Art in America; a critical and historical sketch . er-istic portrait-painters soon after Inman established his reputation—such asCharles Loring Elliott, Baker, Hicks, Le Clear, Huntington, and Page, thecontemporaries of Healy, Ames, Hunt, and Staigg, of Boston, and Sully,of Philadelphia—all artists of individual styles and characteristic traits oftheir own. Sully, owing to his great age, really belonged also to the pre-ceding period of our art. In Elliott we probably find the most important portrait-painter of thisperiod of American art. It was a peculiarity of his intellectual growththat only
Art in America; a critical and historical sketch . er-istic portrait-painters soon after Inman established his reputation—such asCharles Loring Elliott, Baker, Hicks, Le Clear, Huntington, and Page, thecontemporaries of Healy, Ames, Hunt, and Staigg, of Boston, and Sully,of Philadelphia—all artists of individual styles and characteristic traits oftheir own. Sully, owing to his great age, really belonged also to the pre-ceding period of our art. In Elliott we probably find the most important portrait-painter of thisperiod of American art. It was a peculiarity of his intellectual growththat only by degrees did he arrive at the point of being able to seize asimple likeness. But it is not at all uncommon for genius to falter in itsfirst attempts; and Elliott was one of the few artists we have producedwho could be justly ranked among men of genius, as distinguished fromthose of talents, however marked. Stuart excelled all our portrait-paintersin purity and freshness of color and masterly control of pigments; but he 4 50 ART IN THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS. [HENRY PETERS GREY.] was scarcely more vigorous than Elliott in the wondrous faculty of grasp-ing character. Herein lay this artists strength. He read the heart ofthe man he portrayed, and gave us not merely a faithful likeness of hisoutward features, but an epitome of his intellectual life and traits, almostclutching and bringing to light his most secret thoughts. In studying theportraits of Elliott we learn to analyze and to discern the essential andirreconcilable difference between photography and the highest order of AMERICAN PAINTERS. 51 painting. The sun is a great magician, but lie cannot reproduce morethan lies on the surface—he cannot suggest the soul. He is like a truth-ful but unwilling witness, who gives only part, and not always the bestpart, of the truth. But then the genius of the great artist steps in, com-pletes the testimony, and presents before us suggestions of the immortalbeing that shall
Size: 1417px × 1762px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectart, bookyear1880
