"CESAR HAD HIS BRUTUS." After the Painting by Chappel. He HE Scene Chappel illustrates with such spirit, followed the climax of Patrick Henry's speech in support of the "Resolutions against the Stamp Act,» which he introduced in the Virginia House of Burgesses, May 29th, 1765. The cry of "Treason!» from the speaker and his "Conservative" supporters which interrupted the climax, "Cæsar had his Brutus, Charles I. his Cromwell, and George III. ——————" is suggested so graphically by the artist that it is almost possible to hear it. Chappel's work as an illustrator during the first half of the nineteenth century entitles him to permanent remembrance among American historical painters. has been estimated by his own generation and that which followed at mach below his real worth. The flaw in his work is a reflex of its excellence. His fidelity in detail is to some extent at the expense of freedom, but his work shows a noble ideal, great skill in execution and a prevailing devotion to rules of unity, which govern not less in oratory than they do in pictures. What this means in art is illustrated by the fact that every leading line in this picture forces attention to the orator as. the central figure. |