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The Seney Collection

The Seney Collection image
Parent Issue
Day
22
Month
August
Year
1888
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

MR. GEORGE I. 8ENEY of New York has long been known to the public, uot only as a judiüous collector of painting6, but as a man of great g enerosity, williug to forego his own pleasure and risk hts valuable possessions for the sake of putting before the people the best art of his time. At the requestof a member of the board of trustees Mr. Seney kindly consented to loan a hundred of his best pictures to the Detroit Museum of Art for its lirst exhibition, choosing himself thoso he thoucht most desirable for such an occasion. Half of the number selected are good examples of the French school, llere can be studied, almost without a break, the development of the flret great artistic evolution of this century in Paris- an evolution whicL gave ua the renowned group of 1830 60 aptly called the 'Tleiades" of French art, Delacroix, Rousseau, Dlaz, Corot, Barye, let, Deeamp and Troyon, men vrnose influence is feit today, thouch all have passed away. We have besides some of their equally tllustrious contemponirii-i, Froraentin, Daublgny, Jules Dnpre, Charles Jacque, all, indeed, but M ier, of those who cave luster to the "New Renaissance" and as brilliant stars llghted the artistic firmament of the nineleentli century. Bot the ame atmosphero In which these men lived enveloped and In6pired a host of other men, many of whoin almost rival these acknowlodged masters. And examples of thuir work are before us in a classic composition by Couture, oae of Harpigntet' tuaed landscape, a gouremarine by Isabey, soine gvand and almost statuesque pensant figures by Breton, a brilliant canvas by Vollon, and evenü picture by Descamp, Dagnin-Bouveret, and Edclfelt, -uiüs of the Incomparable masterotdei me. Pierre Billet and F.mile Breton, pupils of Jules B irgeousVene attle ol Ausust Bdnheur and Van Manke, and last but nol o lints al11' IU ollrl i'ioh that is worthy ot admlratlon. Krom the Du Idorf school we men leaders as Achenbïch :mil K e of i;ifted pupil iu Johncon and W "f our country and tüe famous Huiigaria MunTbe Dutch school givat UI our own Mlllet, m-iu Dutch In rtyle, for, though Ieraels paialland, lic was trainee] lu Pari, whili I D. Millet co ito admlratli Ama rul compodtlooi j irom pn ' (reek Hf-[tallan, treata almost ,, thooRh In tho tplrltof hls own sunny land. But Boldlnl must i nee, to whlch be ,n of liis partlcularlj po otter fo lons as the mai foUowed iu Uic íuütoti;; oí ous Amencans who were drawn to the Bavarian capital when Germán art was at its liiulit. Belgium claims Clays, the genre-marine painter, Alfred 8tevens,the palnter par excellence of modem elegance, anl Adolphe Scureyer; but as these men have drawn tlieir art from France, Belgium hos only legal claims to them. Of the English artists no one can be said to sugeest any school. Burgess is stlll entranced by Spanish scènes, Boughton holds to his Puritan ideal6, and Weeks takes us back to old-tlme highway experlences. It will readily be sctui that few of these artists have escaped the btrong influence which radiates from the great capital of art and of France. In fact, the wholc Seney collection is more important for this very roason, 6ince through famlliarity with the Freuch school and ita effects we shall bo better able to estímate the value of other schools, appreciate the merits of their reprcscntatives, and recogulze the steps that lead to nevr develooments. We trant art to follow a beaten path, and when a manner has pleased an entlre peneration it cries: "tiive us this; notliing else is good!" Misfortune then to innovatorsl They must 6uccumb, or sustain :i hard struggle uutil their cry of revolt beeomes in lts turn a tyranny which crushes or combats other and equally desirable

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Subjects
Ann Arbor Courier
Old News