Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-02
GRAND WORKSOF ART
Something About the Collection Of
Paintings Which N. Secretan
OFFERS TO SELL TO AMERICANS
The Chief Engineer of the Copper Trust Z
Patron Of Painters.
HIS GALLERY THE FINEST IN EUROPE
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tMhITTEN FOB THE DIsPATCH.1
There does not seem to be any necessary
connection between copper and art--still
less between art and Copper Trust. But
the Intervening of human affairs appar-
emily remote from each other is curious
study, and the results at times startling. =
The originator of the great defunct inter-
national Copper Trust, Secretan, of Paris,
was looked upon, not perhaps exactly as q
financial Hercules, but as kind of none
tary Milo of Crotona. The man who could
induce the copper producers of the world
virtually to place themselves in the hands
of syndicate led by himself, must be no
small personality. Nor is he. Beside
being man of enormous wealth and COM
mercial ideas which, to borrow q figure of
speech from the marine steam engine, are Of
the compound, triple-etpansion type, he
has, for years, been an enthusiastic and
discriminating patron of high art. In
quality, if not in numbers, his collection OF
paintings equals, if it does not surpass, that
of any other private individual in Europe.
Its value is roughly estimated at 10,000,000
france. 1t comprises many of the finest ex-
amples of what is known as the Barbizon
school of painters, prominent among whom
is Jean Francois Millet. Diaz, Fromentin,
Daubigny, Dupre, Rousseau and others
may be added to the list.
Now, when Mons. Secretan was complet-
ing his arrangements with the owners of our
American copper mines, by which that in
genious sheep, the public, was to part with
its coveted fleece to the tune of e40 extra for
every ton of copper for which it might in
nocently bleat, it is to be opined that, now
and again, his own nominations, albeit, con-
trary to the teachings of natural history, of
the lupine order, were complacently brought
to close in his
sUBERB PICTURE GALLERY.
Probably in such moments, when the fnan-
cial cud tasted the sweetest, the idea remot-
est from his mind was that he was taking
the most effectual steps toward dispensing
his collections and transferring many of its
choicest gems to the very America whose ac-
quiescence was deemed vital to the perfect
stability of his scheme.
Yet, in very deed, SO It was. On July ii,
next, his magnificent gallery will come
under the unsentimental, remorseless ham,
mar of the auctioneer. 1t is much more than
mere probability that his finest canvases will
come over here. Among them is the renowned
"Angelus." by Jean Francois Millet, the his
tory of which Is curious. and which is known
by the etcher's art to the whole civilized world.
1t was painted at time when Millet's genius,
like that OF many another great man, had not
yet been appreciated. The great art dealers
Of Paris wanted none OF him. So, in some way
or another, possibly through the Intermediary
of discerning Belgian, it found it's way to
Brussels. The price paid was, II my memory
serves me, $500. The last time | read Of its
changing hands the figure was to the best of
my recollection, SIS, ,000 Millet sold it at time
when he was straitened In means and hardly
knew from day to day where the bread of 1his
children was coming from.
From current rumor 1t would appear that
Mons. 6ecretan's modern masters have all been
selected with an eye single to quality utterly
It was stated, some time ago, that the great
financial institutions of Paris, which had held
the lifeline to Secretan at the first onrush of
the speculative torrent that eventually swept
him away were going simply to act as deposit
tories Of
his ART TREASURES
until his head appeared above the financial
food, and he had managed to scramble ashore.
That statement merely had the drawback of
crediting financial corporation, or, what Is
worse, several of them, with sentiment; Quod
est absurdum. Yes, Secretan's pictures are to
able contingent of our much abused plutocrats
are in Europe, or will be by the time of the
sale, the odds are very considerable that, in the
melee over these works, many European
Dives win go to grass under the formidable i'm
pact of the Yankee mOney-bag.
The collection comprises some go of such
works as have previously been described. No
such sale has taken place for many years, nor
Is 1t likely that any equal number OF canvases
of such extraordinary quality will come to-
hak and "a hou mn Tn
come.
Many years ago, when that president and bril-
liant but eminently practical writer, Sidney
to this country, he told her that, for so years,
she had better confine her efforts to making
good roads, building bridges, canals and rail-
ways, and leave the question of university edu-
cation to generation which would have more
leisure to attend to it He was anything but
prolix writer. No man in the world more rig
.orousIy enforced, in the case of his own pen,
the axiom that 'the greater includes the less"
AMERICAS ARTISTIC TENDENCY.
As liberal, or university, education nat.
urally comprises some acquaintance with the
history of the fine arts, and, in the case of the
wealthy, involves some of its consequences, it
may be> inferred that, implicitly, he recon-
mended a postponement Of the dilettantism
which delights in the acquisition Of works Of
high art
But now that the country is girded with a
network of railroads greater in milage than
that boasted by the whole of Europe-now
that we have for the moment all the bridges
we want, including such trihe as that of
Brooklyn-now that we are actually debating
whether our supereminent facilities in other
directions have not rendered our canals use
less, it is altogether likely that even so acute
an observer as Sidney Smith would be-
nignantly tell US there could be no harm in our
now dabbling tentatively in the fine arts.
So it is comforting to know that at time
when natural gas has emancipated Pittsburg
from the funeral thraldom Of dark wallpapers,
somber curtains and hangiDgs, and allowed her
sons to put on an occasional white waistcoat,
and her beauteous daughters to choose apparel
appropriate to their fair compilations, that
same natural gas enables her art-lovers to in
du1ge their taste for the finest creations Of the
brush, without any danger Of seeing them de-
stroyed or their luster dimmed by the insidi-
Gus attacks of an unmanageabe atmosphere.
Ihave had many occasions Of admiring the ex-
cellent work done in your oity by the Art School
there and although an utter stranger to them.
of dong full justice to the admirable way in
which the talent of the place is fostered and
encouraged by the trustees Of that institution.
COLONNA.