, 1874-02-08

gHal0g af1ong,tAe tai reeds the sportsman NIT
| his lifted rifle aud the sripe aud wild duck
flying up from their cool coverts, shaking Il
! drops from their CLASSY wiugg,-all indicated
! genuine student and lover OF Nature but did nj
commend the name OF the painter to publ
| notoriety.
The bastlo-painter Of ,!s Tho Exposition was
The chief merit of his pictures is the spirite
| action OF the prominent figures, and the ski
| with which tho attention iB concentrated on on
central point OF interest. The absence of Ties
| characteristics causes too many battle-scenos t.
| present either obscure masses bnrrving to
point not clearly defined, or number Of separat
figures in whose action there is no unity, no i'm
| portaut moment, without perception 0
which, the spectator is rarely impressed. These
battles also POSSESS that lacking which q battle
scene lacks eyerything,-tho instantaneous per
caption by the spectator of tho nationality of til
coubatants. In YEon's ''Malakotf Tower" til
officer who stands on tho highest point and signal
With his white-gloved hand, has chosen the very
gesture which his fayorise actor at the Theatre
Fraucais would have employed in like circuu,-
stances and this very trait enables the Frencl
representation OF battles to be at once more
spirited and moro natural than that OF lest
dramatic nations.
The two great painters Of the Exposition or,
are Gerome aud cahanel. Properly speaking,
cADANEL
does not deserre the adjective "grcat" which
most ambitious pictures gre 81 Paradise Lost
and s'A Nymph Carried on by Faun'
The " Paradise represents Eve, overcome by
grief, weeping ut tho feet OF Adam On the lef:
crouches the Great Enemy OF mankind and
above, the Creator, surrounded by Angels, il
looking down upon all. TAe figure Of Eve is
less beautiful thnn voluptuous. Here extreme
fairness is rendered .rnore striking By contrast
with the swarthy tints OF Adam, who, 6i1lien aud
angry, displays none Of the dignity Of manhood.
There is, however, something OF power in tho
posture, particularly in the figure OF Satan aud
the same is true Of the Nymph. where one can
see the yielding OF tho delicate flesh to the
pressure Of the rude tingerB,-but it is power
rcpulslve rather than ATTRACTIVE.
GEEo31E
is unquestion1bly the most remarkable Of tho
group Of printers to which ho belongs. Beside
Eabanefs large canvas and crude cofors, Iis
wonderful finish and delicacy are still moro
stirling. His subjects are chiefly classical but
his types and treatment are not only modern,
but parisian. His Death Of Cnsar" appears
somewhat faulty, in that it concentrates atteu-
ton on the white-robed Senators, rather than on
tho body of tho Dictator. His ''llorituri To
Salutant" is much finer. 4 group Of half
clothed giadiatorB, whose powerful muscles seem
in pltifu1 contrast to their haggard faces, bend
their haggard features to show Of reverence
Us ther approach the sent where Augustus sits,
crowned and comp!acent. On the left, tho
sweeping curves Of the magnificent amphilhea-
he,-tier after tier Of restless faces looking,
down indinerently on the attendants dragging
out the bodies Of what few moments ago were
men Ike these. Very striking, too, in his s'Drel
Of Pier1ot," between masked combatants in
dim wood, the atmosphere charged with SHOW.
There is nothing revolving in Gerome's rendering
Of death, but something remarkable III tie pailor
With which he in7csts it, draining Of every
tint and trait OF life from the face. His choice Of
sub jecta conveys IN sGoA Of the
pF.rTI.1AHTrY OF MIA EEyTTR.
'' A Butcher-Boy of Jerusalem ;" The Heads
If the Beys Before Gate Ill Constantinople -
q The Prisoner; )" pnryns Before the Til
,unal." In these grim heads heaped up before
he Oriental gate in these Ii1npid waves Of the
3osphorus. over which floats the boat bearing
his wrctched captive, bound hand and foot
= the satin skin OF this famous beauty,-there
8 marvellous 6neness which leads some crit
cs to call his brush that OF copyist. He is
more than thai, something terribly thrill
ayage captors over their prisoner but what
oryice these remarkable studies shall render to
ut aud Morals, it is moro difficult to determine.
II we speak Of Meissunnier, with his liliputian
anTases, and his dashinS little Captains; and
sosa Bonheur, whose Scottish heaths, with their
rid Highland ponies, give ono feeling OF
reedom and freshness not often mot with in
'ronch galleries,-wo have left three varieties
t tho
FRENCH PAINTING OF TO-DAY.
tudes Of artists like Toulmouche, cha rming
title folks in fnuitless toi1eta; secoudly, the
spects Of what Parisians consider rural life. by
1lllet aud Braton,-such as "Tho Turkey I
leeper, "The Potatoe- Planter" 1.-THE !
s'The Ra1ers, which the lovers Of I
ihich seem an attempt to imnorta1ize nlelioc- |
ity as fruitless as Wo1dsMorth's introduction OF
he wash-tub into poetry. |
But. in the French salons Immediately pre-
eding the war, the pictures before which the
rowd was always deusest, which occupied the |
.rgest space in the daily fouiiletons, we1e al
7ays some scene from that life OF the theatres !
nd tho gas~light which, if Art cannot ignore,
IT NEED NEVER PERPETuATE;
una episode in domestic life which. to
lied to crime to be painted in other tints than
1883 Of tragedy; something to magnify the
aterial pleasures of existence, to dep1eciate |
le influence of the spirit. Pictures like those
T Victor Giraud--whose, 81 Slare-Xarket" re-
lived tue honors OF the Luxembourg, and whoae
'6s-were striking and painful evidence of that
egradation which tho German swords disclosed,
1t did not produce. And this brings Us to
ubufe aud his great picture These
'ahng al military painters; these realists,
nardians of Turkeys and sheep-Tenders far
ss these e1alters OF tho senses above the
init, of the body above the soul Of Art
ARE NOT HIS CONTEMPORARIES.
0 belongs far moro to the school OF his mas
+, to Delaroche, to Ary Scheffer, to Couture. |
II the subject Of his picture is drawn, not |
ON Mexican battle-felds, nor yet from the
eatres or drawing-rooms Of the Paris of 1866.
1t lie has gone to the old repository of Para
es written "not foran age, but for all time"
d read thence to his countEymen moral, like
At OF Couture: he has attempted to depict,
th all the resources OF his art, the bitterness
the ending OF I, life devoted solely to the !
easures Of the senses. And Jet he is not an |
achronism- The treatment Of his subject is
his own age, and not Of Delaroches. He
SPOILED TIE PH1LIsrISEs. fl
e daring aflrontal Of every.difhculty OF foro-
ortening and perspective displayed in his
ried attitudes, the wealth OF his coloring, aud
charactcristics. are part Of the redeeming
Itures OF modern French painting; 30 also ure
remarkable individuality and wonderful life
his separate faces. Something, too, he may /
said to have taken from tho Italian age and
sters whence he borrowed his costumes
t We welcome it as revival of the aim and
sson Of art, go long lost sight of in France |
as prophecy that the riotous and degraded
,ius of French Art, SO long dwelling in re-
rs foreign to truth and purity, may before ,
e return to that
sPIRIT OF IDEAL BEAUTY
inst which i. has SO heavily Buned and brin1 |