New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-01-30
MIR. CurtiA's Lecture on Contemporary Euro
pean Art.


The second Lecture of the Course upon Art,
was delivered on Monday evening at the Stny-
vesant Institute, by Mr.. GEORGE w CURTIS, up.
on Contemporary Art III Europe"
This Lecture was distinguished for the pro-
found and appreciative views which it presented
of different schools Of Art, and for it's broad and
genial humanitsry spirit With the rich Pictur-
esque language in which the IDEAS OF the speaker
were clothed and his chaste and graceful elocu'
ton, he succeeded in charming an audience of
intelligent listeners, who testified their delight
by the sincerest expressions OF applause
Mr.. Curtis commenced by combating the gen.
eral and almost unconscious feeling that the Art
of Painting had achieved its greatest triumphs,
because since the Fifteenth Century there had
been no artists of equal power. IL was feeling
fatal to all kinds of development bat very natural
in country like ours, without tradition or mon
uments of Art 1t was natural, because the Amer
lean spirit IT, for the present, necessarily adverse
to Art, and thence when the fashionable whlm OF
travel leads the American abroad, the conven-
tonal reverence for Art loads him, returning, with
counterfeits or bad originals.
This feeling was more fatal when it infected the
artists for il is to them as a class that the coun
try must look for its artistic education. Yet the
American artist was especially subject to this
poisoning influence OF great iame-because on
the one hand he was never stimulated and cnas'
tened by the austere presence OF great worKs,
and on the other he was too liable to be faItered
by the petty praise of ignorance
The speaker took the American artists some
what severely to task for their tendency TO paint
traditional themes in a conventional manner ana
suggested that greater fidelity upon their part
would have so developed public taste that we
might have reaped richer harvest from the re-
cent European troubles-not OF course as pre-
ferripg per Sc the works of foreign artists, bat In
the interests OF our own education, to procure for
our study the finest works.
Having thus in general deprecated the tendency
to fatal because superstitious reverence OF the
nsst MIR Curtis proceeded 10 show its injustice,
first. from the essential relation OF Art 20 any
age and secondly, from the character oil promise
Of Contemporary Art.
Art in its general highest sense, was defined as
the perfection of expression, and 50 the hlSneAS
attainment of human genius, as Implying "oru
as beautiful as the thought is true In us lowest
phase it is the beautifying OF use, and so COM
n ends itself to the most vulgar apprehension
The Art of any age must be therefore the express
sion of the thought Of the sge-and there can
never be grand style of Art, until that thoughts
universal enough 10 express lEsel as " were H.
vonntariy-thereby revealing that the power
which creates Art Is quite beyond the artist
will If hot his knowledge
Hence Art is the true historian. Purely intel
lectua statements are individual, out Art Is tue
unconscious expression OF the face OF the ZINE
This was illustrated by Greek Art IN Whch Il
/ Greek Temple sums up Greece and delivers It's
national meaning to the latest times, and again
in the Itslien religious Art OF the 10th century
the only Two epocbs in history which the Lee
turer recognise as thc Sc of central sentiment
pervadipg and molding cIyI!lz o. course
however ss every single idea of civilization and
deve lobment is partial and incomplete IL itseli,
when 1t a.tsins that hight that it expresses useli
so fully Il passes its perihelion OF prominence aud
begins 10 decline
/ There has been no great style OF Art SINCE tne
/ Fifteenth Century, because the Reformation was
only protest and dndoing up to the French heV,
! oluton which was the final deaththroe OF the Ola
spirit. The only intermediate names are those oI
Rubens and Rembrandt, and the only intermediate
school, the Flemish. These we're phenomena OIL
no permanent meaning. Rubens was captivat,
! ing caprice OF Nature 10 show that she had SIN
the material and bided her time.
The Lecturer then passed IN rapid review Tue
state of Contemporary Art in Europe. In isAy
there was 10 life The promise Of the Time Is IN
Germany and France. He found modern ART 20
have two departments, but many schools. 1t AIMS
70 present a thought on the one hand, aud on the
I other the isolated incident. The German aui
! bach and the French Couture were cited as tue
two great illustrations Of the former spirit ana