The Portland daily press., 1877-06-25
Art and Artists.

LandsseIs portrait of Sir Walter Scott has
been sold for SIG 900.
Count Gleiken, the London papers tell US,
has completed his statue of Alfred the Great,
executed for the birthplace Of that great ruler
1t is of Siclian marble, and eight feet in
height; fine bold figure, in the cross -gartered
hose of the time holding an axe in one hand
and charter in the other.
MIR. Millias has painted new picture which
bids fair to be turned into popular engraving.
1t is THE Good Resolve'-a picture of little
Scotch lassie, standing with upraised face and
serious expression, sedately determining to
keep resolution suggested or confirmed by
consultation of the Bible, leaves of which she
IS deliberately turning down. 1t ia an old
Scottish custom.
Mr.. Frederick Leighton has won 10 this
years Royal Academy Exhibition almost as
much distinction as a sculptor as painter
His statue of an An Athlete Wrestling with
Python is esteemed SO good that it has been
bought by the administrators of the Chantrey
Fund, to become part of public national col
lection. The price paid was $4,000. In
money point OF view, however, Mr.. Leighton is
anything but gamer by his success. This
Inquire has occupied large part of more than
three years, during which he could have earned
much more money by painting pictures. 1t is
any fair critic ignore its shortcomings 1t is
understood that Mr.. Leighton has already been
questioned by naturalists about the order and
class OF the snake-whether 1t be boa, python,
rock-serpent, or what not. These are Questions
the artist confesses himself unable to answer,
and he seems strangely Indifferent to the SUBJ
ject.
Giorgione may be supposed to have shown
Titan the way to his rich pathetic treatment of
ap1o he
scape power. His appreciation of scenery was
distinctively modern. Mountains were to Linn
what they have become to us, the noblest and
most mysterious element in landscape; while
the peculiar characteristics of his native dolo-
mlte-soaring, riveD, tortuous-lent themselves
especially to his pencil. Clouds, again, with
MN possessed the sky in majestic masses, or
rolled upon the hills with strength or swept
along stretch of country curtainng it with
rain. Trees and darksome woodland were his
delight; huge solemn boles and tall tree stems.
enter into every composition that admits OF
them; and how precious to him was the saffron
splendor of evening seen between the forkipg
branches, or through sprays of delicately PEN
clled LEAKAGE. Such perceptions as these. such
capacity to render them put Titan ahead for
all time at the head of landscape art
Fraser.
The Lennox gallery is about closing, and
season
announced. 1t is signal example not only of
unsolicited sacrifice and libsrality on the part
of the owner, who gives up all of his privacy In
his favorite collection Of pictures, but of merit
and rarity in the quality. The row of three
tine paintings by Reynolds is striking; the full
length of Mrs. Ellington as St. Cecilia. sur
rounded by group of cherubs quite as fine al
the celebrated Angel heads" of the National
Gallery, is hanked at the sides by rich, Mu-
Kitty Fishers with colors much cleaned away.
but of exquisite pose. The great Turner. rem.
resenting Fingal's Cave, is the picture the
story of whose purchase by Mr.. Lennox is told
at such length by Leslie in his autobiography.
The smaller Turner, A Scene on the French
Coast with English Ship of War Stranded. ia
an example of the painters method of obtain
ing general brilliancy over sky and shore with
no greater relief than specks Of dark color here
and there. The specimens of Gilbert Stuart
are OF the highest value. Those of Leslie nm
fortunately, are mostly of his vilesr quality:
they are religious subjecCs, chalky In color and
nam6y-pamby in sentiment, and one wonders
whether the painter himself really could look
at them with satisfaction, and on what theory
he allowed himself to part with them 10 his
generous patron. The gallery contains one
hundred and thirty-eight paintings, q majority
of which repay the most studious attention of
the connoisseur. and six pieces of sculpture.
The library, which the new building is also to
accommodate, is not yet ready for the public
Nation.
Bright pure colors are the best, really, and
all real magni6cence OF hue must be based
upon them. L could show, had L time. that
the French have really no idea of the trus
beauty of color; what they understand is the
relative arrapgemsnt of tint, and all that can
be done by such arrangement their exquisito
taste enbles them to de easily. But taste for
fine color could no. spring from a people az
light and artificial as are the French at heart.
and consequently, in spite of their many
renowned artists, they have produced hardly
one colorist. Color in its utmost hight can
only spring from the deepest feeling; and it
can be geneIal in no nation till it has entered
into the hearts OF its people. and they have
Dashed IN It as II 1t were sunshine; danced
with the delight of it, quarreled for il, fougbt
for 1t, starved for it--done, in fact precisely
the opposite of what we want to do with it
made it TO keep, and not to SELL" But it is
possible TO learn to know good color when you
see it, though scarcely in England, for here
there are few days in the year when we really
see the sun, as the Italians, for instance see It.
Never, till saw dark Expresses against an
Italian sky. did gain an idea of the exquisite
harmony of green and blue; nor did know
what crimson and gold really were till l saw
them blazing under an Indian sun in the
bazars of Bombay Before then had never
understood in the least the difference between
French prettiness of color and real nobility,
and think, unless each OF my readers has
passed through one such experience, he will
hardly understand what mean. To see good
color in dress, as understand it, you must 90
at least as far as Italy, and look, not at tbs
imported French robes which you will see
trailing by the Amos side or loiterlpg in the
Corso, but at the scarf of the Venetian
gondelier, aud the handkerchief on the
coutadina's bead. And if you turn your eyes
from these to the mountain-sides dark with
cypress or hoary with olive, to the white
houses amid the orange groves and the blue
sky, you will understand how, In such o
country, the love of color springs up in tho
hearts of the people till it becomes part Of
their ves.-Spectator.