New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-05-11
MR. BIERSTADTS "DOYES OF THE w
SEMITEg


canvases. II people could once be made 10 believc
this, it mn ght add hundred per cent even IN bis
present somewhat unwieldly reputation But n
shrewd suspicion is afoat that something moro thu,
mere size is needed TO make picture great: that
Angeles 81 Last Judgment" for instance does not
its reputation only to its being sixty feet high
and that if Meissonier were to make his six.incb.
square pictures six feet-square they would not mecca
sarily be better i'll proportion to the increase.
A really great master pack more subImity into
an inch Of canvas than a make-beleye master can
put into an acre. This is plain matter of fact, and
easily capable of proof; indeed, it is so evident a
truism that we shoud DO ashamed TO print it, If IA
were not that there appear to be a few people loft
who have not heard it. To these few Mr. Bierstadt
would seem to make his appeal and their encourage
ment has been generously given that he has spread
himself, in this last picture, over bigger canvas
than ever before. The result is work almost en-
tirely destitute of grandeur although protesting to
portray of which grandeur is the chief char
acteristic; work in which truism finds
most shining illustration, and which we
| think must open the eyes of many to the
commonplace character of this artists productions
The is an immense one. but the picture deals
only with the external features of the scene, and
makes no appeal to the imagination of the beholder.
1t has been said that adds color TO the photograph;
! but among Mr BerstadtS many weak points as q
painter color u.s. perhaps, bis weakest and certainly.
neither his forms nor bis details with any Justice
be compared TO the photograph, especially TO tho
wonderful photographs Of Mr.. Watkins. Wea par
ticularly struck with the faulty perspective of this
pctre the parts do not at all hang together the
list seems TO have no hold Oh the scene as whole.
and therefore, give the spectator none. IL will
be noticed that he has never before in any large pic
ture treated subject where the lines were naturally
nd tha oiofo ma
and hand to bring them into harmony. In his
Rocky Mountains Mt Hood" and Storm in tho
Rocky Mountains nothing could well be simpler
than the aTran cement for cannot call 1t compost
ton. of the principal masses There was no art
called for in mastering difficulties Of perspectiveOrn
the harmOnizng Of lines. for there were no difficulties
this sort to MASTER and all that the painter proposed
to himself to deal with the problems of light
and shadow aud atmosphere We will not discuss.
Just here how we'll or Ill he succeeded in solving
these problems all wish to show now is, that I'M
this present picture he has, fol- the first time, we be-
leve. attempted subject of real difficulty, in which
almost every point that goes to make up great
landscape has had to be attached and either be con-
quered or conquer IL we may carry out the smile
which these words suggest the result OF the contest
is that Mr. Berstadt has been worsted we will not
say ANONYMOUSLY but we will say disastrousy, and
to an extent that must seriously diminish his pres
tiee. But we think this result could not, in any
case, have been much longer delayed.
Mr. Berstadts reputation is so out of proportion to
any actual achievement of his has been so easily OBJ
tanned and is 50 difficult to account for that it was
natural to expect it must day. be brought face
TO face with serious aud decisive test No perma-
nent reputation is gained without fighting for it.
and Mr. Berstadt had never gained his IN fair fight
II was simply the fruit of credulous wonder in a
community easily interested but, also, being child
sh only in its nexperience easily taught and it has
not taken long to from its surprise and to
set to work to analyze what it had lately worshped
high reputation deserved, stimulates him who has
won it to higher efforts; but, it is equally true that
reputation too easily won, and not well founded, IL
as apt to rouse the wearers vanity and set him to
trying new flights to which he may prove far
from equal. This is Mr. Berstadts case.
If any wishes to specimen of the influences
that have surrounded him from the first, and which
have helped to put him in his present false position
to art and to the public, let him read the printed
half-sheet of letterpaper that is distributed in the
room where the "Domes of the 70 Semitic rs on ex-
hibitiOn We do not now concern ourselves with the
bad English of this amusing production. with its alb
surd choice of words and its general style of school
girl rhapsody; nor do we mean to lay too much stress
upon the papers being there at all No picture ex.
hibition is complete nowadays without its half.
sheet of note or etter-paper, containing fulsoms
euOgy of whatever work of art Is IN view ana II Is
quite 1.-THE thing for the managers of this exhi-
bition to have their little piece of printed puery like
the rest of the world. But what offends us is the
steady persistent way in which Mr.. Berstadts claims
10 exalted genius are everywhere dinned into our
ears until if dining could do the business we should
actually be forced into acknowledging what we know
is not to be acknowledged. Let the reader take tho
concluding sentence of this hy-sheet specimen
of the nauseating lattery that by dint of much
speaking has made itself heard and believed over
goodly portion Of our country Famous as other
paintings Of Mr.. Bierstadt have become, this, his
latest gift to the world of art merits the highest adj
miraton ever accorded to his genius. The sngeness
of its idea the sublimity of its subject the mastery
skill which has drawn its prospective and deludes us
with its seemingly endless aerial distances, betray the
reverent worshper of the Beautiful and the unalte
ing (sjcl artist Why Mr. Berstadt should think for
moment of faterng. with such hackers as this all
over the land, we really do not know. Ii VIII be- 10
our mind plain of flying in the face OF provi-
dence. We wish. with all our hearts, he would fal-
ter but we see no hope of It until me Pubic co
ready TO look at his pictures with little calmer P
and bring sober Judgment to bear on tnen: ~ -
could once do this it would be on the way 70 dsco'e
that Mr. Berstadt is entirely dead to all sense on
what il properly termed color that ne pants WIZ
ashes, with clay WITH bnm nm Ss has b"t little accu
rate knowledge of nature either IN her geheIa loi
or in her detail the proof of when Is AZ n ,h egeta
tion throughout, and in the uninteresting and u.,
varied foreground. This last If we may vent venture ~
contradict the audatory sheet already alluded 70.
il NOT noticeable for the minute study evidenced IN
the bright coloring of moss and bark the s DAINTY
oI4d the grace &c &c We certainly, with the best
will in tie worldare unable to find any evidences
of this minute study and venture to deny the exist
ence Of bright color anywhere in the picture In the
trees of the foreground we recognize old acquain-
tances as stunted sort of vegetable made after
! recins of Mr. Bierstadts own invention and appar-
| antiy Warranted good for any situation. No such