American art and American art collections; essays on artistic subjects (1889) (14596389218)

Identifier: americanartamer01mont (find matches)
Title: American art and American art collections; essays on artistic subjects
Year: 1889 (1880s)
Authors: Montgomery, Walter
Subjects: Art Artists Art
Publisher: Boston, E.W. Walker & co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries



Text Appearing Before Image:
Designed by Charles M. Carter. EDWARD VIRGINIUS VALENTINE. Chapter Twenty-First.
Text Appearing After Image:
MERSON, in his aphoristic way, says that the English people are in-capable of an inutility. He argues that the idea of Beauty with themis a luxury; and, as a consequence, that the fine arts among them fallto the ground. With much ingenuity, he attributes this to race tem-perament and climatic influence. In the mosaic of our cosmopolitanAmerican civilization, where race and climate are of the most variedcharacter, it might be supposed that a very different state of thingswould exist. We are, as a people, almost so pre-eminently practicalas to be incapable of an inutility; and yet along with this wehave combined a sentiment which is wanting to the Englishman. Youthand struggle and poverty have held in abeyance the art spirit hereto-fore ; but how rapid has been the advance in its direction, now thatwealth has relaxed the mere necessity for bread-winning, and offers theleisure without which no arts can be fostered! As a matter of course, or rather as a matter of history, Southernlands ha