Daily Yellowstone journal., 1888-11-04

the world had seen since the first color
appeared on the sky at the creation, Paul
Gustav Dore. AT IL years of age he
published marvellous Autographs OF
his own. Saying nothing Of what
he did for Millions Paradise
Lost" emblazoning it on the at
tention Of the world, he takes up the
Book of Books, the monarch of litera.
ture, the Bible, and in his pictures "The
Creation of Light" 1.-THE Trial of Abra-
hams Faith, +" 1.-The Burial of Sarah"
s'Joseph Sold by His Brethren, y ''The
Brazen Serpent" ''Boaz and Ruth
.'Dayid and Goliath" THE Transiigura-
ton, - ''The Marriage in Cana, Baby
Ion Fallen" and two hundred and five
Scriptural scenes in all, with a boldness
and a grasp and almost supernatural
aflatus that make the heart throb, and
the brain reel and the tears start, aud
the cheeks blanch, and the entire nature
quake with the tremendous things of
God and eternity and the dead, Iac-
tually staggered down the steps of the
London Art gallery under the power Of
Dore's Christ Leaving the Pretorium."
Profess o 10 be a Christian man or
woman, and see no divine mission in art,
and acknowledge you no obligation either
in thanks to God or man?
II is no more the word of God when
put before us in printers ink than by
skillful laying on of colors, or designs on
metal through incision or corrosion.
What a lesson in morals was presented
by Hogarth, the painter, in his two pic
lures. THE Rake's Progress" and THE
Miser's Feast" and by Thomas Coles
~engravings of the Voyage of Human
Life" and the 'Course of Empire;" and
by Turner'S Slave Ship" God in art!
Christ in art. Patriarchs, prophets and
apostles in art! Angels in art! Heaven
In art.
The world and the church ought to
come TO the higher appreciation Of the
divine mission of pictures, yet the
authors of them have generally been left
to se~mi-starvation. West, the great
painter, toiled in unappreciation till, be-
ing a great skater, while on the ice he
formed the acquaintance Of Gen. Howe,
of the English army, and through com
ing 10 admire West as a skater, they
gradually came 10 appreciate as much
that which he accomplished 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, were sold
for fabulous sums OF money after
his death, but the living painter
was glad TO get for his .'Alcyone"a piece
of Stiton cheese. From 1910 to 1913
there were 1900 pictures willfully de-
stroyed. 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 1t was ordered 10y parliament that
all pictures Of Christ be burnt. Painters
were so badly treated and Inundated in
the beginning of the Eighteenth 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 a painters bill
which came 10 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: ITO filling up
achink in the Red Sea and repairing the
damages to Pharaoh's hosts;'' Ito a new
pair of hands for Daniel in the lions den,
and a new set of teeth for the lioness;"
ito repairing ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS beard"
ito giving a blush to the cheek Of Eve on
presenting the apple to ADAM" ito max.
ing a bride for the Good Samaritan's
horse. and mending one Of his legs" ito
putting on a new handle on Moses basket
and fitting bulrushes, and adding more
fuel TO the fire in Nebuchadnezzar's fur
mace" 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 a 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
missionaries 10 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 1888. and within
twelve years Of the Twentieth century,
to he a painter, except in rare exceptions,
means poverty and neglect? poorly fed,
poorly. clad, poorly housed, because
poorly appreciated When hear a man
is a 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 it has been in all departments
of noble work. Some Of the mightcst
have been hardly bestcad. Oliver
Goldsmith had such a big patch on the
coat over his left breast hat when he
went anywhere he kept his hat in his
hand closely pressed over the patch.
The world renowned Bishop Asbury had
a salary of SGi a year. Painters are not
the only ones who have endured the lack
Of appreciation. Let men of wealth take
under their patronage the suffering men
Of art. They lift no complaint; they
make no strike for higher wages. But
with a keerness of nervous organization
which almost always characterizes gen.
ius, these artists suffer more than any
one but God can realize. There needs
to be a concerted effort for the
suffering artists Of America, not