, 1875-10-10
American Artists Weak in History,
Theology, and Politics.
Their Showing Better in Portraiture, and
Best in Landscape.
Pottery in the Ezposition---Majolica,
Henri Deux, and Minton Ware.
Home and Foreign Notes.

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| aALLERT.
About the end Of last May Mr.. Rusk1n issue
60-page pamphlet OF notes On some Of III
principal pictures exhibited in the rooms OF th
Royal Academy, 1875, which, as q resumption 0
IN annual series discontinued some fifteen year
| ago, possessed unusual interest, and has ru1
through several editions. Though marked will
! What be himse1f calls the .'lunecies OF bis de-
clinins years" and here and thora exhibiting
vehemenco and excess which are only toe1ab,
because their very violence furnishes their anti
dote, these notes hnve the wide value which be
longs to criticism based, as Mr. Ruskin's away,
| Is, upon permanent and essantial rrinciple.
| Of art, rasber than upon academic and technica
quality. It is not, perhaps, too great respect tt
QUE OWL exhibition at tho Exposition-if it be, a.
| has all along been claimed, fair exponent O
the coalition Of American paintlng-to wish tha
3lr. Ruskin might make y visit to it. notebook
in hand. aud tell us what he thought sbout it
| Only it is to be feared that the general barbar
ism ct America, and Of Chicago in particular
might divert him altogether from the n1aic topic
accustomed as he ia to make the subjects OF hi.
comments starting points for essays upon al
J manner Of social aud political questions.
| Some Of the results that would follow from
TIE APPLICATION OF RusK1ss STANDARDS
it is not impossible to surmise by attempting to
classify the more important pictures il our own
! galleries according TO the hesds into which he
divides those OF the Royal Academy. Disclaim-
ing ali purely technical criticism, and insisting
upon weighing what claims to bo hugh zrt in the
highest balances, he says:
Popular classic, temporary eternal al good at
Is more or less ddaec- Ny aEtls-1l1ersariea rage
ut for ssying 50, but tho gayest OF them cannot
help being monnentarilJ grave, 0or the emptoet-
headed occasionally Instructive: and whatever vosk
is also intellectually helpful less than entertaining
to Others and tt will be the sureat way Of estimating
the Intrinsic vaua Of the art of this rear pro-
coed examine it in the several provinces which ts
tidatc functions occupy; and collect the Of its
teachings the subjects-which viii
II embrace Its efforts Ia e7ay k1ndaf history,
biography, natural history, landscape, anu the end
OF Ill, policy.
Leaving Tor the moment the moro puzzling OF
these appellatious what have the hundreds Of
painters represented in the Exposition to SAY
about
THEOLOGY AID HISTORY?
The theological bias OF ths American artist.
even giving the word it's widest construction,
cannot be said from the evidence OF this colleo-
tion, to be strong. Where We should in former
times have found scores and hundreds OF pictures
of sacred subjects, the only things We have ap-
preaching them here are, "Cross and Crown"
aud the Burial OF Christian Martyr" Not
one other picture that could be said to be di-
rected to the expression OF religious emotion
or spiritual aspiration. In the Royal Academy
Rnsk1n fonnd i've worth commenting upon,
among them Poole's s'Ezekiels ViHion." and
Armytage's ''Jultan, the ADostate."
In history We are not much better on, for be-
sides Leutze's Revolutionary scenes, Wiimazth's
s'Eathan Hale" aud Walkers modern battle
unless ne include James Boards '' Night Before
the Battle" ". Thompson's ~ Scout in Vir-
gini.," Willard's 81 Last Day Of HercuIaneum,'' ~
and F. Johnaon's :. Milton Debating to His
Daughters" and the last at least would ~ we'll
so under the department Of biography.
This lmitation OF religions and historical sub
iects to not mora than dozen pictures among
700 ia = curious circumstance. And when it is
considered that people as rule quote most
from the books they ase. most familiar
most interested in, and draw generally
mosb upon what they moat have in mind,
the inference Is natural that our artists are not
in the habit Of dwelling much in the history Of
the past or the religion Of the future. Here
would be an opportunity for Mr. kuakin to make
tury occupied in carnal and mechanical science"
-'s fallen race who have sold their hearths for
money nnu their glory for morsel Of bread"
Under the head Of biography, says Mr. Ruskin,
II include
DRAxA, DOMESTIC INCIDENT, AND PORTRAIT,
this last being, if good, the sum Of what drama
and domestic chances have been wrought By, and
befa'len Ia, the person portrayed" This province
therefore would include, in our exhibition, not
only the ''Iago Of Hicks, the ''Ophelia" Of Dc
Craro, and all the genre pictures OF E. johnson,
Homer, Lambdin, and Perry. but the Portraits
OF Le Clear, Sel1stedt Heay, Phillips, and
others scattered through the galleries, perhaps
one-ffth or one-sixth Of the collection in all.
The next two heads cover large majority,
perhaps three-quartets, Of the exhibition. The
animals uud flowers would easily enough be cfasa
sifed under natural history, but the assortment
Of the works OF
THE VARIOUS 1AHDscAPEPA1vTERs
between naturat historic painting OF scenery
and true landscape is q Work OF difficulty, open
to endless disagreement:
The distinction between natural historic painting of
scenery and true landscape Il that the represents
objects Government Surveyor does, Cor the aake
Of good account Of the things themaeres, without
emotion, or definite purpose Of expression Land
painting shows the relation between Nature snd
81 seoasht
endeavored thirty Years ngo. tn Modern Paint
ers to explain ths difference briefly, BY saying TINT
friend The worst Of auch frtsndltness, however,
hat concaea painter may at iast leave Nature ont
then there t nothing for 1t but to back to the
Government Surveyor" |
Bierstadt, Cropsey, Hart, Richards, Inness. !
Casilear, McEnteo, Kense:e: "a the roll is |
,alled each lover OF landscape painting assigns
The separate names to the List OF the surveyors
or the friends according to his own Impressions. !
Most Of the former we shall always have, be-
cause the possession Of the best qualities is es-
rental to mastery laudscapa-painting,a . stage
1pon the way to the achievement Of that art,
1pon which many halt and rest. The Ruskin-
Ike head OF
. thus explained:
We finally inquire what our British artists have to
AZ to u1 on the subject Of good Government and ta
Necessary resulte-what triumph they expEeas In tho
British Constitution and its present achievements.
In old nes ali great artistic nations pictoE12y
a1kaire chIa9y. next to religion, On the subject ct
government Venice. Florence, md 6iena did little
lse than axpound, in figures and nyth1c types, the
ature Of civic dignity stateamAnly duty. and senate
tal or so1iery homer; and record year BY year. tho
vents conducive to thar fame
For this claes our boosted American exhibition
urnishes us not one, unless We 70 back and re-
over from the department Of history the few
attic pictures, which indeed have little In them
. connect them WITH general policy. And so it
upea1s that in au era which has seen the most
rritics1 struggle our Goyernuens has ever met,
,hich has Witnessed devoted patriotism and wise
upon the broadcast deId, has teen
marked with great battles and great debates,
IS eaved the nation and eoancipated every
lave, our art1sts have absolutely nothing to say
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