Sargent Mural in Widener is Storm Center of Recent Criticism by Pach

By his sensational denunciation of the Sargent Mural in Widener Library, Walter Pach, noted artist and critic, in his latest work. "Ananias, or the False Artist," has thrust into the limelight a tableau which Harvard undergraduates see daily in their excursions to the University library.

Pach in his recent book states, "Glancing through the rotogravure supplement of the paper and enjoying the photographs of swimmers, statesmen and stage-dancers, one's eye was caught by the big flag, and one idly read the caption to see whether this was a belated poster from some Y. M. C. A. drive during the recent war, or an invitation to prepare for the next one, in Nicaragua or a place like that, or whether it was not just the advertisement of a firm such as supplies uniforms for military schools and training camps--a masculine pendant to the Sunday supplement's illustrations of the minimum requirements to clothe the female form devine...The impression given by the work was a mistaken one, or almost that. The picture was not a poster, it was a Sargent!...And now at last, he had got down to the level of the subway!"

Continuing in the same vein. Pach writes..."the blatant thing at Harvard was intended as a tribute to the boys whose generous impulse made them rush from their college to join the students from other lands on the battlefields...Well., the job had to be done anyhow, just as, 15 or 20 years before, Lady War wick's portrait had to be got through with. You can always count on a line of soldiers to stir people; a good fierce American eagle would be a useful 'property', as the theatre chape call it, and 'Our Old Flag,' from centre-stage, in the clarion tones of a Fourth of July speech, or an election rally, or of the columns of the 'Congressional Record,' would be certain to bring down a round of applause again..."

At the time that the two murals were unveiled on November 1, 1922, Professor G. H. Edgell '09 made the following comment in the Harvard Alumni Bulletin:

"Though individuals may criticize details of the compositions and symbolism, none can deny that the artist has been extremely successful in his main purpose, which was to produce a great decorative composition, aptly conceived from the point of view of its architectural setting."

Another criticism contemporary with the unveiling of the two murals, appearing in the Boston Evening Transcript stated. "...And indeed here are found in a marked degree those qualities which make a mural painting great--nobility of subject together with able and decorative handling in expressing it fully. In short a fine and strong conception in terms of color and light and shade, which make in themselves a beautiful decoration of a given surface."

In referring specially to the mural on the left hand side of the stairway the same article goes on to say, "The group is a powerful and unifled statement of emotion and action, and in design builds up most effectively, giving the feeling in its upward trend that the soldier will win his fight and attain the height of glory.