Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1876-06-02
Art Or iticism.

The other day while Col. b. editor of
paper, which We will call The Buqle, was
sitting in his sanctum, writing an editorial,
visitor entered. Taking a seat, he said
My name is Brewer am the painter of
the aliegorical picture of The Triumph of
ruth, on exhibition down at Yelyerton's;
called, Col. B, to make some complaint
about the criticism of the work which an
peared in your paper. Your critic seems to
have misunderstood, somewhat. the drift of
the picture. For instance. he saws Let
me quote the paragraph:
In the background to the left stands St.
Augustine with one foot on wooden Indian
which is lying upon the ground. Why the
artist decorated St. Augustine with high
hat and put his trousers inside his boots,
and why he filled the saints belt with navy
reyolyers and tomahawks, has not been re-
vealed. 1t strikes US as being very ridicu-
lous'
Now, Colonel, this seems to me to be
little too harsh. That figure does not repre-
sent St Augustine. 1t is meant for an allie
gorical picture of Brute Force, and it has
its foot upon Intellect Intellect, mind you
and not cigar-store Indian. 1t is likeness
of Captain Kidd, and set it back to repre-
sent the fact that Brute Force belonged to
the dark ages. How in thunder that man
OF yours ever got an idea that it was ST.
Augustine beats me-"
at is singular" Colonel
"And now let me direct your attention to
another paragraph. He says
I'VE were astonished to notice that while
Noah's ark goes sailing in the remote dis
tance, there is, close to it, cotton factory,
the chimney of which is pouring out white
smoke that covers the whole of the sky in
the picture, while the ark seems to be irving
to sail down that chimney. Now they didn't
have cotton factories in those DAYS the thing
do MT hang. The artist must have been
drunk
Now, Colonel, this insinuation pains me-
How would you like it, if you painted pic
ture of the Tower of Babel, and somebody
should come along and insist that it was the
chimney of cotton factory, and that the
clouds with which the sky is covered was
smoke? Cotton factory Your man certain
ly cannot be familiar with the scriptures
and when he talks about the ark sailing down
that chimney he forgets that the reason why
1t is standing on one end is that the water is
so rough as to make it pitch. You know the
Bible says that arks did pitch without and
within. Now do Mt it?
II think maybe it does replied the
Colonel.
but that's not the worst | can stand it.
But what do you think of a man who goes
to criticising a work Of art, and says-now
Just listen to this:
"'On the right is boy who has his clothes
off, and has apparently been in swimming
and has been rescued by big yellow dog
Just as he was about to drown. What this
has to do with the Triumph of Truth we do
not know, but we do know that the dog is
twice as large as the boy and that he has the
boys head in his mouth while the boys
hands are tied behind his back. Now for a
boy to 60 in swimming with bis hands tied,
and for dog to swallow his head so as to
| drag him out, appears to be the awfullest
foOlishness on earth.
Colonel, you Will probably be surprised
to learn that your critic Is here referring TO
q very beautiful study Of Christian martyr
who has been thrown among the wild beasts
of the arena, and who Is engaged in being
eaten by lion. The animal Is not yellow
dog that human being has not been in
swimming and the reason that he Is smaller
than the lion is that had to make him so IN
order to get his head into the lions mouth.
Would you have me represent the lion as
large as an elephant? Would you have me
paste label on the Christian martyr to in
form the public that This is not a boy who
has been treading water with his hands tied.
Now look at the matter calmly. Is the Bugie
encouraging art when it goes on in this man
ner , Blame me if think 1t is -
1T certainly does MT seem So
"Well. then, what do you say to this
What do you think of critic who re-
marks
but the most extraordinary thing in the
picture is the group in the foreground An
old lady with an iron coal-scuttle on her head
is handing some black pills to ballet dane
er dressed in pink tights, while another
woman in badly fitting ehemise, stands by
them brushing off the flies, with the branch
Of tree, with a canary bird resting upon her
shoulder and trying to sing at some small
boys who are seen in the other corner of the
field What this means we have mt the re-
motest idea but we do know that the bal
let dancers legs have the knee-lans at the
back of the joint, and that the canary bird
looks more as if it wanted to eat the coal
scuttle than if he desired to sing
"This is too bad. Do you know what
that beautiful group represents? You'll
hardly believe it, and yet, as true as I'm sit
ting here, that old lady, as your idiot calls
her, is Minerva, the Goddess of war, hand
ing-not pills, mind you pills why its
awful-handiDg cannon balls to the Goddess
of Love as token there shall be no more
war. And the figure in what he calls the
chemise is the Genius of Liberty, holding
out an olive branch with one hand, while
upon her shoulder rests an American eagle,
screaming defiance at the enemies of his
country, who are seen fleeing in the distance
Canary bird small boys ballet girls The
man is crazy, sir; stark, staring mad 1t Is
awful And now | want you to write up
an explanation for me and publish it. This
kind of thing exposes me to derision. 1t
e1cites laughter l can't stand it; and, by
George, won't III sue you for libel. 1t
hurts the sale of the picture"
Then the colonel promised to make
amends, and Mr.. Brewer Withdrew in
| calmer mood.