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shall prove to have awakened a desire in any to possess real art works, 

 a disposition to encourage native talent, and to urge to still loftier 

 efforts those to whom nature has given art instincts, and the power to 

 interpret her in the speaking silence of the canvas. That all these 

 things have been accomplished by the recent exhibition cannot be 

 doubted by any who have given heed to the expressions of the thou- 

 sands who daily visited the art gallery, and the conclusion is irresist- 

 ible, that by the collection, art culture has been advanced, art tastes 

 enlarged, better judgment of the true in art cultivated, men made 

 better, and artists encouraged; and thus, while the State Agricultural 

 Society has been aided, the people have benefited by the refining 

 influence of a real art exhibition of a high character, for it is true 

 that outside of some amateur and crude efforts and some copies there 

 were no really poor works in the gallery. They were all upon an 

 elevated plane. There were few ideal works, the great mass being 

 studies from nature in her most inspiring and purest moods and 

 interpretations of nature in faithful tone and key. The visitors to 

 the gallery found there a displaj^ so varied as to answer to ail hearts 

 and awaken responsive emotions in all bosoms. They found that the 

 character of an exhibition is not to be measured either by its extent 

 or the breadth of the artist's canvas, but by what it interprets and 

 teaches, and that the plane upon which, it rests is ascertained by 

 the sentiment and thought of the themes, and this in turn by the 

 skillfulness with which the artists have expressed them in the treat- 

 ment of their subjects. Judged by these rules the recent exhibition 

 was a pure one, one addressing itself to all the better impulses, awaken- 

 ing all the best emotions, and descending neither to the vulgar nor 

 subterfuge and trick on the one' hand, nor reaching too far into the 

 fanciful and idealistic on the other. There were no cruelly savage 

 nor depressingly sombre compositions, nor were there any extrava- 

 gantly intense or unnatural efforts. An atmosphere surrounded the 

 gallery in perfect accord with the variety, and yet the harmony which 

 distinguished the collection, and an indescribably elevating and 

 refining influence emanated from the pictures, which was felt by 

 every visitor who stepped from the busy hum of the main hall into 

 the artistic charm which pervaded the gallery. Perhaps the best 

 though the least critical judgment which was passed upon the collec- 

 tion of paintings was that the great mass of people pronounced upon 

 it, when, without attempt to analyze or criticise, they hourly confessed 

 its influence, and in simply appreciative phrases paid tribute to the 

 genius of those artists whose works by their prominence brought all 

 within their influence who looked upon them, were like open books to 

 the minds of the multitude, and were faithful interpreters of the scenes 

 and sentiments they sought to portray. First to view as one passed 

 northward through the gallery were Prosch's architectural pictures, 

 good examples of what he can do, and next the brilliant collection of 

 Arthur Nahl, birds of gorgeous plumage, the pictures being finished 

 with the sheen of reality, and probably being unsurpassed. They are 

 painted in a high key, are strongly original, and yet are after genuine 

 models. • ^ 



Four pictures by Keith, all good examples of his style, the 

 thoroughly gray in mountain scenery. They are prominent examples 

 of the originality which makes his genius. Two pictures by Deakin, 

 the best he has ever done, showing more care than ever on his part, 

 and strongly indicative of the native ability he possesses. A portrait 



