Evening star., 1962-08-26

Was COIIeCIlIlS the laSL IN
stallment Of a $4,000 fee
from Congress for his mas
terwork, westward the
Course Of Empire Takes its
Way" This enormous mural
decorates the wall of a stair
case in the Capitol and is
seen by thousands every
year.
The painting might be de-
scribed as pastoral-histori-
cal-allegorical-heroical and
is perfectly ghastly. But the
point is that the Govern
ment was actually shelling
out cash for art. not for
studies. not for inspirational
statements about the place
Of art in our national life.
The point could be made,
Of course. that the Govern
ment spent its 20 grand on
Leutze and look what it got:
Leutze. 1t would even be
pleasant to imagine that
contemporary Government
niggardlinesS is based on q
horror of what h appe d
then. Yet there was a remedy
on hand even then. One of
this country's foremost art
critics, James Jackson Jarves,
was never taken in by Leutze.
He deplored the hiring of
this Dusseldorf dumpling-
maker and hailed the rise of
Homer and Eastman john
son as the beginnings Of a
new and automatically Amer
ican school of painting.
Jarves was right. of course,
but congressional hiring
agents weren't listening.
What they were listening
to was broad popularity and
there can be no question but
what Leutze had it. He was
as popular in the 1850s as
Jackson Pollock became in
the l950s, and, like Pollock,
was a dedicated foe of the
American realism" Jarves so
much admired.
Historical Charades
Leutze was a German-born
artist brought to Pennsyl-
vania at an early age. He re-
turned to the old country in
his twenties and unfortu-
nately settled in Dusseldorf.
There he matured in the To-
cal school of high melodrama
really based on the Dussel-
dorf historical theater, then
very popular. The young g
painter began turning out a
series of inflated historical
charades of American his
tory. The most famous of
these was "W ashingto n
Crossing the Delaware" long
the property Of the Metro
politan Museum.
Apparently that picture
showed contemporary Ameri-
cans exactly what they want
ed to believe of their own
past. For decades it resided
securely among the stock of
images we have of our his
tory. The misfortune was
that it wasn't any more his
tory than it was art. It was
a patriotic pageant'S view of
the past: History as a series
of carefully posed tableaux in
which everything is real but
the spirit.
That same pageantry char
acterizes "W estward the
Course Of Empire" Brought
over here to do the picture,
Leutze embarked on his US
ual thorough research, in
cluding a trip to the Rocky
Mountains. The picture, fin
ished in 1862, purports to
show a group of pioneers
paused in their westering to
inspire one another by inhal-
ing deeply, throwing out
their arms and flashing their
eyes.
Like many who come to
Washington for a specific
job, Leutze found it impossi-
BILE to leave when the job was
done. He remained here un-
til his death in 1858. Among
the effects just acquired by
the Library are 10 letters
from General Winfield Scott
Hancock, who was anxious to
have Leutze exercise his tai
ents on the Battle of Gettys-
burg.
AS present-day activities
concerning the Civil War
demonstrate constantly, the
spirit Of Emanuel Leutze
lives on and on and on.