The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1869-12-16

Of all true culture, re,--sslfreliance, and a
courage to reject the advice of others,
however pretentious, when their dicta
are at utter variance with ones own
impressions. OF course. this does not
imply unteachableness: it only de-
mands a reason for the faith preferred
to us. She says:-
The great value Of pictures for home
should be, after all, IN their se,ttimsnt.-
They should express sincere ideas and
tastes of the household, aud not the ty-
rannical dicta Of Some art critic or
neighbor. 1t is desirable that the
drawing and painting should be good
and respectable, and that the family
should Le well enough informed to
know that "A picture painted on japan.
ned waiter, however smooth and pref
ty, in not good picture simply because
it is smooth and pretty. We should
try to cultivate our taste, and then try
to express it; but the value of family
pictures in a great degree should consist
in the fact that they do sincerely rep
resent our own tastes and preferences,
and not those of others. It Is desirable
that these should be cultured tastes, but
quite as much SO that they be real and
genuine. A respectable engraging, thai
truly is JET by the family as an artistic
pleasure, is better thing for them
than much higher one that they do
not understand or care for"
Tiis is sound doctrine, but delisiously
iconoclastic; "Thc Nation" which has
sneered at almost all our hest men, will
give its aesthetic lips an extra curl when
it reads the passage.
Following out this though, Mrs Stowe
comnends all self selected collections.
whether they he those Of a connoisseur
with only classical engravings on the
walls, or those of some pains taking
business man, and his plain excellent,
house keeping wife; to whom, land 1t
is neither sorrow nor shame to say it,"
"a genuine picture Of a smiling baby, n
good dog, fine horse, d bunch Of flow
/ CTS, arc W WoIll IL llOtC btiCAh
There is world of sound art criti-
cism as well as common sense and ge-
nal feeling in this passage, with which
we shall close our extracts
| "Can there be but one sort of thing
in this world? and is not a tuft of moss,
in its way as good as an oak tree? Is 1t
any sin not to have been to Rome and
lived, or any merit to have done so? II
your neighbor is stepped to the lips in
high art, and SO classical that his very
ages of good authority for
."'"s '"' "' not despise him him
his pattern, let Us =. ,,,,h .,d
therefore; and let him not " uCo. u
predominate over his weaker brother,
who hfs got only so far as q sincere ad-
miration for the pretty things the Lord
makes, when genuinely represented
Hast thou faith? Have it to thyself-
Applaud and glorify thy own collection
with full heart, but be gentle to thy
next door neighbor who eateth only
herbs.
There are certain humble walks of
art in which excellent cons lists simply
in "a faithful and truthful representa-
ton of nature, in which tho excellence
is of kind of which common people
can become good judges. 1t takes very
little artistic skill or sense to Judge
whether stalk Of blue gentian is faith
fully painted, or the copy ofa bunch of
apple blossoms is true to the model of
its great original. A host Of such sim
ple' inexpensive ornaments are given
by prang in his chrome o-lithography.-
A bunch ofappIe blossoms, a blue gen
tian, so repres snted as to excel average
painting, forms q domestic ornament,
unpretenoing unambitious, and always
beautiful. Never do our hearts cease
to thrill when the time of year comes
round for their fair originals to smile on
i us, and never can we lose the sense
Of beauty III their intimations.
I 1t is one Of the signs of the milcnni-
un that real good art, correct and pure
so far as it goes, is being nlado the in
heritance of the million, as it is now be-
ing zone by the chrome lithograph;
and we have little sympathy win the
scornful style in which some elfimpor-
II tant art critics have condemned or ridi
culed efforts that are bringing beauty
and pleasure to so many thousand
homes that otherwise poverty would
keep bare"
| Bravo, Mrs. Harriet Eeether Stowe
But what will Don Positive OF "The
New York Tribune" say to youo We
wait with fear and trembling for his
next savage onslaught. JFo.chnltu,
and Reflector,