Birmingham state herald., 1895-10-27

prisingly good, and considering that they were all painted by students under 30 years of age they were astonishing. The winner of the first prize this year was pupil of Bonnat. The second prize was won by a son of Jean Paul Laurens. This will show the interest that France takes in art. What an inspiration for the poor student of talent. He feels that the eyes of his nation are upon him.
 The American students who go to Paris to study will find no difficulty in getting criticism if their work Is good, even If they cannot understand French, for there are always students willing to take ones criticism and translate it.
 The Bohemian spirit so prevalent In Paris enables an art student to live as cheaply as he pleases The expense of living is small compared with American schools and cities, although the Julian school for women is $20 by the month. and a little less If paid by the quarter or year. But there are many as good schools for women, open the year round, which are much less expensive, about SS or $10 a month. The mems Julian Is only $60 year.
 A good studio can be rented in Paris for $S0 year, and for $14 month very good one can be obtained, sometimes fur nished. and always with a bed room or two attached. This is the best way for a student, who contemplates long stay, to live Many of them do so, and these are the true denizens of Bohemia, getting their own meals and dependent on no one.
 Unfortunately, there are many who take the downward road and become fast and hard. sad thing is the downward tendency of young women, who go there without their parents or older relatives to look after them. While there I heard remarks again and again on this sub ject. One married lady told my wife that If she had a daughter she would allow har fn study there alone.
 Once, walking home in company with a friend, we passed couple of hard looking girls. who. I thought. were French girls, to whom my friend bowed. He remarked on the great change that had taken place in them since their ar rival a year before. They were Ameri- can girls studying art. This will serve to illustrate the point.
 Of course the same influence is there for young men to contend against or suc- cumb to. and, judging from what I heard and saw, there is a great deal of sue cumbing going on, more's the pity. The students ball, which takes place every winter in the Quarter Latin, and which Is attended by upwards of 800 art stu dents and the female models of Paris. is a horrible evidence of this downward tendency. There are frightful scenes of vice enacted there. which were never surpassed by the orgies of any pagan age But l will draw a curtain on these evil things and pass on.
 The influence and inspiration of the works of masters, who will be famous as long as the world stands, cannot be over estimated The wonderful works of Ra- phael in his Holy Family of Francis l and many others. the works of Titian of Rembrandt, of Rubens, of De Vinci Guido Reni, Murillo, of Ingras. the father of French art, of Jean Francois Millet and of hundreds of others all nobly rep p6 in tbo prra nd old o of great and lasting benefit to the disciple of art
 The beauty and grace of Raphael has been written about too much to need mention here. His famous Holy Family looms up bright and fresh 400 years after Raphael has laid his palette down for ever. It's lesson of beautiful mother hood is as rife and new today as then. The expression of the virgins face, sweet and pure beyond the power of language to describe, remains as vivid and living as when the masters hand brought it into being.
 The works of Titan are full of breadth and glowing colors, and others down to the more modern schools, until we come to Millet, the painter of peasant life. "The Cleaners" which is, perhaps, the | best of all his works except ''The An gelus." is full of the pathos of a hard, cheerless existence. filled with relentless toll and scanty returns think Mil1et one of the greatest painters who ever lived. The SubtilitieS of his gradations are nearly as deceptive and hard to dis cern as nature's There is no school work showing his productions; he went to nature and learned all he knew which was very much. There is nothing shin ing or glittering about his works. To the ordinary eye his work Is scarcely attrac- tive; it is exceedingly quiet in tone and | color, but if one has been student of na- ture he will say, seeing his work, this man worked out of doors and knew na- ture." The longer one studies him the more one sees to admire and wonder about. There are only four of his paint ings at the Louvre. His pictures are in great demand and are mostly owned by private parties.