A PORTRAIT THAT GROWS OLD.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 717, 29 March 1900, Page 3

A PORTRAIT THAT GROWS OLD.

There is a peculiar portrait painting in Washington which has created much interest among those who know of its existence. Its peculiarity is that every year it has been changed to show the changes which time would have made in the original. The portrait is by a Washington artist, and' is that of his wife, and was painted many I years ago, when she was a young bride. A few years after the portrait was painted the young wife died, and so great was the grief of the artist that he determined to keep the likeness with him all the time, and to do so he decided that year by year he would change the portrait so as to make it grow old with him, and thus keep her, as it were, ever with him. Every year, on the anniversary of his wedding-day, the artist locked himself in his studio and changed the lens of the face of the portrait, adding what he thought would make the difference of one year. There have been many anniversaries of that marriage day, and consequently many changes in the portrait. To-day the picture is that , of an old woman, the hair turned grey, the faco wrinkled and palo, but • still |

beneath the marks of time, as made by the brush of the artist, can be seen the . early beauty of the bride.