The Art Gallery

"In studying the pictures owned by Mrs. Gov. Aiken, full scope is allowed for diversity of taste, as here one finds the mellowed tints and hues softened by the hands of time. Here are also a number of beautiful specimens of the sculptor's art ranged about in niches and corners of the handsomely constructed mansion. A life-size portrait of Mrs. Aiken by George Whiting Flagg occupies a large canvas, over which, when not exposed to view hangs a heavy crimson curtain. L. Terry's "Romeo and Juliet," a Bandit scene by Salvator Rosa, a village scene supposed to be David Teniers, "Three Strolling Musicians," and "The Flight into Egypt." In sculpture the choicest piece is an exquisitely modeled bust of Proserpine by Hiram Powers. Other works in marble comprise a life size reclining Magdalene, a fine reproduction of Canova's Venus of the Bath, a Shepherd Boy, and The First Grief. There are many curios in the beautiful home which were purchased abroad, among them a center table of Florentine mosaic set in carved olive wood, and a magnificent specimen of buhl work in a table originally the property of King Louis Phillip, which was purchased after his escape from Paris during the Revolution of 1848."