STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 155 



the people have manifested by their free criticisms and pronounced 

 judgments an artistic sense and taste which speaks volumes for popu- 

 lar art culture, and the progress which is being made by true art 

 among the people. It is plainly evident that the artists of this State 

 and the art collection institutes have entered upon the right path in 

 this matter of more frequent and free public exhibits of art works. 

 The result has been an elevation of the public taste, cultivation of 

 the natural love for the beautiful, and an inquiry into the realm of 

 art by thousands who, but for the awakening induced by such exhi- 

 bitions as that now in the art gallery, would never have risen to a 

 consideration of art matters at all. In eighteen hundred and seventy- 

 nine, the first real art exhibition under the direction of experienced 

 art directors, took place in connection with the annual expositions of 

 the State Agricultural Society. The success of that exhibition, the 

 popular appreciation with which it met, induced its repetition this 

 year. The gallery is temporary, and includes the west balcony of the 

 Pavilion, which is covered in and admirably arranged for the pur- 

 poses intended. The exhibition is under the direction of J. R. Mar- 

 tin, Assistant Secretary of San Francisco Art Association and School 

 of Design. The pictures were nearly all hung under his direction, 

 and he has, by authority of the State Board of Agriculture, general 

 charge of the exhibition. The exhibits were secured by the society 

 appropriating the sum of six hundred dollars to be distributed 

 among the exhibitors according to a plan which abolishes the "first 

 and second premium" idea, which, when applied to art work, is sim- 

 ply farcical in a State Fair, and instead of that plan, provides for such 

 an equitable distribution of the money, according to merit of exhibit, 

 as shall compensate the artists, at least in part, for making the ex- 

 hibits, and thus eliminates the objectionable feature that heretofore 

 was prominent, to wit: that one artist was superior to another, or his 

 work better or worse than another, because of the amount of money 

 awarded as a "premium," according to the judgment of any com- 

 mittee that a directory might hastily pick up. Most of the pictures 

 were solicited from artists or owners by Mr. Martin, and are from pri- 

 vate studios and the Art Association rooms at San Francisco. 



The works in the oil painting department are : The Chamois Hun- 

 ter, by Charles Prosch, of San Francisco. Two mediaeval figures, by 

 Mrs. Joe Strong, of San Francisco. Two pieces, fruit and flowers, by 

 Mrs. J. H. Lewis, Sacramento. The Perils of Prospecting, by W. R. 

 Freeman, of Sacramento. Portrait of Washington, by Charles Prosch, 

 of San Francisco. Still Life; fruit and grapes; View in Gulf of 

 Spezio ; Landscape; Marine View; and Still Life, oysters, fruit, etc — 

 all by Henry Clenewerck, of San Francisco. Autumn scene — White 

 Mountains, by Fred. Schafer, of San Francisco. Harbor of Elsinore 

 by Moonlight, and the Arrival of General Grant at San Francisco, 

 by W. A. Coulter. Tartouf from Moliere; portraits (a large number), 

 by F. Bouvy. Solid Comfort (a convivial piece); Maraquita Going 

 to Her First Bull-fight ; Gil Bias' Departure for Salamanca — all by 

 F. Bouvy, of San Francisco. The Revenge — from Neapolitan his- 

 tory — by A. De Succa, of Central America. Portrait of Justice Field, 

 by S. W. Shaw, of San Francisco. Portrait of "Jahn,"by Charles 

 Prosch, of San Francisco. The Logging Camp in the Coast Range ; 

 On the Rhine; New T port, New York (bathing scene); Playing 

 School; Red Ridinghood ; Winter in Nebraska; Newsboys in New 

 York, all by William Hahn, of San Francisco. Austin Creek, by 



