Evening star., 1936-08-01
WAR SPIRIT IN ART
Americans Have Aided in Stripping Glory
ofCarnage From Works and Shown
Skeleton in Its Uglness.


Of our Capitol, on the walls Of which
they may now be seen. pictures of
the Surrender Of General Burgoyne"
and Surrender Of Cornwallis," as
we'll as, earlier, series of canvases
depicting scenes in the Revolutionary
War. beginning with the Battle Of
Bunker Hill"
1t Is distinctly amusing to note
that Trumbull, after having been a
deputy adjutant general in the Amer
ican Army, went to London in 1880,
before the war was at an end, to
study under Benjamin West. and, not
surprisingly, was clapped into prison
and kept there for eight months,
after which he was sent home. Ap-
parently he had no hard feeling con-
corning his imprisonment, for in 1894
ne went again to London, this time
/ as secretary to John Jay, American
Minister, and continued there for some
years.
N THE Metropolitan Museum, New
York, is Emmanuel Leutze's paint
ing of Washington Crossing the Della
ware" which has called forth much
| admiration, and also stirred considera-
! BILE controversy.
| For the most part, our military
! painters in this country have been
/ illustrators; in other words, have not
been painters at all. Looking over
the list of mural paintings produced
up to 1916, published by The Mural
Painters" national society, only two
/ commemorate military victories and
/ these were In the Revolutionary War.
At the time of the Civil War there was
no photography, such as We know it
now, and pictorial reports were made
by artists at the front and published
as wood cuts in pictorial journals such
as Harper's Weekly. Certainly no great
painting came out of that narrowing
and impoverishing experience. Per-
haps it Is just as well. Through the
medium of colored prints, naval vic
tories have. as was seen in the COL
lection lent by President Roosevelt
and exhibited last Spring in the Cor
coran Gallery Of Art, been ably ccn-
memorated But not battles on lard.
And now we come TO the Grea; Wal.
American artists were sent to France
to make pictorial records. Thcre
were also English and French artists
at the front; but it was not the glorics
Of war, but its horrors. its devastation,
its colossal folly they have shown Us.
Nothing, perhaps, has done more to
put an end to such waste as these
graphic presentations. Artisticallv,
some OF this work is very fine. espt-
cially that in black and white. Recall
George Bellows lithograph of Edith
Caven on the morning OF her execu-
ton, coming down dark stairway:
think of some of the works of Forain.
Nevnson, the British etcher, chief ex-
ponent OF cublsm, did some war plates
which, once seen, can never be for
gotten. So also did Percy Smith.
whose etched series, The Dance Of
Death" Is here in our Library of Con-
gress.
CHEF among our own artists at the
front was Kerr Eby, than whom
none made better use of opportunity.
Wherever he went, his sketch book
accompanied him, and the plates that
were the result have stood the test as
works of art. This last Winter there
was held in New York an exhibition
Of these prints. and in connection
herewith was printed, for free distri-
button, little brochure on war, by
the etcher. in which he said, In part:
"I write in all humility of spirit, in
the desperate hope that somehow it
may be of use in the forlorn and
seemingly hopeless fight against war.
About the prints in this exhibition 1
make no comment. save that they
were made from the indelible impress
sionS Of war. They are not imaginary.
I saw them.
Il saw a great deal Of America
part in the last war by an accident OF
service. In our Army anything that
was queer or out Of the way was put
onto Engineers, so We of the camou-
fage, working with and attacked by
the Field Artillery, were Engineers, the
4Oth Regiment of the Regular Army.
How many divisions had the
doubtful blessing of my service cam
not remember nor the names of the
places we went-all that is haze-but
do remember, and brilliantly, what
it looked like and felt like. &" " There
was great beauty in the last war, as
| there always is beauty in human
giving, but the beauty was in the giver,
not in the thing itself. - The last
war was to me as to most of my
generation profoundly moving ad.
venture. Certainly, since the armi-
stice it has been continuous source
OF grist for my particular mill. At
f1rst, / thought of it as just that, but
OF late years I have had feeling that
we Who know something of what war
means should get up on our hind legs
and do or say what We can. = " It's
a staggering spectacle-but for Gods
sake. don't let it happen again"
Mr.. Eby's etchings speak no less
eloquently to the same effect. They
show us the spectacle and they en-
gender the desire to exercise war for
all time. He has not gone out of his
way to set forth horrors. War and
horrors have always been inscparable
and always will be-but science and
invention have multiplied mans power
to destroy. How far removed are the
pictures that Eby and his colleagues
have set before us from the paintings
OF glorious victories" of a century or
less ago-how the color and beauty of
pageantry have faded, and the skele-
ton. in all its ugliness, remains. The
skeleton was always there. it has only
OF late been stripped of its gay trap.
pings. Art has uncovered it.