DOI Heft:
No. 295 (October 1917)
DOI Artikel:Nelson, W. H. de B.: William Jean Beauley: an appreciation
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21264#0042
William Jean Beauley: An Appreciation
purpose of evolving advertising on a highly
artistic plane. Beauley proved himself more
than equal to the occasion. He felt that no
detail could be overlooked as unimportant,
and even devised the stationery, the wrapping
for packages, the very wagons and the harness
on the horses. To-day this firm ranks as the
highest-class advertisers in America.
It has been Beauley’s ambition for years past
to bring back beauty into common objects of
daily life. He has never feared to point a men-
acing finger at municipal ugliness whenever en-
countered, and has worked on many committees
with a view to ameliorating evil conditions and
educating the public taste. He cannot com-
prehend why no sculptor has ever undertaken
the task of creating a thermometer! His
interests have run from brass bedsteads to
piano frames and billiard tables, from stoves to
radiators, always with a view to introducing
refinement and taste in design. Only the artist
and the expert can make life beautiful, and it
is to be hoped that the public will some day
learn to differentiate between the blatant
horrors of commercialism and the intrinsic
pleasures of real art.
Beauley is the author of “ A Peculiar Type
of American Art,” which for good common
sense and caustic satire is a standard work, a
classic indeed that won the unstinted apprecia-
tion of the late Augustus St. Gaudens, beside a
host of living architects, painters, and sculptors.
It is a scathing condemnation of the practice of
entrusting ignorant committees with the com-
missioning of memorial sculpture, in consequence
of which “ granite concerns,” ever since the
Civil War, have flooded the country with
infantrymen at parade rest. On all sides we
observe the same soldier, same overcoat neatly
folded over the back, same rifle, same position.
A board of country supervisors or aldermen
advertises for designs, and patriotic dealers in
granite and bronze come bursting along with
large bunches of designs. Why consult archi-
tects or sculptors ? There are ready-made
pictures of monuments all duly labelled and
" A NIGHT IN AVIGNON ”
26
BY WILLIAM J. BEAULEY
purpose of evolving advertising on a highly
artistic plane. Beauley proved himself more
than equal to the occasion. He felt that no
detail could be overlooked as unimportant,
and even devised the stationery, the wrapping
for packages, the very wagons and the harness
on the horses. To-day this firm ranks as the
highest-class advertisers in America.
It has been Beauley’s ambition for years past
to bring back beauty into common objects of
daily life. He has never feared to point a men-
acing finger at municipal ugliness whenever en-
countered, and has worked on many committees
with a view to ameliorating evil conditions and
educating the public taste. He cannot com-
prehend why no sculptor has ever undertaken
the task of creating a thermometer! His
interests have run from brass bedsteads to
piano frames and billiard tables, from stoves to
radiators, always with a view to introducing
refinement and taste in design. Only the artist
and the expert can make life beautiful, and it
is to be hoped that the public will some day
learn to differentiate between the blatant
horrors of commercialism and the intrinsic
pleasures of real art.
Beauley is the author of “ A Peculiar Type
of American Art,” which for good common
sense and caustic satire is a standard work, a
classic indeed that won the unstinted apprecia-
tion of the late Augustus St. Gaudens, beside a
host of living architects, painters, and sculptors.
It is a scathing condemnation of the practice of
entrusting ignorant committees with the com-
missioning of memorial sculpture, in consequence
of which “ granite concerns,” ever since the
Civil War, have flooded the country with
infantrymen at parade rest. On all sides we
observe the same soldier, same overcoat neatly
folded over the back, same rifle, same position.
A board of country supervisors or aldermen
advertises for designs, and patriotic dealers in
granite and bronze come bursting along with
large bunches of designs. Why consult archi-
tects or sculptors ? There are ready-made
pictures of monuments all duly labelled and
" A NIGHT IN AVIGNON ”
26
BY WILLIAM J. BEAULEY