The most hopeful augury for this new interest is in the fact that it relates to that department of art which goes most directly into the lives and the homes of the people: and that it has been the first to take on marked American characteristics. Moreover, its commercial features will be potent influences for its spread and growth. It is capable of being at once the refiner, the educator and the almoner of thousands.
Confidence in the inherent genius of my countrymen, led me years ago to predict that all that was needed for the establishment of a school in any art was (1) the foundational training of mind or hand; (2) a belief that it can be done; (3) a market for it. The last most important of all, because demand inspires originality and creates supply, and because recompense is the great stimulus to inspiration. Genius in this age is pretty apt to have an eye to the main chance.
For all these reasons we are prepared for the conclusion that the impulse given to decorative art by the organizations known as the “Decorative Art Society,” and the “Associated Artists,” all of New York City, is the most valuable of anything that has been done since the nation’s new sense of the beautiful awoke. These are the parts of one movement possessing these characteristics:
It is distinctively American.
It has compelled recognition at home and abroad as well of its indigenous originality as of its artistic correctness and merit.
It has begun the production of exclusively American materials, designed and manufactured in this country, which are unequaled by anything foreign.
It is commercially successful.
By virtue of all these achievements, it is doing a missionary work for American art by encouraging similar efforts in other cities and other countries; by demonstrating that “good can come out of Nazareth;” by putting in the way of thousands of talented women, suffering under repression and lack of opportunity or for inspiration of hope, the opening for culture and compensation combined.
It is to celebrate what has been accomplished, and haply, to suggest the opportunities open to others, that this narration is essayed.
The movement was, indeed, patriotic in its birth. It was inspired by the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia. The specimens of decorative art from the South Kensington School in the English exhibit impressed Mrs. Thomas M. Wheeler, of New York, by their lack of originality and freedom, insomuch that she declared, “We can do better than that in this country without any school!” and she set about doing it in genuine American spirit. The first organization, The Decorative Art Society, which she instituted, was composed of several hundred ladies of New York. The plan was national, philanthropic and commercial—to serve art, help women, beat the British, and make money. Ladies in a large number of cities were influenced by correspondence and other efforts to form auxiliary societies. The seed of the new art interest thus widely sown is still bearing crops.