The Negro in Literature and Art in the United States Part 6

Mr. Tanner has the very highest ideals for his art. These could hardly be better stated than in his own words: "It has very often seemed to me that many painters of religious subjects (in our time) seem to forget that their pictures should be as much works of art (regardless of the subject) as are other paintings with less holy subjects. To suppose that the fact of the religious painter having a more elevated subject than his brother artist makes it unnecessary for him to consider his picture as an artistic production, or that he can be less thoughtful about a color harmony, for instance, than he who selects any other subject, simply proves that he is less of an artist than he who gives the subject his best attention." Certainly, no one could ever accuse Henry Tanner of insincere workmans.h.i.+p. His whole career is an inspiration and a challenge to aspiring painters, and his work is a monument of st.u.r.dy endeavor and exalted achievement.

XI

SCULPTORS.--META WARRICK FULLER

In sculpture, as well as in painting, there has been a beginning of highly artistic achievement. The first person to come into prominence was Edmonia Lewis, born in New York in 1845. A sight of the statue of Franklin, in Boston, inspired within this young woman the desire also to "make a stone man." Garrison introduced her to a sculptor who encouraged her and gave her a few suggestions, but altogether she received little instruction in her art. In 1865 she attracted considerable attention by a bust of Robert Gould Shaw, exhibited in Boston. In this same year she went to Rome to continue her studies, and two years later took up her permanent residence there. Among her works are: "The Freedwoman," "The Death of Cleopatra" (exhibited at the exposition in Philadelphia in 1876), "Asleep," "The Marriage of Hiawatha," and "Madonna with the Infant Christ." Among her busts in terra cotta are those of John Brown, Charles Sumner, Lincoln, and Longfellow. Most of the work of Edmonia Lewis is in Europe. More recently the work of Mrs. May Howard Jackson, of Was.h.i.+ngton, has attracted the attention of the discerning. This sculptor has made several busts, among her subjects being Rev. F. J.

Grimke and Dr. DuBois, and "Mother and Child" is one of her best studies. Bertina Lee, of Trenton, N. J., is one of the promising young sculptors. She is from the Trenton Art School and has already won several valuable prizes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: META WARRICK FULLER]

The sculptor at the present time of a.s.sured position is Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller.

Meta Vaux Warrick was born in Philadelphia, June 9, 1877. She first compelled serious recognition of her talent by her work in the Pennsylvania School of Industrial Art, for which she had won a scholars.h.i.+p, and which she attended for four years. Here one of her first original pieces in clay was a head of Medusa, which, with its hanging jaw, beads of gore, and eyes starting from their sockets, marked her as a sculptor of the horrible. In her graduating year, 1898, she won a prize for metal work by a crucifix upon which hung the figure of Christ torn by anguish, also honorable mention for her work in modeling.

In her post-graduate year she won the George K. Crozier first prize for the best general work in modeling for the year, her particular piece being the "Procession of Arts and Crafts." In 1899 the young student went to Paris, where she worked and studied for three years, chiefly at Colarossi's Academy. Her work brought her in contact with St. Gaudens and other artists; and finally there came a day when the great Rodin himself, thrilled by the figure in "Secret Sorrow," a man represented as eating his heart out, in the att.i.tude of a father beamed upon the young woman and said, "Mademoiselle, you are a sculptor; you have the sense of form." "The Wretched," one of the artist's masterpieces, was exhibited in the Salon in 1903, and along with it went "The Impenitent Thief"; and at one of Byng's exhibitions in L'Art Nouveau galleries it was remarked of her that "under her strong and supple hands the clay has leaped into form: a whole turbulent world seems to have forced itself into the cold and dead material." On her return to America the artist resumed her studies at the School of Industrial Art, winning, in 1904, the Battles first prize for pottery. In 1907 she was called on for a series of tableaux representing the advance of the Negro, for the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition, and later (1913) for a group for the New York State Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation Commission. In 1909 Meta Vaux Warrick became the wife of Dr. Solomon C. Fuller, of Framingham, Ma.s.s. A disastrous fire in 1910 destroyed some of her most valuable pieces while they were in storage in Philadelphia. Only a few examples of her early work, that for one reason or another happened to be elsewhere, were saved. In May, 1914, however, she had sufficiently recovered from this blow to be able to hold a public exhibition of her work. Mrs. Fuller resides in Framingham, has a happy family of three boys, and in the midst of a busy life still finds some time for the practice of her art.

The fire of 1910 destroyed the following productions: Secret Sorrow, Silenus, Oedipus, Brittany Peasant, Primitive Man, two of the heads from Three Gray Women, Peeping Tom, Falstaff, Oriental Dancer, Portrait of William Thomas, The Wrestlers, Death in the Wind, Desespoir, The Man with a Thorn, The Man who Laughed, the Two-Step, Sketch for a Monument, Wild Fire, and the following studies in Afro-American types: An Old Woman, The Schoolboy, The Comedian (George W. Walker), The Student, The Artist, and Mulatto Child, as well as a few unfinished pieces. Such a misfortune has only rarely befallen a rising artist. Some of the sculptor's most remarkable work was included in the list just given.

Fortunately surviving were the following: The Wretched (cast in bronze and remaining in Europe), Man Carrying Dead Body, Medusa, Procession of Arts and Crafts, Portrait of the late William Still, John the Baptist (the only piece of her work made in Paris that the sculptor now has), Sylvia (later destroyed by accident), and Study of Expression.

The exhibition of 1914 included the following: A Cla.s.sic Dancer, Brittany Peasant (a reproduction of the piece destroyed), Study of Woman's Head, "A Drink, Please" (a statuette of Tommy Fuller), Mother and Baby, A Young Equestrian (Tommy Fuller), "So Big" (Solomon Fuller, Jr.), Menelik II of Abyssinia, A Girl's Head, Portrait of a Child, The Pianist (portrait of Mrs. Maud Cuney Hare), Portrait of S.

Coleridge-Taylor, Relief Study of a Woman's Head, Medallion Portrait of a Child (Tommy Fuller), Medallion Portrait of Dr. A. E. P. Rockwell, Statuette of a Woman, Second model of group made for the New York State Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation Commission (with two fragments from the final model of this), Portrait of Dr. A. E. P. Rockwell, Four Figures (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) for over-mantel panel, Portrait-Bust of a Child (Solomon Fuller, Jr.), Portrait-Bust of a Man (Dr. S. C. Fuller), John the Baptist, Danse Macabre, Menelik II in profile, Portrait of a Woman, The Jester.

Since 1914 the artist has produced several of her strongest pieces.

"Peace Halting the Ruthlessness of War" in May, 1917, took a second prize in a compet.i.tion under the auspices of the Ma.s.sachusetts Branch of the Woman's Peace Party. Similarly powerful are "Watching for Dawn,"

"Mother and Child," "Immigrant in America," and "The Silent Appeal."

Noteworthy, too, are "The Flower-Holder," "The Fountain-Boy," and "Life in Quest of Peace." The sculptor has also produced numerous statuettes, novelties, etc., for commercial purposes, and just now she is at work on a motherhood series.

From time to time one observes in this enumeration happy subjects. Such, for instance, are "The Dancing Girl," "The Wrestlers," and "A Young Equestrian." These are frequently winsome, but, as will be shown in a moment, they are not the artist's characteristic productions. Nor was the Jamestown series of tableaux. This was a succession of fourteen groups (originally intended for seventeen) containing in all one hundred and fifty figures. The purpose was by the construction of appropriate models, dramatic groupings, and the use of proper scenic accessories, to trace in chronological order the general progress of the Negro race. The whole, of course, had its peculiar interest for the occasion; but the artist had to work against unnumbered handicaps of every sort; her work, in fact, was not so much that of a sculptor as a designer; and, while the whole production took considerable energy, she has naturally never regarded it as her representative work.

Certain productions, however, by reason of their unmistakable show of genius, call for special consideration. These are invariably tragic or serious in tone.

Prime in order, and many would say in power, is "The Wretched." Seven figures representing as many forms of human anguish greet the eye. A mother yearns for the loved ones she has lost. An old man, wasted by hunger and disease, waits for death. Another, bowed by shame, hides his face from the sun. A sick child is suffering from some terrible hereditary trouble; a youth realizes with despair that the task before him is too great for his strength; and a woman is afflicted with some mental disease. Crowning all is the philosopher, who, suffering through sympathy with the others, realizes his powerlessness to relieve them and gradually sinks into the stoniness of despair.

"The Impenitent Thief," admitted to the Salon along with "The Wretched,"

was demolished in 1904, after being subjected to a series of unhappy accidents. It also defied convention. Heroic in size, the thief hung on the cross, all the while distorted by anguish. Hardened, unsympathetic, blasphemous, he was still superb in his presumption, and he was one of the artist's most powerful conceptions.

"Man Carrying Dead Body" portrays a scene from a battlefield. In it the sculptor has shown the length to which duty will spur one on. A man bears across his shoulder the body of a comrade that has evidently lain on the battlefield for days, and though the thing is horrible, he lashes it to his back and totters under the great weight until he can find a place for decent burial. To every one there comes such a duty; each one has his own burden to bear in silence.

Two earlier pieces, "Secret Sorrow," and "Oedipus," had the same marked characteristics. The first represented a man, worn and gaunt, as actually bending his head and eating out his own heart. The figure was the personification of lost ambition, shattered ideals, and despair. For "Oedipus" the sculptor chose the hero of the old Greek legend at the moment when, realizing that he has killed his father and married his mother, he tears his eyes out. The artist's later conception, "Three Gray Women," from the legend of Perseus, was in similar vein. It undertook to portray the Graeae, the three sisters who had but one eye and one tooth among them.

Perhaps the most haunting creation of Mrs. Fuller is "John the Baptist."

With head slightly upraised and with eyes looking into the eternal, the prophet rises above all sordid earthly things and soars into the divine.

All faith and hope and love are in his face, all poetry and inspiration in his eyes. It is a conception that, once seen, can never be forgotten.

The second model of the group for the New York State Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation Commission (two feet high, the finished group as exhibited being eight feet high) represents a recently emanc.i.p.ated Negro youth and maiden standing beneath a gnarled, decapitated tree that has the semblance of a human hand stretched over them. Humanity is pus.h.i.+ng them out into the world, while at the same time the hand of Fate, with obstacles and drawbacks, is restraining them in the exercise of their new freedom. In the att.i.tudes of the two figures is strikingly portrayed the uncertainty of those embarking on a new life, and in their countenances one reads all the eagerness and the courage and the hope that is theirs. The whole is one of the artist's most ambitious efforts.

"Immigrant in America" was inspired by two lines from Robert Haven Schauffler's "Sc.u.m of the Earth":

Children in whose frail arms shall rest Prophets and singers and saints of the West.

An American mother, the parent of one strong healthy child, is seen welcoming the immigrant mother of many children to the land of plenty.

The work is capable of wide application. Along with it might be mentioned a suffrage medallion and a smaller piece, "The Silent Appeal."

This last is a very strong piece of work. It represents the mother capable of producing and caring for three children as making a silent request for the suffrage (or peace, or justice, or any other n.o.ble cause). The work is characterized by a singular note of dignity.

"Peace Halting the Ruthlessness of War," the recent prize piece, represents War as mounted on a mighty steed and trampling to death helpless human beings, while in one hand he bears a spear on which he has impaled the head of one of his victims. As he goes on in what seems his irresistible career Peace meets him on the way and commands him to cease his ravages. The work as exhibited was in gray-green wax and treated its subject with remarkable spirit. It must take rank as one of the four or five of the strongest productions of the artist.

Meta Warrick Fuller's work may be said to fall into two divisions, the romantic and the social. The first is represented by such things as "The Wretched" and "Secret Sorrow," the second by "Immigrant in America" and "The Silent Appeal." The transition may be seen in "Watching for Dawn,"

a group that shows seven figures, in various att.i.tudes of prayer, watchfulness, and resignation, as watching for the coming of daylight, or peace. In technique this is like "The Wretched," in spirit it is like the later work. It is as if the sculptor's own seer, John the Baptist, had, by his vision, summoned her away from the ghastly and horrible to the everyday problems of needy humanity. There are many, however, who hope that she will not utterly forsake the field in which she first became famous. Her early work is not delicate or pretty; it is gruesome and terrible; but it is also intense and vital, and from it speaks the very tragedy of the Negro race.

XII

MUSIC

The foremost name on the roll of Negro composers is that of a man whose home was in England, but who in so many ways identified himself with the Negroes of the United States that he deserves to be considered here. He visited America, found the inspiration for much of his best work in African themes, and his name at once comes to mind in any consideration of the history of the Negro in music.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor[9] (1875-1912) was born in London, the son of a physician who was a native of Sierra Leone, and an English mother. He began the study of the violin when he was no more than six years old, and as he grew older he emphasized more and more the violin and the piano. At the age of ten he entered the choir of St. George's, at Croydon, and a little later became alto singer at St. Mary Magdalene's, Croydon. In 1890 he entered the Royal College of Music as a student of the violin; and he also became a student of Stanford's in composition, in which department he won a scholars.h.i.+p in 1893. In 1894 he was graduated with honor. His earliest published work was the anthem, "In Thee, O Lord" (1892); but he gave frequent performances of chamber music at student concerts in his earlier years; one of his symphonies was produced in 1896 under Stanford's direction, and "a quintet for clarinet and strings in F sharp minor (played at the Royal College in 1895) was given in Berlin by the Joachim Quartet, and a string quartet in D minor dates from 1896." Coleridge-Taylor became world-famous by the production of the first part of his "Hiawatha" trilogy, "Hiawatha's Wedding-Feast,"

at the Royal College, November 11, 1898. He at once took rank as one of the foremost living English composers. The second part of the trilogy, "The Death of Minnehaha," was given at the North Staffords.h.i.+re Festival in the autumn of 1899; and the third, "Hiawatha's Departure," by the Royal Choral Society, in Albert Hall, March 22, 1900. The whole work was a tremendous success such as even the composer himself never quite duplicated. Requests for new compositions for festival purposes now became numerous, and in response to the demand were produced "The Blind Girl of Castel-Cuille" (Leeds, 1901), "Meg Blane" (Sheffield, 1902), "The Atonement" (Hereford, 1903), and "Kubla Khan" (Handel Society, 1906). Coleridge-Taylor also wrote the incidental music for the four romantic plays by Stephen Phillips produced at His Majesty's Theatre, as follows: "Herod," 1900; "Ulysses," 1901; "Nero," 1902; "Faust," 1908; as well as incidental music for "Oth.e.l.lo" (the composition for the orchestra being later adapted as a suite for pianoforte), and for "A Tale of Old j.a.pan," the words of which were by Alfred Noyes. In 1904 he was appointed conductor of the Handel Society. The composer's most distinctive work is probably that reflecting his interest in the Negro folk-song. "Characteristic of the melancholy beauty, barbaric color, charm of musical rhythm and vehement pa.s.sion of the true Negro music are his symphonic pianoforte selections based on Negro melodies from Africa and America: the 'African Suite,' a group of pianoforte pieces, the 'African Romances' (words by Paul L. Dunbar), the 'Songs of Slavery,'

'Three Choral Ballads' and 'African Dances,' and a suite for violin and pianoforte."[10] The complete list of the works of Coleridge-Taylor would include also the following: "Southern Love Songs," "Dream-Lovers"

(an operetta), "Gipsy Suite" (for violin and piano), "Solemn Prelude"

(for orchestra, first produced at the Worcester Festival, 1899), "Nourmahal's Song and Dance" (for piano), "Scenes from an Everyday Romance," "Ethiopia Saluting the Colors" (concert march for orchestra), "Five Choral Ballads" to words by Longfellow (produced at the Norwich Festival, 1905), "Moorish Dance" (for piano), "Six Sorrow Songs,"

several vocal duets, and the anthems, "Now Late on the Sabbath Day," "By the Waters of Babylon," "The Lord is My Strength," "Lift Up Your Heads,"

"Break Forth into Joy," and "O Ye that Love the Lord." Among the things published since his death are his "Viking Song," best adapted for a male chorus, and a group of pianoforte and choral works.

[Footnote 9: This account of Coleridge-Taylor is based largely, but not wholly, upon the facts as given in Grove's Dictionary of Music (1910 edition, Macmillan). The article on the composer ends with a fairly complete list of works up to 1910.]

[Footnote 10: _Crisis_, October, 1912.]

In America the history of conscious musical effort on the part of the Negro goes back even many years before the Civil War. "Some of the most interesting music produced by the Negro slaves was handed down from the days when the French and Spanish had possession of Louisiana. From the free Negroes of Louisiana there sprang up, during slavery days, a number of musicians and artists who distinguished themselves in foreign countries to which they removed because of the prejudice which existed against colored people. Among them was Eugene Warburg, who went to Italy and distinguished himself as a sculptor. Another was Victor Sejour, who went to Paris and gained distinction as a poet and composer of tragedy.

The Lambert family, consisting of seven persons, were noted as musicians. Richard Lambert, the father, was a teacher of music; Lucien Lambert, a son, after much hard study, became a composer of music.

Edmund Dede, who was born in New Orleans in 1829, learned while a youth to play a number of instruments. He acc.u.mulated enough money to pay his pa.s.sage to France. Here he took up a special study of music, and finally became director of the orchestra of L'Alcazar, in Bordeaux, France."[11]

[Footnote 11: Was.h.i.+ngton: "The Story of the Negro," II, 276-7.]

The foremost composer of the race to-day is Harry T. Burleigh, who within the last few years has won a place not only among the most prominent song-writers of America, but of the world. He has emphasized compositions in cla.s.sical vein, his work displaying great technical excellence. Prominent among his later songs are "Jean," the "Saracen Songs," "One Year (1914-1915)," the "Five Songs" of Laurence Hope, set to music, "The Young Warrior" (the words of which were written by James W. Johnson), and "Pa.s.sionale" (four songs for a tenor voice, the words of which were also by Mr. Johnson). Nearly two years ago, at an a.s.semblage of the Italo-American Relief Committee at the Biltmore Hotel, New York, Mr. Amato, of the Metropolitan Opera, sang with tremendous effect, "The Young Warrior," and the Italian version has later been used all over Italy as a popular song in connection with the war. Of somewhat stronger quality even than most of these songs are "The Grey Wolf," to words by Arthur Symons, "The Soldier," a setting of Rupert Brooke's well known sonnet, and "Ethiopia Saluting the Colors." An entirely different division of Mr. Burleigh's work, hardly less important than his songs, is his various adaptations of the Negro melodies, especially for choral work; and he a.s.sisted Dvorak in his "New World Symphony," based on the Negro folk-songs. For his general achievement in music he was, in 1917, awarded the Spingarn Medal. His work as a singer is reserved for later treatment.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HARRY T. BURLEIGH]

Another prominent composer is Will Marion Cook. Mr. Cook's time has been largely given to the composition of popular music; at the same time, however, he has produced numerous songs that bear the stamp of genius.

In 1912 a group of his tuneful and characteristic pieces was published by Schirmer. Generally his work exhibits not only unusual melody, but also excellent technique. J. Rosamond Johnson is also a composer with many original ideas. Like Mr. Cook, for years he gave much attention to popular music. More recently he has been director of the New York Music Settlement, the first in the country for the general cultivation and popularizing of Negro music. Among his later songs are: "I Told My Love to the Roses," and "Morning, Noon, and Night." In pure melody Mr.

Johnson is not surpa.s.sed by any other musician of the race to-day. His long experience with large orchestras, moreover, has given him unusual knowledge of instrumentation. Carl Diton, organist and pianist, has so far been interested chiefly in the transcription for the organ of representative Negro melodies. "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" was published by Schirmer and followed by "Four Jubilee Songs." R. Nathaniel Dett has the merit, more than others, of attempting to write in large form. His carol, "Listen to the Lambs," is especially noteworthy. Representative of his work for the piano is his "Magnolia Suite." This was published by the Clayton F. Summy Co., of Chicago. As for the very young men of promise, special interest attaches to the work of Edmund T. Jenkins, of Charleston, S. C., who three years ago made his way to the Royal Academy in London. Able before he left to perform brilliantly on half a dozen instruments, this young man was soon awarded a scholars.h.i.+p; in 1916-17 he was awarded a silver medal for excellence on the clarinet, a bronze medal for his work on the piano, and, against brilliant compet.i.tion, a second prize for his original work in composition. The year also witnessed the production of his "Prelude Religieuse" at one of the grand orchestral concerts of the Academy.