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Cutting from New Unity Address of Paper CHICAGO, ILL Date APR 29 1897 It is late in the day for the Chicago press to boast of the fact that George Gray Barnard, whose ability as a sculptor is now the object of so much discussion in artistic circles, was a Chicago boy, and that he struggled towards power on one hundred dollars a year. It is easy enough to be generous to genius when it has compelled recognition. Alas! how dull is the world still to the aspirations and the strivings of the worthy when the struggle is severest. THE MUSICAL COURIER Avec la lance qui perça la flânc suprême Il a guéri le roi, le voici roi lui-même Et prêtre du très-saint trésor essentiel; En robe d'or il adore, gloire et symbole, Le vase pur où resplendit le sang réel, Et, O ces voix d'enfants chantant dans la couple *** Some months ago I spoke of the tremendous talent of George Gray Barnard, the American sculptor. He is beginning to be recognized as a force, and the Century last month published a study. The best appreciation I have so far seen appeared in the Commercial Advertiser, and was written by George Henry Payne. Among other pertinent things Mr. Payne Says: It has been said of Barnard that he is an ideal Rodin. The suggestion, for it is a suggestion, incomplete and in a way not desirable, calls for more than a light explanation. In distinguishing the classic from the romantic art, the Greek sculpture from the sculpture of the Renaissance, we draw the line so as to have breadth on the one hand and character on the other, a line between great general conceptions and great emotional struggles and moments. In Phidias we have perfection of form in a Buonarroti perfection of force, and the distinction, as one considers it the more, widens so much that it would seem that there must be something between. Rodin, who went back to Michael Angelo, came back to the nineteenth century, and is to-day the sculptor of decadence. From the sixteenth century he drew his inspiration, from the nineteenth his feeling, and with all his power, all his poetry, all his genius, all his marvelous achievement, he fails in one particular. Barnard, too, has gone back to Michael Angelo. Yes, and even further. He has gone back to the classic claim, and in the return he has gone beyond the century in which he lives, so much so as to make it possible to almost speak of him as didactic. John Addington Symonds has said that the true force of Michael Angelo, the thing that made him the commanding master and that distinguished him from all his fellows of the quattocento, was the passionate delight he took in pure humanity. Vital and human as his art is, I don't think none would say that of Rodin, but it may with truth be said of Barnard. It is pure humanity that enthralls him, broad humanity, and even what is outside of humanity, that animates him. His is inspired by that part in him which is purely and greatly human, and which he brings out and establishes the connection between himself and humanity by expressing in marble. If Rodin has greater power, Barnard has greater poetic power, and in that sense hey may be an ideal Rodin, but is more "ideal" than "Rodin." Barnard is an idealist, not in the Greek sense of the term, but in the human sense, in the sense that teaches. In the Frenchman all is brutal life; in the American there is idealization, not of form, but of desire. Like Schopenhauer, the philosopher - not the pessimist - he has seen the world as well. *** American-like American music must not be dependent upon European ideals. Young men like George Barnard and Roland Perry still show their Continental training, but both are feeling for national ideals, Perry by way of Wagner and the heroic Scandinavians - another northwest passage - and Barnard in the region of moral idea. *** TIMES HERALD Cutting from Address of Paper CHICAGO, ILL Date MAY 2, 1897 George Guy Barnard, the Chicago sculptor, now residing in New York, continues to receive the highest encomiums. He is styled by some "the modern Michael Angelo"; others consider him a greater artist than Rodin. Cutting from N. T. EV'G SUN. Address of Paper Date MAY 25 1897 ART NOTES ------- When he came to this country in quest of a place adapted to the purposes of colonization, one of the first persons visited by the representative of that little group of artists in Paris who are bend on living ideal lives somewhere on this continent was Mr. George Grey Barnard, the sculptor. The would be colonist knew that Mr. Barnard had at one time very much same ambition as his own, and he looked to him for sympathy and advice. He told him of his projects, and expressed many views on art and other matters, which were nearly all elevated and beautiful and unpractical to the last degree. He seemed an expert builder of aërial castles, but as yet had never tried to erect one on the vulgar earth. He had an earthly one, however, in an embryonic condition in his head, which after a period of gestation was to come forth in the form of a piece of sculpture, begat of pure inspiration. Though Mr. Barnard did not encourage him to any extraordinary degree, and perhaps looked at the matter in rather too practical a way to please the visionary and artistic mind of the Utopian, and indeed, confessed to him very frankly that his (Barnard's) views had changed not a little since he had been brought face to face with life and its problems; yet the enthusiastic Utopian was very well pleased with the sculptor, and when eventually he took his leave with many friendly protestations. he expressed a hope that in time Mr. Barnard might be persuaded to join the colony. He then went on his way to seek a patron willing to supply him and friends with land, houses, cattle and other necessities of life, and it may be that he is still prosecuting his search. In the meantime, however, he did not forget Mr. Barnard, who had betrayed some interest in his undertaking, and wrote to him from time to time telling him of what progress he hand made toward accomplishing the end he had in view. Once he seems to have found a willing benefactor: but apparently there was some hitch. something that interfered with his acceptance of the land offered to him, for when Mr. Barnard next heard from him he was in another part of the country. The latest letter received by the sculptor was dated from Alabama, whence his correspondent sent also several small paper parcels. In his letter the writer declared that he verily believed he had at last found an ideal spot for colonization. The one thing that caused him to hesitate was a doubt as to whether he could find here material in which to give concrete expression to his inspirations The packages, he explained enclosed a few specimens of the clay in that neighborhood, which he begged Mr. Barnard to examine, and to give his opinion as to whether thay were suitable for the purposes of modelling. Accordingly Mr. Barnard opened one of the parcels and found therein an exceeding fine material of marvellous whiteness. Never before had he seen so fine a clay. He pressed it between his finger and thumb, and it desolved into powder. He fetched a basin of water and placed therein a small quantity. Then a strange thing came to pass, for the clay disappeared instantly. He took a larger pinch from another parcel, and it, too, dissolved completely. And, no, a burning sensation about the tips of his fingers explained the phenomenon. The beautiful white clay was nothing else by quicklime.
