led off. To his proficiency in the mechanical part of
his art Mr. Rogers attributes a considerable measure of his success, as
it enables him to execute with facility every suggestion of his
imagination, and to secure the perfect reproduction of his works by
those to whom he intrusts that labor."

By placing his works at popular prices, ranging from $10 to $25 each,
Mr. Rogers has insured the largest sale and greatest popularity for
them, and has thus become a national benefactor. It is now within the
power of every person of moderate means to possess one or more of his
exquisite groups, and in this way the artist has not only secured to
himself a sure means of wealth, but has done much to encourage and
foster a popular love for, and appreciation of, the art of which he is
so bright an ornament.

It was a bold venture to depart so entirely from all the precedents of
art, but the result has vindicated both the artist's genius and his
quick appreciation of the intelligence of his countrymen. "We can not
enter into the feelings of ancient Greece," says a popular journal, in
summing up his efforts, "and our artists who spend their time in
attempting to reproduce that ancient art are only imitators. Their works
interest only a small class of connoisseurs, and that interest is an
antiquarian interest. It is not a vital, living interest, such as a
Greek felt in his own work. It is not the natural, healthful, artistic
feeling, the feeling for the beauty of realities, except in so far as it
represents the feeling for the eternal attributes of beautiful form. It
is an effort on the part of our artists to impose the forms and features
of another age upon this one,--a task as impossible in art as in
society, religion, and national politics."

Mr. Rogers is now in his forty-first year, and of all our American
artists is, perhaps, the one best known to the masses, and the most
popular. He is of medium height, carries himself erectly, and is quick
and energetic in his movements. His face is frank, manly, and open, and
the expression, though firm and resolute,--as that of a man who has
fought so hard for success must be,--is winning and genial. He is a
gentleman of great cultivation of mind, and is said by his friends to be
one of the most entertaining of companions. In 1865 he married a
daughter of Mr. C.S. Francis, of New York, and his fondness for domestic
life leads him to pass his leisure hours chiefly by his own fireside.

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