Museums And Art Schools

ZIT FTER Sept. 1 Detroit will always have ¦ aD art museurn. There will alway be a place where good picturee may ba seen, and it Is to be hoped uot inuch later there will also bea place where theartistlc talents latent In the youth of Michigan may begin their development. Westem vlsitors to Boston are pretty snre to find their way flrst to Bunker HUI monument and next to the art museum. The people of Massachusetts go only to the museum. When the people of Boston in 1875 decided that the time had come for them to build a home for thi public art ticasures, the city gave a site on the then new lands at the Back Bay. Since that time Richardson, the greai architect, built Trinity church, hls grandest work. near the museum. The new Old South churoh is not far away, and near by the ait society 's odd little building has nestled itself under the protectine eavei of some of lts biereer neighbors; so that the surroundings of the art museum are quite in keeping. The Boston building will soon represent n outlay oí ïOtu.iKX), and while the dooors oí art ditagree as to the meriU i{ the building, there can be do questioa L to the worth of the treasures lt conains. There are the Stuwt portraita of }eorge and Martha Washiugton, not only be best likenesses extant of their famons iriginals, but also the beet work of Imerica's foremost portrait palnter. There are also paintings by AHston, West ind Trumbull; the line Gray collection of ugravings belonging to Harvard unlersity; a very complete collection of igyptian autiquities; the Charles Sumner olluction of paintings and engravings, ind the Lawrence collection of oíd woodMirving, tupestrics and the like. The :asts from antique statuary fonn an unisually fine imam of study. One can be eure of seeing at all times a ïollection of modern pietures of real inerest, and generally there are on nxhibi:ion one or more plctures of note. Tha ïaliiry Is open free on Saturdajs and Sunlay afternoons, and at other times a moderate fue fs cbaigcd. The school, whieh occiipies the basement of the museum building, gives instruction In drawing and painting. The school, while not ander tlie dJreot oontrol of the museum trastees, eojoys the benefit of the library and works of art belongug to the largor institution, and the counectlon betunen the two is a vital one. About one hundred pupils receive instruction and the o gratifying that the next step wlll be to raise a fuml for the establishment of an institute of line arts. Rambling about St. I.ouis one day last June, I cama tcross au uapn-tcnlious stone building, wbose apen doors offered an inviting retreat fmiu the hot street. On the ür floor I reoognized some old friends in new clothes. In Boston tho sorrowing Niobe ha6 a clean face and Apollo's out6tretchcd arm is as white as the foaru of the eea from whieh Venus rises. But in St. Louis the coal snioke and dust have played queer tricks with the G reeks. Had Ferióles' trieremes been propelled by coal-generated team, Phidias had never delighted tho world with hls statuary, and uutil some method is found whereby casts may be kept clean only students of form will find pleasure in Hazinc; at these reproductions of the world's masterpieecs. On the floor above, however, there is a collectton of modern pietures which suggests what Detroit can do. There is a declded varicty In the subjects; but the level of merit is an even one. None of the pietures were poor and some were very good. Especially Ínteresting was a collection of some two hundred original drawings from the Century Company of New York. There wer the origináis ín oilj water colors, peneil and other media, of the Century aud St. Nicholas pietures. What could be s greater incentive or a more competent instructor for ambltious youn? artlsts than this same collection of picturesf St. Louis had an art school for about five years before Mr. Wayman Crow's liberality built the museum, and durini? that time about one thou-and eigbt hundred persons received iBStructlon. Thus it happened that St. Louis had an iustructed public to fall back upen. These art students found places in the stove manufactories and other places where artistio Iralnin? is a benefit, and their influence on public taste ís eaid to have been decided. The visitor to the museum is struek by the fact that so many of the paintings are prize pictures in American competitions or the Salon and that they have been bought by subscrtplion. The only conclusión under the circum6tances is that the museum must have a largo and devoted circle of admirers and fi Mr. Haleey C. Ivcs, the director of botb school and museum, is known to manj persons in Michigan, and it is pretty gea erally agreed thal he has done a remarleable work at St. Louis. The Chicago art museum has a fino site on Michigan avenue, where its front windows, overlookíng the boulevard, a park and the railroad trucks, give a line view of Um lake beyond. Eaily in 187'J Mr. Marshall Field, Congressman Adams and others started the museum project aud the museum building waa finished only last autumn. The building itself cost $160,000 and the entlre property is worth nearly doublé that sum. The art school, whlch has been malntained from the bcglnning, has an attendance of about three huudred students, who are taken tbrough various courses, finishing with a lite class. During June there was an art loan ezhibltion and, also, prlzes were ewarded for work In the achool. The loan exblbition was one of the most satlsfactory displays of American art I have ever witnessed. The pictures were pretentious ueiihcr In slze nor subject, but tticy were truly dcllghtful ns respecta the dellcacy wlth whlcli channing subjects wort treated. lt ecined as if the artlsts mut have been ná oí those particular picture from thcir eascls. Kor exqulsiteuess of üuish thfty were certainlv reimukable. Arnong the Mudents wborecelved etther )iri.c 01 an honorable mentlon I recall the namee of two younjE ladies from Mlebliran- one, I thluk, fiom Charlotte aní the othcr from êome imtill Uwn In western Michigan. If Detroit people Bhall esiablish a nood art school, the youtli of Michigan wil] certaiuly come here ior thcir preliminar}' art training. New Yi.rk's Metropolitan, art museum I too wldelj known to ured extended notice here. Indeed, 90 many and eo Hch are the collections bdng eathered there that one can searcely keep track of the treasures as they come In. Art school siipP'irted by private suhaciiptions are maintaineil in eonnection witli the inusuem. From the alwve sketch of the work done In other citieü it would seem tht one way In vhlcb ihe muMnrn could do Duicli to créate an art fei-lliu; and knoul m Wiohic-n Wfould Ijc by tbe ftabeut ol a school In whlcb. dra ing, modeling in elay, wod cai vinir and ather like branches anouM be tauirnt. The great thinj; is to kaow the elementa of art. To have learnad the lesson of eimplii'lty i beller tlian to have eeon all the in the worM. and thert is nu more foolish error than to think that havIne; scen mauy jiictures makes one a judge of urt. , howeer, In carrylng theedt. ature too far. Jt fhonM never be f rootten thai the chief end of art is to give ïile.-tó-.ne, and anart mutieiiin wblcb is uot tirst of all a soiirce of plensurt; to liie visiteer ïni.ses tbe cuief end of its ixistence. Therc is a joy of plctures v Inch comes by tlght alone, and this joy the uncultivatiil i.ut.v aliare. In additiun, tinii ie a deeyer pleasure In art, whleh comes oí a knowlcdge oí the history of art and a taste culttvated to recognize beauties whichappeal tothe uni ilii]; as weU as to the seases. Thie latter pluasure comes through the appreciation of the faet that In evory nation the fine arts are the key to its diarree and kind of civil Uat ion. The Detruit museum, therefore, will best fullll lts mission by combinin? the instruction of the art school with the gatlierinfr of a collectlon whlch shall both give pleasure to the casual visitar and also coutaln inaterials íor a studv oí the historica] development