dured more for art than he; none have waited more
uncomplainingly for a recognition that was sure to come by-and-by, or
received with greater serenity the approbation which the dull world came
at last to bestow. His history is most wholesome in its record of
steadfast resting upon conviction, and teaches quite as strongly as his
pictures do, the value of absorption in a lofty idea.

If the saying that those nations are the happiest that have no history
is true of men, Mr. Fuller's life must be regarded as exceptionally
fortunate. Considered by itself, it was quiet and uneventful, and had
little to excite general interest; but when viewed in its relation to
the practice of his art, it is found to be full of eloquent suggestions
to all who, like him, have been appointed to win success through
suffering. The narrative of his experience comprises two great
periods--the preparation, which covered thirty-four years, and the
achievement, to the enjoyment of which less than eight years were
permitted. The first period is subdivided into two, of which one
embraces eighteen years, from the time when, at the age of twenty, he
entered upon the study of his art, to his retirement from the world to
the exile of his Deerfield farm; the other including sixteen years of
seclusion, until, at the age of fifty-four, he came forth again to
proclaim a new revelation. The first part of his career may be dismissed
without any extended consideration. Its record consists of an almost
unrelieved account of struggle, indifferent success, and lack of
appreciation and encouragement, in the cities of Boston and New York.
In Boston he appeared as the student, rather than the producer of works,
and laid the foundation of his style in observation of the paintings of
Stuart, Copley, Allston, and Alexander,--all excellent models upon which
to base a practice, although destined to show little of their influence
upon the pictures which he painted in the maturity of his power. It is
not to be doubted, however, that all these men, and particularly Stuart,
made an impression upon him which he was never afterward wholly able to
conceal. We may see even in some of his latest works, under his own
peculiar manner, suggestions of Stuart, particularly in portraits of
women, which in pose and expression, and to a considerable degree in
color, show much of that dignity and composure which so distinguish the
female heads of our greatest portrait-painter. He always admir