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The Mentor, No. 45, Makers of American Art




MAKERS OF AMERICAN ART

_By_ J. THOMSON WILLING

[Illustration: WEST]

[Illustration: COPLEY]

[Illustration: STUART]

THE MENTOR

    SERIAL NO. 45      DEPARTMENT OF FINE ARTS

[Illustration]

_MENTOR GRAVURES_

    LADY WENTWORTH
    By John Singleton Copley--1737-1815

    CHRIST REJECTED
    By Benjamin West--1738-1820

    GEORGE WASHINGTON
    By Charles Willson Peale--1741-1827

    ALEXANDER HAMILTON
    By John Trumbull--1756-1843

    DOLLY MADISON
    By Gilbert Stuart--1755-1828

    A SPANISH GIRL
    By Washington Allston--1779-1843


Early art in America was distinctly commercial, in that it conformed
to the law of demand and supply. In those prephotographic days records
were desired of the appearance of people who were gradually coming into
an easier mode of living than their ancestors, the hardy pioneers,
had been able to acquire. The Colonial official, the landowner, the
merchant, all wished to emulate in little the great folk of the Old
World, and have family portraits. The craftsmen to supply the demand
were few, and the quality of their art far from fine. The Colonial
period was barren of good production. It is marvelous that in this
pictorially uncultured time, without the stimulus of good examples
to be seen and of fellow strivers to instruct, such wonderfully
good workers in art should arise as Copley in Boston and West in
Pennsylvania, and a little later Malbone in Newport, who in miniature
work outclassed anyone then working. After study in Europe these men’s
work was broader and better; but yet much of their early work indicates
their caliber.


EARLY AMERICAN PORTRAITS

[Illustration: MR. and MRS. IZARD (Alice DeLancey)

By Copley, in Boston Museum of Fine Arts.]

After the proclamation of peace the people were more prosperous and
the portrait market was good. Not only family portraits were wanted,
but portraits of political heroes. The commercial artist was there to
take orders and deliver the goods. The goods he delivered were of a
very high grade of workmanship. After the individual portrayal came
the order for the historical picture, the celebration of the dramatic
moment and the great event. Further than these two classes of pictures
the earliest art did not go. The life of the day in all its human
aspects of picturesqueness was ignored. The genre picture did not come
until about the middle of the nineteenth century.

[Illustration: JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

By Copley, in Boston Museum of Fine Arts.]

In England, Benjamin West, who had gone there about his twenty-fifth
year, was painting biblical and mythological subjects, inspired by his
stay in Italy; for Italy was yet the field for art inspiration. He
received extended patronage from King George, and succeeded Reynolds
as president of the Royal Academy. “Christ Healing the Sick,” in the
Philadelphia Hospital, and the “Death on the Pale Horse,” in the
Pennsylvania Academy, are two of his best known works in America. The
latter is an immense canvas, melodramatic in character, and carrying
no direct message to modern observers. West seems to have wished to
impress by size and industry. In regard to color he always remained a
Quaker.


THE GENEROSITY OF WEST

Perhaps West’s best contribution to the art development of America
was the splendid generosity of his welcome to his young compatriots
when they came to London to study. His was the hand that gave them
greeting, his the studio and the home that were at their service, and
his the mind that directed their work. To him came Matthew Pratt of
Philadelphia, though his senior, and stayed four years, returning then
to his native place and carrying on his profession there. The Peales,
father and son, were indebted to him for their training. Dunlap and
Trumbull and Stuart all studied under his tutelage. Allston sat at
his feet as a devout disciple, becoming a veritable legatee of his
mode of thought and of his manner. This manner was evolved from a
contemplation of grand subjects, allegorical, religious, mythical,
and historical. Neither he nor West was an observer of the life of
their day; though West did a radical thing, a great service to natural
art, when he painted the Death of Wolfe with all the figures therein
clad in the regimentals they then wore, and not in classic garb, as
historic happenings had hitherto been painted. His work had little
beauty of color, little atmosphere, and no spontaneity. It has not
held its appreciation as have other more natural paintings of that
time. To Boston, in 1725, had come John Smybert, from London, a protégé
of Bishop Berkeley. He there painted many portraits until his death
in 1751; though his work had little merit. He was the forerunner of
Copley, the first able native artist.


THE DISTINCTION OF COPLEY

[Illustration: MRS. DANIEL DENISON ROGERS

By Copley.]

[Illustration: MRS. FORD

By Copley, in Hartford Athenæum.]

In his youth Copley had the slight advantage of some instruction from
his stepfather, Peter Pelham, the engraver; but early acquired a style
of his own. His technic was not very fluent; but his design was good,
his drawing remarkably true, and his characterization unusual. A
dignified formality pervaded his canvases, as befitted the sitters of
his native Boston. It is said that a Copley portrait in a New England
family is a certificate of aristocracy and social standing. He painted
textures well, though somewhat laboriously. “Large ruffles, heavy
silks, silver buckles, gold-embroidered vests, and powdered wigs are
blent in our imagination with the memory of patriot zeal and matronly
influence,” writes Tuckerman. But those adjuncts to the personality
would not be so associated with the patrician Colonials had not Copley
rendered them so well. None of the early painters so accurately gave
the spirit of their time as he. As we can glean from Lely’s portraits
of the beauties of the Carolean Court the free and easy manners that
were its atmosphere, so from Copley’s portraits we get the moral
atmosphere of that Colonial time, with the reserve and self-respect of
its men and the virtue and propriety of its women. He did not go abroad
until he was thirty-seven years old. In England he was well received,
and had many commissions. He was made an A. R. A. in 1777, and a
full academician in 1779. Shortly after this he was commissioned to
paint “The Siege of Gibraltar.” His son, Baron Lyndhurst, became lord
chancellor, and collected many of his father’s works.

[Illustration: THE AMERICAN ACADEMY

By Matthew Pratt, in the Metropolitan Museum, New York.]


THE PEALES, A FAMILY OF PAINTERS

[Illustration: BENJAMIN WEST

By Sir Thomas Lawrence, the English portrait painter.]

Charles Willson Peale’s fame is almost wholly derived from his
portraits of Washington, of which he painted fourteen from life,
extending in time from 1772 to 1795. His earliest shows Washington in
the uniform of a British Colonial colonel, and is now in the possession
of Washington and Lee University.

Washington is known to have sat forty-four times to various painters.
Based on these comparatively few sittings have been more portrayals
on canvas than have been accorded to any man in history, with the
possible exception of Napoleon. A collection of engraved portraits of
him has been made which included over four thousand plates. Rembrandt
Peale, a son of Charles Willson Peale, contributed a cumulative fame to
the name, as he also painted Washington, as well as Jefferson, Dolly
Madison, and other political and social leaders. He, as well as his
father and his uncle, James Peale, all worked at times in miniature. In
the work of father and son there was little merit, little invention,
but a creditable craftsmanship. They recorded the appearance of the
people of their day with uninspired fluency.

[Illustration: KING LEAR

By Benjamin West, in Boston Museum of Fine Arts.]


THE ART OF TRUMBULL

John Trumbull’s standing, like Peale’s, is attained largely on his
renderings of Washington. He had much opportunity for observing the
general, and this contributed much to the accuracy of his compositions,
but little to the fineness of his art. He is fortunate in having many
of his works gathered together in the Yale School of Fine Arts; for in
the aggregation they are impressive, as being a dignified and graphic
presentment of the important events of the Revolutionary period. These
canvases are not large. Indeed, much of his work was in the nature of
miniatures in oil. He made many careful studies from life of those
persons he introduced into his historical compositions. His picture of
the signing of the Declaration of Independence was painted in 1791,
when most of the signers were yet living, and from all of these he
obtained sittings. Claim has been made that he was the greatest of the
early painters in America. He was, in the sense of having made the
truest record. But in the sense of being the best according to our
latterday conception of art, as being something other than a labored
and literal rendering of a fact, he was inferior to both Copley and
Stuart.

[Illustration: C. W. PEALE

Portrait by the painter, in the Pennsylvania Academy.]


GILBERT STUART, MASTER IN PORTRAITURE

In Gilbert Stuart we had the most valuable art worker. His portraits,
while good records, had also beauty and charm. His color was fresh and
brilliant. He gave his subjects poise and personality. His pictures
were vital. He had not the faculty for design and composition to the
extent of the great Englishmen, Reynolds and Gainsborough; but he had a
technic that was not inferior. Fortunate has been the nation that has
known its heroic founders through the medium of Stuart’s picturing.
Indeed, much of our modern regard for those heroes has been engendered
by these dignified yet very human presentments. Of Philadelphia
families he was the true historian, and of Boston society he was the
splendid chronicler that outshone its own Copley. In England, after
studying with West, he ranked high for several years in that, the
greatest period of English art. He returned to America in 1792, and
after spending two years in New York went to Philadelphia to paint
Washington.

Apart from the several celebrated pictures of the first president, his
best work was done in the decade in which he resided in that city. It
has been the policy of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts to acquire
as many of these works as possible. More than a score are now in its
possession, including portraits of Presidents Monroe and Madison, and
the famous Dolly Madison canvas. Stuart painted as many as three sets
of the first five presidents, one of which was destroyed by fire in
Washington. One set is now privately owned in Boston. What is known as
the Lansdowne portrait is in the Philadelphia gallery. In design and
general impressiveness, though not in features, it is one of the most
satisfactory of all the presidential picturings. The Gibbs-Channing
portrait, now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, is the finest in
facial modeling. Stuart made many replicas of the few Washingtons he
painted from life--especially was this so of the Athenæum head. Much
controversy has arisen as to which of the many Washington portraits is
the most accurate. The fact of the absolute dimensions of any feature
is of little moment to later generations. What is of greatest moment
is the poise, the nobility, the grandeur, the serenity, the faith, the
wisdom, the Homeric mold, of the man, and these a grateful people has
come to think were intimated more fully by Stuart than by any of the
other portrayers.

[Illustration: WASHINGTON TAKING LEAVE OF HIS GENERALS

By Trumbull, in the Yale School of Fine Arts.]

[Illustration: JOHN TRUMBULL

Painted by himself.]


STUART’S PORTRAITS OF WOMEN

Stuart is quoted as saying “Houdon’s bust is the best, and after
that, my portrait.” We can well be content to accept these as the two
ideal renderings. It has been claimed that he was not very successful
in portraying female beauty. This is a contention that is hard to
controvert. He did not prettify his sitters in the way Lawrence
did; but he surely made them humanly lovely. Rebecca Smith, Anne
Bingham, Frances Cadwalader, Elizabeth Bordley, and Sallie McKean,
all reputedly handsome in the written testimony of that period, have
certainly not suffered in that repute by Stuart’s painting of them. And
Betsy Patterson, she of the wilful temperament and romantic career,
who married the brother of an emperor, lives for all time as a beauty
because of the ability of Stuart. Of this handsome woman a contemporary
writes, “Mme. Jerome Bonaparte is a model of fashion, and many of our
belles strive to imitate her; but without equal éclat, as Madame has
certainly the most beautiful back and shoulders that ever were seen,”
and again, “To her mental gifts were added the beauty of a Greek, yet
glowing, type, which not even the pencil of Stuart adequately portrayed
in the exquisite portrait that he wished might be buried with him: not
yet on his other canvas which, with its dainty head in triple pose
of loveliness, still smiles in unfading witchery.” Whether or no he
painted her as lovely as life, he produced a canvas that has great
individuality and charm.

[Illustration: ELIZABETH BEALE BORDLEY

MRS. WM. JACKSON

FRANCES CADWALADER

Women’s portraits by Stuart.]

[Illustration: THE GIBBS-CHANNING PORTRAIT OF WASHINGTON

By Stuart, in Metropolitan Museum, N. Y.]


THE CULTURE OF ALLSTON

Washington Allston had a great reputation in his day; but his product
was inconsiderable and not of a quality to justify the standing he then
had. He had greater culture and a finer intellectuality than perhaps
any other artist in the United States in its first century. His was a
sensitive nature. He lived in the spirit. For the high, the lovely,
the perfect, he strove all his days. Yet that high ideality and that
earnest striving had little effect on the art of his time. He was
honored by his literary contemporaries; but his work was not emulated
to any extent by his fellow artists. His work was an intellectual
expression. Its tradition was continued by Thomas Cole, who painted
landscape as an allegorical message.

Allston was born near Charleston, South Carolina, spent his youth at
Newport, where he became intimate with Malbone, and after graduating
from Harvard went abroad to study. The Italians attracted him; but
he found his way to London, where he associated with Coleridge and
other literary celebrities. He was made an A. R. A.; but returned soon
thereafter to Boston, working there from 1818 to his death in 1843. He
laid much stress on his technical processes in painting. His pictures
had none of the spontaneous quality of his sketches and studies. His
was an art totally at variance with the mode of the present day.
We feel in Copley’s canvases a very modern quality, and in most of
Stuart’s, but not in Allston’s.

[Illustration: ELIZABETH PATTERSON, MME. JEROME BONAPARTE

By Stuart.]


VANDERLYN AND SULLY

A more modern man, though not so celebrated, was John Vanderlyn, a
native of Kingston, New York, who spent many years in Paris. He had
aspiration after beauty for its own sake. His Ariadne, owned by the
Pennsylvania Academy, was really the first important nude painted here.
Such subjects in those days caused much protest. This artist’s life
was a stern struggle against adverse conditions; though he greatly
deserved success. In the rotunda of the Capitol at Washington is his
Landing of Columbus, a work that does not well represent his ability.
His portrait work carried through the traditions of the Revolutionary
days to that period of the early half of the nineteenth century when
Thomas Sully and Henry Inman were the leaders. The latter was born in
Utica in 1801, and lived but forty-five years. His work was uneven,
but at its best, as in the Henry Pratt portrait in the Pennsylvania
Academy, is comparable to Raeburn. He painted Wordsworth, Macaulay, Dr.
Chalmers, and other men of mark in England, on commissions from their
American admirers. Though Sully was a pupil of Stuart, he entirely
lacked the master’s authority of manner. His was a timid technic,
without freshness of color or firm characterization. His life was a
long and successful one, spent chiefly in Philadelphia, and he had many
celebrities as sitters,--Queen Victoria, Fanny Kemble, and General
Jackson are among his best known canvases. Of the work of Sully the
Pennsylvania Academy has, besides several portraits of the artist
himself, a large number of his canvases. This policy of the chief
galleries of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, of acquiring works
of the several worthy artists of the older time, has become a more
difficult one to follow as the years go on, and the ancestral portrait,
the family heirloom, becomes precious beyond price.


THE BEGINNING OF AMERICAN MINIATURE PAINTING

[Illustration: WASHINGTON ALLSTON

Miniature by Malbone, Boston Museum of Fine Arts.]

[Illustration: DEAD MAN RESTORED TO LIFE BY TOUCHING BONES OF PROPHET
ELISHA

By Allston, Pennsylvania Academy.]

Treasured with even greater reverence is the old time miniature. There
was no production of this form of art in the Colonial days, but its
practice developed after the Revolution, and had its chief exponent
in Malbone, who, though living but from 1777 to 1807, is to this day
one of the very best artists of the portrait in little. Excellent
draftsmanship as well as good coloring gave his work a structural
firmness unusual even in Cosway’s productions. His best known picture
was an imaginative composition entitled “The Hours,” which is now in
the Athenæum at Providence, R. I. Through his friendship with Allston,
Malbone accompanied him to Charleston in 1800, and there painted
miniatures of prominent South Carolinians, including Mrs. Ralph Izard,
the beautiful Alice Delancey, who had been previously pictured by both
Copley and Gainsborough. Other beautiful women he painted were Rachel
and Rebecca Gratz of Philadelphia, the latter being the inspiration for
Rebecca in Sir Walter Scott’s “Ivanhoe.” Allston wrote of Malbone, “He
had the happy talent of elevating the character without impairing the
likeness. This was remarkable in his male heads, and no woman ever lost
beauty under his hand.” In Charleston at that time was Charles Fraser,
a miniaturist of much ability, whose work is now sought by collectors.
As the nineteenth century progressed the portrait gradually lost its
preëminence, and the landscape, the story telling picture subject,
and later the composition painted for its own sake became the chief
expressions of the American artist.

[Illustration: JOHN VANDERLYN

Painted by himself, Metropolitan Museum, N. Y.]

[Illustration: EDWARD G. MALBONE]


SUPPLEMENTARY READING

    ART IN AMERICA _By S. G. W. Benjamin._

    1880--Harper & Bros., New York.

    AMERICAN PAINTING _By Samuel Isham._

    The Macmillan Co.--1910.

    The most complete and modern work on the subject.

    ARTIST LIFE _By Henry T. Tuckerman._

    D. Appleton & Co.--1847.

    Not so much biographical as laudatory estimates.

    PORTRAITS OF WASHINGTON _By Elizabeth Bryant Johnston._

    A most complete work of reference.

    HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES _By Anne Hollingsworth Wharton._

    J. B. Lippincott Company.--1898.

    The standard work on the subject of American Miniature Art.

    LIFE OF BENJAMIN WEST _By John Galt._

    Published shortly after the death of the artist and long out of
    print.

    THE DOMESTIC AND ARTISTIC LIFE OF JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY, R. A.
    _By M. B. Amory._

    Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston--1882.

    The standard work on Copley. Difficult to procure.

    LIFE AND WORKS OF GILBERT STUART _By George C. Mason._

    Charles Scribner’s Sons--1879.

    An elaborate work now out of print.

    LIFE AND LETTERS OF WASHINGTON ALLSTON _By Jared B. Flagg._

    Charles Scribner’s Sons--1902.

    Interesting from a literary standpoint.

    LIFE PORTRAITS OF GEORGE WASHINGTON _By Charles Henry Hart._

    McClure’s Magazine--February, 1897.




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    SECOND-CLASS MATTER. COPYRIGHT, 1913. BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION,
    INC. PRESIDENT, THOMAS H. BECK; VICE-PRESIDENT, WALTER P. TEN EYCK;
    SECRETARY. W. D. MOFFAT; TREASURER, J. S. CAMPBELL; ASST. TREASURER
    AND ASST. SECRETARY, H. A. CROWE.


_Editorial_

We have been asked more than once how the schedule of The Mentor is
planned and how our subjects are selected. The question is a good
one, for in the answer is to be found the basic idea on which The
Mentor plan is established. If the schedules were prepared hastily
and without due thought, and if the subjects were selected solely
with consideration to the interest of the passing moment, The Mentor
plan would have no more claim upon thoughtful and intelligent people
than the most ephemeral journalistic enterprise. As a matter of fact,
however, the schedule of The Mentor is prepared for more than a year
in advance, and the plan is worked out on broad lines of general
education--and not with the thought of merely reflecting the interest
of the hour.

       *       *       *       *       *

Of course, in some matters we observe timeliness. Our article on
Abraham Lincoln will be published during the week in which Lincoln’s
birthday occurs. Professor McElroy’s article on George Washington will
appear on February 23rd. The advantage of selecting proper dates for
these articles is obvious. In general, however, we arrange the schedule
so as to give a just balance of subjects, and we endeavor to follow a
certain mental logic in distributing the subjects through the year.

       *       *       *       *       *

And now we are asked how the schedule is made up. The selection of
subjects begins with the editors. After considerable study a list is
made that is large enough to form the basis of more than a year’s
reading. This list is divided into departments, and the subjects in
each department are submitted to the member of our Editorial Board
who has that department in charge. In a number of cases changes are
made and new subjects are suggested by the members of the Advisory
Board. Not only are the subjects of the articles determined under their
supervision, but the names of the writers are often suggested by them,
and in many cases the illustrations are selected under their direction.
The association of the members of the Advisory Board with the Editors
of The Mentor is close and continuous. We give the readers of The
Mentor the direct benefits of this association.

       *       *       *       *       *

But our answer would be incomplete if it failed to include mention of a
most interesting source of suggestion--the readers of The Mentor. It is
a great pleasure to say this, for it is the best evidence in the world
of the coöperative spirit that exists in The Mentor Association. That
is the spirit we seek.

       *       *       *       *       *

We have had some of the most valuable suggestions from Mentor readers.
Only last week we received a letter from an interested reader who had
been following the historical articles in The Mentor. She wanted to
know what we had in store for a lover of history. She suggested that it
would be interesting to take up history from several special points of
view--the great historic rivers for example. The idea is good. Think
of the historic value and of the human interest in the story of the
Rhine; the story of the Nile; the story of the Danube; the story of the
Mississippi! The great rivers of the world have borne some of the most
important historic events along on their currents. We are planning a
set of articles on this subject.

       *       *       *       *       *

This is but one case in which a reader of The Mentor has helped us. We
could cite many others. And in acknowledging them we want to express
our heartfelt appreciation of the earnest interest shown by our readers
in The Mentor. Our mail brims over with it every day.




[Illustration: LADY WENTWORTH, BY JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY--LENOX LIBRARY,
N. Y.]




_MAKERS OF AMERICAN ART_

_John Singleton Copley_

ONE


The parentage of John Singleton Copley was Irish. He was born in
America. The most active years of his art career were spent in England.
About the time of his birth in Boston, July 3, 1737, his father died,
and the boy was named after his grandfather on his mother’s side, John
Singleton of Quinville Abbey, County Clare. After ten years his mother
married Peter Pelham, a painter and mezzotint engraver. From him Copley
received instruction and encouragement in art. But Pelham died when
Copley was fourteen, and the boy had then to be his own master. He was
living in Boston at a time when Boston had but 18,000 inhabitants. His
skill in painting gained him renown through-out the city. He was a
handsome, brilliant young man, dressing and living in style, and moving
in the best society. Within the limited range of New England life he
played something of the part that Van Dyck in his time played in the
larger world of Holland and England.

When Copley was thirty-two years old he married the daughter of a
wealthy merchant, Richard Clark. His father-in-law was the agent of the
East India Company, to whom later was consigned that historic cargo of
tea which was flung into Boston Harbor. Expecting trouble with England,
young Copley, who was now a thoroughly successful painter, went to Rome
for a year’s stay; but in 1775 he took up his residence in London. He
was received in a kindly and appreciative way by the great painter,
Benjamin West, and soon became popular with the art loving public.
After two years’ residence he was made an associate member of the Royal
Academy. He became a full Academician in 1779, after exhibiting his
most famous picture, the “Death of Chatham.”

Copley’s life was one of success and happiness. For him there were no
struggles, and no embittering disappointments. His wife was beautiful
and attractive, and they drew about them, in their home, a set of
interesting and distinguished people. Their house on Beacon Hill was
surrounded by eleven acres of land, which he called “Copley’s Farm,”
and in which he took great pride and satisfaction. The Revolutionary
War was naturally a matter of great concern to Copley, living as he was
among English friends; but he remained steadfastly loyal to the land
of his birth, and rejoiced at the issue of the war. As the Revolution
closed Copley was working on the portrait of Elkanah Watson, and in
December, 1782, he and Watson listened together to King George’s speech
recognizing America’s independence. In the background of the Watson
portrait Copley had introduced a ship, and when the two returned to
Copley’s house after hearing the king’s speech, the artist painted on
the ship’s mast the first American flag displayed in England.

Copley died in 1815, full of years and of honors. His son became Lord
Chancellor Lyndhurst.

    PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
    ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1. No. 45, SERIAL No. 45
    COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION




[Illustration: CHRIST REJECTED, BY BENJAMIN WEST--PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY]




_MAKERS OF AMERICAN ART_

_Benjamin West_

TWO


The career of Benjamin West has often been cited as a triumphant
demonstration of genius, which like lightning, strikes where it will
and develops in the most uncongenial surroundings. He was born in
1738 at Springfield, a little Pennsylvania settlement, and in his
childhood he knew the rigor of frontier life. He was the youngest
child of a large family. When six years old, he began to draw with
pen and ink, showing the first signs of an inclination to art. A year
afterward a party of friendly Indians, amazed at the sketches of birds
and flowers that the boy made, taught young West to prepare the red
and yellow colors with which they painted their ornaments, Mrs. West
furnished indigo; house cats furnished the fur to make brushes; and
with these primitive materials the boy West produced some paintings
that showed real worth. As a result a box of paints was sent to him
from Philadelphia by a relative. His delight knew no bounds, and a few
days later he set out to visit his relative in Philadelphia, a Mr.
Pennington, who brought him in touch with the artist Williams. The
boy’s interest and enthusiasm about art impressed Williams, who asked
him if he had read any books. Finding that young West’s reading was
limited to the Bible, the young artist lent him the works of Dufresnoy
(Doo-frayn-wah) and Richardson on painting. These books gave the boy
the idea of an artist’s career, and soon afterward his skill brought
him his first money.

At the end of West’s Philadelphia studies the question of settling him
in some profession came up, and as a result there was a solemn scene
in the sober Quaker home of his parents, with discourses, prayers, and
final dedication of the youth to art.

So launched, Benjamin West left home, and worked as a portrait painter
first in Philadelphia and then in New York. In 1760, when he was
twenty-two, he went to Italy for study, and remained there for three
years. Then he settled in London, and success came to him rapidly. He
was soon known as one of the leading portrait and historical painters
of the time. In 1772 he was appointed court historical painter. He
became one of the first members of the Royal Academy; and later he had
conferred upon him the final crown of art distinction when, after the
death of Joshua Reynolds, he was elected president of the academy.

Benjamin West in his old age was surrounded by a group of enthusiastic
and talented young students. Washington Allston was a pupil of his,
Copley too, and many other artists who afterward attained world wide
fame. He died at London in 1820.

    PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
    ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1. No. 45, SERIAL No. 45
    COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION




[Illustration: GEORGE WASHINGTON, BY CHARLES WILLSON
PEALE--METROPOLITAN MUSEUM, N. Y.]




_MAKERS OF AMERICAN ART_

_Charles Willson Peale_

THREE


Peale has been a well known name in American art for one hundred and
fifty years. Charles Willson Peale, who lived from 1741 to 1827, was
celebrated especially for his portraits of Washington and other famous
men of the time. James Peale, his brother, who lived during about the
same period, painted two portraits of Washington, one of which is
in possession of the New York Historical Society, and the other in
Independence Hall, Philadelphia. He also made a number of landscapes
and historical pictures. Rembrandt Peale, the son of Charles Willson
Peale, lived from 1778 until 1860. He too was a portrait painter,
and among his works is an equestrian portrait of Washington, now
in Independence Hall. Two brothers of Rembrandt Peale were artists
likewise.

So when anyone speaks of the “American painter Peale” some further
definition is needed, and when a portrait of Washington by Peale is
mentioned it is important to know which Peale was the painter.

Charles Willson Peale, the most celebrated of them all, was born in
Queen Anne County, Maryland, in April, 1741. His boyhood was spent
at Chestertown, and then at Annapolis, where at thirteen years he
was apprenticed to a saddler. He was twenty-three years old before
he began to study art. His first teacher was a Swedish painter,
Hessellius. Peale’s progress was rapid. He sought out the master
painter, John Singleton Copley, in Boston, studied under him for
three years, then went to London and became a pupil of Benjamin West.
In 1770 he established himself in Philadelphia, and his studio soon
became famous. Two years after he reached Philadelphia he painted
a three-quarter-length picture of Washington in the uniform of a
Virginian military colonel. This is the earliest known portrait of
the great commander. It is now in the chapel of Washington and Lee
University.

Peale painted a number of paintings of Washington and two miniatures
of Mrs. Washington. When the Revolution broke out the artist turned
soldier, raising a militia company of which he was finally made
captain, and, as such, fought in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, and
Germantown. He afterward entered the Pennsylvania Assembly, where he
was known as one of the first abolitionists. He voted against slavery,
and freed his own slaves.

Beloved and esteemed, Peale lived to be eighty-six years old, enjoying
a distinction in art shared only by a few other American painters. His
name is identified chiefly with portraits of Washington. By an odd
coincidence, the month and day of his death were the same as that of
Washington’s birth. He died at his home near Germantown on February 22,
1827.

    PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
    ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1. No. 45, SERIAL No. 45
    COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION




[Illustration: DOLLY MADISON, BY GILBERT STUART--PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY]




_MAKERS OF AMERICAN ART_

_Gilbert Stuart_

FOUR


To many Gilbert Stuart is known as the “painter of Washington.” We
know Washington today as Trumbull and Stuart have painted him, and
Stuart has been aptly called the “prime painter to the president.”
According to an anecdote, Stuart was said to regard Washington as
his own particular subject, and valued him as any workman might a
“pay envelope.” Whenever he lacked in income he could always paint a
“Washington head” and get his price for it. Gilbert Stuart was born
at North Kingston, Rhode Island, in December, 1755. He studied at
Newport for awhile, then in 1775 he went to England and studied under
Benjamin West. Four years were all that Stuart needed for study, even
under this master. He set up his own studio in London, and from the
beginning found success. Indeed, it came to him so quickly that Stuart
was tempted into outrunning it, and was soon beyond his means and in
financial difficulties.

In 1788 Stuart found it expedient to slip away to Dublin. When there
he found success anew, and remained in Ireland for five years. Then
he returned to America, enticed by the commission to paint General
Washington. Experienced as he was at that time, Stuart confessed to
genuine embarrassment in facing Washington for the first time. He
said that though he had painted King George III and the future George
IV, had painted Louis XVI and many others among the great, he had
never been disconcerted until he found himself in the presence of the
American general. As a result his first portrait was a failure. But
Washington sat again for him, and the result was the famous head on the
unfinished canvas, now known as the “Athenæum” portrait. The Stuart
portraits of Washington are famous the world over; so much so that
some overlook the splendid work that Stuart has done in portraiture
for other celebrated men of America--John Adams, Jefferson, Madison,
Monroe, and the rest, the list including nearly all the notables of his
time. Stuart was more than a good technical painter. He was a portrait
maker in the finest sense. He studied character, and his portraits are
living people.

In his art work and his associations Gilbert Stuart was a man of great
simplicity. His habits were sometimes a shock to his more fastidious
art friends. When Trumbull in 1780 came to Benjamin West, the latter
referred him to Gilbert Stuart for painting materials and casts to work
with. He found Stuart, as he states, “dressed in an old black coat with
one half torn off the hip and pinned up, looking more like a beggar
than a painter.” Trumbull, whose idea of what was fit for an artist had
been gained from establishments like those of Copley and West was much
upset. But he soon learned to appreciate the great painter under the
shabby habit.

Stuart is recognized not only as a leader in American art, but as one
of the greatest portrait painters. His last years were spent in Boston,
where he died in July, 1828.

    PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
    ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1. No. 45, SERIAL No. 45
    COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION




[Illustration: ALEXANDER HAMILTON, BY JOHN TRUMBULL--METROPOLITAN
MUSEUM. N. Y.]




_MAKERS OF AMERICAN ART_

_John Trumbull_

FIVE


John Trumbull was the youngest of six children of Jonathan Trumbull,
who was once governor of Connecticut. To him George Washington gave
the name of “Brother Jonathan,” a name that has now become a national
personification. Whether the people deliberately adopted this name in
order to apply it to our national type is a subject of some discussion;
but it is a fact that Washington called Trumbull “Brother Jonathan,”
and it is a fact that many affectionately employed the term thereafter
as a familiar name for the United States. So its origin in the incident
seems probable at least.

John Trumbull was born at Lebanon, Connecticut, in 1756. He was a
sickly child, with a mind more active than his body, an infant prodigy
of learning, who qualified to enter college at twelve. He actually did
enter Harvard in the middle of the junior year at the age of fifteen.
His delicate health and his extreme youth prevented his making many
close college friends. He spent his spare money on French lessons,
and his spare time studying pictures in the fine art books that he
could find in the college library. When a student he visited Copley,
and became imbued with the great painter’s ideas of the dignity of an
artist’s life.

After graduation in 1773 Trumbull tried to paint with home-made
materials. His art studies and experiments were interrupted by the
opening of the Revolution. When war with England became imminent
Trumbull began training the young men of the school and village, and,
after the battle of Lexington, when the first regiment of Connecticut
troops was formed, he was made adjutant. Afterward he became second
aide-de-camp to General Washington, and when General Gates took command
of the northern department he appointed Trumbull adjutant general, with
rank of colonel, and in that capacity he took part in the unfortunate
expedition to Albany and Ticonderoga. He resigned from the army in 1780
and went to London to study art under Benjamin West. Then came the news
of the arrest and execution of Major André, which stirred England, and
suggested the arrest of John Trumbull because he had been an officer of
similar rank in the American army. He was imprisoned for seven months.
In 1784 he was once more studying under West, and when there painted
his two great pictures, the “Battle of Bunker Hill,” and the “Death of
Montgomery.” In 1785 Trumbull visited Paris, and it was when there that
he began his picture which is perhaps the most famous of all his work,
the signing of “The Declaration of Independence.”

The years thereafter were active ones for Trumbull. He produced many
portraits of celebrated men, and many historic paintings that still
hold leading places in the national art of America.

In 1794 Trumbull acted as secretary to John Jay in London during the
negotiations for the treaty between America and Great Britain. He was a
man of prominence in public life, a leader in art in both England and
America. He was president of the American Academy of Fine Arts from
1816 until 1825, and he died in New York, November 10, 1843.

    PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
    ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1. No. 45, SERIAL No. 45
    COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION




[Illustration: SPANISH GIRL, BY WASHINGTON ALLSTON--METROPOLITAN
MUSEUM, N. Y.]




_MAKERS OF AMERICAN ART_

_Washington Allston_

SIX


The standard bearer of the group of young artists who studied under
Benjamin West was Washington Allston. Although several years of
Allston’s active life were spent in England, he was a native American,
and was born in the Waccamaw region of South Carolina in 1779.
Allston’s father married twice, and the painter was the son of the
second wife. His father died when Allston was only two years old, and
when he was seven his mother married Dr. Henry C. Flagg of Newport, who
was chief of the medical staff of General Greene’s army.

Allston as a boy showed unusual ability for drawing, and he was
fortunate in finding in Newport two friends to assist and encourage
him. In particular there was a boy named Malbone, two years his senior,
who was already beginning to paint miniatures, and in after years
became known as Edward G. Malbone, a famous painter of portraits. The
friendship with Malbone had much influence on Allston’s nature. They
remained good friends through life, and gave to each other and took
from each other the riches of sympathy and understanding that lie in an
art kinship.

At college Allston showed himself a genuine boy, full of animal
spirits. He joined in college pranks, and got the most that college
life could give in fun and friendship. He was in short a radiant young
man, graceful, handsome, with blue eyes, silky black hair, and pale,
clear complexion. He was liked and honored by all his fellow students,
cordial to all, yet with a certain aristocratic distinction that marked
him as one of finer nature. He loved not art alone, but literature and
romance. His verses were creditable, and brought him the honor of being
elected class poet.

He graduated at Harvard in 1800, and for awhile studied art in
Charlestown with Malbone. In 1801 Allston went to London with Malbone.
He entered the Royal Academy, and became a pupil of West. Allston
admired West enthusiastically, and got from him not only instruction
but inspiration. From 1804 until 1809 Allston was a traveler in Europe,
spending part of the time in Paris and part in Italy, and when he
returned to his native country in 1809 he had already established
himself among the painters of his day.

From 1811 until 1817 he lived and worked in England, and when there he
came to realize his full powers. He had developed greatly, not only
in artistic and poetic fields, but in religious convictions. And not
only in painting but in writing he showed great ability. Coleridge, who
was for years a close friend, pronounced him a leader in the art and
thought of his time.

Allston was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1819, after
having just returned to America. He spent the remaining years of his
life in Boston and in Cambridge, where he died in July, 1843. His
paintings are to be seen in a number of the prominent galleries of
this country and England. The most celebrated of them are religious in
nature.

    PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
    ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1. No. 45, SERIAL No. 45
    COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION





End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mentor: Makers of American Art,
Vol. 1, Num. 45, Serial No. 45, by J. Thomson Willing

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