New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-11-07

Lowe oi TIE OI1tlSH army, and through
coming to admire West as a skater, they
gradually came to appreciate as much that
which he accomplished by his hand as by his
heel. Poussin, the mighty painter, was pur-
sued, and had nothing with which to defend
himself against the mob but the artist s.
portfolio, which he held over his head to
keep off the stones hurled at him The
pictures of Richard Wilson, of England, sold
for fabulous sums of money after his death,
but the living painter was glad to get for his
.Alcyone' i p:ece of Stilton cheese. From
l64Oto 1643 there were 4.600 pictures will
fully destroyed. In the reign of Queen Eliza
beth it was the habit of some people to spend
much oftheir time in knocking pictures to
pieces. In the reign of Charles the First it
was ordered by parliament that ali pictures
of Christ be burnt.
Painters were SO badly treated and humili-
ated in the beginning of the 18th century
that they were lowered clear down out of the
sublimity of their art, and obliged to give
minute accounts of what they did with their
colors, as painters bill which came to- pub
LEGATION in Scotland, in 1907, Indicated The
painter had been touching up some old pic
lures in the church, and he sends in this item
lied bill to the yestry: 'sTo filing up a chink
in the Red sea and repairing the damages to
Pharaoh's hosts;;'' to a new pair of hands
for Daniels in the lions den, and a new set of
teeth for the lioness;'' stc repairing Nebuch-
adnezzar's BEARD" ito giving a blush to the
cheek of Eve on presenting the apple to
Adam" ''to making a bride for the Good
Samaritan's horse and mending one of his
legs;' "to putting on a new handle on Moses
basket and fitting bulrushes, and adding
more fuel to the fire in ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS fur
mace" So painters were Inundated clear
down below the majesty Of their art The
Oldest pictures in England, a portrait of
Chaucer, though now of great value, was
n a ll1I bar
the trials of Quentin Matsys, who toiled on
from Blacksmiths anvil till as painter he
won wide recognition.
The first missionaries to Mexico made
the fatal mistake of destroying pictures, for
the loss of which art and religion must ever
lament. But why go SO far back when in
this year of our Lord, 1855, and within IL
years of the 10th century, to be painter,
except in rare exceptions, means poverty
and neglect? poorly fed, poorly clad, poorly
housed, because poorly appreciated! When
| hear a man isa painter, | have two feel.
ings, one of admiration for the greatness of
his soul, and the other of commiseration for
the needs of his body.
But SO it has been in all departments of
noble work. Some of the mighties1 have
been hardly treated. Oliver Goldsmith had
such big patch on the coat over his left
breast that when he went anywhere he kept
his hat in his hand closely pressed over the
patch. The world renowned Bishop Asbury
had q salary of $64 a year. Painters are
not the only ones who have endured the
lack OF approximations Let men OIL wealth
suffering men of art. They lift
no complaint; they make no strike for
higher wages. But with q keenness of ner-.
vous organization which almost always
characterizes genius, these artists suffer more
than anyone but God can realize There
1rls4 1@o- .411a
ing artists of America, not sentimental dis
course about what we owe to artists, but
contracts that give them q livelihood; for
ali in full sympathy with the Christian farm
er, who was very busy gathering his fall APP
pies, and someone asked him to pray for a.
poor family, the father Of which had broken
his leg; and the busy farmer said: II cannot
stop now to pray, but you can go down into
the cellar and get some corned beef, and but
ter, and eggs, and potatoes; that is all can
do now" Artists may wish for our prayers,
but they also want practical help from men
who can give them work
You have heard scores Of sermons for all
other kinds of suffering men and women, but
l think this is the first sermon ever preached
that made plea for the suffering men and
women of American art. Their work is more
true to nature and life than any of the mas
terpieces that have become immortal on the
other side OF the sea- but it is the fashion of
Americans to mention foreign artists, and
to know little or nothing about our own
Copley, and Allston, and Inman, and Green
ough, and Kenset. Let the affluent fling out
of their windows and into the back yard
valueless daubs on canvas, and call in these
splendid but unrewarded men, and tell them
to adorn your walls, not only with that
which shall please the taste, but enlarge the
mind and improve the morals and save the
souls of those who gaze upon them.
Brooklyn, and all other American Cities
need great galleries of art, not only open
annually for few days on exhibition, but
which shall stand open all the year round,
and from early morning until 10 O'Clock at
night, and free to all who would come and
go. What a preparation for the wear and
tear of the day a five minutes look in the
morning at some picture that will open a
door into some larger realm than that in
which our population daily drudge Or what
q good thing the half hour of artistic oppor-
tunity on the way home in the evening from
exhaustion that demands recuperation for
mind and soul, as well as body! Who will
what W. W. Corcoran did for Washington,
and what I am told John Wanna
maker, by the donation of De
Munkacsy's great picture, Christ Before
PLATE, ~ is going to do for Philadelphia? Men
ofweafth, it you are too modest to build and
endOW Such a place during your lifetime, why
not go to your iron safe, and take out your
last will and testament, and make codicil
that shall build for the city Of your residence
a throne for American art? Take some of
that money that would otherwise spoil your
children, and build an art gallery that shall
associate your name forever, not only with
the great masters of painting, who are gone,
but with the great masters who are trying to
live; and also win the admiration and
love of tens of thousands of people,
who, unable to have fine pictures Of
their own, would be advantaged by
your benefaction. Build your own monu-
ments, and not leave it to the
whim Of others. Some OF the best people
sleeping in Greenwood have no monuments
at all, or some crumbling stones that in a
few years will let the rain wash out name and
epitaph: while some men, whose death was
the. abatement of a nuisance, have pile of
polished Aberdeen high enough for king,
and eulogium enough to embarrass aseraph
oh. n.of large wealth, instead of leaving
to tsS2whim of others your monumental COM
3 saoration and epitaphology to be looked
8s9Srwhen people are going to and fro at the
burial of others, build right down in the
heart of our great city, or the city where you
live, an immense free reading-room, or a
free musical conservatory, or a free art gal
lery, the inches for sculpture and the walls
al uyith foil IF