FINE ARTS. 



313 



I'inent of a now era in that city. In A pril 



lli-rtion nt' 1'iviK-li paintings and etching*. 

 I'xhil.ii. 1 i:i N.'\v York under tlio direction of 

 Messrs. Cadart and Luquet of Paris, was trans- 



! t< Hoston, and attracted considerable at- 



i. Apart from thcso exhibitions of col- 

 lected works, the establishments of the picture 

 " .rdfil many opportunities of seeing 

 Merit, and some single pictures were 



v,l, in. lulling " The Rescue," byDe Haas, 

 ! " Crushed by Icebergs," Bierstadt's 



in in the Rocky Mountains," and a pic- 

 tun 1 entitled "The Home of the Boos," which 



ribed as a marvel of botanical exactness, 

 but too mechanical in the execution to be con- 

 sidered a work of art. Chester Harding, the 

 portrait painter, whoso career has been chiefly 

 identified with Boston, died in that city on 

 April 1st. His last work, an unfinished por- 

 trait of Gen. W. T. Sherman, was exhibited a 

 few weeks previous. 



The foundations of a school of art in New 

 Haven were many years ago laid by the pur- 



by Yale College of the paintings known 

 as the Trurnbull Gallery, for the reception of 

 which a Gothic building, designed by P. B. 

 "Wight, the architect of the New York Acad- 

 emy of Design, was commenced in 1864. At 

 tho close of 1866 it was so far completed as to bo 

 ready for tho reception of the works destined 

 to be placed in it, and which, besides the pic- 

 tures by Col. Trumbull, comprise a number of 

 portraits and other paintings belonging to the 

 college. To these art treasures an important 

 addition has been made by Professor S. F. B. 

 Morse, a graduate of Yale, who has presented 

 to tho college Allston's "Jeremiah," long in 

 the possession of the Gibbs family of Newport, 

 R. L, and purchased by him in New York for 

 tho sum of $7,000. 



The chief interest in art matters in Philadel- 

 phia centres around the exhibitions of tho Acad- 

 emy of Fine Arts, founded in tho early part 

 of tho present century. The exhibitions of 1866 

 opened on April 23d, and it is an encouraging 

 proof of the progress of art in Philadelphia, that 

 the Academy building is declared to be inade- 

 quate to contain the pictures annually sent to 

 it. It has been suggested also that the infusion 

 of more enterprise into the management of tho 

 institution is needed to make it subserve the 

 development of art culture, in accordance with 

 the ideas of its founders. Notwithstanding the 

 absence of works by several prominent local ar- 

 ti-ts, the contributions in 1866 were up to tho 

 average standard, and included pieces by Sully, 

 Rothermel, Hamilton, tho late John Neagle, 

 Russell Smith and Xanthus Smith, Moran, and 

 Richards. James Hamilton, whose reputation 

 is still for the most part local, is pronounced by 

 Philadelphia critics one of the first marine 

 painters living. Three pictures by him, rrpr. - 

 scnting scenes at Niagara Falls, one of which 

 was entitled " Niagara on a stormy -day in 

 Autumn," were exhibited in May, in company 

 with Bierstadt's " Yo Semite Valley," and elicit- 



ed hijjfh praise for the vividness and spirituality 

 with which they depicted tho force and grand- 

 cur of the great cataract. As in New York and 

 Boston, the general public found many oppor- 

 tunities for art instruction in tho galleries and 

 warercJbms of the picture dealers. The task 

 of painting a picture of tho battle of Gettys- 

 burg, on the wall of tho new extension to tho 

 Capitol at Harrisburg, has been assigned to 

 Rothermel, who probably ranks first among the 

 historical painters of Pennsylvania. Tho picture 

 is to bo on a very largo scale, with a supple- 

 mentary border, in the compartments of which 

 characteristic incidents will be introduced, and 

 the sum appropriated to tho artist amounts to 

 $25,000. 



Outside of the localities above specified there 

 is little connected with the history of the fine 

 arts in the United States in 18G6 which is 

 worthy of mention. Baltimore, Cincinnati, 

 Chicago, St. Louis, and other large cities, cannot 

 bo regarded in any sense as art capitals, or 

 centres, although in all of them men of wealth 

 and intelligence are engaged in forming gal- 

 leries of pictures or statuary, the influence of 

 which, after another quarter of a century has 

 elapsed,' will show itself in an improved public 

 taste. A notable illustration ^f the zeal, anima- 

 ting citizens of tho West, in the pursuit and en- 

 couragement of tho fine arts, was afforded by 

 the collection of over three hundred paintings, 

 including works by Church, Bierstadt, Gignoux, 

 Cropsey, Hart, Eastman Johnson, Inness, 

 Leutze, and many others, belonging to Mr. U. 

 II. Crosby of Chicago, which early in 1867 was 

 distributed by public lottery. The western 

 cities at present are the receptacles, rather than 

 the disseminators or creators of works of art, 

 and in that regard may be said to occupy the 

 relation of provincial towns to New York. 

 The latter, as tho metropolis of America, at- 

 tracts to herself the chief art talent of the 

 country, every year witnessing an increase in 

 tho number of her resident artists ; and there 

 seems no reason to doubt that for many years 

 to come this supremacy will be maintained as 

 firmly as London and Paris maintain their su- 

 premacy over the provincial cities of England or 

 France. 



In the department of plastic art, and par- 

 ticularly that branch of it which relates to 

 public monuments, a more than customary ac- 

 tivity was manifested in the United States 

 during the past year. Not only is the body of 

 American sculptors, so honorably known both 

 at home and abroad, gaining yearly in numbers 

 and reputation, but it has responded willingly 

 and even enthusiastically to the demanda, 

 coming from various parts of the country, for 

 memorials of our recent great struggle and of 

 the prominent actors in it. In comparison with 

 the apathy of former years this eageri&ass to 

 perpetuate the history of an eventful era, by 

 tho aid of one of the most enduring forms of 

 art, is somewhat remarkable, and ought, in one 

 respect at least, to absolve Americans from the 



