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ARTS FOR AMERICA.
Volume VII.
NO. 1.

CHICAGO, September, 1897.

$2.00 a Year.
(10 numbers.)
25 cents a Number.

*GEORGE GREY BARNARD.
THREE years ago a young American sculpture made his début in Paris with so remarkable a success that his name was heralded in a day, as it were, throughout the whole art world. The journals of Paris vied with each other in sounding his praises, and the Société Nationale de Beaux-Arts paid him its highest honor - George Barnard was famous! George Barnard, that gentle, rosy-cheeked youth whom I used to meet over yonder, some twelve years ago, on the Boulevard Montparnasse, and Sundays - once in a while - at the American Chapel; the earnest, quiet boy whom the fellows all respected and liked but could never get near to. I remember that when I returned to Paris, a couple of years later, they told me that he had become a sort of hermit, admitting no one to his studio. I went, nevertheless, and the old friend seemed to me unchanged; he gave me a hearty welcome, and did not talk through a crack in the door either. 
His work impressed me then as very original, but not beautiful as I under-stood beauty. It interested me much, and I marveled to see things so strange and powerful from the hands of this young Western boy. These earlier works were supplemented, in the Salon of the Champ de Mars, by several more important achievements, produced apparently in the white heat of enthusiasm during the three or four years which intervened. 

Last autumn Mr. Barnard, now established in New York City, gave there an exhibition of h is lifework up to date, attracting much attention in the really artistic circles. It could hardly be expected that conceptions like "The Two Natures" or the struggles of "Primitive Man" with earth-powers of old would appeal to the purchasers of modern Italian marbles. In the literature inspired by George Barnard's work is notable an essay by William A. Coffin, which appeared in the April Century of the current year. Its criticisms, though conservative, give an idea of the importance of Mr. Barnard's contribution to the art of our day. Its admirable illustrations, united with those which the generosity of the Century Company enables us to offer herewith, render description unnecessary.
Doubtless many were surprised to read in Mr. Coffin's article the young sculptor was not only a product of these western prairies but had received his first instruction at our Art Institute of Chicago. I fancy that this was news even to the Institute people themselves. 

*Illustrations from the Century photographs.