The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1899-1900, 1899-06-21

tural scenes in all, with boldness and
a grasp and almost supernatural af-
flatus 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. l ac-
tually staggered down the steps of the
London art gallery under the power of
Dore's "Christ Leaving the Praetori-
um." Profess you to be Christian man
or woman, and see no divine mission in
art, and acknowledge you no obligation
either in thanks to God or man?
The world and the church ought to
come to the higher appreciation of the
Divine mission of pictures, yet the au-
thors of them have generally been left
to semistarvation. West, the great
painter, toiled in unappreciation till,
being great skater, while on the ice he
formed the acquaintance of Gen. 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 port
folio, 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
1643 there were 1900 pictures willfully
destroyed. In the reign of Queen
Elizabeth it was the habit of some peo-
pie to spend much of their time in
knocking pictures to pieces. In the
reign of Charles /. it was ordered by
parliament that all pictures of Christ
be burned. Painters were so badly
treated and humiliated in the beginning
of the eighteenth century that they
were lowered 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, though now of great
value, was picked out of a lumber gar
ret. Great were the trials of Quentin
Matsys, who toiled on from black
smiths anvil till, as a painter, he won
wide recognition. The first mission
aries to Mexico made the fatal mistake
of destroying pictures, for the loss of
which art and religion must ever Ia
ment. But why go so far back when in
this year of our Lord TO bea painter, eX-
cept in rare exceptions, means poverty
and neglect, poorly fed, poorly clad,
poorly housed, because poorly appre-
ciated? When hear man is painter,
1 have two feelings-one of admiration
for the greatness of his soul, and the
other OF commiseration for the needs of
his body. But so it has been in all de-
partments of noble work. Some of the
mightiest have been hardly bestead
Oliver Goldsmith had such big patch
on his coat over the left breast that
when he went anywhere he kept bis hat
in his hand closely pressed over the
patch. The world renowned Bishop
Asbury had salary of $54 year
Painters are not the only ones who have
endured the lack of appreciation. Let
men of wealth take under their patron
age the suffering men of art. They lift
no complaint; they make no strike fol
higher wages. But with keenness Of
nervous organization which almost al.
ways characterizes genius these artists
suffer more than anyone but God car
realize.
Thereneeds to be concerted effort fol
the suffering artist of America, not sen
timental discourse about what we owe
to artists, but contracts that will give
them livelihood; for am in full sym
pathy with the Christian farmer who
was very busy gathering his fall apples
and some one asked him to pray for q
poor family, the father of which hat
broken his leg, and the busy farmer
said: ~ cannot stop now to pray, but
you can go down into the cellar and get
some corned beef and butter and eggs
and potatoes; that is ali l can do now
Artists may wish for our prayers, but
they also want practical help from mer
who can give them work. You have
heard scores of sermons for all Other
kinds of suffering men and women, but
we need sermons that make pleas fol
the suffering men and women of Amer
lean art. Their work is more true tC
nature and life than some of the mas
terpieces that have become immorta
fashion of Americans to mention foreign
artists and to know little or nothing
about our own Copley and Allston and
Inman and Greenough and Kensett
Let the affluent fling out of their win
dows and into the back yard valuelesi
daubs on canvas and call in these splen
did but unrewarded men and tell then
to adorn your walls not only with that
which shall please the taste, but EN-
large the minds and improve the morals
and save the souls of those who gaze
upon them. All American cities neeC
great galleries of art, not only open an
nually for few days on exhibition, but
which shall stand open all the yeal
round, and from early morning unit
ten o'clock at night, and free to all who
would come and go.
What a preparation for the wear ant
tear of the day five minutes look il
the morning at some picture that viii
open door into some larger realm thar
that in which our population daily
drudges. Or what good thing the hall
hour of artistic opportunity on the way
home in the evening from exhaustion
that demands recuperation for mind
and soul as well as body! Who will dc
for the city where you live what W. w
Corcoran did for Washington and wbat
others have done for Philadelphia and
Boston and New York? Men of wealth
il you are too modest to build and en-