USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II > Part 75
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AFTER 1850 -- The second half of the nineteenth century witnessed the rise of a new group of artists, contemporaries, five of whom began painting in 1855. Of these, John Nelson Arnold, 1834-1909, continued the traditional school of portraiture. As an apprentice he learned hand skill as an engraver of jewelry, but chose pictorial art as his avocation, and made it his vocation. His most familiar portraits are those of Governors Henry B. Anthony and Henry Lippitt in the State House; of Mayors Doyle, Clarke and Potter in the Providence City Hall; of Presi- dent Sears, Judge Pitman, General Varnum and Dr. Woods in Sayles Hall at Brown Uni- versity. Others of his portraits are in the Providence Public Library and at the Rhode Island
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Historical Society. He published "Art and Artists in Rhode Island," in 1905 .* "Arnold was an expert restorer of old paintings, whose skill in this line was much sought after," wrote an admirer, himself an able art critic. "He was an authority in Rhode Island art history, a fine interpreter of Shakespeare, and a thoroughly informed man of a philosophical and kindly turn of mind." Arnold acknowledged indebtedness for technique and inspiration to Thomas H. Rob- inson, 1834-1888, who passed on to a group of his contemporaries, including Arnold, the knowl- edge acquired during a short course at a New York school of art. Robinson is best remembered for his paintings of dogs and horses. His "Oxen Ploughing" hangs in the Boston Museum of Art. Marcus Waterman, 1834-1914, another of the group, is represented in the choice collection of Rhode Island paintings at Rhode Island School of Design. His most widely known pictures are "Gulliver in Lilliput," "The Roc's Egg," and "Journey to the City of Brass." His other paintings include American forest scenes and Arabian subjects. Frederick S. Batcheller became a painter of still life after being trained as a marble carver. Of his works, still familiar in the originals and by lithographic reproductions, it was said: "Fruit, flowers, landscapes, marines, portraits, game figures and animals hung side by side, and while there was good work in all of these. especially in drawing, it was evident at a glance that his strongest point was still life. The surface texture of his melons, peaches, strawberries, and other fruit, was perfect, the color rich, but with all the tone and repose of nature." The fifth of the group, James M. Lewin, was a popular painter of landscapes, choosing to portray beautiful scenes in Rhode Island.
George William Whitaker, 1840-1916, in his day "dean of Rhode Island artists," was trained as an engraver, and in New York met George Inness, who encouraged him to develop his art and talent. Whitaker studied abroad at Fontainebleu and Barbizon in France, and set- tled in Rhode Island. He was a prolific painter of "glowing sunsets, tender twilights, poetic moonlights, misty mornings, sunny pastures, gray days and mysterious forest depths," the tone of his art exemplifying his favorite maxim, "all art is emotional and proceeds from the heart rather than the brain." The Moses Brown School collection includes Whitaker's "Niagara Falls" and "Mount Chocorua," which dominates so much of the landscape of southern New Hampshire. Other pictures by Whitaker are in the Rhode Island School of Design, the Provi- dence Art Club, and in private collections. Edward M. Bannister, 1828-1901, won a prize medal for his "Under the Oaks," which was exhibited at the Centennial Exposition in 1876. "The delicate, pearly clouds, 'shepherded by the slow, unwilling wind,' the purple distances, the sedgy pool and lichen-covered rocks of the rugged pastures never had a more loving, humble or reverent interpreter than he" in dozens of remarkable canvases. The School of Design displays several Bannisters. Edward C. Leavitt, 1842-1904, painted fruit, flowers, game and bronzes, which were sold to a widely scattered clientele. Several of the Leavitt still life studies are in the Narragansett Hotel collection. Charles Walter Stetson, born at Tiverton, 1858, died in Rome, 19II, was a protege of Whitaker, and became world famous for his art in color effects. He spent the later years of his life in Italy ; at the International Exposition of 1904 an entire room was allotted to the display of paintings by Stetson.
Others of Rhode Island artists who achieved reputation abroad were George Hitchcock and Walter Francis Brown. George Hitchcock was a direct descendant of Roger Williams, born in Rhode Island in 1850, graduated from Brown University in 1872 and from Harvard Law School in 1874. After five years of law practice he chose art as his vocation, forsaking the Bar, as had Augustus Hoppin. Charles Hitchcock, father of George, had been a painter. Hitchcock spent most of his later life in Europe. He painted Dutch tulip beds, peasant types and other pictures which were popular. His pictures hang in the Dresden gallery ; Chicago Art Institute ; Imperial collection, Vienna; Mccullough collection, London; and Rhode Island School of Design. He was awarded medals by the American Art Association, 1887; honorable
*The author acknowledges indebtedness to this work, and to an informal supplement by William Alden Brown of Providence.
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mention, Paris, 1887 ; gold medal, Paris, 1889; other medals at Berlin, 1896; World's Colum- bian Exposition, 1893; Dresden, 1897; Vienna, 1898; Munich, 1901. He was a member of Franz. Josef Order, Austria; Munich Secession; Vienna Association of Arts. Hitchcock died on the Island of Marken, Holland, August 2, 1913. Walter Francis Brown, who spent his later years principally in Italy, is represented in Rhode Island by the large murals in the John Hay Library at Brown University, portraying "The Acropolis" and "The Parthenon."
Of artists of foreign birth who settled in Rhode Island, Johannes Certel, a Bavarian, painted what, with the exception of "Fruit of the Loom," is the most widely known of Rhode Island pictures through reproduction in lithograph and engraving, the "Rock of Ages." The painting shows a woman clinging to a cross in mid-ocean. The religious tone is exemplified also in Certel's well-known "Walk to Emmaus," which has been reproduced and published widely. Eimrich Rein, a landscape artist of foreign origin, painted "Squantum." Mathureu Arthur Andrieu, French, settled in Rhode Island in 1862, and painted "City of Providence" and "Nar- ragansett Bay," besides other panoramas of "Sugar Plantation," "City of Chicago," and "Penobscot River." Hugo Breul, born in Germany, and art student in Munich, with Boulanger in Paris and William M. Chase in America, painted portraits of Governors, Mayors and other prominent citizens, which hang in the State House, Providence City Hall, Rhode Island His- torical Society and Sayles Hall at Brown University. His Governors include Herbert W. Ladd, Elisha Dyer (2), Charles Dean Kimball, George H. Utter, Henry Howard and John W. Davis. The painting of Frank E. Holden, Speaker, in the House retiring room at the State House, is by Breul. Other pictures by Breul include Professor William Gammell, Judge Carpenter, and Alfred M. Williams, editor of the "Providence Journal."
LATER PAINTERS-Sidney R. Burleigh was, in 1930, "dean of Rhode Island artists." Born in Little Compton in 1853, he has achieved reputation as one of the finest water color painters in America. In his long life and devotion to art, in his relations with students and painters, he had done much to maintain fine traditions, and in his chosen field to strengthen the position of water color painting. The striking portrait of Lieutenant Governor Roswell B. Burchard in the gallery of Speakers at the State House was painted by Burleigh, neighbor of Governor Burchard at Little Compton. A contemporary of Burleigh, W. Staples Drown, deceased, is remembered for his Irish peasant cottages, English thatched cottages and gardens. Elijah Baxter, painter of marines and landscapes, with studio at Newport; George W. Hays, known for landscapes and pictures of cattle and sheep; Stacy Tolman, talented painter of portraits, figures, landscapes, and flowers ; Frank C. Mathewson, whose panels of flowers exhibit rare delicacy, and whose paintings of South County landscapes in oil and water colors are highly prized, belong to the older group of Rhode Island artists, as does H. Cyrus Farnum, versatile painter of African subjects, portraits, and landscapes in America, Holland and Bermuda. At the State House Farnum's portraits include those of Governors William Gregory, Charles Warren Lippitt, and Francis M. Dimond, the last a reproduction ; and Speakers James H. Arm- ington. Joseph P. Burlingame, Arthur W. Dennis, William C. Bliss, Ambrose Kennedy, Frank F. Davis, Frank H. Hammill, Arthur P. Sumner and Philip C. Joslin. Colonel H. Anthony Dyer, whose forebears include a line of Rhode Island Governors as well as the Hoppin family, is the most widely known Rhode Island artist of the twentieth century. His water colors por- tray the landscapes of America, Ireland, France, England, Holland, Switzerland and Italy.
The Rhode Island School of Design, founded in 1877 with one of its purposes the promo- tion of art, has achieved its mission in the group of younger artists, who sometimes are referred to as the "School of Design group." Angela O'Leary, who died in 1921, painted water colors portraying picturesque old shop fronts on South Main Street in Providence. Others of this group include Mabel M. Woodward, painter of landscapes ; F. Usher De Vall, landscapist and painter of quaint sections of old New York; Robert H. Nisbet, landscapist ; Carl J. Nordell, painter of portraits and figures; Emma Parker Nordell, whose graceful studies of child life are
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familiar ; Eliza D. Gardiner, wood block printer ; William H. Drury, marine painter ; Antonio Cirino, landscapist and painter of water front scenes; Stephen W. Macomber, painter of moon- light scenes. To this group also belongs Wilfred I. Duphiney, whose portraits of Governors Emery J. San Souci and William S. Flynn hang in the State House, and who has painted a remarkable picture of Bishop William A. Hickey. Percy A. Albee, another of the School of Design group, chose murals for his work; some of his earliest murals are in Memorial Hall at Rhode Island School of Design. With his wife, Grace Arnold Albee, he has a studio at Paris. An etching by Albee was exhibited in 1930 at the Providence Art Club. Joseph Lindon Smith, native of Pawtucket, is honorary curator of Egyptian art of the Boston Museum of Art. His mural paintings may be found in the Boston Public Library and Horticultural Hall, Philadel- phia. He is represented at Rhode Island School of Design, Smithsonian Institution, Corcoran Art Gallery, Chicago Art Institute, Boston Museum, Gardner collection, Radeke Museum, and Harvard University.
Other Rhode Island artists include Clara Maxfield Arnold, a talented painter of flowers and fruit ; Louise M. Angell; Julia Brewster, teacher of art and painter of charming Algerian scenes ; Chester L. Dodge and Ralph L. Foster, both of whom have done much to elevate applied art ; Arthur E. Sims, a talented sky painter ; R. H. Ives Gammell, whose portraits and decorative panels are gaining him wide recognition; C. Gordon Harris, a rising landscape painter ; Nellie M. Pairpoint, teacher, painter of sheep and illustrator ; Sophia L .. Pitman, teacher of art at Moses Brown School ; Stowell B. Sherman, a disciple of the Rockport group ; Dorothy Hunter Brown, a painter of very artistic children's portraits; Nancy C. Jones, who paints crisp water color and oils in the modern manner; Asa Randall, painter and teacher of art in the public schools; Gino E. Conti, a young graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design; William C. Loring, for years an instructor at Rhode Island School of Design and painter of portraits of distinguished citizens, including the late Richard B. Comstock, and Gov- ernor Aram J. Pothier ; Will Samuel Taylor, who has come recently to Rhode Island to become head of the department of art at Brown University; John Elliott of Newport, whose works include ceiling decorations in the Boston Public Library and murals in the National Museum at Washington; and, among contemporary Newport artists, Helena Sturtevant, Louisa C. Sturtevant, Mrs. Mabel Norman Cerio, Mrs. Margaret Pumpelli Smythe, Emily Burling Waite, Louise Heustis and Mrs. Ruth Payne Burgess. Other American artists who have lived and painted in Newport include John La Farge, William Morris Hunt, Benjamin Curtis Porter, Albert Steiner and William Sergeant Kendall.
ARTISTS NOT PAINTERS-In other departments of art, Arthur W. Heintzelman of Rhode Island, whose success has led him to Europe, is one of the world's most eminent living etchers. Lester Hornby of Pawtucket has achieved enviable recognition among modern etchers. News- paper illustrators include Loomis, whose work with chalk plate in the early days of portrait sketching and line cartooning achieved national reputation; Hallady, whose cartoons, some of them inspired by Rathom, have awakened sympathy by their pathos, induced politicians to despair by penetration of their wiles, or set the whole state laughing by their unctuous humor ; Laswell, who found in quaint buildings and in out-of-the-way places little changed in modern from olden times an inspiration for beautiful drawings ; Loring, who is better known as "Nehi"; Marshall, whose lettering, backgrounds and motifs did much to improve newspaper illustration ; and a great host of cartoonists and cameramen. John Hardy, Rhode Island sculptor, has designed many spirited World War memorials, his Doughboys in action being unexcelled. George O. Annable, who learned to carve marble in Providence, became an eminent sculptor and cutter of cameo portraits. Annable carved the marble busts of General Nathanael Greene and Judge Pitman, which are in the Providence Athenaeum, and that of President Francis Wayland at the Rhode Island Historical Society. Charles Hemenway, sculptor, learned his art in Rhode Island ; his best known work is a bust of Bishop Thomas M. Clark. Henri Schonhardt
EDWARD G. MALBONE 1777-1807
JAMES S. LINCOLN 1811-1888
THOMAS H. ROBINSON 1834-1888
AUGUSTUS HOPPIN 1828-1896
EDWARD M. BANNISTER 1828-1901
MRS. JOSHUA B. CHAPIN 1814-1890
JOHN N. ARNOLD 1834-1909
EDWARD C. LEAVITT 1842-1904
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CHARLES W. STETSON 1858-1911
GEORGE HITCHCOCK 1850-1913
GEORGE W. WHITAKER 1840-1916
RHODE ISLAND PAINTERS
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of Providence, sculptor, designed memorials to Colonel Henry T. Sisson at Little Compton and to Colonel Henry H. Young in City Hall Park, Providence. The Indian head, "Spirit of Wild Acre," in granite at C. J. Duval's country estate is by Schonhardt. Alfred H. Combe of Rhode Island did more than any other man in America to elevate the standard of taste in cem- etery memorials. In architecture Rhode Island has an unusual wealth of fine types of Colonial and Georgian houses, planned and built by Rhode Islanders, to which the modern architect goes for inspiration and suggestion ; there is a marked tendency to revert to these classic types in recent construction. Ecclesiastical architecture is exemplified in churches ranging from Greek temples with fine spires of Colonial days to the more recept adaptions of Gothic church and Roman basilica. The distinction which Rhode Island attained and maintains in jewelry and silversmithing rests upon the application of the art of the engraver and sculptor; hundreds have contributed to the production of the beautiful articles sold the world over as made in Rhode Island. The silver service made for the battleship Rhode Island, magnificent in design and proportion, and depicting in bas relief and engraving scenes illustrative of Rhode Island history, is exhibited in a case at the State Library in the State House; it was returned to Rhode Island when the battleship was retired.
ART RESOURCES-The art resources of Rhode Island are entirely in keeping with the tradi- tions of the commonwealth in which occurred the earliest development of the fine arts in Eng- lish North America. The state owns a valuable collection of portraits at the State House, besides other pictures in other public buildings. The portraits of Governors in the Corridor of Governors at the State House, and of Speakers in the retiring room of the House of Repre- sentatives include pictures by Arnold, Batcheller, Breul, Burleigh, Duphiney, Farnum, Lincoln, Loring and Mrs. Caroline Thurber, of familiar Rhode Island artists, besides others by Henry Mosler, Wilton Lockwood, Jared W. Flagg, Augustus Vincent Tack, R. S. Dunning, De Nevers, and Sarkis Diranian, painter of the striking portrait of Governor Norman S. Case. The unusual picture of Governor William Sprague, life size, mounted on a thoroughbred horse on the beach at Narragansett, is by N. R. Brewer. In the state reception room are the Stuart portrait of George Washington ; a life size portrait of General Nathanael Greene and a spirited picture of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, both by Gari Melchers, A fine portrait of Henry Barnard, by F. Tuttle, hangs in the office of the Commissioner of Education. Another Stuart picture of Washington hangs in the Newport County Court House. In the Providence County Court House and Supreme Court House are portraits of judges. Rhode Island Historical Soci- ety, and Newport Historical Society both have collections of portraits of distinguished citizens by celebrated artists, as well as pictures portraying historical events. Redwood Library at New- port, and Providence Public Library have collections, the first including pictures by the early group of artists who painted at Newport. Brown University has a large collection of portraits, mostly of presidents and college professors, besides prominent citizens and benefactors of the college, which are hung on the walls of Sayles Hall. The Brown pictures include the work of Rhode Island and other distinguished artists. Providence College has a collection of paintings, including many original pictures and copies of paintings by celebrated European artists, some of them old masters, a gift to the college at its opening. Moses Brown School has a number of art treasures, including an oil portrait of John Greenleaf Whittier, portraits of other distin- guished members of the Society of Friends, and paintings by Baxter, Bradford and Whitaker.
One of the finest art collections in New England is housed in the Ann Mary Brown Memorial on Brown Street in Providence, which was given in 1907 to Rhode Island by General Rush C. Hawkins as a memorial to his wife. The first main gallery in the memorial contains a collection of books printed between 1460 and 1500, consisting of first editions from the presses of the earliest European printers, with specimens of printing, bookmaking, illustration
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and binding which give the memorial unusual distinction. The collection is rated as the finest collection of first prints in America. The second gallery at the Ann Mary Brown Memorial contains modern paintings, including works by Alfred Planzeau, Hugo Ballin, Edwin Lord Weeks, Alfred Agache, Gari Melchers, S. J. Lamorna Birch and many others. The third gal- lery is devoted to paintings by old masters, including works by Andrea Del Sarto, Claudio Coello, Rubens, Angelica Kaufman, and Adrian Van Ostade. Gilbert Stuart's portrait of Ben- jamin West is in this gallery. "The Holy Family," by Rubens, is one of the first paintings by that famous artist. Other articles of artistic and historical significance are included in this unique memorial.
The largest collection of general paintings is in the galleries of Rhode Island School of Design. Here are gathered choice pictures from the works of Rhode Island, other American and European painters. Arnold, Bannister, Baxter, Breul, Mrs. Chapin, Farnum, Feke, Hitch- cock, Lincoln, Mathewson, Robinson, Stetson, Stuart, Waterman and Whitaker are among the Rhode Island artists represented. Other Americans include Alexander, Allston, Barlow, Beck- with, Bellows, Benson, Chase, Copley, Furness, R. S. and S. R. Gifford, Harding, Hart, Hawthorne, Homer, Inness, James, Kenyon, Loring, Melchers, Sargent, Selinger, Smith, Whistler, Woodbury, Wyant. The works of foreign artists include pictures of the Byzantine, Bruges, Dutch, Flemish, Florentine, Genoese, and Italian schools ; works by Cameron, Kneller, Lawrence, Philpot, Reynolds, British; Carnere, Cottet, Daumier, Diaz, Dupre, Gericault, Gig. noux, Grigson, Jacque, Lemordant, Manet, Marchke, Michel, Renoir, Salles, French ; Bloomers, Droogsloot, Goyen, Huysum, Jardin, Mierevelt, Miens, Weissenbruch, Wouwerman, Dutch; Onesi, Di Giovanni, Aretino, Basaiti, Biagio, Cignani, Di Ferrari, Di Lorenzo, Gaddi, Di Nardo, Martini, Rosa, Sarto, Italian; Coello, Collantes, Sorolla, Theotocopull, Spanish, and others. The museum of the School of Design has also unusual collections of other types of art, oriental and occidental, including pottery, statuary, bas-relief, textiles, jewelry, and other resources showing the application of art and design to decoration in every conceivable aspect. Pendleton House, at Rhode Island School of Design, affords a colonial setting for the Pendle- ton collection of colonial furniture gathered by Charles L. Pendleton.
Providence Athenaeum has several distinctive pictures, including Malbone's masterpiece, "The Hours," and Thompson's portrait of Sarah Helen Power Whitman. The lobby, parlors, corridors and restaurants of Narragansett Hotel house an unusual collection of paintings and other works of art by distinguished artists. The Rhode Island School of Design, Providence Art Club, Providence Water Color Club, and Art Association of Newport conduct exhibitions of paintings, annually and in some instances more frequently, in which are shown some of the finest treasures of old and new art.
Of sculpture, the Columbus statue by Bartholdi, replica in bronze of a silver statue cast at Gorham's for the Columbian Exposition ; the Bajnotti Fountain, in the park that faces the civic centre in Providence; the bronze reproduction on the south stairway approaching the State House of Walcutt's spirited marble statue of Oliver Hazard Perry at Cleveland; the Oliver Hazard Perry monument at Newport ; and John Hardy's doughboys in action on World War memorials are notable. Ecclesiastical art, besides the gold and silver chalices and other vessels fashioned by silversmiths and goldsmiths, include a wealth of mural and other paintings ; fine carvings in pulpit, pew, rail, column, arch, reredos and altar, in bas-relief and intaglio ; sculpture and statuary in bronze, marble, wood, onyx, and ivory ; and beautiful exemplifications of the finest art in stained-glass windows and mosaics. The statues on the altar of the Church of the Assumption in Providence were carved from solid oak by one of the principal figures in the Passion Play at Oberammergau to match the carvings on the altar itself.
RHODE ISLAND WRITERS-"In reality, Massachusetts missed a great destiny," wrote Charles Francis Adams ; "it, like the base Judean, threw a pearl away, richer than all his tribe ; for both Roger Williams and young Sir Harry Vane were once part of the commonwealth-
TOWER HALL, NARRAGANSETT PIER
GILBERT STUART BORN HERE 1755 - DIED IN BOSTON 1828
A GREAT AMERICAN ARTIST TAUGHT BY WEST AND REYNOLDS HE YEARNED TO PORTRAY OUR GREATEST CITIZEN
HIS PORTRAITS EMBODY THE WISDOM AND DIGNITY OF WASHINGTON
TABLET ON GILBERT STUART HOUSE
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they had lain, as it were, in its hand." With Roger Williams, Massachusetts discarded John Clarke, Samuel Gorton, William Harris, William Coddington, to mention only a few of those who came to Rhode Island, besides Thomas Hooker and his stalwart associates, who founded Connecticut. Each of the five Rhode Islanders named left one or more printed compositions, from which the intellectual capacity of the man might be estimated, if there were no other record in history, of action, spoken or written word, or wisdom. What might be called the beginnings of Rhode Island literature, the first books for a library written by Rhode Islanders, include : "Key Into The Language of America," "Mr. Cotton's Letter, Lately Printed. Exam- ined and Answered," "Bloody Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience Discussed in a Conference between Truth and Peace," "Christenings Make Not Christians," "Queries of Highest Consideration," "George Fox Digged Out of his Burrowes," all by Roger Williams ; "Ill Newes from New England" and a Concordance for the Bible, by John Clarke; "Simplici- ties Defence Against Sevenheaded Policy," by Samuel Gorton ; "Demonstration of True Love," by William Coddington; "Plea of the Pawtuxet Purchasers," by William Harris. All of these writings were acrimoniously controversial or religious, and are read in the twentieth century only by scholars seeking in contemporary relations light on historical events or upon questions which were burning issues in New England and Old England in the seventeenth century. Roger Williams was Rhode Island's first poet. Besides his familiar prayer in the wilderness relating his life with the Indians during the winter of 1635-36, his "Key Into the Language of America" contains occasional passages in verse, as :
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