CHAPTER XXI.

ART CENTERS OF AMERICA.

ALTHOUGH the Metropolitan was by no means one of the earliest museums of art to be established in this country, it is usually mentioned first in any enumeration of American galleries. Its foundation was first suggested by John Hay and was seriously considered by a meeting of representative men held in New York in 1869. The first exhibition of pictures was held in 1871-some of them being loaned, others having been purchased in Europe for the Trustees. Funds were later raised for a new building to be erected in Central Park and this was opened to the public in 1880. Since that time it has been enlarged and remodeled.

In 1904 the late J. Pierpont Morgan was made President. of the Board of Trustees. Himself a famous collector of rare art treasures, his private pictures have frequently been loaned to the Metropolitan. Various private collections have been bequeathed to this Museum, the Marquand and Hearn collections important among them. Sometimes collections have been given with the understanding that they should be kept intact, which has led to confusion attendant upon unrelated pictures of varying merit being shown together.

It is frequently deplored that our country should possess so few worthy examples of European art, but each year it becomes more difficult to acquire paintings by the masters. When private collections are sold, bidders for the great galleries are ready to pay large sums-often far in excess of the value of a canvas. A few generations ago when these conditions did not exist, Americans had little time and less means to procure works of art, nor had the desire for beautiful pictures found opportunity to develop in a new land where the winning of a livelihood demanded the attention of all. Moreover, it will be remembered that our earliest painters found scant encouragement in austere New England and in Quaker Pennsylvania for the production of pictures, although, to be sure, the vanity of our ancestors prompted them to have their portraits painted.

The Metropolitan owns no noteworthy example of early Italian painting. Among Flemish artists, Rubens is represented, though not always at his best. One of Van Dyck's best portraits, that of James Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lenox, is here, and others less important. Several Dutch painters may be seen-Rembrandt in one excellent portrait, in his landscape The Mills, and in the Adoration of the Shepherds—a preliminary study for the picture by this name in the National Gallery. One of Ruysdael's, two by Cuyp and several by Frans Hals are fortunately here.

Holbein's portrait of the Archbishop Cranmer is one of the most valuable canvases in this gallery. Several paintings of Reynolds are found, but nearly all of them in the bad state of preservation common to his works. He used a kind of varnish to give added lustre to his pictures which has proved most disastrous. Gainsborough is represented; also Turner. Modern French painters are to be seen, among them notably Corot, Diaz, Daubigney, Breton, Troyon and Dupré, while Rosa Bonheur's great Horse Fair greets the visitor familiarly-it being widely reproduced in prints. It was presented to the Metropolitan by Vanderbilt, who paid over $50,000 for it.

Among early American painters, West is represented by two pictures-neither in his best style. Hagar and Ismael, a biblical painting, bears evidences of his Italian period. Portraits by Copley, one of Stuart's portraits of Washington and a replica of another and his excellent portraits of Don Josef de Jaudenes y Nebot and his wife, painted while this diplomat represented the Court of Spain in the United States, should be mentioned.

Thomas Doughty's On the Hudson and Thomas Cole's Valley of Vanchuse are included among the early landscapes; also Inness' Peace and Plenty and Autumn Oaks. Peace and Plenty portrays a wide reach of country, the trees riotous in autumn's rich tones. The fields lie wrapped in the silence of fall; the wheat stands in shocks. Flowing water indicates the cause of an abundant harvest. In the distance, farm buildings are visible.

In recent years the endowment of George A. Hearn has provided for the purchase of pictures by living American artists. It has too often been the case that struggling painters

have been neglected until they have won recognition abroad, or have been obliged to turn from their chosen work for lack of appreciation. The United States was slow to recognize Whistler's unusual gifts, although the Metropolitan now possesses three of his paintings: A Lady in Gray, the Nocturne in Green and Gold, and the Nocturne in Black and Gold-this last one of the night scenes in Cremorne Gardens.

Winslow Homer, regarded by many as foremost among American painters, has been said to bear the relationship to our art that Walt Whitman does to our poetry or Lincoln to statesmanship. His Gulf Stream and Cannon Rock are here.

La Farge's wonderful skill in use of colors is apparent in a little Samoan Island scene-here with some of his flower pieces. Chase, having been identified with New York for years, is seen to advantage.

Sargent may be studied in five pictures: his portraits of Chase, of Marquand, former president of the Museum's Board of Trustees, and of Robert Louis Stevenson are best among them.

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts was founded in 1805 and is the oldest institution of its kind in America. Its early foundation was largely due to the untiring efforts of Charles Wilson Peale to stimulate an interest for art and to provide opportunity for the training of the youth who manifested ability for drawing. There was in early times a lamentable dearth of pictures and statuary, but a series of casts was obtained from the Louvre and a cast of Venus de Medici from Italy. This Venus long constituted the greatest treasure and was kept concealed except on rare occasions-partly because it was regarded as very valuable and partly because it was hard for the early inhabitants of Philadelphia to grow accustomed to undraped statuary. In delicate consideration for feminine folk, Mondays were reserved for them alone.

The present building was completed in 1876, having cost more than five hundred thousand dollars. The Academy has been fortunate in its presidents, these having worked relentlessly for the furtherance of the plan which led originally to its establishment. While a portion of this sum was realized from the sale of the earlier site and a small sum left as a bequest, the greater part was raised through the tireless efforts

of President Claghorn, who aroused sentiment and pride sufficiently to secure the new building. Since its completion it has been endowed by subscriptions and bequests.

The purpose of the Academy is best explained by quoting from the pledge of the association when organized: "To promote the cultivation of the Fine Arts, in the United States of America, by introducing correct and elegant copies from works of the first masters in sculpture and painting and by thus facilitating the access to such standards, and also by occasionally conferring moderate but honorable premiums, and otherwise assisting the studies and exciting the efforts of the artists gradually to unfold, enlighten and invigorate the talents of our countrymen." This it has accomplished and while not a repository of valuable canvases or marbles, by various private donations and bequests a few pictures by eminent painters have been acquired.

Van der Helst (1613-1670), like Hals a native of Haarlem, is represented by The Violinist, one of his best productions. Van der Helst fell under the influence of Frans Hals, his drawing being free and bold. One of Jan der Goyen's landscapes is found among the examples of Dutch painting.

There are no pictures illustrative of the best years of Italian art. For the decadent period, Guido Reni's beautiful Ganymede and five of Salvator Rosa's canvases may be seen, three being landscape with some mythological significance.

Ribera's style and characteristic treatment may be seen in his The Cid. Specimens of early Spanish and French paintings are lacking, but the Academy possesses several pictures by the recent painters of France-three of Corot's-the River Scene, South of France, and a Landscape,-a landscape by Rousseau, another by Dupré, Breton's Potato Harvester, and Rosa Bonheur's Highland Sheep, while with the Gibson Collection, Millet's Return of the Flock was secured. The chill of night having fallen, the shepherd is huddled in his heavy cloak, followed by the sheep that crowd together, while the faithful dog, ever alert, watches to see that none stray away.

The Academy is fortunate in having portraits by the early American School, these being more valuable from a historical than an artistic point of view. Stuart is here seen at his best, being adequately represented by twenty-four canvases.

He

maintained a studio in Philadelphia from 1785 to 1805 and many citizens came to him for their portraits. In many instances these have been donated in late years to the Academy. It has long been a matter of dispute as to whether the portrait of Washington which hangs in this gallery is an original or a replica.

Peale, an enthusiastic collector of curios, gathered together much of interest for his museum which was preserved in his home. His self-portrait standing in this museum is now in the Academy. Twelve portraits by Thomas Sully (1783-1872) are worthy of mention. One of these portrays George Frederick Cooke, an actor of some note, in his rôle of Richard III., and another represents Fanny Kemble as Beatrice.

West is seen to greater advantage here than at the Metropolitan. Three of his large canvases: Death on a Pale Horse, Paul and Barnabas, and the Rejected Christ being in the Academy. The last is regarded as one of his best productions. It was sold for three thousand guineas after his death and was presented in late years to this gallery. The artist caught the tension of the moment when Pilate caused Christ to be brought before the multitude that they might, should it so please them, exercise the privilege which custom had granted them-that of pardoning one prisoner on this holiday. Like so many of West's historical pictures, the canvas is crowded with peopleall kinds and conditions of society being revealed in this particular case.

Death on a Pale Horse compels attention by its title. The painter conceived of Death, mounted on a horse, riding about and bringing destruction wherever he went. It is another version of the Mediaeval story of the Dance of Death.

Several excellent paintings by modern American artists are found. The Lady with the White Shawl, by William Merritt Chase is here; the Fox Hunt by Winslow Homer, before which the Adirondack guide who had glanced idly at other pictures paused to say: "By Jove, I've seen things that looked like that!", a portrait by Sargent and Phyllis, one of Walter MacEwen's old fashioned, charming, flowered-gowned maidens are here. Here also are two examples of William Hunt's work, one the original sketch of his Flight of Night-the subject of his mural painting in the New York Capitol. This is the more