There are also a reminiscence of the present war ('Baltimore,
1862--Twilight,' No. 409), and one of foreign travel ('Como,' No. 385),
equally suggestive of--not paint--but real, palpitating atmosphere.
No. 49. 'Mount Tahawas, Adirondacs'--J. McEntee, N. A. A picture of
great simplicity and grandeur, and one we should never weary of looking
into, waiting for the opaline lights of dawn to deepen into the full
glory of day. This, like all the works of McEntee we have had the good
fortune to see, bears the impress of a poet-soul. A vague stretching
forth toward the regions of the infinite, a melancholy remembrance of
some enduring sorrow, a tender reminiscence of scenes peculiar to
certain heartfelt seasons of the year, a hazy foreshadowing of coming
winter, a lingering over the last dying hour of day, a presaging of
storms to come, or a lotus-eating dream by some quiet lake, are the
themes to be evolved from many of his conceptions. Alas for 'Virginia'
(No. 218), mother of presidents, and nurse of the Union! Can it indeed
be her sky that shines down so weird and strange over desolate plains,
through broken walls and shattered beams, and darkens as it shrinks in
horror from the broken bridge once spanning the blood-stained waters of
the fatal run? No. 233 is a 'Twilight,' No. 58 an 'October on the
Hudson,' and No. 171 a 'Late Autumn,' by the same artist, all excellent
specimens of his tender and poetical mode of handling a subject. In
looking at one of his pictures, we think more of the matter than the
manner, and, carefully correct as is the latter, the mind is often too
filled with emotion to care to examine into the very minutiae, whose
delicate execution has so powerfully aided to produce the general
effect.
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