Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 November 1892 — When Vernet Declined. [ARTICLE]

When Vernet Declined.

After the partition of Poland Nicholas proposed that Vernet should paint a picture on tho subject. “I am afraid I cannot do it, sire,” was tho answer. “I have never painted a Christ on tho cross.” “The moment I had said it," continued Vernet, when ho told me the story, which Is scarcely known, "I thought my last hour had struok. lam perfectly cortain that a Russian would have paid for these words with his life, or at lest with life-long exile to Siberia. I shall nover forget the look ho gave mo; there was a murdorous gleam in tho eyes.”—An Englishman lu Paris.