Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1873-05-19

The extraordinary paintings as we'll
as the sculptures in the Wiertz gallery
are all the work of one hand-that of
Antoine Wiertz, son of a tailor in the
Ardennes. The tailor had been SOL
dier, and entertained dream of glory
He transmitted the fire of his ambition
to his son, where it became steady and
consuming flame, burning with pure,
clear light, and filling the boys soul
with spirit which would have been ap-
preciated grandly among the Greek Sto-
les, but which seemed Quixotic in this
practical nineteenth century.
He might have lived in luxury by
his art, but he preferred to live in alb
ject poverty for his art. His thirst for
fame was insatiable-his contempt for
fortune incredible. The story of his
life is as curious and pathetic as the
works of his genius are fantastic and
unique. Wiertz was born in 1906, in
the old town of Dinant, on the banks of
the river Mouse. At an age when other
children play, this child occupied him
self with toys of art. He made drawings
almost before he could run alone and
tried to color them with berry juices,
plants, bits of clay. He carved curious
figures with his jack knife. One of the
triumphs of his babyhood was wooden
frog, which he had cut with his knife.
and which was so marvellous an imita-
tion of the living creature that visitors
to the tailor's shop tried to kick the
counterfeit reptile into the street.
A captain of the gems d. armes who
tried to pierce the wooden frog with his
sword was so amazed by it that he talk
ed about it every where he went, and the
news coming to the ears of M. Paule
Maibe, an art connoisseur at Dinant, he
visited the boy, and became his patron
in small way; that is to say, he took
him home and had him taught music
and drawing-for the boy had an apti-
tude for music too. The result was that
at the age of fourteen, Wiertz could
teach his drawing master, not only, but
he had acquired a surprising facility at
engraving, in which latter art he was en-
tirely self-taught. He made cuts of his
own original drawings, and having made
cuts, he himself printed from them be-
sides which he could play ON some half
, a dozen different musical instruments.
but of this art he made little or no use
r in after life.
. At so early an age as this the boy
, soul became fired with passion for Ru-
bens, and his patron finally took him to
Antwerp. There the kind hearted man
!, did what he could for his little friend
found him excellent masters, and got
him pension of about $50 from the
/, king-and left him to make his way
On this paltry sum the boy lived. prac-
: ticing the most rigid economies. He
had no pleasures, no occupations, outside
his art. In one of his letters to his
] mother, to whom he was tenderly devot
Y ed all his life, he wrote: Except fol-
n food, L hardly spend two farthings.''
His lodging was his studio, and thai
: studio miserable corner in granary
= without fire, and without lights at even.
ing, the roof so low that as his stature
!. increased he could not stand upright il
$ it, but went about STOPPING. Here he
) wrought all day long on the painting
/ which he already designed to open the
door of fame, and in the darkness o.
d night either went out and studied, or re
u mained il his den and solaced his lone
= illness with wild, wierd music.
In winter, in the intensest cold, ht
! worked still, almost without ceasing, il
n q sort of ecstacy, as wretched in his ex
|. ternals as beggar, as happy in his sub
W lime passion for art as any king, or bet
= ter. as any lover. For six years he $
II dwelt and so lived, and in his scorn o
physical comforts-not to speak of luxu
" ries, pleasures,-was as stoical as Diog
r, enes. If he could have painted in tu
ne he would have lived in tub.
II II Tempting offers were made him t
t. paint for money, but he would not. L
ey one connoisseur who offered him larg
sum for one of his studies, Wiertz mad
m a reply worthy to live among the cele
IS, brated speeches of genius keep you
ree gold, he said lit is the murderer {
of art This sentence strikes the ke
IT note of this remarkable mans anthem
de life. He would never sell his works.
'st Hence the gallery in Brussels to-day
crowded with the efforts of his fancifl
KY and grotesque genius, while out in tn
~ -. world you should seek in vain for one
or. his pictures Portraits form the onl
of exception to this statement, for portrait
ars he painted now and then throughout h
PIE life as ''pot-boilers'
To the day of his death he adhere
NO firmly to the programme which he lai
ew down when he was twenty. as the on
ice noble one for artists-for Nierts wro
also, much and well, about the art
loved 50 passionately. in an epot
II when mechanism is preferred to EXPIRE