The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-01-12
a TRuTHEu. RusslA,i ARTIST.
How He Offended the Archb:shop--A Pics
ure Wh:cl, Did Not Platter tho Gar.

How he Offended the Archb;shop--A Pics
ure Which Did Not Platter tho Gar.
London News.l
The Russian painter, Versschagin is again
exhibiting a. Vienna ono OF bis great col
Iections Of pictures. and again, according
TO custom. the exhibition has led to q pro.
tcst. This time. as our corresp )ndent has
informed Us. the protest comes from no less
. person than the archbishop OF Vienna.
who has objected to what he seems to con-
slider a want OF reverence IN the treatmen nj
OF the holy family in ono Of the religious
scenes now on view in that capital the
artist seems to have painted the Savior as
an eastern carpenter-as indeed Sir Johr
Mi.lais AMI Mr.. Holman Hunt dill befor
him-but without any suggestion of q
higher nature or a higher mission. This
ID IN entire harmony Wi b his lifelong prac.
tice. he always paints from the life, and
admit binding force in the most re.
vered conventions
In his remarkable series on the last Russo
Turki IA war. Tor instance, he did not scruple
- represent tbs emperor in q very safe
place at Pievna, while thousands of his
bravest troops were throw wing away their
lives in the plain below in the vain % Of
dattering imperial vanity with the offer of
the fortress As a birthday gift The pict-
ure gave great offenss at court; and the
czarowitz who hal meant to order it as q
presen: FOR his august father. repented with
like manners in the Toorkistsn ssries, which
had preceiei this. Vereschagin ventursi
sometimes to represent the Russians in
flight, though never in disgrace: ami on
one occasion no pictured q dead Russian
soldier lett in the desert for the crows A
Russian officer OF the rank observed that il
mu t DO inaccurate. because the Russian
dead were never abandoned; but the painter
replied with some a perity that he hal
seen IL with his own eyes, for he has fol-
lowell all tbs campaigns he treats
In a sub equent series he shovel some
thing more hideous-a barn full o0woundsd
who had been simply forgotten after an en-
Ragement and who had persisted to a man.
de has drawn and painted British India in
much the same spirit; AMI his latest excur-
sion Is to Palestine, where he has pictured
the life OF sacred history on the susge -tions
furnished by the life OK to-day, and has
drawn the holy family and the apostles lit
orally as a set Of hu n Ole working folk. Ii
is one OF these pictures that has given Of
Tense TO the archbishop To quote our cor
respondent 1t represents the Savior in the
bosom OF his family, and is a worry common.
place or poor Jewish carpenters house.
This mu bs something entirely new in art,
Tor Mr.. Holman Hunts literary filelity in
tho aces Dries Of his famous work on the
subject has not preciuied COOL deal OF
in the treatment OF the central
figure. 1t l. an expression OF much more
than Vereschagin's idiosyncrasy, for in
some sort 1t represents the attitude OF
young Russia toward all history, legend,
AMI faith. The archbishop seems to have
Carried his complaint to the Archiuke
Charles. but the painter anticipated the
princely relnonstrance by Withdrawing thu
work from hi gallery.