The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-04-24 00:00:00

AN ARTIST'S DEATH.

An inquest has been held in St. Pancras, London, respect-
ing the death of Isidore Magnes, a French artist, aged 59
years, who was found dead In bed in his rooms in Charlotte-
street, Fitzroy-square.
M. Antonio Van Bever, also an artist, said he had
known the deceased for fifteen years. He once held a
high position, and being anxious to make a name in
the world he five years ago commenced a large picture,
which he hoped, when completed, to have in the gal-
lery at Versailles, and with that now he sent a photo-
graph of it to the French Emperor. He also had an
idea of sending it to the English Royal Academy. He
had named the picture—a crayon drawing, which he
intended to bring out in oil—"L'Entente Cordiale : an
Episode of the Crimean War," and the price he had
fixed on it was £2,000. He lalx,ured on this picture,
neglecting other work which would have paid him well,
and gradually sank lower and lower into poverty. His
friends assisted him, but being absorbed in his great
work, he did not heed their advice, and they left him.
He was, however, assisted by the French Ambassador,
and on Saturday week he (witness) saw deceased, who
was much depressed in of ants, as he expected the
brokers to be put in possession for rent. He said his
troubles were so great that lie feared his brain would
give way. The witness gave him a ehilling, for which
he appeared very thankful. On Monday the witness
called upon him, but received no answer to his knock.
He went again on Tuesday, end entered the deceased's
I bedroom and found him dead.
Dr. George Ross said that when called in to the de-
ceased he bad been dead at least two days. The room
was in a filthily dirty condition, and the picture re-
ferred to—certainly a very fine one—was in that room.
The post-mortem examination showed that the brain
was entirely gone from the effect of decomposition.
The cause of death was fatty degeneration of the
heart, the latter probably having ceased its action
through the mental excitement of the deceased.

arough tn.
M. Van Bever said that he had forgotten to men-
tion that on Saturday he told the deceased that he
(witness) had sent in a picture to the Royal Academy;
which appeared very materially to affect his mind, as
he from some cause did not wish him to do so.
The coroner, learning from M. Van Bever that he
would not know for a fortnight whether his picture had
been accepted, remarked that be had held two or three
inquests on artists whose minds had given way under
anxiety and excitement while awaiting the decision of
the committee of the Royal Academy.
The servant at the house in Charlotte-street said that
the principal food of the deceased was a loaf of bread
and a pint of milk daily. On Sunday week, in order
that he should not go without food, she lent him a
little money. He said, "Thank you. God bless you!"
He owed six weeks' rent, at 15s. a week.
The jury returned a verdict f "Death from fatty
degeneration of the heart, accelerated by want and
anxiety of mind."

Under the head of" An Unfinished Picture" the
Daily Telegraph has the following:—
In speaking of the last and uncompleted work of poor M.
Isidore Niagues, it is equally impossible to withhold a melan-
choly aihinration from that true and ',Ave spirit of art winch
raised the starviii,4 painter above all sulgar worldly care&
and at the same time to deny the sound, practical reasoning
of those utilitarians who are, perhaps, by good f. rtuoe, the
social majority, ant who will he disposed to vote it a sad pity
that so clever a man did not economise his talents, and make
at once a name ant a living. In Charlotte-stre-t, Fitzroy-
square, one of those thoroughfares much affected by artists,
who woo tho north light in first floors that are unused as
paintiug.roonis by the peculiar enlargenient at the top
of the middle window, lived and laboured the highhouled
French gentleman whom one 'thews not whether to pity
or ti envy. The studio is crowded with signs of hi, industry,
the floor strewn with the materials of his art. Almost the
whole of one side of the big room is occupied by a vast com-
position in black and white, representing many months of
patient toil, the only reward of which was the suftaining
hope and ambition that never left Isidore Magnet when his
shelf was barest and his pocket was most deplorably empty.
Weeks more of such gay and gallant lighting against fate were
necessary for the completion of the loved labour. But "death
from heart disease, accelerated by want and anxiety of mind,"
stopped the weary hand, and gave a grim enforcement to
Professor Gandish's favourite proverb, "Art is long and life
! is short" So there lathe great crayon drawing of "L'Entente
1 Cordiale," for some ahortc iniings in which the sternest critic
may make charitable allowances. The scene is the old
battle-ground of the Crimea ; the foreground figure.,
grouped on the left hand, in front of a wine-shed, which
is inscribed "Café des Quatro Nations—L'Union fait la
Force," are a Highlander anti a Z move playing cards on a
drum, a saucy vivandiere interesting herself in the game,
and an Italian and a Turk looking on. A plump white dog,
the pet of some British corps apparently—for he is not a
French poodle, nor an Italian greyhound, nor one of those
wolfish animals that prowl in the streets of Perk but
a self-governed, jolly-looking, free and independent puppy—
pricks up Iris ears at the sound of hoofs approaching.
Sure enough, on the other side of the picture, and
in middle distance, is a cavalcade, at the head
of which may be recognised the Duke of Cambridge and ,
General Cranrobert. The artist had thus Inc kept to pretty
mach the same lindtation of subject that bounds the inven-
tive efforts of Mr. Jones Barker; but the eye wandering sky-
ward perceives a deviation into allegory. Fame with her
trumpet floats above a misty cloud of heads that might pos-
sibly have developed into posthumous portraiture, under the
hand of 31. Magma, if he had continued to exist. It was
certainly his intention to trash this chalk drawing to the
minutest point ot detail before transferring the design to
oil-colours ; and it is sail that, having reached a stage of his
work sufficiently advanced to afford some indication of its
character and promise, he had had photographs taken, and
hail sent one to the Emperor of the French.
Dealing gently as well as honestly with the merits of the
picture, we may hazard a consolatory reflection that M.
Magnes has been spared the disappointment which must
have attended his ambitious project of exhibiting his work
In the Royal Academy, WWI of selling it for two thousand
pounds. Poor fellow l lle had unquestionable ability of the
productive but not over-imaginative kind, as other pictures
and drawings of his show—notably an equestrian portrait
group in coloured crayons of the Prince and Princess of
Wales in Hyde Park. But this great historical vagary,
"L'Eafenfe Cordiale," is out of drawing in fifty
places. Some of the simplest objects, accessary to
the design, seem to be wrong deliberately and of malice
prepense. Vertical lines, or lines that should he ver-
Haul, are sloped as a child would slope them who had
begun learning to write before learning to draw, and whose
nearest approach to perpendicular is a slanting "shown-
stroke." Enough ! The picture is not lobe finished. Awful
is it to read on its cold untiuted surface the tale of poverty,
and long endurance of all the ills covered by that gaunt
word. Shall one sit in judgment on the work of 31. ?dairies
as if it had really found its way to the staircase of the exhibi-
tion in Trafalgar-square, and could be seen high up in the
gloom of the vestibule by help of an opera glossa Where the
' drawing now stands against the wall of a death chamber that
was to the last a work room, it seems to bids mute and proud
defiance to technical cavilling&