House and Garden 
were not those for which the medium was 
best adapted. It was, nevertheless, a forward 
step, a striving for something better, and led 
in turn to that higher phase which today 
claims a unique place among the fine arts. 
This is a combination of the pictorial and 
the decorative. It is literary, allegorical and 
picturesque, and is especially suited for 
either domestic or ecclesiastical architectural 
adaptation, belonging properly to that class of 
work which is coming to be generally, though 
somewhat ambiguously classified as“ideal art.” 
A panel for Mr. Parker Mann’s library 
was the earliest example of this style. It 
represents allegorically the coming of night. 
Five female figures are seen in it as through 
a narrow, oblong window, passing in proces¬ 
sion across a landscape background, each 
symbolizing a spirit of night. One calls the 
winds, one holds in her hands the crescent 
moon, one carries a frog—typifying the 
sounds heard at night—a fourth bears a 
burning censor, and the fifth holds in her 
arms a bunch of nodding poppies—symbol 
of sleep. The background is made up of 
panels which have been cut out, thereby 
giving an unusual effect of depth to the 
woodland which they picture. It is carved 
as well as burned and has a glint of gold 
behind the trees to suggest the setting sun 
and day’s departure. 
The next important work in order of ex¬ 
ecution was a smaller panel which has passed 
into the possession of Mrs. George Westing- 
house, picturing little St. Agnes of Monte- 
pulciano and two of her devotees. This was 
characterized by a medieval simplicity and 
showed a marvelous rendering of elaborate 
material in the draperies. 
A more elaborate panel of King Arthur, 
now the property of Robert 1 ). Benson, Esq., 
of Passaic, N. J., followed,and marked a note¬ 
worthy advance, for it was in this work that 
Mr. Curtis dipped for the first time into the 
rich depths of literature and dared an origi¬ 
nal interpretation. The work is a series of 
three complete panels framed as one. The 
central one of these pictures is the Lady of the 
Lake holding “ Excalibur,” that to the right 
Arthur and Merlin,and to the left“Three Fair 
Queens, who stand in silence near his throne.” 
Yet with more subtlety, more originality, 
greater art and deeper meaning, he wrought for 
Mr. Edward Lind Morse’s handsome Wash¬ 
ington studio a panel representing the “Angel 
of the Darker Drink,” taken, it will be remem¬ 
bered, from the familiar lines of the Rubaiyat: 
“ So when that Angel of'the Darker Drink 
At last shall find you by the river brink. 
And offering his Cup, invite your Soul, 
Forth from your Lips to quaff—you shall not shrink.” 
This is also made in three sections—a cen¬ 
tral main panel and two narrow side panels. 
On the principal panel is pictured the Angel 
holding his bitter cup to the lips of a fair 
young woman, and gruesome as the subject 
is there is poetry, dignified solemnity and 
true sentiment in its interpretation. It is 
so contrived that the Angel’s dark, heavy 
wings are turned forward in such a posi¬ 
tion that they express active support and 
at the same time terminate the figure with¬ 
out abruptness. The faces of the Angel 
and the maiden are chaste and soulful ; the 
“hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” 
A Series of Panels executed by William Fuller Curtis 
293 
