NOTE.
Perhaps there is no notable department of human effort and interest—not excepting literature itself—that furnishes such delightful and plentiful materials for anecdote and illustration, as Art and Artists. As the studios of eminent painters or sculptors afford a favourite lounge for men of taste and leisure; so, to those to whom such a pleasure is denied, or as regards those sovereigns of the pencil and chisel who are at rest from their labours, there is a peculiar gratification in being placed, in fancy, in contact with the creators of immortal things of beauty and of power. Artists, besides, have been and are, in very many cases, also men of culture and wit, of refined taste and powerful intellect—men remarkable quite apart from their performances on canvas or in marble. Their works, moreover, possess what we may almost term a personal history and vitality: they are each unique and full of character, like human beings; and their voyagings and vicissitudes are at times of even greater interest than those of their authors—whose life, too, is but as a span in comparison with theirs. This selection of facts and anecdotes relating to Art and Artists, therefore, seems to require for its subject-matter no strenuous recommendation to the favour of the reader; and it is put forth in the confident hope that it may not be found lacking either in variety or in interest.
ART AND ARTISTS.
CURIOUS FACTS AND CHARACTERISTIC SKETCHES.