DOI issue:
No. 214 (December 1914)
DOI article:McCauley, Lena M.: A Western renaissance
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43457#0122
A Western Renaissance
school splendidly represented in the Field Memo-
rial Room; the fine examples of French and other
Continental painters given by the Nickersons and
various Chicago citizens; the noble display of
works by George Inness presented by Edward B.
Butler; the paintings given by the Friends of
American Art, by the Antiquarian Society; the
particular purchases of the museum itself; the
treasures in the print rooms and the sculpture in
the galleries and the architecture in Blackstone
Hall; the jades, potteries, medals, curios and
bronzes; not forgetting the Egyptian Room, or the
innumerable objects of artistic value from many
donors or loaned to the institution; all unite in
perfecting the resources of the museum in its rep-
resentation of the art of ages gone by and what is
being pursued in the present.
It is needless to recite the current exhibitions of
each year, opening with the art crafts, and when
the interest is eager at mid-autumn, showing the
contemporary American
painters of Europe and
America. This exhibition
compares favourably with
that of the older Academy
of Design and the Penn-
sylvania Academy of Fine
Arts. It is followed by the
Western Society of Artists,
an important body that
links the St. Louis, Indi-
anapolis, Cincinnati and
art colonies of the Middle
West with the Chicago So-
ciety of Artists. The lat-
ter group of painters make
a pretentious effort after
theNew Year, andChicago
men, women and children,
led by the women’s clubs,
turn out in thousands to
view the paintings and
what the sculptors have
brought. Then there is a
local Architectural Club,
upholding the ideals of
young architects, and ex-
hibitions of contemporary
European art which in their
circuit from New York or
Boston, or the Albright Art
Gallery at Buffalo, or the
Carnegie Institute at Pitts¬
burg, go on to the Hack-
ley Art Gallery at Muskegon, or to Minneapolis,
or St. Louis, Missouri, or Louisville, Kentucky,
as its tour has been arranged.
In the long ago museums existed as treasure
houses only, and later came the passing exhibi-
tion. To-day twentieth-century enterprise re-
quires more, and the Western renaissance orders
that museum directors are servants of the people.
There are docents to explain pictures, receptions
given by women’s clubs to inform different locali-
ties, and classes for children.
There is free admission to the Art Institute
three days of the week, and frequently in the
evenings. For over three years there have been
Sunday concerts afternoons and evenings for the
working people, and every fortnight the Poly-
technic Society brings its 1,500 members to the
galleries. The lectures on art are given daily,
pageants and plays, and the public as well as
the art school of nearly 3,000 students, has the
INTERIOR OF SCULPTURE ROOM, CITY ART MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS
XXXIX
school splendidly represented in the Field Memo-
rial Room; the fine examples of French and other
Continental painters given by the Nickersons and
various Chicago citizens; the noble display of
works by George Inness presented by Edward B.
Butler; the paintings given by the Friends of
American Art, by the Antiquarian Society; the
particular purchases of the museum itself; the
treasures in the print rooms and the sculpture in
the galleries and the architecture in Blackstone
Hall; the jades, potteries, medals, curios and
bronzes; not forgetting the Egyptian Room, or the
innumerable objects of artistic value from many
donors or loaned to the institution; all unite in
perfecting the resources of the museum in its rep-
resentation of the art of ages gone by and what is
being pursued in the present.
It is needless to recite the current exhibitions of
each year, opening with the art crafts, and when
the interest is eager at mid-autumn, showing the
contemporary American
painters of Europe and
America. This exhibition
compares favourably with
that of the older Academy
of Design and the Penn-
sylvania Academy of Fine
Arts. It is followed by the
Western Society of Artists,
an important body that
links the St. Louis, Indi-
anapolis, Cincinnati and
art colonies of the Middle
West with the Chicago So-
ciety of Artists. The lat-
ter group of painters make
a pretentious effort after
theNew Year, andChicago
men, women and children,
led by the women’s clubs,
turn out in thousands to
view the paintings and
what the sculptors have
brought. Then there is a
local Architectural Club,
upholding the ideals of
young architects, and ex-
hibitions of contemporary
European art which in their
circuit from New York or
Boston, or the Albright Art
Gallery at Buffalo, or the
Carnegie Institute at Pitts¬
burg, go on to the Hack-
ley Art Gallery at Muskegon, or to Minneapolis,
or St. Louis, Missouri, or Louisville, Kentucky,
as its tour has been arranged.
In the long ago museums existed as treasure
houses only, and later came the passing exhibi-
tion. To-day twentieth-century enterprise re-
quires more, and the Western renaissance orders
that museum directors are servants of the people.
There are docents to explain pictures, receptions
given by women’s clubs to inform different locali-
ties, and classes for children.
There is free admission to the Art Institute
three days of the week, and frequently in the
evenings. For over three years there have been
Sunday concerts afternoons and evenings for the
working people, and every fortnight the Poly-
technic Society brings its 1,500 members to the
galleries. The lectures on art are given daily,
pageants and plays, and the public as well as
the art school of nearly 3,000 students, has the
INTERIOR OF SCULPTURE ROOM, CITY ART MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS
XXXIX