The San Francisco call., 1898-06-22
PARIS SALONS, 1898.
 



 While America is absorbed in the Cuban troubles the Parisians are entirely given up for day to their annual fete, the day or the Vernissage, for it is no more per- mitted to miss this than the Grand Prix, which occurs also this month.
 The painters are reunited this year. but 1t has not been without considerable trouble. It has been necessary for the bringing together of the brother enemies, the two salons. Owing to the prepar- ations for the exposition of 1900 the two buildings where the salons are usually held, the one, the Palais d d'Industrie, was demolished. The Palais des Beaux Arts exists not; in this extreme peril the artists are compromised and it was necessary to make the concession.
 As says an Arabian proverb, "Les hommes, sont des loups dans le bonheur ct des agneaux dans le malheur," painters of all schools and ali natiOnS-all are of the Champs des Mars and the Champs Elysees-this year are united and eXhlD- iting their pictures and works of art un- der one roof, at the Galerie des Machines, and it is anXiously hoped by many that this commencement of a reconciliation may be completed for 1900.
 l come to visit the profound and for midable salons in detail and am appalled,
 
 spective. But where to begin is difficult problem. One almost wishes for a lit tie railroad to conduct him around at first for general view, so impossible does it seem to get around amid the crowd of people on Vanishing day; and such a throng of unknown people there are-the artists themselves, their models, some celebrities and nobility, then the fash ionable dressed men and women who go Yif NollT 4A axhi 1,ai,. o1A one has enough to do on this day to study the Parisian fashions without looking at single picture When l tell you there were in all 50,000 people on this the first day it may give some idea of the difficult ties of seeing much.
 The Galerie des Machines is well chosen for the salons. Enclosed in the center is huge court, where the sculpture is ex- posed amid foliage and green grass, mak- ing a fitting background. With the groups of people, dressed in many and varied colors, the picture is indeed attractive. On the four sides are the salons leading one into another. where the paintings are exhibited. There are some 2000 oil paintings in the section Champs Elysees alone; but this number is smaller than usual. This year on account of the con- solidation the committee found it neces- sary to reject @ larger number than us- ual Of the two sections it is perhaps difficult to say which is the better. Ger tainly there are important and masterly canvases in each. There are, aside from the mural decorations and ambitious compositions, of which I shall speak later, some excellent portraits one of M. Hono- taux, the French Minister of Foreign Af- fairs, by M. Benjamin Constantin. The picture is masterly and perhaps the strongest this artist has yet produced. An equestrian portrait of Duke de Dou- deauville, by M. Aine Morot, is much admired. The decorations by M. Puvis de Cavainnes are wonderfully fine in com position, thought, sentiment and feeling. His Sainte Genevieve moves one with a sense of beauty and great holiness and holds one like a spell enraptured in front of the work of this great master. The