Show I THE FAIRo I What Soma Country Boys Saw in the Art Gallery November 918S1 Editors Herald Please allow me space in your valuable paper just to tell some of my country friends what my little cousin Joe and I saw at the fair I guess most of them have already read about it but I want to tell I them in my own waybecause maybe some of them may understand it better Well of course we have some country cousins therefore we put up with them Besides that saved a hotel bill which we didnt have Wait a minute Im going to tell you now We went to the fair with fair unbasked minds paid our fare and went in Little Joe looked awful anxious and I was afraid that he would get in such an inand out place All the folks were staring star-ing at us because we were country olksbut I never blamed them much for little Joe was dressed rather queerly And now we moved down tie broad alley passing on the way show cases and a tea man talking about China and Japan I do not know whether he came from Japan or not but he seemed to know all about that place Little Joe wanted to know if the tea were raised in Utah but I told him no And now we moved on a little Here we saw long pieces of cloth blankets chairs and lounges Little Joe asked me if people sat in chairs like those I told him big folks did He said he thought they were to large for little folks Next we came to lady knitting knit-ting on a machine I thought little Joe would go wild He said darn if that dont beat anything I ever saw Aunt Maranda had one of them she would be most to tickled to live Next we came to the popcorn pop-corn man who seemed to me to be making more money than all the rets of em we bought our ball with the rest and now we moved on Joe pulled me over to see what a pretty little graveyard there was and here we saw some lovely flowers carved in marble and no v we moved onOh me you sholud have seen little lit-tle Joe now He didnt know which way to look for he hadnever seen so many fine pictures before Aunt Maranda bought a chromo once a little boy making a face out of a squash and his little sister looking on We had not been in the gallery but a minute when little Joe pulled me up to a small picture at the left of the entrance He said it was such I a fine picture that he wanted me to look at it I saw from a bit of paper stuck in one corner of the frame that it was called Leaves from my sketch book by Kirkham who is an artist who lives up north I believe be-lieve I agreed with Joe right straight for there was a bit of moonlight moon-light in it that was moonlight and Joe said it struck him as moonlight We considered it a sweet little com positionaud thought it did Mr Kirk ham much credit As we became erect our sight fell on a winter scene by the same artist This picture pic-ture pleased me at first sight It was painted in a broad style with good effect Joe said perhaps the figures did not help it any but take the picture as a whole he thought it was fine And now we moved a little to the left Here we saw some portrait in oil and same crayon Little Joe said that the people in oil looked like they had had their faces washed very clean and their hair combed very sme oth to have their pictures tak6n He said he liked the crayon ones best I thought so too but could not see how little Joe should know any thing about it We both thought the cryon portrait Bishop Hunter good in drawing and well modeled being full of character Then there was a picture of a lot of people playing some game on a lawn Joe said it was a chromo but I found out it was painted by the same man who made tho crayon picture and told Joe so then her said that the man had better let such things alone and make crayon pictures pic-tures And now we moved a little to the left In a moment Joes eye caught something that pleased him It was a small picture that hung at our feet Joe said it was a real picture pic-ture painted from nature and while we were looking it it he said seethe see-the rocks are limestone you can tell by looking at them and how beautiful that delicate ray of light comes on them I began to think little Joe was getting rather poetical poeti-cal yet I agreed with him but thought the water fall was cut up some Joe said it was an awful pretty picture and he wished he could paint like it Then I looked and saw the artists name was Rix and that he lived in California and Joes as we again became erect dropped on the large picture called Sunset which he said looked very calm and pleasant and struck him as being a jolly thing On either side was a large dog picture Joe said that the dog looked rather old and feeble I said maybe he was an old standby However we learned that they with several other very nice pictures near by especialy one called Lake Mary were painted by Mr John Tullidge Little Joe and myself thought that Mr T had better paint on as there is much poetry in him and be handles his subjects well Very realistic yet broad And now we moved a little to the left Here we saw some decorative work painted on glass nicely done And now we moved a little to the left Here we saw some decorative work painted on glass nicely done and them some very poetical little studies by a Miss Jennings Joe said that he thought they were copied but showed talentsandfione small one was quite a little gem Here in this corner we found some young students penmanshiprather rude but quite pleasing as the different dif-ferent species of birds were well defined And now we moved a little to the left Here the whole end of the gallery was painted in one piece and Joe said that it was arranged very tastefully I thought that all the parts were in keeping and the work first class Joe said it ought to have a gold medal for it was the top piece of decorative art in the gallery So it was We learned that Mr W C Morris did it Here we also found some floral painting on prepared wood Joe said it was very natural and quite sketchy At the left were some good attempts by a little boy named Barrett And now we moved a little to the left And behold a great display of photographs Joe said they were not so s Savage and thjught they were good enough for any one but did not think there were such fine girls in Salt Lake Here we happened hap-pened to stop and little Joes eye fell on a sweet little fruit picture We both thought it awful good in composition and well handled but Joe said the figures in the distance were too small I thought so too Joe heard some one say it was one of Mitchells I had often heard of him but had never seen any of his work before Here were also two landscapes by some young artist from Coalville that had some good points in them And a little to the right some crayon drawings portraiture por-traiture by John Hafen from Provo tree ed with much care and showed a natural talent in the artist eing very lifelike and well modeled but perhaps a little labored As we again became erect we saw a large picture Atala Joe said it looked like the wind was blowing and he thought Atala looked very contented con-tented and didnt seem to care whether it did or not People said it was a fine picture so I suppose it was wasNow we moved a little to the left Here Joes eyes caught something I I that pleased him it was a painting I called the Mission painted by the same artist Mr Ottinger Little Joe was much pleased with he light and shade in this picture though it a jolly thing being full of poetry treated in a broad and very effective style being rich in color and equal to anything in the gallery And here I saw a light shine over little Joes face I knew something had struck him He said See here is Atala again 1 guess it was after she was rescued from the Indians I could see by this that he was not acquainted with the great novel and how poor Atala ended her hopeless hope-less life in the great forests of America and left her sad lover alone and desolate to ramble through the woods I related some of the narrative to him and told him that this picture represented the East and the next one to it the West in AD 50 This story touched him a little and he said the faces were a good deal alike only the figures were dressed little differently and said he thought it looked like her left arm was broken which had happened in the rescue J told him I did not think the arm was broken Then he said Then I suppose people had more joints in those days than now I said if so I had never heard of it Seeing that I could not pacify little Joe on this left arm I called his attention at-tention to another of Mr Ottingers figure pictures called the Mormon Battalion which represented them as coming to a stream after a three days march without water Joe said that by the looks of them he should think that if they had been without ten minutes more every one of them would have been dead Just then two middleaged ladies came UD and nraised the picture verv much and one of them said th frt was painted by Mr Ottinger and she expected that he would get a gold medal for it The other remarked re-marked that she had heard that he got one every year And now we moved a little to the left Here was a great subject before be-fore us one that required much study It was called He shall wipe away the tears painted by Mr Armitage We were both very much struck with this picture Joe said that perhaps the Christ head was a little feminine I thought that the female face was almost perfection per-fection and could almost imagine that I saw the lips quiver while the eyes were speaking of the very tears that seemed to be burning their lids In that face the artist had thrown his soul he had not painted but created it leaving it full of feeling almost flesh and blood We thought it perhaps a little cold in color but i admired it much Then as we turned to leave our eyes fell on two fine pictures over the door which ve admired for a few minutes And then concluding to return the next day and see who obtained the awards we departed XENOPHANES |