The Children's Book of Celebrated Pictures

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)

This picture of "Helena Fourment Rubens and Her Son and Daughter" was really painted to honor the boy. It has always been the custom in Europe to pay special attention to the boys in the home and keep the girls very much in the background. It is very easy to see how pert the little Albert Rubens is, and how subdued and meek is his sister. The boy has the "Lord of Creation" air that would not be good for him in America. We love the picture, for Rubens, the father, shows us plainly the old idea that the boy rules the home. Naturally the father would know the traits of his own children but not always would he allow us to know them too.

Rubens was so wonderful as an artist, as a man to settle quarrels, and as a beautiful gentleman that all Europe did him honor. He was sent to see the ruling powers in England, in Spain, in Italy, and in France. Each ruler entertained him as a royal guest, and Rubens painted masterpieces for each in return. His paintings were the wonder of the age. It is said that his fellow-artists looked with jealous eyes at his flesh tints, and that all painters since have been in despair trying to equal him. He left hundreds of pictures and hundreds of sketches. The sketches alone are bringing many hundreds of times their weight in gold.

THE HARP OF THE WINDS

Homer Martin (1836-1897)

About a dozen years ago Europe began to wonder if America had any art worth considering. She invited us to send samples of our paintings that her critics might judge of our work. Among the pictures selected was Homer Martin's "The Harp of the Winds." At once Europe saw that an American artist had painted a masterpiece.

This scene is on the River Seine, a short distance from Paris. Was anything ever more simple? Slender willow-trees almost leafless, bare rocks with a few scrubby bushes, a tiny village sheltered in a curve of the river – what is there to suggest a picture? And yet something grips us. We seem to be at the beginnings of creation. Nature is confiding in us. We are hearing the winds play on the harp to the listening river. See how lovingly the water mirrors those harp strings all sparkly with gold and green! I wonder if these willows make a harp or a lyre with their tall stalks reaching to the sky? Do you remember how, when Mercury found a tortoise, he took the shell and made holes on both sides and strung nine strings across it – one for each Muse – and gave it to Apollo? I think this Harp of the Winds has nine strings in memory of Mercury's lyre.

THE TRIBUTE MONEY

Titian, or Tiziano Vecelli (1477-1576)

Every child must know "The Tribute Money," painted by Titian, for no artist understood the scene better than he did. Remember that the bad men in Palestine were determined to find something that Jesus, the Christ, had done against the Roman Government so they could trap him. At last they sent one in authority to question him.

But Jesus said, "Bring me a penny, that I may see it." And they brought him a penny.

And Jesus said, "Whose is this image and superscription?"

And the man was forced to say, "Cæsar's."

Then Jesus made that famous reply that people use so often to-day: "Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and to God the things that are God's."

Titian shows the moment when the tax-gatherer must say that the penny belonged to Cæsar, the Roman emperor. It had Cæsar's portrait on it and Cæsar's demands written on it. Look carefully at the two faces and the two hands, and tell me what you think of the two men as Titian shows them to us.

THE MAIDS OF HONOR

Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velasquez (1599-1660)

If it had not been for Velasquez we should know very little about the little princes and princesses of Spain in the time of Philip IV, about the middle of the sixteenth century. He made many portraits of these children, especially of the little Princess Margarita.

One day when Velasquez was painting a portrait of Philip IV, the king's little daughter Margarita came into the room attended by her maids of honor and a splendid dog. The king was so delighted with the little group that he told Velasquez to make a picture of them just as they stood there before him. Now look at the picture and you will see in the looking-glass at the back of the room the reflection of the king and the queen. At the easel stands Velasquez, the artist, with his palette and brushes. The wee fair-haired princess is the center of the group. The strange-looking little women, her maids of honor, are dwarfs. And see what a magnificent fellow the dog is, lying so contentedly on the floor right in front of us.

When the picture was finished, and the people went to see it, many of them asked, "Where is the picture?" The little Margarita and her maids are so alive and those people standing around seem so real that no one thought they could be painted on canvas.

Velasquez made such wonderfully real likenesses that some one told this story of one: One day the King came to Velasquez's studio and seeing, as he supposed, one of his admirals whom he had sent to take a command a few days before, he spoke angrily:

"What! still here? Did I not command you to depart? Why have you not obeyed?" Of course the admiral did not answer, and then the king found that he had been angry at a portrait.

THE NYMPHS

Jean Baptiste Camille Corot (1796-1875)

Everybody loved Père Corot – Papa Corot, as he was called. His happy manner and lovely smile won for him the name of the "happy one." I want you to know what Papa Corot says, in a letter to a friend, about himself and his painting. He writes:

"Look you, it is charming, the day of a landscapist. He gets up at three in the morning, before sunrise, goes and sits under a tree, and watches and waits. Not much can be seen at first. Nature is behind a veil. Everything smells sweet.

"Ping! a ray of yellow light shoots up. The veil is torn, and meadow and valley and hill are peeping through the rent.

"Bing, bing! the sun's first ray – another ray – and the flowers awake and drink a drop of quivering dew. The leaves feel cold and move to and fro. Under the leaves unseen birds are singing softly. The flowers are saying their morning prayers.

"Bam! the sun has risen. Bam! a peasant crosses the field with a cart and oxen. Ding! ding! says the bell of the ram that leads the flock of sheep.

"Bam! bam! all bursts – all glitters – all is full of light, blond and caressing as yet. The flowers raise their heads. It is adorable. I paint! I paint!

"Boom! boom! boom! The sun aflame burns the earth. Everything becomes heavy. Let us go home. We see too much now. Let us go home."

You see now why Corot could paint such a lovely picture as "The Nymphs." He saw these gauzy creatures in the early morning light and painted them before the sun scattered them to the four winds.

ST. FRANCIS PREACHING TO THE BIRDS

Giotto di Bondone (1266? -1337)

One time more than six hundred years ago St. Francis preached the dearest sermon to "My Sisters the Birds" that you ever heard. He said to them as they lifted their little heads to listen to his words:

"Ye are beholden unto God your Creator, and always and in every place it is your duty to praise him! Ye are bounden to him for the element of the air which he has deputed to you forever-more. You sow not, neither do you reap. God feeds you and gives you the streams and fountains for your thirst. He gives you the mountains and the valleys for your refuge, tall trees wherein to make your nests, and inasmuch as you neither spin nor reap God clothes you and your children, hence ye should love your Creator greatly, and therefore beware, my sisters, of the sins of ingratitude, and ever strive to praise God."

St. Francis then made the sign of the Cross and sent the birds north, south, east, and west to carry the story of the Cross to all mankind.

When Giotto, who painted this picture of "St. Francis Preaching to the Birds," was a little boy, he took care of his father's sheep in the fields. One day a noted painter, Cimabue, found Giotto drawing a sheep on a flat rock with colored stones. The picture of the sheep was so lifelike that the great man asked the boy, Giotto, to go with him and become an artist. He went, and one day years afterward the pope sent to Giotto for a sample of his work. Giotto sent him a big round O. It pleased the pope to find a man so original, and he gave Giotto many orders for pictures. To-day the saying is "Round as Giotto's O."

THE GOVERNESS

Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin (1699-1779)

When Chardin began to paint pictures he went into the French homes and painted pictures of brass pots and kettles, of fruits and vegetables. Then he took common scenes of life and gave us a number of pictures showing just what was going on in the homes and back yards.

The French people were not used to having an artist see beauty in the every-day things they were doing; artists had been painting the rich for the rich. Everybody began to love the pictures Chardin painted. This is a very simple story in "The Governess." The child – is it a boy or a girl? – is now ready to go to school. He – I believe he is a boy – is hearing some advice, and I do not think he is pleased, for he has a little frown on his face. His dress is peculiar. The French children two hundred years ago did not dress as you do to-day. He is the same kind of a child that you are, I am sure, and you and he would soon be great friends.

Chardin's color was so wonderful that one of his artist friends cried out: "O Chardin! it is not white, red, or black that you grind to powder on your palette; it is the air and the light that you take on the point of your brush and fix on canvas."

Chardin's pictures are as beautiful and bright to-day as they were when he painted them.

THE LAST SUPPER

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

I want you to know the disciples of Jesus just as Leonardo da Vinci painted them four hundred years ago. Leonardo spent months among the men of Milan, Italy, looking into their faces and talking with them. When he began to paint "The Last Supper" he had gathered men together so like these twelve disciples that we feel we can know them as Jesus knew them. For three years those men of old walked with Jesus and talked with him as they went up and down Palestine; and at last, on that wonderful night, they met with Him in the upper chamber to eat with Him the Last Supper. Those disciples did not know that it was the last meal they would eat with Jesus before he was hung on the cross.

We shall begin in the center of the table and name the disciples as Leonardo has them in the picture. First is the Savior. At his left is James with his arms spread out in distress; back of him is Thomas with his finger uplifted; then Philip rising with his hand on his heart; next Matthew, his arms pointing to the Savior while he turns toward the two near the end; next to him is Thaddeus; and then Simon. On the other side of Jesus sits John, the beloved disciple. His hands are folded and his eyes are cast down. Next to John is Judas, the betrayer; he holds the bag clutched in his right hand and near him is the overturned salt cellar. Leaning back of Judas is Peter with one hand on John's shoulder; next to Peter is Andrew; then James, the less, laying one hand on Peter's arm. At the end of the table is Bartholomew, who has risen resting his hands on the table. These men are all asking, "Is it I?" For Jesus had said, "He it is to whom I give a sop."

SIR GALAHAD

George Frederick Watts (1818-1904)

Of all the stories of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table none is so strange as that of Sir Galahad. Its beginning is in the upper chamber at the Last Supper with Jesus and his disciples. Legend says that the cup used by our Savior at the Last Supper was the Holy Grail. Joseph of Arimathea, who bought the cup from Pontius Pilate, used it to catch the blood that flowed from the pierced side of our Lord. The cup, or Holy Grail, was kept in the Convent of the Holy Grail by the descendants of Joseph of Arimathea.

The cup had marvelous powers in the hands of a perfect knight. Centuries passed and no perfect knight came to claim the Holy Grail. Then King Arthur founded the Knights of the Round Table. One seat at the round table was always vacant waiting for the sinless youth. Many tried to sit in the "seat perilous," as it was called, but the seat let each one down to disappear forever.

At last an old man – Joseph of Arimathea himself – brought a boy and seated him in the vacant chair. The knights were frightened but the boy sat unharmed and above the seat appeared the words:

THIS IS THE SEAT OF GALAHAD

King Arthur knighted him and sent him forth to find the Holy Grail. Years went by and awful trials and temptations came to Sir Galahad. He did not yield to the bad things that came, but kept looking for the Holy Grail. At last he held the cross before his face to keep off his tormentors when before his eyes he saw the cup, and the power of the Holy Grail came to him.

This picture of Sir Galahad in Eton College, England, hangs in the chapel opposite the entrance door where each boy passes in on his way to morning and evening prayers.

THE DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE AND HER CHILD

Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792)

Sir Joshua Reynolds ought to be called "the painter of little girls." No artist ever painted a larger number of little girls. And no artist ever knew better than he how to get the confidence of children, boys or girls.

One time a little boy in London was to carry a flag in a procession. What do you think he did? He went to Sir Joshua Reynolds, the artist whom no one dared to interrupt, and asked him if he would paint a flag for him. This pleased the great man. When the boy proudly displayed his flag, every one asked:

"Where did you get such a wonderful flag?"

You can guess how proud the boy was to say, "Sir Joshua Reynolds painted it for me!"

This picture of "The Duchess of Devonshire and her Child" is one of the greatest pictures Sir Joshua ever painted. The original painting is now in the magnificent country seat of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth, England. Sir Joshua had a way of making his pictures sparkle and glisten that was unknown to other artists. One of our own artists, Gilbert Stuart, when in London, was copying a very valuable portrait by Sir Joshua. He thought he saw one of the eyes move. He was horrified to find that it really was moving down on the cheek. He grabbed the picture and ran into a cold room and then worked the eye back in place. The secret was out! Sir Joshua Reynolds had used wax to make his pictures glitter and, alas, the glitter would not last.

ST. AGNES AND HER LAMB

Andrea del Sarto (1486-1531)

One of the most beautiful pictures of "St. Agnes and her lamb" was painted by Andrea del Sarto, – "Andrea the faultless," as he was called. It is in the cathedral at Pisa.

St. Agnes was a Roman girl who lived three hundred years after the birth of Jesus. Her father and mother were heathens, but their little daughter became a Christian when a mere child. She did not tell her parents that she loved Jesus, but when she refused to worship idols they knew that she had become a disciple of the Master Christ. This made them so angry that they handed her over to the Roman rulers to be punished. These wicked men tried in every way to persuade Agnes to bow down to their gods made of wood and stone. When she would not bow down to them they tried to force her to worship the idols.

They gave her over to the soldiers and ordered them to take her clothes away, but immediately her hair grew and covered her, and angels came and gave her a shining white garment. She even refused to marry the son of the Roman magistrate. The son thought that he could compel her to consent to the marriage after she was persecuted, but he was struck blind when he tried to see her.

When St. Agnes saw what great sorrow came to the home of the young nobleman because he was blind, she prayed for him and his eyesight came again. His father was so thankful that he pleaded for her life, but the people said,

"She is a sorceress: she must die." Then they tried to burn her, but the flames burned her tormentors and did her no harm. At last she was killed with a sword. She is always represented with a lamb.

Michael Angelo wrote to Raphael about Andrea del Sarto: "There is a little fellow in Florence who, if he were employed as you are upon great works, would make it hot for you."

WHISTLER'S MOTHER

James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)

The story about Whistler and his mother is rather a sad one. He went to Europe when he was a young painter and told his mother as he started that he would come home to her when he had made a success. But he never made a success in money. He painted this picture of his mother and for twenty years tried to sell it. He offered it to his own country – the United States – for five hundred dollars. We were so stupid that we did not know that the picture was a masterpiece and that no amount of money could buy it later on. But the people of Paris began to feel that Whistler, the American artist, was a great master, and the city bought the picture, "Whistler's Mother." Of course we can never own the picture now, although it is an American mother, unless the French people should give it to us. But we do not deserve it, do we?

After a number of years Whistler's mother went to Europe to make a home for her wonderful son. She died in Chelsea, and to-day the mother and son are side by side in the little churchyard of Chiswick, near London.

ST. CHRISTOPHER

Titian, or Tiziano Vecelli (1477-1576)

Christopher, or Offero, was born in Palestine in the third century. He was a giant in size but ignorant and poor. He felt that he could not work for any one who was afraid of any one else. He wandered over the country and at last he came to a powerful king and offered to work for him. The king thought it very fine to have a giant for a servant. One day Offero stood by the king's side while a minstrel sang a song about Satan. Every time the name of Satan was spoken the king crossed himself. Offero was puzzled, for he never had heard of Satan, nor of Jesus. When he found that the king was afraid of Satan, Offero went to find the man the king was afraid of.

Offero found Satan and became his servant. But as they went through the land Offero saw that Satan always went away around the little shrines. Offero asked Satan why he did that. Satan said he did not like to come near the cross where was the crucified One. Then Offero knew that he was afraid of Jesus.

He went out to find Jesus. At last an old hermit told Offero to go to a river where people were often drowned and to carry every one across on his back, and that maybe he would find Jesus. Offero built himself a hut and spent years carrying people over the stream and no one was drowned. One stormy night Offero thought he heard a child's voice calling him. He went out two or three times. At last the child appeared and asked Offero to carry him over. Offero started. The storm grew worse and the water rose high and the child grew very, very heavy. When Offero set the child down, he said, "I feel as though I had carried the whole world!" The child answered:

"Offero, you have carried the maker of the world. I am Jesus, whom you have sought. You shall be called Christ-Offero – the Christ-bearer – from now on."

THE BLUE BOY

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)

Gainsborough began to draw and paint when he was a child. He often entertained his companions by drawing pictures for them while they read the lessons to him.

One morning Thomas got up with the sun and went out into the garden to sketch. There was in the garden a wonderful pear-tree full of ripe pears, and the pears had been disappearing very mysteriously. While Thomas was making his drawings he saw a man's face appear suddenly above the stone wall. He quickly made a sketch of the face, and frightened the man before he could get away with the fruit. At the breakfast-table the young artist told his father what he had done and showed him the sketch. His father knew the man and sent for him. When the man was accused of stealing the pears he denied it, but when he was shown the picture Thomas had made of him he confessed that he had taken the pears.

Artists, like all of us, want to lay down rules for every one to follow who is doing their same kind of work. Sir Joshua Reynolds said, "The masses of light in a picture ought to be always of a warm, mellow colour – yellow, red, or yellowish white; and the blue, the grey, or green colours should be kept almost entirely out of the masses." Gainsborough did not agree with him. To show Sir Joshua that he was wrong Gainsborough painted pictures in blue and green. The famous "Blue Boy" alone proved that he was right. The boy has on a blue satin suit and he stands out-of-doors in green grass with green foliage and blue sky around him. When Sir Joshua saw Gainsborough's blue-green pictures he said frankly, "I cannot think how he produces his effects."

These two men were never good friends yet when Gainsborough was near death Sir Joshua Reynolds came to his bedside, and when Gainsborough died Reynolds was one of the pall-bearers.

THE SLEEPING GIRL

Jan van der Meer of Delft (1632-1675)

I want you to know and love the Dutch pictures. The painters were called "little masters," simply because they painted small pictures for the homes. For the homes! The Dutch wanted pictures to hang on their walls; pictures they could live with. Now what do you think of the "Sleeping Girl"? Do you know I could live with that picture and feel that I always had something to make me happy? It is so homy. See how comfortable the girl is! Of course a good healthy girl has no business to be sleeping in the daytime, but we can forgive her now that van der Meer has caught her asleep and let us see her. Then look at that wonderful rug! Was ever anything so soft and velvety? If we knew about rugs we might tell its name and maybe its age.

Van der Meer had a way of catching people without their knowing it. He seems to have cut a piece out of the wall where he peeped in and painted what he saw. We are glad the girl left the door open into another room so that we can see the table and pictures and part of the window-frame. I think these things are reflected in a looking-glass.

Van der Meer painted only about forty pictures, and eight of those are in the United States. They are among our greatest art treasures.

ST. ANTONY AND THE CHRIST-CHILD

Bartholome Esteban Murillo (1618-1682)

Many very curious legends are told of St. Antony of Padua, who died in 1231. He was a close friend of St. Francis (see "St. Francis and his Birds," page 76). One story says that one time he was preaching about the Savior when the child Jesus came and sat on his open Bible. It is this story that Murillo painted his picture to illustrate. Again and again Murillo has shown us St. Antony with the Christ-child, but never more beautifully than here. This is one of Murillo's greatest religious pictures.

Another story is told of St. Antony. One day he was preaching the funeral sermon of a rich young man when he exclaimed:

"His heart is buried in his treasure-chest; go seek it there and you will find it."

Sure enough when the friends of the rich young man opened the treasure-chest there was the heart, and no heart was found in the young man's dead body.

KING LEAR

Edwin Austin Abbey (1852-1911)

The story of "King Lear" is one of the most pitiful of Shakespeare's play. It is about the thanklessness of children to a father. Old King Lear had three daughters —Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia. He loved these daughters dearly and he believed that they loved him. As he grew old in life he thought he would divide his kingdom and property among them equally; then there would be no trouble about his wealth after he was dead. Of course he expected to make his home with them in turn as long as he lived. Naturally he went to Goneril, the eldest daughter, first. Very soon he found that he was not wanted. She had the money – her father's money – but why should she be troubled with her old father? He then went to Regan, his second child, but she too refused to make a home for him. The third daughter, Cordelia, loved her father dearly and wanted him to live with her that she might care for him in his old age. By a strange mishap the old father thought that Cordelia, his beloved child, was false to him. He wandered off on the heath in a fearful storm and at last found shelter in a hut where he thinks even his faithful dogs are against him. He cries out pitifully: