The record-union., 1899-02-12

American Monthly: The sensation OF
the Paris Salon of 1894 was the exhibit
oe a young American sculptor, who was
an pronounced by the most eminent
ench critics "a man of astonishing
enius," "of superb power and original
-nolght,'' "of talent robust and mature"
md was hailed by many as the found
er of "a new school of sculpture. This
newly arisen star of the first magni-
tude was George Grey Barnard, a
young Westerner, who had gone TO
Paris some eight years before, poor and
unknown, to study art He was born
in Center County, Pennsylvania, but
removed with his family when still very
young tosMuscatine Ia, where he lived
for a number of years. There he de-
veloped a taste for natural history and
became, untaught, an expert taxiderm-
ist A bust of his little sister, model
ed when he was a young Lad, so inter-
ested his friends that it led to his ap-
premiership to a local jeweler, from
whom he learned lettering and engrav-
ing. A craving for the higher forms OF
art led him to Chicago at the age OF
l6. Having no money, he worked at
his trade until he saved S1OO and then
entered the Chicago Art Institute, hav-
ing received from Leonard Volk, the
veteran sculptor, to whom he had sub
mitted two or three little clay figures,
assurance that he might hope to be-
come a sculptor.
A year or more after he entered the
art institute Mr.. Barnard was lucky
enough to receive $3.50 for a portrait
bust of a little girl. With this he at
once set out for Paris. For three, years
he worked in the Atelier Cavelier, and
then, having mastered the technique of
his art and learned about all the schools
could give him, he retired to a solitary
studio, where he lived like a hermit
and, apart from all extraneous influ-
ence, worked out for himself the prob
1enS of life and of art. Out of that
period of darkness and struggle, born
of the travail of the mans SOUL came
his great group, 81 feel two natures
struggling within me-" a wonderful
expression of the eternal contest be-
tween spirit and flesh. Art is to him
the expression of life. and though he
has long since found the light and
stands on the mountain top, his heart
throbs with the great heart of human
ity, and the subjects which appeal to
him are mans painful evolution, his
struggles with the forces of nature,
with sin and darkness-the tragedy of
the ages repeating itself through all
time. In these years he completed.
among other fine designs in bas-relief
for a great Norwegian stove, the ex-
squisite group known as "Brotherly
Love" designed for a Norwegian tomb,
n nr,1 r.. nd f,.s,cr 70
six or seven of these he made his first
appearance at the Salon in the Champs
de Mars, and in day was famous
the talk of all Paris.
The noble, figure of "The Hewer," to
which for a year past Mr.. Barnard has
given his best powers, and which is
thought to be in many respects his
greatest work, is but recently completed
in the clay and until it is put into
marble can be known only through the
photographs which were taken before
the figure was turned over to the mold
er. The Hewer'' belongs properly to
colossal group which the artist has
,rojected and sketched in miniature.
Surrounding the high prov of curious
vessel, representing the ship of life, are
nineteen figures, each ten or eleven feet
high. depicting the tolls and struggles
of early man as well as some of his
joys, and typifying the whole life of
humanity. Whether or not this group
will ever be completed is question, as
it's execution would almost fill the life
of a man, and many commissions are
pressing for Mr.. Barnard's attention.
In any case 1.-THE Hewer' is in itself
complete and a noble work of art.
among the prominent men who have
Proved the project to erect in Rich
sis hd a Confederate memorial hall are
PRESIDENT Mckinley and ex-Presidents
Cleveland and Harrison, Secretaries
Gage, Aiger, Long, Bliss and Hay,
Postmaster General Smith, ex-Secre-
taries Sherman, Whitney, Carlisle and
Lamont and ex-Postmaster General
James. Many of them have contribut-
ed to the object
Golfers Weekly: Puvis de Chavan-
nes' art was sort of caviare to the
general 1t has been described clev-
erly as the negation of all that has
been counted art, and to be based on
the omission of good drawing, model
Ing light and shade. and color On the
other hand, he had the strongest sup
porters and admirers and certainly he
has been styled the master of color and
light by the ablest of critics as well as
by his brother artists. His place will
not soon or easily be filled-this primi-
tive of the primitives. this classicist of
the classicists. An Individual an en-
tirely original artist, whose mannerisms
were the only ones fit to express that
which he alone had to say.
New York Times: At the peace jub-
flee in Philadelphia three floats in the
great civic procession represented the
three leading art schools. Each was
not only beautiful in itself, but harmon
ized with the other two, so that to-
We're given the right of the line through
we Americans are not accustomed to
think of art as a leading factor of civic
life. They were placed there in recog-
milton of their special beauty, and
frankly, it is said, of the part which
professional artists ought to play in
city pageants Thus they constituted
really important precedent They
were half acknowledgment that there
would be a gain We're civic displays
put entirely in the charge of artists as
is done with advantage in France and
Germany
In and Out.
rs the proprietor in?" asked the Wis
ftor to the planning mill II want to
J<.v~ H..