Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1893-09-04
FAIR ART GALLERY.
Many Pictures and Statuary Of
Marvellous Execution.
Element Of the Dreadful Noticeable
in Nearly All the Painting.
Hes ~ Different Psspls visw The varisus
Wssts si Fias AT.

WORLDS FAIR, Sept. 3.-(SpeciAi =
Every time one goes to the Art palace he
Is little more anxious to 60 again and by
and by there comes . pain 1t comes Of
the conviction that in the time one can
spare for this ose building he will just
learn how to see IL. When he really be-
gins to see it he will have to go home. OF
course this does not apply to our cultured
friends, rs they already know how TO see.
and report in the evening TO my own indi-
vidual cultured mentor she breaks ont
with enthusiasm:
30, did you see thus and soi"
mo. ma'arn, did not"
"Then go right back tomorrow and see
it, for You have missed the best thing in
that section"
There are too many best things for any
one man TO see IL the testimony Of all the
enthusiasts be accepted; but there are a
few points on which all visitors agree.
One Is that the Russian section is the
place for terrors. Some Of the paintings
are wonderful as works of art, but there
Is in most Of them an element Of the
dreadful. Even in the calm domestic
scenes, or those meant to be such. where
peasant family is sitting about the table
or country people are drinking at an inn
or the like, about half the faces look as il
the folks were sorry they were alive. And
the most singular part of it is, that express
sion seems as marked on the faces Of the
children as of the grown people, or so it
appears to me.
1.-THE Cossaek's Answer" No ss, Is one
Of the magnificently terrible pictures
which I was sent back to see, and was
very much surprised TO find an inscription
stating that 1t is the property Of the czar,
loaned for this exposition. Now 1t is a
very high compliment, indeed, for Alex
ander III to select one Of his finest paint
ings for our inspection, really royal act
of international courtesy. but why he
should have chosen such subject rather
puzzles me. The finest painting in the
Russian section, as it seems to me in my
present stage Of culture, ia the one repre-
senting the Santa Maria in q storm and
Columbus expostulating with his mutin-
Gus crew. (No. 1863 The terror is there
overcome by the sense of the sublimity.
The only really bright and joyous paint
ing in the room is the one representing
the bride and her friends as the latter give
the last touches to her toilet.
-.
OF course everybody knows q little
something about mythology, for one could
not live in land of education without at
least becoming familiar with the names Of
Jupiter and Juno. Mars, Mercury and
Minerva and all the rest Of that gang. 1t
is, however, quite pleasure to observe
that many of our granger friends from
the four states which center here (and
they still constitute half the visitors) look
around with much interest for Flora and
Ceres and Pomona and the rest Of the
rural divinities they became familiar with
In the lodges of the Grange. / regret to
add that was more familiar with the
burlesques Of those worthy characters
than with the reality, but believe that in
the sessions OF the lodge Ceres sat on one
side Of the Worthy Patron with a bunch of
wheat or other grain, and Pomona on the
other side with fruit blems, while Flora
did the ornamental as was fitting for the
Queen OF Flowers.
Well, they are all here many times re-
peated, and some of them marveiously
beautiful in form and color. i fancy tand
it may be cruel fancy that many plain
and unattractive woi-;... :. aves deep
sigh at sight of some of these beautifully
feminine forms just as do when look at
the Statue Of Hercules. In the French
section generally the female figures are a
little more slender and delicately outlined
than elsewhere, but Ceres is nearly always
presented in art as somewhat stouter than
the giddy goddesses, such as Venus and
Hebe. As uli the grangers know Ceres
was goddess of grain and agricultural
abundance. Her beautiful daughter
Proserpina was carried off by Pluto, king
of the Internal regions, and when Ceres
filed her complaint in the court Of
Olympus it was decided that il the girl
had eaten nothing in hell she must be re-
stored. But it was proved that she had
eaten pomegranate, so a compromise
was made BY which she was to stay half
the year under ground and half the year
above. Ceres ratified it and made the
growth of her favorite grains to CORE
spond and hence all such as are sown one
year and reaped the next are called
cereals. Aswe see that they do grow that
way. it really requires some skepticism to
reject the story.