Considerable rivers possess attributes essential to greatness: they have breadth, depth, clearness, rapidity, strength. Calm and majestic, an image at once of power and peace, well might the poet address to the Thames the well-known apostrophe: Oh! could I flow like thee, and make thy stream My great example as it is my theme: Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull, Truly, indeed, may it be said that rivers feed with pleasing images the fancy of the poet, and yield illustration and example to the teachings of philosophy. But although there is no end to the reflections that rivers excite in the contemplative mind, we must now bring to an end our remarks about them. If the constant, everlasting flow recals a host of memories, so, whether we listen to the many-murmuring voice "of some rejoicing stream" gliding smoothly under arching shade, or to the thunder of the rolling flood, our fancies wander to the unknown and to the future, seeming -to rehearse Our little life. In the river's onward course we are ever admonished to Let the turbid waters brighten as they run; and ever see a familiar image of the stream of life and time flowing onward to the ocean of eternity. Oft have I thought, and thinking, sigh'd- May be the lot, the life of him W. S. G. JENS ADOLF AND ELISABETH JERICHAU. FROM THE DANISH OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN. BY MRS. BUSHBY. It is not often that two persons highly gifted by genius, and not only refined, but congenial in tastes, are so fortunate as to meet in married life; such, however, is the case with the distinguished couple who, equally happy in their domestic relations as admirable in their respective branches of art, are the subjects of the following short sketch. Jens Adolf Jerichau was born in April, 1816, in the island of Funen; his father, who was a merchant, but of limited business, died young, and left a widow and several children. One of these, Jens Adolf, was placed, at fourteen years of age, with a painter in Odensee, and was apprenticed to him for five years; during this period the master was to initiate him into the mysteries of "superior painting," by which was meant, to paint portraits and landscapes; but the master either was incapable of performing his promise, or would not take the trouble, for the "superior painting" was merely copying stiff designs of portions of buildings. A year had passed, and the pupil had only been advanced so far as to paint walls and window-frames. "We must wait for the finer kinds of painting," said the master, "else what should I have to teach you in the last years of your apprenticeship ?" This mere common handicraft much annoyed the clever boy, and he drew by himself figures, landscapes, and other things, of which his master said, "If I had not known that these were your doing, I really might have thought that they were my own productions." And once, when the figure of a Moor was to be painted on a wall, he said, "You had better do it, and I will correct it." In the course of the second year of this very unsatisfactory instruction, the talented and ardent young pupil found it impossible to put up with it any longer; he pined to become acquainted with the higher branches of art, and secretly packing his trunk, he took himself off without giving his master the least warning of his intention. The young Jerichau found his way to Copenhagen, and, not long after, into the school of the Academy of Arts. His mother, who had several children to maintain on very slender means, could not do much for him; and, notwithstanding that he soon won both the silver medals, these could not obtain for him the means of subsistence, and to this serious difficulty was added, that there arose a conflict in his teeming youthful mind whether he should decide on being a painter or a sculptor. Sometimes he despaired of succeeding in either branch of the art. The regulations of the school fettered him; he became restless and uneasy; he fancied that nobody understood him; indeed, he scarcely understood himself. But, at length, it became clear to him that his inclinations lay towards sculpture. We find in the catalogue of the Royal Academy (of Copenhagen) for the year 1837, mention of a statue in plaster of "Balder," and a "Christ," after Michael Angelo. In the catalogue of 1838, a group is named representing "Faith, Hope, and Charity," a statue of "Love," and a sketch for a gravestone. All by him. The Danish government sent, in 1838, a ship to Italy to bring home Thorwaldsen and his works. Jerichau felt a strong desire to go in this ship, in order that he might study at Rome, and there, unshackled, develop his own ideas. Christian VIII., then crown-prince, kindly promised him a free passage; however, Jerichau had not completed his course of study at the Academy, and could therefore obtain no pecuniary assistance from it. Without money he could not undertake the voyage to Italy. But Providence ordained all for the best. There was an elderly lady in Copenhagen who had herself much talent for painting, and who took much interest in the arts, and in artists. One of her dearest wishes was to go to foreign countries to see more of the works of the great masters. Little by little she had put up money for this purpose, until at length she had accumulated several hundred dollars, and these she presented to Jerichau, persuaded that his visit to Rome would be of benefit to the arts in Denmark. In consequence of this generous sacrifice on the part of the lady, Jerichau was enabled to fulfil his wish, and to embark for Italy; but during the solitude of the voyage he began to doubt of his future success, and he arrived very much out of spirits at Rome, where, however, the kind and encouraging reception he met with from his distinguished countryman, Thorwaldsen, cheered him, and gave him confidence in himself. But it was only for a short time that they remained together, for Thorwaldsen returned to Denmark; but Jerichau obtained his permission to study in his atelier, and the works of that great master, as well as the treasures from antiquity in which Rome is so rich, charmed the young artist, and improved his taste. At this time he devoted himself principally to copying from nature the heads of animals, especially those of dogs, buffaloes, and wild goats. Thus passed a couple of years-not years, however, of pleasure and prosperity, but years of difficulties and unrewarded toil. The money he had brought from Copenhagen had been long exhausted, he fell into bad health, passed from one illness into another, and with his first work, a statue of Adonis, he met with an unfortunate accident, for it got broken before it was cast; it was then his unhappy fate to wander about "the Eternal City," a poor, desponding, suffering invalid. At home, in Copenhagen, from the first year of his studies at the Academy, he had contracted an intimate friendship with the young artist Thorald Lessöe, brother to Colonel Lessöe, who fell at Idsted-a friendship which years have since proved and strengthened; and he sent to him some sketches and designs of contemplated works. Her Majesty the Queen-Dowager Caroline Amalie saw these drawings, and was the first to give a commission to Jerichau-the first to afford him an opportunity of executing a work of any consequence. The subject she gave was "The Marriage of Alexander and Roxana." Though still weak from long illness, and oppressed with sadness and want, Jerichau applied himself assiduously to the work, and finished it in 1845, at which time there was an exhibition of works of art at Rome, in order to raise funds to assist in finishing the erection of the cathedral at Cologne. At this exhibition his group was seen; the artistical concep VOL. XLVIII. E tion and handling of his subject, the beautiful, pure, antique style in which he seemed to excel, attracted the observation of many artists, and of those who understood art; but he became more generally known when he exhibited his colossal group "Hercules and Hebe," which speedily procured him an order for "Penelope." Some copies in a reduced size of "Hercules and Hebe" were placed in his workshop in the Corso, and the celebrated German painter Cornelius passing one day, observed them, and stopped to admire them. He immediately inquired the name and place of abode of the artist, and calling on him, expressed his joy that a work of such excellence had been executed by a countryman of the great master Thorwaldsen, who had died the previous year. Professor Adolf Stahr, from Oldenborg, who was then residing at Rome, published in various German newspapers the most flattering eulogies of the young sculptor's genius and abilities; but envy now awoke in the minds of the other artists in Rome, and they tried to undervalue Jerichau's work by asserting that "Hercules" was only a restored copy of the celebrated "Belvedere Torso," at the Vatican. Jerichau replied to this accusation by placing a cast of that famous work alongside of his own, and his triumph was complete. But those who were ill-disposed towards him then complained loudly of his self-conceit in exhibiting his own production in juxtaposition with an antique; and though they admitted the merit of his work, they endeavoured to decry his talents by giving out that he was only a copyist of the works of antiquity. It was on this account that, in 1846, he produced from a living model his "Panther Hunter," and opinions were divided whether this or his former work was the finest. In the course of the previous year, a young Polish painter, named Elisabeth Baumann, had come to Rome, and there, after a residence of some weeks among the mountains, where she was delighted with the scenery and with the manners of the common people, she made the sketch of a large picture representing "Italian Women at a Well." The painter Cornelius, who, on seeing, as he had already done, her Polish pictures, which were full of life and spirit, had said, "She is the only man in the Düsseldorf school," was much pleased with her cartoon, and expressed great interest in her. Anna Maria Elisabeth Baumann was born at Warsaw on the 21st of November, 1819, of German parents. With them and their other children, in a large, rambling old house, situated on a declivity near the Vistula, and surrounded by gardens and villas, she had a peaceful, happy home. But when the revolution broke out, the quiet of their domestic circle was destroyed, and the parents thought it was best to remove the young people from Warsaw; thus Elisabeth was sent to an old maiden aunt at Dantzig. Here she was left much to herself, and she lived, alone, it may be said, with nature. The impression lately made on her mind by the revolution increased as the events of the war thickened, and she felt a longing-in short, a necessity-to put upon paper sketches of many a scene she had witnessed. A journey to Kiev, whither she went to visit a married sister, afforded new subjects for her pencil, as she found so much of the picturesque in the national costumes of the Russians, Poles, and Jews. The young girl, who had a considerable talent for music, neglected that art more and more, and by degrees devoted herself entirely to drawing and painting. Friends and acquaintances all advised her to become an artist, and as that seemed to be decidedly her own bias, her parents allowed her to spend a year at Berlin. The sketches and compositions she produced there were shown to a professor (whose name we suppress), and he gave it as his opinion that they evinced no talent. Although she was much afflicted and disheartened by this sentence, she could not bring herself to renounce the pursuit in which her whole soul was wrapped up, and when she mentioned her feelings to the clear-sighted professor, he recommended her to go to Düsseldorf, where she would soon become convinced that she had mistaken her vocation. She went to Düsseldorf. Weeks and months passed, but none of her works at that time gave promise of her future proficiency. However, she sketched several scenes from the every-day life of the common people in Poland, which attracted the attention of Professor Schadow, and he advised her to follow her own taste and inspirations. In the course of a couple of months she finished, under the auspices of Professor Carl Sohn, two pictures, the size of nature, of Polish life, which, from their admirable conception, their truth, and their colouring, were exceedingly admired. One was a Polish peasant flying with her three children, the other a Polish peasant family on the site of their hut which had been burned down.t The reputation for talent of a high order which the young painter now found accorded to her, gave her courage, and she proceeded to Rome, where she began her larger pictures. She was also admired for her amiable disposition, and her lively and agreeable manners. She sang charmingly Polish or Russian national airs, and spoke fluently several languages. Among the many artists who sought her society at Rome was Jens Adolf Jerichau, and their acquaintance soon ripening into intimacy, they were married at the chapel of the Prussian legation on the 19th of February, 1846. But though very happy with each other, though acknowledged to be excellent artists, and though their works received universal admiration, they obtained no purchasers. Jerichau was without any pecuniary resources, public or private, and soon, when he fancied he saw nothing but dire poverty before them, he sank into a state of nervous melancholy. With the most devoted affection, forgetting her own anxieties, his wife worked for him, and endeavoured to cheer his drooping spirits; and she was kindly assisted in her praiseworthy efforts by his faithful friend the painter Lessöe. Together they nursed the poor invalid, who at that time was very nearly lost to art and to the world. But when matters seemed to have come to the worst, help was fortunately near. On his birthday, the 14th of April, 1846, Jerichau received unexpectedly from King Christian VIII., of Denmark, an order for his group "Hercules and Hebe," of which his majesty had heard much; and on the very same day a commission came from Prince Galitzin, of St. Petersburg, for the "Panther Hunter;" while, immediately after, he was requested to execute * This picture belongs to Prince Radzewill, at Berlin. |