3-008-586 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"A Painter's First Work", by Marcus Stone in the Royal Academy Exhibition, 1862. Engraving of a painting. 'Our little incipient painter...has been left at home in an empty room. We may fancy that he has looked long and often at the Lely-like portrait of a lady...with no eye to observe and no hand to check, the irresistible imitative impulse, or rather the first...inspiration of genius, prompts him to seize the chalk and copy what has so long held him under a spell. He does so, and, as a "first work," even this rough chalk sketch has abundant indication of a special natural gift and faculty. Just as he has finished his outline...the father returns...seeing the panels of the oak press scrawled all over and disfigured with chalk, he turns to scold the little fellow for, as he thinks, slovenliness and idleness, and to threaten him with the consequences of a repetition of the offence. The boy, surprised and detected, stands abashed; but still, as if conscious of having been incited by something pure and noble, his look of timid deprecation is mingled with the trace of a wish to justify himself...The older gentleman...sees in the rough chalkwork the germs of what may bear glorious fruit; and he at once checks the father's inconsiderate anger'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.