The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1906-10-12
ARTISTS WHO HAVE
RUINED THEIR WORK
Piqued by Criticism, Famous
Artists Have Been Known to
Destroy Masterpieces.
AND scuLPToRS
Numerous Celebrated Names Among
Those Who Have Childishly Yield
ed to Anger and Destroyed
Their Efforts.
From Tit-Rits.

IIOlil
1t is perhaps but natural that men
and women of Genius should desire that
the best of their works only should live
after them, and for this reason many.
u celebrated artist has destroyed his
owr pictures. When Hogarth was all
most at the height of his time he paint
ed AN interior, which was somewhat
severely criticised by a friend. The
artist acknowledged the business of the
criticism, and when his frank friend
had left the studioh he took a sharp knife
and deliberately cut the canvas in two
and threw the pieces into the coal scut-
tie. There they were found the followS
ing day by one of the maids who took
the pieces home.
y Some time afterward the story of the
ruined picture reached the ears of al
relative of Hogarth's, who thereupoD
went to the maid and asked her to sell
him the pieces. She agreed to do sc,
but when she went to look for them
one half had vanished. Search was
made and inquiries instituted, but With
no result, and the relative had to be-
content with half the picture. which ~
now in possession OF HoSaflh S desceilo@
ants in Aberdeen.
Hogarth was but one of nanny artists
who have in a fit of discomfort de-
stroyed their own works. jules FlaInA
meron, in an interesting article on the
i me OIL lIie lale Sculptor, 1GIolllC lSlAo
how the great artist had been WORKING
for many weeks on an ideal group symA
bolizing the birth of spring Then he
suddenly became convinced that his
treatment of the subject was wrong.
and with one blow of his clenched
fist he reduced the graceful group to a
mere mass OF Inert clay"
Chartran, the famous French portrait
painter, once destroyed a picture for
which he was to receive $1,000. The
portrait was that OF an American Wom-
an famous for her beauty. When the
picture was nearing completion the
husband OF the woman called at M
Chartran's studio in Paris and request
ed to be shown the portrait. After
looking at it for a few moments he de-
clared that it was a very beautlful
painting and that the coloring was su-
perb, but thai it no more resembled
his wife than it did the empress OF
him
Ctartran merely bowed, laid down hi3
brush and then, taking out his pen
knife. deliberately slashed the picture
into ribbons before the eyes of his as
tonished visitor and showed him the
door. The sequel of the story came out
later, when it became known that the
millionaire husband had visited the
studio for the express purpose of get-
ting the artist to make Il reduction in
But perhaps the most dramatic case
of an artist destroying his w work
occurred in New York when Gutzon
l3orgiun, the we'll known sculptor, rose
early on the morning of october 8 and
made his way to the Belmont chapel of
the Cathedral of st. John the Divine, on
Morningside Heights, and broke to
pieces his two statues. colossal in the1f
proportions, representing the Angel of
the Annunciation and the Angel of Res
direction.
The cause of this remarkable act was
due to the sculptor having been severe
ly criticised for conceiving and eXecutl
ing these statues as beautiful women.
When seen afterward by the excited reA
porters he said hat he felt like a muir
derer, but that it was the only thing
he could do under the circumstances
MIR. Borgium took away with him the
!. heads of the two angels and one foot,
which he intends to keep as souvenirs.