The daily national Whig. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1847-1849, 1847-11-22

the cominonest objects of external nature. A feel
| ing of awe mingled with the admiration that KEEP
the crowd profoundly silent. Not a whisper wns
heard, not a rustic or sound, for some time afte
the arrival of Tchartkof. All were absorbed in con
temptation of the masterpiece and in the eyes Of thu
more enthusiastic tears of delight were TO glsten
lTchartkofi stood opened -mouhed and motonless be
fore the wonderful painting, whose merits and beau
ties the spectators al last began discuss He was
reused from abstraction by being appealed TO for hi'
opinion. In vain did he strive 10 resume his dign
fled air and TO give utterance the musty common
place Of criticism The contemptuous smile was
| chased from his features by the workings Of emo
tom his breast heaved with convulslvc sob, and
after moments violent but Intellectual struggle, he
burst into tears and rushed wildly from the hall.
few minutes later he stood motionless, almost
lparalysod in his own magnificent studio. The ban
dage had fallen from his eyes He saw how he had
sluandered the best years Of his youth; how he had
tramped and stihed the spark of thai fire once burn
ing within him, which might have been famed till
1t bazed up into grandeur and glory, and extorted
tears of-gratitude and admiration from wondering
world. All this he had sacrificed and thrown away,
heedlessy, mady, brutally There suddenly revived
in his soul those enthusiastic aspirations he once Ind
known. He caught up pencil and approached a
canvas The sweat OF eagcrness stood upon his brow;
1
solitary thought burned in his brain, The zeal for
art, the thirst for fame he once strongly felt hud
suddenly returned, evoked from their lurking place
by the mute voice Of anothers genius. And why,
Tchartsof thought, should not he also excel? His
! hand trembed with feversh Impotence till he could
scarcely hold the pencil He took for his subject a
| fallen angel The idea was in accordance with his
| frame Of mind But, alas how soon he was con-
WINGED of the vanity of his efforts His hand and
Imagination had been too long confined TO one line
| and limit and his fierce but impotent endeavor TO
overeap the barrier break his sefimposed letters,
had no result. He had despsed and neglected the
fundamental condition Of future greutness-the long
and fatiguing ladder Of study and reflection Mad
dened by disappointment. furious at the conviction
| of mpotency, he ANONYMOUSLY dismissed from his
studio all his later and esteemed productions, to
which places of honor had been accorded-all his
lfeess senseess fashionable portraits of hussars la
dies OF fashion, and privy councillors He then shut
himself up denied himself to all visitors, and sat
down to work, patient and eager as young student.
For while he labored day and night. But how un-
satisfactory, how cruelty ungrateiu was all thatgrew
under his pencil Each moment he found himself
checked and repulsed in the new path he fain would
have trodden by the wretched mechanical tricks to
which he had so long habiuatad himself They stood
on his road impossible barrier. In spite Of him
self he required to the old commonplace forms; the
arms would arrange themselves in one graceess po-
stion; the head assume the old hackneyed attitude;
the folds Of dress refused to drape themselves other
wise than they had so long been wont TO do in his
hands All this the unhappy artist plainly felt and
saw His eyes We're opened TO his heinous faults,
but he lacked the power TO correct them.
Surely had ability" said he to himself; " or
was II mere alusionl Could l not, under any cir
cumstances, have done better than have2 Did the
whispers of youthful vanity mislead 81" And, to
settle this doubt he hunted out some of his early
pictures, which lay neglected in Of his paint
ing -room-pctures he had labored at long ago, when
his heart was pure from avarce and he dwelt in his
poor garnet in the lonely vasievsku Ostiov far from
the world, from luxury and covetousness He ex-
amined them atentively, and the conviction forced
itself upon him with irresistible strength, that he had
sacrificed genius at the altar of MaInmon. I" had
1t in me = was his agonized exclamation. Every
where in all OF these beheld traces and proofs OF
the power have recklessly FILTERED away"
a PHI bsf ff hShsh h.
viewing the whole Of his past life. When he rer,oy-
cd his hands he started, and thrill passed over him.
for he suddenly encountered the gaze OF two pierre
ing eyes glittering with sombre lustre and SEEM
ing TO watch and enjoy his despair. second glance
showed him they belonged to the strange portrait
which he had bought, many years before, in the
Stchukin Dvor. 1t had remained forgotten and con-
ceacd amidst mass Of old pictures, and he Ind long
since forgatten It's existence. Now that the gaudy
fashionable pictures and portraits had been removed
from the studio there il was peering grmy out from
amongst his early productions Tehartkoif iremem
bered that in certain sense this hideous portrait
had been The origin of the useless life he had long
lod and now so deeply deplored that the hoard Of
int II fran nd md
tered in him those worldly passions that sensuality
and love OF luxury, which had been the bane of his
genius. Calling his servants, he ordered the hateful
picture 10 be taken from the room, and be slowed
where he should never again behold II. Its depar-
ture, however, WINS insufficient to calm his agitation
and quell the storm that ragged within him. He was
prey to that moral torture sometimes witness
sed when feeble talent wreses unsuccessfully to
attain u development above its capacity-a furious
eadeavor which often conducts young and vigorous
minds 10 great achievements but whose result to
old and cnervated ones is more frequently despair
and nsa nifty. Tchartkof, when convinced OF the
futilty of his efforts became possessed by the de-
mon Of envy, who soon monopolzed aud made him
all his own. His complexion assumed bilious yell
lowsh tint he could not bear TO hear artist pras-
ed look with patience at any work of art that bore
the impress Of genius. On beholding such he would
yflnu MS teetn Win lury anu t.se eAPesslon Vi Ills
face became that Of maniac
At last he conceived one Of the most execrabe pro-
lccts the human mind ever engondered; and, with
eagerness approaching to phrenzy he FASTENED to
put it into execution. He bought up all the best
pictures he could find in st. Petersburgh, and
whose owners could be induced to part with them.
The prices he gave TO tempt silly sellers were
often most extravagant. As soon as he had pur-
chased picture, and got it safely home, he would
set upon it with demonac fury, tearing, scratching
even biting it; and when it utterly defaced and
rent into the smallest possible fragments, he would
dance and trample on ii, laughing like fiend The
enormous fortune he had accumulated during his
long and successful career as fashionable portrait
painter, enabled him largely to indulge this Internal
monomania. To this abomnable end, he Tchartkof
but q short time before so avaricous became reck-
less in his expenditure For this he united the strings
Of his bags of gold and scattered his rubes with la
wish hard. All were surprised at the change and at
the rapld.ty with which he squandered his fortune
in his ZEAL it was supposed to form gallery of
the noblest works Of art In the auction roon none
IN him for all were certain n he