New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1864-04-23

" color what delicacy what richness, what variety Of
icsigni And yet, is the form ever in the least OBJ
cured So 30 into your garden. or your conservatory
consider flower after foveT-yOu will find that one
secret Of their beauty out Of the many is that We
have form and color perfectly harmOnized each helping
neither interfering with the other Form Of greater
Importance than color. because it must preccde IT, and
he the foundation which it is built To be great
painter man must be great coorist and yet for hin
TO hope 70 be greet colOrist with no knowledge Oh
FORM or what amounts TO the thing with totil
Indifference to it, and neglect positive peTVersioh oi
Il, is a sheer absurdty.
And, yet it certainly seems 20 US that TINS j. "na'
Mr. La Fargo is doing lie is mislod by his strong nat
nral feeling for color; by his love OF It, lie does ho'
care for FORM he despses it, he thinks it may safely be
Neglected He thinks detin bore; he considers all
truths OF detail Of structure, Of form as secondary,
npimportapt and TO be violated with careless punity.
But in vain will lie search for single authority for
this belief in the practice of the great artists There
mas never been truly great colorist who deliberately
ar NV instinct absoycd himself from the necessity of
tespectinc form There has been great colorst
who did not draw well.
But leaving this matter for the present let US 70.
urn to the principal reason which wo had for looking
so long at Mr.. La Frges picture. Wholly wrong ~ it
is, we yet look upon Il with respect for it is
an honest, logical following out Of principles which
many others insist upon true but which they do not
dare TO follow uainchingy to these legitimate conclu
sions. Mr.. la Farges work reminds us Of thorough
going oldfashioned argument in favor OF Slavery
which starting from the premise that negro slavery
eight walked sqrarey up to the foundation principle on
which that beliefs based viz hatthe negro not man
out wholly different species That was. in its way
good strong position and let the man who held begin
either end of the argument he did not shrink nom
the logical consequences Of his premise Not so with
MIN who held that the negro is q man. ana, yet be.
Geyed that Slavery is his normal condition. He could
be driven from pillar to post was now on the fence
now in the ditch he never knew where he stood, nor
when he was knocked down. lie became that despi.
cable almost extinct thing-a douehace His politics
tainted his religion; his religion spoiled his politics; he
blew hot ard cold with equal facility, and his fate wos
ignominiOus SO it is with those painters who deny
that the Beauty which is the great end Of Art abso
iutey dependent Truth and nseparabe from it who
deny that Nature is the STANDARD Of excellence and in
sst that Art is the opposite of Nature This is their
glib theory supported with no end ofrhetoric. but sell
dom with loyal fidelity to what they assert 70 be the
truth. Seldom do we find a man Ike this who in the
very beginning Of his accepts the dogma in its
aaked simplicity deliberately divorces color from form,
sets truth of drawing quietly but decisvey aside and
plants bis feet firmly ard with pride the acade
mic doctrine tina, the further from Nature the higher the
Art.
This IT, in oar eyes q more respectable and more
tenabe position than that Of those who profess 10 treat
with contempt the theory that Art is built upon the
closest most accurate and most loving study Of Mature
sstudy beginning with her smallest details carried up
to her highest manifestation. and continued with
wearied assiduty and ever increasing love, until the
fading eye can longer look upon her beauty and
majesty the failing hand record them. They pro.
fess say, to look upon this belief with contempt
they ridieule those faithful Students who put il into
practice particularly those who work By their side,
and whose they fear but they shrink from fol
lowing their disbelief whittier ii would lead them.
Every year they cry with more and more derision
against the study Of detail against botanic and geologic
landscape and yet every year they expose the hollow
ness of their contempt tswe wei believe unconscious
hypocrisy by trying put at least the seubance Of
truthful detail into their pictures. This glad
see and willing to welcome bat let it De done with
frankness and grounds thai will bear examination
To be consistent they should 10 Mr.. La Fargo has
done-avod Nature altogether; try not to suggest her
at ALL not pretend to despse her and court hor tic
sly at the time.
In leaving Mr. La Fargo FOR the present be permit
express the rcgre. that he had not sent something
the japanese cup with blossom Of Cape JsssgmiEe
bell Of Fuchsa and ivy leaf which lately at
Goups for i1stanoe-which would better have showed
the public the knowledge-perhaps ought to say the
natural love-of color which he really possesses. 1t
cannot be instinove for il it were. then be could not
bnnder any than wren could, in a fit Of absence
OF mind, build her nest like hang.brds it is not
knowledge for that only comes with time-the ripe
fruit of patient study and there has not been. iu
agiue opportunity for that yeti no; il is simple Ls,Gr
al love a bland yearnDg for harmonious color. which
might some day doubtless would, produce good iruita
great addition to happiness If it osteIed with
wise thinking. and digent humble study. But It
seems to bad Sign when artist begins in his very
youth with decided theory Of work; determination
TO have not all but only part and that the less ia
porani part and TO got that part cody turns his
back Mature and accepts his standard in place Of
her universally an individual whiin; in place Of her
variety. anncrsm which is The inevitable result Of
ceasing to study her laws and putting in their stead
the laws Of Art in place Of her Truth the supposed
ceSsities Of his SYSTEM and in place Of her Beauty
which has myriad manifestation, his own afcctatiou
which has but one.
No. 20. A GALE on THE COAST or NORMANDY.
j. FOxCROPT COLE.
A Gale, surely There needs no Catalogue 10
tell Us that Wind everywhere; from the in the
distance ehurned 10 foam and shattered into level.
driving spray, drenching the sand and beating down
the meadow grass; to the trees that bend and sigh
with streaming hair and whiting limbs and the clouds
that drive along the sky borne down nearly 10 the earth
by the weight Of the tempest they have brought in their
dark bosom to yex the land and against whose rous