New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-05-09

I
! II fftv times hundred times a thousand times
amin until SO far as our influence goes, we have
turned public attention to a fact which We believe 10
be one fraug with disaster to the growth OF true,
noble and elevatng art All this talk about immense
fortunes made by the sale of pictures s as those bo-
hind the scenes well know pure sham and dolusion
originated maintained, and fostered with as keen
and shreWd purpose to make future fact out OF
present fancy as is held by the man who proposes to
operate" in Wall-st. on the strength of splendid
turn-outs magnificent dinners, balls, and unstinting
largess wherever argess will reach the ear OF rumor
We may be thought fanatic and meddling for raising
our voices against either Of these abuses Ger
tainly, in sense, it is none Of our business.
There is this difference, however, between
them. When the Wall st. operator comes to the
end of his tether, and the usual assignment
legtimately follows the usual brilliant career" we
NAV fairly dismiss the story of the train of failures
with the proverb One fool makes many" and look
without pity on the losses omen whose training and
experience ought to have saved them from disaster
But the Operator in art is hawk among doves.
He makes his pot boil with the greenbacks of deuded
innocents. Moreover he has American public at
disadvantage. Every Bourse and Exchange in
Europe has its operators in stocks its bulls and
bears, for it is diamond cut diamond there, as
here; but the operator in art leads dolorous lie
in countries where an old wealth, and culture, and
acquaintance for centuries with every form OF art,
have made it almost impossible to deceive those
whom il is worth while to deceive Here, on the
| contrary where there is not much concentrated
wealth. where there is growing love of art, wide
spread among the mass of people with moderate
means and yet a widespread ignorance of what is
really good-an ignorance owing only to a want OF
education and experience. not to any native inca
pacity-here the Operator" has fruitful field.
Here as to a veritabe Canaan, comes the foreign
Spectator with thesweepings the studios of young
sters who have tried in vain, by thousand tricks,
to make their own public buy their pictures; while
We forsOOth, who think them colored autographs,
and poor ones too and who refuse to pay down WIN
humble thanks for the privilege-six times their
actual vaue-must be called by the disappointed
Spectator who finds that, between his first and his
second visit we have learned enough to ruin him
"Vandas and BGotians" Here, too, the thlrd-rate
artist from whatever Dusseldorf Paris comes conf
dent of soon achieving rstrate reputation. and by
an ingenious application of industry and contryance
! that would have been as proftably, and much more
appropriately expended in trade. he does succeed In
hearing his name sounded three times to any other
mans once Here too, the picture -dealer the agent
finds columns of leading newspapers open to what
ever he may choose to write and seeing the folly OF
neglecting his opportunity. writes to some purpose;
successfully exating into notice as starbnght won
ders of art, now Rousseau, now George H. Brown
again a Lambinet, and to-day an lnness But 1t Is
well for these men to make what they can out OF the
public in its salad days, while it is green in Judg
ment for with its beard. wisdom will come and
their shallow arts will have an end.
If what we have said appears to reflect on Mr. In
ness and seems to say that he is pretender and
charlatan we do not it, for we do not know IT.
But the men who cry him up for great colorist and
call his pictures in print, poems on canvas are some
of them perhaps deceived, being ignorant, but most
deceiving being cunning, and We cannot help 1t IL
the artist who lends himself to such fellows whether
actively or passivey comes to share the discredit
that attaches to their mercenary trickery
AS for Mr. Oertel, we had supposed he had wandered
off so far in search of the sublime that he would
never return to plague with his discoveries But
he is returned and pleasant as ever he was If he
have not found the sublime he has gone step FUR
Their and lighted on the ridiculous which he presents
to us with an air of simple confidence that we, no
| more than he, will be able to distinguish the
difference Nothing less than infatuation can have
persuaded Mr.. Oertel that he is an animalpainter,
| and yet from the first he has essayed horses and
COWS, and oxen, as If he felt the soul OF Landseer
stirring in him, with how much reasonableness may
be gathered from this Labor" of his-No 417-where
the oxen are in vain striving to accomplish their task
without 1.-THE aid of bone muscle, their skins aI-
bearing TO be merely stuffed with some elastic sub
stance say indiarubbor, This artist is by no means
willing to have it supposed, however that clever as
he is at animals so material field is sufficient to
display all his powers and accordingly he essays a
high imaginative flight in No. Az, 1.-THE Rock of
Ages and produces a result which is only worth re-
ferring to as a sample of what minds like his take
for imagination. Another sample may be seen in NO.
30, "a Soaking" by Mr.. Craneh. ..a.as.1
Mr. Martin take refuOe AZ uSual in imDOgaible
vagueness which makes us feebly wonder why he
thought it worth while to hint at any forms at all.
1t would have been good deal easier and quite as
interesting to have illeda canvas up with mstfrom
end to end and people who call such painting as this
imaginative would have gone into still more senti
mental ecstacies over the other achievement I'D
Mr. Powell too not content with having his ridicu-
lOus historical pictures in the Capitol Rotunda and
on the National notes land, surely, In all seriousness
never were such eminently ridiculous historical pic
lures painted, before nor since) must needs come
here also with picture of Mr.. George b. Mcclellan,
for which, it seems thatswe unhappy citizens are
obliged to pay it belongs to the City of NewYork.
What we want of picture of this gentleman, il
would be hard TO say equally hard TO guess why the
Common Council should think that we wanted it;
but hardest Of why it Should enter into anybodys
head that Mr. Powell the proper person to call in
to paint it, We suppose shall not be so far wrong
if we conjecture that the subject while 1t stirred the
enthusiasm Of the emnently respectable body OF men
who ordered it, did not appear equally tempting to
any artist of position and ability; and that, accord
ingly, they fell back on Mr.. Powell, who had long
ago demonstrated his inability TO paint either a
or horse much less man ON horseback. Certainly,
if such demonstration had been wanting before the
present picture would have amply supplied it. The
only Characteristic trait in the portrait is that the