New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-05-17
ART IN BOSTON.
CONDITION AND ITS TENDENCIES.

| sToN AND UNDERSTANDINGS OF VALUE AND
| OF NO VALUE
| iFRoM AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRBUNEI
BosTON May 1O-The interest which the people
and press have taken in art during the season no"
nearing its close has been unusually great, and
donbt may even be allowed whether, in this re-
spect, any other year can enter into comparison
with it, The exhibitions and sales have been
legion, and the number of pictures sold has been
| prodigious and even now are waiting for many
of our inferior artists to complete their annual
"Spring cleaning" and still further flood the
market The capacity of the picture-buyng pubic
is remarkable. Although Boston is not very large
| place when viewed from the superior point OF view
of Gotham ut least it is still large enough to DIS
pose of several thousand pictures yearly, and with
| each succeeding year shows growing demand
Some of the pictures sold here doubtless find their
final rcsting-pace on the walls of alien homes, Dut
the great majority of them remain either IN thlsclIy
or within easy radius from it.
1t is O singular fact that the works of Now-lork
artists arc better known and more extensively bought
| throughout the State than those from Boston
studios. We hear at times of exhibitions and sales
| of NeW-YOrk paintings of the highest class III our
interior towns but rarely learn that the best paint
ers of Boston have sold their pictures outside this
CITY or its suburbs Whether this fact is due to the
superior enterprise OF the superior ability OF the
New-York craftsmen is not known, but think 1t Is
| in large measure owing to the encouragement ana
approval they receive from their own feOw-cltizens
and especaly from the press which is vigorous inits
criticisms and discriminating in its pralse--twO
things which the papers of BOstOnas wholoare not
II 1s doubtful also whether the artists of NewYOrk
are as Jealous of their brethren ours arc for it
seems evident that the chief things lacking here
| are a Catholic spirit and the power to perceive
merit in the germ as we'll as in the fruit. BostOns
| tardy recognition of talent has cost her many an
artist whose repute should have been of quick and
ready winning, and she is likely to lose many more
unless she opens her eyes and refuses to listen
| drOwsily to the platitudes of narrow aud conse-
| quential schools She has driven out Swan Gif-
ford, Bncher, lnness Bierstadt and others, and IS
now obliged to coincide with the estimate of their
merit which they have gained in a city which
quietly shows its culture without Dragging about
! it; and MeneghellI, BenOni. Irwin and one or two
more, whose ability has not made the impression it
| ought to have done, also propose ~ shake from
| their feet the Olympic dust" Of BostOn's arena,
and seek some klnder spot where ability IS rccog-
niZed. We seem TO lack in enterprise too, and are
| apparently unable 10 awake from sort of artistic
apathy. While New-YOrk has its Academy, its So
| ciety of American Artists its American Water
| Color Society, ETC., we can show nothing outside
our Art Museum except the invariably unsatisfying
associations, the most skilfully cOnrived to ham,
string art, while it Is apparently engaged i'll push
ing It forward. Our artists make spasmodc efforts,
now and them to interest the public in their work.
but their failure is invariably so bad that they soon
! abandon the matter in disgust. One of these
periodical movements was made during the past
| Winter when our representative artists, without
! exception. formed an association aud hung the
| walls of the gallery in Studio Building with
| the only satisfying collection Of paintings
| from local studios TO which we have been treated
for many a day. AS this exhibition was free TO the
public it was literally patronized. but after serving
| as a rendezvous and lunch room for suburban
visitors for a month, only two pictures were sold,
| the collection vanished like dissolviDg view,
and the artists ont of pocket, retired to indulge in
| cordial and uncOmplimentary oratonS against Bos-
toms appreciation of art, of which the echoes have
| not vet done reverberating. All sorts OF reasons
are advanced for the failure of this and similar en-
| terprlses, except the proper and obvious one OF
| low condition of art culture The undertaking was
| started without seeking the sanction OF the few
whose sef-assumcd patronage and encouragement
of the aesthetic must DO deferred u if success would
be assured. If the project could somehow have be-
come identified with the everlasting effort to save
the Old South Church." or if it had been started in
| the Hawthorne Rooms. where lectures on divers in
tellcctual toprs arc dOed out to audiences Of I'M
| bounded culture and intensity, the artists would
| probably have had no cause to complain But as
the exhibition was attempted in most disgustingy
| irregular and independent manner, and upon bust
ness rather than fashionable grounds. its failure
was no doubt. the natural consequence
Boston, in the matter of art. is prone 10 in
ruts, and in very deep and narrow ones TOO, some
| times. Having developed one or two undoubted
masters of painting she is in the habit Of riveting
her odmirin O contamination upon them and declines
TO admit that anything else is nerltorous unlcfs 1t
is forced to this mOde-and oven then the Chief in
tent of criticism is to point out in what respect the
new work falls short of the old. Washington
| Allston was formerly the bugbear and DOGGY
which was set up TO frightcn the young art
| lists of Boston. Nobody could paint rs he
painted, aud no method was worth look
| ing at which was not in imitation of
| his; and 80 copies OF manner and treatment null
tIplied while Art stood by and wcpt to her car
| mired in the slough Of servilo Difference But alas
for human glory Ibis fame in the critical judgment
of latter-day Boston (Which, indeed, knows very
little bout HIM has passed away, and those whose
| sVmpathieS are broad enough to admire hun set
| down as antlquated old f0ges, who are bObbng
| blindy about like cOrks IN the wake of progress
| Nav they always remain so, if haply we may still
be Obliged to retrace course OF which they are the
| Following Alston comes Hunt who is like his pre-
decessOr in that he suffered for lack of appreciation
| in life and has been cXtTayagantiy eulOPZed since
| he died. Hunts influence IN setting up q standard
of excellence bv which other artists Of whatever
order of effort, are gauged was like AlstOns, but
less in degree owing doubtless 20 the crTatic and
impatient manner Of the man himself, who i'm
pressed more by the strength OF his own personal
| YigOr than by any work lie has left Aston was
| ullet, refined gentle soul. who wont to saw as
lis friends here remember, that nOue but good
| man could wOrthily interpret nature; and who was
of so tolerant spirit that he could rcbuke artist
| who spoke cnvlOnsy OF another with the remark