Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/329

 York City the day of his death devoted their time to forming estimates of Mr. Gould's character as a man and relating anecdotes of his life. In reference to the general subject under discussion, Col. Henry T. Chapman, the art connoisseur of the Stock Exchange, said:

"Gould's art collection was little known, for he rarely ever figured personally in buying pictures, and went so little into social life that the public had no knowledge of his gallery. It is very choice, however, consisting of about one hundred paintings. Many of them are representative works of the Barbizon and modern French school. He has one of the finest examples of Corot in the country, and masterpieces by Rousseau, De Neufville and others.

"I purchased for him at the Stewart sale the finest example of Knaus in the country. It is a famous work known as 'Knaus Children,' and cost $25,000. Works by that artist have brought higher prices in this country, but no one has a finer example. This illustrates one thing that I would like to say about Mr. Gould. He did not buy a painting on account of its price, but because he appreciated its beauties. He had a fine, a highly cultivated artistic sense, and showed a wonderful appreciation of color, tone and treatment in a picture.

"He knew the inspirational works of an artist from the mediocre productions, and showed a nice discrimination in his selections. He never bought a picture for a household decoration nor to fit a