The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1867-08-01
Chicago correspondence.
CHICAGO, July 2S, 1867

The dens of the artists in Crosby's big
Opera House are in this hot, dull season
almost deserted. A few of the painters
and paintresses still cling to labor from
mere force of habit, but the majority are
off reveling in the enjoyment of nature far
up in Minnesota, or down east to the White,
the Allegheny and the Catskill Mountains.
One of those who remain is Gookins who
labored so hard at his great fairy picture
in the early part of the season, that he be-
came i'll, and has now but just returned
to his easel after long sojourn in the
country. He is one of the most careful
and painstaking class of artists, never
seeming to deem his picture complete SO
long as he is able to get a dab at it. In
the piece on which he now works.
"Court day in Elfaud" are two
hundred figures of creatures of the imagi-
nation fairies, ghouls, gnomes, baushees,
trolls, leprechaims and afrites, and Heaven
knows what else. Well, one day Gookins
puts in a few of these little figures, in most
excellent fancy and beauty of delineation,
and the next day he paints them all out
and puts others still more beautiful and
fantastic in their stead His inventive
genius is truly wonderful, and is temper
ed by delicate poetic taste and true
artist love for the beautiful. There can
be no doubt of his attaining a very high
rank among the greatest of American ar
fists. None in this country dare to at
tempt to compete with him in his peculiar
line. But at the ratio at which he paints
now, his works will be comparatively few.
1t does seem as if this one great work -
his master piece-were going to be half
an inch thick with paint before he can be
persuaded that it is DONE
p. f. Reed is as yet another of the stay
at-homes. The severe accident which he
suffered while out sketching last season.
still leaves its painful traces, and ne re-
mains quietly in his studio to work little
on landscapes, In which the cool, green
shady trees, moss-covered rocks and foam
ing brooks, tell of careful studies from ma
tufe in days gone by, and are SO true that
one feels refreshed by gazing on them.-
Reed is very fine landscape painter, and
not only that, he is poet. too, and is work
ing at present great deal more on book
of poems which he designs publishing,
than he is on his pictures.
Healy is away, but his portrait mill still
goes on. Where portraits can be made to
bring sucE prices, in gold, as Mr.. Healy
demands and obtains, it is well to keep the
business going, the golden sands flowing.
Mrs. La Mont, woman o! fine artistic
talent, especially skilled in the treatment
of fruit and flowers, and evidently capable
of much greater works than any she has
yet achieved, works steadily on in the
treadmill routine of portrait painting, the
only branch Of art which it seems can be
made to pay here.
Just here l may say word or two of
protest against the indifferent encourage
ment and support given to the artists in
the west Several of the best whom we
had here have positively had to 90 TO the
east to earn a living; not but what our
rich people buy pictures, but instead of
aiding merit at home by buying from our
own artists who are laboring earnestly for
fame, they purchase inferior works in the
East, copies and pieces bearing forged
signatures which unscrupulous dealers do
not hesitate to vaunt and puff to such an
extent as to take in the ignorant and un-
wary. Happily, their want of generous
spirit bears with it its own punishment for
the swindle perpetrated on them must
sooner or later be discovered
There are some magnificent pictures now
in the Crosby Art Gallery, and altogether
such display of really fine works of art
as has never been cxcelled in this city.
| Under the admirable management of Mr..
Aiken the gallery has now acquired
character and reputation which it never
had before, but the weather is too hot to
go to it. 1t is away at the top of that big
building, and that is equal to several miles
of level walking, when the thermometer is
or seems to be away up in the hundreds.
But here l just notice that | have been
running. quite unintentionally, almost the
whole of my letter into rambling sketch
of artists and their works. Well, it will
have to go now. / did intend to tell you
that we had an elopement sensation the
other day-a real runaway match--in
high life, too, the parties being Miss Haines
daughter of John G.. Haines, ex-Mayor
of Chicago and Mr.. Beardsley, (silcs-
man with Botsford & Co., hardwareists. }
| also intended to mention that our small
pox scare is over, only two deaths having
occurred from that cause during the week.
Furthermore, intended to remark that,
by new contract the Washington street
tunnel is to be completed by November,
1868, at a cost of something less than
100000. Likewise, | purposed stating
that the Black Crook is still crowdng
McVicker's; that even the bad taste of
an Ethiopian minstrel burlesque on it at
Woods fails 10 draw there. All these,
and possibly more things, | might have
said hut for INV acroad ahout picturpS