, 1877-07-06
Wiertz's Weird Pictures.
BY FRED'K HASTINGS.

BY FRED K HASTINGS.
Brussels is small Paris. Some think
it more pleasant and interesting than the
French capital. Be this as it may, Brus-
sells has one institution which is unique
and which alone is worth the trials of
channel passage to see-the Wiertz Mu-
scum. This is not Museum in the Eng
lish sense, but in the Continental. 1t has
no antiquities, no collections of geologi-
cal or chronological specimens, but is
simply a gallery of paintings. The
paintings in this Museum are all by one
man. Mons. Wiertz. He was a man of
great genius, and the Belgian govern
ment allowed him an annuity, giving him
also a large, old-fashioned house, and
left him at liberty to paint what pictures
be liked, on condition that they should
belong to the State at bis death. 1t was a
good arrangement. Here, on the spot
where they were painted, is a large num-
Der of most valuable and suggestive pic
lures. The old red brick house has four
great columns standing alone in front,
but covered with masses Of green ivy or
luxuriant Virginian creepers, all brilliant
crimson in their autumn dress. Beside
the Luxembourg Station the Museum
stands. Being in a side street, perhaps
many visitors would not take the trouble
to find it, bot found, they would never
forget it.
Mons. Wiertz was a peculiar genius,
but be had a great heart, if one may
Judge from his pictures. The driver of
an omnibus with whom l chatted as we
ascended the steep street leading to the
Place Royale, told me that he had often
had Mons. Wiertz by his side on that ON
nibus, that he was a small, dark, Spanish
style of man, but very intelligent and
very much interested in the poor. The
several portraits of him on the gallery,
and the SUI jects be painted, would in part
confirm this description.
But let US look at some of the pictures.
Here is large one that catches our eye
Immediately on entrance. "a great one
Of this world" 1t is very large paint
ING, about fifteen feet square. 1t repre-
sents a huge figure bending to smite or
clutch men, women and children. He
has one man by the leg between his teeth,
and one foot is just coming down with
terrific power on a number of others who
are scrambling to get out of bis way. F.
P. Wienz was great batter of the Nspo-
Icons and this is how he would satiIize
them. "a scene in He'll" is picture of
Napoleon the First arrayed in TIE we'll
known grey coat and cooked hat, and
surrounded by lurid whitish flames.
Stretching away behind him is an angry
crowd of the bereaved parents, widows
and orphans made through his wars; in
front are numbers of the wounded, and
on the ground heaps of the slain. A
woman is represented as taking the de-
taehed, shattered aud mortified arm of her
husband and thrustiDgit into the very face
of the great warrior. He turns livid at
the sight aud ut the realization Of even a
small part of the mischief he had wrought.
But what il that picture of a headltss
mani Suicide The pistol has Just
been fred and the body of the man only
Is seen in the act of falling, while an an
gel looks on and weeps over the sin. An
other picture still more weird is that
called "Thoughts and visions flashing
through head which has just been cut
of By the guillotine."
Wiertz had passionate detestation of
war. He satirizes it in different pictures.
"The civiliz ,tiun of the nineteenth CEN
tuTy' is the repre- entation of soldiers bay
onetting a defenceless woman and child.
Food for cannnn" is a huge cannon with
number IF dimpled children playing
around and in it, ignorant of their future
destiny. The things of the present be-
fore the men of future ages" is a very
srge painting of giants, where bodily
size is supposed to represent their intel
lectual greatness-one of whom has a
handful of cannon, guns, fags, swords,
drums, and decorative stars which he is
examining very curiously, to ascertain
what pup se they had served in some
long past generation. "The last cannon"
is picture of angels rending in pieces
sort Of "Woulwich Infant" while prun-
ing forks, mslleA> a scythe, and Bible
are shown, having s0pplanted it. One of
his st4tuettes he entiifes The second
epoch-Light." Here the angel of peace
has the demon of war undsrfoot and is