New-York tribune., 1868-08-08
FINE ARTS.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.
To THE EDITOR OF THE TRIBUNE

Or
article in question seemed to me y ,he s1bjecf ""u
unfairly dcprecagy ~ itealmeh, o h All gygts o
grand oil paintings would be moro 5tnI % t
chromos Tor the education Of the pubic, 20 M id[ H @ sueh
objects meet the public eye; but throughout tne IeIg
and breadth Of the land, there are thOsus unh Inu
sands who never have an opportunity 20 sSe .ne gfmd ana
exhibitions in cities believe that people are naPpieI hnu
consequently goodnatured, Tor ',S ,, ts ~ ~ .ooS
lighted up With bright pictures % aI cbromo as some u
Mr. Prangs take the place OF dismal 00id mourning,
pieces and ycly cOlored engraymSo III INC Parlos Vi
In Europe there many who possess galleries OF
fine pictures and who not unfrequeny liberal III the
rior facilities for reproducing things lhIiSSaY Nau
able" In this country, there are Formidable npedl-
uents I'm tie way of procuring Grst-rate originals
comparatively small class own such pctulcs anu l'R
are rarely wiling 10 have them copied clromOs for IL
prevailing idea that things lose thelr Vaue py Deco
link II il uniust TO say that 'the admirers Of mechan.
zeal art have adopted the sopsm that men are Sdncale
10 love the best by beginning with the cors Inc 9let
Basket of Cherries belongs much lower plane OF ART
than the Dresden Madonna but perfect KIND ahu
those who it have cause to be tahkiul iof 5ucn
luscious pieco Of Summer 20 cheer the dreary DAYS o
Winter Taits Chickens and Quails can DC Calcd smal
only with reference TO their subject aha surely lhe host
captious critic would never think OF RANKING lhel aog
the trorsl" lessons for the public eye Regarded merely
works Of art, they are excellent IN deslG ana eAeu
tion, and they are very faithfully reprOdue9u III .
Prangs eromos For my own part am no & Gsshser E
small things II they are good OF their KIND me neany
Regia exists in the world. Home, Sweet Home" or
Iionny Doom please me none the less because Bee
th0yen has composed Choral symphony. .
| have nothing arrogant or pretentions In mr
Jealous advocacy Of chrome ltnOgfaphy. lie II
enthusiast In tho art to winch ne has deI Oted himself
and that IS state Of mind most favorable To success
Whoever any thing great in science art mechan
zeal invention without being so absorbed IN the subject
that IL appeared to him to be the object worthy OF
PURSUIT. Mr. Prang has devoted great deal OF labor
patience and ingenuity to the production OF AeriGan
ChrOmOs and his efforts have been marked by constant
and rapid improvement. Instead of smiling at him for
not having done more 1t seems to me we ought To Joce
L. MARIA CHILD.
We publish Mrs. Chds letter, out of the very
I,,,t
strained TO add that inasmuch as it will serve an
additional advertisement for Mr.. Prang, we print 1t
with considerable unwillingncss. Very few persons
understand the art of advertising in its essentials so
well as this gentleman. lie acts upon the principle
that the one thing necessary TO be successful trader
is to keep his name forever before the public, aud we
will do him the credit to admit that he never loses
an opportunity to accomplish that result. The con-
sequence is that while his chromos are not one whit
better than plenty Of Others that are published in
this country and abroad and far inferiorto many
that are published in Germany, France and England,
with some of which, indeed, they are not to be
named-he has so industrousy trumpeted his name
as the maker Of the Great American ChrOmOs, that
it is widely believed in this country that he has no
superior. This is very unfair, and not in
clined to publish a letter like that of Mrs Child,
which will at once be taken advantage of by Mr..
Prang as an approval of his works from distin-
guished source, for, in her modest way, Mrs Chlds
is deservedly distinguished, although it is another
matter how much her voice ought to weigh in aqucs-
tion of art.
Our objection to Mr.. Prang is founded on the pre-
tension he makes to other ends in his business than
the one legitimate end of selling to the best adyan
tage. lie is a trader and a clever one but he is
nothing more, and his pretending to be something
more, connosseur. a philanthropist, a teacher of
the people is diSpleasng to us, because it is merely
a trick IN trade Not that n love of art and shrewd
business principles may not go together, we know
they may but we have never met with an instance,
except that Of Mr. Prang, where there has been
persistent trumpeting of the fact; still less where
there has been effort 10 persuade people that there
shrewdness at all, but love of aTtand Of the
peOple-alone. When Wedgwood employed Flax
man to design his jugs and dishes, when Boydell
employed the best English artists Of his time TO illus
trate Shakespeare, they no doubt acted with com
mendable shrewdness. but they had the blunt En-
glish honesty TO make pretenses Of being moved
in their bargains by any peculiar philanthropy And
we have never anywhere letters written for these
men by the artists and literary people of cotempora-
~ England euogizng their productions as excelling
anything of the kind before made. Nobody writes
letters to WedgwOod acknowledging the receipt Of
crate of crockery, and declaring that neither Paissy
nor Pekin ever made better; nor do NOrthcote or
West write TO Boydell who had published prints from
their works as Eastman johnson is willing to de-
scend to do for Mr. Prang: IL strikes me as being
one Of the best chromOlihographs have ever SEEM
One must conclude from letters like this and others
which Mr. Prang profusely publishes, either that
people who ought not TO be careless are Indifferent
what they write, or, that those who, from their posi-
ton and profession might be supposed avehad the
hat f,l1 10 tIofr hava
been, somehow, deprived Of them
Mrs. Child and many others. make it great point
in their clients favor that he is beneftng the poor
and the uneducated. We dare say this may be true,
but other publishers doing the same all over the
world. Mrs. Child talks about dismal old mourn
ing pieces "-we presume she aludos TO the lady in
black with a cambria pOcket-handkerchief at her
eyes standing by the side of marble monument
and Of Wiley colOred engravings in the parors Of
the people" There are doubt, Of these still
left but their day may fairly be said TO have gone
by. No person now, we'll enough off to have
parlor at all can urge bis poverty as an excuse for
having nothing better than such things as these on
his wall. Excellenty cOored Autographs are now to
be obtained-every way as desirable as Mr.. Prangs
or anybOdys chrOmOs-for small sums of money the
most beautiful photographs of natural landscape
and copies of pictures and fine engravings after old
painters and modern painters, all are within reach Of
those who care to have such things at all In GER
tain it is that anything really good is Also
cheap-a good thing is worth its price, and little
effort and sacrifice TO obtain something valuable
makes it even more worth having, and more perma-
nently enjoyed.
Those who think it worth while to complain that
we do not forever urge people to buy chromos and
that never speak of them very cordially, may
know the reason why, if they care to know. All
these newly invented arts of reproduction are useful
and we are glad to see them practiced but we still
believe that the way to encourage art is to give en-
plOyment to artists The slightest original sketch