New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-05-31
LONDON TOPICS.
SOCIETY. ART AND LITERATURE.


to have made speech last Saturday at the Press
Fund dinner, but prevented, said the papers,
by illness. His place was kept for him, and it was
only at the last moment that he found himself
obliged to send word that he could not come. The
rumor ran that it return of his old bronchial
troubles which compelled him to stay at home.
This, happily, proved mistake. He was suffering
from attack of lumbago. l met him two days
later at house where he had been dining,
and he was all right again. There is not,
and never was, any truth in the story
that he thought of resgning his post
Minister on account of the climate of ill-health
due to the climate. He has completely recovered
from the long and threatening bronchitis which
left him prisoner during the Winter This in
spite of the Spring weather; not at all because of
it. In truth, we have not yet had any Spring, ex-
cept in the almanacs. People have ceased to hope
for it, and the only remaining question Of interest
to the London public is whether there is or is not
to be any Summer. Within the past week we have
been favored with two squalls of snow and
sleet two separate days. The staunchest
conservatives begin to despair of their country.
Nay, they have ceased to expect the foreigner
to make polite speeches to them about the climate
of this melancholy island. They abuse 1T them
selves as heartily as ever a Frenchman did, ayeng-
ing themselves by connecting the current mete0rO-
logical phenomena with the spread of radicasm
and infdelty. 1t is the season of contemporaries,
but most of the garden-parties have been held in
doors. 1t is the season for coaching, but the
splendor of coaching depends largely on the show
of Spring toilettes which young and pretty women
are wont to make from the dizzy summit of we'll
turned-out and well-tooled drags and how
should these be visible to eager eyes from
beneath a canopy of umbrellas 1t was
in n m nj
gorgeous pattern and hue but neither has this idea
found favor. The Coaching Club, the younger of
the two Institutions and the promoter of tho four
INLAND art, had its meet at the Hyde Park Maya
zine on Thursday. There was a good muster, but
there also storm of rain aud hail, from before
which most of the sightseerS fled IN dismay. The
milliners are in despair; all sorts of trades
people the market-gardeners excepted, who aege
the backwardness of the season as reason for
keeping the prices of Spring produce up to mldwn-
ter level
An American artist has brought the Royal Acad-
envy into an odd dilemma. Mr. Ernest Parton is
the offender. He was indiscreet enough to paint a
picture which the Committee thought good enough
to buy and to pay for out of the Chantrey fund. 1t
is one of four pictures bought and certainly not
the least merrorious of the four. The title of it is
1.-THE Waning of the Year." and it appears on the
catalogue with all the hOnors of an italic announce
ment of its purchase under the terms
of tho Chantrey bequest. Too late. the
Council discovered two things; that the
Chantrey bequest was expressly given for the en-
enlargement of British art, and that Mr.. Ernest
Parton is an American. To add to his sins, our
young countryman has committed the grave Of
fence Of studying In France. where there are many
facilities for instruction, instead of in England,
where there few. It is needless to say that Mr..
Parton Is In way responsible for the act of the
Academy or to no other extent responsible than
in painting one of the four most meritOrious pic
lures of the year. The Council say they supposed
Mr.. Parton to be an Englishman because he gave
an address in Newman-st., London but since that
was his actual address, and the giving of it required
by the rules of the Academy when his picture was
sent in for exhibition, his act does not seem
extremely reprehensble. Nevertheless such
is the jealousy that reigns in Burlington
House and i'll other ATTRACTIONS that there is talk of
an appeal to Chancery to cancel the purchase. 1T
is no assistance to British art" growls one
critic " to buy a Yankee picture however fne aud
1t is probable that the Master of the Rolls may be
invited to express his opinion on the transaction"
Well let him express it, should say it might be
argued that the stimulus to British art was very
direct. If anything could sting the Briton into
fresh effort it would surely be the sight of British
cash thus diverted into an American pocket solely
on account Of the admitted superiority of an Amer
lean painter
As a good many exaggerated stories have got into
English print about Mr.. Whstler's embarrass-
ments it desirable to say that his affairs are in
process of being arranged. 1t is true there was to
have been a sale at his house on Tuesday, but the
sale was stopped by injunction, and there are hopes
that a compromise may be effected with his more
pressing creditors. There can be no manner of
doubt that MIR. Ruskin's savage lampoon on MIR.
Whistler seriously injured the sale of his pictures,
as he himself testified during the trial. The pub
city Of that declaration, and the currency
given here to the matter Ill the society
prints, must be my excuse for abiding
TO what are strictly private matters. 1t pleasure
to add that two of Mr.. Whistler's pictures now on
exhibition at the Grosvenor Gallery have done
much to retrieve his reputation. Those which Mr..
Ruskin attacked are in truth, some of them are,
but hasty performances They were by no means
good examples of Mr.. Whistlers undOubted genius.
But such work as the portrait of Miss Rosa Corder,
and such canvas as the scene on the Pacific, which
he chooses to call O Harmony in Green and Gold,
extOrt expressions of admiration from the
most unwilling critics Mr.. Whistler is none
the less resolute to indulge his spirit of eccen-
tricity, as may be seen by another portrait
that of young actress at the Galety
Theatre-which is a brilliant summary of all his
worst defects and most startling mannerisms. One
or two new etchings of his have lately appeared.
His easy mastery in that most interesting branch OF
art is admitted and any plate of his on which he
has bestowed few serious moments is sure of adj
miration and of immediate sale at large prices. Ii
is pity he did not himself etch his own portrait OF
Mr. CARLYLE which has been done in mezzotlnt by
an engraver who has felt less strongly than Mr..
Whistler did the essential characteristics OF his sub
iect The engraving is. nevertheless a creditablc
reproduction of a remarkable picture.
II is well for Mr MaplcsOn that the success of his
orn trnnnn in the limited Stntes was at brill