New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-02-19
other and talks ont his hour But at the end OF it,
though may have sat rejecting on the mysterious

thOugh may nave Sat TeieCtiHe WI tho i"yo'o'iV"o
alchemy of the French tongue, agreeably spoken,
have, in retrospect, felt just tribe banboozled. IL
is of course very true that have not been forced
to 90 there and it is also TO be remembered that the
sum taken in at the door of the senderest. AS the
maid-seryan said when, Oh her having saved up
thirty CROWNS she was asked why she married
bnncbback, What sort of husband can one get
for thirty crownsT
The practice of collecting artists works into
exhibition after his death Is apparently passing from
the exception into the rule. think it may be said
that il is only rather broad rule hatwould include
the productions of poor NJ. Pills, who died last An
tunn and whose pictures have lately been gathered
into the great hall Of the Ecole dies Beaux Arts the
scene of the exhibition of the works of Barge, which
| mentioned the other day. Pts was a military
painter of the school, generally speaking of Horace
vcrnet-some of whose merits he lacked, however,
as well as many of his defects. He was neither 80
good as Ycrnet at his best, nor SO bad as Vernet
when Vernet was worse than usual His posthumous
exhibition. nevertheless is interesting and the Gus
TOM though il is Liable TO abuse seems excellent. Ii
gives artist another chance, as 1t were, another
bid for fame after nature has brought down the
hammer. Piss life is more interesting perhaps
than his work, and il has been very sympathetl-
cally related by NJ. Becq de Fouquieres. He was an
immtigaLle invalid, from the cradle, and his career
was constant battle with disease. lie painted the
Crnean and the Italian campaigns without beng
able to follow the army, though he spent
some time in Algeria preparing all immense
picture of the reception of the native chiefs
by the Emperor and Empress. This work, unfor-
tunatey was rather melancholy failure aud IL not
exhibited the Empress, who, believe, was usu-
ally very obi gIng i'll such matters never succeeded
in finding an hour to sit for her portrait, though
I,.l. Al, Oh ~
hand, awaiting his chance. 1t must be SAID, in JUS
tice that his women are rot very lovely creations.
His speciality was the French soldier of the Second
Empire the victor of the Alma aud of Magenta,
and him he thoroughly understood. His great sue
cess was huge representation of the battle OF the
Alma which now covers one whole side oi
the hall of the Ecole DIES Beaux Arts. Much Of TINS
gigantic canyas is common and empty, but the sol
deIS are real soldiers-thc zouaycs and chassctr>
really move with all the infinite variety of attitude
of the soldier in action. The idea with Pills. the
first sketch aud the start, were always excellent
he broke down in the later stages-In CON
sequence, often, of the want of physical
strength. His patience and courage under re
iteratcd Interruptions of this kind seem 10 nav"
been ineXhauStible, and he appears II have had
large measure of that almost touching simplicity oi
nature which is frequent among French artists-as
in Mict and Flandrin. He painted the dome OF
the staircase in the new opera, and the brush
dropped from his hand inst as he finished ms work
He did not live to suffer from the silence Of the
critics about IT, Apollo and the MUSES. were not ia
his line and his pictures were oycrshad0wed by the
brilliant and exquisite compositions of NJ. Baudry in
a nei shboriug part Of the building. Bat Pills PLAYED
his part-he erected "a monument To the old military
glory of France II was not his fault il his pictures
had an im7onderab,c nnuence in precimiatmg The
countfv into the mi-eres Of 1870 must aid
word about a greater name than that OF ms.
Two very interesting pictures Of Eugene D-lacroiX
have for some time been visible al Dnrand-Kucls'
One l. an immense affair. painted III his early youth
"A Sar,lanapalus upon hs funeral pile 1t takes
early youth to attack such subjects as that. lhe
luxurious monarch is reclining upon his cushions on
the summit of a sort of brazen monument. and his
Jewels and treasures and dsheveled wives are heaped
in confusion about him. The subject was not easy
and Deacroix has not solved iis difficulties; much
of the picture is very bad. even FOR neophyte bu'
here and there a passage is almost mastery, and tie
whole picture indicates the dawning of great I'M
agination. One Of the women. half naked and tumh-
ling over HELPLESS or her face against the couch OF
her lord with her hands bound behind her, and her
g,ldcn hair shaken out with her lamentations.
seems in her vouug transparent roSiness IKE the WORK
of "A more delicate and more spiritual Rubens. Inc
other picture, painted in 1873 an " Entomhnent oi
Christ" is one of the authors masterpieces ana iS
work of really ineVpressible beauty; pelncroiX i
there at his best with his singular proundity OF
Imagination aud ms exraord nary harmony OF color.
II is the only modern religious picture have seen
that seemed to painted in good faith, and WISH
that since such things being done on such scale
if might be bought in America. IL Is very dear Dni
it is 10 be had, considering what II H. loi hothhe'
compared with Meissoniers loO'.'
Henry JAMES, JK