“If a single picture can be a story picture, I should think this was a story picture as much as the Napoleon one,” said Tom.
Again Miss Daisy nodded her approval.
“I call it a story picture,” she said. “Helen felt that it was, immediately, and that is why she told us something of the story of Jeanne d’Arc.”
“Most landscapes must be just note book pictures, then,” guessed Ethel Brown.
“Unless the landscape should be a background for some story,” said Della. “There might be gypsies kidnapping a child, for instance.”
“Of course there are other divisions,” said Miss Graham, “but roughly speaking, almost every picture is either a record of fact or of imagination, or else it tells a story.”
“It’s going to be interesting to think about that, when we look at the other pictures we shall see later on,” said Tom, and even Roger nodded assent, although his heart was still set upon the armor.
“Now, let’s go back for a moment to look at the ‘Horse Fair,’” said Miss Graham. “What do you think a picture ought to have in it to be a real picture?” she asked as they went along the gallery.
“It seems to me that a picture that is nothing but a record, as you said a few minutes ago, can’t be much of a picture,” said Roger. “I should want something more in a picture, something that would stir me up. Why, even Miss Farren’s there isn’t exactly a record, because you have something more than just eyes and nose and hair. She looks as if she would be fun to talk to, and as for the ‘Horse Fair,’ which was the other picture that we decided was a record, why that has in it more than just a lot of horses.”
“If Rosa Bonheur had wanted merely to draw some horses, she might have strung them along in a row so that we could get an idea of their size and color and could make a guess at their weight, but here we see them in action and we know that they are in good spirits and we feel some sympathy with the men who have a hard time to hold them.”