The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-06-13
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The 8utland daily Globe.
FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 1878.
Antoine wiertz.
STORY OF A MARVELLOUS GENIUS CHILD
ARTIST.


STORY OF A MARVELLOUS GENIUS CHILD
ARTIST.
The extraordinary paintings as well as
the sculptures, in the sWiertz gallery are
all the work of one hand-that of Antoine
Wiertz, son of tailor in tile Ardennes
The tailor had been soldier and entertain
ed dream of glory. He transmitted the
fire of his ambition to the son, where it be-
came steady and consuming flame, burn
ing with pure, clear 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 in luxury by his art, but he pre-
terred to live in AFFECT poverty for his art
His thirst for fame was insatiable-his con-
tempt 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 an old town of
Dinant, on the banks of the Mouse. At an
age when other children play, this child oc-
cupied himself with toys of art. lie 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 tri-
umphs of his boyhood was n wooden frog,
which he had cut with his knife, and which
was SO marvellous an imitation of the living
creature that visitors to the tailor's shop
tried to kick the counterfeit reptile into the
street.
A captain of gems d'armes who tried TO
pierce the wooden frog with his sword was
so amazed by it that he talked about it ev-
erywhere he went, and the news coming to
the ears of NJ. Paule Maibe, an art connois-
seur at Dinant, he visited the boy, and be-
came his patron in Il small way; that is to
say, he took him home, and had him taught
music and drawing-for the boy had an APP
titude for music too. The result was that
at the age of fourteen Wiertz could teach
his drawing master, not only, but had ac-
quired a surprising facility at engraving, in
which latter art he was entirely self-taught.
He made wood-cuts of his own original
drawings and having made the cuts he him
self printed from them; beside which he
could play on some half-a-dozen different
musical Instruments but of this art he made
little or no use in after life. 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
frUm the king-and left him to make his
way. On this paltry sum the boy lived,
practising 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 devoted all his life,
he wrote, Except for food hardly spent
two farthings." His lodging was his studio,
and that studio was a miserable corner in
granary, without fire and without lights at
evening, the roof so low that rs his stature
,,,nr Il :.
but went about STOPPING. Here he wrought
all day long on the paintings which he al
ready 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, III llie iutensest cuiu, lie wvIk-
ed still, almost without ceasing, in a sort of
ecstacy, as wretched in his intervals as
beggar, as happy in 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 comfort-not to
speak of Injuries, pleasures-was as stoical
as Diogenes. If he could have painted in
tub, he would have lived in tub. Tempt
ing offers were made him to paint for money,
but he would not. To one connoisseur who
offered him a large sum for one of his
studies, Wiertz made reply worthy to live
among the celebrated speeches of genius.
"Keep your gold" he said, " it is the muir
derer ofart." This sentence strikes the key
note of this remarkable mans anthem of
life. He would never sell his works. Hence
the gallery at Brussels to-day is 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. Por-
traits form the only exception to this state
ment, for portraits he painted now and then
throughout his life rs ot-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 Wiertz wrote also, much and
well. about the art he loved so passionately.
g In an epoch when mechanism is preferred
to expression" he said, /" one must have
courage enough to initiate the great Poussin,
and paint for posterity; and, struggling al
ways against bad taste, know how to remain
poor, in order to remain great artist
Haiper's Magazine