Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-02-26
THE NORTH WINDOW
BY LEILA MECHLIN.

In the Brooklyn Museum there is
now being held an exhibition OF the
works of mural painters, a unique
and interesting showing. Mural paint
lngS, obviously, are done for a given
place and cannot be moved about as
| can easel pictures. For this reason
exhibitions of this sort are exception
ally rare and very difficult to as
semble; they also cannot be Judged
| from the standpoint of the usual pic
| torial exhibition; they are something
quite different. 1t is in this field of
painting that American artists have
made, some think, their largest contri-
button. 1t is therefore a field exceed
| ingly worthy of exploration and dis
cussion.
Among the first mural paintings to
| be produced in this country were two
| by william Morris Hunt for the New
| York State Capitol at Albany. These
| were frescoes painted on wet plaster.
Ten years after they were completed
| certain structural errors in the build
| ing had to be corrected and in so
| doing these paintings were destroyed.
In the same year that the decora
lions for the Albany State Capitol
were painted the corner stone of
Trinity Church, Boston, was laid.
Richardson, the architect of the Hay
| and Adams houses in this city, was
lhe diCHlIctlp anu III 1919 ne gave "
| John La Fargo the commission to
| decorate the church. The difficulties
| to less courageous painter would
| have seemed insurmountable, but Mr.
| La Fargo accepted the commission
and set to work, we are told, with
| the utmost enthusiasm and the cour-
| age of youth" II knew" he said
that our work at Trinity Church
would have to be faulty, but this
-. - H4E-I,
| that almost every bit of ii would
| be living, would be impossible to
| duplicate" 1t was the decoration of
| this church which gave birth to the
/ art of mural painting in America
Mr.. La Fargo called to his assistance
a number of the younger artists,
| unskined in such work but able to
understand his viewpoint. Among
| these were Francis Lathrop, F. D.
| Millet, George w. Maynard and
| others. 1t was an epoch-making ac-
complishment. When the scaffolding
was finally taken down and the stain
ed-glass windows put In place, Amer
| lea, 1t is said, possessed for the first
time a complete and beautiful piece
| of interior decoration. Not only was
| it beautiful and constructive in color
but 1t was also emotional, stirring
| the feelings in the deep, vague way
| The study which La Fargo made for
| one of the decorations IN Trinity
| Church, The Visit of Nicodemus to
| Christ" is now included in the per-
| manent collection of the National
| Gallery of Art in this city, and one
1 OF the outstanding features of the
| Brooklyn Museum exhibition are
| three cartoons drawn by La Fargo for
| mural paintings. Quite naturally the
.,,-Ir IN. T,-9, f., ~
| to other commissions, among them
the painting of 1.-THE Ascension" over
the altar in the Church of the Ascen-
sion in New York, a work which
takes its place among the great
| mural paintings of the world, one to
which pilgrimages should be made
as to the Sistine Chapel.
In 1S92-came the Columbian Expo
sition in Chicago, the great World
Fair, which eXerted a most powerful
influence on the development of art
in America, primarily, however, the
| arts of architecture, sculpture and
mural painting. Frank D. Millet was
| made director of color and decora-
ton, with C. y. Turner as his as
sistant, and they associated with them
| in their work such men as Blashfield,
Shirlaw, Reid, Beckwith, Simmons,
Cox, Melchers and MacEwen. If it
had not been for that great EXPOSE
! ton our Library of Congress would
certainly not have been what II is
today, for it was the success of the
mural decorations there winch sug-
gested the possibility of the mural
decorations here.
Five years interviewed and during
those five years the Boston Public
| Library, designed by Mck;m. Mead
| & White, was completed and COM
missions for mural paintings for its
Interior decoration were given out.
The first of these went to Puvis de
Chavannes, the great French mural
| painter. Others were given to Abbey,
| Sargent and Whistler. The Sargent
decorations are still not complete.
| The Whistler ones were never done.
Each artist was given readom to
choose his subject and to produce his
work without limit of time. II was
| a fortunate circumstance tnat one of
these commissions should have gone
| to Puvis de Chavannes, for though his
paintings when first installed III the
Boston library on the grand stair
case brought forth storm of dis
approval, they have served as an in
spiration to the younger painters of
a later generation and are still in
fuencing the development of the art.
| In the Brooklyn Museum exhibition
are to be seen four of his cartoons
for the dome of the Pantheon and his
| original design for a decoration in
! the hall of the Amiens Museum. We
| are fortunate in this city in having
| in the Phillips Memorial Gallery two
I original studies for mural paintings
| by this great master Of our own
! time.
X II ~
Practically the same men who
| worked out the decorations for the
| Worlds Fair in Chicago came to-
| gether to produce the mural paint
| ings for our Library of Congress-
Mr.. Blashfield did, as every one now
knows. the dome of the rotunda;
Mr.. Simmons and Mr.. MacEwen did
each series for the Railways on the
main floor; to John Alexander was
given the decoration of the walls of
| the vestibule to the rotunda; Melch-
ers and Cox, Walker and Vedder each
| had space and used 1t we'll This
was the first Government building
| in which mural decoration was made
an integral part of the design. Nat
| urally, it became not only a show
| place. but also an object lesson, and
| led to the decoration of other build
| ings throughout the country.
i; X X X
| Reviewing broadly the works of
American mural painters, one finds
| an inclination to overemphasize sub
| ject to the detriment of purely dec
| orative quality. In the foreword to
| the catalogue of the Brooklyn exhi-
| bition H. Van Buren, Magonigle says
very truly: "A mural painting Is not
! a group portrait nor q magazine IL
| lustration enormously enlarged, and
| the ability to paint big no more