The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1914-03-13

printed in book form.
The Hudson-Fulton exhibition held
in New York in 1909 gave the Amer
lean public an opportunity to see
III of value in the wsy of pictures,
that was never before afforded them.
At the Memorial exhibition at the
Metropolitan Museum of art, there
was to be seen a great collection
of important Dutch paintings all of
which belonged to America, private
collections which may in time be-
long to the people through generous
donations to museums and public in
, situations. The exhibition contained
145 painting, "a of which were Rem
hrandt's. "a by Frans Halls, 5 by Yer
meer. On the whole the collection
was representative of the Dutch
school in all it's branches of port
nature, genre, animal and still life.
In contrast to this there were hung
in the rooms devoted to the American
colonists, pictures by Copely, Peales,
Benjamin West and Robert Fulton,
but it is the display OF craftsman
ship that interests the visitor, for
the young life of the colonies must
be devoted to support life and estab-
| lish Industries among hardships
American art was fathered by stern
Puritans and sturdy Quakers sugges-
tive of moral vigor rather than SEN
suous charm. There was however,
beautiful specimens of silversmith-
ing and cabinet making in typical
American designs, simplicity in form
and motive. While it was unfair to
look upon American paintings with
the mind fresh from Dutch master
pieces, visitors felt pride and admira-
ton that the little colonies which
had the French, the Indian and the
mother country to conquer could so
early in their history produce any
paintings at all. Ruskin says, "A
nation writes her history in her art,
and the line of pictures in this room
showed the colonists themselves.
Critics say we have not improved
upon excellence Of design.
Sculpture shared in the revival
which followed the exhibition of 1875.
The change was decided departure
from old world models, that resulted
in originality and manifestation of
national spirit. Our open field OF
sculpture should be and is most at
tractive to young artists.
The style of architecture has
changed and with it desire for pub
lie buildings embellished with sculp-
ture. There is also a demand for
decoration of parks, for memorials,
churches and private dwellings, that
has caused the leading sculptors 10
set high ideals for the nation.
In December, 1910, at the open
ing of the National Academy OF
Design, for the first time in the his
tory of the organization, an entire
gallary was devoted to sculpture
which took precedence over all others
in point of interest. There were LA
pieces of sculpture, covering wide
range of subjects proving that the
province of sculpture in America IN
recent years has been great. In this
particular exhibition the sculpture
was considered by critics to be more
meritorious than the painting.
There is no nation school of archi-
lecture as yet. We seem to be still
cropping about the colonization per-
iod, when the Dutch, French, Eng
lish, Swedes and Spanish each elected
to build home and environment ac-
cording to the accepted styles of his
native country as nearly as possible,
with the change in conditions and
materials considered. The present
indications point to development OF
nationel architecture on Spanish lines
through the old missions of Califor-
mia and the southwest. Some claim
the Renaissance is more closely fol-
lowed in costly residences and notes,
while present day church architec-
ture favors Gothic and Romanesque.
This is of course is aside from the
sky scraper which is commercially
American.
Many call our art spasmodic be-
cause at times it progresses along
such unexpected lines. For perhaps
twenty years prior to 1895 the press
and the people who are interested
discussed an American salon. Each
of the larger cities was at times
selected as q choice of location, but
no one gave a thought to Pittsburg.
1t was unknown except as an from
and steel center. What did artistic
foreigners know or care about Pitts
burg with its somewhat crude and
-o nu oiu;l;,o+ion hJoot furp ono and