The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1902-01-18

PAINTED IT AS HAVE SEEN IT. Many people do not believe
that what have painted is true. They say to me; You have looked
through blackened spectacles. If war is so bad, why have not other
painters also shown it in this way?",
l reply: 81 have exaggerated nothing. On the contrary, some
things which l have seen I dare not paint, because they are too re-
voting. Others have not painted as l have because they have painted
war.rom the official reports or have seen it from ahr through field
glasses. THEY HAVE NOT PAINTED WAR AS 1T is BE-
CAUSE THEY HAVE NOT A CLOSE VIEWS OF IT. They
have never taken any active part in it. l have passed through all the
sadness Of the w%ar-hunger, thirst, sun, rains, WEAKNESS, wounds.
While at the front in the Russo-Turkish war 0. 10 l was badly
wounded. | remember we'll the night when I lay waiting for Death,
which / expected hourly and which almost came. The carnage which
| had seen upon the battle field passed before my minds eye in pic
lures which | shall never forget. Wildly do | recall the gentle min
isterings Of the sister of charity who attended me. l recovered to
paint some Of these scenes and they we're so vivid that people would
not believe them to be true.
Wishing to paint Napoleon and his battles I studied closely the
descriptions OF his conquests as given by segur, Chambray and 9TH
ers. Reading what these writer's eyes had seen, l recalled the very
same scenes witnessed by myself. My imagination reconstructed imme-
diately these famous battles, these imposing arrays Of forces, the
wounded, dying, dead, with snow roads filled with corpses. My mag
nation did not overdraw il, for, as | say, my own eyes had witnessed
similar scenes.
Some critics were harsh because l sometimes painted some Of
the greatest men in very human dress-in heavy furs instead of SNOWY
uniform, the famous gray coat and tricorn. They had not studied
the true accounts of his campaigns as rendered by their own his
torans and artists. l insisted on the fact that, putting aside all his
torcal evidences, our muscle and flesh and skin cannot withstand
everything; when it is too cold it freezes, even when it belongs to an
emperor or a king. NAPOLEON WAS O A GOD.
1 camped with the American soldiers in the Philippines. One
day a wounded man was brought into the hospital He was very
badly hurt. Before he died he asked the nurse to write for him while
he dictated a letter to his mother. In an instant my own experience
came back to me with double force, and the picture that hangs in my
gallery was composed.
do not always see the dark side. l am only very glad to paint
cheerful scenes. l have many such pictures-I think the work Of a
sincere artist will show every side.
l am far from wishing to preach; NEITHER DO l WISH MY
PICTURES TO TELL EXAGGERATED STORIES. If on
should examine my inner heart perhaps he would find there a certain
impression unfavorable to war; but | have been careful always never
to allow this feeling to show in my war pictures. THEY WHO SEE
MY CANVASES MUST DRAW THEIR OWN CONCLUSIONS
OF WAR. [ have sriven, as every sincere artist will do, to put on
canvas my actual artstical impressions. If they have influence upon
you it shows that they have been received by me and transmitted
to you n a right way.