Art for heart’s sake The Art for Heart’s sake was written by Reuben Lucius Goldberg (1883-1970). He was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor, was born in San Francisco. Goldberg is best known for a series of popular cartoons he created depicting complex devices that perform simple tasks in indirect way. Rube Goldberg began practicing his art skills at the age of four when he traced illustrations from the humorous book History of the United States.
Among his best works are Is There a Doctor in the House? (1929), Rube Goldberg’s Guide to Europe (1954) and I made My Bed (1960). Art for Heart’s sake is about the old man Collis P. Ellsworth who has troubles with his health. Doctor Caswell offers him to take up painting, for a chance. In some time Ellsworth painted an awful picture which was no a work of art at all. To bewilderment of the doctor this painting was not only accepted for the Show at the Lathrop Gallery, but took the First Prize. The old man just explained that he had bought this gallery last month. The idea of this text is everything can be bought for money. Value of art will vanish if everyone foists his god-awful smudge as an eternal work of art. The text is written as a 3rd person narration with dialogues of the personages. This text can be divided into the following parts. The first is doctor’s suggestion to take up art. The second is Swain’s lessons. The third is about the Trees Dressed in White. The forth is the culminating point of the text. Ellsworth was awarded with the First Prize for his painting. The last one is Ellsworth’s confession. That he had bought the gallery, that’s all. The prevailing mood of the text is humorous. The author underlines the old man behaves like a child (he replied Nope on the male nurse suggestion many times. He colored the open spaces blue like a child playing with a picture book.