Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 439. Various

was there ever a sky seen without blue?'

      'I am no amateur; but I tell you once more, that there is too much blue. And now do as you like; and if you do not think you have enough, you can put more.'

      'This is entirely too bad!' cried the now exasperated sign-painter. 'You are an old fool, and know nothing of painting. I should like to see you make a sky without blue.'

      'I do not say I am a good hand at a sky; but if I did set about it, there should be no blue.'

      'A pretty job it would be!'

      'It would look like something, at all events.'

      'That is as much as to say mine is like nothing at all.'

      'No indeed, for it is very like a dish of spinach, and very like a vile daub, or like anything else you please.'

      'A dish of spinach! a vile daub!' cried the artist of Brabant in a rage. 'I, the pupil of Ruysdael—I, fourth cousin to Gerard Dow! and you pretend to know more of my art than I do—an art I have practised with such credit at Antwerp, Louvain, and Liege! A dish of spinach, indeed!' And by this time the fury of the insulted painter had increased to such a degree, that he seized David by the arm, and shaking him violently, added: 'Do you know, you old dotard, that my character has been long established? I have a red horse at Mechlin, a stag at Namur, and a Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle, that no one has ever seen without admiring!'