nspired to go abroad to Rome
or to Flanders. He at once set about earning a little money to assist
him in the journey. Again he painted a great number of saints and
bright landscapes on small squares of linen, and sold them to eager
customers. Thus he provided himself with scant means for the journey.
He placed his sister in the care of a relative, and then started off
afoot across the Sierras to Madrid, without having told anyone of his
intentions. His little stock of money was soon exhausted, and he
arrived in Madrid exhausted and desperately lonesome. He at once
searched out Velazquez, his townsman, who was then rich, and honored
in the position of court painter to Philip IV. Velazquez received him
kindly, and after some inquiry about mutual acquaintances, he talked
of the young painter's plans for himself. Murillo spoke freely of his
ambition to be a great painter, and of his desire to visit Rome and
Flanders.

Velazquez took the young painter to his own house, and procured for
him the privilege of copying in the great galleries of the capitol and
in the Escurial. He advised him to copy carefully the masterpieces in
his own country. There were pictures by Titian, Van Dyck, and Rubens,
and Murillo began the work of copying them at once. When Velazquez
returned after long absence, he was surprised at the improvement in
Murillo's work. He now advised the young painter to go to Rome, but he
had been away from Seville for three years, and he longed to be again
at home in his beautiful native city. During his absence he had
learned much in art and in the ways of the world. He had met many
distinguished artists and statesmen in Velazquez's home.

[Illustration: FRUIT VENDERS. _Murillo._]

The first three years after his return to Seville, he busied himself
with a series of pictures for a small Franciscan convent near by.
Although he did the work without pay, the monks were loath to give him
the commission because he was an unknown artist. There were eleven
in the series, scenes from the life of St. Francis. They were
admirably done, and though the artist received no pay for them, they
did him a greater service than money could have bought--they
established his reputation, so that he no longer wanted for such work
as he desired.

Among his earliest and best known pictures are those charming studies
of the beggar boys and flower girls of Seville. Several of the best of
these are in the gallery at Munich where the