Evening star., 1924-04-10
The North Window
BY LEILA MECHLIS

ness appearing at one of the Senate
Investigating committees not long
ago gave the contributing editor Of
The Outlook opportunity to call at
tention again, not merely to the in
tegrity but the ideals of this great
American. In the course of his article
Mr.. lawrence Abbott quotes a state
ment made by Col. Roosevelt to the
effect that one might be as good as
one pleased if at all times ready to
fight for it.
Undoubtedly this is precisely what
Royal Cortissoz means in his essay
on Theodore Roosevelt and the Fine
Arts" published in his delightful
| newest book on American artists
when he says that "it was Roosevelts
way with the fine arts to range him
self on the side of the angels and
then to fight with all his strength
for the realization OF their aims"
And then Mr.. Cortissoz makes this
statement: Save for Jefferson, we
have had no other President so clear
ly committed to ideals of good taste
in the sphere Of public architectural
design" And TO prove his conten-
tion the critic points TO numerous
modelling Of the White House; the
acceptance of the Freer collection
| when offered and on the verge of re-
lection; the appointment of an art
commission along the lines of that
now in existence, though not the
same; the revision OF the coinage Of
the United States. through the CO.
operation of Augustus Saint-Gaudens,
so that it was brought within the
field of the fine arts: his advocacy
OF the park commission plan, so often
threatened.
But among all these he seems to
put the ~emodeling Of the White House
first. The work done at the White
IL Is important 70 remember that in
the doing of it he could count upon
Rooveselt as upon tower of
strength, sympa thising with his high
aims. giving every possible aid to
, their fulfillment The project for the
remodeling had been mooted years
before. The idea was not invented by
Roosevelt. But it was nothing less
than a godsend to the American peo-
pie that when the decisive step was
direction" How many times in
passing the White House does one
think of it as a work of art, work
| for which one should feel not only
yeneration but gratitude?
To explain quite fully what the
| great architect, Charles McKim, did,
| MIR. Cortissoz quotes Mr. Roots
words spoken at the McKim memorial
! meeting, as follows: "McKfm, with
his reverent spirit, his self-restraint.
sought in the history of the White
| House and the history of the time
| from which ii came the spirit in
which he was to work. Time and
| time again he has come to me and
| talked about what he had found II
Monticello, what he had found here
and there all over the country in the
! way OF remaining buildings that ex-
/ pressed the spirit of the time OF
| Washington and of Jefferson. He
| sought for the foundations of the old
east wing, which was destroyed. 1
| suppose, and never rebuilt after the
! fire OF 1914; at all events, ii had long
! disappeared, and he put back the
/ White House as nearly as possible
! as it was originally, except that he
| took out all the poor material and
| put in the best material; he took out
/ all of the gingerbread confectioner' 5
| work that had been put in in the
| simple and dignified work, and he
/ left us the White House. a perfect
| example of an American gentleman s
home on the banks of the Potomac -
>
! How little we realize the part our
[ public men Nave taken in the foster
ing and the support OF the fine arts
our public men Of today or of the
1
| past. The tendency is too much to
decry our. knowledge of such things
| and TO cling with a certain, churlish
Nainglory to our crudities.
Yet it is true. as Mr.. Cortissoz
points out IN his chapter on New
York As an Art Center" when all
always striven for the best He puts
| it: America has a passion for learn
| ing. 1t Will examine into any new
! thing. But artistically America has
| had a wonderful instinct for main
| tanning a high standard in art" And
! he adds. I'VE have too poor an opin-
| ion of ourselevs If we fail TO realize
| that sober truth"
But to return to Washington. There
| is in this book of Mr. Cortissoz' much
that is of special interest to US here.
! For instance, there is a chapter, and
an extremely interesting one, on the
3, Freer Gallery; chapter which does
| not attempt to be descriptive, but
! which gives US the spirit of the gift
| and points to the enjoyment to be
1 had from it. He speaks. too, SYM
pathetically of the joy Mr.. Freer got
| out of his collecting. He tells US
| how hard he studied in order to know
what to get; of his tireSome jour
neys: of his many disappointments; ;
| of how, all the time he had in his
! mind the erection of a home for his
treasures which would enshrine
; them "for the benefit of every Amer
| lean and European inquirer. a true
| fountain of knowledge and delight
] for posterity.' And then he asks,
| Gould any piling up of money in the
| ordinary paths of industry or COM
! ing as that which this deyotee of
| beauty sought-and found?
= *s
| 1t is this element of beauty which
evidently draws Royal Cortissoz to
art and which he makes a necessity
of art expression. 1t is this element
which he stresses in his chapter on
| 'The American Academy in Rome"
| which, as many know, was chartered
| by Congress and has an office here in
| the Octagon. The work of the men
who have held fellowships in the
! American Academy in Rome and re-
/ turned to work in this country has
| more than proved that the founders
| were right, that the institution was
| a valuable one for America and that
| Charles McKim and those others who
! had to with its founding did not
! dream dreams that could not come
| true. They, as Mr.. CortissoZ tells us,
| protested that Rome never could
/ mean a system of teaching, that 1t
| meant inspiration, beauty and that
/ study there was Indispensable to
| the imagination, a. divine adventure
which brought an artist closer to
/ the secret Of art" 'SThe artist who
! goes to Rome" he says, may take
! some littlenessess with him, but once
! there they will. fall from him. You
! cannot be common or vulgar in Rome.
| 1t is unthinkable. You acquire there
! if it is born in you to acquire such
I things broader horizon, a nobler
outlook, a higher ambition" and, to
| prove his point, he continues with an
instance: Think of John Russell
/ Pope, who built the superb Scottish
| Rite Temple in Washington. Did not
/ =, &C. rtndiac holm bir1 70 Lra