The Republican journal., 1902-12-18
WALTER M. BRACKET.

In America we are beginning to under
stand as never before, that art touches
closely on national pros perity, that it
is of vast Importance in a rich and we'll
rounded civilization. To make the ideal
grow out of the commonplace and the
everyday is one of the many gifts pos
sessed by artists,-though some artists
themselves do not realize this. When
we cease to think of art as merely a
luxury and simply ornamental but
regard it, as did Sir Richard Potter as a
necessity, then will we realize the full
meaning of such faithful pictures of
men and of fishes as Walter NJ. Brack-
EFT knows SO well how to make.
Mr.. Bracket is the painter of por-
traits for many famous men. His
studio at Al fremont street, Boston,
has been the rendezvous for many cele-
brated names, too, other than those
who came to have their portraits paint
ed; who came because they knew and
loved the man, as we'll as the artist
who admired him for hiSerich store of
experience and his delightful converse
ton. Wendell Phillips, Charles Sum-
ner, Edward Everett, General Ben But
Ter, DR.. Holmes, Edwin Booth, Timothy
Pickering, Samuel Dexter, William
Eustice and Henry Dearborn-(the last
four named the first secretaries of war;
and many others whose names have
passed into history. The visitors book
at the same mecca for great minds,-
had such a book been kept, " would
have contained such valuable auto
graphs, besides the names mentioned,
as William Lloyd Garrison, Whittier,
Bryant, Longfellow, Lowell, Richard
II. Dana, ST., Henry Ward Beecher,
Nasty Billings, Twain, Edwin Forrest,
John G. SAKE, Bayard Taylor, James
Walack. William Warren, Fechter,
Jefferson, Lucy Larcom, Mrs. Howe,
Charlotte Cushman, Julia MarloWe,
Col. Ingersoll and others.
| His love of nature led the portrait
painter, when thirty years old, to-spend
| his summer outing among the wales and
streams near Conway, n. H. Here a
chance brook trout, still beautiful in
death, was transferred SO successfully
| to canvas by Mr.. Bracket that he was
at once overwhelmed with orders for
! pictures of trout. 1t was not until 1861
that he began to paint salmon, seeing
his first land-locked specimen in Schoo
die Lake. Maine in that year. a famous
quartet of pictures, bringing him world
wide praise, was painted i'll 1872. The
names were The Rise THE Leap
''The Struggle - LANDED" They were
promptly exhibited at Boston, New
York, Philadelphia and Chicago, and
then were taken to Liverpool and Lon
don. While this Journey of the can
vas was under way, Sir Richard Potter
of Worcestershire, travelling in Mon
treal, had heard so much about them
that, before he had ever seen the pic
lures, he purchased them, and they are
now art features of that gen leman'S
estate, in a room built specially for
them and containing no other picture.
Replicas of this set were made for Lord
Mount-Stevens and Banker John S.
Kennedy. Messrs. Walter L. Pierce
and Charles Barnes of Boston own his
Critical Moment" and Leap for Life, y
respectively. Allen Gilmour of Ottawa
and the Liverpool Art Club also own
specimens of his wonderful skill.
Mr.. Bracket was born in June, 1928,
in Unity, Me-, of Quaker descent. His
father was famous matchmaker. He
went to Quaker school in Providence,
r. l.. for several years. His parents
removed to Cincinnati in 1887; but
Walter, whose taste for drawing had
had considerable practice, even at this
early age, soon went to the studio of
his sculptor brother in Boston. Soon
thereafter his long occupied studio,
lately vacated to give room to modern
sky-scraping business block, began to
be famous for its distinguished visitors.
Mr.. Bracket and his wife have for
years spent their summers on the
Saguenay river in Canada, where they
have camp in the midst of the salmon
region. The artist does not look his
nearly tours score years, perhaps because
nature-love is such necessary part OF
his makeup. Therein lies a lesson
which che who runs or he who walks,
either, may heed.-Wisdom Magazine.