Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1936-08-29
FINDING PURE ART
Work of Master Has Thrill and World Vel.
comes Continuity of Ideals as Shown
by Fullers, Father and Son.

tunate In owning his painting
entitled "Lorette," typical example
of Fuller at his best in subjects Of
this character. OF similar style and
theme are his well known "Win;fred
| Dysart," 1.-THE Quadroon," 1.-THE
Romany Girl" But above all, Fuller
was supreme in portrait painting, not
ION commission" but to please him.
self, to satisfy his own desire for exc
preston. Lovely. indeed, Is Ideal
Head" in the collection Of the Phillips
Memorial Gallery-a young girl por-
trayed in a manner which. as Mr..
Phillips himself has said, "curiously
reminds us of such dissimilar masters
as Rembrandt. Goya and Gains
borough" adding, "and yet Fuller
was absolutely himself. rugged type
for all his tenderness of feeling"
How truly indefinable Is quality in
art! How impossible to lay down hard
and fast rules for criticism! But now
certain it is that these qualities come
from within the consciousness of the
artist and that they cannot be culti-
waited in barren soil.
George Fuller's talent seems to have
sprung spontaneously from the soil and
to have been strengthened By renur-
citation, but in rather full measure it
has passed to his descendants, a son
having made a name for himself as
painter, and grandson as an archi-
tect. The painter was the little Henry
Brown Fuller-named after Henry
Kirke Brown-whose portrait at the
age of 4 or 5 years, painted by the
father, probably in the old coach
house at Deerfield during the period
of exile, now hangs in the Evans Ma.
tional Gallery collection.
Henry Brown Fuller was born at
Deerfield in 1867, and developing ar.
tistic tendencies, was given some of
the opportunities his father lacked.
He studied at art schools in New York
and in Paris, won numerous medals
and honors, and was elected to mem.
bership in various professional art or
CARNATIONS. He died in 1924. He Is
represented in the National Gallery
of Art by a painting entitled "Illu-
inches in dimensions. 1t shows q
woman and a child, the latter nude,
the former draped in gauze, on ball
ccny overlooking an impressive stretch
of mountain scenery. The woman
holds in her hand, and out of reach, a
glass ball or bubble, for which the
child eagerly stretches up her hands.
Thaca 6O1rroc cfov1d nttf
against the dark landscape, and as a
composition fill the canvas perfectly.
The idea back of the painting is OBJ
vious-an allegory. if you will. but
charmlngly set forth. And certainly 1t
was not the idea with which the
painter was most concerned, but its
transcription; the sheer beauty and
loneliness of the theme as whole and
its individual units. Here we have
balance and rhythm, harmony in color
and richness in tone. Not, perhaps, @
great work, but one in which beauty
is dominant factor-a dream picture
which extends vision.
THIS Is the kind OF picture which is
more or less regarded with scorn
today by those of the new school who
deal either with realities of the most
commonplace sort or unintelligible
abstraction. And yet what we need
today, more, perhaps, than at any
time in the history of the world. is
something that will lift us out Of the
world of toll and turmoil, and show us
the height beyond, which may be
Climbed If we have the hardihood and
vigor. Almost all of us, If We were
allowed free choice, would not merely
choose the right to labor, but the
privilege to dream. Art, some one
has wisely said. is some ones dream
come true. That this element of
beauty finds so little expression in con-
temporary art is a matter for concern.
The word beauty" may have been
spoiled by misuse, but the element of
beauty still exists and Is universally
recognizable. Alfred Moves has warned
against mistaking the superficial facts
OF death" for the everlasting verities
OF life" and Galsworthy, in one of
his lately published letters, declared
his conviction that sense Of beauty.
widespread, would dethrone "the foul
god"-evil.
Il do not use beauty in the mere
narrow, esthetic sense" he wrote. 1T
include in it all that, of course; but
I mean by it an increased conception
OF the dignity of human life-which,
however, we shall never reach until
people increase in the sense of pro-
portion, and come to revolt against
disharmony, greed and ugliness."
We, who believe in the future of
the arts as "a basic element In civil
ization," cannot pass this over lightly.
Beauty Is everlasting and cannot be
determined or altered by individual
taste or opinion. There are, to be
sure, many kinds Of beauty. The
beauty, for instance. of Henry Fuller's
art is by no means that of the art
OF his father, George Fuller. It may
even be inferior to it, but in one thing
at least they are the same; both show
a searching for the ideal.