Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1860-02-06
THE GAZETTE.
MONDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 8, 1860.
LITERARY ART ITEMS.

r..
letter from Paris, INDUCES in the following
personalities"
Place aur danes, With facility of adap,.
tation that seems to be the peculiar git VI
my western friends, Miss Stcbbins mas TAKEN
her place suddenly among scuiptorS' auo
promises to earn rapidly Tor herSelI an en-
viable reputation. Itmight have oeen fasn-
ness. it might have been the inward cohci-
business of strength, that prompted ner 10
launch at once upon career. many nave
tried to dispense with training ana lnstruc-
ton. and have miserably failed. Ii VIII be,
tits. otherwise with this lady. untutored.
unpracticed, she commenced modelling ana
cbiselling. and has already executed In mar
BILE pair of statuettes, twenty-elght inches
in height for Mr.. Hecksher, of New York,
which will be greatly admired when they
are SEEM The one is a sailor. the other a
miner, intended to typify the industrial ener-
gies of the United States. Done to order,
the order entaied uncommon difficulties
They were to be in the ordinary costume OF
our day, and being intended for specific and
narrow inches in private residence, are OF
necessity constrained In action Leading
sculptors decline positively to sanction the
innovating process, which declares that men
and things may be represented as they
really are in the materials which the mind
habittually associates with everything and
anything save reality.
"Mr. Gibson would not undertake at any
price, the figure of gentleman. CARRIED as
gentlemen generally are In the year OF
Grace. 1859. Not So Miss Stebbins. She
has accepted the task, and has thoroughly
well succeeded in showing that it was not
hopeless one. doubt, perhaps, whether
youths so trim, so jaunty and graceful, and
poetical. flor lack of a better word do actu-
ally throng the diggings Of Sacramento; or
reef topsails on the Banks Of Newfoundland.
But do know that there might be such, II
the good time" that is coming" had yet
come-and this is more than can be said OF
the nude and semi-nude fantasies OF the chi
sci, that are usually presented to as as like
nesses in marble. | do notiorget that work
ers in bronze, and wood, and wax, and plas-
ter, have long ceased to be thus fastidlouS-
to say nothing of painters, who are not scar
ed even by mackintoshes or nee-breeches.
1t is the poets only, and the workers in mar
bic, who cling tenaciously to the ideal. But
change comes in the end. 1t Is the order OF
Nature. Miss Stebbins has clothed the limbs
of Labor in Labor garb. Has not Tenneyson
essayed in Maud, to bring together Olympus
and One Tree Hill?
Now for another rising American sculp-
ter-for i'll love to commune with the risen,
il is of the rising that incline to speak
Mr. Story, son of the famous lurlst OF that
name, is at work upon a life-size and full
length Cleopatra, seated, which, in clay, IS
of exceeding promise. 1t is not Fgypt's
Queen, in the guise Of slight, delicate,
thorough bred, youthful beauty, of Europeon
face and form, such as pictorial ANIMALS and
illustrated Shakspeare's introduce to U.S.
Neither is it Guides INEXPENSIVE she,
with the half acre of chalky bust, and the
countenance that might belong to any fair
woman Of your acquaintance. On the con-
trary, it savors of the time and place where
to the original belonged, and as it represents
her brooding over her perplexities, that
thickened as her last hour approached, so is
she mature in years--hstory telling US that
she died ut 80. In the face there is still
certain witchery, and no small voluptuous-
ness; but the latter is redeemed by n some
thing that brings the mystic Sphynx to ones
remembrance, and aids ones immediate re-
cognition of the appropriateness of the pie
turesque costume These things are hard
to describe in limited space; but it strikes me
that Mr.. Story's Cleopatra is at once original
and singularly felicitouS.
''And now for the American painter, ris
ing fast and certain to rise high to whom
turn with more pleasure, because his debut
In New York, if such it may be called, did
not lead me to believe that there was In him
the Astounding talent that he possesses. A
reader or two may recollect, and possibly
some newspapers recorded. that in one of
the recent exhibitions of the New York
Academy of Design, a Mr. Tilten was named
among the artists. The trifes he contrlbu-
ted were hung bad, and to tell the truth did
notappear to merit better fate. They were
unnoticed or abused. Yet the painter of
them, solar as | am capable Of forming
Judgment, is destined to eminence, not COM
paratively but absolutely great lie has
been profound and pains-taking student of
the great Venetian school foolor, and has
certainly succeeded in mastering so much of
the theory, that his practice is exquisite in
its results
'As do not write, and could not, for men
of his own profession, | may add that his
process, if understand it, consists In es-
chewing all mixture Of pigments, and in work
ing out his desired effects by layer upon lay
err of primitive hues. The labor and expen-
diture of time are immense, and would shock
the slap dash profcients; but in luminous.
ness in @rial essence, in delicacy, in truth
fulness, the patient labor is well rewarded,
and the looker-on is charmed with his land
scapes. ] have seen no pictures by living
men that seem to be so independent of the
light wherein they are hung-so much have
they of it in themselves. Closely examined,
these various tintings show an effect some
what akin to that of the graver's stippling;
but this is lost at proper distance. Mr.. Til
ten is much patronized, especially by English
amateurs; and as he has many orders on hand
at once, he adopts plan, novel perhaps,
but certainly convenient. Heis painting Sc
ven or eight canvases simultaneously; and all
are similarly advanced. Finally, his success
here is assured. feel confident that his
fame will be also assured among his country
men at home, when they have an opportuni
ty of Judging what stride he has taken in
his profession"
Edward Everett is to contribute the biog
raphy of Washington to the new edition of
the Encyclopedia Britannica, published by
Messrs. A. & G. Black.
Sixty thousand, says the Critic. was the
enormous number subscribed for of the Corn