Harbinger (NY Harbinger)
Harbinger NY AP Allen
May 29 1847 Annual mtg of Am Union of Associationists, Greeley chair, EN Kellogg secty, delegates CA Dana, Parke Godwin, F Grain, E Hicks. Cinti letter signed by Lewis Clason and UP James.
Jun 14 1845 pub what they said was the first Engl translation of masterpiece Consuelo of Geo Sand
Aug 23 1845 For the Harbinger, On the Ideal in Art: Read at a mtg of the Art Re-union, NY, CPC (Cranch?). Art is not skilful imitation of nature, most perfect when it keeps the just medium betw literal imitation of outward Nature and ideal conception which haunts the Imagination
Cranch writes other things
Oct 9 1847 has reprint of Dewey on Grk Slave
Nov 6 1847 Art Review: Page’s pic of Ruth, p5, described before it goes on public exhib, writers on him proclaim it a new work of a new school/ This ruth is life size, 7 x 9, Oriental char but not produced by glaring, discordant and superficial colors. Last 12 yrs Page regarded as heterodox and eccentric, language of men who strike new paths, bold search for truth
Dec 18 1847 p 53 Am AU: striking illus of Advantages of Association, appreciated by public. Gallery pics not of a hi order, but still exert certain refinement; better if more rigid and enlightened judgment over purchases of Society, only decided merit on walls. Has advantages for artists, protects them from perverted society and its selfishness where only strong arms and lusty lungs avail one in the mob, if moderate degree of merit will find a patron. Of 200 pics to be distrib, prob only 50 would have found a buyer.
But defects of Union: fosters mediocrity, places art on level of pop culture, no severe criticism. Fullpurse the leather dealer or lottery vender aims to be a connoisseur, wealth lets him be made a director, his friend Thinbrains completes fancy pics, and AU buys them. But truly cultivated judgment won’t govern Society so long as public taste and taste of artists themnselves run in present channels. Also needs a large number of pictures. For largest ones, lscapes by Durand and Cole, only $500 paid, not the $5000 they should; pics ptd for market at market prices.
Whole prevailing tendencies of Painting is corrupted by money getting so show and glitter. Hiram Powers has founded a new school bcause he is a Man of this Age,Artist must be cognate with the ideas and aspirations that are the animating soul of the age.
Lscapes in distrib are weak and worthless, as maps are singularly poor. Best is Madonna and Child by Wm Page fr NAD, most perverted must feel here is a higher order, maternal love, no sentimentality, orange complexion. Mount in happiest vein, First lesson in Music, boys practicing, true and conscientious eye for nature. Weir cardplayers in country inn, truth in conception, Peel’s Song of the Shirt, touching face. Has purchased fr our friend Thomas Hicks.
Dec 25 1847 unsigned letter to Boston Art critic of the Harbinger, praising Page’s Ruth in NY, expr of soul to soul of spectator
cites Lit World and Home J, mocks Express
Feb 19 1848 death of Cole, first among lscape ptrs,s econd only to Allston, Alleg pics not in accord with better principles of art to blend moral opinion and descriptive art, but did it so well unlike others in who it becomes spurious contrivance. Art is its own end, not a schoolteacher, but his allegories were landscapes too.
april 1 1848 Cinti Herald on model artists
July 8 1848 Boston art critic likes Grk Slave, Phila WHF does not. Sunday Dispatch doing a series on Fourierism
Sep 30 1848 HP Gray new pic, skilful and pop,Wages of War, allegorical, departs fr true purposes of pictorial art, not to tell a moral story, but re-present scenes which tell their own story, leave to poet or essayist, no right to invent a long tale to show forth his own views of this or that abstract q, tho can idealize spirit of grace or Freedom or Justice. Gray failed in his conception, but execution has merit, rich color not grayish, equilibrium or symmetry of group, action versus quiet. Art Union may buy it.
Harbinger for Sept 30 1848 says received pamphlet on Cinti Art Union by Thom W Whitley, spirited and accomplished artist of this city, earnest devotion to the cause of Art. Need sound healthful crit, growing taste for beauty opened field for quacks, public disastrously cheated in its doings with Art, even Institutions begun to further genuine interests of art fall into lamentable practices, corrupt public taste, betray cause of artists, give favoritism to some and wretched daubs scatter over country under pretense of diffusing love of Art
Sept 16 1848 Dana’s corresp engaged Thom Hicks as his companion
Oct 21 1848 love Delaroche’s Napoleon
Dec 2 1848 rec’d Goupil’s prospectus for AU, approve, will break down false and conventional barriers of national prejudice
Dec 16 1848 p54 Mrs LM Spencer’s Ptgs, 614 Broadway just above Houston st, should visit: daily journals somewhat familiar, recently arrived in NY fr Cinti, decided genius and v unus powers of artistic conception. Defects those of exec and style, want of thoro study of great pics and elab schooling, many hi order excellencies. Design lofty and pure, compos harmonious yet diversified, eye for richest coloring like Venetian or Florentines. No suspicion of a want of originality. Creates lovely faces, peculiar gift, truly angelic, if we could shed all corrupt and degrading influences and spiritual forms made visible, undistorted human nature. Defect is mottled or spotted distrib of light and shade, needs shadows in large masses, like a statue in a strong light.
Jan 27 1849 takes fr Lit World the movements of artists, Huntington, Talbot fr below falls at Paterson, Pilgrim’s Progress, E White on Luther andBunyan, May port of Glass, Church, Rossiter