Rome Free Academy - De O Wain Sta Yearbook (Rome, NY)

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THE SENIOR ANNUAL. 15 men, their hearts might once more become clean. The Holy Grail, brought ages be- fore to Glastonbury by Joseph of Arima- thea, was the cup used by Christ at the last supper, and had long been absent from mor- tal vision, for only the pure in heart could see it. So the knights set out, upon their several ways, filled with so eager a longing to see the beautiful vision that they heeded not even the prophetic warning of their beloved King, who said, ““Ah, Galahad, for such as And indeed the others pursued wandering fires thou art is the vision, not for these.”’ over the face of the whole earth for many years, and some were lost in quagmires so that they Galahad found — the immediately never Grail returned; but and was caught up to Heaven with the Holy Cup— which shall never again be seen by earthly eyes. The establishment, the greatness, and the downfall of this impracticably ideal king- dom of King Arthur’s, the adventures of Sir Galahad and the knights who vowed them- selves to the search of the Holy Grail, form a group of chivalric legends, unified by a thread of connecting meaning. Among the great poets and artists, who, attracted perhaps by some subtle underlying strain of wonderful beauty, have turned to these old legends fo r material for their art, is George Frederick Watts, who has given the world a beautiful Sir Galahad—the most perfect picture of the pure knight ever painted. young George Frederick Watts, during his long life England’s greatest artist, was born in London in 1817, and died, an old man, at his English home, in 1904. His artistic training was perhaps fragmentary, and, in- deed, it was not his technic, but his wonder- ful imagination which made Ruskin declare Watts to be the one painter of thought in England. Watts entered the schools of the Royal Academy when little more than a boy, and afterward went to Italy, spending many years there in the absorbing study of the old masters. His first notable picture was a prize cartoon of Caractacus, painted for the decoration of the House of Parliament; and following in quick succession he produced a wonderful series of pictures which made his name famous and his high position in Eng- lish art secure. As a youth Watts dreamed of building a shining Temple of Life with vast corridors and stately chambers; its walls covered with frescoes depicting in epic the eternal mys- teries of life and death. Although this im- practicably ideal ambition was never accom- plished, Watts always remained a dreamer of dreams and a seer of visions. An un- daunted idealist, he belonged to no partic- ular school of art; but, always broadly hu- man, struggled effectually against the medi- ocrity into which English painting seemed at one time inevitably sinking. Not openly re- bellious to the modern movement of art like the gallant young Pre-Raphaelites, Watts tried to revive the grand manner of the old masters and to preserve the dignity of art The result was such that even those modern artists and by a recourse to didacticism. critics, who impartially condemn all paint ers whose work is not entirely art for art’s sake, have had to acknowledge George Frederick Watts to have been a great and original artist. Outside of portraiture, in which he had few rivals, Watts generally chose classical or allegorical subjects for painting, rising often to grandeur in conception, and always, even in his weakest pictures, instilling something of ‘‘the glory and the dream.’ Sir Galahad, one of Watts’s principal subject pieces, was painted in 1862, and has, together with twenty-five of his other most celebrated pictures, been given by the artist to the National Gallery of British Art.

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14 THE SENIOR ANNUAL. most among these is Ruth Hopkins, our val- edictorian and the holder of the third honor academic diploma to be awarded to a mem- ber of this school. But now the class must be treated as a whole, for if we should at- tempt to record the worthy deeds of the in- dividual members of the class, the world could not contain the books that they would fill. Altho this class has not been noted for its athletic talent, it has more than supplied the deficiency by Our standings are of the highest and may well be recorded in the annals of High School History. We have budding orators in our midst and some that have passed the budding stage under the beneficent influence of Miss scholarly genius. Kirtland’s enlightening training. We have passed the whole of our period under the guiding influences of Mr. Harris, Miss Thalman and Miss Higham. It has been found necessary in the other depart- attainments of our own powerful minds. ments to change the instructors somewhat so as to keep pace with the advanced scholarly Our class meetings have on the whole been quite peaceable and for fear of being deemed personal, we shall mention only one solemn occurrence, and that is the picture brought to our minds of Joe Gardner rising and addressing the chair (Miss Higham) as Mr. Vice President. The winners of the highest Slingerland contest prizes were from our class, Ed- ward Gawkins and Daniel Schilling. Mr. Gawkins did great credit to himself at an in- terscholastic contest in Syracuse. Our social affairs have been a decided ‘success. Our Hallowe'en Party particu- larly so. The fellows who as usual came to break it up, had an unusual drubbing put upon them. In the middle of the year our class yielded to compelling circumstances and substituted, in the place of the old-time sleigh ride, a reception which proved a great success. One thing in particular we have neglected to state, and that is, that m 1905, we gave the Seniors a reception thus inaugurating a custom which has since been well imitated by 07. In closing, we would like to request ’07 to continue following in our footsteps, as a sure means of attaining a goal of safety. All honor to the dear school which has honored our beloved us for four pleasant Alma Mater. years, “SIR GALAHAD” by George Frederick Watts. The romance of King Arthur and his Round Table has been dear to the hearts of the English speaking people for nearly one thousand years. Begun in the vague, unconnected legends sung or told by the minstrels of Wales and Cornwall, and by ther kinsmen across the channel, this epic, always growing in popularity and sweeping into its current other traditions and person- ages, has formed at length from the spoils of several literatures, a composite English pos- session which has been a great treasure house for all poets and artists down to our own time. Long, long ago, King Arthur, the half- mythical hero, about whom this Cycle of Romance clings, formed a new order of knighthood, called that of the Table Round, and his knights swore to uphold the faith of Christ, right all wrongs of men, and above all live pure, chaste lives. All the knights kept their vows for a time; and the heathen were subdued and the land was at peace. Then sin crept into King Arthur's court, and Sir Galahad the Spotless, youngest and purest of all the knights, with a few others of the order, vowed himself to the Quest of the Holy Grail, in the hope that, if the Sacred Vessel were brought back among

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16 Tue SENIOR ANNUAL. It is a charming picture, far more cheerful, both in color and in general conception, than is usual even in Watts’s best work. The Spotless Knight, clad in his silver armor, leaning idly and motionlessly against his snow-white charger, surrounded by soft foliage, stands with his pure, wistful, young profile uplifted. A half mystical light seems glowing down upon his face, upon his shining armor and upon the tangle of leaves at his spurred feet. He stands dreamily be- fore us, a true, perfect, young Galahad, ready to go forth to conquer the world in the strength of his youth. the picture is remarkably Technically, good. For Watts, although his perform- ances were always very uneven, often excel- lent, sometimes poor, and although he has been by some artists mercilessly criticised as a poor technician, was as a rule neither a slovenly nor an incompetent painter; on the contrary, he has done work that holds with the best produced in the nineteenth century. His Galahad is especially noticeable for its very rich key of color, and its painting of the armor and the woody background. The face, too, of the knight, as he stands bare- headed, gazing before him at the vision “none else might see,” expresses all the purity and Knight. Looking at the picture, one uncon- sciously recalls those words spoken to Gala- enthusiasm of the Spotless had, starting out upon his quest, by Tenny- son’s sweet young nun, into whose cell the vision of the Holy Grail had shone in all its wondrous loveliness: “Go forth, for thou shalt see what I have seen, And break through all, till one will crown thee king, Far in the splendid city.”’ Indeed there lingers in the pure wistful face of the Galahad so divine a beauty, that his might well be the haloed head of some: young saint; already has the knight seen the Holy Grail, and heard the cry, “O, Gala- had and O Galahad, follow me;”’ his is the rapt, purely impassioned face of one, who, having heard the call, has followed on until he has at last seen the vision face to face, Watts was always an idealist, a man of noble dreams, who would have those dreams who would have men think for themselves. He has said of his own pictures, that, “they must be considered as symbols, intended to suggest in the lan- reality; a thinker, guage of art, modern thought in things eth- Furthermore, it has been that the great power of Watts’s pictures, the reason for ical and spiritual.” generally conceded their grasp upon the multitude, lies in the meaning they possess; a meaning which is, perhaps, sometimes more suitable for expres- sion in literature than in art, but which is, still, always poetic, ennobling and lofty. At first sight Watts’s picture of Sir Galahad may seem simply a portrait, a fig- ure of a young knight, clad in silver armor, his sweet youthful profile upturned. But surely the artist who instilled into so simple a picture as this, such a subtle, mysterious but certain beauty, could not have failed to intend a deeper, more spiritual meaning. And in the Galahad even we, “blind unto holy things,”” recognize the face of one, who unearthly pure, has attained to the noblest, the best in life. For what, after all, is the vision of the Holy Grail but a symbol of true, high Good. But, although this knight, Galahad, was successful in his quest, saw the vision face to face, what of his comrades, who, also, longed to find the Holy Cup, who, also, left the duty on hand, but who were lost in quag- mires and never returned? ‘“‘For man can not bring Heaven down to earth; he can not sanctify by his own rapturous anticipations There must always be those who, by men’s standard, fail; who, im- perfect, struggle in vain and only look upon the Holy Grail veiled. Tennyson says: ‘Man is but as the hind, so often the mass of men?”