The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-06-30

an clbd Lie DIdlh IEct duu the tears
start n the cheeks blanch and the
entire nature quake with the tremen-
douS 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 Praetorium." Profess you to be a
Christian man or woman and see no
you nc obligation either in thanks to
God or man?
ARTS DIVINE MISSION.
It Is no more the word Of God when
put before us in printers ink than by
skillful laying on Of colors or designs
on metal through incision or %corrosion.
What a lesson in morals was presented
by Hogarth, the painter, in his two
pictures, The Rake's Progress and
The Misers Feast" and by Thomas
Coles engravings OF the voyage of
Human Life and the Course of EN-
pre-" and by Turner'S "Slave Ship"
God in art! Christ in art! Patri-
archs, prophets and apostles in art
Angels in art! Heaven in art!
The world and the church ought to
come to the higher appreciation of the
Irvine mission of pictures, yet the
authors of them have generally been
left to semi-starvation. West, the
great painter, toiled in interpretation
I'LL, UC1IlS d GREAT Skater, WILT III III
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 ac-
complished by his HAND as by his heel.
Poussin, the mighty painter, was pur-
sued and had nothing with which to
defend himself against the mob u
the artists portfolio, which he held
over his head to keep off the stones
hurled at him. The pictures of Rich
ard Wilson of England were sold for
fabulous sums of money after his
death, but the living painter was glad
to get for his "Alycone" a piece of
Stilton cheese. From 1910 to 1643
there were 1900 pictures willfully de-
stroyed. In the reign Of Queen Eliza
beth it was the habit of some people
to spend much of their time in knock
ing pictures to pieces. In the reign of
Charles / it was ordered by par
Lament thai all pictures of Christ
be burned. Painters were so badly
treated and Inundated in the begin
ming of the eighteenth century hat
they were lowered clear down out of
the sublimity of their art n obliged
to give accounts of what they did with
their colors. The oldest picture in
England, a portrait of Chaucer, though
now of great value, was picked out of
a lumber garnet. Great were the trials
of Quentin Matsys, who toiled on from
blacksmith's anvil till, as a painter,
he won wide recognition. The first
missionaries to Mexico made the fatal
mistake of destroying pictures, for
the loss of which art and religion must
ever lament. But why go so far back
when in this year of u Lord to be a
painter, except in rare occasions means
poverty and neglect, poorly fed, poor
ly clad, poorly housed, because poorly
appreciated?
VALUE OF ART GALLERIES.
When l heal a man is a painter, I
have two feelings-one Of admiration
for the greatness of his soul n the
other of commiseration for the needs
of his body. But so it has been in all
departments of noble work. Some OF
the mightiest have been hardly be-
stead. oliver Goldsmith had such a big
patch on the coat over his left breast
that when he went anywhere he kept
his hat in his land closely pressed
over the patch. The world renOWn-
ed Bishop Asbury had a salary of $64
a year. Painters are no the only ones
who have injured the lack Of appreci-
alton. 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 a keenneSS of nervous
ton which almost always character
ICES genius these artists suffer more
than any one but God can realize.
There needs be a concerted effort for
the suffering artists Of America, not
sentimental discourse about what we
owe to artists, but contracts that will
give them a livelihood; for / am in full
sympathy with the Christian farmer
who was very busy gathering his fall
apples, and some n asked MIN 10
pray for a poor family, the father or
whom had broken his leg, and the busy
farmer aid II cannot stop now to
pray, but you can go down into the
cellar and get some cOrned beef and
butter and eggs n potatoes. That is
all I can do now"
Artists may wish for u prayers,
but they also want practical help from
men who a give them work. You
have heard scores of ermon 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 Ito nature and life than some OF
the masterpieces that AVE become i'm
mortal on h other side OF the sea,
but it is the fashion of Americans to
mention foreign artists and to know
| little or nothing about our own Copley
and AlIston, n Inman and Gree
nough, and KenSett. Let the aff1uent
fling out of their windows and into the
backyard valueless daubs on canvas
and call in these splendid but unre-
| warded men and tell them to adorn
your walls, not only with that which
shall please the taste, but enlarge the
minds n 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 a few days on exhibition, u 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 go.
BUILD ART GALLERIES.
! What a preparation for the wear and
tear of the day a five minutes look IN
the morning at some picture that Will
. open the door into some larger realm
| than that in which our population
daily drudge! Or what a good thing
/ the half hour of artistic opportunity
on the way home in the evening from
exhaustion that demands recuperation
for mind and soul as we'll as body!
Who will do for the city where you
live what w. w. Corcoran did Tor
| Washington and what others nave