chanic and his income
very small.

[Illustration: THE GRAPE EATERS. _Murillo._]

Our artist's full name was Bartolome Esteban Murillo. His last name
seems to have come from his father's family, though it was even more
common in those days to take the mother's name for a surname, as in
the case of Velazquez. We know almost nothing of his early years
except that he was left an orphan before he was eleven, under the
guardianship of an uncle. Perhaps we should mention that Murillo early
showed his inclination to make pictures by scribbling the margin of
his school books with designs that in no wise illustrated the text
therein. With this as a guide his guardian early apprenticed him to
Juan del Castillo, another uncle, and an artist of some repute. Here
he learned to mix colors, to clean brushes, and to draw with great
accuracy.

When Murillo was about twenty-two, Castillo removed to Cadiz, down the
river from Seville, and the young artist was thrown wholly on his own
resources. Life with him in those days was merely a struggle for
existence. He took the method very generally taken by young artists.
He painted for the _Feria_ or weekly market. Here all sorts of
producers and hucksters gathered with their wares. We can imagine that
men of this sort were not very particular about the art objects they
purchased. They demanded two things--bright colors and striking
figures. Murillo, in common with other struggling artists, turned out
great numbers of these little bits of painted canvas. Some of them
have been discovered in Spanish America, whither they were undoubtedly
taken to assist in religious teaching.

If there was hardship in this _painting for the feria_, as people
slightingly spoke of such work, there were also immense advantages. As
he painted he could observe the people who came to buy and the people
who came to sell, and, mayhap, that other numerous class in Seville
who neither buy nor sell, but beg instead. From this very observation
of character must have come largely that skill which is so marked in
his pictures of beggar boys, who, with a few coppers, or a melon, or
some grapes, are kings of their surroundings. Then the demand for
striking figures cultivated a broad style in the artist which added
greatly to his later work.

A fellow pupil of Murillo's had joined the army in Flanders. When he
returned he told such wonderful stories of the country and its art
works, that Murillo was more than ever i