and bellows in his hands, is mimicking the action of the musician.
With this exception, all, even the dog standing by the chair of its
mistress, appear to be intent upon the music of the blind fiddler."
This quotation, from the catalogue of the National Gallery where the
original picture is placed, accurately describes it.]

[Illustration: CHOOSING THE WEDDING GOWN. FROM A PAINTING BY WILLIAM
MULREADY IN THE SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM, LONDON.

To the title of this picture, the painter himself added, as expository
of his theme and the source of his inspiration, the following passage
from Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield": "I had scarcely taken orders
a year, before I began to think seriously of matrimony, and chose my
wife, as she did her wedding gown, not for a fine glossy surface, but
for such qualities as would wear well." The picture thus affords
a good instance of the dependence on literature of the painters of
Mulready's school. Its title alone would suffice, so well and simply
is the story told; but, apparently, with the British public, and in
the painter's mind, it gained an added grace by diverting the visual
impression of the observer to the realm of literature. The picture is
here reproduced from a copyrighted photograph by Frederick Hollyer,
Kensington.]

William Mulready was of Irish birth, having come into the world at
Ennis, in the County Clare, April 1, 1786. In 1809, after a period
in the schools of the Royal Academy, he exhibited there a picture
entitled "Fair Time," which gave him almost instant success; and until
his death, July 7, 1863, though producing fewer pictures than Wilkie,
he worked on very much the same class of subjects. His color is less
agreeable than that of the Scot, and his execution very much more