National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1885-11-07
SUGGESTIONS ABOUT ART.


In this busy continent the eager desire for
wealth, the "incessant and Sabbathless',
pursuit Of it, has become the universal pas
sion and occupation. We have that love for
money that is the root Of all evil, and under
the deadly shade of the tree from that root,
the love Of knowledge and art of truth, and
virtue, and beauty withers aud dies. Very
few stop to think that II takes more than
the "almighty dollar" to enjoy life. We
think too much of the material things and
forget to look into the spiritual, the most
important to brighten our PERCEPTION of
what is beautiful, true and good.
An article In the North American Review
of 1856 gives some thought on "Art and Its
Meaning" written by William Benney Wal
lace, an art critic. which displayed some
ideas that should he studied. He says sit
is the power to manifest the invisible that
gives to the visible its influence over us, and
this manifestation, this language, Is beauty;
beauty that CLEANS and glows around us
because 1t shines within us. Matter is the
oracle of Gods works. and is nodded and
penetrated by,eternal laws Of which II is the
expression. Every object OF nature is beau
tiful, is an Embodied joy because II is the
outward sign of moral and spiritual beauty
Enclosed within it
Like a glow worm golden
In dell OF dew.
Scattering unbeholden
Is aerial hue
Among the flowers and grass that screens it
from view.
AS nature is symbolical, and a language,
so must the art be which represents nature,
and as man sees In nature the expression of
his mind, so the artist finds In external OBJ
jects types and emblems of the thought and
passion of his soul.
For these uses he employs them, and in
his hand they perform the same Office that
they do in nature. The artist not only
selects the parts of nature which will ex-
press his meaning, but he idealizes.
The sensibility to the influences OF nature,
the power to see her splendor, and from
her hints magazine u fairer beauty is the
prerogative of genius, aud In the hand OF
genius art produces the objects of nature,
nodded to express the sentiment and idea
of the artists mind; thus Submitting the
and proving how entirely matter is plastic
by thoughts vesture Of thought.
"Thus," Emerson says, sin our fine arts not
imitation, but creation, is the aim"
In landscape the painter should give the
suggestion of fairer beauty than we know.
The details, the prose of nature, he should
omit and give us only the spirit and SPLEEN
dor He should know that the landscape
has beauty for his eye because 1t expresses
thought which is to him good, and this
because the same power which he sees
through his eyes is seen in that spectacle;
and he will come to value the expression of
nature, and not nature itself, and so eXalt
in his copy the features that please him. He
will give the gloom Of gloom and the sun
shine of sunshine
In portrait he must inscrlbe the charac
ter and not the features, l. O., the mere like
ness OF the features must be secondary to
the dclineation Of character. The likeness
must be perfect, but there must be some
thing more than that. The soul of the per
son In all its wonderful individuality must
speak through its features, and must esteem
the man who sits to him as himself only an
imperfect picture and likeness Of the aspir-
ing original within.
PROFESSIONALLY the highest purpose of
art is the expression of sentiment and
thought, and the more spiritual and noble
the idea and feeling on the artists mind,
the greater will be his work. But to attain
this power of expression, perfect truth is
essential.
The art which merely presents us copy
OF nature has its value but the art which,
by means of the forms OF nature truthfully
rendered, tells us a story, either of fact or
fancy, and puts us in sympathy with the
emotions and visions of genius has far
nobler Significance and value.
The genius of the artist consists In being
able to read and understand the characterls-
tic meaning OF objects which are dumb to
common minds.
The truthful realization Of nature is q
very different thing from the minute imita-
ton, which is intended to deceive, and
which displays mere mechanical skill.
We ask from the artist not deXterty, but
truth and life, and the expression OF life is
not increased, but injured by laborlous and
exact copying of surface and texture.
Truth does not depend on the multitude
of details. but on their fidelity.
We should cultivate art, because 1t edu-
Gates TO the perception and love of beauty,
and thus leads us from the beauty OF the
external and the visible to the beauty Of
the internal and invisible, of which matter
| is this image, so that we come to consider,
as Plato says, "the beauty existing in the
soul Of greater value than that existing in
the body" We ascend naturally from the
contemplation of natural beauty to the
moral aud spiritual beauty Of which 1t is a
type. To express this is the highest excel
| lcnce of art.
Art is the service of the ideal ; and the
more spiritual and intellectual this service
becomes, more spiritual is the medium
which 1t employs for its manifestation.