New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-05-25
ART IN FRANCE.
PARIS AS THE CAPITAL OF ART.

HIBITED-sOMR AMERICAN ARTISTS - GhNbhAL
CHARACTER OF THE NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. DIS
PLAYS OF WORKS ART-sALE OF A PAINTING
MURIILo.
IyRoM REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUNE
PARIS. MAY 6.-Whatever else of prestige she has
lost Paris stu holds well her rank as capital OF ART
With canvas equal to the best OF lngres OF
Delacroix, with nothing from Milet and some other
of the living masters the Salon this year, taken AZ
whole. rather gains than loses by comparison with
any one of its predecessors There is comparatively
little effort and less attainment in the direction OF
high art. The spirit of the time. with painters and
public. does not aspire to the ideal. There is, by
the way perhaps tr1e too much of lofty severity,
not to say can't in those writers who inveigh
against the commercial tendencies of artists of to-
day IN smart articles which they all probability
take pay for when they get it. No one is To be
blamed for not being great solitary genius, nor yet
for preferring his bread well buttered to dry crust
IL fault be rather than theirs for we
are their weakening medium. Let me loosely quote
here from of the four remarkable essays on the
present state of Fine Arts in France" just pub
hshed by Charles Blanc, whose authority is worth
something.
The OF school In the inferior modes OF art can
to proportion its aptitude for the
larger kinds One OF the OF this weakness which
for the rest is not past remedy that the artists i've
too much in the world and arc too absorbed IN the
defiance and a distance They labored some quiet
stelier removed from the eversh, noisy centers Of
the town. There they had leisure 10 mediate Their
works 10 read by times Of those books that ele
vae the mind to follow the flights Of their magma
ton, the aspirations OF their hearts; 10 yield them
selves up 70 enthusiasm. II landscape has made such
progress with it landscapsts, following
Diaz in his retreat from Paris went and founded
colony at BdrbzOn, the shadow OF the forest OF Fon
tainebeau. And yet they will all come TO resemble
each other n they do keep themselves distance
apart Decauzy an original artist because he
lived little Ia Paris and fond OF journeys away and
OF retirement know a lonely old house the border
Of an unffequented in the forest OF COmpeSne
house thai for a the wOodeuters and
poachers and Leather Stockings OF the country In this
rude iun loved to himselfup with his melancholy
ana his pOcsy II there he made hs marvellous draw
Of the History Of Samson
Young artists might perhaps learn something from
genial Charles Blanc; whiting snareTs who mistake
bilOusuc5s for talent at criticism probably cannot
To return to the salon by way of statistics. The
whole number of objects of art in all kinds presented
tO the Examining Jury 6Sj5 OF these, 1870,
being offered by persons who had received medals
atpreyious exhibitions, admitted er offci0 with
out regard to their intrinsic merit. More than one
half OF the oil paintings 2205) and a much less pro-
portion of the other offerings were refused admis-
sion. There are now exposed at the Palais de lIu-
dustIe: of oil paintings, 1,s52; of drawings. water
cOlors. co0red crayOns, etc, 776 of ali kinds in
sculpture. $685. of architectural designs, 1885, of
gravngs %; of Autographs 81 total, 1861 articles
some other statistics may interest your readers
About 0ne-sixth, and by no means the worst sixth,
of these works of art the work of 2Si women
artists, s. of them contributing TO the department
of OIL painting 1G6 to that Of designs, water-coors
crayOns, miniature copies in ceramic etc. % to that
of sculpture, and 10 to that of engravings. Among
them beside that sympathetic actress Of the Fran
Gals, Sarah BcTnhardt, and the Baroness Nathan de
Rothschlld was glad 20 see several Of our country
women holding honorable places. Besides exquisitely
fine copies. IN other material than that of the orig
inals, such Ks miniatures on ivory and in ceramic,
the women especially exercise their rights 10 bear
brush with the ugIier in portraits and flower
pieces. Some have done well; few admirably well
in landscape and genre II piccolO Musico, by Miss
Tompkns of Washington who exposed two clever,
honest portraits last year shows, fear an advance
that excellen,ly puts any application she might be
mIsled To make for dccenty filing vacant panel of
the Capitol quite out Of chance of being approved
by Senator'S vino should also condemn the portraits
of Mile. Jacquemart, who last year gave finely
characteristic. vigorous portrait VI NJ. Theirs.
Mr.. Heaiy hangs this year three frames on the
walls of the saOn-90l TO 903 inclusive on the cata-
logue-where they are respectively designated as
portraits OF Pins TX of NJ Theirs, and Of His Ex-
eellency the Minister Of the United States at Paris
Plus X never had the honor Of seeing in the flesh
but have been frequently privileged in that regard
as 10 Mr.. Washburne and the great French states
man. Looked at from purely patriotic point Of
view should. on several accounts. hope that this
representation Of nations Minister might
not be suspended in the choice gallery of the del
cately acute connOisseur and ex-President of the
French Republic. Nor, when Paris is orphaned Of
our Minister'S presence. aud Gaena opens her arms
to her returning son, bringing this picture under
ms should the connOsseurs of that sister city,
however they admire the paint, indulge the fancy
that this painting is almost the natural man"
Mr.. Healy has fabricated not particularly I'M
worthy, material likeness of his American sitter.
To linn the finer features of the other with their
subtle. complex characteristic lines. there needs
what amIable. read -brushing Mr.. Healy has been
forbidden by nature to be, the painter who
Porting on a face.
Dvinely, through al hndranees finds the man
Behind r. and so paints him his face,
The shape aud color mind aud life,
Ives.
Although Mr. Healy's portraits are among theTery
poorest IN execution of all portraits in the Salon.
their essential defect of of conception is
more OF less common TO nearly all OF the rest and
with variations is discernible as well in landscapes
genre pieces and attempts historical painting. In-
gres once painted the likeness of NJ Berlin once di-
rocting proprietor Of the Journal des DebQ which we
privileged 70 to-day in the loan exhibition at
the Palas Bourbon a museum of marvellous gems of
art opened in aid of refugees from Alsace and LOT
rane, who better love mother country France, with
all her faults than annexation with all its promised
prosperitles 70 the foreign German Empire. Ap.op6s
OF tue general theme and this por ait Suffer that
again roughly translate from Charles Blanc: