[P]ingcognito

It Happened on
May 01, 1916

John Burroughs, the naturalist and writer on nature, recently celebrated his seventy-ninth birthday by having a maple sugar boil with his grandchildren. They made “maple taffy,” which is the result of boiling maple sap over an open fire and then cooling it on snow. Mr. Burroughs says that “maple taffy” is a good name for it and adds that he is just as strong as any of his grandchildren.

Recently, Mr. Burroughs had his portrait painted by Princess Lwoff-Parlaghy, which he was very pleased with. The unveiling of the portrait was used as an excuse for a second birthday celebration. The portrait shows Mr. Burroughs with his keen, twinkling eyes and long white beard, making him look like an ideal “grandfather.” However, the portrait does not indicate any slippered ease, as the figure is seated but poised and ready to rise. This alertness is characteristic of John Burroughs at 79, just as it has been during his long period of work.

Note: “Lockjaw” is not the correct term for maple taffy, and boiling sap to make maple taffy is typically done over a stove, not an open fire.

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It Happened on
January 01, 1904

Parlaghy, Vilma, or the Princess Lwoff. Great gold medal from the Emperor of Austria, 1890; great gold medal, 1894; small gold medal at Berlin, 1890, adjudged to her portrait of Windhorst. Born at Hadju-Dorogh in 1863, and studied in Budapest, Munich, Venice, Florence, and Turin. Her portraits having found great favor at the Court of Berlin, she removed her studio from Munich to that capital.

One of her instructors was Lenbach, and she is said by some critics to have appropriated his peculiarities as a colorist and his shortcomings in drawing, without attaining his geniality and power of divination. In 1891 her portrait of Count von Moltke, begun shortly before his death and finished afterward, was sent to the International Exposition at Berlin, but was rejected. The Emperor, however, bought it for his private collection, and at his request it was given a place of honor at the Exposition, the incident causing much comment. She exhibited a portrait of the Emperor William at Berlin in 1893, which Rosenberg called careless in drawing and modelling and inconceivable in its unrefreshing, dirty-gray color.

In January, 1895, she gave an exhibition of one hundred and four of her works, mostly portraits, including those of the Emperor, Caprivi, von Moltke, and Kossuth, which had previously been exhibited in Berlin, Munich, and Paris. The proceeds of this exhibition went to the building fund of the Emperor William Memorial Church.

Of a portrait exhibited in 1896, at Munich, a critic said that while it was not wholly bad, it was no better than what hundreds of others could do as well, and hundreds of others could do much better.

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