28 October 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: ViU, UCCL 01278)
Pray accept my thanks for the proof copy of Mr. Longfellow’s picture.1explanatory note To condense all commendation into a single sentence, I think it the perfection of a portrait.2explanatory note
letter docketed: (Mark Twain
This was the
portrait of Mr. Longfellow, which the publishers of The Atlantic have just issued, and which was drawn on stone by Mr. J. E. Baker. It is an extremely sturdy and at the same time most refined piece of graphic art. . . . The picture gives about a third of the figure’s length, and the pose is very simple, one arm being raised from the elbow, with the hand supporting the cheek and partially concealed in the poet’s thick, white beard. A slight turning of the face, resulting from this supported posture of the head, throws the left cheek and temple into soft shadow; a disposition to which must be attributed something of the deeply thoughtful aspect of the head. This aspect gives to the portrait its great charm, which we think will prove a lasting one; and the whole appearance is most agreeably characteristic; we receive from the sight of this portraiture the same sort of impression which comes from reading Mr. Longfellow’s poetry. . . . It is, in short, probably the best portrait of Mr. Longfellow which has yet been placed within the reach of the public. (“Art,” Atlantic Monthly 36 Dec 75: 762)
Houghton and Company used this sentence in advertising the “splendid life-size Portrait,” along with praise from others “in a position to judge of the excellence of the work,” including William Cullen Bryant, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, John Greenleaf Whittier, and James T. Fields. The portrait could “be had only by subscribers to The Atlantic Monthly, and the price of the magazine and portrait has been placed at the low sum of $5.00, postage on both being paid by the Publishers” (“A New Portrait of Longfellow,” Atlantic Monthly 37 Jan 76: unnumbered page following cover).
MS, Clifton Waller Barrett Library, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville (ViU).
L6 , 578–579.
deposited at ViU by Clifton Waller Barrett on 17 December 1963.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.