Page:A tribute to W. W. Corcoran, of Washington City (IA tributetowwcorco00boul).pdf/63

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W. W. CORCORAN.
51

treachery of the sea; and what is more sad to the human eye than such a spectacle, waking up memories of danger and disasters? No. 19. Spring, by Japy, 1873, selected by Mr. W. T. Walters. Greetings to the artist for his faithful delineation! The bright garniture of green that pervades the landscape "tells like a tongue," the joy of the earth, when waking from her frozen spell, she arrays herself with beauty. The sky is clear with patches of blue and creamy fleck, smiling in concert with the brightness below. Such radiant scenes make music in the heart, recalling the glad days of youth, when the stream proved a mirror for the rosy cheek and laughing eye, when nimble feet embedded the bright green moss, or careless fingers pulled at the wayside flowers. Youth makes a glad part of this picture, as near the brook stands a little child gazing into its mother's face, whilst its wee hand grasps a fugitive wild blossom. The adult figure is seated, giving the inference of content and ease. If these are the principal individual features, we may not overlook the animal life in a group of cows that are evidently reveling in high clover, and sniffing in the aroma of spring, not less gratefully than their keeper or the dairy maid. The shadows on the stream from the overhanging trees, and the shooting spires of grass that dot here and there the water, are wonderfully true to nature. The heavy laden boughs of apple blossoms give rich promise, and even the hard old rocks and stones, and some grim battlements at the extreme right, seem to lose half of their sternness in the delicate surroundings that come and go at the will of the Author of the Seasons, His vernal gift to earth being full of loving kindness, and far more beautiful and entrancing than the fairest bride decked out in marriage garments. No. 20. A Western Landscape, by Brewerton,