MARIA BROOKS.

don flower-women returning .in an omnibus from Covent Garden
Market, was first shown at the Royal Academy some years ago, before
 the painter came to America -for Miss
 Brooks is an English lady.
 Maria Brooks was born at Staines, near
 London. When a little girl of six she began
 to draw, copying the pictures she liked in
 books and papers. At ten she had drawing
 lessons from a governess; and when she was
 twelve she studied
 S with the painter King
 for half a year.
 S". All this however
 A8-L : was merely for her
 "CONVALESCENT." own amusement. She
 had no thought of
making art a profession. Her father was a
man of means, and, like most in those days,
did not believe in a woman's working, or hav-
ing a business or profession of any kind. In
fact he presently thought she knew quite
 enough of painting,
 and so further study
 Swas given up.
 A few years later,
 desiring for chari,
 desiring for h PORTRAIT OF AN ENGLISH BOY.
 4. _table work more
 money than her allowance supplied, she
 again took up her brush, for the making
 "*  A_ of illuminated texts," which were then
 greatly in vogue. She now went for a time
 to the famous South Kensington art schools.
 Six months after, her father met with finan-
PORTRAIT OF AN ENGLISH CHILD. cial reverses, and then it was that Maria
Brooks, to whom painting had hitherto been but a pastime, decided to
make it a profession.