Title:  The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 4, No. 23, September, 1859

Author:  Various

Release Date:  August 4, 2005 [EBook #16430]

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

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THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.

A magazine of literature, art, and politics.

Vol.  IV.—­September, 1859.—­No.  XXIII.

THE LIFE AND WORKS OF ARY SCHEFFER.

No painter of this age has made so deep an impression on the popular mind of America as Ary Scheffer.  Few, if any other contemporary artists are domesticated at our firesides, and known and loved in our remotest villages and towns.  Only a small number, indeed, of his original works have been exhibited here,—­yet engravings from them are not only familiar to every person of acknowledged taste and culture, but are dear to the hearts of many who scarcely know the artist’s name.  Young maidens delight in their tender pathos, and the suffering heart is consoled and elevated by their pure and lofty religious aspiration.  An effect so great must have an adequate and peculiar cause; and we shall not have far to seek for it, but shall find it in the aim and character of the artist.  Scheffer has two prominent qualities, by which he has won his place in the popular estimation.  The first is his sentiment.  His works are full of simple, tender pathos.  His pictures always tell their story, first to the eye, next to the heart and soul of the beholder.  His admirable knowledge of composition is always subordinate to expression.  His meaning is not merely historical or poetical, but is true to life and every-day experience.  “Mignon regrettant sa Patrie” is felt and appreciated by those who have never sung,

    “Kennst du das Land wo die Citronen
    bluehen,”—­

and “Faust” and “Margaret” tell their story to all who have felt life’s struggles and temptations, whether they have read them in Goethe’s version or not.  Added to this power of pathos and sentiment is the deep religious feeling which pervades every work of his pencil, whatever be its outward form.  His religion is of no dogma or sect, but the inflowing of a life which makes all things holy and full of infinite meaning.  Whether he paint the legends of the Catholic Church, as in “St. Augustine” and “St. Monica,” or illustrate the life-poem of the Protestant Goethe, or tell a simple story of childhood, the same feelings are kindled, in our heart’s faith in God, love to man, the sure hope of immortality.  It is this genuine and earnest religion of humanity which has made his works familiar to every lover of Art and sentiment, and given us a feeling of personal love and reverence for the made artist.