ABSTRACT
During the time I was about my picture of Alcibiades 21 in the Roman Spring of 1821 I was most agreably surprised & pleasantly cheered up from all my sadness & loneliness following the loss of such a gifted friend to whom I look’d up for advice & aid in my painting, & the most fascinating companionship in this most interesting place & so by his death I was at once cut off from what might have been an earthly paradise – and perhaps I might have been out of it altogether for my health was but very indifferent, but I had the help & consolation of my new picture & was fortunately able to abstract myself with it – then the execution of it at once was imperative, as my future well being in art indeed my very existance depended on it so that the necessity of doing it, not only occupied my mind, but fed & nursed my melancholy spirit Then the magic charms and the inchantment of the Spring at Rome soothed me, when I was not painting, into poetic delights It was a look of nature that I had never even dreamed of, for it seemed to me when I wandered out in the early morg that I could almost see the wild flowers grow, such progress they made in a single day & this being contrasted with the old antique walls & marbles on & about which I watched the vegetation in its Italian luxury, in its brilliant freshness & perpetual novelty – All this had the most wonderfull effect in restoring me to health, but might not have been effective had not another unlooked for source arrested my feeble step & helped my painting & love of nature for I was soon awakened to a still higher aspect of nature “Where dawns the high expression of a mind” Numbers of my country people were 22 at this time sojourning at Rome longer than usual on account of the loveliness of the season for every one felt that he was drinking in the health & beauty of nature The Englishmen & English Ladies who now <so kindly> crossed my path were of an order much higher & more intellectual than any I [had] before been acquainted with – There was an ease & elegance in their manners & ideas that most singularly accorded with the beautifull aspect of nature that was then springing up in me – These accomplished Ladies & gentlemen now most kindly crossed my path & offerd me their sympathy & friendly aids in all the gentle offices 587of life as well as the essential – the death of Keats altho he was unknown & my devoted friendship had become a kind of passport to the English hearts, & I soon found myself in the midst of not only the most polished society, but perhaps the most christian in the world I mean in the sense of humanity of cheerfullness of living rather for others than ourselves – This was a “treasure trove” to me as a young Artist, invaluable, as it was my first acquaintance with my future patrons & the foundation of that valuable, & lasting friendship which not only extended thro’ the long Italian sojourn I made of 20 years but has extended to my children with many of the like benefits I had previously enjoyd.
