The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-02-15
THAT PICTURE.

WOrkeo at tllat famous painting which
he affirmed should represent the cross
ing or the Red sea, and for five or six
years this masterpiece of color had been
Pbstinately 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 so
we'll that, if ono had set it on wheels, it
would have been able to go all alone to
the Louvre.
Marcel, who had ten times repainted
and rearranged this canvas from top to
bottom, attributed to personal hostil-
1ty OF the members of the jury against
himself the ostracism which rejected
1t annually from the Square salon,
and in his idle moments no had com
posed In honor of the Cerberuses Of the
institute a little dictionary Of curses
with some illustrations of savage fe-
rocity. This collection, which had be-
come celebrated, had obtained in the
studios and at the School Ct 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 it in their
memory.
For long time Marcel was not dis
couraged by the determined reflections
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 con-
turtles has not been able to tarnish. So,
every year at tho epoch of the salon,
Marcel sent his picture to be examined
by the jury. Only-in order to throw
the examiners off the scent and to try
to battle them in their preconceivcd de-
termination to exclude it, which preiu-
dice they seemed to have against the
Crossing of tho Red Sea without
changing anything in the general COM
position of the painting, he modified
certain details and changed the tito of
his picture. Thus, one year it camo
before the Jury under the name of Tho
Crossing of the Rubicon. But Pha-
raoh, badly disguised under Cpsar's
mantle, was instantly recognized and re-
jected with all tho honors due him.
The following year Marcel threw
upon the foreground of his canvas a Law
er of white paint to represent snow,
planted a tree i'll one corner, and dress
Ing up an Egyptian in the uniform Of
the imperial guard of France he bap-
tized his picture THE Crossing of the
Beresina The jury, which had rub
bed up its spcctaclcs that day upon the
tails of its green palmed coats-on
official occasions the members of tho
institute wear dress coats having green
palms embroidered OH the lapels and
collars-was not dupcd by this new
ruse. 1t recognized perfectly tho obsti-
nato canvas, especially by big devil
of n many colored horse that pranccd
about on top of Il wave of the Red sea.
The dressing Of this hoise served Mar
Gel for all his experiments in coloring,
and in his everyday speech no called it
a synoptical tablcau of fine tones" be-
cause it reproduced all tho most varied
combinations of color with their PLAYS
of light and shade. But onco more,
unmovcd by this fine detail, tho jury
had not black balls enough to fully ex-
press their feelings in rejecting Tho
Crossing Of the Bcresina."
Very we'll, said Marcel, iii wait!
Next year ] shall send 1t again under
the title of the Passage DIES Panora-
mas.
few days later, and when Macrel
had already forgotten terrible threats
of vengeance he had uttered against his
prosecutors, he received q visit from
Father Mcdicis. Thus the bohemians
had nicknamed Jew named Solomon,
who at that epoch was we'll known to
all members of artistic and literary Bo-
hemia. with whom he was in perpetual
relations. Pere Medcis did business
in all sorts of bric-a brac. He sold COM
plete sets of furniture at from 13 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 % degree
never before attained by even the most
able Of his fellow believers. His shop,
which was situated in the Place du
Carrousel, was fairyland where ono
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. Mcdicis 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 m Lotto and q familiar