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146 May 1882 1. James Abbot McNeill Whistler (1834–1903), an American-born painter and etcher, championed “art for art’s sake.” 2. Frank Duveneck (1848–1919), an American realist painter, sculptor, etcher, and art teacher, helped to overturn the reigning tradition of the Hudson River school in the 1870s. 38. “Oscar Wilde’s Return,” New York World, 6 May 1882, 1 Mr. Oscar Wilde arrived in New York early yesterday morning and went to the Grand Hotel, where, yesterday afternoon, a World reporter found him. “After I left the East,” said Mr. Wilde, “I found a people that struck me as more representatively American than those in the other states. It was west of Chicago that I found America. Here in the older country the people are very closely akin to the English. I arrived at last in San Francisco in the spring. The peach trees were in bloom in the orchard, the apple trees blossomed in the close, the beautiful sky was bright, and the warm ocean, flooded with light, was pouring in through the Golden Gate. Oh, it was most beautiful, and for the first time I understood why nature had so clothed itself in green. It is because it is the most restful of all colors, and after yearning for it for three months I found it in San Francisco. Moreover, the place itself is most attractive; the people are warm and generous and are cultivated. I lectured four times there and twice in Oakland, a little place just across the bay.” “Of course, I have no desire to enter into a political discussion, but I found the Chinese quarter in San Francisco most interesting, and, in my opinion, the Chinese have a decided artistic value, which I think Congress should consider in discussing the Chinese question. Their quarter is full of artistic motives, and they have a constant eye to the value of color. We do not value color sufficiently—we do not recognize the element of joyousness that color brings into life. The Chinese have two theaters in San Francisco, and every actor is most nobly and beautifully attired, so that their plays are pageants, as every play ought to be, because the stage should be art in action. I learned many things from the Chinese.” “How did the rough manners of the West impress you?” “There, now; I object to that word ‘rough’ as applied to miners.1 They are cordial and generous and not at all rough. One of my best and most interested audiences was composed of Leadville miners. One reason I liked them was because of their magnificent physiques. I spent a night in a silver mine, and it was one of my most delightful experiences. The most unintellectual i-xii_1-196_Wild.indd 146 8/4/09 9:11:57 AM May 1882 147 audience I had was in Salt Lake. The Mormons are the most unintellectual people I have met in America, because they have the worst physiques I have seen; and a people must have good physiques in order even to comprehend art. I found President Taylor charming. I went to his house, and he and his three wives occupied a stage box at my lecture. The Mormons’ tabernacle is the shape of a teakettle and is decorated with the ornaments of a jail.” “In Chicago I had delightful audiences. I was particularly struck with the courtesy of the western audiences, which the tone of the press did not lead me to expect. In every city where I have been I have either found an art school—crude, to be sure—or, if they had not one, they started one on the occasion of my visit, so that I cannot doubt that my coming to America has had an effect. In the smaller cities most of the people have never seen any art whatever, and the idea of design is bad. The idea I had of America when I landed has been very strongly confirmed; it is that what this country needs principally is not the higher imaginative art but the simple decorative art that can make beautiful for us the commonest vessel of the house. If an article is beautiful, it must have been made by a good workman, because only a good workman can make a beautiful thing.” Mr. Wilde said that his costumes described in the World of Thursday were an experiment. They were very beautiful; so simple, yet so artistic.2 The age of...

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