The Portland daily press., 1877-03-24
Art and Music,

Rubens' great work, The Feast of Venus,
in the Belvidere, at Vienna will soon be pro-
duced in an etching by the well-known artist,
W. Unger.
The last picture added to the National Gal
lery in London is Mr.. W. Linton's Temples of
P@strum, which, the AtheDaum says "shows
the ruins of those gigantic structures standing
in the marshy level between the mountain and
the sea- Above, dense, huge white cumuli ap-
pear in the blue armament; the effect is that
of full sunlight not very purely or brilliantly
painted, SO that in this respect the picture fails
and descends almost to the level of scene"
The latest harmony in blue and gold is q
peacock room at Princes Gate, London, decor
ated by Mr.. Whistler, the etcher. The pattern
is taken from the eye of the peacock's feather
and the breast feathers. These two patterns,
either in blue or gold, are repeated throughout
the room. They are spread from the lamps
over the ceiling, and in the cove of
the cornice the eye of the feather is seen
running along beneath the small breast feath-
ers. From the cornice to the dado the
wall is painted a fiat blue, and on the end wall
is large design of two great peacocks fighting
all painted in gold, and with flashing eyes Of
real diamond and ruby. On the shutters are
painted pairs of large peacocks.
The late Joel 7. Harris group, ''The Triumph
of Chastity" was the result of sixteen years
thought; for nearly that time a selected block
of Carrara marble lay untouched of chisel in
his Florence studio, waiting for him to satisfy
his conception in the clay. He made constant
small changes in the figures, but never touched
the face of the principal figure; that face he
lucky, and 1t became his IDEAL The group was
completed about two years a. o and was bought
shortly after by an Englshman. A writer in
the Louisville Courier-J ournal says: SIT rep
resents female figure, holding IN her hand a
broken arrow, the last from the quiver of Cupid
or Love, upon whom she, conscious of her
strength and purity, gazes down half in pity
half 1n scorn." Mr.. Hart himself thought he
was greater poet than sculptor, though no.
body else ever shared the idea, and he has lef:
behind large quantity of his writings, which
1t was his hope would be published after his
death.
DR.. Henry Reeve was a clever Englishman,
who, travelling on the continent in 1905, called
upon Haydn in Vienna and thus described the
great composer in his journal which has Just
been published: Gle received me very cvilly
he calls himself very old man of seventy-five,
but he has not at all the look of so many years.
He has some of tbs infrmities OF age; his head
and his chest trouble him, and at present he is
unwell, his nerves are so weak that he can do
nothing. He cannot compose or write, which
he finds very hard, and he is ordered not to
make any such exertion by his physician. He
speaks little English, and about as much
French and Italian, besides German. So we
make compromise; spoke French, German
and English, and he spoke German. We man.
aged to understand each other very we'll and
we talked great deal in half an hour. He
spoke with rapture of England; called it the
first and best country in the world; said he had
been there twice, the last time IN $780, and had
composed great deal of his music while in
London, amid good eating and drinking. He
related an anecdote of his dining in company
with Mrs Ellington at some house where there
was picture of her hanging in the room, rep
resenting her listening to an angel singing.
haydn said it ought to be reversed-she ought
to have been drawn singing aud the angel lis
| tening to her. He got kiss for this elegant
compliment. He spoke of the delight he took
IN composing symphonies for the Scotch songs
His figure is about the common size, rather
short in stature, his eyes dark, aquline nose,
and brown complexion, marked a little by the
smallpox; he wears a nicely powdered tail wig,
He was in excellent spirits, very glad to see
me, and requested me to repeat my VISIT