Evening star., 1938-09-11
POPULAR ART is NOT INFERIOR
Work That Gives Pleasure Many No
Man Is Not Interested in Type Of Painting Artists
Claim Is Designed to Appeal to Him.

skill produces technique, experienc,
stores the mind with facts upon which
the imagination can feed and imagina.
tion produces the results.
Such results, I hope, appear or
my canvases. have no need to name
place or time. The whole purpose
Of the picture is to convey a message
at the moment of seeing. 1t is no,
to rehearse what has been seen by
the artist to happen in nature al
any special time. But If it resembles
such things there is all the more
reason to find in it the same emotions
that the real event has engendered
When my seas heave up to the sky
and flow over the rocks, and dash in
air, surely the power and the majesty
Of them is the mood of the moment
And this also serves to recall actuali-
ties seen in times past. 1t is an ami
versary, in a sense.
When the seas are tranquil in my
pictures, with prehaps the moon or
sun reflected in a path of light, does
it not speak of a day ended or a
promise of tomorrow? And if it
conveys the romance of the moment
the mystery of the mood-tken has
the picture fulfilled it's purpose.
But such emotions recur again
and again, whenever one looks at it
The picture lives on and on in q
continuous display of its own particu-
lar emotions or mood. If people who
possess pictures only value them from
this standpoint rather than from the
standpoint of when and where they
were painted, no doubt they might
be classed as picture lovers-to whom
the picture itself is of first and great
est Importance. Thus a painting
should stand for itself-as a work of
art, without apology"
FREDERICK ]. WAUGH was born
in Bordentown, N. j.. in 1861. His
father, S. B. Waugh, was a protrait
painter of Philadelphia who attained
to considerable distinction. Quite nat
urally, therefore, the younger Waugh
turned to art as a profession, but his
first intention was to be an illustra-
tor or a painter of subject pictures.
In addition to two marines by Mr..
Waugh in the w. T Evans collection,
now part of the National Collection
OF Fine Arts, he is also represented
therein by an idealistic composition,
The Knight of the Holy Grail" a
canvas approximately 95 by 125 inches
in dimensions, painted before 1907.
He also did large subject picture rep
resenting a group of pirates plying
their trade which won commenda-
ton in various outstanding exhibitions
Is or 80 years ago
In fact it was with a trunk full of
pirate costumes and the intention of
painting such themes, born of his
torical reading and personal imagina-
ton, that Frederick Waugh first went
to Gloucester and took a house and
studio on Rocky Neck. But the sea
on Bass Rocks proved too diverting.
In fact, it so enthralled him that
from then until now it, in its ever
changing moods, has been his one un-
ending subject. He has painted it
tirelessly, learning wave forms by
heart, watching it with seeing eye and
worshipful admiration, picturing it as
few have before-With complete SYM
pathy and understanding.
But to return to his subject picture
in the National Museum. Classed as
an easel picture, this painting might
well serve the purpose of mural.
Inspired by Tennyson's poem, The
Holy Grail" it bears on its frame the
following quotation:
Sometimes on lonely mountain meres
I find a magic bark,
I leap on board, no belmsman steers,
I float till all is dark.
A gentle sound, an awful light, three
angels bear the Holy Grail,
With folded feet in stoles Of white, on
sleeping wings they sail.
All, blessed vision; Blood of God; my
spirit beats her mortal bars,
AS down dark tides the Glory slides
and, starlike, mingles with the stars. "
ESSENTIALLY this is a literary
theme, but it is interpreted with
great imaginative power and beauty.
The treatment is very fiat, the color
simple and high keyed and other
Worldliness pervades the whole, filling
the holder with reverent admiration as
a curtain drawn on some sublime
scene. Why should we not have more
murals of this order which delight
the eye and uplift the spirit? OF
such emotions we need not be ashamed.
1t is not matter of old art or new
art, but art which is fine.
That Frederick Waugh, the power
fu1 painter of the sea, could have pro-
duced this idyllic Interpretation of the
immortal theme set forth by Tenny-
son may seem to some incongruous,
but there is really no incongruity. The
trained hand Of the painter is seen in
1t as well as the imagination of one
who can still dream dreams and see
visions. The scene has shifted-that is
all. Realism and idealism may join
hands-if they are both of the right
order.
In recently published essay on "The
Utility of Beauty" Edgar L. Hewitt,
distinguished American archeologist
of Sante Fe, New Mex, has said:
"Our materistic spirit is noticeably on
the wane. Time was, in recent years,
when the word realistic" appeared
in almost every public address. The