FINE ARTS. 



357 



are received. There was no time during 1865 

 when the exhibtion rooms of the picture deal- 

 ers in New York, Boston, or Philadelphia, did 

 not contain a fair proportion of the latter. The 

 rise in value has not been confined to foreign 

 importations, but native artists have asked and 

 obtained much higher prices than ever before ; 

 and in many cases, notwithstanding the influx 

 of European works, have received commissions 

 beyond their ability to execute immediately. 

 Thus, contrary to general expectation, but not 

 contrary to the experience of other nations 

 under similar conditions, art flourished during 

 a civil war of unexampled magnitude to a de- 

 gree never before witnessed in the country ; 

 and to the list of reputable artists who were 

 before the public in 1861, the names of not a 

 few of considerable promise had been added at 

 the close of 1865. At the commencement of 

 the war American painting was practised al- 

 most exclusively in three departments, landscape, 

 portraiture, and genre, the first named being 

 cultivated much more extensively than the other 

 two ; and the close of the struggle found the 

 practice relatively the same. The year 1865 

 proved no exception in this respect, and to the 

 surprise of most persons, who looked for some 

 new development of aim, or some higher in- 

 fluence imparted by the war, pictures identical 

 in character with those of the last decade con- 

 tinued to be produced, the only difference be- 

 ing that the number was increased and the 

 quality considerably improved. Scarcely a 

 picture of the large, historic type familiar to 

 European galleries has issued from the studio 

 of an American painter; and of the few battle 

 pieces or pictures illustrating the dramatic epi- 

 sodes of the war which have been painted, 

 nearly all were the work of foreign artists re- 

 siding in the country. Humorous incidents, 

 however, and subjects suggested by the camp, 

 the bivouac, or the march, have found some 

 capable illustrators. The tragic or pathetic 

 element, except as developed in the numerous 

 clever designs for the illustrated newspapers, 

 seems to be that with which the artistic mind 

 of the country is unable or unwilling to grap- 

 ple. In the most exciting periods of the war, 

 when public attention was absorbed with grave 

 events, American artists seemed most occupied 

 in reproducing on the canvas the beautiful 

 scenery of their country ; and .even the young 

 members of the profession, just coming upon 

 the stage, who might be supposed to be influ- 

 enced more strongly than their older brethren 

 by the ideas and feelings to which the epoch 

 has given birth, were content to follow in the 

 beaten path marked out by their predecessors. 

 Of the causes which have contributed to pro- 

 duce this result two only need be mentioned 

 here : 1. The time is not yet ripe for the intel- 

 lectual fruits, whether in the domain of art 

 or of literature, of which the great rebellion 

 has sown the seeds. 2. The art genius of the 

 nation has been so exclusively developed in 

 the department of landscape painting that 



it cannot be immediately diverted into other 

 channels. 



As the commercial centre and metropolis of 

 the country, the city of New York has, of late 

 years, become the chief market for the disposal 

 of foreign as well as domestic works of art, 

 and is the residence of a larger body of artists, 

 and the receptacle probably of a greater num- 

 ber of art treasures than can be found else- 

 where. The value of the collections made by 

 several of its private citizens already forms a 

 large item in estimating the wealth of the city, 

 and to these collections very considerable ad- 

 ditions were made in 1865. A fresh impulse 

 was also given to the development of native 

 talent by the opening, on April 27th, of the 

 new building recently erected by the National 

 Academy of Design, at the corner of Twenty- 

 third Street and Fourth Avenue, on the occasion 

 of the fortieth annual exhibition of that insti- 

 tution. The building is worthy of note as one 

 of the first attempts in the United States to 

 apply the revived Gothic style, now so prev- 

 alent in Europe, to a purely secular structure 

 It is of rectangular shape, and to the casual 

 observer is noticeable chiefly for the pleasing 

 contrasts of gray and white marble, and the 

 tasteful sculptures of its exterior walls. Sc 

 marked is the contrast in these respects with 

 the great majority of American public build- 

 ings that the new Academy has been justly con- 

 sidered to commemorate a new era in national 

 architecture, and to be as deserving of attention 

 as the pictures and sculptures of which it is 

 destined to become the receptacle. The inte- 

 rior, though less capacious than Avill probably 

 satisfy the needs of so considerable an art 

 emporium as New York promises to become, is 

 sufficient for present purposes, and is well 

 arranged for displaying its contents to advan- 

 tage. The building was designed by Mr. P. B. 

 Wight, and erected at a cost of over two hun- 

 dred thousand dollars. The exhibition of 1865 

 comprised 616 pictures, drawings, and designs, 

 and 31 works in sculpture, and was one of the 

 most satisfactory and attractive in the history 

 of the Academy, notwithstanding the absence 

 from its galleries of works by several prominent 

 contributors of former years. As usual, land- 

 scape predominated, with every variety of 

 treatment, from academic generalization to the 

 most advanced pre-Raphaelitism. Portraiture 

 and genre were also well represented, but of 

 historical pieces the specimens were few and of 

 no very promising quality. The National 

 Academy is now in the forty-first year of its 

 existence, and numbers 76 academicians and 

 79 associates. Among the former may be men- 

 tioned Bierstadt, Church, Cropsey, Durand, 

 Gifford, Gignoux, Hart, Kensett, and Mignot, 

 landscape painters; Baker, Elliott, Hicks, 

 Staigg, and Stone, portrait painters; Darley, 

 Gray, Leutze, Page, Weir, and White, painters 

 of history or ideal subjects ; Dana, Hennessy, 

 Eastman Johnson, and Mount, painters of 

 genre; and Brown, Rogers, Thompson, and 



