The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-02-01
Art, Music and the Drama.

Frederick Lemaitre, whose death is an
nounced by cable, was one of the most cele-
brated French actors of this century. He was
bonn at Havre in 1898, and at an early age pre-
pared himself for the dramatic profession. In
1928 he made his debut at the Ambigu, and
thenceforward his career was one of uninter-
rupted success. He was successful in both
tragedy and comedy, but excelled in the ro-
mantle drama. Among his favorite roles were
Robert Macaire, Don Cesar de Bazan, and
Ruy Bias.
In brief article on Raphael in the January
Portfolio Boston, New York; the modern fash
ion of speaking of this painter as "Raffaelle"
is secuted as unknown to himself or his age.
His family name was Santi, which has been
modernized into Sanzo; but he signed nine in
twelve of his works as ".Raphael Urbinas,"
from Urbino, his native place. The plate the
sketch accompanies is of his Saint Catharine of
Alexandria.
CAPTURE, the painter of The Romans of the
Decadence, that marvellous work which forms
one of the chief attractions of the Luxem-
bourg Gallery, is dangerously i'll, and his de-
mise is daily expected.
Dore is said to be at work on great canvas,
intended to disarm the adverse criticism of his
antagonists. A correspondent says of the art
lists secrecy in regard to the picture, "The
work 1 refer to occupies one whole side of a
large studio, and it is concealed by an immense
curtain. 1 know, as every one else may know
who goes to the place, that the curtain is drawn
the moment leave, and that the artist falls 10
work with feverish energy to make up for lost
time; but have never been able to surprise
him at this labor. 1 am half inclined to be-
heve that he has invented some mechanical ar
rangement which insures the closing of the
curtain on the mere ringing of the visitors
bell, so that the would-be curious impertinent
defeats his object by his own hands,"
Susie V. writes thus concerning art matters
in Boston: Constant Mayors painting, The
Song of the Shirt, now exhibiting at Bakeslee
& Noyes's art gallery, is not a great picture,
though it tends to good, as an illustration of an
ever existing evil which even Hood poem has
never made impressive. A woman of hopeless
countenance and eyelids strained and lnflamed
sits plying her needle and thread But hunger
and want have overlooked their characteristic
inroads; the face is full and round, the flesh
color healthful, and the wavy brown hair as
bright and slken as a bellies. Neither is it a
dramatic picture, for the simple details are in
keeping with the character of the verse-the
bed of straw, a crust of bread, and rags-the
shattered roof and naked hoor--a table,
broken chair and blank walls-the tin pail and
spoon, the scant candle extinguished at the
dawn now casting its cold beams into the attic
room,-all these surroundings, yet it is with
out personality. 1t is unattractive, cold, and
seems unfinished, needing that expression and
finish of portraiture which Charles Blanc calls
the ''last word of painting"
Sir George Harvey, the Scotch painter, who
died in England, Sunday, was born in 1906, at
st. Ninian's. small village near Stirling. He
displayed taste for drawing at an early age but
having been apprentced to a bookseller had
but limited opportunities for cultivatng his
talents. From 1928 to 1926 he studied at the
school of the Trustees Academy, Edinburgh.
In 1926, when the Scottish artists resolved to
establish an academy of their own, framed
upon the model of the Royal Academy of Lon
don, Harvey was invited to join it as associate,
and became academician in 1929. Incidents
from the history of the Covena1ters supplied
the subjects for some of the pictures by which
49, HASS "OA ANhAO, oUOh 40 NOfCuduIcIS II6dCu-
ing, in 1880; Covenanters' Baptism, in 1881
Battle of Drumclog, from Scott, in 1886; and
The Covenanters Communion, in 1910. First
Reading of the Bible in Old st. Paurs, in 1877,
first made him known at the London exhibi.
ton. BE painted many domestic subjects,
such as Examination of Village School, iu
1882; John Bunyan in Jail, in 1888; Dismissal
of Village School, in 1910; Quitting the
Manse, and The Past and Presently Children
Blowing Bubbles in the old Greyfriars Church
yard, in 1910; John Bunyan and his Daughter
Selling Laces at the Door of Bedford TAIL in
1867; The Sabbath in the Glen, in 1859; The
Penny Bank, in 1864, etc. Mr.. Harvey's popn-
larity has been increased by good engravings
from his Covenanters' pictures and other sub.
Jects which appealed to the sympathies of
large class. Dawn Revealing the New World
TO Columbus, and Quitting the Manse now
adorn the walls of the Scottish National Gal
lery. Mr.. Harvey, who was elected president
OF the Royal Scottish Academy on the death of
Sir John Watson Gordon, in 1864 was knighted
in 1867.
NrTn