AMONG the visitors to London in the summer of the year when the butterfly fluttered to the shoulder of Onslow Ford, in the allée of the Champs Élysées—to presage the honour conferred by the French Government upon the small portrait of Gladstone—was Professor Anton von Werner of Berlin, the painter of the historical pictures illustrating the scenes of the great war of 1870, in which Bismarck figures so prominently.
Professor von Werner praised the "Gladstone," and said to me, "You should paint Bismarck. I will give you a letter to him, if you will come over to Berlin." This seemed naturally to follow out the idea I had imagined of doing portraits of great men; so I made ready for a visit to the Continent by letting Alpha House to Sarah Bernhardt, who was then commencing a series of representations at, I believe, the Lyceum Theatre.
Crossing to Boulogne, we passed a short distance up the coast to Wimereux, where Alfred Gilbert had taken a villa for the summer. Rooms were engaged in the hotel for Mrs. Hamilton, my mother, and George, and after a few days in their company by the sea, I started by the way of Brussels, Antwerp, and Amsterdam for Berlin.
The galleries in Belgium and Holland are the richest in fine specimens of the Old Masters of any in Europe. Among the collections is the group of paintings by Franz
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