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Mabie, Hamilton Wright, 1845-1916

"Under the Trees and Elsewhere"

They come to understand my finer moods and
deeper secrets of beauty; the elusive loveliness which I leave behind
me to lure on my true friends through the late autumn, they find and
follow with the eye and heart of love; the rare and splendid aspects in
which I often discover my presence in midwinter they enjoy all the more
because I have withdrawn myself from the gaze of the crowd; and the
first faint touches of colour and soft breathings of life, which
announce my return in the early spring, they greet with the deep joy of
true lovers. Those only who discern the beauty of branches from which
I have stripped the leaves to uncover their exquisite outline and
symmetry, who can look over bare fields and into the faded copse and
find there the elusive beauty which hides in soft tones and low
colours, are my true friends; all others are either pretenders or
distant acquaintances."
I was not at all surprised to hear my old friend express sentiments so
utterly at variance with those held by many people who lay claim to her
friendship; in fact, they are sentiments which I find every year
becoming more and more my own convictions. In every gallery of
paintings you will find the untrained about the pictures on which the
artist has lavished the highest colours from his palette; those whose
taste for art has had direction and culture will look for very
different effects in the works which attract them.


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