Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-11
AN IMPETUS TO ART.
Mr.. Carnegie Happy in His Choice OF
an Everlasting Shrine
DEDICATED TO AMERICAN ART.
Pennsylvania the Birthplace Of Americas
First Real Canvas Artist.
AGIFT THAT WILL AROUSE The WORLD
AGIFT THAT WILL AROUSE THE WORLD
WRITTEN FOR THE p1sFATcH.

the warp furnished by Mr.. Carnegie the
hopes of new era of aesthetic culture. The
plans unfolded from day to DAY by this
gentleman have turned all minds and
hearts, as by common impulse, IN the d.
rection of that love of beauty and truth
which is universal and in all ages has
found expressions through works of art. For
once, and as never before, have we, under
the spell of this new impulse, caught a
glimpse. as through an open doorway, of a
vast and beautiful field In which bloom
perennially the choicest flowers of thought
and art and from which arises a delicious
fragrance, enrichiug and beautifying the
lives:of all who possess the qualities neces-
sary to obtain entrance thereto.
Delightful as this vision of beauty must
seem to a people who have industriously
laboIed amid forests of bleak smoke stacks,
bend ng over the anvil of manufacture and
the desk of commerce, it must be even more
interesting to realize thatthis field of beauty
and fragrance is actually moving this way.
ME. cARNEGIE's MONUMENT.
To think that those who have for years
labored and hoped and labored on in the
interest of an art society and of aesthetic
culture in Pittshurg are together with their
children and all the people TO have shrine
dedicated to American art, and that the
youth of this city will in coming years
go out from tn is temple taking with them a
renewed and enlarged interest in the beauties
Of nature, and new and higher subjects of
contemplation, is enough 10 satisfy the ''old
guard" in departing in peace. Mr.. Car
negie's grandest monument Will not be in
granite, but in the hearts OF the people; and
the consciousness of having Influenced the
lives of an innumerable company of men
and women will be his highest source Of
pleasure as the ears go by.
1t is too early 10 discuss with any degree
of detail the plans for the establishment of a
collection of paintings which is intended by
the donor to represent and foster American
art, but there is a peculiar fitness in the fact
that this collection, is to be founded in Penn
sylvania, because the verv first youth to
assume the calling of artist in America, and
the one who affected more decidedly than
any other the birth of our national art
was q Pennsylvania lad. Benjamin
West Born at Springfield In 1888,
Young Vests painting OF child sleeping
in a cradle is the first canvas by an Amer
icau artist of which we have record. The
colors with which this picture was painted
were obtained by grinding charcoal and
chalk, and crushing the red wine out from
the blackberry. To these primitive pig
ments were added red and yellow earths,
with which friendly Indians who came to the
West home used to color their faces. War
paints of the native Americans employed
first in the peaceful pursuit of art.
BIRTH OF AMERICAN ART.
There is an additional interesting fact In
connection with the birth of art in America
1t is that for the most notable impulse given
to the very earliest art movement we owe
gratitude to another native of Scotland,
Bishop Berkeley, who induced John
Smvbert to leave London in 1925 and settle
in Boston, where he labored as a pioneer
portrait painter tor many years.
Smybert brought with him an excellentcopy
OF one of Vandyke's portraits, and Allston
and Trumbull, two of our earliest painters,
have both borne testimony to the tact that
this single painting exerted q great in
fuence and affected them like an inspira-
tiOn.
The thought of these men, who possessed
undoubted ability, together probably with
West, Copeley and Others, gathering about
this single copy of Vandyke is full of
pathos. England had the means and in
huence to bring HoIbein, Vandyke and
Lely themselves to her shores that their ex-
ample and influence might be felt by her
native artists. France could bring Da
Nncl and Cellina TO decorate her palaces,
thereby planting the seed which should
ripen into fruit at later day. In 1725 our
painters had a single copy of a masters
work. Infinitely greater are the advantages
offered the art student of to-day, but we
must be honest and admit that after almost
200 years we have not in Pittsburg even a
good copy of mastery painting on public
exhibition.
Great has been the loss to our city and
people, and greater the pity if we have not
even realized it Art never enters unin-
vited. To those only who sincerely and
earnestly desire her presence does she re-
veal her beauty and grace, and the condi-
tion upon which we Will have a genuine art
movement in Pittsburg is that we measure
up to the requirement of this standard. The
use OF pictures as household furniture is not
sufficient We must love art for arts sake
alone, and our homes and minds must be
made fit receptacles for the best products of
the brush.
FIRST DISTINCT RECOGNITION.
Mr.. Carnegie's offer to found a national
gallery in Pittsburg, and provide $50, 600
per year for the purchase of American
paintings, is, 1 think, the first distinct rec
ognition Of American art. 1t must and will
arrest the attention of people throughout the
world; and as the Egyptian pilgrims went
playing on castanets and flutes to the shrine
OF their deities at Bubastis or Heliopolis, so
ultimately will come all Americans to the
shrine of our native art if the liberal plans
outlined are carefully carried out The end
TO be attained is superemiDent, because the |
daily pleasure and intellectual enjoyment |
to be secured through the medium of |
great public art gallery cannot be |
gainsaid. Art is for all, and while |
it is true that the pleasure de- |
rived is dependent upon the capacity |
for enjoyment it is equally true that all NAV |
and do enjoy works of art to some degree. |
We have now In Richardson's masternieee
the Court House. probably the finest arcbi.
tectural stl tlucture in the United States. II
is quietly but powerfully influencing the
architecture of these cities. The Carpegie
Library in Allegheny, is also powerful
agent in establishing high standards in this
department of art.
There is no reason to think that the new
library and gallery buildings will be other
than magnificent, enthusiastically. We are
assured the presence of new in
huence in this direction when the
plans for an art collection are fulfilled.
There is one duty which lies plainly before
our people. Mr.. Carnegie will give the first |
year and each year thereafter, $50, 900 to be |
expended in the purchase of paintings, with
the suggestion that 10 per cent only be used
In the purchase of foreign art To start this
collection there should be at least $500, 900 |
In hand when the gallery is ready for oc-
cupancy. Other liberal citizens should 1
contribute the needed $3.50, 900, and think
TINS amount will be forthcoming when the
time for its use arrives