The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-08-15

Evidently the writer Of the book hat
no knowledge of William Birch O.
Philadelphia, and concluded that i
must be Henry Bone of London. HI
even goes SO far as TO explain tlhs
initials W. B. by saying that the "
must have been changed from an Il
during the process of firing.
My good friend the late Sir George
Scharf, keeper of the national portrait
gallery, London, discovered many
apocryphal portraits doing duty in
England. For instance, ne found Dor
traits of Lord Clifford of Cudleigh.
Charles IFS lord chancellor, doing duty
IN several places as a likeness of the
! Duke of Monmouth, as the Earl of ST
Adams and as Lord Maynard There
! Is no picture of Christopher Columbus
IN existence, and in Greenwich hospital
Sir George found a picture of Columbus.
/ which, on being scraped, was found
! TO have been originally a supposed
! likeness of Christ. This great English
/ connoisseur also found portrait of
/ Mrs. G.. Hodges doing duty as Princess
Caroline of Brunswick and as Mrs
Fitzherbert. The Poet Ovid in one case
became Sir Ashton Cockyne A picture
of Colonel Bell has done duty as the
Duke of Wellington, and DR.. Hughes,
an English country clergyman, has
been changed into DR.. Hughes, bishop
of st. Asaph. In fact as | have in
tinlated above, the list of apecryphal
portraitssis very long and must in the
course of events become very much
longer, inasmuch as the eye of the eX-
pert is constantly detecting misguided
efforts of the earlier painters to sup
ply the deficiency which apparently ex-
listed in the portraiture of great men
of the past
The above statements, coming from
NJ ~ To.
They are not based on mere SUPPOSE
ton, but in every case his Judgment is
the result Of legal evidence; that is,
the evidence on which the pictures are
judged is only such as would be admit
ted in a court of law Inasmucf as
Mr.. Hart is by profession a lawyer, his
judgment is recognized by his col
leagues to be all the more profound I
His experience as a critic is life long
Even at the age of II he was the proud
recipient Of a personal letter from
Rembrandt Peale on his portrait OF
w Washington, SO that he is himself in .
measure historic. All his life long he
has INDUCED his fine taste for art and
his reputation is really International
At the request of Professor Robertson
Smith OF Marlborough, he wrote for the
last edition Of the Encyclopaedia Brit
AMIGA, the articles on Philadelphia and
GILBERT Stuart. He is in close commu-
nication with the authorities of the
London national gallery and the Ma
tional Portrait gallery. upon subjects
german TO those art institutions. Re
Gently the Swedish National Museum of
Art in Stockholm has applied to Mr.
Hart for information relating to the
works of Wertmuller, the distinguished
swedish painter. His careful and exact
Investigations into the works of Amer
can artists have resulted in the vir-
-uaI discovery to the present genera
ion of many forgotten and unknown {
men, especially Jouett, a true genius s
n portrait painting, and Browere in {
sculpture. The obligations Of writers
o Mr.. Hart is fully shown by the ac- !
lppwledgements of Clarence Cook. ,
William S. Baker, Miss Wharton and I
many Others in the pages of their pub t
lshed volumes. He is the author OF '
many magazine articles on art sub 9
eets. brief biography and biblio-
raphy of Abraham Lincoln and Of E
Their books of a historic character a
He was chairman of the committee I
n retrospective art for the Worlds n
Columbian exposition, and he was the q
My nonresident member OF the New '
'ork committee of the Centennial cell t