The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1868-01-03

OuCh4tuES anu
"Quails were the first chromOs that
met an instant and wide recognition
Nineteen thousand copies of the
" Chickens alone were sold.
Bricher's . Early Autumn of Euso-
pus Greek is one of the best chIo-
mos ever made on a small scale
The " Bulfnch and the Linnet =
(afte1 Cruikshank) are admirable.
There are other chromos which are
less successful, and one or two not
successful al all, but they are nearly
all excellent copies of the original,
with which the defects must be
charged.
The chromos of Bricher's paintings
are really wonderfully accurate.
Dir, Prangs masterpiece, however,
is not yet published, although it is
nearly ready for the market 1t en-
tirely SURPRISES all his previous eff
forts Its Correggio's " Magdalena,
and can hardly fail we think, to COM
mand quick sale and hearty recog-
milton
Like every modern discovery, chro-
autobiography has its partisans and
detractors-those who claim for it
perhaps impossible capabilities, and
those who regard it as a mere handi-
craft, which no skill can ever elevate
into the dignity of an art. We do not
care to enter int these disputes.
Whether an art Or handicraft, chro-
mo lithography certainly reproduces
charming little pictures, vastly supe-
rior to any colored plates that we
have had before, and it is at least
clearly entitled to be regarded as a
means of educating the popular taste
and thereby raising the national ideal
of art.
A correspondent, looking at chro-
mos from this point of view, thus in
dicates Git may be somewhat enthusi-
astically) their possible influence on
the culture of the people:
What the discovery of the art of
printing did for the mental growth Of
the people, the art of chromo-litho9-
raphy seems destined to accomplish
for their esthetic culture. Before
types were first made. scholars and
the wealthier classes had ample OPP
portunities for study--for even when
bibles were chained IN churches, and
copies of the Scriptures (then aptly so
styled) were worth a herd of cattle,
there were large libraries accessible
to the aristocracy of rank and mind.
But they were guarded against the
masses by the double doors of privi-
lege and ignorance. A book possess
who could not read the alphabet, and
because they were rare and hard to get
at, he had no Indictment to master
their mysteries. Made cheap and
common, the meanest peasant, in the
course of few generations, found
solace for his griefs in the pages of
the greatest authors of his times .and
of all time. Mental culture became
possible for whole nations and democ-
racy, with its illimitable blessings,
gradually grew up under the little
shadow of the first printers proof.
Until within q qui recent period,
art has been feudal in its associations.
Galleries of priceless paintings, in
deed, there have always been in GER
tain favored cities and countries; but
to the people, as a whole, they have
been equally inaccessible and unap-
preciated, because no previous train
ing had taught the community hon
to prize them. It was like Harvard
College without the District School
a planet without satellites, and too far
removed from the world of the people
for its light to shine in the cottage
and in the homes of the masses.
Now, chromo-lithography, al
though still In its infancy, promises
to diffuse not love of art merely
among the people at large, but to dis
seminate the choicest masterpieces of
art itself 1t is art repubieanized
and naturalized in America. Its at
tempts hitherto have been compare
lively unambitious. but it was not
Homer and Plato that were first hon
ored by the printing press. 1t was
dreary catechisms of dreary creeds.
So it will be with this new art. As
the popular taste improves. the sub
jects will be worthier of an art which
seeks to give back to mankind what
has hitherto been confined to the
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