feet high: figures size of life: without signature or date: the
manner is that of the middle period: the year I believe to be between
1831 and 1835. The system of colour, though not without the depth and
solemnity of the early schools of Lombardy, is that peculiar to the
religious art of modern Germany: it is dull, heavy and opaque. I would
quote as an interesting proof of nature-study, still maintained at this
pronounced period, a foreground plant and flower exquisitely drawn and
affectionately painted. The picture is seen to utmost disadvantage: the
cold and poverty-stricken surroundings are those usually deemed
appropriate in Lutheran Germany.]

[Footnote 9: The present position of _The Marriage of the Virgin_ in the
Raczynski Gallery, Berlin, has just those "disturbing surroundings"
which the painter dreaded. It is crowded among discordant works, and is
hung so high that I had to ask for a ladder to examine its quality and
condition. The oil pigments remain sound save some small surface cracks.
The size is about 6 feet by 4 feet. The modest price paid by the
munificent patron, and for which he received the artist's grateful
acknowledgments, was somewhat under 100_l_. sterling. Surely Overbeck
did not paint for filthy lucre.]

[Footnote 10: See account of 'Religion glorified by the Fine Arts,'
written by the painter himself and translated by Mr. John Macray:
published by Ryman, Oxford; 2nd edition, 1850.]

[Footnote 11: The picture has been engraved by Amsler, and is also
photographed. The cartoon is in the Carlsruhe Gallery, framed and hung:
it measures about 12 feet wide by 14 feet high: it is in charcoal or
chalk, on squares of whity-brown paper mounted on canvas. This drawing
is remarkable for thoroughness in form and character; indeed, it is just
what a cartoon should be. Countless preliminary studies of separate
figures and draperies must have preceded it. Overbeck in a letter, 28th
December, 1839, to Emilie Linder mentions three cartoons or studies. One
large one being the above. A second smaller, 4 feet 8 inches square, in
sepia, on canvas. This I examined October, 1880, in the National
Gallery, Berlin: the execution in parts is poor. The work had been sent
for sale, but was not purchased. The third sketch is described by the
artist as different in proportions and composition. It is in black chalk
and pencil on red paper. The painter names L100 as the price: he
received L1300 for the picture.]

[Footnote