The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-01-15
Pictures and Critics.

exhibitions of next year. Among them that oi
Mr.. Gladstone will commsnd attention as one
OF the artists most characteristic works. 1t is
the most distinctively Millais-like of the ar.
lists portraits; he seems to have worked at his
subject with peculiar and happy sympathy.
The ex-Prenier has, as is the case with most
men whose faces depend rather on character
than on regularity of feature for their inte rest
grown decidedly more pictorial with the ad,
vance Of years. No more thoroughly intelligent
study OF his head has ever bsen made than
this of Mr.. Millais, and the technical execution
is as fine as the intelligence of the reading. A
companion portrait of Lord Bsaconsfeld is on
he easel, and one of Mr.. Carlyle is already
finished; 10 the latter work the philosopher is
taken seated, with his hands on the top of his
stck, and the shoulders somewhat raised; the
face has the characteristic high color, which no
Diner artist, of the many who have attempted
the same subject, has preserved, except Mr..
Legros.
One of the most striking AID. so TO say, dra-
matte works at the Paris Salon OF the present
year was by NJ. Schenck, an artist heretofore
little heard of and probably still young. 1t
was styled LAgonie, and it represented, with
extraordinary fidelity and force, wild place,
snow-eovered, after heavy all of snow The
lamb lying thin, stiff, and dead on the down.
fallen snow, and the mother-sheep standiug
over it, herself breathing with difficulty her
last breath In the frigid air, but standing pas
sionately, with little ferceness still left n the
eye and a little force in the limp, to protect the
dead lamb from the black company of birds
now crowdlng round, in full vigor and alert
ness, to taste and share their prey. Behind
the desolate scsne rose a sky, soft and thick
and shrOuded, as betokening length of winter
and evil days for delicate things.
Oriental art has language and set of SYM
bols wholly its own, and differing from that of
Europe as their characters for writing differ.
Starting on the Highlands of Asia at lndia,
the great divide of nations, we see that the
people flowing westwardly write from left to
right; the Orientals from right to left. We
aay they write the Other, the wrong Aheneter
may they c'sii US tue "crab-writing barbar-
ians," because we write as the crab crawls-
backwards. So in the language of art, how
different ours from theirs; how zoe pity them,
now they pity as. Study the Greek symbol of
strength, Hercules. See his knotted Drawn,
ais swelling muscles 10 high relief, his giant
form leaning on his club. THIS is the Grecian
manner of picturiDg strength; ours by the roll
led-ap sleeve, arm and grasped hammer. Both
Express one ldea--3trength Ia concentration.
Note the Indian art. The artist who would
respect the god of power, strength even to
ompipotence, doss not concentrate, he expands
ne mulsiplies. ae paints the deity of strength
with four hands. with eight, with sixteen,
with fifty, or even the Brarean number thus
depicting him as strong as fifty or hundred
men. Here strength is represented in art not
by concentration, but by expansion aud multi
plicatior. Take another art symbol, that for
the soul. In Greek art-from which we bor-
row, and which il Que teacher aud mother-the
sJul is personihed by the lovely maiden, the
Dude female figure, the butterf1S winged
Psyche. or By butterfly on a skull. The Japa-
neese artist represents the soul by Jewel, ball,
pearl black gem, a film or thread. In
dreams, according to popular belief, the soul
leaves the body and goes out to play. Should
one waken sleeper too suddeoly the soul
could not get back TO join the body 10 time, and
the thread of life would snap; the hAs shipg
jewel would fall to earth, and tho person
would die, the sleeper would never awake oo
esrth.-Art Interchange.
Tne London World, in its last number, de-
scribes the sculptor Story and his Roman
nome. The following paragraph Is eulogistic
Of his artistic career: GAS a sculptor, Mr.. Story
never works on the tame lines of any model.
His ideal of feminine lovelness is very lovely,
whilst the grandeur and sombre melancholy
of which a woman's countenance may bear the
heroic impress are never mora fully seen than
in the great Jerusalem which he created about
four years ago; Jerusalem in her desolstion
inexpressibly majestic, lonely and sublime.
Indeed, whoever sees Story in his studio, with
his nightipgales singing amidst his marbles.
and on his OWE lips impetuous picturesque
speech steeped iu classic culture and memo
rieS of the literature of all great nations, has
seen a true artist. All the day long, and every
day he works in his otelier, giving his day
light to sculpture, Loyalty ard with intense
devotion. After long day, prolonged into
twilight he returns to his home, to be its light
and life, full of bright fancies and rich with
changeful mood. Tired out physically, he lies
on the sofa af.er dinner, whilst his wife reads
to him some new romance or some old poem /;
at twelve O. clock he lights his study lamp and
goes to his own room, there to read till two.
This is his constant practice, and his literary
work is done wholly by the midnight oil. With
all this he finds time to be extremely popular
and delightful in society which never tires of
him. That William Story has been exception
ally happy in being from boyhood raised by
wealth from all pressure of aud struggle with
adverse circumstances, is certain. What is
equally certain is that this angel Of Fortune
which he has held, so that it has thrice blessed
him aud his, is, to many less strong and less
In the studios there isgreat glee over q re-
cent critical exploit f.Mr. Clarence Cook. Mr..
Cook, as is well known, is the art critic of the
Tribune. He is The bette noir of the New York
artists. He has way of saying things in
print concerning their works, and their merits
artists, that as grateful to the feelings of
the persons interested as vitriol would be- to
their flesh, and he has probably occasoned
more gnashing of teeth and more maledctions,
suppressed and otherwise, than any other gen.
tleman ia his line in the land. When the reg
ular Academy or the water-color exhibition
opens, he girds himself for critical slaughter,
and-for be is f'the mildest-mannered man
that ever cut throat"-goes gaily forth to his
work. Sad havoc he makes among old and
young. cat every word reputation dies"
What Mr.. Ruskin said Of Mr.. Whistler's noe
turnes and symphonies in color is sweetness
and light compared with some, of Mr.. Cooks
structures upon the works and the capacity OF
artists, who have thereupon felt ike hanging
themselves or assaulting b'm. so when MIR.
Clarence Cook devOtes column OF the Tribune
to an elaborate description and criticism of a
oicture at Schaus's, "Ph6 Emperor Oommodus
Leaving the Amphitheatre, supposiHg II to be
the work of Mr.. i. A. Bridg man, when in fact
il was painted, as the printed circu ars and the
newspapers aud Mrs. Hooper's letter to the
a 1T Journal aud ,ha picture itself have made
the public aware, by Mr.. Edwin Il. Blashti Id
Of New York, HI affords e certain satisfaction
10 those who have wtthed under his lash,
though he does not advanc5 himself IN the es-
teem of the critical public. 1t was not, as the
uufortpnate critic suggested iu the next Days
rribane, case of heterophemy, for he COM
pared the picture With the "Cirque en- Prov