USA > New Jersey > Union County > History of Union County, New Jersey > Part 13
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fellow, James Russell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes and Phillips Brooks."
"In acknowledging the gift, President Eliot writes as follows :
J. ACKERMAN COLES,
Dear Sir,-Your letter is just received. I hasten to say that the gift of a bronze bust of Socrates, with its marble pedestal, will be very welcome to Harvard University.
I am obliged to you for saying that this valuable gift, made by yourself and your sister, is intended as a reminder of the friendly relations which existed for many years between your father and the distinguished men-officers and graduates of Harvard- whose names yon record. Your letter will be deposited in the archives of the university. Believe me, with high regard, sincerely yours,
CHARLES W. ELIOT.
From North East Harbor, Maine, under date of July 6, 1897, Presi- dent Charles W. Eliot writes to Dr. Coles : MY DEAR SIR :
I desire to report to you that the admirable bust of Socrates, which you and your sister presented to the university, has been placed iu the library of the classical department, in an advantageous position, and that it is universally regarded as a great ornament to the room. The admirable manner in which the bust is mounted adds greatly to the value of the gift. The library of the classical department is kept in Harvard Hall, in the rooms in the first story immediately on the right as you enter the first door. Whenever you come to Cambridge, I beg that you will visit this library and observe the appropriateness of this place of deposit for your excellent gift.
Very truly yours, CHARLES W. ELIOT.
J. ACKERMAN COLES, M. D.
Following is a copy of the correspondence relating to the estate's gift to Yale :
REV. TIMOTHY DWIGHT, D. D., LL. D., President of Yale University.
Dear Sir,- I have read with much interest of the safe arrival at your university of the "Curtius Library," its careful packing having been personally superintended by Frau Curtius herself, who was particular to have it reach you in its entirety. I have read of its three thousand five hundred bound volumes and many pamphlets, -one hundred and fifteen being on Greek epigraphy, forty-five on Olympia, and seventy-five on Greek lyric poetry,-all classified and arranged for convenient use, -a library, in fact, covering the whole field of Greek philology and archaeology, made especially valuable from the circumstance that, had not Professor Curtius been tutor to the Emperor Frederick, the German excavations (1875-1881) might never have been made, and Olympia be still left a buried city
To the estate of Abraham Coles, A. M., M. D., Ph. D., LL. D., my father, belongs a beautiful life-size bronze bust, a copy of the Hermes of Praxiteles, found in the Temple of Hera, within the Altis, the sacred precinct of the Olympian Zeus. Of the same size as the original, this copy, cast for, and imported by, Tiffany & Co., of New York, my sister and I will be pleased to give to Yale University, deemning it a suitable addition to the invaluable " Curtius Library."
I remember with satisfaction and pleasure the relationship, scholarly and social, that existed for many years between the faculty, instructors and graduates of Yale and my father. As for myself, a graduate of Columbia and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, some of my warmest friends are those of Yale.
Upon receipt of word that the proffered gift will be acceptable, I will send it, with its imported marble pedestal, to the university, by express, all charges prepaid. Awaiting your reply, I have the honor to be, with great respect,
Yours sincerely, J. ACKERMAN COLES.
-
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Under date of February 3d, President Dwight made answer :
Dear Sir,-In answer to your very kind letter of yesterday, I beg to express my most sincere thanks for the generous offer which it contains. On behalf of the university I accept the gift, which will be most appropriately connected with the Curtius Library, and will be most pleasantly commemorative of your honored father. The life and work of Professor Curtius were worthy of all honor on the part of all scholarly men, and it is very interesting to us at Yale University to know that his wife was pleased to have his library-in such striking manner a monument perpetuating his name-placed here in this distant land. She added to the library a gift of the portrait of her husband, and thus testified most kindly of her good will to us. The addition which you now make, and which is suggestive of Curtius' work and influence in connection with the excavations to which you refer, will be a new testimony to what he did. I am sure that Mrs. Curtius will be glad to know of your generous gift.
If you will kindly, at your convenience, send the bust to our library, as you suggest, we will be glad to give it a conspicuous place.
May I ask you to present to your sister, who unites with you in the gift, the assurances of my very high regard, and to request her to accept the expression of my thanks to you in this letter as, also, intended for herself. Very sincerely yours,
TIMOTHY DWIGHT.
On receipt of this acceptance, the bronze and its pedestal were packed and sent, under the direction of Messrs. Tiffany & Co., to the university, and Dr. Coles received the following acknowledgment :
My dear Sir,-I have the pleasure of announcing to you, that the bronze bust and its pedestal, forwarded at your request, by the Tiffany firm, have arrived, and have been placed in a conspicuous position in our university library. The bust is very beautiful, and I beg you to accept, for your sister and yourself, my sincere thanks, for myself, and on behalf of the trustees of the university, for your most interesting and valuable gift.
The portrait of Professor Curtius has been placed very near the bust, and these two memorials, in connection with the library, will be a testimony, to all who come to Yale, of scholarship and of generosity. Believe me, very truly yours,
TIMOTHY DWIGHT.
June 27, 1897, Henry W. Farnam, Esq., of New Haven, Con- necticut, writes to Dr. Coles :
Dear Sir,-As a member of our library committee, I desire to express to you my personal appreciation of your generosity in presenting to Yale the beautiful bronze copy of the Hermes, which now stands directly beneath the portrait of Professor Curtius.
I was attending the lectures of Professor Curtius, in Berlin, in 1876, when the Hermes was unearthed, and saw the first photograph that was sent out to the German directors of the excavations. I also knew Professor Curtius and his family personally. It was, therefore, especially gratifying to me that the acquisition of his library by Yale should have led you to complete the collection by sending us the Hermes.
Permit me to express my very warm thanks for your kindness and liberality, and believe me,
Yours most sincerely,
HENRY W. FARNAM. J. A. COLES, M. D., Newark, N. J.
A special despatch to the New York Tribune, from New Brunswick, New Jersey, reads : "President Austin Scott, of Rutgers College, announced to the students this morning that J. Ackerman Coles, of Newark, had presented to the college a life-size bronze bust of George Washington, in memory of the late Dr. Abraham Coles.
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The bust is a replica of the famous marble statue executed from life, by Jean Antoine Houdon, for the state of Virginia, and now standing in the state capitol at Richmond. The bust is presented in commem- oration of the support given, during the Revolution, to General Washington, by Rutgers College and the people of New Brunswick, and of the centennial meeting of the New Jersey Medical Society, held in the halls of Rutgers College, in 1866, at which time Dr. Abraham Coles was its president, and read his poem, 'The Microcosm.' The bust was cast in France, and was mounted by Tiffany.
"On motion of Dr. Jacob Cooper, and seconded by Dr. Van Dyke, the gratitude of the college was ordered expressed to Dr. Coles."
The president wrote to Dr. Coles :
My Dear Sir,-The board of trustees, at their recent meeting, requested me to convey to you the expression of their warmest thanks to yourself and your sister for your gift of the bronze bust of Washington. For the present it has been placed in the college chapel.
I am, faithfully yours, AUSTIN SCOTT.
To the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America, for its use in connection with the Theological Seminary of said church, located in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Dr. and Miss Coles have given a unique and beautiful work of sacred historic art, in memory of their grandfather, Jonathan C. Ackerman, as well as that of their father. It consists of a life-size marble group, representing Hagar and Ishmael in the wilderness of Beersheba. It is the masterpiece of Alessandro F. Cavazza, who executed the same in the purest Cararra marble, in Modena, Italy, in 1872." "Ishmael," says the New York Christian Intelligencer, "in his utter weakness, has loosened his hold upon Hagar's neck, and has fallen back apparently lifeless across her left knee. The relaxed muscles of the lad, his death-like countenance, the agonized look of his mother, and the many other minute details of finished expression, show the artist to have been in full sympathy with his subject, and to have possessed the skill and knowledge (anatomical and ecclesiastical) requisite for its accurate portrayal."
President Woodbridge was authorized to accept the gift and to assure the donors, on behalf of the board of superintendents and the faculty that the gift would be highly appreciated. Later there was received by Dr. Coles and his sister the following :
"GENERAL SYNOD, REFORMED CHURCH IN AMERICA,
"Raritan, N. J., June 11, 1897.
"I have been directed by the General Synod to forward to you a copy of the following action, taken at its recent session held at Asbury Park, New Jersey. Resolved, That the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America, hereby assures Dr. J. Ackerman Coles, and Miss Emilie S. Coles, that the gift of the statuary, representing Hagar and
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Ishmael, is fully appreciated, and that the thanks of the Synod is hereby tendered to the generous donors.
Respectfully yours, WILLIAM H. DE HART, Stated Clerk.
The Lewisburg (Pennsylvania) Chronicle refers to a recent gift, in the following language : "Bucknell (Lewisburg) University has received a very valuable gift in the shape of a life-size bust of Julius Caesar, a bronze copy of the one in the Louvre, in Paris, France. It is mounted on an Italian-marble pedestal, and has been placed on exhibition in the college library. No other copy like it is believed to be in America. It is the gift of Dr. J. A. Coles and his sister, in memory of their father, the late Abraham Coles, M. D., Ph. D., LL. D., an honorary alumnus of the university."
President John H. Harris, D. D., LL. D., wrote to Dr. J. A. Coles :
"Dear Sir: The bust of Julius Caesar, with pedestal, arrived safely, and has been put in place. The work evokes much admiration, and the feeling of gratitude to the generous givers is universal.
Please accept our hearty thanks for your kind remembrance and generous gift.
Respectfully, JOHN H. HARRIS,
A letter from Bishop John H. Vincent, chancellor of the Chautauqua University, to Dr. J. A. Coles, reads as follows :
"CHAUTAUQUA, N. Y., July 14, 1897.
"My Dear Doctor : I send to the New York Tribune this evening a copy of the enclosed telegram. The bust and its marble pedestal are beautiful, and Chautauqua does really appreciate your great kindness. "Faithfully yours, "JOHN H. VINCENT."
"In connection with a great amphitheatre concert at Chautauqua, under the direction of Dr. Palmer, a life-size bronze bust of Beethoven, presented by Dr. J. Ackerman Coles, of Scotch Plains, New Jersey, was unveiled. Just before the unveiling, President G. Stanley Hall, of Clark University, delivered a brief address on music. As the veil was lifted, the amphitheatre gave the splendid Chautauqua salute, in honor of Beethoven, and in recognition of Dr. J. Ackerman Coles and his sister. Immediately following this Mr. Wm. H. Sherwood gave a piano solo,-the Sonata Appassionata, by Beethoven. The performance was brilliant. The Chautauqua salute was also given to Professor Sherwood."
In the Hall of Marble Statuary, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, two of the most valuable works are those recently donated by Dr. J. Ackerman Coles, of Newark, who recognizes, with others, the harmony and community of interests existing between the people of the metropolis of New Jersey and the people of the metropolis of New York.
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One gift is the famous statue, known as "The Promised Land," executed in Cararra marble, by the celebrated American artist, Franklin Simmons, at Rome, Italy, in 1874. A beautiful ideal life-size female figure, gracefully robed, is designed to represent the earnest longing of the spirit for "The Promised Land," "The Better Country," "The Celestial City of Zion." Upon the plinth of the statue, which rests upon an elegantly paneled octagonal pedestal of dark Spanish marble, are inscribed four lines of the medieval Latin hymn, "Urbs Coelestis Sion," by St. Bernard, of Cluny, with its translation, by the late Dr. Abraham Coles, the hymn and the translation being well known to scholars throughout the literary world. Daniel Huntington, the second vice- president of the museum, and chairman of the committee on sculpture, in recommending its acceptance by the board of trustees, wrote :
"I am greatly pleased with the statue. It has a refined and spiritual character, as well as artistic grace and beauty."
The other gift fromn Dr. Coles, as executor of the estate of his father, the late Dr. Abrahamn Coles, is a Cararra marble copy, by P. Barzanti, of Florence, Italy, of the antique statue, "Venus de Medici." The original, it will be remembered, was found in the Villa of Hadrian, at Tivoli, in the seventeenth century, and was taken to Rome, and deposited in the Medici Palace, whence it took its naine. About the year 1680 it was carried, by order of Cosino III., to Florence. In 1796 Napoleon Bonaparte sent it, with other works of art, to France, and had it placed in the Louvre, at Paris. Here it remained until 1815, when it was returned to Italy, and is now the chief treasure in the tribune of the Uffizi gallery at Florence. It is of Parian inarble, and was executed by Cleomenes, the Athenian, the son of Apollodorus, who flourished between 200 and 150, B. C. From its exquisite proportions and perfection of contour, it has become the most celebrated standard of feinale form extant.
The copy, with its marble pedestal, given by Dr. Coles, is considered to be equal in every respect to the one in the gallery of the Duke of Devonshire, at Chatsworth, England. Soon- after its proffer to the museum, General Louis P. Di Cesnola, secretary and director, wrote to Dr. Coles as follows :
"I have the honor to inforin you that, upon the recommendation of the committee on sculpture, the trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art have accepted your gift, and have instructed their executive com- mittee to convey to you an expression of their thanks for your generosity. In doing so, I may be permitted to add that these thanks will be constantly hereafter repeated by the people, to whose enjoyment and instruction the Museum of Art is devoted, and to which your gift is a valuable contribution. With high regards, I remain,
"Very sincerely yours, "L. P. DI CESNOLA, "Secretary."
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Deerhurst, since their father's death, has continued to be occupied by Dr. Coles and his sister. "Back from the house a short distance," says the Boston Transcript, " is the deer park; farther on is the labyrinth, a fac-simile of the Maze, at Hampton Court, near London, England. The mansion itself is substantial, elegant and beautiful, and replete with articles rich and rare, gathered in journeyings through foreign lands. The library is an ideal room. It is open to the roof, the rafters coming down in graceful sweeps, with here and there odd little windows, deeper ones, reaching to the floor and opening upon balconies. On every side are books,-in massive cases, filling deep recesses ; on shelves substantially built around corners and supported by ornameuted columns, and on daintier shelves, arranged above one's head. A vast and varied collection, in all languages, carefully and
THE "HAMPTON COURT" LABYRINTH-EUTERPE
worthily bound." One very rare volume is remarkable as being the first book printed containing Arabic types, and is entitled, " Psalt- erium, Hebræum, Græcum, Arabicum, et Chaldæum, cum tribus Latinis interpretationibus. Genuae, Petrus Paulus Porrus, 1516." Folio, half green morocco. This, the first Polyglot psalter, edited by Agostino Giustiniani, is important also, as containing the first printed biography of Columbus. It is printed as a long marginal note to Psalm xix."
"The fine collection of paintings, curios and bric-a-brac, belonging to Dr. Coles," says the New York Tribune, "which has been on exhibition in the art gallery of the Coles homestead building, No. 222 Market street, Newark, for the past two weeks, for the benefit of the
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Newsboys' Building Fund, is, without exception, one of the choicest collections in Newark, if not in New Jersey."
The art critic of The Queen, says of "The Fall of Man," a very large oil painting by Bouverie Goddard, and exhibited by him at the Royal Academy, London, England, in 1877,-" Second to no picture painted since Sir Edwin Landseer's palmy days, in which animal forms and character have been represented and expressed on canvas is Mr. Goddard's truly noble 'Fall of Man.' In the distance appears the vision of the celestial warrior-guardians of the gate of that blissful garden, no longer the home of the fallen ones, from which, for the first time conscious of the fierce instincts of their nature, various animals are rushing away in amazeinent and aların."
"The picture portrays," says The Academy, the savagery of the brute nature ensuing upon the disobedience of Adam and Eve. * The difficulty of Mr. Goddard's attempt becomes all the greater, in that he does not represent any actual attack of one animal upon another, but only the moment when the attacking and ravenous impulse arises and manifests itself in gesture and demeanour."
"We have not, for a long time, met with a picture of animals by an Englishman," says The Athenaeum, "showing so much care, energy, and learning, as Mr. B. Goddard's 'The Fall of Man,' in which the life-size beasts, terrified by the portents attending 'The Fall,' rush from the neighborhood of Eden, new ferocity being manifested by their actions and expressions."
The London Times says,-"One is at first puzzled to account for the tremendous commotion among Mr. Bouverie Goddard's wild beasts, carried to its height in a powerfully designed and well painted foreground group of a lion, lioness, and cubs, till we learn, more from the title than from the extract of Milton, appended to it, that, such was the effect produced among the beasts of the forest by the 'Fall of Man.' They are supposed to sympathize with the sigus in the heavens, the eclipsed sun, the lowering sky, the muttering thunder, and sad drops ' wept at the completing of the mortal sin.'"'
Of the second painting, named "The Combat," or "A Bull Fight in the Vale," (seven feet by four feet, ) painted in 1870, and exhibited the same year in the Royal Academy, the London Times, of May 30, 1870, said,-"After Sir Edwin's animal pictures, and, perhaps, Mr. B. Riviere's 'Charity,' there is nothing in the way of animal painting here so remarkable for the way the painter has brought landscape and animals into harmonious imaginative conditions as Mr. B. Goddard's 'Combat' -a couple of bulls in deadly encounter on the margin of a river, under a stormy sunset sky, watched by an excited and eager herd of cows. Full of action, original in grouping, and forcible in light and shade, this really is a powerful picture, an excellent illustration of the wealth of subject that lies yet undrawn upon in the wide range of animal life."
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A third painting (nine feet by five feet), by Goddard, "A sale of New Forest Ponies at Lyndhurst Fair, England," is regarded by critics as equal in many respects to the "Horse Fair," by Rosa Bonheur.
The collection includes, also, works by the following artists : G. P. A. Healy, "The Arch of Titus," Rome, 1871 (canvas forty-eight inches by seventy-three inches), in which the poet Longfellow and his daughter are seen standing under the arch, while the artist F. E. Church is seated sketching, with G. P. A. Healy and J. McEntee looking over his shoulder; all excellent portraits; through the arch a magnificent view is had of the Colosseum beyond. J. F. Cropsey (four), "Lake Nemi and Village on the Appian Way, Italy " (six feet by four feet), also three other landscapes. Albert Bierstadt (five), "Mount Hood, in Oregon, at Sunset" (six feet by four feet), in merit and beauty, thought to be equal to his "Rocky Mountains ;" "Mount Hood, Oregon, with storm approaching ;" "Niagara Falls from Goat Island;" "Mount Blanc, from near Geneva, Switzerland;" " Dieppe, near the Club House, France." Daniel Huntington (two), A. T. Bricher (two), J. F. Kensett (three), F. E. Church, J. E. Freeman, "Scene in the Pyrenees, Spain" (six feet by three feet); Jones, "Niagara ;" Edward Moran (two), H. P. Smith, James M. Hart, Julian Scott, Edward Gay, Arthur Parton, J. A. Parker, J. Williamson, "Lake George;" George Inness, W. S. Hazeltine, John Constable, R. A., L. Verboeckhoven, A. Reinert, Paul Jean Clays, Jan Chilnisky, J. Carabain (two), H. De Buel, J. H. L. De Haas, Edward Portielge, J. G. Brown, N. V. Diaz de la Pena, Jean Baptiste Camille Corot, Theodore Rousseau (two), George Jeannin, Eugene Fichiel, Georges, Washington, Julian Dupre, Jules Dupre (two), Charles Jacque, G. L. Pelouse, C. F. Daubigny, Karl Daubigny, H. Delacroix (two), F. De Vere, Lazerges, V. G. Stiepevich, Jean Francis Millet, Anton Mauve, Felix Ziem, R. Eisermann, "The Trumpeter of Sackingen" (six feet seven inches, by four feet six inches); others are attributed to Rembrandt, Peter Pourbus (1510-1583), David Teniers, the younger (1610-1690) (two); Dubois, Til Borg (1625-1678), Luca Giordano (1632-1701), "Europa" (six feet by five feet), from Prince Borghese sale, Rome, a fair rival of the artist's painting in the Berlin Gallery ; Jean Steen, Gerhard Douw, Hans Memling (1440-1495), the eminent decorator of missals and church books ; Jacob Backer (1609-1651), pupil of Rembrandt, "The Antiquarian" (six feet by four feet six inches), remarkable for its realism and as illustrative of the permanency of colors used by the old masters; Ostade, Minderhout Hobbima (born at Antwerp about 1611), a small landscape of much grace and beauty; Holbein (1498-1543), portrait of his patron, Henry VIII, of England; Salvator Rosa, etc., etc.
The marble statuary includes life-size busts of Abraham Coles, by J. Q. A. Ward ;. William Harvey, by Horatio Stone; Walter Scott, by Chantrey, a copy of the one at Abbotsford; Eve and Charity, by Hiram
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Powers; a full-length statue of the Hebrew prophetess, Deborah, by Lombardi; Martin Luther; a large copy of the Warwick Vase, in Cararra marble; the Village Blacksmith, full length figure, by Shakes- peare Wood, etc., etc. Among the bronzes are life-size busts of Cicero and Virgil, the first copies in bronze of those in the Louvre, cast pur- posely for Dr. Coles at the foundry of Barbedienne, Paris, France; Washington and Franklin by Houdon; Madam Le Brun; Mendelssohn and Mozart, first copies in bronze cast by Tiffany and Company, in Paris, especially for Dr. Coles; the Dying Gaul; Othello; the Venus of Melos, half of the size of the original in the Louvre, and cast for Dr. Coles, at the foundry of Barbedienne; also works by Barye, A. Gaudez, P. J. Mene, A. Mercie, Fournier, E. Pigault, G. Bareau, etc., etc.
Dr. J. Ackerman Coles has presented to Trinity College the life-size bust of Mozart, with pedestal. Dr. Coles, in his letter tendering the bust and pedestal, wrote as follows:
NEWARK, N. J., August, 1897. REV. JOHN WILLIAMS, D. D., LL. D., Chancellor of Trinity College.
Dear Sir,-Belonging to the estate of my father, the late Abraham Coles, A. M., M. D., Ph. D., LL. D., is a very beautiful life-size bust of Mozart, the first and only one in bronze cast from the original model. It was made for and imported by Messrs. Tiffany & Company, of New York city. To Trinity, as representative of the Protestant Episcopal colleges in America, I, as executor of my father's estate, my sister, Emilie S. Coles, cordially concurring, will be pleased to give this bronze, with its imported marble pedestal, as a memorial of the affectionate regard that existed between my father and yourself while you were president, professor and chancellor of Trinity, dean of Berkeley Divinity School, chairman of the house of Bishops and Bishop of the Diocese of Connecti- cut, from which state came the founders of the city of Newark, in 1666.
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