WOMAN IN ART
of the Water of Life clear as crystal proceeding out of the Throne...And the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it...In the midst of the street of it and on either side of the River was there the Tree of Life...And the leaves of the Tree were for the healing of the nations."
The Constitutional Convention and the Birth of the Union, Philadelphia, 1787, pictures George Washington, Chairman of the Convention, giving his address, his words quoted: "Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair ... the event is in the hand of God."
The events of 1863 represent Abraham Lincoln closing his Gettysburg speech. The pathos of the surrounding crowd (bare heads in the foreground, and an army of bayonets to the vanishing point) culminates in the folded arms and bowed head of the Man of Destiny. His words are: "It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated ... to the unfinished work."
When the drawings and cartoons for Miss Oakley's work were on view in London, they inspired a well-known writer and critic to give the public the following account of the way in which the decorations came into existence:
"These paintings are scenes from the life of William Penn and the founding of the State of Pennsylvania. William Penn fought the great fight for religious liberty in the seventeenth century. The paintings in the Reception Room take us through various phases and scenes of those troublous times, to be crowned by Penn's first sight of the shores of Pennsylvania as he ascended the river 'from whence the air smelt as sweet as a new-blown garden,' bringing at last his words true, 'I had an opening of Joy as to these parts when a lad at Oxford.'
"The paintings in the Governor's Room are planned to deal exclusively with the founding of the state, and stop just short of recording any event within the life of the state itself—bringing William Penn in the prow of the ship 'Welcome' only within sight of his promised land. These paintings were started in 1902 and finished in 1906. Five years later, in 1911, the great American painter, Edwin Abbey, died, and Miss Oakley was commissioned to undertake that part of the contract with the state which, at the time of his death, had not even been begun. Miss Oakley was not, as has been erroneously reported, to finish any of the paintings which he had begun or planned. That was done by his assistant in his studio in England, and the panels were exhibited at the Royal Academy. And so it came about that Miss Oakley had to take up again the threads and weave the tapestry of
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