Pictures Every Child Should Know: A Selection of the World's Art Masterpieces for Young People — John Shaqi
Pictures Every Child Should Know: A Selection of the World's Art Masterpieces for Young PeopleBacon, Mary Schell Hoke
General
Pictures Every Child Should Know: A Selection of the World's Art Masterpieces for Young People
Bacon, Mary Schell Hoke
Art -- Juvenile literature; Painters -- Juvenile literature; Painting -- Juvenile literature
"After some time (in 1857 I think), I sold the original picture to
Mr. William P. Wright, New York (whose picture gallery and residence
were at Weehawken, N.J.), for the sum of 30,000 francs, but later I
understood that Mr. Stewart paid a much larger price for it on the
breaking up of Mr. Wright's gallery. The quarter size replica, from
which the engraving was made, I finally sold to Mr. Jacob Bell, who
gave it in 1859 to the nation, and it is now in the National Gallery,
London. A second, still smaller replica, was painted a few years
later, and was resold some time ago in London for £4,000
($20,000). There is also a smaller water-colour drawing which was sold
to Mr. Bolckow for 2,500 guineas ($12,000), and is now an heirloom
belonging to the town of Middlesbrough. That is the whole history of
this grand work. The Stewart canvas is the real and true original, and
only large size 'Horse-Fair.'
"Once in Mr. Stewart's collection, it never left his gallery until the
auction sale of his collection, March 25th, 1887, when it was
purchased by Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt for the sum of $55,000, and
presented to the Metropolitan Museum of Art."
And thus we have the whole story of the "Horse-Fair." The picture is
93-1/2 inches high, and 197 inches wide, and it contains a great
number of horses, some of which are ridden, while others are led, and
all are crowding with wild gaiety toward the fair where it is quite
plain they know they are about to be admired and their beauty shown to
the best advantage. Other well-known Rosa Bonheurs are "Ploughing,"
"Shepherd Guarding Sheep," "Highland Sheep," "Scotch Deer," "American
Mustangs," and "The Study of a Lioness."
V
ALESSANDRO BOTTICELLI
(Pronounced Ah-lays-sahn'dro Bo't-te-chel'lee)
_Florentine School,_
1447-1510 (Vasari's dates)
_Pupil of Filippo Lippi and Verrocchio_
Botticelli took his name from his first master, as was the fashion in
those days. The relation of master and apprentice was very close, not
at all like the relation of pupil and teacher to-day.
Botticelli's father was a Florentine citizen, Mariano Filipepi, and he
wished his son to become a goldsmith; hence the lad was soon
apprenticed to Botticelli, the goldsmith. As a scholar, the little
goldsmith had not distinguished himself. Indeed it is said that as a
boy he would not "take to any sort of schooling in reading, writing,
or arithmetic." It cannot be said that this failure distinguished him
as a genius, or the world would be full of genius-boys; but the result
was that he early began to learn his trade.
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