Ella Condie Lamb: Charles Lamb, Pt. 2

"Peonies" by Ella Condie Lamb

"Ella Condie Lamb's husband Charles was at times described as 'the Evangelist of the City Beautiful Movement.' This movement encouraged and created beauty and monumental grandeur in urban spaces for the purpose of social uplift. No one could state better his vision than he himself did in his article 'New York - The City Beautiful' published in November, 1900, in 'The Metropolitan Magazine.' Here are a few excerpts:

•  We now travel thousands of miles to see Brunelleschi's 'dome' and Giotto's 'tower,' and we stand in admiration before Ghiberti's baptistery doors, which Michelangelo said were 'worthy to be the entrance to Paradise.' This little Italian commune recognized that art was of the people and for the people, and the Or San Michele stands today enriched by the sculptural works of art, the contribution of the guilds of the city. Does it not raise a smile to think of the modern trades acting with the same broad-minded, civic feeling? Has art deteriorated or civic pride lost its force?
  
  
• Is it not true that in modern attempts to educate people on lines artistic, by bringing together in museums works of art, the purpose for which they were executed has been overlooked? Is it not true that every great work of art was designed for a place and with a distinct purpose in mind? Does not the isolation in great museums of such masterpieces go far to create the false impression that art is a thing apart from our daily lives?
  
  It is to combat this error that the work of the art societies of New York in the past few years has been directed. It is along these lines that the work of the National Sculpture Society and the Architectural League has developed, under the intelligent direction of their councils and executive committees.
  
  
• Have we not in our commercial supremacy of this country, have we not in our financial supremacy, two great forces which, if properly directed, will so modify the plan, the construction, the architecture, and the art as to recreate from a city of chaos a city of beauty?
  
  
• Art is not a luxury: it is an Essential. Art is not an exotic; any art which is will never live. Art is practical and when the people of this country and the citizens of New York awake to a realizing sense that art is the best in life, that is to say, the best in every sense...then we will have such a renaissance, such an awakening, as will be the marvel of the whole world."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Ella's Certain Window" by Barea Lamb Seeley.)