The Portland daily press., 1868-03-30

|
THE BowDoN PAINTINGs.-"J. b. s." writ
ing from Berlin to the New York Nation fur
nishes the following information respecting
the Bowdoin collection of pictures, which is
in a way to become better known than hereto
fore:
That collection was left to the college by the
Hon. james Bowdoin at his death, 1811-not
| given during ms lifetime. An unfortunate
| consequence was that it came without cata-
| logue, or, at least with only list of the
names of the paintings. They were collected
| by Mr.. Bowdoin during his service as United
| States Minister at the court of Spain, and
consist chiefly of pictures of the Spanish and
Dutch schools. A goodly number are certain
ly masterpieces, whether the hands from
which they they came can be verified or not.
This is the frequent testimony OF artists and
connoisseurs, especially of Gilbert Stuart, who
visited the gallery more than once, think, to
copy his own pictures of Monroe and Jefferson,
which he considered his best efforts, and
preferred to copy after them than to attempt
originals again of the same subjects. Some
authors quite certainly observation-disclosures
names having been deciphered on the pictures
or franes--are Snyders, Hondekoeter, Berg
hem, Salyiati, Stella, Wouvermanns philip
or Peter, and, If memory serves me rightly,
Paul Potter Beside these are the Copley and
two Stuarts. OF those attributed to Rubens
and the fact OF Snyders lends probability
to a Rubens-the first and chief is the "St.
Simeon and Child Jesus" better than which,
it seems to me, does not exist from Rubens's
hand in the gallery of the Royal Museum in
this city. The Ceres Presenting Gifts OF
Fruit to Venus" is certainly Rubens's style
Its companion, "Danae and the Golden Show
err" because it was not thought suitable for
exhibition, was unfortunately ordered to be
sold by the trustees of the college some years
since, and was purchased by an artist in your
city for the sum of $780, in whose studio, l un-
derstand, it is now held at the price OF $4,000
or Whereabouts. One of the noblest pictures of
the collection is "rhe Delivery of Peter from
Prison." thought by Stuart to be, like "The
Confluence of Scipio," another OF the gems by
Nicolas Poussin. 1t is bold for a mere tyro
in art-crticism to differ from the great artist
hut cannot. from what have seen of Pous-
sin. think so. / cannot detect his style. There
is a picture in the gallery of the Royal Muse
nm here. same subject, by Houthorst, of the
Netherlands school. In boldness and grandeur
of conception it is not to be compared Win
the Bowdoin picture but in peculiar tone ana
color it is precisely the same. cannot help
saying to myself, if Houthorst had been equal
to the conception of the picture 1t were GER
tainly his. Another Bowdoin picture, sense
lessly styled "The Irish Wake, resembles very
much the work of Van Steenwyk the younger
as he is represented in the gallery here. 1t is
a beautiful bit of interior architecture by can
delight.
1t Is proposed at Brunswick, and ought to
have been done before this, to gather all that
can be ascertalned about The pictures, both
from themselves and from those persons-con-
nections of the Bowdoin family or otherwise
who NAV know anything about them Mean
while whether much or little is true concern
Ing them. il is highly desirable that they be
visited by artists and art-critics, and put to
the test of the strictest scrutiny r