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
scenes of rural life. Mr. Wood's style is notable for _chiar-oscuro_,
and his drawing is generally careful, correct, and forcible, and his
compositions harmonious.
Mr. Brown has also found that success and fame in _genre_ can be
obtained without going abroad to seek for subjects. To him the _gamins_
of our cities are as artistically attractive as those of Paris, and a
girl wandering by our sea-shore as winsome as if on the beach at Nice or
Scheveningen, and an old fisherman at Grand Menan as pictorial as if he
were under the cliffs at Etretât. Fault is sometimes found with the fact
that the street lads painted by Mr. Brown have always washed their faces
before posing, which is according to the commands of St. Paul, but not
of art canons, if we accept Mr. Ruskin's dictum regarding the artistic
value of dirt. Bating this apparently trifling difficulty, however, it
must be admitted that he often offers us a very characteristic and
successful bit of _genre_. Gilbert Gaul and J. Burns, pupils of Mr.
Brown, merit a word of praise in this connection, for giving us reason
to hope in time for some satisfactory work from their easels.
Child life finds a warm friend and delineator in S. J. Guy, who has made
many friends by the kindly way in which he has treated the simple pathos
and humor of childhood. He is an admirable draughtsman, and finishes his
work with great nicety--sometimes to a degree that seems to rob the
picture of some of its freshness and piquancy; but it cannot be denied
that Mr. Guy has often struck a chord in the popular heart, not merely
by his choice of subjects, but by legitimately earned success in his art
as well. Scenes of domestic life have also been treated sometimes very
interestingly by Messrs. B. F. Reinhart, Ehninger, Blauvelt, Satterlee,
Howland, Wilmarth, and Virgil Williams. Oliver J. Lay, although a slow,
careful artist, has executed some thoughtful and refined in-door scenes,
taken from domestic life, which show a thorough appreciation of the fact
that art, for itself alone, is the only aim the true artist should
pursue. E. L. Henry surprises one by the elaboration of his work, and is
open to the charge of crudeness in color and hardness in outline; but
occasionally he gives us a well-balanced composition, like the beach
scene, with horses and a carry-all in the foreground, entitled "Waiting
for the Bathers."
[Illustration: "ARGUING THE QUESTION."--[T. W. WOOD.]]
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