The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1876-08-27
Morning Star and Catholic Messenger.
NEW URLKANs, SUNDAY. AUGUST IT 1876
PAINTING BY d CATH0-
Lie ARTIST.
London Tablet, August 81

(London Tablet, August 81
Awakirg one morning TO find herself ia
NOUS, Miss Thompson attained by bOuDC
q position for which other artists have
striven, many unsuccessfully, for years.
"The Roll Call was the fashion it had
been praised 10 high places, Press aud pub
lie were unanimousin it's regard, it had ts
special policeman and prophecy.
With the next year the prophecy was re-
futed Miss Thompson had stood the seve-
rest test of comparison, the comparison
with herself. True, 40 latre Bras" did not
excite the same interest as the Roll Call
the reasons, however, were many. The
Crimes is of our times, Waterloo is but an
echo of a far distant shout, as much passed
into history as the Plains of Abraham,
Hochstadt, or Crecy, and the pace OF the
day is too rapid TO wax enthusiastic over
fossil glories. But Q1atre Bras made
it's mark, the public accepted it, and Mr..
Ruskin, ever ready To encourage risen
merit, stamped it with the hallmark of his
appreciation, and compared it to Turner.
"Balaklava" as q work of art is immeasu-
rably superior to her former efforts her
pencil, inspired by the suhj act, has gained
fresh strength, and the work is in every
respect remarkable one. 1t has been said
that Horace Verret wrote like q dragon
Miss Thompson paints like one, not a but
ton or eiguilette is wanting, the glazed caps
OF the Light Dragons, the shakos of the
Lancers, every detail of the military mil
inery of that dag is reproduced with pho
tographic minutenese, and the result is
more has been done. A woman's pathos ID
shown, the prosaic side of war is placed
before us limned by o brush dipped in tears.
We do not see that wild charge, bugles
sounding, swords flashing and pennons
waving, as the glorious Six Hundred swept
on in their fierce ride down that Death Val
ley. We do not gaze on the N lee when
sabres flashed and gunners fought with the
desperation of despair, or tho dell Of
slaughter when English Hussars and Je-
ropkine's Lancers went down alike from
the fire of the Russian guns. The scene is
laid on the Causeway Heights, where stray
Cling in singly or by twos and threes, the
remnants of the Light Brigade rally for
space. Men of the S:h, some few who have
survived the brutal slaughter when young
FitEgibbon fell, of the l lth led out by brave
Cardigan, of the 4th and 18th Light, and
of the 18th, true to their motto of Death
or Glory" are all met together.
Eminently natural in the grouping, with
the little knot of mounted men on the left
Of the picture, the struggling horsee. some
alas rideless, breastiDg the hill, wounded
men nursing their hurts or brooding in re-
venge, dead and dying around. there is one
figure which by stroke of genius alike
gives an air of reality to the composition
and strikes keynote in the heart of every
onlooker. On he marches tunic unbuttor-
ed, CROSS belts loose and bloody, where his
horse has fallen he knows not, the red spray
is before his eyes, his teeth are set, his
dripping sword is firmly clenched in his red
right hand as the other is stiffencd in the
energy of revenge. His comrades may call
but his thoughts are down by the Fediou-
kline Heights, the mans soul has gone out
into the fray and tie madness of combat is
on him. This figure alone would make
picture for a lees gifted artiet. Here it
serves but az the thread that strings the
beads of human interests together, it ia the
one touch of nature that makes the W hole
world kin more pathetic is that man in his
Ruper-human strength than the wounded in
their weakness, the dying in their death
throes, or the dead that stiffen where they
have fallen.
The word pre- Raffaellite has been fire.
quently misapplied; but this canvass is 80,
not only in the miuutest detail, but in it's
truest sense. Every blade of grass has been
dealt with by Meiseonier like touch bat
all this has been done without detracting
from the work as a whole or by fritting
away the attention with trivialities. The
26th day of October is indeed a noteworthy
one In our annals. hat day, four hundred
and sixty one years ago, saw us &" shrewdly
out of beefn on the Plains of Pcardy, and
yet the English yoemep, led by /" Harry
the King" scored companion victory to
Grecy Agincourt. The early dawn of that
day, 1854, is linked with the story of " the
thin red line tipped with steel and the
laundering charge of the " heavies," Scots
GreSs, 1nniskillings, Royal Irish, Princess,
Charlotte's and Royals, and the glories of
"Crispin Crispian" eliminate in the word
Balaklava.
Shakespeare and Tennyson have com
memorated this day in undying poetry,
Kinglake and Russell in vivid prose, whilst
a fresh laurel wreath has now been thrown
on our heroes graves by this great work of
great artist.
GENERAL PUTNAM DISCO UNITED.