The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-12-27
ART and ARTISTS.
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The art exhibit was tolerably well
patronized yesterday, and during the
evening the visitors were quite numer-
Gus. The Herald reporter, CHANGING
to meet Artist Harwood, asked for a
definition of the difference between
the artist and the painter. which drew
out the following, as near as the re-
porter could catch it on the fly:
True art needs no defense; false art
is not worth an attack. The public is
often at a loss to know which is which
There is much said for and against
schools of art, but the much that is
said in favor is by an intelligent class,
while that which is said to the con-
trary is from the opposite class. 1t
is only through schools that a higher
standard of art can be attained. Amer
lean schools of art are very weak as
yet because they are crowded with am
ateurs while the schools OF Europe
contain only serious students They
are made up of those who intend TO
stay by art, sink or swim Foreigners
who enter schools of Europe are
those who have come to a realization
of what they lack and only school
can supply it. The result is scrap
ing together of the means they can
accumulate and striking out for one
year or five, as the case may be.
THE influence in regard to the great
ness of art that they meet on every
hand is hard trial, and they feel
that what they have undertaken is an
exceedingly difficult feat to attempt.
But where others have succeeded there
is still a chance, and they go to work
with will, and the more they work,
the more they find the space keeps fill
ing up-it is work, work, work for a
lifetime. This is the student that
stands a chance of success.
There is another class whose ten
dency is to stay at home; some get
into the schools, though it takes some
time to classify them. They are full
of theories, self assurance and extrava-
CANT western ideas. They learned to
paint before they went abroad and they
intend to dazzle creation during their
first year. Their pictures are, of course,
received in the usual way-'refused.'
That sets them thinking, with the re-
suit that they either condemn the au-
thority and continue to dwell in their
ignorance and folly, or they determine
that they will try to do something in
the right way, and after two or three
years effort in the latter direction they
will be trying to get pictures of such
small subjects as a bottle of pickles
or a few onions accepted at the salon.
In the latter case there is some hope
for the aspirant.
Il know an individual who is an
illustration of the case in point. He
resolved to do something in the right
way, and after years of hard work he
is now teaching in one of the art
schools of Paris and is meeting with
great success.
1.-The most essential quality is self
assurance but not in weakness; it must
be in strength, and that strength is
only obtained by years of study. We
must be assured that if we do, do,
continually we will succeed, not that
what we do is success. We must be
assured that there is only one way of
study, although that way may have
different paths. Silas Green might
have invented a successful flying ma
chine if he had gone about it in the
right way.
mo school or teacher can make
painters out Of SO per cent of the
students. I have spent four years in
schools and hope to spend that many
more, and 1 have watched the work of
hundreds, and the result of my obser-
walton is that not more than per
cent of the students will make painters.
The SO per cent will embody a subject
in a composition far better than they
can represent quality in painting or
paint things
"A study of fish by Vollon in the
Luxembourg is considered by the best
critics Of the day TO be one of the
greatest, if not the greatest, MASTER
piece of painting known. What is the
reason? Because the technique is so
much in keeping with the subject and
the painting is big and grand I know
no other way to express il. Vollon'S
Fish is painting; Breaking Home
Ties is a subject. The former will
bring tears to the eyes of an artist,
while the latter will be passed by COM
paratively unnoticed.
L think it is a. good thing to learn
how to paint. 1 wish 1 knew. 1 wish
L could spend 20 years in learning.
have some subjects | would like to
treat if / knew how to paint well
enough. I never heard of style in
painting except among amateurs. Ac-
cording to the leading men of today
the time will never come when the
artist will cease to think of his pig
ment. 1 never saw a student work as
hard in getting tone of flesh as L.
Doucet. ian instructor in the Academy
Julian), when showing a pupil how to
paint a shoulder. 1t is difficult to en-
body high ideals, but the difficulty is
greater in the embodiment than in the
conception. Good embodiment requires
knowledge. How is that knowledge &C
Quired?
i KNOW Such men as benjamin Con-
slant, Saurens, Lefebre, Bonnat and so
others that 1 could name, would say
that things were hard to paint. The
four I have named have told me so
and 1 believe they. spoke from exper-
fence. To paint things nature must
be studied above everything else. To
express ideas the works of man must
be studied; l say must be, and it has
been from the early artists down to
the present.
An artistic effect is an arrangement
of masses which represents a thought
in a pleasing manner. The skill can
be acquired by study and by the in
fiuence Of other mems work. Place
work of that kind by students before
men of experience and the latter can
at once tell by what the students have
been influenced. An amateur may
think he is conscientiously studying
nature, when in reality he is only
copying an effect which he has seen,
may be, in $3.50 pot boiler or a cheap
chrome. but if even the influence he
received from a master it is not legiti-
mate if copied in that way.
In discussing this subject the inten-
ton is only to promote the cause OF
true are and honest, conscientious en-
deavor. There are many paths and the
field is broad, yet it is easy to recognize
the foundation OF all success"
Monastery of Chartreuse.