Year: 1876

| Art Criticism.


] Tie other day while Col. B., editor of
a paper which we will call The Buqle.
was sitting in his sactum writing an edi-
jtoriel, a visitor entered. Taking aseat,
he said o.


'My name is Brewer I am the pain
ter of the allegorical picture of THE
Trump of Truth, on exhibition down
at Yelverton's. I called, Col. B., to
make some complaint about the criti-
cism. Your critic seems to have mis-
understood, somewhat, the drift of the
picture. For instance, he says-let
/ me quote the paragraph:


"In the background to the left stands
st. Augustine with one foot on wooden
| Indian which is lying on the ground.
Why the artist decorated ST. Augustine
with high hat and put his trousers in
side his boots, and why he filed the
Saints belt with navy revolvers and
tomahawks, has not been revealed. It
strikes us as being ridiculous


"Now, Colonel, this seems to me to
be little too harsh. That figure does
not represent ST. Augustine. 1t is
meant for an allegorical picture Of Brute
Force, and it has it's foot upon Intellect,
mind you! and not cigar-store Indian.
It is likeness of Captain Kidd, and it
takes rs back to represent the fact that
Brute Force belonged to the dark ages.
How in the thunder that man of yours
ever got an idea that it was st. Angus
the, beats me-"


cit is singular" said the Colonel.


"And now let me direct your atten-
ton to another paragraph. He says


"'We were astonlshed to notice that
while Noah's Ark goes sailing in the
remote distance, there is, close to it, a
cotton factory, the chimney of which is
pouring out white smoke that covers
! the whole of the sky in the picture
while the ark seems to be trying to sail
down that chimney. Now, they didn't
have cotton factories in those days the
thing don't hang. The artist must have
been drunk.


Now, Colonel, this insinuation pains
me. How would you like it, if you
painted picture of the Tower of Babel,
and somebody should come along and
insist that twas the chimney of cotton
factory, and that the clouds with which
the sky is covered was smoke? Cotton
factory Your man certainly can not
be familiar with the Scriptures and
when he talks about the Ark sailing
down that chimney, he forgets that
the reason why it is standing on one end
is that the water is SO rough as to make
it pitch. You know the Bible says that
Arks did pitch without and within. Now
don . itp''


II think maybe it does," said the
Colonel.


'But that's not the worst. can
stand that; but what do you think of q
man who goes to criticising work of
art and says-now listen to this:


"'On the right is a boy who has his
clothes of, and has apparently been in
swimming, and has been rescued by a
big yellow dog just as he was about to
drown. What this has to do with the
Triumph of Truth we don't know, but
we do know that the dog is twice as
large as the boy, and that he has the
boys head in his mouth while the boys
hands are tied behind his back. Now
for boy to go in swimming with his
hands tied, and for a dog to swallow
his head so as to drag him out, appears
to us the awfulest foolishness on earth.


"Colonel, you will probably be sur
prised to learn that your critic is here
referring to very beautiful study of o
Christian martyr who has been thrown
among Ile WllO DttStS VI tho dltiltt, anu
who is engaged in being eaten by lion
The animal is not yellow dog; that
human being has not been in swim
ming; and the reason that he is smaller
than the lion is that had to make him
so in order to get his head into the
lions mouth. Would you have me rep
resent the lion as large as an elephant ?
Would you have me paste label on the
Christian martyr to inform the public
that this is not boy who has been
treading water with his hands tied.
Now look at the matter calmly. Is the
Bugle encouraging art when it goes on
in this manner ? Blame me if | think it
is"


"It certainly doesn't seem so."-Pht-
adelphia Bulletin.