Estelle M. Hurll

The name of Mrs. Siddons is one of the most distinguished in the history of English dramatic art. For thirty years she was unsurpassed in her impersonation of the tragic heroines of Shakespeare. Her first great success was in the season of 1782, when she appeared for the second time on the London stage. She was then about twenty-seven years of age, and had devoted years of arduous study to her profession. Though gifted by nature with strong dramatic instincts inherited from generations of players, her powers developed slowly.

Our thoughts of angels are naturally connected with thoughts of children. Jesus once spoke of the little ones as those whose angels always behold the face of the heavenly Father. Their innocence is the best type we have on earth of the purity of beings of a higher sphere. Often when we try to describe the beauty of some little child, we use the word angelic.

• Peter Toms.
• Giuseppe Marchi.
• Thomas Beach or Beech.
• Hugh Barron.
• Berridge.
• Parry.
• James Northcote.
• Score.

Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire, was one of the most celebrated beauties of her time. She was the daughter of the Earl of Spencer, and was married[12] at the age of seventeen to William, Duke of Devonshire, "the first match in England".

• William Chambers.
• George Michael Moser.
• Francis Milner Newton.
• Edward Penny.
• Thomas Sandby.
• Samuel Wade.
• William Hunter.
• *Francis Hayman.
• George Barrett.
• Francesco Bartolozzi.
• Edward Burch.
• *Agostino Carlini.
• *Charles Catton.
• Mason Chamberlin.
• *J. Baptist Cipriani.
• Richard Cosway.
• John Gwynn.
• William Hoare.
• Nathaniel Hone.
• Mrs. Angelica Kauffmann.
• Jeremiah Meyer.
• Mrs.
  

We have naturally come to think of Reynolds as chiefly a portrait painter. It was, indeed, by his work in portraiture that his name ranks among the great masters. Yet he made various interesting excursions into other fields. We may see what charming fancy pictures he sometimes painted in Cupid as Link Boy and The Strawberry Girl. Historical pictures he also attempted, but not so successfully. Religious and allegorical subjects he tried occasionally, and it is to illustrate his work of this kind that our picture of Hope is chosen.

• Earl of Holderness.
• Lord Gowran.
• Sir Everard Fawkener.
• The Marquis of Granby.
• Lord Eglinton.
• Lord Anson.
• Stuart, the painter.
• Sir Charles Bunbury.
• Lord Euston.
• The Marquis of Hartington.
• Dick Edgcumbe.
• Captain George Edgcumbe.

subject so sacred as the Madonna was long held in too great reverence to permit of any common or realistic treatment. The pastoral setting brought the mother and her babe into somewhat closer and more human relations than had before been deemed possible; but art was slow to presume any further upon this familiarity.

(THE MATER AMABILIS.)

ndoubtedly the most popular of all Madonna subjects—certainly the most easily understood—is the Mater Amabilis. The mother's mood may be read at a glance: she is showing in one of a thousand tender ways her motherly affection for her child. She clasps him in her arms, holding him to her breast, pressing her face to his, kissing him, caressing him, or playing with him.

(THE MADRE PIA.)

he first tender joys of a mother's love are strangely mingled with awe. Her babe is a precious gift of God, which she receives into trembling hands. A new sense of responsibility presses upon her with almost overwhelming force. Hers is the highest honor given unto woman; she accepts it with solemn joy, deeming herself all too unworthy.