New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-07-21
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
RICHARDSON. THE ARCHITECT.

0JShAhDSONs tIlE ARSIlllGSis
HENRY HoBsoN RICHARDSON AND HIS WORK
BY Mrs. schuyler Van Rensselaer,. Illustrated
PIP. 1o2. Boston: Houghton, Mililin g. Co.
1888.
Mrs Van Rensselaer, has wisely chosen to devote
far the larger part Of her SPACE to discussion
Of Richardson's professional achievements. treated
In chronological order. Only the first seven
chapters consist of purely personal biography ana
even here there would have been no loss in the
omission Of some of the letters from Paris and
perhaps Of the jealous effort to trace in Richard
son resemblance TO his ancestor Priestlcy. We
are briefly tod of Richardson's boyhood in Lousi-
ana, of his student life at Harvard and in Paris,
and of his trying experiences when he sought to
establish himself in New York in SOS. His active
professional career began with the commission
for the Church Of the Unity in Springfield, in
1866, and this was speedily followed by commits
sions for the Boston and Albany Railroad offices in
the same city, and for church at West Medford.
These earliest works are. of course, to be re-
gardcd as tentative. The Church of the Unity,
as Mrs. Van Rensselaer, points out, was based
upon a rural English type although she holds that
it exhibits the architects first care as for the
building whole, and her enthusiasm prompts
her to give it very high place among Gothic
churches in America The railroad building en-
hibts Roman renaissance scheme. and the
cations in the Medford church There is not much
to be said of the buildings which followed in
Springfield and Worcester, and the Brattle Street
Church in Boston, designed in $50, is criticised
by our author with unusual impartalty HIS
early buildings she adds. taken as whole,
do not foreshadow those whose list begins with
Trinity Church, and though characteristic feat
urcs now and again appear. it is not in such way
that at the time any certain prophecy could have
been gathered from them. more diverse
more palpably experimental, set of buildings IT
would be hard to find" But we are asked TO
bear in mind that none Of the work was really
weak or timfd.' that the designs were those Of
young man fresh from study and special influ-
cnces in Paris ard that the time was one OF
small things in American architecture.
As matter of fact, the important, the es-
scntial, period of Richardson's work was singu-
larly brief. The commission for Trinity Church
in Boston was given to Richardson in 1872. and
the building completed and dedicated, was conse-
Grated in 1871 The site was one which de-
mandcd much. yet promised much II was $50
lated and triangular in shape. The Art Museum
was near at hand and there likely to be
other adjacent structures Of monumental proper
tions. The triangular shape, however, which to
an architect preferring the familiar Gothic type
of church would have seemed unfortunate was
extremely fortunate 1Or 1tlcnaruSOn III dlulOSV
prescribed design based upon the examples of
that Southern Romanesque which he had just
begun to study. 4 church with a long nave and
dominant entrance. front could hardly have
been well fitted 10 such a site a compact ground
plan. a pyramdal mass, tower equally con-
spicuous from all points Of view-these were
plainly the things to be desired. An interior
designed somewhat like that Of Trinity is certainly
better suited to modern needs than one in which
rows Of columns intercept the sight, and space is
gained By longitudinal extension. Other Ameri-
can architects had already recognized this fact
and had tried TO give it acceptable expression. But
Trinity was the first important American church
which proved that il might be ex-
pressed with great architectural beauty and with
an effect as truly ecclcsiastic that of the long
drawn aisle: and the influence of Richardson's
success upon subsequent practice has been very
powerful One cannot doubt that he at once
perceived and welcomed the fact that the claims
Of conv~nence and of exterior beauty pointed in the
same directions" or the criticisms which have
been made upon the size Of the chancel and the
adaptation Of the tower from the tower of the
old cathedral at Salamanca, we need not speak.
Trinity Church will retain an important place
in the history Of the development of the fine arts
in America.
Whatever exceptions may be taken
20 the library and other buildings
which followed, it must be acknowledged
that they exhibited vigor, freshness and usually
remarkable dignity of design. Sever Hall at Cam
bridge, undertaken in 1878, Just after Richardson
had dissolved his partnership with Mr.. Gambrill,
was designed. as Mrs. Van Rensselaer, points out.
Mt the period when he had just given himself
over heart and soul, TO the leading
of Southern Romanesque art, and when
the exuberant possibilities of this art
had recently seduced him somewhat from sobri-
ETY.. Therefore, its singular simplicity and its
pauclty Of pronounced Romanesque features bear
strong witness to the development of his feeling
for appropriateness prime architectural virtue
lie was wise enough not to
disturb the company of the college
halls further by erecting unsym-
metrica romantic. Romanesque structure, massive
in feature and elaborate in detail. As IS
the case with Trinity Church, size and color play
so large part in the impression it makes that no
picture can reproduce its charm
1t was in 1876 that the Ncw-York Legislature
intrusted 10 Richardson in company with Mr.
Eidlitz and Mr.. Frederick Law Olmsted the diff
cult task of completing the State Capitol The
report Of these gentlemen made in 1878 declared
that most of the grave defects of the existing
scheme could rot be remedied without rebuilding
the entire structure. The building had been begun
In q Roman Renaissance style, but the Romanesque
style was proposed for its completion The criti-
csm called out by this proposition is still COM
parativey fresh in mind We need not reopen
the controversy dwell upon Richardson's use
Of the Romanesque for two Stories and his cn-
forced return TO a modified early Renaissance
style in the roof The tale illustrates legislative
incapacity in dealing with the fnc arts, but II is
hardly lust TO hold legislators responsible for all
mistakes in constructions as some oVer-zcdI0us
friends OF the architects have attempted to 90
In the City Hall at Albany Rich
ardson was able TO express himself freely
and the building exhibits adaptation OF
Southwestern Romancsque precedents.' The out
lines and generous forms Of the Harvard Law