A magnificent example of imaginative landscape painting, worthy of Claude Lorrain at his best. Now in Gallery of Academy of Design, New York. A mural-landscape, about twenty feet long. One of the most poetic and sublime works, of its kind, in the world. The most perfect rendition of sunshine, so far achieved in oil painting, in the history of art. A marvellous picture and an honor to American art. London Exposition of 1851 did start a stream of tendency towards commercial "Novelty-art," such as the world never saw before, and landed France in the morass of modernism in art, still, France is seeing the light, and a reaction-back towards great art-is beginning. It is her business men who rule America. And, even though the ship of state must ride on, on the stream of tendency which carries it, it is up to the business men, who hold the helm, to direct the ship either towards the petty or the sublime. It is they who really dominate our churches and colleges and press, which are our only avenues for the dissemination of thought, the shaping of taste, and the directing of feeling, because they control the economic power, which, in this age, is the basis of everything. Therefore, will our business men lift up their eyes, and measure up to the potentialities of the hour and of the epoch, and decide that America will not follow, but will lead in art, and do this before a rejuvenated Russia, or a united and newly inspired United States of South America, takes the lead: possibilities the wise see looming up in the offing of Time? Should our business men, through the perusal of this book, perhaps, become somewhat amazed at the condition in one half of the world of art, its moral collapse and intellectual waywardness, they should not too severely condemn the artists. It is they themselves who are to blame. For it is they, not the artists, who dominate. And the state of morals, high or low, in any given epoch, nation, or community, depends entirely and always on the economic pressure exerted by those who rule: emperors, priests, or business men. Therefore, by all means, Mr. Business man, support at home the American-born artist; buy his works; sustain him; encourage him by buying direct from him such works as appeal to your own soul, uninfluenced by any living critic or dealer in art. For while you may be ignorant of the latest "fad" in technique, your instincts as to what is truly beautiful are more sound than those of the majority of artists and critics, who are more or less warped by the fadists of Europe. Thus the art works that will be encouraged by you and created in America will reflect exactly the taste, the real, inner character, and the normal state of feeling of our own |