Colonnade of The Palace of Fine Arts reflected in the Lagoon.

The Palace of Fine Arts

Dear Cousins:

We fear that we are not old enough to write to anyone about the Palace of Fine Arts, it is so wonderful, especially when it is reflected in the little lake where the swans live.

We got our first glimpse of it in the lake, and we almost thought we must have gone to Greece, and had not heard about it yet, because it looked like something out of our Greek book.

We walked around among the lovely trees, and went in and stood in the colonnade. It was so still and hushed, and different from the rest of the palaces, that it made us feel peaceful and holy, like going to early-morning service on Easter Day.

The galleries were a bit bewildering to us, there were so many pictures, but we wandered around by ourselves, and found some fascinating screens of lovely Chinese cats, and roosters, which we understood. There were more of our Swedish snow pictures, and away down in a little room at the end we found some miniatures which we loved. It made us feel quite acquainted and welcome to find a miniature called "A Mountain Lassie" which was painted by Bertha Corbett Melcher, our own dear Sunbonnet Babies lady.

We wandered out in the grounds to wait for father, and there among the shrubbery we found the darlingest little Pan, with his pipes. We stayed with him a long time. Janet Scudder sculpted him. Then we came to the very prettiest thing we have found at the Fair - a dear little child figure, standing on tiptoe, with her hands outstretched to us, and her baby face full of joy, as though she had just seen the world for the first time and loved it. She is called "Wild Flower" and was made by Edward Berge. The dear little thing reminded us of spring rain, and morning sunshine, and nooks in the woods where the first violets grow.

There is another figure by Mr. Berge, called "Boy and Frog," and many other dear little baby figures which we did not have time to learn about, because it was time to go home.

Father was pleased that we had found something to interest us. We intend to study the Expression of Art, because we feel so much better in our hearts when we find some beautiful thing which we can understand.

Your loving cousins,

Jane and Ellen.