Memoir

Gilbert MungerLandscape Artist

1836 — 1903

For more information go to the Munger Web site athttp://gilbertmunger.org/

Distinctions Conferred uponGilbert Munger

By Governments and Sovereigns of Europe

M E D A L S , 1876, 1878, 1880; CROSS OF THE LE-GION OF HONOR.

M EMBER IF THE S OCIÉTÉ LITTÉRAIRE INTERNA-TIONALE, FOUNDED BY VICTOR HUGO.

CHEVALIER OF THE LEGION OF HONOR, FRANCE.

K NIGHT OF THE O RDER OF SAXE-ERNESTINE; GRANDCROSS FOR ART AND SCIENCE, GERMANY.

R ED C ROSS WITH THE R IBBON OF THE O RDER OFST. ANDREW, RUSSIA.

K ING LEOPOLD GOLD M EDAL WITH CROWN, BEL-GIUM.

D ECORATION FROM THE D UKE D’AOSTA; GO L D

M EDAL AND H ONORARY M EMBER OF THE ACAD-EMY OF FINE ARTS, ITALY.

O FFICER AND C OMMANDER OF THE N A T I O N A LORDER OF THE LIBERATOR, VENEZUELA.

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GILBERT MUNGER

THE reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gothaconferred upon Gilbert Munger the Knight-hood of his House Order, with title of Baron, hebeing the only foreigner who has received thisdecoration. A much-coveted distinction conferredupon him was the German Cross for Art andScience. These honors, like many others, wereentirely unsought.

Gilbert Munger's birthplace was the village ofNorth Madison, New Haven County, Connecti-cut. When a child he firmly believed he shouldbecome an artist, and told his parents so, but theythought he was acting on a childish freak and dis-couraged the notion. At that period he had neverseen a picture of any merit; except in New York,there were no art schools or academies, and he hadnever been in New York. Fortunately for all loversof art, he had as tutor Professor Lovell, an Eng-lish gentleman of culture, an enthusiast in art, andwhen his pupil was only eleven years old he hap-pened to see some of his productions. He saw in

them such promise of future distinction that heearnestly advised the parents to allow their son tofollow his own inclination and become an artist.Unfortunately, at that time the prosaic and prac-tical inhabitants of New England did not considerthe profession “quite respectable.” However muchwe may be amused now at such an opinion, wemust not forget that within the nineteenth centuryan artist even in England was not considered “quiterespectable” unless his success and consequentwealth happened to be unusually great. At lasthis tutor conquered, and at the age of thirteen hebecame the pupil of a natural-history and landscapeengraver at Washington. His school-days sooncame to an end, and at the early age of fourteen hewas a full-fledged engraver of rare discoveries innatural-history, receiving a salary from the UnitedStates government. During the following fiveyears he was employed principally in engravinglarge plates of plants, birds, fish, fossils, reptiles,portraits, and landscapes, published by the govern-ment in connection with the exploring expeditionof Commodore Wilkes, and for Professor Agassiz’sworks and the works for the Smithsonian Institu-tion.

Although his time was thus busily occupied,Munger never renounced his intention of becominga landscape painter, and only adopted engraving asa means to that end. He borrowed from a friend

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Ruskin’s works, and read them, and purchased acopy of J. D. Harding’s drawing-book. Rising inthe summer months at four o’clock, he hastened,sketch-book in hand, to the woods, and drew care-ful studies of trees until eight o’clock; then backto his home, and from nine till five earned his dailybread at his engraving-desk. After that, threemore hours in the woods with his pencil and paper.Could any other profession have been successfulto such an enthusiast? The most ardent wor-shipper of the arts could not have been more de-voted to the shrine of his goddess. Except thelittle technical knowledge he may have gleanedfrom seeing amateur artists at work from time totime, nature was his only instructor, and he neverattempted to study under any other tutor. In thishe but followed the example of some of our great-est artists, although in his boyhood he was probablyunconscious of the fact.

In the year 1860 the war-clouds had loweredover the United States, the arts and sciences, theluxuries of a nation, had to be abandoned, thenational life was endangered. Munger was offeredand accepted a position as engineer in the Federalarmy. The new calling was not congenial, the im-aginative artist temperament being “cribbed, cab-ined, and confined” when all his duties were com-prised in the more mechanical labors of the militaryengineer. However, he studied hard to fit himself

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for the new calling which fortune had conferredupon him, and with such success that he became aconstructing engineer, with the rank of major.During the four years’ war he was engaged uponthe field fortifications around Washington, and so,while actively employed for the defence of his coun-try, happily escaped the horrors of the battlefield.When peace was concluded and the vast army dis-posed of, Munger also laid down his arms andresigned his commission, though much against theadvice of his friends. He was now at last to followin earnest the career his boyish fancy had chosen.

Taking a studio in New York, he painted twopictures during the winter, both of which were ex-hibited in the National Academy of Design, favor-ably noticed by the press, and sold. A large work,“Minnehaha,” the laughing waters of Longfellow’s“Hiawatha,” was next painted and exhibited inmany cities – a specially paid ticket exhibition.This picture attracted great attention, and broughthim a commission which resulted in his paintingthe “Niagara Falls” for the Prussian government,for which he was paid the sum of $5000.

The New York Herald at that date, over thirtyyears ago, says:

“If there is an honest art critic in New York, that man isMr. Perry of the ‘Home Journal.’ We are glad to see that hehas written a most eulogistic notice of Munger’s ‘Niagara.’Mr. Munger may well be proud of such appreciation.”

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The St. Paul Press says of “Minnehaha”:

“We have heretofore omitted to notice that Mr. GilbertMunger, an artist from New York City, was engaged upon alarge-sized painting of ‘Minnehaha.’ It is now completed andon exhibition, and is, in our opinion, the first painting everfinished which does entire justice to our little gem of a waterfall. Its truthfulness to nature is perfect, and the evident laborwhich has been lavished upon the most minute particulars provesthat it was a work of interest to the artist. The painting is36 by 50 inches in size, and takes in a view of the falls and aportion of the rapids immediately above, and also the birchtrees upon either side of the stream. As a work of art, it is arare production.

“Mr. Munger is a young artist of very decided ability andpromise, and we are glad that a painting of ‘Minnehaha’ hasat last been produced by a gentleman so well qualified to do itjustice.”

This painting of “Minnehaha” was purchasedby Ralston, the noted San Francisco banker, for$5000.

At this date Munger went West and spent threeyears in the wildest scenery of the Rocky Moun-tains, California, and British America. In the vastmountainous region which divides the continenthe found some of the grandest scenery the mind ofman could conceive; on every side was a new sub-ject for his brush: the fitful changing shadows onthe peak before him, with its hues of gold, ruby,indigo, or gray; the mountain stream, as it rushedthrough the valley, swollen with the melting snow;

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the vast chain of mountains, rising peak after peakand foothill after foothill, stretching from thetropics to the North Pole. Well supplied with food,with health, youth, and strength, and, above all,with a reverence for and delight in the beauty ofnature, the artist was in an earthly paradise. Inall seasons the mountains are beautiful: in winter,when clad from base to summit with the virginsnow, with jutting rocks showing gray and dark,with park-like valleys dotted with deep-hued piñontrees, and narrow cañons impassible for the foot ofman; in spring or summer, when the dry, rarefiedmountain air softens the burning heat of sun,when a hundred miles of country are open to view,and nothing can be seen but lofty peaks, with arosy gleam upon the unmelted snow, when sleepunder a blanket in a sheltered nook is more deli-cious than all the refinements of civilization; butabove all, in late autumn, when the quivering hazeof the Indian summer softens the hard outlines ofrugged hills, and throws a glamour upon every-thing.

Turning his back on the mountains and theplain, Munger travelled westward to the famousYosemite Valley, the scene of wonders equallygigantic. Four thousand feet high the solitaryrock, El Capitan, rears its head, and this is but oneof the enormous works which nature has lavishedon the strange land. St. Paul’s Cathedral in

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London is about 365 feet from foundation to cross,and if we can imagine another St. Paul’s placedabove it, and then another and another until elevencathedrals are reared in one huge whole, we canobtain and imperfect idea of the height of that greatrock. One season was passed amid the extinctvolcanoes of Oregon, California, and WashingtonTerritory. He chose them as the subjects for aseries of paintings, and he also received a commis-sion from the United States government to painta series of picture illustrating scenery of that wilddescription. The attractions of the Yosemite weresufficiently powerful to draw him to the spot duringtwo seasons. Here he met Lord Skelmersdale, withother English gentlemen, who gave him commis-sions for works illustrating the scenery of theneighborhood, for which is was paid $10,000.They earnestly advised him to set out at once forEngland with his collection of studies. After duedeliberation, he decided to accept their counsel, andreturned to New York to arrange his affairs beforeproceeding to England.

The San Francisco Bulletin, published in 1868,says:

“Gilbert Munger exhibits, as the results of two months’conscientious open-air work, a noble view of Mount Tamal-pais, taken from a point about one mile back of San Rafael.This most beautiful peak about the bay has been a favorite withthe pencil of Keith and the pen of Stoddard, and now Mr.

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Munger reproduces it for us with a fidelity and strength trulyadmirable. . . . In saying that Mr. Munger’s picture shows usall this, we have paid the highest compliment to his skill andhonesty as an artist.”

The St. Paul Press, published at above date, says:

“After to-day art-loving citizens of St. Paul will have theprivilege of seeing a very fine picture which Mr. Gilbert Mungerhas finished, since his return to this city, of one of the moststriking views in the Yosemite Valley of California. . . . Nonebut a born artist could reproduce this splendid effect. Thegeological formations of the monstrous old walls of the valleyhave been the subject of close study and accurate representation,and all the accessories will be found to be almost as vividly andminutely true to nature as the productions of the once famouspre-Raphaelite school of painters, whose chief aim was to re-produce on canvas every leaf and sprig and blade of grass of alandscape. The picture is not offered for a purchaser, since itsdestination is already fixed; it is to be exhibited solely for thebenefit of art lovers. To understand and appreciate it is ofitself a libera1 education in art.

“Arriving in London in 1876, Mr. Munger received com-missions for paintings of American scenery. Fresh from theunpopulated mountain ranges and valleys of the Far West, hesoon made his escape from the stifling wilderness of houses,and in the autumn of the same year spent some weeks at Dun-keld in company with Sir John Millais. The second seasonwas passed at Skye, Stornoway, Loch Maree, and Dunkeld.In 1879 he sent no less than eight pictures to the various ex-hibitions – to the Royal Academy, “Loch Coruisk,” “LochMaree,” and “Great Salt Lake, Utah”’; to Manchester, “AGlimpse of the Pacific” and “Loch Coruisk”; to Ncwcastle-on-Tyne, “Woodland Streams ” and “Herring Fleet”; and

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to Liverpool, “Great SaIt Lake.” Seven of these pictureswere sold. To this year’s exhibition of the Royal Academyhe has sent his large picture of “King Arthur’s Castle, Corn-wall,’’ a fine work, which is fortunately on the line and wellplaced. His work would have been better known had he com-menced to exhibit on his arrival, but until last year he preferredto send the picture direct to the owner. He intends to adhereto the rule of painting direct from nature, and exhibiting theoriginal pictures so painted, the result being necessarily safer.Mr. Munger’s visit to England is not that of a bird of passage:he has made this country his home, and is willing to trust hisfortune to his own ability and the unprejudiced opinion of Eng-lishmen. Although when travelling in foreign countries ourinsular ideas are somewhat too stubbornly maintained, yetEnglishmen are always willing to give a hearty welcome to thetraveller who visits their shores, and none are welcomed withmore unselfishness than those who come to vie with thenatives themselves. Mr. Munger’s bark has now been fairlylaunched on British waters, and he need not fear that any stormof envy or calumny will be raised to drive it out of its course.”

Colburn’s Art Magazine, June, 1880.

A frequent exhibitor in the Royal Academy, hispaintings found ready buyers. Through one artdealer alone in London over two hundred weresold to the nobility in Europe. Extremely modestand somewhat eccentric, he would never encouragethe purchase of his paintings; but Europe’s bestcollectors bought them as among the finest ex-amples of landscape in modern art, and thoughpractically unknown to the American art lover, socalled, there they are to be found in the most

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noted private and public galleries. The RoyalAcademy of London, the museums at Coberg,Berlin, Munich, Schwerin, Weimar, Meiningen,and in the Luxembourg Art Gallery of Paris, ascarefully selected property of the public, they holdtheir own side by side with the masterpieces of allages.

In the following paragraphs may be read theopinions of some of the most noted art critics ofEurope.

The president of the Luxembourg Gallery onceremarked of Munger’s pictures: “They do notresemble any other artist’s of the present day,” astriking compliment to his individuality.

Referring to the Winter Exhibition at the Han-over Gallery:

“There are several fine examples of the art of Gilbert Mun-ger, while Jules Dupre contributes one canvas, a landscape ofuncommon merit. The gems of the collection are, perhaps,the landscape and figure piece of Corot, but we confess that theview near Franchard, by Munger, with its lovely distance andquiet, harmonious tones, runs it somewhat hard.

The London Telegraph, October 23, 1890.

“Of the Hanover Gallery I have little to say. Gems ofthe French and Belgian schools are selected for this exhibitionwith unerring taste. What pleases me most here is always thework of Gilbert Munger, an American artist, who lives atBarbizon, and who for years has saturated himself with thebeauty of that nature that inspired Corot and his friends. He

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sees for himself, and his own mark is upon all that he does;and he alone of modern painters can lay claim to have dressedhimself in some portion of the Elijah mantles of the great oneswho have ceased to be able to materialize for us their ideas ofnature.” – The London Echo, 1886.

Referring to the Royal Art Exhibition:

“We shall not quarrel with those who prefer the delicate‘Greville,’ by Millet, or the peaceful evening scene, ‘NearBarbizon,’ by Gilbert Munger.” – The London Times, 1886.

“Rub our the signature of Gilbert Munger, and Americanpainter, still young, we believe, from any one of his landscapes,and it would pass for a work of that same school which glori-fies the forest scenery of Fontainebleau. Corot, in his deeperand firmer mood, is reproduced, with no slavish effort of dullmechanical imitation, but with the appreciative reverence of anoriginal hand, by the same Mr. Munger.”

The London Daily Telegraph, 1886.

“There is one really notable picture by an American inLondon – Mr. Munger – which recalls Rousseau absolutely athis best. It represents three oaks trees crowded together in awildish land, the shadows not obscure and the lights still sober.”

Standard, June 10, 1886.

“ . . . Beneath this vivid piece of coloring hangs a wood-land picture by an American artist – G. Munger – that is oneof the finest in the collection. It is suggestive of Constable andof Patrick Nasmyth, but like neither, and certainly deserves thehighest praise.” – Morning Post, October 4, 1886.

“In the upper gallery is, to our mind, the gem of the col-lection, a view ‘Near Barbizon,’ by G. Munger. The gifted

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artist, one of the many Americans who find artistic training anddomicile in Paris, has given a bit of the grand old forest of Fon-tainebleau.” -- Brighton Guardian, October 13, 1886.

“L’artist Américain Munger ne figure malheureusementqu’avec une seule œuvre ; mais cette œuvre est fort belle.”

Journal des Arts, October 15, 1886.

“The two landscapes which Mr. Gilbert Munger, the well-known American artist, had destined for the Universal Exhibi-tion were acquired by H. R. H. the Duke of Saxe-Meiningenfor the museum at Meiningen, last April. A few days ago, Mr.Munger received from the Duke the Cross of Merit for Art andScience.” – Galignani’s Messenger, Paris, 1887.

“Where judgment is exercised in the purchase, an invest-ment in pictures by young artists is about as profitable a one ascan be made. With this view, let me recommend a visit to theHanover Gallery, there to choose from Gilbert Munger’s land-scapes. The atmosphere and breadth of treatment in his can-vases are wonderful.” – Fame and Fortune, March 3, 1887.

“Gilbert Munger, le peintre Américain, qui suit de si prèsles traditions de nos grands maîtres français est bien représenté.”

Journal des Arts, October 20, 1887.

“ . . . and a beautiful Gilbert Munger, the French-American,whom Hollander and Cremetti introduced to England last year,and whose fame will yet be great.”

Land and Water, October 29, 1887.

“Near Arbonne,” by a clever American artist, G. Munger,is about as fine a landscape as anything of its kind since Con-stable.” – Whitehall Review, November 3, 1887.

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Mr. Dwight Williams, American artist and trav-eller, writing from Genoa, Italy, August 18, 1896,says:

“My time has been put in sketching and studying the oldmasters. I have not seen such good landscape as GilbertMunger’s over here, except in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.This is saying a good deal, but I believe it is true.”

To Gilbert Munger’s years of diligent work inItaly may be attributed several of the most charm-ing pictures of Venice in this country, and to everyart lover they evidence the hand of the master.Urged by Ruskin, many years ago, he went toVenice and painted fifty pictures, which were ex-hibited in London, producing a sensation.

Soon after his arrival in England, some thirtyyears ago, Munger was introduced to Sir JohnMillais, the distinguished artist, with whom hespent several pleasant seasons sketching, in theHighlands of Scotland. They became very warmfriends, which continued until his death. While inEngland many of his summers were passed insketching from his house-boat on the Thames.He was never so happy as when at work with pal-ette and brush, and he invariably finished his pic-tures at the point of observation, often delayedweeks in the completion of a task until the weatherwould unfold to view a landscape in perfect accordwith his own peaceful sentiments. In all his pic-

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tures there is a feeling of peace and tranquillitywhich carries one “far from the madding crowd.”His coloring, while usually subdued in tone, is fullof truth and harmony and poetic treatment. A finecolorist, he also possessed a scientific knowledge ofthe chemistry of colors, obtained by half a centuryof laborious investigation.

In an interview in Paris, 1892, he was askedwhy our artists live abroad, and said in reply:

“If you insist upon a categorical answer to the question, Whydo American painters live abroad? I must say that I cannotgive it; but one of the reasons for my own stay, now prolongedsince 1873 – and the reason with which I am fond of appeas-ing my own patriotism whenever it urges my return to the blueskies of my native country – is the increase of knowledge andthe sure means of growth in art everywhere at hand in theseold lands.

“Furthermore, it is in Europe rather than in America thatthe indefinable and singular charm in painting which men callstyle is most readily attained. Perhaps the ample survey of thewhole field of art offered in Europe better enables a man to‘strike his personal note,’ as the French say – to find out hisfailings and avoid them, I should say. The gratifying measureof success which has greeted my humble efforts in these latteryears is due, I am sure, to having found a way to my ownstyle through a number of experiments and a series of carefulobservations which I should not have been able to make ifsettled at home. There is a crystallization of style in painting,as in literature. It is, of course, a slow process, and, in myown case, is the fruit of long seasons of painting in the foothillsof my own Rocky Mountains, in the shadow of El Capitan in

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the Yosemite, and of St, Paul’s Cathedral in London; of workin the open in Scotland with sir John Millais; of solitary toilin the lagoons of Venice, and, finally, of the long and thoughtfulseason of severe effort in Fontainebleau Forest in the track of themasters. It is in following successively such widely differingphases of nature and art that I have at last come to a final phaseof my own painting, about the recent general recognition ofwhich the Journal kindly asks, Could I have reached this stageat home? Frankly, no; but mainly for the reason that art isas yet comparatively undeveloped in America, and not becauseof any special limitations in the country itself.”

Gilbert Munger spent so many years in theForest of Fontainebleau that he said he felt quite athome there. The Barbizon, Asniéres, Saint-Germain,and the country round about were better known tohim than to most of the natives, and he paintedmany interesting scenes from his house-boat on theSeine and Oise (the Goose River), which Dau-bigny did much to immortalize.

He was familiar with every part of France; this,together with his perfect knowledge of the language,often caused him to be mistaken for a Frenchman.Of English descent and American by birth, yet histhorough understanding of the English, French,German, and Italian languages often caused himembarrassment. He was frequently asked at whatuniversity he had taken his degree, and always re-plied that he had been taught by a private in-structor, meaning himself. A man of enormous

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energy, sixteen to eighteen hours of each day hedevoted to his labors.

Like Troyon and Corot, Munger remainedsingle through life. His paintings were his family;he often said they were the best friends he hadknown and disliked to part with them.

Gilbert Munger’s exquisite landscapes bask inthe mellow sunshine, and teach us how thoroughlyhis brush was saturated with the best traditions ofBarbizon.

After a long absence in Europe, Gilbert Mungerreturned to his native land, to find that many of hisold friends had passed away and that he was astranger almost in the land of his birth. Moreassiduously than ever he applied himself to hiswork; taking a studio in New York for a fewyears, he led the life to him most congenial, arecluse among his pictures, having accumulated, inaddition to many of his own, quite a large numberof the old masters.

His health failing him in 1901, he was advisedto try the somewhat milder climate of Washington,but the change made little difference in his generalhealth, and he passed quietly away, January 27,1903, in his studio in that city, where he hadpainted his first picture nearly half a century ago.Conscious and happy to the end, he breathed hislast almost at the moment when he had put thefinishing touches to his great canvas, “Niagara

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Falls,” showing both the American and Canadianviews. In the writer’s opinion, no similar work byany other artist has ever equalled this picture.

His death will prove a great loss to all art lovers.His life was an example to be followed, and worthyof comparison with the best. Pure in mind andact, he sought and knew only the good and beauti-ful in all things.

It can be as truthfully said of Gilbert Munger, asof Millet, Corot, and Daubigny, that he creatednot only a distinct style of treatment, but a distinctstyle of subject, and revealed to the world theartistic possibilities of the very simplest phases ofnature when translated with a sympathetic apprecia-tion of their modest beauties and the subtle poetrywhich invests them.

January 1, 1904.

The foregoing Memoir bas been compiled by a friend ofGilbert Munger, assisted by his relatives, and from reliable artcritics both in America and in Europe, and will undoubtedlybe of interest to his many friends and all art lovers.

THE DE VINNE PRESS