St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1899-07-22

art. and acknowledge you no obligation
| either in thanks to God or man?
1t is no more the word Of God wher
put before us in printers ink than b,
| skillful laying on of colors or designs OF
metal through incisicn or corrosion
What a lesson in morals YVES presented
by Hogarth, the painter, in his two pic
lures. The Hake's Progress" and ''Tht
Miser's Feast" and by Thomas Cole'i
engravings of the Voyage of Human
Life" and the 'Course CT Empire and
by Turner's ''Slave Ship" Ccd in art!
Christ in art! Patriarchs, prophets and
| apostles in art! Angels in art! HEAVIER
in art!
The world and the church ought Il
come to the higher appreciation of tht
Divine mission of pictures. yet the au
thors Of them have generally been left
to semistarvation. West, the grea,
painter. toiled in interpretation till
being a great skater. while on the ice h
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 hiN. 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 "Alcyonc" d
piece of Stilton cheese. From 1910 to
1643 there were 4.6O0 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 10 pieces. In the
reign of Charles ]. it was ordered by
parliament that all pictures of Christ
be burned. Painters were SO badly
treated and Inundated 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. a por-
trait of shaucer, though row of great
valne, was picked out of lumber gar
ret. Great were the trials of Quentin
Matsys, who toiled on from black
smiths anvil till, as 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 la
ment. But why go SO far back when in
this year of our Lord 10 be a painter, OK
cept in rare exceptions. means poverty
and neglect, poorly fed. poorly clad.
poorly housed, because poorly appre-
ciated: When hear a man is 4 painter,
I 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 his hat
in his hand closely pressed over the
patch. The world renowned Bishop
Asbury had salary of S54 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 for
higher wages. But with a keenness of
nervous organization which almost al
ways charactcrizes genius these artists
suffer more than anyone but God can
realize.
There needs to be a concerted effort for
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
poor family. the father of which had
broken his leg. and the busy farmer
said: II 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 all can do now
Artists may wish for our prayers, 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 women, but
we need sermons that make pleas for
the suffering men and women of Amer
lean art. Their work is more true to
nature and life than some OF the mas
terpieccs that have become immortal
on the other side of the sea, but it is the
fashion of Ame ricans tomention 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 VIM
dows and into the back yard valueless
daubs on canvas and call in these splen-
did but unrewarled men and tell them
10 adorn your walls not only with that
which shall please the taste. but en-
large the minds and improve the me rails
and save the souls of those who gaze
upon them. All American cities ne ID
great galleries of art. not only open an
nually for a few days on exhibition, but
which shall stand open all the year
and from carly morning until
ten o'clock at night. and free to all who
would come and go.
What preparation for the wear and
tear of the day five minutes look in
the morning ut some picture that will
open door into some larger realm than
that in whick our population daily
lrudges. Or what good thing the half
hour of artistic opportunity on the way
home in the evening from exhaustion
that demands recuperation for mind
md soul as well as body! Who will do
Tor the city where you live what w. w.
rorcoran did for Washington and what
others have done for Philadelphia and
Boston and New York? Men Of wealth.
I you are too modest to build and en-
lew such place during your lifetime,
Why not 60 to your iron safe and take
tut your last will and testament and |
make a codicil that shall build for the |
.ity IF your residence a throne for
american art? Take some of that |
money that would otherwise spoil your |
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