The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-09-06
TALKS OF ABBEY'S YOUTH.
Chicago Politician Remembers Fam
Gus Artist Years Ago.
From the Chicago Chronicle.

character is proved to the satisfaction
of c. Il. Kelley, at all events. when
he reflects on the habits and customs
compares them with that famous art
lists recent utterances.
Years ago, before Mr.. Abbey ever
thought to be selected to paint the
coronation scene by royal command,
he and Mr.. Kelley roomed together
and the latter consequently had am
pie opportunity to study the painters
many idiosyncrasies.
That was twenty-five years ago, a
time long enough to win the one fame
on two continents as a mighty wielder
of the brush and to elevate the other
to a high place in the ranks of Chi
cago Republicans.
II we'll remember Mr.. Abbey as a
youth of is" said Mr.. Kelley recently.
HE was my roommate in Williams
burg then and seemed to spend more
time in dreaming than in work. often
he would say to me: My board bill
will be due tomorrow and 1 must get
out sketch for Harper's tonight
Then he looked over a pocket sketch
book in which he was continually jot-
ting down what seemed to me to be
mere lines. but to him incidents found
in his daily life. Something would be
selected and the next morning Har-
pers would hand him a check for 500
in return for 1t.
Pockets Always Empty.
abbey found a sale for all the
sketches he could do for Harper's
Weekly. and much of his work found
its way into the monthly. Yet while
he was in receipt of large income he
seldom had any money and was in
dolent to the degree of being lazy.
Ills money, however, was not spent
with evil companions or in saloons, for
do not remember that / ever saw him
| take a drink or smoke a cigar. In
| stead, any article of wearing apparel
! that pleased him would be purchased
| without regard to price. Silk under
wear, hose and fine furnishing goods
were his hobby.
His particular forte was in facial
expressions, and l imagine that this
| speciality will be well brought out In
his work on the fifteen panels de-
picting the 'Seach for the Holy Grail,
which he is working upon for the new
Boston public library.
Il can see Abbey now as ne used to
appear to me in the old boarding house
sketching on piece of cardboard with
some fifty faces traced out under his
skillful hand and no two of them at
would sit back and laugh at his work
Abbey could always see something
worthy of his pencil in the serio-comic
side of life and this little notebook
was full of such eccentricities. The
value of his work was shown in row
ing commission given him by Harper's
to go abroad on a salary of $4,000 a
year. Specimens of his early work
may be seen in the draperies for the
Vanderbilt library, for which it is said
he received $4,000. / was not surprised
to learn that he had been selected to
paint the coronation scene, for | al
ways believed him to be destined to
become the greatest painter of modern
times.
This further reminds me-" continued
Mr.. Kelley, "of his early hopes to some
day attain the fame and money neces-
sary to become a member of the fam
Gus Artists Club in New York His
marriage to Miss Gertrude Mead of
Greenwich, Conn, whom | had known
as child and who had no knowledge
that he had ever met, is another link
in our lifelong acquaintance. While
he was indolent in his early career,
possibly characteristic of Philadel-
phia birth, / believe his objection to
living in America is due to a desire
to study English home life and obtain
greater conveniences for his art stud
les. for he is thoroughly American"
Like Work for Boston.
In his work on 1.-THE Quest and
Achievement Of the Holy Grail" a
famous writer has said: "In selecting
this theme for the series of decoration
for the Boston public library Mr.. Abb
hey has dug deep into the fountain
from which much of modern ina gin-
alive literature has flowed. In these
fifteen pictures he has given pictorial
expression to that first wave of extrav-
agant and somewhat fantastic thought
which merged from the darkness of
the period preceding the Middle Ages
in the various Catholic countries of
Europe"
The best of his grail panels. "The
Maidens and the Red knights" was
exhibited in the last Paris salon and
attracted much attention.
In a recent magazine a notable trib-
ute is paid the American artist in the
following terms:
Great Britain has come to America
for an artist to paint the picture Of the
coronation of Edward VII. Time was
when England sought it's historical
painters in continental Europe Queen
Victoria was once a great adnirer of
Winterhalter, later she commissioned
Benjamin Constant, and received from
him a picture which the artist himself
proclaims more aflegory than portrait
Native British art has contributed lit
tie TO the recording of historic oc-
casions within the last century.
ut may be that it's disregard has
been necessitated by its decadence in
portraiture since the great days OF
Reynolds, Gainsborough and Law
renee; but no man gazing at the Ger
man canvases in the national portrait
gallery In London and at Windsor
Castle and Buckingham Palace will ac-
cord much praise 10 the artists import
ed from the continent.
ut n otherwise with Mr.. Abbey He
IS an Anglo-Saxon. instinct with the
legendary lore OF Great Britain. SYM
pathetic toward It's traditions and its
characteristics. Trained as maya
zine craftsman, Abbey developed into
an illustrator Of books, lie jouFneyed
20 England and there found the at
nOsphere he sought ~ rainy N his ma
tive philadelphia 80 10 New York. II
was four years ago that Abbey went
~ England a. get color for hls illus
trations Ia G0idsmlth's "Hhe 6toopn 10