The San Francisco call., 1895-10-17

propriety in his conduct it must be ex-
planned that the lady is old enough to be
Mr.. Stanton's at-great-grandmothe
She must have lived in France early in the
last century, and it is only her picture Mr..
Stanton rescued from the scorn and con-
tumely of ignorant dealers. He says if
only the scene in "Ruddigore" where the
pictures step from their frames could come
true, if his unknown lady would appear in
the flesh and deign to smile upon him, ah !!
then indeed he would lead her to the hyme-
neal altar, and life would be worth living,
all of which means that the ordinarily sane
and level-headed Stanton has fallen in love
with picture. How he came to do it he
explained yesterday in looking tenderly at
his find.
There is something haunting about that
face" he said, adjusting the blind to get
better light. at reminds me of La
Femme 1nconnue. don't know how the
picture came to this country, but it was
IN the collection of an old Frenchman in
Portland, who fell into straitened circum-
stances few years ago and sent his pic
lures and other yaluables to a commission
man here. The man knew the value of
the old Frenchman' diamonds, but he
was no Judge OF pictures, and he stuck
them all into corner of his place. down
80 '-S my 10y ChCIC 1OuI VI ilNc
years and this morning I happened to be
down there and the man brought them out
and showed them to me.
wv Wouldnt you think that the beauty of
that woman would strike man with anv
pretensions to refinement at once? There
were several OF those fellows there and
they leered and libed at her. Its pretty
old and all that sort of thing, but the
painting don't amount to much one said.
and another added, Il would break it up
and use it for tirewood.' When l saw that
girls beautiful, silent face, looking at me.
hang it all, 1 felt I could not leave her
there. l suppose / showed too much en-
thusiasm for purchaser who wanted
bargain, but anyway they let me have the
picture for a song, for / believe it is valu-
able. There is no doubt about it being old
and any artist can see how well it is
painted
The picture which has become Stanton's
love is pastel somewhat after the style
Of portrait by Greuze. The woman rep
resented is stately and beautiful, with a
pale, transparent skin and dark, dreamy
eyes. Her hair is powdered and she is
dressed in the fashion of woman of high
rank during the early part of the last CEN
tury. Her white satin dress is looped with
pearls, and the heavy blue mantle across
her shoulders is held together with string
of the same jewels. The frame of the
picture is battered and tarnshed, and the
canvas nailed across the back is worm
eaten, sad to tell. Spots of mildew have
also invaded the creamy whiteness Of the
lady's neck. The date, which is partially
effaced, is either 1718 or 174S. The name of
the artist begins LA - but the end is
almost illegible. There is more than one
French portrait painter, Stanton says, who
might be fitted into one or other of these
dates-Lancret, for instance, who died in
1743.
THE picture is painted on parchment" !"
said Stanton, "and the pastel is over those
colors. l have scratched off a corner to
see how the work was done. AT first
thought it might have been photograph
of some old master that had been colored
In pastel, but the more | examined it the
more | became convinced that the work is
genuine" The artist added that he in
tended to send his ''Unknown Lady" to
the autumn exhibition, but that nothing
would induce him to sell her. ''She's my
fate, he said, 'even if she did live a CEN
tury and half ago.