The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-02-10
found by this unknown challenger.
And yet. who can say?

The discussion between Mr. Evans.
of Lehi, and the writer, as to the
fitness Of mountain subjects for paint
ing has been carried about as far as
need be; Neither is to convinced that
the other is right, and hundred
! columns Of writing would probably
bring US no nearer to seeing eye to
| eye. The subject is full of interest
from an art point Of view, but it is not
one to Wrangle about. Mr.. Evans may
remain in the valleys, and there we
| never doubted he will find subject
matter for his brush that is full of in
terest and will occupy him all his
days to do it justice. just as the woods
and fields have occupied many a lesser
and many a greater painter before
him. We would like to wander with
him through the beautiful woodland
wales, by lingering brooks and sunny
fields, and sketch with feeble brush
the subjects that he paints with such
Vlgor and earnestness. But when the
MOOD is on US, we will leave him in
the harvest field and HE US to the
mountains, there to contemplate the
grand and noble aspects of nature. to
feel the emotions that sublinity and
magnlficence only can inspire. He
may remain to catch the steany fog
that rises from the marshes and strive
to paint the opalescent tones that
Hnger on the plains-tender and beau
tiful as they are-but we will seek the
uplands to gaze upon the whirling
clouds that sweep across the noun
tain tops and leave a glittering dust
Of snow on rocky crag and, piney crest.
HIS task will be easier than ours, and
he viii succeed where we will fail.
The langour and the shadoWy grace
OF the brook as it steals through the
trees in the valley-how delicious and
Testfull-are for him if he chooses: but
trilE Cf -
us from following the stream to it's
source amidst the mountain peaks far
uprising, the cleaning snow-beds. the
rugged chasms and towering cliffs
There, among beds of columbines and
asters, under scented pines, within
sound of rushing waters, within view
of marble cliffs creamy white with
purple clefts, there the soul is uplifted
and the art instinct aroused with
greater force than in the valley below.
The hand may tremble and the brush
falter but the motives are there. and
some day a demi-god will put them on
canvas. All that we common peopIe
can do is to contemplate them and
try to realize their fitness But to
say they are not there, that there is
no poetry in the mountains, what
sacrilege!
j. T. Harwood has reached a place in
art that is full of interest. It is the
stage that nearly all the great painters
attained before they became great. In
a purely technical sense, he has gone
far enough. He has learned how to
represent things on canvass. With a
given thing set before him, he can re-
produce it in color and form with
great fidelity, and no longer has to
struggle with the problem of ''how to
do it. Until such excellence is ac-l
quired no artist should let loose the
ambition to grapple with the intellec-
tual phases of art. But now that he
has well mastered the objective fea-
lures we would like to see him enter
upon the subjective difficulties. What
he has already mastered is a precious
preliminary, a most valuable endoW-
ment to a higher life, and now that he
is equipped with the material means
for rising, we await with interest the
evidences of intuition and spirituality,
without which there is only mechani.
cal excellence and no genius.