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JM
 CHRUCH OF THE ASCENSION IN A DARLEY
SCENE? (Carol Digel) Spanierman Gallery:SEE: GO
THERE
JUDD’S “MARGARET,”
AN EARLY WORK OF DARLEY THAT WON
INTERNATIONAL ACCLAIM
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Here is a contemporary, that is 1856, review of Margaret:
FROM: “The Crayon” December 1856, Editor, William Stillman
The article comes from the Delaware Art
Museum (DAM), Wilmington, Delaware. Review of Judd’s “Margaret” FOC Darley,
Illustrator REPORTED BY: Carol Digel, Darley Society. Note that the DAM has
the ORIGINAL "Margaret" drawings, and they are beautiful. Not on
display; to see them, one must make a special request for an appointment to
see them; lots of lead time required (if granted at all).
DARLEY’S OUTLINE ILLUSTRATIONS
OF “MARGARET”
ALL Art which rises above the
merely imitative and transcriptive may be divided, with, we imagine, little
possibility of error, into two kinds, considered with reference to the
subject they present--the purely creative, and the illustrative.
While the former takes rank
beside the highest orders of poetry--that which is also creative, the latter
follows the creations of the poet as commemorative, or, as it is most happily
defined by the common term, taken in its true, purest sense,
illustrative--giving farther light upon the meaning of the ideas which it
considers--elucidating them by the >application of a language which, in
some directions, possesses powers which that of the poet does not.
It is evident, then that all so
called illustrative Art must be examined rigidly from this point of critical
view, and we shall then find it divided into the true and the false, or the
really and the seemingly illustrative.
Of these again we may at once
reject the latter, a large elimination, indeed, since it embraces the great
part of all the so-called genre Art, the story telling--all that which, be
its theme Shakespearian, Goldsmithian, historical, or Scriptural, does no
more than repeat in form what the writer has said in words. That is not
enough, there must be added ideas, new light given, or there is no
illustration. To make our meaning more definite, let us examine, for example,
a work by one of these pseudo illustrators, and this no less an artist than
C. R. Leslie.
For brevity we select the
simplest of his works. We remember a “Beatrice,” from “Much Ado About
Nothing: “For look where Beatrice like a lapwing runs! Close by the ground to
hear our conference.” It is merely a half length figure, and so far as the
action implied in the quotation is concerned, expressive enough; we
understand at once that somebody is anxious to overhear somebody else say
something, but if we look for a clearer idea of what Beatrice was--for a
great mind’s understanding of what the ideal of another great mind must have
been; in short, if we look for an intelligent commentary on a creation of a
master intellect, by which we may be helped to realize that creation, we
shall find no response to our seeking.
Leslie’s picture goes no farther
than an actress who should assume the attitude and repeat the words of the
play. But, it will be said, so severe a ruling demands that, in order to
illustrate Shakespeare, one must be the peer of Shakespeare, and so we shall
have no illustrations until we find men equally great with the men they would
illustrate.
True, except that one need not be
the equal in every direction, or even in creative power, but so far as the
capacity to comprehend fully is concerned, in whatever point illustration is
attempted, there must be equality. We do not care for the opinions of little
no-genius as to what great genius has done, and the >sooner we exclude his
prating from our Art repertoire the sooner we shall rid the world of a
quantity of chaff and rubbish. The use of the illustration is to enlighten,
and if it perform not this use, it is worse than nothing.
As an example of genuine
illustration take Grimm’s household stories, illustrated by Wehnert, where
the vein of the story has almost invariably been followed out and rendered
with almost happy illumination, with an undercurrent of meaning which tells
of profound reflection. A curious word-puzzle, for instance, perfectly
inexplicable, a riddle unsolvable, is illustrated by a knotted cord, in which
we can find neither end nor manner of untying. And here, simple as the whole
thing is, is found the antithesis of the lucas a non lucendo illumination of
modern Art, and the whole law of illustration complied with.
The same view of this branch of
Art as applied to character, will ask something beyond a mere picturesque
adaptation of forms and figures to ornament a story or a poem--it will insist
on a thoughtful realization of the ideals of character involved, and so the
truest and most earnest illustrations will be those which present us with the
most faithful portraiture of the individuals as seen by the artist in the
mind >of >the author, and that not as involved in any accidental
circumstance, but showing, as all good portraiture should and must, the ideal
nature of the object.
In this true use of the term,
Darley is fairly entitled to the rank of an illustrator, and successful as
humoristic ideals as his former works have been, we are inclined to regard
“Margaret,” on the whole, as the most successful and noble of all he has yet
done.
The designs would have been more
just as illustrations had they rendered more actually the New England
characteristics--the slight degree of conventional expression which the
artist has allowed himself in any of them, preventing us from realizing their
locality with that precision which we have a right to demand in local
illustration.
There is no such thing as a
conventional New Englander; they are all live, most absolutely actual
personages, and the skilled eye may always detect the lines of the hills
around their birthplaces, somewhere in their visages.
Margaret’s foster-parents might
have been born in Germany; we would not say they were, but we couldn’t swear
to the contrary. Hash must been a “Kenuck,”* and some of the coarser
characters we fail utterly in >finding the local traits in. In the
charming and touching “Parson Wells and his wife,” the lineage as well as the
character is most admirably told.
Chilion, pensive, sensitive, and
wayward as genius may be, is just such a lusus naturae, as we find often in
the villages of Yankee land,--a startling exception to all around them,
refined when all else is coarse, spiritual when all else is gross, and poetic
when every one beside is to the extreme prosaic. Yet not one of all is there
unstudied or characterless, but subtle and masterly in their expression of
the character aimed at; nothing vague--nothing undecided.
With Margaret we were least
pleased of all:--somebody she certainly is--Darley’s conception of Margaret
doubtless, but not in accordance with our estimate of what the author’s ideal
was.
The individuality is strong; but
neither strong enough for “Margaret,” nor externally manifested with the
intensity with which she would have shown it. According to our mind, she must
have been unprepossessing at first sight, except for the brilliancy of her
eyes, and there must have been a strength and energy about the lines of the
mouth, which Darley’s dreamy, tearful-eyed Margaret has not. She is too
beautiful; the Margaret of the book was rather splendid than beautiful.
It is undeniable that Darley’s
strongest points are those which approach the grotesque, and here “Pluck,”
the camp-preacher, “Brown Moll,” “Hash,” and “Deacon Ramsdill,” evidently
were more thoroughly enjoyed than the quiet characters.
Of “the Master” we fail to
receive any very definite idea. The volcanic gravity of “Tony Washington,”
and the picturesque loutishness of “Obid,” are exceedingly good points.
In technical respects we have
here the best compositions and the most effective drawing we have ever seen
by Darley. The two scenes in which Hash and his oxen occur, particularly the
one in which the little Margaret crowns the composition, are exquisitely
composed, and the oxen are drawn with most noble skill. “Chilion played and
they were silent,” is full of grace and ease.
“Retrospection” has a feeling of
sublimity in its lines, and the repose of the figure of the woman quite
unique and almost perfectly satisfactory. “Nimrod exhibits his humor” is
capital both in action and >composition, and is irresistibly comic.
The book is published in superb
style; the outlines engraved on stone, by Conrad Huber.
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AE
Darley Moves to the "Country" ... uses
THE ADAMS EXPRESS
It
has been noted that F.O.C. Darley did illustrators a great favor when he set
a new "trend" for illustrators to NOT live almost next door to
their publisher.
In
the illustration business, the artist had to make frequent contact with the
publisher, to recieve commissions and to present 'proofs' of work in
progress.
Felix,
when he married in 1859, had attained worldwide fame, so he felt that he was now
able to move to the country where he loved to hunt and draw farm animals and
landscapes (usually for personal use or to give to friends).
Felix
Darley moved to Claymont, Delaware in 1859 after his marriage to Jane
Colburn. While Claymont was rural, the train station was only yards from his
front door.
He
continued his New York ties "by Adams Express", the mail train
between New York, Baltimore and Washington. He would make periodical
"runs on to New York to execute his lighter commissions, attend to business
matters and keep up his old friendships."
(NRH
Editor's note: Darley referred to these "runs" ..."...to keep
my pot hot and my heart warm.")
"...illustrated
by Darley, 1978 Catalog of the Delaware Art Museum exhibit..
ABOUT THE ADAMS EXPRESS:
Reference
is made to "Adams Express" in several letters in the collection of
the Winterthur Museum and library, Wilmington, Delaware. I was astonished to
learn the The Adams Express Company is still in business.
THE
ADAMS EXPRESS COMPANY
The
Adams Express Company had its beginnings in 1840, when Alvin Adams recognized
the need for the safe transportation of securities, documents, and parcels
between the financial centers of Boston and New York.
The
operation was incorporated in 1854 and rapidly expanded across the country.
Its only serious competitors at the time were American Express and Wells,
Fargo & Co.
Adams
played a significant role in the Civil War, acting as paymaster for both the
Union and Confederate armies until, in response to complaints about this, a
separate, affiliated company, Southern Express, was set up to handle affairs
for the South. In addition, at least one slave that we know of was shipped
north to Philadelphia in a box in order for his master to free him.
By
the 1880's, the company had 7,800 employees, was operating over 20,000 miles
of railroad track, and had offices in most major cities in Europe. At the
time of the First World War, the government nationalized both the railroads
and the express companies in order to expedite the movement of goods around
the country.
After
the war, the railroad industry bought out the express companies and Adams
Express invested the proceeds in the stock market, becoming a closed-end
investment company in 1929 with $62 million in assets. The company's
travelers' check business was sold to American Express, which became a
financial services company, and Wells, Fargo focused on its previously
established bank in California.
Today, Adams Express is an
internally-managed fund employing twenty people, with net assets in excess of
$1.5 billion.
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