Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-12-28
The Training of an Artist.
.l,cs Meynen in s.. Nicholas

ALICE Heynell in s. Nicholas
Elizabeth Thompson Mrs Butier) was pOsi-
lively unknown TO the great public when her
Lo.i cali took the world by storm and if was
scarce. 10 be wondered at that the surprise aft
her success. joined to :he common love of won
deri, gave rise TO mary mistakes In regard to
her past. One delus!on it is We'll to put an end
to at the OutSet-the opinion that her sudden
suc""ss was not preceded by long and careful
stu'i5. N fact, Mrs. Butler has been a worker
at art from the age of five.
Her fathers system of instruction consisted
OF reading aloud the things which he wished To
lnstil into her mind, while she practised draw
ing and sketching. little questioning at the
end Of each lesson was Of course necessary To
test whether the pursuit of art had or had not
been 200 absorbing. Undoubtedly the success
OF THIS plan was mainly due to his own gentle
ness and patience. Upon the whole the system
was feand 10 work well. andit was no doubt
perseYerec IN because 1t enabled her father to
give his two children more advanced instruction
than would have been possible without the con-
sant comment ard explanation which a reader
j. able to supply better than any other teacher,
TO his hearers. He undertook the whole edu-
cation OF ais daughters. giving up his time and
OF course. denying himself much that otherwise
ms cultivated nature would have enjoyed, for
the sake Of cOnscentiously fulfilling his self
imposed task.
Of my fathers friendship with Charles Dick
ems little need be recorded here except that II
was unusually aiiectionate and that il Waa
Charles Dickens who introduced him to the lady
who became his second wife and TIE mother of
the battle painter He was the confiGant of the
engagement, the life of the wedding and, with
Mrs. Dickens, the companion of the closing
month OF long wedding journey.
About seven or eight years later he met nv
parents again; this time they were living with
their two little girls, within sight Of the snow
capped peaks OF the Apennines In an old pal
ace. the Villa de Franchi. A great billiard ROOM
hung with Chinese designs, was EliZabet.
ThompsOn's first school-roOm: and there Charles
Dickens, upon one of his Italian visits burst In
upon q lesson In multiplication. 1t was the
first and almost the only time ever saw him.
In dim remembrance, he abides as a noisy very
rosy, very energetic. and emphatically English
personality, though his person itself Is quite
forgotten; and the TACT that nine times nine are
eighty has remained IN the girls minds as
one of the most unmistakable items OF arithme-
tic, accompanied by the clap Of hands and the
cordial shout with which he proclaimed 1t.
The two children never went to school, and
had no other teacher than their father-except
their mother for music, andthe usual professors
for accomplishments" In later years And
sVhether living happily In their beautiful Geno-
ese home or further north among the pictur-
eeQue Italian lakes, or In Switzerland or among
the Kentlsh hop-eardens and the parks Of Sur
1ey, (the family having q r1ore than Bedaween
londness Tor liberty Of movement,) Elizabethb
abandoned, literally, not for day.