Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 8.djvu/98

 268 ARTISTS AND AUTHORS twenty-eight of these, owing to the mental trouble which befell the king. He then commenced a new series of important works, of which " Christ Healing the Sick " was purchased by an institution in Great Britain for ,£3,000, and was sub- sequently copied for the Pennsylvania Hospital. " Penn's Treaty with the Ind- ians " was painted for Granville Penn, the scene representing the founding of Pennsylvania. West wrote to one of his family that he had taken the liberty of introducing in this painting the likeness of his father and his brother Thomas. "That is the likeness of our brother," he says, "standing immediately behind Penn, leaning on his cane. I need not point out the picture of our father, as I believe you will find it in the print from memory." Tuckerman says that the work which, in the opinion of many critics, best illustrates the skill of West in composition, drawing, expression, and dramatic effect, is his " Death on the Pale Horse." His " Cupid," owned in Philadelphia, is one of his most effective pictures as to color. The full-length portrait of West, by Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A., repre- sents the great artist in his character as president of the Royal Academy, deliver- ing a lecture on " coloring " to the students. Under his right hand may be no- ticed, standing on an easel, a copy of Raphael's cartoon of the " Death of Ananias." The picture of West's face has been considered a perfect likeness, but the figure somewhat too large and too tall in its effects. A copy of this por- trait was made by Charles R. Leslie ; and Washington Allston also painted a por- trait of the artist. There exists, it is said, a portrait of West from his own hand, taken apparently at about the age of forty, three-quarter length, in Quaker cos tume. THORWALDSEN By Hans Christian Andersen (1 770-1844) Jt was in Copenhagen, on November 19, 1770, that a carver of figures for ships' heads, by name Gottskalk Thorwaldsen, was presented by his wife, Karen GrOnlund, the daughter of a clergyman in Jut- land, with a son, who at his baptism received the name of Bertel, or Albert. The father had come from Iceland, and lived in poor circumstances. They dwelt in Lille Gronnegade (Little Green Street), not far from the Academy of Arts. The moon has often peeped into their poor room ; she has told us about it in " A Picture-book without Pictures " : " The father and mother slept, but their little son did not sleep ; where the flowered cotton bed-curtains moved I saw the child peep out. I thought at first that he looked at the Bornholm clock, for it was finely painted with red and green, and there was a cuckoo on the top ; it had heavy leaden weights, and the