Mary Elizabeth Parker Bouligny

“ To those fully alive to the attractions of art, the Corcoran gallery will be a treasure house, where they must linger long, keenly sensitive to the amount of talent garnered within those stately walls. They will feel around them the breath of genius, which their slightest whispers shall fear to disturb; they will see the canvas graced by a peasant's bright eyes, adding to it the surmise of some grave, perhaps wrinkled face—this last the artist's—and praise and sympathy will go out together from their generous hearts. ”

“ Greetings to the artist for his faithful delineation! The bright garniture of green that pervades the landscape "tells like a tongue," the joy of the earth, when waking from her frozen spell, she arrays herself with beauty. The sky is clear with patches of blue and creamy fleck, smiling in concert with the brightness below. Such radiant scenes make music in the heart, recalling the glad days of youth, when the stream proved a mirror for the rosy cheek and laughing eye, when nimble feet embedded the bright green moss, or careless fingers pulled at the wayside flowers. ”

“ The dark crimson background brings out most clearly a face, which though marked with the lines of age, has preserved its purity and softness of complexion, and the mild blue eye is directed at the spectator with all the earnestness with which he undertook the mighty labors of his life. It is a remarkable countenance, yet gentle as a woman's, the broad high forehead whereupon the light falls gloriously, and the full snowy locks enhancing the glow upon the cheeks, whilst the pleasant mobile expression of the mouth suggests speech not less eloquent than the language of his eyes. ”

“ Art has also a higher mission than the mere elevation of the mind and the refinement of taste. It tends to worship of the great Author of our being; and, as the worthy Cardinal Wiseman said: "It is the most graceful and natural tribute of homage we can pay to Him for the beauties which He has so lavishly scatterd over creation. Art, then, is a reverend thing; one which must he treated with all nobleness of feeling, and with all the dignity of aim." See what the Divine Hand has lavished upon our broad earth, and what it has cast into the way of the artist to portray! ”

“ And it may be well in God’s wisdom that those dearest in his affections should first be laid to rest within the temple's shrine, that he might wander there to glorify Him "Who giveth and taketh away," and Who promiseth in their name, that he shall meet them again. This "come unto me" throws a shadow upon earth, whilst it brightens the portals of the sky! How tender and sad a feeling is kindled in our breasts as we stand amid the peaceful shades of Oak Hill, where so many that in life were noble and good, fair and beautiful, are "sleeping their last sleep!" ”

“ The works are well chosen, and the colors of some from that classic land across the sea, fair Italy, are like the tints of her wondrous skies, where the roses' crimson dye and the violets' tender blue are blended in sympathy with the purple of the grape and the sunlight's gold. Here is life pictured so true and beauteous that we dream many an hour away in pleasant reveries, and steep our souls in an intoxication of delight, quaffing delicious draughts from that rare and intellectual fount, the communion of spirit with art, and the oblivion of self! ”

“ Iris is represented as rising from the landscape below, where is the outline of a cave with a tiny streamlet. The faint curve of the rainbow is encircling her limbs, and tending in the direction of her flight. The tinge of light in the colors is in accord with her floating tresses of gold, and the etherial like drapery sporting with the breeze. The beautiful arms of the figure are raised far above the head, as if in the high attainment of bearing aloft the golden flagon, and the pressure of one hand keeps afloat a cloud-like veil sweeping gently backwards, scorning to hide a face so fair. ”

“ These regal draperies, in conjunction with a superb gilded bronze vase, with the design of two cupids in the act of an embrace, form what one would style art, whilst the contents of the vase, numbering a hundred or more delicate blossoms, all of one kind, yet varying in the hues of lilac, pink, groseille, and white, comprise the natural portion of the picture. The vase has more than brimful measure, as the flowers running over hide the heads of the saucy little "gods of love,"—a charming place to nestle, say they, where the wild blossoms revel in beauty. ”

“ The colors are mingled with a gracious charm, the cloth of gold with the bright pink, the salmon with the crimson, whilst miniature buds and green leaves constitute not a little of the charming feast. Couder,s talent in this line cannot be excelled, and it is not too much to style him a god among the roses, to whom they might pay their sweetest tribute. This artist belongs to France, and if he gives so much satisfaction in the delineation of flowers of that bright land, we would also like him to send us some bunches of grapes; if not fresh from the vine, from his own skilful hand. ”

“ We see the imitative power of the artist in the truthful scenes of nature, and we descry a likeness to our fellow-creatures in the shapely marble and plaster. Face to face we are brought with men whose features, faithful in resemblance make us for the moment forget that they themselves are crumbling into dust, or that their real substance has vanished from earth. If it be a statesman or warrior, a poet or astrologist, some special renown or exploit, romance or spiritualized intelligence will speak eloquently from the canvas. ”

“ In her face we read her surrender to the God who hath the right to claim, and yet we seem to hear the wail of the blackest sorrow that has ever fallen upon her soul. By her side are three figures resting against some stone masonry. One head is nearly lost to view, being bent in tribulation. The next, a beautiful young girl, with perhaps more trust and hope in her countenance, holds a water vessel, set upright in the palm of her hand, and the other, a youth in shadow, drops his head in a somnolent attitude. ”

“ The moon has risen above the outskirts of the horizon like a fiery globe, as if in disdain of the pure mantle overspreading the ground, the locked up stream, and the bare trees. The gray sky looks as cold as the scene, but for the warm-glowing orb that must gradually mount high up in the vault of heaven, and assume its wonted lustre. The artist has thoroughly understood effect in employing the two extremes, the purity of snow and the "jewel of night," clear-cut in ruby-tinted beauty. ”

“ We have seen the risibilities of a little child excited, when upon leaving some dark, gloomy canvas, he unexpectedly meets the grinning countenance of a cat, or a monkey perched on high, intent on his work of mischief. The silence adverted to is thus broken, solemnity and poetry are disturbed, but the little one is paying the highest tribute to art by his merry ring of laughter, for so true is the picture that it finds actual existence in his eyes. ”

“ Through faith he is promised a bright mission, and his feeble hand grasps the artist's brush. Years of patient toil and endurance bring new vigor to his life, and compensate him with success. His mind is stocked with the beautiful creations with which he will surprise the world, and gain its noblest panegyrics. The hour at last comes when the brow that was pierced by the thorns of poverty wears the wreath of laurel, and the spirit that was crushed through indifference, is buoyant with worldly applause. ”

“ Precipitancy is like the empty bubble that dances awhile in the sunbeam, but is lost by the weight of a single drop of dew. A specialty in talent or an adherence to a particular style, is too frequently disregarded, hence the mediocrity of so many that take up the brush.
Our American artist, George Catlin, who died in Jersey City, at the age of seventy-six, devoted his lifetime we may say, to the study of Indian life and character, in order to give to his country a faithful portraiture of the red men of the forest. ”

“ Having pictured him mostly as an active and zealous man, amid his charities and the outside haunts, we see him last under his own roof, happy and blessed, daily receiving tokens of the gratitude of the people, thus reaping a reward that any might envy. The brightest picture, more to be valued than all the wealth of the gallery, is this beautiful mansion, the owner surrounded by three lovely grandchildren (two boys, and a fair, golden-haired little girl, named Louise) , whose company and tender warmth of affection make up the overflowing drop to the cup of happiness. ”

“ The foremost engrossing feature of the landscape is a group of trees, growing in such shape as to form a pleasant bower of green, and not far off is a feeble curl of smoke from some burning brushwood, wherefrom several figures are seen retreating. If in the picture of Spring by the same artist there is all the emphatic impulse and energy of a bright sunshiny day, this Twilight scene possesses not less the opposite in the stillness and sombreness that accompanies the decline of day ”

“ The eyes of the child show the heaviness of intense suffering, and the blueness of death settling around the mouth, tells most painfully those baby lips must have famished for a single drop, which neither nature nor maternal love could yield. Another mother, clad in white garments, clinging closely to her form, has passed through the same sorrow, and with the last strength of anguish has gained a standing position, holding above her head the little dead babe. ”

“ But it was a cherished souvenir of the immortal master, and his last occupation, and therefore at his funeral was placed near his remains, standing out in glowing beauty over the marble-like face and folded hands. Like some bright star that scintillates and. shoots out splendor in the darkness of night, so did the "Transfiguration" steal from the sadness of Raphael's death by its sublimity, and the thought that as long as the world exists would his glorious fame keep brightening. ”

“ The Unhappy Family takes away our smiles and cheerful feeling. A lantern's light, hung from the rafters of a poor dwelling, is the only ray that beams athwart the gloom of ill-fortune. There is an air of despondency in the wearied wife who sits beside her baby in its cradle; the little one, all unconscious of trouble, sleeps soundly, as also the tired, bare-footed boy resting against his mother's knee. But the person upon whose lineaments broods the sorrow of poverty or distress, is the father who, entering the room, has to meet the tender caresses of his other children. ”

“ And besides these sacred personages, the philosopher and sage, and noble women worthy in good deeds to immortalize canvas. In the bright army of His creatures there are names that belong to the golden age of art! Who shall speak the glories of Raphael and Angelo, Murillo and Titian, Thorwaldsen and Canova? If the genius of Europe treats all these spheres of celebrity, our country, still young, does bravely her part, and some few have been prepared to cope with the proudest and best of any age. ”

“ Are not all these bright, sunshiny deeds, like a mirror, revealing to us a picture of goodness and benevolence? And does not the life that has been so long fed and sustained by a happy conscience, remind us of the brilliancy and light of the diamond, that rarest gem of earth, or the purity and beauty of the dew drop, whose immaculateness is of heaven? ”