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diff --git a/old/7pics10.txt b/old/7pics10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b619773 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/7pics10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10654 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pictures Every Child Should Know, by Dolores Bacon + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Pictures Every Child Should Know + +Author: Dolores Bacon + +Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6932] +[This file was first posted on February 12, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PICTURES EVERY CHILD SHOULD KNOW *** + + + + +Arno Peters, Branko Collin, Tiffany Vergon, Charles Aldarondo, Charles + +Franks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +PICTURES EVERY CHILD SHOULD KNOW + + +A SELECTION OF THE WORLD'S ART MASTERPIECES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE + + +BY DOLORES BACON + +Illustrated from Great Paintings + + + +ACKNOWLEDGMENTS + + +Besides making acknowledgments to the many authoritative writers upon +artists and pictures, here quoted, thanks are due to such excellent +compilers of books on art subjects as Sadakichi Hartmann, Muther, +C. H. Caffin, Ida Prentice Whitcomb, Russell Sturgis and others. + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Man's inclination to decorate his belongings has always been one of +the earliest signs of civilisation. Art had its beginning in the lines +indented in clay, perhaps, or hollowed in the wood of family utensils; +after that came crude colouring and drawing. + +Among the first serious efforts to draw were the Egyptian square and +pointed things, animals and men. The most that artists of that day +succeeded in doing was to preserve the fashions of the time. Their +drawings tell us that men wore their beards in bags. They show us, +also, many peculiar head-dresses and strange agricultural +implements. Artists of that day put down what they saw, and they saw +with an untrained eye and made the record with an untrained hand; but +they did not put in false details for the sake of glorifying the +subject. One can distinguish a man from a mountain in their work, but +the arms and legs embroidered upon Mathilde's tapestry, or the figures +representing family history on an Oriental rug, are quite as correct +in drawing and as little of a puzzle. As men became more intelligent, +hence spiritualised, they began to express themselves in ideal ways; +to glorify the commonplace; and thus they passed from Egyptian +geometry to gracious lines and beautiful colouring. + +Indian pottery was the first development of art in America and it led +to the working of metals, followed by drawing and portraiture. Among +the Americans, as soon as that term ceased to mean Indians, art took a +most distracting turn. Europe was old in pictures, great and +beautiful, when America was worshipping at the shrine of the chromo; +but the chromo served a good turn, bad as it was. It was a link +between the black and white of the admirable wood-cut and the true +colour picture. + +Some of the Colonists brought over here the portraits of their +ancestors, but those paintings could not be considered "American" art, +nor were those early settlers Americans; but the generation that +followed gave to the world Benjamin West. He left his Mother Country +for England, where he found a knighthood and honours of every kind +awaiting him. + +The earliest artists of America had to go away to do their work, +because there was no place here for any men but those engaged in +clearing land, planting corn, and fighting Indians. Sir Benjamin West +was President of the Royal Academy while America was still revelling +in chromos. The artists who remained chose such objects as Davy +Crockett in the trackless forest, or made pictures of the Continental +Congress. + +After the chromo in America came the picture known as the "buckeye," +painted by relays of artists. Great canvases were stretched and +blocked off into lengths. The scene was drawn in by one man, who was +followed by "artists," each in turn painting sky, water, foliage, +figures, according to his specialty. Thus whole yards of canvas could +be painted in a day, with more artists to the square inch than are now +employed to paint advertisements on a barn. + +The Centennial Exhibition of 1876 came as a glorious flashlight. For +the first time real art was seen by a large part of our nation. Every +farmer took home with him a new idea of the possibilities of drawing +and colour. The change that instantly followed could have occurred in +no other country than the United States, because no other people would +have travelled from the four points of the compass to see such an +exhibition. Thus it was the American's _penchant_ for travel which +first opened to him the art world, for he was conscious even then of +the educational advantages to be found somewhere, although there +seemed to be few of them in the United States. + +After the Centennial arose a taste for the painting of "plaques," upon +which were the heads of ladies with strange-coloured hair; of +leather-covered flatirons bearing flowers of unnatural colour, or of +shovels decorated with "snow scenes." The whole nation began to revel +in "art." It was a low variety, yet it started toward a goal which +left the chromo at the rear end of the course, and it was a better +effort than the mottoes worked in worsted, which had till then been +the chief decoration in most homes. If the "buckeye" was +hand-painting, this was "single-hand" painting, and it did not take a +generation to bring the change about, only a season. After the +Philadelphia exhibition the daughter of the household "painted a +little" just as she played the piano "a little." To-day, much less +than a man's lifetime since then, there is in America a universal love +for refined art and a fair technical appreciation of pictures, while +already the nation has worthily contributed to the world of +artists. Sir Benjamin West, Sully, and Sargent are ours: Inness, +Inman, and Trumbull. + +The curator of the Metropolitan Museum in New York has declared that +portrait-painting must be the means which shall save the modern +artists from their sins. To quote him: "An artist may paint a bright +green cow, if he is so minded: the cow has no redress, the cow must +suffer and be silent; but human beings who sit for portraits seem to +lean toward portraits in which they can recognise their own features +when they have commissioned an artist to paint them. A man _will_ +insist upon even the most brilliant artist painting him in trousers, +for instance, instead of in petticoats, however the artist-whim may +direct otherwise; and a woman is likely to insist that the artist who +paints her portrait shall maintain some recognised shade of brown or +blue or gray when he paints her eye, instead of indulging in a burnt +orange or maybe pink! These personal preferences certainly put a limit +to an artist's genius and keep him from writing himself down a +madman. Thus, in portrait-painting, with the exactions of truth upon +it, lies the hope of art-lovers!" + +It is the same authority who calls attention to the danger that lies +in extremes; either in finding no value in art outside the "old +masters," or in admiring pictures so impressionistic that the objects +in them need to be labelled before they can be recognised. + +The true art-lover has a catholic taste, is interested in all forms of +art; but he finds beauty where it truly exists and does not allow the +nightmare of imagination to mislead him. That which is not beautiful +from one point of view or another is not art, but decadence. That +which is technical to the exclusion of other elements remains +technique pure and simple, workmanship--the bare bones of art. A thing +is not art simply because it is fantastic. It may be interesting as +showing to what degree some imaginations can become diseased, but it +is not pleasing nor is it art. There are fully a thousand pictures +that every child should know, since he can hardly know too much of a +good thing; but there is room in this volume only to acquaint him with +forty-eight and possibly inspire him with the wish to look up the +neglected nine hundred and fifty-two. + + + +CONTENTS + + +INTRODUCTION + +I. Andrea del Sarto, Florentine School, 1486-1531 + +II. Michael Angelo (Buonarroti), Florentine School, 1475-1564 + +III. Arnold Bocklin, Modern German School, 1827-1901 + +IV. Marie-Rosa Bonheur, French School, 1822-1899 + +V. Alessandro Botticelli, Florentine School, 1447-1510 + +VI. William Adolphe Bouguereau, French (Genre) School 1825-1905 + +VII. Sir Edward Burne-Jones, English (Pre-Raphaelite) School, 1833-1898 + +VIII. John Constable, English School, 1776-1837 + +IX. John Singleton Copley, English School, 1737-1815 + +X. Jean Baptiste Camille Corot, Fontainebleau-Barbizon School, 1796-1875 + +XI. Correggio (Antonio Allegri), School of Parma, 1494(?)--1534 + +XII. Paul Gustave Dore, French School, 1833-1883 + +XIII. Albrecht Durer, Nuremberg School, 1471-1528 + +XIV. Mariano Fortuny, Spanish School, 1838-1874 + +XV. Thomas Gainsborough, English School, 1727-1788 + +XVI. Jean Leon Gerome, French Semi-classical School, 1824-1904 + +XVII. Ghirlandajo, Florentine School, 1449-1494 + +XVIII. Giotto (di Bordone), Florentine School, 1276-1337 + +XIX. Franz Hals, Dutch School, 1580-84-1666 + +XX. Meyndert Hobbema, Dutch School, 1637-1709 + +XXI. William Hogarth, School of Hogarth (English), 1697-1764 + +XXII. Hans Holbein, the Younger, German School, 1497-1543 + +XXIII. William Holman Hunt, English (Pre-Raphaelite) School, 1827- + +XXIV. George Inness, American, 1825-1897 + +XXV. Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, English School, 1802-1873 + +XXVI. Claude Lorrain (Gellee), Classical French School, 1600-1682 + +XXVII. Masaccio (Tommaso Guidi), Florentine School, 1401-1428 + +XXVIII. Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier, French School, 1815-1891 + +XXIX. Jean Francois Millet, Fontainebleau-Barbizon School, 1814-1875 + +XXX. Claude Monet, Impressionist School of France, 1840- + +XXXI. Murillo (Bartolome Esteban), Andalusian School, 1617-1682 + +XXXII. Raphael (Sanzio), Umbrian, Florentine, and Roman Schools, +1483-1520 + +XXXIII. Rembrandt (Van Rijn), Dutch School, 1606-1669 + +XXXIV. Sir Joshua Reynolds, English School, 1723-1792 + +XXXV. Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish School, 1577-1640 + +XXXVI. John Singer Sargent, American and Foreign Schools, 1856- + +XXXVII. Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti), Venetian School, 1518-1594 + +XXXVIII. Titian (Tiziano Vecelli), Venetian School, 1489-1576 + +XXXIX. Joseph Mallord William Turner, English, 1775-1831 + +XL. Sir Anthony Van Dyck, Flemish School, 1599-1641 + +XLI. Velasquez (Diego Rodriguez de Silva), Castilian School, 1599-1660 + +XLII. Paul Veronese (Paolo Cagliari), Venetian School, 1528-1588. + +XLIII. Leonardo da Vinci, Florentine School, 1452-1519. + +XLIV. Jean Antoine Watteau, French (Genre) School, 1684-1721 + +XLV. Sir Benjamin West, American, 1738-1820 + +Index + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +FRONTISPIECE + +The Avenue, Middleharnis, Holland--_Hobbema_ + +Madonna of the Sack--_Andrea del Sarto_ + +Daniel--_Michael Angelo (Buonarroti)_ + +The Isle of the Dead--_Arnold Bocklin_ + +The Horse Fair--_Rosa Bonheur_ + +Spring--_Alessandro Botticelli_ + +The Hay Wain--_John Constable_ + +A Family Picture--_John Singleton Copley_ + +The Holy Night--_Correggio (Antonio Allegri)_ + +Dance of the Nymphs--_Jean Baptiste Camille Corot_ + +The Virgin as Consoler--_Wm. Adolphe Bouguereau_ + +The Love Song--_Sir Edward Burne-Jones_ + +The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine--_Correggio_ + +Moses Breaking the Tablets of the Law--_Paul Gustave Dore_ + +The Nativity--_Albrecht Durer_ + +The Spanish Marriage--_Mariana Fortuny_ + +Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan--_Thomas Gainsborough_ + +The Sword Dance--_Jean Leon Gerome_ + +Portrait of Giovanna degli Albizi--_Ghirlandajo (Domenico Bigordi)_ + +The Nurse and the Child--_Franz Hals_ + +The Meeting of St. John and St. Anna at Jerusalem--_Giotto (Di +Bordone)_ + +The Avenue--_Meyndert Hobbema_ + +The Marriage Contract--_Wm. Hogarth_ + +The Light of the World--_William Holman Hunt_ + +Robert Cheseman with his Falcon--_Hans Holbein, the Younger_ + +The Berkshire Hills--_George Inness_ + +The Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner--_Sir Edwin Henry Landseer_ + +The Artist's Portrait--_Tommaso Masaccio_ + +Acis and Galatea--_Claude Lorrain_ + +Retreat from Moscow--_Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier_ + +The Angelus--_Jean Francois Millet_ + +The Immaculate Conception--_Murillo (Bartolome Esteban)_ + +Haystack in Sunshine--_Claude Monet_ + +The Sistine Madonna--_Raphael (Sanzio)_ + +The Night Watch--_Rembrandt (Van Rijn)_ + +The Duchess of Devonshire and Her Daughter--_Sir Joshua Reynolds_ + +The Infant Jesus and St. John--_Peter Paul Rubens_ + +Carmencita--_John Singer Sargent_ + +The Miracle of St. Mark--_Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti)_ + +The Artist's Daughter, Lavinia--_Titian (Tiziano Vecelli)_ + +The Fighting Temeraire--_Joseph Mallord William Turner_ + +The Children of Charles the First--_Sir Anthony Van Dyck_ + +Equestrian Portrait of Don Balthasar Carlos--_Velasquez (Diego +Rodriguez de Silva)_ + +The Marriage at Cana--_Paul Veronese_ + +The Death of Wolfe--_Sir Benjamin West_ + +The Artist's Two Sons--_Peter Paul Rubens_ + +The Last Supper--_Leonardo da Vinci_ + +Fete Champetre--_Jean Antoine Watteau_ + + + +I + +ANDREA DEL SARTO + + + (Pronounced Ahn'dray-ah del Sar'to) + _Florentine School_ + 1486-1531 + _Pupil of Piero di Cosimo_ + +Italian painters received their names in peculiar ways. This man's +father was a tailor; and the artist was named after his father's +profession. He was in fact "the Tailor's Andrea," and his father's +name was Angelo. + +One story of this brilliant painter which reads from first to last +like a romance has been told by the poet, Browning, who dresses up +fact so as to smother it a little, but there is truth at the bottom. + +Andrea married a wife whom he loved tenderly. She had a beautiful face +that seemed full of spirituality and feeling, and Andrea painted it +over and over again. The artist loved his work and dreamed always of +the great things that he should do; but he was so much in love with +his wife that he was dependent on her smile for all that he did which +was well done, and her frown plunged him into despair. + +Andrea's wife cared nothing for his genius, painting did not interest +her, and she had no worthy ambition for her husband, but she loved +fine clothes and good living, and so encouraged him enough to keep him +earning these things for her. As soon as some money was made she would +persuade him to work no more till it was spent; and even when he had +made agreements to paint certain pictures for which he was paid in +advance she would torment him till he gave all of his time to her +whims, neglected his duty and spent the money for which he had +rendered no service. Thus in time he became actually dishonest, as we +shall see. It is a sad sort of story to tell of so brilliant a young +man. + +Andrea was born in the Gualfonda quarter of Florence, and there is +some record of his ancestors for a hundred years before that, although +their lives were quite unimportant. Andrea was one of four children, +and as usual with Italians of artistic temperament, he was set to work +under the eye of a goldsmith. This craftsmanship of a fine order was +as near to art as a man could get with any certainty of making his +living. It was a time when the Italian world bedecked itself with rare +golden trinkets, wreaths for women's hair, girdles, brooches, and the +like, and the finest skill was needed to satisfy the taste. Thus it +required talent of no mean order for a man to become a successful +goldsmith. + +Andrea did not like the work, and instead of fashioning ornaments from +his master's models he made original drawings which did not do at all +in a shop where an apprentice was expected to earn his salt. Certain +fashions had to be followed and people did not welcome fantastic or +new designs. Because of this, Andrea was early put out of his master's +shop and set to learn the only business that he could be got to learn, +painting. This meant for him a very different teacher from the +goldsmith. + +The artist may be said to have been his own master, because, even when +he was apprenticed to a painter he was taught less than he already +knew. + +That first teacher was Barile, a coarse and unpleasing man, as well as +an incapable one; but he was fair minded, after a fashion, and put +Andrea into the way of finding better help. After a few years under +the direction of Piero di Cosimo, Andrea and a friend, Francia Bigio, +decided to set up shop for themselves. + +The two devoted friends pitched their tent in the Piazza del Grano, +and made a meagre beginning out of which great things were to +grow. They began a series of pictures which was to lead at least one +of them to fame. It was in the little Piazza, del Grano studio that +the "Baptism of Christ" was painted, a partnership work that had been +planned in the Campagnia dello Scalzo. + +"The Baptism" was not much of a picture as great pictures go, but it +was a beginning and it was looked at and talked about, which was +something at a time when Titian and Leonardo had set the standard of +great work. In the Piazza del Grano, Andrea and his friend lived in +the stables of the Tuscan Grand Dukes, with a host of other fine +artists, and they had gay times together. + +Andrea was a shy youth, a little timid, and by no means vain of his +own work, but he painted with surprising swiftness and sureness, and +had a very brilliant imagination. Its was his main trouble that he had +more imagination than true manhood; he sacrificed everything good to +his imagination. + +After the partnership with his friend, he undertook to paint some +frescoes independently, and that work earned for him the name of +"Andrea senza Errori"--Andrea the Unerring. Then, as now, each artist +had his own way of working, and Andrea's was perhaps the most +difficult of all, yet the most genius-like. There were those, Michael +Angelo for example, who laid in backgrounds for their paintings; but +Andrea painted his subject upon the wet plaster, precisely as he meant +it to be when finished. + +He was unlike the moody Michael Angelo; unlike the gentle Raphael; +unlike the fastidious Van Dyck who came long afterward; he was +hail-fellow-well-met among his associates, though often given over to +dreaminess. He belonged to a jolly club named the "Kettle Club," +literally, the Company of the Kettle; and to another called "The +Trowel," both suggesting an all around good time and much good +fellowship The members of these clubs were expected to contribute to +their wonderful suppers, and Andrea on one occasion made a great +temple, in imitation of the Baptistry, of jelly with columns of +sausages, white birds and pigeons represented the choir and +priests. Besides being "Andrew the Unerring," and a "Merry Andrew," he +was also the "Tailor's Andrew," a man in short upon whom a nickname +sat comfortably. He helped to make the history of the "Company of the +Kettle," for he recited and probably composed a touching ballad called +"The Battle of the Mice and the Frogs," which doubtless had its origin +in a poem of Homer's. But all at once, in the midst of his gay +careless life came his tragedy; he fell in love with a hatter's +wife. This was quite bad enough, but worse was to come, for the hatter +shortly died, and the widow was free to marry Andrea. + +After his marriage Andrea began painting a series of Madonnas, +seemingly for no better purpose than to exhibit his wife's beauty over +and over again. He lost his ambition and forgot everything but his +love for this unworthy woman. She was entirely commonplace, incapable +of inspiring true genius or honesty of purpose. + +A great art critic, Vasari, who was Andrea's pupil during this time, +has written that the wife, Lucretia, was abominable in every way. A +vixen, she tormented Andrea from morning till night with her bitter +tongue. She did not love him in the least, but only what his money +could buy for her, for she was extravagant, and drove the sensitive +artist to his grave while she outlived him forty years. + +About the time of the artist's marriage he painted one fresco, "The +Procession of the Magi," in which he placed a very splendid substitute +for his wife, namely himself. Afterward he painted the Dead Christ +which found its way to France and it laid the foundation for Andrea's +wrongdoing. This picture was greatly admired by the King of France who +above all else was a lover of art. Francis I. asked Andrea to go to +his court, as he had commissions for him. He made Andrea a money offer +and to court he went. + +He took a pupil with him, but he left his wife at home. At the court +of Francis I. he was received with great honours, and amid those new +and gracious surroundings, away from the tantalising charms of his +wife and her shrewish tongue, he began to have an honest ambition to +do great things. His work for France was undertaken with enthusiasm, +but no sooner was he settled and at peace, than the irrepressible wife +began to torment him with letters to return. Each letter distracted +him more and more, till he told the King in his despair, that he must +return home, but that he would come back to France and continue his +work, almost at once. Francis I., little suspecting the cause of +Andrea's uneasiness, gave him permission to go, and also a large sum +of money to spend upon certain fine works of art which he was to bring +back to France. + +We can well believe that Andrea started back to his home with every +good intention; that he meant to appease his wife and also his own +longing to see her; to buy the King his pictures with the money +entrusted to him, and to return to France and finish his work; but, +alas, he no sooner got back to his wife than his virtuous purpose +fled. She wanted this; she wanted that--and especially she wanted a +fine house which could just about be built for the sum of money which +the King of France had entrusted to Andrea. + +Andrea is a pitiable figure, but he was also a vagabond, if we are to +believe Vasari. He took the King's money, built his wretched wife a +mansion, and never again dared return to France, where his dishonesty +made him forever despised. + +Afterward he was overwhelmed with despair for what he had done, and he +tried to make his peace with Francis; but while that monarch did not +punish him directly for his knavery; he would have no more to do with +him, and this was the worst punishment the artist could have +had. However, his genius was so great that other than French people +forgot his dishonesty and he began life anew in his native place. + +Almost all his pictures were on sacred subjects; and finally, when +driven from Florence to Luco by the plague, taking with him his wife +and stepdaughter, he began a picture called the "Madonna del Sacco" +(the Madonna of the Sack). + +This fresco was to adorn the convent of the Servi, and the sketches +for it were probably made in Luco. When the plague passed and the +artist was able to return to Florence, he began to paint it upon the +cloister walls. + +Andrea, like Leonardo, painted a famous "Last Supper," although the +two pictures cannot be compared. In Andrea's picture it is said that +all the faces are portraits. + +Just before the plague sent him and his family from Florence a most +remarkable incident took place. Raphael had painted a celebrated +portrait of Pope Leo X. in a group, and the picture belonged to +Ottaviano de Medici. Duke Frederick II., of Mantua, longed to own this +picture, and at last requested the Medici to give it to him. The Duke +could not well be refused, but Ottaviano wanted to keep so great a +work for himself. What was to be done? He was in great trouble over +the affair. The situation seemed hopeless. It seemed certain that he +must part with his beloved picture to the Duke of Mantua; but one day +Andrea del Sarto declared that he could make a copy of it that even +Raphael himself could not tell from his original. Ottaviano could +scarcely believe this, but he begged Andrea to set about it, hoping +that it might be true. + +Going at the work in good earnest, Andrea painted a copy so exact that +the pupil of Raphael, who had more or less to do with the original +picture, could not tell which was which when he was asked to +choose. This pupil, Giulio Romano, was so familiar with every stroke +of Raphael's that if he were deceived surely any one might be; so the +replica was given to the Duke of Mantua, who never found out the +difference. + +Years afterward Giulio Romano showed the picture to Vasari, believing +it to be the original Raphael, neither Andrea nor the Medici having +told Romano the truth. But Vasari, who knew the whole story, declared +to Romano that what he showed him was but a copy. Romano would not +believe it, but Vasari told him that he would find upon the canvas a +certain mark, known to be Andrea's. Romano looked, and behold, the +original Raphael became a del Sarto! The original picture hangs in the +Pitti Palace, while the copy made by Andrea is in the Naples Gallery. + +The introduction of Andrea to Vasari was one of the few gracious +things, that Michael Angelo ever did. About Andrea he said to Raphael +at the time: "There is a little fellow in Florence who will bring +sweat to your brows if ever he is engaged in great works." Raphael, +would certainly have agreed, with him had he known what was to happen +in regard to the Leo X. picture. + +Notwithstanding Andrea's unfortunate temperament, which caused him to +be guided mostly by circumstances instead of guiding them, he was said +to be improving all the time in his art. He had a great many pupils, +but none of them could tolerate his wife for long, so they were always +changing. + +Throughout his life the artist longed for tenderness and encouragement +from his wife, and finally, without ever receiving it, he died in a +desolate way, untended even by her. After the siege of Florence there +came a pestilence, and Andrea was overtaken by it. His wife, afraid +that she too would become ill, would have nothing to do with him. She +kept away and he died quite alone, few caring that he was dead and no +one taking the trouble to follow him to his grave. Thus one of the +greatest of Florentine painters lived and died. Years after his death, +the artist Jacopo da Empoli, was copying Andrea's "Birth of the +Virgin" when an old woman of about eighty years on her way to mass +stopped to speak with him. She pointed to the beautiful Virgin's face +in the picture and said: "I am that woman." And so she was--the widow +of the great Andrea. Though she had treated him so cruelly, she was +glad to have it known that she was the widow of the dead genius. + + PLATE--THE MADONNA DEL SACCO + _(Madonna of the Sack)_ + +This picture is a fresco in the cloister of the Annunziata at +Florence, and it is called "of the sack" because Joseph is posed +leaning against a sack, a book open upon his knees. + +Doubtless the model for this Madonna is Andrea del Sarto's abominable +wife, but she looks very sweet and simple in the picture. The folds of +Mary's garments are beautifully painted, so is the poise of her head, +and all the details of the picture except the figure of the +child. There is a line of stiffness there and it lacks the softness of +many other pictures of the Infant Jesus. + + PLATE--THE HOLY FAMILY + +In this picture in the Pitti Palace, Florence, Andrea del Sarto +represents all the characters in a serious mood. There are St. John +and Elizabeth, Mary and the Infant Jesus, and there is no touch of +playfulness such as may be found in similar groups by other artists of +the time. Attention is concentrated upon Jesus who seems to be +learning from his young cousin. The left hand, resting upon Mary's arm +is badly drawn and in character does not seem to belong to the figure +of the child. A full, overhanging upper lip is a dominant feature in +each face. + +Other works of Andrea del Sarto are "Charity," which is in the Louvre; +"Madonna dell' Arpie," "A Head of Christ," "The Dead Christ," "Four +Saints," "Joseph in Egypt," his own portrait, and "Joseph's Dream." + + + + + +II + +MICHAEL ANGELO (BUONARROTI) + + + (Pronounced Meek-el-ahn-jel-o (Bwone-ar-ro'tee)) + _Florentine School_ + 1475-1564 + _Pupil of Ghirlandajo_ + +This wonderful man did more kinds of things, at a time when almost all +artists were versatile, than any other but one. Probably Leonardo da +Vinci was gifted in as many different ways as Michael Angelo, and in +his own lines was as powerful. This Florentine's life was as tragic as +it was restless. + +There is a tablet in a room of a castle which stands high upon a rocky +mount, near the village of Caprese, which tells that Michael Angelo +was born in that place. The great castle is now in ruins, and more +than four hundred years of fame have passed since the little child was +born therein. + +The unhappy existence of the artist seems to have been foreshadowed by +an accident which happened to his mother before he was born. She was +on horseback, riding with her husband to his official post at Chiusi, +for he was governor of Chiusi and Caprese. Her horse stumbled, fell, +and badly hurt her. This was two months before Michael Angelo was +born, and misfortune ever pursued him. + +The father of Angelo was descended from an aristocratic house--the +Counts of Canossa were his ancestors--and in that day the profession +of an artist was not thought to be dignified. Hence the father had +quite different plans for the boy; but the son persisted and at last +had his way. When he was still a little child his father finished his +work as an official at Caprese and returned to Florence; but he left +the little Angelo behind with his nurse. That nurse was the wife of a +stonemason, and almost as soon as the boy could toddle he used to +wander about the quarries where the stonecutters worked, and doubtless +the baby joy of Angelo was to play at chiseling as it is the pleasure +of modern babies to play at peg-top. After a time he was sent for to +go to Florence to begin his education. + +In Florence he fell in with a young chap who, like himself, loved art, +but who was fortunate enough already to be apprenticed to the great +painter of his time--Ghirlandajo. One happy day this young Granacci +volunteered to take Michael Angelo to his master's studio, and there +Angelo made such an impression on Ghirlandajo that he was urged by the +artist to become his pupil. + +All the world began to seem rose coloured to the ambitious boy, and he +started his life-work with enthusiasm. At that time he was thirteen +years old, full of hope and of love for his kind; but his good fortune +did not last long. He had hardly settled to work in Ghirlandajo's +studio than his genius, which should have made him beloved, made him +hated by his master. Angelo drew superior designs, created new +art-ideas, was more clever in all his undertakings than any other +pupil--even ahead of his master; and almost at once Ghirlandajo became +furiously jealous. This enmity between pupil and master was the +beginning of Angelo's many misfortunes. + +One day he got into a dispute with a fellow student, Torregiano, who +broke his nose. This deformity alone was a tragedy to one like Michael +Angelo who loved everything beautiful, yet must go through life +knowing himself to be ill-favoured. + +In height he was a little man, topped by an abnormally large head +which was part of the penalty he had to pay for his talents. He had a +great, broad forehead, and an eye that did not gleam nor express the +beauty of his creative mind, but was dull, and lustreless, matching +his broken, flattened nose. Indeed he was a tragedy to himself. In the +"History of Painting" Muther describes his unhappy disposition: + +"In his youthful years he never learned what love meant. 'If thou +wishest to conquer me,' in old age he addresses love, 'give me back my +features, from which nature has removed all beauty.' Whenever in his +sonnets he speaks of passion, it is always of pain and tears, of +sadness and unrequited longing, never of the fulfilment of his +wishes." + +Then, too, Michael Angelo had a quarrelsome disposition, and he was +harsh in his criticism of others. He hated Leonardo da Vinci more for +his great physical beauty than for his genius. He quarreled with most +of his contemporaries, never joined the assemblies of his brother +artists, but dwelt altogether apart. His was a gloomy and melancholy +disposition and he never found relief outside his work. + +He was all kinds of an artist--poet, sculptor, architect, painter--and +although he worked with the irregularity of true genius, he worked +indefatigably when once he began. It is said that when he was making +his "David" he never removed his clothing the whole time he was +employed upon the work, but dropped down when too exhausted to work +more, and slept wherever he fell. + +His first flight from the workshop of Ghirlandajo was to the gardens +of the great Florentine prince, Lorenzo de' Medici, who had sent to +Ghirlandajo for two of his best pupils. He wished them to come to his +gardens and study the beautiful Greek statues which ornamented +them. The choice fell to Angelo and Granacci. Probably those statues +in Lorenzo's garden were the first glimpses of really great art that +Michael Angelo ever had. Certain it is that he was overwhelmed with +happiness when he was given permission to copy what he would, and at +once he fell to work with his chisel. His first work in that garden +was upon the head of an old faun; and Lorenzo, walking by, curious to +know to what use the lad was putting his opportunity, made a +criticism: + +"You have made your faun old," he said, "yet you have left all the +teeth; at such an age, generally the teeth are wanting." + +Angelo had nothing to say and the prince walked on, but when next he +came that way, he found that Angelo had broken off two of the faun's +teeth; and this recognition of his criticism pleased Lorenzo so much +that he invited Angelo to live with him. At first his father +objected. He felt himself to be an aristocrat, and sculpture and +painting were indeed low occupations for his son, who he had resolved +should be nothing less than a silk merchant. Nevertheless, the +prince's command, united with the son's pleading, compelled the father +to give up his cherished dream of making a merchant of him, and Angelo +went to live in the palace. + +Then indeed what seemed a beautiful life opened out. He was dressed in +fine clothing, dined with princes, and possibly he was grateful to his +patron. Some historians say so, and add that when Lorenzo died Angelo +wept, and returned sadly to his father's house to mourn, but this tale +seems at odds with what else we know of Angelo's unangelic, envious +and bitter disposition. It is quite certain, however, that with the +death of Lorenzo, Angelo's, fortunes became greatly changed. Another +prince followed in line--Pietro de' Medici--but he was a poor thing, +who brought little good to anybody. He had small use for Michael +Angelo's genius, but it is said that he did give him one +commission. After a great storm one day, he asked him to make a +snow-man for him, and Angelo obligingly complied. It was doubtless a +very beautiful snow-man, but although it was Angelo's it melted in the +night, even as if it had been Johnny's or Tommy's snow-man, and left +no trace behind. + +In Rome there was a high and haughty pope on the throne--Julius +II.--who had probably not his match for obstinacy and haughtiness, +excepting in the great painter and sculptor. When Angelo went to Rome, +he was bound to come in conflict with Julius for it was popes and +princes who gave art any reason for being in those days, and the +Church prescribed what kind of art should be cultivated. Michael was +to come directly under the command of the pope and such a combination +promised trouble. Kings themselves had to remove their crowns and hats +to Julius, and why not Michael Angelo? Yet there he stood, covered, +before the pope, opposing his greatness to that of the pope. Soderini +says that Angelo treated the pope as the king of France never would +have dared treat him; but Angelo may have known that kings of France +might be born and die, times without number, while there would never +be born another Michael Angelo. There could be nothing but antagonism +between Angelo and Julius, and soon after the artist returned to +Florence; but the necessity for following his profession enabled +Julius to tame him after all, and it is said that the pope led him +back to Rome, later, "with a halter about his neck." This must have +been agony to Angelo. + +Back in Rome, he was commissioned to make a tomb for the pope. He had +no sooner set about the preliminaries--the getting of suitable marble +for his work--than he began to quarrel with the men who were to hew +it. When that difficulty was settled, and the marble was got out, he +had a set-to with the shipowners who were to transport the stone, and +that row became so serious that the sculptor was besieged in his own +house. + +At another and later time, when he was engaged upon the frescoes of +the Sistine Chapel, he was made to work by force. He accused the man +who had built the scaffolding upon which he must stand, or lie, to +paint, of planning his destruction. He suspected the very assistants +whom he, himself, had chosen to go from Florence, of having designs +upon his life. He locked the chapel against them, and they had to turn +away when they went to begin work. Because of his insane suspicion he +did alone the enormous work of the frescoes. Doubtless he was half +mad, just as he was wholly a genius. + +By the time he had finished those frescoes he was so exhausted and +overworked that he wrote piteously to his people at home, "I have not +a friend in Rome, neither do I wish nor have use for any." This of +course was not true; or he would not have made the statement. "I +hardly find time to take nourishment. Not an ounce more can I bear +than already rests upon my shoulders." Even when the work was done he +felt no happiness because of it, but complained about everything and +everybody. + +If Angelo thought this an unhappy day, worse was in store for +him. Julius II. died and in his place there came to reign upon the +papal throne, Leo X. If Michael Angelo had been restricted in his work +before, he was almost jailed under Leo X. Julius had been a virile, +forceful man, and Michael Angelo was the same. Since he must be +restrained and dictated to, it was possible for the artist to listen +to a man who was in certain respects strong like himself, but to be +under the thumb of a weak, effeminate person like Leo, was the tragedy +of tragedies to Angelo. That was a marvellous time in Rome. All its +citizens had become so pleasure-loving that the world, stood still to +wonder. When the pope banqueted, he had the golden plates from which +fair women had eaten hurled into the Tiber, that they might never be +profaned by a less noble use than they had known. From all this riot +and madness of pleasure, Michael Angelo stood aside with frowning brow +and scornful mien. He approved of nothing and of nobody--despising +even Raphael, the gentle and loving man whom the pleasure-crazed +people of Rome paused to smile upon and love. The pope said that +Angelo was "terrible," and that he filled everybody with fear. + +Finally, Rome so resented his frowning looks and his surly ways that +work was provided for him at a distance. He was sent to Florence again +to build a facade. While there, the city was conquered, and Angelo was +one who fought for its freedom, but even so, he fled just at the +crisis. Thus he ever did the wrong thing--excepting when he worked. In +Florence he had planned to do mighty things, but he never accomplished +any one of them. He planned to make a wonderful colossal statue on a +cliff near Carrara, and also he resolved to make the tomb of Julius +the nucleus of a "forest of statues." + +Michael Angelo never married, but he was burdened with a family and +all its cares. He supported his brothers and even his nephews, and +took care of his father. All of those people came to him with their +difficulties and with their demands for money. He chided, quarreled, +repelled, yet met every obligation. He would sit beside the sick-bed +of a servant the night through, but growl at the demands of his near +relatives--and it is not unlikely that he had good reason. + +At last he withdrew himself from all human society but that of little +children, whom he cared to speak with and to please. He would have +naught to do with men of genius like himself; and when he fell from a +scaffolding and injured himself, the physician had to force his way +through a barred window, in order to get into the sick man's presence +to serve him. + +An illustration of his determined solitude is given in the "Young +People's Story of Art:" + +"There had long been lying idle in Florence an immense block of +marble. One hundred years before a sculptor had tried to carve +something from it, but had failed. This was now given to Michael +Angelo. He was to be paid twelve dollars a month, and to be allowed +two years in which to carve a statue. He made his design in wax; and +then built a tower around the block, so that he might work inside +without being seen." + +Everything Angelo undertook bore the marks of gigantic +enterprise. Although he never succeeded in making the tomb of Julius +II. the central piece in his forest of statues, the undertaking was +marvellous enough. His original plan was to make the tomb three +stories high and to ornament it with forty statues, and if St. Peter's +Church was large enough to hold it, the work was to be placed therein; +but if not, a church was to be built specially to hold the tomb. When +at last, in spite of his difficulties with workmen and shipowners, the +marbles were deposited in the great square before St. Peter's, they +filled the whole place; and the pope, wishing to watch the progress of +the work and not himself to be observed, had a covered way built from +the Vatican to the workshop of Angelo in the square, by which he might +come and go as he chose, while an order was issued that the sculptor +was to be admitted at all times to the Vatican. No sooner was this +arrangement completed than Angelo's enemies frightened the pope by +telling him there was danger in making his tomb before his death; and +with these superstitions haunting him Julius II. stopped the work, +leaving Angelo without the means to pay for his marbles. With the +doors of the Vatican closed to him, Angelo withdrew, post haste to +Florence--and who can blame him? Nevertheless, the work was resumed +after infinite trouble on the pope's part. He had to send again and +again for Angelo and after forty years, the work was finished. There +the sequel of the sculptor's forty-years war with self and the world +stands to-day in "Moses," the wonderful, commanding central figure +which seems to reflect all the fierce power which Angelo had to keep +in check during a life-time. + +The command of Julius that he should paint the ceiling of the Sistine +Chapel aroused all his fierce resistance. He did it under protest, all +the while accusing those about him of having designs upon his life. + +"I am not a painter, but a sculptor," he said. + +"Such a man as thou is everything that he wishes to be," the pope +replied. + +"But this is an affair of Raphael. Give him this room to paint and let +me carve a mountain!" But no, he must paint the ceiling; but to render +it easier for him the pope told him he might fill in the spaces with +saints, and charge a certain amount for each. This Angelo, who was +first of all an artist, refused to do. He would do the work rightly or +not at all. So he made his own plans and cut himself a cardboard +helmet, into the front of which he thrust a candle, as if it were a +Davy lamp, and he lay upon his back to work day and night at the hated +task. During those months he was compelled to look up so continually, +that never afterward was he able to look down without difficulty. When +he had finished the work Julius had some criticisms to make. + +"Those dresses on your saints are such poor things," he said. "Not +rich enough--such very poor things!" + +"Well, they were poor things," was Angelo's answer. "The saints did +not wear golden ornaments, nor gold on their garments." + +After Julius II. and Leo X. came Pope Paul III., and he, like the +other two, determined to have Angelo for his workman. Indeed all his +life, Michael Angelo's gifts were commanded by the Church of Rome. It +was for Paul III. he painted the "Last Judgment." His former work upon +the Sistine Chapel had been the story of the creation. All his work +was of a mighty and allegorical nature; tremendous shoulders, mighty +limbs, herculean muscles that seemed fit to support the +universe. These allegories are made of hundreds of figures. To-day +they are still there, though dimmed by the smoke of centuries of +incense, and dismembered by the cracking of plaster and disintegration +of materials. + +Angelo's methods of work, as well as their results, were +oppressive. In his youth, while trying to perfect himself in his study +of the human form, he drew or modelled, from nude corpses. He had +these conveyed by stealth from the hospital into the convent of Santo +Spirito, where he had a cell and there he worked, alone. + +He was concentrated, mentally and emotionally, upon himself. The only +remark he made after the blow from Torregiano was, "You will be +remembered only as the man who broke my nose!" This proved nearly +true, since Torregiano was banished, and murdered by the Spanish +Inquisition. + +All sorts of anecdotes have floated through the centuries concerning +this man and his work. For example, he made a statue of a sleeping +cupid, which was buried in the ground for a time that it might assume +the appearance of age, and pass for an antique. Afterward it was sold +to the Cardinal San Giorgio for two hundred ducats, though Michael +Angelo received only thirty. Nevertheless, he died a rich man, after +having cared for a numerous family, while he himself lived like a man +without means. All the tranquillity he ever knew he enjoyed in his old +age. + +It was characteristic of his perversity that he left his name upon +nothing that he made, with one exception. Vasari relates the story of +that exception: + +"The love and care which Michael Angelo had given to this group, 'In +Paradise,' were such that he there left his name--a thing he never did +again for any work--on the cincture which girdles the robe of Our +Lady; for it happened one day that Michael Angelo, entering the place +where it was erected, found a large assemblage of strangers from +Lombardy there, who were praising it highly; one of them asking who +had done it, was told, 'our Hunchback of Milan'; hearing which Michael +Angelo remained silent, although surprised that his work should be +attributed to another. But one night he repaired to St. Peter's with a +light and his chisels, to engrave his name on the figure, which seems +to breathe a spirit as perfect as her form and countenance." + +If his youth had been given to sculpture, his maturity to the painting +of wondrous frescoes, so his old age was devoted to architecture, and +as architect he rebuilt the decaying St. Peter's. In this work he felt +that he partly realised his ideal. Sculpture meant more to him, "did +more for the glory of God," than any other form of art. When he had +finished his work on St. Peter's, he is said to have looked upon it +and exclaimed: "I have hung the Pantheon in the air!" + +This colossal genius died in Rome, and was carried by the light of +torches from that city back to his better loved Florence, where he was +buried. His tomb was made in the Santa Croce, and upon it are three +female figures representing Michael Angelo's three wonderful arts: +Architecture, sculpture and painting. No artist was greater than he. + +His will committed "his soul to God, his body to the earth, and his +property to his nearest relatives." + + PLATE--DANIEL + +This wonderful painting is a part of the decoration of the Sistine +Chapel in Rome. The picture of the prophet tells so much in itself, +that a description seems absurd. It is enough to call attention to the +powerful muscles in the arm, the fall of the hand, and then to speak +of the main characteristics of the artist's pictures. + +It is extraordinary that there is no blade of grass to be found in any +painting by Michael Angelo. He loved to paint but one thing, and that +was the naked man, the powerful muscles, or the twisted limbs of those +in great agony. He loved only to work upon vast spaces of ceiling or +wall. Look at this picture of Daniel and see how like sculpture the +pose and modelling appear to be. First of all, Michael Angelo was a +sculptor, and most of the painting which fate forced him to do has the +characteristics of sculpture. + +One critic has remarked that he loves to think of this strange man +sitting before the marble quarry of Pietra Santa and thinking upon all +the beings hidden in the cliff--beings which he should fashion from +the marble. + +It was said that in Michael Angelo's hands the Holy Family became a +race of Titans, and where others would have put plants or foliage, +Angelo placed men and naked limbs to fill the space. When his subject +made some sort of herbage necessary, he invented a kind of mediaeval +fern in place of grass and familiar leaves. Everything appears brazen +and hard and mighty, suggestive of Angelo's own throbbing spirit and +maddened soul. Most of his work, when illustrated, must be shown not +as a whole but in sections, but one can best mention them as entire +picture themes. On the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel are nine frescoes +describing "The Creation of The World," "The Fall of Man" and "The +Deluge." "The Last Judgment" occupies the entire altar wall in the +same chapel of the Vatican. "The Holy Family" is in the Uffizi +Gallery, Florence. + + + + +III + +ARNOLD BOCKLIN + + + (Pronounced Bek'-lin) + _Modern German School (Dusseldorf)_ + 1827-1901 + +This splendid artist is so lately dead that it does not seem proper +yet to discuss his personal history, but we can speak understandingly +of his art, for we already know it to be great art, which will stand +the test of time. His imagination turned toward subjects of solemn +grandeur and his work is very impressive and beautiful. + +He was born in Basel, "one of the most prosaic towns in Europe." His +father was a Swiss merchant, and not poor; thus the son had ordinarily +good chances to make an artist of himself. He was born at a time when +to be an artist had long ceased to be a reproach, and men no longer +discouraged their sons who felt themselves inspired to paint great +pictures. + +When Bocklin was nineteen years old he took himself to Dusseldorf, +with his merchant father's permission, and settled down to learn his +art, but in that city he found mostly "sentimental and anecdotal" +pictures being painted, which did not suit him at all. Then he took +himself off to Brussels, where again he was not satisfied, and so went +to Paris. But while in Brussels he had copied many old masters, and +had advanced himself very much, so that he did not present himself in +Paris raw and untried in art. + +At first he studied in the Louvre, then went to Rome, seeking ever the +best, and being hard to satisfy. He found rest and tranquillity in +Zurich, a city in his native country, but it was Italy that had most +influenced his work. + +He loved the Campagna of Rome with its ruins and the sad grandeur of +the crumbling tombs lining its way, and therefore a certain +mysterious, grand, and solemn character made his pictures unlike those +of any other artist. He loved to paint in vertical (up-and-down) +fines, rather than with the conventional horizontal outlines that we +find in most paintings. This method gives his pictures a different +quality from any others in the world. + +He loved best of all to paint landscape, and it is said of him that +"as the Greeks peopled their streams and woods and waves with +creatures of their imagination, so Bocklin makes the waterfall take +shape as a nymph, or the mists which rise above the water source +wreathe into forms of merry children; or in some wild spot hurls +centaurs together in fierce combat, or makes the slippery, moving wave +give birth to Nereids and Tritons." + +Muther, art-critic and biographer, calls our attention to the +similarity between Wagner's music and Bocklin's painting. While Wagner +was "luring the colours of sound from music," Bocklin's "symphonies of +colour streamed forth like a crashing orchestra," and he calls him the +greatest colour-poet of the time. + +In appearance Bocklin was fine of form, healthy and wholesome in all +his thoughts and way of living. In 1848 he took part in revolutionary +politics and later this did him great harm. Only the influence of his +friends kept him from ruin. After the Franco-Prussian war he was made +Minister of Fine Arts. In this office he rendered great service; but +because he had to witness the wrecking of the Column Vendome in order +to save the Louvre and the Luxembourg from the mob, he was censured; +indeed so heavy a fine was imposed that it took his whole fortune to +pay it; and he was banished into the bargain. From 1892 to 1901 he +lived in or near Florence, and he died at Fiesole, January 16th, 1901. + + PLATE--THE ISLE OF THE DEAD + +This picture is perhaps the greatest of the many great Arnold Bocklin +paintings, and it is both fascinating and awe-inspiring. + +It best shows his liking for vertical lines in art. The Isle of the +Dead is of a rocky, shaft-like formation in which we may see hewn-out +tombs; and there, tall cypress trees are growing. + +The traces of man's work in the midst of this sombre, ideal, and +mystic scene add to the impressiveness of the picture. The isle stands +high and lonely in the midst of a sea. + +The water seems silently to lap the base of the rocks and the trees +are in black shadow, massed in the centre. It looks very mysterious +and still. There is a stone gateway touched with the light of a dying +day. It is sunset and the dead is being brought to its resting place +in a tiny boat, all the smaller for its relation to the gloomy +grandeur of the isle which it is approaching. One figure is standing +in the boat, facing the island, and the sunlight falls full upon his +back and touches the boat, making that spot stand out brilliantly from +all the rest of the picture. + +Among Bocklin's paintings are "Naiads at Play," which hangs in the +Museum at Basel, "A Villa by the Sea," "The Sport of the Waves," +"Regions of Joy," "Flora," and "Venus Dispatching Cupid." + + + + +IV + +MARIE-ROSA BONHEUR + + + (Pronounced Rosa Bon-er) + _French School_ + 1822-1895 + _Pupil of Raymond B. Bonheur_ + +Rosa Bonheur, Landseer, and Murillo maybe called "Children's Painters" +in this book because they painted things that children, as well as +grown-ups, certainly can enjoy. To be sure, Murillo was a very +different sort of artist from Rosa Bonheur or Landseer, but if the two +latter painted the most beautiful, animals--dogs, sheep, and +horses--Murillo painted the loveliest little children. + +Rosa was the best pupil of her father; Raymond B. Bonheur. In Bordeaux +they lived together the peaceful life of artists, the father being +already a well known painter when his daughter was born. She became, +as Mr. Hamerton, who knew her, said, "the most accomplished female +painter who ever lived ... a pure, generous woman as well and can +hardly be too much admired ... as a woman or an artist. She is simple +in her tastes and habits of life and many stories are told of her +generosity to others." + +After a time the Bonheurs moved to Paris where young Rosa could have +better opportunities; and there she put on man's clothing, which she +wore all her life thereafter. She wore a workingman's blouse and +trousers, and tramped about looking more like a man than a woman with +her short hair. This, made everybody stare at her and think her very +queer, but people no longer believe that she dressed herself thus in +order to advertise herself and attract attention; but because it was +the most convenient costume for her to get about in. She went to all +sorts of places; the stockyards, slaughter houses, all about the +streets of Paris, to learn of things and people, especially of +animals, which she wished most to paint. She could hardly have gone +about thus if she had worn women's clothing. + +Rosa Bonheur exhibited her first painting at the _Salon_ in 1841, and +this was twelve years before her beloved father died; thus he had the +happiness of knowing that the daughter whom he had taught so lovingly +was on the road to success and fortune. He knew that when fortune +should come to her she would use it well. The year that she exhibited +her work in the _Salon_ she painted only two little pictures--one of +rabbits, the other of sheep and goats--but they were so splendidly +done that all the critics knew a great woman artist had arrived. + +It was then that her enemies, those who were becoming jealous of her +work, said that she was wearing men's clothing in order to attract +attention to herself. + +Soon her work began to be bought by the French Government, which was a +sure sign of her power. She was already much beloved by the people. In +the meantime we in America and others in England had heard of +Mademoiselle Bonheur, but we heard far less about her painting than we +did about her masculine garb. We thought of her mostly as an eccentric +woman; but one day came "The Horse Fair," and all the world heard of +that, so the artist was to be no longer judged by the clothes she wore +but by her art. Finally, she received the cross of the Legion of +Honour, and also was made a member of the Institute of Antwerp. + +She lived near Fontainebleau; her studio a peaceful retired home, till +the Franco-Prussian war came about. Then she and others began to fear +that her studio and pictures would be destroyed, so the artist was +forced to stop her work and prepared to go elsewhere. But the Crown +Prince of Prussia himself ordered that Mademoiselle Bonheur should not +even be disturbed. Her work had made her belong to all the world and +all the world was to protect her if need be. + +Rosa Bonheur had a brother who, some critics said, was the better +artist, but if that were true it is likely that his popularity would +in some degree have approached that of his sister. Rosa Bonheur did +not paint many large canvases, but mostly small ones, or only +moderately large; but when she painted sheep it seems that one might +shear the wool, it stands so fleecy and full; while her horses rampage +and curvet, showing themselves off as if they were alive. + + PLATE--THE HORSE FAIR + +This picture was exhibited all over the world very nearly. It was +carried to England and to America, and won admiration wherever it was +seen. Finally it was sold in America. It was first exhibited in 1853, +the year in which the artist's father died. Mr. Ernest Gambart was the +first who bought the picture, and he wrote of it to his friend, +Mr. S.P. Avery: "I will give you the real history of 'The Horse Fair,' +now in New York. It was painted in 1852, by Rosa Bonheur, then in her +thirtieth year, and exhibited in the next _Salon_. Though much admired +it did not find a purchaser. It was soon after exhibited in Ghent, +meeting again with much appreciation, but was not sold, as art did not +flourish at the time. In 1855 the picture was sent by Rosa Bonheur to +her native town of Bordeaux and exhibited there. She offered to sell +it to the town at the very low price 12,000 francs ($2,400). While +there, I asked her if she would sell it to me, and allow me to take it +to England and have it engraved. She said: 'I wish to have my picture +remain in France. I will once more impress on my countrymen, my wish +to sell it to them for 12,000 francs. If they refuse, you can have it, +but if you take it abroad, you must pay me 40,000 francs.' The town +failing to make the purchase, I at once accepted these terms, and Rosa +Bonheur then placed the picture at my disposal. I tendered her the +40,000 francs and she said: 'I am much gratified at your giving me +such a noble price, but I do not like to feel that I have taken +advantage of your liberality; let us see how we can combine in the +matter. You will not be able to have an engraving made from so large a +canvas. Suppose I paint you a small one from the same subject, of +which I will make you a present.' Of course I accepted the gift, and +thus it happened that the large work went travelling over the kingdom +on exhibition, while Thomas Landseer was making an engraving from the +quarter-size replica. + +"After some time (in 1857 I think), I sold the original picture to +Mr. William P. Wright, New York (whose picture gallery and residence +were at Weehawken, N.J.), for the sum of 30,000 francs, but later I +understood that Mr. Stewart paid a much larger price for it on the +breaking up of Mr. Wright's gallery. The quarter size replica, from +which the engraving was made, I finally sold to Mr. Jacob Bell, who +gave it in 1859 to the nation, and it is now in the National Gallery, +London. A second, still smaller replica, was painted a few years +later, and was resold some time ago in London for oe4,000 +($20,000). There is also a smaller water-colour drawing which was sold +to Mr. Bolckow for 2,500 guineas ($12,000), and is now an heirloom +belonging to the town of Middlesbrough. That is the whole history of +this grand work. The Stewart canvas is the real and true original, and +only large size 'Horse-Fair.' + +"Once in Mr. Stewart's collection, it never left his gallery until the +auction sale of his collection, March 25th, 1887, when it was +purchased by Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt for the sum of $55,000, and +presented to the Metropolitan Museum of Art." + +And thus we have the whole story of the "Horse-Fair." The picture is +93-1/2 inches high, and 197 inches wide, and it contains a great +number of horses, some of which are ridden, while others are led, and +all are crowding with wild gaiety toward the fair where it is quite +plain they know they are about to be admired and their beauty shown to +the best advantage. Other well-known Rosa Bonheurs are "Ploughing," +"Shepherd Guarding Sheep," "Highland Sheep," "Scotch Deer," "American +Mustangs," and "The Study of a Lioness." + + + + +V + +ALESSANDRO BOTTICELLI + + + (Pronounced Ah-lays-sahn'dro Bo't-te-chel'lee) + _Florentine School,_ + 1447-1510 (Vasari's dates) + _Pupil of Filippo Lippi and Verrocchio_ + +Botticelli took his name from his first master, as was the fashion in +those days. The relation of master and apprentice was very close, not +at all like the relation of pupil and teacher to-day. + +Botticelli's father was a Florentine citizen, Mariano Filipepi, and he +wished his son to become a goldsmith; hence the lad was soon +apprenticed to Botticelli, the goldsmith. As a scholar, the little +goldsmith had not distinguished himself. Indeed it is said that as a +boy he would not "take to any sort of schooling in reading, writing, +or arithmetic." It cannot be said that this failure distinguished him +as a genius, or the world would be full of genius-boys; but the result +was that he early began to learn his trade. + +Fortunately for him and us, Botticelli, the smith, was a man of some +wisdom and when he saw that the lad originated beautiful designs and +had creative genius he did not treat the matter with scorn, as the +master of Andrea del Sarto had done, but sent him instead to Fra +Filippo (Lippo Lippi) to be taught the art of painting. So kind a deed +might well establish a feeling of devotion on little Alessandro's part +and make him wish to take his master's name. + +Fra Filippo was a Carmelite monk, merry and kindly; simple, good, and +gifted, but his temperament did not seem to influence his young +pupil. Of all unhappy, morbid men, Botticelli seems to have been the +most so, unless we are to except Michael Angelo. + +After studying with the monk, Botticelli was summoned by Pope Sixtus +IV. to Rome to decorate a new chapel in the Vatican. Before that time +his whole life had been greatly influenced by the teachings of +Savonarola who had preached both passionately and learnedly in +Florence, advocating liberty. From the time he fell under Savonarola's +wonderful power, the artist grew more and more mystic and morbid. In +Rome it was the custom to have the portraits of conspirators, or +persons of high degree who were revolutionary or otherwise +objectionable to the state, hung outside the Public Palace, and in +Botticelli's time there was a famous disturbance among the aristocrats +of the state. In 1478 the powerful Pazzi family conspired against the +Medici family, which then actually had control. It was Botticelli who +was engaged to paint the portraits of the Pazzi family, which to their +shame and humiliation were to be displayed upon the palace walls. + +One peculiarity of this artist's pictures was that he used actual +goldleaf to make the high lights upon hair, leaves, and draperies. The +effect of the use of this gold was very beautiful, if unusual, and it +may have been that his apprenticeship as a goldsmith suggested to him +such a device. + +Also it was he who created certain characteristics of painting that +have since been thought original with Burne-Jones. This was the use of +long stiff lily-stalks or other upright details in his compositions. +Examples of this idea, which produced so weird an effect, will be +found in his allegory of "Spring," where stiff tree-trunks form a part +of the background. In the "Madonna of the Palms" upright lily-stalks +are held in pale and trembling hands. Like Michael Angelo, who came +years afterward, Botticelli was a guest of the great Lorenzo the +"Magnificent," in Florence. It was by Botticelli's hand that the +greater painter sent a letter to Lorenzo from a duchess friend who was +also his patron. This was in Angelo's youth; in Botticelli's old age. + +All his life was a drama of morbid seeking after the unattainable, and +finally he became so poor and helpless that in his old age he would +have starved had Lorenzo de' Medici not taken care of him. Lorenzo and +other friends who in spite of his gloominess admired his real piety, +gathered about him and kept him from starvation. + +On his "Nativity," Botticelli wrote: "This picture I, Alessandro, +painted at the end of the year 1500 in the troubles of Italy, in the +halftime after the time, during the fulfilment of the eleventh of +John, in the second woe of the Apocalypse, in the loosing the devil +for three and a half years. Afterward he shall be chained according to +the twelfth of John, and see him trodden down as in this picture." All +of this is interesting because Botticelli himself wrote it, but it is +not very easily understood by any child, nor by many grown people. + +Botticelli did some very extraordinary things, but whether they are +beautiful or not one must decide for himself. They are paintings so +characteristic that one must think them very beautiful or else not at +all so. + + PLATE--LA PRIMAVERA + _(Spring)_ + +In this picture we have the forerunner of a modern painter, because we +see in it certain, qualities that we find in Bocklin. Look at the +effect of vertical lines; the tree trunks, and the poses of the +slender women. Over all hovers a cupid who is sending love-shafts into +the hearts of all in springtime. + +Notice the lacy effect of the flowers that bestar the wind-blown gown +of "La Primavera," the fern-like leaves that fleck the background; the +draperies that do not conceal the forms of the nymphs of the lovely +springtime. + +The very spirit of spring is seen in all the half-floating, +half-dancing, gliding, diaphanous figures of the forest. The flowers +of "La Primavera's" crown are blue and white cornflowers and +primroses. She scatters over the earth tulips, anemones, and +narcissus. The painting is allegorical and unique. Never were such +fluttering odds and ends of draperies painted before, nor such +fascinating effects had from canvas, paint, or brush. The picture +hangs in Florence in the Uffizi Gallery. A German critic tells us that +the "Realm of Venus," is a better title for this picture, and that it +was painted after a poem of that name. + +Other pictures by this artist are: "The Birth of Venus," "Pallas," +"Judith," "Holofernes," "St. Augustine," "Adoration of the Magi," and +"St. Sebastian." + + + + +VI + +WILLIAM ADOLPHE BOUGUEREAU + + + (Pronounced W. A'dolf Bou-gair-roh) + _French (Genre) School_ + 1825-1905 + _Pupil of Picot and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts_ + +Bouguereau's business-like father meant his son also to be +business-like, but he made the mistake of permitting him to go to a +drawing school in Bordeaux and there, to his father's chagrin, the +youngster took the annual prize. After that there seemed nothing for +the father to do but grin and bear it, because the son decided to be +an artist and had fairly won his right to be one. + +Young Bouguereau had no money, and therefore he went to live with an +uncle at Saintonge, a priest, who had much sympathy with the boy's +wish to paint, and he left him free to do the best he could for +himself in art. He got a chance to paint some portraits, and when he +and his uncle talked the matter over It was decided that he should +take the money got for them, and go to Paris. It was there that he +sought Picot, his first truly helpful teacher; and there, for the +first time he learned more than he already knew about art. + +All Bouguereau's opportunities in life were made by himself, by his +own genius. No one gave him anything; he earned all. He longed to go +to Italy, and in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts he won the Prix de Rome, +which made possible a journey to the land of great artists. The French +Government began to buy his work, and he began to receive commissions +to decorate walls in great buildings; thus, gradually, he made for +himself fame and fortune. + +When this artist undertook to paint sacred subjects, of great dignity, +he was not at his best; but when he chose children and mothers and +everyday folk engaged about their everyday business, he painted +beautifully. Americans have bought many of his pictures and he has had +more popularity in this country than anywhere outside of France. + +Some authorities give the birthplace of Bouguereau as La Rochelle; at +any rate he died there at midnight, on the nineteenth of August, 1905. + + PLATE--THE VIRGIN AS CONSOLER + +The main distinction about this artist's pictured faces is the +peculiarly earnest expression he has given to the eyes. In this +picture of the Virgin there is great genius in the pose and death-look +of the little child whose mother has flung herself across the lap of +Mary, abandoned to her agony. This painting is hung in the +Luxembourg. Others by the same master are called "Psyche and Cupid" +"Birth of Venus," "Innocence," and "At the Well." + + + + +VII + +SIR EDWARD BURNE-JONES + + + _English (Pre-Raphaelite) School_ + 1833-1898 + _Pupil of Rossetti_ + +This artist has been called the most original of all contemporaneous +artists. He has also been called the "lyric painter"; meaning that he +is to painting what the lyric poet is to literature. His work once +known can almost always be recognised wherever seen afterward. He did +not slavishly follow the Pre-Raphaelite school, yet he drew most of +his ideas from its methods. He was, in the use of stiff lines, a +follower of Botticelli, and not original in that detail, as some have +seemed to think. + + PLATE--CHANT D'AMOUR + _(The Love-Song)_ + +This is a picture in the true Burne-Jones style: a beautiful woman in +billowy draperies, playing upon a harp forms the central figure of the +group of three--a listener on either side of her. There is the +attractiveness of the Burne-Jones method about this picture, but after +all there seems to be no very good reason for its having been +painted. The subject thus treated has only a negative value, and +little suggestion of thought or dramatic idea. + +Another picture of this artist, in which his use of stiff draperies is +specially shown, is that of the women at the tomb of Christ, when they +find the stone rolled away and, looking around, see the Saviour's +figure before them. The scene is low and cavern-like, with a brilliant +light surrounding the tomb. This artist also painted "The Vestal +Virgin," "King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid," "Pan and Psyche," "The +Golden Stairs," and "Love Among the Ruins." + + + + +VIII + +JOHN CONSTABLE + + + _English School_ + 1776-1837 + _Pupil of the Royal Academy_ + +John Constable was the son of a "yeoman farmer" who meant to make him +also a yeoman farmer. Mostly we find that the fathers of our artists +had no higher expectations for their sons than to have them take up +their own business; to begin as they had, and to end as they expected +to. But in John Constable's case, as with all the others, the father's +methods of living did not at all please the son, and having most of +all a liking for picture-making; young John set himself to planning +his own affairs. + +Nevertheless, the foundation of John's art was laid right there in the +Suffolk farmer's home and conditions. He was born in East Bergholt, +and the father seems to have believed in windmills, for early in life +the signs of wind and weather became a part of the son's education. He +learned a deal more of atmospheric conditions there on his father's +windmill planted farm than he could possibly have learned shut up in a +studio, French fashion. As a little boy he came to know all the signs +of the heavens; the clouds gathering for storm or shine; the bending +of the trees in the blast; all of these he loved, and later on made +the principal subjects of his art. He learned to observe these things +as a matter of business and at his father's command; thus we may say +that he studied his life-work from his very infancy. All about him +were beautiful hedgerows, picturesque cottages with high pitched roofs +covered with thatch, and it was these beauties which bred one other +great landscape painter besides Constable, of whom we shall presently +speak, Gainsborough. + +At last, graduating from windmills, John went to London. He had a +vacation from the work set him by his father, and for two years he +painted "cottages, studied anatomy," and did the drudgery of his art; +but there was little money in it for him, and soon he had to go into +his father's counting house, for windmills seemed to have paid the +elder Constable, considerably better than painting promised to pay +young John. + +John doubtless liked counting-house work even less than he had done +the study of windmills and weather in his father's fields. He was a +most persistent fellow, however, and finally he returned to London, to +study again the art he loved, this time in the Royal Academy, which +meant that he had made some progress. + +His father gave him very little aid to do the things he longed to do, +but after his father's death he found that a little money was coming +to him from the estate--oe4,000. He had already triumphed over his +difficulties by painting his first fine pictures; he now knew that he +was to become a successful artist, and be able to take care of himself +and a wife. Though in love, he had hitherto been too poor to +marry. His first splendid work was "Dedham Vale." + +Though things were going very well with him, it was not until Paris +discovered him that he achieved great success. In 1824 he painted two +large pictures which he took to Paris, and there he found fame. The +best landscape painting in France dates from the time when Constable's +works were hung in the Louvre, to become the delight of all +art-lovers. + +He received a gold medal from Charles X., and became more honoured +abroad than he had ever been at home. + +Constable had many enemies, and made many more after he became an +Academician. Some artists, who would have liked that honour and who +could not gain it for themselves, declared that Constable painted +"with a palette knife," though it certainly would not have mattered if +he had, since he made great pictures. + +He painted things exactly as he saw them, and was not a popular +artist. Most of all, he loved to paint the scenes that he had known so +well in his youth, and he did them over and over again, as if the +subject was one in which he wished to reach perfection. + +When he died he left a picture, "Arundel Castle and Mill," standing +with its paint wet upon his easel for he passed away very suddenly, on +April 1st, leaving behind him many unsold paintings. + +He was a sensitive chap, and throughout his youth was greatly +distressed by the differences of opinion between himself and his +father. He was torn asunder between a sense of duty and his own wish +to be an artist; and his greatest consolation in this situation was in +the friendship he had formed for a plumber, who, like himself, dearly +loved art. The plumber's name was John Dunthorne, and the two men +wandered about the country, when not employed at their regular work, +and together, by streams and in fields, painted the same scenes. At +one time they hired a little room in the neighbouring village which +they made into a studio. Constable was a handsome fellow in his youth +and was known to all as the "handsome miller." His father, the yeoman +farmer with the windmills, was also a miller. + +In London he became acquainted with one John Smith, known as +"Antiquity Smith," who taught him something of etching. After he was +recalled to his father's business, his mother wrote to "Antiquity +Smith," that she hoped John "would now attend to business, by which he +will please me and his father, and ensure his own respectability and +comfort"--a complete expression of the middle-class British mind. Her +satisfaction was short-lived, for her son soon returned to London. + +When his first pictures were rejected by the Royal Academy he showed +one of them to Sir Benjamin West, who said hopefully: "Don't be +disheartened, young man, we shall hear of you again; you must have +loved nature very much before you could have painted this." + +About that time he tried to paint many kinds of pictures, such as +portraits and sacred subjects, but he did not seem to succeed in +anything except the scenes of his boyhood, which he truly loved. Hence +he gave up attempting that which he could do only passably, and kept +to what he could do supremely well. + +When his friends wished him to continue portrait painting, the only +thing that was well paid at that time, Constable wrote: "You know I +have always succeeded best with my native scenes. They have always +charmed me, and I hope they always will. I have now a path marked out +very distinctly for myself, and I am desirous of pursuing it +uninterruptedly." + +About the time he fell in love and before his father's death, his +health began to fail, and the young woman's mother would have none of +him. Her father was in favour of Constable, but he could not hold out +against the chance of his daughter losing her grandfather's fortune by +marrying the wrong man. + +The lady was not so distractingly in love as young Constable was, and +she did not entirely like the idea of poverty, even with John, so she +held off, and with so much anxiety Constable became downright ill. For +five years the pair lived apart, and then the artist and the young +woman, whose name was Maria Bicknell, lost their mothers about the +same time, This drew them very closely together; and to help the +matter on, John's attendance upon his father in his last illness +brought him to the same town as Miss Bicknell. After his father's +death, he urged the young lady so strongly to be his wife that she +consented They were married and her father soon forgave her, but not +so her grandfather, who declared that he never would forgive her, but +he really must have done so from the first, for when he died it was +found that he had left her a little fortune of oe4,000. This was about +the same amount the artist had received from his father, so that they +were able to get on very well. + +After Constable's marriage he went on a visit to Sir George Beaumont, +and there an amusing incident occurred which is known to-day as the +story of Sir George's "brown tree." It seems that Constable's ideas of +colour for his landscapes were so true to nature that a good many +people did not approve of them, and one day while painting, Sir George +declared that the colour of an old Cremona fiddle was the best model +of colour tone that a landscape could have. Constable's only answer +was to place the fiddle on the green lawn in front of the house. At +another time his host asked the artist, "Do you not find it very +difficult to determine where to place your brown tree?" "Not at all," +was Constable's reply, "for I never put such a thing into a picture in +my life." + +In painting one picture many times he declared, "Its light cannot be +put out because it is the light of nature." A Frenchman called +attention to one of his pictures thus: "Look at these landscapes by an +Englishman. The ground appears to be covered with dew." + +Notwithstanding the little fortune of his wife and himself, Constable +was not quite carefree, because he had to raise a good sized family of +six children so that when his wife's father died and left his daughter +oe20,000 he said to a friend: "Now I shall stand before a six-foot +canvas with a mind at ease, thank God!" In the very midst of this +happiness, his beloved wife became ill with consumption, and was +certain to die. He no longer cared very much for life and wrote very +sadly: + +"I have been ill, but am endeavouring to get work again, and could I +get afloat upon a canvas of six feet, I might have a chance of being +carried from myself." When he became a member of the Royal Academy, he +said: "It has been delayed until I am solitary and cannot impart it," +meaning that without his dear wife to share his good fortune, it +seemed an empty honour to him. + +Strange things are told which show how little his work was valued by +his countrymen. After he had become a member of the Academy one of his +small pictures was entered but rejected; nobody knowing anything about +it. It was put on one side among the "outsiders." Finally, one of his +fellow members glancing at it was attracted. + +"Stop a bit! I rather like that. Why not say 'doubtful'?" Later +Constable acknowledged the picture as his, and then they wished to +hang it, but he refused to let them. Another Academy story is about +his picture "Hadleigh Castle." On Varnishing Day, Chartney, a +brilliant critic, told Constable that the foreground of the picture +was "too cold," and so he undertook to "warm it," by giving it a +strong glaze with asphaltum with Constable's brush which he snatched +from the artist's hand. Constable gazed at him in horror. "Oh! there +goes all my dew," he cried, and when Chartney's back was turned he +hurriedly wiped the "warmth" all away and got back his "dew." + +Even the amusing things that happened to him, seem to have a little +sadness about them. He wrote to a friend: "Beechey was here yesterday, +and said: 'Why d--n it Constable, what a d--n fine picture you are +making; but you look d--n ill, and you've got a d--n bad cold!' so," +added Constable, "you have evidence on oath of my being about a fine +picture and that I am looking ill." + +An illustration of his painstaking and truthfulness to nature is that +he once took home with him from a visit bottles of coloured sand and +fragments of stone which he meant to introduce into a picture; and on +passing some slimy posts near a mill, he said to his host, "I wish you +could cut those off and send their tops to me." + +Constable was a loyal friend, the most persistent of men, and several +anecdotes are told of his characteristics. His friend Fisher said to +him: + +"Where real business is to be done, you are the most energetic and +punctual of men. In smaller matters, such as putting on your breeches, +you are apt to lose time in deciding which leg shall go in first." + + PLATE--THE HAY WAIN + +This picture was first called "Landscape," and it was painted in +1821. In his letters about it, however, Constable also called it +"Noon," and others wrote of it as "Midsummer Noon." This tells us what +a wealth of hot sunlight is suggested by the painting. + +It shows a little farmhouse upon the bank of a stream, a spot well +known as "Willy Lott's Cottage." The owner had been born there and he +died there eighty-eight years later, without ever having left his +cottage for four whole days in all those years. Upon the tombstone of +Lott, which is in the Bergholt burial ground, his epitaph calls the +house "Gibeon Farm." It was a favourite scene with Constable, and he +painted it many times from every side. It is the same house we see in +the "Mill Stream," another Constable painting, and again in "Valley +Farm." In this last picture he painted the side opposite to the one +shown in the "Hay Wain." + +The stream near which the house stands spreads out into a ford, and in +the picture the hay cart, with two men upon it, is passing through the +ford. The horses are decked out with red tassels. On the right of the +stream there is a broad meadow, golden green in the sunlight, "with +groups of trees casting cool shadows on the grass, and backed by a +distant belt of woodland of rich blues and greens." On the right is a +fisherman, half hidden by a bush, standing near his punt. + +Constable wrote to his friend, Fisher, "My picture goes to the Academy +on the tenth." This was written on April 1st, 1821. "It is not so +grand as Tinney's." This shows us, that Constable had not vanity +enough to interfere with his self-criticism. Again in a letter written +to him by a friend: "How does the 'Hay Wain' look now it has got into +your own room again?" adding that he wished to see it there, away from +the Academy which to him was always "like a great pot of boiling +varnish." + +Later Fisher wrote: "I have a great desire to possess your 'Wain,' but +I cannot now reach what it is worth;" and he begged Constable not to +sell it without giving him a chance to try once more to raise the +money to buy it. He wrote that the picture would become of greater +value to his children if the artist left it hanging upon the walls of +the Academy, "till you join the society of Ruysdael, Wilson, and +Claude. As praise and money will then be of no value to you, the world +will liberally bestow both." + +Later a Frenchman wished to buy it for exhibition purposes, and when +Constable wrote to Fisher of this, his friend replied that he had +better sell it to the Frenchman "for the sake of the _eclat_ it may +give you. The stupid English public, which has no judgment of its own, +will begin to think there is something in it if the French make your +works national property. You have long lain under a mistake; men do +not purchase pictures because they admire them, but because others +covet them." + +Finally, the "Hay Wain" was sold to the French dealer for oe250, and +Constable threw in a picture of Yarmouth for good measure. Later a +friend declared that he had created a good deal of argument about +landscape painting, and that there had come to be two divisions, for +he had practically founded a new school. He received a gold medal for +the "Hay Wain," and the French nation tried to buy it. In the Louvre +are "The Cottage," "Weymouth Bay," and "The Glebe Farm." Elsewhere are +"Hampstead Heath," "Salisbury Cathedral," "The Lock on the Stour," +"Dedham Mill," "The Valley Farm," "Gillingham Mill," "The Cornfield," +"Boat-Building," "Flatford Mill on the River Stour," besides many +others. + + + + +IX + +JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY + + + _English School_ + 1737-1815 + +A little boy with a squirrel was the first picture that pointed this +artist toward fame and that was painted in England and exhibited at +the Society of Arts. + +This American-born Irishman had no family or ancestry of account, but +he himself was to become the father of Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst, and +he did some truly fine things in art. + +About the same time America had another painter, Benjamin West, marked +out for fame, but he got his start in Europe while Copley had already +become a successful artist before he left Boston, his native place. + +He liked best to paint "interiors"--rooms with fine furniture and +curtains, women in fine clothing and men in embroidered waistcoats and +bejewelled buckles. + +In 1777 he got into the Royal Academy, and on the whole had +considerable influence on European art. If we study the portraits that +he painted while in Boston, we can get a very complete idea of the +surroundings of the "Royalists" at the time of our colonial history. + + PLATE--THE COPLEY FAMILY GROUP + +In this picture there are seven figures with an open landscape forming +the background. The baby of the family plays, with uplifted arms, upon +grandfather's knee. The mother on the couch, surrounded by her three +other children, is kissing one while another clings to her. Before her +stands a prim little maid, gowned in the fashion of grown-folks of her +day. A little lock of hair falling upon her forehead suggests that +when she was good she was very, very good, and when she was bad she +was horrid! She wears a little cap. At the back is the artist himself +in a wig and other fashions of the time. A great column rises behind +him, forming a part of the architecture or the landscape, one hardly +knows which in so artificially constructed a picture. + +Copley painted also John Hancock, Judge Graham, Jeremiah Lee, and +General Joseph Warren. + + + + +X + +JEAN BAPTISTE CAMILLE COROT + + + (Pronounced Zhahn Bah-teest' Cah-mee'yel Coh'roh) + _Fontainebleau-Barbizon School_ + 1796-1875 + _Pupil of Michallon_ + +About three hundred years before Corot's time there was a +Fontainebleau school of artists, made up of the pathetic Andrea del +Sarto, the wonderful Leonardo da Vinci, and Cellini. These painters +had been summoned from their Italian homes by Francis I., to decorate +the Palace of Fontainebleau. The second great group of painters who +had studios in the forest and beside the stream were Rousseau, Dupre, +Diaz, and Daubigny; Troyon, Van Marcke, Jacque; then Millet, the +painter of peasants. + +Corot was born in Paris and received what education the ordinary +school at Rouen could give him. He was intended by his parents for +something besides art, as it would seem that every artist in the world +was intended. Corot was to grow up and become a respectable draper; at +any rate a draper. + +The young chap did as his father wished, until he was twenty-six years +old, and dreary years those must have been to him. He did not get on +well with his master, nor did the world treat him very well. He found +neither riches nor the fame that was his due till he was an old man of +seventy. At that age he had become as rich a man as he might have been +had he remained a sensible draper. + +Best of all, Corot loved to paint clouds and dewy nights, pale moons +and early day, and of all amusements in the world, he preferred the +theatre. There he would sit; gay or sad as the play might make him, +weeping or laughing and as interested as a little child. + +After he had anything to give away, Corot was the most madly generous +of men. It was he who gave a pension to the widow of his brother +artist, Millet, on which she lived all the rest of her days. He gave +money to his brother painters and to all who went to him for aid; and +he always gave gaily, freely, as if giving were the greatest joy, +outside of the theatre, a man could have. Everyone who knew him loved +him, and there was no note of sadness in his daily life, though there +seems to be one in his poetical pictures. Because of his generous ways +he was known as "Pere Corot." He sang as he worked, and loved his +fellowmen all the time; but most of all, he loved his sister. + +"Rousseau is an eagle," he used to say in speaking of his fellow +artist. "As for me, I am only a lark, putting forth some little songs +in my gray clouds." + +It has been noted that most great landscape painters have been +city-bred, a remarkable fact. Constable and Gainsborough were born and +bred in the country, but they are exceptions to the rule. Corot's +parents were Parisians of the purest dye, having been court-dressmakers +to Napoleon I.; and when Corot finally determined to leave the +draper's shop and become a painter, his father said: "You shall +have a yearly allowance of 1,200 francs, and if you can live on that, +you can do as you please." When his son was made a member of the +Legion of Honour, after twenty-three years of earnest work, his father +thought the matter over, and presently doubled the allowance, "for +Camille seems to have some talent after all," he remarked as an excuse +for his generosity. + +It is told that when he first went to study in Italy, Corot longed to +transfer the moving scenes before him to canvas; but people moved too +quickly for him, so he methodically set about learning how to do with +a few strokes what he would otherwise have laboured over. So he +reduced his sketching to such a science that he became able to sketch +a ballet in full movement; and it is remarked that this practice +trained him for presenting the tremulousness of leaves of trees, which +he did so exquisitely. + +One learns something of this painter of early dawn and soft evening +from a letter he wrote to his friend Dupre: + +One gets up at three in the morning, before the sun; one goes and sits +at the foot of a tree; one watches and waits. One sees nothing much at +first. Nature resembles a whitish canvas on which are sketched +scarcely the profiles of some masses; everything is perfumed, and +shines in the fresh breath of dawn. Bing! the sun grows bright but has +not yet torn aside the veil behind which lie concealed the meadows, +the dale, and hills of the horizon. The vapours of night still creep, +like silvery flakes over the numbed-green vegetation. Bing! bing!--a +first ray of sunlight--a second ray of sunlight--the little flowers +seem to wake up joyously. They all have their drop of dew which +trembles--the chilly leaves are stirred with the breath of morning--in +the foliage the birds sing unseen--all the flowers seem to be saying +their prayers. Loves on butterfly wings frolic over the meadows and +make the tall plants wave--one sees nothing--yet everything is +there--the landscape is entirely behind the veil of mist, which +mounts, mounts, sucked up by the sun; and as it rises, reveals the +river, plated with silver, the meadow, the trees, cottages, the +receding distance--one distinguishes at last everything that one had +divined at first. + +In all the world there can hardly be a more exquisite story of +daybreak than this; and so beautiful was the mood into which Corot +fell at eventime, as he himself describes it, that it would be a +mistake to leave it out. This is his story of the night: + +Nature drowses--the fresh air, however, sighs among the leaves--the +dew decks the velvety grass with pearls. The nymphs fly--hide +themselves--and desire to be seen. Bing! a star in the sky which +pricks its image on the pool. Charming star--whose brilliance is +increased by the quivering of the water, thou watchest me--thou +smilest to me with half-closed eye! Bing!--a second star appears in +the water, a second eye opens. Be the harbingers of welcome, fresh and +charming stars. Bing! Bing! Bing!--three, six, twenty stars. All the +stars in the sky are keeping tryst in this happy pool. Everything +darkens, the pool alone sparkles. There is a swarm of stars--all +yields to illusion. The sun being gone to bed, the inner sun of the +soul, the sun of art awakens. Bon! there is my picture done! + +In writing those letters, Corot made literature as well as +pictures. That little word "bing!" appears also in his paintings, as +little leaves or bits of tree-trunk, some small detail which, +high-lightened, accents the whole. + + PLATE--DANCE OF THE NYMPHS + +There could hardly be a more charming painting than this which hangs +in the Louvre. It is of a half-shut-in landscape of tall trees, their +branches mingling; and all the atmospheric effects that belong to +Corot's work can here be seen. + +On the open greensward is a group of nymphs dancing gaily, while over +all the scene is the veil of fairy-land or of something quite +mysterious. At the back and side, satyrs can be seen watching the +nymphs. There is here less of the blur of leaves than that seen in +later pictures, but the same soft effect is found, and the little +"bings" are the accents of light placed upon a leaf, a nymph's +shoulder, or a tree-trunk. + +This picture was painted in 1851, when Corot had not yet developed +that style which was to mark all his later work. + +Besides this picture he painted "Paysage," "The Bathers" "Ville +d'Arvay," "Willows near Arras," "The Bent Tree," "A Gust of Wind," and +others. + + + + +XI + +CORREGGIO (ANTONIO ALLEGRI) + + + (Pronounced Cor-rage'jyo Ahl-lay'gree) + _School of Parma_ + 1494(?)-1534 + _Pupil of Mantegna_ + +When Correggio was a little boy, he lived in the odour of spices, +which were kept upon his father's shop-shelves. He was a highly-spiced +little boy and man, although the most timid and shrinking. His +imagination was the liveliest possible. + +The spice merchant lived in the town of Correggio, and thus the artist +got his name. Correggio knew what should be inside the lovely flesh of +his painted figures before he began to paint them, because he studied +anatomy in a truly scientific manner before he studied painting. +Probably no other artist up to that time, had ever begun with the bare +bones of his models, but Correggio may be said to have worked from the +inside out. He learned about the structure of the human frame from +Dr. Giovanni Battista Lombardi, and showed his gratitude to his +teacher by painting a picture "Il Medico del Correggio" (Correggio's +Physician), and presenting it to Doctor Lombardi. + +Now Correggio's childhood, or at least his early manhood, could not +have been spent in poverty, because it is known that he used the most +expensive colours to paint with, painted upon the finest of canvas, +while greater artists had often to be content with boards. He also +painted upon copper plates, and it is said that he hired Begarelli, a +sculptor of much fame, to make models in relief for him to copy for +the pictures he painted on the cupolas of the churches in Parma. That +sculptor's services must have been expensive. + +On the lovely island of Capri, in the Franciscan convent, will be +found one of his first pictures, painted when Correggio was about +nineteen years old. + +He was highly original in many ways. Although he had never seen the +work of any great artist, he painted the most extraordinary +fore-shortened pictures; and fore-shortening was a technicality in art +then uncommon. He also was the first to paint church cupolas. +Fore-shortening produces some peculiar as well as great results, and +being a feature of art with which people were not then familiar, +Correggio's work did not go uncriticised. Indeed one artist, gazing up +into one of the cupolas where Correggio's fore-shortened figures were +placed, remarked that to him it appeared a "hash of frogs." + +But when Titian saw that cupola, he said: "Reverse the cupola, fill it +with gold, and even then that will not be its money's worth." + +Correggio did not receive very large sums for his work, and since he +was married and took good care of his family, he must have had some +source of income besides his brush. He received some interesting +rewards for his paintings. For example, for "St. Jerome," called "Il +Giorno," he was given "400 gold imperials, some cartloads of faggots +and measures of wheat, and a fat pig." That picture is in the Parma +Gallery, and all the cupolas which he painted are in Parma churches. + +Some of his pictures are signed; "Leito," a synonym for his name, +"Allegri." This indicates his style of art. + +There is an interesting story told of how Correggio stood entranced +before a picture of Raphael's, and after long study of it he +exclaimed: "I too, am a painter!" showing at once his appreciation of +Raphael's greatness and satisfaction at his own genius. + +Doubtless a good share of Correggio's comfortable living came from the +lady he married, since she was considered a rich woman for those times +and in that locality. Her name was Girolama Merlini, and she lived in +Mantua, the place where the Montagues and Capulets lived of whom +Shakespeare wrote the most wonderful love story ever imagined. This +young woman was only sixteen years old when Correggio met and loved +her, and very beautiful and later on he painted a picture, +"Zingarella," for which his wife is said to have been the model. It +seems to have been a stroke of economy and enterprise for painters to +marry, since we read of so many who made fame and fortune through the +beauty of their wives. + +They were very happy together, Correggio and his wife, and they had +four children. Their happiness was not for long, because Correggio +seems to have been but thirty-four years old when she died, nor did he +live to be old. There is a most curious tale of his death which is +probably not true, but it is worth telling since many have believed +it. He is supposed to have died in Correggio, of pleurisy, but the +story is that he had made a picture for one who had some grudge +against him, and who in order to irritate him paid him in copper, +fifty scudi. This was a considerable burden, and in order to save +expense and time, it is said that Correggio undertook to carry it home +alone. It was a very hot day, and he became so overheated and +exhausted with his heavy load that he took ill and died, and he may be +said literally to have been killed by "too much money," if this were +true. Vasari, a biographer to be generally believed, says it is a +fact. + +Correggio said that he always had his "thoughts at the end of his +pencil," and there are those who impudently declare that is the only +place he _did_ have them, but that is a carping criticism, because he +was a very great artist, his greatest power being the presentation of +soft blendings of light and shade. There seem to have been few unusual +events in Correggio's life; very little that helps us to judge the +man, but there is a general opinion that he was a kind and devoted +father and husband, as well as a good citizen. With little demand upon +his moral character, he did his work, did it well, and his work alone +gave him place and fame. + +He became the head of a school of painting and had many imitators, but +we hear little of his pupils, except that one of them was his own son, +Pompino, who lived to be very old, and in his turn was successful as +an artist. + +Correggio was buried with honours in the Arrivabene Chapel, in the +Franciscan church at Correggio. + + PLATE--THE HOLY NIGHT + +This painting is not characteristic of Correggio's work, but +nevertheless it is very beautiful. The brilliant warm light which +comes from the Infant Jesus in His mother's arms is reflected upon the +faces of those gathered about, and even illuminates the angelic group +hovering above him. The slight landscape forming the background is +also suggestive, and the conditions of the birth are indicated by the +ass which may be seen in the middle distance. The faces of all are +joyous yet full of wonderment, the whole scene intimate and human. + +The picture is also called the "Adoration of the Shepherds," and that +title best tells the story. See the shepherdess shading her face with +one hand and offering two turtle-doves with the other. The ass in the +distance is the one on which Mary rode to Bethlehem, and Joseph is +caring for it. Even the cold light of the dawning day is softened by +the beauty of the group below. This picture is in the Royal Gallery in +Dresden. + + PLATE--THE MYSTIC MARRIAGE OF ST. CATHERINE + +The Infant Jesus sits upon His mother's lap, and places the ring upon +St. Catherine's finger, while Mary's hand helps to guide that of her +Child. This action brings the three hands close together and adds to +the beauty of the composition. All of the faces are full of pleasure +and kindliness, while that of St. Sebastian fairly glows with happy +emotion. The light is concentrated upon the body of the Child and is +reflected upon the faces of the women. This painting hangs in the +Louvre. + +Other great Correggio pictures are the "School of Cupid," which is +more characteristic of his work; "Antiope," "Leda," "Danae," and "Ecce +Homo." + + + + +XII + +PAUL GUSTAVE DORE + + + _French School_ + 1833-1883 + +This artist died in Paris twenty-five years ago, but there is little +as yet to be told of his life history. He was educated in Paris at the +Lycee Charlemagne, having gone there from Strasburg, where he was +born. + +He was a painter of fantastic and grotesque subjects, and as far as we +know, he began his career when a boy. He made sketches before his +eighth year which attracted much attention, and he earned considerable +money while still at school. He was at that time engaged to illustrate +for journals, at a good round sum, and before he left the Lycee he had +made hundreds of drawings, somewhat after the satirical fashion of +Hogarth. + +His work is very characteristic and once seen is likely to be always +recognised. + +He first worked for the _Journal Pour Rire_, but then he undertook to +illustrate the work of Rabelais, the great satirist, whose text just +suited Dore's pencil. After Rabelais he illustrated Balzac, also the +"Wandering Jew," "Don Quixote," and Dante's "Divine Comedy." + +He undertook to do things which he could not do well, simply for the +money there was in the commissions. He had but a poor idea of colour +and his work was coarse, but it had such marked peculiarities that it +became famous. He did a little sculpture as well, and even that showed +his eccentricities of thought. + + PLATE--MOSES BREAKING THE TABLETS OF THE LAW + +This is one of the illustrations of the Dore Bible, published in +1865-66. The story is well known of how Moses went up into the Mount +of the Lord to receive the laws for the Israelites, which were written +upon tables of stone. Upon his descent from the Mount he found that +his followers had set up a golden calf, which they were worshipping; +and in his wrath Moses broke the tablets on which the Law was +inscribed. The power shown in his attitude, the affrighted faces of +the cowering Jews, the thunder and lightning as an expression of the +wrath of the Almighty are all painted in Dore's best manner. + + + + +XIII + +ALBRECHT DURER + + + (Pronounced Dooer-rer') + _Nuremberg School_ + 1471-1528 + _Pupil of Wolgemuth and Schongauer_ + +Albrecht Durer by nationality was a Hungarian, but he was born in the +city of Nuremberg. His father had come from the little Hungarian town +of Eytas to Nuremberg that he might practise the craft of a +goldsmith. Notwithstanding his Hungarian origin, the name is German +and the family "bearing," or sign, is the open door. This device +suggests that the name was first formed from "Thurer," which means +"carpenter," maker of doors. + +The father became the goldworker for a master goldsmith of Nuremberg +named Hieronymus Holper, and very soon the new employee had fallen in +love with his master's daughter. The daughter was very young and very +beautiful; her name was Barbara, and as Herr Durer was quite forty +years of age, while she was but fifteen, the match seemed most +unlikely, but they married and had eighteen children! The great +painter was one of them. + +Albrecht loved his parents most tenderly, and from first to last we +hear no word of disagreement among any members of that immense +household. Young Albrecht was especially the companion of his father, +being brilliant, generous, and hard-working in a family where everyone +needed to do his best to help along. This love and companionship never +ceased until death, and after his parents died Albrecht wrote in a +touching manner of their death, describing his love for them, and +their many virtues. He was an author and a poet as well as a painter, +and only Leonardo da Vinci matched him for greatness and +versatility. We may know what Durer's father looked like, since the +son made two portraits of him; one is to be seen in the Uffizi Gallery +at Florence and the other belongs to the Duke of Northumberland's +collection. The latter portrait has been reproduced in an engraving, +so that it is familiar to most people. + +In the days when the great artist was growing up, Nuremberg was the +centre of all intellectuality and art in the North. The city of +Augsburg also followed art fashions, but it was far less important +than Nuremberg, because in the latter city every sort of art-craft was +followed in sincerity and with great originality. + +In those days, the craft of the goldsmith was closely allied with the +profession of the painter, because the smith had to create his own +designs, and that called for much talent. Thus it was but a step from +designing in precious metals to the use of colour, and to +engraving. In making wood engravings, however, the drudgery of it was +left almost entirely to workmen, not artists. Nuremberg was also the +seat of musical learning. Wagner makes this fact pathetic, comical, +and altogether charming in his "Mastersingers of Nuremberg." + +Till Durer's time, however, there had been little painting that could +be regarded as art, and when he came to study it there was but little +opportunity in his own land, but Durer was destined to bring art to +Nuremberg. If he went elsewhere to study, it was only for a little +time, because he was above all things patriotic and dearly loved his +home. + +With seventeen brothers and sisters, young Durer's problem was a +serious one. His father not only meant him to become a goldsmith like +himself--a craft in which there was much money to be made at a time +when people dressed with great ornamentation and used gold to decorate +with--it was highly necessary with so large a family that he should +learn to do that which could make him helpful to his father. Hence the +young boy entered his father's shop. If he had not been handicapped +with so many to help to maintain, he would have laid up a considerable +fortune, because from the very beginning he was master of all that he +undertook; doing the least thing better than any other did it, putting +conscience and painstaking into all. + +"My father took special delight in me," the son said, "seeing that I +was industrious in working and learning, he put me to school; and when +I had learned to read and write, he took me home from my school and +taught me the goldsmith's trade." + +The family were good and kind; excellent neighbours, deeply religious, +and little Albrecht certainly was comely. He was beautiful as a little +child, and as a man was very handsome, with long light hair sweeping +his shoulders, and gentle eyes. He was very tall, stately, and full of +dignity. + +In his father's shop he made little clay figures which were afterward +moulded in metal; also he learned to carve wood and ivory, and he +added the touch of originality to all that he did. He was the Leonardo +da Vinci of Germany, an intellectual man, a poet, painter, sculptor, +engraver, and engineer. He approached everything that he did from an +intellectual point of view, looking for the reasons of things. + +After a while in his father's shop, he found mere craftsmanship +irksome, and he begged to be allowed to enter a studio. This was a +great disappointment to the father, even a distress, because he could +see no very quick nor large returns in money for an artist, and he +sorely needed the help of his son; but being kind and reasonable, he +consented Albrecht was apprenticed to the only artist of any repute +then in Nuremberg, Wolgemuth. + +To his studio Albrecht went, at the age of fifteen, and if he did not +learn much more of painting, under that artist's direction, than his +own genius had already taught him, he learned the drudgery of his +work; how to grind colours and to mix them, and he studied wood +engraving also. + +In Wolgemuth's studio he remained for the three years of his +apprenticeship, and then he fled to better things. For a time he +followed the methods of another German artist, Schongauer, but finally +he went forth to try his luck alone. He wandered from place to place, +practising all his trades, goldsmithing, engraving, whatever would +support him, yet always and everywhere painting. + +It is thought that he may have gone as far as Italy, but it is not +certain whether he went there in his first wanderings or later +on. However, he was soon recalled home, for his father had found a +suitable wife for him. She was the daughter of a rich citizen and her +name was Agnes Frey. She was pretty as well as rich, but had she been +neither Albrecht would have returned at his father's bidding. There +was never any resistance to the fine and proper things of life on +Albrecht Durer's part. He was the well balanced, reasonable man from +youth up. + +There have been extraordinary tales told of the artist's wife. She has +been called hateful and spiteful as Xantippe, the wife of Socrates, +but we think this is calumny. The stories came about in this way: +Durer had a life-long friend, Wilibald Pirkheimer, who in his old age +became the most malicious and quarrelsome of old fellows. He lived +longer than Durer did, and Durer's wife also outlived her +husband. Pirkheimer wanted a set of antlers which had belonged to +Durer and which he thought the wife should give him after Durer was +dead, but Agnes thought otherwise and would not give them up. Then, +full of rage, the old man wrote the most outrageous letters about poor +Agnes, saying that she was a shrew and had compelled Durer to work +himself to death; that she was a miser and had led the artist an awful +dance through life. This is the only evidence against her, and that so +sane and sensible a man as the artist lived with her all his life and +cherished her, is evidence enough that Pirkheimer didn't tell the +truth. When Durer died he was in good circumstances and instead of +being overworked, he for many years had done no "pot-boiling," but had +followed investigations along lines that pleased him. After his death, +the widow treated his brothers and sisters generously, giving them +properties of Durer's and being of much help to them. During the +artist's life he and she had travelled everywhere together and had +appeared to love each other tenderly; hence we may conclude that the +old Pirkheimer was simply a disgruntled, gouty old man without a good +word for anybody. + +If Durer's father and mother had eighteen children, Albrecht and Agnes +struck a balance, for they had none. Whether or not Durer went to +Italy before his marriage in 1494, certain it is that he was in +Venice, the home of Titian, in 1506. Titian was six years younger than +Durer, who was then about thirty-five years old. It is said that he +started for Italy in 1505 and that he went the whole of the way, over +the Alps, through forests and streams, on horseback. Who knows but it +was during that very journey, while travelling alone, often finding +himself in lonely ways, and full of the speculative thoughts that were +characteristic of him, that he did not think first of his subject, +"Knight, Death, and the Devil," which helped make his fame. In that +picture we have a knight, helmeted, carrying his lance, mounted upon +his horse, riding in a lonely forest, with death upon a "pale horse" +by his side, holding an hour glass to remind the knight of the +fleeting of time. Behind comes the devil, with trident and horn, +represented as a frightful and disgusting beast, which follows +hot-foot after the lonely knight, who looks neither to right nor left, +but persistently goes his way. + +Titian's teacher, Bellini, was still living, and he was one of Durer's +greatest admirers. Especially did he believe that he could paint the +finest hair of any artist in the world. One day, while studying +Durer's work, and being especially fascinated by the hair of one of +his figures, the old man took Durer's brush and tried to reproduce as +beautiful a tress. Presently he put down the brush in despair, but the +younger artist took it up, still wet with the same colours, and in a +few brilliant strokes produced a lovely lock of woman's hair. + +While luxuriating in Venetian heat, Durer wrote home to his friend +Pirkheimer: "Oh, how I shall freeze after this sunshine!" He was a +lover of warm, beautiful colour, gay and tender life. Most of all he +loved the fatherland, and all the honours paid him and all the +invitations pressed upon him could not keep him long from +Nuremberg. The journey homeward was not uneventful because he was +taken ill, and had to stop at a house on his way, where he was cared +for till he was strong enough to proceed. Before he went his way he +painted upon the wall of that house a fine picture, to show his +gratitude for the kind treatment he had received. Imagine a people so +settled in their homes that it would be worth while for an artist who +came along to leave a picture upon the walls to-day--we should have +moved to a new house or a new flat almost before Durer could have +washed his brushes and turned the corner. + +Back in Nuremberg, he settled down into the life of a responsible +citizen, lived in a fine new house, in time became a member of the +council, and his studio was a veritable workshop. Studios were quite +different from those of to-day. Then the pupils turned to and ground +colours, did much of their own manufacturing, engaged at first in such +commonplace occupations, which were nevertheless teaching them the +foundation of their art, while they watched the work of the +master. Such a studio as Durer's must have been full of young men +coming and going, not all working at the art of painting, but +engraving, preparing materials for such work, designing, and executing +many other details of art work. + +After this time Durer made his smallest picture, which is hardly more +than an inch in diameter. On that tiny surface he painted the whole +story of the crucifixion, and it is now in the Dresden Gallery. To +those of us who see little mentality in the faces of the Italian +subjects, the German art of Durer, often ugly in the choice of models, +and so exact as to bring out unpleasing details, is nevertheless the +greater; because in all cases, the faces have sincere expressions. They +exhibit human purposes and emotions which we can understand, and +despise or love as the case may be. + +They say that his Madonna is generally a "much-dressed round-faced +German mother, holding a merry little German boy." That may be true; +but at any rate, she is every inch a mother and he a well-beloved +little boy, which is considerably more than can be said of some +Italian performances. + +Durer made a painting of "Praying Hands," a queer subject for a +picture, but those hands are nothing _but_ praying hands. The story of +them is touching. It is said that for several years Durer had won a +prize for which a friend of his had also competed, and upon losing the +prize the last time he tried for it, the friend raised his hands and +prayed for the power to accept his failure with resignation and +humility. Durer, looking at him, was impressed with the eloquence of +the gesture; thus the "Praying Hands" was conceived. + +Durer was also called the _Father of Picture Books_, because he +designed so many woodcuts that he first made possible the illustration +of stories. + +He printed his own illustrations in his own house, and was well paid +for it. The Emperor Maximillian visited Nuremberg, and wishing to +honour Durer, commanded him to make a triumphal arch. + +"It was not to be fashioned in stone like the arches given to the +victorious Roman Emperors; but instead it was to be composed of +engravings. Durer made for this purpose ninety-two separate blocks of +woodcuts. On these were represented Maximillian's genealogical tree +and the principal events of his life. All these were arranged in the +form of an arch, 9 feet wide and 10-1/2 feet high. It took Durer three +years to do this work, and he was never well paid," so says one who +has compiled many incidents of his life. + +"While the artist worked, the Emperor often visited his studio; and as +Durer's pet cats often visited it at the same time, the expression +arose, 'a cat may look at a King!'" + +On the occasion of one of these kingly visits, Maximillian tried to do +a little art-work on his own account. Taking a piece of charcoal he +tried to sketch, but the charcoal kept breaking and he asked Durer why +it did so. + +"That is my sceptre; your Majesty has other and greater work to do," +was the tactful reply. It is a question with us to-day whether the +King ever did a greater work than Albrecht Durer, king of painters, +was doing. + +After this, Maximillian gave Durer a pension, but when the Emperor +died the artist found it necessary to apply to the monarch who came +after him, in order to have the gift confirmed. This was the occasion +for his journey to the Low Countries, and he took his wife Agnes with +him. In the Netherlands he was received with much honour and was +invited to become court painter; and what was more, his pension was +fixed upon him for life. The great work of his life was his +illustration of the Apocalypse. For this he made sixteen extraordinary +woodcuts, of great size. + +On his journey to see Charles V., Maximillian's successor, Durer kept +a diary in which he noted the minutest details of all that happened to +him. He told of the coronation of Charles; of hearing about a whale +that had been cast upon the shore; of his disappointment that it had +been removed before he had reached the place. He wrote with great +indignation about the supposed kidnapping of Martin Luther, while he +was on his way home from the Diet of Worms. + +While Durer was in the Low Countries, a fever came upon him, and when +he returned home, it still followed him. Indeed, although he lived for +seven years after his return, he was never well again. Among his +effects there was a sketch made to indicate to his physician the seat +of his illness. + +Durer did not paint great frescoes upon walls as did Raphael, Michael +Angelo, and all great Italian artists; but instead he painted on wood, +canvas, and in oils. + +In all the civilised world Durer was honoured equally with the great +Italian painters of his time. He was a man of much conscientiousness, +dignity, and tenderness. He was devoted to his home and country, and +regarded the problems of life intellectually. When he came to die, his +end was so unexpected that those dearest to him could not reach his +bedside. He was buried in St. John's cemetery in Nuremberg. After his +death, Martin Luther wrote as follows to their mutual friend, Eoban +Hesse: + +"As for Durer; assuredly affection bids us mourn for one who was the +best of men, yet you may well hold him happy that he has made so good +an end, and that Christ has taken him from the midst of this time of +troubles, and from yet greater troubles in store, lest he, that +deserved to behold nothing but the best, should be compelled to behold +the worst. Therefore may he rest in peace with his fathers, Amen." + + PLATE--THE NATIVITY + +Our description of this painting calls attention to the fact that the +columns and arches of the picturesque ruin belong to a much later +period in history than the birth of Christ. Durer was not acquainted +with any earlier style of architecture than the Romanesque and +therefore he used it here. "The ruin serves as a stable. A roof of +board is built out in front of the side-room which shelters the ox and +ass, and under this lean-to lies the new born babe surrounded by +angels who express their childish joy. Mary kneels and contemplates +her child with glad emotion. Joseph, also deeply moved, kneels down on +the other side of the child, outside the shelter of the roof. Some +shepherds to whom the angel, who is still seen hovering in the air, +has announced the tidings, are already entering from without the +walls." (Knackfuss). The picture is the central panel of an +altar-piece now in the Old Pinakothek at Munich. Durer's oil painting +of the four apostles--John, Peter, Mark, and Paul--is in the same +gallery. Other Durer pictures are: "The Knight, Death and the Devil," +"The Adoration of the Magi," "Melancholy," and portraits of himself. + + + + +XIV + +MARIANO FORTUNY + + + (Pronounced Mah-ree-ah-no' For-tu'ne) + _Spanish School_ + 1838-1874 + _Pupil of Claudio Lorenzalez_ + +Fortuny won his own opportunities. He took a prize, while still very +young, which made it possible for him to go to Rome where he wished to +study art. He did not spend his time studying and copying the old +masters as did most artists who went there, but, instead, he studied +the life of the Roman streets. + +He had already been at the Academy of Barcelona, but he did not follow +his first master; instead, he struck out a line of art for +himself. After a year in Rome the artist went to war; but he did not +go to fight men, he was still fighting fate, and his weapon was his +sketch book. He went with General Prim, and he filled his book with +warlike scenes and the brilliant skies of Morocco. From that time his +work was inspired by his Moorish experiences. + +After going to war without becoming a soldier, Fortuny returned to +Paris and there he became fast friends with Meissonier, so that a good +deal of his work was influenced by that artist's genius. After a time +Fortuny's paintings came into great vogue and far-off Americans began +buying them, as well as Europeans. There was a certain rich dry-goods +merchant in the United States who had made a large fortune for those +days, and while he knew nothing about art, he wanted to spend his +money for fine things. So he employed people who did understand the +matter to buy for him many pictures whose excellence he, himself, +could not understand, but which were to become a fine possession for +succeeding generations. This was about 1860, and this man, +A.T. Stewart, bought two of Fortuny's pictures at high prices. "The +Serpent Charmer," and "A Fantasy of Morocco." + +When Fortuny was thirty years old he married the daughter of a +Spaniard called Madrazo, director of the Royal Museum. His wife's +family had several well known artists in it, and the marriage was a +very happy one. Because of this, Fortuny was inspired to paint one of +the greatest of his pictures, "The Spanish Marriage." In it are to be +seen the portraits of his wife and his friend Regnault. After a time +he went to live in Granada; but he could never forget the beautiful, +barbaric scenes in Morocco, and so he returned there. Afterward he +went with his wife to live in Rome, and there they had a fine home and +everything exquisite about them, while fortune and favour showered +upon them; but he fell ill with Roman fever, because of working in the +open air, and he died while he was comparatively a young man. + + PLATE--THE SPANISH MARRIAGE + +Fortuny is said to "split the light into a thousand particles, till +his pictures sparkle like jewels and are as brilliant as a +kaleidoscope.... He set the fashion for a class of pictures, filled +with silks and satins, bric-a-brac and elegant trifling." + +Look at the brilliant scene in this picture! The priest rising from +his chair and leaning over the table is watching the bridegroom sign +his name. This chap is an old fop, bedecked in lilac satin, while the +bride is a dainty young woman, without much interest in her husband, +for she is fingering her beautiful fan and gossiping with one of her +girl friends. She wears orange-blossoms in her black hair and is in +full bridal array. One couple, two men, sit on an elegantly carved +seat and are looking at the goings-on with amusement, while an old +gentleman sits quite apart, disgusted with the whole unimpressive +scene. Everybody is trifling, and no one is serious for the +occasion. The furnishings of the room are beautiful, delicate, almost +frivolous. People are strewn about like flowers, and the whole effect +is airy and inconsequent. Fortuny painted also "The Praying Arab," "A +Fantasy of Morocco," "Snake Charmers," "Camels at Rest," etc. + + + + +XV + +THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH + + + _English School_ + 1727-1788 + _Pupil of Gravelot and of Hayman_ + +There seems to have been no artist, with the extraordinary exceptions +of Durer and Leonardo, who learned his lessons while at school. Little +painters have uniformly begun as bad spellers. + +Gainsborough's father was in the business of woolen-crape making, +while his mother painted flowers, very nicely, and it was she who +taught the small Thomas. There were nine little Gainsboroughs and, +shocking to relate, the artist of the family was so ready with his +pencil that when he was ten years old he forged his father's name to a +note which he took to the schoolmaster, and thereby gained himself a +holiday. There is no account of any other wicked use to which he put +his talent. It is said that he could copy any writing that he saw, and +his ready pencil covered all his copy-books with sketches of his +schoolmasters. It was thought better for him finally to follow his own +ideas of education, namely, to roam the woodlands and make beautiful +pictures. + +His father's heart was not softened till one day little Gainsborough +brought home a sketch of the orchard into which the head of a man had +thrust itself, painted with great ability. This man was a poacher, and +father Gainsborough recognised him by the portrait. There seemed to be +utility in art of this kind, and before long the boy found himself +apprenticed to a silversmith. + +Through the silversmith the artist got admission to an art school and +began his studies; but his master was a dissolute fellow, and before +long the pupil left him. + +Gainsborough was born in the town of Sudbury on the River Stour, the +same which inspired another great painter half a century +later. Gainsborough is best known by his portraits, in particular as +the inventor of "the Gainsborough hat," but he was first of all a +truly great landscape painter, and learned his art as Constable did +after him, along the beautiful shores of the river that flowed past +his native town. + +The old Black Horse Inn is still to be seen, and it was in the orchard +behind it that he studied nature, the same in which he made the first +of his famous portraits, that of the poacher. It is known to this day +as the portrait of "Tom Pear-tree." That picture was copied on a piece +of wood cut into the shape of a man, and it is in the possession of +Mr. Jackson, who lent it for the exhibition of Gainsborough's work +held at the Grosvenor Gallery, in 1885. + +While Thomas was with his first master, by no means a good companion +for a lad of fifteen, he lived a busy, self-respecting life, since he +was devoted to his home and to his parents. Only three years after he +set out to learn his art he married a young lady of Sudbury. The pair +were by no means rich, Gainsborough having only eighteen years of +experience in this world, besides his brush, and a maker of +woolen-crape shrouds for a father--who was not over pleased to have an +artist for a son. The lady had two hundred pounds but this did not +promise a very luxurious living, so they took a house for six pounds a +year, at Ipswich. Thus the two young lovers began their life +together. There was a good deal of romance in the story of his wife, +whose name was supposed to be Margaret Burr. The two hundred pounds +that helped to pay the Ipswich rent did not come from the man accepted +as her father, but from her real father, who was either the Duke of +Bedford, or an exiled prince. This would seem to be just the sort of +story that should surround a great painter and his affairs. + +While he lived at Ipswich Gainsborough used to say of himself that he +was "chiefly in the face-way" meaning that for the most part he made +portraits. He loved best to paint the scenes of his boyhood, as +Constable afterward did, but he soon found there was more money in +portraits, and so he decided to go to live in Bath, the fashionable +resort of English people in that day, where he was likely to find rich +folk who wanted to see themselves on canvas. He settled down there +with his wife, whom he loved dearly, and his two daughters and at once +began to make money. It is said he painted five hours a day and all +the rest of the time studied music. As the theatre was Corot's +greatest happiness, so did music most delight Gainsborough, and he +could play well on nearly every known instrument; he became so +excellent a musician that he even gave concerts. He had the most +delightful people about him, people who loved art and who appreciated +him, and then there were the other people who paid for having +themselves painted. Altogether it was an ideal situation. + +His studio was in the place known as the "Circus" at Bath, and people +came and went all day, for it became the fashionable resort for all +the fine folks. + +From five guineas for half length portraits, he soon raised his price +to forty; he had charged eight for full length portraits, but now they +went for one hundred. He painted some famous men of the time. The very +thought is inspiring of such a company of geniuses with Gainsborough +in the centre of the group. He painted Laurence Sterne, who wrote "The +Sentimental Journey," and a few other delightful things; also Garrick, +the renowned actor. + +Even the encyclopaedia reads thrillingly upon this subject and one can +afford to quote it, with the feeling that the quotation will be read: +"His house harboured Italian, German, French and English musicians. He +haunted the green room of Palmer's Theatre, and painted gratuitously +the portraits of many of the actors. He gave away his sketches and +landscapes to any one who had taste or assurance enough to ask for +them." This sounds royal and exciting. + +After that Gainsborough went up to London with plenty of money and +plenty of confidence and instead of six pounds a year for his house, +he paid three hundred pounds, which suggests much more comfort. + +There were two other great painters of the time in London, Sir +Benjamin West--an American, by the way--and Sir Joshua Reynolds. West +was court favourite, but Gainsborough too was called upon to paint +royalty, and share West's honours. Reynolds was the favourite of the +town, but he too had to divide honours with Gainsborough when the +latter painted Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Edmund Burke and Sir William +Blackstone. + +Notwithstanding, his landscapes, for which he should have been most +famous, did not sell. Everybody approved of them, but it is said they +were returned to him till they "stood ranged in long lines from his +hall to his painting room" Gainsborough was a member of the Royal +Academy and also a true Bohemian. He cared little for elegant society, +but made his friends among men of genius of all sorts. He was very +handsome and impulsive, tall and fair, and generous in his ways; but +he had much sorrow on account of one of his daughters, Mary, who +married Fischer, a hautboy player, against her father's wishes. The +girl became demented--at least she had spells of madness. + +When Mary Gainsborough married, her father wrote the following letter +to his sister, which shows that he was a man of tender feeling for +those whom he truly loved: + +" ... I had not the least suspicion of the attachment being so long +and deeply seated; and as it was too late for me to alter anything +without being the cause of total unhappiness on both sides, my +consent ... I needs must give ... and accordingly they were married +last Monday and settled for the present in a ready-furnished little +house in Curzon Street, Mayfair ... I can't say I have any reason to +doubt the man's honesty or goodness of heart, as I never heard anyone +speak anything amiss of him, and as to his oddities and temper, she +must learn to like them as she likes his person ... Peggy has been +very unhappy about it, but I endeavour to comfort her." Peggy was his +wife. + +The abominable Fischer died twenty-years before Mary did--she lived to +be an old, old woman. + +Among those whom Gainsborough loved best was the man called Wiltshire +who carried his pictures to and from London. He was a public "carrier" +but would never take any money for his services to the artist, because +he loved his work. All he asked was "a little picture"--and he got so +many of these, given in purest affection, that he might have gone out +of business as a carrier, had he chosen to sell them. Four of those +little pictures are now very great ones worth thousands of pounds and +known everywhere to fame. They are "The Parish Clerk," "Portrait of +Quin," "A Landscape with Cattle," and "The Harvest Waggon." + +We have a good many stories of Gainsborough's bad manners. The artists +of his day tried to treat him with every consideration, but in return +he treated them very badly, especially Sir Joshua Reynolds. Reynolds, +who was then President of the Academy greatly admired Gainsborough but +the latter would not return Sir Joshua's call, and when Reynolds asked +him to paint his portrait for him, Gainsborough undertook it +thanklessly. Sir Joshua left town for Bath for a time, and when he +returned he tried to learn how soon the portrait would be finished, +but Gainsborough would not even reply to his inquiry. There seems to +have been no reason for this behaviour unless it was jealousy, but it +made a most uncomfortable situation between fellow artists. + +Gainsborough has told some not very pleasing stories about himself, +but one of them shows us what a knack he had for seeing the comic side +of things, and perhaps for seeing comedy where it never existed. Upon +one occasion he was invited to a friend's house where the family were +in the habit of assembling for prayers, and he had no sooner got +inside, than he began to fear he should laugh, when prayer time came, +at the chaplain. In a rush of shyness he fled, leaving his host to +look for him, till he stumbled over a servant who said that +Mr. Gainsborough had charged him to say he had gone to breakfast at +Salisbury. Even respect for the customs of others could not make him +control himself. + +It was through his intimacy with King George's family that his quarrel +with the Royal Academy came about. He had painted the three +princesses--the Princess Royal, Princesses Augusta and Elizabeth, and +these were to be hung at a certain height in Carlton House, but when +he sent the first to the Academy he asked it to be specially hung and +his request was refused. Then he sent a note as follows: + +"He begs pardon for giving them so much trouble, but he has painted +the picture of the princesses in so tender a light that, +notwithstanding he approves very much of the established line for +strong effects, he cannot possibly consent to have it placed higher +than eight feet and a half, because the likeness and the work of the +picture will not be seen any higher, therefore at a word he will not +trouble the gentlemen against their inclination, but will beg the best +of his pictures back again." Immediately, the Academy returned his +pictures, although it would seem that they might better have +accommodated Gainsborough than have lost such a fine exhibition. He +never again would send anything to them. + +He was inclined to be irritated by inartistic points in his sitters, +and is said to have muttered when he was painting the portrait of +Mrs. Siddons, the great actress: "Damn your nose madam; there is no +end to it." The nose in question must have been an "eyesore" to more +than Gainsborough, for a famous critic is said to have declared that +"Mrs. Siddons, with all her beauty was a kind of female Johnson ... +her nose was not too long for nothing." + +Notwithstanding that his landscapes were not popular, he used to go +off into the country to indulge his taste for painting them, and once +he wrote to a friend that he meant to mount "all the Lakes at the next +Exhibition in the great style, and you know, if people don't like +them, it's only jumping into one of the deepest of them from off a +wooded island and my reputation will be fixed forever." An old lady, +whose guest he was, down in the country, told how he was "gay, very +gay, and good looking, creating a great sensation, in a rich suit of +drab with laced ruffles and cocked hat." + +One of the boys he saw in the country he delighted to paint, and he +also grew so much attached to him that he took him to London and kept +him with him as his own son. That boy's name was Jack Hill and he did +not care for city life, nor maybe for Gainsborough's eccentricities, +so he ran away. He was found again and again, till one day he got away +for good, and never came back. + +All his later life Gainsborough was happy. His daughter, who had +married Fischer, the hautboy-player, came back home to live, and her +disorder was not bad enough to prevent her being a cause of great +happiness to her father. The other daughter never married. +Gainsborough says that he spent a thousand pounds a year, but he also +gave to everybody who asked of him, and to many who asked nothing, so +that he must have made a great deal of money during his lifetime, by +his art. It is said that the "Boy at the Stile" was bestowed on +Colonel Hamilton for his fine playing of a solo on the violin. A lady +who had done the artist some trifling service received twenty drawings +as a reward, which she pasted on the walls of her rooms without the +slightest idea of their value. + +Gainsborough got up early in the morning, but did not work more than +five hours. He liked his friends, his music, and his wife, and spent +much time with them. He was witty, and while he sketched pictures in +the evening, with his wife and daughters at his side, he kept them +laughing with his droll sayings. + +The last days of Gainsborough showed him to be a hero. He died of +cancer, and some time before he knew what his disease was he must have +suffered a great deal. There is a story that is very pathetic of a +dinner with his friends, Beaumont and Sheridan. Usually, he was the +gayest of the gay, but of late all his friends had noticed that gaiety +came to him with effort. Upon the night of this dinner, Sheridan had +been his wittiest, and had tried his hardest to make Gainsborough +cheer up, till finally, the artist, finding it impossible to get out +of his sad mood, asked Sheridan if he would leave the table and speak +with him alone. The two friends went out together. "Now don't laugh, +but listen," Gainsborough said; "I shall soon die. I know it; I feel +it. I have less time to live than my looks infer, but I do not fear +death. What oppresses my mind is this: I have many acquaintances, few +friends; and as I wish to have one worthy man to accompany me to the +grave, I am desirous of bespeaking you. Will you come? Aye or no!" At +that Sheridan, who was greatly shocked, tried to cheer him, but +Gainsborough would not return to the table, till he got the promise, +which of course Sheridan made. + +It was not very long after this that a famous trial took place--that +of Warren Hastings. It was in Westminster Hall, and Gainsborough went +to listen several times. On the last occasion, he became so interested +in what was happening that he did not notice a window open at his +back. After a little he said to a friend that he "felt something +inexpressibly cold" touch his neck. On his return home he told of the +strange feeling to his wife. Then he sent for a doctor, and there was +found a little swelling. The doctor said it was not serious and that +when the weather grew warmer it would disappear; but all the while +Gainsborough felt certain that it would mean his death. A short time +after that he told his sister that he knew himself to have a cancer, +and that was true. + +When he felt that he must die, he fell to thinking of many things in +the past, and wished to right certain mistakes of his behaviour as far +as possible. + +He sent to Sir Joshua Reynolds and asked him to come and see him, +since he could not go to see Sir Joshua. Reynolds went and then +Gainsborough told him of his regret that he had shown so much ill-will +and jealousy toward so great and worthy a rival. Reynolds was very +generous and tried to make Gainsborough understand that all was +forgiven and forgotten. He left his brother artist much relieved and +happier, and he afterward said: "The impression on my mind was that +his regret at losing life was principally the regret of leaving his +art." As Reynolds left the dying man's room, Gainsborough called after +him: "We are all going to heaven--and Van Dyck is of the company." + +He was buried in Kew Churchyard and the ceremonies were followed by +Reynolds and five of the Royal Academicians, who forgot all +Gainsborough's eccentricities of conduct toward them in their honest +grief over his death. He was one of the first three dozen original +members of the Royal Academy. + + PLATE--PORTRAIT OF MRS. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN + +This picture is now in the collection of Lord Rothschild, +London. Mrs. Sheridan was the loveliest lady of her time. She was the +daughter of Thomas Linley, and a singer. + +She came from a home which was called "a nest of nightingales," +because all in it were musicians. The father had a large family and +made up his mind to become the best musician of his time in his +locality in order to support them. He was successful, and in turn most +of his children became musicians. His lovely daughter, Eliza +(Mrs. Sheridan), he bound to himself as an apprentice and taught her +till she was twenty-one, insisting that she "serve out her time" to +him, that she might become a perfect singer. The story of this +beautiful lady seems to belong to the story of Gainsborough's portrait +and shall be told here. + +When she was a very little girl, no more than eight years old, she was +so beautiful that as she stood at the door of the pump room in Bath to +sell tickets for her father's concerts, everyone bought them from +her. When she was a very young woman her father engaged her to marry a +Mr. Long, sixty years old. She did not seem to mind what arrangements +her father made for her, but continued to sing and attend to her +business, till after the wedding gowns were all made and everything +ready for the marriage, when she happened to meet the brilliant +Richard Brinsley Sheridan, whose plays were so fashionable, and she +fell deeply in love with him. She told Mr. Long she would not marry +him, and without much objection he gave her up, but her father was +very angry and he threatened to sue Mr. Long for letting his daughter +go. Then the beautiful lady ran away to Calais and married +Mr. Sheridan without her father's permission; but she came home again +and said nothing of what she had done, kept on singing and helping her +father earn money for his family. One day, Mr. Sheridan was wounded in +a duel which he had fought with one of his wife's admirers, and when +she heard the news she screamed, "my husband, my husband," so that +everybody knew she was married to the fascinating playwright. Sheridan +for some reason did not at once come and get her, nor arrange for them +to have a home together. For a good while she continued to sing; and +once hearing her in oratorio, Sheridan fell in love with his wife all +over again. He took her from her home and would never let her sing +again in public. They remarried publicly and went to live in +London. He was not at all a rich and famous man at that time--only a +poor law-student--but he would not let his wife make the fortune she +might easily have made, by singing. + +This must have made his beautiful wife very sad, but she made no +complaint at giving up her music and letting him silence her lovely +voice, but turned all her attention to advancing his fortunes. She +worked for him even harder than she had for her father, and that was +saying a great deal. When he became a great writer of plays his wife +took charge of all the accounts of his Drury Lane Theatre, and when he +was in the House of Commons she acted as his secretary. Sheridan died +in great poverty and wretchedness, and it is believed had his +self-sacrificing wife not died before him she would have looked after +his affairs so well that he would not have lost his fortune. +Gainsborough painted the portraits of Sheridan's father-in-law, and of +Samuel Linley; and it was said that this last portrait was painted in +forty-eight minutes. Among his other portraits are: eight of George +III., Sir John Skynner, Admiral Hood, Colonel St. Leger, and "The Blue +Boy"; but he was first and last a landscape painter of highest genius. + + + + +XVI + +JEAN LEON GEROME + + + (Pronounced Zhahn Lay'on Zhay-rome) + _French, Semi-classical School_ + 1824-1904 + _Pupil of Delaroche_ + +One cannot write much more than the date of birth and death of a man +who lived until three or four years of the time of writing, so we may +only say that Gerome was one of the most brilliant of modern French +painters. He was born at Vesoul and his father was a goldsmith. Thus +he probably had no very great difficulty in getting a start in his +work. The prejudice against having an artist in the family was dying +out, and as a prosperous goldsmith we may believe that his father had +means enough to give his son good opportunities. + +Gerome, like Millet, studied under Delaroche, but became no such +characteristic painter as he. While studying with Delaroche he also +was taking the course in l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts. + +His first exhibited picture was "The Cock Fight," and he won a third +class medal by it. + +Almost always this painter has chosen his subjects from ancient or +classic life, and his pictures are not always decent, but he painted +with much care, the details of his work are very finely done and their +vivid colour is fascinating. + + PLATE--THE SWORD DANCE + +This painting may be seen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New +York City. The scene is full of action and interest, but perhaps the +details of dress, mosaic decoration upon the walls, patterns of the +rugs, the coloured and jewelled lamps and windows are the most +splendidly painted of all. + +The central figure is a dancing girl, only partly draped, balancing a +sword on her head, while a brilliant green veil flies from head and +face. Other Oriental women squat upon the floor watching her with a +half indolent expression, while their Oriental masters and their +friends sit in pomp at one side, absorbed in the dance and in the +girl. The expressions upon all the faces are excellent and, the +jewelled light that falls upon the group, the rich clothing, the grace +of the dancer--all make a fascinating picture of a genre type. Other +Geromes are "Daphnis and Chloe," "Leda," and "The Duel after the +Masked Ball." + + + + +XVII + +GHIRLANDAJO + + + (Pronounced Geer-lan-da'yo) + _Florentine School_ + 1449-1494 + _Pupil of Fra Bartolommeo_ + +It is a good deal of a name--Domenico di Tommaso di Currado +Bigordi--and it would appear that the child who bore it was under +obligation to become a good deal of a something before he died. + +Italian and Spanish painters generally had large names to live up to, +and the one known as Ghirlandajo did nobly. + +His father was a goldsmith and a popular part of his work was the +making of golden garlands for the hair of rich Italian ladies. His +work was so beautiful that it gained for him the name of Ghirlandajo, +meaning the garland-twiner, a name that lived after him, in the great +art of his son. Domenico began as a worker in mosaic, a maker of +pictures or designs with many coloured pieces of glass or stone. + +Ghirlandajo's art was no improvement on that of his teacher, but he in +turn became the teacher of Michael Angelo. + +The Florentine school of painting, to which Ghirlandajo belonged, was +not so famous for colour as the Venetian school, but it had many other +elements to commend it. One cannot expect Ghirlandajo to rank with +Titian, Rubens, or other "colourists" of his own and later periods, +but he did the very best work of his day and school. He attained to +fame through his choice of types of faces for his models, and by his +excellent grouping of figures. + +Until his day, the faces introduced into paintings were likely to be +unattractive, but he chose pleasing ones, and he painted the folds of +garments beautifully. He was not entirely original in his ideas, but +he carried out those which others had thus far failed to make +interesting. + +Often, in his wish to paint exactly what he saw, he softened nothing +and therefore his figures were repulsive, but Fra Bartolommeo's pupil +gave promise of what Michael Angelo was to fulfill. + +Ghirlandajo and Michael Angelo were a good deal alike in their +emotional natures. Both sought great spaces in which to paint, and +both chose to paint great frescoes. Indeed Ghirlandajo had the +extraordinary ambition to put frescoes on all the fortification walls +about Florence. It certainly would have made the city a great picture +gallery to have had its walls forever hung with the pictures of one +master. Had he painted them, inside and out, when such an enemy as +Napoleon came along, with his love of art, and his fashion of taking +all that he saw to Paris, he would likely enough have camped outside +the walls while he decided what part of the gallery he would transfer +to the Louvre. + +One of the reasons that Ghirlandajo is famous is that he often chose +well known personages for his models, and as he painted just what he +saw, did not idealise his subject, he gave to the world amazing +portraits, as well as fine paintings. The same thing was done by +painters of a far different school, at another period. The Dutch and +Flemish painters were in the habit of using their neighbours as +models. + +Ghirlandajo is classed among religious painters, but let us compare +some of his "religious" paintings with those of Raphael or Murillo, +and see the result. + +He painted seven frescos on the walls of the Santa Maria Novella in +Florence, all scenes of Biblical history, as Ghirlandajo imagined +them. They show him to have been a fine artist, but to have had not +much idea of history, and to have had little sense of fitness. + +Ghirlandajo's seven subjects are taken from legends of the Virgin, and +the greatest represents Mary's visit to Elizabeth; it is called "The +Visitation," and it is a fresco about eighteen feet long painted on +the choir wall. + +Let us imagine the possible scene. The Virgin Mary came from Cana, a +little town in Galilee placed in the hills about nine miles from +Nazareth, the home of the lowliest and the poorest, of a kindly +pastoral people living in the open air, needing and wanting very +little, simple in their habits. Elizabeth, Mary's old cousin, lived in +Judea, and St. Luke writes thus: "Mary arose in those days and went +into the hill country with haste, into a city of Judea; and entered +into the house of Zacharias" (Elizabeth's husband) "and saluted +Elizabeth." + +This record had been made at least eleven hundred years before +Ghirlandajo painted in the Santa Maria Novella, and from it one cannot +imagine that Mary made any preparation for her journey, nor does it +suggest that Elizabeth had any chance to arrange a reception for +her. Even had she done so, it must have been of the simplest +description, at that time among those people. One can imagine a lowly +home; an aged woman coming out to meet her young relative either at +her door or in the high road. + +There may have been surroundings of fruit and flowers, a stretch of +highroad or a hospitable doorway; but the wildest imagination could +not picture what Ghirlandajo did. + +He paints Elizabeth flanked with handmaidens, as if she were some +royal personage, instead of a priest's wife in fairly comfortable +circumstances where comfort was easily obtained. Mary appears to be +escorted by ladies-in-waiting, hardly a likely circumstance since she +was affianced to no richer or more important person than a carpenter +of Galilee. Possibly the three ladies that stand behind Mary in, the +picture are merely lookers-on, but in that case the visit of Mary +would seem to have been of public importance, especially as there are +youths near by who are also much interested in one woman's hasty visit +to another. The rich brocades worn by Elizabeth's waiting ladies are +splendid indeed and the landscape is fine--a rich Italian landscape +with architecture of the most up-to-date sort--showing, in short, that +the artist lacked historical imagination. He found some models, made a +purely decorative painting with an Italian setting and called it "The +Visitation." The doorway on the right is distinctly renaissance. + +Such a painting as this is not "religious," nor is it historic, nor +does it suggest a subject; it is merely a fine picture better coloured +than most of those of the Florentine school. There is another painting +of this same subject by Ghirlandajo in the Louvre, but it is no nearer +truth than the one in the Santa Maria. + +Ghirlandajo painted other than religious subjects, and one of them, at +least, is quite repulsive. It is the picture of an old man, with a +beautiful little child embracing him. The old man may have tenderness +and love in his face, but his heavy features, his warty nose, do not +make one think of pleasant things and one does not care to imagine the +dear little child kissing the grotesque old fellow. + +It was before Ghirlandajo's time that another painter had discovered +the use of oil in mixing paints. Previously colours had been mixed in +water with some gelatinous substance, such as the white and yolk of an +egg, to give the paint a proper texture or consistency. This +preparation was called "distemper," and frescoes were made by using +this upon plaster while it was still wet. Plaster and colours dried +together, and the painting became a part of the wall, not to be +removed except by taking the plaster with it. + +The different gluey substances used had often the effect of making the +colours lose their tone and they presented a glazed surface when used +upon wood, a favourite material with artists. + +There are numberless anecdotes written of this artist and his brother, +and one of these shows he had a temper. The brothers were engaged in a +monastery at Passignano painting a picture of the "Last Supper." While +at work upon it, they lived in the house. The coarse fare did not suit +Ghirlandajo, and one night he could endure it no longer. Springing +from his seat in the refectory he flung the soup all over the monk who +had served it, and taking a great loaf of bread he beat him with it so +hard that the poor monk was carried to his cell, nearly dead. The +abbot had gone to bed, but hearing the rumpus he thought it was +nothing less than the roof falling in, and he hurried to the room +where he found the brothers still raging over their dinner. David +shouted out to him, when the abbot tried to reprove the artist, that +his brother was worth more than any "pig of an abbot who ever lived!" + +It is recorded in the documents found in the Confraternity of St. Paul +that: + +Domenico de Ghurrado Bighordi, painter, called del Grillandaio, died +on Saturday morning, on the 11th day of January, 1493 (o.s.), of a +pestilential fever, and the overseers allowed no one to see the dead +man, and would not have him buried by day. So he was buried, in Santa +Maria Novella, on Saturday night after sunset, and may God forgive +him! This was a very great loss for he was highly esteemed for his +many qualities, and is universally lamented. + +The artist left nine children behind him. + +Ghirlandajo's pictures may be found in the Louvre, the Berlin Museum, +the Dresden, Munich, and London galleries. Most children will find it +hard to see their beauty. + +Great men are likely to come in groups, and with Ghirlandajo there are +associated Botticelli and Fra Filippo Lippi. + + PLATE--PORTRAIT OF GIOVANNA DEGLI ALBIZI + +This lovely lady was the wife of one of the painter's patrons, +Giovanni Tornabuoni, through whom he received the commission for a +series of frescoes in the choir of the Santa Maria Novella, +Florence. The subjects chosen were sacred, but since Ghirlandajo, no +more than his neighbours, knew what the Virgin or her contemporaries +looked like, he saw no reason why he should not compliment some of the +great ones of his own city and his own time by painting them in to +represent the different characters of Holy Writ. So, as one of the +ladies attendant upon Elizabeth when Mary comes to visit her, we have +this signora of the fifteenth century. The artist made another picture +of her, the one here shown, but in the same dress and posed the same +as she had been for the church fresco. This accounts for its dignity +and simplicity. It would seem like a bas-relief cut out of marble were +it not for its wonderful colouring. It is in the Rudolf Kann +Collection, Paris. This artist's other pictures are "Adoration of the +Shepherds," "Adoration of the Magi," "Madonna and Child with Saints," +"Three Saints and God the Father," "Coronation of the Virgin," and +"Portrait of Old Man and Boy." + + + + +XVIII + +GIOTTO (DI BORDONE) + + + (Pronounced Jot-to) + _Florentine School_ + 1276-1337 + _Pupil of Cimabue_ + +Giotto painted upon wood, and in "distemper"--the mixture of colour +with egg or some other jelly-like substance. We know nothing of his +childhood except that he was a shepherd, as we learn from a story told +of him and his teacher, Cimabue. + +The story runs that one day while Giotto was watching his sheep, high +up on a mountain, Cimabue was walking abroad to study nature, and he +ran across a shepherd boy who was drawing the figure of a sheep, with +a piece of slate upon a stone. In those days we can imagine how rare +it was to find one who could draw anything, ever so rudely. +Immediately Cimabue saw a chance to make an artist and he asked the +little shepherd if he would like to be taught art in his studio. +Giotto was overjoyed at the opportunity, and at once he left the +mountains for the town, the shepherd's crook for the brush. + +In those days the studio of one like Cimabue was really a workshop. +Artists had to grind their own colours, prepare their own panels upon +which to paint, and do a hundred other things of a workman rather than +an artist kind in connection with their painting. Such a studio was +crowded with apprentices--boys who did these jobs while learning from +the master. Their teaching consisted in watching the artist and now +and then receiving advice from him. + +It was into such a shop as this, in Florence, that Giotto went, and +soon he was to become greater than his master. Even so, we cannot +think him great, excepting for his time, because his pictures, +compared with later art, are crude, stiff, and strange. + +No pupil was permitted to use a brush till he had learned all the +craft of colour grinding and the like, and this was supposed to take +about six years. These workshops were likely to be dull, gloomy +places, and only a strong desire to do such things as they saw their +master doing, would induce a boy to persevere through the first +drudgery of the work. Giotto persevered, and not only became an +original painter, at a time when even Cimabue hardly made figures +appear human in outline, but he designed the great Campanile in +Florence, and he saw it partly finished before he died. The Campanile +is a wonder of architecture, but Giotto's Madonnas had to be improved +upon, as certainly as he had improved upon those of Cimabue. + +There are many amusing stories of Giotto, mainly telling of his good +nature, and his ugly appearance, which everyone forgot in appreciation +of his truly kind heart. Once a visit was made to his studio by the +King of Naples, after the artist had become famous. Giotto was +painting busily, though the day was very hot. The King entered, and +bade Giotto not to be disturbed but to continue his work, adding: +"Still, if I were you, I should not paint in such hot weather." Giotto +looked up with a laugh in his eye: "Neither would I--if I were you, +Sire!" he answered. + +There is a famous saying: "As round as Giotto's "O," and this is how +it came about. The pope wanted the best of the Florentine artists to +do some work in Rome for him and he sent out to them for examples of +their work. When the pope's messenger came to Giotto the artist was +very busy. When asked for some of his work to show the pope, he +paused, snatched a piece of paper and with the brush he had been +using, which was full of red paint, he hurriedly drew a circle and +gave it to the messenger who stared at him. + +"But--is this _all_?" he asked. + +"All--yes--and too much. Put it with the others." This perfect circle +and the account the messenger gave of his visit so delighted the pope +that Giotto was chosen from all the Florentine artists to decorate the +Roman buildings. + +Thus Giotto worked till he was fifty-seven or eight years old when he +put aside his brush and turned to sculpture and architecture. Meantime +he had far outstripped his master in art. The arrangement of the +groups is about the same, but the figures look human and the draperies +are more natural, while he gives the appearance of length, breadth, +and thickness to his thrones and enclosures. We shall not choose a +Madonna for illustration, but another of Giotto's masterpieces, +remembering that good as he was in his time, he seems amazingly bad +compared with those who came after him. + + PLATE--THE MEETING OF ST. JOHN AND ST. ANNA AT JERUSALEM. + +In 1303 a certain Enrico Scrovegno had a private chapel built in the +Arena at Padua and he sent for Giotto to come there and adorn the +whole of its walls and ceiling with frescoes. These remain, though the +chapel is now emptied of all else, and they suffice to bring scores of +art-lovers to Padua. The picture here reproduced represents the +meeting and reconciliation between the father and mother of the Virgin +before her birth. The peculiarly shaped eyes and eyebrows that Giotto +gives to all his characters are specially noteworthy here as in every +one of the thirty-eight frescoes. There are three rows of pictures, +one above the other and in them are portrayed the principal scenes in +the lives of Christ and the Virgin. The painter here reached his +high-water mark, showed the very best he could produce in sincere, +restrained art. + + + + +XIX + +FRANZ HALS + + + _Dutch School_ + 1580-04-1666 + _Pupil of Karel Van Mander_ + +Franz Hals belonged to a family which for two hundred years had been +highly respected in Haarlem in the Netherlands. The father of the +painter left that town for political reasons in 1579, and it was at +Antwerp that Franz was born sometime between that date and 1585. His +parents took him back to Haarlem as an infant, and that is the town +with which his name and fame are most closely associated. + +Little is known of his early life except that he began his studies +with Karel Van Mander and Cornelis Cornelissen. What we know of his +family life is not to his credit. In the parish register of 1611 is +recorded the birth of a son to Franz Hals and five years later he is +on the public records for abusing his wife, who died shortly +afterward. He married again within a year and the second wife bore him +many children and survived him ten years. Five of his seven sons +became painters. + +Franz Hals drank too much and mixed too freely with the kind of +disreputable people he loved to paint, but he never became so degraded +that his hand lost its cunning, or his eye its keen vision for that +which he wished to portray. In 1644, he was made a director of the +Guild of St. Lucas, an institution for the protection of arts and +crafts in Haarlem, but from that time onward he sank in popular +esteem, deservedly. He fell into debt, then into pauperism, and when +he died, about the age of eighty-six, he was buried at public expense +in the choir of St. Bavon Church in Haarlem. + +It was in the year 1616 that Hals first became known as a master of +his art by the painting of the St. Jovis Shooting Company, one of the +clubs composed of volunteers banded together for the defence of the +town should occasion arise. Such guilds were common throughout +Holland, and they became a favourite subject with Hals, as with other +painters of the time, who vied with one another in portraiture of the +different members. These groups were hung upon the walls of the +chambers where meetings were held for social purposes in times of +peace. The men of highest rank are always given the most conspicuous +places in the pictures. The flag is generally the one bit of gorgeous +colour in the scene; but Franz Hals seized the opportunity to show his +wonderful skill in detail while painting the cuffs and ruffs worn by +these grandees. In all his work there is an impression of strength +rather than of beauty; it is the charm of expressiveness he is aiming +at, rather than the charm of grace and colour to which the Italian +school was devoted. He differed from that school, also, in his choice +of subjects, for he was distinctly and almost entirely a portrait +painter, and within his own limited range he is unsurpassed. A +wonderful collection of his works is to be seen in the Haarlem Town +Hall. + + PLATE--THE NURSE AND THE CHILD + +Considering the woeful life that Franz Hals led, it is amazing to +think that he of all artists is the best painter of good humour. He +puts a smile on the face of nearly every one of his "leading +characters," whether it be a modest young girl, a hideous old woman, a +strolling musician, or a riotous soldier, and in every case the laugh +suits the subject. It may have been his own easygoing shiftlessness, +his way of casting care aside with a jest that enabled him to live so +long and to accomplish so much in spite of his poverty and other +misfortunes. + +The roguish look upon the face of this baby of the house of Ilpenstein +makes it appear older than the pleasant faced nurse. The dress of the +child is such as Hals delighted to spend his talents upon. The picture +is in the Berlin Gallery. + +Among his best known paintings are "The Laughing Cavalier," "The +Fool," "The Man with the Sword," and "Hille Bobbe. the Witch of +Haarlem." + + + + +XX + +MEYNDERT HOBBEMA + + + _Dutch School_ + 1637-1709 + _Pupil of Jacob van Ruisdael_ + +When a man becomes famous many people claim his acquaintance, and +often many places his birthplace. In Hobbema's case it has never been +decided whether he was born in the little town of Koeverdam, or in the +city of Haarlem or in Amsterdam. Nor is it quite certain when he was +born; but what he did afterward, we are all acquainted with. + +No one knows much about the life of this artist, but his master was +doubtless his uncle, van Ruisdael. Hobbema was dead a hundred years +before the world acknowledged his genius, thus he reaped no reward for +hard work and ambition. He, like Rembrandt, died in great poverty, and +with nearly the same surroundings. Rembrandt died forsaken in +Roosegraft Street, Amsterdam, and Hobbema died in the same +locality. We must speak chiefly about his work, since we know little +of his personality or affairs. + +If Bocklin's pictures seem to be composed of vertical lines, Hobbema's +are as startling in their positive vertical and horizontal lines +combined. We are not likely to find elevations or gentle, gradual +depressions in his landscapes, but straight horizons, long trunked, +straight limbed trees; and the landscape seems to be punctured here +and there by an upright house or a spire. It is startlingly beautiful, +and so characteristic that after seeing one or two of Hobbema's +pictures we are likely to know his work again wherever we may find it. + +Hobbema got at the soul of a landscape. It was as if one painted a +face that was dear to one, and not only made it a good likeness but +also painted the person as one felt him to be--all the tenderness, or +maybe all the sternness. + +It may be that Hobbema's failure to get money and honours, or at the +very least, kind recognition as a great artist, while he lived, +influenced his painting, and made him see mostly the sad side of +beauty, nor it is certain that his landscapes give one a strange +feeling of sadness and desolation, even when he paints a scene of +plenty and fulness. + +The French have made a phrase for his kind of work, _paysage +intime_--meaning the beloved country--the one best known. It is a fine +phrase, and it was first used to describe Rousseau's and Corot's work; +but it especially applies to Hobbema's. + +While this artist was not yet recognised, his uncle van Ruisdael was +known as a great artist. The family must have been rich in spirit that +gave so much genius to the world. Hobbema certainly loved his art +above all things, for he had no return during his lifetime, save what +was given by the joy of work. There are those who complain that +Hobbema was a poor colourist. True, he used little besides grays and a +peculiar green, which seemed especially to please him; but since that +colouring belonged to the subjects he chose, one cannot complain on +the ground that what he did was unsatisfying. For lack of knowledge +about him we can think of him as a man of moods, sad, desolate ones at +that; because his work is too extreme and uniform in its character for +us to believe his method was affected. + + PLATE--THE AVENUE, MIDDELHARNIS, HOLLAND + +This perhaps is one of the most characteristic of Hobbema's +pictures. Note a strange hopelessness in the scene, as well as +beauty. The tall and solemn trees, the high light upon the road, +suggesting to us all sorts of joys struggling through the +cheerlessness of life. What other artist would have chosen such a +corner of nature for a subject to paint? To quote a fine description: + +"He loved the country-side, studied it as a lover, and has depicted it +with such intimacy of truth that the road to Middelharnis seems as +real to-day as it did over a hundred years ago to the artist. We see +the poplars, with their lopped stems, lifting their bushy tops against +that wide, high sky which floats over a flat country, full of billowy +clouds as the sky near the North Sea is apt to be. Deep ditches skirt +the road, which drain and collect the water for purposes of +irrigation, and later on will join some deeper, wider canal, for +purposes of navigation. We get a glimpse on the right, of patient +perfection of gardening, where a man is pruning his grafted fruit +trees; farther on a group of substantial farm buildings. On the +opposite side of the road stretches a long, flat meadow, or "polder," +up to the little village which nestles so snugly around its tall +church tower; the latter fulfilling also the purpose of a beacon, lit +by night, to guide the wayfarer on sea and land; scene of tireless +industry, comfortable prosperity, and smiling peace. ... Pride and +love of country breathe through the whole scene. To many of us the +picture smiles less than it thrills with sadness. Perhaps it speaks +thus only to those who find a kind of hurt in the revival of the +spring, which promises so much and may fulfill so little." + +Hobbema's "Watermill" is very well-known and so are his "Wooded +Landscape," and "Haarlem's Little Forest." + + + + +XXI + +WILLIAM HOGARTH + + + _School of Hogarth (English)_ + 1697-1764 + +William Hogarth, like Watteau, originated his own school; in short +there never was anybody like him. He was an editorial writer in +charcoal and paint, or in other words he had a story to tell every +time he made a picture, and there was an argument in it, a right and a +wrong, and he presented his point of view by making pictures. + +English artists in literature and in painting have done some great +reformatory work. Charles Dickens overthrew some dreadful abuses by +writing certain novels. The one which has most interest for children +is the awful story of Dotheboys' Hall, which exposed the ill treatment +of pupils in a certain class of English schools. What Dickens and +Charles Reade did in literature, Hogarth undertook to do in +painting. He described social shams; painted things as they were, thus +making many people ashamed and possibly better. + +Italians had always painted saints and Madonnas, but Hogarth pretended +to despise that sort of work, and painted only human beings. He did +not really despise Raphael, Titian, and their brother artists, but he +was so disgusted with the use that had been made of them and their +schools of art, to the entire exclusion of more familiar subjects, +that he turned satirist and ridiculed everything. + +First of all, Hogarth was an engraver. He was born in London on the +10th December, 1697, and eighteen days later was baptised in the +church of St. Bartholemew the Great. His father was a school teacher +and a "literary hack," which means that in literature he did whatever +he could find to do, reporting, editing, and so on. + +Hogarth must early have known something of vagabond life, for his +father's life during his own youth must have brought him into +association with all sorts of people. He knew how madhouses were run, +how kings dined, how beggars slept in goods boxes, and many other +useful items. + +Hogarth said of himself: "Shows of all sorts gave me uncommon pleasure +when an infant, and mimicry, common to all children, was remarkable in +me.... My exercises, when at school, were more remarkable for the +ornaments which adorned them, than for the exercises themselves." He +became an engraver or silver-plater, being apprenticed to Mr. Ellis +Gamble, at the sign of the "Golden Angel," Cranbourne Alley, Leicester +Fields. + +Engraving on silver plate was all well enough, but Hogarth aspired to +become an engraver on copper, and he has said that this was about the +highest ambition he had while he was in Cranbourne Alley. + +The shop-card which he engraved for Mr. Ellis Gamble may have been the +first significant piece of work he undertook. The card is still among +the Hogarth relics. He set up as an engraver on his own account, +though he did study a little in Sir James Thornhill's art school; but +whatever he learned he turned to characteristic account. + +He continued to make shop-cards, shop-bills, and book-plates. Finally, +in 1727, a maker of tapestry engaged Hogarth to sketch him a design +end he set to work ambitiously He worked throughout that year upon the +design, but when he took it to the man it was refused. The truth was +that the man who had commissioned the work had heard that Hogarth was +"an engraver and no painter," and he had so little intelligence that +he did not intend to accept his design, however much it might have +pleased him. Hogarth sued the man for his refusal and he won the +suit. He next began to make what he called "conversation pieces," +little paintings about a foot high of groups of people, the figures +being all portraits. These were very fashionable for a time and made +some money for the artist. Both he and Watteau were fond of the stage, +and both painted scenes from operas and plays. + +In time he moved into lodgings at the "Golden Head," in Leicester +Fields, and there he made his home. He had already begun the great +paintings which were to make him famous among artists. These were a +series of pictures, telling stories of fashionable and other life. His +own story of how he came to think of the picture series was that he +had always wished to present dramatic stories--present them in scenes +as he saw them on the stage. + +He had married the daughter of Sir James Thornhill, and had never been +thought of kindly by his father-in-law till he made so much stir with +his first series. Then Sir James approved of him, and Hogarth found +life more pleasing. + +There are very few anecdotes to tell of the artist's life, and the +story of his pictures is much more amusing. One of his first satires +was made into a pantomime by Theophilus Gibber, and another person +made it into an opera. Many pamphlets and poems were written about it, +and finally china was painted with its scenes and figures. There was +as much to cry as to laugh over in Hogarth's pieces and that is what +made them so truly great. One of his great picture series was called +the "Rake's Progress" and it was a warning to all young men against +leading too gay a life. It showed the "Rake" at the beginning of his +misfortunes, gambling, and in the last reaping the reward of his +follies in a debtor's prison and the madhouse. There are eight +pictures in that set. + +In this series, especially in the fifth picture, there are +extraordinary proofs of Hogarth's completeness of ideas. Upon the wall +in the room wherein the "Rake" marries an old woman for her money, the +Ten Commandments are hung, all cracked, and the Creed also is cracked +and nearly smudged out; while the poor-box is covered with +cobwebs. The eight pictures brought to Hogarth only seventy guineas. + +One of his pictures was suggested to him by an incident which greatly +angered him. He had started for France on some errand of his own, and +was in the very act of sketching the old gate at Calais, when he was +arrested as a spy. Now Hogarth was a hard-headed Englishman, and when +he was hustled back to England without being given time for argument, +he was so enraged that he made his picture as grotesque as possible, +to the lasting chagrin of France. He painted the French soldiers as +the most absurd, thin little fellows imaginable, and that picture has +largely influenced people's idea of the French soldier all over the +English-speaking world. + +As Hogarth grew old he grew also a little bitter and revengeful toward +his enemies, often taking his revenge in the ordinary way of +belittling the people he disliked, in his paintings. + +Hogarth came before Reynolds or Gainsborough; in short, was the first +great English artist, and his chief power lay in being able instantly +to catch a fleeting expression, and to interpret it. An incident of +Hogarth's youth illustrates this. He had got into a row in a pot-house +with one of the hangers-on, and when someone struck the brawler over +the head with a pewter pot, there, in the midst of excitement and +rioting, Hogarth whipped out his pencil and hastily sketched the +expression of the chap who had been hit. + +Hogarth was friends with most of the theatre managers, and one of his +souvenirs was a gold pass given him by Tyers, the director of Vauxhall +Gardens, which entitled Hogarth and his family to entrance during +their lives. This was in return for some "passes," which Hogarth had +engraved for Tyer. + +Upon one occasion Hogarth set off with some companions for a trip to +the Isle of Sheppey. Incidentally Forest wrote a sketch of their +journey and Hogarth illustrated it. That work is to be found, +carefully preserved, in the British Museum. The repeated copying and +reproduction for sale of his pictures brought about the first effort +to protect his works of art by copyright. But it was not till he had +done the "Rake's Progress" that he was able to protect himself at all, +and even then not completely. + +Just before his death he was staying at Chiswick, but the day before +he died he was removed to his house in Leicester Fields. He was buried +in the Chiswick churchyard; and in that suburb of London may still be +seen his old house and a mulberry tree where he often sat amusing +children for whom he cared very much. Garrick wrote the following +epitaph for his tomb: + + If Genius fire thee, Reader, stay; + If Nature touch thee, drop a tear; + If neither move thee, turn away, + For Hogarth's honour'd dust lies here. + + Farewell, great Painter of Mankind! + Who reached the noblest point of art, + Whose pictured Morals charm the Mind + And through the Eye correct the Heart. + + PLATE--THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT + +The picture used in illustration here is part of probably the very +greatest art-sermon ever painted, called "Marriage a la Mode." The +story of it is worth telling: + +"The first act is laid in the drawing-room of the Viscount +Squanderfield"--is not that a fine name for the character? "On the +left, his lordship is seated, pointing with complacent pride to his +family tree, which has its roots in William the Conqueror. But his +rent roll had been squandered, the gouty foot suggesting whither some +of it has gone; and to restore his fortunes he is about to marry his +heir to the daughter of a rich alderman. The latter is seated +awkwardly at the table, holding the marriage contract duly sealed, +signed and delivered; the price paid for it, being shown by the pile +of money on the table and the bunch of cancelled mortgages which the +lawyer is presenting to the nobleman, who refuses to soil his elegant +fingers with them. Over on the left is his weakling son, helping +himself at this critical turn of his affairs, to a pinch of snuff +while he gazes admiringly at his own figure in the mirror. The lady is +equally indifferent; she has strung the ring on to her finger and is +toying with it, while she listens to the compliments being paid to her +by Counsellor Silver-tongue. Through an open window another lawyer is +comparing his lordship's new house, that is in the course of building, +with the plan in his hand. A marriage so begun could only end in +misery." This is the first act, and the pictures that follow show all +the steps of unhappiness which the couple take. There are five more +acts to that painted drama, which is in the National Gallery, London. + + + + +XXII + +HANS HOLBEIN, THE YOUNGER + + + (Pronounced Hahntz Hol'bine) + _German School_ + 1497-1543 + _Pupil of Holbein, the Elder_ + +There were three generations of painters in the Holbein family, and +the Hans of whom we speak was of the third. His grandfather was called +"old Holbein," and when more painters of the same name and family came +along it became necessary to distinguish them from each other thus: +"old Holbein," the "elder Holbein," and "young Holbein." The first one +was not much of an artist; still, in a locality where at best there +was not much art he was good enough to be remembered. + +"Young Holbein" was born in Augsburg, which is in Swabia, in southern +Germany; "elder Holbein" and his father, Michael, "old Holbein," had +moved there from Schonenfeld, a neighbouring village, about forty +three years before little Hans was born, the old Michael bringing his +family to the larger town where it was easier to make a living. + +The "elder Holbein" was a really good artist and well thought of in +Augsburg, and when little Hans's turn came he had no teacher but his +father, unless indeed we were to call him also a pupil of his elder +brother, Ambrosius. His uncle Sigismund, too, taught him something of +art, for the whole Holbein family seem to have been artists. Young +Holbein was never regularly apprenticed to any outsider. + +Art was not then taught as it is now. The work of a beginner was often +to paint for his master certain details which it was thought that he +might handle properly, while the master occupied himself with what he +thought to be some more important part of the picture. It is said that +Hans often painted the draperies of his father's figures when his +father was engaged upon the altar pieces so fashionable at the +time. The Holbeins one and all must have been bad managers or +improvident; at any rate, Hans did not turn out well as a man and we +read that his father was always in debt and difficulty although he +received much money for his work and was not handicapped, like Durer's +father, by a family of eighteen children. + +The story of the Holbeins is quite unlike that of the Durers, and not +nearly so attractive. + +Some time before Hans was twenty years of age, the entire family had +packed up and gone to live in Lucerne, while Hans and his brother, +Ambrosius, went travelling together, as most young Germans went at +that time before they settled down to the serious work of life. The +last we hear of Ambrosius he had joined the painters' guild in Basel, +and probably he died not long afterward, or at any rate while he was +still young. There was in Basel a certain Hans Bar, for whose wedding +occasion Hans Holbein designed a table, on which he pictured an +allegory of "St. Nobody." This was very likely such work as our +cartoonists do to-day, but being the work of Holbein, it had great +artistic value. Besides that, he painted a schoolmaster's sign to be +hung outside the door. + +As an illustrator, Holbein made the acquaintance of several authors +about that time and started on the high road to fame. He was a man of +very little conscience or fine feeling, and there could hardly be a +greater contrast than that between the clean sweet life of Durer and +the brawling, unfeeling one that Hans Holbein led. + +Durer married, had no children, but tenderly loved and cared for his +wife, taking her with him upon his journeys and making her happy. + +Holbein married and beat his wife; had several children and took care +of none of them. His wife grew to look old and worn while he remained +a gay looking sport, quite tired of one whom he had had on his hands +for ten years. He wandered everywhere and left his family to shift for +itself. One writer in speaking of the two men says: + +"Durer would never have deserted his wife whom he took with him even +on his journey to the Netherlands; and he was bound by the same +tenderness to his native town. However much he rejoiced to receive a +visit from Bellini at Venice, or when at Antwerp, the artists +instituted, a torch-light procession in his honour, nothing could have +moved him to leave Nuremberg." Durer loved his home; Holbein hated +his. + +Holbein had a cold, light-blue eye; Durer a soft and tender +glance. While Durer lived he was the mainstay of his family--father +and brothers. Holbein's father died in misery and his brother's life +was disastrous, Hans doing nothing to serve them and looking on at +their sufferings indifferently. + +There is a court document in existence which tells the particulars of +Hans Holbein's arrest for getting into a brawl with a lot of +goldsmiths' apprentices during a night of carousal. The court warned +him that he would be more severely punished if he did not cease his +lawless life and he was made to promise not to "jostle, pinch, nor +beat his lawful spouse." When he died he made no provision in his will +for his family. There is a picture of his wife, Elizabeth Schmidt, to +be seen in his "Madonna" at Solothurn Holbein used her for the +model. She then was young and blooming and the model for the child was +his own baby; at that time he found them useful. + +His life of folly can hardly be excused by impulsiveness or emotion, +for his pictures show little of either. He was best at portrait +painting. At that time guilds and town councils wanted the portraits +of their members preserved in some way, and it was the habit of +painters like Holbein to form picturesque groups and give to such +dramatic groupings the features of townsmen. Rembrandt did this much +later than Holbein, when he painted the "Night Watch," or as it is +more properly called, "The Sortie." + +Probably Holbein's first important work was to make title pages for +the second edition of Martin Luther's translation of the New +Testament. This MS. was made about the time that Holbein's work began +to be of interest to the public, and so the commission was given to +him. + +After a time this artist went to England with letters of introduction +to Sir Thomas More, Chancellor to King Henry VIII. Sir Thomas treated +him very kindly and set him to work making portraits of his own +family. During the time he was living at More's home in Chelsea, the +King himself, used frequently to visit there, and on one occasion he +saw the brilliant portraits of the More family and inquired about the +artist. Sir Thomas offered the King any of the pictures he liked, but +Henry VIII. asked to see the artist. When brought before him, +Holbein's fortune seemed to be made for the King asked him to go to +court and paint for him, remarking that "now he had the artist he did +not care about the pictures." + +Holbein seems to have been a favourite with Henry and many anecdotes +are told of his life at Whitehall, where he went to live. Once while +Holbein was engaged upon a portrait, a nobleman insisted upon entering +his studio, after the artist had told him that he was painting the +portrait of a lady, by order of the King. The nobleman insisted upon +seeing it, but Holbein seized him and threw him down the Stairs; then +he rushed to the King and told what had happened. He had no sooner +finished than the nobleman appeared and told his story. The King +blamed the nobleman for his rudeness. + +"You have not to do with Holbein," he said, "but with me. I tell you, +of seven peasants I can make seven lords, but of seven lords I cannot +make one Holbein. Begone! and remember that if you ever attempt to +avenge yourself, I shall look upon any injury offered to the painter +as done to myself." + +It was Holbein who, visiting a brother artist and finding a picture on +the easel, painted a fly upon it. When the artist returned he tried to +brush the fly off, then set about looking for the one who had deceived +him. + +His portrait painting was so superb that he received many commissions. + +Meantime, Sir Thomas More had fallen into disfavour with the King and +was to lose his head, but it is written that the artist's portraits +"betray nothing of this tragedy." He was as ready to climb to fame by +the favour of his generous patron's enemies as he had been to accept +the offices of Sir Thomas More. He painted the portraits of several of +the wives of Henry VIII., and it may be said that there was a good +deal of that monarch's temperament to be found in Holbein +himself. Take him all in all, Hans was as detestable as a man as he +was excellent as a painter. + +In his adopted home in Lucerne, Holbein had painted frescoes, both on +the inside and the outside of a citizen's house, and this house stood +until 1824, when it was torn down to make way for street improvements, +but several artists hastily copied the frescoes so that they are not +entirely lost. + +Before he left Germany for England, Holbein had been commissioned to +decorate the town hall in Basel, and a certain amount of money was +voted for the work, but after he had finished three walls, he decided +that the money was only enough to pay him for what he had already +done. The councillors agreed with him, but as money was a little +"close" in Basel at that time, they felt unable to give him more, and +so voted to "let the back wall alone, till further notice." + +He painted one Madonna whom he surrounded with the entire family of +Burgomaster Meyer, including even the burgomaster's first wife, who +was dead. This work is called the "Meyer Madonna." + +It is said that after Holbein's return to Basel he, with others, was +persecuted for his "religious principles," but if this were true, his +persecutors went to considerable pains for nothing, because Holbein +was never known to have any sort of principles, religious or +otherwise. He was neither a Protestant, nor a Catholic but a painter, +a man without convictions and without thought. He did not care for +family, country, friends, politics, religion, nor for anything else, +so far as any one knows. + +When he was asked why he had not partaken of the Sacrament, he +answered that he wanted to understand the matter better before he did +so. Thus he escaped punishment, and when matters were explained to +him, he did whatever seemed safest and most convenient under the +circumstances. + +On his return to England, he settled among the colony of German and +Netherland merchants, who were in the habit of meeting at a place +called "The Steelyard," as their home and warehouses were grouped in +that locality, with a guild hall and a wineshop they alone patronised. + +While associated with his compatriots Holbein made portraits of many +of them, and these are magnificent works of art. He painted them +separately or in groups; in their offices and in their guild hall, as +the case might be. The men whom he thus painted were: Gorg Gisze, Hans +of Antwerp, Derich Berck, Geryck Tybis, Ambrose Fallen, and many +others. He designed the arch which the guild erected upon the occasion +of Anne Boleyn's coronation, and he painted Henry's next Queen, Jane +Seymour. + +Holbein painted many portraits of Henry VIII. and probably all those +dated after 1537 were either copies or founded upon the portrait which +Holbein made and which was destroyed with Whitehall. + +While he painted for Henry, Holbein received a sort of retainer's fee +of thirty pounds a year, but he may have received sums for outside +commissions which he undertook. On one occasion, when he took a +journey to Upper Burgundy to paint a portrait of the Duchess whom +Henry contemplated making his next wife, the King gave him ten pounds +out of his own purse. We have no record of vast sums such as Raphael +received. + +Henry did not succeed in making the Duchess his wife, so Holbein was +sent to paint another--Anne of Cleves--that Henry might see what he +thought of her before he undertook to make her his queen. Holbein did +a disastrous deed, for he made Anne a very acceptable looking woman, +(the portrait hangs in the Louvre) and Henry negotiated for her on the +strength of that portrait. Later, when he saw her, he was utterly +disgusted and disappointed. + +Holbein, notwithstanding this trick, was employed to paint the next +wife of Henry, and doubtless he also made the miniature of Catherine +Howard which is in Windsor Castle. Holbein finally died of the plague +and no one knows where he was buried. His wife died later, and it was +left for his son, Philip, who was said to be "a good well-behaved +lad," to bring honours to the family. He was apprenticed in Paris, +and, settling later in Augsburg, he founded a branch of the Holbein +family on which the Emperor Matthias conferred a patent of nobility, +making them the Holbeins of Holbeinsberg. + + PLATE--ROBERT CHESEMAN WITH HIS FALCON + +This is one of the best of the many splendid portraits Holbein +painted. It hangs in The Hague gallery. The gentleman was forty-eight +years old and in the portrait he wears a purplish-red doublet of silk +and a black overcoat, which was the fashion of the day, all trimmed +with fur. He has curly hair, just turning gray. His left hand is +gloved and on it he holds his falcon, while with the other hand he +strokes its feathers. + +Of all sports at that time, falconry was the most fashionable and +every fine gentleman had his sporting birds. Robert Cheseman lived in +Essex. He was rich and a leader in English politics. His father was +"keeper of the wardrobe to Henry VIII." and he himself served in many +public offices. He was one of the gentleman chosen to welcome Anne of +Cleves when she landed on English soil to marry Henry VIII. These +details were first published by Mr. Arthur Chamberlain and are taken +from his sketch of Holbein and his works. + +Among Holbein's other famous pictures are: "The Ambassadors," "Hans of +Antwerp," "Christina of Denmark," "Jane Seymour," "Anne of Cleves," +and "St. George and the Dragon." + + + + + +XXIII + +WILLIAM HOLMAN HUNT + + + _English (Pre-Raphaelite) School_ + 1827-- + _Pupil of Academy School_ + +The story of the Pre-Raphaelites is all by itself a story of +art. Holman Hunt was one of three who formed this "brotherhood"; and +he, with one other, are the only ones whom some of us think worthy of +giving a place in art. This is to be the story of the brotherhood +rather than a story of one man. + +The last great artist England had had before this extraordinary group, +was J. M. W. Turner, truly a wonderful man, but after him England's +painters became more and more commonplace, drawing further and further +away from truth, There was one, J. F. Lewis, who went away to Syria +and lived a lonely and studious life, trying to paint with fidelity +sacred scenes, but he was not great enough to do what his conscience +and desires demanded of him; and, finally, Constable declared that the +end of art in England had come. But it had not, for up in London, in +the very heart of the city, in Cheapside (Wood Street) there was born, +in April, 1827, a child destined to be a brilliant and wonderful man, +who was actually to rescue English art from death. Many do not think +thus, but enough of us do to warrant the statement. + +The new artist was Holman Hunt. He was the son of a London +warehouseman, with no inclination whatever for learning, so that it +seemed simply a waste of time to send him to school. This continually +repeated history of artists who seem to know nothing outside their +brushes and colours, is astonishing, but it is true that artists for +the most part must be regarded as artists, pure and simple, and not as +men of even reasonably good intellectual attainments, and more or less +this accounts for their low estate centuries ago. One does not +associate "learning" and the artist. When we have such splendid +examples as Durer and two or three others we discuss their +intellectuality because they are so unusual. + +Holman Hunt was like most of his brother artists in all but his +art. He hated school and at twelve years of age was taken from it. His +father wanted him to become a warehouse merchant like himself, and he +began life as clerk or apprentice to an auctioneer. He next went into +the employment of some calico-printers of Manchester. The designing of +calicoes can hardly be called art, even if the department of design +had fallen to Holman Hunt's lot and we have no evidence that it did, +but he started to be an artist nevertheless, there in the +print-shop. He found in his new place another clerk who cared for art; +and this sympathy encouraged him to fix his mind upon painting more +than ever. He used to draw such natural flies upon the window panes +that his employer tried one day to "shoo away a whole colony of flies +that seemed miraculously to have settled." This gave the clerks much +amusement, and also attracted attention to Holman Hunt's genius. + +His very small salary was spent, not on his support, but in lessons +from a portrait painter of the city. His parents did not like this, +but they could not help themselves, and thus this greatest of the +Pre-Raphaelites began his work. + +The Pre-Raphaelites were a little group of men who believed that +artists were drawing too much on their imaginations, not painting +things as they saw them, and that the painter had become incapable of +close observation. He worked in his studio, did not get near enough to +nature, and instead of trying to follow along this line, this group of +men, with their new and partly correct ideas, meant to go back further +than the great masters themselves and present an elemental art. This +was a part of their scheme and partly it was justified, but of all the +men who undertook to make a new school, Holman Hunt was the only one +who remained, and will remain forever, a representative. He alone +stuck to the original purpose of the group and developed it into a +truly great school; so that it is he alone we need to know. + +After he began to take lessons of the portrait painter in London, he +developed so quickly that he found by painting portraits three days a +week, he could pay his own expenses, and the rest of the time he +devoted to study. He tried to be admitted to the Academy schools twice +and was twice refused before they would receive him. + +It was there in the Academy the three original Pre-Raphaelites met for +the first time; they were Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and +Millais. After entering the school Hunt painted and sold four +excellent pictures, but they all seem to have been lost; nobody can +trace them. He was not yet a "Pre-Raphaelite." + +All this time Hunt was half ill because he knew that he was grieving +his father of whom he was devotedly fond, and the strain of trying to +work while he was unhappy nearly destroyed him. The pictures that he +exhibited at the Royal Academy were so poor that the commission +declared they should not only be removed but that Hunt ought really to +be forbidden to exhibit any more. This must have been a great blow to +the young and struggling artist, and to add to this trouble, his +father was being jeered at for having such a good-for-nothing +son. Hunt's pictures in the Academy were so much despised that his +father was told his son was a disgrace to him, and we may be sure that +did not help the young fellow, who meantime was earning a living, not +by painting pictures, but by cleaning up those of another man. Dyce, +who had painted on the walls of Trinity House, engaged him to clean +and restore those paintings, and Hunt was doing this for his bread and +butter. + +At that time he became so downhearted and discouraged that he almost +decided to leave England altogether and go to live in Canada away from +his friends who jeered, and his family who reproached him; but just +then Millais, one of the successful painters whom he had met in the +Academy school, who could afford to be generous, came to Hunt's aid +and gave him the means of living while he painted "The Hireling +Shepherd." This was destined to be the turning point in Hunt's luck, +for that painting was properly hung at the exhibition, and it received +recognition. After that he painted a picture which he sold on the +installment plan--being paid by the purchaser so much a month. + +Meantime he owed his landlady a large sum, and he says himself that he +"suffered almost unbearable pain at passing her and her husband week +after week without being able to even talk of annulling his debts." In +time he not only settled that bill which distressed him, but paid back +his friend Millais the money loaned by him. + +Hunt rarely took a commission, because to do so meant that he must +paint a picture after the manner his employer wished, and Hunt had +certain ideas of art in which he believed and therefore would not bind +himself to depart from them; but after a little success, which enabled +him to pay his bills, he did undertake a commission from Sir Thomas +Fairbairn, and it was called "The Awakened Conscience." He finished +this picture on a January day late in the afternoon, and that very +night he left England, setting out upon a longed-for journey to the +Holy Land, where he meant to study the country and people till he +believed himself able to paint a truthful picture of sacred scenes. He +refused to paint pictures of Eastern Jews who should look like +Parisians, with Venetian backgrounds. He meant to paint Oriental +scenes as nearly as he could, as they might have taken place. + +He came back to his English home just two years and one month from the +time he had left it, and he brought back a picture of the goat upon +which the Jews loaded their sins and then turned loose in waste-places +to wander and die. "The Scapegoat" was a great picture, but before he +left England he had painted a greater--the one we see here--"The Light +of the World." + +He had depended upon the sale of the "Scapegoat" to pay his way for a +time after his return home, and alas, it did not sell. More than that, +his beloved father died and this added to his sense of desolation, for +he had not been sufficiently successful before his death to justify +himself in his father's eyes. These things so overwhelmed his +sensitive mind with trouble, that his condition became very serious, +and if certain good friends had not stood by him loyally, he would +probably never have painted again. + +He began at last another ambitious picture--"Finding of Christ in the +Temple"--but while he was engaged upon this, he had to paint mere +pot-boilers also in order to get on at all, and he says that half the +time the great picture "stood with its face to the wall" while he was +trying merely to earn bread and butter. The wonderful Louis Blanc +tried once to plan a way by which all deserving people should have in +this world equal opportunity to try. This has never been "worked out." +It never will be, but Holman Hunt reminds us how much the world loses +by not providing that "equal opportunity." No one deserves more than +his chance; but such struggles of genius tell us that all is not fair. + +Hunt persevered with this Christ in the Temple and when finished he +sold it for 5,500 guineas--a larger sum than he had ever before been +given for a painting. + +He no sooner received his money for this great picture than off he +went once more to the Holy Land. He was conscientious in everything he +did, and never before had an artist painted scenes of Christ that +carried such a sense of truth with them. The set haloes seen about the +heads of the saints and of holy people even in Raphael's pictures and +in those of the very greatest artists of his time, disappeared with +Holman Hunt's coming. In the "Light of the World," the halo is an +accident--the great white moon, happening to rise behind the Christ's +head--and there we have the halo, simple, natural, only suggestive, +not artificial. Then, too, in the "Shadow of Death," there is a +menacing shadow of the cross--made upon the wall by Christ's body, as +he naturally stretches out his arms, after his work in the carpenter +shop. + +There is not one false note that shocks us, or makes us feel that +after all the story itself is affected and artificial. Everything that +is symbolical is brought about naturally. They are sincere, truthful +pictures that speak to the mind as well as to the eye. + +Hunt's colouring and many other technical matters are often far from +perfect, but there is something besides technicality to be considered +in judging a picture. + +For a time, while the three men, Hunt, Rossetti, and Millais, kept +together, their pictures were signed P. R. B., as a sign of their +league; but this did not last very long, and afterward Hunt signed his +pictures independently. + +After the "Brotherhood" had worked against the greatest +discouragements for a long time, and felt nearly hopeless of success, +John Ruskin, one of the greatest of critics and most fearless of men, +who was so much respected that his words had great influence, suddenly +published a defence of these Pre-Raphaelites. He declared that they +were the greatest artists of the time, and while scorning their +critics he applauded those three young men, till he turned the tide, +and everybody began to know what truly brilliant work they were +doing. Ruskin's words came, Hunt said, "as thunder out of a clear +sky." + +When the "Brotherhood" was formed the three young men thought they +should have a paper--a periodical of some sort, in which they might +tell of their purposes and express their ideas; and so Rossetti, who +wrote as well as painted, proposed that they print such a periodical +once a month, and call it the _Germ_; and the P. R. B's. were to be +joint proprietors. Rossetti had first thought of a different title, +_Thoughts Toward Nature_, and his brother, W. M. Rossetti, who was +going to take charge of the monthly, thought that expressed the +Pre-Raphaelites' idea; but it was finally agreed to call it the +_Germ_. Only two numbers could be published by the Pre-Raphaelites, +because nobody bought it and the young men's money gave out, but the +printers came to the rescue, and put up the money to issue two or +three more _Germs_. + +Although that journal failed utterly, its four numbers were worth +publishing, and are to-day worth reading. They were truly valuable, +for they contained a story and poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, besides +work of the other P. R. B's. + +Above all things Hunt was conscientious in his work, trying with all +his might to represent things as be believed them to be. When he made +his "Scapegoat," he went to the shores of the Dead Sea to paint, +accompanied only by Arab guides, and there he found the desolate, hard +landscape for his picture. The hardships he experienced were very +many. The wretched goat he took with him died in the desert of that +dreary place after it had been no more than sketched in, but back in +Jerusalem Hunt finished the goat. Ruskin's description of the picture +helps one to feel all the desolation of the subject: "The salt sand of +the wilderness of Ziph, where the weary goat is dying. The +neighbourhood is stagnant and pestiferous, polluted by the decaying +vegetables brought down by the Jordan in its floods, and the bones of +the beasts of burden that have died by the way of the sea, lie like +wrecks upon its edge, bared by the vultures and bleached by the salt +ooze." + +Even the superstitious Arabs would not go near the spot which Hunt +chose as the scene of his picture, but Hunt endured all things, +believing it due to his art. + +When he painted "Christ in the Temple," he needed Jewish models, and +it was almost impossible for him to get them. He could not let them +know what they were to represent, or they would not have sat for him +at all but he succeeded in painting the "first Semitic presentment of +the Semitic Scriptures." In Jerusalem the Jews heard that he had come +"to traffic with the souls of the faithful," and they forbade him to +have any Jews come into his studio; so that he could not finish the +picture there. Back in London he had to find his models in the Jewish +school. He left the figures of Christ and the Virgin till the last and +then painted them "from a lady of the ancient race, distinguished +alike for her amiability and beauty, and a lad in one of the Jewish +schools, to which the husband of the lady furnished a friendly +introduction." + +Thus, step by step, through the greatest difficulties, Holman Hunt +established a new school of painting--allegory with a modern treatment +which all could understand. + + PLATE--THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD + +This is the most popular picture of a sacred subject, ever painted; +and John Ruskin's description of it, here quoted, is the best ever +written or that can be written. "On the left of the picture is seen +the door of the human soul. It is fast barred, its bars and nails are +rusty; it is knitted and bound to its stanchions by creeping tendrils +of ivy, showing that it has never been opened. A bat hovers over it; +its threshold is overgrown with brambles, nettles and fruitless +corn.... Christ approaches in the night time, ... he wears the white +robe, representing the power of the Spirit upon Him; the jewelled robe +and breastplate, representing the sacredotal investitude; the rayed +crown of gold, interwoven with the crown of thorns; not dead thorns, +but now bearing soft leaves, for the healing of the nations.... The +lantern carried in Christ's left hand is the light of conscience.... +Its fire is red and fierce; it falls only on the closed door, on the +weeds that encumber it, and on an apple shaken from one of the trees +of the orchard, thus marking that the entire awakening of the +conscience is not to one's own guilt alone, but to the guilt of the +world, or, 'hereditary guilt.'... + +"This light is suspended by a chain, wrapt around the wrist of the +figure, showing that the light which reveals sin to the sinner appears +also to chain the hand of Christ. The light which proceeds from the +head of the figure--is that of the hope of salvation; it springs from +the crown of thorns, and, though itself sad, subdued and full of +softness, is yet so powerful, that it entirely melts into the glow of +it the forms of the leaves and boughs which it crosses, showing that +every earthly object must be hidden by this light, where its sphere +extends." + +If you will study every detail of this reproduction, finding all the +objects--the apple, the rusty bolts--noting how the full risen moon +has formed a natural nimbus for the sacred head, and then re-read what +Ruskin has said, you will discover the rarest truths in Holman Hunt's +picture. The several pictures which he painted, but which cannot now +be found are: "Hark!" which was first exhibited in the Royal Academy; +"Scene from Woodstock," "The Eve of St. Agnes," "Jerusalem by +Moonlight," "The King of Hearts," "Moonlight at Salerno," "Interior of +the Mosque of Omar," "The Pathless Water," "Winter," "Afternoon," +"Sussex Downs," "Penzance," "The Archipelago," "Will-o'-the-Wisp," +"Ivybridge," "The Foal of an Ass," "Road over the Downs," "The Haunt +of the Gazelle," "'Oh, Pearl,' Quoth I," "Miss Flamborough," "The +School-girl's Hymn." Portraits: Mr. Martineau; Mr. J. B. Brice. Small +sketch of the "Scapegoat," "Sunset on the Sea," "Morning Prayer," +"Bianca," "Past and Present," and "Dead Mallard." + +Should you ever find one of these pictures bearing the initials +P. R. B. or those of Holman Hunt, you will have made an interesting +discovery and should make it known to others. + + + + +XXIV + +GEORGE INNESS + + + _American_ + 1825-1897 + _Pupil of Regis Gignoux_ + +George Inness was destined to keep a grocery store as his father had +kept one before him, and had grown rich in it. When George was a young +man he was given a grocery store in Newark, New Jersey, a very small +store indeed, and it is not surprising that the young man preferred +art to butter and eggs. The Inness family had just moved from Newburg, +probably the elder Innes seeking in Newark a good location for his +son's beginning. + +The first art-work Inness did was engraving; as he had been +apprenticed to that business, but afterward he studied with Gignoux, a +pupil of Delaroche. + +At that time there was what is known as the Hudson River School. Its +ideas were set and formal, and not very inspiring, aside from the +subjects treated. Church was then a young man like Inness, and he was +studying in the Hudson River School, but the young grocer struck out a +line for himself. + +He was forty years old before he got to Paris, but once there, he +turned to the men at Barbizon--Rousseau, Millet, Corot, and the +rest--for inspiration, and began to do beautiful things +indeed. Rousseau became his friend, and the art of Inness grew large +and rich through such influences. + +Inness had inherited much religious feeling from his Scotch ancestors, +and all his work was conscientious, very carefully done. + +When Inness returned from Paris he was not yet well known. He went to +Montclair, New Jersey, to live and it was there that he did his best +work. Finally, after he was fifty years old, he became known as a +truly splendid painter. He loved best to paint quiet scenes of +morning, evening sunset, and the like. His pictures began to gain +value, and one that he had sold for three hundred dollars jumped in +price to ten thousand and more. His work is not equally good, because +his moods greatly influenced him. + + PLATE--BERKSHIRE HILLS + +This picture in the George A. Hearn collection is full of the sense of +restfulness that the works of this artist always convey. The trees are +as motionless as the distant hills, and if the oxen are moving at all +it is but slowly. + +Some other Inness paintings are the "Georgia Pines," "Sunset on the +Passaic," "The Wood Gatherers" and "After a Summer Shower." + + + + +XXV + +SIR EDWIN HENRY LANDSEER + + + _English School_ + 1802-1873 + _Pupil of his father, John Landseer_ + +It is pleasant to speak of one artist whose good work began in the +companionship of his father; the case of Edwin Landseer is most +unusual. + +His father was a skilful engraver who loved art, and encouraged the +cultivation of it in his son, as other fathers of painters encouraged +them to become priests or haberdashers or bakers, as the case might +be. Little Landseer's beginning has been described by his father as he +and a friend stood looking upon one of the scenes of his childhood: + +"These two fields were Edwin's first studio. Many a time have I lifted +him over this very stile. I then lived in Foley Street, and nearly all +the way between Marylebone and Hampstead was open fields. It was a +favourite walk with my boys; and one day when I had accompanied them, +Edwin stopped by this stile to admire some sheep and cows which were +quietly grazing. At his request I lifted him over, and finding a scrap +of paper and a pencil in my pocket, I made him sketch the cow. He was +very young indeed, then--not more than six or seven years old. + +"After this we came on several occasions, and as he grew older this +was one of his favourite spots for sketching. He would start off +alone, or with John (Thomas?) or Charles, and remain till I fetched +him in the afternoon. I would then criticise his work, and make him +correct defects before we left the spot. Sometimes he would sketch in +one field, sometimes in the other, but generally in the one beyond the +old oak we see there, as it was more pleasant and sunny." + +All the Landseer men were gifted, and the mother was the beautiful +woman whom Reynolds painted as a gleaner, carrying a bundle of wheat +upon her head. + +There were seven little Landseers, the oldest of them being Thomas, +the famous engraver, whose reproduction of his brother's works will +preserve them to us always, even after the originals are gone. The +first of Edwin's drawings which seemed to his family worthy of +publishing was a great St. Bernard dog, such a wonderful performance +for a little fellow of thirteen that Thomas engraved it and +distributed it all over England. Little Edwin had seen this beautiful +dog one day in the streets of London in a servant's charge, and he was +so delighted with its beauty, that he followed the two home and asked +the dog's owner if he might sketch him. The St. Bernard was six feet +four inches long "and at the middle of his back, stood two feet seven +inches in height." A great critic said that this drawing was one of +the very finest that any master of art had ever made, though it was +done by a little child of thirteen years and it is also said that +Landseer himself never did anything better than that little-boy +work. A live dog who was let into the room with it--as critic, +maybe--proved to be the most flattering of such, because he bristled +instantly for a fight. + +While the boy was still thirteen--which seems to have been a magic and +not a tragic number to him--he exhibited pictures in the Royal +Academy. These were a mule, and a dog with a puppy. In the stories of +"Famous Artists" we are told that he was a fine, manly little chap +with light curly hair and very well behaved. When he became a student +of the Academy the keeper, Fuseli, used to look about among the +students and cry: "Where is my little dog boy?" if Landseer was not in +his place. The little chap's favourite dog was his own Brutus, which +he painted lying at full length; and though the picture was small, it +sold for seventy guineas. This means an earning capacity indeed, for a +small boy. + +When he was but seven years old he had made pictures of lions and +tigers, each with a different expression from the other and each with +a character of its own. Critics spoke specially of the tiger's +whiskers as "admirable in the rendering of foreshortened curves." +Tigers' whiskers were thought to be most difficult things to make, but +in Landseer's pictures, they were as "natural as life." The great +success of the artist's animal pictures was that he made them seem to +have human intelligence, and it was also said that if one only saw the +dog's collar, as Landseer painted it, he would know it to be the work +of a great artist, that a great dog-picture must be attached to it. + +At least one of his pictures had a remarkable history. He had been +commissioned by the Hon. H. Pierrpont to paint a "white horse in a +stable." After the painting was ready for delivery it disappeared, and +for twenty-four years it could not be found. At last it was discovered +in a hay-loft! It had been stolen by a servant and hidden there. In +spite of the long years that had passed, Landseer sent it at once to +the man for whom it had been made, with the message that he had not +retouched it nor changed it in the least, "because," said he, "I +thought it better not to mingle the style of my youth with that of my +old age." + +One of Landseer's early advisers had told him he must dissect animals +to get the proper effects in painting them, as it was necessary for +him to understand their construction. So, one time, when a famous old +lion died in the Exeter Exchange menagerie Landseer got its body and +dissected it, and immediately afterward he painted three great lion +pictures: "The Lion Disturbed at His Repast," "A Lion Enjoying His +Repast," and "A Prowling Lion." + +Sir Walter Scott became so enchanted with Landseer's pictures that the +great novelist came to London to take the young artist to his home at +Abbotsford. "His dogs are the most magnificent things I ever saw," +said Scott, "leaping and bounding and grinning all over the canvas." + +Landseer lived in the centre of London till he was more than thirty +years old, and then, looking for more quiet and space he bought a very +small house and garden at No. 1, St. John's Wood. There was not much +room in the house but it had a stable attached which made a fine +studio, and there Landseer lived with a sister of his, for nearly +fifty years. When he first wished to rent the house, the landlord +asked him a hundred pounds premium which Landseer felt that he could +not pay and he was about to give it up, when a friend declared that if +the matter of money was all that prevented him, he was to rent it +immediately, and he could repay him as he chose. Landseer then took +the house, his friend paying down the premium, and Landseer returned +the money twenty-pounds at a time, till all the debt was paid. + +Landseer made this a famous and hospitable house, and it is said that +more great people gathered under his roof than had ever gathered about +any other artist with the exception of Sir Joshua Reynolds. That was +the house in which Landseer's loving old father spent his last days +and finally died. A story is told of the witty D'Orsay, who would call +out at the door, when he went to visit the artist: "Landseer, keep de +dogs off me, I want to come in and some of dem will bite me--and dat +fellow in de corner is growling furiously." + +On one of his several visits to Abbotsford, where he went many times +after his first invitation, to enjoy Scott's delightful hospitality, +he painted a famous dog of Sir Walter's called Maida, which died six +weeks afterward. + +There are several such stories about dogs who died rather tragically +and were also painted by Landseer. The two King Charles spaniels which +he painted both died soon after sitting to the great painter. They had +been pets of Mr. Vernon, who commissioned the painting, and the white +Blenheim spaniel fell from a table and was killed, while the King +Charles fell through the railings of a staircase and was picked up +dead. The great bloodhound, Countess, belonging to Mr. Bell who gave +her picture to the Academy, was watching for her master's return one +dark night and when she heard the wheels of his carriage, then his +voice, she leaped from the balcony, but missed her footing and fell +nearly dead at Mr. Bell's feet. That gentleman loved the dog so much +that he was distracted, and taking her into his gig, knowing that she +must die, he raced in to London again that same night, and rousing Sir +Edwin, begged him to paint the dog before it was too late. Then and +there was the sketch of the dying animal made. + +Sir Edwin Landseer was the most versatile and entertaining of +artists. He was a wit, and could also perform all sorts of sleight of +hand tricks, besides being so quick with his pencil that his doings +seemed miraculous. One evening, during a conversation with many +friends, someone declared that in point of time Sir Edwin could do a +record-sketch. One young woman spoke up and said: "There is one thing +that even he cannot do--he cannot make two different pictures at the +same time." + +"Think not?" cried Sir Edwin. "Let us see!" Gaily taking two pencils, +he rapidly drew a stag's head with one hand and a horse's head with +the other. + +Landseer became the guest of royalty, a favourite of Queen Victoria, +whose dog Dash was one of the many famous dogs painted by him. Dash +was the favourite spaniel of the Duchess of Kent, Victoria's mother; +and the Queen's biographer says that she too loved him very much. On +Coronation Day she had been away from him longer than usual, and when +the great state coach rolled up to the palace steps she could hear +Dash barking for her in the hall. "Oh," she exclaimed, "there's Dash," +and throwing aside the ball and sceptre which she carried, she hurried +to change her fine robes, in order to wash the dog. This is a very +homelike and picturesque story, but it is possibly not true. Doubtless +the little Queen heard the dog bark--and was glad to see him. + +At Windsor Landseer painted another royal dog, Islay, the pet terrier +of Victoria; also Dandie Dinmont, belonging to the Princess Alice; +then Eos, who was Prince Albert's--King Edward's--dog. All the last +years of Sir Edwin Landseer' life, the royal family were his devoted +and comforting friends. The painter suffered much and during his +visits to Balmoral he wrote to his sister how the Queen used to go +several times a day to his room, to look after his comfort and to +inquire about his condition. He wrote: + +"The Queen kindly commands me to get well here. She has to-day been +twice to my room to show additions recently added to her already rich +collection of photographs. Why, I know not, but since I have been in +the High lands I have for the first time felt wretchedly weak, without +appetite. The easterly winds, and now again the unceasing cold rain, +may possibly account for my condition, but I can't get out. Drawing +tires me; however, I have done a little better to-day. The doctor +residing in the castle has taken me in hand, and gives me leave to +dine to-day with the Queen and the rest of the royal family.... +Flogging would be mild compared with my sufferings. No sleep, fearful +cramp at night, accompanied by a feeling of faintness and distressful +feebleness." + +When he was well, he was gay and cheerful; and Dickens, Thackeray, and +many other noted men were his friends. We are told that above all +things. Sir Edwin was a great mimic and that one night at dinner he +threw everybody into fits of laughter by imitating his friend the +sculptor Sir Francis Chantry. It was at the sculptor's table, where a +large party was assembled. Chantry called Sir Edwin's attention, when +the cloth was removed, to the reflection of light in the highly +polished table. + +"Come here and sit in my place," said Chantry, "and see the +perspective you can get." Then he went and stood by the fire, while +Landseer sat in his place. Seated then in Chantry's chair, Landseer +called out in perfect imitation of his host: "Come, young man, you +think yourself ornamental; now make yourself useful, and ring the +bell." Chantry did so, and when the butler came in he was confused and +amazed to hear his master's voice from where Landseer sat in Chantry's +place at the table. The voice of his master from the head of the table +ordered claret, while his master really stood before the fire with his +hands under his coat-tails. + +We are told that Landseer stood his pictures on their heads, or upon +one corner or looked at them from between his legs, any way, every +way, to get a complete view of them from all quarters. He went to bed +very late and got up very late, but in the mornings, while lying in +bed he mostly thought out the subjects of his pictures. + +He was not much of a sportsman, preferring to paint animals rather +than to kill them, and one day when hunting, he saw a fine stag before +him. Instead of firing at it, he thrust his gun into a gillie's hands, +crying: "Hold that! hold that!" and whipping out his pencil and pad he +began to sketch the stag. Whereupon the gillies were disgusted that he +should miss so fine a shot, and they said something to each other in +Gaelic, which Sir Edwin must have understood, for he became very +angry. + +"It was a pity," wrote one who knew all his qualities, "that Landseer, +who might have done so much for the good of the animal kind, never +wrote on the subject of their treatment. He had a strong feeling +against the way some dogs are tied up, only allowed their freedom now +and then. He used to say a man would fare better tied up than a dog, +because the former can take his coat off, but a dog lives in his +forever. He declared a tied-up dog, without daily exercise, goes mad, +or dies, in three years." + +He had a wonderful power over dogs, and he told one lady it was +because he had "peeped into their hearts." A great mastiff rushed +delightedly upon him one day and someone remarked how the dog loved +him. "I never saw the dog before in my life," the artist said. + +While teaching some horses tricks for Astley's, he showed his friends +some sugar in his hand and said: "Here is my whip." His studio was +full of pets, and one dog used as a model used to bring the master's +hat and lay it at his feet when he got tired of posing. + +This charming man suffered a great deal before his death, and had +dreadful fits of depression. During one of these he wrote: "I have got +trouble enough; ten or twelve pictures about which I am tortured, and +a large national monument to complete." That monument was the one in +Trafalgar Square, for which he designed the lions at the base. "If I +am bothered about anything and everything, no matter what, I know my +head will not stand it much longer." Later he wrote: "My health (or +rather condition), is a mystery beyond human intelligence. I sleep +seven hours, and awake tired and jaded, and do not rally till after +luncheon. J. L. came down yesterday and did her best to cheer me... I +return to my own home in spite of kind invitations from Mr. and +Mrs. Gladstone to meet Princess Louise at breakfast." Of the many +anecdotes told of this great man, his introduction to the King of +Portugal furnishes the most amusing. "I am delighted to make your +acquaintance," the King said, "I am so fond of beasts." + +Before he died he had made a large fortune from his work, and during +his illness he was tended most lovingly by his friends and sister. One +day, walking in his garden, much depressed, he said sadly: "I shall +never see the green leaves again," but he did live through other +seasons. He wished to die in his studio, and at one time when he was +much distracted the Queen wrote him not to fear, but to trust those +who were doing all they could for him, that her confidence in his +physicians and nurses was complete. At last with brother, sister, +friends and fortune about him the great animal painter died, and on +October 11, 1873, and was buried with great honours in St. Paul's +Cathedral. + + PLATE--THE OLD SHEPHERD'S CHIEF MOURNER + +Of all the dogs Landseer loved to paint, the sheep collie has the most +character; and here he shows us one expressing in every line of his +face and form the most profound grief. The Glengarry bonnet on the +floor beside the shepherd's staff, the spectacles lying on the Bible, +the ram's horn, the vacant chair, the black and white shawl known as a +"Shepherd's plaid"--all these things have failed to comfort this +humble follower. We can imagine him, not bounding ahead with a joyous +bark, but walking staidly behind the coffin when it is borne away and +laying himself down upon his master's grave, perhaps to die of +starvation, as some of his kind have been known to do. The painting is +one of the Sheepshanks Collection in the South Kensington Museum. + +Among Landseer's other famous dog pictures are "Low Life and High +Life," "Dignity and Impudence" and "The Sleeping Bloodhound," all in +the National Gallery. + + + + +XXVI + +CLAUDE LORRAIN (GELLEE) + + + _Classical French School_ + 1600-1689 + _Pupil of Godfrey Wals_ + +Of all the contrasts between the early and later lives of great +artists, Claude Lorrain gives us the most complete. + +He was born to make pastry. His family may have been all pastry cooks, +because people of Lorrain were famous for that work; anyway as a +little chap he was apprenticed to one. His parents were poor, lived in +the Duchy of Lorrain and from that political division the Artist was +named. + +The town in which he was born was Chamagne, and his real name was +Gellee. As a pastry cook's apprentice he served his time, and then, +without any thought of becoming anything else in the world, he set off +with several other pastry cooks to go to Rome, where their talents +were to be well rewarded. + +But how strangely things fall out! In Rome he was engaged to make +tarts for Agostine Tassi, a landscape painter. His work was not simply +to furnish his master with desserts, but to do general housekeeping, +and it fell to his lot to clean Tassi's paint brushes. So far as we +know, this was the first introduction of Claude Lorrain to art other +than culinary. + +From cleaning brushes it was but a step to trying to use them upon +canvas, and Tassi being a good-natured man, began to give Lorrain +instruction, till the pastry cook became his master's assistant in the +studio. This led to a larger and larger life for the young Frenchman, +and he copied great masters, did original things, and finally in his +twenty-fifth year returned to France a full-fledged artist. He +remained there two years, and then went back to Italy, where he lived +till he died. The visit to France turned out fortunately because on +his way back he fell in with one of the original twelve members of the +French Academy, Charles Errard, who became the first director of the +Academy in Rome. A warm friendship sprang up between the men, and +Errard was very helpful to the young artist. + +Nevertheless, Lorrain did not gain much fame till about his fortieth +year, when he was noticed by Cardinal Bentivoglio, and was given +certain commissions by him. He grew in Bentivoglio's favour so much +that the Cardinal introduced him to the pope. The Catholic Church set +the fashions in art, politics, and history of all sorts at that time, +so that Lorrain could not have had better luck than to become its +favourite. The pope was Urban VIII., whose main business was to hold +the power of the Church and make it stronger if he could, so that he +was continually building fortresses and other fortifications, and he +had use for artists and decorators. Lorrain's fame outlasted the life +of Urban VIII., and he became a favourite in turn with each of the +three succeeding popes. All this time he was doing fine work in Italy +and for Italy, besides receiving orders for pictures from France, +Holland, Germany, Spain, and England, for his fame had reached +throughout the world. + +Besides leaving many paintings behind him when he died, he left half a +hundred etchings; also a more precise record of his work than most +artists have left. He executed two hundred sketches in pen or pencil, +washed in with brown or India ink, the high lights being brought out +with touches of white. On the backs of them the artist noted the date +on which the sketch was developed into a picture, and for whom the +latter was intended. The story is that his popularity produced many +imitators, and that he adopted this means to establish the identity of +his own work and distinguish it from the many copies made. + +These sketches were collected in a volume by Lorrain and called "Liber +Veritatis," and for more than a hundred years the Dukes of Westminster +have owned this. + + PLATE--ACIS AND GALATEA + +This picture in the Dresden Gallery is a scene from the mythical story +of a goddess who fell in love with the youthful son of a faun and a +naiad. Thus she excited the jealous fury of the cyclops, Polythemus, +who is seen in the picture herding his flock of sheep upon the high +cliff at the right. Soon he will rise and hurl a rock upon Acis, +crushing the life out of him, so that there will be nothing left for +Galatea to do but to turn him into the River Acis, but meanwhile the +lovers are unconscious and happy. Venus is reposing near them on the +waves and Cupid is closer still, while the sea in the background seems +to be stirred with a fresh morning breeze. + +Some of the famous Lorrains in the Louvre are: "Seaport at Sunset," +"Cleopatra Landing at Tarsus," and "The Village Festival." + + + + +XXVII + +MASACCIO (TOMMASO GUIDI) + + + (Pronounced Tome-mah'so Mah'sahch'cheeo) + _Florentine School_ + 1401-1428 + _Pupil of Ghibertio, Donatello, and Brunellesco_ + +This artist, who lived and died within the century that witnessed the +discovery of America, was famous for more than his painting. He was +the original inventor who first learned and taught the mixing of +colours with oils, thus making the peculiar "distemper" unnecessary. + +The story of Italian artists includes a history of their names, for +the Italians seem to have had most remarkable reasons for naming +children. For example, this artist, Masaccio, was born on St. Thomas's +day, hence, his name of Tommaso. Presently, for short, or for love, he +was called Maso, and to cap all, being a careless lad, his friends +added the derogatory "accio," and there we have the artist completely +named. He owed nothing of this to his father, who was plain, or +ornamentally, Ser Giovanni di Simone Guidi, of Castello San Giovanni, +in the Valdamo. + +As a very little boy, it was plain to be seen that slovenly Thomas was +going to be a great artist, and no time was lost in putting him to +work with the best of masters. + +He was a veritable inventive genius. Until his time difficulties in +drawing had been overcome mostly by ignoring them. Since no artist had +been able to draw a foreshortened foot, it had been the fashion in art +to paint people standing upon their tiptoes, to make it possible for +an artist to paint the foot. The enterprising Thomas came along and he +decided that feet must be painted both flat and crossed, on tiptoe or +otherwise; in short he did not mean to lose by a foot. + +He worked at this problem day and night, till at last the naturally +poised foot came into existence for the artist. Never after Masaccio's +time did an artist paint the foot stretched upon the toes. Moreover, +until his time flesh had never been painted of a remotely natural +colour, so Masaccio set about combining colours till he made one that +had the tint of real flesh. Thus he was the first to overcome the +difficulties of drawing and the first to discover a mixture that would +not leave a glazed, hard, unnatural appearance and be likely to crack +and destroy the finest effort of an artist. + +He worked during his youth in Pisa, where the "leaning tower" stands; +then he worked in Florence, finally in Rome, but those early pictures +are long since gone. It was a century of adventure and discovery as +well as of art, and with so much change, so many wars and rumours of +wars, many great art works were lost. Besides, the horrible plague +swept Italy east, west, north, and south. Who was to concern himself +with saving works of art, when human life was going out wholesale all +over the land? + +Masaccio was certainly very poor most of his life. He lived with his +mother and his brother Giovanni, an artist like himself, but not +nearly so brilliant. Masaccio could not spend his life in painting but +had to eke out the family fortunes by keeping a little shop near the +old Badia, and being pestered day and night by his creditors he was +forced again and again to go to the pawn shop. + +Somewhere about 1422, careless Thomas painted his greatest picture +which was doomed to destruction too early for us to know much about +it; but it was named "San Paolo" and it was painted in the bell-room +of the Church of the Carmine in Florence. The figure for his model was +an illustrious personage, Bartoli d'Angiolini, who had held many +honourable offices in Florence for many years. A critic and friend of +artists tells us that the portrait was so great it lacked only the +power of speech. + +In this picture Masaccio made his first great triumph in the +foreshortening of feet. + +He undertook to celebrate the consecration Of the Church of the +Carmine, and for this he made many frescoes, among which was a correct +painting of the procession as it entered from the cloisters of the +church. "Among the citizens who followed in its wake, portraits are +introduced of Brunellesco, Donatello, Masolino, Felice Brancacci (the +founder of the chapel) Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, and others, +including the porter of the convent with the key of the door in his +hand." + +This work was thought to be very wonderful because the figures grew +smaller in the distance, thereby giving "perspective" for the first +time. Imagine how crude a thing was painting in the day of careless +Thomas. + +That fresco is long since gone, but drawings of it still exist which +tell us something of the people of Christopher Columbus's +day--previous to their appearance, and their conditions. + +After Masaccio had finished the procession he went back to his +painting of the chapel and in the end covered three of its four walls +with his works. Many of those paintings are scenes from the life of +St. Peter, and several were worked at by other artists than Masaccio. + +Masaccio was greater than Raphael, greater than Michael Angelo in so +far as he pointed the way that they were to go, having solved for them +all the problems that had kept artists from being great before +him. Sir Joshua Reynolds says that "he appeared to be the first who +discovered the path that leads to every excellence to which the art +afterward arrived; and may therefore be justly considered one of the +great fathers of modern art." + +The artist lived but a little time, and was most likely +poisoned. Nobody knows, but it is said that other painters were so +wildly jealous of his original genius that they wished him out of the +way, and his death was at least mysterious. He drew very rapidly and +let the details go, caring only to represent motion and +action. Because he painted so many portraits into his pictures there +was great life and animation in them, and people said of him that he +painted not only the body but the soul. + + PLATE--ARTIST'S PORTRAIT [Footnote: Many artists have left us + portraits of themselves, painted, no doubt, with the aid of a + mirror, in a group or alone. This one of Masaccio in the Naples + Museum, shows him to have been a picturesque model.] + +Some of his known pictures are the frescoes in the church of +St. Clemente in Rome; the frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel in the +Church of the Carmine, "St. Peter Baptising" and the "Madonna and +Child, with St. Anne," which is in the Accademia at Florence. + + + + +XXVIII + +JEAN LOUIS ERNEST MEISSONIER + + + (Pronounced May-sohn-yay) + _French School_ + 1815-1891 + _Pupil of Leon Cogniet_ + +This artist was born at Lyons. His father was a salesman and an +art-training seemed impossible for the young man because the +Meissoniers were poor people. Nevertheless, he was so persevering that +while still a young man he got to Paris and began to paint in the +Louvre. He was but nineteen at that time, and his fate seemed so hard +and bitter that later in life he refused to talk of those days. + +He sat for many days in the Louvre, by Daubigny's side, painting +pictures for which we are told he received a dollar a yard. We can +think of nothing more discouraging to a genius than having to paint by +the yard. It is said that his poverty permitted him to sleep only +every other night, because he must work unceasingly, and someone +declares that he lived at one time on ten cents a week. This is a +frightful picture of poverty and distress. + +Meissonier's first paying enterprise was the painting of bon-bon boxes +and the decorating of fans, and he tried to sell illustrations for +children's stories, but for these he found no market. A brilliant +compiler of Meissonier's life has written that "his first +illustrations in some unknown journal were scenes from the life of +'The Old Bachelor.' In the first picture he is represented making his +toilet before the mirror, his wig spread out on the table; in the +second, dining with two friends; in the third, on his death-bed, +surrounded by greedy relations and in the fifth, the servants +ransacking the death chamber for the property." This was very likely a +vision of his own possible fate, for Meissonier must have been at that +time a lonely and unhappy man. + +There are many stories of his first exhibited work, which Caffin +declares was the "Visit to the Burgomaster," but Mrs. Bolton, who is +almost always correct in her statements, tells us that it was called +"The Visitor," and that it sold for twenty dollars. At the end of a +six years struggle in Paris, his pictures were selling for no more. + +Until this artist's time people had been used only to great canvases, +and had grown to look for fine work, only in much space, but here was +an artist who could paint exquisitely a whole interior on a space said +to be no "larger than his thumb nail." His work was called +"microscopic," which meant that he gave great attention to details, +painting very slowly. + +During the Italian war of 1859, and in the German war of 1870, this +wonderful artist was on the staff of Napoleon III. During the siege of +Paris he held the rank of colonel, and he lost no chance to learn +details of battles which he might use later, in making great +pictures. Thus he gained the knowledge and inspiration to paint his +picture "Friedland," which was bought by A. T. Stewart and is now in +the Metropolitan Museum. He, himself, wrote of that picture: "I did +not intend to paint a battle--I wanted to paint Napoleon at the zenith +of his glory; I wanted to paint the love, the adoration of the +soldiers for the great captain in whom they had faith, and for whom +they were ready to die.... It seemed to me I did not have colours +sufficiently dazzling. No shade should be on the imperial face.... The +battle already commenced, was necessary to add to the enthusiasm of +the soldiers, and make the subject stand forth, but not to diminish it +by saddening details. All such shadows I have avoided, and presented +nothing but a dismounted cannon, and some growing wheat which should +never ripen. + +"This was enough. + +"The men and the Emperor are in the presence of each other. The +soldiers cry to him that they are his, and the impressive chief, whose +imperial will directs the masses that move around, salutes his devoted +army. He and they plainly comprehend each other and absolute +confidence is expressed in every face." + +This great work was sold at auction for $66,000 and given to the +Metropolitan Museum. + +It is said that when he painted the "Retreat from Russia," Meissonier +obtained the coat which Napoleon had worn at the time, and had it +copied, "crease for crease and button for button." He painted the +picture mostly out of doors in midwinter when the ground was covered +with snow, and he writes: "Sometimes I sat at my easel for five or six +hours together, endeavouring to seize the exact aspect of the winter +atmosphere. My servant placed a hot foot-stove under my feet, which he +renewed from time to time, but I used to get half-frozen and terribly +tired." + +So attentive was he to truthfulness in detail that he had a wooden +horse made in imitation of the white charger of the Emperor; and +seating himself on this, he studied his own figure in a mirror. + +At last this conscientious man was made an officer of the Legion of +Honour, having already become President of the Academy. Edmund About +writes that "to cover M. Meissonier's pictures with gold pieces simply +would be to buy them for nothing; and the practice has now been +established of covering them with bank-notes." + +Meissonier seldom painted the figure of a woman in his pictures, but +all of his subjects were wholesome and fine. + +One time an admirer said to him "I envy you; you can afford to own as +many Meissonier pictures as you please!" + +"Oh no, I can't," the distinguished artist replied. "That would ruin +me. They are a good deal too dear for me." + +In his maturity he became very rich, and his homes were dreams of +beauty, filled with rare possessions such as bridles of black leather +once owned by Murat, rare silver designed by the artist himself, great +pictures, and flowers of the rarest description besides valuable dogs +and horses. Yet it was said that "this man who lives in a palace is as +moderate as a soldier on the march. This artist, whose canvases are +valued by the half-million, is as generous as a nabob. He will give to +a charity sale a picture worth the price of a house. Praised as he is +by all he has less conceit in his nature than a wholesale painter." + +On the 31st of January in his country house at Poissy, this great man, +whose life reads like a romance, died, after a short illness. His +funeral services were held in the Madeleine, and he was buried at +Poissy, near Versailles, a great military procession following him to +the grave. + + PLATE--RETREAT FROM MOSCOW + +In the painting of this picture we have already told how every detail +was mastered by actual experience of most of them. Meissonier made +dozens of studies for it--"a horse's head, an uplifted leg, cuirasses, +helmets, models of horses in red wax, etc. He also prepared a +miniature landscape, strewn with white powder resembling snow, with +models of heavy wheels running through it, that he might study the +furrow made in that terrible march home from burning Moscow. All this +work--hard, patient, exacting work." + +Some of his other pictures are "The Emperor at Solferino," "Moreau and +His Staff before Hohenlinden," "A Reading at Diderot's" and the "Chess +Players." + + + + +XXIX + +JEAN FRANCOIS MILLET + + + _Fontainebleau-Barbizon School_ + 1814-1875 + _Pupil of Delaroche_ + +Two great artists painted peasants and little else. One was the artist +of whom we shall speak, and the other was Jules Breton. One was +realistic, the other idealistic. Both did wonderful work, but Millet +painted the peasant, worn, patient steadfast, overwhelmed with toil; +Breton, a peasant full of energy, grace, vitality, and joy. + +Millet painted peasants as he knew them, and hardly any one could have +known them better, for he was himself peasant-born. His youth was +hard, and the scenes of his childhood were such as in after life he +became famous by painting. Millet lived in the department of Manche, +in the village of Gruchy, near Cherbourg. Manche juts into the sea, at +the English Channel, and whichever way Millet looked he must have seen +the sea. His old grandmother looked after the household affairs, while +his father and mother worked in the fields and Millet must have seen +them hundreds of times, standing at evening, with bowed heads, +listening to the Angelus bell. He toiled, too, as did other lads in +his position. His grandmother was a religious old woman, and nearly +all the pictures he ever saw in his boyhood were those in the Bible, +which he copied again and again, drawing them upon the stone walls in +white chalk. + +The old grandmother watched him, never doubting that her boy would +become an artist. It was she who had named him--Francois, after her +favourite saint, Francis, and it was she, who, beside the evening +fire, would tell him legends of St. Francis. It was she alone who had +time and strength left, after the day's work, to teach him the little +he learned as a boy and to fix in his mind pictures of home. His +father and mother were worn, like pack-horses, after their day in the +fields. The mother very likely had to hitch herself up with the +donkey, or the big dog, after the fashion of these people, as she +helped draw loads about the field. Who can look for Breton's ideal +stage peasants from Millet who knew the truth as he saw it every day? + +Many years after his life in the Gruchy home, Millet painted the +portrait of the grandmother whom he had loved so much that he cried +out: "I wish to paint her soul!" No one could desire a better reward +than such a tribute. + +Millet had an uncle who was a priest and he did what he could to give +the boy a start in learning. He taught him to read Virgil and the +Latin Testament; and all his life those two books were Millet's +favourites. Besides drawing pictures on the walls of his home, he drew +them on his sabots. Pity some one did not preserve those old wooden +shoes! He did his share of the farm work, doing his drawing on rainy +days. + +When he was about eighteen years old, coming from mass one day, he was +impressed with the figure of an old man going along the road, and +taking some charcoal from his pocket he drew the picture of him on a +stone wall. The villagers passing, at once knew the likeness; they +were pleased and told Millet so. Old Millet, the father, also was +delighted for he, too, had wished to be an artist, but fate had been +against him. Seeing the wonderful things his son could do, he decided +that he should become what he himself had wished to be, and that he +should go to Cherbourg to study. + +Francois set off with his father, carrying a lot of sketches to show, +and upon telling the master in Cherbourg what he wanted and showing +the sketches, he was encouraged to stay and begin study in earnest. So +back the old father went, with the news to the mother and grandmother +and the priest uncle, that Francois had begun his career. He stayed in +Cherbourg studying till his father died, when he thought it right to +go home and do the work his father had always done. He returned, but +the women-folk would not agree to him staying. "You go back at once," +said the grandmother, "and stick to your art. We shall manage the +farm." She sewed up in his belt all the money she had saved, and +started him off again, for he had then been studying only two +months. Now he remained till he was twenty-three, a fine, strapping, +broad-shouldered country fellow. He had long fair hair and piercing +dark blue eyes. All the time he was with Delaroche he was dissatisfied +with his work--and with his master's, which seemed to Millet +artificial, untrue. He knew nothing of the classical figures the +master painted and wished him to paint, for his heart and mind were +back in Gruchy among the scenes that bore a meaning for him. He wished +to study elsewhere, and by this time he had done so well that one of +the artists with whom he had studied went to the mayor of Millet's +home town, and begged him to furnish through the town-council money +enough to send Millet to Paris. This was done, and Millet began to +hope. + +He was very shy and afraid of seeming awkward and out of place. The +night he got to Paris was snowy, full of confusion and strange things +to him, and an awful loneliness overwhelmed him. The next morning he +set out to find the Louvre, but would not ask his way for fear of +seeming absurd to some one, so that he rambled about alone, looking +for the great gallery till he found it unaided. He spent most of the +days that followed gazing in ecstasy at the pictures. + +He liked Angelo, Titian, and Rubens best. He had come to Paris to +enter a studio, but he put off his entrance from day to day, for his +shyness was painful and he feared above all things to be laughed at by +city students. At last one day, he got up enough courage to apply to +Delaroche, whose studio he had decided to enter if he could, as he +liked his work best. The students in that studio were full of +curiosity about the new chap, with his peasant air, his bushy hair and +great frame, so sturdy and awkward. They at once nicknamed him "the +man of the woods," and they nagged at him and laughed at the idea that +he could learn to paint, till one day, exasperated nearly to death, he +shook his fist at them. From that moment he heard no more from them, +for they were certain that if he could not paint he could use his +fists a good deal better than any of them. Delaroche liked the peasant +but did not understand him very well, and Millet was not too fond of +his painting, so after two years he and a friend withdrew from that +studio and set up one for themselves. Thus eight years passed, the +friends living from hand to mouth, doing all sorts of things: +sign-painting, advertisements, and the like; and Millet, in the midst +of his poverty, got married. + +He went home, returning to Paris with his wife, and after starving +regularly, he became desperate enough to paint a single picture as he +wished. It seemed at the time the maddest kind of thing to do. Who +would see ugly, toil-worn peasants upon his _salon_ walls? Paris +wanted dainty, aesthetic art, and an Academy artist would have scoffed +at the idea; but the Millets were starving anyway, so why not starve +doing at least what one chose. So Millet painted his first wonderful +peasant picture "The Winnower," and just as the family were starving +he sold it--for $100. He had done at last the right thing, in doing as +he pleased. This was a sign to him that there was after all a place +for truth and emotion in art. But the Millets must change their place +of living, and go to some place where the money made would not at once +be eaten up. Jacque--the friend with whom Millet had set up shop, and +who also became famous, later--advised them to go to a little place he +knew about, which had a name ending in "zon." It was near the forest +of Fontainebleau, he said and they could live there very cheaply, and +it was quiet and decent. The Millets got into a rumbling old cart and +started in search of the place which ended in "zon" near the forest of +Fontainebleau. Jacque had also decided to take his family there and +they all went together. When they got to Fontainebleau they got down +from the car and went a-foot through the forest. + +They arrived tired and hungry toward evening, and went to Ganne's Inn, +where there were Rousseau, Diaz, and other artists who like themselves +had come in search of a nice, clean, picturesque place in which to +starve, if they had to. Those who were just sitting down to supper +welcomed the newcomers, for they had been there long enough to form a +colony and fraternity ways. One of these was to take a certain great +pipe from the wall, and ask the newcomer to smoke; and according to +the way he blew his "rings" he was pronounced a "colourist" or +"classicist." The two friends blew the smoke, and at once the other +artists were able to place Jacque. He was a colourist; but what were +they to say about Millet who blew rings after his own fashion. + +"Oh, well!" he cried. "Don't trouble about it. Just put me down in a +class of my own!" + +"A good answer!" Diaz answered. "And he looks strong and big enough to +hold his own in it!" Thus the newcomers took their places in the life +of Barbizon--the place whose name ended in "zon," and Millet's real +work began. His first wife lived only two years, but he married +again. All this time he was following his conscience in the matter of +his work, and selling almost nothing. In a letter to a friend he tells +how dreadfully poor they are, although his new wife was the most +devoted helpful woman imaginable, known far and near as "Mere Millet." +The artist wrote to Sensier, his friend, who aided him: "I have +received the hundred francs. They came just at the right time. Neither +my wife nor I had tasted food in twenty-four hours. It is a blessing +that the little ones, at any rate, have not been in want." + +The revolution of 1848 had come before Millet went to Barbizon, and he +like other men had to go to war. Then the cholera appeared, and these +things interrupted his work; and after such troubles people did not +begin buying pictures at once. Rousseau was famous now, but Millet +lived by the hardest toil until one day he sold the "Woodcutter" to +Rousseau himself, for four hundred francs. Rousseau had been very +poor, and it grieved him to see the trials and want of his friend, so +he pretended that he was buying the picture for an American. That +picture was later sold at the Hartmann sale for 133,000 francs. Millet +was now forty years old, and had not yet been recognised as a +wonderful man by any but his brother artists. He was truly "in a class +of his own." He had learned to love Barbizon, and cried: "Better a +thatched cottage here than a palace in Paris!" and we have the picture +in our minds of Millet followed patiently and lovingly by "Mere +Millet" in the peasant dress which she always wore, that she might be +ready at a moment's notice to pose for his figures. Then there were +his little children and his sunny, simple, fraternal surroundings, +which make his life the most picturesque of all artists. + +His paintings had the simplest stories with seldom more than two or +three figures in them. It was said that he needed only a field and a +peasant to make a great picture. When he painted the "Man with the +Hoe," he did it so truthfully, in a way to make the story so well +understood by all who looked upon it, that he was called a +socialist. No one was so much surprised as Millet by that name. "I +never dreamed of being a leader in any cause," he said. "I am a +peasant--only a peasant." + +Of his picture "The Reaper" a critic wrote, "He might have reaped the +whole earth." All his pictures were sermons, he called them "epics of +the fields." He pretended to nothing except to present things just as +they were, as he writes in a letter to a friend about "The Water +Carrier:" + +In the woman coming from drawing water I have endeavoured that she +shall be neither a water-carrier nor a servant, but the woman who has +just drawn water for the house, the water for her husband's and her +children's soup; that she shall seem to be carrying neither more nor +less than the weight of the full buckets; that beneath the sort of +grimace which is natural on account of the strain on her arms, and the +blinking of her eyes caused by the light, one may see a look of rustic +kindliness on her face. I have always shunned with a kind of horror +everything approaching the sentimental. I have desired on the other +hand, that this woman should perform simply and good-naturedly, +without regarding it as irksome, an act which, like her other +household duties, is one she is accustomed to perform every day of her +life. Also I wanted to make people imagine the freshness of the +fountain, and that its antiquated appearance should make it clear that +many before her had come to draw water from it. + +At forty he was in about the same condition as he had been on that +evening ten or twelve years before, when he had entered Barbizon +carrying his two little daughters upon his shoulders, his wife +following with the servant and a basket of food, to settle themselves +down to hardship made sweet by kind comradeship and hope. Now a change +came. Millet painted "The Angelus." He was dreadfully poor at that +time and sold the picture cheaply, but it laid the foundation of his +fame and fortune. He had worked upon the canvas till he said he could +hear the sound of the bell. Although its first purchaser paid very +little for it, it has since been sold for one hundred and fifty +thousand dollars. + +At last, having struggled through his worst days, without recognition, +and with nine little children to feed and clothe, he was given the +white cross of the Legion of Honour; and as if to make up for the days +of his starvation, he was nearly feasted to death in Paris. He was +placed upon the hanging committee of the _Salon_, and took a dignified +place among artists. He and Mere Millet travelled a little, but always +he returned to Barbizon, till the war came and he had to move to +Normandy to work. Afterward he returned to Barbizon, to the scenes and +the old friends he loved so well, and there he died. He had come back +ill and tired with the long struggle, and he instructed his friends to +give him a simple funeral. This was done. They carried his coffin, +while his wife and children walked beside him to the cemetery, and he +was buried near the little church of Chailly, whose spire is seen in +"The Angelas," and where Rousseau, whom he loved, had already been +laid. + +There in Barbizon, to-day, may be seen Rousseau's cottage and Millet's +studio. "The peasants sow and reap and glean as in the days of Millet; +Troyon's oxen and sheep are still standing in the meadow; Jacque's +poultry are feeding in the barnyard. The leaves on Rousseau's grand +old trees are trembling in the forest; Corot's misty morning is as +fresh and soft as ever; while Diaz's ruddy sunsets still penetrate the +branches; and the peasant pauses daily as the Angelus from the Chailly +church calls him to silent prayer." + + PLATE--THE ANGELUS + +In "The Angelus" you may see far-off the spire of the church at +Chailly, from which the bell sounds. The day's work is drawing to a +close. The peasant man and woman have been digging potatoes--the man +uncovering them, while his wife has been putting them in the +basket. As the Angelus floats across the fields, the two pause and bow +their heads in prayer. The man has dropped his fork and uncovered his +head, and his wife has clasped her hands devoutly before her. + +All the air seems still and full of tender sound and colour, and we, +like Millet, seem "to hear the bell." This is the only picture he +painted which is full of the sentimentality he so much disliked. It is +a great picture, but we need to know the title in order to interpret +it. + +Besides this one, Millet painted "The Gleaners," "The Woodcutters," +"The Sower," "The Man with the Hoe;" "The Water Carrier," "The +Reaper," and many other stories of the peasant poor. + + + + +XXX + +CLAUDE MONET + + + (_Pronounced Claude Mo-nay_) + _Impressionist School of France_ + 1840-- + +Another--Manet--was the founder of this school among modern painters, +but Monet is always considered his most conspicuous follower. + +Monet's remarkable method of putting his colours upon canvas does not +mean impressionism. He is an impressionist but also _Monet_--an artist +with a method entirely different from that of any other. He belongs to +what in France is called the _pointillistes_. The word means nothing +more nor less than an effort to accomplish the impossible. If you +stand a little way from a very hot stove you may be able to see a kind +of movement in the air, a quivering of particles or molecular motion, +and this is what the _pointillistes_ try to show in their +paintings--Monet most of all. + +The theory is that by putting little dabs of primitive colours, close +together upon canvas, without mixing them, just separate dabs of red, +yellow, blue, etc., the effect of movement is produced. Needless to +say, none of them ever have produced such an effect, but they have +made such grotesque, ugly pictures that they have attracted attention +even as a humpbacked person does. + +The first who painted thus was a Frenchman named Seurat, who tried it +after closely studying experiments made in light and colour by +Professor Rood, of Columbia University. After him came Pissarro, and +then Monet. America also has such a painter, Childe Hassam, but nobody +is so grotesque as Monet. + +He was born in Paris but spent most of his youth in Havre, where he +met a painter of harbours and shipping scenes called Boudin. Through +his influence Monet studied out-of-door effects, and was beginning to +do fairly good work, when he was drawn as a conscript and sent to +Algeria. It is written that Monet discovered that "green, seen under +strong sunshine is not green, but yellow; that the shadows cast by +sunlight upon snow or upon brightly lighted surfaces are not black, +but blue; and that a white dress, seen under the shade of trees on a +bright day, has violet or lilac tones." This only means that these +things have been scientifically determined, not that the naked eye +ever perceives them, and it is for the natural, unscientific eye that +art exists. None of us see the separate colours of the spectrum, as we +look about in every-day fashion upon every-day objects. + +Professor Rood managed to produce an intelligent effect by putting +separate colours on discs and whirling these round so that the colours +mingled. Monet tried to do the same by dotting his original colours +close together, and leaving the picture to its own destruction. It +ought to revolve, if the scientific idea is to be carried out. + +Nothing desirable can be made out of his pictures even when viewed +from far off, while at close range they are simply grotesque, and +photographs of them give the impression that the entire landscape is +wabbling to the ground. + +I wonder if anyone, small or grown up, can understand this: "It was +indeed a higher kind of impressionism that Monet originated, one that +reveals a vivid rendering, not of the natural and concrete facts, but +of their influence upon the spirit when they are wrapped in the +infinite diversities of that impalpable, immaterial, universal medium +which we call light, when the concrete loses itself in the abstract, +and what is of time and matter impinges on the eternal and the +universal." Monet's pictures look just as that explanation of them +sounds! + +The same writer says that Monet was greater than Corot because he was +more sensitive to colour; but if Monet had been as sensitive to colour +as Corot, he could not have lived and looked at his own pictures. + + PLATE--HAYSTACK IN SUNSHINE + +The main feature of this picture is such a hay stack as never existed +anywhere, of indescribable lurid colour, against a background of blue +such as never was seen. All about there are violet and rose-coloured +trees, and it is a picture that every child should know, because he is +likely never to have another such opportunity. + +Monet has made two interesting pictures of churches, one at Vernon, +the other at Varangeville. + + + + +XXXI + +MURILLO (BARTOLOME ESTEBAN) + + + (Pronounced Moo-reel'oh Bar-tol-o-may' A-stay'bahn) + _Andalusian School_ + 1617-1682 + _Pupil of Juan del Castillo_ + +The story of Murillo has been delightfully told by Mrs. Sarah Bolton. + +Like Velasquez, he was born in Seville, a city called "the glory of +the Spanish realms," and was baptised on New Year's day, 1618, in the +Church of the Magdalen. + +Murillo's father paid his rent in work, instead of in money. He made a +bargain with the convent who owned his house that he would keep it in +repair if he might have it free of rent, so there Gaspar Esteban and +his wife, Maria Perez, settled. "Perez" was the family name of +Murillo's mother, who had very good connections; one of her brothers, +Juan del Castillo, being a man who encouraged all art and had an art +school of his own. Little Murillo therefore had encouragement from the +start, an unusual circumstance at a time when parents rarely wished to +think of their sons as painters. As a matter of fact, his mother would +have preferred that he should become a priest, but she was kind and +sensible, and put no difficulties in the way of the little Murillo +doing as he wished. + +The story goes that the Perez family had been very rich, but, however +it may have been, that was not the case when the artist was born. One +day after his mother had gone to church, Murillo being left at home +alone, retouched a picture that hung upon the wall. It was a picture +of sacred subject--"Jesus and the Lamb." He thought he could make some +improvements in it, so he painted his own hat upon the head of Jesus +and changed the lamb into a little dog. His mother was a good deal +shocked at what seemed to her an irreligious act, though it showed the +family genius. After that the boy was found to be painting upon the +walls of his schoolroom, and making sketches upon the margins of his +books, though he did little else at school. + +He had one sister, Therese, and they were left without father or +mother before the artist was eleven years old. + +It was at that time that he received the name of "Murillo" by which he +is known. + +It came about thus: After the death of his parents he went to live +with his mother's sister, the Dona Anna Murillo, who had married a +surgeon called Juan Agustin Lagares, and since the little artist was +to live with his aunt, he soon became known by her family name. There, +in her home, he and his sister Therese, were brought up, but he was +not to become a surgeon like his uncle-in-law, but an artist like his +uncle Juan, the teacher in Seville. That uncle took him in hand, +taught the boy to draw, to mix colours, to stretch his canvas, and +soon Murillo's genius won the love of master and pupils. + +In peace and reasonable comfort he served a nine years apprenticeship, +and painted his first important, if not especially great, +pictures. These were two Madonnas, one of them "The Story of the +Rosary." St. Dominic had instituted the rosary; using fifteen large +and one hundred and fifty small beads upon which to keep record of the +number of prayers he had said; the large beads representing the +_Paternosters and Glorias_ and the small ones, the _Aves_. This +practical way of indicating duties helped the heedless to concentrate +their attention, and did much to increase the number of prayers +offered. Indeed, it is said that "by this single expedient Dominic did +more to excite the devotion of the lower orders, especially of the +women, and made more converts, than by all his orthodoxy, learning, +arguments, and eloquence." It was this incident in the history of the +Catholic Church that Murillo commemorated. + +When the artist was twenty-two years old, his uncle, Juan del +Castillo, broke up his home and went elsewhere to live, leaving the +artist without home or means, and with his little sister to take care +of. Without vanity or ambition, but with only the wish to care for his +sister and to get food, the marvellous painter took himself to the +market place, and there, wedged in between stalls, old clothes, +vegetables, all sorts of wares, like a wanderer and a gypsy, he began +his career. + +At the weekly market--the _Feria_ or fair, opposite the Church of All +Saints--his brotherly, kindly feeling for the vagabonds he daily met +is shown in the treatment he gives them in his wonderful +pictures. During the two years that he worked in that open-air studio +he had flower-girls, muleteers, hucksters all about him, and he +painted dozens of rough pictures which found quick sale among the +patrons of the market. What Velasquez was doing in the court of +Madrid, Murillo was doing in the streets of Seville; the one painting +cardinals, kings, and courtiers; the other painting beggars, _gamins_, +and waifs. Between the two, the world has been shown the social +history of Spain as it then existed. + +Through a peculiar happening, the American Indian saw the beauties of +Murillo's work before Europe was even conscious there was such a +man. In his old home, his uncle's studio, Murillo had had a dear +comrade, Moya. They had not met for two years or more, and when they +did come together again Moya told Murillo he had been travelling, that +he had been to Flanders with the Spanish army, and thence to London, +in both places seeing gorgeous paintings and other inspiring +things. He opened the eyes of Murillo to the splendours the world +contained, and the artist became wild with desire to go and see them +for himself, but he had no money. He was painting pictures in the +market place of Seville and getting so little for his hasty work that +he could barely support himself and little Therese. What must he do in +order to get to London and see the world? + +What he did do was to buy a piece of linen, cut it into six pieces and +hide himself long enough to paint upon them "saints, flowers, fruit +and landscapes," and then he went forth to sell them. + +He actually sold those pictures to a ship-owner who was sending his +ship to the West Indies. Eventually they were hung upon the walls of a +mission in wild, far off America. It is said that after this Murillo +made no little money by painting such pictures, destined to give the +American savage an idea of the Christian religion. One cannot but +wonder if there may not be, all unknown to us, Murillo pictures, made +in the market-place of Seville nearly three hundred years ago, hidden +away in the remains of those old Spanish missions, even to-day. Such a +picture would be more rare than the greatest that he ever painted. + +After selling his six pictures Murillo started a-foot, not to London +but on a terrible journey across the Sierra Mountains, to Madrid--the +home of Velasquez. Murillo knew that this native of Seville had become +a famous artist. He was powerful and rich and at the court of Philip +II., while Murillo had no place to lay his head, and besides he had +left Therese behind in Seville in the care of friends. He had no claim +upon the kindness of Velasquez but he determined to see him; to +introduce himself and possibly to gain a friend. It was under these +forlorn circumstances he made himself known to the great Spanish court +painter. + +The story of their meeting is a fine one. For Murillo Velasquez had a +warm embrace, a kind and hospitable word. The stranger told Velasquez +how he had crossed the mountains on foot, was penniless, but could use +his brush. Instead of jealousy and suspicion, the young man met with +nothing but the most cheerful encouragement, found the Velasquez home +open to him, took up his lodging there and established his workshop +with nothing around him but friendship and the sympathy his nature +craved. + +From the market-place to the home of Velasquez and the Palace of +Philip II.! It was a beautiful dream to Murillo. + +With what splendour of colour and mastery of design he illuminated the +annals of the poor! Coming forth from some dim chancel or palace-hall +in which he had been working on a majestic Madonna picture, he would +sketch in, with the brush still loaded with the colours of celestial +glory, the lineaments of the beggar crouching by the wall, or the +gypsy calmly reposing in the black shadow of an archway. Such +versatility had never before been seen west of the Mediterranean, and +it commanded the admiration of his countrymen. + +All his beggarly little children, neglected and houseless, appeared +only to be full of cheer and merriment, with soft eyes and contented +faces. It was a happy, care-free, gay, and kindly beggardom that he +painted, with nothing in it to sadden the heart. + +Thus he lived for three years; working in the galleries of the king, +making friends at court, painting beautiful women, gallant cavaliers +and fascinating little beggars. + +In the course of time, however, he grew restless, and Velasquez wished +to give him letters of introduction to Roman artists and people of +quality, advising him to go to Rome to study the greatest art in the +world. This was an alluring plan to Murillo, but after all he longed +for his own home and chose to return there rather than go to +Rome. Besides, his sister Therese was still in Seville. + +Once more in his home, at one stroke of his magic brush Murillo raised +himself and a monastic order from obscurity to greatness. In his +native city was the order of San Francisco. The monks had long wished +to have their convent decorated in a worthy manner by some artist of +repute; but they were poor and had never been able to engage such a +painter. When Murillo got back home, he was as badly in need of work +as the Franciscans were in want of an artist. The monks held a council +and finally agreed upon a price which they could pay and which Murillo +could live upon. Then he began a wonderful set of eleven large +paintings. Among them were many saints, dark and rich in colouring, +and no sooner was it known that the paintings were being made than all +the rich and powerful people of Seville flocked to the convent to see +the work. They gathered about the young artist, overwhelmed him with +honours and praise, and the monastery was crowded from morning till +night with those who wished to study his work. From that moment +Murillo's fame, if not his fortune, was made. + +He married a rich and noble lady with the tremendous name of Dona +Beatriz de Cabrera y Sotomayer. He had fallen in love with her while +painting her as an angel. + +About that time he formed a strange partnership with a landscape +painter, who agreed to supply the backgrounds that his pictures +needed, if Murillo would paint figures into his landscapes. This plan +did very well for a little time, but it did not last long. + +Murillo painted in three distinct styles, and these have come to be +known as the "warm," the "cold," and the "vaporous." He painted +pictures in the great cathedral of the Escorial and the "Guardian +Angel" was one of them. Also, he painted "St. Anthony of Padua," and +of this picture there is one of those absurd stories meant to +illustrate the perfection of art. It is said that the lilies in it are +so natural that the birds flew down the cathedral aisles to pluck at +them. Many artists have painted this saint, but Murillo's is the best +picture of all. + +When the nephew of his first master, Murillo's cousin, saw that work +he said: "It is all over with Castillo! Is it possible that Murillo, +that servile imitator of my uncle, can be the author of all this grace +and beauty of colouring?" + +The Duke of Wellington offered for this picture as many gold pieces +"as would cover its surface of fifteen square feet." This would have +been about two hundred and forty thousand dollars; but we need not +imagine that Murillo received any such sum for the work. This picture +has a further interesting history. The canvas was cut from the frame +by thieves in 1874, and later it was sold to Mr. Schaus, the +connoisseur and picture dealer of New York. He paid $250 for it, and +at once put it into the hands of the Spanish consul, who restored it +to the cathedral. + +The story of the saint whom Murillo painted is as interesting as +Murillo's own. Among the many wonderful things said to have happened +to him was that a congregation of fishes hearing his voice as he +preached beside the sea, came to the top and lifted up their heads to +listen. + +While Murillo was doing his work, he was living a happy, domestic +life. He had three children, and doubtless he used them as models for +his lively cherubs, as he used his wife's face for madonnas and +angels. + +He founded an academy of painting in Seville, for the entrance to +which a student could not qualify unless he made the following +declaration: "Praised be the most Holy Sacrament and the pure +conception of Our Lady." + +The most delightful stories are told of Murillo's kindness and +sweetness of disposition. He had a slave who loved him and who, one +day while Murillo was gone from the studio, painted in the head of the +Virgin which the master had left incomplete. When Murillo returned and +saw the excellent work he cried: "I am fortunate, Sebastian"--the +slave's name--"For I have not created only pictures but an artist!" +This slave was set free by Murillo and in the course of time he +painted many splendid pictures which are to-day highly prized in +Seville. + +This is a description of Murillo's house which is still to be seen +near the Church of Santa Cruz: "The courtyard contains a marble +fountain, amidst flowering shrubs, and is surrounded on three sides by +an arcade upheld by marble pillars. At the rear is a pretty garden, +shaded by cypress and citron trees, and terminated by a wall whereon +are the remains of ancient frescoes which have been attributed to the +master himself. The studio is on the upper floor, and overlooks the +Moorish battlements, commanding a beautiful view to the eastward, over +orange groves and rich corn-lands, out to the gray highlands about +Alcala." + +Murillo's fame brought fortune to his little sister, Therese. She +married a nobleman of Burgos, a knight of Santiago and judge of the +royal colonial court. He became the chief secretary of state for +Madrid. + +Murillo made money, but gave almost all that he made to the poor, +though he did not make money in the service of the Church, as +Velasquez made it in the service of the king. + +His work of more than twenty pictures in the Capuchin Church of +Seville occupied him for three years, and in that time he did not +leave the convent for a single day. + +Of all the charming stories told of this glorious artist, one which is +connected with his work in that church is the most picturesque. It +seems that every one within the walls loved him, and among others a +lay brother who was cook. This man begged for some little personal +token from Murillo and since there was no canvas at hand, the artist +bade the cook leave the napkin which he had brought to cover his food, +and during the day he painted upon it a Madonna and child, so natural +that one of his biographers declares the child seems about to spring +from Mary's arms. This souvenir made for the cook of the Capuchin, +convent has been reproduced again and again, as one of the artist's +greatest performances. + +Toward the close of his happy life, he became more and more devout, +spending many hours before an altar-piece in the Church of Santa Cruz +where was a picture of "The Descent from the Cross," by Pedro +Campana. "Why do you always tarry before 'The Descent from the +Cross?'" the sacristan once asked of him. + +"I am waiting till those men have brought the body of our blessed Lord +down the ladder." Murillo answered. His wife had died, his daughter +had become a nun, and all that was left to him was his dear son +Gaspar, when in his sixty-third year he began his last work, "The +Marriage of St. Catherine." He had not finished this when he fell from +the scaffolding upon which he was working, and fatally hurt +himself. He died, with his son beside him. He was a much loved man, +and when he was buried, his bier was carried by "two marquises and +four knights and followed by a great concourse of people." He chose to +be buried beneath the picture he loved so much--"The Descent from the +Cross," and upon his grave was laid a stone carved with his name, a +skeleton and an inscription in Latin which means "Live as one who is +about to die." + +The church has since been destroyed, and on its site is the Plaza +Santa Cruz, but Murillo's grave is marked by a tablet. + +Each country seems to have had at least one man of beautiful heart and +mind, to represent its art. Raphael in Italy, Murillo in Spain, were +types of gentle and greatly beloved men. Leonardo in Italy and Durer +in Nuremberg, were types of forceful, intellectual men, highly +respected and of great benefit to the world. + +Of all the painters who ever lived, Murillo was the one who painted +little children with the most loving and fascinating touch. + + PLATE--THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION + +Besides the little angels in this picture, we have a bewildering +choice among many other beauties. + +Many pictures of this subject have been painted, and many were painted +by Murillo, but the one presented here is the greatest of all. It +hangs in the Louvre, Salle VI. Mary seems to be suspended in the +heavens, not standing upon clouds. Under the hem of her garments is +the circle of the moon, while there is the effect of hundreds of +little cherub children massed about her feet, in a little swarm at the +right, where the shadow falls heaviest, and still others, half lost in +the vapoury background at the left, where the heavenly light streams +upon them, and brilliantly lights up the Virgin's gown. In this +picture are all Murillo's beloved child figures, some carrying little +streamers, their tiny wings a-flutter and all crowding lovingly about +Mary. Far below this gorgeous group we can imagine the dark and weary +earth lost in shadow. + +Among Murillo's most famous paintings are: "The Birth of the Virgin," +"Two Beggar Boys," "The Madonna of the Rosary," "The Annunciation," +"Adoration of the Shepherds," "Holy Family," "Education of Mary," "The +Dice Players," and "The Vision of St. Anthony." + + + + +XXXII + +RAPHAEL (SANZIO) + + + (Pronounced Rah'fay-el (Sahnt'syoh)) + 1483-1590 + _Umbrian, Florentine, and Roman Schools_ + _Pupil of Perugino_ + +It was said of Raphael that "every evil humour vanished when his +comrades saw him, every low thought fled from their minds"; and this +was because they felt themselves vanquished by his pleasant ways and +sweet nature. + +Imagine his beautiful face, with its sunny eyes, reflecting no shadow +of sadness or pain. Such a one was sure to be beloved by all. + +The father of Raphael was Giovanni Santi, himself an able artist. Both +he and Raphael studied in many schools and took the best from +each. The son was brought up in an Italian court, that of Guidobaldo +of Urbino, where the father was a favourite poet and painter, so that +he had at least one generation of art-lovers behind him, at a time +when learning and art were much prized. Nothing ever entered into his +life that was sad or sorrowful; his whole existence was a triumph of +beautiful achievements. There were three great artists of that time, +the other two being Michael Angelo and Leonardo da Vinci, both of whom +were absolutely unlike Raphael in their art and in their characters. + +Raphael was born on April 6th at Contrada del Monte in the ducal city +of Urbino. His mother's name was Magia Ciarla, and she was the +daughter of an Urbino merchant. She had three children besides the +great painter, all of whom died young, and when Raphael was but eight +years old his mother died also. It is said that it was from her +Raphael inherited his beauty, goodness, mildness, and genius. His +father's patron, the Duke of Urbino, was a fine soldier, but he also +cherished scholarship and art, and kept at his court not less than +twenty or thirty persons at work copying Greek and Latin manuscript +which he wished to add to his library. + +Raphael had a stepmother, Bernardina, the daughter of a goldsmith, a +good and forceful woman, but not gentle like the first wife; and when +Raphael was eleven years of age his father, too, died. By his father's +will Raphael became the charge of his uncle Bartolommeo, a priest, but +the property was left to the stepmother so long as she remained +unmarried. Almost at once the priest and the stepmother fell to +quarreling over the spoils, and thus Raphael was left pretty much to +his own devices, but just when life began to look dark and sad for +him, his mother's brother took a hand in the situation. He settled the +dispute between the priest and the second wife, and arranged that +Raphael should be placed in the studio of some great painter, for the +loving lad had already worked in his father's studio, and had given +promise of his wonderful gifts. So he became the pupil of Perugino, a +painter noted for his fine colouring and sympathetic handling of his +subjects. At that time, Italian schools were less wonderful in +colouring than in other matters of technique. + +"Let him become my pupil," said Perugino, when Raphael was brought to +him and some of his work was exhibited; "soon he will be my master." A +very different attitude from that of Ghirlandajo toward Michael +Angelo. + +Raphael and his master became friends and worked together for nine +years. + +His first work was not conceived until Raphael was seventeen. It was +to be a surprise to his master who had gone to Florence. A banner was +wanted for the Church of S. Trinita at Citta di Castello, and Raphael +undertook it, painting the "Trinity," on one canvas and the "Creation +of Man" on another. Then he painted the "Crucifixion," which was +bought by Cardinal Fesch, who lived in Rome. That painting is now in a +collection of the Earl of Dudley. It was sold away from Rome in 1845, +for twelve thousand dollars--or a little more. No one will deny that +this is an unusual sum for an artist's first work, but about the same +time he did a much more wonderful thing. + +He painted a little picture, six and three-quarter inches square. It +was of the Virgin walking in the springtime, before the leaves had +appeared upon the trees, and with snow-capped mountains behind +her. She holds the infant Jesus in her arms while she reads from a +small book, and the little child looks upon the page with her. This +six inches of beauty sold to the Emperor of Russia, in 1871, for sixty +thousand dollars. + +Before Raphael was twenty-one, he had left his master's studio and had +gone into the splendid world of Rome, where Angelo was straining at +his bonds. But how differently each accepted his life! The gentle +Raphael, who took the best of the ideas of all great painters, and +gave to them his own exquisite characteristics, was beloved of all, +shed light upon art and friends alike. To such a one all life was +joyous. Michael Angelo, trying ever to do the impossible, betraying +his hatred of limitations in all that he did, doing always that which +aroused horror, distress, longing, elemental feelings, in those who +studied his wonderful work, and giving hope and satisfaction and peace +to none--to such as he life must ever have been hateful and +painful. These men lived at the same time, among the same people. + +One of Raphael's greatest pictures came into the possession of a poor +widow, who being hard pressed by poverty, sold it to a bookseller for +twelve scudi. In time it was bought from the bookseller by Grand Duke +Ferdinand III. of Tuscany, who prayed before it night and morning, +taking it with him on his travels. That picture is now in the Pitti +Palace at Florence and it is called the "Madonna del Granduca." The +Berlin Museum purchased a Raphael Madonna for $34,000 which was +painted about the same time as these others, but after a little the +artist left Florence where he had been studying the methods of +Leonardo and Angelo and returned to Urbino, the home he loved, where +his conduct was such that all the world seems to have become his +lover. It is written that he was "the only very distinguished man of +whom we read, who lived and died without an enemy or detractor!" No +better can ever be said of any one. + +While he dwelt in Perugia and Urbino he had painted the "Ansidei +Madonna," so called because that was the name of the family for which +it was painted. That Madonna was sold in 1884 to the National Gallery, +by the Duke of Marlborough for $350,000. A Madonna on a round +plaque-like canvas, 42-3/4 inches in diameter, was bought by the Duke +of Bridgewater for $60,000. It is the "Holy Family under a Palm Tree," +painted originally for a friend, Taddeo Taddei, who was a Florentine +scholar. Many of the pictures which after many vicissitudes have +landed far from home and been bought for fabulous sums were painted +for love of some friend, or were paid for by modest sums at the time +the artist received the commissions. Lord Ellesmere in London now owns +the "Holy Family under a Palm Tree." + +It is said of Raphael that whenever another painter, known to him or +not, requested any design or assistance of any kind at his hands, he +would invariably leave his work to perform the service. He continually +kept a large number of artists employed, all of whom he assisted and +instructed with an affection which was rather that of a father to his +children than merely of an artist to artists. From this it followed +that he was never seen to go to court, except surrounded and +accompanied, as he left his house, by some fifty painters, all men of +ability and distinction, who attended him, thus to give evidence of +the honour in which they held him. He did not, in short, live the life +of a painter, but that of a prince. + +There is something wonderfully inspiring about such a life. We read of +emperors and the homage paid to them; of the esteem in which men who +accomplish deeds of universal value are held, but nowhere do we behold +the power of a beautiful and exquisite personality and character, +allied with a single art, so impressively exhibited. + +He urged nothing, yet won all things by the force of his loving and +sympathetic mind. "How is it, dear Cesare that we live in such good +friendship, but that in the art of painting we show no deference to +each other?" he asked of Cesare da Sesto, who was Da Vinci's greatest +pupil. + +In discussing the great ones of the earth, Herman Grimm, son of the +collector of fairy tales, says: "Can we mention a violent act of +Raphael's, Goethe's or Shakespeare's? No, it is restful only to recall +these wonderful men." + +One of Raphael's most beautiful Virgins was modeled from a beautiful +flower-girl whom he loved, "La Belle Jardiniere." + +Raphael as well as Michael Angelo was summoned by Pope Julius II., but +how different were the two occasions! Michael Angelo had stood with +dogged, gloomy self-assertiveness before the pope, head covered, knee +unbent. Uncompromising, while yet no injury had been done him, +resentful before he had received a single cause for resentment, the +attitude was typical of his art and his unhappy life. + +When Raphael appeared, his bent knee, his "chestnut locks falling upon +his shoulders, the pope exclaimed: 'He is an innocent angel. I will +give him Cardinal Bembo for a teacher, and he shall fill my walls with +historical pictures.'" The artist's behaviour was no sign of +servility, but the simple recognition of forms and customs which the +people themselves had made and by which they had decided they should +graciously be bound. The attitude of Angelo was not heroic but vulgar; +that of Raphael not servile, but in good taste, showing a reasonable +mind. + +Pope Julius had summoned Raphael for a special reason. Alexander VI., +his predecessor in the Vatican, had been a depraved man. The fair and +virile Julius had a healthy sentiment against occupying rooms which +must continually remind him of the notorious Alexander's mode of +life. Some one suggested that he have all the portraits of the former +pope removed, but Julius declared: "Even if the portraits were +destroyed, the walls themselves would remind me of that Simoniac, that +Jew!" The word 'Jew' was then execrated by all Christians, for the +world was not yet Christian enough to know better. + +Raphael was summoned to decorate the Vatican, that Julius might have a +place which reminded him not at all of Alexander. It is said that when +Raphael had completed one of his masterpieces the pope threw himself +upon the ground and cried, "I thank Thee, God, that Thou hast sent me +so great a painter!" + +While at work upon his first fresco at the Vatican--"La Disputa," the +dispute over the Holy Sacrament--Raphael met a woman with whom he fell +deeply in love. Her father was a soda manufacturer and her name was +Margherita. Missirini relates this incident in Raphael's career. + +"She lived on the other side of the Tiber. A small house, No. 20, in +the street of Santa Dorothea, the windows of which are decorated with +a pretty frame work of earthenware, is pointed out as the house where +she was born. + +"The beautiful girl was very frequently in a little garden adjoining +the house, where, the wall not being very high, it was easy to see her +from the outside. So the young men, especially artists--always +passionate admirers of beauty--did not fail to come and look at her, +by climbing up above the wall. + +"Raphael is said to have seen her for the first time as she was +bathing her pretty feet in a little fountain in the garden. Struck by +her perfect beauty, he fell deeply in love with her, and after having +made acquaintance with her, and discovered that her mind was as +beautiful as her body, he became so much attached as to be unable to +live without her." + +She is spoken of to-day as the "Fornarina," because at first she was +supposed to have been the daughter of a baker (_fornajo_). + +Raphael made many rough studies for his picture "La Disputa," and upon +them he left three sonnets, written to the woman so dear to him. These +sonnets have been translated by the librarian of l'Ecole Nationale des +Beaux-Arts, as follows: "Love, thou hast bound me with the light of +two eyes which torment me, with a face like snow and roses, with sweet +words and tender manners. So great is my ardour that no river or sea +could extinguish my fire. But I do not complain, for my ardour makes +me happy.... How sweet was the chain, how light the yoke of her white +arms about my neck. When these bonds were loosed, I felt a mortal +grief. I will say no more; a great joy kills, and, though my thoughts +turn to thee, I will keep silence." + +Although he had been a man of many loves, Raphael must have found in +the manufacturer's daughter his best love, because he remained +faithful and devoted to her for the twelve years of life that were +left to him. It was said some years later, while he was engaged upon a +commission for a rich banker, that "Raphael was so much occupied with +the love that he bore to the lady of his choice that he could not give +sufficient attention to his work. Agostino (the banker) therefore, +falling at length into despair of seeing it finished, made so many +efforts by means of friends and by his own care that after much +difficulty he at length prevailed on the lady to take up her abode in +his house, where she was accordingly installed, in apartments near +those which Raphael was painting; In this manner the work was +ultimately brought to a conclusion." + +Raphael painted this beautiful lady-love many times, and in a picture +in which she wears a bracelet he has placed his name upon the +ornament. + +After this time he painted the "Madonna della Casa d'Alba," which the +Duchess d'Alba gave to her physician for curing her of a grave +disorder. She died soon afterward, and the physician was arrested on +the charge of having poisoned her. In course of time the picture was +purchased for $70,000 by the Russian Emperor, and it is now in "The +Hermitage," St. Petersburg. + +A writer telling of that time, relates the following anecdote: +"Raphael of Urbino had painted for Agostino Chigi (the rich banker +already mentioned) at Santa Maria della Pace, some prophets and +sibyls, on which he had received an advance of five hundred scudi. One +day he demanded of Agostino's cashier (Giulio Borghesi) the remainder +of the sum at which he estimated his work. The cashier, being +astounded at this demand, and thinking that the sum already paid was +sufficient, did not reply. 'Cause the work to be estimated by a judge +of painting,' replied Raphael, 'and you will see how moderate my +demand is.' + +"Giulio Borghesi thought of Michael Angelo for this valuation, and +begged him to go to the church and estimate the figures of +Raphael. Possibly he imagined that self-love, rivalry, and jealousy +would lead the Florentine to lower the price of the pictures. + +"Michael Angelo went, accompanied by the cashier, to Santa Maria della +Pace, and, as he was contemplating the fresco without uttering a word, +Borghesi questioned him. 'That head,' replied Michael Angelo, pointing +to one of the sibyls, 'that head is worth a hundred scudi.' ... 'and +the others?' asked the cashier. 'The others are not less.' + +"Someone who witnessed this scene related it to Chigi. He heard every +particular and, offering in addition to the five hundred scudi for +five heads a hundred scudi to be paid for each of the others, he said +to his cashier, 'go and give that to Raphael in payment for his heads, +and behave very politely to him, so that he may be satisfied; for if +he insists on my paying also for the drapery, we should probably be +ruined!'" + +By the time Raphael was thirty-one he was a rich man, and had built +himself a beautiful house near the Vatican, on the Via di Borgo +Nuova. Naught remains of that dwelling except an angle of the right +basement, which has been made a part of the Accoramboni Palace. His +friends wished him above all things to marry, but he was still true to +Margherita though he had become engaged to the daughter of his +nephew. He put the marriage off year after year, till finally the lady +he was to have married died, and was buried in Raphael's chapel in the +Pantheon. + +Margherita was with him when he died, and it was to her that he left +much of his wealth. + +In the time of Raphael excavations were being made about Rome, and +many beautiful statues uncovered, and he was charged with the +supervision of this work in order that no art treasure should be lost +or overlooked. The pope decreed that if the excavators failed to +acquaint Raphael with every stone and tablet that should he unearthed, +they should be fined from one to three hundred gold crowns. + +Raphael had his many paintings copied under his own eye and engraved, +and then distributed broadcast, so that not only men of great wealth +but the common people might study them. + +Henry VIII. invited him to visit England, and become court painter, +and Francis I. wished him to become the court painter of France. + +He loved history, and wished to write certain historical works. He +loved poetry and wrote it. He loved philosophy and lived it--the +philosophy of generous feeling and kindly thought for all the +world. He kept poor artists in his own home and provided for them. + +Raphael died on Good Friday night, April 6th, in his thirty-seventh +year, and all Rome wept. He lay in state in his beautiful home, with +his unfinished picture of the "Transfiguration," as background for his +catafalque. That painting with its colours still wet, was carried in +the procession to his burial place in the Pantheon. When his death was +announced, the pope, Leo X., wept and cried _"Ora pro nobis!"_ while +the Ambassador from Mantua wrote home that "nothing is talked of here +but the loss of the man who at the close of his six-and-thirtieth year +has now ended his first life; his second, that of his posthumous fame, +independent of death and transitory things, through his works, and in +what the learned will write in his praise, must continue forever." + +Raphael painted two hundred and eighty-seven pictures in his +thirty-seven years of life. + + PLATE--THE SISTINE MADONNA + +It is said that the "Sistine Madonna," while painted from an Italian +model--doubtless the lady whom Raphael so dearly loved--has universal +characteristics, so that she may "be understood by everyone." + +He lived only three years after painting this picture and it was the +last "Holy Family" painted by him. The Madonna stands upon a curve of +the earth, which is scarcely to be seen, and looming mistily in front +of her is a mass of white vaporous clouds. On either side are figures, +St. Sixtus (for whom the picture was named) and St. Barbara. Beside +St. Sixtus we see a crown or tiara; and the little tower at +St. Barbara's side is a part of her story. + +Barbara was the daughter of an Eastern nobleman who feared that her +great beauty might lead to her being carried off; therefore he caused +her to be shut up in a great tower. While thus imprisoned Barbara +became a Christian through the influence of a holy man, and she begged +her father to make three windows in her gloomy tower: one, to let the +light of the Father stream upon her, another to admit the light of the +Son, and the third that she might bathe in the light of the Holy +Ghost. Both St. Barbara and St. Sixtus were martyrs for their faith. + +This Madonna is painted as if enclosed by green velvet curtains, which +have been drawn aside, letting the golden light of the picture blaze +upon the one who looks; then upon a little ledge below, looking out +from the heavens, are two little cherubs--known to all the world. They +look wistful, wise, roguish, and beautiful, with fat little arms +resting comfortably upon the ledge. Raphael is said to have found his +models for these little angels in the street, leaning wistfully upon +the ledge of a baker's window, looking at the good things to eat, +which were within. Raphael took them, put wings to them, placed them +at the feet of Mary, and made two little images which have brought +smiles and tears to a multitude of people. The "Sistine Madonna" hangs +alone in a room in the Dresden Gallery. + +Among Raphael's greatest works are: The "Madonna della Sedia" (of the +chair), "La Belle Jardiniere," "The School of Athens," "Saint Cecilia," +"The Transfiguration," "Death of Ananias" (a cartoon for a series of +tapestries), "Madonna del Pesce," "La Disputa," "The Marriage of Mary +and Joseph," "St. George Slaying the Dragon," "St. Michael Attacking +Satan" and the "Coronation of the Virgin." + + + + +XXXIII + +REMBRANDT (VAN RIJN) + + + _Dutch School_ + 1606-1669 + _Pupil of Van Swanenburch_ + +Here are a few of the titles that have been given to the greatest +Dutch painter that ever lived: The Shakespeare of Painting; the Prince +of Etchers; the King of Shadows; the Painter of Painters. Muther calls +him a "hero from cloudland," and not only does he alone wear these +titles of greatness, but he alone in his family had the name of +Rembrandt. + +One writer has said that the great painter was born "in a windmill," +but this is not true. He was born in Leyden for certain, though not a +great deal is known about his youth; and his father was a miller, his +mother a baker's daughter. + +When the Pilgrim Fathers, who had sought safety in Leyden, were +starting for America, where they were going to oppress others as they +had been oppressed, Rembrandt was just beginning his apprenticeship in +art. + +He was born at No. 3, Weddesteg, a house on the rampart looking out +upon the Rhine whose two arms meet there. In front of it whirled the +great arms of his father's windmill, though he was not born in it; and +of all the women Rembrandt ever knew, it is not likely that he ever +admired or loved one as passionately as he admired and loved his +mother. He painted and etched her again and again, with a touch so +tender that his deepest emotion is placed before us. + +Rembrandt had brothers and sisters--five: Adriaen, Gerrit, Machteld, +Cornelis, and Willem. Of these, Adriaen became a miller like his +father, and presumably the old historic windmill fell to him; Willem +became a baker, but Rembrandt, the fourth child, it was determined +should be a learned man, and belong to one of the honoured +professions, such as the law. So he was sent to the Leyden Academy, +but here again we have an artist who decided he knew enough of all +else but art before he was twelve years old. He found himself at that +age in the studio of his first art-master, Jacob van Swanenburch, a +relative, who had studied art in Italy, and was a good master for the +lad; but Rembrandt became so brilliant a painter in three years' time, +that he was sent to Amsterdam to learn of abler men. + +The lad could not in those days get far from his adored mother; so he +stayed only a little time, before he went back to Leyden where she +was. There was his heart, and, painting or no painting, he must be +near it. + +Until the past thirty years no one has seemed to know a great deal of +Rembrandt's early history, but much was written of him as a boorish, +gross, vulgar fellow. Those stories were false. He was a devoted son, +handsome, studious in art, and earnest in all that he did, and after +he had made his first notable painting he was compelled by the demands +of his work to move to Amsterdam for good. He hired an apartment over +a shop on the Quay Bloemgracht; it is probable that his sister went +with him to keep his house, and that it is her face repeated so +frequently in the many pictures which he painted at that time. This +does not suggest coarse doings or a careless life, but permits us to +imagine a quiet, sober, unselfish existence for the young bachelor at +that time. + +Soon, however, he fell in love. He saw one other woman to place in his +heart and memory beside his mother. His wife was Saskia van Ulenburg, +the daughter of an aristocrat, refined and rich. He met her through +her cousin, an art dealer, who had ordered Rembrandt to paint a +portrait of his dainty cousin. Rembrandt could have been nothing but +what was delightful and good, since he was loved by so charming a girl +as Saskia. + +He painted her sitting upon his knee, and used her as model in many +pictures. First, last, and always he loved her tenderly. + +In one portrait she is dressed in "red and gold-embroidered velvets"; +the mantle she wore he had brought from Leyden. In another picture she +is at her toilet, having her hair arranged; again she is painted in a +great red velvet hat, and then as a Jewish bride, wearing pearls, and +holding a shepherd's staff in her hand. Again, Rembrandt painted +himself as a giant at the feet of a dainty woman, and in every way his +work showed his love for her. After he married her, in June 1634, he +painted the picture, "Samson's Wedding," "Saskia, dainty and serene, +sitting like a princess in a circle of her relatives, he himself +appearing as a crude plebeian, whose strange jokes frighten more than +they amuse the distinguished company. ... The early years of his +marriage were spent in joy and revelry. Surrounded by calculating +business men who kept a tight grasp on their money bags, he assumed +the role of an artist scattering money with a free hand; surrounded by +small townsmen most proper in demeanour, he revealed himself as the +bold lasquenet, frightening them by his cavalier manners. He brought +together all manner of Oriental arms, ancient fabrics, and gleaming +jewellery; and his house became one of the sights of Amsterdam." His +existence reads like a fairy tale. + +It is said that Saskia strutted about decked in gold and diamonds, +till her relatives "shook their heads" in alarm and amazement at such +wild goings on. + +Before he married Saskia he had painted a remarkable picture, named +the "School of Anatomy." It represents a great anatomist, the friend +of Rembrandt--Nicholaus Tulp,--and a group of physicians who were +members of the Guild of Surgeons of Amsterdam. It is so wonderful a +picture that even the dead man, who is being used as a subject by the +anatomist, does not too greatly disturb us as we look upon him. The +thoughtful, interested faces of the surgeons are so strong that we +half lose ourselves in their feeling, and forget to start in repulsion +at sight of the dead body. A fine description of this painting can be +found in Sarah K. Bolton's book "Famous Artists" and it includes the +description given by another excellent authority. + +The artist was twenty-six years old when he painted the "School of +Anatomy." This picture is now at The Hague and two hundred years after +it was painted the Dutch Government gave 30,000 florins for it. + +Rembrandt painted a good many "Samsons" first and last--himself +evidently being the strong man; and the pictures beyond doubt express +his own mood and his idea of his relation to things. After a little +son was born to the artist, he painted still another Samson--this time +menacing his father-in-law but as the artist had named his son after +his father-in-law,--Rombertus--we cannot believe that there was any +menace in the heart of Rembrandt--Samson. Soon his son died, and +Rembrandt thought he should never again know happiness, or that the +world could hold a greater grief, but one day he was to learn +otherwise. A little girl was born to the artist, named Cornelia, after +Rembrandt's mother, and he was again very happy. + +Meantime his brothers and sisters had died, and there came some +trouble over Rembrandt's inheritance, but what angered him most of +all, was that Saskia's relatives said she "had squandered her heritage +in ornaments and ostentation." This made Rembrandt wild with rage, and +he sued her slanderers, for he himself had done the squandering, +buying every beautiful thing he could find or pay for, to deck Saskia +in, and he meant to go on doing so. + +At this time he painted a picture of "The Feast of Ahasuerus" (or the +"Wedding of Samson") and he placed Saskia in the middle of the table +to represent Esther or Delilah as the case might be, dressed in a way +to horrify her critical relatives, for she looked like a veritable +princess laden with gorgeous jewels. + +One of his pictures he wished to have hung in a strong light, for he +said: "Pictures are not made to be smelt. The odour of the colours is +unhealthy." + +The first baby girl died and on the birth of another daughter she too +was named Cornelia, but that baby girl also died, and next came a son, +Titus, named for Saskia's sister, Titia, and then Saskia died. Thus +Rembrandt knew the deepest sorrow of his life. + +He painted her portrait once again from memory, and that picture is +quite unlike the others for it is no longer full of glowing life, but +daintier, suggestive of a more spiritual life, as if she were growing +fragile. + +It is written that "from this time, while he did much remarkable work, +he seemed like a man on a mountain top, looking on one side to sweet +meadows filled with flowers and sunlight, and on the other to a +desolate landscape over which a clouded sun is setting." With Saskia +died the best of Rembrandt. He made only one more portrait of +himself--before this he had made many; and in it he makes himself +appear a stern and fateful man. It was after Saskia's death that he +painted the "Night Watch," or more properly, "The Sortie." + +Rembrandt's home, where he and Saskia were so happy, is still to be +seen on a quay of the River Amstel. It is a house of brick and cut +stone, four stories high. The vestibule used to have a flag-stone +pavement covered with fir-wood. There were also "black-cushioned, +Spanish chairs for those who wait," and all about were twenty-four +busts and paintings. There was an ante-chamber, very large, with seven +Spanish chairs covered with green velvet, and a walnut table covered +with "a Tournay cloth"; there was a mirror with an ebony frame, and +near by a marble wine-cooler. Upon the wall of this _salon_ were +thirty-nine pictures and most of them had beautiful frames. "There +were religious scenes, landscapes, architectural sketches, works of +Pinas, Brouwer, Lucas van Leyden, and other Dutch masters; sixteen +pictures by Rembrandt; and costly paintings by Palma Vecchio, Bassano, +and Raphael." + +In the next room was a real art museum, containing splendid pictures, +an oaken press and other things which suggest that this was the +workroom where Rembrandt's etchings were made and printed. + +In the drawing-room was a huge mirror, a great oaken table covered +with a rich embroidered cloth, "six chairs with blue coverings, a bed +with blue hangings, a cedar wardrobe, and a chest of the same wood." +The walls were literally covered with pictures, among which was a +Raphael. + +Above was a sort of museum and Rembrandt's studio. There was rare +glass from Venice, busts, sketches, paintings, cloths, weapons, +armour, plants, stuffed birds and shells, fans, and books and +globes. In short, this was a most wonderful house and no other +interior can we reconstruct as we can this, because no other such +detailed inventory can be found of a great man's effects as that from +which these notes are taken: a legal inventory made in 1656, long +after Saskia had died and possibly at a time when Rembrandt wished to +close his doors forever and forget the scenes in which he had been so +happy. + +Holland being truly a Protestant country, its artists have given us no +great Madonna pictures, although they painted loving, happy Dutch +mothers and little babes, but on the whole their subjects are quite +different from those of the painters of Italy, France, and Spain. + +Rembrandt's studio was different from any other. When he first began +to work independently and to have pupils, he fitted it up with many +little cells, properly lighted, so that each student might work alone, +as he knew far better work could be done in that way. It is said that +his pictures of beggars would, by themselves, fill a gallery. He had a +kindly sympathy for the poor and unfortunate, and tramps knew this, so +that they swarmed about his studio doors, trying to get sittings. + +There is a story which doubtless had for its germ a joke regarding the +slowness of an errand boy in a friend's household, but which at the +same time shows us how rapidly Rembrandt worked. The artist had been +carried off to the country to lunch with his friend Jan Six, and as +they sat down at the table, Six discovered there was no mustard. He +sent his boy, Hans, for it, and as the boy went out, Rembrandt wagered +that he could make an etching before the boy got back. Six took the +wager, and the artist pulled a copper plate from his pocket--he always +carried one--and on its waxed surface began to etch the landscape +before him. Just as Hans returned, Rembrandt gleefully handed Six the +completed picture. + +He was a great portrait painter, but he loved certain effects of +shadow so well that he often sacrificed his subject's good looks to +his artistic purpose, and very naturally his sitters became +displeased, so that in time he had fewer commissions than if he had +been entirely accommodating. + +His meals in working time were very simple, often just bread and +cheese, eaten while sitting at his easel, and after Saskia died he +became more and more careless of all domestic details. + +Rembrandt finally married again, the second time choosing his +housekeeper, a good and helpful woman, who was properly bringing up +his little son, and making life better ordered for the artist, but he +had grown poor by this time for he was never a very good business +man. His beautiful house was at last sold to a rich shoemaker. Every +picture latterly reflected his condition and mood. He chose subjects +in which he imagined himself always to be the actor, and when his +second wife died he painted a picture of "Youth Surprised by Death"; +he had not long to live. He became more and more melancholy; and +sleeping by day, would wander about the country at night, disconsolate +and sad. Finally, when he died, an inventory of his effects, showed +him to be possessed of only a few old woollen clothes and his brushes +The miracle in Rembrandt's painting is the deep, impenetrable shadow, +in which nevertheless one can see form and outline, punctuated with +wonderful explosions of light. Nothing like it has ever been seen. It +is the most dramatic work in the world, and the most powerful in its +effect. Other men have painted light and colour; Rembrandt makes gloom +and shadow living things. + +This miracle-worker's funeral cost ten dollars; he died in Amsterdam +and was buried in the Wester Kirk. + + PLATE--THE SORTIE + +This picture is generally known as "The Night Watch," but it is really +"The Sortie" of a company of musketeers under the command of a +standard bearer. Captain Frans Banning-Cock and all his company were +to pay Rembrandt for painting their portraits in a group and in +action, and they expected to see themselves in heroic and picturesque +dress, in the full blaze of day, but Rembrandt had found a magnificent +subject for his wonderful shadows, and the artist was not going to +sacrifice it to the vanity of the archers. + +This picture was called the "Patrouille de Nuit," by the French and +the "Night Watch," by Sir Joshua Reynolds because upon its discovery +the picture was so dimmed and defaced by time that it was almost +indistinguishable and it looked quite like a night scene. After it was +cleaned up, it was discovered to represent broad day--a party of +archers stepping from a gloomy courtyard into the blinding +sunlight. "How this different light is painted, which encircles the +figures, here sunny, there gloomy!... Rembrandt runs through the +entire range of his colours, from the lightest yellow through all +shades of light and dark red to the gloomiest black." One writer +describes it thus: "It is more than a picture; it is a spectacle, and +an amazing one... A great crowd of human figures, a great light, a +great darkness--at the first glance this is what strikes you, and for +a moment you know not where to fix your eyes in order to comprehend +that grand and splendid confusion... There are officers, halberdiers, +boys running, arquebusiers loading and firing, youths beating drums, +people bowing talking, calling out, gesticulating--all dressed in +different costumes, with round hats, plumes, casques, morions, iron +corgets, linen collars, doublets embroidered with gold, great boots, +stockings of all colours, arms of every form; and all this tumultuous +and glittering throng start out from the dark background of the +picture and advance toward the spectator. The two first personages are +Frans Banning-Cock, Lord of Furmerland and Ilpendam, captain of the +company, and his lieutenant, Willem van Ruijtenberg, Lord of +Vlaardingen, the two marching side by side. The only figures that are +in full light are this lieutenant, dressed in a doublet of +buffalo-hide, with gold ornaments, scarf, gorget, and white plume, +with high boots, and a girl who comes behind, with blond hair +ornamented with pearls, and a yellow satin dress; all the other +figures are in deep shadow, excepting the heads, which are +illuminated. By what light? Here is the enigma. Is it the light of the +sun? or of the moon? or of the torches? There are gleams of gold and +silver, moonlight coloured reflections, fiery lights; personages +which, like the girl with blond tresses, seem to shine by a light of +their own.... The more you look at it, the more it is alive and +glowing; and, even seen only at a glance, it remains forever in the +memory, with all its mystery and splendour, like a stupendous vision." +Charles Blanc has said: "To tell the truth, this is only a dream of +night, and no one can decide what the light is that falls on the +groups of figures. It is neither the light of the sun or of the moon, +nor does it come from the torches; it is rather the light from the +genius of Rembrandt." + +This wonderful picture was painted in 1642 and many of the archer's +guild who gave Rembrandt the commission would not pay their share +because their faces were not plainly seen. This picture which alone +was enough to make him immortal, was the very last commission that any +of the guilds were willing to give the artist, because he would not +make their portraits beautiful or fine looking to the disadvantage of +the whole picture. This work hangs in the Rijks Museum in +Amsterdam. He painted more than six hundred and twenty-five pictures +and some of them are: "The Anatomy Lesson," "The Syndics of the Cloth +Hall," "The Descent from the Cross," "Samson Threatening His Step +Father," "The Money Changer," "Holy Family," "The Presentation of +Christ in the Temple," "The Marriage of Samson," "The Rape of +Ganymede," "Susanna and the Elders," "Manoah's Sacrifice," "The +Storm," "The Good Samaritan," "Pilate Washing His Hands," "Ecce Home," +and pictures of his wife, Saskia. + + + + +XXXIV + +SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS + + + _English School_ + 1723-1792 + _Pupil of Thomas Hudson_ + +When Reynolds was "little Josh," instead of "Sir Joshua" he grew tired +in church one day, and sketched upon the nail of his thumb the +portrait of the Rev. Mr. Smart who was preaching. After service he ran +to a boat-house near, and with ship's paint, upon an old piece of +sail, he painted in full and flowing colours that reverend gentleman's +portrait. After that there was not the least possible excuse for his +father to deny him the right to become an artist. + +The father himself was a clergyman with a good education, and he had +meant that his son should also be well educated and become a +physician; but a lad who at eight years of age can draw the Plympton +school house--he was born at Plympton Earl, in Devonshire--has a right +to choose his own profession. + +At twenty-three years of age Sir Joshua was painting the portraits of +great folk, and being well paid for it, as well as lavishly +praised. His first real sorrow came at a Christmas time when he was +summoned home from London where he was working, to his father's +deathbed. + +After that the artist turned his thoughts toward Italy, but where was +the money to come from? Earning a living did not include travelling +expenses, but a good friend, Captain Keppel, was going out to treat +with the Dey of Algiers about his piracies, and learning that the +artist wished to go to Italy he invited him to go with him on his own +ship, the _Centurion._ So while the captain was discussing pirates +with the dey, Sir Joshua stopped with the Governor of Minorca and +painted many of the people of that locality. Thence on to Rome! + +Strange to say, Raphael's pictures disappointed the English artist, +and he said so; but Michael Angelo was to Reynolds the most wonderful +of painters, and he said that his pictures influenced him all the rest +of his life. He wished his name to be the last upon his lips, and +while that was not so, yet it was the last he pronounced to his fellow +Academicians in his final address. + +It was in Italy that a distressing misfortune came upon Sir Joshua. He +meant to learn all that a man could learn in a given time of the art +treasures there, and while he was working in a draughty corridor of +the Vatican, he caught a severe cold which rendered him deaf. He +continued deaf till the end of his life and had to use an ear-trumpet +when people talked with him. + +When he got back to England, Hudson, his old master, said +discouragingly: "Reynolds, you don't paint as well as when you left +England." On the whole his reception at home, after his long absence, +was not all that he could have wished, but he took a place in +Leicester Square, settled down to live there for the rest of his life, +and went at painting in earnest. + +Although artists criticised him more or less after his return, the +public appreciated him and very soon orders for portraits began to +pour in upon him, and the flow of wealth never ceased so long as he +lived. It was said that all the fashionables came to him that did not +go to Gainsborough, but those who were partial to Sir Joshua declared +that all who could not go to him went to Gainsborough. The two great +artists controlled the art world in their time, dividing honours about +equally. It was said that all those women and men sat to Sir Joshua +for portraits "who wished to be transmitted as angels... and who +wished to appear as heroes or philosophers." + +Sir Joshua was a charming man, generous in feeling--as Gainsborough +was not--and his closest friend was Dr. Johnson, the most different +man from the artist imaginable, but Reynolds's art and Johnson's +philosophy made a fine combination, each giving the other great +pleasure. Besides Johnson, his friends were Goldsmith, Garrick, Bishop +Percy, and other famous men of the time. These and others formed the +"Literary Club" at Sir Joshua's suggestion. About that time there was +the first public exhibition of the work of English artists, and Sir +Benjamin West and Sir Joshua Reynolds built the Royal Academy for that +first exhibition, with the help of King George's patronage. Joshua +Reynolds was knighted when he was made the first president of that +great body. + +Soon after the Academy was established, Reynolds began a series of +"discourses," which in time became famous for their splendid literary +quality, and some people, knowing his close friendship with Burke and +Dr. Johnson, declared that the artist got one of them to write his +"discourses" for him. This threw Johnson and Burke into a fury of +resentment for their friend, and the doctor declared indignantly that +"Sir Joshua would as soon get me to paint for him as to write for +him!" Burke denied the story no less emphatically. Besides these +speeches, which were a great advantage to the members of the Academy, +Sir Joshua instituted the annual banquet to the members, and King +George--who just before had given the commission of court painter to +one less talented than Sir Joshua--bade him paint his portrait and the +queen's, to hang in the Academy. This was a great thing for the new +society and advanced its fortunes very much. + +Barry and Gainsborough were both churlish enough to envy Sir Joshua +and to quarrel with his good feeling for them, but both men had the +grace to be sorry for behaviour that had no excuse, and both made +friends with him before they died--Gainsborough on his death-bed. + +Toward his last days the artist was attacked with paralysis, but grew +better and was able to paint again; then he began to go blind--he was +already deaf--and this affliction made painting impossible. Shortly +before his death, he undertook to raise funds for a monument to his +dead friend, Dr. Johnson, but he grew more and more ill, "and on the +23d February, 1792, this great artist and blameless gentleman passed +peacefully away." + +That he was very painstaking in his work is shown by an anecdote about +his infant "Hercules." "How did you paint that part of the picture?" +some one asked him. "How can I tell! There are ten pictures below +this, some better, some worse"--showing that in his desire for +perfection he painted and repainted. + +So untiring was he in seeking out the secrets of the old masters that +he bought works of Titian and Rubens, and scraped them, to learn their +methods, insisting that they had some secret underlying their work. So +anxious was he to get the most brilliant effects of colours that he +mixed his paints with asphaltum, egg, varnish, wax, and the like, till +one artist said: "The wonder is that the picture did not crack beneath +the brush." Many of these great pictures did go to pieces because of +the chances Sir Joshua took in mixing things that did not belong +together, in order to make wonderful results. + +Sir George Beaumont recommended a friend to go to Reynolds for his +portrait and the friend demurred, because "his colours fade and his +pictures die before the man." + +"Never mind that!" Sir George declared; "a faded portrait by Reynolds +is better than a fresh one by anybody else." + +The same tender, sensitive and devoted nature which caused Sir +Joshua's mother to weep herself blind upon her husband's death, +belonged to the artist. All of his life he was surrounded by loving +friends, and his devotion to them was conspicuous. He, like Durer and +several other painters, was a seventh son, and his father's +disappointment was keen when he took to art instead of to medicine. So +little did his father realise what his future might be, that he wrote +under the sketch of a wall with a window in it, drawn upon a Latin +exercise book: "This is drawn by Joshua in school, out of pure +idleness." + +But by the time Joshua was eight years old and had drawn a fine +"sketch of the grammar-school with its cloister... the astonished +father said: 'Now, this exemplifies what the author of "perspective" +says in his preface: "that, by observing the rules laid down in this +book, a man may do wonders"--for this is wonderful.'" + +Sir Joshua laid down--even wrote out--a great many rules of conduct +for himself. Some of these were: "The great principle of being happy +in this world is not to mind or be affected with small things." Also: +"If you take too much care of yourself, nature will cease to take care +of you." + +When Samuel Reynolds, Joshua's father, consulted with his friend +Mr. Craunch, as to whether a boy who made wonderful paintings at +twelve years of age, would be likely to be a successful apothecary, he +told Craunch that Joshua himself had declared that he would rather be +a good apothecary than a poor artist, but if he could be bound to a +good master of painting he would prefer that above everything in the +world. This was how he came to be apprenticed to Hudson, the +painter. Young Reynolds's sister paid for his instruction at first--or +for half of it, with the understanding that Reynolds was to pay her +back when he was earning. At that time Reynolds wrote to his father: +"While I am doing this I am the happiest creature alive." + +One day, while in an art store, buying something for Hudson, Reynolds +saw Alexander Pope, the poet, come in, and every one bowed to him and +made way for him as if for a prince. Pope shook hands with young +Reynolds, and in writing home, describing the poet, the artist said +that he was "about four feet six inches high; very humpbacked and +deformed. He wore a black coat and according to the fashion of that +time, had on a little sword. He had a large and very fine eye, and a +long handsome nose; his mouth had those peculiar marks which are +always found in the mouths of crooked persons, and the muscles which +run across the cheeks were so strongly marked that they seemed like +small cords." This is a masterly description of one famous man by +another. + +He finally was dismissed from his master's studio on the ground that +he had neglected to carry a picture to its owner at the time set by +Hudson, but the fact was the older artist had become jealous of the +work of his pupil, and would no longer have him in his studio. + +Afterwards, while he was painting down in Devonshire--thirty portraits +of country squires for fifteen dollars apiece--he said: "Those who are +determined to excel must go to their work whether willing or +unwilling, morning, noon, and night, and they will find it to be no +play, but, on the contrary, very hard labour." This shows that +Reynolds's idea of genius was "an infinite capacity for hard work." + +While Reynolds was on his memorable journey to Rome, he made several +volumes of notes about the pictures of great Italian artists--Raphael, +Titian, etc. And one of those volumes is in the Lenox Library, New +York City. He made a most characteristic and delightful remark in +regard to his disappointment in Raphael's pictures. "I did not for a +moment conceive or suppose that the name of Raphael, and those +admirable paintings in particular, owed their reputation to the +_ignorance_ ... of mankind; on the contrary, my not relishing them, as +I was conscious I ought to have done was one of the most humiliating +things that ever happened to me." + +He loved home and country so much that while in Venice he heard a +familiar ballad sung in an opera, and it brought the tears to his eyes +because of its association with "home." + +His young sister, was so undecided in her ways and opinions as to make +it impossible for Reynolds long to live with her, but she undertook to +be his housekeeper when he returned to London, and she also tried to +copy his pictures Reynolds said the results "made other people laugh, +but they made me cry." + +Reynolds painted the portraits of two Irish sisters--the Countess of +Coventry and the Duchess of Hamilton--two of the most beautiful women +in all the British Empire. "Seven hundred people sat up all night, in +and about a Yorkshire inn, to see the Duchess of Hamilton get into her +postchaise in the morning, while a Worcester shoemaker made money by +showing the shoe he was making for the Countess of Coventry." Sir +Joshua declared that whenever a new sitter came to him, even till the +last years of his life, he always began his portrait with the +determination that that one should be the best he had ever +painted. Success was bound to attend that sort of man. + +He painted every picture almost as an experiment; meaning to learn +something new with every work, and he spent more than he made in +perfecting his art. As he said: "He would be content to ruin himself" +in order to own one of the best works of Titian. + +His deeds of kindness are beyond counting. He rescued his friend +Dr. Johnson from debt--thereby saving him from prison; and when a +young lad, "a son of Dr. Mudge," who was very anxious to visit his +father on the occasion of his sixteenth birthday, grew too ill to make +the journey. Reynolds said gaily: "No matter my boy. _I_ will send you +to your father." He painted a splendid portrait of the boy and sent it +to Dr. Mudge. This gift of a picture, however, was very unusual with +Reynolds, who, unlike Gainsborough who gave his by the bushel to +everyone, declared that his pictures were not valued unless paid +for. When Sir William Lowther, a gay and rich young man of London, +died, he left twenty-five thousand dollars to each of thirteen +friends, and each of the thirteen commissioned the painter to make a +portrait of Lowther, their benefactor. His work room was of interest: +"The chair for his sitters was raised eighteen inches from the floor, +and turned on casters. His palettes were those which are held by a +handle, not those held on the thumb. The stocks of his pencils were +long, measuring about nineteen inches. He painted in that part of the +room nearest to the window, and never sat down when he painted." The +chariot in which he drove about had the four seasons allegorically +painted upon its panels, and his liveries were "laced with silver"; +while the wheels of his coach were carved with foliage and gilded. + +Sir Joshua knew that it paid to advertise, and as he had no time to go +about in that gorgeous chariot he made his sister go, for he declared +that people seeing that magnificent coach would ask: "Whose chariot is +that?" and upon being told could not fail to be impressed with his +prestige. The comical inconsequence of this anecdote concerning a man +so important robs it of vulgarity. + +The graceful anecdotes told of Reynolds are without number, but one +and all are to his advantage and show him to have been good and +gentle, a devoted and high-bred man. + + PLATE--THE DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE AND HER DAUGHTER + +This is generally considered one of the finest of Sir Joshua's +pictures, if not the most beautiful of all. He was such a welcome +guest at the houses of grandees that perchance he had noticed the +lovely duchess playing with her still more lovely baby, and thought +what a charming picture the two would make. As a representation of the +artist's ability to portray grace and sweetness it can hardly be +surpassed. He painted it in 1786, half a dozen years before his death, +and it now hangs in Chatsworth, the home of the present Duke of +Devonshire. + +Other well known Reynolds paintings are "The Hon. Ann Bingham," "The +Countess of Spencer," the "Nieces of Sir Horace Walpole," and the +"Angels' Heads" in the National Gallery. + + + + +XXXV + +PETER PAUL RUBENS. + + + _Flemish School_ + 1577-1640 + _Pupil of Tobias Verhaecht_ + +The story of Peter Paul Rubens, whose birthday falling upon the saint +days of Peter and Paul gave to him his name, is hardly more +interesting than that of his parents, although it is quite +different. The story of Rubens's parents seems a part of the artist's +story, because it must have had something to do with influencing his +life, so let us begin with that. + +John Rubens was Peter Paul's father, and he was a learned man, a +druggist, but he had also studied law, and had been town councillor +and alderman in the town where he was born. Life went easily enough +with him till the reformation wrought by Martin Luther began to change +John Rubens's way of thinking, and he turned from Catholic to +Lutheran. + +From being a good Catholic John Rubens became a rabid reformer; and +when, under the new faith, the Antwerp churches were stripped of their +treasures, the magistrates were called to account for it. John Rubens, +as councillor, was among those summoned. The magistrates declared that +they were all good Catholics, but a list of the reformers fell into +the Duke of Alva's hands and Rubens's name was there. This meant death +unless he should succeed in flying from the country, which he +instantly did. That was in 1568, when he had four children, but Peter +Paul was not one of them--since he was a seventh son. + +The Rubens family went to live in Cologne, where the father found his +learning of great use to him, and he was honoured by being made legal +adviser to Anne of Saxony who was William the Silent's second +queen. John Rubens's behaviour was not entirely honourable and before +long he was thrown into prison, but his good wife, Maria Pypelincx +undertook to free him. He had treated her very badly, but her devotion +to his cause was as great as if he had treated her well. Despite his +wife's efforts he was kept a prisoner in the dungeon at Dillenburg for +two years, and afterward he was removed to Siegen, the place where +Peter Paul was born. + +In the sixteenth century there were no records of any sort kept in the +town of Siegen, and so we cannot be absolutely sure that Peter Paul +was born there, but his mother was certainly there just before and +after the date of his birth, which was the 29th of June 1577. After +his birth, his father was set free in Siegen and allowed to go back to +the city in which he had misbehaved himself. In Cologne he became once +more a Catholic, and he died in that faith. Meantime, ten years had +passed since Peter Paul's birth, and both his father and mother were +determined above all things their son should have a fine education, +quite unlike other artists, for the boy seemed capable of +learning. While he was still very small he could speak to his tutor in +French, to his mother in Flemish, and to his father in Latin. Besides +these languages he spoke also Italian and English. Before he was an +artist, Rubens, like Durer and Leonardo da Vinci, was a child of rare +intelligence. As a little chap he went to Antwerp with his +mother--this was after his father's death--and in Belgium he took for +the first time the role of courtier, in which he was to become so +successful later in life. The charming little fellow, dressed in +velvet and lace, took his place in the household of the Countess of +Lalaing, in Brussels. + +Very soon after entering that household, Rubens was permitted by his +mother to leave it for the studio of the painter who was his first +master, though not the one who really taught him much. Rubens did not +stay there long, but went instead to the studio of Adam van Noort, an +excellent painter of the time. After that he studied under another +artist, who was both a scholar and a gentleman, Van Veen, and with him +Peter Paul was able to speak in Latin and in his many other languages, +while learning to paint at the same time. + +Thus we find Rubens's lot was always cast, not among the rich, but +among the intelligent, the well bred, and the cultivated. This fact +alone would prepare us to anticipate pleasant things for him and from +him. + +In those days of guilds, there were many rules and regulations. Van +Noort, Rubens's teacher, was dean of the painters' guild and through +his influence the guild recognised Rubens as "master," which meant +that he was qualified to take pupils; thus he was pupil and teacher at +the same time. + +One is unable to think of Rubens as having low tastes, as being +morose, erratic, or anything but a refined, gracious, and brilliant +gentleman. He began well, lived well, and ended well. + +None of his teachers really impressed their style of art upon him. He +was the model for others. Rubens became nothing but Rubens, but all +the art world wished to become "Rubenesque." + +Rubens went to Mantua to see the art of Italy, and while there he met +the Duke of Mantua who was Vincenzo Gonzaga, the richest, most +powerful personage of that region and time. The duke engaged Rubens to +paint the portraits of many beautiful women--just the sort of +commission that Rubens's pupil, Van Dyck, would have loved; but +Rubens's art was of sterner stuff, and the work by no means delighted +him. He had great ideas, profound purposes, and wished to undertake +them, but just then it seemed best that he perform that which the Duke +of Mantua wanted him to do; hence he set about it. + +Later Rubens went to the Spanish court, not as a painter, but as a +cavalier upon a diplomatic mission. Bearing many beautiful presents to +King Philip III., he went to Madrid, where his elegance, manly beauty, +dashing manner, and ability to speak several languages made him a +wonderful success. He remained for three years at the court and +studied the methods of Spanish painters. He also painted the members +of the Spanish court, as Velasquez had done, but they looked like +people of another world. The Spanish aristocracy had always been +painted with pallid faces, languid and elegant poses; but Rubens gave +them a touch of the life he loved--made them robust and apparently +healthy-minded. Of all great colourists, Rubens took the lead. Titian +with his golden hues and warm haired women was very great, but Rubens, +"the Fleming" as he was called, revelled in richness of colouring, and +flamed through art like a glorious comet. + +Rubens had long been wanted in his own country. His sovereigns, Albert +and Isabella, wished him to return and become their painter, but they +were unable to free him from his engagements in Italy and Spain. At +last Rubens received word that his mother, whom he loved devotedly, +was likely to die, and what kings could not do his love for her +accomplished. + +Although his patron, the Duke of Mantua, was absent, and his consent +could not be secured, Rubens set off post-haste to his mother's +home. He arrived in Antwerp too late to see Maria Pypelincx, who had +died before he reached her. Once more on his native soil, Albert and +Isabella determined to induce him to remain. He had intended to go +back to Mantua and continue his work under the duke, but since he was +now in Belgium he decided to stay there, and thus he became the court +painter in his own country, which after all he greatly preferred to +any other. + +He was to have a salary of five hundred livres ($96) a year, also "the +rights, honours, privileges, exemptions, etc." that belonged to those +of the royal household; and he was given a gold chain. In this day of +large doings there is something about such details that seems +childish, but a "gold chain" was by no means a small affair at a time +when $96 was considered an ample money-provision for an artist. + +That gorgeous gold chain, a mark of distinction rather than a reward, +is to be seen in all its glory in one of Rubens's great paintings. The +artist himself is mounted upon a horse, the chain about his neck, +while he is surrounded by "no fewer than eight-and-twenty life-size +figures, many in gorgeous attire, warriors in steel armour, horsemen, +slaves, camels, etc." This picture, "The Adoration of the Magi," was +twelve feet by seventeen, and was painted at the town's expense. It +was later sent to Spain and placed in the Madrid Gallery. + +One of the greatest honours that could come to students of that day, +was to be admitted to Rubens's studio to paint under his direction, +and it is said that "hundreds of young men waited their turn, painting +meanwhile in the studios of inferior artists, till they should be +admitted to the studio of the great master." + +Rubens was a king among painters, as well as a painter patronised by +kings. + +He had two wives, and he married the first one in 1609. Her name was +Isabella Brant. Sir Joshua Reynolds said of her: "His wife is very +handsome and has an agreeable countenance, but the picture is rather +hard in manner"--by which he meant a picture which Rubens had painted +of her. One of his greatest privileges when he was engaged at the +court of Albert and Isabella, had been that he need obey none of the +exactions of the Guild of St. Luke, none of their rigid rules +concerning the employment of art students. Rubens could take into his +service whom he pleased, whether they had been admitted as members of +the guild or not, though to be a member of the guild was a testimony +to their qualifications. In the end, this did a good deal of harm, for +Rubens employed students to do the preliminary work of his pictures, +who had not been his pupils and who were not otherwise qualified. Thus +we read criticisms like that of Sir Joshua's; and many of Rubens's +pictures are marred in this manner. + +A story is told of Van Dyck and other pupils of Rubens breaking into +the master's studio and smudging a picture which Van Dyck afterward +repaired by painting in the damaged portion most successfully. We are +also told in connection with Rubens's picture, "The Descent from the +Cross," that Van Dyck restored an arm and shoulder of Mary of Magdala, +but certainly Van Dyck did not become a pupil of Rubens till some time +after that picture was painted. + +The work of a wonderful period in Rubens's art was completely +destroyed. In two years time he painted forty ceilings of churches in +Antwerp, all of which were burned, but there is a record of them in +the copies made by De Witt, in water colours from which etchings were +afterward made. This work of Rubens was the first example of +foreshortening done by a Flemish painter. + +Above all things Rubens liked to paint big pictures, on very large +surfaces, as did Michael Angelo. "The large size of picture gives us +painters more courage to present our ideas with the utmost freedom and +semblance of reality. ... I confess myself to be, by a natural +instinct, better fitted to execute works of the largest size." He +wrote this to the English diplomat Trumbull in 1621. + +In the midst of Rubens's greatest success as a painter came his +diplomatic services. It was desirable that Spain and England should be +friends, and Rubens always moving about because of his work, and being +so very clever, the Spanish powers thought him a good one to negotiate +with England. While on a professional visit to Paris, the English Duke +of Buckingham and the artist met, and this seemed to open a way for +business. The Infanta consented to have Rubens undertake this delicate +piece of statesmanship, but Philip of Spain did not like the idea of +an artist--a wandering fellow, as an artist was then thought to +be--entering into such a dignified affair. The real negotiator on the +English side, was Gerbier, by birth also a Fleming, and strange to +tell, he too had been an artist. The English engaged him to look after +their interests in the affair, and as soon as Philip learned that +their diplomat was also an artist, his prejudices against Rubens as a +statesman, disappeared. So it was decided that the two Flemings, +artists and diplomats, should meet in Holland to discuss +matters. About that time Sir Dudley Carleton wrote to Lord Conway: +"Rubens is come hither to Holland, where he now is, and Gerbier in his +company, walking from town to town, upon their pretence of taking +pictures, which may serve him for a few days if he dispatch and be +gone; but yf he entertayne tyme here long, he will infallibly be layd +hold of, or sent with disgrace out of the country ... this I have made +known to Rubens lest he should meet with a skorne what may in some +sort reflect upon others." + +The two clever men got through with their talk, nothing unfortunate +happened, and Rubens got off to Spain where he laid the result of his +talk with Gerbier before the Spanish powers. He was given a studio in +Philip's palace, where he carried on his art and his diplomacy. The +king became delighted with him as a man and an artist, and as well as +attending to state business, he did some wonderful painting while in +Madrid. He was there nine months or more, and then started off for +England to tell Charles I. of Philip III.'s wishes. But upon his +arrival he learned that a peace had just been concluded between France +and England, and all was excitement. + +He was received in England as a great artist; every honour was +showered upon him, and when he made Philip's request to Charles, that +he should not act in a manner hostile to Spain, Charles agreed, and +kept that agreement though France and Venice urged him to break it. + +Charles knighted Rubens while he was in England, and the University of +Cambridge made him Master of Arts. The sword used by the king at the +time he gave the accolade is still kept by Rubens's descendants. + +While he was in London Rubens was very nearly drowned in the Thames +going down to Greenwich in a boat. + +When he first went from Italy to Spain on a mission of state, he +carried a note or passport bearing the following lines: "With these +presents" (he took magnificent gifts to Philip, among them a carriage +and six Neapolitan horses) "comes Peter Paul, a Fleming. Peter Paul +will say all that is proper, like the well informed man that he +is. Peter Paul is very successful in painting portraits. If any ladies +of quality wish their pictures, let them take advantage of his +presence." When he visited England there was no longer need of such +introduction; he went in all the magnificence that his genius had +earned for him. + +Rubens was always a happy man, so far as history shows. He married the +first time, a woman who was beautiful and who loved him, as he loved +her. He was able to build for himself a beautiful house in Antwerp. In +the middle of it was a great _salon_, big enough to hold all his +collection of pictures, vases, bronzes, and beautiful jewels. There +was also a magnificent staircase, up which his largest pictures could +be easily carried, for it was built especially to accommodate the +requirements of his work. + +Rubens's greatest picture was painted through a strange happening when +this beautiful house was being built. The land next to his belonged to +the Archers' Guild and when the workmen came to dig Rubens's cellar, +they went too far and invaded the adjoining property. The archers made +complaint, and there seemed no way to adjust the matter, till some one +suggested that Rubens make them a picture which should be accepted as +compensation for the harm done. This Rubens did, and the picture was +to be St. Christopher--the archers' patron saint; but when the work +was done "Rubens surprised them" by exhibiting a picture "of all who +could ever have been called 'Christ-bearers.'" This was "The Descent +from the Cross"--not a single picture but a picture within a picture, +for there were shutters folding in front of it, and on these was +painted the archers' patron, St. Christopher. + +Rubens's daily life is described thus: "His life was very +methodical. He rose at four, attended mass, breakfasted, and painted +for hours; then he rested, dined, worked until late afternoon; then, +after riding for an hour or two one of his spirited horses, and later +supping, he would spend the evening with his friends. + +"He was fond of books, and often a friend would read aloud to him +while he worked." This is a pleasant picture of a reasonable and +worthy life. + +It is said that once he painted eighteen pictures in eighteen days, +and it is known that he valued his time at fifty dollars a day. + +His pupil, Van Dyck, being pushed for money, turned alchemist and +tried to manufacture gold, but when Rubens was approached by a +visionary who wanted him to lend him money by which he might pursue +such a work, promising Rubens a fortune when he should have discovered +how to make his gold, the artist laughed and said: "You are twenty +years too late, friend. When I wield these," indicating his palette +and brush, "I turn all to gold." + +Many are the delightful anecdotes told of Rubens. It is said that +while he was at the English court he was painting the ceiling of the +king's banqueting hall, and a courtier who stood watching, wished to +say something _pour passer le temps_, so he asked: "Does the +ambassador of his Catholic Majesty sometimes amuse himself with +painting?" + +"No--but he sometimes amuses himself with being an ambassador," was +the witty retort, which showed how he valued his two commissions. + +When King Charles I. knighted Rubens he gave him, beside the jewelled +sword, a golden chain to which his miniature was attached. If Rubens +had gone about with all the chains and decorations given him by kings +and other great ones of the earth he would have been weighted down, +and would have needed two pairs of shoulders on which to display them. + +Rubens's first wife died; and when he married again, he was as fond of +painting pictures of the second wife as he had been of the first. The +name of the second was Helena Fourment, and she is called by one +author "a spicy blonde." Certainly she was very gay, big, and robust, +and only sixteen years old when she married Rubens who was then a man +of fifty-three. Of one picture, "The Straw Hat," for which he is +supposed to have used his wife's sister as model, he was so fond that +he would not sell it at any price. + +Rubens had a rare mother, as shown in her letters to her husband, +John, when he was in prison for his wrongdoing. It would seem that +such a mother must have a strong, forceful son, and Rubens is less of +a surprise than many artists who had no such influence in their +childhood. The history of Rubens's mother is worthy of being told even +had she not had a famous son who painted a beautiful picture of her. + +Rubens's "Holy Families" are like those of no other painter. The +Virgin, the Child, all the others in the picture, are quite different +from the Italian figures. These are human beings, good to look upon; +full of love and joy, softness and beauty. + +It was his learning that first won favour for him in Italy. The Duke +of Mantua hearing him read from Virgil, spoke to him in Latin, and +being answered in that tongue was so charmed that the foundation of +their friendship and the duke's patronage was laid. In Italy he was +called "the antiquary and Apelles of our time." + +His nephew-biographer writes of him: "He never gave himself the +pastime of going to parties where there was drinking and card-playing, +having always had a dislike for such." + +As Rubens grew in fame, he found that many were jealous of him, and on +one occasion a rival proposed that he and Rubens each paint a picture +upon a certain subject and leave it to judges to decide which work was +the best--Rubens's or his own. + +"No," said Rubens. "My attempts have been subjected to the scrutiny of +connoisseurs in Italy and Spain. They are to be found in public +collections and private galleries in those countries; gentlemen are at +liberty to place their works beside them, in order that comparison may +be made." This was a dignified way of disposing of the case. + +Rubens loved to paint animals, and he had a great lion brought to his +home, that he might study its poses and movements. + +The flesh of his figures was so lifelike that Guido declared he must +mix blood with his paints. He was called "the painter of life." + +Rubens, a seventh child, had also seven children, two belonging to his +first wife, five to the second. + +Many stories are told of his patience and his kindness. It is said +that at one time his old pupil, Van Dyck, returned to Antwerp after an +absence, greatly depressed and in need of money. Rubens bought all his +unsold pictures, and he did this charitable act more than once, and is +known to have done the same thing for a rival and enemy, out of sheer +goodness of heart. + +Kings and queens came to the Rubens house, people of many nations did +him honour; and toward his closing days, when gout had disabled him, +ambassadors visited him, since he could not go to them. + +In a description of his death and burial which took place at Antwerp +we read: "He was buried at night as was the custom, a great concourse +of citizens ... and sixty orphan children with torches followed the +body." He was placed in the vault of the Fourment family, and as he +had requested, "The Holy Family" was hung above him. In that picture, +we find the St. George to be Rubens himself; St. Jerome, his father; +an angel, his youngest son, while Martha and Mary are Isabella and +Helena, his two wives. + +He left many sketches "to whichever of his sons became an artist, or +to the husband of his daughter who should marry an artist." But there +were none such to claim the bequest. + + PLATE--THE INFANT JESUS AND ST. JOHN + +The little girl behind Jesus is supposed to represent his future +bride, the Christian Church. The thoughtful, far-seeing look upon the +face of the Christ-child, though it does not clash with His youthful +charm, is meant to suggest that He has a premonition of His work in +the world. The other joyous little figures also demonstrate the +artist's love for children. He brings them into his pictures, as +cherubs, wherever he can, and they are frequently just as well painted +and more universally appreciated than his stout women. In this picture +he has a good opportunity to show his adorable flesh tints, combined +with the movement and freedom naturally associated with child life. + +The original painting is in the Court Museum at Vienna, but it has +always been so popular that many copies of it have been made, and one +of these is in the Berlin Gallery. + + PLATE--THE ARTIST'S TWO SONS + _(See Frontispiece_) + +This picture hangs in the Lichtenstein Gallery at Vienna; the two +boys, eleven and seven years of age, are the sons of Rubens by his +first wife, Isabella Brant; and Albert, the elder of the two, greatly +resembles his mother. He is evidently a student, for he wears the +dress of one and carries a book in one hand. The other is placed +affectionately upon the shoulder of his little brother, Nicolas, whose +face, figure, and attire are all much the more childish of the two. + +Critics consider this painting to mark the Highest point which Rubens +reached in portraiture. It has all the colour, character, and vitality +of his best work. Some of his other pictures are: "Coronation of Marie +de Medicis," "The Kirmesse," "Slaughter of the Innocents," "Susanna's +Bath," "Capture of Samson," "A Lion Hunt" and "The Rape of the +Daughters of Leucippus." + + + + +XXXVI + +JOHN SINGER SARGENT + + + _American and Foreign Schools_ + 1856-1926 + _Pupil of Carolus Durand_ + +This artist was born in Europe, of American parents; thus we may say +that he was "American," though he owed nothing but dollars to the +United States, since his instruction was obtained in Italy and France, +and all his associations in art and friendship were there. He was +probably the most brilliant of the artists termed American. His great +mural work in the Boston Public Library, is hardly to be surpassed. + +Above all, Sargent's portraits are masterly. He was famous in that +branch of art before he was twenty-eight years old. Among his finest +portraits is that of "Carmencita," a Spanish dancer, who for a time +set the world wild with pleasure. The list of his famous portraits is +very long. + +Sargent's father was a Philadelphia physician; who originally came +from New England, but the artist himself was born in Florence. He was +given a good education and grew up with the beauties of Florence all +about him, in a refined and charming home. He was the delight of his +master, Carolus Durand for he was modest and refined, yet full of +enthusiasm and energy. In his twenty-third year he painted a fine +picture of his master. Sargent was a musician as well as a painter; a +man of great versatility, as if the gods and all the muses had +presided at his birth. + + PLATE--CARMENCITA + +In this picture of the famous Spanish dancer Sargent shows all the +life and character he can put into a portrait. The girl seems on the +point of springing into motion. She is poised, ready for flight and +the proud lift of her head makes one believe that she will accomplish +the most difficult steps she attempts. The painting is in the +Luxembourg, Paris. + +Other noted Sargent portraits are "Mr. Marquand" in the Metropolitan +Museum of Art, "Lady Elcho, Mrs. Arden, Mrs. Tennant," "Mrs. Meyer and +Children," "Homer St. Gaudens," "Henschel," and "Mr. Penrose." + + + + +XXXVII + +TINTORETTO (JACOPO ROBUSTI) + + + _Venetian School_ + 1518-1594 + _Pupil of Titian_ + +Tintoretto was born with an ideal. As a young boy he wrote upon his +studio wall: "The drawing of Michael Angelo, the colouring of Titian," +and that was the end he tried to reach. His father was a "tintore"--a +dyer of silk, a tinter--and it was from the character of that work the +artist took his name. He helped his father with the dyeing of silks, +while he was still a child, and was called "II tintoretto," little +dyer. + +As the little tinter showed great genius for painting, his father +placed him in Titian's studio, but for some reason he only stayed +there a few days, long enough, however, to permit us to call him a +pupil of Titian; especially as he wrote that master's name upon his +wall and determined to imitate him. After his few days with Titian, +Tintoretto studied with Schiavone and afterward set up a studio for +himself. + +As a determined lad in this studio of his, Tintoretto tried every +means of developing his art. He studied the figures upon Medicean +tombs made by Michael Angelo, taking plaster casts of them and copying +them in his studio. He used to hang little clay figures up by strings +attached to his ceiling, that he might get the effect of them high in +air. By looking at them thus from below he gained an idea of +foreshortening. + +Although this artist nearly succeeded in getting into line with +Michael Angelo, he did not colour after the fashion of his master, +Titian. Tintoretto was about twenty-eight years old before he got any +very big commission, but at that age a chance came to him. In the +church of Santa Maria del Orto were two great bare spaces, unsightly +and vast, about fifty feet high and twenty broad. In that day anything +and everything was decorated with masterpieces, and it was almost +disgraceful for a church to let such a space as that go +unfrescoed. Tintoretto saw an opportunity, and finally offered to +paint pictures there for nothing if the church would agree to pay for +the materials he needed. The church certainly was not going to refuse +such an offer, even if Tintoretto was not thought to be much of an +artist at the time. If the work was poor, one day they could choose to +have it repainted. Thus Tintoretto got his first great opportunity. He +painted on those walls "The Last Judgment" and "The Golden Calf." They +made him famous, and gained him the commission to paint the picture +which is used as an illustration here. + +The brothers of the Scuola di San Rocco asked him to compete with +Veronese, in painting the ceilings after he had done four pictures for +their walls. + +Tintoretto consented, and Veronese and two others who were in the +competition set about making their sketches which they were to present +for the brothers' consideration. Finaly the day of decision came. All +were assembled, the artists armed with sketches of their plans. + +"Where are yours, Tintoretto?" the others asked. "We expect a drawing +of your idea." + +"Well, there it is," the artist answered, drawing a screen from the +ceiling. Behold! he had already painted it to suit himself. The work +was complete. + +"That is the way I make my sketches," he said. + +Though the work was magnificent it had not been done according to the +monks' ideas of business and order. They objected and objected. + +"Very well," the artist cried; "I will make the ceiling a present to +you." As there was a rule of their order forbidding them to refuse a +present, they had to accept Tintoretto's. This did not promise very +good business at the time, but the work was so splendid and Tintoretto +so reasonable that they finally agreed to give him all the work of +their order--nearly enough to keep him employed during a +lifetime. After that he painted sixty great pictures upon their walls. + +He painted so much and so fast that he did not always do good work, +and one critic declares that "while Tintoretto was the equal of +Titian, he was often inferior to Tintoretto"--which after all is a +very fine compliment. + +His life was so tranquil and uneventful that there is little to say of +it; but there is much to say of his art. He lived mostly in his +studio, and when he died he was buried in the Santa Maria del +Orto--the church in which he had done his first work. + +Veronese had given to Venice a brilliant, glowing, rich, ravishing +riot of colour and figures, but Tintoretto was said to rise up +"against the joyful Veronese as the black knight of the Middle Ages, +the sombre priest of a gloomy art." Tintoretto was of stormy +temperament, and upon one occasion he proved it by thrusting a pistol +under a critic's nose, after he had invited him to his studio; it is +this half savage spirit that may be seen in his paintings. He had +deep-set, staring eyes, it is said, a furrowed brow and hollow cheeks, +indicative of his passionate spirit. He painted very few female +figures, but mostly men. When he did paint a woman, she looked mannish +and not beautiful. When he painted gorgeous subjects, like doges and +senators, he gave to them gloomy backgrounds, awe-inspiring poses, and +he seldom painted a figure "full-face" but three-quarter, or half, so +that he did not give himself a chance to present human figures in +beautiful postures. He is said to have been the first who painted +groups of well-known men in pictures intended for the decoration of +public buildings. One great critic has written that "while the Dutch, +in order to unite figures, represented them at a banquet, Tintoretto's +_nobili_ (aristocrats) were far too proud to show themselves to the +people" in so gay and informal a situation. With the coming of +Tintoretto it was said "a dark cloud had overcast the bright heaven of +Venetian art. Instead of smiling women, bloody martyrs and pale +ascetics" were painted by him. He dissected the dead in order to learn +the structure of the human body. In his paintings "his women, +especially, with their pale livid features and encircled eyes, +strangely sparkling as if from black depths, have nothing in common +with the soft" painted flesh which he pictured in his youth while he +was following Titian as closely as he could. As he grew older and his +art more fixed, he followed Michael Angelo more and more. Titian's +colouring was that of "an autumn day" but Tintoretto's that of a +"dismal night." Yet these very qualities in Tintoretto's work made him +great. + + PLATE--THE MIRACLE OF ST. MARK + +This painting in the Academy at Venice tells the story of how a +Christian slave who belonged to a pagan nobleman went to worship at +the shrine of St. Mark. That was unlawful. The nobleman had his slave +taken before the judge, who ordered him to be tortured. Just as the +executioner raised the hammer with which he was finally to kill the +slave, St. Mark himself came down from heaven, broke the weapon and +rescued the slave. + +The figure of the patron saint of Venice is swooping down, head first, +above the group, his garments flying in the air. A bright light +touches the slave's naked body, as he lies upon his back, the +executioner having turned away and raised his hammer aloft, while +others have drawn back in fright at the appearance of the patron +saint. We may imagine that Tintoretto was trying to acquire this power +of painting wonderful figures hovering in the air when he hung his +little clay images from the ceiling of his studio years before. Other +pictures of his are: "The Marriage of Bacchus and Ariadne," "Martyrdom +of St. Agnes," "St. Rocco Healing the Sick," "The Annunciation," "The +Crucifixion," and many others. + + + + +XXXVIII + +TITIAN (TIZIANO VECELLI) + + + (Pronounced Tit-zee-ah'no (Vay-chel'lee)) + _Venetian School_ + 1477-1576 + _Pupil of Giovanni and Gentile Bellini_ + +Titian was a child of the Tirol Mountains, handsome, strong, full of +health and fine purposes, even as a boy. He was born in a little +cottage at Pieve, in the valley of Cadore, through which flows the +River Piave; and he wandered daily beside its banks, gathering flowers +from which he squeezed the juices to paint with. When he grew up he +became a wonderful colourist, and from his boyhood nothing so much +delighted him as the brilliant colours flaunted by the flowers of wood +and field. + +Gathered about his good father's hearth were many children, Caterina, +Francesco, Orsa, and the rest, living in peace and happiness, closely +bound together by love. Titian had a gentle, loving mother named +Lucia, while his father was a soldier and an honoured man. In the +little town where they lived, he was councillor and also +superintendent of the castle and inspector of mines, no light honours +among those simple country people. Doubtless Titian inherited his +splendid bearing and his determined character from his soldier father. + +Even while a little child, the man who was destined to become a great +artist began his work with the juices of the wild-flowers, which he +daubed upon the wall of the humble home in the Tirol valley, making a +Madonna with angels at her feet and a little Jesus upon her knee. But +if Titian was a great painter, he was never even a fair scholar. He +went to school, but would not, or could not, study. His father soon +saw that he was wasting his time and being made very unhappy through +being forced to do that for which he had no ability; so he was soon +released from book-learning and sent to Venice, seventy-five miles +from home, to learn art. In Venice, the Vecelli family had an uncle, +and it was with him that Titian lived, though he studied first with +Sebastian Zuccato, the head of the Venetian guild of mosaic workers, +and a pretty good teacher in his way. He was not able to teach Titian +very much, for the boy was an inspired artist and needed a good +master; so, after a little, the family held a consultation and it was +decided that Titian should become the pupil of Gentile Bellini, a very +clever artist indeed. There was an interesting story told about this +master which made the Vecellis feel that their boy would do well to be +under the influence of a kind-hearted man, as well as a genius. It +seems that Bellini's fame had become so great that the Sultan had sent +for him to paint the portraits of himself and the Sultana. Bellini +went gladly to Turkey to do this; but he took with him certain +pictures to show his patron. Among them was one of St. John the +Baptist having his head cut off. The Sultan looked at it, and cutting +heads off being a large part of his business, he saw that Bellini had +not scientifically painted it, and in order to show him the true way +to conduct such matters, he sent for a slave and ordered his head +chopped off in Bellini's presence. Bellini was so terrified and +sickened by the dreadful sight that he fled from Turkey and would not +paint its ruler, the Sultana nor anyone else who had to do with such +cruel things as he had witnessed. + +It was into this man's studio that Titian went as a young boy, but +after a little he displeased Gentile Bellini, who complained that his +pupil worked too fast, and therefore could not expect to do great +work. He declared that picture painting was serious and careful work, +and that Titian was too careless and quick. As a matter of fact, +Titian was too wonderful for Bellini ever to do much for; and since he +could not get on with him, he went to another master--Gentile +Bellini's brother, Giovanni. One of Titian's chief troubles in the +studio of Gentile had been that he was not allowed to use the gorgeous +colouring he loved, but in the brother's studio he found to his joy +that colour was more valued, and he was given more freedom to use +it. Also there was a young peasant pupil with Giovanni, who, like +Titian, loved to use beautiful colours, and he and the newcomer became +fast friends. + +The other artist's name was Giorgione, and he had the most delightful +ways about him, winning friends wherever he went, so it was no wonder +that the warm-hearted Titian sought his companionship. One day those +two young comrades left their master's studio, to have a good time off +by themselves. There was a stated hour for their return; but they had +spent all their money, and forgot that Giovanni Bellini was expecting +them home. When they did return the door was closed and locked. What +were they to do? They did the only thing they could. As comrades in +misfortune they joined forces, set up a studio of their own, and went +to work to earn their living as best they might. At first it was hard +sledding, but in time they got a good job, namely to decorate the +walls of a public building in Venice which was used by foreign +merchants for the transaction of their business, a sort of "exchange," +as we understand it. This was the Fondaco de' Tedeschi, and it had two +great halls, eighty rooms, and twenty-six warehouses. It was indeed a +big undertaking for the two young men, and they divided the business +between them. Their joy was great, their cartoons successfully made +and the work well begun, when, alas, they fell to quarreling simply +because someone had declared that Titian's work upon the building was +a little better than Giorgione's. + +This dispute parted the two friends, who had had good times together, +and it must have been Giorgione's fault, because Ludovico Dolce, one +who knew Titian well, said that "he was most modest ... he never spoke +reproachfully of other painters ... in his discourse he was ever ready +to give honour where honour was due ... he was, moreover, an eloquent +speaker, having an excellent wit and perfect judgment in all things; +of a most sweet and gentle nature, affable and most courteous in +manner; so that whoever once conversed with him could not choose but +love him henceforth forever." That is a most loving and splendid +tribute for one man to pay another. Not long after Giorgione died, and +Titian took up his unfinished work, doing it as well as his own. + +There was a brilliant and mature artist called Palma Vecchio, in +Venice, and Titian painted in his studio, where he saw and loved +Vecchio's daughter, Violante. The young artist was not very well off +financially, and therefore could not marry; hence he was not specially +happy over his love affair. About that time he took to painting after +the manner of Vecchio, through being so much influenced by his soft +feelings for the older artist's daughter. He used the lovely Violante +again and again for his model, and many of the beautiful faces which +Titian painted at that time show the features of his lady-love. With +his new love Titian's serious work seemed to begin, and at twenty-one +he painted his first truly great picture, "Sacred and Profane Love." +To day this picture hangs upon the walls of the Borghese Palace, in +Rome. + +Raphael painted a great many pictures, but Titian must have painted +more. At least one thousand have his signature. + +Now came wars and troubles for Venice. The Turks, French, and +Venetians became at odds, and during the strife many fine works of art +were lost, among them many of Titian's pictures. He had painted +bishops, also the wicked Borgias, and many other great personages, but +all of these are gone and to this day, no one knows what became of +them. + +At last Titian began one of his greatest paintings, "The Tribute +Money," and he set about it because he had been criticised. Some +German travellers in Venice visited Titian's studio, and though they +found his work very fine, one of them said that after all there was +only one master able to finish a painting as it should be finished, +and that was the great Durer. The German pointed out the differences +between Titian's method and Durer's, and declared that Venetian +painters never quite came up to the promise of their first +pictures. Durer's wonderful pictures were quite different from +Titian's, inasmuch as his work was fuller of detail and careful +finishing, but Titian was as great in another way. His effects were +broader, but quite as satisfying. However, the German criticism put +him on his mettle, and he answered that if he had thought the greatest +value of a painting lay in its fiddling little details of finishing, +he too would have painted them. To show that he could paint after +Durer's fashion, as well as his own, he undertook the "Tribute Money," +and the result was a wonderful picture. + +Soon Rome sent for Titian. The Florentines, Raphael and Michael +Angelo, were already there doing marvellous things, but the pope +wished to add the genius of Titian to theirs and made him a great +offer to go and live in Rome and do his future work for that +city. This was an honour, but amid all his fame and the homage paid +him, Titian had remembered the old home in the vale of Cadore. It was +there his heart was, and he determined to return to the home of his +boyhood to do his best work. So he sent his thanks and refusal to the +pope, and he wrote as follows to his home folks, through the council +of his town: + +"I, Titian of Cadore, having studied painting from childhood upward, +and desirous of fame rather than profit, wish to serve the doge and +signorini, rather than his highness the pope and other signori, who in +past days, and even now, have urgently asked to employ me. I am +therefore anxious, if it should appear feasible to paint the hall of +council, beginning, if it pleases their sublimity, with the canvas of +the battle on the side toward the Piazza, which is so difficult that +no one as yet has had the courage to attempt it." + +Then in stating his terms he asked for a very moderate sum of money +and a "brokerage" for life. The Government did not have to think over +the matter long. Titian's father had been honoured among them, +Titian's genius was well known, and the commission was gladly given +him. As soon as he got this business affair settled he moved into the +palace of the Duke of Milan "at San Samuele; on the Grand Canal, where +he remained for sixteen years," so says his biographer. + +Titian's affairs were not yet entirely smooth, because both of the +Bellinis having painted for his patrons, they naturally considered +Titian an intruder, and thought that the work should have been given +to them. They did all they could to make trouble for the younger +artist, but after a time Titian came into his rights, receiving his +"brokerage" which gave to him a yearly sum of money 120 crowns, +$126.04. His taxes were taken off for the future, provided he would +agree to paint all the doges that should rule during his lifetime. + +Titian undertook to do this, but he did not keep his word, for he +painted only five doges, though many more followed. He had no sooner +received his commission from the council of his native place than he +began to neglect it, and to paint for the husband of the wicked +poisoner--Lucretia Borgia--whose name was Alfonso d'Este, the Duke of +Ferrara. It was for him he painted the "Venus Worship," now in the +Museum of Madrid, also "The Three Ages," which belongs to Lord +Ellesmere, and the "Virgin's Rest near Bethlehem," now in the National +Gallery. Afterward he painted "Noli Me Tangere," which is in the same +London Gallery. + +There is a picture of great size in the Academy of Arts in Venice, +which was first seen on a public holiday nearly four hundred years +ago. It is the "Assumption of the Virgin," first shown on +St. Bernardino's day, when all the public offices were closed by order +of the Senate, and the whole city had a gay time. This occasion made +Titian the most honoured artist of his time, but still the Venetians +had cause to complain; because now their painter took so much work in +hand that he nearly ceased doing the work on the council hall. The +council sent him word that unless he attended to business the +paintings should be finished by some one else and he would have to pay +the new artist out of his own pocket; but in waywardness he paid no +attention to this summons. Lucretia Borgia died, and her husband +having never loved her, fell at once in love with a girl of a lower +class, who was very good and worthy to be loved. The duke wanted +Titian to paint them both, and so once more the great painter +neglected his contract with the council. The girl's name was Laura, +and Titian painted her and the duke in one picture, which now hangs in +the Louvre. + +At last, after seven years of his neglecting to do his promised work +the council became enraged and threatened to take the artist's +property away from him. That frightened Titian very much, and he began +frantically to work on the battle piece on the hall wall. It was about +this time that he married. He had probably forgotten Violante in the +passing of so many years; at any rate it was not she whom he married, +but a lady whose first name was Cecilia. Soon he had a little family +of children, but one of them was destined to make Titian very +unhappy. This was Pomponic who became a priest, but he was also a +wicked spendthrift, and kept his father forever in trouble, trying to +pay his debts and keep him out of scrapes. Another son became an +artist; not great like his father, but very helpful and a comfort to +him. Then his wife died, and Titian had loved her so dearly that for a +long time he had not the heart to paint much. His sister, Orsa, came +to live at his home and take care of his motherless children. + +He left the palace on the Grand Canal and bought a home north of +Venice, with beautiful gardens attached, and there he lived and +worked, entertaining the most illustrious men. Titian's house and +gardens became the show place of the country, so many geniuses and +famous people visited there. It was there that he painted "The +Martyrdom of Saint Peter," and the picture was so loved by the +Venetians that the signori threatened with death any one who should +take the picture from the chapel where it hung. In spite of this +caution the picture was burned in the fire that destroyed the chapel +in 1867. + +Titian was now getting to be old, but he was yet to do great work and +to have kingly patrons. Charles V. visited Bologna, and, seeing +Titian's great work, wanted him to paint his portrait. So the artist +went to Bologna and painted the portrait of the king, clothed in +armour, but without any head-covering, making Charles V. look so fine +a personage, that he was delighted. Charles said he had always been +painted to look so much uglier than he really was that when people who +had seen his portraits, actually saw himself they were pleasantly +disappointed. While Titian was painting his picture, Lombardi, the +sculptor, wished above all things to see Charles, so Titian said: "You +come with me to the sittings, and act as if you were some apprentice, +carrying my colours and brushes, and then you can watch the king as +easily as possible." Lombardi did as Titian suggested, but he hid in +his big and baggy sleeve a tablet of wax, on which to make a relief +picture of Charles. One day the king surprised the sculptor and +demanded to be shown what he was doing. Thereupon he was so much +pleased that he commissioned Lombardi to make the model in +marble. While the king was sitting for two portraits to Titian, the +artist one day dropped his brush. The king looked at the courtiers who +were lounging about watching the work, but none of them picked it up, +so the king himself did so. Titian was distressed over this and +apologised to the king. "There may be many kings," said Charles, "but +there will never be more than one Titian--and he deserves to be served +by Caesar himself." After that he would allow no other artist to paint +his portrait, declaring that Titian alone could do it properly, and +for the two pictures Titian received two thousand scudi in gold, was +made a Count of the Lateran Palace, of the Aulic Council and of the +Consistory; with the title of Count Palatine and all the advantages +attached to those dignities. His children were thereby raised to the +rank of nobles of the empire, with all the honours appertaining to +families with four generations of ancestors. He was also made Knight +of the Golden Spur, with the right of entrance to court. This was +great return for two portraits of a king, but it shows what a king +could do if he chose. + +Titian had a brother who also became an artist, less famous than +himself, and it was that brother, who, when their father died in the +Cadore home, went back to care for the old place and to keep it in +readiness so that the famous Titian might return to it for rest and +peace. Foreign sovereigns had invited Titian to end his days with +them, but they could not tempt him from that vale of Cadore nor his +country home in Venice. + +All this time he had been neglecting the work upon the hall of +council, and at last, the councillors gave the work to another, took +away Titian's "brokerage" and told him he must return to Venice all +the moneys they had given him for twenty years back. This finally +cured him of his neglect, and he went to work in earnest painting so +rapidly that he finished the work in two years. + +Before he died Titian went to Rome, where he painted Pope Paul's +portrait, and the story is told that when the portrait was set to dry +upon the terrace--which it probably was not,--the people who passed +took off their hats to it, thinking it was the pope himself. + +Besides his bad son and his good one, Titian had a beautiful daughter +whom he painted again and again. He went to Augsburg once more to +paint King Charles, who for that work added a pension of five hundred +scudi to what he had already done for him. This made the artist "as +rich as a prince, instead of poor as a painter." King Philip II. loved +art as his father had, and he took a painting of Titian's with him to +the convent of Yuste, where he went to die, wishing to have it near to +console him. In those days art had become a religion for high and +low. Great personages still went to Casa Grande, Titian's Venetian +home, where he entertained like a prince. No one knew better than he +how princes behaved, and when a cardinal came to dine with him, he +threw his purse to his servant, crying: "Prepare a feast, for all the +world is dining with me!" Henry III. of France visited Titian and +ordered sent to him every picture of which he had asked the price. + +His friends stood by him all his life, but in his old age his +beautiful daughter, Lavinia, died, leaving behind her six children for +him to love as his own. The brother had died before that, in the old +home at Cadore, and at more than eighty years of age Titian was still +painting from morning till night. About this time he sent to King +Philip "The Last Supper," which was to be hung in the Escorial. The +monks found it too high to fill the space, and though the artist in +charge, Navarrette, begged them to let it be, they cut a piece off the +top, that it might be hung where they wanted it. Titian had so far had +to pay no taxes, but at that time an account of his property was +demanded and this is what he owned: "Several houses, pieces of land, +sawmills, and the like," and he was blamed because he did not state +the full value of his possessions. At ninety-one he painted a picture +which became the guide of Rubens and his brother artists, so wonderful +was it. Again, at ninety-nine he began a picture, which was to be +given to the monks of the Frari in return for a burial place for the +artist within the convent walls, but he never finished it. He died +during the time of the plague, but of old age alone, though his son, +Orzio, died of the disease. The alarm of the people was so great that +a law had been passed to bury all who died at that time, instantly and +without ceremony, but that law was waived for the painter. Titian, in +the midst of a nation's tragedy was borne to the convent of the Frari, +with honours. Two centuries later the Austrian Emperor commanded the +great sculptor, Canova, to make a mausoleum above the tomb. + +It was said that shortly before he died Titian began to be less sure +in his use of colours, and would often daub on great masses, but his +students came in the night and rubbed them off, so that the master +never felt his failing. + +As King Charles had said, there was never but one such artist in the +world. + +Titian prepared his canvas by painting upon it a solid colour to serve +for the bed upon which the picture itself was to be painted. To quote +more exactly from a good description--some of these foundation colours +were laid on with resolute strokes of his brush which was heavily +laden with colour, while the half-tints were made with pure red earth, +the lights with pure white, softened into the rest of the foundation +painting with touches of the same brush dipped into red, black, and +yellow. In this way he could give the "promise" of a figure in four +strokes. After laying this foundation, he turned his picture toward +the wall and left it there for months at a time, frequently turning it +around that he might criticise it. If, during this time of waiting, he +thought any part of the work already done was poor, he made it right, +changing the shape of an arm, adding flesh where he thought it was +needed, reducing flesh where it seemed to him out of proportion, and +then he would again turn the canvas face to the wall. After months of +self-criticism and retouching he would have the first layer of flesh +painted upon his figures, and a good beginning made. "It was contrary +to his habit to finish at one painting, and he used to say that a poet +who improvises cannot hope to form pure verses." He would often +produce a half-light with a rub of his finger, "or with a touch of the +thumb he would dab a spot of dark pigment into some corner to +strengthen it; or throw in a reddish stroke--a tear of blood so to +speak--to break the parts ... in fact when finishing he painted more +with his fingers than with his brush." He used to say, "White, red, +and black, these are all the colours that a painter needs, but one +must know how to use them." + + PLATE--THE ARTIST'S DAUGHTER, LAVINIA. + +Previous to the time of Titian, it had been the custom to paint +portraits of beautiful ladies merely to their waists, just far enough +to show their hands. He went further, and produced "knee portraits," +which gave him an opportunity to paint their gorgeous gowns as +well. He has done so in making this picture of his daughter Lavinia, +probably just before her marriage to Cornelio Sarcinelli which took +place in 1555. She is attired in gold-coloured brocade with pearls +about her neck. Her dress, combined with the dish of fruit she holds +so high, gives Titian the colour effects he always sought. A yellow +lemon is specially striking, and the red curtain to the left +harmonises with the whole. The uplift of the arms and the turn of the +head give the desired amount of action. It is not Titian's customary +style of work; he seldom did anything so intimate and personal, and +the picture is the more interesting on that account. It is in the +Berlin Gallery. + +Some of Titian's famous pictures are: his own portrait; "Flora," "Holy +Family and St. Bridget," "The Last Judgment," "The Entombment," "The +Magdalene," "Bacchanal," "St. Sebastian," "Bacchus and Ariadne," and +"The Sleeping Venus." + + + + +XXXIX + +JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER + + + _English_ + 1775-1851 + _Pupil of the Royal Academy_ + +If the occupation of a shepherd produced a poet, no less did an artist +of the first water come out of a barber shop. Turner's father was a +jolly little fellow who dressed hair for English dandies and did all +of those things which in those days fell to men of his profession. It +was in this little shop that the great artist grew up. Father Turner +was ambitious for his son, who was anxious to study art. The less said +of the artist's mother the better, for she was a termagant and finally +went crazy, so that the father and his little boy were soon left +alone, to plan and work and strive to make each other happy. The pair +were never apart. + +Turner's art beginning was at six years of age, on the occasion of a +visit his father paid to a goldsmith of whose hair curling and +peruquing he had charge. Perched upon a chair too high for a little +boy's comfort, and feeling that it took his father very long indeed to +satisfy the customer, Joseph's eye lighted upon a silver lion which +ornamented a silver tray. He studied every detail of that lion while +waiting for his father, and finally when they got home, he sat down +and drew it from memory. By tea time he had a lion in full action upon +the paper. This delighted his father above everything, and it was +settled then and there that the little fellow should have a chance to +learn art. + +The father could not give much time to his upbringing, but he taught +him to be honest and kind-hearted and to save his money. His +playground was generally the bank of the Thames, and under London +Bridge where, roving with the sailors, he learned to love the ships, +the setting-suns and evening waters from a daily study of them. + +He did not do much at school, because the other pupils at New +Brentford, learning that he could draw wonderful things upon the +schoolroom walls, used to do his "sums" for him, while he sketched for +them. After a while father Turner began to hang up some of his son's +sketches upon the walls of the barber shop, among the wigs and curls +and _toupees_, and he put little tags upon them, telling the +price. The extraordinary work of his little boy began to attract the +attention of the jolly barber's patrons, and by the time he was twelve +years old the child had a picture upon the walls of the Royal +Academy--a far-cry from barber shop to Academy! + +One authority says that this first exhibition occurred in his +fourteenth year, but by that time he was a pupil of the Academy, and +it is not unlikely that he had shown his mettle before. + +He now began to earn his own living, but he still dwelt in the barber +shop with his father. While in the Academy he coloured prints, made +backgrounds for other painters, drew architect's plans, and in that +way made money. He had been sent to a drawing master to study "the art +of perspective," but having no mathematical knowledge he had been +unable to learn it, and the teacher had advised his father to put +little Turner to cobbling or making clothes. However, William was to +learn perspective, and even to be made master of that branch of art in +the Academy itself. + +In after years, when he had become a great artist, someone spoke +pityingly of the drudgery he had had to do to make money as a young +boy--referring to his painting of backgrounds and the like. "Well! and +what could be better practice?" Turner answered cheerfully. + +He used to go to the house of Dr. Munro, who lived in fine style on +the Strand. This gentleman owned Rembrandts, Rubenses, Titians, and +other great masterpieces, and in that house the "little barber" had a +chance to see the best of art, and also to copy it. This was a great +opportunity for him and he made the most of it. Besides the chance for +study, he earned about half a crown an evening and his supper, for his +copying. + +Turner was the first painter to make "warm moonlight." All other +artists had given cold, silvery effects to a moonlit atmosphere, but +Turner had seen a mellow, sympathetic moon, and he first showed it to +others. About this time he went travelling; for an engraver of the +_Copper Plate Magazine_ had engaged the young boy to go into Wales and +make sketches for his work. Turner set off on a pony which a friend +had lent him, with his baggage done up in a bundle--it did not make a +very big one--and thus he voyaged. It was a fine experience, and he +came home with many beautiful scenes on paper, which he in after years +made into complete pictures. Next he made the acquaintance of Thomas +Girtin, the first in his country of a fine school of water-colour +painters, and this acquaintance grew into a close friendship. The two +were devoted to each other and worked together at any sort of +mechanical art work that would bring them a living. When Girtin died +Turner said: "Had Tim Girtin lived, I should have starved," showing +how highly he valued Girtin's work. + +Turner is said to have been "a stout, clumsy little fellow, who never +cared how he looked. He wore an ill-fitting suit, and his luggage tied +up in a handkerchief was slung over his shoulder on a cane. Sometimes +he carried a small valise and an old umbrella, the handle of which he +converted into a fishing rod, for Turner dearly loved both hunting and +fishing." + +The hero travelled a great deal, because above every thing he loved +the fields and streams, and to tramp alone. It is said that it was his +habit to walk twenty-five miles a day, seeing everything on the way, +letting no peculiarity of nature escape him. His sketchbook was a +curiosity, because he not only made sketches in it, but jotted down +his travelling expenses, what he thought about things that he saw, and +all the gossip he heard in the towns through which he passed. Because +he liked best to travel alone he was called "the Great Hermit of +Nature." + +One memorable day--of which he thought but little at the time--he +stopped on the road to make a sketch of Norham Castle. Later he +completed the picture, and it became famous, so successful that from +that hour he had all the work he could do. Years afterward, when +passing that way again in company with a friend, he was seen to take +off his hat to the castle. + +"Why are you doing that?" his friend asked, in amazement. + +"Well, that castle laid the foundation of my success," he answered, +"and I am pleased to salute it." + +During his young manhood Turner had fallen in love with a girl, and +planned to marry, but after he returned from one of his country trips +he found she had married another, and from that moment the artist was +a changed man. He had been generous and gay before, now he began to +save his money, so that people thought him miserly--but he was +forgiven when it became known what he finally did with his +fortune. After the young woman deserted him he wandered more than +ever, and one of his fancies was to keep boys from robbing birds' +nests. He looked after the little birds so carefully that the boys +named him "old Blackbirdy." He had already begun those wonderful +pictures of ships and seas, and his house was ornamented with +full-rigged little ships and water plants, which he carefully raised +to put into his pictures. By that time he had bought a home of his own +in the country, and his father the barber went to live with him. The +old man's trade had fallen off, because the fashions had changed, wigs +were less worn, and hair was not so elaborately dressed. In the +country home the old man took charge of all the household affairs, +prepared his son's canvases for him, and after the pictures were +painted it was the ex-barber who varnished them, so that Turner said, +"Father begins and finishes all my pictures." There the father and son +lived, in perfect peace and affection, till Turner decided to sell the +place and move into town, "because," said he, "Dad is always working +in the garden and catching cold." + +Meanwhile he had been made master of perspective in the Academy, and +it was expected that he would lecture to the students, but he was not +cut out for a lecturer. He was not elegant in his manners, nor +impressive in his speech. On one occasion, when he had risen to +deliver a speech, he looked helplessly about him and finally blurted +out: "Gentlemen! I've been and left my lecture in the hackney coach!" + +During these years he had tried to establish a studio like other +masters and to have pupils and apprentices about him; but the stupid +ones he could not endure, having no patience with them, and he treated +all the fashionable ones so bluntly they would not stay; so the idea +had to be given up. + +He became a visitor at Farnley Hall in Yorkshire, where a friend, +Mr. Hawksworth Fawkes lived, and in the course of his lifetime Fawkes +put fifty thousand dollars worth of Turner's pictures upon his +walls. The Fawkes family described Turner as a most delightful man: +"The fun, frolic, and shooting we enjoyed together, and which, +whatever may be said by others of his temper and disposition, have +proved to me that he was, in his hours of distraction from his +professional labours as kindly hearted a man and as capable of +enjoyment and fun of all kinds as any I ever knew." + +Another friend writes: "Of all light-hearted, merry creatures I ever +knew, Turner was the most so; and the laughter and fun that abounded +when he was an inmate of our cottage was inconceivable, particularly +with the juvenile members of our family." + +The story of his disappointment in marriage is an interesting one. It +is said that the young lady whom he loved was the sister of a +schoolmate. They had been engaged for some time, but while he was on +one of his travels his letters were stolen and kept from the young +woman. She believed he had forgotten her, and her stepmother, who had +taken the letters, persuaded the girl to engage herself to +another. Turner returned just a week before her marriage and tried to +win her back, but although she loved him, she felt herself then bound +to her new suitor and therefore married him. Her marriage was very +unhappy and her misery, as well as his own, distressed the artist till +his death. Almost all his life, in spite of his seeming gaiety, he +worked like a slave, rising at four o'clock in the morning and working +while light lasted. When remonstrated with about this he would sadly +say: "There are no holidays for me." + +All his ways were honest and simple, and his election to the Academy +was very exceptional in the way it came about. Most Academicians had +graces and airs and good fellowship to commend them, as well as their +works, but Turner had none of these things. He had given no dinners, +nor played a social part in order to get the membership. When the news +was brought him that he was elected, some one advised him to go and +thank his fellow Academicians for the honour, as that was the custom; +but Turner saw no reason in it. "Since I am elected, it must have been +because they thought my pictures made me worthy. Why, then should I +thank them? Why thank a man for performing a simple duty." In half a +century Turner was absent only three times from the Academy +exhibitions, and his membership was of very great value to him. + +At this time Turner had an idea for an art publication to be called +_Liber Studiorum_. He meant to issue this in dark blue covers and to +include in each number five plates. There was to be a series of five +hundred plates altogether, and these were to be divided, according to +subject, into historical, landscape, pastoral, mountainous, marine, +and architectural studies. After seventy plates had been, published, +the enterprise fell through, because no one bought the periodical, and +there was no money to keep it going. The engraver of the plates, +Charles Turner, became so disgusted with the failure that he even used +the proofs of these wonderful studies to kindle the fire with. Many +years later, a great print-dealer, Colnaghi, made Turner, the +engraver, hunt up all the proofs that he had not used for kindling +paper, and these he bought for oe1,500. + +"Good God!" cried Charles Turner, "I have been burning banknotes all +my life." + +Some years later still oe3,000 was paid for a single copy of the _Liber +Studiorum_. + +Turner was a most conscientious man, and many stories are told of his +manner of teaching. He could not talk eloquently nor give very clear +instructions, talking not being his forte, but he would lean over a +student's shoulder, point out the defects in his work, and then on a +paper beside him make a few marks to illustrate what he had said. If +the artist had genius enough then to imitate him, well and good; if +not, Turner simply went away and left him. His own ways of working +were remarkable. He often painted with a sponge and used his thumbnail +to "tear up a sea." It mattered little to him how he produced his +effects so long as he did it. His impressionistic style confused many +of his critics, and it is told how a fine lord once looked at a +picture be had made, and snorted: "Nothing but daubs, nothing but +daubs!" Then catching the inspiration, he leaned close to the canvas, +and said: "No! Painting! so it is!" + +"I find, Mr. Turner," said a lady, "that in copying your pictures, +touches of red, blue and yellow appear all through the work." + +"Well, madam, don't you see that yourself, in nature? Because if you +don't, heaven help you!" was the reply. + +"Once, after painting a summer evening, he thought that the picture +needed a dark spot in front by way of contrast; so he cut out a dog +from black paper and stuck it on. That dog still appears in the +picture." + +Another time he painted "A Snow-storm at Sea," which some critics +called "Soap-suds and Whitewash." Turner, who had been for hours +lashed to the mast of a ship in order to catch the proper effect, was +naturally much hurt by the criticism. "What would they have!" he +exclaimed. "I wonder what they think a storm is like. I wish they'd +been in it." + +Turner was conscientiously fond of his work, and when he sold a +picture he said that he had lost one of his children. + +He grew rich, but he never was knighted, because his manners were not +fine enough to suit the king. He wished to become President of the +Royal Academy, but that was impossible because he was not polished +enough to carry the honour gracefully. + +After selling his place in the country Turner bought a house in Harley +Street, where he lived a strange and lonely life. A gentleman has +written about this incident, which shows us his manner of living: + +"Two ladies called upon Turner while he lived in Harley Street. On +sending in their names, after having ascertained that he was at home, +they were politely requested to walk in, and were shown into a large +sitting-room without a fire. This was in the depth of winter; and +lying about in various places were several cats without tails. In a +short time our talented friend made his appearance, asking the ladies +if they felt cold. The youngest replied in the negative; her +companion, more curious, wished she had stated otherwise, as she hoped +they might have been shown into his sanctum or studio. After a little +conversation he offered them biscuits, which they partook of for the +novelty--such an event being almost unprecedented in his house. One of +the ladies bestowing some notice upon the cats, he was induced to +remark that he had seven, and that they came from the Isle of Man." + +Thus we learn that Turner's desolate house was full of Manx cats, and +of many other pets. When he had moved elsewhere--to 47 Queen Anne +Street--one of the pictures he cared most for, "Bligh Shore," was put +up as a covering to the window and a cat wishing to come in, scratched +it hopelessly. The housekeeper started to punish it for this but +Turner said indulgently, "Oh, never mind!" and saved the cat from +chastisement. + +The place he lived in, where his "dad was always working in the garden +and catching cold," he called Solus Lodge, because he wished his +acquaintances to understand that he wanted to be alone. One picture +painted by him to order, was to have brought him $2,500; but when it +was finished the man was disappointed with it and would not take +it. Later, Turner was offered $8,000 for it, but would not sell it. + +Turner again fell in love, but his bashfulness ruined his chances. He +wrote to the brother of the lady. "If she would only waive her +bashfulness, or, in other words, make an offer instead of expecting +one, the same (Solus Lodge) might change occupiers." Faint heart +certainly did not win fair lady in this case, for she married +another. Before he died Turner was offered $25,000 for two pictures +which he would not sell. "No" he said. "I have willed them and cannot +sell them." He disposed of several great works as legacies. One +picture of which he was very fond, "Carthage," was the occasion of an +amusing anecdote. "Chantry," he said to his friend the sculptor, "I +want you to promise that when I am dead you will see me rolled in that +canvas when I'm buried." + +"All right," said Chantry, "I'll do it, but I'll promise to have you +taken up and unrolled, also." + +A remarkable incident of generosity is told of Turner. In 1826 he hung +two exquisite pictures in the Academy. One, "Cologne," having a most +beautiful, golden effect. This was hung between two portraits by Sir +Thomas Lawrence. The golden colouring of Turner's picture entirely +destroyed the effect of the Lawrence pictures, and without a word, +Turner washed his lovely picture over with lampblack. This gave the +Lawrence, pictures their full colour value. A friend who had been +enthusiastic about the "Cologne" was provoked with Turner. "What in +the world did you do that for?" he demanded. "Well, poor Lawrence was +so unhappy. It will all wash off after the exhibition." Turner had his +reward in cash, for the picture sold for 2,000 guineas. + +Above all things Turner hated engravings, or any process that +cheapened art, and one day he stated this to his friend Lawrence. "I +don't choose to be a basket engraver," he declared. + +"What do you mean by that," Sir Thomas inquired. + +"Why when I got off the coach t' other day at Hastings, a woman came +up with a basket of your 'Mrs. Peel,' and offered to sell me one for a +sixpence." + +Turner dearly loved his friends, and the story of Chantry's death, +illustrates it. He was in his room when the sculptor breathed his +last, and just as he died, the artist turned to another friend, George +Jones, and with tears streaming down his face, wrung Jones's hand and +rushed from the room, unable to speak. + +Again, when William Frederick Wells, another friend, died, Turner +rushed to the house of Clara Wells, his daughter, and cried: "Oh +Clara, Clara! these are iron tears. I have lost the best friend I ever +had in my life." + +In his old age Turner suddenly disappeared from all his haunts, and +his friends could not find him. They were much troubled, but one day +his old housekeeper found a note in a pocket of an old coat, which +made her think he had gone to Chelsea. She looked there for him, and +found him very ill, in a little cottage on the Thames River. Everybody +about called him Admiral Booth, believing him to be a retired +admiral. He had felt his death near and had tried to meet it quite +alone. He died the very day after his friends found him, as he was +being wheeled by them to the window to look out upon the river for the +last time. He was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral between Sir Joshua +Reynolds and James Barry. He left his drawings and pictures to a +"Turner Gallery," and $100,000 to the Royal Academy, to be used for a +medal to be struck every two years for the best exhibitor. The rest of +his fortune went to care for "poor and decayed male artists born in +England and of English parents only." This was to be known as Turner's +Gift, and that is why he had saved money all his life. + +A few more of the numberless stories of his generosity should be +told. A picture had been sent to the Academy by a painter named Bird +It was very fine, and Turner was full of its praise, but when they +came to hang it no place could be found. + +"It can't be hung," the others of the committee said. + +"It must be hung," returned Turner, but nothing could be done about +it, for there was absolutely no place. Then Turner went aside with the +picture and sat studying it a long time. Finally he got up, took down +a picture of his own and hung Bird's in its place. "There!" he +said. "It is hung!" + +Again, an old drawing-master died and Turner who had known the family +for a long time, was aware that they were destitute, so he gave the +widow a good sum of money with which to bury her husband and to meet +general expenses. After some time she came to him with the money; but +Turner put his hands in his pockets. "No," he said; "keep it. Use it +to send the children to school and to church." + +On one occasion when he had irritably sent a beggar from his house, he +ran out and called her back, thrusting a oe5 note into her hand before +letting her go. + +There was a man who in Turner's youth, while the little fellow was +making pictures in the cheerless barber shop bought all of these +drawings he could find. He often raised the price and in every way +tried to help Turner. In after years that old patron went +bankrupt. Turner heard that his steward had been instructed to cut +down some fine old trees on this man's estate, and sell them. Turner, +without letting himself be known in the matter, at once stopped the +cutting and put into his old patron's hands about oe20,000. The rescued +man, afterward, through the same channels that he had received the +money, paid it all back. Years passed, and the son of that same man +got into the same difficulties, and again, without being known in the +matter, Turner restored his fortune. That son, in his turn, honestly +paid back the full amount. This was the miser who saved all his +money--to do good deeds to his friends. Ruskin wrote that in all his +life he had never heard from Turner one unkind or blameful word for +others. + + PLATE--THE FIGHTING TEMERAIRE + +This was the picture which Turner loved best of all, the one he would +never sell; but at his death ho gave it to the English nation. + +"Many years before he painted it, he had gone down to Portsmouth one +day to see Nelson's fleet come in after the glorious victory of +Trafalgar. The _Temeraire_ was pointed out to him--a battle ship that +had very proudly borne the English flag, for during the battle it had +run in between two French frigates and captured them both. + +"And now between thirty and forty years later, he lingered one +afternoon on the banks of the Thames. As he looked over the water he +saw the grand old hulk being towed down the river by a noisy little +tug to be broken up at Deptford. 'There's a fine subject!' he +exclaimed as he looked at the heroic ship that had known many glorious +years; and in his thought he compared it to 'a battle-scarred warrior +borne to the grave.' + +"Then he painted the picture. The glow of the setting sun irradiates +the scene and bids farewell to the old ship. Twilight is coming on, +and the new moon has just risen in its pearly light. It is a pathetic +picture," and well illustrates how truly a "master of sunsets and +waves" the artist was. + +Among his other paintings are several of Venice; "The Slave Ship" and +many other sea pieces. + + + + +XL + +SIR ANTHONY VAN DYCK + + + _Flemish School_ + 1599-1641 + _Pupil of Rubens_ + +Anthony Van Dyke's father was neither a gentleman nor an ill-born +person. He was "betwixt-and-between," being a silk merchant, who met +so many fine folk that he seemed to be "fine folk" himself; and by the +time Anthony had grown up, he actually believed himself to be one of +them. If manners stand for fineness Sir Anthony must have been +superfine, because he was almost overburdened with "manners." + +He became a wonderful, be-laced, perfumed, shiny gentleman who never +stooped to paint anything less than royalty and its associates, nor in +anything less than velvets and laces. Like Rembrandt and Gainsborough, +he set a fashion--or rather the style in which he painted came to be +known after his name. We are all familiar with the kind of +ornamentation on clothes called Van Dyck--pointed lace, or +trimmings--and pointed beards. + +As a very young lad he was almost too dainty to be liked by healthy +boys; and the worst of it was he did not care whether healthy, robust +chaps liked him or not; certainly he did not care for them. He liked +to sit in his father's shop and be smiled upon by the great ladies who +came to buy, and in turn to smile shyly at them; this tendency became +stronger as he grew to be a man. + +Anthony's mother made the most exquisite embroideries, and this may +mean that some part of his art was inherited. She handled lovely +colours, and tried to fashion beautiful flower shapes for +customers. She was a fragile, tender sort of woman, while the father +was doubtless a dapper, over-nice little fellow. + +Anthony was born in Antwerp, and the facts concerning his education, +as in the case of most artists, are lost to our knowledge. He probably +had a little of some sort outside of painting, but it certainly was +not enough to hurt him, nor to make a fine healthy man of him. He was +very beautiful, in a lady-like, faint-coloured way, not in the least +resembling the handsome, gorgeous, elegant, robust Rubens, a true +cavalier, of a dashing sort. + +He was apprenticed to a painter when he was ten years old, and later +on became the pupil of Rubens. He painted a whole series of Apostles' +heads, about which a lawsuit took place. The papers relating to this +were found about twenty years ago, though the lawsuit occurred as far +back as 1615. Several of the Apostles' heads that brought about the +suit are to-day to be seen in the gallery at Dresden. + +Everything in those days--especially in Germany and Holland--was +represented by a "guild." In reading about the Mastersingers of +Nuremberg we are told that on the day when the trial of singers was to +take place, dozens of "guilds" assembled in the meadow--guilds of +bakers, of shoemakers--of which Hans Sachs was the head--guilds of +goldsmiths, etc. Van Dyck was a member of the painters' guild when he +was no more than nineteen. His work at that time showed so much +strength that there is a picture of his, an old gentleman and lady, in +the Dresden gallery, which for a long time was supposed to have been +painted by his master, Rubens. + +An intimate friend of Van Dyck, Kenelm Digby, says that Van Dyck's +first relations with Rubens came about by Van Dyck being employed to +make engravings for the reproduction of Rubens's great works. After +that he studied painting with him. + +One of his friends of that time wrote that at twenty Van Dyck was +nearly as great as Rubens, though this is hardly substantiated by the +verdict of time, and that being a man with very rich family +connections, he could hardly be expected to leave home. On every hand +we have signs of the artist's affected feeling about himself and other +people. + +However, an annual pension from the King of England seems to have made +travelling possible to this fine gentleman of lace ruffles, pale face, +and lady-like ways. + +There is an entry about him on the royal account book of "Special +service ... performed for His Majesty." Also "Antonio Van Dyck, gent., +_His Majesty's servant_, is allowed to travaile 8 months, he havinge +obtayneid his Majesty's leave in that behalf, as was signified to the +E. of Arundel." Certainly by that time Van Dyck had become a truly +great portrait painter; not the greatest, because every picture showed +the same characteristics in its subject--elegance, fine clothes, +languid manners, without force of great truth or any excellent moral +quality to distinguish one from another. Nevertheless, the kind of +painting that he did, he did better than anyone else had ever done, or +probably ever will do. + +While in England he painted all the royalties and many aristocrats, +and wherever he went he was always painting pictures of himself. + +He travelled about a good deal, always painting people of the same +class--kings and queens and fine folk, and painting them pretty nearly +all alike. + +When he went to Italy he was everywhere received as a great painter, +but while artists agreed that his work was excellent he was not much +liked by them, and many tales are told about that journey which are +interesting, if not entirely true. Van Dyck was the sort of man about +whom tales would be made up. One, however, sounds true. It is said +that he fell in love--which of course he was always doing--with a +beautiful country girl, and that for love of her he painted an altar +piece into which he put himself, seated on the great gray horse which +Rubens had given him. That picture is in St. Martin's Church at +Saventhem, near Brussels, but although one is inclined to believe this +story because it was quite the sort of thing which might be expected +of Van Dyck, even this is not true, because the painting was done long +after the artist had made his Italian journey, and it was commissioned +by a gentleman living at Saventhem, whose daughter Van Dyck +undoubtedly liked pretty well; but he made the picture for money, not +for love. + +While he was in Italy he lived with a cardinal, and painted languid +pictures of sacred subjects, which were far from being his best +work. The best that he did was in portraiture. Distinguished though he +was, he did not have a very good time in Italy, because he would not +join the artists who worked there, nor associate with them in the +least, and naturally this made him disliked. + +We see a good many portraits painted by Van Dyck, of persons mounted +upon or standing beside the gray horse, and these were painted about +the time of that Italian journey. He used the Rubens horse in many +paintings. + +Of all the people with whom he painted, he most valued the knowledge +he got from a blind woman painter of Sicily, called Sofonisba +Anguisciola, and he often said that he had learned more from a blind +woman than from all the open-eyed men he ever knew. This woman artist +was over ninety years old at the time he learned from her. + +While he was in Italy the plague broke out, and Van Dyck fled for his +life, leaving an unfinished picture behind him, one ordered by the +English king, the subject being Rinaldo and Armida, which had gained +for the artist his knighthood pension. + +It is said that during his first year in England he painted the king +and queen twelve times. He had an extraordinary record for industry, +and painted very quickly, as he had need to do, because it took a +great deal of money to buy the sort of things Van Dyck liked--fine +laces and velvets, perfumes and satins. His plan was to sketch his +subject first on gray paper with black and white chalk, and after that +he gave the sketch to an assistant who increased it to the size he +wished to paint. The next step was to set his painter to work upon the +clothing of his figures. This was painted in roughly, together with +background and any architectural effect Van Dyck wanted. After this +the artist himself sat down and in three or four sittings, of not more +than an hour each, he was able to finish a picture worth to-day +thousands of dollars. + +He painted hands specially well, and kept certain models for them +alone. + +Van Dyck had eleven brothers and sisters, whom he always kept in +mind. Some of his sisters had become nuns while some of his brothers +were priests, and Van Dyck's influence got a monkish brother called to +the Dutch court to act as chaplain to the queen. + +By this time every royal personage in the world, nearly, had sent for +Van Dyck to paint his portrait, for he could make one look handsomer +than could any other painter in existence. If the king was very ugly, +Van Dyck painted such beautiful clothes upon him that nobody noticed +the plainness of the features. + +When Van Dyck was about thirty-six years old he married a great lady, +the Lady Mary Ruthven, granddaughter of the Earl of Gowrie, but before +that he had had a lady-love, Margaret Lemon, whom he painted as the +Virgin and in several other pictures. When he married Lady Mary, +Margaret Lemon was so furiously jealous that she tried to injure Van +Dyck's right hand so that he could paint no more. + +About this time Rubens died in Flanders, leaving behind him an +unfinished series of pictures which had been commissioned by the king +of Spain. Van Dyck was asked to finish these, but declined until he +was asked to make an independent picture, to complete the series, and +this he was delighted to do. Ferdinand of Austria wrote to the king of +Spain that Van Dyck had returned in great haste to London to arrange +for his change of home, in order to do the work. "Possibly he may +still change his mind," he added, "for he is stark mad." This shows +how Van Dyck's erratic ways appeared to some people. + +He had a sister, Justiniana, who was also something of an artist and +she married a nobleman when she was about twelve years old. + +When Van Dyck died he was buried in St. Paul's, London, and Charles +I. placed an inscription on his tomb. + +In the "Young People's Story of Art," is the following anecdote: "A +visit was once paid by a courtly looking stranger passing through +Haarlem, to Franz Hals, the distinguished Dutch painter. + +"Hals was not at home but he was sent for to the tavern and hastily +returned. The stranger told him that he had heard of his +reputation--had just two hours to spare--and wished to have his +portrait painted. Hals, seizing canvas and brushes fell vigorously to +work; and before the given time had elapsed, he said, 'Have the +goodness to rise, sir, and examine your portrait!' The stranger looked +at it, expressed his satisfaction, and then said, 'Painting seems such +a very easy thing, suppose we change places and see what I can do!' + +"Hals assented, and took his position as the sitter. The unknown +began, and as Hals watched him, he saw that he wielded the brush so +quickly, he must be a painter. His work, too, was rapidly finished, +and as Hals looked at it he exclaimed, 'You must be Van Dyck! No one +else could paint such a portrait!' + +"No two portraits could have been more unlike. The story adds that the +famous Dutch and Flemish masters heartily embraced each other." + +The stories of Van Dyck's youth are interesting, and probably true. It +is said that he drew so well when he was a pupil of Rubens that the +great master often allowed him to retouch his own works. Once in +Rubens's studio, some of the students got the key and went in to see +what the master was doing, when he was absent. Rubens had left a +painting fresh upon the easel, and in looking about them one of the +boys rubbed against it. This frightened them all. What should they do? +Rubens would find his picture ruined and know that they had broken in. + +After consultation they decided there was no one with them who could +repair the damage as well as Van Dyck, who set about it, and soon he +had painted in the smudged part so perfectly that when Rubens saw it, +he did not for some time know that anything had happened to his +picture. Later he suspected something, and when he learned of the +prank and its outcome, he was so delighted with Van Dyck's work that +he praised him instead of blaming him for it. + +Van Dyck had a very precise method of working. When sitters came to +him he would paint for just one hour. Then he would politely dismiss +them, and his servant would wash his brushes, and clear the way for +the next sitter. He dined with his sitters often that he might +surprise in them the expression which he wanted to paint. Also, he had +their clothing sent to his studio, that it might be exactly imitated +by himself or by those assistants who painted in the foundation for +his finished work. + +While attached to King Charles I.'s court, Van Dyck was given a fine +house at Blackfriars, on the Thames, and he had a private landing +place made for boats, so that the royal family might visit him at +their convenience. Charles I. used often to go to Van Dyck's studio to +escape his many troubles, and thus the artist's home became as +fashionable a gathering place, as Gainsborough's studio was in +Bath. He painted Queen Henrietta not less than twenty-five times. He +often furnished concerts for his sitters, for he himself was +passionately fond of music, and moreover he believed that music often +brought to the faces of his sitters, an expression that he loved to +paint. + +He painted so many pictures of a certain kind of little dog, in the +pictures of King Charles I. that ever since that breed has been known +as the King Charles spaniel. + +After a while Van Dyck got heavily into debt. King Charles himself was +in great trouble, and he had no money with which to pay his painter's +pension. The artist had lived so extravagantly that he did not know at +last which way to turn, so in desperation he thought to try alchemy +and maybe to learn the secret of making gold. He wasted much time at +this, as cleverer men have done, but at last he became too ill for +that or for his own proper work, and badly off though Charles was +himself, he offered his court physician a large sum if he could cure +his court painter. But Van Dyck had enjoyed life too well, and nothing +could be done for him. + +He was the seventh child of his parents--which some have thought had +something to do with his genius and success; he lived gaily all the +years of his life, going restlessly from place to place, and having +many acquaintances but probably few friends, outside of his old +master, Rubens, who loved him for his genius. + + PLATE--CHILDREN OF CHARLES THE FIRST + +Van Dyck painted the family of the unfortunate king of England four +times. There are five children in the Windsor Castle picture, and this +one, which hangs in the Turin Gallery, was probably painted before the +birth of the fourth child in 1636. It is celebrated for its colouring +as well as for its great artistic merit. The children are surely +childlike enough, despite their stately attire, and they little dream +of the sad fate awaiting the whole of the Stuart family to which they +belong. + +Other Van Dycks are: "The Blessed Herman Joseph," "Lords Digby and +Russell," "Lord Wharton," "Countess Folkestone," and "William Prince +of Orange." + + + + +XLI + +VELASQUEZ (DIEGO RODRIGUEZ DE SILVA) + + + (Pronounced Vay-lahs'keth) + _Castilian School_ + 1599-1669 + _Pupil of Herrera_ + +It is pretty difficult to find out why a man was named so-and-so in +the days of the early Italian and Spanish painters. More likely than +not they would be called after the master to whom they had been first +apprenticed; or after their trade; after the town from which they +came, and rarely because their father had had the name before them. In +Velasquez's case, he was named after his mother. + +No one seemed to be certain what to call him, but he generally wrote +his name "Diego de Silva Velasquez." His father was Rodriguez de +Silva, a lawyer, but in calling the boy Velasquez the family followed +a universal Spanish custom of naming children after their mothers. + +Little Velasquez was well taught in his childhood; he studied many +languages and philosophy, for he was intended to be a lawyer or +something learned, anything but a painter. The disappointment of +parents in those days, when they found a child was likely to become an +artist is touching. + +Despite his equipment for a useful life, according to the ideas of his +parents, this little chap was bound to become nothing but a maker of +pictures. + +Herrera was a bad-tempered master and little Velasquez could not get +on with him, so after a year of harsh treatment, he went to another +master, Pacheco, but by that time he had learned a secret that was to +help make his work great. Herrera had taught him to use a brush with +very long bristles, which had the effect of spreading the paint, +making it look as if his "colours had floated upon the canvas," in a +way that was the "despair of those who came after him." + +Velasquez was born in Seville at a time when about all the art of the +world was Italian or German; thus he became the creator of a new +school of painting. + +He stayed five years in Pacheco's studio and pupil and master became +very fond of each other. Pacheco was not a great master--not so good +as Herrera--but he was easy to get on with, and knew a good deal about +painting, so that as Velasquez had the genius, he was as well placed +as he needed to be. + +In Pacheco's studio there was a peasant boy whose face was very +mobile, showed every passing feeling; and Velasquez used to make him +laugh and weep, till, surprising some good expression, he would +quickly sketch him. With this excellent model, Velasquez did a +surprising amount of good work. + +Spain had just then conquered the far-off provinces of Mexico and +Peru, and was continually receiving from its newly got lands much +valuable merchandise. Rapidly growing rich, this Latin country loved +art and all things beautiful, so its money was bound to be spent +freely in such ways. Madrid had been made its capital, and at that +time there were few fine pictures to be found there. The Moors who had +conquered Spain had forbidden picture making, because it was contrary +to their religion to represent the human figure, or even the figures +of birds and beasts. Then the Inquisition had hindered art by its +rules, one of which was that the Virgin Mary should always be painted +with her feet covered; another, that all saints should be +beardless. There were many more exactions. + +While cathedrals were being built elsewhere, the Moors had been in +control of Spanish lands, so that no cathedral had been built there, +and when Velasquez came upon the scene the time of great cathedral +building was past. It had ceased to be the fashion. Although there had +been such painters as Beneguette, Morales, Navarrette, and Ribera, all +Spanish and of considerable genius, they had been too badly +handicapped to make painting a great art in Spain. When Madrid became +the capital of Spain, it had no unusual buildings, unless it was an +old fortress of the Moors, the Alcazar, Caesar's house, but the nation +was buying paintings from Italy, and it began to beautify Madrid, +which had the advantage of the former Moorish luxury and art, very +beautiful, though not pictorial. + +In Madrid, then, there seemed to be great opportunity for a fine +artist like Velasquez, and his master urged him to go there and try +his fortune. So he set out on mule-back, attended by his slave, but +unless he could get the ear of the king, it was useless for him to +seek advancement in Madrid. Without the king as patron at that time, +an artist could not accomplish much. After trying again and again, +Velasquez had to return to his old master, without having seen the +king; but after a time a picture of his was seen by Philip IV., and he +was so much pleased with it that he summoned the artist. Through his +minister, Olivares, he offered him $113.40 in gold (fifty ducats) to +pay his return expenses. The next year he gave him $680.40 to move his +family to Madrid. + +At last the artist had found a place in the rich city, and he went to +live at the court where the warmest friendship grew between him and +the king. The latter was an author and something of a painter, so that +they loved the same things. This friendship lasted all their lives, +and they were together most of the time, the king always being found, +in Velasquez's studio in the palace when his duties did not call him +elsewhere. During the many many years--nearly thirty-seven--that +Velasquez lived with Philip IV. he employed himself in painting the +scenes at court. Thus he became the pictorial historian of the Spanish +capital. He was a man of good disposition, kindly and generous in +conduct and in feeling, so that he was always in the midst of friends +and well-wishers. + +Philip IV. was indeed a noble companion, but he was not a gay one, +being known as the king who never laughed--or at least whose laughter +was so rare, the few times he did laugh became historic. One would +expect this serious and depressing atmosphere to have had an effect +upon a painter's art; but it chanced that Rubens visited Spain, and +there, Velasquez being the one famous artist, it was natural they +should become interested in each other. Rubens told Velasquez of the +wonders of Italian painting, till the Spaniard could think of nothing +else, and finally he begged Philip to let him journey to Italy that he +might see some of those wonders for himself. The request made the king +unhappy at first, but at last he gave his consent and Velasquez set +out for Italy. The king gave him money and letters of introduction, +and he went in company with the Marquis of Spinola. + +After Velasquez had stayed eighteen months in Italy, Philip began to +long for his friend and sent for him to return. He came back full of +the stories of brilliant Italy, and charmed the king completely. + +There is as absurd a story of Velasquez's perfection in painting as +that of Raphael's, whose portrait of the pope, left upon the terrace +to dry, imposed upon passers by. It is said of Velasquez's work that +when he had painted an admiral whom the king had ordered to sea, and +left it exposed in his studio, the king, entering, thought it was the +admiral himself, and angrily inquired why he had not put to sea +according to orders. On the face of them these stories are false, but +they serve to suggest the perfection of these artists' paintings. + +Philip, being a melancholy man, had his court full of jesters, poor +misshapen creatures--dwarfs and hunchbacks--who were supposed to +appear "funny," and Velasquez, as court painter, painted those whom he +continually saw about him, who formed the court family. Thus we have +pictures of strange groups--dwarfs, little princesses, dressed +precisely as the elders were dressed, favourite dogs, and Velasquez +himself at his easel. + +In 1618, while still with his master, Pacheco, he had married the +master's daughter, a big, portly woman. Before he left Seville he bad +two daughters. + +These were all the children he had, although he painted a picture of +"Velasquez's Family" which includes a great number of people. The +figures in that painting are the children of his daughter, not his +own; and this may account for one biographer's statement that the +artist had "seven children." He was devoted to and happy in his family +of children and grandchildren. + +He did not grow rich, but received regularly during his life in +Madrid, twenty gold ducats ($45.36) a month to live upon, and besides +this his medical attendance, lodging, and additional payment for every +picture. The one which brought him this good fortune was an equestrian +portrait of Philip; first uncovered on the steps of San +Felipe. Everywhere the people were delighted with it, poets sung of +it, and the king declared no other should ever paint his +portrait. This picture has long since disappeared. + +In 1627 Velasquez won the prize for a picture representing the +expulsion of the Moors from Spain and was rewarded by "being appointed +gentleman usher. To this was shortly afterward added a daily allowance +of twelve reals--the same amount which was allowed to court +barbers--and ninety gold ducats ($204.12) a year for dress, which was +also paid to the dwarfs, buffoons, and players about the king's +person--truly a curious estimate of talent at the court of Spain." + +The record of Philip IV. with unpleasing, even degenerate characters, +about him, is brightened by the thought of his loyalty to his court +painter and life-long friend. When the king's favourites fell, those +who had been the friends of Velasquez, the artist loyally remained +their friend in adversity as he had been while they were +powerful. This constancy, even to the royal enemies, was never +resented by Philip. He honoured the faithfulness of his artist, even +as he himself was faithful in this friendship. Philip's court was such +that there was little to paint that was ennobling, and so Velasquez +lacked the inspiration of such surroundings as the Italian painters +had. + +Philip IV. was hail-fellow-well-met with his stablemen, his huntsmen, +his cooks, and yet he seems to have had no sense of humour, was long +faced and forbidding to look at, and despite his strange habits +considered himself the most mighty and haughty man in the world. He +felt himself free to behave as he chose, because he was Philip of +Spain; and he chose to do a great many absurd and outrageous +things. In all Philip's portraits, painted by Velasquez, he wears a +stiff white linen collar of his own invention, and he was so proud of +this that he celebrated it by a festival. He went in procession to +church to thank God for the wonderful blessing of the _Golilla_--the +name of his collar. This unsightly thing became the fashion, and all +portraits of men of that time were painted with it. "In regard to the +wonderful structure of Philip's moustaches it is said, that, to +preserve their form they were encased during the night in perfumed +leather covers called _bigoteras_." Such absurdities in a king, who +had the responsibilities of a nation upon him, seem incredible. + +Velasquez made in all three journeys to Italy, and the last one was on +a mission for the king, which was much to the latter's credit. Philip +had determined to have a fine art gallery in Madrid, for Spain had by +this time many pictures, but no statuary; so he commissioned his +painter to buy whatever he thought well of and _could_ buy, in +Italy. Hence the artist set off again with his slave--the same one +with whom he had journeyed to Madrid so long before. His name was +Pareja, and his master had already made an excellent artist of him. + +They went to Genoa, thence to the great art-centres of Italy, were +received everywhere with honour, and the artist bought wisely. +Velasquez did not care for Raphael's paintings as much as for +Titian's, and he said so to Salvator Rosa, an honoured painter in +Italy. + +While in Rome Velasquez painted the pope, also his own slave, Pareja. + +When he returned to Spain he took with him three hundred statues, but +a large number of them were nude, and the Spanish court, not over +particular about most things, was very particular about naked statues, +so that after Philip's death, they nearly all disappeared. After his +return, and after the queen had died and Philip had married again, +Velasquez was made quartermaster-general, no easy post but not without +honour, though it interfered with his picture painting a good deal. He +had to look after the comfort of all the court, and to see that the +apartments it occupied, at home or when it visited, were suitable. + +"Even the powerful king of Spain could not make his favourite a belted +knight without a commission to inquire into the purity of his lineage +on both sides of the house. Fortunately, the pedigree could bear +scrutiny, as for generations the family was found free from all taint +of heresy, from all trace of Jewish or Moorish blood, and from +contamination from trade or commerce. The difficulty connected with +the fact that he was a painter was got over by his being painter to +the king and by the declaration that he did not sell his pictures." + +The red Cross of Santiago conferred upon him by Philip, made Velasquez +a knight and freed him also from the rulings of the Inquisition, which +directed so largely what artists could and could not do. Thus it is +that we come to have certain great pictures from Velasquez's brush +which could not otherwise have been painted. + +This action of the king, setting free the artist, made two schools of +art, of which the court painter represented one; and Murillo the +other, under the command of the Church. Although not so rich perhaps +as Raphael, Velasquez lived and died in plenty, while Murillo, the +artist of the Church of Rome, was a poverty-stricken man. + +Finally, while in the midst of honours, and fulfilling his official +duty to the court of Spain, Velasquez contracted the disease which +killed him. The Infanta, Maria Theresa, was to wed Louis XIV., and the +ceremony was to take place on a swampy little island called the Island +of Pheasants. There he went to decorate a pavilion and other places of +display. He became ill with a fever and died soon after he returned to +Madrid. + +He made his wife, his old master Pacheco's daughter, his executor, and +was buried in the church of San Juan, in the vault of Fuensalida; but +within a week his devoted wife was dead, and in eight days' time she +was buried beside him. + +He left his affairs--accounts between him and the court--badly +entangled, and it was many years before they were straightened +out. His many deeds of kindness lived after him. He made of his slave +a good artist and a devoted friend, and by his efforts the slave +became a freedman. The story of his kindly help to Murillo when that +exquisite painter came, unknown and friendless to Madrid, has already +been told. + +The Church where Velasquez was buried was destroyed by the French in +1811, and all trace of the resting place of the great Spanish artist +is forever lost to us. + +He is called not only "painter to the king," but "king of painters." + + PLATE--EQUESTRIAN PORTRAIT OF DON BALTHASAR CARLOS. + +Philip of Spain had long prayed for a son and when at last one was +granted him his pride in his young heir was unbounded. The little Don +Carlos was not unworthy, for he was a cheerful, hearty boy, trained to +horsemanship, from his fourth year, for his father was a noted rider +and had the best instructors for his son. The prince was a brave +hunter too and we are told that he shot a wild boar when he was but +nine years of age. In this portrait which is in the Museo del Prado he +is six years old, and it was neither the first nor the last that +Velasquez made of him. It was one of the court painter's chief duties +to see that the heir to the throne was placed upon canvas at every +stage of his career, and he painted him from two years of age till his +lamented death at sixteen. + +The young prince wears in this picture a green velvet jacket with +white sleeves and his scarf is crimson embroidered with gold. The +lively pony is a light chestnut and the foreshortening of its body +must be noticed. The steady grave eyes of the lad are gazing far ahead +as they would naturally be if he were riding rapidly, but his princely +dignity is shown in his firm seat in the saddle and his manner of +holding his marshal's baton. + +The great art of the painter is also shown in the way he subordinates +the landscape to the figure. He will not allow even a tree to come +near the young horseman, but brings his young activity into vivid +contrast with the calm peacefulness of the distant view. + +With the death of Don Carlos the downfall of his father's dynasty was +assured, though for a time his little sister, the Infanta Maria +Theresa, was upheld as the heiress. She married Louis XIV. and had a +weary time of it in France. Velasquez painted her picture too, in the +grown up dress of the children of that day. It is in the Vienna +Gallery. Among his best known pictures are "The Surrender of Breda," +"Alessandro del Borro," and "Philip IV." + + + + +XLII + +PAUL VERONESE (PAOLO CAGLIARI) + + + (Pronounced Vay-ro-nay'zay and pah'o-lah cal-ee-ah'ree) + _Venetian School_ + 1528-1588 + _Pupil of Titian_ + +"One has never done well enough, when one can do better; one never +knows enough when he can learn more!" + +This was the motto of Paul Veronese. This artist was born in +Verona--whence he took his name--and spent much of his life with the +monks in the monastery of St. Sebastian. + +His father was a sculptor, and taught his son. Veronese himself was a +lovable fellow, had a kind feeling for all, and in return received the +good will of most people. When he first went to Venice to study he +took letters of introduction to the monks of St. Sebastian, and +finally went to live with them, for his uncle was prior of the +monastery, and it was upon its walls that he did his first work in +Venice. His subject was the story of Esther, which he illustrated +completely. + +He became known in time as "the most magnificent of magnificent +painters." He loved the gaieties of Venice; the lords and ladies; the +exquisite colouring; the feasting and laughter, and everything he +painted, showed this taste. When he chose great religious subjects he +dressed all his figures in elegant Venetian costumes, in the midst of +elegant Venetian scenes. His Virgins, or other Biblical people, were +not Jews of Palestine, but Venetians of Venice, but so beautiful were +they and so inspiring, that nobody cared to criticise them on that +score. He loved to paint festival scenes such as, "The Marriage at +Cana," "Banquet in Levi's House," or "Feast in the House of Simon." He +painted nothing as it could possibly have been, but everything as he +would have liked it to be. + +Into the "Wedding Feast at Cana," where Jesus was said to have turned +the water into wine, he introduced a great host of his friends, people +then living. Titian is there, and several reigning kings and queens, +including Francis I. of France and his bride, for whom the picture was +made. This treatment of the Bible story startles the mind, but +delights the eye. + +It was said that his "red recurred like a joyful trumpet blast among +the silver gray harmonies of his paintings." + +Muther, one who has written brilliantly about him, tells us that +"Veronese seems to have come into the world to prove that the painter +need have neither head nor heart, but only a hand, a brush, and a pot +of paint in order to clothe all the walls of the world with oil +paintings" and that "if he paints Mary, she is not the handmaid of the +Lord or even the Queen of Heaven, but a woman of the world, listening +with approving smile to the homage of a cavalier. In light red silk +morning dress, she receives the Angel of the Annunciation and hears +without surprise--for she has already heard it--what he has to say; +and at the Entombment she only weeps in order to keep up appearances." + +Such criticism raises a smile, but it is quite just, and what is more, +the Veronese pictures are so beautiful that one is not likely to +quarrel with the painter for having more good feeling than +understanding. His joyous temperament came near to doing him harm, for +he was summoned before the Inquisition for the manner in which he had +painted "The Last Supper." + +After the Esther pictures in St. Sebastian, the artist painted there +the "Martyrdom of St. Sebastian," and there is a tradition that he did +his work while hiding in the monastery because of some mischief of +which he had been guilty. + +At that time he was not much more than twenty-six or eight, while the +great painter Tintoretto was forty-five, yet his work in St. Sebastian +made him as famous as the older artist. + +There is very little known of the private affairs of Veronese. He +signed a contract for painting the "Marriage at Cana," for the +refectory of the monastery of St. Giorgio Maggiore, in June 1562, and +that picture, stupendous as it is, was finished eighteen months +later. He received $777.60 for it, as well as his living while he was +at work upon it, and a tun of wine. One picture he is supposed to have +left behind him at a house where he had been entertained, as an +acknowledgment of the courtesy shown him. + +Paul had a brother, Benedetto, ten years younger than himself, and it +is said that he greatly helped Paul in his work, by designing the +architectural backgrounds of his pictures. If that is so, Benedetto +must have been an artist of much genius, for those backgrounds in the +paintings are very fine. + +Veronese married, and had two sons; the younger being named +Carletto. He was also the favourite, and an excellent artist, who did +some fine painting, but he died while he was still young. Gabriele the +elder son, also painted, but he was mainly a man of affairs, and +attended to business rather than to art. + +Veronese was a loving father and brother, and beyond doubt a happy +man. After his death both his sons and his brother worked upon his +unfinished paintings, completing them for him. He was buried in the +Church of St. Sebastian. + + PLATE--THE MARRIAGE AT CANA + +This painting is most characteristic of Veronese's methods. He has no +regard for the truth in presenting the picture story. At the marriage +at Cana everybody must have been very simply dressed, and there could +have been no beautiful architecture, such as we see in the picture. In +the painting we find courtier-like men and women dressed in beautiful +silks. Some of the costumes appear to be a little Russian in +character, the others Venetian; and Jesus Himself wears the loose +every-day robe of the pastoral people to whom he belonged. We think of +luxury and rich food and a splendid house when we look at this +painting, when as a matter of fact nothing of this sort could have +belonged to the scene which Veronese chose to represent. Perhaps no +painter was more lacking in imagination than was Veronese in painting +this particular picture. He chose to place historical or legendary +characters, in the midst of a scene which could not have existed +co-incidently with the event. + +Among his other pictures are "Europa and the Bull," "Venice +Enthroned," and the "Presentation of the Family of Darius to +Alexander." + + + + +XLIII + +LEONARDO DA VINCI + + + (Pronounced Lay-o-nar'do dah Veen'chee) + _Florentine School_ + 1451-1519 + _Pupil of Verrocchio_ + +Leonardo da Vinci was the natural son of a notary, Ser Pier, and he +was born at the Castello of Vinci, near Empoli. From the very hour +that he was apprenticed to his master, Verrocchio, he proved that he +was the superior of his master in art. Da Vinci was one of the most +remarkable men who ever lived, because he not only did an +extraordinary number of things, but he did all of them well. + +He was an engineer, made bridges, fortifications, and plans which to +this day are brilliant achievements. + +He was a sculptor, and as such did beautiful work. + +He was a naturalist, and as such was of use to the world. + +He was an author and left behind him books written backward, of which +he said that only he who was willing to devote enough study to them to +read them in that form, was able to profit by what he had written. + +Finally, and most wonderfully, he was a painter. + +He had absolute faith in himself. Before he constructed his bridge he +said that he could build the best one in the world, and a king took +him at his word and was not disappointed by the result. + +He stated that he could paint the finest picture in the world--but let +us read what he himself said of it, in so sure and superbly confident +a way that it robbed his statement of anything like foolish +vanity. Such as he could afford to speak frankly of his greatness, +without appearing absurd. He wrote: + +"In time of peace, I believe I can equal anyone in architecture, in +constructing public and private buildings, and in conducting water +from one place to another. I can execute sculpture, whether in marble, +bronze, or terra cotta, and in painting I can do as much as any other +man, be he who he may. Further, I could engage to execute the bronze +horse in eternal memory of your father and the illustrious house of +Sforza." He was writing to Ludovico Sforza whose house then ruled at +Milan. "If any of the above-mentioned things should appear to you +impossible or impracticable, I am ready to make trial of them in your +park, or in any other place that may please your excellency, to whom I +commend myself in proud humility." + +Leonardo's experiments with oils and the mixing of his pigments has +nearly lost to us his most remarkable pictures. His first fourteen +years of work as an artist were spent in Milan, where he was employed +to paint by the Duke of Milan, and never again was his life so +peaceful; it was ever afterward full of change. He went from Milan to +Venice, to Rome, to Florence, and back to Milan where his greatest +work was done. + +While Leonardo was a baby he lived in the Castle of Vinci. He was +beautiful as a child and very handsome as a man. When a child he wore +long curls reaching below his waist. He was richly clothed, and +greatly beloved. His body seemed no less wonderful than his mind. He +wished to learn everything, and his memory was so wonderful that he +remembered all that he undertook to learn. His muscles were so +powerful that he could bend iron, and all animals seemed to love +him. It is said he could tame the wildest horses. Indeed his life and +accomplishments read as if he were one enchanted. One writer tells us +that "he never could bear to see any creature cruelly treated, and +sometimes he would buy little caged birds that he might just have the +pleasure of opening the doors of their cages, and setting them at +liberty." + +The story told of his first known work is that his master, being +hurried in finishing a picture, permitted Leonardo to paint in an +angel's head, and that it was so much better than the rest of the +picture, that Verrocchio burned his brushes and broke his palette, +determined never to paint again, but probably this is a good deal of a +fairy tale and one that is not needed to impress us with the artist's +greatness, since there is so much to prove it without adding fable to +fact. + +Leonardo was also a very far seeing inventor and most ingenious. He +made mechanical toys that "worked" when they were wound up. He even +devised a miniature flying machine; however, history does not tell us +whether it flew or not. He thought out the uses of steam as a motive +power long before Fulton's time. + +Leonardo haunted the public streets, sketchbook in hand, and when +attracted by a face, would follow till he was able to transfer it to +paper. Ida Prentice Whitcomb, who has compiled many anecdotes of da +Vinci, says that it was also his habit to invite peasants to his +house, and there amuse them with funny stories till he caught some +fleeting expression of mirth which he was pleased to reproduce. + +As a courtier Leonardo was elegant and full of amusing devices. He +sang, accompanying himself on a silver lute, which he had had +fashioned in imitation of a horse's skull. After he attached himself +to the court of the Duke of Milan, his gift of invention was +constantly called into use, and one of the surprises he had in store +for the Duke's guests was a great mechanical lion, which being wound +up, would walk into the presence of the court, open its mouth and +disclose a bunch of flowers inside. + +Leonardo worked very slowly upon his paintings, because he was never +satisfied with a work, and would retouch it day after day. Then, too, +he was a man of moods, like most geniuses, and could not work with +regularity. The picture of the "Last Supper" was painted in Milan, by +order of his patron, the Duke, and there are many picturesque stories +written of its production. It was painted upon the refectory wall of a +Dominican convent, the Santa Maria delle Grazie; and at first the work +went off well, and the artist would remain upon his scaffolding from +morning till night, absorbed in his painting. It is said that at such +times he neither ate nor drank, forgetting all but his great work. He +kept postponing the painting of two heads--Christ and Judas. + +He had worked painstakingly and with enthusiasm till that point, but +deferred what he was hardly willing to trust himself to perform. He +had certain conceptions of these features which he almost feared to +execute, so tremendous was his purpose. He let that part of the work +go, month after month, and having already spent two years upon the +picture, the monks began to urge him to a finish. He was not the man +to endure much pressure, and the more they urged the more resentful he +became. Finally, he began to feel a bitter dislike for the prior, the +man who annoyed him most. One day, when the prior was nagging him +about the picture, wanting to know why he didn't get to work upon it +again, and when would it be finished, Leonardo said suavely: "If you +will sit for the head of Judas, I'll be able to finish the picture at +once." The prior was enraged, as Leonardo meant he should be; but +Leonardo is said actually to have painted him in as Judas. Afterward +he painted in the face of Christ with haste and little care, simply +because he despaired of ever doing the wonderful face that his art +soul demanded Christ should wear. + +The one bitter moment in Leonardo's life, in all probability, was when +he came in dire competition with Michael Angelo. When he removed to +Florence he was required to submit sketches for the Town Hall--the +Palazzo Vecchio--and Michael Angelo was his rival. The choice fell to +Angelo, and after a life of supremacy Leonardo could not endure the +humiliation with grace. Added to disappointment, someone declared that +Leonardo's powers were waning because he was growing old. This was +more than he could bear, and he left Italy for France, where the king +had invited him to come and spend the remainder of his life. Francis +I. had wished to have the picture in the Milan monastery taken to +France, but that was not to be done. + +Doubtless the king expected Leonardo to do some equally great work +after he became the nation's guest. + +Before leaving Italy, Leonardo had painted his one other "greatest" +picture--"La Gioconda" (Mona Lisa)-and he took that wonderful work +with him to France, where the King purchased it for $9,000, and to +this day it hangs in the Louvre. + +But Leonardo was to do no great work in France, for in truth he was +growing old. His health had failed, and although he was still a dandy +and court favourite, setting the fashion in clothing and in the cut of +hair and beard, he was no longer the brilliant, active Leonardo. + +Bernard Berensen, has written of him: "Painting ... was to Leonardo so +little of a preoccupation that we must regard it as merely a mode of +expression used at moments by a man of universal genius." By which +Berensen means us to understand that Leonardo was so brilliant a +student and inventor, so versatile, that art was a mere pastime. "No, +let us not join in the reproaches made to Leonardo for having painted +so little; because he had so much more to do than to paint, he has +left all of us heirs to one or two of the supremest works of art ever +created." + +Another author writes that "in Leonardo da Vinci every talent was +combined in one man." + +Leonardo was the third person of the wonderful trinity of Florentine +painters, Raphael and Michael Angelo being the other two. + +He knew so much that he never doubted his own powers, but when he +died, after three years in France, he left little behind him, and that +little he had ever declared to be unfinished--the "Mona Lisa" and the +"Last Supper." He died in the Chateau de Cloux, at Amboise, and it is +said that "sore wept the king when he heard that Leonardo was dead." + +In Milan, near the Cathedral, there stands a monument to his memory, +and about it are placed the statues of his pupils. To this day he is +wonderful among the great men of the world. + + PLATE--THE LAST SUPPER + +This, as we have said, is in the former convent of Santa Maria delle +Grazie, in Milan. It was the first painted story of this legendary +event in which natural and spontaneous action on the part of all the +company was presented. + +To-day the picture is nearly ruined by smoke, time, and alterations in +the place, for a great door lintel has been cut into the +picture. Leonardo used the words of the Christ: "Verily, I say unto +you that one of you shall betray me," as the starting point for this +painting. It is after the utterance of these words that we see each of +the disciples questioning horrified, frightened, anxious, listening, +angered--all these emotions being expressed by the face or gestures of +the hands or pose of the figures. It is a most wonderful picture and +it seems as if the limit of genius was to be found in it. + +The company is gathered in a half-dark hall, the heads outlined +against the evening light that comes through the windows at the +back. We look into a room and seem to behold the greatest tragedy of +legendary history: treachery and sorrow and consternation brought to +Jesus of Nazareth and his comrades. + +This great picture was painted in oil instead of in "distemper," the +proper kind of mixture for fresco, and therefore it was bound to be +lost in the course of time. Besides, it has known more than ordinary +disaster. The troops of Napoleon used this room, the convent +refectory, for a stable, and that did not do the painting any +good. The reason we have so complete a knowledge of it, however, is +that Leonardo's pupils made an endless number of copies of it, and +thus it has found its way into thousands of homes. The following is +the order in which Leonardo placed the disciples at the table: Jesus +of Nazareth in the centre, Bartholomew the last on the left, after him +is James, Andrew, Peter, Judas--who holds the money bag--and John. On +the right, next to Jesus, comes Thomas, the doubting one; James the +Greater, Philip, Matthew, Thaddeus, and Simon. Jesus has just declared +that one of them shall betray him, and each in his own way seems to be +asking "Lord, is it I?" In the South Kensington Museum in London will +be found carefully preserved a description, written out fairly in +Leonardo's own hand, to guide him in painting the Last Supper. It is +most interesting and we shall quote it: "One, in the act of drinking +puts down his glass and turns his head to the speaker. Another +twisting his fingers together, turns to his companion, knitting his +eyebrows. Another, opening his hands and turning the palm toward the +spectator, shrugs his shoulders, his mouth expressing the liveliest +surprise. Another whispers in the ear of a companion, who turns to +listen, holding in one hand a knife, and in the other a loaf, which he +has cut in two. Another, turning around with a knife in his hand, +upsets a glass upon the table and looks; another gasps in amazement; +another leans forward to look at the speaker, shading his eyes with +his hand; another, drawing back behind the one who leans forward, +looks into the space between the wall and the stooping disciple." + +Other paintings of Leonardo's are: "Mona Lisa," "Head of Medusa," +"Adoration of the Magi," and the "Madonna della Caraffa." + + + + +XLIV + +JEAN ANTOINE WATTEAU + + + (Pronounced in French, Vaht-toh; English, Wot-toh) + _French (Genre) School_ + 1684-1721 + _Pupil of Gillot and Audran_ + +Watteau's father was a tiler in a Flemish town--Valenciennes. He meant +that his son should be a carpenter, but that son tramped from +Valenciennes to Paris with the purpose of becoming a great painter. He +did more, he became a "school" of painting, all by himself. + +There is no sadder story among artists than that of this lowly born +genius. He was not good to look upon, being the very opposite of all +that he loved, having no grace or charm in appearance. He had a +drooping mouth, red and bony hands, and a narrow chest with stooping +shoulders. Because of a strange sensitiveness he lived all his life +apart from those he would have been happy with, for he mistrusted his +own ugliness, and thought he might be a burden to others. + +Such a man has painted the gayest, gladdest, most delicate and +exquisite pictures imaginable. + +He entered Paris as a young man, without friends, without money or +connections of any kind, and after wandering forlornly, about the +great city, he found employment with a dealer who made hundreds of +saints for out-of-town churches. + +It is said that for this first employer Watteau made dozens and dozens +of pictures of St. Nicholas; and when we think of the beautiful +figures he was going to make, pictures that should delight all the +world, there seems something tragic in the monotony and +common-placeness of that first work he was forced by poverty to +do. Certainly St. Nicholas brought one man bread and butter, even if +he forgot him at Christmas time. + +After that hard apprenticeship, Watteau's condition became slightly +better. He had been employed near the Pont Notre Dame, at three francs +a week, but now in the studio of a scene painter, Gillot, he did work +of coarse effect, very different from that exquisite school of art +which he was to bring into being. After Gillot's came the studio of +Claude Audran, the conservator of the Luxembourg, and with him Watteau +did decorative work. In reality he had no master, learned from nobody, +grovelled in poverty, and at first, forced a living from the meanest +sources. With this in mind, it remains a wonder that he should paint +as no other ever could, scenes of exquisite beauty and grace; scenes +of high life, courtiers and great ladies assembled in lovely +landscapes, doing elegant and charming things, dressed in unrivalled +gowns and costumes. Until Watteau went to the Luxembourg he had seen +absolutely nothing of refined or gracious living. He had come from +country scenes, and in Paris had lived among workmen and +bird-fanciers, flower sellers, hucksters and the like. This is very +likely the secret of his peculiar art. + +Watteau would have been a wonderful artist under any circumstances, no +matter what sort of pictures he had painted; but circumstances gave +his imagination a turn toward the exquisite in colourand +composition. Doubtless when he first looked down from the palace +windows of the Luxembourg and saw gorgeous women and handsome men +languishing and coquetting and revelling in a life of ease and beauty, +he was transported. He must have thought himself in fairyland, and the +impulse to paint, to idealise the loveliness that he saw, must have +been greater in him than it would have been in one who had lived so +long among such scenes that they had become familiar with them. + +After Watteau there were artists who tried to do the kind of work he +had done, but no one ever succeeded. Watteau clothed all his +shepherdesses in fine silken gowns, with a plait in the back, falling +from the shoulders, and to-day we have a fashion known as the "Watteau +back"--gowns made with this shoulder-plait. He put filmy laces or +softest silks upon his dairy maids, as upon his court ladies, dressing +his figures exquisitely, and in the loveliest colours. He had suffered +from poverty and from miserable sights, so when he came to paint +pictures, he determined to reproduce only the loveliest objects. + +At that time French fashions were very unusual, and it was quite the +thing for ladies to hold a sort of reception while at their toilet. A +description of one of these affairs was written by Madame de Grignon +to her daughter: "Nothing can be more delightful than to assist at the +toilet of Madame la Duchesse (de Bourgoyne), and to watch her arrange +her hair. I was present the other day. She rose at half past twelve, +put on her dressing gown, and set to work to eat a _meringue_. She ate +the powder and greased her hair. The whole formed an excellent +breakfast and charming _coiffure_." Watteau has caught the spirit of +this strange airy, artificial, incongruous existence. His ladies seem +to be eating _meringues_ and powdering their hair and living on a diet +of the combination. One hardly knows which is toilet and which is real +life in looking at his paintings. + +He quarreled with Audran at the Luxembourg, and having sold his first +picture, he went back to his Valenciennes home, to see his former +acquaintances, no doubt being a little vain of his performance. + +After that he painted another picture which sold well enough to keep +him from poverty for a time, and on his return to Paris he was warmly +greeted by a celebrated and influential artist, Crozat. Watteau tried +for a prize, and though his picture came second it had been seen by +the Academy committee. + +His greatness was acknowledged, and he was immediately admitted to the +Academy and granted a pension by the crown, with which he was able to +go to Italy, the Mecca of all artists the world over. + +From Italy he went to London, but there the fogs and unsuitable +climate made his disease much worse and he hurried back to France, +where he went to live with a friend who was a picture dealer. It was +then that he painted a sign for this friend, Gersaint, a sign so +wonderful that it is reckoned in the history of Watteau's paintings. + +Soon he grew so sensitive over his illness, that he did not wish to +remain near his dearest friends, but one of them, the Abbe Haranger, +insisted upon looking after his welfare, and got lodgings for him at +Nogent, where he could have country air and peace. + +Watteau died very soon after going to Nogent in July, 1721, and he +left nine thousand livres to his parents, and his paintings to his +best friends, the Abbe, Gersaint, Monsieur Henin, and Monsieur +Julienne. He is called the "first French painter" and so he +was--though he was Flemish, by birth. + + PLATE--FATE CHAMPATRE + +This exquisite picture displays nearly all the characteristics of +Watteau's painting. He was said to paint with "honey and gold," and +his method was certainly remarkable. His clear, delicate colours were +put upon a canvas first daubed with oil, and he never cleaned his +palette. His "oil-pot was full of dust and dirt and mixed with the +washings of his brush." One would think that only the most slovenly +results could come from such habits of work, but the artist made a +colour which no one could copy, and that was a sort of creamy, +opalescent white. This was original with Watteau, and most beautiful. + +In this "Fete Champetre," which is now in the National Gallery at +Edinburgh, he paints an elegant group of ladies and gentlemen +indulging in an open air dance of some sort. One couple are doing +steps facing one another, to the music of a set of pipes, while the +rest flirt and talk, decorously, round about. There is no boisterous +rusticity here; all is dainty and refined. + +The same characteristics are to be found in Watteau's other pictures +such as, "Embarkation for the Island of Cythera," "The Judgment of +Paris," and "Gay Company in a Park." + + + + +XLV + +SIR BENJAMIN WEST + + + _American_ + 1738-1820 + _Pupil of the Italian School_ + +The beautiful smile of his little niece helped to make this man an +artist. This is the story: + +Benjamin West was born down in Pennsylvania, at Westdale, a small +village in the township of Springfield, of Quaker parentage. The +family was poor perhaps, but in America at a time when everybody was +struggling with a new civilisation it did not seem to be such binding +poverty as the same condition in Europe would have been. Benjamin had +a married sister whose baby he greatly loved, and he gave it devoted +attention. One day while it was sleeping and the undiscovered artist +was sitting beside it he saw it smile, and the beauty of the smile +inspired him to keep it forever if he could. He got paper and pencil +and forthwith transferred that "angel's whisper." + +No child of to-day can imagine the difficulties a boy must have had in +those days in America, to get an art education, and having learned his +art, how impossible it was to live by it. Men were busy making a new +country and pictures do not take part in such pioneer work; they come +later. Still, there were bound to be born artistic geniuses then, just +as there were men for the plough and men for politics and for war. He +who happened to be the artist was the Quaker boy, West. + +He took his first inspiration from the Cherokees, for it was the +Indian in all the splendour of his strength and straightness that +formed West's ideal of beautiful physique. + +When he first saw the Apollo Belvedere, he exclaimed: "A young Mohawk +warrior!" to the disgust of every one who heard him, but he meant to +compliment the noblest of forms. Europeans did not know how +magnificent a figure the "young Mohawk warrior" could be; but West +knew. + +After his Indian impetus toward art he went to Philadelphia, and +settled himself in a studio, where he painted portraits. His sitters +went to him out of curiosity as much as anything else, but at last a +Philadelphia gentleman, who knew what art meant, recognised Benjamin +West's talent, and made some arrangement by which the young man went +to Italy. + +Life began to look beautiful and promising to the Pennsylvanian. He +was in Italy for three years, and in that home of art the young man +who had made the smile of his sister's sleeping baby immortal was +given highest honours. He was elected a member of all the great art +societies in Italy, and studied with the best artists of the time. He +began to earn his living, we may be sure, and then he went to England, +where, in spite of the prejudice there must have been against the +colonists, he became at once a favourite of George III., a friend of +Reynolds and of all the English artists of repute--unless perhaps of +Gainsborough, who made friends with none. + +West was appointed "historical painter" to his Majesty, George III., +and he was chosen to be one of four who should draw plans for a Royal +Academy. He was one of the first members of that great organisation, +and when Sir Joshua Reynolds, the first president, died, West became +president, remaining in office for twenty-eight years. + +About that time came the Peace of Amiens, and West was able to go to +Paris, where he could see the greatest art treasures of Europe, which +had been brought to France from every quarter as a consequence of the +war. At that time, before Paris began to return these, and when she +had just pillaged every great capital of Europe, artists need take but +a single trip to see all the art worth seeing in the whole world. + +After a long service in the Academy, West quarreled with some of the +Academicians and sent in his resignation; but his fellow artists had +too much sense and good feeling to accept it, and begged him to +reconsider his action. He did so, and returned to his place as +president. When West was sixty-five years old he made a picture, +"Christ Healing the Sick," which he meant to give to the Quakers in +Philadelphia, who were trying to get funds with which to build a +hospital. This picture was to be sold for the fund; but it was no +sooner finished and exhibited in London before being sent to America, +than it was bought for 3,000 guineas for Great Britain. West did not +contribute this money to the hospital fund, but he made a replica for +the Quakers, and sent that instead of the original. + +West was eighty-two years old when he died and he was buried in +St. Paul's Cathedral after a distinguished and honoured life. Since +Europe gave him his education and also supported him most of his life, +we must consider him more English than American, his birth on American +soil being a mere accident. + + PLATE--THE DEATH OF WOLFE + +This death scene upon the Plains of Abraham, without the walls of +Quebec in 1759, must not be taken as a realistic picture of an +historic event. West drew upon his imagination and upon portraits of +the prominent men supposed to have been grouped around the dying +general, and he has produced a dramatic effect. One can imagine it is +the two with fingers pointing backward who have just brought the +memorable tidings, "They run! They run!" + +"Who run?" asks Wolfe, for when he had fallen the issues of the fight +were still undecided. "The French, sir. They give way everywhere." +"Thank God! I die in peace," replied the English hero. At a time when +the momentous results of this battle had set the whole of Great +Britain afire with enthusiasm it is easy to understand the popularity +of a picture such as this. It was sold in 1791 for oe28, and now +belongs to the Duke of Westminster. There is a replica of it in the +Queen's drawing-room at Hampton Court. + +Another famous historical picture by West is "The Battle of La Hogue." + + + + +INDEX + +About, Edmund +Academia, Florence +Academy, French + Rome, + Royal, London, + Venice +"Acis and Galatea" +Adoration of the Magi +"Adoration of the Shepherds" +"After a Summer Shower" +"Afternoon" +Albert, King +"Alessandro del Borro" +Alexander VI. +Alice, Princess +Allegri, Antonio. _See_ Correggi +Allegri, Pompino +"Ambassadors, The" +"American Mustangs" +"Anatomy Lesson, The" +Andrea del Sarto +Angelo, Michael +"Angels' Heads" +"Angelas, The" +Anguisciola, Sofonisba +Anne of Cleves +Anne of Saxony +Annunciata, cloister of the +"Annunciation, The" +"Ansidei Madonna, The" +"Antiope" +Apocalypse +Apollo Belvedere +Apostles, the Four +Apostles' Heads +Appelles +"Archipelago" +Arena Chapel +Arrivabene Chapel +"Artist's Two Sons, The" +"Arundel Castle and Mill" +"Assumption of the Virgin" +"At the Well" +Audran +Augusta, Princess +"Avenue, Middelharnis, Holland" +"Awakened Conscience, The" + +"Bacchanal" +"Bacchus and Ariadne" +Balzac +"Banquet in Levi's House" +"Baptism of Christ, The" +Barbizon +Barile +Barry, James +Bartoli d'Angiolini +Bartolommeo, Fra +Bassano +"Bathers" +"Battle of La Hogue" +Beaumont, Sir George +Beaux-Arts, l'Ecole des +Begarelli +Bellini, Gentile +Bellini, Giovanni +Bembo, Cardinal +Beneguette +"Bent Tree" +Bentivoglio, Cardinal +Berck, Derich +Berensen, Bernard +Bergholt, East +"Berkshire Hills" +"Bianca" +Bicknell, Maria +Bigio, Francia +Bigordi. _See_ Ghirlandajo +Bird +"Birth of the Virgin" + (Andrea del Sarto) + (Murillo) +"Birth of Venus" +Blanc, Charles +"Blessed Herman Joseph, The" +"Bligh Shore" +"Blue Boy, The" +Bocklin, Arnold +"Boat-Building" +Boleyn, Anne +Bolton, Mrs. Sarah K. +Bonheur, Marie-Rosea +Bonheur, Raymond B. +Bordeaux +Bordone. _See_ Giotto +Borghese Palace +Borgia family +Borgia, Lucretia +Botticelli +Boudin +Bouguereau, William Adolphe +"Boy at the Stile, The" +Brancacci Chapel +Brant, Isabella +Breton, Jules +Brice, J. B. +Brouwer +Browning +Brunellesco +"Brutus" +Buckingham, Duke of +Buonarroti. _See_ Angelo Michael +Burgundy, Duchess of +Burke, Edmund +Burne-Jones, Sir Edward +Burr, Margaret + +Caffin +Cagliari, Benedetto +Cagliari, Carletto +Cagliari, Gabriele +Cagliari, Paolo. _See_ Veronese +Cambridge, University of +"Camels at Rest" +Campagna +Campana, Pedro +Campanile, Florence +Canova +Caprese +"Capture of Samson" +Capuchin Church +Capuchin Convent +Carlos, Don +"Carmencita" +Carmine, Church of the +"Carthage" +Castillo, Juan del +Cecelia, wife of Titian +Cellini +Centennial Exhibition +Chamberlain, Arthur +"Chant d'Amour" +Chantry, Sir Francis +"Charity" +Charles, I. +Charles V. +Charles X. +Cherokees +"Chess Players, The" +"Children of Charles I." +"Christ Healing the Sick" +"Christ in the Temple" +"Christina of Denmark" +Church +Cibber, Theophilus +Cimabue +Claude +"Cleopatra Landing at Tarsus" +"Cock Fight" +Cogniet, Leon +Colnaghi +"Cologne" +Constable, John +Copley, John Singleton +Copper Plate Magazine +Cornelia, Rembrandt's daughter +Cornelissen, Cornelis +"Cornfield" +"Coronation of Marie de Medicis" +"Coronation of the Virgin" + (Ghirlandajo) + (Raphael) +Corot, Jean Baptiste Camille +Correggio +Cosimo, Piero di +"Cottage, The" +"Countess Folkstone" +"Countess of Spencer" +Coventry, Countess of +"Creation of Man, The" +"Creation of the World, The" +Crozat +"Crucifixion, The" + (Raphael) + (Tintoretto) + +"Danae" +Dandie Dinmont +"Daniel" +Dante +"Daphnis and Chloe" +Daubigny +"David" +"Dead Christ, The" +"Dead Mallard" +"Death of Ananias, The" +"Death of Wolfe, The" +"Dedham Mill" +"Dedham Vale" +Delaroche +"Deluge, The" +"Descent from the Cross, The" + (Campana) + (Rembrandt) + (Rubens) +De Witt +Diaz +"Dice Players, The" +Dickens, Charles +Digby, Kenelm +"Dignity and Impudence" +"Divine Comedy" +Dolce, Ludovico +Donatello +"Don Quixote" +Dore, Paul Gustave +D'Orsay +"Duchess of Devonshire and Her Daughter, The" +"Duel After the Masked Ball" +Dunthorne, John +Dupre +Durand, Carolus +Durer, Albrecht +Dyce + +"Ecce Homo" +"Education of Mary, The" +Edward, King +Egyptian art +Elizabeth, Cousin of the Virgin +Elizabeth, Princess +"Embarkation for the Island of Cythera" +"Emperor at Solferino, The" +Engravers and engraving +"Entombment, The" + (Titian) + (Veronese) +Eos +"Equestrian Portrait of Don Balthasar Carlos" +Errard, Charles +Escorial, the +Esteban, Bartolome. See Murillo +Esteban, Gaspar +Esteban, Therese +Etchers and etching +"Europa and the Bull" +"Eve of St. Agnes, The" + +Fallen, Ambrose +"Fall of Man, The" +"Fantasy of Morocco" +Fawkes, Hawksworth +"Feast in the House of Simon" +"Feast of Ahasuerus" +"Ferdinand of Austria" +Ferdinand III., Grand Duke +Ferrara, Duke of +"Fete Champetre" +"Fighting Temeraire, The" +Filipepi, Mariano +"Finding of Christ in the Temple, The" +"Flamborough, Miss" +"Flatford Mill on the River Stour" +"Flora" + (Bocklin) + (Titian) +"Foal of an Ass, The" +Fondato de' Tedeschi +Fontainebleau +"Fool, The" +"Fornarina, The" +Fortuny, Mariano +Fourment family +Fourment, Helena +"Four Saints" +Francis I. +Frari, monks of the +Frey, Agnes +"Friedland" + +Gainsborough, Mary +Gainsborough, Thomas +Gallery, Berlin + Dresden + Grosvenor + Hague, The + Hermitage, The + Lichtenstein, Vienna + Louvre + Luxembourg + Madrid + Naples + National, Edinburgh + National, London + Old Pinakothek, Munich + Parma + Pitti Palace + Uffizi + Vienna +Garrick +"Gay Company in a Park" +Gellee. See Claude Lorrain +George III. +"Georgia Pines" +Gerbier +Germ, The +Gerome, Jean Leon +Gersaint +Ghibertio +Ghirlandajo +"Gibeon Farm" +Gignoux, Regis +"Gillingham Mill" +Gillot +Giorgione +Giotto +"Giovanna degli Albizi" +Girten, Thomas +Gisze, Gorg +Gladstone, Mr. and Mrs. +"Gleaners, The" +"Glebe Farm" +Goethe +"Golden Calf, The" +"Golden Stairs, The" +Goldsmith, craft of the +Goldsmith, Oliver +Gonzaga, Vincenzo +"Good Samaritan, The" +Graham, Judge +Granacci +Gravelot +Grignon, Madame de +Gualfonda +"Guardian Angel, The" +Guidi, Giovanni +Guidi, Simone +Guidi. Tommaso. _See_ Masaccio +Guido +Guidobaldo of Urbino +Guilds +"Gust of Wind" + +Haarlem Town Hall +"Haarlem's Little Forest" +"Hadleigh Castle" +Hals, Franz +Hamerton +Hamilton, Duchess of +"Hampstead Heath" +Hancock, John +"Hans of Antwerp" +Haranger, Abbe +"Hark!" +"Harvest Waggon, The" +Hassam, Childe +Hastings, Warren +"Haunt of the Gazelle, The" +Hayman +"Haystack in Sunshine" +"Hay Wain, The" +"Head of Christ" +"Head of Medusa" +Hearn, George A. +Henin +Henrietta, Queen +Henry III. +Henry VIII. +"Henschel" +"Hercules" +Herrera +"Highland Sheep" +"Hille Bobbe, the Witch of Haarlem" +Hill, Jack +"Hireling Shepherd, The" +Hobbema, Meindert +Hogarth, William +Holbein, Ambrosius +Holbein, Hans, the Younger +Holbein, Michael +Holbein, Philip +Holbein, Sigismund +Holbein, the Elder +"Holofernes" +Holper, Barbara +"Holy Family and St. Bridget" +Holy Family in art, The +"Holy Family under a Palm Tree, The" +"Holy Night, The" +"Homer St. Gaudens" +"Hon. Ann Bingham, The" +Hood, Admiral +"Horse Fair, The" +Howard, Catherine +Hudson, Thomas +Hunt, William Holman + +"II Giorno" +"II Medico del Correggio" +"Immaculate Conception, The" +Indian pottery +Infanta +"Infant Jesus and St. John, The" +Inman +Inness +"Innocence" +"In Paradise" +Inquisition, Spanish +"Interior of the Mosque of Omar" +Isabella, Queen +Islay +"Isle of the Dead, The" +"Ivybridge" + +Jacopo da Empoli +Jacque +"Jane Seymour" +"Jerusalem by Moonlight" +"Jesus and the Lamb" +Jesus in art +Johnson, Dr. +Jones, George +Joseph in art +"Joseph in Egypt" +"Joseph's Dream" +"Judgment of Paris, The" +"Judith" +Julienne +Julius II. +Justiniana + +Kann, Rudolf +"King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid" +"King of Hearts" +"Kirmesse, The" +Knackfuss +"Knight, Death and the Devil, The" + +"La Belle Jardiniere" +"La Disputa" +"Lady Elcho, Mrs. Arden, Mrs. Tennant" +"La Gioconda" +"Landscape with Cattle." +Landseer, John +Landseer, Sir Edwin Henry +Landseer, Thomas +"La Primavera" +"Last Judgment, The" + (Angelo) + (Tintoretto) + (Titian) +"Last Supper, The" + (Andrea del Sarto) + (Ghirlandajo) + (Veronese) + (Leonardo da Vinci) +"Laughing Cavalier, The" +Laura +Lavinia, daughter of Titian +"Lavinia, the Artist's Daughter" +Lawrence, Sir Thomas +"Leda" + (Correggio) + (Gerome) +Lee, Jeremiah +Legion of Honour +Lemon, Margaret +Leonardo. See da Vinci +Leo X. +Lewis, J. F. +_Liber Studiorium_ +"Liber Veritas" +Library, Boston Public +"Light of the World, The" +Linley, Thomas +Linley, Samuel +"Lion Disturbed at His Repast" +"Lion Enjoying His Repast" +"Lioness, The Study off a" +"Lion Hunt, A" +Lippi, Fra Filippo +"Lock on the Stour" +Lombardi +"Lords Digby and Russell" +"Lord Wharton" +Lorenzalez, Claudio +Lorrain, Claude +Lott, Willy +Louis XIV. +Louise, Princess +"Love Among the Ruins" +"Low Life and High Life" +Lowther, Sir William +Lucas van Leyden +Lucia, mother of Titian +Lucretia, wife of Andrea del Sarto +Luther, Martin +Madonna and Child +"Madonna and Child with St. Anne" +"Madonna and Child with Saints" +"Madonna del'Arpie" +"Madonna della Caraffa" +"Madonna della Casa d'Alba" +"Madonna della Sedia" +"Madonna del Granduca" +"Madonna del Pesce" +"Madonna del Sacco" +"Madonna of the Palms" +"Madonna of the Rosary." +Madrazo +"Magdalene, The" +Manet +"Manoah's Sacrifice" +Mantegna +Mantua, Duke of +Mantua, Duke Frederick II. of +"Man with the Hoe, The" +"Man with the Sword, The" +Margherita +Maria Theresa +"Marriage a la Mode" +"Marriage at Cana, The" +"Marriage Contract, The" +"Marriage of Bacchus and Ariadne, The" +"Marriage of Mary and Joseph, The" +"Marriage of St. Catherine, The" +"Marriage of Samson, The" +Martineau +"Martyrdom of St. Agnes, The" +"Martyrdom of St. Peter, The" +"Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, The" +Mary, the Virgin, in art +Masaccio (Tommasco Guidi) +Masoline +Mastersingers, Nuremberg +Maximillian, Emperor +Medici family +Medici, Giovanni di Bicci de' +Medici, Lorenzi de' +Medici, Ottaviano de' +Medici, Pietro de' +"Meeting of St. John and St. Anna at Jerusalem" +Meissonier, Jean Louis Ernest +"Melancholy" +Merlini, Girolama +"Meyer Madonna, The" +Michallon +"Midsummer Noon" +Millais +Millet, Jean Francois +Millet, Mere +"Mill Stream" +"Miracle of St. Mark, The" +Missions, Spanish +Missirini +"Mr. Marquand" +"Mr. Penrose" +"Mrs. Meyer and Children" +"Mrs. Peel" +Mohawk +Mona Lisa +Monet, Claude +"Money Changers, The" +"Moonlight at Salerno" +Morales +"Moreau and His Staff before Hohenlinden" +More, Sir Thomas +"Morning Prayer, The" +"Moses" +"Moses Breaking the Tablets of the Law" +Mudge, Dr. +Murat +Murillo (Bartolome Esteban) +Murillo, Dona Anna +Museum of Art, Basel + Berlin + Court, Vienna + Madrid + Metropolitan, New York + Prado + Rijks, Amsterdam + South Kensington +Muther +"Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine, The" + +"Naiads at Play" +Napoleon +"Nativity, The" + (Botticelli) + (Durer) +Navarrette +"Nieces of Sir Horace Walpole" +"Night Watch, The" +"Noli me Tangere" +Norham Castle +Nuremberg +"Nurse and the Child, The" + +"'Oh, Pearl' Quoth I" +"Old Bachelor, The" +"Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner, The" +Olivares + +Pacheco +"Pallas" +"Pan and Psyche" +Pantheon +Pareja +"Parish Clerk, The" +'Past and Present" +Passignano +"Pathless Water, The" +Paul III. +"Paysage" +Pazzi family +"Penzance" +Percy, Bishop +Perez family +Perez, Maria +Perugino +Philip II. +Philip III. +Philip IV. +Picot +"Pilate Washing His Hands" +Pinas +Pirkneimer +Pissaro +"Ploughing" +Pope, Alexander +"Portrait of Old Man and Boy" +Portraits of artists by themselves +"Praying Arab" +"Praying Hands" +Pre-Raphaelites +"Presentation of Christ in the Temple" +"Presentation of the Family of Darius to Alexander" +Prim, General +"Procession of the Magi" +"Prowling Lion, The" +"Psyche and Cupid" +Pypelincx, Maria + +Quakers +"Quin, Portrait of" + +Rabelais +"Rake's Progress, The" +"Rape of Ganymede, The" +"Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus, The" +Raphael (Sanzio) +Reade, Charles +"Reading at Diderot's, A" +"Reaper, The" +"Regions of Joy" +Rembrandt (van Rijn) +"Retreat from Russia" +Reynolds, Samuel +Reynolds, Sir Joshua +Ribera +Rinaldo and Armida +"Road over the Downs, The" +"Robert Cheseman with his Falcon" +Robusto, Jacopo. _See_ Tintoretto +Romano, Guilio +Rood, Professor +"Rosary, Story of the" +Rossetti, Dante Gabriel +Rossetti, W. M. +Rothschild, Lord +Rousseau +Royal Princess +Rubens, Albert +Rubens, John +Rubens, Nicholas +Rubens, Peter Paul +Ruisdael, Jacob van +Ruskin, John +Ruthven, Lady Mary +Sachs, Hans +"Sacred and Profane Love" +"St. Anthony of Padua" +"St. Augustine" +"St. Barbara" +St. Bernard dog +St. Bernardino +"Saint Cecelia" +St. Christopher +St. Clemente +St. Dominic +St. George +"St. George and the Dragon" +"St. George Slaying the Dragon" +St. Giorgio Maggiore +"St. Jerome" +St, John the Baptist +St. Jovis Shooting Company +St. Leger, Colonel +St. Lucas, Guild of +St. Luke, Guild of +St. Mark +St. Martin's Church +"St. Michael Attacking Satan." +"St. Nobody" +St. Paul's Cathedral +St. Peter +"St. Peter Baptising" +St. Peter's Church +"St. Rocco Healing the Sick" +"St. Sebastian." + (Botticelli) + (Correggio) + (Titian) +St. Sebastian, Church of +St. Sebastian, Monastery of +St. Sixtus +St. Trinita, Church of +"Salisbury Cathedral" +Salon +Salvator Rosa +"Samson" +"Samson Threatening His Stepfather" +"Samson's Wedding" +San Francisco +Santa Croce +Santa Maria della Pace +Santa Maria delle Grazte +Santa Maria del Orto +Santa Maria Novella +Santi, Bartolommeo +Santi Giovanni +Santo Cruz, Church of +Santo Spirito, Convent of +Sanzio. _See_ Raphael +Sarcinelli, Cornelio +Sargent, John Singer +Sarto, Andrea del. _See_ Andrea +Saskia +Savonarola +"Scapegoat, The" +"Scene from Woodstock" +Schiavone +Schmidt, Elizabeth +Schongauer +School Girl's Hymn +"School of Anatomy, The" +School of Art, Academy, London + American + Andalusian + Castilian + Dusseldorf + Dutch + English + Flemish + Florentine + Fontainebleau-Barbizon + Foreign + French in + German + Hudson River + Impressionist + Italian + Nuremberg + Parma + Roman + Spanish + Umbrian + Venetian +"School, of Athens, The" +"School, of Cupid, The" +"Scotch Deer" +Scott, Sir Walter +Scrovegno, Enrico +Scuola di San Rocco +"Seaport at Sunset" +Sebastian +"Serpent Charmer, The" +Servi, convent of the +Sesto, Cesare de +Seurat +Sforza, Ludovico +"Shadow of Death, The" +Shakespeare +Sheepshanks Collection +"Shepherd Guarding Sheep" +Sheppey, Isle of +Sheridan, Mrs. Richard Brinsley +Sheridan, Richard Brinsley +Siddons, Mrs. +Silva, Rodriguez de +Sistine Chapel +"Sistine Madonna, The" +Six, Jan +Sixtus IV. +Skynner, Sir John +"Slaughter of the Innocents, The" +"Slave Ship, The" +"Sleeping Bloodhound, The" +"Sleeping Venus, The" +Smith, John +"Snake Charmers, The" +"Snow-storm at Sea, A" +Society of Arts +Soderini +Solus Lodge +"Sortie, The" + _See also_ Night Watch +Sotomayer, Dona Beatriz de + Cabrera y +"Sower, The" +Spaniel, King Charles +"Spanish Marriage, The" +Spinola, Marquis of +"Sport of the Waves" +"Spring" +Sterne, Lawrence +"Storm, The" +Stour, River +"Straw Hat, The" +Sudbury +Sully +Sultan of Turkey +"Sunset on the Passaic" +"Sunset on the Sea" +"Surrender of Breda" +"Susanna and the Elders" +"Susanna's Bath" +"Sussex Downs" +Swanenburch, Jacob van +"Sword-Dance, The" +"Syndics of the Cloth Hall" + +Taddei, Taddeo +Tassi, Agostine +Thackeray +Thornhill, Sir James +"Three Ages, The" +"Three Saints and God the Father" +Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti) +Titian (Tiziano Vecelli) +Tornabuoni, Giovanni +Torregiano +Trafalgar Square +"Transfiguration, The" +"Tribute Money, The" +"Trinity" +Troyon +Trumbull, American painter +Trumbull, English diplomat +Tulp, Nicholaus +Turner, Charles +Turner, Joseph Mallord William +"Two Beggar Boys" +Tybis, Geryck + +Ulenberg, Saskia van +Urban VIII. +Urbino, Duke of + +"Valley Farm, The" +Van Dyck, Sir Anthony +Van Mander, Karel +Van Marcke +Van Noort, Adam +Van Rijn. _See_ Rembrandt +Van Veen +Varangeville +Vasari +Vatican +Vecchio, Palazzo +Vecchio, Palma +Vecelli family +Vecelli, Orsa +Vecelli, Orzio +Vecelli, Pompino +Vecelli, Tiziano. _See_ Titian +Velasquez (Diego Rodriguez de Silva) +"Venice Enthroned" +"Venus Dispatching Cupid" +"Venus Worship" +Verhaecht, Tobias +Vernon +Veronese, Paul (Paolo Cagliari) +Verrocchio +"Vestal Virgin, The" +Victoria, Queen +"Villa by the Sea" +"Village Festival, The" +"Ville d'Avray" +Vinci, Leonardo da +Violante +"Virgin as Consoler, The" +"Virgin's Rest Near Bethlehem" +"Vision of St. Anthony, The" +"Visitation, The" +"Visitor, The" +"Visit to the Burgomaster" + +Warren, General Joseph +"Water Carrier, The" +"Watermill, The" +Watteau, Jean Antoine +"Wedding Feast at Cana, The" +Wells, Frederick +West, Sir Benjamin +"Weymouth Bay" +Whitcomb, Ida Prentice +"William, Prince of Orange" +William the Silent +"Will-o'-the-Wisp" +"Willows near Arras" +Wilson +"Winnower, The" +"Winter" +Wolgemuth +"Woodcutters, The" +"Wooded Landscape" +"Wood Gatherers, The" + +Yarmouth +"Young People's Story of Art" +"Youth Surprised by Death" + +"Zingarella" +Zuccato, Sebastian + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PICTURES EVERY CHILD SHOULD KNOW *** + +This file should be named 7pics10.txt or 7pics10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7pics11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Pictures Every Child Should Know + +Author: Dolores Bacon + +Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6932] +[This file was first posted on February 12, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: iso-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PICTURES EVERY CHILD SHOULD KNOW *** + + + + +Arno Peters, Branko Collin, Tiffany Vergon, Charles Aldarondo, Charles + +Franks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +PICTURES EVERY CHILD SHOULD KNOW + + +A SELECTION OF THE WORLD'S ART MASTERPIECES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE + + +BY DOLORES BACON + +Illustrated from Great Paintings + + + +ACKNOWLEDGMENTS + + +Besides making acknowledgments to the many authoritative writers upon +artists and pictures, here quoted, thanks are due to such excellent +compilers of books on art subjects as Sadakichi Hartmann, Muther, +C. H. Caffin, Ida Prentice Whitcomb, Russell Sturgis and others. + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Man's inclination to decorate his belongings has always been one of +the earliest signs of civilisation. Art had its beginning in the lines +indented in clay, perhaps, or hollowed in the wood of family utensils; +after that came crude colouring and drawing. + +Among the first serious efforts to draw were the Egyptian square and +pointed things, animals and men. The most that artists of that day +succeeded in doing was to preserve the fashions of the time. Their +drawings tell us that men wore their beards in bags. They show us, +also, many peculiar head-dresses and strange agricultural +implements. Artists of that day put down what they saw, and they saw +with an untrained eye and made the record with an untrained hand; but +they did not put in false details for the sake of glorifying the +subject. One can distinguish a man from a mountain in their work, but +the arms and legs embroidered upon Mathilde's tapestry, or the figures +representing family history on an Oriental rug, are quite as correct +in drawing and as little of a puzzle. As men became more intelligent, +hence spiritualised, they began to express themselves in ideal ways; +to glorify the commonplace; and thus they passed from Egyptian +geometry to gracious lines and beautiful colouring. + +Indian pottery was the first development of art in America and it led +to the working of metals, followed by drawing and portraiture. Among +the Americans, as soon as that term ceased to mean Indians, art took a +most distracting turn. Europe was old in pictures, great and +beautiful, when America was worshipping at the shrine of the chromo; +but the chromo served a good turn, bad as it was. It was a link +between the black and white of the admirable wood-cut and the true +colour picture. + +Some of the Colonists brought over here the portraits of their +ancestors, but those paintings could not be considered "American" art, +nor were those early settlers Americans; but the generation that +followed gave to the world Benjamin West. He left his Mother Country +for England, where he found a knighthood and honours of every kind +awaiting him. + +The earliest artists of America had to go away to do their work, +because there was no place here for any men but those engaged in +clearing land, planting corn, and fighting Indians. Sir Benjamin West +was President of the Royal Academy while America was still revelling +in chromos. The artists who remained chose such objects as Davy +Crockett in the trackless forest, or made pictures of the Continental +Congress. + +After the chromo in America came the picture known as the "buckeye," +painted by relays of artists. Great canvases were stretched and +blocked off into lengths. The scene was drawn in by one man, who was +followed by "artists," each in turn painting sky, water, foliage, +figures, according to his specialty. Thus whole yards of canvas could +be painted in a day, with more artists to the square inch than are now +employed to paint advertisements on a barn. + +The Centennial Exhibition of 1876 came as a glorious flashlight. For +the first time real art was seen by a large part of our nation. Every +farmer took home with him a new idea of the possibilities of drawing +and colour. The change that instantly followed could have occurred in +no other country than the United States, because no other people would +have travelled from the four points of the compass to see such an +exhibition. Thus it was the American's _penchant_ for travel which +first opened to him the art world, for he was conscious even then of +the educational advantages to be found somewhere, although there +seemed to be few of them in the United States. + +After the Centennial arose a taste for the painting of "plaques," upon +which were the heads of ladies with strange-coloured hair; of +leather-covered flatirons bearing flowers of unnatural colour, or of +shovels decorated with "snow scenes." The whole nation began to revel +in "art." It was a low variety, yet it started toward a goal which +left the chromo at the rear end of the course, and it was a better +effort than the mottoes worked in worsted, which had till then been +the chief decoration in most homes. If the "buckeye" was +hand-painting, this was "single-hand" painting, and it did not take a +generation to bring the change about, only a season. After the +Philadelphia exhibition the daughter of the household "painted a +little" just as she played the piano "a little." To-day, much less +than a man's lifetime since then, there is in America a universal love +for refined art and a fair technical appreciation of pictures, while +already the nation has worthily contributed to the world of +artists. Sir Benjamin West, Sully, and Sargent are ours: Inness, +Inman, and Trumbull. + +The curator of the Metropolitan Museum in New York has declared that +portrait-painting must be the means which shall save the modern +artists from their sins. To quote him: "An artist may paint a bright +green cow, if he is so minded: the cow has no redress, the cow must +suffer and be silent; but human beings who sit for portraits seem to +lean toward portraits in which they can recognise their own features +when they have commissioned an artist to paint them. A man _will_ +insist upon even the most brilliant artist painting him in trousers, +for instance, instead of in petticoats, however the artist-whim may +direct otherwise; and a woman is likely to insist that the artist who +paints her portrait shall maintain some recognised shade of brown or +blue or gray when he paints her eye, instead of indulging in a burnt +orange or maybe pink! These personal preferences certainly put a limit +to an artist's genius and keep him from writing himself down a +madman. Thus, in portrait-painting, with the exactions of truth upon +it, lies the hope of art-lovers!" + +It is the same authority who calls attention to the danger that lies +in extremes; either in finding no value in art outside the "old +masters," or in admiring pictures so impressionistic that the objects +in them need to be labelled before they can be recognised. + +The true art-lover has a catholic taste, is interested in all forms of +art; but he finds beauty where it truly exists and does not allow the +nightmare of imagination to mislead him. That which is not beautiful +from one point of view or another is not art, but decadence. That +which is technical to the exclusion of other elements remains +technique pure and simple, workmanship--the bare bones of art. A thing +is not art simply because it is fantastic. It may be interesting as +showing to what degree some imaginations can become diseased, but it +is not pleasing nor is it art. There are fully a thousand pictures +that every child should know, since he can hardly know too much of a +good thing; but there is room in this volume only to acquaint him with +forty-eight and possibly inspire him with the wish to look up the +neglected nine hundred and fifty-two. + + + +CONTENTS + + +INTRODUCTION + +I. Andrea del Sarto, Florentine School, 1486-1531 + +II. Michael Angelo (Buonarroti), Florentine School, 1475-1564 + +III. Arnold B”cklin, Modern German School, 1827-1901 + +IV. Marie-Rosa Bonheur, French School, 1822-1899 + +V. Alessandro Botticelli, Florentine School, 1447-1510 + +VI. William Adolphe Bouguereau, French (Genre) School 1825-1905 + +VII. Sir Edward Burne-Jones, English (Pre-Raphaelite) School, 1833-1898 + +VIII. John Constable, English School, 1776-1837 + +IX. John Singleton Copley, English School, 1737-1815 + +X. Jean Baptiste Camille Corot, Fontainebleau-Barbizon School, 1796-1875 + +XI. Correggio (Antonio Allegri), School of Parma, 1494(?)--1534 + +XII. Paul Gustave Dor‚, French School, 1833-1883 + +XIII. Albrecht Drer, Nuremberg School, 1471-1528 + +XIV. Mariano Fortuny, Spanish School, 1838-1874 + +XV. Thomas Gainsborough, English School, 1727-1788 + +XVI. Jean L‚on G‚r“me, French Semi-classical School, 1824-1904 + +XVII. Ghirlandajo, Florentine School, 1449-1494 + +XVIII. Giotto (di Bordone), Florentine School, 1276-1337 + +XIX. Franz Hals, Dutch School, 1580-84-1666 + +XX. Meyndert Hobbema, Dutch School, 1637-1709 + +XXI. William Hogarth, School of Hogarth (English), 1697-1764 + +XXII. Hans Holbein, the Younger, German School, 1497-1543 + +XXIII. William Holman Hunt, English (Pre-Raphaelite) School, 1827- + +XXIV. George Inness, American, 1825-1897 + +XXV. Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, English School, 1802-1873 + +XXVI. Claude Lorrain (Gell‚e), Classical French School, 1600-1682 + +XXVII. Masaccio (Tommaso Guidi), Florentine School, 1401-1428 + +XXVIII. Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier, French School, 1815-1891 + +XXIX. Jean Fran‡ois Millet, Fontainebleau-Barbizon School, 1814-1875 + +XXX. Claude Monet, Impressionist School of France, 1840- + +XXXI. Murillo (Bartolom‚ Est‚ban), Andalusian School, 1617-1682 + +XXXII. Raphael (Sanzio), Umbrian, Florentine, and Roman Schools, +1483-1520 + +XXXIII. Rembrandt (Van Rijn), Dutch School, 1606-1669 + +XXXIV. Sir Joshua Reynolds, English School, 1723-1792 + +XXXV. Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish School, 1577-1640 + +XXXVI. John Singer Sargent, American and Foreign Schools, 1856- + +XXXVII. Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti), Venetian School, 1518-1594 + +XXXVIII. Titian (Tiziano Vecelli), Venetian School, 1489-1576 + +XXXIX. Joseph Mallord William Turner, English, 1775-1831 + +XL. Sir Anthony Van Dyck, Flemish School, 1599-1641 + +XLI. Velasquez (Diego Rodriguez de Silva), Castilian School, 1599-1660 + +XLII. Paul Veronese (Paolo Cagliari), Venetian School, 1528-1588. + +XLIII. Leonardo da Vinci, Florentine School, 1452-1519. + +XLIV. Jean Antoine Watteau, French (Genre) School, 1684-1721 + +XLV. Sir Benjamin West, American, 1738-1820 + +Index + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +FRONTISPIECE + +The Avenue, Middleharnis, Holland--_Hobbema_ + +Madonna of the Sack--_Andrea del Sarto_ + +Daniel--_Michael Angelo (Buonarroti)_ + +The Isle of the Dead--_Arnold B”cklin_ + +The Horse Fair--_Rosa Bonheur_ + +Spring--_Alessandro Botticelli_ + +The Hay Wain--_John Constable_ + +A Family Picture--_John Singleton Copley_ + +The Holy Night--_Correggio (Antonio Allegri)_ + +Dance of the Nymphs--_Jean Baptiste Camille Corot_ + +The Virgin as Consoler--_Wm. Adolphe Bouguereau_ + +The Love Song--_Sir Edward Burne-Jones_ + +The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine--_Correggio_ + +Moses Breaking the Tablets of the Law--_Paul Gustave Dor‚_ + +The Nativity--_Albrecht Drer_ + +The Spanish Marriage--_Mariana Fortuny_ + +Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan--_Thomas Gainsborough_ + +The Sword Dance--_Jean L‚on G‚r“me_ + +Portrait of Giovanna degli Albizi--_Ghirlandajo (Domenico Bigordi)_ + +The Nurse and the Child--_Franz Hals_ + +The Meeting of St. John and St. Anna at Jerusalem--_Giotto (Di +Bordone)_ + +The Avenue--_Meyndert Hobbema_ + +The Marriage Contract--_Wm. Hogarth_ + +The Light of the World--_William Holman Hunt_ + +Robert Cheseman with his Falcon--_Hans Holbein, the Younger_ + +The Berkshire Hills--_George Inness_ + +The Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner--_Sir Edwin Henry Landseer_ + +The Artist's Portrait--_Tommaso Masaccio_ + +Acis and Galatea--_Claude Lorrain_ + +Retreat from Moscow--_Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier_ + +The Angelus--_Jean Fran‡ois Millet_ + +The Immaculate Conception--_Murillo (Bartolom‚ Est‚ban)_ + +Haystack in Sunshine--_Claude Monet_ + +The Sistine Madonna--_Raphael (Sanzio)_ + +The Night Watch--_Rembrandt (Van Rijn)_ + +The Duchess of Devonshire and Her Daughter--_Sir Joshua Reynolds_ + +The Infant Jesus and St. John--_Peter Paul Rubens_ + +Carmencita--_John Singer Sargent_ + +The Miracle of St. Mark--_Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti)_ + +The Artist's Daughter, Lavinia--_Titian (Tiziano Vecelli)_ + +The Fighting T‚m‚raire--_Joseph Mallord William Turner_ + +The Children of Charles the First--_Sir Anthony Van Dyck_ + +Equestrian Portrait of Don Balthasar Carlos--_Velasquez (Diego +Rodriguez de Silva)_ + +The Marriage at Cana--_Paul Veronese_ + +The Death of Wolfe--_Sir Benjamin West_ + +The Artist's Two Sons--_Peter Paul Rubens_ + +The Last Supper--_Leonardo da Vinci_ + +Fˆte Champˆtre--_Jean Antoine Watteau_ + + + +I + +ANDREA DEL SARTO + + + (Pronounced Ahn'dray-ah del Sar'to) + _Florentine School_ + 1486-1531 + _Pupil of Piero di Cosimo_ + +Italian painters received their names in peculiar ways. This man's +father was a tailor; and the artist was named after his father's +profession. He was in fact "the Tailor's Andrea," and his father's +name was Angelo. + +One story of this brilliant painter which reads from first to last +like a romance has been told by the poet, Browning, who dresses up +fact so as to smother it a little, but there is truth at the bottom. + +Andrea married a wife whom he loved tenderly. She had a beautiful face +that seemed full of spirituality and feeling, and Andrea painted it +over and over again. The artist loved his work and dreamed always of +the great things that he should do; but he was so much in love with +his wife that he was dependent on her smile for all that he did which +was well done, and her frown plunged him into despair. + +Andrea's wife cared nothing for his genius, painting did not interest +her, and she had no worthy ambition for her husband, but she loved +fine clothes and good living, and so encouraged him enough to keep him +earning these things for her. As soon as some money was made she would +persuade him to work no more till it was spent; and even when he had +made agreements to paint certain pictures for which he was paid in +advance she would torment him till he gave all of his time to her +whims, neglected his duty and spent the money for which he had +rendered no service. Thus in time he became actually dishonest, as we +shall see. It is a sad sort of story to tell of so brilliant a young +man. + +Andrea was born in the Gualfonda quarter of Florence, and there is +some record of his ancestors for a hundred years before that, although +their lives were quite unimportant. Andrea was one of four children, +and as usual with Italians of artistic temperament, he was set to work +under the eye of a goldsmith. This craftsmanship of a fine order was +as near to art as a man could get with any certainty of making his +living. It was a time when the Italian world bedecked itself with rare +golden trinkets, wreaths for women's hair, girdles, brooches, and the +like, and the finest skill was needed to satisfy the taste. Thus it +required talent of no mean order for a man to become a successful +goldsmith. + +Andrea did not like the work, and instead of fashioning ornaments from +his master's models he made original drawings which did not do at all +in a shop where an apprentice was expected to earn his salt. Certain +fashions had to be followed and people did not welcome fantastic or +new designs. Because of this, Andrea was early put out of his master's +shop and set to learn the only business that he could be got to learn, +painting. This meant for him a very different teacher from the +goldsmith. + +The artist may be said to have been his own master, because, even when +he was apprenticed to a painter he was taught less than he already +knew. + +That first teacher was Barile, a coarse and unpleasing man, as well as +an incapable one; but he was fair minded, after a fashion, and put +Andrea into the way of finding better help. After a few years under +the direction of Piero di Cosimo, Andrea and a friend, Francia Bigio, +decided to set up shop for themselves. + +The two devoted friends pitched their tent in the Piazza del Grano, +and made a meagre beginning out of which great things were to +grow. They began a series of pictures which was to lead at least one +of them to fame. It was in the little Piazza, del Grano studio that +the "Baptism of Christ" was painted, a partnership work that had been +planned in the Campagnia dello Scalzo. + +"The Baptism" was not much of a picture as great pictures go, but it +was a beginning and it was looked at and talked about, which was +something at a time when Titian and Leonardo had set the standard of +great work. In the Piazza del Grano, Andrea and his friend lived in +the stables of the Tuscan Grand Dukes, with a host of other fine +artists, and they had gay times together. + +Andrea was a shy youth, a little timid, and by no means vain of his +own work, but he painted with surprising swiftness and sureness, and +had a very brilliant imagination. Its was his main trouble that he had +more imagination than true manhood; he sacrificed everything good to +his imagination. + +After the partnership with his friend, he undertook to paint some +frescoes independently, and that work earned for him the name of +"Andrea senza Errori"--Andrea the Unerring. Then, as now, each artist +had his own way of working, and Andrea's was perhaps the most +difficult of all, yet the most genius-like. There were those, Michael +Angelo for example, who laid in backgrounds for their paintings; but +Andrea painted his subject upon the wet plaster, precisely as he meant +it to be when finished. + +He was unlike the moody Michael Angelo; unlike the gentle Raphael; +unlike the fastidious Van Dyck who came long afterward; he was +hail-fellow-well-met among his associates, though often given over to +dreaminess. He belonged to a jolly club named the "Kettle Club," +literally, the Company of the Kettle; and to another called "The +Trowel," both suggesting an all around good time and much good +fellowship The members of these clubs were expected to contribute to +their wonderful suppers, and Andrea on one occasion made a great +temple, in imitation of the Baptistry, of jelly with columns of +sausages, white birds and pigeons represented the choir and +priests. Besides being "Andrew the Unerring," and a "Merry Andrew," he +was also the "Tailor's Andrew," a man in short upon whom a nickname +sat comfortably. He helped to make the history of the "Company of the +Kettle," for he recited and probably composed a touching ballad called +"The Battle of the Mice and the Frogs," which doubtless had its origin +in a poem of Homer's. But all at once, in the midst of his gay +careless life came his tragedy; he fell in love with a hatter's +wife. This was quite bad enough, but worse was to come, for the hatter +shortly died, and the widow was free to marry Andrea. + +After his marriage Andrea began painting a series of Madonnas, +seemingly for no better purpose than to exhibit his wife's beauty over +and over again. He lost his ambition and forgot everything but his +love for this unworthy woman. She was entirely commonplace, incapable +of inspiring true genius or honesty of purpose. + +A great art critic, Vasari, who was Andrea's pupil during this time, +has written that the wife, Lucretia, was abominable in every way. A +vixen, she tormented Andrea from morning till night with her bitter +tongue. She did not love him in the least, but only what his money +could buy for her, for she was extravagant, and drove the sensitive +artist to his grave while she outlived him forty years. + +About the time of the artist's marriage he painted one fresco, "The +Procession of the Magi," in which he placed a very splendid substitute +for his wife, namely himself. Afterward he painted the Dead Christ +which found its way to France and it laid the foundation for Andrea's +wrongdoing. This picture was greatly admired by the King of France who +above all else was a lover of art. Francis I. asked Andrea to go to +his court, as he had commissions for him. He made Andrea a money offer +and to court he went. + +He took a pupil with him, but he left his wife at home. At the court +of Francis I. he was received with great honours, and amid those new +and gracious surroundings, away from the tantalising charms of his +wife and her shrewish tongue, he began to have an honest ambition to +do great things. His work for France was undertaken with enthusiasm, +but no sooner was he settled and at peace, than the irrepressible wife +began to torment him with letters to return. Each letter distracted +him more and more, till he told the King in his despair, that he must +return home, but that he would come back to France and continue his +work, almost at once. Francis I., little suspecting the cause of +Andrea's uneasiness, gave him permission to go, and also a large sum +of money to spend upon certain fine works of art which he was to bring +back to France. + +We can well believe that Andrea started back to his home with every +good intention; that he meant to appease his wife and also his own +longing to see her; to buy the King his pictures with the money +entrusted to him, and to return to France and finish his work; but, +alas, he no sooner got back to his wife than his virtuous purpose +fled. She wanted this; she wanted that--and especially she wanted a +fine house which could just about be built for the sum of money which +the King of France had entrusted to Andrea. + +Andrea is a pitiable figure, but he was also a vagabond, if we are to +believe Vasari. He took the King's money, built his wretched wife a +mansion, and never again dared return to France, where his dishonesty +made him forever despised. + +Afterward he was overwhelmed with despair for what he had done, and he +tried to make his peace with Francis; but while that monarch did not +punish him directly for his knavery; he would have no more to do with +him, and this was the worst punishment the artist could have +had. However, his genius was so great that other than French people +forgot his dishonesty and he began life anew in his native place. + +Almost all his pictures were on sacred subjects; and finally, when +driven from Florence to Luco by the plague, taking with him his wife +and stepdaughter, he began a picture called the "Madonna del Sacco" +(the Madonna of the Sack). + +This fresco was to adorn the convent of the Servi, and the sketches +for it were probably made in Luco. When the plague passed and the +artist was able to return to Florence, he began to paint it upon the +cloister walls. + +Andrea, like Leonardo, painted a famous "Last Supper," although the +two pictures cannot be compared. In Andrea's picture it is said that +all the faces are portraits. + +Just before the plague sent him and his family from Florence a most +remarkable incident took place. Raphael had painted a celebrated +portrait of Pope Leo X. in a group, and the picture belonged to +Ottaviano de Medici. Duke Frederick II., of Mantua, longed to own this +picture, and at last requested the Medici to give it to him. The Duke +could not well be refused, but Ottaviano wanted to keep so great a +work for himself. What was to be done? He was in great trouble over +the affair. The situation seemed hopeless. It seemed certain that he +must part with his beloved picture to the Duke of Mantua; but one day +Andrea del Sarto declared that he could make a copy of it that even +Raphael himself could not tell from his original. Ottaviano could +scarcely believe this, but he begged Andrea to set about it, hoping +that it might be true. + +Going at the work in good earnest, Andrea painted a copy so exact that +the pupil of Raphael, who had more or less to do with the original +picture, could not tell which was which when he was asked to +choose. This pupil, Giulio Romano, was so familiar with every stroke +of Raphael's that if he were deceived surely any one might be; so the +replica was given to the Duke of Mantua, who never found out the +difference. + +Years afterward Giulio Romano showed the picture to Vasari, believing +it to be the original Raphael, neither Andrea nor the Medici having +told Romano the truth. But Vasari, who knew the whole story, declared +to Romano that what he showed him was but a copy. Romano would not +believe it, but Vasari told him that he would find upon the canvas a +certain mark, known to be Andrea's. Romano looked, and behold, the +original Raphael became a del Sarto! The original picture hangs in the +Pitti Palace, while the copy made by Andrea is in the Naples Gallery. + +The introduction of Andrea to Vasari was one of the few gracious +things, that Michael Angelo ever did. About Andrea he said to Raphael +at the time: "There is a little fellow in Florence who will bring +sweat to your brows if ever he is engaged in great works." Raphael, +would certainly have agreed, with him had he known what was to happen +in regard to the Leo X. picture. + +Notwithstanding Andrea's unfortunate temperament, which caused him to +be guided mostly by circumstances instead of guiding them, he was said +to be improving all the time in his art. He had a great many pupils, +but none of them could tolerate his wife for long, so they were always +changing. + +Throughout his life the artist longed for tenderness and encouragement +from his wife, and finally, without ever receiving it, he died in a +desolate way, untended even by her. After the siege of Florence there +came a pestilence, and Andrea was overtaken by it. His wife, afraid +that she too would become ill, would have nothing to do with him. She +kept away and he died quite alone, few caring that he was dead and no +one taking the trouble to follow him to his grave. Thus one of the +greatest of Florentine painters lived and died. Years after his death, +the artist Jacopo da Empoli, was copying Andrea's "Birth of the +Virgin" when an old woman of about eighty years on her way to mass +stopped to speak with him. She pointed to the beautiful Virgin's face +in the picture and said: "I am that woman." And so she was--the widow +of the great Andrea. Though she had treated him so cruelly, she was +glad to have it known that she was the widow of the dead genius. + + PLATE--THE MADONNA DEL SACCO + _(Madonna of the Sack)_ + +This picture is a fresco in the cloister of the Annunziata at +Florence, and it is called "of the sack" because Joseph is posed +leaning against a sack, a book open upon his knees. + +Doubtless the model for this Madonna is Andrea del Sarto's abominable +wife, but she looks very sweet and simple in the picture. The folds of +Mary's garments are beautifully painted, so is the poise of her head, +and all the details of the picture except the figure of the +child. There is a line of stiffness there and it lacks the softness of +many other pictures of the Infant Jesus. + + PLATE--THE HOLY FAMILY + +In this picture in the Pitti Palace, Florence, Andrea del Sarto +represents all the characters in a serious mood. There are St. John +and Elizabeth, Mary and the Infant Jesus, and there is no touch of +playfulness such as may be found in similar groups by other artists of +the time. Attention is concentrated upon Jesus who seems to be +learning from his young cousin. The left hand, resting upon Mary's arm +is badly drawn and in character does not seem to belong to the figure +of the child. A full, overhanging upper lip is a dominant feature in +each face. + +Other works of Andrea del Sarto are "Charity," which is in the Louvre; +"Madonna dell' Arpie," "A Head of Christ," "The Dead Christ," "Four +Saints," "Joseph in Egypt," his own portrait, and "Joseph's Dream." + + + + + +II + +MICHAEL ANGELO (BUONARROTI) + + + (Pronounced Meek-el-ahn-jel-o (Bwone-ar-ro'tee)) + _Florentine School_ + 1475-1564 + _Pupil of Ghirlandajo_ + +This wonderful man did more kinds of things, at a time when almost all +artists were versatile, than any other but one. Probably Leonardo da +Vinci was gifted in as many different ways as Michael Angelo, and in +his own lines was as powerful. This Florentine's life was as tragic as +it was restless. + +There is a tablet in a room of a castle which stands high upon a rocky +mount, near the village of Caprese, which tells that Michael Angelo +was born in that place. The great castle is now in ruins, and more +than four hundred years of fame have passed since the little child was +born therein. + +The unhappy existence of the artist seems to have been foreshadowed by +an accident which happened to his mother before he was born. She was +on horseback, riding with her husband to his official post at Chiusi, +for he was governor of Chiusi and Caprese. Her horse stumbled, fell, +and badly hurt her. This was two months before Michael Angelo was +born, and misfortune ever pursued him. + +The father of Angelo was descended from an aristocratic house--the +Counts of Canossa were his ancestors--and in that day the profession +of an artist was not thought to be dignified. Hence the father had +quite different plans for the boy; but the son persisted and at last +had his way. When he was still a little child his father finished his +work as an official at Caprese and returned to Florence; but he left +the little Angelo behind with his nurse. That nurse was the wife of a +stonemason, and almost as soon as the boy could toddle he used to +wander about the quarries where the stonecutters worked, and doubtless +the baby joy of Angelo was to play at chiseling as it is the pleasure +of modern babies to play at peg-top. After a time he was sent for to +go to Florence to begin his education. + +In Florence he fell in with a young chap who, like himself, loved art, +but who was fortunate enough already to be apprenticed to the great +painter of his time--Ghirlandajo. One happy day this young Granacci +volunteered to take Michael Angelo to his master's studio, and there +Angelo made such an impression on Ghirlandajo that he was urged by the +artist to become his pupil. + +All the world began to seem rose coloured to the ambitious boy, and he +started his life-work with enthusiasm. At that time he was thirteen +years old, full of hope and of love for his kind; but his good fortune +did not last long. He had hardly settled to work in Ghirlandajo's +studio than his genius, which should have made him beloved, made him +hated by his master. Angelo drew superior designs, created new +art-ideas, was more clever in all his undertakings than any other +pupil--even ahead of his master; and almost at once Ghirlandajo became +furiously jealous. This enmity between pupil and master was the +beginning of Angelo's many misfortunes. + +One day he got into a dispute with a fellow student, Torregiano, who +broke his nose. This deformity alone was a tragedy to one like Michael +Angelo who loved everything beautiful, yet must go through life +knowing himself to be ill-favoured. + +In height he was a little man, topped by an abnormally large head +which was part of the penalty he had to pay for his talents. He had a +great, broad forehead, and an eye that did not gleam nor express the +beauty of his creative mind, but was dull, and lustreless, matching +his broken, flattened nose. Indeed he was a tragedy to himself. In the +"History of Painting" Muther describes his unhappy disposition: + +"In his youthful years he never learned what love meant. 'If thou +wishest to conquer me,' in old age he addresses love, 'give me back my +features, from which nature has removed all beauty.' Whenever in his +sonnets he speaks of passion, it is always of pain and tears, of +sadness and unrequited longing, never of the fulfilment of his +wishes." + +Then, too, Michael Angelo had a quarrelsome disposition, and he was +harsh in his criticism of others. He hated Leonardo da Vinci more for +his great physical beauty than for his genius. He quarreled with most +of his contemporaries, never joined the assemblies of his brother +artists, but dwelt altogether apart. His was a gloomy and melancholy +disposition and he never found relief outside his work. + +He was all kinds of an artist--poet, sculptor, architect, painter--and +although he worked with the irregularity of true genius, he worked +indefatigably when once he began. It is said that when he was making +his "David" he never removed his clothing the whole time he was +employed upon the work, but dropped down when too exhausted to work +more, and slept wherever he fell. + +His first flight from the workshop of Ghirlandajo was to the gardens +of the great Florentine prince, Lorenzo de' Medici, who had sent to +Ghirlandajo for two of his best pupils. He wished them to come to his +gardens and study the beautiful Greek statues which ornamented +them. The choice fell to Angelo and Granacci. Probably those statues +in Lorenzo's garden were the first glimpses of really great art that +Michael Angelo ever had. Certain it is that he was overwhelmed with +happiness when he was given permission to copy what he would, and at +once he fell to work with his chisel. His first work in that garden +was upon the head of an old faun; and Lorenzo, walking by, curious to +know to what use the lad was putting his opportunity, made a +criticism: + +"You have made your faun old," he said, "yet you have left all the +teeth; at such an age, generally the teeth are wanting." + +Angelo had nothing to say and the prince walked on, but when next he +came that way, he found that Angelo had broken off two of the faun's +teeth; and this recognition of his criticism pleased Lorenzo so much +that he invited Angelo to live with him. At first his father +objected. He felt himself to be an aristocrat, and sculpture and +painting were indeed low occupations for his son, who he had resolved +should be nothing less than a silk merchant. Nevertheless, the +prince's command, united with the son's pleading, compelled the father +to give up his cherished dream of making a merchant of him, and Angelo +went to live in the palace. + +Then indeed what seemed a beautiful life opened out. He was dressed in +fine clothing, dined with princes, and possibly he was grateful to his +patron. Some historians say so, and add that when Lorenzo died Angelo +wept, and returned sadly to his father's house to mourn, but this tale +seems at odds with what else we know of Angelo's unangelic, envious +and bitter disposition. It is quite certain, however, that with the +death of Lorenzo, Angelo's, fortunes became greatly changed. Another +prince followed in line--Pietro de' Medici--but he was a poor thing, +who brought little good to anybody. He had small use for Michael +Angelo's genius, but it is said that he did give him one +commission. After a great storm one day, he asked him to make a +snow-man for him, and Angelo obligingly complied. It was doubtless a +very beautiful snow-man, but although it was Angelo's it melted in the +night, even as if it had been Johnny's or Tommy's snow-man, and left +no trace behind. + +In Rome there was a high and haughty pope on the throne--Julius +II.--who had probably not his match for obstinacy and haughtiness, +excepting in the great painter and sculptor. When Angelo went to Rome, +he was bound to come in conflict with Julius for it was popes and +princes who gave art any reason for being in those days, and the +Church prescribed what kind of art should be cultivated. Michael was +to come directly under the command of the pope and such a combination +promised trouble. Kings themselves had to remove their crowns and hats +to Julius, and why not Michael Angelo? Yet there he stood, covered, +before the pope, opposing his greatness to that of the pope. Soderini +says that Angelo treated the pope as the king of France never would +have dared treat him; but Angelo may have known that kings of France +might be born and die, times without number, while there would never +be born another Michael Angelo. There could be nothing but antagonism +between Angelo and Julius, and soon after the artist returned to +Florence; but the necessity for following his profession enabled +Julius to tame him after all, and it is said that the pope led him +back to Rome, later, "with a halter about his neck." This must have +been agony to Angelo. + +Back in Rome, he was commissioned to make a tomb for the pope. He had +no sooner set about the preliminaries--the getting of suitable marble +for his work--than he began to quarrel with the men who were to hew +it. When that difficulty was settled, and the marble was got out, he +had a set-to with the shipowners who were to transport the stone, and +that row became so serious that the sculptor was besieged in his own +house. + +At another and later time, when he was engaged upon the frescoes of +the Sistine Chapel, he was made to work by force. He accused the man +who had built the scaffolding upon which he must stand, or lie, to +paint, of planning his destruction. He suspected the very assistants +whom he, himself, had chosen to go from Florence, of having designs +upon his life. He locked the chapel against them, and they had to turn +away when they went to begin work. Because of his insane suspicion he +did alone the enormous work of the frescoes. Doubtless he was half +mad, just as he was wholly a genius. + +By the time he had finished those frescoes he was so exhausted and +overworked that he wrote piteously to his people at home, "I have not +a friend in Rome, neither do I wish nor have use for any." This of +course was not true; or he would not have made the statement. "I +hardly find time to take nourishment. Not an ounce more can I bear +than already rests upon my shoulders." Even when the work was done he +felt no happiness because of it, but complained about everything and +everybody. + +If Angelo thought this an unhappy day, worse was in store for +him. Julius II. died and in his place there came to reign upon the +papal throne, Leo X. If Michael Angelo had been restricted in his work +before, he was almost jailed under Leo X. Julius had been a virile, +forceful man, and Michael Angelo was the same. Since he must be +restrained and dictated to, it was possible for the artist to listen +to a man who was in certain respects strong like himself, but to be +under the thumb of a weak, effeminate person like Leo, was the tragedy +of tragedies to Angelo. That was a marvellous time in Rome. All its +citizens had become so pleasure-loving that the world, stood still to +wonder. When the pope banqueted, he had the golden plates from which +fair women had eaten hurled into the Tiber, that they might never be +profaned by a less noble use than they had known. From all this riot +and madness of pleasure, Michael Angelo stood aside with frowning brow +and scornful mien. He approved of nothing and of nobody--despising +even Raphael, the gentle and loving man whom the pleasure-crazed +people of Rome paused to smile upon and love. The pope said that +Angelo was "terrible," and that he filled everybody with fear. + +Finally, Rome so resented his frowning looks and his surly ways that +work was provided for him at a distance. He was sent to Florence again +to build a facade. While there, the city was conquered, and Angelo was +one who fought for its freedom, but even so, he fled just at the +crisis. Thus he ever did the wrong thing--excepting when he worked. In +Florence he had planned to do mighty things, but he never accomplished +any one of them. He planned to make a wonderful colossal statue on a +cliff near Carrara, and also he resolved to make the tomb of Julius +the nucleus of a "forest of statues." + +Michael Angelo never married, but he was burdened with a family and +all its cares. He supported his brothers and even his nephews, and +took care of his father. All of those people came to him with their +difficulties and with their demands for money. He chided, quarreled, +repelled, yet met every obligation. He would sit beside the sick-bed +of a servant the night through, but growl at the demands of his near +relatives--and it is not unlikely that he had good reason. + +At last he withdrew himself from all human society but that of little +children, whom he cared to speak with and to please. He would have +naught to do with men of genius like himself; and when he fell from a +scaffolding and injured himself, the physician had to force his way +through a barred window, in order to get into the sick man's presence +to serve him. + +An illustration of his determined solitude is given in the "Young +People's Story of Art:" + +"There had long been lying idle in Florence an immense block of +marble. One hundred years before a sculptor had tried to carve +something from it, but had failed. This was now given to Michael +Angelo. He was to be paid twelve dollars a month, and to be allowed +two years in which to carve a statue. He made his design in wax; and +then built a tower around the block, so that he might work inside +without being seen." + +Everything Angelo undertook bore the marks of gigantic +enterprise. Although he never succeeded in making the tomb of Julius +II. the central piece in his forest of statues, the undertaking was +marvellous enough. His original plan was to make the tomb three +stories high and to ornament it with forty statues, and if St. Peter's +Church was large enough to hold it, the work was to be placed therein; +but if not, a church was to be built specially to hold the tomb. When +at last, in spite of his difficulties with workmen and shipowners, the +marbles were deposited in the great square before St. Peter's, they +filled the whole place; and the pope, wishing to watch the progress of +the work and not himself to be observed, had a covered way built from +the Vatican to the workshop of Angelo in the square, by which he might +come and go as he chose, while an order was issued that the sculptor +was to be admitted at all times to the Vatican. No sooner was this +arrangement completed than Angelo's enemies frightened the pope by +telling him there was danger in making his tomb before his death; and +with these superstitions haunting him Julius II. stopped the work, +leaving Angelo without the means to pay for his marbles. With the +doors of the Vatican closed to him, Angelo withdrew, post haste to +Florence--and who can blame him? Nevertheless, the work was resumed +after infinite trouble on the pope's part. He had to send again and +again for Angelo and after forty years, the work was finished. There +the sequel of the sculptor's forty-years war with self and the world +stands to-day in "Moses," the wonderful, commanding central figure +which seems to reflect all the fierce power which Angelo had to keep +in check during a life-time. + +The command of Julius that he should paint the ceiling of the Sistine +Chapel aroused all his fierce resistance. He did it under protest, all +the while accusing those about him of having designs upon his life. + +"I am not a painter, but a sculptor," he said. + +"Such a man as thou is everything that he wishes to be," the pope +replied. + +"But this is an affair of Raphael. Give him this room to paint and let +me carve a mountain!" But no, he must paint the ceiling; but to render +it easier for him the pope told him he might fill in the spaces with +saints, and charge a certain amount for each. This Angelo, who was +first of all an artist, refused to do. He would do the work rightly or +not at all. So he made his own plans and cut himself a cardboard +helmet, into the front of which he thrust a candle, as if it were a +Davy lamp, and he lay upon his back to work day and night at the hated +task. During those months he was compelled to look up so continually, +that never afterward was he able to look down without difficulty. When +he had finished the work Julius had some criticisms to make. + +"Those dresses on your saints are such poor things," he said. "Not +rich enough--such very poor things!" + +"Well, they were poor things," was Angelo's answer. "The saints did +not wear golden ornaments, nor gold on their garments." + +After Julius II. and Leo X. came Pope Paul III., and he, like the +other two, determined to have Angelo for his workman. Indeed all his +life, Michael Angelo's gifts were commanded by the Church of Rome. It +was for Paul III. he painted the "Last Judgment." His former work upon +the Sistine Chapel had been the story of the creation. All his work +was of a mighty and allegorical nature; tremendous shoulders, mighty +limbs, herculean muscles that seemed fit to support the +universe. These allegories are made of hundreds of figures. To-day +they are still there, though dimmed by the smoke of centuries of +incense, and dismembered by the cracking of plaster and disintegration +of materials. + +Angelo's methods of work, as well as their results, were +oppressive. In his youth, while trying to perfect himself in his study +of the human form, he drew or modelled, from nude corpses. He had +these conveyed by stealth from the hospital into the convent of Santo +Spirito, where he had a cell and there he worked, alone. + +He was concentrated, mentally and emotionally, upon himself. The only +remark he made after the blow from Torregiano was, "You will be +remembered only as the man who broke my nose!" This proved nearly +true, since Torregiano was banished, and murdered by the Spanish +Inquisition. + +All sorts of anecdotes have floated through the centuries concerning +this man and his work. For example, he made a statue of a sleeping +cupid, which was buried in the ground for a time that it might assume +the appearance of age, and pass for an antique. Afterward it was sold +to the Cardinal San Giorgio for two hundred ducats, though Michael +Angelo received only thirty. Nevertheless, he died a rich man, after +having cared for a numerous family, while he himself lived like a man +without means. All the tranquillity he ever knew he enjoyed in his old +age. + +It was characteristic of his perversity that he left his name upon +nothing that he made, with one exception. Vasari relates the story of +that exception: + +"The love and care which Michael Angelo had given to this group, 'In +Paradise,' were such that he there left his name--a thing he never did +again for any work--on the cincture which girdles the robe of Our +Lady; for it happened one day that Michael Angelo, entering the place +where it was erected, found a large assemblage of strangers from +Lombardy there, who were praising it highly; one of them asking who +had done it, was told, 'our Hunchback of Milan'; hearing which Michael +Angelo remained silent, although surprised that his work should be +attributed to another. But one night he repaired to St. Peter's with a +light and his chisels, to engrave his name on the figure, which seems +to breathe a spirit as perfect as her form and countenance." + +If his youth had been given to sculpture, his maturity to the painting +of wondrous frescoes, so his old age was devoted to architecture, and +as architect he rebuilt the decaying St. Peter's. In this work he felt +that he partly realised his ideal. Sculpture meant more to him, "did +more for the glory of God," than any other form of art. When he had +finished his work on St. Peter's, he is said to have looked upon it +and exclaimed: "I have hung the Pantheon in the air!" + +This colossal genius died in Rome, and was carried by the light of +torches from that city back to his better loved Florence, where he was +buried. His tomb was made in the Santa Croce, and upon it are three +female figures representing Michael Angelo's three wonderful arts: +Architecture, sculpture and painting. No artist was greater than he. + +His will committed "his soul to God, his body to the earth, and his +property to his nearest relatives." + + PLATE--DANIEL + +This wonderful painting is a part of the decoration of the Sistine +Chapel in Rome. The picture of the prophet tells so much in itself, +that a description seems absurd. It is enough to call attention to the +powerful muscles in the arm, the fall of the hand, and then to speak +of the main characteristics of the artist's pictures. + +It is extraordinary that there is no blade of grass to be found in any +painting by Michael Angelo. He loved to paint but one thing, and that +was the naked man, the powerful muscles, or the twisted limbs of those +in great agony. He loved only to work upon vast spaces of ceiling or +wall. Look at this picture of Daniel and see how like sculpture the +pose and modelling appear to be. First of all, Michael Angelo was a +sculptor, and most of the painting which fate forced him to do has the +characteristics of sculpture. + +One critic has remarked that he loves to think of this strange man +sitting before the marble quarry of Pietra Santa and thinking upon all +the beings hidden in the cliff--beings which he should fashion from +the marble. + +It was said that in Michael Angelo's hands the Holy Family became a +race of Titans, and where others would have put plants or foliage, +Angelo placed men and naked limbs to fill the space. When his subject +made some sort of herbage necessary, he invented a kind of medi‘val +fern in place of grass and familiar leaves. Everything appears brazen +and hard and mighty, suggestive of Angelo's own throbbing spirit and +maddened soul. Most of his work, when illustrated, must be shown not +as a whole but in sections, but one can best mention them as entire +picture themes. On the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel are nine frescoes +describing "The Creation of The World," "The Fall of Man" and "The +Deluge." "The Last Judgment" occupies the entire altar wall in the +same chapel of the Vatican. "The Holy Family" is in the Uffizi +Gallery, Florence. + + + + +III + +ARNOLD B™CKLIN + + + (Pronounced Bek'-lin) + _Modern German School (Dsseldorf)_ + 1827-1901 + +This splendid artist is so lately dead that it does not seem proper +yet to discuss his personal history, but we can speak understandingly +of his art, for we already know it to be great art, which will stand +the test of time. His imagination turned toward subjects of solemn +grandeur and his work is very impressive and beautiful. + +He was born in Basel, "one of the most prosaic towns in Europe." His +father was a Swiss merchant, and not poor; thus the son had ordinarily +good chances to make an artist of himself. He was born at a time when +to be an artist had long ceased to be a reproach, and men no longer +discouraged their sons who felt themselves inspired to paint great +pictures. + +When B”cklin was nineteen years old he took himself to Dsseldorf, +with his merchant father's permission, and settled down to learn his +art, but in that city he found mostly "sentimental and anecdotal" +pictures being painted, which did not suit him at all. Then he took +himself off to Brussels, where again he was not satisfied, and so went +to Paris. But while in Brussels he had copied many old masters, and +had advanced himself very much, so that he did not present himself in +Paris raw and untried in art. + +At first he studied in the Louvre, then went to Rome, seeking ever the +best, and being hard to satisfy. He found rest and tranquillity in +Zrich, a city in his native country, but it was Italy that had most +influenced his work. + +He loved the Campagna of Rome with its ruins and the sad grandeur of +the crumbling tombs lining its way, and therefore a certain +mysterious, grand, and solemn character made his pictures unlike those +of any other artist. He loved to paint in vertical (up-and-down) +fines, rather than with the conventional horizontal outlines that we +find in most paintings. This method gives his pictures a different +quality from any others in the world. + +He loved best of all to paint landscape, and it is said of him that +"as the Greeks peopled their streams and woods and waves with +creatures of their imagination, so B”cklin makes the waterfall take +shape as a nymph, or the mists which rise above the water source +wreathe into forms of merry children; or in some wild spot hurls +centaurs together in fierce combat, or makes the slippery, moving wave +give birth to Nereids and Tritons." + +Muther, art-critic and biographer, calls our attention to the +similarity between Wagner's music and B”cklin's painting. While Wagner +was "luring the colours of sound from music," B”cklin's "symphonies of +colour streamed forth like a crashing orchestra," and he calls him the +greatest colour-poet of the time. + +In appearance B”cklin was fine of form, healthy and wholesome in all +his thoughts and way of living. In 1848 he took part in revolutionary +politics and later this did him great harm. Only the influence of his +friends kept him from ruin. After the Franco-Prussian war he was made +Minister of Fine Arts. In this office he rendered great service; but +because he had to witness the wrecking of the Column Vend“me in order +to save the Louvre and the Luxembourg from the mob, he was censured; +indeed so heavy a fine was imposed that it took his whole fortune to +pay it; and he was banished into the bargain. From 1892 to 1901 he +lived in or near Florence, and he died at Fiesole, January 16th, 1901. + + PLATE--THE ISLE OF THE DEAD + +This picture is perhaps the greatest of the many great Arnold B”cklin +paintings, and it is both fascinating and awe-inspiring. + +It best shows his liking for vertical lines in art. The Isle of the +Dead is of a rocky, shaft-like formation in which we may see hewn-out +tombs; and there, tall cypress trees are growing. + +The traces of man's work in the midst of this sombre, ideal, and +mystic scene add to the impressiveness of the picture. The isle stands +high and lonely in the midst of a sea. + +The water seems silently to lap the base of the rocks and the trees +are in black shadow, massed in the centre. It looks very mysterious +and still. There is a stone gateway touched with the light of a dying +day. It is sunset and the dead is being brought to its resting place +in a tiny boat, all the smaller for its relation to the gloomy +grandeur of the isle which it is approaching. One figure is standing +in the boat, facing the island, and the sunlight falls full upon his +back and touches the boat, making that spot stand out brilliantly from +all the rest of the picture. + +Among B”cklin's paintings are "Naiads at Play," which hangs in the +Museum at Basel, "A Villa by the Sea," "The Sport of the Waves," +"Regions of Joy," "Flora," and "Venus Dispatching Cupid." + + + + +IV + +MARIE-ROSA BONHEUR + + + (Pronounced Rosa Bon-er) + _French School_ + 1822-1895 + _Pupil of Raymond B. Bonheur_ + +Rosa Bonheur, Landseer, and Murillo maybe called "Children's Painters" +in this book because they painted things that children, as well as +grown-ups, certainly can enjoy. To be sure, Murillo was a very +different sort of artist from Rosa Bonheur or Landseer, but if the two +latter painted the most beautiful, animals--dogs, sheep, and +horses--Murillo painted the loveliest little children. + +Rosa was the best pupil of her father; Raymond B. Bonheur. In Bordeaux +they lived together the peaceful life of artists, the father being +already a well known painter when his daughter was born. She became, +as Mr. Hamerton, who knew her, said, "the most accomplished female +painter who ever lived ... a pure, generous woman as well and can +hardly be too much admired ... as a woman or an artist. She is simple +in her tastes and habits of life and many stories are told of her +generosity to others." + +After a time the Bonheurs moved to Paris where young Rosa could have +better opportunities; and there she put on man's clothing, which she +wore all her life thereafter. She wore a workingman's blouse and +trousers, and tramped about looking more like a man than a woman with +her short hair. This, made everybody stare at her and think her very +queer, but people no longer believe that she dressed herself thus in +order to advertise herself and attract attention; but because it was +the most convenient costume for her to get about in. She went to all +sorts of places; the stockyards, slaughter houses, all about the +streets of Paris, to learn of things and people, especially of +animals, which she wished most to paint. She could hardly have gone +about thus if she had worn women's clothing. + +Rosa Bonheur exhibited her first painting at the _Salon_ in 1841, and +this was twelve years before her beloved father died; thus he had the +happiness of knowing that the daughter whom he had taught so lovingly +was on the road to success and fortune. He knew that when fortune +should come to her she would use it well. The year that she exhibited +her work in the _Salon_ she painted only two little pictures--one of +rabbits, the other of sheep and goats--but they were so splendidly +done that all the critics knew a great woman artist had arrived. + +It was then that her enemies, those who were becoming jealous of her +work, said that she was wearing men's clothing in order to attract +attention to herself. + +Soon her work began to be bought by the French Government, which was a +sure sign of her power. She was already much beloved by the people. In +the meantime we in America and others in England had heard of +Mademoiselle Bonheur, but we heard far less about her painting than we +did about her masculine garb. We thought of her mostly as an eccentric +woman; but one day came "The Horse Fair," and all the world heard of +that, so the artist was to be no longer judged by the clothes she wore +but by her art. Finally, she received the cross of the Legion of +Honour, and also was made a member of the Institute of Antwerp. + +She lived near Fontainebleau; her studio a peaceful retired home, till +the Franco-Prussian war came about. Then she and others began to fear +that her studio and pictures would be destroyed, so the artist was +forced to stop her work and prepared to go elsewhere. But the Crown +Prince of Prussia himself ordered that Mademoiselle Bonheur should not +even be disturbed. Her work had made her belong to all the world and +all the world was to protect her if need be. + +Rosa Bonheur had a brother who, some critics said, was the better +artist, but if that were true it is likely that his popularity would +in some degree have approached that of his sister. Rosa Bonheur did +not paint many large canvases, but mostly small ones, or only +moderately large; but when she painted sheep it seems that one might +shear the wool, it stands so fleecy and full; while her horses rampage +and curvet, showing themselves off as if they were alive. + + PLATE--THE HORSE FAIR + +This picture was exhibited all over the world very nearly. It was +carried to England and to America, and won admiration wherever it was +seen. Finally it was sold in America. It was first exhibited in 1853, +the year in which the artist's father died. Mr. Ernest Gambart was the +first who bought the picture, and he wrote of it to his friend, +Mr. S.P. Avery: "I will give you the real history of 'The Horse Fair,' +now in New York. It was painted in 1852, by Rosa Bonheur, then in her +thirtieth year, and exhibited in the next _Salon_. Though much admired +it did not find a purchaser. It was soon after exhibited in Ghent, +meeting again with much appreciation, but was not sold, as art did not +flourish at the time. In 1855 the picture was sent by Rosa Bonheur to +her native town of Bordeaux and exhibited there. She offered to sell +it to the town at the very low price 12,000 francs ($2,400). While +there, I asked her if she would sell it to me, and allow me to take it +to England and have it engraved. She said: 'I wish to have my picture +remain in France. I will once more impress on my countrymen, my wish +to sell it to them for 12,000 francs. If they refuse, you can have it, +but if you take it abroad, you must pay me 40,000 francs.' The town +failing to make the purchase, I at once accepted these terms, and Rosa +Bonheur then placed the picture at my disposal. I tendered her the +40,000 francs and she said: 'I am much gratified at your giving me +such a noble price, but I do not like to feel that I have taken +advantage of your liberality; let us see how we can combine in the +matter. You will not be able to have an engraving made from so large a +canvas. Suppose I paint you a small one from the same subject, of +which I will make you a present.' Of course I accepted the gift, and +thus it happened that the large work went travelling over the kingdom +on exhibition, while Thomas Landseer was making an engraving from the +quarter-size replica. + +"After some time (in 1857 I think), I sold the original picture to +Mr. William P. Wright, New York (whose picture gallery and residence +were at Weehawken, N.J.), for the sum of 30,000 francs, but later I +understood that Mr. Stewart paid a much larger price for it on the +breaking up of Mr. Wright's gallery. The quarter size replica, from +which the engraving was made, I finally sold to Mr. Jacob Bell, who +gave it in 1859 to the nation, and it is now in the National Gallery, +London. A second, still smaller replica, was painted a few years +later, and was resold some time ago in London for œ4,000 +($20,000). There is also a smaller water-colour drawing which was sold +to Mr. Bolckow for 2,500 guineas ($12,000), and is now an heirloom +belonging to the town of Middlesbrough. That is the whole history of +this grand work. The Stewart canvas is the real and true original, and +only large size 'Horse-Fair.' + +"Once in Mr. Stewart's collection, it never left his gallery until the +auction sale of his collection, March 25th, 1887, when it was +purchased by Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt for the sum of $55,000, and +presented to the Metropolitan Museum of Art." + +And thus we have the whole story of the "Horse-Fair." The picture is +93-1/2 inches high, and 197 inches wide, and it contains a great +number of horses, some of which are ridden, while others are led, and +all are crowding with wild gaiety toward the fair where it is quite +plain they know they are about to be admired and their beauty shown to +the best advantage. Other well-known Rosa Bonheurs are "Ploughing," +"Shepherd Guarding Sheep," "Highland Sheep," "Scotch Deer," "American +Mustangs," and "The Study of a Lioness." + + + + +V + +ALESSANDRO BOTTICELLI + + + (Pronounced Ah-lays-sahn'dro Bo't-te-chel'lee) + _Florentine School,_ + 1447-1510 (Vasari's dates) + _Pupil of Filippo Lippi and Verrocchio_ + +Botticelli took his name from his first master, as was the fashion in +those days. The relation of master and apprentice was very close, not +at all like the relation of pupil and teacher to-day. + +Botticelli's father was a Florentine citizen, Mariano Filipepi, and he +wished his son to become a goldsmith; hence the lad was soon +apprenticed to Botticelli, the goldsmith. As a scholar, the little +goldsmith had not distinguished himself. Indeed it is said that as a +boy he would not "take to any sort of schooling in reading, writing, +or arithmetic." It cannot be said that this failure distinguished him +as a genius, or the world would be full of genius-boys; but the result +was that he early began to learn his trade. + +Fortunately for him and us, Botticelli, the smith, was a man of some +wisdom and when he saw that the lad originated beautiful designs and +had creative genius he did not treat the matter with scorn, as the +master of Andrea del Sarto had done, but sent him instead to Fra +Filippo (Lippo Lippi) to be taught the art of painting. So kind a deed +might well establish a feeling of devotion on little Alessandro's part +and make him wish to take his master's name. + +Fra Filippo was a Carmelite monk, merry and kindly; simple, good, and +gifted, but his temperament did not seem to influence his young +pupil. Of all unhappy, morbid men, Botticelli seems to have been the +most so, unless we are to except Michael Angelo. + +After studying with the monk, Botticelli was summoned by Pope Sixtus +IV. to Rome to decorate a new chapel in the Vatican. Before that time +his whole life had been greatly influenced by the teachings of +Savonarola who had preached both passionately and learnedly in +Florence, advocating liberty. From the time he fell under Savonarola's +wonderful power, the artist grew more and more mystic and morbid. In +Rome it was the custom to have the portraits of conspirators, or +persons of high degree who were revolutionary or otherwise +objectionable to the state, hung outside the Public Palace, and in +Botticelli's time there was a famous disturbance among the aristocrats +of the state. In 1478 the powerful Pazzi family conspired against the +Medici family, which then actually had control. It was Botticelli who +was engaged to paint the portraits of the Pazzi family, which to their +shame and humiliation were to be displayed upon the palace walls. + +One peculiarity of this artist's pictures was that he used actual +goldleaf to make the high lights upon hair, leaves, and draperies. The +effect of the use of this gold was very beautiful, if unusual, and it +may have been that his apprenticeship as a goldsmith suggested to him +such a device. + +Also it was he who created certain characteristics of painting that +have since been thought original with Burne-Jones. This was the use of +long stiff lily-stalks or other upright details in his compositions. +Examples of this idea, which produced so weird an effect, will be +found in his allegory of "Spring," where stiff tree-trunks form a part +of the background. In the "Madonna of the Palms" upright lily-stalks +are held in pale and trembling hands. Like Michael Angelo, who came +years afterward, Botticelli was a guest of the great Lorenzo the +"Magnificent," in Florence. It was by Botticelli's hand that the +greater painter sent a letter to Lorenzo from a duchess friend who was +also his patron. This was in Angelo's youth; in Botticelli's old age. + +All his life was a drama of morbid seeking after the unattainable, and +finally he became so poor and helpless that in his old age he would +have starved had Lorenzo de' Medici not taken care of him. Lorenzo and +other friends who in spite of his gloominess admired his real piety, +gathered about him and kept him from starvation. + +On his "Nativity," Botticelli wrote: "This picture I, Alessandro, +painted at the end of the year 1500 in the troubles of Italy, in the +halftime after the time, during the fulfilment of the eleventh of +John, in the second woe of the Apocalypse, in the loosing the devil +for three and a half years. Afterward he shall be chained according to +the twelfth of John, and see him trodden down as in this picture." All +of this is interesting because Botticelli himself wrote it, but it is +not very easily understood by any child, nor by many grown people. + +Botticelli did some very extraordinary things, but whether they are +beautiful or not one must decide for himself. They are paintings so +characteristic that one must think them very beautiful or else not at +all so. + + PLATE--LA PRIMAVERA + _(Spring)_ + +In this picture we have the forerunner of a modern painter, because we +see in it certain, qualities that we find in B”cklin. Look at the +effect of vertical lines; the tree trunks, and the poses of the +slender women. Over all hovers a cupid who is sending love-shafts into +the hearts of all in springtime. + +Notice the lacy effect of the flowers that bestar the wind-blown gown +of "La Primavera," the fern-like leaves that fleck the background; the +draperies that do not conceal the forms of the nymphs of the lovely +springtime. + +The very spirit of spring is seen in all the half-floating, +half-dancing, gliding, diaphanous figures of the forest. The flowers +of "La Primavera's" crown are blue and white cornflowers and +primroses. She scatters over the earth tulips, anemones, and +narcissus. The painting is allegorical and unique. Never were such +fluttering odds and ends of draperies painted before, nor such +fascinating effects had from canvas, paint, or brush. The picture +hangs in Florence in the Uffizi Gallery. A German critic tells us that +the "Realm of Venus," is a better title for this picture, and that it +was painted after a poem of that name. + +Other pictures by this artist are: "The Birth of Venus," "Pallas," +"Judith," "Holofernes," "St. Augustine," "Adoration of the Magi," and +"St. Sebastian." + + + + +VI + +WILLIAM ADOLPHE BOUGUEREAU + + + (Pronounced W. A'dolf Bou-gair-roh) + _French (Genre) School_ + 1825-1905 + _Pupil of Picot and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts_ + +Bouguereau's business-like father meant his son also to be +business-like, but he made the mistake of permitting him to go to a +drawing school in Bordeaux and there, to his father's chagrin, the +youngster took the annual prize. After that there seemed nothing for +the father to do but grin and bear it, because the son decided to be +an artist and had fairly won his right to be one. + +Young Bouguereau had no money, and therefore he went to live with an +uncle at Saintonge, a priest, who had much sympathy with the boy's +wish to paint, and he left him free to do the best he could for +himself in art. He got a chance to paint some portraits, and when he +and his uncle talked the matter over It was decided that he should +take the money got for them, and go to Paris. It was there that he +sought Picot, his first truly helpful teacher; and there, for the +first time he learned more than he already knew about art. + +All Bouguereau's opportunities in life were made by himself, by his +own genius. No one gave him anything; he earned all. He longed to go +to Italy, and in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts he won the Prix de Rome, +which made possible a journey to the land of great artists. The French +Government began to buy his work, and he began to receive commissions +to decorate walls in great buildings; thus, gradually, he made for +himself fame and fortune. + +When this artist undertook to paint sacred subjects, of great dignity, +he was not at his best; but when he chose children and mothers and +everyday folk engaged about their everyday business, he painted +beautifully. Americans have bought many of his pictures and he has had +more popularity in this country than anywhere outside of France. + +Some authorities give the birthplace of Bouguereau as La Rochelle; at +any rate he died there at midnight, on the nineteenth of August, 1905. + + PLATE--THE VIRGIN AS CONSOLER + +The main distinction about this artist's pictured faces is the +peculiarly earnest expression he has given to the eyes. In this +picture of the Virgin there is great genius in the pose and death-look +of the little child whose mother has flung herself across the lap of +Mary, abandoned to her agony. This painting is hung in the +Luxembourg. Others by the same master are called "Psyche and Cupid" +"Birth of Venus," "Innocence," and "At the Well." + + + + +VII + +SIR EDWARD BURNE-JONES + + + _English (Pre-Raphaelite) School_ + 1833-1898 + _Pupil of Rossetti_ + +This artist has been called the most original of all contemporaneous +artists. He has also been called the "lyric painter"; meaning that he +is to painting what the lyric poet is to literature. His work once +known can almost always be recognised wherever seen afterward. He did +not slavishly follow the Pre-Raphaelite school, yet he drew most of +his ideas from its methods. He was, in the use of stiff lines, a +follower of Botticelli, and not original in that detail, as some have +seemed to think. + + PLATE--CHANT D'AMOUR + _(The Love-Song)_ + +This is a picture in the true Burne-Jones style: a beautiful woman in +billowy draperies, playing upon a harp forms the central figure of the +group of three--a listener on either side of her. There is the +attractiveness of the Burne-Jones method about this picture, but after +all there seems to be no very good reason for its having been +painted. The subject thus treated has only a negative value, and +little suggestion of thought or dramatic idea. + +Another picture of this artist, in which his use of stiff draperies is +specially shown, is that of the women at the tomb of Christ, when they +find the stone rolled away and, looking around, see the Saviour's +figure before them. The scene is low and cavern-like, with a brilliant +light surrounding the tomb. This artist also painted "The Vestal +Virgin," "King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid," "Pan and Psyche," "The +Golden Stairs," and "Love Among the Ruins." + + + + +VIII + +JOHN CONSTABLE + + + _English School_ + 1776-1837 + _Pupil of the Royal Academy_ + +John Constable was the son of a "yeoman farmer" who meant to make him +also a yeoman farmer. Mostly we find that the fathers of our artists +had no higher expectations for their sons than to have them take up +their own business; to begin as they had, and to end as they expected +to. But in John Constable's case, as with all the others, the father's +methods of living did not at all please the son, and having most of +all a liking for picture-making; young John set himself to planning +his own affairs. + +Nevertheless, the foundation of John's art was laid right there in the +Suffolk farmer's home and conditions. He was born in East Bergholt, +and the father seems to have believed in windmills, for early in life +the signs of wind and weather became a part of the son's education. He +learned a deal more of atmospheric conditions there on his father's +windmill planted farm than he could possibly have learned shut up in a +studio, French fashion. As a little boy he came to know all the signs +of the heavens; the clouds gathering for storm or shine; the bending +of the trees in the blast; all of these he loved, and later on made +the principal subjects of his art. He learned to observe these things +as a matter of business and at his father's command; thus we may say +that he studied his life-work from his very infancy. All about him +were beautiful hedgerows, picturesque cottages with high pitched roofs +covered with thatch, and it was these beauties which bred one other +great landscape painter besides Constable, of whom we shall presently +speak, Gainsborough. + +At last, graduating from windmills, John went to London. He had a +vacation from the work set him by his father, and for two years he +painted "cottages, studied anatomy," and did the drudgery of his art; +but there was little money in it for him, and soon he had to go into +his father's counting house, for windmills seemed to have paid the +elder Constable, considerably better than painting promised to pay +young John. + +John doubtless liked counting-house work even less than he had done +the study of windmills and weather in his father's fields. He was a +most persistent fellow, however, and finally he returned to London, to +study again the art he loved, this time in the Royal Academy, which +meant that he had made some progress. + +His father gave him very little aid to do the things he longed to do, +but after his father's death he found that a little money was coming +to him from the estate--œ4,000. He had already triumphed over his +difficulties by painting his first fine pictures; he now knew that he +was to become a successful artist, and be able to take care of himself +and a wife. Though in love, he had hitherto been too poor to +marry. His first splendid work was "Dedham Vale." + +Though things were going very well with him, it was not until Paris +discovered him that he achieved great success. In 1824 he painted two +large pictures which he took to Paris, and there he found fame. The +best landscape painting in France dates from the time when Constable's +works were hung in the Louvre, to become the delight of all +art-lovers. + +He received a gold medal from Charles X., and became more honoured +abroad than he had ever been at home. + +Constable had many enemies, and made many more after he became an +Academician. Some artists, who would have liked that honour and who +could not gain it for themselves, declared that Constable painted +"with a palette knife," though it certainly would not have mattered if +he had, since he made great pictures. + +He painted things exactly as he saw them, and was not a popular +artist. Most of all, he loved to paint the scenes that he had known so +well in his youth, and he did them over and over again, as if the +subject was one in which he wished to reach perfection. + +When he died he left a picture, "Arundel Castle and Mill," standing +with its paint wet upon his easel for he passed away very suddenly, on +April 1st, leaving behind him many unsold paintings. + +He was a sensitive chap, and throughout his youth was greatly +distressed by the differences of opinion between himself and his +father. He was torn asunder between a sense of duty and his own wish +to be an artist; and his greatest consolation in this situation was in +the friendship he had formed for a plumber, who, like himself, dearly +loved art. The plumber's name was John Dunthorne, and the two men +wandered about the country, when not employed at their regular work, +and together, by streams and in fields, painted the same scenes. At +one time they hired a little room in the neighbouring village which +they made into a studio. Constable was a handsome fellow in his youth +and was known to all as the "handsome miller." His father, the yeoman +farmer with the windmills, was also a miller. + +In London he became acquainted with one John Smith, known as +"Antiquity Smith," who taught him something of etching. After he was +recalled to his father's business, his mother wrote to "Antiquity +Smith," that she hoped John "would now attend to business, by which he +will please me and his father, and ensure his own respectability and +comfort"--a complete expression of the middle-class British mind. Her +satisfaction was short-lived, for her son soon returned to London. + +When his first pictures were rejected by the Royal Academy he showed +one of them to Sir Benjamin West, who said hopefully: "Don't be +disheartened, young man, we shall hear of you again; you must have +loved nature very much before you could have painted this." + +About that time he tried to paint many kinds of pictures, such as +portraits and sacred subjects, but he did not seem to succeed in +anything except the scenes of his boyhood, which he truly loved. Hence +he gave up attempting that which he could do only passably, and kept +to what he could do supremely well. + +When his friends wished him to continue portrait painting, the only +thing that was well paid at that time, Constable wrote: "You know I +have always succeeded best with my native scenes. They have always +charmed me, and I hope they always will. I have now a path marked out +very distinctly for myself, and I am desirous of pursuing it +uninterruptedly." + +About the time he fell in love and before his father's death, his +health began to fail, and the young woman's mother would have none of +him. Her father was in favour of Constable, but he could not hold out +against the chance of his daughter losing her grandfather's fortune by +marrying the wrong man. + +The lady was not so distractingly in love as young Constable was, and +she did not entirely like the idea of poverty, even with John, so she +held off, and with so much anxiety Constable became downright ill. For +five years the pair lived apart, and then the artist and the young +woman, whose name was Maria Bicknell, lost their mothers about the +same time, This drew them very closely together; and to help the +matter on, John's attendance upon his father in his last illness +brought him to the same town as Miss Bicknell. After his father's +death, he urged the young lady so strongly to be his wife that she +consented They were married and her father soon forgave her, but not +so her grandfather, who declared that he never would forgive her, but +he really must have done so from the first, for when he died it was +found that he had left her a little fortune of œ4,000. This was about +the same amount the artist had received from his father, so that they +were able to get on very well. + +After Constable's marriage he went on a visit to Sir George Beaumont, +and there an amusing incident occurred which is known to-day as the +story of Sir George's "brown tree." It seems that Constable's ideas of +colour for his landscapes were so true to nature that a good many +people did not approve of them, and one day while painting, Sir George +declared that the colour of an old Cremona fiddle was the best model +of colour tone that a landscape could have. Constable's only answer +was to place the fiddle on the green lawn in front of the house. At +another time his host asked the artist, "Do you not find it very +difficult to determine where to place your brown tree?" "Not at all," +was Constable's reply, "for I never put such a thing into a picture in +my life." + +In painting one picture many times he declared, "Its light cannot be +put out because it is the light of nature." A Frenchman called +attention to one of his pictures thus: "Look at these landscapes by an +Englishman. The ground appears to be covered with dew." + +Notwithstanding the little fortune of his wife and himself, Constable +was not quite carefree, because he had to raise a good sized family of +six children so that when his wife's father died and left his daughter +œ20,000 he said to a friend: "Now I shall stand before a six-foot +canvas with a mind at ease, thank God!" In the very midst of this +happiness, his beloved wife became ill with consumption, and was +certain to die. He no longer cared very much for life and wrote very +sadly: + +"I have been ill, but am endeavouring to get work again, and could I +get afloat upon a canvas of six feet, I might have a chance of being +carried from myself." When he became a member of the Royal Academy, he +said: "It has been delayed until I am solitary and cannot impart it," +meaning that without his dear wife to share his good fortune, it +seemed an empty honour to him. + +Strange things are told which show how little his work was valued by +his countrymen. After he had become a member of the Academy one of his +small pictures was entered but rejected; nobody knowing anything about +it. It was put on one side among the "outsiders." Finally, one of his +fellow members glancing at it was attracted. + +"Stop a bit! I rather like that. Why not say 'doubtful'?" Later +Constable acknowledged the picture as his, and then they wished to +hang it, but he refused to let them. Another Academy story is about +his picture "Hadleigh Castle." On Varnishing Day, Chartney, a +brilliant critic, told Constable that the foreground of the picture +was "too cold," and so he undertook to "warm it," by giving it a +strong glaze with asphaltum with Constable's brush which he snatched +from the artist's hand. Constable gazed at him in horror. "Oh! there +goes all my dew," he cried, and when Chartney's back was turned he +hurriedly wiped the "warmth" all away and got back his "dew." + +Even the amusing things that happened to him, seem to have a little +sadness about them. He wrote to a friend: "Beechey was here yesterday, +and said: 'Why d--n it Constable, what a d--n fine picture you are +making; but you look d--n ill, and you've got a d--n bad cold!' so," +added Constable, "you have evidence on oath of my being about a fine +picture and that I am looking ill." + +An illustration of his painstaking and truthfulness to nature is that +he once took home with him from a visit bottles of coloured sand and +fragments of stone which he meant to introduce into a picture; and on +passing some slimy posts near a mill, he said to his host, "I wish you +could cut those off and send their tops to me." + +Constable was a loyal friend, the most persistent of men, and several +anecdotes are told of his characteristics. His friend Fisher said to +him: + +"Where real business is to be done, you are the most energetic and +punctual of men. In smaller matters, such as putting on your breeches, +you are apt to lose time in deciding which leg shall go in first." + + PLATE--THE HAY WAIN + +This picture was first called "Landscape," and it was painted in +1821. In his letters about it, however, Constable also called it +"Noon," and others wrote of it as "Midsummer Noon." This tells us what +a wealth of hot sunlight is suggested by the painting. + +It shows a little farmhouse upon the bank of a stream, a spot well +known as "Willy Lott's Cottage." The owner had been born there and he +died there eighty-eight years later, without ever having left his +cottage for four whole days in all those years. Upon the tombstone of +Lott, which is in the Bergholt burial ground, his epitaph calls the +house "Gibeon Farm." It was a favourite scene with Constable, and he +painted it many times from every side. It is the same house we see in +the "Mill Stream," another Constable painting, and again in "Valley +Farm." In this last picture he painted the side opposite to the one +shown in the "Hay Wain." + +The stream near which the house stands spreads out into a ford, and in +the picture the hay cart, with two men upon it, is passing through the +ford. The horses are decked out with red tassels. On the right of the +stream there is a broad meadow, golden green in the sunlight, "with +groups of trees casting cool shadows on the grass, and backed by a +distant belt of woodland of rich blues and greens." On the right is a +fisherman, half hidden by a bush, standing near his punt. + +Constable wrote to his friend, Fisher, "My picture goes to the Academy +on the tenth." This was written on April 1st, 1821. "It is not so +grand as Tinney's." This shows us, that Constable had not vanity +enough to interfere with his self-criticism. Again in a letter written +to him by a friend: "How does the 'Hay Wain' look now it has got into +your own room again?" adding that he wished to see it there, away from +the Academy which to him was always "like a great pot of boiling +varnish." + +Later Fisher wrote: "I have a great desire to possess your 'Wain,' but +I cannot now reach what it is worth;" and he begged Constable not to +sell it without giving him a chance to try once more to raise the +money to buy it. He wrote that the picture would become of greater +value to his children if the artist left it hanging upon the walls of +the Academy, "till you join the society of Ruysdael, Wilson, and +Claude. As praise and money will then be of no value to you, the world +will liberally bestow both." + +Later a Frenchman wished to buy it for exhibition purposes, and when +Constable wrote to Fisher of this, his friend replied that he had +better sell it to the Frenchman "for the sake of the _‚clat_ it may +give you. The stupid English public, which has no judgment of its own, +will begin to think there is something in it if the French make your +works national property. You have long lain under a mistake; men do +not purchase pictures because they admire them, but because others +covet them." + +Finally, the "Hay Wain" was sold to the French dealer for œ250, and +Constable threw in a picture of Yarmouth for good measure. Later a +friend declared that he had created a good deal of argument about +landscape painting, and that there had come to be two divisions, for +he had practically founded a new school. He received a gold medal for +the "Hay Wain," and the French nation tried to buy it. In the Louvre +are "The Cottage," "Weymouth Bay," and "The Glebe Farm." Elsewhere are +"Hampstead Heath," "Salisbury Cathedral," "The Lock on the Stour," +"Dedham Mill," "The Valley Farm," "Gillingham Mill," "The Cornfield," +"Boat-Building," "Flatford Mill on the River Stour," besides many +others. + + + + +IX + +JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY + + + _English School_ + 1737-1815 + +A little boy with a squirrel was the first picture that pointed this +artist toward fame and that was painted in England and exhibited at +the Society of Arts. + +This American-born Irishman had no family or ancestry of account, but +he himself was to become the father of Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst, and +he did some truly fine things in art. + +About the same time America had another painter, Benjamin West, marked +out for fame, but he got his start in Europe while Copley had already +become a successful artist before he left Boston, his native place. + +He liked best to paint "interiors"--rooms with fine furniture and +curtains, women in fine clothing and men in embroidered waistcoats and +bejewelled buckles. + +In 1777 he got into the Royal Academy, and on the whole had +considerable influence on European art. If we study the portraits that +he painted while in Boston, we can get a very complete idea of the +surroundings of the "Royalists" at the time of our colonial history. + + PLATE--THE COPLEY FAMILY GROUP + +In this picture there are seven figures with an open landscape forming +the background. The baby of the family plays, with uplifted arms, upon +grandfather's knee. The mother on the couch, surrounded by her three +other children, is kissing one while another clings to her. Before her +stands a prim little maid, gowned in the fashion of grown-folks of her +day. A little lock of hair falling upon her forehead suggests that +when she was good she was very, very good, and when she was bad she +was horrid! She wears a little cap. At the back is the artist himself +in a wig and other fashions of the time. A great column rises behind +him, forming a part of the architecture or the landscape, one hardly +knows which in so artificially constructed a picture. + +Copley painted also John Hancock, Judge Graham, Jeremiah Lee, and +General Joseph Warren. + + + + +X + +JEAN BAPTISTE CAMILLE COROT + + + (Pronounced Zhahn Bah-teest' Cah-mee'yel Coh'roh) + _Fontainebleau-Barbizon School_ + 1796-1875 + _Pupil of Michallon_ + +About three hundred years before Corot's time there was a +Fontainebleau school of artists, made up of the pathetic Andrea del +Sarto, the wonderful Leonardo da Vinci, and Cellini. These painters +had been summoned from their Italian homes by Francis I., to decorate +the Palace of Fontainebleau. The second great group of painters who +had studios in the forest and beside the stream were Rousseau, Dupr‚, +Diaz, and Daubigny; Troyon, Van Marcke, Jacque; then Millet, the +painter of peasants. + +Corot was born in Paris and received what education the ordinary +school at Rouen could give him. He was intended by his parents for +something besides art, as it would seem that every artist in the world +was intended. Corot was to grow up and become a respectable draper; at +any rate a draper. + +The young chap did as his father wished, until he was twenty-six years +old, and dreary years those must have been to him. He did not get on +well with his master, nor did the world treat him very well. He found +neither riches nor the fame that was his due till he was an old man of +seventy. At that age he had become as rich a man as he might have been +had he remained a sensible draper. + +Best of all, Corot loved to paint clouds and dewy nights, pale moons +and early day, and of all amusements in the world, he preferred the +theatre. There he would sit; gay or sad as the play might make him, +weeping or laughing and as interested as a little child. + +After he had anything to give away, Corot was the most madly generous +of men. It was he who gave a pension to the widow of his brother +artist, Millet, on which she lived all the rest of her days. He gave +money to his brother painters and to all who went to him for aid; and +he always gave gaily, freely, as if giving were the greatest joy, +outside of the theatre, a man could have. Everyone who knew him loved +him, and there was no note of sadness in his daily life, though there +seems to be one in his poetical pictures. Because of his generous ways +he was known as "Pere Corot." He sang as he worked, and loved his +fellowmen all the time; but most of all, he loved his sister. + +"Rousseau is an eagle," he used to say in speaking of his fellow +artist. "As for me, I am only a lark, putting forth some little songs +in my gray clouds." + +It has been noted that most great landscape painters have been +city-bred, a remarkable fact. Constable and Gainsborough were born and +bred in the country, but they are exceptions to the rule. Corot's +parents were Parisians of the purest dye, having been court-dressmakers +to Napoleon I.; and when Corot finally determined to leave the +draper's shop and become a painter, his father said: "You shall +have a yearly allowance of 1,200 francs, and if you can live on that, +you can do as you please." When his son was made a member of the +Legion of Honour, after twenty-three years of earnest work, his father +thought the matter over, and presently doubled the allowance, "for +Camille seems to have some talent after all," he remarked as an excuse +for his generosity. + +It is told that when he first went to study in Italy, Corot longed to +transfer the moving scenes before him to canvas; but people moved too +quickly for him, so he methodically set about learning how to do with +a few strokes what he would otherwise have laboured over. So he +reduced his sketching to such a science that he became able to sketch +a ballet in full movement; and it is remarked that this practice +trained him for presenting the tremulousness of leaves of trees, which +he did so exquisitely. + +One learns something of this painter of early dawn and soft evening +from a letter he wrote to his friend Dupr‚: + +One gets up at three in the morning, before the sun; one goes and sits +at the foot of a tree; one watches and waits. One sees nothing much at +first. Nature resembles a whitish canvas on which are sketched +scarcely the profiles of some masses; everything is perfumed, and +shines in the fresh breath of dawn. Bing! the sun grows bright but has +not yet torn aside the veil behind which lie concealed the meadows, +the dale, and hills of the horizon. The vapours of night still creep, +like silvery flakes over the numbed-green vegetation. Bing! bing!--a +first ray of sunlight--a second ray of sunlight--the little flowers +seem to wake up joyously. They all have their drop of dew which +trembles--the chilly leaves are stirred with the breath of morning--in +the foliage the birds sing unseen--all the flowers seem to be saying +their prayers. Loves on butterfly wings frolic over the meadows and +make the tall plants wave--one sees nothing--yet everything is +there--the landscape is entirely behind the veil of mist, which +mounts, mounts, sucked up by the sun; and as it rises, reveals the +river, plated with silver, the meadow, the trees, cottages, the +receding distance--one distinguishes at last everything that one had +divined at first. + +In all the world there can hardly be a more exquisite story of +daybreak than this; and so beautiful was the mood into which Corot +fell at eventime, as he himself describes it, that it would be a +mistake to leave it out. This is his story of the night: + +Nature drowses--the fresh air, however, sighs among the leaves--the +dew decks the velvety grass with pearls. The nymphs fly--hide +themselves--and desire to be seen. Bing! a star in the sky which +pricks its image on the pool. Charming star--whose brilliance is +increased by the quivering of the water, thou watchest me--thou +smilest to me with half-closed eye! Bing!--a second star appears in +the water, a second eye opens. Be the harbingers of welcome, fresh and +charming stars. Bing! Bing! Bing!--three, six, twenty stars. All the +stars in the sky are keeping tryst in this happy pool. Everything +darkens, the pool alone sparkles. There is a swarm of stars--all +yields to illusion. The sun being gone to bed, the inner sun of the +soul, the sun of art awakens. Bon! there is my picture done! + +In writing those letters, Corot made literature as well as +pictures. That little word "bing!" appears also in his paintings, as +little leaves or bits of tree-trunk, some small detail which, +high-lightened, accents the whole. + + PLATE--DANCE OF THE NYMPHS + +There could hardly be a more charming painting than this which hangs +in the Louvre. It is of a half-shut-in landscape of tall trees, their +branches mingling; and all the atmospheric effects that belong to +Corot's work can here be seen. + +On the open greensward is a group of nymphs dancing gaily, while over +all the scene is the veil of fairy-land or of something quite +mysterious. At the back and side, satyrs can be seen watching the +nymphs. There is here less of the blur of leaves than that seen in +later pictures, but the same soft effect is found, and the little +"bings" are the accents of light placed upon a leaf, a nymph's +shoulder, or a tree-trunk. + +This picture was painted in 1851, when Corot had not yet developed +that style which was to mark all his later work. + +Besides this picture he painted "Paysage," "The Bathers" "Ville +d'Arvay," "Willows near Arras," "The Bent Tree," "A Gust of Wind," and +others. + + + + +XI + +CORREGGIO (ANTONIO ALLEGRI) + + + (Pronounced Cor-rage'jyo Ahl-lay'gree) + _School of Parma_ + 1494(?)-1534 + _Pupil of Mantegna_ + +When Correggio was a little boy, he lived in the odour of spices, +which were kept upon his father's shop-shelves. He was a highly-spiced +little boy and man, although the most timid and shrinking. His +imagination was the liveliest possible. + +The spice merchant lived in the town of Correggio, and thus the artist +got his name. Correggio knew what should be inside the lovely flesh of +his painted figures before he began to paint them, because he studied +anatomy in a truly scientific manner before he studied painting. +Probably no other artist up to that time, had ever begun with the bare +bones of his models, but Correggio may be said to have worked from the +inside out. He learned about the structure of the human frame from +Dr. Giovanni Battista Lombardi, and showed his gratitude to his +teacher by painting a picture "Il Medico del Correggio" (Correggio's +Physician), and presenting it to Doctor Lombardi. + +Now Correggio's childhood, or at least his early manhood, could not +have been spent in poverty, because it is known that he used the most +expensive colours to paint with, painted upon the finest of canvas, +while greater artists had often to be content with boards. He also +painted upon copper plates, and it is said that he hired Begarelli, a +sculptor of much fame, to make models in relief for him to copy for +the pictures he painted on the cupolas of the churches in Parma. That +sculptor's services must have been expensive. + +On the lovely island of Capri, in the Franciscan convent, will be +found one of his first pictures, painted when Correggio was about +nineteen years old. + +He was highly original in many ways. Although he had never seen the +work of any great artist, he painted the most extraordinary +fore-shortened pictures; and fore-shortening was a technicality in art +then uncommon. He also was the first to paint church cupolas. +Fore-shortening produces some peculiar as well as great results, and +being a feature of art with which people were not then familiar, +Correggio's work did not go uncriticised. Indeed one artist, gazing up +into one of the cupolas where Correggio's fore-shortened figures were +placed, remarked that to him it appeared a "hash of frogs." + +But when Titian saw that cupola, he said: "Reverse the cupola, fill it +with gold, and even then that will not be its money's worth." + +Correggio did not receive very large sums for his work, and since he +was married and took good care of his family, he must have had some +source of income besides his brush. He received some interesting +rewards for his paintings. For example, for "St. Jerome," called "Il +Giorno," he was given "400 gold imperials, some cartloads of faggots +and measures of wheat, and a fat pig." That picture is in the Parma +Gallery, and all the cupolas which he painted are in Parma churches. + +Some of his pictures are signed; "Leito," a synonym for his name, +"Allegri." This indicates his style of art. + +There is an interesting story told of how Correggio stood entranced +before a picture of Raphael's, and after long study of it he +exclaimed: "I too, am a painter!" showing at once his appreciation of +Raphael's greatness and satisfaction at his own genius. + +Doubtless a good share of Correggio's comfortable living came from the +lady he married, since she was considered a rich woman for those times +and in that locality. Her name was Girolama Merlini, and she lived in +Mantua, the place where the Montagues and Capulets lived of whom +Shakespeare wrote the most wonderful love story ever imagined. This +young woman was only sixteen years old when Correggio met and loved +her, and very beautiful and later on he painted a picture, +"Zingarella," for which his wife is said to have been the model. It +seems to have been a stroke of economy and enterprise for painters to +marry, since we read of so many who made fame and fortune through the +beauty of their wives. + +They were very happy together, Correggio and his wife, and they had +four children. Their happiness was not for long, because Correggio +seems to have been but thirty-four years old when she died, nor did he +live to be old. There is a most curious tale of his death which is +probably not true, but it is worth telling since many have believed +it. He is supposed to have died in Correggio, of pleurisy, but the +story is that he had made a picture for one who had some grudge +against him, and who in order to irritate him paid him in copper, +fifty scudi. This was a considerable burden, and in order to save +expense and time, it is said that Correggio undertook to carry it home +alone. It was a very hot day, and he became so overheated and +exhausted with his heavy load that he took ill and died, and he may be +said literally to have been killed by "too much money," if this were +true. Vasari, a biographer to be generally believed, says it is a +fact. + +Correggio said that he always had his "thoughts at the end of his +pencil," and there are those who impudently declare that is the only +place he _did_ have them, but that is a carping criticism, because he +was a very great artist, his greatest power being the presentation of +soft blendings of light and shade. There seem to have been few unusual +events in Correggio's life; very little that helps us to judge the +man, but there is a general opinion that he was a kind and devoted +father and husband, as well as a good citizen. With little demand upon +his moral character, he did his work, did it well, and his work alone +gave him place and fame. + +He became the head of a school of painting and had many imitators, but +we hear little of his pupils, except that one of them was his own son, +Pompino, who lived to be very old, and in his turn was successful as +an artist. + +Correggio was buried with honours in the Arrivabene Chapel, in the +Franciscan church at Correggio. + + PLATE--THE HOLY NIGHT + +This painting is not characteristic of Correggio's work, but +nevertheless it is very beautiful. The brilliant warm light which +comes from the Infant Jesus in His mother's arms is reflected upon the +faces of those gathered about, and even illuminates the angelic group +hovering above him. The slight landscape forming the background is +also suggestive, and the conditions of the birth are indicated by the +ass which may be seen in the middle distance. The faces of all are +joyous yet full of wonderment, the whole scene intimate and human. + +The picture is also called the "Adoration of the Shepherds," and that +title best tells the story. See the shepherdess shading her face with +one hand and offering two turtle-doves with the other. The ass in the +distance is the one on which Mary rode to Bethlehem, and Joseph is +caring for it. Even the cold light of the dawning day is softened by +the beauty of the group below. This picture is in the Royal Gallery in +Dresden. + + PLATE--THE MYSTIC MARRIAGE OF ST. CATHERINE + +The Infant Jesus sits upon His mother's lap, and places the ring upon +St. Catherine's finger, while Mary's hand helps to guide that of her +Child. This action brings the three hands close together and adds to +the beauty of the composition. All of the faces are full of pleasure +and kindliness, while that of St. Sebastian fairly glows with happy +emotion. The light is concentrated upon the body of the Child and is +reflected upon the faces of the women. This painting hangs in the +Louvre. + +Other great Correggio pictures are the "School of Cupid," which is +more characteristic of his work; "Antiope," "Leda," "Danae," and "Ecce +Homo." + + + + +XII + +PAUL GUSTAVE DOR + + + _French School_ + 1833-1883 + +This artist died in Paris twenty-five years ago, but there is little +as yet to be told of his life history. He was educated in Paris at the +Lyc‚e Charlemagne, having gone there from Strasburg, where he was +born. + +He was a painter of fantastic and grotesque subjects, and as far as we +know, he began his career when a boy. He made sketches before his +eighth year which attracted much attention, and he earned considerable +money while still at school. He was at that time engaged to illustrate +for journals, at a good round sum, and before he left the Lyc‚e he had +made hundreds of drawings, somewhat after the satirical fashion of +Hogarth. + +His work is very characteristic and once seen is likely to be always +recognised. + +He first worked for the _Journal Pour Rire_, but then he undertook to +illustrate the work of Rabelais, the great satirist, whose text just +suited Dor‚'s pencil. After Rabelais he illustrated Balzac, also the +"Wandering Jew," "Don Quixote," and Dante's "Divine Comedy." + +He undertook to do things which he could not do well, simply for the +money there was in the commissions. He had but a poor idea of colour +and his work was coarse, but it had such marked peculiarities that it +became famous. He did a little sculpture as well, and even that showed +his eccentricities of thought. + + PLATE--MOSES BREAKING THE TABLETS OF THE LAW + +This is one of the illustrations of the Dor‚ Bible, published in +1865-66. The story is well known of how Moses went up into the Mount +of the Lord to receive the laws for the Israelites, which were written +upon tables of stone. Upon his descent from the Mount he found that +his followers had set up a golden calf, which they were worshipping; +and in his wrath Moses broke the tablets on which the Law was +inscribed. The power shown in his attitude, the affrighted faces of +the cowering Jews, the thunder and lightning as an expression of the +wrath of the Almighty are all painted in Dor‚'s best manner. + + + + +XIII + +ALBRECHT DšRER + + + (Pronounced Dooer-rer') + _Nuremberg School_ + 1471-1528 + _Pupil of Wolgemuth and Schongauer_ + +Albrecht Drer by nationality was a Hungarian, but he was born in the +city of Nuremberg. His father had come from the little Hungarian town +of Eytas to Nuremberg that he might practise the craft of a +goldsmith. Notwithstanding his Hungarian origin, the name is German +and the family "bearing," or sign, is the open door. This device +suggests that the name was first formed from "Thurer," which means +"carpenter," maker of doors. + +The father became the goldworker for a master goldsmith of Nuremberg +named Hieronymus Holper, and very soon the new employee had fallen in +love with his master's daughter. The daughter was very young and very +beautiful; her name was Barbara, and as Herr Drer was quite forty +years of age, while she was but fifteen, the match seemed most +unlikely, but they married and had eighteen children! The great +painter was one of them. + +Albrecht loved his parents most tenderly, and from first to last we +hear no word of disagreement among any members of that immense +household. Young Albrecht was especially the companion of his father, +being brilliant, generous, and hard-working in a family where everyone +needed to do his best to help along. This love and companionship never +ceased until death, and after his parents died Albrecht wrote in a +touching manner of their death, describing his love for them, and +their many virtues. He was an author and a poet as well as a painter, +and only Leonardo da Vinci matched him for greatness and +versatility. We may know what Drer's father looked like, since the +son made two portraits of him; one is to be seen in the Uffizi Gallery +at Florence and the other belongs to the Duke of Northumberland's +collection. The latter portrait has been reproduced in an engraving, +so that it is familiar to most people. + +In the days when the great artist was growing up, Nuremberg was the +centre of all intellectuality and art in the North. The city of +Augsburg also followed art fashions, but it was far less important +than Nuremberg, because in the latter city every sort of art-craft was +followed in sincerity and with great originality. + +In those days, the craft of the goldsmith was closely allied with the +profession of the painter, because the smith had to create his own +designs, and that called for much talent. Thus it was but a step from +designing in precious metals to the use of colour, and to +engraving. In making wood engravings, however, the drudgery of it was +left almost entirely to workmen, not artists. Nuremberg was also the +seat of musical learning. Wagner makes this fact pathetic, comical, +and altogether charming in his "Mastersingers of Nuremberg." + +Till Drer's time, however, there had been little painting that could +be regarded as art, and when he came to study it there was but little +opportunity in his own land, but Drer was destined to bring art to +Nuremberg. If he went elsewhere to study, it was only for a little +time, because he was above all things patriotic and dearly loved his +home. + +With seventeen brothers and sisters, young Drer's problem was a +serious one. His father not only meant him to become a goldsmith like +himself--a craft in which there was much money to be made at a time +when people dressed with great ornamentation and used gold to decorate +with--it was highly necessary with so large a family that he should +learn to do that which could make him helpful to his father. Hence the +young boy entered his father's shop. If he had not been handicapped +with so many to help to maintain, he would have laid up a considerable +fortune, because from the very beginning he was master of all that he +undertook; doing the least thing better than any other did it, putting +conscience and painstaking into all. + +"My father took special delight in me," the son said, "seeing that I +was industrious in working and learning, he put me to school; and when +I had learned to read and write, he took me home from my school and +taught me the goldsmith's trade." + +The family were good and kind; excellent neighbours, deeply religious, +and little Albrecht certainly was comely. He was beautiful as a little +child, and as a man was very handsome, with long light hair sweeping +his shoulders, and gentle eyes. He was very tall, stately, and full of +dignity. + +In his father's shop he made little clay figures which were afterward +moulded in metal; also he learned to carve wood and ivory, and he +added the touch of originality to all that he did. He was the Leonardo +da Vinci of Germany, an intellectual man, a poet, painter, sculptor, +engraver, and engineer. He approached everything that he did from an +intellectual point of view, looking for the reasons of things. + +After a while in his father's shop, he found mere craftsmanship +irksome, and he begged to be allowed to enter a studio. This was a +great disappointment to the father, even a distress, because he could +see no very quick nor large returns in money for an artist, and he +sorely needed the help of his son; but being kind and reasonable, he +consented Albrecht was apprenticed to the only artist of any repute +then in Nuremberg, Wolgemuth. + +To his studio Albrecht went, at the age of fifteen, and if he did not +learn much more of painting, under that artist's direction, than his +own genius had already taught him, he learned the drudgery of his +work; how to grind colours and to mix them, and he studied wood +engraving also. + +In Wolgemuth's studio he remained for the three years of his +apprenticeship, and then he fled to better things. For a time he +followed the methods of another German artist, Schongauer, but finally +he went forth to try his luck alone. He wandered from place to place, +practising all his trades, goldsmithing, engraving, whatever would +support him, yet always and everywhere painting. + +It is thought that he may have gone as far as Italy, but it is not +certain whether he went there in his first wanderings or later +on. However, he was soon recalled home, for his father had found a +suitable wife for him. She was the daughter of a rich citizen and her +name was Agnes Frey. She was pretty as well as rich, but had she been +neither Albrecht would have returned at his father's bidding. There +was never any resistance to the fine and proper things of life on +Albrecht Drer's part. He was the well balanced, reasonable man from +youth up. + +There have been extraordinary tales told of the artist's wife. She has +been called hateful and spiteful as Xantippe, the wife of Socrates, +but we think this is calumny. The stories came about in this way: +Drer had a life-long friend, Wilibald Pirkheimer, who in his old age +became the most malicious and quarrelsome of old fellows. He lived +longer than Drer did, and Drer's wife also outlived her +husband. Pirkheimer wanted a set of antlers which had belonged to +Drer and which he thought the wife should give him after Drer was +dead, but Agnes thought otherwise and would not give them up. Then, +full of rage, the old man wrote the most outrageous letters about poor +Agnes, saying that she was a shrew and had compelled Drer to work +himself to death; that she was a miser and had led the artist an awful +dance through life. This is the only evidence against her, and that so +sane and sensible a man as the artist lived with her all his life and +cherished her, is evidence enough that Pirkheimer didn't tell the +truth. When Drer died he was in good circumstances and instead of +being overworked, he for many years had done no "pot-boiling," but had +followed investigations along lines that pleased him. After his death, +the widow treated his brothers and sisters generously, giving them +properties of Drer's and being of much help to them. During the +artist's life he and she had travelled everywhere together and had +appeared to love each other tenderly; hence we may conclude that the +old Pirkheimer was simply a disgruntled, gouty old man without a good +word for anybody. + +If Drer's father and mother had eighteen children, Albrecht and Agnes +struck a balance, for they had none. Whether or not Drer went to +Italy before his marriage in 1494, certain it is that he was in +Venice, the home of Titian, in 1506. Titian was six years younger than +Drer, who was then about thirty-five years old. It is said that he +started for Italy in 1505 and that he went the whole of the way, over +the Alps, through forests and streams, on horseback. Who knows but it +was during that very journey, while travelling alone, often finding +himself in lonely ways, and full of the speculative thoughts that were +characteristic of him, that he did not think first of his subject, +"Knight, Death, and the Devil," which helped make his fame. In that +picture we have a knight, helmeted, carrying his lance, mounted upon +his horse, riding in a lonely forest, with death upon a "pale horse" +by his side, holding an hour glass to remind the knight of the +fleeting of time. Behind comes the devil, with trident and horn, +represented as a frightful and disgusting beast, which follows +hot-foot after the lonely knight, who looks neither to right nor left, +but persistently goes his way. + +Titian's teacher, Bellini, was still living, and he was one of Drer's +greatest admirers. Especially did he believe that he could paint the +finest hair of any artist in the world. One day, while studying +Drer's work, and being especially fascinated by the hair of one of +his figures, the old man took Drer's brush and tried to reproduce as +beautiful a tress. Presently he put down the brush in despair, but the +younger artist took it up, still wet with the same colours, and in a +few brilliant strokes produced a lovely lock of woman's hair. + +While luxuriating in Venetian heat, Drer wrote home to his friend +Pirkheimer: "Oh, how I shall freeze after this sunshine!" He was a +lover of warm, beautiful colour, gay and tender life. Most of all he +loved the fatherland, and all the honours paid him and all the +invitations pressed upon him could not keep him long from +Nuremberg. The journey homeward was not uneventful because he was +taken ill, and had to stop at a house on his way, where he was cared +for till he was strong enough to proceed. Before he went his way he +painted upon the wall of that house a fine picture, to show his +gratitude for the kind treatment he had received. Imagine a people so +settled in their homes that it would be worth while for an artist who +came along to leave a picture upon the walls to-day--we should have +moved to a new house or a new flat almost before Drer could have +washed his brushes and turned the corner. + +Back in Nuremberg, he settled down into the life of a responsible +citizen, lived in a fine new house, in time became a member of the +council, and his studio was a veritable workshop. Studios were quite +different from those of to-day. Then the pupils turned to and ground +colours, did much of their own manufacturing, engaged at first in such +commonplace occupations, which were nevertheless teaching them the +foundation of their art, while they watched the work of the +master. Such a studio as Drer's must have been full of young men +coming and going, not all working at the art of painting, but +engraving, preparing materials for such work, designing, and executing +many other details of art work. + +After this time Drer made his smallest picture, which is hardly more +than an inch in diameter. On that tiny surface he painted the whole +story of the crucifixion, and it is now in the Dresden Gallery. To +those of us who see little mentality in the faces of the Italian +subjects, the German art of Drer, often ugly in the choice of models, +and so exact as to bring out unpleasing details, is nevertheless the +greater; because in all cases, the faces have sincere expressions. They +exhibit human purposes and emotions which we can understand, and +despise or love as the case may be. + +They say that his Madonna is generally a "much-dressed round-faced +German mother, holding a merry little German boy." That may be true; +but at any rate, she is every inch a mother and he a well-beloved +little boy, which is considerably more than can be said of some +Italian performances. + +Drer made a painting of "Praying Hands," a queer subject for a +picture, but those hands are nothing _but_ praying hands. The story of +them is touching. It is said that for several years Drer had won a +prize for which a friend of his had also competed, and upon losing the +prize the last time he tried for it, the friend raised his hands and +prayed for the power to accept his failure with resignation and +humility. Drer, looking at him, was impressed with the eloquence of +the gesture; thus the "Praying Hands" was conceived. + +Drer was also called the _Father of Picture Books_, because he +designed so many woodcuts that he first made possible the illustration +of stories. + +He printed his own illustrations in his own house, and was well paid +for it. The Emperor Maximillian visited Nuremberg, and wishing to +honour Drer, commanded him to make a triumphal arch. + +"It was not to be fashioned in stone like the arches given to the +victorious Roman Emperors; but instead it was to be composed of +engravings. Drer made for this purpose ninety-two separate blocks of +woodcuts. On these were represented Maximillian's genealogical tree +and the principal events of his life. All these were arranged in the +form of an arch, 9 feet wide and 10-1/2 feet high. It took Drer three +years to do this work, and he was never well paid," so says one who +has compiled many incidents of his life. + +"While the artist worked, the Emperor often visited his studio; and as +Drer's pet cats often visited it at the same time, the expression +arose, 'a cat may look at a King!'" + +On the occasion of one of these kingly visits, Maximillian tried to do +a little art-work on his own account. Taking a piece of charcoal he +tried to sketch, but the charcoal kept breaking and he asked Drer why +it did so. + +"That is my sceptre; your Majesty has other and greater work to do," +was the tactful reply. It is a question with us to-day whether the +King ever did a greater work than Albrecht Drer, king of painters, +was doing. + +After this, Maximillian gave Drer a pension, but when the Emperor +died the artist found it necessary to apply to the monarch who came +after him, in order to have the gift confirmed. This was the occasion +for his journey to the Low Countries, and he took his wife Agnes with +him. In the Netherlands he was received with much honour and was +invited to become court painter; and what was more, his pension was +fixed upon him for life. The great work of his life was his +illustration of the Apocalypse. For this he made sixteen extraordinary +woodcuts, of great size. + +On his journey to see Charles V., Maximillian's successor, Drer kept +a diary in which he noted the minutest details of all that happened to +him. He told of the coronation of Charles; of hearing about a whale +that had been cast upon the shore; of his disappointment that it had +been removed before he had reached the place. He wrote with great +indignation about the supposed kidnapping of Martin Luther, while he +was on his way home from the Diet of Worms. + +While Drer was in the Low Countries, a fever came upon him, and when +he returned home, it still followed him. Indeed, although he lived for +seven years after his return, he was never well again. Among his +effects there was a sketch made to indicate to his physician the seat +of his illness. + +Drer did not paint great frescoes upon walls as did Raphael, Michael +Angelo, and all great Italian artists; but instead he painted on wood, +canvas, and in oils. + +In all the civilised world Drer was honoured equally with the great +Italian painters of his time. He was a man of much conscientiousness, +dignity, and tenderness. He was devoted to his home and country, and +regarded the problems of life intellectually. When he came to die, his +end was so unexpected that those dearest to him could not reach his +bedside. He was buried in St. John's cemetery in Nuremberg. After his +death, Martin Luther wrote as follows to their mutual friend, Eoban +Hesse: + +"As for Drer; assuredly affection bids us mourn for one who was the +best of men, yet you may well hold him happy that he has made so good +an end, and that Christ has taken him from the midst of this time of +troubles, and from yet greater troubles in store, lest he, that +deserved to behold nothing but the best, should be compelled to behold +the worst. Therefore may he rest in peace with his fathers, Amen." + + PLATE--THE NATIVITY + +Our description of this painting calls attention to the fact that the +columns and arches of the picturesque ruin belong to a much later +period in history than the birth of Christ. Drer was not acquainted +with any earlier style of architecture than the Romanesque and +therefore he used it here. "The ruin serves as a stable. A roof of +board is built out in front of the side-room which shelters the ox and +ass, and under this lean-to lies the new born babe surrounded by +angels who express their childish joy. Mary kneels and contemplates +her child with glad emotion. Joseph, also deeply moved, kneels down on +the other side of the child, outside the shelter of the roof. Some +shepherds to whom the angel, who is still seen hovering in the air, +has announced the tidings, are already entering from without the +walls." (Knackfuss). The picture is the central panel of an +altar-piece now in the Old Pinakothek at Munich. Drer's oil painting +of the four apostles--John, Peter, Mark, and Paul--is in the same +gallery. Other Drer pictures are: "The Knight, Death and the Devil," +"The Adoration of the Magi," "Melancholy," and portraits of himself. + + + + +XIV + +MARIANO FORTUNY + + + (Pronounced Mah-ree-ah-no' For-tu'ne) + _Spanish School_ + 1838-1874 + _Pupil of Claudio Lorenzalez_ + +Fortuny won his own opportunities. He took a prize, while still very +young, which made it possible for him to go to Rome where he wished to +study art. He did not spend his time studying and copying the old +masters as did most artists who went there, but, instead, he studied +the life of the Roman streets. + +He had already been at the Academy of Barcelona, but he did not follow +his first master; instead, he struck out a line of art for +himself. After a year in Rome the artist went to war; but he did not +go to fight men, he was still fighting fate, and his weapon was his +sketch book. He went with General Prim, and he filled his book with +warlike scenes and the brilliant skies of Morocco. From that time his +work was inspired by his Moorish experiences. + +After going to war without becoming a soldier, Fortuny returned to +Paris and there he became fast friends with Meissonier, so that a good +deal of his work was influenced by that artist's genius. After a time +Fortuny's paintings came into great vogue and far-off Americans began +buying them, as well as Europeans. There was a certain rich dry-goods +merchant in the United States who had made a large fortune for those +days, and while he knew nothing about art, he wanted to spend his +money for fine things. So he employed people who did understand the +matter to buy for him many pictures whose excellence he, himself, +could not understand, but which were to become a fine possession for +succeeding generations. This was about 1860, and this man, +A.T. Stewart, bought two of Fortuny's pictures at high prices. "The +Serpent Charmer," and "A Fantasy of Morocco." + +When Fortuny was thirty years old he married the daughter of a +Spaniard called Madrazo, director of the Royal Museum. His wife's +family had several well known artists in it, and the marriage was a +very happy one. Because of this, Fortuny was inspired to paint one of +the greatest of his pictures, "The Spanish Marriage." In it are to be +seen the portraits of his wife and his friend Regnault. After a time +he went to live in Granada; but he could never forget the beautiful, +barbaric scenes in Morocco, and so he returned there. Afterward he +went with his wife to live in Rome, and there they had a fine home and +everything exquisite about them, while fortune and favour showered +upon them; but he fell ill with Roman fever, because of working in the +open air, and he died while he was comparatively a young man. + + PLATE--THE SPANISH MARRIAGE + +Fortuny is said to "split the light into a thousand particles, till +his pictures sparkle like jewels and are as brilliant as a +kaleidoscope.... He set the fashion for a class of pictures, filled +with silks and satins, bric-…-brac and elegant trifling." + +Look at the brilliant scene in this picture! The priest rising from +his chair and leaning over the table is watching the bridegroom sign +his name. This chap is an old fop, bedecked in lilac satin, while the +bride is a dainty young woman, without much interest in her husband, +for she is fingering her beautiful fan and gossiping with one of her +girl friends. She wears orange-blossoms in her black hair and is in +full bridal array. One couple, two men, sit on an elegantly carved +seat and are looking at the goings-on with amusement, while an old +gentleman sits quite apart, disgusted with the whole unimpressive +scene. Everybody is trifling, and no one is serious for the +occasion. The furnishings of the room are beautiful, delicate, almost +frivolous. People are strewn about like flowers, and the whole effect +is airy and inconsequent. Fortuny painted also "The Praying Arab," "A +Fantasy of Morocco," "Snake Charmers," "Camels at Rest," etc. + + + + +XV + +THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH + + + _English School_ + 1727-1788 + _Pupil of Gravelot and of Hayman_ + +There seems to have been no artist, with the extraordinary exceptions +of Drer and Leonardo, who learned his lessons while at school. Little +painters have uniformly begun as bad spellers. + +Gainsborough's father was in the business of woolen-crape making, +while his mother painted flowers, very nicely, and it was she who +taught the small Thomas. There were nine little Gainsboroughs and, +shocking to relate, the artist of the family was so ready with his +pencil that when he was ten years old he forged his father's name to a +note which he took to the schoolmaster, and thereby gained himself a +holiday. There is no account of any other wicked use to which he put +his talent. It is said that he could copy any writing that he saw, and +his ready pencil covered all his copy-books with sketches of his +schoolmasters. It was thought better for him finally to follow his own +ideas of education, namely, to roam the woodlands and make beautiful +pictures. + +His father's heart was not softened till one day little Gainsborough +brought home a sketch of the orchard into which the head of a man had +thrust itself, painted with great ability. This man was a poacher, and +father Gainsborough recognised him by the portrait. There seemed to be +utility in art of this kind, and before long the boy found himself +apprenticed to a silversmith. + +Through the silversmith the artist got admission to an art school and +began his studies; but his master was a dissolute fellow, and before +long the pupil left him. + +Gainsborough was born in the town of Sudbury on the River Stour, the +same which inspired another great painter half a century +later. Gainsborough is best known by his portraits, in particular as +the inventor of "the Gainsborough hat," but he was first of all a +truly great landscape painter, and learned his art as Constable did +after him, along the beautiful shores of the river that flowed past +his native town. + +The old Black Horse Inn is still to be seen, and it was in the orchard +behind it that he studied nature, the same in which he made the first +of his famous portraits, that of the poacher. It is known to this day +as the portrait of "Tom Pear-tree." That picture was copied on a piece +of wood cut into the shape of a man, and it is in the possession of +Mr. Jackson, who lent it for the exhibition of Gainsborough's work +held at the Grosvenor Gallery, in 1885. + +While Thomas was with his first master, by no means a good companion +for a lad of fifteen, he lived a busy, self-respecting life, since he +was devoted to his home and to his parents. Only three years after he +set out to learn his art he married a young lady of Sudbury. The pair +were by no means rich, Gainsborough having only eighteen years of +experience in this world, besides his brush, and a maker of +woolen-crape shrouds for a father--who was not over pleased to have an +artist for a son. The lady had two hundred pounds but this did not +promise a very luxurious living, so they took a house for six pounds a +year, at Ipswich. Thus the two young lovers began their life +together. There was a good deal of romance in the story of his wife, +whose name was supposed to be Margaret Burr. The two hundred pounds +that helped to pay the Ipswich rent did not come from the man accepted +as her father, but from her real father, who was either the Duke of +Bedford, or an exiled prince. This would seem to be just the sort of +story that should surround a great painter and his affairs. + +While he lived at Ipswich Gainsborough used to say of himself that he +was "chiefly in the face-way" meaning that for the most part he made +portraits. He loved best to paint the scenes of his boyhood, as +Constable afterward did, but he soon found there was more money in +portraits, and so he decided to go to live in Bath, the fashionable +resort of English people in that day, where he was likely to find rich +folk who wanted to see themselves on canvas. He settled down there +with his wife, whom he loved dearly, and his two daughters and at once +began to make money. It is said he painted five hours a day and all +the rest of the time studied music. As the theatre was Corot's +greatest happiness, so did music most delight Gainsborough, and he +could play well on nearly every known instrument; he became so +excellent a musician that he even gave concerts. He had the most +delightful people about him, people who loved art and who appreciated +him, and then there were the other people who paid for having +themselves painted. Altogether it was an ideal situation. + +His studio was in the place known as the "Circus" at Bath, and people +came and went all day, for it became the fashionable resort for all +the fine folks. + +From five guineas for half length portraits, he soon raised his price +to forty; he had charged eight for full length portraits, but now they +went for one hundred. He painted some famous men of the time. The very +thought is inspiring of such a company of geniuses with Gainsborough +in the centre of the group. He painted Laurence Sterne, who wrote "The +Sentimental Journey," and a few other delightful things; also Garrick, +the renowned actor. + +Even the encyclop‘dia reads thrillingly upon this subject and one can +afford to quote it, with the feeling that the quotation will be read: +"His house harboured Italian, German, French and English musicians. He +haunted the green room of Palmer's Theatre, and painted gratuitously +the portraits of many of the actors. He gave away his sketches and +landscapes to any one who had taste or assurance enough to ask for +them." This sounds royal and exciting. + +After that Gainsborough went up to London with plenty of money and +plenty of confidence and instead of six pounds a year for his house, +he paid three hundred pounds, which suggests much more comfort. + +There were two other great painters of the time in London, Sir +Benjamin West--an American, by the way--and Sir Joshua Reynolds. West +was court favourite, but Gainsborough too was called upon to paint +royalty, and share West's honours. Reynolds was the favourite of the +town, but he too had to divide honours with Gainsborough when the +latter painted Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Edmund Burke and Sir William +Blackstone. + +Notwithstanding, his landscapes, for which he should have been most +famous, did not sell. Everybody approved of them, but it is said they +were returned to him till they "stood ranged in long lines from his +hall to his painting room" Gainsborough was a member of the Royal +Academy and also a true Bohemian. He cared little for elegant society, +but made his friends among men of genius of all sorts. He was very +handsome and impulsive, tall and fair, and generous in his ways; but +he had much sorrow on account of one of his daughters, Mary, who +married Fischer, a hautboy player, against her father's wishes. The +girl became demented--at least she had spells of madness. + +When Mary Gainsborough married, her father wrote the following letter +to his sister, which shows that he was a man of tender feeling for +those whom he truly loved: + +" ... I had not the least suspicion of the attachment being so long +and deeply seated; and as it was too late for me to alter anything +without being the cause of total unhappiness on both sides, my +consent ... I needs must give ... and accordingly they were married +last Monday and settled for the present in a ready-furnished little +house in Curzon Street, Mayfair ... I can't say I have any reason to +doubt the man's honesty or goodness of heart, as I never heard anyone +speak anything amiss of him, and as to his oddities and temper, she +must learn to like them as she likes his person ... Peggy has been +very unhappy about it, but I endeavour to comfort her." Peggy was his +wife. + +The abominable Fischer died twenty-years before Mary did--she lived to +be an old, old woman. + +Among those whom Gainsborough loved best was the man called Wiltshire +who carried his pictures to and from London. He was a public "carrier" +but would never take any money for his services to the artist, because +he loved his work. All he asked was "a little picture"--and he got so +many of these, given in purest affection, that he might have gone out +of business as a carrier, had he chosen to sell them. Four of those +little pictures are now very great ones worth thousands of pounds and +known everywhere to fame. They are "The Parish Clerk," "Portrait of +Quin," "A Landscape with Cattle," and "The Harvest Waggon." + +We have a good many stories of Gainsborough's bad manners. The artists +of his day tried to treat him with every consideration, but in return +he treated them very badly, especially Sir Joshua Reynolds. Reynolds, +who was then President of the Academy greatly admired Gainsborough but +the latter would not return Sir Joshua's call, and when Reynolds asked +him to paint his portrait for him, Gainsborough undertook it +thanklessly. Sir Joshua left town for Bath for a time, and when he +returned he tried to learn how soon the portrait would be finished, +but Gainsborough would not even reply to his inquiry. There seems to +have been no reason for this behaviour unless it was jealousy, but it +made a most uncomfortable situation between fellow artists. + +Gainsborough has told some not very pleasing stories about himself, +but one of them shows us what a knack he had for seeing the comic side +of things, and perhaps for seeing comedy where it never existed. Upon +one occasion he was invited to a friend's house where the family were +in the habit of assembling for prayers, and he had no sooner got +inside, than he began to fear he should laugh, when prayer time came, +at the chaplain. In a rush of shyness he fled, leaving his host to +look for him, till he stumbled over a servant who said that +Mr. Gainsborough had charged him to say he had gone to breakfast at +Salisbury. Even respect for the customs of others could not make him +control himself. + +It was through his intimacy with King George's family that his quarrel +with the Royal Academy came about. He had painted the three +princesses--the Princess Royal, Princesses Augusta and Elizabeth, and +these were to be hung at a certain height in Carlton House, but when +he sent the first to the Academy he asked it to be specially hung and +his request was refused. Then he sent a note as follows: + +"He begs pardon for giving them so much trouble, but he has painted +the picture of the princesses in so tender a light that, +notwithstanding he approves very much of the established line for +strong effects, he cannot possibly consent to have it placed higher +than eight feet and a half, because the likeness and the work of the +picture will not be seen any higher, therefore at a word he will not +trouble the gentlemen against their inclination, but will beg the best +of his pictures back again." Immediately, the Academy returned his +pictures, although it would seem that they might better have +accommodated Gainsborough than have lost such a fine exhibition. He +never again would send anything to them. + +He was inclined to be irritated by inartistic points in his sitters, +and is said to have muttered when he was painting the portrait of +Mrs. Siddons, the great actress: "Damn your nose madam; there is no +end to it." The nose in question must have been an "eyesore" to more +than Gainsborough, for a famous critic is said to have declared that +"Mrs. Siddons, with all her beauty was a kind of female Johnson ... +her nose was not too long for nothing." + +Notwithstanding that his landscapes were not popular, he used to go +off into the country to indulge his taste for painting them, and once +he wrote to a friend that he meant to mount "all the Lakes at the next +Exhibition in the great style, and you know, if people don't like +them, it's only jumping into one of the deepest of them from off a +wooded island and my reputation will be fixed forever." An old lady, +whose guest he was, down in the country, told how he was "gay, very +gay, and good looking, creating a great sensation, in a rich suit of +drab with laced ruffles and cocked hat." + +One of the boys he saw in the country he delighted to paint, and he +also grew so much attached to him that he took him to London and kept +him with him as his own son. That boy's name was Jack Hill and he did +not care for city life, nor maybe for Gainsborough's eccentricities, +so he ran away. He was found again and again, till one day he got away +for good, and never came back. + +All his later life Gainsborough was happy. His daughter, who had +married Fischer, the hautboy-player, came back home to live, and her +disorder was not bad enough to prevent her being a cause of great +happiness to her father. The other daughter never married. +Gainsborough says that he spent a thousand pounds a year, but he also +gave to everybody who asked of him, and to many who asked nothing, so +that he must have made a great deal of money during his lifetime, by +his art. It is said that the "Boy at the Stile" was bestowed on +Colonel Hamilton for his fine playing of a solo on the violin. A lady +who had done the artist some trifling service received twenty drawings +as a reward, which she pasted on the walls of her rooms without the +slightest idea of their value. + +Gainsborough got up early in the morning, but did not work more than +five hours. He liked his friends, his music, and his wife, and spent +much time with them. He was witty, and while he sketched pictures in +the evening, with his wife and daughters at his side, he kept them +laughing with his droll sayings. + +The last days of Gainsborough showed him to be a hero. He died of +cancer, and some time before he knew what his disease was he must have +suffered a great deal. There is a story that is very pathetic of a +dinner with his friends, Beaumont and Sheridan. Usually, he was the +gayest of the gay, but of late all his friends had noticed that gaiety +came to him with effort. Upon the night of this dinner, Sheridan had +been his wittiest, and had tried his hardest to make Gainsborough +cheer up, till finally, the artist, finding it impossible to get out +of his sad mood, asked Sheridan if he would leave the table and speak +with him alone. The two friends went out together. "Now don't laugh, +but listen," Gainsborough said; "I shall soon die. I know it; I feel +it. I have less time to live than my looks infer, but I do not fear +death. What oppresses my mind is this: I have many acquaintances, few +friends; and as I wish to have one worthy man to accompany me to the +grave, I am desirous of bespeaking you. Will you come? Aye or no!" At +that Sheridan, who was greatly shocked, tried to cheer him, but +Gainsborough would not return to the table, till he got the promise, +which of course Sheridan made. + +It was not very long after this that a famous trial took place--that +of Warren Hastings. It was in Westminster Hall, and Gainsborough went +to listen several times. On the last occasion, he became so interested +in what was happening that he did not notice a window open at his +back. After a little he said to a friend that he "felt something +inexpressibly cold" touch his neck. On his return home he told of the +strange feeling to his wife. Then he sent for a doctor, and there was +found a little swelling. The doctor said it was not serious and that +when the weather grew warmer it would disappear; but all the while +Gainsborough felt certain that it would mean his death. A short time +after that he told his sister that he knew himself to have a cancer, +and that was true. + +When he felt that he must die, he fell to thinking of many things in +the past, and wished to right certain mistakes of his behaviour as far +as possible. + +He sent to Sir Joshua Reynolds and asked him to come and see him, +since he could not go to see Sir Joshua. Reynolds went and then +Gainsborough told him of his regret that he had shown so much ill-will +and jealousy toward so great and worthy a rival. Reynolds was very +generous and tried to make Gainsborough understand that all was +forgiven and forgotten. He left his brother artist much relieved and +happier, and he afterward said: "The impression on my mind was that +his regret at losing life was principally the regret of leaving his +art." As Reynolds left the dying man's room, Gainsborough called after +him: "We are all going to heaven--and Van Dyck is of the company." + +He was buried in Kew Churchyard and the ceremonies were followed by +Reynolds and five of the Royal Academicians, who forgot all +Gainsborough's eccentricities of conduct toward them in their honest +grief over his death. He was one of the first three dozen original +members of the Royal Academy. + + PLATE--PORTRAIT OF MRS. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN + +This picture is now in the collection of Lord Rothschild, +London. Mrs. Sheridan was the loveliest lady of her time. She was the +daughter of Thomas Linley, and a singer. + +She came from a home which was called "a nest of nightingales," +because all in it were musicians. The father had a large family and +made up his mind to become the best musician of his time in his +locality in order to support them. He was successful, and in turn most +of his children became musicians. His lovely daughter, Eliza +(Mrs. Sheridan), he bound to himself as an apprentice and taught her +till she was twenty-one, insisting that she "serve out her time" to +him, that she might become a perfect singer. The story of this +beautiful lady seems to belong to the story of Gainsborough's portrait +and shall be told here. + +When she was a very little girl, no more than eight years old, she was +so beautiful that as she stood at the door of the pump room in Bath to +sell tickets for her father's concerts, everyone bought them from +her. When she was a very young woman her father engaged her to marry a +Mr. Long, sixty years old. She did not seem to mind what arrangements +her father made for her, but continued to sing and attend to her +business, till after the wedding gowns were all made and everything +ready for the marriage, when she happened to meet the brilliant +Richard Brinsley Sheridan, whose plays were so fashionable, and she +fell deeply in love with him. She told Mr. Long she would not marry +him, and without much objection he gave her up, but her father was +very angry and he threatened to sue Mr. Long for letting his daughter +go. Then the beautiful lady ran away to Calais and married +Mr. Sheridan without her father's permission; but she came home again +and said nothing of what she had done, kept on singing and helping her +father earn money for his family. One day, Mr. Sheridan was wounded in +a duel which he had fought with one of his wife's admirers, and when +she heard the news she screamed, "my husband, my husband," so that +everybody knew she was married to the fascinating playwright. Sheridan +for some reason did not at once come and get her, nor arrange for them +to have a home together. For a good while she continued to sing; and +once hearing her in oratorio, Sheridan fell in love with his wife all +over again. He took her from her home and would never let her sing +again in public. They remarried publicly and went to live in +London. He was not at all a rich and famous man at that time--only a +poor law-student--but he would not let his wife make the fortune she +might easily have made, by singing. + +This must have made his beautiful wife very sad, but she made no +complaint at giving up her music and letting him silence her lovely +voice, but turned all her attention to advancing his fortunes. She +worked for him even harder than she had for her father, and that was +saying a great deal. When he became a great writer of plays his wife +took charge of all the accounts of his Drury Lane Theatre, and when he +was in the House of Commons she acted as his secretary. Sheridan died +in great poverty and wretchedness, and it is believed had his +self-sacrificing wife not died before him she would have looked after +his affairs so well that he would not have lost his fortune. +Gainsborough painted the portraits of Sheridan's father-in-law, and of +Samuel Linley; and it was said that this last portrait was painted in +forty-eight minutes. Among his other portraits are: eight of George +III., Sir John Skynner, Admiral Hood, Colonel St. Leger, and "The Blue +Boy"; but he was first and last a landscape painter of highest genius. + + + + +XVI + +JEAN LEON GEROME + + + (Pronounced Zhahn Lay'on Zhay-rome) + _French, Semi-classical School_ + 1824-1904 + _Pupil of Delaroche_ + +One cannot write much more than the date of birth and death of a man +who lived until three or four years of the time of writing, so we may +only say that G‚r“me was one of the most brilliant of modern French +painters. He was born at Vesoul and his father was a goldsmith. Thus +he probably had no very great difficulty in getting a start in his +work. The prejudice against having an artist in the family was dying +out, and as a prosperous goldsmith we may believe that his father had +means enough to give his son good opportunities. + +G‚r“me, like Millet, studied under Delaroche, but became no such +characteristic painter as he. While studying with Delaroche he also +was taking the course in l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts. + +His first exhibited picture was "The Cock Fight," and he won a third +class medal by it. + +Almost always this painter has chosen his subjects from ancient or +classic life, and his pictures are not always decent, but he painted +with much care, the details of his work are very finely done and their +vivid colour is fascinating. + + PLATE--THE SWORD DANCE + +This painting may be seen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New +York City. The scene is full of action and interest, but perhaps the +details of dress, mosaic decoration upon the walls, patterns of the +rugs, the coloured and jewelled lamps and windows are the most +splendidly painted of all. + +The central figure is a dancing girl, only partly draped, balancing a +sword on her head, while a brilliant green veil flies from head and +face. Other Oriental women squat upon the floor watching her with a +half indolent expression, while their Oriental masters and their +friends sit in pomp at one side, absorbed in the dance and in the +girl. The expressions upon all the faces are excellent and, the +jewelled light that falls upon the group, the rich clothing, the grace +of the dancer--all make a fascinating picture of a genre type. Other +G‚r“mes are "Daphnis and Chloe," "Leda," and "The Duel after the +Masked Ball." + + + + +XVII + +GHIRLANDAJO + + + (Pronounced Geer-lan-da'yo) + _Florentine School_ + 1449-1494 + _Pupil of Fra Bartolommeo_ + +It is a good deal of a name--Domenico di Tommaso di Currado +Bigordi--and it would appear that the child who bore it was under +obligation to become a good deal of a something before he died. + +Italian and Spanish painters generally had large names to live up to, +and the one known as Ghirlandajo did nobly. + +His father was a goldsmith and a popular part of his work was the +making of golden garlands for the hair of rich Italian ladies. His +work was so beautiful that it gained for him the name of Ghirlandajo, +meaning the garland-twiner, a name that lived after him, in the great +art of his son. Domenico began as a worker in mosaic, a maker of +pictures or designs with many coloured pieces of glass or stone. + +Ghirlandajo's art was no improvement on that of his teacher, but he in +turn became the teacher of Michael Angelo. + +The Florentine school of painting, to which Ghirlandajo belonged, was +not so famous for colour as the Venetian school, but it had many other +elements to commend it. One cannot expect Ghirlandajo to rank with +Titian, Rubens, or other "colourists" of his own and later periods, +but he did the very best work of his day and school. He attained to +fame through his choice of types of faces for his models, and by his +excellent grouping of figures. + +Until his day, the faces introduced into paintings were likely to be +unattractive, but he chose pleasing ones, and he painted the folds of +garments beautifully. He was not entirely original in his ideas, but +he carried out those which others had thus far failed to make +interesting. + +Often, in his wish to paint exactly what he saw, he softened nothing +and therefore his figures were repulsive, but Fra Bartolommeo's pupil +gave promise of what Michael Angelo was to fulfill. + +Ghirlandajo and Michael Angelo were a good deal alike in their +emotional natures. Both sought great spaces in which to paint, and +both chose to paint great frescoes. Indeed Ghirlandajo had the +extraordinary ambition to put frescoes on all the fortification walls +about Florence. It certainly would have made the city a great picture +gallery to have had its walls forever hung with the pictures of one +master. Had he painted them, inside and out, when such an enemy as +Napoleon came along, with his love of art, and his fashion of taking +all that he saw to Paris, he would likely enough have camped outside +the walls while he decided what part of the gallery he would transfer +to the Louvre. + +One of the reasons that Ghirlandajo is famous is that he often chose +well known personages for his models, and as he painted just what he +saw, did not idealise his subject, he gave to the world amazing +portraits, as well as fine paintings. The same thing was done by +painters of a far different school, at another period. The Dutch and +Flemish painters were in the habit of using their neighbours as +models. + +Ghirlandajo is classed among religious painters, but let us compare +some of his "religious" paintings with those of Raphael or Murillo, +and see the result. + +He painted seven frescos on the walls of the Santa Maria Novella in +Florence, all scenes of Biblical history, as Ghirlandajo imagined +them. They show him to have been a fine artist, but to have had not +much idea of history, and to have had little sense of fitness. + +Ghirlandajo's seven subjects are taken from legends of the Virgin, and +the greatest represents Mary's visit to Elizabeth; it is called "The +Visitation," and it is a fresco about eighteen feet long painted on +the choir wall. + +Let us imagine the possible scene. The Virgin Mary came from Cana, a +little town in Galilee placed in the hills about nine miles from +Nazareth, the home of the lowliest and the poorest, of a kindly +pastoral people living in the open air, needing and wanting very +little, simple in their habits. Elizabeth, Mary's old cousin, lived in +Judea, and St. Luke writes thus: "Mary arose in those days and went +into the hill country with haste, into a city of Judea; and entered +into the house of Zacharias" (Elizabeth's husband) "and saluted +Elizabeth." + +This record had been made at least eleven hundred years before +Ghirlandajo painted in the Santa Maria Novella, and from it one cannot +imagine that Mary made any preparation for her journey, nor does it +suggest that Elizabeth had any chance to arrange a reception for +her. Even had she done so, it must have been of the simplest +description, at that time among those people. One can imagine a lowly +home; an aged woman coming out to meet her young relative either at +her door or in the high road. + +There may have been surroundings of fruit and flowers, a stretch of +highroad or a hospitable doorway; but the wildest imagination could +not picture what Ghirlandajo did. + +He paints Elizabeth flanked with handmaidens, as if she were some +royal personage, instead of a priest's wife in fairly comfortable +circumstances where comfort was easily obtained. Mary appears to be +escorted by ladies-in-waiting, hardly a likely circumstance since she +was affianced to no richer or more important person than a carpenter +of Galilee. Possibly the three ladies that stand behind Mary in, the +picture are merely lookers-on, but in that case the visit of Mary +would seem to have been of public importance, especially as there are +youths near by who are also much interested in one woman's hasty visit +to another. The rich brocades worn by Elizabeth's waiting ladies are +splendid indeed and the landscape is fine--a rich Italian landscape +with architecture of the most up-to-date sort--showing, in short, that +the artist lacked historical imagination. He found some models, made a +purely decorative painting with an Italian setting and called it "The +Visitation." The doorway on the right is distinctly renaissance. + +Such a painting as this is not "religious," nor is it historic, nor +does it suggest a subject; it is merely a fine picture better coloured +than most of those of the Florentine school. There is another painting +of this same subject by Ghirlandajo in the Louvre, but it is no nearer +truth than the one in the Santa Maria. + +Ghirlandajo painted other than religious subjects, and one of them, at +least, is quite repulsive. It is the picture of an old man, with a +beautiful little child embracing him. The old man may have tenderness +and love in his face, but his heavy features, his warty nose, do not +make one think of pleasant things and one does not care to imagine the +dear little child kissing the grotesque old fellow. + +It was before Ghirlandajo's time that another painter had discovered +the use of oil in mixing paints. Previously colours had been mixed in +water with some gelatinous substance, such as the white and yolk of an +egg, to give the paint a proper texture or consistency. This +preparation was called "distemper," and frescoes were made by using +this upon plaster while it was still wet. Plaster and colours dried +together, and the painting became a part of the wall, not to be +removed except by taking the plaster with it. + +The different gluey substances used had often the effect of making the +colours lose their tone and they presented a glazed surface when used +upon wood, a favourite material with artists. + +There are numberless anecdotes written of this artist and his brother, +and one of these shows he had a temper. The brothers were engaged in a +monastery at Passignano painting a picture of the "Last Supper." While +at work upon it, they lived in the house. The coarse fare did not suit +Ghirlandajo, and one night he could endure it no longer. Springing +from his seat in the refectory he flung the soup all over the monk who +had served it, and taking a great loaf of bread he beat him with it so +hard that the poor monk was carried to his cell, nearly dead. The +abbot had gone to bed, but hearing the rumpus he thought it was +nothing less than the roof falling in, and he hurried to the room +where he found the brothers still raging over their dinner. David +shouted out to him, when the abbot tried to reprove the artist, that +his brother was worth more than any "pig of an abbot who ever lived!" + +It is recorded in the documents found in the Confraternity of St. Paul +that: + +Domenico de Ghurrado Bighordi, painter, called del Grillandaio, died +on Saturday morning, on the 11th day of January, 1493 (o.s.), of a +pestilential fever, and the overseers allowed no one to see the dead +man, and would not have him buried by day. So he was buried, in Santa +Maria Novella, on Saturday night after sunset, and may God forgive +him! This was a very great loss for he was highly esteemed for his +many qualities, and is universally lamented. + +The artist left nine children behind him. + +Ghirlandajo's pictures may be found in the Louvre, the Berlin Museum, +the Dresden, Munich, and London galleries. Most children will find it +hard to see their beauty. + +Great men are likely to come in groups, and with Ghirlandajo there are +associated Botticelli and Fra Filippo Lippi. + + PLATE--PORTRAIT OF GIOVANNA DEGLI ALBIZI + +This lovely lady was the wife of one of the painter's patrons, +Giovanni Tornabuoni, through whom he received the commission for a +series of frescoes in the choir of the Santa Maria Novella, +Florence. The subjects chosen were sacred, but since Ghirlandajo, no +more than his neighbours, knew what the Virgin or her contemporaries +looked like, he saw no reason why he should not compliment some of the +great ones of his own city and his own time by painting them in to +represent the different characters of Holy Writ. So, as one of the +ladies attendant upon Elizabeth when Mary comes to visit her, we have +this signora of the fifteenth century. The artist made another picture +of her, the one here shown, but in the same dress and posed the same +as she had been for the church fresco. This accounts for its dignity +and simplicity. It would seem like a bas-relief cut out of marble were +it not for its wonderful colouring. It is in the Rudolf Kann +Collection, Paris. This artist's other pictures are "Adoration of the +Shepherds," "Adoration of the Magi," "Madonna and Child with Saints," +"Three Saints and God the Father," "Coronation of the Virgin," and +"Portrait of Old Man and Boy." + + + + +XVIII + +GIOTTO (DI BORDONE) + + + (Pronounced Jot-to) + _Florentine School_ + 1276-1337 + _Pupil of Cimabue_ + +Giotto painted upon wood, and in "distemper"--the mixture of colour +with egg or some other jelly-like substance. We know nothing of his +childhood except that he was a shepherd, as we learn from a story told +of him and his teacher, Cimabue. + +The story runs that one day while Giotto was watching his sheep, high +up on a mountain, Cimabue was walking abroad to study nature, and he +ran across a shepherd boy who was drawing the figure of a sheep, with +a piece of slate upon a stone. In those days we can imagine how rare +it was to find one who could draw anything, ever so rudely. +Immediately Cimabue saw a chance to make an artist and he asked the +little shepherd if he would like to be taught art in his studio. +Giotto was overjoyed at the opportunity, and at once he left the +mountains for the town, the shepherd's crook for the brush. + +In those days the studio of one like Cimabue was really a workshop. +Artists had to grind their own colours, prepare their own panels upon +which to paint, and do a hundred other things of a workman rather than +an artist kind in connection with their painting. Such a studio was +crowded with apprentices--boys who did these jobs while learning from +the master. Their teaching consisted in watching the artist and now +and then receiving advice from him. + +It was into such a shop as this, in Florence, that Giotto went, and +soon he was to become greater than his master. Even so, we cannot +think him great, excepting for his time, because his pictures, +compared with later art, are crude, stiff, and strange. + +No pupil was permitted to use a brush till he had learned all the +craft of colour grinding and the like, and this was supposed to take +about six years. These workshops were likely to be dull, gloomy +places, and only a strong desire to do such things as they saw their +master doing, would induce a boy to persevere through the first +drudgery of the work. Giotto persevered, and not only became an +original painter, at a time when even Cimabue hardly made figures +appear human in outline, but he designed the great Campanile in +Florence, and he saw it partly finished before he died. The Campanile +is a wonder of architecture, but Giotto's Madonnas had to be improved +upon, as certainly as he had improved upon those of Cimabue. + +There are many amusing stories of Giotto, mainly telling of his good +nature, and his ugly appearance, which everyone forgot in appreciation +of his truly kind heart. Once a visit was made to his studio by the +King of Naples, after the artist had become famous. Giotto was +painting busily, though the day was very hot. The King entered, and +bade Giotto not to be disturbed but to continue his work, adding: +"Still, if I were you, I should not paint in such hot weather." Giotto +looked up with a laugh in his eye: "Neither would I--if I were you, +Sire!" he answered. + +There is a famous saying: "As round as Giotto's "O," and this is how +it came about. The pope wanted the best of the Florentine artists to +do some work in Rome for him and he sent out to them for examples of +their work. When the pope's messenger came to Giotto the artist was +very busy. When asked for some of his work to show the pope, he +paused, snatched a piece of paper and with the brush he had been +using, which was full of red paint, he hurriedly drew a circle and +gave it to the messenger who stared at him. + +"But--is this _all_?" he asked. + +"All--yes--and too much. Put it with the others." This perfect circle +and the account the messenger gave of his visit so delighted the pope +that Giotto was chosen from all the Florentine artists to decorate the +Roman buildings. + +Thus Giotto worked till he was fifty-seven or eight years old when he +put aside his brush and turned to sculpture and architecture. Meantime +he had far outstripped his master in art. The arrangement of the +groups is about the same, but the figures look human and the draperies +are more natural, while he gives the appearance of length, breadth, +and thickness to his thrones and enclosures. We shall not choose a +Madonna for illustration, but another of Giotto's masterpieces, +remembering that good as he was in his time, he seems amazingly bad +compared with those who came after him. + + PLATE--THE MEETING OF ST. JOHN AND ST. ANNA AT JERUSALEM. + +In 1303 a certain Enrico Scrovegno had a private chapel built in the +Arena at Padua and he sent for Giotto to come there and adorn the +whole of its walls and ceiling with frescoes. These remain, though the +chapel is now emptied of all else, and they suffice to bring scores of +art-lovers to Padua. The picture here reproduced represents the +meeting and reconciliation between the father and mother of the Virgin +before her birth. The peculiarly shaped eyes and eyebrows that Giotto +gives to all his characters are specially noteworthy here as in every +one of the thirty-eight frescoes. There are three rows of pictures, +one above the other and in them are portrayed the principal scenes in +the lives of Christ and the Virgin. The painter here reached his +high-water mark, showed the very best he could produce in sincere, +restrained art. + + + + +XIX + +FRANZ HALS + + + _Dutch School_ + 1580-04-1666 + _Pupil of Karel Van Mander_ + +Franz Hals belonged to a family which for two hundred years had been +highly respected in Haarlem in the Netherlands. The father of the +painter left that town for political reasons in 1579, and it was at +Antwerp that Franz was born sometime between that date and 1585. His +parents took him back to Haarlem as an infant, and that is the town +with which his name and fame are most closely associated. + +Little is known of his early life except that he began his studies +with Karel Van Mander and Cornelis Cornelissen. What we know of his +family life is not to his credit. In the parish register of 1611 is +recorded the birth of a son to Franz Hals and five years later he is +on the public records for abusing his wife, who died shortly +afterward. He married again within a year and the second wife bore him +many children and survived him ten years. Five of his seven sons +became painters. + +Franz Hals drank too much and mixed too freely with the kind of +disreputable people he loved to paint, but he never became so degraded +that his hand lost its cunning, or his eye its keen vision for that +which he wished to portray. In 1644, he was made a director of the +Guild of St. Lucas, an institution for the protection of arts and +crafts in Haarlem, but from that time onward he sank in popular +esteem, deservedly. He fell into debt, then into pauperism, and when +he died, about the age of eighty-six, he was buried at public expense +in the choir of St. Bavon Church in Haarlem. + +It was in the year 1616 that Hals first became known as a master of +his art by the painting of the St. Jovis Shooting Company, one of the +clubs composed of volunteers banded together for the defence of the +town should occasion arise. Such guilds were common throughout +Holland, and they became a favourite subject with Hals, as with other +painters of the time, who vied with one another in portraiture of the +different members. These groups were hung upon the walls of the +chambers where meetings were held for social purposes in times of +peace. The men of highest rank are always given the most conspicuous +places in the pictures. The flag is generally the one bit of gorgeous +colour in the scene; but Franz Hals seized the opportunity to show his +wonderful skill in detail while painting the cuffs and ruffs worn by +these grandees. In all his work there is an impression of strength +rather than of beauty; it is the charm of expressiveness he is aiming +at, rather than the charm of grace and colour to which the Italian +school was devoted. He differed from that school, also, in his choice +of subjects, for he was distinctly and almost entirely a portrait +painter, and within his own limited range he is unsurpassed. A +wonderful collection of his works is to be seen in the Haarlem Town +Hall. + + PLATE--THE NURSE AND THE CHILD + +Considering the woeful life that Franz Hals led, it is amazing to +think that he of all artists is the best painter of good humour. He +puts a smile on the face of nearly every one of his "leading +characters," whether it be a modest young girl, a hideous old woman, a +strolling musician, or a riotous soldier, and in every case the laugh +suits the subject. It may have been his own easygoing shiftlessness, +his way of casting care aside with a jest that enabled him to live so +long and to accomplish so much in spite of his poverty and other +misfortunes. + +The roguish look upon the face of this baby of the house of Ilpenstein +makes it appear older than the pleasant faced nurse. The dress of the +child is such as Hals delighted to spend his talents upon. The picture +is in the Berlin Gallery. + +Among his best known paintings are "The Laughing Cavalier," "The +Fool," "The Man with the Sword," and "Hille Bobbe. the Witch of +Haarlem." + + + + +XX + +MEYNDERT HOBBEMA + + + _Dutch School_ + 1637-1709 + _Pupil of Jacob van Ruisdael_ + +When a man becomes famous many people claim his acquaintance, and +often many places his birthplace. In Hobbema's case it has never been +decided whether he was born in the little town of Koeverdam, or in the +city of Haarlem or in Amsterdam. Nor is it quite certain when he was +born; but what he did afterward, we are all acquainted with. + +No one knows much about the life of this artist, but his master was +doubtless his uncle, van Ruisdael. Hobbema was dead a hundred years +before the world acknowledged his genius, thus he reaped no reward for +hard work and ambition. He, like Rembrandt, died in great poverty, and +with nearly the same surroundings. Rembrandt died forsaken in +Roosegraft Street, Amsterdam, and Hobbema died in the same +locality. We must speak chiefly about his work, since we know little +of his personality or affairs. + +If B”cklin's pictures seem to be composed of vertical lines, Hobbema's +are as startling in their positive vertical and horizontal lines +combined. We are not likely to find elevations or gentle, gradual +depressions in his landscapes, but straight horizons, long trunked, +straight limbed trees; and the landscape seems to be punctured here +and there by an upright house or a spire. It is startlingly beautiful, +and so characteristic that after seeing one or two of Hobbema's +pictures we are likely to know his work again wherever we may find it. + +Hobbema got at the soul of a landscape. It was as if one painted a +face that was dear to one, and not only made it a good likeness but +also painted the person as one felt him to be--all the tenderness, or +maybe all the sternness. + +It may be that Hobbema's failure to get money and honours, or at the +very least, kind recognition as a great artist, while he lived, +influenced his painting, and made him see mostly the sad side of +beauty, nor it is certain that his landscapes give one a strange +feeling of sadness and desolation, even when he paints a scene of +plenty and fulness. + +The French have made a phrase for his kind of work, _paysage +intime_--meaning the beloved country--the one best known. It is a fine +phrase, and it was first used to describe Rousseau's and Corot's work; +but it especially applies to Hobbema's. + +While this artist was not yet recognised, his uncle van Ruisdael was +known as a great artist. The family must have been rich in spirit that +gave so much genius to the world. Hobbema certainly loved his art +above all things, for he had no return during his lifetime, save what +was given by the joy of work. There are those who complain that +Hobbema was a poor colourist. True, he used little besides grays and a +peculiar green, which seemed especially to please him; but since that +colouring belonged to the subjects he chose, one cannot complain on +the ground that what he did was unsatisfying. For lack of knowledge +about him we can think of him as a man of moods, sad, desolate ones at +that; because his work is too extreme and uniform in its character for +us to believe his method was affected. + + PLATE--THE AVENUE, MIDDELHARNIS, HOLLAND + +This perhaps is one of the most characteristic of Hobbema's +pictures. Note a strange hopelessness in the scene, as well as +beauty. The tall and solemn trees, the high light upon the road, +suggesting to us all sorts of joys struggling through the +cheerlessness of life. What other artist would have chosen such a +corner of nature for a subject to paint? To quote a fine description: + +"He loved the country-side, studied it as a lover, and has depicted it +with such intimacy of truth that the road to Middelharnis seems as +real to-day as it did over a hundred years ago to the artist. We see +the poplars, with their lopped stems, lifting their bushy tops against +that wide, high sky which floats over a flat country, full of billowy +clouds as the sky near the North Sea is apt to be. Deep ditches skirt +the road, which drain and collect the water for purposes of +irrigation, and later on will join some deeper, wider canal, for +purposes of navigation. We get a glimpse on the right, of patient +perfection of gardening, where a man is pruning his grafted fruit +trees; farther on a group of substantial farm buildings. On the +opposite side of the road stretches a long, flat meadow, or "polder," +up to the little village which nestles so snugly around its tall +church tower; the latter fulfilling also the purpose of a beacon, lit +by night, to guide the wayfarer on sea and land; scene of tireless +industry, comfortable prosperity, and smiling peace. ... Pride and +love of country breathe through the whole scene. To many of us the +picture smiles less than it thrills with sadness. Perhaps it speaks +thus only to those who find a kind of hurt in the revival of the +spring, which promises so much and may fulfill so little." + +Hobbema's "Watermill" is very well-known and so are his "Wooded +Landscape," and "Haarlem's Little Forest." + + + + +XXI + +WILLIAM HOGARTH + + + _School of Hogarth (English)_ + 1697-1764 + +William Hogarth, like Watteau, originated his own school; in short +there never was anybody like him. He was an editorial writer in +charcoal and paint, or in other words he had a story to tell every +time he made a picture, and there was an argument in it, a right and a +wrong, and he presented his point of view by making pictures. + +English artists in literature and in painting have done some great +reformatory work. Charles Dickens overthrew some dreadful abuses by +writing certain novels. The one which has most interest for children +is the awful story of Dotheboys' Hall, which exposed the ill treatment +of pupils in a certain class of English schools. What Dickens and +Charles Reade did in literature, Hogarth undertook to do in +painting. He described social shams; painted things as they were, thus +making many people ashamed and possibly better. + +Italians had always painted saints and Madonnas, but Hogarth pretended +to despise that sort of work, and painted only human beings. He did +not really despise Raphael, Titian, and their brother artists, but he +was so disgusted with the use that had been made of them and their +schools of art, to the entire exclusion of more familiar subjects, +that he turned satirist and ridiculed everything. + +First of all, Hogarth was an engraver. He was born in London on the +10th December, 1697, and eighteen days later was baptised in the +church of St. Bartholemew the Great. His father was a school teacher +and a "literary hack," which means that in literature he did whatever +he could find to do, reporting, editing, and so on. + +Hogarth must early have known something of vagabond life, for his +father's life during his own youth must have brought him into +association with all sorts of people. He knew how madhouses were run, +how kings dined, how beggars slept in goods boxes, and many other +useful items. + +Hogarth said of himself: "Shows of all sorts gave me uncommon pleasure +when an infant, and mimicry, common to all children, was remarkable in +me.... My exercises, when at school, were more remarkable for the +ornaments which adorned them, than for the exercises themselves." He +became an engraver or silver-plater, being apprenticed to Mr. Ellis +Gamble, at the sign of the "Golden Angel," Cranbourne Alley, Leicester +Fields. + +Engraving on silver plate was all well enough, but Hogarth aspired to +become an engraver on copper, and he has said that this was about the +highest ambition he had while he was in Cranbourne Alley. + +The shop-card which he engraved for Mr. Ellis Gamble may have been the +first significant piece of work he undertook. The card is still among +the Hogarth relics. He set up as an engraver on his own account, +though he did study a little in Sir James Thornhill's art school; but +whatever he learned he turned to characteristic account. + +He continued to make shop-cards, shop-bills, and book-plates. Finally, +in 1727, a maker of tapestry engaged Hogarth to sketch him a design +end he set to work ambitiously He worked throughout that year upon the +design, but when he took it to the man it was refused. The truth was +that the man who had commissioned the work had heard that Hogarth was +"an engraver and no painter," and he had so little intelligence that +he did not intend to accept his design, however much it might have +pleased him. Hogarth sued the man for his refusal and he won the +suit. He next began to make what he called "conversation pieces," +little paintings about a foot high of groups of people, the figures +being all portraits. These were very fashionable for a time and made +some money for the artist. Both he and Watteau were fond of the stage, +and both painted scenes from operas and plays. + +In time he moved into lodgings at the "Golden Head," in Leicester +Fields, and there he made his home. He had already begun the great +paintings which were to make him famous among artists. These were a +series of pictures, telling stories of fashionable and other life. His +own story of how he came to think of the picture series was that he +had always wished to present dramatic stories--present them in scenes +as he saw them on the stage. + +He had married the daughter of Sir James Thornhill, and had never been +thought of kindly by his father-in-law till he made so much stir with +his first series. Then Sir James approved of him, and Hogarth found +life more pleasing. + +There are very few anecdotes to tell of the artist's life, and the +story of his pictures is much more amusing. One of his first satires +was made into a pantomime by Theophilus Gibber, and another person +made it into an opera. Many pamphlets and poems were written about it, +and finally china was painted with its scenes and figures. There was +as much to cry as to laugh over in Hogarth's pieces and that is what +made them so truly great. One of his great picture series was called +the "Rake's Progress" and it was a warning to all young men against +leading too gay a life. It showed the "Rake" at the beginning of his +misfortunes, gambling, and in the last reaping the reward of his +follies in a debtor's prison and the madhouse. There are eight +pictures in that set. + +In this series, especially in the fifth picture, there are +extraordinary proofs of Hogarth's completeness of ideas. Upon the wall +in the room wherein the "Rake" marries an old woman for her money, the +Ten Commandments are hung, all cracked, and the Creed also is cracked +and nearly smudged out; while the poor-box is covered with +cobwebs. The eight pictures brought to Hogarth only seventy guineas. + +One of his pictures was suggested to him by an incident which greatly +angered him. He had started for France on some errand of his own, and +was in the very act of sketching the old gate at Calais, when he was +arrested as a spy. Now Hogarth was a hard-headed Englishman, and when +he was hustled back to England without being given time for argument, +he was so enraged that he made his picture as grotesque as possible, +to the lasting chagrin of France. He painted the French soldiers as +the most absurd, thin little fellows imaginable, and that picture has +largely influenced people's idea of the French soldier all over the +English-speaking world. + +As Hogarth grew old he grew also a little bitter and revengeful toward +his enemies, often taking his revenge in the ordinary way of +belittling the people he disliked, in his paintings. + +Hogarth came before Reynolds or Gainsborough; in short, was the first +great English artist, and his chief power lay in being able instantly +to catch a fleeting expression, and to interpret it. An incident of +Hogarth's youth illustrates this. He had got into a row in a pot-house +with one of the hangers-on, and when someone struck the brawler over +the head with a pewter pot, there, in the midst of excitement and +rioting, Hogarth whipped out his pencil and hastily sketched the +expression of the chap who had been hit. + +Hogarth was friends with most of the theatre managers, and one of his +souvenirs was a gold pass given him by Tyers, the director of Vauxhall +Gardens, which entitled Hogarth and his family to entrance during +their lives. This was in return for some "passes," which Hogarth had +engraved for Tyer. + +Upon one occasion Hogarth set off with some companions for a trip to +the Isle of Sheppey. Incidentally Forest wrote a sketch of their +journey and Hogarth illustrated it. That work is to be found, +carefully preserved, in the British Museum. The repeated copying and +reproduction for sale of his pictures brought about the first effort +to protect his works of art by copyright. But it was not till he had +done the "Rake's Progress" that he was able to protect himself at all, +and even then not completely. + +Just before his death he was staying at Chiswick, but the day before +he died he was removed to his house in Leicester Fields. He was buried +in the Chiswick churchyard; and in that suburb of London may still be +seen his old house and a mulberry tree where he often sat amusing +children for whom he cared very much. Garrick wrote the following +epitaph for his tomb: + + If Genius fire thee, Reader, stay; + If Nature touch thee, drop a tear; + If neither move thee, turn away, + For Hogarth's honour'd dust lies here. + + Farewell, great Painter of Mankind! + Who reached the noblest point of art, + Whose pictured Morals charm the Mind + And through the Eye correct the Heart. + + PLATE--THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT + +The picture used in illustration here is part of probably the very +greatest art-sermon ever painted, called "Marriage … la Mode." The +story of it is worth telling: + +"The first act is laid in the drawing-room of the Viscount +Squanderfield"--is not that a fine name for the character? "On the +left, his lordship is seated, pointing with complacent pride to his +family tree, which has its roots in William the Conqueror. But his +rent roll had been squandered, the gouty foot suggesting whither some +of it has gone; and to restore his fortunes he is about to marry his +heir to the daughter of a rich alderman. The latter is seated +awkwardly at the table, holding the marriage contract duly sealed, +signed and delivered; the price paid for it, being shown by the pile +of money on the table and the bunch of cancelled mortgages which the +lawyer is presenting to the nobleman, who refuses to soil his elegant +fingers with them. Over on the left is his weakling son, helping +himself at this critical turn of his affairs, to a pinch of snuff +while he gazes admiringly at his own figure in the mirror. The lady is +equally indifferent; she has strung the ring on to her finger and is +toying with it, while she listens to the compliments being paid to her +by Counsellor Silver-tongue. Through an open window another lawyer is +comparing his lordship's new house, that is in the course of building, +with the plan in his hand. A marriage so begun could only end in +misery." This is the first act, and the pictures that follow show all +the steps of unhappiness which the couple take. There are five more +acts to that painted drama, which is in the National Gallery, London. + + + + +XXII + +HANS HOLBEIN, THE YOUNGER + + + (Pronounced Hahntz Hol'bine) + _German School_ + 1497-1543 + _Pupil of Holbein, the Elder_ + +There were three generations of painters in the Holbein family, and +the Hans of whom we speak was of the third. His grandfather was called +"old Holbein," and when more painters of the same name and family came +along it became necessary to distinguish them from each other thus: +"old Holbein," the "elder Holbein," and "young Holbein." The first one +was not much of an artist; still, in a locality where at best there +was not much art he was good enough to be remembered. + +"Young Holbein" was born in Augsburg, which is in Swabia, in southern +Germany; "elder Holbein" and his father, Michael, "old Holbein," had +moved there from Schonenfeld, a neighbouring village, about forty +three years before little Hans was born, the old Michael bringing his +family to the larger town where it was easier to make a living. + +The "elder Holbein" was a really good artist and well thought of in +Augsburg, and when little Hans's turn came he had no teacher but his +father, unless indeed we were to call him also a pupil of his elder +brother, Ambrosius. His uncle Sigismund, too, taught him something of +art, for the whole Holbein family seem to have been artists. Young +Holbein was never regularly apprenticed to any outsider. + +Art was not then taught as it is now. The work of a beginner was often +to paint for his master certain details which it was thought that he +might handle properly, while the master occupied himself with what he +thought to be some more important part of the picture. It is said that +Hans often painted the draperies of his father's figures when his +father was engaged upon the altar pieces so fashionable at the +time. The Holbeins one and all must have been bad managers or +improvident; at any rate, Hans did not turn out well as a man and we +read that his father was always in debt and difficulty although he +received much money for his work and was not handicapped, like Drer's +father, by a family of eighteen children. + +The story of the Holbeins is quite unlike that of the Drers, and not +nearly so attractive. + +Some time before Hans was twenty years of age, the entire family had +packed up and gone to live in Lucerne, while Hans and his brother, +Ambrosius, went travelling together, as most young Germans went at +that time before they settled down to the serious work of life. The +last we hear of Ambrosius he had joined the painters' guild in Basel, +and probably he died not long afterward, or at any rate while he was +still young. There was in Basel a certain Hans Bar, for whose wedding +occasion Hans Holbein designed a table, on which he pictured an +allegory of "St. Nobody." This was very likely such work as our +cartoonists do to-day, but being the work of Holbein, it had great +artistic value. Besides that, he painted a schoolmaster's sign to be +hung outside the door. + +As an illustrator, Holbein made the acquaintance of several authors +about that time and started on the high road to fame. He was a man of +very little conscience or fine feeling, and there could hardly be a +greater contrast than that between the clean sweet life of Drer and +the brawling, unfeeling one that Hans Holbein led. + +Drer married, had no children, but tenderly loved and cared for his +wife, taking her with him upon his journeys and making her happy. + +Holbein married and beat his wife; had several children and took care +of none of them. His wife grew to look old and worn while he remained +a gay looking sport, quite tired of one whom he had had on his hands +for ten years. He wandered everywhere and left his family to shift for +itself. One writer in speaking of the two men says: + +"Drer would never have deserted his wife whom he took with him even +on his journey to the Netherlands; and he was bound by the same +tenderness to his native town. However much he rejoiced to receive a +visit from Bellini at Venice, or when at Antwerp, the artists +instituted, a torch-light procession in his honour, nothing could have +moved him to leave Nuremberg." Drer loved his home; Holbein hated +his. + +Holbein had a cold, light-blue eye; Drer a soft and tender +glance. While Drer lived he was the mainstay of his family--father +and brothers. Holbein's father died in misery and his brother's life +was disastrous, Hans doing nothing to serve them and looking on at +their sufferings indifferently. + +There is a court document in existence which tells the particulars of +Hans Holbein's arrest for getting into a brawl with a lot of +goldsmiths' apprentices during a night of carousal. The court warned +him that he would be more severely punished if he did not cease his +lawless life and he was made to promise not to "jostle, pinch, nor +beat his lawful spouse." When he died he made no provision in his will +for his family. There is a picture of his wife, Elizabeth Schmidt, to +be seen in his "Madonna" at Solothurn Holbein used her for the +model. She then was young and blooming and the model for the child was +his own baby; at that time he found them useful. + +His life of folly can hardly be excused by impulsiveness or emotion, +for his pictures show little of either. He was best at portrait +painting. At that time guilds and town councils wanted the portraits +of their members preserved in some way, and it was the habit of +painters like Holbein to form picturesque groups and give to such +dramatic groupings the features of townsmen. Rembrandt did this much +later than Holbein, when he painted the "Night Watch," or as it is +more properly called, "The Sortie." + +Probably Holbein's first important work was to make title pages for +the second edition of Martin Luther's translation of the New +Testament. This MS. was made about the time that Holbein's work began +to be of interest to the public, and so the commission was given to +him. + +After a time this artist went to England with letters of introduction +to Sir Thomas More, Chancellor to King Henry VIII. Sir Thomas treated +him very kindly and set him to work making portraits of his own +family. During the time he was living at More's home in Chelsea, the +King himself, used frequently to visit there, and on one occasion he +saw the brilliant portraits of the More family and inquired about the +artist. Sir Thomas offered the King any of the pictures he liked, but +Henry VIII. asked to see the artist. When brought before him, +Holbein's fortune seemed to be made for the King asked him to go to +court and paint for him, remarking that "now he had the artist he did +not care about the pictures." + +Holbein seems to have been a favourite with Henry and many anecdotes +are told of his life at Whitehall, where he went to live. Once while +Holbein was engaged upon a portrait, a nobleman insisted upon entering +his studio, after the artist had told him that he was painting the +portrait of a lady, by order of the King. The nobleman insisted upon +seeing it, but Holbein seized him and threw him down the Stairs; then +he rushed to the King and told what had happened. He had no sooner +finished than the nobleman appeared and told his story. The King +blamed the nobleman for his rudeness. + +"You have not to do with Holbein," he said, "but with me. I tell you, +of seven peasants I can make seven lords, but of seven lords I cannot +make one Holbein. Begone! and remember that if you ever attempt to +avenge yourself, I shall look upon any injury offered to the painter +as done to myself." + +It was Holbein who, visiting a brother artist and finding a picture on +the easel, painted a fly upon it. When the artist returned he tried to +brush the fly off, then set about looking for the one who had deceived +him. + +His portrait painting was so superb that he received many commissions. + +Meantime, Sir Thomas More had fallen into disfavour with the King and +was to lose his head, but it is written that the artist's portraits +"betray nothing of this tragedy." He was as ready to climb to fame by +the favour of his generous patron's enemies as he had been to accept +the offices of Sir Thomas More. He painted the portraits of several of +the wives of Henry VIII., and it may be said that there was a good +deal of that monarch's temperament to be found in Holbein +himself. Take him all in all, Hans was as detestable as a man as he +was excellent as a painter. + +In his adopted home in Lucerne, Holbein had painted frescoes, both on +the inside and the outside of a citizen's house, and this house stood +until 1824, when it was torn down to make way for street improvements, +but several artists hastily copied the frescoes so that they are not +entirely lost. + +Before he left Germany for England, Holbein had been commissioned to +decorate the town hall in Basel, and a certain amount of money was +voted for the work, but after he had finished three walls, he decided +that the money was only enough to pay him for what he had already +done. The councillors agreed with him, but as money was a little +"close" in Basel at that time, they felt unable to give him more, and +so voted to "let the back wall alone, till further notice." + +He painted one Madonna whom he surrounded with the entire family of +Burgomaster Meyer, including even the burgomaster's first wife, who +was dead. This work is called the "Meyer Madonna." + +It is said that after Holbein's return to Basel he, with others, was +persecuted for his "religious principles," but if this were true, his +persecutors went to considerable pains for nothing, because Holbein +was never known to have any sort of principles, religious or +otherwise. He was neither a Protestant, nor a Catholic but a painter, +a man without convictions and without thought. He did not care for +family, country, friends, politics, religion, nor for anything else, +so far as any one knows. + +When he was asked why he had not partaken of the Sacrament, he +answered that he wanted to understand the matter better before he did +so. Thus he escaped punishment, and when matters were explained to +him, he did whatever seemed safest and most convenient under the +circumstances. + +On his return to England, he settled among the colony of German and +Netherland merchants, who were in the habit of meeting at a place +called "The Steelyard," as their home and warehouses were grouped in +that locality, with a guild hall and a wineshop they alone patronised. + +While associated with his compatriots Holbein made portraits of many +of them, and these are magnificent works of art. He painted them +separately or in groups; in their offices and in their guild hall, as +the case might be. The men whom he thus painted were: Gorg Gisze, Hans +of Antwerp, Derich Berck, Geryck Tybis, Ambrose Fallen, and many +others. He designed the arch which the guild erected upon the occasion +of Anne Boleyn's coronation, and he painted Henry's next Queen, Jane +Seymour. + +Holbein painted many portraits of Henry VIII. and probably all those +dated after 1537 were either copies or founded upon the portrait which +Holbein made and which was destroyed with Whitehall. + +While he painted for Henry, Holbein received a sort of retainer's fee +of thirty pounds a year, but he may have received sums for outside +commissions which he undertook. On one occasion, when he took a +journey to Upper Burgundy to paint a portrait of the Duchess whom +Henry contemplated making his next wife, the King gave him ten pounds +out of his own purse. We have no record of vast sums such as Raphael +received. + +Henry did not succeed in making the Duchess his wife, so Holbein was +sent to paint another--Anne of Cleves--that Henry might see what he +thought of her before he undertook to make her his queen. Holbein did +a disastrous deed, for he made Anne a very acceptable looking woman, +(the portrait hangs in the Louvre) and Henry negotiated for her on the +strength of that portrait. Later, when he saw her, he was utterly +disgusted and disappointed. + +Holbein, notwithstanding this trick, was employed to paint the next +wife of Henry, and doubtless he also made the miniature of Catherine +Howard which is in Windsor Castle. Holbein finally died of the plague +and no one knows where he was buried. His wife died later, and it was +left for his son, Philip, who was said to be "a good well-behaved +lad," to bring honours to the family. He was apprenticed in Paris, +and, settling later in Augsburg, he founded a branch of the Holbein +family on which the Emperor Matthias conferred a patent of nobility, +making them the Holbeins of Holbeinsberg. + + PLATE--ROBERT CHESEMAN WITH HIS FALCON + +This is one of the best of the many splendid portraits Holbein +painted. It hangs in The Hague gallery. The gentleman was forty-eight +years old and in the portrait he wears a purplish-red doublet of silk +and a black overcoat, which was the fashion of the day, all trimmed +with fur. He has curly hair, just turning gray. His left hand is +gloved and on it he holds his falcon, while with the other hand he +strokes its feathers. + +Of all sports at that time, falconry was the most fashionable and +every fine gentleman had his sporting birds. Robert Cheseman lived in +Essex. He was rich and a leader in English politics. His father was +"keeper of the wardrobe to Henry VIII." and he himself served in many +public offices. He was one of the gentleman chosen to welcome Anne of +Cleves when she landed on English soil to marry Henry VIII. These +details were first published by Mr. Arthur Chamberlain and are taken +from his sketch of Holbein and his works. + +Among Holbein's other famous pictures are: "The Ambassadors," "Hans of +Antwerp," "Christina of Denmark," "Jane Seymour," "Anne of Cleves," +and "St. George and the Dragon." + + + + + +XXIII + +WILLIAM HOLMAN HUNT + + + _English (Pre-Raphaelite) School_ + 1827-- + _Pupil of Academy School_ + +The story of the Pre-Raphaelites is all by itself a story of +art. Holman Hunt was one of three who formed this "brotherhood"; and +he, with one other, are the only ones whom some of us think worthy of +giving a place in art. This is to be the story of the brotherhood +rather than a story of one man. + +The last great artist England had had before this extraordinary group, +was J. M. W. Turner, truly a wonderful man, but after him England's +painters became more and more commonplace, drawing further and further +away from truth, There was one, J. F. Lewis, who went away to Syria +and lived a lonely and studious life, trying to paint with fidelity +sacred scenes, but he was not great enough to do what his conscience +and desires demanded of him; and, finally, Constable declared that the +end of art in England had come. But it had not, for up in London, in +the very heart of the city, in Cheapside (Wood Street) there was born, +in April, 1827, a child destined to be a brilliant and wonderful man, +who was actually to rescue English art from death. Many do not think +thus, but enough of us do to warrant the statement. + +The new artist was Holman Hunt. He was the son of a London +warehouseman, with no inclination whatever for learning, so that it +seemed simply a waste of time to send him to school. This continually +repeated history of artists who seem to know nothing outside their +brushes and colours, is astonishing, but it is true that artists for +the most part must be regarded as artists, pure and simple, and not as +men of even reasonably good intellectual attainments, and more or less +this accounts for their low estate centuries ago. One does not +associate "learning" and the artist. When we have such splendid +examples as Drer and two or three others we discuss their +intellectuality because they are so unusual. + +Holman Hunt was like most of his brother artists in all but his +art. He hated school and at twelve years of age was taken from it. His +father wanted him to become a warehouse merchant like himself, and he +began life as clerk or apprentice to an auctioneer. He next went into +the employment of some calico-printers of Manchester. The designing of +calicoes can hardly be called art, even if the department of design +had fallen to Holman Hunt's lot and we have no evidence that it did, +but he started to be an artist nevertheless, there in the +print-shop. He found in his new place another clerk who cared for art; +and this sympathy encouraged him to fix his mind upon painting more +than ever. He used to draw such natural flies upon the window panes +that his employer tried one day to "shoo away a whole colony of flies +that seemed miraculously to have settled." This gave the clerks much +amusement, and also attracted attention to Holman Hunt's genius. + +His very small salary was spent, not on his support, but in lessons +from a portrait painter of the city. His parents did not like this, +but they could not help themselves, and thus this greatest of the +Pre-Raphaelites began his work. + +The Pre-Raphaelites were a little group of men who believed that +artists were drawing too much on their imaginations, not painting +things as they saw them, and that the painter had become incapable of +close observation. He worked in his studio, did not get near enough to +nature, and instead of trying to follow along this line, this group of +men, with their new and partly correct ideas, meant to go back further +than the great masters themselves and present an elemental art. This +was a part of their scheme and partly it was justified, but of all the +men who undertook to make a new school, Holman Hunt was the only one +who remained, and will remain forever, a representative. He alone +stuck to the original purpose of the group and developed it into a +truly great school; so that it is he alone we need to know. + +After he began to take lessons of the portrait painter in London, he +developed so quickly that he found by painting portraits three days a +week, he could pay his own expenses, and the rest of the time he +devoted to study. He tried to be admitted to the Academy schools twice +and was twice refused before they would receive him. + +It was there in the Academy the three original Pre-Raphaelites met for +the first time; they were Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and +Millais. After entering the school Hunt painted and sold four +excellent pictures, but they all seem to have been lost; nobody can +trace them. He was not yet a "Pre-Raphaelite." + +All this time Hunt was half ill because he knew that he was grieving +his father of whom he was devotedly fond, and the strain of trying to +work while he was unhappy nearly destroyed him. The pictures that he +exhibited at the Royal Academy were so poor that the commission +declared they should not only be removed but that Hunt ought really to +be forbidden to exhibit any more. This must have been a great blow to +the young and struggling artist, and to add to this trouble, his +father was being jeered at for having such a good-for-nothing +son. Hunt's pictures in the Academy were so much despised that his +father was told his son was a disgrace to him, and we may be sure that +did not help the young fellow, who meantime was earning a living, not +by painting pictures, but by cleaning up those of another man. Dyce, +who had painted on the walls of Trinity House, engaged him to clean +and restore those paintings, and Hunt was doing this for his bread and +butter. + +At that time he became so downhearted and discouraged that he almost +decided to leave England altogether and go to live in Canada away from +his friends who jeered, and his family who reproached him; but just +then Millais, one of the successful painters whom he had met in the +Academy school, who could afford to be generous, came to Hunt's aid +and gave him the means of living while he painted "The Hireling +Shepherd." This was destined to be the turning point in Hunt's luck, +for that painting was properly hung at the exhibition, and it received +recognition. After that he painted a picture which he sold on the +installment plan--being paid by the purchaser so much a month. + +Meantime he owed his landlady a large sum, and he says himself that he +"suffered almost unbearable pain at passing her and her husband week +after week without being able to even talk of annulling his debts." In +time he not only settled that bill which distressed him, but paid back +his friend Millais the money loaned by him. + +Hunt rarely took a commission, because to do so meant that he must +paint a picture after the manner his employer wished, and Hunt had +certain ideas of art in which he believed and therefore would not bind +himself to depart from them; but after a little success, which enabled +him to pay his bills, he did undertake a commission from Sir Thomas +Fairbairn, and it was called "The Awakened Conscience." He finished +this picture on a January day late in the afternoon, and that very +night he left England, setting out upon a longed-for journey to the +Holy Land, where he meant to study the country and people till he +believed himself able to paint a truthful picture of sacred scenes. He +refused to paint pictures of Eastern Jews who should look like +Parisians, with Venetian backgrounds. He meant to paint Oriental +scenes as nearly as he could, as they might have taken place. + +He came back to his English home just two years and one month from the +time he had left it, and he brought back a picture of the goat upon +which the Jews loaded their sins and then turned loose in waste-places +to wander and die. "The Scapegoat" was a great picture, but before he +left England he had painted a greater--the one we see here--"The Light +of the World." + +He had depended upon the sale of the "Scapegoat" to pay his way for a +time after his return home, and alas, it did not sell. More than that, +his beloved father died and this added to his sense of desolation, for +he had not been sufficiently successful before his death to justify +himself in his father's eyes. These things so overwhelmed his +sensitive mind with trouble, that his condition became very serious, +and if certain good friends had not stood by him loyally, he would +probably never have painted again. + +He began at last another ambitious picture--"Finding of Christ in the +Temple"--but while he was engaged upon this, he had to paint mere +pot-boilers also in order to get on at all, and he says that half the +time the great picture "stood with its face to the wall" while he was +trying merely to earn bread and butter. The wonderful Louis Blanc +tried once to plan a way by which all deserving people should have in +this world equal opportunity to try. This has never been "worked out." +It never will be, but Holman Hunt reminds us how much the world loses +by not providing that "equal opportunity." No one deserves more than +his chance; but such struggles of genius tell us that all is not fair. + +Hunt persevered with this Christ in the Temple and when finished he +sold it for 5,500 guineas--a larger sum than he had ever before been +given for a painting. + +He no sooner received his money for this great picture than off he +went once more to the Holy Land. He was conscientious in everything he +did, and never before had an artist painted scenes of Christ that +carried such a sense of truth with them. The set haloes seen about the +heads of the saints and of holy people even in Raphael's pictures and +in those of the very greatest artists of his time, disappeared with +Holman Hunt's coming. In the "Light of the World," the halo is an +accident--the great white moon, happening to rise behind the Christ's +head--and there we have the halo, simple, natural, only suggestive, +not artificial. Then, too, in the "Shadow of Death," there is a +menacing shadow of the cross--made upon the wall by Christ's body, as +he naturally stretches out his arms, after his work in the carpenter +shop. + +There is not one false note that shocks us, or makes us feel that +after all the story itself is affected and artificial. Everything that +is symbolical is brought about naturally. They are sincere, truthful +pictures that speak to the mind as well as to the eye. + +Hunt's colouring and many other technical matters are often far from +perfect, but there is something besides technicality to be considered +in judging a picture. + +For a time, while the three men, Hunt, Rossetti, and Millais, kept +together, their pictures were signed P. R. B., as a sign of their +league; but this did not last very long, and afterward Hunt signed his +pictures independently. + +After the "Brotherhood" had worked against the greatest +discouragements for a long time, and felt nearly hopeless of success, +John Ruskin, one of the greatest of critics and most fearless of men, +who was so much respected that his words had great influence, suddenly +published a defence of these Pre-Raphaelites. He declared that they +were the greatest artists of the time, and while scorning their +critics he applauded those three young men, till he turned the tide, +and everybody began to know what truly brilliant work they were +doing. Ruskin's words came, Hunt said, "as thunder out of a clear +sky." + +When the "Brotherhood" was formed the three young men thought they +should have a paper--a periodical of some sort, in which they might +tell of their purposes and express their ideas; and so Rossetti, who +wrote as well as painted, proposed that they print such a periodical +once a month, and call it the _Germ_; and the P. R. B's. were to be +joint proprietors. Rossetti had first thought of a different title, +_Thoughts Toward Nature_, and his brother, W. M. Rossetti, who was +going to take charge of the monthly, thought that expressed the +Pre-Raphaelites' idea; but it was finally agreed to call it the +_Germ_. Only two numbers could be published by the Pre-Raphaelites, +because nobody bought it and the young men's money gave out, but the +printers came to the rescue, and put up the money to issue two or +three more _Germs_. + +Although that journal failed utterly, its four numbers were worth +publishing, and are to-day worth reading. They were truly valuable, +for they contained a story and poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, besides +work of the other P. R. B's. + +Above all things Hunt was conscientious in his work, trying with all +his might to represent things as be believed them to be. When he made +his "Scapegoat," he went to the shores of the Dead Sea to paint, +accompanied only by Arab guides, and there he found the desolate, hard +landscape for his picture. The hardships he experienced were very +many. The wretched goat he took with him died in the desert of that +dreary place after it had been no more than sketched in, but back in +Jerusalem Hunt finished the goat. Ruskin's description of the picture +helps one to feel all the desolation of the subject: "The salt sand of +the wilderness of Ziph, where the weary goat is dying. The +neighbourhood is stagnant and pestiferous, polluted by the decaying +vegetables brought down by the Jordan in its floods, and the bones of +the beasts of burden that have died by the way of the sea, lie like +wrecks upon its edge, bared by the vultures and bleached by the salt +ooze." + +Even the superstitious Arabs would not go near the spot which Hunt +chose as the scene of his picture, but Hunt endured all things, +believing it due to his art. + +When he painted "Christ in the Temple," he needed Jewish models, and +it was almost impossible for him to get them. He could not let them +know what they were to represent, or they would not have sat for him +at all but he succeeded in painting the "first Semitic presentment of +the Semitic Scriptures." In Jerusalem the Jews heard that he had come +"to traffic with the souls of the faithful," and they forbade him to +have any Jews come into his studio; so that he could not finish the +picture there. Back in London he had to find his models in the Jewish +school. He left the figures of Christ and the Virgin till the last and +then painted them "from a lady of the ancient race, distinguished +alike for her amiability and beauty, and a lad in one of the Jewish +schools, to which the husband of the lady furnished a friendly +introduction." + +Thus, step by step, through the greatest difficulties, Holman Hunt +established a new school of painting--allegory with a modern treatment +which all could understand. + + PLATE--THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD + +This is the most popular picture of a sacred subject, ever painted; +and John Ruskin's description of it, here quoted, is the best ever +written or that can be written. "On the left of the picture is seen +the door of the human soul. It is fast barred, its bars and nails are +rusty; it is knitted and bound to its stanchions by creeping tendrils +of ivy, showing that it has never been opened. A bat hovers over it; +its threshold is overgrown with brambles, nettles and fruitless +corn.... Christ approaches in the night time, ... he wears the white +robe, representing the power of the Spirit upon Him; the jewelled robe +and breastplate, representing the sacredotal investitude; the rayed +crown of gold, interwoven with the crown of thorns; not dead thorns, +but now bearing soft leaves, for the healing of the nations.... The +lantern carried in Christ's left hand is the light of conscience.... +Its fire is red and fierce; it falls only on the closed door, on the +weeds that encumber it, and on an apple shaken from one of the trees +of the orchard, thus marking that the entire awakening of the +conscience is not to one's own guilt alone, but to the guilt of the +world, or, 'hereditary guilt.'... + +"This light is suspended by a chain, wrapt around the wrist of the +figure, showing that the light which reveals sin to the sinner appears +also to chain the hand of Christ. The light which proceeds from the +head of the figure--is that of the hope of salvation; it springs from +the crown of thorns, and, though itself sad, subdued and full of +softness, is yet so powerful, that it entirely melts into the glow of +it the forms of the leaves and boughs which it crosses, showing that +every earthly object must be hidden by this light, where its sphere +extends." + +If you will study every detail of this reproduction, finding all the +objects--the apple, the rusty bolts--noting how the full risen moon +has formed a natural nimbus for the sacred head, and then re-read what +Ruskin has said, you will discover the rarest truths in Holman Hunt's +picture. The several pictures which he painted, but which cannot now +be found are: "Hark!" which was first exhibited in the Royal Academy; +"Scene from Woodstock," "The Eve of St. Agnes," "Jerusalem by +Moonlight," "The King of Hearts," "Moonlight at Salerno," "Interior of +the Mosque of Omar," "The Pathless Water," "Winter," "Afternoon," +"Sussex Downs," "Penzance," "The Archipelago," "Will-o'-the-Wisp," +"Ivybridge," "The Foal of an Ass," "Road over the Downs," "The Haunt +of the Gazelle," "'Oh, Pearl,' Quoth I," "Miss Flamborough," "The +School-girl's Hymn." Portraits: Mr. Martineau; Mr. J. B. Brice. Small +sketch of the "Scapegoat," "Sunset on the Sea," "Morning Prayer," +"Bianca," "Past and Present," and "Dead Mallard." + +Should you ever find one of these pictures bearing the initials +P. R. B. or those of Holman Hunt, you will have made an interesting +discovery and should make it known to others. + + + + +XXIV + +GEORGE INNESS + + + _American_ + 1825-1897 + _Pupil of Regis Gignoux_ + +George Inness was destined to keep a grocery store as his father had +kept one before him, and had grown rich in it. When George was a young +man he was given a grocery store in Newark, New Jersey, a very small +store indeed, and it is not surprising that the young man preferred +art to butter and eggs. The Inness family had just moved from Newburg, +probably the elder Innes seeking in Newark a good location for his +son's beginning. + +The first art-work Inness did was engraving; as he had been +apprenticed to that business, but afterward he studied with Gignoux, a +pupil of Delaroche. + +At that time there was what is known as the Hudson River School. Its +ideas were set and formal, and not very inspiring, aside from the +subjects treated. Church was then a young man like Inness, and he was +studying in the Hudson River School, but the young grocer struck out a +line for himself. + +He was forty years old before he got to Paris, but once there, he +turned to the men at Barbizon--Rousseau, Millet, Corot, and the +rest--for inspiration, and began to do beautiful things +indeed. Rousseau became his friend, and the art of Inness grew large +and rich through such influences. + +Inness had inherited much religious feeling from his Scotch ancestors, +and all his work was conscientious, very carefully done. + +When Inness returned from Paris he was not yet well known. He went to +Montclair, New Jersey, to live and it was there that he did his best +work. Finally, after he was fifty years old, he became known as a +truly splendid painter. He loved best to paint quiet scenes of +morning, evening sunset, and the like. His pictures began to gain +value, and one that he had sold for three hundred dollars jumped in +price to ten thousand and more. His work is not equally good, because +his moods greatly influenced him. + + PLATE--BERKSHIRE HILLS + +This picture in the George A. Hearn collection is full of the sense of +restfulness that the works of this artist always convey. The trees are +as motionless as the distant hills, and if the oxen are moving at all +it is but slowly. + +Some other Inness paintings are the "Georgia Pines," "Sunset on the +Passaic," "The Wood Gatherers" and "After a Summer Shower." + + + + +XXV + +SIR EDWIN HENRY LANDSEER + + + _English School_ + 1802-1873 + _Pupil of his father, John Landseer_ + +It is pleasant to speak of one artist whose good work began in the +companionship of his father; the case of Edwin Landseer is most +unusual. + +His father was a skilful engraver who loved art, and encouraged the +cultivation of it in his son, as other fathers of painters encouraged +them to become priests or haberdashers or bakers, as the case might +be. Little Landseer's beginning has been described by his father as he +and a friend stood looking upon one of the scenes of his childhood: + +"These two fields were Edwin's first studio. Many a time have I lifted +him over this very stile. I then lived in Foley Street, and nearly all +the way between Marylebone and Hampstead was open fields. It was a +favourite walk with my boys; and one day when I had accompanied them, +Edwin stopped by this stile to admire some sheep and cows which were +quietly grazing. At his request I lifted him over, and finding a scrap +of paper and a pencil in my pocket, I made him sketch the cow. He was +very young indeed, then--not more than six or seven years old. + +"After this we came on several occasions, and as he grew older this +was one of his favourite spots for sketching. He would start off +alone, or with John (Thomas?) or Charles, and remain till I fetched +him in the afternoon. I would then criticise his work, and make him +correct defects before we left the spot. Sometimes he would sketch in +one field, sometimes in the other, but generally in the one beyond the +old oak we see there, as it was more pleasant and sunny." + +All the Landseer men were gifted, and the mother was the beautiful +woman whom Reynolds painted as a gleaner, carrying a bundle of wheat +upon her head. + +There were seven little Landseers, the oldest of them being Thomas, +the famous engraver, whose reproduction of his brother's works will +preserve them to us always, even after the originals are gone. The +first of Edwin's drawings which seemed to his family worthy of +publishing was a great St. Bernard dog, such a wonderful performance +for a little fellow of thirteen that Thomas engraved it and +distributed it all over England. Little Edwin had seen this beautiful +dog one day in the streets of London in a servant's charge, and he was +so delighted with its beauty, that he followed the two home and asked +the dog's owner if he might sketch him. The St. Bernard was six feet +four inches long "and at the middle of his back, stood two feet seven +inches in height." A great critic said that this drawing was one of +the very finest that any master of art had ever made, though it was +done by a little child of thirteen years and it is also said that +Landseer himself never did anything better than that little-boy +work. A live dog who was let into the room with it--as critic, +maybe--proved to be the most flattering of such, because he bristled +instantly for a fight. + +While the boy was still thirteen--which seems to have been a magic and +not a tragic number to him--he exhibited pictures in the Royal +Academy. These were a mule, and a dog with a puppy. In the stories of +"Famous Artists" we are told that he was a fine, manly little chap +with light curly hair and very well behaved. When he became a student +of the Academy the keeper, Fuseli, used to look about among the +students and cry: "Where is my little dog boy?" if Landseer was not in +his place. The little chap's favourite dog was his own Brutus, which +he painted lying at full length; and though the picture was small, it +sold for seventy guineas. This means an earning capacity indeed, for a +small boy. + +When he was but seven years old he had made pictures of lions and +tigers, each with a different expression from the other and each with +a character of its own. Critics spoke specially of the tiger's +whiskers as "admirable in the rendering of foreshortened curves." +Tigers' whiskers were thought to be most difficult things to make, but +in Landseer's pictures, they were as "natural as life." The great +success of the artist's animal pictures was that he made them seem to +have human intelligence, and it was also said that if one only saw the +dog's collar, as Landseer painted it, he would know it to be the work +of a great artist, that a great dog-picture must be attached to it. + +At least one of his pictures had a remarkable history. He had been +commissioned by the Hon. H. Pierrpont to paint a "white horse in a +stable." After the painting was ready for delivery it disappeared, and +for twenty-four years it could not be found. At last it was discovered +in a hay-loft! It had been stolen by a servant and hidden there. In +spite of the long years that had passed, Landseer sent it at once to +the man for whom it had been made, with the message that he had not +retouched it nor changed it in the least, "because," said he, "I +thought it better not to mingle the style of my youth with that of my +old age." + +One of Landseer's early advisers had told him he must dissect animals +to get the proper effects in painting them, as it was necessary for +him to understand their construction. So, one time, when a famous old +lion died in the Exeter Exchange menagerie Landseer got its body and +dissected it, and immediately afterward he painted three great lion +pictures: "The Lion Disturbed at His Repast," "A Lion Enjoying His +Repast," and "A Prowling Lion." + +Sir Walter Scott became so enchanted with Landseer's pictures that the +great novelist came to London to take the young artist to his home at +Abbotsford. "His dogs are the most magnificent things I ever saw," +said Scott, "leaping and bounding and grinning all over the canvas." + +Landseer lived in the centre of London till he was more than thirty +years old, and then, looking for more quiet and space he bought a very +small house and garden at No. 1, St. John's Wood. There was not much +room in the house but it had a stable attached which made a fine +studio, and there Landseer lived with a sister of his, for nearly +fifty years. When he first wished to rent the house, the landlord +asked him a hundred pounds premium which Landseer felt that he could +not pay and he was about to give it up, when a friend declared that if +the matter of money was all that prevented him, he was to rent it +immediately, and he could repay him as he chose. Landseer then took +the house, his friend paying down the premium, and Landseer returned +the money twenty-pounds at a time, till all the debt was paid. + +Landseer made this a famous and hospitable house, and it is said that +more great people gathered under his roof than had ever gathered about +any other artist with the exception of Sir Joshua Reynolds. That was +the house in which Landseer's loving old father spent his last days +and finally died. A story is told of the witty D'Orsay, who would call +out at the door, when he went to visit the artist: "Landseer, keep de +dogs off me, I want to come in and some of dem will bite me--and dat +fellow in de corner is growling furiously." + +On one of his several visits to Abbotsford, where he went many times +after his first invitation, to enjoy Scott's delightful hospitality, +he painted a famous dog of Sir Walter's called Maida, which died six +weeks afterward. + +There are several such stories about dogs who died rather tragically +and were also painted by Landseer. The two King Charles spaniels which +he painted both died soon after sitting to the great painter. They had +been pets of Mr. Vernon, who commissioned the painting, and the white +Blenheim spaniel fell from a table and was killed, while the King +Charles fell through the railings of a staircase and was picked up +dead. The great bloodhound, Countess, belonging to Mr. Bell who gave +her picture to the Academy, was watching for her master's return one +dark night and when she heard the wheels of his carriage, then his +voice, she leaped from the balcony, but missed her footing and fell +nearly dead at Mr. Bell's feet. That gentleman loved the dog so much +that he was distracted, and taking her into his gig, knowing that she +must die, he raced in to London again that same night, and rousing Sir +Edwin, begged him to paint the dog before it was too late. Then and +there was the sketch of the dying animal made. + +Sir Edwin Landseer was the most versatile and entertaining of +artists. He was a wit, and could also perform all sorts of sleight of +hand tricks, besides being so quick with his pencil that his doings +seemed miraculous. One evening, during a conversation with many +friends, someone declared that in point of time Sir Edwin could do a +record-sketch. One young woman spoke up and said: "There is one thing +that even he cannot do--he cannot make two different pictures at the +same time." + +"Think not?" cried Sir Edwin. "Let us see!" Gaily taking two pencils, +he rapidly drew a stag's head with one hand and a horse's head with +the other. + +Landseer became the guest of royalty, a favourite of Queen Victoria, +whose dog Dash was one of the many famous dogs painted by him. Dash +was the favourite spaniel of the Duchess of Kent, Victoria's mother; +and the Queen's biographer says that she too loved him very much. On +Coronation Day she had been away from him longer than usual, and when +the great state coach rolled up to the palace steps she could hear +Dash barking for her in the hall. "Oh," she exclaimed, "there's Dash," +and throwing aside the ball and sceptre which she carried, she hurried +to change her fine robes, in order to wash the dog. This is a very +homelike and picturesque story, but it is possibly not true. Doubtless +the little Queen heard the dog bark--and was glad to see him. + +At Windsor Landseer painted another royal dog, Islay, the pet terrier +of Victoria; also Dandie Dinmont, belonging to the Princess Alice; +then Eos, who was Prince Albert's--King Edward's--dog. All the last +years of Sir Edwin Landseer' life, the royal family were his devoted +and comforting friends. The painter suffered much and during his +visits to Balmoral he wrote to his sister how the Queen used to go +several times a day to his room, to look after his comfort and to +inquire about his condition. He wrote: + +"The Queen kindly commands me to get well here. She has to-day been +twice to my room to show additions recently added to her already rich +collection of photographs. Why, I know not, but since I have been in +the High lands I have for the first time felt wretchedly weak, without +appetite. The easterly winds, and now again the unceasing cold rain, +may possibly account for my condition, but I can't get out. Drawing +tires me; however, I have done a little better to-day. The doctor +residing in the castle has taken me in hand, and gives me leave to +dine to-day with the Queen and the rest of the royal family.... +Flogging would be mild compared with my sufferings. No sleep, fearful +cramp at night, accompanied by a feeling of faintness and distressful +feebleness." + +When he was well, he was gay and cheerful; and Dickens, Thackeray, and +many other noted men were his friends. We are told that above all +things. Sir Edwin was a great mimic and that one night at dinner he +threw everybody into fits of laughter by imitating his friend the +sculptor Sir Francis Chantry. It was at the sculptor's table, where a +large party was assembled. Chantry called Sir Edwin's attention, when +the cloth was removed, to the reflection of light in the highly +polished table. + +"Come here and sit in my place," said Chantry, "and see the +perspective you can get." Then he went and stood by the fire, while +Landseer sat in his place. Seated then in Chantry's chair, Landseer +called out in perfect imitation of his host: "Come, young man, you +think yourself ornamental; now make yourself useful, and ring the +bell." Chantry did so, and when the butler came in he was confused and +amazed to hear his master's voice from where Landseer sat in Chantry's +place at the table. The voice of his master from the head of the table +ordered claret, while his master really stood before the fire with his +hands under his coat-tails. + +We are told that Landseer stood his pictures on their heads, or upon +one corner or looked at them from between his legs, any way, every +way, to get a complete view of them from all quarters. He went to bed +very late and got up very late, but in the mornings, while lying in +bed he mostly thought out the subjects of his pictures. + +He was not much of a sportsman, preferring to paint animals rather +than to kill them, and one day when hunting, he saw a fine stag before +him. Instead of firing at it, he thrust his gun into a gillie's hands, +crying: "Hold that! hold that!" and whipping out his pencil and pad he +began to sketch the stag. Whereupon the gillies were disgusted that he +should miss so fine a shot, and they said something to each other in +Gaelic, which Sir Edwin must have understood, for he became very +angry. + +"It was a pity," wrote one who knew all his qualities, "that Landseer, +who might have done so much for the good of the animal kind, never +wrote on the subject of their treatment. He had a strong feeling +against the way some dogs are tied up, only allowed their freedom now +and then. He used to say a man would fare better tied up than a dog, +because the former can take his coat off, but a dog lives in his +forever. He declared a tied-up dog, without daily exercise, goes mad, +or dies, in three years." + +He had a wonderful power over dogs, and he told one lady it was +because he had "peeped into their hearts." A great mastiff rushed +delightedly upon him one day and someone remarked how the dog loved +him. "I never saw the dog before in my life," the artist said. + +While teaching some horses tricks for Astley's, he showed his friends +some sugar in his hand and said: "Here is my whip." His studio was +full of pets, and one dog used as a model used to bring the master's +hat and lay it at his feet when he got tired of posing. + +This charming man suffered a great deal before his death, and had +dreadful fits of depression. During one of these he wrote: "I have got +trouble enough; ten or twelve pictures about which I am tortured, and +a large national monument to complete." That monument was the one in +Trafalgar Square, for which he designed the lions at the base. "If I +am bothered about anything and everything, no matter what, I know my +head will not stand it much longer." Later he wrote: "My health (or +rather condition), is a mystery beyond human intelligence. I sleep +seven hours, and awake tired and jaded, and do not rally till after +luncheon. J. L. came down yesterday and did her best to cheer me... I +return to my own home in spite of kind invitations from Mr. and +Mrs. Gladstone to meet Princess Louise at breakfast." Of the many +anecdotes told of this great man, his introduction to the King of +Portugal furnishes the most amusing. "I am delighted to make your +acquaintance," the King said, "I am so fond of beasts." + +Before he died he had made a large fortune from his work, and during +his illness he was tended most lovingly by his friends and sister. One +day, walking in his garden, much depressed, he said sadly: "I shall +never see the green leaves again," but he did live through other +seasons. He wished to die in his studio, and at one time when he was +much distracted the Queen wrote him not to fear, but to trust those +who were doing all they could for him, that her confidence in his +physicians and nurses was complete. At last with brother, sister, +friends and fortune about him the great animal painter died, and on +October 11, 1873, and was buried with great honours in St. Paul's +Cathedral. + + PLATE--THE OLD SHEPHERD'S CHIEF MOURNER + +Of all the dogs Landseer loved to paint, the sheep collie has the most +character; and here he shows us one expressing in every line of his +face and form the most profound grief. The Glengarry bonnet on the +floor beside the shepherd's staff, the spectacles lying on the Bible, +the ram's horn, the vacant chair, the black and white shawl known as a +"Shepherd's plaid"--all these things have failed to comfort this +humble follower. We can imagine him, not bounding ahead with a joyous +bark, but walking staidly behind the coffin when it is borne away and +laying himself down upon his master's grave, perhaps to die of +starvation, as some of his kind have been known to do. The painting is +one of the Sheepshanks Collection in the South Kensington Museum. + +Among Landseer's other famous dog pictures are "Low Life and High +Life," "Dignity and Impudence" and "The Sleeping Bloodhound," all in +the National Gallery. + + + + +XXVI + +CLAUDE LORRAIN (GELLEE) + + + _Classical French School_ + 1600-1689 + _Pupil of Godfrey Wals_ + +Of all the contrasts between the early and later lives of great +artists, Claude Lorrain gives us the most complete. + +He was born to make pastry. His family may have been all pastry cooks, +because people of Lorrain were famous for that work; anyway as a +little chap he was apprenticed to one. His parents were poor, lived in +the Duchy of Lorrain and from that political division the Artist was +named. + +The town in which he was born was Chamagne, and his real name was +Gell‚e. As a pastry cook's apprentice he served his time, and then, +without any thought of becoming anything else in the world, he set off +with several other pastry cooks to go to Rome, where their talents +were to be well rewarded. + +But how strangely things fall out! In Rome he was engaged to make +tarts for Agostine Tassi, a landscape painter. His work was not simply +to furnish his master with desserts, but to do general housekeeping, +and it fell to his lot to clean Tassi's paint brushes. So far as we +know, this was the first introduction of Claude Lorrain to art other +than culinary. + +From cleaning brushes it was but a step to trying to use them upon +canvas, and Tassi being a good-natured man, began to give Lorrain +instruction, till the pastry cook became his master's assistant in the +studio. This led to a larger and larger life for the young Frenchman, +and he copied great masters, did original things, and finally in his +twenty-fifth year returned to France a full-fledged artist. He +remained there two years, and then went back to Italy, where he lived +till he died. The visit to France turned out fortunately because on +his way back he fell in with one of the original twelve members of the +French Academy, Charles Errard, who became the first director of the +Academy in Rome. A warm friendship sprang up between the men, and +Errard was very helpful to the young artist. + +Nevertheless, Lorrain did not gain much fame till about his fortieth +year, when he was noticed by Cardinal Bentivoglio, and was given +certain commissions by him. He grew in Bentivoglio's favour so much +that the Cardinal introduced him to the pope. The Catholic Church set +the fashions in art, politics, and history of all sorts at that time, +so that Lorrain could not have had better luck than to become its +favourite. The pope was Urban VIII., whose main business was to hold +the power of the Church and make it stronger if he could, so that he +was continually building fortresses and other fortifications, and he +had use for artists and decorators. Lorrain's fame outlasted the life +of Urban VIII., and he became a favourite in turn with each of the +three succeeding popes. All this time he was doing fine work in Italy +and for Italy, besides receiving orders for pictures from France, +Holland, Germany, Spain, and England, for his fame had reached +throughout the world. + +Besides leaving many paintings behind him when he died, he left half a +hundred etchings; also a more precise record of his work than most +artists have left. He executed two hundred sketches in pen or pencil, +washed in with brown or India ink, the high lights being brought out +with touches of white. On the backs of them the artist noted the date +on which the sketch was developed into a picture, and for whom the +latter was intended. The story is that his popularity produced many +imitators, and that he adopted this means to establish the identity of +his own work and distinguish it from the many copies made. + +These sketches were collected in a volume by Lorrain and called "Liber +Veritatis," and for more than a hundred years the Dukes of Westminster +have owned this. + + PLATE--ACIS AND GALATEA + +This picture in the Dresden Gallery is a scene from the mythical story +of a goddess who fell in love with the youthful son of a faun and a +naiad. Thus she excited the jealous fury of the cyclops, Polythemus, +who is seen in the picture herding his flock of sheep upon the high +cliff at the right. Soon he will rise and hurl a rock upon Acis, +crushing the life out of him, so that there will be nothing left for +Galatea to do but to turn him into the River Acis, but meanwhile the +lovers are unconscious and happy. Venus is reposing near them on the +waves and Cupid is closer still, while the sea in the background seems +to be stirred with a fresh morning breeze. + +Some of the famous Lorrains in the Louvre are: "Seaport at Sunset," +"Cleopatra Landing at Tarsus," and "The Village Festival." + + + + +XXVII + +MASACCIO (TOMMASO GUIDI) + + + (Pronounced Tome-mah'so Mah'sahch'cheeo) + _Florentine School_ + 1401-1428 + _Pupil of Ghibertio, Donatello, and Brunellesco_ + +This artist, who lived and died within the century that witnessed the +discovery of America, was famous for more than his painting. He was +the original inventor who first learned and taught the mixing of +colours with oils, thus making the peculiar "distemper" unnecessary. + +The story of Italian artists includes a history of their names, for +the Italians seem to have had most remarkable reasons for naming +children. For example, this artist, Masaccio, was born on St. Thomas's +day, hence, his name of Tommaso. Presently, for short, or for love, he +was called Maso, and to cap all, being a careless lad, his friends +added the derogatory "accio," and there we have the artist completely +named. He owed nothing of this to his father, who was plain, or +ornamentally, Ser Giovanni di Simone Guidi, of Castello San Giovanni, +in the Valdamo. + +As a very little boy, it was plain to be seen that slovenly Thomas was +going to be a great artist, and no time was lost in putting him to +work with the best of masters. + +He was a veritable inventive genius. Until his time difficulties in +drawing had been overcome mostly by ignoring them. Since no artist had +been able to draw a foreshortened foot, it had been the fashion in art +to paint people standing upon their tiptoes, to make it possible for +an artist to paint the foot. The enterprising Thomas came along and he +decided that feet must be painted both flat and crossed, on tiptoe or +otherwise; in short he did not mean to lose by a foot. + +He worked at this problem day and night, till at last the naturally +poised foot came into existence for the artist. Never after Masaccio's +time did an artist paint the foot stretched upon the toes. Moreover, +until his time flesh had never been painted of a remotely natural +colour, so Masaccio set about combining colours till he made one that +had the tint of real flesh. Thus he was the first to overcome the +difficulties of drawing and the first to discover a mixture that would +not leave a glazed, hard, unnatural appearance and be likely to crack +and destroy the finest effort of an artist. + +He worked during his youth in Pisa, where the "leaning tower" stands; +then he worked in Florence, finally in Rome, but those early pictures +are long since gone. It was a century of adventure and discovery as +well as of art, and with so much change, so many wars and rumours of +wars, many great art works were lost. Besides, the horrible plague +swept Italy east, west, north, and south. Who was to concern himself +with saving works of art, when human life was going out wholesale all +over the land? + +Masaccio was certainly very poor most of his life. He lived with his +mother and his brother Giovanni, an artist like himself, but not +nearly so brilliant. Masaccio could not spend his life in painting but +had to eke out the family fortunes by keeping a little shop near the +old Badia, and being pestered day and night by his creditors he was +forced again and again to go to the pawn shop. + +Somewhere about 1422, careless Thomas painted his greatest picture +which was doomed to destruction too early for us to know much about +it; but it was named "San Paolo" and it was painted in the bell-room +of the Church of the Carmine in Florence. The figure for his model was +an illustrious personage, Bartoli d'Angiolini, who had held many +honourable offices in Florence for many years. A critic and friend of +artists tells us that the portrait was so great it lacked only the +power of speech. + +In this picture Masaccio made his first great triumph in the +foreshortening of feet. + +He undertook to celebrate the consecration Of the Church of the +Carmine, and for this he made many frescoes, among which was a correct +painting of the procession as it entered from the cloisters of the +church. "Among the citizens who followed in its wake, portraits are +introduced of Brunellesco, Donatello, Masolino, Felice Brancacci (the +founder of the chapel) Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, and others, +including the porter of the convent with the key of the door in his +hand." + +This work was thought to be very wonderful because the figures grew +smaller in the distance, thereby giving "perspective" for the first +time. Imagine how crude a thing was painting in the day of careless +Thomas. + +That fresco is long since gone, but drawings of it still exist which +tell us something of the people of Christopher Columbus's +day--previous to their appearance, and their conditions. + +After Masaccio had finished the procession he went back to his +painting of the chapel and in the end covered three of its four walls +with his works. Many of those paintings are scenes from the life of +St. Peter, and several were worked at by other artists than Masaccio. + +Masaccio was greater than Raphael, greater than Michael Angelo in so +far as he pointed the way that they were to go, having solved for them +all the problems that had kept artists from being great before +him. Sir Joshua Reynolds says that "he appeared to be the first who +discovered the path that leads to every excellence to which the art +afterward arrived; and may therefore be justly considered one of the +great fathers of modern art." + +The artist lived but a little time, and was most likely +poisoned. Nobody knows, but it is said that other painters were so +wildly jealous of his original genius that they wished him out of the +way, and his death was at least mysterious. He drew very rapidly and +let the details go, caring only to represent motion and +action. Because he painted so many portraits into his pictures there +was great life and animation in them, and people said of him that he +painted not only the body but the soul. + + PLATE--ARTIST'S PORTRAIT [Footnote: Many artists have left us + portraits of themselves, painted, no doubt, with the aid of a + mirror, in a group or alone. This one of Masaccio in the Naples + Museum, shows him to have been a picturesque model.] + +Some of his known pictures are the frescoes in the church of +St. Clemente in Rome; the frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel in the +Church of the Carmine, "St. Peter Baptising" and the "Madonna and +Child, with St. Anne," which is in the Accademia at Florence. + + + + +XXVIII + +JEAN LOUIS ERNEST MEISSONIER + + + (Pronounced May-sohn-yay) + _French School_ + 1815-1891 + _Pupil of L‚on Cogniet_ + +This artist was born at Lyons. His father was a salesman and an +art-training seemed impossible for the young man because the +Meissoniers were poor people. Nevertheless, he was so persevering that +while still a young man he got to Paris and began to paint in the +Louvre. He was but nineteen at that time, and his fate seemed so hard +and bitter that later in life he refused to talk of those days. + +He sat for many days in the Louvre, by Daubigny's side, painting +pictures for which we are told he received a dollar a yard. We can +think of nothing more discouraging to a genius than having to paint by +the yard. It is said that his poverty permitted him to sleep only +every other night, because he must work unceasingly, and someone +declares that he lived at one time on ten cents a week. This is a +frightful picture of poverty and distress. + +Meissonier's first paying enterprise was the painting of bon-bon boxes +and the decorating of fans, and he tried to sell illustrations for +children's stories, but for these he found no market. A brilliant +compiler of Meissonier's life has written that "his first +illustrations in some unknown journal were scenes from the life of +'The Old Bachelor.' In the first picture he is represented making his +toilet before the mirror, his wig spread out on the table; in the +second, dining with two friends; in the third, on his death-bed, +surrounded by greedy relations and in the fifth, the servants +ransacking the death chamber for the property." This was very likely a +vision of his own possible fate, for Meissonier must have been at that +time a lonely and unhappy man. + +There are many stories of his first exhibited work, which Caffin +declares was the "Visit to the Burgomaster," but Mrs. Bolton, who is +almost always correct in her statements, tells us that it was called +"The Visitor," and that it sold for twenty dollars. At the end of a +six years struggle in Paris, his pictures were selling for no more. + +Until this artist's time people had been used only to great canvases, +and had grown to look for fine work, only in much space, but here was +an artist who could paint exquisitely a whole interior on a space said +to be no "larger than his thumb nail." His work was called +"microscopic," which meant that he gave great attention to details, +painting very slowly. + +During the Italian war of 1859, and in the German war of 1870, this +wonderful artist was on the staff of Napoleon III. During the siege of +Paris he held the rank of colonel, and he lost no chance to learn +details of battles which he might use later, in making great +pictures. Thus he gained the knowledge and inspiration to paint his +picture "Friedland," which was bought by A. T. Stewart and is now in +the Metropolitan Museum. He, himself, wrote of that picture: "I did +not intend to paint a battle--I wanted to paint Napoleon at the zenith +of his glory; I wanted to paint the love, the adoration of the +soldiers for the great captain in whom they had faith, and for whom +they were ready to die.... It seemed to me I did not have colours +sufficiently dazzling. No shade should be on the imperial face.... The +battle already commenced, was necessary to add to the enthusiasm of +the soldiers, and make the subject stand forth, but not to diminish it +by saddening details. All such shadows I have avoided, and presented +nothing but a dismounted cannon, and some growing wheat which should +never ripen. + +"This was enough. + +"The men and the Emperor are in the presence of each other. The +soldiers cry to him that they are his, and the impressive chief, whose +imperial will directs the masses that move around, salutes his devoted +army. He and they plainly comprehend each other and absolute +confidence is expressed in every face." + +This great work was sold at auction for $66,000 and given to the +Metropolitan Museum. + +It is said that when he painted the "Retreat from Russia," Meissonier +obtained the coat which Napoleon had worn at the time, and had it +copied, "crease for crease and button for button." He painted the +picture mostly out of doors in midwinter when the ground was covered +with snow, and he writes: "Sometimes I sat at my easel for five or six +hours together, endeavouring to seize the exact aspect of the winter +atmosphere. My servant placed a hot foot-stove under my feet, which he +renewed from time to time, but I used to get half-frozen and terribly +tired." + +So attentive was he to truthfulness in detail that he had a wooden +horse made in imitation of the white charger of the Emperor; and +seating himself on this, he studied his own figure in a mirror. + +At last this conscientious man was made an officer of the Legion of +Honour, having already become President of the Academy. Edmund About +writes that "to cover M. Meissonier's pictures with gold pieces simply +would be to buy them for nothing; and the practice has now been +established of covering them with bank-notes." + +Meissonier seldom painted the figure of a woman in his pictures, but +all of his subjects were wholesome and fine. + +One time an admirer said to him "I envy you; you can afford to own as +many Meissonier pictures as you please!" + +"Oh no, I can't," the distinguished artist replied. "That would ruin +me. They are a good deal too dear for me." + +In his maturity he became very rich, and his homes were dreams of +beauty, filled with rare possessions such as bridles of black leather +once owned by Murat, rare silver designed by the artist himself, great +pictures, and flowers of the rarest description besides valuable dogs +and horses. Yet it was said that "this man who lives in a palace is as +moderate as a soldier on the march. This artist, whose canvases are +valued by the half-million, is as generous as a nabob. He will give to +a charity sale a picture worth the price of a house. Praised as he is +by all he has less conceit in his nature than a wholesale painter." + +On the 31st of January in his country house at Poissy, this great man, +whose life reads like a romance, died, after a short illness. His +funeral services were held in the Madeleine, and he was buried at +Poissy, near Versailles, a great military procession following him to +the grave. + + PLATE--RETREAT FROM MOSCOW + +In the painting of this picture we have already told how every detail +was mastered by actual experience of most of them. Meissonier made +dozens of studies for it--"a horse's head, an uplifted leg, cuirasses, +helmets, models of horses in red wax, etc. He also prepared a +miniature landscape, strewn with white powder resembling snow, with +models of heavy wheels running through it, that he might study the +furrow made in that terrible march home from burning Moscow. All this +work--hard, patient, exacting work." + +Some of his other pictures are "The Emperor at Solferino," "Moreau and +His Staff before Hohenlinden," "A Reading at Diderot's" and the "Chess +Players." + + + + +XXIX + +JEAN FRAN€OIS MILLET + + + _Fontainebleau-Barbizon School_ + 1814-1875 + _Pupil of Delaroche_ + +Two great artists painted peasants and little else. One was the artist +of whom we shall speak, and the other was Jules Breton. One was +realistic, the other idealistic. Both did wonderful work, but Millet +painted the peasant, worn, patient steadfast, overwhelmed with toil; +Breton, a peasant full of energy, grace, vitality, and joy. + +Millet painted peasants as he knew them, and hardly any one could have +known them better, for he was himself peasant-born. His youth was +hard, and the scenes of his childhood were such as in after life he +became famous by painting. Millet lived in the department of Manche, +in the village of Gruchy, near Cherbourg. Manche juts into the sea, at +the English Channel, and whichever way Millet looked he must have seen +the sea. His old grandmother looked after the household affairs, while +his father and mother worked in the fields and Millet must have seen +them hundreds of times, standing at evening, with bowed heads, +listening to the Angelus bell. He toiled, too, as did other lads in +his position. His grandmother was a religious old woman, and nearly +all the pictures he ever saw in his boyhood were those in the Bible, +which he copied again and again, drawing them upon the stone walls in +white chalk. + +The old grandmother watched him, never doubting that her boy would +become an artist. It was she who had named him--Fran‡ois, after her +favourite saint, Francis, and it was she, who, beside the evening +fire, would tell him legends of St. Francis. It was she alone who had +time and strength left, after the day's work, to teach him the little +he learned as a boy and to fix in his mind pictures of home. His +father and mother were worn, like pack-horses, after their day in the +fields. The mother very likely had to hitch herself up with the +donkey, or the big dog, after the fashion of these people, as she +helped draw loads about the field. Who can look for Breton's ideal +stage peasants from Millet who knew the truth as he saw it every day? + +Many years after his life in the Gruchy home, Millet painted the +portrait of the grandmother whom he had loved so much that he cried +out: "I wish to paint her soul!" No one could desire a better reward +than such a tribute. + +Millet had an uncle who was a priest and he did what he could to give +the boy a start in learning. He taught him to read Virgil and the +Latin Testament; and all his life those two books were Millet's +favourites. Besides drawing pictures on the walls of his home, he drew +them on his sabots. Pity some one did not preserve those old wooden +shoes! He did his share of the farm work, doing his drawing on rainy +days. + +When he was about eighteen years old, coming from mass one day, he was +impressed with the figure of an old man going along the road, and +taking some charcoal from his pocket he drew the picture of him on a +stone wall. The villagers passing, at once knew the likeness; they +were pleased and told Millet so. Old Millet, the father, also was +delighted for he, too, had wished to be an artist, but fate had been +against him. Seeing the wonderful things his son could do, he decided +that he should become what he himself had wished to be, and that he +should go to Cherbourg to study. + +Fran‡ois set off with his father, carrying a lot of sketches to show, +and upon telling the master in Cherbourg what he wanted and showing +the sketches, he was encouraged to stay and begin study in earnest. So +back the old father went, with the news to the mother and grandmother +and the priest uncle, that Fran‡ois had begun his career. He stayed in +Cherbourg studying till his father died, when he thought it right to +go home and do the work his father had always done. He returned, but +the women-folk would not agree to him staying. "You go back at once," +said the grandmother, "and stick to your art. We shall manage the +farm." She sewed up in his belt all the money she had saved, and +started him off again, for he had then been studying only two +months. Now he remained till he was twenty-three, a fine, strapping, +broad-shouldered country fellow. He had long fair hair and piercing +dark blue eyes. All the time he was with Delaroche he was dissatisfied +with his work--and with his master's, which seemed to Millet +artificial, untrue. He knew nothing of the classical figures the +master painted and wished him to paint, for his heart and mind were +back in Gruchy among the scenes that bore a meaning for him. He wished +to study elsewhere, and by this time he had done so well that one of +the artists with whom he had studied went to the mayor of Millet's +home town, and begged him to furnish through the town-council money +enough to send Millet to Paris. This was done, and Millet began to +hope. + +He was very shy and afraid of seeming awkward and out of place. The +night he got to Paris was snowy, full of confusion and strange things +to him, and an awful loneliness overwhelmed him. The next morning he +set out to find the Louvre, but would not ask his way for fear of +seeming absurd to some one, so that he rambled about alone, looking +for the great gallery till he found it unaided. He spent most of the +days that followed gazing in ecstasy at the pictures. + +He liked Angelo, Titian, and Rubens best. He had come to Paris to +enter a studio, but he put off his entrance from day to day, for his +shyness was painful and he feared above all things to be laughed at by +city students. At last one day, he got up enough courage to apply to +Delaroche, whose studio he had decided to enter if he could, as he +liked his work best. The students in that studio were full of +curiosity about the new chap, with his peasant air, his bushy hair and +great frame, so sturdy and awkward. They at once nicknamed him "the +man of the woods," and they nagged at him and laughed at the idea that +he could learn to paint, till one day, exasperated nearly to death, he +shook his fist at them. From that moment he heard no more from them, +for they were certain that if he could not paint he could use his +fists a good deal better than any of them. Delaroche liked the peasant +but did not understand him very well, and Millet was not too fond of +his painting, so after two years he and a friend withdrew from that +studio and set up one for themselves. Thus eight years passed, the +friends living from hand to mouth, doing all sorts of things: +sign-painting, advertisements, and the like; and Millet, in the midst +of his poverty, got married. + +He went home, returning to Paris with his wife, and after starving +regularly, he became desperate enough to paint a single picture as he +wished. It seemed at the time the maddest kind of thing to do. Who +would see ugly, toil-worn peasants upon his _salon_ walls? Paris +wanted dainty, aesthetic art, and an Academy artist would have scoffed +at the idea; but the Millets were starving anyway, so why not starve +doing at least what one chose. So Millet painted his first wonderful +peasant picture "The Winnower," and just as the family were starving +he sold it--for $100. He had done at last the right thing, in doing as +he pleased. This was a sign to him that there was after all a place +for truth and emotion in art. But the Millets must change their place +of living, and go to some place where the money made would not at once +be eaten up. Jacque--the friend with whom Millet had set up shop, and +who also became famous, later--advised them to go to a little place he +knew about, which had a name ending in "zon." It was near the forest +of Fontainebleau, he said and they could live there very cheaply, and +it was quiet and decent. The Millets got into a rumbling old cart and +started in search of the place which ended in "zon" near the forest of +Fontainebleau. Jacque had also decided to take his family there and +they all went together. When they got to Fontainebleau they got down +from the car and went a-foot through the forest. + +They arrived tired and hungry toward evening, and went to Ganne's Inn, +where there were Rousseau, Diaz, and other artists who like themselves +had come in search of a nice, clean, picturesque place in which to +starve, if they had to. Those who were just sitting down to supper +welcomed the newcomers, for they had been there long enough to form a +colony and fraternity ways. One of these was to take a certain great +pipe from the wall, and ask the newcomer to smoke; and according to +the way he blew his "rings" he was pronounced a "colourist" or +"classicist." The two friends blew the smoke, and at once the other +artists were able to place Jacque. He was a colourist; but what were +they to say about Millet who blew rings after his own fashion. + +"Oh, well!" he cried. "Don't trouble about it. Just put me down in a +class of my own!" + +"A good answer!" Diaz answered. "And he looks strong and big enough to +hold his own in it!" Thus the newcomers took their places in the life +of Barbizon--the place whose name ended in "zon," and Millet's real +work began. His first wife lived only two years, but he married +again. All this time he was following his conscience in the matter of +his work, and selling almost nothing. In a letter to a friend he tells +how dreadfully poor they are, although his new wife was the most +devoted helpful woman imaginable, known far and near as "MŠre Millet." +The artist wrote to Sensier, his friend, who aided him: "I have +received the hundred francs. They came just at the right time. Neither +my wife nor I had tasted food in twenty-four hours. It is a blessing +that the little ones, at any rate, have not been in want." + +The revolution of 1848 had come before Millet went to Barbizon, and he +like other men had to go to war. Then the cholera appeared, and these +things interrupted his work; and after such troubles people did not +begin buying pictures at once. Rousseau was famous now, but Millet +lived by the hardest toil until one day he sold the "Woodcutter" to +Rousseau himself, for four hundred francs. Rousseau had been very +poor, and it grieved him to see the trials and want of his friend, so +he pretended that he was buying the picture for an American. That +picture was later sold at the Hartmann sale for 133,000 francs. Millet +was now forty years old, and had not yet been recognised as a +wonderful man by any but his brother artists. He was truly "in a class +of his own." He had learned to love Barbizon, and cried: "Better a +thatched cottage here than a palace in Paris!" and we have the picture +in our minds of Millet followed patiently and lovingly by "MŠre +Millet" in the peasant dress which she always wore, that she might be +ready at a moment's notice to pose for his figures. Then there were +his little children and his sunny, simple, fraternal surroundings, +which make his life the most picturesque of all artists. + +His paintings had the simplest stories with seldom more than two or +three figures in them. It was said that he needed only a field and a +peasant to make a great picture. When he painted the "Man with the +Hoe," he did it so truthfully, in a way to make the story so well +understood by all who looked upon it, that he was called a +socialist. No one was so much surprised as Millet by that name. "I +never dreamed of being a leader in any cause," he said. "I am a +peasant--only a peasant." + +Of his picture "The Reaper" a critic wrote, "He might have reaped the +whole earth." All his pictures were sermons, he called them "epics of +the fields." He pretended to nothing except to present things just as +they were, as he writes in a letter to a friend about "The Water +Carrier:" + +In the woman coming from drawing water I have endeavoured that she +shall be neither a water-carrier nor a servant, but the woman who has +just drawn water for the house, the water for her husband's and her +children's soup; that she shall seem to be carrying neither more nor +less than the weight of the full buckets; that beneath the sort of +grimace which is natural on account of the strain on her arms, and the +blinking of her eyes caused by the light, one may see a look of rustic +kindliness on her face. I have always shunned with a kind of horror +everything approaching the sentimental. I have desired on the other +hand, that this woman should perform simply and good-naturedly, +without regarding it as irksome, an act which, like her other +household duties, is one she is accustomed to perform every day of her +life. Also I wanted to make people imagine the freshness of the +fountain, and that its antiquated appearance should make it clear that +many before her had come to draw water from it. + +At forty he was in about the same condition as he had been on that +evening ten or twelve years before, when he had entered Barbizon +carrying his two little daughters upon his shoulders, his wife +following with the servant and a basket of food, to settle themselves +down to hardship made sweet by kind comradeship and hope. Now a change +came. Millet painted "The Angelus." He was dreadfully poor at that +time and sold the picture cheaply, but it laid the foundation of his +fame and fortune. He had worked upon the canvas till he said he could +hear the sound of the bell. Although its first purchaser paid very +little for it, it has since been sold for one hundred and fifty +thousand dollars. + +At last, having struggled through his worst days, without recognition, +and with nine little children to feed and clothe, he was given the +white cross of the Legion of Honour; and as if to make up for the days +of his starvation, he was nearly feasted to death in Paris. He was +placed upon the hanging committee of the _Salon_, and took a dignified +place among artists. He and MŠre Millet travelled a little, but always +he returned to Barbizon, till the war came and he had to move to +Normandy to work. Afterward he returned to Barbizon, to the scenes and +the old friends he loved so well, and there he died. He had come back +ill and tired with the long struggle, and he instructed his friends to +give him a simple funeral. This was done. They carried his coffin, +while his wife and children walked beside him to the cemetery, and he +was buried near the little church of Chailly, whose spire is seen in +"The Angelas," and where Rousseau, whom he loved, had already been +laid. + +There in Barbizon, to-day, may be seen Rousseau's cottage and Millet's +studio. "The peasants sow and reap and glean as in the days of Millet; +Troyon's oxen and sheep are still standing in the meadow; Jacque's +poultry are feeding in the barnyard. The leaves on Rousseau's grand +old trees are trembling in the forest; Corot's misty morning is as +fresh and soft as ever; while Diaz's ruddy sunsets still penetrate the +branches; and the peasant pauses daily as the Angelus from the Chailly +church calls him to silent prayer." + + PLATE--THE ANGELUS + +In "The Angelus" you may see far-off the spire of the church at +Chailly, from which the bell sounds. The day's work is drawing to a +close. The peasant man and woman have been digging potatoes--the man +uncovering them, while his wife has been putting them in the +basket. As the Angelus floats across the fields, the two pause and bow +their heads in prayer. The man has dropped his fork and uncovered his +head, and his wife has clasped her hands devoutly before her. + +All the air seems still and full of tender sound and colour, and we, +like Millet, seem "to hear the bell." This is the only picture he +painted which is full of the sentimentality he so much disliked. It is +a great picture, but we need to know the title in order to interpret +it. + +Besides this one, Millet painted "The Gleaners," "The Woodcutters," +"The Sower," "The Man with the Hoe;" "The Water Carrier," "The +Reaper," and many other stories of the peasant poor. + + + + +XXX + +CLAUDE MONET + + + (_Pronounced Claude Mo-nay_) + _Impressionist School of France_ + 1840-- + +Another--Manet--was the founder of this school among modern painters, +but Monet is always considered his most conspicuous follower. + +Monet's remarkable method of putting his colours upon canvas does not +mean impressionism. He is an impressionist but also _Monet_--an artist +with a method entirely different from that of any other. He belongs to +what in France is called the _pointillistes_. The word means nothing +more nor less than an effort to accomplish the impossible. If you +stand a little way from a very hot stove you may be able to see a kind +of movement in the air, a quivering of particles or molecular motion, +and this is what the _pointillistes_ try to show in their +paintings--Monet most of all. + +The theory is that by putting little dabs of primitive colours, close +together upon canvas, without mixing them, just separate dabs of red, +yellow, blue, etc., the effect of movement is produced. Needless to +say, none of them ever have produced such an effect, but they have +made such grotesque, ugly pictures that they have attracted attention +even as a humpbacked person does. + +The first who painted thus was a Frenchman named Seurat, who tried it +after closely studying experiments made in light and colour by +Professor Rood, of Columbia University. After him came Pissarro, and +then Monet. America also has such a painter, Childe Hassam, but nobody +is so grotesque as Monet. + +He was born in Paris but spent most of his youth in Havre, where he +met a painter of harbours and shipping scenes called Boudin. Through +his influence Monet studied out-of-door effects, and was beginning to +do fairly good work, when he was drawn as a conscript and sent to +Algeria. It is written that Monet discovered that "green, seen under +strong sunshine is not green, but yellow; that the shadows cast by +sunlight upon snow or upon brightly lighted surfaces are not black, +but blue; and that a white dress, seen under the shade of trees on a +bright day, has violet or lilac tones." This only means that these +things have been scientifically determined, not that the naked eye +ever perceives them, and it is for the natural, unscientific eye that +art exists. None of us see the separate colours of the spectrum, as we +look about in every-day fashion upon every-day objects. + +Professor Rood managed to produce an intelligent effect by putting +separate colours on discs and whirling these round so that the colours +mingled. Monet tried to do the same by dotting his original colours +close together, and leaving the picture to its own destruction. It +ought to revolve, if the scientific idea is to be carried out. + +Nothing desirable can be made out of his pictures even when viewed +from far off, while at close range they are simply grotesque, and +photographs of them give the impression that the entire landscape is +wabbling to the ground. + +I wonder if anyone, small or grown up, can understand this: "It was +indeed a higher kind of impressionism that Monet originated, one that +reveals a vivid rendering, not of the natural and concrete facts, but +of their influence upon the spirit when they are wrapped in the +infinite diversities of that impalpable, immaterial, universal medium +which we call light, when the concrete loses itself in the abstract, +and what is of time and matter impinges on the eternal and the +universal." Monet's pictures look just as that explanation of them +sounds! + +The same writer says that Monet was greater than Corot because he was +more sensitive to colour; but if Monet had been as sensitive to colour +as Corot, he could not have lived and looked at his own pictures. + + PLATE--HAYSTACK IN SUNSHINE + +The main feature of this picture is such a hay stack as never existed +anywhere, of indescribable lurid colour, against a background of blue +such as never was seen. All about there are violet and rose-coloured +trees, and it is a picture that every child should know, because he is +likely never to have another such opportunity. + +Monet has made two interesting pictures of churches, one at Vernon, +the other at Varangeville. + + + + +XXXI + +MURILLO (BARTOLOME ESTEBAN) + + + (Pronounced Moo-reel'oh Bar-tol-o-may' A-stay'bahn) + _Andalusian School_ + 1617-1682 + _Pupil of Juan del Castillo_ + +The story of Murillo has been delightfully told by Mrs. Sarah Bolton. + +Like Velasquez, he was born in Seville, a city called "the glory of +the Spanish realms," and was baptised on New Year's day, 1618, in the +Church of the Magdalen. + +Murillo's father paid his rent in work, instead of in money. He made a +bargain with the convent who owned his house that he would keep it in +repair if he might have it free of rent, so there Gaspar Est‚ban and +his wife, Maria Perez, settled. "Perez" was the family name of +Murillo's mother, who had very good connections; one of her brothers, +Juan del Castillo, being a man who encouraged all art and had an art +school of his own. Little Murillo therefore had encouragement from the +start, an unusual circumstance at a time when parents rarely wished to +think of their sons as painters. As a matter of fact, his mother would +have preferred that he should become a priest, but she was kind and +sensible, and put no difficulties in the way of the little Murillo +doing as he wished. + +The story goes that the Perez family had been very rich, but, however +it may have been, that was not the case when the artist was born. One +day after his mother had gone to church, Murillo being left at home +alone, retouched a picture that hung upon the wall. It was a picture +of sacred subject--"Jesus and the Lamb." He thought he could make some +improvements in it, so he painted his own hat upon the head of Jesus +and changed the lamb into a little dog. His mother was a good deal +shocked at what seemed to her an irreligious act, though it showed the +family genius. After that the boy was found to be painting upon the +walls of his schoolroom, and making sketches upon the margins of his +books, though he did little else at school. + +He had one sister, Therese, and they were left without father or +mother before the artist was eleven years old. + +It was at that time that he received the name of "Murillo" by which he +is known. + +It came about thus: After the death of his parents he went to live +with his mother's sister, the Do¤a Anna Murillo, who had married a +surgeon called Juan Agustin Lagares, and since the little artist was +to live with his aunt, he soon became known by her family name. There, +in her home, he and his sister Therese, were brought up, but he was +not to become a surgeon like his uncle-in-law, but an artist like his +uncle Juan, the teacher in Seville. That uncle took him in hand, +taught the boy to draw, to mix colours, to stretch his canvas, and +soon Murillo's genius won the love of master and pupils. + +In peace and reasonable comfort he served a nine years apprenticeship, +and painted his first important, if not especially great, +pictures. These were two Madonnas, one of them "The Story of the +Rosary." St. Dominic had instituted the rosary; using fifteen large +and one hundred and fifty small beads upon which to keep record of the +number of prayers he had said; the large beads representing the +_Paternosters and Glorias_ and the small ones, the _Aves_. This +practical way of indicating duties helped the heedless to concentrate +their attention, and did much to increase the number of prayers +offered. Indeed, it is said that "by this single expedient Dominic did +more to excite the devotion of the lower orders, especially of the +women, and made more converts, than by all his orthodoxy, learning, +arguments, and eloquence." It was this incident in the history of the +Catholic Church that Murillo commemorated. + +When the artist was twenty-two years old, his uncle, Juan del +Castillo, broke up his home and went elsewhere to live, leaving the +artist without home or means, and with his little sister to take care +of. Without vanity or ambition, but with only the wish to care for his +sister and to get food, the marvellous painter took himself to the +market place, and there, wedged in between stalls, old clothes, +vegetables, all sorts of wares, like a wanderer and a gypsy, he began +his career. + +At the weekly market--the _Feria_ or fair, opposite the Church of All +Saints--his brotherly, kindly feeling for the vagabonds he daily met +is shown in the treatment he gives them in his wonderful +pictures. During the two years that he worked in that open-air studio +he had flower-girls, muleteers, hucksters all about him, and he +painted dozens of rough pictures which found quick sale among the +patrons of the market. What Velasquez was doing in the court of +Madrid, Murillo was doing in the streets of Seville; the one painting +cardinals, kings, and courtiers; the other painting beggars, _gamins_, +and waifs. Between the two, the world has been shown the social +history of Spain as it then existed. + +Through a peculiar happening, the American Indian saw the beauties of +Murillo's work before Europe was even conscious there was such a +man. In his old home, his uncle's studio, Murillo had had a dear +comrade, Moya. They had not met for two years or more, and when they +did come together again Moya told Murillo he had been travelling, that +he had been to Flanders with the Spanish army, and thence to London, +in both places seeing gorgeous paintings and other inspiring +things. He opened the eyes of Murillo to the splendours the world +contained, and the artist became wild with desire to go and see them +for himself, but he had no money. He was painting pictures in the +market place of Seville and getting so little for his hasty work that +he could barely support himself and little Therese. What must he do in +order to get to London and see the world? + +What he did do was to buy a piece of linen, cut it into six pieces and +hide himself long enough to paint upon them "saints, flowers, fruit +and landscapes," and then he went forth to sell them. + +He actually sold those pictures to a ship-owner who was sending his +ship to the West Indies. Eventually they were hung upon the walls of a +mission in wild, far off America. It is said that after this Murillo +made no little money by painting such pictures, destined to give the +American savage an idea of the Christian religion. One cannot but +wonder if there may not be, all unknown to us, Murillo pictures, made +in the market-place of Seville nearly three hundred years ago, hidden +away in the remains of those old Spanish missions, even to-day. Such a +picture would be more rare than the greatest that he ever painted. + +After selling his six pictures Murillo started a-foot, not to London +but on a terrible journey across the Sierra Mountains, to Madrid--the +home of Velasquez. Murillo knew that this native of Seville had become +a famous artist. He was powerful and rich and at the court of Philip +II., while Murillo had no place to lay his head, and besides he had +left Therese behind in Seville in the care of friends. He had no claim +upon the kindness of Velasquez but he determined to see him; to +introduce himself and possibly to gain a friend. It was under these +forlorn circumstances he made himself known to the great Spanish court +painter. + +The story of their meeting is a fine one. For Murillo Velasquez had a +warm embrace, a kind and hospitable word. The stranger told Velasquez +how he had crossed the mountains on foot, was penniless, but could use +his brush. Instead of jealousy and suspicion, the young man met with +nothing but the most cheerful encouragement, found the Velasquez home +open to him, took up his lodging there and established his workshop +with nothing around him but friendship and the sympathy his nature +craved. + +From the market-place to the home of Velasquez and the Palace of +Philip II.! It was a beautiful dream to Murillo. + +With what splendour of colour and mastery of design he illuminated the +annals of the poor! Coming forth from some dim chancel or palace-hall +in which he had been working on a majestic Madonna picture, he would +sketch in, with the brush still loaded with the colours of celestial +glory, the lineaments of the beggar crouching by the wall, or the +gypsy calmly reposing in the black shadow of an archway. Such +versatility had never before been seen west of the Mediterranean, and +it commanded the admiration of his countrymen. + +All his beggarly little children, neglected and houseless, appeared +only to be full of cheer and merriment, with soft eyes and contented +faces. It was a happy, care-free, gay, and kindly beggardom that he +painted, with nothing in it to sadden the heart. + +Thus he lived for three years; working in the galleries of the king, +making friends at court, painting beautiful women, gallant cavaliers +and fascinating little beggars. + +In the course of time, however, he grew restless, and Velasquez wished +to give him letters of introduction to Roman artists and people of +quality, advising him to go to Rome to study the greatest art in the +world. This was an alluring plan to Murillo, but after all he longed +for his own home and chose to return there rather than go to +Rome. Besides, his sister Therese was still in Seville. + +Once more in his home, at one stroke of his magic brush Murillo raised +himself and a monastic order from obscurity to greatness. In his +native city was the order of San Francisco. The monks had long wished +to have their convent decorated in a worthy manner by some artist of +repute; but they were poor and had never been able to engage such a +painter. When Murillo got back home, he was as badly in need of work +as the Franciscans were in want of an artist. The monks held a council +and finally agreed upon a price which they could pay and which Murillo +could live upon. Then he began a wonderful set of eleven large +paintings. Among them were many saints, dark and rich in colouring, +and no sooner was it known that the paintings were being made than all +the rich and powerful people of Seville flocked to the convent to see +the work. They gathered about the young artist, overwhelmed him with +honours and praise, and the monastery was crowded from morning till +night with those who wished to study his work. From that moment +Murillo's fame, if not his fortune, was made. + +He married a rich and noble lady with the tremendous name of Do¤a +Beatriz de Cabrera y Sotomayer. He had fallen in love with her while +painting her as an angel. + +About that time he formed a strange partnership with a landscape +painter, who agreed to supply the backgrounds that his pictures +needed, if Murillo would paint figures into his landscapes. This plan +did very well for a little time, but it did not last long. + +Murillo painted in three distinct styles, and these have come to be +known as the "warm," the "cold," and the "vaporous." He painted +pictures in the great cathedral of the Escorial and the "Guardian +Angel" was one of them. Also, he painted "St. Anthony of Padua," and +of this picture there is one of those absurd stories meant to +illustrate the perfection of art. It is said that the lilies in it are +so natural that the birds flew down the cathedral aisles to pluck at +them. Many artists have painted this saint, but Murillo's is the best +picture of all. + +When the nephew of his first master, Murillo's cousin, saw that work +he said: "It is all over with Castillo! Is it possible that Murillo, +that servile imitator of my uncle, can be the author of all this grace +and beauty of colouring?" + +The Duke of Wellington offered for this picture as many gold pieces +"as would cover its surface of fifteen square feet." This would have +been about two hundred and forty thousand dollars; but we need not +imagine that Murillo received any such sum for the work. This picture +has a further interesting history. The canvas was cut from the frame +by thieves in 1874, and later it was sold to Mr. Schaus, the +connoisseur and picture dealer of New York. He paid $250 for it, and +at once put it into the hands of the Spanish consul, who restored it +to the cathedral. + +The story of the saint whom Murillo painted is as interesting as +Murillo's own. Among the many wonderful things said to have happened +to him was that a congregation of fishes hearing his voice as he +preached beside the sea, came to the top and lifted up their heads to +listen. + +While Murillo was doing his work, he was living a happy, domestic +life. He had three children, and doubtless he used them as models for +his lively cherubs, as he used his wife's face for madonnas and +angels. + +He founded an academy of painting in Seville, for the entrance to +which a student could not qualify unless he made the following +declaration: "Praised be the most Holy Sacrament and the pure +conception of Our Lady." + +The most delightful stories are told of Murillo's kindness and +sweetness of disposition. He had a slave who loved him and who, one +day while Murillo was gone from the studio, painted in the head of the +Virgin which the master had left incomplete. When Murillo returned and +saw the excellent work he cried: "I am fortunate, Sebastian"--the +slave's name--"For I have not created only pictures but an artist!" +This slave was set free by Murillo and in the course of time he +painted many splendid pictures which are to-day highly prized in +Seville. + +This is a description of Murillo's house which is still to be seen +near the Church of Santa Cruz: "The courtyard contains a marble +fountain, amidst flowering shrubs, and is surrounded on three sides by +an arcade upheld by marble pillars. At the rear is a pretty garden, +shaded by cypress and citron trees, and terminated by a wall whereon +are the remains of ancient frescoes which have been attributed to the +master himself. The studio is on the upper floor, and overlooks the +Moorish battlements, commanding a beautiful view to the eastward, over +orange groves and rich corn-lands, out to the gray highlands about +Alcala." + +Murillo's fame brought fortune to his little sister, Therese. She +married a nobleman of Burgos, a knight of Santiago and judge of the +royal colonial court. He became the chief secretary of state for +Madrid. + +Murillo made money, but gave almost all that he made to the poor, +though he did not make money in the service of the Church, as +Velasquez made it in the service of the king. + +His work of more than twenty pictures in the Capuchin Church of +Seville occupied him for three years, and in that time he did not +leave the convent for a single day. + +Of all the charming stories told of this glorious artist, one which is +connected with his work in that church is the most picturesque. It +seems that every one within the walls loved him, and among others a +lay brother who was cook. This man begged for some little personal +token from Murillo and since there was no canvas at hand, the artist +bade the cook leave the napkin which he had brought to cover his food, +and during the day he painted upon it a Madonna and child, so natural +that one of his biographers declares the child seems about to spring +from Mary's arms. This souvenir made for the cook of the Capuchin, +convent has been reproduced again and again, as one of the artist's +greatest performances. + +Toward the close of his happy life, he became more and more devout, +spending many hours before an altar-piece in the Church of Santa Cruz +where was a picture of "The Descent from the Cross," by Pedro +Campana. "Why do you always tarry before 'The Descent from the +Cross?'" the sacristan once asked of him. + +"I am waiting till those men have brought the body of our blessed Lord +down the ladder." Murillo answered. His wife had died, his daughter +had become a nun, and all that was left to him was his dear son +Gaspar, when in his sixty-third year he began his last work, "The +Marriage of St. Catherine." He had not finished this when he fell from +the scaffolding upon which he was working, and fatally hurt +himself. He died, with his son beside him. He was a much loved man, +and when he was buried, his bier was carried by "two marquises and +four knights and followed by a great concourse of people." He chose to +be buried beneath the picture he loved so much--"The Descent from the +Cross," and upon his grave was laid a stone carved with his name, a +skeleton and an inscription in Latin which means "Live as one who is +about to die." + +The church has since been destroyed, and on its site is the Plaza +Santa Cruz, but Murillo's grave is marked by a tablet. + +Each country seems to have had at least one man of beautiful heart and +mind, to represent its art. Raphael in Italy, Murillo in Spain, were +types of gentle and greatly beloved men. Leonardo in Italy and Drer +in Nuremberg, were types of forceful, intellectual men, highly +respected and of great benefit to the world. + +Of all the painters who ever lived, Murillo was the one who painted +little children with the most loving and fascinating touch. + + PLATE--THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION + +Besides the little angels in this picture, we have a bewildering +choice among many other beauties. + +Many pictures of this subject have been painted, and many were painted +by Murillo, but the one presented here is the greatest of all. It +hangs in the Louvre, Salle VI. Mary seems to be suspended in the +heavens, not standing upon clouds. Under the hem of her garments is +the circle of the moon, while there is the effect of hundreds of +little cherub children massed about her feet, in a little swarm at the +right, where the shadow falls heaviest, and still others, half lost in +the vapoury background at the left, where the heavenly light streams +upon them, and brilliantly lights up the Virgin's gown. In this +picture are all Murillo's beloved child figures, some carrying little +streamers, their tiny wings a-flutter and all crowding lovingly about +Mary. Far below this gorgeous group we can imagine the dark and weary +earth lost in shadow. + +Among Murillo's most famous paintings are: "The Birth of the Virgin," +"Two Beggar Boys," "The Madonna of the Rosary," "The Annunciation," +"Adoration of the Shepherds," "Holy Family," "Education of Mary," "The +Dice Players," and "The Vision of St. Anthony." + + + + +XXXII + +RAPHAEL (SANZIO) + + + (Pronounced Rah'fay-el (Sahnt'syoh)) + 1483-1590 + _Umbrian, Florentine, and Roman Schools_ + _Pupil of Perugino_ + +It was said of Raphael that "every evil humour vanished when his +comrades saw him, every low thought fled from their minds"; and this +was because they felt themselves vanquished by his pleasant ways and +sweet nature. + +Imagine his beautiful face, with its sunny eyes, reflecting no shadow +of sadness or pain. Such a one was sure to be beloved by all. + +The father of Raphael was Giovanni Santi, himself an able artist. Both +he and Raphael studied in many schools and took the best from +each. The son was brought up in an Italian court, that of Guidobaldo +of Urbino, where the father was a favourite poet and painter, so that +he had at least one generation of art-lovers behind him, at a time +when learning and art were much prized. Nothing ever entered into his +life that was sad or sorrowful; his whole existence was a triumph of +beautiful achievements. There were three great artists of that time, +the other two being Michael Angelo and Leonardo da Vinci, both of whom +were absolutely unlike Raphael in their art and in their characters. + +Raphael was born on April 6th at Contrada del Monte in the ducal city +of Urbino. His mother's name was Magia Ciarla, and she was the +daughter of an Urbino merchant. She had three children besides the +great painter, all of whom died young, and when Raphael was but eight +years old his mother died also. It is said that it was from her +Raphael inherited his beauty, goodness, mildness, and genius. His +father's patron, the Duke of Urbino, was a fine soldier, but he also +cherished scholarship and art, and kept at his court not less than +twenty or thirty persons at work copying Greek and Latin manuscript +which he wished to add to his library. + +Raphael had a stepmother, Bernardina, the daughter of a goldsmith, a +good and forceful woman, but not gentle like the first wife; and when +Raphael was eleven years of age his father, too, died. By his father's +will Raphael became the charge of his uncle Bartolommeo, a priest, but +the property was left to the stepmother so long as she remained +unmarried. Almost at once the priest and the stepmother fell to +quarreling over the spoils, and thus Raphael was left pretty much to +his own devices, but just when life began to look dark and sad for +him, his mother's brother took a hand in the situation. He settled the +dispute between the priest and the second wife, and arranged that +Raphael should be placed in the studio of some great painter, for the +loving lad had already worked in his father's studio, and had given +promise of his wonderful gifts. So he became the pupil of Perugino, a +painter noted for his fine colouring and sympathetic handling of his +subjects. At that time, Italian schools were less wonderful in +colouring than in other matters of technique. + +"Let him become my pupil," said Perugino, when Raphael was brought to +him and some of his work was exhibited; "soon he will be my master." A +very different attitude from that of Ghirlandajo toward Michael +Angelo. + +Raphael and his master became friends and worked together for nine +years. + +His first work was not conceived until Raphael was seventeen. It was +to be a surprise to his master who had gone to Florence. A banner was +wanted for the Church of S. Trinita at Citta di Castello, and Raphael +undertook it, painting the "Trinity," on one canvas and the "Creation +of Man" on another. Then he painted the "Crucifixion," which was +bought by Cardinal Fesch, who lived in Rome. That painting is now in a +collection of the Earl of Dudley. It was sold away from Rome in 1845, +for twelve thousand dollars--or a little more. No one will deny that +this is an unusual sum for an artist's first work, but about the same +time he did a much more wonderful thing. + +He painted a little picture, six and three-quarter inches square. It +was of the Virgin walking in the springtime, before the leaves had +appeared upon the trees, and with snow-capped mountains behind +her. She holds the infant Jesus in her arms while she reads from a +small book, and the little child looks upon the page with her. This +six inches of beauty sold to the Emperor of Russia, in 1871, for sixty +thousand dollars. + +Before Raphael was twenty-one, he had left his master's studio and had +gone into the splendid world of Rome, where Angelo was straining at +his bonds. But how differently each accepted his life! The gentle +Raphael, who took the best of the ideas of all great painters, and +gave to them his own exquisite characteristics, was beloved of all, +shed light upon art and friends alike. To such a one all life was +joyous. Michael Angelo, trying ever to do the impossible, betraying +his hatred of limitations in all that he did, doing always that which +aroused horror, distress, longing, elemental feelings, in those who +studied his wonderful work, and giving hope and satisfaction and peace +to none--to such as he life must ever have been hateful and +painful. These men lived at the same time, among the same people. + +One of Raphael's greatest pictures came into the possession of a poor +widow, who being hard pressed by poverty, sold it to a bookseller for +twelve scudi. In time it was bought from the bookseller by Grand Duke +Ferdinand III. of Tuscany, who prayed before it night and morning, +taking it with him on his travels. That picture is now in the Pitti +Palace at Florence and it is called the "Madonna del Granduca." The +Berlin Museum purchased a Raphael Madonna for $34,000 which was +painted about the same time as these others, but after a little the +artist left Florence where he had been studying the methods of +Leonardo and Angelo and returned to Urbino, the home he loved, where +his conduct was such that all the world seems to have become his +lover. It is written that he was "the only very distinguished man of +whom we read, who lived and died without an enemy or detractor!" No +better can ever be said of any one. + +While he dwelt in Perugia and Urbino he had painted the "Ansidei +Madonna," so called because that was the name of the family for which +it was painted. That Madonna was sold in 1884 to the National Gallery, +by the Duke of Marlborough for $350,000. A Madonna on a round +plaque-like canvas, 42-3/4 inches in diameter, was bought by the Duke +of Bridgewater for $60,000. It is the "Holy Family under a Palm Tree," +painted originally for a friend, Taddeo Taddei, who was a Florentine +scholar. Many of the pictures which after many vicissitudes have +landed far from home and been bought for fabulous sums were painted +for love of some friend, or were paid for by modest sums at the time +the artist received the commissions. Lord Ellesmere in London now owns +the "Holy Family under a Palm Tree." + +It is said of Raphael that whenever another painter, known to him or +not, requested any design or assistance of any kind at his hands, he +would invariably leave his work to perform the service. He continually +kept a large number of artists employed, all of whom he assisted and +instructed with an affection which was rather that of a father to his +children than merely of an artist to artists. From this it followed +that he was never seen to go to court, except surrounded and +accompanied, as he left his house, by some fifty painters, all men of +ability and distinction, who attended him, thus to give evidence of +the honour in which they held him. He did not, in short, live the life +of a painter, but that of a prince. + +There is something wonderfully inspiring about such a life. We read of +emperors and the homage paid to them; of the esteem in which men who +accomplish deeds of universal value are held, but nowhere do we behold +the power of a beautiful and exquisite personality and character, +allied with a single art, so impressively exhibited. + +He urged nothing, yet won all things by the force of his loving and +sympathetic mind. "How is it, dear Cesare that we live in such good +friendship, but that in the art of painting we show no deference to +each other?" he asked of Cesare da Sesto, who was Da Vinci's greatest +pupil. + +In discussing the great ones of the earth, Herman Grimm, son of the +collector of fairy tales, says: "Can we mention a violent act of +Raphael's, Goethe's or Shakespeare's? No, it is restful only to recall +these wonderful men." + +One of Raphael's most beautiful Virgins was modeled from a beautiful +flower-girl whom he loved, "La Belle JardiniŠre." + +Raphael as well as Michael Angelo was summoned by Pope Julius II., but +how different were the two occasions! Michael Angelo had stood with +dogged, gloomy self-assertiveness before the pope, head covered, knee +unbent. Uncompromising, while yet no injury had been done him, +resentful before he had received a single cause for resentment, the +attitude was typical of his art and his unhappy life. + +When Raphael appeared, his bent knee, his "chestnut locks falling upon +his shoulders, the pope exclaimed: 'He is an innocent angel. I will +give him Cardinal Bembo for a teacher, and he shall fill my walls with +historical pictures.'" The artist's behaviour was no sign of +servility, but the simple recognition of forms and customs which the +people themselves had made and by which they had decided they should +graciously be bound. The attitude of Angelo was not heroic but vulgar; +that of Raphael not servile, but in good taste, showing a reasonable +mind. + +Pope Julius had summoned Raphael for a special reason. Alexander VI., +his predecessor in the Vatican, had been a depraved man. The fair and +virile Julius had a healthy sentiment against occupying rooms which +must continually remind him of the notorious Alexander's mode of +life. Some one suggested that he have all the portraits of the former +pope removed, but Julius declared: "Even if the portraits were +destroyed, the walls themselves would remind me of that Simoniac, that +Jew!" The word 'Jew' was then execrated by all Christians, for the +world was not yet Christian enough to know better. + +Raphael was summoned to decorate the Vatican, that Julius might have a +place which reminded him not at all of Alexander. It is said that when +Raphael had completed one of his masterpieces the pope threw himself +upon the ground and cried, "I thank Thee, God, that Thou hast sent me +so great a painter!" + +While at work upon his first fresco at the Vatican--"La Disputa," the +dispute over the Holy Sacrament--Raphael met a woman with whom he fell +deeply in love. Her father was a soda manufacturer and her name was +Margherita. Missirini relates this incident in Raphael's career. + +"She lived on the other side of the Tiber. A small house, No. 20, in +the street of Santa Dorothea, the windows of which are decorated with +a pretty frame work of earthenware, is pointed out as the house where +she was born. + +"The beautiful girl was very frequently in a little garden adjoining +the house, where, the wall not being very high, it was easy to see her +from the outside. So the young men, especially artists--always +passionate admirers of beauty--did not fail to come and look at her, +by climbing up above the wall. + +"Raphael is said to have seen her for the first time as she was +bathing her pretty feet in a little fountain in the garden. Struck by +her perfect beauty, he fell deeply in love with her, and after having +made acquaintance with her, and discovered that her mind was as +beautiful as her body, he became so much attached as to be unable to +live without her." + +She is spoken of to-day as the "Fornarina," because at first she was +supposed to have been the daughter of a baker (_fornajo_). + +Raphael made many rough studies for his picture "La Disputa," and upon +them he left three sonnets, written to the woman so dear to him. These +sonnets have been translated by the librarian of l'Ecole Nationale des +Beaux-Arts, as follows: "Love, thou hast bound me with the light of +two eyes which torment me, with a face like snow and roses, with sweet +words and tender manners. So great is my ardour that no river or sea +could extinguish my fire. But I do not complain, for my ardour makes +me happy.... How sweet was the chain, how light the yoke of her white +arms about my neck. When these bonds were loosed, I felt a mortal +grief. I will say no more; a great joy kills, and, though my thoughts +turn to thee, I will keep silence." + +Although he had been a man of many loves, Raphael must have found in +the manufacturer's daughter his best love, because he remained +faithful and devoted to her for the twelve years of life that were +left to him. It was said some years later, while he was engaged upon a +commission for a rich banker, that "Raphael was so much occupied with +the love that he bore to the lady of his choice that he could not give +sufficient attention to his work. Agostino (the banker) therefore, +falling at length into despair of seeing it finished, made so many +efforts by means of friends and by his own care that after much +difficulty he at length prevailed on the lady to take up her abode in +his house, where she was accordingly installed, in apartments near +those which Raphael was painting; In this manner the work was +ultimately brought to a conclusion." + +Raphael painted this beautiful lady-love many times, and in a picture +in which she wears a bracelet he has placed his name upon the +ornament. + +After this time he painted the "Madonna della Casa d'Alba," which the +Duchess d'Alba gave to her physician for curing her of a grave +disorder. She died soon afterward, and the physician was arrested on +the charge of having poisoned her. In course of time the picture was +purchased for $70,000 by the Russian Emperor, and it is now in "The +Hermitage," St. Petersburg. + +A writer telling of that time, relates the following anecdote: +"Raphael of Urbino had painted for Agostino Chigi (the rich banker +already mentioned) at Santa Maria della Pace, some prophets and +sibyls, on which he had received an advance of five hundred scudi. One +day he demanded of Agostino's cashier (Giulio Borghesi) the remainder +of the sum at which he estimated his work. The cashier, being +astounded at this demand, and thinking that the sum already paid was +sufficient, did not reply. 'Cause the work to be estimated by a judge +of painting,' replied Raphael, 'and you will see how moderate my +demand is.' + +"Giulio Borghesi thought of Michael Angelo for this valuation, and +begged him to go to the church and estimate the figures of +Raphael. Possibly he imagined that self-love, rivalry, and jealousy +would lead the Florentine to lower the price of the pictures. + +"Michael Angelo went, accompanied by the cashier, to Santa Maria della +Pace, and, as he was contemplating the fresco without uttering a word, +Borghesi questioned him. 'That head,' replied Michael Angelo, pointing +to one of the sibyls, 'that head is worth a hundred scudi.' ... 'and +the others?' asked the cashier. 'The others are not less.' + +"Someone who witnessed this scene related it to Chigi. He heard every +particular and, offering in addition to the five hundred scudi for +five heads a hundred scudi to be paid for each of the others, he said +to his cashier, 'go and give that to Raphael in payment for his heads, +and behave very politely to him, so that he may be satisfied; for if +he insists on my paying also for the drapery, we should probably be +ruined!'" + +By the time Raphael was thirty-one he was a rich man, and had built +himself a beautiful house near the Vatican, on the Via di Borgo +Nuova. Naught remains of that dwelling except an angle of the right +basement, which has been made a part of the Accoramboni Palace. His +friends wished him above all things to marry, but he was still true to +Margherita though he had become engaged to the daughter of his +nephew. He put the marriage off year after year, till finally the lady +he was to have married died, and was buried in Raphael's chapel in the +Pantheon. + +Margherita was with him when he died, and it was to her that he left +much of his wealth. + +In the time of Raphael excavations were being made about Rome, and +many beautiful statues uncovered, and he was charged with the +supervision of this work in order that no art treasure should be lost +or overlooked. The pope decreed that if the excavators failed to +acquaint Raphael with every stone and tablet that should he unearthed, +they should be fined from one to three hundred gold crowns. + +Raphael had his many paintings copied under his own eye and engraved, +and then distributed broadcast, so that not only men of great wealth +but the common people might study them. + +Henry VIII. invited him to visit England, and become court painter, +and Francis I. wished him to become the court painter of France. + +He loved history, and wished to write certain historical works. He +loved poetry and wrote it. He loved philosophy and lived it--the +philosophy of generous feeling and kindly thought for all the +world. He kept poor artists in his own home and provided for them. + +Raphael died on Good Friday night, April 6th, in his thirty-seventh +year, and all Rome wept. He lay in state in his beautiful home, with +his unfinished picture of the "Transfiguration," as background for his +catafalque. That painting with its colours still wet, was carried in +the procession to his burial place in the Pantheon. When his death was +announced, the pope, Leo X., wept and cried _"Ora pro nobis!"_ while +the Ambassador from Mantua wrote home that "nothing is talked of here +but the loss of the man who at the close of his six-and-thirtieth year +has now ended his first life; his second, that of his posthumous fame, +independent of death and transitory things, through his works, and in +what the learned will write in his praise, must continue forever." + +Raphael painted two hundred and eighty-seven pictures in his +thirty-seven years of life. + + PLATE--THE SISTINE MADONNA + +It is said that the "Sistine Madonna," while painted from an Italian +model--doubtless the lady whom Raphael so dearly loved--has universal +characteristics, so that she may "be understood by everyone." + +He lived only three years after painting this picture and it was the +last "Holy Family" painted by him. The Madonna stands upon a curve of +the earth, which is scarcely to be seen, and looming mistily in front +of her is a mass of white vaporous clouds. On either side are figures, +St. Sixtus (for whom the picture was named) and St. Barbara. Beside +St. Sixtus we see a crown or tiara; and the little tower at +St. Barbara's side is a part of her story. + +Barbara was the daughter of an Eastern nobleman who feared that her +great beauty might lead to her being carried off; therefore he caused +her to be shut up in a great tower. While thus imprisoned Barbara +became a Christian through the influence of a holy man, and she begged +her father to make three windows in her gloomy tower: one, to let the +light of the Father stream upon her, another to admit the light of the +Son, and the third that she might bathe in the light of the Holy +Ghost. Both St. Barbara and St. Sixtus were martyrs for their faith. + +This Madonna is painted as if enclosed by green velvet curtains, which +have been drawn aside, letting the golden light of the picture blaze +upon the one who looks; then upon a little ledge below, looking out +from the heavens, are two little cherubs--known to all the world. They +look wistful, wise, roguish, and beautiful, with fat little arms +resting comfortably upon the ledge. Raphael is said to have found his +models for these little angels in the street, leaning wistfully upon +the ledge of a baker's window, looking at the good things to eat, +which were within. Raphael took them, put wings to them, placed them +at the feet of Mary, and made two little images which have brought +smiles and tears to a multitude of people. The "Sistine Madonna" hangs +alone in a room in the Dresden Gallery. + +Among Raphael's greatest works are: The "Madonna della Sedia" (of the +chair), "La Belle JardiniŠre," "The School of Athens," "Saint Cecilia," +"The Transfiguration," "Death of Ananias" (a cartoon for a series of +tapestries), "Madonna del Pesce," "La Disputa," "The Marriage of Mary +and Joseph," "St. George Slaying the Dragon," "St. Michael Attacking +Satan" and the "Coronation of the Virgin." + + + + +XXXIII + +REMBRANDT (VAN RIJN) + + + _Dutch School_ + 1606-1669 + _Pupil of Van Swanenburch_ + +Here are a few of the titles that have been given to the greatest +Dutch painter that ever lived: The Shakespeare of Painting; the Prince +of Etchers; the King of Shadows; the Painter of Painters. Muther calls +him a "hero from cloudland," and not only does he alone wear these +titles of greatness, but he alone in his family had the name of +Rembrandt. + +One writer has said that the great painter was born "in a windmill," +but this is not true. He was born in Leyden for certain, though not a +great deal is known about his youth; and his father was a miller, his +mother a baker's daughter. + +When the Pilgrim Fathers, who had sought safety in Leyden, were +starting for America, where they were going to oppress others as they +had been oppressed, Rembrandt was just beginning his apprenticeship in +art. + +He was born at No. 3, Weddesteg, a house on the rampart looking out +upon the Rhine whose two arms meet there. In front of it whirled the +great arms of his father's windmill, though he was not born in it; and +of all the women Rembrandt ever knew, it is not likely that he ever +admired or loved one as passionately as he admired and loved his +mother. He painted and etched her again and again, with a touch so +tender that his deepest emotion is placed before us. + +Rembrandt had brothers and sisters--five: Adriaen, Gerrit, Machteld, +Cornelis, and Willem. Of these, Adriaen became a miller like his +father, and presumably the old historic windmill fell to him; Willem +became a baker, but Rembrandt, the fourth child, it was determined +should be a learned man, and belong to one of the honoured +professions, such as the law. So he was sent to the Leyden Academy, +but here again we have an artist who decided he knew enough of all +else but art before he was twelve years old. He found himself at that +age in the studio of his first art-master, Jacob van Swanenburch, a +relative, who had studied art in Italy, and was a good master for the +lad; but Rembrandt became so brilliant a painter in three years' time, +that he was sent to Amsterdam to learn of abler men. + +The lad could not in those days get far from his adored mother; so he +stayed only a little time, before he went back to Leyden where she +was. There was his heart, and, painting or no painting, he must be +near it. + +Until the past thirty years no one has seemed to know a great deal of +Rembrandt's early history, but much was written of him as a boorish, +gross, vulgar fellow. Those stories were false. He was a devoted son, +handsome, studious in art, and earnest in all that he did, and after +he had made his first notable painting he was compelled by the demands +of his work to move to Amsterdam for good. He hired an apartment over +a shop on the Quay Bloemgracht; it is probable that his sister went +with him to keep his house, and that it is her face repeated so +frequently in the many pictures which he painted at that time. This +does not suggest coarse doings or a careless life, but permits us to +imagine a quiet, sober, unselfish existence for the young bachelor at +that time. + +Soon, however, he fell in love. He saw one other woman to place in his +heart and memory beside his mother. His wife was Saskia van Ulenburg, +the daughter of an aristocrat, refined and rich. He met her through +her cousin, an art dealer, who had ordered Rembrandt to paint a +portrait of his dainty cousin. Rembrandt could have been nothing but +what was delightful and good, since he was loved by so charming a girl +as Saskia. + +He painted her sitting upon his knee, and used her as model in many +pictures. First, last, and always he loved her tenderly. + +In one portrait she is dressed in "red and gold-embroidered velvets"; +the mantle she wore he had brought from Leyden. In another picture she +is at her toilet, having her hair arranged; again she is painted in a +great red velvet hat, and then as a Jewish bride, wearing pearls, and +holding a shepherd's staff in her hand. Again, Rembrandt painted +himself as a giant at the feet of a dainty woman, and in every way his +work showed his love for her. After he married her, in June 1634, he +painted the picture, "Samson's Wedding," "Saskia, dainty and serene, +sitting like a princess in a circle of her relatives, he himself +appearing as a crude plebeian, whose strange jokes frighten more than +they amuse the distinguished company. ... The early years of his +marriage were spent in joy and revelry. Surrounded by calculating +business men who kept a tight grasp on their money bags, he assumed +the r“le of an artist scattering money with a free hand; surrounded by +small townsmen most proper in demeanour, he revealed himself as the +bold lasquenet, frightening them by his cavalier manners. He brought +together all manner of Oriental arms, ancient fabrics, and gleaming +jewellery; and his house became one of the sights of Amsterdam." His +existence reads like a fairy tale. + +It is said that Saskia strutted about decked in gold and diamonds, +till her relatives "shook their heads" in alarm and amazement at such +wild goings on. + +Before he married Saskia he had painted a remarkable picture, named +the "School of Anatomy." It represents a great anatomist, the friend +of Rembrandt--Nicholaus Tulp,--and a group of physicians who were +members of the Guild of Surgeons of Amsterdam. It is so wonderful a +picture that even the dead man, who is being used as a subject by the +anatomist, does not too greatly disturb us as we look upon him. The +thoughtful, interested faces of the surgeons are so strong that we +half lose ourselves in their feeling, and forget to start in repulsion +at sight of the dead body. A fine description of this painting can be +found in Sarah K. Bolton's book "Famous Artists" and it includes the +description given by another excellent authority. + +The artist was twenty-six years old when he painted the "School of +Anatomy." This picture is now at The Hague and two hundred years after +it was painted the Dutch Government gave 30,000 florins for it. + +Rembrandt painted a good many "Samsons" first and last--himself +evidently being the strong man; and the pictures beyond doubt express +his own mood and his idea of his relation to things. After a little +son was born to the artist, he painted still another Samson--this time +menacing his father-in-law but as the artist had named his son after +his father-in-law,--Rombertus--we cannot believe that there was any +menace in the heart of Rembrandt--Samson. Soon his son died, and +Rembrandt thought he should never again know happiness, or that the +world could hold a greater grief, but one day he was to learn +otherwise. A little girl was born to the artist, named Cornelia, after +Rembrandt's mother, and he was again very happy. + +Meantime his brothers and sisters had died, and there came some +trouble over Rembrandt's inheritance, but what angered him most of +all, was that Saskia's relatives said she "had squandered her heritage +in ornaments and ostentation." This made Rembrandt wild with rage, and +he sued her slanderers, for he himself had done the squandering, +buying every beautiful thing he could find or pay for, to deck Saskia +in, and he meant to go on doing so. + +At this time he painted a picture of "The Feast of Ahasuerus" (or the +"Wedding of Samson") and he placed Saskia in the middle of the table +to represent Esther or Delilah as the case might be, dressed in a way +to horrify her critical relatives, for she looked like a veritable +princess laden with gorgeous jewels. + +One of his pictures he wished to have hung in a strong light, for he +said: "Pictures are not made to be smelt. The odour of the colours is +unhealthy." + +The first baby girl died and on the birth of another daughter she too +was named Cornelia, but that baby girl also died, and next came a son, +Titus, named for Saskia's sister, Titia, and then Saskia died. Thus +Rembrandt knew the deepest sorrow of his life. + +He painted her portrait once again from memory, and that picture is +quite unlike the others for it is no longer full of glowing life, but +daintier, suggestive of a more spiritual life, as if she were growing +fragile. + +It is written that "from this time, while he did much remarkable work, +he seemed like a man on a mountain top, looking on one side to sweet +meadows filled with flowers and sunlight, and on the other to a +desolate landscape over which a clouded sun is setting." With Saskia +died the best of Rembrandt. He made only one more portrait of +himself--before this he had made many; and in it he makes himself +appear a stern and fateful man. It was after Saskia's death that he +painted the "Night Watch," or more properly, "The Sortie." + +Rembrandt's home, where he and Saskia were so happy, is still to be +seen on a quay of the River Amstel. It is a house of brick and cut +stone, four stories high. The vestibule used to have a flag-stone +pavement covered with fir-wood. There were also "black-cushioned, +Spanish chairs for those who wait," and all about were twenty-four +busts and paintings. There was an ante-chamber, very large, with seven +Spanish chairs covered with green velvet, and a walnut table covered +with "a Tournay cloth"; there was a mirror with an ebony frame, and +near by a marble wine-cooler. Upon the wall of this _salon_ were +thirty-nine pictures and most of them had beautiful frames. "There +were religious scenes, landscapes, architectural sketches, works of +Pinas, Brouwer, Lucas van Leyden, and other Dutch masters; sixteen +pictures by Rembrandt; and costly paintings by Palma Vecchio, Bassano, +and Raphael." + +In the next room was a real art museum, containing splendid pictures, +an oaken press and other things which suggest that this was the +workroom where Rembrandt's etchings were made and printed. + +In the drawing-room was a huge mirror, a great oaken table covered +with a rich embroidered cloth, "six chairs with blue coverings, a bed +with blue hangings, a cedar wardrobe, and a chest of the same wood." +The walls were literally covered with pictures, among which was a +Raphael. + +Above was a sort of museum and Rembrandt's studio. There was rare +glass from Venice, busts, sketches, paintings, cloths, weapons, +armour, plants, stuffed birds and shells, fans, and books and +globes. In short, this was a most wonderful house and no other +interior can we reconstruct as we can this, because no other such +detailed inventory can be found of a great man's effects as that from +which these notes are taken: a legal inventory made in 1656, long +after Saskia had died and possibly at a time when Rembrandt wished to +close his doors forever and forget the scenes in which he had been so +happy. + +Holland being truly a Protestant country, its artists have given us no +great Madonna pictures, although they painted loving, happy Dutch +mothers and little babes, but on the whole their subjects are quite +different from those of the painters of Italy, France, and Spain. + +Rembrandt's studio was different from any other. When he first began +to work independently and to have pupils, he fitted it up with many +little cells, properly lighted, so that each student might work alone, +as he knew far better work could be done in that way. It is said that +his pictures of beggars would, by themselves, fill a gallery. He had a +kindly sympathy for the poor and unfortunate, and tramps knew this, so +that they swarmed about his studio doors, trying to get sittings. + +There is a story which doubtless had for its germ a joke regarding the +slowness of an errand boy in a friend's household, but which at the +same time shows us how rapidly Rembrandt worked. The artist had been +carried off to the country to lunch with his friend Jan Six, and as +they sat down at the table, Six discovered there was no mustard. He +sent his boy, Hans, for it, and as the boy went out, Rembrandt wagered +that he could make an etching before the boy got back. Six took the +wager, and the artist pulled a copper plate from his pocket--he always +carried one--and on its waxed surface began to etch the landscape +before him. Just as Hans returned, Rembrandt gleefully handed Six the +completed picture. + +He was a great portrait painter, but he loved certain effects of +shadow so well that he often sacrificed his subject's good looks to +his artistic purpose, and very naturally his sitters became +displeased, so that in time he had fewer commissions than if he had +been entirely accommodating. + +His meals in working time were very simple, often just bread and +cheese, eaten while sitting at his easel, and after Saskia died he +became more and more careless of all domestic details. + +Rembrandt finally married again, the second time choosing his +housekeeper, a good and helpful woman, who was properly bringing up +his little son, and making life better ordered for the artist, but he +had grown poor by this time for he was never a very good business +man. His beautiful house was at last sold to a rich shoemaker. Every +picture latterly reflected his condition and mood. He chose subjects +in which he imagined himself always to be the actor, and when his +second wife died he painted a picture of "Youth Surprised by Death"; +he had not long to live. He became more and more melancholy; and +sleeping by day, would wander about the country at night, disconsolate +and sad. Finally, when he died, an inventory of his effects, showed +him to be possessed of only a few old woollen clothes and his brushes +The miracle in Rembrandt's painting is the deep, impenetrable shadow, +in which nevertheless one can see form and outline, punctuated with +wonderful explosions of light. Nothing like it has ever been seen. It +is the most dramatic work in the world, and the most powerful in its +effect. Other men have painted light and colour; Rembrandt makes gloom +and shadow living things. + +This miracle-worker's funeral cost ten dollars; he died in Amsterdam +and was buried in the Wester Kirk. + + PLATE--THE SORTIE + +This picture is generally known as "The Night Watch," but it is really +"The Sortie" of a company of musketeers under the command of a +standard bearer. Captain Frans Banning-Cock and all his company were +to pay Rembrandt for painting their portraits in a group and in +action, and they expected to see themselves in heroic and picturesque +dress, in the full blaze of day, but Rembrandt had found a magnificent +subject for his wonderful shadows, and the artist was not going to +sacrifice it to the vanity of the archers. + +This picture was called the "Patrouille de Nuit," by the French and +the "Night Watch," by Sir Joshua Reynolds because upon its discovery +the picture was so dimmed and defaced by time that it was almost +indistinguishable and it looked quite like a night scene. After it was +cleaned up, it was discovered to represent broad day--a party of +archers stepping from a gloomy courtyard into the blinding +sunlight. "How this different light is painted, which encircles the +figures, here sunny, there gloomy!... Rembrandt runs through the +entire range of his colours, from the lightest yellow through all +shades of light and dark red to the gloomiest black." One writer +describes it thus: "It is more than a picture; it is a spectacle, and +an amazing one... A great crowd of human figures, a great light, a +great darkness--at the first glance this is what strikes you, and for +a moment you know not where to fix your eyes in order to comprehend +that grand and splendid confusion... There are officers, halberdiers, +boys running, arquebusiers loading and firing, youths beating drums, +people bowing talking, calling out, gesticulating--all dressed in +different costumes, with round hats, plumes, casques, morions, iron +corgets, linen collars, doublets embroidered with gold, great boots, +stockings of all colours, arms of every form; and all this tumultuous +and glittering throng start out from the dark background of the +picture and advance toward the spectator. The two first personages are +Frans Banning-Cock, Lord of Furmerland and Ilpendam, captain of the +company, and his lieutenant, Willem van Ruijtenberg, Lord of +Vlaardingen, the two marching side by side. The only figures that are +in full light are this lieutenant, dressed in a doublet of +buffalo-hide, with gold ornaments, scarf, gorget, and white plume, +with high boots, and a girl who comes behind, with blond hair +ornamented with pearls, and a yellow satin dress; all the other +figures are in deep shadow, excepting the heads, which are +illuminated. By what light? Here is the enigma. Is it the light of the +sun? or of the moon? or of the torches? There are gleams of gold and +silver, moonlight coloured reflections, fiery lights; personages +which, like the girl with blond tresses, seem to shine by a light of +their own.... The more you look at it, the more it is alive and +glowing; and, even seen only at a glance, it remains forever in the +memory, with all its mystery and splendour, like a stupendous vision." +Charles Blanc has said: "To tell the truth, this is only a dream of +night, and no one can decide what the light is that falls on the +groups of figures. It is neither the light of the sun or of the moon, +nor does it come from the torches; it is rather the light from the +genius of Rembrandt." + +This wonderful picture was painted in 1642 and many of the archer's +guild who gave Rembrandt the commission would not pay their share +because their faces were not plainly seen. This picture which alone +was enough to make him immortal, was the very last commission that any +of the guilds were willing to give the artist, because he would not +make their portraits beautiful or fine looking to the disadvantage of +the whole picture. This work hangs in the Rijks Museum in +Amsterdam. He painted more than six hundred and twenty-five pictures +and some of them are: "The Anatomy Lesson," "The Syndics of the Cloth +Hall," "The Descent from the Cross," "Samson Threatening His Step +Father," "The Money Changer," "Holy Family," "The Presentation of +Christ in the Temple," "The Marriage of Samson," "The Rape of +Ganymede," "Susanna and the Elders," "Manoah's Sacrifice," "The +Storm," "The Good Samaritan," "Pilate Washing His Hands," "Ecce Home," +and pictures of his wife, Saskia. + + + + +XXXIV + +SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS + + + _English School_ + 1723-1792 + _Pupil of Thomas Hudson_ + +When Reynolds was "little Josh," instead of "Sir Joshua" he grew tired +in church one day, and sketched upon the nail of his thumb the +portrait of the Rev. Mr. Smart who was preaching. After service he ran +to a boat-house near, and with ship's paint, upon an old piece of +sail, he painted in full and flowing colours that reverend gentleman's +portrait. After that there was not the least possible excuse for his +father to deny him the right to become an artist. + +The father himself was a clergyman with a good education, and he had +meant that his son should also be well educated and become a +physician; but a lad who at eight years of age can draw the Plympton +school house--he was born at Plympton Earl, in Devonshire--has a right +to choose his own profession. + +At twenty-three years of age Sir Joshua was painting the portraits of +great folk, and being well paid for it, as well as lavishly +praised. His first real sorrow came at a Christmas time when he was +summoned home from London where he was working, to his father's +deathbed. + +After that the artist turned his thoughts toward Italy, but where was +the money to come from? Earning a living did not include travelling +expenses, but a good friend, Captain Keppel, was going out to treat +with the Dey of Algiers about his piracies, and learning that the +artist wished to go to Italy he invited him to go with him on his own +ship, the _Centurion._ So while the captain was discussing pirates +with the dey, Sir Joshua stopped with the Governor of Minorca and +painted many of the people of that locality. Thence on to Rome! + +Strange to say, Raphael's pictures disappointed the English artist, +and he said so; but Michael Angelo was to Reynolds the most wonderful +of painters, and he said that his pictures influenced him all the rest +of his life. He wished his name to be the last upon his lips, and +while that was not so, yet it was the last he pronounced to his fellow +Academicians in his final address. + +It was in Italy that a distressing misfortune came upon Sir Joshua. He +meant to learn all that a man could learn in a given time of the art +treasures there, and while he was working in a draughty corridor of +the Vatican, he caught a severe cold which rendered him deaf. He +continued deaf till the end of his life and had to use an ear-trumpet +when people talked with him. + +When he got back to England, Hudson, his old master, said +discouragingly: "Reynolds, you don't paint as well as when you left +England." On the whole his reception at home, after his long absence, +was not all that he could have wished, but he took a place in +Leicester Square, settled down to live there for the rest of his life, +and went at painting in earnest. + +Although artists criticised him more or less after his return, the +public appreciated him and very soon orders for portraits began to +pour in upon him, and the flow of wealth never ceased so long as he +lived. It was said that all the fashionables came to him that did not +go to Gainsborough, but those who were partial to Sir Joshua declared +that all who could not go to him went to Gainsborough. The two great +artists controlled the art world in their time, dividing honours about +equally. It was said that all those women and men sat to Sir Joshua +for portraits "who wished to be transmitted as angels... and who +wished to appear as heroes or philosophers." + +Sir Joshua was a charming man, generous in feeling--as Gainsborough +was not--and his closest friend was Dr. Johnson, the most different +man from the artist imaginable, but Reynolds's art and Johnson's +philosophy made a fine combination, each giving the other great +pleasure. Besides Johnson, his friends were Goldsmith, Garrick, Bishop +Percy, and other famous men of the time. These and others formed the +"Literary Club" at Sir Joshua's suggestion. About that time there was +the first public exhibition of the work of English artists, and Sir +Benjamin West and Sir Joshua Reynolds built the Royal Academy for that +first exhibition, with the help of King George's patronage. Joshua +Reynolds was knighted when he was made the first president of that +great body. + +Soon after the Academy was established, Reynolds began a series of +"discourses," which in time became famous for their splendid literary +quality, and some people, knowing his close friendship with Burke and +Dr. Johnson, declared that the artist got one of them to write his +"discourses" for him. This threw Johnson and Burke into a fury of +resentment for their friend, and the doctor declared indignantly that +"Sir Joshua would as soon get me to paint for him as to write for +him!" Burke denied the story no less emphatically. Besides these +speeches, which were a great advantage to the members of the Academy, +Sir Joshua instituted the annual banquet to the members, and King +George--who just before had given the commission of court painter to +one less talented than Sir Joshua--bade him paint his portrait and the +queen's, to hang in the Academy. This was a great thing for the new +society and advanced its fortunes very much. + +Barry and Gainsborough were both churlish enough to envy Sir Joshua +and to quarrel with his good feeling for them, but both men had the +grace to be sorry for behaviour that had no excuse, and both made +friends with him before they died--Gainsborough on his death-bed. + +Toward his last days the artist was attacked with paralysis, but grew +better and was able to paint again; then he began to go blind--he was +already deaf--and this affliction made painting impossible. Shortly +before his death, he undertook to raise funds for a monument to his +dead friend, Dr. Johnson, but he grew more and more ill, "and on the +23d February, 1792, this great artist and blameless gentleman passed +peacefully away." + +That he was very painstaking in his work is shown by an anecdote about +his infant "Hercules." "How did you paint that part of the picture?" +some one asked him. "How can I tell! There are ten pictures below +this, some better, some worse"--showing that in his desire for +perfection he painted and repainted. + +So untiring was he in seeking out the secrets of the old masters that +he bought works of Titian and Rubens, and scraped them, to learn their +methods, insisting that they had some secret underlying their work. So +anxious was he to get the most brilliant effects of colours that he +mixed his paints with asphaltum, egg, varnish, wax, and the like, till +one artist said: "The wonder is that the picture did not crack beneath +the brush." Many of these great pictures did go to pieces because of +the chances Sir Joshua took in mixing things that did not belong +together, in order to make wonderful results. + +Sir George Beaumont recommended a friend to go to Reynolds for his +portrait and the friend demurred, because "his colours fade and his +pictures die before the man." + +"Never mind that!" Sir George declared; "a faded portrait by Reynolds +is better than a fresh one by anybody else." + +The same tender, sensitive and devoted nature which caused Sir +Joshua's mother to weep herself blind upon her husband's death, +belonged to the artist. All of his life he was surrounded by loving +friends, and his devotion to them was conspicuous. He, like Drer and +several other painters, was a seventh son, and his father's +disappointment was keen when he took to art instead of to medicine. So +little did his father realise what his future might be, that he wrote +under the sketch of a wall with a window in it, drawn upon a Latin +exercise book: "This is drawn by Joshua in school, out of pure +idleness." + +But by the time Joshua was eight years old and had drawn a fine +"sketch of the grammar-school with its cloister... the astonished +father said: 'Now, this exemplifies what the author of "perspective" +says in his preface: "that, by observing the rules laid down in this +book, a man may do wonders"--for this is wonderful.'" + +Sir Joshua laid down--even wrote out--a great many rules of conduct +for himself. Some of these were: "The great principle of being happy +in this world is not to mind or be affected with small things." Also: +"If you take too much care of yourself, nature will cease to take care +of you." + +When Samuel Reynolds, Joshua's father, consulted with his friend +Mr. Craunch, as to whether a boy who made wonderful paintings at +twelve years of age, would be likely to be a successful apothecary, he +told Craunch that Joshua himself had declared that he would rather be +a good apothecary than a poor artist, but if he could be bound to a +good master of painting he would prefer that above everything in the +world. This was how he came to be apprenticed to Hudson, the +painter. Young Reynolds's sister paid for his instruction at first--or +for half of it, with the understanding that Reynolds was to pay her +back when he was earning. At that time Reynolds wrote to his father: +"While I am doing this I am the happiest creature alive." + +One day, while in an art store, buying something for Hudson, Reynolds +saw Alexander Pope, the poet, come in, and every one bowed to him and +made way for him as if for a prince. Pope shook hands with young +Reynolds, and in writing home, describing the poet, the artist said +that he was "about four feet six inches high; very humpbacked and +deformed. He wore a black coat and according to the fashion of that +time, had on a little sword. He had a large and very fine eye, and a +long handsome nose; his mouth had those peculiar marks which are +always found in the mouths of crooked persons, and the muscles which +run across the cheeks were so strongly marked that they seemed like +small cords." This is a masterly description of one famous man by +another. + +He finally was dismissed from his master's studio on the ground that +he had neglected to carry a picture to its owner at the time set by +Hudson, but the fact was the older artist had become jealous of the +work of his pupil, and would no longer have him in his studio. + +Afterwards, while he was painting down in Devonshire--thirty portraits +of country squires for fifteen dollars apiece--he said: "Those who are +determined to excel must go to their work whether willing or +unwilling, morning, noon, and night, and they will find it to be no +play, but, on the contrary, very hard labour." This shows that +Reynolds's idea of genius was "an infinite capacity for hard work." + +While Reynolds was on his memorable journey to Rome, he made several +volumes of notes about the pictures of great Italian artists--Raphael, +Titian, etc. And one of those volumes is in the Lenox Library, New +York City. He made a most characteristic and delightful remark in +regard to his disappointment in Raphael's pictures. "I did not for a +moment conceive or suppose that the name of Raphael, and those +admirable paintings in particular, owed their reputation to the +_ignorance_ ... of mankind; on the contrary, my not relishing them, as +I was conscious I ought to have done was one of the most humiliating +things that ever happened to me." + +He loved home and country so much that while in Venice he heard a +familiar ballad sung in an opera, and it brought the tears to his eyes +because of its association with "home." + +His young sister, was so undecided in her ways and opinions as to make +it impossible for Reynolds long to live with her, but she undertook to +be his housekeeper when he returned to London, and she also tried to +copy his pictures Reynolds said the results "made other people laugh, +but they made me cry." + +Reynolds painted the portraits of two Irish sisters--the Countess of +Coventry and the Duchess of Hamilton--two of the most beautiful women +in all the British Empire. "Seven hundred people sat up all night, in +and about a Yorkshire inn, to see the Duchess of Hamilton get into her +postchaise in the morning, while a Worcester shoemaker made money by +showing the shoe he was making for the Countess of Coventry." Sir +Joshua declared that whenever a new sitter came to him, even till the +last years of his life, he always began his portrait with the +determination that that one should be the best he had ever +painted. Success was bound to attend that sort of man. + +He painted every picture almost as an experiment; meaning to learn +something new with every work, and he spent more than he made in +perfecting his art. As he said: "He would be content to ruin himself" +in order to own one of the best works of Titian. + +His deeds of kindness are beyond counting. He rescued his friend +Dr. Johnson from debt--thereby saving him from prison; and when a +young lad, "a son of Dr. Mudge," who was very anxious to visit his +father on the occasion of his sixteenth birthday, grew too ill to make +the journey. Reynolds said gaily: "No matter my boy. _I_ will send you +to your father." He painted a splendid portrait of the boy and sent it +to Dr. Mudge. This gift of a picture, however, was very unusual with +Reynolds, who, unlike Gainsborough who gave his by the bushel to +everyone, declared that his pictures were not valued unless paid +for. When Sir William Lowther, a gay and rich young man of London, +died, he left twenty-five thousand dollars to each of thirteen +friends, and each of the thirteen commissioned the painter to make a +portrait of Lowther, their benefactor. His work room was of interest: +"The chair for his sitters was raised eighteen inches from the floor, +and turned on casters. His palettes were those which are held by a +handle, not those held on the thumb. The stocks of his pencils were +long, measuring about nineteen inches. He painted in that part of the +room nearest to the window, and never sat down when he painted." The +chariot in which he drove about had the four seasons allegorically +painted upon its panels, and his liveries were "laced with silver"; +while the wheels of his coach were carved with foliage and gilded. + +Sir Joshua knew that it paid to advertise, and as he had no time to go +about in that gorgeous chariot he made his sister go, for he declared +that people seeing that magnificent coach would ask: "Whose chariot is +that?" and upon being told could not fail to be impressed with his +prestige. The comical inconsequence of this anecdote concerning a man +so important robs it of vulgarity. + +The graceful anecdotes told of Reynolds are without number, but one +and all are to his advantage and show him to have been good and +gentle, a devoted and high-bred man. + + PLATE--THE DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE AND HER DAUGHTER + +This is generally considered one of the finest of Sir Joshua's +pictures, if not the most beautiful of all. He was such a welcome +guest at the houses of grandees that perchance he had noticed the +lovely duchess playing with her still more lovely baby, and thought +what a charming picture the two would make. As a representation of the +artist's ability to portray grace and sweetness it can hardly be +surpassed. He painted it in 1786, half a dozen years before his death, +and it now hangs in Chatsworth, the home of the present Duke of +Devonshire. + +Other well known Reynolds paintings are "The Hon. Ann Bingham," "The +Countess of Spencer," the "Nieces of Sir Horace Walpole," and the +"Angels' Heads" in the National Gallery. + + + + +XXXV + +PETER PAUL RUBENS. + + + _Flemish School_ + 1577-1640 + _Pupil of Tobias Verhaecht_ + +The story of Peter Paul Rubens, whose birthday falling upon the saint +days of Peter and Paul gave to him his name, is hardly more +interesting than that of his parents, although it is quite +different. The story of Rubens's parents seems a part of the artist's +story, because it must have had something to do with influencing his +life, so let us begin with that. + +John Rubens was Peter Paul's father, and he was a learned man, a +druggist, but he had also studied law, and had been town councillor +and alderman in the town where he was born. Life went easily enough +with him till the reformation wrought by Martin Luther began to change +John Rubens's way of thinking, and he turned from Catholic to +Lutheran. + +From being a good Catholic John Rubens became a rabid reformer; and +when, under the new faith, the Antwerp churches were stripped of their +treasures, the magistrates were called to account for it. John Rubens, +as councillor, was among those summoned. The magistrates declared that +they were all good Catholics, but a list of the reformers fell into +the Duke of Alva's hands and Rubens's name was there. This meant death +unless he should succeed in flying from the country, which he +instantly did. That was in 1568, when he had four children, but Peter +Paul was not one of them--since he was a seventh son. + +The Rubens family went to live in Cologne, where the father found his +learning of great use to him, and he was honoured by being made legal +adviser to Anne of Saxony who was William the Silent's second +queen. John Rubens's behaviour was not entirely honourable and before +long he was thrown into prison, but his good wife, Maria Pypelincx +undertook to free him. He had treated her very badly, but her devotion +to his cause was as great as if he had treated her well. Despite his +wife's efforts he was kept a prisoner in the dungeon at Dillenburg for +two years, and afterward he was removed to Siegen, the place where +Peter Paul was born. + +In the sixteenth century there were no records of any sort kept in the +town of Siegen, and so we cannot be absolutely sure that Peter Paul +was born there, but his mother was certainly there just before and +after the date of his birth, which was the 29th of June 1577. After +his birth, his father was set free in Siegen and allowed to go back to +the city in which he had misbehaved himself. In Cologne he became once +more a Catholic, and he died in that faith. Meantime, ten years had +passed since Peter Paul's birth, and both his father and mother were +determined above all things their son should have a fine education, +quite unlike other artists, for the boy seemed capable of +learning. While he was still very small he could speak to his tutor in +French, to his mother in Flemish, and to his father in Latin. Besides +these languages he spoke also Italian and English. Before he was an +artist, Rubens, like Drer and Leonardo da Vinci, was a child of rare +intelligence. As a little chap he went to Antwerp with his +mother--this was after his father's death--and in Belgium he took for +the first time the r“le of courtier, in which he was to become so +successful later in life. The charming little fellow, dressed in +velvet and lace, took his place in the household of the Countess of +Lalaing, in Brussels. + +Very soon after entering that household, Rubens was permitted by his +mother to leave it for the studio of the painter who was his first +master, though not the one who really taught him much. Rubens did not +stay there long, but went instead to the studio of Adam van Noort, an +excellent painter of the time. After that he studied under another +artist, who was both a scholar and a gentleman, Van Veen, and with him +Peter Paul was able to speak in Latin and in his many other languages, +while learning to paint at the same time. + +Thus we find Rubens's lot was always cast, not among the rich, but +among the intelligent, the well bred, and the cultivated. This fact +alone would prepare us to anticipate pleasant things for him and from +him. + +In those days of guilds, there were many rules and regulations. Van +Noort, Rubens's teacher, was dean of the painters' guild and through +his influence the guild recognised Rubens as "master," which meant +that he was qualified to take pupils; thus he was pupil and teacher at +the same time. + +One is unable to think of Rubens as having low tastes, as being +morose, erratic, or anything but a refined, gracious, and brilliant +gentleman. He began well, lived well, and ended well. + +None of his teachers really impressed their style of art upon him. He +was the model for others. Rubens became nothing but Rubens, but all +the art world wished to become "Rubenesque." + +Rubens went to Mantua to see the art of Italy, and while there he met +the Duke of Mantua who was Vincenzo Gonzaga, the richest, most +powerful personage of that region and time. The duke engaged Rubens to +paint the portraits of many beautiful women--just the sort of +commission that Rubens's pupil, Van Dyck, would have loved; but +Rubens's art was of sterner stuff, and the work by no means delighted +him. He had great ideas, profound purposes, and wished to undertake +them, but just then it seemed best that he perform that which the Duke +of Mantua wanted him to do; hence he set about it. + +Later Rubens went to the Spanish court, not as a painter, but as a +cavalier upon a diplomatic mission. Bearing many beautiful presents to +King Philip III., he went to Madrid, where his elegance, manly beauty, +dashing manner, and ability to speak several languages made him a +wonderful success. He remained for three years at the court and +studied the methods of Spanish painters. He also painted the members +of the Spanish court, as Velasquez had done, but they looked like +people of another world. The Spanish aristocracy had always been +painted with pallid faces, languid and elegant poses; but Rubens gave +them a touch of the life he loved--made them robust and apparently +healthy-minded. Of all great colourists, Rubens took the lead. Titian +with his golden hues and warm haired women was very great, but Rubens, +"the Fleming" as he was called, revelled in richness of colouring, and +flamed through art like a glorious comet. + +Rubens had long been wanted in his own country. His sovereigns, Albert +and Isabella, wished him to return and become their painter, but they +were unable to free him from his engagements in Italy and Spain. At +last Rubens received word that his mother, whom he loved devotedly, +was likely to die, and what kings could not do his love for her +accomplished. + +Although his patron, the Duke of Mantua, was absent, and his consent +could not be secured, Rubens set off post-haste to his mother's +home. He arrived in Antwerp too late to see Maria Pypelincx, who had +died before he reached her. Once more on his native soil, Albert and +Isabella determined to induce him to remain. He had intended to go +back to Mantua and continue his work under the duke, but since he was +now in Belgium he decided to stay there, and thus he became the court +painter in his own country, which after all he greatly preferred to +any other. + +He was to have a salary of five hundred livres ($96) a year, also "the +rights, honours, privileges, exemptions, etc." that belonged to those +of the royal household; and he was given a gold chain. In this day of +large doings there is something about such details that seems +childish, but a "gold chain" was by no means a small affair at a time +when $96 was considered an ample money-provision for an artist. + +That gorgeous gold chain, a mark of distinction rather than a reward, +is to be seen in all its glory in one of Rubens's great paintings. The +artist himself is mounted upon a horse, the chain about his neck, +while he is surrounded by "no fewer than eight-and-twenty life-size +figures, many in gorgeous attire, warriors in steel armour, horsemen, +slaves, camels, etc." This picture, "The Adoration of the Magi," was +twelve feet by seventeen, and was painted at the town's expense. It +was later sent to Spain and placed in the Madrid Gallery. + +One of the greatest honours that could come to students of that day, +was to be admitted to Rubens's studio to paint under his direction, +and it is said that "hundreds of young men waited their turn, painting +meanwhile in the studios of inferior artists, till they should be +admitted to the studio of the great master." + +Rubens was a king among painters, as well as a painter patronised by +kings. + +He had two wives, and he married the first one in 1609. Her name was +Isabella Brant. Sir Joshua Reynolds said of her: "His wife is very +handsome and has an agreeable countenance, but the picture is rather +hard in manner"--by which he meant a picture which Rubens had painted +of her. One of his greatest privileges when he was engaged at the +court of Albert and Isabella, had been that he need obey none of the +exactions of the Guild of St. Luke, none of their rigid rules +concerning the employment of art students. Rubens could take into his +service whom he pleased, whether they had been admitted as members of +the guild or not, though to be a member of the guild was a testimony +to their qualifications. In the end, this did a good deal of harm, for +Rubens employed students to do the preliminary work of his pictures, +who had not been his pupils and who were not otherwise qualified. Thus +we read criticisms like that of Sir Joshua's; and many of Rubens's +pictures are marred in this manner. + +A story is told of Van Dyck and other pupils of Rubens breaking into +the master's studio and smudging a picture which Van Dyck afterward +repaired by painting in the damaged portion most successfully. We are +also told in connection with Rubens's picture, "The Descent from the +Cross," that Van Dyck restored an arm and shoulder of Mary of Magdala, +but certainly Van Dyck did not become a pupil of Rubens till some time +after that picture was painted. + +The work of a wonderful period in Rubens's art was completely +destroyed. In two years time he painted forty ceilings of churches in +Antwerp, all of which were burned, but there is a record of them in +the copies made by De Witt, in water colours from which etchings were +afterward made. This work of Rubens was the first example of +foreshortening done by a Flemish painter. + +Above all things Rubens liked to paint big pictures, on very large +surfaces, as did Michael Angelo. "The large size of picture gives us +painters more courage to present our ideas with the utmost freedom and +semblance of reality. ... I confess myself to be, by a natural +instinct, better fitted to execute works of the largest size." He +wrote this to the English diplomat Trumbull in 1621. + +In the midst of Rubens's greatest success as a painter came his +diplomatic services. It was desirable that Spain and England should be +friends, and Rubens always moving about because of his work, and being +so very clever, the Spanish powers thought him a good one to negotiate +with England. While on a professional visit to Paris, the English Duke +of Buckingham and the artist met, and this seemed to open a way for +business. The Infanta consented to have Rubens undertake this delicate +piece of statesmanship, but Philip of Spain did not like the idea of +an artist--a wandering fellow, as an artist was then thought to +be--entering into such a dignified affair. The real negotiator on the +English side, was Gerbier, by birth also a Fleming, and strange to +tell, he too had been an artist. The English engaged him to look after +their interests in the affair, and as soon as Philip learned that +their diplomat was also an artist, his prejudices against Rubens as a +statesman, disappeared. So it was decided that the two Flemings, +artists and diplomats, should meet in Holland to discuss +matters. About that time Sir Dudley Carleton wrote to Lord Conway: +"Rubens is come hither to Holland, where he now is, and Gerbier in his +company, walking from town to town, upon their pretence of taking +pictures, which may serve him for a few days if he dispatch and be +gone; but yf he entertayne tyme here long, he will infallibly be layd +hold of, or sent with disgrace out of the country ... this I have made +known to Rubens lest he should meet with a skorne what may in some +sort reflect upon others." + +The two clever men got through with their talk, nothing unfortunate +happened, and Rubens got off to Spain where he laid the result of his +talk with Gerbier before the Spanish powers. He was given a studio in +Philip's palace, where he carried on his art and his diplomacy. The +king became delighted with him as a man and an artist, and as well as +attending to state business, he did some wonderful painting while in +Madrid. He was there nine months or more, and then started off for +England to tell Charles I. of Philip III.'s wishes. But upon his +arrival he learned that a peace had just been concluded between France +and England, and all was excitement. + +He was received in England as a great artist; every honour was +showered upon him, and when he made Philip's request to Charles, that +he should not act in a manner hostile to Spain, Charles agreed, and +kept that agreement though France and Venice urged him to break it. + +Charles knighted Rubens while he was in England, and the University of +Cambridge made him Master of Arts. The sword used by the king at the +time he gave the accolade is still kept by Rubens's descendants. + +While he was in London Rubens was very nearly drowned in the Thames +going down to Greenwich in a boat. + +When he first went from Italy to Spain on a mission of state, he +carried a note or passport bearing the following lines: "With these +presents" (he took magnificent gifts to Philip, among them a carriage +and six Neapolitan horses) "comes Peter Paul, a Fleming. Peter Paul +will say all that is proper, like the well informed man that he +is. Peter Paul is very successful in painting portraits. If any ladies +of quality wish their pictures, let them take advantage of his +presence." When he visited England there was no longer need of such +introduction; he went in all the magnificence that his genius had +earned for him. + +Rubens was always a happy man, so far as history shows. He married the +first time, a woman who was beautiful and who loved him, as he loved +her. He was able to build for himself a beautiful house in Antwerp. In +the middle of it was a great _salon_, big enough to hold all his +collection of pictures, vases, bronzes, and beautiful jewels. There +was also a magnificent staircase, up which his largest pictures could +be easily carried, for it was built especially to accommodate the +requirements of his work. + +Rubens's greatest picture was painted through a strange happening when +this beautiful house was being built. The land next to his belonged to +the Archers' Guild and when the workmen came to dig Rubens's cellar, +they went too far and invaded the adjoining property. The archers made +complaint, and there seemed no way to adjust the matter, till some one +suggested that Rubens make them a picture which should be accepted as +compensation for the harm done. This Rubens did, and the picture was +to be St. Christopher--the archers' patron saint; but when the work +was done "Rubens surprised them" by exhibiting a picture "of all who +could ever have been called 'Christ-bearers.'" This was "The Descent +from the Cross"--not a single picture but a picture within a picture, +for there were shutters folding in front of it, and on these was +painted the archers' patron, St. Christopher. + +Rubens's daily life is described thus: "His life was very +methodical. He rose at four, attended mass, breakfasted, and painted +for hours; then he rested, dined, worked until late afternoon; then, +after riding for an hour or two one of his spirited horses, and later +supping, he would spend the evening with his friends. + +"He was fond of books, and often a friend would read aloud to him +while he worked." This is a pleasant picture of a reasonable and +worthy life. + +It is said that once he painted eighteen pictures in eighteen days, +and it is known that he valued his time at fifty dollars a day. + +His pupil, Van Dyck, being pushed for money, turned alchemist and +tried to manufacture gold, but when Rubens was approached by a +visionary who wanted him to lend him money by which he might pursue +such a work, promising Rubens a fortune when he should have discovered +how to make his gold, the artist laughed and said: "You are twenty +years too late, friend. When I wield these," indicating his palette +and brush, "I turn all to gold." + +Many are the delightful anecdotes told of Rubens. It is said that +while he was at the English court he was painting the ceiling of the +king's banqueting hall, and a courtier who stood watching, wished to +say something _pour passer le temps_, so he asked: "Does the +ambassador of his Catholic Majesty sometimes amuse himself with +painting?" + +"No--but he sometimes amuses himself with being an ambassador," was +the witty retort, which showed how he valued his two commissions. + +When King Charles I. knighted Rubens he gave him, beside the jewelled +sword, a golden chain to which his miniature was attached. If Rubens +had gone about with all the chains and decorations given him by kings +and other great ones of the earth he would have been weighted down, +and would have needed two pairs of shoulders on which to display them. + +Rubens's first wife died; and when he married again, he was as fond of +painting pictures of the second wife as he had been of the first. The +name of the second was Helena Fourment, and she is called by one +author "a spicy blonde." Certainly she was very gay, big, and robust, +and only sixteen years old when she married Rubens who was then a man +of fifty-three. Of one picture, "The Straw Hat," for which he is +supposed to have used his wife's sister as model, he was so fond that +he would not sell it at any price. + +Rubens had a rare mother, as shown in her letters to her husband, +John, when he was in prison for his wrongdoing. It would seem that +such a mother must have a strong, forceful son, and Rubens is less of +a surprise than many artists who had no such influence in their +childhood. The history of Rubens's mother is worthy of being told even +had she not had a famous son who painted a beautiful picture of her. + +Rubens's "Holy Families" are like those of no other painter. The +Virgin, the Child, all the others in the picture, are quite different +from the Italian figures. These are human beings, good to look upon; +full of love and joy, softness and beauty. + +It was his learning that first won favour for him in Italy. The Duke +of Mantua hearing him read from Virgil, spoke to him in Latin, and +being answered in that tongue was so charmed that the foundation of +their friendship and the duke's patronage was laid. In Italy he was +called "the antiquary and Apelles of our time." + +His nephew-biographer writes of him: "He never gave himself the +pastime of going to parties where there was drinking and card-playing, +having always had a dislike for such." + +As Rubens grew in fame, he found that many were jealous of him, and on +one occasion a rival proposed that he and Rubens each paint a picture +upon a certain subject and leave it to judges to decide which work was +the best--Rubens's or his own. + +"No," said Rubens. "My attempts have been subjected to the scrutiny of +connoisseurs in Italy and Spain. They are to be found in public +collections and private galleries in those countries; gentlemen are at +liberty to place their works beside them, in order that comparison may +be made." This was a dignified way of disposing of the case. + +Rubens loved to paint animals, and he had a great lion brought to his +home, that he might study its poses and movements. + +The flesh of his figures was so lifelike that Guido declared he must +mix blood with his paints. He was called "the painter of life." + +Rubens, a seventh child, had also seven children, two belonging to his +first wife, five to the second. + +Many stories are told of his patience and his kindness. It is said +that at one time his old pupil, Van Dyck, returned to Antwerp after an +absence, greatly depressed and in need of money. Rubens bought all his +unsold pictures, and he did this charitable act more than once, and is +known to have done the same thing for a rival and enemy, out of sheer +goodness of heart. + +Kings and queens came to the Rubens house, people of many nations did +him honour; and toward his closing days, when gout had disabled him, +ambassadors visited him, since he could not go to them. + +In a description of his death and burial which took place at Antwerp +we read: "He was buried at night as was the custom, a great concourse +of citizens ... and sixty orphan children with torches followed the +body." He was placed in the vault of the Fourment family, and as he +had requested, "The Holy Family" was hung above him. In that picture, +we find the St. George to be Rubens himself; St. Jerome, his father; +an angel, his youngest son, while Martha and Mary are Isabella and +Helena, his two wives. + +He left many sketches "to whichever of his sons became an artist, or +to the husband of his daughter who should marry an artist." But there +were none such to claim the bequest. + + PLATE--THE INFANT JESUS AND ST. JOHN + +The little girl behind Jesus is supposed to represent his future +bride, the Christian Church. The thoughtful, far-seeing look upon the +face of the Christ-child, though it does not clash with His youthful +charm, is meant to suggest that He has a premonition of His work in +the world. The other joyous little figures also demonstrate the +artist's love for children. He brings them into his pictures, as +cherubs, wherever he can, and they are frequently just as well painted +and more universally appreciated than his stout women. In this picture +he has a good opportunity to show his adorable flesh tints, combined +with the movement and freedom naturally associated with child life. + +The original painting is in the Court Museum at Vienna, but it has +always been so popular that many copies of it have been made, and one +of these is in the Berlin Gallery. + + PLATE--THE ARTIST'S TWO SONS + _(See Frontispiece_) + +This picture hangs in the Lichtenstein Gallery at Vienna; the two +boys, eleven and seven years of age, are the sons of Rubens by his +first wife, Isabella Brant; and Albert, the elder of the two, greatly +resembles his mother. He is evidently a student, for he wears the +dress of one and carries a book in one hand. The other is placed +affectionately upon the shoulder of his little brother, Nicolas, whose +face, figure, and attire are all much the more childish of the two. + +Critics consider this painting to mark the Highest point which Rubens +reached in portraiture. It has all the colour, character, and vitality +of his best work. Some of his other pictures are: "Coronation of Marie +de Medicis," "The Kirmesse," "Slaughter of the Innocents," "Susanna's +Bath," "Capture of Samson," "A Lion Hunt" and "The Rape of the +Daughters of Leucippus." + + + + +XXXVI + +JOHN SINGER SARGENT + + + _American and Foreign Schools_ + 1856-1926 + _Pupil of Carolus Durand_ + +This artist was born in Europe, of American parents; thus we may say +that he was "American," though he owed nothing but dollars to the +United States, since his instruction was obtained in Italy and France, +and all his associations in art and friendship were there. He was +probably the most brilliant of the artists termed American. His great +mural work in the Boston Public Library, is hardly to be surpassed. + +Above all, Sargent's portraits are masterly. He was famous in that +branch of art before he was twenty-eight years old. Among his finest +portraits is that of "Carmencita," a Spanish dancer, who for a time +set the world wild with pleasure. The list of his famous portraits is +very long. + +Sargent's father was a Philadelphia physician; who originally came +from New England, but the artist himself was born in Florence. He was +given a good education and grew up with the beauties of Florence all +about him, in a refined and charming home. He was the delight of his +master, Carolus Durand for he was modest and refined, yet full of +enthusiasm and energy. In his twenty-third year he painted a fine +picture of his master. Sargent was a musician as well as a painter; a +man of great versatility, as if the gods and all the muses had +presided at his birth. + + PLATE--CARMENCITA + +In this picture of the famous Spanish dancer Sargent shows all the +life and character he can put into a portrait. The girl seems on the +point of springing into motion. She is poised, ready for flight and +the proud lift of her head makes one believe that she will accomplish +the most difficult steps she attempts. The painting is in the +Luxembourg, Paris. + +Other noted Sargent portraits are "Mr. Marquand" in the Metropolitan +Museum of Art, "Lady Elcho, Mrs. Arden, Mrs. Tennant," "Mrs. Meyer and +Children," "Homer St. Gaudens," "Henschel," and "Mr. Penrose." + + + + +XXXVII + +TINTORETTO (JACOPO ROBUSTI) + + + _Venetian School_ + 1518-1594 + _Pupil of Titian_ + +Tintoretto was born with an ideal. As a young boy he wrote upon his +studio wall: "The drawing of Michael Angelo, the colouring of Titian," +and that was the end he tried to reach. His father was a "tintore"--a +dyer of silk, a tinter--and it was from the character of that work the +artist took his name. He helped his father with the dyeing of silks, +while he was still a child, and was called "II tintoretto," little +dyer. + +As the little tinter showed great genius for painting, his father +placed him in Titian's studio, but for some reason he only stayed +there a few days, long enough, however, to permit us to call him a +pupil of Titian; especially as he wrote that master's name upon his +wall and determined to imitate him. After his few days with Titian, +Tintoretto studied with Schiavone and afterward set up a studio for +himself. + +As a determined lad in this studio of his, Tintoretto tried every +means of developing his art. He studied the figures upon Medicean +tombs made by Michael Angelo, taking plaster casts of them and copying +them in his studio. He used to hang little clay figures up by strings +attached to his ceiling, that he might get the effect of them high in +air. By looking at them thus from below he gained an idea of +foreshortening. + +Although this artist nearly succeeded in getting into line with +Michael Angelo, he did not colour after the fashion of his master, +Titian. Tintoretto was about twenty-eight years old before he got any +very big commission, but at that age a chance came to him. In the +church of Santa Maria del Orto were two great bare spaces, unsightly +and vast, about fifty feet high and twenty broad. In that day anything +and everything was decorated with masterpieces, and it was almost +disgraceful for a church to let such a space as that go +unfrescoed. Tintoretto saw an opportunity, and finally offered to +paint pictures there for nothing if the church would agree to pay for +the materials he needed. The church certainly was not going to refuse +such an offer, even if Tintoretto was not thought to be much of an +artist at the time. If the work was poor, one day they could choose to +have it repainted. Thus Tintoretto got his first great opportunity. He +painted on those walls "The Last Judgment" and "The Golden Calf." They +made him famous, and gained him the commission to paint the picture +which is used as an illustration here. + +The brothers of the Scuola di San Rocco asked him to compete with +Veronese, in painting the ceilings after he had done four pictures for +their walls. + +Tintoretto consented, and Veronese and two others who were in the +competition set about making their sketches which they were to present +for the brothers' consideration. Finaly the day of decision came. All +were assembled, the artists armed with sketches of their plans. + +"Where are yours, Tintoretto?" the others asked. "We expect a drawing +of your idea." + +"Well, there it is," the artist answered, drawing a screen from the +ceiling. Behold! he had already painted it to suit himself. The work +was complete. + +"That is the way I make my sketches," he said. + +Though the work was magnificent it had not been done according to the +monks' ideas of business and order. They objected and objected. + +"Very well," the artist cried; "I will make the ceiling a present to +you." As there was a rule of their order forbidding them to refuse a +present, they had to accept Tintoretto's. This did not promise very +good business at the time, but the work was so splendid and Tintoretto +so reasonable that they finally agreed to give him all the work of +their order--nearly enough to keep him employed during a +lifetime. After that he painted sixty great pictures upon their walls. + +He painted so much and so fast that he did not always do good work, +and one critic declares that "while Tintoretto was the equal of +Titian, he was often inferior to Tintoretto"--which after all is a +very fine compliment. + +His life was so tranquil and uneventful that there is little to say of +it; but there is much to say of his art. He lived mostly in his +studio, and when he died he was buried in the Santa Maria del +Orto--the church in which he had done his first work. + +Veronese had given to Venice a brilliant, glowing, rich, ravishing +riot of colour and figures, but Tintoretto was said to rise up +"against the joyful Veronese as the black knight of the Middle Ages, +the sombre priest of a gloomy art." Tintoretto was of stormy +temperament, and upon one occasion he proved it by thrusting a pistol +under a critic's nose, after he had invited him to his studio; it is +this half savage spirit that may be seen in his paintings. He had +deep-set, staring eyes, it is said, a furrowed brow and hollow cheeks, +indicative of his passionate spirit. He painted very few female +figures, but mostly men. When he did paint a woman, she looked mannish +and not beautiful. When he painted gorgeous subjects, like doges and +senators, he gave to them gloomy backgrounds, awe-inspiring poses, and +he seldom painted a figure "full-face" but three-quarter, or half, so +that he did not give himself a chance to present human figures in +beautiful postures. He is said to have been the first who painted +groups of well-known men in pictures intended for the decoration of +public buildings. One great critic has written that "while the Dutch, +in order to unite figures, represented them at a banquet, Tintoretto's +_nobili_ (aristocrats) were far too proud to show themselves to the +people" in so gay and informal a situation. With the coming of +Tintoretto it was said "a dark cloud had overcast the bright heaven of +Venetian art. Instead of smiling women, bloody martyrs and pale +ascetics" were painted by him. He dissected the dead in order to learn +the structure of the human body. In his paintings "his women, +especially, with their pale livid features and encircled eyes, +strangely sparkling as if from black depths, have nothing in common +with the soft" painted flesh which he pictured in his youth while he +was following Titian as closely as he could. As he grew older and his +art more fixed, he followed Michael Angelo more and more. Titian's +colouring was that of "an autumn day" but Tintoretto's that of a +"dismal night." Yet these very qualities in Tintoretto's work made him +great. + + PLATE--THE MIRACLE OF ST. MARK + +This painting in the Academy at Venice tells the story of how a +Christian slave who belonged to a pagan nobleman went to worship at +the shrine of St. Mark. That was unlawful. The nobleman had his slave +taken before the judge, who ordered him to be tortured. Just as the +executioner raised the hammer with which he was finally to kill the +slave, St. Mark himself came down from heaven, broke the weapon and +rescued the slave. + +The figure of the patron saint of Venice is swooping down, head first, +above the group, his garments flying in the air. A bright light +touches the slave's naked body, as he lies upon his back, the +executioner having turned away and raised his hammer aloft, while +others have drawn back in fright at the appearance of the patron +saint. We may imagine that Tintoretto was trying to acquire this power +of painting wonderful figures hovering in the air when he hung his +little clay images from the ceiling of his studio years before. Other +pictures of his are: "The Marriage of Bacchus and Ariadne," "Martyrdom +of St. Agnes," "St. Rocco Healing the Sick," "The Annunciation," "The +Crucifixion," and many others. + + + + +XXXVIII + +TITIAN (TIZIANO VECELLI) + + + (Pronounced Tit-zee-ah'no (Vay-chel'lee)) + _Venetian School_ + 1477-1576 + _Pupil of Giovanni and Gentile Bellini_ + +Titian was a child of the Tirol Mountains, handsome, strong, full of +health and fine purposes, even as a boy. He was born in a little +cottage at Pieve, in the valley of Cadore, through which flows the +River Piave; and he wandered daily beside its banks, gathering flowers +from which he squeezed the juices to paint with. When he grew up he +became a wonderful colourist, and from his boyhood nothing so much +delighted him as the brilliant colours flaunted by the flowers of wood +and field. + +Gathered about his good father's hearth were many children, Caterina, +Francesco, Orsa, and the rest, living in peace and happiness, closely +bound together by love. Titian had a gentle, loving mother named +Lucia, while his father was a soldier and an honoured man. In the +little town where they lived, he was councillor and also +superintendent of the castle and inspector of mines, no light honours +among those simple country people. Doubtless Titian inherited his +splendid bearing and his determined character from his soldier father. + +Even while a little child, the man who was destined to become a great +artist began his work with the juices of the wild-flowers, which he +daubed upon the wall of the humble home in the Tirol valley, making a +Madonna with angels at her feet and a little Jesus upon her knee. But +if Titian was a great painter, he was never even a fair scholar. He +went to school, but would not, or could not, study. His father soon +saw that he was wasting his time and being made very unhappy through +being forced to do that for which he had no ability; so he was soon +released from book-learning and sent to Venice, seventy-five miles +from home, to learn art. In Venice, the Vecelli family had an uncle, +and it was with him that Titian lived, though he studied first with +Sebastian Zuccato, the head of the Venetian guild of mosaic workers, +and a pretty good teacher in his way. He was not able to teach Titian +very much, for the boy was an inspired artist and needed a good +master; so, after a little, the family held a consultation and it was +decided that Titian should become the pupil of Gentile Bellini, a very +clever artist indeed. There was an interesting story told about this +master which made the Vecellis feel that their boy would do well to be +under the influence of a kind-hearted man, as well as a genius. It +seems that Bellini's fame had become so great that the Sultan had sent +for him to paint the portraits of himself and the Sultana. Bellini +went gladly to Turkey to do this; but he took with him certain +pictures to show his patron. Among them was one of St. John the +Baptist having his head cut off. The Sultan looked at it, and cutting +heads off being a large part of his business, he saw that Bellini had +not scientifically painted it, and in order to show him the true way +to conduct such matters, he sent for a slave and ordered his head +chopped off in Bellini's presence. Bellini was so terrified and +sickened by the dreadful sight that he fled from Turkey and would not +paint its ruler, the Sultana nor anyone else who had to do with such +cruel things as he had witnessed. + +It was into this man's studio that Titian went as a young boy, but +after a little he displeased Gentile Bellini, who complained that his +pupil worked too fast, and therefore could not expect to do great +work. He declared that picture painting was serious and careful work, +and that Titian was too careless and quick. As a matter of fact, +Titian was too wonderful for Bellini ever to do much for; and since he +could not get on with him, he went to another master--Gentile +Bellini's brother, Giovanni. One of Titian's chief troubles in the +studio of Gentile had been that he was not allowed to use the gorgeous +colouring he loved, but in the brother's studio he found to his joy +that colour was more valued, and he was given more freedom to use +it. Also there was a young peasant pupil with Giovanni, who, like +Titian, loved to use beautiful colours, and he and the newcomer became +fast friends. + +The other artist's name was Giorgione, and he had the most delightful +ways about him, winning friends wherever he went, so it was no wonder +that the warm-hearted Titian sought his companionship. One day those +two young comrades left their master's studio, to have a good time off +by themselves. There was a stated hour for their return; but they had +spent all their money, and forgot that Giovanni Bellini was expecting +them home. When they did return the door was closed and locked. What +were they to do? They did the only thing they could. As comrades in +misfortune they joined forces, set up a studio of their own, and went +to work to earn their living as best they might. At first it was hard +sledding, but in time they got a good job, namely to decorate the +walls of a public building in Venice which was used by foreign +merchants for the transaction of their business, a sort of "exchange," +as we understand it. This was the Fondaco de' Tedeschi, and it had two +great halls, eighty rooms, and twenty-six warehouses. It was indeed a +big undertaking for the two young men, and they divided the business +between them. Their joy was great, their cartoons successfully made +and the work well begun, when, alas, they fell to quarreling simply +because someone had declared that Titian's work upon the building was +a little better than Giorgione's. + +This dispute parted the two friends, who had had good times together, +and it must have been Giorgione's fault, because Ludovico Dolce, one +who knew Titian well, said that "he was most modest ... he never spoke +reproachfully of other painters ... in his discourse he was ever ready +to give honour where honour was due ... he was, moreover, an eloquent +speaker, having an excellent wit and perfect judgment in all things; +of a most sweet and gentle nature, affable and most courteous in +manner; so that whoever once conversed with him could not choose but +love him henceforth forever." That is a most loving and splendid +tribute for one man to pay another. Not long after Giorgione died, and +Titian took up his unfinished work, doing it as well as his own. + +There was a brilliant and mature artist called Palma Vecchio, in +Venice, and Titian painted in his studio, where he saw and loved +Vecchio's daughter, Violante. The young artist was not very well off +financially, and therefore could not marry; hence he was not specially +happy over his love affair. About that time he took to painting after +the manner of Vecchio, through being so much influenced by his soft +feelings for the older artist's daughter. He used the lovely Violante +again and again for his model, and many of the beautiful faces which +Titian painted at that time show the features of his lady-love. With +his new love Titian's serious work seemed to begin, and at twenty-one +he painted his first truly great picture, "Sacred and Profane Love." +To day this picture hangs upon the walls of the Borghese Palace, in +Rome. + +Raphael painted a great many pictures, but Titian must have painted +more. At least one thousand have his signature. + +Now came wars and troubles for Venice. The Turks, French, and +Venetians became at odds, and during the strife many fine works of art +were lost, among them many of Titian's pictures. He had painted +bishops, also the wicked Borgias, and many other great personages, but +all of these are gone and to this day, no one knows what became of +them. + +At last Titian began one of his greatest paintings, "The Tribute +Money," and he set about it because he had been criticised. Some +German travellers in Venice visited Titian's studio, and though they +found his work very fine, one of them said that after all there was +only one master able to finish a painting as it should be finished, +and that was the great Drer. The German pointed out the differences +between Titian's method and Drer's, and declared that Venetian +painters never quite came up to the promise of their first +pictures. Drer's wonderful pictures were quite different from +Titian's, inasmuch as his work was fuller of detail and careful +finishing, but Titian was as great in another way. His effects were +broader, but quite as satisfying. However, the German criticism put +him on his mettle, and he answered that if he had thought the greatest +value of a painting lay in its fiddling little details of finishing, +he too would have painted them. To show that he could paint after +Drer's fashion, as well as his own, he undertook the "Tribute Money," +and the result was a wonderful picture. + +Soon Rome sent for Titian. The Florentines, Raphael and Michael +Angelo, were already there doing marvellous things, but the pope +wished to add the genius of Titian to theirs and made him a great +offer to go and live in Rome and do his future work for that +city. This was an honour, but amid all his fame and the homage paid +him, Titian had remembered the old home in the vale of Cadore. It was +there his heart was, and he determined to return to the home of his +boyhood to do his best work. So he sent his thanks and refusal to the +pope, and he wrote as follows to his home folks, through the council +of his town: + +"I, Titian of Cadore, having studied painting from childhood upward, +and desirous of fame rather than profit, wish to serve the doge and +signorini, rather than his highness the pope and other signori, who in +past days, and even now, have urgently asked to employ me. I am +therefore anxious, if it should appear feasible to paint the hall of +council, beginning, if it pleases their sublimity, with the canvas of +the battle on the side toward the Piazza, which is so difficult that +no one as yet has had the courage to attempt it." + +Then in stating his terms he asked for a very moderate sum of money +and a "brokerage" for life. The Government did not have to think over +the matter long. Titian's father had been honoured among them, +Titian's genius was well known, and the commission was gladly given +him. As soon as he got this business affair settled he moved into the +palace of the Duke of Milan "at San Samuele; on the Grand Canal, where +he remained for sixteen years," so says his biographer. + +Titian's affairs were not yet entirely smooth, because both of the +Bellinis having painted for his patrons, they naturally considered +Titian an intruder, and thought that the work should have been given +to them. They did all they could to make trouble for the younger +artist, but after a time Titian came into his rights, receiving his +"brokerage" which gave to him a yearly sum of money 120 crowns, +$126.04. His taxes were taken off for the future, provided he would +agree to paint all the doges that should rule during his lifetime. + +Titian undertook to do this, but he did not keep his word, for he +painted only five doges, though many more followed. He had no sooner +received his commission from the council of his native place than he +began to neglect it, and to paint for the husband of the wicked +poisoner--Lucretia Borgia--whose name was Alfonso d'Este, the Duke of +Ferrara. It was for him he painted the "Venus Worship," now in the +Museum of Madrid, also "The Three Ages," which belongs to Lord +Ellesmere, and the "Virgin's Rest near Bethlehem," now in the National +Gallery. Afterward he painted "Noli Me Tangere," which is in the same +London Gallery. + +There is a picture of great size in the Academy of Arts in Venice, +which was first seen on a public holiday nearly four hundred years +ago. It is the "Assumption of the Virgin," first shown on +St. Bernardino's day, when all the public offices were closed by order +of the Senate, and the whole city had a gay time. This occasion made +Titian the most honoured artist of his time, but still the Venetians +had cause to complain; because now their painter took so much work in +hand that he nearly ceased doing the work on the council hall. The +council sent him word that unless he attended to business the +paintings should be finished by some one else and he would have to pay +the new artist out of his own pocket; but in waywardness he paid no +attention to this summons. Lucretia Borgia died, and her husband +having never loved her, fell at once in love with a girl of a lower +class, who was very good and worthy to be loved. The duke wanted +Titian to paint them both, and so once more the great painter +neglected his contract with the council. The girl's name was Laura, +and Titian painted her and the duke in one picture, which now hangs in +the Louvre. + +At last, after seven years of his neglecting to do his promised work +the council became enraged and threatened to take the artist's +property away from him. That frightened Titian very much, and he began +frantically to work on the battle piece on the hall wall. It was about +this time that he married. He had probably forgotten Violante in the +passing of so many years; at any rate it was not she whom he married, +but a lady whose first name was Cecilia. Soon he had a little family +of children, but one of them was destined to make Titian very +unhappy. This was Pomponic who became a priest, but he was also a +wicked spendthrift, and kept his father forever in trouble, trying to +pay his debts and keep him out of scrapes. Another son became an +artist; not great like his father, but very helpful and a comfort to +him. Then his wife died, and Titian had loved her so dearly that for a +long time he had not the heart to paint much. His sister, Orsa, came +to live at his home and take care of his motherless children. + +He left the palace on the Grand Canal and bought a home north of +Venice, with beautiful gardens attached, and there he lived and +worked, entertaining the most illustrious men. Titian's house and +gardens became the show place of the country, so many geniuses and +famous people visited there. It was there that he painted "The +Martyrdom of Saint Peter," and the picture was so loved by the +Venetians that the signori threatened with death any one who should +take the picture from the chapel where it hung. In spite of this +caution the picture was burned in the fire that destroyed the chapel +in 1867. + +Titian was now getting to be old, but he was yet to do great work and +to have kingly patrons. Charles V. visited Bologna, and, seeing +Titian's great work, wanted him to paint his portrait. So the artist +went to Bologna and painted the portrait of the king, clothed in +armour, but without any head-covering, making Charles V. look so fine +a personage, that he was delighted. Charles said he had always been +painted to look so much uglier than he really was that when people who +had seen his portraits, actually saw himself they were pleasantly +disappointed. While Titian was painting his picture, Lombardi, the +sculptor, wished above all things to see Charles, so Titian said: "You +come with me to the sittings, and act as if you were some apprentice, +carrying my colours and brushes, and then you can watch the king as +easily as possible." Lombardi did as Titian suggested, but he hid in +his big and baggy sleeve a tablet of wax, on which to make a relief +picture of Charles. One day the king surprised the sculptor and +demanded to be shown what he was doing. Thereupon he was so much +pleased that he commissioned Lombardi to make the model in +marble. While the king was sitting for two portraits to Titian, the +artist one day dropped his brush. The king looked at the courtiers who +were lounging about watching the work, but none of them picked it up, +so the king himself did so. Titian was distressed over this and +apologised to the king. "There may be many kings," said Charles, "but +there will never be more than one Titian--and he deserves to be served +by Caesar himself." After that he would allow no other artist to paint +his portrait, declaring that Titian alone could do it properly, and +for the two pictures Titian received two thousand scudi in gold, was +made a Count of the Lateran Palace, of the Aulic Council and of the +Consistory; with the title of Count Palatine and all the advantages +attached to those dignities. His children were thereby raised to the +rank of nobles of the empire, with all the honours appertaining to +families with four generations of ancestors. He was also made Knight +of the Golden Spur, with the right of entrance to court. This was +great return for two portraits of a king, but it shows what a king +could do if he chose. + +Titian had a brother who also became an artist, less famous than +himself, and it was that brother, who, when their father died in the +Cadore home, went back to care for the old place and to keep it in +readiness so that the famous Titian might return to it for rest and +peace. Foreign sovereigns had invited Titian to end his days with +them, but they could not tempt him from that vale of Cadore nor his +country home in Venice. + +All this time he had been neglecting the work upon the hall of +council, and at last, the councillors gave the work to another, took +away Titian's "brokerage" and told him he must return to Venice all +the moneys they had given him for twenty years back. This finally +cured him of his neglect, and he went to work in earnest painting so +rapidly that he finished the work in two years. + +Before he died Titian went to Rome, where he painted Pope Paul's +portrait, and the story is told that when the portrait was set to dry +upon the terrace--which it probably was not,--the people who passed +took off their hats to it, thinking it was the pope himself. + +Besides his bad son and his good one, Titian had a beautiful daughter +whom he painted again and again. He went to Augsburg once more to +paint King Charles, who for that work added a pension of five hundred +scudi to what he had already done for him. This made the artist "as +rich as a prince, instead of poor as a painter." King Philip II. loved +art as his father had, and he took a painting of Titian's with him to +the convent of Yuste, where he went to die, wishing to have it near to +console him. In those days art had become a religion for high and +low. Great personages still went to Casa Grande, Titian's Venetian +home, where he entertained like a prince. No one knew better than he +how princes behaved, and when a cardinal came to dine with him, he +threw his purse to his servant, crying: "Prepare a feast, for all the +world is dining with me!" Henry III. of France visited Titian and +ordered sent to him every picture of which he had asked the price. + +His friends stood by him all his life, but in his old age his +beautiful daughter, Lavinia, died, leaving behind her six children for +him to love as his own. The brother had died before that, in the old +home at Cadore, and at more than eighty years of age Titian was still +painting from morning till night. About this time he sent to King +Philip "The Last Supper," which was to be hung in the Escorial. The +monks found it too high to fill the space, and though the artist in +charge, Navarrette, begged them to let it be, they cut a piece off the +top, that it might be hung where they wanted it. Titian had so far had +to pay no taxes, but at that time an account of his property was +demanded and this is what he owned: "Several houses, pieces of land, +sawmills, and the like," and he was blamed because he did not state +the full value of his possessions. At ninety-one he painted a picture +which became the guide of Rubens and his brother artists, so wonderful +was it. Again, at ninety-nine he began a picture, which was to be +given to the monks of the Frari in return for a burial place for the +artist within the convent walls, but he never finished it. He died +during the time of the plague, but of old age alone, though his son, +Orzio, died of the disease. The alarm of the people was so great that +a law had been passed to bury all who died at that time, instantly and +without ceremony, but that law was waived for the painter. Titian, in +the midst of a nation's tragedy was borne to the convent of the Frari, +with honours. Two centuries later the Austrian Emperor commanded the +great sculptor, Canova, to make a mausoleum above the tomb. + +It was said that shortly before he died Titian began to be less sure +in his use of colours, and would often daub on great masses, but his +students came in the night and rubbed them off, so that the master +never felt his failing. + +As King Charles had said, there was never but one such artist in the +world. + +Titian prepared his canvas by painting upon it a solid colour to serve +for the bed upon which the picture itself was to be painted. To quote +more exactly from a good description--some of these foundation colours +were laid on with resolute strokes of his brush which was heavily +laden with colour, while the half-tints were made with pure red earth, +the lights with pure white, softened into the rest of the foundation +painting with touches of the same brush dipped into red, black, and +yellow. In this way he could give the "promise" of a figure in four +strokes. After laying this foundation, he turned his picture toward +the wall and left it there for months at a time, frequently turning it +around that he might criticise it. If, during this time of waiting, he +thought any part of the work already done was poor, he made it right, +changing the shape of an arm, adding flesh where he thought it was +needed, reducing flesh where it seemed to him out of proportion, and +then he would again turn the canvas face to the wall. After months of +self-criticism and retouching he would have the first layer of flesh +painted upon his figures, and a good beginning made. "It was contrary +to his habit to finish at one painting, and he used to say that a poet +who improvises cannot hope to form pure verses." He would often +produce a half-light with a rub of his finger, "or with a touch of the +thumb he would dab a spot of dark pigment into some corner to +strengthen it; or throw in a reddish stroke--a tear of blood so to +speak--to break the parts ... in fact when finishing he painted more +with his fingers than with his brush." He used to say, "White, red, +and black, these are all the colours that a painter needs, but one +must know how to use them." + + PLATE--THE ARTIST'S DAUGHTER, LAVINIA. + +Previous to the time of Titian, it had been the custom to paint +portraits of beautiful ladies merely to their waists, just far enough +to show their hands. He went further, and produced "knee portraits," +which gave him an opportunity to paint their gorgeous gowns as +well. He has done so in making this picture of his daughter Lavinia, +probably just before her marriage to Cornelio Sarcinelli which took +place in 1555. She is attired in gold-coloured brocade with pearls +about her neck. Her dress, combined with the dish of fruit she holds +so high, gives Titian the colour effects he always sought. A yellow +lemon is specially striking, and the red curtain to the left +harmonises with the whole. The uplift of the arms and the turn of the +head give the desired amount of action. It is not Titian's customary +style of work; he seldom did anything so intimate and personal, and +the picture is the more interesting on that account. It is in the +Berlin Gallery. + +Some of Titian's famous pictures are: his own portrait; "Flora," "Holy +Family and St. Bridget," "The Last Judgment," "The Entombment," "The +Magdalene," "Bacchanal," "St. Sebastian," "Bacchus and Ariadne," and +"The Sleeping Venus." + + + + +XXXIX + +JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER + + + _English_ + 1775-1851 + _Pupil of the Royal Academy_ + +If the occupation of a shepherd produced a poet, no less did an artist +of the first water come out of a barber shop. Turner's father was a +jolly little fellow who dressed hair for English dandies and did all +of those things which in those days fell to men of his profession. It +was in this little shop that the great artist grew up. Father Turner +was ambitious for his son, who was anxious to study art. The less said +of the artist's mother the better, for she was a termagant and finally +went crazy, so that the father and his little boy were soon left +alone, to plan and work and strive to make each other happy. The pair +were never apart. + +Turner's art beginning was at six years of age, on the occasion of a +visit his father paid to a goldsmith of whose hair curling and +peruquing he had charge. Perched upon a chair too high for a little +boy's comfort, and feeling that it took his father very long indeed to +satisfy the customer, Joseph's eye lighted upon a silver lion which +ornamented a silver tray. He studied every detail of that lion while +waiting for his father, and finally when they got home, he sat down +and drew it from memory. By tea time he had a lion in full action upon +the paper. This delighted his father above everything, and it was +settled then and there that the little fellow should have a chance to +learn art. + +The father could not give much time to his upbringing, but he taught +him to be honest and kind-hearted and to save his money. His +playground was generally the bank of the Thames, and under London +Bridge where, roving with the sailors, he learned to love the ships, +the setting-suns and evening waters from a daily study of them. + +He did not do much at school, because the other pupils at New +Brentford, learning that he could draw wonderful things upon the +schoolroom walls, used to do his "sums" for him, while he sketched for +them. After a while father Turner began to hang up some of his son's +sketches upon the walls of the barber shop, among the wigs and curls +and _toup‚es_, and he put little tags upon them, telling the +price. The extraordinary work of his little boy began to attract the +attention of the jolly barber's patrons, and by the time he was twelve +years old the child had a picture upon the walls of the Royal +Academy--a far-cry from barber shop to Academy! + +One authority says that this first exhibition occurred in his +fourteenth year, but by that time he was a pupil of the Academy, and +it is not unlikely that he had shown his mettle before. + +He now began to earn his own living, but he still dwelt in the barber +shop with his father. While in the Academy he coloured prints, made +backgrounds for other painters, drew architect's plans, and in that +way made money. He had been sent to a drawing master to study "the art +of perspective," but having no mathematical knowledge he had been +unable to learn it, and the teacher had advised his father to put +little Turner to cobbling or making clothes. However, William was to +learn perspective, and even to be made master of that branch of art in +the Academy itself. + +In after years, when he had become a great artist, someone spoke +pityingly of the drudgery he had had to do to make money as a young +boy--referring to his painting of backgrounds and the like. "Well! and +what could be better practice?" Turner answered cheerfully. + +He used to go to the house of Dr. Munro, who lived in fine style on +the Strand. This gentleman owned Rembrandts, Rubenses, Titians, and +other great masterpieces, and in that house the "little barber" had a +chance to see the best of art, and also to copy it. This was a great +opportunity for him and he made the most of it. Besides the chance for +study, he earned about half a crown an evening and his supper, for his +copying. + +Turner was the first painter to make "warm moonlight." All other +artists had given cold, silvery effects to a moonlit atmosphere, but +Turner had seen a mellow, sympathetic moon, and he first showed it to +others. About this time he went travelling; for an engraver of the +_Copper Plate Magazine_ had engaged the young boy to go into Wales and +make sketches for his work. Turner set off on a pony which a friend +had lent him, with his baggage done up in a bundle--it did not make a +very big one--and thus he voyaged. It was a fine experience, and he +came home with many beautiful scenes on paper, which he in after years +made into complete pictures. Next he made the acquaintance of Thomas +Girtin, the first in his country of a fine school of water-colour +painters, and this acquaintance grew into a close friendship. The two +were devoted to each other and worked together at any sort of +mechanical art work that would bring them a living. When Girtin died +Turner said: "Had Tim Girtin lived, I should have starved," showing +how highly he valued Girtin's work. + +Turner is said to have been "a stout, clumsy little fellow, who never +cared how he looked. He wore an ill-fitting suit, and his luggage tied +up in a handkerchief was slung over his shoulder on a cane. Sometimes +he carried a small valise and an old umbrella, the handle of which he +converted into a fishing rod, for Turner dearly loved both hunting and +fishing." + +The hero travelled a great deal, because above every thing he loved +the fields and streams, and to tramp alone. It is said that it was his +habit to walk twenty-five miles a day, seeing everything on the way, +letting no peculiarity of nature escape him. His sketchbook was a +curiosity, because he not only made sketches in it, but jotted down +his travelling expenses, what he thought about things that he saw, and +all the gossip he heard in the towns through which he passed. Because +he liked best to travel alone he was called "the Great Hermit of +Nature." + +One memorable day--of which he thought but little at the time--he +stopped on the road to make a sketch of Norham Castle. Later he +completed the picture, and it became famous, so successful that from +that hour he had all the work he could do. Years afterward, when +passing that way again in company with a friend, he was seen to take +off his hat to the castle. + +"Why are you doing that?" his friend asked, in amazement. + +"Well, that castle laid the foundation of my success," he answered, +"and I am pleased to salute it." + +During his young manhood Turner had fallen in love with a girl, and +planned to marry, but after he returned from one of his country trips +he found she had married another, and from that moment the artist was +a changed man. He had been generous and gay before, now he began to +save his money, so that people thought him miserly--but he was +forgiven when it became known what he finally did with his +fortune. After the young woman deserted him he wandered more than +ever, and one of his fancies was to keep boys from robbing birds' +nests. He looked after the little birds so carefully that the boys +named him "old Blackbirdy." He had already begun those wonderful +pictures of ships and seas, and his house was ornamented with +full-rigged little ships and water plants, which he carefully raised +to put into his pictures. By that time he had bought a home of his own +in the country, and his father the barber went to live with him. The +old man's trade had fallen off, because the fashions had changed, wigs +were less worn, and hair was not so elaborately dressed. In the +country home the old man took charge of all the household affairs, +prepared his son's canvases for him, and after the pictures were +painted it was the ex-barber who varnished them, so that Turner said, +"Father begins and finishes all my pictures." There the father and son +lived, in perfect peace and affection, till Turner decided to sell the +place and move into town, "because," said he, "Dad is always working +in the garden and catching cold." + +Meanwhile he had been made master of perspective in the Academy, and +it was expected that he would lecture to the students, but he was not +cut out for a lecturer. He was not elegant in his manners, nor +impressive in his speech. On one occasion, when he had risen to +deliver a speech, he looked helplessly about him and finally blurted +out: "Gentlemen! I've been and left my lecture in the hackney coach!" + +During these years he had tried to establish a studio like other +masters and to have pupils and apprentices about him; but the stupid +ones he could not endure, having no patience with them, and he treated +all the fashionable ones so bluntly they would not stay; so the idea +had to be given up. + +He became a visitor at Farnley Hall in Yorkshire, where a friend, +Mr. Hawksworth Fawkes lived, and in the course of his lifetime Fawkes +put fifty thousand dollars worth of Turner's pictures upon his +walls. The Fawkes family described Turner as a most delightful man: +"The fun, frolic, and shooting we enjoyed together, and which, +whatever may be said by others of his temper and disposition, have +proved to me that he was, in his hours of distraction from his +professional labours as kindly hearted a man and as capable of +enjoyment and fun of all kinds as any I ever knew." + +Another friend writes: "Of all light-hearted, merry creatures I ever +knew, Turner was the most so; and the laughter and fun that abounded +when he was an inmate of our cottage was inconceivable, particularly +with the juvenile members of our family." + +The story of his disappointment in marriage is an interesting one. It +is said that the young lady whom he loved was the sister of a +schoolmate. They had been engaged for some time, but while he was on +one of his travels his letters were stolen and kept from the young +woman. She believed he had forgotten her, and her stepmother, who had +taken the letters, persuaded the girl to engage herself to +another. Turner returned just a week before her marriage and tried to +win her back, but although she loved him, she felt herself then bound +to her new suitor and therefore married him. Her marriage was very +unhappy and her misery, as well as his own, distressed the artist till +his death. Almost all his life, in spite of his seeming gaiety, he +worked like a slave, rising at four o'clock in the morning and working +while light lasted. When remonstrated with about this he would sadly +say: "There are no holidays for me." + +All his ways were honest and simple, and his election to the Academy +was very exceptional in the way it came about. Most Academicians had +graces and airs and good fellowship to commend them, as well as their +works, but Turner had none of these things. He had given no dinners, +nor played a social part in order to get the membership. When the news +was brought him that he was elected, some one advised him to go and +thank his fellow Academicians for the honour, as that was the custom; +but Turner saw no reason in it. "Since I am elected, it must have been +because they thought my pictures made me worthy. Why, then should I +thank them? Why thank a man for performing a simple duty." In half a +century Turner was absent only three times from the Academy +exhibitions, and his membership was of very great value to him. + +At this time Turner had an idea for an art publication to be called +_Liber Studiorum_. He meant to issue this in dark blue covers and to +include in each number five plates. There was to be a series of five +hundred plates altogether, and these were to be divided, according to +subject, into historical, landscape, pastoral, mountainous, marine, +and architectural studies. After seventy plates had been, published, +the enterprise fell through, because no one bought the periodical, and +there was no money to keep it going. The engraver of the plates, +Charles Turner, became so disgusted with the failure that he even used +the proofs of these wonderful studies to kindle the fire with. Many +years later, a great print-dealer, Colnaghi, made Turner, the +engraver, hunt up all the proofs that he had not used for kindling +paper, and these he bought for œ1,500. + +"Good God!" cried Charles Turner, "I have been burning banknotes all +my life." + +Some years later still œ3,000 was paid for a single copy of the _Liber +Studiorum_. + +Turner was a most conscientious man, and many stories are told of his +manner of teaching. He could not talk eloquently nor give very clear +instructions, talking not being his forte, but he would lean over a +student's shoulder, point out the defects in his work, and then on a +paper beside him make a few marks to illustrate what he had said. If +the artist had genius enough then to imitate him, well and good; if +not, Turner simply went away and left him. His own ways of working +were remarkable. He often painted with a sponge and used his thumbnail +to "tear up a sea." It mattered little to him how he produced his +effects so long as he did it. His impressionistic style confused many +of his critics, and it is told how a fine lord once looked at a +picture be had made, and snorted: "Nothing but daubs, nothing but +daubs!" Then catching the inspiration, he leaned close to the canvas, +and said: "No! Painting! so it is!" + +"I find, Mr. Turner," said a lady, "that in copying your pictures, +touches of red, blue and yellow appear all through the work." + +"Well, madam, don't you see that yourself, in nature? Because if you +don't, heaven help you!" was the reply. + +"Once, after painting a summer evening, he thought that the picture +needed a dark spot in front by way of contrast; so he cut out a dog +from black paper and stuck it on. That dog still appears in the +picture." + +Another time he painted "A Snow-storm at Sea," which some critics +called "Soap-suds and Whitewash." Turner, who had been for hours +lashed to the mast of a ship in order to catch the proper effect, was +naturally much hurt by the criticism. "What would they have!" he +exclaimed. "I wonder what they think a storm is like. I wish they'd +been in it." + +Turner was conscientiously fond of his work, and when he sold a +picture he said that he had lost one of his children. + +He grew rich, but he never was knighted, because his manners were not +fine enough to suit the king. He wished to become President of the +Royal Academy, but that was impossible because he was not polished +enough to carry the honour gracefully. + +After selling his place in the country Turner bought a house in Harley +Street, where he lived a strange and lonely life. A gentleman has +written about this incident, which shows us his manner of living: + +"Two ladies called upon Turner while he lived in Harley Street. On +sending in their names, after having ascertained that he was at home, +they were politely requested to walk in, and were shown into a large +sitting-room without a fire. This was in the depth of winter; and +lying about in various places were several cats without tails. In a +short time our talented friend made his appearance, asking the ladies +if they felt cold. The youngest replied in the negative; her +companion, more curious, wished she had stated otherwise, as she hoped +they might have been shown into his sanctum or studio. After a little +conversation he offered them biscuits, which they partook of for the +novelty--such an event being almost unprecedented in his house. One of +the ladies bestowing some notice upon the cats, he was induced to +remark that he had seven, and that they came from the Isle of Man." + +Thus we learn that Turner's desolate house was full of Manx cats, and +of many other pets. When he had moved elsewhere--to 47 Queen Anne +Street--one of the pictures he cared most for, "Bligh Shore," was put +up as a covering to the window and a cat wishing to come in, scratched +it hopelessly. The housekeeper started to punish it for this but +Turner said indulgently, "Oh, never mind!" and saved the cat from +chastisement. + +The place he lived in, where his "dad was always working in the garden +and catching cold," he called Solus Lodge, because he wished his +acquaintances to understand that he wanted to be alone. One picture +painted by him to order, was to have brought him $2,500; but when it +was finished the man was disappointed with it and would not take +it. Later, Turner was offered $8,000 for it, but would not sell it. + +Turner again fell in love, but his bashfulness ruined his chances. He +wrote to the brother of the lady. "If she would only waive her +bashfulness, or, in other words, make an offer instead of expecting +one, the same (Solus Lodge) might change occupiers." Faint heart +certainly did not win fair lady in this case, for she married +another. Before he died Turner was offered $25,000 for two pictures +which he would not sell. "No" he said. "I have willed them and cannot +sell them." He disposed of several great works as legacies. One +picture of which he was very fond, "Carthage," was the occasion of an +amusing anecdote. "Chantry," he said to his friend the sculptor, "I +want you to promise that when I am dead you will see me rolled in that +canvas when I'm buried." + +"All right," said Chantry, "I'll do it, but I'll promise to have you +taken up and unrolled, also." + +A remarkable incident of generosity is told of Turner. In 1826 he hung +two exquisite pictures in the Academy. One, "Cologne," having a most +beautiful, golden effect. This was hung between two portraits by Sir +Thomas Lawrence. The golden colouring of Turner's picture entirely +destroyed the effect of the Lawrence pictures, and without a word, +Turner washed his lovely picture over with lampblack. This gave the +Lawrence, pictures their full colour value. A friend who had been +enthusiastic about the "Cologne" was provoked with Turner. "What in +the world did you do that for?" he demanded. "Well, poor Lawrence was +so unhappy. It will all wash off after the exhibition." Turner had his +reward in cash, for the picture sold for 2,000 guineas. + +Above all things Turner hated engravings, or any process that +cheapened art, and one day he stated this to his friend Lawrence. "I +don't choose to be a basket engraver," he declared. + +"What do you mean by that," Sir Thomas inquired. + +"Why when I got off the coach t' other day at Hastings, a woman came +up with a basket of your 'Mrs. Peel,' and offered to sell me one for a +sixpence." + +Turner dearly loved his friends, and the story of Chantry's death, +illustrates it. He was in his room when the sculptor breathed his +last, and just as he died, the artist turned to another friend, George +Jones, and with tears streaming down his face, wrung Jones's hand and +rushed from the room, unable to speak. + +Again, when William Frederick Wells, another friend, died, Turner +rushed to the house of Clara Wells, his daughter, and cried: "Oh +Clara, Clara! these are iron tears. I have lost the best friend I ever +had in my life." + +In his old age Turner suddenly disappeared from all his haunts, and +his friends could not find him. They were much troubled, but one day +his old housekeeper found a note in a pocket of an old coat, which +made her think he had gone to Chelsea. She looked there for him, and +found him very ill, in a little cottage on the Thames River. Everybody +about called him Admiral Booth, believing him to be a retired +admiral. He had felt his death near and had tried to meet it quite +alone. He died the very day after his friends found him, as he was +being wheeled by them to the window to look out upon the river for the +last time. He was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral between Sir Joshua +Reynolds and James Barry. He left his drawings and pictures to a +"Turner Gallery," and $100,000 to the Royal Academy, to be used for a +medal to be struck every two years for the best exhibitor. The rest of +his fortune went to care for "poor and decayed male artists born in +England and of English parents only." This was to be known as Turner's +Gift, and that is why he had saved money all his life. + +A few more of the numberless stories of his generosity should be +told. A picture had been sent to the Academy by a painter named Bird +It was very fine, and Turner was full of its praise, but when they +came to hang it no place could be found. + +"It can't be hung," the others of the committee said. + +"It must be hung," returned Turner, but nothing could be done about +it, for there was absolutely no place. Then Turner went aside with the +picture and sat studying it a long time. Finally he got up, took down +a picture of his own and hung Bird's in its place. "There!" he +said. "It is hung!" + +Again, an old drawing-master died and Turner who had known the family +for a long time, was aware that they were destitute, so he gave the +widow a good sum of money with which to bury her husband and to meet +general expenses. After some time she came to him with the money; but +Turner put his hands in his pockets. "No," he said; "keep it. Use it +to send the children to school and to church." + +On one occasion when he had irritably sent a beggar from his house, he +ran out and called her back, thrusting a œ5 note into her hand before +letting her go. + +There was a man who in Turner's youth, while the little fellow was +making pictures in the cheerless barber shop bought all of these +drawings he could find. He often raised the price and in every way +tried to help Turner. In after years that old patron went +bankrupt. Turner heard that his steward had been instructed to cut +down some fine old trees on this man's estate, and sell them. Turner, +without letting himself be known in the matter, at once stopped the +cutting and put into his old patron's hands about œ20,000. The rescued +man, afterward, through the same channels that he had received the +money, paid it all back. Years passed, and the son of that same man +got into the same difficulties, and again, without being known in the +matter, Turner restored his fortune. That son, in his turn, honestly +paid back the full amount. This was the miser who saved all his +money--to do good deeds to his friends. Ruskin wrote that in all his +life he had never heard from Turner one unkind or blameful word for +others. + + PLATE--THE FIGHTING TMRAIRE + +This was the picture which Turner loved best of all, the one he would +never sell; but at his death ho gave it to the English nation. + +"Many years before he painted it, he had gone down to Portsmouth one +day to see Nelson's fleet come in after the glorious victory of +Trafalgar. The _T‚m‚raire_ was pointed out to him--a battle ship that +had very proudly borne the English flag, for during the battle it had +run in between two French frigates and captured them both. + +"And now between thirty and forty years later, he lingered one +afternoon on the banks of the Thames. As he looked over the water he +saw the grand old hulk being towed down the river by a noisy little +tug to be broken up at Deptford. 'There's a fine subject!' he +exclaimed as he looked at the heroic ship that had known many glorious +years; and in his thought he compared it to 'a battle-scarred warrior +borne to the grave.' + +"Then he painted the picture. The glow of the setting sun irradiates +the scene and bids farewell to the old ship. Twilight is coming on, +and the new moon has just risen in its pearly light. It is a pathetic +picture," and well illustrates how truly a "master of sunsets and +waves" the artist was. + +Among his other paintings are several of Venice; "The Slave Ship" and +many other sea pieces. + + + + +XL + +SIR ANTHONY VAN DYCK + + + _Flemish School_ + 1599-1641 + _Pupil of Rubens_ + +Anthony Van Dyke's father was neither a gentleman nor an ill-born +person. He was "betwixt-and-between," being a silk merchant, who met +so many fine folk that he seemed to be "fine folk" himself; and by the +time Anthony had grown up, he actually believed himself to be one of +them. If manners stand for fineness Sir Anthony must have been +superfine, because he was almost overburdened with "manners." + +He became a wonderful, be-laced, perfumed, shiny gentleman who never +stooped to paint anything less than royalty and its associates, nor in +anything less than velvets and laces. Like Rembrandt and Gainsborough, +he set a fashion--or rather the style in which he painted came to be +known after his name. We are all familiar with the kind of +ornamentation on clothes called Van Dyck--pointed lace, or +trimmings--and pointed beards. + +As a very young lad he was almost too dainty to be liked by healthy +boys; and the worst of it was he did not care whether healthy, robust +chaps liked him or not; certainly he did not care for them. He liked +to sit in his father's shop and be smiled upon by the great ladies who +came to buy, and in turn to smile shyly at them; this tendency became +stronger as he grew to be a man. + +Anthony's mother made the most exquisite embroideries, and this may +mean that some part of his art was inherited. She handled lovely +colours, and tried to fashion beautiful flower shapes for +customers. She was a fragile, tender sort of woman, while the father +was doubtless a dapper, over-nice little fellow. + +Anthony was born in Antwerp, and the facts concerning his education, +as in the case of most artists, are lost to our knowledge. He probably +had a little of some sort outside of painting, but it certainly was +not enough to hurt him, nor to make a fine healthy man of him. He was +very beautiful, in a lady-like, faint-coloured way, not in the least +resembling the handsome, gorgeous, elegant, robust Rubens, a true +cavalier, of a dashing sort. + +He was apprenticed to a painter when he was ten years old, and later +on became the pupil of Rubens. He painted a whole series of Apostles' +heads, about which a lawsuit took place. The papers relating to this +were found about twenty years ago, though the lawsuit occurred as far +back as 1615. Several of the Apostles' heads that brought about the +suit are to-day to be seen in the gallery at Dresden. + +Everything in those days--especially in Germany and Holland--was +represented by a "guild." In reading about the Mastersingers of +Nuremberg we are told that on the day when the trial of singers was to +take place, dozens of "guilds" assembled in the meadow--guilds of +bakers, of shoemakers--of which Hans Sachs was the head--guilds of +goldsmiths, etc. Van Dyck was a member of the painters' guild when he +was no more than nineteen. His work at that time showed so much +strength that there is a picture of his, an old gentleman and lady, in +the Dresden gallery, which for a long time was supposed to have been +painted by his master, Rubens. + +An intimate friend of Van Dyck, Kenelm Digby, says that Van Dyck's +first relations with Rubens came about by Van Dyck being employed to +make engravings for the reproduction of Rubens's great works. After +that he studied painting with him. + +One of his friends of that time wrote that at twenty Van Dyck was +nearly as great as Rubens, though this is hardly substantiated by the +verdict of time, and that being a man with very rich family +connections, he could hardly be expected to leave home. On every hand +we have signs of the artist's affected feeling about himself and other +people. + +However, an annual pension from the King of England seems to have made +travelling possible to this fine gentleman of lace ruffles, pale face, +and lady-like ways. + +There is an entry about him on the royal account book of "Special +service ... performed for His Majesty." Also "Antonio Van Dyck, gent., +_His Majesty's servant_, is allowed to travaile 8 months, he havinge +obtayneid his Majesty's leave in that behalf, as was signified to the +E. of Arundel." Certainly by that time Van Dyck had become a truly +great portrait painter; not the greatest, because every picture showed +the same characteristics in its subject--elegance, fine clothes, +languid manners, without force of great truth or any excellent moral +quality to distinguish one from another. Nevertheless, the kind of +painting that he did, he did better than anyone else had ever done, or +probably ever will do. + +While in England he painted all the royalties and many aristocrats, +and wherever he went he was always painting pictures of himself. + +He travelled about a good deal, always painting people of the same +class--kings and queens and fine folk, and painting them pretty nearly +all alike. + +When he went to Italy he was everywhere received as a great painter, +but while artists agreed that his work was excellent he was not much +liked by them, and many tales are told about that journey which are +interesting, if not entirely true. Van Dyck was the sort of man about +whom tales would be made up. One, however, sounds true. It is said +that he fell in love--which of course he was always doing--with a +beautiful country girl, and that for love of her he painted an altar +piece into which he put himself, seated on the great gray horse which +Rubens had given him. That picture is in St. Martin's Church at +Saventhem, near Brussels, but although one is inclined to believe this +story because it was quite the sort of thing which might be expected +of Van Dyck, even this is not true, because the painting was done long +after the artist had made his Italian journey, and it was commissioned +by a gentleman living at Saventhem, whose daughter Van Dyck +undoubtedly liked pretty well; but he made the picture for money, not +for love. + +While he was in Italy he lived with a cardinal, and painted languid +pictures of sacred subjects, which were far from being his best +work. The best that he did was in portraiture. Distinguished though he +was, he did not have a very good time in Italy, because he would not +join the artists who worked there, nor associate with them in the +least, and naturally this made him disliked. + +We see a good many portraits painted by Van Dyck, of persons mounted +upon or standing beside the gray horse, and these were painted about +the time of that Italian journey. He used the Rubens horse in many +paintings. + +Of all the people with whom he painted, he most valued the knowledge +he got from a blind woman painter of Sicily, called Sofonisba +Anguisciola, and he often said that he had learned more from a blind +woman than from all the open-eyed men he ever knew. This woman artist +was over ninety years old at the time he learned from her. + +While he was in Italy the plague broke out, and Van Dyck fled for his +life, leaving an unfinished picture behind him, one ordered by the +English king, the subject being Rinaldo and Armida, which had gained +for the artist his knighthood pension. + +It is said that during his first year in England he painted the king +and queen twelve times. He had an extraordinary record for industry, +and painted very quickly, as he had need to do, because it took a +great deal of money to buy the sort of things Van Dyck liked--fine +laces and velvets, perfumes and satins. His plan was to sketch his +subject first on gray paper with black and white chalk, and after that +he gave the sketch to an assistant who increased it to the size he +wished to paint. The next step was to set his painter to work upon the +clothing of his figures. This was painted in roughly, together with +background and any architectural effect Van Dyck wanted. After this +the artist himself sat down and in three or four sittings, of not more +than an hour each, he was able to finish a picture worth to-day +thousands of dollars. + +He painted hands specially well, and kept certain models for them +alone. + +Van Dyck had eleven brothers and sisters, whom he always kept in +mind. Some of his sisters had become nuns while some of his brothers +were priests, and Van Dyck's influence got a monkish brother called to +the Dutch court to act as chaplain to the queen. + +By this time every royal personage in the world, nearly, had sent for +Van Dyck to paint his portrait, for he could make one look handsomer +than could any other painter in existence. If the king was very ugly, +Van Dyck painted such beautiful clothes upon him that nobody noticed +the plainness of the features. + +When Van Dyck was about thirty-six years old he married a great lady, +the Lady Mary Ruthven, granddaughter of the Earl of Gowrie, but before +that he had had a lady-love, Margaret Lemon, whom he painted as the +Virgin and in several other pictures. When he married Lady Mary, +Margaret Lemon was so furiously jealous that she tried to injure Van +Dyck's right hand so that he could paint no more. + +About this time Rubens died in Flanders, leaving behind him an +unfinished series of pictures which had been commissioned by the king +of Spain. Van Dyck was asked to finish these, but declined until he +was asked to make an independent picture, to complete the series, and +this he was delighted to do. Ferdinand of Austria wrote to the king of +Spain that Van Dyck had returned in great haste to London to arrange +for his change of home, in order to do the work. "Possibly he may +still change his mind," he added, "for he is stark mad." This shows +how Van Dyck's erratic ways appeared to some people. + +He had a sister, Justiniana, who was also something of an artist and +she married a nobleman when she was about twelve years old. + +When Van Dyck died he was buried in St. Paul's, London, and Charles +I. placed an inscription on his tomb. + +In the "Young People's Story of Art," is the following anecdote: "A +visit was once paid by a courtly looking stranger passing through +Haarlem, to Franz Hals, the distinguished Dutch painter. + +"Hals was not at home but he was sent for to the tavern and hastily +returned. The stranger told him that he had heard of his +reputation--had just two hours to spare--and wished to have his +portrait painted. Hals, seizing canvas and brushes fell vigorously to +work; and before the given time had elapsed, he said, 'Have the +goodness to rise, sir, and examine your portrait!' The stranger looked +at it, expressed his satisfaction, and then said, 'Painting seems such +a very easy thing, suppose we change places and see what I can do!' + +"Hals assented, and took his position as the sitter. The unknown +began, and as Hals watched him, he saw that he wielded the brush so +quickly, he must be a painter. His work, too, was rapidly finished, +and as Hals looked at it he exclaimed, 'You must be Van Dyck! No one +else could paint such a portrait!' + +"No two portraits could have been more unlike. The story adds that the +famous Dutch and Flemish masters heartily embraced each other." + +The stories of Van Dyck's youth are interesting, and probably true. It +is said that he drew so well when he was a pupil of Rubens that the +great master often allowed him to retouch his own works. Once in +Rubens's studio, some of the students got the key and went in to see +what the master was doing, when he was absent. Rubens had left a +painting fresh upon the easel, and in looking about them one of the +boys rubbed against it. This frightened them all. What should they do? +Rubens would find his picture ruined and know that they had broken in. + +After consultation they decided there was no one with them who could +repair the damage as well as Van Dyck, who set about it, and soon he +had painted in the smudged part so perfectly that when Rubens saw it, +he did not for some time know that anything had happened to his +picture. Later he suspected something, and when he learned of the +prank and its outcome, he was so delighted with Van Dyck's work that +he praised him instead of blaming him for it. + +Van Dyck had a very precise method of working. When sitters came to +him he would paint for just one hour. Then he would politely dismiss +them, and his servant would wash his brushes, and clear the way for +the next sitter. He dined with his sitters often that he might +surprise in them the expression which he wanted to paint. Also, he had +their clothing sent to his studio, that it might be exactly imitated +by himself or by those assistants who painted in the foundation for +his finished work. + +While attached to King Charles I.'s court, Van Dyck was given a fine +house at Blackfriars, on the Thames, and he had a private landing +place made for boats, so that the royal family might visit him at +their convenience. Charles I. used often to go to Van Dyck's studio to +escape his many troubles, and thus the artist's home became as +fashionable a gathering place, as Gainsborough's studio was in +Bath. He painted Queen Henrietta not less than twenty-five times. He +often furnished concerts for his sitters, for he himself was +passionately fond of music, and moreover he believed that music often +brought to the faces of his sitters, an expression that he loved to +paint. + +He painted so many pictures of a certain kind of little dog, in the +pictures of King Charles I. that ever since that breed has been known +as the King Charles spaniel. + +After a while Van Dyck got heavily into debt. King Charles himself was +in great trouble, and he had no money with which to pay his painter's +pension. The artist had lived so extravagantly that he did not know at +last which way to turn, so in desperation he thought to try alchemy +and maybe to learn the secret of making gold. He wasted much time at +this, as cleverer men have done, but at last he became too ill for +that or for his own proper work, and badly off though Charles was +himself, he offered his court physician a large sum if he could cure +his court painter. But Van Dyck had enjoyed life too well, and nothing +could be done for him. + +He was the seventh child of his parents--which some have thought had +something to do with his genius and success; he lived gaily all the +years of his life, going restlessly from place to place, and having +many acquaintances but probably few friends, outside of his old +master, Rubens, who loved him for his genius. + + PLATE--CHILDREN OF CHARLES THE FIRST + +Van Dyck painted the family of the unfortunate king of England four +times. There are five children in the Windsor Castle picture, and this +one, which hangs in the Turin Gallery, was probably painted before the +birth of the fourth child in 1636. It is celebrated for its colouring +as well as for its great artistic merit. The children are surely +childlike enough, despite their stately attire, and they little dream +of the sad fate awaiting the whole of the Stuart family to which they +belong. + +Other Van Dycks are: "The Blessed Herman Joseph," "Lords Digby and +Russell," "Lord Wharton," "Countess Folkestone," and "William Prince +of Orange." + + + + +XLI + +VELASQUEZ (DIEGO RODRIGUEZ DE SILVA) + + + (Pronounced Vay-lahs'keth) + _Castilian School_ + 1599-1669 + _Pupil of Herrera_ + +It is pretty difficult to find out why a man was named so-and-so in +the days of the early Italian and Spanish painters. More likely than +not they would be called after the master to whom they had been first +apprenticed; or after their trade; after the town from which they +came, and rarely because their father had had the name before them. In +Velasquez's case, he was named after his mother. + +No one seemed to be certain what to call him, but he generally wrote +his name "Diego de Silva Velasquez." His father was Rodriguez de +Silva, a lawyer, but in calling the boy Velasquez the family followed +a universal Spanish custom of naming children after their mothers. + +Little Velasquez was well taught in his childhood; he studied many +languages and philosophy, for he was intended to be a lawyer or +something learned, anything but a painter. The disappointment of +parents in those days, when they found a child was likely to become an +artist is touching. + +Despite his equipment for a useful life, according to the ideas of his +parents, this little chap was bound to become nothing but a maker of +pictures. + +Herrera was a bad-tempered master and little Velasquez could not get +on with him, so after a year of harsh treatment, he went to another +master, Pacheco, but by that time he had learned a secret that was to +help make his work great. Herrera had taught him to use a brush with +very long bristles, which had the effect of spreading the paint, +making it look as if his "colours had floated upon the canvas," in a +way that was the "despair of those who came after him." + +Velasquez was born in Seville at a time when about all the art of the +world was Italian or German; thus he became the creator of a new +school of painting. + +He stayed five years in Pacheco's studio and pupil and master became +very fond of each other. Pacheco was not a great master--not so good +as Herrera--but he was easy to get on with, and knew a good deal about +painting, so that as Velasquez had the genius, he was as well placed +as he needed to be. + +In Pacheco's studio there was a peasant boy whose face was very +mobile, showed every passing feeling; and Velasquez used to make him +laugh and weep, till, surprising some good expression, he would +quickly sketch him. With this excellent model, Velasquez did a +surprising amount of good work. + +Spain had just then conquered the far-off provinces of Mexico and +Peru, and was continually receiving from its newly got lands much +valuable merchandise. Rapidly growing rich, this Latin country loved +art and all things beautiful, so its money was bound to be spent +freely in such ways. Madrid had been made its capital, and at that +time there were few fine pictures to be found there. The Moors who had +conquered Spain had forbidden picture making, because it was contrary +to their religion to represent the human figure, or even the figures +of birds and beasts. Then the Inquisition had hindered art by its +rules, one of which was that the Virgin Mary should always be painted +with her feet covered; another, that all saints should be +beardless. There were many more exactions. + +While cathedrals were being built elsewhere, the Moors had been in +control of Spanish lands, so that no cathedral had been built there, +and when Velasquez came upon the scene the time of great cathedral +building was past. It had ceased to be the fashion. Although there had +been such painters as Beneguette, Morales, Navarrette, and Ribera, all +Spanish and of considerable genius, they had been too badly +handicapped to make painting a great art in Spain. When Madrid became +the capital of Spain, it had no unusual buildings, unless it was an +old fortress of the Moors, the Alcazar, Caesar's house, but the nation +was buying paintings from Italy, and it began to beautify Madrid, +which had the advantage of the former Moorish luxury and art, very +beautiful, though not pictorial. + +In Madrid, then, there seemed to be great opportunity for a fine +artist like Velasquez, and his master urged him to go there and try +his fortune. So he set out on mule-back, attended by his slave, but +unless he could get the ear of the king, it was useless for him to +seek advancement in Madrid. Without the king as patron at that time, +an artist could not accomplish much. After trying again and again, +Velasquez had to return to his old master, without having seen the +king; but after a time a picture of his was seen by Philip IV., and he +was so much pleased with it that he summoned the artist. Through his +minister, Olivares, he offered him $113.40 in gold (fifty ducats) to +pay his return expenses. The next year he gave him $680.40 to move his +family to Madrid. + +At last the artist had found a place in the rich city, and he went to +live at the court where the warmest friendship grew between him and +the king. The latter was an author and something of a painter, so that +they loved the same things. This friendship lasted all their lives, +and they were together most of the time, the king always being found, +in Velasquez's studio in the palace when his duties did not call him +elsewhere. During the many many years--nearly thirty-seven--that +Velasquez lived with Philip IV. he employed himself in painting the +scenes at court. Thus he became the pictorial historian of the Spanish +capital. He was a man of good disposition, kindly and generous in +conduct and in feeling, so that he was always in the midst of friends +and well-wishers. + +Philip IV. was indeed a noble companion, but he was not a gay one, +being known as the king who never laughed--or at least whose laughter +was so rare, the few times he did laugh became historic. One would +expect this serious and depressing atmosphere to have had an effect +upon a painter's art; but it chanced that Rubens visited Spain, and +there, Velasquez being the one famous artist, it was natural they +should become interested in each other. Rubens told Velasquez of the +wonders of Italian painting, till the Spaniard could think of nothing +else, and finally he begged Philip to let him journey to Italy that he +might see some of those wonders for himself. The request made the king +unhappy at first, but at last he gave his consent and Velasquez set +out for Italy. The king gave him money and letters of introduction, +and he went in company with the Marquis of Spinola. + +After Velasquez had stayed eighteen months in Italy, Philip began to +long for his friend and sent for him to return. He came back full of +the stories of brilliant Italy, and charmed the king completely. + +There is as absurd a story of Velasquez's perfection in painting as +that of Raphael's, whose portrait of the pope, left upon the terrace +to dry, imposed upon passers by. It is said of Velasquez's work that +when he had painted an admiral whom the king had ordered to sea, and +left it exposed in his studio, the king, entering, thought it was the +admiral himself, and angrily inquired why he had not put to sea +according to orders. On the face of them these stories are false, but +they serve to suggest the perfection of these artists' paintings. + +Philip, being a melancholy man, had his court full of jesters, poor +misshapen creatures--dwarfs and hunchbacks--who were supposed to +appear "funny," and Velasquez, as court painter, painted those whom he +continually saw about him, who formed the court family. Thus we have +pictures of strange groups--dwarfs, little princesses, dressed +precisely as the elders were dressed, favourite dogs, and Velasquez +himself at his easel. + +In 1618, while still with his master, Pacheco, he had married the +master's daughter, a big, portly woman. Before he left Seville he bad +two daughters. + +These were all the children he had, although he painted a picture of +"Velasquez's Family" which includes a great number of people. The +figures in that painting are the children of his daughter, not his +own; and this may account for one biographer's statement that the +artist had "seven children." He was devoted to and happy in his family +of children and grandchildren. + +He did not grow rich, but received regularly during his life in +Madrid, twenty gold ducats ($45.36) a month to live upon, and besides +this his medical attendance, lodging, and additional payment for every +picture. The one which brought him this good fortune was an equestrian +portrait of Philip; first uncovered on the steps of San +Felipe. Everywhere the people were delighted with it, poets sung of +it, and the king declared no other should ever paint his +portrait. This picture has long since disappeared. + +In 1627 Velasquez won the prize for a picture representing the +expulsion of the Moors from Spain and was rewarded by "being appointed +gentleman usher. To this was shortly afterward added a daily allowance +of twelve reals--the same amount which was allowed to court +barbers--and ninety gold ducats ($204.12) a year for dress, which was +also paid to the dwarfs, buffoons, and players about the king's +person--truly a curious estimate of talent at the court of Spain." + +The record of Philip IV. with unpleasing, even degenerate characters, +about him, is brightened by the thought of his loyalty to his court +painter and life-long friend. When the king's favourites fell, those +who had been the friends of Velasquez, the artist loyally remained +their friend in adversity as he had been while they were +powerful. This constancy, even to the royal enemies, was never +resented by Philip. He honoured the faithfulness of his artist, even +as he himself was faithful in this friendship. Philip's court was such +that there was little to paint that was ennobling, and so Velasquez +lacked the inspiration of such surroundings as the Italian painters +had. + +Philip IV. was hail-fellow-well-met with his stablemen, his huntsmen, +his cooks, and yet he seems to have had no sense of humour, was long +faced and forbidding to look at, and despite his strange habits +considered himself the most mighty and haughty man in the world. He +felt himself free to behave as he chose, because he was Philip of +Spain; and he chose to do a great many absurd and outrageous +things. In all Philip's portraits, painted by Velasquez, he wears a +stiff white linen collar of his own invention, and he was so proud of +this that he celebrated it by a festival. He went in procession to +church to thank God for the wonderful blessing of the _Golilla_--the +name of his collar. This unsightly thing became the fashion, and all +portraits of men of that time were painted with it. "In regard to the +wonderful structure of Philip's moustaches it is said, that, to +preserve their form they were encased during the night in perfumed +leather covers called _bigoteras_." Such absurdities in a king, who +had the responsibilities of a nation upon him, seem incredible. + +Velasquez made in all three journeys to Italy, and the last one was on +a mission for the king, which was much to the latter's credit. Philip +had determined to have a fine art gallery in Madrid, for Spain had by +this time many pictures, but no statuary; so he commissioned his +painter to buy whatever he thought well of and _could_ buy, in +Italy. Hence the artist set off again with his slave--the same one +with whom he had journeyed to Madrid so long before. His name was +Pareja, and his master had already made an excellent artist of him. + +They went to Genoa, thence to the great art-centres of Italy, were +received everywhere with honour, and the artist bought wisely. +Velasquez did not care for Raphael's paintings as much as for +Titian's, and he said so to Salvator Rosa, an honoured painter in +Italy. + +While in Rome Velasquez painted the pope, also his own slave, Pareja. + +When he returned to Spain he took with him three hundred statues, but +a large number of them were nude, and the Spanish court, not over +particular about most things, was very particular about naked statues, +so that after Philip's death, they nearly all disappeared. After his +return, and after the queen had died and Philip had married again, +Velasquez was made quartermaster-general, no easy post but not without +honour, though it interfered with his picture painting a good deal. He +had to look after the comfort of all the court, and to see that the +apartments it occupied, at home or when it visited, were suitable. + +"Even the powerful king of Spain could not make his favourite a belted +knight without a commission to inquire into the purity of his lineage +on both sides of the house. Fortunately, the pedigree could bear +scrutiny, as for generations the family was found free from all taint +of heresy, from all trace of Jewish or Moorish blood, and from +contamination from trade or commerce. The difficulty connected with +the fact that he was a painter was got over by his being painter to +the king and by the declaration that he did not sell his pictures." + +The red Cross of Santiago conferred upon him by Philip, made Velasquez +a knight and freed him also from the rulings of the Inquisition, which +directed so largely what artists could and could not do. Thus it is +that we come to have certain great pictures from Velasquez's brush +which could not otherwise have been painted. + +This action of the king, setting free the artist, made two schools of +art, of which the court painter represented one; and Murillo the +other, under the command of the Church. Although not so rich perhaps +as Raphael, Velasquez lived and died in plenty, while Murillo, the +artist of the Church of Rome, was a poverty-stricken man. + +Finally, while in the midst of honours, and fulfilling his official +duty to the court of Spain, Velasquez contracted the disease which +killed him. The Infanta, Maria Theresa, was to wed Louis XIV., and the +ceremony was to take place on a swampy little island called the Island +of Pheasants. There he went to decorate a pavilion and other places of +display. He became ill with a fever and died soon after he returned to +Madrid. + +He made his wife, his old master Pacheco's daughter, his executor, and +was buried in the church of San Juan, in the vault of Fuensalida; but +within a week his devoted wife was dead, and in eight days' time she +was buried beside him. + +He left his affairs--accounts between him and the court--badly +entangled, and it was many years before they were straightened +out. His many deeds of kindness lived after him. He made of his slave +a good artist and a devoted friend, and by his efforts the slave +became a freedman. The story of his kindly help to Murillo when that +exquisite painter came, unknown and friendless to Madrid, has already +been told. + +The Church where Velasquez was buried was destroyed by the French in +1811, and all trace of the resting place of the great Spanish artist +is forever lost to us. + +He is called not only "painter to the king," but "king of painters." + + PLATE--EQUESTRIAN PORTRAIT OF DON BALTHASAR CARLOS. + +Philip of Spain had long prayed for a son and when at last one was +granted him his pride in his young heir was unbounded. The little Don +Carlos was not unworthy, for he was a cheerful, hearty boy, trained to +horsemanship, from his fourth year, for his father was a noted rider +and had the best instructors for his son. The prince was a brave +hunter too and we are told that he shot a wild boar when he was but +nine years of age. In this portrait which is in the Museo del Prado he +is six years old, and it was neither the first nor the last that +Velasquez made of him. It was one of the court painter's chief duties +to see that the heir to the throne was placed upon canvas at every +stage of his career, and he painted him from two years of age till his +lamented death at sixteen. + +The young prince wears in this picture a green velvet jacket with +white sleeves and his scarf is crimson embroidered with gold. The +lively pony is a light chestnut and the foreshortening of its body +must be noticed. The steady grave eyes of the lad are gazing far ahead +as they would naturally be if he were riding rapidly, but his princely +dignity is shown in his firm seat in the saddle and his manner of +holding his marshal's bat“n. + +The great art of the painter is also shown in the way he subordinates +the landscape to the figure. He will not allow even a tree to come +near the young horseman, but brings his young activity into vivid +contrast with the calm peacefulness of the distant view. + +With the death of Don Carlos the downfall of his father's dynasty was +assured, though for a time his little sister, the Infanta Maria +Theresa, was upheld as the heiress. She married Louis XIV. and had a +weary time of it in France. Velasquez painted her picture too, in the +grown up dress of the children of that day. It is in the Vienna +Gallery. Among his best known pictures are "The Surrender of Breda," +"Alessandro del Borro," and "Philip IV." + + + + +XLII + +PAUL VERONESE (PAOLO CAGLIARI) + + + (Pronounced Vay-ro-nay'zay and pah'o-lah cal-ee-ah'ree) + _Venetian School_ + 1528-1588 + _Pupil of Titian_ + +"One has never done well enough, when one can do better; one never +knows enough when he can learn more!" + +This was the motto of Paul Veronese. This artist was born in +Verona--whence he took his name--and spent much of his life with the +monks in the monastery of St. Sebastian. + +His father was a sculptor, and taught his son. Veronese himself was a +lovable fellow, had a kind feeling for all, and in return received the +good will of most people. When he first went to Venice to study he +took letters of introduction to the monks of St. Sebastian, and +finally went to live with them, for his uncle was prior of the +monastery, and it was upon its walls that he did his first work in +Venice. His subject was the story of Esther, which he illustrated +completely. + +He became known in time as "the most magnificent of magnificent +painters." He loved the gaieties of Venice; the lords and ladies; the +exquisite colouring; the feasting and laughter, and everything he +painted, showed this taste. When he chose great religious subjects he +dressed all his figures in elegant Venetian costumes, in the midst of +elegant Venetian scenes. His Virgins, or other Biblical people, were +not Jews of Palestine, but Venetians of Venice, but so beautiful were +they and so inspiring, that nobody cared to criticise them on that +score. He loved to paint festival scenes such as, "The Marriage at +Cana," "Banquet in Levi's House," or "Feast in the House of Simon." He +painted nothing as it could possibly have been, but everything as he +would have liked it to be. + +Into the "Wedding Feast at Cana," where Jesus was said to have turned +the water into wine, he introduced a great host of his friends, people +then living. Titian is there, and several reigning kings and queens, +including Francis I. of France and his bride, for whom the picture was +made. This treatment of the Bible story startles the mind, but +delights the eye. + +It was said that his "red recurred like a joyful trumpet blast among +the silver gray harmonies of his paintings." + +Muther, one who has written brilliantly about him, tells us that +"Veronese seems to have come into the world to prove that the painter +need have neither head nor heart, but only a hand, a brush, and a pot +of paint in order to clothe all the walls of the world with oil +paintings" and that "if he paints Mary, she is not the handmaid of the +Lord or even the Queen of Heaven, but a woman of the world, listening +with approving smile to the homage of a cavalier. In light red silk +morning dress, she receives the Angel of the Annunciation and hears +without surprise--for she has already heard it--what he has to say; +and at the Entombment she only weeps in order to keep up appearances." + +Such criticism raises a smile, but it is quite just, and what is more, +the Veronese pictures are so beautiful that one is not likely to +quarrel with the painter for having more good feeling than +understanding. His joyous temperament came near to doing him harm, for +he was summoned before the Inquisition for the manner in which he had +painted "The Last Supper." + +After the Esther pictures in St. Sebastian, the artist painted there +the "Martyrdom of St. Sebastian," and there is a tradition that he did +his work while hiding in the monastery because of some mischief of +which he had been guilty. + +At that time he was not much more than twenty-six or eight, while the +great painter Tintoretto was forty-five, yet his work in St. Sebastian +made him as famous as the older artist. + +There is very little known of the private affairs of Veronese. He +signed a contract for painting the "Marriage at Cana," for the +refectory of the monastery of St. Giorgio Maggiore, in June 1562, and +that picture, stupendous as it is, was finished eighteen months +later. He received $777.60 for it, as well as his living while he was +at work upon it, and a tun of wine. One picture he is supposed to have +left behind him at a house where he had been entertained, as an +acknowledgment of the courtesy shown him. + +Paul had a brother, Benedetto, ten years younger than himself, and it +is said that he greatly helped Paul in his work, by designing the +architectural backgrounds of his pictures. If that is so, Benedetto +must have been an artist of much genius, for those backgrounds in the +paintings are very fine. + +Veronese married, and had two sons; the younger being named +Carletto. He was also the favourite, and an excellent artist, who did +some fine painting, but he died while he was still young. Gabriele the +elder son, also painted, but he was mainly a man of affairs, and +attended to business rather than to art. + +Veronese was a loving father and brother, and beyond doubt a happy +man. After his death both his sons and his brother worked upon his +unfinished paintings, completing them for him. He was buried in the +Church of St. Sebastian. + + PLATE--THE MARRIAGE AT CANA + +This painting is most characteristic of Veronese's methods. He has no +regard for the truth in presenting the picture story. At the marriage +at Cana everybody must have been very simply dressed, and there could +have been no beautiful architecture, such as we see in the picture. In +the painting we find courtier-like men and women dressed in beautiful +silks. Some of the costumes appear to be a little Russian in +character, the others Venetian; and Jesus Himself wears the loose +every-day robe of the pastoral people to whom he belonged. We think of +luxury and rich food and a splendid house when we look at this +painting, when as a matter of fact nothing of this sort could have +belonged to the scene which Veronese chose to represent. Perhaps no +painter was more lacking in imagination than was Veronese in painting +this particular picture. He chose to place historical or legendary +characters, in the midst of a scene which could not have existed +co-incidently with the event. + +Among his other pictures are "Europa and the Bull," "Venice +Enthroned," and the "Presentation of the Family of Darius to +Alexander." + + + + +XLIII + +LEONARDO DA VINCI + + + (Pronounced Lay-o-nar'do dah Veen'chee) + _Florentine School_ + 1451-1519 + _Pupil of Verrocchio_ + +Leonardo da Vinci was the natural son of a notary, Ser Pier, and he +was born at the Castello of Vinci, near Empoli. From the very hour +that he was apprenticed to his master, Verrocchio, he proved that he +was the superior of his master in art. Da Vinci was one of the most +remarkable men who ever lived, because he not only did an +extraordinary number of things, but he did all of them well. + +He was an engineer, made bridges, fortifications, and plans which to +this day are brilliant achievements. + +He was a sculptor, and as such did beautiful work. + +He was a naturalist, and as such was of use to the world. + +He was an author and left behind him books written backward, of which +he said that only he who was willing to devote enough study to them to +read them in that form, was able to profit by what he had written. + +Finally, and most wonderfully, he was a painter. + +He had absolute faith in himself. Before he constructed his bridge he +said that he could build the best one in the world, and a king took +him at his word and was not disappointed by the result. + +He stated that he could paint the finest picture in the world--but let +us read what he himself said of it, in so sure and superbly confident +a way that it robbed his statement of anything like foolish +vanity. Such as he could afford to speak frankly of his greatness, +without appearing absurd. He wrote: + +"In time of peace, I believe I can equal anyone in architecture, in +constructing public and private buildings, and in conducting water +from one place to another. I can execute sculpture, whether in marble, +bronze, or terra cotta, and in painting I can do as much as any other +man, be he who he may. Further, I could engage to execute the bronze +horse in eternal memory of your father and the illustrious house of +Sforza." He was writing to Ludovico Sforza whose house then ruled at +Milan. "If any of the above-mentioned things should appear to you +impossible or impracticable, I am ready to make trial of them in your +park, or in any other place that may please your excellency, to whom I +commend myself in proud humility." + +Leonardo's experiments with oils and the mixing of his pigments has +nearly lost to us his most remarkable pictures. His first fourteen +years of work as an artist were spent in Milan, where he was employed +to paint by the Duke of Milan, and never again was his life so +peaceful; it was ever afterward full of change. He went from Milan to +Venice, to Rome, to Florence, and back to Milan where his greatest +work was done. + +While Leonardo was a baby he lived in the Castle of Vinci. He was +beautiful as a child and very handsome as a man. When a child he wore +long curls reaching below his waist. He was richly clothed, and +greatly beloved. His body seemed no less wonderful than his mind. He +wished to learn everything, and his memory was so wonderful that he +remembered all that he undertook to learn. His muscles were so +powerful that he could bend iron, and all animals seemed to love +him. It is said he could tame the wildest horses. Indeed his life and +accomplishments read as if he were one enchanted. One writer tells us +that "he never could bear to see any creature cruelly treated, and +sometimes he would buy little caged birds that he might just have the +pleasure of opening the doors of their cages, and setting them at +liberty." + +The story told of his first known work is that his master, being +hurried in finishing a picture, permitted Leonardo to paint in an +angel's head, and that it was so much better than the rest of the +picture, that Verrocchio burned his brushes and broke his palette, +determined never to paint again, but probably this is a good deal of a +fairy tale and one that is not needed to impress us with the artist's +greatness, since there is so much to prove it without adding fable to +fact. + +Leonardo was also a very far seeing inventor and most ingenious. He +made mechanical toys that "worked" when they were wound up. He even +devised a miniature flying machine; however, history does not tell us +whether it flew or not. He thought out the uses of steam as a motive +power long before Fulton's time. + +Leonardo haunted the public streets, sketchbook in hand, and when +attracted by a face, would follow till he was able to transfer it to +paper. Ida Prentice Whitcomb, who has compiled many anecdotes of da +Vinci, says that it was also his habit to invite peasants to his +house, and there amuse them with funny stories till he caught some +fleeting expression of mirth which he was pleased to reproduce. + +As a courtier Leonardo was elegant and full of amusing devices. He +sang, accompanying himself on a silver lute, which he had had +fashioned in imitation of a horse's skull. After he attached himself +to the court of the Duke of Milan, his gift of invention was +constantly called into use, and one of the surprises he had in store +for the Duke's guests was a great mechanical lion, which being wound +up, would walk into the presence of the court, open its mouth and +disclose a bunch of flowers inside. + +Leonardo worked very slowly upon his paintings, because he was never +satisfied with a work, and would retouch it day after day. Then, too, +he was a man of moods, like most geniuses, and could not work with +regularity. The picture of the "Last Supper" was painted in Milan, by +order of his patron, the Duke, and there are many picturesque stories +written of its production. It was painted upon the refectory wall of a +Dominican convent, the Santa Maria delle Grazie; and at first the work +went off well, and the artist would remain upon his scaffolding from +morning till night, absorbed in his painting. It is said that at such +times he neither ate nor drank, forgetting all but his great work. He +kept postponing the painting of two heads--Christ and Judas. + +He had worked painstakingly and with enthusiasm till that point, but +deferred what he was hardly willing to trust himself to perform. He +had certain conceptions of these features which he almost feared to +execute, so tremendous was his purpose. He let that part of the work +go, month after month, and having already spent two years upon the +picture, the monks began to urge him to a finish. He was not the man +to endure much pressure, and the more they urged the more resentful he +became. Finally, he began to feel a bitter dislike for the prior, the +man who annoyed him most. One day, when the prior was nagging him +about the picture, wanting to know why he didn't get to work upon it +again, and when would it be finished, Leonardo said suavely: "If you +will sit for the head of Judas, I'll be able to finish the picture at +once." The prior was enraged, as Leonardo meant he should be; but +Leonardo is said actually to have painted him in as Judas. Afterward +he painted in the face of Christ with haste and little care, simply +because he despaired of ever doing the wonderful face that his art +soul demanded Christ should wear. + +The one bitter moment in Leonardo's life, in all probability, was when +he came in dire competition with Michael Angelo. When he removed to +Florence he was required to submit sketches for the Town Hall--the +Palazzo Vecchio--and Michael Angelo was his rival. The choice fell to +Angelo, and after a life of supremacy Leonardo could not endure the +humiliation with grace. Added to disappointment, someone declared that +Leonardo's powers were waning because he was growing old. This was +more than he could bear, and he left Italy for France, where the king +had invited him to come and spend the remainder of his life. Francis +I. had wished to have the picture in the Milan monastery taken to +France, but that was not to be done. + +Doubtless the king expected Leonardo to do some equally great work +after he became the nation's guest. + +Before leaving Italy, Leonardo had painted his one other "greatest" +picture--"La Gioconda" (Mona Lisa)-and he took that wonderful work +with him to France, where the King purchased it for $9,000, and to +this day it hangs in the Louvre. + +But Leonardo was to do no great work in France, for in truth he was +growing old. His health had failed, and although he was still a dandy +and court favourite, setting the fashion in clothing and in the cut of +hair and beard, he was no longer the brilliant, active Leonardo. + +Bernard Berensen, has written of him: "Painting ... was to Leonardo so +little of a preoccupation that we must regard it as merely a mode of +expression used at moments by a man of universal genius." By which +Berensen means us to understand that Leonardo was so brilliant a +student and inventor, so versatile, that art was a mere pastime. "No, +let us not join in the reproaches made to Leonardo for having painted +so little; because he had so much more to do than to paint, he has +left all of us heirs to one or two of the supremest works of art ever +created." + +Another author writes that "in Leonardo da Vinci every talent was +combined in one man." + +Leonardo was the third person of the wonderful trinity of Florentine +painters, Raphael and Michael Angelo being the other two. + +He knew so much that he never doubted his own powers, but when he +died, after three years in France, he left little behind him, and that +little he had ever declared to be unfinished--the "Mona Lisa" and the +"Last Supper." He died in the Chƒteau de Cloux, at Amboise, and it is +said that "sore wept the king when he heard that Leonardo was dead." + +In Milan, near the Cathedral, there stands a monument to his memory, +and about it are placed the statues of his pupils. To this day he is +wonderful among the great men of the world. + + PLATE--THE LAST SUPPER + +This, as we have said, is in the former convent of Santa Maria delle +Grazie, in Milan. It was the first painted story of this legendary +event in which natural and spontaneous action on the part of all the +company was presented. + +To-day the picture is nearly ruined by smoke, time, and alterations in +the place, for a great door lintel has been cut into the +picture. Leonardo used the words of the Christ: "Verily, I say unto +you that one of you shall betray me," as the starting point for this +painting. It is after the utterance of these words that we see each of +the disciples questioning horrified, frightened, anxious, listening, +angered--all these emotions being expressed by the face or gestures of +the hands or pose of the figures. It is a most wonderful picture and +it seems as if the limit of genius was to be found in it. + +The company is gathered in a half-dark hall, the heads outlined +against the evening light that comes through the windows at the +back. We look into a room and seem to behold the greatest tragedy of +legendary history: treachery and sorrow and consternation brought to +Jesus of Nazareth and his comrades. + +This great picture was painted in oil instead of in "distemper," the +proper kind of mixture for fresco, and therefore it was bound to be +lost in the course of time. Besides, it has known more than ordinary +disaster. The troops of Napoleon used this room, the convent +refectory, for a stable, and that did not do the painting any +good. The reason we have so complete a knowledge of it, however, is +that Leonardo's pupils made an endless number of copies of it, and +thus it has found its way into thousands of homes. The following is +the order in which Leonardo placed the disciples at the table: Jesus +of Nazareth in the centre, Bartholomew the last on the left, after him +is James, Andrew, Peter, Judas--who holds the money bag--and John. On +the right, next to Jesus, comes Thomas, the doubting one; James the +Greater, Philip, Matthew, Thaddeus, and Simon. Jesus has just declared +that one of them shall betray him, and each in his own way seems to be +asking "Lord, is it I?" In the South Kensington Museum in London will +be found carefully preserved a description, written out fairly in +Leonardo's own hand, to guide him in painting the Last Supper. It is +most interesting and we shall quote it: "One, in the act of drinking +puts down his glass and turns his head to the speaker. Another +twisting his fingers together, turns to his companion, knitting his +eyebrows. Another, opening his hands and turning the palm toward the +spectator, shrugs his shoulders, his mouth expressing the liveliest +surprise. Another whispers in the ear of a companion, who turns to +listen, holding in one hand a knife, and in the other a loaf, which he +has cut in two. Another, turning around with a knife in his hand, +upsets a glass upon the table and looks; another gasps in amazement; +another leans forward to look at the speaker, shading his eyes with +his hand; another, drawing back behind the one who leans forward, +looks into the space between the wall and the stooping disciple." + +Other paintings of Leonardo's are: "Mona Lisa," "Head of Medusa," +"Adoration of the Magi," and the "Madonna della Caraffa." + + + + +XLIV + +JEAN ANTOINE WATTEAU + + + (Pronounced in French, Vaht-toh; English, Wot-toh) + _French (Genre) School_ + 1684-1721 + _Pupil of Gillot and Audran_ + +Watteau's father was a tiler in a Flemish town--Valenciennes. He meant +that his son should be a carpenter, but that son tramped from +Valenciennes to Paris with the purpose of becoming a great painter. He +did more, he became a "school" of painting, all by himself. + +There is no sadder story among artists than that of this lowly born +genius. He was not good to look upon, being the very opposite of all +that he loved, having no grace or charm in appearance. He had a +drooping mouth, red and bony hands, and a narrow chest with stooping +shoulders. Because of a strange sensitiveness he lived all his life +apart from those he would have been happy with, for he mistrusted his +own ugliness, and thought he might be a burden to others. + +Such a man has painted the gayest, gladdest, most delicate and +exquisite pictures imaginable. + +He entered Paris as a young man, without friends, without money or +connections of any kind, and after wandering forlornly, about the +great city, he found employment with a dealer who made hundreds of +saints for out-of-town churches. + +It is said that for this first employer Watteau made dozens and dozens +of pictures of St. Nicholas; and when we think of the beautiful +figures he was going to make, pictures that should delight all the +world, there seems something tragic in the monotony and +common-placeness of that first work he was forced by poverty to +do. Certainly St. Nicholas brought one man bread and butter, even if +he forgot him at Christmas time. + +After that hard apprenticeship, Watteau's condition became slightly +better. He had been employed near the Pont Notre Dame, at three francs +a week, but now in the studio of a scene painter, Gillot, he did work +of coarse effect, very different from that exquisite school of art +which he was to bring into being. After Gillot's came the studio of +Claude Audran, the conservator of the Luxembourg, and with him Watteau +did decorative work. In reality he had no master, learned from nobody, +grovelled in poverty, and at first, forced a living from the meanest +sources. With this in mind, it remains a wonder that he should paint +as no other ever could, scenes of exquisite beauty and grace; scenes +of high life, courtiers and great ladies assembled in lovely +landscapes, doing elegant and charming things, dressed in unrivalled +gowns and costumes. Until Watteau went to the Luxembourg he had seen +absolutely nothing of refined or gracious living. He had come from +country scenes, and in Paris had lived among workmen and +bird-fanciers, flower sellers, hucksters and the like. This is very +likely the secret of his peculiar art. + +Watteau would have been a wonderful artist under any circumstances, no +matter what sort of pictures he had painted; but circumstances gave +his imagination a turn toward the exquisite in colourand +composition. Doubtless when he first looked down from the palace +windows of the Luxembourg and saw gorgeous women and handsome men +languishing and coquetting and revelling in a life of ease and beauty, +he was transported. He must have thought himself in fairyland, and the +impulse to paint, to idealise the loveliness that he saw, must have +been greater in him than it would have been in one who had lived so +long among such scenes that they had become familiar with them. + +After Watteau there were artists who tried to do the kind of work he +had done, but no one ever succeeded. Watteau clothed all his +shepherdesses in fine silken gowns, with a plait in the back, falling +from the shoulders, and to-day we have a fashion known as the "Watteau +back"--gowns made with this shoulder-plait. He put filmy laces or +softest silks upon his dairy maids, as upon his court ladies, dressing +his figures exquisitely, and in the loveliest colours. He had suffered +from poverty and from miserable sights, so when he came to paint +pictures, he determined to reproduce only the loveliest objects. + +At that time French fashions were very unusual, and it was quite the +thing for ladies to hold a sort of reception while at their toilet. A +description of one of these affairs was written by Madame de Grignon +to her daughter: "Nothing can be more delightful than to assist at the +toilet of Madame la Duchesse (de Bourgoyne), and to watch her arrange +her hair. I was present the other day. She rose at half past twelve, +put on her dressing gown, and set to work to eat a _m‚ringue_. She ate +the powder and greased her hair. The whole formed an excellent +breakfast and charming _coiffure_." Watteau has caught the spirit of +this strange airy, artificial, incongruous existence. His ladies seem +to be eating _meringues_ and powdering their hair and living on a diet +of the combination. One hardly knows which is toilet and which is real +life in looking at his paintings. + +He quarreled with Audran at the Luxembourg, and having sold his first +picture, he went back to his Valenciennes home, to see his former +acquaintances, no doubt being a little vain of his performance. + +After that he painted another picture which sold well enough to keep +him from poverty for a time, and on his return to Paris he was warmly +greeted by a celebrated and influential artist, Crozat. Watteau tried +for a prize, and though his picture came second it had been seen by +the Academy committee. + +His greatness was acknowledged, and he was immediately admitted to the +Academy and granted a pension by the crown, with which he was able to +go to Italy, the Mecca of all artists the world over. + +From Italy he went to London, but there the fogs and unsuitable +climate made his disease much worse and he hurried back to France, +where he went to live with a friend who was a picture dealer. It was +then that he painted a sign for this friend, Gersaint, a sign so +wonderful that it is reckoned in the history of Watteau's paintings. + +Soon he grew so sensitive over his illness, that he did not wish to +remain near his dearest friends, but one of them, the Abb‚ Haranger, +insisted upon looking after his welfare, and got lodgings for him at +Nogent, where he could have country air and peace. + +Watteau died very soon after going to Nogent in July, 1721, and he +left nine thousand livres to his parents, and his paintings to his +best friends, the Abb‚, Gersaint, Monsieur Henin, and Monsieur +Julienne. He is called the "first French painter" and so he +was--though he was Flemish, by birth. + + PLATE--FÅTE CHAMPÅTRE + +This exquisite picture displays nearly all the characteristics of +Watteau's painting. He was said to paint with "honey and gold," and +his method was certainly remarkable. His clear, delicate colours were +put upon a canvas first daubed with oil, and he never cleaned his +palette. His "oil-pot was full of dust and dirt and mixed with the +washings of his brush." One would think that only the most slovenly +results could come from such habits of work, but the artist made a +colour which no one could copy, and that was a sort of creamy, +opalescent white. This was original with Watteau, and most beautiful. + +In this "Fˆte Champˆtre," which is now in the National Gallery at +Edinburgh, he paints an elegant group of ladies and gentlemen +indulging in an open air dance of some sort. One couple are doing +steps facing one another, to the music of a set of pipes, while the +rest flirt and talk, decorously, round about. There is no boisterous +rusticity here; all is dainty and refined. + +The same characteristics are to be found in Watteau's other pictures +such as, "Embarkation for the Island of Cythera," "The Judgment of +Paris," and "Gay Company in a Park." + + + + +XLV + +SIR BENJAMIN WEST + + + _American_ + 1738-1820 + _Pupil of the Italian School_ + +The beautiful smile of his little niece helped to make this man an +artist. This is the story: + +Benjamin West was born down in Pennsylvania, at Westdale, a small +village in the township of Springfield, of Quaker parentage. The +family was poor perhaps, but in America at a time when everybody was +struggling with a new civilisation it did not seem to be such binding +poverty as the same condition in Europe would have been. Benjamin had +a married sister whose baby he greatly loved, and he gave it devoted +attention. One day while it was sleeping and the undiscovered artist +was sitting beside it he saw it smile, and the beauty of the smile +inspired him to keep it forever if he could. He got paper and pencil +and forthwith transferred that "angel's whisper." + +No child of to-day can imagine the difficulties a boy must have had in +those days in America, to get an art education, and having learned his +art, how impossible it was to live by it. Men were busy making a new +country and pictures do not take part in such pioneer work; they come +later. Still, there were bound to be born artistic geniuses then, just +as there were men for the plough and men for politics and for war. He +who happened to be the artist was the Quaker boy, West. + +He took his first inspiration from the Cherokees, for it was the +Indian in all the splendour of his strength and straightness that +formed West's ideal of beautiful physique. + +When he first saw the Apollo Belvedere, he exclaimed: "A young Mohawk +warrior!" to the disgust of every one who heard him, but he meant to +compliment the noblest of forms. Europeans did not know how +magnificent a figure the "young Mohawk warrior" could be; but West +knew. + +After his Indian impetus toward art he went to Philadelphia, and +settled himself in a studio, where he painted portraits. His sitters +went to him out of curiosity as much as anything else, but at last a +Philadelphia gentleman, who knew what art meant, recognised Benjamin +West's talent, and made some arrangement by which the young man went +to Italy. + +Life began to look beautiful and promising to the Pennsylvanian. He +was in Italy for three years, and in that home of art the young man +who had made the smile of his sister's sleeping baby immortal was +given highest honours. He was elected a member of all the great art +societies in Italy, and studied with the best artists of the time. He +began to earn his living, we may be sure, and then he went to England, +where, in spite of the prejudice there must have been against the +colonists, he became at once a favourite of George III., a friend of +Reynolds and of all the English artists of repute--unless perhaps of +Gainsborough, who made friends with none. + +West was appointed "historical painter" to his Majesty, George III., +and he was chosen to be one of four who should draw plans for a Royal +Academy. He was one of the first members of that great organisation, +and when Sir Joshua Reynolds, the first president, died, West became +president, remaining in office for twenty-eight years. + +About that time came the Peace of Amiens, and West was able to go to +Paris, where he could see the greatest art treasures of Europe, which +had been brought to France from every quarter as a consequence of the +war. At that time, before Paris began to return these, and when she +had just pillaged every great capital of Europe, artists need take but +a single trip to see all the art worth seeing in the whole world. + +After a long service in the Academy, West quarreled with some of the +Academicians and sent in his resignation; but his fellow artists had +too much sense and good feeling to accept it, and begged him to +reconsider his action. He did so, and returned to his place as +president. When West was sixty-five years old he made a picture, +"Christ Healing the Sick," which he meant to give to the Quakers in +Philadelphia, who were trying to get funds with which to build a +hospital. This picture was to be sold for the fund; but it was no +sooner finished and exhibited in London before being sent to America, +than it was bought for 3,000 guineas for Great Britain. West did not +contribute this money to the hospital fund, but he made a replica for +the Quakers, and sent that instead of the original. + +West was eighty-two years old when he died and he was buried in +St. Paul's Cathedral after a distinguished and honoured life. Since +Europe gave him his education and also supported him most of his life, +we must consider him more English than American, his birth on American +soil being a mere accident. + + PLATE--THE DEATH OF WOLFE + +This death scene upon the Plains of Abraham, without the walls of +Quebec in 1759, must not be taken as a realistic picture of an +historic event. West drew upon his imagination and upon portraits of +the prominent men supposed to have been grouped around the dying +general, and he has produced a dramatic effect. One can imagine it is +the two with fingers pointing backward who have just brought the +memorable tidings, "They run! They run!" + +"Who run?" asks Wolfe, for when he had fallen the issues of the fight +were still undecided. "The French, sir. They give way everywhere." +"Thank God! I die in peace," replied the English hero. At a time when +the momentous results of this battle had set the whole of Great +Britain afire with enthusiasm it is easy to understand the popularity +of a picture such as this. It was sold in 1791 for œ28, and now +belongs to the Duke of Westminster. There is a replica of it in the +Queen's drawing-room at Hampton Court. + +Another famous historical picture by West is "The Battle of La Hogue." + + + + +INDEX + +About, Edmund +Academia, Florence +Academy, French + Rome, + Royal, London, + Venice +"Acis and Galatea" +Adoration of the Magi +"Adoration of the Shepherds" +"After a Summer Shower" +"Afternoon" +Albert, King +"Alessandro del Borro" +Alexander VI. +Alice, Princess +Allegri, Antonio. _See_ Correggi +Allegri, Pompino +"Ambassadors, The" +"American Mustangs" +"Anatomy Lesson, The" +Andrea del Sarto +Angelo, Michael +"Angels' Heads" +"Angelas, The" +Anguisciola, Sofonisba +Anne of Cleves +Anne of Saxony +Annunciata, cloister of the +"Annunciation, The" +"Ansidei Madonna, The" +"Antiope" +Apocalypse +Apollo Belvedere +Apostles, the Four +Apostles' Heads +Appelles +"Archipelago" +Arena Chapel +Arrivabene Chapel +"Artist's Two Sons, The" +"Arundel Castle and Mill" +"Assumption of the Virgin" +"At the Well" +Audran +Augusta, Princess +"Avenue, Middelharnis, Holland" +"Awakened Conscience, The" + +"Bacchanal" +"Bacchus and Ariadne" +Balzac +"Banquet in Levi's House" +"Baptism of Christ, The" +Barbizon +Barile +Barry, James +Bartoli d'Angiolini +Bartolommeo, Fra +Bassano +"Bathers" +"Battle of La Hogue" +Beaumont, Sir George +Beaux-Arts, l'Ecole des +Begarelli +Bellini, Gentile +Bellini, Giovanni +Bembo, Cardinal +Beneguette +"Bent Tree" +Bentivoglio, Cardinal +Berck, Derich +Berensen, Bernard +Bergholt, East +"Berkshire Hills" +"Bianca" +Bicknell, Maria +Bigio, Francia +Bigordi. _See_ Ghirlandajo +Bird +"Birth of the Virgin" + (Andrea del Sarto) + (Murillo) +"Birth of Venus" +Blanc, Charles +"Blessed Herman Joseph, The" +"Bligh Shore" +"Blue Boy, The" +B”cklin, Arnold +"Boat-Building" +Boleyn, Anne +Bolton, Mrs. Sarah K. +Bonheur, Marie-Rosea +Bonheur, Raymond B. +Bordeaux +Bordone. _See_ Giotto +Borghese Palace +Borgia family +Borgia, Lucretia +Botticelli +Boudin +Bouguereau, William Adolphe +"Boy at the Stile, The" +Brancacci Chapel +Brant, Isabella +Breton, Jules +Brice, J. B. +Brouwer +Browning +Brunellesco +"Brutus" +Buckingham, Duke of +Buonarroti. _See_ Angelo Michael +Burgundy, Duchess of +Burke, Edmund +Burne-Jones, Sir Edward +Burr, Margaret + +Caffin +Cagliari, Benedetto +Cagliari, Carletto +Cagliari, Gabriele +Cagliari, Paolo. _See_ Veronese +Cambridge, University of +"Camels at Rest" +Campagna +Campana, Pedro +Campanile, Florence +Canova +Caprese +"Capture of Samson" +Capuchin Church +Capuchin Convent +Carlos, Don +"Carmencita" +Carmine, Church of the +"Carthage" +Castillo, Juan del +Cecelia, wife of Titian +Cellini +Centennial Exhibition +Chamberlain, Arthur +"Chant d'Amour" +Chantry, Sir Francis +"Charity" +Charles, I. +Charles V. +Charles X. +Cherokees +"Chess Players, The" +"Children of Charles I." +"Christ Healing the Sick" +"Christ in the Temple" +"Christina of Denmark" +Church +Cibber, Theophilus +Cimabue +Claude +"Cleopatra Landing at Tarsus" +"Cock Fight" +Cogniet, L‚on +Colnaghi +"Cologne" +Constable, John +Copley, John Singleton +Copper Plate Magazine +Cornelia, Rembrandt's daughter +Cornelissen, Cornelis +"Cornfield" +"Coronation of Marie de Medicis" +"Coronation of the Virgin" + (Ghirlandajo) + (Raphael) +Corot, Jean Baptiste Camille +Correggio +Cosimo, Piero di +"Cottage, The" +"Countess Folkstone" +"Countess of Spencer" +Coventry, Countess of +"Creation of Man, The" +"Creation of the World, The" +Crozat +"Crucifixion, The" + (Raphael) + (Tintoretto) + +"Dana‰" +Dandie Dinmont +"Daniel" +Dante +"Daphnis and Chloe" +Daubigny +"David" +"Dead Christ, The" +"Dead Mallard" +"Death of Ananias, The" +"Death of Wolfe, The" +"Dedham Mill" +"Dedham Vale" +Delaroche +"Deluge, The" +"Descent from the Cross, The" + (Campana) + (Rembrandt) + (Rubens) +De Witt +Diaz +"Dice Players, The" +Dickens, Charles +Digby, Kenelm +"Dignity and Impudence" +"Divine Comedy" +Dolce, Ludovico +Donatello +"Don Quixote" +Dor‚, Paul Gustave +D'Orsay +"Duchess of Devonshire and Her Daughter, The" +"Duel After the Masked Ball" +Dunthorne, John +Dupr‚ +Durand, Carolus +Drer, Albrecht +Dyce + +"Ecce Homo" +"Education of Mary, The" +Edward, King +Egyptian art +Elizabeth, Cousin of the Virgin +Elizabeth, Princess +"Embarkation for the Island of Cythera" +"Emperor at Solferino, The" +Engravers and engraving +"Entombment, The" + (Titian) + (Veronese) +Eos +"Equestrian Portrait of Don Balthasar Carlos" +Errard, Charles +Escorial, the +Est‚ban, Bartolom‚. See Murillo +Est‚ban, Gaspar +Est‚ban, Therese +Etchers and etching +"Europa and the Bull" +"Eve of St. Agnes, The" + +Fallen, Ambrose +"Fall of Man, The" +"Fantasy of Morocco" +Fawkes, Hawksworth +"Feast in the House of Simon" +"Feast of Ahasuerus" +"Ferdinand of Austria" +Ferdinand III., Grand Duke +Ferrara, Duke of +"Fˆte Champˆtre" +"Fighting T‚m‚raire, The" +Filipepi, Mariano +"Finding of Christ in the Temple, The" +"Flamborough, Miss" +"Flatford Mill on the River Stour" +"Flora" + (B”cklin) + (Titian) +"Foal of an Ass, The" +Fondato de' Tedeschi +Fontainebleau +"Fool, The" +"Fornarina, The" +Fortuny, Mariano +Fourment family +Fourment, Helena +"Four Saints" +Francis I. +Frari, monks of the +Frey, Agnes +"Friedland" + +Gainsborough, Mary +Gainsborough, Thomas +Gallery, Berlin + Dresden + Grosvenor + Hague, The + Hermitage, The + Lichtenstein, Vienna + Louvre + Luxembourg + Madrid + Naples + National, Edinburgh + National, London + Old Pinakothek, Munich + Parma + Pitti Palace + Uffizi + Vienna +Garrick +"Gay Company in a Park" +Gell‚e. See Claude Lorrain +George III. +"Georgia Pines" +Gerbier +Germ, The +G‚r“me, Jean L‚on +Gersaint +Ghibertio +Ghirlandajo +"Gibeon Farm" +Gignoux, Regis +"Gillingham Mill" +Gillot +Giorgione +Giotto +"Giovanna degli Albizi" +Girten, Thomas +Gisze, Gorg +Gladstone, Mr. and Mrs. +"Gleaners, The" +"Glebe Farm" +Goethe +"Golden Calf, The" +"Golden Stairs, The" +Goldsmith, craft of the +Goldsmith, Oliver +Gonzaga, Vincenzo +"Good Samaritan, The" +Graham, Judge +Granacci +Gravelot +Grignon, Madame de +Gualfonda +"Guardian Angel, The" +Guidi, Giovanni +Guidi, Simone +Guidi. Tommaso. _See_ Masaccio +Guido +Guidobaldo of Urbino +Guilds +"Gust of Wind" + +Haarlem Town Hall +"Haarlem's Little Forest" +"Hadleigh Castle" +Hals, Franz +Hamerton +Hamilton, Duchess of +"Hampstead Heath" +Hancock, John +"Hans of Antwerp" +Haranger, Abb‚ +"Hark!" +"Harvest Waggon, The" +Hassam, Childe +Hastings, Warren +"Haunt of the Gazelle, The" +Hayman +"Haystack in Sunshine" +"Hay Wain, The" +"Head of Christ" +"Head of Medusa" +Hearn, George A. +Henin +Henrietta, Queen +Henry III. +Henry VIII. +"Henschel" +"Hercules" +Herrera +"Highland Sheep" +"Hille Bobbe, the Witch of Haarlem" +Hill, Jack +"Hireling Shepherd, The" +Hobbema, Meindert +Hogarth, William +Holbein, Ambrosius +Holbein, Hans, the Younger +Holbein, Michael +Holbein, Philip +Holbein, Sigismund +Holbein, the Elder +"Holofernes" +Holper, Barbara +"Holy Family and St. Bridget" +Holy Family in art, The +"Holy Family under a Palm Tree, The" +"Holy Night, The" +"Homer St. Gaudens" +"Hon. Ann Bingham, The" +Hood, Admiral +"Horse Fair, The" +Howard, Catherine +Hudson, Thomas +Hunt, William Holman + +"II Giorno" +"II Medico del Correggio" +"Immaculate Conception, The" +Indian pottery +Infanta +"Infant Jesus and St. John, The" +Inman +Inness +"Innocence" +"In Paradise" +Inquisition, Spanish +"Interior of the Mosque of Omar" +Isabella, Queen +Islay +"Isle of the Dead, The" +"Ivybridge" + +Jacopo da Empoli +Jacque +"Jane Seymour" +"Jerusalem by Moonlight" +"Jesus and the Lamb" +Jesus in art +Johnson, Dr. +Jones, George +Joseph in art +"Joseph in Egypt" +"Joseph's Dream" +"Judgment of Paris, The" +"Judith" +Julienne +Julius II. +Justiniana + +Kann, Rudolf +"King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid" +"King of Hearts" +"Kirmesse, The" +Knackfuss +"Knight, Death and the Devil, The" + +"La Belle JardiniŠre" +"La Disputa" +"Lady Elcho, Mrs. Arden, Mrs. Tennant" +"La Gioconda" +"Landscape with Cattle." +Landseer, John +Landseer, Sir Edwin Henry +Landseer, Thomas +"La Primavera" +"Last Judgment, The" + (Angelo) + (Tintoretto) + (Titian) +"Last Supper, The" + (Andrea del Sarto) + (Ghirlandajo) + (Veronese) + (Leonardo da Vinci) +"Laughing Cavalier, The" +Laura +Lavinia, daughter of Titian +"Lavinia, the Artist's Daughter" +Lawrence, Sir Thomas +"Leda" + (Correggio) + (G‚rome) +Lee, Jeremiah +Legion of Honour +Lemon, Margaret +Leonardo. See da Vinci +Leo X. +Lewis, J. F. +_Liber Studiorium_ +"Liber Veritas" +Library, Boston Public +"Light of the World, The" +Linley, Thomas +Linley, Samuel +"Lion Disturbed at His Repast" +"Lion Enjoying His Repast" +"Lioness, The Study off a" +"Lion Hunt, A" +Lippi, Fra Filippo +"Lock on the Stour" +Lombardi +"Lords Digby and Russell" +"Lord Wharton" +Lorenzalez, Claudio +Lorrain, Claude +Lott, Willy +Louis XIV. +Louise, Princess +"Love Among the Ruins" +"Low Life and High Life" +Lowther, Sir William +Lucas van Leyden +Lucia, mother of Titian +Lucretia, wife of Andrea del Sarto +Luther, Martin +Madonna and Child +"Madonna and Child with St. Anne" +"Madonna and Child with Saints" +"Madonna del'Arpie" +"Madonna della Caraffa" +"Madonna della Casa d'Alba" +"Madonna della Sedia" +"Madonna del Granduca" +"Madonna del Pesce" +"Madonna del Sacco" +"Madonna of the Palms" +"Madonna of the Rosary." +Madrazo +"Magdalene, The" +Manet +"Manoah's Sacrifice" +Mantegna +Mantua, Duke of +Mantua, Duke Frederick II. of +"Man with the Hoe, The" +"Man with the Sword, The" +Margherita +Maria Theresa +"Marriage … la Mode" +"Marriage at Cana, The" +"Marriage Contract, The" +"Marriage of Bacchus and Ariadne, The" +"Marriage of Mary and Joseph, The" +"Marriage of St. Catherine, The" +"Marriage of Samson, The" +Martineau +"Martyrdom of St. Agnes, The" +"Martyrdom of St. Peter, The" +"Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, The" +Mary, the Virgin, in art +Masaccio (Tommasco Guidi) +Masoline +Mastersingers, Nuremberg +Maximillian, Emperor +Medici family +Medici, Giovanni di Bicci de' +Medici, Lorenzi de' +Medici, Ottaviano de' +Medici, Pietro de' +"Meeting of St. John and St. Anna at Jerusalem" +Meissonier, Jean Louis Ernest +"Melancholy" +Merlini, Girolama +"Meyer Madonna, The" +Michallon +"Midsummer Noon" +Millais +Millet, Jean Fran‡ois +Millet, MŠre +"Mill Stream" +"Miracle of St. Mark, The" +Missions, Spanish +Missirini +"Mr. Marquand" +"Mr. Penrose" +"Mrs. Meyer and Children" +"Mrs. Peel" +Mohawk +Mona Lisa +Monet, Claude +"Money Changers, The" +"Moonlight at Salerno" +Morales +"Moreau and His Staff before Hohenlinden" +More, Sir Thomas +"Morning Prayer, The" +"Moses" +"Moses Breaking the Tablets of the Law" +Mudge, Dr. +Murat +Murillo (Bartolom‚ Est‚ban) +Murillo, Do¤a Anna +Museum of Art, Basel + Berlin + Court, Vienna + Madrid + Metropolitan, New York + Prado + Rijks, Amsterdam + South Kensington +Muther +"Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine, The" + +"Naiads at Play" +Napoleon +"Nativity, The" + (Botticelli) + (Drer) +Navarrette +"Nieces of Sir Horace Walpole" +"Night Watch, The" +"Noli me Tangere" +Norham Castle +Nuremberg +"Nurse and the Child, The" + +"'Oh, Pearl' Quoth I" +"Old Bachelor, The" +"Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner, The" +Olivares + +Pacheco +"Pallas" +"Pan and Psyche" +Pantheon +Pareja +"Parish Clerk, The" +'Past and Present" +Passignano +"Pathless Water, The" +Paul III. +"Paysage" +Pazzi family +"Penzance" +Percy, Bishop +Perez family +Perez, Maria +Perugino +Philip II. +Philip III. +Philip IV. +Picot +"Pilate Washing His Hands" +Pinas +Pirkneimer +Pissaro +"Ploughing" +Pope, Alexander +"Portrait of Old Man and Boy" +Portraits of artists by themselves +"Praying Arab" +"Praying Hands" +Pre-Raphaelites +"Presentation of Christ in the Temple" +"Presentation of the Family of Darius to Alexander" +Prim, General +"Procession of the Magi" +"Prowling Lion, The" +"Psyche and Cupid" +Pypelincx, Maria + +Quakers +"Quin, Portrait of" + +Rabelais +"Rake's Progress, The" +"Rape of Ganymede, The" +"Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus, The" +Raphael (Sanzio) +Reade, Charles +"Reading at Diderot's, A" +"Reaper, The" +"Regions of Joy" +Rembrandt (van Rijn) +"Retreat from Russia" +Reynolds, Samuel +Reynolds, Sir Joshua +Ribera +Rinaldo and Armida +"Road over the Downs, The" +"Robert Cheseman with his Falcon" +Robusto, Jacopo. _See_ Tintoretto +Romano, Guilio +Rood, Professor +"Rosary, Story of the" +Rossetti, Dante Gabriel +Rossetti, W. M. +Rothschild, Lord +Rousseau +Royal Princess +Rubens, Albert +Rubens, John +Rubens, Nicholas +Rubens, Peter Paul +Ruisdael, Jacob van +Ruskin, John +Ruthven, Lady Mary +Sachs, Hans +"Sacred and Profane Love" +"St. Anthony of Padua" +"St. Augustine" +"St. Barbara" +St. Bernard dog +St. Bernardino +"Saint Cecelia" +St. Christopher +St. Clemente +St. Dominic +St. George +"St. George and the Dragon" +"St. George Slaying the Dragon" +St. Giorgio Maggiore +"St. Jerome" +St, John the Baptist +St. Jovis Shooting Company +St. Leger, Colonel +St. Lucas, Guild of +St. Luke, Guild of +St. Mark +St. Martin's Church +"St. Michael Attacking Satan." +"St. Nobody" +St. Paul's Cathedral +St. Peter +"St. Peter Baptising" +St. Peter's Church +"St. Rocco Healing the Sick" +"St. Sebastian." + (Botticelli) + (Correggio) + (Titian) +St. Sebastian, Church of +St. Sebastian, Monastery of +St. Sixtus +St. Trinita, Church of +"Salisbury Cathedral" +Salon +Salvator Rosa +"Samson" +"Samson Threatening His Stepfather" +"Samson's Wedding" +San Francisco +Santa Croce +Santa Maria della Pace +Santa Maria delle Grazte +Santa Maria del Orto +Santa Maria Novella +Santi, Bartolommeo +Santi Giovanni +Santo Cruz, Church of +Santo Spirito, Convent of +Sanzio. _See_ Raphael +Sarcinelli, Cornelio +Sargent, John Singer +Sarto, Andrea del. _See_ Andrea +Saskia +Savonarola +"Scapegoat, The" +"Scene from Woodstock" +Schiavone +Schmidt, Elizabeth +Schongauer +School Girl's Hymn +"School of Anatomy, The" +School of Art, Academy, London + American + Andalusian + Castilian + Dsseldorf + Dutch + English + Flemish + Florentine + Fontainebleau-Barbizon + Foreign + French in + German + Hudson River + Impressionist + Italian + Nuremberg + Parma + Roman + Spanish + Umbrian + Venetian +"School, of Athens, The" +"School, of Cupid, The" +"Scotch Deer" +Scott, Sir Walter +Scrovegno, Enrico +Scuola di San Rocco +"Seaport at Sunset" +Sebastian +"Serpent Charmer, The" +Servi, convent of the +Sesto, Cesare de +Seurat +Sforza, Ludovico +"Shadow of Death, The" +Shakespeare +Sheepshanks Collection +"Shepherd Guarding Sheep" +Sheppey, Isle of +Sheridan, Mrs. Richard Brinsley +Sheridan, Richard Brinsley +Siddons, Mrs. +Silva, Rodriguez de +Sistine Chapel +"Sistine Madonna, The" +Six, Jan +Sixtus IV. +Skynner, Sir John +"Slaughter of the Innocents, The" +"Slave Ship, The" +"Sleeping Bloodhound, The" +"Sleeping Venus, The" +Smith, John +"Snake Charmers, The" +"Snow-storm at Sea, A" +Society of Arts +Soderini +Solus Lodge +"Sortie, The" + _See also_ Night Watch +Sotomayer, Do¤a Beatriz de + Cabrera y +"Sower, The" +Spaniel, King Charles +"Spanish Marriage, The" +Spinola, Marquis of +"Sport of the Waves" +"Spring" +Sterne, Lawrence +"Storm, The" +Stour, River +"Straw Hat, The" +Sudbury +Sully +Sultan of Turkey +"Sunset on the Passaic" +"Sunset on the Sea" +"Surrender of Breda" +"Susanna and the Elders" +"Susanna's Bath" +"Sussex Downs" +Swanenburch, Jacob van +"Sword-Dance, The" +"Syndics of the Cloth Hall" + +Taddei, Taddeo +Tassi, Agostine +Thackeray +Thornhill, Sir James +"Three Ages, The" +"Three Saints and God the Father" +Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti) +Titian (Tiziano Vecelli) +Tornabuoni, Giovanni +Torregiano +Trafalgar Square +"Transfiguration, The" +"Tribute Money, The" +"Trinity" +Troyon +Trumbull, American painter +Trumbull, English diplomat +Tulp, Nicholaus +Turner, Charles +Turner, Joseph Mallord William +"Two Beggar Boys" +Tybis, Geryck + +Ulenberg, Saskia van +Urban VIII. +Urbino, Duke of + +"Valley Farm, The" +Van Dyck, Sir Anthony +Van Mander, Karel +Van Marcke +Van Noort, Adam +Van Rijn. _See_ Rembrandt +Van Veen +Varangeville +Vasari +Vatican +Vecchio, Palazzo +Vecchio, Palma +Vecelli family +Vecelli, Orsa +Vecelli, Orzio +Vecelli, Pompino +Vecelli, Tiziano. _See_ Titian +Velasquez (Diego Rodriguez de Silva) +"Venice Enthroned" +"Venus Dispatching Cupid" +"Venus Worship" +Verhaecht, Tobias +Vernon +Veronese, Paul (Paolo Cagliari) +Verrocchio +"Vestal Virgin, The" +Victoria, Queen +"Villa by the Sea" +"Village Festival, The" +"Ville d'Avray" +Vinci, Leonardo da +Violante +"Virgin as Consoler, The" +"Virgin's Rest Near Bethlehem" +"Vision of St. Anthony, The" +"Visitation, The" +"Visitor, The" +"Visit to the Burgomaster" + +Warren, General Joseph +"Water Carrier, The" +"Watermill, The" +Watteau, Jean Antoine +"Wedding Feast at Cana, The" +Wells, Frederick +West, Sir Benjamin +"Weymouth Bay" +Whitcomb, Ida Prentice +"William, Prince of Orange" +William the Silent +"Will-o'-the-Wisp" +"Willows near Arras" +Wilson +"Winnower, The" +"Winter" +Wolgemuth +"Woodcutters, The" +"Wooded Landscape" +"Wood Gatherers, The" + +Yarmouth +"Young People's Story of Art" +"Youth Surprised by Death" + +"Zingarella" +Zuccato, Sebastian + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PICTURES EVERY CHILD SHOULD KNOW *** + +This file should be named 8pics10.txt or 8pics10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8pics11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Pictures Every Child Should Know + +Author: Dolores Bacon + +Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6932] +[This file was first posted on February 12, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: iso-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PICTURES EVERY CHILD SHOULD KNOW *** + + + + +Arno Peters, Branko Collin, Tiffany Vergon, Charles Aldarondo, Charles + +Franks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +</PRE> +<p><a name="001"></a> +PICTURES +EVERY CHILD SHOULD KNOW</p> + +<p>A SELECTION OF THE WORLD'S ART<br> +MASTERPIECES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE</p> + +<p>BY<br> +DOLORES BACON</p> + +<p>Illustrated from +Great Paintings +<a name="002"></a> + +<a name="003"></a></p> +<h1>ACKNOWLEDGMENTS</h1> + +<p>Besides making acknowledgments to the +many authoritative writers upon artists and +pictures, here quoted, thanks are due to +such excellent compilers of books on art +subjects as Sadakichi Hartmann, Muther, +C. H. Caffin, Ida Prentice Whitcomb, +Russell Sturgis and others. +<a name="004"></a></p> + +<h1>INTRODUCTION</h1> + +<p>Man's inclination to decorate his belongings +has always been one of the earliest signs of +civilisation. Art had its beginning in the lines +indented in clay, perhaps, or hollowed in the +wood of family utensils; after that came crude +colouring and drawing.</p> + +<p>Among the first serious efforts to draw were +the Egyptian square and pointed things, animals +and men. The most that artists of that +day succeeded in doing was to preserve the +fashions of the time. Their drawings tell us +that men wore their beards in bags. They +show us, also, many peculiar head-dresses and +strange agricultural implements. Artists of +that day put down what they saw, and they +saw with an untrained eye and made the record +with an untrained hand; but they did not put +in false details for the sake of glorifying the +subject. One can distinguish a man from a +mountain in their work, but the arms and legs +embroidered upon Mathilde's tapestry, or the +figures representing family history on an Oriental +rug, are quite as correct in drawing and as +little of a puzzle. As men became more intelligent, +hence spiritualised, they began to +express themselves in ideal ways; to glorify +the commonplace; and thus they passed from +<a name="005"></a> +Egyptian geometry to gracious lines and beautiful +colouring.</p> + +<p>Indian pottery was the first development +of art in America and it led to the working +of metals, followed by drawing and portraiture. +Among the Americans, as soon as that term +ceased to mean Indians, art took a most distracting +turn. Europe was old in pictures, +great and beautiful, when America was worshipping +at the shrine of the chromo; but the +chromo served a good turn, bad as it was. It +was a link between the black and white of +the admirable wood-cut and the true colour +picture.</p> + +<p>Some of the Colonists brought over here the +portraits of their ancestors, but those paintings +could not be considered "American" art, nor +were those early settlers Americans; but the +generation that followed gave to the world +Benjamin West. He left his Mother Country +for England, where he found a knighthood and +honours of every kind awaiting him.</p> + +<p>The earliest artists of America had to go +away to do their work, because there was no +place here for any men but those engaged in +clearing land, planting corn, and fighting +Indians. Sir Benjamin West was President of +the Royal Academy while America was still +revelling in chromos. The artists who remained +chose such objects as Davy Crockett +in the trackless forest, or made pictures of the +Continental Congress.</p> + +<p><a name="006"></a> +After the chromo in America came the picture +known as the "buckeye," painted by relays +of artists. Great canvases were stretched +and blocked off into lengths. The scene was +drawn in by one man, who was followed by +"artists," each in turn painting sky, water, +foliage, figures, according to his specialty. +Thus whole yards of canvas could be painted +in a day, with more artists to the square inch +than are now employed to paint advertisements +on a barn.</p> + +<p>The Centennial Exhibition of 1876 came as +a glorious flashlight. For the first time real +art was seen by a large part of our nation. +Every farmer took home with him a new idea +of the possibilities of drawing and colour. +The change that instantly followed could +have occurred in no other country than the +United States, because no other people would +have travelled from the four points of the +compass to see such an exhibition. Thus it +was the American's <i>penchant</i> for travel which +first opened to him the art world, for he +was conscious even then of the educational +advantages to be found somewhere, although +there seemed to be few of them in the +United States.</p> + +<p>After the Centennial arose a taste for the +painting of "plaques," upon which were the +heads of ladies with strange-coloured hair; +of leather-covered flatirons bearing flowers +of unnatural colour, or of shovels decorated +<a name="007"></a> +with "snow scenes." The whole nation began +to revel in "art." It was a low variety, yet +it started toward a goal which left the chromo +at the rear end of the course, and it was a better +effort than the mottoes worked in worsted, +which had till then been the chief decoration +in most homes. If the "buckeye" was hand-painting, +this was "single-hand" painting, +and it did not take a generation to bring the +change about, only a season. After the Philadelphia +exhibition the daughter of the household +"painted a little" just as she played the +piano "a little." To-day, much less than a +man's lifetime since then, there is in America +a universal love for refined art and a fair technical +appreciation of pictures, while already +the nation has worthily contributed to the +world of artists. Sir Benjamin West, Sully, +and Sargent are ours: Inness, Inman, and +Trumbull.</p> + +<p>The curator of the Metropolitan Museum in +New York has declared that portrait-painting +must be the means which shall save the modern +artists from their sins. To quote him: "An +artist may paint a bright green cow, if he is so +minded: the cow has no redress, the cow must +suffer and be silent; but human beings who +sit for portraits seem to lean toward portraits +in which they can recognise their own features +when they have commissioned an artist to +paint them. A man <i>will</i> insist upon even the +most brilliant artist painting him in trousers, +<a name="008"></a> +for instance, instead of in petticoats, however +the artist-whim may direct otherwise; and a +woman is likely to insist that the artist who +paints her portrait shall maintain some recognised +shade of brown or blue or gray when he +paints her eye, instead of indulging in a burnt +orange or maybe pink! These personal preferences +certainly put a limit to an artist's +genius and keep him from writing himself down +a madman. Thus, in portrait-painting, with +the exactions of truth upon it, lies the hope +of art-lovers!"</p> + +<p>It is the same authority who calls attention +to the danger that lies in extremes; either in +finding no value in art outside the "old masters," +or in admiring pictures so impressionistic +that the objects in them need to be labelled +before they can be recognised.</p> + +<p>The true art-lover has a catholic taste, is +interested in all forms of art; but he finds +beauty where it truly exists and does not allow +the nightmare of imagination to mislead him. +That which is not beautiful from one point of +view or another is not art, but decadence. +That which is technical to the exclusion of +other elements remains technique pure and +simple, workmanship--the bare bones of art. +A thing is not art simply because it is fantastic. +It may be interesting as showing to what degree +some imaginations can become diseased, but +it is not pleasing nor is it art. There are fully +a thousand pictures that every child should +<a name="009"></a> +know, since he can hardly know too much +of a good thing; but there is room in this +volume only to acquaint him with forty-eight +and possibly inspire him with the wish to +look up the neglected nine hundred and +fifty-two. +<a name="010"></a></p> + +<h1>CONTENTS</h1> + +<p>INTRODUCTION</p> + +<p>I. Andrea del Sarto, Florentine School, 1486-1531</p> + +<p>II. Michael Angelo (Buonarroti), Florentine School, 1475-1564</p> + +<p>III. Arnold Böcklin, Modern German School, 1827-1901</p> + +<p>IV. Marie-Rosa Bonheur, French School, 1822-1899</p> + +<p>V. Alessandro Botticelli, Florentine School, 1447-1510</p> + +<p>VI. William Adolphe Bouguereau, French (Genre) School 1825-1905</p> + +<p>VII. Sir Edward Burne-Jones, English (Pre-Raphaelite) School, 1833-1898</p> + +<p>VIII. John Constable, English School, 1776-1837</p> + +<p>IX. John Singleton Copley, English School, 1737-1815</p> + +<p>X. Jean Baptiste Camille Corot, Fontainebleau-Barbizon +School, 1796-1875</p> + +<p>XI. Correggio (Antonio Allegri), School of Parma, 1494(?)--1534</p> + +<p><a name="011"></a> +XII. Paul Gustave Doré, French +School, 1833-1883</p> + +<p>XIII. Albrecht Dürer, Nuremberg +School, 1471-1528</p> + +<p>XIV. Mariano Fortuny, Spanish +School, 1838-1874</p> + +<p>XV. Thomas Gainsborough, English +School, 1727-1788</p> + +<p>XVI. Jean Léon Gérôme, French +Semi-classical School, 1824-1904</p> + +<p>XVII. Ghirlandajo, Florentine +School, 1449-1494</p> + +<p>XVIII. Giotto (di Bordone), Florentine +School, 1276-1337</p> + +<p>XIX. Franz Hals, Dutch School, +1580-84-1666</p> + +<p>XX. Meyndert Hobbema, Dutch +School, 1637-1709</p> + +<p>XXI. William Hogarth, School of +Hogarth (English), 1697-1764</p> + +<p>XXII. Hans Holbein, the Younger, +German School, 1497-1543</p> + +<p>XXIII. William Holman Hunt, +English (Pre-Raphaelite) +School, 1827-</p> + +<p>XXIV. George Inness, American, +1825-1897</p> + +<p>XXV. Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, +English School, 1802-1873</p> + +<p>XXVI. Claude Lorrain (Gellée), Classical +French School, 1600-1682</p> + +<p><a name="012"></a> +XXVII. Masaccio (Tommaso Guidi), Florentine School, 1401-1428</p> + +<p>XXVIII. Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier, French School, 1815-1891</p> + +<p>XXIX. Jean François Millet, Fontainebleau-Barbizon School, 1814-1875</p> + +<p>XXX. Claude Monet, Impressionist School of France, 1840-</p> + +<p>XXXI. Murillo (Bartolomé Estéban), Andalusian School, 1617-1682</p> + +<p>XXXII. Raphael (Sanzio), Umbrian, Florentine, and Roman +Schools, 1483-1520</p> + +<p>XXXIII. Rembrandt (Van Rijn), Dutch School, 1606-1669</p> + +<p>XXXIV. Sir Joshua Reynolds, English School, 1723-1792</p> + +<p>XXXV. Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish School, 1577-1640</p> + +<p>XXXVI. John Singer Sargent, American and Foreign Schools, +1856-</p> + +<p>XXXVII. Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti), Venetian School, 1518-1594</p> + +<p>XXXVIII. Titian (Tiziano Vecelli), Venetian School, 1489-1576</p> + +<p>XXXIX. Joseph Mallord William Turner, English, 1775-1831</p> + +<p><a name="013"></a> +XL. Sir Anthony Van Dyck, +Flemish School, 1599-1641</p> + +<p>XLI. Velasquez (Diego Rodriguez +de Silva), Castilian School, +1599-1660</p> + +<p>XLII. Paul Veronese (Paolo Cagliari), +Venetian School, +1528-1588.</p> + +<p>XLIII. Leonardo da Vinci, Florentine +School, 1452-1519.</p> + +<p>XLIV. Jean Antoine Watteau, +French (Genre) School, +1684-1721</p> + +<p>XLV. Sir Benjamin West, American, +1738-1820</p> + +<p>Index +<a name="014"></a></p> + +<h1>ILLUSTRATIONS</h1> + +<p><a href="400.jpg"><img src="thumb_400.jpg" alt=""><br> +FRONTISPIECE</a></p> + +<p><a href="401.jpg"><img src="thumb_401.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Avenue, Middleharnis, Holland--<i>Hobbema</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="402.jpg"><img src="thumb_402.jpg" alt=""><br> +Madonna of the Sack--<i>Andrea del Sarto</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="428.jpg"><img src="thumb_428.jpg" alt=""><br> +Daniel--<i>Michael Angelo (Buonarroti)</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="427.jpg"><img src="thumb_427.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Isle of the Dead--<i>Arnold Böcklin</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="429.jpg"><img src="thumb_429.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Horse Fair--<i>Rosa Bonheur</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="430.jpg"><img src="thumb_430.jpg" alt=""><br> +Spring--<i>Alessandro Botticelli</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="403.jpg"><img src="thumb_403.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Hay Wain--<i>John Constable</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="404.jpg"><img src="thumb_404.jpg" alt=""><br> +A Family Picture--<i>John Singleton Copley</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="405.jpg"><img src="thumb_405.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Holy Night--<i>Correggio (Antonio Allegri)</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="406.jpg"><img src="thumb_406.jpg" alt=""><br> +Dance of the Nymphs--<i>Jean Baptiste Camille Corot</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="407.jpg"><img src="thumb_407.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Virgin as Consoler--<i>Wm. Adolphe Bouguereau</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="408.jpg"><img src="thumb_408.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Love Song--<i>Sir Edward Burne-Jones</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="409.jpg"><img src="thumb_409.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine--<i>Correggio</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="410.jpg"><img src="thumb_410.jpg" alt=""><br> +Moses Breaking the Tablets of the Law--<i>Paul Gustave Doré</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="412.jpg"><img src="thumb_412.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Nativity--<i>Albrecht Dürer</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="411.jpg"><img src="thumb_411.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Spanish Marriage--<i>Mariana Fortuny</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="413.jpg"><img src="thumb_413.jpg" alt=""><br> +Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan--<i>Thomas Gainsborough</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="414.jpg"><img src="thumb_414.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Sword Dance--<i>Jean Léon Gérôme</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="415.jpg"><img src="thumb_415.jpg" alt=""><br> +Portrait of Giovanna degli Albizi--<i>Ghirlandajo (Domenico Bigordi)</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="417.jpg"><img src="thumb_417.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Nurse and the Child--<i>Franz Hals</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="416.jpg"><img src="thumb_416.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Meeting of St. John and St. Anna at Jerusalem--<i>Giotto (Di +Bordone)</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="418.jpg"><img src="thumb_418.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Avenue--<i>Meyndert Hobbema</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="419.jpg"><img src="thumb_419.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Marriage Contract--<i>Wm. Hogarth</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="421.jpg"><img src="thumb_421.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Light of the World--<i>William Holman Hunt</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="420.jpg"><img src="thumb_420.jpg" alt=""><br> +Robert Cheseman with his Falcon--<i>Hans Holbein, the +Younger</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="422.jpg"><img src="thumb_422.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Berkshire Hills--<i>George Inness</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="423.jpg"><img src="thumb_423.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner--<i>Sir Edwin Henry +Landseer</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="425.jpg"><img src="thumb_425.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Artist's Portrait--<i>Tommaso Masaccio</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="424.jpg"><img src="thumb_424.jpg" alt=""><br> +Acis and Galatea--<i>Claude Lorrain</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="426.jpg"><img src="thumb_426.jpg" alt=""><br> +Retreat from Moscow--<i>Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="434.jpg"><img src="thumb_434.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Angelus--<i>Jean François Millet</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="432.jpg"><img src="thumb_432.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Immaculate Conception--<i>Murillo (Bartolomé Estéban)</i></a></p> + +<p><a name="016"></a><a href="433.jpg"><img src="thumb_433.jpg" alt=""><br> +Haystack in Sunshine--<i>Claude Monet</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="431.jpg"><img src="thumb_431.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Sistine Madonna--<i>Raphael (Sanzio)</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="436.jpg"><img src="thumb_436.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Night Watch--<i>Rembrandt (Van Rijn)</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="435.jpg"><img src="thumb_435.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Duchess of Devonshire and Her Daughter--<i>Sir Joshua +Reynolds</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="438.jpg"><img src="thumb_438.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Infant Jesus and St. John--<i>Peter Paul Rubens</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="437.jpg"><img src="thumb_437.jpg" alt=""><br> +Carmencita--<i>John Singer Sargent</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="440.jpg"><img src="thumb_440.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Miracle of St. Mark--<i>Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti)</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="439.jpg"><img src="thumb_439.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Artist's Daughter, Lavinia--<i>Titian (Tiziano +Vecelli)</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="442.jpg"><img src="thumb_442.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Fighting Téméraire--<i>Joseph Mallord William Turner</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="441.jpg"><img src="thumb_441.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Children of Charles the First--<i>Sir Anthony Van Dyck</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="445.jpg"><img src="thumb_445.jpg" alt=""><br> +Equestrian Portrait of Don Balthasar Carlos--<i>Velasquez (Diego +Rodriguez de Silva)</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="444.jpg"><img src="thumb_444.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Marriage at Cana--<i>Paul Veronese</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="443.jpg"><img src="thumb_443.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Death of Wolfe--<i>Sir Benjamin West</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="446.jpg"><img src="thumb_446.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Artist's Two Sons--<i>Peter Paul Rubens</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="448.jpg"><img src="thumb_448.jpg" alt=""><br> +The Last Supper--<i>Leonardo da Vinci</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="447.jpg"><img src="thumb_447.jpg" alt=""><br> +Fête Champêtre--<i>Jean Antoine Watteau</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="449.jpg"><img src="thumb_449.jpg" alt=""></a><a name="017"></a></p> + +<h1>I</h1> + +<h1>ANDREA DEL SARTO</h1> + +<center>(Pronounced Ahn'dray-ah del Sar'to)<br> +<i>Florentine School</i><br> +1486-1531<br> +<i>Pupil of Piero di Cosimo</i></center> + +<p>Italian painters received their names in +peculiar ways. This man's father was a +tailor; and the artist was named after his +father's profession. He was in fact "the +Tailor's Andrea," and his father's name was +Angelo.</p> + +<p>One story of this brilliant painter which +reads from first to last like a romance has been +told by the poet, Browning, who dresses up +fact so as to smother it a little, but there is +truth at the bottom.</p> + +<p>Andrea married a wife whom he loved +tenderly. She had a beautiful face that +seemed full of spirituality and feeling, and +Andrea painted it over and over again. The +artist loved his work and dreamed always of +the great things that he should do; but he was +so much in love with his wife that he was +dependent on her smile for all that he did +which was well done, and her frown plunged +him into despair.</p> + +<p>Andrea's wife cared nothing for his genius, +<a name="018"></a> +painting did not interest her, and she had no +worthy ambition for her husband, but she +loved fine clothes and good living, and so +encouraged him enough to keep him earning +these things for her. As soon as some money +was made she would persuade him to work no +more till it was spent; and even when he had +made agreements to paint certain pictures +for which he was paid in advance she would +torment him till he gave all of his time to her +whims, neglected his duty and spent the +money for which he had rendered no service. +Thus in time he became actually dishonest, as +we shall see. It is a sad sort of story to tell +of so brilliant a young man.</p> + +<p>Andrea was born in the Gualfonda quarter +of Florence, and there is some record of his +ancestors for a hundred years before that, +although their lives were quite unimportant. +Andrea was one of four children, and as usual +with Italians of artistic temperament, he was +set to work under the eye of a goldsmith. This +craftsmanship of a fine order was as near to +art as a man could get with any certainty of +making his living. It was a time when the +Italian world bedecked itself with rare golden +trinkets, wreaths for women's hair, girdles, +brooches, and the like, and the finest skill was +needed to satisfy the taste. Thus it required +talent of no mean order for a man to become a +successful goldsmith.</p> + +<p>Andrea did not like the work, and instead +<a name="019"></a> +of fashioning ornaments from his master's +models he made original drawings which did +not do at all in a shop where an apprentice was +expected to earn his salt. Certain fashions +had to be followed and people did not welcome +fantastic or new designs. Because of this, +Andrea was early put out of his master's shop +and set to learn the only business that he could +be got to learn, painting. This meant for him +a very different teacher from the goldsmith.</p> + +<p>The artist may be said to have been his own +master, because, even when he was apprenticed +to a painter he was taught less than he already +knew.</p> + +<p>That first teacher was Barile, a coarse and +unpleasing man, as well as an incapable one; +but he was fair minded, after a fashion, and +put Andrea into the way of finding better +help. After a few years under the direction +of Piero di Cosimo, Andrea and a friend, +Francia Bigio, decided to set up shop for +themselves.</p> + +<p>The two devoted friends pitched their tent +in the Piazza del Grano, and made a meagre +beginning out of which great things were to +grow. They began a series of pictures which +was to lead at least one of them to fame. It +was in the little Piazza, del Grano studio that +the "Baptism of Christ" was painted, a partnership +work that had been planned in the Campagnia +dello Scalzo.</p> + +<p>"The Baptism" was not much of a picture +<a name="020"></a> +as great pictures go, but it was a beginning and +it was looked at and talked about, which was +something at a time when Titian and Leonardo +had set the standard of great work. In the +Piazza del Grano, Andrea and his friend lived +in the stables of the Tuscan Grand Dukes, +with a host of other fine artists, and they had +gay times together.</p> + +<p>Andrea was a shy youth, a little timid, and +by no means vain of his own work, but he +painted with surprising swiftness and sureness, +and had a very brilliant imagination. Its +was his main trouble that he had more imagination +than true manhood; he sacrificed everything +good to his imagination.</p> + +<p>After the partnership with his friend, he +undertook to paint some frescoes independently, +and that work earned for him the name of +"Andrea senza Errori"--Andrea the Unerring. +Then, as now, each artist had his own way of +working, and Andrea's was perhaps the most +difficult of all, yet the most genius-like. There +were those, Michael Angelo for example, who +laid in backgrounds for their paintings; but +Andrea painted his subject upon the wet +plaster, precisely as he meant it to be when +finished.</p> + +<p>He was unlike the moody Michael Angelo; +unlike the gentle Raphael; unlike the fastidious +Van Dyck who came long afterward; he was +hail-fellow-well-met among his associates, +though often given over to dreaminess. He +<a name="021"></a> +belonged to a jolly club named the "Kettle +Club," literally, the Company of the Kettle; +and to another called "The Trowel," both +suggesting an all around good time and much +good fellowship The members of these clubs +were expected to contribute to their wonderful +suppers, and Andrea on one occasion made a +great temple, in imitation of the Baptistry, +of jelly with columns of sausages, white birds +and pigeons represented the choir and priests. +Besides being "Andrew the Unerring," and a +"Merry Andrew," he was also the "Tailor's +Andrew," a man in short upon whom a nickname +sat comfortably. He helped to make +the history of the "Company of the Kettle," +for he recited and probably composed a +touching ballad called "The Battle of the Mice +and the Frogs," which doubtless had its +origin in a poem of Homer's. But all at once, +in the midst of his gay careless life came his +tragedy; he fell in love with a hatter's wife. +This was quite bad enough, but worse was to +come, for the hatter shortly died, and the +widow was free to marry Andrea.</p> + +<p>After his marriage Andrea began painting +a series of Madonnas, seemingly for no better +purpose than to exhibit his wife's beauty over +and over again. He lost his ambition and +forgot everything but his love for this unworthy +woman. She was entirely commonplace, +incapable of inspiring true genius or +honesty of purpose.</p> + +<p><a name="022"></a> +A great art critic, Vasari, who was Andrea's +pupil during this time, has written that the +wife, Lucretia, was abominable in every way. +A vixen, she tormented Andrea from morning +till night with her bitter tongue. She did not +love him in the least, but only what his money +could buy for her, for she was extravagant, +and drove the sensitive artist to his grave +while she outlived him forty years.</p> + +<p>About the time of the artist's marriage he +painted one fresco, "The Procession of the +Magi," in which he placed a very splendid +substitute for his wife, namely himself. Afterward +he painted the Dead Christ which found +its way to France and it laid the foundation +for Andrea's wrongdoing. This picture was +greatly admired by the King of France who +above all else was a lover of art. Francis I. +asked Andrea to go to his court, as he had +commissions for him. He made Andrea a +money offer and to court he went.</p> + +<p>He took a pupil with him, but he left his +wife at home. At the court of Francis I. +he was received with great honours, and amid +those new and gracious surroundings, away +from the tantalising charms of his wife and her +shrewish tongue, he began to have an honest +ambition to do great things. His work for +France was undertaken with enthusiasm, but +no sooner was he settled and at peace, than the +irrepressible wife began to torment him with +letters to return. Each letter distracted him +<a name="023"></a> +more and more, till he told the King in his +despair, that he must return home, but that +he would come back to France and continue +his work, almost at once. Francis I., little +suspecting the cause of Andrea's uneasiness, +gave him permission to go, and also a large +sum of money to spend upon certain fine +works of art which he was to bring back to +France.</p> + +<p>We can well believe that Andrea started +back to his home with every good intention; +that he meant to appease his wife and also +his own longing to see her; to buy the King +his pictures with the money entrusted to him, +and to return to France and finish his work; +but, alas, he no sooner got back to his wife +than his virtuous purpose fled. She wanted +this; she wanted that--and especially she +wanted a fine house which could just about be +built for the sum of money which the King of +France had entrusted to Andrea.</p> + +<p>Andrea is a pitiable figure, but he was also +a vagabond, if we are to believe Vasari. He +took the King's money, built his wretched +wife a mansion, and never again dared return +to France, where his dishonesty made him +forever despised.</p> + +<p>Afterward he was overwhelmed with despair +for what he had done, and he tried to make +his peace with Francis; but while that monarch +did not punish him directly for his knavery; +he would have no more to do with him, and +<a name="024"></a> +this was the worst punishment the artist +could have had. However, his genius was so +great that other than French people forgot +his dishonesty and he began life anew in his +native place.</p> + +<p>Almost all his pictures were on sacred +subjects; and finally, when driven from +Florence to Luco by the plague, taking with +him his wife and stepdaughter, he began a +picture called the "Madonna del Sacco" (the +Madonna of the Sack).</p> + +<p>This fresco was to adorn the convent of the +Servi, and the sketches for it were probably +made in Luco. When the plague passed and +the artist was able to return to Florence, he +began to paint it upon the cloister walls.</p> + +<p>Andrea, like Leonardo, painted a famous +"Last Supper," although the two pictures +cannot be compared. In Andrea's picture it +is said that all the faces are portraits.</p> + +<p>Just before the plague sent him and his +family from Florence a most remarkable +incident took place. Raphael had painted a +celebrated portrait of Pope Leo X. in a group, +and the picture belonged to Ottaviano de +Medici. Duke Frederick II., of Mantua, longed +to own this picture, and at last requested the +Medici to give it to him. The Duke could +not well be refused, but Ottaviano wanted to +keep so great a work for himself. What was +to be done? He was in great trouble over the +affair. The situation seemed hopeless. It +<a name="025"></a> +seemed certain that he must part with his +beloved picture to the Duke of Mantua; but +one day Andrea del Sarto declared that he +could make a copy of it that even Raphael +himself could not tell from his original. Ottaviano +could scarcely believe this, but he begged +Andrea to set about it, hoping that it might be +true.</p> + +<p>Going at the work in good earnest, Andrea +painted a copy so exact that the pupil of +Raphael, who had more or less to do with the +original picture, could not tell which was which +when he was asked to choose. This pupil, +Giulio Romano, was so familiar with every +stroke of Raphael's that if he were deceived +surely any one might be; so the replica was +given to the Duke of Mantua, who never +found out the difference.</p> + +<p>Years afterward Giulio Romano showed the +picture to Vasari, believing it to be the original +Raphael, neither Andrea nor the Medici +having told Romano the truth. But Vasari, +who knew the whole story, declared to Romano +that what he showed him was but a copy. +Romano would not believe it, but Vasari told +him that he would find upon the canvas a +certain mark, known to be Andrea's. Romano +looked, and behold, the original Raphael +became a del Sarto! The original picture +hangs in the Pitti Palace, while the copy +made by Andrea is in the Naples Gallery.</p> + +<p>The introduction of Andrea to Vasari was +<a name="026"></a> +one of the few gracious things, that Michael +Angelo ever did. About Andrea he said to +Raphael at the time: "There is a little +fellow in Florence who will bring sweat to +your brows if ever he is engaged in great +works." Raphael, would certainly have agreed, +with him had he known what was to happen +in regard to the Leo X. picture.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding Andrea's unfortunate temperament, +which caused him to be guided +mostly by circumstances instead of guiding +them, he was said to be improving all the +time in his art. He had a great many pupils, +but none of them could tolerate his wife for +long, so they were always changing.</p> + +<p>Throughout his life the artist longed for +tenderness and encouragement from his wife, +and finally, without ever receiving it, he died +in a desolate way, untended even by her. +After the siege of Florence there came a +pestilence, and Andrea was overtaken by it. +His wife, afraid that she too would become ill, +would have nothing to do with him. She kept +away and he died quite alone, few caring that +he was dead and no one taking the trouble to +follow him to his grave. Thus one of the +greatest of Florentine painters lived and died. +Years after his death, the artist Jacopo da +Empoli, was copying Andrea's "Birth of the +Virgin" when an old woman of about eighty +years on her way to mass stopped to speak with +him. She pointed to the beautiful Virgin's +<a name="027"></a> +face in the picture and said: "I am that +woman." And so she was--the widow of +the great Andrea. Though she had treated +him so cruelly, she was glad to have it known +that she was the widow of the dead genius.</p> + +<center><a href="402.jpg"><img src="thumb_402.jpg" alt=""><br> +PLATE--THE MADONNA DEL SACCO<br> +<i>(Madonna of the Sack)</i></a></center> + +<p>This picture is a fresco in the cloister of the +Annunziata at Florence, and it is called "of +the sack" because Joseph is posed leaning +against a sack, a book open upon his knees.</p> + +<p>Doubtless the model for this Madonna is +Andrea del Sarto's abominable wife, but she +looks very sweet and simple in the picture. +The folds of Mary's garments are beautifully +painted, so is the poise of her head, and all +the details of the picture except the figure of +the child. There is a line of stiffness there +and it lacks the softness of many other pictures +of the Infant Jesus.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE HOLY FAMILY</center> + +<p>In this picture in the Pitti Palace, Florence, +Andrea del Sarto represents all the characters +in a serious mood. There are St. John and +Elizabeth, Mary and the Infant Jesus, and +there is no touch of playfulness such as may +be found in similar groups by other artists +of the time. Attention is concentrated upon +<a name="028"></a> +Jesus who seems to be learning from his +young cousin. The left hand, resting upon +Mary's arm is badly drawn and in character +does not seem to belong to the figure of the +child. A full, overhanging upper lip is a +dominant feature in each face.</p> + +<p>Other works of Andrea del Sarto are +"Charity," which is in the Louvre; "Madonna +dell' Arpie," "A Head of Christ," "The Dead +Christ," "Four Saints," "Joseph in Egypt," +his own portrait, and "Joseph's Dream."</p> + +<p><a name="029"></a></p> +<h1>II</h1> + +<h1>MICHAEL ANGELO (BUONARROTI)</h1> + +<center>(Pronounced Meek-el-ahn-jel-o (Bwone-ar-ro'tee))<br> +<i>Florentine School</i><br> +1475-1564<br> +<i>Pupil of Ghirlandajo</i></center> + +<p>This wonderful man did more kinds of +things, at a time when almost all artists +were versatile, than any other but one. Probably +Leonardo da Vinci was gifted in as many +different ways as Michael Angelo, and in his +own lines was as powerful. This Florentine's +life was as tragic as it was restless.</p> + +<p>There is a tablet in a room of a castle which +stands high upon a rocky mount, near the +village of Caprese, which tells that Michael +Angelo was born in that place. The great +castle is now in ruins, and more than four +hundred years of fame have passed since the +little child was born therein.</p> + +<p>The unhappy existence of the artist seems +to have been foreshadowed by an accident +which happened to his mother before he +was born. She was on horseback, riding +with her husband to his official post at +Chiusi, for he was governor of Chiusi and +Caprese. Her horse stumbled, fell, and badly +hurt her. This was two months before +<a name="030"></a> +Michael Angelo was born, and misfortune ever +pursued him.</p> + +<p>The father of Angelo was descended from an +aristocratic house--the Counts of Canossa +were his ancestors--and in that day the +profession of an artist was not thought to be +dignified. Hence the father had quite different +plans for the boy; but the son persisted and +at last had his way. When he was still a little +child his father finished his work as an official +at Caprese and returned to Florence; but he +left the little Angelo behind with his nurse. +That nurse was the wife of a stonemason, and +almost as soon as the boy could toddle he used +to wander about the quarries where the stonecutters +worked, and doubtless the baby joy +of Angelo was to play at chiseling as it is the +pleasure of modern babies to play at peg-top. +After a time he was sent for to go to Florence +to begin his education.</p> + +<p>In Florence he fell in with a young chap +who, like himself, loved art, but who was +fortunate enough already to be apprenticed +to the great painter of his time--Ghirlandajo. +One happy day this young Granacci volunteered +to take Michael Angelo to his master's studio, +and there Angelo made such an impression +on Ghirlandajo that he was urged by the +artist to become his pupil.</p> + +<p>All the world began to seem rose coloured to +the ambitious boy, and he started his life-work +with enthusiasm. At that time he was thirteen +<a name="031"></a> +years old, full of hope and of love for his kind; +but his good fortune did not last long. +He had hardly settled to work in Ghirlandajo's +studio than his genius, which should have made +him beloved, made him hated by his master. +Angelo drew superior designs, created new art-ideas, +was more clever in all his undertakings +than any other pupil--even ahead of his +master; and almost at once Ghirlandajo became +furiously jealous. This enmity between pupil +and master was the beginning of Angelo's +many misfortunes.</p> + +<p>One day he got into a dispute with a +fellow student, Torregiano, who broke his nose. +This deformity alone was a tragedy to one +like Michael Angelo who loved everything +beautiful, yet must go through life knowing +himself to be ill-favoured.</p> + +<p>In height he was a little man, topped by +an abnormally large head which was part of the +penalty he had to pay for his talents. He +had a great, broad forehead, and an eye that +did not gleam nor express the beauty of his +creative mind, but was dull, and lustreless, +matching his broken, flattened nose. Indeed +he was a tragedy to himself. In the "History +of Painting" Muther describes his unhappy +disposition:</p> + +<p>"In his youthful years he never learned what +love meant. 'If thou wishest to conquer me,' +in old age he addresses love, 'give me back +my features, from which nature has removed +<a name="032"></a> +all beauty.' Whenever in his sonnets he +speaks of passion, it is always of pain and tears, +of sadness and unrequited longing, never of the +fulfilment of his wishes."</p> + +<p>Then, too, Michael Angelo had a quarrelsome +disposition, and he was harsh in his criticism +of others. He hated Leonardo da Vinci more +for his great physical beauty than for his +genius. He quarreled with most of his +contemporaries, never joined the assemblies +of his brother artists, but dwelt altogether +apart. His was a gloomy and melancholy +disposition and he never found relief outside +his work.</p> + +<p>He was all kinds of an artist--poet, sculptor, +architect, painter--and although he worked +with the irregularity of true genius, he worked +indefatigably when once he began. It is said +that when he was making his "David" he +never removed his clothing the whole time he +was employed upon the work, but dropped +down when too exhausted to work more, and +slept wherever he fell.</p> + +<p>His first flight from the workshop of Ghirlandajo +was to the gardens of the great +Florentine prince, Lorenzo de' Medici, who had +sent to Ghirlandajo for two of his best pupils. +He wished them to come to his gardens and +study the beautiful Greek statues which +ornamented them. The choice fell to Angelo +and Granacci. Probably those statues in +Lorenzo's garden were the first glimpses of +<a name="033"></a> +really great art that Michael Angelo ever had. +Certain it is that he was overwhelmed with +happiness when he was given permission to +copy what he would, and at once he fell to work +with his chisel. His first work in that garden +was upon the head of an old faun; and Lorenzo, +walking by, curious to know to what use the +lad was putting his opportunity, made a +criticism:</p> + +<p>"You have made your faun old," he said, +"yet you have left all the teeth; at such an age, +generally the teeth are wanting."</p> + +<p>Angelo had nothing to say and the prince +walked on, but when next he came that way, +he found that Angelo had broken off two of the +faun's teeth; and this recognition of his +criticism pleased Lorenzo so much that he +invited Angelo to live with him. At first his +father objected. He felt himself to be an +aristocrat, and sculpture and painting were +indeed low occupations for his son, who he +had resolved should be nothing less than a +silk merchant. Nevertheless, the prince's +command, united with the son's pleading, +compelled the father to give up his cherished +dream of making a merchant of him, and +Angelo went to live in the palace.</p> + +<p>Then indeed what seemed a beautiful life +opened out. He was dressed in fine clothing, +dined with princes, and possibly he was grateful +to his patron. Some historians say so, and add +that when Lorenzo died Angelo wept, and +<a name="034"></a> +returned sadly to his father's house to mourn, +but this tale seems at odds with what else we +know of Angelo's unangelic, envious and +bitter disposition. It is quite certain, however, +that with the death of Lorenzo, Angelo's, +fortunes became greatly changed. Another +prince followed in line--Pietro de' Medici--but +he was a poor thing, who brought little +good to anybody. He had small use for +Michael Angelo's genius, but it is said that +he did give him one commission. After a +great storm one day, he asked him to make a +snow-man for him, and Angelo obligingly +complied. It was doubtless a very beautiful +snow-man, but although it was Angelo's +it melted in the night, even as if it had been +Johnny's or Tommy's snow-man, and left no +trace behind.</p> + +<p>In Rome there was a high and haughty pope +on the throne--Julius II.--who had probably +not his match for obstinacy and +haughtiness, excepting in the great painter +and sculptor. When Angelo went to Rome, +he was bound to come in conflict with Julius +for it was popes and princes who gave art any +reason for being in those days, and the Church +prescribed what kind of art should be cultivated. +Michael was to come directly under the +command of the pope and such a combination +promised trouble. Kings themselves had to +remove their crowns and hats to Julius, and +why not Michael Angelo? Yet there he stood, +<a name="035"></a> +covered, before the pope, opposing his greatness +to that of the pope. Soderini says that +Angelo treated the pope as the king of France +never would have dared treat him; but Angelo +may have known that kings of France might +be born and die, times without number, while +there would never be born another Michael +Angelo. There could be nothing but antagonism +between Angelo and Julius, and soon after +the artist returned to Florence; but the +necessity for following his profession enabled +Julius to tame him after all, and it is said that +the pope led him back to Rome, later, "with +a halter about his neck." This must have +been agony to Angelo.</p> + +<p>Back in Rome, he was commissioned to make +a tomb for the pope. He had no sooner set +about the preliminaries--the getting of suitable +marble for his work--than he began to quarrel +with the men who were to hew it. When that +difficulty was settled, and the marble was got +out, he had a set-to with the shipowners +who were to transport the stone, and that row +became so serious that the sculptor was +besieged in his own house.</p> + +<p>At another and later time, when he was +engaged upon the frescoes of the Sistine +Chapel, he was made to work by force. He +accused the man who had built the scaffolding +upon which he must stand, or lie, to paint, of +planning his destruction. He suspected the +very assistants whom he, himself, had chosen +<a name="036"></a> +to go from Florence, of having designs upon his +life. He locked the chapel against them, and +they had to turn away when they went to +begin work. Because of his insane suspicion +he did alone the enormous work of the frescoes. +Doubtless he was half mad, just as he was +wholly a genius.</p> + +<p>By the time he had finished those frescoes +he was so exhausted and overworked that +he wrote piteously to his people at home, +"I have not a friend in Rome, neither do I +wish nor have use for any." This of course +was not true; or he would not have made the +statement. "I hardly find time to take +nourishment. Not an ounce more can I bear +than already rests upon my shoulders." Even +when the work was done he felt no happiness +because of it, but complained about everything +and everybody.</p> + +<p>If Angelo thought this an unhappy day, +worse was in store for him. Julius II. died +and in his place there came to reign upon the +papal throne, Leo X. If Michael Angelo had +been restricted in his work before, he was +almost jailed under Leo X. Julius had been a +virile, forceful man, and Michael Angelo was +the same. Since he must be restrained and +dictated to, it was possible for the artist to +listen to a man who was in certain respects +strong like himself, but to be under the thumb +of a weak, effeminate person like Leo, was the +tragedy of tragedies to Angelo. That was a +<a name="037"></a> +marvellous time in Rome. All its citizens had +become so pleasure-loving that the world, stood +still to wonder. When the pope banqueted, +he had the golden plates from which fair women +had eaten hurled into the Tiber, that they +might never be profaned by a less noble use +than they had known. From all this riot and +madness of pleasure, Michael Angelo stood +aside with frowning brow and scornful mien. +He approved of nothing and of nobody--despising +even Raphael, the gentle and loving +man whom the pleasure-crazed people of Rome +paused to smile upon and love. The pope +said that Angelo was "terrible," and that he +filled everybody with fear.</p> + +<p>Finally, Rome so resented his frowning looks +and his surly ways that work was provided +for him at a distance. He was sent to Florence +again to build a facade. While there, the city +was conquered, and Angelo was one who fought +for its freedom, but even so, he fled just at the +crisis. Thus he ever did the wrong thing--excepting +when he worked. In Florence he +had planned to do mighty things, but he never +accomplished any one of them. He planned +to make a wonderful colossal statue on a cliff +near Carrara, and also he resolved to make +the tomb of Julius the nucleus of a "forest of +statues."</p> + +<p>Michael Angelo never married, but he was +burdened with a family and all its cares. +He supported his brothers and even his +<a name="038"></a> +nephews, and took care of his father. All of +those people came to him with their difficulties +and with their demands for money. He +chided, quarreled, repelled, yet met every +obligation. He would sit beside the sick-bed +of a servant the night through, but growl at the +demands of his near relatives--and it is not +unlikely that he had good reason.</p> + +<p>At last he withdrew himself from all human +society but that of little children, whom he +cared to speak with and to please. He would +have naught to do with men of genius like himself; +and when he fell from a scaffolding and injured +himself, the physician had to force his way +through a barred window, in order to get into +the sick man's presence to serve him.</p> + +<p>An illustration of his determined solitude +is given in the "Young People's Story of Art:"</p> + +<p>"There had long been lying idle in Florence +an immense block of marble. One hundred +years before a sculptor had tried to carve +something from it, but had failed. This was +now given to Michael Angelo. He was to be +paid twelve dollars a month, and to be allowed +two years in which to carve a statue. He +made his design in wax; and then built a +tower around the block, so that he might +work inside without being seen."</p> + +<p>Everything Angelo undertook bore the marks +of gigantic enterprise. Although he never +succeeded in making the tomb of Julius II. +the central piece in his forest of statues, the +<a name="039"></a> +undertaking was marvellous enough. His +original plan was to make the tomb three +stories high and to ornament it with forty +statues, and if St. Peter's Church was large +enough to hold it, the work was to be placed +therein; but if not, a church was to be built +specially to hold the tomb. When at last, +in spite of his difficulties with workmen and +shipowners, the marbles were deposited in the +great square before St. Peter's, they filled the +whole place; and the pope, wishing to watch +the progress of the work and not himself to be +observed, had a covered way built from the +Vatican to the workshop of Angelo in the +square, by which he might come and go as he +chose, while an order was issued that the +sculptor was to be admitted at all times to +the Vatican. No sooner was this arrangement +completed than Angelo's enemies frightened +the pope by telling him there was danger in +making his tomb before his death; and with +these superstitions haunting him Julius II. +stopped the work, leaving Angelo without the +means to pay for his marbles. With the doors +of the Vatican closed to him, Angelo withdrew, +post haste to Florence--and who can blame +him? Nevertheless, the work was resumed +after infinite trouble on the pope's part. He +had to send again and again for Angelo and +after forty years, the work was finished. +There the sequel of the sculptor's forty-years +war with self and the world stands to-day in +<a name="040"></a> +"Moses," the wonderful, commanding central +figure which seems to reflect all the fierce +power which Angelo had to keep in check +during a life-time.</p> + +<p>The command of Julius that he should paint +the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel aroused all his +fierce resistance. He did it under protest, +all the while accusing those about him of +having designs upon his life.</p> + +<p>"I am not a painter, but a sculptor," he said.</p> + +<p>"Such a man as thou is everything that he +wishes to be," the pope replied.</p> + +<p>"But this is an affair of Raphael. Give +him this room to paint and let me carve a +mountain!" But no, he must paint the +ceiling; but to render it easier for him the pope +told him he might fill in the spaces with saints, +and charge a certain amount for each. This +Angelo, who was first of all an artist, refused +to do. He would do the work rightly or not at +all. So he made his own plans and cut himself +a cardboard helmet, into the front of which +he thrust a candle, as if it were a Davy lamp, +and he lay upon his back to work day and +night at the hated task. During those months +he was compelled to look up so continually, +that never afterward was he able to look down +without difficulty. When he had finished the +work Julius had some criticisms to make.</p> + +<p>"Those dresses on your saints are such poor +things," he said. "Not rich enough--such +very poor things!"</p> + +<p><a name="041"></a> +"Well, they were poor things," was Angelo's +answer. "The saints did not wear golden +ornaments, nor gold on their garments."</p> + +<p>After Julius II. and Leo X. came Pope +Paul III., and he, like the other two, determined +to have Angelo for his workman. Indeed all +his life, Michael Angelo's gifts were commanded +by the Church of Rome. It was for Paul III. +he painted the "Last Judgment." His former +work upon the Sistine Chapel had been the +story of the creation. All his work was of a +mighty and allegorical nature; tremendous +shoulders, mighty limbs, herculean muscles +that seemed fit to support the universe. These +allegories are made of hundreds of figures. +To-day they are still there, though dimmed +by the smoke of centuries of incense, and +dismembered by the cracking of plaster and +disintegration of materials.</p> + +<p>Angelo's methods of work, as well as their +results, were oppressive. In his youth, while +trying to perfect himself in his study of the +human form, he drew or modelled, from +nude corpses. He had these conveyed by +stealth from the hospital into the convent of +Santo Spirito, where he had a cell and there +he worked, alone.</p> + +<p>He was concentrated, mentally and emotionally, +upon himself. The only remark he made +after the blow from Torregiano was, "You will +be remembered only as the man who broke +my nose!" This proved nearly true, since +<a name="042"></a> +Torregiano was banished, and murdered by +the Spanish Inquisition.</p> + +<p>All sorts of anecdotes have floated through +the centuries concerning this man and his work. +For example, he made a statue of a sleeping +cupid, which was buried in the ground for a +time that it might assume the appearance of +age, and pass for an antique. Afterward it +was sold to the Cardinal San Giorgio for two +hundred ducats, though Michael Angelo +received only thirty. Nevertheless, he died a +rich man, after having cared for a numerous +family, while he himself lived like a man +without means. All the tranquillity he ever +knew he enjoyed in his old age.</p> + +<p>It was characteristic of his perversity that +he left his name upon nothing that he made, +with one exception. Vasari relates the story +of that exception:</p> + +<p>"The love and care which Michael Angelo +had given to this group, 'In Paradise,' were +such that he there left his name--a thing he +never did again for any work--on the cincture +which girdles the robe of Our Lady; for it +happened one day that Michael Angelo, entering +the place where it was erected, found a large +assemblage of strangers from Lombardy there, +who were praising it highly; one of them +asking who had done it, was told, 'our Hunchback +of Milan'; hearing which Michael Angelo +remained silent, although surprised that his +work should be attributed to another. But +<a name="043"></a> +one night he repaired to St. Peter's with a light +and his chisels, to engrave his name on the +figure, which seems to breathe a spirit as perfect +as her form and countenance."</p> + +<p>If his youth had been given to sculpture, +his maturity to the painting of wondrous +frescoes, so his old age was devoted to architecture, +and as architect he rebuilt the +decaying St. Peter's. In this work he felt +that he partly realised his ideal. Sculpture +meant more to him, "did more for the glory +of God," than any other form of art. When +he had finished his work on St. Peter's, he is said +to have looked upon it and exclaimed: "I +have hung the Pantheon in the air!"</p> + +<p>This colossal genius died in Rome, and was +carried by the light of torches from that city +back to his better loved Florence, where he +was buried. His tomb was made in the Santa +Croce, and upon it are three female figures +representing Michael Angelo's three wonderful +arts: Architecture, sculpture and painting. +No artist was greater than he.</p> + +<p>His will committed "his soul to God, his +body to the earth, and his property to his +nearest relatives."</p> + +<center>PLATE--DANIEL</center> + +<p>This wonderful painting is a part of the +decoration of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. +The picture of the prophet tells so much in +<a name="044"></a> +itself, that a description seems absurd. It is +enough to call attention to the powerful +muscles in the arm, the fall of the hand, and +then to speak of the main characteristics of the +artist's pictures.</p> + +<p>It is extraordinary that there is no blade of +grass to be found in any painting by Michael +Angelo. He loved to paint but one thing, +and that was the naked man, the powerful +muscles, or the twisted limbs of those in great +agony. He loved only to work upon vast +spaces of ceiling or wall. Look at this picture +of Daniel and see how like sculpture the +pose and modelling appear to be. First of all, +Michael Angelo was a sculptor, and most of +the painting which fate forced him to do has +the characteristics of sculpture.</p> + +<p>One critic has remarked that he loves to +think of this strange man sitting before the +marble quarry of Pietra Santa and thinking +upon all the beings hidden in the cliff--beings +which he should fashion from the marble.</p> + +<p>It was said that in Michael Angelo's hands +the Holy Family became a race of Titans, and +where others would have put plants or foliage, +Angelo placed men and naked limbs to fill the +space. When his subject made some sort of +herbage necessary, he invented a kind of +mediæval fern in place of grass and familiar +leaves. Everything appears brazen and hard +and mighty, suggestive of Angelo's own +throbbing spirit and maddened soul. Most +<a name="045"></a> +of his work, when illustrated, must be shown +not as a whole but in sections, but one can +best mention them as entire picture themes. +On the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel are nine +frescoes describing "The Creation of The +World," "The Fall of Man" and "The Deluge." +"The Last Judgment" occupies the entire +altar wall in the same chapel of the Vatican. +"The Holy Family" is in the Uffizi Gallery, +Florence.</p> + +<p><a name="046"></a></p> +<h1>III</h1> + +<h1>ARNOLD BÖCKLIN</h1> + +<center>(Pronounced Bek'-lin)<br> +<i>Modern German School (Düsseldorf)</i><br> +1827-1901</center> + +<p>This splendid artist is so lately dead that +it does not seem proper yet to discuss +his personal history, but we can speak understandingly +of his art, for we already know it +to be great art, which will stand the test of +time. His imagination turned toward subjects +of solemn grandeur and his work is very +impressive and beautiful.</p> + +<p>He was born in Basel, "one of the most +prosaic towns in Europe." His father was a +Swiss merchant, and not poor; thus the son +had ordinarily good chances to make an artist +of himself. He was born at a time when to be +an artist had long ceased to be a reproach, +and men no longer discouraged their sons +who felt themselves inspired to paint great +pictures.</p> + +<p>When Böcklin was nineteen years old he +took himself to Düsseldorf, with his merchant +father's permission, and settled down to learn +his art, but in that city he found mostly +"sentimental and anecdotal" pictures being +painted, which did not suit him at all. Then +<a name="047"></a> +he took himself off to Brussels, where again +he was not satisfied, and so went to Paris. +But while in Brussels he had copied many old +masters, and had advanced himself very +much, so that he did not present himself in +Paris raw and untried in art.</p> + +<p>At first he studied in the Louvre, then went +to Rome, seeking ever the best, and being +hard to satisfy. He found rest and tranquillity +in Zürich, a city in his native country, but it +was Italy that had most influenced his work.</p> + +<p>He loved the Campagna of Rome with its +ruins and the sad grandeur of the crumbling +tombs lining its way, and therefore a certain +mysterious, grand, and solemn character made +his pictures unlike those of any other artist. +He loved to paint in vertical (up-and-down) +fines, rather than with the conventional horizontal +outlines that we find in most paintings. +This method gives his pictures a different +quality from any others in the world.</p> + +<p>He loved best of all to paint landscape, +and it is said of him that "as the Greeks +peopled their streams and woods and waves +with creatures of their imagination, so Böcklin +makes the waterfall take shape as a nymph, or +the mists which rise above the water source +wreathe into forms of merry children; or in +some wild spot hurls centaurs together in +fierce combat, or makes the slippery, moving +wave give birth to Nereids and Tritons."</p> + +<p>Muther, art-critic and biographer, calls our +<a name="048"></a> +attention to the similarity between Wagner's +music and Böcklin's painting. While Wagner +was "luring the colours of sound from music," +Böcklin's "symphonies of colour streamed +forth like a crashing orchestra," and he calls +him the greatest colour-poet of the time.</p> + +<p>In appearance Böcklin was fine of form, +healthy and wholesome in all his thoughts and +way of living. In 1848 he took part in +revolutionary politics and later this did him +great harm. Only the influence of his friends +kept him from ruin. After the Franco-Prussian +war he was made Minister of Fine Arts. In +this office he rendered great service; but +because he had to witness the wrecking of the +Column Vendôme in order to save the Louvre +and the Luxembourg from the mob, he was +censured; indeed so heavy a fine was imposed +that it took his whole fortune to pay it; and +he was banished into the bargain. From +1892 to 1901 he lived in or near Florence, +and he died at Fiesole, January 16th, 1901.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE ISLE OF THE DEAD</center> + +<p>This picture is perhaps the greatest of the +many great Arnold Böcklin paintings, and it is +both fascinating and awe-inspiring.</p> + +<p>It best shows his liking for vertical lines in +art. The Isle of the Dead is of a rocky, shaft-like +formation in which we may see hewn-out +tombs; and there, tall cypress trees are growing.</p> + +<p><a name="049"></a> +The traces of man's work in the midst of this +sombre, ideal, and mystic scene add to the +impressiveness of the picture. The isle stands +high and lonely in the midst of a sea.</p> + +<p>The water seems silently to lap the base +of the rocks and the trees are in black shadow, +massed in the centre. It looks very mysterious +and still. There is a stone gateway touched +with the light of a dying day. It is sunset +and the dead is being brought to its resting +place in a tiny boat, all the smaller for its +relation to the gloomy grandeur of the isle +which it is approaching. One figure is standing +in the boat, facing the island, and the sunlight +falls full upon his back and touches the boat, +making that spot stand out brilliantly from all +the rest of the picture.</p> + +<p>Among Böcklin's paintings are "Naiads at +Play," which hangs in the Museum at Basel, +"A Villa by the Sea," "The Sport of the +Waves," "Regions of Joy," "Flora," and +"Venus Dispatching Cupid."</p> + +<p><a name="050"></a></p> +<h1>IV</h1> + +<h1>MARIE-ROSA BONHEUR</h1> + +<center>(Pronounced Rosa Bon-er)<br> +<i>French School</i><br> +1822-1895<br> +<i>Pupil of Raymond B. Bonheur</i></center> + +<p>Rosa Bonheur, Landseer, and Murillo +maybe called "Children's Painters" in this +book because they painted things that children, +as well as grown-ups, certainly can enjoy. +To be sure, Murillo was a very different sort +of artist from Rosa Bonheur or Landseer, +but if the two latter painted the most beautiful, +animals--dogs, sheep, and horses--Murillo +painted the loveliest little children.</p> + +<p>Rosa was the best pupil of her father; +Raymond B. Bonheur. In Bordeaux they +lived together the peaceful life of artists, +the father being already a well known painter +when his daughter was born. She became, +as Mr. Hamerton, who knew her, said, "the +most accomplished female painter who ever +lived ... a pure, generous woman as +well and can hardly be too much admired ... +as a woman or an artist. She is simple in her +tastes and habits of life and many stories are +told of her generosity to others."</p> + +<p>After a time the Bonheurs moved to Paris +<a name="051"></a> +where young Rosa could have better opportunities; +and there she put on man's clothing, +which she wore all her life thereafter. She +wore a workingman's blouse and trousers, +and tramped about looking more like a man +than a woman with her short hair. This, +made everybody stare at her and think her +very queer, but people no longer believe that +she dressed herself thus in order to advertise +herself and attract attention; but because it +was the most convenient costume for her to +get about in. She went to all sorts of places; +the stockyards, slaughter houses, all about the +streets of Paris, to learn of things and people, +especially of animals, which she wished most +to paint. She could hardly have gone about +thus if she had worn women's clothing.</p> + +<p>Rosa Bonheur exhibited her first painting +at the <i>Salon</i> in 1841, and this was twelve years +before her beloved father died; thus he had the +happiness of knowing that the daughter whom +he had taught so lovingly was on the road +to success and fortune. He knew that when +fortune should come to her she would use it +well. The year that she exhibited her work +in the <i>Salon</i> she painted only two little pictures--one +of rabbits, the other of sheep and +goats--but they were so splendidly done +that all the critics knew a great woman artist +had arrived.</p> + +<p>It was then that her enemies, those who +were becoming jealous of her work, said that +<a name="052"></a> +she was wearing men's clothing in order to +attract attention to herself.</p> + +<p>Soon her work began to be bought by the +French Government, which was a sure sign of +her power. She was already much beloved +by the people. In the meantime we in America +and others in England had heard of Mademoiselle +Bonheur, but we heard far less about her +painting than we did about her masculine +garb. We thought of her mostly as an eccentric +woman; but one day came "The Horse +Fair," and all the world heard of that, so the +artist was to be no longer judged by the +clothes she wore but by her art. Finally, she +received the cross of the Legion of Honour, +and also was made a member of the Institute +of Antwerp.</p> + +<p>She lived near Fontainebleau; her studio +a peaceful retired home, till the Franco-Prussian +war came about. Then she and others began +to fear that her studio and pictures would be +destroyed, so the artist was forced to stop her +work and prepared to go elsewhere. But +the Crown Prince of Prussia himself ordered +that Mademoiselle Bonheur should not even +be disturbed. Her work had made her belong +to all the world and all the world was to +protect her if need be.</p> + +<p>Rosa Bonheur had a brother who, some +critics said, was the better artist, but if that +were true it is likely that his popularity would +in some degree have approached that of his +<a name="053"></a> +sister. Rosa Bonheur did not paint many +large canvases, but mostly small ones, or +only moderately large; but when she painted +sheep it seems that one might shear the wool, +it stands so fleecy and full; while her horses +rampage and curvet, showing themselves off +as if they were alive.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE HORSE FAIR</center> + +<p>This picture was exhibited all over the world +very nearly. It was carried to England and +to America, and won admiration wherever it +was seen. Finally it was sold in America. +It was first exhibited in 1853, the year in +which the artist's father died. Mr. Ernest +Gambart was the first who bought the picture, +and he wrote of it to his friend, Mr. S.P. +Avery: "I will give you the real history of +'The Horse Fair,' now in New York. It +was painted in 1852, by Rosa Bonheur, then +in her thirtieth year, and exhibited in the next +<i>Salon</i>. Though much admired it did not find +a purchaser. It was soon after exhibited in +Ghent, meeting again with much appreciation, +but was not sold, as art did not flourish at the +time. In 1855 the picture was sent by Rosa +Bonheur to her native town of Bordeaux and +exhibited there. She offered to sell it to +the town at the very low price 12,000 +francs ($2,400). While there, I asked her if +she would sell it to me, and allow me to take +<a name="054"></a> +it to England and have it engraved. She said: +'I wish to have my picture remain in France. +I will once more impress on my countrymen, +my wish to sell it to them for 12,000 francs. +If they refuse, you can have it, but if you take +it abroad, you must pay me 40,000 francs.' +The town failing to make the purchase, I at +once accepted these terms, and Rosa Bonheur +then placed the picture at my disposal. I +tendered her the 40,000 francs and she said: +'I am much gratified at your giving me such +a noble price, but I do not like to feel that I +have taken advantage of your liberality; let +us see how we can combine in the matter. You +will not be able to have an engraving made +from so large a canvas. Suppose I paint you +a small one from the same subject, of which I +will make you a present.' Of course I accepted +the gift, and thus it happened that the large +work went travelling over the kingdom on +exhibition, while Thomas Landseer was making +an engraving from the quarter-size replica.</p> + +<p>"After some time (in 1857 I think), I sold +the original picture to Mr. William P. Wright, +New York (whose picture gallery and residence +were at Weehawken, N.J.), for the sum +of 30,000 francs, but later I understood +that Mr. Stewart paid a much larger price +for it on the breaking up of Mr. Wright's +gallery. The quarter size replica, from which +the engraving was made, I finally sold to Mr. +Jacob Bell, who gave it in 1859 to the nation, +<a name="055"></a> +and it is now in the National Gallery, London. +A second, still smaller replica, was painted a +few years later, and was resold some time ago +in London for £4,000 ($20,000). There +is also a smaller water-colour drawing which +was sold to Mr. Bolckow for 2,500 guineas +($12,000), and is now an heirloom belonging +to the town of Middlesbrough. That is the +whole history of this grand work. The Stewart +canvas is the real and true original, and only +large size 'Horse-Fair.'</p> + +<p>"Once in Mr. Stewart's collection, it never +left his gallery until the auction sale of his +collection, March 25th, 1887, when it was purchased +by Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt for the +sum of $55,000, and presented to the Metropolitan +Museum of Art."</p> + +<p>And thus we have the whole story of the +"Horse-Fair." The picture is 93-1/2 inches high, +and 197 inches wide, and it contains a great +number of horses, some of which are ridden, +while others are led, and all are crowding with +wild gaiety toward the fair where it is quite +plain they know they are about to be admired +and their beauty shown to the best advantage. +Other well-known Rosa Bonheurs are "Ploughing," +"Shepherd Guarding Sheep," "Highland +Sheep," "Scotch Deer," "American Mustangs," +and "The Study of a Lioness."</p> + +<p><a name="056"></a></p> +<h1>V</h1> + +<h1>ALESSANDRO BOTTICELLI</h1> + +<center>(Pronounced Ah-lays-sahn'dro Bo't-te-chel'lee)<br> +<i>Florentine School,</i><br> +1447-1510 (Vasari's dates)<br> +<i>Pupil of Filippo Lippi and Verrocchio</i></center> + +<p>Botticelli took his name from his first +master, as was the fashion in those days. +The relation of master and apprentice was very +close, not at all like the relation of pupil and +teacher to-day.</p> + +<p>Botticelli's father was a Florentine citizen, +Mariano Filipepi, and he wished his son to +become a goldsmith; hence the lad was soon +apprenticed to Botticelli, the goldsmith. As a +scholar, the little goldsmith had not distinguished +himself. Indeed it is said that as a +boy he would not "take to any sort of schooling +in reading, writing, or arithmetic." It cannot +be said that this failure distinguished him as a +genius, or the world would be full of genius-boys; +but the result was that he early began +to learn his trade.</p> + +<p>Fortunately for him and us, Botticelli, the +smith, was a man of some wisdom and when he +saw that the lad originated beautiful designs +and had creative genius he did not treat the +matter with scorn, as the master of Andrea del +<a name="057"></a> +Sarto had done, but sent him instead to Fra +Filippo (Lippo Lippi) to be taught the art +of painting. So kind a deed might well +establish a feeling of devotion on little Alessandro's +part and make him wish to take his +master's name.</p> + +<p>Fra Filippo was a Carmelite monk, merry +and kindly; simple, good, and gifted, but his +temperament did not seem to influence his +young pupil. Of all unhappy, morbid men, +Botticelli seems to have been the most so, unless +we are to except Michael Angelo.</p> + +<p>After studying with the monk, Botticelli +was summoned by Pope Sixtus IV. to Rome +to decorate a new chapel in the Vatican. +Before that time his whole life had been greatly +influenced by the teachings of Savonarola +who had preached both passionately and +learnedly in Florence, advocating liberty. +From the time he fell under Savonarola's +wonderful power, the artist grew more and +more mystic and morbid. In Rome it was the +custom to have the portraits of conspirators, +or persons of high degree who were revolutionary +or otherwise objectionable to the state, +hung outside the Public Palace, and in Botticelli's +time there was a famous disturbance +among the aristocrats of the state. In 1478 +the powerful Pazzi family conspired against +the Medici family, which then actually had +control. It was Botticelli who was engaged +to paint the portraits of the Pazzi family, +<a name="058"></a> +which to their shame and humiliation were +to be displayed upon the palace walls.</p> + +<p>One peculiarity of this artist's pictures was +that he used actual goldleaf to make the high +lights upon hair, leaves, and draperies. The +effect of the use of this gold was very beautiful, +if unusual, and it may have been that his +apprenticeship as a goldsmith suggested to +him such a device.</p> + +<p>Also it was he who created certain characteristics +of painting that have since been thought +original with Burne-Jones. This was the use +of long stiff lily-stalks or other upright details +in his compositions. Examples of this idea, +which produced so weird an effect, will be found +in his allegory of "Spring," where stiff tree-trunks +form a part of the background. In +the "Madonna of the Palms" upright lily-stalks +are held in pale and trembling hands. +Like Michael Angelo, who came years afterward, +Botticelli was a guest of the great Lorenzo +the "Magnificent," in Florence. It was by +Botticelli's hand that the greater painter sent +a letter to Lorenzo from a duchess friend +who was also his patron. This was in Angelo's +youth; in Botticelli's old age.</p> + +<p>All his life was a drama of morbid seeking +after the unattainable, and finally he became +so poor and helpless that in his old age he +would have starved had Lorenzo de' Medici +not taken care of him. Lorenzo and other +friends who in spite of his gloominess admired +<a name="059"></a> +his real piety, gathered about him and kept +him from starvation.</p> + +<p>On his "Nativity," Botticelli wrote: "This +picture I, Alessandro, painted at the end of +the year 1500 in the troubles of Italy, in the +halftime after the time, during the fulfilment +of the eleventh of John, in the second woe +of the Apocalypse, in the loosing the devil +for three and a half years. Afterward he +shall be chained according to the twelfth of +John, and see him trodden down as in this +picture." All of this is interesting because +Botticelli himself wrote it, but it is not +very easily understood by any child, nor by +many grown people.</p> + +<p>Botticelli did some very extraordinary things, +but whether they are beautiful or not one +must decide for himself. They are paintings +so characteristic that one must think them +very beautiful or else not at all so.</p> + +<center>PLATE--LA PRIMAVERA<br> +<i>(Spring)</i></center> + +<p>In this picture we have the forerunner of a +modern painter, because we see in it certain, +qualities that we find in Böcklin. Look at +the effect of vertical lines; the tree trunks, +and the poses of the slender women. Over +all hovers a cupid who is sending love-shafts +into the hearts of all in springtime.</p> + +<p>Notice the lacy effect of the flowers that +<a name="060"></a> +bestar the wind-blown gown of "La Primavera," +the fern-like leaves that fleck the background; +the draperies that do not conceal the forms +of the nymphs of the lovely springtime.</p> + +<p>The very spirit of spring is seen in all the +half-floating, half-dancing, gliding, diaphanous +figures of the forest. The flowers of "La +Primavera's" crown are blue and white cornflowers +and primroses. She scatters over the +earth tulips, anemones, and narcissus. The +painting is allegorical and unique. Never were +such fluttering odds and ends of draperies +painted before, nor such fascinating effects had +from canvas, paint, or brush. The picture +hangs in Florence in the Uffizi Gallery. A +German critic tells us that the "Realm of +Venus," is a better title for this picture, and +that it was painted after a poem of that name.</p> + +<p>Other pictures by this artist are: "The +Birth of Venus," "Pallas," "Judith," "Holofernes," +"St. Augustine," "Adoration of the +Magi," and "St. Sebastian."</p> + +<p><a name="061"></a></p> +<h1>VI</h1> + +<h1>WILLIAM ADOLPHE BOUGUEREAU</h1> + +<center>(Pronounced W. A'dolf Bou-gair-roh)<br> +<i>French (Genre) School</i><br> +1825-1905<br> +<i>Pupil of Picot and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts</i></center> + +<p>Bouguereau's business-like father meant +his son also to be business-like, but +he made the mistake of permitting him to +go to a drawing school in Bordeaux and there, +to his father's chagrin, the youngster took the +annual prize. After that there seemed nothing +for the father to do but grin and bear it, +because the son decided to be an artist and had +fairly won his right to be one.</p> + +<p>Young Bouguereau had no money, and +therefore he went to live with an uncle at +Saintonge, a priest, who had much sympathy +with the boy's wish to paint, and he left him +free to do the best he could for himself in art. +He got a chance to paint some portraits, and +when he and his uncle talked the matter over +It was decided that he should take the money +got for them, and go to Paris. It was there +that he sought Picot, his first truly helpful +teacher; and there, for the first time he learned +more than he already knew about art.</p> + +<p>All Bouguereau's opportunities in life were +made by himself, by his own genius. No one +<a name="062"></a> +gave him anything; he earned all. He longed +to go to Italy, and in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts +he won the Prix de Rome, which made possible +a journey to the land of great artists. The +French Government began to buy his work, +and he began to receive commissions to decorate +walls in great buildings; thus, gradually, he +made for himself fame and fortune.</p> + +<p>When this artist undertook to paint sacred +subjects, of great dignity, he was not at his +best; but when he chose children and mothers +and everyday folk engaged about their everyday +business, he painted beautifully. Americans +have bought many of his pictures and he +has had more popularity in this country than +anywhere outside of France.</p> + +<p>Some authorities give the birthplace of Bouguereau +as La Rochelle; at any rate he died there +at midnight, on the nineteenth of August, 1905.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE VIRGIN AS CONSOLER</center> + +<p>The main distinction about this artist's +pictured faces is the peculiarly earnest expression +he has given to the eyes. In this picture +of the Virgin there is great genius in the pose +and death-look of the little child whose +mother has flung herself across the lap of Mary, +abandoned to her agony. This painting is +hung in the Luxembourg. Others by the same +master are called "Psyche and Cupid" "Birth of +Venus," "Innocence," and "At the Well."</p> + +<p><a name="063"></a></p> +<h1>VII</h1> + +<h1>SIR EDWARD BURNE-JONES</h1> + +<center><i>English (Pre-Raphaelite) School</i><br> +1833-1898<br> +<i>Pupil of Rossetti</i></center> + +<p>This artist has been called the most original +of all contemporaneous artists. He has +also been called the "lyric painter"; meaning +that he is to painting what the lyric poet is +to literature. His work once known can almost +always be recognised wherever seen afterward. +He did not slavishly follow the Pre-Raphaelite +school, yet he drew most of his +ideas from its methods. He was, in the use of +stiff lines, a follower of Botticelli, and not +original in that detail, as some have seemed to +think.</p> + +<center>PLATE--CHANT D'AMOUR<br> +<i>(The Love-Song)</i></center> + +<p>This is a picture in the true Burne-Jones +style: a beautiful woman in billowy draperies, +playing upon a harp forms the central +figure of the group of three--a listener on +either side of her. There is the attractiveness +of the Burne-Jones method about this picture, +but after all there seems to be no very good +<a name="064"></a> +reason for its having been painted. The +subject thus treated has only a negative value, +and little suggestion of thought or dramatic +idea.</p> + +<p>Another picture of this artist, in which his +use of stiff draperies is specially shown, is +that of the women at the tomb of Christ, +when they find the stone rolled away and, +looking around, see the Saviour's figure before +them. The scene is low and cavern-like, with +a brilliant light surrounding the tomb. This +artist also painted "The Vestal Virgin," +"King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid," "Pan +and Psyche," "The Golden Stairs," and +"Love Among the Ruins."</p> + +<p><a name="065"></a></p> +<h1>VIII</h1> + +<h1>JOHN CONSTABLE</h1> + +<center><i>English School</i><br> +1776-1837<br> +<i>Pupil of the Royal Academy</i></center> + +<p>John Constable was the son of a "yeoman +farmer" who meant to make him also +a yeoman farmer. Mostly we find that the +fathers of our artists had no higher expectations +for their sons than to have them take up their +own business; to begin as they had, and to end +as they expected to. But in John Constable's +case, as with all the others, the father's methods +of living did not at all please the son, and +having most of all a liking for picture-making; +young John set himself to planning his own +affairs.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the foundation of John's art +was laid right there in the Suffolk farmer's +home and conditions. He was born in East +Bergholt, and the father seems to have believed +in windmills, for early in life the signs of +wind and weather became a part of the son's +education. He learned a deal more of atmospheric +conditions there on his father's windmill +planted farm than he could possibly have +learned shut up in a studio, French fashion. +As a little boy he came to know all the signs of +<a name="066"></a> +the heavens; the clouds gathering for storm or +shine; the bending of the trees in the blast; +all of these he loved, and later on made the +principal subjects of his art. He learned to +observe these things as a matter of business +and at his father's command; thus we may say +that he studied his life-work from his very +infancy. All about him were beautiful hedgerows, +picturesque cottages with high pitched +roofs covered with thatch, and it was these +beauties which bred one other great landscape +painter besides Constable, of whom we shall +presently speak, Gainsborough.</p> + +<p>At last, graduating from windmills, John +went to London. He had a vacation from +the work set him by his father, and for two +years he painted "cottages, studied anatomy," +and did the drudgery of his art; but there was +little money in it for him, and soon he had to go +into his father's counting house, for windmills +seemed to have paid the elder Constable, +considerably better than painting promised +to pay young John.</p> + +<p>John doubtless liked counting-house work +even less than he had done the study of windmills +and weather in his father's fields. He +was a most persistent fellow, however, and +finally he returned to London, to study again +the art he loved, this time in the Royal Academy, +which meant that he had made some +progress.</p> + +<p>His father gave him very little aid to do +<a name="067"></a> +the things he longed to do, but after his father's +death he found that a little money was coming +to him from the estate--£4,000. He +had already triumphed over his difficulties by +painting his first fine pictures; he now knew +that he was to become a successful artist, +and be able to take care of himself and a wife. +Though in love, he had hitherto been too poor +to marry. His first splendid work was +"Dedham Vale."</p> + +<p>Though things were going very well with him, +it was not until Paris discovered him that he +achieved great success. In 1824 he painted +two large pictures which he took to Paris, +and there he found fame. The best landscape +painting in France dates from the time when +Constable's works were hung in the Louvre, +to become the delight of all art-lovers.</p> + +<p>He received a gold medal from Charles X., +and became more honoured abroad than he had +ever been at home.</p> + +<p>Constable had many enemies, and made +many more after he became an Academician. +Some artists, who would have liked that +honour and who could not gain it for themselves, +declared that Constable painted "with a +palette knife," though it certainly would not +have mattered if he had, since he made great +pictures.</p> + +<p>He painted things exactly as he saw them, +and was not a popular artist. Most of all, he +loved to paint the scenes that he had known so +<a name="068"></a> +well in his youth, and he did them over and +over again, as if the subject was one in which +he wished to reach perfection.</p> + +<p>When he died he left a picture, "Arundel +Castle and Mill," standing with its paint wet +upon his easel for he passed away very suddenly, +on April 1st, leaving behind him many unsold +paintings.</p> + +<p>He was a sensitive chap, and throughout his +youth was greatly distressed by the differences +of opinion between himself and his father. He +was torn asunder between a sense of duty and +his own wish to be an artist; and his greatest +consolation in this situation was in the friendship +he had formed for a plumber, who, like +himself, dearly loved art. The plumber's +name was John Dunthorne, and the two men +wandered about the country, when not +employed at their regular work, and together, +by streams and in fields, painted the same +scenes. At one time they hired a little room +in the neighbouring village which they made +into a studio. Constable was a handsome +fellow in his youth and was known to all as the +"handsome miller." His father, the yeoman +farmer with the windmills, was also a miller.</p> + +<p>In London he became acquainted with one +John Smith, known as "Antiquity Smith," +who taught him something of etching. After +he was recalled to his father's business, his +mother wrote to "Antiquity Smith," that she +hoped John "would now attend to business, +<a name="069"></a> +by which he will please me and his father, +and ensure his own respectability and comfort"--a +complete expression of the middle-class +British mind. Her satisfaction was short-lived, +for her son soon returned to London.</p> + +<p>When his first pictures were rejected by the +Royal Academy he showed one of them to Sir +Benjamin West, who said hopefully: "Don't +be disheartened, young man, we shall hear of +you again; you must have loved nature very +much before you could have painted this."</p> + +<p>About that time he tried to paint many +kinds of pictures, such as portraits and sacred +subjects, but he did not seem to succeed in +anything except the scenes of his boyhood, +which he truly loved. Hence he gave up +attempting that which he could do only +passably, and kept to what he could do +supremely well.</p> + +<p>When his friends wished him to continue +portrait painting, the only thing that was well +paid at that time, Constable wrote: "You +know I have always succeeded best with my +native scenes. They have always charmed +me, and I hope they always will. I have now +a path marked out very distinctly for myself, +and I am desirous of pursuing it uninterruptedly."</p> + +<p>About the time he fell in love and before his +father's death, his health began to fail, and the +young woman's mother would have none of +him. Her father was in favour of Constable, +<a name="070"></a> +but he could not hold out against the chance +of his daughter losing her grandfather's fortune +by marrying the wrong man.</p> + +<p>The lady was not so distractingly in love as +young Constable was, and she did not entirely +like the idea of poverty, even with John, so +she held off, and with so much anxiety Constable +became downright ill. For five years +the pair lived apart, and then the artist and +the young woman, whose name was Maria +Bicknell, lost their mothers about the same time, +This drew them very closely together; and to +help the matter on, John's attendance upon +his father in his last illness brought him to the +same town as Miss Bicknell. After his father's +death, he urged the young lady so strongly +to be his wife that she consented They were +married and her father soon forgave her, +but not so her grandfather, who declared that +he never would forgive her, but he really must +have done so from the first, for when he died +it was found that he had left her a little fortune +of £4,000. This was about the same amount +the artist had received from his father, so that +they were able to get on very well.</p> + +<p>After Constable's marriage he went on a visit +to Sir George Beaumont, and there an amusing +incident occurred which is known to-day as +the story of Sir George's "brown tree." It +seems that Constable's ideas of colour for his +landscapes were so true to nature that a good +many people did not approve of them, and one +<a name="071"></a> +day while painting, Sir George declared that +the colour of an old Cremona fiddle was the +best model of colour tone that a landscape +could have. Constable's only answer was to +place the fiddle on the green lawn in front of +the house. At another time his host asked +the artist, "Do you not find it very difficult +to determine where to place your brown tree?" +"Not at all," was Constable's reply, "for I +never put such a thing into a picture in my +life."</p> + +<p>In painting one picture many times he +declared, "Its light cannot be put out because +it is the light of nature." A Frenchman called +attention to one of his pictures thus: "Look +at these landscapes by an Englishman. The +ground appears to be covered with dew."</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the little fortune of his +wife and himself, Constable was not quite carefree, +because he had to raise a good sized +family of six children so that when his wife's +father died and left his daughter £20,000 +he said to a friend: "Now I shall stand before +a six-foot canvas with a mind at ease, thank +God!" In the very midst of this happiness, +his beloved wife became ill with consumption, +and was certain to die. He no longer cared +very much for life and wrote very sadly:</p> + +<p>"I have been ill, but am endeavouring to +get work again, and could I get afloat upon a +canvas of six feet, I might have a chance of +being carried from myself." When he became +<a name="072"></a> +a member of the Royal Academy, he said: +"It has been delayed until I am solitary and +cannot impart it," meaning that without his +dear wife to share his good fortune, it seemed +an empty honour to him.</p> + +<p>Strange things are told which show how little +his work was valued by his countrymen. +After he had become a member of the Academy +one of his small pictures was entered but +rejected; nobody knowing anything about it. +It was put on one side among the "outsiders." +Finally, one of his fellow members glancing at +it was attracted.</p> + +<p>"Stop a bit! I rather like that. Why not +say 'doubtful'?" Later Constable acknowledged +the picture as his, and then they wished +to hang it, but he refused to let them. Another +Academy story is about his picture "Hadleigh +Castle." On Varnishing Day, Chartney, a brilliant +critic, told Constable that the foreground +of the picture was "too cold," and so he +undertook to "warm it," by giving it a strong +glaze with asphaltum with Constable's brush +which he snatched from the artist's hand. +Constable gazed at him in horror. "Oh! +there goes all my dew," he cried, and when +Chartney's back was turned he hurriedly wiped +the "warmth" all away and got back his "dew."</p> + +<p>Even the amusing things that happened to +him, seem to have a little sadness about them. +He wrote to a friend: "Beechey was here +yesterday, and said: 'Why d--n it Constable, +<a name="073"></a> +what a d--n fine picture you are making; +but you look d--n ill, and you've got a d--n +bad cold!' so," added Constable, "you have +evidence on oath of my being about a fine +picture and that I am looking ill."</p> + +<p>An illustration of his painstaking and truthfulness +to nature is that he once took home +with him from a visit bottles of coloured sand +and fragments of stone which he meant to +introduce into a picture; and on passing some +slimy posts near a mill, he said to his host, +"I wish you could cut those off and send +their tops to me."</p> + +<p>Constable was a loyal friend, the most +persistent of men, and several anecdotes are +told of his characteristics. His friend Fisher +said to him:</p> + +<p>"Where real business is to be done, you are +the most energetic and punctual of men. In +smaller matters, such as putting on your +breeches, you are apt to lose time in deciding +which leg shall go in first."</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE HAY WAIN</center> + +<p>This picture was first called "Landscape," +and it was painted in 1821. In his letters +about it, however, Constable also called it +"Noon," and others wrote of it as "Midsummer +Noon." This tells us what a wealth +of hot sunlight is suggested by the painting.</p> + +<p>It shows a little farmhouse upon the bank of +<a name="074"></a> +a stream, a spot well known as "Willy Lott's +Cottage." The owner had been born there +and he died there eighty-eight years later, +without ever having left his cottage for four +whole days in all those years. Upon the +tombstone of Lott, which is in the Bergholt +burial ground, his epitaph calls the house +"Gibeon Farm." It was a favourite scene +with Constable, and he painted it many times +from every side. It is the same house we see +in the "Mill Stream," another Constable painting, +and again in "Valley Farm." In this +last picture he painted the side opposite to the +one shown in the "Hay Wain."</p> + +<p>The stream near which the house stands +spreads out into a ford, and in the picture the +hay cart, with two men upon it, is passing +through the ford. The horses are decked out +with red tassels. On the right of the stream +there is a broad meadow, golden green in the +sunlight, "with groups of trees casting cool +shadows on the grass, and backed by a distant +belt of woodland of rich blues and greens." On +the right is a fisherman, half hidden by a bush, +standing near his punt.</p> + +<p>Constable wrote to his friend, Fisher, "My +picture goes to the Academy on the tenth." +This was written on April 1st, 1821. "It is not +so grand as Tinney's." This shows us, that +Constable had not vanity enough to interfere +with his self-criticism. Again in a letter +written to him by a friend: "How does the +<a name="075"></a> +'Hay Wain' look now it has got into your +own room again?" adding that he wished to +see it there, away from the Academy which +to him was always "like a great pot of boiling +varnish."</p> + +<p>Later Fisher wrote: "I have a great +desire to possess your 'Wain,' but I cannot +now reach what it is worth;" and he begged +Constable not to sell it without giving him a +chance to try once more to raise the money +to buy it. He wrote that the picture would +become of greater value to his children if the +artist left it hanging upon the walls of the +Academy, "till you join the society of Ruysdael, +Wilson, and Claude. As praise and money +will then be of no value to you, the world will +liberally bestow both."</p> + +<p>Later a Frenchman wished to buy it for +exhibition purposes, and when Constable wrote +to Fisher of this, his friend replied that he had +better sell it to the Frenchman "for the sake +of the <i>éclat</i> it may give you. The stupid +English public, which has no judgment of its +own, will begin to think there is something +in it if the French make your works national +property. You have long lain under a mistake; +men do not purchase pictures because they +admire them, but because others covet them."</p> + +<p>Finally, the "Hay Wain" was sold to the +French dealer for £250, and Constable threw +in a picture of Yarmouth for good measure. +Later a friend declared that he had created a +<a name="076"></a> +good deal of argument about landscape painting, +and that there had come to be two divisions, +for he had practically founded a new school. +He received a gold medal for the "Hay Wain," +and the French nation tried to buy it. In +the Louvre are "The Cottage," "Weymouth +Bay," and "The Glebe Farm." Elsewhere are +"Hampstead Heath," "Salisbury Cathedral," +"The Lock on the Stour," "Dedham Mill," +"The Valley Farm," "Gillingham Mill," "The +Cornfield," "Boat-Building," "Flatford Mill +on the River Stour," besides many others.</p> + +<p><a name="077"></a></p> +<h1>IX</h1> + +<h1>JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY</h1> + +<center><i>English School</i><br> +1737-1815</center> + +<p>A little boy with a squirrel was the +first picture that pointed this artist +toward fame and that was painted in England +and exhibited at the Society of Arts.</p> + +<p>This American-born Irishman had no family +or ancestry of account, but he himself was +to become the father of Lord Chancellor +Lyndhurst, and he did some truly fine things +in art.</p> + +<p>About the same time America had another +painter, Benjamin West, marked out for fame, +but he got his start in Europe while Copley +had already become a successful artist before +he left Boston, his native place.</p> + +<p>He liked best to paint "interiors"--rooms +with fine furniture and curtains, women in +fine clothing and men in embroidered waistcoats +and bejewelled buckles.</p> + +<p>In 1777 he got into the Royal Academy, +and on the whole had considerable influence on +European art. If we study the portraits +that he painted while in Boston, we can +get a very complete idea of the surroundings +<a name="078"></a> +of the "Royalists" at the time of our +colonial history.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE COPLEY FAMILY GROUP</center> + +<p>In this picture there are seven figures with +an open landscape forming the background. +The baby of the family plays, with uplifted +arms, upon grandfather's knee. The mother +on the couch, surrounded by her three other +children, is kissing one while another clings +to her. Before her stands a prim little +maid, gowned in the fashion of grown-folks +of her day. A little lock of hair falling upon +her forehead suggests that when she was +good she was very, very good, and when she +was bad she was horrid! She wears a little +cap. At the back is the artist himself in a wig +and other fashions of the time. A great column +rises behind him, forming a part of the +architecture or the landscape, one hardly +knows which in so artificially constructed a +picture.</p> + +<p>Copley painted also John Hancock, Judge +Graham, Jeremiah Lee, and General Joseph +Warren.</p> + +<p><a name="079"></a></p> +<h1>X</h1> + +<h1>JEAN BAPTISTE CAMILLE COROT</h1> + +<center>(Pronounced Zhahn Bah-teest' Cah-mee'yel Coh'roh)<br> +<i>Fontainebleau-Barbizon School</i><br> +1796-1875<br> +<i>Pupil of Michallon</i></center> + +<p>About three hundred years before Corot's +time there was a Fontainebleau school +of artists, made up of the pathetic Andrea del +Sarto, the wonderful Leonardo da Vinci, and +Cellini. These painters had been summoned +from their Italian homes by Francis I., to +decorate the Palace of Fontainebleau. The +second great group of painters who had studios +in the forest and beside the stream were +Rousseau, Dupré, Diaz, and Daubigny; Troyon, +Van Marcke, Jacque; then Millet, the painter +of peasants.</p> + +<p>Corot was born in Paris and received what +education the ordinary school at Rouen could +give him. He was intended by his parents +for something besides art, as it would seem +that every artist in the world was intended. +Corot was to grow up and become a respectable +draper; at any rate a draper.</p> + +<p>The young chap did as his father wished, +until he was twenty-six years old, and dreary +years those must have been to him. He did +<a name="080"></a> +not get on well with his master, nor did the +world treat him very well. He found neither +riches nor the fame that was his due till he was +an old man of seventy. At that age he had +become as rich a man as he might have been +had he remained a sensible draper.</p> + +<p>Best of all, Corot loved to paint clouds and +dewy nights, pale moons and early day, and of +all amusements in the world, he preferred the +theatre. There he would sit; gay or sad as the +play might make him, weeping or laughing +and as interested as a little child.</p> + +<p>After he had anything to give away, Corot +was the most madly generous of men. It was +he who gave a pension to the widow of his +brother artist, Millet, on which she lived all +the rest of her days. He gave money to his +brother painters and to all who went to him +for aid; and he always gave gaily, freely, as if +giving were the greatest joy, outside of the +theatre, a man could have. Everyone who +knew him loved him, and there was no note +of sadness in his daily life, though there seems +to be one in his poetical pictures. Because of +his generous ways he was known as "Pere +Corot." He sang as he worked, and loved his +fellowmen all the time; but most of all, he +loved his sister.</p> + +<p>"Rousseau is an eagle," he used to say in +speaking of his fellow artist. "As for me, I +am only a lark, putting forth some little songs +in my gray clouds."</p> + +<p><a name="081"></a> +It has been noted that most great landscape +painters have been city-bred, a remarkable fact. +Constable and Gainsborough were born and +bred in the country, but they are exceptions +to the rule. Corot's parents were Parisians +of the purest dye, having been court-dressmakers +to Napoleon I.; and when Corot finally determined +to leave the draper's shop and become a painter, +his father said: "You shall have a yearly +allowance of 1,200 francs, and if you can live on +that, you can do as you please." When his son was +made a member of the Legion of Honour, after +twenty-three years of earnest work, his father +thought the matter over, and presently doubled +the allowance, "for Camille seems to have some +talent after all," he remarked as an excuse for +his generosity.</p> + +<p>It is told that when he first went to study +in Italy, Corot longed to transfer the moving +scenes before him to canvas; but people moved +too quickly for him, so he methodically set +about learning how to do with a few strokes +what he would otherwise have laboured over. +So he reduced his sketching to such a science +that he became able to sketch a ballet in full +movement; and it is remarked that this practice +trained him for presenting the tremulousness +of leaves of trees, which he did so exquisitely.</p> + +<p>One learns something of this painter of early +dawn and soft evening from a letter he wrote +to his friend Dupré:</p> + +<p><a name="082"></a> +One gets up at three in the morning, before the sun; +one goes and sits at the foot of a tree; one watches and +waits. One sees nothing much at first. Nature resembles +a whitish canvas on which are sketched scarcely the +profiles of some masses; everything is perfumed, and +shines in the fresh breath of dawn. Bing! the sun grows +bright but has not yet torn aside the veil behind which lie +concealed the meadows, the dale, and hills of the horizon. +The vapours of night still creep, like silvery flakes over +the numbed-green vegetation. Bing! bing!--a first ray +of sunlight--a second ray of sunlight--the little flowers +seem to wake up joyously. They all have their drop of +dew which trembles--the chilly leaves are stirred with the +breath of morning--in the foliage the birds sing unseen--all +the flowers seem to be saying their prayers. Loves +on butterfly wings frolic over the meadows and make the +tall plants wave--one sees nothing--yet everything is +there--the landscape is entirely behind the veil of mist, +which mounts, mounts, sucked up by the sun; and +as it rises, reveals the river, plated with silver, the +meadow, the trees, cottages, the receding distance--one +distinguishes at last everything that one had +divined at first.</p> + +<p>In all the world there can hardly be a more +exquisite story of daybreak than this; and so +beautiful was the mood into which Corot +fell at eventime, as he himself describes it, +that it would be a mistake to leave it out. +This is his story of the night:</p> + +<p>Nature drowses--the fresh air, however, sighs among +the leaves--the dew decks the velvety grass with pearls. +The nymphs fly--hide themselves--and desire to be seen. +Bing! a star in the sky which pricks its image on the pool. +Charming star--whose brilliance is increased by the quivering +of the water, thou watchest me--thou smilest to me +with half-closed eye! Bing!--a second star appears in the +<a name="083"></a> +water, a second eye opens. Be the harbingers of welcome, +fresh and charming stars. Bing! Bing! Bing!--three, +six, twenty stars. All the stars in the sky are keeping +tryst in this happy pool. Everything darkens, the pool +alone sparkles. There is a swarm of stars--all yields to +illusion. The sun being gone to bed, the inner sun of +the soul, the sun of art awakens. Bon! there is my +picture done!</p> + +<p>In writing those letters, Corot made literature +as well as pictures. That little word "bing!" +appears also in his paintings, as little leaves +or bits of tree-trunk, some small detail which, +high-lightened, accents the whole.</p> + +<center>PLATE--DANCE OF THE NYMPHS</center> + +<p>There could hardly be a more charming +painting than this which hangs in the Louvre. +It is of a half-shut-in landscape of tall trees, +their branches mingling; and all the atmospheric +effects that belong to Corot's work can +here be seen.</p> + +<p>On the open greensward is a group of nymphs +dancing gaily, while over all the scene is the +veil of fairy-land or of something quite mysterious. +At the back and side, satyrs can be seen +watching the nymphs. There is here less of +the blur of leaves than that seen in later +pictures, but the same soft effect is found, +and the little "bings" are the accents of light +placed upon a leaf, a nymph's shoulder, or a +tree-trunk.</p> + +<p>This picture was painted in 1851, when +<a name="084"></a> +Corot had not yet developed that style which +was to mark all his later work.</p> + +<p>Besides this picture he painted "Paysage," +"The Bathers" "Ville d'Arvay," "Willows near +Arras," "The Bent Tree," "A Gust of Wind," +and others.</p> + +<p><a name="085"></a></p> +<h1>XI</h1> + +<h1>CORREGGIO (ANTONIO ALLEGRI)</h1> + +<center>(Pronounced Cor-rage'jyo Ahl-lay'gree)<br> +<i>School of Parma</i><br> +1494(?)-1534<br> +<i>Pupil of Mantegna</i></center> + +<p>When Correggio was a little boy, he +lived in the odour of spices, which +were kept upon his father's shop-shelves. He +was a highly-spiced little boy and man, although +the most timid and shrinking. His imagination +was the liveliest possible.</p> + +<p>The spice merchant lived in the town of +Correggio, and thus the artist got his name. +Correggio knew what should be inside the +lovely flesh of his painted figures before he +began to paint them, because he studied +anatomy in a truly scientific manner before he +studied painting. Probably no other artist +up to that time, had ever begun with the bare +bones of his models, but Correggio may be said +to have worked from the inside out. He learned +about the structure of the human frame from +Dr. Giovanni Battista Lombardi, and showed his +gratitude to his teacher by painting a picture +"Il Medico del Correggio" (Correggio's Physician), +and presenting it to Doctor Lombardi.</p> + +<p>Now Correggio's childhood, or at least his +<a name="086"></a> +early manhood, could not have been spent in +poverty, because it is known that he used +the most expensive colours to paint with, +painted upon the finest of canvas, while greater +artists had often to be content with boards. +He also painted upon copper plates, and it is +said that he hired Begarelli, a sculptor of much +fame, to make models in relief for him to copy +for the pictures he painted on the cupolas of +the churches in Parma. That sculptor's services +must have been expensive.</p> + +<p>On the lovely island of Capri, in the Franciscan +convent, will be found one of his first +pictures, painted when Correggio was about +nineteen years old.</p> + +<p>He was highly original in many ways. +Although he had never seen the work of any +great artist, he painted the most extraordinary +fore-shortened pictures; and fore-shortening +was a technicality in art then uncommon. +He also was the first to paint church cupolas. +Fore-shortening produces some peculiar as well +as great results, and being a feature of art +with which people were not then familiar, +Correggio's work did not go uncriticised. +Indeed one artist, gazing up into one of the +cupolas where Correggio's fore-shortened +figures were placed, remarked that to him it +appeared a "hash of frogs."</p> + +<p>But when Titian saw that cupola, he said: +"Reverse the cupola, fill it with gold, and even +then that will not be its money's worth."</p> + +<p><a name="087"></a> +Correggio did not receive very large sums for +his work, and since he was married and took +good care of his family, he must have had +some source of income besides his brush. +He received some interesting rewards for his +paintings. For example, for "St. Jerome," +called "Il Giorno," he was given "400 gold +imperials, some cartloads of faggots and +measures of wheat, and a fat pig." That +picture is in the Parma Gallery, and all the +cupolas which he painted are in Parma churches.</p> + +<p>Some of his pictures are signed; "Leito," +a synonym for his name, "Allegri." This +indicates his style of art.</p> + +<p>There is an interesting story told of how +Correggio stood entranced before a picture of +Raphael's, and after long study of it he exclaimed: +"I too, am a painter!" showing at +once his appreciation of Raphael's greatness +and satisfaction at his own genius.</p> + +<p>Doubtless a good share of Correggio's comfortable +living came from the lady he married, +since she was considered a rich woman for +those times and in that locality. Her name +was Girolama Merlini, and she lived in Mantua, +the place where the Montagues and Capulets +lived of whom Shakespeare wrote the most +wonderful love story ever imagined. This +young woman was only sixteen years old when +Correggio met and loved her, and very beautiful +and later on he painted a picture, "Zingarella," +for which his wife is said to have been the +<a name="088"></a> +model. It seems to have been a stroke of +economy and enterprise for painters to marry, +since we read of so many who made fame and +fortune through the beauty of their wives.</p> + +<p>They were very happy together, Correggio +and his wife, and they had four children. +Their happiness was not for long, because +Correggio seems to have been but thirty-four +years old when she died, nor did he live to be +old. There is a most curious tale of his death +which is probably not true, but it is worth +telling since many have believed it. He is +supposed to have died in Correggio, of pleurisy, +but the story is that he had made a picture +for one who had some grudge against him, and +who in order to irritate him paid him in copper, +fifty scudi. This was a considerable burden, +and in order to save expense and time, it is +said that Correggio undertook to carry it home +alone. It was a very hot day, and he became +so overheated and exhausted with his heavy +load that he took ill and died, and he may be +said literally to have been killed by "too much +money," if this were true. Vasari, a biographer +to be generally believed, says it is a fact.</p> + +<p>Correggio said that he always had his +"thoughts at the end of his pencil," and there +are those who impudently declare that is the +only place he <i>did</i> have them, but that is a +carping criticism, because he was a very great +artist, his greatest power being the presentation +of soft blendings of light and shade. There +<a name="089"></a> +seem to have been few unusual events in +Correggio's life; very little that helps us to +judge the man, but there is a general opinion +that he was a kind and devoted father and +husband, as well as a good citizen. With +little demand upon his moral character, he did +his work, did it well, and his work alone gave +him place and fame.</p> + +<p>He became the head of a school of painting +and had many imitators, but we hear little of +his pupils, except that one of them was his own +son, Pompino, who lived to be very old, and +in his turn was successful as an artist.</p> + +<p>Correggio was buried with honours in the +Arrivabene Chapel, in the Franciscan church +at Correggio.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE HOLY NIGHT</center> + +<p>This painting is not characteristic of Correggio's +work, but nevertheless it is very +beautiful. The brilliant warm light which +comes from the Infant Jesus in His mother's +arms is reflected upon the faces of those +gathered about, and even illuminates the +angelic group hovering above him. The slight +landscape forming the background is also +suggestive, and the conditions of the birth +are indicated by the ass which may be seen +in the middle distance. The faces of all are +joyous yet full of wonderment, the whole scene +intimate and human.</p> + +<p><a name="090"></a> +The picture is also called the "Adoration of +the Shepherds," and that title best tells the +story. See the shepherdess shading her face +with one hand and offering two turtle-doves +with the other. The ass in the distance is the +one on which Mary rode to Bethlehem, and +Joseph is caring for it. Even the cold light +of the dawning day is softened by the beauty +of the group below. This picture is in the +Royal Gallery in Dresden.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE MYSTIC MARRIAGE OF ST. CATHERINE</center> + +<p>The Infant Jesus sits upon His mother's +lap, and places the ring upon St. Catherine's +finger, while Mary's hand helps to guide that +of her Child. This action brings the three +hands close together and adds to the beauty +of the composition. All of the faces are full of +pleasure and kindliness, while that of St. +Sebastian fairly glows with happy emotion. +The light is concentrated upon the body of the +Child and is reflected upon the faces of the +women. This painting hangs in the Louvre.</p> + +<p>Other great Correggio pictures are the +"School of Cupid," which is more characteristic +of his work; "Antiope," "Leda," "Danae," +and "Ecce Homo." +<a name="091"></a></p> +<h1>XII</h1> + +<h1>PAUL GUSTAVE DORÉ</h1> + +<center><i>French School</i><br> +1833-1883</center> + +<p>This artist died in Paris twenty-five years +ago, but there is little as yet to be told +of his life history. He was educated in Paris +at the Lycée Charlemagne, having gone there +from Strasburg, where he was born.</p> + +<p>He was a painter of fantastic and grotesque +subjects, and as far as we know, he began his +career when a boy. He made sketches before +his eighth year which attracted much attention, +and he earned considerable money while still +at school. He was at that time engaged to +illustrate for journals, at a good round sum, +and before he left the Lycée he had made +hundreds of drawings, somewhat after the +satirical fashion of Hogarth.</p> + +<p>His work is very characteristic and once seen +is likely to be always recognised.</p> + +<p>He first worked for the <i>Journal Pour Rire</i>, +but then he undertook to illustrate the work +of Rabelais, the great satirist, whose text just +suited Doré's pencil. After Rabelais he illustrated +Balzac, also the "Wandering Jew," "Don +Quixote," and Dante's "Divine Comedy."</p> + +<p>He undertook to do things which he could +<a name="092"></a> +not do well, simply for the money there was in +the commissions. He had but a poor idea of +colour and his work was coarse, but it had +such marked peculiarities that it became +famous. He did a little sculpture as well, +and even that showed his eccentricities of +thought.</p> + +<center>PLATE--MOSES BREAKING THE TABLETS +OF THE LAW</center> + +<p>This is one of the illustrations of the Doré +Bible, published in 1865-66. The story is well +known of how Moses went up into the Mount +of the Lord to receive the laws for the Israelites, +which were written upon tables of stone. +Upon his descent from the Mount he found +that his followers had set up a golden calf, +which they were worshipping; and in his wrath +Moses broke the tablets on which the Law +was inscribed. The power shown in his attitude, +the affrighted faces of the cowering Jews, +the thunder and lightning as an expression of +the wrath of the Almighty are all painted in +Doré's best manner.</p> + +<p><a name="093"></a></p> +<h1>XIII</h1> + +<h1>ALBRECHT DÜRER</h1> + +<center>(Pronounced Dooer-rer')<br> +<i>Nuremberg School</i><br> +1471-1528<br> +<i>Pupil of Wolgemuth and Schongauer</i></center> + +<p>Albrecht Dürer by nationality was a +Hungarian, but he was born in the city +of Nuremberg. His father had come from +the little Hungarian town of Eytas to Nuremberg +that he might practise the craft of +a goldsmith. Notwithstanding his Hungarian +origin, the name is German and the family +"bearing," or sign, is the open door. This +device suggests that the name was first formed +from "Thurer," which means "carpenter," +maker of doors.</p> + +<p>The father became the goldworker for a +master goldsmith of Nuremberg named Hieronymus +Holper, and very soon the new +employee had fallen in love with his master's +daughter. The daughter was very young and +very beautiful; her name was Barbara, and as +Herr Dürer was quite forty years of age, while +she was but fifteen, the match seemed most +unlikely, but they married and had eighteen +children! The great painter was one of them.</p> + +<p>Albrecht loved his parents most tenderly, +<a name="094"></a> +and from first to last we hear no word of +disagreement among any members of that +immense household. Young Albrecht was +especially the companion of his father, being +brilliant, generous, and hard-working in a +family where everyone needed to do his best +to help along. This love and companionship +never ceased until death, and after his parents +died Albrecht wrote in a touching manner of +their death, describing his love for them, +and their many virtues. He was an author +and a poet as well as a painter, and only +Leonardo da Vinci matched him for greatness +and versatility. We may know what +Dürer's father looked like, since the son made +two portraits of him; one is to be seen in the +Uffizi Gallery at Florence and the other belongs +to the Duke of Northumberland's collection. +The latter portrait has been reproduced in an +engraving, so that it is familiar to most people.</p> + +<p>In the days when the great artist was growing +up, Nuremberg was the centre of all intellectuality +and art in the North. The city of Augsburg +also followed art fashions, but it was far +less important than Nuremberg, because in the +latter city every sort of art-craft was followed +in sincerity and with great originality.</p> + +<p>In those days, the craft of the goldsmith +was closely allied with the profession of the +painter, because the smith had to create his +own designs, and that called for much talent. +Thus it was but a step from designing in +<a name="095"></a> +precious metals to the use of colour, and to +engraving. In making wood engravings, however, +the drudgery of it was left almost entirely +to workmen, not artists. Nuremberg was also +the seat of musical learning. Wagner makes +this fact pathetic, comical, and altogether +charming in his "Mastersingers of Nuremberg."</p> + +<p>Till Dürer's time, however, there had been +little painting that could be regarded as art, +and when he came to study it there was but +little opportunity in his own land, but Dürer +was destined to bring art to Nuremberg. If +he went elsewhere to study, it was only for a +little time, because he was above all things +patriotic and dearly loved his home.</p> + +<p>With seventeen brothers and sisters, young +Dürer's problem was a serious one. His +father not only meant him to become a goldsmith +like himself--a craft in which there +was much money to be made at a time when +people dressed with great ornamentation and +used gold to decorate with--it was highly +necessary with so large a family that he should +learn to do that which could make him helpful +to his father. Hence the young boy entered +his father's shop. If he had not been handicapped +with so many to help to maintain, +he would have laid up a considerable fortune, +because from the very beginning he was master +of all that he undertook; doing the least thing +better than any other did it, putting conscience +and painstaking into all.</p> + +<p><a name="096"></a> +"My father took special delight in me," +the son said, "seeing that I was industrious +in working and learning, he put me to school; +and when I had learned to read and write, he +took me home from my school and taught +me the goldsmith's trade."</p> + +<p>The family were good and kind; excellent +neighbours, deeply religious, and little Albrecht +certainly was comely. He was beautiful as a +little child, and as a man was very handsome, +with long light hair sweeping his shoulders, +and gentle eyes. He was very tall, stately, +and full of dignity.</p> + +<p>In his father's shop he made little clay figures +which were afterward moulded in metal; also +he learned to carve wood and ivory, and he +added the touch of originality to all that he +did. He was the Leonardo da Vinci of Germany, +an intellectual man, a poet, painter, sculptor, +engraver, and engineer. He approached everything +that he did from an intellectual point +of view, looking for the reasons of things.</p> + +<p>After a while in his father's shop, he found +mere craftsmanship irksome, and he begged +to be allowed to enter a studio. This was a +great disappointment to the father, even a +distress, because he could see no very quick +nor large returns in money for an artist, and +he sorely needed the help of his son; but being +kind and reasonable, he consented Albrecht +was apprenticed to the only artist of any +repute then in Nuremberg, Wolgemuth.</p> + +<p><a name="097"></a> +To his studio Albrecht went, at the age of +fifteen, and if he did not learn much more of +painting, under that artist's direction, than +his own genius had already taught him, he +learned the drudgery of his work; how to grind +colours and to mix them, and he studied wood +engraving also.</p> + +<p>In Wolgemuth's studio he remained for +the three years of his apprenticeship, and then +he fled to better things. For a time he followed +the methods of another German artist, Schongauer, +but finally he went forth to try his luck +alone. He wandered from place to place, +practising all his trades, goldsmithing, engraving, +whatever would support him, yet +always and everywhere painting.</p> + +<p>It is thought that he may have gone as far +as Italy, but it is not certain whether he went +there in his first wanderings or later on. +However, he was soon recalled home, for his +father had found a suitable wife for him. She +was the daughter of a rich citizen and her +name was Agnes Frey. She was pretty as well +as rich, but had she been neither Albrecht would +have returned at his father's bidding. There was +never any resistance to the fine and proper things +of life on Albrecht Dürer's part. He was the +well balanced, reasonable man from youth up.</p> + +<p>There have been extraordinary tales told of +the artist's wife. She has been called hateful +and spiteful as Xantippe, the wife of Socrates, +but we think this is calumny. The stories +<a name="098"></a> +came about in this way: Dürer had a life-long +friend, Wilibald Pirkheimer, who in his old +age became the most malicious and quarrelsome +of old fellows. He lived longer than +Dürer did, and Dürer's wife also outlived her +husband. Pirkheimer wanted a set of antlers +which had belonged to Dürer and which he +thought the wife should give him after Dürer +was dead, but Agnes thought otherwise and +would not give them up. Then, full of rage, +the old man wrote the most outrageous letters +about poor Agnes, saying that she was a shrew +and had compelled Dürer to work himself to +death; that she was a miser and had led the +artist an awful dance through life. This is the +only evidence against her, and that so sane and +sensible a man as the artist lived with her all +his life and cherished her, is evidence enough +that Pirkheimer didn't tell the truth. When +Dürer died he was in good circumstances and +instead of being overworked, he for many +years had done no "pot-boiling," but had +followed investigations along lines that pleased +him. After his death, the widow treated his +brothers and sisters generously, giving them +properties of Dürer's and being of much help +to them. During the artist's life he and she +had travelled everywhere together and had +appeared to love each other tenderly; hence +we may conclude that the old Pirkheimer +was simply a disgruntled, gouty old man +without a good word for anybody.</p> + +<p><a name="099"></a> +If Dürer's father and mother had eighteen +children, Albrecht and Agnes struck a balance, +for they had none. Whether or not Dürer +went to Italy before his marriage in 1494, +certain it is that he was in Venice, the home of +Titian, in 1506. Titian was six years younger +than Dürer, who was then about thirty-five +years old. It is said that he started for Italy +in 1505 and that he went the whole of the way, +over the Alps, through forests and streams, +on horseback. Who knows but it was during +that very journey, while travelling alone, +often finding himself in lonely ways, and full +of the speculative thoughts that were characteristic +of him, that he did not think first of +his subject, "Knight, Death, and the Devil," +which helped make his fame. In that picture +we have a knight, helmeted, carrying his lance, +mounted upon his horse, riding in a lonely +forest, with death upon a "pale horse" by +his side, holding an hour glass to remind the +knight of the fleeting of time. Behind comes +the devil, with trident and horn, represented +as a frightful and disgusting beast, which +follows hot-foot after the lonely knight, who +looks neither to right nor left, but persistently +goes his way.</p> + +<p>Titian's teacher, Bellini, was still living, +and he was one of Dürer's greatest admirers. +Especially did he believe that he could paint +the finest hair of any artist in the world. One +day, while studying Dürer's work, and being +<a name="100"></a> +especially fascinated by the hair of one of +his figures, the old man took Dürer's brush +and tried to reproduce as beautiful a +tress. Presently he put down the brush +in despair, but the younger artist took it up, +still wet with the same colours, and in a +few brilliant strokes produced a lovely lock +of woman's hair.</p> + +<p>While luxuriating in Venetian heat, Dürer +wrote home to his friend Pirkheimer: "Oh, +how I shall freeze after this sunshine!" He +was a lover of warm, beautiful colour, gay +and tender life. Most of all he loved the +fatherland, and all the honours paid him and +all the invitations pressed upon him could +not keep him long from Nuremberg. The +journey homeward was not uneventful because +he was taken ill, and had to stop at a house +on his way, where he was cared for till he was +strong enough to proceed. Before he went +his way he painted upon the wall of that house +a fine picture, to show his gratitude for the +kind treatment he had received. Imagine a +people so settled in their homes that it +would be worth while for an artist who +came along to leave a picture upon the walls +to-day--we should have moved to a new +house or a new flat almost before Dürer +could have washed his brushes and turned +the corner.</p> + +<p>Back in Nuremberg, he settled down into +the life of a responsible citizen, lived in a fine +<a name="101"></a> +new house, in time became a member of the +council, and his studio was a veritable workshop. +Studios were quite different from those +of to-day. Then the pupils turned to and +ground colours, did much of their own manufacturing, +engaged at first in such commonplace +occupations, which were nevertheless teaching +them the foundation of their art, while they +watched the work of the master. Such a +studio as Dürer's must have been full of young +men coming and going, not all working at the +art of painting, but engraving, preparing +materials for such work, designing, and executing +many other details of art work.</p> + +<p>After this time Dürer made his smallest +picture, which is hardly more than an inch in +diameter. On that tiny surface he painted +the whole story of the crucifixion, and it is now +in the Dresden Gallery. To those of us who +see little mentality in the faces of the Italian +subjects, the German art of Dürer, often ugly +in the choice of models, and so exact as to +bring out unpleasing details, is nevertheless +the greater; because in all cases, the faces have +sincere expressions. They exhibit human purposes +and emotions which we can understand, and despise +or love as the case may be.</p> + +<p>They say that his Madonna is generally a +"much-dressed round-faced German mother, +holding a merry little German boy." That +may be true; but at any rate, she is every inch +<a name="102"></a> +a mother and he a well-beloved little boy, +which is considerably more than can be said of +some Italian performances.</p> + +<p>Dürer made a painting of "Praying Hands," +a queer subject for a picture, but those hands +are nothing <i>but</i> praying hands. The story of +them is touching. It is said that for several +years Dürer had won a prize for which a friend +of his had also competed, and upon losing the +prize the last time he tried for it, the friend +raised his hands and prayed for the power to +accept his failure with resignation and humility. +Dürer, looking at him, was impressed with the +eloquence of the gesture; thus the "Praying +Hands" was conceived.</p> + +<p>Dürer was also called the <i>Father of Picture +Books</i>, because he designed so many woodcuts +that he first made possible the illustration of +stories.</p> + +<p>He printed his own illustrations in his own +house, and was well paid for it. The Emperor +Maximillian visited Nuremberg, and wishing +to honour Dürer, commanded him to make a +triumphal arch.</p> + +<p>"It was not to be fashioned in stone like +the arches given to the victorious Roman +Emperors; but instead it was to be composed +of engravings. Dürer made for this purpose +ninety-two separate blocks of woodcuts. On +these were represented Maximillian's genealogical +tree and the principal events of his life. +All these were arranged in the form of an +<a name="103"></a> +arch, 9 feet wide and 10-1/2 feet high. It took +Dürer three years to do this work, and he was +never well paid," so says one who has compiled +many incidents of his life.</p> + +<p>"While the artist worked, the Emperor +often visited his studio; and as Dürer's pet +cats often visited it at the same time, +the expression arose, 'a cat may look at a +King!'"</p> + +<p>On the occasion of one of these kingly visits, +Maximillian tried to do a little art-work on his +own account. Taking a piece of charcoal he +tried to sketch, but the charcoal kept breaking +and he asked Dürer why it did so.</p> + +<p>"That is my sceptre; your Majesty has other +and greater work to do," was the tactful reply. +It is a question with us to-day whether the +King ever did a greater work than Albrecht +Dürer, king of painters, was doing.</p> + +<p>After this, Maximillian gave Dürer a pension, +but when the Emperor died the artist found it +necessary to apply to the monarch who came +after him, in order to have the gift confirmed. +This was the occasion for his journey to the +Low Countries, and he took his wife Agnes with +him. In the Netherlands he was received +with much honour and was invited to become +court painter; and what was more, his pension +was fixed upon him for life. The great work +of his life was his illustration of the Apocalypse. +For this he made sixteen extraordinary woodcuts, +of great size.</p> + +<p><a name="104"></a> +On his journey to see Charles V., Maximillian's +successor, Dürer kept a diary in which he +noted the minutest details of all that happened +to him. He told of the coronation of Charles; +of hearing about a whale that had been cast +upon the shore; of his disappointment that it +had been removed before he had reached the +place. He wrote with great indignation about +the supposed kidnapping of Martin Luther, +while he was on his way home from the Diet +of Worms.</p> + +<p>While Dürer was in the Low Countries, a +fever came upon him, and when he returned +home, it still followed him. Indeed, although +he lived for seven years after his return, he was +never well again. Among his effects there was +a sketch made to indicate to his physician the +seat of his illness.</p> + +<p>Dürer did not paint great frescoes upon walls +as did Raphael, Michael Angelo, and all great +Italian artists; but instead he painted on wood, +canvas, and in oils.</p> + +<p>In all the civilised world Dürer was honoured +equally with the great Italian painters of his +time. He was a man of much conscientiousness, +dignity, and tenderness. He was devoted +to his home and country, and regarded the +problems of life intellectually. When he came +to die, his end was so unexpected that those +dearest to him could not reach his bedside. +He was buried in St. John's cemetery in +Nuremberg. After his death, Martin Luther +<a name="105"></a> +wrote as follows to their mutual friend, Eoban +Hesse:</p> + +<p>"As for Dürer; assuredly affection bids us mourn for +one who was the best of men, yet you may well hold him +happy that he has made so good an end, and that Christ +has taken him from the midst of this time of troubles, and +from yet greater troubles in store, lest he, that deserved +to behold nothing but the best, should be compelled to +behold the worst. Therefore may he rest in peace with +his fathers, Amen."</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE NATIVITY</center> + +<p>Our description of this painting calls attention +to the fact that the columns and arches of +the picturesque ruin belong to a much later +period in history than the birth of Christ. +Dürer was not acquainted with any earlier +style of architecture than the Romanesque and +therefore he used it here. "The ruin serves as +a stable. A roof of board is built out in front +of the side-room which shelters the ox and ass, +and under this lean-to lies the new born babe +surrounded by angels who express their +childish joy. Mary kneels and contemplates +her child with glad emotion. Joseph, also +deeply moved, kneels down on the other side of +the child, outside the shelter of the roof. Some +shepherds to whom the angel, who is still seen +hovering in the air, has announced the tidings, +are already entering from without the walls." +(Knackfuss). The picture is the central panel +of an altar-piece now in the Old Pinakothek at +<a name="106"></a> +Munich. Dürer's oil painting of the four +apostles--John, Peter, Mark, and Paul--is in +the same gallery. Other Dürer pictures are: +"The Knight, Death and the Devil," "The +Adoration of the Magi," "Melancholy," and +portraits of himself.</p> + +<p><a name="107"></a></p> +<h1>XIV</h1> + +<h1>MARIANO FORTUNY</h1> + +<center>(Pronounced Mah-ree-ah-no' For-tu'ne)<br> +<i>Spanish School</i><br> +1838-1874<br> +<i>Pupil of Claudio Lorenzalez</i></center> + +<p>Fortuny won his own opportunities. +He took a prize, while still very young, +which made it possible for him to go to Rome +where he wished to study art. He did not +spend his time studying and copying the old +masters as did most artists who went there, but, +instead, he studied the life of the Roman streets.</p> + +<p>He had already been at the Academy of +Barcelona, but he did not follow his first +master; instead, he struck out a line of art for +himself. After a year in Rome the artist +went to war; but he did not go to fight men, +he was still fighting fate, and his weapon +was his sketch book. He went with General +Prim, and he filled his book with warlike +scenes and the brilliant skies of Morocco. +From that time his work was inspired by +his Moorish experiences.</p> + +<p>After going to war without becoming a +soldier, Fortuny returned to Paris and there +he became fast friends with Meissonier, so that +a good deal of his work was influenced by +that artist's genius. After a time Fortuny's +<a name="108"></a> +paintings came into great vogue and far-off +Americans began buying them, as well as +Europeans. There was a certain rich dry-goods +merchant in the United States who had +made a large fortune for those days, and while +he knew nothing about art, he wanted to spend +his money for fine things. So he employed +people who did understand the matter to buy +for him many pictures whose excellence he, +himself, could not understand, but which were +to become a fine possession for succeeding +generations. This was about 1860, and this +man, A.T. Stewart, bought two of Fortuny's +pictures at high prices. "The Serpent Charmer," +and "A Fantasy of Morocco."</p> + +<p>When Fortuny was thirty years old he +married the daughter of a Spaniard called +Madrazo, director of the Royal Museum. +His wife's family had several well known +artists in it, and the marriage was a very +happy one. Because of this, Fortuny was +inspired to paint one of the greatest of his +pictures, "The Spanish Marriage." In it are +to be seen the portraits of his wife and his +friend Regnault. After a time he went to +live in Granada; but he could never forget the +beautiful, barbaric scenes in Morocco, and so +he returned there. Afterward he went with +his wife to live in Rome, and there they had a +fine home and everything exquisite about them, +while fortune and favour showered upon them; +but he fell ill with Roman fever, because of +<a name="109"></a> +working in the open air, and he died while he +was comparatively a young man.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE SPANISH MARRIAGE</center> + +<p>Fortuny is said to "split the light into a +thousand particles, till his pictures sparkle +like jewels and are as brilliant as a kaleidoscope.... +He set the fashion for a class +of pictures, filled with silks and satins, bric-à-brac +and elegant trifling."</p> + +<p>Look at the brilliant scene in this picture! +The priest rising from his chair and leaning +over the table is watching the bridegroom +sign his name. This chap is an old fop, bedecked +in lilac satin, while the bride is a dainty +young woman, without much interest in her +husband, for she is fingering her beautiful +fan and gossiping with one of her girl friends. +She wears orange-blossoms in her black hair +and is in full bridal array. One couple, two +men, sit on an elegantly carved seat and are +looking at the goings-on with amusement, +while an old gentleman sits quite apart, +disgusted with the whole unimpressive scene. +Everybody is trifling, and no one is serious for +the occasion. The furnishings of the room are +beautiful, delicate, almost frivolous. People +are strewn about like flowers, and the whole +effect is airy and inconsequent. Fortuny painted +also "The Praying Arab," "A Fantasy of Morocco," +"Snake Charmers," "Camels at Rest," etc.</p> + +<p><a name="110"></a></p> +<h1>XV</h1> + +<h1>THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH</h1> + +<center><i>English School</i><br> +1727-1788<br> +<i>Pupil of Gravelot and of Hayman</i> </center> + +<p>There seems to have been no artist, with +the extraordinary exceptions of Dürer and +Leonardo, who learned his lessons while at +school. Little painters have uniformly begun +as bad spellers.</p> + +<p>Gainsborough's father was in the business +of woolen-crape making, while his mother +painted flowers, very nicely, and it was she +who taught the small Thomas. There were +nine little Gainsboroughs and, shocking to +relate, the artist of the family was so ready +with his pencil that when he was ten years +old he forged his father's name to a note which +he took to the schoolmaster, and thereby +gained himself a holiday. There is no account +of any other wicked use to which he put his +talent. It is said that he could copy any +writing that he saw, and his ready pencil +covered all his copy-books with sketches of +his schoolmasters. It was thought better +for him finally to follow his own ideas of +education, namely, to roam the woodlands +and make beautiful pictures.</p> + +<p><a name="111"></a> +His father's heart was not softened till one +day little Gainsborough brought home a sketch +of the orchard into which the head of a man +had thrust itself, painted with great ability. +This man was a poacher, and father Gainsborough +recognised him by the portrait. There +seemed to be utility in art of this kind, and +before long the boy found himself apprenticed +to a silversmith.</p> + +<p>Through the silversmith the artist got +admission to an art school and began his +studies; but his master was a dissolute fellow, +and before long the pupil left him.</p> + +<p>Gainsborough was born in the town of +Sudbury on the River Stour, the same which +inspired another great painter half a century +later. Gainsborough is best known by his +portraits, in particular as the inventor of "the +Gainsborough hat," but he was first of all a +truly great landscape painter, and learned +his art as Constable did after him, along the +beautiful shores of the river that flowed past +his native town.</p> + +<p>The old Black Horse Inn is still to be seen, +and it was in the orchard behind it that he +studied nature, the same in which he made +the first of his famous portraits, that of the +poacher. It is known to this day as the +portrait of "Tom Pear-tree." That picture +was copied on a piece of wood cut into the +shape of a man, and it is in the possession of +Mr. Jackson, who lent it for the exhibition of +<a name="112"></a> +Gainsborough's work held at the Grosvenor +Gallery, in 1885.</p> + +<p>While Thomas was with his first master, +by no means a good companion for a lad of +fifteen, he lived a busy, self-respecting life, +since he was devoted to his home and to his +parents. Only three years after he set out +to learn his art he married a young lady of +Sudbury. The pair were by no means rich, +Gainsborough having only eighteen years of +experience in this world, besides his brush, +and a maker of woolen-crape shrouds for a +father--who was not over pleased to have +an artist for a son. The lady had two hundred +pounds but this did not promise a very luxurious +living, so they took a house for six pounds a +year, at Ipswich. Thus the two young lovers +began their life together. There was a good +deal of romance in the story of his wife, whose +name was supposed to be Margaret Burr. +The two hundred pounds that helped to pay +the Ipswich rent did not come from the man +accepted as her father, but from her real +father, who was either the Duke of Bedford, or +an exiled prince. This would seem to be just +the sort of story that should surround a great +painter and his affairs.</p> + +<p>While he lived at Ipswich Gainsborough +used to say of himself that he was "chiefly +in the face-way" meaning that for the most +part he made portraits. He loved best to +paint the scenes of his boyhood, as Constable +<a name="113"></a> +afterward did, but he soon found there was +more money in portraits, and so he decided +to go to live in Bath, the fashionable resort of +English people in that day, where he was +likely to find rich folk who wanted to see +themselves on canvas. He settled down there +with his wife, whom he loved dearly, and his +two daughters and at once began to make +money. It is said he painted five hours a day +and all the rest of the time studied music. As +the theatre was Corot's greatest happiness, so +did music most delight Gainsborough, and he +could play well on nearly every known instrument; +he became so excellent a musician that +he even gave concerts. He had the most +delightful people about him, people who loved +art and who appreciated him, and then there +were the other people who paid for having +themselves painted. Altogether it was an +ideal situation.</p> + +<p>His studio was in the place known as the +"Circus" at Bath, and people came and went +all day, for it became the fashionable resort +for all the fine folks.</p> + +<p>From five guineas for half length portraits, +he soon raised his price to forty; he had charged +eight for full length portraits, but now they +went for one hundred. He painted some +famous men of the time. The very thought +is inspiring of such a company of geniuses +with Gainsborough in the centre of the group. +He painted Laurence Sterne, who wrote "The +<a name="114"></a> +Sentimental Journey," and a few other delightful +things; also Garrick, the renowned actor.</p> + +<p>Even the encyclopædia reads thrillingly upon +this subject and one can afford to quote it, with +the feeling that the quotation will be read: +"His house harboured Italian, German, French +and English musicians. He haunted the green +room of Palmer's Theatre, and painted gratuitously +the portraits of many of the actors. He +gave away his sketches and landscapes to any +one who had taste or assurance enough to ask +for them." This sounds royal and exciting.</p> + +<p>After that Gainsborough went up to London +with plenty of money and plenty of confidence +and instead of six pounds a year for his house, +he paid three hundred pounds, which suggests +much more comfort.</p> + +<p>There were two other great painters of the time +in London, Sir Benjamin West--an American, +by the way--and Sir Joshua Reynolds. West +was court favourite, but Gainsborough too was +called upon to paint royalty, and share West's +honours. Reynolds was the favourite of the +town, but he too had to divide honours with +Gainsborough when the latter painted Richard +Brinsley Sheridan, Edmund Burke and Sir +William Blackstone.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding, his landscapes, for which +he should have been most famous, did not sell. +Everybody approved of them, but it is said they +were returned to him till they "stood ranged in +long lines from his hall to his painting room" +<a name="115"></a> +Gainsborough was a member of the Royal +Academy and also a true Bohemian. He cared +little for elegant society, but made his friends +among men of genius of all sorts. He was very +handsome and impulsive, tall and fair, and +generous in his ways; but he had much sorrow +on account of one of his daughters, Mary, who +married Fischer, a hautboy player, against her +father's wishes. The girl became demented--at +least she had spells of madness.</p> + +<p>When Mary Gainsborough married, her father +wrote the following letter to his sister, which +shows that he was a man of tender feeling for +those whom he truly loved:</p> + +<p>" ... I had not the least suspicion of +the attachment being so long and deeply seated; +and as it was too late for me to alter anything +without being the cause of total unhappiness on +both sides, my consent ... I needs must +give ... and accordingly they were married +last Monday and settled for the present in a +ready-furnished little house in Curzon Street, +Mayfair ... I can't say I have any reason to +doubt the man's honesty or goodness of heart, as +I never heard anyone speak anything amiss of +him, and as to his oddities and temper, she must +learn to like them as she likes his person ... +Peggy has been very unhappy about it, but I endeavour +to comfort her." Peggy was his wife.</p> + +<p>The abominable Fischer died twenty-years +before Mary did--she lived to be an old, old +woman.</p> + +<p><a name="116"></a> +Among those whom Gainsborough loved best +was the man called Wiltshire who carried his +pictures to and from London. He was a public +"carrier" but would never take any money +for his services to the artist, because he loved his +work. All he asked was "a little picture"--and +he got so many of these, given in purest +affection, that he might have gone out of business +as a carrier, had he chosen to sell them. Four +of those little pictures are now very great ones +worth thousands of pounds and known everywhere +to fame. They are "The Parish Clerk," "Portrait +of Quin," "A Landscape with Cattle," and +"The Harvest Waggon."</p> + +<p>We have a good many stories of Gainsborough's +bad manners. The artists of his day tried to +treat him with every consideration, but in return +he treated them very badly, especially Sir Joshua +Reynolds. Reynolds, who was then President of +the Academy greatly admired Gainsborough but +the latter would not return Sir Joshua's call, and +when Reynolds asked him to paint his portrait +for him, Gainsborough undertook it thanklessly. +Sir Joshua left town for Bath for a time, and +when he returned he tried to learn how soon the +portrait would be finished, but Gainsborough +would not even reply to his inquiry. There +seems to have been no reason for this behaviour +unless it was jealousy, but it made a most uncomfortable +situation between fellow artists.</p> + +<p>Gainsborough has told some not very pleasing +stories about himself, but one of them +<a name="117"></a> +shows us what a knack he had for seeing the +comic side of things, and perhaps for seeing +comedy where it never existed. Upon one +occasion he was invited to a friend's house +where the family were in the habit of assembling +for prayers, and he had no sooner got +inside, than he began to fear he should laugh, +when prayer time came, at the chaplain. In a +rush of shyness he fled, leaving his host to look +for him, till he stumbled over a servant who +said that Mr. Gainsborough had charged him +to say he had gone to breakfast at Salisbury. +Even respect for the customs of others could +not make him control himself.</p> + +<p>It was through his intimacy with King +George's family that his quarrel with the +Royal Academy came about. He had painted +the three princesses--the Princess Royal, +Princesses Augusta and Elizabeth, and these +were to be hung at a certain height in Carlton +House, but when he sent the first to the +Academy he asked it to be specially hung and +his request was refused. Then he sent a note +as follows:</p> + +<p>"He begs pardon for giving them so much trouble, but +he has painted the picture of the princesses in so tender a +light that, notwithstanding he approves very much of +the established line for strong effects, he cannot possibly +consent to have it placed higher than eight feet and a half, +because the likeness and the work of the picture will not +be seen any higher, therefore at a word he will not trouble +the gentlemen against their inclination, but will beg the +best of his pictures back again." + +<a name="118"></a> +Immediately, the Academy returned his +pictures, although it would seem that they +might better have accommodated Gainsborough +than have lost such a fine exhibition. He +never again would send anything to them.</p> + +<p>He was inclined to be irritated by inartistic +points in his sitters, and is said to have muttered +when he was painting the portrait of Mrs. +Siddons, the great actress: "Damn your nose +madam; there is no end to it." The nose +in question must have been an "eyesore" +to more than Gainsborough, for a famous +critic is said to have declared that "Mrs. +Siddons, with all her beauty was a kind of +female Johnson ... her nose was not +too long for nothing."</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding that his landscapes were +not popular, he used to go off into the country +to indulge his taste for painting them, and +once he wrote to a friend that he meant to +mount "all the Lakes at the next Exhibition +in the great style, and you know, if people +don't like them, it's only jumping into one +of the deepest of them from off a wooded island +and my reputation will be fixed forever." +An old lady, whose guest he was, down in the +country, told how he was "gay, very gay, and +good looking, creating a great sensation, in a rich +suit of drab with laced ruffles and cocked hat."</p> + +<p>One of the boys he saw in the country he +delighted to paint, and he also grew so much +attached to him that he took him to London +<a name="119"></a> +and kept him with him as his own son. That +boy's name was Jack Hill and he did not care +for city life, nor maybe for Gainsborough's +eccentricities, so he ran away. He was found +again and again, till one day he got away for +good, and never came back.</p> + +<p>All his later life Gainsborough was happy. +His daughter, who had married Fischer, the +hautboy-player, came back home to live, and +her disorder was not bad enough to prevent +her being a cause of great happiness to her +father. The other daughter never married. +Gainsborough says that he spent a thousand +pounds a year, but he also gave to everybody +who asked of him, and to many who asked +nothing, so that he must have made a great +deal of money during his lifetime, by his art. +It is said that the "Boy at the Stile" was +bestowed on Colonel Hamilton for his fine +playing of a solo on the violin. A lady who +had done the artist some trifling service +received twenty drawings as a reward, which +she pasted on the walls of her rooms without +the slightest idea of their value.</p> + +<p>Gainsborough got up early in the morning, +but did not work more than five hours. He +liked his friends, his music, and his wife, and +spent much time with them. He was witty, +and while he sketched pictures in the evening, +with his wife and daughters at his side, he kept +them laughing with his droll sayings.</p> + +<p>The last days of Gainsborough showed him +<a name="120"></a> +to be a hero. He died of cancer, and some +time before he knew what his disease was he +must have suffered a great deal. There is a +story that is very pathetic of a dinner with his +friends, Beaumont and Sheridan. Usually, +he was the gayest of the gay, but of late all his +friends had noticed that gaiety came to him +with effort. Upon the night of this dinner, +Sheridan had been his wittiest, and had tried +his hardest to make Gainsborough cheer up, +till finally, the artist, finding it impossible to +get out of his sad mood, asked Sheridan if +he would leave the table and speak with him +alone. The two friends went out together. +"Now don't laugh, but listen," Gainsborough +said; "I shall soon die. I know it; I feel it. +I have less time to live than my looks infer, +but I do not fear death. What oppresses my +mind is this: I have many acquaintances, +few friends; and as I wish to have one worthy +man to accompany me to the grave, I am +desirous of bespeaking you. Will you come? +Aye or no!" At that Sheridan, who was greatly +shocked, tried to cheer him, but Gainsborough +would not return to the table, till he got the +promise, which of course Sheridan made.</p> + +<p>It was not very long after this that a famous +trial took place--that of Warren Hastings. It +was in Westminster Hall, and Gainsborough +went to listen several times. On the last +occasion, he became so interested in what was +happening that he did not notice a window +<a name="121"></a> +open at his back. After a little he said to a +friend that he "felt something inexpressibly +cold" touch his neck. On his return home he +told of the strange feeling to his wife. Then +he sent for a doctor, and there was found a +little swelling. The doctor said it was not +serious and that when the weather grew +warmer it would disappear; but all the while +Gainsborough felt certain that it would mean +his death. A short time after that he told his +sister that he knew himself to have a cancer, +and that was true.</p> + +<p>When he felt that he must die, he fell to +thinking of many things in the past, and +wished to right certain mistakes of his behaviour +as far as possible.</p> + +<p>He sent to Sir Joshua Reynolds and asked +him to come and see him, since he could not +go to see Sir Joshua. Reynolds went and then +Gainsborough told him of his regret that he +had shown so much ill-will and jealousy toward +so great and worthy a rival. Reynolds was +very generous and tried to make Gainsborough +understand that all was forgiven and forgotten. +He left his brother artist much relieved and +happier, and he afterward said: "The impression +on my mind was that his regret at +losing life was principally the regret of leaving +his art." As Reynolds left the dying man's +room, Gainsborough called after him: "We +are all going to heaven--and Van Dyck is of +the company."</p> + +<p><a name="122"></a> +He was buried in Kew Churchyard and the +ceremonies were followed by Reynolds and +five of the Royal Academicians, who forgot +all Gainsborough's eccentricities of conduct +toward them in their honest grief over his +death. He was one of the first three dozen +original members of the Royal Academy.</p> + +<center>PLATE--PORTRAIT OF MRS. RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN</center> + +<p>This picture is now in the collection of Lord +Rothschild, London. Mrs. Sheridan was the +loveliest lady of her time. She was the daughter +of Thomas Linley, and a singer.</p> + +<p>She came from a home which was called "a +nest of nightingales," because all in it were +musicians. The father had a large family and +made up his mind to become the best musician +of his time in his locality in order to support them. +He was successful, and in turn most of his children +became musicians. His lovely daughter, +Eliza (Mrs. Sheridan), he bound to himself as an +apprentice and taught her till she was twenty-one, +insisting that she "serve out her time" to him, +that she might become a perfect singer. The +story of this beautiful lady seems to belong to +the story of Gainsborough's portrait and shall +be told here.</p> + +<p>When she was a very little girl, no more than +eight years old, she was so beautiful that as she +stood at the door of the pump room in Bath to sell +<a name="123"></a> +tickets for her father's concerts, everyone bought +them from her. When she was a very young +woman her father engaged her to marry a Mr. +Long, sixty years old. She did not seem to mind +what arrangements her father made for her, +but continued to sing and attend to her business, +till after the wedding gowns were all made and +everything ready for the marriage, when she +happened to meet the brilliant Richard Brinsley +Sheridan, whose plays were so fashionable, and +she fell deeply in love with him. She told Mr. +Long she would not marry him, and without +much objection he gave her up, but her father +was very angry and he threatened to sue Mr. Long +for letting his daughter go. Then the beautiful +lady ran away to Calais and married Mr. Sheridan +without her father's permission; but she came +home again and said nothing of what she had +done, kept on singing and helping her father +earn money for his family. One day, Mr. +Sheridan was wounded in a duel which he had +fought with one of his wife's admirers, and when +she heard the news she screamed, "my husband, +my husband," so that everybody knew she was +married to the fascinating playwright. Sheridan +for some reason did not at once come and get her, +nor arrange for them to have a home together. +For a good while she continued to sing; and once +hearing her in oratorio, Sheridan fell in love +with his wife all over again. He took her from +her home and would never let her sing again in +public. They remarried publicly and went to +<a name="124"></a> +live in London. He was not at all a rich and +famous man at that time--only a poor law-student--but +he would not let his wife make +the fortune she might easily have made, by +singing.</p> + +<p>This must have made his beautiful wife very +sad, but she made no complaint at giving up +her music and letting him silence her lovely +voice, but turned all her attention to advancing +his fortunes. She worked for him even harder +than she had for her father, and that was saying +a great deal. When he became a great writer +of plays his wife took charge of all the accounts +of his Drury Lane Theatre, and when he was in +the House of Commons she acted as his secretary. +Sheridan died in great poverty and wretchedness, +and it is believed had his self-sacrificing wife +not died before him she would have looked after +his affairs so well that he would not have lost his +fortune. Gainsborough painted the portraits of +Sheridan's father-in-law, and of Samuel Linley; +and it was said that this last portrait was painted +in forty-eight minutes. Among his other portraits +are: eight of George III., Sir John +Skynner, Admiral Hood, Colonel St. Leger, +and "The Blue Boy"; but he was first and last +a landscape painter of highest genius.</p> + +<p><a name="125"></a></p> +<h1>XVI</h1> + +<h1>JEAN LEON GEROME</h1> + +<center>(Pronounced Zhahn Lay'on Zhay-rome)<br> +<i>French, Semi-classical School</i><br> +1824-1904<br> +<i>Pupil of Delaroche</i></center> + +<p>One cannot write much more than the date +of birth and death of a man who lived until +three or four years of the time of writing, so we may +only say that Gérôme was one of the most brilliant +of modern French painters. He was born at +Vesoul and his father was a goldsmith. Thus +he probably had no very great difficulty in getting +a start in his work. The prejudice against having +an artist in the family was dying out, and as a +prosperous goldsmith we may believe that his +father had means enough to give his son good +opportunities.</p> + +<p>Gérôme, like Millet, studied under Delaroche, +but became no such characteristic painter as he. +While studying with Delaroche he also was taking +the course in l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts.</p> + +<p>His first exhibited picture was "The Cock +Fight," and he won a third class medal by it.</p> + +<p>Almost always this painter has chosen his +subjects from ancient or classic life, and his +pictures are not always decent, but he painted +with much care, the details of his work are +<a name="126"></a> +very finely done and their vivid colour is +fascinating.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE SWORD DANCE</center> + +<p>This painting may be seen in the Metropolitan +Museum of Art in New York City. The scene +is full of action and interest, but perhaps the +details of dress, mosaic decoration upon the walls, +patterns of the rugs, the coloured and jewelled +lamps and windows are the most splendidly +painted of all.</p> + +<p>The central figure is a dancing girl, only partly +draped, balancing a sword on her head, while +a brilliant green veil flies from head and face. +Other Oriental women squat upon the floor +watching her with a half indolent expression, +while their Oriental masters and their friends +sit in pomp at one side, absorbed in the dance +and in the girl. The expressions upon all the +faces are excellent and, the jewelled light that +falls upon the group, the rich clothing, the grace +of the dancer--all make a fascinating picture +of a genre type. Other Gérômes are "Daphnis +and Chloe," "Leda," and "The Duel after +the Masked Ball."</p> + +<p><a name="127"></a></p> +<h1>XVII</h1> + +<h1>GHIRLANDAJO</h1> + +<center>(Pronounced Geer-lan-da'yo)<br> +<i>Florentine School</i><br> +1449-1494<br> +<i>Pupil of Fra Bartolommeo</i></center> + +<p>It is a good deal of a name--Domenico +di Tommaso di Currado Bigordi--and +it would appear that the child who bore it +was under obligation to become a good deal +of a something before he died.</p> + +<p>Italian and Spanish painters generally had +large names to live up to, and the one known as +Ghirlandajo did nobly.</p> + +<p>His father was a goldsmith and a popular part +of his work was the making of golden garlands +for the hair of rich Italian ladies. His work +was so beautiful that it gained for him the name +of Ghirlandajo, meaning the garland-twiner, a +name that lived after him, in the great art of his +son. Domenico began as a worker in mosaic, +a maker of pictures or designs with many coloured +pieces of glass or stone.</p> + +<p>Ghirlandajo's art was no improvement on that +of his teacher, but he in turn became the teacher +of Michael Angelo.</p> + +<p>The Florentine school of painting, to which +Ghirlandajo belonged, was not so famous for +<a name="128"></a> +colour as the Venetian school, but it had many +other elements to commend it. One cannot +expect Ghirlandajo to rank with Titian, Rubens, +or other "colourists" of his own and later periods, +but he did the very best work of his day and school. +He attained to fame through his choice of types +of faces for his models, and by his excellent +grouping of figures.</p> + +<p>Until his day, the faces introduced into paintings +were likely to be unattractive, but he chose +pleasing ones, and he painted the folds of garments +beautifully. He was not entirely original +in his ideas, but he carried out those which others +had thus far failed to make interesting.</p> + +<p>Often, in his wish to paint exactly what he +saw, he softened nothing and therefore his +figures were repulsive, but Fra Bartolommeo's +pupil gave promise of what Michael Angelo was +to fulfill.</p> + +<p>Ghirlandajo and Michael Angelo were a good +deal alike in their emotional natures. Both +sought great spaces in which to paint, and both +chose to paint great frescoes. Indeed Ghirlandajo +had the extraordinary ambition to put +frescoes on all the fortification walls about +Florence. It certainly would have made the +city a great picture gallery to have had its walls +forever hung with the pictures of one master. +Had he painted them, inside and out, when such +an enemy as Napoleon came along, with his love +of art, and his fashion of taking all that he saw +to Paris, he would likely enough have camped +<a name="129"></a> +outside the walls while he decided what part of +the gallery he would transfer to the Louvre.</p> + +<p>One of the reasons that Ghirlandajo is famous +is that he often chose well known personages +for his models, and as he painted just what +he saw, did not idealise his subject, he gave +to the world amazing portraits, as well as fine +paintings. The same thing was done by +painters of a far different school, at another +period. The Dutch and Flemish painters +were in the habit of using their neighbours +as models.</p> + +<p>Ghirlandajo is classed among religious +painters, but let us compare some of his +"religious" paintings with those of Raphael +or Murillo, and see the result.</p> + +<p>He painted seven frescos on the walls of the +Santa Maria Novella in Florence, all scenes +of Biblical history, as Ghirlandajo imagined +them. They show him to have been a fine +artist, but to have had not much idea of history, +and to have had little sense of fitness.</p> + +<p>Ghirlandajo's seven subjects are taken from +legends of the Virgin, and the greatest represents +Mary's visit to Elizabeth; it is called +"The Visitation," and it is a fresco about +eighteen feet long painted on the choir wall.</p> + +<p>Let us imagine the possible scene. The +Virgin Mary came from Cana, a little town in +Galilee placed in the hills about nine miles +from Nazareth, the home of the lowliest and +the poorest, of a kindly pastoral people living +<a name="130"></a> +in the open air, needing and wanting very +little, simple in their habits. Elizabeth, Mary's +old cousin, lived in Judea, and St. Luke writes +thus: "Mary arose in those days and went +into the hill country with haste, into a city +of Judea; and entered into the house of Zacharias" +(Elizabeth's husband) "and saluted +Elizabeth."</p> + +<p>This record had been made at least eleven +hundred years before Ghirlandajo painted in the +Santa Maria Novella, and from it one cannot +imagine that Mary made any preparation for +her journey, nor does it suggest that Elizabeth +had any chance to arrange a reception for her. +Even had she done so, it must have been of +the simplest description, at that time among +those people. One can imagine a lowly home; +an aged woman coming out to meet her young +relative either at her door or in the high road.</p> + +<p>There may have been surroundings of fruit +and flowers, a stretch of highroad or a hospitable +doorway; but the wildest imagination +could not picture what Ghirlandajo did.</p> + +<p>He paints Elizabeth flanked with handmaidens, +as if she were some royal personage, +instead of a priest's wife in fairly comfortable +circumstances where comfort was easily +obtained. Mary appears to be escorted by +ladies-in-waiting, hardly a likely circumstance +since she was affianced to no richer or more +important person than a carpenter of Galilee. +Possibly the three ladies that stand behind +<a name="131"></a> +Mary in, the picture are merely lookers-on, +but in that case the visit of Mary would seem +to have been of public importance, especially +as there are youths near by who are also much +interested in one woman's hasty visit to another. +The rich brocades worn by Elizabeth's waiting +ladies are splendid indeed and the landscape +is fine--a rich Italian landscape with architecture +of the most up-to-date sort--showing, +in short, that the artist lacked historical +imagination. He found some models, made a +purely decorative painting with an Italian +setting and called it "The Visitation." The +doorway on the right is distinctly renaissance.</p> + +<p>Such a painting as this is not "religious," +nor is it historic, nor does it suggest a subject; +it is merely a fine picture better coloured than +most of those of the Florentine school. There +is another painting of this same subject by +Ghirlandajo in the Louvre, but it is no nearer +truth than the one in the Santa Maria.</p> + +<p>Ghirlandajo painted other than religious +subjects, and one of them, at least, is quite +repulsive. It is the picture of an old man, +with a beautiful little child embracing him. +The old man may have tenderness and love in +his face, but his heavy features, his warty +nose, do not make one think of pleasant +things and one does not care to imagine the +dear little child kissing the grotesque old fellow.</p> + +<p>It was before Ghirlandajo's time that another +painter had discovered the use of oil in mixing +<a name="132"></a> +paints. Previously colours had been mixed +in water with some gelatinous substance, such +as the white and yolk of an egg, to give the +paint a proper texture or consistency. This +preparation was called "distemper," and frescoes +were made by using this upon plaster +while it was still wet. Plaster and colours dried +together, and the painting became a part of +the wall, not to be removed except by taking +the plaster with it.</p> + +<p>The different gluey substances used had +often the effect of making the colours lose their +tone and they presented a glazed surface when +used upon wood, a favourite material with +artists.</p> + +<p>There are numberless anecdotes written of this +artist and his brother, and one of these shows +he had a temper. The brothers were engaged in +a monastery at Passignano painting a picture +of the "Last Supper." While at work upon it, +they lived in the house. The coarse fare did +not suit Ghirlandajo, and one night he could +endure it no longer. Springing from his seat in +the refectory he flung the soup all over the monk +who had served it, and taking a great loaf of +bread he beat him with it so hard that the poor +monk was carried to his cell, nearly dead. The +abbot had gone to bed, but hearing the rumpus +he thought it was nothing less than the roof +falling in, and he hurried to the room where he +found the brothers still raging over their dinner. +David shouted out to him, when the abbot tried +<a name="133"></a> +to reprove the artist, that his brother was worth +more than any "pig of an abbot who ever +lived!"</p> + +<p>It is recorded in the documents found in the +Confraternity of St. Paul that:</p> + +<p>Domenico de Ghurrado Bighordi, painter, called del +Grillandaio, died on Saturday morning, on the 11th day +of January, 1493 (o.s.), of a pestilential fever, and the +overseers allowed no one to see the dead man, and would +not have him buried by day. So he was buried, in Santa +Maria Novella, on Saturday night after sunset, and may +God forgive him! This was a very great loss for he was +highly esteemed for his many qualities, and is universally +lamented.</p> + +<p>The artist left nine children behind him.</p> + +<p>Ghirlandajo's pictures may be found in the +Louvre, the Berlin Museum, the Dresden, +Munich, and London galleries. Most children +will find it hard to see their beauty.</p> + +<p>Great men are likely to come in groups, and +with Ghirlandajo there are associated Botticelli +and Fra Filippo Lippi.</p> + +<center>PLATE--PORTRAIT OF GIOVANNA DEGLI ALBIZI</center> + +<p>This lovely lady was the wife of one of the +painter's patrons, Giovanni Tornabuoni, through +whom he received the commission for a series of +frescoes in the choir of the Santa Maria Novella, +Florence. The subjects chosen were sacred, but +since Ghirlandajo, no more than his neighbours, +knew what the Virgin or her contemporaries +looked like, he saw no reason why he should not +<a name="134"></a> +compliment some of the great ones of his own +city and his own time by painting them in to +represent the different characters of Holy Writ. +So, as one of the ladies attendant upon Elizabeth +when Mary comes to visit her, we have this +signora of the fifteenth century. The artist made +another picture of her, the one here shown, but +in the same dress and posed the same as she had +been for the church fresco. This accounts for +its dignity and simplicity. It would seem like +a bas-relief cut out of marble were it not for +its wonderful colouring. It is in the Rudolf +Kann Collection, Paris. This artist's other +pictures are "Adoration of the Shepherds," +"Adoration of the Magi," "Madonna and +Child with Saints," "Three Saints and God +the Father," "Coronation of the Virgin," and +"Portrait of Old Man and Boy."</p> + +<p><a name="135"></a></p> +<h1>XVIII</h1> + +<h1>GIOTTO (DI BORDONE)</h1> + +<center>(Pronounced Jot-to)<br> +<i>Florentine School</i><br> +1276-1337<br> +<i>Pupil of Cimabue</i></center> + +<p>Giotto painted upon wood, and in "distemper"--the +mixture of colour with +egg or some other jelly-like substance. We know +nothing of his childhood except that he was a +shepherd, as we learn from a story told of him and +his teacher, Cimabue.</p> + +<p>The story runs that one day while Giotto was +watching his sheep, high up on a mountain, +Cimabue was walking abroad to study nature, +and he ran across a shepherd boy who was +drawing the figure of a sheep, with a piece of +slate upon a stone. In those days we can imagine +how rare it was to find one who could draw anything, +ever so rudely. Immediately Cimabue +saw a chance to make an artist and he asked the +little shepherd if he would like to be taught art +in his studio. Giotto was overjoyed at the +opportunity, and at once he left the mountains +for the town, the shepherd's crook for the brush.</p> + +<p>In those days the studio of one like Cimabue +was really a workshop. Artists had to grind +their own colours, prepare their own panels upon +<a name="136"></a> +which to paint, and do a hundred other things +of a workman rather than an artist kind in +connection with their painting. Such a studio +was crowded with apprentices--boys who did +these jobs while learning from the master. +Their teaching consisted in watching the artist +and now and then receiving advice from him.</p> + +<p>It was into such a shop as this, in Florence, +that Giotto went, and soon he was to become +greater than his master. Even so, we cannot +think him great, excepting for his time, because +his pictures, compared with later art, are crude, +stiff, and strange.</p> + +<p>No pupil was permitted to use a brush till he +had learned all the craft of colour grinding and the +like, and this was supposed to take about six +years. These workshops were likely to be dull, +gloomy places, and only a strong desire to do +such things as they saw their master doing, would +induce a boy to persevere through the first +drudgery of the work. Giotto persevered, and +not only became an original painter, at a time +when even Cimabue hardly made figures appear +human in outline, but he designed the great +Campanile in Florence, and he saw it partly +finished before he died. The Campanile is a +wonder of architecture, but Giotto's Madonnas +had to be improved upon, as certainly as he had +improved upon those of Cimabue.</p> + +<p>There are many amusing stories of Giotto, +mainly telling of his good nature, and his ugly +appearance, which everyone forgot in appreciation +<a name="137"></a> +of his truly kind heart. Once a visit was made +to his studio by the King of Naples, after the +artist had become famous. Giotto was painting +busily, though the day was very hot. The King +entered, and bade Giotto not to be disturbed but +to continue his work, adding: "Still, if I were you, +I should not paint in such hot weather." Giotto +looked up with a laugh in his eye: "Neither would +I--if I were you, Sire!" he answered.</p> + +<p>There is a famous saying: "As round as +Giotto's "O," and this is how it came about. +The pope wanted the best of the Florentine +artists to do some work in Rome for him and he +sent out to them for examples of their work. +When the pope's messenger came to Giotto the +artist was very busy. When asked for some of +his work to show the pope, he paused, snatched +a piece of paper and with the brush he had been +using, which was full of red paint, he hurriedly +drew a circle and gave it to the messenger who +stared at him.</p> + +<p>"But--is this <i>all</i>?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"All--yes--and too much. Put it with +the others." This perfect circle and the +account the messenger gave of his visit so delighted +the pope that Giotto was chosen from all the +Florentine artists to decorate the Roman +buildings.</p> + +<p>Thus Giotto worked till he was fifty-seven or +eight years old when he put aside his brush +and turned to sculpture and architecture. +Meantime he had far outstripped his master in +<a name="138"></a> +art. The arrangement of the groups is about the +same, but the figures look human and the +draperies are more natural, while he gives the +appearance of length, breadth, and thickness +to his thrones and enclosures. We shall not +choose a Madonna for illustration, but another +of Giotto's masterpieces, remembering that good +as he was in his time, he seems amazingly bad +compared with those who came after him.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE MEETING OF ST. JOHN AND ST. ANNA +AT JERUSALEM.</center> + +<p>In 1303 a certain Enrico Scrovegno had a +private chapel built in the Arena at Padua and +he sent for Giotto to come there and adorn the +whole of its walls and ceiling with frescoes. +These remain, though the chapel is now emptied +of all else, and they suffice to bring scores of art-lovers +to Padua. The picture here reproduced +represents the meeting and reconciliation between +the father and mother of the Virgin before her +birth. The peculiarly shaped eyes and eyebrows +that Giotto gives to all his characters are specially +noteworthy here as in every one of the thirty-eight +frescoes. There are three rows of pictures, +one above the other and in them are portrayed +the principal scenes in the lives of Christ and the +Virgin. The painter here reached his high-water +mark, showed the very best he could produce +in sincere, restrained art. +<a name="139"></a></p> +<h1>XIX</h1> + +<h1>FRANZ HALS</h1> + +<center><i>Dutch School</i><br> +1580-04-1666 <br> +<i>Pupil of Karel Van Mander</i></center> + +<p>Franz Hals belonged to a family which +for two hundred years had been highly +respected in Haarlem in the Netherlands. The +father of the painter left that town for political +reasons in 1579, and it was at Antwerp that +Franz was born sometime between that date +and 1585. His parents took him back to Haarlem +as an infant, and that is the town with which +his name and fame are most closely associated.</p> + +<p>Little is known of his early life except that he +began his studies with Karel Van Mander and +Cornelis Cornelissen. What we know of his +family life is not to his credit. In the parish +register of 1611 is recorded the birth of a son to +Franz Hals and five years later he is on the public +records for abusing his wife, who died shortly +afterward. He married again within a year +and the second wife bore him many children and +survived him ten years. Five of his seven sons +became painters.</p> + +<p>Franz Hals drank too much and mixed too +freely with the kind of disreputable people he +<a name="140"></a> +loved to paint, but he never became so degraded +that his hand lost its cunning, or his eye its keen +vision for that which he wished to portray. In +1644, he was made a director of the Guild of St. +Lucas, an institution for the protection of arts +and crafts in Haarlem, but from that time +onward he sank in popular esteem, deservedly. +He fell into debt, then into pauperism, and when +he died, about the age of eighty-six, he was buried +at public expense in the choir of St. Bavon +Church in Haarlem.</p> + +<p>It was in the year 1616 that Hals first became +known as a master of his art by the painting of +the St. Jovis Shooting Company, one of the +clubs composed of volunteers banded together +for the defence of the town should occasion arise. +Such guilds were common throughout Holland, +and they became a favourite subject with Hals, +as with other painters of the time, who vied with +one another in portraiture of the different +members. These groups were hung upon the walls +of the chambers where meetings were held for +social purposes in times of peace. The men +of highest rank are always given the most +conspicuous places in the pictures. The flag +is generally the one bit of gorgeous colour in the +scene; but Franz Hals seized the opportunity to +show his wonderful skill in detail while painting +the cuffs and ruffs worn by these grandees. In +all his work there is an impression of strength +rather than of beauty; it is the charm of +expressiveness he is aiming at, rather than the charm +<a name="141"></a> +of grace and colour to which the Italian school +was devoted. He differed from that school, also, +in his choice of subjects, for he was distinctly +and almost entirely a portrait painter, and within +his own limited range he is unsurpassed. A +wonderful collection of his works is to be seen in +the Haarlem Town Hall.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE NURSE AND THE CHILD</center> + +<p>Considering the woeful life that Franz Hals led, +it is amazing to think that he of all artists is the +best painter of good humour. He puts a smile +on the face of nearly every one of his "leading +characters," whether it be a modest young girl, +a hideous old woman, a strolling musician, or a +riotous soldier, and in every case the laugh suits +the subject. It may have been his own easygoing +shiftlessness, his way of casting care aside +with a jest that enabled him to live so long and +to accomplish so much in spite of his poverty +and other misfortunes.</p> + +<p>The roguish look upon the face of this baby +of the house of Ilpenstein makes it appear older +than the pleasant faced nurse. The dress of the +child is such as Hals delighted to spend his +talents upon. The picture is in the Berlin +Gallery.</p> + +<p>Among his best known paintings are "The +Laughing Cavalier," "The Fool," "The Man +with the Sword," and "Hille Bobbe. the Witch +of Haarlem." +<a name="142"></a></p> +<h1>XX</h1> + +<h1>MEYNDERT HOBBEMA</h1> + +<center><i>Dutch School</i><br> +1637-1709<br> +<i>Pupil of Jacob van Ruisdael</i></center> + +<p>When a man becomes famous many +people claim his acquaintance, and +often many places his birthplace. In Hobbema's +case it has never been decided whether +he was born in the little town of Koeverdam, +or in the city of Haarlem or in Amsterdam. Nor +is it quite certain when he was born; but what +he did afterward, we are all acquainted with.</p> + +<p>No one knows much about the life of this +artist, but his master was doubtless his uncle, +van Ruisdael. Hobbema was dead a hundred +years before the world acknowledged his genius, +thus he reaped no reward for hard work and +ambition. He, like Rembrandt, died in great +poverty, and with nearly the same surroundings. +Rembrandt died forsaken in Roosegraft Street, +Amsterdam, and Hobbema died in the same +locality. We must speak chiefly about his +work, since we know little of his personality +or affairs.</p> + +<p>If Böcklin's pictures seem to be composed +of vertical lines, Hobbema's are as startling +in their positive vertical and horizontal lines +<a name="143"></a> +combined. We are not likely to find elevations +or gentle, gradual depressions in his +landscapes, but straight horizons, long trunked, +straight limbed trees; and the landscape seems +to be punctured here and there by an upright +house or a spire. It is startlingly beautiful, +and so characteristic that after seeing one or +two of Hobbema's pictures we are likely to +know his work again wherever we may find it.</p> + +<p>Hobbema got at the soul of a landscape. It +was as if one painted a face that was dear to +one, and not only made it a good likeness but +also painted the person as one felt him to be--all +the tenderness, or maybe all the sternness.</p> + +<p>It may be that Hobbema's failure to get +money and honours, or at the very least, kind +recognition as a great artist, while he lived, +influenced his painting, and made him see +mostly the sad side of beauty, nor it is certain +that his landscapes give one a strange feeling +of sadness and desolation, even when he paints +a scene of plenty and fulness.</p> + +<p>The French have made a phrase for his kind +of work, <i>paysage intime</i>--meaning the +beloved country--the one best known. It +is a fine phrase, and it was first used to describe +Rousseau's and Corot's work; but it especially +applies to Hobbema's.</p> + +<p>While this artist was not yet recognised, +his uncle van Ruisdael was known as a great +artist. The family must have been rich in +spirit that gave so much genius to the world. +<a name="144"></a> +Hobbema certainly loved his art above all +things, for he had no return during his lifetime, +save what was given by the joy of work. There +are those who complain that Hobbema was a +poor colourist. True, he used little besides grays +and a peculiar green, which seemed especially +to please him; but since that colouring belonged +to the subjects he chose, one cannot complain +on the ground that what he did was unsatisfying. +For lack of knowledge about him we +can think of him as a man of moods, sad, +desolate ones at that; because his work is too +extreme and uniform in its character for us +to believe his method was affected.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE AVENUE, MIDDELHARNIS, HOLLAND</center> + +<p>This perhaps is one of the most characteristic +of Hobbema's pictures. Note a strange hopelessness +in the scene, as well as beauty. The +tall and solemn trees, the high light upon the +road, suggesting to us all sorts of joys struggling +through the cheerlessness of life. What other +artist would have chosen such a corner of +nature for a subject to paint? To quote a +fine description:</p> + +<p>"He loved the country-side, studied it as a +lover, and has depicted it with such intimacy of +truth that the road to Middelharnis seems +as real to-day as it did over a hundred years +ago to the artist. We see the poplars, with +<a name="145"></a> +their lopped stems, lifting their bushy tops +against that wide, high sky which floats over +a flat country, full of billowy clouds as the sky +near the North Sea is apt to be. Deep ditches +skirt the road, which drain and collect the +water for purposes of irrigation, and later on +will join some deeper, wider canal, for purposes +of navigation. We get a glimpse on the right, +of patient perfection of gardening, where a +man is pruning his grafted fruit trees; farther +on a group of substantial farm buildings. On +the opposite side of the road stretches a long, +flat meadow, or "polder," up to the little +village which nestles so snugly around its tall +church tower; the latter fulfilling also the +purpose of a beacon, lit by night, to guide the +wayfarer on sea and land; scene of tireless +industry, comfortable prosperity, and smiling +peace. ... Pride and love of country +breathe through the whole scene. To many +of us the picture smiles less than it thrills +with sadness. Perhaps it speaks thus only +to those who find a kind of hurt in the revival +of the spring, which promises so much and +may fulfill so little."</p> + +<p>Hobbema's "Watermill" is very well-known +and so are his "Wooded Landscape," and +"Haarlem's Little Forest."</p> + +<p><a name="146"></a></p> +<h1>XXI</h1> + +<h1>WILLIAM HOGARTH</h1> + +<center><i>School of Hogarth (English)</i><br> +1697-1764 </center> + +<p>William Hogarth, like Watteau, originated +his own school; in short there never +was anybody like him. He was an editorial +writer in charcoal and paint, or in other words +he had a story to tell every time he made a picture, +and there was an argument in it, a right and a +wrong, and he presented his point of view by +making pictures.</p> + +<p>English artists in literature and in painting +have done some great reformatory work. Charles +Dickens overthrew some dreadful abuses by +writing certain novels. The one which has most +interest for children is the awful story of Dotheboys' +Hall, which exposed the ill treatment of +pupils in a certain class of English schools. What +Dickens and Charles Reade did in literature, +Hogarth undertook to do in painting. He +described social shams; painted things as they +were, thus making many people ashamed and +possibly better.</p> + +<p>Italians had always painted saints and +Madonnas, but Hogarth pretended to despise +that sort of work, and painted only human +beings. He did not really despise Raphael, +<a name="147"></a> +Titian, and their brother artists, but he was so +disgusted with the use that had been made of +them and their schools of art, to the entire +exclusion of more familiar subjects, that he +turned satirist and ridiculed everything.</p> + +<p>First of all, Hogarth was an engraver. He was +born in London on the 10th December, 1697, and +eighteen days later was baptised in the church +of St. Bartholemew the Great. His father was +a school teacher and a "literary hack," which +means that in literature he did whatever he could +find to do, reporting, editing, and so on.</p> + +<p>Hogarth must early have known something +of vagabond life, for his father's life during his +own youth must have brought him into association +with all sorts of people. He knew how +madhouses were run, how kings dined, how +beggars slept in goods boxes, and many other +useful items.</p> + +<p>Hogarth said of himself: "Shows of all sorts +gave me uncommon pleasure when an infant, +and mimicry, common to all children, was +remarkable in me.... My exercises, when +at school, were more remarkable for the ornaments +which adorned them, than for the exercises +themselves." He became an engraver or silver-plater, +being apprenticed to Mr. Ellis Gamble, +at the sign of the "Golden Angel," Cranbourne +Alley, Leicester Fields.</p> + +<p>Engraving on silver plate was all well enough, +but Hogarth aspired to become an engraver on +copper, and he has said that this was about the +<a name="148"></a> +highest ambition he had while he was in Cranbourne +Alley.</p> + +<p>The shop-card which he engraved for Mr. +Ellis Gamble may have been the first significant +piece of work he undertook. The card is still +among the Hogarth relics. He set up as an +engraver on his own account, though he did study +a little in Sir James Thornhill's art school; +but whatever he learned he turned to characteristic +account.</p> + +<p>He continued to make shop-cards, shop-bills, +and book-plates. Finally, in 1727, a maker of +tapestry engaged Hogarth to sketch him a design +end he set to work ambitiously He worked +throughout that year upon the design, but when +he took it to the man it was refused. The truth +was that the man who had commissioned the +work had heard that Hogarth was "an engraver +and no painter," and he had so little intelligence +that he did not intend to accept his design, +however much it might have pleased him. +Hogarth sued the man for his refusal and he won +the suit. He next began to make what he called +"conversation pieces," little paintings about a +foot high of groups of people, the figures being +all portraits. These were very fashionable for +a time and made some money for the artist. +Both he and Watteau were fond of the stage, +and both painted scenes from operas and plays.</p> + +<p>In time he moved into lodgings at the "Golden +Head," in Leicester Fields, and there he made his +home. He had already begun the great paintings +<a name="149"></a> +which were to make him famous among artists. +These were a series of pictures, telling stories +of fashionable and other life. His own story of +how he came to think of the picture series was +that he had always wished to present dramatic +stories--present them in scenes as he saw them +on the stage.</p> + +<p>He had married the daughter of Sir James +Thornhill, and had never been thought of kindly +by his father-in-law till he made so much stir +with his first series. Then Sir James approved +of him, and Hogarth found life more pleasing.</p> + +<p>There are very few anecdotes to tell of the +artist's life, and the story of his pictures is much +more amusing. One of his first satires was made +into a pantomime by Theophilus Gibber, and +another person made it into an opera. Many +pamphlets and poems were written about it, +and finally china was painted with its scenes and +figures. There was as much to cry as to laugh +over in Hogarth's pieces and that is what made +them so truly great. One of his great picture +series was called the "Rake's Progress" and it was +a warning to all young men against leading too +gay a life. It showed the "Rake" at the beginning +of his misfortunes, gambling, and in the last +reaping the reward of his follies in a debtor's +prison and the madhouse. There are eight +pictures in that set.</p> + +<p>In this series, especially in the fifth picture, +there are extraordinary proofs of Hogarth's +completeness of ideas. Upon the wall in the +<a name="150"></a> +room wherein the "Rake" marries an old woman +for her money, the Ten Commandments are +hung, all cracked, and the Creed also is cracked +and nearly smudged out; while the poor-box +is covered with cobwebs. The eight pictures +brought to Hogarth only seventy guineas.</p> + +<p>One of his pictures was suggested to him +by an incident which greatly angered him. +He had started for France on some errand of +his own, and was in the very act of sketching +the old gate at Calais, when he was arrested +as a spy. Now Hogarth was a hard-headed +Englishman, and when he was hustled back +to England without being given time for +argument, he was so enraged that he made his +picture as grotesque as possible, to the lasting +chagrin of France. He painted the French +soldiers as the most absurd, thin little fellows +imaginable, and that picture has largely influenced +people's idea of the French soldier +all over the English-speaking world.</p> + +<p>As Hogarth grew old he grew also a little +bitter and revengeful toward his enemies, +often taking his revenge in the ordinary way +of belittling the people he disliked, in his +paintings.</p> + +<p>Hogarth came before Reynolds or Gainsborough; +in short, was the first great English +artist, and his chief power lay in being able +instantly to catch a fleeting expression, and to +interpret it. An incident of Hogarth's youth +illustrates this. He had got into a row in a +<a name="151"></a> +pot-house with one of the hangers-on, and +when someone struck the brawler over the +head with a pewter pot, there, in the midst of +excitement and rioting, Hogarth whipped out +his pencil and hastily sketched the expression +of the chap who had been hit.</p> + +<p>Hogarth was friends with most of the +theatre managers, and one of his souvenirs +was a gold pass given him by Tyers, the +director of Vauxhall Gardens, which entitled +Hogarth and his family to entrance during +their lives. This was in return for some +"passes," which Hogarth had engraved for +Tyer.</p> + +<p>Upon one occasion Hogarth set off with +some companions for a trip to the Isle of +Sheppey. Incidentally Forest wrote a sketch +of their journey and Hogarth illustrated it. +That work is to be found, carefully preserved, +in the British Museum. The repeated copying +and reproduction for sale of his pictures brought +about the first effort to protect his +works of art by copyright. But it was not +till he had done the "Rake's Progress" that +he was able to protect himself at all, and even +then not completely.</p> + +<p>Just before his death he was staying at +Chiswick, but the day before he died he was +removed to his house in Leicester Fields. +He was buried in the Chiswick churchyard; +and in that suburb of London may still be seen +his old house and a mulberry tree where he +<a name="152"></a> +often sat amusing children for whom he cared +very much. Garrick wrote the following +epitaph for his tomb:</p> + +<blockquote> +Farewell, great Painter of Mankind!<br> +Who reached the noblest point of art,<br> +Whose pictured Morals charm the Mind <br> +And through the Eye correct the Heart.<br> + +<p>If Genius fire thee, Reader, stay;<br> +If Nature touch thee, drop a tear;<br> +If neither move thee, turn away,<br> +For Hogarth's honour'd dust lies here.</p> +</blockquote> + +<center>PLATE--THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT</center> + +<p>The picture used in illustration here is part +of probably the very greatest art-sermon ever +painted, called "Marriage à la Mode." The +story of it is worth telling:</p> + +<p>"The first act is laid in the drawing-room +of the Viscount Squanderfield"--is not that +a fine name for the character? "On the left, +his lordship is seated, pointing with complacent +pride to his family tree, which has its roots +in William the Conqueror. But his rent roll +had been squandered, the gouty foot suggesting +whither some of it has gone; and to restore his +fortunes he is about to marry his heir to the +daughter of a rich alderman. The latter is +seated awkwardly at the table, holding the +marriage contract duly sealed, signed and +delivered; the price paid for it, being shown +by the pile of money on the table and the bunch +<a name="153"></a> +of cancelled mortgages which the lawyer is +presenting to the nobleman, who refuses +to soil his elegant fingers with them. Over +on the left is his weakling son, helping himself +at this critical turn of his affairs, to a pinch +of snuff while he gazes admiringly at his own +figure in the mirror. The lady is equally +indifferent; she has strung the ring on to her +finger and is toying with it, while she listens +to the compliments being paid to her by +Counsellor Silver-tongue. Through an open +window another lawyer is comparing his lordship's +new house, that is in the course of building, +with the plan in his hand. A marriage so +begun could only end in misery." This is the +first act, and the pictures that follow show all +the steps of unhappiness which the couple +take. There are five more acts to that painted +drama, which is in the National Gallery, +London.</p> + +<p> +<a name="154"></a></p> +<h1>XXII</h1> + +<h1>HANS HOLBEIN, THE YOUNGER</h1> + +<center>(Pronounced Hahntz Hol'bine)<br> +<i>German School</i><br> +1497-1543<br> +<i>Pupil of Holbein, the Elder</i> </center> + +<p>There were three generations of painters in +the Holbein family, and the Hans of whom +we speak was of the third. His grandfather +was called "old Holbein," and when more painters +of the same name and family came along it became +necessary to distinguish them from each other +thus: "old Holbein," the "elder Holbein," and +"young Holbein." The first one was not much +of an artist; still, in a locality where at best there +was not much art he was good enough to be +remembered.</p> + +<p>"Young Holbein" was born in Augsburg, +which is in Swabia, in southern Germany; "elder +Holbein" and his father, Michael, "old Holbein," +had moved there from Schonenfeld, a neighbouring +village, about forty three years before little +Hans was born, the old Michael bringing his +family to the larger town where it was easier to +make a living.</p> + +<p>The "elder Holbein" was a really good artist +and well thought of in Augsburg, and when little +Hans's turn came he had no teacher but his +<a name="155"></a> +father, unless indeed we were to call him also a +pupil of his elder brother, Ambrosius. His +uncle Sigismund, too, taught him something of +art, for the whole Holbein family seem to have +been artists. Young Holbein was never regularly +apprenticed to any outsider.</p> + +<p>Art was not then taught as it is now. The +work of a beginner was often to paint for his +master certain details which it was thought that +he might handle properly, while the master +occupied himself with what he thought to be +some more important part of the picture. It is +said that Hans often painted the draperies of his +father's figures when his father was engaged upon +the altar pieces so fashionable at the time. +The Holbeins one and all must have been bad +managers or improvident; at any rate, Hans did +not turn out well as a man and we read that his +father was always in debt and difficulty although +he received much money for his work and was +not handicapped, like Dürer's father, by a family +of eighteen children.</p> + +<p>The story of the Holbeins is quite unlike that +of the Dürers, and not nearly so attractive.</p> + +<p>Some time before Hans was twenty years of age, +the entire family had packed up and gone to live +in Lucerne, while Hans and his brother, Ambrosius, +went travelling together, as most young +Germans went at that time before they settled +down to the serious work of life. The last we +hear of Ambrosius he had joined the painters' +guild in Basel, and probably he died not long +<a name="156"></a> +afterward, or at any rate while he was still young. +There was in Basel a certain Hans Bar, for whose +wedding occasion Hans Holbein designed a table, +on which he pictured an allegory of "St. Nobody." +This was very likely such work as our cartoonists +do to-day, but being the work of Holbein, +it had great artistic value. Besides that, he +painted a schoolmaster's sign to be hung outside +the door.</p> + +<p>As an illustrator, Holbein made the acquaintance +of several authors about that time and +started on the high road to fame. He was a man +of very little conscience or fine feeling, and there +could hardly be a greater contrast than that +between the clean sweet life of Dürer and the +brawling, unfeeling one that Hans Holbein led.</p> + +<p>Dürer married, had no children, but tenderly +loved and cared for his wife, taking her with him +upon his journeys and making her happy.</p> + +<p>Holbein married and beat his wife; had +several children and took care of none of them. +His wife grew to look old and worn while he +remained a gay looking sport, quite tired of one +whom he had had on his hands for ten years. +He wandered everywhere and left his family +to shift for itself. One writer in speaking of the +two men says:</p> + +<p>"Dürer would never have deserted his wife +whom he took with him even on his journey +to the Netherlands; and he was bound by the +same tenderness to his native town. However +much he rejoiced to receive a visit from Bellini +<a name="157"></a> +at Venice, or when at Antwerp, the artists instituted, +a torch-light procession in his honour, +nothing could have moved him to leave Nuremberg." +Dürer loved his home; Holbein hated his.</p> + +<p>Holbein had a cold, light-blue eye; Dürer a +soft and tender glance. While Dürer lived he +was the mainstay of his family--father and +brothers. Holbein's father died in misery and +his brother's life was disastrous, Hans doing +nothing to serve them and looking on at their +sufferings indifferently.</p> + +<p>There is a court document in existence which +tells the particulars of Hans Holbein's arrest +for getting into a brawl with a lot of goldsmiths' +apprentices during a night of carousal. The +court warned him that he would be more severely +punished if he did not cease his lawless life and +he was made to promise not to "jostle, pinch, nor +beat his lawful spouse." When he died he +made no provision in his will for his family. +There is a picture of his wife, Elizabeth Schmidt, +to be seen in his "Madonna" at Solothurn +Holbein used her for the model. She then was +young and blooming and the model for the child +was his own baby; at that time he found them +useful.</p> + +<p>His life of folly can hardly be excused by +impulsiveness or emotion, for his pictures show +little of either. He was best at portrait painting. +At that time guilds and town councils +wanted the portraits of their members preserved +in some way, and it was the habit of +<a name="158"></a> +painters like Holbein to form picturesque groups +and give to such dramatic groupings the +features of townsmen. Rembrandt did this +much later than Holbein, when he painted +the "Night Watch," or as it is more properly +called, "The Sortie."</p> + +<p>Probably Holbein's first important work +was to make title pages for the second edition +of Martin Luther's translation of the New +Testament. This MS. was made about the +time that Holbein's work began to be of +interest to the public, and so the commission +was given to him.</p> + +<p>After a time this artist went to England +with letters of introduction to Sir Thomas +More, Chancellor to King Henry VIII. Sir +Thomas treated him very kindly and set him +to work making portraits of his own family. +During the time he was living at More's home +in Chelsea, the King himself, used frequently +to visit there, and on one occasion he saw the +brilliant portraits of the More family and +inquired about the artist. Sir Thomas offered +the King any of the pictures he liked, but +Henry VIII. asked to see the artist. When +brought before him, Holbein's fortune seemed +to be made for the King asked him to go to +court and paint for him, remarking that "now +he had the artist he did not care about the +pictures."</p> + +<p>Holbein seems to have been a favourite +with Henry and many anecdotes are told of his +<a name="159"></a> +life at Whitehall, where he went to live. Once +while Holbein was engaged upon a portrait, a +nobleman insisted upon entering his studio, +after the artist had told him that he was painting +the portrait of a lady, by order of the King. +The nobleman insisted upon seeing it, but +Holbein seized him and threw him down the +Stairs; then he rushed to the King and told +what had happened. He had no sooner +finished than the nobleman appeared and told +his story. The King blamed the nobleman for +his rudeness.</p> + +<p>"You have not to do with Holbein," he said, +"but with me. I tell you, of seven peasants +I can make seven lords, but of seven lords I +cannot make one Holbein. Begone! and remember +that if you ever attempt to avenge +yourself, I shall look upon any injury offered +to the painter as done to myself."</p> + +<p>It was Holbein who, visiting a brother +artist and finding a picture on the easel, +painted a fly upon it. When the artist +returned he tried to brush the fly off, then +set about looking for the one who had +deceived him.</p> + +<p>His portrait painting was so superb that he +received many commissions.</p> + +<p>Meantime, Sir Thomas More had fallen into +disfavour with the King and was to lose his +head, but it is written that the artist's portraits +"betray nothing of this tragedy." He was +as ready to climb to fame by the favour of +<a name="160"></a> +his generous patron's enemies as he had been +to accept the offices of Sir Thomas More. He +painted the portraits of several of the wives +of Henry VIII., and it may be said that there +was a good deal of that monarch's temperament +to be found in Holbein himself. Take +him all in all, Hans was as detestable as a man +as he was excellent as a painter.</p> + +<p>In his adopted home in Lucerne, Holbein +had painted frescoes, both on the inside and +the outside of a citizen's house, and this house +stood until 1824, when it was torn down to +make way for street improvements, but several +artists hastily copied the frescoes so that they +are not entirely lost.</p> + +<p>Before he left Germany for England, Holbein +had been commissioned to decorate the town +hall in Basel, and a certain amount of money +was voted for the work, but after he had +finished three walls, he decided that the money +was only enough to pay him for what he had +already done. The councillors agreed with +him, but as money was a little "close" in +Basel at that time, they felt unable to give +him more, and so voted to "let the back wall +alone, till further notice."</p> + +<p>He painted one Madonna whom he surrounded +with the entire family of Burgomaster Meyer, +including even the burgomaster's first wife, +who was dead. This work is called the +"Meyer Madonna."</p> + +<p>It is said that after Holbein's return to +<a name="161"></a> +Basel he, with others, was persecuted for his +"religious principles," but if this were true, +his persecutors went to considerable pains +for nothing, because Holbein was never known +to have any sort of principles, religious or +otherwise. He was neither a Protestant, nor +a Catholic but a painter, a man without convictions +and without thought. He did not care +for family, country, friends, politics, religion, +nor for anything else, so far as any one knows.</p> + +<p>When he was asked why he had not partaken +of the Sacrament, he answered that he wanted +to understand the matter better before he did +so. Thus he escaped punishment, and when +matters were explained to him, he did whatever +seemed safest and most convenient under +the circumstances.</p> + +<p>On his return to England, he settled among +the colony of German and Netherland merchants, +who were in the habit of meeting at a place +called "The Steelyard," as their home and +warehouses were grouped in that locality, +with a guild hall and a wineshop they alone +patronised.</p> + +<p>While associated with his compatriots Holbein +made portraits of many of them, and these +are magnificent works of art. He painted them +separately or in groups; in their offices and in +their guild hall, as the case might be. The +men whom he thus painted were: Gorg Gisze, +Hans of Antwerp, Derich Berck, Geryck Tybis, +Ambrose Fallen, and many others. He designed +<a name="162"></a> +the arch which the guild erected upon the occasion +of Anne Boleyn's coronation, and he painted +Henry's next Queen, Jane Seymour.</p> + +<p>Holbein painted many portraits of Henry VIII. +and probably all those dated after 1537 were +either copies or founded upon the portrait which +Holbein made and which was destroyed with +Whitehall.</p> + +<p>While he painted for Henry, Holbein received +a sort of retainer's fee of thirty pounds a year, +but he may have received sums for outside +commissions which he undertook. On one +occasion, when he took a journey to Upper +Burgundy to paint a portrait of the Duchess +whom Henry contemplated making his next wife, +the King gave him ten pounds out of his own +purse. We have no record of vast sums such as +Raphael received.</p> + +<p>Henry did not succeed in making the Duchess +his wife, so Holbein was sent to paint another--Anne +of Cleves--that Henry might see what +he thought of her before he undertook to make +her his queen. Holbein did a disastrous deed, +for he made Anne a very acceptable looking +woman, (the portrait hangs in the Louvre) +and Henry negotiated for her on the strength of +that portrait. Later, when he saw her, he was +utterly disgusted and disappointed.</p> + +<p>Holbein, notwithstanding this trick, was employed +to paint the next wife of Henry, and +doubtless he also made the miniature of Catherine +Howard which is in Windsor Castle. + +<a name="163"></a> +Holbein finally died of the plague and no one +knows where he was buried. His wife died later, +and it was left for his son, Philip, who was said to +be "a good well-behaved lad," to bring honours +to the family. He was apprenticed in Paris, and, +settling later in Augsburg, he founded a branch +of the Holbein family on which the Emperor +Matthias conferred a patent of nobility, making +them the Holbeins of Holbeinsberg.</p> + +<center>PLATE--ROBERT CHESEMAN WITH HIS FALCON</center> + +<p>This is one of the best of the many splendid +portraits Holbein painted. It hangs in The +Hague gallery. The gentleman was forty-eight +years old and in the portrait he wears a purplish-red +doublet of silk and a black overcoat, +which was the fashion of the day, all trimmed +with fur. He has curly hair, just turning gray. +His left hand is gloved and on it he holds his +falcon, while with the other hand he strokes its +feathers.</p> + +<p>Of all sports at that time, falconry was the +most fashionable and every fine gentleman had +his sporting birds. Robert Cheseman lived in +Essex. He was rich and a leader in English +politics. His father was "keeper of the wardrobe +to Henry VIII." and he himself served in many +public offices. He was one of the gentleman +chosen to welcome Anne of Cleves when she landed +on English soil to marry Henry VIII. These +details were first published by Mr. Arthur +<a name="164"></a> +Chamberlain and are taken from his sketch of +Holbein and his works.</p> + +<p>Among Holbein's other famous pictures are: +"The Ambassadors," "Hans of Antwerp," +"Christina of Denmark," "Jane Seymour," +"Anne of Cleves," and "St. George and the +Dragon."</p> + +<p><a name="165"></a></p> +<h1>XXIII</h1> + +<h1>WILLIAM HOLMAN HUNT</h1> + +<center><i>English (Pre-Raphaelite) School</i><br> +1827--<br> +<i>Pupil of Academy School</i></center> + +<p>The story of the Pre-Raphaelites is all by +itself a story of art. Holman Hunt was +one of three who formed this "brotherhood"; +and he, with one other, are the only ones whom +some of us think worthy of giving a place in art. +This is to be the story of the brotherhood +rather than a story of one man.</p> + +<p>The last great artist England had had before +this extraordinary group, was J. M. W. Turner, +truly a wonderful man, but after him England's +painters became more and more commonplace, +drawing further and further away from truth, +There was one, J. F. Lewis, who went away to +Syria and lived a lonely and studious life, trying +to paint with fidelity sacred scenes, but he was +not great enough to do what his conscience and +desires demanded of him; and, finally, Constable +declared that the end of art in England had come. +But it had not, for up in London, in the very +heart of the city, in Cheapside (Wood Street) +there was born, in April, 1827, a child destined to +be a brilliant and wonderful man, who was +actually to rescue English art from death. Many +<a name="166"></a> +do not think thus, but enough of us do to warrant +the statement.</p> + +<p>The new artist was Holman Hunt. He was +the son of a London warehouseman, with no inclination +whatever for learning, so that it +seemed simply a waste of time to send him to +school. This continually repeated history of +artists who seem to know nothing outside their +brushes and colours, is astonishing, but it is true +that artists for the most part must be regarded +as artists, pure and simple, and not as men of even +reasonably good intellectual attainments, and +more or less this accounts for their low estate +centuries ago. One does not associate "learning" +and the artist. When we have such splendid +examples as Dürer and two or three others we +discuss their intellectuality because they are so +unusual.</p> + +<p>Holman Hunt was like most of his brother +artists in all but his art. He hated school and at +twelve years of age was taken from it. His father +wanted him to become a warehouse merchant +like himself, and he began life as clerk or apprentice +to an auctioneer. He next went into the +employment of some calico-printers of Manchester. +The designing of calicoes can hardly be called art, +even if the department of design had fallen to +Holman Hunt's lot and we have no evidence that +it did, but he started to be an artist nevertheless, +there in the print-shop. He found in his new +place another clerk who cared for art; and this +sympathy encouraged him to fix his mind upon +<a name="167"></a> +painting more than ever. He used to draw such +natural flies upon the window panes that his +employer tried one day to "shoo away a whole +colony of flies that seemed miraculously to have +settled." This gave the clerks much amusement, +and also attracted attention to Holman Hunt's +genius.</p> + +<p>His very small salary was spent, not on his +support, but in lessons from a portrait painter +of the city. His parents did not like this, but +they could not help themselves, and thus this +greatest of the Pre-Raphaelites began his work.</p> + +<p>The Pre-Raphaelites were a little group of men +who believed that artists were drawing too much +on their imaginations, not painting things as +they saw them, and that the painter had +become incapable of close observation. He +worked in his studio, did not get near enough to +nature, and instead of trying to follow along this +line, this group of men, with their new and partly +correct ideas, meant to go back further than the +great masters themselves and present an elemental +art. This was a part of their scheme and partly +it was justified, but of all the men who undertook +to make a new school, Holman Hunt was the only +one who remained, and will remain forever, a representative. +He alone stuck to the original purpose +of the group and developed it into a truly great +school; so that it is he alone we need to know.</p> + +<p>After he began to take lessons of the portrait +painter in London, he developed so quickly that +he found by painting portraits three days a week, +<a name="168"></a> +he could pay his own expenses, and the rest of the +time he devoted to study. He tried to be +admitted to the Academy schools twice and was +twice refused before they would receive him.</p> + +<p>It was there in the Academy the three original +Pre-Raphaelites met for the first time; they were +Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and +Millais. After entering the school Hunt painted +and sold four excellent pictures, but they all +seem to have been lost; nobody can trace them. +He was not yet a "Pre-Raphaelite."</p> + +<p>All this time Hunt was half ill because he knew +that he was grieving his father of whom he was +devotedly fond, and the strain of trying to work +while he was unhappy nearly destroyed him. +The pictures that he exhibited at the Royal +Academy were so poor that the commission +declared they should not only be removed but +that Hunt ought really to be forbidden to exhibit +any more. This must have been a great blow +to the young and struggling artist, and to add to +this trouble, his father was being jeered at for +having such a good-for-nothing son. Hunt's +pictures in the Academy were so much despised +that his father was told his son was a disgrace to +him, and we may be sure that did not help the +young fellow, who meantime was earning a living, +not by painting pictures, but by cleaning up those +of another man. Dyce, who had painted on the +walls of Trinity House, engaged him to clean and +restore those paintings, and Hunt was doing this +for his bread and butter.</p> + +<p><a name="169"></a> +At that time he became so downhearted +and discouraged that he almost decided to +leave England altogether and go to live in +Canada away from his friends who jeered, and +his family who reproached him; but just then +Millais, one of the successful painters whom +he had met in the Academy school, who could +afford to be generous, came to Hunt's aid and +gave him the means of living while he painted +"The Hireling Shepherd." This was destined +to be the turning point in Hunt's luck, for +that painting was properly hung at the exhibition, +and it received recognition. After that +he painted a picture which he sold on the +installment plan--being paid by the purchaser +so much a month.</p> + +<p>Meantime he owed his landlady a large sum, +and he says himself that he "suffered almost +unbearable pain at passing her and her husband +week after week without being able to +even talk of annulling his debts." In time he +not only settled that bill which distressed him, +but paid back his friend Millais the money +loaned by him.</p> + +<p>Hunt rarely took a commission, because to +do so meant that he must paint a picture +after the manner his employer wished, and +Hunt had certain ideas of art in which he +believed and therefore would not bind himself +to depart from them; but after a little success, +which enabled him to pay his bills, he did +undertake a commission from Sir Thomas +<a name="170"></a> +Fairbairn, and it was called "The Awakened +Conscience." He finished this picture on a +January day late in the afternoon, and that +very night he left England, setting out upon a +longed-for journey to the Holy Land, where +he meant to study the country and people +till he believed himself able to paint a truthful +picture of sacred scenes. He refused to +paint pictures of Eastern Jews who should +look like Parisians, with Venetian backgrounds. +He meant to paint Oriental scenes +as nearly as he could, as they might have +taken place.</p> + +<p>He came back to his English home just two +years and one month from the time he had +left it, and he brought back a picture of the +goat upon which the Jews loaded their sins and +then turned loose in waste-places to wander +and die. "The Scapegoat" was a great picture, +but before he left England he had painted a +greater--the one we see here--"The Light +of the World."</p> + +<p>He had depended upon the sale of the +"Scapegoat" to pay his way for a time after +his return home, and alas, it did not sell. +More than that, his beloved father died and +this added to his sense of desolation, for he had +not been sufficiently successful before his +death to justify himself in his father's eyes. +These things so overwhelmed his sensitive +mind with trouble, that his condition became +very serious, and if certain good friends had +<a name="171"></a> +not stood by him loyally, he would probably +never have painted again.</p> + +<p>He began at last another ambitious picture--"Finding +of Christ in the Temple"--but while +he was engaged upon this, he had to paint +mere pot-boilers also in order to get on at +all, and he says that half the time the great +picture "stood with its face to the wall" while +he was trying merely to earn bread and butter. +The wonderful Louis Blanc tried once to plan +a way by which all deserving people should +have in this world equal opportunity to try. +This has never been "worked out." It never +will be, but Holman Hunt reminds us how +much the world loses by not providing that +"equal opportunity." No one deserves more +than his chance; but such struggles of genius +tell us that all is not fair.</p> + +<p>Hunt persevered with this Christ in the +Temple and when finished he sold it for 5,500 +guineas--a larger sum than he had ever +before been given for a painting.</p> + +<p>He no sooner received his money for this +great picture than off he went once more to +the Holy Land. He was conscientious in +everything he did, and never before had an +artist painted scenes of Christ that carried +such a sense of truth with them. The set +haloes seen about the heads of the saints and of +holy people even in Raphael's pictures and +in those of the very greatest artists of his +time, disappeared with Holman Hunt's +<a name="172"></a> +coming. In the "Light of the World," the +halo is an accident--the great white moon, +happening to rise behind the Christ's head--and +there we have the halo, simple, natural, +only suggestive, not artificial. Then, too, in +the "Shadow of Death," there is a menacing +shadow of the cross--made upon the wall by +Christ's body, as he naturally stretches out +his arms, after his work in the carpenter shop.</p> + +<p>There is not one false note that shocks us, +or makes us feel that after all the story itself +is affected and artificial. Everything that +is symbolical is brought about naturally. +They are sincere, truthful pictures that speak +to the mind as well as to the eye.</p> + +<p>Hunt's colouring and many other technical +matters are often far from perfect, but there +is something besides technicality to be considered +in judging a picture.</p> + +<p>For a time, while the three men, Hunt, +Rossetti, and Millais, kept together, their pictures +were signed P. R. B., as a sign of their league; +but this did not last very long, and afterward +Hunt signed his pictures independently.</p> + +<p>After the "Brotherhood" had worked against +the greatest discouragements for a long time, +and felt nearly hopeless of success, John Ruskin, +one of the greatest of critics and most fearless +of men, who was so much respected that his +words had great influence, suddenly published +a defence of these Pre-Raphaelites. He declared +that they were the greatest artists of the time, +<a name="173"></a> +and while scorning their critics he applauded +those three young men, till he turned the tide, +and everybody began to know what truly +brilliant work they were doing. Ruskin's words +came, Hunt said, "as thunder out of a clear +sky."</p> + +<p>When the "Brotherhood" was formed the +three young men thought they should have a +paper--a periodical of some sort, in which they +might tell of their purposes and express their +ideas; and so Rossetti, who wrote as well as +painted, proposed that they print such a periodical +once a month, and call it the <i>Germ</i>; and the +P. R. B's. were to be joint proprietors. Rossetti +had first thought of a different title, <i>Thoughts +Toward Nature</i>, and his brother, W. M. Rossetti, +who was going to take charge of the monthly, +thought that expressed the Pre-Raphaelites' +idea; but it was finally agreed to call it the +<i>Germ</i>. Only two numbers could be published +by the Pre-Raphaelites, because nobody bought +it and the young men's money gave out, but +the printers came to the rescue, and put up the +money to issue two or three more <i>Germs</i>.</p> + +<p>Although that journal failed utterly, its four +numbers were worth publishing, and are to-day +worth reading. They were truly valuable, for +they contained a story and poem by Dante +Gabriel Rossetti, besides work of the other +P. R. B's.</p> + +<p>Above all things Hunt was conscientious in +his work, trying with all his might to represent +<a name="174"></a> +things as be believed them to be. When he +made his "Scapegoat," he went to the shores of +the Dead Sea to paint, accompanied only by Arab +guides, and there he found the desolate, hard +landscape for his picture. The hardships he +experienced were very many. The wretched +goat he took with him died in the desert of that +dreary place after it had been no more than +sketched in, but back in Jerusalem Hunt finished +the goat. Ruskin's description of the picture +helps one to feel all the desolation of the +subject: "The salt sand of the wilderness of +Ziph, where the weary goat is dying. The +neighbourhood is stagnant and pestiferous, +polluted by the decaying vegetables brought +down by the Jordan in its floods, and the bones +of the beasts of burden that have died by the way +of the sea, lie like wrecks upon its edge, bared +by the vultures and bleached by the salt ooze."</p> + +<p>Even the superstitious Arabs would not go +near the spot which Hunt chose as the scene +of his picture, but Hunt endured all things, +believing it due to his art.</p> + +<p>When he painted "Christ in the Temple," he +needed Jewish models, and it was almost impossible +for him to get them. He could not let +them know what they were to represent, or +they would not have sat for him at all but he +succeeded in painting the "first Semitic presentment +of the Semitic Scriptures." In Jerusalem +the Jews heard that he had come "to traffic with +the souls of the faithful," and they forbade him +<a name="175"></a> +to have any Jews come into his studio; so that +he could not finish the picture there. Back +in London he had to find his models in the +Jewish school. He left the figures of Christ +and the Virgin till the last and then painted +them "from a lady of the ancient race, distinguished +alike for her amiability and beauty, +and a lad in one of the Jewish schools, to which +the husband of the lady furnished a friendly +introduction."</p> + +<p>Thus, step by step, through the greatest +difficulties, Holman Hunt established a new +school of painting--allegory with a modern +treatment which all could understand.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD</center> + +<p>This is the most popular picture of a sacred +subject, ever painted; and John Ruskin's +description of it, here quoted, is the best ever +written or that can be written. "On the left +of the picture is seen the door of the human +soul. It is fast barred, its bars and nails are +rusty; it is knitted and bound to its stanchions +by creeping tendrils of ivy, showing that it +has never been opened. A bat hovers over +it; its threshold is overgrown with brambles, +nettles and fruitless corn.... Christ approaches +in the night time, ... he wears +the white robe, representing the power of the +Spirit upon Him; the jewelled robe and breastplate, +representing the sacredotal investitude; +<a name="176"></a> +the rayed crown of gold, interwoven with the +crown of thorns; not dead thorns, but now +bearing soft leaves, for the healing of the +nations.... The lantern carried in Christ's +left hand is the light of conscience.... +Its fire is red and fierce; it falls only on the +closed door, on the weeds that encumber +it, and on an apple shaken from one of the +trees of the orchard, thus marking that the +entire awakening of the conscience is not to +one's own guilt alone, but to the guilt of the +world, or, 'hereditary guilt.'...</p> + +<p>"This light is suspended by a chain, wrapt +around the wrist of the figure, showing that +the light which reveals sin to the sinner appears +also to chain the hand of Christ. The light +which proceeds from the head of the figure--is +that of the hope of salvation; it springs +from the crown of thorns, and, though itself +sad, subdued and full of softness, is yet so +powerful, that it entirely melts into the glow +of it the forms of the leaves and boughs which +it crosses, showing that every earthly object +must be hidden by this light, where its sphere +extends."</p> + +<p>If you will study every detail of this reproduction, +finding all the objects--the apple, the +rusty bolts--noting how the full risen moon +has formed a natural nimbus for the sacred +head, and then re-read what Ruskin has +said, you will discover the rarest truths in +Holman Hunt's picture. +<a name="177"></a> +The several pictures which he painted, but +which cannot now be found are: "Hark!" +which was first exhibited in the Royal Academy; +"Scene from Woodstock," "The Eve of St. +Agnes," "Jerusalem by Moonlight," "The +King of Hearts," "Moonlight at Salerno," +"Interior of the Mosque of Omar," "The +Pathless Water," "Winter," "Afternoon," +"Sussex Downs," "Penzance," "The Archipelago," +"Will-o'-the-Wisp," "Ivybridge," +"The Foal of an Ass," "Road over the Downs," +"The Haunt of the Gazelle," "'Oh, Pearl,' +Quoth I," "Miss Flamborough," "The School-girl's +Hymn." Portraits: Mr. Martineau; +Mr. J. B. Brice. Small sketch of the "Scapegoat," +"Sunset on the Sea," "Morning Prayer," +"Bianca," "Past and Present," and "Dead +Mallard."</p> + +<p>Should you ever find one of these pictures +bearing the initials P. R. B. or those of Holman +Hunt, you will have made an interesting +discovery and should make it known to others.</p> + +<p><a name="178"></a></p> +<h1>XXIV</h1> + +<h1>GEORGE INNESS</h1> + +<center><i>American</i><br> +1825-1897<br> +<i>Pupil of Regis Gignoux</i></center> + +<p>George Inness was destined to keep a +grocery store as his father had kept +one before him, and had grown rich in it. +When George was a young man he was +given a grocery store in Newark, New Jersey, +a very small store indeed, and it is not surprising +that the young man preferred art to +butter and eggs. The Inness family had +just moved from Newburg, probably the elder +Innes seeking in Newark a good location for +his son's beginning.</p> + +<p>The first art-work Inness did was engraving; +as he had been apprenticed to that business, +but afterward he studied with Gignoux, a +pupil of Delaroche.</p> + +<p>At that time there was what is known as +the Hudson River School. Its ideas were +set and formal, and not very inspiring, aside +from the subjects treated. Church was then +a young man like Inness, and he was studying +in the Hudson River School, but the young +grocer struck out a line for himself.</p> + +<p>He was forty years old before he got to Paris, +<a name="179"></a> +but once there, he turned to the men at Barbizon--Rousseau, +Millet, Corot, and the rest--for +inspiration, and began to do beautiful things +indeed. Rousseau became his friend, and the +art of Inness grew large and rich through such +influences.</p> + +<p>Inness had inherited much religious feeling +from his Scotch ancestors, and all his work +was conscientious, very carefully done.</p> + +<p>When Inness returned from Paris he was +not yet well known. He went to Montclair, +New Jersey, to live and it was there that he +did his best work. Finally, after he was fifty +years old, he became known as a truly splendid +painter. He loved best to paint quiet scenes +of morning, evening sunset, and the like. His +pictures began to gain value, and one that he +had sold for three hundred dollars jumped in +price to ten thousand and more. His work +is not equally good, because his moods greatly +influenced him.</p> + +<center>PLATE--BERKSHIRE HILLS</center> + +<p>This picture in the George A. Hearn collection +is full of the sense of restfulness that the +works of this artist always convey. The trees +are as motionless as the distant hills, and if +the oxen are moving at all it is but slowly.</p> + +<p>Some other Inness paintings are the "Georgia +Pines," "Sunset on the Passaic," "The Wood +Gatherers" and "After a Summer Shower."</p> + +<p><a name="180"></a></p> +<h1>XXV</h1> + +<h1>SIR EDWIN HENRY LANDSEER</h1> + +<center><i>English School</i><br> +1802-1873<br> +<i>Pupil of his father, John Landseer</i></center> + +<p> +It is pleasant to speak of one artist whose +good work began in the companionship +of his father; the case of Edwin Landseer is +most unusual.</p> + +<p>His father was a skilful engraver who loved +art, and encouraged the cultivation of it in his +son, as other fathers of painters encouraged +them to become priests or haberdashers or +bakers, as the case might be. Little Landseer's +beginning has been described by his +father as he and a friend stood looking upon +one of the scenes of his childhood:</p> + +<p>"These two fields were Edwin's first studio. +Many a time have I lifted him over this very +stile. I then lived in Foley Street, and nearly +all the way between Marylebone and Hampstead +was open fields. It was a favourite walk +with my boys; and one day when I had +accompanied them, Edwin stopped by this +stile to admire some sheep and cows which +were quietly grazing. At his request I lifted +him over, and finding a scrap of paper and a +pencil in my pocket, I made him sketch the +<a name="181"></a> +cow. He was very young indeed, then--not +more than six or seven years old.</p> + +<p>"After this we came on several occasions, +and as he grew older this was one of his favourite +spots for sketching. He would start off alone, +or with John (Thomas?) or Charles, and remain +till I fetched him in the afternoon. I would +then criticise his work, and make him correct +defects before we left the spot. Sometimes +he would sketch in one field, sometimes in the +other, but generally in the one beyond the old +oak we see there, as it was more pleasant and +sunny."</p> + +<p>All the Landseer men were gifted, and the +mother was the beautiful woman whom Reynolds +painted as a gleaner, carrying a bundle +of wheat upon her head.</p> + +<p>There were seven little Landseers, the oldest +of them being Thomas, the famous engraver, +whose reproduction of his brother's works +will preserve them to us always, even after +the originals are gone. The first of Edwin's +drawings which seemed to his family worthy +of publishing was a great St. Bernard dog, +such a wonderful performance for a little +fellow of thirteen that Thomas engraved it and +distributed it all over England. Little Edwin +had seen this beautiful dog one day in the +streets of London in a servant's charge, and he +was so delighted with its beauty, that he +followed the two home and asked the dog's +owner if he might sketch him. The St. +<a name="182"></a> +Bernard was six feet four inches long "and +at the middle of his back, stood two feet seven +inches in height." A great critic said that +this drawing was one of the very finest that +any master of art had ever made, though it was +done by a little child of thirteen years and it is +also said that Landseer himself never did +anything better than that little-boy work. +A live dog who was let into the room with it--as +critic, maybe--proved to be the most +flattering of such, because he bristled instantly +for a fight.</p> + +<p>While the boy was still thirteen--which +seems to have been a magic and not a tragic +number to him--he exhibited pictures in the +Royal Academy. These were a mule, and a +dog with a puppy. In the stories of "Famous +Artists" we are told that he was a fine, manly +little chap with light curly hair and very well +behaved. When he became a student of the +Academy the keeper, Fuseli, used to look about +among the students and cry: "Where is my +little dog boy?" if Landseer was not in his +place. The little chap's favourite dog was his +own Brutus, which he painted lying at full +length; and though the picture was small, it +sold for seventy guineas. This means an +earning capacity indeed, for a small boy.</p> + +<p>When he was but seven years old he had +made pictures of lions and tigers, each with +a different expression from the other and each +with a character of its own. Critics spoke +<a name="183"></a> +specially of the tiger's whiskers as "admirable +in the rendering of foreshortened curves." +Tigers' whiskers were thought to be most +difficult things to make, but in Landseer's +pictures, they were as "natural as life." The +great success of the artist's animal pictures +was that he made them seem to have human +intelligence, and it was also said that if one +only saw the dog's collar, as Landseer painted +it, he would know it to be the work of a great +artist, that a great dog-picture must be attached +to it.</p> + +<p>At least one of his pictures had a remarkable +history. He had been commissioned by the +Hon. H. Pierrpont to paint a "white horse in +a stable." After the painting was ready for +delivery it disappeared, and for twenty-four +years it could not be found. At last it was +discovered in a hay-loft! It had been stolen +by a servant and hidden there. In spite of +the long years that had passed, Landseer sent +it at once to the man for whom it had been +made, with the message that he had not +retouched it nor changed it in the least, +"because," said he, "I thought it better not +to mingle the style of my youth with that of +my old age."</p> + +<p>One of Landseer's early advisers had told +him he must dissect animals to get the proper +effects in painting them, as it was necessary +for him to understand their construction. +So, one time, when a famous old lion died in the +<a name="184"></a> +Exeter Exchange menagerie Landseer got its +body and dissected it, and immediately afterward +he painted three great lion pictures: +"The Lion Disturbed at His Repast," "A Lion +Enjoying His Repast," and "A Prowling Lion."</p> + +<p>Sir Walter Scott became so enchanted with +Landseer's pictures that the great novelist +came to London to take the young artist to his +home at Abbotsford. "His dogs are the most +magnificent things I ever saw," said Scott, +"leaping and bounding and grinning all over +the canvas."</p> + +<p>Landseer lived in the centre of London +till he was more than thirty years old, and then, +looking for more quiet and space he bought a +very small house and garden at No. 1, St. John's +Wood. There was not much room in the house +but it had a stable attached which made a fine +studio, and there Landseer lived with a sister +of his, for nearly fifty years. When he first +wished to rent the house, the landlord asked +him a hundred pounds premium which Landseer +felt that he could not pay and he was +about to give it up, when a friend declared +that if the matter of money was all that +prevented him, he was to rent it immediately, +and he could repay him as he chose. Landseer +then took the house, his friend paying down the +premium, and Landseer returned the money +twenty-pounds at a time, till all the debt was +paid.</p> + +<p>Landseer made this a famous and hospitable +<a name="185"></a> +house, and it is said that more great people +gathered under his roof than had ever gathered +about any other artist with the exception of +Sir Joshua Reynolds. That was the house in +which Landseer's loving old father spent his +last days and finally died. A story is told of +the witty D'Orsay, who would call out at the +door, when he went to visit the artist: "Landseer, +keep de dogs off me, I want to come in +and some of dem will bite me--and dat fellow +in de corner is growling furiously."</p> + +<p>On one of his several visits to Abbotsford, +where he went many times after his first invitation, +to enjoy Scott's delightful hospitality, +he painted a famous dog of Sir Walter's called +Maida, which died six weeks afterward.</p> + +<p>There are several such stories about dogs +who died rather tragically and were also +painted by Landseer. The two King Charles +spaniels which he painted both died soon +after sitting to the great painter. They had +been pets of Mr. Vernon, who commissioned +the painting, and the white Blenheim spaniel +fell from a table and was killed, while the King +Charles fell through the railings of a staircase +and was picked up dead. The great bloodhound, +Countess, belonging to Mr. Bell who +gave her picture to the Academy, was watching +for her master's return one dark night and when +she heard the wheels of his carriage, then his +voice, she leaped from the balcony, but missed +her footing and fell nearly dead at Mr. Bell's +<a name="186"></a> +feet. That gentleman loved the dog so much +that he was distracted, and taking her into his +gig, knowing that she must die, he raced in to +London again that same night, and rousing +Sir Edwin, begged him to paint the dog before +it was too late. Then and there was the sketch +of the dying animal made.</p> + +<p>Sir Edwin Landseer was the most versatile +and entertaining of artists. He was a wit, and +could also perform all sorts of sleight of hand +tricks, besides being so quick with his pencil +that his doings seemed miraculous. One +evening, during a conversation with many +friends, someone declared that in point of +time Sir Edwin could do a record-sketch. +One young woman spoke up and said: "There +is one thing that even he cannot do--he cannot +make two different pictures at the same time."</p> + +<p>"Think not?" cried Sir Edwin. "Let us +see!" Gaily taking two pencils, he rapidly +drew a stag's head with one hand and a horse's +head with the other.</p> + +<p>Landseer became the guest of royalty, a +favourite of Queen Victoria, whose dog Dash +was one of the many famous dogs painted by +him. Dash was the favourite spaniel of the +Duchess of Kent, Victoria's mother; and the +Queen's biographer says that she too loved +him very much. On Coronation Day she had +been away from him longer than usual, and +when the great state coach rolled up to the +palace steps she could hear Dash barking for +<a name="187"></a> +her in the hall. "Oh," she exclaimed, "there's +Dash," and throwing aside the ball and sceptre +which she carried, she hurried to change her +fine robes, in order to wash the dog. This is +a very homelike and picturesque story, but +it is possibly not true. Doubtless the little +Queen heard the dog bark--and was glad to +see him.</p> + +<p>At Windsor Landseer painted another royal +dog, Islay, the pet terrier of Victoria; also +Dandie Dinmont, belonging to the Princess +Alice; then Eos, who was Prince Albert's--King +Edward's--dog. All the last years +of Sir Edwin Landseer' life, the royal family +were his devoted and comforting friends. The +painter suffered much and during his visits +to Balmoral he wrote to his sister how the +Queen used to go several times a day to his +room, to look after his comfort and to inquire +about his condition. He wrote:</p> + +<p>"The Queen kindly commands me to get +well here. She has to-day been twice to my +room to show additions recently added to her +already rich collection of photographs. Why, +I know not, but since I have been in the High +lands I have for the first time felt wretchedly +weak, without appetite. The easterly winds, +and now again the unceasing cold rain, may +possibly account for my condition, but I can't +get out. Drawing tires me; however, I have +done a little better to-day. The doctor residing +in the castle has taken me in hand, and gives +<a name="188"></a> +me leave to dine to-day with the Queen and +the rest of the royal family.... Flogging +would be mild compared with my sufferings. +No sleep, fearful cramp at night, accompanied +by a feeling of faintness and distressful +feebleness."</p> + +<p>When he was well, he was gay and cheerful; +and Dickens, Thackeray, and many other noted +men were his friends. We are told that above +all things. Sir Edwin was a great mimic and +that one night at dinner he threw everybody +into fits of laughter by imitating his friend the +sculptor Sir Francis Chantry. It was at the +sculptor's table, where a large party was +assembled. Chantry called Sir Edwin's attention, +when the cloth was removed, to the +reflection of light in the highly polished table.</p> + +<p>"Come here and sit in my place," said +Chantry, "and see the perspective you can +get." Then he went and stood by the fire, +while Landseer sat in his place. Seated then +in Chantry's chair, Landseer called out in +perfect imitation of his host: "Come, young +man, you think yourself ornamental; now +make yourself useful, and ring the bell." +Chantry did so, and when the butler came in +he was confused and amazed to hear his +master's voice from where Landseer sat in +Chantry's place at the table. The voice of +his master from the head of the table ordered +claret, while his master really stood before +the fire with his hands under his coat-tails.</p> + +<p><a name="189"></a> +We are told that Landseer stood his pictures +on their heads, or upon one corner or looked +at them from between his legs, any way, every +way, to get a complete view of them from all +quarters. He went to bed very late and got +up very late, but in the mornings, while lying +in bed he mostly thought out the subjects of +his pictures.</p> + +<p>He was not much of a sportsman, preferring +to paint animals rather than to kill them, +and one day when hunting, he saw a fine stag +before him. Instead of firing at it, he thrust +his gun into a gillie's hands, crying: "Hold +that! hold that!" and whipping out his pencil +and pad he began to sketch the stag. Whereupon +the gillies were disgusted that he should +miss so fine a shot, and they said something +to each other in Gaelic, which Sir Edwin must +have understood, for he became very angry.</p> + +<p>"It was a pity," wrote one who knew all +his qualities, "that Landseer, who might have +done so much for the good of the animal kind, +never wrote on the subject of their treatment. +He had a strong feeling against the way some +dogs are tied up, only allowed their freedom +now and then. He used to say a man would +fare better tied up than a dog, because the +former can take his coat off, but a dog lives +in his forever. He declared a tied-up dog, +without daily exercise, goes mad, or dies, +in three years."</p> + +<p>He had a wonderful power over dogs, and +<a name="190"></a> +he told one lady it was because he had "peeped +into their hearts." A great mastiff rushed +delightedly upon him one day and someone +remarked how the dog loved him. "I never +saw the dog before in my life," the artist said.</p> + +<p>While teaching some horses tricks for Astley's, +he showed his friends some sugar in his hand +and said: "Here is my whip." His studio +was full of pets, and one dog used as a model +used to bring the master's hat and lay it at his +feet when he got tired of posing.</p> + +<p>This charming man suffered a great deal +before his death, and had dreadful fits of +depression. During one of these he wrote: +"I have got trouble enough; ten or twelve +pictures about which I am tortured, and a +large national monument to complete." That +monument was the one in Trafalgar Square, +for which he designed the lions at the base. +"If I am bothered about anything and everything, +no matter what, I know my head will +not stand it much longer." Later he wrote: +"My health (or rather condition), is a mystery +beyond human intelligence. I sleep seven +hours, and awake tired and jaded, and do not +rally till after luncheon. J. L. came down +yesterday and did her best to cheer me... +I return to my own home in spite of kind +invitations from Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone to +meet Princess Louise at breakfast." Of the +many anecdotes told of this great man, his +introduction to the King of Portugal furnishes +<a name="191"></a> +the most amusing. "I am delighted to make +your acquaintance," the King said, "I am +so fond of beasts."</p> + +<p>Before he died he had made a large fortune +from his work, and during his illness he was +tended most lovingly by his friends and sister. +One day, walking in his garden, much depressed, +he said sadly: "I shall never see the green +leaves again," but he did live through other +seasons. He wished to die in his studio, and +at one time when he was much distracted the +Queen wrote him not to fear, but to trust those +who were doing all they could for him, that her +confidence in his physicians and nurses was +complete. At last with brother, sister, friends +and fortune about him the great animal +painter died, and on October 11, 1873, and +was buried with great honours in St. Paul's +Cathedral.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE OLD SHEPHERD'S CHIEF MOURNER</center> + +<p>Of all the dogs Landseer loved to paint, the +sheep collie has the most character; and here +he shows us one expressing in every line of +his face and form the most profound grief. +The Glengarry bonnet on the floor beside the +shepherd's staff, the spectacles lying on the +Bible, the ram's horn, the vacant chair, the +black and white shawl known as a "Shepherd's +plaid"--all these things have failed to comfort +this humble follower. We can imagine him, +<a name="192"></a> +not bounding ahead with a joyous bark, but +walking staidly behind the coffin when it is +borne away and laying himself down upon his +master's grave, perhaps to die of starvation, +as some of his kind have been known to do. +The painting is one of the Sheepshanks Collection +in the South Kensington Museum.</p> + +<p>Among Landseer's other famous dog pictures +are "Low Life and High Life," "Dignity +and Impudence" and "The Sleeping Bloodhound," +all in the National Gallery. +<a name="193"></a></p> +<h1>XXVI</h1> + +<h1>CLAUDE LORRAIN (GELLEE)</h1> + +<center><i>Classical French School</i><br> +1600-1689<br> +<i>Pupil of Godfrey Wals</i></center> + +<p>Of all the contrasts between the early +and later lives of great artists, Claude +Lorrain gives us the most complete.</p> + +<p>He was born to make pastry. His family +may have been all pastry cooks, because people +of Lorrain were famous for that work; anyway +as a little chap he was apprenticed to one. His +parents were poor, lived in the Duchy of +Lorrain and from that political division the +Artist was named.</p> + +<p>The town in which he was born was +Chamagne, and his real name was Gellée. As +a pastry cook's apprentice he served his time, +and then, without any thought of becoming +anything else in the world, he set off with +several other pastry cooks to go to Rome, +where their talents were to be well rewarded.</p> + +<p>But how strangely things fall out! In +Rome he was engaged to make tarts for +Agostine Tassi, a landscape painter. His work +was not simply to furnish his master with +desserts, but to do general housekeeping, and +it fell to his lot to clean Tassi's paint brushes. +<a name="194"></a> +So far as we know, this was the first introduction +of Claude Lorrain to art other than culinary.</p> + +<p>From cleaning brushes it was but a step +to trying to use them upon canvas, and Tassi +being a good-natured man, began to give +Lorrain instruction, till the pastry cook became +his master's assistant in the studio. This led +to a larger and larger life for the young Frenchman, +and he copied great masters, did original +things, and finally in his twenty-fifth year +returned to France a full-fledged artist. He +remained there two years, and then went back +to Italy, where he lived till he died. The +visit to France turned out fortunately because +on his way back he fell in with one of the original +twelve members of the French Academy, +Charles Errard, who became the first director +of the Academy in Rome. A warm friendship +sprang up between the men, and Errard was +very helpful to the young artist.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, Lorrain did not gain much +fame till about his fortieth year, when he was +noticed by Cardinal Bentivoglio, and was given +certain commissions by him. He grew in +Bentivoglio's favour so much that the Cardinal +introduced him to the pope. The Catholic +Church set the fashions in art, politics, and +history of all sorts at that time, so that Lorrain +could not have had better luck than to become +its favourite. The pope was Urban VIII., +whose main business was to hold the power of +the Church and make it stronger if he could, +<a name="195"></a> +so that he was continually building fortresses +and other fortifications, and he had use for +artists and decorators. Lorrain's fame outlasted +the life of Urban VIII., and he +became a favourite in turn with each of the +three succeeding popes. All this time he +was doing fine work in Italy and for Italy, +besides receiving orders for pictures from +France, Holland, Germany, Spain, and England, +for his fame had reached throughout the world.</p> + +<p>Besides leaving many paintings behind him +when he died, he left half a hundred etchings; +also a more precise record of his work than most +artists have left. He executed two hundred +sketches in pen or pencil, washed in with brown +or India ink, the high lights being brought +out with touches of white. On the backs of +them the artist noted the date on which the +sketch was developed into a picture, and for +whom the latter was intended. The story is +that his popularity produced many imitators, +and that he adopted this means to establish +the identity of his own work and distinguish +it from the many copies made.</p> + +<p>These sketches were collected in a volume +by Lorrain and called "Liber Veritatis," and +for more than a hundred years the Dukes of +Westminster have owned this.</p> + +<center>PLATE--ACIS AND GALATEA</center> + +<p>This picture in the Dresden Gallery is a scene +from the mythical story of a goddess who +<a name="196"></a> +fell in love with the youthful son of a faun and +a naiad. Thus she excited the jealous fury +of the cyclops, Polythemus, who is seen in the +picture herding his flock of sheep upon the +high cliff at the right. Soon he will rise and +hurl a rock upon Acis, crushing the life out of +him, so that there will be nothing left for +Galatea to do but to turn him into the River +Acis, but meanwhile the lovers are unconscious +and happy. Venus is reposing near them on the +waves and Cupid is closer still, while the sea +in the background seems to be stirred with a +fresh morning breeze.</p> + +<p>Some of the famous Lorrains in the Louvre +are: "Seaport at Sunset," "Cleopatra Landing +at Tarsus," and "The Village Festival." +<a name="197"></a></p> +<h1>XXVII</h1> + +<h1>MASACCIO (TOMMASO GUIDI)</h1> + +<center>(Pronounced Tome-mah'so Mah'sahch'cheeo)<br> +<i>Florentine School</i><br> +1401-1428<br> +<i>Pupil of Ghibertio, Donatello, and Brunellesco</i></center> + +<p>This artist, who lived and died within the +century that witnessed the discovery +of America, was famous for more than his +painting. He was the original inventor who +first learned and taught the mixing of colours +with oils, thus making the peculiar "distemper" +unnecessary.</p> + +<p>The story of Italian artists includes a history +of their names, for the Italians seem to have had +most remarkable reasons for naming children. +For example, this artist, Masaccio, was born +on St. Thomas's day, hence, his name of +Tommaso. Presently, for short, or for love, +he was called Maso, and to cap all, being a +careless lad, his friends added the derogatory +"accio," and there we have the artist completely +named. He owed nothing of this to his father, +who was plain, or ornamentally, Ser Giovanni +di Simone Guidi, of Castello San Giovanni, +in the Valdamo.</p> + +<p>As a very little boy, it was plain to be seen +that slovenly Thomas was going to be a great +<a name="198"></a> +artist, and no time was lost in putting him to +work with the best of masters.</p> + +<p>He was a veritable inventive genius. Until +his time difficulties in drawing had been overcome +mostly by ignoring them. Since no artist +had been able to draw a foreshortened foot, +it had been the fashion in art to paint people +standing upon their tiptoes, to make it possible +for an artist to paint the foot. The enterprising +Thomas came along and he decided +that feet must be painted both flat and crossed, +on tiptoe or otherwise; in short he did not +mean to lose by a foot.</p> + +<p>He worked at this problem day and night, +till at last the naturally poised foot came +into existence for the artist. Never after +Masaccio's time did an artist paint the foot +stretched upon the toes. Moreover, until +his time flesh had never been painted of a +remotely natural colour, so Masaccio set about +combining colours till he made one that had +the tint of real flesh. Thus he was the first to +overcome the difficulties of drawing and the +first to discover a mixture that would not leave +a glazed, hard, unnatural appearance and be +likely to crack and destroy the finest effort of +an artist.</p> + +<p>He worked during his youth in Pisa, where +the "leaning tower" stands; then he worked +in Florence, finally in Rome, but those early +pictures are long since gone. It was a century +of adventure and discovery as well as of art, +<a name="199"></a> +and with so much change, so many wars and +rumours of wars, many great art works were lost. +Besides, the horrible plague swept Italy east, +west, north, and south. Who was to concern +himself with saving works of art, when human +life was going out wholesale all over the land?</p> + +<p>Masaccio was certainly very poor most of his +life. He lived with his mother and his +brother Giovanni, an artist like himself, but not +nearly so brilliant. Masaccio could not spend +his life in painting but had to eke out the family +fortunes by keeping a little shop near the old +Badia, and being pestered day and night by +his creditors he was forced again and again to go +to the pawn shop.</p> + +<p>Somewhere about 1422, careless Thomas +painted his greatest picture which was doomed +to destruction too early for us to know much +about it; but it was named "San Paolo" and +it was painted in the bell-room of the Church +of the Carmine in Florence. The figure for +his model was an illustrious personage, Bartoli +d'Angiolini, who had held many honourable +offices in Florence for many years. A critic +and friend of artists tells us that the portrait +was so great it lacked only the power of speech.</p> + +<p>In this picture Masaccio made his first great +triumph in the foreshortening of feet.</p> + +<p>He undertook to celebrate the consecration +Of the Church of the Carmine, and for this he +made many frescoes, among which was a correct +painting of the procession as it entered from +<a name="200"></a> +the cloisters of the church. "Among the +citizens who followed in its wake, portraits +are introduced of Brunellesco, Donatello, +Masolino, Felice Brancacci (the founder of the +chapel) Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, and others, +including the porter of the convent with the +key of the door in his hand."</p> + +<p>This work was thought to be very wonderful +because the figures grew smaller in the distance, +thereby giving "perspective" for the first time. +Imagine how crude a thing was painting in the +day of careless Thomas.</p> + +<p>That fresco is long since gone, but drawings +of it still exist which tell us something of the +people of Christopher Columbus's day--previous +to their appearance, and their conditions.</p> + +<p>After Masaccio had finished the procession +he went back to his painting of the chapel and +in the end covered three of its four walls with +his works. Many of those paintings are scenes +from the life of St. Peter, and several were +worked at by other artists than Masaccio.</p> + +<p>Masaccio was greater than Raphael, greater +than Michael Angelo in so far as he pointed the +way that they were to go, having solved for them +all the problems that had kept artists from +being great before him. Sir Joshua Reynolds +says that "he appeared to be the first who +discovered the path that leads to every +excellence to which the art afterward arrived; +and may therefore be justly considered one of +the great fathers of modern art."</p> + +<p><a name="201"></a> +The artist lived but a little time, and was +most likely poisoned. Nobody knows, but it is +said that other painters were so wildly jealous of +his original genius that they wished him out of +the way, and his death was at least mysterious. +He drew very rapidly and let the details go, +caring only to represent motion and action. +Because he painted so many portraits into his +pictures there was great life and animation +in them, and people said of him that he painted +not only the body but the soul.</p> + +<center>PLATE--ARTIST'S PORTRAIT [Footnote: +Many artists have left us portraits of themselves, painted, no doubt, +with the aid of a mirror, in a group or alone. This one of Masaccio in +the Naples Museum, shows him to have been a picturesque model.]</center> + +<p>Some of his known pictures are the frescoes +in the church of St. Clemente in Rome; the +frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel in the Church +of the Carmine, "St. Peter Baptising" and the +"Madonna and Child, with St. Anne," which is +in the Accademia at Florence.</p> + +<p> +<a name="202"></a></p> +<h1>XXVIII</h1> + +<h1>JEAN LOUIS ERNEST MEISSONIER</h1> + +<center>(Pronounced May-sohn-yay)<br> +<i>French School</i><br> +1815-1891<br> +<i>Pupil of Léon Cogniet</i></center> + +<p>This artist was born at Lyons. His +father was a salesman and an art-training +seemed impossible for the young man +because the Meissoniers were poor people. +Nevertheless, he was so persevering that while +still a young man he got to Paris and began +to paint in the Louvre. He was but nineteen +at that time, and his fate seemed so hard and +bitter that later in life he refused to talk of +those days.</p> + +<p>He sat for many days in the Louvre, by +Daubigny's side, painting pictures for which +we are told he received a dollar a yard. We +can think of nothing more discouraging to a +genius than having to paint by the yard. It +is said that his poverty permitted him to +sleep only every other night, because he must +work unceasingly, and someone declares that he +lived at one time on ten cents a week. This +is a frightful picture of poverty and distress.</p> + +<p>Meissonier's first paying enterprise was the +painting of bon-bon boxes and the decorating +<a name="203"></a> +of fans, and he tried to sell illustrations for +children's stories, but for these he found no +market. A brilliant compiler of Meissonier's +life has written that "his first illustrations in +some unknown journal were scenes from the +life of 'The Old Bachelor.' In the first +picture he is represented making his toilet +before the mirror, his wig spread out on the +table; in the second, dining with two friends; +in the third, on his death-bed, surrounded by +greedy relations and in the fifth, the servants +ransacking the death chamber for the property." +This was very likely a vision of his own possible +fate, for Meissonier must have been at that +time a lonely and unhappy man.</p> + +<p>There are many stories of his first exhibited +work, which Caffin declares was the "Visit to +the Burgomaster," but Mrs. Bolton, who is +almost always correct in her statements, tells +us that it was called "The Visitor," and that it +sold for twenty dollars. At the end of a six +years struggle in Paris, his pictures were +selling for no more.</p> + +<p>Until this artist's time people had been +used only to great canvases, and had grown +to look for fine work, only in much space, but +here was an artist who could paint exquisitely +a whole interior on a space said to be no "larger +than his thumb nail." His work was called +"microscopic," which meant that he gave +great attention to details, painting very slowly.</p> + +<p>During the Italian war of 1859, and in the +<a name="204"></a> +German war of 1870, this wonderful artist was +on the staff of Napoleon III. During the siege +of Paris he held the rank of colonel, and he +lost no chance to learn details of battles which +he might use later, in making great pictures. +Thus he gained the knowledge and inspiration +to paint his picture "Friedland," which +was bought by A. T. Stewart and is now in the +Metropolitan Museum. He, himself, wrote of +that picture: "I did not intend to paint a +battle--I wanted to paint Napoleon at the +zenith of his glory; I wanted to paint the love, +the adoration of the soldiers for the great +captain in whom they had faith, and for whom +they were ready to die.... It seemed +to me I did not have colours sufficiently dazzling. +No shade should be on the imperial +face.... The battle already commenced, +was necessary to add to the enthusiasm of the +soldiers, and make the subject stand forth, but +not to diminish it by saddening details. All +such shadows I have avoided, and presented +nothing but a dismounted cannon, and some +growing wheat which should never ripen.</p> + +<p>"This was enough.</p> + +<p>"The men and the Emperor are in the presence +of each other. The soldiers cry to him that +they are his, and the impressive chief, whose +imperial will directs the masses that move +around, salutes his devoted army. He and +they plainly comprehend each other and +absolute confidence is expressed in every face."</p> + +<p><a name="205"></a> +This great work was sold at auction for +$66,000 and given to the Metropolitan Museum.</p> + +<p>It is said that when he painted the "Retreat +from Russia," Meissonier obtained the coat +which Napoleon had worn at the time, and had +it copied, "crease for crease and button for +button." He painted the picture mostly out +of doors in midwinter when the ground was +covered with snow, and he writes: "Sometimes +I sat at my easel for five or six hours together, +endeavouring to seize the exact aspect of the +winter atmosphere. My servant placed a +hot foot-stove under my feet, which he renewed +from time to time, but I used to get half-frozen +and terribly tired."</p> + +<p>So attentive was he to truthfulness in detail +that he had a wooden horse made in imitation +of the white charger of the Emperor; and +seating himself on this, he studied his own +figure in a mirror.</p> + +<p>At last this conscientious man was made an +officer of the Legion of Honour, having already +become President of the Academy. Edmund +About writes that "to cover M. Meissonier's +pictures with gold pieces simply would be to +buy them for nothing; and the practice has +now been established of covering them with +bank-notes."</p> + +<p>Meissonier seldom painted the figure of a +woman in his pictures, but all of his subjects +were wholesome and fine.</p> + +<p>One time an admirer said to him "I envy +<a name="206"></a> +you; you can afford to own as many Meissonier +pictures as you please!"</p> + +<p>"Oh no, I can't," the distinguished artist +replied. "That would ruin me. They are a +good deal too dear for me."</p> + +<p>In his maturity he became very rich, and +his homes were dreams of beauty, filled with +rare possessions such as bridles of black leather +once owned by Murat, rare silver designed by +the artist himself, great pictures, and flowers +of the rarest description besides valuable dogs +and horses. Yet it was said that "this man +who lives in a palace is as moderate as a +soldier on the march. This artist, whose +canvases are valued by the half-million, is as +generous as a nabob. He will give to a charity +sale a picture worth the price of a house. +Praised as he is by all he has less conceit in his +nature than a wholesale painter."</p> + +<p>On the 31st of January in his country house +at Poissy, this great man, whose life reads +like a romance, died, after a short illness. His +funeral services were held in the Madeleine, +and he was buried at Poissy, near Versailles, +a great military procession following him to +the grave.</p> + +<center>PLATE--RETREAT FROM MOSCOW</center> + +<p>In the painting of this picture we have +already told how every detail was mastered +by actual experience of most of them. Meissonier +<a name="207"></a> +made dozens of studies for it--"a horse's +head, an uplifted leg, cuirasses, helmets, +models of horses in red wax, etc. He also +prepared a miniature landscape, strewn with +white powder resembling snow, with models +of heavy wheels running through it, that he +might study the furrow made in that terrible +march home from burning Moscow. All this +work--hard, patient, exacting work."</p> + +<p>Some of his other pictures are "The Emperor +at Solferino," "Moreau and His Staff before +Hohenlinden," "A Reading at Diderot's" and +the "Chess Players."</p> + +<p><a name="208"></a></p> +<h1>XXIX</h1> + +<h1>JEAN FRANÇOIS MILLET</h1> + +<center><i>Fontainebleau-Barbizon School</i><br> +1814-1875<br> +<i>Pupil of Delaroche</i></center> + +<p>Two great artists painted peasants and +little else. One was the artist of whom +we shall speak, and the other was Jules Breton. +One was realistic, the other idealistic. Both +did wonderful work, but Millet painted the +peasant, worn, patient steadfast, overwhelmed +with toil; Breton, a peasant full of energy, +grace, vitality, and joy.</p> + +<p>Millet painted peasants as he knew them, +and hardly any one could have known them +better, for he was himself peasant-born. His +youth was hard, and the scenes of his childhood +were such as in after life he became famous by +painting. Millet lived in the department of +Manche, in the village of Gruchy, near Cherbourg. +Manche juts into the sea, at the +English Channel, and whichever way Millet +looked he must have seen the sea. His old +grandmother looked after the household affairs, +while his father and mother worked in the +fields and Millet must have seen them hundreds +of times, standing at evening, with bowed +heads, listening to the Angelus bell. He +<a name="209"></a> +toiled, too, as did other lads in his position. +His grandmother was a religious old woman, +and nearly all the pictures he ever saw in his +boyhood were those in the Bible, which he +copied again and again, drawing them upon the +stone walls in white chalk.</p> + +<p>The old grandmother watched him, never +doubting that her boy would become an artist. +It was she who had named him--François, +after her favourite saint, Francis, and it was +she, who, beside the evening fire, would tell him +legends of St. Francis. It was she alone who +had time and strength left, after the day's +work, to teach him the little he learned as a boy +and to fix in his mind pictures of home. His +father and mother were worn, like pack-horses, +after their day in the fields. The mother very +likely had to hitch herself up with the donkey, +or the big dog, after the fashion of these people, +as she helped draw loads about the field. +Who can look for Breton's ideal stage peasants +from Millet who knew the truth as he saw it +every day?</p> + +<p>Many years after his life in the Gruchy +home, Millet painted the portrait of the grandmother +whom he had loved so much that he +cried out: "I wish to paint her soul!" No one +could desire a better reward than such a +tribute.</p> + +<p>Millet had an uncle who was a priest and he +did what he could to give the boy a start in +learning. He taught him to read Virgil and +<a name="210"></a> +the Latin Testament; and all his life those +two books were Millet's favourites. Besides +drawing pictures on the walls of his home, +he drew them on his sabots. Pity some one +did not preserve those old wooden shoes! +He did his share of the farm work, doing his +drawing on rainy days.</p> + +<p>When he was about eighteen years old, +coming from mass one day, he was impressed +with the figure of an old man going along the +road, and taking some charcoal from his +pocket he drew the picture of him on a stone +wall. The villagers passing, at once knew the +likeness; they were pleased and told Millet so. +Old Millet, the father, also was delighted for he, +too, had wished to be an artist, but fate had +been against him. Seeing the wonderful things +his son could do, he decided that he should +become what he himself had wished to be, +and that he should go to Cherbourg to study.</p> + +<p>François set off with his father, carrying a +lot of sketches to show, and upon telling the +master in Cherbourg what he wanted and +showing the sketches, he was encouraged to +stay and begin study in earnest. So back the +old father went, with the news to the mother +and grandmother and the priest uncle, that +François had begun his career. He stayed in +Cherbourg studying till his father died, +when he thought it right to go home and do the +work his father had always done. He returned, +but the women-folk would not agree to him +<a name="211"></a> +staying. "You go back at once," said the +grandmother, "and stick to your art. We +shall manage the farm." She sewed up in his +belt all the money she had saved, and started +him off again, for he had then been studying +only two months. Now he remained till he +was twenty-three, a fine, strapping, broad-shouldered +country fellow. He had long fair +hair and piercing dark blue eyes. All the time +he was with Delaroche he was dissatisfied with +his work--and with his master's, which +seemed to Millet artificial, untrue. He knew +nothing of the classical figures the master +painted and wished him to paint, for his heart +and mind were back in Gruchy among the +scenes that bore a meaning for him. He wished +to study elsewhere, and by this time he had +done so well that one of the artists with whom +he had studied went to the mayor of Millet's +home town, and begged him to furnish through +the town-council money enough to send Millet +to Paris. This was done, and Millet began to +hope.</p> + +<p>He was very shy and afraid of seeming +awkward and out of place. The night he got +to Paris was snowy, full of confusion and +strange things to him, and an awful loneliness +overwhelmed him. The next morning he set +out to find the Louvre, but would not ask his +way for fear of seeming absurd to some one, +so that he rambled about alone, looking for the +great gallery till he found it unaided. He +<a name="212"></a> +spent most of the days that followed gazing +in ecstasy at the pictures.</p> + +<p>He liked Angelo, Titian, and Rubens best. +He had come to Paris to enter a studio, but +he put off his entrance from day to day, for +his shyness was painful and he feared above all +things to be laughed at by city students. At +last one day, he got up enough courage to apply +to Delaroche, whose studio he had decided +to enter if he could, as he liked his work best. +The students in that studio were full of +curiosity about the new chap, with his peasant +air, his bushy hair and great frame, so sturdy +and awkward. They at once nicknamed him +"the man of the woods," and they nagged +at him and laughed at the idea that he could +learn to paint, till one day, exasperated nearly +to death, he shook his fist at them. From that +moment he heard no more from them, for +they were certain that if he could not paint he +could use his fists a good deal better than any +of them. Delaroche liked the peasant but +did not understand him very well, and Millet +was not too fond of his painting, so after two +years he and a friend withdrew from that +studio and set up one for themselves. Thus +eight years passed, the friends living from +hand to mouth, doing all sorts of things: sign-painting, +advertisements, and the like; and +Millet, in the midst of his poverty, got married.</p> + +<p>He went home, returning to Paris with his +wife, and after starving regularly, he became +<a name="213"></a> +desperate enough to paint a single picture as +he wished. It seemed at the time the maddest +kind of thing to do. Who would see ugly, +toil-worn peasants upon his <i>salon</i> walls? Paris +wanted dainty, aesthetic art, and an Academy +artist would have scoffed at the idea; but the +Millets were starving anyway, so why not +starve doing at least what one chose. So +Millet painted his first wonderful peasant +picture "The Winnower," and just as the +family were starving he sold it--for $100. +He had done at last the right thing, in doing +as he pleased. This was a sign to him that +there was after all a place for truth and emotion +in art. But the Millets must change their +place of living, and go to some place where +the money made would not at once be eaten +up. Jacque--the friend with whom Millet +had set up shop, and who also became famous, +later--advised them to go to a little place +he knew about, which had a name ending in +"zon." It was near the forest of Fontainebleau, +he said and they could live there very +cheaply, and it was quiet and decent. The +Millets got into a rumbling old cart and started +in search of the place which ended in "zon" +near the forest of Fontainebleau. Jacque +had also decided to take his family there and +they all went together. When they got to +Fontainebleau they got down from the car +and went a-foot through the forest.</p> + +<p>They arrived tired and hungry toward +<a name="214"></a> +evening, and went to Ganne's Inn, where +there were Rousseau, Diaz, and other artists +who like themselves had come in search of a +nice, clean, picturesque place in which to starve, +if they had to. Those who were just sitting +down to supper welcomed the newcomers, for +they had been there long enough to form a +colony and fraternity ways. One of these +was to take a certain great pipe from the wall, +and ask the newcomer to smoke; and according +to the way he blew his "rings" he was pronounced +a "colourist" or "classicist." The +two friends blew the smoke, and at once the +other artists were able to place Jacque. He +was a colourist; but what were they to say about +Millet who blew rings after his own fashion.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well!" he cried. "Don't trouble about +it. Just put me down in a class of my own!"</p> + +<p>"A good answer!" Diaz answered. "And +he looks strong and big enough to hold his +own in it!" Thus the newcomers took their +places in the life of Barbizon--the place whose +name ended in "zon," and Millet's real work +began. His first wife lived only two years, +but he married again. All this time he was +following his conscience in the matter of his +work, and selling almost nothing. In a letter +to a friend he tells how dreadfully poor they +are, although his new wife was the most devoted +helpful woman imaginable, known far and +near as "Mère Millet." The artist wrote to +Sensier, his friend, who aided him: "I have +<a name="215"></a> +received the hundred francs. They came just +at the right time. Neither my wife nor I had +tasted food in twenty-four hours. It is a +blessing that the little ones, at any rate, have +not been in want."</p> + +<p>The revolution of 1848 had come before +Millet went to Barbizon, and he like other men +had to go to war. Then the cholera appeared, +and these things interrupted his work; and +after such troubles people did not begin buying +pictures at once. Rousseau was famous now, +but Millet lived by the hardest toil until one +day he sold the "Woodcutter" to Rousseau +himself, for four hundred francs. Rousseau +had been very poor, and it grieved him to see +the trials and want of his friend, so he pretended +that he was buying the picture for an American. +That picture was later sold at the Hartmann +sale for 133,000 francs. Millet was now forty +years old, and had not yet been recognised as +a wonderful man by any but his brother +artists. He was truly "in a class of his own." +He had learned to love Barbizon, and cried: +"Better a thatched cottage here than a palace +in Paris!" and we have the picture in our +minds of Millet followed patiently and lovingly +by "Mère Millet" in the peasant dress which +she always wore, that she might be ready at +a moment's notice to pose for his figures. Then +there were his little children and his sunny, +simple, fraternal surroundings, which make his +life the most picturesque of all artists.</p> + +<p><a name="216"></a> +His paintings had the simplest stories with +seldom more than two or three figures in them. +It was said that he needed only a field and a +peasant to make a great picture. When he +painted the "Man with the Hoe," he did it so +truthfully, in a way to make the story so +well understood by all who looked upon it, +that he was called a socialist. No one was +so much surprised as Millet by that name. +"I never dreamed of being a leader in any +cause," he said. "I am a peasant--only a +peasant."</p> + +<p>Of his picture "The Reaper" a critic wrote, +"He might have reaped the whole earth." +All his pictures were sermons, he called them +"epics of the fields." He pretended to nothing +except to present things just as they were, as +he writes in a letter to a friend about "The +Water Carrier:"</p> + +<p>In the woman coming from drawing water I have +endeavoured that she shall be neither a water-carrier nor +a servant, but the woman who has just drawn water for +the house, the water for her husband's and her children's +soup; that she shall seem to be carrying neither more nor +less than the weight of the full buckets; that beneath the +sort of grimace which is natural on account of the strain +on her arms, and the blinking of her eyes caused by the +light, one may see a look of rustic kindliness on her face. +I have always shunned with a kind of horror everything +approaching the sentimental. I have desired on the other +hand, that this woman should perform simply and good-naturedly, +without regarding it as irksome, an act which, +like her other household duties, is one she is accustomed +to perform every day of her life. Also I wanted to make +<a name="217"></a> +people imagine the freshness of the fountain, and that +its antiquated appearance should make it clear that many +before her had come to draw water from it.</p> + +<p>At forty he was in about the same condition +as he had been on that evening ten or twelve +years before, when he had entered Barbizon +carrying his two little daughters upon his +shoulders, his wife following with the servant +and a basket of food, to settle themselves down +to hardship made sweet by kind comradeship +and hope. Now a change came. Millet +painted "The Angelus." He was dreadfully +poor at that time and sold the picture cheaply, +but it laid the foundation of his fame and +fortune. He had worked upon the canvas +till he said he could hear the sound of the bell. +Although its first purchaser paid very little +for it, it has since been sold for one hundred +and fifty thousand dollars.</p> + +<p>At last, having struggled through his worst +days, without recognition, and with nine little +children to feed and clothe, he was given the +white cross of the Legion of Honour; and as +if to make up for the days of his starvation, he +was nearly feasted to death in Paris. He was +placed upon the hanging committee of the +<i>Salon</i>, and took a dignified place among +artists. He and Mère Millet travelled a little, +but always he returned to Barbizon, till the +war came and he had to move to Normandy +to work. Afterward he returned to Barbizon, +to the scenes and the old friends he loved so +<a name="218"></a> +well, and there he died. He had come back +ill and tired with the long struggle, and he +instructed his friends to give him a simple +funeral. This was done. They carried his +coffin, while his wife and children walked +beside him to the cemetery, and he was buried +near the little church of Chailly, whose spire +is seen in "The Angelas," and where Rousseau, +whom he loved, had already been laid.</p> + +<p>There in Barbizon, to-day, may be seen +Rousseau's cottage and Millet's studio. "The +peasants sow and reap and glean as in the days +of Millet; Troyon's oxen and sheep are still +standing in the meadow; Jacque's poultry are +feeding in the barnyard. The leaves on +Rousseau's grand old trees are trembling in the +forest; Corot's misty morning is as fresh and +soft as ever; while Diaz's ruddy sunsets still +penetrate the branches; and the peasant pauses +daily as the Angelus from the Chailly church +calls him to silent prayer."</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE ANGELUS</center> + +<p>In "The Angelus" you may see far-off the spire +of the church at Chailly, from which the bell +sounds. The day's work is drawing to a close. +The peasant man and woman have been digging +potatoes--the man uncovering them, while +his wife has been putting them in the basket. +As the Angelus floats across the fields, the two +pause and bow their heads in prayer. The +<a name="219"></a> +man has dropped his fork and uncovered his +head, and his wife has clasped her hands +devoutly before her.</p> + +<p>All the air seems still and full of tender +sound and colour, and we, like Millet, seem +"to hear the bell." This is the only picture +he painted which is full of the sentimentality +he so much disliked. It is a great picture, +but we need to know the title in order to +interpret it.</p> + +<p>Besides this one, Millet painted "The +Gleaners," "The Woodcutters," "The Sower," +"The Man with the Hoe;" "The Water Carrier," +"The Reaper," and many other stories of the +peasant poor.</p> + +<p><a name="220"></a></p> +<h1>XXX</h1> + +<h1>CLAUDE MONET</h1> + +<center>(<i>Pronounced Claude Mo-nay</i>)<br> +<i>Impressionist School of France</i><br> +1840--</center> + +<p>Another--Manet--was the founder +of this school among modern painters, +but Monet is always considered his most +conspicuous follower.</p> + +<p>Monet's remarkable method of putting his +colours upon canvas does not mean impressionism. +He is an impressionist but also +<i>Monet</i>--an artist with a method entirely +different from that of any other. He belongs +to what in France is called the <i>pointillistes</i>. +The word means nothing more nor less than +an effort to accomplish the impossible. If you +stand a little way from a very hot stove you +may be able to see a kind of movement in the +air, a quivering of particles or molecular motion, +and this is what the <i>pointillistes</i> try to show in +their paintings--Monet most of all.</p> + +<p>The theory is that by putting little dabs of +primitive colours, close together upon canvas, +without mixing them, just separate dabs of +red, yellow, blue, etc., the effect of movement +is produced. Needless to say, none of them +ever have produced such an effect, but they +<a name="221"></a> +have made such grotesque, ugly pictures that +they have attracted attention even as a humpbacked +person does.</p> + +<p>The first who painted thus was a Frenchman +named Seurat, who tried it after closely studying +experiments made in light and colour by +Professor Rood, of Columbia University. +After him came Pissarro, and then Monet. +America also has such a painter, Childe Hassam, +but nobody is so grotesque as Monet.</p> + +<p>He was born in Paris but spent most of his +youth in Havre, where he met a painter of +harbours and shipping scenes called Boudin. +Through his influence Monet studied out-of-door +effects, and was beginning to do fairly +good work, when he was drawn as a conscript +and sent to Algeria. It is written that Monet +discovered that "green, seen under strong +sunshine is not green, but yellow; that the +shadows cast by sunlight upon snow or upon +brightly lighted surfaces are not black, but +blue; and that a white dress, seen under the +shade of trees on a bright day, has violet or +lilac tones." This only means that these +things have been scientifically determined, +not that the naked eye ever perceives them, +and it is for the natural, unscientific eye that +art exists. None of us see the separate colours +of the spectrum, as we look about in every-day +fashion upon every-day objects.</p> + +<p>Professor Rood managed to produce an +intelligent effect by putting separate colours +<a name="222"></a> +on discs and whirling these round so that the +colours mingled. Monet tried to do the same +by dotting his original colours close together, +and leaving the picture to its own destruction. +It ought to revolve, if the scientific idea is to +be carried out.</p> + +<p>Nothing desirable can be made out of his +pictures even when viewed from far off, while +at close range they are simply grotesque, and +photographs of them give the impression that +the entire landscape is wabbling to the ground.</p> + +<p>I wonder if anyone, small or grown up, can +understand this: "It was indeed a higher +kind of impressionism that Monet originated, +one that reveals a vivid rendering, not of the +natural and concrete facts, but of their +influence upon the spirit when they are wrapped +in the infinite diversities of that impalpable, immaterial, +universal medium which we call light, +when the concrete loses itself in the abstract, +and what is of time and matter impinges on the +eternal and the universal." Monet's pictures +look just as that explanation of them sounds!</p> + +<p>The same writer says that Monet was greater +than Corot because he was more sensitive to +colour; but if Monet had been as sensitive to +colour as Corot, he could not have lived and +looked at his own pictures.</p> + +<center>PLATE--HAYSTACK IN SUNSHINE</center> + +<p>The main feature of this picture is such a +hay stack as never existed anywhere, of +<a name="223"></a> +indescribable lurid colour, against a background +of blue such as never was seen. All +about there are violet and rose-coloured +trees, and it is a picture that every child should +know, because he is likely never to have +another such opportunity.</p> + +<p>Monet has made two interesting pictures of +churches, one at Vernon, the other at Varangeville.</p> + +<p><a name="224"></a></p> +<h1>XXXI</h1> + +<h1>MURILLO (BARTOLOME ESTEBAN)</h1> + +<center>(Pronounced Moo-reel'oh Bar-tol-o-may' A-stay'bahn)<br> +<i>Andalusian School</i><br> +1617-1682<br> +<i>Pupil of Juan del Castillo</i></center> + +<p>The story of Murillo has been delightfully +told by Mrs. Sarah Bolton.</p> + +<p>Like Velasquez, he was born in Seville, a +city called "the glory of the Spanish realms," +and was baptised on New Year's day, 1618, +in the Church of the Magdalen.</p> + +<p>Murillo's father paid his rent in work, +instead of in money. He made a bargain with +the convent who owned his house that he +would keep it in repair if he might have it +free of rent, so there Gaspar Estéban and his +wife, Maria Perez, settled. "Perez" was the +family name of Murillo's mother, who had +very good connections; one of her brothers, +Juan del Castillo, being a man who encouraged +all art and had an art school of his own. Little +Murillo therefore had encouragement from the +start, an unusual circumstance at a time when +parents rarely wished to think of their sons +as painters. As a matter of fact, his mother +would have preferred that he should become a +priest, but she was kind and sensible, and put +<a name="225"></a> +no difficulties in the way of the little Murillo +doing as he wished.</p> + +<p>The story goes that the Perez family had +been very rich, but, however it may have been, +that was not the case when the artist was born. +One day after his mother had gone to church, +Murillo being left at home alone, retouched +a picture that hung upon the wall. It was a +picture of sacred subject--"Jesus and the +Lamb." He thought he could make some +improvements in it, so he painted his own hat +upon the head of Jesus and changed the lamb +into a little dog. His mother was a good deal +shocked at what seemed to her an irreligious +act, though it showed the family genius. After +that the boy was found to be painting upon the +walls of his schoolroom, and making sketches +upon the margins of his books, though he +did little else at school.</p> + +<p>He had one sister, Therese, and they were +left without father or mother before the artist +was eleven years old.</p> + +<p>It was at that time that he received the name +of "Murillo" by which he is known.</p> + +<p>It came about thus: After the death of his +parents he went to live with his mother's +sister, the Doña Anna Murillo, who had +married a surgeon called Juan Agustin Lagares, +and since the little artist was to live with his +aunt, he soon became known by her family +name. There, in her home, he and his sister +Therese, were brought up, but he was not to +<a name="226"></a> +become a surgeon like his uncle-in-law, but an +artist like his uncle Juan, the teacher in Seville. +That uncle took him in hand, taught the boy to +draw, to mix colours, to stretch his canvas, +and soon Murillo's genius won the love of +master and pupils.</p> + +<p>In peace and reasonable comfort he served +a nine years apprenticeship, and painted his +first important, if not especially great, pictures. +These were two Madonnas, one of them "The +Story of the Rosary." St. Dominic had +instituted the rosary; using fifteen large and +one hundred and fifty small beads upon which +to keep record of the number of prayers he +had said; the large beads representing the +<i>Paternosters and Glorias</i> and the small ones, the +<i>Aves</i>. This practical way of indicating duties +helped the heedless to concentrate their attention, +and did much to increase the number of +prayers offered. Indeed, it is said that "by +this single expedient Dominic did more to +excite the devotion of the lower orders, especially +of the women, and made more converts, +than by all his orthodoxy, learning, arguments, +and eloquence." It was this incident in the +history of the Catholic Church that Murillo +commemorated.</p> + +<p>When the artist was twenty-two years old, +his uncle, Juan del Castillo, broke up his home +and went elsewhere to live, leaving the artist +without home or means, and with his little +sister to take care of. Without vanity or +<a name="227"></a> +ambition, but with only the wish to care for +his sister and to get food, the marvellous painter +took himself to the market place, and there, +wedged in between stalls, old clothes, vegetables, +all sorts of wares, like a wanderer and a gypsy, +he began his career.</p> + +<p>At the weekly market--the <i>Feria</i> or fair, +opposite the Church of All Saints--his brotherly, +kindly feeling for the vagabonds he daily met +is shown in the treatment he gives them in +his wonderful pictures. During the two years +that he worked in that open-air studio he had +flower-girls, muleteers, hucksters all about him, +and he painted dozens of rough pictures which +found quick sale among the patrons of the +market. What Velasquez was doing in the +court of Madrid, Murillo was doing in the +streets of Seville; the one painting cardinals, +kings, and courtiers; the other painting beggars, +<i>gamins</i>, and waifs. Between the two, the +world has been shown the social history of +Spain as it then existed.</p> + +<p>Through a peculiar happening, the American +Indian saw the beauties of Murillo's work +before Europe was even conscious there was +such a man. In his old home, his uncle's +studio, Murillo had had a dear comrade, Moya. +They had not met for two years or more, and +when they did come together again Moya +told Murillo he had been travelling, that he +had been to Flanders with the Spanish army, +and thence to London, in both places seeing +<a name="228"></a> +gorgeous paintings and other inspiring things. +He opened the eyes of Murillo to the splendours +the world contained, and the artist became +wild with desire to go and see them for himself, +but he had no money. He was painting pictures +in the market place of Seville and getting so +little for his hasty work that he could barely +support himself and little Therese. What must +he do in order to get to London and see the +world?</p> + +<p>What he did do was to buy a piece of linen, +cut it into six pieces and hide himself long +enough to paint upon them "saints, flowers, +fruit and landscapes," and then he went forth +to sell them.</p> + +<p>He actually sold those pictures to a ship-owner +who was sending his ship to the West +Indies. Eventually they were hung upon the +walls of a mission in wild, far off America. +It is said that after this Murillo made no little +money by painting such pictures, destined to +give the American savage an idea of the +Christian religion. One cannot but wonder +if there may not be, all unknown to us, Murillo +pictures, made in the market-place of Seville +nearly three hundred years ago, hidden away +in the remains of those old Spanish missions, +even to-day. Such a picture would be more +rare than the greatest that he ever painted.</p> + +<p>After selling his six pictures Murillo started +a-foot, not to London but on a terrible journey +across the Sierra Mountains, to Madrid--the +<a name="229"></a> +home of Velasquez. Murillo knew that this +native of Seville had become a famous artist. +He was powerful and rich and at the court of +Philip II., while Murillo had no place to lay +his head, and besides he had left Therese behind +in Seville in the care of friends. He had no +claim upon the kindness of Velasquez but he +determined to see him; to introduce himself +and possibly to gain a friend. It was under +these forlorn circumstances he made himself +known to the great Spanish court painter.</p> + +<p>The story of their meeting is a fine one. For +Murillo Velasquez had a warm embrace, a kind +and hospitable word. The stranger told Velasquez +how he had crossed the mountains on +foot, was penniless, but could use his brush. +Instead of jealousy and suspicion, the young +man met with nothing but the most cheerful +encouragement, found the Velasquez home +open to him, took up his lodging there and +established his workshop with nothing around +him but friendship and the sympathy his nature +craved.</p> + +<p>From the market-place to the home of +Velasquez and the Palace of Philip II.! It was +a beautiful dream to Murillo.</p> + +<p>With what splendour of colour and mastery +of design he illuminated the annals of the poor! +Coming forth from some dim chancel or palace-hall +in which he had been working on a majestic +Madonna picture, he would sketch in, with +the brush still loaded with the colours of +<a name="230"></a> +celestial glory, the lineaments of the beggar +crouching by the wall, or the gypsy calmly +reposing in the black shadow of an archway. +Such versatility had never before been seen +west of the Mediterranean, and it commanded +the admiration of his countrymen.</p> + +<p>All his beggarly little children, neglected and +houseless, appeared only to be full of cheer +and merriment, with soft eyes and contented +faces. It was a happy, care-free, gay, and +kindly beggardom that he painted, with nothing +in it to sadden the heart.</p> + +<p>Thus he lived for three years; working in +the galleries of the king, making friends at +court, painting beautiful women, gallant +cavaliers and fascinating little beggars.</p> + +<p>In the course of time, however, he grew +restless, and Velasquez wished to give him +letters of introduction to Roman artists and +people of quality, advising him to go to Rome +to study the greatest art in the world. This +was an alluring plan to Murillo, but after all +he longed for his own home and chose to return +there rather than go to Rome. Besides, his +sister Therese was still in Seville.</p> + +<p>Once more in his home, at one stroke of his +magic brush Murillo raised himself and a +monastic order from obscurity to greatness. +In his native city was the order of San Francisco. +The monks had long wished to have their +convent decorated in a worthy manner by some +artist of repute; but they were poor and had +<a name="231"></a> +never been able to engage such a painter. +When Murillo got back home, he was as badly +in need of work as the Franciscans were in +want of an artist. The monks held a council +and finally agreed upon a price which they +could pay and which Murillo could live upon. +Then he began a wonderful set of eleven large +paintings. Among them were many saints, +dark and rich in colouring, and no sooner was +it known that the paintings were being made +than all the rich and powerful people of Seville +flocked to the convent to see the work. They +gathered about the young artist, overwhelmed +him with honours and praise, and the monastery +was crowded from morning till night with +those who wished to study his work. From +that moment Murillo's fame, if not his fortune, +was made.</p> + +<p>He married a rich and noble lady with the +tremendous name of Doña Beatriz de Cabrera y +Sotomayer. He had fallen in love with her +while painting her as an angel.</p> + +<p>About that time he formed a strange partnership +with a landscape painter, who agreed to +supply the backgrounds that his pictures +needed, if Murillo would paint figures into his +landscapes. This plan did very well for a +little time, but it did not last long.</p> + +<p>Murillo painted in three distinct styles, and +these have come to be known as the "warm," +the "cold," and the "vaporous." He painted +pictures in the great cathedral of the Escorial +<a name="232"></a> +and the "Guardian Angel" was one of them. +Also, he painted "St. Anthony of Padua," +and of this picture there is one of those absurd +stories meant to illustrate the perfection of +art. It is said that the lilies in it are so +natural that the birds flew down the cathedral +aisles to pluck at them. Many artists have +painted this saint, but Murillo's is the best +picture of all.</p> + +<p>When the nephew of his first master, Murillo's +cousin, saw that work he said: "It is all over +with Castillo! Is it possible that Murillo, +that servile imitator of my uncle, can be the +author of all this grace and beauty of +colouring?"</p> + +<p>The Duke of Wellington offered for this +picture as many gold pieces "as would cover +its surface of fifteen square feet." This would +have been about two hundred and forty thousand +dollars; but we need not imagine that +Murillo received any such sum for the work. +This picture has a further interesting history. +The canvas was cut from the frame by thieves +in 1874, and later it was sold to Mr. Schaus, +the connoisseur and picture dealer of New York. +He paid $250 for it, and at once put it into +the hands of the Spanish consul, who restored +it to the cathedral.</p> + +<p>The story of the saint whom Murillo painted +is as interesting as Murillo's own. Among the +many wonderful things said to have happened +to him was that a congregation of fishes hearing +<a name="233"></a> +his voice as he preached beside the sea, came +to the top and lifted up their heads to listen.</p> + +<p>While Murillo was doing his work, he was +living a happy, domestic life. He had three +children, and doubtless he used them as +models for his lively cherubs, as he used his +wife's face for madonnas and angels.</p> + +<p>He founded an academy of painting in +Seville, for the entrance to which a student +could not qualify unless he made the following +declaration: "Praised be the most Holy +Sacrament and the pure conception of Our +Lady."</p> + +<p>The most delightful stories are told of +Murillo's kindness and sweetness of disposition. +He had a slave who loved him and who, one +day while Murillo was gone from the studio, +painted in the head of the Virgin which the +master had left incomplete. When Murillo +returned and saw the excellent work he cried: +"I am fortunate, Sebastian"--the slave's +name--"For I have not created only pictures +but an artist!" This slave was set free by +Murillo and in the course of time he painted +many splendid pictures which are to-day +highly prized in Seville.</p> + +<p>This is a description of Murillo's house which +is still to be seen near the Church of Santa +Cruz: "The courtyard contains a marble +fountain, amidst flowering shrubs, and is +surrounded on three sides by an arcade upheld +by marble pillars. At the rear is a pretty +<a name="234"></a> +garden, shaded by cypress and citron trees, and +terminated by a wall whereon are the remains +of ancient frescoes which have been attributed +to the master himself. The studio is on the +upper floor, and overlooks the Moorish battlements, +commanding a beautiful view to the +eastward, over orange groves and rich corn-lands, +out to the gray highlands about Alcala."</p> + +<p>Murillo's fame brought fortune to his little +sister, Therese. She married a nobleman of +Burgos, a knight of Santiago and judge of the +royal colonial court. He became the chief +secretary of state for Madrid.</p> + +<p>Murillo made money, but gave almost all +that he made to the poor, though he did not +make money in the service of the Church, as +Velasquez made it in the service of the king.</p> + +<p>His work of more than twenty pictures in +the Capuchin Church of Seville occupied him +for three years, and in that time he did not +leave the convent for a single day.</p> + +<p>Of all the charming stories told of this +glorious artist, one which is connected with his +work in that church is the most picturesque. +It seems that every one within the walls loved +him, and among others a lay brother who was +cook. This man begged for some little personal +token from Murillo and since there was no +canvas at hand, the artist bade the cook leave +the napkin which he had brought to cover +his food, and during the day he painted upon +it a Madonna and child, so natural that one of +<a name="235"></a> +his biographers declares the child seems about +to spring from Mary's arms. This souvenir +made for the cook of the Capuchin, convent +has been reproduced again and again, as one +of the artist's greatest performances.</p> + +<p>Toward the close of his happy life, he became +more and more devout, spending many hours +before an altar-piece in the Church of Santa +Cruz where was a picture of "The Descent +from the Cross," by Pedro Campana. "Why +do you always tarry before 'The Descent from +the Cross?'" the sacristan once asked of him.</p> + +<p>"I am waiting till those men have brought +the body of our blessed Lord down the ladder." +Murillo answered. His wife had died, his +daughter had become a nun, and all that was +left to him was his dear son Gaspar, when in his +sixty-third year he began his last work, "The +Marriage of St. Catherine." He had not finished +this when he fell from the scaffolding upon +which he was working, and fatally hurt himself. +He died, with his son beside him. He was a +much loved man, and when he was buried, his +bier was carried by "two marquises and four +knights and followed by a great concourse of +people." He chose to be buried beneath +the picture he loved so much--"The Descent +from the Cross," and upon his grave was laid +a stone carved with his name, a skeleton and +an inscription in Latin which means "Live as +one who is about to die."</p> + +<p>The church has since been destroyed, and +<a name="236"></a> +on its site is the Plaza Santa Cruz, but Murillo's +grave is marked by a tablet.</p> + +<p>Each country seems to have had at least one +man of beautiful heart and mind, to represent +its art. Raphael in Italy, Murillo in Spain, +were types of gentle and greatly beloved men. +Leonardo in Italy and Dürer in Nuremberg, +were types of forceful, intellectual men, +highly respected and of great benefit to the +world.</p> + +<p>Of all the painters who ever lived, Murillo +was the one who painted little children with +the most loving and fascinating touch.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION</center> + +<p>Besides the little angels in this picture, we +have a bewildering choice among many other +beauties.</p> + +<p>Many pictures of this subject have been +painted, and many were painted by Murillo, +but the one presented here is the greatest of all. +It hangs in the Louvre, Salle VI. Mary seems +to be suspended in the heavens, not standing +upon clouds. Under the hem of her garments +is the circle of the moon, while there is the effect +of hundreds of little cherub children massed +about her feet, in a little swarm at the right, +where the shadow falls heaviest, and still +others, half lost in the vapoury background +at the left, where the heavenly light streams +upon them, and brilliantly lights up the Virgin's +<a name="237"></a> +gown. In this picture are all Murillo's beloved +child figures, some carrying little streamers, +their tiny wings a-flutter and all crowding +lovingly about Mary. Far below this gorgeous +group we can imagine the dark and weary +earth lost in shadow.</p> + +<p>Among Murillo's most famous paintings are: +"The Birth of the Virgin," "Two Beggar Boys," +"The Madonna of the Rosary," "The +Annunciation," "Adoration of the Shepherds," +"Holy Family," "Education of Mary," "The +Dice Players," and "The Vision of St. Anthony." +<a name="238"></a></p> + +<h1>XXXII</h1> + +<h1>RAPHAEL (SANZIO)</h1> + +<center>(Pronounced Rah'fay-el (Sahnt'syoh))<br> +1483-1590<br> +<i>Umbrian, Florentine, and Roman Schools</i><br> +<i>Pupil of Perugino</i></center> + +<p>It was said of Raphael that "every evil +humour vanished when his comrades saw +him, every low thought fled from their minds"; +and this was because they felt themselves +vanquished by his pleasant ways and sweet +nature.</p> + +<p>Imagine his beautiful face, with its sunny +eyes, reflecting no shadow of sadness or pain. +Such a one was sure to be beloved by all.</p> + +<p>The father of Raphael was Giovanni Santi, +himself an able artist. Both he and Raphael +studied in many schools and took the best from +each. The son was brought up in an Italian +court, that of Guidobaldo of Urbino, where the +father was a favourite poet and painter, so that +he had at least one generation of art-lovers +behind him, at a time when learning and art +were much prized. Nothing ever entered +into his life that was sad or sorrowful; his +whole existence was a triumph of beautiful +achievements. There were three great artists +of that time, the other two being Michael +<a name="239"></a> +Angelo and Leonardo da Vinci, both of whom +were absolutely unlike Raphael in their art +and in their characters.</p> + +<p>Raphael was born on April 6th at Contrada +del Monte in the ducal city of Urbino. +His mother's name was Magia Ciarla, and +she was the daughter of an Urbino merchant. +She had three children besides the great painter, +all of whom died young, and when Raphael +was but eight years old his mother died also. +It is said that it was from her Raphael inherited +his beauty, goodness, mildness, and genius. +His father's patron, the Duke of Urbino, was +a fine soldier, but he also cherished scholarship +and art, and kept at his court not less than +twenty or thirty persons at work copying +Greek and Latin manuscript which he wished +to add to his library.</p> + +<p>Raphael had a stepmother, Bernardina, +the daughter of a goldsmith, a good and forceful +woman, but not gentle like the first wife; and +when Raphael was eleven years of age his +father, too, died. By his father's will Raphael +became the charge of his uncle Bartolommeo, +a priest, but the property was left to the stepmother +so long as she remained unmarried. +Almost at once the priest and the stepmother +fell to quarreling over the spoils, and thus +Raphael was left pretty much to his own +devices, but just when life began to look dark +and sad for him, his mother's brother took a +hand in the situation. He settled the dispute +<a name="240"></a> +between the priest and the second wife, and +arranged that Raphael should be placed in the +studio of some great painter, for the loving +lad had already worked in his father's studio, +and had given promise of his wonderful gifts. +So he became the pupil of Perugino, a painter +noted for his fine colouring and sympathetic +handling of his subjects. At that time, Italian +schools were less wonderful in colouring than +in other matters of technique.</p> + +<p>"Let him become my pupil," said Perugino, +when Raphael was brought to him and some of +his work was exhibited; "soon he will be my +master." A very different attitude from that +of Ghirlandajo toward Michael Angelo.</p> + +<p>Raphael and his master became friends and +worked together for nine years.</p> + +<p>His first work was not conceived until +Raphael was seventeen. It was to be a +surprise to his master who had gone to Florence. +A banner was wanted for the Church of S. +Trinita at Citta di Castello, and Raphael undertook +it, painting the "Trinity," on one canvas +and the "Creation of Man" on another. Then +he painted the "Crucifixion," which was bought +by Cardinal Fesch, who lived in Rome. That +painting is now in a collection of the Earl of +Dudley. It was sold away from Rome in 1845, +for twelve thousand dollars--or a little more. +No one will deny that this is an unusual sum +for an artist's first work, but about the same +time he did a much more wonderful thing.</p> + +<p><a name="241"></a> +He painted a little picture, six and three-quarter +inches square. It was of the Virgin walking +in the springtime, before the leaves had appeared +upon the trees, and with snow-capped +mountains behind her. She holds the infant +Jesus in her arms while she reads from a small +book, and the little child looks upon the page +with her. This six inches of beauty sold to +the Emperor of Russia, in 1871, for sixty +thousand dollars.</p> + +<p>Before Raphael was twenty-one, he had left +his master's studio and had gone into the +splendid world of Rome, where Angelo was +straining at his bonds. But how differently +each accepted his life! The gentle Raphael, +who took the best of the ideas of all great +painters, and gave to them his own exquisite +characteristics, was beloved of all, shed light +upon art and friends alike. To such a one all +life was joyous. Michael Angelo, trying ever +to do the impossible, betraying his hatred of +limitations in all that he did, doing always +that which aroused horror, distress, longing, +elemental feelings, in those who studied his +wonderful work, and giving hope and satisfaction +and peace to none--to such as he life +must ever have been hateful and painful. +These men lived at the same time, among the +same people.</p> + +<p>One of Raphael's greatest pictures came +into the possession of a poor widow, who being +hard pressed by poverty, sold it to a bookseller +<a name="242"></a> +for twelve scudi. In time it was bought from +the bookseller by Grand Duke Ferdinand III. +of Tuscany, who prayed before it night and +morning, taking it with him on his travels. +That picture is now in the Pitti Palace at +Florence and it is called the "Madonna del +Granduca." The Berlin Museum purchased +a Raphael Madonna for $34,000 which was +painted about the same time as these +others, but after a little the artist left +Florence where he had been studying the +methods of Leonardo and Angelo and returned +to Urbino, the home he loved, where his conduct +was such that all the world seems to have +become his lover. It is written that he was +"the only very distinguished man of whom we +read, who lived and died without an enemy +or detractor!" No better can ever be said of +any one.</p> + +<p>While he dwelt in Perugia and Urbino he +had painted the "Ansidei Madonna," so called +because that was the name of the family for +which it was painted. That Madonna was +sold in 1884 to the National Gallery, by the +Duke of Marlborough for $350,000. A Madonna +on a round plaque-like canvas, 42-3/4 inches in +diameter, was bought by the Duke of Bridgewater +for $60,000. It is the "Holy Family +under a Palm Tree," painted originally for a +friend, Taddeo Taddei, who was a Florentine +scholar. Many of the pictures which after many +vicissitudes have landed far from home and been +<a name="243"></a> +bought for fabulous sums were painted for love +of some friend, or were paid for by modest sums +at the time the artist received the commissions. +Lord Ellesmere in London now owns the +"Holy Family under a Palm Tree."</p> + +<p>It is said of Raphael that whenever another +painter, known to him or not, requested any +design or assistance of any kind at his hands, +he would invariably leave his work to perform +the service. He continually kept a large +number of artists employed, all of whom he +assisted and instructed with an affection which +was rather that of a father to his children than +merely of an artist to artists. From this it +followed that he was never seen to go to court, +except surrounded and accompanied, as he +left his house, by some fifty painters, all men +of ability and distinction, who attended him, +thus to give evidence of the honour in which +they held him. He did not, in short, live the +life of a painter, but that of a prince.</p> + +<p>There is something wonderfully inspiring +about such a life. We read of emperors and +the homage paid to them; of the esteem in +which men who accomplish deeds of universal +value are held, but nowhere do we behold +the power of a beautiful and exquisite personality +and character, allied with a single art, +so impressively exhibited.</p> + +<p>He urged nothing, yet won all things by the +force of his loving and sympathetic mind. +"How is it, dear Cesare that we live in such +<a name="244"></a> +good friendship, but that in the art of painting +we show no deference to each other?" he +asked of Cesare da Sesto, who was Da Vinci's +greatest pupil.</p> + +<p>In discussing the great ones of the earth, +Herman Grimm, son of the collector of fairy +tales, says: "Can we mention a violent act of +Raphael's, Goethe's or Shakespeare's? No, it +is restful only to recall these wonderful men."</p> + +<p>One of Raphael's most beautiful Virgins was +modeled from a beautiful flower-girl whom he +loved, "La Belle Jardinière."</p> + +<p>Raphael as well as Michael Angelo was +summoned by Pope Julius II., but how +different were the two occasions! Michael +Angelo had stood with dogged, gloomy self-assertiveness +before the pope, head covered, +knee unbent. Uncompromising, while yet no +injury had been done him, resentful before he +had received a single cause for resentment, +the attitude was typical of his art and his +unhappy life.</p> + +<p>When Raphael appeared, his bent knee, his +"chestnut locks falling upon his shoulders, +the pope exclaimed: ' He is an innocent +angel. I will give him Cardinal Bembo for a +teacher, and he shall fill my walls with historical +pictures.'" The artist's behaviour was no +sign of servility, but the simple recognition of +forms and customs which the people themselves +had made and by which they had decided they +should graciously be bound. The attitude of +<a name="245"></a> +Angelo was not heroic but vulgar; that of +Raphael not servile, but in good taste, showing +a reasonable mind.</p> + +<p>Pope Julius had summoned Raphael for a +special reason. Alexander VI., his predecessor +in the Vatican, had been a depraved man. +The fair and virile Julius had a healthy +sentiment against occupying rooms which must +continually remind him of the notorious +Alexander's mode of life. Some one suggested +that he have all the portraits of the former pope +removed, but Julius declared: "Even if the +portraits were destroyed, the walls themselves +would remind me of that Simoniac, that Jew!" +The word 'Jew' was then execrated by all +Christians, for the world was not yet Christian +enough to know better.</p> + +<p>Raphael was summoned to decorate the +Vatican, that Julius might have a place which +reminded him not at all of Alexander. It is +said that when Raphael had completed one of +his masterpieces the pope threw himself upon +the ground and cried, "I thank Thee, God, that +Thou hast sent me so great a painter!"</p> + +<p>While at work upon his first fresco at the +Vatican--"La Disputa," the dispute over +the Holy Sacrament--Raphael met a woman +with whom he fell deeply in love. Her father +was a soda manufacturer and her name was +Margherita. Missirini relates this incident in +Raphael's career.</p> + +<p>"She lived on the other side of the Tiber. +<a name="246"></a> +A small house, No. 20, in the street of Santa +Dorothea, the windows of which are decorated +with a pretty frame work of earthenware, +is pointed out as the house where she was born.</p> + +<p>"The beautiful girl was very frequently in +a little garden adjoining the house, where, +the wall not being very high, it was easy to see +her from the outside. So the young men, +especially artists--always passionate admirers +of beauty--did not fail to come and look at +her, by climbing up above the wall.</p> + +<p>"Raphael is said to have seen her for the +first time as she was bathing her pretty feet +in a little fountain in the garden. Struck by +her perfect beauty, he fell deeply in love with +her, and after having made acquaintance with +her, and discovered that her mind was as +beautiful as her body, he became so much +attached as to be unable to live without her."</p> + +<p>She is spoken of to-day as the "Fornarina," +because at first she was supposed to have +been the daughter of a baker (<i>fornajo</i>).</p> + +<p>Raphael made many rough studies for his +picture "La Disputa," and upon them he left +three sonnets, written to the woman so dear to +him. These sonnets have been translated by +the librarian of l'Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts, +as follows: "Love, thou hast bound me +with the light of two eyes which torment me, +with a face like snow and roses, with sweet +words and tender manners. So great is my +ardour that no river or sea could extinguish +<a name="247"></a> +my fire. But I do not complain, for my +ardour makes me happy.... How sweet +was the chain, how light the yoke of her +white arms about my neck. When these bonds +were loosed, I felt a mortal grief. I will say +no more; a great joy kills, and, though my +thoughts turn to thee, I will keep silence."</p> + +<p>Although he had been a man of many loves, +Raphael must have found in the manufacturer's +daughter his best love, because he remained +faithful and devoted to her for the twelve +years of life that were left to him. It was said +some years later, while he was engaged upon a +commission for a rich banker, that "Raphael +was so much occupied with the love that he +bore to the lady of his choice that he could not +give sufficient attention to his work. Agostino +(the banker) therefore, falling at length into +despair of seeing it finished, made so many +efforts by means of friends and by his own care +that after much difficulty he at length prevailed +on the lady to take up her abode in his house, +where she was accordingly installed, in apartments +near those which Raphael was painting; +In this manner the work was ultimately brought +to a conclusion."</p> + +<p>Raphael painted this beautiful lady-love +many times, and in a picture in which she +wears a bracelet he has placed his name upon +the ornament.</p> + +<p>After this time he painted the "Madonna +della Casa d'Alba," which the Duchess d'Alba +<a name="248"></a> +gave to her physician for curing her of a grave +disorder. She died soon afterward, and the +physician was arrested on the charge of having +poisoned her. In course of time the picture +was purchased for $70,000 by the Russian +Emperor, and it is now in "The Hermitage," +St. Petersburg.</p> + +<p>A writer telling of that time, relates the +following anecdote: "Raphael of Urbino had +painted for Agostino Chigi (the rich banker +already mentioned) at Santa Maria della Pace, +some prophets and sibyls, on which he had +received an advance of five hundred scudi. +One day he demanded of Agostino's cashier +(Giulio Borghesi) the remainder of the sum +at which he estimated his work. The cashier, +being astounded at this demand, and thinking +that the sum already paid was sufficient, did +not reply. 'Cause the work to be estimated +by a judge of painting,' replied Raphael, 'and +you will see how moderate my demand is.'</p> + +<p>"Giulio Borghesi thought of Michael Angelo +for this valuation, and begged him to go to +the church and estimate the figures of Raphael. +Possibly he imagined that self-love, rivalry, +and jealousy would lead the Florentine to +lower the price of the pictures.</p> + +<p>"Michael Angelo went, accompanied by the +cashier, to Santa Maria della Pace, and, as he +was contemplating the fresco without uttering +a word, Borghesi questioned him. 'That +head,' replied Michael Angelo, pointing to one +<a name="249"></a> +of the sibyls, 'that head is worth a hundred +scudi.' ... 'and the others?' asked the +cashier. 'The others are not less.'</p> + +<p>"Someone who witnessed this scene related +it to Chigi. He heard every particular and, +offering in addition to the five hundred scudi +for five heads a hundred scudi to be paid for +each of the others, he said to his cashier, 'go +and give that to Raphael in payment for his +heads, and behave very politely to him, so that +he may be satisfied; for if he insists on my +paying also for the drapery, we should probably +be ruined!'"</p> + +<p>By the time Raphael was thirty-one he was +a rich man, and had built himself a beautiful +house near the Vatican, on the Via di Borgo +Nuova. Naught remains of that dwelling +except an angle of the right basement, which +has been made a part of the Accoramboni +Palace. His friends wished him above all +things to marry, but he was still true to Margherita +though he had become engaged to +the daughter of his nephew. He put the +marriage off year after year, till finally the +lady he was to have married died, and was +buried in Raphael's chapel in the Pantheon.</p> + +<p>Margherita was with him when he died, and +it was to her that he left much of his wealth.</p> + +<p>In the time of Raphael excavations were +being made about Rome, and many beautiful +statues uncovered, and he was charged +with the supervision of this work in order that +<a name="250"></a> +no art treasure should be lost or overlooked. +The pope decreed that if the excavators failed +to acquaint Raphael with every stone and +tablet that should he unearthed, they should +be fined from one to three hundred gold crowns.</p> + +<p>Raphael had his many paintings copied under +his own eye and engraved, and then distributed +broadcast, so that not only men of great wealth +but the common people might study them.</p> + +<p>Henry VIII. invited him to visit England, and +become court painter, and Francis I. wished +him to become the court painter of France.</p> + +<p>He loved history, and wished to write certain +historical works. He loved poetry and wrote +it. He loved philosophy and lived it--the +philosophy of generous feeling and kindly +thought for all the world. He kept poor +artists in his own home and provided for them.</p> + +<p>Raphael died on Good Friday night, +April 6th, in his thirty-seventh year, and all +Rome wept. He lay in state in his beautiful +home, with his unfinished picture of the +"Transfiguration," as background for his +catafalque. That painting with its colours +still wet, was carried in the procession to his +burial place in the Pantheon. When his death +was announced, the pope, Leo X., wept and +cried <i>"Ora pro nobis!"</i> while the Ambassador +from Mantua wrote home that "nothing is talked +of here but the loss of the man who at the close +of his six-and-thirtieth year has now ended +his first life; his second, that of his posthumous +<a name="251"></a> +fame, independent of death and transitory +things, through his works, and in what the +learned will write in his praise, must continue +forever."</p> + +<p>Raphael painted two hundred and eighty-seven +pictures in his thirty-seven years of life.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE SISTINE MADONNA</center> + +<p>It is said that the "Sistine Madonna," while +painted from an Italian model--doubtless +the lady whom Raphael so dearly loved--has +universal characteristics, so that she may "be +understood by everyone."</p> + +<p>He lived only three years after painting this +picture and it was the last "Holy Family" +painted by him. The Madonna stands upon a +curve of the earth, which is scarcely to be seen, +and looming mistily in front of her is a mass of +white vaporous clouds. On either side are +figures, St. Sixtus (for whom the picture was +named) and St. Barbara. Beside St. Sixtus +we see a crown or tiara; and the little tower at +St. Barbara's side is a part of her story.</p> + +<p>Barbara was the daughter of an Eastern +nobleman who feared that her great beauty +might lead to her being carried off; therefore +he caused her to be shut up in a great tower. +While thus imprisoned Barbara became a +Christian through the influence of a holy man, +and she begged her father to make three +windows in her gloomy tower: one, to let the +<a name="252"></a> +light of the Father stream upon her, another +to admit the light of the Son, and the third +that she might bathe in the light of the Holy +Ghost. Both St. Barbara and St. Sixtus were +martyrs for their faith.</p> + +<p>This Madonna is painted as if enclosed by +green velvet curtains, which have been drawn +aside, letting the golden light of the picture +blaze upon the one who looks; then upon a +little ledge below, looking out from the heavens, +are two little cherubs--known to all the world. +They look wistful, wise, roguish, and beautiful, +with fat little arms resting comfortably upon +the ledge. Raphael is said to have found his +models for these little angels in the street, +leaning wistfully upon the ledge of a baker's +window, looking at the good things to eat, +which were within. Raphael took them, put +wings to them, placed them at the feet of +Mary, and made two little images which have +brought smiles and tears to a multitude of +people. The "Sistine Madonna" hangs alone +in a room in the Dresden Gallery.</p> + +<p>Among Raphael's greatest works are: The +"Madonna della Sedia" (of the chair), "La Belle +Jardinière," "The School of Athens," "Saint +Cecilia," "The Transfiguration," "Death of +Ananias" (a cartoon for a series of tapestries), +"Madonna del Pesce," "La Disputa," "The +Marriage of Mary and Joseph," "St. George +Slaying the Dragon," "St. Michael Attacking +Satan" and the "Coronation of the Virgin."</p> + +<p><a name="253"></a></p> +<h1>XXXIII</h1> + +<h1>REMBRANDT (VAN RIJN)</h1> + +<center><i>Dutch School</i><br> +1606-1669<br> +<i>Pupil of Van Swanenburch</i></center> + +<p>Here are a few of the titles that have been +given to the greatest Dutch painter that +ever lived: The Shakespeare of Painting; the +Prince of Etchers; the King of Shadows; the +Painter of Painters. Muther calls him a "hero +from cloudland," and not only does he alone +wear these titles of greatness, but he alone +in his family had the name of Rembrandt.</p> + +<p>One writer has said that the great painter +was born "in a windmill," but this is not true. +He was born in Leyden for certain, though +not a great deal is known about his youth; and +his father was a miller, his mother a baker's +daughter.</p> + +<p>When the Pilgrim Fathers, who had sought +safety in Leyden, were starting for America, +where they were going to oppress others as +they had been oppressed, Rembrandt was +just beginning his apprenticeship in art.</p> + +<p>He was born at No. 3, Weddesteg, a house +on the rampart looking out upon the Rhine +whose two arms meet there. In front of it +whirled the great arms of his father's windmill, +<a name="254"></a> +though he was not born in it; and of all the +women Rembrandt ever knew, it is not likely +that he ever admired or loved one as passionately +as he admired and loved his mother. He +painted and etched her again and again, with a +touch so tender that his deepest emotion is +placed before us.</p> + +<p>Rembrandt had brothers and sisters--five: +Adriaen, Gerrit, Machteld, Cornelis, and Willem. +Of these, Adriaen became a miller like his +father, and presumably the old historic windmill +fell to him; Willem became a baker, but +Rembrandt, the fourth child, it was determined +should be a learned man, and belong to one +of the honoured professions, such as the law. +So he was sent to the Leyden Academy, but +here again we have an artist who decided he +knew enough of all else but art before he was +twelve years old. He found himself at that age +in the studio of his first art-master, Jacob van +Swanenburch, a relative, who had studied art +in Italy, and was a good master for the lad; +but Rembrandt became so brilliant a painter +in three years' time, that he was sent to Amsterdam +to learn of abler men.</p> + +<p>The lad could not in those days get far from +his adored mother; so he stayed only a little +time, before he went back to Leyden where she +was. There was his heart, and, painting or no +painting, he must be near it.</p> + +<p>Until the past thirty years no one has +seemed to know a great deal of Rembrandt's +<a name="255"></a> +early history, but much was written of him +as a boorish, gross, vulgar fellow. Those +stories were false. He was a devoted son, +handsome, studious in art, and earnest in +all that he did, and after he had made his +first notable painting he was compelled by the +demands of his work to move to Amsterdam +for good. He hired an apartment over a shop +on the Quay Bloemgracht; it is probable +that his sister went with him to keep his house, +and that it is her face repeated so frequently +in the many pictures which he painted at +that time. This does not suggest coarse doings +or a careless life, but permits us to imagine a +quiet, sober, unselfish existence for the young +bachelor at that time.</p> + +<p>Soon, however, he fell in love. He saw one +other woman to place in his heart and memory +beside his mother. His wife was Saskia van +Ulenburg, the daughter of an aristocrat, +refined and rich. He met her through her +cousin, an art dealer, who had ordered Rembrandt +to paint a portrait of his dainty cousin. +Rembrandt could have been nothing but what +was delightful and good, since he was loved +by so charming a girl as Saskia.</p> + +<p>He painted her sitting upon his knee, and +used her as model in many pictures. First, +last, and always he loved her tenderly.</p> + +<p>In one portrait she is dressed in "red and +gold-embroidered velvets"; the mantle she wore +he had brought from Leyden. In another +<a name="256"></a> +picture she is at her toilet, having her hair +arranged; again she is painted in a great red +velvet hat, and then as a Jewish bride, wearing +pearls, and holding a shepherd's staff in her +hand. Again, Rembrandt painted himself as a +giant at the feet of a dainty woman, and in +every way his work showed his love for her. After +he married her, in June 1634, he painted the +picture, "Samson's Wedding," "Saskia, dainty +and serene, sitting like a princess in a circle of +her relatives, he himself appearing as a crude +plebeian, whose strange jokes frighten more than +they amuse the distinguished company. ... +The early years of his marriage were spent in +joy and revelry. Surrounded by calculating +business men who kept a tight grasp on their +money bags, he assumed the rôle of an artist +scattering money with a free hand; surrounded +by small townsmen most proper in demeanour, +he revealed himself as the bold lasquenet, +frightening them by his cavalier manners. He +brought together all manner of Oriental arms, +ancient fabrics, and gleaming jewellery; and his +house became one of the sights of Amsterdam." +His existence reads like a fairy tale.</p> + +<p>It is said that Saskia strutted about decked +in gold and diamonds, till her relatives "shook +their heads" in alarm and amazement at such +wild goings on.</p> + +<p>Before he married Saskia he had painted a +remarkable picture, named the "School of +Anatomy." It represents a great anatomist, +<a name="257"></a> +the friend of Rembrandt--Nicholaus Tulp,--and +a group of physicians who were members +of the Guild of Surgeons of Amsterdam. It is +so wonderful a picture that even the dead +man, who is being used as a subject by the +anatomist, does not too greatly disturb us as +we look upon him. The thoughtful, interested +faces of the surgeons are so strong that we half +lose ourselves in their feeling, and forget to +start in repulsion at sight of the dead body. +A fine description of this painting can be found +in Sarah K. Bolton's book "Famous Artists" +and it includes the description given by another +excellent authority.</p> + +<p>The artist was twenty-six years old when he +painted the "School of Anatomy." This +picture is now at The Hague and two hundred +years after it was painted the Dutch Government +gave 30,000 florins for it.</p> + +<p>Rembrandt painted a good many "Samsons" +first and last--himself evidently being the +strong man; and the pictures beyond doubt +express his own mood and his idea of his relation +to things. After a little son was born to +the artist, he painted still another Samson--this +time menacing his father-in-law but as the +artist had named his son after his father-in-law,--Rombertus--we +cannot believe that there +was any menace in the heart of Rembrandt--Samson. +Soon his son died, and Rembrandt +thought he should never again know happiness, +or that the world could hold a greater grief, +<a name="258"></a> +but one day he was to learn otherwise. A +little girl was born to the artist, named +Cornelia, after Rembrandt's mother, and he +was again very happy.</p> + +<p>Meantime his brothers and sisters had died, +and there came some trouble over Rembrandt's +inheritance, but what angered him most of all, +was that Saskia's relatives said she "had +squandered her heritage in ornaments and +ostentation." This made Rembrandt wild +with rage, and he sued her slanderers, for he +himself had done the squandering, buying every +beautiful thing he could find or pay for, to +deck Saskia in, and he meant to go on doing so.</p> + +<p>At this time he painted a picture of "The +Feast of Ahasuerus" (or the "Wedding of +Samson") and he placed Saskia in the middle +of the table to represent Esther or Delilah as +the case might be, dressed in a way to +horrify her critical relatives, for she looked like +a veritable princess laden with gorgeous +jewels.</p> + +<p>One of his pictures he wished to have hung +in a strong light, for he said: "Pictures are +not made to be smelt. The odour of the colours +is unhealthy."</p> + +<p>The first baby girl died and on the birth +of another daughter she too was named Cornelia, +but that baby girl also died, and next +came a son, Titus, named for Saskia's sister, +Titia, and then Saskia died. Thus Rembrandt +knew the deepest sorrow of his life.</p> + +<p><a name="259"></a> +He painted her portrait once again from +memory, and that picture is quite unlike the +others for it is no longer full of glowing life, +but daintier, suggestive of a more spiritual life, +as if she were growing fragile.</p> + +<p>It is written that "from this time, while he +did much remarkable work, he seemed like a +man on a mountain top, looking on one side to +sweet meadows filled with flowers and sunlight, +and on the other to a desolate landscape over +which a clouded sun is setting." With Saskia +died the best of Rembrandt. He made only +one more portrait of himself--before this he +had made many; and in it he makes himself +appear a stern and fateful man. It was after +Saskia's death that he painted the "Night +Watch," or more properly, "The Sortie."</p> + +<p>Rembrandt's home, where he and Saskia +were so happy, is still to be seen on a quay +of the River Amstel. It is a house of brick and +cut stone, four stories high. The vestibule +used to have a flag-stone pavement covered +with fir-wood. There were also "black-cushioned, +Spanish chairs for those who wait," +and all about were twenty-four busts and +paintings. There was an ante-chamber, very +large, with seven Spanish chairs covered with +green velvet, and a walnut table covered with +"a Tournay cloth"; there was a mirror with +an ebony frame, and near by a marble wine-cooler. +Upon the wall of this <i>salon</i> were +thirty-nine pictures and most of them had +<a name="260"></a> +beautiful frames. "There were religious +scenes, landscapes, architectural sketches, +works of Pinas, Brouwer, Lucas van Leyden, +and other Dutch masters; sixteen pictures by +Rembrandt; and costly paintings by Palma +Vecchio, Bassano, and Raphael."</p> + +<p>In the next room was a real art museum, +containing splendid pictures, an oaken press +and other things which suggest that this was +the workroom where Rembrandt's etchings +were made and printed.</p> + +<p>In the drawing-room was a huge mirror, a +great oaken table covered with a rich embroidered +cloth, "six chairs with blue coverings, a +bed with blue hangings, a cedar wardrobe, and a +chest of the same wood." The walls were +literally covered with pictures, among which +was a Raphael.</p> + +<p>Above was a sort of museum and Rembrandt's +studio. There was rare glass from +Venice, busts, sketches, paintings, cloths, +weapons, armour, plants, stuffed birds and +shells, fans, and books and globes. In short, +this was a most wonderful house and no other +interior can we reconstruct as we can this, +because no other such detailed inventory can +be found of a great man's effects as that from +which these notes are taken: a legal inventory +made in 1656, long after Saskia had died and +possibly at a time when Rembrandt wished to +close his doors forever and forget the scenes in +which he had been so happy.</p> + +<p><a name="261"></a> +Holland being truly a Protestant country, +its artists have given us no great Madonna +pictures, although they painted loving, happy +Dutch mothers and little babes, but on the +whole their subjects are quite different from +those of the painters of Italy, France, and +Spain.</p> + +<p>Rembrandt's studio was different from any +other. When he first began to work independently +and to have pupils, he fitted it up +with many little cells, properly lighted, so that +each student might work alone, as he knew +far better work could be done in that way. It +is said that his pictures of beggars would, by +themselves, fill a gallery. He had a kindly +sympathy for the poor and unfortunate, and +tramps knew this, so that they swarmed about +his studio doors, trying to get sittings.</p> + +<p>There is a story which doubtless had for its +germ a joke regarding the slowness of an errand +boy in a friend's household, but which at the +same time shows us how rapidly Rembrandt +worked. The artist had been carried off to +the country to lunch with his friend Jan Six, +and as they sat down at the table, Six discovered +there was no mustard. He sent his boy, Hans, +for it, and as the boy went out, Rembrandt +wagered that he could make an etching before +the boy got back. Six took the wager, and +the artist pulled a copper plate from his +pocket--he always carried one--and on its +waxed surface began to etch the landscape +<a name="262"></a> +before him. Just as Hans returned, Rembrandt +gleefully handed Six the completed +picture.</p> + +<p>He was a great portrait painter, but he loved +certain effects of shadow so well that he often +sacrificed his subject's good looks to his artistic +purpose, and very naturally his sitters became +displeased, so that in time he had fewer +commissions than if he had been entirely +accommodating.</p> + +<p>His meals in working time were very simple, +often just bread and cheese, eaten while sitting +at his easel, and after Saskia died he became +more and more careless of all domestic details.</p> + +<p>Rembrandt finally married again, the +second time choosing his housekeeper, a good +and helpful woman, who was properly bringing +up his little son, and making life better ordered +for the artist, but he had grown poor by this +time for he was never a very good business man. +His beautiful house was at last sold to a rich +shoemaker. Every picture latterly reflected +his condition and mood. He chose subjects +in which he imagined himself always to be the +actor, and when his second wife died he painted +a picture of "Youth Surprised by Death"; +he had not long to live. He became more and +more melancholy; and sleeping by day, would +wander about the country at night, disconsolate +and sad. Finally, when he died, an inventory +of his effects, showed him to be possessed of +only a few old woollen clothes and his brushes +<a name="263"></a> +The miracle in Rembrandt's painting is the +deep, impenetrable shadow, in which nevertheless +one can see form and outline, punctuated +with wonderful explosions of light. Nothing +like it has ever been seen. It is the most +dramatic work in the world, and the most +powerful in its effect. Other men have painted +light and colour; Rembrandt makes gloom and +shadow living things.</p> + +<p>This miracle-worker's funeral cost ten +dollars; he died in Amsterdam and was buried +in the Wester Kirk.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE SORTIE</center> + +<p>This picture is generally known as "The +Night Watch," but it is really "The Sortie" +of a company of musketeers under the command +of a standard bearer. Captain Frans Banning-Cock +and all his company were to pay Rembrandt +for painting their portraits in a group +and in action, and they expected to see +themselves in heroic and picturesque dress, in +the full blaze of day, but Rembrandt had +found a magnificent subject for his wonderful +shadows, and the artist was not going to +sacrifice it to the vanity of the archers.</p> + +<p>This picture was called the "Patrouille de +Nuit," by the French and the "Night Watch," +by Sir Joshua Reynolds because upon its +discovery the picture was so dimmed and +defaced by time that it was almost indistinguishable +<a name="264"></a> +and it looked quite like a +night scene. After it was cleaned up, it was +discovered to represent broad day--a party +of archers stepping from a gloomy courtyard +into the blinding sunlight. "How this +different light is painted, which encircles the +figures, here sunny, there gloomy!... +Rembrandt runs through the entire range of his +colours, from the lightest yellow through all +shades of light and dark red to the gloomiest +black." One writer describes it thus: "It +is more than a picture; it is a spectacle, and +an amazing one... A great crowd of +human figures, a great light, a great darkness--at +the first glance this is what strikes you, and +for a moment you know not where to fix your +eyes in order to comprehend that grand and +splendid confusion... There are officers, +halberdiers, boys running, arquebusiers loading +and firing, youths beating drums, people bowing +talking, calling out, gesticulating--all dressed +in different costumes, with round hats, plumes, +casques, morions, iron corgets, linen collars, +doublets embroidered with gold, great boots, +stockings of all colours, arms of every form; +and all this tumultuous and glittering throng +start out from the dark background of the +picture and advance toward the spectator. +The two first personages are Frans Banning-Cock, +Lord of Furmerland and Ilpendam, +captain of the company, and his lieutenant, +Willem van Ruijtenberg, Lord of Vlaardingen, +<a name="265"></a> +the two marching side by side. The +only figures that are in full light are this +lieutenant, dressed in a doublet of buffalo-hide, +with gold ornaments, scarf, gorget, and white +plume, with high boots, and a girl who comes +behind, with blond hair ornamented with +pearls, and a yellow satin dress; all the other +figures are in deep shadow, excepting the +heads, which are illuminated. By what +light? Here is the enigma. Is it the light of +the sun? or of the moon? or of the torches? +There are gleams of gold and silver, moonlight +coloured reflections, fiery lights; personages +which, like the girl with blond tresses, seem to +shine by a light of their own.... The +more you look at it, the more it is alive and +glowing; and, even seen only at a glance, it +remains forever in the memory, with all its +mystery and splendour, like a stupendous +vision." Charles Blanc has said: "To tell +the truth, this is only a dream of night, and +no one can decide what the light is that falls +on the groups of figures. It is neither the light +of the sun or of the moon, nor does it come +from the torches; it is rather the light from +the genius of Rembrandt."</p> + +<p>This wonderful picture was painted in 1642 +and many of the archer's guild who gave +Rembrandt the commission would not pay +their share because their faces were not plainly +seen. This picture which alone was enough +to make him immortal, was the very last +<a name="266"></a> +commission that any of the guilds were willing +to give the artist, because he would not make +their portraits beautiful or fine looking to the +disadvantage of the whole picture. This work +hangs in the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam. +He painted more than six hundred and +twenty-five pictures and some of them are: +"The Anatomy Lesson," "The Syndics of the +Cloth Hall," "The Descent from the Cross," +"Samson Threatening His Step Father," "The +Money Changer," "Holy Family," "The +Presentation of Christ in the Temple," "The +Marriage of Samson," "The Rape of Ganymede," +"Susanna and the Elders," "Manoah's Sacrifice," +"The Storm," "The Good Samaritan," +"Pilate Washing His Hands," "Ecce Home," +and pictures of his wife, Saskia.</p> + +<p><a name="267"></a></p> +<h1>XXXIV</h1> + +<h1>SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS</h1> + +<center><i>English School</i><br> +1723-1792<br> +<i>Pupil of Thomas Hudson</i></center> + +<p>When Reynolds was "little Josh," instead +of "Sir Joshua" he grew tired in church +one day, and sketched upon the nail of his +thumb the portrait of the Rev. Mr. Smart who +was preaching. After service he ran to a boat-house +near, and with ship's paint, upon an old +piece of sail, he painted in full and flowing +colours that reverend gentleman's portrait. +After that there was not the least possible +excuse for his father to deny him the right to +become an artist.</p> + +<p>The father himself was a clergyman with a +good education, and he had meant that his son +should also be well educated and become a +physician; but a lad who at eight years of age +can draw the Plympton school house--he +was born at Plympton Earl, in Devonshire--has +a right to choose his own profession.</p> + +<p>At twenty-three years of age Sir Joshua was +painting the portraits of great folk, and being +well paid for it, as well as lavishly praised. +His first real sorrow came at a Christmas +time when he was summoned home from +<a name="268"></a> +London where he was working, to his father's +deathbed.</p> + +<p>After that the artist turned his thoughts +toward Italy, but where was the money to +come from? Earning a living did not include +travelling expenses, but a good friend, Captain +Keppel, was going out to treat with the Dey of +Algiers about his piracies, and learning that the +artist wished to go to Italy he invited him to go +with him on his own ship, the <i>Centurion.</i> +So while the captain was discussing pirates +with the dey, Sir Joshua stopped with the +Governor of Minorca and painted many of the +people of that locality. Thence on to Rome!</p> + +<p>Strange to say, Raphael's pictures disappointed +the English artist, and he said so; +but Michael Angelo was to Reynolds the most +wonderful of painters, and he said that his +pictures influenced him all the rest of his life. +He wished his name to be the last upon his +lips, and while that was not so, yet it was +the last he pronounced to his fellow Academicians +in his final address.</p> + +<p>It was in Italy that a distressing misfortune +came upon Sir Joshua. He meant to learn +all that a man could learn in a given time +of the art treasures there, and while he was +working in a draughty corridor of the Vatican, +he caught a severe cold which rendered him +deaf. He continued deaf till the end of his +life and had to use an ear-trumpet when people +talked with him.</p> + +<p><a name="269"></a> +When he got back to England, Hudson, his +old master, said discouragingly: "Reynolds, +you don't paint as well as when you left +England." On the whole his reception at +home, after his long absence, was not all that +he could have wished, but he took a place in +Leicester Square, settled down to live there for +the rest of his life, and went at painting in +earnest.</p> + +<p>Although artists criticised him more or less +after his return, the public appreciated him +and very soon orders for portraits began to +pour in upon him, and the flow of wealth never +ceased so long as he lived. It was said that all +the fashionables came to him that did not go to +Gainsborough, but those who were partial to +Sir Joshua declared that all who could not go +to him went to Gainsborough. The two great +artists controlled the art world in their time, +dividing honours about equally. It was said +that all those women and men sat to Sir Joshua +for portraits "who wished to be transmitted +as angels... and who wished to appear +as heroes or philosophers."</p> + +<p>Sir Joshua was a charming man, generous +in feeling--as Gainsborough was not--and +his closest friend was Dr. Johnson, the most +different man from the artist imaginable, but +Reynolds's art and Johnson's philosophy made +a fine combination, each giving the other great +pleasure. Besides Johnson, his friends were +Goldsmith, Garrick, Bishop Percy, and other +<a name="270"></a> +famous men of the time. These and others +formed the "Literary Club" at Sir Joshua's +suggestion. About that time there was the +first public exhibition of the work of English +artists, and Sir Benjamin West and Sir Joshua +Reynolds built the Royal Academy for that +first exhibition, with the help of King George's +patronage. Joshua Reynolds was knighted +when he was made the first president of that +great body.</p> + +<p>Soon after the Academy was established, +Reynolds began a series of "discourses," which +in time became famous for their splendid +literary quality, and some people, knowing his +close friendship with Burke and Dr. Johnson, +declared that the artist got one of them to write +his "discourses" for him. This threw Johnson +and Burke into a fury of resentment for their +friend, and the doctor declared indignantly +that "Sir Joshua would as soon get me to +paint for him as to write for him!" +Burke denied the story no less emphatically. +Besides these speeches, which were a great +advantage to the members of the Academy, +Sir Joshua instituted the annual banquet to +the members, and King George--who just +before had given the commission of court +painter to one less talented than Sir Joshua--bade +him paint his portrait and the queen's, +to hang in the Academy. This was a great +thing for the new society and advanced its +fortunes very much.</p> + +<p><a name="271"></a> +Barry and Gainsborough were both churlish +enough to envy Sir Joshua and to quarrel +with his good feeling for them, but both men +had the grace to be sorry for behaviour that +had no excuse, and both made friends with +him before they died--Gainsborough on his +death-bed.</p> + +<p>Toward his last days the artist was attacked +with paralysis, but grew better and was able +to paint again; then he began to go blind--he +was already deaf--and this affliction made +painting impossible. Shortly before his death, +he undertook to raise funds for a monument +to his dead friend, Dr. Johnson, but he grew +more and more ill, "and on the 23d February, +1792, this great artist and blameless gentleman +passed peacefully away."</p> + +<p>That he was very painstaking in his work is +shown by an anecdote about his infant +"Hercules." "How did you paint that part +of the picture?" some one asked him. "How +can I tell! There are ten pictures below this, +some better, some worse"--showing that in +his desire for perfection he painted and +repainted.</p> + +<p>So untiring was he in seeking out the secrets +of the old masters that he bought works of +Titian and Rubens, and scraped them, to learn +their methods, insisting that they had some +secret underlying their work. So anxious +was he to get the most brilliant effects of +colours that he mixed his paints with asphaltum, +<a name="272"></a> +egg, varnish, wax, and the like, till one artist +said: "The wonder is that the picture did +not crack beneath the brush." Many of +these great pictures did go to pieces because of +the chances Sir Joshua took in mixing things +that did not belong together, in order to make +wonderful results.</p> + +<p>Sir George Beaumont recommended a friend +to go to Reynolds for his portrait and the +friend demurred, because "his colours fade +and his pictures die before the man."</p> + +<p>"Never mind that!" Sir George declared; +"a faded portrait by Reynolds is better than +a fresh one by anybody else."</p> + +<p>The same tender, sensitive and devoted +nature which caused Sir Joshua's mother to +weep herself blind upon her husband's death, +belonged to the artist. All of his life he was +surrounded by loving friends, and his devotion +to them was conspicuous. He, like Dürer and +several other painters, was a seventh son, and +his father's disappointment was keen when he +took to art instead of to medicine. So little +did his father realise what his future might be, +that he wrote under the sketch of a wall with a +window in it, drawn upon a Latin exercise +book: "This is drawn by Joshua in school, +out of pure idleness."</p> + +<p>But by the time Joshua was eight years old +and had drawn a fine "sketch of the grammar-school +with its cloister... the astonished +father said: 'Now, this exemplifies what the +<a name="273"></a> +author of "perspective" says in his preface: +"that, by observing the rules laid down in this +book, a man may do wonders"--for this is +wonderful.'"</p> + +<p>Sir Joshua laid down--even wrote out--a +great many rules of conduct for himself. +Some of these were: "The great principle +of being happy in this world is not to mind or +be affected with small things." Also: "If +you take too much care of yourself, nature +will cease to take care of you."</p> + +<p>When Samuel Reynolds, Joshua's father, +consulted with his friend Mr. Craunch, as to +whether a boy who made wonderful paintings +at twelve years of age, would be likely to be a +successful apothecary, he told Craunch that +Joshua himself had declared that he would +rather be a good apothecary than a poor artist, +but if he could be bound to a good master of +painting he would prefer that above everything +in the world. This was how he came +to be apprenticed to Hudson, the painter. +Young Reynolds's sister paid for his instruction +at first--or for half of it, with the understanding +that Reynolds was to pay her back when he +was earning. At that time Reynolds wrote +to his father: "While I am doing this I am +the happiest creature alive."</p> + +<p>One day, while in an art store, buying something +for Hudson, Reynolds saw Alexander +Pope, the poet, come in, and every one bowed +to him and made way for him as if for a prince. +<a name="274"></a> +Pope shook hands with young Reynolds, and +in writing home, describing the poet, the +artist said that he was "about four feet six +inches high; very humpbacked and deformed. +He wore a black coat and according to the +fashion of that time, had on a little sword. He +had a large and very fine eye, and a long handsome +nose; his mouth had those peculiar +marks which are always found in the mouths of +crooked persons, and the muscles which run +across the cheeks were so strongly marked +that they seemed like small cords." This is a +masterly description of one famous man by +another.</p> + +<p>He finally was dismissed from his master's +studio on the ground that he had neglected to +carry a picture to its owner at the time set by +Hudson, but the fact was the older artist had +become jealous of the work of his pupil, and +would no longer have him in his studio.</p> + +<p>Afterwards, while he was painting down in +Devonshire--thirty portraits of country +squires for fifteen dollars apiece--he said: +"Those who are determined to excel must go +to their work whether willing or unwilling, +morning, noon, and night, and they will find +it to be no play, but, on the contrary, very +hard labour." This shows that Reynolds's idea +of genius was "an infinite capacity for hard +work."</p> + +<p>While Reynolds was on his memorable +journey to Rome, he made several volumes +<a name="275"></a> +of notes about the pictures of great Italian +artists--Raphael, Titian, etc. And one of +those volumes is in the Lenox Library, New +York City. He made a most characteristic +and delightful remark in regard to his disappointment +in Raphael's pictures. "I did not +for a moment conceive or suppose that the +name of Raphael, and those admirable paintings +in particular, owed their reputation to the +<i>ignorance</i> ... of mankind; on the +contrary, my not relishing them, as I was +conscious I ought to have done was one of the +most humiliating things that ever happened to +me."</p> + +<p>He loved home and country so much that +while in Venice he heard a familiar ballad sung +in an opera, and it brought the tears to his +eyes because of its association with "home."</p> + +<p>His young sister, was so undecided in her +ways and opinions as to make it impossible +for Reynolds long to live with her, but she +undertook to be his housekeeper when he +returned to London, and she also tried to copy +his pictures Reynolds said the results "made +other people laugh, but they made me cry."</p> + +<p>Reynolds painted the portraits of two Irish +sisters--the Countess of Coventry and the +Duchess of Hamilton--two of the most beautiful +women in all the British Empire. +"Seven hundred people sat up all night, in and +about a Yorkshire inn, to see the Duchess of +Hamilton get into her postchaise in the morning, +<a name="276"></a> +while a Worcester shoemaker made money by +showing the shoe he was making for the Countess +of Coventry." Sir Joshua declared that +whenever a new sitter came to him, even till +the last years of his life, he always began his +portrait with the determination that that one +should be the best he had ever painted. Success +was bound to attend that sort of man.</p> + +<p>He painted every picture almost as an +experiment; meaning to learn something new +with every work, and he spent more than he +made in perfecting his art. As he said: "He +would be content to ruin himself" in order to +own one of the best works of Titian.</p> + +<p>His deeds of kindness are beyond counting. +He rescued his friend Dr. Johnson from debt--thereby +saving him from prison; and when a +young lad, "a son of Dr. Mudge," who was +very anxious to visit his father on the occasion +of his sixteenth birthday, grew too ill to make +the journey. Reynolds said gaily: "No matter +my boy. <i>I</i> will send you to your father." He +painted a splendid portrait of the boy and sent +it to Dr. Mudge. This gift of a picture, +however, was very unusual with Reynolds, +who, unlike Gainsborough who gave his by +the bushel to everyone, declared that his +pictures were not valued unless paid for. +When Sir William Lowther, a gay and rich +young man of London, died, he left twenty-five +thousand dollars to each of thirteen friends, +and each of the thirteen commissioned the +<a name="277"></a> +painter to make a portrait of Lowther, their +benefactor. His work room was of interest: +"The chair for his sitters was raised eighteen +inches from the floor, and turned on casters. +His palettes were those which are held by +a handle, not those held on the thumb. The +stocks of his pencils were long, measuring about +nineteen inches. He painted in that part of +the room nearest to the window, and never sat +down when he painted." The chariot in which +he drove about had the four seasons allegorically +painted upon its panels, and his liveries were +"laced with silver"; while the wheels of his +coach were carved with foliage and gilded.</p> + +<p>Sir Joshua knew that it paid to advertise, +and as he had no time to go about in that +gorgeous chariot he made his sister go, for he +declared that people seeing that magnificent +coach would ask: "Whose chariot is that?" +and upon being told could not fail to be impressed +with his prestige. The comical +inconsequence of this anecdote concerning a +man so important robs it of vulgarity.</p> + +<p>The graceful anecdotes told of Reynolds are +without number, but one and all are to his +advantage and show him to have been good and +gentle, a devoted and high-bred man.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE AND HER DAUGHTER</center> + +<p>This is generally considered one of the finest +of Sir Joshua's pictures, if not the most +<a name="278"></a> +beautiful of all. He was such a welcome guest +at the houses of grandees that perchance he had +noticed the lovely duchess playing with her +still more lovely baby, and thought what a +charming picture the two would make. As a +representation of the artist's ability to portray +grace and sweetness it can hardly be surpassed. +He painted it in 1786, half a dozen +years before his death, and it now hangs in +Chatsworth, the home of the present Duke of +Devonshire.</p> + +<p>Other well known Reynolds paintings are +"The Hon. Ann Bingham," "The Countess of +Spencer," the "Nieces of Sir Horace Walpole," +and the "Angels' Heads" in the National +Gallery.</p> + +<p><a name="279"></a></p> +<h1>XXXV</h1> + +<h1>PETER PAUL RUBENS.</h1> + +<center><i>Flemish School</i><br> +1577-1640<br> +<i>Pupil of Tobias Verhaecht</i> </center> + +<p>The story of Peter Paul Rubens, whose +birthday falling upon the saint days +of Peter and Paul gave to him his name, is +hardly more interesting than that of his parents, +although it is quite different. The story of +Rubens's parents seems a part of the artist's +story, because it must have had something to +do with influencing his life, so let us begin with +that.</p> + +<p>John Rubens was Peter Paul's father, and he +was a learned man, a druggist, but he had also +studied law, and had been town councillor and +alderman in the town where he was born. +Life went easily enough with him till the +reformation wrought by Martin Luther began +to change John Rubens's way of thinking, and +he turned from Catholic to Lutheran.</p> + +<p>From being a good Catholic John Rubens +became a rabid reformer; and when, under +the new faith, the Antwerp churches were +stripped of their treasures, the magistrates +were called to account for it. John Rubens, +as councillor, was among those summoned. +<a name="280"></a> +The magistrates declared that they were all +good Catholics, but a list of the reformers fell +into the Duke of Alva's hands and Rubens's +name was there. This meant death unless he +should succeed in flying from the country, +which he instantly did. That was in 1568, +when he had four children, but Peter Paul was +not one of them--since he was a seventh son.</p> + +<p>The Rubens family went to live in Cologne, +where the father found his learning of great +use to him, and he was honoured by being +made legal adviser to Anne of Saxony who +was William the Silent's second queen. John +Rubens's behaviour was not entirely honourable +and before long he was thrown into prison, but +his good wife, Maria Pypelincx undertook to +free him. He had treated her very badly, +but her devotion to his cause was as great as +if he had treated her well. Despite his wife's +efforts he was kept a prisoner in the dungeon +at Dillenburg for two years, and afterward +he was removed to Siegen, the place where +Peter Paul was born.</p> + +<p>In the sixteenth century there were no +records of any sort kept in the town of Siegen, +and so we cannot be absolutely sure that Peter +Paul was born there, but his mother was +certainly there just before and after the date +of his birth, which was the 29th of June +1577. After his birth, his father was set free +in Siegen and allowed to go back to the city +in which he had misbehaved himself. In +<a name="281"></a> +Cologne he became once more a Catholic, and +he died in that faith. Meantime, ten years had +passed since Peter Paul's birth, and both his +father and mother were determined above +all things their son should have a fine education, +quite unlike other artists, for the boy seemed +capable of learning. While he was still very +small he could speak to his tutor in French, to +his mother in Flemish, and to his father in Latin. +Besides these languages he spoke also Italian +and English. Before he was an artist, Rubens, +like Dürer and Leonardo da Vinci, was a child +of rare intelligence. As a little chap he went +to Antwerp with his mother--this was after +his father's death--and in Belgium he took +for the first time the rôle of courtier, in which +he was to become so successful later in life. +The charming little fellow, dressed in velvet +and lace, took his place in the household of the +Countess of Lalaing, in Brussels.</p> + +<p>Very soon after entering that household, +Rubens was permitted by his mother to leave +it for the studio of the painter who was his +first master, though not the one who really +taught him much. Rubens did not stay there +long, but went instead to the studio of Adam +van Noort, an excellent painter of the time. +After that he studied under another artist, +who was both a scholar and a gentleman, Van +Veen, and with him Peter Paul was able to +speak in Latin and in his many other languages, +while learning to paint at the same time.</p> + +<p><a name="282"></a> +Thus we find Rubens's lot was always cast, not +among the rich, but among the intelligent, the +well bred, and the cultivated. This fact alone +would prepare us to anticipate pleasant things +for him and from him.</p> + +<p>In those days of guilds, there were many +rules and regulations. Van Noort, Rubens's +teacher, was dean of the painters' guild +and through his influence the guild recognised +Rubens as "master," which meant that he +was qualified to take pupils; thus he was pupil +and teacher at the same time.</p> + +<p>One is unable to think of Rubens as having +low tastes, as being morose, erratic, or anything +but a refined, gracious, and brilliant gentleman. +He began well, lived well, and ended well.</p> + +<p>None of his teachers really impressed their +style of art upon him. He was the model for +others. Rubens became nothing but Rubens, +but all the art world wished to become +"Rubenesque."</p> + +<p>Rubens went to Mantua to see the art of +Italy, and while there he met the Duke of +Mantua who was Vincenzo Gonzaga, the richest, +most powerful personage of that region and +time. The duke engaged Rubens to paint +the portraits of many beautiful women--just +the sort of commission that Rubens's pupil, +Van Dyck, would have loved; but Rubens's +art was of sterner stuff, and the work by no +means delighted him. He had great ideas, +profound purposes, and wished to undertake +<a name="283"></a> +them, but just then it seemed best that he +perform that which the Duke of Mantua wanted +him to do; hence he set about it.</p> + +<p>Later Rubens went to the Spanish court, +not as a painter, but as a cavalier upon a +diplomatic mission. Bearing many beautiful +presents to King Philip III., he went to Madrid, +where his elegance, manly beauty, dashing +manner, and ability to speak several languages +made him a wonderful success. He remained +for three years at the court and studied the +methods of Spanish painters. He also painted +the members of the Spanish court, as Velasquez +had done, but they looked like people of +another world. The Spanish aristocracy had +always been painted with pallid faces, languid +and elegant poses; but Rubens gave them a +touch of the life he loved--made them robust +and apparently healthy-minded. Of all great +colourists, Rubens took the lead. Titian with +his golden hues and warm haired women was +very great, but Rubens, "the Fleming" as he +was called, revelled in richness of colouring, +and flamed through art like a glorious comet.</p> + +<p>Rubens had long been wanted in his own +country. His sovereigns, Albert and Isabella, +wished him to return and become their painter, +but they were unable to free him from his +engagements in Italy and Spain. At last Rubens +received word that his mother, whom he loved +devotedly, was likely to die, and what kings +could not do his love for her accomplished.</p> + +<p><a name="284"></a> +Although his patron, the Duke of Mantua, was +absent, and his consent could not be secured, +Rubens set off post-haste to his mother's home. +He arrived in Antwerp too late to see Maria +Pypelincx, who had died before he reached her. +Once more on his native soil, Albert and +Isabella determined to induce him to remain. +He had intended to go back to Mantua and +continue his work under the duke, but since +he was now in Belgium he decided to stay there, +and thus he became the court painter in his +own country, which after all he greatly preferred +to any other.</p> + +<p>He was to have a salary of five hundred +livres ($96) a year, also "the rights, honours, +privileges, exemptions, etc." that belonged to +those of the royal household; and he was given +a gold chain. In this day of large doings there +is something about such details that seems +childish, but a "gold chain" was by no means +a small affair at a time when $96 was +considered an ample money-provision for an +artist.</p> + +<p>That gorgeous gold chain, a mark of distinction +rather than a reward, is to be seen in all its +glory in one of Rubens's great paintings. The +artist himself is mounted upon a horse, the +chain about his neck, while he is surrounded by +"no fewer than eight-and-twenty life-size +figures, many in gorgeous attire, warriors in +steel armour, horsemen, slaves, camels, etc." +This picture, "The Adoration of the Magi," was +<a name="285"></a> +twelve feet by seventeen, and was painted at +the town's expense. It was later sent to Spain +and placed in the Madrid Gallery.</p> + +<p>One of the greatest honours that could come +to students of that day, was to be admitted +to Rubens's studio to paint under his direction, +and it is said that "hundreds of young men +waited their turn, painting meanwhile in the +studios of inferior artists, till they should be +admitted to the studio of the great master."</p> + +<p>Rubens was a king among painters, as well +as a painter patronised by kings.</p> + +<p>He had two wives, and he married the first +one in 1609. Her name was Isabella Brant. +Sir Joshua Reynolds said of her: "His wife is +very handsome and has an agreeable countenance, +but the picture is rather hard in manner"--by +which he meant a picture which Rubens +had painted of her. One of his greatest +privileges when he was engaged at the court of +Albert and Isabella, had been that he need +obey none of the exactions of the Guild of St. +Luke, none of their rigid rules concerning the +employment of art students. Rubens could +take into his service whom he pleased, whether +they had been admitted as members of the +guild or not, though to be a member of the +guild was a testimony to their qualifications. +In the end, this did a good deal of harm, for +Rubens employed students to do the preliminary +work of his pictures, who had not been +his pupils and who were not otherwise qualified. +<a name="286"></a> +Thus we read criticisms like that of Sir Joshua's; +and many of Rubens's pictures are marred +in this manner.</p> + +<p>A story is told of Van Dyck and other pupils +of Rubens breaking into the master's studio +and smudging a picture which Van Dyck +afterward repaired by painting in the damaged +portion most successfully. We are also told +in connection with Rubens's picture, "The +Descent from the Cross," that Van Dyck +restored an arm and shoulder of Mary of +Magdala, but certainly Van Dyck did not +become a pupil of Rubens till some time after +that picture was painted.</p> + +<p>The work of a wonderful period in Rubens's +art was completely destroyed. In two years +time he painted forty ceilings of churches in +Antwerp, all of which were burned, but there +is a record of them in the copies made by De +Witt, in water colours from which etchings were +afterward made. This work of Rubens was +the first example of foreshortening done by a +Flemish painter.</p> + +<p>Above all things Rubens liked to paint big +pictures, on very large surfaces, as did Michael +Angelo. "The large size of picture gives us +painters more courage to present our ideas +with the utmost freedom and semblance of +reality. ... I confess myself to be, by +a natural instinct, better fitted to execute +works of the largest size." He wrote this to +the English diplomat Trumbull in 1621.</p> + +<p><a name="287"></a> +In the midst of Rubens's greatest success as a +painter came his diplomatic services. It was +desirable that Spain and England should be +friends, and Rubens always moving about +because of his work, and being so very clever, +the Spanish powers thought him a good one to +negotiate with England. While on a professional +visit to Paris, the English Duke of +Buckingham and the artist met, and this +seemed to open a way for business. The +Infanta consented to have Rubens undertake +this delicate piece of statesmanship, but +Philip of Spain did not like the idea of an artist--a +wandering fellow, as an artist was then +thought to be--entering into such a dignified +affair. The real negotiator on the English +side, was Gerbier, by birth also a Fleming, and +strange to tell, he too had been an artist. +The English engaged him to look after their +interests in the affair, and as soon as Philip +learned that their diplomat was also an artist, +his prejudices against Rubens as a statesman, +disappeared. So it was decided that the two +Flemings, artists and diplomats, should meet +in Holland to discuss matters. About that +time Sir Dudley Carleton wrote to Lord +Conway: "Rubens is come hither to Holland, +where he now is, and Gerbier in his company, +walking from town to town, upon their pretence +of taking pictures, which may serve him for +a few days if he dispatch and be gone; but yf +he entertayne tyme here long, he will infallibly +<a name="288"></a> +be layd hold of, or sent with disgrace out of +the country ... this I have made known +to Rubens lest he should meet with a skorne +what may in some sort reflect upon others."</p> + +<p>The two clever men got through with their +talk, nothing unfortunate happened, and +Rubens got off to Spain where he laid the result +of his talk with Gerbier before the Spanish +powers. He was given a studio in Philip's +palace, where he carried on his art and his +diplomacy. The king became delighted with +him as a man and an artist, and as well as +attending to state business, he did some +wonderful painting while in Madrid. He was +there nine months or more, and then started +off for England to tell Charles I. of Philip III.'s +wishes. But upon his arrival he learned that +a peace had just been concluded between France +and England, and all was excitement.</p> + +<p>He was received in England as a great artist; +every honour was showered upon him, and +when he made Philip's request to Charles, +that he should not act in a manner hostile to +Spain, Charles agreed, and kept that agreement +though France and Venice urged him to +break it.</p> + +<p>Charles knighted Rubens while he was in +England, and the University of Cambridge +made him Master of Arts. The sword used by +the king at the time he gave the accolade is +still kept by Rubens's descendants.</p> + +<p>While he was in London Rubens was very +<a name="289"></a> +nearly drowned in the Thames going down to +Greenwich in a boat.</p> + +<p>When he first went from Italy to Spain on a +mission of state, he carried a note or passport +bearing the following lines: "With these +presents" (he took magnificent gifts to Philip, +among them a carriage and six Neapolitan +horses) "comes Peter Paul, a Fleming. Peter +Paul will say all that is proper, like the well +informed man that he is. Peter Paul is very +successful in painting portraits. If any ladies +of quality wish their pictures, let them take +advantage of his presence." When he visited +England there was no longer need of such +introduction; he went in all the magnificence +that his genius had earned for him.</p> + +<p>Rubens was always a happy man, so far as +history shows. He married the first time, +a woman who was beautiful and who loved +him, as he loved her. He was able to build +for himself a beautiful house in Antwerp. In +the middle of it was a great <i>salon</i>, big enough +to hold all his collection of pictures, vases, +bronzes, and beautiful jewels. There was also +a magnificent staircase, up which his largest +pictures could be easily carried, for it was built +especially to accommodate the requirements +of his work.</p> + +<p>Rubens's greatest picture was painted through +a strange happening when this beautiful house +was being built. The land next to his belonged +to the Archers' Guild and when the workmen +<a name="290"></a> +came to dig Rubens's cellar, they went too far +and invaded the adjoining property. The +archers made complaint, and there seemed no +way to adjust the matter, till some one suggested +that Rubens make them a picture which +should be accepted as compensation for the +harm done. This Rubens did, and the picture +was to be St. Christopher--the archers' +patron saint; but when the work was done +"Rubens surprised them" by exhibiting a +picture "of all who could ever have been +called 'Christ-bearers.'" This was "The +Descent from the Cross"--not a single picture +but a picture within a picture, for there were +shutters folding in front of it, and on these +was painted the archers' patron, St. Christopher.</p> + +<p>Rubens's daily life is described thus: "His +life was very methodical. He rose at four, +attended mass, breakfasted, and painted for +hours; then he rested, dined, worked until +late afternoon; then, after riding for an hour +or two one of his spirited horses, and later +supping, he would spend the evening with his +friends.</p> + +<p>"He was fond of books, and often a friend +would read aloud to him while he worked." +This is a pleasant picture of a reasonable and +worthy life.</p> + +<p>It is said that once he painted eighteen +pictures in eighteen days, and it is known +that he valued his time at fifty dollars a day.</p> + +<p>His pupil, Van Dyck, being pushed for +<a name="291"></a> +money, turned alchemist and tried to manufacture +gold, but when Rubens was approached +by a visionary who wanted him to lend him +money by which he might pursue such a work, +promising Rubens a fortune when he should +have discovered how to make his gold, the +artist laughed and said: "You are twenty +years too late, friend. When I wield these," +indicating his palette and brush, "I turn all +to gold."</p> + +<p>Many are the delightful anecdotes told of +Rubens. It is said that while he was at the +English court he was painting the ceiling of +the king's banqueting hall, and a courtier +who stood watching, wished to say something +<i>pour passer le temps</i>, so he asked: "Does the +ambassador of his Catholic Majesty sometimes +amuse himself with painting?"</p> + +<p>"No--but he sometimes amuses himself +with being an ambassador," was the witty +retort, which showed how he valued his two +commissions.</p> + +<p>When King Charles I. knighted Rubens +he gave him, beside the jewelled sword, a +golden chain to which his miniature was attached. +If Rubens had gone about with all +the chains and decorations given him by kings +and other great ones of the earth he would +have been weighted down, and would have +needed two pairs of shoulders on which to +display them.</p> + +<p>Rubens's first wife died; and when he +<a name="292"></a> +married again, he was as fond of painting +pictures of the second wife as he had been of +the first. The name of the second was Helena +Fourment, and she is called by one author +"a spicy blonde." Certainly she was very gay, +big, and robust, and only sixteen years old +when she married Rubens who was then a man +of fifty-three. Of one picture, "The Straw +Hat," for which he is supposed to have used +his wife's sister as model, he was so fond that +he would not sell it at any price.</p> + +<p>Rubens had a rare mother, as shown in her +letters to her husband, John, when he was +in prison for his wrongdoing. It would seem +that such a mother must have a strong, +forceful son, and Rubens is less of a surprise +than many artists who had no such influence +in their childhood. The history of Rubens's +mother is worthy of being told even had she +not had a famous son who painted a beautiful +picture of her.</p> + +<p>Rubens's "Holy Families" are like those of +no other painter. The Virgin, the Child, all +the others in the picture, are quite different +from the Italian figures. These are human +beings, good to look upon; full of love and joy, +softness and beauty.</p> + +<p>It was his learning that first won favour +for him in Italy. The Duke of Mantua hearing +him read from Virgil, spoke to him in Latin, +and being answered in that tongue was so +charmed that the foundation of their friendship +<a name="293"></a> +and the duke's patronage was laid. In +Italy he was called "the antiquary and Apelles +of our time."</p> + +<p>His nephew-biographer writes of him: "He +never gave himself the pastime of going to +parties where there was drinking and card-playing, +having always had a dislike for such."</p> + +<p>As Rubens grew in fame, he found that many +were jealous of him, and on one occasion a rival +proposed that he and Rubens each paint a +picture upon a certain subject and leave it to +judges to decide which work was the best--Rubens's +or his own.</p> + +<p>"No," said Rubens. "My attempts have +been subjected to the scrutiny of connoisseurs +in Italy and Spain. They are to be found in +public collections and private galleries in those +countries; gentlemen are at liberty to place +their works beside them, in order that comparison +may be made." This was a dignified +way of disposing of the case.</p> + +<p>Rubens loved to paint animals, and he had a +great lion brought to his home, that he might +study its poses and movements.</p> + +<p>The flesh of his figures was so lifelike that +Guido declared he must mix blood with his +paints. He was called "the painter of life."</p> + +<p>Rubens, a seventh child, had also seven +children, two belonging to his first wife, five to +the second.</p> + +<p>Many stories are told of his patience and his +kindness. It is said that at one time his old +<a name="294"></a> +pupil, Van Dyck, returned to Antwerp after an +absence, greatly depressed and in need of +money. Rubens bought all his unsold pictures, +and he did this charitable act more than once, +and is known to have done the same thing +for a rival and enemy, out of sheer goodness +of heart.</p> + +<p>Kings and queens came to the Rubens +house, people of many nations did him honour; +and toward his closing days, when gout had +disabled him, ambassadors visited him, since +he could not go to them.</p> + +<p>In a description of his death and burial which +took place at Antwerp we read: "He was buried +at night as was the custom, a great concourse +of citizens ... and sixty orphan children +with torches followed the body." He was +placed in the vault of the Fourment family, +and as he had requested, "The Holy Family" +was hung above him. In that picture, we find +the St. George to be Rubens himself; St. +Jerome, his father; an angel, his youngest son, +while Martha and Mary are Isabella and +Helena, his two wives.</p> + +<p>He left many sketches "to whichever of his +sons became an artist, or to the husband of +his daughter who should marry an artist." +But there were none such to claim the bequest.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE INFANT JESUS AND ST. JOHN</center> + +<p>The little girl behind Jesus is supposed +to represent his future bride, the Christian +<a name="295"></a> +Church. The thoughtful, far-seeing look upon +the face of the Christ-child, though it does +not clash with His youthful charm, is meant +to suggest that He has a premonition of His +work in the world. The other joyous little +figures also demonstrate the artist's love for +children. He brings them into his pictures, as +cherubs, wherever he can, and they are frequently +just as well painted and more universally +appreciated than his stout women. +In this picture he has a good opportunity +to show his adorable flesh tints, combined +with the movement and freedom naturally +associated with child life.</p> + +<p>The original painting is in the Court Museum +at Vienna, but it has always been so popular +that many copies of it have been made, and +one of these is in the Berlin Gallery.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE ARTIST'S TWO SONS<br> +<i>(See Frontispiece</i>)</center> + +<p>This picture hangs in the Lichtenstein +Gallery at Vienna; the two boys, eleven and +seven years of age, are the sons of Rubens +by his first wife, Isabella Brant; and Albert, +the elder of the two, greatly resembles his +mother. He is evidently a student, for he +wears the dress of one and carries a book in +one hand. The other is placed affectionately +upon the shoulder of his little brother, Nicolas, +whose face, figure, and attire are all much the +more childish of the two.</p> + +<p><a name="296"></a> +Critics consider this painting to mark the +Highest point which Rubens reached in portraiture. +It has all the colour, character, and +vitality of his best work. Some of his other pictures +are: "Coronation of Marie de Medicis," +"The Kirmesse," "Slaughter of the Innocents," +"Susanna's Bath," "Capture of Samson," "A +Lion Hunt" and "The Rape of the Daughters +of Leucippus."</p> + +<p><a name="297"></a></p> +<h1>XXXVI</h1> + +<h1>JOHN SINGER SARGENT</h1> + +<center><i>American and Foreign Schools</i><br> +1856-1926<br> +<i>Pupil of Carolus Durand</i></center> + +<p>This artist was born in Europe, of American +parents; thus we may say that he was +"American," though he owed nothing but +dollars to the United States, since his instruction +was obtained in Italy and France, and all +his associations in art and friendship were +there. He was probably the most brilliant of +the artists termed American. His great mural +work in the Boston Public Library, is hardly +to be surpassed.</p> + +<p>Above all, Sargent's portraits are masterly. +He was famous in that branch of art before he +was twenty-eight years old. Among his finest +portraits is that of "Carmencita," a Spanish +dancer, who for a time set the world wild with +pleasure. The list of his famous portraits is +very long.</p> + +<p>Sargent's father was a Philadelphia physician; +who originally came from New England, but +the artist himself was born in Florence. He +was given a good education and grew up with +the beauties of Florence all about him, in a +refined and charming home. He was the +<a name="298"></a> +delight of his master, Carolus Durand for he +was modest and refined, yet full of enthusiasm +and energy. In his twenty-third year he +painted a fine picture of his master. Sargent +was a musician as well as a painter; a man of +great versatility, as if the gods and all the +muses had presided at his birth.</p> + +<center>PLATE--CARMENCITA</center> + +<p>In this picture of the famous Spanish dancer +Sargent shows all the life and character he can +put into a portrait. The girl seems on the +point of springing into motion. She is poised, +ready for flight and the proud lift of her head +makes one believe that she will accomplish +the most difficult steps she attempts. The +painting is in the Luxembourg, Paris.</p> + +<p>Other noted Sargent portraits are "Mr. Marquand" +in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, +"Lady Elcho, Mrs. Arden, Mrs. Tennant," "Mrs. +Meyer and Children," "Homer St. Gaudens," +"Henschel," and "Mr. Penrose."</p> + +<p><a name="299"></a></p> +<h1>XXXVII</h1> + +<h1>TINTORETTO (JACOPO ROBUSTI)</h1> + +<center><i>Venetian School</i><br> +1518-1594<br> +<i>Pupil of Titian</i></center> + +<p>Tintoretto was born with an ideal. +As a young boy he wrote upon his +studio wall: "The drawing of Michael Angelo, +the colouring of Titian," and that was the end +he tried to reach. His father was a "tintore"--a +dyer of silk, a tinter--and it was from +the character of that work the artist took his +name. He helped his father with the dyeing +of silks, while he was still a child, and was +called "II tintoretto," little dyer.</p> + +<p>As the little tinter showed great genius for +painting, his father placed him in Titian's +studio, but for some reason he only stayed there +a few days, long enough, however, to permit us +to call him a pupil of Titian; especially as he +wrote that master's name upon his wall and +determined to imitate him. After his few days +with Titian, Tintoretto studied with Schiavone +and afterward set up a studio for himself.</p> + +<p>As a determined lad in this studio of his, +Tintoretto tried every means of developing his +art. He studied the figures upon Medicean +tombs made by Michael Angelo, taking plaster +<a name="300"></a> +casts of them and copying them in his studio. +He used to hang little clay figures up by strings +attached to his ceiling, that he might get the +effect of them high in air. By looking at them +thus from below he gained an idea of foreshortening.</p> + +<p>Although this artist nearly succeeded in +getting into line with Michael Angelo, he did +not colour after the fashion of his master, +Titian. Tintoretto was about twenty-eight +years old before he got any very big commission, +but at that age a chance came to him. In the +church of Santa Maria del Orto were two great +bare spaces, unsightly and vast, about fifty +feet high and twenty broad. In that day +anything and everything was decorated with +masterpieces, and it was almost disgraceful +for a church to let such a space as that go +unfrescoed. Tintoretto saw an opportunity, +and finally offered to paint pictures there for +nothing if the church would agree to pay for +the materials he needed. The church certainly +was not going to refuse such an offer, even if +Tintoretto was not thought to be much of an +artist at the time. If the work was poor, one +day they could choose to have it repainted. +Thus Tintoretto got his first great opportunity. +He painted on those walls "The Last Judgment" +and "The Golden Calf." They made him famous, +and gained him the commission to paint the +picture which is used as an illustration here.</p> + +<p>The brothers of the Scuola di San Rocco +<a name="301"></a> +asked him to compete with Veronese, in +painting the ceilings after he had done four +pictures for their walls.</p> + +<p>Tintoretto consented, and Veronese and two +others who were in the competition set about +making their sketches which they were to +present for the brothers' consideration. +Finaly the day of decision came. All were +assembled, the artists armed with sketches of +their plans.</p> + +<p>"Where are yours, Tintoretto?" the others +asked. "We expect a drawing of your idea."</p> + +<p>"Well, there it is," the artist answered, +drawing a screen from the ceiling. Behold! +he had already painted it to suit himself. The +work was complete.</p> + +<p>"That is the way I make my sketches," he +said.</p> + +<p>Though the work was magnificent it had not +been done according to the monks' ideas of business +and order. They objected and objected.</p> + +<p>"Very well," the artist cried; "I will make +the ceiling a present to you." As there was +a rule of their order forbidding them to refuse a +present, they had to accept Tintoretto's. This +did not promise very good business at the +time, but the work was so splendid and +Tintoretto so reasonable that they finally +agreed to give him all the work of their order--nearly +enough to keep him employed during +a lifetime. After that he painted sixty great +pictures upon their walls.</p> + +<p><a name="302"></a> +He painted so much and so fast that he did +not always do good work, and one critic +declares that "while Tintoretto was the equal +of Titian, he was often inferior to Tintoretto"--which +after all is a very fine compliment.</p> + +<p>His life was so tranquil and uneventful that +there is little to say of it; but there is much to +say of his art. He lived mostly in his studio, +and when he died he was buried in the Santa +Maria del Orto--the church in which he had +done his first work.</p> + +<p>Veronese had given to Venice a brilliant, +glowing, rich, ravishing riot of colour and +figures, but Tintoretto was said to rise up +"against the joyful Veronese as the black +knight of the Middle Ages, the sombre priest of +a gloomy art." Tintoretto was of stormy +temperament, and upon one occasion he proved +it by thrusting a pistol under a critic's nose, +after he had invited him to his studio; it is this +half savage spirit that may be seen in his +paintings. He had deep-set, staring eyes, it +is said, a furrowed brow and hollow cheeks, +indicative of his passionate spirit. He painted +very few female figures, but mostly men. +When he did paint a woman, she looked +mannish and not beautiful. When he painted +gorgeous subjects, like doges and senators, +he gave to them gloomy backgrounds, awe-inspiring +poses, and he seldom painted a figure +"full-face" but three-quarter, or half, so that +he did not give himself a chance to present +<a name="303"></a> +human figures in beautiful postures. He is +said to have been the first who painted groups +of well-known men in pictures intended for the +decoration of public buildings. One great +critic has written that "while the Dutch, in +order to unite figures, represented them at a +banquet, Tintoretto's <i>nobili</i> (aristocrats) were +far too proud to show themselves to the people" +in so gay and informal a situation. With +the coming of Tintoretto it was said "a dark +cloud had overcast the bright heaven of +Venetian art. Instead of smiling women, +bloody martyrs and pale ascetics" were painted +by him. He dissected the dead in order to +learn the structure of the human body. In +his paintings "his women, especially, with their +pale livid features and encircled eyes, strangely +sparkling as if from black depths, have nothing +in common with the soft" painted flesh which +he pictured in his youth while he was following +Titian as closely as he could. As he grew +older and his art more fixed, he followed +Michael Angelo more and more. Titian's +colouring was that of "an autumn day" but +Tintoretto's that of a "dismal night." Yet +these very qualities in Tintoretto's work made +him great.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE MIRACLE OF ST. MARK</center> + +<p>This painting in the Academy at Venice tells +the story of how a Christian slave who belonged +<a name="304"></a> +to a pagan nobleman went to worship at the +shrine of St. Mark. That was unlawful. +The nobleman had his slave taken before the +judge, who ordered him to be tortured. Just +as the executioner raised the hammer with +which he was finally to kill the slave, St. Mark +himself came down from heaven, broke the +weapon and rescued the slave.</p> + +<p>The figure of the patron saint of Venice is +swooping down, head first, above the group, his +garments flying in the air. A bright light +touches the slave's naked body, as he lies upon +his back, the executioner having turned away +and raised his hammer aloft, while others +have drawn back in fright at the appearance +of the patron saint. We may imagine that +Tintoretto was trying to acquire this power of +painting wonderful figures hovering in the air +when he hung his little clay images from the +ceiling of his studio years before. Other +pictures of his are: "The Marriage of Bacchus +and Ariadne," "Martyrdom of St. Agnes," "St. +Rocco Healing the Sick," "The Annunciation," +"The Crucifixion," and many others.</p> + +<p><a name="305"></a></p> +<h1>XXXVIII</h1> + +<h1>TITIAN (TIZIANO VECELLI)</h1> + +<center>(Pronounced Tit-zee-ah'no (Vay-chel'lee))<br> +<i>Venetian School</i><br> +1477-1576<br> +<i>Pupil of Giovanni and Gentile Bellini</i></center> + +<p>Titian was a child of the Tirol Mountains, +handsome, strong, full of health and +fine purposes, even as a boy. He was born in +a little cottage at Pieve, in the valley of +Cadore, through which flows the River Piave; +and he wandered daily beside its banks, +gathering flowers from which he squeezed the +juices to paint with. When he grew up he +became a wonderful colourist, and from his +boyhood nothing so much delighted him as the +brilliant colours flaunted by the flowers of wood +and field.</p> + +<p>Gathered about his good father's hearth were +many children, Caterina, Francesco, Orsa, and +the rest, living in peace and happiness, closely +bound together by love. Titian had a gentle, +loving mother named Lucia, while his father +was a soldier and an honoured man. In the +little town where they lived, he was councillor +and also superintendent of the castle and +inspector of mines, no light honours among +those simple country people. Doubtless +<a name="306"></a> +Titian inherited his splendid bearing and his +determined character from his soldier father.</p> + +<p>Even while a little child, the man who was +destined to become a great artist began his +work with the juices of the wild-flowers, +which he daubed upon the wall of the humble +home in the Tirol valley, making a Madonna +with angels at her feet and a little Jesus upon +her knee. But if Titian was a great painter, +he was never even a fair scholar. He went to +school, but would not, or could not, study. +His father soon saw that he was wasting his +time and being made very unhappy through +being forced to do that for which he had no +ability; so he was soon released from book-learning +and sent to Venice, seventy-five miles +from home, to learn art. In Venice, the +Vecelli family had an uncle, and it was with +him that Titian lived, though he studied first +with Sebastian Zuccato, the head of the Venetian +guild of mosaic workers, and a pretty +good teacher in his way. He was not able to +teach Titian very much, for the boy was an +inspired artist and needed a good master; so, +after a little, the family held a consultation +and it was decided that Titian should become +the pupil of Gentile Bellini, a very clever artist +indeed. There was an interesting story told +about this master which made the Vecellis +feel that their boy would do well to be under +the influence of a kind-hearted man, as well as a +genius. It seems that Bellini's fame had +<a name="307"></a> +become so great that the Sultan had sent for him +to paint the portraits of himself and the +Sultana. Bellini went gladly to Turkey to do +this; but he took with him certain pictures +to show his patron. Among them was one of +St. John the Baptist having his head cut off. +The Sultan looked at it, and cutting heads off +being a large part of his business, he saw that +Bellini had not scientifically painted it, and in +order to show him the true way to conduct +such matters, he sent for a slave and ordered +his head chopped off in Bellini's presence. +Bellini was so terrified and sickened by the +dreadful sight that he fled from Turkey and +would not paint its ruler, the Sultana nor anyone +else who had to do with such cruel things +as he had witnessed.</p> + +<p>It was into this man's studio that Titian +went as a young boy, but after a little he +displeased Gentile Bellini, who complained +that his pupil worked too fast, and therefore +could not expect to do great work. He +declared that picture painting was serious and +careful work, and that Titian was too careless +and quick. As a matter of fact, Titian was +too wonderful for Bellini ever to do much for; +and since he could not get on with him, he +went to another master--Gentile Bellini's +brother, Giovanni. One of Titian's chief +troubles in the studio of Gentile had been that +he was not allowed to use the gorgeous colouring +he loved, but in the brother's studio he found +<a name="308"></a> +to his joy that colour was more valued, and he +was given more freedom to use it. Also there +was a young peasant pupil with Giovanni, +who, like Titian, loved to use beautiful colours, +and he and the newcomer became fast friends.</p> + +<p>The other artist's name was Giorgione, and +he had the most delightful ways about him, +winning friends wherever he went, so it was +no wonder that the warm-hearted Titian sought +his companionship. One day those two young +comrades left their master's studio, to have a +good time off by themselves. There was a +stated hour for their return; but they had +spent all their money, and forgot that Giovanni +Bellini was expecting them home. When +they did return the door was closed and locked. +What were they to do? They did the only +thing they could. As comrades in misfortune +they joined forces, set up a studio of their +own, and went to work to earn their living +as best they might. At first it was hard +sledding, but in time they got a good job, +namely to decorate the walls of a public building +in Venice which was used by foreign merchants +for the transaction of their business, a sort of +"exchange," as we understand it. This was +the Fondaco de' Tedeschi, and it had two great +halls, eighty rooms, and twenty-six warehouses. +It was indeed a big undertaking for the two +young men, and they divided the business +between them. Their joy was great, their +cartoons successfully made and the work well +<a name="309"></a> +begun, when, alas, they fell to quarreling simply +because someone had declared that Titian's +work upon the building was a little better than +Giorgione's.</p> + +<p>This dispute parted the two friends, who +had had good times together, and it must have +been Giorgione's fault, because Ludovico Dolce, +one who knew Titian well, said that "he was +most modest ... he never spoke reproachfully +of other painters ... in his +discourse he was ever ready to give honour +where honour was due ... he was, moreover, +an eloquent speaker, having an excellent +wit and perfect judgment in all things; of a +most sweet and gentle nature, affable and most +courteous in manner; so that whoever once +conversed with him could not choose but love +him henceforth forever." That is a most +loving and splendid tribute for one man to pay +another. Not long after Giorgione died, and +Titian took up his unfinished work, doing it +as well as his own.</p> + +<p>There was a brilliant and mature artist called +Palma Vecchio, in Venice, and Titian painted +in his studio, where he saw and loved Vecchio's +daughter, Violante. The young artist was not +very well off financially, and therefore could +not marry; hence he was not specially happy +over his love affair. About that time he took +to painting after the manner of Vecchio, +through being so much influenced by his soft +feelings for the older artist's daughter. He +<a name="310"></a> +used the lovely Violante again and again for +his model, and many of the beautiful faces +which Titian painted at that time show the +features of his lady-love. With his new love +Titian's serious work seemed to begin, and at +twenty-one he painted his first truly great +picture, "Sacred and Profane Love." To +day this picture hangs upon the walls of the +Borghese Palace, in Rome.</p> + +<p>Raphael painted a great many pictures, but +Titian must have painted more. At least one +thousand have his signature.</p> + +<p>Now came wars and troubles for Venice. +The Turks, French, and Venetians became at +odds, and during the strife many fine works of +art were lost, among them many of Titian's +pictures. He had painted bishops, also the +wicked Borgias, and many other great personages, +but all of these are gone and to this day, +no one knows what became of them.</p> + +<p>At last Titian began one of his greatest +paintings, "The Tribute Money," and he set +about it because he had been criticised. Some +German travellers in Venice visited Titian's +studio, and though they found his work very +fine, one of them said that after all there was +only one master able to finish a painting as it +should be finished, and that was the great +Dürer. The German pointed out the differences +between Titian's method and Dürer's, +and declared that Venetian painters never +quite came up to the promise of their first +<a name="311"></a> +pictures. Dürer's wonderful pictures were quite +different from Titian's, inasmuch as his work +was fuller of detail and careful finishing, but +Titian was as great in another way. His +effects were broader, but quite as satisfying. +However, the German criticism put him on +his mettle, and he answered that if he had +thought the greatest value of a painting lay in +its fiddling little details of finishing, he too +would have painted them. To show that he +could paint after Dürer's fashion, as well as +his own, he undertook the "Tribute Money," +and the result was a wonderful picture.</p> + +<p>Soon Rome sent for Titian. The Florentines, +Raphael and Michael Angelo, were already +there doing marvellous things, but the pope +wished to add the genius of Titian to theirs +and made him a great offer to go and live in +Rome and do his future work for that city. +This was an honour, but amid all his fame +and the homage paid him, Titian had remembered +the old home in the vale of Cadore. +It was there his heart was, and he determined +to return to the home of his boyhood to do his +best work. So he sent his thanks and refusal +to the pope, and he wrote as follows to his +home folks, through the council of his town:</p> + +<p>"I, Titian of Cadore, having studied painting +from childhood upward, and desirous of fame +rather than profit, wish to serve the doge and +signorini, rather than his highness the pope +and other signori, who in past days, and even +<a name="312"></a> +now, have urgently asked to employ me. I +am therefore anxious, if it should appear +feasible to paint the hall of council, beginning, +if it pleases their sublimity, with the canvas +of the battle on the side toward the Piazza, +which is so difficult that no one as yet has had +the courage to attempt it."</p> + +<p>Then in stating his terms he asked for a very +moderate sum of money and a "brokerage" +for life. The Government did not have to +think over the matter long. Titian's father +had been honoured among them, Titian's +genius was well known, and the commission +was gladly given him. As soon as he got this +business affair settled he moved into the palace +of the Duke of Milan "at San Samuele; on the +Grand Canal, where he remained for sixteen +years," so says his biographer.</p> + +<p>Titian's affairs were not yet entirely smooth, +because both of the Bellinis having painted +for his patrons, they naturally considered +Titian an intruder, and thought that the work +should have been given to them. They did +all they could to make trouble for the younger +artist, but after a time Titian came into his +rights, receiving his "brokerage" which gave +to him a yearly sum of money 120 crowns, +$126.04. His taxes were taken off for the +future, provided he would agree to paint all +the doges that should rule during his lifetime.</p> + +<p>Titian undertook to do this, but he did not +keep his word, for he painted only five doges, +<a name="313"></a> +though many more followed. He had no +sooner received his commission from the +council of his native place than he began to +neglect it, and to paint for the husband of the +wicked poisoner--Lucretia Borgia--whose +name was Alfonso d'Este, the Duke of Ferrara. +It was for him he painted the "Venus Worship," +now in the Museum of Madrid, also "The Three +Ages," which belongs to Lord Ellesmere, and +the "Virgin's Rest near Bethlehem," now in +the National Gallery. Afterward he painted +"Noli Me Tangere," which is in the same +London Gallery.</p> + +<p>There is a picture of great size in the Academy +of Arts in Venice, which was first seen on a +public holiday nearly four hundred years ago. +It is the "Assumption of the Virgin," first +shown on St. Bernardino's day, when all the +public offices were closed by order of the +Senate, and the whole city had a gay time. +This occasion made Titian the most honoured +artist of his time, but still the Venetians had +cause to complain; because now their painter +took so much work in hand that he nearly +ceased doing the work on the council hall. +The council sent him word that unless he +attended to business the paintings should be +finished by some one else and he would have +to pay the new artist out of his own pocket; +but in waywardness he paid no attention to this +summons. Lucretia Borgia died, and her husband +having never loved her, fell at once in +<a name="314"></a> +love with a girl of a lower class, who was very +good and worthy to be loved. The duke +wanted Titian to paint them both, and so once +more the great painter neglected his contract +with the council. The girl's name was Laura, +and Titian painted her and the duke in one +picture, which now hangs in the Louvre.</p> + +<p>At last, after seven years of his neglecting +to do his promised work the council became +enraged and threatened to take the artist's +property away from him. That frightened +Titian very much, and he began frantically +to work on the battle piece on the hall wall. +It was about this time that he married. He +had probably forgotten Violante in the passing +of so many years; at any rate it was not she +whom he married, but a lady whose first name +was Cecilia. Soon he had a little family of +children, but one of them was destined to make +Titian very unhappy. This was Pomponic +who became a priest, but he was also a wicked +spendthrift, and kept his father forever in +trouble, trying to pay his debts and keep him +out of scrapes. Another son became an +artist; not great like his father, but very +helpful and a comfort to him. Then his wife +died, and Titian had loved her so dearly that +for a long time he had not the heart to paint +much. His sister, Orsa, came to live at his +home and take care of his motherless children.</p> + +<p>He left the palace on the Grand Canal and +bought a home north of Venice, with beautiful +<a name="315"></a> +gardens attached, and there he lived and +worked, entertaining the most illustrious men. +Titian's house and gardens became the show +place of the country, so many geniuses and +famous people visited there. It was there +that he painted "The Martyrdom of Saint +Peter," and the picture was so loved by the +Venetians that the signori threatened with +death any one who should take the picture +from the chapel where it hung. In spite of +this caution the picture was burned in the fire +that destroyed the chapel in 1867.</p> + +<p>Titian was now getting to be old, but he was +yet to do great work and to have kingly patrons. +Charles V. visited Bologna, and, seeing +Titian's great work, wanted him to paint his +portrait. So the artist went to Bologna and +painted the portrait of the king, clothed in +armour, but without any head-covering, making +Charles V. look so fine a personage, that he +was delighted. Charles said he had always +been painted to look so much uglier than he +really was that when people who had seen +his portraits, actually saw himself they were +pleasantly disappointed. While Titian was +painting his picture, Lombardi, the sculptor, +wished above all things to see Charles, so +Titian said: "You come with me to the +sittings, and act as if you were some apprentice, +carrying my colours and brushes, and then +you can watch the king as easily as possible." +Lombardi did as Titian suggested, but he hid +<a name="316"></a> +in his big and baggy sleeve a tablet of wax, on +which to make a relief picture of Charles. One +day the king surprised the sculptor and +demanded to be shown what he was doing. +Thereupon he was so much pleased that he +commissioned Lombardi to make the model +in marble. While the king was sitting for two +portraits to Titian, the artist one day dropped +his brush. The king looked at the courtiers +who were lounging about watching the work, +but none of them picked it up, so the king +himself did so. Titian was distressed over +this and apologised to the king. "There may +be many kings," said Charles, "but there +will never be more than one Titian--and he +deserves to be served by Caesar himself." +After that he would allow no other artist to +paint his portrait, declaring that Titian alone +could do it properly, and for the two pictures +Titian received two thousand scudi in gold, +was made a Count of the Lateran Palace, +of the Aulic Council and of the Consistory; +with the title of Count Palatine and all the +advantages attached to those dignities. His +children were thereby raised to the rank of +nobles of the empire, with all the honours +appertaining to families with four generations +of ancestors. He was also made Knight of +the Golden Spur, with the right of entrance to +court. This was great return for two portraits +of a king, but it shows what a king could +do if he chose.</p> + +<p><a name="317"></a> +Titian had a brother who also became an +artist, less famous than himself, and it was +that brother, who, when their father died in +the Cadore home, went back to care for the old +place and to keep it in readiness so that the +famous Titian might return to it for rest and +peace. Foreign sovereigns had invited Titian +to end his days with them, but they could not +tempt him from that vale of Cadore nor his +country home in Venice.</p> + +<p>All this time he had been neglecting the +work upon the hall of council, and at last, +the councillors gave the work to another, took +away Titian's "brokerage" and told him he must +return to Venice all the moneys they had given +him for twenty years back. This finally cured +him of his neglect, and he went to work in +earnest painting so rapidly that he finished the +work in two years.</p> + +<p>Before he died Titian went to Rome, where +he painted Pope Paul's portrait, and the story +is told that when the portrait was set to dry +upon the terrace--which it probably was not,--the +people who passed took off their hats +to it, thinking it was the pope himself.</p> + +<p>Besides his bad son and his good one, Titian +had a beautiful daughter whom he painted +again and again. He went to Augsburg once +more to paint King Charles, who for that work +added a pension of five hundred scudi to what +he had already done for him. This made +the artist "as rich as a prince, instead of poor +<a name="318"></a> +as a painter." King Philip II. loved art as +his father had, and he took a painting of +Titian's with him to the convent of Yuste, +where he went to die, wishing to have it near +to console him. In those days art had become +a religion for high and low. Great personages +still went to Casa Grande, Titian's Venetian +home, where he entertained like a prince. No +one knew better than he how princes behaved, +and when a cardinal came to dine with him, he +threw his purse to his servant, crying: "Prepare +a feast, for all the world is dining with me!" +Henry III. of France visited Titian and ordered +sent to him every picture of which he had +asked the price.</p> + +<p>His friends stood by him all his life, but in +his old age his beautiful daughter, Lavinia, +died, leaving behind her six children for him to +love as his own. The brother had died before +that, in the old home at Cadore, and at more +than eighty years of age Titian was still +painting from morning till night. About this +time he sent to King Philip "The Last Supper," +which was to be hung in the Escorial. The +monks found it too high to fill the space, and +though the artist in charge, Navarrette, begged +them to let it be, they cut a piece off the top, +that it might be hung where they wanted it. +Titian had so far had to pay no taxes, but at +that time an account of his property was +demanded and this is what he owned: "Several +houses, pieces of land, sawmills, and the like," +<a name="319"></a> +and he was blamed because he did not state +the full value of his possessions. At ninety-one +he painted a picture which became the +guide of Rubens and his brother artists, so +wonderful was it. Again, at ninety-nine he +began a picture, which was to be given to the +monks of the Frari in return for a burial place +for the artist within the convent walls, but he +never finished it. He died during the time of +the plague, but of old age alone, though his +son, Orzio, died of the disease. The alarm +of the people was so great that a law had been +passed to bury all who died at that time, +instantly and without ceremony, but that law +was waived for the painter. Titian, in the +midst of a nation's tragedy was borne to the +convent of the Frari, with honours. Two +centuries later the Austrian Emperor commanded +the great sculptor, Canova, to +make a mausoleum above the tomb.</p> + +<p>It was said that shortly before he died +Titian began to be less sure in his use of colours, +and would often daub on great masses, but +his students came in the night and rubbed them +off, so that the master never felt his failing.</p> + +<p>As King Charles had said, there was never +but one such artist in the world.</p> + +<p>Titian prepared his canvas by painting upon +it a solid colour to serve for the bed upon which +the picture itself was to be painted. To quote +more exactly from a good description--some +of these foundation colours were laid on with +<a name="320"></a> +resolute strokes of his brush which was heavily +laden with colour, while the half-tints were +made with pure red earth, the lights with pure +white, softened into the rest of the foundation +painting with touches of the same brush dipped +into red, black, and yellow. In this way he +could give the "promise" of a figure in four +strokes. After laying this foundation, he +turned his picture toward the wall and left +it there for months at a time, frequently +turning it around that he might criticise it. +If, during this time of waiting, he thought any +part of the work already done was poor, he +made it right, changing the shape of an arm, +adding flesh where he thought it was needed, +reducing flesh where it seemed to him out of +proportion, and then he would again turn +the canvas face to the wall. After months of +self-criticism and retouching he would have +the first layer of flesh painted upon his figures, +and a good beginning made. "It was contrary +to his habit to finish at one painting, and he +used to say that a poet who improvises cannot +hope to form pure verses." He would often +produce a half-light with a rub of his finger, +"or with a touch of the thumb he would dab +a spot of dark pigment into some corner to +strengthen it; or throw in a reddish stroke--a +tear of blood so to speak--to break the +parts ... in fact when finishing he painted +more with his fingers than with his brush." +He used to say, "White, red, and black, these +<a name="321"></a> +are all the colours that a painter needs, but +one must know how to use them."</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE ARTIST'S DAUGHTER, LAVINIA.</center> + +<p>Previous to the time of Titian, it had been +the custom to paint portraits of beautiful +ladies merely to their waists, just far enough +to show their hands. He went further, and +produced "knee portraits," which gave him +an opportunity to paint their gorgeous gowns +as well. He has done so in making this +picture of his daughter Lavinia, probably +just before her marriage to Cornelio Sarcinelli +which took place in 1555. She is attired in +gold-coloured brocade with pearls about her +neck. Her dress, combined with the dish of +fruit she holds so high, gives Titian the colour +effects he always sought. A yellow lemon is +specially striking, and the red curtain to the +left harmonises with the whole. The uplift +of the arms and the turn of the head give the +desired amount of action. It is not Titian's +customary style of work; he seldom did anything +so intimate and personal, and the picture +is the more interesting on that account. It +is in the Berlin Gallery.</p> + +<p>Some of Titian's famous pictures are: his +own portrait; "Flora," "Holy Family and St. +Bridget," "The Last Judgment," "The Entombment," +"The Magdalene," "Bacchanal," "St. +Sebastian," "Bacchus and Ariadne," and "The +Sleeping Venus."</p> + +<p><a name="322"></a></p> +<h1>XXXIX</h1> + +<h1>JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER</h1> + +<center><i>English</i><br> +1775-1851<br> +<i>Pupil of the Royal Academy</i></center> + +<p>If the occupation of a shepherd produced +a poet, no less did an artist of the first +water come out of a barber shop. Turner's +father was a jolly little fellow who dressed +hair for English dandies and did all of those +things which in those days fell to men of his +profession. It was in this little shop that the +great artist grew up. Father Turner was +ambitious for his son, who was anxious to study +art. The less said of the artist's mother the +better, for she was a termagant and finally +went crazy, so that the father and his little boy +were soon left alone, to plan and work and strive +to make each other happy. The pair were +never apart.</p> + +<p>Turner's art beginning was at six years of +age, on the occasion of a visit his father paid +to a goldsmith of whose hair curling and +peruquing he had charge. Perched upon a +chair too high for a little boy's comfort, and +feeling that it took his father very long indeed +to satisfy the customer, Joseph's eye lighted upon +a silver lion which ornamented a silver tray. +<a name="323"></a> +He studied every detail of that lion while +waiting for his father, and finally when they +got home, he sat down and drew it from +memory. By tea time he had a lion in full +action upon the paper. This delighted his +father above everything, and it was settled +then and there that the little fellow should have +a chance to learn art.</p> + +<p>The father could not give much time to his +upbringing, but he taught him to be honest +and kind-hearted and to save his money. +His playground was generally the bank of the +Thames, and under London Bridge where, +roving with the sailors, he learned to love the +ships, the setting-suns and evening waters +from a daily study of them.</p> + +<p>He did not do much at school, because the +other pupils at New Brentford, learning that +he could draw wonderful things upon the +schoolroom walls, used to do his "sums" for +him, while he sketched for them. After a +while father Turner began to hang up some +of his son's sketches upon the walls of the +barber shop, among the wigs and curls and +<i>toupées</i>, and he put little tags upon them, +telling the price. The extraordinary work +of his little boy began to attract the attention +of the jolly barber's patrons, and by the time +he was twelve years old the child had a +picture upon the walls of the Royal Academy--a +far-cry from barber shop to Academy!</p> + +<p>One authority says that this first exhibition +<a name="324"></a> +occurred in his fourteenth year, but by that +time he was a pupil of the Academy, and it is not +unlikely that he had shown his mettle before.</p> + +<p>He now began to earn his own living, but +he still dwelt in the barber shop with his father. +While in the Academy he coloured prints, +made backgrounds for other painters, drew +architect's plans, and in that way made money. +He had been sent to a drawing master to study +"the art of perspective," but having no +mathematical knowledge he had been unable +to learn it, and the teacher had advised his +father to put little Turner to cobbling or +making clothes. However, William was to +learn perspective, and even to be made master +of that branch of art in the Academy itself.</p> + +<p>In after years, when he had become a great +artist, someone spoke pityingly of the drudgery +he had had to do to make money as a young +boy--referring to his painting of backgrounds +and the like. "Well! and what could be better +practice?" Turner answered cheerfully.</p> + +<p>He used to go to the house of Dr. Munro, +who lived in fine style on the Strand. This +gentleman owned Rembrandts, Rubenses, +Titians, and other great masterpieces, and +in that house the "little barber" had a chance +to see the best of art, and also to copy it. This +was a great opportunity for him and he made +the most of it. Besides the chance for study, +he earned about half a crown an evening and +his supper, for his copying.</p> + +<p><a name="325"></a> +Turner was the first painter to make "warm +moonlight." All other artists had given cold, +silvery effects to a moonlit atmosphere, but +Turner had seen a mellow, sympathetic moon, +and he first showed it to others. About this +time he went travelling; for an engraver of the +<i>Copper Plate Magazine</i> had engaged the +young boy to go into Wales and make sketches +for his work. Turner set off on a pony which +a friend had lent him, with his baggage done +up in a bundle--it did not make a very big +one--and thus he voyaged. It was a fine +experience, and he came home with many +beautiful scenes on paper, which he in after +years made into complete pictures. Next +he made the acquaintance of Thomas Girtin, the +first in his country of a fine school of water-colour +painters, and this acquaintance grew +into a close friendship. The two were devoted +to each other and worked together at any sort +of mechanical art work that would bring them +a living. When Girtin died Turner said: +"Had Tim Girtin lived, I should have starved," +showing how highly he valued Girtin's work.</p> + +<p>Turner is said to have been "a stout, clumsy +little fellow, who never cared how he looked. +He wore an ill-fitting suit, and his luggage tied +up in a handkerchief was slung over his +shoulder on a cane. Sometimes he carried a +small valise and an old umbrella, the handle +of which he converted into a fishing rod, for +Turner dearly loved both hunting and fishing."</p> + +<p><a name="326"></a> +The hero travelled a great deal, because +above every thing he loved the fields and +streams, and to tramp alone. It is said that +it was his habit to walk twenty-five miles a +day, seeing everything on the way, letting no +peculiarity of nature escape him. His sketchbook +was a curiosity, because he not only made +sketches in it, but jotted down his travelling +expenses, what he thought about things that +he saw, and all the gossip he heard in the towns +through which he passed. Because he liked +best to travel alone he was called "the Great +Hermit of Nature."</p> + +<p>One memorable day--of which he thought +but little at the time--he stopped on the road +to make a sketch of Norham Castle. Later +he completed the picture, and it became +famous, so successful that from that hour he +had all the work he could do. Years afterward, +when passing that way again in company +with a friend, he was seen to take off his hat +to the castle.</p> + +<p>"Why are you doing that?" his friend asked, +in amazement.</p> + +<p>"Well, that castle laid the foundation of +my success," he answered, "and I am pleased +to salute it."</p> + +<p>During his young manhood Turner had +fallen in love with a girl, and planned to marry, +but after he returned from one of his country +trips he found she had married another, and +from that moment the artist was a changed +<a name="327"></a> +man. He had been generous and gay before, +now he began to save his money, so that people +thought him miserly--but he was forgiven +when it became known what he finally did with +his fortune. After the young woman deserted +him he wandered more than ever, and one of +his fancies was to keep boys from robbing +birds' nests. He looked after the little birds +so carefully that the boys named him "old +Blackbirdy." He had already begun those +wonderful pictures of ships and seas, and +his house was ornamented with full-rigged +little ships and water plants, which he carefully +raised to put into his pictures. By that time +he had bought a home of his own in the +country, and his father the barber went to +live with him. The old man's trade had fallen +off, because the fashions had changed, wigs +were less worn, and hair was not so elaborately +dressed. In the country home the old man +took charge of all the household affairs, prepared +his son's canvases for him, and after the pictures +were painted it was the ex-barber who varnished +them, so that Turner said, "Father begins +and finishes all my pictures." There the +father and son lived, in perfect peace and +affection, till Turner decided to sell the place +and move into town, "because," said he, +"Dad is always working in the garden and +catching cold."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile he had been made master of +perspective in the Academy, and it was +<a name="328"></a> +expected that he would lecture to the students, +but he was not cut out for a lecturer. He was +not elegant in his manners, nor impressive in +his speech. On one occasion, when he had +risen to deliver a speech, he looked helplessly +about him and finally blurted out: "Gentlemen! +I've been and left my lecture in the +hackney coach!"</p> + +<p>During these years he had tried to establish +a studio like other masters and to have pupils +and apprentices about him; but the stupid ones +he could not endure, having no patience with +them, and he treated all the fashionable ones +so bluntly they would not stay; so the idea +had to be given up.</p> + +<p>He became a visitor at Farnley Hall in +Yorkshire, where a friend, Mr. Hawksworth +Fawkes lived, and in the course of his lifetime +Fawkes put fifty thousand dollars worth of +Turner's pictures upon his walls. The Fawkes +family described Turner as a most delightful +man: "The fun, frolic, and shooting we enjoyed +together, and which, whatever may be said by +others of his temper and disposition, have +proved to me that he was, in his hours of +distraction from his professional labours as +kindly hearted a man and as capable of +enjoyment and fun of all kinds as any I ever +knew."</p> + +<p>Another friend writes: "Of all light-hearted, +merry creatures I ever knew, Turner was +the most so; and the laughter and fun that +<a name="329"></a> +abounded when he was an inmate of our +cottage was inconceivable, particularly with the +juvenile members of our family."</p> + +<p>The story of his disappointment in marriage +is an interesting one. It is said that the +young lady whom he loved was the sister of a +schoolmate. They had been engaged for some +time, but while he was on one of his travels his +letters were stolen and kept from the young +woman. She believed he had forgotten her, +and her stepmother, who had taken the +letters, persuaded the girl to engage herself +to another. Turner returned just a week +before her marriage and tried to win her back, +but although she loved him, she felt herself +then bound to her new suitor and therefore +married him. Her marriage was very unhappy +and her misery, as well as his own, distressed +the artist till his death. Almost all his life, +in spite of his seeming gaiety, he worked like +a slave, rising at four o'clock in the morning +and working while light lasted. When +remonstrated with about this he would sadly +say: "There are no holidays for me."</p> + +<p>All his ways were honest and simple, and +his election to the Academy was very exceptional +in the way it came about. Most +Academicians had graces and airs and good +fellowship to commend them, as well as their +works, but Turner had none of these things. +He had given no dinners, nor played a social +part in order to get the membership. When +<a name="330"></a> +the news was brought him that he was elected, +some one advised him to go and thank his fellow +Academicians for the honour, as that was the +custom; but Turner saw no reason in it. +"Since I am elected, it must have been because +they thought my pictures made me worthy. +Why, then should I thank them? Why thank +a man for performing a simple duty." In half +a century Turner was absent only three times +from the Academy exhibitions, and his. +membership was of very great value to him.</p> + +<p>At this time Turner had an idea for an art +publication to be called <i>Liber Studiorum</i>. +He meant to issue this in dark blue covers and +to include in each number five plates. There +was to be a series of five hundred plates +altogether, and these were to be divided, +according to subject, into historical, landscape, +pastoral, mountainous, marine, and architectural +studies. After seventy plates had been, +published, the enterprise fell through, because +no one bought the periodical, and there was +no money to keep it going. The engraver +of the plates, Charles Turner, became so +disgusted with the failure that he even used +the proofs of these wonderful studies to kindle +the fire with. Many years later, a great print-dealer, +Colnaghi, made Turner, the engraver, +hunt up all the proofs that he had not used for +kindling paper, and these he bought for £1,500.</p> + +<p>"Good God!" cried Charles Turner, "I have +been burning banknotes all my life."</p> + +<p><a name="331"></a> +Some years later still £3,000 was paid for +a single copy of the <i>Liber Studiorum</i>.</p> + +<p>Turner was a most conscientious man, and +many stories are told of his manner of teaching. +He could not talk eloquently nor give very +clear instructions, talking not being his forte, +but he would lean over a student's shoulder, +point out the defects in his work, and then on +a paper beside him make a few marks to +illustrate what he had said. If the artist had +genius enough then to imitate him, well and +good; if not, Turner simply went away and +left him. His own ways of working were +remarkable. He often painted with a sponge +and used his thumbnail to "tear up a sea." +It mattered little to him how he produced his +effects so long as he did it. His impressionistic +style confused many of his critics, and it is +told how a fine lord once looked at a picture +be had made, and snorted: "Nothing but +daubs, nothing but daubs!" Then catching +the inspiration, he leaned close to the canvas, +and said: "No! Painting! so it is!"</p> + +<p>"I find, Mr. Turner," said a lady, "that in +copying your pictures, touches of red, blue +and yellow appear all through the work."</p> + +<p>"Well, madam, don't you see that yourself, +in nature? Because if you don't, heaven +help you!" was the reply.</p> + +<p>"Once, after painting a summer evening, +he thought that the picture needed a dark +spot in front by way of contrast; so he cut out +<a name="332"></a> +a dog from black paper and stuck it on. That +dog still appears in the picture."</p> + +<p>Another time he painted "A Snow-storm +at Sea," which some critics called "Soap-suds +and Whitewash." Turner, who had been for +hours lashed to the mast of a ship in order to +catch the proper effect, was naturally much +hurt by the criticism. "What would they +have!" he exclaimed. "I wonder what they +think a storm is like. I wish they'd been in it."</p> + +<p>Turner was conscientiously fond of his work, +and when he sold a picture he said that he +had lost one of his children.</p> + +<p>He grew rich, but he never was knighted, +because his manners were not fine enough +to suit the king. He wished to become +President of the Royal Academy, but that +was impossible because he was not polished +enough to carry the honour gracefully.</p> + +<p>After selling his place in the country Turner +bought a house in Harley Street, where +he lived a strange and lonely life. A gentleman +has written about this incident, which shows +us his manner of living:</p> + +<p>"Two ladies called upon Turner while he +lived in Harley Street. On sending in their +names, after having ascertained that he was +at home, they were politely requested to walk +in, and were shown into a large sitting-room +without a fire. This was in the depth of winter; +and lying about in various places were several +cats without tails. In a short time our talented +<a name="333"></a> +friend made his appearance, asking the ladies +if they felt cold. The youngest replied in the +negative; her companion, more curious, wished +she had stated otherwise, as she hoped they +might have been shown into his sanctum or +studio. After a little conversation he offered +them biscuits, which they partook of for the +novelty--such an event being almost +unprecedented in his house. One of the ladies +bestowing some notice upon the cats, he was +induced to remark that he had seven, and that +they came from the Isle of Man."</p> + +<p>Thus we learn that Turner's desolate house +was full of Manx cats, and of many other pets. +When he had moved elsewhere--to 47 Queen +Anne Street--one of the pictures he cared +most for, "Bligh Shore," was put up as a +covering to the window and a cat wishing to +come in, scratched it hopelessly. The housekeeper +started to punish it for this but +Turner said indulgently, "Oh, never mind!" +and saved the cat from chastisement.</p> + +<p>The place he lived in, where his "dad was +always working in the garden and catching +cold," he called Solus Lodge, because he wished +his acquaintances to understand that he +wanted to be alone. One picture painted by +him to order, was to have brought him $2,500; +but when it was finished the man was disappointed +with it and would not take it. Later, +Turner was offered $8,000 for it, but would not +sell it.</p> + +<p><a name="334"></a> +Turner again fell in love, but his bashfulness +ruined his chances. He wrote to the brother +of the lady. "If she would only waive her +bashfulness, or, in other words, make an offer +instead of expecting one, the same (Solus +Lodge) might change occupiers." Faint heart +certainly did not win fair lady in this case, +for she married another. Before he died +Turner was offered $25,000 for two pictures +which he would not sell. "No" he said. +"I have willed them and cannot sell them." +He disposed of several great works as +legacies. One picture of which he was very +fond, "Carthage," was the occasion of an +amusing anecdote. "Chantry," he said to his +friend the sculptor, "I want you to promise +that when I am dead you will see me rolled +in that canvas when I'm buried."</p> + +<p>"All right," said Chantry, "I'll do it, but +I'll promise to have you taken up and unrolled, +also."</p> + +<p>A remarkable incident of generosity is told +of Turner. In 1826 he hung two exquisite +pictures in the Academy. One, "Cologne," +having a most beautiful, golden effect. This +was hung between two portraits by Sir Thomas +Lawrence. The golden colouring of Turner's +picture entirely destroyed the effect of the +Lawrence pictures, and without a word, Turner +washed his lovely picture over with lampblack. +This gave the Lawrence, pictures their +full colour value. A friend who had been +<a name="335"></a> +enthusiastic about the "Cologne" was provoked +with Turner. "What in the world did you +do that for?" he demanded. "Well, poor +Lawrence was so unhappy. It will all wash off +after the exhibition." Turner had his reward +in cash, for the picture sold for 2,000 guineas.</p> + +<p>Above all things Turner hated engravings, +or any process that cheapened art, and one +day he stated this to his friend Lawrence. +"I don't choose to be a basket engraver," +he declared.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by that," Sir Thomas +inquired.</p> + +<p>"Why when I got off the coach t' other day +at Hastings, a woman came up with a basket +of your 'Mrs. Peel,' and offered to sell me +one for a sixpence."</p> + +<p>Turner dearly loved his friends, and the story +of Chantry's death, illustrates it. He was in +his room when the sculptor breathed his last, +and just as he died, the artist turned to another +friend, George Jones, and with tears streaming +down his face, wrung Jones's hand and rushed +from the room, unable to speak.</p> + +<p>Again, when William Frederick Wells, +another friend, died, Turner rushed to the +house of Clara Wells, his daughter, and cried: +"Oh Clara, Clara! these are iron tears. I have +lost the best friend I ever had in my life."</p> + +<p>In his old age Turner suddenly disappeared +from all his haunts, and his friends could not +find him. They were much troubled, but one +<a name="336"></a> +day his old housekeeper found a note in a +pocket of an old coat, which made her think +he had gone to Chelsea. She looked there for +him, and found him very ill, in a little cottage +on the Thames River. Everybody about called +him Admiral Booth, believing him to be a +retired admiral. He had felt his death near +and had tried to meet it quite alone. He died +the very day after his friends found him, +as he was being wheeled by them to the window +to look out upon the river for the last time. +He was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral between +Sir Joshua Reynolds and James Barry. He +left his drawings and pictures to a "Turner +Gallery," and $100,000 to the Royal Academy, +to be used for a medal to be struck +every two years for the best exhibitor. The +rest of his fortune went to care for "poor +and decayed male artists born in England +and of English parents only." This was +to be known as Turner's Gift, and that is +why he had saved money all his life.</p> + +<p>A few more of the numberless stories of his +generosity should be told. A picture had been +sent to the Academy by a painter named Bird +It was very fine, and Turner was full of its +praise, but when they came to hang it no place +could be found.</p> + +<p>"It can't be hung," the others of the committee +said.</p> + +<p>"It must be hung," returned Turner, but +nothing could be done about it, for there was +<a name="337"></a> +absolutely no place. Then Turner went aside +with the picture and sat studying it a long +time. Finally he got up, took down a picture +of his own and hung Bird's in its place. +"There!" he said. "It is hung!"</p> + +<p>Again, an old drawing-master died and +Turner who had known the family for a long +time, was aware that they were destitute, so +he gave the widow a good sum of money with +which to bury her husband and to meet +general expenses. After some time she came +to him with the money; but Turner put his +hands in his pockets. "No," he said; "keep +it. Use it to send the children to school and +to church."</p> + +<p>On one occasion when he had irritably sent +a beggar from his house, he ran out and called +her back, thrusting a £5 note into her hand +before letting her go.</p> + +<p>There was a man who in Turner's youth, +while the little fellow was making pictures in +the cheerless barber shop bought all of these +drawings he could find. He often raised the +price and in every way tried to help Turner. +In after years that old patron went bankrupt. +Turner heard that his steward had been +instructed to cut down some fine old trees on +this man's estate, and sell them. Turner, +without letting himself be known in the +matter, at once stopped the cutting and put +into his old patron's hands about £20,000. +The rescued man, afterward, through the +<a name="338"></a> +same channels that he had received the +money, paid it all back. Years passed, and the +son of that same man got into the same +difficulties, and again, without being known +in the matter, Turner restored his fortune. +That son, in his turn, honestly paid back the +full amount. This was the miser who saved +all his money--to do good deeds to his friends. +Ruskin wrote that in all his life he had never +heard from Turner one unkind or blameful +word for others.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE FIGHTING TÉMÉRAIRE</center> + +<p>This was the picture which Turner loved +best of all, the one he would never sell; but +at his death ho gave it to the English nation.</p> + +<p>"Many years before he painted it, he had +gone down to Portsmouth one day to see Nelson's +fleet come in after the glorious victory +of Trafalgar. The <i>Téméraire</i> was pointed +out to him--a battle ship that had very +proudly borne the English flag, for during the +battle it had run in between two French +frigates and captured them both.</p> + +<p>"And now between thirty and forty years +later, he lingered one afternoon on the banks +of the Thames. As he looked over the water +he saw the grand old hulk being towed down +the river by a noisy little tug to be broken +up at Deptford. 'There's a fine subject!' he +exclaimed as he looked at the heroic ship that +<a name="339"></a> +had known many glorious years; and in his +thought he compared it to 'a battle-scarred +warrior borne to the grave.'</p> + +<p>"Then he painted the picture. The glow +of the setting sun irradiates the scene and bids +farewell to the old ship. Twilight is coming +on, and the new moon has just risen in its +pearly light. It is a pathetic picture," and +well illustrates how truly a "master of sunsets +and waves" the artist was.</p> + +<p>Among his other paintings are several of +Venice; "The Slave Ship" and many other sea +pieces.</p> + +<p><a name="340"></a></p> +<h1>XL</h1> + +<h1>SIR ANTHONY VAN DYCK</h1> + +<center><i>Flemish School</i><br> +1599-1641<br> +<i>Pupil of Rubens</i> </center> + +<p>Anthony Van Dyke's father was +neither a gentleman nor an ill-born +person. He was "betwixt-and-between," +being a silk merchant, who met so many fine +folk that he seemed to be "fine folk" himself; +and by the time Anthony had grown up, he actually +believed himself to be one of them. If +manners stand for fineness Sir Anthony must +have been superfine, because he was almost +overburdened with "manners."</p> + +<p>He became a wonderful, be-laced, perfumed, +shiny gentleman who never stooped to paint +anything less than royalty and its associates, +nor in anything less than velvets and laces. +Like Rembrandt and Gainsborough, he set a +fashion--or rather the style in which he painted +came to be known after his name. We are +all familiar with the kind of ornamentation +on clothes called Van Dyck--pointed lace, +or trimmings--and pointed beards.</p> + +<p>As a very young lad he was almost too +dainty to be liked by healthy boys; and the +worst of it was he did not care whether healthy, +<a name="341"></a> +robust chaps liked him or not; certainly he +did not care for them. He liked to sit in his +father's shop and be smiled upon by the great +ladies who came to buy, and in turn to smile +shyly at them; this tendency became stronger +as he grew to be a man.</p> + +<p>Anthony's mother made the most exquisite +embroideries, and this may mean that some +part of his art was inherited. She handled +lovely colours, and tried to fashion beautiful +flower shapes for customers. She was a fragile, +tender sort of woman, while the father was +doubtless a dapper, over-nice little fellow.</p> + +<p>Anthony was born in Antwerp, and the facts +concerning his education, as in the case of most +artists, are lost to our knowledge. He probably +had a little of some sort outside of painting, +but it certainly was not enough to hurt him, +nor to make a fine healthy man of him. He +was very beautiful, in a lady-like, faint-coloured +way, not in the least resembling the handsome, +gorgeous, elegant, robust Rubens, a true +cavalier, of a dashing sort.</p> + +<p>He was apprenticed to a painter when he +was ten years old, and later on became the pupil +of Rubens. He painted a whole series of +Apostles' heads, about which a lawsuit took +place. The papers relating to this were found +about twenty years ago, though the lawsuit +occurred as far back as 1615. Several of the +Apostles' heads that brought about the suit +are to-day to be seen in the gallery at Dresden.</p> + +<p><a name="342"></a> +Everything in those days--especially in +Germany and Holland--was represented by +a "guild." In reading about the Mastersingers +of Nuremberg we are told that on the day +when the trial of singers was to take place, +dozens of "guilds" assembled in the meadow--guilds +of bakers, of shoemakers--of which +Hans Sachs was the head--guilds of goldsmiths, +etc. Van Dyck was a member of +the painters' guild when he was no more +than nineteen. His work at that time +showed so much strength that there is a +picture of his, an old gentleman and lady, in +the Dresden gallery, which for a long time +was supposed to have been painted by his +master, Rubens.</p> + +<p>An intimate friend of Van Dyck, Kenelm +Digby, says that Van Dyck's first relations with +Rubens came about by Van Dyck being +employed to make engravings for the reproduction +of Rubens's great works. After that +he studied painting with him.</p> + +<p>One of his friends of that time wrote that +at twenty Van Dyck was nearly as great as +Rubens, though this is hardly substantiated by +the verdict of time, and that being a man with +very rich family connections, he could hardly be +expected to leave home. On every hand we +have signs of the artist's affected feeling about +himself and other people.</p> + +<p>However, an annual pension from the King +of England seems to have made travelling +<a name="343"></a> +possible to this fine gentleman of lace ruffles, +pale face, and lady-like ways.</p> + +<p>There is an entry about him on the royal +account book of "Special service ... +performed for His Majesty." Also "Antonio +Van Dyck, gent., <i>His Majesty's servant</i>, is +allowed to travaile 8 months, he havinge +obtayneid his Majesty's leave in that behalf, +as was signified to the E. of Arundel." +Certainly by that time Van Dyck had become +a truly great portrait painter; not the greatest, +because every picture showed the same +characteristics in its subject--elegance, fine +clothes, languid manners, without force of +great truth or any excellent moral quality to +distinguish one from another. Nevertheless, +the kind of painting that he did, he did better +than anyone else had ever done, or probably +ever will do.</p> + +<p>While in England he painted all the royalties +and many aristocrats, and wherever he went +he was always painting pictures of himself.</p> + +<p>He travelled about a good deal, always +painting people of the same class--kings and +queens and fine folk, and painting them pretty +nearly all alike.</p> + +<p>When he went to Italy he was everywhere +received as a great painter, but while artists +agreed that his work was excellent he was not +much liked by them, and many tales are told +about that journey which are interesting, +if not entirely true. Van Dyck was the sort +<a name="344"></a> +of man about whom tales would be made up. +One, however, sounds true. It is said that he +fell in love--which of course he was always +doing--with a beautiful country girl, and that +for love of her he painted an altar piece into +which he put himself, seated on the great gray +horse which Rubens had given him. That +picture is in St. Martin's Church at Saventhem, +near Brussels, but although one is inclined to +believe this story because it was quite the sort +of thing which might be expected of Van Dyck, +even this is not true, because the painting was +done long after the artist had made his Italian +journey, and it was commissioned by a gentleman +living at Saventhem, whose daughter +Van Dyck undoubtedly liked pretty well; but +he made the picture for money, not for love.</p> + +<p>While he was in Italy he lived with a +cardinal, and painted languid pictures of +sacred subjects, which were far from being his +best work. The best that he did was in +portraiture. Distinguished though he was, +he did not have a very good time in Italy, +because he would not join the artists who +worked there, nor associate with them in the +least, and naturally this made him disliked.</p> + +<p>We see a good many portraits painted by +Van Dyck, of persons mounted upon or standing +beside the gray horse, and these were painted +about the time of that Italian journey. He +used the Rubens horse in many paintings.</p> + +<p>Of all the people with whom he painted, +<a name="345"></a> +he most valued the knowledge he got from a +blind woman painter of Sicily, called Sofonisba +Anguisciola, and he often said that he had +learned more from a blind woman than from +all the open-eyed men he ever knew. This +woman artist was over ninety years old at the +time he learned from her.</p> + +<p>While he was in Italy the plague broke out, +and Van Dyck fled for his life, leaving an +unfinished picture behind him, one ordered +by the English king, the subject being Rinaldo +and Armida, which had gained for the artist +his knighthood pension.</p> + +<p>It is said that during his first year in England +he painted the king and queen twelve +times. He had an extraordinary record for +industry, and painted very quickly, as he had +need to do, because it took a great deal of money +to buy the sort of things Van Dyck liked--fine +laces and velvets, perfumes and satins. +His plan was to sketch his subject first on gray +paper with black and white chalk, and after +that he gave the sketch to an assistant who +increased it to the size he wished to paint. +The next step was to set his painter to work +upon the clothing of his figures. This was +painted in roughly, together with background +and any architectural effect Van Dyck wanted. +After this the artist himself sat down and in +three or four sittings, of not more than an hour +each, he was able to finish a picture worth to-day +thousands of dollars.</p> + +<p><a name="346"></a> +He painted hands specially well, and kept +certain models for them alone.</p> + +<p>Van Dyck had eleven brothers and sisters, +whom he always kept in mind. Some of his +sisters had become nuns while some of his +brothers were priests, and Van Dyck's influence +got a monkish brother called to the Dutch +court to act as chaplain to the queen.</p> + +<p>By this time every royal personage in the +world, nearly, had sent for Van Dyck to paint +his portrait, for he could make one look handsomer +than could any other painter in +existence. If the king was very ugly, Van +Dyck painted such beautiful clothes upon him +that nobody noticed the plainness of the +features.</p> + +<p>When Van Dyck was about thirty-six years +old he married a great lady, the Lady Mary +Ruthven, granddaughter of the Earl of Gowrie, +but before that he had had a lady-love, +Margaret Lemon, whom he painted as the Virgin +and in several other pictures. When he +married Lady Mary, Margaret Lemon was so +furiously jealous that she tried to injure +Van Dyck's right hand so that he could paint +no more.</p> + +<p>About this time Rubens died in Flanders, +leaving behind him an unfinished series of +pictures which had been commissioned by +the king of Spain. Van Dyck was asked to +finish these, but declined until he was asked +to make an independent picture, to complete +<a name="347"></a> +the series, and this he was delighted to do. +Ferdinand of Austria wrote to the king of +Spain that Van Dyck had returned in great +haste to London to arrange for his change of +home, in order to do the work. "Possibly he +may still change his mind," he added, "for he +is stark mad." This shows how Van Dyck's +erratic ways appeared to some people.</p> + +<p>He had a sister, Justiniana, who was also +something of an artist and she married a +nobleman when she was about twelve years old.</p> + +<p>When Van Dyck died he was buried in +St. Paul's, London, and Charles I. placed an +inscription on his tomb.</p> + +<p>In the "Young People's Story of Art," +is the following anecdote: "A visit was once +paid by a courtly looking stranger passing +through Haarlem, to Franz Hals, the distinguished +Dutch painter.</p> + +<p>"Hals was not at home but he was sent for +to the tavern and hastily returned. The +stranger told him that he had heard of his +reputation--had just two hours to spare--and +wished to have his portrait painted. Hals, +seizing canvas and brushes fell vigorously to +work; and before the given time had elapsed, +he said, 'Have the goodness to rise, sir, and +examine your portrait!' The stranger looked +at it, expressed his satisfaction, and then said, +'Painting seems such a very easy thing, suppose +we change places and see what I can do!'</p> + +<p>"Hals assented, and took his position as the +<a name="348"></a> +sitter. The unknown began, and as Hals +watched him, he saw that he wielded the brush +so quickly, he must be a painter. His work, +too, was rapidly finished, and as Hals looked +at it he exclaimed, 'You must be Van Dyck! +No one else could paint such a portrait!'</p> + +<p>"No two portraits could have been more +unlike. The story adds that the famous +Dutch and Flemish masters heartily embraced +each other."</p> + +<p>The stories of Van Dyck's youth are interesting, +and probably true. It is said that he +drew so well when he was a pupil of Rubens +that the great master often allowed him to +retouch his own works. Once in Rubens's +studio, some of the students got the key and +went in to see what the master was doing, +when he was absent. Rubens had left a +painting fresh upon the easel, and in looking +about them one of the boys rubbed against +it. This frightened them all. What should +they do? Rubens would find his picture +ruined and know that they had broken in.</p> + +<p>After consultation they decided there was +no one with them who could repair the damage +as well as Van Dyck, who set about it, and soon +he had painted in the smudged part so perfectly +that when Rubens saw it, he did not for some +time know that anything had happened to +his picture. Later he suspected something, +and when he learned of the prank and its +outcome, he was so delighted with Van Dyck's +<a name="349"></a> +work that he praised him instead of blaming +him for it.</p> + +<p>Van Dyck had a very precise method of working. +When sitters came to him he would paint for +just one hour. Then he would politely dismiss +them, and his servant would wash his brushes, +and clear the way for the next sitter. He +dined with his sitters often that he might +surprise in them the expression which he +wanted to paint. Also, he had their clothing +sent to his studio, that it might be exactly +imitated by himself or by those assistants who +painted in the foundation for his finished work.</p> + +<p>While attached to King Charles I.'s court, +Van Dyck was given a fine house at Blackfriars, +on the Thames, and he had a private +landing place made for boats, so that the +royal family might visit him at their convenience. +Charles I. used often to go to Van +Dyck's studio to escape his many troubles, +and thus the artist's home became as fashionable +a gathering place, as Gainsborough's studio +was in Bath. He painted Queen Henrietta not +less than twenty-five times. He often furnished +concerts for his sitters, for he himself was passionately +fond of music, and moreover he believed +that music often brought to the faces of +his sitters, an expression that he loved to paint.</p> + +<p>He painted so many pictures of a certain +kind of little dog, in the pictures of King +Charles I. that ever since that breed has been +known as the King Charles spaniel.</p> + +<p><a name="350"></a> +After a while Van Dyck got heavily into +debt. King Charles himself was in great +trouble, and he had no money with which to +pay his painter's pension. The artist had +lived so extravagantly that he did not know +at last which way to turn, so in desperation +he thought to try alchemy and maybe to learn +the secret of making gold. He wasted much +time at this, as cleverer men have done, but +at last he became too ill for that or for his own +proper work, and badly off though Charles was +himself, he offered his court physician a large +sum if he could cure his court painter. But +Van Dyck had enjoyed life too well, and +nothing could be done for him.</p> + +<p>He was the seventh child of his parents--which +some have thought had something to do +with his genius and success; he lived gaily +all the years of his life, going restlessly from +place to place, and having many acquaintances +but probably few friends, outside of his old +master, Rubens, who loved him for his genius.</p> + +<center>PLATE--CHILDREN OF CHARLES THE FIRST</center> + +<p>Van Dyck painted the family of the unfortunate +king of England four times. There +are five children in the Windsor Castle picture, +and this one, which hangs in the Turin +Gallery, was probably painted before the birth +of the fourth child in 1636. It is celebrated +for its colouring as well as for its great +<a name="351"></a> +artistic merit. The children are surely childlike +enough, despite their stately attire, and +they little dream of the sad fate awaiting the +whole of the Stuart family to which they +belong.</p> + +<p>Other Van Dycks are: "The Blessed Herman +Joseph," "Lords Digby and Russell," "Lord +Wharton," "Countess Folkestone," and +"William Prince of Orange."</p> + +<p><a name="352"></a></p> +<h1>XLI</h1> + +<h1>VELASQUEZ (DIEGO RODRIGUEZ DE SILVA)</h1> + +<center>(Pronounced Vay-lahs'keth)<br> +<i>Castilian School</i><br> +1599-1669<br> +<i>Pupil of Herrera</i> </center> + +<p>It is pretty difficult to find out why a +man was named so-and-so in the days +of the early Italian and Spanish painters. +More likely than not they would be called after +the master to whom they had been first apprenticed; +or after their trade; after the town from +which they came, and rarely because their +father had had the name before them. In +Velasquez's case, he was named after his mother.</p> + +<p>No one seemed to be certain what to call +him, but he generally wrote his name "Diego +de Silva Velasquez." His father was Rodriguez +de Silva, a lawyer, but in calling the boy +Velasquez the family followed a universal +Spanish custom of naming children after their +mothers.</p> + +<p>Little Velasquez was well taught in his +childhood; he studied many languages and +philosophy, for he was intended to be a lawyer +or something learned, anything but a painter. +The disappointment of parents in those days, +<a name="353"></a> +when they found a child was likely to become +an artist is touching.</p> + +<p>Despite his equipment for a useful life, +according to the ideas of his parents, this little +chap was bound to become nothing but a +maker of pictures.</p> + +<p>Herrera was a bad-tempered master and +little Velasquez could not get on with him, +so after a year of harsh treatment, he went to +another master, Pacheco, but by that time +he had learned a secret that was to help make +his work great. Herrera had taught him to use +a brush with very long bristles, which had the +effect of spreading the paint, making it look +as if his "colours had floated upon the canvas," +in a way that was the "despair of those who +came after him."</p> + +<p>Velasquez was born in Seville at a time when +about all the art of the world was Italian or +German; thus he became the creator of a new +school of painting.</p> + +<p>He stayed five years in Pacheco's studio and +pupil and master became very fond of each +other. Pacheco was not a great master--not +so good as Herrera--but he was easy to +get on with, and knew a good deal about +painting, so that as Velasquez had the genius, +he was as well placed as he needed to be.</p> + +<p>In Pacheco's studio there was a peasant +boy whose face was very mobile, showed every +passing feeling; and Velasquez used to make +him laugh and weep, till, surprising some good +<a name="354"></a> +expression, he would quickly sketch him. +With this excellent model, Velasquez did a +surprising amount of good work.</p> + +<p>Spain had just then conquered the far-off +provinces of Mexico and Peru, and was continually +receiving from its newly got lands +much valuable merchandise. Rapidly growing +rich, this Latin country loved art and all things +beautiful, so its money was bound to be spent +freely in such ways. Madrid had been made its +capital, and at that time there were few fine +pictures to be found there. The Moors who +had conquered Spain had forbidden picture +making, because it was contrary to their +religion to represent the human figure, or even +the figures of birds and beasts. Then the +Inquisition had hindered art by its rules, +one of which was that the Virgin Mary should +always be painted with her feet covered; +another, that all saints should be beardless. +There were many more exactions.</p> + +<p>While cathedrals were being built elsewhere, +the Moors had been in control of Spanish +lands, so that no cathedral had been built +there, and when Velasquez came upon the +scene the time of great cathedral building +was past. It had ceased to be the fashion. +Although there had been such painters as +Beneguette, Morales, Navarrette, and Ribera, +all Spanish and of considerable genius, they +had been too badly handicapped to make +painting a great art in Spain. When Madrid +<a name="355"></a> +became the capital of Spain, it had no unusual +buildings, unless it was an old fortress of the +Moors, the Alcazar, Caesar's house, but the +nation was buying paintings from Italy, and +it began to beautify Madrid, which had the +advantage of the former Moorish luxury and +art, very beautiful, though not pictorial.</p> + +<p>In Madrid, then, there seemed to be great +opportunity for a fine artist like Velasquez, +and his master urged him to go there and try +his fortune. So he set out on mule-back, +attended by his slave, but unless he could get +the ear of the king, it was useless for him to +seek advancement in Madrid. Without the +king as patron at that time, an artist could +not accomplish much. After trying again and +again, Velasquez had to return to his old +master, without having seen the king; but +after a time a picture of his was seen by Philip +IV., and he was so much pleased with it +that he summoned the artist. Through his +minister, Olivares, he offered him $113.40 in +gold (fifty ducats) to pay his return expenses. +The next year he gave him $680.40 to move +his family to Madrid.</p> + +<p>At last the artist had found a place in the +rich city, and he went to live at the court +where the warmest friendship grew between +him and the king. The latter was an author +and something of a painter, so that they loved +the same things. This friendship lasted all +their lives, and they were together most of +<a name="356"></a> +the time, the king always being found, in +Velasquez's studio in the palace when his +duties did not call him elsewhere. During +the many many years--nearly thirty-seven--that +Velasquez lived with Philip IV. he +employed himself in painting the scenes at +court. Thus he became the pictorial historian +of the Spanish capital. He was a man of good +disposition, kindly and generous in conduct +and in feeling, so that he was always in the +midst of friends and well-wishers.</p> + +<p>Philip IV. was indeed a noble companion, +but he was not a gay one, being known as the +king who never laughed--or at least whose +laughter was so rare, the few times he did +laugh became historic. One would expect +this serious and depressing atmosphere to have +had an effect upon a painter's art; but it +chanced that Rubens visited Spain, and there, +Velasquez being the one famous artist, it was +natural they should become interested in each +other. Rubens told Velasquez of the wonders of +Italian painting, till the Spaniard could think +of nothing else, and finally he begged Philip +to let him journey to Italy that he might see +some of those wonders for himself. The +request made the king unhappy at first, but at +last he gave his consent and Velasquez set out +for Italy. The king gave him money and +letters of introduction, and he went in company +with the Marquis of Spinola.</p> + +<p>After Velasquez had stayed eighteen months +<a name="357"></a> +in Italy, Philip began to long for his friend +and sent for him to return. He came back +full of the stories of brilliant Italy, and +charmed the king completely.</p> + +<p>There is as absurd a story of Velasquez's +perfection in painting as that of Raphael's, +whose portrait of the pope, left upon the +terrace to dry, imposed upon passers by. It +is said of Velasquez's work that when he had +painted an admiral whom the king had +ordered to sea, and left it exposed in his studio, +the king, entering, thought it was the admiral +himself, and angrily inquired why he had not +put to sea according to orders. On the face +of them these stories are false, but they serve +to suggest the perfection of these artists' +paintings.</p> + +<p>Philip, being a melancholy man, had his +court full of jesters, poor misshapen creatures--dwarfs +and hunchbacks--who were supposed +to appear "funny," and Velasquez, as +court painter, painted those whom he continually +saw about him, who formed the court +family. Thus we have pictures of strange +groups--dwarfs, little princesses, dressed precisely +as the elders were dressed, favourite +dogs, and Velasquez himself at his easel.</p> + +<p>In 1618, while still with his master, Pacheco, +he had married the master's daughter, a big, +portly woman. Before he left Seville he bad +two daughters.</p> + +<p>These were all the children he had, although +<a name="358"></a> +he painted a picture of "Velasquez's Family" +which includes a great number of people. +The figures in that painting are the children of +his daughter, not his own; and this may +account for one biographer's statement that +the artist had "seven children." He was +devoted to and happy in his family of children +and grandchildren.</p> + +<p>He did not grow rich, but received regularly +during his life in Madrid, twenty gold ducats +($45.36) a month to live upon, and besides this +his medical attendance, lodging, and additional +payment for every picture. The one which +brought him this good fortune was an equestrian +portrait of Philip; first uncovered on +the steps of San Felipe. Everywhere the +people were delighted with it, poets sung of it, +and the king declared no other should ever +paint his portrait. This picture has long +since disappeared.</p> + +<p>In 1627 Velasquez won the prize for a picture +representing the expulsion of the Moors from +Spain and was rewarded by "being appointed +gentleman usher. To this was shortly afterward +added a daily allowance of twelve reals--the +same amount which was allowed to court +barbers--and ninety gold ducats ($204.12) a +year for dress, which was also paid to the +dwarfs, buffoons, and players about the king's +person--truly a curious estimate of talent at +the court of Spain."</p> + +<p>The record of Philip IV. with unpleasing, +<a name="359"></a> +even degenerate characters, about him, is +brightened by the thought of his loyalty to his +court painter and life-long friend. When the +king's favourites fell, those who had been +the friends of Velasquez, the artist loyally +remained their friend in adversity as he had +been while they were powerful. This constancy, +even to the royal enemies, was never +resented by Philip. He honoured the faithfulness +of his artist, even as he himself was +faithful in this friendship. Philip's court was +such that there was little to paint that was +ennobling, and so Velasquez lacked the inspiration +of such surroundings as the Italian +painters had.</p> + +<p>Philip IV. was hail-fellow-well-met with his +stablemen, his huntsmen, his cooks, and yet +he seems to have had no sense of humour, +was long faced and forbidding to look at, +and despite his strange habits considered +himself the most mighty and haughty man in +the world. He felt himself free to behave as +he chose, because he was Philip of Spain; and +he chose to do a great many absurd and outrageous +things. In all Philip's portraits, painted +by Velasquez, he wears a stiff white linen +collar of his own invention, and he was so +proud of this that he celebrated it by a festival. +He went in procession to church to thank God +for the wonderful blessing of the <i>Golilla</i>--the +name of his collar. This unsightly thing +became the fashion, and all portraits of men of +<a name="360"></a> +that time were painted with it. "In regard to +the wonderful structure of Philip's moustaches +it is said, that, to preserve their form they +were encased during the night in perfumed +leather covers called <i>bigoteras</i>." Such absurdities +in a king, who had the responsibilities of +a nation upon him, seem incredible.</p> + +<p>Velasquez made in all three journeys to +Italy, and the last one was on a mission for +the king, which was much to the latter's +credit. Philip had determined to have a fine +art gallery in Madrid, for Spain had by this +time many pictures, but no statuary; so he +commissioned his painter to buy whatever he +thought well of and <i>could</i> buy, in Italy. Hence +the artist set off again with his slave--the +same one with whom he had journeyed to +Madrid so long before. His name was Pareja, +and his master had already made an excellent +artist of him.</p> + +<p>They went to Genoa, thence to the great art-centres +of Italy, were received everywhere +with honour, and the artist bought wisely. +Velasquez did not care for Raphael's paintings +as much as for Titian's, and he said so to +Salvator Rosa, an honoured painter in Italy.</p> + +<p>While in Rome Velasquez painted the pope, +also his own slave, Pareja.</p> + +<p>When he returned to Spain he took with +him three hundred statues, but a large number +of them were nude, and the Spanish court, not +over particular about most things, was very +<a name="361"></a> +particular about naked statues, so that after +Philip's death, they nearly all disappeared. +After his return, and after the queen had +died and Philip had married again, Velasquez +was made quartermaster-general, no easy post +but not without honour, though it interfered +with his picture painting a good deal. He +had to look after the comfort of all the court, +and to see that the apartments it occupied, +at home or when it visited, were suitable.</p> + +<p>"Even the powerful king of Spain could not +make his favourite a belted knight without a +commission to inquire into the purity of his +lineage on both sides of the house. Fortunately, +the pedigree could bear scrutiny, as for +generations the family was found free from +all taint of heresy, from all trace of Jewish +or Moorish blood, and from contamination +from trade or commerce. The difficulty +connected with the fact that he was a painter +was got over by his being painter to the king +and by the declaration that he did not sell his +pictures."</p> + +<p>The red Cross of Santiago conferred upon +him by Philip, made Velasquez a knight and +freed him also from the rulings of the Inquisition, +which directed so largely what artists +could and could not do. Thus it is that we +come to have certain great pictures from +Velasquez's brush which could not otherwise +have been painted.</p> + +<p>This action of the king, setting free the artist, +<a name="362"></a> +made two schools of art, of which the court +painter represented one; and Murillo the other, +under the command of the Church. Although +not so rich perhaps as Raphael, Velasquez +lived and died in plenty, while Murillo, the +artist of the Church of Rome, was a poverty-stricken +man.</p> + +<p>Finally, while in the midst of honours, and +fulfilling his official duty to the court of Spain, +Velasquez contracted the disease which killed +him. The Infanta, Maria Theresa, was to +wed Louis XIV., and the ceremony was to take +place on a swampy little island called the +Island of Pheasants. There he went to +decorate a pavilion and other places of display. +He became ill with a fever and died soon after +he returned to Madrid.</p> + +<p>He made his wife, his old master Pacheco's +daughter, his executor, and was buried in the +church of San Juan, in the vault of Fuensalida; +but within a week his devoted wife was dead, and +in eight days' time she was buried beside him.</p> + +<p>He left his affairs--accounts between him +and the court--badly entangled, and it was +many years before they were straightened out. +His many deeds of kindness lived after him. +He made of his slave a good artist and a +devoted friend, and by his efforts the slave +became a freedman. The story of his kindly +help to Murillo when that exquisite painter +came, unknown and friendless to Madrid, has +already been told.</p> + +<p><a name="363"></a> +The Church where Velasquez was buried was +destroyed by the French in 1811, and all trace +of the resting place of the great Spanish artist +is forever lost to us.</p> + +<p>He is called not only "painter to the king," +but "king of painters."</p> + +<center>PLATE--EQUESTRIAN PORTRAIT OF DON +BALTHASAR CARLOS.</center> + +<p>Philip of Spain had long prayed for a son +and when at last one was granted him his pride +in his young heir was unbounded. The little +Don Carlos was not unworthy, for he was a +cheerful, hearty boy, trained to horsemanship, +from his fourth year, for his father was a noted +rider and had the best instructors for his son. +The prince was a brave hunter too and we are +told that he shot a wild boar when he was but +nine years of age. In this portrait which is +in the Museo del Prado he is six years old, and +it was neither the first nor the last that +Velasquez made of him. It was one of the +court painter's chief duties to see that the heir +to the throne was placed upon canvas at +every stage of his career, and he painted him +from two years of age till his lamented death +at sixteen.</p> + +<p>The young prince wears in this picture a +green velvet jacket with white sleeves and his +scarf is crimson embroidered with gold. The +lively pony is a light chestnut and the foreshortening +<a name="364"></a> +of its body must be noticed. The +steady grave eyes of the lad are gazing far +ahead as they would naturally be if he were +riding rapidly, but his princely dignity is +shown in his firm seat in the saddle and his +manner of holding his marshal's batôn.</p> + +<p>The great art of the painter is also shown +in the way he subordinates the landscape +to the figure. He will not allow even a tree +to come near the young horseman, but brings +his young activity into vivid contrast with the +calm peacefulness of the distant view.</p> + +<p>With the death of Don Carlos the downfall +of his father's dynasty was assured, though +for a time his little sister, the Infanta Maria +Theresa, was upheld as the heiress. She +married Louis XIV. and had a weary time +of it in France. Velasquez painted her picture +too, in the grown up dress of the children of +that day. It is in the Vienna Gallery. Among +his best known pictures are "The Surrender +of Breda," "Alessandro del Borro," and +"Philip IV."</p> + +<p><a name="365"></a></p> +<h1>XLII</h1> + +<h1>PAUL VERONESE (PAOLO CAGLIARI)</h1> + +<center>(Pronounced Vay-ro-nay'zay and pah'o-lah cal-ee-ah'ree)<br> +<i>Venetian School</i><br> +1528-1588<br> +<i>Pupil of Titian</i> </center> + +<p>"One has never done well enough, when +one can do better; one never knows +enough when he can learn more!"</p> + +<p>This was the motto of Paul Veronese. This +artist was born in Verona--whence he took +his name--and spent much of his life with the +monks in the monastery of St. Sebastian.</p> + +<p>His father was a sculptor, and taught his +son. Veronese himself was a lovable fellow, +had a kind feeling for all, and in return +received the good will of most people. When +he first went to Venice to study he took letters +of introduction to the monks of St. Sebastian, +and finally went to live with them, for his uncle +was prior of the monastery, and it was upon its +walls that he did his first work in Venice. His +subject was the story of Esther, which he +illustrated completely.</p> + +<p>He became known in time as "the most +magnificent of magnificent painters." He +loved the gaieties of Venice; the lords and +ladies; the exquisite colouring; the feasting +<a name="366"></a> +and laughter, and everything he painted, +showed this taste. When he chose great +religious subjects he dressed all his figures in +elegant Venetian costumes, in the midst of +elegant Venetian scenes. His Virgins, or other +Biblical people, were not Jews of Palestine, +but Venetians of Venice, but so beautiful were +they and so inspiring, that nobody cared to +criticise them on that score. He loved to +paint festival scenes such as, "The Marriage +at Cana," "Banquet in Levi's House," or +"Feast in the House of Simon." He painted +nothing as it could possibly have been, but +everything as he would have liked it to be.</p> + +<p>Into the "Wedding Feast at Cana," where +Jesus was said to have turned the water into +wine, he introduced a great host of his friends, +people then living. Titian is there, and several +reigning kings and queens, including Francis +I. of France and his bride, for whom the +picture was made. This treatment of the Bible +story startles the mind, but delights the eye.</p> + +<p>It was said that his "red recurred like a +joyful trumpet blast among the silver gray +harmonies of his paintings."</p> + +<p>Muther, one who has written brilliantly +about him, tells us that "Veronese seems to +have come into the world to prove that the +painter need have neither head nor heart, but +only a hand, a brush, and a pot of paint in +order to clothe all the walls of the world with +oil paintings" and that "if he paints Mary, +<a name="367"></a> +she is not the handmaid of the Lord or even +the Queen of Heaven, but a woman of the +world, listening with approving smile to the +homage of a cavalier. In light red silk morning +dress, she receives the Angel of the Annunciation +and hears without surprise--for she has +already heard it--what he has to say; and at +the Entombment she only weeps in order to +keep up appearances."</p> + +<p>Such criticism raises a smile, but it is quite +just, and what is more, the Veronese pictures +are so beautiful that one is not likely to quarrel +with the painter for having more good feeling +than understanding. His joyous temperament +came near to doing him harm, for he was summoned +before the Inquisition for the manner +in which he had painted "The Last Supper."</p> + +<p>After the Esther pictures in St. Sebastian, +the artist painted there the "Martyrdom of +St. Sebastian," and there is a tradition that +he did his work while hiding in the monastery +because of some mischief of which he had been +guilty.</p> + +<p>At that time he was not much more than +twenty-six or eight, while the great painter +Tintoretto was forty-five, yet his work in +St. Sebastian made him as famous as the older +artist.</p> + +<p>There is very little known of the private +affairs of Veronese. He signed a contract +for painting the "Marriage at Cana," for the +refectory of the monastery of St. Giorgio +<a name="368"></a> +Maggiore, in June 1562, and that picture, +stupendous as it is, was finished eighteen +months later. He received $777.60 for it, as +well as his living while he was at work upon it, +and a tun of wine. One picture he is supposed +to have left behind him at a house where he +had been entertained, as an acknowledgment +of the courtesy shown him.</p> + +<p>Paul had a brother, Benedetto, ten years +younger than himself, and it is said that he +greatly helped Paul in his work, by designing +the architectural backgrounds of his pictures. +If that is so, Benedetto must have been an +artist of much genius, for those backgrounds +in the paintings are very fine.</p> + +<p>Veronese married, and had two sons; the +younger being named Carletto. He was also +the favourite, and an excellent artist, who did +some fine painting, but he died while he was +still young. Gabriele the elder son, also painted, +but he was mainly a man of affairs, and attended +to business rather than to art.</p> + +<p>Veronese was a loving father and brother, +and beyond doubt a happy man. After his +death both his sons and his brother worked upon +his unfinished paintings, completing them for +him. He was buried in the Church of St. +Sebastian.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE MARRIAGE AT CANA</center> + +<p>This painting is most characteristic of +Veronese's methods. He has no regard for +<a name="369"></a> +the truth in presenting the picture story. At +the marriage at Cana everybody must have +been very simply dressed, and there could +have been no beautiful architecture, such as +we see in the picture. In the painting we +find courtier-like men and women dressed +in beautiful silks. Some of the costumes +appear to be a little Russian in character, the +others Venetian; and Jesus Himself wears +the loose every-day robe of the pastoral people +to whom he belonged. We think of luxury +and rich food and a splendid house when we +look at this painting, when as a matter of fact +nothing of this sort could have belonged to the +scene which Veronese chose to represent. +Perhaps no painter was more lacking in +imagination than was Veronese in painting +this particular picture. He chose to place +historical or legendary characters, in the midst +of a scene which could not have existed +co-incidently with the event.</p> + +<p>Among his other pictures are "Europa and +the Bull," "Venice Enthroned," and the +"Presentation of the Family of Darius to +Alexander."</p> + +<p><a name="370"></a></p> +<h1>XLIII</h1> + +<h1>LEONARDO DA VINCI</h1> + +<center>(Pronounced Lay-o-nar'do dah Veen'chee)<br> +<i>Florentine School</i><br> +1451-1519<br> +<i>Pupil of Verrocchio</i></center> + +<p>Leonardo da Vinci was the natural +son of a notary, Ser Pier, and he was +born at the Castello of Vinci, near Empoli. +From the very hour that he was apprenticed +to his master, Verrocchio, he proved that he +was the superior of his master in art. Da +Vinci was one of the most remarkable men who +ever lived, because he not only did an extraordinary +number of things, but he did all of +them well.</p> + +<p>He was an engineer, made bridges, fortifications, +and plans which to this day are +brilliant achievements.</p> + +<p>He was a sculptor, and as such did beautiful +work.</p> + +<p>He was a naturalist, and as such was of use +to the world.</p> + +<p>He was an author and left behind him books +written backward, of which he said that only +he who was willing to devote enough study to +them to read them in that form, was able to +profit by what he had written.</p> + +<p><a name="371"></a> +Finally, and most wonderfully, he was a +painter.</p> + +<p>He had absolute faith in himself. Before +he constructed his bridge he said that he +could build the best one in the world, and a +king took him at his word and was not +disappointed by the result.</p> + +<p>He stated that he could paint the finest +picture in the world--but let us read what he +himself said of it, in so sure and superbly +confident a way that it robbed his statement +of anything like foolish vanity. Such as he +could afford to speak frankly of his greatness, +without appearing absurd. He wrote:</p> + +<p>"In time of peace, I believe I can equal +anyone in architecture, in constructing public +and private buildings, and in conducting water +from one place to another. I can execute +sculpture, whether in marble, bronze, or terra +cotta, and in painting I can do as much as +any other man, be he who he may. Further, +I could engage to execute the bronze horse in +eternal memory of your father and the illustrious +house of Sforza." He was writing to Ludovico +Sforza whose house then ruled at +Milan. "If any of the above-mentioned +things should appear to you impossible or +impracticable, I am ready to make trial of +them in your park, or in any other place that +may please your excellency, to whom I +commend myself in proud humility."</p> + +<p>Leonardo's experiments with oils and the +<a name="372"></a> +mixing of his pigments has nearly lost to us +his most remarkable pictures. His first fourteen +years of work as an artist were spent in +Milan, where he was employed to paint by the +Duke of Milan, and never again was his life +so peaceful; it was ever afterward full of +change. He went from Milan to Venice, to +Rome, to Florence, and back to Milan where +his greatest work was done.</p> + +<p>While Leonardo was a baby he lived in the +Castle of Vinci. He was beautiful as a child +and very handsome as a man. When a child +he wore long curls reaching below his waist. +He was richly clothed, and greatly beloved. +His body seemed no less wonderful than his +mind. He wished to learn everything, and his +memory was so wonderful that he remembered +all that he undertook to learn. His muscles +were so powerful that he could bend iron, and +all animals seemed to love him. It is said he +could tame the wildest horses. Indeed his +life and accomplishments read as if he were one +enchanted. One writer tells us that "he +never could bear to see any creature cruelly +treated, and sometimes he would buy little +caged birds that he might just have the +pleasure of opening the doors of their cages, +and setting them at liberty."</p> + +<p>The story told of his first known work is +that his master, being hurried in finishing a +picture, permitted Leonardo to paint in an +angel's head, and that it was so much better +<a name="373"></a> +than the rest of the picture, that Verrocchio +burned his brushes and broke his palette, +determined never to paint again, but probably +this is a good deal of a fairy tale and one that +is not needed to impress us with the artist's +greatness, since there is so much to prove it +without adding fable to fact.</p> + +<p>Leonardo was also a very far seeing inventor +and most ingenious. He made +mechanical toys that "worked" when they +were wound up. He even devised a miniature +flying machine; however, history does +not tell us whether it flew or not. He +thought out the uses of steam as a motive +power long before Fulton's time.</p> + +<p>Leonardo haunted the public streets, sketchbook +in hand, and when attracted by a face, +would follow till he was able to transfer it to +paper. Ida Prentice Whitcomb, who has +compiled many anecdotes of da Vinci, says +that it was also his habit to invite peasants to +his house, and there amuse them with funny +stories till he caught some fleeting expression +of mirth which he was pleased to reproduce.</p> + +<p>As a courtier Leonardo was elegant and full +of amusing devices. He sang, accompanying +himself on a silver lute, which he had had +fashioned in imitation of a horse's skull. +After he attached himself to the court of the +Duke of Milan, his gift of invention was +constantly called into use, and one of the +surprises he had in store for the Duke's guests +<a name="374"></a> +was a great mechanical lion, which being wound +up, would walk into the presence of the court, +open its mouth and disclose a bunch of flowers +inside.</p> + +<p>Leonardo worked very slowly upon his +paintings, because he was never satisfied with +a work, and would retouch it day after day. +Then, too, he was a man of moods, like most +geniuses, and could not work with regularity. +The picture of the "Last Supper" was painted +in Milan, by order of his patron, the Duke, +and there are many picturesque stories written +of its production. It was painted upon the +refectory wall of a Dominican convent, the +Santa Maria delle Grazie; and at first the +work went off well, and the artist would remain +upon his scaffolding from morning till night, +absorbed in his painting. It is said that at +such times he neither ate nor drank, forgetting +all but his great work. He kept postponing +the painting of two heads--Christ and Judas.</p> + +<p>He had worked painstakingly and with +enthusiasm till that point, but deferred +what he was hardly willing to trust himself +to perform. He had certain conceptions of +these features which he almost feared to +execute, so tremendous was his purpose. He +let that part of the work go, month after +month, and having already spent two years +upon the picture, the monks began to urge +him to a finish. He was not the man to endure +much pressure, and the more they urged the +<a name="375"></a> +more resentful he became. Finally, he began +to feel a bitter dislike for the prior, the man +who annoyed him most. One day, when the +prior was nagging him about the picture, +wanting to know why he didn't get to work +upon it again, and when would it be finished, +Leonardo said suavely: "If you will sit for the +head of Judas, I'll be able to finish the picture +at once." The prior was enraged, as Leonardo +meant he should be; but Leonardo is said +actually to have painted him in as Judas. +Afterward he painted in the face of Christ +with haste and little care, simply because he +despaired of ever doing the wonderful face that +his art soul demanded Christ should wear.</p> + +<p>The one bitter moment in Leonardo's life, +in all probability, was when he came in dire +competition with Michael Angelo. When he +removed to Florence he was required to +submit sketches for the Town Hall--the +Palazzo Vecchio--and Michael Angelo was +his rival. The choice fell to Angelo, and +after a life of supremacy Leonardo could not +endure the humiliation with grace. Added +to disappointment, someone declared that +Leonardo's powers were waning because he +was growing old. This was more than he could +bear, and he left Italy for France, where the +king had invited him to come and spend the +remainder of his life. Francis I. had wished +to have the picture in the Milan monastery +taken to France, but that was not to be done.</p> + +<p><a name="376"></a> +Doubtless the king expected Leonardo to do +some equally great work after he became the +nation's guest.</p> + +<p>Before leaving Italy, Leonardo had painted +his one other "greatest" picture--"La +Gioconda" (Mona Lisa)-and he took +that wonderful work with him to France, +where the King purchased it for $9,000, and +to this day it hangs in the Louvre.</p> + +<p>But Leonardo was to do no great work in +France, for in truth he was growing old. His +health had failed, and although he was still +a dandy and court favourite, setting the +fashion in clothing and in the cut of hair and +beard, he was no longer the brilliant, active +Leonardo.</p> + +<p>Bernard Berensen, has written of him: +"Painting ... was to Leonardo so little +of a preoccupation that we must regard it +as merely a mode of expression used at +moments by a man of universal genius." By +which Berensen means us to understand that +Leonardo was so brilliant a student and +inventor, so versatile, that art was a mere +pastime. "No, let us not join in the +reproaches made to Leonardo for having +painted so little; because he had so much more +to do than to paint, he has left all of us heirs +to one or two of the supremest works of art +ever created."</p> + +<p>Another author writes that "in Leonardo da +Vinci every talent was combined in one man."</p> + +<p><a name="377"></a> +Leonardo was the third person of the wonderful +trinity of Florentine painters, Raphael and +Michael Angelo being the other two.</p> + +<p>He knew so much that he never doubted his +own powers, but when he died, after three +years in France, he left little behind him, and +that little he had ever declared to be unfinished--the +"Mona Lisa" and the "Last Supper." +He died in the Château de Cloux, at Amboise, +and it is said that "sore wept the king when +he heard that Leonardo was dead."</p> + +<p>In Milan, near the Cathedral, there stands +a monument to his memory, and about it are +placed the statues of his pupils. To this day +he is wonderful among the great men of the +world.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE LAST SUPPER</center> + +<p>This, as we have said, is in the former convent +of Santa Maria delle Grazie, in Milan. It was +the first painted story of this legendary event +in which natural and spontaneous action on +the part of all the company was presented.</p> + +<p>To-day the picture is nearly ruined by smoke, +time, and alterations in the place, for a great +door lintel has been cut into the picture. +Leonardo used the words of the Christ: "Verily, +I say unto you that one of you shall betray +me," as the starting point for this painting. +It is after the utterance of these words that +we see each of the disciples questioning +<a name="378"></a> +horrified, frightened, anxious, listening, +angered--all these emotions being expressed +by the face or gestures of the hands or pose of +the figures. It is a most wonderful picture and +it seems as if the limit of genius was to be found +in it.</p> + +<p>The company is gathered in a half-dark hall, +the heads outlined against the evening light +that comes through the windows at the back. +We look into a room and seem to behold the +greatest tragedy of legendary history: treachery +and sorrow and consternation brought to +Jesus of Nazareth and his comrades.</p> + +<p>This great picture was painted in oil instead +of in "distemper," the proper kind of mixture +for fresco, and therefore it was bound +to be lost in the course of time. Besides, it +has known more than ordinary disaster. The +troops of Napoleon used this room, the convent +refectory, for a stable, and that did not do the +painting any good. The reason we have +so complete a knowledge of it, however, is that +Leonardo's pupils made an endless number +of copies of it, and thus it has found its way +into thousands of homes. The following is +the order in which Leonardo placed the disciples +at the table: Jesus of Nazareth in the +centre, Bartholomew the last on the left, +after him is James, Andrew, Peter, Judas--who +holds the money bag--and John. On +the right, next to Jesus, comes Thomas, the +doubting one; James the Greater, Philip, +<a name="379"></a> +Matthew, Thaddeus, and Simon. Jesus has +just declared that one of them shall betray +him, and each in his own way seems to be +asking "Lord, is it I?" In the South Kensington +Museum in London will be found +carefully preserved a description, written out +fairly in Leonardo's own hand, to guide him +in painting the Last Supper. It is most +interesting and we shall quote it: "One, in the +act of drinking puts down his glass and turns +his head to the speaker. Another twisting +his fingers together, turns to his companion, +knitting his eyebrows. Another, opening his +hands and turning the palm toward the +spectator, shrugs his shoulders, his mouth +expressing the liveliest surprise. Another +whispers in the ear of a companion, who turns +to listen, holding in one hand a knife, and in +the other a loaf, which he has cut in two. +Another, turning around with a knife in his +hand, upsets a glass upon the table and looks; +another gasps in amazement; another leans +forward to look at the speaker, shading his +eyes with his hand; another, drawing back +behind the one who leans forward, looks into +the space between the wall and the stooping +disciple."</p> + +<p>Other paintings of Leonardo's are: "Mona +Lisa," "Head of Medusa," "Adoration of the +Magi," and the "Madonna della Caraffa."</p> + +<p><a name="380"></a></p> +<h1>XLIV</h1> + +<h1>JEAN ANTOINE WATTEAU</h1> + +<center>(Pronounced in French, Vaht-toh; English, Wot-toh)<br> +<i>French (Genre) School</i><br> +1684-1721<br> +<i>Pupil of Gillot and Audran</i></center> + +<p>Watteau's father was a tiler in a +Flemish town--Valenciennes. He +meant that his son should be a carpenter, but +that son tramped from Valenciennes to Paris +with the purpose of becoming a great painter. +He did more, he became a "school" of painting, +all by himself.</p> + +<p>There is no sadder story among artists than +that of this lowly born genius. He was not +good to look upon, being the very opposite of +all that he loved, having no grace or charm +in appearance. He had a drooping mouth, +red and bony hands, and a narrow chest with +stooping shoulders. Because of a strange +sensitiveness he lived all his life apart from +those he would have been happy with, for +he mistrusted his own ugliness, and thought +he might be a burden to others.</p> + +<p>Such a man has painted the gayest, gladdest, +most delicate and exquisite pictures +imaginable.</p> + +<p>He entered Paris as a young man, without +<a name="381"></a> +friends, without money or connections of any +kind, and after wandering forlornly, about the +great city, he found employment with a dealer +who made hundreds of saints for out-of-town +churches.</p> + +<p>It is said that for this first employer +Watteau made dozens and dozens of pictures +of St. Nicholas; and when we think of the +beautiful figures he was going to make, pictures +that should delight all the world, there seems +something tragic in the monotony and common-placeness +of that first work he was forced by +poverty to do. Certainly St. Nicholas brought +one man bread and butter, even if he forgot +him at Christmas time.</p> + +<p>After that hard apprenticeship, Watteau's +condition became slightly better. He had +been employed near the Pont Notre Dame, at +three francs a week, but now in the studio +of a scene painter, Gillot, he did work of coarse +effect, very different from that exquisite school +of art which he was to bring into being. After +Gillot's came the studio of Claude Audran, +the conservator of the Luxembourg, and with +him Watteau did decorative work. In reality +he had no master, learned from nobody, +grovelled in poverty, and at first, forced a +living from the meanest sources. With this in +mind, it remains a wonder that he should +paint as no other ever could, scenes of exquisite +beauty and grace; scenes of high life, +courtiers and great ladies assembled in lovely +<a name="382"></a> +landscapes, doing elegant and charming things, +dressed in unrivalled gowns and costumes. +Until Watteau went to the Luxembourg he +had seen absolutely nothing of refined or +gracious living. He had come from country +scenes, and in Paris had lived among workmen +and bird-fanciers, flower sellers, hucksters +and the like. This is very likely the secret of +his peculiar art.</p> + +<p>Watteau would have been a wonderful +artist under any circumstances, no matter what +sort of pictures he had painted; but circumstances +gave his imagination a turn toward +the exquisite in colourand composition. Doubtless +when he first looked down from the palace +windows of the Luxembourg and saw gorgeous +women and handsome men languishing and +coquetting and revelling in a life of ease and +beauty, he was transported. He must have +thought himself in fairyland, and the impulse +to paint, to idealise the loveliness that he saw, +must have been greater in him than it would +have been in one who had lived so long among +such scenes that they had become familiar +with them.</p> + +<p>After Watteau there were artists who tried +to do the kind of work he had done, but no +one ever succeeded. Watteau clothed all his +shepherdesses in fine silken gowns, with a +plait in the back, falling from the shoulders, +and to-day we have a fashion known as the +"Watteau back"--gowns made with this +<a name="383"></a> +shoulder-plait. He put filmy laces or softest +silks upon his dairy maids, as upon his court +ladies, dressing his figures exquisitely, and in +the loveliest colours. He had suffered from +poverty and from miserable sights, so when he +came to paint pictures, he determined to +reproduce only the loveliest objects.</p> + +<p>At that time French fashions were very +unusual, and it was quite the thing for ladies +to hold a sort of reception while at their toilet. +A description of one of these affairs was +written by Madame de Grignon to her daughter: +"Nothing can be more delightful than to assist +at the toilet of Madame la Duchesse (de +Bourgoyne), and to watch her arrange her hair. +I was present the other day. She rose at +half past twelve, put on her dressing gown, +and set to work to eat a <i>méringue</i>. She ate +the powder and greased her hair. The whole +formed an excellent breakfast and charming +<i>coiffure</i>." Watteau has caught the spirit +of this strange airy, artificial, incongruous +existence. His ladies seem to be eating +<i>meringues</i> and powdering their hair and living +on a diet of the combination. One hardly +knows which is toilet and which is real life +in looking at his paintings.</p> + +<p>He quarreled with Audran at the Luxembourg, +and having sold his first picture, he +went back to his Valenciennes home, to see +his former acquaintances, no doubt being a +little vain of his performance.</p> + +<p><a name="384"></a> +After that he painted another picture +which sold well enough to keep him from +poverty for a time, and on his return to +Paris he was warmly greeted by a celebrated +and influential artist, Crozat. Watteau tried +for a prize, and though his picture came +second it had been seen by the Academy +committee.</p> + +<p>His greatness was acknowledged, and he +was immediately admitted to the Academy +and granted a pension by the crown, with +which he was able to go to Italy, the Mecca +of all artists the world over.</p> + +<p>From Italy he went to London, but there +the fogs and unsuitable climate made his +disease much worse and he hurried back to +France, where he went to live with a friend who +was a picture dealer. It was then that he +painted a sign for this friend, Gersaint, a sign +so wonderful that it is reckoned in the history +of Watteau's paintings.</p> + +<p>Soon he grew so sensitive over his illness, +that he did not wish to remain near his dearest +friends, but one of them, the Abbé Haranger, +insisted upon looking after his welfare, and +got lodgings for him at Nogent, where he could +have country air and peace.</p> + +<p>Watteau died very soon after going to Nogent +in July, 1721, and he left nine thousand livres +to his parents, and his paintings to his best +friends, the Abbé, Gersaint, Monsieur Henin, +and Monsieur Julienne. He is called the "first +<a name="385"></a> +French painter" and so he was--though he +was Flemish, by birth.</p> + +<center>PLATE--FÊTE CHAMPÊTRE</center> + +<p>This exquisite picture displays nearly all +the characteristics of Watteau's painting. He +was said to paint with "honey and gold," and +his method was certainly remarkable. His +clear, delicate colours were put upon a canvas +first daubed with oil, and he never cleaned his +palette. His "oil-pot was full of dust and dirt +and mixed with the washings of his brush." +One would think that only the most slovenly +results could come from such habits of work, +but the artist made a colour which no one could +copy, and that was a sort of creamy, opalescent +white. This was original with Watteau, and +most beautiful.</p> + +<p>In this "Fête Champêtre," which is now in +the National Gallery at Edinburgh, he paints +an elegant group of ladies and gentlemen +indulging in an open air dance of some sort. +One couple are doing steps facing one another, +to the music of a set of pipes, while the rest +flirt and talk, decorously, round about. There +is no boisterous rusticity here; all is dainty and +refined.</p> + +<p>The same characteristics are to be found in +Watteau's other pictures such as, "Embarkation +for the Island of Cythera," "The Judgment +of Paris," and "Gay Company in a Park."</p> + +<p><a name="386"></a></p> +<h1>XLV</h1> + +<h1>SIR BENJAMIN WEST</h1> + +<center><i>American</i><br> +1738-1820<br> +<i>Pupil of the Italian School</i></center> + +<p>The beautiful smile of his little niece +helped to make this man an artist. +This is the story:</p> + +<p>Benjamin West was born down in Pennsylvania, +at Westdale, a small village in the township +of Springfield, of Quaker parentage. +The family was poor perhaps, but in America +at a time when everybody was struggling with +a new civilisation it did not seem to be such +binding poverty as the same condition in +Europe would have been. Benjamin had a +married sister whose baby he greatly loved, +and he gave it devoted attention. One day +while it was sleeping and the undiscovered +artist was sitting beside it he saw it smile, and +the beauty of the smile inspired him to keep it +forever if he could. He got paper and pencil +and forthwith transferred that "angel's +whisper."</p> + +<p>No child of to-day can imagine the difficulties +a boy must have had in those days in America, +to get an art education, and having learned +his art, how impossible it was to live by it. +<a name="387"></a> +Men were busy making a new country and +pictures do not take part in such pioneer work; +they come later. Still, there were bound to be +born artistic geniuses then, just as there were +men for the plough and men for politics and +for war. He who happened to be the artist +was the Quaker boy, West.</p> + +<p>He took his first inspiration from the +Cherokees, for it was the Indian in all the +splendour of his strength and straightness that +formed West's ideal of beautiful physique.</p> + +<p>When he first saw the Apollo Belvedere, +he exclaimed: "A young Mohawk warrior!" +to the disgust of every one who heard him, but +he meant to compliment the noblest of forms. +Europeans did not know how magnificent a +figure the "young Mohawk warrior" could be; +but West knew.</p> + +<p>After his Indian impetus toward art he went +to Philadelphia, and settled himself in a studio, +where he painted portraits. His sitters went +to him out of curiosity as much as anything +else, but at last a Philadelphia gentleman, +who knew what art meant, recognised Benjamin +West's talent, and made some arrangement by +which the young man went to Italy.</p> + +<p>Life began to look beautiful and promising +to the Pennsylvanian. He was in Italy for +three years, and in that home of art the young +man who had made the smile of his sister's +sleeping baby immortal was given highest +honours. He was elected a member of all the +<a name="388"></a> +great art societies in Italy, and studied with +the best artists of the time. He began to +earn his living, we may be sure, and then he +went to England, where, in spite of the prejudice +there must have been against the colonists, +he became at once a favourite of George III., +a friend of Reynolds and of all the English +artists of repute--unless perhaps of Gainsborough, +who made friends with none.</p> + +<p>West was appointed "historical painter" +to his Majesty, George III., and he was chosen +to be one of four who should draw plans for +a Royal Academy. He was one of the first +members of that great organisation, and when +Sir Joshua Reynolds, the first president, died, +West became president, remaining in office +for twenty-eight years.</p> + +<p>About that time came the Peace of Amiens, +and West was able to go to Paris, where he +could see the greatest art treasures of Europe, +which had been brought to France from every +quarter as a consequence of the war. At +that time, before Paris began to return +these, and when she had just pillaged every +great capital of Europe, artists need take but +a single trip to see all the art worth seeing +in the whole world.</p> + +<p>After a long service in the Academy, West +quarreled with some of the Academicians and +sent in his resignation; but his fellow artists +had too much sense and good feeling to accept +it, and begged him to reconsider his action. +<a name="389"></a> +He did so, and returned to his place as president. +When West was sixty-five years old he made +a picture, "Christ Healing the Sick," which +he meant to give to the Quakers in Philadelphia, +who were trying to get funds with which to +build a hospital. This picture was to be sold +for the fund; but it was no sooner finished and +exhibited in London before being sent to +America, than it was bought for 3,000 guineas +for Great Britain. West did not contribute +this money to the hospital fund, but he made +a replica for the Quakers, and sent that instead +of the original.</p> + +<p>West was eighty-two years old when he +died and he was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral +after a distinguished and honoured life. Since +Europe gave him his education and also +supported him most of his life, we must consider +him more English than American, his +birth on American soil being a mere accident.</p> + +<center>PLATE--THE DEATH OF WOLFE</center> + +<p>This death scene upon the Plains of Abraham, +without the walls of Quebec in 1759, must not +be taken as a realistic picture of an historic +event. West drew upon his imagination and +upon portraits of the prominent men supposed +to have been grouped around the dying +general, and he has produced a dramatic +effect. One can imagine it is the two with +fingers pointing backward who have just +<a name="390"></a> +brought the memorable tidings, "They run! +They run!"</p> + +<p>"Who run?" asks Wolfe, for when he had +fallen the issues of the fight were still undecided. +"The French, sir. They give way +everywhere." "Thank God! I die in peace," +replied the English hero. At a time when +the momentous results of this battle had set +the whole of Great Britain afire with enthusiasm +it is easy to understand the popularity of a +picture such as this. It was sold in 1791 for +£28, and now belongs to the Duke of Westminster. +There is a replica of it in the Queen's +drawing-room at Hampton Court.</p> + +<p>Another famous historical picture by West +is "The Battle of La Hogue."</p> + +<p><a name="391"></a></p> +<h1>INDEX</h1> + +<p>About, Edmund<br> +Academia, Florence<br> +Academy, French<br> + Rome,<br> + Royal, London,<br> + Venice<br> +"Acis and Galatea"<br> +Adoration of the Magi<br> +"Adoration of the Shepherds" <br> +"After a Summer Shower"<br> +"Afternoon"<br> +Albert, King<br> +"Alessandro del Borro"<br> +Alexander VI.<br> +Alice, Princess<br> +Allegri, Antonio. <i>See</i> Correggi<br> +Allegri, Pompino<br> +"Ambassadors, The"<br> +"American Mustangs"<br> +"Anatomy Lesson, The"<br> +Andrea del Sarto<br> +Angelo, Michael<br> +"Angels' Heads"<br> +"Angelas, The"<br> +Anguisciola, Sofonisba<br> +Anne of Cleves<br> +Anne of Saxony<br> +Annunciata, cloister of the<br> +"Annunciation, The"<br> +"Ansidei Madonna, The"<br> +"Antiope"<br> +Apocalypse<br> +Apollo Belvedere<br> +Apostles, the Four<br> +Apostles' Heads<br> +Appelles<br> +"Archipelago"<br> +Arena Chapel<br> +Arrivabene Chapel<br> +"Artist's Two Sons, The"<br> +"Arundel Castle and Mill"<br> +"Assumption of the Virgin"<br> +"At the Well"<br> +Audran<br> +Augusta, Princess<br> +"Avenue, Middelharnis, Holland"<br> +"Awakened Conscience, The"</p> + +<p>"Bacchanal"<br> +"Bacchus and Ariadne"<br> +Balzac<br> +"Banquet in Levi's House"<br> +"Baptism of Christ, The"<br> +Barbizon<br> +Barile<br> +Barry, James<br> +Bartoli d'Angiolini<br> +Bartolommeo, Fra<br> +Bassano<br> +"Bathers"<br> +"Battle of La Hogue"<br> +Beaumont, Sir George<br> +Beaux-Arts, l'Ecole des<br> +Begarelli<br> +Bellini, Gentile<br> +Bellini, Giovanni<br> +Bembo, Cardinal<br> +Beneguette<br> +"Bent Tree"<br> +Bentivoglio, Cardinal<br> +Berck, Derich<br> +Berensen, Bernard<br> +Bergholt, East<br> +"Berkshire Hills"<br> +"Bianca"<br> +Bicknell, Maria<br> +Bigio, Francia<br> +Bigordi. <i>See</i> Ghirlandajo<br> +Bird<br> +"Birth of the Virgin"<br> + (Andrea del Sarto)<br> + (Murillo)<br> +"Birth of Venus"<br> +Blanc, Charles<br> +"Blessed Herman Joseph, The"<br> +"Bligh Shore"<br> +"Blue Boy, The"<br> +Böcklin, Arnold<br> +"Boat-Building"<br> +Boleyn, Anne<br> +Bolton, Mrs. Sarah K.<br> +<a name="392"></a>Bonheur, Marie-Rosea<br> +Bonheur, Raymond B. <br> +Bordeaux<br> +Bordone. <i>See</i> Giotto <br> +Borghese Palace <br> +Borgia family<br> +Borgia, Lucretia <br> +Botticelli<br> +Boudin <br> +Bouguereau, William Adolphe<br> +"Boy at the Stile, The"<br> +Brancacci Chapel<br> +Brant, Isabella<br> +Breton, Jules<br> +Brice, J. B.<br> +Brouwer<br> +Browning<br> +Brunellesco<br> +"Brutus"<br> +Buckingham, Duke of<br> +Buonarroti. <i>See</i> Angelo Michael<br> +Burgundy, Duchess of<br> +Burke, Edmund<br> +Burne-Jones, Sir Edward <br> +Burr, Margaret</p> + +<p>Caffin<br> +Cagliari, Benedetto<br> +Cagliari, Carletto <br> +Cagliari, Gabriele <br> +Cagliari, Paolo. <i>See</i> Veronese <br> +Cambridge, University of <br> +"Camels at Rest"<br> +Campagna<br> +Campana, Pedro <br> +Campanile, Florence <br> +Canova<br> +Caprese<br> +"Capture of Samson"<br> +Capuchin Church<br> +Capuchin Convent <br> +Carlos, Don <br> +"Carmencita"<br> +Carmine, Church of the<br> +"Carthage"<br> +Castillo, Juan del <br> +Cecelia, wife of Titian <br> +Cellini<br> +Centennial Exhibition<br> +Chamberlain, Arthur <br> +"Chant d'Amour"<br> +Chantry, Sir Francis <br> +"Charity"<br> +Charles, I.<br> +Charles V.<br> +Charles X. <br> +Cherokees <br> +"Chess Players, The" <br> +"Children of Charles I." <br> +"Christ Healing the Sick" <br> +"Christ in the Temple" <br> +"Christina of Denmark" <br> +Church<br> +Cibber, Theophilus<br> +Cimabue <br> +Claude <br> +"Cleopatra Landing at Tarsus"<br> +"Cock Fight"<br> +Cogniet, Léon<br> +Colnaghi<br> +"Cologne"<br> +Constable, John<br> +Copley, John Singleton<br> +Copper Plate Magazine<br> +Cornelia, Rembrandt's daughter <br> +Cornelissen, Cornelis<br> +"Cornfield"<br> +"Coronation of Marie de Medicis" <br> +"Coronation of the Virgin"<br> + (Ghirlandajo)<br> + (Raphael)<br> +Corot, Jean Baptiste Camille<br> +Correggio<br> +Cosimo, Piero di<br> +"Cottage, The"<br> +"Countess Folkstone" <br> +"Countess of Spencer"<br> +Coventry, Countess of<br> +"Creation of Man, The"<br> +"Creation of the World, The"<br> +Crozat<br> +"Crucifixion, The"<br> + (Raphael) <br> + (Tintoretto) </p> + +<p>"Danaë" <br> +Dandie Dinmont<br> +"Daniel" <br> +Dante <br> +"Daphnis and Chloe"<br> +Daubigny <br> +"David" <br> +"Dead Christ, The" <br> +"Dead Mallard" <br> +"Death of Ananias, The" <br> +"Death of Wolfe, The" <br> +"Dedham Mill"<br> +"Dedham Vale" <br> +Delaroche <br> +"Deluge, The" <br> +"Descent from the Cross, The"<br> + (Campana)<br> + (Rembrandt)<br> + (Rubens) <br> +De Witt<br> +Diaz<br> +"Dice Players, The"<br> +Dickens, Charles <br> +Digby, Kenelm <br> +"Dignity and Impudence" <br> +"Divine Comedy"<br> +Dolce, Ludovico <br> +Donatello <br> +"Don Quixote"<br> +<a name="393"></a>Doré, Paul Gustave<br> +D'Orsay<br> +"Duchess of Devonshire and Her Daughter, The"<br> +"Duel After the Masked Ball"<br> +Dunthorne, John<br> +Dupré <br> +Durand, Carolus <br> +Dürer, Albrecht<br> +Dyce</p> + +<p>"Ecce Homo"<br> +"Education of Mary, The"<br> +Edward, King<br> +Egyptian art<br> +Elizabeth, Cousin of the Virgin<br> +Elizabeth, Princess<br> +"Embarkation for the Island of Cythera"<br> +"Emperor at Solferino, The"<br> +Engravers and engraving<br> +"Entombment, The"<br> + (Titian)<br> + (Veronese) <br> +Eos<br> +"Equestrian Portrait of Don Balthasar Carlos"<br> +Errard, Charles<br> +Escorial, the<br> +Estéban, Bartolomé. See Murillo<br> +Estéban, Gaspar<br> +Estéban, Therese<br> +Etchers and etching <br> +"Europa and the Bull"<br> +"Eve of St. Agnes, The"</p> + +<p>Fallen, Ambrose<br> +"Fall of Man, The"<br> +"Fantasy of Morocco"<br> +Fawkes, Hawksworth<br> +"Feast in the House of Simon"<br> +"Feast of Ahasuerus"<br> +"Ferdinand of Austria"<br> +Ferdinand III., Grand Duke<br> +Ferrara, Duke of<br> +"Fête Champêtre"<br> +"Fighting Téméraire, The"<br> +Filipepi, Mariano<br> +"Finding of Christ in the Temple, The"<br> +"Flamborough, Miss"<br> +"Flatford Mill on the River Stour"<br> +"Flora"<br> + (Böcklin)<br> + (Titian) <br> +"Foal of an Ass, The"<br> +Fondato de' Tedeschi<br> +Fontainebleau <br> +"Fool, The"<br> +"Fornarina, The"<br> +Fortuny, Mariano<br> +Fourment family<br> +Fourment, Helena<br> +"Four Saints"<br> +Francis I.<br> +Frari, monks of the<br> +Frey, Agnes<br> +"Friedland"</p> + +<p>Gainsborough, Mary<br> +Gainsborough, Thomas<br> +Gallery, Berlin<br> + Dresden<br> + Grosvenor<br> + Hague, The<br> + Hermitage, The<br> + Lichtenstein, Vienna<br> + Louvre<br> + Luxembourg<br> + Madrid<br> + Naples<br> + National, Edinburgh<br> + National, London<br> + Old Pinakothek, Munich <br> + Parma<br> + Pitti Palace<br> + Uffizi<br> + Vienna<br> +Garrick<br> +"Gay Company in a Park"<br> +Gellée. See Claude Lorrain<br> +George III.<br> +"Georgia Pines"<br> +Gerbier<br> +Germ, The<br> +Gérôme, Jean Léon <br> +Gersaint<br> +Ghibertio<br> +Ghirlandajo<br> +"Gibeon Farm"<br> +Gignoux, Regis<br> +"Gillingham Mill"<br> +Gillot<br> +Giorgione <br> +Giotto<br> +"Giovanna degli Albizi"<br> +Girten, Thomas<br> +Gisze, Gorg<br> +Gladstone, Mr. and Mrs.<br> +"Gleaners, The"<br> +"Glebe Farm"<br> +Goethe<br> +"Golden Calf, The"<br> +<a name="394"></a>"Golden Stairs, The"<br> +Goldsmith, craft of the<br> +Goldsmith, Oliver<br> +Gonzaga, Vincenzo<br> +"Good Samaritan, The"<br> +Graham, Judge<br> +Granacci<br> +Gravelot <br> +Grignon, Madame de<br> +Gualfonda<br> +"Guardian Angel, The"<br> +Guidi, Giovanni<br> +Guidi, Simone<br> +Guidi. Tommaso. <i>See</i> Masaccio<br> +Guido<br> +Guidobaldo of Urbino<br> +Guilds<br> +"Gust of Wind"</p> + +<p>Haarlem Town Hall<br> +"Haarlem's Little Forest"<br> +"Hadleigh Castle" <br> +Hals, Franz<br> +Hamerton<br> +Hamilton, Duchess of <br> +"Hampstead Heath"<br> +Hancock, John<br> +"Hans of Antwerp" <br> +Haranger, Abbé<br> +"Hark!"<br> +"Harvest Waggon, The"<br> +Hassam, Childe<br> +Hastings, Warren <br> +"Haunt of the Gazelle, The"<br> +Hayman <br> +"Haystack in Sunshine"<br> +"Hay Wain, The"<br> +"Head of Christ" <br> +"Head of Medusa"<br> +Hearn, George A.<br> +Henin <br> +Henrietta, Queen<br> +Henry III.<br> +Henry VIII. <br> +"Henschel" <br> +"Hercules" <br> +Herrera<br> +"Highland Sheep"<br> +"Hille Bobbe, the Witch of Haarlem"<br> +Hill, Jack<br> +"Hireling Shepherd, The"<br> +Hobbema, Meindert<br> +Hogarth, William<br> +Holbein, Ambrosius<br> +Holbein, Hans, the Younger<br> +Holbein, Michael<br> +Holbein, Philip<br> +Holbein, Sigismund<br> +Holbein, the Elder<br> +"Holofernes" <br> +Holper, Barbara <br> +"Holy Family and St. Bridget"<br> +Holy Family in art, The <br> +"Holy Family under a Palm Tree, The"<br> +"Holy Night, The"<br> +"Homer St. Gaudens"<br> +"Hon. Ann Bingham, The"<br> +Hood, Admiral<br> +"Horse Fair, The"<br> +Howard, Catherine<br> +Hudson, Thomas<br> +Hunt, William Holman</p> + +<p>"II Giorno" <br> +"II Medico del Correggio"<br> +"Immaculate Conception, The"<br> +Indian pottery<br> +Infanta<br> +"Infant Jesus and St. John, The" <br> +Inman<br> +Inness<br> +"Innocence"<br> +"In Paradise"<br> +Inquisition, Spanish<br> +"Interior of the Mosque of Omar"<br> +Isabella, Queen<br> +Islay<br> +"Isle of the Dead, The"<br> +"Ivybridge" </p> + +<p>Jacopo da Empoli<br> +Jacque <br> +"Jane Seymour"<br> +"Jerusalem by Moonlight"<br> +"Jesus and the Lamb"<br> +Jesus in art<br> +Johnson, Dr.<br> +Jones, George<br> +Joseph in art <br> +"Joseph in Egypt"<br> +"Joseph's Dream" <br> +"Judgment of Paris, The" <br> +"Judith"<br> +Julienne<br> +Julius II.<br> +Justiniana</p> + +<p>Kann, Rudolf <br> +"King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid"<br> +"King of Hearts"<br> +"Kirmesse, The"<br> +Knackfuss<br> +"Knight, Death and the Devil, The"</p> + +<p><a name="395"></a>"La Belle Jardinière" <br> +"La Disputa" <br> +"Lady Elcho, Mrs. Arden, Mrs. Tennant"<br> +"La Gioconda"<br> +"Landscape with Cattle."<br> +Landseer, John <br> +Landseer, Sir Edwin Henry <br> +Landseer, Thomas <br> +"La Primavera" <br> +"Last Judgment, The"<br> + (Angelo)<br> + (Tintoretto)<br> + (Titian)<br> +"Last Supper, The"<br> + (Andrea del Sarto)<br> + (Ghirlandajo)<br> + (Veronese)<br> + (Leonardo da Vinci)<br> +"Laughing Cavalier, The" <br> +Laura <br> +Lavinia, daughter of Titian <br> +"Lavinia, the Artist's Daughter" <br> +Lawrence, Sir Thomas <br> +"Leda"<br> + (Correggio)<br> + (Gérome)<br> +Lee, Jeremiah<br> +Legion of Honour <br> +Lemon, Margaret <br> +Leonardo. See da Vinci<br> +Leo X. <br> +Lewis, J. F. <br> +<i>Liber Studiorium</i> <br> +"Liber Veritas" <br> +Library, Boston Public <br> +"Light of the World, The" <br> +Linley, Thomas <br> +Linley, Samuel <br> +"Lion Disturbed at His Repast" <br> +"Lion Enjoying His Repast" <br> +"Lioness, The Study off a"<br> +"Lion Hunt, A"<br> +Lippi, Fra Filippo<br> +"Lock on the Stour"<br> +Lombardi<br> +"Lords Digby and Russell" <br> +"Lord Wharton"<br> +Lorenzalez, Claudio<br> +Lorrain, Claude<br> +Lott, Willy <br> +Louis XIV.<br> +Louise, Princess<br> +"Love Among the Ruins"<br> +"Low Life and High Life"<br> +Lowther, Sir William<br> +Lucas van Leyden<br> +Lucia, mother of Titian<br> +Lucretia, wife of Andrea del Sarto<br> +Luther, Martin <br> +Madonna and Child<br> +"Madonna and Child with St. Anne"<br> +"Madonna and Child with Saints"<br> +"Madonna del'Arpie"<br> +"Madonna della Caraffa"<br> +"Madonna della Casa d'Alba" <br> +"Madonna della Sedia"<br> +"Madonna del Granduca"<br> +"Madonna del Pesce"<br> +"Madonna del Sacco"<br> +"Madonna of the Palms"<br> +"Madonna of the Rosary."<br> +Madrazo<br> +"Magdalene, The"<br> +Manet<br> +"Manoah's Sacrifice"<br> +Mantegna<br> +Mantua, Duke of<br> +Mantua, Duke Frederick II. of<br> +"Man with the Hoe, The"<br> +"Man with the Sword, The"<br> +Margherita<br> +Maria Theresa <br> +"Marriage à la Mode"<br> +"Marriage at Cana, The" <br> +"Marriage Contract, The"<br> +"Marriage of Bacchus and Ariadne, The"<br> +"Marriage of Mary and Joseph, The"<br> +"Marriage of St. Catherine, The"<br> +"Marriage of Samson, The"<br> +Martineau <br> +"Martyrdom of St. Agnes, The" <br> +"Martyrdom of St. Peter, The" <br> +"Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, The"<br> +Mary, the Virgin, in art<br> +Masaccio (Tommasco Guidi) <br> +Masoline <br> +Mastersingers, Nuremberg <br> +Maximillian, Emperor <br> +Medici family<br> +Medici, Giovanni di Bicci de' <br> +Medici, Lorenzi de'<br> +Medici, Ottaviano de'<br> +Medici, Pietro de' <br> +"Meeting of St. John and St. Anna at Jerusalem"<br> +Meissonier, Jean Louis Ernest<br> +<a name="396"></a>"Melancholy"<br> +Merlini, Girolama <br> +"Meyer Madonna, The"<br> +Michallon <br> +"Midsummer Noon"<br> +Millais<br> +Millet, Jean François <br> +Millet, Mère<br> +"Mill Stream"<br> +"Miracle of St. Mark, The"<br> +Missions, Spanish<br> +Missirini<br> +"Mr. Marquand" <br> +"Mr. Penrose"<br> +"Mrs. Meyer and Children"<br> +"Mrs. Peel"<br> +Mohawk<br> +Mona Lisa<br> +Monet, Claude<br> +"Money Changers, The"<br> +"Moonlight at Salerno"<br> +Morales<br> +"Moreau and His Staff before Hohenlinden"<br> +More, Sir Thomas<br> +"Morning Prayer, The"<br> +"Moses"<br> +"Moses Breaking the Tablets of the Law"<br> +Mudge, Dr.<br> +Murat<br> +Murillo (Bartolomé Estéban)<br> +Murillo, Dona Anna<br> +Museum of Art, Basel<br> + Berlin <br> + Court, Vienna <br> + Madrid<br> + Metropolitan, New York <br> + Prado<br> + Rijks, Amsterdam<br> + South Kensington<br> +Muther<br> +"Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine, The" </p> + +<p>"Naiads at Play"<br> +Napoleon<br> +"Nativity, The"<br> + (Botticelli) <br> + (Dürer) <br> +Navarrette<br> +"Nieces of Sir Horace Walpole" <br> +"Night Watch, The"<br> +"Noli me Tangere"<br> +Norham Castle<br> +Nuremberg <br> +"Nurse and the Child, The"<br> + <br> +"'Oh, Pearl' Quoth I"<br> +"Old Bachelor, The" <br> +"Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner, The"<br> +Olivares</p> + +<p>Pacheco<br> +"Pallas"<br> +"Pan and Psyche"<br> +Pantheon<br> +Pareja <br> +"Parish Clerk, The"<br> +'Past and Present"<br> +Passignano<br> +"Pathless Water, The"<br> +Paul III.<br> +"Paysage"<br> +Pazzi family<br> +"Penzance"<br> +Percy, Bishop<br> +Perez family<br> +Perez, Maria<br> +Perugino<br> +Philip II.<br> +Philip III.<br> +Philip IV.<br> +Picot<br> +"Pilate Washing His Hands"<br> +Pinas<br> +Pirkneimer<br> +Pissaro<br> +"Ploughing"<br> +Pope, Alexander<br> +"Portrait of Old Man and Boy"<br> +Portraits of artists by themselves<br> +"Praying Arab"<br> +"Praying Hands"<br> +Pre-Raphaelites<br> +"Presentation of Christ in the Temple"<br> +"Presentation of the Family of Darius to Alexander"<br> +Prim, General<br> +"Procession of the Magi"<br> +"Prowling Lion, The"<br> +"Psyche and Cupid"<br> +Pypelincx, Maria </p> + +<p>Quakers<br> +"Quin, Portrait of" </p> + +<p>Rabelais <br> +"Rake's Progress, The"<br> +"Rape of Ganymede, The"<br> +"Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus, The"<br> +Raphael (Sanzio)<br> +<a name="397"></a>Reade, Charles<br> +"Reading at Diderot's, A"<br> +"Reaper, The"<br> +"Regions of Joy"<br> +Rembrandt (van Rijn)<br> +"Retreat from Russia" <br> +Reynolds, Samuel<br> +Reynolds, Sir Joshua<br> +Ribera<br> +Rinaldo and Armida<br> +"Road over the Downs, The" <br> +"Robert Cheseman with his Falcon" <br> +Robusto, Jacopo. <i>See</i> Tintoretto<br> +Romano, Guilio<br> +Rood, Professor<br> +"Rosary, Story of the" <br> +Rossetti, Dante Gabriel<br> +Rossetti, W. M.<br> +Rothschild, Lord<br> +Rousseau <br> +Royal Princess<br> +Rubens, Albert<br> +Rubens, John<br> +Rubens, Nicholas<br> +Rubens, Peter Paul <br> +Ruisdael, Jacob van<br> +Ruskin, John <br> +Ruthven, Lady Mary<br> +Sachs, Hans<br> +"Sacred and Profane Love"<br> +"St. Anthony of Padua"<br> +"St. Augustine"<br> +"St. Barbara"<br> +St. Bernard dog<br> +St. Bernardino<br> +"Saint Cecelia" <br> +St. Christopher<br> +St. Clemente<br> +St. Dominic<br> +St. George<br> +"St. George and the Dragon"<br> +"St. George Slaying the Dragon"<br> +St. Giorgio Maggiore<br> +"St. Jerome"<br> +St, John the Baptist <br> +St. Jovis Shooting Company <br> +St. Leger, Colonel<br> +St. Lucas, Guild of<br> +St. Luke, Guild of<br> +St. Mark<br> +St. Martin's Church<br> +"St. Michael Attacking Satan." <br> +"St. Nobody" <br> +St. Paul's Cathedral<br> +St. Peter<br> +"St. Peter Baptising"<br> +St. Peter's Church<br> +"St. Rocco Healing the Sick" <br> +"St. Sebastian."<br> + (Botticelli)<br> + (Correggio)<br> + (Titian)<br> +St. Sebastian, Church of<br> +St. Sebastian, Monastery of<br> +St. Sixtus<br> +St. Trinita, Church of<br> +"Salisbury Cathedral"<br> +Salon<br> +Salvator Rosa<br> +"Samson" <br> +"Samson Threatening His Stepfather"<br> +"Samson's Wedding"<br> +San Francisco<br> +Santa Croce<br> +Santa Maria della Pace<br> +Santa Maria delle Grazte <br> +Santa Maria del Orto<br> +Santa Maria Novella<br> +Santi, Bartolommeo<br> +Santi Giovanni<br> +Santo Cruz, Church of<br> +Santo Spirito, Convent of<br> +Sanzio. <i>See</i> Raphael<br> +Sarcinelli, Cornelio<br> +Sargent, John Singer<br> +Sarto, Andrea del. <i>See</i> Andrea<br> +Saskia<br> +Savonarola<br> +"Scapegoat, The"<br> +"Scene from Woodstock"<br> +Schiavone<br> +Schmidt, Elizabeth<br> +Schongauer<br> +School Girl's Hymn<br> +"School of Anatomy, The"<br> +School of Art, Academy, London<br> + American<br> + Andalusian<br> + Castilian<br> + Dusseldorf<br> + Dutch <br> + English <br> + Flemish <br> + Florentine is, xti. <br> + Fontainebleau-Barbizon<br> + Foreign <br> + French in<br> + German <br> + Hudson River <br> + <a name="398"></a>Impressionist<br> + Italian<br> + Nuremberg<br> + Parma<br> + Roman<br> + Spanish<br> + Umbrian<br> + Venetian<br> +"School, of Athens, The"<br> +"School, of Cupid, The"<br> +"Scotch Deer"<br> +Scott, Sir Walter<br> +Scrovegno, Enrico<br> +Scuola di San Rocco<br> +"Seaport at Sunset"<br> +Sebastian<br> +"Serpent Charmer, The"<br> +Servi, convent of the<br> +Sesto, Cesare de<br> +Seurat<br> +Sforza, Ludovico<br> +"Shadow of Death, The"<br> +Shakespeare<br> +Sheepshanks Collection<br> +"Shepherd Guarding Sheep"<br> +Sheppey, Isle of<br> +Sheridan, Mrs. Richard Brinsley<br> +Sheridan, Richard Brinsley<br> +Siddons, Mrs.<br> +Silva, Rodriguez de<br> +Sistine Chapel<br> +"Sistine Madonna, The"<br> +Six, Jan<br> +Sixtus IV.<br> +Skynner, Sir John<br> +"Slaughter of the Innocents, The"<br> +"Slave Ship, The"<br> +"Sleeping Bloodhound, The"<br> +"Sleeping Venus, The"<br> +Smith, John<br> +"Snake Charmers, The"<br> +"Snow-storm at Sea, A"<br> +Society of Arts<br> +Soderini<br> +Solus Lodge<br> +"Sortie, The"<br> + <i>See also</i> Night Watch<br> +Sotomayer, Doña Beatriz de <br> + Cabrera y<br> +"Sower, The"<br> +Spaniel, King Charles<br> +"Spanish Marriage, The"<br> +Spinola, Marquis of<br> +"Sport of the Waves"<br> +"Spring"<br> +Sterne, Lawrence<br> +"Storm, The"<br> +Stour, River<br> +"Straw Hat, The"<br> +Sudbury<br> +Sully<br> +Sultan of Turkey<br> +"Sunset on the Passaic"<br> +"Sunset on the Sea"<br> +"Surrender of Breda"<br> +"Susanna and the Elders"<br> +"Susanna's Bath"<br> +"Sussex Downs"<br> +Swanenburch, Jacob van<br> +"Sword-Dance, The"<br> +"Syndics of the Cloth Hall"</p> + +<p>Taddei, Taddeo<br> +Tassi, Agostine<br> +Thackeray<br> +Thornhill, Sir James<br> +"Three Ages, The"<br> +"Three Saints and God the Father"<br> +Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti)<br> +Titian (Tiziano Vecelli)<br> +Tornabuoni, Giovanni<br> +Torregiano <br> +Trafalgar Square<br> +"Transfiguration, The"<br> +"Tribute Money, The"<br> +"Trinity"<br> +Troyon<br> +Trumbull, American painter<br> +Trumbull, English diplomat<br> +Tulp, Nicholaus<br> +Turner, Charles<br> +Turner, Joseph Mallord William<br> +"Two Beggar Boys"<br> +Tybis, Geryck</p> + +<p>Ulenberg, Saskia van<br> +Urban VIII.<br> +Urbino, Duke of</p> + +<p>"Valley Farm, The"<br> +Van Dyck, Sir Anthony <br> +Van Mander, Karel<br> +Van Marcke<br> +Van Noort, Adam<br> +Van Rijn. <i>See</i> Rembrandt<br> +Van Veen<br> +Varangeville<br> +Vasari<br> +Vatican<br> +Vecchio, Palazzo<br> +Vecchio, Palma<br> +Vecelli family<br> +Vecelli, Orsa<br> +Vecelli, Orzio<br> +Vecelli, Pompino<br> +Vecelli, Tiziano. <i>See</i> Titian<br> +<a name="399"></a>Velasquez (Diego Rodriguez de Silva)<br> +"Venice Enthroned"<br> +"Venus Dispatching Cupid"<br> +"Venus Worship"<br> +Verhaecht, Tobias<br> +Vernon<br> +Veronese, Paul (Paolo Cagliari)<br> +Verrocchio<br> +"Vestal Virgin, The"<br> +Victoria, Queen<br> +"Villa by the Sea"<br> +"Village Festival, The"<br> +"Ville d'Avray"<br> +Vinci, Leonardo da<br> +Violante <br> +"Virgin as Consoler, The"<br> +"Virgin's Rest Near Bethlehem"<br> +"Vision of St. Anthony, The"<br> +"Visitation, The"<br> +"Visitor, The"<br> +"Visit to the Burgomaster"</p> + +<p>Warren, General Joseph<br> +"Water Carrier, The"<br> +"Watermill, The"<br> +Watteau, Jean Antoine<br> +"Wedding Feast at Cana, The" <br> +Wells, Frederick<br> +West, Sir Benjamin<br> +"Weymouth Bay"<br> +Whitcomb, Ida Prentice<br> +"William, Prince of Orange"<br> +William the Silent<br> +"Will-o'-the-Wisp"<br> +"Willows near Arras"<br> +Wilson<br> +"Winnower, The"<br> +"Winter"<br> +Wolgemuth<br> +"Woodcutters, The"<br> +"Wooded Landscape"<br> +"Wood Gatherers, The"</p> + +<p>Yarmouth<br> +"Young People's Story of Art" <br> +"Youth Surprised by Death"</p> + +<p>"Zingarella"<br> +Zuccato, Sebastian</p> +<BR> +<BR> +<BR> +<BR> +<PRE> +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PICTURES EVERY CHILD SHOULD KNOW *** + 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