USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Cincinnati, the Queen City, 1788-1912, Volume II > Part 55
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On February 9, 1905, it was determined to inscribe on the outside of the . building the following device : . "Public Library, Walnut Hills Branch," and to erect a tablet in the interior with the words: "This Building is the Gift of Andrew Carnegie to the People of Cincinnati, 1905."
On December 8, 1904, the board received a delegation of citizens from Corry- ville, (North Cincinnati), and at the same meeting instructed Mr. E. L. Tilton, of New York, to draw plans for the North Cincinnati branch library at a cost of $35,000 exclusive of architect's fees and grading. The deed for the North Cincinnati site was also received at this meeting. On February 23, 1905, Mr. Tilton's plans were received and referred to the building committee. On March 9, the committee reported that it would readvertise for bids under revised speci- fications. The bids were considered by the board at two special meetings, April 18th and 19th, 1905. Mr. Tilton was instructed to submit his plans to the Cin- cinnati building inspector for approval. On April 20th, the contract for the con-
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struction of the North Cincinnati branch was finally awarded to L. P. Hazen & Co.
At a regular meeting held January 19th, 1905, a general warranty deed for the East End branch was received and Messrs. Hannaford & Sons were engaged to prepare plans for this branch, at a cost not to exceed $25,000.00. At the meeting held April 20, 1905, Messrs. Hannaford & Sons presented plans and specifications ; these plans were considered at a special meeting April 27th, and advertisement for bids was authorized. On May 4th, Messrs. Hannaford & Sons were instructed to prepare new plans owing to the excessive cost of the first ones. On May 25th, advertising for new bids was ordered.
On April 6th, 1905, a delegation of citizens from Cumminsville announced that a site had been secured for a branch in that suburb. The deed for the site was formally presented to the board on April 20th.
On February 19th, 1905, the board was notified of the organization of a public library board of Norwood, Ohio.
The Walnut Hills branch, the first of the Carnegie buildings, was formally opened on Saturday evening, the seventh of April.
The East End Carnegie Branch Library was formally opened March 22. During the year two more branches were opened, the East End on March 14, and the North Cincinnati on April 2.
In addition to the Carnegie branch libraries already constructed and in oper- ation, Mr. Carnegie has offered to build three others. His offer has been ac- cepted, and one of these is to be in Avondale and another in Hyde Park.
It is generally recognized that Dr. Hodges is one of the ablest librarians in the country, and indeed his standing in Europe is well known. Under his ad- ministration the public library of Cincinnati has developed in every direction. It is in every respect in fine condition. What is specially needed is a new build- ing, which should be in the same general portion of the city. Moneyed persons, of philanthropic disposition, could do no better by their city and its inhabitants present and future, than to contribute large sums to the furtherance of the public library, which is one of the greatest forces for enlightenment in this city.
CHAPTER XIX.
CULTURE OF THE CITY.
CINCINNATI A GENEROUS PATRON OF MUSIC AND THE FINE ARTS-ITS NOTED SCULPTORS, PAINTERS, POETS, ENGRAVERS AND ARCHITECTS-THE ART MUSEUM -THE SAENGERFEST-WORLD FAMOUS MAY FESTIVALS-MUSICAL SOCIETIES- SPRINGER MUSIC HALL-ROOKWOOD, ETC.
Mr. Cist wrote in 1857: "Cincinnati has been for many years extensively and favorably known as the birthplace, if not the home, of a school of artists who may be found in various parts of Europe, to say nothing of those in great numbers whose talents have found exercise in the various great cities of our own republic."
It is interesting to find a painter here so early as 1792. This was George Jacob Beck, who appeared with the scouts of the army of Wayne. He was in the Maumee campaign and the battle of Fallen Timbers. After this period of military activity he came to Cincinnati to make a home, and here abode until 1800. The noted barge of General Wilkinson bore decorations that are asserted to have been the handiwork of Beck. During his residence in this city, Beck took for his bride a daughter of M. Menessier, a prominent Frenchman who had fled from his country in 1789. Menessier had been a member of the French settlement at Gallipolis, and later came to Cincinnati.
Beck became well known for his landscape work. He made a specialty of the Ohio valley scenery. He made some mark in original poetry as well as in translations from Greek and Latin. He removed to Lexington, Kentucky, in 1800 and there died in 1812. Some of his paintings still exist, certain of them in Lexington. His widow came back to Cincinnati, and for fifteen years con- ducted a drawing school.
William West, son of a Baltimore rector, visited this region at an early period and settled in Lexington in 1788. He was not very industrious in his profession and left but few pictures.
Early in the nineteenth century, John Neagle painted for a time in Cincinnati. He was born in Boston, was of Swiss descent, and studied art in Philadelphia under Sully. He went from Cincinnati to Lexington, which appears to have had then a stronger attraction for artists than did Cincinnati, and in 1820 went back to Philadelphia. The whigs of Philadelphia sent him, in 1844, to Lexing- ton to paint a portrait of Henry Clay. Neagle's popular reputation rested on a picture called Pat Lyon the Blacksmith. This was frequently reproduced in engravings and lithographs.
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In 1817, A. H. Corwine, a portrait painter, came to Cincinnati from Ken- tucky. He was much appreciated by prominent persons here. They provided means by which to send him to study under Sully in Philadelphia. On coming again to Cincinnati he produced certain portraits that were highly commended. He visited England, returned to Philadelphia and there died.
In 1825, F. V. Peticolas followed miniature painting in this city for a time. Later he became a farmer in Clermont county.
J. O. Gorman also for a brief time was a miniature painter here, but he soon removed to Frankfort, Kentucky.
Joseph Henry Busch, born in Frankfort, Kentucky, of German parents in 1794, worked in 1826 in a room in the Academy of Fine Arts. Busch had been a student of Sully's. The Academy of Fine Arts was on Main street, between Third and Fourth streets, and had been founded by Professor Eckstein, a native of Berlin. He was the son of a noted Prussian painter of the days of Frederick the Great. Mr. Eckstein had in his rooms numerous busts and other specimens of art. Drake and Mansfield's "Cincinnati in 1826" says: "Mr. F. Eckstein, an intelligent and highly ingenious artist of this city, is about to commence the formation of an academy of fine arts, on a plan well calculated to ensure suc- cess. His skill in sculpture and taking plaster casts, his taste in painting, and his enterprising industry, will, even with a moderate amount of patronage, en- sure the permanence and respectability of the institution. Mr. Eckstein has already a number of busts and other specimens of art, which will be arranged as the nucleus of his establishment, so soon as suitable apartments can be pro- cured. A part of the plan embraces the delivery of lectures in the institution, illustrative of the departments of the arts which properly belong to an academy of this kind."
The chief work of Mr. Eckstein was in sculpture, and he made busts of several prominent citizens of Cincinnati. He had the good fortune to be the teacher of the famous Hiram Powers. Powers was born in Vermont, and came hither at an early age with his father. As a boy, he acted as an attendant in Langdon's reading room, was errand boy in a grocery store and was apprenticed to a clockmaker, Luman Watson. Powers heart was in Eckstein's studio; he gave little attention to his supposed occupation and lost his jobs one after another. He spent as much time as he could watching Eckstein in his sculpturing. Eck- stein perceived the lad's genius and took him as a pupil. Powers rapidly de- veloped under these instructions. By the assistance of Mr. Eckstein, Powers. became an employe in Letton's museum, where for seven years he had charge of the wax works. While in this position he made several wax figures, and at the same time he wrought at every opportunity in clay and marble under Eckstein's guidance.
Powers, now grown to manhood, went in 1835 to Washington, where he pro- duced busts of several celebrities. This work attracted wide attention. Nicholas Longworth, recognizing the genius of the young sculptor, opened his purse that Powers might go abroad to study and work. He went to Florence and by his work there achieved a world-wide fame.
The most beautiful specimens of Power's work now in Cincinnati are the two marble angels on the altar of the cathedral of St. Peter. A few of his other
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works are in this city. There is a story in regard to the origin of the angels in the St. Peters cathedral, which states that when Archbishop Purcell was con- templating ordering such sculptures he wrote Powers asking his fee for two angels "of the usual size." The reply of Powers was that angels varied so in size, some being large and some small, that he could not judge what was meant by the "usual size." The archbishop replied, "Take the two prettiest girls in Florence and put wings to them." The sculptor took the hint, and the beautiful product of his work is two figures of the Italian type of feminine loveliness.
In 1836 there was working in a stone cutter's shop, as a partner with George Bassett, one Jubal Klefinger. His occupation was the ornamenting of tomb- stones. The attention of E. S. Thomas, editor of the Evening Post, was called to his talent. The stone cutter suggested that Mr. Thomas sit for a bust. This was carved from the stone without use of a model. This work attracted high commendation and made it apparent that the stone cutter was actually a sculptor. He began to study and work with Mr. Eckstein, continued this for several years and then went to Italy. He changed his name, and became famous as Shobal N. Clevenger.
In 1837, Dr. Frederick Hali, after visiting this city, wrote: "This city is becoming famous as a nursery of the fine arts, or rather of artists. A gentleman took me this morning to a small shop, where we saw three full-length statues, nearly completed, carved out of hard sandstone, representing three individuals with whom my conductor was well acquainted. 'They are,' said he, 'perfect like- nesses.' The workmanship appeared to me to be of a high order-not equal to the Apollo de Belvidere, the Venus de Medicis, but not at all inferior to that displayed by the untaught Scottish sculptor Thom, in his universally admired statues of 'Tam O' Shanter,' 'Souter Johnny,' and the 'Landlord and Landlady,' a work which will render the name of their author as immortal as history. This artist, like Thom, has had no instruction, I am told, in the use of the chisel. His own native, unborrowed talent and taste led him to employ it. A few years spent in the studios of Rome or Florence would, I think, make him one of the first sculptors of our age. His name is Clevenger. We did not see him, as I had hoped to do. He was absent.
"Mr. Powers, the gentleman who attracted so much attention last winter at Washington by his skill in moulding likenesses, is from this town, though a native of Vermont. He is, you know, shortly to embark for Italy to perfect himself in his profession. . . . In Mr. Dorfeuille's Western Museum here, I observed a number of wax figures of surpassing beauty, formed by the hand of the sculptor, Mr. Powers, who was employed during two or three years at this establishment."
In 1814 a Pennsylvania German named Schafer, changed afterward to Shep- herd, came to Cincinnati and became the pioneer in wood carving here. Among other carvings, he made a wooden statue of Minerva, which stood for many years before the Western Museum. The Historical society now has the head of this statue. Shepherd entered into a partnership with a Mr. Sims, and Sims and Shepherd produced figure-heads for steamboats and other carved and gilded ornaments of such exceptional taste and genius as to rank as works of art. Drake and Mansfield's "Cincinnati in 1826" commends their work highly.
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In 1819 William Jones was also established here as a carver and gilder. In 1829 these other firms had gone out of business here and Hiram Frazer, with a competent employe John Nicholas Adam, had a monopoly of this work.
In 1823, Joseph Kyle was established here as a painter of portraits and genre pieces. Later he went to New York where he did most of his work until his death.
The City Hotel, proprietor David Kautz, at the corner of Sycamore and lower Market streets, was at first a popular gathering place for the artists of this town. From 1819 to 1824 the artists met of evenings in a large room in the second story of a boarding house on Sycamore street. Among others in this group were Nathan W. Wheeler, portrait painter; Edwin B. Smith, historical and portrait painter ; A. W. Corwine and Joseph Mason, portrait painters; and Joseph Dorfeuille. The last was director of the Western Museum and a noted archæologist.
Jean Jacques Audubon, the famous ornithologist, who for a while made this city his headquarters, used occasionally to visit the artists' resort on Sycamore street.
In 1824, the clubroom of the local artists was changed to the rooms of Herr Philibertus Ratel, a dancing master, on Third street, between Main and Walnut streets.
In 1829, these additional artists were to be found here: Portrait painters, Aaron Day, Alonzo Douglass and Christopher Harding. Thomas Dawson was a miniature painter ; Samuel Dickinson, a decorative painter; Samuel M. Lee, a landscape painter ; and Michael Lant, a historical painter. Day, Dickinson and Lant had their studios at the City Hotel.
In 1828, Frederick Franks opened the gallery of fine arts, above a drug store on the southwest corner of Main and Fifth streets. He was an artist of merit, and had studied at Dresden and Munich. He had a penchant for the horrible in art, and represented imps and devils, goblins, witches and robbers. One of his own pictures represented the infernal regions. It was he who arranged the "Chamber of Horrors," which represented the infernal regions and drew great crowds to view it.
Franks gallery became a noted training place for young artists. Some of them became famous, such as Miner K. Kellogg, James H. and William H. Beard, Daniel Steele, John Tucker, William H. Powell and Thomas Buchanan Read.
Kellogg, son of a merchant of Cincinnati, established himself in Florence, where he produced principally genre paintings. Before leaving this country he produced portraits of Van Buren, Polk, Jackson, Chief Justice Taney, General Scott and Worth, and other eminent men. He produced at Constantinople a portrait of the Grand Vizier Reschid Pasha, for which the Turk gave him a' large price and a gold cup set with diamonds.
The Beard brothers became noted portrait painters and produced also excel- lent genre work. William also became well known as an animal painter.
Harriet Martineau wrote of one of these brothers, possibly William: "We went next to the painting room of a young artist, Mr. Beard, whose works pleased me more than that of any other American artist. When I heard his
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story and saw what he had already achieved, I could not doubt that, if he lived, he would run a noble career. The chief doubt was about his health, the doubt which hangs over the destiny of almost every individual of eminent promise in America. Two years before I saw him, Beard had been painting portraits at a dollar a head in the interior of Ohio; and it was only a year since he suddenly and accidentally struck into the line in which he will probably show himself the Flamingo of the New World. It was just a year since he had begun to paint children. He had then never been out of his native state. He was born in the interior, where he began to paint without ever having seen a picture, except the daubs of intinerant artists. He married at nineteen, and came to Cincinnati, with wife, child, an empty purse, a head full of admiration of himself, and a heart full of confidence in this admiration being shared by all the inhabitants of this city. He had nothing to show, however, which could sanction his high claims, for his portraits were very bad. When he was in extreme poverty, he and his family were living, or rather starving, in one room, at whose open win- dow he put up some of his pictures to attract the notice of passers-by. A wealthy merchant, Mr. G. and a gentleman with him, stopped and made their remarks to each other, Mr. G. observing, 'The fellow has talent after all.' Beard was sitting behind his pictures, heard the remark and knew the voice. He was en- raged. Mr. G. visited him, with a desire to encourage and assist him; but the angry artist long resisted all attempts to pacify him. At his first attempt to paint a child, soon after, all his genius shone forth, to the astonishment of everyone but himself. He has proved to be one of the privileged order who grow gentle, if not modest, under appreciation; he forgave Mr. G. and painted several pictures for him. A few wealthy citizens were desirous of sending him to Italy to study. His reply to every mention of the subject is that he means to go to Italy, but that he shall work his own way there. In order to see how he liked the world, he paid a visit to Boston while I was there, intending to stay some time. From a carriage window I saw him in the street, stalking along like a chief among inferiors, his broad white collar laid over his coat, his throat bare, and his hair parted in the middle of his forehead, and waving down the sides of his face. People turned to look after him. He stayed only a fortnight, and went back to Ohio, expressing great contempt for cities."
J. R. Johnston also studied under Franks. Two of his best known historical paintings are in Cincinnati, and are "Starved Rock," and "The Mouth of Bad Axe River."
W. H. Powell, who became famous as an historical painter, began in 1833 his career in Cincinnati. Here he painted portraits and fancy and historical pieces. In the last department he became the most famous painter at that time in this country. "Salvator Rosa Among the Brigands," was his first work of this kind. "Columbus Before the Council at Salamanca," was shown at Wash- ington in 1847, and received such commendation that Powell was commissioned, over sixty competitors, by congress to paint an historical picture for the only remaining vacant panel of the rotunda of the capitol. He produced "De Soto discovering the Mississippi," a picture that is greatly admired. Among others of his noted works are "The Burial of De Soto," and the "Signing of the Con- stitution by the Pilgrims on the Mayflower." One of his finest works is in the
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rotunda of the capitol at Columbus, "The Battle of Lake Erie." Powell painted a portrait of Lamartine for the Maryland Historical Society, and two portraits of John Quincy Adams. One of these latter was given to the Cincinnati Observa- tory as an acknowledgment of what Adams had done toward the establishment of that institution.
Thomas Buchanan Read was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, in 1822. After having been apprenticed to a tailor and having run away, he learned in Philadelphia the trade of cigar-making. In 1837 he made his way to Cincinnati, where he found a home with the sculptor Shobal Clevenger. He learned the trade of a sign painter and attended school at intervals. Not succeeding in Cincinnati, he went to Dayton and obtained an engagement in a theater. Re- turning to Cincinnati in about a year he was enabled by the liberality of Nicholas Longworth to open a studio as a portrait painter. He did not remain long in Cincinnati, but wandered from town to town, painting signs when he could find no sitters, sometimes giving public entertainments, and reverting to cigar-making when other resources failed. In 1841 he removed to New York, and within a year to Boston. While there he made his first essays as a poet, publishing in the Courier several lyrics in 1843-44. He settled in Philadelphia in 1846 and visited Europe in 1850. In 1853 he went again to Europe and devoted himself to the study and practice of art in Florence and Rome until 1858. He afterward spent much time in Philadelphia and Cincinnati, but in the last years of his life made Rome his principal residence. He died while making a visit to the United States, in New York, in 1872. His paintings, most of which deal with allegorical and mythological subjects, are full of poetic and graceful fancies, but the tech- nical treatment is careless and unskillful, betraying his lack of early training. The best known are, "The Spirit of the Waterfall," "The Lost Pleiad," "The Star of Bethlehem," "Undine," "Longfellow's Children," "Cleopatra and her Barge," and "Sheridan's Ride." He painted portraits of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the ex-queen of Naples, George M. Dallas, Henry W. Longfellow and others. His group of Longfellow's daughters was popular in photographs. He turned his hand occasionally to sculpture, producing one work, a bust of Sheri- dan, that attracted much attention. He possessed a much more thorough mastery of the means of expression in the art of poetry than in painting.
While Read was wandering from town to town in the vicinity of Cincinnati, painting portraits or signs, as he could find employers, he happened into the town of Franklin, on the Big Miami. There he found a number of prominent citizens who were ready to pay for portraits of themselves or members of their families, and in that town there still hang on the walls of homes a number of specimens of this kind of the handiwork of Read. As he, in Franklin, was given employment enough to keep him for some weeks, he between times worked on a picture of another kind, a study in nude art. He worked, possibly for better light, in a half-open shed behind his boarding house. As the boys of the town had been taught that all unclad figures were indecent and not to be tolerated, certain youngsters considered themselves the keepers of the morals of the com- munity, and watching for a time when Read was conveniently distant from his workship they crept in and stabbed his partly-finished canvas, with its scantily
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attired figure, with sharp sticks. So the tradition there goes, and doubtless the painter never knew how or why his work had been spoiled.
Between 1830 and 1840, among other art workers here, was a portrait painter named Thomas Tuttle. Sydney S. Lyon was a portrait and landscape painter, who in 1836 worked in Cincinnati and later removed to Louisville. E. Hall Martin, a marine painter, left Cincinnati in 1851 for California. Augustine Rostaing, a Frenchman and a carver of cameo-likenesses and heads on shell, was about 1835 in this city, and later went back to his native land.
Frederick Berbrecht, a Prussian, was a landscape and historical painter ; he made the altar pieces which perished in the fire that destroyed Trinity Catholic church in 1852. George Henry Shaffer was among the painters of that period. Thomas Campbell, a miniature painter, worked at his art here in 1840. W. P. Brannan, a landscape and genre painter, and A. Baldwin, who produced princi- pally marine scenes, had studios in Cincinnati.
At that period, T. Witheridge lived here; he went to Dusseldorf where he produced "The Poachers," a work frequently lithographed. John Cranch was among the painters residing here at that time, but later he went to New York. John Airy was an English sculptor residing here for a time; it was he who pro- duced the Gano monument, now in the Spring Grove cemetery.
Christopher C. Brackett was among the early sculptors in Cincinnati; he later won fame in Boston. H. K. Brown, sculptor, removed to Brooklyn and there became eminent. John L. Whetstone was not only a sculptor but became a noted civil engineer. Nathan F. Baker produced some figures that appeared on Cincinnati buildings, but afterward he changed his profession.
The distinguished American artist, Eastman Johnson, worked for some time in a studio in the Bacon building, at the corner of Walnut and Sixth streets. In those early days of his career he was often out of pocket, but in spite of this fact he was unwilling to work at a price he considered unworthy of his art; he charged what was then considered a high price for a portrait, seventy-five dollars, and even when in financial straits would not lower his rates. Johnson produced portraits of Edmund Dexter, George Selves and many other prominent citizens of Cincinnati. Johnson, after his struggle for independence, was able to com- mand large sums of money for his work.
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