Democratic messenger., 1894-02-10
THAT PICTURE.

/ During five or six years Marcel had
worked at that famous painting which
he affirmed should represent the cross
ing of the Red sea. and for five or six
1 years this masterpiece of color had been
obstinately refused by the jury at the
/ annual salon.
/ So, from force of habit in going and
/ coming so often from the studio To the
musee and from the musee to the
studio. the picture knew tho road SC
4 well that. if one had set it on wheels, il
would have been able to go all alone tn
/ the Louvre.
Marcel. who had ten times rerainted
and rearranged this canvas from top to
bottom. attributed tn a personal hostil-
/ ity of the members of the jury against
himself the ostracism which rejected
it annually from the Square salon,
and in his idle moments he had COM
posed in honor of the Cerberuses of the
institute little dictionary of curses
with some illustrations of savage fe-
rocity. This collection, which had be-
NOtlt Outdlutu ttlt
studios and at the School If the Fine
Arts the popular success which is at
/ tached to the immortal complaint of
Jean Belin. painter in ordinary to the
grand sultan of Turkey. All the daub-
ers of Paris had copy of il in their
memory.
For long time Marcel was not dis
] courn0a1 bt-f fI,n
which he received at each annual ex-
hibition. He was comfortably settled
in the opinion that his picture was. in
its least proportions. the long sought
for pendant to the Marriage Feast at
Cana. that gigantic masterpiece whose
brilliant splendor the dust of three cen
turies has not been able to tarnish. So,
every year at the epoch of the salon,
/ Marcel sent his picture TO he examined
4 by the jury. Only-in order to throw
/ the examiners off the scent and to try
TO battle them in their preconceived de-
/ termination to exclude it, which preju-
dice they seemed to have against the
Crossing of the Red Sea"-without
changing anything in the general COM
1 position of the painting, he modified
certain details and changed the title of
his picture. Thus. one year it came
before the jury under the name of The
Crossing of the Rubicon." But Pha-
raoh, badly disguised under Casar's
mantle. was instantly recognized and re-
jected with all the honors due him.
The following year Marcel threw
upon the foreground of his canvas n lay
er of white paint To represent snow,
planted tree in one corner. and dress
ing up an Egyptian in the uniform of
the imperial guard of France he bap-
tizcd his picture The Crossing of the
Bercsina. The jury, which had rub
bed up its spectacles that day upon the
tails of its green palmed coats-on
official occasions the members of the
institute wear dress coats having green
palms embroidered on the lapels and
collars-was not duped by this new
ruse. 1t recognized perfectly the obsti
nate canvas. especially by "a big devil
of many colored horse that pranced
about on top of wave of the Red sea.
The dressing of this horse served Mar
Gel for all his experiments III coloring.
and in his everyday speech he called it
IA synoptical tableau of fine tones" be-
cause it reproduced all the most varied
combinations of color with their plays
of light and shade. But once more,
unmoved by this fine detail, the jury
had not black balls enongh TO fully ex-
press their feelings in rejecting Tho
Crossing of the Beresina."
Very well. said Marcel, III wait!
Next year | shall send IT again under
the title of the Passage des Panora-
mas.
A few days later. and when Macrel
had already forgotten terrible threats
of vengeance ne had uttered against his
prosecutors. ne received visit from
Father Medicis. Thus the bohemians
had nicknamed jew named Solomon,
who at that epoch was well known to
all members of artistic and literary Bo-
hemia. with whom he was in perpetual
relations. Pere Medicis did business
in all sorts of bric-a brac. He sold COM
plete sets of furniture at from IL francs
up to 5000. He bought everything and
knew how to sell it again at profit.
The exchange bank of NJ. Proudhon
was very little affair compared to the
system applied by Medicis, who pos
sessed the genius of traffic to u degree
never before attained by even the most
able of his fellow believers. His shop,
which was situated in the Place du
Carrousel. was "a fairyland where one
found everything to be desired. All
the products of nature, all the creations
of art, all that comes forth from the
bowels of the earth and of genius, Med
icis made of it an object of negotiation.
His business touched everything, alb
solutely everything that exists: he
dealt even in the ideal. Medicis bought
ideas in order to exploit them himself
or to sell them again. Known to all
the litterateurs and all the artists. an
intimate of the palette and a familiar
friend of the writing desk, he was the
Asmodeus of the art He would sell
you some cigars for the plot of novel.
some slippers for IL sonnet. some fresh
fish for paradoxes; he chatted "by the
hour" with writers whose business it
was to relate in the newspapers the
scandal of society; he would procure
you places in the galleries of the house
Of parliament and invitations To private
soirees; he lodged by the night, the
week or the month the wandering daub-
ers who paid him in copies of the works
of Flavins .Iosephus.
On entering the horne of the bohe-
mians. with that intelligent air which