I have just received a copy of Baldwins Monthly containing your little paper on the indian delegations,1 for which many thanks.2
In the third3 paragraph you say that there is something about the essential traits of
our aborigines which "will almost certainly never be transmitted to the future." If
I am so fortunate as to regain my health I hope to weaken the force of that loc.02300.002_large.jpg statement, at
least in sofar as my talent & training will permit. I intend to spend some years
among them & shall endeavor to perpetuate on canvas some of the finer types,
both men & women & some of the characteristic features of their life. It
will certainly be well worth the while. My artistic enthusiasm was never so
thoroughly stirred up as by the indians They certainly have more of beauty dignity
& nobility mingled with their own wild individuality than any of the other
indigenous types of man. Neither black nor Afgahn, Arab nor Malay (I know them all pretty
loc.02300.003_large.jpg well) can
hold a candle to the Indian. All of the other aboriginal types seem to be more or
less distorted from the model of perfect human form—as we know it—the
Blacks, thin-hipped, with bulbous limbs, not well marked; the Arabs large jointed
&c. But I have seen many a young indian as perfect in form & feature as a
Greek statue—very different from a Greek statue of course but as satisfying
to the artistic perceptions & demand.
And the worst, or perhaps the best of it all is that it will require an artist—and a good one—to record the real facts & impres loc.02300.004_large.jpgsions. Ten thousand
photographs would not have the value of one really finely felt painting. Color is
all important. No one but an artist knows how much. An indian is only half an indian
without the blue-black hair & the brilliant eyes shining out of the wonderful
dusky ochre & rose complexion. Photo's are but for records at the best & if the Lord permits I shall give people some thing better to remember the Navajos &
Apaches by. With renewed thanks for your kindness in sending me the article I
remain,
Correspondent:
Lovell Birge Harrison
(1854–1929) was an American landscape painter and writer.