The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-01-20
ART AND ARTISTS.
EVANS LETTER THE THEME OF
MUCH DISCUSSION.
Some of the Points Raised by Him
Considered-We Arc All Poets
When on the Mountain Tops.

Mr.. Edwin Evans letter in The Her
aid of last Sunday has furnished the
theme of much discussion not only
among artists, but among all people
who love art. Mr.. Evans has chosen a
high aim in painting. He has set him
self the difficult task of rendering sun
light with all the power of which pig
ment is capable. How wei he has sue
ceeded, several Of his works that nave
been seen here prove, but there are
others now in the east, that have not
been exhibited in Utah, which are said
to be still better illustrations of his
power in this direction. We congatu-
later Mn. Evans on his choice of pur-
pose in art. He could have no grander
I object in n1aterialistic fields, for the
sun-god is the greatest of all objective
illuminators and he sheds a radiance on
everything that an artist contempIates.
To have set his hand TO the task of de
plotting the mid-diy splendor of the
fields in sunshine is quite enough for
any one man to attempt, and Mr.. Ev-
ans need so no further to find ample
| occupation for his art energies during
a whole lifetime.
| But even as the rain fails upon the
| just and the unjust, 50 the sun shines
upon the mountains as we'll as upon the
valleys; and when it fbathes the snowy
peaks and glItters on high crags. the
! effects are as much more magnificent
as the mountains are exalted over the
plain. If they are not paintable, 1t is
not Through lack of beauty, but be-
cause it would take demi-Sod of a
| poet-pafnter to do them full justice.
! Some day an artist who has been rear
ed in the shadow of the mountains
WIFI rise up and prove their fitness for
the highest of adj art expression in
| landscape. In the meantime, mot that
the mountains care), they are not to be
derfded or underestim1fSd as subjects
I for painting, but can and do afford ma
teridl for an endless variety of beaUti-
full and pleasing pictures, in which a
very large majority of people of good
taste find pleasure.
AS Mr.. Evans has suggested, some Of
trhe French painters sacrifice much for
strength and brilliancy. Many will re-
member the picture by Bonnat at the
/ Worlds fair, of the cardinal in scarlet
robe, which could he seen from severa
rooms in THE gallery and seemed ito in.
trude itself into them all. 1t was saiC
of this picture that only a Krupp CUR
had greater carrying power than jthi;
vermillion portrait. If color-force i:
what B0nTalt, QuignOn. Or any Othel
French painters want, they need no
tarry in France, but may come at once
to the mountains of Utah. They prob
ably think that red and orange are TIM
only forceful colors in nature, but her
they cam see atmospheric effects il
blue and purple whose blazing bril-
hancy are beyond the conception O.
jewellers in humid regions
There is one statement in Mr.
Evans interesting letter to which w
must take issue He says the noun
tains are grand but not poetic. am
as an illustration refers to MI
> Morans picture of the Yellowstone
= which, ne says. will never stir tn
: soul. Begging his pardon, it did Eti
: the soul of the present writer and le
e dlirn into flights of fancy beyond tina
!, of any other picture in the Columbia,
> exhibition. 1t also affected man