Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1915-01-27
OF INTEREST TO
SCAND|NAV|ANS
News Gathered in the father.
land and Elsewhere.
AMERICAN ART IN INFANCY

AMERICAN ART IN INFANCY
Interesting Article on scandinavian
Contributions in Early Days-SociaI
Reform Legislation in Norway So
ciaIist Conference at Copenhagen
Issues Declaration for Peace.
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+ SWEDEN. j.
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Numerous inquiries regarding the
beginning of American art have
aroused some mighty pertinent and in
teresting inquiries from many sources.
Willietta Ball, in a comprehensive
article on this subject throws much
light on it under the caption of Scan
dinavian Contributions to Early
American Art" in a recent issue of
the kT r an Scandinavian Review,
where q jays in part: "Counterfeit
presentments" as portraits were call
ed in the language of those days, by
hitherto unknown lmners, have now
and again received authentic. attribu-
lions and have thereby opened up
new fields of inquiry and added new
pages to the story of our American
art in it's infancy. The attribution of
portraits now in possession of the
Historical society of Pennsylvania to
'Gustavus Hesselius, Swede, and the
more recent identification of a long
lost picture of the Last Supper" as
the work of the same hand have
aroused the instant attention of stu
dents of colonial history. John Smy-
bert, a Scotchman, who settled in this
country about the year 1920. has COM
monty been regarded as the father
of American painting" but since Dun
lap and Tuckerman wrote their his
tories, before the middle of the last
century, a name unknown to them,
Gustavus Hesselius, has come to our
notice. We now know that this pain
ter, native OF Sweden, landed at
Philadelphia in I'LL, several years
before Smybert settled in Rhode 1s-
land, or even his contemporary, the
Scotch painter, John Watson, came
to Perth Amboy. Henceforth Sweden,
not Scotland, New Sweden, not Rhode
Island, must have the credit of con-
tributing the earlier impulse to Amer.
lean art. Gustavus Hesselius, whose
existence we had we'll nigh forgotten,
but who is now coming into his own,
was born in Folkarna, Dalarne, Swe-
! den, in 1862. He was thirty years of
age when he came to this country in
company with his brother Andreas,
who had been sent by the home gov
eminent as a missionary to the infant
colony on the Delaware called New
Sweden. Some twelve years later,
upon the recall of Andreas, another
brother, Pastor Samuel Hesselius,
came to take charge of the church,
now known as Old Swedes church,
at Christiania (Wilmington), which
today marks the site of the first COL
ony in America. Records exist stat
ing that Gustavus Hesselius painted
an altar piece of the Last Supper
for a church in Maryland. This was
discovered only last year. Gustavus
Hesselius died in Philadelphia in 1855.
In his will he bequeathed my cham
Der organ to my son, John" The por-
trait by John Hesselius Of his wife,
with two children, is now in private
ownership in Maryland, as are also
many other family portraits by He's.
selius, father or son. Mrs. Hesselius
was an accomplished Maryland dame,
some of whose rhymes were publish
ed in the Century Magazine more than
a hundred years after they were com.
posed.
J. + j.
An Associated Press dispatch states
that, referring to dispatch at the
opening of the new session of the
riksdag to the economic suffering In
Sweden owing to the war, King Gus.
| tdV LAAS 1dCL I11dt LILO
of international law no longer were
observed by the belligerents contribut.
ed powerfully to the present situation.
He added that a careful regard for the
neutrality of Sweden and for her
right to decide her destiny necessar.
lily involved personal sacrifices and
required that her military forces
should be increasingly maintained
Speaking Of the convention entered
into with Norway and Denmark as
result Of the war, and of the meeting
Of the three kings at Malmo, King
Gustav expressed tho hope that the
good relations between tho three
countries would be further cemented
In order that the position of Sweden
might be strengthened. Although
proceeded his majesty, our neutral