New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-03-17
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE.
A DEFENSE OF AMERICAN ART.
To the Editor Of The Tribune.

TO the Editor Of The Tribune.
SIRE In the communication of Omar" OF March
10. regarding cart and Art Critics." find this ex-
preston of the views of ian eminent foreigner and
critc:7
Your American art when brought face TO face with
that OF other countries exhibits less OF the nferority
commonly ascr1cd To il than should have been led 70
apparent except in a few individual Had the
best pictures here been distributed those of the
different European States, they would have taken
their place readily and without remark say TO myself
as pass from one picture to another This man studied
n Munich, that IN Paris has adopted the sentiment
tally OF the English school, another tue conventionay
OF DUSSELDORF IN this one we have representative OF
fluid the work of pupils We originate and produce
standards; you copy and do exercises.
To this "Omar" subscribes, for lie Immediately
follows WITH What can he said of such a criticism
save that it is true and that the defect is unavod-
abef Art in this country is in its infancy, and
what life it has must be drawn from the breasts of
the mother lands from all of which beg entirely
to dissent.
When artists have nothing better to say in defense
of American any other art than that it is in its
infancy and needs cOddlng, they had better say
nothing for the fact is that American art is not i'll
its infancy any more than the American character Is
in its infancy The best of it land that is what it is
to be judged by owes its strong and virc and in
dividual character to its resemblance to the art OF
other country but entirely to the work Of earnest
and thoughtful and original men, who have some
thing to express and who do express it no other
people do. l not uDmndful of this growing
fallacy, that the art Of America should look like the
art of some other place in order to be interesting aud
true, and there powerful agencies at work in
our midst to convince the public that art express
sion has reached its supreme limit in the often
strange and bizarre productions of other lands, but
it is nevertheless faacy and will have its day just
as many kindred fallacies have.
There shrnes in this city where the oracles sit
amid the splendOr of stuifs and the bewderment Of
brc-a-brac. who will instruct yOu, be You artist or
layman, with an assumption born only of superior
wisdom, IN what is good and what is bad i'll art. As
is natural, they have their disciples and their fol-
lowers, but we do not all succumo and So 1t comes
that some of us respect our own individual senti-
ment and trust our feeling.
That the American pictures at the Centennial Tx
position could readily take their place among those
of the different European States without remark
would be lamcntabe if true. But it is not true any
more Than the observation that "we (Europeans)
originate and you (Anericans) copy"
What Americans and all other artists have to do
is to express themselves which is to respect them
selves, and thereby defend themselves, as no lamen
tations about "juyenlity" or the severity Of
criticism can. E.M.J.
Netr- York, March IA, 1877.