Of more direct interest to the boy was “A Singing Lesson in a Public School in Paris”; and Philip gladly would have spent much time in reading the little touches of character that made each boy in the crowded picture so interesting a figure. But he knew that he must slight many pictures in order to give any time at all to those which held him before them by making him forget everything else; so he went on to the next gallery. He was first delighted by “The Bath of the Regiment,” a barrack-scene showing the members of a regiment passing one by one in front of a hose in full play: the spattering water, the wet floor, the shining skins of the soldiers were wonderfully rendered considering the difficulty of painting the details from nature.
Another striking picture was the portrait of Pope Leo XIII. Philip recalled having read that the Pope had never before granted any artist a sitting; but that M. Chartran, being granted an audience, made a sketch that so pleased the Pope as to gain for the artist permission to paint this wonderful picture. The expression of the face was purely intellectual and refined, and Philip felt sure the picture would never be regarded as other than a masterpiece. There were two small portraits by Weerts that were worthy to be ranked with this larger one. Two others, landscapes, also claimed attention, one a dainty bit of bright color by Gagliardini—a Moorish scene; and the other, by Lhermitte, “Harvesters at Rest,” showing peasants in the field. The only other picture that Philip marked upon his catalogue was a group of children in an arm-chair, by G. Dubufe, fils.
IN FRONT OF THE FINE ARTS BUILDING.
Speaking of Philip’s catalogue, it is well to say that he bought two. The first was so arranged that after walking through one room with it he returned, and paid three times as much for the second. The more expensive catalogue numbered the pictures as they were hung upon the walls, and he could find each picture at once—a matter worth considering when he knew he could not see a third of the rooms in each of which were many masterpieces.
BOY WITH A DOVE.
Carving in ivory by Asahi Hatsu.
Entering another gallery, Philip drew a line of approval against “A First Proof,” by Mathey—a printer examining the first impression from a plate; a similar line was awarded to “The Struggle for Life”—a marine showing a long line of men trying to draw a fishing-boat through the surf to safety. Others he marked were a soft evening effect by Zuber, and, in the next gallery, “The Virgin’s Thread,” that lovely painting by Lucas, where the birds are pulling at the thread while the virgin is sleeping in her chair beside the wheel. A picture of a boar at bay, while the hounds snarl, and whine but hesitate to come to close quarters, and a “Strike” picture, also compelled him to halt and to enter.
“LITTLE NELL,” FROM A GROUP “DICKENS AND LITTLE NELL,” BY F. EDWIN ELWELL.