Delaware gazette and state journal., 1899-05-04
TRE ART LOAN EXHIBITION.
Description of the Paintings by Howard
Pyle. Which Are Displayed.
Written for Eyory Evening, April 29th.

Pyle. Which Are Displayed.
Written for Evcry Evening, April 29th.
The Art Loan Exhibition to be held
in the New Century Club on May ID.
4th and 9TH, will contain works Of
many prominent living artists; among
them will be valuable collection OF
paintings by our own townsman, Mr..
Howard Pyle.
OF his pictures those of the most
note are the series of four, illustrating
the story Of the Revolution by Mr..
Henry Cabot Lodge, which appeared
in Scripner's Magazine during the year
1898. These are painted in full colors.
Three of them-the Battle Of Lexing-
ton, Washington's retreat through New
Jersey and the portrait CT Thomas
Jeiferson-have already been ex-
tensively exhibited throughout the
country. New York, Boston, Wash
ington, Philadelphia, Chicago, Gin
cinnati have in turn displayed them.
The fourth, the Battle of Germantown,
upon Cleveden commonly called the
Chew House) has not been exhibited
before. The first in this series of
pictures is the Battle of Lexington;
the details of this were very carefully
studied by Mr.. Pyle from the grounds
as well as the historic records that re-
main. 1t is pictured as though viewed
from tho American lines. The building
on the left Of the painting is Buck
mans tavern, which is yet standing,
in it the night before the battle the
patriots gathered, drinking and carous-
ing, falling into line at break of DAY as
news of the approach of the British
reached them. In the centre of the
picture is the old westinghouse. long
since destroyed; to the right is the
belfry tower which is yet in existence
though not in the position then occu-
pied. The British are advancing down
the Boston road, an oppressive April
day is just breaking after unseason-
able heat of the night before, that
night when Paul Revere took his
famous ride. The British emerging
from behind the meetinghouse are
forming rapidly into companies and
have already begun the fatal firing;
the American ranks breaking and
crumbling before the fire of the British
are returning few scattering shots
under which a British soldier has
fallen to his knees wounded. Major
Pitcairn riding forward upon his horse
is waving one of those famous pistols
in the air which is said to have fired
the first shot of the Revolutionary
War. These particular pistols, by the
way, are now in museum in the
public library of Lexington.
The second picture in this set is the
Retreat through New Jersey-it shows
the gently rolling country in the
neighborhood of Princeton, twilight
is Just falling, bleak and cheerless and
Waob IN nh H., ,nir
along the road ploughed deep by the
passage of cannon and army wagons, IS
closely followed by his generals, among
whom may be distinguished the faces
of Putnam, Greene, Knox and others.
The army, an unorganzied crowd of
raggedly clad figures, sweeps along the
further side of the road and following
them are focks of crows, the scavengers
of the camps of the old timer. The
whole scene is cold and depressing and
one cannot but share in the discourage
ment which must have possessed these
heroes of the past.
In the third picture we see Thomas
Jefferson at the time of his writing
the draft Of the Declaration of Inde-
pendence. The position of the room
and street beyond we're carefully studied
for this picture not only from old
drawings and engravings, but also
from verbal description given by the
late Col. Thomas Donaldson, who,
when the house was about to be torn
down, purchased it and had each brick
and timber numbered as it was re-
moved. The portable writing desk
upon which the draft was written,
which in the picture is nearly covered
with the papers upon the table, is now
in the State Department in Washing
ton having been presented to the
government by Thomas Jefferson
Coolidge, Esq, tho direct descendant
of the framer of the Declaration. Tho
scene represents an early hour in the
morning: the tired figure Pas arisen
and is standing with finger tips upon
the table while the author reviews his
ucubrations by the light of two gutter
ing candles, his face and his form
wearIed by the strain of his long and
concentrated thought; third candle
has sputtered out into darkness, only a
spark showing, and through the win
dow comes the earliest steely blue of
the dawn of day A light shines dimly
in the distant window and up the street
as yet sunk in shadow comes watch
man with mis- lantern marking a dull
circle of light upon the cobblestones.
In the fourth and last picture we
have tho Battle of Germantown. Ii
may be interesting to say of this
picture that the bullet, grape and
cannon shot holes in the pillars of tho
doorway are yet marked by the patches
in the venerable structure and that the
Chew family who still own the man
sion. have taken great pains that the
marks of the battle that SCARED the
old house should not be entirely
obliterated. The scene represents u
party of the patriots advancing on the
run with the trunk of tree used as a
battering ram which, however, because
of the heavy iron bars that fasten the
door within, entirely failed of its pur-
pose, the messenger sent forward to
demand the surrender of the house has
been shot down from the cellar window
and has fallen upon his face at the
edge of the driveway with the flag of
truce beneath him. For o long time
blood stains upon the steps marked tho
spot where the wounded men, as por-
trayed in the picture, fell and in other
ways the scene of battle is as correctly
reproduced as history and the ira
ditions of the Chew family have
recorded.
OF the other pictures exhibited, the
one called 1.-THE Unwelcome Suitor,"
was made for a frontispiece for Har-
per's Monthly and was published in
color in the Christmas issue of 1898.
The others, eight in all, arc series
of pictures and accompanying decorated
text, written by the artist, called by
Land and Sea. y They introduce phase
of life in New England seabosrd town