Sydney P. Noe

“ To which the young painter answers, “Art must find expression first. Let the stomach wait.” And so the shop-keeper and painter pursue their separate ways, and it often happens, in the course of time, that they come together again. The painter gains recognition, and his pictures make him famous. The shop-keeper rises to be a millionaire merchant—and becomes a patron of Art. ”

“ Under the same influences he painted “The Old Woman Cutting Her Nails,” judged one of the rarest gems of all the Rembrandt pictures owned in this country. It portrays the sympathetic feeling of the artist for old age, and is “typical of the careworn, sorrow-wrecked woman of all time.” Says a critic, “This picture is simply of a poor old woman intent on cutting her nails, with a pair of sheep-shears it seems, yet we are overcome with the power of it—no details, dull in color, homely in subject, but bathed with a light that never was on land or sea. Rembrandt’s light! ”

“ No one has said how helpful The Mentor is to a missionary. First: to keep one from forgetting what has been seen and known; second, to make friends for one of the things one ought to know; third, for the sake of one’s children, who find a great education in the twice-a-month text and pictures.
Aside from the personal value to the missionary and his children, is the value to the foreign people with whom he associates. His home is a center, and many an ideal of a foreign home comes from his. Those of us that teach students, and children especially, are forming standards of taste. ”

“ Dutch Masters
The “Little Masters of Holland” are present in strength. Metsu’s “Visit to the Nursery,” which came from the Morgan Collection, is his masterpiece. It is an intimate glimpse of home life that attracts everyone, and is painted with a mastery that strengthens its human appeal. But Metsu is far surpassed by Vermeer. Less than two score of his pictures are known; the Metropolitan Museum already owns two of them, and of these, the “Young Woman with a Water-Jug,” is of first rank. ”

“ DOES ART PAY?
“Art is a vain pursuit,” says the shop-keeper. In that conviction many an immortal painter, like Corot, has, in his youth, been packed off from home by a shop-keeping parent, and made to shift for himself. ”

“ As a member of The Mentor Association you appreciate the value of possessing a work that has the merit of the material that makes up The Mentor Library. Each subject is complete in every detail—and you have the privilege of possessing all subsequent volumes as fast as they are issued, which in time will be a complete, authoritative, and a supremely interesting set. It is a set of volumes that you will be proud to pass on to your children and to your children’s children ”

“ Enumerate carpets, upholstery, wall papers, furniture, handsome houses, the innumerable beauties of life that employ millions of people in their production, and you will realize that, but for the commercial and industrial love of beauty, a city would be a wilderness, steamers and railways would vanish, wealth would be poverty, population would starve. ”

“ I have at present a very interesting class of university men, with whom I talk once a week. We have had some delightful times using The Mentor pictures. The foreign things shown in Japan are usually crude. With such a heritage of good art of her own, Japan should know more of our best things—and The Mentor gives this to them. This is my plan for our own seven-year-old lad: I have six frames the size of The Mentor gravures, and I change the pictures as often as new ones come. ”

“ The Mentor has drawn largely on the Metropolitan Museum for illustrations, many of the well-known masterpieces there having been reproduced in one number or another. A list of Metropolitan Museum pictures already published in The Mentor will be supplied on request.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, among all the art collections in our country, undoubtedly has the best claim to first importance, and is becoming more and more a place of pilgrimage for the hosts that visit New York each year.
The Metropolitan Museum has grown so that it is no longer to be compassed in a morning visit. ”

“ After settling, and having once established a demand for their pictures, we seldom find the Dutch artists moving on to evils they knew not of in other cities. In consequence, the artist’s fame, however well-deserved, rarely spread beyond a very limited range. Vermeer’s early death and the small number of pictures finished by him prevented his work from being widely known, and contributed more than anything else to its being soon forgotten. ”

“ It is interesting to read today that the sum of money that the founders placed before them as the goal of their ambition with which to establish this great art institution was only $250,000—a sum $100,000 less than the present administration’s expenses for one year. And yet this distinguished committee, after more than a year’s effort, raised less than half of the desired sum—only $106,000. ”

“ One of the best of these portraits hangs in the Hearn Collection at the Metropolitan Museum.
Constable’s pictures are very uneven in merit, but whether successful or not, there is always evident a sturdy love for nature and a faithful effort to record her moods. He never painted anything but his beloved England, and few of her artist-lovers have surpassed him in depicting her rural beauties. ”

“ It is all very well to talk, as some cultured people do, about Art as a kind of goddess that calls into existence paintings, statues, temples, and museums, but, as William C. Prime observed some years ago, “Art is, after all, a practical work. ”

“ To our eyes these beginnings seem a bit hard and crude, but such canvases as F. E. Church’s “Heart of the Andes” and “Parthenon” are really impressive. But most of these men interest us today chiefly as the forbears of a later group. Inness, Wyant, Homer Martin and Blakelock have only a point of view in common, and yet they form a transition group that leads out of the “Hudson River School” to the landscape men of the present day. In no other gallery is the work of these four artists so well represented. ”

“ In some of the canvases the inspiration of the Barbizon men is very apparent. Inness succeeds best, perhaps, in his oft-reproduced “Autumn Oaks” or his “Delaware Valley.” Wyant’s work is very even—“An Old Clearing” is the best of his ten pictures. Blakelock’s “Pipe Dance” is fine in a very different way. Homer Martin, perhaps the most interesting figure of them all, reached his highest level in the “View on the Seine,” or as his wife named it, “The Harp of the Winds.” That picture may fairly claim to be the best-known and most loved landscape by any American artist. ”

“ Take from the people their love of color, their various tastes in cotton prints, and one factory would supply all the wants supplied by fifty. Consider for one instant what is the trade that supports your long avenues of stores crowded with purchasers, not only in holiday times, but all the year around. ”

“ Some of the modern French artists were appreciated by Americans before their genius was recognized at home. Certainly the Modern French Section is one of the strongest in the Museum. Romanticism, realism and impressionism are all to be seen in the work of their chief exponents. ”

“ The boy’s mother, on being parted from him, insisted that she have a portrait of him, and on the journey to Rome, in July, 1510, he halted at Bologna, where his father was, and visited the studio of Francia. In ten days the artist had completed the portrait with the exception of the background, which was finished later. The noble mother was much pleased with the result, and in expressing her gratification to the painter sent him thirty ducats of gold. We have in her own words the statement that “it is impossible to see a better portrait or a closer resemblance.” ”

“ Professor John C. Van Dyke, in his “History of Painting,” tells us that Francia’s “color was usually cold, his drawing a little sharp at first, as showing the goldsmith’s hand, the surfaces smooth, the detail elaborate.” Francia died in the year 1517.
The tale of the way in which the commission was received to paint the portrait shown in this gravure is interesting. Federigo was the son of Francesco Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, and Isabella d’Este, the famous art patron. ”

“ The landscape men should not be overlooked. Cuyp (koip) has three of his cattle pictures, filled with sunlight; and Hobbema, one of the rarest-met of the Dutchmen, has a view of a Dutch village. “Wheatfields,” by Jacob van Ruisdael (rize ́-dale) , shows him at the summit of his powers. It is superior to anything by him to be found in the European collections. With its low-lying horizon and broad sky, it is typical of the best in the Dutch treatment of landscape.
PORTRAIT OF A MAN. By Dirk Bouts
Next to the Dutch, the Flemish is the one best represented among the older schools. ”

“ Constable has an unusual portrait, as well as the gorgeous “Glebe Farm” in the Fletcher Collection. John Crome, in his “Hautbois Common,” shows the influence of the principles of the Dutch School. Wilson has an unusually rich “Italian Landscape.” Turner, the greatest of the English landscapists, is responsible for three pictures. The early “Saltash” is rich and luminous; the “Grand Canal, Venice,” is one of the best of his pictures of the island city, and the “Whale Ship” is in his late style. ”

“ As president of the Royal Academy, his aid was sought by almost every American with any artistic ability who could obtain passage money to London. Matthew Pratt, one of those whom West helped, here shows him criticizing the sketch of one of a group. Prominent among the men of the next generation is Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, but also a painter of no mean order, and the author of good portraits of Henry Clay and De Witt Clinton. Sully, another man of exceptional taste for his time, has ten pictures, including the sketch for his portrait of Queen Victoria. ”

“ They too come in the late period. What tremendous dignity and poise show forth from these canvases!
Gerard Dou (dow) worked under Rembrandt in the “gray” period. The small, crisp “Portrait of the Artist” shows his change of style after leaving the studio. Dou trimmed his sails to catch the wind of fashion, a thing that Rembrandt refused to do. Another pupil, Nicolaes Maes, worked with Rembrandt during the “golden” period. He gives us a brilliant piece of color, a “Young Girl Peeling Apples,” in which the glow of red warms all the panel. ”

“ Christopher,” the whole wall has been transported. It has great value for the study of fresco technic. An “Epiphany,” simple in its appeal, attributed to the School of Giotto (jot ́-to) , but possibly by Giotto himself, has great charm of color and composition.
[2] The pioneers of a nation’s art. In Italy, Giotto and Duccio are the two great primitives.
One of the most important possessions of the Museum is Raphael’s “Madonna of St. Anthony,” the gift of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. It was painted before the artist had fully developed, and lacks the spirit and brilliancy of his later productions. ”

“ The Mentors on the library table are valuable because they are attractive to look at, and the brief descriptions on the backs of the pictures are easy to understand by anyone who knows a bit of English. ”

“ Then there are three or four portraits, surrounded by atmosphere, and brilliant in lighting. Lastly there are a few canvases very different from any of these others, painted with a broad brush on a larger scale and with great fluency. This seems to be the style towards which Vermeer was changing when he died. Five of this artist’s pictures were shown at the Hudson-Fulton Exhibition. The one in the Altman Collection has suffered seriously through cleaning and restoration, and is not so fine as the subject of this gravure. ”

“ The sets that have just come in are especially well-bound; so strong, in fact, that they will last for years. The leather is an extra fine skin, the clear cut lettering and the cover decorations are in gold—making a set that will prove a handsome addition to any library. ”

“ Gainsborough, Sir Joshua’s most successful rival, shows his ability in the portrait of “Miss Sparrow” and, in another field, in the “Landscape” in the Hearn Gallery. He used to paint these landscapes as relaxation from the portrait pieces. Romney and Opie (o ́-pee) have attractively pictured Lady Hamilton for us. One of the best pictures that ever came from Lawrence’s brush is his portrait of the Reverend William Pennicott.
MARIE MARGUERITE LAMBERT DE THORIGNY. By Largillière
PORTRAIT OF A LADY. By François Boucher
There are some good canvases by the landscape men. ”

“ Last, but far from being least, is the group by Puvis de Chavannes (poo ́-vee de sha-van ́) to show the power of that great mural painter.
FORENOON, ADIRONDACKS. By Alexander H. Wyant
American Artists
Naturally, American artists are well represented in the Metropolitan Museum. Nine pictures stand sponsor for Gilbert Stuart’s skill, and several are surprisingly fine. Such work as John Singleton Copley’s “Mrs. Bowers” and Stuart’s “Mrs. Anthony” do not suffer from comparison with the productions of the English School of their time. ”