a miniature-painter of repute, attached,
we believe, to the household of the Princess Charlotte. His daughter
Anna was naturally taught by him the principles of his own art;
but she had instincts for all,--taste for music,--a feeling for
poetry,--and a delicate appreciation of the drama. These gifts--in
her youth rarer in combination than they are now (when the connection
of the arts is becoming understood, and the love of all increasingly
diffused)--were, during part of Mrs. Jameson's life, turned to the
service of education.--It was not till after her marriage, that a
foreign tour led her into authorship, by the publication of "The Diary
of an Ennuyee," somewhere about the year 1826.--It was impossible to
avoid detecting in that record the presence of taste, thought, and
feeling, brought in an original fashion to bear on Art, Society,
Morals.--The reception of the book was decisive.--It was followed, at
intervals, by "The Loves of the Poets," "Memoirs of Italian Painters,"
"The Lives of Female Sovereigns," "Characteristics of Women" (a series
of Shakspeare studies; possibly its writer's most popular book). After
this, the Germanism so prevalent five-and-twenty years ago, and now
somewhat gone by, possessed itself of the authoress, and she published
her reminiscences of Munich, the imitative art of which was new, and
esteemed as almost a revelation. To the list of Mrs. Jameson's books
may be added her translation of the easy, if not vigorous Dramas
by the Princess Amelia of Saxony, and her "Winter Studies and
Summer Rambles"--recollections of a visit to Canada. This included
the account of her strange and solitary canoe voyage, and her
residence among a tribe of Indians. From this time forward, social
questions--especially those concerning the position of women in life
and action--engrossed a large share of Mrs. Jameson's attention; and
she wrote on them occasionally, always in a large and enlightened
spirit, rarely without touches of delicacy and sentiment.--Even when
we are unable to accept all Mrs. Jameson's conclusions, or to join her
in the hero or heroine worship of this or the other favourite example,
we have seldom a complaint to make of the manner of the authoress. It
was always earnest, eloquent, and poetical.
Besides a volume or two of collected essays, thoughts, notes on books,
and on subjects of Art, we have left to mention the elaborate volumes
on "Sacred and Legendary Art," as the greatest literary lab
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