Elizabeth Lounsbery

“ Then we come to know the true values of things—to "find tongues in trees, books in running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything."
"Art, if we so accept it," says William Morris, "will be with us wherever we go—in the ancient city full of traditions of past time, in the newly cleared farm in America or the colonies, where no man has dwelt for traditions to gather round him; in the quiet countryside as in the busy town—no place shall be without it. ”

“ John Trumbull was a patriotic American and a leader in the artistic and public life of his day, both in England and in America. His position was much more than that of a painter. His attitude toward painting was not one of complete and whole souled devotion. "I am fully sensible," he wrote at one time, "that the profession of painting as it is generally practised is frivolous, and unworthy a man who has talents for more serious pursuits. ”

“ William J. Baer, sometime president and afterwards treasurer of the Society, contributed largely through his efforts to make the Society the factor that it has since become in the art world.
The impetus thus given to miniature painting led, unfortunately, to the production of cheap substitutes of artistic work in the form of colored photographs made to simulate miniatures. These tawdry imitations were sold broadcast to undiscriminating persons, and did much toward creating the opinion that a miniature could not be a serious work of art. ”

“ William J. Whittemore is well known as a painter in oils and in water color—one who essayed miniature painting without ever deserting the other mediums. His work is marked by a fondness for completeness of beauty and fineness of finish, whether in oil or miniature. As a master of form and an excellent painter of likenesses, Mr. Whittemore has executed a great number of portrait miniatures. His "Burgomeister," in which an old man wearing a ruff appears against a somber background, is a fine bit of characterization, strongly expressed. ”

“ It will be no respecter of persons, but be shared by gentle and simple, learned and unlearned, and be as a language that all can understand. It will not hinder any work that is necessary to the life of man at the best, but it will destroy all degrading toil, all enervating luxury, all foppish frivolity. ”

“ When he was a student he visited the great painter John Singleton Copley, and became impressed with that great painter's idea of the dignity of an artist's life. He determined to study art, and he was learning to paint when the War of the Revolution began. This event determined the character of his art life. His skill in drawing being noted by General Washington, he was set to work making plans of the enemy's works. ”

“ The installation in the Metropolitan Museum of Art of the comprehensive collection of miniatures owned by the estate of the late J. Pierpont Morgan has no doubt done much to increase this, and inspire the purchase and gifts of examples by American painters, for the Museum collection, that are now on permanent exhibition there.
Just when the art had its beginning has never been definitely determined, but its evolution from the portrait painting in illuminated manuscripts and parchments of the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries is generally accepted. ”

“ The fact that many miniatures, even by the greater artists, were not signed or dated, has made it difficult to determine the origin of some of the most beautiful examples, or to place them definitely as the work of American painters. Moreover, miniatures brought back as souvenirs by those who were able to travel abroad in those days introduced the work of foreign artists, often unsigned, among American miniatures, thus making identification more difficult. ”

“ The history of miniature painting, however, is not complex—the methods and materials being much the same throughout its development or decline. The art is largely confined to the simple portrayal of heads, with only occasional contributions of fanciful subjects. ”

“ Nothing is more broadening than travel. To see foreign lands, to study individual characters, their manners, their mode of living, means a wider appreciation of the world, a broadening of your view-point of life. ”

“ Miniature painting on ivory, or paintings "in little," as they have been called, gradually developed into a "personal" art, because of their peculiar appeal to the sentiments and affections, and for their "companionable proportions." ”

“ The results, therefore, except under the hand of a master, are apt to run to labored effects, due to the loss of freshness and directness. The expression, "It is art to hide art," may be taken to mean that an artist's results should appear comfortable, spontaneous and unrestrained. ”

“ MR. ROBERT S. CLARK, NEW YORK CITY
AMERICAN MINIATURE PAINTERS
William J. Baer THREE
ART beckons and the artist follows. Only an artist knows what the lure of art is. The field of art is full of enticements. Little incidents, apparently insignificant, have sometimes been sufficient to change an artist's career and direct him toward his most brilliant achievements. ”

“ This period, the eighteenth century, marks the introduction of miniature painting into America, where it became popular as an expression of art during and after the Revolution, as large oil portraits had been before. ”

“ In these characteristics there is no more proficient exponent than William J. Baer, although his earlier efforts in art were devoted to magazine illustrating, painting in oil and teaching drawing at the School of Applied Design for Women, Cooper Institute and Chatauqua. It may be interesting to note here how circumstances often cause the door of opportunity to open for a man, in fields quite different from those to which he dedicated himself. ”

“ In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
John Singleton Copley was another famous artist of this period. He was renowned for his large portraits in oil, which were characterized by a skilful treatment of silks and rich fabrics for both costumes and elaborate backgrounds, and yet he painted many miniatures. John Trumbull, known chiefly as a painter of stirring historical subjects of the Revolutionary era and for his portraits of Washington, also worked in miniatures, as did John Hesselius, in Annapolis. ”

“ Baer developed a perfected art.
With the showing of Mr. Baer's miniatures at the First Portrait Show in 1894, his success was definitely assured.
In 1896 he painted his first ideal miniature, "The Golden Hour," now owned by Mr. Robert S. Clark of New York City. The idea of this exquisite picture developed from an effort of Mr. Baer's to paint in profile from memory the head of an auburn-haired girl that he had seen. A well-known English girl who had posed for Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Sir Frederick Leighton, happened then to call at his studio. ”

“ Her first portrait of her mother was accepted by the Salon in Paris in 1894, and upon her return to New York she exhibited pictures annually at the National Academy. She believes that the great principles of art that obtain in oil painting should apply to miniature work as well; and she paints her miniatures in the same manner as she would paint in oils—with only the difference in treatment required by the conditions of a small sized picture. ”

“ The purpose of The Mentor Association is to give its members, in an interesting and attractive way, the information in various fields of knowledge which everybody wants to have. The information is imparted by interesting reading matter, prepared under the direction of leading authorities, and by beautiful pictures, produced by the most highly perfected modern processes. ”

“ OF ART NEW YORK CITY
Actual size: 6-3/4 inches high, 5-1/16 inches wide.
AMERICAN MINIATURE PAINTERS
Laura Coombs Hills FIVE
LAURA COOMBS HILLS is a favorite of lovers of miniature painting. She has a fine, fresh style of her own. Her spirit is buoyant, natural, and without affectation. She is a craftsman of extraordinary talent. No difficulties seem to daunt her. Her coloring is positive, and she seems undismayed in rendering any tone of dress or background or face. Her painting of flesh color, particularly, is just and true. ”

“ It was the intention of the Society to hold annual exhibitions, where the work of all American miniaturists could be passed upon by a competent jury and then be seen by the public. The first annual exhibition was held in January, 1900, at the Galleries of Messrs. Knoedler & Co., New York City. Isaac A. Josephi, prominent as a miniaturist at this time, became its first president, and is accredited with the conception of the Society. ”

“ His colors are solid, and gold is used to heighten the effect. Some of his pictures, moreover, are accompanied by Latin mottoes. Nicholas Hilliard had a son, Lawrence, whose work was similar to that of his father, but a little bolder in treatment and richer in color. Some years later came Samuel Cooper (1609-1672) , reckoned by some the greatest English miniaturist. His work was broad and dignified, and has been referred to as "life-size work in little." His portraits of the prominent men of the Puritan period are vigorous, and true to life. ”

“ William J. Baer was thirty years of age before he painted a miniature. More than that, he had never seen a miniature that interested him, and he believed that miniature painting had limitations that precluded it from serious consideration. He was an instructor of drawing at Cooper Institute, New York City, an illustrator for magazines, and a painter of portraits, and had no thought of painting miniatures when, in 1892, he finished a very successful portrait of the late Alfred Corning Clark of New York. Mr. ”

“ Although urged by Benjamin West to remain in England, where his art would win him ample appreciation and employment, Malbone preferred to return to America, and on his arrival traveled for several years—stopping in the principal cities to paint miniatures. ”