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27-773: The union was organized around 1848, and incorporated in Massachusetts in 1850. The board included Everett, Dexter, and Longfellow, and a mix of prominent Bostonian businessmen, artists, and other notables: Joseph Andrews; Thomas G. Appleton; Edward C. Cabot; Alvan Fisher; Nathaniel Langdon Frothingham ; James B. Gregerson; Chester Harding; Joshua H. Hayward; George S. Hilliard ; Albert G. Hoit; Jonathan Mason; Benjamin S. Rotch; G. G. Smith; Charles Sumner ; C. G. Thompson; and Ammi B. Young . Others associated with union administration included James Lawrence and Thomas T. Spear. The union aimed to promote excellence in art, to single out top performing American artists, and to educate

54-461: A letter from Dr. Frothingham today. The sight of that man's handwriting is Parnassian. Nothing vulgar is connected with his name, but on the contrary every remembrance of wit and learning and contempt of cant. In our Olympic games we love his fame. But that fame was bought by many years of steady rejection of all that is popular with our society, and a persevering study of books which none else reads, and which he can convert to no temporary purpose. There

81-451: A loss to account for it, I scarcely know on what principle of human nature it is to be explained, this sympathy of well-meaning persons with those who have outraged every feeling of humanity by their savage force or their cold hearted depravity. I can understand how the Jewish populace in an excited hour should demand the liberation of Barabbas; I can almost enter into the feelings of those who, in

108-454: A lustre on the rulers that cherish them. In our republican land, genius cannot receive this munificent patronage, but, by the establishment of art unions, the sovereign people can stimulate and educe merit under the combined influence of those urgent springs of action -- emulation and recompense. The divines, statesmen, soldiers and writers of New England, fostered by public applause and patronage, have given high proof of their merit, and we regard

135-905: A number of meritorious works." Visitors to the gallery included Adin Augustus Ballou (son of Socialist Adin Ballou ). The gallery exhibited works by: Joseph Ames , William Babcock, Thomas Ball , Charles A. Barry, Albert Fitch Bellows , A. Bierstadt , William T. Carlton, Benjamin Champney , J.A. Codman , C.P. Cranch, Mrs. H. Dassell, Thomas Edwards , Alvan Fisher, W.A. Gay, Samuel L. Gerry , George H. Hall, W.H. Hanley, Albert Gallatin Hoit , H.P. Hunt, D.C. Johnston , J.F. Kensett , John A. Knight, Kurtz, Fitz Henry Lane , W. Morrison, B.F. Nutting , Mrs. Oakes, John Pope , A. Ransom, John W. A. Scott , Thomas T. Spear, P. Stephenson, H.G. Wilde, and Moses Wight . Some of

162-421: A season of great depression, should empty every convict's cell, saying, let us supplicate the holy and frowning heavens together, for we are all transgressors alike. But, in a state of society like our own, with institutions so free from abuse and so full of mercifulness, it is hard to comprehend why there should be such a feverish sensibility in favor of the abandoned, and so intense a wish for something better than

189-573: A third foreign tour of eighteen months, in Europe with his wife and daughters, Frothingham first became aware of a defect in his vision. He could not enjoy picture-galleries, and saw distorted figures and blurred colors. He consulted oculists in Paris and London, but no disease was visible in his eyes. When he returned home in the autumn of 1860, the dimness had increased. In 1865, he underwent an unsuccessful operation on his eyes and became totally blind. His disease

216-712: Is a scholar doing a scholar's office. Frothingham was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1856. He corresponded with Ralph Waldo Emerson , and was a thorough student of the German language when such scholarship was rare in America. In 1818, Frothingham married Ann Gorham Brooks, daughter of Peter Chardon Brooks and sister of the wives of Edward Everett and Charles Francis Adams, Sr. They had three children, all born in Boston. Octavius Brooks Frothingham

243-469: Is built on. I will congratulate him that he feels his hope to be so sure ... But let us profess for ourselves, that we needed something more and have found it. We will own all that we love to trace our faith further than to the self-taught dictates of a defined intellect and an elevated heart; even to the Fountain of Inspiration. In a sermon entitled "The Ruffian Released", preached in 1836, he said: I am at

270-641: The First Church in Boston . He remained there until March 1850. Frothingham had been five years in the pulpit when the Unitarian controversy broke out. The American Unitarian Association was formed in 1825. In March 1835, the twentieth anniversary of his settlement in the First Church, he preached: This is known by the name of the Unitarian controversy; and in so Darning it I believe that I am giving utterance, for

297-527: The Art Union as destined to elevate the character of our artists. Its fostering patronage will prove that, by affording adequate opportunity, New England is as congenial to the arts of design, as the lands which have produced a Michael Angelo , a Praxiteles , a Wilkie , or the Vernsets (i.e. Claude Joseph Vernet , Carle Vernet , Horace Vernet )." In the mid-19th century, a number of art unions were organized in

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324-568: The Managers of the New England Art Union cannot possibly commit, because they are gentlemen. Edward Everett, Henry W. Longfellow, Franklin Dexter; has anybody heard of them? does anybody want a better guarantee?" Around 1850, local directories and art publications reported that "the gallery of the institution, no.38 Tremont Row , Boston, is open to the public" and "their collection already embraces

351-420: The U.S., some more respectable than others. The New England Art Union enjoyed a solid reputation. As one observer commented: "If I have of late been more solicitous for the N.E. Art-Union, it is because it is new, and because I know that the men who direct it are gentlemen, in the true sense of the word; and am fully confident that they will not domineer, and dictate, and calumniate, and make false pretences about

378-678: The artists affiliated with the union kept studios in Boston's Tremont Temple , which burned in 1852. Fellow artists took up a collection on behalf of those afflicted by the fire. In 1852 the union issued its Bulletin , "embellished with a well executed sketch of the engraving [of Washington Allston 's painting of Saul and the Witch of Endor], and a woodcut, spiritedly designed by Hammatt Billings , in illustration of Mr. Longfellow's ballad, 'The Skeleton in Armor.'" Nathaniel Langdon Frothingham Nathaniel Langdon Frothingham (23 July 1793 – 3 April 1870)

405-470: The charge of Samuel Hunt. He graduated from Harvard College in 1811 at the age of eighteen and gave a commencement speech entitled "The Cultivation of the Taste and Imagination," which was described by Dr. Pierce as "written with purity and pronounced with elegance." In 1812, Frothingham became the first Instructor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard. On March 15, 1815, Frothingham became an ordained Minister of

432-1119: The dead, with those of the simplest minds that have the advantage of Christian education. Albert Gallatin Hoit Albert Gallatin Hoit (December 13, 1809 – December 18, 1856) was an American painter who lived in Boston , Massachusetts. He painted portraits of William Henry Harrison , Daniel Webster and Brenton Halliburton . Hoit was born in Sandwich, New Hampshire , December 13, 1809, to Gen. Daniel Hoit and Sally Flanders. Siblings included William Henry Hoit. Hoit graduated from Dartmouth College in 1829. He married Susan Hanson in 1838; children included Anna M. Hoit and Albert Hanson Hoit. He "devoted his life to portrait painting, first at Portland, Maine , in 1831, and then in Bangor and Belfast, Maine, and Saint John, N.B. until Boston, Mass., became his permanent home in 1839." He also travelled in Europe, "Oct. 1842 to July 1844, ... enjoying

459-504: The divine nature; or for that of atonement, according to the popular understanding of that word; or for that of man's total corruption and inability; or for that of an eternity of woe adjudged as the punishment of earthly offences; or indeed for any of the peculiar articles in that scheme of faith which went under the name of the Genevan reformer. ... We have made more account of the religious sentiment than of theological opinions. The dependence

486-454: The first time in this desk, to that party word. This alone is saying not a little in illustration of the spirit with which the offices of religion have been here conducted. ... We remained almost at rest in that earthquake of schism. ... We silently assumed the ground, or rather found ourselves standing upon it, that there was no warrant in the Scriptures for the idea of a threefold personality in

513-705: The galleries of art in Italy, Paris, and London." He created portraits of Pietro Bachi, Johanna Robinson Hazen, J. Eames, and others. He painted a portrait of Daniel Webster "for Paran Stevens, which hung for years in the Revere House , Boston, and now belongs to the Union League Club, New York." He was affiliated with the Boston Artists' Association ; and exhibited at the gallery of the New England Art Union in

540-426: The laws. He disagreed with the philosophy of Les Misérables , Victor Hugo 's famous novel, which seemed to imply that a change of outward conditions would effect a change of character, that the social arrangement was radically wrong, and that the "paralysis of the person" was contingent on "the narrowness of the lot", which ran counter to his beliefs. The following is from Parker's journal: August, 1857. I had

567-459: The public eye. To this end, the board thought of increasing the breadth of distributed art in circulation amongst the American public by producing fine art prints. In particular, in 1851 the union offered to its subscribers a copy of an engraving by C.E. Wagstaff and Joseph Andrews of Washington Allston 's painting "Saul and the Witch of Endor." The original painting (owned by Thomas Handasyd Perkins )

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594-415: The value of their prints and paintings, and puff the servile daubers who submit to them, and declare that the country produces no better works than theirs, and that all who are not their loyal subjects are of no account at tall, and that they have 'declined' their works. Such a line of argument, affecting to despise their opponents, yet covertly stinging them with envenomed sneers and lies -- such blackguardism

621-415: Was also exhibited in the union's gallery. The board considered their purpose as part of a national effort to raise the quality of American visual art, ideally on par with the greats of Europe and the ancient world. "In empires and monarchies every protection is afforded to institutions of arts. Regarded as the harbingers of refinement, and the heralds of prosperity, they diffuse a radiance around thrones, and

648-471: Was an American Unitarian minister and pastor of the First Church of Boston from 1815 to 1850. Frothingham was opposed to Theodore Parker and the interjection of transcendentalism into the church. He also wrote sermons, hymns, and poetry. Nathaniel Langdon Frothingham was born on July 23, 1793, in Boston , Massachusetts the son of Ebenezer Frothingham and Joanna Langdon. He attended Boston Latin School under

675-482: Was born November 26, 1822, and became an author. Ward Brooks Frothingham was born November 16, 1828, and resided for a time in Burlington , serving in two town offices. Ellen Frothingham was born March 25, 1835, and became a translator (German into English). Ann Frothingham died on July 4, 1864, in Burlington, Massachusetts . In the summer of 1826, Frothingham was afflicted by weekly violent headaches. In 1859, on

702-505: Was of the nature of glaucoma and was incurable. In the introduction to a translation of the first of the Elegies of Propertius, a writer in the Augustan Age of Roman poetry, Frothingham says: The last, which is, indeed, the leading, reason [for presenting the version] is the opportunity that it gives of comparing some of the purest sentiments of classical antiquity respecting the state of

729-420: Was on miracle. Frothingham said, in a sermon on the "Manifestation of Christ": Is there one there, who thinks he requires no miraculous evidence in support of his religious convictions, who feels satisfied with the proofs that the unaided mind can furnish for itself? I will not assail him, I will not charge him with throwing away all faith, because he is willing to receive it on slighter grounds than we trust it

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