Michael Angelo Woolf was born in London, England, August 27, 1837. His
father was Edward Woolf, a musician of eminence, and a man of versatile
talent in both art and literature. Michael Woolf was brought to America
in his infancy; his talent manifested itself early, and he contributed
as a young man to many prominent periodicals. For a number of years
he turned aside from draughtsmanship to pursue an actor’s career, and
two charming autobiographical reminiscences of this period of his life
appeared in the _Saturday Evening Post_, of Philadelphia, shortly
after his death. At the close of the Civil War, Mr. Woolf resumed his
original profession, but turning his attention more to painting, was
hampered by the remissness of his early training, and sought regular
art instruction, for the first time in his life, at the hands of
Edouard Frère in France. Upon his return to America he exhibited a much
admired painting, “How It Happened,” at the National Academy of Design.
In his later years he turned his endeavors almost entirely to the
delineation of child life among the poorer classes; and his drawings,
with their peculiar combination of humor and pathos, have become widely
known here and abroad.
Mr. Woolf died suddenly of heart disease at the home of his sister in
Brooklyn, N. Y., March 4, 1899.
[Illustration: HARD HIT.
Miranda (oh, so deeply in love): “I can’t stand this suspense no
longer! Ask her if all marriages is failures.”]
[Illustration: HARD HIT.
“I say, mister, have yer got a penny walentine what rhymes ter
Maggie?”]
[Illustration: LOVE IS A FEARFUL THING.
“If you please, sir: none uv us ain’t able ter sleep uv a night, an’
we want ter know if yer ain’t got suthin what’ll cure us, an’ we can’t
tell what’s de matter wid us.”]
[Illustration: