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OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest                    Volume 99 : Issue 528

Today's Topics:
  #1 HAMILTON COUNTY PART 48              [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE]


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X-Message: #1
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 15:05:19, -0500
From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER)
To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <199907221905.PAA10506@mime3.prodigy.com>
Subject: HAMILTON COUNTY PART 48
Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=US-ASCII

HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO By Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898

                        HAMILTON COUNTY PART 48

                        PIONEER ART IN CINCINNATI
                           By Chas. T. Webber

        The beginning of art in Cincinnati is to be accredited to FREDERICK
ECKSTEIN, although possibly John Wesley Jarvis may have made a halt, so to
speak, here at an earlier date; but as Lexington, Louisville and later
Columbus were his particular haunts, he is hardly to be considered an
habitue of the Queen City of the West. Eckstein founded his academy here in
1826.
        Frederick Eckstein, a man of high education and culture, man of
business and affairs, made art something more than a pastime, than an
adjunct to the means of "getting along," as his pursuits therein were
governed by the high and unselfish purpose of improving the taste and
refinement of his neighbors, the early pioneers of the West, and of
planting the civilization of his own native Germany in his chosen American
home, although facilities for the practice of that branch of art,
sculpture, in which Mr. Eckstein chiefly exhibited his superior skill, were
exceedingly meagre, those productions which have been preserved will
compare favorably with most of that which has followed.
        To Mr. Eckstein Hiram Powers owned his first lessons, as well
probably his first impulse, in the direction of art. Clevenger afterwards
opened a studio in his place, and the three, Eckstein, Clevenger and
Powers, were in constant contact and sympathy. Corwin, Minor Kellogg and
Charles Soule, in paining, came later. The latter was a disciple and
imitator of Jarvis, and executed many beautiful and strongly characteristic
portraits. Like Jarvis, he used the camera lucida to make his drawings;
hence he never became the master in drawing that he was in color, merely
from the want of practice. He painted in Cincinnati and afterwards in
Dayton. Waldo and Jewett, paining in partnership, were not of Cincinnati,
but rather, in their Western experience, of Lexington; but as many
interesting portraits of pioneer heroes came from their heir hands, less
commercial than their association would seem to indicate, and as their work
exerted a decided influence upon the rising art, they should be mentioned
here. Many of their heads, and some by their unknown compeers, are worthy,
in their simple and untrammelled truth, of a place by the side of Holbein.
        Jewett, of a Kentucky family, painted portraits of such remarkable
truth, beauty of color and refinement, at the same time naturalness of
composition, that their influence was felt in the formation of a taste here
as well elsewhere in the West. James H. Beard, still living, came to
Cincinnati about 1830 to 1832; studied his art, portrait painting, here in
nature's school and at the National Academy in New York. He made frequent
visits to New Orleans and the South, painting portraits for the wealthy
planters, entertaining them the while with inimitable stories. He
afterwards went to the dogs; but his dogs, lacking, perhaps, the refinement
and dignity of those of Landseer, are so powerful in expression and
consummate wit, sometimes almost human, that we are inclined to forgive him
for the transfer of his artistic affections. His portraits were very fine;
notably that of Mr. Gibson and also one of Durbin Ward.
        Henry Worrall although, perhaps, more practically devoted to music
than to the art of design, carried, with his intense and genuine love for
the latter, such a genuine helpfulness, giving them his ever-ready tact and
the strength of his manly arm over the rough ways, especially when their
representative happened to be a talented and attractive girl, as most girls
are to whom the muse of art is revealed, that the history of our art cannot
be truthfully outlined without his honored name gracing the page. He was
born in England and came to America when a mere boy and soon to Cincinnati.
He came with almost the first canvas upon which some unknown artist might
record his conceptions of the beautiful. Every scheme, looking to the
better condition of art and the happier relation of its practitioners, was
sure to find Worrall at the hem or trimming the sails for the propitious
breeze. To him, among many other enterprises for a similar purpose, we owe
the first institution of the Cincinnati Sketch Club, out of which proceeded
very many advantages to art. It had its influence in the evolution of
nearly all the Cincinnati artists who have, in the last quarter of a
century or more, exhibited particular excellence. The Sketch Club so formed
numbered among its members Beard, Frankenstein, McLaughlin, Mosler, Farny,
Read, Quick, Lindsay and many others, who gave at each meeting a sketch in
illustration of a subject previously named, the sketches belonging to the
member who on that occasion happened to be the host. This club continued in
excellent harmony until some preachers and wealthy merchants were
introduced as honorary members, who, by an excess of goodfellowship and
conviviality proved the unsuspecting club's undoing. Previously its habits
had been simple, as befitted a pioneer association of the West. Worrall
carries the spontaneous germ of Sketch Club with him wherever he goes. He
now lives in Topeka, Kansas, and there, at his word, a sketch club comes
into being, with the additional grace of a membership composed of most
beautiful and talented ladies.
        The brothers Frankenstein, John and Godfrey, from 1832 to 1875 and
1881, are only to be spoken of in terms of the highest praise -Godfrey in
landscape and John in all branches of art. They were both born in Germany,
but came to Cincinnati with their parents when small children. Godfrey was
the younger and painted many beautiful landscapes, closely and carefully
studied from nature, finding his themes all the way from the White
Mountains to the Knobs of Indiana, including Niagara, of which latter place
he painted hundreds of views, uniting most of them in a famous and very
effective panorama. He was an affable and honorable gentleman; qualities
which, together with his acknowledged talent, secured for him many warm
friends.
        John, the elder brother, equally honorable and equally a friend of
his fellow man, was not, unfortunately, of so equable a temper, but more
nervous and somewhat moody, was not always understood at his real personal
worth; no one knowing him, however, could fail to appreciate his just
impartiality towards other artists, or the fearless integrity with which,
regardless of self-interest, he stood for the rights of man.
        In his art his works show him to be pre-eminent, particularly in
sculpture, his landscape studies and his painting of the human head in his
happiest experiments (for experiment he often did), and in his drawing and
painting of the human figure, he is beyond and above criticism. A
consummate anatomist, an acute observer, there is nothing to be found in
his works that has been carelessly considered. His portrait of his brother
Godfrey impresses me, as I remember it, as the grandest work of art I ever
saw; and his sculptures, particularly the head of McLean and also that of
Dr. Mussey, have not been surpassed, if they have been equalled, in the
last two thousand years. His painting led all that the later pilgrims to
Munich have essayed, and his sculpture may stand, unbelittled, by the side
of that of the Greeks in their best period.
        There were several artists, now dead, who came upon the Cincinnati
stage later than the Frankensteins. Thomas Buchanan Read, more celebrated
as a poet than as a painter, exhibited, according to John Frankenstein,
extraordinary genius in the commencement of his artistic career (about
1840), and attained very considerable power, considering that his direct
preparatory studies were curtailed by his more intimate and assiduous
attention to his poetic muse. He wrote the war ballad, "Sheridan's Ride,"
and afterwards painted a noble and spirited picture of the subject. His
portrait heads are characterized by a peculiar grace and refinement rather
than by the exact rendering of the ordinary physical facts. His studies in
paining never enabled him to embody in pictures the sublime, the pathetic,
or even the beautiful, with that perfection or fullness of power which he
has shown in his verse, and which, in many instances, enables him to abide
in memory with the greatest bards that have ever lived.
        J. O. Eaton, born Feb. 8, 1829, in Licking county, Ohio, came to
Cincinnati about 1845, and attained prominence in portrait painting. Many
of his best heads have not, in several respects, have surpassed. With good
drawing, so far as the head and bust are concerned, and superb color, he
had naturally, from the very first almost, a certain dexterity of handling
that should set the neophytes of the present day who affect technique crazy
with despair. His female heads are particularly lovely in pose, light and
shade, color, and more than all, expression. Lily Martin Spencer, a native
of Ohio, worked in Cincinnati until about 1855, and her works, mostly genre
subjects, attracted much deserved attention and praise. Her later life has
been passed mostly in New York, where she has been highly appreciated. Miss
Gengembre, born in France of a talented family, her father having been a
designer in the employ of the French government, distinguished herself here
by the beauty of her works, showing the way to more truthful process of
study. She afterwards married Mr. Anderson, a talented engraver, and now
resides in London, where her works are highly prized.
        These great artists, and others possibly that escape my mind at
this moment, have rendered a boon to mankind that will be more appreciated
as time rolls on, and comparison is drawn between their works and those of
artists working close by the protecting walls of the established schools of
Europe.
        Duncanson's landscapes were, on account of their peculiar poetical
conception, much prized, not only in this country but in England and
Scotland. Among the friends of the colored Americans (for Duncanson, a most
genial gentleman as well as accomplished artist, was a light quadroon) they
were in especial demand, finding favor with such cultured critics and
outspoken believers that negroes have souls as Charles Summer and his
illustrious compeers in Europe.
        All of the present generation will remember the versatile Wm. P.
Noble, the talented but erratic Theodore Jones, the poetic painter and
writer, Wm. P. Brannan, who painted splendid portraits of Lyman Beecher and
Father Collins, and was the author of the extravaganza known as "The Harp
of a Thousand Strings;" also T.D. Jones, the sculptor, who executed the
portrait busts of Gen. Taylor, of Ewing, of Abraham Lincoln, and several
other prominent statesmen and soldiers, all from life; while somewhat
mechanical and having but little of the plastic qualities of fine
sculpture, they are, nevertheless, good and expressive likenesses. A
sculptor of great promise as well as (for one so young, he having died at
about twenty-four or twenty-five years of age) of great achievements was
Frank Dengler. His works were masterly busts and ideal groups. He studied
in Munich, worked in Cincinnati, and during the last year or so of his
life, through the friendly appreciation of Prof. Morse, became a teacher in
the Boston Art School.
        In painting, latterly, we had the works of Dennis and Mulvaney, the
former born in Kentucky, the latter in Ireland, or at least of Irish
parentage -both studied in Munich, the former finding his themes in the
primitive pioneer life, the latter choosing, principally, the wild
frontier, camp-life, and scenes among the mines of Colorado, the Custer
battle, etc. Both of these artists have left some magnificent specimens of
their skill. There are several living artists who are doing splendid work,
but of them I hardly deem it proper to speak in this limited paper, making
exception in the case of James H. Beard and others who were pioneers; for
to do them justice, and treat all with equal candor and delicacy, would be
likely to consume more space than is allotted to my use.
        An important factor in the growth of art in our section, indeed
throughout the country, has been the addition of a distinct department of
art to the popular Expositions that, following the lead of the first tone
here, have become a feature in all of the principal Western cities. The
first Exposition held in Cincinnati, under the auspices jointly of the
Board of Trade, the Chamber of commerce, and the Mechanics' Institute, in
1870 (the Mechanics' Institute had held previously, up to the commencement
of the war, a purely mechanical exhibition), had not intended an art
display, and it was at the intercession of the writer of this sketch that
one was agreed upon, and the artists of the city assented to the proposal,
on the ground that no prize should be awarded, their works sent for display
only. A prize was, however, surreptitiously awarded; still the gathering of
the works of our artists (the time was too short to communicate with
others) had the good effect of initiating the Exposition Art Gallery at the
West, which continues, although unwisely conducted in many respects, an
influence in art education, both among the people and the artists, inferior
to no other in existence. Wealthy citizens have loaned the rare gems of art
which they have brought from abroad, and artists generally have contributed
liberally from their studios. St. Louis, Louisville, Chicago, Denver,
Milwaukee, and many other cities of the South and West, have in this way
been enabled to place before their citizens works of art than which the
world has seen little better. The last Exposition of this kind in
Cincinnati was that in celebration of the Centennial Anniversary, in 1888,
of the settlement of Hamilton county and the State of Ohio. At that
Exposition there should have been a collection of paintings and sculpture
showing the condition and progress of art during our first century, but, by
some oversight, it was neglected.

        -continued in part 49

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End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #528
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