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European and American Art Collected by General Rush Christopher Hawkins for the Annmary Brown Memorial The 1913 Catalog: Preface & Introduction |
PAINTINGS IN OIL & WATER COLOURS
BY EARLY & MODERN PAINTERS,
COLLECTED BY RUSH C. HAWKINS,
CATALOGUED BY C. H. COLLINS BAKER
AND DEPOSITED IN THE ANNMARY BROWN MEMORIAL
AT PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLANDSECOND EDITION
REVISED WITH NOTESPRINTED FOR THE OWNER BY THE
MEDICI SOCIETY LTD LONDON
1913
PREFACE
AMERICA in contrast with Europe has no aesthetic heritage; for standards of art and for examples of the great arts of the past she has always to refer to the Old World. Americans in this way are exiled from what is as much their birthright as it is that of Europeans. A community deprived of aesthetic canons, especially a civilised community, would sooner or later deteriorate into sheer materialism. Realising this, patriotic Americans have pledged themselves to make up for America's lack of an art heritage by importing the finest examples of European and Eastern art that fall within their range.
By his institution of the Annmary Brown Memorial Collection General Hawkins has grouped together in Providence examples of XVIth, XVIIth, and XVIIIth century painting, drawn from nearly all the Schools. The modern section of the pictures represents characteristic tendencies of XIXth Century Italian, French, and American Art; one or two canvases, such as Mr. Lamorna Birch's Cornwall, bring out clearly the qualities of contemporary English landscape.
Italian Art, Flemish, Spanish. and Dutch have been represented by General Hawkins through an Andrea del Sarto Holy Family; through Rubens' Holy Family; by an admirable repetition of the great Velazquez' Innocent X, assigned to Del Mazo; by Antonis Mor's Portrait of a Lady, and Adriaen van Ostade's Musician. These and the German Portrait lately added are the conspicuous features of this Collection, and all examples of fine quality.
The English School is handsomely represented in Beechey's Portrait of an Officer; in the Portrait of a Nobleman, traditionally assigned (on unconvincing grounds) to Copley, and in two unusually good landscapes by Ibbetson and Nasmyth.
The finest qualities of the minor German masters of the early XVIth Century are typified in the Portrait of a Man, possibly by Bartholomew Bruyn. Acquired at the last moment, this picture takes its proper place with the most important examples in the Memorial.
American portraiture is represented by Gilbert Stuart, Trumbull, and Frothingham, who, with Sir Thomas Lawrence on the English side, bring us to the XIXth Century.
There is no special need for an introduction of the modern pictures which will be found clearly illustrative of the course pictorial Art has taken since about I870. From examples such as Blanchi's French Music, Bouvier's Salvator Rosa Improvising, or Kaemmerer's Merveilleuses, all of about 1870-80, we pass in review most of the movements that agitated Art in the last quarter of the XIXth and the first decade of the XXth Century. Redhot Impressionism, Post-impressionism, and Futurism are not however included in the arc General Hawkins set himself to traverse as regards the representative nature of the Annmary Brown Memorial Collection.
The writer cannot let slip this opportunity of recording his deep obligation to the Providence Athenaeum Library and Public Library for the wide range of their books on art and for the courteous help given him by their respective staffs.
C. H. C. B. [C. H. Collins Baker]
London, 1912.
INTRODUCTION
It may be said of painting that it is the music of the silent arts, depending for its expression upon colour- tones that fascinate the vision and beautiful forms rather than on a combination of appealing sounds These qualities often surpass those of the other art in their power to excite pleasurable emotions that are lasting, while those aroused by listening to the enticing sounds of music often perish with the strains which excite them. But this saying can be applied only to the masterful works of the greater painters that compel admiration from all conditions of men and create impressions upon the mind that seldom fade. It cannot be said of or applied to the meretricious works of many of the lesser artists whose commercial products ought not to inspire even a second thought. But unfortunately they have their influence and are largely responsible for the degradation of public taste.
The paintings by the early painters in the Annmary Brown Memorial for the better part were selected with special reference to their self-evident merit as works of art, possessing qualities pleasing to the senses and appealing to the mind, rather than because of the certainty of their having been painted by one of the greater artists. In conforming to that rule preference has often been for the surely beautiful and impressive in composition, form and colour. The question of a name of a famous artist has not been considered of much importance, unless attached to a work worthy of his reputation. A real work of art does not depend upon a name, may have been painted by an obscure artist, and always with convincing certainty stands and speaks for itself. It is not intended to intimate that all the works by the early painters in this Collection are great or notable, but that something has been accomplished in the right direction, and the best possible that certain circumstances and conditions would permit.
This plan of collecting accounts for some pictures in the catalogue not having been given positive designations, so far as names of painters are concerned. Possibly this may have been erroneous and in some instances misleading. But it was thought better to err in the interest of honest intention than to make positive statements based upon uncertain information, in order to excite admiration for a painting because of its attribution to a famous painter.
From the first, one part of the governing purpose was to bring together a small collection representing the greater Schools of early painting, and if possible to procure representative works by some of the most famous artists of each. So that when brought together in a single room, student or layman would be able at a glance to become acquainted with some of the better work of the early art periods of several of the older countries that promoted the cultivation of the arts. This purpose has been realised only in part, but sufficiently, it is to be hoped, to be of some little value to those who may desire to study, historically and technically, the Schools and practice of their followers. The obstacles in the way of such a collection were numerous and of proportions calculated to discourage and often to intimidate- particularly one not of the millionaire class; and whatever of success has been achieved must be attributed to active searchings, often in out-of-the-way places, and to perseverance.
The result of this collecting- a labour of love that has lasted through the better part of the lifetime of the one who made it, with other objects of interest housed with it, within the walls of a sacred memorial, may be construed into a message to those who love the beautiful and interesting. Its donor hopes the contemplation of them may, for a moment at least, divert the mind from the grosser objects of everyday life, sometimes give birth to noble aspirations, soothe the weary and console those who drudge in narrow places where the sun of happiness and plenty seldom shines. These ends being accomplished one insignificant human being may not have lived in vain.
R. C. H. [Rush Christopher Hawkins]