The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-20 00:00:00

zealous kindness of an excellent and revered mem- '
ber of the Family of Allam—Madame Adelaide—
that M. Belloc received the appointment to the
directorship of the Government School of Design
in Paris, to which he henceforth devoted the best
of his powers; for that which he undertook he
loyally performed to the last, without regard to
the sacrifice of his own career. The school, in his
hands, produced a marked effect upon the applica-
tion of Art to Industry. In 1832, he created the
Class of Ornamental Sculpture, from which went
forth all those young brethren of the chisel who
have embellished Paris by the decorations of the
Ilotel de Ville, the Nouveau Louvre, and other
public works. Ile introduced the study of living
plants among his pupils, causing them to draw and
model after nature. Ile made them work from
the life in modes that now enter into the plan of
every good school of design, but which then were
classed among the novelties of popular instruction.
Although much absorbed in the work involved
in his new post, M. Belloc yet found time for oc-
casional exhibition. In 1837, 1843, 1845, 1818 his
name appeared attached to several remarkable
portraits, among whom may be cited those of
Boissy d'Anglas, Emile Souvestre, Michelet, and
Madame:Herbelin.
M. Belloc was named Chevalier of the Legion
of Honour in 1846, Officier in 1864. Ile died on
the 9th of December 1866, aged eighty years, but
some months before his death the contents of his
atelier were sold; he at the time being a complete
and hopeless invalid, and his pictures and sketches
were bought up by lovers of art, many of whom
then learnt, as a revelation, the genius of a man
who for five-and-thirty years had chiefly spent
his life and his powers in helping others to make
their fame.

The picture, quite recently presented by Govern-
mentlto the town of Nantes, is the " Conversion of
the Magdalen." It is the only completed portion
of a series for which M. Belloc had executed
sketches. The painter has greatly dared in his
rendering of the subject. The sinning woman,
touched by the prayer of Martha, lies:unclothed and
grovelling at her sister's feet, smitten by repent-
ance, agonised by shame. With one hand Martha
seeks to raise Magdalen from her posture of abject
grief and humiliation, with the other she takes up
a veil wherewith to cover the bare and shrinking
form. The sublime figure of Christ looms in the
background, intensifying the expression of the pic-
ture—repentance and pardon.
The other unfinished compositions make, as it
were, a trilogy of womanhood of the whole. The
first represents Eve as she came from the hands of
the Divine Creator; Eve pure and beautiful in her
I native innocence,

In whose sight all things joy ;

but Eve, already listening to the Tempter ;who,
with voice and eyes and insidious gesture, per-
suades her to eat the fatal fruit. The third gives
the Virgin Mother, Mater Salvatoris, Causa
Nostrae Leetitife, Rosa Mystica, bearing the youth-
ful Saviour in her arms ; and symbolises woman-
hood, raised by purity, love, and reverence to a
height far greater than that from which Eve fell.
" L'amour, dans sa plus belle acception est entre
cet bras, sort d'elle, et benit le monde. C'est Dieu
lui meme incarne dans ses flancs. En elle se resume
toute souffrance, tout devoir, tout amour. L'esprit
a remporte la victoire, le matiere est vaincue, et
Eve, consommee de la main de Dieu memo, est
rendue 'a la mission premiere. Elle fut la perte
du monde, elle en est le salut."—Westminster
Gaxette.