New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1864-04-30
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF DESIGN.
The Thirty.Ninth Exhibition.

the pictures In tho Metropolitan FAR WHICH, Ihough
they show plainly enough either that the writer has not
read carefully what wrote or that re did not wriie
ne clearly as We ought-ye rs he seems 20 De genhe
man. and 70 be writing forthe sake Of finding ana es
tobisbinp the truth, and not to champion o wounded
vanity, OF ayerge suffering pocket we take TINS op
portrpity 70 5eiue in as few words possible, tho
N ore material points Of our position
in the first place. have asserted mat 'he ehu VI
Art is the presentation Of peauty-rot The soca!ed
&" Beauty" of the schools, which is for the most
part. nero prettiRess or gracefnlness-pnt the
eupreme Beauty Of Nature, whether expressed
I in landscape, or in human character; the
three modes in which men can give expression 10
what they can perceive Of this divine Beauty being by
Painting, Poetry, or Sculpture and the object of the
expression being various, ranging rom simple in
stinctye desire TO give uterance 10 what fills the mind
with enthusiasm up to noble purpose to lead to
great or holy or loving thoughts to enlarge their sym.
pathics quicken their devotion, the energies
OF their neral epd intellectual natures The results,
both Of this instructive desire and OF this noble purpose
have right to be called Art but only the latter is high
or great Art The other may include and docs include,
much that the expression Of small or perverted OF
even degraded minds
In the second place. whatever work has any other
aim than the presentation Of this supreme Beauysnd
| the aim is sufficient, for many aims at II with
al his might. and does not IN the least approach
it's not properly Art at ALL 1t may be 'alua
bic ns record; useful statement Of fact lovely,
ornament, but it must spring from deeper purpose
and propose higher aim, to deserve the name Of Art.
Again the snly test Of Art s its Truth to Nature and
II the reader ask where is the test OF It's truth, We
swer IN the consciousness and experience Of the race
This test Is applied at once and without possibility of
error II the subject lie within the ordinary experience
Of the spectators appeal 20 their ordinary conscious
ness IL matter Of longer decision il the subject he
more remote from daily and accustomed life. But
in either the decision is made and that inevitably
and irroversiby. Those To whom the world has once
applied the test and who have stood it without failure,
are lowered with an Immortality in proportion 10 the
holiness Of their aim. The world greets Homer and
Dante and CHANGER Shakespeare and Keats and Burns
By Tic Of poet because they have srivcn to
convey the divine Beauty n Nature far m II
yeaed 10 tlem and she writes their names greatest
who have stryen 10 declare tho highest Beauty with the
| greatest Truth
Once more: the notion that most desire 10 fight
against Is that this Beauty, which the end Of Art
ever be separated from Truth The modern theory is
tt II can modern artists have got hold Of something
which they call tho ideal which signifies, simply, the
false and rnmesninr. An ideal landscape is one in
which the Truth Of Nature Is deliberately sacrificed TO
gain "a something called Beauty" Only to-day. being
in the country and calling friends attention ~ some
willows which Just bursting into tendorcst green.
Re answered, Yes, they very nice hui I would
not Ike 10 them in pctureT He would have had
them modified tosed down, omitted. rather than have
tie conventional rules for making his picture violated
An "ideAl' head Is one from which al character ha,
- - -, LIT.
which she ignoranty emitted, and, II We complain.
We are Pompously put down with fne PHRASES
and great names; reprcached with ignorance and
presumption; showcred with opprobroHs epithets
and accused 81 aesn and dishonornhle motives. Bat
this method Of answering arguments hurts those
who employ II good deal more than it does We
assert and call for the shadow q proof to the
y that every great artist has sought the expression
Of the Supreme Beauty the end OF his Art that be has
sought il for noble purposes; and that up 10 tic limit Of
his apacty seeing and recording ho has worked In
a Joy ful and unwavering service Of the Truth The
ideal" Of the great men hath this extent, 10 more.
And lastly. VIC never asserted, 10 see how We
could at any time have been understood saying that
there only way Of seeing Mature. and that tie
way OF some particular man or set Of men. On the
contrary We hold that one Of the most valuable results
Of return 20 tho study Of nature would be the
development Of individuality the manifestation Of orgi
nal tloTtht and tho cultivation Of real feeling and
timrut in tie place Of the conventional aud affected
prettress and ssntimentalsIns Of the present time.
SO far from dosringhAt everybody should paint in
way or follow the lead Of an! ocaed school We think
such result would be most disastrous 10 good Art No
two men can see the same thing alike. The moment
Won sec one mans work looking like another'-, that
moment you may concude with absolute certainty that
be has been looking lot at the thing IGi at tie ohsr
mans work OF course Kensett cannot SEE Nature "a
Fsrrer sees her-nor can Farrer see her hsnseti
does; but Il docs not follow hat the picture painted
hy either Of these viii be untrue because II differs
from that painted by the Other. 1t was not for being
different from Mr.. Farrer that vo found fault with Mr.
Kensctt II was simply because ho Is not true 10 Ma
ture. And when the critic questions our night 70 de
eide that he s not Ike Nature, we answer that be may
be- now and then; but until the critic shall be bold
enough 10 sser. that Nature hes but ono aspect that
she is always IN fog tat ler rocks and trees are
always transparent IN short that abs always looks In
the one way in which Ken,ett always paints her, We
shall consider that lis monot0ny, his niInsiness
and his feebloness settle the againr him. without
any need Of labored argument from u.s. II NJ Ken
sett or-for he 10 not Bit worse tsn CLIFFORD
or Coleman. or shattuck or . dozen others that &c
might nsme-f say artist should go TO Nature directly
for syery separate picture-should stDdy the whole care
fully and faithfully IN tho open air and finish IL In the
nre,encs O! the scene ib.lf-thers would DO Fore
monoton, or ssmsness or oonvenIonasIn In the result
Of his Summers work than there il In years garden
growth Of poems from Wordsworth. or Tennyscn, or
browning. True there would DO individuality true
ve should recognize the hand but that would only add
.,st TO our enjoyment Of their work We should greet