guiding principle of choice. So we took the following six subjects:—
- Millet’s Sower;
- Titian’s Lavinia;
- Murillo’s Fruit Venders;
- Madame Le Brun and her Daughter;
- Rubens’s Two Sons;
- William M. Chase’s Alice.
My big parcel was eyed with eager curiosity, and every little face broke into smiles at the announcement of a new game. To prepare the way, the children first played one of their dramatic games, and while the runaway sheep were in the meadow, and the cows in the corn, little Boy Blue being fast asleep in the corner, we had a chance to pick out the boys and girls best adapted to the picture rôles. It was a slum neighborhood with a mixture of nationalities; most of the children were poorly dressed, and some were very dirty. It might seem an unfavorable field for an art experiment. But what we wanted most was responsiveness, and this good quality was found in abundant measure. The Portuguese children promised well for the Spanish types of Murillo’s street children, and plenty of boys would do for the Sower, but how to match, among the ill-clad, anæmic little children of the poor, the plump, richly gowned Lavinia, or the elegant, high-bred sons of Rubens? However, we did not let such difficulties deter us. These sons of toil need the picture study, even more than the children of the rich, to bring beauty into starved lives. We had
