The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-05-17
SCHOOL DECORATIVE ART.
Presentation of Pictures to the Public
Schools.

Exercises at Reception Hall-Admirabls
Address by Judge symonds, Mrss Josiah
Burnham and Mayor Randall-A Large
Audience In Attendance.
Reception hall resembled an art gallery
Saturday. On the walls were hung the
pictures presented to the public schools by
the Woman's Literary Union. The pict
ures include etchings, engravings, photo
graphs and photographers, many of them
copies of the masterpieces of the worlds
famous artists. The subjects have beer
selected with great care and rare judg
ment. What they include is told in the
address of Mrs. Burnham, printed below
The hall was visited by many people Sat
urday and at p. M, when the presenta
ton was made, there was large attend
ance. Superintendent Lord presided and
spoke briefly He then introduced Judge
Joseph W. Symonds who made an elo
quent and scholarly address.
After referring TO the works of few
of the more eminent modern artists, be-
ginning with Canova, including men.
ton Of some of the more distinguished
Americans, beginning with Horatio
Greenough. Judge Symonds proceeded:
When l undertook on this occasion, at
your invitation, to say something in re-
gard to the refining and ennobling infu-
ences OF art it occurred to me that ]
might perhaps better accomplish that
purpose by referring to some Of the mod
ern manifestations of art, beginning
with Canova, and finding no unworthy
representation among the artists of our
own country, with mention of few of
the most eminent names, and some slight
reference to their works and the ideas by
which they have been guided, that /
could by any direct or formal presenta-
tion of the subject. The latter task is one
| should not willingly undertake, for
know very little of art myself. New
England can hardly claim to be q region
in which it has hitherto found a very
congenial soil.
| When Kenyon, in the marble Faun, T"
proposes to return to New England, he
exclaims, you remember, "In my dear
native land the clouds upon the horizon
will be my only gallery Of art. -
In another place also Hawthorne has
described the first meeting house of our
early forest settlers as "a small structure,
low rooted, without a spire, and built of
rough timber, newly hewn, with the
sap still in the logs and here and there a
strip of bark adhering to them. A mean
er temple was never consecrated to the
worship of the Deity" and then he
pauses to wonder how they could have
dispensed with the carved altar work, the
pictured windows TRANSPORTING the light
OF common day, the lofty roof, hallowed
by the prayers which had gone upward
for centuries, the solemn organ pealing
through the dim arches of vast cathedrals
or along the aisles of the old Uncovered
churches of rural England
''They needed nothing of all these, -
he adds, ''their house of worship, like
the ceremonial, was naked, simple and
severe. but the zeal of recovered faith
burned like lamp in their hearts, en-
riching everything around them with it's
radiance, making of these new walls and
this narrow compass it's own cathedral -
The early New England meeting houses
and schoolhouses were bare enough of
art, we must admit, but there was spir-
it in them which has moved the world
and lifted it to a new and higher plane.
But times change and manners with
them. Architecture has lavished its re-
sources upon our public and private build
ings. Costly collections Of the treasures
of art have been made. The rapid and
vast accumulation of wealth in our coun-
try has enabled many who were interested
out limit, and to lead to the bestowal
upon the successful masters of our times,
especially in painting, of such pecuniary
rewards Us are without parallel except in
antiquity.
The general extension of liberty, also
certain amelioration of the condition of
the great masses of mankind, especially in
our country, have tended to take the pat
rOnage of art from the hands of the
learned few and give it to the many. The
invention of printing, the facilities for
travel, have wrought marvellous changes
in this, as in other respects, increasing
the number of artists, diffusing the
knowledge of their works. A congenial,
sympathetic company attended upon the
few, compared with the throng which
now waits upon the work of even an in
ferior artist in large city.
There were no morning papers nor
quarterly reviews to make even the people
of Greece and Italy familiar with the be-
ginning, progress or results of their la
bors. They could have had no conception
of the wide supremacy Of the fame they
were destined to inherit
There must be great stimulus in this
prospect of extended renown which now
opens to those who conscious of noble
capabilities and having faith in the true
glory and imperishability of their work,
patiently, nOpe1ully or deSpalr1ngly put
the whole force of their vitality, the
strength and sweetness of their nature in
to works Of permanent value in literature
or art; but it has other effects which &C
count for some of the changes that have
occurred during the modern period The
sources of patronage have changed, and
the art of a period inevitably changes in
greater or less degree to meet the de-
mands made upon it. A century ago
European courts and aristocracies were
the patrons of art. Now it may almost
be said to have become the inheritance of
the common people. Then the few took
pride in the progress of art as heritage
peculiarly their own. The artist at work
for intelligent patrons was relieved from
the necessity, or the advantage, of
pleasing larger, though less Intelligent
class. Under the old methods, a certain
uniformity of culture, at least, was likely
to be present in works addressed to the
taste of the comparatively limited body
of men who had knowledge of art and
interest in it; but the change in our
times necessarily involves larger vari-
ETY. in the style of work as result of
the greater diversity in the kind
Of patronage. Artists, sometimes
at least, will paint to please
DatrOnS and if thew naint IN u1aacn tho