Read Ebook: The Mentor: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Vol. 6 Num. 9 Serial No. 157 June 15 1918 by Noe Sydney P Sydney Philip

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Gerard Dou worked under Rembrandt in the "gray" period. The small, crisp "Portrait of the Artist" shows his change of style after leaving the studio. Dou trimmed his sails to catch the wind of fashion, a thing that Rembrandt refused to do. Another pupil, Nicolaes Maes, worked with Rembrandt during the "golden" period. He gives us a brilliant piece of color, a "Young Girl Peeling Apples," in which the glow of red warms all the panel. Aert de Gelder portrays a sturdy "Dutch Admiral," and there is one of the far-stretching Dutch landscapes by Philip de Koninck.

The "Little Masters of Holland" are present in strength. Metsu's "Visit to the Nursery," which came from the Morgan Collection, is his masterpiece. It is an intimate glimpse of home life that attracts everyone, and is painted with a mastery that strengthens its human appeal. But Metsu is far surpassed by Vermeer. Less than two score of his pictures are known; the Metropolitan Museum already owns two of them, and of these, the "Young Woman with a Water-Jug," is of first rank.

The landscape men should not be overlooked. Cuyp has three of his cattle pictures, filled with sunlight; and Hobbema, one of the rarest-met of the Dutchmen, has a view of a Dutch village. "Wheatfields," by Jacob van Ruisdael , shows him at the summit of his powers. It is superior to anything by him to be found in the European collections. With its low-lying horizon and broad sky, it is typical of the best in the Dutch treatment of landscape.

Next to the Dutch, the Flemish is the one best represented among the older schools. High finish and purity of color are the chief characteristics of these careful brushmen. There is a tiny fragment by Jan van Eyck , usually identified as a portrait of Thomas ? Becket. A monumental "Annunciation" is by Roger van der Weyden, with rich velvets and brocades and careful painting of details. In the Altman Collection there are four panels by Memling. All are of superior quality--in fact, the "Portrait of an Old Man" was for a long time attributed to Jan van Eyck. Another portrait, by Dirk Bouts, has the same directness and force, and is almost equally fine. This is portraiture of the highest order.

Rubens brought a new spirit to the school. One may obtain at the Metropolitan a fairly clear idea of his power and of the influence of his style upon his fellow-artists, although there are none of his finest creations present. Rubens relied upon the help of his assistants more than most other artists. Indicating his intentions, whether by a small sketch or roughly on the canvas itself, he would leave the carrying out to his pupils, and afterwards correct or retouch the parts that did not satisfy him. The large "Wolf and Fox Hunt" was probably handled in some such way, as were a number of these hunting pictures. The "Holy Family," nearby, is in his first style, and some of Rubens' brushwork may still be recognized in the figure of the Christ-child. Rubens' skill in another field is upheld by two good portraits of men. There are several school pieces of merit, and an early copy of his "Susannah."

A school piece is a picture done by a pupil, closely following the style of his master.

Van Dyck, Rubens' best pupil, is even better represented than his master. We may trace his development in no less than eight portraits. Two in the Altman Collection were done during his visit to Genoa, and betray some of the influence of Italy. But Van Dyck hardly ever surpassed the full-length of James Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox.

Most of the masterpieces of the Italian School had been absorbed into Europe's national collections before the Metropolitan Museum entered the field. It is quite remarkable that the present showing is possible, in view of the difficulties in the way. Most of the works of the "primitives" are fixed on the walls of the palaces and churches of Italy, but there is a scattering of them here. In the case of Pollajuolo's "St. Christopher," the whole wall has been transported. It has great value for the study of fresco technic. An "Epiphany," simple in its appeal, attributed to the School of Giotto , but possibly by Giotto himself, has great charm of color and composition.

The pioneers of a nation's art. In Italy, Giotto and Duccio are the two great primitives.

One of the most important possessions of the Museum is Raphael's "Madonna of St. Anthony," the gift of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. It was painted before the artist had fully developed, and lacks the spirit and brilliancy of his later productions. But study its composition. Note the dignity in the single figures of St. Peter and St. Paul. How exquisitely the adoring angels fill the lunette! The picture was intended for the high altar, and, in its original position, it would have been possible to see it only from a distance and from below, and not close at hand as now. The central group shows some of the promise so richly fulfilled in the years that followed.

The upper, semi-circular portion. The word refers to the half-moon shape of the composition.

Of the other Florentines, the pensive "Madonna" by Verrocchio is very attractive, and the Fra Angelico panel and the circular composition by Mainardi should not be overlooked. Neither of the subjects by Botticelli conveys a fair conception of his artistic significance, although they are well authenticated. There is a highly finished portrait of Federigo Gonzaga by Francia , in perfect preservation. The "Girl with Cherries," now assigned to Ambrogio de Predis, was for a long time thought to be by Leonardo da Vinci .

There are several large and important altarpieces. One, by Correggio , was painted early in his career. It is rich in coloring and is an important link in his artistic development. On the opposite wall there is an "Entombment" by Moretto of Brescia, a leader in the North Italian School. He is noted for the gray tone that pervades many of his canvases. A "Pieta" , by Crivelli , shows tragic power combined with great beauty of color and strength of drawing.

The late Venetian is the most satisfactorily represented of the Italian Schools. There is an early "Madonna" ascribed to Giovanni Bellini , firm in drawing and harmonious in color scheme, but failing to show the strength to which he attained later in his career. Titian's portrait of Filippo Archinto , Bishop of Milan, is fine as a study of character--we must hope that some of the more decorative pieces by Titian will some day be secured. Like most of the portraits painted by Giorgione , the one in the Altman Collection has suffered from restoration, but anything by this rare painter is priceless. Carpaccio's mystic "Meditation on the Passion" is very important historically.

Both of the great men of the German School are well represented. D?rer's training as an engraver is very apparent in his "Madonna and Child with St. Anne"--the sleeping Christ-child is delightful. Of the three Holbeins, the early "Portrait of a Man" is perhaps the best. According to the inscription, it must have been painted when the artist was twenty years old. There are other fine portraits by Cranach the elder and Beham.

The early English School is strong in numbers--it was greatly strengthened by the Fletcher bequest. The large portrait group of The Honorable Henry Fane with his Guardians shows Sir Joshua Reynolds attempting a group on an ambitious scale. His half-lengths, especially that of Elizabeth Reynolds, are more pleasant--in that particular one he pays tribute to the style of Rembrandt. Gainsborough, Sir Joshua's most successful rival, shows his ability in the portrait of "Miss Sparrow" and, in another field, in the "Landscape" in the Hearn Gallery. He used to paint these landscapes as relaxation from the portrait pieces. Romney and Opie have attractively pictured Lady Hamilton for us. One of the best pictures that ever came from Lawrence's brush is his portrait of the Reverend William Pennicott.

There are some good canvases by the landscape men. Constable has an unusual portrait, as well as the gorgeous "Glebe Farm" in the Fletcher Collection. John Crome, in his "Hautbois Common," shows the influence of the principles of the Dutch School. Wilson has an unusually rich "Italian Landscape." Turner, the greatest of the English landscapists, is responsible for three pictures. The early "Saltash" is rich and luminous; the "Grand Canal, Venice," is one of the best of his pictures of the island city, and the "Whale Ship" is in his late style. There are some wonderful water-colors by him on loan.

The French School of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is represented by pictures few in number, but excellent in quality. Boucher , Largilli?re , Nattier , Drouais --all these men show amazing strength on the decorative side, and, always, exquisite taste. Chardin has a beautiful low-toned still-life, "Preparations for a Breakfast." David's portrait in the Fletcher Gallery is a marvel of directness. In the Morgan Wing there are eight decorative landscapes by Hubert Robert well worth looking up in this connection.

Some of the modern French artists were appreciated by Americans before their genius was recognized at home. Certainly the Modern French Section is one of the strongest in the Museum. Romanticism, realism and impressionism are all to be seen in the work of their chief exponents. An afternoon might profitably be spent with the men of Barbizon . Corot's poetic outlook upon nature is plain in each of twelve landscapes. The "Lane Through the Trees," with a sense of cool shadow after the heat of a dusty road, is perhaps the best of them.

Rousseau speaks a more rugged and direct language in the fifteen subjects by him. The sober "Gorges d'Apremont ; Evening," with a still luminous sky above the hills, is magnificent. Millet is represented by the famous "Sower," with its rhythm and swing, an almost equally fine "Water-Carrier," the impressive "Autumn" in the Fletcher Collection, and half a dozen others. Dupr? and Diaz have good pictures, and when has Troyon ever surpassed his superb "Holland Cattle"? Daubigny , though he comes a bit later, is usually associated with these men. There are eight or nine of the subjects he used to find in punting about among the streams and back-waters of the Seine and Oise --how intimate they seem!

The Museum is fortunate in owning a number of pictures that are recognized as the masterpieces of their respective artists. Bastien-Lepage's "Joan of Arc" is one of these. Realism?--yes, but so combined with imagination that the result is gripping. Rosa Bonheur's "Horse Fair" is one of the best-known pictures in the Museum. Many are familiar with it in black and white reproduction, in which it shows to good advantage. The original painting is somewhat disappointing in color. Meissonier's "Friedland, 1807" is an example of his careful brushwork, but is less successful than some of his smaller panels that are shown in the Museum. Regnault's "Salome," a daring harmony in yellow, shows the dancer awaiting her reward from Herod. "Madame Charpentier and her Children," by Renoir , is one of the most charming groups to be found anywhere. Renoir employed the methods of the impressionists, but he never allowed his subject to become secondary to the medium--a thing his brother-impressionists sometimes seemed to do. There are pictures by the other exponents of these principles to speak for themselves, and some of them speak very well. Manet in the "Boy with a Sword" is following Velasquez to good advantage. A portrait by Fantin-Latour depicts the wonderfully sensitive face of a lady in black. A turquoise brooch gives a piquant touch of color that is repeated in the other jewels she wears. There are many other pictures that one could ill afford to pass by--Couture's "Day Dreams," for example, and "Arabs Crossing a Ford" by Fromentin , or the pictures by Delacroix , Courbet , Jacque , and Dagnan-Bouveret , to mention only the more important. Last, but far from being least, is the group by Puvis de Chavannes to show the power of that great mural painter.

Naturally, American artists are well represented in the Metropolitan Museum. Nine pictures stand sponsor for Gilbert Stuart's skill, and several are surprisingly fine. Such work as John Singleton Copley's "Mrs. Bowers" and Stuart's "Mrs. Anthony" do not suffer from comparison with the productions of the English School of their time. Indeed, Ralph Earle's "Lady Williams," sometime previous to its purchase in London, masqued as a Gainsborough! Its simplicity and slightly awkward directness are captivating. Do not fail to observe, however, that the table accessories are exceedingly well painted. One of the most interesting of these early pictures is a group of pupils in the studio of Benjamin West. As president of the Royal Academy, his aid was sought by almost every American with any artistic ability who could obtain passage money to London. Matthew Pratt, one of those whom West helped, here shows him criticizing the sketch of one of a group. Prominent among the men of the next generation is Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, but also a painter of no mean order, and the author of good portraits of Henry Clay and De Witt Clinton. Sully, another man of exceptional taste for his time, has ten pictures, including the sketch for his portrait of Queen Victoria.

Nowhere else can the "Hudson River School" be studied so well. To our eyes these beginnings seem a bit hard and crude, but such canvases as F. E. Church's "Heart of the Andes" and "Parthenon" are really impressive. But most of these men interest us today chiefly as the forbears of a later group. Inness, Wyant, Homer Martin and Blakelock have only a point of view in common, and yet they form a transition group that leads out of the "Hudson River School" to the landscape men of the present day. In no other gallery is the work of these four artists so well represented. In some of the canvases the inspiration of the Barbizon men is very apparent. Inness succeeds best, perhaps, in his oft-reproduced "Autumn Oaks" or his "Delaware Valley." Wyant's work is very even--"An Old Clearing" is the best of his ten pictures. Blakelock's "Pipe Dance" is fine in a very different way. Homer Martin, perhaps the most interesting figure of them all, reached his highest level in the "View on the Seine," or as his wife named it, "The Harp of the Winds." That picture may fairly claim to be the best-known and most loved landscape by any American artist. His sight was almost gone when the last touches were added. No less impressive, to some, is his "Sand Dunes, Lake Ontario." All the desertedness and barrenness of the dunes seem to have been caught and expressed on his canvas.

The Hudson River School of Art is considered at length in Monograph Six, Mentor No. 136, "The Story of the Hudson."

Sargent, Whistler, La Farge, Chase--all are here, and in many phases. Sargent's portraits are fine, but do not miss his water-colors, or his "Marble Quarry at Carrara." Winslow Homer was one of the first Americans to realize the possibilities of the sea as a subject, and there are eight paintings by him, as well as a dozen forceful water-colors. Carlsen, Dougherty and Waugh are sea-lovers too. And as for the figure-painters, Dannat's "Quartette," Abbey's "Lear" and Mary Cassatt's "Mother and Child" should not be omitted. Among the landscapists come Twachtman and Tryon, Groll with his Arizona mesa, Lie with "Culebra Cut" for his subject, and Ben Foster with a fine "Late Summer Moonrise." Here is a rich assemblage of American art.

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

CATALOGUE. Issued by the Museum.

? Information concerning the above books may be had on application to the Editor of The Mentor.

THE OPEN LETTER

The story of the Metropolitan Museum of Art begins with an address by John Jay before a company of Americans at a Fourth of July dinner in Paris in 1866. In the course of his address Mr. Jay stated that "it was time for the American people to lay the foundation of a national institution and gallery of art." This suggestion commended itself to a number of notable American gentlemen who were present, and who formed themselves into a committee for inaugurating the movement. This committee subsequently addressed an appeal to the Union League Club of New York City, urging the importance of founding a permanent national gallery of art and museum of historical relics for the benefit of the people at large, and suggesting that the Union League Club might properly institute the means for promoting this great object.

Mr. Jay, on returning home from Paris, was elected president of the Union League Club, and the letter from the committee came up for his own official notice. The result was a meeting at the Union League Club on November 23, 1869, to consider the founding of a museum, and a committee of fifty, made up of some of the most distinguished men of the day, was appointed to carry out the project.

It is interesting to read today that the sum of money that the founders placed before them as the goal of their ambition with which to establish this great art institution was only 0,000--a sum 0,000 less than the present administration's expenses for one year. And yet this distinguished committee, after more than a year's effort, raised less than half of the desired sum--only 6,000. Such, financially, was the modest beginning of the great Metropolitan Museum which now, besides its extensive buildings and its priceless collections, has an endowment for a purchase fund of over ten million dollars.

The idea of locating the art museum in Central Park originated with Andrew H. Green, known as the father of that great park. From 1870 until 1879 the Museum was housed, first on Fifth Avenue, and then on Fourteenth Street. The original building, in Central Park, was completed in 1880, and was opened by President Rutherford B. Hayes. Additions were erected in 1888, 1894 and 1902. Since then more contributions have been made to the complete plan which, when realized, will comprise a group of buildings that will cover an area of 18 1/2 acres, and will cost about ,000,000. The architects were Calvert Vaux, then Theodore Weston, Richard M. Hunt and McKim, Mead & White. The Museum had first to rely largely upon voluntary service. This ended in 1879 with the election of a salaried director, General di Cesnola. At his death, in 1904, he left a valuable memorial in the collection of antiquities that he gathered together while United States consul in Cyprus, and which includes over 30,000 specimens. A new era in the affairs of the Museum began with the election of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan as president. Under Mr. Morgan's presidency the Metropolitan became one of the richest museums in the world, and on his death, in 1914, it received for exhibition his great collection of art objects, valued at ,000,000. Of this, the greatest private collection in the world, a large part has now become the property of the Museum through the princely gift of Mr. Morgan's son, the present J. Pierpont Morgan, and is being installed by itself in a wing called the Pierpont Morgan Wing. The Museum has been the recipient of many large endowments, and many fine private collections. Notable among the benefactors may be named three of New York's most distinguished merchants, A. T. Stewart, James A. Hearn and Benjamin Altman.

During its existence many of the most prominent citizens of New York City have been connected in some active capacity with the Museum. The past presidents of the Institution were John Taylor Johnston, Henry G. Marquand, Frederick W. Rhinelander and J. Pierpont Morgan. Mr. Robert W. de Forest, for many years secretary of the Museum, is now its president. Among the vice-presidents were William Cullen Bryant, Andrew H. Green, General John A. Dix, A. T. Stewart, John S. Kennedy, D. O. Mills, Joseph H. Choate, and others. The affairs of the Museum were directed during the first years by General di Cesnola, then by Sir Casper Purdon Clarke, and now by Mr. Edward Robinson.

Under the direction of the present secretary, Mr. Henry W. Kent, the history of the Metropolitan Museum has been written by Winifred E. Howe, and published in a luxurious volume of 360 pages. This beautiful book affords a most interesting and instructive lesson in what can be accomplished in less than fifty years in the development of a great art institution.

A Letter From Japan

I have been interested in The Mentor ever since a warm morning in June four years ago when, as a delegate to the General Federation of Women's Clubs held that year in Chicago, I found in my seat a sample copy. "American Sculptors" was the title of the number. I was delighted with it. I asked if it would be all right to take some extra copies, and I was told "yes." So I loaded myself down with them, thinking of the many young men in Tokyo with whom we were in touch, who would be so delighted to have them. This was exactly the case. Every Mentor I brought was used in the best way possible, and many of the pictures were given out singly, so that more could have them.

Fortunately my mother has been sending The Mentor to me. She began to take it through seeing my copy, and it is one of the delightful visitors to our home.

I have been much interested in the letters that you have printed. No one has said how helpful The Mentor is to a missionary. First: to keep one from forgetting what has been seen and known; second, to make friends for one of the things one ought to know; third, for the sake of one's children, who find a great education in the twice-a-month text and pictures.

Aside from the personal value to the missionary and his children, is the value to the foreign people with whom he associates. His home is a center, and many an ideal of a foreign home comes from his. Those of us that teach students, and children especially, are forming standards of taste. The Mentors on the library table are valuable because they are attractive to look at, and the brief descriptions on the backs of the pictures are easy to understand by anyone who knows a bit of English.

I have at present a very interesting class of university men, with whom I talk once a week. We have had some delightful times using The Mentor pictures. The foreign things shown in Japan are usually crude. With such a heritage of good art of her own, Japan should know more of our best things--and The Mentor gives this to them. This is my plan for our own seven-year-old lad: I have six frames the size of The Mentor gravures, and I change the pictures as often as new ones come.

With every good wish for your continued success,

F. ELIZABETH COLEMAN.

THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION

ESTABLISHED FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A POPULAR INTEREST IN ART, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, HISTORY, NATURE, AND TRAVEL

THE MENTOR IS PUBLISHED TWICE A MONTH

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THE MENTOR

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The Mentor bound in book form makes the most interesting and valuable library that it is possible to obtain. The hundreds of full page gravures, the authoritative, interesting and condensed form in which every subject is treated make it a work that will be invaluable for all time. Tens of thousands of copies of the issues that make up this set are purchased every month by the members of The Mentor Association, which proves more than any thing we might say the value of every number that goes to make up a volume.

As a member of The Mentor Association you appreciate the value of possessing a work that has the merit of the material that makes up The Mentor Library. Each subject is complete in every detail--and you have the privilege of possessing all subsequent volumes as fast as they are issued, which in time will be a complete, authoritative, and a supremely interesting set. It is a set of volumes that you will be proud to pass on to your children and to your children's children; and the price is so low, and the terms so easy, that you surely must take advantage of it.

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