The curator of the Metropolitan Museum in New York has declared that portrait-painting must be the means which shall save the modern artists from their sins. To quote him: "An artist may paint a bright green cow, if he is so minded: the cow has no redress, the cow must suffer and be silent; but human beings who sit for portraits seem to lean toward portraits in which they can recognise their own features when they have commissioned an artist to paint them. A man _will_ insist upon even the most brilliant artist painting him in trousers, for instance, instead of in petticoats, however the artist-whim may direct otherwise; and a woman is likely to insist that the artist who paints her portrait shall maintain some recognised shade of brown or blue or gray when he paints her eye, instead of indulging in a burnt orange or maybe pink! These personal preferences certainly put a limit to an artist's genius and keep him from writing himself down a madman. Thus, in portrait-painting, with the exactions of truth upon it, lies the hope of art-lovers!" It is the same authority who calls attention to the danger that lies in extremes; either in finding no value in art outside the "old masters," or in admiring pictures so impressionistic that the objects in them need to be labelled before they can be recognised. The true art-lover has a catholic taste, is interested in all forms of art; but he finds beauty where it truly exists and does not allow the nightmare of imagination to mislead him. That which is not beautiful from one point of view or another is not art, but decadence. That which is technical to the exclusion of other elements remains technique pure and simple, workmanship--the bare bones of art. A thing is not art simply because it is fantastic. It may be interesting as showing to what degree some imaginations can become diseased, but it is not pleasing nor is it art. There are fully a thousand pictures that every child should know, since he can hardly know too much of a good thing; but there is room in this volume only to acquaint him with forty-eight and possibly inspire him with the wish to look up the neglected nine hundred and fifty-two. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I. Andrea del Sarto, Florentine School, 1486-1531 II. Michael Angelo (Buonarroti), Florentine School, 1475-1564 III. Arnold Böcklin, Modern German School, 1827-1901 IV. Marie-Rosa Bonheur, French School, 1822-1899 V. Alessandro Botticelli, Florentine School, 1447-1510 VI. William Adolphe Bouguereau, French (Genre) School 1825-1905 VII. Sir Edward Burne-Jones, English (Pre-Raphaelite) School, 1833-1898 VIII. John Constable, English School, 1776-1837 IX. John Singleton Copley, English School, 1737-1815 X. Jean Baptiste Camille Corot, Fontainebleau-Barbizon School, 1796-1875 XI. Correggio (Antonio Allegri), School of Parma, 1494(?)--1534 XII. Paul Gustave Doré, French School, 1833-1883 XIII. Albrecht Dürer, Nuremberg School, 1471-1528