TAKING TOLL AT THE BRIDGE

            Adolf Dillens, a native of Ghent, was one among the numerous well-known painters of Belgium.  His subjects were chiefly representative of the social life of that part of Flanders known as Zealand.

            This subject, “Taking Toll,” has proved most successful, for Mr. Dillens has painted it no fewer than three times.  The first was exhibited at Brussels, in 1854; the next at the Paris International Exhibition in 1855, when the picture was bought by the late Emperor of the French; the third version, that engraved here, was among those sent to the London International Exhibition in 1862; it bore the title of “Summer in Zealand – Taking Toll at the Bridge.”  One can scarcely marvel at the popularity of the picture, considering the subject, and the careful manner in which it is painted.  A quiet summer evening invites the peasantry of the country to a stroll.  Three couples, habited in Sunday, or in holiday costume, have in their walks reached a bridge.  Whether or not it is a legal exaction that a toll must be enforced there is little to the purpose, but one of a peculiar character is demanded, and is most willingly paid, by the first pair who reach the spot; the buxom maiden, whose pleasant upturned face shows she has no reluctance to submit to the agreeable extortion, is quite as ready to pay the toll as her lover is to take it.  Of course the example will be followed by their companions behind them, though the two young men pretend to be quite unconscious of what is going on, and one of the females affects a look of surprise.  There is a touch of humour in most of the works of Mr. Dillens, and this is no exception.