_Ary Scheffer_ (French-Dutch: 1795-1858).
To illustrate the popularity which Ary Scheffer enjoyed forty years
ago, it may be interesting to cite what Mrs. Jameson said of this
picture: "I saw in the atelier of the painter, Ary Scheffer, in 1845,
an admirable picture of St. Augustine and his mother Monica. The two
figures, not quite full-length, are seated; she holds his hand in
both hers, looking up to heaven with an expression of enthusiastic
undoubting faith;--'the son of so many tears cannot be cast away!'
He also is looking up with an ardent, eager, but anxious, doubtful
expression, which seems to say, 'Help thou my unbelief.' For profound
and truthful feeling and significance, I know few things in the compass
of modern art that can be compared to this picture" (_Sacred and
Legendary Art_, 1850, p. 186).