Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1917-11-01
TIL. Lincoln Statue Controversy.

The daily press has printed let
tiers from persons who are Mortified to
think tina the Lincoln by George Gray
Barnard might be placed In London near
Westminster Abbey and the buildings Of
parliament, and also in Paris on somS
prominent square, such as that city's gov:
George Washington.
Now the October number OF the Art
World publishes several letters from the
only surviving son of the martyred presi-
dent, Honorable Robert T: Lincoln. also
one from the late Joseph n: Choate. writ
ten a week before his death Senator
"Marse''' Henry Watterson and others OF
note, all OF whom are outspoken in con
d den paL1s 1 Of the e, p 2ls1v to s,d af1 Gistor donaoa
statue. The Art World says,
Mr.. Barnard is a very competent crafts
things th1 II that many can not understand. he
has done some which any one may APP
plaud., No doubt he worked desperately
he went astray in his philosophy Of life
and art, and he could not see that one
can not express in one figure the great
sort Of democracy. He has lost himself
in an aesthetic Jungle like Rodin, his pre-
cursor. who is also a first class crafts
ply and aesthetics, and who. because he
made the mistake to imagine that one
can treat a nude figure and a portrait
oLoAu III Az VIA way Civ AiAohS -.
more significant and Expressive, by
a Reformation Of the FORM" deformed his
statue ,naf Of Baiza n,, Into such noh,s a m 70 aew1 thI N
worked long and hard, it had not occurred
fort 70 H'i IS said sahi1 to h nls 'r Written aaef him: Zone
can not express Balzac and the whole
Coincide Humane in one portrait statue"
valet" True-if the valet has the soul Of
a flunky. But history, proves that many
Wallets lave Worshiped their heroes and
laid down their lives for them.
No common sense man wishes to see
Lincoln stupidity idealized and repre-,
Napoleon, in Milan, but we object, just
because he was not a dude" to have
him shown as a woeful, wallowing While.
a colic-this under the plea of symboliz-
ing a meek and lowly" Christlike %
democracy!
But when all his fuss about this
statue is expressed, the fact renain
that George Gray Barnard is a great
artist, measured by any test, and that
nothing that may now be said can es-
tablish that Abraham Lincoln was
pretty, natty, smart, dandified or SOL
dierly In appearance. He was great in
every way but only beautiful in morals,
and Mr.. Barnard has kept what was
beautiful n kept away from what Is
only Smart" He has kept him a great
democrat. He could not have remained
an artist and depicted him as a Stuart.
In the dispute precipitated by idealists,
the artists voice is not heard. But if
he must defend his work there is no
room to doubt that he a produce
from contemporaneous history such a
a of evidence as must overwhelm
those who are asking for an ideal por-
trait. Mr.. Barnard was presenting the
tatue Of a democracy IN the person Of
a democrat to set up at the court Of
the oldest kingdom Of the race. He did
not present a headless monster as an
other great artist did when he pic
tured a democracy.
In criticising great works of art it
may we'll be recalled that before their
acceptance nearly all the greatest OF
them have been denounced, and not in
frequently by other artists Of less tall
ent. Artists are not obtecting to this
Barnard statue. Politicians who have
bowed to the Lincoln intellect n
descendants who nave been flattered
by a world untutored In perception Of
majestic beauty are condemning II
There censure does not convince.