Evening star., 1940-09-08

when a World War gave us other
things to think about.
To this happy era, when we be-
lieved frontier days with their hard
ships to be over and straight road
to lie beyond to cultural develop
ment in various fields, belong such
epoch-marking mural paintings as
The Ascension" in the Church of
the Ascension, in New York City, by
John La Fargo, as well as those by
the same gifted artist in Trinity
Church, Boston; the two murals
representing the Old and the New
DlspenSation, by Sargent, in the
Public Library, Boston: and in the
same building, not only Abbey's
series, based on the story of the
Holy Grail, but also panels by Puvis
de Chavannes, who had already
created the superb ST. Genevieve
series in the Pantheon, Paris, as well
as the great works in the Sorbonne
and at Amiens, by which the art of
mural painting had been given new
meaning and expression.
For the new Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston, Sargent had been persuaded
by his friends, Frank Millet and
Abbey to to do conventional series
OF decorations for the main entrance
and stair hall, which were in full
accord with the architectural design.
and his last great work of magni-
tude.
Historical murals were painted by
Well-known artists, by no means
novices in this field, for the State
House in Boston.
The Library of Congress in Wash
ington, fashioned after the manner
OF Genoese palace around a ro-
tunda resembling the Pantheon, had
been enriched by Blashfield's paint
lngs in the collar of the dome, Sim
mons and Walkers series in ada
cent Railways, and by others not
perhaps so outstanding, but pro-
duced in the same spirit and under
the same ideals that Thornton Oak
ley has in this later day worked.
G. Y. Turner did a historical series
for the Baltimore Court House in
which the Peggy Stuart" starred. !"
John w. Alexander painted, half
in allegory, half in fact, THE Spirit
OF Pittsburgh" great industrial
city, on the walls of one of the main
stair halls of the Carnegie Institute,
Pittsburgh, he being the first to in
terpret pictorially the voice of the
working people to the world at large
with thought-provoking reality, and
yet, in such wise, as to make obvious
the wonder of work" and its in
herent nobility. These are paintings
which make the industrial worker
square his shoulders and lift his
head, and his employer pause to
think and pay him tribute.
Founders Thoughts.
Meanwhile. Violet Oakley was
doing, in distinguished way, quite
her own, historical series for the
State Capitol of Pennsylvania at
Harrisburg, purposed to keep stead
faStly before the people the ideals
of Penn and the founders of our
new republic.
There was abundance of opportu-
nifty for the mural painters Of those
days, as commissions were given in
rapid succession for the decoration
of such buildings as the Hudson
County Court House, Jersey City;
the youngstown, Ohio, Court House;
the Minnesota State Capitol, Bow
doin College, the public library,
Winona, MINI; churches, theaters,
restaurants and other buildings.
Who will ever forget the jolly and
appropriate murals painted by Max
field Parrish for places where peo-
pie congregated for pleasure, as for
instance, his "Old King Cole" in the
cafe of the Knickerbocker Hotel in
New York.
Among the foremost of the mural
painters of those days were Edwin H.
Blashfield and Kenyon Cox, both
scholars and writer's as we'll as
painters. 1t is as customary today
to speak of the works of these men
slightly as to condemn the portrait
painting of Sargent. but, strangely
enough, they seem to live, while
those Of their less knowing sue
cessors are already beginning to be
overlooked.
The standard work On mural