The morning call., 1893-05-28
ART UP TO DATE.
Arthur r. Mathews Has Great Hopes
for the Artists of This
Country.

| creek OtlnS equally acceptable IN ner eyes Do
! that as it may, opium-eater may be jolly
| good fellow, in his sober moments, in spite OF
his. disagreeable habit, and it is in good fellow
ship that art delights. Formula takes the point
! from her vii, and drives the warmth from her
/ heart.
Writer'S often say again that art is lost. We
| may knde the fires aud await her coming, as
! the aborigiDes awaited Montezuma. but we
! would not know her-would not recO gnize the
true symbol OF art. Bah let them clear the
smudge from their eyes and read the lesson of
arts coming and going in history, and the
signs OF her foster-slster, nature.
| Did art ever live in the flesh ? The French
! have a saying that statue in the clay is its
birth, the plaster It's death, and the marble its
! IIsurrec ion.
J = prefer to believe that the Greek has given
| us an image of a feeting symbol only-has
materiaiized the spirit of art which was before
an unknown quality. They gave us the clay.
! the early Christians the plaster, ana the re-
! naissance the marble.
We, in our day. have received the image
much defiled by scrbbers and formullsts, but
| the form remains beneath in all its simplicity
and entirety.
The sO-caled ''modern French school OF arr'
| has done much toward restoring its pristine
beauty. How well remains for pOsterity 10
| say, not the befuddled writer's of Today, who
| cherish roo fondy. am oft led to believe, the
accumulations of dirt on the surface, which
gets into their eyes and clogs their understand
ing. Perhaps some day, when they are tired,
like little children OF their play, they will be
| able TO zee that there are many ways of writ
ing realism, and that what may seem
TO them in their childish fancy romantcIsm
might have been realism IN the light of some
| one ese's understanding. They may in
| the end be able TO see that great art Is the
materialiZed dream of free healthy mind;
| mind endowed with the capacity TO direct nim-
aud nil fha ron nnIt pf nOI n 70
common, not by correcting the imperf ct as the
| ''phIlosopherS of the beautiful" would have US
believe, bu by leaving out the uDessential.
l am always amused when they speak of cor.
recIiDg the imperfect. What Is the perfect?
Is itnot simply unity OF eXpression-a COM
| plete Characterization without contradictions
full expression of type or phrases? Art
| and the beautiful cannot be fixed ike unit Of
measurement-lke a yard-stick for the con-
venlence of critics. Greek renaissance works
OF art were well nigh perfect expression in their
| day, but for us to initiate them would be false
| TO art itself. They but The reflection of The
| environments of the masters OF another DAY.
| They points of view not ours. If critics
| Will take This to themselves and ponder over 10
| for one short hour they will lind that compari-
! sons are really odious.
~
These may be simply my poor "cranky IDEAS"
| but II 10 achieve in art IN America
] i
! have not much real fear for he ultimate good
result. for the pubc-ihanks to it-aways
/ looks first for glimmer of nature in a work OF
! art, though it may not always recognize It
! when 1t sees 1t.
Nature and art have been so often fraduced
| In these times that the layman is always a
! little doubtful when lie sees them together in
| one work.
Like good children we brought over our first
! art from England and did not throw it over
board with the tea Again We imported it from
! Dusseldorf. Munich aud Rome. We wen played
| at one time with the English pre-Raphaelites
! when they were The latest fad in London. We
| have-many of us-read our little Ruskin-thar
strange mixture OF art with rhetoric ana Dhi-
anhiopy. We much given 10 think
ing that there is but one phrase of ART. Its
name is Paris.
When the divinity of kings fell before the tri-
cOlOred flag OF the Republique Francaise what
/ was more natural than that the formulas of the
! academy should go with ii and art should be-
/ come free in EXPRESSION with the pouulace?
/ What was more natural than for the young
! American seeking knowledge which lie could
! not get at home 10 turn his eyes and then his
! footsteps toward free peOpl- learned in art
and free TO give vent TO individual expression
! What was more natural than for him to stay
| where the sentiments of his own country were
written in three words on every public place
liberte, egaite fraternite?
Some call this freedom Of expression of
modern artists irreverent. Well, l Will admit
that they often do contradict orthodoxies and
unset The nicely arranged systems of critics;
but did not the people upset divine rghts-of
kings L never heard the last spoken of as
| irreverent, but 1 have often seen 1t written
rebellion.
have said that tie first American artists
who went to Paris stayed-expatriated HEM
selves, and have virtually become French
Off IfriAo
are good examples; but the tudents of a later
day are more inclined to return, having alb.
sorbed all that Paris can give In the wav of
schooling. Having received in Paris that
which their own country can not yet possibly
give them, they now return and seek to reacn
their fuller development at home. This is a
good sign for the future of art in America,
though the process may be rather diseouraging
at times TO he artist. How much encourage
ment they have had and are receiving l leave
for others to record, but L will say that they
are laying the foundation for the art OF
America of the future.
~
Some thirteen out OF many of my old class.
mates OF The years 'S5, 'S6, 'S7, 'SS and 'S9 in
Paris who have returned are teaching in the
best art schools of New York. Boston, Phila-
deiphia, Chicago. ST. Louis and San Francisco,
not as the drawing-masters who have gone be-
fore who devoted their whole time to teaching
an academic system but like their French
masters, who devote a little time OF each day or
week to the guidance OF the uncert ain hand OF
the student The artist is the better OF for this
little time given TO instruction. for he spreads
q better understanding for his own works. and
tn student in The end Is better without 100
much.
The standard OF the WORK of the young art
lists in America who have not yet had the ad-
vantages of the finishing touches that Europe
only can give at the present moment has been
gradually raising I'm tile las: ten years. There
is more Individuality, vitality and nature In
their work consequently more art When they
do go abroad they are better able to retain their
individuality, and in returning leave behind
the peculiarly foreign features of art.
"Chercher le caractere dams Ia nature" was
the motto written on our studio wall in Paris,
and If nor forgotten the French-traned Ameri-
cpn artists viii soon lose all the marks Of
FienchinesS
*.*
How much our latest importation-impres-
siOnlsm-s peculiarly French, 1 am not pre-
pared TO say; but that certain principles of
tmpressonism are to influence all painting of
IN future even the most antagontstic win
finally admit. Ii is as yet new point OF view
new points OF View are hard TO take | can
not agree that IL is simply a fad eXeept In the