Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 03.djvu/102

92 We have received from the publisher, Oscar Marshall, 697 Broadway, New York, a copy of this superb picture. While we do not think the photograph from which the engraving is made quite equal to another one of the thirty-two in our possession, we regard the engraving as a very admirable one in every respect, and are so anxious to see it widely circulated that we cheerfully give place to the following notice sent us by a competent and appreciative art critic:

Virginia, if she cannot claim to be the mother of many artists, has more than once benefited art by furnishing the subject, the hero, and the inspiration. Thus Washington, the noblest of Virginians, inspired Stuart with that slight but matchless sketch in the Boston Athenæum, which is undoubtedly the most celebrated American picture in existence. Henry, another Virginian, is the subject of that historical painting "Patrick Henry in the House of Burgesses," which is perhaps the masterpiece of Rothermel. And now the chief American engraver, William Edgar Marshall, who has already, by a stroke or a few strokes of genius, scattered Stuart's masterpiece across the country in an incomparable line engraving, has issued another print, likewise of very uncommon power, representing that man who of all contemporary Americans has perhaps the greatest number of admirers both in the North and the South, General Robert E. Lee.

This new work is very ambitious in size, grasp and treatment. It is a bust-portrait, the head being somewhat larger than life, and the chest being represented below the shoulders. Although the scale is so large, there is none of his works in which this master of pure line has shown more care and intelligence in representing, by well chosen strokes, the richness and transparency of complexion, the variety of textures, the filmy lightness of hair and beard, the fullness of stuffs, and the general sense of enveloping air, all of which combine to give quality to a portrait.

The face, turned somewhat to the spectator's right, represents Lee in the hale strength of middle age, with the eagle force of the eyes slightly veiled by the influence of time and experience. As in the record of his life the vicissitudes of history only taught this grand man a calm and equable dignity, so in the portrait it is the endurance, fortitude and unconquerable nobility of character which are made emphatic. The active and aggressive traits are held in check by a sense of superior wisdom. If ever the expression of a modern face deserved to be called Olympian, it is the countenance delineated in this remarkable print. Seldom has an engraver given such liquid depth to a large, grand eye. It looks out straight to the horizon, with a comprehensive glance of ineffable manliness, repose, and natural command. It shows the courage to act, and also the courage to bear and to wait.

The fine, waving, grizzled hair and beard, which gave to Lee the soldierly comeliness of some noble old moustache of the Peninsula, are treated by Mr. Marshall with a felicity that only his long experience with the burin could inspire. The light waved lines express, at the proper distance, the exact character of dry, soft, silky, aged hair, which lifts easily on every breeze, and always allows the conformation of the cranium and the muscular anatomy of the face to be distinctly divined. The grand and thought-worn forehead, the firm mouth, and the general monumental and strong character of the face are well understood and rendered. Few heroes have had so pure and heroic a type of face. The engraver understands his work so well as to leave on the beholder's mind an impression of magnificent manhood, of vast resources of energy, and finally of self-communing, self-respecting calm.

The dress indicated is the old working uniform of warlike days—the suit [missing text] three small stars on the collar, the waistcoat carelessly