is worse, we have fifty different religions. The people are taught in a different manner, and we do not quarrel with the Academy for not filling its walls with broiling Saints and flayed Martyrs, but because they will persist in a hankering after such things when they are no longer needed. The Madonna now is de trop, in our houses and public places, yet our artists will persist in painting her, when neither they nor their patrons have any longer faith in her. Before Guido went to his easel, he first fell upon his knees. before the Madonna della Guardia, and put upon his canvas the image which the little black figure left upon his devout imagination. Our artists cannot do that, but they can go into the dark woods, among the breezy hills, and by the sea side, and reproduce for us the pleasant effects of sunlight and shadow which they see there. It is a good thing to do, and the pictures are good things to have; but they are, after all, mere ornaments of our parlors, and the artist becomes merely a decorator, and not a teacher. If, therefore, the Academy would but tell its acolytes that to be useful men and good citizens, to be good providers for their families, and to give themselves comfortable positions in society, they must abandon all the fol-de-rol which they have been accustomed to hear and read about "high art," and be content to fulfil their true mission, without looking for any other commissions than such as upholsterers, silversmiths, and pastry-cooks receive from the opulent and liberal, they will have a much better time of it than they now have, or are likely to have. An excellent artist, intelligent, skilful, industrious, and amiable, told us, and seemed rather to think he was telling something of which a man of his abilities ought to be proud that, if it were not for the assistance of a kind friend he should starve. They won't buy my pictures, said he; then why not paint such pictures as they will buy, or go into some other business that will give you bread and butter. He only shrugged his shoulders in reply, and felt, we have no doubt, great contempt for our opinions. Yet there we were admiring one of his large pictures in the "high art" style, and he had recently returned from Italy. What a confession was this from a man of his abilities and acquirements, while waiters in hotels and private coachmen were striking for higher wages! Here is a man who cannot obtain the wages of a flunkey in executing works of high art, while pastry-cooks get the wages of Ambassadors, and Barnum and Beach are advertising for artists to make woodcut drawings for their illustrated paper. It was no wonder that George the Second said, "If beebles will be boets and bainders, let 'em sdarve." Let our artists remember that this is the age of Clippers, and turn their talents into a channel that will pay. It is really one of the saddest spectacles to see so much good honest effort, so much genius, perseverance, and intelligence thrown away, as the Annual exhibition of our National Academy exposes to public gaze. Let the Academy institute a wood-engraving department, a glass-staining department, an architectural department, and a calico-designing department, and Art will flourish here as it did in Rome in the days of Leo X., and as it now does in France in the days of Napoleon III.; for art, literature, and science are nought unless they minister to the public needs and conform with the popular taste. It is now some six years since a most strenuous and encouraging effort was made by an association of our mighty men of wealth, to establish a New-York Gallery of Art; meetings were held, oysters eaten, and champagne drunk according to the most approved methods; resolutions were passed. and committees formed, and one wealthy enthusiast swore the oath of Uncle Toby that the project should succeed. But it has not succeeded, and the pictures which were to form the nucleus of the great gallery, which was to be the Louvre or Vatican of the New World, are now lying in a very nucleus condition in some dusty chamber of which the world knows nothing and cares less. What of it? were not the mighty men of wealth in earnest ? Of course they were, or thought they were; but they lacked the co-operation of the very public, for whose benefit they were laboring, and, therefore, all their oaths, oysters, and efforts came to nothing. But, since then these very men have built the Erie Railroad at a cost of thirty millions of dollars, and engaged in other great undertakings for the public good, besides increasing their private fortunes so that they may well be forgiven for not giving us a gallery of paintings. They might as well have attempted to build a pyramid in the style of King Cheops. Pieture galleries, pyramids, and railroads. were never intended for the same people and the same century. If we have one we must forego the other, and we are sensible of our good fortune in living in an age which gives the preference to railroads. There is abundant scope for the artistic genius of our people, and rich rewards in store for all who have the good sense to employ their talents in meeting the demands of our countrymen. We send hundreds of millions of value to Europe to pay for works of art which had better be expended at home; and it only needs that the Academy, or some other well-meaning institution, should clear away from the atmosphere of Art in this country the mists of old fogyisin, to make us as preeminent in decorative art as we are in the arts of government and ship-building. It is a disgrace to us that all our public buildings which are worthy of notice have been planned and decorated by foreigners. Our National Academy of Design should retrieve itself by designing a calico pattern, the steeple of a church, or the façade of a dwelling-house. It would surprise a foreigner, we imagine, who should come to New-York and see the prodigal expenditure of our men of wealth in building houses and churches, on going into the Exhibition of the National Academy of Design, not to find a single architectural drawing, nor any indications that we make use of more ornamentation in our dwellings than any other people in the world. It strikes us that the Academy either ought to do something to justify its name, or else abandon it, and call itself a society of portrait and landscape painters. Among the paintings in the Exhibition there are a few of great excellence, which we have not the space to particularly notice; and, being by artists who are already well known, they do not require a reintroduction to the public. One of the most attractive pictures is a very sweet and delicious oil painting, thoroughly English in character and treatment, by Peele, representing three young children and dead game. It is exquisitely tender, and imbued with the purest feeling. But Mr. Peele is an Englishman by birth, and the picture was painted in London. He is, however, an American artist, inasmuch as he has lived here from an early age, and received here his education. Our landscape painters appear to be as much afraid of water as though they be longed to the feline species, and never dip in that lively element without appearing to decided disadvantage. It is very remarkable that in a land of lakes, rivers, and cataracts, and with one of the finest bays in the world of such ready access, our artists have such a dread of the sea and all marine effects. There is but one tolerably well-executed marine painting in the Exhibition; and that one, we are sorry to confess, is a water-color drawing by an artist of London, named Robbins. Thomas Hicks has three remarkably fine heads in the Exhibition, unlike in manner, but alike in sober dignity of treatment and characteristic expression. Elliott's eleven portraits show that he has lost nothing of his adroitness, and that he has still the same felicitous touch in giving a graceful and striking resemblance of his sitter. There is a portrait of Sir Charles Eastlake, President of the Royal Academy, by Huntington, which is highly creditable to both artist and sitter. It is the best portrait of Huntington's that we have seen, and, though less marked by his mannerisms than usual, it is still recog nizable as his production. Kensett and Church come out in their full strength in landscape, and Durand, Cropsey and Gignoux will not suffer in reputation by their present pictures. There are some pictures by Innes which show a marked improvement; and, among the rising artists whose works in the present Exhibition give indications of ripening powers, are the portraits by Baker, Cafferty, Pratt, and Louis Lang. The Exhibition is a perfectly satisfactory one, as an indication of the amount and degree of artistic ability possessed by our artists; but it would be much more so if there were any indications that they were all well employed, and receiving the reward to which their talents justly entitle them, and which they could not fail to receive if they would but give the right direction to their efforts. We have received a communication from Mr. Le Ray de Chaumont, of Paris, in reference to an allu sion to his father, in Rev. Mr. Hanson's first article on the Bourbon question, which would have been published in the present number of the MONTHLY, but for an accident. It will appear in our next number. CLOSE OF THE FIRST VOLUME. ALTHOUGH we stated boldly and frankly in our first number, that we were not entering upon what we deemed an experiment, in projecting a new Magazine, yet we must now, at the close of the first volume, as frankly declare that our success has been much greater than we anticipated-that we have had more aid from both writers and readers than our previous knowledge of the literary resources of the country led us to hope for. We make this statement, and give the plain facts which will follow, because we know that our success will be alike gratifying to those who questioned the discretion of the undertaking, as to those who encouraged us by their counsel and promised assistance. Although, before publishing our prospectus, we made sure of abundant literary help, and gave the names of many of the distinguished writers who had assured us of their hearty sympathy, and promised us contributions, yet our conviction was, that our best aid would come from Young America, whose name had not yet been announced on Magazine covers. And so we determined not to give the names of the contributors to our Monthly, that each article might stand on its own merits, and the young unknown be presented to the public on a perfect equality with the illustrious contributor whose name, alone, would give him an audience; for, in literature, the new-comer is always treated as an intruder. By this course we missed the clapping of hands and bravos which we might have commanded by announcing the names of some of our contributors, but we are so well satisfied with the result of the experiment that we shall adhere to the rule hereafter. Perhaps it is worth while to exhibit some of the mysteries of Magazine-making, and let our countrymen know how much intellectual activity there is among us. During the past six months we have received from voluntary contributors, four hundred and eighty-nine articles, the greater part from writers wholly unknown before. They came from every state and territory in the Union, with the single exception of Deseret, whose "Saints," probably, do not regard our Monthly as a fitting receptacle for their literary efforts. All of these articles we have read, and from them have been selected some of the most valuable papers that we have published; many of them we have been compelled, reluctantly, to return; some on account of their length, and many more, not so much from their lack of merit, as from the nature of their themes. Some articles have been curtailed of superfluous sentences, but the style and sentiment have, in all cases, been given in their integrity. Every article that we have published has been paid for at a rate which their writers have thought "liberal," all have been original, the product of American pens, and, with one exception, we believe that all were written for our columns. We publish these facts with a feeling of pride, not only because they justify our undertaking, but because they afford abundant evidence of future success to our own and all kindred publications. |