Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1936-08-29
BvLeila Mechin.

1 ton, uncOVerS DurleQ Clues, leauS 70
| peaceful conquest in the world OF
| nature. There Is opportunity for the
exercise and qualification Of this
ambition in the field Of art. To dis.
cover, on ones own initiative. the
work of a master Is quite as thrilling
and not very different in sensation as
to find the yellow metal We call gold.
| Such discovery Is potential in every
gallery Of art and in the life OF each
| individual. 1t Turks not in the cata-
| logue, with its record Of dates and
honors, but in the works themselves,
which, If allowed to do so, will speak
| for themselves.
1t would be interesting to know how
many have discovered George Fuller.
| whose name has become one Of the
greatest in the history of our Amer
lean art, but whose works, like the
painter himself, are extremely reticent
and withhold their best for those who
linger.
In the Addison Gallery, Phillips
Academy. Andover, Mass, there is a
head by Fuller of young girl which
is so indescribably beautiful in the
manner of painting and spiritual con-
tent that it takes ones breath away
and holds one spellbound. Some Of
the same quality is to be found in
his child portrait of his son, Henry
B. Fuller, which belongs to and may
be seen in our National Gallery OF
Art in this city.
Fuller's evolution as a painter may
be said to be typically American. He
was born at Deer1eld, Mass, in 1922,
his father a farmer, his mother the
daughter of a lawyer, both of good
New England stock. At Is years of
age he was taken to Boston and put
first into a grocery store and later
In a shoe store to give him a start
in life. But he did not make sue
cess in either place and returned to
the farm and the village schooi-a
taste for drawing had, oddly enough,
developed.
When he was Is he went to Illinois
with an engineering party. but his
real start in life came when he was
permitted to accompany an elder
brother, deaf mute and miniature
painter. on a rambling tour of small
towns in New York State, painting
portraits at SIS head.
Perhaps it was on this tour that
he met and won the friendship of
Henry Kirke Brown, the sculptor, in
whose studio in Albany he spent nine
months striving to perfect his drafts
manship. Then came couple of
years in Boston. during which time,
according to letter written Brown,
Fuller concluded to see nature for
himself and through the eye of no
one else" and to wait for results"
THE waiting must have required
some patience, for it was three
or four years before he found pur-
chaser for one of his imaginative
compositions, and the price received
then was only Sc. In Boston
Fuller shared the studio of Thomas
Ball, sculptor, and it may be re-
marked that while he and Brown
exerted q strong influence on the
young painter, there is very little
sculptural feeling in the canvases he
produced. It was Brown who per-
suaded him to try his luck in New
York and prepared him for his trip
to Europe when at last opportunity
offered.
This came in 1859 under sorrowful
and dramatic circumstances. Fuller
had by then attained considerable
competence and gained recognition
as a painter; he had reason to look
forward to a successful and possibly
lucrative career; but within few
months both his father and his elder
brother died, and he thought it his
duty to return to the farm and farm
life. Before committing this act Of
remuneration, however, he went
abroad, visited London. Paris and the
chief cities Of Italy, Germany, Bel
GUM and Holland, and for five never
to-be-forgotten months made &C
quaintance with the works Of the
great masters. sketching in the gal
leries and being especially attracted
by the great colorists.
Then he came home, put aside his
palette and brushes and went to
farming. For Is years he did not
exhibit, and what painting he did
was for his own recreation in an i'm
provised studio in an old carriage
house, members Of his family and
friends serving as models.
Up to 1875 Fuller's work on the
farm was successful, but then the
fall of prices forced him into bank
ruptcy and back to art. During that
Winter he painted II important
canvanses which, when exhibited in
Boston, met with immediate recognt-
ton and ready sale. From then on
there was q market for all he could
produce, but death claimed him In
1884. Shortly thereafter a compre-
hensive memorial exhibition was held
in the Museum of Fine Arts. Boston,
in which ITS paintings set forth his
lifetime product.
The amazing thing is that during
the Is years that Fuller's art lay fall
low, and his association with the art
world was almost entirely cut OF by
other activities and absorption, he
was growing in power and develop
ing in originality. There is marked
difference between the work he did
prior to the farm era and afterward;
the former was objective, the latter
interpretive. George Fuller's paint
ings are for the most part in brown
tones and without strong contrasts
Of light and shade, but, vague as they
may be, they are never uncertain,
and they speak of things felt as well
as seen, of inner spiritual significance.
They have the intimacy Of friend
ship, the charm of esthetic compre-
hension.
Isham, in his History Of Ameri-
can Painting" says Of these latter
paintings of Fuller: "They were what
many men could very nearly do by
messing over old canvases. But In
painting it is just such slight differ
ences that distinguish between good