The Sun.
London, England, 1857-02-05 00:00:00

PORTUGAL.

LIVERPOOL, FEB. 4.
The Meander steamer brings Lisbon dates to the
Jan. 26, wh n the following foreign vessel.; of war
were anchored in th e Tagus :—He r Majesty's steam-
ship Princess Royal, Capt. G. Giffard ; the Sans-
pareil, Capt. Rey, which had returned the previ-
ous day from Rear-Admiral Dundas's squadron for
the repair of her rudder. The squadron had met
with bad weather, and was about 300 miles off Lis-
bon, where the steam-frigate Retribution had ar-
rived on the 26th, and the French ship Austerliti
and steamer Flambeau, the Phenix having left on
the 23d for the south.

SUDDEN DEATH OF COLONEL WYNDHAM. —On Tuesday
afternoon, about 3 o'clock, Col. Wyndham, while walk-
ing with two 'Alta near the bridge on the north side of
the Serpentine, witnessing the evolutions of the numer-
ous skaters disporting nn the ice, suddenly fell down and
expired. The body was removed to his residence in
Connaught-terrace.
The Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and China
have issued a circular, stating that they "will shortly
be enabled to commence business in a field where com-
merce is extending with extraordinary rapidity," and
announcing two calla of 21. each, payable respectively in
one and three months.
The English, Scottish, and Australian Chartered
Ba'i't have announced an intended dividend for the past
haifluar aL the rate of -5 per cent. per annum, fie‘,,, of
ineoftw tax, leavhig 4,015/. to be carried to the reserved
fund. - . _

I-Cis stated that the attempt to float the Royal Mail
Steam Colptly'fs yowl Tyne.wil!be resumed next week.

ART GaSSIP PROM I?OVIE.—MR. GIBSON

AND MISS 110SMER.

(From a correspondent of t'ie Daily News.)
ROME, Jan. 29. —Rome is unusually full this sea-
son. The unsettled state of Naples, and the pro-
mised presence of sundry crowned heads here, are
the reasons assigned for the exorbitant demands of
Padrone, which startle the stranger on his arrival,
and make him think twice before he decides to
spend the winter in the Eternal City. Provisions
of all kinds are dear. The cost of living has nearly
doubled itself within the last five years, so that
those who contemplate an economical sojourn in
Italy must be content with Florence or Pisa—
at least till the Roman season is past, that is to
say, until after Easter, when apartments undergo
a sudden depreciation of fifty or sixty per cent.
The spoiling process, commenced by the English,
is receiving its finishing touch at the hands of the
Americans. If Englishmen lavish their money
like Princes, Americans lavish theirs like Empe-
rors. "Of all families I have ever served," said a
shrewd intelligent courier, "give me an American
for liberal expenditure, a Russian for closeness and
meanness." The parsimony of the Russian suite at
Nice is the gossip of the place, and does not add to
the popularity of the Court. Queen Christina, the
Queen-Mother of Spain, goes altogether on a dif-
ferent tack, and makes her presence here felt to the
inconvenience of residents and visitors, by monope-
lising the best boxes at the opera and theatres, and
the best seats at concerts. Ristori plays her first
engagement in Rome since her great success in
Paris and London, early in next month, and for a
week past the subscription list has been full. B•
much for the gossip of the day, ere we take our way
to the calmer atmosphere of the studios which con-
gregate here in Rome thick and fast—England)
America, France, and Germany contributing even
' more largely to Italy to swell the ranks of artistes.
The coloured Venus in Mr. Gibson's studio is
still the subject of much discussion. For the bene-
fit of those who cannot see it, a short description
may not be amiss. No man living, perhaps, is 56
thorough a master of form and proportion as Mr.;
Gibson, and his Venus is, in these respects, his
chef-d'oeuvre. The modelling of the torso and limbs
is very fine, the form and sentiment of the back
beautiful. Greek art is to Mr. Gibson evidently
the alpha and omega of all art. The Greeks cd-
loured their statues ; why should not the moderns
and so Mr. Gibson took brush in hand and covered
the beautiful, highly-wrought marble with a thin
pink wash, stained the hair a delicate tow, pencilled
the head-fillet blue and gold, gilded the apple in the
hand, and made the hem of the robe to correspond
with the band in the hair. Thus, neither flesh net
marble, statue nor woman, stands the Venus, chal-
lenging all beholders to accept or reject the ilin°-
vation. Near to the Venus is a coloured copy
of his beautiful Cupid, even more eccentric than
the Venus ; the flesh a delicate salmon-tint, the hair
a warmer tow than the Venus, in virtue of virility
perhaps, the eyes fixed and staring, looking over,
not at, the butterfly on his breast, the wings tinted
in palest hues of rose and blue ; while the pedestal
on which this masquerading god stands is of a deep
tawny yellow, a bad imitation of giallo antic°.
Given the advantage of colouring marble, one can'
not but feel, while looking at these statues, holy'
distinct is the art of the sculptor and the painter ;
and any eye sensitive to colour must experience 3
sensation of relief in turning to the stately grenP
of the Queen, supported by Justice and ClemencY!,
the original of which is just placed in the House (n
Lords, and to the basso-relievo of Cupid and Psyche,
than which nothing more chaste and pure in modern
art exists. In looking at Mr. Gibson's works one
feels that study and skill can no further go. TheY,
speak eloquently of a life devoted to the culture
art, and it would be difficult to find a more devotee,
disciple and follower of the great masters of anti"
quity.

Among art students in Rome is to be found in
the studio of Mr. Gibson, Harriet Hosmer, a young
American lady of decided genius, and of great
force and energy of character. As earnest in her
devotion to art as her master and friend, sedulous-11
availing herself of her matured knowledge and
skill, she is, at the same time, striking out a pa,r,
of her own, with results so ample in the presenvf,
that there is scarcely any limit to the expectation!
that may be formed of a career so soundly xn.
thoroughly commenced. In the November
1852, accompanied by her father, a physician in the
neighbourhood of Boston, Miss Hosmer arrived
Rome, resolved to follow sculpture as a profession,
and to devote herself seriously to an art which she
had hitherto studied as she best could in her flatly,
country. Unheralded and unknown, she brought
with her for all introduction a certificate for anal(/'
mical studies given at the college at St. Louis, and a
couple of daguerreotypes ofan original bust of Hes Per/
modelled, cast, and cut in marble, by herself. These
daguerreotypes were shown to Mr. Gibson by a
common acquaintance, who at the same time briefly
stated Miss Hosmer's wishes and intentions. A
man of few words, Mr. Gibson looked at them for
a while in silence ; then said, in his short, expres-
sive way, " Send the young lady to me. I will ell
all I can for her." To Mr. Gibson she went, and
with Mr. Gibson she has been ever since ; a pupil
after his own heart, earnest, industrious, and wi;
flagging in her zeal, if the words master and puP"_
may be used of a relationship beautiful in itself and
alike honourable and honouring to both. During
these four years, Miss Hosmer has modelled several
original busts, the most striking of which is a Medusa
—the beautiful, poetical Medusa. The features ale
classical, the expression forcible yet delicate, the merit
altogether of a high order, both as to design and exe-
cution. A more ambitious work is a life-sized sta-
tue of none, taken at the moment of her beit:g
deserted by aris. A smaller figure of Puck, sea
on a toadstool, is full of spirit, fun, and raj's-
chief, evincing no less humorous than tragic power'
But the chef-dce'uvre of all this talented youngf
artist has yet accomplished is a life-size figure.
the beautiful and accomplished Beatrice Cenci, 3u
finishing in Amble, and which we may hope to le
in the next exhibition of the Royal Academy. 'll
the story of Beatrice Cenci it is stated that hope:
were entertained of a pardon, hopes destined not
to be realised, and that when the priest came finally
to announce their failure, and the day of execution,
he found her " calmly sleeping on the flee 4,
of her wretched cell." This is the moine
chosen by Miss Homer, and rendered .T.
great feeling and sentiment. The arrange"
went of the recumbent figure is exquisitely
,na-
tural and graceful. The head—and a lovely head
it is—rests on the right arm, thrown over a pigeweit
the figure lying on the right side, the left leg
foot crossed at full length over the right, half draw:,.
up, and indicated, rather than seen, through t";
drapery, which is at once simple and rich. •'l'
balance of the figure is admirable. In the pre;
foundness of her sleep, the left arm has dropre,-;
forward, and the relaxed fingers, as the back of it'
hand rests on the ground, are entangled in,rather
than holding, a rosary. Every inch of the figt;
sleeps—a profound sleep, but full of life and feel-
ing. Involved as this word-painting may seem, tr..
attitude is simplicity itself ; anything more simples
and natural, and at the same time more graceful,
it would not be easy to conceive. In '1
contrast to this sleep of life is the sleep c%
death in a monumental figure Miss Homer
now modelling, and which is equally rem all
able for force of expression combined wl
simplicity and grace. He giveth His beloved
r.
sleep" is the thought instantaneously suggested PY
this figure, a portrait of a deceased Ymulg lady
Death is unmistakeably expressed, but it is the
sleep of death, and not the annihilation "wch
1;1_,,
monumental figures so usually and painfully rani°
" The Cenci " is an order executed for the Pub;_,
Library of St. Louis ; the monument is •to by
erected in the church of St. Andrea delle Fratte,
and is to the memory of a beautiful young girl who
died here last summer. It is impossible to look at ,
these works of art, the production of one so young;
admirably within school, and yet free, forcible, an
original, without recognising the advent of a sisrft
genius to that which has placed Rosa Bonheur
bthoethh_eandoosfa
Bonheurhe
rdep
ortm Harrietent ofa
art. Of either
Hosmer—M"'nr
Browning might have written these lines from her
poem of " Aurora Leigh"—
" She who did this thing was born
To do it—claims her licence in the work."

SUDDEN DEATH AT A TEMPERANCE MEETING.'-L11°:
night, as a temperance meeting was about to ootranellw„a
in the Wesleyan Chapel, Kensington, a middle-age,.,
man, apparently in his usual health and spirits,
dropped into the arms of a companion, and in a feat
moments ho ceased to breathe.
MUTH OF A VETERAN COLONIST.—Mr. Stevenson,
Justice of the Peace and Coroner of the city of Adelaide'
died on the morning of Sunday, Oct. 19. Mr. Steven'
son was in his fifty-eighth year, and would, if he hadlivea
two months longer, have been a South Australian Colo-
nist of twenty years' standing. He arrived out from
England in her Majesty's ship Buffalo, as private WI:
tary to Captain Hindmarsh, the first Governor of ti!.
colony, and was the first clerk to the Legislative,CouucY!
the first coroner and one of the first bench of magi°
trates. Before leaving Eogland he had been an esters'
s ive contributor to the leading columns of an evening
newspaper, and was devoted to other literary' Purelyt
He was editor and part proprietor of the first netvoluTo
in the colony, the South Australian Gazette and Colon
Register (now the South Australian .Register), and vots
consequently " the Father of the South Austraut!a_d
press." Latterly he had only occasionally contrib
to the press, and devoted his attention more exclusLl;
to hortinultur:o The name of Georgo
son (say; the .71,:ies)," was 4. hotmehohl
all parts of the colony, and colonisti will univer
pronounce that he deserves to be enrolled among
~4
earliest, its most attached, and its most assiduous 81".
persevering benefactors.",