Show I ARTISTS INSPIRED BYWAft Many Powerful New Pictures and Statues Based On > the Conflict in Cuba The general artloving public of New York or at least that artof i which passes through Broadway near Madison Madi-son square is divided as to the merit of a certain picture which hangs alone In the window of an art dealer The rntni krIs painter is Frederick Remington and it is a war picture I is one of the first fruits of the SpanishAmerican contest in the world of art The scene might have been laid in any of the north New York parks Thp background is a blue thicket of undergrowth from which leads a wide level road Along this road some staggering some falling and some lying lace downward are a body of rough riders They have been fired upon by the deadly mysterious smokeless powder which gave the Spaniards their chief advantage during Santiago the short and bloody conflict outside Santago It is not the kind of a picture that some art lovers would like to hang In their drawing rooms In some respects the horror of war which marked the great canvases of Verestchagin the Russian painter is shown In this work I exhibits a phase of war that is gruesome grue-some It is distinctly unpleasant to contemplate The rough riders are not using their weapons No smoke hides them from view They stand out clear and distinct in the wonderful tropical summer atmosphere Surprise and dread are depicted on their faces as they meet these bullets which come apparently parently from nowhere I is not the purpose of this article to criticise Mr Remingtons picture but merely to chronicle its appearance Seventyfive per cent of those who pass the window daily stop and look at it This would seem to indicate that the pictorial side of the late war appeals strongly to the public taste Indeed the war seems to have had a marked effect in stimulating stimulat-ing American artists in the production of military pictures The Spanish American war will certainly live on canvas THE ARREST OF TIE SPY At the outbreak of the war many famous artists went to Cuba Among them were Lyell Carr Remington Zog baum and Chapman but by far the most famous painter of war scenes according ac-cording to mot critics was disappointed disappoint-ed by the shortness of the conflict and was left at home He Is Gilbert Gaul a distinguished National academician He was waiting for the fighting to begin be-gin around Havana before leaving his busy studio in this city As the war ended with the Santiago campaign he missed one of the great opportunities of his life The public however will not feel this disappointment as keenly as Mr Gaul does as he has turned out since the beginning of the war a number num-ber of remarkable pictures representing represent-ing stirring scenes In the conflict One of his most Important works is entitled The Arrest of the Spy It depicts a man stripped of most of his clothing being searched by a squad of American soldiers and officers It Is instinct with life and ranks among the most meritorious meritor-ious of this great painters late canvases can-vases I expected to go to Cuba Mr Gaul explained to me but the war ended too soon I have however spent a large number of years making war studies and this conflict has given an added inspiration to my brush My spy picture Is one of my latest I shall probably paint other war pictures as I have been doing for many years past and I hope that the national feeling of patriotism now so widespread will stimulate the purchase of this kind of painting Heretofore however pictures of this class painted by American artists art-ists have not attained the appreciation which I believe they have deserved They have pleased the public but not the collectors and the dealers A man who has no collection may buy a war picture for his only painting because he likes i but you find very few in our large private collections I do not believe be-lieve that you will find a single war painting by an American artist in the Vanderbilt galleries THE WOUNDED SOLbIER Among the most hopeful of American artists as to the effect of the war upon art is Johannes Gelert the famous sculpt of the Haymarket monument in Chicago Mr Gelert who has recently recent-ly moved to this city from the west has won additional fame by his great statue of The Wounded Soldier which has already won one gold medal and recently attracted a large measure of praise at lite exhibition of the National Na-tional Academy of Design I found the sculptor the other day working upon a new war medal in 1 studio Do I think that the StmnishAmeri canwar has affected art 1 should say that it had most decidedly In my opinion opin-ion I is an inspiration such as art in this country has not had since the civil war In sculpture i will have a most beneleialinfuence in the way of equestrian eques-trian and military statues The public parks for a decade to come will be decorated dec-orated all over this country with the figures of the brave men who gave UD their lives for their nation in the veer 1S9S 1S9SWhat What feature appeals particularly tom to-m AMERICAN SOLDIER LIKE GREEK I am giving only a sculptors idea but I should say that it is the figure of the American Soldier He is a different type from the soldier1 of any other nation na-tion In the world He is something like the Greek and partakes of the Goth and the Briton yet he differs from all three To my mind he Is the ideal solder I sol-der The sculptor looked across his studio I I to a beautiful marble and continued i I had this idea In view when I carved I I my Wounded Soldier You notIce that he is almost nude This feature of the j work has caused more comment I suppose sup-pose than any other I have received nearly 200 letters asking me why he Is not clothed This is the story You see that broken gun lying on the ground at the soldiers feet That gun was broken i upon the soldiers head He was left I lpon for dead by his comrades During the period of Insensibility produced bj the I shock of his wounds he was robbed o his clothing save his shirt by a band I I of marauders When he came to his I senses he seized his shirt drew It from 1 I his form and threw I across his loins I where you see It in the statue and tore It into bandages which you see him i placing as best he can upon his arm I The strained condition of the muscles and the pose bring out possibly better than anything else could the remarkable remark-able vigor and ruggedness of the figure fig-ure BRANCONYS MAINE MONUMENT In a certain line of modeling probably prob-ably the best known sculptor now in America is Leopold Brancony a prize medalist of the Paris salon and the famous author of the bust of Pope Leo XIII Shortly after the destruction of the Maine Signor Brancony made a design for a mQnument to mark is national disaster The signor has also decided views upon the question of the art inspiring influence l of the late war upon I believe he said that the war Is destined to mark a new epoch in art in this country I have already produced I design for aMaine morfument and have another in view of a Red Cross nurse The feminine figure In this war appeals more strongly to mp perhaps than that of the soldier In no other conflict hase th re beeR so many volunteers volun-teers among Qmen of family and wealth The type of woman is unusual from a physical mental and SDritual standpoint J have tied to bring the type out in tte leading figure of the Maine monument the angel but it can be even more forcibly expressed In that I of the Red Cross nurse There are great possibilities in the symbolic lessons les-sons of the feminine side of this struggle strug-gle and artists now in America more than the artists of any other nation understand the peculiar differences between be-tween the American woman and the women of other lands The war is sure also to bring out many military statues stat-ues and innumerable fine busts and war fne medals < I certainly believe said Mr Carr tome to-me the other day that the war offers exceptional opportunities for great artwork art-work I spent four months with the soldiers in and near Santiago My picture pic-ture of the church at El Caney was the first one that I placed on exhibition but I have material for many others I am now painting a large canvas illustrating illus-trating the execution of the crew of the Virginius My El Caney picture has been criticised for Its fidelity to truth It has been said that I was making a play to the galleries but this is unjust I painted war as it isas I saw itand if I had omitted some of the grewsome details I would have been untrue to my profession VIEWS OF THE WAR IX ART If you want to find out the influence this last war Will have upon art you must come to the dealers and not to the artists said one of the largest I art men to me We know the views of the artists and the public as well while the artist can express only his I I own views For my part I believe that I the last war will have a marked influence I in-fluence upon art I think that we have painters who will find in this struggle I I 1 an Inspiration for some of the greatest I pictures that have been produced in I the past twenty years in America The public is ripe for works of this kind This is evidenced by the enormous sales of pictures of the navy of the Maine of Havana and of scenes in Cuba during dur-ing the progress of hostilities This demand has worn off to a large degree but I find that whenever we present to our customers a war picture of merit whether It represents a scene from the j civil or any foreign struggle it at i tracts instant and widespread attention I It is all a question of the men During j Dur-ing the civil war we had no very great painters Therefore there are no masterpieces mas-terpieces representing that conflict But now we have them and I believe it i will be a question of time only until I I ui rca some of our American painters produce work representing this great achievement achieve-ment of the American arms in a manner man-ner worthy of preservation for all time I Still another phase of the effect of the war upon art was described by a dealer i i who traffics largely in decorative art 1 j He said that the military Idea was permeating Ii I per-meating every branch of decorative art so much so that other goods suffered greatly Plaques representing war scenes at Santiago Siboney and El Caney were in demand picture frames I with designs of different styles of arms had met with considerable popularity I and those bits of statuary which forma form-a part of cabinet furnishings were invariably in-variably selected to suit the idea of war Some of the statuettes made after af-ter the close of the civil war which had been useless and unsaleable for years were now selling rapidly especially designs de-signs of The Wounded Soldier Letters subjects Let-ters From Home and other familiar In engravings particularly he found a complete change in taste the demand I being mainly for war subjects In this field the navy seemed to be the special I favorite every battleship and officer I having been called for BENJAMIN NORTHRUP I |