 From LIFE magazine, July 5, 1906 |
It is a gratification to me to know that I am ignorant of art, and ignorant
also of surgery. Because people who understand art find nothing in pictures
but blemishes, and surgeons and anatomists see no beautiful women in all
their lives, but only a ghastly stack of bones with Latin names to them,
and a network of nerves and muscles and tissues. Criticism is a queer thing. If I print "She was stark naked"--&
then proceeded to describe her person in detail, what critic would not
howl?--who would venture to leave the book on a parlor table. -- but the
artist does this & all ages gather around & look & talk &
point. I can't say, "They cut his head off, or stabbed him, &c"
describe the blood & the agony in his face. |
Charles
Noel Flagg's portrait of Clemens at age fifty-five.
Regarding this portrait, Mrs. Clemens complained only that the necktie was crooked. "But it's always crooked," said Flagg," and I have a great fancy for the line it makes." She straightened it on Clemens himself, but it immediately became crooked again. Clemens said: " If you were to make that necktie straight people would say, 'Good portrait, but there is something the matter with it. I don't know where it is."' The tie was left unchanged. -Mark Twain: A. Biography, Albert B. Paine |
|
| Whenever I enjoy anything in
art it means that it is mighty poor. The private knowledge of this fact
has saved me from going to pieces with enthusiasm in front of many and many
a chromo. - "At the Shrine of St. Wagner" Also see "Instructions in Art" Also see: "Mark Twain Takes on Art" from The Mark Twain Papers Spring 2001 Exhibition Curated by Lin Salamo, Michael B. Frank, and Anh Bul via archive.org |
by Theresa Fedorowna Ries in Vienna 1897. Photo courtesy of Dave Thomson. |
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