Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 13.pdf/89

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The Green Bag.

let no prentice hand essay the task. He should possess the grace of Raphael and the color of Titian, who shall seek to transfer to

an enduring canvas that most exquisite pic ture in all the receding light of the days of the early Republic."

NOTE. — Through the kindness of Mr. Justice Gray, of the United States Supreme Court, in allowing a photograph to be taken of the very fine portrait of Chief Jus tice Marshall painted by Jarvis, which is now owned by Mr. Justice Gray, we are able to present as this month's frontispiece a copy of what is, we think, the best portrait of the great Chief Justice. We feel sure that our readers will appreciate, as fully as we do, the courtesy of Mr. Justice Gray. With this portrait it is interesting to com pare the miniature done in crayon by Saint Mémin -(see page 55), and the excellent portrait (of which there are many copies) painted for the Law Association of Phila delphia by Henry Inman (see pages 6 1 and 63 ). The Saint Mémin miniature is said by Joseph P. Bradley (Century, v. 16, p. 779) to be regarded by the family " as the very best likeness ever taken of their hon ored ancestor." Bradley refers to the Jarvis painting as a " very fine portrait." The well-known full-length portrait of Marshall, owned by the Boston Athenaeum, of which the Harvard Law School has a replica, is the work of Chester Harding (see page 57). A few words concerning John Wesley Jarvis may not be out of place. He was born in the north of England in 1780, and was brought to this country as a child by his parents. He became known in the early nineteenth century as one of the foremost portrait painters in America. His home was New York, but he traveled extensively, as the portrait painters of that time usually did, and he painted many portraits in Bal timore, Charleston and New Orleans. Dun-

lap called him the best portrait painter in the city of New York for many years. Like many of our early painters, he began by being an engraver. His first teachers were . Savage and Edwin. Henry Inman and Thomas Sully were his collaborators at various times. Jarvis was a nephew of the great Methodist, John Wesley, but he was a notoriously convivial character, and his bibulous exploits as a diner-out occupy an immoderate part of the attention of his biographer. He appears to have been famous, also, as the Chauncey Depew of his day, and our American Vasari, William Dunlap, in his gossiping "History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in America," quotes many of his after-dinner anecdotes and jests. As to Jarvis's eccen tricities, it is curious to note that in 1830 he acquired the reputation of being singular by wearing, on Broadway, " a long coat trimmed with furs," " like a Russian prince or potentate from the North Pole," observes the parochial Dunlap. But, unfortunately, Dunlap, who had an eye for long coats trimmed with furs, and who was scandalized by the disorderly appearance of Jarvis's unscraped palette and unwashed brushes, has very little to say about the man's nota ble achievements in art. Among his other works, Jarvis painted a series of full length portraits of military and naval heroes for the New York City Hall. With Inman's aid, Jarvis was able to turn out about six portraits a week, for which he received from one hundred to one hundred and fifty dol lars each. Jarvis died in 1840.— [The Edi tor.'}