File:American painters- with eighty-three examples of their work engraved on wood (1879) (14583919330).jpg

Identifier: americanpainters00shel (find matches)
Title: American painters: with eighty-three examples of their work engraved on wood
Year: 1879 (1870s)
Authors: Sheldon, George William, 1843-1914
Subjects: Painters Painting, American
Publisher: New York : D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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erman War stimulated the activity of thePrussian studios. A great number of people, says a German correspondent, who had gone to bed poor, awoke in the morning millionaires. Their mill-ions, to be sure, were only on paper, but the world believed in their reality,and the owners, perhaps, too. Yesterday they had lived in a house theyrented, to-day they must have a house of their own, and the house must be aslarge and stately as that of the X. Y. Z. Joint-Stock Company; the facaderichly ornamented, if possible, with frescoes; the vestibule enlivened by rnar-ble statues, and the rooms too. The upholsterer had done his best: he hadordered carpets from Lyons, mirrors from Venice, furniture from Paris. Thatwas ii»f enough. Herr So-and-so, who represented a rival firm, had as much;something unique was wanted. The picture was in the dealers windowyesterday; everybody knows the price—ten thousand thalers—and to-day ithangs in my dining-room. For that family group of A. B— —s the modest
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<a u ■v. tnZ < -i K 8 0 2« U ^ K *0 ; hZ D0 2 ALBERT BI ERST AD T. 1 19 painter asked fifteen thousand tbalers. I will give you twenty thousand ifyou will set to work to-day. Every child knows the story. Such argumentswere irresistible; those were halcyon days for artists. But artists, even theablest, are but men. You know the inglorious nickname which the Clevel-and light-hearted mannerist, Luca Giordano, bears in history ? Well, ourartists were in those years, almost without exception, fa presto. In thespring of 1873 came the recoil. The millions proved but glittering bubbles,or rather something much worse. Like exploding shells, they scattereiI aboutdeath and destruction. The palaces, which had been conjured out of the earth,certainly remained in their places, though they passed into other hands; butthe costly marble statues and the priceless pictures—a legend was current that,in the hours of darkness, the portals of those palaces opened, a

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