People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 February 1893 — ART AT THE FAIR. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ART AT THE FAIR.

Preparations for a Grand Display of Famous Picturea Lady Butler'* Masterpiece, "The Last Roll Call," Loaned by Queen Victoria from Her Private CoUection—The Largest Art Gallery In the World. (Special Chicago Correspondence.! To many even of the most enthusiastic promoters of the world’s fair it is a constant source of surprise to see how the enterprise is growing far beyond the original plans. The recognition accorded to it by persons of weight abroad is especially gratifying to them. This applies more, perhaps, than anywhere else, to the department of fine arts. It was admitted quite generally in the early stages of the undertaking that while in the industrial and commercial lines the World’s Columbian exposition would probably surpass all that had gone before, it would, of necessity, lag hehind others, and particularly behind the great Paris exposition of ISB9, in the fine arts exhibit. The argument was that the United States is a young country which is occupied with building up its material prosperity and has not yet had time to devote much of its energies to those things which go to embellish life and make it enjoyable in the higher sense. That it would reach this stage later on and was, in fact, entering on it even in our day was, of course, understood. But, for the time being, there was no dispute that the stage had not been reached when it could compete with the old world in the matter of an art exhibit, and that our exposition would suffer by comparison with the one of 1889 which was held in the capital of that country which stands to-day, without question, at the head as the world of art. It is all the more gratifying, in view of these circumstances, to see that the fine arts exhibit promises to be among the best of the entire exposition. In the first place, there has been built the

largest art gallery in the world. It was built substantially, the artists who contemplated exhibiting insisting upon having a building where the works of their lives might be reasonably safe from fire. i The art building lies in the northern part of the world’s fair grounds, within ; that part which was the improved portion before the exposition company ' took charge of the grounds. It graces : the north bank of a pretty lake which Is surrounded by the buildings of the various states of the union and foreign governments. | It is a building of severe simplicity, ! almost plainness, in pure classical ! style, as far as this was compatible with the practical purposes which the j building had to serve. The interior is ! arranged with a view of having as much wall space as possible for hangI ing pictures and as much floor space as 1 can be had for statuary. The applications for space have been extraordinary. It goes without saying j that all applications could not be acted ! upon favorably. There must be disj cretiou used in admitting exhibits in j this department more than anywhere | else. A jury is now at work making I the selections for the exhibit. A great i many artists will naturally be disap- ; pointed, but this is inevitable. Great * secrecy is observed with regard to the ! applications. The names of the appli- | cants for space are not given to the ! public, as it is considered that it would | be an injustice to those whose work ! might not be admitted. The names of | the successful ones only will be made ! public.

Among the pictures that will come here from abroad are many of renown in the artistic world. Wealthy connoisseurs and ruling monarchs have been prevailed upon to allow the treasures of their private galleries and public museums to be brought here for exhibition. Works of art that have not been moved from their present places for many years, almost centuries, will he shipped to this city and exhibited to the visitors at the fair. In this way the collection bids fair to rival even the magnificent exhibit at Paris in 1889. The fortunate position of the United States in being at peace with the whole world, having no enemies to fear and no diplomatic complications with any iiation, proves of great benefit in this connection. There has been quite a little talk in this city of late concerning a certain picture which Queen Victoria will loan to the exposition from her private galleries. It is the work of one of the most popular artists of England, Lady Butler, formerly Miss Elizabeth Thompson. Her work is popular in England more than anywhere else, for the very natural reason that her subjects are largely patriotic, as the ones entitled “Balaklava,” “Listed for the Connaught Rangers,” “Quatre-Bras,” “Scots Grays Advancing,” etc., ail being military in character, and several picturing the glorious scenes, from the Englishman’s point of view, of the Crimean war. But her popularity depends not on this fact alone. On the contrai-y, her work has been pronounced excellent by some of the best critics and is recognized in the art world as being of a ▼ery high order. . John Ruskin spoke of it as “Amazon work.” The London

Art Journal said of the picture which will be on exhibition in Chicago: “There is no painter who can treat a subject demanding expressional force in a more temperate and reserved spirit and who can seine accurately upon sadden phases of individual character and combine the various motives of a varied group in such a way aa to secure the effect of harmonious composition. In this line of soldiers worn out with conflict, some wounded, others fallen with their dying faces cleaving the snow, there is the terrible quietude and passionless severity of absolute fact. The supreme merit of the work, in an artistic sense, lies in this very quality of perfect self-con-trol that refuses to emphasize the misery that has already occurred any further and is content with the re-

served expression proper to reality. We can readily conceive of the many inferior ways in which the same theme might have been handled. Each wound might have been turned into an occasion for the display of sentiment, and the canvas might have been filled with a number of pathetic incidents that are ‘pretty,’ perhaps, but without the force of truth. It is the modesty and seriousness of Miss Thompson’s work that entitle it to be ranked as a genuine expression of art as well as a popular picture.” The picture here referred to and which is the one that will be exhibited in Chicago is called “The Roll Call.” It represents a regiment of the grenadier guards, after a battle in the Crimea, being inspected by the colonel, who rides past in front of the ranks. The words quoted from the Art Journal contain not only a criticism but also a description of the scene to which but little can be added. The picture

tells the story of that murderous war. i The fight with all its suffering and its | glory seems condensed in this scene I where they count, not the dead, but ! the living. One cannot help thinking ! of the barbarous Russian warfare of ! that period with its chain balls and, on J the other hand, of the charge of the light brigade at Balaklava, which has j been immortalized in poetry and which j forms the subject of another painting ! by the same artist, with all its high i courage and patriotism. The artist, Miss Thompson, now j Lady Butler, was born in 1844, and as a child evinced decided taste in draw- j ing soldiers and horses. She began to exhibit her work in 1873, when she sent to the Royal Academy a picture called “Missing,” winch attracted a great ; deal of attention. The “Roll Call,” : her most famous work, was first ex- : hibited in 1874, and was purchased by ; the queen. The picture gained a popu- j larity for itself and its author that was almost without precedent in Eng- \ land. The following year she exhibited 1 the picture of “The Twenty-eighth ; Regiment at , Quartre-Bras,” and again j a year later came “Balaklava.” Another picture, “The Return from Inkerman,” was bought by the Fine Arts ' society for £3,000. These facts are sufficient to indicate the standing of the painter and the importance of the picture which the queen has consented to loan to our exposition. It is safe to say that it will be a highly interesting attraction. Battle scenes and soldier life are always attractive to a majority of people, and it will be refreshing to see some work in this line that is truthful without the horror and ghastliness which some modern artists have carried into similar work, coming dangerously near the proper boundary lines of art. H. E. O. Heinemann.

ART PALACE.

LADY BUTLER’S PICTURE.