The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-11-09

West, the great painter, toiled in
unappreciation till, being . great skater,
while on the ice he formed the acquaint-
ance of General Howe, Of the English
army, and through coming to admire West
as q skater they gradually came to ap.
preciate as much that which he accom-.
plished by his hand as by his heel. Poussin,
the mighty painter, was pursued and had
nothing with which to defend himself
against the mob but the artists portfolio,
which he held over his head to keep of the
stones hurled at him. The pictures of
Richard Wilson, Of England, We're sold for
fabulous sums Of money after his death,
but the living painter was glad to get for
his "Alcyone" a piece of Stilton cheese.
From 1910 to 1913 there were 1900 pictures
willfully destroyed. In the reign Of Queen
Elizabeth it was the habit of some people
to spend much of their time in knocking
pictures to pieces. In the reign Of Charles
the First it was ordered by Parliament
that all pictures of Christ be burnt.
Painters were SO badly treated and
Inundated in the beginning of the eight
eenth 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 q
painters bill which came to publication in
Scotland in 1907, indicated. The painter
had been touching up some old pictures in
the church, and he sends in this itemized
bill to the vestry: "To filling up chink
in the Red sea and repairing the damages
to Pharaoh's hosts; to a new pair of hands
for Daniel in the lions den, and new set
of teeth for the lioness; to repairing Nebu-
chadnezzar's beard; to giving q 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; toputting on new handle to Moses
basket and fitting bulrushes and adding
more fuel to the fire in Nebuchadnezzar's
furnace" So painters were Inundated
clear down below the majesty of their art.
The oldest picture in England, a portrait of
Chaucer, though now of great value, was
picked out of lumber garnet. Great were
the trials of Quentin Matsys, who toiled
on from blacksmith's anvil till as a painter
he won wide recognition. The first mis-
sionaries in Mexico made the fatal mis-
take 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, 1883, and within twelve years
of the twentieth century, to be painter,
except in rare exceptions, means poverty
and neglect. poorly fed, poorly clad,
poorly housed, because poorly appre-
ciated! When hear q man is q painter,
have two feelings, one of admiration for
the greatness of his soul, and the other of
commiseration for the needs of his body.
But so 1t has been in all departments of
noble work. Some of the mightiest have
been hardly bestead. Oliver Goldsmith
had such big patch on the coat over his
left breast that when he went any where
he kept his hat in his hand closely pressed
over the patch. The world-renowned
Bishop Asbury had a salary of $64 year.
Painters are not the only ones who have
endured the lack of appreciation.
Let men Of wealth take under their pat
ronage the suffering men of art. They
lift no complaint, they make no strike for
higher wages. But with a keenness of
nervous organization which almost always
characterizes genius, these artists suffer
more than any one but God can realize.
There needs to be- n concerted effort for
the suffering artists Of America, not senti-
mental discourse about what we owe to
artists, but contracts that will give them
a livelihood; for l am in full sympathy
with the Christian farmer, who was very
busy gathering his fall apples and some
one asked him to pray for a poor family,
the father of which had broken his leg,
and the busy farmer said: 81 can not
stop now to pray, but you can go down
into the cellar and get some corned beef
and butter and eggs and potatoes; that is
all can do now" Artists may wish for
our prayers, but they also want prac-
teal help from men who can give
them work. You have heard scores
Of sermons for all other kinds of suf-
fering 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 masterpieces that have become inn
mortal on the other side of the sea, but it
is the fashion of Americans to mention
foreign artists, and to know little or moth
ing about our own Copley, and Allison,
and Inman, and Greenough and Kensett
Let the afiluent fling out of their windows
and into the backyard valueless daubs on
canvas, and call in these splendid but I'M
rewarded men, and tell them to adOrn
their 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 ten
O'Clock at night, and free to all who would
come and 60. What a preparation for the
wear and tear of the day 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 opportunity on the way
home in the evening from exhaustion that
demands recuperation for mind and soul
as well as body! Who will do for Brook
Ign or the city where you live what w. w.
Corcoran did for Washington. and what /
am told John Wanamaker, by the dona-
ton Of DeMunkacsy' great picture, Christ
Before PLATE" " Is going to do for Philadel
phia: Men of wealth, if you are too mod
est to build and endow such a place dur
ing your life time, why not go to your iron
safe and take out your last will and tesla
ment and make q codicil that shall build
for the city of your residence throne for
American art! Take some of that money
that would otherwise spoil your children
and build an art gallery that shall ASSOC
ciate 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 monument and not leave
it to the within 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