The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1899-06-28

scenes IN all, with 6 DolCnesS and q
grasp and almost supernatural at1atus
that make the heart throb and the
brain reel and the tears start and the
cheeks blanch and the entire nature
quake with the tremendous things of
God and eternity and the dead. |
actually staggered down the steps Of the
London Art gallery under the power Of
Dore's Christ Leaving the Preetori
um. Profess you to be Christian
man or woman, and see no divine mis-
sion in art, and acknowledge you no
obligation either in thanks to God or
man?
1t is no more the word of God when
put before US in printe. 5 ink than by
skillful laying on Of colors or designs on
metal through incision or corroslon:
What lesson in morals was presented
by Hogarth, the painter, In his two PIC
lures. The Rake's Progress and The
Misers Feast, and by Thomas Coles
ensravingS Of the Voyage Of Human
Life and the Course Of Empire and
Nv Turner'S "Slave Ship" God in art
Christ in art! Patriarchs, prophets and
apostles in art, Angels in art Heaven
in art.
The world and the church ought to
come 10 the higher appreciation Of the
divine mission Of pictures, yet the au
thors Of them have generally been left
to scmistarvation West, the great
painter, toiled in unappreciation till,
being great skater, while on the ice he
formed the acquaintance Of General
Howe Of the English army who through
coming to admire West as a clever
skater, gradually came to appreciate as
much that which he accomplished by
his hand as by his heel. Poussin, the
mighty painter, was pursued and had
nothing with which to defend himself
against the mob but the artists portfo-
lio, which he held over his head to
keep off the stones hurled at him. The
pictures Of Richard Wilson of England
were sold for fabulous sums Of money
after his death, but the living painter
was glad to get for his ''Alcyone'' a
piece of Stilton cheese. From 1910 to
1913 there were 4, 900 pictures willfully
destroyed. In the reign of Queen
Elizabeth it was the habit of some pco-
pie to spend much of their time in
knocking pictures to pieces. In the
reign of Charles | it was ordered by par
lament that all pictures of Christ be
burned. Painters were SO badly treated
and humiliated in the beginning Of the
eighteenth century that they were low
cred clear down out of the sublimity Of
their art and obliged to give accounts Of
what they did with their colors.
The Oldest picture in England, por-
trait of Chaucer, thoug now Of great
value, was picked out Of lumber gar
ret. Great were the trials of Quentin
Matsys, who toiled on from blacksmith
anvil till, as painter, he won wide
recognition. The first missionaries to
Mexico made the fatal mistake of de-
stroying pictures, for the loss Of which
art and religion must ever lament. But
why 60 so far back when in this year
of our Lord to be a painter, except in
rare exceptions, means poverty and ne
glect, poorly fed, poorly clad, poorly
housed, because poorly appreciated?
When l hear man is painter, [ have
two feelings-one Of admiration for the
greatness Of his soul, and the other of
cemmiseration for the needs Of his body
But so it has been in all departments Of
noble work. Some of the mightiest
have been hardly bestead. Oliver
Goldsmith had such big patch on the
coat over his left breast 5that when he
went anywhere he kept his hat in his
hand closely pressed over the patch.
The world renowned Bishop Asbury
la da salary Of s54 year. Painters
are not the only ones who have endured
the lack of appreciation. Let men Of
wealth take under their patronage the
suffering men Of art. They LIFT no
complaint, they make no strike for
higher wages. But with keenness of
nervous organization which almost
always characterizes genius these artists
suffer more than any one but God can
realize.
There needs to be concerted effort
for the suffering artist of America, not
sentimental discourse about what we
owe to artists, but contracts that will
give them livelihood, for l am in full
sympathy with the Christian farmer
who was very busy gat .ering his fall
apples and some one asked him to pray
for poor family, the father Of which
had broken his leg, and the busy farm
er said: Il cannot stop now to pray,
but you can go down into the cellar and
get some cerned beef and butter and
eggs and potatoes; that is al can do
now. Artists may wish for our pray
ers, but they also want practical help
from men who can give them work.
You have heard scores of sermons for
all other kinds of suffering men and wo-
men, but We need sermons that make
pleas for the suffering men and women
of American art Their work is more
true to nature and life than some Of
the masterpieces that have become i'm
mortal on the other side Of the sea, but
it is the fashion Of Americans to men
tion foreign artists and to know little
or nothing about our own Copley and
Allston ana 1nman and Greenough and
Kensett. Let the afiuent fling out of
their windows and into the back yard
valueless daubs on canvass and call in
these splendid but unrewarded men and
tell them to adorn your walls not only
with that which shall please the taste,
but enlarge the minds and improve the
morals and save the souls of those who
gaze upon them. All American cities
need great galleries Of art, not only
open annually for few days on exhi-
bition, but which shall stand open all
the year round, and from early morning
until 10 o'clock at night, and free to
all who would come and 20.