The record-union., 1899-01-08

better examine carefully before dis
bursting their dollars for Rubens or
for any ''old MASTER
A portrait of the most cruel of all
men, and that Is Robespierre, has now
its place in the Musee Carnavelet in
Paris. 1t is painted on porcelain. Its
history seems to be authentic. Robes
pierre gave his likeness to Dr. Sour
berbielle, and it was the one which
hung in his bedroom. Sourberbielle be-
fore his death presented the portrait
to David dangers, who wrote on the
back of the picture it's story. A rep
resentative of the dangers family has
given it to the museum
The Morning Posts Brussels cor
respondent says Antwerp is preparing
to celebrate the three hundredth an
niversary Of the birth of Van Dyck.
Mindful of the success achieved by the
Rembrandt exhibition at Amsterdam,
the committee intrusted with the or
ganization Of the projected fetes has
decided to hold an exhibition of the
works of Van Dyck, and Belgian and
foreign collectors who are fortunate
enough to possess specimens of the
Flemish painters work will be asked to
lend their assistance to the movement.
A study Of a head of Sir Walter
Scott, painted by A. Geddes, now in the
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh,
merits particular attention. 1t was
made by the artist for group, which
was to be a historical picture. When
it was executed Sir Walter must have
been about 4S years old. Geddes. who
died in 1874, wrote this: 81 fear can
not name to a certainty the year 1
painted the study of Sir Walter 1t
was done at the same time as the heads
Of the other Commissioners. to be in
serted in a large picture 1 painted of
the finding of the Regalia of Scot
land This picture, with a portrait
of Sir David Wilkie, was the property
Of Robert Rankine of Liverpool. The
two were purchased by Mr.. RANKINGS
brother and presented by him to the
National Portrait Gallery. These two
pictures have been loaned to the Scot
fish National Gallery.
The wife of the famous Hungarian
painter, Michael Munkaczy, has now
gone to Cologne to live so as to be near
her husband. who is dying in private
insane asylum near Bonn, Germany.
Munkaczy, it will be remembered. is
the painter of Christ Before PLATE"
which was purchased in Philadelphia
for $4,000 after producing an immense
sensation throughout the United
States. His condition now is one Of
confirmed melancholy, but with occa-
siona1 short intervals of sanity. When
these come. however, much of his origi-
nal power as an artist is restored for
the time being, and he recently drew
a portrait Of himself before a mirror
in his ROOM portrait OF such weird
and striking resemblance to his ghast-
ly self of to-day that it will live as
one of his best productions. Munkaczys
wife, Partisan by birth, clings to him
with admirable affection, and during
his lucid intervals letters to her and
from her are the patients chief pas
time.
A Partisan celebrity and art lover is
M. Steinlen, the Phil May of France
M. Steinlen has rare combination OF
qualities-he is Swiss and an artist
SO that there is a certain fitness of
things in employing his pencil to adver-
tise the admirable Nestle. He is third
in a. succession of artists; his father
and his grandfather before him paint
ed at Lausanne such landscapes as the
Swiss are accustomed to paint, and the
family traditions were strongly opposed
to his venturing himself and his virtue
in Paris. At Lausanne they speak with
bated breath of the fatal gayety of
Geneva. However, to Paris he went,
and took up his abode on Montmartre
with an old painter Of still life sub
jects, Chardiny, whose daily habit was
to purchase beefsteak, transfer its
contours to canvass, then grill and eat
not the canvas, which would have
been triumph of realism, but the
steak. When it was not beefsteak
it was an onion, but the dejeuner was
always painted before it was eaten.
This statement is found in a leading
London journal, relative to the produc-
ton Of an edition de luxe" in Paris:
Book connoisseurs would do well to
bear in mind that no modern French
paper manufacturer possessed a paper
upon which wood cuttings (cuts?) could
be printed without the danger Of their
ultimately turning reddish brown. The
ordinary papier de cuve procurable in
France is of no durable value for wood
cuts" The reason alleged for this is
that the French washerwoman invar-
iably uses chlorine compounds in whit
ening linen and cotton clothes, and in
this way not alone is the fiber disinte-
grated, but traces of the chlorides defy
eradication, and, though slow in their
action on paper, ultimately affect the
color Of the ink.
Mr.. Spielman, in the Magazine Of
Art" quotes some words of Sir Edward
Burne-Jones: II paint my pictures"
he said, and send them out into the
world on their little lives like so many
naked little st. Sebastians, to be picks
ed and pierced with the arrows of the
critics. All. the critics, my friend! I'm
til he is forty no artist can tell what is
in him, SO that criticism can only harm
him, and after he is forty criticism can
not touch him. Then Bur1se- Jones
only repeated what stanch old Samuel
Johnson once said: Conceive man
who has written what he hopes will
live troubling himself about criticism
which he knows wiz diet"
Although Robins "Balzac'' was re-
jected by the Societe des Gems de Let
tres; the latter does not despair Of OBJ
tanning q fitting memorial of the great
writer. A delegate from the society.
according to lie Figaro" Is negotiate
ing with NJ. Falguiere, the eminent
French sculptor, for bust of the father
Of realism. The commission has been
accepted. and M. Faleuiere hopes to