Francis Hopkinson Smith

“ So I said to myself: 'Why trim, clean up, and make pretty a picture, when by simply painting what I love in nature in a free, breezy manner while my enthusiasm lasts—and it generally lasts until I get through;—sometimes it spills over to the next day—I please myself and a lot of people beside.”
We were all on our feet now examining the sketches—all running-brook studies—most of them made in that same pair of high-water boots. No one but the late Fritz Thaulow approaches him in giving the reality of this most difficult subject for an outdoor painter. ”

“ And she's so simple when you look into her face—I'm talking of the brook now, not the girl—and it's so easy to put her down as she is, not the form and color only, but the mood in which you find her. A brook is worse, really, than your best girl in the lightning changes she can go through—laughing, crying, coquetting—just as the mood seizes her. ”

“ All this time the beast outside was snorting like a race-horse catching its breath after a run, the demon walking in front of it, examining its teeth, or mouth, or eyes, or whatever you do examine when you go poking around in front of it. ”

“ Zorn, Sargent, Winslow Homer—all the men of the direct, forceful school, men who swing their brushes from their spines instead of their finger-tips—were slashed into and made mincemeat of or extolled to the skies. ”

“ Knight stretched his big arms and legs and sprang from his chair.
“Really, fellows, I don't know anything about it. All I do is to let myself go. I always feel more than I see, and so my brush has a devil of a job to keep up. Marie! Marie!”
Had the good woman been a mile down the brook she could have heard him—she was only in the next room. “Bring in the boots—two pairs this time—we're going fishing. And, Marie—has the chauffeur had anything to eat?” ”

“ Again the talk covered wide reaches.
“Great boy, Knight,” broke out the Sculptor in a sudden burst of enthusiasm over his friend. “You ought to see him handle a crowd when he's at work. He knows the French people—never gets mad. He bought a calf for Marie last week, and drove it home himself. Told me it had ten legs, four heads, and twenty tails before he got it here. Old woman lost hers and Knight bought her another—he'd bring her a herd if she wanted it. All the way from the market the boys kept up a running fire of criticism. ”

“ But now each man had a comfortable chair, and filled it with shoulders hidden deep in its capacious depths, and legs straight out, only the arms and hands free enough to be within reach of the match-safe and thimble glasses. ”

“ Broad chests, big boilers, strong arms, straight legs, and stiff backbones have much to do with success in life—more than we give them credit for. Instead of measuring men's heads, it would be just as well, once in a while, to slip the tape around their chests and waists. Steam is what makes the wheels go round, and steam is well-digested fuel and a place to put it. With this equipment a man can put “GO” into his business, strength into his literature, virility into his brush ”

“ Up to this time the talk had been a staccato performance between mouthfuls:
“Yes—came near smashing a donkey—don't care if I do—no—no gravy” (Sculptor) . “Let me put an extra bubble in your glass” (Knight) . “These fish are as firm as the Adirondack trout” (Man from the Quarter) . “More cream—thank you. Marie!” (Knight, of course) “more butter.” “Donkey wasn't the only thing we missed—grazed a baby carriage and—” (Scribe) . ”

“ His exhibits in the Paris Salon (artistes Français) were twenty-four oils and water-colors from 1894 to 1906, obtaining an honorable mention in 1901 with the “Thames at Whitchurch”; a gold medal, third class, in 1905, with “The Torrent”; and a gold medal, second class, in 1906, with his triptych “The Giant Cities” (New York, Paris, London) , which makes him hors concours, with the great distinction of being the first American landscape painter to get two Salon gold medals in two consecutive years. ”

“ At home the boy always drew and painted for pleasure, as well as at school during the half-holidays. Some water-colors made during a holiday trip in Brittany in 1890 decided his father to allow him to follow art as a career. ”