By ARTHUR HOEBER
Author, Artist, and Critic
THE MENTOR · DEPARTMENT OF FINE ARTS · SEPT. 15, 1914
MENTOR GRAVURES
- RETURN OF THE BATTLE FLAGS
By Edward Simmons
- THE APOTHEOSIS OF PENNSYLVANIA
By E. A. Abbey
- THE BENEFICENCE OF THE LAW
By Kenyon Cox
- HOSEA—DETAIL OF THE PROPHETS
By John Sargent
- DETAIL OF THE ANTHONY DREXEL MEMORIAL CHANCEL
By E. H. Blashfield
- THE PLEIADES
By Elihu Vedder
DAWN, by T. W. Dewing
Ceiling decoration in the grill of the Hotel Imperial,
New York City
“Oh, tenderly the haughty day
Fills his blue urn with fire!”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson.
The story of mural painting in America dates back just a trifle over
half a century; yet so rapidly do we develop things in this country
that today the names of half a hundred men and women who have
done distinguished work in this direction come to mind in any review of
native accomplishment. However, the art of decoration is one of the oldest
in the history of the world, examples of which have been handed down
from almost prehistoric times. Traditions reach us—examples too—from
the great civilizations of Egypt, Assyria, Greece, Rome, in Europe;
while on our own continent there remain records of art in the way of
wall decorations in Mexico and Central America, of beauty, taste, and
invention, that baffle all efforts to classify as to their age. Says a
great art writer, “No society, however rudimentary, has altogether
ignored art.” Within the last few years prehistoric paintings by men
who probably lived on reindeer flesh have been discovered in caves of the
Pyrenees, paintings of no little artistic merit and surely artistic instinct.
With the name of John La Farge must begin any account of the history
of mural painting in America. The name is an honored one in the
annals of our art development, and he has been dead only a few years,
after a long life of devotion to high artistic ideals. It was in 1861 that he
completed a panel for the church of the Paulist Fathers, in New York.
The theme was “Saint Paul Preaching at Athens.” The architects, however,
rejected the work for reasons
that seem never to have been recorded,
and the next year La Farge
began a large triptych[1] of “The
Crucifixion”; though he completed
only two of the smaller
divisions of the composition.
These he kept in his studio for
many years, until they were purchased
by the late William C.
Whitney. But his work in the
meantime had been remarked,
and he received an order for some
decorations for a dining room;
while the architect H. H. Richardson,
in 1876, offered him a commission
to take charge of the
interior decoration of Trinity
Church, Boston. This work was
completed in about four months.
La Farge chose as assistants Francis Lathrop, Francis D. Millet, George
W. Maynard, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens the sculptor, among others.
The work was satisfactorily completed, and remains today one of the
great accomplishments in this country. After this La Farge was asked
to decorate Saint Thomas’ Church in New York, which was followed
by his decorations for the Church of the Incarnation in the same city.
Copyright, 1904
THE EDICT OF TOLERATION, by E. H. Blashfield
This is the central section of a decoration in the courthouse at Baltimore, Maryland
THE LIGHT OF
LEARNING
By Kenyon Cox
Lunette in the
public library
at Winona,
Minnesota
In the Church of the Ascension, however, is La Farge’s masterpiece,
without doubt the greatest piece of church decoration in this country.
The theme is “The Ascension of Our Lord,” a composition arranged in
two groups, one of the ascending Christ amid the clouds, the other of the
disciples with Mary the Mother standing on the ground gazing upon the
wonder passing beyond their vision. The composition is one of great
dignity and deep religious feeling; the vision of the painter is most distinguished;
while there are both balance and harmony, and the color
scheme is highly decorative and rich.
The work was immediately followed by many others, including a
music room for the residence of the late Whitelaw Reid, rooms in the residence
of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and many churches; while later was to
come the work for great public buildings, culminating in the decorations
for the Supreme Court room of the new capitol at St. Paul, Minnesota, a
colossal undertaking comprising many large panels. La Farge did not,
however, confine his activities entirely to mural painting; for during his
long career in art he was identified with work in stained glass, to which he
gave great attention. His achievements in this direction were among the
most distinguished that have ever been attained in the history of the world.
EGYPTIAN
DANCE
By William De L.
Dodge
In the Majestic
Theater at
Boston,
Massachusetts
Before we come to the group of present workers in mural painting
it is necessary that we consider an earlier man, again one of the pioneers,
the artist William M. Hunt of Boston, who in 1878 obtained the commission
to decorate the New York state capitol at Albany. The result was
a fine series of pictures, well composed; but unfortunately they survive
only in reproductions, the originals having been painted directly on the
walls. These, owing to faulty construction, did not long remain intact,
falling out of plumb, and they had to be supported by beams until they
were finally entirely destroyed. Hunt had been a pupil of Thomas Couture
(koo-toor´) in Paris, a man who had strong influence on his work, and these
decorations were very reminiscent of his master. The pictures were fifteen
by forty-five feet in size, and the themes were “The Flight of Night”
and “The Discoverer,” of which only photographs remain to tell the tale.
Today the mural painter produces his work on canvas instead of on
the wall, a process that enables him to do most of the labor in the studio,
and in case of necessity this, after being attached to the walls, can be
taken down again and so preserved.
It was on the occasion of the planning of the World’s Columbian
Exposition of 1893 in Chicago that the first real impetus to mural decoration
was given in America. This occasion disclosed to the citizen the
possibilities of the native
artist, as well as the
esthetic value of such
embellishment in public
edifice and in private
home. The administrative
body of the fair,
determining upon a decorative
scheme to be
properly carried out,
appointed to take
charge of the mural
painting Francis D.
Millet, and as assistant,
Charles Yardley Turner.
A selection of
artists was made to execute the work, who were J. Alden Weir, Edwin
Howland Blashfield, George W. Maynard, Robert Reid, Edward Simmons,
Charles Stanley Reinhart, Carroll Beckwith, Kenyon Cox, Gari
Melchers, William De L. Dodge, and Walter McEwen.
THE CUMÆAN SIBYL, by Elihu Vedder
At Wellesley College
Copyright, 1898, by E. Vedder. From a Copley Print, copyright, 1899, by Curtis & Cameron, Inc.
SAMSON, by Elihu Vedder
Blashfield and Maynard had had some slight experience in decorative
work; but the rest were practically novices, though all had been serious,
capable students in Paris, and were familiar with examples of the decorative
arts of history. Millet was a rare executive, a man who was subsequently
to do an enormous amount of just such work. It will be remembered that he went
down to his death in
the ill-fated Titanic. Of
the rest of the group
Weir, Reinhart, Beckwith,
Melchers, and McEwen
returned to their
easel picture work after
the Chicago fair, with
only an occasional decoration.
Blashfield,
Maynard, Simmons,
Cox, and Dodge have,
however, continued to
be strongly identified
with mural work, and
these men must receive
closer attention. The
decorative scheme at
Chicago was a remarkable achievement, all things considered, and the
grounds were referred to as “The White City,” “The Fair City,” “The
City of Dreams,” and finally, alas! as “The Vanishing City”; but in reality
nothing like it was ever seen before and probably never will be again.
THE PROPHETS, by John Sargent
In the Boston Library. Center panel, showing Elijah, Moses, and Joshua
Of this group Mr. Blashfield has been more largely identified
with decorations all over the land than the rest. The list of his
mural work is a large one. A pupil of Bonnât’s (bo-nah´) in Paris, a writer of
great charm, and a most serious student of his profession, Mr. Blashfield
brought to his art scholarly endowments of a high order. After his work of
decorating the dome of the Manufacturers’ Building at Chicago came a
series of commissions to embellish various homes of private individuals,—Collis
P. Huntington, the Drexels, the Vanderbilts, Adolf Lewisohn, and
others,—with work for the Library of Congress, the Appellate Court of
New York, the ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the Prudential
Life Insurance Company of Newark, New Jersey, the state capitols of Minnesota,
Wisconsin, Idaho, and other states, with innumerable courthouses
at Baltimore, Newark, Hudson County (New Jersey), Youngstown (Ohio),
the Federal Building at Cleveland, some schools, and many more. In
these he disclosed enormous invention, great facility, a good pictorial sense
of composition, and
generally a scholarly
grasp of decorative
requirements.
Kenyon Cox,
likewise a pupil of
the Paris schools
under J. L. Gérôme
(zhay-rome´), has
been largely identified
with decorative
work throughout
the land. A distinguished
draftsman
and a writer on
art as well, Mr. Cox
is represented with
decorations in the
Walker Art Gallery,
Bowdoin College, in
various state capitols
and public libraries, in the Appellate Court of New York and other
courthouses throughout the Union, and was awarded the medal of honor for
mural painting by the Architectural League in 1910. He too is represented
in the mural decorations of the Congressional Library at Washington.
THE LIGHT OF
LEARNING
By Robert Reid
Copyright, 1909,
by Robert Reid
Mr. Sargent, perhaps the most prominent figure in the modern
world of art, a man whose success has rarely been duplicated, a
painter of the portrait above all, has confined his mural work to the decorations
in the Boston Public Library. These are of such superlative
quality as to cause regret that the man, in the course of a most active
artistic life, could not have found time to do more. Mr. Sargent’s parents
were Americans. They are his sole claim to nationality; for he was
born in Italy, received his art education in France, and has resided for
many years in England. Sargent, in short, is thoroughly cosmopolitan
in himself and in his art. His Boston Library decorations are singularly
original, of profound symbolism, disclosing deep intellectuality and
serious study. His work here, says William A. Coffin, “as a whole
is like a casket of jewels.” It consists of a frieze, a lunette,[2] and an
arched ceiling. In the latter are depicted the gods of polytheism and
idolatry; there are panels of the Prophets in the lunette, and the Jews
are represented by twelve nude figures in subjection to the Egyptians
and Assyrians, typified by figures of Pharaoh and the Assyrian king.
It is a most elaborate symbolism, thoroughly consistent, wonderfully
worked out, and of absorbing interest.
Edwin A. Abbey, in another chamber of this Boston Library, the
delivery room, has his now world-famous decoration, the story of the
Holy Grail, perhaps the most popular mural work in this country, certainly
the best known, and the shrine for many years of the tourist. It is
a series of panels narrating the history of the knights of the Arthurian
legend, exquisitely
told, for Abbey
was a master illustrator,
and there
is great charm of
arrangement and
color, all making a
popular appeal. Mr.
Abbey was further
commissioned to
decorate the state
capitol at Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania.
He attacked this
work with great interest
and enthusiasm,
but his labors
were interrupted by
his death. The task
was then taken up
by Miss Violet Oakley,
herself a distinguished
mural
painter, who, though
handicapped by the
circumstances of having to follow out the scheme of another artist, nevertheless
disclosed great capacity and has made a success of the performance.
FAMOUS WOMEN, by Barry Faulkner
Decoration for the house of Mrs. E. H. Harriman at Arden, New York.
From left to right the women pictured are Cornelia, Beatrice, Judith,
Queen of Sheba, Joan of Arc, Helen of Troy, and Pocahontas
The Boston Library, it may be stated, offered opportunity for decorative
work of an unusual nature, which was taken advantage of by several
of the better known men. Elmer E. Garnsey made remarkable designs
for the Pompeian lobby, and John Elliott a ceiling in the children’s
reference room. The Congressional Library at Washington offered still
greater opportunities, engaging the attention of a long list of painters.
Here again is seen the hand of Mr. Garnsey, who planned the color scheme;
while prominent among the decorations are the works of Elihu Vedder,—six
large panels representing Government in its various phases, good and
corrupt, of much invention in their allegorical way; for the artist is a
highly imaginative man. Mr. Brownell places Vedder in the front rank
of the imaginative painters of the day, adding, “Their name is not legion.”
Other men who contributed to the Library of Congress include
John W. Alexander, who is further represented at Pittsburgh, in the Carnegie
Institute, with most important wall decorations; Gari Melchers;
Robert Reid, whose list of other work is extensive, including decorations
for the capitol at Boston; Henry O. Walker, also represented in
the Appellate Court in New York.
PENNSYLVANIA EXCAVATIONS, by Fred Dana Marsh
In addition to these was a painter who has also been one of the most
prominent of the decorative men, Edward Simmons. Years ago he won
the competition for a decoration for the Criminal Court room in New York,
a prize awarded by the Municipal Art Society. A pupil of the Paris
schools, a master draftsman, a singularly capable man, his three panels
of the Fates won him instant place, and when he further made two
decorations for the Massachusetts state capitol there was opened to him
a field which he has since followed with distinction. Decorations for the
ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria, panels for the Appellate Court, for various
state capitols and public buildings, and finally enormous embellishments
for the Panama fair in San Francisco, place the man in the front rank.
For pure beauty of invention, for charm of drawing and delicacy of
vision, no American decoration has surpassed the two lovely panels
executed by the late Robert Blum for the frieze of the assembly room of
the Mendelssohn Glee Club in New York. They attracted enormous
attention when they were first completed, and have been reproduced in
many forms. Blum was a highly original painter, and these many figures
representing “Music” and “The Dance” have a grace quite their own.
Reproductions of these paintings made by The Detroit Publishing Co.
Copyright, 1912, by The Curtis Publishing Co.
Copyright, 1914, by The Detroit Publishing Co.
THREE PANELS, by Maxfield Parrish
These three panels are part of a series called “A Florentine Fête,” which decorates the entire front of
the dining room of the Curtis Publishing Company’s building in Philadelphia
Thomas W. Dewing, more identified with easel work, has nevertheless
executed several charming decorations, one in the Imperial Hotel, New
York, “Dawn,” ranking high indeed. It has all the man’s personal
color vision, and is exquisitely dainty and graceful.
Several men were concerned in the wall decorations of the Appellate
Court, among them H. Siddons Mowbray and Willard L. Metcalf. The
first named chose for theme “The Transmission of the Law,” which he
rendered in a scholarly as well as artistic manner. Mr. Mowbray has
executed a ceiling for the library of the University Club of New York, a
large work for the Newark courthouse, and many private commissions.
The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel gave early opportunities for the work of
Will H. Low and Frank Fowler, both of whom carried out interesting
schemes of decoration; while work in the church of the Paulist Fathers in
New York offered a similar chance for William Laurel Harris. Fred Dana
Marsh showed the possibilities of large engineering achievements for decorative
material in a large panel in the rooms of the United Engineering Societies.
It is an apotheosis[3] of labor, of the pick, the shovel, and the iron and
steel worker, and Mr. Marsh was singularly original in the composition.
THE CITY OF NEW YORK, THE EASTERN GATEWAY
OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENT
By Taber Sears, in the New York City Hall
John W. Alexander, better known as a portrait painter, also chose
similar themes with which to decorate the Carnegie Institute of Art in
Pittsburgh, a successful piece of work. Robert van V. Sewell, for the
home of George Gould, at Lakewood, did a fine frieze representing “The
Canterbury Tales.” And a later
man is Barry Faulkner, whose
panel for the home of Mrs. Harriman,
“Famous Women,” is a
happy arrangement of the many
celebrated feminists. The work
of Albert Herter is specially noteworthy.
Hugo Ballin has executed
large decorative work, and
Howard G. Cushing has made
strikingly original panels. Other
men are Taber Sears, with altar
pieces, Joseph Lauber, Charles
M. Shean, Douglas Volk, and
William B. Van Ingen. Walter
Shirlaw occupied himself at times
with decorations, and Abbott H.
Thayer has likewise executed a
few notable mural paintings.
- MURAL PAINTING IN AMERICA
By Edwin Howland Blashfield.
Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York.
- AMERICAN MURAL PAINTING
By Pauline King.
Noyes, Platt & Co., Boston.
- THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PAINTING
By Samuel Isham.
The Macmillan Company, New York.
- THE STORY OF AMERICAN PAINTING
By Charles H. Caffin.
Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York.
