A FAMOUS AMERICAN ARTIST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14567, 2 January 1911, Page 4

A FAMOUS AMERICAN ARTIST.

The death, at the Butler Hospital, Providence, Rhode Island, of Mr. John La Farge, the famous American artist, occurred last month. Although holding until the last the presidency bot'h of the National Society of American Artists and of the National Society of Mural Painters, in addition to the position of Art Commissioner for the city of New York', Mr. La Farge been. for some time in anything but good health, and his death, at the age of 76, "was"' not altogether unexpected Born in New York City in March, 1855, he was the pupil of William Morris Hunt, who himself had undergone a long apprenticeship under Couture in Paris and Millet in Barbizon before he finally, settled in Boston. Some of Hunt's studies of sheep are of particular' delicacy, and La Farge derived from him Mot a. little of his early inspiration. An earnest student of '• European art,- La Farge in middle life made many trips across the Atlantic; First lie worked as a draughtsman on wood, and then in succession is a painter of flowers, landscapes, and portraits',-arid as a decorator of church interiors and a mural painter ron Biblical themes." Several of the best-known, churches in ' New York owe their internal artistic'beauty to him, whilst much of the decoration -'Of the Vanderbilt mansion fibt&bly Che''staircase windows and ceilings —and ' tfi'e : -paintings for the musicroom in the~Whitelaw Reid . residence, were executed by.him. Probably his most important!, Vf>€te£rom air*- international point view was associated with glass staining and painting. Not only was he able to secure colours that rivalled those of the finest mediaeval artists, but he was responsible for a. system. of leading which contributed not a little to the marvellous success with which he treated his subjects. Indeed;' he may be said to have revolutionised the construction of stained glass windows, for* his inventions had such a vogue that ' they won for themselves the title of '(the American method." "France conferred upon him the distinction of the Legion of Honour.