AMERICAN PAINTING

CHAPTER XIX.

EARLY AMERICAN PAINTERS.

ART never timidly raised its head amid more austere and forbidding circumstances than in colonial America. It is idle to say that an untouched continent with limitless wilds peopled by naïve and dusky folk should have stimulated some latent genius to produce new and surprising pictures. The fact was that the early settlers did not look upon these sights with the sympathetic eye of painter or poet. Having sought religious freedom on the rocky shores of New England, the Puritans were soon absorbed in denying to others the privilege for which they had risked their all-that of worshipping as they desired. Their whole life became engrossed in a belief so exacting and prohibitive that it deemed all the gracious attributes of life worldly and hence reprehensible. Having torn away from the Established Church because of its ceremony and costly accessories, they abhorred these and looked upon pictures as allurements of Satan. Their reading was in the main confined to religious books and treatises, their music to religious hymns; while drama and art were regarded as insupportable. The Quakers, similarly, from whose sect the first American painter sprang, while less austere and certainly less inclined to judge their neighbors, were people of utmost simplicity. No better illustrations of their lack of indulgence could be cited than the stories told concerning West, who as a little child discovered by his Quaker mother with a crude sketch of his sleeping baby sister, feared to show her the paper lest he incur her deep displeasure; and again when a youth determined upon pursuing his beloved painting, the meeting of Friends held to consider his course wherein his parents struggled with the doubting villagers until these were inclined to accept the father's firm belief that the boy had a God-given gift and the right to exercise it.

Benjamin West (1738-1820) was born in Springfield,

Pennsylvania. Without contact whatsoever with pictures, he early gave indication of a strong gift for drawing. The amusing story of his first paint brush, made from the hairs he pulled from the kitten's fur and his paints, gathered from surprising sources-blue, for example, from the laundry indigo, has been many times related. Self-taught, he began as a boy to paint portraits in Philadelphia and later went to New York. An unusual opportunity to go to Europe as companion to young Allen gave him a chance to visit Italian art centers, where rumors of the gifted, self-instructed American painter won him much attention. Fortunately this did not unsettle his own ideas or conceptions. Taken to see the Apollo Belvedere by those who wished to watch its effect upon one untrammeled by conventional opinions, they were shocked to hear his first exclamation that it looked like a Mohawk Chief! Realizing how deeply he had perplexed his friends, he explained that with similar ease of motion and freedom of muscle the lithe and perfectly developed Red Men glide along and by his sincerity persuaded his friends that his criticism was justifiable as well as original.

Removing to England, West shortly fell under the king's patronage. It must always be granted that the story of his life reads like a fairy tale. The distance from the rough Quaker village on the American frontier to the position of Court painter was quickly spanned. Until the closing years of his life Fortune smiled upon the first American painter and favored him.

It was he who suggested to King George the advisability of establishing an Academy of Art under royal patronage and thus led to the founding of the Royal Academy in 1768. After the death of Reynolds, West succeeded as its president.

Primarily a portrait painter, West undertook several historical pieces. Best known among them is the Death of Wolfe. In painting this picture he called out warm criticism on every hand because instead of garbing his figures in classical drapery, he set them on canvas in costumes true to the age. This one innovation led ultimately to a revolution in art.

The needs of a new hospital founded in Philadelphia were presented to West who gave answer that he had no money, but would paint a picture for it. He took for his subject Christ

Healing the Sick. Such an alluring price was offered for it when completed that the struggling artist could not refuse, but he made a replica* for the hospital which was exhibited for some time, the admission fee accruing to the hospital fund and increasing it by several thousand pounds.

West's gallery in London was always open to American students and his kindly interest and advice widely sought. In the later years of his life the king's failing health caused the withdrawal of royal favor which seriously curtailed his resources. Loss of family, friends and fortune saddened his advanced life and hastened his death.

Today the art student finds more to avoid than emulate in West's pictures. His canvases were unwieldy in size, crowded with figures and his paint was too thin. Nevertheless, it would be difficult to cite a more successful career among modern painters and his influence in various directions was used on the side of progress. Particularly did his generous attitude towards struggling painters and the recognition of their work tend to stimulate this wholesale sentiment in England. His portraits are regarded as second only to those of Reynolds and Gainsborough, while superior to those of Romney.

John Singleton Copley (1737-1815) belonged to New England. It has often been stated that he also was self-taught, but this must be modified to the extent that his stepfather gave him such instruction as he was able, being an engraver who had himself painted several portraits. Moreover, Copley had opportunity to study such pictures as Boston then afforded. Upon the outbreak of the Revolution he went to Italy, where his family later joined him. Subsequently he removed to England. While never enjoying the popularity or good fortune of West, he was nevertheless in favor as a portrait painter. Although his tints were praised by West as equal to those of Titian, these have faded now to whiteness, thus changing entirely the former appearance of his work.

Copley did not leave America until after his thirtieth year, thus his work falls into two natural divisions; the portraits painted during his early life and his paintings after study of European models. Among the early portraits those of John Adams and John Hancock are best known. While in Italy *The copy of a picture by the artist.

he executed a group of his own family which is pleasing today in spite of its stiffness and lack of flexibility. Among his historic pictures the Death of Lord Chatham and the Siege of Gibraltar are most important.

The third and last of these early portrait painters of first rank was Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828), born in Rhode Island. He was very different in temperament from the others. Copley was the aristocrat, West the broad-minded, kindly painter. Stuart was eccentric and lacking in what might be indefinitely termed moral responsibility. In financial matters he was as little to be depended upon as the playwright Sheridan. Perhaps no sentence summarizes his shortcomings better than one used by his biographer that he "would neither settle down nor settle up." Largely self taught, he tramped about in Europe from time to time, never relating to others his experiences. Finally induced to go to West's Gallery, he became his pupil for four years. The master recognized his native ability and overlooked his peculiarities. His particular strength lay in his power to divine the character of his sitter and to render the face true to life. So popular did he become in England that for a time he prospered. Thereupon he summoned his friends to dinner and informed them that his limited quarters forbade his usual entertainment of them simultaneously, but that he had contrived a method for making the matter entirely simple. Seven hat pegs would be placed in his hallway. When the eighth guest repaired thither he would find these filled and be careful to come earlier the next night. This plan was accepted and for some months Stuart dispensed hospitality to his own satisfaction. But life glided along far too smoothly now to gratify him and he set out for Ireland, where he is reported to have spent some time in jail, painting during his incarceration some of the noted of the land. Upon his return to America he produced the two portraits of Washington so well known that it was once humorously remarked should the Father of his Country reappear and fail to resemble the Stuart Portrait, he would be disowned by his countrymen.

Several other painters of this early period, while less eminent, deserve mention. Most of them studied art with West. Among these Charles Wilson Peale (1741-1827) did creditable work. Another pupil of West's was Robert Fulton, who

after painting several portraits became more interested in boats and navigation. John Trumbull (1756-1843) is remembered for his pleasing portrait of Alexander Hamilton and more particularly perhaps for his four historical pictures produced to fill compartments in the Rotunda of the Capitol in Washington. It may well be doubted whether these would today bring the $32,000 he received for them.

Landscapes had been attempted by the first painters, but these were copies of European prints as a rule rather than sketches from nature. Among the first to catch the charm that natural beauty possesses and to put this upon canvas was Thomas Doughty' (1793-1856). His view of the Hudson is gratifying today when landscape painting in America has become elevated beyond the dreams of those early years.

Durand and Thomas Cole were noteworthy among the earliest landscape painters. Durand worked first as an engraver, pounding out copper pennies for his plates and originating his own designs. After a sojourn in Europe he turned to portraits and afterwards to landscapes. Cole, though of English birth, became identified with the American school. He chose lofty themes the rise and fall of nations, the swift passing of life, often producing several scenes to complete one series. In his Course of Empire he included five pictures, these showing the same general scene, a harbor and mountains protectingly near. A little village is founded, develops into a prosperous community, is pillaged by invaders and finally falls in ruins. The Voyage of Life was depicted in four pictures, these exemplifying childhood, youth, maturity, old age. Allegories of this description were much in favor and Cole's productions were quickly purchased. But it is in his simple sketches of the Catskills that he is best seen.

The early group of landscape painters became known as the Hudson River or White Mountain School. Among them were Rossiter, Kensett, Whittredge, Cropsey and Richards. Some of Whittredge's sketches of trees, with light piercing through them to moss-covered rocks, are particularly good. Richards made sketches around Lake George and in the White Mountains. Although his flowers are accurately done from a botanical standpoint, the harmony and sense of distance is sacrificed to that end.