Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 27, January, 1860 | Page 3

his friends, in regard to
his valuation by the world, while he is living, ultimately he himself,
divested of all save his own individuality, must stand revealed.
Those who in other departments of action are necessarily governed
somewhat, or it may be entirely, by rules of conduct general in nature
and universal in application, may fail to receive or may escape justice.
They are to a great degree involuntary agents, and subject to the laws of
science, to the operations of which they are obliged to conform. The
private fact of the man is hidden by the public general truth. If,
however, the energies of the individual overtop the science, enabling
him to assert himself above the summit of its history, then is he
accessible to all generations, and can in no wise avoid or forfeit his just
fame.
In Art, this intimate relation of the result of action to the actor is
complete,--inasmuch as, to be Art, to rise above being something else,
the shadow and mockery of Art, it must be of and from the man, a
spontaneity, a reflection, light for light, shade for shade, color for color,
of his entire being; and with this effect his will has little to do.
Therefore, unless he be an impostor, he need give himself no trouble
regarding his future. His works shall serve as a clue, produced century

after century, along which posterity shall feel its way back to his studio
and heart. No need of thought for his morrow.
But for his to-day he may well be solicitous. If fame be his reflection,
he has also the shadow of himself, his reputation.
It is a great error to assume that these two effects are so related that the
augmentation of the one must increase the other, and as great a mistake
to confound the two. The truth is, that reputation and fame are rarely
coincident. They are not unfrequently in direct opposition,--so much so,
that some names, which the world cannot give up, have to be filtered
through a thick mass of years, to purify them of their reputations, and
leave them simply famous.
No name has suffered more than that of Powers. His friends, blind to
the laws which govern these matters, have wrought bravely to construct
for him a reputation commensurate with his vaguely imagined worth;
but upon his real worth they have evinced no desire to lay their
foundation. No accurate survey has been made of his abilities, no
definite plan of his artist-nature. Often a place has been demanded for
his name in the history of Art, and the first place too, because of his
fine frank eye, or the simplicity of his manners,--because his workmen
cut the chain of the Greek slave out of one piece of stone, or the marble
of the statue itself had no spot as big as a pin-head,--because he himself
chooses to rasp and scrape plaster, rather than model in plastic
clay,--because he tinkered up the "infernal regions" of the Cincinnati
Museum years ago, or spends his time now in making
perforating-machines and perforated files; in fine, for any reason rather
than for the right legitimate one of artistic merit, they have demanded
room for their favorite.
Even those who look deeper than this, appreciating Mr. Powers as a
gentleman, an ingenious mechanic, and a skillful manipulator in
sculpture, have been content or constrained to urge his claims to
attention upon false considerations. We have heard it gravely remarked,
as a matter of astonishment, that there were individuals--refined men,
apparently--who looked upon the Venus de' Medici as a finer work than
the Greek Slave. In the files of a New York paper may be found an
article, written by a highly cultivated man, in which Powers's busts are
asserted to be rather the effect of miracles than the results of human
effort. The spirit which has prompted these and many kindred

expressions cannot be too much deplored by those who love Art and
know the artist. It has succeeded in creating for him a reputation broad
and remarkable, but most unfortunate, because not his own, because not
the reputation which should have formed about his name here, as fame
will yonder; unfortunate, because, though broad, it is the breadth of an
inverted pyramid, which must naturally topple over of itself, and
incumber his path with ruins.
The false position in which Mr. Powers has been placed by his friends
has of course won him many enemies.
Bold, sincere, working enemies are highly useful in developing an
artist's character, especially if he be a law-abiding follower of the art.
But enemies must be dealers of fair blows, wagers of honorable warfare;
no assassin is worthy of the name of enemy. Sometimes, however,
those who are worthy of the name, and entitled