The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-04-05

{ VI cOHslueTeu portrait uOne IN OILS.
/ Doubtless II he had stuck to his brush
William might have been an artist Of
respectablity. IL not of distinction. But
the extent to which the Jameses, parents
and children alike, we're at their ease"
In the pecuniary sense and in still more
important senses, is shown by the IA
cility with which the ruling elders OF
the house acquiesced In his conclusion
that he no longer cared about art, which
he had cultivated so extensively and so
extensively. and preferred to go In for
science. lat all events for something
that did not call itself art. In most
| households this change would have
been regarded as a freak threatening
dangerous consequences in the way Of
! instability. Apparently not in the least
SO In this remarkable household. 1t Is
even more remarkable to find here the
avowal that tho younger brother. the
present reminiscent. had at about the
sanc time as his brothers conversion
velleity toward "law," actually at.
tended certain sessions Of the Harvard
Law School, "at the age of 49," and
really took part in moot courts" and
the other recreations OF the institution.
The chief value to him or to anybody
else Of these exercises was, naturally
the sketches given here of sundry of
his professors and fellow students. but
moro deliberately and affectionately of
his landady and his fellow boarders.
experiences curiously had at almost the
Same time when another and a famous
celebration of a Boston boarding house
was being published, in the shape of the
"Autocrat"
But We anticipate, as for that matter
does the reminiscent. anticipates or re-
ours as the humor takes him, insomuch
that his chronology aggravates the diff
culties OF his readers. 1t was the re-
turn to Newport that introduced the
repatriates to such artistic counsellors.
among the residents or frequenters OF
that resort, as were surinised to be
helpful to William James in the pur-
pose which he had not yet definitely
abandoned. Chief among them were
William Morris Hunt. already or soon
to be an aesthetic oracle in Boston. and
John La Fargo. To anybody who knew
both men the sketches here given, by
writer. who was himself ''pupil'
Of La Farge's. and even of Hunts. and
OF both even in the technical sense OF
the term. are Of intense interest. one
OF the few absolutely rendered portraits
In this volume. as distinguished from
charming and atmospheric" adum-
brations. Is that of William Hunt. will.
lam Hunt. all muscular spareness and
absence OF waste. all fragrant physiog-
nomy, brave bony arch Of handsome
nose. upwardness OF strong eyebrow.
and glare. almost, OF eyes that both
recognized and wondered. strained eyes
that played over questions as X they
were objects and objects as IL they
were questions, might have stood, TO
the life. for Don QuiXote. IL We could
associate with that hero far spreading
beard already a little grizzled. a man
ner and range of gesture and broken
form Of discourse that was like a rest
less reference to a palette and that
seemed to take for granted. all about.
canvases and models and charming.
amusing things. the tremendously In
teresting' in the seen bit or caught
moment. and the general uhsayabllity,
in comparison. of anything else" That
Is capital portrait. no worse
for that the portraitist has added
reflection 10 observation. has linked
his colors with brains" 1t IL absolutely
and startlingly recognizable to one who
did not meet the subject for more than
n decade afterward, when the beard "a
little grizzled' had become patriarchal
and snowy. say when he was trying. In
the lunettes OF the Assembly Chamber
at Albany. the cartoons of those first
OF our monumental decorations, for
which he reasonably looked forward to
a painters immortality, but which had,
within the lar:s Of another decade, to
be ruthlessly removed. OF John La
Fargo. again. the personal impression
was much more complex and soph!sti-
Gated than that of "Bill' Hunt. bpt by
no means so complex and sophisticated
as the account here given Of It, In
truth. there are no other pages in the
volume more difficult than the consid-
cradle number OF them devoted TO La
Fargo. Nothing could he less like an
impression" than this. nor more like
the working out OF an elaborate and
abstruse analysis. There is always. one
feels. something In It," though not al
ways enough TO make the DISTINGUISHED
reader give the problem presented to
him the trouble necessary TO arrive
at a solution. Probably what II will
most readily suggest to the more inti-
mate acquaintances OF the subject Is
what a delight they would derive from
Ol
III.
But. after all, the chief and most
enduring interest OF the volume lies in
the fact that Il Is 80 largely a chron-
icle Of the war time. The two younger
Jameses were in the war, one OF them
was desperately wounded in that fight
OF Fort Wagner under Shaw. whom
the enemy buried with his niggers"
Why William abstained does not en-
tirely appear. But 1t Is interesting to
know that Henry Was withheld from
enl!sting only by reason OF disabling
accident he had incurred while helping
to put out "A fire. But II IL perfectly
clear here that, like the hero of Ten
nyson's MAUD" he felt with his native
land and was one with his kind Hardly
anywhere else than In this book can
those OF the younger generations real
lie what the epidemic of patriotism
was in those days. Never. not even
in the time 10 which Milton applied H.
has there been more thrilling appl!-
cation In deeds than that which was In
fact made at the time in words of Mil
tons outburst: "Methlnks I see In my
mind "A noble and pussant nation rous-
ing herself like II strong man after
sleep and shaking hcr invincible locks"
Mr., James IL by no means a rushing
sort of chronirler hut I, would Ia b.rN