The Iola register., 1900-03-30
MISS SHOWS
ART TALKS
WILLIAM
H00ARTH
The First of the English rIasters

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Hudibras and introduced his "con-
versation piecee" which, being a
novelty pleased the popular taste.
These were little full-length figures
twelve or fifteen inches high painted
with a simplicity and force which
marked all his work and led the way
to the great series of moral pieces
which began with "a Harlot's Prog
ress" aad reached their noblest in
fluence in Marriage a la Mode"
Here at last was an uncompromis-
ing truth-teller who set befo the
English people the wretchedness and
the falsily of the hollow and betin-
sslled life of the first half of the
eighteenth century. He spared NO
cruel detail but expressed his mes
sage with such splendid satire and
such sympathetic wit and humor,
that he won an immediate and en-.
thusIastic response as well as the
renewed friendship of his distin.
guished father-in.law. He was more
familiar with lowly life and loved the
best to picture 1t, but the marriage
q la Moden revealed an equal SOW
ereignty over the homes and char
aoter of the rich. His method was to
make q stage of his canvas and the
figures he painted were like living
actors in the dramas he chose for
representation. And with fidelity
aud skill equal to Tenier's he excel.
ed the Flemish master in the deep
resistless teaching that was always
driven home.
The various pictures of this kind he
afterwards engraved which gave
them wider spheres of influence, and
later on he showed unusual skill as
a portrait painter, Iecelving larger
cum for a portrait of Garrick .as Rich
ard III. than had ever been paid be-
fore to an English artist. He also
attempted historical pieces OF the re-
ligious type in the "grand style" but
this phase of work did not belong Ia
his peculiar vein, and he made an
experiment in authorship which also
ed unhappily. The well-known
portrait of himself with the palette
marked by serpentine line, called
forth the inquiry and criticism whicn
resulted in this work which was
called IAN Analysis of Beauty" But
while some of his friends insisted
upon thinking 1t a final utterance
upon the science of aesthetics its mis-
taken reasoning and "cobbled COM
positiOnn were full of the seeds OF
failure. This disappointment con-
nected with the rejection of care
fully wrought picture of "Sigis-
mondi' and an unhappy quarrel
with some old friends EN- bittered the
last years Of his life and produced
ironic comment upon his later work
But he was to the last the simple,
honest, original combative creature
who had good work to do In an un.
propitious time aud was not afraid
to carry it through in his own indi.
vidual way. His skill as an en.
graver has Overshadowed his accom-.
plishment as painter, but he was
a strong, harmonious colorist and his
composition was always effective and
true. Moreover this technical power
was animated by a most vigorous
and suggestive spirit, and while he
was too individual to establish o
school or attract "a special follow inghC
gave to English art an impetus which
finally resulted in definite. Eationa
and typical tendencies.
He loved best to be ranked with tn,
worlds story 'tellers, however, rather
than with the worlds great artists
and as such he Is closely related t
Fielding: and Smollet and thus be-
comes the poetic ancestor of Thack
cray and Dickens. Garrick wrote
his epitaph and his friends erected 1
fitting monument when he passeC
away but the highest tribute to hi
memory lies in the silent forces tina
no one can measure or gainsay.
FLORENCE l.. SNOW.
A ,F