Then came a severe illness from which La Farge recovered very slowly, and it was nearly three years before he could become an active painter again. In the meantime he began drawing on wood, illustrating Browning’s and Longfellow’s poems, and Tennyson’s Enoch Arden. Later another trip abroad resulted in the exhibition of his paintings in the galleries there. He made a careful study of stained-glass windows and by much experimenting he discovered a way to produce an opalescent effect in stained glass and to make the glass look like that in the very old cathedrals.
La Farge was always interested in mural or wall decorations for public buildings, and he felt that our buildings in America lacked very much in that respect. He made a special study of this work, and ten years later he began his mural decorations for Trinity Church in Boston. It was one of the first buildings so decorated in this country, and the work was accomplished under great difficulties. The workmen did not understand just what they were to do, the right kind of materials could not always be obtained and so had to be prepared, and the people, having no idea of the task, required that the work be finished in an unreasonably short time. The result was that La Farge and his assistants were compelled to work night and day, in very cold weather, and under many disadvantages. However, when the scaffolding was finally removed the decoration was considered a great success. La Farge was then asked to decorate St. Thomas’ Church in New York.
The artist now began to decorate windows too, that they might be a part of the mural decorations. One of his first window designs was placed in the Congregational Church at Newport, then one in Memorial Hall, Harvard University. They are wonderful in color and design, containing almost every known kind of glass and every precious stone. Then came demands from all over the country for both public buildings and private homes. He was honored both in this country and abroad.
In 1886 La Farge went to Japan. While there he sent a series of very interesting letters to the Century Magazine describing his travels. These letters have since been published in book form. La Farge also wrote Considerations on Painting, a series of books on the Great Masters, and the Japanese Hokusai.
Some of his best-known windows and mural decorations are the Watson Memorial Window in Trinity Church, Buffalo; “The Ascension,” a fresco in the Church of Ascension, New York City; “Athens,” in the Art Gallery at Bowdoin College, Maine; “Law,” in the Supreme Court Room, St. Paul; and “Lawgivers,” in the Court House, Baltimore.
Questions about the artist. Who painted this picture? Tell about his father’s experiences in the West Indies. How did the elder La Farge happen to come to America? What did he do in this country? Where and when was the artist born? What education did he receive? Where did he go after he finished college? How did he seem to regard painting at this time? What American artist encouraged him to study art? Tell about his progress; his marriage; his travels. Tell about his first mural decoration. Why was it so difficult to accomplish? To what did this lead? Tell about his window designs. Where can we see some of La Farge’s work? What books did he write?
AMERICAN ILLUSTRATORS
The antiquity of illustration. The desire for pictures illustrating ideas dates back no doubt to the beginning of the world. The cave dweller left a record of such an ambition on the carved walls of his rude house and on the handle of his battle ax. Savages made of themselves living illustrations, by painting their bodies in gay colors and designs representing their ideas of beauty. The Egyptians used stone and papyrus for mediums of expression, while a century later parchment and vellum were used.
Each illustration was a finished piece of work. In order to reproduce it, the artist must make a new one each time. Then some one discovered the block print. The design or illustration was cut in wood, then inked and placed on sheets of paper much as we use block prints now. Playing cards were produced in this way long before books appeared. It was but a step from printing a whole page of type to separating the letters so they could be rearranged and used many times. The Chinese understood printing with movable type centuries before we ever thought of it.