Part 5

Can you not imagine him seated thus, drawing the weird yet sweet notes from his pipe, as first one pair of shiny eyes peered through the leaves or around the rocks, then another, and another, until gradually the creatures surrounded him? That music has charms has never been disputed. From the earliest history we have read stories of its wonderful subduing effect upon animals. A familiar quotation is this of Congreve’s:

“Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast, To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.”

You will remember in the poem by Robert Browning, _The Pied Piper of Hamelin_, how the old rat explained why he followed the piper: “At the first shrill notes.... I heard ... a moving away of pickle-tubboards, and a leaving ajar of conserve-cupboards.” He smelled the most delicious old cheese in the world, and saw sugar barrels ahead of him, and then, just as a great sugar-puncheon seemed to be saying, “Come, bore me,” he felt the Weser rolling o’er him. Perhaps it is in some such way as this that the music holds these wolves as they follow the narrow path between the rocks. Charmed they are no doubt, but not tamed. See how the first two fellows seem to be keeping step with the man and the music, as they move with that soft, cautious tread of the wild animal.

With the artist, La Farge, this picture was purely imaginative. He delighted in all subjects dealing with fairyland or witchcraft.

In this picture we are left to guess what sort of a man this is, and where he is going. Some critics speak of him as a sort of centaur, only instead of being half horse and half man, he is half wolf and half man. However that may be, he is able to control these animals through the power of music. He seems a strange, wild creature, indeed, and as we look at the picture it almost seems as if he were leaving the trees and the companionship of men to go with these wolves to their caves among the rocks.

The glimpse of the thick woods in the distance is interesting because of the variety in the arrangement and size of the tree trunks, the spots of light, and the suggestion of wildness. The picture is made up of curved lines which help give us the feeling of rhythm and music.

=Questions to help the pupil understand the picture.= What is there unusual about this picture? Describe it. Describe the wolves. Tell something of their characteristics; their habits. Why are they feared? To what extent should you judge this man has tamed them? Where do they usually live? Where can we find wolves now? Why are they such a terror to travelers there? In what ways are they stronger than a horse? Describe the man in the picture.

=To the Teacher=: Fairy tales which may be read in connection with the study of this picture are “The Pied Piper of Hamelin,” “The Sorceress,” “The Fisherman and the Genii,” and “The Siren’s Song.”

=Story of the artist.= In reading the life of John La Farge, the artist, we cannot fail to be interested also in the more adventurous one of his father before him. For it was in the days of Napoleon the Great that Jean La Farge, then a young officer under General Leclerc, was sent to the West Indies to suppress an insurrection in Santo Domingo, Haiti. Here he was offered the rank of lieutenant if he would remain with the land forces, and this he decided to do.

Hardly had the small force of men which he commanded reached the shore, when they were surrounded and captured by the natives. He endured the agony of looking on while every member of his company was put to death by slow torture. Expecting every moment that it would be his turn next, he was quite overcome when told that his life would be spared that he might teach the rebel leader how to speak and write French. But he was closely guarded and allowed very little liberty while the rebellion lasted. Then, although still under guard, he was given more freedom.

Most of the natives were of African blood, or a mixture of Spaniard, Indian, and negro; but after the rebellion many white men settled on the island on account of the advantages of commerce. About a year after La Farge was taken prisoner he learned that a general massacre of all the white people on the island had been planned. Feeling sure that he would be included this time, with two others he made his escape. They secured a small rowboat and rowed along the shore until they reached a part of the island that belonged to Spain. Here they were fortunate enough to find a ship just ready to sail to Philadelphia. All took passage at once.

Arrived in America, Jean La Farge became much interested in this country. He saw at once the great possibilities in this new land and decided to make it his home. He became a trader and for twenty-five years he went from place to place, growing very wealthy. Then he bought plantations in Louisiana and farm lands in northern New York.

A number of French aristocrats and others formed a French colony in New York City, and here Mr. La Farge finally came to live. He married the daughter of a former Santo Domingan planter who had joined the colony, and it was in New York that their boy, John La Farge, the artist, was born, March 31, 1835. The boy was named after his father, Jean Frédéric de La Farge, but the name was abbreviated and the English spelling used, so that it became John La Farge.

It was a very comfortable home, in some ways luxurious, and his boyhood was passed under most favorable circumstances. His grandfather was a miniature painter of some note and he gave La Farge his first drawing lessons. The boy, however, showed no especial interest or talent for drawing. After he had finished a classical course at school, he decided to become a lawyer. When he had completed the law course he was sent abroad to Paris, to visit his father’s relatives, who were very prominent people. Here he met many writers and artists of note, and finally began to study painting under Couture. He spent most of his time copying the famous paintings in the Louvre, and the etchings of Rembrandt. His idea at this time was not to become a painter by profession but only to use art as a pastime—he was to earn his living as a lawyer. He says, “No one ever struggled more against his destiny than I. Nor did I for many years fully acquiesce in being a painter, though I learned the methods and studied the problems of my art.”

It was about this time that he met the enthusiastic American painter, William Hunt, who so inspired La Farge that he left everything and followed him back to Newport, Rhode Island, where he began studying in earnest under his new master. The two men became close friends.

It was at Newport that La Farge married Miss Margaret Perry, who was the great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin and the granddaughter of Commodore Perry, so well known as commander of the American fleet in the Battle of Lake Erie. They lived in Newport during the summer, but spent their winters in New York City.

At the time of the Civil War, La Farge wished to enlist, but failed to pass the physical examination because he was nearsighted. Then, giving himself entirely to his art, he succeeded in working out his own methods.

His first paintings were for church decorations—the most important being “Saint Paul,” “The Madonna,” and “Saint John.” The last two were painted for the Church of St. Peter in New York City.

Then came a severe illness from which La Farge recovered very slowly, and it was nearly three years before he could become an active painter again. In the meantime he began drawing on wood, illustrating Browning’s and Longfellow’s poems, and Tennyson’s _Enoch Arden_. Later another trip abroad resulted in the exhibition of his paintings in the galleries there. He made a careful study of stained-glass windows and by much experimenting he discovered a way to produce an opalescent effect in stained glass and to make the glass look like that in the very old cathedrals.

La Farge was always interested in mural or wall decorations for public buildings, and he felt that our buildings in America lacked very much in that respect. He made a special study of this work, and ten years later he began his mural decorations for Trinity Church in Boston. It was one of the first buildings so decorated in this country, and the work was accomplished under great difficulties. The workmen did not understand just what they were to do, the right kind of materials could not always be obtained and so had to be prepared, and the people, having no idea of the task, required that the work be finished in an unreasonably short time. The result was that La Farge and his assistants were compelled to work night and day, in very cold weather, and under many disadvantages. However, when the scaffolding was finally removed the decoration was considered a great success. La Farge was then asked to decorate St. Thomas’ Church in New York.

The artist now began to decorate windows too, that they might be a part of the mural decorations. One of his first window designs was placed in the Congregational Church at Newport, then one in Memorial Hall, Harvard University. They are wonderful in color and design, containing almost every known kind of glass and every precious stone. Then came demands from all over the country for both public buildings and private homes. He was honored both in this country and abroad.

In 1886 La Farge went to Japan. While there he sent a series of very interesting letters to the _Century Magazine_ describing his travels. These letters have since been published in book form. La Farge also wrote _Considerations on Painting_, a series of books on the _Great Masters_, and the Japanese _Hokusai_.

Some of his best-known windows and mural decorations are the Watson Memorial Window in Trinity Church, Buffalo; “The Ascension,” a fresco in the Church of Ascension, New York City; “Athens,” in the Art Gallery at Bowdoin College, Maine; “Law,” in the Supreme Court Room, St. Paul; and “Lawgivers,” in the Court House, Baltimore.

=Questions about the artist.= Who painted this picture? Tell about his father’s experiences in the West Indies. How did the elder La Farge happen to come to America? What did he do in this country? Where and when was the artist born? What education did he receive? Where did he go after he finished college? How did he seem to regard painting at this time? What American artist encouraged him to study art? Tell about his progress; his marriage; his travels. Tell about his first mural decoration. Why was it so difficult to accomplish? To what did this lead? Tell about his window designs. Where can we see some of La Farge’s work? What books did he write?

AMERICAN ILLUSTRATORS

=The antiquity of illustration.= The desire for pictures illustrating ideas dates back no doubt to the beginning of the world. The cave dweller left a record of such an ambition on the carved walls of his rude house and on the handle of his battle ax. Savages made of themselves living illustrations, by painting their bodies in gay colors and designs representing their ideas of beauty. The Egyptians used stone and papyrus for mediums of expression, while a century later parchment and vellum were used.

Each illustration was a finished piece of work. In order to reproduce it, the artist must make a new one each time. Then some one discovered the block print. The design or illustration was cut in wood, then inked and placed on sheets of paper much as we use block prints now. Playing cards were produced in this way long before books appeared. It was but a step from printing a whole page of type to separating the letters so they could be rearranged and used many times. The Chinese understood printing with movable type centuries before we ever thought of it.

Since the time the printing press was finally invented there have been new processes and new methods, but an illustration as such has remained unchanged. Joseph Pennell tells us in his book on the _Illustration of Books_ that an illustration “is a design intended to give an artist’s idea of an incident, episode, or topographical site, or it may be but a mere diagram referred to by a writer.”

=Requirements for an illustrator.= A good illustrator requires good preparatory training. He should know how to draw well, and should have a good education in general subjects, that he may be able to illustrate intelligently the various subjects that will come before him. He must be able to select the important things in the author’s work and so represent them that the attention of the public will be drawn to them. In order that his pictures may be properly reproduced he must understand the process and make his work comply with its limitations for good work. To be successful he must be sure of his material, and his subjects must please both the author and the general public.

=The process of illustration.= An illustration is usually first sketched with a pencil on stiff paper or bristol board, the size it is to be when completed or in some relation to it. That is, it may be enlarged or reduced when printed. Perhaps the most popular method is to make the drawing twice as large as the finished print. This pencil sketch is then corrected and finally drawn in with pen and ink or brush.

The finished drawing is photographed on the plate to be used, and finished according to some one of many different processes.

=Illustration in the United States.= It was not until after the Civil War, in 1861, that illustration began to play an important part in the magazines and books of this country. To be sure, caricature had long been popular in the newspapers of the day, Thomas Nast having made his famous political cartoons during the war. Illustration in its more serious sense, however, received its first awakening when La Farge illustrated Tennyson’s _Enoch Arden_ and other poems. Some authorities declare that E. A. Abbey’s pen-and-ink drawings and illustrations of the works of Goldsmith were the first of importance in America.

Most of our best illustrators have contributed to the leading magazines, and so we are able to judge their work.

A few of the most prominent names are:

ARTIST CHARACTERISTIC WORK

Howard Pyle Colonial times in New England.

W. A. Woolf Life of street arabs; humorous.

E. W. Kemble Negro life.

W. A. Rogers Tenement districts; pathetic.

A. B. Frost American life.

Elihu Vedder Rubáiyát of Omar Khayám.

C. D. Gibson American girl.

F. Remington The Indian.

Reginald Birch Children’s stories.

A. B. Wenzell Society life.

Alice Barber Childhood. Stevens

Howard C. The Christy girl. Christy

H. B. Taylor Longfellow’s poems.

=Questions about the art of illustration.= When and how did people first begin to illustrate? How did these illustrations differ from ours in execution? Of what use was a wood-block print? To what did this lead? What preparatory training does a good illustrator need? Tell something of the process, or how illustrations are made. Tell something of the history of illustration in the United States. Name some of the best-known illustrators. Who is your favorite illustrator? why? Is it the subject of his illustration or his execution that appeals to you the more?

=To the Teacher=: The lesson may be assigned by topics to various pupils for preparation and recitation.

1. The History of Illustration. 2. Illustration in the United States. 3. What Constitutes a Good Illustration? 4. Your Favorite Illustrator and Why.

EVANGELINE

=Questions to arouse interest.= How many of you have read _Evangeline_ by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow? Why do you suppose this picture is so named? Describe the Evangeline in this picture—her appearance, expression, and surroundings. Where do you think she is going? why? How many of you think she is coming home from church? why? Describe the house near the road; the people you see. What can you say of the perspective of this road? What impression does this picture give you—one of peace, plenty, quiet, or the reverse, and why?

EVANGELINE

“Fair was she to behold, that maiden of seventeen summers. Black were her eyes as the berry that grows on the thorn by the wayside, Black, yet how softly they gleamed beneath the brown shade of her tresses.

Fairer was she when, on Sunday morn, while the bell from its turret Sprinkled with holy sounds the air, as the priest with his hyssop Sprinkles the congregation, and scatters blessings upon them, Down the long street she passed, with her chaplet of beads and her missal, Wearing her Norman cap and her kirtle of blue, and the ear-rings, Brought in the olden time from France, and since, as an heirloom, Handed down from mother to child, through long generations. But a celestial brightness—a more ethereal beauty— Shone on her face and encircled her form, when after confession, Homeward serenely she walked with God’s benediction upon her. When she had passed, it seemed like the ceasing of exquisite music.” —_Evangeline_, by Henry W. Longfellow

=Artist=: William Ladd Taylor. =Birthplace=: Grafton, Massachusetts. =Dates=: Born, 1854.

=The story of the picture.= In illustrating Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem _Evangeline_, Mr. Taylor has chosen to represent the heroine during the happiest part of her life, and before anything very exciting or at all strange began to happen, unless, perhaps, we feel that it is strange and wonderful that there should be such a little village as Grand-Pré, where Evangeline lived. History tells us that such a village did exist in Acadie—or Nova Scotia, Canada, as we call it now. The French and English had quarreled bitterly over this island, for each wanted possession of its fisheries. The English claimed the territory by right of discovery, and they finally secured possession of it.

Most of the people living there were French and had been given the privilege of leaving within two years. Though they desired to remain, yet they refused to take the oath of allegiance, and their oath of fidelity to the British king was accepted instead. They were exempted from bearing arms against their own countrymen, allowed to enjoy their religion, to have magistrates of their own selection, and, in fact, they had been permitted to do about as they pleased. Each man owned his farm and his stock, and all that goes to make a life of usefulness as well as of plenty and content.

Mr. Longfellow tells us:

“Vast meadows stretched to the eastward, Giving the village its name, and pasture to flocks without number.

Sea-fogs pitched their tents, and mists from the mighty Atlantic Looked on the happy valley, but ne’er from their station descended. There, in the midst of its farms, reposed the Acadian village. Strongly built were the houses, with frames of oak and of hemlock, Such as the peasants of Normandy built in the reign of the Henries. Thatched were the roofs, with dormer windows; and gables projecting Over the basement below protected and shaded the doorway.”

How carefully Mr. Taylor studied all these details is shown by the way he represents the main street of the little village of Grand-Pré. How much more picturesque these thatched-roofed houses are than some of our more costly and elaborate modern homes! A roof made of simple framework, however, covered with thick layers of skillfully arranged straw or reeds, called thatch, does not seem very practicable to us in these days.

It is not difficult to determine who is the center of interest in this picture. We recognize Evangeline with her white Normandy cap, her kirtle or short jacket with its flowing sleeves, and we can even distinguish her beads. Her missal, or Roman Catholic mass book, is clasped in both hands as she passes quietly down the street, and the expression in her face is one of perfect peace and happiness.

She has passed the group of visiting women, as well as the two men standing by the gate who have turned to look after her. We know that she has greeted them all pleasantly, if a bit absently, and it is plain that she has now forgotten them again in the absorption of her mind.

Although the picture does not even suggest the strange and adventurous future before her, still it is all the more pleasing because it gives us a glimpse of Evangeline in the hour of peace and happiness. We are made to feel the secret of the reserve strength of our heroine who, thus fortified, will be equal to all that must befall her. We shall wish to read again Mr. Longfellow’s poem _Evangeline_.

According to the story, Evangeline keeps house for her father, who is known as the wealthiest farmer of Grand-Pré. He is well on in years, genial, kindly, always looking on the bright side of life, and his home is known far and wide for its hospitality and cheer. The house is out a little way from the village and is built on the side of a hill, so that it commands a fine view of the ocean. Meadows, orchards, great barns with their dovecotes, beehives, a well with its moss-grown bucket, weathercocks, and sheepfolds complete the picture.

One of the farmer’s best friends is Basil, the blacksmith, who is a much honored man in the village. He has one son, Gabriel. Evangeline and Gabriel have played together as children, have grown up together, and now they are engaged to be married. Already the contract is signed, the dower of the bride in flocks of sheep and in cattle has been determined, and all is ready for the wedding feast.

“Fairest of all the maids was Evangeline, Benedict’s daughter! Noblest of all the youths was Gabriel, son of the blacksmith!”

But their wedding is almost forgotten because of the terrible events which prevent it. For several days a fleet of English ships has been observed approaching the harbor with their guns pointed toward the peaceful little village of Grand-Pré. On the very day set for the wedding, the English soldiers land and demand the surrender of all their arms in the name of the king. All the men are commanded to assemble in the meetinghouse at noon of that day. The people drive in from all the country around, a happy, care-free crowd, thinking that, since they have harmed no one, no harm can come to them.

But once in the meetinghouse the soldiers lock and bolt the door while the commander reads the king’s proclamation from the pulpit. It is terrible beyond all belief, for it not only commands that they forfeit all their lands, dwellings, and cattle to the crown, but that they and their families shall be transported to other lands. A great cry arises, and all the men rush to the doorway. But there is no means of escape, for the soldiers are well armed and prepared.

Then Basil the blacksmith calls upon them all to resist and is promptly felled by a soldier. All is angry commotion when the door of the chancel opens and Father Felician, whom all revere, stands before them commanding their silence. He appeals to their faith, and their reverence for the house of God, and by his wise counsel succeeds in quieting his people. Meanwhile the women wait outside in the churchyard, fearful when the tumult is greatest but reassured when all is quiet again. Hour after hour passes by and still they wait.

At length the door of the meetinghouse opens and a soldier appears. Again the fearful proclamation is read. Then the women are commanded to pack their household goods and be ready for sailing on the fifth day.