Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1876-07-16
Art i'm the Centennial.

l
} Art in the Centennial.
} Howell, in the Atlantic Monthly
The art hall, which is otherwise con
ventionally well enough, ls d;s6gured 10y
the colossal brouzes at the entrance
"Non ragioniam di lor, ma guarda passa
The show of sculpture within seems t.
have been almost entirely left to thu
cOuntrymen,o Michel Angelo, who are
here repOsing, for the most part, upon
his laureis. One Of them has posted il
the most conspicuous place in the 70
tunda his conception Of Washington
Washington perched on an eagle much
too small for him. The group is il
plaster; the eagle life-size, and the
Washington some six feet high from
the middle up; having no occasion fol
legs in the attitude chosen, Washington
thriftily dispenses with them. The poOl
man who made this thing is so besosted
with it as 60 have pIscarded his other
works, "By the sculptor of the Wash
ington." This is not his fault, perhsp s,
aad l am not so sure after all that his
| Washington is IS bad as the bronze
statue of Emancipation II supposed, 8
most Extensively Frenchy negro, who
has broken his chain, and spreading
both his arms and legs abroad, is riotiu Q
in defamation of something Il should
say from Victor Hugo; one longs to
clap him back into hopeless bondage.
Then there is the wax Cleopatra in the
Annex-an image to bring tears to the
eyes of the legislative gentlemen who
lately proposed to abolish the study OF
the nude in our State drawing. schools.
| b will nnt do IN ha he
diShd6ilLe of this figure; it is enough to
say that it is Cleopatra coming to
meet Antony 1.-THE delightful printed ex-
PLANTATION handed you by the attendant
says Cae JaI) ia her barge, famed by q
black slave, and attended by single
| Cupid, whose ruff, as he moves his head,
shows the jointure of his neck; a weary
parrot on her foger opens and shuts its
| wings, and she Tolls her head alluringly
| from side to side and family lifts her
right arm and lets it drop again-for
twelve hours every day. Unlike many
sculptures, this has no V&gueness Of sem
timent, and it explicitly advertises a
museum Of anatomy in Philadelphia.
For the last reason it might be fifty ex-
PEELED, but q large number OF visitors OF
every age and sex would miss it; GER
tainly IL has a popularity which the
other two disgracts of the art hall have
not. After the three objects have men,
toned, l think the room devoted TO he
| German paintings is most tisagreeable.
! The pictures are Indifferent, good and
bad; the taste, the gross and boastful
vanity, the eXultant snObbishness of the
thOw is intolersble. OF course, portraits
of the imperial family, in all attitudes OF
triumphant warfare, abound; but there
is one picture, the " Surrender of
Sedan" which ought lot to have been
admitted except for extraordinary
artistic merits; and these it has
not. On the brow of hill stand Will
helm, Bismarck and the other chiefs of
police, swollen with prodigious majesty
and self-sstisfactiOn, while u poor little
FrenchmAn, with his hat in one hand
and paper in the other, comes creeping
abjectly up the slope, half bowed TO the |
earth and not daring to life his eyes to |
the imperial presence. 1t is a picture |
to make any Frenchman "bound" with |
rage, If he happens not TO laugh, and / |
do not see how we are to escape our
share Of the outrage offered in it, by the |
offensive despotism from |
which it comes, to our ancient friend
and sister Tor say step-sister) republic.
When / think OF II, l sm ready to JUS
tify the enormous charges at the resIau-
rant OF the Trois Freres Proveneau ESQ
called because each of the brothers
makes out his bill OF three prices, and
you pay the sum tOtal), as a proper re-
prisal upon us; but l would fain Whis-
per in Hths ears Of those avengers
hat not all Americans are guilty. There
8 nothing else among the works of art
"a I I'D = |
Any ones national sensibiiities. To lie
Jure, Mr.. ROtheTmel does not spare q
huge slaughter of rebels in his Battle of
Gettysburg, but heard it said that this |
picture was not work Of art. do not
know about such things myself. l had I
/ hOrrific interest in the spectacle. al
nCs. as large as the canvas, which
covers the whole end of one room: and I I
bought the rebels were fighting hard.
nd, if they were dying, were dying 1
Iravely. The rooms devoted to the /
English pictures are most delightful, s
'here were many works of their mas j
had sent Us OF their best, and
lot Of their second best, as the French 1
lsd doEe-and there was kindness Of c
ntent and manifest good feeling to. c
yard our fair, if not toward cur nation, '
D which every generous American must I
t once respond. Not only have they g
ent us Of their best, but their best pic 2
lres are fer their pleasure and not our t
rofti they are owned by Englishmen b
Tho risk everything that may happen O
} t0eir treasures in the voyage over tn b
sss, and gain nothing but the satisfsc. n
on Of doing a gracious and graceful G
hing. To courtesy, Of which we cannot il
g too sensible, we owe the sight not 8
nly Of famous GainsbOroughs, Rey- q
Oldses, Vests and Lawrences, but al SO Ils
le works OF the great modern painters, g
aldseer, Leighton, Millais, Alma Ia O
ema and the rest. l may be wrong in a.
ating that no other nstion has done 81
lything like this, but certainly recoI- Il
ct nothing else II the kind; and the te
nglish have added TO the favor done us ii
? having distinctly lettered on the al
anne OF each picture the name of the o.
linter and the owner, as we'll as the s
i ject Of it, thus spaTing the spectator Iii
Re fatigue and trouble Of referring OIL
the catalogue. By all odds theirs W
the mot satisfactory department "
the art hall; and they have not til
lily done US great pleasure, hut have in
me themselves great honor. Here, If pI
where else, one is conscious of mod II
a mastership in painting; here is the ia
nse OF strong and definite impulse tn
lich in all its variety has a unity ex- TT
essed In every work; one would know We
csc strikiDgly characteristic pictures 1t!
English art anywhere and every an
lere; one might like them or not, but fih
8 could not mistake them; and with res
Y refinement Of literary taste, one ms
tie ignorant Of the technicslities Of wa
may enjoy them. 1t may be fault prs
f,,fs - 10 Il