The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-01-26
"ThC RO,l-Cau,o

The following account of Elizabeth
Thompson Buffers wonderful paint
ing "The Roll-Call," is taken from the
article written by the art SIS sister in
So. Njcho5aS. In the spriGs o. 1874,
"The Roll-call' was duly sent into the
Royal Academy, and was received with
a cheer by the committee. by degrees
tidings of it's success were carried to
the painter and her family; there were
unmistakable signs of a sensation in
the town; the clubs were full of
rumors of great picture by woman;
scraps of talk about it were overheard
in railway trains. And yet this pre-
paration hardly broke the shock of sur
prise when, on the morning after the
Academy banquet, the speeches of
both the Prince of Wales and the Duke
eff Cambridge were found to refer in
terms of generous praise to the work
of the unknown girl. Such a compli-
ment had seldom or never been paid
to new name, and it was the prelude
to popular furore which can only be
described as unexampled. The Private
View had but one topic of talk, and
the picture was preserved from de-
struction at the hands of mob of
friendly sight-seers only by the efforts
of policeman; not since the days of
Wilkes first great success had such
guard been necessary. But "The
Roll-calr' officer had unquestionably
a busy time of it; from morning till
night the throng never loosened or re-
laXed from its hard knot in front of
the picture, except, indeed, on one oc-
casion, when a gap, as memorable as
the crowd, occurred on the day when
the queen, who did not visit the Aca-
DENY at that time had the picture re-
moved to Buckingham Palace for a
few hours, that she might see a work
of such special interest to a sovereign
who has always loved her army. "The
Roll-calP' was, as has been said, the
result of commissions; but, when her
majesty expressed wish to possess it
herself, the owner Loyalty coded his
claim, on condition that the next years
picture should be his. The copyright
was purchased for fifteen times the
amount of the original commission
and during the ensuing four years was
either in the hands of the engraver
(Mr. Stackpoole, who produced on adj
mirable plate) or on view in the pro-
vincial towns, where it became even a
greater lion than it had been in Lon
don. And if the picture was lion,
the painter was the heroine of the sea-
son, and so pursued with her celebrity
that the preservation of serenity of
mind was no slight achievement. The
whisper of her name drew crowds
about her in bathrooms, at exhibitions,
in the public ways; but she never re-
Taxed work for day. The next years
picture was her constant preoccupa-
ton, and neither the pleasure of celeb
rity nor the distraction of notoriety
ever discomposed her. "Quatre Bras"
was exhibited in 1875, and drew a
crowd equal to that which thronged
round its predecessor; it had also the
honor of Mr.. Ruskin's praise. ut is"
he wrote, 1.-The first fine pre-raphaelito
picture of battle we have had, pro-
foundly interesting and showing all
manner of illustrative and realistic
faculty. The sky is most tenderly
painted, and with the truest outline
of cloud of all in the exhibition; and
the terrific piece of gallant wrath and
ruin on the extreme left, where the
cuirassier is catching round the neck
of his horse as he falls, and the con-
vulsed fallen horse. seen through the
smoke below, is wrought through all
the truth of its frantic passion with
gradations of color and shade which
| have not seen the like of since Tur-
ner's death" THE Return from Ba-
laclava" followed in 1876, and tinker
mana return of infantry in this
case-in 1877.