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72 Thursday Apl. 3" 1890. Varnishing day at the Academy. I went up about 9 o clock and spent the forenoon there. I was struck by a certain repugnance to any thing like agreeable color in some of the pictures and a liking for egg shaped, colorless, expressionless faces. To my mind Maynards picture of the syrens is the most clever picture in the collection, showing more imagination and the recognition of finer qualities than are shown in base facts. A great throng of aggressive looking young men, seemingly amateurs who paint as being an elegant pursuit shows what a change has come over the body of the artists who were my contemporaries. I talked with Hicks and although he is a well preserved man he struck me as having grown old - My Autumn picture "The Fall of the year" has an excellent place in the line on the South Side of the South room. My "Winter in the Country" is in the second line in the next room, with disagreeable greenish pictures about it entirely inharmonious with it. It does not look well to me - However I cannot complain as usual there are various opinions about the exhibition. To me the collection as a whole is about up to the average - I painted on the little portrait in the afternoon but I have a feeling it will not amount to any thing. Downing and I went over to the Grand Opera house and saw Rose Coghlan in Peg Noffington. We got the best seats in the Parquette for 75c. I call Rose Coghlan a miserable actress. Her tones and accent are outrageously false and stagey, which is a fault I have always found with her. The rest of the company were very good - better far than she was, notably the Triplet of Tom E. Weber, the Mabel Vane of Miss Helen Bancroft We both enjoyed the play: Friday 4" Good Friday. Rained all day a gentle April rain. Painted nearly all day on the little portrait hoping I can get something which will be characteristic of dear Gertrude, but I do not and am about discouraged with it. Eastman sent me an invitation to dine with him which I did. Mrs Johnson was not able to be present owing to a head ache. Rouse came in. He looks very old and feeble. Eastman and I went up to his studio after dinner. He had a portrait of Genl. Miles just completed which I thought up to his mark and a capital picture of himself painted in one evening, very brilliant, strong in color and excellent in pose. I came away about 11 o clock and when I reached the studio Building found I had left my keys in my room. I pounded and banged with my cane and finally Conant heard me and came and opened the door. Then I had to awaken the servants to get a pass key to get into my room Saturday 5". Bright and windy. Went home by noon train. It seemed warm and pleasant there. The parlor which Sara has had cleaned was opened and the doors into the hall and the sunshine poured in and made it very cheerful, as far as it could be with its sweet and tender memories of the voices that once filled it but which are silent now forever - In the Spring with its budding and bursting life is the sad season to me. Sara and I sat in front of the fire and talked of those of our household who are gone Sunday 6" Warm and bright. The robins and indeed all the birds seem to have returned. I saw beside them the Phebe, blue bird, song sparrow and Brown Thrasher. Their notes fill my soul with a homesick longing for I know not what. I started out for a walk. As I passed the cemetery although it was just about noon there were people about Maj Cornells grave gazing at the floral emblems, attracted it seemed to me by mere curiosity. I walked out to the rocks this side the Wiltwyck cemetry and then turned south along the crest and sides of the hill to see if I could find any arbutus where there used to be quantities of it. I found a few struggling bits in hidden places but it is practically extinct. I walked almost to the West Shore Rail Road and found to my great encouragement that I could climb about better than I feared I could and came back home replenished and not over tired. Girard came over in the afternoon and showed me a copy of the assessment for paving Holmes St. The tax on the Estate is $737.53 and on my property $256. which we consider a perfect outrage. We are taxed at the same rate as the improved property
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Reopened for Editing 2023-06-24 15:43:18