography, 
 "From Forecastle to Academy," made unneces- 
 sary further account of his own life or doings, 
 and his labors in behalf of the Buffalo Fine Arts 
 Academy are sufficiently ventilated in their 
 proper places, but truth to history requires that 
 he should add a line on a subject not yet men- 
 tioned, as it illustrates the greed for art knowl- 
 edge among the ladies of the city hinted at 
 above. 
 
 In the winter of 1874, a ladies' art club was 
 formed, composed of some of the most cultivated 
 society women of the city. An invitation was 
 given to the writer to prepare a course of art 
 lectures to be delivered at their houses in which 
 their evening meetings were held. Drawing, com- 
 position, chiaroscuro, color, and even architec- 
 ture, were commented on in these somewhat 
 venturesome attempts to give the writer's 
 opinions and what knowledge he had amassed 
 in the study of art, and particularly what he had 
 learned in his recent six months stay in Europe, 
 notably in LxDndon, Paris, Florence, Venice, and 
 Rome. 
 
 [ 112 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Later visits to Europe and a more careful 
 study of the works of the so-called great masters 
 of the renaissance has convinced him that the 
 epithet is justly applied to those in the first 
 rank, if ever men deserved it. It has become the 
 fashion of some of our recent art critics to dim 
 the luster of their fame and works in the glare 
 of the lime-light of realism, inimical alike to 
 every form of poetic art. 
 
 In these remarks on high art no disparage- 
 ment to any of its lower forms are intended, 
 neither does the writer deny his pleasure and 
 delight in clever handling or of intelligent modes 
 of making a picture attractive, as he knows too 
 well the pleasure of an harmonious and success- 
 ful touch, that marks the master, to despise a 
 fine technique ; but he would like to remind the 
 reader that all the excellence of an academic 
 learning may be present and yet the work convey 
 no greater pleasure to the mind than a heavy 
 and well-constructed sermon by a dull preacher, 
 brimful of logic and without a grammatical flaw. 
 There is a poem in every phase of natiire to the 
 sympathetic soul, and it is that which every suc- 
 cessful landscape should echo to the heart. Of 
 what is here meant, the pictures of Tiirner, 
 
 [ 113 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Corot, and perhaps, more than either, the best 
 of Claude Lorraine, and our own dear George 
 Inness, are fair illustrations. 
 
 Great art does not consist of lines, color, deft 
 touches of the brush, or other skilled means of 
 producing picturesque effects, but in the uplift- 
 ing of an idea, giving to crass nature a halo of 
 beauty and spiritual signification, such as may 
 be found in the works of Raphael, Leonardo da 
 Vinci, Correggio, Titian, Tintoretto, and others, 
 their peers in the Italian schools. 
 
 These men knew how to combine the greatest 
 skill with poetic or religious aspirations, promi- 
 nently exemplified in the works of the greatest 
 of them all in breadth of genius and lofty 
 thought, whether as architect, sculptor, or 
 painter; who out of the real created the sub- 
 lime, leaving St. Peter's Cathedral his Moses, 
 and on the walls and ceiling of the Sistine 
 Chapel everlasting proof of greatness. 
 
 While, in the winter of 1875, the writer was 
 absorbing these ideas among the art-treasures 
 of Europe, he had left his studio to the care and 
 use of a younger artist friend in whom he had 
 taken great interest, believing him to be pos- 
 sessed of more than ordinary talents. This was 
 [ 114 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Hamilton Hamilton, whose subsequent career in 
 New York, where he later established himself, 
 justified this belief, as he soon after became the 
 fourth member of the National Academy of 
 Design that Buffalo had furnished. Mr. Hamil- 
 ton is the son of an English farmer who came to 
 America and settled with his family on a farm in 
 Livingston County, near Portage, whose son and 
 daughter both seem to have been artistically 
 gifted, for his sister is, or was when the writer 
 made her acquaintance, accomplished in music. 
 Her brother, younger than she, began his art 
 studies before they left England, in Oxford, near 
 which city they were born. While a boy of fif- 
 teen, he copied some pictures by Turner in the 
 University's museum. There his penchant was, 
 at the first, for landscape; and here he has 
 shown much ability and great deftness in the 
 use of the brush with excellent knowledge of 
 composition and truth to nature. His work in 
 New York, however, has been varied. Even por- 
 traits strong in character have come fromi his 
 easel, but a larger part of his work there has 
 been of mixed character, such as pastoral homes 
 in spring with blossoming fruit trees, and even 
 in-door compositions of domestic character. His 
 
 [ 115 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 largest canvas, "The Valley of Fountains," 
 painted in the writer's studio from studies made 
 in the Rocky Mountains, where he and Mr. J. 
 Harrison Mills spent some time in the earlier 
 seventies, he presented to the Buffalo Fine Arts 
 Academy. Mr. Hamilton is a first-class etcher 
 also. In this department of art his delicate and 
 certain touch in drawing has stood him in stead. 
 The writer is the happy possessor of two of his 
 largest upright landscape etchings, which he 
 thinks as good as anything of that nature with 
 which he is familiar. He has not met Mr. Hamil- 
 ton for many years. When he lived in Buffalo 
 he was noted for his gentle ways and simple 
 courtesy, being generally abstracted ; and while 
 at work he was wholly absorbed and careless of 
 the present as well as the future, but quick of 
 apprehension, appreciative, and grateful for 
 any little service rendered. 
 
 Another of Biiffalo's artists who should be 
 mentioned among the younger men who studied 
 art as a profession was the son of the late Rt. 
 Rev. Bishop Coxe, then residing in the city. Mr. 
 Reginald C. Coxe had given up other studies for 
 painting, choosing for his field marine subjects, 
 such as smaller crafts, fishing boats, etc. A 
 
 [ 116 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 certain intelligent abandon also in dealing with 
 the angry breakers of the rocky shores of Glou- 
 cester, Massachusetts, which he often studied, 
 gave promise of success as a marine painter; 
 but after his removal from Btiffalo, the writer 
 has lost track of him, which renders him uncer- 
 tain in regard to his present work. For a while 
 he was a pupil of Hamilton, from whom he 
 learned much in etching, an art in which he 
 acquired considerable advance. One of his 
 paintings, owned by the Saturn Club, ''The Lost 
 Chord," proves him possessed of poetic feeling. 
 
 After his return from New York, where he 
 had spent some years, he took a deep interest in 
 the Society of Artists, of which he once was a 
 very active member. While in New York, Mr. 
 Coxe exhibited a large canvas, an uncommon 
 view of Niagara Falls, which was, perhaps, his 
 most successful effort. 
 
 Among those who have devoted their life to 
 art in Buffalo, the writer can point to none more 
 in earnest, although in a financial point of view 
 without measurable success, or even artistic 
 reputation, than Henry Lee Brent. A constant 
 and faithful student of out-door Nature and 
 earnestly endeavoring to fix her beauties on 
 
 [ 117 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 canvas, he has not succeeded in interesting art- 
 lovers in his work. This maybe owing largely 
 to his manner of using pigments ; trying to be 
 absolutely truthful, he succeeds only in part, 
 seldom making his work attractive. He has 
 painted many landscapes from the scenes around 
 the Genesee Valley, being to all appearance a 
 sincere admirer of its grandeur, without making 
 others see in any degree, as he himself probably 
 saw, their beauties. Nor does this deficiency 
 appear to be the effect of ignorance, for he is an 
 intelligent and cultivated gentleman; there 
 may be some defect in vision, for once in a while 
 he shows that he has a good knowledge of the 
 requirements of composition and values in 
 colors. The writer owns a small landscape by 
 this artist, bought for a modest sum, but which 
 he values far beyond its purchase price. 
 
 Mr. Brent is now an old man, delicate in 
 sentiment, modest, patient — a true Christian in 
 deed and character, with just the degree of pride 
 which makes it difficult for friends to render him 
 the assistance he may sometimes need. He lives 
 alone, apparently contented in his work. His 
 father having been attache to the American 
 ministry at Madrid in Spain, was married there 
 
 [ 118 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 to a lady of the country; and afterwards was 
 appointed consul at Lisbon, where his son was 
 born. Mr. Brent speaks the best of Spanish, is 
 fluent in French, and has a superior general 
 education. He was possessed of some patrimony 
 when he came to our city some time in the 
 seventies, but, if it has not altogether disap- 
 peared, it is greatly lessened at this time.* 
 
 Mr. J. Harrison Mills was born at Bowmans- 
 ville near Buffalo. He has lately returned to the 
 city and is in active occupation, being a man of 
 many parts, painter, sculptor, poet, soldier, who 
 in his younger years, while studying the gran- 
 deur of the Rocky Mountain scenery, found 
 occupation, or amusement, in dispensing justice 
 to his Western fellow citizens. 
 
 Of the contributors to Buffalo's art furnished 
 by the city of Lockport, Mr. Raphael Beck also 
 deserves honorable mention. Mr. Beck's early 
 works had much tendency to the ideal. It was 
 he, too, whose nimble fancy provided the Pan- 
 American with its symbol in artistically uniting 
 the continents by fanciful human figures. He has 
 later turned his attention to portraits. 
 
 * Since this was written he has peacefully joined the great majority. 
 Requiescat in pace. 
 
 [ 119 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 In his youth, the late Rev. George L. Chase, 
 also of Lockport, seemed to have had ideas of 
 devoting himself to art, taking a studio in our 
 city, though he later studied divinity and took 
 orders. His early death was greatly lamented. 
 Mr. Chase's love of art seems to have de- 
 scended to his daughter, Ellen Wheeler Chase, 
 who studied in the Buffalo Academy's school, 
 and by taking a prize there gained a scholar- 
 ship in the Art Students' League of New York. 
 Afterwards she studied with Tarbell in Boston 
 and her excellent work in portraits gives prom- 
 ise of a distinguished future. 
 
 Another artist whose career dates from this 
 period is Mr. Frank C. Penfold. Born in Lock- 
 port, he probably received early instructions in 
 art from his father, who was a successful portrait- 
 painter, but he studied in Paris, where he soon 
 became so prominent that one of his pictures in 
 the salon was purchased by the French Govern- 
 ment to be sent, as is their custom, to become 
 permanent property of some remote public 
 gallery. Mr. Penfold generally spends his time 
 in Pont Aven, and though he has almost 
 expatriated himself, still continues to be a 
 friend of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, 
 
 [ 120 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 where one of his most important works has 
 found a home. 
 
 Mr. Albert Bigelow has been mentioned 
 before as a sweet singer in early home concerts 
 of the city. He studied for the ministry in the 
 Presbyterian Church, became ordained and for 
 many years was a pastor of that denomination 
 in Silver Creek, N. Y. Increasing deafness caused 
 him to relinquish his pastorate and study the art 
 of painting. This he did under the instruction of 
 Mr. Carpenter of New York and became a fairly 
 successful portrait painter, leaving many accept- 
 able specimens of his work here and elsewhere. 
 Some are now the property of the Buffalo His- 
 torical Society. Mr. Bigelow was a born Buffalo- 
 nian, and one of the most beautiful characters, 
 morally, intellectually, and socially, that ever 
 ^^^^.^.-^ais" native to the soil. 
 
 Thus far, Mr. Charles Caryl Coleman is the 
 best and most universally known of native Buf- 
 falonians who adopted art as a profession. It has 
 already been said that in boyhood he took lessons 
 in painting from Mr. Andrews. These he later 
 supplemented in Mr. W. H. Beard's studio, 
 where for a short time he was a pupil. His subse- 
 quent studies were in Paris and Rome, where he 
 
 [ 121 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 eventually settled as a full-fledged artist, being a 
 close friend and companion of Elihu Vedder and 
 other painters of high order. When the war for 
 the Union broke out, his patriotism brought him 
 back, as it did other artists, to take his part in 
 the defense of the Union. He became attached 
 to a regiment near Charleston in the earlier part 
 of the war, and there received, while on duty, a 
 wound which incapacitated him from further 
 service, and for which he still has a lieutenant's 
 pension. He now makes his home on the Island 
 of Capri in a beautiful villa of his own, and from 
 which he sends the works from his easel — works 
 of great beauty — which are highly appreciated 
 by art lovers, not only in the United States but 
 in England and other European countries. One 
 of his most charming pictures, a moonlight view 
 of the village or town of Capri, bought by the 
 Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, loses nothing in 
 beauty and dignity by being hung on the walls 
 of the Albright Gallery among its choicest treas- 
 ures. Another of his important works is the 
 property of the Buffalo Club. Charles C. Cole- 
 man is yet a young man at seventy, and, as he 
 is in full vigor, much may yet be expected 
 from his hand. 
 
 [ 122 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 In this connection, another artist of acknowl- 
 edged merit, at present making his home near 
 his friend Mr. Coleman, in that charmed isle, 
 who for a few years had his studio here, is Mr. 
 William Graham, who was born in New York 
 City, and in his boyhood was one of those who 
 in 1849 sought fortune in California, making 
 the long voyage to San Francisco in company 
 with many others in a sailing vessel. There he 
 seems, after the usual vicissitudes of adverse 
 luck, to have learned watch-making and to 
 make jewelry, but even this was not destined 
 to be his life-work. He studied art, turning his 
 attention to the scenery near or adjacent to 
 San Francisco. Later, he sought for motifs in 
 Europe, Italy and France by preference. Later 
 still, he found material for his brush in Egypt, 
 where in Cairo and its neighborhood he made 
 most excellent and interesting studies. He final- 
 ly settled in Venice, where he married a beauti- 
 ful lady belonging to a decayed noble family. 
 While living there he became a friend of 
 Whistler, who, with all his failings and vagaries, 
 seems to have been willing to recognize the high 
 value of his art ; though, as to that, there never 
 was but one opinion among well-trained artists 
 
 [ 123 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 as to Mr. Graham's standing; his fidelity to 
 Nature in her various phases is remarkable. On 
 the death of his wife, he tried to find solace by 
 returning to his native land, but his long resi- 
 dence in Italy and the friends there caused him 
 to return to make his home, as before stated, 
 near his friends in Isola da Capri. He has 
 lately returned to Buffalo to make this city 
 his future home. 
 
 Among those who were not artists by pro- 
 fession, but whose interest in art was pro- 
 nounced, Mr. William C. Cornwell deserves 
 particular notice in connection with Buffalo's 
 development in the fine arts. By profession Mr. 
 Cornwell is a banker, and even while devoting 
 much, if not all, of his spare time to amateur 
 painting, was president of one of the city's 
 banks. Genial, liberally endowed by nature and 
 with a cultured mind, he was a valuable friend 
 to the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, where as a 
 member of its executive board he was one of 
 the most active, and whose advice in matters of 
 art was always respectfully received and gener- 
 ally acted upon. As chairman of its Art School 
 he was ever alive to its interests. Although an 
 amateur, he often devoted himself to public 
 [ 124 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 decorative works on walls, actually doing with 
 his own hands the work belonging to the skilled 
 wall decorators. After the decease of his 
 charming and beautiful wife, Mr. Cornwell 
 moved from Buffalo, to the regret both of 
 friends and the lovers of art. 
 
 In this connection it is a pleasure to note 
 the deep interest taken by Mr. Carleton Sprague 
 and his lovely wife in the higher forms of art. 
 The poetic trend of Mr. Sprague's mind is 
 readily in touch with the best in art and his 
 services in its behalf are of the utmost value. 
 
 Much of the earlier success of the Buffalo 
 Fine Arts Academy was due to the newspaper 
 press of the city. Not only to the Courier, 
 through Mr. Joseph Warren's friendly personal 
 assistance, printing the Gallery catalogues for 
 six cents per copy (sold at the desk of the exhi- 
 bition rooms for twenty-five cents) , which was a 
 considerable source of its much-needed income, 
 and devoting whole sides of the paper to the 
 poems and long addresses, comments, eulogies 
 of pictures, often written by the superintend- 
 ent, to help along and induce visitors to drop 
 their twenty-five cents into the Gallery coffers 
 — not alone to the Courier but to all the other 
 
 [ 125 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 daily papers, the most grateful acknowledg- 
 ment is due for their boundless liberality to 
 the infant enterprise. Besides, for the regular 
 advertisements only half price was charged, 
 and all sorts of free announcements given that 
 were needed to call attention to the exhibitions. 
 
 Elsewhere, attention has been called to Mr. 
 William G. Fargo 's liberality in express charges, 
 not to mention the prompt assistance from his 
 own pocket when asked for contributions. 
 Sometimes the expenses in keeping up the vari- 
 ous exhibitions were met from treasurer John 
 Alien, Jr.'s, own bank account. The ever-ready 
 Captain Dorr was another of those to whom the 
 management was wont to turn when in distress ; 
 besides, the officers of the Academy who had 
 dollars to spare were generally ready to meet 
 exigencies. The superintendent's wealth lay 
 only in the time which he was ever willing to 
 give. These reminiscences are perhaps unneces- 
 sary, since they have already, either in a direct 
 way or by inference, appeared in the earlier 
 pages of this work; but the writer, once an 
 actor in the story, holds it but simple justice 
 thus to group and entwine them with the same 
 memorial wreath. 
 
 [ 126 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 To this should be added the Hberal good- 
 nature of the ladies and gentlemen who every 
 now and then denuded their walls of choice 
 pictures, or loaned other works of art, when 
 needed as attractions. The writer believes that 
 the names of Mrs. S. V. R. Watson, Mrs. James 
 Brayley, Mrs. Bronson C. Rumsey, and Henry 
 A. Richmond, Edmund Hayes, W. H. Grat- 
 wick, and Ralph H. Plumb are entitled to be 
 here recorded. 
 
 The historian of Buffalo art owes much to 
 Mrs. L. G. Sellstedt's scrap-book, in which is 
 saved much that concerns the history, not only 
 of its fine arts but its material, mental, and 
 social development, in which during seven dec- 
 ades she was an active and important element. 
 
 Among those who never made Buffalo their 
 home but in a decided degree added to its 
 artistic spirit, and whose work enhanced the 
 spirit to acquire excellence in the technique 
 among resident painters, it is but just to men- 
 tion Chester Harding, that old master, one of 
 the trio who in the forties divided the renown 
 in portrait-painting throughout the United 
 States with Henry Inman and William Page. 
 Of the two latter, the history of American Art 
 
 [ 127 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 is sufficiently complete, since they belonged to 
 New York, then, as now, the real art center of 
 the country; but Mr. Harding, though in most 
 things their equal, chose in the latter part of his 
 life to live and die in what was then the Far 
 West, bordering on the Mississippi and Mis- 
 souri rivers, where his children and grand- 
 children have made their homes. It was the 
 writer's privilege to make the acquaintance of 
 the grand old gentlemen while he was visiting 
 and painting in the home of their common 
 friend, William G. Fargo. 
 
 He sometimes visited the writer's studio, 
 and the latter remembers receiving valuable 
 hints in technique, besides being otherwise 
 benefited by his old friend's encouraging and 
 critical remarks. 
 
 Although foreign from the purpose of this 
 work, the writer may be excused for a few words 
 anent the early history of this excellent old artist. 
 
 Chester Harding was born in New England 
 and spent his early life on a farm until he was 
 twenty-four years of age, when he began the 
 study of art, and it appears that he in an un- 
 usually short time became known as an excel- 
 lent portrait-painter. He became a friend of 
 
 [ 128 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Daniel Webster, whose portrait he painted 
 more than once, and one of which now remains 
 to posterity as the ideal Webster, as Stuart's 
 does of Washington. 
 
 Later, he was one of the competitors with 
 Page and Inman for the full-length portrait of 
 the Governor of New York for the City Hall; 
 the committee, having been unable to agree on 
 the artist, left the matter a competitive work 
 between the three above mentioned. The three 
 portraits were painted, and the final decision 
 was the acceptance of Inman 's, which now 
 adorns the walls of the governor's room there. 
 Unless the writer's memory is at fault, it was 
 Governor Seward who had been the patient 
 victim of the three artists. 
 
 Mr. Harding was a great lover of sport. 
 Gigantic of size and herculean in strength, 
 with the proportions of an Apollo, he naturally 
 loved athletics and sport of all kinds. The 
 writer recalls a story of his youth which he 
 related in his studio. 
 
 He had been present at a fair somewhere on 
 the Mississippi River, where a barbecue was 
 also in progress. A part of the sport consisted 
 in wrestling matches, and one man had con- 
 
 [ 129 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 quered all antagonists. Flushed with his vic- 
 tory, he stood inviting any one to try again, 
 when the young artist-spectator made a whis- 
 pered remark that though he was no wrestler 
 he thought he could put him down. Immedi- 
 ately his interlocutor raised his voice above the 
 din with: "Here is a man that thinks he can 
 down you." ''Come on, come on," came from 
 all; and, though he modestly tried to excuse 
 himself, he found that he must accept the chal- 
 lenge. Simply divesting himself of his coat he 
 advanced and met the wrestler. "I did not 
 know a thing about wrestling," he said, in 
 speaking of the circumstance, "but I thought I 
 could rely on my strength. We clinched, and I 
 got my arm around him ; when I just bent him 
 in two and laid him down at my feet." 
 
 Mr. Henry Harding, his brother, also used 
 to make occasional professional visits to our 
 city from time to time in its earlier days, paint- 
 ing portraits of some of its residents, which, 
 though meritorious, did not equal those of his 
 more gifted brother; but neither his presence 
 or work, nor those of Mr. Mason, formerly 
 alluded to as Mr. Le Clear's guest, seemed to 
 have had any marked effect on the art spirit 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 of the city, as they both lacked that personal 
 influence that the resident artist would natur- 
 ally have. In these remembrances, the shade of 
 George B. Butler, one of the brightest and best 
 of American artists, arises to recall the beauti- 
 ful portrait he came here to paint of Sherman 
 S. Rogers and his noble wife. Mr. Butler had 
 served as captain of volunteers, and lost his 
 right arm at Gettysburg, but painted glorious 
 pictures with his left hand, using long-handled 
 brushes to reach his palette on the floor. 
 
 In this connection, a pleasant memory to 
 the writer is the arrival of Mr. G. P. A. Healy, 
 the distinguished portrait-painter, in 1862, to 
 paint ex-President Fillmore's portrait for the 
 White House. To accommodate his sitter, the 
 picture, though a full-length, was painted in 
 the private office of the law firm of Messrs. 
 Fillmore, Hall & Haven. While Mr. Healy was 
 Mr. Fillmore's guest during the time occupied 
 in the work, he used to spend his evenings in 
 the writer's family, finding more congenial 
 company, and thereby a pleasant intimacy was 
 formed. Mr. Healy had painted many men and 
 women in high society, including even royalty, 
 and was a favorite in Parisian salons. Of courtly 
 
 [ 131 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 manners, and an agreeable raconteur of amusing 
 anecdotes, he was ever a welcome visitor. The 
 last time that the writer saw him was in his 
 home in Paris, in 1875, when he had the pleas- 
 ure of dining with his numerous and interesting 
 family. 
 
 A pleasant article in one of the Buffalo Fine 
 Arts Academy's publications credits the writer 
 with the endowment of a genius for working 
 without compensation. Lest this should reflect 
 upon his vanity or common sense, a few details 
 concerning his work in behalf of the institution 
 may be permitted by way of explanation of 
 what in our day of material activity may be 
 deemed a phenomenon. He might well, how- 
 ever, pass by what is more or less a personal 
 matter, did it not belong to the main subject 
 of the Academy's history. That the writer did 
 not in his active life set a proper value on 
 money, he records to his discredit, as he looks 
 upon wealth as a means of gratifying desires 
 for the purest enjoyment a man can have — 
 that of making others happy. 
 
 Of his early life nothing need be said here, 
 except that it included a fair education till the 
 age of thirteen, and a life on the ocean as a 
 
 [ 132 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 sailor until twenty-three, nearly four years on the 
 Great Lakes, studying art during winter, and 
 a professional artist life, mainly as portrait- 
 painter, up to the present writing. His connection 
 with the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy is already 
 told, and the matter might well be left with- 
 out further details were it not that a few 
 words are necessary to show some other diffi- 
 culties encountered in keeping things going 
 during the quarter of a century he acted as a 
 sort of factotum of the institution. 
 
 When the exhibitions first commenced they 
 were bi-monthly. New pictures must be pro- 
 cured and others returned. This made much 
 work and not a little worry. It included visits 
 to New York, Philadelphia, and other art 
 centers; packing and unpacking and getting 
 ready for the day appointed for opening. There 
 was no regular male assistant ; often the young 
 lady ticket-attendant and the superintendent 
 worked beyond midnight to pack and unpack 
 boxes of paintings. This was when the exhibi- 
 tions were held in the Arcade building. 
 
 After moving to the quarters provided with 
 the Young Men's Association, another difficulty 
 arose. The rooms were in the third story, the 
 
 [ 133 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 stairs were not strong, and boxes must be 
 hoisted from the area of the first story by a 
 wooden crane and tackle, which was put up in 
 the gallery above at the instance of Captain 
 Dorr and the writer, who always superintended 
 the work and generally assisted in pulling the 
 rope with such help as he could pick up in the 
 street from cartmen and others. 
 
 [ 134 ] 
 
VI 
 
 When the writer, at the suggestion of Mr. 
 James N. Johnston, a fervent friend of art 
 poesy and general culture, took on himself the 
 task of putting his recollections and experiences 
 into connected form, it was his idea to limit the 
 scope of the subject to the early history of 
 Buffalo's art, to keep alive memories fast 
 dying, or awaken those already as dead as the 
 actors they commemorated, leaving a future 
 historian to continue the tale; but as the sub- 
 ject grew in interest the plan was changed, and 
 he concluded to devote a few more days of 
 rapidly declining years to a general review of 
 the whole field of the city's art culture, as far 
 as it came within his ken. 
 
 Mr. Willis O. Chapin had already antici- 
 pated him with regard to the essential points 
 of the early history of the Buffalo Fine Arts 
 Academy in his history, to which the writer is 
 much indebted; and while he intends to take 
 up the story where Mr. Chapin ended, he will 
 leave statistics and purely barren details where 
 they properly belong, which may be found on 
 record in their proper place, keeping in view 
 
 [ 135 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 mainly those things which are of more interest 
 to the pubHc, and which have, and have had, 
 their influence in modeHng the tastes and art 
 culture of the community. 
 
 The election of the late Mr. Ralph H. Plumb 
 to the office of president in 1889 brought new 
 blood into the Academy. Being himself a sin- 
 cere lover of art and possessor of many choice 
 specimens, especially by American artists of 
 note, he became deeply interested in the Buffalo 
 Fine Arts Academy, nor was he niggard in the 
 use of his influence in its behalf when he 
 deemed it of advantage to the institution. 
 Among the artists of New York, on visits to 
 their studios, he was ever welcome, and in his 
 frequent business trips to that metropolis he 
 seldom omitted an opportunity to visit both 
 private and public galleries in the interests of 
 Buffalo's art. In this self -education he learned 
 much and became a fair judge of paintings and 
 especially of their commercial value; through 
 his influence, some of the choicest treasures the 
 Academy possesses were secured. This the im- 
 proved financial condition warranted. No longer 
 was it necessary to fill the walls of the galleries 
 with questionable paintings. 
 
 [ 136 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 A mistaken idea of the original purpose of 
 the projectors of the Buffalo Fine Arts Acad- 
 emy had obtained, to a large extent, that its 
 galleries were to be the exhibition rooms for 
 students and struggling artists for their mate- 
 rial benefit. This was certainly not the idea 
 prominent in the minds of the early advocates 
 of an institution with a permanent gallery, but 
 to secure for exhibition the best works of art 
 obtainable as models for artistic study and 
 means for a higher education of the public in 
 matters of art, as well as a general gratification 
 of the lovers of the beautiful who could not 
 afford to possess valuable pictures. The plan 
 was to model the institution after the National 
 Academy of Design in New York, with schools, 
 membership, etc. The last-mentioned idea was 
 abandoned for want of sufficient material, and 
 the necessity of interesting men of means and 
 influence. As there was a common complaint 
 over the inferiority of American art when com- 
 pared with that of Europe, to give encourage- 
 ment to native artists the only natural remedy 
 seemed to lie in finding purchasers for their 
 best works which public exhibitions might 
 tend to promote; and even if money was slow 
 
 [ 137 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 in coming, the exposition of the fruits of their 
 genius would bring their names before the 
 pubHc and add to their reputation. 
 
 Although the idea of preferring American 
 art was openly approved by many, no one 
 thought of excluding good examples of foreign 
 works, though the hopes of possessing valu- 
 able chefs-d'oeuvre, such as may now be found 
 on the walls of the galleries, were very faint 
 indeed. The education in art differs not in its 
 inception from that of letters or science; all 
 must have their beginning in small things; as 
 it may take decades to prepare the mind for a 
 just appreciation of an Emerson, a Browning, 
 or a La Place, and the approach must be by 
 long and painful steps, so also there is no 
 short-cut to a true understanding of a Corot, a 
 Whistler, or a Turner. There is now no question 
 of Buffalo's gradual advance in art culture, 
 though its growth has been slow, and if the 
 public which visits the beautiful galleries of 
 Europe has turned up its nose at finding walls 
 covered with some of the earlier pictures of the 
 Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, those very paint- 
 ings may, perhaps, have been the ones that 
 gave the first lessons which prepared their 
 [ 138 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 minds for a true enjoyment of its present noble 
 collection. 
 
 What might be termed a business era seemed to 
 dawn on the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy at Mr. 
 Plumb's election to the presidency; it was no 
 longer a pauper, as the accompanying statement 
 copied from Mr. Chapin's book, January, 1899, 
 clearly shows. There was no longer a question 
 of a requiem; instead, a pasan of joy ascended 
 from those who had been watching with anxious 
 care for the final issue. And mysterious hints 
 began to be whispered of good things to come. 
 GIFTS AND BEQUESTS 
 
 THE PERMANENT FUNDS 
 
 Original subscriptions to Endowment Fund, $9,760.95 
 
 Sherman S. Jewett, June 7, 1872, 10,000.00 
 
 (Gift) Set apart as Picture Fund, April 8, 1872. 
 Thomas C. Reilly, March 24, 1883, $2,000.00 
 (Bequest) July 2, 1885, .... 1,000.00 
 November 2, 1886, . . 500.00 
 November 11, 1886, . 500.00 
 
 4,000.00 
 
 Caroline C. Fillmore, January 21, 
 
 1885, 1,000.00 
 
 (Bequest, $2,000) February 15, 
 
 1886 480.00 
 
 (Bequest, $2,000) January 5, 1888, 200.00 
 
 1,680.00 
 
 Francis W. Tracy, April 20, 1889, 19,000.00 
 
 (Bequest of $20,000 as Picture 
 Fund), reduced legacy by tax 
 of $1,000, the amount was re- 
 stored from savings in 1897, . 1,000.00 
 
 20,000.00 
 
 [ 139 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 THE PERMANENT FUNDS — CON. 
 
 (Bequest) Rev. Frederick Frothingham, 
 March 8, 1892, 
 
 (Bequest) Jonathan Scoville, April 11, 1892, 
 
 (Bequest) John Browning, April 
 
 16, 1894 $360.28 
 
 (Bequest) John Browning, April 
 
 23» 1894, 53.45 
 
 (Bequest) Dr. Frederick H. James, July 19, 
 1898, 
 
 SPECIAL 
 
 Caroline C. Fillmore, January 21, 
 
 1885, $2,000.00 
 
 Bequest $2,000, amount Feb- 
 ruary 15, 1886, 960.00 
 
 Received, including interest, Jan- 
 uary 15, 1888, 400.00 
 
 3,360.00 
 
 Given for the purchase or erection of a 
 building more secure from fire than the 
 one now occupied. 
 (Gift) Hon. James M. Smith, March 27, 1894, 
 to be expended for changes and repairs in 
 the Gallery and the remainder invested 
 
 in casts, 5,000.00 
 
 From Academy Notes, Vol. I, June, 1905-May, 1906, 
 we learn, " The Academy now has the following funds 
 for the purchase of works of art, viz: 
 
 Sherman S. Jewett Fund, $10,000.00 
 
 Albert Haller Tracy Fund, 20,000.00 
 
 Elizabeth H. Gates Fund, 50,000.00 
 
 Sarah A. Gates Fund, 10,000.00 
 
 Charlotte A. Watson Fund, 5,000.00 
 
 Total, $95,000.00 
 
 After setting aside the gift of Mr. Jewett as a picture 
 fund, and, after the payment of outstanding debts, there 
 remained the sum of $9,760.95, which formed the basis 
 of the present maintenance fund, which amounts to 
 nearly $140,000.00." 
 
 $2,000.00 
 5,000.00 
 
 413-73 
 5,000.00 
 
 [ 140 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 The Scripture, "To him that hath shall be 
 given," was in the near future to be justified 
 by events. 
 
 The age of literature and poesy in behalf of 
 the Academy was now ended. Poppenberg's 
 and Wahle's harmonies were fast becoming 
 dreamy memories, to be awakened only on 
 extraordinary occasions or when ladies were 
 put in charge of things. It was evident that 
 new blood had been infused into the patient — 
 younger and richer. 
 
 Many sincere friends of art, and friends of 
 those who had borne the brunt of the difficul- 
 ties which impeded the forward march of the 
 Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, found matter for 
 discontent in the character of some of the works 
 admitted at the exhibition; they looked with 
 contempt on much that was its property, 
 whether by purchase or gift. Some had formed 
 their art idea from what they had seen and 
 heard in their short sojourns in Europe, but 
 few of these were willing to lend the helping 
 hand with coin to mend the matter, as else- 
 where mentioned. This feeling even went so 
 far, that one of these who did try to change 
 things for the better by a handsome bequest 
 [ 141 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 thought best to confine her donation to the 
 purchase of European art exclusively. 
 
 Mr. Plumb had many influential friends who 
 were interested in art and willing to help along, 
 both by brain and purse. Through his agency, 
 or recommendation, some excellent paintings, 
 both European and American, were added to 
 the exhibition, others less desirable being 
 removed to make room for them. More careful 
 business methods were also adopted, made 
 necessary for the proper use and care of the 
 Academy's increasing wealth. 
 
 A somewhat memorable exhibition was held 
 in 1890. This was a number of extraordinary 
 pictures by Vereshchagin, the Russian painter, 
 mostly of large size and of excellent technique. 
 At the same time an opportunity was given to 
 the public of seeing that charming and justly 
 celebrated picture called "The Angelus," by 
 the late Francois Millet, the great French 
 painter. 
 
 An important addition to the Gallery's art 
 treasures was made the next year, and is 
 reported in Mr. Chapin's book as follows: ''A 
 print department of the Academy was founded 
 March 21, 1891, by Dr. Frederick H. James 
 
 f 142 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 and Willis O. Chapin ; Doctor James presenting 
 to the Academy his unequaled collection of 
 etchings by Francis Seymour Haden, and Mr. 
 Chapin presenting his collection of engravings. 
 The west gallery was set apart for these col- 
 lections, the donors furnishing cases and cabi- 
 nets, with the condition that the same be used 
 solely for their collections, and also printed 
 catalogues. Additions have since been made 
 by the donors from time to time to both col- 
 lections." 
 
 In 1892, as elsewhere stated, the Academy 
 tendered free use of the outer room to The 
 Society of Artists for their library, et cetera. 
 It was also given free use of the Gallery for 
 its exhibitions. The same year the Bohemian 
 Sketch Club held its first annual meeting and 
 exposition. 
 
 Mr. Ralph H. Plumb had now held office as 
 president five years, and declining reelection, 
 Dr. Frederick H. James was elected in 1894. 
 
 The following quotation from the closing 
 paragraphs of Mr. Chapin 's book tells its own 
 story. The writer takes the liberty of giving it 
 verbatim: "On November 2, 1898, Honorable 
 William Pryor Letchworth, Josiah Jewett, Hon. 
 
 [ 143 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 James M. Smith, L. G. Sellstedt, and George S. 
 Hazard were elected Honorary members of the 
 Academy. Other members than those already 
 named have rendered important services to 
 the Academy. George B. Hayes and Edmund 
 Hayes, vice-presidents for many years, have 
 been among the most earnest and efficient 
 officers. They have performed many important 
 duties, both in the art and the business affairs 
 of the Academy. As members of its Executive 
 Board, some of them for many years, Edwin 
 T. Evans, Jewett M. Richmond, William H. 
 Gratwick, Andrew Langdon, Thomas T. Rams- 
 dell, Richard K. Noye, Henry W. Sprague, 
 Charles R. Wilson, Gen. John C. Graves, 
 Nathaniel Rochester, Worthington C. Miner, 
 P. H. Griffin, Dr. De Lancey Rochester, John 
 H. Cowing, Dr. Matthew D. Mann, Charles 
 D. Marshall, George P. Sawyer, and Carleton 
 Sprague have been constant in their zeal in 
 all matters calculated to promote the welfare of 
 the Academy. During the thirty-six years of 
 its existence, the Academy has maintained a 
 permanent collection of paintings and has given 
 frequent special exhibitions of the best works 
 of art obtainable. Its collections have steadily 
 
 [ 144 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 increased in extent and importance. It has 
 contributed annually to the support of the Art 
 School. Its funds have been carefully preserved, 
 and added to, with the view at some future 
 time of providing it with a suitable building of 
 its own with adequate collections in its various 
 departments. The importance of the Academy 
 as an educational factor in this community is 
 rapidly increasing; the measure of its success 
 must depend on the continuance of the same 
 interest shown by the public-spirited citi- 
 zens who have been its founders and bene- 
 factors." 
 
 In 1889, the writer resigned the ofHce of 
 superintendent, and, though still on the Execu- 
 tive Board, he felt that the business and con- 
 duct of the Academy now being in practical 
 and willing hands, his professional aid and 
 services were no longer needed. The object he 
 had worked for was attained, the futtire of the 
 Buffalo Fine Arts Academy was no longer 
 problematical, it had come to stay, and he 
 could now devote the remainder of life to his 
 own pleasure or business without the weight of 
 responsibility of a public nature. 
 
 Later, Arthur E. Hoddick was made super- 
 
 [ 145 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 intendent, but, in point of fact, Mr. Plumb 
 during the four succeeding years of his presi- 
 dency virtually filled both offices — and filled 
 them well; and his refusal to be again elected 
 in 1894 was greatly regretted, for much good 
 had been effected during his term of office. He 
 was succeeded by Dr. Frederick H. James, who 
 had already given proof of his devotion to the 
 interests of the Academy by his liberal dona- 
 tion (fully described in Mr. Chapin's book), and 
 in many other ways. Mr. J. J. Albright was 
 made president in 1895 and served two years, 
 followed by the Hon. T. Guilford Smith for two 
 years more. General Edmund Hayes was presi- 
 dent for the next two years; and in 1905 Mr. 
 Plumb was again elected. 
 
 The meeting of the Executive Board of the 
 Fine Arts Academy, held in the Buffalo Club, 
 January 15, 1900, was epochal in its annals, 
 for it was then that Mr. Plumb announced Mr. 
 Albright's determination to give the institution 
 a permanent home in a suitable building, to 
 cost not less than $350,000. The offer was 
 accompanied with a suggestion, that in order 
 to keep the Academy's possession in good con- 
 dition when the building should be finished, eT 
 
 [ 146 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 fund for its preservation ought to be raised by 
 subscription. 
 
 It is pleasant to record that the larger part 
 of this proposed endowment was subscribed by 
 some of the members of the Board before leav- 
 ing the room, and that the generous donor was 
 himself among them. 
 
 Though in a measure prepared to hear of 
 something good to come, the writer who, on 
 account of advanced years, scarcely had hoped to 
 see with mortal eyes so successful a culmination 
 of the idea long and zealously worked for, could 
 not restrain the tear that gathered to the eyes " 
 as he rose to offer halting thanks to the giver. 
 
 On motion of Mr. Plumb, it was unani- 
 mously decided that the proposed edifice should 
 be known as ''The Albright Art Gallery." A 
 site had already been selected in a prominent 
 and picturesque part of the city's delightful 
 park overlooking the lake and pleasure-grounds, 
 which on application was allowed by the Park 
 Commissioners and ceded by the city. 
 
 In the meantime the Pan-American Expo- 
 sition had been determined on, and its promot- 
 ers had decided on a portion of the park and 
 some adjacent territory as its location. No time 
 
 [ 147 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 was lost by Mr. Albright in laying the founda- 
 tion for the palace of art his liberal mind had 
 conceived; but owing to delay in furnishing 
 materials, notably the marble of which it was 
 to be constructed, much time was lost and the 
 idea of its completion in time for the opening 
 of the Exposition was given up. Instead, a brick 
 building on the same plan and size was erected 
 in another part of the park for the reception of 
 the expected art treasures promised. This, too, 
 at Mr. Albright's expense if the writer is not 
 misinformed. Meantime, the walls of the 
 present structure were slowly rising, and during 
 the Exposition offered an additional point of 
 interest to the visiting multitude. 
 
 The altered finances of the Academy neces- 
 sitated a radical change in its constitution. In 
 fact, its interests were now in the hands of men 
 accustomed to strict business methods and 
 close accounting, of little use when there was 
 little or nothing to account for, since deficien- 
 cies were met out of the pockets of those in 
 charge, or even later, when matters were less 
 complicated and in the hands of a Committee 
 on Funds. Wealth now brought cares that must 
 be met with different methods. 
 
 [ 148 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 The writer disclaims all intimacy with such 
 necessary evils, and will not attempt further 
 explanation, which, after all, only concerns the 
 caretakers of the interests of the Buffalo Fine 
 Arts Academy. The only part of the new con- 
 stitution to which it may be necessary to 
 allude is that formerly the president was 
 elected by direct vote of all the members 
 and that he is now chosen by the Board. 
 
 The Pan-American Exposition was opened 
 two years after the ground was broken in the 
 environs of the park and part of the park itself, 
 in which the brick substitute for the Albright 
 Art Gallery was located, following the projected 
 plan of the marble structure in course of erec- 
 tion. This magnificent Exposition in itself 
 might well be considered part of Buffalo's art, 
 since its ideal and realization could have no 
 other name. The topographic, aquatic, and 
 electrical elements were the results of genius; 
 it was the work of imagination to idealize how 
 a common farm, destitute of water or other 
 natural attractions, could be transformed into 
 a wonderful Arcadian phenomenon of beauty. 
 To realize this required art. In places hitherto 
 only watered by the rains of heaven bodies of 
 
 [ 149 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 water must be created to bear gondolas and 
 barges, wonderful fountains and cascades, illu- 
 minated with iridescent electrical tints. Archi- 
 tecture, sculpture, painting, all must lend their 
 aid. To make it Pan-American, all must be 
 steeped in color, gay and lustrous, but artistic- 
 ally correct. To one of the best artists in our 
 country, Mr. C. Y. Turner, was confided this 
 duty, and those who remember the chaste har- 
 mony of every part will never forget how well 
 he had performed his part. Besides the general 
 effect of harmonious colors and architectural 
 beauty, wealth of art, in plaster worthy of being 
 perpetuated in marble or bronze, met the eye 
 everywhere. 
 
 All this might have made our city's Exposi- 
 tion a theme of marked praise in the history of 
 exhibitions had it not been eclipsed by a catas- 
 trophe which, like a convulsion of nature, left 
 nothing but its own memory. 
 
 The news of the assassination of the Presi- 
 dent of the United States fell like a pall on the 
 Pan-American. Its shadow covered all; it put 
 a stop to gaiety, made industries forgotten, and 
 covered art and nature's beauty with universal 
 gloom. 
 
 [ 150 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Besides the shock to the whole country 
 that its chief magistrate had fallen by the hand 
 of a crazed nihilist, there was in every breast a 
 feeling of grief for the man who by his wisdom 
 in office, simplicity of conduct, and sympa- 
 thetic nature had endeared himself alike to all 
 classes of his fellow citizens. 
 
 Irrelevant though it may be, the writer 
 desires here to pause, in memory of the sad 
 pleasure of recalling the few gracious words 
 and warm hand-shake he with other officers of 
 the Exposition received from this model of an 
 American gentleman in the same place where 
 the next day, at the public reception, the 
 miserable assassin, in the spirit of a Judas, as he 
 was passing, drew from its concealment the 
 pistol that fired the fatal shot. 
 
 It goes without saying that the art exhibi- 
 tion of the Pan-American Exposition was in 
 charge of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. As it 
 was a matter of unusual importance, both in 
 character and extent, great care was taken in 
 the selection of works of art offered from vari- 
 ous parts of the United States. A committee of 
 distinguished artists from out of town was 
 invited for the purpose. Mr. William A. Coffin 
 
 [ 151 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 of New York, who to his quaHties as artist and 
 gentleman added knowledge and clear-headed- 
 ness in business affairs, was chosen director, an 
 office which he filled with rare satisfaction to 
 all concerned. 
 
 The exposition in this improvised Albright 
 Art Gallery consisted mainly of the works of 
 our own American artists, though one of the 
 rooms was wholly devoted to an excellent col- 
 lection of Canadian paintings. The Central and 
 South American pictures, most of which were 
 of great interest and excellent of technique, 
 were exhibited in the buildings representing 
 their own countries. 
 
 Though many pictures in the Art Gallery 
 were painted in Europe they were the works of 
 American painters, among which were found 
 some of the best work of such men as Whistler, 
 Sargent, Abbey, and others of world-wide repu- 
 tation. At the close of the Exposition the Acad- 
 emy's collection was enriched by the purchase 
 of several valuable paintings by American 
 artists. 
 
 The part of the new building set apart for 
 the use of the School and The Society of Artists 
 having been made habitable long before it had 
 
 [ 152 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 received its finishing touches was taken posses- 
 sion of without delay. In the new order of 
 things several departments not at first contem- 
 plated by the originators had been added to 
 the School. Crafts had also found a place with 
 Arts, and teachers in each of the different 
 departments had been provided. Not only were 
 drawing, painting, and sculpture taught, but 
 wood-carving, designing, wall-paper decoration, 
 lace patterns, and even artistic book-binding 
 and jewelry manufacture could be studied there 
 under competent instructors. It is pleasant for 
 those who in less auspicious times worked for 
 the advance of art to know that some of these 
 able teachers had their start in the school of 
 those primitive days. 
 
 From the Academy Notes, 1905-19 06, the 
 publication of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, 
 ably conducted and edited by Mr. Charles M. 
 Kurtz, the director, the following extract may 
 be of interest both to the student and the 
 general public: 
 
 "During recent years the school has been 
 very successful. Many of its students have 
 gained recognition in their profession, and the 
 influence of the League upon the community 
 
 [ 153 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 has been excellent, and effective. The school 
 has ranked high in comparison with the other 
 art schools of America. As an evidence of its 
 standard of teaching may be mentioned that 
 in a recent competition for twelve New York 
 Art Students' League scholarships, open to 
 students in the various art schools of this 
 country, six out of the twelve were won by 
 students of the League — though students of 
 many different institutions entered the lists. 
 The judges for the competition — Kenyon Cox, 
 George B. Bridgman, W. H. Foote, E. C. 
 Taylor and Herman A. Mac Neil — in their 
 report made special mention of the excellent 
 quality of the work sent by the Art Students' 
 League of Buffalo, which they stated would 
 reflect credit upon any school." 
 
 Some years ago, when the writer was in 
 Europe, he observed that the word American was 
 a not uncommon afhx to goods for domestic uses, 
 which was understood to be an extra guarantee 
 of the superiority of the wares offered for sale 
 in merchants' shops. Our edge-tools were better 
 made, of the best steel, superior in form, finish, 
 and temper, when genuine ; for it was said that 
 articles inferior to their own were sometimes 
 [ 154 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 marked with American names by European 
 makers to discredit the American reputation. 
 
 Of our agricultural implements nothing need 
 be said to emphasize their credit. Even in Ger- 
 many, one of the most enlightened countries of 
 the world, and from which we have learned 
 much and may have much to learn, it may still 
 be seen by the passing traveler that the mag- 
 nificent picture, now the property of the Buf- 
 falo Fine Arts Academy, ''The Haymakers, " by 
 Lhermitte, is no work of pure imagination. 
 Ideas travel fast in our day, and it may be that 
 by this time the identical scene (barring artistic 
 composition), enacted on a field through which 
 the railway was carrying the writer a couple of 
 decades ago, has been spoiled for picturesque 
 purposes by American ideas. America owes 
 much to German thought ; to French complete- 
 ness, polish, and vivacity of brain; to English 
 laws, business methods, and practical inven- 
 tions. Nay, we are indebted to an Italian for 
 our wonderful power to make the air our 
 *'Puck" to carry thought from land to land 
 without the need of furnishing him with metal- 
 lic wings; but let not the world forget that it 
 was our country that was first to aid Marconi 
 
 [ 155 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 to realize his idea. Watts' teakettle may have 
 shown the practical value of steam, but it was 
 an American that built the first practical 
 steamboat. Oersted, the Dane, discovered the 
 electromagnetic principles which an American 
 artist, Morse, turned into practical use by 
 inventing the telegraph and its simple alphabet 
 in his leisure hours from painting or conducting 
 his art school. These are but a few of the evi- 
 dences of the ever-active American brain, and 
 one needs but glance at an American magazine 
 to see our advance in the art of illustrative 
 design. Our exhibitions in the National Acad- 
 emy are constantly improving in finish, as well 
 as in color and character. There would be 
 greater hope for the future of American art if 
 painters like Abbey, Whistler, Vedder, and 
 others living in Europe could have found the 
 recognition in their own land which their works 
 have compelled abroad. 
 
 The ladies of the study-class were women 
 of culture and refinement desirous of adding 
 a general knowledge of the principles and 
 history of art to other accomplishments with- 
 out professional or practical views. Still, there 
 were some of the same class in society that 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 did not think it incompatible with their social 
 position to adopt art as a profession. The 
 writer may be pardoned if he mentions by 
 name a few of these with whose work he is 
 familiar and with whom he is personally ac- 
 quainted: Miss Alice B. Muzzy, who conducts 
 a school of her own and is well known as a 
 contributor to art literature, Mrs. Anna Belle 
 Kindlund, Miss Claire Shuttleworth, Mrs. E. 
 K. Baker Thompson, Miss Eugenie Hauen- 
 stein. Miss Cornelia Bentley Sage, Mrs. J. 
 Lewis Nichols, Miss Arietta Lothrop, Mrs. 
 Linda de K. Fulton, Mrs. France, Miss Isabel 
 Ross, Mrs. F. McCaig, Mrs. Grace Caldwell 
 Farnham, Mrs. William H. Glenny (born An- 
 nan), remembered also for her poetic genius 
 of high order. Miss Rose Clark, Miss Clara E. 
 Sackett, and Mrs. Knowlton Mixer, the last 
 three being, so to speak, exotics, owing their 
 artistic education to Paris and other art centers. 
 Mrs. John C. Graves has turned her attention 
 mostly to sculpture, and has been employed 
 chiefly on portrait works in which she has been 
 quite successful, both as to resemblance and 
 character. 
 
 These names, familiar to the writer, are 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 recorded without prejudice to other ladies 
 unknown to him who may be equally entitled 
 to a place in the list of the lady artists of our 
 city. 
 
 The following record is from the Academy 
 Notes of June, 1905: "From 1894 until last 
 year Lucius W. Hitchcock was the principal 
 instructor of the school. At present the instruct- 
 ors and classes are as follows : 
 
 " Urquhart Wilcox, instructor in drawing from 
 the antique and from life, advanced composi- 
 tion, illustration, and the evening sketch class. 
 
 ''Edward Dufner, instructor in painting and 
 in composition. 
 
 ''James E. Eraser, instructor in modeling 
 and sculpture. 
 
 "Miss Mary B. W. Coxe, instructor in draw- 
 ing from the antique, the women's life class, 
 the children's class, sketch classes, and ele- 
 mentary composition. 
 
 "Bernard V. Carpenter, instructor in design, 
 water color, applied arts, and the teachers' class. 
 
 "Henry E. Bennett, Henry J. Baker, and 
 Eric F. J. Ericson are assistant instructors in 
 metal work, wood working, and manual train- 
 ing and wood carving. 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 ''Miss Mabel Rodebaugh is instructor in 
 book-binding, basket and bead weaving, and 
 leather embossing. 
 
 " Dr. H. G. Matzinger is lecturer on anatomy. 
 
 "Miss Arietta Lothrop, who was one of the 
 organizers of the Students' Art Club, has been 
 the efhcient superintendent of the Art Students' 
 League since its establishment. 
 
 "The government of the school is vested in 
 the hands of the members of the League, with 
 a strong advisory committee composed of mem- 
 bers of the Academy. The present officers of the 
 League are George P. Sawyer, President ; Mrs. 
 John Clark Glenny, First Vice-President; Miss 
 Helen M. Horton, Second Vice-President ; Mrs. 
 Charles G. Shepard, Secretary; Miss Arietta 
 Lothrop, Treasurer; Miss Harriet C. Taber, 
 Hugh A. Sloan and Philip Sherwood Smith. The 
 Advisory Committee of the Bufifalo Fine Arts 
 Academy consists of Dr. T. Guilford Smith, 
 J. J. Albright, Carleton Sprague, Dr. Matthew 
 D. Mann, and Ralph H. Plumb." 
 
 Mr. John J. Albright's magnificent gift of a 
 permanent home for the Buffalo Fine Arts 
 Academy which had been four years in building 
 was substantially complete and ready to receive 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 the choice loan collection selected by its newly 
 appointed and energetic and capable director, 
 Mr. Charles M. Kurtz, to grace the inaugura- 
 tion that took place on the 31st of May, 1905. 
 
 Since this was written, the Buffalo Fine Arts 
 Academy has met with a serious, if not irrep- 
 arable, loss in the sudden and unexpected 
 death of its able director, Mr. Charles M. 
 Kurtz. The extent of the calamity to the Acad- 
 emy is not at the present so deeply felt as it 
 may be in the future, since the ideas of the 
 deceased are ably carried out by Miss Cornelia 
 Bentley Sage, the Acting Director, whose talents 
 and efficiency have been amply proved at all 
 times during the temporary absences of Mr. 
 Kurtz, who placed implicit confidence in her 
 zeal and judgment. 
 
 The following beautiful sonnet was written 
 by Miss Sage at the time of the dedication of 
 the Albright Art Gallery: 
 
 GLORIAMUNDI 
 
 To stand within these glistening walls of white, 
 Where richest treasures born of genius lie, 
 And gems of art each with the other vie, — 
 To steep oneself in beauty, with the right 
 To linger there ; to look upon the height 
 Of stately columns, reared in majesty, 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 And classic roofs that gleam beneath the sky ! 
 Could greater glory charm the ravished sight 
 Of him whose generous impulse gave thee birth ? 
 What shall we say of him ? Our temple's fame 
 Outrivals the fair fame of Greece ! since he 
 Who builds for other men hath greater worth 
 Than kings and councilors, — a nobler name 
 Than princes, for he builds unselfishly. 
 
 Cornelia Bentley Sage. 
 
 Instead of using the correct and graphic 
 account in the Academy Notes of July, 1905, of 
 the inauguration ceremonies as a base for an 
 abbreviated description of them, as originally 
 intended, the writer, on mature reflection, has 
 concluded to give it entire in its own words. 
 
 DEDICATION CEREMONIES 
 
 ALBRIGHT ART GALLERY 
 
 Wednesday, May 31, 1905 
 
 A FINER day for the Dedication ceremonies 
 could not be imagined. The sun was shining 
 brightly in a sky of deep blue with only an 
 occasional filmy white cloud. The tempera- 
 ture was cool without dampness or chill. The 
 rains of the week preceding had given the 
 grass and foliage fresh luxuriance and increased 
 richness of color. The white marble art palace, 
 rising out of the mass of bright variegated 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 greens into an ''Italian blue" sky seemed to 
 express a purer beauty and more impressive 
 dignity than ever before, and constituted 
 a majestic background for the tiers of out- 
 door seats covering the terraces of the east 
 front. 
 
 The tremendous assemblage of people in 
 bright costumes gave a sparkling play of color 
 to the immediate foreground, and this was well 
 relieved by the greensward of the terraces at 
 the sides. 
 
 From the seats of the spectators the view 
 was charming in another way. Beyond the 
 speakers' stand the expanse of the lake with its 
 numerous pleasure-boats, its distant wooded 
 shores and the deep blue of the sky reflected by 
 its surface made a picture rivaling in beauty 
 the painted gems of the Loan Collection. 
 
 The arrangements for the comfort of the 
 guests were admirable. Each section of the 
 seats was designated by a distinctive color and 
 the seat coupons for the section were of the 
 same color. The ushers were numerous, ready 
 and informed, and every one of the several 
 thousand spectators was shown his or her seat 
 promptly, easily, and without confusion. All 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 the details of the event very nearly approxi- 
 mated perfection. 
 
 At four o'clock the distinguished person- 
 ages who were to participate in the ceremo- 
 nies, accompanied by the Directors of the 
 Fine Arts Academy, marched from the Park 
 Casino to reserved seats near the speakers' 
 stand, and the exercises began. Mr. R. H. 
 Plumb, President of the Academy, presided. 
 
 First was the singing by the Orpheus, 
 Saengerbund, Teutonia Liederkranz, and Guido 
 societies and other voices, of Beethoven's im- 
 pressive chorus: 
 
 "The heavens are telUng the Lord's endless glory, 
 Through all the Earth his praise is found ; 
 The seas re-echo the marvelous story : 
 
 O man, repeat that glorious sound. . ." 
 
 Professor Horatio Parker of Yale Univer- 
 sity conducted the Chorus. 
 
 Then President Charles William Eliot, of 
 Harvard University, was introduced and de- 
 livered an address on Beauty and Democ- 
 racy." He spoke as follows: 
 
 PRESIDENT ELIOT's ADDRESS 
 
 The ultimate object of democracy is to 
 increase the satisfactions and joys of life for 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 the great mass of the people — to increase 
 them absolutely and also relatively to pains 
 and sorrows. In other words, the final aim of 
 government by the people for the people is to 
 increase to the highest possible degree, and for 
 the greatest possible number of persons, the 
 pleasurable sensations or cheerful feelings which 
 contribute to make life happy and to reduce to 
 lowest terms the preventable evils which go to 
 make life miserable. The reduction of evil is an 
 indirect benefit. The direct way to promote 
 that public happiness which is the ultimate 
 object of democracy is to increase the number, 
 variety, and intensity of those sensations and 
 emotions which give innocent and frequently 
 recurring pleasure. This increase of well-being 
 should take effect on the masses of the demo- 
 cratic population; although the select few who 
 possess unusual capacity or good-will will inev- 
 itably get more than their proportional share 
 of the general well-being. The natural and 
 genuine leader, discoverer or superior person 
 cannot but get unusual satisfaction out of the 
 benefits he confers; and a true democracy will 
 be glad he does, recognizing that his superi- 
 ority does not obstruct or lessen the happiness 
 of the common people, but rather promotes it. 
 Nevertheless, the democratic goal is the happi- 
 ness of the common mass. 
 
 Among the means of increasing innocent 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 pleasurable sensations and emotions for multi- 
 tudes of men and women, none is more potent 
 than the cultivation of the sense of beauty. 
 Beauty means a thing enjoyable. It must 
 always be something which excites in human 
 beings pleasurable sensations and emotions. 
 Beauty is infinitely various, and it is omni- 
 present. It is accessible, therefore, to all men in 
 all places and in all moods ; and its infinite 
 value for pleasure and content only waits on 
 the development of the capacity in human 
 beings to feel and to appreciate it. 
 
 The enjoyment of beauty is unselfish. When 
 one solitary man feels it, he does not, by his 
 enjoyment of it, deprive any other creature of 
 the same felicity; on the contrary, in most 
 instances his enjoyment is much enhanced by 
 sharing it with sympathetic souls. The child 
 who enjoys, she knows not why, the exquisite 
 forms and colors of a single pansy does not shut 
 out other people from experiencing the same 
 sensations at sight of the same pansy; and she 
 finds her pleasure only increased when father 
 and mother and playmates share it with her. 
 When, at rare intervals, the snow-clad Mount 
 Rainier reveals itself, touched by the rays of 
 the setting sun, to far-off Seattle, the enjoy- 
 ment of the solitary street-sweeper who has 
 first noticed it is only enhanced when the peo- 
 ple run out of their houses to enjoy the mag- 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 nificent spectacle. In their spiritual effects 
 aesthetic pleasures differ widely from pleasures 
 like those of eating and drinking, which are 
 exhausted on the individual who enjoys them. 
 The happiness of loving things beautiful is in a 
 high degree a social form of happiness ; and it is 
 the aim of democracy to develop social happi- 
 ness, as well as individual. 
 
 It is undeniable that the American democ- 
 racy, which found its strongest and most 
 durable springs in the ideals of New England 
 Puritanism, has thus far failed to take proper 
 account of the sense of beauty as means of 
 happiness and to provide for the training of 
 that sense. On the main gate of Harvard Uni- 
 versity there stands this inscription, taken 
 from ''New England's First Fruits," a little 
 book published in London in 1643 • ''After God 
 had carried us safe to New England and we had 
 builded our houses, provided necessaries for our 
 livelihood, reared convenient places for God's 
 worship and settled the civil government, one 
 of the next things we longed for and looked 
 after was to advance learning and perpetuate 
 it to posterity, dreading to leave an illiterate 
 ministry to the churches when our present 
 ministers shall lie in the dust." That sentence 
 still describes the main objects which present 
 themselves to the minds of the present genera- 
 tion of Americans when they settle a new 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 region or reconstruct an old one — houses, 
 livelihood, churches, civil government, and 
 education; and still that order of develop- 
 ment commonly prevails, except that educa- 
 tion is nowadays put earlier. To that list it is 
 time to add the cultivation of the sense of 
 beauty, or rather to interfuse that cultivation 
 sympathetically with every item on the list. 
 The Puritan, establishing himself painfully on 
 the eastern rim of the wild continent, thought 
 rather of duty than of beauty, and distrusted 
 pleasurable sensations and emotions as prob- 
 ably unworthy of a serious soul, not looking 
 for happiness in this life, but only in the next ; 
 and to this day his descendants and followers, 
 spreading across the broad continent, pay far 
 too little attention to the means of promoting 
 public happiness. They seek eagerly material 
 possessions and the coarser bodily satisfactions, 
 but are not at pains to discover and make 
 available the emotional and spiritual sources of 
 public and private happiness. It is, therefore, 
 an interesting inquiry how the sense of beauty 
 and the delight in the beautiful are to be im- 
 planted, cultivated, and strengthened among 
 the masses of the American population. 
 
 The oldest and readiest means of cultivat- 
 ing the sense of beauty is habitual observation 
 of the heavens, for which the only things 
 needed are the open sight of the sky and the 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 observing eye. The heavens are always de- 
 claring the glory of God. The noblest poetry of 
 all nations celebrates the majesty and splendor 
 of the sky. Psalmist, prophet, and artist draw 
 thence their loftiest teachings. Sun, moon, and 
 stars, vSunset and sunrise, clouds tossed and 
 torn by wind, floating or driving mists and 
 fogs, snow, rain, and the clear blue are all phe- 
 nomena of the sky which will afford endless 
 delights to him who watches them. The dweller 
 on the prairie or the sea has the best chance at 
 the sky, and the dweller in narrow streets, 
 hemmed in by tall buildings, has the worst. 
 This obstruction of the sight of the sky is one 
 of the grave evils which beset a modern urban 
 population. City people run about at the bot- 
 tom of deep ditches and often can see only a 
 narrow strip of the heavens. Fortunately, the 
 loftiest structures reared by man are not so 
 high but that a moderate open area in the 
 midst of a closely built city will give a pros- 
 pect of large sections of the heavens. This is 
 one of the great things gained for an urban 
 population by accessible open spaces, such as 
 parks, commons, marshes, and reaches or ponds 
 of water. 
 
 Next to observation of the sky as means of 
 developing the sense of beauty comes observa- 
 tion of the landscape. Landscape includes in- 
 numerable and various objects of beauty, for it 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 includes beauty of form, of texture, of color, 
 and of luster. Thus, the contours and surfaces 
 of hills > and valleys present infinite variety. 
 Some fields and pastures are convex in form; 
 others — and these are the more beautiful — 
 are concave. The plant and tree growths which 
 cover portions of these surfaces also present 
 extraordinary varieties of color and texture. 
 Threads or sheets of water add silver sheen. In 
 some landscapes it is a single object like Niag- 
 ara which absorbs the attention; in others, it 
 is a group of objects as in the Garden of the 
 Gods in Colorado or the Yosemite in California ; 
 while in others the multitudinous multiplica- 
 tion of the same form is the interesting feature, 
 as in a field of wheat or of California poppies, 
 or in a forest, or in the millions of equal ripples 
 on a sunlit lake. Over every landscape hangs 
 the sky, contributing lights and shadows, bril- 
 liancy or somberness, perfect calm or boister- 
 ous windiness. The ear shares with the eye the 
 beautiful effects of weather on landscape. The 
 rushing of the storm through the narrow valley, 
 the murmuring tremor of the pines in the 
 gentle breeze, the rustling and bowing of a field 
 of corn in an August gale, the clatter of pal- 
 mettos in a wind, the rattle of pebbles on a 
 beach dragged down by the retiring wave, the 
 onset of a thundershower are delights for the 
 ear as well as the eye. For such implanting and 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 developing of the sense of beauty in the minds 
 of urban populations a large new provision has 
 been made by many American cities during 
 the last twenty years, and this movement is 
 still gathering force. It will result in great gains 
 for public happiness. Democratic society is not 
 favorable to the creation and permanent hold- 
 ing of great parks and forests by enduring 
 families, a process which often procured im- 
 portant advantages for the public in feudal 
 society. The king, the prince, the cardinal, or 
 the court favorite held great estates which 
 easily might descend through many genera- 
 tions undiminished and well maintained. The 
 whole community could enjoy in some measure 
 the landscape beauty thus created and pre- 
 served. Under democratic legislation and cus- 
 tom it is difficult to transmit from generation 
 to generation great private holdings in land. It 
 is, therefore, fortunate that the democracy has 
 already decided that it will itself own and pre- 
 serve for public uses large tracts of land. Public 
 ownership will provide in our country the for- 
 ests, parks, river banks, and beaches which 
 will give the urban and suburban population 
 access to landscape beauty. 
 
 Another means of increasing the enjoy- 
 ment of beauty which has of late years become 
 commoner in our country than it used to be is 
 the cultivation of flowers and flowering shrubs 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 in houses or house-lots, and in gardens both 
 pubHc and private. This cultivation is a very 
 humane and civilizing source of enjoyment. It 
 is usually a pleasure shared with others, and it 
 is as enjoyable on the small scale as on the 
 large for the individual planter and tender. One 
 of the encouraging signs about American syste- 
 matic education is that school boards and 
 teachers are beginning to see the utility of 
 school gardens. ''How Plants Grow" was the 
 title of one of Asa Gray's best books. The place 
 to teach that subject is not the lecture room or 
 the laboratory, but the garden plot. 
 
 It is said that the first art a barbarous peo- 
 ple develops and fosters effectively is architec- 
 ture. Shelter is a primary necessity, so the 
 earliest arts and trades will provide shelters. 
 For the worship of their gods all people try to 
 rear imposing structures. The American people, 
 if we study them all across the continent, seem 
 to mean that their best buildings shall be 
 schoolhouses and libraries, certainly not a bad 
 choice. They are also ready to pay for costly 
 buildings for the use of government, national, 
 state, or municipal, each citizen having some 
 sense of individual proprietorship in such build- 
 ings. If we could always get in our public 
 buildings the beauty of good proportion and of 
 pleasing decoration, what an addition to the 
 every-day enjoyment of the population would 
 
 [ 171 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 such good architecture give. To pass a noble 
 building every day in going from the home to 
 the workshop makes an appreciable addition to 
 the satisfactions of the citizen. To go to school 
 in a house well designed and well decorated 
 gives a pleasure to the pupils, which is an im- 
 portant part of their training. To live in a 
 pretty cottage surrounded by a pleasing gar- 
 den is a great privilege for the country-bred 
 child. The boy who was brought up in a New 
 England farmhouse, overhung by stately elms, 
 approached through an avenue of maples or 
 limes, and having a door yard hedged about with 
 lilacs will carry that fair picture in his mind 
 through a long exile, and in his old age revisit 
 it with delight. In regard to public buildings, 
 however, it is all-important that they should be, 
 not only noble in design but also nobly used or 
 occupied. When a just and kindly rich man 
 builds a handsome palace for himself and his 
 family, his lavish expenditure does no harm to 
 the community, but on the contrary provides 
 it with a beautiful and appropriate object of 
 sympathetic contemplation. But when a 
 knave or a gambler lives in a palace, the 
 sight of his luxury and splendor may work 
 injury to the lookers-on. It is the same with 
 regard to public buildings. Their occupation 
 or use must be noble, like that of a Gothic 
 cathedral. They must harbor honest men, not 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 rogues. They must be used to promote large 
 public interests, and must be instinct with 
 public spirit. 
 
 The provision of public museums like this 
 beautiful structure whose opening we com- 
 memorate to-day is another means of educating 
 the popular sense of beauty. By casts, prints, 
 etchings, and photographs a good collection 
 trains the eyes of the people to appreciate 
 beauty of outline, of light and shade, of sym- 
 metry and proportion. Vases and textile fabrics 
 supply instruction in color, luster, and texture. 
 For training the eye to the appreciation of 
 beautiful composition in color, good paintings 
 are necessary. Examples of the work of the 
 greatest masters in color are, of course, very 
 difficult to obtain for exhibition in the United 
 States; but a few such objects in otir best col- 
 lections would have an immeasurable value. 
 Unfortunately, our barbarous legislation, taxing 
 imported works of art, piles on the natural 
 difficulties of our situation a serious artificial 
 obstruction. One of the great services of the 
 Roman Church to the peoples of Europe has 
 been the free exhibition, as altar pieces or as 
 chancel and sacristy decorations, of many of 
 the most admirable works of the leading paint- 
 ers of the world. The favorite subject with these 
 great painters for a church picture — the Holy 
 Family — offered to the artist a large variety 
 
 [ 173 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 of human figures in a compact group, namely, 
 a mature man, a young mother, a baby, and a 
 Saint Catherine or a Saint John the Baptist, 
 representing so many interesting stages of 
 human Hfe, with all the appropriate varieties of 
 facial expression, skin coloring, and graceful 
 garments, the whole permeated with lofty and 
 holy sentiment. Such pictures the Roman 
 Church kept before millions of its worshipers 
 for hundreds of years. The modern painter has 
 not yet seized on any subject of such supreme 
 merit and universal availability. Since the 
 church has had only a slight aesthetic function 
 in the United States, public collections have in 
 America even greater importance than they 
 have in Europe. 
 
 It is apparent from the tremendous influ- 
 ence of the passion of love that beauty in man, 
 woman, and child must yield a large part of 
 the available material for developing and train- 
 ing the sense of beauty in the masses of the 
 population. The attraction of sex becomes effi- 
 cient when the eye is delighted by the color, 
 form, and grace of the beloved object. It is 
 through the eye and the ear chiefly that we are 
 susceptible to beauty in man, woman, or child. 
 The lover's senses are all quickened and set on 
 fire, and his vital energies are magnified. His 
 fancy and his power of attention become 
 lively and keen ; and, in short, all his vital func- 
 
 [ 174 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 tions are made healthier and stronger. It fol- 
 lows from this almost universal experience 
 that the enjoyment of beauty accompanies and 
 announces a condition of health and vigor in 
 the human body and the human spirit, and 
 that whatever promotes the public health, or, 
 in other words, the habitual health of the multi- 
 tude, will also promote the development of the 
 sense of beauty, and will multiply the pleasur- 
 able feelings which accompany the observation 
 of beauty. Whatever promotes the public health 
 tends, therefore, to promote that public hap- 
 piness which the recognition and study of beauty 
 is fitted to procure for the popular masses. 
 
 It has sometimes been maintained that love 
 of the beautiful is an effeminate sentiment, 
 which may fitly accompany delicacy, tender- 
 ness, and refinement, but is not an attribute of 
 manly vigor or of a pioneering, enterprising, 
 and martial race. On one Memorial Day not 
 long ago I was watching from my office win- 
 dow a post of the Grand Army of the Republic 
 marching slowly to wailing music toward the 
 graves of their former comrades in Mount 
 Auburn Cemetery, which they were about to 
 decorate with flowers. The friend who stood 
 beside me said: ''I cannot bear to hear this 
 music or see these flowers. Both are beautiful, 
 but both are too sentimental. They are bad 
 substitutes for the stern, unadorned gravity 
 
 [ 175 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 and resolution of our Puritan forefathers." My 
 friend was an intense patriot; but in this dis- 
 like he was wrong. The love of the beautiful is 
 not inconsistent with reverence for honor, jus- 
 tice, and faithfulness unto death. Neither is it 
 inconsistent with intense energy, and keen intel- 
 lectual foresight and penetration, or with the 
 martial virtues of courage, self-sacrifice, and 
 tenacity. If we need a demonstration that love 
 of the beautiful and habitual cultivation of the 
 beautiful are not inconsistent with the simul- 
 taneous possession of the most effective and 
 robust himian qualities, we may find it in the 
 extraordinary artistic qualities of the Japanese 
 as a race; qualities they exhibit in conjunction 
 with great industrial efficiency, remarkable 
 sanitary wisdom, and an unparalleled energy 
 and devotion in war. The interest of the 
 Japanese in flowers, gardens, and groves, and 
 their skill in producing the most admirable vari- 
 eties of fine work in metals, pottery, and textile 
 fabrics have been the wonder of the Western 
 world. Even the arrangement of cut flowers 
 is for them a high art; a garden or a grove 
 is almost a sacred place; and the production 
 of a single beautiful porcelain or bronze vase 
 or bowl is an adequate reward for months 
 of labor. This devotion to the production of the 
 beautiful is absolutely consistent with the pos- 
 session by the same race of the qualities which 
 
 [ 176 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 we commonly distinguish by such words as 
 manly, sturdy, and heroic. We ought not to be 
 surprised at this union of attributes. We ought 
 never to have imagined that the sense of beauty 
 harmonized only with softness, fineness, or 
 frailty in the human being. The fact is that 
 many beautiful objects are coarse, rough, stern, 
 or fierce, like the sea, the thunderstorm, or the 
 bare mountain crag. Beauty often results 
 chiefly from fitness; indeed, it is easy to main- 
 tain that nothing is fair except what is fit for 
 its uses or functions. If the function or the 
 product of a machine be useful and valuable, 
 and the machine be eminently fit for its work, 
 beauty will be discernible in the machine. An 
 American ax is eminently fit for its function, 
 and it conspicuously has the beauty of fitness. 
 A locomotive or a steamship has the same sort 
 of beauty, derived from its supreme fitness for 
 its function. As functions vary, so will those 
 beauties which depend on fitness for functions 
 vary, from the exquisite delicacy of the nar- 
 cissus to the sturdy vigor of the oak. In culti- 
 vating the love of the beautiful we shall also 
 cultivate the love and appreciation of the fit. 
 
 The best place to inculcate the love of the 
 beautiful is the schoolroom. To the rising gen- 
 eration the most effective lessons can be given 
 and from the school millions of children will 
 carry the lessons to millions of homes. After 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 reading, spelling, writing, and ciphering with 
 small numbers and in simple operations, draw- 
 ing should be the most important common- 
 school subject. All children should learn how 
 lines, straight and curved, and lights and shades 
 form pictures and may be made to express 
 symmetry and beauty. All children should ac- 
 quire by use of the pencil and brush power of 
 observation and exactness in copying and 
 should learn through their own work what the 
 elements of beauty are. It is monstrous that the 
 common school should give much time to com- 
 pound numbers, bank discount, and stenog- 
 raphy and little time to drawing. It is mon- 
 strous that the school which prepares for college 
 should give four or five hours a week for two 
 years to Greek and no time at all to drawing. 
 The main object in every school should be, not 
 to provide the children with means of earning 
 a livelihood, but to show them how to live a 
 happy and worthy life, inspired by ideals which 
 exalt and dignify both labor and leisure. To see 
 beauty and to live it is to possess large securi- 
 ties for such a life. 
 
 In diffusing among the American population 
 knowledge and appreciation of the fine arts 
 we shall also diffuse the artistic sentiment 
 about labor. The artist is always working with 
 mingled gladness and disappointment toward 
 an ideal he never attains. It is his struggle 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 toward that ideal which makes his Hfe a happy 
 one. That is the spirit in which all the work of 
 the community should be done. Everybody 
 should be trying to realize perfection in his art 
 or trade or daily work. Toward that idealiza- 
 tion of daily life the love of the beautiful leads 
 us, and the road which connects the love of the 
 beautiful with the love of the good is short and 
 smooth. When, therefore, the citizens of Buf- 
 falo assemble in this beautiful park to dedicate 
 this beautiful building and its collections to the 
 public service, they are commending to the 
 rest of the nation a high example of private 
 beneficence which will promote, in a wise and 
 sound way, democratic happiness. >' 
 
 President Eliot's address was delivered in a 
 clear, ringing voice and was listened to most 
 attentively. At its conclusion the Chorus sang 
 the following Ode, written by Mr. Arthur Det- 
 mers of Buffalo, and the music for which was 
 composed by Professor Horatio Parker of Yale 
 University. Professor Parker conducted the 
 singing. 
 
 [ 179 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 SPIRIT OF BEAUTY 
 O SPLENDOR of the far-off days 
 
 Forever gone ! 
 Still through the darkened maze 
 
 Of years we wander on, 
 Haunted by visions of an elder time 
 When glory crowned the Orient hills 
 And great Apollo laughed 
 As the purple sea he quaffed, 
 And the nymphs by hidden rills 
 Leaped and danced, 
 And the silver arrows glanced 
 From the Huntress' bow sublime ; 
 While from storied heights, far shining 
 
 In Olympian repose. 
 Human thought God's thought "^divining, 
 
 The perfect temples rose. 
 O deathless splendor of the Attic prime ! 
 Spirit of Beauty, free of old, 
 Eternal youth is thine ; no prison hold 
 Hath ever fast confined thee. 
 No earthly chain can bind thee : 
 Lo, thou wilt bring again the age of gold ! 
 
 Slowly, slowly through the night, 
 Led by death the host moves on. 
 
 Endless tumult, toil and fight, 
 
 Hopeless yearning for the light. 
 Loss the prize in triumphs won, 
 Endless sleep when all is done. 
 
 O the bitter waste and pain ! 
 
 To Death only comes the gain. 
 One long smothered cry is all 
 Scarce remembered years recall. 
 
 [ 180 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Nay, not so, 'tis only seeming ! 
 Even now behold, a gleaming ! 
 
 Even now thy garments trail, 
 Spirit, on the shrouded mountains ! 
 From the everlasting fountains 
 
 Light is streaming o'er the vale ! 
 
 Yea, by all the discords harsh of life 
 
 The music of the world is never hushed. 
 Upon the woeful strife 
 
 Of souls pain-scarred and crushed 
 The sweet calm face of nature smiles. 
 
 O beckoning hands, 
 
 O voices in the wilderness, 
 
 Ye heavenly bands 
 That cheer and bless, 
 
 Spirit of Beauty near us yet, 
 
 Though we like aliens wandering in far lands 
 O'er wasted miles 
 
 Thy loveliness too oft forget ! 
 From age to age thy mountains call us. 
 Thy radiant dawns and sunset lights enthrall us, 
 
 Thy handmaid stars attend us, 
 
 Thy trees and flowers befriend us, 
 Thy mighty waters will not let us be, 
 Thine errant winds still set our spirits free. 
 
 Not unto us, not unto us the praise, 
 
 O Spirit Guide ! 
 Thou who from the broken past dost raise 
 
 What shall abide, 
 Here amid the transitory 
 
 Sway and stress of man's estate, 
 
 In thy great name we dedicate 
 
 [ 181 1 
 
 y 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 An'altar to thy glory. 
 May it lift the souls of men 
 Out of lethal marsh and fen 
 To that far eternal height 
 Crowned with light, 
 Immune from time, 
 Where, nearer God, the soul may learn 
 
 The beauty and the joy sublime 
 For which man ne'er doth cease to yearn. 
 
 Professor Parker's music was admirably 
 fitted to the Ode, and, under his direction, was 
 sung with impressive effect. In the space at 
 command it is impossible to present any an- 
 alysis of the music or even specifically refer to 
 its particularly appropriate and effective pas- 
 sages. The Chorus was well trained, and, sus- 
 tained by an instrumental accompaniment, 
 carried well. 
 
 Mr. Richard Watson Gilder next being intro- 
 duced, read the Dedicatory Poem, Temple 
 of Art." The poem follows: 
 
 A TEMPLE OF ART 
 I 
 
 Slowly to the day the rose. 
 
 The moon-flower suddenly to the night, 
 
 Their mysteries of light 
 
 In innocence unclose. 
 
 [ 182 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 II 
 
 In this garden of delight, 
 
 This pillared temple, pure and white. 
 
 We plant the seed of art, 
 
 With mystic power 
 
 To bring, or sudden or slow, the perfect flower, 
 
 That cheers and comforts the sad human heart ; 
 
 That brings to man high thought 
 
 From starry region caught. 
 
 And sweet, unconscious nobleness of deed ; 
 
 So he may never lose his childhood's joyful creed, 
 
 Though years and sorrows to sorrows and years succeed. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Though thick the cloud that hides the unseen life 
 
 Before we were and after we shall be, 
 
 Here in this fragment of eternity; 
 
 And heavy is the burden and the strife — 
 
 The universe, we know, in beauty had its birth ; 
 
 The day in beauty dawns, in beauty dies, 
 
 With intense color of the sea and skies ; 
 
 And life, for all its rapine, with beauty floods the earth. 
 
 Lovely the birds, and their true song. 
 
 Amid the murmurous leaves the summer long, 
 
 Whate'er the baffling power 
 
 Sent anger and earthquake and a thousand ills, — 
 It made the violet flower. 
 
 And the wide world with breathless beauty thrills. 
 
 IV 
 
 Who built the world made man 
 With power to build and plan, 
 A soul all loveliness to love, — 
 Blossom below and lucent blue above, — 
 And new unending beauty to contrive. 
 
 [ 183 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 He, the creature, may not make 
 
 Beautiful beings all alive, — 
 
 Irised moth nor mottled snake. 
 
 The lily's splendor, 
 
 The light of glances infinitely tender. 
 
 Nor the day's dying glow nor flush of morn, — 
 
 And yet his handiwork the angels shall not scorn. 
 
 When he hath wrought in truth and by heaven's law, — 
 
 In lowliness and awe. 
 
 Bravely shall he labor, while from his pure hands 
 Spring fresh wonders, spread new lands ; 
 Son of God, no longer child of fate, 
 Like God he shall create. 
 
 V 
 
 When, weary ages hence, the wrong world is set right; 
 
 When brotherhood is real 
 
 And all that justice can for man is done, 
 
 When the fair, fleeting, anguished-for ideal 
 
 Turns actual at last ; and 'neath the sun 
 
 Man hath no human foe ; 
 
 And even the brazen sky, and storms that blow, 
 
 And all the elements have friendlier proved, — 
 
 By human wit to human uses moved, — 
 
 Ah, still shall Art endure. 
 
 And beauty's light and lure, 
 
 To keep man noble, and make life delight, 
 
 Though shadows backward fall from the engulfing night. 
 
 VI 
 
 In a world of little aims. 
 Sordid hopes and futile fames. 
 Spirit of Beauty ! high thy place 
 In the fashioning of the race. 
 In this temple, built to thee, 
 
 [ 184 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 We, thy worshipers, would be, 
 
 Lifting up, all undefiled, 
 
 Hearts as lowly as a child ; 
 
 Humble to be taught and led 
 
 And on celestial manna fed ; 
 
 So to take into our lives 
 
 Something that from heaven derives. 
 
 The ceremonies were concluded with the 
 following hymn, written by Mr. Philip Becker 
 Goetz, of Buffalo, and sung by the Chorus to 
 the music of Kremser's Dankgebet." 
 
 HYMN BY PHILIP BECKER GOETZ 
 The voices of seers are not born of the trumpet, 
 
 Their vision is raised to a flag that is furled ; 
 They ever are dreamers in beauty ensphered 
 
 And calmly they dower the wide, yearning world. 
 
 Their hands are not sanguine with blossom of battle : 
 They charm into life the white soul of the stone, 
 
 They find and imprison the secrets of sunlight. 
 
 They make the world kneel in their temples of tone. 
 
 Oh these be the brows that we hallow with homage 
 And crown with our garlands of fresh- wreathed song : 
 
 Unknown or renowned hail them equally victors, 
 With thanks unto God for that glorious throng. 
 
 [ 185 ] 
 
POEMS 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 {Dedicatory Poem, December 23, 1862) 
 Troops of angels swell our number as we throng this 
 classic place, 
 
 Though we hear no white wings rustle, though we see 
 no shining face. 
 
 While we dedicate this temple they are with us and 
 around us — 
 
 With an amaranthine cestus they have girded and have 
 bound us. 
 
 From the classic scenes of Athens these attendant 
 spirits come. 
 
 From the sunny haunts of Florence and the solemn hills 
 of Rome. 
 
 From the tomb of great Apelles, where the roses ever 
 blow, 
 
 From the sepulchre of Rubens and the grave of Angelo. 
 
 Lo ! our hands have built an altar, built it strong and 
 built it well, 
 
 And the angels wait to crown it with immortal aspho- 
 del. 
 
 Every basal stone is granite, squarely cut, cemented 
 fast — 
 
 We have laid a firm foundation, for we build the shrine 
 to last. 
 
 All the rest is choicest marble, free from spot and stain 
 and flaw 
 
 As the tablets where Jehovah wrote the precepts of His 
 law. 
 
 [ 189 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 On the top there burns a censer which with rarest gums 
 
 is freighted — 
 While we smell the glorious incense we are ravished and 
 
 elated. 
 
 Let this temple and this altar evermore be set apart 
 To the uses and the service and the high designs of 
 ART! 
 
 Art, the only true Pactolus which has ever flashed and 
 rolled, 
 
 That encrusts our leaden fancies with a shining shell of 
 gold. 
 
 Art, that renders death a fable, by its magic power to 
 save — 
 
 We possess the Pilgrim Fathers, not the centuries, not 
 the grave. 
 
 Are the heroes whom we worship less alive, this winter 
 night, 
 
 Than when they bravely conquered in the stern and 
 sturdy fight ? 
 
 Art, that wooes its mistress. Nature, with a love that 
 never tires. 
 
 Never faints and never falters, ever urges and aspires — 
 
 That repeats the myriad broideries which her cunning 
 fingers trace 
 
 And the ever sweet expressions of her ever-changing face. 
 
 Art, that treasures up for Winter all the richest blooms 
 of Spring ; 
 
 Art, that lifts the low-born peasant to the level of the 
 king. 
 
 [ 190 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Art, that hews from stolid marble forms we worship and 
 extol, 
 
 Wanting naught to make them human but the presence 
 of a soul. 
 
 "One thing lacks thy statue, comrade;" so the king of 
 
 sculptors spoke, 
 And the dream of Donatello, like a dainty fleece-cloud, 
 
 broke ! 
 
 "Tell me," was the mournful answer, "what it is evades 
 my reach " — 
 
 "Only this, my Donatello; thou hast failed to give it 
 speech ! ' ' 
 
 Who shall censure fond Pygmalion, in the forum of his 
 thought, 
 
 That his heart became enamored of the shape his hands 
 had wrought ? 
 
 Art, that shows us gracious Homer, just as when he 
 
 lived and sang. 
 And the Juno with whose praises all his wondrous story 
 
 rang. 
 
 Art, that makes the face of Jesus plain as morning to 
 the sight. 
 
 With its martyr crown of passion and its triumph crown 
 of Hght. 
 
 Art, that raises and ennobles. Art, that surely will refine 
 Every nature that it touches by its ministries divine. 
 
 Meet it is we rear a temple to a goddess such as she. 
 With the large and liberal purpose that its blessings 
 shall be free. 
 
 [ 191 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Meet it is we build an altar, and, in letters rainbow fair. 
 Weave her name and fame and glory in a deathless 
 legend there. 
 
 There are thousands who will bless us for the work we 
 thus perform, 
 
 When we see no more the sunshine, when we hear no 
 more the storm. 
 
 Take, O Art ! this goodly temple which thy presence now 
 invites, 
 
 Gather here thy priests and prophets, here conduct thy 
 mystic rites. 
 
 Take, Art ! this goodly altar, it is all and wholly thine. 
 Offer here thy best libations, fragrant oil and fruity 
 wine. 
 
 Here preserve the precious treasures of the old forgotten 
 days 
 
 Fresh as newly-opened lilies, or a poet's latest lays. 
 
 Seize the mad wheels of the present, bid the frantic 
 Jehu wait 
 
 Till thy hand has sketched the chariot, with its tenants 
 and its freight. 
 
 Keep the troubled nation's records in thy skilled and 
 perfect way ; 
 
 Trace the shiftings of the conflict that is raging hard 
 to-day. 
 
 If the rest must needs be somber, give the sky a cheerful 
 hue. 
 
 Show us, there, the blended wonders of the red and 
 white and blue. 
 
 [ 192 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 When the cruel war is over, never more to be renewed, 
 And the doves of peace are flocking to the cotes where 
 once they cooed — 
 
 Then thy brightest colors gather and thy proudest epic 
 frame 
 
 On a nation raised to glory through the carnage and 
 the flame. 
 
 Thus we dedicate this temple, thus this altar set apart, 
 To the uses and the service and the high designs of ART. 
 
 Anson G. Chester. 
 
 THE MINISTRY OF ART 
 1864 
 
 The winter night is dark ; the wild wind falls 
 
 Asleep in snow, and, sleeping, moans the while ; 
 But Art is mistress here, and, lo, her halls 
 Are lit with summer's smile ! 
 
 And darker night has draped the land in gloom, 
 And wilder wind, that will not sleep nor cease. 
 Beats over broken homes ; but here, in bloom, 
 Droop only wreaths of peace. 
 
 No shadows enter here ; and, Art, divine. 
 
 We greet thee, though the iron hand of war 
 Knocks at our gates ; to-night is ours and thine. 
 Bright pilgrim from afar ! 
 
 The bark was blest that bore thee o'er the sea, 
 
 From sunny Italy, from golden Spain, — 
 From many a temple builded brave to thee 
 By Arno, Thames, or Seine. 
 
 [ 193 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 The time had come, and thou didst take thy way- 
 Through portals that the sunset left ajar, 
 And all thy new-found empire, waiting, lay 
 Beneath the Western Star. 
 
 So, here, thy broadest canvas be unfurled, — 
 
 Thy fairest dreams, O magic Art, be bom, — 
 To limn the features of the younger world, 
 Ruddy with hope and morn ! 
 
 We greet thee, here, we crave thy kindly powers ; 
 
 For, as the olden forest's green retreats 
 Have sunk, with all their freshness and their flowers. 
 Beneath the city's streets, — 
 
 So is the freshness of our life down-trod ; 
 
 So its sweet nooks a dusty highway made ; 
 And, reckless, over Memory's greenest sod. 
 Hurry the feet of Trade. 
 
 Gone is the hush wherein our spirits gave 
 Memnonian music to the stars and sun ; 
 Over our thought's serenest, clearest wave 
 The wheels of traffic run. 
 
 'T is thine, O Priestess of the Beautiful, 
 
 To bring again the joys our hearts have lost. 
 And even the windows of life's winter paint 
 With pictures of the frost ! 
 
 Thy spells are potent ; these are magic halls ; 
 
 Enchantress, thou, whose pencil is thy wand ! 
 Radiant, and far from all these pictured walls. 
 Opens a faery land. 
 
 [ 194 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 As through the gate of some enchanted palace, 
 
 We wander forth, beneath divinest skies ; 
 And there are windless woods and silent valleys, 
 Where summer never dies. 
 
 Away, away, where soundless streams are falling, 
 
 Where Fancy's sweet will, only, points the track, 
 Until, at last, her vagrant steps recalling, 
 The soul comes singing back ! 
 
 Or, haply, to some Alpine summit scaling, 
 
 We see the vale beneath us, blue and blest, 
 As he who spies, o'er heights of pain prevailing, 
 His Italy of rest. 
 
 Or, in a barque of dreams the soul is drifted 
 
 Athwart a sea where summer sleeps and smiles ; 
 Above whose verge the purple mists are lifted 
 That fringe the Golden Isles. 
 
 There may we meet our vanished Youth's romances; 
 
 There pluck the lotus, in its fruit or bloom, 
 By Lethean streams, where never face but Fancy's, 
 Has bent above their gloom. 
 
 Or, haply yet, we walk with hushed October, 
 
 Where the year fades, and, queenly, as she lies. 
 Stills the mute winds that tarry to disrobe her. 
 And smiles before she dies. 
 
 Anon, it is a scene in human story. 
 
 Where Freedom's sons upheld her ancient faith ; 
 Or some immortal face is lit with glory, 
 Even as it looks on death ; 
 
 [ 195 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Or the calm eyes of some fair saint are looking 
 
 Down, through the gloom of centuries, into ours, 
 With the white patience of her brow rebuking 
 Our puny griefs and powers. 
 
 These are thy spells ; and thus, O subtle Art, 
 
 Thy magic colors, like the mystic seven, 
 Melt into one pure ray, that points the heart 
 To beauty, — thence to heaven ! 
 
 So, still, to men reveal the Beautiful, — 
 
 The Beautiful, sole angel whom our eyes 
 Have held the gift to see, since, dimmed and dull, 
 They turned from Paradise. 
 
 For, when the gates of Eden closed in wrath, 
 
 She, only, of the angel host, had leave 
 To pity man, and on his barren path 
 Glide forth, a fairer Eve ! 
 
 So, ever, in the loveliest spots of earth, 
 
 He caught the glitter of her silver wing ; 
 And when his sweetest music chanced to birth. 
 Her finger touched the string. 
 
 And, still, with glimpses of her heavenly face. 
 
 With dreams, whereof the waking is sweet tears, 
 With thoughts that never on the lips have place. 
 Nor come, save once, in years, — 
 
 With these — with all that makes us thrill or burn, — 
 
 Still does she haunt the heart and light the eyes, 
 Till, with a longing, wild desire, we yearn 
 For the lost Paradise. 
 
 [ 196 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 So, still, O Art, we follow where thy wand 
 
 Points to the path the Beautiful hath trod; 
 For Art joins hands with Beauty, — Beauty's hand 
 Touches the throne of God ! 
 
 David Gray. 
 
 THE ECHO OF THE BEAUTIFUL 
 1865 
 
 What shall we name thee, glorious Art, 
 As, gathering at this chosen shrine. 
 
 We consecrate these walls to thee 
 
 And make this waiting temple thine ? 
 
 A radiant goddess thee we hail, 
 Mature and perfect at thy birth, 
 
 Child of a nobler brain than Jove's, 
 The new Minerva of the earth. 
 
 O, sweet to see thy beaming face 
 When sorrow bids the spirit grieve, 
 
 And even joy without thy smile 
 Were Paradise without its Eve. 
 
 An angel, thou, with starry glance. 
 With golden hair, coiled like a crown. 
 
 Shedding its glory on thy brow 
 And melting every shadow down. 
 
 Whate'er of beauty haunts our dreams, 
 Bedecks the earth, or paints the sky, 
 
 'Tis thine, with more than magic power, 
 To bring before the wondering eye. 
 
 [ 197 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 To reproduce each glowing scene 
 
 In summer's landscapes, when the air 
 
 Is fragrant with the breath of flowers, 
 And loveliness is everywhere. 
 
 When white-winged snowflakes thickly fly, 
 And all the earth is mailed in ice, 
 
 'Tis thine to mock the winter's face 
 With mimic touch and rare device. 
 
 When tempests rage, and billows heave, 
 And lightnings flash upon the sea, 
 
 Thou walkest on the angry waves. 
 As Jesus walked on Galilee : 
 
 Not thus to lull the waves to rest. 
 And hush the tempest's fitful wail, 
 
 But, by thy strange and subtle power. 
 To catch the spirit of the gale. 
 
 Niagara's torrent rushes down 
 
 The canvas at thy bold command, 
 
 And other eyes than ours behold 
 The proudest wonder of the land. 
 
 Thy hand unlocks the pyramids 
 Built by Jehovah, wondrous Art, 
 
 And lo ! we hold within our grasp 
 The treasures of the Andes' heart. 
 
 We see the power of ancient Faith, 
 His mountains move at thy behest. 
 
 The rocky steeps advance in troops 
 Across the prairies of the West. 
 
 [ 198 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Thou stretchest forth thy wizard wand 
 O'er teeming plain and barren sea, 
 
 And lo ! before our gaze appears 
 The sun-bathed peak of Laramie. 
 
 The monarch stag affrighted flies, 
 
 As sounds the hunter's thrilHng blast, 
 
 His steps thy gentle voice arrests 
 And, like a statue, holds him fast. 
 
 The face made fair by love alone — 
 
 The face whose charms entrance the eye — 
 
 Alike beneath thy gracious touch 
 Are clothed with immortality. 
 
 The senseless stone responds to thee — 
 A living thing the marble seems — 
 
 When, at the promptings of thy voice, 
 The sculptor shapes his secret dreams. 
 
 The reveries, like a golden mist. 
 That steal upon the artist's mind, 
 
 As, fancy-free, he soars aloft 
 
 And leaves this common world behind. 
 
 When beauty quits her secret shrine 
 And bursts upon his raptured sight, 
 
 Reveals the rarest of her charms 
 And fills his being with delight. 
 
 Thine is the power alone, O Art, 
 
 To bid them evermore remain, 
 To hinder in their rapid flight 
 
 These thronging angels of the brain. 
 
 [ 199 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 When black Disaster rears its loom 
 
 Around the elemental strife, 
 And mingles with its sable warp 
 
 The ruddy woof of precious life — 
 
 Then gently touch our mangled dead, 
 Restore again their wasted bloom, 
 
 And bring the features that we loved 
 Back from the darkness of the tomb. 
 
 The slain in battle, bid them live, 
 
 Though counted with the martyred dead ; 
 
 The graves are honored where they sleep, 
 The soil is hallowed where they bled. 
 
 What shall we name thee, then, to mark 
 Thy present coming, peerless Art ? 
 
 How syllable the mystic spell 
 
 Thou breathest on the raptured heart ? 
 
 The legend haunts my brain to-night. 
 Which mythic chronicles relate — 
 
 The tale of Dian's sudden wrath. 
 And babbling Echo's mournful fate. 
 
 O, sister Echo, men may read 
 
 A better life and lot than hers 
 Upon the palms thou stretchest forth 
 
 To bless thy myriad worshipers. 
 
 No need of consecrated priest, 
 
 With fragrant chrism and snowy stole ; 
 
 With thy new name we christen thee — 
 The echo of the beautiful! 
 
 Albert T. Chester. 
 
 [ 200 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 AURORA 
 1866 
 
 In the old discrowned city, girt by Tiber's sluggish 
 flood — 
 
 Gaunt with spectres of the ages, scarred with fire, and 
 
 dank with blood — 
 Where the daily feet of labor presses down imperial 
 
 graves, 
 
 And the nations, steeped in wonder, grope among the 
 ashen waves ; 
 
 In the sad, discrowned city, smiles a vision of the morn, 
 Radiant with ethereal beauty, of immortal genius born. 
 High above the dusky valleys floats the rosy queen of day, 
 Flinging eastward dewy garlands, as she speeds her airy 
 way. 
 
 Close behind the steeds of Eos backward turn the 
 
 breeze's flight; 
 And the Hours, in gleeful chorus, dance upon the verge 
 
 of night. 
 
 Far below, the drowsy cities wake to toil or wake to pain ; 
 Or the tardy steps of peasant fieldward urge the lum- 
 bering wain. 
 
 Fleets upon the whitening waters, workmen by the busy 
 shore, 
 
 All astir with early freshness, con the task of labor o'er. 
 Morn, upon the purple mountains, lightens downcast 
 
 want and moil. 
 But to upturned gaze, a goddess glorifies this world of 
 
 toil. 
 
 Eyes, unsealed by inspiration, still behold the laughing 
 Hours, 
 
 Ever catch the rosy footprints, evermore the dropping 
 flowers. 
 
 [ 201 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Shapes of beauty haunt the woodlands where the foot 
 
 of Art hath trod ; 
 Nestle by the secret fountains, spring from the enameled 
 
 sod; 
 
 Hover by the common pathways, whisper in the viewless 
 air; 
 
 And the lips of the Celestials touch the wrinkled brow 
 of Care. 
 
 O Immortals! must the Orient ever stay your charmed 
 feet? 
 
 Nymph and Goddess, Faun and Dryad hither seek no 
 new retreat ? 
 
 Haste! The broad blue arch, uprising over lo's storied 
 sea, 
 
 Sinks on lonely, virgin valleys, beautiful as Thessaly. 
 Nature, in unconscious idlesse, waits her hour of waking 
 bliss, 
 
 Couched beneath the star of evening — Psyche of the 
 wilderness. 
 
 Field and wood and broad savannah, solemn hills and 
 
 mountain streams, 
 Echoless, await your voices, lapt in sleep, without its 
 
 dreams ; 
 
 And the steadfast gaze of labor seeks no radiance in 
 the skies — 
 
 Haste! And on our fair Hesperia bid Art's lingering 
 morn arise. 
 
 Lo, the dawning! See! Aurora hovers in her westering 
 flight, 
 
 Blushing with the kiss of Ocean, dewy with the tears of 
 Night; 
 
 Softly veiled in clouds of silver, gives her fiery coursers 
 rein; 
 
 [ 202 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Bending through the starry shadows, smiles upon the 
 
 wakening plain, 
 Where, below our fair young city bares her bosom to 
 
 the day — 
 
 Crowded mart and teeming storehouse cluster by the 
 busy bay. 
 
 Click of axe and clank of hammer, groan of forge and 
 
 whirr of wheel, 
 Clattering hoofs and hurrying footsteps through the 
 
 softening distance steal. 
 White-winged messengers of traffic dance upon our 
 
 mimic main ; 
 
 Freights of autumn moor at anchor — argosies of 
 amber grain. 
 
 Trailing down our slow Pactolus, shallops sweep and 
 barges slide ; 
 
 While beyond, the mighty current headlong pours its 
 muffled tide. 
 
 Faint, afar, the dying echoes, born of steel and martial 
 tread. 
 
 Blend with wailings from the zephyrs that o'ersweep a 
 nation's dead. 
 
 Hail fair daughter of the Dawning! Herald of the gor- 
 geous Day ! 
 
 Crowning with thy fragrant garlands earthly toil and 
 din and fray ; 
 
 Wafting on the breezy pinion scents from Capri's odor- 
 ous gale, 
 
 Snowy airs from Alpine billows, sighs from Norseland's 
 
 slumberous vale ; 
 Showering tints on cliff and ocean, caught from Tithon's 
 
 saffron pall ; 
 
 Leading bronzed Forest- Warriors captive in thy gracious 
 thrall ; 
 
 [ 203 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Gems from India's pearly caverns, hazy glows from 
 Persian skies, 
 
 Sheen of moonbeams, gleams of waters, shimmer in thy 
 
 mantle's dyes. 
 Still, above our dusty pathways, linger with thy joyful 
 
 train ! 
 
 Wooing upward sleepless eyelids, heavy with the tears 
 of pain ; 
 
 Calming here "life's fitful fever," soothing passion's 
 fierce unrest ; 
 
 Filling with immortal visions all the chambers of the 
 West. 
 
 Linger — while we throng thy temple — at thy feet 
 
 our garlands lay — 
 Kiss thy robe, O fair Aurora, Dawn of Art's eternal Day ! 
 
 Mrs. E. a. Forbes. 
 
 ART IMMORTAL 
 1867 
 I 
 
 Dawn thou on our lifted vision. Spirit of divinest Art ! 
 Wraith of some celestial Summer, bid thy sphere-lit 
 glories start ; 
 
 Feed with warmth our mossy valleys, bid the drifting 
 clouds divide, 
 
 Strew the lakes with new-blown lilies, on the fir-clad 
 hills abide ! 
 
 Trembling, fearing, doubting ever, toiling up through 
 
 wastes of snow. 
 By thy light our height we measure — if we near the 
 
 skies or no. 
 
 [ 204 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Breathe through all our raptured senses, Spirit fair of 
 Art divine ! — 
 
 Winged and wandering Peri, all our best and purest 
 shall be thine, — 
 
 Thine to bear from earth to Heaven, whose white 
 
 votaries wait to prove 
 Whether we in truth be worthy their companionship 
 
 and love. 
 
 II 
 
 Ancient Masters of the spell 
 Whose commandment cabalistic, 
 Secret words and symbols mystic 
 
 Did the viewless Powers compel, — 
 Cleaving all the air with flame, 
 
 Till your charm-wrought wonders made, 
 
 Star-forsaken Night afraid 
 And her darkness overcame ; — 
 
 V\rhile for cloudless suns we yearn 
 Back we turn our wondering eyes 
 Where the spirit-peopled skies 
 
 With your fadeless limnings bum ! . . . 
 Mythic forms and fancies scenic. 
 
 Glowing out from temple shade ; 
 
 Marching host and cavalcade 
 Of the stately race Hellenic ; 
 
 King-built barges sea- ward drifted ; 
 Victims cast on funeral pyres; 
 Chariots hurled through battle-fires ; 
 
 Faces of old gods uplifted ; 
 Large-eyed Aphrodites, weeping 
 
 Over fairest archers killed. 
 
 Fauns with forest-music thrilled ; 
 Nymphs, on crested billows sleeping ; 
 
 [ 205 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Royal feasts whose rubied flagons 
 Foam and flash with draughts of hght ; 
 White-maned horses winged for flight ; 
 
 Golden-scaled and fire-eyed dragons. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Thus while Athens and Ionia to their bright Ideals 
 clung, 
 
 Lo, a sudden gust from Heaven, down the snowy- 
 manna flung ! 
 
 Prophet-led, at dawn, the murmuring, tent-abiding 
 multitude. 
 
 In the wilderness, up-gathered bread of angels for 
 their food. 
 
 Love Eternal, dwelling with them, desert paths im- 
 paradised, 
 
 With the sacred sweetness falling from the hallowed lips 
 of Christ. 
 
 Then the sons of men, awaking, issued from their 
 
 Pagan dreams, 
 As from glaciers of the mountain rush to life the happy 
 
 streams ; 
 
 And the hearts of men were melting, throbbing down to 
 holier plains. 
 
 Where the gentian-flower, a-tremble, felt the Summer 
 in its veins. 
 
 IV 
 
 Watchers for millenial light, 
 Pallid seers, awake from slumber ! 
 Ye whose forms the marbles cumber, 
 
 Move before our mortal sight. 
 
 [ 206 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Rising from your martyr-homes 
 
 In the secret burial-halls, 
 
 Where your faith made rich the walls 
 Of the vaulted catacombs ; 
 
 Come from Tuscan chapels, faintly 
 Glowing in the taper's blaze, 
 Where your child-adorers gaze, 
 
 Rapt from earth in visions saintly ; 
 Calm us with your pure Madonnas, 
 
 Haloed with seraphic fires — 
 
 While the shepherd-greeting choirs 
 Breathed on high their loud hosannas ; 
 
 Traitor and Evangelist — 
 Bid them gather round the board 
 Where the blood-red wine was poured 
 
 Of the blessed Eucharist ; 
 Shadow forth the grief and loss 
 
 Of our teacher, meek and lowly ; — 
 
 Paint his slumber deep and holy — 
 Earthward lifted from the cross. 
 
 Of his life's renunciation. 
 Move us with the tender story. 
 Help us comprehend the glory 
 
 Of his white transfiguration. 
 
 V 
 
 So shall die the dewless blossoms of the cavern-realm of 
 dreams. 
 
 And like full and sun-fed roses, glow with life Art's 
 chosen themes ; 
 
 While interpreters of Nature search for Beauty's living 
 soul. 
 
 Finding more than light and color, grace and grandeur 
 in the whole, — 
 
 [ 207 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Even as the Knights Teutonic, when the heart and 
 
 head are sick, — 
 They shall ministrate before us, till our dead delights 
 
 grow quick. 
 
 For the lightest wind that murmurs and the frailest 
 
 leaf that waves 
 Prove the proud world something greater than inheritor 
 
 of graves. 
 
 You who rightly love her, yours the task her luminous 
 life to seize, 
 
 Paint the Spirit breathing in her, veiled through Infinite 
 degrees. 
 
 VI 
 
 Yours the rugged rock to smite — 
 
 Ours to quaff the precious rain : 
 
 Yours to climb from out the plain. 
 Meeting God on Horeb's height. 
 
 Yours to show that fruitage ripe, 
 Waving flower or forest green, 
 In some realm of soul unseen 
 
 Hath a living archetype. 
 Catch the still, electric fires 
 
 In the glance of star and moon 
 
 (Faint predictions of the noon 
 That beneath the East aspires !) ; — 
 
 In the foam upon the rocks. 
 Like the sea-found pearl for whiteness ; 
 In the soft and billowy brightness 
 
 Of the ocean's wandering flocks ; 
 In the steady radiance pure 
 
 Where the shadowed skies are paling : 
 
 In the crimson meteor, trailing 
 
 [ 208 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Far its flaming curvature ; 
 
 In the pale out-streaming splendor, 
 Of the haunted Northern coasts, 
 Where the palaces of ghosts 
 
 Rear their towers and turrets slender. 
 
 VII 
 
 Dawn-like Spirit, on the mountains fling abroad thy 
 
 banners white : 
 Lo, our toil-worn city-dwellers, rise rejoicing at the 
 
 sight ! 
 
 Flash the fire of suns around us, blush through vapors 
 golden-lined. 
 
 To our souls the bloom fore-shadow of the Heaven 
 they yet shall find ; — 
 
 All that sets the quick brain dreaming, all that thrills 
 
 the throbbing heart. 
 All that proves our life supernal, — sets us from the 
 
 world apart. 
 
 Build above us holy chambers like the Jewish House 
 of old. 
 
 Framed with olive-tree and cedar, bright with lily-work 
 and gold ; — 
 
 Base and chapiter and border, graven palm and molten 
 sea, — 
 
 With pomegranates for a promise of the wondrous 
 fruits to be. 
 
 Amanda T. Jones. 
 
 [ 209 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 THE NURSERY OF ARTS 
 1868 
 
 I SING a lowly song, to-night, 
 Of homely work and quiet ways ; 
 
 The paths that common men may tread ; 
 The life made up of common days. 
 
 More worthy that, from golden throats 
 Of trumpets, should the music swell, 
 
 Within this hallowed gallery 
 
 Where Royalty is pleased to dwell. 
 
 Here, where soft lights and shadows play 
 And noiseless streams forever glide 
 
 And rocks, with tireless waves are lashed 
 And ships are drifting with the tide. 
 
 Here, where ripe fruit, ungathered hangs 
 And fields await the mower's sweep ; 
 
 Storm-creviced mountains, changeless stand, 
 And stars their faithful vigils keep. 
 
 Without the working world is still, 
 The laborer rests his heavy hand, 
 
 The children sleep, while angels watch. 
 And darkness lulls the busy land. 
 
 Not only here sweet pictures smile ; 
 
 Along the wintry wayside, now 
 They look from wreaths of evergreen, 
 
 From curving drift and barren bough. 
 
 Where brooks are bound in silver chains, 
 And forests shake their beards of snow ; 
 
 And woodman finds, in lonesome glen, 
 The holly and the mistletoe. 
 
 [ 210 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 The plowman, as he cleaves the turf, 
 Is king of realms that round him lie 
 
 Within the slender wedding ring 
 
 That binds the earth and azure sky. 
 
 The harvester, in summer noons. 
 Beneath a tent of trembling leaves 
 
 May watch the languid, nodding grain, 
 And caravans of loaded sheaves. 
 
 Through quivering woodbine lattice-work, 
 
 Across the dairy window spun, 
 The housewife, at the stirring dawn 
 
 May welcome in the rosy sun. 
 
 Beyond the winding village road. 
 She sees the pond where lilies sleep. 
 
 The drooping alder's drifting sedge ; 
 The hills, where giant shadows creep. 
 
 The whirr of busy, hidden mill. 
 
 Comes blithely in through kitchen door. 
 
 Where bustling feet, with deftness, thread 
 The mazes of the snowy floor. 
 
 The well, beside the farmhouse porch. 
 To downcast eyes a picture turns ; 
 
 Reflecting in its crystal deeps 
 A frame of moss and lady-ferns. 
 
 At eventide, the wayfarer, 
 
 Speeding through dusk and sweeping'^:storm. 
 May stay his hurrying steps to look 
 
 Within some fireside's circle warm. 
 
 [ 211 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 He sees, through parted drapery, 
 The shadows of Hthe figures sway ; 
 
 The toss of rippHng golden hair, 
 
 Where knots of merry children play. 
 
 In smothered rows of crowded streets, 
 Where swarms of fallen mortals hide, 
 
 Some flower may burst its prison gates, 
 And in a mouldering home abide. 
 
 He, who must tread his toilsome round, 
 May carve his life in lines of grace ; 
 
 And, in the margin of his years, 
 Illuminated borders trace. 
 
 No faith, so shadowed, that the sun 
 May not within its boundary burn ; 
 
 No eyes so heavy, but may still 
 To lofty heights their vision turn. 
 
 Deep in the heart, like tender doves, 
 That bide their time with folded wings, 
 
 So brood our hopes above the nests 
 Where lie the germs of better things. 
 
 Hints of diviner shapes than ours 
 Upon the passive canvas gleam ; 
 
 The Master's hand may only paint 
 A dim reflection of his dream. 
 
 The sweetest bells that ever yet 
 To charmed ears their music flung. 
 
 Are but the echoes of the chime 
 Throughout celestial circles rung. 
 
 [ 212 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 The fairest bow that ever hath 
 
 Broad, smiHng plains of verdure spanned, 
 Is, to our wistful captive gaze, 
 
 But token of the promised land. 
 
 Only the seeds of harvest hoards 
 
 Are scattered, broadcast, far and near; 
 
 Yet in each narrow cell there sleeps 
 The fullness of the ripened ear. 
 
 As in clear pools serenely lie 
 Reflected tints of blue and gold, 
 
 So, in each glimpse of Beauty here 
 We see the perfect life unfold. 
 
 Miss Julia H. Forbes. 
 
 THE artist's dream 
 
 1870 
 
 In this bright temple, where so oft before 
 We've listened to the scholar's classic lore. 
 Where poets have rehearsed the pleasant story, 
 Born of their genius and the artist's glory. 
 Once more we gather and our homage pay 
 To the fair goddess of our festal day. 
 Within these glowing walls, where skillful hands 
 Have gathered memories of other lands ; 
 (Blessed lands which art and poetry enshrine 
 And nature's fascinations make divine ;) 
 'Twould seem no words were needed to enhance 
 The charms that follow every passing glance ; 
 Here, modern art its rarest gift bestows ; 
 There, the great Titans of the past repose. 
 
 [ 213 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 In counterparts so vivid and so true, 
 Another world seems opened to our view — 
 A world where beauty reigns — the Sovereign 
 Queen, 
 
 Whom to be worshiped needs but to be seen. 
 Her throne the sacred shrine and tomb of art, 
 Fair Italy, the Mecca of the heart ; 
 Where every nation its art-pilgrims send. 
 In prayerful homage at her shrine to bend. 
 We may be pardoned, then, if lacking power 
 To add one treasure to its sacred dower, 
 We hush our voices, as on holy ground. 
 And say : For art's true story, look around ! 
 Yet, would you wile the passing hour away, 
 By listening to a rhymer's humble lay, 
 We ask your patience for the simple theme 
 That we have woven from an artist's dream. 
 
 Mrs. S. F. Mixer. 
 
 ART THE EVANGELIST 
 1871 
 
 Xo Art, our mistress, beautiful, immortal. 
 We keep our yearly festival to-night. 
 
 Let all who enter at her temple-portal 
 Do homage to her might. 
 
 Her peaceful victories extend through ages. 
 She reigns a sceptred queen by right divine, 
 
 The great ones of the earth, the kings and sages, 
 Bow down before her shrine ; 
 
 [ 214 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 The savage groping blindly for the beauty 
 He dimly feels but cannot understand, 
 
 And he who holds it for his dearest duty 
 To serve her heart and hand ; 
 
 For these she has such various compensations 
 As best their varying service may requite. 
 
 Author she is of many consolations 
 And giver of delight. 
 
 For him who makes his sacrifice completest, 
 Who leaves all else for her alone to live, 
 
 She has a guerdon, rarest, finest, sweetest. 
 Of all the world can give. 
 
 She lays upon his eyes the gift of seeing 
 
 Into the very inmost heart of things ; 
 With subtile sympathies pervades his being, — 
 
 She gives his spirit wings. 
 
 With her full many a pleasant path he traces, 
 By wood and field and sunny summer shore ; 
 
 With her he roams through solitary places 
 By man untrod before. 
 
 For him the light on purple mountains gleaming. 
 The solemn splendors of the forest deep ; 
 
 For him the ghostly ice-fields lie a-dreaming 
 In an enchanted sleep. 
 
 But not to Nature only will Art lead him, 
 Lest Nature claim him for herself alone. 
 
 With dreams of Old World beauty she will feed him 
 In canvas wrought and stone. 
 
 [ 215 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Hers are the noblest names of ancient story — 
 The painters, poets, sculptors of the past — 
 
 Names circled with an aureole of glory- 
 Through centuries to last. 
 
 For Art is of the race of the immortals, 
 
 And in the dawn of time eons afar, 
 She left her home beyond the radiant portals 
 
 That since have stood ajar. 
 
 She left her home, a bright consoling angel, 
 To gladden our sad world with her fair face ; 
 
 She brought mankind a new and sweet evangel, 
 A message full of grace. 
 
 And well that gentle message has been given. 
 Well has she used each power to serve and bless ; 
 
 To make men worthier of their future heaven — 
 Their future happiness. 
 
 When music stirs the inmost depth of feeling, — 
 When sculpture lifts her lovely, pallid form, — 
 
 And painting all her glorious hues revealing. 
 Life-like and rich and warm, — 
 
 When poesy with eager eyes pathetic 
 
 Stands on the border-land of sense and sight, 
 
 And with strong yearnings, passionate, prophetic, 
 Looks outward through the night, — 
 
 Whenever man with earnest, pure endeavor. 
 Has sought to solve the mysteries of fate. 
 
 Then Art has stood beside him, pointing ever 
 Toward the shining gate. 
 
 [ 216 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Ah ! 'tis no region of imagination 
 
 To which she looks with fixed and upward eyes, 
 But, lighted by an inward revelation, 
 
 The land of paradise. 
 
 And he who follows closest to her leading 
 Finds in the future lies his truest life, 
 
 And tranquilly beholds this world receding, 
 Its toil and pain and strife. 
 
 Men say he dwells apart in the ideal, 
 Feeding on dreams and vain imaginings. 
 
 But what they call delusive and unreal, 
 Are his most real things. 
 
 Ah ! well it is for our poor bare existence, 
 That there are clearer eyes and finer ears 
 
 To catch the glories of the purple distance, 
 The music of the spheres. 
 
 And well that to our duller sense translating 
 The burden of the splendor and the song. 
 
 They lift our souls and set our hearts pulsating 
 With feelings sweet and strong ; 
 
 The promise of a joy as yet ungiven, 
 
 Bright with the tender radiance of the skies ; 
 
 A joy not to be realized till heaven 
 Breaks on our raptured eyes. 
 
 Divinest Art, this is thy gracious mission. 
 
 Thou leadest us by ways we have not known. 
 
 Until upon the golden heights Elysian, 
 We stand before God's throne. 
 
 Ellen M. Ferris. 
 
 [ 217 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 POEM 
 1872 
 
 Xread lightly with unsandaled feet, 
 
 The place is hallowed here, 
 We come to consecrate our child 
 
 In its decennial year. 
 This hour hath breathings of its own, 
 
 They come from every clime 
 Where stone or canvas had portrayed 
 
 The tender or sublime. 
 
 Our Priestess, Art, is standing here, 
 
 With robes as pure and white 
 As when we brought our artist child, 
 
 Ten years ago to-night. 
 Baptismal vows were uttered then, 
 
 And sponsors gave the name, 
 And from the altar of our hearts. 
 
 The fragrant incense came. 
 
 And now the priestess gently smiles, 
 
 "And through her lips of air," 
 She breathes them o'er and o'er again. 
 
 Her blessing and her prayer. 
 Her blessing on those kindly hands. 
 
 That through the darkest hours 
 Wove garments for the trembling child. 
 
 And crowned its brow with flowers. 
 
 A prayer that still their faith and hope 
 Will keep them weaving on. 
 
 Till it can stand in broidered hems, 
 Its robe of triumph done ; 
 
 [ 218 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Till it can yield to faithful hearts 
 
 The joy they thus have given, 
 By tinging every form of earth 
 
 With softer hues from heaven. 
 
 O ! Mystic Art, in thee doth blend 
 
 The earth-bom and Divine. 
 We know not whence, or what thy power, 
 
 Yet worship at thy shrine. 
 We clothe thee in a woman's form ; 
 
 We crown thee with her name ; 
 And though the ages knew not why, 
 
 They called and knelt the same. 
 
 Till from Judea's vine-clad hills 
 
 This heavenly answer stole, 
 " From woman must be born to man 
 
 The Saviour of the soul." 
 Prophetic thought had thus enshrined 
 
 The Mary of our race ; 
 And moulded its divinest dreams 
 
 In woman's form and face. 
 
 Then tread we with unsandaled feet, — 
 
 This time is holy now ; 
 For see, the starry East grows bright, 
 
 The herald angels bow. 
 The Christmas anthem for our world 
 
 Is trembling in the air. 
 O ! may it steal in every soul, 
 
 And find an answer there. 
 
 Miss Matilda H. Stuart. 
 
 [ 219 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 THE ARTIST 
 
 Read at the Annual Opening Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, 
 February 22, 1872. 
 
 All men it well beseems to honor 
 His sacred hands, his hallowed head, 
 
 Who pours for them the wine of Beauty, 
 And breaks for them her bread ; 
 
 For he that from his pencil rolls 
 A living wave of genius forth, 
 
 Sets free the shackled heart of man 
 And teaches it its worth. 
 
 And Freedom then is at her fullest 
 When we on what is Fairest look — 
 
 A little beam of Beauty's splendor 
 Purges the foulest nook. 
 
 Ah, why is Nature, in our need. 
 
 Niggard of those rich spirits grown, 
 
 That peopled earth with heavenly shapes 
 On canvas or in stone ! 
 
 No more the Master's hand is seen 
 In lofty aisle or sculptured hall ; 
 
 No more the Master's fire is breathed 
 Upon the storied wall. 
 
 Unto an unbelieving race 
 
 The heavens lay not their glories bare ; 
 The haughty Muse looks coldly down 
 
 And slights their feeble prayer. 
 
 Yet to the large and loyal soul 
 She can be kind and gracious still ; 
 
 The heart that loves, the heart that dares, 
 She grants it all it will. 
 
 [ 220 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 He sees the sweet prints of her feet 
 That leads to her immortal bowers ; 
 
 Her costly favors fall like rain, 
 Shoot thick as summer flowers. 
 
 The magic flow of Beauty's curve 
 
 No cheap dexterity can hit, 
 And things of grandeur never stoop 
 
 To grace a showman's wit. 
 
 O, artist, quit thy art a little, 
 
 And get by heart the solemn rules 
 
 That Nature writes for those who study 
 In her eternal schools. 
 
 What cunning noose shall help to bind 
 Graces that hover and are gone, 
 
 The fleet sweet laughters of the eve, 
 The meteor splendors of the dawn ? 
 
 How snare the immortal elf that rides 
 Upon the dancing surge of Forms, 
 
 That at his pleasures lays its crests 
 Or scourges it with storms ? 
 
 One net I know that taketh all. 
 In earth below, in heaven above, 
 
 Of softest thread, of heavenly wool — 
 It is the net of Love. 
 
 Who hunts on Beauty's lightning trail 
 Must have Love's pinions and Love's 
 
 Nothing can dodge the god ; he plucks 
 His quarry from the topmost skies. 
 
 [ 221 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 The artist brave shall from his heart 
 The rags of worldly wisdom strip ; 
 
 High counselors he can command, 
 And oracles that never trip. 
 
 When heavens are bare and minds are dumb, 
 And worship breathes from pole to pole, 
 
 Then comes the solemn bridal hour 
 Of nature and the soul. 
 
 The morning stars shall with him talk ; 
 
 Beside the ocean's thundering rim, 
 On meadowy plains, on mountain side. 
 
 He learns a style that pleases him. 
 
 The shapes and colors of the sky, 
 The daily lineaments of the earth, 
 
 Shall soothe and medicine his eye, 
 And feed his heart with mirth. 
 
 And those proud shapes of Wise and Just 
 That make their temple in his mind. 
 
 Will teach his hand, till every stroke 
 Shall touch the conscience of mankind. 
 
 God painted on his heart the lights 
 And shadows of the mighty Whole ; 
 
 Be then the hues that load his brush 
 The colors of his soul. 
 
 Meek organ of the All-Good, All-Fair, 
 
 He listens far above his wit ; 
 Not his is what he paints and carves. 
 
 He doth belong to it. 
 
 [ 222 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 The dark soul of humanity 
 
 Breaks into life and light through his, 
 Beholds itself and knows itself 
 
 How fair a thing it is. 
 
 Ah, ever dear to all men born 
 
 The tints that brim with smiles or tears, 
 Symbols wherein the Muse embalms 
 
 Her loves, her hopes, her fears ; 
 
 And dearer to the Intellect 
 
 The plainer artist's grand design, 
 
 That shows the austerity of Thought 
 Clothed in the naked line. 
 
 Yet lines and colors are but sparks 
 Of that great splendor which shall be. 
 
 Drops from the awful tides that flow 
 Above us like a sea. 
 
 Yea, to the eyes that rightly look 
 Is this vast round of stars and men 
 
 But a sweet rhyme, a passing trope. 
 Dropped from the Eternal Poet's pen. 
 
 Prof. William B. Wright. 
 
 FROM CONSECRATION TO 
 CORONATION 
 1876 
 
 Xhere was a youth who loved with perfect love 
 That beautiful Art-spirit, whose high power 
 Exalts the mortal near to the divine ; 
 
 [ 223 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 He, nourishing a sweet ideal trust, 
 
 That wavered not through lapse of many days, 
 
 Had held it shrined within his deepest soul, 
 
 And ever grasped serener aspiration ; 
 
 Till, wandering lonely in the silent midnight, 
 
 His pale, calm face bathed by the lucid star-beams, 
 
 Thus for his cherished yearning utterance found: — 
 
 "Hear Thou my prayer, O spirit of Art! 
 
 Divinest one, I love thee well ; 
 O, from my heart let not depart 
 
 The glory of thy sacred spell, 
 And ne'er efface thy smile of grace, 
 
 That doth me now so strongly quell ; 
 Ah, to reveal and render real. 
 
 The scenes that in my soul-dreams dwell ! 
 
 " For all thy strong inspiring charm 
 
 Lures me to scale the lofty height ; 
 Nor would I calm the sweet alarm 
 
 That leads me on with potent might, 
 But give to hope yet wider scope. 
 
 And toil for thee with worthier right. 
 Until I see thy majesty. 
 
 In realms of light beyond the night. 
 
 "Before thee now to consecrate, 
 
 Mine utmost all behold I bring ; 
 Though wrathful fate may watch and wait. 
 
 To pierce me with his poisoned sting, — 
 O'er every ill my tireless will 
 
 Toward the stars shall upward wing. 
 Till thou accord a fit reward 
 
 And bid the chimes of victory ring." 
 
 [ 224 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 So found his thought a fitting voice, 
 
 And all seemed fair as waking morn ; 
 For such high choice might well rejoice 
 
 The soul that ne'er had tasted scorn, 
 And never scanned that cruel brand 
 
 The priest of Art so oft hath worn, 
 Since first the great Athenian's hand 
 
 Portrayed the Titan, vulture-torn ! 
 
 Strong in the sense of granted power, 
 
 He paused not in his chosen quest, 
 And hour by hour his cherished dower 
 
 Seemed yet in sweeter splendor dressed ; 
 While onward far one guiding star 
 
 He followed long with eager zest, 
 And naught of doubt or fear could mar 
 
 The steadfast hope that filled his breast. 
 
 In bright Italia's storied clime, — 
 
 The throne of Art from days of old, 
 Whose names sublime to latest time 
 
 Shall her divinity uphold — 
 The spell was strong to charm him long 
 
 Amid the memories manifold, 
 Of Raphael's fame, and many a name 
 
 Tinged with immortal rays of gold. 
 
 At last, brave soul, thy dream must fade, 
 
 Before the stem, defiant real ! 
 And in the shade ye pause dismayed. 
 
 Wounded and torn, with naught to heal. 
 O cruel world, thy scorn was hurled 
 
 Against his eloquent appeal ; 
 And friendship fled when round him spread 
 
 The mist of poverty's ordeal ! 
 
 [ 225 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Bereft of hope, he loved no less 
 
 Celestial Art to glorify; 
 Through all distress her sweet caress 
 
 Could dry the tear, and still the sigh ; 
 That loving care had quelled despair, 
 
 Until he knew that rest was nigh, 
 And tender faith made solemn death 
 
 A guide to joys that never die. 
 
 The end was near ; past earthly need, 
 
 He spoke with slow and trembling breath : — 
 ** I thought indeed to gain the meed 
 
 That seemed so near to youthful faith ; 
 Still am I thine, O Art divine ! 
 
 Thee still my spirit honoreth ; 
 Cold Poverty, I loved not thee. 
 
 Nor asked I aught of thee, O Death!" 
 
 So, steadfast to his vow, the artist died. 
 
 And all his toil seemed wasted and in vain. 
 
 But high above the lofty realm of stars, 
 
 I dreamed his soul had gained the larger life ; 
 
 And countless shining hosts about him thronged, 
 
 And one who seemed their master spoke and said : — 
 
 " brother, thou hast toiled upon the earth 
 
 For what ye deemed most beautiful and pure ; 
 
 Therefore I crown ye to eternal joy." 
 
 And then a grand triumphal anthem rose — 
 
 A mighty blending of seraphic voices, — 
 
 And the tired soul was soothed with rapturous peace. 
 
 O for strong faith to know and never doubt. 
 That he who toils to beautify the world, 
 And glorify the might of human thought. 
 Shall surely gain a large, complete reward. 
 
 [ 226 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 And though the world yield him but cold derision, 
 And count as vain each lofty aspiration, 
 Yet after-times shall see with clearer vision 
 That he attained the meed of coronation. 
 
 Arthur W. Austin. 
 
 A VILLAGE RAPHAEL 
 1882 
 
 A QUEER old studio, trim as though 
 A Puritan maid had left it so ! 
 No travel-spoils of tunic and pearls 
 Grace it with shapes of fair Roman girls. 
 
 No dancing zone of Indian bells 
 The languid rhythm of brown feet tells. 
 And no Persian lamp on silver chains 
 Swings a perfumed spark as daylight wanes. 
 
 To the art of living dedicate, 
 The artist's cupboard keeps homely state 
 Hard by the easel, its household ware 
 Bright with an un-Bohemian care. 
 
 When its shelves are bare a loaf will stray 
 From Betty's oven over the way, — 
 Old Betty, who finds her simple good 
 In thoughts of him, as in maidenhood. 
 
 Eating the bread that the raven brings, 
 We dream of what the nightingale sings : 
 As he breaks the loaf, the artist's grace 
 Is debtor far more to the glowing face, 
 
 [ 227 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Whose mirthful eyes and half-tender smile 
 
 From Sully's canvas he stole erewhile. 
 
 For many a year the lonely room 
 
 Has borrowed spring from its changeless bloom. 
 
 Smile not, my masters of palette and brush, — 
 Cold though his canvas, a boyish flush 
 Glows in the wrinkles of sixty years. 
 Old Dobbin's whinny is in his ears; 
 
 Once more the plough in its furrow stands. 
 Sulkily held by small sun-burned hands ; 
 The twinkling leaves of the popple there 
 Twirl on their stems in the quiet air. 
 
 And dreaming in light half green, half gold, 
 The slender beeches their secret hold ; 
 But the atmosphere of that early morn 
 Is only in that old heart re-born : 
 
 The red of the clover, not its flush, 
 The green of the forest, not its hush. 
 His canvas shows, and those solid skies 
 Were never the way to Paradise. 
 
 Ah ! well, — that worship so clear of blame, 
 Self-fed and pure as a Vestal flame. 
 Will one day cease, like a lonely spark 
 That slips unnoted into the dark. 
 
 The pitiless Beauty of the earth 
 Will smile as once it smiled on its birth ; 
 For the ebbing life no shade will fall 
 O'er the heedless Beauty on the wall. 
 
 [ 228 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Yet their lover's soul, not all unblest, 
 Shall pass from its futile dreams to rest. 
 His fading eyes, as to holy rood. 
 Will turn to that shade of womanhood. 
 
 The fair young hands from their careless calm 
 Will seem to stir, and a living palm 
 On the failing pulse its warmth will place. 
 And touch like a rose-leaf the worn face. 
 
 The blind, poor Betty, will not divine 
 That the tender palm is only thine, 
 Roughened by toil, yet with rose-leaf touch — 
 So light is the hand that loveth much. 
 
 Annie R. Annan. 
 
 THE DANCING FAUN 
 1887 
 I 
 
 When Time unswathed the ashen winding sheet 
 That wrapped Pompeii, city of the dead. 
 
 And once again the Southern azure shed 
 Its light through ruined court and empty street, 
 
 Lo ! From the darkness, where no human tread 
 Had echoed for a score of centuries. 
 
 Appeared a multitude of gracious shapes, 
 A pageant of the long lost deities, — 
 
 Hermes and Pan, and Bacchus crowned with grapes. 
 And all the pleasant demigods and fauns 
 Who thronged the woods and kept the fountains pure. 
 
 II 
 
 They could not die ; no fear of time had they, 
 For they were born of Art, and must endure 
 
 [ 229 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 Whilst Art should live. The city stricken lay 
 
 About them, yet they took no note nor care 
 Of unseen evenings or of darkened dawns ; 
 
 In passing years they had no place, no part, 
 Until at last the soft Italian day 
 
 Peered in upon them standing silent there, 
 
 Divine in the divinity of Art. 
 
 And one there was, a faun, among the throng, 
 With limbs forever leaping into dance. 
 With head flung back, as though he heard, perchance, 
 
 The far-ofE echo of some lost Greek song. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Thou dancer of two thousand years, 
 
 Thou dancer of to-day, 
 What silent music fills thine ears, 
 
 What Bacchic lay, 
 That thou shouldst dance the centuries 
 
 Down their forgotten way? 
 
 What mystic strain of pagan mirth 
 
 Has charmed eternally 
 Those lithe strong limbs that spurn the earth ? 
 
 What melody, 
 Unheard of men, has Father Pan 
 
 Left lingering with thee ? 
 
 Ah ! where is now the wanton throng 
 
 That round thee used to meet ? 
 On dead lips died the drinking song. 
 
 But wild and sweet, 
 What silent music urged thee on, 
 
 To its unuttered beat, 
 
 [ 230 ] 
 
ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 That when at last Time's weary will 
 
 Brought thee again to sight, 
 Thou cam'st forth dancing, dancing still 
 
 Into the light, 
 Unwearied from the murk and dusk 
 
 Of centuries of night ? 
 
 Alas for thee ! — Alas again, 
 
 The early faith is gone ! 
 The Gods are no more seen of men, 
 
 All, all are gone ; 
 The shaggy forests no more shield 
 
 The Satyr and the Faun. 
 
 On Attic slopes the bee still hums, 
 
 On many an Elian hill 
 The wild-grape swells, but never comes 
 
 The distant trill 
 Of reedy flutes, for Pan is dead. 
 
 Broken his pipes and still. 
 
 And yet within thy listening ears 
 
 The pagan measures ring ; 
 Those limbs that have outdanced the years 
 
 Yet tireless spring. 
 How canst thou dream Pan dead, when still 
 
 Thou seem'st to hear him sing? 
 
 IV 
 
 Thou gracious Art, whose creatures do not die. 
 We too have heard the far-off magic song ; 
 We too have caught the spirit of the long 
 
 Soft Southern days and sheen of sapphire sky. 
 
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ART IN BUFFALO 
 
 And thus we listen, like the dancing faun, 
 We in our distant New World haunts, and hear 
 Thy music nearer coming, and more near, 
 
 And feel the promise of thy brightening dawn. 
 
 Robert Cameron Rogers. 
 
 FAREWELL TO ART* 
 
 My years are many, and my course near run, 
 My palette laid to rest — my work is done. 
 Farewell, dear Art, farewell my dream of youth, 
 I sought with thee but to reveal the truth. 
 I know that I have failed, — as all must fail 
 Who aim too high, with power all too frail. 
 To bend Apollo's bow, or tune his lyre, 
 Or lack the new-birth of immortal fire. 
 But dim my vision, and my hearing dull. 
 The art I loved, of which my soul was full. 
 Is cherished still, and fills my fading day 
 With forms of beauty, and bright color-play. 
 And though my earthly life draws to its close, 
 I cannot keep sad thoughts, or be morose. 
 For I have friends to love, friends that love me. 
 Friends, too, beyond the grave — the spirit free. 
 The lofty aims my mortal limit bars 
 I hope to reach when far beyond the stars. 
 
 Lars G. Sellstedt. 
 
 * These lines were read at the last annual meeting of the National 
 Academy of Design in New York, May 12, 1910. The Sun in its 
 accoimt said : " John W. Alexander presided, and during the 
 dinner read a poem from Lars Gustav Sellstedt, National 
 Academy, of Buffalo, the oldest member of the Academy. Sell- 
 stedt is ninety-one years old. This is the first annual dinner he 
 has missed since he was elected an Academician." 
 
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GETTY RESEARCH