The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-01-14

RafTaelle walked through Rome with q follow
ing of fifty disoiples; and the great mural pic
lures OF Rome, Florence, Pisa, and Sienna
could only have come into existence nnder
systematic origin, in fact, OF the practice IN
modern Germany-whioh seoured TO great
masters the services Of devoted bands OF
scholars. Art was in Italy religion; and
such has Il been in Dusseldorf.
Art life in the capital Of the Rhenish pro
yinoes ia more than commonly social moi 10
say 'iolly." Students of various nationali-
ties some Protestants, others Catholics, mlngie
kindly together in mutual toleraton: rms
student community assumes certain burgner
or citizen attitude, Jealous OF It's rights Inc
Academy naturally begets kindred assocla,
tions. In the public gallery are oellecsea
representative works OF the sonool. In 'aooDIs @
Garden, pretty shady retreat, Weil-kneWn
resort of poets and philosophers, the artists
have located their club, the "kunstler
Verein Malkasten.' TO drink coffee
or wine beneath the trees, o painter
or two perchance within view making out
door studies, we have ourselves iound plea
SAINT in the sunny summer time. In winter the
artists indulge in theatrioals; the walls Of the
club are decorated by its members with mural
paintings, and ready fancy and rapid hands
find no difficulty IN extempori2ing scenery,
coloring masks, coneocting Costumes and com.
pleting other stage properties which have at
least the merit OF being somewhat out Of the
trionic propensities. Indeed, any one who may
have glanced at art life on the Continent will
readily believe that the painters OF Dusseldorf
give themselves kindly to masking and prac-
tical Joking, fun and frolio Of all sorts. AT
Dusseldorf too, as at Venice in the days of
Giorgione, music is the painters passion.
Here Mendelssohn lived two years; here he
conducted the ''St. Paul, >" and the masters
refining influence has survived even to
the present day. Altogether 1t is easy
to see in artist life at Dusseldorf
as at Rome, how generously Cont
mental manners lend themselves to free
and easy ways. Feasts and holidays
in Roman Catholic countries favor artist
festivals; life is more scenic and picturesque
than in lands whore cold, commercial reason
has ostracized imagination. Dusseldorf, more
over, still maintains rural simplicity; she is
yet happily exempt from that fashionable
frivolity which trades for its own empty ends
on artists inherent vanities. Thus the quiet
town is more favorable to study than gay
CAPITALS like Berlin or Munich. On the whole
this abode of painters is pleasant place to
live in. Academicians from the windows Of
ateliers command picturesque views over the
swift flowing Rhine, the sails of passing craft
shining in the sun. The town is prettily
situated among trees, gardens, and running
waters; nature puts ON winning ways, though
she scarcely rises into heroics; and SO those
artists who find themselves restless under
throes of Imagination betake themselves in
the sketcbing season to the highlands
of the Upper Rhine. Hence, when sum-
mer comes, ambitious spirits, consolida-
ting into caravans, migrate in search of the
sublime. Pilgrimage is made to old Roman
esque churches, to Rhensh castles legend
haunted. 1t has been said that poetry and
lyric music animate the wine-growing districts
of the Rhine. Certainly the sketching ground
which nature has provided as a domain to the
school of Dusseldorf furnishes to the artists
portfolio capital material, whether in type Of
peasantry, character in costume, or pic
turesque accessories for backgrounds. The
landscape capabilities of regions within reach
of Dusseldorf-the vintage-clad Rhine, the
hills of Bavaria, the mountains of the Tyrol,
not to mention the accessible iords of Scandi-
navia-have been turned to excellent account
by Lessipg, Leu, and Achenbach. 1t may be
added that Bierstadt, the American, formed
his style in Dusseldorf; it was there he learned
how to paint the Rocky Mountains after the
approved German fashion. These and other
artists of scarcely less renown place Dussel-
dorf landscape, Notwithstanding its vicious
color, in the foremost position among rival
! national schools.
The Dusseldorf school has been divided
between two contendipg factions-the one
spiritual and ideal, the other natural and
realistic. OF the fermer, the lovely church,
worthy of a pilgrimage, at Remagen, on the
Rhine, is the brightest manifestation. Upon
the walls of this chapel, Deger, 1ttenbach,
| Carl and Andreas Miller, all distinguished
members of the Dusseldorf Academy, have
given ardent expression to their pictorial, not
to say religious, faith. This impressive inte-
rior of highly-wrought pOlychrome naturally
suggests comparison with Giotto's Arena
Chapel, Padua. Such modern German revi
walls, indeed, have much Of the character and
spirit OF early Christian art. The forms are
studiously lovely; the heads lofty and ideal il
type; the draperies academic in symmetry
the colors refined and pure; the execution de
licately soft. Certainly these lovely though
somewhat feeble and conventional, wall pic
lures are not afflicted with the hardness
opacity, and crudity which often make German
frescoes repellent. Unlike also to the frescoe
in the Houses of Parliament, Westminster
the mural pictures at ReDagen, in oommo
with wall paintings in Germany generally
remain just as fresh as when first painted.
In direct antagonism with the spirituh
phase of the Dusseldorf school, as manifesto
at Remagen is the naturalism and realism
} which Karl Friedrich Lessing may be taken q
the express exponent This manly painter
; best judged by the series OF pictures from th
l Reformation of Huss, two whereof are familiG
to Rhine tourists tarrying at Frankfort. A
+ interesting narrative might be written
n Lessipg's career and Protestant creed, If he hi
= one. 1t is generally supposed that the painte
as the champion of liberty and of nature, Il
: kind Of Protestant revolt in the Academy
s Dusseldorf against servility to tradition.
the other hand, we are assured that the
liant Huss pictures were not hurled
o painted pamphlets against the Church. Les
a ing, 1t seems to he admitted, holds to no OF
X faith sufficiently firmly to side as partisan