| Show I WAS GENIAL AN IIKIXni I i I CHARACTERISTICS or AMERICAS AMERI-CAS MARTYR ARTIST Yea Mnnlf ItMl < Ine nl l1 Tni per iii anent HlmoM din tI in Lire In Ihr + lldnrl 1 i tare XiKiltwrlrlkiU of > 4 tblles ua t I HAT Thomas W I llovosden 1 the I piInter should I r hate rushed to hU desk at Norrls i town In n moment I of heroic Impulse Abv I to try mil nave a I helpless child It I I not strange to how who knew him well lie was always thoughtful for others a1 l moat totally Ignoring himself Hold an nrttat the other evening at ho Salmagundi club Hovenden was aver iinMlftth man betide being glftel I with qualities which endowed him with a very enviable fascination powerful equally with women and u Uh men There was never a traceable shade of envy or Jealousy In toll nature no illapnltlon meanly and daftly to pull to pull to piece a brother artists work assailing the most ambltloui Points of a picture ro common In our tiidloi On tho other hand ho nought the nil and counsel 1 of artists nnl t laymen cten In his great fit work himself suggesting nil manner man-ner of dcflclcnces exaggerations In compoiltlon distortions In drawing and all of this with a alneero nlr When painting iialne certainly his great ml picture and worthy of the name and fame of any artist who hal tried to PIT peluate that touching and tombre scene he would l say I think I hae male the old Servitor I too prominent Sir Galahad Is n trifle bumptious and the palace Interior perhaps too gorgeous for the Arthurian period There wero many pointer and ulplors who have since risen to International In-ternational eminence who were ten Into of the um atudlo building when I he was painting this memorable canvas tllrteen years ago nnd of course he mil plenty of advice Hut llotrnden inn trim to himself strong In his per konallty and while listening generally general-ly absorbed what alone advantage one to the final result taught Many arlltl8 the great body of them I Ia 11 < I t i THOMAS W IIOVUNDKV got angry at friendly suggestion or cultured cul-tured crlllcliin wnleb they aro often careful to Invite sometimes nailing the effort with a contemptuous air or by supercilious silence and I disdain would make Not > o with llovcnden Ho chalk marks on hit cinviscs and the critic would RO away certain that ho had Influenced the painter to his direction direc-tion Such n tendency wan a marked characteristic of Hotcndcn and of course ho rondo his visitor feel highly flattered at the reception accorded to his artistic perception Hut all of this was simply the trait of a gentle nature with no desire to obtrudo his lUIII In technique or the thoroughness with itch ho was dealing with the subject In hand Witness for Instance this W pictureKlalne The artist became be-came n complete master of Arthurian literature lie became a close student of tho Knights stilt Hound Table and at any moment he could reel of pages of Tennyson letter perfect All said moreover In no one of his Important works Is I there other than his own In dlUduallty In perfect mastery of detail de-tail and that chlrlly Is I nh > ho became tbo commanding figure ho was and will remain > It has been generally supposed In art circles that Hotendcn was largely favored by lute pecuniary nihances and mtronnie of William T Walterf of Ilaltlmoic then the richest collector col-lector In America While he did render assistance to the painter working at Iort Aven In lick tan > Hnvenden won a name for himself soon He sold his pictures to the great tallf rlea of Europe Bald another artist art-ist To show you what amnn was hoc I cotton note this incident A gentlemen gentle-men well known In the art world brought a rich buyer to Introduce him a lloiendens The Rising Sun The artist WM heedless of his own pictures but strongly recommended some llreton Interior of burr H Nlehollt but who was then alntltijt In Ilrlttany he had not yet mule his debut In New York The purchaser was convince and ordered the pictures home but afterward became one of Hovendena molt allied friends and euttomori |
