The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-04-22
i, TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
Blu IRE AU
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington. d. C
REDECoRATING THE CAPITOL.
Washington. D. C

years of one artists lifetime were
given to the mural decorations in the
capitol, and now. a quarter of CEN
fury after his death. the results of his
laDors are so badly damaged that it
will take another lifetime to restore
them
Recently the capitol superintendent
engaged the New York artist, Charles
Aver Whipple, to restore some of the
Brumidi panels in the first floor cor
ridors of the senate side of the capitol,
and in the few months since he began
the work Mr. Whipple has been so
successful that a bill will be intro
duced at the next session OF congress
empowering him to complete the res
toration of the first floor corridor dec
orationS and in all probability the I'M
finished friezes in the rotunda.
Brumidi spent the last thirty years
of his life, aided by a small army OF
decorators, at work in the capitol. HIS
work has been declared by artists
from all over the world to be truly re-
markabIe and comparable to Michael
Angeles paintings in the Vatican,
after which the capitol decorations
were modelled.
The "Apotheosis OF Mashington,
painted in the dome of the rotunda,
is generally regarded as Brumidi's best
work 1t was stated at the time the
work was completed that the artist
had immortalized the faces of his wife.
daughters and friends in the paint
ings. Much disturbance was created
by the story that he had used the
faces of certain leaders of the Confed-
eracy. This story Brumidi denied; but
sightseers from the south today insist
that they are able to trace hkenesses
to Lee and jackson in the pictures on
the dome.
The friezes around the middle of the
dome were never completed, the ar
fist dying before his work was done
Mr.. Whipple hopes to be permitted to
fill the vacant place with symbolic
painting of the part played by the
United States in the present war. and
to show congress what he can do has
filled a third of the space with
sample" painting. If congress author
ICES him to finish the friezes, he will
paint the sinking of the Lusitania, the
spirit of America, and the battle OF
Chateau Thierry.
1.-THE paintings will symbolic the
reason for our entry into the struggle,
the spirit that carried US to success,
and the turning point toward victory.
he declares For the Chateau Thierry
painting Mr.. Whipple will go to France
and make sketches of the actual scene
of the battle.
The sample painting now on the
walls of the rotunda is declared by
and the project of completing the
work is enthusiastically supported by
the majority of the Sightseers in the
capitol. If congress fails to authorize
the completion of the frieze, the I'M
Outstanding is that Mr.. Whipple will
remove his painting and leave the
space clear for the artist selected by
some future congress to finish the long
neglected masterpiece.
Portions of Brumidfs kfrieze' will
have to be restored, an open window
during a rainstorm several summers
ago having ruined several feet of the
work. Mr.. Whipp1e believes that to
finish the work and restore the dam
aged portions will take several years.
Entirely to restore the ruined mural
decorations would occupy the entire
attention of more than one artist for
the next twenty-five or thirty years,
according to Mr.. Whipple, and other
artists familiar with the problem.
Thirty years of neglect and vandGI-
ism have completely obliterated many
of the choicest panels. and have so
badly damaged others that they have
become eyesores instead of the, mas
terpieces they once were. Congress
men have scratched matches On the
walls, written their initials across the
faces of priceless paintings, and 9th
erwise marred the life-work of one
of the foremost artists of the world.
Paint has been Clipped off in some
places, and has been discolored in
| others by leaking pipes and dirt. In
some portions of the corridors the en-
tire masonry must be replaced, and
the paintings will be destroyed in the
process. Mr.. WhipPle proposes to
transfer the paintings to canvas be-
fore the work is started, and so pre-
serve the originals for reproduction on
the new walls.
on mural decorations In
the first floor corridors that Brunid1
| employed the majority of the artists
he summoned to his assistance Each
detail has been worked out with the
most finished skill and by the leading
artist along that line. An Englishman
named Jones painted the birds, de-
clared by experts to be the finest bird
pictures in the country. Colonel
| Roosevelt was especially fond of the
| bird paintings, and commented upon
| their remarkable "faithfulness to ma
| ture.
1t was originally intended to deco
rate the entire capitol as the first floor
| of the senate side was decorated, but
Brumidi died and another artist could
not be found to give his life to the
work as had Brumidi.
Mr. Whipple, whose reputation is
based on such masterpieces as the
portrait of Theodore Roosevelt in the
Republican club of New York, be-
| 1eves that the honor of finishing the
decorations of the capitol would be
che browning tribute the nation could
pay to any American artist
! However. despite the artists theory
| OF the national capitol as temple of
the MUSES.. some of the worst, as well
as the best, pieces of art in the United
states are enshrined within its walls.
In the rotunda, under the incom-
IW,sz III.
OF huge paintings, noted chiefly for
! the remarkable assortment of natural
phenomena they picture. In one, rep
resenting Columbus discovering Amer
lea, three flags are shown flowing in
| three differept directions, a phenom-
enon of the weather that would have
been more startling than any other
| discovery the explorer made in the