Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1868-11-27
ART AT TIE CAPITAL.
NATIONAL PICTURES AND STATUTES.

NAIiBNAL PICTURES AND STATUTES.
Mr g. A. Townsend, in bis last letter to
the Cleveland Leader, gives the following
art gossip: Leutze is the author of the
most ambitious picture in the country, the
Westward Ho!' Il was not overpaid for
at $4,000 aud expresses tolerably well
representative episode Of emigration toward
the Pacific. Wagons in train are laboring
up the mountains, with pioneers tugging
ahead, and from the crest of a pass they see
the ocean, when the sunset gilds the air and
lhe peaks, and dogs, and babies aud sick
women sitting upon their baggages, thrill
with the strong and exquisite beauty Of ma
ture and the nearness of home.
It's much easier to discourage the art we
have than to make better one. We have
not passed much beyond mathematics and
chemistry in historical art; but this piece BY
Leutze for general national effect is well cal
culated and good enough it IS better than
any of the panels in Westminster Palace and
not much worse than a good deal Of the mil
itary truck at Versailles. 1t is too Teuton-
&c. But the cheerful patriot, coming to see
it, exclaims that this is indeed a great coun-
try, and wants to entertain the artist for q
week at his bone.
Brumidi, who has painted a large picture
in the eye Of the dome, Of unequal power
but still effective, received $4,000 for it.
He was at work only eleven months, but
there is nobody in America who can do this
sort Of gigantic painring under horizontal
SUFFICE. He worked with great white wash
brushes and with great rapidity. The pic
ture is about as effective as any dome de-
signs are, not much worse than that within
the dome at Florence, brilliant enough for
cur domestic patriotism, and naked enough
for an Italian understanding of art Bru
midi has property here and does very well
for a grandiose Bohemian, but Leutze work
ed irregularly, and was, / think, poor. As
to the men, the last was a soldier, friend,
and fellow citizen. B-umidi is a natural
ized comet, striking paint pots pell NELL
Clark, the architect, wants the latter to
paint frieze half way up the walls of the
dome The Signor wants $4,000 for it
Il had better be well done, once for all
The new bronze doors for the Senate side
Of the Capitol are undergoing casting,
have heard, at Ames' factory in Massachu-
satts; those Of the House side, so much ad-
miJed, were cast in Munich; they weigh
twenty thousand pounds apiece and cost to-
gether 500, 600 In the House door, Rog-
ars, the artist, himselfas Bartholomew Co
Iumbus and his wife as Beatriz de Bobadilla.
This is a pleasing private freak Of the artist,
quite in place because he was unable to find
portraits Of the originals, and altogether
praiseworthy, as compared with foreign
artist here, who is said to have painted his
mistress, his wife and Washington into the
same composition, after the manner Of the
socialists who set a eyprian behind the altar
Of a church as the Goddess Of Reason.
The great sitting figure of Washington, in
the park, by Grenough, was brought across
the water in a special government ship, mer-
chant vessels being unwilling to take it 1t
cost s25. 600. This and the huge group
called Civilization, are the chief pieces Of
the unfortunate artist, who was sensitive
enough to have had genius. He was ex,
tremeIy anxious and conscientious, but one
may have both Of these without power. Al
together this Washington is fine study,
outraged by the nation which has set it ma
ked in al its Roman iuappositeness out in
the rain, whereas it was meant to stand un-
del the dome where it ought to be now.
The most admired objects in the Capitol
are among the Oldest. Among these is
Franzoni' cloak, where History in ehari-
OF, looking Down on Congress, writes, and
the chariot wheel is an actual clock. There
| Is a pictnre of Winfield Scott here, on one Of
the stairways, that is not Government prop
erty, and another Of Washington by Rem
brandt Peale, both Of which have been here
long enough to have lost their title Pow
ers received twenty thousand dollars for res
peetive statues of Jefferson and Franklin
here, and Stone fourteen thousand for bis
Hancock and Hamilton. Walker was paid
six thousand for painting Of the storming
Of Chapultepec. The statuary here, alto
gether, cost not much above s300,000
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