To Mary Mason Fairbanks
12 April 1869 • Elmira, N.Y.
(MS: CSmH, UCCL 00282)

Elmira, Apl. 12.

Dear Mother—

[ I ] One thing I do pride myself on—& that is, that I am a dutiful son. Now you always told me, on board the ship, to revere the Old Masters & love them, & speak well of them & appreciatively. It was on that account that I took pains all through the book (for I am publishing a book) to make mention of them & their works. And now I perceive that my engravers have caught my spirit of adulation & are helping me to glorify Titian & those other scrubs. They have made some very beautiful studies from the Old Masters—& I enclose the rough proofs. (They will be handsome when well printed.) Do you know, I think these things unequaled in American art. Notice the cheerful satisfaction that is in St Mark’s face—& also the easy confidence of his manner. Could anything be finer? ‸ 2. ‸ The St Matthew is the noblest work of art I ever saw. There is an amount of feeling about it that you find nowhere else except in the Paul Veronese school. The pleasant negligé of the attitude irresistibly suggests Leonardo da Vinchi. The calm thoughtfulness ‸dreamy spirituality‸ of the face at arrests the attention of even the most careless observer.) [3.—The ] Jerome is after Tintoretto. There are touches here & there & dainty little effects, that will bring that great artist to your mind.1 4.—Now the tranquil satisfaction with which St Sebastian goes about with a lot of arrows sticking in him, will remind you of St Sebastians by all the old masters—every one of them.

We must go to dinner, now els—Livy & I2—else I would write you more about the old masters. Love to the family. And to Mr & Mrs Severance. Allong &c

Yr Son

Mark.

[enclosures:]

Mrs. A. W. Fairbanks | Care “Herald” | Cleveland | Ohio. [postmarked:] elmira n. y. apr 12

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Clemens enclosed illustrations from chapter 23 (pages 238–39) of The Innocents Abroad, which he had cut from the proofs he probably received on this day. His references here to Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti, 1518?–94), Paul Veronese (Paolo Caliari, 1528–88), Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), and Titian (Tiziano Vecellio, 1488?–1576) are all clearly playful, but do not appear to refer to specific paintings by them, even though Tintoretto and Veronese did paint St. Jerome and St. Matthew, respectively.

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2 The company at dinner may well have included Anna E. Dickinson, who had arrived in Elmira on Saturday, 10 April, to visit with the Langdons (“City and Neighborhood,” Elmira Advertiser, 12 Apr 69, 4). Apparently Clemens first met Dickinson during this visit, although he had seen her lecture and known of her friendship with the Langdons much earlier.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS and enclosed illustration proofs, Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif. (CSmH, call no. HM 14249).

Previous publication: L3, 190–192; MTMF, 90–91, without the enclosures.

Provenance:see Huntington Library, pp. 582–83.

Emendations and textual notes:

I • [partly formed]

3.—The • 3.—|The [‘3.—’ marked to close up to ‘The’]