The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1888-11-24
BROADBRIM'S N. Y. LETTER.

Once more Messrs Sutton & Kirby, OF
the American Art Galleries, come TO the
front and lay New York under a fresh
obligation for one of the rarest and most
beautiful exhibitions that we have had in
this city for many day. The American
Art Galleries are not merely place where
fine pictures are hung for exhibition or
sale; 1t Is an art school where each one as
he enters receives an education In object
teaching worth all the books that ever
were written. For the past few years we
have frequently heard from the press on
the other side of the water of Vasseli
Verestchagin the prophet of the future in
realistic art. "Who is hep" people ask,
"and on what grounds does he claim re-
cognitionr Some said. HE is to Art
what Wagner is to Music" But what
eyer he is 1t is apparent to you at glance
that art is to him hard fact, and very
hard fact q. that. The man would not
turn on his heel to please an emperor
You have got to accept his art as he sees it,
or not accept 1t all. He does not ask you
II the pictures please you, but are they true2
ana II they are true, like a fatalist he leaves
tho rest with God.
As you enter the gallery the first picture
that greets you Is q mighty canvass cover
Ing the entire side of the rom, descriptive
Of the triumphal entry of the Prince of
Wales into the sacred city of Delhi. No
words can describe the barbarous splendor
Of the pageant. The artist fairl, reYels in
those brilliant colors which 50 charm the
Oriental heart. The detail is wonderful
and tho attendant figures are marvels OF
the painters art. You could gaze on 1t for
hours and each moment discover new
beauties a. you see them la the turn of the
kaleidoscope. Mighty rugs from Persian
and Indian looms adorn the walls, and
facing the picture Of which have spoken
II one Of those realistic battle pieces fol
which VerestchaRin Is so famous. With
him there is no toning down for effect
War is war, bitter, bloody, cruel, and b,
paints II for you just as II is. AS you gaz,
on these Wild scenes of mortal pain, The
cold chills creep over you; as you look OF
the suffering wretches you see them writ,
In agony and almost hear them cry, anC
you realize that this is war. The ground II
Uttered with the dying and the dead. al
around are fragments of raen In all stage
OF suffering and woe Here is a grim oil
Cossack from the Don, his arm Is shattered
his swarthy face has on II the hues o
death, but he sits there in grim silence
accomplishing, and quiet, awaits th
summons before the King of Kings and tn
Lord of Lords.
VerestchRgin never spares you a pang
that is no part of his business; his bushes
10 70 make you understand what war means
and this he does In such an sffectual man
neF that you can never forget II to your dy
ipR day. Looking at these war picture
you would say this man 10 no poet. Yol
arc wrong, his soul is full OF poetry but b
paints facts. His imagination meyer for
moment gets the better Of his Judgment
When he paints "The holy Family Mar
is not clad in silks and Velvets, she Is th
wife Of poor carpenter who has har
struggle for his daily bread, and the carper
ter Of Bethlehem and Jerusalem to-day
in no respect different from the carpente
Of twenty centuries ago. His tools al
precisely the same, he works In the sam
slow and painful way, and this prophet {
the brush gives you the plain matter c
fact Jesus, he who grew up in the hous
OF Joseph the carpenter, is before yor
One Of the most startling and rsalisti
eAnvAsses is "Chrlst Oh Calvary.
Munkaesy's: great pieturssis still fresh !
our memory. But Munkaesy's pletur
AsvsS SatlA6sd me. II was simply pie
tore yop were AsVer bsguilsd for moHsI