The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-06-12

THE TWIN SEVEN SHOOTERS. BY Charles F.
Henderson. New York: F. Tennyson Nicely,
III Fifth avenue. Minneapolis Nathaniel
Mccarthy.
The author Of this book was colonel of
the Nineteenth Ohio volunteer infantry
teers, U. s. A., during the civil war, and
later represented Nebraska in the United
States senate. The Nineteenth Ohio was
a fighting regiment of a very pronounced
kind, and showed its fine qualities on the
bloody fields of Stone River and Chatta-
nooga. or Mission Ridge, where the des-
perate character Of the fighting is re-
vealed by the fact that federals and Con-
federates lost in killed and wounded over
% per cent of their men. wellington lost
only l. per cent Of his men at Waterloo
and Napoleon lost less than Is per cent
at Austerlitz and Marengo.
The story is of two revolvers which
We're presented to Colonel Henderson by
his regiment after the desperate battle
of Stone River for his fine services there.
These pistols were lost in battle and were
found at different times by parties in the
south and were finally recovered, one
eight years after the war and the other
twenty-five years after, in very interest
ing ways. The author gives remarkably
fine descriptions Of the battles of Stone
River and Mission Ridge. where Grants
order, Take the rifle pits at the foot OF
the Ridge' entailed upon the army of
the Cumberland men a duty apparently
impossible CT performance. AS the men
went up into fire, smoke shot and SHE'LL
Grant turned to Pap Thomas and asked
''Who ordered those men up there?"
Thomas said, II don't know; I did not!'
Grant said to Granger, Did you?" mo-"
said Granger, 'they started without or
ders; when those fellows get started, all
he'll can't stop them And they got to
the crest and over and won.
PICTORIAL COMPOSITION AND THE CRITI-
CAL JUDGMENT OF PICTURES. By H. R.
Poore, A. N. A. New York: The Baker &
Taylor company, 1887 East Seventeenth street.
Price $1.5O.
The author objects, very properly, to
the idolatry of the old masters as Of a
different order of beings from men gen
| orally, and admits that he is somewhat
| iconoclastic. In this volume he does not
assume to tell a student exactly how to
| draw or paint a picture, but suggests,
rather, what he ought not to do in the
| way of pictorial composition, and lays
| down certain principles which he deems
essential as the foundation of any attempt
to produce drawing or a painting and
he includes suggestions for photographers.
He believes the student should be deeply
rooted and grounded in principles and
4 think out his conceptions of his work on
tthose principles. Even such masters
as Michaleangelo, Rubens, Corregio and
| the great Venetian painters, who were
masterful in the composition of many
figures, committed serious errors. Com
| position Is the mortar of the wall, as
drawing and color are its rocks of de-
| fense," says the author "and without
| it the stones are of little value, and the
but separate integrals having no unity
The author, on this basis, proceeds to dis
cuss the scientific sense in pictures, anc
the Importance of unity of all the parts
i the delicate work Of evolving a picture
| how to get into it and out of it: the de.
/ tails Of composition; light and shade an6
| the aesthetics Of composition. The place
of photography in fine art, the autho,
thinks depends on the degree in which
more Of the man and less of the mocha mic
| appears in the work. The third part OF
the book is devoted to the critical judg.
ment Of pictures, and here there will be
no doubt, considerable disagreement with
the author The critics uprofessing to be
guided by principles are many Your
art principles" may not be my art prin.
ciples. There are about seventy illustra
tons in the book and included are fine
examples from the work of Raphael
Michaelangelo, Durer. Teniers, Gerome
Meissonier, Gerard. Dou, Corot. Claude
Lorraine, Cuyp, Rembrandt, Beardsley
! lines and others.