The New North West

A FAMOUS AMERICAN ARTIST
A Milwaukee Boy Who Is a Great Man In Europe.
Very impressive and worthy of close study is Carl Marr's picture of "The Flagellants," now on exhibition in the loan collection at the Art palace of the Columbian exposition. It represents a procession in Florence of the famous religious order that, spread throughout southern Europe with such amazing generalness in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and is masterful in its characterization of religious fanaticism. It was first exhibited in Munich in 1886, where it got the gold medal.

In striking contrast to "The Flagellants" is another of Marr's pictures in the loan exhibition, "Summer Afternoon," the property of Mrs. Hearst of California, which took the "ideal medal" in Berlin. It is a garden scene, with a group of women at one table and children at another. It has a marvelous blending of light and shade, the effect of the sunlight shining through the green foliage.

There is an interesting story connected with Marr's first great picture. It was "The Wandering Jew," since renamed "The Mystery," and took the silver medal at Munich, where the artist was then settled pursuing his art studies. He was but 23 years old when it was painted and undergoing all the hardships that attend beginners in the artistic world. His picture was admitted to be good, but he could not sell it. He returned to America and opened a studio and art school in Milwaukee, his native place, but here he also failed to find a purchaser for his picture. He then took it back to Europe again, where it was purchased by an English art dealer, who sold it to George F. Seney of New York. It was presented to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Mr. Seney and is now considered one of the gems of that famous institution's collection.

Mr. Marr is of German parentage and was born in Milwaukee in 1858. He displayed artistic talent while a mere youth, and at the age of 17 his father sent him to Germany to study. He first attended the art school at Weimar and thence went to Berlin and Munich. He is highly appreciated in Germany.