The Hawthorne Statue

THE CONTRIBUTORS’ CLUB.

The proposal that the memorial statue, to be erected to Nathaniel Hawthorne on the campus of Bowdoin College, shall represent the great romancer as he appeared in his youth suggests an interesting point in regard to portrait-statues, and, indeed, to portraits in general. Whenever a figure is set up or a portrait painted its critics may be broadly divided into two classes, — those whose point of view is personal, and those who regard the work for its artistic merit. The former look, each, for the reproduction of that image, which, in their individual minds, is associated with the original of the portrait; and as what a man sees is as truly the product of what he himself is, as of what the person at whom he looks may be, it follows that complete approval of likeness is likely to be rather rare. The statue which closely approaches the idea in the mind of A is thereby less likely to approximate nearly the image in the mind of B. Artists are familiar with the fact that friends most closely connected with sitters are least likely to be satisfied with the likeness in a portrait; and they reason that this is, not because those friends know best how the original really looks, but because they are sure to have in mind some idealized phantom born of their feelings quite as much as of physical fact. Artist and photographer are aware how much easier it is to produce a picture which will satisfy strangers, even when compared with the sitter, yet which is by the family pronounced hopelessly unlike; and everybody knows how often strangers perceive a family likeness entirely unapparent to familiar friends. Close acquaintances, in other words, are poor judges of absolute likeness, and they are apt in requiring this likeness to be blind to the merit of a portrait as a work of art.

The second group, those who look at the work from the aesthetic point of view, have at least certain broad art principles upon which to agree, and although the personal equation must be allowed for here also, it is at least founded upon a taste wider than personal feeling. The point of view, moreover, is that which must be regarded as much more likely to be lasting than in the former case. The coming generations can have no personal knowledge of the appearance of the sitter, but are likely to look upon the picture or statue purely as a work of art. From a historical point of view it is of interest that a portrait shall represent the sitter as exactly as possible, and it is generally probable that a real face will more adequately represent the essentials of character in the individual commemorated than could any invention of the artist. From an aesthetic side, however, these things do not much matter; and, indeed, were it not for the moral superstition in regard to fidelity of likeness, they might be called trivial details. In the case of the Hawthorne statue, materials for the likeness are abundant, but of those who see the memorial practically none will be able to remember the novelist as he looked when he graduated from Bowdoin in 1825. Fancy may see him arm in arm with his classmate Longfellow crossing the grassy spaces of the campus, over which his statue is to look, but those of the living who recall his appearance must have him in mind as he appeared in his later years. By their comments they may perhaps point unconsciously the moral to -which I have been leading up. They will perhaps object that they cannot reconcile their memories -with the image before them. The obvious answer will be that nobody can possibly care whether they can or not. To the younger generation, and especially to the undergraduates who will see the memorial most often, here will be a gracious image of the youth of genius, forever young, forever an inspiration, and, in a sense, forever a part of college life, -with all its ardors of hope and aspiration. What more is to be asked ? A work of art is not meant to be history, but beauty and inspiration. It is for to-morrow even more than for to-day; and the Boston woman was entirely right who said to a famous painter: “I don’t in the least care whether my portrait looks exactly like me or not, if you will only make a picture that my great-grandchildren will be proud of.”