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."