to him rather like a vision than a picture, as he saw the dim outlines
of those heroic women, who cast themselves from the rock to escape
slavery by death. He confesses that the finished picture never moved him
as did the sketch. Three years earlier Scheffer had sent to the Saloon
of 1824, in company with three or four small pictures, a large picture
of Gaston de Foix after the Battle of Ravenna. It was a sombre picture,
painted with that lavish use of pigment and that unrestrained freedom
which distinguished the innovators of that day. The new school were in
raptures, and claimed Scheffer as belonging to them. The public judged
less favorably; "they admired the noble head of Gaston de Foix, but,
uninterested in the remainder of the picture, they turned off to look at
'The Soldier's Widow.'" Scheffer did not listen to his flatterers; but,
remembering Michel Angelo's words to the young sculptor, "The light of
the public square will test its value," he believed in the verdict of
the people, and never again painted in the same manner. It was one of
his peculiar merits, that, although open to conviction, and ready to try
a new path which seemed to offer itself, he was also ready to turn from
it when he found it leading him astray. "Les Femmes Suliotes" did not
seem to have been designed by the same hand or with the same pencil as
the "Gaston de Foix." The first sketch was particularly
pleasing,--already clear and harmonious in color, although rather low in
tone. Many counselled him to leave the picture, thus. "No," said
Scheffer, "I did not take a large canvas merely to increase the size of
my figures and to paint large in water-colors, but to give greater truth
and thoroughness to my forms." In 1827 this picture was exhibited with
ample success, and the critics were forced to acknowledge the great
improvement in his style, although he had not entirely escaped from the
influence of his companions, and some violent contrasts of color mar the
general effect. The picture is now in the Luxembourg Gallery.