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[crosshatched text]
Read this letter
by installments.
Media Oct. 21st. 1899
My Dear Hannah
I was so glad to find by thy
birthday letter, that thee was well
enough to take trolley rides. I do believe
so much in out-doors, not alone for
the fresh air, but for its influence on
the mind, which after all is said
and done, has, and of right ought[?] to
have a controlling influence on the body.
The body that we lay aside when we
are done with its worn out casement –
the soul that we keep as I believe through
eternity. So many beautiful things God
has given us to cheer the soul, and keep
it fresh and bright even if the body
is wearing away – and this year – this
Autumn, by the common consent, being
the most beautiful, that any one I have
[left page]
met, can remember. Such richness of
Autumnal foliage, I cannot remember
to have ever seen before. Last year, I had
several orders for Autumn Leaves, but I
found it very difficult to find any of
them equal to what I wanted. This
year the trees were actually hopeless in
their beauty. It would be impossible for
art ever to reach their actual tints. In
1893 I painted a branch of Maple. The
coloring was extremely rich – by foreigners
unaccustomed to our autumnal colors,
would no doubt have been considered an
exaggeration. But this year [Linnaeus Fussell] brought
me in a few choice branches, which I held
beside the 1893 painting, and they made
that look pale. I have spent about a
week in reproducing a group of these
leaves. I have done my best and the effect
is beautiful –very– but I have to acknowledge
that I [underlined] could not [/underlined] get the full richness
of the original. I went to the city by
Trolley just when the colors were at their
best and the whole road was a procession
of beauty, but two trees near a creek were
the most beautiful sight of the kind which
[right page]
I have ever beheld. They were not only glowing
in richness, but they were delicate also,
in branches shading from cream to crimson
with all the intermediate shades. In my
paint box I have eight different colors
reading from pink to violet crimson. I have
had to use them all, besides greens and
browns and purples and yellows and
white. The painting is a large one with
perhaps 30 or more leaves. If I were making
it for sale I could not do it under
twenty five dollars, – but it is with
[hosing?] as the best I could do for this very
unusual season. At the same time a
friend from Swarthmore brought me branches
of trees I needed for illustration, but these
I had to set aside, and get to the colors
while they lasted. Although so very beautiful, I
think they faded sooner than common, this
year. Only about two days were they at
their very best.
I must tell thee of an intellectual treat
we had at the Woman’s Club on sixth
day afternoon last. A lady from Lansdowne
of the name of Jordan, gave me a lecture on
“The Ethical Value of the Early Madonnas”
I was much more than delighted to find
her a most thorough and conscientious
student of her subject. This was so evident
that I asked her how long she had been
studying it. She replied “five years.” – I think
she must have travelled much and have seen
in the Old World Collections, the Works of the
famous masters she mentioned. She is to
give a second lecture in November on the
“Modern Madonnas.” Her argument was
that in a time of darkness and the reign
of Brute Force, the worship of the Madonnas
had been the gentle and tender element
which the heart of mankind needed to
preserve its faith in Religion. I think
She is a Friend or the descendant of Friends
as she said “Thee” to me, and in other respects
she seemed like one. She pointed out clearly
the faults as well as the merits of the different
works of the great artists and commended them
more for their spirituality, than for their
artistic perfection. She said that when mere
beauty became an object, and the artists took
their wives, or sometimes had women for models,
that their spirituality began to decline, and
they lost the powers over their votaries. She
said too, that in the study of them it was
better to depend on your [underlined] own feeling [/underlined], than
on what has been written about them by others
and that thus a more conscientious estimate
of them, could finally be made. I had no
idea there were so many of these Madonnas.
The number of them seemed almost endless.
I can only say I wish thee could have heard
her for thyself. Her idea was that they
represented [underlined] Maternity [/underlined] only, in the first
place, and that it was that Divine
Element which softened and helped to
civilize the worlds. I hear she is giving
these lectures in West Chester to the Woman's
Club there. I have not for a long time, heard
a lecture which evinced so much study, and
original thought. I think I was more pleased
with it on that account than I was for the
Madonna's themselves, though I have wanted to
get a collection of them, by means of the
“Perry Pictures” costing one single cent a piece –
– small engravings, but wonderful for the price.
Has thee seen or heard of them? They are issued
I suppose, by the million, in are consequently
so cheap that almost anyone can have some
of them. Cut out and posted on gray card-
boards, they look very well, and are a great
resource to those who cannot travel, and
who cannot afford costly paintings. They
include a very great variety of subjects and
some of them are copies of the most renowned
paintings of both ancient and modern artists,
and of celebrated places. Cheaper than these
are another series issued as advertisements, but
they really are very good pictures at ½ a cent
each – to 50 cts.for one hundred. Hood’s Sarsaparilla!!
[left page]
Does thee remember my telling thee of the
death of Friend Worley We hear today
that the home she and her daughters had
here, is to be closed tomorrow, two of the
daughters going to California, and one ,
an invalid, going to spend her time with
the sisters, married and living elsewhere. I
want to go to say goodbye to them this
afternoon before they go. We valued them
very highly, although they being busy in
their work, and we in ours, we saw much
too little of them. One was a teacher in
The Public School of Media, and her room
is the one best liked in the School. She
does not [underlined] whip [/underlined], as some of the others do,
continuing the brutallizing customs forbidden
in the Schools of Philadelphia. I shall
never be satisfied until it is forbidden
here, and until there is a law forbidding
it in Pennsylvania. I do not want to
die and see the children still subjected
to this brutality. It seems to me a most
cruel and unwarrantable tyranny on
helpless children, and for that reason
alone, I would never, while it is allowed
send a child to the Public Schools.
I have brought up the subject several
times in our W. C. T. U. [Women’s Christian Temperance Union] meetings, and
[right page]
mean to use all the influence I possess
to interest our members in the subject. One
of the ladies is the wife of the Principal of
the Public School, where whipping is allowed.
She is a very lovely woman, and an able one
too, and I want [underlined] her [/underlined] to [underlined] feel [/underlined] that it is a
great wrong. I think she could put an
end to it, if she felt as I do.
The Teachers Institute for Delaware [County]
has been going on the past week, but I did
not attend any of the sessions, because I
was hurried to get my own painting
done, although Annie and her sister
Mary did go, and much of it, they
reported as unusually interesting. Annie
keeps about the same, and I think her
brother [Linnaeus Fussell] keeps her from falling
into invalidism by taking her out riding
whenever he can. It has a great effect
in keeping her cheerful. Dora took
a walk both yesterday and today
and I do wish most heartily she would
take thy medicine of trolley rides. &
I do hope she will, although the
fine weather is going fast, and
We cannot hope to keep it very much
longer.
My chart of the Willows & Poplars, is
getting printed and will probably be
finished in a few days. I had a
number for other drawings ready but
could not get any more on it. I
intended it to be issued in the September
but was prevented by several circumstances
chief of which were my eyes.
Charlie goes to his work early every
morning, returning after six in the evening
but for the last two or three weeks has been
suffering great sleep with dyspepsia. I have
been careful to have dry toast and soft
veiled eggs for his breakfast but even that
diet does not prevent his suffering although
he is better on it than he would be without
that care.
We hear that our dear cousin Adie intends
to divide her time between her two brother’s,. –
Morris in the East, and [Lundy?] in the West –
but I want to write to her to give us a
week or two, as I fear this may be the last
year we can have her, and I hope she
will come, and stay as long as she can.
I must close now with great love to
thee and thy dear sisters. I am so
glad your [trie?] remains unbroken. Long
may it be so. Thine, past, present, and
I trust, future. My beloveds & valued friends, last
of so many – Gracie
Graceanna Lewis letter
Addressed to "Hannah" and likely to Graceanna Lewis' friend and fellow Quaker Hannah Wright Mifflin. Lewis discusses the value of fresh air and spending time outside. She describes her efforts to paint the autumn trees and capture their coloring. She talks in detail about an fascinating lecture she attended at the woman's club on the Madonnas; she plans to get a collection of Madonnas through the Perry Picture Company. She rebukes the practice of teachers whipping students and hopes to get the Women's Christian Temperance Union to take up the cause of ending the practice. She also discusses her niece Anna Fussell and nephew Charles Fussell, whom she was living with. She mentions that her eyes have delayed her from finishing some drawings of trees.
Lewis, Graceanna, 1821-1912
1899-10-21
8 pages
reformatted digital
Lewis-Fussell Family Papers, SFHL-RG5-087
Lewis-Fussell Family Papers, SFHL-RG5-087 --http://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/resources/5087lefu
A00180273