Mrs. Zeigler. Mrs. Ludlow writes from Cincinnati: "Major Zeigler said to me, on his first visit (April, 1797): Our ladies are not gay, but they are extremely affectionate one to the other. I believe he spoke the truth. Perfect harmony and good-will appear to exist in all their intercourse." Certainly this could have been truly said of Mrs. Zeigler.

Visitors to Cincinnati, when it was a mere village, were surprised by the luxurious manner of living, and the generous hospitality of the merchants and retired army officers who lived there. Major Zeigler shared the prevailing tastes and habits, and loved to entertain both friends and guests from abroad. A letter, written from Cincinnati in the fall of 1806, says, "The girls had a variety of amusements plays, balls and tea-parties. A curious old ball ticket, addressed to one of these girls, dated Cincinnati, Feb. 17, 1809, and printed, as was then the fashion, on the

back of a playing card (the queen of hearts) is still preserved. The ball was given "in commemoration of Washington's birthday, at the Columbian Inn, on Wednesday evening, the twenty-second, at six o'clock. William Ruffin, E. H. Stall, J. Baymillar, J. W. Sloan, managers.' Mrs. Ludlow, describing Cincinnati in 1797, says "that it was then a village of wooden buildings, with a garrison of soldiers. The society consisted of a small number of ladies, united by the most perfect good-will and desire for mutual happiness. The gentlemen were social and intelligent." For several of the gentlemen, among whom she mentions Major Zeigler, she felt "an almost fraternal regard;" a regard which others whom the kindly major, at that or a later day, welcomed with cordial and genial hospitality, shared with her.

Major Zeigler died at Cincinnati, December, 1811, aged sixty-three years.

PIONEER ART IN CINCINNATΙ.

BY CHAS. T. WEBBER.

The beginning of art in Cincinnati is to be accredited to FREDERICK ECKSTEIN, although possibly John Wesley Jarvis may have made a halt, so to speak, here at an earlier date; but as Lexington, Louisville and later Columbus were his particular haunts, he is hardly to be considered an habitué of the Queen City of the West. Eckstein founded his academy here in 1826.

Frederick Eckstein, a man of high education and culture, man of business and affairs, made art something more than a pastime, than an adjunct to the means of "getting along," as his pursuits therein were governed by the high and unselfish purpose of improving the taste and refinement of his neighbors, the early pioneers of the West, and of planting the civilization of his own native Germany in his chosen American home, although facilities for the practice of that branch of art, sculpture, in which Mr. Eckstein chiefly exhibited his superior skill, were exceedingly meagre, those productions which have been preserved will compare favorably with most of that which has followed.

To Mr. Eckstein Hiram Powers owed his first lessons, as well probably his first impulse, in the direction of art. Clevenger afterwards opened a studio in this place, and the three, Eckstein, Clevenger and Powers, were in constant contact and sympathy. Corwin, Minor Kellogg and Charles Soule, in painting, came later. The latter was a disciple and imitator of Jarvis, and executed many beautiful and strongly characteristic portraits. Like Jarvis, he used the camera lucida to make his drawings; hence he never became the master in drawing that he was in color, merely from the want of practice. He painted in Cincinnati and afterwards in Dayton. Waldo and Jewett, painting in partnership, were not of Cincinnati, but rather, in their Western experience, of Lexington; but as many interesting portraits of pioneer heroes came from their hands, less commercial than their association would seem to indicate, and as their work exerted a decided influence upon the rising art, they should be mentioned here. Many of their heads, and some by their unknown compeers, are worthy, in their simple and untrammelled truth, of a place by the side of Holbein.

Jewett, of a Kentucky family, painted portraits of such remarkable truth, beauty of color and refinement, at the same time naturalness of composition, that their influence was felt in the formation of a taste here as well as elsewhere in the West. James H. Beard, still living, came to Cincinnati about 1830 or 1832; studied his art, portrait painting, here in nature's school and at the National Academy in New York. He made frequent visits to New Orleans and the South,

painting portraits for the wealthy planters, entertaining them the while with inimitable stories. He afterwards went to the dogs; but his dogs lacking, perhaps, the refinement and dignity of those of Landseer, are so powerful in expression and consummate wit, sometimes almost human, that we are inclined to forgive him for the transfer of his artistic affections. His portraits were very fine; notably that of Mr. Gibson and also one of Durbin Ward.

Henry Worrall although, perhaps, more practically devoted to music than to the art of design, carried, with his intense and genuine love for the latter, such a genuine helpfulness, giving them his ever-ready tact and the strength of his manly arm over the rough ways, especially when their representative happened to be a talented and attractive girl, as most girls are to whom the muse of art is revealed, that the history of our art cannot be truthfully outlined without his honored name gracing the page. He was born in England and came to America when a mere boy and soon to Cincinnati. He came with almost the first canvass upon which some unknown artist might record his conceptions of the beautiful. Every scheme, looking to the better condition of art and the happier relation of its practitioners, was sure to find Worrall at the helm or trimming the sails for the propitious breeze. To him, among many other enterprises for a similar purpose, we owe the first institution of the Cincinnati Sketch Club, out of which proceeded very many advantages to art. It had its influence in the evolution of nearly all the Cincinnati artists who have, in the last quarter of a century or more, exhibited particular excellence. The Sketch Club so formed numbered among its members Beard, Frankenstein, McLaughlin, Mosler, Farny, Read, Quick, Lindsay and many others, who gave at each meeting a sketch in illustration of a subject previously named, the sketches belonging to the member who on that occasion happened to be the host. This club continued in excellent harmony until some preachers and wealthy merchants were introduced as honorary members, who, by an excess of goodfellowship and conviviality proved the unsuspecting club's undoing. Previously its habits had been simple, as befitted a pioneer association of the West. Worrall carries the spontaneous germ of Sketch Club with him wherever he goes. He now lives in Topeka, Kansas, and there, at his word, a sketch club comes into being, with the additional grace of a membership composed of most beautiful and talented ladies.

The brothers Frankenstein, John and Godfrey, from 1832 to 1875 and 1881, are only to be spoken of in terms of the highest praise-Godfrey in landscape and John in all branches of art. They were both born in Germany, but came to Cincinnati with their parents when small children. Godfrey was the younger and painted many beautiful landscapes, closely and carefully studied from nature, finding his themes all the way from the White Mountains to the Knobs of Indiana, including Niagara, of which latter place he painted hundreds of views, uniting most of them in a famous and very effective panorama. He was an affable and honorable gentleman; qualities which, together with his acknowledged talent, secured for him many warm friends.

John, the elder brother, equally honorable and equally a friend of his fellow man, was not, unfortunately, of so equable a temper, but more nervous and somewhat moody, was not always understood at his real personal worth; no one knowing him, however, could fail to appreciate his just impartiality towards other artists, or the fearless integrity with which, regardless of self-interest, he stood for the rights of man.

In his art his works show him to be pre-eminent, particularly in sculpture, his landscape studies and his painting of the human head in his happiest experiments (for experiment he often did), and in his drawing and painting of the human figure, he is beyond and above criticism. A consummate anatomist, an acute observer, there is nothing to be found in his works that has been carelessly considered. His portrait of his brother Godfrey impresses me, as I remember it, as the grandest work of art I ever saw; and his sculptures, particularly the head of

This drawing was made about 1856 of one of Longworth's vineyards on the Ohio hills, four miles above the city. The cultivation of the grape for wine has ceased, being found by change of climate unprofitable.

McLean and also that of Dr. Mussey, have not been surpassed, if they have been equalled, in the last two thousand years. His painting led all that the later pilgrims to Munich have essayed, and his sculpture may stand, unbelittled, by the side of that of the Greeks in their best period.

There were several artists, now dead, who came upon the Cincinnati stage later than the Frankensteins. Thomas Buchanan Read, more celebrated as a poet than as a painter, exhibited, according to John Frankenstein, extraordinary genius in the commencement of his artistic career (about 1840), and attained very considerable power, considering that his direct preparatory studies were curtailed by his more intimate and assiduous attention to his poetic muse. He wrote the warballad, "Sheridan's Ride," and afterwards painted a noble and spirited picture of the subject. His portrait heads are characterized by a peculiar grace and refinement rather than by the exact rendering of the ordinary physical facts. His studies in painting never enabled him to embody in pictures the sublime, the pathetic, or even the beautiful, with that perfection or fullness of power which he has shown in his verse, and which, in many instances, enables him to abide in memory with the greatest bards that have ever lived.

J. O. Eaton, born Feb. 8, 1829, in Licking county, Ohio, came to Cincinnati about 1845, and attained prominence in portrait painting. Many of his best heads have not, in several respects, been surpassed. With good drawing, so far as the head and bust are concerned, and superb color, he had naturally, from the very first almost, a certain dexterity of handling that should set the neophytes of the present day who affect technique crazy with despair. His female heads are particularly lovely in pose, light and shade, color, and, more than all, expression. Lily Martin Spencer, a native of Ohio, worked in Cincinnati until about 1855, and her works, mostly genre subjects, attracted much deserved attention and praise. Her later life has been passed mostly in New York, where she has been highly appreciated. Miss Gengembre, born in France of a talented family, her father having been a designer in the employ of the French government, distinguished herself here by the beauty of her works, showing the way to more truthful process of study. She afterwards married Mr. Anderson, a talented engraver, and now resides in London, where her works are highly prized.

These great artists, and others possibly that escape my mind at this moment, have rendered a boon to mankind that will be more appreciated as time rolls on, and comparison is drawn between their works and those of artists working close by the protecting walls of the established schools of Europe.

Duncanson's landscapes were, on account of their peculiar poetical conception, much prized, not only in this country but in England and Scotland. Among the friends of the colored Americans (for Duncanson, a most genial gentleman as well as accomplished artist, was a light quadroon) they were in especial demand, finding favor with such cultured critics and outspoken believers that negroes have souls as Charles Sumner and his illustrious compeers in Europe.

All of the present generation will remember the versatile Wm. P. Noble, the talented but erratic Theodore Jones, the poetic painter and writer, Wm. P. Brannan, who painted splendid portraits of Lyman Beecher and Father Collins, and was the author of the extravaganza known as "The Harp of a Thousand Strings;" also T. D. Jones, the sculptor, who executed the portrait busts of Gen. Taylor, of Ewing, of Abraham Lincoln, and several other prominent statesmen and soldiers, all from life; while somewhat mechanical and having but little of the plastic qualities of fine sculpture, they are, nevertheless, good and expressive likenesses. A sculptor of great promise as well as (for one so young, he having died at about twenty-four or twenty-five years of age) of great achievements was Frank Dengler. His works were masterly busts and ideal groups. He studied in Munich, worked in Cincinnati, and during the last year or so of his life, through the friendly appreciation of Prof. Morse, became a teacher in the Boston Art School. In painting, latterly, we had the works of Dennis and Mulvaney, the former