Willard Metcalf: NY Appellate Court Murals

Right half of "Justice" by Willard Metcalf

"In 1899, under the aegis of John La Farge and in the company of H. Siddons Mowbray and Edwin Blashfield, Robert Reid, and Edward Simmons, Willard Metcalf was commissioned to paint two murals for the Appellate Court in New York City. His subjects, 'Justice' and 'The Banishment of Discord,' were appropriate to the site, and they were painted in a style that seemed to combine his Beaux-Arts draftsmanship with the illustration manner of A.B. Frost. As 'Harper's' pointed out, at least one of the murals resembled a giant book illustration. 'A composition by Willard L. Metcalf, the first decoration he has essayed,' wrote 'Harper's' critic, 'has some very agreeable passages... But... the result is an appearance of minuteness, notwithstanding that the figures are to the same scale as those on the other walls... Much more satisfactory is a group on the return wall, symbolizing 'the Banishment of Discord.' In this respect, with the exception of the painting and stained glass of John La Farge, Metcalf's work was not unlike that of Simmons, Reid, or Blashfield, whose murals were in a nearby courtroom. *

In "Justice" Metcalf placed a winged "Justice" as the main figure, flanked on her left and right by two young attendants. The one on the left holds a pair of scales aloft. The one on the right an attendant boy holds up a panel inscribed "Justitia." To his right is the seated figure of "Law" with "Transgression" at her feet. Next to this pair stands a armored figure representing "Protection," beneath which is "The Oppressed," next to whom are two figures representing "Flight from Justice." To the left of the boy with the scales is the seated figure of "Equity" holding a crystal ball, and at her feet is "Sorrow" mourning the dead. Next is "Mercy" kneeling in front of the accused, who awaits judgment, guarded by a figure with a spear.**

Although Metcalf's efforts at mural painting represent a brief sortie rather than a full-scale attack, his involvement was very much in the spirit of the time. The last quarter of the nineteenth century was a great age of mural painting in America, unparalleled until the WPA mural projects of the Depression. In contrast to murals of the 1930s, mural painting of the 1890s and the turn of the century was part of a culturally optimistic movement that has been called the American Renaissance. The term came into use about 1880, and it described the identification of many Americans - ruling class as well as artists - with the Italian Renaissance and the feeling that its spirit had been captured in the United States." *

To be continued

(*Excerpt from "Sunlight and Shadow: The Life and Art of Willard L. Metcalf" by  Elizabeth de Veer and Richard J. Boyle.
** Information from a booklet produced for an exhibition of the art in the "Temple of Justice: The Appellate Division Courthouse" in 1977.)