The Portland daily press., 1873-04-25
TERMS $500 PER ANNUM In ADVANCE.
AntOine Wiertz,

The extraordinary paintings, as wen as the
sculptures, in the Wiertz Gallery are an INC
work of one hand-that of Antoine Wier,I,
son OF tailor i'm the Ardennes. The TAILOR
had been soldier, and entertained dream
of glory. He transmitted the fire OF his am
bition to the son, where it became steady
and consuming flame, burning with clear,
pure light, and filling the boys soul with
spirit which would have been appreciated
grandly among the Greek Stoics, but which
seemed Quixotic in this practical nineteenth
century. He might have lived ir. luxury by
his art, but he preferred to live in abiect p0y-
erty for his art. His thirst for fame was in
satiable--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
Dlnant, on the banks of the river Meuse. AT
an age when other children play. this child
occupied himself with the 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 curl
GUS figures with his jacknife. One of the tn
umphs of his babyhood was a wooden frog.
which he had cut with his knife, and which
was so marvellous an imitation of the living
creature that visitors to the tailors shop tried
to Lick the counterfeit reptile into the street
A captain of gems d'arms who tried to pierce
the wooden frog with his sword was so anaz-
ed by itthat he talked about 1t every
where he went, and the news com
ing to the ears Of NJ. Paul Maibe,
an art connoisseur at Dinant, he visited the
boy, and became his patron i'm a small way;
that Is to say, he took him home and had
him taught music and drawing-for the boy
had an aptitude for music too. The result
was that at the age of fourteen Wiertz could
teach his drawing-master, not only, but he
txa1 sxnIn rsat,,
ing, in which latter art he was entirely self
taught. He made wood-cgts of his own orig
inal drawings, and having made the cuts, he
himself printed from them; besides which he
could play on some half dozen different mu-
slcal instruments, but of this art he made lit
tie or no use In after,lfe. At so early an age
as this the boys soul became fred with . pas
sion for Rubens, 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 fifty-sx dollars from
the king-and left him to make his way. On
this paltry sum the boy lived, practicing the
most rigid economies. He had no pleasure,
no occupations, outside his art. In one Of
his letters to his mother, to whom he was
tenderly devoted all his life, he wrote, ex-
cept for food, hardly spend two farthings."
His lodging was his studio, and that studio
was miserable corner in granary, without
fire and without lights at evening, the roof
| so low that as his stature increased he could
| not stand upright in it, but went without
| STOPPING. Here he wrought all day long on
the paintings which he already designed TO
upen the door Of fame, and In the darkness
OF night either went out and studied, or re-
manned in his den and solaced his loneliness
with wild, weird music. In winter. In the
intensest cold, he worked still, almost with
ont in, a Of nhaA
in his externals as a beggar, as happy in his
sublime passion fol art as any king, or, bet
er, as any lover. For six years he SO dwelt
and so lived, and in his scorn of physical COM
forts-not to speak of luxuries, pleasures
was as stocal as Diogenes. II he could have
painted in tub, he would have lived in
tub. II
Tempting offers were made him TO paint
for money, but he would not. To one con
noisseur who offered him a large sum for one
OF his studies, Wierlz made reply worthy to
live among the celebrated speeches of genius.
keep your gold" he said; sit is the mur-
derer of art" This sentence strikes the key
note OF this remarkable mans anthem of life
He would never sell his works. Hence the
gallery in Brussels, to-day crowded with the
efforts of his fanciful and grotesque genius,
while out in the world you would seek in
vain for one of his pictures. Portraits form
the only exception to this statement, for por-
traits he painted now and then throughout
his life as pot-boiers." To the day OF his
death he adhered firmly to the programme
which he laid down when he was twenty, as
the only noble one for artists-for Weirtz
wrote also, much and well, about the art he
loved so passionately. 'In an epoch when
mechanism il preferred to expression " he
said, 'one must have courage enough to imi-
tate the great Poussin, and paint for poster
ty; and. struggling always against bad taste,
know how to remain poor, in order to re-
main great artist "-WIRT SKIES, in Hdr-
pers Magazine for Nay. + e. II q ,r--