y accomplished
was done at the hardest--when in our country a young girl might almost as
reasonably attempt to reach the moon as to become an artist--remembering
all this it seems as if an army of magicians must incessantly have waved
their wands above us, and that human brains and hands could not have
invented and put in operation the innumerable changes in our daily life
during the last half-century.

When, in the same way, we review the changes that have taken place in the
domains of science, in scholarly research in all directions, in printing,
bookmaking, and the methods of illustrating everything that is
printed--from the most serious and learned writing to advertisements
scattered over all-out-of-doors--when we add to these the revolutions in
many other departments of life and industry, we must regard the
nineteenth as the century _par excellence_ of expansion, and in various
directions an epoch-making era.

* * * * *

When we turn to our special subject we find an activity and expansion in
nineteenth-century art quite in accordance with the spirit of the time.
This expansion is especially noticeable in the increased number of
subjects represented in works of art, and in the invention of new methods
of artistic expression.

Prior to this period there had been a certain selection of such subjects
for artistic representation as could be called "picturesque," and though
more ordinary and commonplace subjects might be rendered with such
skill--such drawing, color, and technique--as to demand approbation, it
was given with a certain condescension and the feeling was manifested
that these subjects, though treated with consummate art, were not
artistic. The nineteenth century has signally changed these theories.

Nothing that makes a part in human experience is now too commonplace or
too unusual and mysterious to afford inspiration to painter and sculptor;
while the normal characteristics of human beings and the circumstances
common to their lives are not omitted, the artist frequently endeavors to
express in his work the most subtle experiences of the heart and soul,
and to embody in his picture or statue an absolutely psychologic
phenomenon.

The present easy communication with all nations has awakened interest in
the life of countries almost unknown to us a half-century ago. So
customary is it for artists to wander far and wide, seeking new motives
for their works, that I felt no