New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-06-16

mer, a Fleming, who excelled in accuracy and in
pictorial treatment Of his backgrounds Cornelius
Jansen, Of Amsterdam, distinguished by the care.
full finish and calm truth Of his pOTtraiture, aud
Daniel Mytcns, from the Hague, a good COIorst
and happy in his landscape backgrounds" In
that reign too, and in the reign Of Charles l,
Peter Oliver maintained the honor won for the
family name by his father Isaac and another min
AZURE painter Of his mark was John Hosiins, who
died four years after the restoration
Charles the First bought pictures jqdclou5ly,
and besides settling Vandyke in England, per
suaded Rubens to spend year at his court and
paint for him. To the same reign, also, belongs
William Dobson, the first English painter in por-
trait and history, whom our authors account
" scarcely inferior to Vandyke, except IN the re-
6nement of grace and drawing" He died at the
age of thirty-siX two years before the close of
the kings reign. At the same time there was an
older man, George Jamesone, painting IN scot
land; and these were followed by CromWell's
portrait painter, Robert Walker, and by Sir refer
Lely.
The second volume of this work treats Of Eng
lish painters in the nineteenth century, beginning
with Sir Thomas Lawrence and his contemporaries,
then discussing Turner, and then passing to chap
ter on the Patronage of Art against which the
authors embody protest in their account Of the
British Institution, founded in 1905 under the man
agement of what an authorized report defined as
some of the most ilustrious and dignifed charac-
tiers in the kingdom" There were daeAauti
among them, but there was not one artist, and
hereupon it is proposed to show what comes of
I" the lay element in its most unmixed form. The
early history of the institution is set FORTH and the
causes of its decline indicated.
Here are some hints concerning
THE PRESERVATION OF PICTURES.
Almost as much mischief arises from ignorant
care as from want Of care The mere busting of
pictures is a work requiring some judgment; it
should be done with the softes of feather brushes
and even these are dangerous when the picture has
a tendency to scale or blister, Pictures are often
Carelessly wiped, many persons believing that a
silk handkerchief can do no harm; but glance
at any old collection, and even at some of our
own public ones, will show how this has been
abused. In many pictures scales have been torn
off, the Canyases cracked all round the edges
| the corner pieces and the bars Of the stretche1
marked on the surface by undue pressure OF the
hand of the careless operator as he pOlshes them
at times rubbing even the paint away but at least
rubbing in the dust rather than removing 1t. Fer
| haps the best preservatiye for old pictures, De
yOnd busting them with feather Brush, ia to have
| them tenderly wiped with cotton wool about once
| year, by the hands of some person qualified tt
do this with care and judgment. The backs of al
| pictures, whether oil or water color, should b.
covered with painted cloth to exclude air AM
dust.
1l-yentilated rooms are another source of mis-
chief to works of art. Hundreds of fine picture
are hung in close rooms, lighted with numerou
candles or with gas, yet without the siightes
means of ventilation. 1t was shown in the Garrett
report on this subject, by Professors FaradaJ
Hoffman and Tyndall, that the proceeds from tn
combustion of coal gas, unless wholly remove
from the apartment, are most deleteriOus to pic
lures but that gas unburnt was almost innocuout
and its combustion might be made most useful
promoting an active ventilation sufficient to IT
move all the resulting evils; and with them, thos
almost equally deleterious excretions rising
crowded rooms, from condensed breath and a
unchanged atmosphere.
! While there are those who leave their picture
from year to year untouched and unnotced, ther
are others who are continually incrusting thel
with coats of varnish. Under the dust or dirt (
years the picture may remain intact, and b
brought, simply by careful washing, to its fir
purity and freshness but those who cover the
pictures with numerous coats of varnish, eitht
lock up numerous coats of dirt ALSO or, if the va
nish is continually removed for new application
remove with it the last tender and most preciol
finishings of the painter. And here let US aga
add our warning, at least in respect to British pi
lures, against the new invention of solving IL
coats of varnish on picture, and letting them su
i side into new surface. Mastic varnish enters
largely into the vehicle with which such picture
are painted, that under this treatment varnish al
+ pigment may be found floating into one connie