Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1901-08-01

as a mouse. The servants never know
there has been a quarrel, but-good
Heavens, think could stand almost
anything else,
In fact, Wolf, | married her in
haste to save myself from ruin and
am her debtor in every way. | do
not deny that she has good qualities,
and yeti is hard.
You ask me whether | am still
painter. Yes. And whether l am
happy. That is hard to say. | feel
sure l should have made my way
had not my wife-but | will tell you
about it. | know very well, Wolf,
| you never liked to hear of my pro-
| fession. You said some harsh things
to me once, in a bitter hour, that
almost broke the bonds of friendship
between us; you declared l should
never get beyond certain Gilletan-
teism; that | ought only TO employ
my talent as a recreation while de-
| voting myself to some solid career
| by which | could earn my bread. |
! remember it distinctly, and / have
| thought of it a hundred times when
have made my failures. But can
not yet bring myself to believe it, and
| so still go on painting. Once | had
| a stroke of luck. | sold the picture
| of the red-haired woodland beauty,
under the title, "A Witch of the
Brocken,' and had the pleasure of
hearing it well spoken Of But
since then | have kept on painting
as / did before. l painted genre
but no one would buy my poor things
No one noticed them, no one even
found fault with them. In the exhibit
tions they were always hung in the
worst place, either in the darkest
corner or in totally bad light, and
they always returned with touching
devotion to the arms of their creator.
Happily, there is still plenty of room
in our big house, and if in the course
of years that gets filled up, can
always fit you out with painted can
vases, for-but just let me tell you.
when our little girl was about
three months old went one day into
my mother-in-law's sitting-room. We
did not have any home of our own
then. We had bought this place, but
it was not furnished, and | stayed in
the quiet woodland valley for the
sake of my wife and child. Well,
then, | went into my mother-in-law's
sitting-room and stopped suddenly,
charmed by the picture before me.
Thanks to the century-old linden
trees before the windows, there was
genuine Rembrandtesque darkness
in the room, and you can picture to
yourself an antique armchair in the
midst of the curious old Dutch
furniture, with old Faience plates
and blackened family portraits on the
walls. Fancy in these surroundings
woman's figure bending her head
over the child in her arms. A single
golden ray of sunlight just rested on
the shimmering hair, as Raphael has
painted it in the Sistine Madonna.
1t was the first time, Wolf, that l
was charmed and carried away by my
wife. Ante l said. must paint
you like that
"She raised her head and smiled at
me pleasantly. | began the next day.
! 1t was beautiful picture, Wolf.
Every one who saw it said so. it
would have made a sensation at the
Exhibition. And it was a perfect
| likeness. She sat in the curious old
| armchair in her white, airy morning
dress, her head bent down over the
child, and the sunshine lighting up
| her golden hair-not a Madonna,
though suggesting one, but more
human, more touching. appealing
more to the heart.
1T seems absurd to you, Wolf, no
doubt, that | should praise my own
work like this. and | cannot even
prove to you that the praise was de-
served-for the picture no longer
exists. When was having it packed
up to send it to the Exhibition in
Berlin, my mother-in-law declared
that she did not wish to have her
| daughter exhibited like that. 1t was
| improper, it was immoral, and she
could not understand how | could be
willing to expose Ante in her morn
ing dress to so many strange eyes.
81 stared at her, quite stupefied;
then Antje, too. blushing deeply,
begged me to keep the picture for
myself. She, too. seemed to consider
1t want of ,delicacy in me to be
willing to exhibit a portrait of her.
looked from the original to the
picture and began to explain to her
patiently the reasons which prompted
me to exhibit this picture of all
others. She listened to me with
| downcast eyes, and when at the
close of my long harangue I thought
| had convinced her that no one had
a right to hide away work of art.
that ii was her duty and mine to take
a step forward in the world by means
of this really admirable picture. that
almost all the great painters had
painted their wives. to the great de-
light of their fellow-men. she only
shook her head and repeated for the
hundredth time her imploring. 'Ah.
please don't do IL, Leo
Still. I did not give up the battle
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