New-York tribune., 1876-09-09
DEPARTMENT OF FINE ARTS.

DEPARTMENT OF FINE ARTS.
FRENCH PICTUREs-ETC -ETCHINGS-SCCLrTUREs.
iron STAFF CORRESPONDENT or THE TRiBUNr1
PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 30.-It has been said
so often that French Art contribution to the ExLib
ton does justice TO the past achievement In Art OF
the French people, what is being accomplished by
them to-day that do not wish to enlarge upon the
fact We prefer to look about for reasonable excdse
In our disappointment at seeing many Freneh pic
lures as had hoped for. may possibly have ms
Judged motives aud nsealculated opportunities, and II
Il well TO acknowledge to ourselves that rs there cannot
possibly have been be part Of the French people any
willingness treat their old friend end oily with dsre
speo "a re must be good for their failure to
gratfy by ampler participation In our Exhibition
And on thinking It over, there do appear
two sufficient reasons for that failure Tho first
may dismissed in few words since IL identical with
tue given few days ago by correspondent OF
IHE TRIBUNE for the insufficient display made in the
Exhibition by Germany. IL Is that as We Americans cid
not at first appear believe III the Exhibition ourselves
we could expect the people OF Europe 10 believe IN
IT, Aud fact. only two foreign nations did believe IN
the Exhibition from he beginning and proved their
faith by works These nations we're England and
japan. All the other peoples hung fire. though not ali
with equal persistence to the same extent But IL
Is plain that each OF the nations had been willing ard
able tofnake as complete exhibition Of its Art as En-
gland and Japan made OF theirs the result world
has not yet anywhere In the ease Of Franc"
however there serious difficulties in the OF her
making such display Of her own art, not only here in
Philadelphia but at home sndt may even DC DOUBTED
whether she will be able to do very much better for
herself when she comes to make up her collection OF
French pictures and statues for her promised Eyh
bitten in 1878.
The difficulty lies not really in any unwuGness 10
participate in our Exhibition but in her inability TO do
more than she has As we have said, the French
people slow IN making up for our siowness In In
ytng and when they did begin to think Of coming they
were met by two dihlcultles-ths mpOssibty OF per-
suadng private lend pictures, and the fact Iat
French atists as q rule, had OF their own pictures
To leud In England there are all the time going on nd
within 10 years the custom has wonderfully Incrcasedl
Loan Exhibitions TO which II Is coming to be more and
more the fashion for everybody from the Queen down. TO
contribute whatever be may own OF rich or rare that
may add 10 the interest OF any particular show. More
than this with the proper key, whether purely social
Jne or a sufficient CLAIM amateur OF connoisseur, all
ioors are opened England that shut in the treasures
of the artistic world richer there in quantity aud quail
ity, than anywhere else,
But In France such exhibitions have never been common
and are only Just beginning 10 be held the fashion
having been distinctly borrowed from the English Whie
IL is to-day, as II Away, most dcnt thing 10 gel
admittnce TO the collections French oonnoseurs or
" those Of mere wealthy or course II French
owners have to be WTfsted with before they can be per
suaded TO loan their pictures 10 home exhibitions what
must be expected when they approncLed with re-
quest 10 loan them to exhibition 1000 miles away
We ought not therefore TO be surprised az the unsats
factory character OF the French ArtcOntrbuton to our
Exhibition. Nothing better was reasonably to be ex
pecte And after ALL the compliant only holds against
defect OF quality fault 10 be fOId on the score OF
deficient quantity. Aud considering ho1 many good
French pictures We have here already, 1t may serve
useful purpose let see what the common rln OF
French Art is lest should be too much confirmed IN
thinking that France has painters but her essoncrs
her GeroInes her Bonnats her Cabanos ana the rest
VINO still survive her illustrious dead.
The names OF contributors 10 the french Department
of Fine Arts In the Exhibition take up little over ten
pages In the new Official Catalogue. But the list of
articles includes not only pictures and statues, but tapes
tries porcelain. watercOors engrayLgs, and archtec
tural designs The collection is not distributed with judg
nlent for the first impression is given of course Ivy the
pictures In Memorial Hall, where one naturally expects
TO find France equally represented with the other great
Powers-with ENGLAND, with Germany, with America,
with Austria and even with Russia aud Spain But the
rooms Of Powers are, at any rate well fed what
ever may be the quality of the with which their
walls are hung while the impression gwen by the great
French Gallery is Of uncomfortable baroness. Not
only ls it not sufficiently filed, but what pictures there
are I'm the gallery arc unwisely hung. It some
times as Il Freuehnaus business faculties and common
deserted him when out OF sight OF Paris. surely
at home, no such awkwardness, want OF proportion
neglect Of the main point would have been possible or
permitted, as see here.
The French Gallery Room E." Memorial HaD Is
parallel gram with door In the middle Of each OF the
long sides, and In the middle Of each end. bell We
each of the four great galleries In the Memorial Hall
the English, the American, the French aud the German
lis on pan with the exception that the Amer
lean aud German galleries had door In only OF tho
long Sides The English aud American made additional
room for their pictures by closing up each OF the cnd
dora go that the wall space in the American Gallery
was broken by only doorway and that in the English
by only two The Germans, having no doorway In one
OF the oa aes Of their gallery, secured room by clos
ing one of their end doOrs and their waspace thus
like that Of the English broken by only two openings
The French large canvases TO hang in their
galeryCarolus Durans Lfe-size Equestrian Portrait
OF Mile. Croizette," A. f. Clements Death Of julius
~Casar," and Georges Beckers Rizpah Projecting the
Bodies of her Sons from the Birds OF Prey" To prao
teal Judgment It would Lave seemed that, to do these
three largo pictures any sort OF justice t would be
necessary 10 follow the example OF the United States
Commission and close all the doorways but one, hanging
the death of Cesar the long wall opposite the
doorway leading into the corridor ar and putting the
remaining at either end cf the gallery, one against