Page:Women in the Fine Arts From the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentiet.djvu/191

122 rally and easily grouped. There is no stiffness nor awkwardness in the positions, nothing forced in the whole work. There are, in the crowd, ladies in bright colors to relieve the sombreness of the black-coated men, and the effect of the whole picture is pleasing and artistic, aside from its great value as an historical work."

The Washington Capitol, March 17, 1878: "Mrs. Fassett's ’Electoral Commission' gives evidence of great merit, and this illustration in oil of an historical event in the presidential annals of the country, by the preservation of the likenesses in groups of some of the principal actors, and a few leading correspondents of the press, will be valuable. This picture we safely predict will be a landmark in the history of the nation that will never be erased. It memorizes a most remarkable crisis in our life, and perpetuates, both by reason of its intrinsic value as a chapter of history and its intrinsic worth as an art production, the incident it represents and the name of the artist."

In the Washington Star, October, 1903, an article appeared from which I quote as follows: "On the walls of the beautiful tessellated corridor of the eastern gallery floor of the Senate wing of the Capitol at Washington, just opposite the door of the caucus room of the Senate Democrats, hangs a large oil painting that never fails to attract the keenest curiosity of sightseers and legislators alike. And for good reason: that painting depicts in glowing colors a scene of momentous import, a chapter of American political history of graver consequence and more far-reaching results than any other since the Civil War. The printed legend on the frame of the picture reads: