FIN'E ARTS IN 1888. (Loxooir.) 



335 





A gallery of portraits of artists, painted 

 mostly by themselves, similar to that of the 

 rffizi, Florence, was opened in the Pavilion 

 Denon, at the Louvre, in February. It con- 

 stitutes already a very valuable collection, made 

 up of works from Versailles, the Louvre, the 

 Luxembourg, the ficole des Beaux-Arts, and 

 other public galleries. 



The Academic des Beaux- Arts, section of 

 painting, elected as a member, in place of Gus- 

 tave Boulanger, deceased, Gustave Moreau, by 

 19 votes, against 10 for Jules Lefebvre, 5 for 

 Jean Jacques Henner, and 1 for mfle Levy. 



The Ecole des Beaux-Arts has had under 

 instruction during the past year 1.220 pupils, 

 of whom 600 were in the architecture classes, 

 while only about 400 were students of paint- 

 ing. During the same time the Royal Acade- 

 my of London had only about 200 pupils. 



The sale of the Goldschmidt collection in 

 Paris, in May, produced in the aggregate 1,067,- 

 094 francs, of which the fifty-three pictures 

 by modern masters brought 795.570 francs. 

 Among the best prices obtained, were : Tro- 

 yon, "Vallee de la Toucque," 175,000 francs, 

 bought by M. Bischofsheim ; " La Barriere," 

 101,000 francs; "L'Abreuvoir," 35,000 francs; 

 Chevres et Roses." 16,000 francs. Delacroix : 

 sdu Maroc." 30,000 francs: u Herminieet 

 les Vergers.'' 25,400 francs ; " Christ en Croix," 

 15,600 francs; "Enlevement de Rebecca." 29.- 

 100 francs; " Joueurs d'Echecs, 12,200 francs; 

 ' Cavalier Grec," 9,200 francs. Dupre : " Moulin 

 a Vent." 20.100 francs; ''Sous Bois." 16.710. 

 Theodor Rousseau : " La Riviere." 25.000 

 francs ; ;1 Foret de Fontaine bleau," 7.000 francs. 

 Decamps: "Une Gourde Ferine?" 30,400 francs; 

 " Paysan Italien," 12,000 francs : " La Por- 

 chere," 19.200 francs; "Boule Dogue et Ter- 

 rier," 16,000 francs (Lonvre). Meissonier: ''Le 

 Docteur," 17,000 francs. Ziem : " Vue de Ve- 

 nise.'' 26,000 francs. Gericault : '' Amazone," 

 8, 5 1)0 francs. 



The collection of Comte Duchatel, ancient 

 and modern pictures, sold in Paris, May 14, 

 brought 176.250 francs. The highest prices 

 realized were : Jules Breton. u Les Vendanges 

 a Chateau- Lagrange," 29,100 francs; Meis- 

 sonier, u Un Poete," 40,000 francs : Rnysdfel, 

 -Cascade," 30,000 francs; Van der Heyden. 

 " Eglise et Place de Ville," (Holland), 19,500 

 francs. 



The Poidatz collection sold in Paris in 

 March, produced in the agareirate 116.000 

 francs. Daubigny's ' Pont de Mantes v and Mil- 

 let's " Tonte des Moutons " (sheep-shearing) 

 brought each 13,000 francs. 



The Gellinard collection, sold March 19, 

 produced 199,916 francs. Corot's ' Diana and 

 Xymphs" brought 12,000 francs, and his 

 " Martyrdom of St. Sebastian." 15,000 francs. 



The sale of the works of the late Gustave 

 Guillaumet, painter, in Paris, realized 265,000 

 francs. His work entited "Le Desert," was 

 presented by the family to the state. 



A monument to Gambetta, a pedestal of stone 



crowned by a group in bronze, representing a 

 young woman seated on a winged lion sym- 

 bolizing ' Triumphant Democracy " with oth- 

 er symbolic groups at the I HIM-, was unveiled, 

 July 13, in the Place du Carrousel, Paris. It is 

 the work of MM. Boileau, architect, and Aube. 

 sculptor, and was erected by subscription. 



A bronze statue of Shakespeare, by Paul Four- 

 nier, presented to the city of Paris by William 

 Knighton, was unveiled, October 14, at the 

 intersection of the Boulevard Haussmann and 

 the Avenue de Messine. The figure is three 

 metres and ten centimetres high, on a pedestal 

 four metres and fifty centimet 



London : Royal Academy. The nineteenth win- 

 ter exhibition was devoted, as usual, to works 

 of the old masters and deceased British artists, 

 gathered from public and private collections, 

 with the additional attraction of a collection 

 of sculpture and Renaissance bronzes and med- 

 als. Only about 160 pictures were shown, but 

 among them were Titian's " Europa " ; Ribera's 

 St. Jerome praying in the Desert " ; Velas- 

 quez's "Femrne a 1'Eventail'' and "Don Bal- 

 thazar Carlos " : Claude's " Europa " and " En- 

 chanted Castle " ; and several Rembrandts and 

 Vandykes. There were also examples of 

 Hobbema, Ruysdael. Jan Steen, Hals, and Van 

 de Velde, and of Reynolds, Gainsborough, and 

 others of the British school. 



The one hundred and twentieth annual exhi- 

 bition opened in May with 2.077 numbers, se- 

 lected from nearly 6,000 contributions, includ- 

 ing oil-paintings, water-colors, works in black 

 and white, architectural drawings, and sculpt- 

 ures. The total attendance during the season 

 was 356,118 ; total receipts, 23,846 ; total 

 value of works sold, 21,599. 



Of first importance among the pictures ex- 

 hibited is Sir Frederick Leighton's u Captive 

 Andromache," a decorative work measuring 

 seven feet by fourteen, illustrating the passage 

 in the Iliad where Hector tells of his prevision 

 of her fate, when she shall have fallen into the 

 hands of the Greeks. The scene represents 

 the farmyard of Pyrrhus, in Thessaly, Tvith 

 buildings on the left ; en the right is a fount- 

 ain pouring from a lion's head in the wall into 

 a marble basin, and between them a long vista 

 of trees and meadows, with an intensely blue 

 sky laden with white thunder-clouds. In the 

 middle, Andromache, clad in black, forms one 

 of a company of women slaves who. at decline 

 of day. have gathered at the fountain. Stand- 

 ing with her chin resting in one hand, while the 

 other sustains her elbow, she is half-aroused 

 from her sorrowful memories by the gambols 

 of an infant, the center of a group in the fore- 

 ground at the right. Xenr the front three stal- 

 wart peasants look toward her as they walk 

 quickly past, and at the left, behind Androm- 

 ache, are children and another group of dam- 

 sels. It shows all of Sir Frederick's peculiarities, 

 and is marked by fine drawing, learned conven- 

 tionalism, painstaking care, and grace, but is 

 rather an elaborate bas-relief than a scene of life. 



