Old Grumble as an Artist

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 93, 29 January 1891, Page 3

Old Grumble as an Artist

.'■ - vv.; ME vEpHOß;— :■'-■-■' ■V.-'-- ; : '■]:■':'.'' !' .rlnipiite not to me jhe. fault if memory " o'eV my tpmt >'..ab ; trophies raise, I have tried to get one or two lifted .hUiouor of my name, but up to the present the fa'es have forbidden it: il take Painting to be pre-eminently the finest of fine arts, for swelling niusic!s most seiiuclive strains^ or boldest grace cf sculpture's ricliest chissclings appeal, after iil'l, but to the sense of hearing or of sight.; but ; 'painting is of far higher '• val ue. It re veals to ua the buried past, arid makes us. familiar more than does ; aijftht else with our ancestors ; but if we become acquamted with their habits, anil Iheir deeds, and as we gaze upon the jjlowing canvas, they live again in fancy, and seem to speak and breathe anew; 5 In the presetft; it is the artist's hand, that will preserve to posterity the stirring scenes which we of to-day are enacting, and. ages to icom'e -long after we have returned tp ; mother earth, or ;at>be!St} are but a few di^bbiies hidden away beneath Some crypt, the stones of which time is fast disintegrating^- the painter's work wiH tell our chiljireniwhat sort of men r « ! nd ) won?en i wel were^' Ira pressed by the 1b ftinessr of art (which -distinguishes ■ mankind^ I romit the; iivwer ••- animals in kubwledfie' 6f-ihe pa3t= I essayed the ■pallet and- the- easeL- -Hhe subject; was tohaise;been : a " Summer's day at Sea," hut a difficulty »,rpse,^ ''and though r had it depicted upon my miid T vividly enough, ;j|i f'the]^^transmission' of it from the " brain >,tb the ; jcanvas;: it became strangelj^altered; for; ; ?6wjng to .the faulty condition Hlie brush, combined with .ascertain uusteadiness of the hand, tp'sliip appeared to have a winter's coat of hair on : it, the yellow rays ot Jhe sun mixing: with the celestial blue of the skyy ? turned the a whole of : lieavenly $reen, se> thnt the ssea sappeared to beall oyer-head, and the ship, to be bowling merrily along five fathoms deep, with a xrew of Tritons aboardv I then thouglit of changing it into a:submarine piece by making a Ijghthouse of the sun, and -turning ithe ship into a sea monster, when it occurred to me that the lighthouse had

no foundation, and a* far as 1 knew, the denizens of the deep were not hairy. Op portuiiely, a frind dropped in, to whom I told my trouble " Don't be dusheart«ned," said he, " True si fo n of genius to mean to paint oue thing and afterwards to find it resembles another, and th..t a something you never anticipated. You M-iH b .m R A some day if you perse vere. ' " V\ liai's that," I as>ued. "A. JRiis Assipus,'* he answered. Not wishing "to disclose my ignorance of Latin, *nd conceiving it to be a title of high degree, I-nminiuied, "Oh, ha i but I •can never aspire to such a dignity. ''Oh, jes, you can," he replied, "turn that picture up on tm end and call it a scene an the Rocky Mountains. Sco, the ship is now converted into a bear ; the ocean into grassy slopes of lofty mountains ; -and the sun becomes a distant volcano in action " I cid as advised, and exhibited it, but it attracted no attention, other than (he passing remark of one man. who declared that " it was the funniest critter of a bar that ever he see, and that it wasn't like the Eockies no 4iow." ,1 informed my friend of the result, but he would not be out done ; he -was a man of resource, and at once sug jested that the picuire he turned upside down, tlie volcano transformed into a fierce siible.r.n an fie, the sea into suljiiiurt u-f smoke, tlie bear into an inde > *«'ihable creature writhing in toiments in the hornule pit. "Call it a glimpse 4it Inferno," snid he, " It is always an interest-in}? 'subject, for alth >uuh it h s merer bei-n visited 'by any one on earth, 3«t it i- the place w liiclf every body believes*

■Mill be flu- ultimate abode of hi* neighbor." This time the ven'ure was a suc«ess, and mtirmurs of '"Deop! deep as <lauinati<>u !" "Highly classic," and "No bottom to it," came fioui the vanou-* ■spectator". it* was sold to ihe proprietor of^ a lunatic asylum, who thought he discerned in it the work of a iornier patient of his. Finding that Auintiugs of animals were more sought after than such high subjects I attempted lo copy some 6f tlie masters in that line, and attached a bull dog to- the leg of a Jean cadaverous looking^ man, whom I depicted as looking over his shoulder and wearing an aspect of terror whilst inak ing tremendous strides in vain attempts lo free himself from the dog. 1 was proud of it, and modestly dubbed it "A dog — after Landseer." It soon became the property of' an enterprising tailor, who exhibited it as an advertisement, showing the quality of the cloth his garments wers made of Unfortunately the artist whose name I had mentioned was not dead at the time, and paid me a visit, when he designated the picture as a libel, and horsewhipped me for painting it. One more venture an I I wasdo.io Fabulous animals could offend no one, I thought, so made the " Ass in lion's clothing" my next subject; -but when on its completion a frien.l complimented me on such an admirable portrait of myself, which he said was easily discoverable in spite of the di-gu se it was under, and as 'X had then learned the true meaning of " Ki?s Assinus" I came to the conclusion that painting was not my forte, and that if posterity knew aught of us, it would be by. other hands than those of ' " "" Old "Gbumble.