Science vs. Again about this time matter-of-fact utilitarianism appeared to dispel the ideal artist's poetic hopes, while every en couragement followed the success of practical scientific talent. Washington Irving essayed to be a painter, but concluded to devote his life to literature and the power of the pen. Robert Fulton, who began his career as a skillful land scape and portrait painter, attracting the friendship of Benjamin Franklin, who encour aged his studies abroad, and gave him letters to Benjamin West and others, returned to his native land to find that scientific conditions were required rather than a demand for the credentials of culture in works of fine art. The result was steamboat navigation. Another triumph for science may be recorded. Frank lin himself had captured lightning from the skies; still it remained for the imagination and artistic skill of the professional painter, Samuel Finlay Breese Morse, the first president of the National Academy of Design, to subjugate the marvelous electric element that joins as neigh bors all mankind.
"The Neverthe less, the fine arts flourished; even modern travelers' tales of the wonderful scenery of two great continents stimulated artists and the lov ers of art. The Heart of the Andes," 'Ni agara," The Arctic Region," 'The Rocky Mountains," 'The Catskills," 'Lake Cham plain,* "Lake George" and the "Hudson River,' all were delineated. Along with this demand for great subjects, often commensurate in quantity as to size of canvas with Ruskin's mathematical maxim, that the greatest work of art is the one presenting the greatest number of great ideas, there still prevailed in marked instances the glorious traditions of full-habited oil-painting to be found in the msthetics of familiar environment of earth, air and water, as embodied in artistic values and soulful quali ties — creations in harmony with Michel, Ruy sad, Constable and the masters of Barbazon and Fontainebleau. Again, while scientific in fluences appear in the works of Durand, Church, Casalear and Kensett, they asserted a truly American artistic individuality; they copied directly from nature. They thought of no school nor technique, but carefully imitated what they saw. All these men with one excep tion had been practical engravers, laying down the burin and the needle-point to take up the pencil and the brush. Their respective bio graphical and msthetical records in American art will be enduring; yet there comes the re flection that had their professional training been more liberal and adequate they would have attained to higher things. The importance of masterly academic training cannot be overesti mated; as a means to an end, however great, education is the only acknowledged guide for the individual artist and for the community even in matters of taste. Nothing is more creditable to a civilized people than its creden tials of culture. The formation of a fine art association in New York was at the beginning of the past century an occasion of vast import ance to the commonwealth. The first action
was taken in 1802 by a few prominent citizens, and six years later a charter was obtained with the name of The American Academy of Arts.
The first officers under this charter were Robert Livingston, president; John Trumbull, vice president ; DeWitt Clinton, Dr. David Hosack, John R. Murray, William Cutting, and Charles Wilkes, directors. A school was equipped with casts brought from Paris by Mr. Livingston, and exhibitions of paintings and statuary were held for a time in an unused riding school in Greenwich Street near the Battery. Public interest in this movement was soon transferred to grand panorama schemes conducted by Van derlyn at the "Rotunda," and by others with similar enterprises.
The National Academy of It was not until the year 1826 that the artists them selves, with Morse as president, founded the National Academy of Design in the earnest interests of American art, with educational purposes and exhibitional facilities; its in fluence increasing until the present day. Its membership consists of 100 academicians and an equal number of associate members, includ ing the most distinguished painters and sculp tors of America. Its list of fellowship for life likewise includes the most prominent public spirited patrons of American art. Established for many years in the Academy building, taste fully modeled after the Palais Ducal of Venice and forming an attractive urban landmark, lack of accommodations for its growing schools and crowding commercial surroundings re quired a move to more suitable quarters. Un like the Royal of London, with its plethoric treasury, and similar institutions sit uated in other European art centres, the academy is without governmental endowment and may well enlist American art patriotism in the cause of aesthetic culture in fostering the fine arts of painting, sculpture and architecture. Other societies of American artists, water color societies and architectural leagues make annual exhibitions in New York; while art institutes throughout the United States in various cities attest the extent and importance of American art. We, as Americans, are an artistic people, cosmopolitan and composite, uniting the genius of all nations. The aesthetic field of general American artistic taste and industry has been strenuously productive. The ornamental, or derly and decorative work in clay, on china, glass, wood and stone as a tasteful and profit able divertissement, begins with the training of the kindergarten. Black and white illustration and etching has been awarded first-class medals at home and abroad. The beautiful and refined exemplified in aguarelle and oil-painting;in por traiture, genre and pastoral; in sculpture and architecture; and finally the grand and sublime of high art all confirm the achievements of American art and artists. In advancing these three divisions—the ornamental, the beautiful and the sublime — as a guide, we approach the philosophical consideration of the subject of fine arts.