The St. Johns herald., 1901-03-23
THE PAINTERS INSPIRATION.
Story of How T. James Tissot Came to Turn Ills Attention to
 Religious Art.


 One of the foremost living artists of the world to-day is J. James Tlssot. His naintings, illustrating the life of Christ. have identified his name so close lv vifb sacred art that one can hard ly think of him without recalling some scene of the New Testament to which his brush has given d visual reality. But 15 years ago his subjects were of different character.
 At that time Tissot was butterfly a follower of fashion and it's entice- ments and rewards. To paint a pretty woman, dressed in the most approved style of the hour and surrounded by the accessories of wealth and luxury, was the height Of his ambition. He studied society women assiduously, and became their pet.
 One day he visited one of the churches of Paris 10 make studies for picture. He was preparing series of paintings representing "The Parisian Woman" in which the fashionable firt of the week-sf- was to pose as the religious deyotee on Sunday.
 The emotional music, the soft light, the impressive service in the solemn church-these stirred the soul of the artist to a new devotion, and before him appeared, as in vision, won derful picture.
 The ruins of a great castle seemed to rise before him. The walls were standing in part, but the roof had fallen in, and the debris filtered the ground. A peasant and his wife strayed over the blocks of crumbling stone, and seat ed themselves on one of the fallen col umns The man cast hopelessly upon the ground the little bundle that con- tained all their earthly possessions,
 But as they sat there, Respondent, wondrous Being, who needed no intro duction, came toward them. Seating Himself at the mans side, lie leaned His head upon the peasants shoulder, seeming to say, with bleeding hands outstretched:
 See! If you have been miserable, I have been more miserable; if you have suffered much, 1 have suffered most"
 The artist saw in this vision what seemed to him a solution of the prob lens of modern life. Art, science, cul- ture, had failed to prevent poverty and misery. The only help and hope for the downtrodden and oppressed was in acceptance of the teachings of Him who had borne their sorrows, and whose life had been given to uplift the souls Of men. .
 When the painter left the church, the vision he had seen followed him to his gay studio, where he tried in vain to paint the frivolous and ephemeral pictures to which he had formerly de- voted himself. Restless, unhappy, and unable longer to find pleasure in an occupation which had heretofore claimed his interest and attention, he fell seriously i'll.
 Upon his recovery, he began at once to paint his vision of Christ, the Con- soler," in order that he might get it out of his mind, and be free to return to his old work. But as he painted, the dignity and grandeur of his subject impressed him more and more. He be- came impatient to know the true Christ, and to delineate Him to the world. He abandoned his old life and went to Palestine, there to study the life of the people and the surroundings amid which the deeds of the Master were wrought.
 He lived there over ten ...cars, and Christendom is now receiving, as the result of that inspiration, the most ! wonderful pictures of Jesus and His :, apostles that have ever been produced. Their power lies not alone in their fidel- i ity and their material accuracy, but i even more in the spirit which speaks through them. To Tissot was revealed ! the secret that before one can make others acquainted with Christ. he must 1, first know Him himself.-Youth's Com. panion.