Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-20
A RAID ON CONGRESS
By the Wielders of Brushes, Who
Want Their Pictures Bought.
SENATOR QUAY A C0NN0ISSEUR
Who Is Called on to Pass Upon the Merits Of
Many Paintings.
FANCY PRICES ASKED FOR SOME WORKS

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19.-[SpeciaL PRO
positions for the purchase of works of art,
so called have rarely been as numerous as
they are at this session of Congress. There
are now in the Committee on Library of the
Senate, of which Senator Quay is Chairman,
bills providing for the erection of
statue to Major General Nathaniel
Green on the battle field of Guiliord Court
House, North Carolina: for the purchase of
portrait of Abraham Lincoln; for the
erection of a bronze statue in memory OF
Spencer f. Baird, the predecessor of Prof.
Langley in the Smithsonian Institution; for
the erection of a monument to Andrew Lewis;
for the completion of the monument to Mary,
the mother of George Washington, at Fred
ericksburg; for the erection of monument
to Robert Dale Owen in the grounds of the
Smithsonian Institution; for the purchase
of a portrait of Henry Clay painted by
Healey IN 1916; for n monument to Jonn
Ericsson, constructor of the vessel called
the Monitor; and several other works of
lesser Importance.
Quay as a Connoisseur.
Senator Quay will have full opportunity
for the exercise of those aesthetic qualities
with which he is so amply endowed in
passing those 'sworks of art" The portrait
of Lincoln is claimed to have been painted
from life, but am told the claim was not
made until long after Lincoln's death. It
is full length affair, lifeess. mechanical.
crude, the work of an artist of no reputa-
ton. yet SIS 900 is asked for it after its be-
ing hawked about in the market unsold all
these years. The artists name is said to
be Travis. For Healey's portrait of Henry
Clay $1,000 is the price fixed. 1t was
painted in his young days by an artist who
never painted remarkably well, but who
has had for long years a worldwide
reputation aud who has probably painted
more portraits of royalty and other notable
people than any other one artist of the last
half century. / believe the portrait has
been in the market for many years. 1t
must be an Indifferent work to be offered
for $1,000, or else the present owner is
sadly in need of funds.
IT may be assumed that Mr.. Albert Bier
stadt will be before another Congress, if not
this one, as a dealer in his own pictures
He is now in the city, and announces with
flourish that he is engaged upon four great
paintings representing incidents of the
short career of Christopher Columbus
on the Western Hemisphere. He states
that they are intended for the Worlds Ex-
position, but it is quite certain they Will
turn up soon after they have served their
purpose at Chicago in committee room at
the Capitol.
Bierstadrs Highest Aspiration.
Mr.. Bierstadt exhibits his convictions as
as to the meaning of high art when he tells
us that he has twice visited the West In
dies, once visited Spain and contemplates
another visit to Spain to make exact sketches
of places from which Columbus sailed and
where he landed. His grandest in
spiration in his contemplation of this
huge subject of Columbus apparently
scars no higher than liseral topography.
For Mr.. Bierstadt's reputation he should
replace at his own expense the wretched
landscapes which now stare members OF the
House of Representatives in the face when
tbey are in their seats with something more
nearly approaching a work of art before
knocking at the doors of Congress for further