New-York tribune., 1876-04-22
.pT AND LETTERS IN PARIS.
,,rrrp FROM HENRY JAMES. JR.

~ ,, oons IN THE sEINE-CURRENT Liikh-
AZURE.
.o,,, ,, =, CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRrBuNE'l
-. ,sorcI 21 In default of any topic with a
'ANi', ,os, of what the French call " actuaIV''
ne- - something to say to-day ABOUT P'0'uio',
tneio . ,,v seen good many; but heaven torpu
na'o "a a,sak of them all / have seen several
Sn +ho reanoearance of which in the ART mar
DOW -n,tb oo,nmenorating, aud may interest thoSe
-sonle at least who keep record OF suCn Nn"' 'S
r. ;mportant collections OF frehch P'0'u,''
sr,ed many years ago in Holland are apou' " W
S;.uer.ed in consequence of the dea'h oi 'n0ii
80 and have of course been sent 10 faIlS !" o0
nosed Of This operation IS to take p'aoe I",,o
Lance at the Hotel DrouOt, ana ne"n"4le
.bear the medtative rattle OF com IN tne siuo-
seoin' ~,o+ours not compelled like most news
- oorresnondents. TO be purely platonic' no
.Sh nlsosnTe the other day. of having an "h'ioip'.
-, 90 these two collections wmch are no'
~ ovbibition and it yielded me much enter.aiii-
80 port of the entertainment was perhaps lhue-
anIoot of the rigidy intrinsic merit Oh MeisSoih'i
I'd Decamys, and consisted i'll loungins upon a.
o.,oman in a quiet room IN an es'aoil9nii0nS :"
e1 49, oef,ctve presentatiOn of works OF art mas
80. hao, roised 10 fine art, and seeing the gems
~or;os I mention plucked forth from an ad-
;o,in0 place of deposit and arrayed before ine IN
.Lllfnl iuxtaposition. They certainly oruer TINS
.notter better in France than anywhere IN the
world. A catalogue Of each of the collections OF
,"T;ch sneak has been put forward, illustrated by
stcbings from eminent hands, many OF winch are
sdmirable-so much SO that people of modest aspl-
-".;ono nossessing the catalogue, may almost con-
,oe themselves for being unlikely ever to possess
snv of the works it describes Among these there
ors two or three charming Decamps aud couple OF
moT but superlative MeIssOners. Decamps is
o,,tar Of whom never tine, and one of the very
Jew French artists in whom, in the long run,
one finds il possible to take sentimental
Measure, counting Delacroix, Miiiet' ana
Rousseau as the Others. lie is not as pure
An original as they, but like them he has an element
of magic of independence OF fancy-the precious
something that gives its highest value TO work OF
art that can be learned in no school, ana III lts ao
sence replaced by no amount of practice. IL prac-
tice could give it, Meissonier, Gerome ana TWO OF
three of their supremey clever ooHeres ought 10 DC
rich in it but in fact these gentlemen only proEe
that 1t is possible TO go good way without IT, ohe
Of the specimens of Decamps is a small picture OF
little peasant girl sitting ander tree III Spring
time, when the leaves above her are yet sparse
but tie grass around her thick-strewn with
anemones and thrusting great shce of the bread
and butter with which she is besmearng her infant
Ins at a little white kid, who stands beside her.
The subect is not heroic and to call the scene pas
toral even seems an exaggeratOn of its pretenslOns
But il is truly exquisite and The landscape, beyond
the figures which are Immediately i'll front, and IN
shadow Relts away into soft Italian crags ana un-
dulatioDs and glows with silver light. No painter
plays with effects of light deiicately, and on the
whole SO unerringly, as Decamps. He shrinks
from none of the atmospheric mysteries
Aud complexities. He may easily be accused, OF
course, Of playing too much, and be reminded that'
according to the canonS, which have come INTO
fashion of recent years, to play III picture to dis
port oneself despe is very nearly as wicked as to
play on Sunday-that picture is indeed kind OF
concentrated Sunday, a transported battle-ground
of right and wrong a deadly, solemn, and RESPONSE
BILE thing. He will have however always, even In
his most criminal alterations, good many admirers
among the people who cannot help believing that
the great charm of art is III its being change from
life and not still narrower CONSCIOUSNESS OF IL,
and who. even if he were a less brilliant genius,
would prize in Decamps his strong expression OF
this sentiment. Another example of the same
painter is picture of couple of Italian pV@GrL
piping before an image of the Madonna Ill the Close
hot streets Of some little southern city. 1t ia mas
terpiece as regards the treatment OF reflected lights,
for there are Others. The yellow afternoon
Sunshine. confined till it grows thick, ii
reflected upon one and thence reflected back upon
another, and broken and mixed with vague brown
shadows, is here represented with admirable verify.
Any one who has walked in the streets of small
Italian towns late in the long Summer days will
particularly relish this little picture. Such an OBJ
server viii seem to feel the warm dead air again,
and In the places which his eyes fingered all the
mellow-the almost gOlden-dTeariness.
A painter whom always meet with pleasure
though unfortunately one meets HIM but seldom, as
he died many years since, prenatuFely, before the
list Of his works had grown long, is Marilhat, the
precursor of the nnumerable tribe of clever French
who during the last twenty years have "ex-
plotted" the Orient do not know what Marilhat
would have been doing if he had lived to our
own day but coming when he did, and stopping
when be did, he has a charm of which We must give
linn all the credit. 1t Is an unhappy thing III
France that as soon as All individual makes Int,
IN a certain line, in any of tho arts, he immedi-
ately. and in spite Of himself, founds schoo-cas
into activity a multitude of other persons who
forthwith proceed to "dov that particular thing;
to manufacture it, to elaborate the apparatus and
perfect the system that it may be turned Oft in
large quantities. The discovery by Delacroix and
Decamps, 40 years ago, that the bazaaTs of Cairo
and ConstantnOple afforded harvest of pictur-
esque subjects, is excellent III point 1t took
little while for the movement 10 spread, and
Aarilhat, coming first, at his leisure, is fresh.
charming, and sincere Marilhat's natural refine
ment his agreeable fancy. his simple and skillful
touch are captally illustrated i'll extremely beau
tiful picture which tho other day had before
great group Of cedars perched on huge, picturesque
elnbankment Of masonry, above q fountain, with
group of camel-drivers and their beasts resting in
the shade 1t Is the old East-thG East Of 40 years
ago, before the era of steamboats, on the Nile and
the British purchase of the Khedye's shares and
there Is in particular certain old white walled