sion, I am persuaded, would have cheered up his spirit, and called forth fresh images from his fancy. It is ever to be regretted that he was not employed in this way; had he been, our country would no doubt have had a beautiful creation from a highly cultivated and poetic mind, now forever lost.

No one who was ever acquainted with the subject of this notice, but must feel sincere regret, also, that so fair and amiable a character was not soothed in his latter years with all the ease and comfort of mind and body that the world could bestow, which thus far has been seldom if ever the lot of his profession in our country. How many there are who have not undergone half the fatigue, physical or mental, endured by Mr. Allston-not to mention the far greater amount of time and money expended in the acquisition of his profession than in most other pursuits-yet have secured to themselves the means to reach the decline of life in a condition to assure ease and comfort. Such is the unequal compensation of the world.

When I look back some five or six-and-thirty years, when we were both in Rome, and next-door neighbors on the Trinita del Monte, and in the spring of life, full of enthusiasm for our art, and fancying fair prospects awaiting us in after years— and few certainly had more right than my worthy colleague to look towards such a futurity-it is painful to reflect how far these hopes have been from being realized. Such may be the lot of a great

many; still we may believe and hope that so melan. choly an example rarely occurs.

J. VANDERLYN.'

The Art-Union of New-York have struck a commemorative medal, with Allston's face on the obverse side; and thus is the great artist rewarded.

Genius, that breaks the fetters encircling the mind, is fated to drink life's bitterest cup to the dregs. After earth has flung the gem away, she proclaims its value.

Reformers must be martyrs. Every Socrates must quaff his hemlock-every Burns pine in unpitied poverty. In life, the artist appears on the reverse side of the world's medal-in death, on the obverse."-Dewey Fay.

AMERICAN PATRONAGE AT HOME AND ABROAD.

The writer has frequently heard our artists bitterly complain of the meanness of their countrymen in patronizing everything foreign, not only at home but abroad. It is mortifying enough to them to see the palaces of many of our merchant princes disgraced, not adorned, with a multitude of modern flashy French pictures, without a single piece by a native artist. How cutting then must be the slight to those young artists, who, having gone to Italy for improvement, are visited in their studios, by their countrymen, who, desirous of bringing home some copies of favorite pictures, give their commissions to foreigners. Our young artists, during their resi

dence abroad, are generally poor, and frequently undergo every privation to enable them to achieve the object of their ambition. Weir says that at one time during his residence at Rome, he was obliged "to live on ten cents a day for a month.” Greenough, during his second visit to Italy, was almost driven to despair. Mr. J. Fenimore Cooper found him in this deplorable state in 1829, and gave him a commission for his beautiful group of Chanting Cherubs. He had already distinguished himself by several admirable busts of John Quincy Adams, Chief Justice Marshall, Henry Clay, and others, but this was the first commission he had ever received for a group, The grateful sculptor says in a letter to Mr. Dunlap, "Mr. Fenimore Cooper saved me from despair, after my second return to Italy. He employed me as I wished to be employed; and has, up to this moment, been a father to me in kindness."

Mr. Cooper, in a letter published in the NewYork American, April 30, 1831, says:

"Most of our people, who come to Italy, employ the artists of the country to make copies, under the impression that they will be both cheaper and better, than those done by Americans, studying here. My own observation has led me to adopt a different course. I am well assured that few things are done for us by Europeans, under the same sense of responsibility, as when they work for customers near home. The very occupation of the copyist, in

fers some want of that original capacity, without which no man can impart to a work, however exact it may be in its mechanical details, the charm of expression. In the case of Mr. Greenough, I was led even to try the experiment of an original. The dif ference in value between an original and a copy is so greatly in favor of the former, with anything like approach to success, that I am surprised that more of our amateurs are not induced to command them. The little group I have sent home, (the Chanting Cherubs) will always have an interest that can belong to no other work of the same character. It is the first effort of a young artist who bids fair to build for himself a name, and whose life will be connected with the history of the art in that country which is so soon to occupy such a place in the world. It is more; it is probably the first group ever completed by an American sculptor."

When this beautiful group had been exhibited a sufficient time in the United States, to bring its merits before the public, Mr. Cooper, in the hope of influencing the government to employ Greenough on a statue of Washington, wrote to the President, and to Mr. McLane the Secretary of the Treasury, strongly urging the plan of a statue of the "Father of his Country," by the first American sculptor who had shown himself competent to so great a task. He was successful, and Congress commissioned Greenough to execute a statue of Washington for the Capitol. The sculptor received the intelligence

with transports of delight, but when he had had time for reflection, he modestly began to doubt his ability to do justice to his subject, and "answer all the expectations of his friends." "When I went," says he, "the other morning, into the large room in which I propose to execute my statue, I felt like a spoiled boy, who, after insisting upon riding on horseback, bawled aloud with fright, at finding himself in the saddle, so far from the ground!"

Is it not a burning shame, that the most gifted artists of this great and glorious country should be compelled to go abroad to seek both fame and bread, not fortune? What merchant prince will set his countrymen an example, and, like Sir George Beaumont, bribe Congress and his fellow citizens to form a national gallery, by giving a collection of casts from the antique, first class paintings and engravings, rare works of art, and a library on art, worth 70,000 guineas? It is a mistaken opinion, entertained by many, that the fine arts are of little importance to our country. On the contrary, every person is directly interested. A foreign writer observes that, "silver-plating in the United States, is what tin-smithery is in Paris." Fuseli terms Venice "the toy-shop of Europe;" better Paris. What a multitude of people are supported in that great city by the manufacture of ten thousand fabrics, exquisitely designed and executed. The Parisians have a keen perception of the beautiful, simply from being educated in a city abounding with galleries