Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1896-01-23
aeRoMEis GREAT PICTURES.
rhey Cover Wide Range of Subjects and
Are World Renowned.

| Are world Renowned.
| Gerome has painted SO many important
| pictures having worldwide reputation
that it is impossible to go into many par
| ticulars about them In the present article.
| The illustration of Napoleon Before the
| Sphinx" will, however, give some idea of
| his remarkable powers of invention and
| his fertility of ideas. The incident was
| suggested by the Egyptian campaign OF
| the great emperor. On the vast plains of
the desert, rising solemnly up from tho
| burning sands, stands the great mysteri-
| Gus stono figure the origin or the meaning
| sf which no man has yet been able to ex-
plain. In the distance we see the legi. ms
| of the French army, while ON his horse,
calmly and with speculative eye sits the
| marvel of his age. The little man, hum.
Bile of birth, without influence OF money,
rising by the force of circumstances and
| his own strong will and character to the
mightiest position among the rulers of the
earth, gazes steAdfastly at the storm beaten,
time worn monument of past ages. The
contrast is full of suggestiveness.
Or let us take his "Thirst." What
wonderful strength is herel On the hot,
| shimmerlng, sun dried sands crouches the
mighty king of beasts, q very baby in his
weakness, overcome by the desire to wet
his parched tongue and painting for drop
of water What awful loneliness! What
fearful solitude, and what drcary waste
1t were moro pleasant to turn to the
glimpse he gives us of the great oriental
city whose house tops, minarets and spires
gleam under the brilliant eastern sky,
where the pious Mussulman calls the faith
full to prayers Here may be noted the
artists wonderful powers of observation
and the extraordinary finish, nothing ap-
parently escaping his attention. So, too,
in tho "Pacha's Runners - where the re-
productions do not, of course, give an
idea of the color, though Gerome's color
ing is not always fine. His best skill ap-
pears in drawing and in the arrangement
of his compositions. In the "Bull Fight
err we find that the artist is quite as
much at home in Spanish scenes as in
classical, oriental or modern French life
He enters into the brutality of the bull
ring, and, showing us tho coarse picadors
and the excited audience, brings the incl
dent before us very vividly.
In short, no matter what he undertakes
he prepares himself for the task with much
earncsUness and great deliberation. He
makes careful studies, he looks we'll into
his subjects and he takes no end Of pains.
Pictures do not come of themselves, nor
are they executed without almost endless
trouble. Artists arc generally supposed by
thuughtless people to be more or less in
spircd and to dashof masterpieces at will,
but tho truth is a picture that has any
claim to live and to deserve high apprecia-
tion is undertaken with as much FORE
thought as tho building of ship. First
the painter makes "a sketch, searching out
in o general way the best method Of put
ting his idea on canvas. Then, after many
changes and alterations, studies are made
Of the principal figures, of the draperies
and of the accessories. Now the scheme Of
color must ho arranged, and finally comes
tho painting, and the painstaking compile
tion Of all tho parts. .---'' A Famous French
Painter, :" by Arthur Hoeber, in st. Nioh.
olas