Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1900-02-09

"Art Life of william Morris Hunt. !"

hhcW Iuo dlblob poibOndllJ anu IoluemDeI
him as familiar figure in our village life
during his frequent visits 20 his boyhood
home after he came TO fame-have read
with rare pleasure and appreciation Helen
NJ. Knowlton's volume, cart Life of Will
liam Morris Hunt"
Miss Knowlton's work is not a life of
the artist in the usual sense of that term.
She records, to be sure, the facts In regard
to his birth in Brattleboro, his boyhood
characteristics, his early education, the cir
cumstances under which he began the
study of art abroad, the progress of his
development, his most notable works and
how and where they were produced, and
so on to the end of his life. But the main
effort of the writer has been to reveal the
characteristics of Mr.. Hunt as man and
artistic make his personality stand out in
all its strength and virlity-and in this
effort she has been eminently successful
To those who feel in any way a personal
association with her subject her pages
possess an absorbing interest.
To the popular apprehension Mr.. Hunt
was at his best as a great portrait painter,
but Miss KnOwlton shows that the real life
of the artist was in the development Of the
ideal, and the supreme moment Of his life
came when, in the early summer of 1878,
he was given a commission to decorate the
end wall spaces of the assembly chamber
in the new capitol at Albany with two
great mural paintings. This gave him the
opportunity to work out two great themes
which had hoated in his mind almost from
boyhood-Columbu as the Discoverer,
crossing the dark ocean attended by Faith,
Hope and kindred spirits, and the Anahita
from the Persian mythology, called by him
in this picture "The Flight of Night"
The whole of the summer was spent in
preparation for the great work. The
actual beginning of it was greatly delayed
by the tardiness of the capitol builders, and
instead of the four months promised him
Hunt had barely two for its completion.
The work was done on stagings 40 feet
above the floor.
This was the climax of the artists career,
and, sad to say, it was its end. The strain
had been terrible one, there was an in
eyitable nervous reaction, iscouragements
and anxieties followed, and, worst of all,
the artist was impressed with feeling that
his work was done. The end came early
in September of the following year. Miss
Knowlton believes that il was a sudden
attack of vertigo which, in his weakened
. ls.sa &, 49,
the pool of water near Mrs. Thaxter's cot.
tage at the Shoals. The funeral at the Uni
tartan church in Brattleboro was an event
well remembered here. The burial was
in the family lot ION the brow of the hill
where one looks off across the tree hidden
village to the Connecticut river winding
along the foot of Wantastiquet and TO the
mountains which mark the horizon on the
north" The grave is covered by heavy
slab of polished granite which bears the
simple inscription; "William Morris Hunt,
born March 81, 1924; died Sept. s, 1879"
Little, Brown & Company, the well
known Boston publishing house, have
done their part of the work admirably.
Paper, type and binding comport with the
dignity of the text and its theme, and
there are 16 full-pAge illustrations taken
from Mr.. Hunts own work. Notable
among these are his portrait of his
mother, the Prodigal Son, study of the
head of "Anahita," a charming reproduc-
tion of "The Bathers," "The Flight of
Night" and "The Discoverer."
Miss Knowlton gives this description of
the way in which the mural paintings at
Albany were produced:
"On the night of the 18th of October,
| 1878, he began his great work by throwing
upon the walls of the assembly chamber,
with the calcium light, his studies of The
Discoverer' and The Flight of Night
! On the next evening he drew the out
! lines of one of the pictures, using again
the calcium light, and working until
nearly 8 o'clock of the next morning.
On Sunday noon he returned to the
capitol, climbed up TO the staging and eX-
amined the outline,-that of the Flight
| of Night With fresh eyes he saw that his
drawing was not large enough properly to
ill the space allotted. Hastily comforting
with Carter, his assistant, he resolved To
! destroy it and make another one. No
sooner said than done. Sponges and water
were sent for, and with haste the drawing
was wiped out. That night the picture
was drawn in again. On the next after
noon shading in charcoal was added. At
night, with the calcium light, The Dis
coverer' was thrown upon the opposite
wall, and in its turn shaded with charcoal
To this thin glaze of tint, made of pre-
pared oil, turpentine and paint, was added
to fix the charcoal and obtain certain values,
"The paintings were not really begun
until the goth of October, and on the 21st
of December they were completed. On
account of the scaffolding the artist had
never had chance to see his work from
the floor, and was naturally anxious to test
its effect. With some of his relatives hC
stood on the floor, after the removal of the
staging, and cast his reluctant eyes in the
direction of the two designs that had cosl
him so much labor, time and thought. II
the words of another: his satisfaction
was immediate and perfect, and his JOY
rapturous. The supreme moment of the
enterprise had come, and he found himself
victorious.
1t seems like nothing short of tragedy
to read that in ten years from the time o
their completion, owing to the faulty con
struction of the capitol, the pictures hat
gradually cracked and scaled off, and no
a vestige of them remained.
1t is worthy of note here that, as relatet