The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1896-03-14
eERoME's GREAT PICTURES.
They Cover Wide Range of Subjects and
Are World-Rcnowned.


Cerome has painted SO many i'm.
portant pictures having a worldwide
reputation that it is impossible to go
into many particulars about them in the
present article. The illustration of ma
poleon before the Sphinx" will, how
ever, give some idea of his remalk able
powers of invention and his fertility
of ideas. The incident was suggested
by the Egyptian campaign of the great
mysterious stone figure, the origin or
the meaning of which no man has yet
been able to explain. In the distance
we see the legions of the French army
while ON the horse, calmly, and with
speculative eye, sits the marvel Of his
age. The little man, humble of birth
without influence or money, rising by
the force of circumstances and his own
strong will and character to the mighti-
est position among the rulers OF the
earth, gazes steadfastIy at the storm
beaten. time-worn monument of past
ages. The contrast is full of sugges-
tiveness.
Or let us take his Thirst" What
wonderful strength is here! On the
hot, shimmering, sun-dried sands
crouches the mighty King of Beasts. a
very baby in his weakness, overcome by
the desire to wet his parched tongue,
and painting for a drop of water. What
awful lonelinessl What fearful soil
tide, and what a dreary waste.
1t were more pleasant to turn to the
glimpse he gives us of the great oriental
city whose housetops, minarets and
spires CLEAN under the brilliant eastern
sky, where the pious Mussulman calls
the faithful to prayers Here may be
noted the artists wonderful powers of
observation, and the extraordinary
finish, nothing, apparently, escaping
his attention. So too, in the '.Pacha's
Runners" where the reproduction does
not, of course, give an idea of the color,
though Gerome's coloring is not al
ways fine. His best skill appears in
drawing and in the arrangement of his
compositions. In the "Bull-Fighter"
we find that the artist is quite as much
ut home in Spanish scenes as in class
zeal, oriental, or modern French life.
He enters into the brutality of the bull
ring, and, showing us the coarse pic
adors and the excited audience, brings
the incident before us very wildly. In
short, no matter what he undertakes.
he prepares himself for the task with
much carnestness and great delibera-
ton. lie makes careful studies. he
looks well into his subjects, and he
tokes no end of pains. Pictures do not
come of themselves, nor are they exc
cuted without almost endless trouble.
Artists are generally supposed by
thoughtless people to be more or less
inspired, and to dash off masterpieces
at will; but the truth is, a picture that
has any claim TO live and to deserve
high appreciation is undertaken with
a. much forethought as the building of
e. ship. First the painter makes n
sketch, searching out, in general way,
the best method of putting 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 be arranged, and finally
comes the painting, and the painstak-
ing completion CT all the parts.-Arthm
Hoeber, in ST. Nicholas.