Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1852-06-19
From the London Athenaum.]

SALE OF THE SOULT PICTURES.
The sale of Marshal Soult's pictures took place.
as our readers are aware, last week, at Paris,-
and it will form pretty episode in the history of
the fine arts of the Peninsular. The extraordi-
nary and unexampled prices for which some Of
the Murillos were sold, offer a remarkable anti
thesis to the enthusiastically small sums for which
they were obtained by their late intelligent pro-
pretor The fatal battle of Ocena, November the
18th, 1909, in which $4,000 Frenchmen in two
hours put S., 900 Spaniards to indescribable rout
handed over rich and unpillaged Andalusia to the
two most eminent art s.conveyancers" in the ar
mics of the rapacious Eagle Then, Grenada,
with all its Alfonso Canos, fell into the clutches
of Sebastiani,--and Seville, the school and
museum of Zurbarans and Murillos, into the
grippe of Soult, the ssplundermaster-g general of
Napoleon, by whom Sebastian was soon super
seeded on account of his collecting energy. So
true it is, that two of trade seldom agree. Nel-
Their of the galleries formed by these illustrious
compeers was destined to become an heir. loom.
| Sebastian, in 1884, at the Restorataon-an awk
ward word-offered his entire pckings-seventy-
three pictures-to our Prince Regent for the rea-
sonable sum of 100000. This chance-what
bargain it would have been was, as usual,
| missed by our Ministers, who cared for none of
| these things; and the items were converted into
| cash piece-meal by Sebastian. Soon, Soult-
some commercial speculatons having proved less
profitable than military requisitions-also pro-
posed to deal in the wholesale line with his CLEAN
ings. Again our Ministers shook their heads
and his s'Grace" also was reduced to have re-
course to retailing.
M. Soult reached Seville with the catalogue of
Cean Bermudez in one hand and double-edged
sword in the other His first visit was made to
the convent of San Francisco; in whose smaller
cloister were preserved the entire series of pic
lures painted in 1885, the first exhibition of Mu-
rllos powers and the harbinger OF his fame
These he carried off at one fell swoop. One
alone-lot 66-fetched SIS, 500 francs at the sale.
His next visit was to the Cdrsdad, the eXtramu-
raj hospital founded by Manara, who gave occu-
patton to his friend Murillo during the period of
his greatest powers-about 1879. Of the eight
magnificent paintings, III. Soult, whose charity
began at home, conveyed away five. With
one he bribed Napoleon and the Louvre, and four
he retained for his own sale-rooms. Murillo was
paid for these works of four years the then enor-
nous price of 1915 reals-about 800l This
should be mentioned, as his "Grace is genera ly
supposed to have realized about 20000i. by the
sale of three only of them to the Duke of South
erland and Mr.. Tomlne. The only one left on
his hands, lot Ga in the catalogue of the recent
sale, ST. Peter in Prison." was knocked down
the other day to the Emperor of Russia for l5l,-
900 francs. The Marshall good .judge-did
not fail on reaching Seville to attend the Cathe-
dral; and after particular request to be favored
with view, was profoundly struck wiki the reli-
gious sentiment displayed in 1.-The Birth of the
Virginia picture rightly considered by the
Chapter among the most precious of their relics.
For it must be remembered, that in the Mariola-
try of Spain, Andalusia-the land of the Santassa-
,na-takes precedence; and her Immaculate Con-
ception is the watchword of Seville. The canons
and robed priests, duly estimating the piety of
the invader, felt that they could not do less than
send the picture to the master of thirty legons,
who lived just conveniently over the way, in the
archbishops palace This is the picture (ot $50
that was sold on the last day of the sale for
10000 francs. 1t was by the same attendance
at the Cathedral that the Marshal obtained lot
Goethe Flight into Egypt"-which fetched
only 81, 700 francs. These companion pictures,
according to Mr.. Ford in his Handbook"
were at first concealed by the Chapter from
his Grace; who, informed by traitor of their
existence, sent to beg them as a present.
limiting, says Toreno IN his history that if they
were denied he would take them by force. One
day, when NJ Soult was showing his gallery at
Paris to Col. Gurwood, he stopped opposite one
of this pair and said Ill value that picture very
much:--it saved the lives of two estimable per-
sons" An aide de-camp whispered i'll our coun-
trymans ear-''He threatened to have them both