Sunday, Oct 4, 1885 A warm forenoon and a rainy afternoon clearing at night. I wrote to Mr. Rossiter Johnson recommending him to get Perry to write the article on Page. When the Times came today I saw this notice of Pages funeral. I had not heard of his death. I never knew Page intimately for I was never attracted to him. He seemed to me a man of theories and to paint from theory rather than from feeling. I know he was greatly esteemed by many people who considered him an interesting man and a great artist. Some of his portraits which I have seen were fine in many respects but his more elaborate compositions do not appeal to me and I think time will eventually obliterate them as they were painted in a peculiar manner and seemed to blacken with age. His career was a strange one, at one time an oracle to a wide circle and at last dying almost in obscurity, perhaps hardly missed from among those who once had the highest faith in his ideas of art. We have sat in the parlor most of the day, Calvert and I, while Sara wrote her letters, my father not coming down until after dinner, when it grew a little cool and we had a fire. Just before tea I drove Calvert down to see Mr. Terry. Calvert enjoys being here and I shall be sorry when he goes. A little variety in our sober life is very agreeable. I am greatly interested in Romola and have finished the first volume. I cut this "last farewell" from the Times today. [?] Albert Pike [?] he lived in Arkansas and wrote about frontier life and hunting adventures if I mistake not. This letter expresses genuine and most tender feeling and is very touching to me.
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