is, that it admits of a larger variety of styles, and a freer expression
of the designer's methods of thought and feeling, and also enables many
who do not care to work in the cramped limits of a block of wood to make
a large composition in black and white, whether with Indian-ink or
monochrome in oil, which is then photographed on the wood. In this way
far greater freedom and individuality of handling is obtained, and a
nobler utterance of the truths of nature. Can there be any question that
a process which allows of such variety of expression must inure to art
progress, and still more to the instruction of the people, who are
directly benefited by the illustrations which are brought to their own
doors, and placed in the hands of the young at the time when their
tastes and characters are forming, and their imagination is most plastic
and impressionable?
It would seem as if the art of wood-engraving had received in the most
direct manner the action of some unseen hand, impelling it suddenly
forward in this country by concerted action with the genius of
illustration; for apparently by secret agreement that branch of art has
within the last decade developed a comparative excellence yet reached by
none of the sister arts in the land. And this turn for illustration has
naturally been accompanied by an active movement in black and white
drawing, particularly in crayon.
Samuel W. Rowse was one of the first to give an impetus to crayon
drawing by a style of portraiture especially his own. As such he ranks
with our leading portrait-painters; while the fact that he employed
crayon as a medium for a time gave him a position almost entirely alone
in this country. There is a wonderful subtlety in his power of seizing
character and the rendition of soul in the faces he portrays. Equally
happy in all the subjects he treats, he will be longest remembered,
perhaps, for the many beautiful children's portraits he has executed.
The success of Rowse naturally led to similar attempts by other artists;
and in all our leading cities one may now find crayon artists who are
more or less successful in the department of portraiture, among whom may
be mentioned B. C. Munzig and Frederick W. Wright. Out of this has grown
a school of landscape-artists employing charcoal--a medium that Lalanue
and Allongé had already used with magical results. John R. Key, who is
well known as a painter in oil, has, however, done his best work, as it
seems to us, in charcoal. There is great tenderness in his treatment of
light and shade, together with harmonious composition. J. Hopkinson
Smith, known as a water-colorist, also handles charcoal like a master.
He seizes his effects with the rapidity of improvisation, treats them in
masses, and shows a feeling for _chiaro-oscuro_ that is almost unique in
our art.
[Illustration: Representing the manner of PETER'S Courtship.
[Howard Pyle.]]
When we come to the book illustrators we encounter a number of artists
of merit, and occasionally of genius, who are so numerous that we can
select only here and there a few of the most prominent names. Felix O.
C. Darley was one of the first to show the latent capacity of our art in
this branch. His style soon became very mannered, but, at the same
time, undoubtedly showed great originality and invention in seizing
striking characteristics of our civilization, and a refined fancy in
representing both humor and pathos. His linear illustrations to "Rip Van
Winkle" and Judd's "Margaret" placed him, until recently, among our
first two or three _genre_ artists. Less versatile and inventive,
Augustus Hoppin has, however, earned an honorable position among our
earlier illustrators. Louis Stephens also won distinction for an elegant
rendering of humorous subjects. Then followed a group of landscape
illustrators, among whom Harry Fenn holds a high position for poetically
rendering the illimitable aspects of nature and the picturesqueness of
rustic or Old World scenery and ruins. Under the guidance of his facile
pencil how many have been instructed in art, and learned of the varied
loveliness of this beautiful world! Thomas Moran ranks with Mr. Fenn as
a master in this field. It appears to us that in this branch he displays
more originality and imagination than in the elaborate paintings by
which he is best known.
Within a very few years--so recently, in fact, that it is difficult to
see where they came from--a school of _genre_ illustrators have claimed
recognition in our art, educated altogether in this country, and yet
combining more art qualities in their works than we find in the same
number of artists in any other department of American art. It is a
little singular that, notwithstanding the recent interest in black and
white in this country, the _genre_ artists who represent it should at
once have reached an excellence which commands admiration on both sides
of the Atlantic, while our painters in the same department have rarely
achieved more than a secondary rank.
[Illustration: SOME ART CONNOISSEURS.--[W. HAMILTON GIBSON.]]
Alfred Fredericks has distinguished himself by combining landscape and
figure in a most graceful, airy style; and Miss Jessie Curtis, in the
delineation of the simplicity and beauty of child life, has delightfully
treated one of the most winsome subjects which can attract the pencil of
the poetic artist. Miss Humphreys, in the choice of a somewhat similar
class of subjects, has yet developed individuality of method marked by
breadth of effect and forcible treatment. Of the ladies who have found
scope for their abilities in the field of illustration perhaps none have
excelled Mrs. Mary Halleck Foote. We cannot always find her style of
composition agreeable, and in invention or lightness of fancy she seems
deficient, while her manner is strong rather than graceful. But she is a
most careful student of nature, and the effects she aims at, and
sometimes reaches, are inspired by an almost masculine nerve and power,
and show knowledge and reserve force. Some of her realistic landscapes
are almost as true and intense in black and white as the daring realisms
of Courbet in color, but showing fine technical facility rather than
imagination. Miss Annette Bishop, who died too early to win a general
recognition of her talents, was gifted with a most delicate poetic
fancy, and singular facility in giving expression to its dreams.
F. S. Church is an artist of imagination, painting in oil and
water-colors, but perhaps best known for striking and weird compositions
in black and white, often treating of animal or bird life. He is an
artist whose advent into our art we hail with pleasure, not because his
style is wholly matured or always quite satisfactory, for it is neither,
but because it is inspired by a genuine art feeling, and yet more
because it shows him to be--what so few of our artists have been--an
idealist. What is art but a reaching out after the ideal, the most
precious treasure given to man in this world? It includes faith, hope,
and charity. To search after the ideal good, to live in an ideal world,
to yearn after and try to create the harmony of the ideal, is the one
boon left to man to give him a belief in immortality and a higher life.
The more of an idealist the poet or the artist, the nearer he comes to
fulfilling his mission. The idealist is the creator, the man of genius;
and therefore we hail with joy the appearance of every idealist who
enters our art ranks, and infuses vitality into the prose of technical
art, and inspiration into the dogmas of the schools. The most hopeless
feature of American art has always been hitherto, as with our
literature, the too evident absence of imagination; and wherever we
recognize an idealist, we set him down as another mile-stone to mark the
progress in art. It is through the idealists that Heaven teaches truth
to man; and hence another reason why we regard with such importance the
present school of artists in black and white. In no department is there
more scope for the imagination than in the drawing of the pure line or
in the suggestions of _chiaro-oscuro_. Therein lies the enormous power
of the art of Rembrandt. He dealt with that seemingly simple but really
inexhaustible medium, light and shade: in the hands of a master, potent
as the wand of a magician to evolve worlds out of chaos.
[Illustration: "WASHINGTON OPENING THE BALL."--[C. S. REINHART.]]
Barry, Bensell, Shepherd, Davis (who is also known as a decorative
artist), T. A. Richards, Eytinge, Frost, Merrill, Ipsen, Shirlaw,
Lathrop, Lewis, Perkins, and Davison are other artists who have justly
acquired repute for success in the department of black and white, or
book illustration. Kelley has a sketchy style that is very effective,
and of which the correct rendering on wood would have been well-nigh
impossible with the old processes; but there is danger of carrying it to
the verge of sensationalism. The facilities afforded by photographing
a design on wood has seemed to be the occasion for aiding the
development of a class of artist-authors who both write and illustrate
their own articles for the magazines. How remarkably well this can be
done is proved by such clever artists as Howard Pyle and W. Gibson, who
display at once fertility of imagination and technical facility as
draughtsmen. C. S. Reinhart has become widely known as one of the most
versatile illustrators we have produced. Excelling as a draughtsman, he
brings to his aid an active fancy that enables him vividly to realize
the scenes he undertakes to represent; and he seems equally at home in
the portrayal of quaint old-time scenes, or the brilliant costumes and
characters of the present day, combined with forcible delineations of
scenery. The Puritan damsel or the belle of Newport may alike be
congratulated when Mr. Reinhart ushers them before us with the grace of
a master. The success of this school of artists, who have made their
mark in the department of illustration, has doubtless been due in part
to the increasing study of the figure in this country, and the greater
facilities afforded for drawing from the life. Most of these artists are
young men, whose abilities have been vastly assisted by their studies in
life schools, which it would have been well-nigh impossible for them to
find in the earlier periods of our art. Although perhaps better noticed
under the head of Ethics rather than of Æsthetics, we may allude to the
surprising growth and influence of caricature-drawing in this country,
represented by such able artists as Nast, Bellew, Kepler, or Cusack, as
associated with the development of our black and white art.
An artist who seems to combine the qualities we see more or less
represented by other artists in black and white, who has already
accomplished remarkable results, and gives promise of even greater
successes, we find in E. A. Abbey. It must be taken into consideration
that he is still very young; that he now for the first time visits the
studios and galleries of Europe; that his advantages for a regular art
education have been very moderate, and that he is practically
self-educated. And then compare with these disadvantages the amount and
the quality of the illustrations he has turned out, and we see
represented in him genius of a high order, combining almost
inexhaustible creativeness, clearness and vividness of conception, a
versatile fancy, a poetic perception of beauty, a quaint, delicate
humor, a wonderful grasp of whatever is weird and mysterious, and
admirable _chiaro-oscuro_, drawing, and composition. When we note such
a rare combination of qualities, we cease to be surprised at the cordial
recognition awarded his genius by the best judges, both in London and
Paris, even before he had left this country.
If I have spoken strongly in favor of our school of illustrators, it is
because I think such commendation has been rightly earned, and to
withhold it when merited would be as unjust as to give censure when
undeserved. Criticism need not necessarily be the essence of vitriol and
gall, as some critics seem to imagine it to be. A jury is as much bound
to approve the innocent as to condemn the guilty.
[Illustration: MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON.]
In another department of our arts we also feel called to award praise to
a degree that has never before been possible in the history of American
art. I refer to the department of architecture. It is difficult to say
exactly when the new movement toward a fuller expression of beauty in
our civic and domestic building began; but we are conscious that about
ten years ago what was for a time a mere vague feeling after more
agreeable examples of architecture shaped itself into a definite and
almost systematic impulse. The Chicago fire, and more especially the
great fire in Boston, accelerated the action of the forces that already
directed the people to demand nobler forms and types in the
constructions that were henceforth to be erected in our growing cities.
The advance of landscape-gardening, as evidenced in the Central Park of
New York, and the public parks of other cities, doubtless aided to
increase the yearning for material beauty. But whatever the influences
at work, there is no question as to the results already apparent. I
would not be understood as approving all the buildings of importance
that have recently been put up in this country--very far from it. But,
on the other hand, one cannot avoid seeing that the general tendency is
toward improved styles, and that here and there groups of buildings or
single structures have been erected which are at once elegant,
commodious, and artistic; and, if not strictly offering new orders of
architecture, presenting at least graceful adaptations of old orders to
new climatic and social conditions in a way that gives them the merit of
originality.
So prominent has this improvement in architecture already become in
American cities, that already their external aspect or profile has begun
to partake of the picturesque character hitherto supposed to belong only
to the Old World, and to present that massing of effect so dear to the
artistic eye. We can illustrate this by mentioning only two or three
examples among many. One who looks toward Philadelphia from the railway
station on the east side of the Schuylkill, may see a cluster of spires
and domes centering around the Academy of Fine Arts, which is so
agreeably composed that one would almost imagine the position of each to
be the deliberate choice of a master in composition. Twenty years ago
one would have looked in vain for any such harmonious outline of
structural beauty in this country. The small, quaint fishing-port of
Marblehead has also found itself suddenly transformed into one of the
most pleasing cities of the Union, as viewed from the Neck across the
harbor; for on the very crest of the hills upon which the place is built
a town-hall has been erected, of brick, neatly faced with stone, and
surmounted by an elegant tower. At once the old town has emerged from
the commonplace into the region of the picturesque. The new structure
has given character and symmetrical outline to the city by producing
convergence to a central point of effect; and when the sun sets behind
it, and brings its outline into bold but harmonious relief against a
golden background, while a mist of glowing rays glazes the whole into
tone, the view is in the highest degree artistic, and so resembles some
of the scenes one so often sees in the Old World that he can hardly
believe he is gazing at an American prospect.
We find a somewhat similar effect, but on a much larger scale, presented
by the new Capitol, or State-house, at Albany. This city, as beheld from
the opposite banks of the Hudson at Greenbush, has always been one of
the most pleasing of American cities, situated as it is on several lofty
hills, divided by ravines in which purple shadows linger when night is
approaching; but the addition of the vast structure now in course of
completion there adds greatly to the glory of the spectacle. It
dominates over the city of eighty thousand inhabitants with superb
dignity; and the whole place borrows beauty from it, and is elevated
above prose into poetry. Again one is reminded of the cathedral towns of
Europe, where some lofty, venerable minster guards through the ages the
roofs that cluster below. Not that this pile, which is rather hybrid in
its style, is to be considered equal to the masterpieces of old-time
architecture; but it is a long step in advance compared with the civic
buildings formerly erected and admired in our cities, and its presence
at the capital of a great State cannot but have an ennobling and
educational influence upon rising generations.
The styles, whether pure or modified, that are most employed by our
architects in this new movement have been chiefly the Romanesque, the
Palladian Renaissance, the French Renaissance of Mansard and Perrault,
and the later Elizabethan or Jacobean. The first two have entered
chiefly into the construction of civic buildings; the second has been
followed in religious edifices; while the last has been used with
excellent effect in domestic architecture. A fine example of the success
achieved in the employment of the Romanesque is seen in the new Trinity
Church on the Back Bay lands, in Boston, designed by Gambrel and
Richardson. This is one of the most conscientious and meritorious
buildings erected on this continent, although less imposing than it
would have been if the original design had been fully carried out. There
is, also, an affectation of strength in the massive blocks of undressed
stone under the windows, in a part where such strength is
disproportionate to that employed in other portions of the building. But
the general effect is excellent, and the covered approaches or cloisters
are quite in the spirit of true architecture. Color enters judiciously
into the selection of the stone used to aid the general effect; and the
same observation may be applied to the very elegant tower of the new Old
South Church, close at hand, designed by Peabody and Robinson, in the
Italian Gothic style, and which for grace, beauty, and majesty has
not been surpassed on this side of the Atlantic. The church edifice to
which it is attached, although sufficiently ornate--perhaps too much
so--is lacking in that repose of outline or just proportions that are
required to bring it into harmony with the campanile.
[Illustration: "THE ASTONISHED ABBE."--[E. A. ABBEY.]]
Other towers and churches are clustered in that neighborhood, erected
within ten years, which present an effect that is really intrinsically
beautiful, without taking at all into question the rapidity of the
transformation which has come over the spirit of our architecture. And
the effect is heightened, to a degree never before attained on this
continent since the Mound-builders passed away, by the excellence of the
domestic architecture which has entered into the construction of the
dwellings of that vicinage, especially on Boylston Street and the
adjacent avenues. Beauty, taste, and comfort are there found combined to
a degree that promises much for the future of architecture in our
country. The gargoyles, gables, cornices, and carvings one meets at
every turn carry one quite back to the Middle Ages. It is interesting to
observe that the sham cornices formerly so common here are gradually
being discarded, together with all the other trumpery decoration so much
in vogue. Good honest work is shown in external decoration, together
with a feeling for color that is adding much to the cheerfulness of our
cities. Brick is made to do service for ornamentation as well as for
mere dead walls, and string courses, or bands of colored tiles or
terra-cotta carvings, all of an enduring character, enter into the
external decorations of private dwellings.
[Illustration: A CHILD'S PORTRAIT.--[B. C. PORTER.]]
Not only is the love of beauty shown in domestic architecture, but it is
found displayed in the construction of banks and stores; and it is again
in Boston that we find whole streets of buildings of rich and elegant
design, and conscientiously constructed, devoted wholly to business
purposes. But a building which, perhaps, more than any other is typical
of the architectural movement now passing over the country is the Museum
of Fine Arts in Boston. It is not so much after any one style as a
choice from different schools of later Gothic adapted to modern
conditions. The terra-cotta groups in relievo in the façade, temper what
would be otherwise too large an expanse of warm color, for it is built
of red brick. The grouped arches, turrets, and oriel windows, and the
numerous terra-cotta decorations at the angles and on the gables, are
elegant, but perhaps so generally distributed as to be a little
confusing. The effect is scattered, and thus weakened, instead of being
massed at one or two central or salient points. This is the most
glaring error we discover in the present importation or adaptation of
foreign and ancient styles to our needs here. It is an error which we
share with the modern British architect, and was forcibly illustrated in
the new Houses of Parliament, by Sir Charles Barry. No buildings of this
century are so profusely ornate as some of the magnificent cathedrals
and town-halls of the Middle Ages; but at the same time all this
sumptuousness of decoration was massed upon one or two effective spots,
surrounded by large spaces comparatively simple and free of
embellishment. Thus grandeur and nobility of outline were preserved,
while extraordinary beauty in color and sculpture could be added without
disturbing the general effect or cloying the imagination. But our
architects, not having yet fully grasped the ideas after which they are
searching, scatter instead of concentrating the external decorations of
their buildings.
[Illustration: A BIT OF VENICE.--[SAMUEL COLMAN.]]
Interior decoration has also naturally assumed importance as the quality
of our architecture has advanced. Elaborate wood-carvings are entering
into the decorations of the houses of our citizens, and painting is
called in to adorn the walls of private and civic buildings, sometimes
with more affectation or extravagance than taste; although it can be
conceded without hesitation that a remarkable and decided improvement is
noticeable within a very few years in the decoration of interiors in
this country. M. Brumidi made a beginning, some twenty years ago, in the
frescoes of the Capitol at Washington; and quite recently Mr. Lafarge
has beautified the interior of Trinity Church, Boston, and other public
buildings, with sacred designs in fresco, and other decorative work in
gold and red, which are very interesting. Among the last, and probably
the most important, works of the late William M. Hunt were the mural
paintings in oil for the new State-house at Albany. Other artists who
have shown promise in this department are Francis Lathrop and Frank Hill
Smith.
It is not surprising to find that this advance in decorative art,
together with the increasing luxury accompanying it, should create a
demand and develop a talent for toreutic art, or art in metal-work,
especially the precious metals; and such we find to be the case. The
success achieved in this department is, perhaps, the most remarkable yet
attained in American art, excepting possibly that of some of our artists
in black and white, and has justly merited and obtained unqualified
applause abroad as well as at home. It is to such designers as Messrs.
Grosjean, Perring, Wilkinson, and Moore, assisted by the most skilled
artisans of the age, that our toreutic art is indebted for the
recognition it received at the French Exposition.
Another sign of the rapidly increasing activity of the interest taken in
the art question in America is presented by the art museums or galleries
which have almost simultaneously arisen in Boston, New Haven, New York,
and Washington, founded at considerable expense, and entirely without
State aid. With the former two are connected important schools for art
instruction, combined with fine casts of the masterpieces of ancient
plastic art.