THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART GEORGE FULLER CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION NEW YORK University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries GEORGE FULLER CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION OF THE WORKS OF GEORGE FULLER N E W YORK April 9 through May 2 0 1923 Copyright by THE METROPOLITAN MusEUM or ART April, 1923 ,, LENDERS TO THE EXHIBITION Mi ss H. F . A BE RCROMBIE WILLIAM H. AB ERCROMBIE JOHN s. AMES ANONYMOUS M US E U M OF F INE A RTS, BOSTON J OH N F. B RAUN THE ART I NSTITUTE OF C HICAGO CHARLES A. C OOLIDGE R A L PH C UDNEY THEODORE T. E L LIS MRS. A GNES G . F ULLE R ARTH U R N . F UL LER MRS. G EO RG E SPENCE R F ULLER HE NRY B. F ULLER ROBE RT H. F U LLER THE E STATE OF H ARRY w. J ONES J. K. NEWMAN MRS. G E ORGE L. ICHOLS PHIL LIPS M EMORIAL G ALLERY THE C ITY ART MusEuM, SAINT L ouis MRS. A UGUSTUS VINCENT T ACK C A RLL T UC K ER GEO RGE H. 'WEBSTER WORCESTER ART MUSEUM GEORGE FULLER was born in Deerfield, Massachusetts, the 17th of January, I 827, and died at Brookline the 21st of March, 1884. In commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of his birth The Metropolitan Museum of Art has assembled this collection of his paintings. A more or. Jess complete memorial exhibition was held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in r 884. It is the purpose of the Museum at this time to show only as many pictures as Gallery 25 will conveniently and becomingly contain, choosing, however, examples which are typical of his best effort. The Museum takes this opportunity of thanking the owners of the works for their generous co-operation. Thanks are also due to the family of the artist for help in selecting the works, and for information regarding them. TABLE OF CONTENTS LENDER S TO THE EXHIBITION NOTE I wrRODUCTION CATALOGUE ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE V Vll XI 9 GEORGE FULLER THE career of George Fuller is an inspiring example. The story of his life is one of courageous self-sacrifice, which resulted in self-fulfilment. When it became his plain duty to renounce his career in New York and to bring himself to farming, he was furthering, not abandoning, his artistic development. During the fifteen years at Deerfield in which his mind was filled with agricultural problems, he was more or less consciously making closer his intimacy with nature and detaching himself from the ordinary resources and associations of artists . . This experience served to enlarge his philosophy and to quicken his creative impulse. In I 876 "hard times for the farmers" induced him again to try his fortune as a painter. His success was immediate and impressive. As we look back upon it, few lives seem to have been so happily arranged for the development of their finest latent qualities. During his life in the country Fuller was at times conscious of his good fortune in being able simultaneously to do his duty and to serve his art. In a letter from his farm he writes: "I feel sometimes strangely separated from art in my present occupations. But I shall never feel that my time is being lost. Mother Earth has such a strange hold over me! I am given over to the demon of plowing and draining, hoping to come out of it some day and look upon a smiling XI GEORGE FULLER the atmosphere which envelops them-the whole problem being one of light. This was Fuller's preoccupation from the first. To quote from one of his early journals, he says: "The color of every object partakes largely of the hue of the light that falls upon it, whereby a sensitive eye quickly detects the error if the flesh and hair are not in keeping, one with the other and so on with all objects the light of Heaven falls upon. Therefore, whatever the local color of an object, be it white or black, it must partake of the red, blue and yellow that comes from the sun." It was in this analysis of light that Fuller was in advance of his time. He was the first in ·our country to see his subjects in their atmospheric envelope. The chief aim in painting of his day was towards definition, towards making things "stand out"; his whole effort was to make them "stay back." He said:" Every picture should have an atmosphere of its own-to be a little world by itself, back and within the frame: but there is a constant tendency to bring things forward, to make them out and to so lose breadth." What was usually the middle distance with most painters was virtually the foreground with him; he saw things so removed that they could be felt in one plane. Thus the principle most emphasized in Fuller's paintings was unity of illumination. The same endeavor to understand light, a fundamental principle of impressionism, was being made by three other men. While Fuller, solitary in Deerfield, was making his observations and experiments and was preparing the way for the original works which were soon to follow, Corot was solving the same problem at Ville d'Avray, and at Giverny Claude Monet was Xlll J GEORGE FULLER penetrating the · secrets of atmospheric light. To this list of contemporary explorers must be added Whistler. We. find here four men, temperamentally as different as possible, with a common object in view, and on account of their differences in temperament, each was devoting himself to that appearance of light which appealed most to his nature. Corot was devoting himself to the morning light, Monet to the noonday sunlight, Fuller to the afternoon and twilight, while Whistler was searching the mystery of the night. One could carry even further the temperamental differences of these men, and by doing so would find Corot's preoccupation with the springtime dawn; Monet surely more than any other has felt the sunshine of summer, and when we come to Fuller it was the richness and warmth of golden autumn. Unlike the plein-airists, Monet and the others, Fuller realized the limitation of pigments. Feeling as he did that richness of color is more suggestive of light than high-pitched values, he chose a middle range. He knew that shadow did not mean absence of light, but light of a different quality, and, true to his principle of envelopment, in common with the impressionists he felt the error of local color. His pictures are never dark and have no strong contrast of light and shadow. He was not extreme from any point of view. There were no outbursts of color; his work is distinguished for its restraint and reserve. His treatment of light and atmosphere is consistent with his character, the natural sequence of the balance and control which always dominated his activity. In accord with these qualities was also the expression his pictures reveal. Fuller's art was emo- XIV GEORGE FULLER tional in the Greek sense, passively emotional. His was the logical, serious, and classic spirit. He believed the interest ceased the moment the emotion ceased. The cause of his appeal was that he reached the true depths of human sympathy. He was a deliberate painter; there probably never was an artist whose impulse was more dominated by principle. He has been called the poet of the warm earth, as Twachtman was of the luminous atmosphere, and Winslow Homer of sea and rock. Fuller had the vision of a mysticone cannot help reading into his works untold meanings. He created a sense of serious aloofness and his peopleintensely human, clear-cut personalities, impossible to confuse one with another-are all veiled in mystery. There is no obvious symbolism; he painted so simply, so appealingly, that his beauty makes its own demand and seldom fails to awaken response. Perhaps his temperament was more romantic than otherwise. It was one of Fuller's efforts to express the loveliness of maidenhood, of the young girl blossoming into womanhood. Purity and mystery were motives that appealed perhaps more strongly than any others to his nature. There is an early letter which will not be out of place here, as it reveals, in his own words, the qualities it was ,often his desire to express in his paintings. "One of my errands to the city was to view a collection of 'Old Masters.' You should see the picture of an Italian lady, 'Princess' on the catalogue, but Princess or Peasant, she stands here in the calm dignity of nature. In the truth and purity of a lovely girl of nineteen or thereabout, you could not forget xv GEORGE FULLER her sweet sad face, those well-formed hands, the arms covered, but so finely expressed, nor those round, loving childlike eyes, gazing steadfastly forward. The rich court dress and jewels are seen, but you only remember the quiet grace with which she receives your admiration. But you would think of her as living, standing there since the day of Caesar Borgia. She has seen her fair original passing, her house crumble, and city fall. Out of the melancholy past she sympathizes with those who stand before her. How many has her innocence reproved! how many inspired to nobler life by her beauty! how many made to feel in the presence of those beautiful eyes, raised from the littleness of ordinary life and sent on their way humbled, yet proud; proud of tlie art that preserves to us the expression of that nature to whose teaching we must come in humility or not at all. I do not know the name of the painter, but surely his was a labor of faithfulness and trust. I like to think of a man like him. In such an effort he held the applause or honor of the world cheaply, yet what compensation was his. Does he not live in his work now that the true heart and faithful hand are dust?" Fuller was not bound by any methods, and it has seemed to the unthinking that he was deficient in technique. There is no law of technique-every man must find his own means and when he has expressed himself his technique is sufficient for himself. The only point to determine is whether a man has clearly expressed himself. What can the criterion be? Corot's technique is his own expression, it can belong to no one else. And so for every painter. XVI GEORGE FULLER With regard to Fuller, probably no one was ever more unconscious of manner than he. He was filled with the idea he wished to reach and used to say that really to feel the thing was enough, the expression would then take care of itself. He used what means seemed appropriate at the moment. If Fuller had been asked to describe his methods of painting, he would have answered, "I have none." But even if he had no fixed way of achieving his results, there are certain strongly marked characteristics which are the consequence of his employment of the material with which he sought to express himself. In his latest and best period he had the strongest aversion for tightness of handling and the whole course of his career indicates a gradual emancipation from the hard and literal studies of his early work. Fuller had no sympathy with the schools or what is called official art. While in his early days he was interested in the way painters whom he admired got their effects, he resented any hard-and-fast means of procedure. He used to say, "One cannot paint till one is free." His early note-books are filled with principles. There, in fact, we have the secret of his painting; he was dominated by principles, not by methods; he tried every way and all ways to assert the principles he felt to be true. This resulted in his sometimes painting thinly and sometimes with thick pigment, often underpainting heavily and correcting the forms with thin pigment over this foundation; he would glaze to obtain richness of tone and in some cases his employment of bitumen to produce certain effects has proved unfortunate. He would lay in a canvas often at one painting, but in subsequent paintings would change GEORGE FULLER the whole conception. He never allowed himself to be bound by a result; he would often sacrifice beautiful passages, but he never hesitated if he felt there was any undue emphasis which interfered with the unity of his conception. Fuller cared very much for texture and he worked over and over his canvases to get this quality. He frequently would load the paint on and then break it up with the wooden end of his brush, thereby getting a looseness, a roughness and vibration which are so characteristic of all his later works. He also worked with knife and thumb. He scraped and glazed and scum bled and truly worked all ways to master his material. In his desire to express, he felt the limitations of paint. He once exclaimed: "The materials we painters work with irritate one. I grow tired of them and wish there were some other way to express ourselves." He often said he wished that he could paint so that no one would think of it as painting. When we consider the qualities of Fuller's paintings we are not surprised to learn the spiritual character of his nature. He was a man of'lively imagination with a great sympathy for youth and innocence. This applies to all young things, such for example as colt or calf or kitten. He was not a New Englander in type, however deeply he felt its spirit. From his journals during his travels abroad he recounts with amusement how he was often taken for an Englishman, more often for an Irishman-but never for an American. He was a man of noble carriage, slow and deliberate in his movements; his manner was genial, with that rare gift of speaking with interest when there was xvm GEORGE FULLER occasion to speak, although his habit was to be reticent. He was a serious man who read and talked of serious things. Owing to his fund of common sense his opinion was always sought and prized. In appearance he was large. There was something Homeric about his head, his curling hair and full beard. In later life his face was deeply furrowed but with kindly eyes, always observant, sympathetic, and understanding. He was of quiet humor, inventive, and resourceful. His tastes were simple but ever for the finer things in literature, in music, and in life. There are many points of departure which might be chosen in contemplating the man and the painter. As a man George Fuller was complete-as a genius he was many-sided. It has been said a man's art may be a thing apart, not depending necessarily on the circumstances of his life, but this was not the case with Fuller. His art and life are inseparable; indeed, his life was but another expression of the spirit which guided him from the start, and not the least of his great works was his living. AUGUSTUS VINCENT TACK. XIX CATALOGUE ,. • CATALOGUE Arrange~ in chronological order with dates, approximate or exact. Fuller's pictures, except of course the portraits, were all painted from memory and imagination; his figure pictures were generally completed first and named afterwards, often from suggestions by friends . The titles of some of the pictures have with time become confused and changed; where this is the case the true title is given first. I BY THE WAYSIDE-DANDELION GIRL The first large picture exhibited in Boston, causmg much discussion. Oil on canvas: h. 50¾; w. 40,¼ inches. Signed and dated: G. Fuller I877. Lent by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 2 PORTRAIT OF MRS. A. G. FULLER The artist's wife. Oil on canvas: h. 27; w. 22 inches. Lent by Mrs. A. G. Fuller. 3 PORTRAIT OF MRS. WEATHERBEE-OLD AGE ' About 1877 Oil on canvas: h. 27; w. 21¾ inches. Lent by The City Art Museum, Saint Louis. 3 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 4 SHEARING THE DONKEY Oil on canvas: h. 13¼; w. 18 inches. Signed:, G F. Lent by the Estate of Harry W. Jones. TURKEY p ASTURE Also called Turkey Pasture in Kentucky. A recollection of a trip in the South. Oil on canvas: h. 27¾; w. 40¾ inches. Signed: G. Fuller. Lent by William H. Abercrombie. 6 PORTRAIT OF EMORY FULLER 1878 The artist's uncle. Oil on canvas: h. 27; w. 22 inches. Signed and dated: G. F. I878. Lent by Henry B. Fuller. 7 DANCE BEFORE THE SHRINE · About 1878 A recollection of a trip through Italy. Oil on canvas: h. 27,¼; w. 22,¼ inches. Signed: G. Fuller. Lent by George H. Webster. 8 GATHERER OF SIMPLES Oil on canvas: h. 36; w. 47_¼ inches. Signed: G Fuller. Lent by Ralph Cudney. 9 PoRTRAIT OF Miss ABERCROMBIE 1880 Oil on canvas: h. 40; w. 30 inches. Signed: G. Fuller. Lent by Miss H. F. Abercrombie. 4 THE WORKS OF GEORGE FULLER JO THE BIRD CATCHER 1880 Oil on canvas: h. 30_¼; w. 25 inches. Signed: G Fuller. Lent by Ralph Cudney . . I I HOEING TOBACCO Oil on canvas: h. 24¼; w. 18,¼ inches. Lent by Theodore T. Ellis. 1880-83 12 PORTRAIT OF WINIFRED DYSART 1881 Oil on canvas: h. 50½; w. 40.½ inches. Signed: G. Fuller. Lent by the Worcester Art Museum. 13 PORTRAIT OF MRS. MARY WILLIAMS FULLER 1881 The artist's daughter-in-law. Oil on canvas: h. 30,¼; w. 25 inches. Signed and dated: G. Fuller I88I. Lent by Mrs. G. S. Fuller. 14 MAIDENHOOD-MISS BRADLEY 1881 Oil on canvas: h. 42; w. 31 inches. Signed: G. Fuller. Lent by J. K. Newman. I 5 PRISCILLA 1881 The original idea was that ot Elsie Venner, but this idea was dropped in the subsequent development of the picture. Oil on canvas: h. 54; w. 36 inches. Signed and dated: G. Fuller I88I. Lent by John S. Ames. 5 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 16 I NTE RIOR OF A NEGRO CABIN 1882 A recollection of an early trip through the South. Oil on canvas: h. 20; w. 24 inches. Signed: G. Fuller. Lent by Charles A. Coolidge. 17 PSYCHE 1882 Oil on panel: h. 36¼; w. 28¼ inches. Signed: G. Fuller. Lent by The Art Institute of Chicago. 18 NYDIA 1882 The blind girl in Bul~er-Lytton's Last Days of Pompeii. Oil on canvas: h. 50; w. 32¼ inches. Signed: G Fuller. Property of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 19 GATHERING FAGGOTS Oil on canvas: h. 32¼; w. 44 inches. Lent by John F. Braun. 20 PORTRAIT The artist's daughter. 1882 1882 Oil on canvas: h. 27; w. 22 inches. Inscribed : Violet Sept I882. Lent by Mrs. Augustus Vincent Tack. 21 PORTRAIT OF HENRY B. FULLER 1882 The artist's son. Oil on canvas: h. 27½; w. 22¼ inches. Inscribed: Harry Sept. I882. Lent by John F. Braun. 22 PORTRAIT OF GEORGE SPENCER FULLER 1882 The artist's son. Oil on canvas: h. 27,¼; w. 22,¼ inches. Inscribed: Spencer Sept I882. Lent by Mrs. G. S. Fuller. 6 THE WORKS OF GEORGE FULLER 23 PORTRAIT OF ARTHUR N. FULLER 1882 The artist's son. Oil on canvas: h. 50; w. 30 inches. Inscribed: Arthur Sept I882. Lent by Arthur N. Fuller. 24 DRIVING HoME THE CALF About 1882 Oil on canvas: h. 35¾; w. 50 inches. Signed: G. Fuller. Lent by Carll Tucker. 25 PoRTRAIT OF Miss MARY CHICKERING 1883 Oil on canvas: h. 50; w. 36 inches. Signed: G. Fuller. Lent by Mrs. George L. Nichols. 26 PORTRAIT OF ROBERT H . FULLER 1883 The artist's son. Oil on canvas: h. 27; w. 22¼ inches. Inscribed: G Fuller by R. H. Fuller. Lent by Robert H. Fuller. 27 PASTURE WITH GEESE 1883 Oil on canvas: h. 30¼; w. 25¼ inches. Signed: G Fuller. Lent by the Phillips Memorial Gallery. · 28 THE GOSSIPS 1883 Oil ori canvas: h. 16; w. 20¼ inches. Lent by the Estate of Harry W. Jones. 29 TWILIGHT 1883 Oil on canvas: h. 22¼; w. 27¼ inches. Signed: G Fuller. Lent by John F. Braun. 7 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART JO GIRL AND CALF-LED THROUGH MEADOWS 1883 Oil on canvas: h. 54¼; w. 36¾ inches. Signed: G Fuller. Lent by Ralph Cudney. JI ARETHUSA 1883 The nymph by the fountain. Oil on canvas: h. 50; w. 40_½ inches. Signed: G. Fuller. Lent by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 32 FEDALMA Taken from George Eliot's Spanish Gypsy. One of the few pictures whose subject was definite from the beginning. Oil on canvas: h. 41 .½; w. 30.½ inches. Lent anonymously. 33 GIRL WITH TURKEYS Oil on canvas: h. 31¼; w. 50 inches. Signed: G. Fuller. Lent by the Worcester Art Museum. 34 EXAMINATION OF WITNESSES IN A TRIAL FOR WITCHCRAFT 1884 The trial is in Salem. A picture which the artist developed for a long time but finally left not entirely finished. The figures in the center are under the spell of witchcraft, at the right a beadle and waiting witnesses, and above in the gallery figures suggesting the witches themselves. . Oil on canvas: h. 36¼; w. 54 inches. Lent by The Art Institute of Chicago. 8 ILLUSTRATIONS I BY THE WAYSIDE-DANDELION GIRL 2 PORTRAIT OF MRS. A. G. FULLER 3 PORTRAIT OF MRS. WEATHERBEE-OLD AGE 4 SHEARING THE DONKEY 5 TURKEY P ASTURE 6 PORTRAIT OF' EMORY FULLER 7 DANCE BEFORE THE SHRINE 8 GATHERER OF SIMPLES 9 PORTRAIT OF Miss ABERCROMBIE IO THE Brno CATCHER HOEING TOBACCO 12 PORTRAIT OF WINIFRED DYSART 13 PORTRAIT OF MRS. MARY WILLIAMS FULLER 14 MAIDENHOOD-MISS B RADLEY 15 PRISCILLA j 16 INTERIOR OF A NEGRO CAB I N I 17 PSYCHE 18 NYDIA 19 GATHERING FAGGOTS 20 PORTR A IT 21 PORTRAIT OF HENRY B. Fl/LLER 22 PORTRAIT OF GEORGE SPENCER FULLER 23 PORTRAIT OF ARTHUR N. FULLER 24 DRIVING HOME THE C A LF 25 PoRTRAIT OF Miss MARY CHICKERING j' 26 PORTRAIT OF ROBERT H. FULLER 27 PASTURE WITH GEESE 28 THE GOSSIPS 29 TWILIGHT 30 GIRL AND CALF-LED THROUGH MEADOWS .I JI ARETHUSA 32 FEDALMA 33 GIRL WITH TURKEYS 34 EXAMINATION OF WITNESSES IN A TRIAL FOR WITCHCRAFT OF THIS CATALOGUE ONE THOUSAND COPIES HAVE BEEN PRINTED APRIL, 1923