A composition containing about seventy figures in the foreground and on the sides, besides an immense number more indistinctly seen in the distance. Young and old have come without the town to receive the glad tidings of peace, which are brought by twelve youths, crowned with flowers and clad in flowing garments, who are advancing slowly down the road. One bears a scroll of parchment in his left hand, the others carry olive branches. Some of the people are on their knees, while others stand gazing upwards, in mute gratitude to heaven. Here and there, those whom the cruel war has made widows and fatherless, indulge in silent grief, unable to participate in the universal joy. To the left appear the steeples and buildings of a town, and from a half ruined tower flies the white flag of peace. In the distance, to the right, troops are seen returning. A river, the Rhine, probably, winds its serpentine course through the distant landscape, dotted along its banks with towns and villages, and castled crags, and over all, in the blue sky, gleams the rainbow of promise. [P. 13.]
Catalogue of Paintings in the Crocker Art Gallery, Sacramento, California. Compiled by Mrs. A.L. Doyle. Sacramento: H.S. Crocker & Co., Printers. 1876.
