Morning journal and courier., 1892-06-03

FTlcc TUT ohe
 and n Bit of Asparagus.
 PARIS, May 20. To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 AS everybody knows who wants to know, or cares to know, there was a great row two years ago among French artists. Up to that time most French artists be- longed to an association called ''Societe des Artistes Franeais." This society was governed by it's own laws; WAS recognized by the French government, and by the government was put in charge of the an- nual exhibitions which take place in the large building on the Champs Elysees called the Palais dIndustrie, and which are known as "Ls Salon." Each year has it's Salon." For many years there has been trouble, differences of opinion. alter cations and French duels. Finally, two years ago, large body of artists, with the great Meissonier at their head, seeded from the old society and formed a new one, which they called the "Societe Ma tionale des Beaux Arts." The government at first did not know what to do. Finally it concluded to recognize both societies and to treat them alike. To the new so- ciety it gave the use of one of the build ings erected on the Champs de Mars for the last international exhibition, and told it to go ahead according to it's own mo- tions. So now every spring there are two "salons." To judge from the "salons" the split has been injurious; for never before in Paris were such poor pictures and such tawdry statues exposed to public gaze; while the new salon, to cover it's halls, has given space to painters and sculptors who hitherto have asked in vain, and whose works show such startling departures from rules heretofore regarded as sacred that no wonder the sdherents of Gerome, Bon nat, Lefebvre, nearly all the academicians in fact, are predicting the downfall and destruction of French art.
 The new salon is more interesting than the old because it contains so many of these strange productions. Nor can the impar- tial and unprejudiced observer and critic pass with shrug of disgust works hung by the side of works by Paris de Cha vannes, Csrolus Duran or Ds2nan Bouver ct. Placed there too by these very men acting on committee of examination and admission, with such an artist as Alfred Stevens as chairmanI Stevens took his first medal in 1853 and has gained every possible distinction, topping his career with grand prix at the International ex- position of 1SS9l His works are we'll known in America. He is not in his do- tage. The opinion of such man must be treated with the utmost respect. There are specimens of the new school in the old ''Sslon," showing that even some of the academicisns ara being won over to the new order of things. How can it be de- | scribedl How made plain without show, | ing the things themselvesl Imagine the | sun 80 powerful as to shine through ob | jects; so brilliant as to fill persons as well as the surrounding atmosphere with dag. zling brightness. You may get some faint notion of the idea by looking at an object placed directly between yourself and the sun when the sun is shining with its in tensest light. Outlines and details ar, vague. Shadows are thin and bright Substances are translucent. Textures ar, | of course completely ignored. The enc mics of the new departure declare that tn, ignoring of detail and texture proceeds from ignorance, and that ignorance is tn, result of impatisnce, weakness or unwil lingness to work. Many pictures of bott ''salons" show such bad drawing and mod cling; such ignorance of perspective, ant 1 such violation of the primitive laws gov erning contrasts of color, that you are ap to think yourself back in New York's Ma tional academy. Yet these defects are no peculiar to the disciples of the new depar ture. Henri Martins picture of "L'homm, I 1a a~;o Ia irf, faI fp extremes of the new style, with the fesf all lightly cross matched with red, purpl and yellow, shows through the gaudy sur face excellent knowledge of form and as sured handling. Quite as excellent i Thaulow's "Retour de Travail" As t, Sisleyland his followers, their daubs are a if lot of mice had been making merr, on @ palette. They have neither form substance nor sense. No sound eye anc healthy imagination can see in them any thing but rottenness. They show tine dan have wooed and won nature forsake her t, depict dreams, why should not the maud lin dreamer do the same and claim equa admiration for the spewings of his fancies He must be very hungry to have such fan cies.
 Striving after the production of dazzlin, sunlight is not the only direction in whicl the disciples of the new are straying ava, from the rules of the old. Some of then delight in ugliness. They have ugly ant distempered dreams, and search Paris fo the ugliest men and women as models t. help them put their dreams on canvass A painter by the name of Pirard exhibit four studies of the same most hideou young woman, giving her uglier hair ant eyes in each one; making you wonde which one came the closest to his ideal These men do not idealize nature, as di, Raphael, but use as little of nature as pos sible in making their ideas pslpable. The accept Oscar Wild's saying that natur should be the slave of art. They there fore paint women with green hair, wit blue hair, or with any other colored hai they choose. They sit around one anoth CT; drink copiously of absinthe and pro claim themselves the triumphant anarchis of art. They are countenenced and eve partially initiated by such Americans as The names had better not be printed; fo when the craze is over there might be
 desire to cover the past with actions fo libel
 i, To see such monstrosities along side c , charming pictures by our dear old frien Lamlin, who is painting more delightful as his years advance, is incomprehensibl' Carrier r-Belleuse, too, with his ravishtn