THE DECORATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

A PLEA FOR AMERICANISM IN SUBJECT AND ORNAMENTAL DETAIL.

THE SCULPTOR.
(Town Hall-Louvain.)

BY CHARLES M. SHEAN.

Object of Mural Painting.

There

are

two clearly defined classes of decorative painting: Pure ornamentation that may consist of figure subjects as well as architectural ornament, and that which impresses a lesson. The first is essentially private, the second public.

The natural and legitimate field of the decorative artist as an embellisher and enricher of interiors only is properly found in those buildings erected at the cost of individuals and not for the uses of the state. Here color for color's sake alone may be, and frequently is, the only proper and rational treatment. The pleasure of the eye, the joy of the senses, is the only aim and object. Let his ballrooms be as splendid, his diningrooms and banqueting halls as magnificent, his boudoirs as dainty as the sums at his disposal and his skies will permit. For their elaboration all styles of ornament-the flora of the world, the costumes and fashions of all times, the myths and mythologies of all peoples are at his disposal.

But in the structures erected for public uses and with the public uses and with the public funds our libraries, court houses, city

halls and state capitols-mere splendor should be tempered by appropriateness and the use of the building characterize and control its enrichment. Here the painter should commemorate and beautify, the one as well as the other, and both always together, and it does not seem improper nor untimely now to insist in view of the character of the decorations in two recent and important public buildings, one in Washington and one in New York, that the American artist when engaged in public work, shall look for his inspiration in his own country and among his own people.

Art should be Indigenous.

In these buildings, the artists to whom the commissions were entrusted have abundantly demonstrated their mastery of their trade and their ability to successfully handle and solve complicated problems of color and composition. The result is a splendid technical achievement only-exotic, without savor of the soil and having no roots in the rich mould of this western world. No criticism of craftsmanship is here intended or implied, but the point of view only is challenged. If the mural art of this Republic, this government "of the people, by the people and for the people," is ever to become vital and living, is ever to become a dignified, honorable and worthy calling for men and women, it must cease to bedizen and bedeck. It must become more than an academic echo, a Renaissance reminiscence. The artist must learn to make the walls of our public buildings splendid with pictured records of American exploit and achievement, of American industry and commerce, of American life and culture.

From the

Mural Painting in Europe.

As the cathedrals of the past were the picture books of the people, so the municipal and state buildings of modern Europe are glorified by the artists of the old world in the painted stories of their countries' greatness. The onrush of battle and the despairing resistance of the besieged are there commemorated, but there also the laurel crown is given the heroes of peace. Their physicians, scientists, teachers, inventors, authors and the writers of poetry, history and fiction find fitting remembrance. Together with the

varied and rugged life of the past, the callings and occupations of the day are shown: The chemist in his laboratory, the teacher in the classroom, the farmer following the plow and the workman at his bench, and landscapes and views of city streets lend their aid.

At Paris the Pantheon's interior is not a stage for the mere display of an opalescent melange of things classical and mythological, for graceful form and skillful draping. But in this old fane of Ste.

Genevieve, this temple now dedicated "aux grands hommes la patrie reconnaissante," the Gallic artist has gone to the splendid past of France and found congenial themes. And nowhere else is the easy supremacy and primacy of the French school of painting of today more clearly shown than here in stories familiar to every French girl and boy. Though these paintings are among the most beautiful and successful of the century just past, they are more than masterpieces, craftsmen's diplomas, mere color enrichments; but

because of them and what they tell and teach, the walls of this building are to every Frenchman a joy and an admonition, an encouragement and an incentive, and to us at the beginnings of civic art a lesson and an example.

In two other recent French buildings-the new Hotel de Ville and the Sorbonne-with much that is purely decorative and scenic, France and her Paris are ever before us. Many of the Mairies of