,,homer ,,martin ,a ,,reminiscence ,illustration3 ,,homer ,,martin ,from a photograph taken in ,england in #ahib ,,homer ,,martin ,a ,,reminiscence ,illustration ,,october #bh1 #ahcf--;,,february #ab1 #ahig ,,new ,,york ,,william ,,macbeth #aijd ,copyright1 #aijd1 by ,,william ,,macbeth ,illustration ,,illustrations ,,portrait ,,of ,,homer ,,martin ,frontispiece ,,facing ,,page ,,normandy ,,trees #f ,,the ,,dunes #ab ,,on ,,the ,,hudson #ah ,,blossoming ,,trees #bd ,,the ,,haunted ,,house #bh ,,the ,,criqueb,,uf ,,church #cb ,,golden ,,sands #cf ,,on ,,the ,,seine 78,,harp ,,of ,,the ,,winds07 #dj ,,trees ,,near ,,villerville #df ,,cape ,,trinity #eb ,a ,,newport ,,landscape #ef ,the publisher cordially thanks the friends who kindly lent the pictures which have been reproduced to illustrate these pages4 ,,introduction ,during the last year ,i have more than once been told that an authoritative biographical sketch of my husband ought to be written and ,i have never felt inclined to dispute the statement as an abstract proposition4 ,but when it is followed by the direct question3 8,who so capable of writing it as you80 the names of one or two of his personal friends inevitably present themselves as belonging to practised writers and connoisseurs of art1 who might1 perhaps1 need the aid of dates or facts ,i could supply1 but who1 in more essential respects1 would be altogether better equipped for the task4 ,homer ,martin was so intensely masculine1 so preminently a man's man1 that he must necessarily have escaped thorough comprehension by any woman4 ,and this1 ,i think1 is the chief reason why ,i have so long delayed1 why ,i am even now inclined to shirk altogether1 the fulfilment of my reluctant promise to put on paper some of my memories of the years we spent together4 ,the question made me smile when it was propounded more than a year ago1 but since then it has often made me ponder4 ,doubtless no one else has had so long and intimate an acquaintance with various phases of his character and circumstances2 doubtless1 too1 it was not merely as an artist that he commanded attention and attracted life-long friends4 ,yet ,i suppose it must be solely in this character that he appeals to the majority of those who are now attaining to a tardy appreciation of his achievement as a whole4 ,it is not in my power to hasten that4 ,when ,i first met him my ignorance of art--at any rate on its pictorial side--was dense2 and if it has been somewhat mitigated since1 that result is due solely to him and largely to his own works4 ,is not this tantamount to expressing my conviction that those who wish to increase their knowledge of ,homer ,martin as an artist can do so much more satisfactorily by studying the landscapes into which he has put as much of his best self as any man could part with and live1 than by reading anything ,i find it possible to say about him8 ,aspects of external nature are inextricably blended in these with the mind1 moods1 and personality of the painter4 ,years before he had quite succeeded in mastering his material1 ,i remember the late ,john ,richard ,dennett saying of them3 8,martin's landscapes look as if no one but ,god and himself had ever seen the places40 ,there is an austerity1 a remoteness1 a certain savagery in even the sunniest and most peaceful of them1 which were also in him1 and an instinctive perception of which had made me say to him in the very earliest days of our acquaintance that he reminded me of ,ishmael4 ,they formed1 ,i think1 the substratum of his personality4 ,needless to add1 for those who knew him even slightly1 that he had other phases4 ,though the human verb in him was one and singular1 its moods were many4 ,,elizabeth ,,gilbert ,,martin4 ,a ,,reminiscence ,illustration ,a ,,reminiscence ,homer ,dodge ,martin1 fourth child and youngest son of ,homer ,martin and ,sarah ,dodge1 was born in ,albany1 ,n4 ,y41 in a house on ,park ,street1 ,october #bh1 #ahcf4 ,that was my own native city1 but although we must have lived for years in the same neighborhood1 he was past twenty-two and ,i in my twenty-first year when we first became acquainted4 ,but for the anti-slavery movement which split the ,methodist body first into two great sections and then into minor subdivisions1 we might have met much earlier1 for1 in our childhood1 our parents had attended the same place of worship4 ,what ,i know1 therefore1 about his early years ,i learned chiefly from his mother4 ,he was not of a reminiscent habit as a rule1 and his recollections of childhood were not always pleasant4 ,his father was one of the most upright and altogether the mildest-tempered of all the men that ,i have met4 ,his mother was a woman of strong but uncultivated mind1 keen wit1 incisive speech and arbitrary will1 from whom her son derived many of his own characteristics1 including his innate bent toward pictorial expression4 ,in her that inclination never took any but the crudest shape1 but she had beyond all peradventure the instinct which under more propitious circumstances would have displayed itself more convincingly4 ,perhaps the very cramping of it in her was the cause of its appearance at so preternaturally early an age in him4 ,she more than once told me that he began to draw as soon as he could hold a pencil1 and that from his twentieth month to provide him with one and a piece of blank paper was the surest means of quieting his most turbulent outbreaks4 ,years afterward1 not long before our marriage1 his first schoolmistress sent me a spirited drawing of a horse which she said he had made for her when not more than five years old4 ,this drawing was produced in one of the ,albany ward schools1 and it pretty accurately foreshadowed all that he was to accomplish in them thereafter4 ,i doubt if he ever took kindly to lessons obviously given4 ,even in painting1 his sole direct tuition was imparted by ,james ,hart and extended over two weeks only4 ,what he needed1 what suited him1 he then and always took in1 so to say1 through his pores1 absorbing what he required1 leaving other things untouched1 and wrestling unaided with his personal problems4 ,greatly to his own after regret1 his ordinary schooling ended when he was thirteen4 ,but at the time his aversion to school-books and school routine dovetailed to a marvel with the persuasion of his relatives that it was time for him to begin earning his own livelihood4 ,he once told me that his school-hours had been largely spent in looking through the windows at the ,greenbush hills on the other side of the ,hudson1 and in longing for the time to come when he could go over there in the horse-boat with paper and pencil to record a nearer view4 ,nevertheless1 it was only for school-books as such that he had an intimate aversion4 ,in other lines all was fish that came to his net4 ,how he obtained it ,i do not know1 but a copy of ,volney's 8,ruins0 which he read at this period colored his opinions in a way that he afterward found reason to regret4 ,but at the time it made him an irreverent1 amused1 and precocious critic of the talk he heard at ,conference-time1 when itinerant ministers thronged the family board4 ,illustration3 ,,normandy ,,trees ,reproduced from the original painting in the ,wilstach ,collection1 ,philadelphia ,poetry of certain kinds attracted him throughout his life1 and verse that greatly pleased him would stamp itself indelibly on his memory4 ,once in a great while1 almost to the last1 ,i could persuade him to repeat to me ,keats's 8,ode on a ,grecian ,urn10 with a lingering enunciation and a melancholy charm of accent which a few of his most intimate friends may likewise recall4 ,i especially remember one night in ,villerville1 when we were alone out-of-doors in the late moonlight1 awaiting in vain the advent of a nightingale said to have been heard in the neighborhood1 that he more than compensated me for its absence by reciting the whole of the same poet's lines to that 8light-wingd ,dryad of the trees40 ,reciting1 ,i say1 but the word is ill chosen4 ,it was rather a barely audible yet perfectly distinct breathing out of the ineffable melancholy and remoteness of those perfect lines4 ,homer was transferred to his father's carpenter shop on leaving school2 but even that most patient of men came at last to the reluctant conclusion that the long1 slender fingers which could not refrain from ornamenting smoothly planed boards with irrelevant trees and mountains were of no use at all in handling saws and chisels4 ,a shopkeeper with whom he was next placed as clerk1 much against the boy's own will1 soon discharged him for incorrigible--perhaps premeditated--rudeness to customers4 ,one of these1 who was a young cleric in the ,episcopalian ,seminary in ,ninth ,avenue1 ,new ,york ,city1 when he told me the story1 described in words too graphic to quote1 the manner in which1 as a child1 he had once been driven out of the shop and all memory of what he was sent for out of his mind1 by the thunderous scowl and wrath-freighted tone and terms in which ,homer inquired what he wanted4 ,he was next introduced into the architect's office of a relative1 whence he was eliminated1 partly because his cousin thought the inevitable landscapes that decorated his plans totally superfluous1 but also on account of ,homer's congenital inability to see perpendicular lines distinctly4 ,i think ,i never saw him draw an upright of any sort without first laying his paper or canvas on its side4 ,when the ,civil ,war broke out1 shortly before our marriage1 and he presented himself for the draft1 it was this defect of vision which caused the examiners to reject him4 ,every attempt at harnessing him to a beaten track of obvious utility and present productiveness having terminated disastrously1 from the paternal point of view1 ,e4 ,d4 ,palmer1 the ,albany sculptor1 finally succeeded in persuading the elder ,homer ,martin that his son's talent and inclination for art were too marked and exclusive to permit of his success in any other pursuit4 ,thenceforward--he was perhaps sixteen--he was left free to follow the bent of his genius4 ,i do not know where he painted at first2 perhaps at home4 ,later on1 he had a studio in the old ,museum ,building1 at the junction of ,state ,street and ,broadway4 ,james ,hart had previously occupied it1 and it was probably there that for a fortnight he acted as ,homer's instructor4 ,there were other painters in ,albany at the time3 ,william ,hart1 ,george ,boughton1 ,edward ,gay1 perhaps one or two others1 with all of whom he was intimate and whose studios he frequented4 ,boughton went abroad not long after1 and1 when he was in ,france1 once wrote to ,launt ,thompson in most enthusiastic terms concerning the landscapes of ,corot1 whose great vogue had hardly yet begun1 but with whose work ,boughton was at once enchanted4 ,and1 in describing it1 he remarked that 8if ,homer ,martin had been his pupil he could hardly paint more like him40 ,it was not until long years after that ,thompson had the grace to repeat the observation to ,homer1 and when at last he did so1 the only reply he got was3 8,why did you not tell me that years ago1 when it would have been of some service to me80 ,for ,homer1 too1 was one of the ,corot worshipers from the first4 ,it was in the ,museum studio that ,i first saw ,homer ,martin4 ,it was not until long afterward that ,i learned--and not from him--that having seen me in the street1 he deliberately sought acquaintance with my eldest brother1 like himself a lover of music and a frequenter of the local ,philharmonic ,society4 ,an invitation to visit the studio and bring his sisters soon followed4 ,to the end of his days1 ,i suppose1 ,homer had reticences of that sort with me4 ,at the time ,i speak of he was already locally known as a colorist of no mean capacity and a man of genius4 ,i had heard his name1 but only in connection with that of a dear friend and schoolmate of my own1 a beautiful1 golden-haired little creature1 with a voice as delightful as her person1 whom he was said to be following everywhere she went4 ,they never met until after our marriage1 which preceded her own4 ,i went one afternoon with my brother to see his pictures and his studio4 ,the latter struck me as the most untidy room ,i had ever entered4 ,i remember his rushing to throw things behind a large screen4 ,i was not used to paintings4 ,such as ,i had seen had seemed to me mere daubs to which any good engraving would be altogether preferable4 ,but on that afternoon there was a large unfinished landscape on the easel1 which even to my unpractised eye conveyed the promise of beauty4 ,it was a commission1 painted for a ,mr4 ,thomas of ,albany1 if ,i do not mistake4 ,there were two great boulders lifting their heads out of a shallow foreground brook1 and one day1 much later1 when ,i was there1 he painted his own initials on one of them and mine on the other1 but--as was always his habit when he remembered to sign his pictures at all--in tints differing so slightly from that of the surface on which he inscribed them as to be scarcely distinguishable from it4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,dunes ,reproduced from the original water color in the collection of ,mr4 ,wm4 ,macbeth ,we were married in my father's house during the first year of the ,civil ,war1 on the twenty-fifth of ,june1 #ahfa1 and went off the same day to ,twin ,lakes1 ,connecticut4 ,i still have the first sketch in oils which he made out-of-doors that season3 a barley-field1 meadow land in the middle distance1 gray-green trees beyond4 ,two or three brown boulders1 others merely penciled in1 lie on the left of the foreground4 ,the delicate heads of grain are swaying in a light breeze4 ,perhaps he did not do much in the way of visible work that summer4 ,at all events1 ,i do not now recall any4 ,but in some subsequent winter he embodied his recollections of the place and time in a delightful landscape4 ,all his life long1 ,i think1 his results were arrived at more by means of a slow1 only half deliberate absorption when out-of-doors than by a wilful effort to record them at the time4 ,yet the one exception to that statement which ,i distinctly recall is a very great one3 the ,westchester ,hills1 which is thought by many to be his most perfect landscape4 ,it was painted entirely en plein air1 and many a day ,i sat close by1 reading aloud or knitting while it was in progress4 ,he never got so much as an offer for it1 nor was it until more than two years after his death that a purchaser was found sufficiently venturesome to end a long hesitation by paying #a1jjj to obtain it4 ,he was presently rewarded for his temerity1 ,i am happy to say1 for when he put it up at auction a few months later1 it brought him #d1gej4 ,the second purchaser was still more fortunate1 reselling it for #e1cjj4 ,neither of us ever revisited ,twin ,lakes4 ,later in the season we went to the farmhouse of ,mr4 ,thaddeus ,dewey1 near ,fort ,ann1 ,n4 ,y41 where we remained until late in the autumn4 99 99 99 99 99 ,my husband retained his ,albany studio until the winter of #ahfb-fc1 when he went to ,new ,york and for some months painted in the studio of ,mr4 ,james ,smillie4 ,it could hardly have been earlier than the winter of #ahfd-fe that after many efforts he succeeded in finding an empty studio in the ,tenth ,street ,studio ,building--a little1 skylighted room on the top corridor which he occupied continuously until he resigned it before sailing for ,england the second time in the fall of #ahha4 ,his forty-fifth birthday came while he was on shipboard4 ,i followed him to ,london in the succeeding ,june4 ,his nearest neighbors in the ,studio ,building for many years were ,sanford ,r4 ,gifford1 ,richard ,hubbard1 ,c4 ,c4 ,griswold1 and ,j4 ,g4 ,brown4 ,jervis ,mc,entee and his charming wife were on the corridor next below2 so was ,julian ,scott4 ,eastman ,johnson and ,launt ,thompson were on the ground floor4 ,i think that ,john ,la ,farge must have come a little later4 ,at any rate1 ,i do not remember him before the winter of #ahfg-fh4 ,failing1 as often happened1 to find my husband in his own studio1 ,i went one day to that of ,mr4 ,la ,farge on the same corridor in search of him4 ,he was not there either1 but ,i still retain a very distinct recollection of ,mr4 ,la ,farge1 face and characteristic attitude of doubtful welcome for intruders quickly changing as he divined my identity1 asked me to enter1 and so began a friendship still unbroken4 ,of course1 ,homer had talked a good deal to me about him4 ,certain questions which had been pressing on my mind with increasing persistence ever since my father's death in #ahff1 very speedily found expression in a sort of personal catechism concerning his hereditary faith which he1 perhaps1 may likewise recall4 ,we were fairly prosperous in those early years1 or might have been if we had been constituted differently4 8,there is much virtue in ,if40 ,homer's landscapes were often commissioned1 and seldom remained long on his easel in any case after they were finished4 ,but it was never possible to count on any definite term as that of their probable completion4 ,he was a man of many moods1 and that one of them in which he could paint and be satisfied after a fashion with what he painted1 was the most irregular and uncertain of them all4 ,he did not possess his genius but was possessed by it4 ,his fallow periods were many4 ,when they passed away1 the first sign that seeds had begun to sprout again was often the entire scraping out of a landscape that to others had seemed to need only the final touches4 ,i asked him once in later years1 at a time when there was every need for exertion were it possible1 why he did not paint4 ,it was in #ahha4 8,i cannot paint10 said he4 8,i do not know where the impulse comes from1 nor why it stays away4 ,all ,i know is that when it comes ,i can do nothing else but paint2 when it goes ,i can do nothing but dawdle40 ,that was absolutely true4 ,it was also very inconvenient4 ,but in that earlier period with which ,i am still concerned1 his pictures for years brought him an income which averaged between two and three thousand dollars1 sometimes more than that4 ,it was war-time and after4 ,prices were high for everything4 ,money came at irregular intervals1 often so prolonged that1 when it did come1 it had to be chiefly employed in the process he once described as 8mopping up debts20 a kind of industry to which he found me persistently addicted4 ,neither of us took as much thought for the morrow as perhaps we might have done had not the morrows themselves seemed so uncertain a quantity4 ,life used to present itself to me at that time as a narrow path leading between precipices1 across turbulent brooks1 over stones that were slippery as well as sharp1 and whose end was nowhere in sight4 ,in fact1 it never did become visible until1 turning at some unexpected angle1 our cul-de-sac would prove to have had a hidden outlet after all4 ,perhaps this was why our frequently recurring difficulties troubled us more and taught us less than they might have done under different circumstances4 ,in the complex of life we ourselves were circumstances4 ,once1 in later years1 he casually remarked that ,i had never given him a chance to get tired of me1 because he never knew what ,i would do next4 ,can any one give what one has not got8 ,illustration3 ,,on ,,the ,,hudson ,reproduced from the original painting through the courtesy of ,john ,m4 ,robertson1 ,esq4 ,meantime1 we found life entertaining as well as perplexing and difficult4 ,our little boys were healthy1 intelligent and good-tempered4 ,homer's work1 when he could once settle down to it1 was always able to divert his mind from every other preoccupation4 ,i had been writing book reviews occasionally ever since the early spring of #ahfa for the 8,leader10 to which paper an article of mine concerning ,mrs4 ,rebecca ,harding ,davis's first novel had been sent under a pseudonym by the brother ,i have already referred to1 who was a friend of that eccentric genius1 ,henry ,clapp4 ,later on1 ,i wrote once in a while for the 8,round ,table10 and1 after some date in #ahff1 when ,auerbach's 8,on the ,heights0 was sent me from the 8,nation0 editorial rooms for review1 pretty steadily for that periodical4 ,our friends were interesting to both of us4 ,if ,homer ever 8talked shop10 at least ,i never heard him1 and the men whose company he instinctively sought were never painters2 or1 since ,i must make an exception in the case of ,john ,la ,farge1 they were never merely that4 ,he had a great capacity for love1 and the two men whom he loved best were critics in the large sense3 ,john ,richard ,dennett1 from the first time they met until his untimely death in #ahgd2 and ,william ,c4 ,brownell from that period1 or perhaps before it1 until the end4 ,painting was his own sole means of adequate expression4 ,perhaps ,i ought not to say that4 ,i may not be an adequate judge1 and certainly ,i have heard great things about his reputation as a talker at the ,century ,club4 ,but to me1 from first to last1 he never talked about impersonal subjects--perhaps because he could not consider anything that affected me in a purely impersonal light4 ,i always read aloud to him a great deal1 but the books and topics which interested me most after #ahgj never interested him at all4 ,until then we had both been turning our intellectual searchlights in every conceivable intellectual direction4 ,at that period mine steadied on its proper centre and veered no more4 ,but to the very end ,i continued to read to him whatever he desired to hear4 ,nevertheless1 even though he was too many-sided not to find issue in more than one direction1 his pictures are the only permanent result of his imperative need for self-expression4 ,he always detested what he called literary pictures--pictures1 that is1 that told or tried to tell a story4 ,and yet ,i think it true to say that if he is supreme as a colorist it is largely because color was to him an instrument1 not an end4 ,he used it as a poet uses words4 ,he made it reflect not so much what is obvious in nature as that duplex image into which external nature fused itself with him1 who was also a part of nature4 ,to me1 this is what individualizes his pictures4 ,i think it impossible to mistake them4 ,when he was in ,england the second time1 ,i went to the art rooms of ,mr4 ,lanthier1 whom ,i had authorized to obtain from ,william ,schaus a landscape ,i had never seen1 and which had been for some months tucked away in an upper room inaccessible to visitors4 ,i1 at least1 had been refused a sight of it when ,i went to the ,schaus gallery for that purpose4 ,the attendant told me they did not exhibit ,american pictures4 ,lanthier obtained possession of it1 and when ,i saw it ,i remarked that1 as usual1 it was unsigned4 8,unsigned60 protested he4 8,it is signed from the top of the canvas to the bottom4 ,no one in the world could have painted it but ,homer ,martin40 ,he sold it a few days later to ,mr4 ,sidney de ,kay1 whose family1 ,i believe1 still possesses it4 ,homer went abroad for the first time in #ahgf1 in company with the late ,dr4 ,jacob ,s4 ,mosher1 an ,albany friend of both of us since before our marriage1 and at that period quarantine physician of the port of ,new ,york4 ,they went to ,france and ,holland1 perhaps to ,belgium1 as well as to ,england4 ,how far they penetrated into ,france ,i do not remember1 but ,i do recall--though when ,mr4 ,charles de ,kay wrote to ask the question some three years since ,i had forgotten--that they visited ,barbizon and probably some of the painters whose classic ground it was1 and that ,homer made some pencilings both there and at ,saint-,cloud4 ,they were absent for some considerable time1 and it was at this period that he made acquaintance with the late ,james ,mc,neill ,whistler4 ,he sailed for ,england the second time in ,october1 #ahha1 and ,i joined him in ,london early in the next ,july4 ,on the 8glorious ,fourth0 we visited ,mr4 ,whistler's studio1 where ,homer had occasionally painted4 ,i think it must have been there that he painted1 late in the previous autumn1 a delightful ,newport landscape which was bought at the ,artist ,fund sale of that season by ,mr4 ,lanthier for ,mr4 ,charles de ,kay4 ,whistler's beautiful portrait of his mother--which ,i afterward saw in ,paris at the ,salon--was on the easel1 and it is the only one of his pictures which ,i distinctly recollect4 ,there were some 8nocturnes0 on the walls1 and they were doubtless worth remembering4 ,but ,i never went there again1 and on this occasion my attention was riveted by the artist and his surroundings1 alike spectacular and bizarre1 the man grotesque as a caricature in attitude and aspect1 the rooms all pale blue and lemon-yellow1 even to the many vases and the flowers therein contained4 ,he said a good many things1 not one of which was ,i able to recall1 so lost was ,i in contemplation of the general oddity of him and his chosen environment4 8,what did you think of him80 asked ,homer after we came away4 8,why didn't you talk8 ,you never said a thing40 8,i was afraid to open my lips10 said ,i1 8lest ,i should involuntarily tell him to shake that feather out of his hair4 ,he must have had his head buried in a pillow before we went in40 8,i wish you had60 said he with a laugh4 8,that is ,jimmy's feather4 ,he delights in having it noticed40 ,i had observed that he bowed profoundly on our introduction and so brought it into staring evidence2 but ,i could scarcely believe1 even on testimony1 that the premeditated effect was produced by a quite unpremeditated lock of gray hair4 ,illustration3 ,,blossoming ,,trees ,reproduced from the original painting through the courtesy of ,mrs4 ,charles ,o4 ,gates ,the especial occasion for this second visit to ,england was the making of some drawings illustrative of places mentioned in the novels of ,thackeray and ,george ,eliot4 ,he had been there for some months and they were hardly more than begun1 but after ,i came he worked at them pretty steadily4 ,it was an undertaking which he did not at all enjoy1 but which circumstances had made imperative4 ,when he first told me of it in the previous summer1 he made it evident that he thought such a commission derogatory to his dignity as a painter4 ,whether it was that his pictures were selling less readily1 or because the painting mood came with less imperative frequency1 ,i do not know1 but he was unusually despondent4 ,the idea of the voyage was pleasant in itself4 ,one of his never fulfilled longings was to cross the ocean in a sailing vessel4 ,his ,artist ,fund picture was nearly due and could be painted on the other side2 he thought the price of the drawings would pay all his other expenses4 ,and when an unexpected stroke of good fortune made it possible for me to join him1 his sky cleared up4 ,i do not remember whether the ,english drawings were successful2 ,i do know that they were tardy in reaching the ,new ,york office of ,the ,century ,company1 for whose magazine they had been destined1 and that when1 in the ensuing year1 he sent the same publishers a set of ,villerville drawings1 accompanied by a sketch he had suggested my writing about that delightful haunt of painters1 ,mr4 ,gilder wrote me1 after some delay1 that they had been much interested in my article1 but that their art department was not satisfied with the drawings4 ,it was subsequently published in the 8,catholic ,world10 unaccompanied by the illustrations1 that magazine not then having begun to produce any4 ,in ,october of that year1 the completion of the last drawing coincided with the arrival in ,london of an old ,new ,york friend1 the late ,mr4 ,bryant ,godwin1 and an invitation to spend some weeks in ,normandy with the family of another1 ,w4 ,j4 ,hennessy1 the well-known artist and illustrator4 ,there was no further reason for delay in ,england1 and the three of us crossed the ,channel one night by the ,southampton boat4 ,i have never forgotten my first sight of the ,french shore next morning4 8,i don't wonder now at ,rousseau's color10 ,i said to ,homer2 8how could he help it80 ,it had been our intention to return to ,new ,york after a brief visit with the ,hennessys1 who had been living for years in a picturesque and pleasant way at ,pennedepie1 an agricultural hamlet on the road between ,honfleur and ,trouville1 where they occupied a roomy and quaintly furnished old manor just opposite the village church4 ,but we found the place1 the people1 and the neighboring views alike delightful1 and when news arrived1 early in our stay1 of a considerable sum to his credit which had been lying for some months uncalled for at the ,american ,exchange1 ,london1 where it had been sent to his first address by ,mr4 ,james ,stillman1 ,homer decided on remaining in ,normandy4 ,to have returned to ,new ,york just then would have been a distinct loss to both of us in many ways4 ,i look back on the time we spent in ,villerville as the most tranquil and satisfactory period of our life together4 ,that little fishing village1 dominated by the tower of a church erected when the eleventh century was young1 in thanksgiving because the foreboded end of the world had not come in the year #ajjj1 lies about midway between ,honfleur and ,trouville1 at an easy walk from ,pennedepie4 ,equidistant from either place stands the ivy-grown church of ,criquebuf1 beloved of artists1 and made by ,homer the theme of one of his best pictures4 ,in the same grassy enclosure on the right of the pond into which this old church dips its foot1 he found two more delightful subjects4 ,one of them is embodied on one of his last canvases1 the 8,normandy ,farm10 now owned1 ,i believe1 by ,mr4 ,bloomingdale of ,new ,york4 ,it was bought in the first place by ,mr4 ,w4 ,t4 ,evans1 a week or so before my husband's death4 ,the other1 a view of a deserted manor1 showing dimly through a veil of ghostly trees1 which ,mrs4 ,hennessy declared ought to be called 8,the ,haunted ,house10 was finished in ,new ,york after his return for an early friend1 ,dr4 ,d4 ,m4 ,stimson1 to whom for many years he had been greatly attached4 ,i think it was exhibited at the ,chicago ,world's ,fair4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,haunted ,,house ,reproduced from the original painting through the courtesy of ,dr4 ,d4 ,m4 ,stimson ,villerville had for years been thronged in summer and fall by painters1 ,french1 ,english1 and ,american2 perhaps it is so still4 ,guillemet had been there for twenty consecutive seasons2 ,duez had built himself a house and studio with a ,norman tower4 ,stanley ,reinhart came both summers while we were there1 with that most sweet wife of his and their pretty little children4 ,the ,forbes-,robertsons had a little villa for a while1--the parents1 that is1 and ,miss ,frances1 then a girl of sixteen2 and the actor son must have spent some considerable part of his vacation with them1 for ,i recall a rather animated discussion we had one night1 pacing up and down the estacade in the moonlight1 when he declaimed in so ardent a fashion about the intrinsic and extrinsic glories of ,england1 that a mere sense of equilibrium made the interjection of a 8,what about ,ireland8 ,what about ,india80 seem to me inevitable4 8,oh6 unjust1 if you insist10 said he4 8,but ,i am an ,englishman--,scotch as a matter of fact1 ,i suppose4 ,and you must admit that a man is bound to stand up for his country1 right or wrong40 ,it is a sentiment ,i have never been able to understand4 ,some of us1 ,i suppose1 are born cosmopolitans1 or else look forward to 8an abiding city wherein dwelleth justice10 since not even patriotism can insist that it has a local abiding place here4 ,and that reminds me of another incident belonging to the winter time1 when1 as there was not an ,english-speaking soul in the entire neighborhood except ourselves1 our landlord one day brought me in despair a lady whose vernacular it was1 accompanied by a ,french bonne and two little children as apple-faced and ruddy as ,polly ,toodles' babies4 ,she explained that she was the wife of a major in the ,english army1 and had but just returned with him from ,india2 also1 that while there she had read such a glowing description of the beauties of ,villerville in a copy of 8,the ,queen10 that she had determined to examine them for herself4 ,i did what ,i could for her in the way of finding a furnished apartment1 and before they had removed to it1 went one morning to return her call at one of the hotels4 ,i found her and the major at a late breakfast1 with the ,english newspapers lying about4 ,the period antedated ,mr4 ,joseph ,chamberlain's change of his political coat1 the ,irish question was well to the front1 and my new acquaintances spoke ,english with one of the most sonorous brogues that had ever greeted my ear4 ,here was a case in which my own sympathies and the presumable ones of my audience seemed naturally to invite a moderate expression of views on a current topic4 ,dead silence fell for a moment after ,i had stopped speaking4 ,then the major said with an accent that positively projected3 8,excuse me1 but ,i am ,english3 that is to say1 ,i am ,irish1 but of the landlord class60 ,it was simply a matter of the point of view4 ,it was this question of the seasons1 ,i think1 which chiefly necessitated my learning the language which was afterward of so much use to both of us up to the very end4 ,it also necessitated a more incessant companionship than at any period was ever possible in the city of the ,century ,club4 ,it was easy to pick up ,french enough to carry on such intercourse as was absolutely necessary with the people about us1 but my serious study of it was undertaken in the first place in order that ,i might continue to read aloud to ,homer in the evenings after the available supply of ,english novels and periodicals had been exhausted4 ,i began with ,about's 8,roi des ,montagnes10 my method being to read a sentence to accustom his ear and my tongue to the unfamiliar sounds1 and forthwith to translate it literally4 ,of course1 ,i had teachers1 one of whom had taught this1 her native language1 in a ,london private school1 while a second was at the time professor of ,english in the ,college of ,honfleur4 ,curious ,english it must have been6 ,but he was praiseworthily anxious to increase his own knowledge as well as mine4 ,but the best one of the three was a delightful woman1 ,mademoiselle ,lemonnier1 the village postmistress1 who did not know a word of ,english although her mother had been an ,englishwoman4 ,she was very well read and intelligent as well as companionable and kindly4 ,i had applied to her1 when my first instructress found it impossible to come any longer1 to find me another4 ,we already knew each other pretty well1 and when she said1 8,if you will let me teach you for love1 ,i will do it myself1 but if you insist on paying1 ,i will inquire for some one else10 it was simply a new version of ,hobson's choice4 ,i could not have done better in any case4 ,when ,homer went abroad for the last time1 he made a point of crossing the ,channel to visit ,mademoiselle ,lemonnier4 ,slender as were their means of communication1 they had managed to understand and sympathize with each other very completely1 a strong sense of humor on either side helping greatly to that consummation4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,criqueb,,uf ,,church ,reproduced from the original drawing through the courtesy of ,dr4 ,d4 ,m4 ,stimson ,we lived in ,villerville for nineteen months4 ,an excellent studio with two adjacent rooms had been arranged for us before our arrival1 and we lunched and dined at ,madame ,cornu's hotel1 providing our breakfast in our own quarters4 ,a quaint old ,english priest whom ,i knew in ,london1 and who had to the full the hereditary prejudice against 8,johnny ,crapaud10 had warned me not merely of what he believed to be the prevalent ,jansenism which would prevent so frequent an approach to the sacraments as ,i had been accustomed to1 but against the cheating1 the conscienceless thievery to which he assured me we would be subjected on all sides4 8,i would not spend a farthing in ,france60 said he4 ,well1 in ,paris1 perhaps1 though ,i had no personal experience of it even there4 ,but in ,villerville1 and afterward in ,honfleur1 there was absolutely no exception to the perfect cordiality1 absolute trust1 and gentle politeness which greeted us on all sides4 ,i have never met anything like it elsewhere save in the parish of the ,paulist ,fathers in ,new ,york4 ,i speak from what may be called exhaustive knowledge1 since there was a period1 before we left the former place1 when we were out of money for so long that when at last we were able to settle ,madame ,cornu's bill it amounted to the considerable sum of two thousand francs4 ,i had asked her some time previously if she were not in need of it1 but only to receive the smiling answer3 8,when ,madame pleases4 ,we are neither of us robbers40 ,so in ,honfleur1 where1 after we had been domiciled for a month or so1 and had found our fresh bread and rolls on the kitchen-window ledge every morning1 ,i went to the baker to inquire for and settle his account4 8,but1 ,madame10 objected the fresh-cheeked young woman in charge1 8we have kept no account4 ,does not ,madame know how much it is herself80 8,why1 yes10 said ,i2 8you have brought so much for so many days at such a price40 8,c'est a0 she smiled4 8,whatever ,madame says40 ,and this1 again1 reminds me of ,madame ,cornu and her remarkable bill4 ,there had been a price set in the first place of so much a day for our two meals1 which were always abundant and well-cooked4 ,i knew the dates and was ready with the exact sum4 ,but when my tally was placed beside her bill there was a discrepancy arising from the fact that ,homer would sometimes be absent from the midday meal by reason of a sketching excursion or something of the sort1 and she was never notified beforehand4 ,yet on every such occasion a deduction had been scrupulously made4 ,such an experience never befell us elsewhere4 ,to ,homer also ,villerville was as delightful as any place could be while lacking that social intercourse with men of brains and cultivation which was always his chief pleasure and relaxation4 ,years afterward1 ,mr4 ,brownell said one evening when we were all dining together in those pleasant apartments of theirs on ,fifty-sixth ,street1 that the three weeks which he and his wife had spent there with us seemed to him more like his idea of heaven than anything he remembered4 ,and he asked me whether ,i would not like to live it all over again4 ,in retrospect1 yes2 as ,i have just been proving4 ,but1 were it possible in reality8 ,o no6 ,never have ,i seen a day that has tempted me to say to it3 8,stay1 thou art fair60 ,illustration3 ,,golden ,,sands ,reproduced from the original painting through the courtesy of ,mrs4 ,wm4 ,macbeth ,our sojourn in ,villerville was a particularly important one for both of us1 but in different ways4 ,for him it was a period of absorption rather than of production1 while1 on that very account1 exactly the reverse process went on in me4 ,i have already said it was at his suggestion that ,i accompanied his ,villerville drawings with an article which1 ,mr4 ,brownell afterward wrote me1 was like 8a ,martin landscape put into words40 ,homer perhaps thought so himself1 for he had already said3 8,i see that you can paint with words4 ,i wonder if you can set people in action4 ,why not try80 ,whereupon ,i made a character sketch which ,mr4 ,alden1 of 8,harper's ,magazine10 declined because 8it was too painful10 but which the then editor of 8,lippincott's0--,i think his name was ,kirk--found too short1 and wrote me that if ,i would lengthen it out so that it should bear less resemblance to a truncated cone1 he would be glad to avail himself of it4 ,whereupon ,i recalled it1 fished up my heroine out of an earthquake on the island of ,capri which ,i had allowed to swallow her1 but whom ,i now unearthed1 none the worse except in the matter of a broken wrist1--,i think it was a wrist1--and in a month or so received a very fair-sized check for the tale of her experiences4 ,the same sort of exterior pressure1 not any interior need of expression1 was what led to the production of a tale which ran for eighteen months as a serial in the 8,catholic ,world0 under the title of 8,katharine10 and during that period provided for our necessary expenditures4 ,henry ,holt republished it with a new name which he himself suggested4 ,i liked the first one better1 but it made too little difference to me to make it worth while to adhere to my own views4 ,mr4 ,kirk1 by the way1 had also renamed my sketch3 that seems to be a privilege with literary sponsors1 the literary parent not being present4 ,almost an entire chapter was also eliminated from the book1 because the reader1 whose name ,i never knew1 objected to it on the ground that it showed too plainly that 8,mrs4 ,martin really believed0 that a certain tenet of her faith was absolutely true4 ,i began a second story on the heels of this one1 but when it had run to some thirty thousand words1 ,homer objected to it as certain to split upon the same dogmatic rock as its predecessor1 and ,i laid it aside for a third one which attained the same proportions and pleased every one who then or thereafter read it better than either of its predecessors4 ,but it had the misfortune of not specially interesting me2 and yet there was a baby in it with the second sight1 who bade fair to develop into something 8mystic1 wonderful10 in course of time1 if not interfered with4 ,meantime1 the imperative need for production on my part having ended1 ,i put the unfinished manuscript in the fire some three years ago4 ,the second one ,i completed after our return to ,new ,york1 and it was published under the title of 8,john ,van ,alstyne's ,factory10 in the 8,catholic ,world40 ,to ,homer our life in ,france was chiefly seed-time4 ,there germinated his 8,low ,tide at ,villerville10 the 8,honfleur ,lights10 the 8,criquebuf ,church10 the 8,normandy ,trees10 the 8,normandy ,farm10 the 8,sun ,worshipers10 and the landscape known in the ,metropolitan ,gallery of ,new ,york1 where it now hangs1 as a 8,view on the ,seine10--which1 in strictness1 it is not1--but for which his own title was 8,the ,harp of the ,winds40 ,i had asked him what he meant to call it1 and1 with his characteristic aversion to putting his deeper sentiments into words1 he answered that he supposed it would seem too sentimental to call it by the name ,i have just given1 but that was what it meant to him1 for he had been thinking of music all the while he was painting it4 ,and this reminds me of a commission given him by a music-lover among his friends during our early days in ,new ,york to 8paint a ,beethoven symphony0 for him4 ,he did it1 too1 and to the utmost satisfaction of its possessor4 ,illustration3 ,,on ,,the ,,seine 78,,harp ,,of ,,the ,,winds07 ,reproduced from the original painting in the ,metropolitan ,museum1 ,new ,york ,he used to carry about with him in those days a pocket sketch-book in which he noted his impressions in water-color4 ,mr4 ,brownell must remember it1 and so1 ,i think1 must ,mr4 ,russell ,sturgis1 for1 being at our rooms during my husband's last sojourn on the other side of the ,atlantic1 when he was known to be afflicted with an incurable malady1 he said to me that if ,homer's things were ever put up for sale1 he would like to become the purchaser of this book4 ,my husband never got over his chagrin when it became evident that it must have fallen a prey to some unscrupulous packer of our household goods at the time when he concluded to follow me to ,st4 ,paul1 in ,june1 #ahic4 ,he had a suspicion that it might have found its way to a pawnbroker1 and never gave up hoping for its ultimate recovery4 ,it had in it some delightful miniature bits of character and color4 ,it was in ,villerville also that he began the 8,sand ,dunes on ,lake ,ontario10 now hanging in the ,metropolitan ,museum1 ,new ,york1 with the intention of sending it to the ,salon4 ,but before it was completed he got into one of those hobbles which were not uncommon in his experience1 when the more he tried to hurry the less he was in reality accomplishing4 ,it was in no condition to be seen when the last day for sending came1 as we both agreed1 yet he sent it4 ,naturally enough1 it was rejected4 ,i think that result surprised him less than it momentarily annoyed him4 ,he put the canvas aside and for months never touched it4 ,but one day during the next season1 while he was painting on it1 a ,french landscapist and his wife came to call upon us4 ,i forget his name4 ,he studied it in silence for a long time4 ,then turning to me1 he said3 8,your husband's work reminds me strongly of that of ,pointelin4 ,he must send this canvas to the next ,salon40 8,it has been there once10 said ,i1 8and the jury rejected it10 adding1 because of his evident surprise1 8,it was not then in its present condition40 8,nevertheless10 he replied1 8,i cannot understand a ,french jury rejecting such a picture in any state in which ,mr4 ,martin would have sent it in at all40 ,i do not remember just why we removed from ,villerville4 ,perhaps because ,homer was able to obtain in ,honfleur a roomy and well-lighted studio apart from our dwelling-place1 an arrangement which he always preferred4 ,the little city from which ,william the ,norman set out on his conquering expedition in #ajff had not the picturesque charm of the village we left1 but possessed compensating features in the way of ,english and ,american neighbors4 ,our whole sojourn in ,france was1 in fact1 delightful1 and perhaps even more so to me than to my husband4 ,through my mother there was a good deal of ,french blood in my veins1 and in its ancestral environment it throbbed with a rhythmic atavism unknown elsewhere to my pulses4 ,i think that notwithstanding the excellent lighting arrangements of his studio1 my husband did not complete much work in ,honfleur4 8,the ,mussel ,gatherers10 to me one of the most impressive of his later canvases1 was finished there1 and though ,i do not recall another for the ,artist ,fund ,sale1 ,i suppose there must have been one4 ,a never-completed studio interior with a portrait of me1 and reproductions in miniature of the studies hanging on the walls2 still another small portrait1 a number of panels1 one of which1 8,wild ,cherry ,trees10 was in the ,clarke ,sale in #ahig1 and various water-colors belong likewise to this period4 ,meanwhile his note-books were filling up with material for future use4 ,i sailed for ,new ,york at the end of ,august1 #ahhf1 and ,homer1 who had remained to finish some of the things ,i have just named1 followed me three months later1 arriving ,december #abth of that year4 ,in the following spring he secured one of the studios in ,fifty-fifth ,street1 having previously utilized for that purpose a room with a north light in an apartment we had in ,sixty-third ,street4 ,in his more convenient quarters he painted a few great pictures1 among them the 8,low ,tide at ,villerville10 the 8,sun ,worshipers10 and still another1 the title of which ,i never knew1 and which ,i never saw until much later1 when going one day with the late ,miss a',becket to the ,eden ,muse1--,i think to see something of her own in an exhibition then in progress1 of paintings belonging to private owners1--this great canvas faced me on the line of the opposite wall1 and startled me into the exclamation3 8,that must be one of ,homer's60 ,it was full of light and color4 ,the land on the left sloped gradually down nearly to the middle of the foreground1 and the wonderful sheet of water behind and beyond it that fairly rippled out of the frame1 was dazzling4 ,what he called it ,i do not know4 ,to each other we never gave his landscapes any name1 nor did he to any one else unless a purchaser required a title1 or there was question of a catalogue4 ,i think1 however1 that this canvas may be one which was completed in ,january1 #ahhi1 while ,i was in ,toledo1 and which was bought almost as soon as finished by ,mr4 ,thomas ,b4 ,clarke4 ,if so1 it changed hands very soon1 and was possibly taken away from ,new ,york4 ,homer wrote me at the time about the sale4 ,from all ,i could learn of the ,memorial ,exhibition at the ,century ,club in the spring of #ahig--;an exhibition which1 to my lasting regret1 closed just before ,i was able to reach ,new ,york--this picture was not included in it4 ,illustration3 ,,trees ,,near ,,villerville ,reproduced from the original water color in the collection of ,mr4 ,wm4 ,macbeth ,his last studio in ,new ,york--occupied from #ahij until he went to ,st4 ,paul in ,june1 #ahic--was in a house belonging to the ,paulist ,fathers and adjoining their ,convent in ,fifty-ninth ,street4 ,there he painted the 8,normandy ,trees10 the 8,haunted ,house0 ,i have already referred to as belonging to ,dr4 ,d4 ,m4 ,stimson1 the 8,honfleur ,lights0 now owned by the ,century ,club1 and began the 8,criquebuf ,church10 afterward completed in ,st4 ,paul4 ,in that house ,i first observed that his eyesight1 always imperfect1 was becoming still more dim4 ,never till then had ,i known him to ask any one to trace an outline for him4 ,he thought1 moreover1 that some serious internal trouble threatened him1 and consulted both an oculist and a physician4 ,in the early summer of #ahib1 believing that an ocean voyage would benefit him1 he availed himself of the opportunity afforded by the sale to the ,century ,club of the 8,honfleur ,lights0 and sailed for the last time to ,england4 ,he spent a very considerable part of his absence at ,bournemouth1 where resided the family of ,mr4 ,george ,chalmers1 friendship with whom must1 ,i think1 have been coeval with his entire life in ,new ,york1 and lasted1 on the part of the survivor1 far beyond it4 ,concerning this visit1 ,mr4 ,chalmers wrote me a few years later1 in reply to my request that he should tell me about it3 8,i do not feel that ,i can do ,homer the justice he deserves4 ,certainly that visit greatly endeared him to me and to my wife1 and even to our ,harold1 who was then a little mite1 but who remembers him well4 ,i wish ,i could remember some of ,homer's talk1 always so charming1 on our various outings during that happy time--especially about pictures1 a subject with which he was eminently so familiar4 ,two visits to the ,national ,gallery in ,london ,i recall in a general sort of way1 to be sure4 ,i remember how stirred he was as we stood before the two ,turners in the ,national ,gallery1 presented by the artist on condition that they should be placed next to the ,claudes4 ,homer regarded ,turner's challenging comparison with the great ,frenchman as the sheerest audacity1 and called attention to the fussiness and labored work of the ,turners compared with the ease and serene dignity and splendor of the ,claudes40 ,curiously enough1 ,mr4 ,chalmers arrived in ,new ,york from ,london the next day after my own arrival from ,st4 ,paul1 in ,april1 #ahig1 and took what ,i am sure could not have been altogether agreeable pains in order to render me a very important service4 ,during this last absence of my husband from ,america1 ,i spent a part of my own vacation in ,ottawa1 and while there received a letter in which he asked me to write to the oculist who had examined him--,i think it was ,dr4 ,bull--and find out from him precisely what was the condition of his eyes4 ,i did so1 and received the painful verdict that the optic nerve of one of them was dead1 while the other was partially clouded by a cataract4 ,i mention these facts in order that my readers may get an adequate conception of the enormous difficulties under which his latest paintings were begun and finished4 ,among these is the autumnal known as 8,the ,adirondacks10 exhibited at the ,century ,club ,memorial ,exhibition1 and bought shortly afterward by ,mr4 ,untermyer at the sale of ,mr4 ,t4 ,b4 ,clarke's collection4 ,looking at it when he was giving his final touches1 ,i said to him3 8,homer1 if you never paint another stroke1 you will go out in a blaze of glory60 8,i have learned to paint1 at last10 he answered4 8,if ,i were quite blind now1 and knew just where the colors were on my palette1 ,i could express myself40 ,another belonging to this period is the 8,view on the ,seine0 already referred to1 and which in an earlier stage was1 to my mind1 still more beautiful than it is at present4 ,in its primitive condition--and1 indeed1 from the moment when it was first charcoaled on the canvas1 the trees so grouped that they suggested by their very contour the ,harp to which he was inwardly listening--it was supremely elegant4 ,elegance is still its characteristic feature1 but ,i wish he had left it as ,i saw it first4 8,the trees were about four hundred feet high60 he objected1 when ,i told him so1 and ,i did not then1 and do not now1 see the force of the objection4 ,it was a thing of beauty1 anyhow1 and who but a pedant measures those except by the optical illusion and spiritual impression they produce8 ,it was ,i who went first to ,st4 ,paul1 where our elder son resided1 hoping to recover by means of a long rest from the fatigue entailed by incessant mental labor4 ,i had been editing1 reviewing1 translating1 finishing a novel1 besides keeping house1 and began to feel as if my own mainspring were liable to snap at any moment4 ,this was at the end of ,december1 #ahib4 ,i went1 intending to return1 and to continue the writing of book reviews during my absence4 ,but in ,february ,i broke down completely1 gave up all work and all expectation of resuming it in ,new ,york4 ,in the following ,june1 ,homer resigned his studio and followed me1 stopping on the way to see the ,chicago ,exposition1 where several of his paintings were on view4 ,in ,st4 ,paul he had for a while a very good studio in one of the life insurance buildings1 and while there completed several pictures1 among them that of the 8,criquebuf ,church10 selling it1 almost as soon as it reached ,new ,york1 to ,mr4 ,william ,t4 ,evans4 ,this building was sold1 soon afterward1 and converted to uses which made it impossible as a studio4 ,if my memory serves me correctly1 it was in the spring of #ahid that the ,century ,club had a reunion of more than ordinary importance4 ,the special date and occasion ,i do not recall1 but ,i know that ,homer's presence was so urgently desired by some of his friends that he then paid his last visit to ,new ,york1 and to the place and associates in it which had given him most satisfaction4 ,he was absent some six weeks1 possibly more1 and ,i have since been told that when he left1 his physical condition was such that his friends not merely gave up hope of seeing him again1 but expected speedy tidings of his death4 ,but the end was not so near4 ,it was to be preceded by such a conquest of mind over matter1 of sheer will over propensities both inherited and acquired1 of triumphant performance in the face of physical obstacles apparently insurmountable as is altogether unique in my experience4 ,such efforts are never made1 ,i take it1 except under the stimulus of hope1 and even that sheet-anchor often fails when the soul is pusillanimous4 ,but ,homer ,martin was no coward4 ,moreover1 he had always been his own severest critic4 ,mr4 ,montgomery ,schuyler has quoted him as saying in earlier years when the hangmen exalted him 8above the line0 in exhibitions1 and buyers accepted that verdict as conclusive3 8,if ,i could only do it1 they would see it fast enough40 ,mr4 ,schuyler adds3 8,but this was more modest than exact4 ,even after he had attained the capacity to #8do it1' to make canvas palpitate with light and color1 as the visitors to the ,memorial ,exhibition know1 the picture-buyers of twenty years ago still failed to #8see it4'0 ,illustration3 ,,cape ,,trinity ,reproduced from the original drawing in the collection of ,mr4 ,wm4 ,macbeth ,but1 at the period of his life with which ,i am now concerned1 he was not only conscious that he had attained full mastery of his own power of artistic expression by means of color1 but he had reason to believe that an opportunity had been afforded him to make that mastery triumphantly evident4 ,although his faith turned out to be ill-founded1 yet his belief to the contrary was sufficient to make him rise at once to his full strength and shake off without apparent effort whatever other shackles had hitherto confined him4 ,he was like nothing so much as blind ,samson after his hair had grown1 and he carried off the gates of old habits and flung them aside as easily as if he had never felt their weight4 ,in the late spring of that year he went away alone to a quiet farm1 taking with him the canvases on which 8,the ,adirondacks10 the 8,seine ,view10 and the 8,normandy ,farm0 were already charcoaled1 and set to work at their development and completion4 ,from time to time he would come into the city1 his step alert and his physical improvement so apparent in every way1 that my apprehension that his health was already shattered irreparably gave way to confidence that years of life and successful achievement were still before him4 ,as for him1 ,i think he never fully believed that the doctors were right in considering his bodily condition hopeless until a short time before his death4 ,he had always looked confidently forward to such length of days as both of his parents and others of his more remote forbears had attained4 8,i never thought10 he said to me one night1 a week or two before his death1 8that ,i was shortening my life in this way40 ,as to his blindness1 it never became entire1 and having been accustomed from the beginning to defective vision while yet absorbing his material through the eye and appealing to it in his production1 he had1 in a measure bewildering to hear of and barely credible to us who beheld it in its final efforts1 learned to rely almost entirely on his inward vision and the hand which responded as it were instinctively to its impulse and suggestion4 ,the pictures ,i have named went to ,new ,york in the late autumn of #ahie1 and were at once acknowledged with hearty words of praise and a preliminary check4 ,my husband was back at home by this time1 and1 full of vigor and the anticipation of assured success1 had begun three or four other landscapes4 ,only one of these was ever completed1 but that was so present to his imagination1 and his steady hand moved in such obedience to his will1 that it took visible shape almost without an effort4 ,he had begun making plans for the future and seemed to have renewed his youth4 ,and then1 when the year was nearly ended1 his hopes were shattered by the tidings that the pictures were found to be unsalable1 and had been1 or were to be1 transferred to other hands which might or might not be more successful in finding purchasers for them4 ,this was the end1 so far as further work was concerned4 ,my ,samson fell once more into the hands of the ,philistines1 and this time not to rise again4 ,illustration3 ,a ,,newport ,,landscape 7,the ,artist's ,last ,work7 ,reproduced from the original painting through the courtesy of ,frank ,l4 ,babbott1 ,esq4 ,over those final days1 ,i have not the heart to linger4 ,in all ways1 they were inexpressibly painful4 ,in ,august of the following year1 a growth in his throat made its appearance4 ,although it never caused him intense physical anguish until a few days before his death1 when it seemed to have made its way to the brain1 it caused him great discomfort4 ,so long as hope remained that it was not malignant and might be removed1 he felt and expressed an irritation which1 under the precise circumstances1 was only natural4 ,but when1 late in ,october1 about the time of his sixtieth birthday1 the specialist who was attending him pronounced it cancerous1 his mood changed4 ,certain thoughts1 certain memories1 certain injustices of which he had felt himself the victim1 would still move him to indignation when the recollection of them recurred1 but he bore his physical trials with wonderful and unalterable patience4 ,a ,unitarian clergyman in the neighborhood began calling on him in the early winter and contributed much to his entertainment in some of my unavoidable absences4 ,but1 as ,christmas was approaching1 my husband asked me to request the ,reverend ,doctor ,shields1 now ,professor of ,psychology in the ,catholic ,university at ,washington1 ,d4 ,c41 to pay him a visit4 ,said he3 8,l is a good fellow2 he thinks just as ,i do about the tariff and the civil service1 and he likes good books4 ,but1 what all that has to do with his profession1 considered as a profession1 ,i do not clearly see40 ,therefore ,i preferred his request to ,dr4 ,shields1 who might reasonably have refused it1 as he was not doing parish duty but employed in laboratory work at the ,ecclesiastical ,seminary in ,st4 ,paul4 ,he came1 nevertheless1 a number of times1 paying his last visit on the ,saturday evening before ,homer died4 ,and then1 before leaving1 he said to me3 8,there is not the ghost of a hope that your husband will do just exactly what you wish him to do4 ,and1 for my part1 ,i am content to leave him in the hands of ,god just as he is4 ,he is absolutely honest4 ,if he could take another step forward1 he would do it40 ,and1 on his part1 ,homer said to me1 8,father ,shields has the clearest mind of any man ,i ever met4 ,i wish ,i had known him three years ago4 ,but now my head is in such anguish that ,i can no longer keep three or four threads of argument in my mind at the same time40 99 99 99 99 99 ,one day in ,honfleur1 ,homer broke a protracted silence by saying1 8,i hope that ,i shall die before you do40 ,to which ,i answered1 8,i hope so too40 8,you think that you could get along better without me than ,i could without you80 he asked1 and ,i said1 8,i know ,i could40 ,and now1 two days before he died1 he said1 8,i am glad that ,i am going first02 adding a few more words which it pleases me to remember1 but which ,i shall not repeat4 ,and again ,i told him that ,i was glad also4 ,later still1 he asked me what ,i meant to do when he was gone1 and when ,i said ,i hoped to enter a convent1 he replied1 8,that is just what ,i supposed4 ,well1 it is a beautiful life40