[665] - In this era of international expositions there is perhaps no department in which their stimulating influence has been more strongly felt than in the fine arts; for nowhere else can be compared to such advantage, which, life the development of railroad systems and electrical appliances, are among the features of the age, one of the effects has been to give to art whence new departures might be taken, where artist and public alike might discover how much they have yet to learn, how much to unlearn.

While the display of art at the Centennial Exposition was not its strongest feature, it served, among other purposes, to give impetus to professional education, and for that reason, apart from the question of merit, it is and will be remembered. That since 1876 we have acquired a better knowledge of what constitutes real art, together with more ability to produce it, there is sufficient evidence in the home exhibition here to be passed in review. Notwithstanding its defects and shortcomings, we have now at least a school of our own, with a large and intelligent constituency among whom there is no want of culture and discrimination. Even to those whose homes are far removed from art centres, such exhibitions tend, as in other departments, to quicken the sense of comparison and appreciation, to define more clearly our position in the scale of modern achievement.

In the number, and in some respects the quality of the exhibits, none of the former collections will bear comparison with that which is the crowing artistic feature of the Columbian exposition. Never before were there so many participants both national and individual, covering the entire realm of art, and some of whom, as Brazil and New South Wales, have found no place at previous exhibitions. While in painting and statuary it may have been excelled by the Parisian display of 1889, this cannot be said of other departments. In engravings, etchings, drawings, and architectural designs, the galleries are especially strong, and this is as might be expected, for only in these and kindred branches, all of comparatively [667] modern growth, has any decided progress been made within recent years. Engraving, it may be said, is as much as art peculiar to the nineteenth century as devotional paintings were to the middle ages, one especially developed by the demand for illustrated works, publishers and readers fixing the standard of excellence in the nineteenth century, as did priests and worshippers in the fifteenth. Thus it is that progress has been rather in artistic processes than in art itself; for here is a branch in which new modes of treatment are being constantly evolved to keep pace with the exigencies of the times, and hence with a certain freshness and vigor that does not pertain to art in its highest sense. The latter, though with new tendencies and developments, has been far less progressive, the improvement being almost restricted to countries where art is still in its formative period, while in the great centres, as in Italy and France, art, whether plastic or pictorial, remains at best where it was. In architecture treated as one of the fine arts there has been perceptible progress, and of this no further proof is needed than the hundreds of scholarly and appropriate designs contained in the exhibition.

Of the city of the Fair it has been well remarked by one of its artificers that in these leviathan structures architecture in its highest sense is not represented. "Rather," he says, "are they a scenic display of architecture composed of models executed on a colossal state, and with a degree of apparent pomp and splendor which if set forth in marble and bronze might recall the era of Augustus or Nero." But however just may be this remark, it does not apply to all the buildings, and especially to the temple of fine arts, a gem of the purest water, and reproducing in its graceful outlines the chaste and classic features of the Ionic school, taking as the keynote of the plan the temple of Athena Polias in the Erectheum, though with traces of the Corinthian and Doric orders. Among those who have beheld this edifice, of itself a work of art, their pleasure was not impaired by regret that within a few brief months it was doomed to demolition; for here was no ephemeral structure, but one with walls of bricks; with merely a coating of staff, and with roof of iron, steel, and glass, one which after the close of the Fair would remain as among its monuments, to be used for museum purposes and for the safe keeping of the many valuable exhibits presented to the management.

The Art Palace, suitably located in the norther section of the grounds and dividing the main edifices from state and foreign pavilions, is the only windowless structure of the Exposition. By the glazed ceilings a sufficiency of light is furnished, and through the structural design of the interior so modulated as to display to the best advantage the various classes of exhibits without conflict of shadow or reflection. To relieve them from monotony the exterior facades were adorned with mural paintings representing the history of art, and to give to them a play of light and shade the building was partially surrounded with a colonnade, its pillars, eight feet from the wall and nearly thirty in height, forming a covered walk or piazza extending from the central portal to the corner pavilions. To this portal broad flights of stairs, flanked by balustrades and terraces lead from a landing place on the northern arm of the lagoon.

The general plan, apart from its decorative features, may be described as that of a continuous series of compartments, flat-roofed, sky-lighted, somewhat less than 50 feet high, and resting on a basement raised nine feet above ground, the entire structure forming an oblong, 500 feet in length by 320 in width, and covering an area of nearly five acres. At the corners are projecting pavilions of similar height, giving accent to the design. The clear stories and roofs over the several courts are fashioned with level sky-lines, and from their [668] central point of intersection rises from a spacious rotunda to an elevation of 125 feet, and with nearly half that diameter, a dome surmounted by Martiny�s heroic statue of Fame. The principal entrance-ways, in the centre of each of the main facades, are in the form of porticos, with columns of the Ionic order, and above them are attics, on the pilasters of which are figures resembling those of the temple at Agrigentum. In the middle of the end facades are similar porticos, but on a less imposing scale.

By the Exposition architect already quoted the exterior design of the Art Palace is thus described: "The objects of this building seemed very clearly to invite a monumental expression, set forth in terms connected with the evolution of the highest civilizations in history, associated with the greatest triumphs of art, established by the usages of the greatest masters and formulated by the schools and academies of all nations. It was necessary that it should be pure, formal, and stately, entirely free from caprice or playfulness, refined by scrupulous elegance of detail, and enriched by every device of decorative sculpture which could be consistently recalled by historic art, so that when completed it should be fit to enshrine the figures and groups in marble and bronze, the paintings in oil, water color and fresco, the carvings in ivory, wood, and marble, the bas-reliefs engravings, etchings, and drawings by which the century is taking its rank in history. It was a part of the scheme to make the numerous statues, friezes, and other decorations, in the round and in relief, replicas of the greatest masterpieces of Greek and Renaissance art, so that the building itself should be a museum, not of historic sculpture only, but of painting."

In the interior the fundamental plan was not, as in other buildings, a great central hall, but a continuous series in two divisions of courts and galleries, one devoted to plastic, the other to graphic art, and each with suitable arrangements as to size and shape. On either side of the nave and its intercepting transepts are grouped the exhibits of sculpture and statuary, while from the longer courts there is access to transverse picture galleries, their outer doors opening into larger galleries, forming a continuous promenade and communicating with the corner pavilions. Thus is afforded, with excellent facilities for classification, a hanging space of about 150,000 square feet. Some 25 feet above the main floor is a gallery 40 feet wide surrounding the entire building, and over this another gallery, containing among other exhibits that of the society of Polish artists, presently to be described. In these galleries are most of the water colors, the etchings and engravings, the pastel, pen and ink, charcoal, and other drawings, the architectural themes, and the overflow of paintings in oil, the majority of which, together with nearly all the statuary, find a place on the ground floor.

To Charles B. Atwood, designer-in-chief of the bureau of construction, we are indebted for this reproduction of the purest of classic models; and if we behold with a tinge of regret its perfect outlines, its wealth of artistic embellishment, it is only that these stately colonnades, with the ornamental statuary of the building [669] and grounds adjacent, were not fashioned of some more lasting material than wood and staff. While the chaste simplicity of the design owes little to its decorative scheme, that little is in perfect taste, and the exterior aspect of this edifice cannot be better described than in the two expressive words which Horace applies to the Roman maiden, simplex munditiis.

On the frieze are figures by Martiny, works representing Sculpture, Painting, Music, and Architecture treated as one of the fine arts; between them are medallion portraits of the old masters from the hand of Olin Warner, and on either side winged female forms with floral garlands. Sculpture is the most robust of the four sisters, with opulent form of strong and massive proportions. Painting is a somewhat sensuous muse, as it appears from the lines of her face and figure. Music is skillfully personified, chaste and refined as to features and drapery, and of serious aspect. Architecture is a stately personification, with earnest, thoughtful face, on which is the stamp of intellectual power. On either side of the main portals are female forms supporting the pediments, and near them lions couchant.

The exhibits contained in the Art Building are classified under the following groups; sculpture in marble or bronze, with models, monumental decorations, and casts from original works; paintings in oil; paintings in water colors; paintings on ivory, enamel, metal, porcelain, or other ground work, with fresco paintings on walls; engravings, etchings, and prints; chalk, charcoal, pastel, and other drawings; antique and modern carvings, engravings in medallions or gems, with cameos and intaglios, the final group being devoted to private collections, which are distributed throughout the galleries and include some of the finest works of the great masters. For architecture as a fine art there is no separate group, this branch being included, or rather touched upon in connection with other groups, though forming a prominent feature in several of the national collections. As in other departments, the exhibition will be treated by nationalities, and without special regard to location; but among the many thousands of contributions gathered from every quarter of the world, it will be impossible here to make other than briefest mention of the more prominent works.

In the interests of the Art department, and of American artists in relation to that department, there were established, as I have said, in the principal art centres of Europe and the United States advisory committees, forming the nuclei of juries of selection. Of these committees and juries organized in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Paris, Rome, Florence, and Munich, the members were for the most part not only artists of repute, but the most competent and impartial critics that could be found in the several branches of the profession. Competitors were required to forward their works to the nearest or most convenient point where a jury was established, New England contributors, for instance, sending their exhibits to Boston, and those of the middle states to New York or Philadelphia. Thus was afforded a wide range of jurisdiction, and the cost and delay avoided of sending to Chicago for approval numerous paintings and drawings of which only a small proportion could be accepted. Moreover foreign artists were unwilling to submit their canvases to a jury composed mainly of American critics, and especially of western critics. As matters were thus arranged the [671] Chicago jury was little more than a hanging committee, assigning to each work its space in the order of merit as determined by the juries of selection, from whose decision there was no appeal, those marked No. 1 being first provided for, and then the other classes as room permitted. In December 1892 the work of collecting was finished, and early in the following month the jurors began their unwelcome task. No sooner were the results made known than a storm of indignation arose among the thousands of unsuccessful candidates, and for several weeks the newspapers were filled with groundless charges. That mistakes were made is not denied; but Quis judicabit ipsos judices? Certainly it is not my purpose here to pass judgment upon the judges, whose duties appear to have been faithfully performed, and with no indications of prejudice or partiality.

To the chief of the department, Halsey C. Ives, his aids and advisory committees, is largely due the success of this rich and varied display of graphic and plastic art, forming as it does the culminating features of an exposition which is of itself the most striking manifestation of art that the world has ever witnessed. In the United States section are the choicest works that could be obtained from the painters, engravers, etchers, sculptors, and architects of the day. In Europe the chief visited all the principal countries represented at the Exposition, conferring with the more prominent artists, professional and amateur, with the directors of art schools and museums, with government officials and the commissioners appointed for his department. The result was that European applications exceeded by 130,000 square feet the amount of space at the disposal of the management.

Before proceeding it may here be stated that while one of the most elaborate and attractive exhibitions recorded in the chronicles of art, it has suffered, in common with other departments, from the imposition of a tax on all articles that might be sold for delivery at the close of the Fair. In the organic act which gave to the Exposition its government sanction it was provided that all such articles should be subject to the duty imposed by the revenue laws in force at the date of importation; that all the penalties prescribed by law should be enforced against them, and against persons who might be guilty of any illegal sale or withdrawal. Here in truth was the genius of protection, its evil genius, be it said, and no wonder that in these spacious galleries with all their rich display were lacking some of the choicest productions of foreign artists.

Of a French master of world-wide repute it is related that when asked by one of his American brethren of the craft to send a few of his choicest canvases, he thus declined the request: "No, sir, I thank you, I do not propose to pay your government thirty percent of the value of pictures which I can probably sell to better advantage in Paris, or to take the chance of losing them, or having them returned in damaged condition." While through the precautions of the management risk of loss or injury was reduced to a minimum, the Frenchman�s complaint as to this assessment on the products of his labor was not without justification. Save perhaps for the poll tax, a relic of the dark ages, there is no more barbarous impost than that which thus was laid on Exposition works of art. As well might we tax the cardinal virtues or the ten commandments.

But to provide for a creditable display of American art was the main purpose of the department, and in this connection its chief remarks; "The position held in this Exposition by our artists, as compared with those of other nationalities, will have to do with determining the general estimation of our art by our own countrymen, as well as by foreign visitors, for many years to come. It is therefore of the highest importance to every American engaged in artistic pursuits that the exhibits of American art work should be of the highest quality obtainable; that each example shown represent the highest achievement of the artist, and that the [672] collection as a whole present in a dignified manner the best productions of our native art." Certain it is that if careful selection could accomplish this end, we have in the United States galleries a worthy expression of domestic art; for of the 1,350 works which New York painters submitted for approval only 325 were accepted, while of 600 each from Massachusetts and Pennsylvania artists, 139 and 112 respectively were chosen by the juries; this for oil paintings only, which formed little more than one third of the entire collection. Western candidates fared even worse, only 73 painting in oil being selected from 638 that were offered, with 18 out of 177 water colors.

While by no means "the best display of art from any nation," as the vainglorious among our countrymen would have us believe, the galleries devoted to domestic art contain much that is of value and interest, with more of promise yet to be fulfilled. By American visitors to the Fair none of its departments were inspected with closer scrutiny, with greater solicitude and curiosity, for never before had American art received adequate expression at an international exposition. That we could hold our own in the mechanic and liberal arts, in agriculture, mining, stock-raising, and other branches of industry was not for a moment doubted; but in pictorial and plastic art how would we compare with the painters and sculptors of European nations, their works evolved amid the fostering influences of a civilization compared with which our own is but of yesterday? Must it not be admitted that in art as in literature, we were not old enough to bear such comparison; that our brief cycles of national existence, with their recurring phases of commercial and industrial progress, have not been sufficient to afford a national perspective; that our line of horizon is too near the point of vision, and that only as personages and events recede into distance could be fully developed the ideal faculties essential to our historic art, as to history itself, to poetry, and even to the higher class of fiction? But these questions we will leave our foreign critics to answer; for with a nation, as with an individual, few can judge aright their own achievements.

Of all the criticism pronounced on the American section none were so severe as those of the Americans themselves, and while some were just, more were partially or altogether unwarranted. First of all it was objected that the pictures were too large; that here was not art in its essence but art by the acre, the average dimensions of the canvases rising far above the usual standard. To this it may be answered that, while size is not of itself a merit, the general effect of a series of large galleries, permitting a focus of long range, is better when filled with paintings proportioned to their dimensions. Then it was said that too much space was occupied with a redundancy of commonplace portraiture. Another cause of offence was the imitation of French sensationalism and straining after effect, with the florid coloring and jejune composition of modern Parisian schools. While this may be true in a measure, so that here and there the visitor would ask himself whether he was in the French or American galleries, there are many canvases which rise far above the mediocrity characteristic of [673] Salon exhibitions. At least it can fairly be claimed that within the last score of years there has been a decided improvement in the better class of American art, while of French art, except for the works of the great masters, it can only be said at best that it remains about where it was. In truth it may almost be asserted that this nation of artists, which has taught all the world how to paint, it itself in danger of forgetting the highest principles of art.

But from the charge of alienism the American display cannot be entirely exculpated, and especially is this true of works which take for their theme historic events and characters. Among all this collection of more than 1,000 paintings in oil there is not one of special excellence, and there are not a dozen in all, which treat of the annals of our country. The same remark applies also to our statesmen and diplomats, our drama, music, and literature, none of them finding adequate representation at the hands of our artists. Landscapes there are in abundance, which if not in the style of a Corot or a Daubigny are of unquestionable merit. There are marine and other views, faces and figures of man and beast, flowers and fruits, moonlight and melody ad nauseum. But we search in vain for anything that reminds us of the stirring episodes in our national history, of Lexington or Gettysburg, for instance, of Yorktown or Appomattox. In statuary and paintings many of our historic personages are better represented in the foreign sections than in our own, and in this, our Columbian Exposition, Columbus and his times are almost excluded from the galleries of the United States. To call attention to these defects is but an unthankful task; but as with other departments of the Fair, it is my purpose to described them as they are, or were, and not as we would have them to be. "Do your artists care nothing for your republic?" inquired one of our foreign visitors; and said an American, "After I had made a tour of the galleries, and compared the exhibits of European nations with our own, I felt like a man without a country."

In sculpture and statuary the United States appears to good advantage, considering the slight regard for plastic as compared with graphic art. While there are few who share Emerson�s opinion that sculpture must now be numbered among the lost arts, it may be said that in its highest sense it is practically limited to the French and Italian schools, and even these are not here represented as at European expositions, so far at least as contemporary art is concerned. While from the former are many of her most finished works, including a valuable collection of casts of historic sculpture, the display has been far surpassed at previous exhibitions; and apart from ancient bronzes, Italian statuary, pretty though it be, is stamped by the trivial and inane.

Small, but full of promise, and with several works where promise and performance meet, is New England�s display of statuary, which it need not be said is almost entirely from Boston, the cradle of American art. Among the best of her specimens are Alice Ruggles� bronze figure of an Italian child, "Aux bords de l�Oise," one which, though somewhat faulty in attitude, is not without grace of form and feature. By the same artificer [674] are plaster casts of "Young Orpheus," and "A New England Fisherman," From Henry H. Kitson comes a piece of bronze statuary whose theme is "Music of the Sea," with two plaster casts and a portrait bust in marble; but this sculptor is better known by his memorial fountain, executed for the Roger Williams park in Providence, representing the figure of primeval man in conflict with an eagle, symbolic of nature�s forces. A work of unquestionable power is "The Angel of Death Arresting the Hand of the Sculptor," by Daniel C. French, a resident of New York but a New England artist. In the features and figure of death as thus personified, there is nothing of a repulsive aspect, but rather a classic dignity and repose, without the least suggestion of violence. In contrast with its stately and commanding presence is the alert and vigorous form of the sculptor, whose mallet is at once arrested by the touch of a resistless hand. In his face is no expression of fear; only of astonishment and regret that his task must forever remain unfinished that his life and work are ended.

Of the contributions by William Ordway Partridge, one is a plaster replica of the statue of Shakespeare erected in Lincoln Park, Chicago; and there are busts of James Russell Lowell, Edward Everett Hale, and other personages real or imaginary. In his "Head of Christ" the features are portrayed with a spiritualized beauty, but rather of Norman or Teutonic than of oriental type. Yet there is nothing of the subdued expression of power which the subject invites; it is rather the face of a dreamer, of one lacking in moral force, in a word it is Christ estheticised rather than deified. In contrast with this is Max Bachman�s plaster bust of "The Son of Man," its intent and earnest features of purely classic outline attenuated by the consuming soul within. Other works by this artist are his plaster bust of a young lady, and a bas-relief of Mrs. Sheldon. Wesselhoeft, sends his "Titania and Bottom;" Anne Whitney, her "Roma," and Katherine Prescott, her "Joy to the New Year, Peace to the Old;" these and a few minor studies completing the list of what New England has to show in this direction.

"Christ and the Little Child," by Thomas Ball, is a marble group whose place is beneath the central dome. Both in conception and execution it differs widely from the delineations of the New England sculptors. It is of the conventional type, life size, but with little else of life in its cold, emotionless expression, cold as the marble of which it is wrought. As a study in what may be termed ecclesiastical statuary it is not without merit; but it has no other merit than this. Christ is supporting on a baluster the figure of the child, to which the left hand points in application of the gold-lettered text beneath: "Whoever, therefore, shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." But there is no love in these serene and dignified features, and the lines of drapery and figure are stiff and [675] formal, precise, but almost with a mathematical precision. The same remark applies also to Ball�s colossal bronze statue of Washington, and his equestrian statuette of Paul Revere.

A most vigorous composition is Gelert�s "The Struggle for Work," representing three figures contending for a work ticket thrown from a factory window, with a woman and child at their feet. A brawny operative is holding aloft the ticket which a feeble and aged man is trying to wrest from his grasp, and on another side a sinewy youth is stretching his hand toward it. Admirable is the expression of pity for weakness and age mingled with satisfaction over the possession of a prize which means to him daily bread. The woman takes refuge between the feet of her husband, the central figure, holding in her arms a babe, which thus she saves from being crushed in the melee, while a boy is clutching him around the leg, himself in fear that this only chance of obtaining food will be taken from him.

Paul W. Bartlett, well and favorably known for his small figures in marble and plaster, has a bust of his wife, and a medallion portrait of Doctor Skinner. In "Bohemian and Bears" and "The Ghost Dance," he shows what he can do with more ambitious themes. The former represents a Bohemian youth teaching a young bear to dance, with another cub enjoying himself, as bear-cubs will, by rolling on the ground. Its strongest feature is the expression of amusement in the young man�s face while watching the clumsy antics of his pupil, and its puzzled look as it strives in vain to find out just what his master would have him do. "The Ghost Dance," a study of the nude and by no means a pleasing study, shows the figure of an Indian balanced on one foot, with the other raised behind him, arms extended in front and hands hanging limp, wide-open mouth, and in the features an aspect of brutish ignorance mingled with the frenzy of superstition. The muscular treatment is perfect, each thew and sinew rendered with striking fidelity, so that we almost pity the model whose posing must have suggested to him that torture and the fine arts were somehow in close relation.

"The Young Sophocles Leading the Chorus of Victory After the Battle of Salamis," by John Donoghue, is of the French school, adapting modern treatment to studies of the antique. It is not an attractive composition, and is in more than questionable taste. True, that after the battle of Salamis he was chosen to head the chorus of boys at the celebration of that victory; but one cannot imagine the great dramatist posing as a lad nude and with a lyre in hand. Though lads went naked on such occasions, it is not the guise or attitude that one is apt to associate with this the great master of tragedy. The figure is well enough in its way, with erect and supple carriage, head thrown back, and earnest thoughtful features; but it is not suggestive of anyone in particular, and certainly not of Sophocles, either as a youth or at any other period of his life.

[677] - Bush-Brown sends his plaster group, "The Buffalo Hunt," one of the strongest compositions in plastic art displayed in the United States galleries. Triebel has several of his works on exhibition, one of the best of which is a marble statue of a young boy taking from the hook his first fish. Well portrayed is the expression of mingled delight and perplexity as he tries to hold on to his slippery, squirming prize. Tilden�s figures of a young acrobat, a tired boxer, and a baseball player are truthfully delineated; but the best of his compositions is the bronze group representing an Indian bear hunt, with the brute seizing the arm of his assailant and crushing it, bone, flesh, and sinew into a shapeless mass. Among other works of merit which cannot here be noticed in detail, are Adams� "Primavera" and "St. Agnes Eve;" Bringhurst�s "Awakenings of Spring," in terra cotta; Elwell�s bronze group of Charles Dickens and Little Nell, and his marble group of Diana and the lion, symbolic of intellect controlling brute force; Rogers� plaster cast of Abraham Lincoln in seated posture; Ruckstuhl�s "Evening," Niehaus� "Athlete;" Wuertz� "Murmur of the Sea;" Dallin�s portrait bust of Doctor Hamilton, and equestrian statue, "Signal of Peace," and a dozen of groups and figures by Edward Kemeys, most of them in animal sculpture.

Of painters in oil and water colors many were found worthy to represent New England art, and if among them a large proportion are as yet of [678] only local repute, this does not detract from the merit of their works. First of all may be mentioned the pleasing and individual compositions of Edmund C. Tarbell, whose portraiture of face and figure, especially when taking for his theme the typical American girl, with her changing moods and fascinations, has won for him a foremost rank among American artists. "In the Orchard" is especially true to life, reproducing with breadth of expression and intense vivacity of coloring a summer scene where beneath orchard foliage is a group of comely maidens engaged in converse during an afternoon�s repose. The picture is full and cheerful, wholesome life, of freedom from car, of smiles and sunshine. "Girls and Horse" by the same artist represents a young woman standing by the side of her saddle-horse as he drinks from a roadside watering trough. In "My Sister Lydia" is a portrait which shows to excellent advantage his skillful treatment and freedom of execution.

In different vein is the portraiture of Frank W. Benson, a Salem artist, whose "Portrait of a Lady in White" and "Girt with a Red Shawl" are greatly admired for their delicacy of style and purity of sentiment. I. H. Caliga, an acknowledged master of his art, is represented only by a full length portrait of a Brookline lady by whom it was loaned for exposition, and while not unworthy of its artificer, it is to be regretted tat he did not send some of his more ideal conceptions. Of the four life size portraits by Frederick P. Vinton, his "Portrait of a Lady" is remarkable for vigor and realism of execution. In Mrs. Lilla C. Perry�s paintings are types of childhood, such as none but those who sympathize with children could depict. "The Doll�s Bath," by J. H. Hatfield, is also a pleasing subject from child life, and in his "Letter from Papa" is an excellent specimen of drawing, though somewhat cloudy of hue. Among Frederick W. Freer�s portraits, his "Lady in Black," loaned by the Boston art club, is one of the gems in the New England collection. In Stacy Tolman�s "The Etcher," which is something more than a portrait, is expressed with vivid effect the artist�s concentration on his work. "Carnation and Black," by Joseph De Champ, though not without promise, is faulty as to coloring and in questionable taste.

Among Sargent�s portraits are two of young children, one the son of the sculptor, St. Gaudens, seated in a chair while listening to his mother�s reading. In both is portrayed the true expression of childhood, and with the finest touch of this accomplished but somewhat variable artist. Less to be commended is his "Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth," a full length picture of the great tragedienne in the act of placing the crown on her head. The pose is stiff and the features merely repulsive, without the sublimated expression of evil which the subject invites. Then there is too much blending of hues in the blue and green of the drapery and in the auburn hair, such as Scotch women never wore, and with tresses belonging rather to the English type of womanhood. In other portraits Sargent is seen to better advantage, and shows himself well worthy of his rank as one of the foremost painters of the age.

Whistler�s canvases are hung in the United States section, for he is a native of Lowell, and in this country were his earlier studies, though since thirty he has lived abroad, first in London and later in Paris. Notwithstanding Ruskin�s adverse criticisms as to the works of this artist, there is but one opinion among more impartial judges, and that is that they rank among the first of their class. Of his six paintings two are portraits, remarkably suggestive of character and with excellent color scheme, giving emphasis to the more salient points while minor details are not neglected. "Nocturne, Valparaiso" is a beautiful night scene, with its graceful forms appearing indistinctly amid a delicate symphony of coloring. It is a tender, plaintive subject, musical in key to him whose ear is attuned to the music of art.

Thayer has two excellent portraits of a lady, and of a brother and sister together; but his best and largest painting is the "Virgin Enthroned," where the subject is treated with tenderness and spirituality. It is not in the conventional style, but in his own original vein, as best we like to see him; for Thayer never studied in the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and had he done so it is doubtful whether he would have adopted its technique. So with Brush�s madonna, which nevertheless is a beautiful picture to look upon, revealing all the joy and glory of motherhood, the perfect love and trust of childhood. Let those who are technicians and nothing more cavil at such work, for here are qualities that cannot be overlooked, and none the less valuable that they are not in imitation of the French; for of the French school, with so many of its defects and so few of its merits, there are enough and more than enough in these galleries of domestic art.

Much admired are J. M. Stone�s "Leukopis" and "A Summer Dream," the former a half-length figure of a girl with the pure complexion and chiseled outline of feature which sometimes gives to the well favored among American damsels almost a classic mold. Both figures are somewhat scantily draped, with flesh tints [679] sufficiently pronounced, "A Summer Dream," representing a brown-haired maiden lost in reverie, and in reclining posture, with eyes half closed and slightly parted limps, one hand resting on her bosom and the other holding in her lap a cluster of roses. "Love Awakening Memory" and "The Annunciation" by Mrs. M. L. Macomber are contributions that rise far above the mediocrity inseparable from large exhibitions. There is also noticeable an absence of the labored artificiality characteristic of religious and emblematic themes as portrayed by modern artists. Here rather is the stamp of an earnest individualism, with all the grace and delicacy of a woman�s touch. A religious motif, but of another kind, is displayed in Frank H. Tompkins�s "Good Friday," which illustrates in the figure of a woman kissing the crucifix one of the rites of the Bavarian Catholic church; but a work more generally preferred is his "Mother and Child," an ideal expression of motherhood. Among Ernest L. Major�s canvases, his "Saint Genevieve" depictures in the character of a shepherdess the patron saint of Paris.

"Charity" is the masterpiece among Walter Gay�s productions, which also include as religious themes, "A Gregorian Chant," "A Mass in Brittany," and "Dominican Monk." "Charity" represents a group of aged peasantry, and a little girl receiving alms in the form of a breakfast of dry bread. The features are full of expression, and the light and color in perfect taste, gray and black costumes contrasting with warmer tones. Charles Sprague Pearce�s "Village Funeral in Picardy" is a truthful composition, depicting in faithful and well studied types a number of provincial dames seated outside a house of mourning, their garments as subdued in color as is their assumed expression of grief, - decorous, but without trace of real emotion. By the same artist are "Mother and Child," "The Annunciation," "The Shepherdess," and a couple of portraits, all showing the precision of style for which he is noted. In common with others whose works find a place in the United States galleries, Pearce is sojourning in foreign lands; for to the true artist there is no home save that of his art, and many of those whom I have mentioned as American painters no longer reside in the land of their nativity.

"The Communion," by Gari Melchers, is a painting of remarkable individuality and strength. Worship is its theme, pure and reverent worship, a simple and trusting faith unclouded by the faintest shadow of doubt. The story is forcibly told, with dignity of expression and absolute truth and directness of treatment. For this and other of his works the artist has gathered about all the honors that European schools and salons have to offer, and that these honors have been worthily bestowed there is here sufficient evidence. His "Sermon," for instance, is full of sentiment, but without trace of sentimentality, of beauty and power without undue striving after effect, and if there is also realism, it is an unconscious and not over-studied realism. The scene represents a number of Dutch peasants, most of them women, listening to a sermon in a village church, and that it is a lengthy sermon may be inferred from the fact that one of them has fallen asleep. There is nothing beautiful about these women, and there is nothing very remarkable, except that they are thoroughly Dutch and thoroughly devout women; but their faces are full of character and meaning with a master�s touch. And so [680] with his "Pilots," where men are seated around a table in an upper chamber of an inn, whence is a view of red-tiled roofs and the blue sea beyond. They are merely talking and smoking, except for one who is at work on a model of a ship; but there is a wealth of character in these rugged features, in which one may see at a glance what manner of men they are.

In "Married" and "Skaters" by this artist are traces of the French school, but only as to coloring, in which he never goes to an extreme. A young Dutch peasant is walking proudly and with uplifted head, as though thankful for the blessing as his side, a young woman with downcast eyes, but none the less proud and thankful, as it seems, that her love has been requited. "Skaters" is a love scene amid ice and snow, but with a warm and cheerful home waiting to receive the maiden and her swain with genuine Dutch hospitality. In still another key is "The Nativity," where the subject is treated in original vein. In a stable lies the newborn infant, the mother resting her head on the father�s shoulder. It is daybreak and soon the shepherds will be here, and the wide men and the kings; but there is no suggestion of the supernatural, not even a halo, though with a peculiar light around the child, while the rapt expression in Joseph�s face suggests only the mystery that always possesses him who first becomes a parent. The story of the nativity it told, but told in a style very different to that of the older masters.

Among paintings that are the theme of general comment is Carl Marr�s "Flagellants," exhibited in many a European salon before it found its way to Jackson Park. The procession of the flagellants, it is said, dates back to the days of Saint Anthony, and in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries spread throughout southern Europe, where the devout, with vigorous self scourging, weeping, and groaning, hoped to obtain the deliverance from war and pestilence which their prayers had failed to afford. Such is one of the scenes that Marr describes, with literary as well as pictorial fidelity to truth. The canvas is of mammoth size, and yet it is almost crowded with figures, most of them stripped to the waist, as they pass in procession a cathedral in northern Italy, where some turn aside and others go on their way in a frenzy of fanatical enthusiasm. Old men and children are here, and in the foreground a child is being carried in a litter, with maidens fair of aspect lustily applying the knotted lash to naked backs and shoulders. Notwithstanding its repulsive theme, one cannot but admire this composition for its drawing and coloring, and especially for the grouping of figures and faces, each of which, when viewed at a proper distance, is of itself a study.

"Breaking Home Ties," by Thomas Hovenden, is one of the few works of merit whose theme is descriptive of American life; for as I have said the United States galleries are crowded with depictions of foreign scenes [681] an incidents, to the exclusion of the rich and varied subjects which the artist might have selected almost without stepping from his door. It is a simple and touching story of New England life in days not long gone by. In the "living room" of an old-fashioned farm house, a mother with sad and anxious look is taking leave of her son, who bravely struggles to mask his home-sick longing and lingering. Near by are his sisters and his father, the latter carrying his carpet bag, and in the background his dog. The members of the family have just risen from the last meal which for a time they will take together, and the table is set with the quaintest of china ware, the ingrain carpet and the straight high-backed chairs completing a picture which the New Englander knows so well and loves so well to see.

On two of C. Y. Turner�s canvases are described the oft-told stories of John Alden�s letter and the courtship of Miles Standish, both familiar to the public in reproductive etchings. In the former the puritan captain is standing in front of the fireplace, bethinking him how to indite his tale of love to the bashful scribe who is acting as his amanuensis. In the other John is pleading his rival�s cause with downcast look. He is seated as far away from Priscilla as space will permit, and yet not far enough, it seems, for he is the very picture of embarrassment. The maiden is at her spinning wheel, over which her head is demurely bent, for she is not yet ready to utter the words which Longfellow puts into her mouth: "Why don�t you speak for yourself, John?" The story is told exceeding well, and the entire composition, with all its accessories, is full of the atmosphere of New England life. Another of Turner�s New England scenes is "The Days that Are No More," where a young widow is leading her little girl from the graveyard where her husband sleeps. She is moving slowly and reluctantly, trying in vain to stifle her sobs, as she goes forth alone with her child to take up the weary life that must still be lived, without the strong arm and loving heart that are laid forever at rest.

McEwen�s "Witches" deals with a tragic incident in New England annals. The scene is at Salem, where, manacled in her prison cell, stands a beautiful girl confronting the executioners who are about to lead her to her doom. A withered hag is leaning toward her with uncanny leer, for she also has been condemned, and takes comfort in the though that this fair young life will be crushed out before her own. In the central figure is an expression of pain and surprise but not of terror, for she will meet her fate with dignified resignation, as the victim of superstition or perchance of jealousy, prompting some rival to bear false witness against her. Excellent is the light effect from a window in the background, encircling the maiden�s head as with a martyr�s halo. In "The Absent One" is a similar play of light in a Dutch interior, where on All Souls� day a young woman is reading to her father from holy writ the passages that tell of the life to come, upon which already his wife has entered. Other works by this artist are "Telling Ghost Stories" and "Judgment of Paris;" but rather would we have had more of his domestic themes.

"The Bathers," by Alexander Harrison, represents a number of women, in the water or on the sand, beckoning to each other and enjoying themselves to their hearts� content in nature�s garb and in communion with nature. The coloring is excellent, especially that of the water, for in his rendition of moving waters and the play of light upon them Harrison has no superior. It is this quality also that has given to his "Crepuscule" a wide celebrity. Beautiful is the glow of the setting sun reflected from the tranquil waves, whose aspect [683] suggests the majesty of ocean even in its restful mood. These gently curling billows and the foam that crests them seem to be permeated with light, an effect most difficult to produce, and which can only be accomplished by a master of his art. "En Arcadie," pronounced by an able critic one of the best works of the "plein air" school, is a picture of a forest glade peopled by fairies, whose forms are bathed in a soft golden atmosphere of sunlight glancing through the trees. Here again the light and air are perfect; but as with his other compositions, the figures are somewhat lacking in grace and refinement.

"A Surprise," by Birge Harrison, has for its scene the forest of Compiegne in autumn tide, the ground covered with russet leaves, of which only a few remain on the branches above. A peasant girl is gathering wood, and glancing upward for a moment sees an antlered stag within a few rods of where she stands. They are looking at each other, and admirable is the expression of astonishment and fear in the face of each, for both girl and stag are thoroughly alarmed, and a moment later will be running from each other as fast as their limbs will carry them. In "The Return of the Mayflower" a puritan maiden is gazing intently at the approaching vessel, on board of which is her lover. She is a comely damsel, though with features worn with sickness and suffering, love sickness it may be, for their expression is of tender, earnest longing, of impatience that can barely wait until the ship shall reach its haven.

Of the eight canvases from the brush of F. D. Millet his "Window Seat" is one of the best illustrations of his effective and scholarly style. It is a simple story simply told, with sufficient detail and a happy combination of quiet, restful colors. George W. Maynard, by whom is an excellent portrait of Millet, is also noted for harmony of coloring and strength of delineation, as is observed in his "Pomona" and "Civilization," the latter a dignified interpretation of its title. "A Card Trick," one of J. G. Brown�s contributions, and "Soap Bubbles," by Elizabeth Gardner are also among the pictures that tell their own tale, the facial expression in both being admirably rendered. "A Dream," one of the smallest of Charles C. Curran�s canvases, represents a number of fairy-like forms grouped around a soap bubble radiant with prismatic hues. In "Night Market, Morocco," by Thomas S. Clarke, the scene, except for its Moorish figures, might have been in any city where peddlers hawk their goods amid the flare of smoking torches. William Keith and Toby Rosenthal are among those who represent California art, the former with his "Autumn Sunset" and the latter with "A Dancing Lesson of our Grandmothers," a study full of life and action and with evidence of his well-known skill in drawing and coloring. But Pacific coast art was seen to better advantage in the state buildings, and is seen to still better advantage in the Midwinter Fair in San Francisco.

Of Tryon�s thirteen landscapes all but two are loaned by their purchasers, and in each is the refinement and delicacy of touch characteristic of this popular artist. More pleasing than powerful, they are for the most [685] part in minor key, with effects of early morn and evening light, of spring and autumn tide, of the rising moon and the setting sun. Similar in technique, though differing widely as to general results, are Murphy�s "November Grays" and the "Hazy Morn." In contrast with these, and not for their merit, but as samples of the impressionist paintings of the purple and lilac school which disfigure the walls of these galleries, may be mentioned Twachtman�s canvases, one of which is aptly styled a "Decorative Landscape," decorated that is with the all-pervading hues of purple and lilac, relieved here and there by a dash of vermillion or a streak of yellow and white. Not that I would pronounce a sweeping condemnation on all painters of this class, for Corot and Daubigny were impressionists, as are many of the most gifted of American artists; but they are not of the purple and lilac school. One may paint a scene, as at the moment it impresses him, without orange-colored grass or foliage, and without shrouding waters, hills, and plains in filaments of gauze. It is mainly this striving after atmospheric effect at the expense of form and texture that makes such depictions seem blurred and dim, their figures flat, and the entire composition a counterfeit resemblance of its subject. Such paintings may be well enough as artistic fantasies, but they are not as nature paints.

Twachtman�s compositions are by no means the most pronounced of the ultra-impressionist school, and viewed at a proper distance his landscapes are not without their attractive features. More striking examples, for instance, will be found in Vonnoh�s canvases, and especially in his "Duxbury Bay," with its gaudy, disintegrated coloring; in Dannat�s bold looking drawn, we cannot tell whether the crepuscular light which surround it is that of early morn or eve. To the same class belong, among others, Pearce�s "Annunciation" and Du Mond�s "Christ and the Fishermen," both painted in modern style. In contrast with these is Blashfield�s "Christmas Chimes," with its ideal and somewhat daring treatment, yet in perfect harmony with the subject.

To return to landscape scenes may here be mentioned those of John J. Enneking, who with Tarbell, Vinton, and Thomas Allen, all represented in the New England collection, was appointed to the Massachusetts jury of selection on paintings in oil. While in all of Enneking�s canvases is fully justified his high repute as an artist true to nature, perhaps in his "October Twilight in New England" is the most striking expression of his power. Through a bare network of boughs is depicted with remarkable depth and warmth of coloring a golden sunset scene, with foreground of grayish rock, moss-covered and fringed with autumnal leaves. Other of Enneking�s works are "Autumn Afternoon," "November," "Salting Sheep," and "South Duxbury Clam Digger." Of the canvases of Charles H. Davis "Abandoned" shows to excellent advantage his subdued and scholarly style. The scene is a deserted farm house, its crumbling walls and desolate environment in keeping with the sentiment of the theme. In all the paintings of this artist may be noticed a certain gravity of tone and expression, an absence of strong coloring or striking contrasts of light and shade. By those whom such [686] things please he has been accused of dullness and monotony of treatment; but one turns with a sense of relief from the sensationalism all too common in American art to the repose and refinement of these dignified compositions.

A powerful, if somewhat trist and melancholy scene, is Charles H. Woodbury�s "North Sea Dunes," showing a wilderness of sand hills thrown up in unnumbered aeons by the ceaseless action of wind and wave. Here is the very genius of desolation, the sketch being taken from the landward side, and with Liliputian figures of peasant women contrasting with the gigantesque proportions of the dunes. In other vein is Woodbury�s "Tide River," with its breadth of treatment and richness of coloring. A pleasing combination of landscape and genre painting if Knight�s "Hailing the Ferry," a loan from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. "Moonrise," by Thomas Allen, is a well conceived and executed composition, full of repose and tranquility, one in which the stillness and intangible hues of twilight have been rendered by a master�s hand. Of the four paintings by D. J. Elwell, "Moonlight at Domburg, Zeeland" was executed while a student at the Antwerp academy. Its weird and sombre tones, suggesting rather than portraying an almost invisible landscape, at once established his reputation among Belgian critics when displayed at the Cercle Artistique.

A prominent rank among marine painters is conceded to William G. Norton, among whose works the "Return of the Herring Fleet" is worthy of special note. The scene is on the coast of Holland, where a number of fishing smacks, roomy and broad of beam, are running under full sail toward the beach. Awaiting them is a group of figures essentially Dutch as to feature, figure, and costume. The picture is full of color, life, and motion, the sky filled with swirling clouds and the sea of the dingy cream color peculiar to the coast, changing to a light blue as the horizon is approached. "Rhode Island Coast" is a faithful and unpretentious study by W. Whittredge, by whom also are "The Plains" and "The Old Hunting Ground," both of them loan contributions. "The Seiners� Return" and "The Open Sea," by Walter L. Dean, are in the best vein of this well known artist, the former especially, with its depth of space and vitality of color, showing thorough familiarity with the details of his craft. A more ambitious work represents, under the somewhat inappropriate title of "Peace," the white squadron of our navy anchored in Boston harbor. Unless it be for a New Bedford whaler there is no more unsightly craft than a modern iron-clad, and worthy of all praise is the skill which has given to these frowning leviathans of war an element of the picturesque, grouped as they are in placid waters and under a summer sky. This picture, it may here be mentioned, is the largest of its class, nine feet in length by more than six in width. "Danger Ahead," by Albert H. Munsell, represents the bow of an ocean steamer running at full speed toward the on-looker, who to grasp the realism of the scene must imagine himself on board a vessel lying in her path and in imminent danger of collision. In contrast with this may be mentioned Jules L. Stewart�s sketch, "On the Yacht Namouna.

Military subjects are but slightly represented. One of the smallest and best among them is "Driven Back," by De Cost Smith, whose time has been largely devoted to the study of Indian life. It represents a party of Sioux warriors emerging from a river by which they are separated from a pursuing squadron of cavalry. [687] "Charging a Battery" and "Silenced" are from the brush of Gilbert Gaul. "An Innocent Victim," portraying an episode in the Franco-Prussian campaign, is by Seymour Thomas, who appears to have gone far afield in search of inspiration, while neglecting the stirring incidents of the civil war. Among the engravings, etchings, and drawings are also a few illustrations of soldier life.

Water colors are plentiful in the United States galleries, forming a copious but not a very comprehensive exhibition; for several of the leading masters, such men for instance as John Lafarge, are here without representation. Among the best of the landscapes and sketches are Minor�s "Moonlight;" Mente�s "Evening Pastoral;" Ochtman�s "Frost;" Eaton�s "Autumnal" and "Indian Summer;" Cabot�s "Wind-Swept Beeches, Naushon Island;" Pierce�s "New England Pasture;" Fidelia Bridges� "In an Old Orchard;" Hallett�s "Winter Moonlight;" Hardwick�s "Looking Inland;" Alice Stackpole�s "Late Afternoon in Beverley," and Fanny W. Tewksbury�s "New England Homestead." "Portal of Ruined Mission, San Jose, Texas," is by Thomas Allen, who in common with several others is also represented in the collection of oil paintings. Among other architectural themes are Blaney�s "Temple of Neptune;" Rotch�s "Limburg Cathedral," and Colman�s "Mosque" and "Ruins of a Mosque," at Tlemcin, Algeria.

"A Sioux Camp," "Mountain Trail," and "Got Him," are by Henry F. Farny, the last illustrating a mode of dealing with the Indian question which should commend him to the notice of the government. F. Hopkinson Smith has four of his canvases, among which are "The Rialto" and "Venetian Fishing Boats." Edwards sends "An Interesting Subject" and "In the Dunes, Flanders," both of them somewhat broad in style. Abbey�s "Mariana," a study from Measure for Measure, was recently exhibited at the New York Academy of Arts. Clara T. McChesney�s "Still Life" and "The Old Cobbler" are suggestive of the Dutch school. Of the three canvases by Rhoda Holmes Nicholl�s "The Scarlet Letter" is specially to be commended. Pleasing studies also are Church�s "Pandora;" Hassam�s "Fifth Avenue" and "Springtime in the City;" Guerin�s early morning scene in a village street in Kentucky, and Smedley�s contributions, several of them relating to the Exposition grounds and buildings. So also are Turner�s "Flood Tide;" Richards� "An Atlantic Beach;" Silsbee�s "Monadnock;" Ellen S. Dixey�s "Dresden in January;" Rosina Sherwood�s "September;" McIlhenny�s "Old Friends;" and Kathleen H. Greatorex� "Carnival." While in these and other works the American school is fairly represented, it must be admitted that the galleries devoted to domestic art appear to better advantage in oil paintings than in the lighter medium of composition.

In etchings may first be mentioned the works of James McNeill Whistler, one of the most finished etchers since the days of Rembrandt, and one of the few who have achieved a world-wide repute in two important branches of art. In his etchings, as in his paintings, the merit is not only in what he puts into them but in what he leaves out, seizing on the central points of interest and giving them suitable emphasis, yet with a sufficiency of detail in subordination to the general effect. In proof of the esteem in which he is held, it may here be mentioned that of the works exhibited in this collection, not one is from his own studio, all of them coming as loans from many cities and from many owners; but as they are three-score in number, touching on a great variety of subjects, they cannot here be reviewed in detail. Stephen Parrish, Charles A. Platt, J. Alden Weir, Alexander Schilling, Charles A. Vanderhoof, Charles F. W. Mielatz, and Mary Nimmo Moran are also liberally represented among the more prominent etchers of original themes.

In engravings, and especially in wood engravings, a leading rank is conceded to American artists, the highest honors at the Paris Exposition of 1889 being conferred on a Massachusetts wood engraver, with minor awards to others of his craft. From this artist, whose name is Elbridge Kingsley, is a choice collection of prints, several of them reproducing the works of acknowledged masters. Portraiture, landscape, marine views, [688] historical subjects, and works in lighter vein are well represented in this department. Among the best of them is the portrait of Jean Baptiste Corot, by M. Lamont Brown, reproducing with singular fidelity and clearness of outline the well-known features of the great landscape painter. W. B. Closson has one of the largest and most valuable exhibits, several of his wood engravings produced by a method of his own invention, the nature of which is still a secret, but of which it may be said that the work is largely done by hand, and has no relation to photo-mechanical processes. All his specimens are of the highest class, representing such masters as Rembrandt, Murillo, Jean Francois Millet, Bonvin, George Fuller, and A. H. Thayer. William J. Dana has landscape studies after Corot and Appleton Brown. Of excellent workmanship are William P. Cleaves� engravings whose themes are mainly taken from White Mountain scenery. Prominent among the marine views is the "Ship in the Fog," by Harry E. Sylvester, whose prints are also illustrative of church and cathedral architecture.

As loans from a New York publishing company are a number of works by Timother Cole after Michael Angelo, Raphael, Paul Veronese, and other Italian masters. There are not only among the best engravings in the art display but among the best of modern times. Frank French has studies after Martiny, Barye, Fortuny, and others, together with original compositions. Thomas Johnson is strong in portraiture and figures, as also are Henry Wolf and Gustav Kruell. John P. Davis, Francis S. King, H. F. W. Lyouns, and Caroline A. Powell are represented by a variety of themes. In a steel engraving by S. A. Schoff is a marine subject after De Haas, with a copy of Rowse�s well known portrait of Emerson.

Of pastel drawings the collection is larger than in any of the foreign sections; but in the United States as elsewhere, except perhaps in France, this medium is seldom employed and rarely to good effect. Of the famous New York Pastel club only one of its prominent members is represented, and that one by a single contribution - "Good Friends," by William M. Chase. Appleton Brown has several landscapes; Jules L. Stewart, Jacob Wagner, Cecilia beaux, and Anna E. Klumpke have each a portrait; Caroline F. Hecker, a couple of flower pieces; Adelaide Wadsworth, a Venetia scene; Birge Harrison, "Evening on the Seine;" Charles A. Corwin, "Oat Harvest;" and Julius Rolshoven and other skillful pastellists are represented by various subjects.

Of pen, charcoal, and other drawings there is a large collection of excellent quality, one to which the only exception that can be taken is to its size. C. D. Gibson, for instance, has no less than six and thirty pen-drawings on exhibition, together with three wash-drawings. All of them are of unquestionable merit; but if this eminent artist had sent only a few of his best, I cannot but think he would have appeared to better advantage. By Abbey are fourteen Shakespearian illustrations. Pennell and Fenn�s liberal contributions relate almost entirely to architecture. Pyle deals largely with landscapes; Blum, with Japanese, and Castaigne, with [689] Provencal scenes. Reinhart�s charcoals are among the best of their class, especially his portrait of Charles Dudley Warner. Remington inclines to animal and military themes, and Smedley�s drawings cover a wide range of subjects. The Boston school is represented by Woodbury, Small, and Attwood; but in this department as well as in engravings and etchings, some of the most prominent names are omitted from the list of New England contributors; nor are these branches here so much in favor as in New York and Philadelphia.

In architecture in connection with the fine arts, New England appears to excellent advantage, as might be expected from a country which contains among its citizen some of the foremost members of the profession. In monumental and city architecture Boston has almost created a school of its own, though as yet its works may not be fully appreciated, for men have become so accustomed to faulty architecture that they cannot readily accept designs of a superior type. While not original, except for the originality which combines old forms with new compositions, the members of this school have discarded all obtrusive and fantastic elements, reproducing without servile imitation the classic features of earlier days, so far as they can be adapted to modern conditions. If we are to have in this country a renaissance of architecture, it is probably that Boston will be its birthplace, while the dawn of that renaissance may possibly have been forecast in the ephemeral city of the Fair.

The best display of architecture as a fine art is in the Exposition buildings themselves, two of which, apart from state structures are, as I have said, from the designs of Boston artificers. By the firm of Peabody and Stearns, to whom were intrusted the plans for Machinery hall, is exhibited a sketch of its southern portal, with office sketches, all in water colors. From Edmund M. Wheelwright, city architect of Boston, are several designs for public edifices, showing the purity and symmetry of proportion characteristic of his compositions. Of special interest are Longfellow, Alden, and Harlow�s designs in photograph for the Carnegie library and music hall at Pittsburgh, and the city hall at Cambridge. Church, school, and college architecture find expression in drawing from Walker and Kimball; Andrews, Jacques, and Rantoul; Cram, Wentworth, and Goodhue, and the water colors of Sturgis and Cabot, the first of these firms also showing its plans for the Omaha public library and telephone exchange. Of the three water colors shown by Julius A. Schweinfurth, one is a competitive design for the American Fine Arts society�s building in New York. From Arthur W. Wheelwright is also a suggestion [690] for a school of fine arts in connection with a university. H. L. Warren has several handsome compositions, one for a conservatory of music as an appendage to a female seminary, and others for the orphan asylum at Troy, built from his plans. Nearly all the larger cities of the United States, and not a few of the smaller ones, find expression in these galleries, with plans in every style and for every conceivable purpose; but as they are nearly 300 in number I cannot here present them in review.

An interesting feature in the galleries of domestic art is the retrospective exhibit of American paintings, some of them dating far back into the eighteenth century, and consisting largely of portraiture, though covering a variety of themes. The oldest of all is a picture of Bishop Berkeley and his family, painted by John Smybert in 1729. This is the property of Yale University, and is said to be the first canvas from the brush of an American artist containing more than a single figure. Of George and Martha Washington there are portraits executed between 1790 and 1792, with one of Jonathan Warner in 1761, of David Garrick in 1772, of Counselor Dunn in 1795, and of members of the Dana family depicted in the closing years of the century. There are landscapes painted as early as 1810; there is an Indian scene in northern Texas the date of which is 1833; and about this time began to appear more ambitious subjects, as Allston�s "Paul and Silas in Prison" and his "Danae and the Shower of Gold." Thus the collection is continued until it touches on the sphere of contemporary art.

But the centre of interest in the entire art display is the loan collection of foreign works contributed by their owners throughout the United States. This is officially styled a collection of foreign masterpieces, and such in part it is; but among these masterpieces are many inferior pictures masquerading under that title and many others which, though first-class paintings by artists of acknowledged merit, cannot properly be classed as masterpieces. Rather should is be termed an exhibition of the control which French art has acquired over American collectors and connoisseurs; for of its 126 specimens about three-fourths are French, most of the remainder coming from Dutch and English studios. A serious defect in these chambers is the grouping; and this is the more to be regretted that here was supposed to be the finishing touch of the art display, the brightest jewel in the artistic crown of the Columbian Exposition. The arrangement shows neither scale, proportion, symmetry, nor even due attention to the first principles of classification, some of the largest and smallest paintings hanging side by side, and with little regard to quality or subject. Thus Corot�s "Orpheus" was placed in close proximity to the most daring studies of the nude, and Daubigny�s "Cooper�s Shop" hung next to a portrait of Madame Modjeska by Carolus-Duran. Here and there, however, the combination is better, [691] as in one of the chambers where side by side are the smaller works of Millet and Meissonier, Daubigny, Corot, and Theodore Rosseau.

Of the twelve paintings by Corot, each is a masterpiece, and yet all are different, not only showing the versatility of the great landscape painter, but explaining his potent influence as a factor in the history of art. From 1827, when his first picture was hung in the salon exhibition, until the time of his death in 1875, his works were never absent from its wall, and however important were the works themselves, they were far more important as lessons in contemporary art, as developing antecedent tendencies and pointing the way to a more faithful rendition of nature�s truths. By those who have misconceived his style it is alleged that he merely idealized nature, than in his softly intoned effects of foliage and light he suppressed many details which he did not or would not observe. Rather should it be said that he separated from its minor features the central idea which he intended to convey. As one of his biographers remarks: "What he wanted to repeat was not nature�s statistics, but their sum total; not her minutiae, but the result she had wrought with them; not the elements with which she had built up a landscape, but the landscape itself, as his eye had embraced and his soul had felt it. �Truth,� he declared, �was the first thing in art and the second and the third.� But the whole truth cannot be told at once. You cannot paint summer and winter in a single canvas. Not even two successive hours of a summer�s day are exactly alike, and you cannot paint them both," Certain it is that no man worked harder at his task, with more earnest conscientious study, long unrequited even by the scantiest recompense. At thirty he lived on a pension of $300 a year which his father allowed him; at fifty this pension was doubled and still formed his only income; at sixty he had not sold a single picture, except to his brother artists. "Alas," he cried, as the first of his patrons carried away his purchase from the studio, "my collection has been so long complete, and now it is broken."

"Orpheus," with its strong and yet delicate rendering, is one of the most idyllic of landscapes, and in the highest style of classic art. The god of the lyre is greeting the morn, whose soft roseate colors are painted on a crystal sky as only Corot could paint them, and with the sombre tones of the foreground in perfect contrast. Almost beneath the shade of a stately tree whose foliage is tremulous with light, stands the figure of the great musician, his touch giving emphasis to the harmony of the scene, so that nature herself appears to listen. It is impossible to imagine a more beautiful conception or one more delicately executed. Here is the poetry of art, nature�s own poetry, interpreted and accented by the touch of a master who was himself in closest communion, with nature.

"Evening" is in another mood, with radiant sunset sky, whose glow is even on the shadows of the trees beneath which, their figures bathed in the mellow light, maidens dance to the low soft music of foliage attuned by the zephyr�s breath. A second picture bearing this title, together with his "Landscape," "The Path to the Village," and other canvases represent different styles and periods in the life-work of Corot. But a stronger contrast than any is in "The Flight from Sodom," a work in which there is a wide departure from his usual mode of treatment. The landscape is here a subordinate feature, the figures grouped in the foreground forming the objective point of the composition. Lot and his family are well delineated, with suggestion of rapid flight from the devoted city on which his wife is gazing with fatal indecision, hoping perhaps that its doom may not involve the destruction of her home. "Danse des Nymphes" is a beautiful combination of landscape and figure painting, second only to his "Danse des Amours," the former with graceful buoyant figures grouped around a classic [692] temple buried in the woods, representing an ideal world with its fair suggestions of infinite joy and peace. "Environs of Ville d� Avray" is a study from the neighborhood where most of his days were passed, and whose summer foliage amid the soft evening light he loved so well to paint. Here he lived alone with art and nature, for he never married, taking in place of wife, as he said, "a little fairy called Imagination, who came at his call and vanished when he did not need her."

With the name of Corot that of Charles Francois Daubigny will ever be associated, not only as intimate friends, but as leaders of the school which delivered art from the barren conventionalism of the pseudo-classic period, and carried it far into the domain of reality and truth. Their style had much in common, though in both was marked individuality, Corot having more of sentiment in his works, throwing into them his own poetic imagery, while Daubigny aimed rather at reproducing the impression of the moment in all its freshness of form and coloring. Both were preeminent as landscape and figure painters, and both were more than that, their range extending to many subjects, all of them treated with the strength and beauty of touch which rank them among the classic masters of the age.

"The Banks of the Oise at Auvers," in the loan collection, was exhibited at the salon in 1863, and is one of several themes portraying under various aspects the scenic beauties of this stately river, with its broad and fertile valley. "Boat on the River Oise," hung in the salon of 1851, was one of the works which made his fame. For his "Banks of the Oise," displayed in 1859 was awarded the legion of honor, and still another is "The Banks of the Oise near Bonneville," which graced the salon of 1866. It was in the former year that Daubigny, wearied of following the stream afoot, and sleeping at hotels to catch his sunrise effects, bethought him of building a studio-boat with cabin in the stern which served as workshop, bedroom, and kitchen. This he christened the Botin, and in his little craft voyaged at will along the Oise and Seine with their adjacent waters, where, free from care, he communed with nature, and produced those famous studies of river scenery and river life on which his fame so largely rests. The summer of 1876 he spent on the Normandy coast, and the result is seen in several of his later compositions, one of which is here exhibited under the title "Coast near Dieppe."

As with Corot, the contributions from the brush of Jean Francois Millet are histories of his art life, beginning back in the days when a Boston connoisseur accorded to the then struggling exponent of the Barbizon school the recognition which his own countrymen persistently withheld. The price that was paid for the two-score of pictures which the Bostonian purchased from Millet, including some of his greatest works, it is not given to us to know; but we may be sure it was not much, for at this time they were almost unsalable. Parisians would have none of them, even as a gift, until the story of their sale was noised abroad, and not until many years afterward did they fully appreciate one of the foremost genre and landscape painters of the age.

Among his eight canvases in the loan collection, "After the Bath" is almost diminutive in size but large and strong in art. It is a study of the nude, as were most of his earlier works, until, as is said, the reading of a bible which his grandmother gave him when he left her to try his fortunes in Paris, caused him to exchange these subjects for the portrayal of peasant life. This is to be regretted, for in the undraped figure as Millet painted it, and as few else could paint it, there is nothing at which the most prudish could take offence. But we are more than recompensed in his later works, for here is a breadth of treatment and expression which won the hearts even of Parisian connoisseurs.

[693] - Profound was the sensation created in the salons by his "Man with the Hoe." It is merely a peasant at his task in the field; but in this unpretentious theme is a wealth of suggestion. The man s of repulsive and almost brutish aspect, with uncouth, muscular frame and low, retreating brow, almost hidden beneath a shock of coarse, matted hair. He is panting for breath with open mouth and stooping form, as of a worn-out beast of burden, and in that face, bent over the hoe on which he leans for rest, there is no human expression, no trace of mind or soul. It is merely the face of an animal, and of a savage animal, goaded by toil and suffering. A more pleasing study, but a less powerful one, is "The Sheep-shearers" with a richness and warmth of coloring which is not always found in the canvases of Millet. "The Pig Killers" is one of the gems of the loan collection, as also is "Peasants Carrying a New-born Calf." Perfectly modelled are the figures of the cow and the sturdy young peasants, with their play of limb and muscle, while as to coloring - here is another example of what Millet can do when the subject is in harmony with his mood.

Of the "Reconnaissance" and "View near Poissy," the latter a beautiful landscape with color scheme in light green tints, it need only here be said that they are by Meissonier. From Rousseau, who with Dupre, Diaz, Corot, and Huet, all but the last represented in this collection, began the good work which Daubigny took up, there are four of his landscape paintings, though none of them are quite at his best. Nevertheless in all of them, and especially in his "View on the Seine" and "Landscape in Berry," there are evidences of the strong technique of the great master, whose pictures no one would have, for none could fathom, as he did, the depths of nature�s mysteries. Diaz� subjects are "La Danse des Almees," "Turkish Women," and "The Descent of the Bohemians," while of Dupre�s three canvases two are studies of the sea. In this connection though of a different school, may be mentioned Claude Monet�s "Harbor of Havre," with its smiling waters and quaint, old-fashioned houses; his "Morning Fog," with its iridescent sea breaking on a dimly outlined cliff; his "Dawn on the Coast of the North Sea," with its pale crimson sunrise; and his "Snow Scene," with its bleak and desolate pathway. In all but the last the light is delicately intoned, giving to nature the soft, dreamy aspect in which she is seen at her best.

In his "Odalisque" and his portrait of Modjeska Carolus-Duran appears at a disadvantage as compared with his paintings in the French section. Rosa Bonheur is well represented in her "Pastoral" and "Sheep," especially in the latter, with its fleecy clouds, in a clear blue sky, and its play of sunlight and shadow. While not among her more ambitious canvases, they are by no means unworthy of her brush. Cazin has four of his studies, among which "The Expulsion from Paradise" is depicted with startling realism. "Tiger Quenching his Thirst" and "Turks Abducting a Girl" are in the well known style of Eugene Delacroix, whose works too often border on the extravagant and sometimes on the grotesque. In his "Christ at the Tomb" the tragic elements are portrayed for all they are worth. There are the stains of blood, the pallid hue of death, the unspeakable agony, and around all the awesome gloom of the sepulchre.

Of the three Raffaellis here exhibted, "Absinthe Drinkers" represents two wrecks of Parisian humanity in the shabbiest of apparel, unkempt, unwashed, unshaven, with hardly a trace of the human in their sodden and ghastly features. They are seated at a table against the bare white wall of a cafe, and at the side of either a slender glass, filled with a pale yellow liquid, tells the tale of wrecked and hopeless lives. L�Hermitee�s "Washerwomen on the Banks of the Marne" is resplendent with sunlight hues; Lefebvre�s "La Cigale" is in his most imaginative vein; "Nymphs Bathing," by Monticelli, is remarkable for its coloring, its strains resembling the lacquer paintings limned on old cabinet work. Jules Breton�s "Song of the Lark" shows the face of a peasant girl raised in wonderment at the sweet music overhead. In his "Colza-gatherers" the laborers are hard at work over their task, all save one who gazes for a moment on the glories of a summer day. A work of exceptional power and character is "The Spy," by Alphonse-Marie de Neuville. Near a table where a group of German officers are taking their evening meal, a Frenchman, disguised as a hunter, is being searched for papers that will doom him to a shameful death.

[694] - In Manet�s "Dead Trocador" are skillfully combined the elements of the picturesque and the repulsive in the old time Spanish bull-fight, the costumes portrayed in brilliant tones and the figures brought into strong relief without elaboration of detail and with strength and simplicity of treatment. The two marine sketches by this artist are in his happiest style. The "Dogs and Hare" is an excellent study by Gustav Courbet, as yet but little known in America, as also is Dagnan-Bouveret, from whom are "Brittany Peasant Girl" and "La Bernoise." Fromentin�s "Falconer" and "Women of Sahara" are here, and among Troyon�s canvases are two of his choicest animal paintings. Degas� "Race-horses" and "The Dancing Lesson" are of little value except as specimens of the impressionist school from a man seldom completes a picture, and yet is hailed by his brethren as one of the most talented and original artists of the day. The latter represents a number of ballet girls with circling arms pirouetting on satin-covered toes, among them a portly bald-headed ballet master, and seated in the foreground, reading a newspaper, a coarse looking woman attired in blue-spotted cotton gown. There is no attempt at theatrical display; simply a group of bare-legged lasses practicing on a bare floor the art which brings them a livelihood.

Sisley�s "Village Street, Moret" is a neatly executed composition, with pleasing color scheme, especially in its pink roofs contrasting against violet-tinted clouds. A picture by Helleu shows a beautiful light effect in the interior of St. Denis cathedral, with a recess full of dim purple shadows, in the depths of which a stained glass window sheds on a wall and effigied tomb tints of variegated hue. Worthy of note also are Gericault�s "Study of a Cuirassier," Greuze�s "Pouting Child;" Bastien-Lepage�s "Reverie" and "The Thames;" Detaille�s "Flag of Truce;" Ribot�s "Young Politician;" Michel�s "Plain of Montmartre" and "The Horseman; Decamps� "Oriental Kiosk," and Fantin-Latour�s "Vision of Tannhauser."

England is represented in the loan collection by Watts� portrait of Joachim, the greatest of modern violinists; Alma Tadema�s "A Reading from Homer;" three of Constable�s studies; a landscape by Barrington; Morland�s "Contentment," and three of Swan�s famous animal paintings. From Germany are canvases by Ludwig Knaus and Fritz von Uhde. From Holland the most noticeable works are "The Flock," by Antonin Mauve, and "A Frugal Meal," by Josef Israels, whose "Alone in the World" is one of the most graphic studies in the Dutch section and in the entire art display. Jacob Maris in his "Canal in Holland" has expressed about all that can be got out of this favorite theme among Dutch artists; but such paintings are not all like this; only by the brush of a Maris and other masters of his school could so much expression by thrown into a commonplace subject. From Belgium there are "The Book Stall," by Hendrick Leys, and "You are Welcome," by Jan Van Beers; while from Sweden comes a single painting by Anders L. Zorn, showing the interior of a Stockholm brewery.

In Italian art there is Michetti�s "Springtime and Love," the spring and love, that is, of Italy�s sunny clime. The scene is by the sea-shore, with grass-covered cliff, verdure reaching almost to the water�s edge, the figures, though a little singular in delineation, standing forth in perfect harmony with nature�s kindly mood. "Beach at Portici," by the Spanish artist Fortuny, is a masterly rendition of sky and sea, with fleecy sunlit clouds flitting across a light blue atmosphere, and on a foreground of glistening sand, figures in gay attire blending with the brilliant hues of flowers and foliage. Finally, there are a few pieces of statuary by the Parisian sculptors. Jean Leon Gerome and Auguste Rodin, the former represented by his tinted marble group of "Pygmalion and Galatea" and the latter by his "Andromeda" and two marble groups of "Francesca and Paolo," - "L� Amour" and "La Rapture," - all executed under commission for the Museum of decorative arts.

[695] - Among foreign participants the largest space was allotted to the French exhibits, which, except for one of the American loan contributions, occupy the entire eastern annex. While, as I have said, the works of some of the great masters are not here represented, the display is a fair representation of the productions of the various schools, though from it more than a thousand eligible works were excluded merely though want of space. To the lighting of the chambers and the grouping of the pictures and statuary, under the direction of Roger-Ballu and his chief assistant, the former one of the art commissioners and inspector-general of fine arts, no exception can be taken. To give to the entire exhibition and to each of the exhibiting schools an appropriate expression, no pains were spared to insure the artistic grouping of the collections, the galleries being closely veiled until the last painting was in the appointed place.

A feature in this section is the cosmopolitan character of the display; for here are presented not only the works of all the French schools, but many in which there are unmistakable traces of foreign methods of treatment. Almost side by side with the finest landscape paintings of old-school masters are the broadest expressions of modern sensationalism and impressionism. Studies from the nude are plentiful, and as in all French exhibitions, among the best of the works. In most of them, however, there is no suggestion of indecency; for as Thackeray remarks, the draped figure is often more unchaste than that which is depicted as nature made it. Portraiture is well represented, and with many new names on the list of contributors in this as in other departments; for apart from loan collections, the French exhibits, whether of oil paintings, water colors, or drawings, of pastels, engravings, etchings, or architectural compositions, are restricted almost entirely to modern schools.

By Frenchmen and by those who for many years have attended the salons of France, it is conceded that never before, not only in the United States but in the salons themselves, was so varied a representation of French contemporary art. But while one of the most exhaustive collections, it is by no means the best that France could have furnished, and for reasons already stated, falls somewhat short of expectation. Especially is noticed in many of the paintings a certain monotony of coloring, in light and florid tints, without warmth or richness of hue. Though at first the effect is not displeasing, it is impaired by sameness and repetition, just as in the Russian section we turn with a sense of disappointment from the exaggerated and sometimes gaudy strains that mar the style of its depictions. Then there is observed an effeminacy of treatment, a lack of [696] originality in motif and of vigor in execution, giving to some of the compositions the stamp of hopeless mediocrity.

But to the majority of French paintings these remarks do not apply, while in sculpture none of the groups will compare with those which France has contributed. Though, as I have said, her display of statuary has been surpassed at former expositions, several of the great masters find expression, and among nearly 150 works, their subjects ranging from cock-fighting to classic and historic symbolism, there are many of unquestionable merit. In addition to these is a collection of architectural and other casts from the museums of Comparative Sculpture, of Decorative Arts, and of the Louvre, better known as the Trocadero collection, from the name of the palace in which most of the originals are contained. This is of special interest as the most valuable pieces have been presented to the Exposition authorities, and will form the nucleus of an art collection. Here may be traced through several centuries the development of French architecture, and especially of church and cathedral architecture, including the Romanesque, the Gothic, the renaissance, and the designs of more modern schools.

First among the groups is the sculptured portal of the church of Notre Dame du Port at Clermont-Ferrand, an eleventh century composition, the angular rigidity of the figures of Isaiah and John the Baptist on either side of the entrance revealing traces of Byzantine influence. Of the monastery of Charlieu is reproduced a portion of its facade, with diminutive windows, and large double door-way, the lintel surmounted with decapitated images of Christ and his apostles, the mutilation noticeable in these and other figures being probably the work of iconoclasts during the revolutionary era. On the tympanum is a seated form of Christ, with hand uplifted in blessing, and above it a richly ornamented arch. A facade of the church of Saint Gilles is also in part reproduced, its frieze representing in relief scenes from the passion; on the lintel and in the embrasures of the portal are other scriptural scenes. In each of the embrasures are figures of the disciples, their feet resting on lions in the act of devouring man or beast, and elsewhere in the decorative scheme are hunting scenes. The profane, it may here be observed, enters largely into the ecclesiastical architecture of the middle ages, with beasts portrayed in arabesque, saints and angels intermingling with heroes and demigods, while from Pompeiian ruins have been unearthed the winged seraphim characteristics of Christian monuments.

In the casts above described are represented eleventh and twelfth century architecture. To the thirteenth century belongs the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, from which are portions of its [697] western doorway, with figures of prophets and kings on either side of the virgin, whose entombment and coronation are also symbolized, angels holding the winding sheet and in the background Christ and his apostles. From the cathedral of Bordeaux there is a large reproduction of the portal of its northern transept, where is a figure of Bertrand, archbishop of the diocese, afterward Pope Clement V. The arch is adorned with delicately executed forms of angels, apostles, prophets, and patriarchs, and in bas-relief superimposed are portrayed on the tympanum the last supper, the ascension, and Christ triumphant. By an unknown artist is a delicate piece of workmanship whose theme is a stone gallery in the cathedral of Limoges. In the decorative scheme are winged heads of angels, headless figures emblematic of the cardinal and other virtues, with monstrous beasts and images sacred and profane, all in the choicest symbolism of the renaissance period. Elsewhere are represented the cathedrals of Amiens, Laon, Reims, Rouen, Lyons, Sens, Aix, Chartres, Bourges, Nantes, and Beauvais, with chapel, cloister, and chateau architecture from the eleventh to the nineteenth century.

Tombs are a feature in this collection, representing among other sepulchres that of the children of Charles VIII, fashioned in 1506, the figures of the princes lying on the top, with angels at either end, and in relief the exploits of Hercules and Samson. Here also is shown the sarcophagus of Francis II and his wife Marguerite de Fois, contained in the cathedral of Nantes, and executed, it is said, in 1507. But a more remarkable work than either is from the tomb of the seneschal, Louis de Breze, the husband of Diana of Poitiers, erected in 1540 in the cathedral of Rouen. In the original the body rests on a slab of black marble; at its head is the form of his wife and at its feet the virgin and child, all the figures being flanked by pairs of Corinthian columns supporting an ornamented entablature, above which is an equestrian statue of the seneschal in full armor, the entire composition forming a choice illustration of renaissance art.

In contrast with these sombre themes are figures of the graces by German Pilon, resting back to back and with joined hands on a triangular base. A cast of a nude statue of Diana by Houdain, with remarkable symmetry of outline, represents the goddess poised on her left foot, and with orthodox bow and arrows. "Voltaire" by the same artist, the bronze original of which is in the foyer of the Comedie-Francaise, is a composition full of power and character. There are also casts of fourteenth and fifteenth century statues of Guillaume de Chanac and Phillippe de Morvillier, with one of King Philippe VI, all from the Louvre at Paris. Animal sculpture finds a place in the collection, especially in the works of Barye, and there are nympths and nereids, tritons and other fabulous creatures, for the most part of somewhat inferior execution.

[698] - Passing to contemporary art, may first be mentioned the statuettes of Meissonier, several of whose less known works are reproduced in bronze or casts in cire perdue. Among them is the figure of Marshal Duroc from Castiglione�s painting of the "Campaign of Italy, 1796." On this he was at work when overtaken by the illness which ended his career. A spirited group by the same artist is the "Heraut de Murice," a trumpeter of the time of Louis XIII, the attitude of his steed showing the tension of extreme excitement. Others are his "Wounded Horse, Siege of Paris," "Dancing Muse," and "Design for a Fire-place," the last intended for his own atelier, its shelf supported by renaissance figures. In the "Four Figures from the Tomb of Lamorciere� to which Paul Dubois gave several years of earnest work, is a rare combination of the natural and the ideal. Faith is personified in the form of a young woman of virginal purity; charity in a woman with infants in her arms; meditation in a man with bowed head, with downcast features of strong, intellectual mold, and military courage in a youth clad in complete armor, over whose shoulders is a lion�s skin.

A reproduction of "David the Victor," by Antonin Mercie, a pupil of Dubois, though dissimilar in pose, is suggestive of Donatello�s famous statue; but here we have rather a promise than an expression of his more finished style, for this was one of his earliest works. In better vein is his "Quand Meme," the original of which was executed for a monument at Belfort. Its theme is Alsace, symbolized by a young woman grasping the rifle of a wounded French soldier, who clutches the hem of her garment as he falls. "The First Funeral," by Barrias, is one of the masterpieces of French sculpture, even its mutilated condition detracting but little from the force and dignity of this well conceived and powerful composition. Adam is carrying to its resting place the lifeless body of his son; Eve stooping to kiss the brow, and in both a subdued but intense expression of grief, too strong for words or tears. "Mozart as a Child," in the act of tuning his violin, is a beautiful figure, its costume, pose, and suggested motion full of life and truth. Chapu�s "Jeanne d� Arc" in kneeling attitude is in the best style of this well-known artist, whose themes are mainly from the antique. Falguiere�s "Republican France" is a symbolic statue, ordered for the occasion by the French government. In his figures of Diana is a better illustration of his skill and delicacy of technique. Of the colossal group in bronze, whose theme is Washington and Lafayette, it need only be said that it is one of Bartholdi�s works. A modest and unpretentious work by Raoul Larche is "Jesus Before the Rabbis," representing its subject looking upward at the doctors as though questioned or bethinking him how to answer a question. His attire is of the plainest, consisting only of a single garment, and in the features and figure there is no suggesting of the divine, except for the divinity which belongs to childhood.

A strong and impressive work is Saint-Marceaux� "Spirit Guarding the Secret of the Tomb," for which was awarded the medal of honor at the Paris salon in 1879. In the features and figure of the genius, his face turned backward as though resenting intrusion, while grasping in his arms a funeral urn, is a wonderful depth of expression. Rodin�s "Burgess of Calais" recalls the familiar story of the siege of that city in the days of Edward III, with the figure of one of its heroic defenders, on which is the impress of stern resolution, portrayed in almost Gothic simplicity of outline. Boucher�s "On the Ground" is one of the best examples of a man digging around a stone with his shovel, and had the form been draped, the effect would be merely that of a common laborer at his daily task. Of nude woman, Idrac�s "Salammbo" is a well executed type, though expressive of nothing in particular. In Marquestre�s "La Cigale" is portrayed with startling realism the sensation of cold. By Delaplanche "Security" is symbolized in true academic vein by the figure of a woman clad in armor, with sword in hand, and in her lap a sleeping infant. In Lanson�s "The Age of Iron" is expressed by a warrior and his vanquished foe the spirit of the age when might was right. "The Blind Man and the Paralytic" is the subject chosen by Jean Turcan and Gustav Michel, the latter of whom has two other statues on exposition.

[699] - In animal sculpture Emanuel Fremiet stands almost alone in his profession, though his choicest works, as the equestrian statue of Jeanne d� Arc in the Place des Pyramides at Paris, are not reproduced in the French collection. His wounded dog, while a faithful delineation, is one of his minor works. In his "Man of the Stone Age" is symbolized the prehistoric era of the human race, the figure, clad in the skins of wild beasts and grasping a huge hammer with head of stone, standing forth with tense rigidity of outline, and yet in the features is a certain aspect of intelligence and even of dignity. The life-sized groups by August Cain are accurate representations, but lacking in vigor of expression, and would be more in place in a zoological museum than in a gallery of fine arts. One of them represents a rhinoceros goring a tiger, while a second tiger springs at his shoulder. The others are entitle "Eagle and Vulture Quarreling over a Dead Bear" and "Lion Strangling a Crocodile," the latter a feeble composition as compared with a similar theme by Barye in the Trocadero collection.

Turning to the picture galleries, with nearly 500 oil paintings and a large number of water colors, drawings, etching, and engravings, we find here almost every conceivable subject that has occupied the brush of the painter. While a large proportion are in lighter vein, with something too much of the frivolous and altogether too much of the nude, graver themes are well represented. Of portraits, landscapes, mythologic, military, and historic scenes there is a large collection, some by acknowledged masters and others of unquestionable merit, while even religious subjects are treated with all the pathos and seriousness of which the Frenchman�s mercurial temperament is capable.

In portraiture and figure painting may first be mentioned the three works of Carolus Duran, one of which excited much comment at the salon of the Champs de Mars in 1892. It represents in truthful rather than complimentary vein a wealthy middle-aged American woman, seated in state against a background of yellow plush curtains, attired in satin and velvet and bedecked with jewels, her feet resting on a silken cushion, and her face and hair suggestive of powder and rouge. Another portrait is that of a young girl; and a third shows a pleasing figure in gray, both in the happiest style of this master of his special art. Bonnat�s "Cardinal Lavigerie" has more of the Turkish than the episcopal aspect, the red sash and black soutaine beneath his scarlet robe giving to this African primate almost the appearance of a pasha, which is further enhanced by his fez and his swarthy complexion. "Renan," by the same artist, shows a heavy thickset figure and sensuous face peering forth from their enveloping shadow. Chartran�s portrait of Leo XIII is an excellent work; but not, as has been claimed, the only one taken from life.

Raffaelli�s three canvases do not fairly express the power of this eminent master, who appears to much better advantage in the loan collection. "The Grandfather" is over bulky in form, as also is the child by his side. "In the Plain" does little credit to his brush, and his depiction of Brittany peasants is somewhat hard in tone. Of Henner�s "Portrait of My brother," "Lola," and "Slumber," the two last are female heads reproduced in his dreamy, langorous style. Rondel�s "James Gordon Bennett" is one of the gems of the collection, as also is Gustave Courtois� "Madame Gautherau," both of them life-like and strong conceptions. One of Wencker�s paintings is said to produce the refined and sensitive features of Madame Giroa, another is of Boulanger; but a work more admired than either is his large painting of the Basilica, with its rich Byzantine theme. "Portrait of M. G. A. E.," is the only canvas from Eugene Antoine Guillon, one of the most celebrated painters of historic portraits, among which are "Napoleon�s Adieu to France," "Napoleon at St. Helena," and "John Brown and His Accomplices on Trial." Alfred Guillon, though a sculptor by profession, is also represented by a single picture, the subject of which is "My Little Brother." Another master of historic portraiture is Jean Paul Laurens, who has long stood at the head of his profession, and has exhausted all the honors which his country had to offer. His themes are "Christopher Columbus" and "The Seven Troubadours." Layraud�s portrait of Liszt represents the great composer standing by the side of his instrument. [700] "Young Girl of Tougourth, Algiers" is by Charles Landelle, a most prolific painter, not only on canvas but on everything else upon which paint can be laid.

A pleasing composition is the "Reverie" by Jules Emile Saintin, a medallist of 1866 and with remarkable facility of adaptation, his themes extending from the soubrettes of the Comedie Francais to the dignitaries of the church. The "Portrait of Professor Charcot" is by Saintin the younger, who appears to better advantage in marine and landscape scenes. Henri Gervez� three canvases are in the familiar style of this well known portrait and genre painter, among whose more famous works are "Diana and Endymion" and "Communion at the Church of the Trinity." In the compositions of Jean Francois Gigoux there is much to remind us of this veteran artist whose "Jean d� Arc," "Charlotte Corday," and "Death of Cleopatra" are among the masterpieces of the age. So also with Jean Joseph W[c]rts and Louis Picard, the former represented in the salons since 1867 and the latter for nearly half a century. "The Old Peasant" and "Dreaming," are by Edouard Sain, from whose facile brush are many truthful scenes of everyday life. "The Death of Archimedes" is from Edouard Vimont, whose figure paintings range from pagan myth to Christian martyrdom.

One of the strongest subjects, though something more than a portrait, is "Marat, Friend of the People," representing this incarnation of the reign of terror seated at a table while writing his despatches, his coarse animal features and fell shock of unkempt hair giving to him almost the appearance of a beast of prey, so that we could wish his career had sooner been ended by the knife of Charlotte Corday. The work is by Daniel Leon Saubes. Adolphe Yvon�s "Carnot" is a full length portrait of the president of the French republic in cabinet session. "Japan" is a decorative fantasy by Louis Abbema, showing a woman in Japanese attire amid a group of porcelains and embroideries, around which is a border of chrysanthemums. While a pleasing subject, it is somewhat commonplace as compared with other works of this famous artist. "The Falling of the Leaves" represents, amid an autumn landscape, the figure of a pretty woman such as none know better how to paint than Madelaine Lemaire. A fine conception also is her "Chariot of the Fairies," hung in the southern gallery. "The King of the Forest" and "The Overthrow" from the brush of Rosa Bonheur, and "Diana" by Helen D�Etoilles Leroy are among the best of women�s works, the latter a beautiful composition, though with features suggestive rather of a court beauty, than of the stately Artemis. Of the three canvases from Virginie Demont Breton, one has for its subject the training of a young sailor taking his first surf bath as he clings to the arms of his mother. "Young Girl," by Fanny Fleury, has all the delicacy of treatment characteristic of this painter, the only one of a family of artists represented in the French galleries.

"Repose" and "The Friend of the Lowly," by L�Hermitte, are in the best vein of this well known artist, whose style is suggestive of Jean Francois Millet, represented, as are other great masters, only in the loan collection in the United States galleries. In the latter the form of a little child appearing [701] amid a group of peasantry is the strongest feature in this thoughtful composition. "Young Girls" and "Women on the Grass" are from the brush of Alfred Philippe Roll, a pupil of Bonnat, but with strong individuality of style. In Montzaigle�s "Deux Amies" two young women tastefully attired are chatting and sipping their favorite beverage at a cafe. The faces are not displeasing, and the pose and drapery show the touch of a finished artist. "In the Sunshine" and "Spring" are the works of Albert Fourie, whose vein inclines rather to decorative and genre paintings. "Still Life," by Amand Gautier, is the only contribution from this family of painters. Amand, it may here be said, is one of the few artists who have made lithography almost akin to the fine arts. Munier�s "Cupids Resting" is a spirited interpretation of the subject, one of the figures with wings outstretched, and in his face the mischievous expression characteristic of the god of love. "The Cold Bath" is one of the later works of this celebrated painter, whose canvases have found a place at the salon exhibitions for nearly a quarter of a century. A similar theme is Delobbe�s "Breakfast After the Bath," in which a child is offering a handful of fruit to a young woman in seated posture.

"In Sicily" is a typical theme by Aman-Jean, descriptive of peasant life, of sunny skies and landscapes. "The Last Load of Wheat" is by Jules Jacques Veyrassat, an artist known in the salons since 1848, and with wonderful versatility of theme. In "Japanese Chrysanthemums" Jean Benner displays his well known skill as an executant of flowers and fruits. "Solitude" is from the same artist; and "The Alarm" comes from the versatile brush of his twin brother, Emmanuel, "My Birds" and "Decorated Panel, Flowering Laurels" are also from an artist famed for his delicate rendering of flower and fruit subjects, for accuracy of conception and harmony of coloring. His name is Ernest Quost. "Drowsiness" is the subject chosen by Etienne Tournes, whose portraits and figure paintings have long been familiar to frequenters of the salons. "A Singing Lesson in a Public School in Paris" is a pleasing sketch by Auguste Trupheme. "Intemperance" is strongly treated by Duverger, whose figure paintings are suggestive of character and incident. "Don Juan in Hell" is a fair specimen of Andre Rixen�s method of treating idealistic and mythological subjects. In similar vein is "The Dead Conversing in the Other World," by Charles Ronot, whose earlier works were scriptural subjects. Among his later works is "Napoleon in Egypt," the original of which is the property of the state department. "Satyr at Bay" is by Louis Priou, whose "Family of Satyrs" was strongly commended at the Paris Exposition of 1878.

One of the largest paintings in the French section, and among the best of its kind, is "The Blind Man and the Paralytic," by Auguste Barthelemy Glaize. With staff in hand, striding vigorously over a rough country road, a man with sightless orbs is bearing on his back one stricken and wasted by paralysis, whose piercing and lustrous gaze gives stronger accentuation to the theme. Of Jules Breton�s canvases, one of the best represents a group of women on their way to a procession. It is a fine illustration of the sculpturesque mode of treatment which won his fame and has found so many imitators. "Returning from Circumcision," and two other works, are the contributions of Felix Joseph Barrias, the father of Barrias the sculptor, and better know as a decorative artist. Among subjects [702] addressed to American sensibilities are Fournier�s "Washington and His Mother" and Benjamin Constant�s "Triumph of Christopher Columbus," the former a work full of tender expression.

In nude art one of the most dainty productions is Albert Maignan�s "The Birth of the Pearl," representing a female figure reclining in a shell, with arm resting on the head of a boyish figure descending from above. By the same artist are "William the Conqueror" and "The Siren�s Couch," the latter far down in ocean�s depths, amid a bower of sea-weed and coral. Of Rosset-Granger�s three works, his "Young Girl Chasing Butterflies" is a pleasing subject. In "The Stray," showing the undraped figure of a woman cast on the beach by the tide, the drawing is excellent, but the purple tints of coloring are untrue to nature. "Cupid and Psyche" are treated by Thirion in somewhat vaporous hues. Rochegrosse, whose canvases too often incline to coarseness, has two of his chaster works. In "La Toilette," by Mousset, "Myrrha," by Loewe-Marchand, and "La Fourme," by Dubufe fils, the subjects are apparently chosen merely for the purpose of introducing the undraped figure; and why "La Fourme" should be so scantily clad amid wintry snows does not appear to the observer. In better taste is Raphael Collin�s "On the Sea Coast," the subject of which is a group of young women dancing [703] on the sands, one of them with slight drapery of lilac hue. It is a sprightly composition, with all the finish characteristic of the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and less indelicate than Aublet�s "Women on the Seashore," whose scant attire displays rather than conceals the form. "Youth," by the former artist, is a voluptuous theme, and though strongly drawn is somewhat too broadly pronounced.

"Sea Birds and Wave," by Delacroix, shows a young woman exceeding plump of form, who, whatever she is supposed to represent, cannot be mistaken for a sea-nympth. "Une Restoration," by Edouard Dantan, tells its own story with sufficient clearness. Saint Pierre�s "Saadia" displays the full-length figure of a houri reclining on a tiger skin placed over a divan of Turkish rugs, her face in striking contrast with the head of the brute on which it rests. There is no soul in these soft, dreamy features, and there is little intelligence; simply the expression of a beautiful animal, seemingly without vice or virtue, and as void of conscience as a mermaid. "Soudja-Sari," by the same artist, is also an oriental woman, with an expression of tender melancholy in her mournful brooding gaze. A face with wondrous subtlety of charm is portrayed in Jules Machard�s "Ready for the Garden Party," the figure standing erect attired in white, with lips slightly parted and laughter lighted eyes, the very incarnation of joyous womanhood, radiant with innocence and beauty.

Animal paintings and sporting themes are somewhat rare in the French galleries, and for the most part of no special merit. Besnard�s "Two ponies Harassed by Flies" are standing in a [705] purple light which must be at least as unwelcome as their insect pests. "Wild Boar Hunt," by Jules Bertrand Gelibert, is well worthy of this celebrated artist, whose works in similar vein have won for him more than a national reputation. It is to be regretted that there is no forest landscape from his brush, for none can interpret more truthfully the language of the woods. "My Start in Hunting" is by Gabriel Thurner, who is better known for his graphic depiction of fruits and flowers. "Boar on a Farm" is a fair specimen of Leon Charles Hermann�s skill in animal painting. A Spanish bull fight is depicted in Morot�s "El Bravo Toro" with all the vigor and vitality for which this artist is noted, portraying with startling realism the fury of the tortured brute and the frenzied excitement of spectators almost as brutish.

In landscapes and kindred subjects the works of several of the great masters are represented in the loan collection in the United States galleries, and are noticed in that connection. Among those contained in the French section, "Under the Walnut Trees at Vezelay in Spring" is a restful theme, by Adolphe Guillon, one of the acknowledged masters of his art. "Morning Fog" is by Adolphe Appian, a pupil of Corot and Daubigny, a truthful but not a brilliant artist. "Cape Breton Heath" is a contribution from Louise Augustin Anguin, also a disciple of Corot, and especially facile in arboreal paintings. "The Banks of the Seine at Vertheuil" is a pleasing theme by Emile Foubert, bettern known for his paintings for nymphs, fauns, satyrs, and other mythological subjects. "A Foggy Morning" and "High Noon in Provence" are the canvases of Julian Gagliardini, whose paintings cover a wide range of art, from fishing scenes to ecclesiastical architecture. Prosper Galerne�s "Valley of the Loire at Chateaudun" is the work of an artist noted for his studies on the banks of the Seine. "Landscape" is by the late Charles Gosselin, whose paintings were hung in the salons for many consecutive years.

Paul J. M. Sain�s "The Chalky Road near Avignon," though it cannot be termed a landscape, bears the touch of this well known painter of river and woodland scenery. "Plain of Moret" near Fontainebleau is by Leon Richet, noted for his studies in Normandy and Picardy. "In the Basque Country" and "Winter Pastures" show the sober but vigorous treatment which Felix de Vuillefroy brings to bear on all his paintings, whether of landscape, genre, or human and animal figures. In "Black Mountain," "A June Morning," and "An October Evening," August Emmanuel Pointelin displays his well known skill in atmospheric effects. "Road of Vaudancourt" is by Aymar Pezant, whose forte is in winter and moonlight scenes. "Twilight and October Moon on the Banks of the Seine" is from the brush of Adrien Jourdeuil, better known as a decorative artist. Marie-Joseph Iwill�s "November Evening� fairly expresses the power of its painter, whose forte is in winter landscapes. Julien Dupre�s "Valley of the Durdent" is the only canvas from this family of artists, except for those contained in the loan collection. Adrien Louis Demont has for one of his subjects "Winter in Flanders," but a better work is "Jeunesse," a garden scene, where a young girl is seated on a rustic bench with pigeons cooing at her feet. From his wife Virginie Demont-Breton are also pleasing contributions.

In a harbor scene by Francois Nardi is portrayed with remarkable vitality of treatment the effect of "Mistral Winds Blowing on the Sea." "The Cancale Regatta" is by Eugene Feyen, whose brush has swept [706] the entire realm of art. Among his most famous works is "Gleaners of the Sea" in the Luxembourg collection. In Jean-Baptiste Olive�s "The Isle of Maire near Versailles" are shown in striking contrast the bare yellow shore and the deep blue of ocean. In this locality is the scene of Morlon�s "The Struggle for Life," representing a life-boat and its crew in imminent danger, with the waves dashing against a sheer wall of cliff. Another life-boat theme is by Eugene Berthelon, noted for his landscape studies in the neighborhood of Paris. A turbulent sea breaking on the rocky coast of Quiberon is forcibly depictured by Elodie La Villette. "At Low Tide," by Gustave Ravenue, is the work of a young and promising painter.

Among fishing themes may first be mentioned Rene Gilbert�s "Lone Fisherman," for which was awarded a grand prize at the Paris Exposition of 1889. Dominique Rozier�s painting represents a wharf at Dieppe, on which is a glistening heap of mackerel, with fishermen counting their catch. "Fisherwomen at Cancale," and "A Dock at Antwerp" are from the brush of Marie Auguste Flameng, a salon medallist, and one noted for the truthfulness of her marine and landscape compositions. "Fish," by Guillaume R. Fouace, shows the vigor of execution characteristic of this artist, whose fame was won as a portrait painter. So with "Good Fishing," by Victor Gabriel Gilbert, whose favorite themes are market scenes, among which may be mentioned his "Sunday Afternoon in a Parisian Market."

France is a nation of artists and soldiers, and with her painters and sculptors, especially since the days of Napoleon, war has ever been a favorite theme. "Bonaparte in Italy," by Boutigny, is an excellent representation of the great general who answered thence with victory and scorn the remonstrances of the directory. The scene of "Combat in a Village" is an open plaza, where at early morn the pale sunlight shines faintly through the crisp atmosphere, on one side an old-fashioned diligence, and on another a fountain whose waters are splashing forth beneath the shade of trees. A bugler is sounding the attack, and men are dashing past the fountain or approaching the square from one of the streets near by. A few are stricken down; but the fight is young, and the smoke from the windows of adjacent buildings shows that they are occupied by the enemy in force. In this as in other subjects descriptive of the Franco-Prussian war, the valor of the French soldiery suggests the motif, many of them indicating the turning point of the contest, while in others the result is left in doubt.

In "Pichegru Taking the Dutch Ships on Zuyder Zee," by Charles Edouard Delort, is presented one of the strangest events in the annals of warfare, the fleet being captured by cavalry while imbedded in the ice. "A Barricade of 1830," by George Cain, represents a squadron of cavalry charging hopelessly at the [707] barrier, while under a point blank fire from its defenders and from the houses on every side. Morot de Tours� "Carnot at Wattignie�s" shows the grandfather of the president at the head of his command. "The Return of the Regiment," by Julien Le Blant, portrays a battalion of starved and half-clad soldiers welcomed home as victors by the Parisian populace. A repulsive incident of the Vendean war is shown in Paul Grolleron�s "A Capture in 1793," in which a group of brutish peasantry are binding and maltreating their prisoner. Of two canvases by Georges Rochegrosse, "The Spoil" depicts an Assyrian soldier guarding a pile of plunder and a group of female captives. Garrison life is touched upon in Eugene Chaperon�s "Douche au Regiment," Marius Roy�s "Zouaves and Foot Soldiers on Duty," and Loustannau�s "Presentation of the Standard to Recruits," "Bridge Work at Bougeval," by the last of these artists, showing the process of constructing a pontoon. Nor should we omit from the list of military subjects Bertreaux� "Return of a Deserter," Dieterle�s "The Cavalry at Criquebeuf," Guignard�s "Scouts in Flight," and Dumaresque�s "Napoleon Asleep in a Hut," the last a celebrated painter of historic subjects.

Turning to religious themes may first be mentioned "The Women at the Tomb" and "Our Lady of the Angels," by William Adolphe Bouguereau, whose scriptural, classic, and mythologic paintings have found a place in the salons for well-nigh half a century. The subject of "The Women at the Tomb" was suggested by the following passage from St. Matthew, one of the most solemn and graphic in the New Testament, and here needing no apology for its reproduction: "In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake; for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow; and for fear of him the keepers did shake and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women,�Fear not ye; for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here; for he is risen as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.�"

The figures are admirably grouped, all with Hebraic cast of countenance and in Hebraic garb - long, flowing robes over which the head-dress falls below the waist. Only two of the faces are shown and in them is an expression of profoundest reverence and awe, but without any symptom of fear. The stone is standing close to the portal of the sepulchre, and within is the angel, his had pointing upward, severe and majestic of mien, his form and features dimly outlined, but radiant with a glow of supernatural brightness. The entire composition is admirably conceived and executed, with masterly and respectful treatment, a relief in truth from the superficial, irreverent tone all too characteristic of the French method of dealing with sacred subjects. "Our Lady of the Angels" is also an excellent composition, with expression of features as of one beatified and blessed above all other women. Contrast with these and other of Bouguereau�s scriptural themes his "Le Guepier," or "The Wasps� Nest," the wasps being here transformed into Cupids and their stings into arrows, and we recognize, without going further, his strength and range in art. Of the idyllic school he is one of the leading masters, and few there are whose works have been so widely appreciated throughout the world.

A modern and somewhat irreverent version of "The Descent from the Cross" is that of Jean Beraud. As here portrayed, the tragedy is consummated on the hill of Montmartre; darkness broods over the scene, and around the lifeless body of Christ are gathered his adherents, clad in the jumpers and blouses of Parisian workmen, his mother crowned with a halo but represented as an elderly women, without attempt at idealization. Near by a repulsive figure of the socialist type, shakes his clenched fist at the city lying beneath. To many this picture was one of the most fascinating in the French collection, not for its merit, but for the boldness of its anachronism and disrespect. Judging it merely as a work of art, aside from all considerations of religious motive or sentiment, it does not appear what there is to be gained by thus degrading a study whose theme is the greatest of all human tragedies into what might be a mere incident in the annals of the commune, were crucifixion then an orthodox mode of capital punishment. "The Host," by Jacques Emile Blanche, represents, [709] without trace of dignity or feeling, Christ breaking bread in the household of a humble family. Among the best works of this character is Francois Flemeng�s "The Flight into Egypt," beautifully executed on panels. "The Blind Men of Jericho," by Paul Leroy, is chiefly remarkable for its size. In other canvases is depicted the usual range of biblical subjects, among which may be specially mentioned "The Annunciation," by Alfred Pierre Agache; Max Leenhardt�s "Mary Magdalene;" Albert Dawant�s "Close of the Mass;" Tissot�s paintings of "The Prodigal Son" and "The Fatted Calf." The familiar subject of Christ walking on the water and his apostles crowding to the edge of their boat is well depicted by Duez; but one fails to see why breakers should appear in the midst of the sea of Galilee. Among religious topics may be classed "Fugitive Protestants, 1685," by Maurice Leloir, whose brush has been largely occupied with scriptural themes.

Of paintings in water colors there is a valuable collection from the society of French water color artists. Military themes here find expression in Detaille�s "Soldiers of the Imperial Guard" and Jeanniot�s "Troopers on the March," the latter in humorous vein, showing a group of jaded soldiery trudging through rain and mud. In landscape there are canvases or drawings from Gaston Bethune, Dubufe, and Edmond Charles Yon; and among private exhibitors, from D�Augence, I will, Mouren, and Pointelin. Marine views, portraiture, religious, historic and nearly all other subjects depicted in the galleries of oil paintings are also represented on a minor scale. Other collections are from the Society of French pastel artists and the Museum of decorative art. Of fired pottery there are many artistic specimens, and in ecclesiastical and other architecture there are valuable studies apart form the historical exhibits already mentioned.

Statuary is the strongest feature in the Italian section, both as to number and quality of exhibits, of which there are nearly 300 in marble, clay, and bronze; in terra cotta and alabaster; in silver, copper, and brass. As with the paintings, and especially the water colors, the display is of a national character, almost without trace of alienism, but with a certain redundancy of theme and an absence of that cardinal virtue in all true works of art, the virtue of simplicity. Often the effect is marred by superfluity of ornament or too much straining after effect, widely removed from the classic compositions of the old masters, whose works they profess to imitate. Here, it may be observed, is for the first time displayed, outside its native home, a representative collection of Italian art; for while Italian sculptors and painters have found a place at former expositions, for the most part they are little known in foreign lands.

Of Adolf Apolloni�s statues there are none more famous than his "Mater Purissima," a work of infinite feeling, dignity, and grace, albeit, apart from the aureole, with little suggestion of the divine; a beautiful and ideal woman, but still only a woman. "Love�s Dream" is a veiled marble head, reproducing, it is said, the [710] fair young features of his wife, with whom until the day of her death he lived happily. "Beatrice," a marble medallion, is a chaste and spiritual conception. A design for a monumental fountain representing the contorted figure of a man struggling with marine monsters is powerful in delineation but somewhat faulty in balancing. In a plaster cast of a monument of Robert Burns is no hint of the freedom and jollity of Scotch rural life; no suggestion of Scotch heather or highland whisky; merely an Italianized translation into sculpture of the ploughboy and poet, as though "The Deil and Doctor Hornbook" had been rendered in the smooth diction of the Campagna. "American Mythology" embodies in a nude and voluptuous female form, rotund but not without symmetry of outline, the spirit of new world progress. The figure stands on a pedestal, the weight of the body resting on the right foot, which is slightly advanced. The left hand is extended as though commanding silence; in the right is a telephone tube held close to the ear, and the face is uplifted with the gladsome look of one who is listening to pleasant tidings. The marble busts of Chauncey M. Depew and Julia Ward Howe are in the happiest vein of this master of plastic art, who knows well how to adapt to modern compositions the classic beauties of the antique.

Another disciple of the classic masters is De Paoli, whose "Icarus" is almost faultless in outline, though its features fail to express the intensity of passion pertaining to the theme. So with Calvi�s busts in marble and bronze, his "Otello" being notably deficient in dignity and force. A more powerful declineation is Trentanove�s "The Last of the Spartans," showing the recumbent form of a vanquished warrior, whose head is soon to fall on his prostrate shield. The figure is perfectly modelled, especially as to muscular effect, expressive of stubborn resistance and unwilling surrender. Not only in conception but in anatomical fidelity of execution, this is one of the strongest works in the Italian galleries. In Pardo�s bronze bust of Columbus [712] the features of the discoverer are barely recognizable; for though as a bust it is not without merit, it fails to represent the ideal qualities associated with his name.

It is somewhat strange that for a bust of the president of the United States we must search the Italian galleries; but so it is; for there is none in the section where it would seem to belong. The bust is by Luzi, who in other themes approaches more nearly to the original; for there is little here that suggests the features of Grover Cleveland. Ferrari�s "Lincoln Dying" represents its subject with the emancipation proclamation on his knee, and though not historically accurate, is a powerful work. From several artists, and especially from Barbella, are pretty conceits in bronze and marble statuettes, some of them depicting scenes in common life, with remarkable purity of motif and suppleness of design. These are what may be termed the genre of statuary. Less to be commended are the overdraped figures of continents and other subjects in the gallery, several of which appear a though placed there in order to display their rich attire and ornaments. While the features are good the effect is marred by these extraneous adjuncts, detracting as they do from the dignity of sculptural art.

Dausch�s "Day" and "Night," two marble medallions in relief, are chaste and elegant studies, albeit with too much of the statuesque. But the feature in the Italian galleries is the reproduction, from the collection in the national museum at Naples, of classic bronzes, most of them found amid the excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum. All of them are of such perfect workmanship that they might well have passed for the originals, the hues resulting from corrosion and fire, and even the blemishes, being faithfully imitated. The figures include many of the heroes, gods, and demi-gods of antiquity, with men famous in the sphere of science and literature. Apollo is here with his plectrum, Mercury springing into air, Hercules taming a stag, Silenus astride of his wine-skin, Cupid with his mask, and Venus rising from the bath. Of warriors there are Alexander and Scipio Africanus; of philosophers, Epicurus, Seneca, and Democritus; of orators and poets, Demosthenes, Sappho, and Dante. There are dancing and drunken fauns, satyrs and centaurs, dirk throwers and dancing girls, the latter in the scantiest of classic drapery. In a mutilated statue of Psyche, worthy of Praxiteles, is wonderful grace of form and expression of feature. A small winged figure of Victory, poised on a globe, is one of the most beautiful among the statuettes. A small winged figure of Victory, poised on a globe, is one of the most beautiful among the statuettes. The helmet and greaves of a gladiator are reproduced in facsimile, the former ornamented with bas-reliefs representing the sack of Troy. There are also many articles intended for domestic and sacerdotal use and ornament, as vases, jugs, and libation cups; door-knockers, lamps, candelabra, and tripods; all of most finished execution.

Religious themes are one of the strongest features in the Italian display of oil paintings, though here are none of the subjects depicted by the old masters. In this department Corelli�s large painting, "The Angelus on St. Peter�s Day," is one of the strongest of its class. Its subject is a harvest scene, in the neighborhood of Rome, where, as the legend relates, the barren soil bloomed forth under the tread of St. Peter�s bruised and bleeding feet as he crossed the Campagna on his way to suffer martyrdom. As the solemn tones of the Angelus are wafted on the still evening air, the laborers cease from toil and some are bowed in prayer. On one side the crumbling ruins of an aqueduct are flooded with golden light, and far toward the horizon waving fields of grain, rustled by the summer breeze, stretch forth to meet the sunset sky. While in some respects inferior to Millet�s "Angelus,� it is more virile in treatment, with greater freedom and plasticity of modelling; but the two cannot well be compared, for they are in entirely different veins, the one representing what may be termed epic and the other lyric art. By Corelli is also a pleasing woodland sketch, with strong contrast of light and shade in its dark green foliage, its dew-besprinkled herbage, and its gnarled and aged oak. The scene is essentially Greek, one where fauns and dryads might love to dwell or Artemis linger in the chase.

Venice has been painted a thousand times, and in every conceivable style of art, but by none more faithfully than Guglielmo Clardi, several of whose canvases are studies on the bay and the lagoons. His "Spring Clouds" and "Southwest Wind" are both in subdued and delicate tones; but in "Sunset at Venice" we at length have Venice as she is, in her sombre moods at least, and without brilliancy of coloring which [713] many artists have deemed inseparable from this subject. Over the city and its water broods a soft gray mist, penetrated by the faint golden hue of twilight, giving to the theme an aspect of repose. The picture is penetrated by the faint golden hue of twilight, giving to the theme an aspect of repose. The picture is admirably finished; nothing is omitted from this beautiful composition, and there is nothing out of place. From the fertile brush of Carcano comes a collection of itself, including landscape, marine, and interior views, one of them a richly colored painting of "Lombard Plain" and representing Venice as seen from the lagoon. Gabrini�s "At Sea" is not without merit, though in treatment, and especially in color scheme, too broadly suggestive of the French impressionist school.

In portraiture there is Guardabassi�s painting of Leo XIII, painted from life in January, 1893, and in the Vatican, beyond whose walls the pope is never seen. Though the works of a young artist, it is of strongly individual character. In this pallid face with its fringe of white locks, in the wonderful light of the piercing eyes, and the thin transparent hands, is almost a superhuman expression, with nothing of the ambitious potentate as represented in the canvases of Lenbach and Chartrain. The Boldini portraits are in original vein and well executed, except for too much elongation of form. Bottero�s "Jurors" is an excellent piece of figure painting, as also are Guardabassi�s "The Old Gypsy�s Prediction" and Simoni�s "Algerian Women on the Terrace." "The Ill Fed" and "At the Pawn Shop," by Da Molin, are vigorous conceptions and thoroughly typical of the country in which he lives.

An excellent painting is Savini�s "Post Nubila Phoebus," the scene of which is an elaborately furnished and decorated Louis XIV interior, and the subject a young couple between whom is the width of a sofa; for the pair are quarrelling, or rather ending a quarrel. The lady has the best of it, as appears in her tilted chin and defiant gaze, the lines softening around the deep-set eyes of the other, on whose features is the annoyed and yet half-amused expression with which man is apt to regard a handsome woman in her wrath. In contrast with this is Corteggiani�s sombre but powerful theme, the "Capuchins� Catacombs," representing the dead friars swaying in their stalls, and a sorrowing woman kneeling over the body of her infant.

In genre paintings one of the most pleasing compositions is Stefano Novo�s "Worst of All," representing a Venetian interior with a class of young girls learning the art of making lace. The centre of interest is an angry and disconsolate little maiden who has thrown over her chair and flung her lace on the floor. Her head is pressed against the wall, and in her figure is the crouching attitude of a child under [715] censure and ridicule. The teacher, a comely damsel with a yellow rose in her hair, is pointing out her errors as a warning to the rest of her pupils, one of whom is maliciously enjoying the situation, and impatiently biding her opportunity to revile and persecute the culprit. In still life there are some excellent studies, especially in fruits and flowers, with exceeding richness of coloring and perhaps something too much of detail.

In water colors the Italian section contains about a score of canvases. Most of them are in the pure Italian style which differs essentially from the mannerism of the French and the monotonous treatment of English and American schools; for in this department the Italian is an adept, often conveying more meaning in his aquarelles than is expressed by paintings in oil. Aureli�s single work, whose subject is the presentation of Richelieu to Henry IV of France is remarkable for the skillful grouping and balance of its figures. Pennachini�s "The Lost Child" and "Tarantella" are powerful and antithetical compositions, one depicting death�s agony and the other a dance and festival. Simoni�s "The Last Day of the Ramadan" is a well executed Arab scene, and Corelli has heads of Latium peasants, of colossal size but skillfully modelled. The few pastels here displayed, and especially Capranica�s "Thecla," the patron saint of the east, and "Truth," with its poetic idealism and rich low-toned coloring, are excellent illustrations of what can be accomplished in a branch of art which in less able hands too often becomes a feeble and lifeless medium of expression.

From Spain comes a moderate collection; but one in which few of her great artists are represented, and these, for the most part, not by their choicest works. From Fortuny, the late founder of the modern school, and from Raimundo Madrazo, there is not a single canvas, though both have countless imitators; nor is there anything to remind us of the glories of Velasquez and Murillo. The sterility of Spanish art is certainly not due to lack of artistic ability, but rather to the want of sympathy and appreciation; for about the only works that Spaniards will accept from native artists are in the line of portraiture. Thus it is that the national academy at Rome, and that to win a scholarship which will admit him to the latter is the highest ambition of the student.

Of the statuary, largely in plaster and baked clay, it is unnecessary to make other than briefest mention. Among the best of the exhibits are those which come from the national museum, from which there are several contributions. Worthy of note also are the works by Marinas y Garcia, of one of which the title, rendered in English, is "The Fishers Caught," and of the other "Model Resting." In the former the expression of pain and terror is the strongest feature in the competition; but excellent is the muscular as well as the facial treatment. It is not an attractive theme; but it is among the most powerful specimens of plastic art in the Spanish galleries.

From the national museum are also several paintings, first of which may be noticed Eduardo Rosales� "Isabella the Catholic Dictating Her Will," a pleasing but not a powerful work, and one free from the garishness of coloring with which the disciples of Fortuny are apt to bedaub their canvases. "Italian Girl" and "Landscape" are also studies by this artist, who, it may be said, is a pupil of the Madrozos, a director of the academy, and a frequent exhibitor in Parisian salons, receiving the legion of honor in 1867. "Communion on Board Ship," by Martinez, and "Conversion of the Duke of Candia," by Carboreno, are large and somewhat commonplace paintings, with hardly enough of merit to justify their proportions. Both are lacking [716] in concentration, the subject being expressed in surface of paint rather than in crystallization of thought; yet both are men of note, the smaller works of the latter showing strong individuality combined with singular delicacy of touch. Completing the list of academy paintings are Andrade�s "An Anniversary" and Munoz-Degrain�s "The Lovers of Teruel," a grewsome love-making by an artist who would have appeared to much better advantage in his "Don Quixote and the Windmill," which finds no place in the collection.

Among Joaquin Sorolla�s studies the preference is given to "Another Marguerite," showing an unfortunate woman, who has erred as did Goethe�s creation, seated in a car with manacled arms, on her way to prison. Her head is bowed in shame, and in the features is an expression of unutterable despair which arouses even the pity of the gendarmes at her side. "Sisters of Charity" and "To the Health of the Bride" are from the versatile brush of Joaquin Agrasot y Juan, whose subjects vary from bull fights to religious and historic themes. Both his works show virile treatment, with vigorous color scheme, and are especially strong in perspective. Among Texidor y Torres� paintings is his "Infortunio," which is too well known to require description. On Xumetra�s panels a group of half-nude figures representing the liberal arts reflects the ideal beauty of the south. Maura y Montaner has among his pictures a life-like street scene in Madrid. "The Visit" is the work of Luis Alvarez, who has found many patrons in America, and is best known by his "Cardinal�s Reception" and "The Spanish Birthday Festival." "The Royal Ball" and "Venetian Terrace" are by Manuel Dominguez, more famed as a portrait and historic painter. While facile in execution the effect is marred by over-coloring. Ricardo, the brother of Raimundo Madrazo, has two of his studies on exhibition, but is not represented in water-colors, wherein he most excels. Garnelo and Joaquin Turina portay the oft-told tale of the Columbian voyages in somewhat commonplace fashion and without any novel or interesting features.

In landscape and marine subjects there are three valuable contributions from Roig y Soler, especially his "Beach and Blanes," with its border of sand-dunes and the blue sea beyond. Arpa-y-Perea has some striking scenes painted on a background of silvery gray. Campuzano�s "Cantabrian Coast" is beautiful in tone, subdued in coloring, and with singular fidelity of detail. Of military themes, those of Cusachs-y-Cusachs, representing cavalry on the march, are among the most spirited. Worthy of note also are Esteban-y-Vivero�s "Flying Artillery" and Gonzalez-Simancas� "Flank Attack" and "After the Battle." In still-life and genre paintings [717] there are several excellent works, especially those of Clemente-y-Peru. Gonzalvo Perez has three of his finest architectural paintings, showing St. Mark�s at Venice, with its chapel of St. Isodoro and the Arabian tower at Saragossa. In Lopez Cantero�s "Sala de Ambajadores" is a rich but somewhat gaudy interior, with carvings in ivory and gold, jewelled casements, and other suggestions of mediaeval luxury and splendor.

Mexico is the only Spanish-American country which finds expression in the art galleries, and it may be said was one of the few to which was awarded all the space applied for. The exhibition consists mainly of historic and religious themes, portraiture, and landscapes, with other subjects more slightly represented. Sculpture is almost restricted to national characters, including busts of Porfirio Diaz, Benito Juarez, Carlos Pacheco, and Felipe Berriozabal, by Guerra and Contreras. And so with the paintings, many of which related to the historic scenes and personages of Mexico, in strong contrast with the alienism of the United States collections. Among them are Coto�s views of Chapultepec and Molino del Rey, the former also works are "Ruins of Quesnada" and "The Tree of the Noche Triste." The founding of the present city of Mexico in 1521 is depictured by Jara and Yzaguirre, by the latter of whom is "Columbus at the Rabida." Pesado selects for one of his topics Bravo pardoning the Spanish prisoners after hearing of his father�s assassination by the Spaniards. The square of Guadalupe Hidalgo occupies the brush of Adolfo Tenorio, and the fifteen canvases of Velasco are nearly al descriptive of the annals or scenic wonders of his native land. Aztec legendry is also freely illustrated, and of works in lighter vein there are presentable studies in oil and water colors, drawings, engravings, and etchings.

To many the Mexican alcoves were somewhat of a surprise, and though with more of promise than performance, contain works of unquestionable merit. In few countries is the artistic faculty so common, though as yet but little developed, as compared with more favored communities. The Aztecs, as all the worlds knows, rivalled the European masters in their skillful blending of colors; and in architecture their decorative schemes would bear comparison with those of the Greeks. Art languished under the viceroys, and even after the opening of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos in 1773, development was retarded by lack of patronage and a too rigid adherence to Spanish methods. Then came the war of independence, followed by the Maximilian episode, and with revolutions and counter-revolutions lasting until the regime of Porfirio Diaz put an end to internal strife. Under such conditions progress was impossible; for art, like capital, demands security and a settled order of things. The establishment of the Escuela Nacional, with its valuable collection of paintings and statuary, including the choicest works to be found in the convents, gave to Mexico its first real school of art, and largely to the influence of this school is due the creditable representation of Mexican art at the Columbian Exposition.

[718] - Venezuela�s collection, though contained in her government building, and to be further mentioned in that connection, belongs to the department of Fine Arts, and was examined by the international board. That it was not placed among the rest is due to the tardy application for space, which was not received until the entire area had been assigned.

Portugal is not represented in the palace of Fine Arts; but Brazil, her republican offspring, has a small collection, appearing to better advantage in her government building, presently to be described. In statuary the only works are by Rodolpho Bernardelli, whose compositions include a figure of "Fortuna," neatly moulded as to face and form, and skillfully executed in pose. His marble group name "Christ and the Adulteress" is a bold conception, boldly executed, with facial expression of strong Hebraic type, and with no suggestion of divinity or even of spirituality. There are the full oriental features characteristic of David�s race, as he pleads in impassioned tones, one arm extended with authoritative gesture and the other protecting the figure crouching at this feet. It is a spirited group, dramatic and strongly materialistic, differing as widely from conventional types as Beraud�s "Descent from the Cross." A beautiful landscape scene by Boaventura is displayed in the Brazilian galleries, where also are canvases by Fiuza, Visconti, and Brocos, the last with numerous subjects ranging from the portraiture to marine views. From the fertile brush of Henrique Bernardelli are also many paintings, one of the best of which represents a mother suckling her babe. In still life there are studies by Frederico Raphael. Girardet has a group of medallions and cameos, one of them a portrait of Benjamin Constant and others depicting various themes from ballet girls to national symbolism.

Turning to northern art centres, we find in this department one of the few in which Great Britain is represented as befits her achievements and capabilities; for among these scores of galleries and alcoves her collection is almost the only one in which has exceeded expectation. In former years it was said that England had no indigenous school of painters, and that none could exist in a country which afforded no special facilities for training, nor even an art academy worthy of the name. In the Paris Exhibition of 1855 a small collection of British paintings, hung in an obscure corner of the building, was somewhat of a surprise to foreign critics, for here was a school whose works were based on the study of nature, one entirely sui generis, and refusing to acknowledge the formulae established by academic tradition. The impression thus made was strengthened at later international expositions the artistic influence of which was felt by British painters, causing them to modify the extreme naturalism of their compositions, and without loss of strength, to give to them more of an artistic character in tone and finish.

In portraiture the British galleries are strong, and among them may still be found the spirit, if not the canvases of Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough. But it is in landscape and marine paintings that England most excels, and here it may almost be said, though other nations were first in the field, is the home of landscape art. To this all the conditions are favorable, the love of scenery and out-door life giving to the people a taste for such subjects and to the real artist unstinted patronage. To find themes for his brush the painter need not go beyond his native land; for in few countries is there a more diversified configuration of surface, a more striking contour of coast line, more picturesque inland waters, more wealth of verdure and forest growth, while above all is an ever-changing sky, seldom clear and rarely at rest, with moods as fickle as the ocean from whose bright and breezy surface are reflected its shifting hues.

By J. G. Hodgson, a professor of painting in the Royal academy, the typical English landscape is thus described, and the description is one that applies to many of the subjects portrayed in the British section: "Scattered irregularly on a slope of emerald green meadows is a country village; its old brick and timber cottages are roofed with moss-grown tiles or thatched with straw; hard by stands an ancient church with a low square tower under the shadows of tall elms almost as ancient; a great yew tree spreads its gnarled branches over the mouldering tombstones in the churchyard, and overhead the rooks are circling in the evening sky. It is a scene which belongs to an old world, and lies remote from the storm and stress of modern life - hence perhaps its popularity as a picture. Certain it is that a sense of remoteness, of peacefulness and seclusion [719] are the prevailing sentiments which can be traced like a dominant chord running through the entire mass of British landscape art."

In sculpture Britain finds adequate expression; though here, as in other countries, this art is little encouraged and its market almost restricted to state and municipal requirements, for homes and thoroughfares are too much crowded with living beings to make room for inanimate forms. Both in sculpture and paintings, but especially in the former, there are strong traces of the French school, tempering the harshness of British naturalism without depriving it of its distinctive character. In architecture decided progress is indicated, as compared with former exhibitions, though it is only within the last score of years that the decoration of business buildings and the cheaper class of residences has been tolerated, so far at least as to relieve their grim uniformity of outline.

Out of more than 1,100 exhibits in the British galleries, only 50 are of statuary, for while fairly represented, in quality at least, sculpture is the least prominent feature in English art, much less so than in the artistic centres of the continent. Of four studies by Thornycroft, one is of Edward I and another of Teucer, a loan from the Chicago Art Institute. "Needless Alarm" and "The Sluggard" are the works of Sir Frederick Leighton, president of the Royal academy, chairman of the committee and a member of the Royal commission of Fine Arts. His oil paintings are a feature in the British section, as also are those of Watts, who has here a statue of "Clytie." From the late Thomas Woolner are busts of Tennyson, Carlyle, Gladstone, and Cardinal Newman. Among others worthy of note are Dressler�s "Bacchante," MacLean�s "Tragedy" and "Comedy," Bates�s "Endymion," Ford�s "Henry Irving as Hamlet;" Miss Brown�s marble group of "The Pearl," and Miss Montalba�s "Boy Catching a Crab."

Among some 450 paintings in oil and more than 200 water colors, there are enough of merit to leaven the mass of mediocre compositions forwarded to Chicago in the hope of gaining a foothold in the markets of the United States, now virtually occupied by the French. While here are no masterpieces from the National or South Kensington galleries, and but few from those of private individuals, there is nevertheless an adequate representation of contemporary art. If Turner and Constable, Reynolds and Landseer are not here, there are Leighton and Watts, Poynter and Millaie, Riviere and John M. Swan, Herkomer, Frith, and Stanhope Forbes, Gilbert and Linton, and a score of others whose names are household words throughout the land. Here are represented all whose works are familiar in the Royal academy, in the Grosvenor and other galleries; but they are the works of living artists, or of those who have died so recently that their paintings belong to the modern school.

Not least among the merits of the British galleries is that they are not disfigured by a redundancy of commonplace portraiture, a defect which, as I have said, is all too noticeable in the American section, where the faces that look down from every wall and corner, suggest the familiar apopthegm of the Latin poet:

By the late Frank Holl are portraits of well-known personages, almost perfect in drawing, though somewhat hard in tone. Among them is one of John Tenniel, who since 1851 has contributed weekly to the political cartoons which have made the fame and fortune of the London Punch. Others are of Samuel Cousins, the royal academician; of Earl Spencer, one of the recent converts to home rule; of the late J. S. Morgan; and of General Rawlinson, renowned for his scientific acquirements no less than for his military career, and elected successor to Darwin by several hundred societies.

Watts�s portraits of Robert Browning and Walter Crane are in his best style, and this is saying much; for he has few equals in bringing out the more subtle traits of character. Well has he depictured the thoughtful features of the poet, with his broad expanse of forehead and his deep-set eyes, not in fine frenzy rolling but gazing inwardly as if lost in though; while in the painter�s orbs is the expression of one who sees visions that others cannot see. In his "Paolo and Francesca" is the true inspiration of an artist, seizing and intensifying the central ideas of his theme, the bitterness of remorse, the quenchless flame of love, the despair [720] of doomed spirits borne on the blast through the lurid regions of Tophet. "A Welsh Girl" and "Rose Bradwardine" are by the late Edwin Long, the latter a study from Waverley, and of true Scottish type. Lavery�s "An Equestrienne," shows a girl on horseback, with the upright figure and perfect seat of the English horsewoman.

Ouless, for whose "Cardinal Manning" and "Samuel Morley" was awarded the legion of honor at the Paris Exposition of 1889, has only his portraits of Sir Donald Smith, chairman of the Hudson�s Bay company, and Thomas S. Cooper, the academician, by whom was founded the Canterbury art gallery. In delineation he is at least the equal of Holl, with more versatility of expression and less austerity of coloring, his strong, firm touch commending his works to reproductive etchers. Shannon is a fashionable painter, but nevertheless a painter whose merits cannot be overlooked, for while pandering somewhat to the vanity of his patrons, he does not ignore the demands of legitimate art. The three portraits here displayed, none of them of public characters, show all the skill in composition and coloring, especially as to draperies, which have brought him into prominence in his special line.

Among animal paintings are the works of Briton Riviere and John M. Swan, the former an acknowledged master in the older style of modern art, and the latter one of the most promising of the younger school. In Riviere�s "Daniel" the back of the figure is portrayed; but the expression of the face can almost be read in the subdued and crouching attitude of the lions. In "The Magician�s Doorway" a leopard and a tiger are chained at the portal of an oriental palace, with columns and floors of marble, where the owner practices his mysterious art, and where none may enter without the password. "Requiescat" has in the foreground a noble-looking dog, watching by the bier of his master, a knight in full armor, covered with a white robe richly embroidered by a woman�s hands. Only the dog is there, awaiting with pitiful aspect some sign of recognition from one who will know him no more. In his "Fallen Monarch" Swan takes for his subject a lion slain in the midst of a desert, vast and lonesome as the wastes of ocean. He lies on his back, his fore-legs bound together and his head hanging over a ledge of rock. Around him are the weapons of his conquerors, none of whom are in sight, nor any living thing to relieve this utter solitude. It is not an attractive picture, but it is vigorous and original in treatment, and with no striving after effect, everything being held in subjection to its salient features. "Maternity" represents a lioness suckling her young, with a fierce and dangerous look in her [721] yellow eyes which the boldest hunter would not care to meet.

Except for a portrait of Captain Burton, Sir Frederick Leighton�s canvases are all descriptive of mythological subjects. His "Hercules Wrestling with Death for the Body of Alcestis" is a most powerful and erudite composition, subtle in conception and strong in execution, expressing, as never before was expressed on canvas, the sublimation of its theme. Though painted more than a score of years ago, in some respects it has never been surpassed by the brush of this accomplished artist. Especially fine is the muscular play in the stalwart figure of Hercules, his tense and massive frame standing forth as the very embodiment of strength and fearlessness. He is seizing the king of terrors by the throat, and under his tremendous grasp pale Death himself grows paler, his form bent backward under the strain. In "Perseus and Andromeda" the dragon is portrayed with its wings overshadowing the intended victim, the neck and head on one side and on the other the tail extending to the water�s edge. The arrow from the bow of Perseus has taken effect; for the flame-breathing monster is writhing with pain. The figures in "Garden of the Hesperides" are superbly modelled, sensuous in outline and coloring, and rich with the flavor of classic lore. At the foot of a tree, beneath the golden apples presented to Juno as her marriage gift, reclines the fair daughter of Hesperus, her waist encircled by a snake whose head she is caressing. At first sight there is something repulsive in this body of a beautiful woman enfolded in the coils of a snake; but the latter, it should be remembered, was a guardian of the apples, in common with the Hesperides, and the potency of the siren�s charm is further suggested by her subjugation of the dragon.

"Orpheus" is the only painting from the brush of Solomon J. Solomon, a young and promising artist, on whom, as some critics opine, the mantle of Sir Frederick will descend. At present, however, his style is yet in the formative period, and with more warmth of treatment than is usually found in British home-bred art; for he has travelled and studied much and to better purpose than most of his brethren of the craft. Kennedy�s "Perseus" is the work of one of the large class of artists whose ambition far outruns their power of execution, its crudeness of drawing and feebleness of expression contrasting sharply with Leighton�s masterly touch.

Dicksee�s "Passing of Arthur" is one of the gems in the British collection. The sword Excalibur has been cast into the mere; has been grasped by the arm "clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful." After twice giving way to his longing to possess this priceless treasure, Sir Bedivere has at length obeyed the king�s behest, awed by this threat to "rise and slay him with his hands." Arthur has been borne to the marge of the mere, and the subject is faithfully rendered after Tennyson�s lines beginning,

Admirably is the mysticism of the theme suggested in these hooded figures, in the sorrowing queens with Arthur in their midst and in the moon-lit mere with the dim shore beyond. In "The Redemption of Tannhauser," Dicksee has chosen the moment when its subject kneels repentant and in pilgrim garb at the bier of Elizabeth, with Venus, his tempter, disappearing in the background. It is a most expressive picture, one not inferior in dramatic power to the "Passing of Arthur."

Alma Tadema�s "The Sculpture Gallery" is one of the largest and best of his pictures, and little if at all inferior to it are his "Audience at Agrippa�s" and "A Dedication to Bacchus." The latter, a recent work, is remarkable for warmth and richness of coloring, and few could have painted, as he has done, the marble pavements of the temple where a procession of bacchantes are waving their garlands, and near them a group of barbarians, skin-clad and dusky of hue. With masterly touch are the fluttering garments portrayed, with their delicate folds of drapery, and beautiful is the play of light through the purple canopy, touching to amethyst the spotless robes of priest and vestal virgin. Poynter�s Diadumene has for its subject a Greek woman binding her hair before stepping into the bath. It is a nude but perfectly chaste figure, without the least suggestion of indelicacy. Other works by this celebrated master are "Under the Sea Wall," "White Roses," and "On the Terrace."

[722] -John Collier, in his "Death of Cleopatra," depictures Egypt�s queen lying crowned and robed near the dim statues of departed Pharaohs. Charmian is seated at her head with fixed and steadfast gaze, striving as it would seem to pierce the shades where her mistress has gone to claim the kiss of Antony. The setting of the picture is admirable, reproducing with historic faithfulness the marble floors, the costly furniture and jewelry, and all the well-known accessories. "Circe" is represented by Collier in the usual attitude, with luminous flesh tints and hair whose color almost matches the tawny hue of the tiger that crouches at her feet, with nothing of the savage glare which the classic story suggests.

Ford Madox Brown, the acknowledged master of the preraphaelite school, has done himself an injustice by sending two of his feebler works, though worthy of a better place than was accorded them by the committee, his "Wicklif on Trial" being placed above the sky-line and his "Romeo and Juliet" hung in an obscure corner among a number of mediocre paintings. "The Passing Cloud," by Marcus Stone, tells its own story with sufficient clearness and emphasis. "The Race for Wealth" is a series of five pictures by W. P. Frith, showing, under titles which also tell their own tale, the schemings and machinations of an unscrupulous adventurer in various phases of his career. "Monmouth Pleading for his Life before James II," by the late John Pettie, is an excellent rendition of the subject, the feeble-minded prince grovelling in the dust before the feeble-witted monarch, who in dooming Monmouth to the scaffold committed one of the gravest errors of his life, and the more so that he had granted him the interview in which he sued for pardon.

Of the few religious themes which find expression in these galleries, one of the most striking is Hacker�s "Christ and the Magdalen." The carpenter�s son is seated at his bench, surrounded with shavings and implements of trade. His head is swathed in a turban; a single garment, and that a ragged one, enfolds his form, and his dark, pitying eyes are gazing on the penitent woman who kneels before him. It is an essentially modernized version of the subject, the features of Mary being Anglo-Saxon rather than Hebraic, while those of the Christ suggest rather a priest of Buddha, with all the Buddhist�s depth of humility. In different style the messiah is treated in Frederick Goodall�s "By the Sea of Galilee." Around him are persons of all ages and conditions of life gazing intently on these tristful features, where are fully interpreted the words of Isaiah inscribed on the frame; "Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows."

In "Christianae ad Leones," by Herbert Schmalz, Christian maidens, dragged to the Roman colosseum "with ribald jest and vile indignity," are standing amid the brutal gaze of the populace, some in terror and some with a martyr�s resignation, as they await the approach of the lions which soon will end their sufferings. Prinsep�s "Broken Idol" has for its subject a Christian slave, who in a fit of religious zeal has broken one of his mistress� household gods and is brought before her to answer for his conduct. Deserving of mention are Topham�s "Naaman�s Wife," Walker�s "Convent Garden," Rooke�s "King Ahab�s Coveting," Coke�s "Hagar," Poole�s "The Prodigal Son," and "The Church Door," by Burgess. Wyke Bayliss paints the interior of St. Peters and of Amiens cathedral; from Seymour Lucas comes his "St. Paul�s," and from G. A. Storey, his "Padre," showing a Spanish interior. "Sunday Morning, Hadley Church," by Buxton Knight, reproduces one of the oldest of English churches, near which, at the battle of Barnet, in 1471, fell the great earl of Warwick, after a hopeless struggle against overwhelming odds. Thus came to an end the first of England�s civil wars - [723] the so-called wars of the Roses. Finally may be noticed in this connection Horsley�s "Hide and Seek," where children are at play in a Kentish churchyard, among tombs in every stage of picturesque decay.

Then landscape paintings in the British section include some of the finest specimens of contemporary art; but these are two well-known to require much detail of description. Among them are "Halcyon Weather" and "Lingering Autumn," by Millais, who has also his "Ornithologist," "Last Rose of Summer," "Sweet Emma Morland," and the world-famous picture whose title is "Bubbles." Still another of his works is "Shelling Peas," where a blonde-face country maid of thoroughly English type is engaged at her task. In the gray background above her head is inscribed the dedication of the picture, "To my friend, Frederick Leighton, from John Everett Millais." "The Hamlet on the Cliff," by Peter Graham, is in his usual vigorous style, and even more so is this "Caledonia Stern and Wild." Especially fine are the sombre tints of the storm-laden clouds casting their dun shadows athwart the verdure-clad hills, where cattle are tossing their horned heads awaiting the outbreak of the tempest. The drawing of the figures is perfect, and perfect also is the coloring, laid on with the hues which nature paints and not such as the artist imagines nature to assume. "Storm at Harvest," with its laborers hurrying for shelter from a thunder shower, is one of the best studies by the late John Linnell, rich in tone and strong in execution. Others are Boughton�s "Winter Sunrise" and "Dancing Down the Hay," Aumonier�s "English Wood," Brett�s "Highland Summer," Davis� "Now Came Still Evening on," Cole�s "Ripening Sunbeams," Fabey�s "Distant View of Florence," Hargitt�s "Isle of Skye from the Mainland," Johnson�s "Slopes of Ben Nevis," Huson�s "Mists Hung Wide o�er Moor and Fell," Leader�s "Conway Bay and the Carnarvonshire Coast," Rattray�s "Golden October on the Fourth," and a sketch by J. W. North, who takes for his motif the Spenserian couplet:

Seest how fresh my flowers be spread, In lily white and crimson red.

Something more than a landscape is "The Harvest Moon," by the late G. H. Mason, a thoughtful and suggestive study of the season of year when work is over and its fruits are being garnered. Of his three other canvases the "Return from Ploughing" comes from the galleries of the queen. "Ploughing" is also the title of one of the five paintings by George Clausen, a young and talented artist, whose style is strongly suggestive of Millet, not as an imitator, but that he sets forth, as does the French artist, the true pathos of peasant life and invests it with pictorial harmony of theme. A lad is guiding the team for his father who stands at the plough, and in the features of the former can clearly be traced the struggle between his sense of duty and the irksomeness of his task. Of this his father is well aware; but all must work, and in his victory over himself the boy will pave the way for greater victories, however humble may be his sphere.

[724] - "Storm Brewing" and "Sunset after a Storm" are from the brush of Henry Moore, whose marine paintings are the strongest in the British section. In the former the sea is calm; but with the calmness that precedes the tempest. Above it the clouds are rolling in heavy masses, partially obscuring a sky whose color is in harmony with the greenish blue of the waters. In the latter is well depicted the sullen aspect of an ocean on which the winds have spent their fury. Overend�s "Victory" has for its subject a British frigate from which men are putting off in boats to take possession of a disabled prize. In "The Wooden Walls of Queen Victoria," Baden-Powell shows a squadron of old-fashioned battle-ships as they lay off Portsmouth dockyard more than half a century ago. In "Davy Jones� Locker," Wyllie depicts a sunken vessel in which a single skull is all that remains of her crew. His "Port of London" is a loan from the Fine Art society, and another of his pictures represents the emperor of Germany and the prince of Wales inspecting the steamer Teutonic at Spithead. Tuke�s "Sailors Playing Cards" is self-explanatory, as also are J. C. Hook�s "Wreckage from the Fruiter," T. Graham�s "Last Boat," Brangwyn�s "Convent Ship," and Clara Montalba�s "Thames Barge off Chelsea." In "A Hopeless Dawn," by Frank Bramley, are vividly portrayed the anguished features of two women who have passed the night in watching, the sea from which their loved ones will never return, telling its own sad story. By Stanhope Forbes, whose pictures of coast life have been purchased for several public galleries, are "Forging the Anchor" and "Soldiers and Sailors." Many of his themes are taken from the Cornish coast and display to good advantage the facile execution of this young and talented artist, who completed under Bounat his earlier training at the National academy. In Macallum�s "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep," the rocking is done by a party of mischievous lads, and younger children are looking on in terror from the bow and stern of the boat. Among fishing themes are Smythe�s "Harvest of the Sea" and "Boulogne Shrimpers," Loudan�s "Fish Market, Cornwall," and Hunter�s "Fishers of the North Sea."

Among military themes Sir James Linton, president of the Royal institute, has in his "Victorious" and "The Benediction" two of a series of paintings illustrating the life of a soldier. "The Last Muster," by Herkomer, is one of the best known pictures in the British section, known, that is, by countless reproductions. The pensioners of the Chelsea hospital are attending service in chapel. One of them, with head hanging forward, has died in his seat, like a soldier at his post; but of this only a few are aware, most of them listening devoutly to what is being said, for soon they also will enter on their rest, as the reward for duty nobly done and sufferings patiently endured. The bright red of the scarlet uniforms is relieved by the light that comes from the windows and the brownish tints of the wainscoting; yet it is somewhat over-colored, a rare defect in England�s collection, which inclines rather to sombreness and austerity of hue. Other of Herkomer�s canvases are "Miss Katherine Grant" and "Entranced," whose motif is explained by the line inscribed below:

In some diviner mood of self-oblivion solitude

In "Sons of the Brave," by Philip R. Morris, the scene is also at Chelsea, at the duke of York�s school for soldiers� orphan boys. Headed by their own band, the lads are marching forth to meet their relatives and friends, who are crowding around the gateway - a privilege granted only once a week; for they are being trained as soldiers and the strictest of discipline is maintained. Yeames� "Prisoners of War" is an incident of the Napoleonic era, and in Glazebrook�s "C�est l�Empereur" we have Napoleon himself who, as the story goes, [725] finding one of his sentries asleep, quietly took from him his musket and himself stood guard until he awoke. But this is not the story that the picture tells; for the emperor is gazing with fixed and fateful look on the worn-out sentinel whom he has roused from troubled dreams. Charlton has an ambitious painting of the royal jubilee procession passing through Trafalgar square, and in another canvas depictures an incident in the charge of the light brigade where the riderless horses of the slain, on hearing the bugle call, fall into line with the heavy brigade as it advances to cover the retreat.

Women are well represented in the British section, and it is somewhat remarkable that the best of the military paintings should be from a woman�s brush. Lady Butler, among whose best known canvases are "Quatre Bras" and "Balaclava," has here "The Roll Call," first exhibited at the Royal academy in 1874 and now the property of the queen. After the battle of Inkermann, a regiment of the grenadier guards, or rather that which remains of it, is being inspected by its colonel, who is riding past its diminished ranks. It is a strong and impressive study, strong in its simplicity, its pathos, and its fidelity to truth. Says the London Art Journal, "In this line of soldiers worn out with conflict, some wounded, others fallen with their dying faces cleaving the snow, there is the terrible but passionless severity of absolute fact. The supreme merit of the work in an artistic sense, lies in this very quality of perfect self-control that refuses to emphasize any further the misery which has already occurred."

One of the most beautiful faces in the British section is that of Mrs. Jopling-Rowe�s "Dear Lady Disdain." The figure is standing in profile, richly but simply attired, and in these proud, aristocratic features, somewhat of the Beatrice type, is fully expressed the title of the picture. As loans from their owners are three canvases by Mrs. Alma Tadema, whose "Blue Stockings," exhibited at the academy in 1877 and in the following year at Paris, first established her fame. Miss Childers sends her "Last Survivor of Trafalgar," who died in 1892, aged 100 years; Miss Cohen has her "Little Refugee from Russia," and Madame Canziani her "Two Little Home Rulers," the sons of the Earl of Aberdeen, to whom the painting belongs. Among others are "The Witch," by Mrs. Stanhope Forbes; a "Water Nympth," by Blanche Jenkins; "In the Reign of Terror" and "The Mistletoe Bough," by Miss MacGregor; "Eve," by Mrs. Anna Lea Merritt, and "The Card Dealer," by Mrs. Mary L. Waller.

To describe in detail the British paintings in water colors would be a tiresome repetition of what has already been said, and the more so that they include contributions from several artists whose works have already been passed in review. In the engravings, etchings, and drawings also reappear not a few of the familiar names, as John M. Swan and W. H. Overend, while Tenniel has a number of sketches such as only he can limn.

[727] - Constructive architecture, though its proper place would have been in this collection, was grouped by the Exposition authorities with civil engineering and public works in the department of Liberal Arts. The designs and sketches displayed int eh gallery alcoves of the Fine Arts building are in many styles and for many purposes, from a parish church to a card and billiard room, and from a mausoleum to a Turkish bath-house.

The Canadian exhibition, contained in the anterooms of the British section, consists entirely of paintings in oil and water colors, the latter predominating, and both of excellent quality. "The Foreclosure of the Mortgage," by G. A. Reid, is one of the strongest and most interesting works. The scene is a Canadian farm house, to the owner of which, his features pallid and worn with long months of suffering, the sheriff is reading his doom. Looking at this picture one almost seems to hear the harsh, legal phrases as they fall from the mouth of the bluff official in inflexible and yet half-pitying tones. Upon the bowed head of his young wife and the inquiring faces of his children, one of them still in the cradle, the sick man�s gaze is turned with a tender but hopeless expression, and near by an elderly woman, bent with the infirmity of age, completes this sorrowful group. "The Visit of the Clockmaker," another of Reid�s four canvases, represents a group of flaxen-haired children watching an old many engaged on the task which its title implies.

In landscapes there are several excellent studies both in oil and water colors, among the former, Brymner�s "In County Cork" and "Border of the Forest, Fontainebleau," with others of lake scenery in the Rocky mountains, all of them strongly drawn and with sober coloring. By Ede, Jacobi, Watts, and others are also works of merit, and in water colors there are Fowler, Fraser, O�Brien, and Mathews, whose pictures are too numerous here to be mentioned. Herring fishing in the bay of Fundy is well depictured by Hammond, who has also "The Frazer River, Yale" and "The Great Illicilliwaet Glacier, Selkirks." Knowles has a truthful sketch of "Perce Fishermen, Gulf of St. Lawrence." In portraiture some of the best canvases are by Robert Harris, E. W. Grier, Sarah B. Holden, and Mary A. Bell. A pleasing composition is Alexander�s "Gathering Plums," where a young peasant girl is seated beneath a fruit-laden tree. "A Venetian Bather," by the late Paul Peel, is worthy of this well-known artist whose paintings of nude children are familiar, as reproductions, throughout the United States. Its subject is a slender dark-hued Italian girl, standing in front of a mirror and dangling a cord and tassel with which a kitten is playing. The lithe willowy figure of the little damsel is admirably modelled, and with luminous flesh-tones contrasting against a sombre background.

"The Founding of Maryland," by Henry Sandham, is one of the few historic themes, and follows closely [728] the historian�s text. Leonard Calvert and his emigrants, under orders from Lord Baltimore, have landed at St. Mary�s in the early spring of 1634. The colors are flying and a salute of musketry is answered by the guns of a vessel anchored in the river, while a group of Indians gaze stolidly on the pageant, wondering what it means. Among the minor pictures there are many of excellent workmanship, as Brownwell�s "Lamp Light" and Dyonnet�s "Statuary," with their play of light and shade in carefully studied tones. The latter represents the interior of a statuary�s workshop, and by J. M. F. Adams is a well executed painting of a studio where the soft hues of twilight are rendered with delicate touch. Worthy of note also are Forster�s "Gossips," Challener�s "Forty Winks on a Sunday Afternoon," and Morrice�s "Early Morning Effect on the Conway," whose scene is the coast of Wales. The entire collection forms a most creditable display, and the more so that the public galleries refused to contribute of their treasures.

In Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and elsewhere in the Australias are art galleries, both public and private, which would be no discredit to the art centres of Europe and America. Here are collections gathered by the ablest critics in the mother country, and by the Australians themselves, in whose homes will be found some of the choicest works displayed at international exhibitions. Local artists make a special study of the scenery of their own country, in whose flora and fauna are opportunities for novel and striking effects. Not a few of their pictures have been hung in prominent places in Paris salons and in the Royal academy at London, where space is accorded only to artistic merit. Certain it is that the Australian contribution of more than 200 specimens from the National art gallery deserved better than to be relegated to an upper gallery alcove, where room was found for only a score of paintings, the remainder being displayed in Australia house. While this was due to a misunderstanding, it would seem that an area sufficient for the purpose might have been spared from the ample limits assigned to Great Britain and her colonies.

Of sculpture there is but a single piece, and that is a portrait bust in marble of Arthur Kenwick, commissioner for New South Wales, by the Italian artist, Simonetti. Sydney with its picturesque harbor, as viewed from the North Shore, is an excellent sample of colonial art by C. H. Hunt, as also are Lister�s "After the Shower" in oil and his New England landscapes in water colors. "The Upper Nepean," by Piguenit, is a well executed painting of river scenery, especially as to its color scheme, the steep rocky shore with its dense growth of primeval forest being brought into strong relief by light and cloud effects. Here is one of the most romantic of Australian landscapes, and of historic interest; for through the valley of this river the first exploring parties penetrated far into the densely wooded ranges of the Blue mountains, many of them never to return. [729] Glimpses of the Shoalhaven river are well portrayed in the water colors of Fullwood and Ashton, the former of whom has on oil painting of "The Station Boundary," a typical Australian scene, and the latter one of "The Prospector," taking for his theme a mining episode of the Pacific coast. Of other canvases mention will be made in connection with the national exhibit, where colonial art finds adequate expression.

The German exhibits, except for architectural models and designs, are included in the collective display of the German Art association, in which are represented all the branches included in the Fine Arts department. By critics the German galleries have been closely scanned, and to all classes of visitors are full of interest; for in art, as in music and poetry, the Fatherland looks back on a glorious past, and the works of its great masters belong not only to their won but to all civilized countries. Especially in plastic art has Germany exercised a powerful influence on other nations, and while herself adopting the best features of foreign schools, has treated them in independent lines, so that in the better class of works, whether those of ancient or modern masters, there is a strong individual character.

In the opening years of the present century we find both painters and sculptors in close communion with the antique, such artists as Thorwaldsen and Rauch, Overbeck and Cornelius inclining to classical compositions, at times in the severest of classic style. Of more modern schools, and especially in their canvases, naturalism is the pervading characteristic, and this, it must be admitted, has been carried to excess, even to the rejection of the ideal and beautiful, and the exaltation of the coarse and commonplace. Rather than be untrue to nature, they would reproduce nature in her most repulsive moods, though the effect be positively hideous. But of comparatively recent art there are many works in other vein, as in the visionary subjects of Gabriel max with their richness of coloring, the genre paintings of Franz Defregger, and the historic depictions of Becker, Schrader, and Richter. So with Bocklin and Feuerbach, the former a student of the antique and the latter imparting a supernatural tone to his weird and fanciful landscapes, peopled with monsters and chimeras dire.

In architecture the German section is especially strong, fully representing the progress made in this direction since the unification of the empire. Of late the tendency has been to depart from the Hellenism characteristic of the earlier half of the century, in favor of the lighter style of the Italian renaissance, now widely adopted in state and monumental architecture. Of this there are evidences in the various museums and military schools, in the Imperial post-office and especially in the German Reichstag, recently completed in the most florid style of the renaissance. Even in business and private buildings this tendency may be traced, and as it would seem is destined to become universal, except in ecclesiastical architecture, where preference is given to the Gothic order.

Among the hundred or more pieces of statuary contained in the German section there are none to be preferred to Brutt�s "Eve an Her Children," a contribution from the National gallery at Berlin. In a life size figure of marble the mother of the human race is represented with one of her babes nestling in her arms and the other clinging around her neck - the infancy of Cain and Abel. It is the personification of proud and contented matronhood, all unconscious woman, her clothing torn from her shoulder and her hair a tangled clinging mass. Smaller works by this sculptor, and both in perfect pose, are his "Bathing Girl" and "Phryne," the latter flinging the drapery from her form and standing forth in all the bold insolence of tarnished womanhood.

Max Kruse has sent one of his most powerful studies, "The Messenger of Victory from Marathon," a youth running at full speed, one hand clutching at his heart, which soon will cease to beat, and in the other [730] a laurel branch which proclaims the issue of the fight. Uphue�s "Archer" is a bronze figure of an athlete standing with arms uplifted as he watches the arrow speeding from his bow. Another reproduction of athletic manhood is by Franz Stuck, its subject with every muscle brought into play, with head thrown back and heaving chest as he slowly raises a burden almost greater than he can bear. Klein�s "Mortal Embrace" represents a man struggling with a lion, and Siemering has a heroic statue of "Victory," armor-clad and with dragon-mounted helmet. Sommer�s "The Devil Takes to Himself Wings" represents his sable majesty with the pinions of a bat and with orthodox horns and hoofs, amusing himself by catching the flies that settle on his legs, over which the slow-creeping hand is extended.

Historic subjects are numerous, including portrait busts of Bismarck and Von Moltke, William I and William II, by Bruno Kruse, Franz Ochs, Begas, and others. Somewhat of a novelty is sculptural design is Max Klein�s "Woman�s Head," with brown hair and drapery around the white marble face and neck. Hilgers has two plaster reliefs of Christ healing the sick. Otto�s "Vestal Maiden," a delicate conception, is a loan from the National gallery, as also is Eberlein�s "Pulling out the Thorn." Riesch has several subjects, of which his "Mignon" is most admired. Epier�s Gleaner" and Paul�s "Binding on her Sandals" shows the touch of a master hand; and among others worthy of mention are Maison�s "Negro Riding on a Mule" and Toberentz� "Resting Shepherd."

In more than 400 oil paintings, with a liberal display of aquarelles, engravings, and etchings, all branches of graphic art are represented. Many of the more ambitious works relating to historic and spectacular subjects are of unwieldy proportions, striving after effect and falling short in the achievement, wanting in clearness and finish, and above all in atmosphere, which is often muddy and opaque. Nevertheless there are many excellent compositions, displayed to good advantage as to grouping and light. To the majority of visitors they are somewhat of a novelty; for while French and Italian art were familiar to all, and Dutch and English art were not unknown, there are few who were acquainted with the works of German masters. Of special interest are the pictures of domestic life, their subjects treated not as studio models but as living realities, with nothing of the commonplace or conventional treatment elsewhere displayed in similar themes. Many of them differ but little from the style that prevailed in the opening decades of the century; the composition is almost identical; the figures, features, postures, and accessories almost the same; and here also is noticed the same conscientious painstaking and earnest seeking after truth.

Libermann, who hold high rank as a genre painter, sends two of his canvases, "Street in a Dutch Village," and "The Flax Barn," the latter a typical agricultural scene. Knaus has a spirited composition whose title is "The Duel Behind the Hedge." It is barely three feet square, but valued, as is said by the secretary of the German commissioner, at $15,000. It tells its own story, the old story of schoolboys settling their [731] quarrel by a stand-up fight. Two of them are pommelling each other lustily, and around these central figures is a group of excited urchins watching the outcome and insisting on fair play. The facial expression is perfect, and so minute is the elaboration of detail that we wonder how such a wealth of meaning could be crowded into so little space. In Vautier�s "At the Sick bed" a young husband with pained and anxious look is holding the hand of his wife, doubtful, as it seems, whether she will ever rise from her couch. Under a similar title Lessing paints a physician visiting a poor and friendless girl in her garret. "The Emigrant�s Wife" and "Solitude," by Alberts, Andorff�s "Village of Spessart," and Bachmann�s "Wedding Morn" are all attractive studies. "Fishing in Norway," by Ekinas, or Eckenaes, tells its simple story in the neatest style of pictorial art. "Sabbath Rest," by Franz Defregger, is well worthy of its title, as also is "Before the Dance," a Tyrolean scene, with youths and maidens clustered in the foreground awaiting the waltz music to be furnished by zither players stationed in the corner, while seated at table in picturesque attire the older folk are enjoying themselves with pipe and beer-mug. The damsels are fair enough to look upon, rosy and plump, but somewhat too baby-faced, one would think, for German tastes. "The Great and the Small" is a humorous sketch by Karl Rochling, where a soldier belonging to one of the line regiments is drinking from the canteen of a guardsman.

Portraiture is a strong feature in the German galleries, its strength consisting not in the number but in the theme and quality of the paintings. They are not overloaded as are other sections with mediocre and uninteresting subjects, but bring to life their most famous men in the canvases of their foremost artists. In "The Berlin Congress," for instance, Von Werner, a director of the academy of Berlin, depicts one of the most important conferences of the age, the peace of Europe depending on its issues, while each of its members was or became a statesman or soldier of renown. But this is something more than portraiture, and in their proper sense portraits are not plentiful in the German section. Among the best of them are Lencach�s Bismarck and Leo XIII, both full of life and character, and with all the antithesis of feature and facial expression which the subject invites. Others are Heyser�s picture of Joachim, the violinist, Hildebrand�s "Queen Louis," Max� "Katharina Emerick," Knaus� "Helmholtz" and "Mommsen," Janssen�s "Inspector Holthausen," and Smith�s "Henrik Ibsen," the Norwegian poet, most of them contributions from the National gallery.

Religious themes are more numerous than might have been expected from a nation which inclines so strongly to skepticism. "The Shepherds Receive the Tidings" is a modernized version of the subject by Fritz Von Uhde, who like other German students of sacred history sees nothing supernatural in the episodes which he portrays. To them it appears that Christ is more needed today in the boulevards of Paris or Berlin than he was two thousand years ago in the streets of Jerusalem, and hence it is not inconsistent to portray in modern fashion the sublimated lesson of his life. The angel is a reality and not a phantom, a woman angel, and costumed with due regard to nineteenth century notions of propriety. Her features are noble, dignified, and almost beatific; but as she tells her story to a group of shepherds attired in homespun, it is evident that [732] her message, while received with reverence, is accepted only as relates to one who was born to be merely a man among men. "The Holy Evening," as the Germans call their Christmas eve, makes no pretensions to Judean environment. The scene, which might be almost anywhere, represents a wintry landscape shrouded in twilight after a heavy fall of snow. A country girl, bare-headed and with a shawl wrapped close around her, is leaning against a straggling fence, as she carries homeward her slender effects. It is a pleasing study, without any striving after sensationalism, but inferior in coloring to its sister painting, with its low, soft, restful tones, and its star setting amid the gray hues of morn. Among other religious subjects are Bracht�s "Mount Sinai" and "Before the Walls of Jerusalem;" Grutzner�s "Cloister Kitchen" and "Monks at Supper," these in anything but religious mood; Papperitz� "Salome," Stockmeyer�s "Peter Went Out and Wept Bitterly," and a study by Dettman, who takes for his text the passage from Genesis III in which the curse of labor, if curse it be, is inflicted on the human race.

Landscape, marine, and nautical themes are plentiful in the German section. Among the first are Baisch�s "Spring Day in Bavaria," Kallmorgen�s "Beginning of Spring," Malchen�s "North German Lanscape," Max Schmidt�s "Landscape from the River Spree," and Berkemeier�s "After the Shower." Normann, whose marine paintings are among the features of the Norwegian section, has here his "Summer Night" and "Narofjord," the latter showing the coast of a fjord, its stony beach in the foreground, overcast with shadow, contrasting with the play of sunlight on the distant cliffs. Excellent coast scenes are Hamacher�s "Breakers" and Bohme�s "Outlook from the Lighthous at Skomvaer," Schnars-Alquist, the German commissioner of Fine Arts, has a picture of the steamship, City of Paris in a heavy sea, and takes as the scene of his "Narrow Escape" the British channel, where, in the dim and misty light of the young moon, a huge steamer is bearing down on a tiny craft which flashes a light upon her as she crosses her bows. Karl Saltzmann has for his subject Emperor William II on board a whaler off the Norway coast. A harpoon has just been thrown from a mortar at a whale which is partly in sight, and the emperor is watching the effect of the shot. A high wind is blowing and the billows are rising rapidly, their height and volume expressed in hard but forcible tones. "A Hamburg Pilot," by Bohrdt, shows its subject rowed by a party of sailors toward a vessel which leems up between them and the horizon. In Schoenleber�s "High Tide" fishing boats are lying in safety within a pier against which the waves are breaking angrily. "In the Lagoons of Venice" by this artist is an excellent study, and free from the luminosity of coloring that marks the conventional treatment of this well-worn subject. Hochhaus has a view of a navy yard where a corvette is under construction, and Hoecker shows a man-of-war with a group of sailors on the gun-deck, cleaning and polishing their rifles. "Rafting on the Isar" is by Karl Knabl, who has also a sketch entitled "In the Gray of Morning."

Painters of martial subjects love to depict the kaisers and their generals amid the peaceful pageantry of war. One of the largest pictures in the German galleries is Hans Schmidt�s "Parade before the Emperor," his majesty appearing at the head of a Uhlan regiment, with the empress on horseback and an imposing array of mounted officers in handsome uniforms. On one side is the band of the white cuirassiers, and among the spectators are many famous captains. "The Disaster," by Brandt, shows a group of Russian cavalry defending themselves as best they can in a courtyard where they have taken refuge. Rosen has a well executed battle scene, that of Stoezek, where the Poles and Russians were unequally matched. Franz Adam�s "Battle of Orleans" is little better than a panoramic painting, with ambitious design falling lamentably short in technique and execution. In better taste are Schuch�s "Parade," Becker�s Vidette," and Boddien�s "After the Battle." Rocholl�s "Whom the Nurembergers Would Keep They Must Hang" is an interpretation on canvas of an ancient Nuremberg legend.

History and mythology find little expression in the German galleries. First among the latter may be mentioned Thumann�s "Psyche;" but this is too well known in countless reproductions to require description. Becker�s "Feast in the Doge�s Palace," a National gallery painting, is a powerful and elaborate composition; but in the figures and faces of the women there is more of the German than the Venetian type. Hildebrand has a large and strongly drawn picture of Tullia attempting to drive her chariot over the body of her murdered father. Herterich�s "Saint George," in full panoply and on gray charger mounted, places its subject in the midst of a forest at early dawn, half veiled in the rising mist. It is an over fanciful depiction of a commonplace personage who, as Gibbon relates, made his fortune at the expense of his honor by swindling the Roman authorities in a contract for provisions. Pietschmann�s "Polyphemus Fishing" represents this mythical monster by the sea-shore, where he is capturing youths and maidens who shall presently furnish forth his repast. In contrast with his repulsive figure are the summer sky and landscape which surround him, redolent with the breath of flowers.

"The Rolling Mill," also a National gallery picture, is the only oil painting from Adolf Menzel, who with several others, as Dettmann, Hermann, Hertel, and Skarbina, appears to better advantage in the water color collection. In the latter Bartels has two excellent studies, whose themes are "Waves" and "Moonlight Night on the French Coast." In pen drawings Menzel is also prominent and there is a fair assortment of etchings and engravings. The architectural models and designs are mainly of church and public edifices, and include a large exhibit from the Imperial Ministry of public works.

The Austrian collection bears strong traces of the German school, but inclines more to history, mythology, and romance, in which a few valuable studies are interspersed among a large number of spectacular paintings. To the latter class belongs, for instance, Brozik�s "Fenstersturtz," showing how, at the city of Prague, a deputation of Bohemian protestants, whom the emperor�s counsellors refused to treat with tolerance, settled the controversy by hurling them out of the window. In this incident of the Thirty Years� war are portrayed with ghastly realism the agony and terror of the doomed. A smaller and better picture is his "First Communion of the Hussites," where John Huss, the first martyr of the reformation, holds aloft a cup of consecrated wine, his followers kneeling around him, and in their features the ecstasy of faith and fervor which erelong would lead them to the stake.

"Never Retreat," a contribution from the emperor, is by Julius Von Payer, who takes for his subject an episode in the Arctic expedition of 1872-4, of which he was one of the commanders. It is painted, as only it could be painted, by one who has taken part in the scene which he describes. The men are on the verge of [734] starvation and in mutinous temper; but to turn back is certain death; and as they listen to the inspiring words of their leader, they resolve to share his fate. The story is told as no words could tell it, so that one seems to be an actual spectator of this incident of twenty years ago, with the central figure standing erect and fearless among his dispirited followers. In "The Story of the Hero," where a soldier returned from the wars is relating his adventurers, Munkaczy does not appear at his best, and this is the only canvas from an artist whose pictures occupied an entire wall at a recent Paris exhibition. In "Christ and the Women," by Goltz, and in Schmid�s "Suffer Little Children to Come Unto Me," the topics are treated in the modernized fashion, which appeals more to the understanding than to the heart.

Landscapes are few in the Austrian galleries, and of such as there are the scenery is fanciful rather than real. Among the best are Simm�s "Indian Summer" and those by Eugen Jettel, whose "Ramsau Scenery" is a loan from the gallery of Prince Liechenstein. Even the sea is idealized by Austrian painters, and its waters and shores made the medium of expression for mythological or imaginary themes. In Knuepfer�s "Fight of Tritons" two mermen are contesting for the ownership of a mermaid, who is seated on a jutting ledge of rock, placidly awaiting the issue of the combat. In his "Eternal Siren," the sea only is painted, as the siren whose voice is never stilled. Both pictures are among the best marine studies in this section, the former being a loan from the academy of fine arts at Vienna. In Wertheimer�s "Vision" a fair goddess of the deep stretches out her arms toward a sailor, who is leaning over the side of his boat. Intensely realistic are the tortured frame and features of Hirschl�s "Prometheus," with vultures tearing at his vitals and ocean nymphs swimming around him as though in mockery. A more pleasing study by this artist is his "Wedding Procession" at Pompeii. "Morning on the Shore," and others are by Florian Wiesinger, one of the foremost of Austria�s women painters.

There are some excellent figure paintings in the collection, first among which may be mentioned "The Five Senses," a panel picture by Hans Makart. The forms are nude and beautifully modelled, with the purity of expression which a true artist can give to nature unadorned. Sight is personified by a comely maiden who is looking at herself in a mirror; hearing by one with head inclined in the attitude of a listener; feeling by a mother with a babe on her shoulder; tasting, by a woman in whose hands is the forbidden fruit; and smelling, by one whose face is hidden in a spray of blossoms. In "The Falconer," by this artist, its subject appears to be gazing on the spectator with eyes as piercing as those of the bird which is perched on his hand. In "The Master of the Hounds," by Hans Canon, a huntsman is standing in a richly furnished interior, with the dogs leaping around him eager for the chase. "God Bless You," by Franz Defregger, also represented in the German section, is a drinking scene, with men making merry over their tankards and girls looking on with roguish aspect. His "Children Playing with a Dog" shows a little girl caressing her pet, with bare-footed urchins standing by. These, with Blaas� "The Good Brother," where a sturdy little lad is peeling an orange for his sister, are excellent depictions of everyday life among the poor. "Gypsy at the Hearth" is the best of Pettenkofen�s canvases. "Adventures in the Lottery," a loan from the emperor, is by Joseph Gisela, who has other valuable [735] works on exhibition. Of miscellaneous themes there are Leopold Muller�s "Market Place in Cairo," Thoren�s "A Wolf!" and Schindler�s "Saw-mill in Oberweissenbach," the two first academy paintings and the last the property of the emperor, as also are among others Bacher�s "Mater Dolorosa," Huber�s "Fighting Cows," and Moll�s "Roman Ruins in Schoenbrunn."

Among the best of the portraitures are Huber�s "George Washington" and Angeli�s pictures of Stanley the explorer and of the architect Schmidt, the latter an academy painting. Hans Temple�s sketches include on of William Unger. In the etchings and engravings are reproduced by Michalek the features of Haydn and Beethoven, and by Unger those of Rembrandt and the sons of Rubens. In statuary Tilgner has a zinc bust of the emperor; Breneck, a bronze relief of Wagner; Weigle, bronze statuettes of Mozart and Beethoven, these with a handful of minor works completing the collection.

In the Belgian galleries is a partial reflex of the French collections, and to describe them in detail would be merely to repeat much of what has already been said. But they are not merely a reflex; for here are many works in original vein and of unquestionable merit, showing that the spirit of the Flemish masters still lives in the country of the Van Eycks, of Rubens and Quintin Matsys. The selection was made with the utmost care, only the best canvases of the best artists finding favor with the jury appointed by the Belgian government.

In statuary there are several works from Paul de Vigne, who takes for his subjects classical and mediaeval characters. Des Enfans� statuettes "After the Walk" and "La Nique" are in excellent taste, as also is his marble bust of Manon Lescant. Van Beurden�s "Forced Bath" and "Quintin Maysys� in Boyhood" are skillfully modelled, the former in cire perdue. Van der Straeten�s bronzes of the seasons, from the Yerkes collection, and his marble bust of Worth are of excellent workmanship, as also are the bronzes of De Tombay and the statuettes of Albert Hambresin, the latter portraying fifteenth century impersonations. By Charlier, Le Roy, Joris, Willelms and others are treated a variety of topics ranging from the innocence of childhood to the ferocity of a polar bear.

More than a hundred oil paintings and less than a score of water colors are contained in the Belgian section, covering the same ground as in other galleries, though somewhat weak in portraiture and still life subjects. In landscapes "Snow Effect" and "Avenue of Oaks," the scene of which is in the neighborhood of Antwerp, are by Francois Lamoriniere, to whom was awarded the great diploma at the International Exposition in Berlin. "The Storm" and "Setting Sun at Sea," by Adrien Le Mayeur, are the most powerful of the marine paintings. Farasyn�s "Embarkation of Emigrants at Antwerp" and Jan Verhas� "The Martyrs of the Beach" and "The Walk on the Dyke at Heist-sur-Mer" are works of decided merit. In a panel of portraits Jean Van Beers reproduces the features of Henri Rochefort, Ada Rehan as Lady Teazle, and Mrs. Brown Potter as the Lady of Lyons. Of "Charles VI and Odette" it need only be said that it is from the brush of Albrecht De Vriendt. "Last Days of Pompeii" and "Episode of an Inundation, Dardrecht" are ably depicted by Ernest Slingeneyer, and among other canvases worthy of note are "The Holy Week in Seville," by the late Nicaise De Keyser, and "The Will of Christopher Columbus," by Pierre Joseph Verhaert. "Fruit," by Berthe Art, is the only work that the pastellists have to show; but of engravings, etchings, and drawings there is a fair collection, including studies after Van Eyck, Rubens, and Donatello.

The Dutch and, as I have said, the British galleries, but especially the Dutch, are among the few sections where performance has exceeded anticipation. Much was of course expected from the land of Rembrandt and Teniers, of Terburg, Ruysdael, and Paul Potter, and here, at least, there were none who turned away with a sense of disappointment. Rather did they linger among these masterpieces, returning again and again [736] for a further realization of their manifold excellencies. If in the French, Italian, and perhaps in the United States galleries there may be more that appeals to our sense of the beautiful, we shall nowhere find more striking landscape and pastoral effects, more vigorous depiction of storm and sea, more life-like genre and figure paintings, whether of man or beast, more skillful blending of light and shade, more perfect symphony of coloring. Here is especially noticed the faculty of reproducing form in masses, and yet with a minuteness and accuracy of detail which is one of the first principles of art, while not appearing on the surface except in the general effect. In this and other qualities the Dutch collection stands in the front of contemporary schools of painting.

In nothing perhaps does the Dutch artist appear to better advantage than in his descriptions of home life, the life of a people where the arts of domesticity have received their highest development. None know better how to give to home a homelike charm, how to invest the rude life of peasantry and fishermen with tenderness of sentiment, with the simplicity and earnestness which belong to the nature as to the art of the Hollander. Here also pathos is depicted, often with infinite depth of feeling, suggested rather than expressed in subdued but masterly tones. Take, for instance, Israels� masterpiece, "Along in the World." At a first glace the casual observer might see nothing in this famous picture but an aged and sorrow-stricken man seated near the bedside of his dead wife. But looking deeper, he will find in this small and dimly lighted chamber a wonderful intensity of expression. The man is gazing, not at the body but away from it, gazing with the mute and hopeless stare of one who is wounded almost unto death; so that we wonder whether he will ever rise from his seat, and if so, whither he will betake him, how that he has lost the one object which made life worth the living. There are none to comfort him, and there is no palliation of his misery, nor anything that suggests it. The furniture is of the plainest; on the table stand a pitcher and glass; but there is nothing else that shows how the last suffering hours of the lifeless woman were alleviated. In no picture that we call to mind has its title been more fully expressed. It is the incarnation of woe, and in all the realm of art we shall search in vain for a more pathetic subject. In other of Israels� canvases, and especially in his "Fisherwomen at Zandvoort," where a group of women are awaiting their husbands� return from a perilous trip, is displayed his power of suggestion amid seeming poverty of detail. Here also and in his "Summer Day on the Shore" is shown how spacious a landscape can be fashioned under his brush, and how perfect in low strong tones of coloring. "Type of a Fisherman" is a perfect type of its kind, and typical also of Israels� style of portraiture.

[737] - A powerful death-bed scene is depicted by Hubert Vos, but not with the touch of an Israels; nor are the works of this painter, though of unquestionable merit, in the true style of Dutch art, of which for the most part they have only a trace. In his "Pauvres Gens," the scene is a peasant�s cottage, where the father of a family lies dead. His wife is kneeling at his side in the first agony of grief, and at the foot of the bed sits the aged father, his head bowed in prayer. Near by stands a little child, gazing sorrowfully around the chamber of death and wondering what it means. At the opposite side a young girl is holding an infant in her arms, and another child is looking on with dazed and terrified expression. From a small window comes a dim green light, its tone in keeping with this abode of sorrow. "A Room in a Brussels Almshouse" is the work for which Vos received his first gold medal at a Paris exhibition. To depict a number of old women seated at a table or standing in groups is not an agreeable theme; but the subject is treated for all its worth. In "The Angelus on the Zuyder Zee" there is more of a Dutch flavor than in any of his paintings here exhibited. Again the central figure is an old woman, who is seated in a capacious chair, none too large for her portly form, and on hearing the sound of the bell looks upward in prayer from the pan of potatoes which she is peeling in her lap. At her side a little boy turns from his play with bended knee, and a young girl with beautiful features stands in reverent attitude. It is a homelike study, with quaintness of environment, and yet with much tenderness of sentiment. Other works by this artist are "A Breton Interior," "Study of a Russian Peasant," and a full length portrait of Wilhelmina, the infant queen of Holland, attired in mourning, and standing in a marble hall with roses scattered at her feet. Still another delineator of cottagers and their affairs is Albert Neuhuys, among whose canvases are some beautiful idyls, especially in his "Sunlight," where a wealth of sentiment is thrown around the simple figures of a baby and a goat. "In the Garden," by Kever and "A Cook," by Maarel are simple and pleasing compositions. "Surprised," by Boks, shows a party of servants, feasting at their master�s expense, suddenly disturbed by his reappearance, attended by a ferocious bull-dog.

What Jozef Israels is as a figure painter, that is Hendrik William Mesdag as a painter of the sea. In all his works is shown a careful scrutiny of nature; and we know not whether most to admire his truthful interpretation of the troubled waters, or his splendid domelike skies, with low horizon line and massive cloud effect, swept by fierce northern gales. Nowhere is ocean�s storm more powerfully portrayed than in his favorite canvas, the title of which is "In Danger." The wind is blowing dead ashore, and beneath a dark lowering sky, [739] on a sea almost as dark, a vessel is battling with the fury of the tempest. It is a striking composition, treated with a master�s touch, though less pleasing than the more placid scenes which he knows so well how to paint. In his "Summer Morning at Scheveningen," a combination of landscape and marine, fishermen are moving toward their boats over a sea-beach glistening in the morning sun, with background of sand-dunes dotted here and there with tufts of verdure. In "Ready to Sail Out" the boats have been pushed to the edge of the waves, with sails unfurled, and a moment later will be speeding on their way. Both scenes are full of vitality, and in both are accurate versions of the life of fisher folk. J. H. L. de Haas, though one of the foremost of marine painters, is represented only by animal studies, in one of which is also a landscape effect. In the United States, where for half a century has been him home, he is best known by his graphic depiction of "Farragut�s Fleet Passing New Orleans." War is not a favorite subject among Dutch artists, and is here represented only by a few minor works, among the best of which are Papendrecht�s "Artillery Review at Utrecht."

Of all the pictures in Holland�s galleries there are none more essentially Dutch than those of Jakob Maris, who life Constable has never gone far afield for his subjects, but finds them almost at his door. A noted character is Jakob, with all an artist�s eccentricity, and except for his brother William, the only one here represented of a great family of painters. Says one of his brethren of the craft, "Maris will sit half a day on the bank of a canal. Then he will go to his studio and paint for a month - not what he has seen but what he thinks." Among his five oil paintings in this section, with one in the loan collection elsewhere described, his "Canal at Rotterdam" is a finished study; but "The Two Mills" shows to better advantage his vigor and naturalness of style. There is no elaboration of foreground, and no striving after external effect; he enters at once on the subject, the central figure of which is merely a couple of windmills with the ubiquitous Dutch canal. The richer tones of the paintings are reserved for its cloud effects, with dense gray masses rolling up from the Zuyder Zee, illumined with sunbeams which almost pierce the veil, suggesting but not revealing a blue expanse of sky beyond. Beautiful indeed is the play of light and shade, and perfect the harmony of coloring. A similar theme is chosen in the "Scene in Amsterdam," one of Wysmuller�s canvases, but less skillfully treated. Roelofs� "Mills near Rotterdam" are the quaintest of old-fashioned windmills surrounded with a landscape that is unmistakably Dutch. A more finished study is the "Mill at Abcoude," by this artist, a landscape painter whose works are freely displayed in the Amsterdam museum. So with Gabriel, who paints [742] with equal facility windmills, harvest fields, and scenes from village life. Ten Cate�s blithe and bright hued sketches, hardly to be dignified with the name of landscapes, have been seen and admired in scores of art galleries. Of late he has studied much in England, and has here two pictures of the Thames at low and high tide.

"Winter" is a finely executed study by Meulen, who has also on exhibition "A Sandy Road" and "At the River Side." De Bock�s "Summer Evening" is perhaps the best of his three contributions. Blommers� "Fishing for Shrimps at Scheveningen" is a neat and pleasing picture. Apol�s "Thaw on the River Yssel" depicts in faithful colors the dreariest of wintry scenes. Jansen�s "In the Docks" shows a huge steamer lying in one of the busy waterways of Amsterdam.

Within recent years Holland has lost three of her masters, each of whom excelled in his life; Mauve, as a painter of animal figures and landscape sketches, Bosboom, whose forte was ecclesiastical architecture, especially church interiors, and Artz, who knew well how to interpret the simple story of peasant life. But all of them live in their works, and are well represented in the Dutch collection. Of Mauve�s four subjects, apart from the one in the loan collection, "Ploughing the Fields" is rich in color effect, while "Cows Going Home" is painted as only he can paint, and "Pasture Near the Dunes" is a pleasing landscape study. Artz was a pupil of Israels; and though not in the foremost rank, shows a keen insight into nature�s secrets, his canvases telling their homely tale and appealing more to the sympathies than to the imagination, yet with sufficient firmness of touch. In Bosboom�s studies the integrity of the architectural scheme is skillfully transcribed, and the lighting portrayed with masterly hand. Among others represented in the collection of oil paintings are Karl Klinkenberg, who has also two studies in water colors; Bakhuyzen, a landscape and animal painter; the genre artists, Gerke Henkes and Bastert, whose crisp and brightly colored sketches find many patrons. From the latter is "The Fall of the River Vecht," an excellent specimen of his light and facile method.

A feature in the Dutch section is the number of contributions from women, all of them chosen solely on the ground of merit; for no favor was shown by the jury of selection; nor was there aught [744] of sentiment. "They were better than many of the male contributors," says the commissioner, "and were taken only for that reason." By Madame Mesdag Van Houten, wife of the marine painter, and by Miss Abrahams are excellent studies in still life and miniature landscape. Marie Bilders van Bosse reproduces "One of Nature�s Secluded Nooks," for which her brush is famous. Marguerite Rosenboom�s "Garlands of Roses" are painted to perfection, and Henriette Ronner, whose specialty is in animal figures, has three of her compositions. Therese Schwartze has life-like portraits of herself and her mother; but a more ambitious work by this artist is "The Orphan Girls at Amsterdam." A group of young women attired in red and black, with white caps and kerchiefs, is gathered around a piano, one of them playing and the others singing a hymn, some with bowed heads, some with eyes uplifted, and all in reverential attitude. Many of the faces are exceedingly beautiful, and in this simple, touching theme is a wonderful depth of expression - the sadness of bereavement, and yet with trustfulness and love depictured in these comely features which tell no tale of fear.

The Dutch section is one of the few in which the water colors are not inferior to the paintings in oil, with the same truth and power of conception and execution, and with the effect as well sustained. Among their artists oils and water colors are interchangeable mediums of expression, the best qualities of the one being repeated in the other, with similar themes and modes of treatment, and without confusion or repetition. To describe the collection in detail would be merely to reiterate what has already been said; for many of the contributors appear to equal advantage in both departments. Take, for instance, Israels� "Motherly Cares" and contrast this with his "Sweet Home," the former a water color and the latter an oil painting; there are seen in both the same vigor and simplicity of technique, the same wealth of suggested meaning. Compare these again with "Along in the World," with "Fisherwomen at Zandvoort," and with others of his works in the Dutch galleries and the loan collection; we find in all the unmistakable touch of the great master, one who is perfectly at home in the lighter as in the more powerful method of depiction. In addition to Israels there are Mesdag, Maris, and Hubert Vos, De Haas, Ten Cate, and others, while as to women there are all who have been mentioned as among the leading painters in oil. In etchings the best of the original works are by Storm van Gravesande and De Zwart, with reproductions by Zilcken and Miss Van Houten.

[746] - In Denmark�s section the best of Danish art is represented, and here, as in the Swedish and Norwegian collections, is unmistakable evidence of force and originality, too often marred by heaviness of coloring, and with much room for improvement in modelling and draughtsmanship. But subjects are rich and plentiful, most of them showing strong virility of treatment, and if some of the compositions are hard and stiff, they are never weak and seldom commonplace. Nevertheless, we could wish that in these galleries were less of the glow of northern skies, and of the sombre hues of northern forest and foliage.

In statuary may first be mentioned Stephen Singing�s plaster cast of "A Captive Mother," a daring but not a repulsive theme, showing the nude figure of a woman, her hands bound behind her back, stooping forward to suckle her babe. More pleasing studies in the nude are Dan�s "Snake Charmer" and Bandgaard�s "Will o� the Wisp," personified by a young lad holding aloft his lantern and beckoning onward with mischievous smile. Kroyer�s portrait busts of the poets, Kjelland and Drachmann, of the painter, Michael Ancher, of Svendsen, the violinist, and Schjoedte, the zoologist, are in the best style of this celebrated master, one of the few who have achieved distinction both in plastic and graphic art, winning his first salon honors in 1881 and in 1888 receiving the legion of honor. Lady Macbeth in the sleep scene is well delineated by Saabye; but a more popular work is his "Susanna Before the Elders," a somewhat daring and sensuous study, but almost perfect in pose and outline. Pacht has a bronze statue of Christian IX, and there are other compositions in which is noticed a suppleness of modelling and simplicity of design, without undue striving after effect, except perhaps for Hasselries� "Christ and Columbus," a design for an historic monument, representing the latter as a New World evangelist.

Lauritz Tuxen�s large painting of the royal family, with life-sized portraits of the king and queen and their two and thirty children and grandchildren, is noticeable rather for its subject and superficial area than as a work of art. A much better work is his "Susanne in the Bath," where, in the silvery sheen of moonlight breaking through the faint rose tints of a twilight sky, a shrinking woman, draped only in her long golden hair, confronts her gray-bearded accusers. Kroyer has but a single portrait, that of a comely damsel in pink satin gown, and appears to better advantage in a small garden scene, with figures of his wife and mother-in-law seated in the shade and surrounded with brightly colored verdure and foliage. Holten�s portraits of a lady and of the painter, L. A. Ring, represented in the Danish section, are in excellent taste, as also are those of Bertha Wegmann, especially as to costuming, showing that this artist knows how to give dignity to a figure in plain stuff gown, without blaze of jewelry or shimmer of satins and silks. A pleasing study is Achen�s "Morten," a coachmen in full livery, with round and rubicund features suggestive of good living and self-content. Hans Brasen has neatly transcribed on canvas Andersen�s story of "The Woman with the Eggs." Julius Paulsen�s "Portrait of Professor Froelich" reproduces with singular fidelity the features of this veteran artist, from whom are two of his scriptural and mythological paintings. "The Models are Waiting," is a somewhat commonplace depiction of three very commonplace women, partially disrobed and altogether wearied. A fine combination of figure and landscape painting is Braendekilde�s "Worn Out," showing, amid a wide expanse of furrowed glebe, an aged man on his way from store or market, his packages slipped from his grasp, for the strength has departed from hi. At his side is a peasant woman, his wife probably, kneeling and crying for help. Johansen�s "Christmas Eve" is full of tender sympathy and with skillful treatment of interior light. By the same artist are "Autumn Landscape" and "Sunday at Tibirke Church."

[747] - Landscape and marine subjects, sketches of farm and woodland, animals and browsing herds form the bulk of the Danish collection, with few mythological, genre, or still-life studies. "Autumn" is the only contribution from Thorvald Niss, one of the foremost of Denmark�s artists, than whom none know better how to reveal the hidden beauties of northern forests and rivers. It is a subdued and profoundly restful scene, well worthy of a man who has been honored at the international exhibitions of Paris, London, and Vienna. Skovgaard the elder, also a noted painter of woodland scenery, is not represented; but from his son is a well executed picture of a Swedish forest on a windy autumn day, with russet vista of foliage and murky atmosphere in which "trees with aged arms are warring." By the same artist is a weird and elfish fantasy entitled "The Goblins� Forest." Paulsen, in his "View of a Plain of Denmark," has a miniature study of the flat country, varied only by a fringe of trees and the shadows of passing clouds. In this quiet and diminutive painting, so small as almost to be overlooked, the suggestion of distance and depth is conveyed with remarkable condensation of space. Another unpretentious canvas is Elise Konstantin-Hansen�s "An Oat Field," with a flaxen-haired lad in the foreground, his head just rising above the grain as he watches a bird swooping down on his left. Worthy of note also are Bikvist�s "The Weather Clearing After the Rain" and Mols� "Rainy Weather" and "October Day."

In marine and fishing scenes the Danish section is especially strong. Carl Locher�s "November Night on the North Sea" shows the moon shining upon troubled waters, through which a steamer is ploughing its way, with skillfully suggested movement of the laboring vessel, the drifting clouds, and threatening waves. His "Glacier of Oefjelds" is a bold and skillfully colored reproduction of Icelandic scenery. "Gale on the West Coast of Jutland" is a small but finely executed canvas by Oscar Matthieson, whose animal painting, presently to be described, is one of the treasures of the Danish collection. "A Storm Brewing," by Hans Dall, is one of the best of its class, as also is his evening landscape scene, both on the coast of Zealand. Still another storm is portrayed in Carstensen�s picture of a sailing ship lurching heavily as she runs before the sea. In contrast with these is La Cour�s "View of the Sea on a Calm Spring Day," with jutting headlands in the shore line, ocean and sky meeting on the gray horizon, and all enshrouded in mist, save where the green-tinted waves are rippling toward the pebbly beach. In Viggo Pedersen�s canvases, one of them a marine sunset, are almost the [748] only traces of impressionism, which finds little favor among Danish artists. Thorolf Pedersen, in his "Tempest," has a boat riding at anchor inside a breakwater, against which the waves are dashing angrily. "Shipwrecked Sailors on the Sea" is a powerful but gruesome composition by Rasmussen, who also exhibits his "Summer Night on the Coast of Iceland." The former represents a boat drifting aimlessly amid tropic waters under a tropic sky, its sail hanging against the mast and the helmsman neglecting his rudder. A sailor is supporting a dying woman, and another lies dead in the boat, his hand hanging limp over the side. Overhead sea-birds are screaming, and the waters are alive with sharks, whose fins appear above the surface, one of them turning to seize its prey - the hand of the lifeless sailor.

In fishing scenes there are none to be preferred to Ancher�s "Fishermen Returning Home." As a figure painter, especially of fisher folk, he has few superiors, his plastic modelling, bold delineation, and symphony of coloring showing a perfect mastery of his art. In his "Winter Day at the Village Shopkeeper�s" is a group of weather-beaten tars in oil-skins and tarpaulins, their faces tanned with exposure and deep potations of rum. Matthiesen�s "Cart Horses by the Seine" is a powerful animal painting, one of the horses being in angry controversy with the driver, while the other listens with knowing look. But here is something more than an animal painting, reproducing, as it does, the atmosphere of Paris, with its long vista of bridges and reaches of river in admirable perspective. The entire work would appear to be an acknowledgment of the artist�s obligations to the capital of art, where his training was largely received. Therkildsen�s "Frightened Horses" is also an excellent picture, especially in suggestion of movement. Otto Haslund�s "Interior of a Stable," in which are the heads of cows, shows vigor of delineation.

Of historic paintings the one best worthy of note is Matthiesen�s "Giffenfeldt as a Prisoner at Munkholm," describing how this worthy minister and chief-justice of Denmark, unjustly accused of treason, devoted to the teaching of children the weary years of his incarceration. Two willing pupils are at his side, and through the deep shadow cast athwart the dungeon walls comes a streak of yellow light from its barred and narrow casement, illumining the sad worn features of the unfortunate statesman. In mythology, Helsted�s "The Judgment of Paris" is but a commonplace representation of this well-worn theme, one that would appear to have been selected merely as an excuse for a depiction of the nude. The three goddesses have little of beauty or grace of form; nor does it appear why they should be standing naked in an open field before a youth whose [749] only resemblance to the son of Priam is his pointed Phrygian cap. "The Deluge," by Jerndorff, is a realistic, if not an attractive composition, with conventional treatment adhering to the scriptural story, the ground work filled with writhing figures of swarthy complexion, above which appears the offended deity in dark blue mantle, enthroned amid the clouds. As the antithesis to this subject is "The Jews in the Wilderness," with its army of thirsting Israelites gasping under a broiling sun, while far in the distance the leader smites the rock whence flow the living waters.

Scandinavian art as represented at the Fair is almost a revelation to the majority of visitors, most of whom for the first time compared with those of other nationalities the works of Swedish and Norwegian masters. As in the Danish galleries, there are many paintings original in conception and with abundant vitality of treatment, too often overbalanced by faulty coloring and want of taste. While inclining to impressionism there is also a strong individual tone, and especially in landscapes and other outdoor scenes. Such works are never shallow, and if harsh in composition, bear evidences of a healthy and progressive movement. Here, as in the Dutch section, genre paintings are among the best on exposition; but these we must judge from the Scandinavian point of view; from life as it is among this simple, home-loving people. Next to these perhaps are marine pictures, those at least contained in Norway�s galleries; for of the men of Norway a large proportion almost live upon the sea, and especially are their legends rich in stories of the fjords and of the main.

To Anders L. Zorn, the Swedish commissioner of Fine Arts, is conceded a foremost rank among his brethren of the craft. His training was received almost entirely at the Swedish academy at Stockholm, though he has lived much in Paris and closely studied French methods, especially those of Monet. In the salons his works are familiar as those of a clever and versatile artist, one perfectly at home in genre landscape portraiture, and all other subjects to which he turns his brush, treating them with masterly touch and strong virility of style, though somewhat opaque as to coloring. While his subjects are seldom new or serious, his delineation is strikingly original, giving even to the commonplace the wealth of expression characteristic of his more ambitious themes. In his "Omnibus," for instance, the crowded interior with its typical work-a-day passengers is depicted with startling realism. And so with his "Ball," with its whirling figures, representing only a higher stratum of the commonplace. The work is full of animation, with crispness of outline giving emphasis to the expression of features and form, and yet with due restraint. At its side were placed his "Forest Study" and "Sunset." The former represents an undraped figure which might be that of a nymph or a spirit of the woods, but that she appears to have [750] lost her way and stands bewildered among the luxuriant forest growth. The form is well modelled, after its kind, and is brought into strong relief by the play of sunbeams glancing through interlacing branches; but it is altogether too sensuous for a symbolic theme; so that we wonder what the young woman is doing there, posing for the nude amid classic woodland groves.

The same remark applies in a measure to his "Sunset" and "Summer," in the former of which the figure is absolutely repulsive, marring the effect of what would else be a pleasing and artistic composition; for the sunlit waters of the fjord are painted with a master�s touch. Zorn appears to better advantage when he drapes his figures, as is seen in his "Margrit" and other of his works. The "Fair in Mora," a transcript from Swedish life, gives full expression to his power of observation and of placing on canvas that which he observes. The fair is over, and farmers in their rough country vehicles are setting their faces homeward. Off the roadside lies a man in a drunken stupor, and seated near him in the foreground is his patient sorrowing wife.

Among Bruno Liljefors� studies of animal life, his "Hawks� Nest" and "Foxes" show remarkable vigor of execution, with technical qualities not to be found in other schools. The nest is on the branch of a tree in the foreground, and at its edge the parent bird, superbly painted, with arched neck and gleaming yellow eyes, is holding a rabbit before his little ones, as they rise with eager cry and bills wide open, each intent on securing its share of the feast. The other is a woodland scene; and beautiful indeed is the effect, with the gray light silvering the aged trunks of trees, around which are fallen leaves suggestive of autumn tide. Over the top rail of a fence a fox is springing in pursuit of his prey, and another is crouching beneath, their dun-red fur and stealthy supple figures rendered with excellent effect. "Return of the Wild Geese" is a fine combination of bird and landscape painting, these harbingers of spring arriving while the snow still lingers on the ground amid the chill colorless light of this hyperborean clime. "A Swedish Fairy Tale," by Carl Larsson, is somewhat of the Jack-the-giant-killer type, showing "the boy who filled the ogre, married the princess, and was rewarded with half the kingdom," in leather apron and cap, with sword across his shoulder. The princess is a quaint little damsel, with a crown on her braided hair and the ogre�s head in her lap. "Ulf in the Sunset" is a fanciful sketch by the same artist, who has also a finely executed portrait painting of the members of his family.

Landscapes and sketches are abundant, and among them are works by Prince Eugen, one representing a sunny glimpse of scenery and another a gaudy kiosk in a setting of many-colored tints. Near by Hasselberg has a bronze bust of the prince, the third son of the king of Sweden. While some of the compositions are marked by impressionism of an aggravated type, it is for the most part rather the artist�s impression, [751] modifying what would else appear to him as over accurate transcription of nature. This may be noticed, for instance, in Nordstrom�s "The Yellow House," half concealed amid the glowing sunlight by the straggling branches of trees; and in his night scene, where is a white steamboat gliding past silent homes, its lights faintly revealing the placid motion of the waters. Nils Kreuger has some pleasing subjects, especially the "Winter Idyl," with mist-wreathed ships amid a dappled, slow-heaving sea. Portraiture, genre, and other themes are fairly represented, and there are small collections of water colors, engravings, etchings, and drawings.

In sculpture, one of the gems of the Swedish galleries is Hasselberg�s plaster statue of "The Snowdrop," in which the idea is symbolized in a form of virginal innocence, undraped, but pure as the flower whose name it bears. The arms are raised as though to support the drooping head; the lips slightly parted, and the closed eyelids tremulously uplifted toward the sunlight, the entire theme suggesting the motion of a snowflake, and its loss of identity as it nears the drift toward which it is falling. Eriksson�s "Carl von Linne," in plaster relief, represents the great naturalist looking at a fresh-plucked flower, and in a niche above, a figure about to crown him with a wreath. The attitude is graceful, and the benign, intellectual features of Linnaeus are reproduced with singular truthfulness of expression. This work, it may here be said, was purchased for presentation to the Chicago Art Institute. Borjesson�s bronze group of "The Brothers" represents two naked boys, the elder, with bat and ball, standing erect above the other with an air of manly self-confidence, and the younger, with bow and arrow, leaning against him as though for protection. It is a simple subject, but striking in its simplicity, and almost classic in dignity of treatment.

Norway has but a small group of statuary, in which are represented only four of her sculptors, of whom two are women. In landscape and marine subjects this section is especially strong, and though some of them are stiff and with too much intensity of coloring, they are nearer to life than would appear to the casual observer; for in the "land of the midnight sun," with its brief summer season, nature depicts with lavish hand her rich but sombre hues, and in these dark fir forests are none of the lighter tints of our own woodland glades. "From Rondane" is the most finished of the group of landscapes displayed by Otto Sinding, one of a well-known family of artists, his sister, Johanna, having two plaster casts in the Norwegian galleries, and his brother, Stephen, one of the finest paintings in the Danish collection. "The Glacier" and "A Misty Morning" are also excellent compositions, the latter showing a herd of cattle on a hillside, over which the mist is slowly creeping. "Wreckers" is a realistic and finely executed painting, with its angry waves breaking against a rock-bound coast, and brave men [753] risking life and limb as they drag ashore the bodies and whatever else is left from the wreck. In lighter vein is "From Lofoden," with its summer sea and miraculous draught of fishes. Here, as I have said, is one of the most prolific of fishing-grounds, the daily catch being telegraphed all over the kingdom, as in the United States is recorded the visible supply of grain.

By Adelsten Normann the same subject is partially treated, with the midnight sun playing on the waters, a yellow sky, and a shore of brown and gray. "North Wind," by this artist, is a graphic delineation of the romantic scenery of the Norwegian coast. Another "Midsummer Night" is by Gustav Wentzel, with figures standing at a garden gate, and in the background the sheen of foliage illumined by golden hues. "Leif Ericksson Discovers America," by Christian Krohg, is full of life and motion and in the main well worthy of its subject. Little of the vessel is shown, and that little is almost identical with the Viking, as she lay off Jackson Park, herself a reproduction of the craft unearthed by a sailor in 1879, near the port of Sandefjord. As she speeds through the troubled waters, the waves dashing over her, Eriksson stands surrounded by his crew, with one hand on the tiller and the other pointing shoreward to the rock-bound coast.

Among the strongest works in portraiture are Petersen�s likeness of Alexander Kielland, Gude�s Henrik Ibsen, and Werenskiold�s Bjornstjerne Bjornson and his mother, the former also portrayed in a bust by Skeibrok. "Bathing Boys" is a lively sketch by Hans Heyerdahl, among whose paintings is a large variety of themes. In his "Oui ou Non" are the figures of a young man and maiden walking along a country road, the former having put the momentous question and eagerly awaiting the response. It is the old subject, old but ever new, and here treated in a style far above the usual mediocrity of these depictured episodes. That the girl is about to say "yes" is evident to all but the bashful youth at her side. She is holding him well in hand, for she is an experienced coquette, and there are no signs of yielding in those mischievous, blue-gray, northern eyes. So at least it appears to her lover, whose perturbation is admirably portrayed. Mythological and fairy legends are well represented, the latter especially by Gerhard Munthe, in whose compositions is a strong element of the grotesque. There is "The Wicked Stepmother" turning her daughters into trees, with their little brother wailing at their side. Cinderella is here, and the wise bird that talked to the king, with the princes who were turned into bears and as bears remained faithful to their mistresses. And so with a long category of fairy tales, all of which are [754] treated with quaint and fanciful touch. In other vein is his "Evening in Eggedal," a romantic and yet restful landscape study.

Arbo�s "Uolkyrie" is a powerful conception, showing the daughter of Woden speeding earthward to clasp in her arms a warrior slain on the battlefield. To bear to heaven the spirits of the brave was the special mission of the Valkyria, and here is a goddess divinely fair, her golden tresses streaming in the wind as she guides her fire-breathing steed adown the clouds. One of the most attractive paintings in this section is Skredsvig�s "The Son of Man," a localized version of the subject, but one treated with respect, and with none of the repulsive features observed in Jean Beraud�s "The Descent from the Cross" in the French galleries. Nevertheless the theme is sufficiently modernized. Attired in national garb, Christ is entering a Norwegian village, far in the Kjolen mountains. It is eventide, and the people are thronging around him with tokens of welcome, bringing their sick to be made whole. In the centre stands the nineteenth century messiah, a young man with reddish beard and shabby workman�s attire, one hand rested, as though in blessing, on the head of a little child and the other holding a hat much the worse for wear. In the foreground are the minister and two of the village functionaries, discussing, as it seems, his right to preach, as did the Pharisees of old. To the orthodox this interpretation of the Savior in common laborer�s dress, instead of flowing robes, may be somewhat of a shock; but after all it was in the costume of his day that Christ was depictured by the earlier masters, and in the expression both of features and figure is no want of reverential treatment.

To say of a collection of paintings that it is marred by excess of strength may appear somewhat of a paradox; yet if the truth be told, this is what must be said of the Russian paintings, another fault in which is their phenomenal dimensions, so that looking for the first time on these mammoth canvases, we are thankful the exhibit is a small one, for a few such would have exhausted the entire space at the disposal of the management. The best feature in the collection, most of which is from the Imperial academy, is that it deals largely with national subjects, and if only it dealt with them in a true artistic spirit would form a most interesting and valuable collection. From a Russian point of view it is doubtless of excellent quality; but art is universal, and works of art cannot be judged by the tenets and methods of a single school. In this super-abundance of energy, too often accompanied with faulty modelling and coloring, there is the intention rather than the embodiment of art. The principal merit lies in the truthful telling of the story, the absolute and unflinching realism which transcribes on canvas the living subject or the impression which the painter has [755] formed of it. With the intense vitality of treatment natural to one of his perfervid imagination, the Russian artist strives mainly after brilliant effects and cares little for more delicate shades of expression. Nor is there anything of the suggested meaning to be read in the works of the great masters. But to these remarks there are not a few exceptions, as will be noted in some of the pictures selected for review.

One of the strongest paintings and an excellent illustration of the striking realism of the Russian school, is "The Cossack�s Answer," by Repine, a contribution from the galleries of the tzar. The scene is a Cossack encampment, where the leader of a savage horde is preparing his reply to a demand for their immediate surrender. It is a defiant answer that he is making, as appears from the swart-visaged soldiery standing around with shouts of approval and boisterous, derisive mockery. The figures are skillfully grouped and not over-colored; their rude garb carefully detailed, and the facial expression perfect of its kind. On one after another of these coarse and brutal features, varied yet similar in type, the eye rests with a sense of unwilling fascination, but turns away without regret. It is a repulsive subject; but it is a masterpiece.

[756] - One of the most famous of Russian paintings, and one of the largest is Siemiradsky�s "Phryne," another contribution from the tzar. But though with strong virility of conception and execution, it is rather a spectacular than an artistic composition, with lavishness, not to say garishness of coloring. Life-like and natural are these figures in their eastern drapery, especially those which are grouped in the middle and foreground against a deep blue sea and sky, their gaze fixed upon the courtesan, who appears on a sunlit terrace, partially disrobed before a garlanded shrine, in personation of Venus. But there is hardly a trace of the poetic treatment which the subject invites; merely a theme elaborated with patient, conscientious labor and research, stiff in sentiment and overwrought as to expression. That Siemiradsky can do better than this must be inferred from his high repute as an artist; but he has not done so in his "Christ in the House of Lazurus." Here also the personages are well delineated, with play of light and shade on the vine-clad arbor under which the carpenter�s son is seated, while in the distance sunlit clouds canopy the cypress groves and the darkening hills. The eyes of the Christ are bent on Mary�s enraptured face, as she sits at his feet, listening eagerly to his words, while Martha regards her sister with impatient gaze. But the rapture is somewhat feebly portrayed, as also is the divinity of aspect in the central figure. This may be a fair interpretation of Slavic art; but it is not art in its higher sense.

Among historic paintings one of the best is Kivschenko�s "Military Council at Fily in 1812," It is the eve of the battle of the Moskva; Napoleon has arrived in sight of the capital, and Prince Kutusof and other Russian generals here portrayed are carefully laying their plans; but on the morrow will find themselves no match for the great captain. "The Escape of Gregory Otrepieff," as described by Miasoiedoff, is full of life and action, showing how this pretender to the throne, arrested while travelling in disguise, saved himself by leaping out of an open window, after stabbing one of his captors. A similar theme is Peroff�s "Pugatchoff, the Personator of Peter III," with a group of cringing figures around his throne, while others look on in doubt. Worthy of note are Novoskolzeff�s "Last Minutes of the Metropolitan Philip," Tchistiakoff�s "Grand Duchess Sophia Vitofftovna," and Bronnikoff�s "Christian Martyr," where Roman mercenaries are feasting and making sport of the victim, who kneels in prayer at their side. A well told story on canvas is Willewald�s "You Today, and I Tomorrow," where a soldier is pointing a gun at the heart of his wounded steed, as though about to end his sufferings.

Columbian themes are represented in the Russian section by Aivazovsky, from whose fertile brush are nearly a score of paintings, most of them marines and none of them very remarkable, except for luminosity of hue. In one of the pictures Columbus is surrounded by his mutinous crew, the Santa Maria rolling heavily in a foam-flecked emerald sea, a color which ocean never wears when lashed by storm. Its best expression [757] is in the massing of the waves, their sweep and curve, their force and impact, tossed by the winds and uplifted by the swell into mountainous crests.

Landscapes are not numerous, and among them there are none more true to nature than Endoguroff�s "Early Spring" and "Heavy Rain," the latter almost painful in its realism, the subject merely a river flowing through a wide and level plain on which the flood-gates of heaven are unloosed. "The New Moon" and "A July Morning" by Kratchkovsky are faithful sketches, and Golumsky�s "Mushroom Gatherers Taking a Rest" is a life-like combination of sunny landscape and peasant figures.

In portraiture and figure paintings one of the strongest conceptions is Sedoff�s "Vasilisa Melentievna," where Ivan the Terrible is gazing with an expression of tenderness and regret on the sleeping form of his mistress. From Kramskoy there are two academy paintings, and a pleasing sketch by Litovschenko is that of the Italian embassador, Calvuci, drawing the favorite falcons of the tzar. Of Constantin Makovsky�s subjects the most ambitious is "The Bride�s Attire," where a young woman is preparing or rather being prepared for her wedding. The long dark braid of hair is being parted and closely bound to the head as befits a matron, and around her stand the friends of the family, full of harmless gossip and garrulity. "A Bacchanal" by the same artist is one of the few mythologic themes in the Russian section, with Dionysus as the central figure amid a group of nymphs and satyrs. In his "Romeo and Juliet," though fairly executed, the figures are stiff and wooden, and it is at best but a sickly love-making.

Scattered among the more pretentious works are pictures of home and everyday life, in pleasing contrast with the highly wrought and sensuous paintings which surround them. Never has motherly love been more truly expressed than in Ivan Pelevin�s "The First Born." It is a woman of the people; but love knows no distinctions of class or condition, and these homely features are almost radiant with beauty, filling the room with light as she looks down on the babe in her arms. In Trovoshnikoff�s "Grandmother and Granddaughter," where an aged woman is trudging through the snow, with a young girl slightly in advance, there is also a vein of pathos which has won the hearts of many admirers. Even more strongly does Zagorsky appeal to our sympathies in his "Broken Heart," where a daughter turns to her mother for comfort as she reveals her tale of sorrow. In "He Loves Me - He Loves Me Not," Shuravieff tells the story of a maiden testing the faithfulness of her lover by counting the petals of a daisy as a nun might count the beads on her rosary. Neatly also has he portrayed "The Family of a Street Musician" and "Haymakers at Rest." Under the title of "Easter Hallowe�en" Pimonenko shows two young maidens with eager, hopeful faces, watching for a signal from the unseen which shall convince them to the fidelity of their sweethearts. Vladimir Makovsky�s "Public Market in Moscow," while not an inviting study is an accurate reproduction of its subject. Kivschenko�s "Assorting Feathers," though a small canvas, is a large picture, with remarkable condensation of space, the rich purple tones not over-colored but adding rather to its attractive qualities. Bodarevsky�s [758] "Wedding in Little Russia" represents a group of peasants in a marriage procession paying their respects to the landlord of the estate, and in other sketches there are well drawn figures of country folk.

A noticeable feature is the air of sadness depicted in scenes of Russian life, even in those which portray its more cheerful phases. Thus in "Sunday in a Village," by Dmitrieff-Orenbursky, where peasants are trying to make merry, we can see that they are only trying, and with indifferent success. Even in scenes of revelry, it is a coarse and brutal revelry that is expressed, one sad to look upon, with its uncouth attitudes and bloated features. Such are Jacoby�s "Ice Palace," where is a glimpse of the old time festivities of the Russian court, [760] and some where gross dissipation is more strongly portrayed. Of other repulsive aspects of Russian life a few illustrations will suffice. In one of Kuznezoff�s paintings "The Justice of the Peace" is seated in his droschky, conversing with an officer, and gazing sternly at a group of abject peasantry, standing with uncovered heads as they await the decision which may turn them out of house and home. "The Tzar�s Bounty" is being distributed, as Klodt Von Jurgensburg portrays it, among a number of prisoners, some cringing on their knees and others with feet in the stocks as they receive their scanty dole of bread. Bobroff, in his "Erzkus Herzke - A Jew from Kovna," seems to concentrate all the craft and misery of the race in these greedy, cunning, distressful features. "The Narva Roads," by Mestchersky, is a powerful tale of misery, and so with other subjects, where the morbid and gloomy tones of Russian life and Russian art are all too faithfully depicted.

A few water colors and a couple of carvings complete the Russian collection, except for its statuary, of which there are less than a score of pieces with only four exhibitors. Gunzburg has several statuettes, of "The Bathing Boys," and a clever study of "The First Music" represented in the figure of a boy. Beklemischeff sends his "Runaway Slave," for which he received a gold medal at an Italian exhibition, and there are pleasing compositions by Maria Dillon, whose subjects are "Bliss" and "Caprice," the latter personified by an angry child who has thrown her doll on the floor and is about to hurl her slipper after it.

In connection with Russian art may be mentioned the exhibit of the Society of Polish Artists, which is deserving of better treatment than it received at the hands of the management, scattered as it is among the galleries, alcoves, and stairways of the Art building. Zmurko, its most celebrated painter, has six of his canvases on view, all showing his facile and effective method of treatment, but raw and opaque in coloring, as for the most part are the rest of his school. "A Lady in Fur" is one of his best, the clear sharp outlines showing to excellent advantage his light and nimble touch. So also where he depicts a beautiful woman and a handsome youth under the influence of hasheesh, their faces radiant with beatific visions. "Mephistopheles� Serenade" is one of the best of the six canvases exhibited by Maszynski. Maleszewski�s "Death of an Exiled Woman in Siberia" is a powerful study, but overloaded with pigments. A better color scheme is noticed in Kendzierski�s picture of "A Rustic Astronomer," where a youth sits with eyes upturned toward the crescent moon. Ryszkiewicz� "Cossacks" is a clever composition, with mounted scouts descending a hillside toward a broad valley partially enveloped in shadow. Popiel�s "After the Storm" shows a field of levelled grain, with the owner and his wife gazing ruefully on the scene of desolation.

Of all the galleries in the palace of Fine Arts few were examined with greater interest or closer scrutiny than those of Japan, a nation of artists in their way, no less than the French, especially in carvings, tapestry, and feather work, with their marvellous elaboration of design. The collection was [761] installed with a view to secure the best effect, and with little attempt at classification, the brilliant drapery of red and white around a star-shaped centre contrasting strangely with the sombre tones of Holland�s adjacent section. The entranceway is guarded on one side by a large bronze eagle, with thousands of feathers engraved with many thousands of lines, and one the other by a protecting deity or warrior who might be a Japanese St. George. It is hung with a tapestry of silk chrysanthemums, beyond which is a bas-relief of dragons in clouds, and a huge gorilla carved in cherry-wood. In the vestibule is a model of the temple of Yasaka in Kyoto, one-sixtieth of the actual size and a most delicate piece of workmanship. Near it is the goddess of mercy, whose name is Kwannon, carved in ivory, richly bejewelled, and with lotus in hand. Before passing through the portieres may also be noticed a picture of a group of carp. It is by Nogchi Yukok, one of the foremost painters of the flowery land.

Entering the chambers, which are filled but not crowded with treasures, we find among the tapestries a wall hanging of a Nikko festival procession from a Kyota artist, Jimbee Kawashima by name. In its 260 feet of superficial area there is not a vacant inch of space, and here is represented the two years� task of scores of weavers, toiling in relays by night and day without a moment�s intermission. The scene is a temple with surrounding structures, approached by terraced groves from which is a long array of massive steps. There are more than 1,000 figures in the procession, all executed with wonderful precision, especially as to their masks and vestments, and with oriental richness of coloring. Of most finished workmanship are the embroideries designed as wall-hangings, screens, and panels, with figures of landscape scenery, festival processions, flowers, birds, and animals.

Chikdo Kishi, a Kioto artist of renown, takes for one of his subjects a duel between a kite and a crow, with another bird looking on in placid indifference. The scene is portrayed in graphic tones, as also is the wintry chill of the atmosphere which surrounds it. His "Tiger" is also an excellent study, especially from a country where there are no tigers, Kishi, it is said, rejecting four pictures of tigers, before he could find one worthy of his brush, and then working at it with such a frenzy of inspiration that his reason became unsettled, and he imagined himself transformed into a beast of prey. Animal life is a favorite theme with Japanese painters and one in which they excel. Among others of merit is Seitei Watanabe�s "Roosters on a Cart," the cart standing in the snow and the figures well portrayed, at least to our western fancy. Beisen Kubota, who received a gold medal at the Paris Exposition of 1889, has a finely executed picture of eagles catching a rabbit. In Keinen Imao�s "Monkey Running from an Eagle," [763] the fright of the monkey is admirably depicted, as from an overhanging branch he has fallen gibbering to the ground, paralyzed with terror.

With human figures the Japanese are less successful, and especially in battle scenes, where their warriors are anything but warlike, though scowling at each other with a malignity of expression that is suggestive of a long sojourn in the lowest of the lower regions. The gaudy trappings of their steeds are far more conspicuous than the horses themselves, which are often tangled in a bunch and overweighted by their mail-clad riders, every link and thread of their armor being reproduced with wearisome fidelity of detail. Shinsai Ikeda takes for his theme the battle of Kawanakajima, which was fought in the province of Sinano, far back in the days when the daimios held divided sway with the mikado. In another canvas is depicted the overthrow of a vast insurgent horde by a handful of men under command of a royalist general, who afterward killed himself in further token of his loyalty. In a third is described the prowess of Maeda Inuchiyo, the Samson of the Japanese, who lived, as the legend has it, for 300 years. One of the best of the figure paintings is Gyoksho Kawabata�s "Toy Seller," where a group of children is gathered around a tiny counter laden with playthings, while the itinerant merchant, benigh of aspect, is playing his flute to entice their custom. Among the best of the landscape scenes are those which depict the mist-veiled summit of the sacred mountain Fuji-san. Gaho Hashimoto has also a pleasing "Landscape in Misty Morning," and there are others of unquestionable merit.

From the workshop of the late Hayashi Tadamasa, of Tokyo, is a collection of 100 pieces of solid color porcelains, representing the latest results of his ten years� toil and numberless experiments in the hope of reviving one of the lost arts of China and Japan. They were prepared especially for the Exposition, and the effort cost him his life; for he died from physical prostration a few weeks after the last of his specimens were completed. Kozan Miyagawa has, in the older style of porcelains, a yellow vase with dark colored flowers, and another wave-pattered and with figures of dragons under the glaze. Of priceless value is the celadon vase, adorned with delicate plum blossoms by Yohei Seifu, who also displays a white vase decorated with peonies. From Shirozayemon Suzuki come the three largest pieces of cloisonne enamel work that have ever been fashioned. Two of them are vases, and the third an incense-burner, the former nearly nine feet high, designed for exhibition, and costing more than two years of labor. Their figures of birds and animals are symbolic of the seasons and the virtues, and are also of national significance; the dragon typifying China; the [764] eagles, Russia; the group of chickens, the Korean islands; and the rising sun, the empire of Japan. On the top are red and white stripes inlaid with silver stars, with chrysanthemums and other floral devices emblematic of the friendship existing between Japan and the United States.

The sculptures and carvings are strong features in the Japanese sections. In Suzuki�s bronze group of falcons and Otake�s bronze rooster, perched on a hollow stump, with a hen and chicken below, the feathers are wonderfully wrought, especially in the rooster�s sweeping tail. Among the wood carvings is Takamra�s baboon, clutching in rage the feathers of a bird that has escaped him. Another is Takenouchi�s "Chinese Buddhist Sage," whose dignified and reposeful attitude are in strong contrast with Yamada�s "Wrestler," with his strained muscles and coarse brutal features. In lacquer work there are boxes, tables, and writing cases such as only the Japanese can make, most of them beautifully decorated. Worthy of note also are the tablets inlaid and engraved with metals in a style peculiar to the Japanese. A plaque representing a flock of herons among the reeds is from the hand of Natsuo Kano, an acknowledged master of this branch of art.

Thus the west joins hands with the east in this exhibition of art from all the nations, its contributions gathered from every country where art has made its home; westward from St. Petersburg to San Francisco, and southward from the land of the midnight sun to the regions which lie beneath the southern cross. By those who have compared the Japanese collections with such as were displayed at Paris in 1889, and at Philadelphia, it is admitted that in none of the schools are there stronger evidences of improvement. In the higher branches of art Japan bids fair to compete with more cultured communities, as even now she does in its application to many purposes of common utility; for nowhere is the artistic faculty more strongly developed or more earnestly cultivated.

World�s Fair Miscellany - In the Art galleries there are in all 10,040 exhibits, of which 1,093 are sculptures, medallions, carvings, etc.; 4,647 are paintings in oil and 951 are water colors, with 1,141 engravings and etchings, 717 drawings and pastels, 186 decorative art works, and 802 architectural subjects; these including minor classifications, as carvings and paintings on ivory, enamel, and porcelain. The United States has 3,034 specimens; France, 1,200; Great Britain, 1,105; Germany, 881; Italy, 540; Spain, 411; Holland, 332; Austria, 166, and Russia, 133. More than 2,000 artists from nearly all civilized nations in the world were represented in the exhibition; and that the number was not still larger was due merely to want of space. With rare exceptions the space applied for was largely reduced, though in the final allotment foreign applicants were most liberally treated. Thus to France were awarded 33,400 square feet, or within some 1,200 feet of the area set apart for the United States. Germany and Great Britain received each more than 20,000 feet; Holland, 9,300, and Russia, 7,700. The picture line was 30 inches from the floor, the works being arranged up to 15 feet above it except in a few of the smaller galleries.

The reproduction of historic bronzes in the Italian section was made by one of the most expert workers in bronze, under the personal supervision of the director of the national museum at Naples. These are said to be the first copies taken from the originals, and are so skillfully executed that, as I have said, they can hardly be detected as counterfeits. On account of their artistic and educational value they were classified in this department, other reproductions in metal being relegated to the Manufactures� division. The collection was sold to the St. Louis museum of fine arts.

As to Holland�s choice exhibition the following remarks may be of interest. They are from Hubert Vos, a court painter, acting commissioner of Fine Arts, and himself well represented in this section: "From the land of Rembrandt," he says, "has been sent a most complete and representative collection of Dutch art. The artists of Holland have the reputation of being the greatest draughtsmen. After a decay of fifty years Holland has been enjoying for ten or fifteen years past an epoch of unequalled splendor and magnificence in her art, and one of the peculiar features of the exhibit here will be that each picture will tell its own complete story - a story of Holland�s meadows or its windmills, its canals or quaint old towns and cities on the Zuyder Zee. Others will tell of the simple, honest rustic and the lives of the soldiers, while still others will show the great sea, the greatest of Holland�s enemies. Little care the painters of Holland about archaeology or past historical events or the restoration of something dramatic or theatrical. They do not seek their inspiration from books or the stage. They tell with unequalled depth and emotion the sometimes sad and sometimes gay but always peaceful story of Holland life. It is somewhat curious, but nevertheless a fact, that seventy of the seventy-five painters who exhibit in the Holland art section have reputations extending all over Europe, and the works of at least twenty-five are to be found in all the great galleries. Such names as Mesdag, the three Maris brothers, Neuhuys, Henkes, Gabriel, Roelofs, De Haas, De Bock, and De Zwart are known to painters the world over, while the name of Jozef Israels is a veneration and an inspiration. His famous picture, "Alone in the World," has been lent, along with many other great works, from the Mesdag collection. And, by the way, the Mesdag private collection is one of the greatest in the world, being valued at something more than $1,000,000."

It has been regretted that Switzerland is not represented in the Art galleries. A choice section was offered for the purpose but refused, and further action was postponed until all the space had been awarded. For Henneberg and sons� panorama of the Bernese Alps, executed by several artists, a medal was awarded; but though properly belonging to the department of Fine Arts, the panorama was displayed in the Midway plaisance, and hence will be noticed in that connection.

As to the artistic value of the Japanese collection the following are in substance the remarks of an artist who inspected the exhibit at Tokyo, before it was shipped to Chicago: "There can be little doubt that in their display of weaving tapestries, embroideries, and the like, the Japanese contributions will win the most unqualified praise. It is difficult to decide whether the higher award of praise should be given to textile products or to decorative metal work. Feminine eulogy will doubtless be lavished on the marvels in silks and velvets; but the achievements of workers in metal will attract a closer study from critical observers. Among the various methods that which takes the foremost rank is known as Kala-Kiri-Bori, and has the peculiarity that, while no part of the design stands in relief, the lines are cut in varying depth and thickness, so as to produce effects in light and shade conveying similar expressions in their way to those of drawings by pencil or brush. Of this the best specimen is by Natsuo, a veteran artist and the acknowledged leader of his school. The reputation of Japan for lacquer work will be largely enhanced by this superb exhibition, which contains so many beautiful objects that the eye is bewildered in seeking to fix the order of precedence."