CHAPTER XX.

SAMUEL F.B.  MORSE.

Samuel Finley Breese Morse is the eldest son of the late Jedediah Morse, one of the most distinguished Presbyterian clergymen of New England.  He was born at Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the 27th of April, 1791, was carefully educated in the common schools of his native town, and at an early age entered Yale College, where he graduated in 1810.  He exhibited an early fondness for art as well as studies of a scientific character, and while a student at Yale displayed an especial aptness for chemistry and natural philosophy.  Upon leaving college he decided to adopt the profession of an artist, and was sent abroad to study under the tuition of West and Copley and Allston.

[Illustration:  SAMUEL F.B.  MORSE.]

“When Allston was painting his ‘Dead Man Restored to Life,’ in London,” says Mr. Tuckerman, in his Book of the Artists, “he first modeled his figure in clay, and explained to Morse, who was then his pupil, the advantages resulting from a plan so frequently adopted by the old masters.  His young countryman was at this time meditating his first composition—­a dying Hercules—­and proceeded at once to act upon this suggestion.  Having prepared a model that exhibited the upper part of the body—­which alone would be visible in the picture—­he submitted it to Allston, who recognized so much truth in the anatomy and expression that he urgently advised its completion.  After six weeks of careful labor, the statue was finished and sent to West for inspection.  That venerable artist, upon entering the room, put on his spectacles, and as he walked around the model, carefully examining its details and general effect, a look of genuine satisfaction beamed from his face.  He rang for an attendant and bade him call his son.  ‘Look here, Raphael,’ he exclaimed, as the latter appeared; ’did I not always tell you that every painter could be a sculptor?’ We may imagine the delight of the student at such commendation.  The same day one of his fellow pupils called his attention to a notice issued by the Adelphi Society of Arts, offering a prize for the best single figure, to be modeled and sent to the rooms of the association within a certain period.  The time fixed would expire in three days.  Morse profited by the occasion, and placed his ’Dying Hercules’ with the thirteen other specimens already entered.  He was consequently invited to the meeting of the society on the evening when the decision was to be announced, and received from the hands of the Duke of Norfolk, the presiding officer, and in the presence of the foreign ambassadors, the gold medal.  Perhaps no American ever started in the career of an artist under more flattering auspices; and we can not wonder that a beginning so successful encouraged the young painter to devote himself assiduously to study, with a view of returning to his own country fully prepared to illustrate the historical department of the art.”