PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS
Page 36 – THE HUNT BALL
“THE HUNT BALL. “—Among the hundreds of magnificent paintings exhibited in the Art Palace, the work of artists widely renowned in their special fields, certain pictures had always a throng about them from morning until mght. Among these was one, which, from its intrinsic merit, even beyond its size and brilliant coloring, attracted a continuous group of delighted visitors. It was “The Hunt Ball,” the work of Jules L. Stewart. It would be difficult, certainly, to imagine a scene more full of brightness and the keen enjoyment of life, or one more cleverly representing a phase of society the quality of which is not excelled anywhere in the world. In England ” The Hunt Ball ” is a great social function in its season and brings together the fairest women and gallant men under circumstances the most propitious. The scene represented appears to be at a time when the festivities are at their height, and when, indeed, there is a half whimsical flavor to the spirit of the moment, as indicated by the thrumming of the tambourine by one of the gentlemen while various couples waltz gaily to his earnest, but possibly somewhat irregular music. Charming women are these, and manly looking men, and it is not surprising that the painting proved one of the most popular, even in a collection the most extensive of its class ever made and including masterpieces representing scenes of a graver sort. It was a work of admitted art, technically speaking, but it was, doubtless, the genial and brilliant touch of cultivated humanity in it which most made it appeal to the taste of the thousands.
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