The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-31

Boston. Dec. 30.--If you have not I already been specially asked in the name of the art education of the Ameri- can people to influence your Congress- man, your favorite newspaper, your minister and other important acquaint- ances to get removed the present tarin on art importations. that is probably because your turn has not come yet Everybody is being asked. all over the country The entire body Of American artists, who for many years have been saying that they need no special pro- lection, has been thoroughly aroused in the agitation that is now on. No political issue. they allegc, Is involved. no general overhauling of the tariff schedules. and there will be no panic if pictures. sculptures and other works of art are put upon the free list as result of the compelling force of public opinion. The educational interests. on the other hand, of the country will be greatly advanced. .
 Among American painters. sculptors. illustrators and designers, living abroad. q petition is circulating-one which will. 1t Is expected. receive the signature of practically every one of several thousand Americans in the practice of artistic professions in Eu- ropean centres Various societies on this side of the water such as the Cop ley Society of Boston, famed for it's big international loan exhibitions. have either memorialized or shortly will me- morialize. Congress to remove the ob- noxious duty.
 Art for all the noople is what is aimed at. so it is said. One of the ef- forts of the executive committee of the American Free Art League Is to em- rhasize to every possible way the fact that the movement is in no way po- l. f.- nd1,n
 Of the value of the agitation to American art students, Thomas Allen, one of the prominent members of the executive committee of the League and chairman of the council of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in this city, says: "The present duty on art objects, amongst it's other disastrous effects, helps to put off the time when American students of painting and sculpture and the applied arts can most advantageousiy carry on all their stu dies in their own country. It is in part responsible for the large number of young persons. who. after learning to draw and paint in the schools here. find 1t best to complete their education in Euronean cities. where examples of the worlds best art are most abundant.
 What more than anything else ere ates an art atmosphere in commun- ity is having art there. That is why our best students, those, for example. who are awarded scholarships, in our Museum school, are sent abroad to continue their professional training. They go to Madrid. there to study not only in the Prado, but In private col lections the canvases of the great mas ters of painting; to Florence, replete with public and semi-public gather ings from the richest era of art pro- duction the world has known; to Italy, Epan EIn11and nv-olI tries in which every possible facility Is extended to American students to be- come acquainted with the best that has been thought and executed in the fine arts.
 "Just because we have not yet ac- cumulated in this country sufficient
 1lber of the best things these travel fellowships are very necessary to thE success of an art school. The &C., training in drawing and painting
 ch the prospective artist gets under
 I men as Tarbell, Benson and Hale,
 lters, or Bella l.. Pratt, sculptor--to q tion those with whose teaching I
 most familiar--is absolutely com
 mt. Probably nowhere in the world
 the elements of the profession be
 CT learned than here.
 Students in our American cities al- ready profit more than most people have any idea by the private collec-
 
 us in spite of the restraining influence of the tariff. There are, in fact. very few notable pictures owned privately in America that are not from time to time. at the disposal of students for study. The contents of the galleries of such owners as Mir Freer and MT. Scripps of Detroit, MT. Walters of Bal timore, Mir. Howard Mansfield of New York, Mrs. Sears and Mrs Gardner of Boston. Mrs. Potter Palmer of Chicago. and scores of others have time and again been thrown open to the public through loan exhibitions. A recent interesting example is the large group of works belonging to Mrs. J. Mont go-lery Sears of Boston. which has been loaned for an indefinite period to the Museum of Fine Arts. and which now gives the hundreds of art students in the city an opportunity for first hand study of important cam ---==-=-=- -