Page:Women in the Fine Arts From the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentiet.djvu/171

104 a foreground of brilliant fancy flowers relieved by a scrubby tree in the background, with the faint responsive touch of yellow in the clouds over a calm sea, where gentle motion is only indicated by the little boat floating on its surface. "The schooners on the Magnolia Shore with Norman's Woe in the distance suggest alike the tragic story of the past and the present beauty, for now the sea is calm and the sails are drying in the sun after the storm is over.

"Many other pictures might be mentioned—a quaint old house at Gloucester, a view of Ten Pound Island, with its picturesque surroundings, and the familiar beach, with Fort Head at York Harbor. As a specimen of landscape I would mention a picturesque group of trees at Gerrish Island, full of sunshine.

"But Mrs. de Haas has added another most attractive style of art to her resources, and her miniatures, besides their charm of simplicity of treatment and delicacy of coloring, are said to have the merit of faithful likeness to their originals. Of course portraits, being painted on commission, are not generally available for exhibition, but Mrs. de Haas has a few specimens of her work which warrant all that has been said in their praise.

"One is a charming picture of a child, which for beauty of delineation and delicacy of tinting recalls the memory of our greatest of miniature painters, Malbone.

"Another is the portrait of the artist's father, and is represented with such truth of nature and so much vitality of expression and character as at once to give rise to the remark, 'I must have known that man, he seems so living to me.'"