The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-09-04
The Walt Whitman of the Brush.
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self-nlade men in many lines Of en-
deayor whose early life was passed
upon the farm. are drawn by the
Darn pictures" as they could not be
drawn by works Of great masters.
There is little question but the corn
painter might have won high honor
at some institute of art had he been
Wiling to conform to regulations.
These he scorned. Once, indeed, he
was induced to enter an academy of
design, where he was Immediately
handed slip of questions to be an
swered. He considered these an i'm
pertinence and took his leave
He has contempt for the self zap
pointed critics who throng the IA
nous galleries to make or break the
fortunes of struggling artists A dis
tlnguished foreign critic once told him
that his corn had the appearance OF
hardness. The astonished farmer had
the wit to inquire on the spot IL the
critic had ever seen any Indian corn.
Certainly" replied the critic, with
lofty air.
Where" gasped the painter.
ON the restaurant tables" was the
reply: why, on my word, your corn
looks too hard to eat. Corn, you
know, is often eaten from the cob"
When Prof. Baker, of Harvard uni-
yersity. declared in paper in Har-
per's Magazine that there was no art
in the the West, the corn painter re-.
piled In a Chicago university periodical
that st. Louis alone possessed more
Meissonniers than all New England,
and he displayed a surprising knowf-
edge of art and criticism. -
When a distinguished Chicago pulpit
orator and critic went further than
Prof. Baker and declared that America
had no art, the corn painter awaited
h c0vf rf inv fofi 10 ar1lxr iv,
speech in DR.. McIntyre's church. = Yet
these outbursts were exceptional.
Generally he paints and says nothing.
His pictures talk for him. He holds
that true art Is Indigenous and not
copied. He will not be q copyist. Like
Mrs. Brooks, the "butter artist" Of the
Centennial exposition, whose creation
| of the "Slumbering Iolanthe" aston
ished the millions three decades ago,
he will continue to do things that are
"inadmissible." Mrs. Brooks would not
give up her butter for clay. nor would
she use the conventional Implements Of
the atelier. She paid for her indie
pendence by years Of vain endeayor.
1t was the penalty of resisting the
conventionalities of the art world.
The corn painter himself does not
now confine himself to "still life"
Familiar old hens appear on the barn
floor, to snap up the stray kernels.
| There are sheep in the barn; and the
latest work Of the eccentric painter Is
a study of the sleeps face-full front
view. Moreover, the old baskets, bar
rels and grain sacks of the barn have.
| received an accession in the shape of
an old brass or copper caldron, such
as your grandmother used for making
preserves. The inside Is kept bright
| by use, but the exterior Is sadly oxi-
| died and has a coating Of yerdigris.
| These homely additions to the former
subjects of the corn painter show care
full. study. His mastery Of them is as
indigenous" as his mastery OF zthe
corn, and they appeal with equal force
] to those who love the reminders OF
I homely scenes in the farm and VII
! lage of decades gone. M
Montgomery is in the very prime sof
| life and will leave in the parlorsSe9 a
| vast number of homes his vivid pic
lures to tell of a busy career in an
art world all his own. And who shall
say that these will not be preserved
and treasured when the names of the
| critics are all forgotten?