The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-15 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, LILITcIUST 15, 1863.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE—This Day.

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

DISGRACEFUL CONDUCT IN THE STREETS.—Henry
Williamson, a clerk, who gave the address 25, !ternWing-
ton-street, City-road, was charged before Mr. Knox with
disgraceful conduct to several females, and also with as-
saulting Mr. James Kean, a tailor, residing at 53, Maddox-
street, Regent-street.
Mr. Kean said that he was turning the corner of Little
Argyle-street, about 10 o'clock the previous night, when
he saw the prisoner go up to a respectable female, and seize
her in a most improper manner, turning her quite round.
He followed the prisoner, and before he got to the end of
Argyle street he saw him assault in a similar manner six
more females, one of them an elderly woman. He then
seized the prisoner, and said, " You scamp, you shall not
go unpunished," and had a severe struggle with him, in
the course of which his sleeve was torn, and he
was struck twice and thrown down by the pri-
soner; but being determined that he should not
escape, he retained his hold, and at last he was
secured and taken to the station. The female did not go to
the station, being too frightened at prisuner's conduct, and
glad to get away.

Police-constable Kettlewell, 3S C, said that hearing cries
of "Police" ho went to Argyle-street, and the last Nritness
gave the prisoner in charge for indecently assaulting females
and assulting him (Mr. Kean). The prisoner denied the
charge, but when at the station told the inspector that he
had only raised the female's clothes about two inches.
Prisoner said that all he had got to say was that he was
drunk at the time, and was now very sorry.
Mr. Knox said that if the females had been present he
should have sent the prisoner for trial for his abominable
conduct. As it was he should treat the case as one of
drunk and disorderly conduct, and indict upon him the
highest penalty he could, namely, 40s. or a month.

EUGENE Dilelf_ROKlC:.

This celebrated artist, says the Morning Post, had been
ill for about two months with chest disease, and for a long
time his life had been despaired of. He died in his 66th
year, having been born at Charenton St. Maurice, near
Paris, April 26, 1798, or, in the then current slang, 7
Flereal, An. VI.

Charles Delacroix Constant, father of the future artist,
was elected deputy for the department of the Marne in
1792; voted for the death of Louis XVI. ; was one of the
most violent of the Thermidorians ; became Minister of
Foreign Affairs under the Directory, and was succeeded by
Talleyrand in 1797 ; was for a time Ambassador to Hol-
land, and died, in 1805, Prefect of Bordeaux. He was 68
when Eugene was born, his elder son being already a soldier
and his daughter of marriageable age.
It is somewhat startling to find that an infant of three
years old had been all but drowned, all but burnt, all but
poisoned, and all but hanged—himself being the execu •
tioner ; but it is true enough of Eugene Delacroix. When
in arms his nurse fell with him into the sea, and was only
saved by the courage of some sailors, who probably were
the cause of the calamity, the bonne being more attentive
to them than to her charge. Then the child's cradle caught
fire, and he received serious injuries. Thirdly, he was
nearly killed by some verdigris incautiously left in his way ;
and lastly, he nearly finished his carrer by hanging himself,
to see what the sensations were, without taking care to have
a chair near his feet when turned off. This fourth escape
is the only incident of which there is a shadow of doubt,
but anyhow he had as many " squeaks for his life" as
Horace of old.

His career at the College Louis le Grand was a brilliant
one : here, by the way, he made friends with the since Dr.
Louis Veron. His drawing .master, finding that his per-
formances were far superior to those of his fellow pupils,
advised him to put himself under a great master—David,
for instance. The old organist of Bordeaux Cathedral, a
friend of Mozart's, gave lessons to his sister, and tormented
his mother's life out to have him brought up to the musical
profession. Dis aliter visum. At 18 the youth entered the
studio of Baron Guerin, the professor at the school of the
fine arts, who numbered Ary Scheffer and G6ricault among
his dleves. The selection of Guerin was unlucky, and master
and pupil soon found out the difference of their ideas on
art. Eugene was even now a sharp observer, and possessed
a powerful imagination; he could not follow in the steps of
his master's classicism. The baron could make nothing of
him : "But," said he, " let him stay here; he has got
money, it is better that he should make daubs than debts',
(mieux vaut qu'il fasse des creates que des defies.) Still he
gave Eugene no encouragement whatever. In 1822 the
youthful artist sent to the Exhibition the now famous
"Dante and Virgil in Hell." He begged Guerin to go and
see it at his studio, in the Rue de la I'lanche, at the bottom
of the Faubourg St. Germain, and, after much ungracious
grumbling, the baron went. The old classicist was petrified.
Here was a revolution. " What is it all about ?" "It is
Dante visiting Virgil in Hell, my dear master—there are the
souls of the damned —." "Not done sufficiently brown,"
sneered Guerin. " The thing is absurd," said the master,
"exaggerated—absurd. Playing a Michael Angelo, are
you? Your servant, sir." The picture was not rejected,
however; it commenced undoubtedly a revolution in art,
and it subjected its author to violent abuse, as well as to
enthusiastic applause. Meeting Guerin one day, when in
the height of his young triumph, Delacroix was received
with anything but congratulation. " Puffed out, elated, I
suppose ? After all, this triumph only proves —." " That
you would have rejected the picture, my dear master, had
you been a judge : you are always so kind to me." " Pooh!
pooh! I never had any kindness for heretics. A day will
come when your picture will be burnt on the Place de la
Grirve." " They have occasionally burnt good things there,
my dear master " Here, the chronicler says, the conver-
sation was broken off, for the baron was apparently in a
state of incipient apoplexy. It was scandalously put about
by Delacroix's enemies that Gericault had had a large share
in Dante and Virgil, the redeeming points being those from
the hand of the author of the "Shipwreck of the Medusa,"
the blemishes Delacroix's own. This was of course a false-
hood. Among all the criticisms to which Eugene was sub-
jected there was one honest and generous one by M. Thiers
in the Constitutionnel. He nobly proclaimed the excellence
of the work, predicted the future fame of the artist, praised
the colouring and the style, which "combined the boldness
of Michael Angelo with the fertility of Rubens." BaronGros
also stood by him, and invited him to study underhim, an offer
which was declined, perhaps happily, for the author of
" Sappho at the Promontory of Leucas" could hardly help
seeing a future rival in Eugene Delacroix. Thiers said
that in Delacroix, Destoushes, Drollet, Cogniet, and Du-
bufe, he saw the rise of a new generation of artists who
would do France honour. M. Thiers had a penchant for
revolutions in art as well as politics.
The " Massacre at Scio " (1824) produced a great sensa-
tion; it was the most dramatic picture to which the cen-
tury had given birth. The contrast between the splendour
of the sun and the fierce hatred of man, the groups of half-
naked Greeks, the quivering flesh, the corpses scattered
about, the infants pressing the bosoms of their dying
mothers, were terrible in their reality. Henceforth there
was deadly war declared against Delacroix. His opponents
did what they could to exclude him from the exhibitions,
but in vain, though one remarkable picture, "The Educa-
tion of the Virgin," was rejected. Many well-wishers,
among them M. Sosthenes de la Rochefouald, urged him
to altar his course, or he could have no Government en-
gagements. Luckily he had three or four hundred a year
of his own, and he answered one and all with the Scrip-
tural " Etiam si omnes, ego non." In 1826 he produced
"The Death of Marino Faliero," " Greece—the Ruins of
Missolonghi" (for the benefit of the Greek revolutionists),
and other pictures. In 1827 appeared " Tasso in the Mad-
house," and "Cardinal Richelieu Officiating in the Chapel
of the Palais Royal, surrounded by guards "—a splen-
did picture, burnt, unfortunately, during the Revolution
of February, 1848 , in 1829, " The Combat between the
Giaour and the Pasha" (for the museum at Nantes), " The
Giaour after the Combat," and several small pictures for
the Gallery Colbert; in 1830, "Liberty Guiding the People
on the Barricades" (at the Louvre) ; in 1831, "The Mur-
der of the Bishop of Liege" (from " Quentin Durward"),
"The Wild Boar of the Ardennes," and " Boissy d'Anglas
at the Sitting of the Frairial, An, III."
The Revolution of 1830 terminated the artist's proscrip-
tion. M. Thiers procured for him the engagement to de-
corate the Salon du Roi, in the Palace Bourbon. His re-
presentations of Justice, War, Agriculture, and Industry
adorn the ceiling, and his bold qualities had full play in
this work. He also painted the five cupolas of the library,
with four tableaux in each, and the two hemicycles at the
extremities. Next Delacroix was employed to paint the
cupola of the Luxembourg Library in the Champs Elysdes,
and he selected his subject from the fourth chapter of
Dante's "Inferno," decorating the hemicycle above the
window with the picture of "Alexander Locking up
Homer's Works in a Golden Casket," and " Justinian
Writing his Code." He decorated also the ceiling and
pentices of one of the waiting-rooms in the Hotel de Ville,
with the history of the Theban Hercules and many mytho-
logical personages. At the Louvre he painted the ceiling
of the Apollo Gallery with " Apollo Conquering the
Python."

Before this, however, M. Thiers had procured the ap-
pointment of M. Delacroix as attaché to the embassy sent
in 1832 by Louis Philippe lo the Sultan of Morocco—
Abd-er Rhaman. This was nearly the only foreign journey
he ever took, for he never visited Italy for fear of losing his
originality I He carefully studied African manners and
costumes, and the fruits of his trip are to be seen in his
" Moorish Scenes," his " Algerian Women' (now at the
Luxembourg), his "Interior of a Court in Morocco," his
" Arab Mountebanks," &c.
The following pictures, with others, appeared between
1833 and 1838, " Charles V. Playing the Organ in the
Monastery of St. Just," the " Death of Charles the Rash
after the Battle of Nancy," the " Convent of the Domini-
cans at Madrid," the " Prisoner of Chillon," " Christ at
Calvary," the Battle of Taillebourg" (in the Versailles
Museum), " Christ in the Garden of Olivet" (for St. Paul's
Church, Paris), " Justinian" (for the hall of the Council
of State), the "Apparition of Mephistopheles to Faust,"
"A Wounded Herdsman of the Campagna Slaking his
Thirst on the Brink of a Marsh," "A young Turk Caress-
ing his Horse," "The blind Milton Dictating ' Paradise
Lost' to his Daughters," and " Sardanapalus Dying in the
midst of his Wives," a gorgeous picture of Oriental luxury
and voluptuousness which Delacroix called his" Waterloo,"
as it gave him a prominent place among artists, and beat
down prejudices at once.
It would be impossible to give an enumeration of all the
pictures of this prolific artist ; they would occupy half a
column of this paper, One or two remarkable efforts of his
genius may be mentioned. In 1838 his " Medea" (now in
the Lille Museum) produced a great sensation. Medea is
represented as having poisoned Creusa, and flying with her
children. She bears a poinard in her hand, and looks round
to see if Jason is pursuing her, in which case she will kill
the children. Her body is full of light, but her terrible
eyes quite in the shade. The next year a half length of
Cleopatra preparing for death was issued from Delacroix's
studio. Cleopatra has received a basket of figs from her
slave, and is thinking, her chin on her hand, when she
espies an aspic among the figs, and there is no doubt what '
her thoughts turn on then—
" fortis et asperas
Tractare serpentes, ut arum.
Corpora combiberet vewrnuar
Deliberate morte ferocior."
Nest w© have Hamlet contemplating thel
e ombreick
the attitude of the figures in harmony " The
toh -
f Yor
s,
subject in spite of some negligence of design. Ship
It is awful to contsm-
wreck" (1841) is a noble picture.
death, draw-
prey to despair, to the horrors of hunger and ,
plate the calm sea, the deep silence, the halfaked men a
well-
ing lots for the frightful chance of being.eaten: This
derful picture represents the dreadful episode in the second
catnhteo
thirdof d
' D
,o,yn
tJhue ar
en
came." "
aT The
calm;"sun on 4, the seventh there
rose red and fiery ;" on
“
was no wind."
" They glared upon each other; all was gone,
Water
r, atnhdeywsinpoek,
eanndofood, and you might see
The longings of the cannibal arise,
Alt
We can ouly mention byname such well-known pictures

'k It romy be said of this flue picture that the artist has,
apparently by design, sacrificed correctness of design
the nobleness and beauty of the character, to three or,and
four
bold and brilliant touches more or it:s:t harmonised, The
picturo is a marvel for colouriDE,

1 as " Trojan's Justiae" (1840), " The taking :of Constan-
tinople by the Latins" (1841; " Rebecca taken off by the
Slaves of Brian de Bois Gilbert in the Sack of the Castle of
Torquifsat2°;" " The Farewell of Romeo and Juliet," and
" Margaret at Church" (all in 1846) ; " Christ at the
Tomb," " The Duel of Valentin and Faust," " The Death
of • Sarah," and the " Lion Devouring the She-goat"
(1848), " Othello and Desdemona" (18-10), " The Rescur-
rection of Lazarus," " Lady Macbeth," " The Good Sama-
ritan," " The Pilgrims of Emmaus," and " The Burial of
St. Stephen," 1850-3.
Eugene Delacroix will not probably retain with posterity
the somewhat exaggeratedlie reputation which he has lat-
terly held in France. has been considered equal to
But his
Rubens as a colourist. inaccurate drawing, his
harsh and ungainly effects, his
')crude,id though (it cided,
light and shade, his rough and raexecution, aro not
likely to win the favour of posterity lie may be said, in
short, to have mixed the colour of Rubenswith the im-
post() of Constable, without the vuluptuouses
kinds sof the one
and the freshness of the other. He chose all sub-
jects; he roamed at will from mythology to Christianity,
from
t o
may nature.
be
s ca
an l ilAteyd;
from sea-pictures to flowers, irom history
Ingres, yet happily spared over his 80th year,
an idealist, Delacroix may be called, on the other hand, 'a
cclourist. In epite of Delacroix 's want of correctness there
is in his pictures a singular warmth, a brilliant light, and
an almost oratuatic power : he has been honoured with tbo
title of the " Victor Hugo of painters."
It now remains to be added that Delacroix received the
second medal in 1824, the first in 1848, and the grand
medal of honour in 1855 ; that he was nominated in 1831
Chevalier of the Legion of Honour; that in 3846 he was
made officer, and in 1855 commander thereof. In January,
1857, he was elected a member of the Institute in the room
of Paul Delarocbe.