Art in America: A Critical and Historial SketchBenjamin, S. G. W. (Samuel Greene Wheeler)
History
Art in America: A Critical and Historial Sketch
Benjamin, S. G. W. (Samuel Greene Wheeler)
Art, American
Still another aspect of our scenery has been reproduced with fidelity by
W. T. Richards, of Philadelphia. We refer to the long reaches of
silvery shore and the sand-dunes which are characteristic of many parts
of our Atlantic coast. He has often painted woodland scenes with great
patience, but, as it seems to us, with too much detail, and with greens
which are open to a charge of being crude and violent. But in his beach
effects Mr. Richards maintains an important position; and if slightly
mannered, has yet developed a style of subject and treatment which very
effectively represents certain distinguishing features of our solemn
coasts. Some of his water-color paintings have scarcely been surpassed,
as, for example, the noble representations of the bleak, snow-like,
cedar-tufted dunes along the Jersey shore.
[Illustration: "THE PARSONAGE"--[A. F. BELLOWS]]
The extraordinary variety of the effects of American landscape is again
shown by the gorgeousness of our autumnal foliage. It has been objected
by some that it is too vivid for art purposes. We consider this a matter
of individual taste. There is nothing more absurd in trying to render
the effects of sunset, or the scarlet and gold of an American forest in
the dreamy days of the Indian summer, than in undertaking to paint the
splendor of many-colored drapery in an Oriental crowd, which is
considered a legitimate subject for the artist who has a correct eye
for color. It is not in the subject, but in the artist, that the
difficulty lies. Some of our painters have seized these autumnal
displays with fine feeling and excellent judgment. Kensett is an
example; another is J. F. Cropsey, who, beginning life as an architect,
became eventually an agreeable delineator of our autumnal scenery, and
at one time executed a number of paintings remarkable for their truth
and artistic beauty. His later work has scarcely sustained the early
reputation he justly acquired. At its best, his style was crisp, strong
in color, and sometimes very bold in composition. Mr. C. P. Cranch, who
was associated with Cropsey in Italy, and who is well known as a writer,
has exhibited in his Venetian landscapes a correct perception of color,
while his method lacks firmness of drawing, and shows traces of foreign
influence more than that of many of our artists who studied abroad at
this time. R. H. Fuller, who was a night-watchman on the police force of
Chelsea, Massachusetts, and died in 1871, was an artist whose
educational opportunities were excessively meagre. But he had a fine eye
for color and atmospheric effect, and some of his landscapes are painted
with a full brush, and are tender and beautiful. F. D. Williams, before
he left Boston for Paris, also developed a strong scheme of handling and
color which was at once pleasing and original. F. H. Shapleigh has
likewise shown an excellent feeling for some of nature's more quiet
effects, and his coast scenes are attractive, although lacking somewhat
in force.
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