DOI Heft:
Nr. 213 (December 1910)
DOI Artikel:Brinton, Selwyn John Curwen: Modern mural decoration in America
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20971#0210
Mural Decoration in America
mm
ONE OF A SERIES OF PANELS ILLUSTRATING THE PROGRESS OF THE AMERICAN SPIRIT IN THE NORTH-WEST
PAINTED FOR THE MINNESOTA STATE CAPITOL AT ST. PAUL, BY EDWARD SIMMONS
(,Copyright Photo., Curtis or Cameron, Boston)
hold us by their sheer sincerity of purpose and
strength of design. Terpsichore, clashing her
cymbals; Urania, draped in grey silk that is shot
with gold; Polyhymnia looking upwards, her book
opened at the lines :
“ Say, will you bless
The bleak Atlantic shore,
And in the West,
Bid Athens rise once more ? ”
seem to give us the very message of the new art
which we have been studying here, and which is
continued in the magnificent series of mural
paintings which fill this building.
Mr. Alexander, in his attractive series on this
ground floor of The Evolution of the Book ; on the
floor above, Shirlaw, Robert Reid, Benson,
Maynard, Kenyon Cox; Blashfield in his decora-
tions of the Dome; Vedder in his fine mosaic of
Minerva,—the tutelary goddess here as in her
Acropolis,—above all, Oliver Walker in his superb
“ tympanum ” of Lyric Poetry, where the
figures of Truth and Passion reach the highest
level of creative art—all these contribute their
share to the beauty of a building which it would
require more space than this essay can afford to do
justice to in detail. We can only note here that
the new movement, of which this Washington
Library is so magnificent a memorial, is now
expanding into fresh directions on every side.
The Appellate Courts at New York are a notable
instance of this; here, where fifty years ago would
have been plain distemper walls, we have a
creation in which fine modern sculpture is com-
bined with the mural paintings of Siddons
Mowbray, Robert Reid, Metcalf, Walker, Blash-
field and Simmons—some of the most brilliant
among the rising school of decorative painters.
This article has been kept waiting some time
in order that readers might be given some
adequate conception of Mr. Alexander’s mural
decorations in the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburg ;
and they will, I am sure, also be glad to see
among the illustrations the coloured reproduction
of a decoration executed by Mr. Maxfield Parrish
for the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York.
Mr. Alexander has already come before us in
speaking of the Washington Congressional. At
Pittsburg he selected as his subject, The
Crowning of Labout ; and the decorations consist
of panels surrounding the first floor, the top of the
main staircase, and the second floor, while all the
panels of the third floor have not yet, I think,
been placed. The reader will notice among the illus-
trations the high narrow panels, representing men at
work at great elevation ; these are at each end of the
alcoves on the second floor, and in the panels of
the first floor the subject is treated to some extent
ideally, — winged figures, representing Peace,
189
mm
ONE OF A SERIES OF PANELS ILLUSTRATING THE PROGRESS OF THE AMERICAN SPIRIT IN THE NORTH-WEST
PAINTED FOR THE MINNESOTA STATE CAPITOL AT ST. PAUL, BY EDWARD SIMMONS
(,Copyright Photo., Curtis or Cameron, Boston)
hold us by their sheer sincerity of purpose and
strength of design. Terpsichore, clashing her
cymbals; Urania, draped in grey silk that is shot
with gold; Polyhymnia looking upwards, her book
opened at the lines :
“ Say, will you bless
The bleak Atlantic shore,
And in the West,
Bid Athens rise once more ? ”
seem to give us the very message of the new art
which we have been studying here, and which is
continued in the magnificent series of mural
paintings which fill this building.
Mr. Alexander, in his attractive series on this
ground floor of The Evolution of the Book ; on the
floor above, Shirlaw, Robert Reid, Benson,
Maynard, Kenyon Cox; Blashfield in his decora-
tions of the Dome; Vedder in his fine mosaic of
Minerva,—the tutelary goddess here as in her
Acropolis,—above all, Oliver Walker in his superb
“ tympanum ” of Lyric Poetry, where the
figures of Truth and Passion reach the highest
level of creative art—all these contribute their
share to the beauty of a building which it would
require more space than this essay can afford to do
justice to in detail. We can only note here that
the new movement, of which this Washington
Library is so magnificent a memorial, is now
expanding into fresh directions on every side.
The Appellate Courts at New York are a notable
instance of this; here, where fifty years ago would
have been plain distemper walls, we have a
creation in which fine modern sculpture is com-
bined with the mural paintings of Siddons
Mowbray, Robert Reid, Metcalf, Walker, Blash-
field and Simmons—some of the most brilliant
among the rising school of decorative painters.
This article has been kept waiting some time
in order that readers might be given some
adequate conception of Mr. Alexander’s mural
decorations in the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburg ;
and they will, I am sure, also be glad to see
among the illustrations the coloured reproduction
of a decoration executed by Mr. Maxfield Parrish
for the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York.
Mr. Alexander has already come before us in
speaking of the Washington Congressional. At
Pittsburg he selected as his subject, The
Crowning of Labout ; and the decorations consist
of panels surrounding the first floor, the top of the
main staircase, and the second floor, while all the
panels of the third floor have not yet, I think,
been placed. The reader will notice among the illus-
trations the high narrow panels, representing men at
work at great elevation ; these are at each end of the
alcoves on the second floor, and in the panels of
the first floor the subject is treated to some extent
ideally, — winged figures, representing Peace,
189