, 1889-01-23

tuouSnesS of her bodily charms. THAT
he says, pointing to a gaunt and homely
woman, her hair diShevelled, her arms
hanging down before her, her hands clasp.
ed, and her eyes streaming with tears
''that might be Maria Magdalena! After
all is over, the family, the women, might
be allowed to come near the victims, but
just now it would not be allowed
So with the other picture, the shooting
of the SepOyS, Verestchagin does not say
that this particular scene is an incident of
the great mutiny. Shooting from guns is
the only way, he says, that $4,000 soldiers
in a strange country can keep in awe
$50, 000, 900 natives. Superstition must be
utilized. The natives Ito not fear to die,
but they fear to die in any way that de-
stroys the identity of the body. They cm-
not enter heaven blown limb from limb
Therefore thisi is the way to touch their
souls with dreadful awe, and the English,
says our artist, have always blown from
guns, blow from guns to-day, and will blow
from guns as long us India is held.
But VereStchagin is not only a prophet
of evil, a poet OF night and cruel deeds.
He is not seen in these bloody, pictures: he
is at home in peaceful scenes, and where
religion, whether in Christian or Moham
medan shrlnes, breathS thoughts OF holy
calm and divine contemplation. The re
ligiOuS pictures, the scenes from the life of
Jesus, are, to our thinking, beyond express
sion beautiful, and tell the story as it
never yet was told by painter, The five
pictures ranged side by side in the second
gallery are examples of imaginative real
ism such as could MOI have been Produced,
So far as We have any evidence, 10y any
living artist. 1t is not only the thought,
it is the verse hat enShrines II, that makes
the perfect poet, and Verestchagin's skill
as Il painter goes hand III hand with the
imaginative conception in these pictured
episodes. Was the relation between Jesus
and John ever made so clear, or ills deep
meaning7 The stern asCetic torerunILcr,
reCluSe OF the desert, and ever shrlllinR
his one harsh cry. Repent! repent y sits
amid the desert sands, and with his shay
gy head bent on his knees listens to the
earnest voice Of the elder brother at his sidr,
who pourS into his ears his nObler, sweeter
message of heavenly hope and peace. He
too, this elder brother, has dweIt apart, has
walked the hills in solemn muSing, and
has heard the voice of God in the silence ofthe
fields" We See him here descending from
the lonely height to the plain resolved on
his mission; We see him in the bosom Of
hto AALAAliO . u ~ AlAH
work, and reading the scrolls of that older
Law which he came not to destroy, but to
fulfil. And here again, by the shore Of the
azure sea, with a few sails of the fishermen
moving softly like clouds over its unruf1rd
breast, the Prophet sits, and with a heart
full of love to his fellows breathes out the
music of his pity in forebodIngs of the evil
days that are al hand. All these pictures
are beautiful the landscape is endued
with a sympathetic charm, the sea, the sky
the drifted aud denuled desert sands, the
green meadows seen between the folded
hills-all this is felt 10 be in the happiest
unison with the story that is told there is
nothing perfunctOry, nothing put in for eff
feet; never did an artist think and work
with more Instructive consent of hand and
brain.
The field opened by this vast collection is
not one to be exhausted in an article, nor in
many articles. Looked at as the work of a
single man, it is one of the wonders of our
time, for when every deduction has been
made, the quantity Of admirable work that
remains surpasSeS what any other artist of
our time has to show. The smaller pic TIL res
are, without exception, beautiful, and their
painting makes all other modern painting
for the time being cold and perfunctory.
The upper gallery, where is the great "In.
terror of the Mosque of the MOguls," has
picture after picture that would max u
reputation for any man. Compare the best
painting of a mosque by GerOme with any
L. --l - H. l0Ck