The Washington herald., 1913-03-01

Had the Louvre declined the legacy the
testator's brother. Ccmte Noise Camondo.
was to hand it over TO the city of Paris.
TO be hung in a section of the Petit Pal
ace The collection was not to be lent
or displaced under any circumstances
for fifty years. and Comte Isaac's brother
was empowered TO arrange the works Of
art. The latter has suffered from anxiety
Of mind lest the state should refuse the
legacy
Why should il. THE state. under the
WILL was debarred from housing the col
lection anywhere else but at the Louvre.
Now there is no precedent for exhibiting
at this museum works II living artists.
The only exception was the tiara of
Saitapharnes which was indeed living
artist" but he was a forger and the
fraud being discovered, the tiara was
removed.
Happily for the surviving brother, the
difficulty. after months of negotiations
was surmounted. Had the collection gone
to the city of Paris. Comte Isaacs estate
would have been chargeable with more
than a million francs legacy tax
Though the present Comte Camondo is
a Croesus. he would have felt some dis
appointment at losing not only an in
collection of pictures and furni-
ture, but at having to pay a sort of fine
into the bargain. The collection embraces
the best examples of early Renaissance
and of all the intervening periods down
to the present day. The late Comte
Camondo watched with shrewd. far
sighted interest the rpening talents of
Monet. Sisley. Degas and Jonkind. the
unique painter OF Alsatian girls filling wa
ter jars at the spring in dewy morning.
milking cows. or picking petals Of daisies
to know whether their swains loved them
or not-realism at. the root, and all the
rest ideal.
friend and partner of the late John
who lived in the Place de
rArc de T'riomphe. He figured as such
at the wedding of Miss Eva Bryant,
daughter Of Mrs. Mackay, and her first
husband. and Prince di Colonna-
At the reception which fol-
lowed no love was lost between him
and Meissonnier. That artist reminds
one of the Moses, by Michael Angelo.
as seen by the present-day caricaturist.
who gives his men great heads, .tiny
bodies, and legs no thicker than a
spiders. As often happens with men
Of innate shyness, he overdid an air of
a assumption and a military bearing, as
simulated possibly in following En-
peror Napoleon III in the Italian cam
paign. He attended the battles of Ma
genta and Solferino as court painter"
An amusing contrast II was between
and Camondo. Nelson
nier afterward blamed Camondo for
the fate of his portrait Of Mrs. Mackay.
He sent II to her home from the salon
Tor his reputation had not yet begun
n vx-tt ht11 for IN mn
rancs. Every detailHgown. gloves.
Csc in the corsage. hat-was perfect,
,ut the face was like one Of those |
saints cut out in wood and painted by |
lrtless ~colorists. such as you see in |
rillage churches OF the Grand Duchy |
If Baden. The mirror had given the |
ady a quite different impression of her |
appearance. Incensed at the deformity,
Mrs. Mackay cut the canvas. destroying |
he ''likeness" that was not a resem- |
,lance. and ordered that it be thrown |
,ut: but she paid the 10000 francs. |
Art critics at the time chided Mrs |
Iackay as a tickle. self-wil1ed woman |
Of art, but the present. |
lay critics have ratified the opinion |
The formed of Meissonnier.
John Mackay. from his knowledge OF |
American stocks. must have been a VAL
liable friend of Comte Camondo who |
Ilso made piles Of money In CONNER
ial Cable and Steel common. He did
good thing for a friend four years
go in advising him to invest as heav-
ly as he could In Steel and hold II un-
il there had been a considerable rise.
lie could repeat the operation when
lext the bears had done their worst
nd make all reinvestments with an
asy mind. Wall street preferred play
ng football with the best stocks.
FLANECR.
(Ccpyriaht 1915. by Court Gossip syndicsteJ