Joseph Jefferson; reminiscences of a fellow player . r of the Heir at Law performance, apicture he painted in imitation of Turner whichhung on the wall of the drawing-room scene mthe play. When I reached Washington, I selected The King of the Forest as the most repre-sentative and most skilfully painted of any pictureI had yet seen of the rising young artist, andit passed speedily into my possession; nor was Igreatly influenced in my purchase by the guilefulremark of the dealer that as a picture painted bythe hand of Shakespeare would now be of incal-culable value, so, at no distant day, would
Joseph Jefferson; reminiscences of a fellow player . r of the Heir at Law performance, apicture he painted in imitation of Turner whichhung on the wall of the drawing-room scene mthe play. When I reached Washington, I selected The King of the Forest as the most repre-sentative and most skilfully painted of any pictureI had yet seen of the rising young artist, andit passed speedily into my possession; nor was Igreatly influenced in my purchase by the guilefulremark of the dealer that as a picture painted bythe hand of Shakespeare would now be of incal-culable value, so, at no distant day, would be onepainted by the hand of Joseph Jefferson. He learned speedily of my new possessionand telegraphed me: Congratulate you on having one of my bestpictures. Dont tell anybody what you paid. To this I could not resist replying: I wont. Am as much ashamed of it asyou are. We laughed over this when we met, and he requested that I should say nothing of it to the boys, his sons, who are incorrigible wags. Such exchange of pleasantries was frequent. 90. ,?2 HIS RECREATIONS Replying to the note apprising him of my ac-quisition of The King of the Forest, he wrotea few days later: I am glad that you have this picture becauseyou tell me you like it. You say that it speaksto you. This is the best test in a work of . The King of the Forest is partly fromnature and partly from imagination — I saw theold fellow once on the bank of a trout streamjust at sunset. The glowing light as it camethrough the weird and tangled limbs made astrong impression on me, so the next day Ifixed my memory on the canvas. Many of the pleasantest hours passed withMr. Jefferson were those spent in visiting picturecollections, public and private. An account ofone such visit as set down at the time. May lo,1901, Boston, may serve, I think, as a fittingclose to the chapter. Francis, said Mr. JeflFerson, as we joggedalong, there are a lot of poor people to-day asthe result of not following Commodore Vander-bi
Size: 1304px × 1916px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublishernewyorkcscribnerss
