I suppose this could be a specific painting, but I've always read it as a little dig at trompe l'oeil. --LH On Jan 23, 2012, at 3:09 PM, Scott Holmes wrote: > I've been working on a slideshow for chapter 19 from The Innocents > Abroad. The chapter contains some interesting observations on art > critics and their perceptions, particularly in regards to The Last > Supper. There is, however, another observation made by Twain, a > single > paragraph describing an unattributed painting. I was wondering if > anyone can identify the painting and artist and if an image of the > painting exists on-line anywhere. The paragraph reads: > > "In another place we were shown a sort of summer arbor, with a fence > before it. We said that was nothing. We looked again, and saw, through > the arbor, an endless stretch of garden, and shrubbery, and grassy > lawn. > We were perfectly willing to go in there and rest, but it could not be > done. It was only another delusion—a painting by some ingenious artist > with little charity in his heart for tired folk. The deception was > perfect. No one could have imagined the park was not real. We even > thought we smelled the flowers at first."