I am bringing it home, Doctor, for even though it find final resting
place in that great temple of science in Paris, I have the feeling, in
taking it to Chicago, that I am bringing it home. And the first day it is
exhibited there I want you and me to go to it together, as Karl would
like that we should.
"I am so tired that I do not believe I shall ever be quite rested again.
For the last three months I lived with the picture, my heart and mind
knew nothing else. But the day I finished it my strongest feeling was a
regret that it was finished, a yearning to go on with it forever. For
doctor, I painted my heart, my life, everything that I had within myself,
everything I had taken from Karl, into that picture. I am lonely now
without it, for it made my life.
"It has revived Karl's whole story. They tell it here--oh so lovingly. I
heard one man from the Institute telling it all to a younger man as they
stood before it yesterday. I have moved them to a new sense of Karl's
greatness; it has been my glorious privilege to perpetuate him, make sure
his place, _reveal_ him--for that is what I have sought to do.
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