The New Orleans bulletin., 1876-03-26
BRUAlDrS BONANZA.
WONDERFUL PAINTEB WAXING RICH AT UNCLE
sans EXPENSE.
(From the Philadelphia Times. l

lC1UM tu0 EQ11A0olpnla 1Imoe.
Presidents may come and Congresses may
60. bat Brumidi goes on forever. He is sort
OF artistic 4elchisedec, without beginning or
he was not painting in the Capitol; no man
can foresee the time when he will not be
painting still Architects and engineers, ar
lists and statesmen, have ragged against him,
but they imagined only . vain thing, for
Brumidi has withstood them all Years and
years ago there was convention held, COM
mission appointed, and Brumidi's reign ap-
peared to be ct an end; the next winter he
was painting away as gaily as ever, and his
impossible Cupids smile down in derision
upon his enemies.
Successive library committees have plotted
rebellion. but when they went further they
usually Jared worse, and Brumidi was soon
back again. He has covered more square
miles Of space. with greater variety OF sub
ject, than any painter since the world began:
Raphael in the Vatican was fool to Brumidi
in the Washington Capitol. High up in the
lofty dome, or down in the darkest corridors,
where no foot but that Of the watchman ever
treads, Brumidi paints away, covering the
walls with men and women, and gods and
gcddesses, and birds and beasts and flowers.
There is nothing that he can touch that he
does not ornament, and few places are ex-
empt from his touch. Cellar or ceiling, floor,
wall or stairway, it is all the same to Brumidi.
By the yard or by the mile, by the week or
by the year, he paints on, paints ever. How
it is all paid for, goodness only knows. That
it is paid for is certain, for Brumici has
grown rich; and that it is paid for BY Uncle
Sam is equally certain; but under what item
of the appropriation bill his remuneration
comes, no fellow ever could find out. There
ho~ hoa s,vo vcif r1n nh
the most daring Congressman has never pre-
sumed to investigate Brumid.
We learn from the Washington papers that
Brumidi has just completed another lot Of
gorgeous paintings in the Senate wing. There
Is one Of Las Casas, surrounded by savage ma
tives, in the act of writing letter home;
there is one of the French and American COM
missioners adi iusting the cession Of Louiaiena;
there is one of Columbus discovering
America; there is one Of Lycurgus, Justice,
and some other aged parties for the edifica.
ton OF the Committee on the Revision OF the
Laws, and so on through long catalogue.
Brumidi did them all, and we can imagine
how exquisitely absurd they must be. One
painted everything that ever happened and
many more things that never could happen;
having painted every body's portrait and the
portraits Of all the beasts Of the field and
fowls of the air and fishes of the sea; having
filed the Capitol from cellar to dome with the
most astonishing creations, Brumidi would be
almost ready to lay down the palette and the
brush.
But one who supposed anything like that
could have no conception Of the boundless
possibilities of genius. There are miles and
miles Of space yet to be covered. There
are galleries and corridors, cellars and sub
cellars, ante-rooms, coat-rooms, wash-rooms,
and out-of-,he-wsy corners without number
that have not yet felt the vivifying touch Of
art, and unnumbered chairmen or prospect
i've chairmen Of committees who have not yet
been portrayed; and while all these worlds
remain to be conquered and the appropria-
tions are year by year renewed shall Brumidi
desist Perish the thought! Let him paint
forever; and when other centuries have rolled
around, and the New Zealander shall come to
sit upon the ruins Of the Capitol. he will find
Brumidi there before him painting sportive
little cherubs upon some crumbling fragment
of those marble walls. The truth of the
classic adage, cart is long," was never fully
shown till Brumidi came. All art is long, but
Brumidi's art is interminable.