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SANFORD R. GIFFORD.
ARTIST AND MAN.

HIS CHARACTERISTICS AND PLACE IN ART, AS ESTIMATED BY THE YALE PROFESSOR OF FINE ARTS.
To the Editor of the Tribune.

SIR: The death of Sanford R. Gifford has been the occasion for an expression of various opinions respecting his merits as an artist, and however diverse these estimates, they have had a general concurrence in according him a high rank in landscape art. It is hardly possible to conceive that a character so self-poised, so intent and serious in its intellectual life, absorbed in the study of art, should fail to penetrate beneath the ephemeral to the more enduring excellence that insures fame. An earnest simplicity characterized Gifford, and this quality of his fine temperament permeated his art. He worked from conviction, and with entire devotion to the best interests of his profession, never allowing anything, however alluring, to swerve him from the path indicated by his artistic instincts. He understood himself, his powers and their limitations; and he steadfastly adhered to those convictions that sprang from his sympathy with nature as the source of inspiration in art.

While on his death-bed he declared that it had always been his endeavor to religiously improve the talent entrusted to him. Whatever critical estimate we place upon his works, they stand part as the sincere outcome of a serious and steadfast aim, directed by a fine intelligence; and whether we accord him unstinted praise or qualify this with critical reservations, the fact remains that his pictures are the product of an original mind-a mind capable of rightly estimating the value and significance of individual impressions. The vast supremacy in merit of this quality in art above the imitative-that mimicry of style and matter which is not now uncommon-will insure the landscapes of Gifford a lasting fame. This artist loved the light. His finest impressions were those derived from the landscape when the air is charged with an effulgence of irruptive and glowing light, and he dared follow the dictates of his intuitions in placing on the canvas the equivalent of these impressions. It is in thus daring to do what overs dare not that genius often manifests itself when under the guidance of a profound sanity. Gifford has been criticised for painting the sun, for dazzling the eye with the splendors of sunlight verging on extravagance. This is a quality of genius in all art-to verge on extravagance, and yet remain calm; to pause within the bounds of reason and good taste. In order to create, the poet and the artist must feel more intensely than is common. They do not regard things tamely and with ordinary sensibility. Therefore it is a common charge to ascribe to them extravagance, when a more just criticism eventually proves that they have a due regard for truth. Gifford's art was not "made tongue-tied by authority." His credo rested on the conviction that what interested and moved him would, in like manner, interest others. He was prepared to stand or fall in accordance with his intuitions. He had respect for the source of inspiration within his own breast, and he took care that this should neither be impeded nor disturbed. He was not restricted to viewing the landscape with pleasure-as has been wrongly intimated-only under certain hours and under peculiar conditions. There was an equal solemnity for him in the noonday sun and the broken rays of a declining day. He saw the meridian light sparkling on the ruins of the Parthenon, and he well understood at all hours this must have been an object of admiration in the eye of a Greek. The gamut of tone in the landscape, he held, extended with equal charm from the most sombre to the most brilliant; the scope of art reached from Rembrandt to Veronese, and he had little sympathy with current orthodox opinion respecting limitations to be observed in art that fall short of the extreme powers of the sensibility to drive pleasure from all sources, with perfect liberty under the guidance of good taste.

His pictures manifest a lucid spontaneity that is perhaps their greatest char. They are the free expression of the higher and more poetic qualities of landscape. They are not the merely literal rendering of the facts of nature with prosaic precision. They are, rather, a lucid reminiscence, a passional and poetic form of art that kindles emotion, or moves one to reverie. His picture of "Sunrise on the Sea-shore" is an admirable example of this quality of his art. The sea and its solitudes always impressed and inspired him. The published list of his pictures shows great diversity of subject - in Syria, Egypt, Italy, Greece, Switzerland, England and America, his brush has been unceasingly active. And those who fancy that there is too great similarity in his treatment of landscape, or over-fondness for glowing color and hazy atmosphere will correct their opinion should opportunity be offered by a display of his collected works. It will be found that there is no modern landscape painter who exhibits greater variety in the treatment of his subjects than Sanford Gifford. Corot, Rousseau, Daubing and others of equal eminence have no wider scope, no greater diversity of style than he displayed. It is not the fashion abroad, as it is with us, to demand of the artist that he shall never repeat his melodies under variation nor use the same chords again and again. It is more maturely and wisely understood that every great artist must do just this very thing thus ignorantly denounced. He identifies himself with a single idea which is the characteristic of every great mind in whatever channel it works. He reiterates and reiterates until this idea becomes the heritage of the people who appropriate it as a natural right with little regard, oftentimes, for the personality with which it was originally identified. A pseudo-critic declares that he can tell a "Kensett" at a glance, without consulting the name upon the canvas, and that he is tired of them. He may do the same with a Raphael, a Rembrandt, a Rubens, a Rousseau, or a Corot and be no less fatigued, seeing that he lacks the power to appreciate that which once seen, never is wearisome or incapable of affording pleasure.
 
The style of every true artist is determined by his temperament, for style is simple one's own way of doing a thing, and they who are most successful in the arts adhere too one simple method of procedure adapted to their understanding. For Gifford the key to the sentiment of the landscape always rested in its atmosphere. This gave it unity and expression. He effected this unity in his art by plunging all the separate features of the landscape in a qualifying colored atmosphere. Technically speaking's its reference to his method, he adopted some general and persuasive key of color suited to his theme, and into this, as a vehicle he broke all the separate and intricate harmonies of the detail. He thus qualified every local tint with a pervasive illumination, often glowing and mellow, yet never sacrificing that crispness of touch which indicates a nervous appreciation of the character
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the clouds gathered after dinner we had a wind squall which completely stripped four of the trees. The color has been very full and rich but I think it is on the wane now. I went over to my studio and began to compose a picture 20 x 32 as a study for a larger one if successful. I am going to paint a quiet grey picture. If the weather would grow sober I think I would be in a mood to do something. Weir advised me to stick to what I feel I can do best and it accords with my own impression. I have been too anxious to do too many things. He said he had me in mind as much as Gifford in what he said on that point in this article on Gifford. The elections in Ohio and Indiana took place today. Much importance is attached to them and I hope they have gone Republican. A letter from Alice saying her father and mother would come to the Convention at Hudson and spend