Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1873-05-22
NUMBER 7.
ANTOINE WlERTZ.
Story of = Marvellous Caen1us--A (:hiltl.
Artist-The Wooden Fro&-A NalaraI
NJ nusbctan-W0rktnE Under OiAcul-
tleS-A COnxlxtent Oev0tee.

s>A~ ssAA ou0 "OAA VI Ou0 Auuu~buuV u
Antoine Wiertz, son of tailor in tb'
Ardennes. The tailor had been a sol
dier, aud entertained q dream of glory
He transmitted the fire of his ambitio,
to the SOD, where it became q stead,
and consuming fame, burning Will
pure, clear light, and filing the boy
soul with q spirit which would hav,
been appreciated grandly among th,
Greek stoics, but which seemed Quix
otto in this practical nineteenth cen
tury. =!
He might have lived in luxury by hi,
art, but he preferred to live in abjec
poverty for his art. His thirst for famI
was insatiable-his contempt for for
tune incredible. The story of his lif,
is as curious and pathetic as the work,
of his genius are fantastic ani unique
T fWieftss vas born in s100d in. the oil
town of DinaEt, on the banks Of th,
river Meuse. At IN age where othe,
children play, this child occupied him
self with toys of art. He made draw
ings 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 a wooden frog, which he bad cul
with his knife, and which was so mar.
vellOus an imitation of the living crea.
ture that visitors to the tailorS shou
tried to kick the counterfeit reptile in.
to 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
talked about it everywhere he went,
and the news coming to the ears of II.
Paule 4aibe, IN art connoisseur at
Diante: 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 aptitude for music, too.
The result was that at the age of four
teen Wiert1 could teach his drawing
master not only, bat he had acquired
q surprising facility at engraving, in
which latter art he was entirely self
taught. He made cuts of his own
original drawings, and having made
the cuts, he himself printed from them;
besides which he could play on some
half dozen different musical instru-
ments, but of this art be made little or
no use in after life. -"a.
At so early an age as this the boys soul
became fired with passion 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-six dollars
from the king-and left him to make
his way. On this paltry sum the boy
lived, practicing the most rigid econo.
mics. He had no pleasures, no occu-
pations, outside his art. In one of his
letters to his mother, to whom he was
tenderly devoted all his life, he wrote
Except for food, l hardly spend two
farthings."
His lodging was in his studio, aud
that studio a miserable corner in .
granery, without fire and without
lights at evening, the roof 10 low that
as his stature increased he could not
stand upright in il, but went about
STOPPING. Here he wrought al dav
long on the paintings which he already
designed to open the door Of fame, and
in the darkness of night either went
out and studied, or remained in his
den and solaced his loneliness with
Wild, weird music. ..>., :,
In winter, in the intensest cold, be
worked still, almost without ceaGing,
in sort of ecstacy, as wretched in his
externals as beggar, As happy ir his
sublime passion for art as any king, or
better, as any lover. For six years he
so dwelt and so lived, and in his scorn
of physical comforts-Dot to speak OF
luxurles, p]easures-was a. stoical %
Diogenes. If he could have painted
in q tub, he would lave lived in a tub.
Tempting offers were made him to
paint for money, but he would not.
70 one connoisscur who offered him .
large sum for one of his studies, Wiertx
made reply worthy to live among the
celebrated speeches Of genius. 'tKeep
your gold," he said, cit isthe murder
er of art" This sentence strikes tue
key note of this remarkable mans an
them of life He would never sell his
works. Hence the gallery in Brussels
to day is crowned with the efforts Of
fapciful and gortesque genius, while
out in the world you would ask in vain
for one of his pictures. Portraits form
the only exception Of this statement,
for portraits he painted now and then
throughout his life rs "pot.boilers."
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 Wiertx wrote
also, much and we'll, about the art he
loved so passionately. "In an epoch
when mechanism is preferred to ex-
pressiop," he said, "one must have
courage enough to initiate the great
Prussiau and paint for posterity; and,
struggling always; against bad taste,
know how to remain poor, in order to
remain q great artist.-Hdrpcr's Mag
azi,ae, May.