The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-11-19
CULTURE IN THE UNIFIED STATES

M. Raffaelli. the famous French painter.
states in the journal des Artistes that he
is not hopeful of the regeneration of
French art from its present decadence and
that. In his opinion, the highest develop
ment of art in the future will occur in tn
United States.
He describes the evolution of the art
schools of the past as the creation of new
styles, and he observes that a style can
not be built as one builds house, but is
the effort Of whole nation. Thus, the
Louis XIV style grew out of the sensual
tastes OF an intelligent monarch, aided BY
the artistic inclinations of PompadOur and
the. refined and cultured instincts of a
polished nobility, the whole operating on
the creative capacity of an ingenious people
spurred TO excellence by competition.
These causes led to the conception of
charming palaces and houses, furniture
with delicate designs, rare jewels. stuffs
with exquisite colors, an eflorescence of
such artistic products as the paintings of
Creme ard Vatican, the amorous TO-
mances of st. Aubin. Crebillon, Prescott
and Marinaux and the daring conceptions
of Diderot and d'Alembrrt. The school
VI tnO StylC do ltduoCbli Cdslo ll-Wdo
the outgrowth of welhde6ned and discern
ible causes.
There is no such combination of crea-
tive agencies anywhere in Europe to-day.
Thrones are lettering or PROSTATE; no.
bility is impoverished Germany>groans
under military regime; England is given
over to the mercantile instinct; France is
cropping ip a labyrinth which hides the
wreck of dscadent philosophers aud creeds.
The only nation, 10 III. Raffaelli's opinion,
in which a style may be expected to re-
spond TO our desires for delicate and dis
Greet comfort without great luxury, and in
which an art may arse based on the popu-
lar ideas, and obedient to the i'm pulses OF
modern thought, is the United States; il
is there that he looks for the evolution Of
new school in which all the past ideas of
beauty shall be blended, school which
shall be based on the law Of liberty with
simplicity and order.
The chief iant which can be found with
this fattering horoscope is that it looks for
future which at the present time seems
distant. A struggle for the creation of an
American school of taste may b. diseerned
by close observers; but the progress made
thus far has been small. The art schools
of New York and the East generally are
weighed down by foreign example, and
being initiative are not likely to be creative.
There is little in modern American paint
ing or sculpture or decorative art that is
really American. 1t is foreign. diluted
and expurgated to suit an imaginary
American taste. The most hopeful indi-
cations of the birth of taste that is racy
ff,1 l
ST. Louis. as Hamliu Garland has pointer
out; the new American school in art and
letters, when it comes. will proba bly, first
see the light In the central river valleys,
where race of men who are really and
essentially American with American blood
and fiber, bone and sinew, is growing up.
The law which governs the evolution of
such school is plain to read. First, there
must be an acquisition OF wealth; next,
there must be a devo ion to culture. With
out the wealth the culurs will starve;
without the culture tho wealth will yield
sordid fruit. The wealth has been and is
being rapidly acquired. but the culture adj
vances slowly. Take our own city as an
example. From peculiar causes larger
number of individual fortunes have been
made In San Francisco during the past
quarter of a century than in any other
American city of its age, but in culture its
progress has not been conspicuous. We can.
not boast of buildings which command ad-
miration for their magnifcence. In the
domain Of letters our young people are too
much inclined to read quantities of trump
cry novels instead of standard works OF
merit. We care so little for art that we do
not well support a single ari-dealer. AT
the johnson art sale last week rugs
and snowy bric-a-brac sold for twice their
value, but really fine paintings scarcely
realized one-tenth Of their cost.
Cilizens. as rule, are not doing them.
selves justice by ignoring the value of cul-
ture. THERE'S closer connection between
culture and high citizenship than the aver
age men and women of the period seem to
ina zine