William Bouguereau

William Bouguereau
I drew a breath, set my teeth, gripped the starting lever with both hands, and went off with a thud. The laboratory got hazy and went dark. Mrs. Watchett came in and walked, apparently without seeing me, towards the garden door. I suppose it took her a minute or so to traverse the place, but to me she seemed to shoot across the room like a rocket. I pressed the lever over to its extreme position. The night came like the turning out of a lamp, and in another moment came to-morrow. The laboratory grew faint and hazy, then fainter and ever fainter. To-morrow night came black, then day again, night again, day again, faster and faster still. An eddying murmur filled my ears, and a strange, dumb confusedness descended on my mind.
`I am afraid I cannot convey the peculiar sensations of time travelling. They are excessively unpleasant. There is a feeling exactly like that one has upon a switchback--of a helpless headlong motion! I felt the same horrible anticipation, too, of an imminent smash. As I put on pace, night followed day like the flapping of a black wing. The dim suggestion of the laboratory seemed presently to fall away from me, and I saw the sun hopping swiftly across the sky, leaping

oil painting from picture

oil painting from picture
That opened the gatekeeper's eyes, and he ran to the king, saying, "A little donkey is sitting outside the gate playing the lute as good as an accomplished master."
　　"Then let the musician in," said the king.
　　When the little donkey entered, they all began to laugh at the lute player. They sent him below to sit and eat with the servants, but he refused, saying, "I am not a common stall donkey, I am a noble one."
　　"If that is the case, then you can sit with the soldiers," they said.
　　"No," he replied, "I want to sit next to the king."
　　The king laughed and said with good humor, "So be it. If you insist, then just come here to me." Then he asked, "Little donkey, how do you like my daughter?"
　　The donkey turned his head toward her, looked her over, nodded, and then said, "Beyond all measure. She is the most beautiful girl I have ever seen."
　　"Then you should sit next to her," said the king.
　　"It is all right with me," said the little donkey, then took a seat at her side and ate, behaving himself like a real gentleman.

nude oil painting

nude oil painting
"Oh, my little master," answered the minstrel, "that will be difficult for you, because you don't have quite the right fingers; they are too large. And I am afraid that the strings would not hold up."
　　But no excuse would do. The little donkey insisted on learning to play the lute. He kept at it and practiced hard, and in the end he learned to play just as well as his teacher.
　　One day while taking a contemplative walk he came to a well, looked into it, and saw his donkey shape in the mirror-like water. This made him so sad that he set forth into the wide world, taking only a single loyal companion with him. They went this way and that way, finally coming to a kingdom where an old king ruled. He had only one daughter, but she was very beautiful.
　　The little donkey said, "This is where we will stay." He knocked at the gate and called out, "There is a guest out here. Open up and let him in." But they did not open the gate, so he took his lute and began to play it most beautifully with his two front feet.

oil painting artist

oil painting artist

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
　　Once there lived a king and a queen who were rich and had everything that they could wish for, but no children. She complained day and night about this, and said, "I am like a field that nothing will grow in."
　　Finally God fulfilled her desires, but when the child came to the world it did not look like a human child, but instead it was a young donkey. When the mother saw it she wept and wailed. She would sooner have no child at all than a donkey, and she said that they should throw it into the water and let the fish eat it.
　　But the king said, "No, God has given him to us. He shall be my son and heir, and following my death he shall sit on the royal throne and wear the royal crown."
　　Thus they raised the little donkey. He got bigger, and his ears grew up straight and tall. He was a very cheerful sort, jumped about, and played. He was especially fond of music, so he went to a famous minstrel and said, "Teach me to play the lute as well as you do."

michelangelo painting

michelangelo painting
A Shepherd-boy, who tended his flock not far from a village, used to amuse himself at times in crying out"wolf !wolf!"Twice or thrice his trick succeeded .The whole village came running out to his assistance when all the return they got was to be laughed at for their pains .At last one day the wolf came indeed .The boy cried out in earnest. But his neighbors, supposing him to be at his old sport, paid no heed to his cries, and the wolf devoured the sheep. So the boy learned, when it was too late, that liars are not believed even when they tell the truth. A Husbandman who had a quarrelsome family ,after having tried in vain to reconcile them by words ,thought he might more readily prevail by an example .So he called his sons and bid them lay a bundle of sticks before him .Then ,having tied them into a fagot, he told the lads ,one after the other ,to take it up and break it .They all tied ,but tried in vain .Then untying the fagot ,he gave them the sticks to break one by one .This they did with the greatest ease .Then said the