Tuesday, April 7, 1874- Varnishing day at the Academy. I went up there about 11 o'clock. Naturally my first anxiety ordinarily would be for my own pictures but I confess I was most anxious at this critical stage of the Academy to see what the character of the exhibition was. I was glad to find it much above the average, in fact a most interesting exhibition. My "Cape Ann" is in the large room in a good place. My "Wood Path" on the line in the West Room. My "Deans River" over another picture in the same room and looking very poorly. My "Solitaire" on which I most depended over another picture in the North Room. I feel that I have had a decided snub at the hands of the hanging committee David Johnson, Brandt, and Irving who took good care to have all their pictures on the line. It has made me feel a little depressed but I try to be philosophical. Poor Weir was most shamefully treated and was utterly cast down. His picture is hung over another in a dark corner and as he is an Academician and had sent only this picture I regard it as a downright insult. Eastman Johnson came home with me. He too felt disagreeably as though he had been rather put off in by places although his pictures are all on the line neither of the three however being in the large room. Hubbard has three pictures on the line, Whittredge his large ones, Gifford three, Church one the temple at Petra. Bierstadt a dry uninteresting California woods in one of the best places in the large gallery. However it is a good exhibition and I hope it will be the beginning of a revival in Art. After dinner I went up to the Albemarle Hotel where Weir and his wife are stopping to get them to come down and spend the evening. They were going out however and could not come. Weir had just received a telegram from New Haven telling him his picture was sold for $1600 which was great good luck under the circumstances.
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