354 



FINE ARTS. 



and valuable which has of late years been put 

 into the market. The catalogue of the objects 

 offered for sale filled 500 pages ; and the sale, 

 which lasted more than a month, was attended 

 by the representatives of every considerable 

 museum and collector in Europe. The following 

 list will give some idea of the quality of the pic- 

 tures sold, which numbered upward of 400, by 

 both old and modern masters, and the prices 

 fetched by them : 



ARTIST. SUBJECT. PRICE. 



( Cardinal Richelieu, sick, in a ) *"""" 

 P. Delaroche -< barge on the Rhone V 80,000 



/ Death of Richelieu ) 



Greuze '. Innocence 100,200 



P. de Champagne Marriage of the Virgin 43,500 



" " Portrait of his Daughter 29,100 



F.Hals Portrait of a Man 51,000 



Rembrandt A Burgomaster 84,500 



A Veteran Soldier 27,000 



Marillo Triumph of the Eucharist 67,500 



Velasquez Dead Body of an Armed Man. 87,000 



Antonella dl Messina. .Portrait of a Man. 111,250 



Sebastian del Piombo.. Portrait of a Duke of Urbino.. 93,000 



Bronzlno Portrait of one of the Medici . . 55,000 



Leonardo da Vinci.... Virgin and Child 88,500 



Claude Landscape 36,500 



Francla The Virgin 21,500 



As an illustration of the prodigious rise Avhich 

 has taken place in this species of property, it 

 may be mentioned that the picture by Antonella 

 di Messina, which brought 111,250 francs, was 

 originally purchased in Florence by Pourtales, 

 for 1,500 francs, and was appraised in his in- 

 ventory in 1855 at 20,000 francs. The sixteen 

 pictures above cited realized an average of 

 nearly 55,000 francs each, which would be 

 more than $11,000, computed on a specie basis. 

 No other department of the collection realized 

 so much money as the pictures, although the 

 prices obtained were high. The bronzes and 

 terra cottas fetched 150,000 francs, the gems 

 and glass-ware 45,743 francs, the coins and 

 medals 18,430 francs, and the sculptures in 

 wood and ivory, the renaissance bronzes, ar- 

 mor, etc., over 500,000 francs. Some small 

 specimens of the " Henri II. Ware," were sold 

 at prices ranging from 20,000 to 30,000 francs 

 each, which were nevertheless considered by 

 competent judges rather low. The total pro- 

 ceeds of the sale amounted to nearly 3,000,000 

 francs, which, considering the interest of the 

 sums expended in forming the collection as 

 money lost, gave a profit on the outlay of a 

 million and a half of francs, or nearly a hun- 

 dred per cent. The collection of the Marquis 

 de Lambertye, consisting principally of modern 

 pictures, was sold in March, but such was the 

 prevailing mania for works by old masters,' as 

 exemplified by the Pourtales sale, that tho 

 prices obtained were comparatively low. 

 Baron do Grootelinsdt's gallery, containing 

 some masterpieces of the Dutch and Flemish 

 schools, was sold in May, and realized a largo 

 sum ; but the great picture sale of the season 

 was that of the Due de Morny's collection 

 numbering one hundred and twenty -eight 

 works, for which nearly 1,700,000 francs were 

 obtained. A small genre picture by Greuze, 

 brought 90,000 francs, a landscape by Hobbiraa, 



81,000 francs, and a portrait by Rembrandt, 

 155,000 francs. Upwards of a dozen other 

 works, principally by Dutch and Flemish mas- 

 ters, some of which are well known in the his- 

 tory of art, realized from 20,000 to 30,000 francs 

 each. These statistics show that, whereas in 

 London the demand was almost exclusively for 

 modern pictures, in Paris the old masters were 

 rather in the ascendant. The first portion of a 

 series of mural pictures round the principal court 

 of the Hotel des Invalides has been completed 

 by Benedict Masson. The subjects are taken 

 from the early history of France, and embrace 

 a period from the time of the Druids to the in- 

 vasion of France by the Normans. Of the same 

 class of works is a series of four pictures rep- 

 resenting memorable events in the history of 

 Paris, which Yvon, a battle-painter of reputa- 

 tion, is executing for the Hotel de Ville in 

 Paris. In addition to the usual exhibitions of 

 pictures in Paris during the season, one of 

 water-color drawings was opened in September, 

 which contained no fewer than three hundred 

 works by Hildebrandt, a German artist of con- 

 siderable repute in this department. Among 

 the architectural improvements in the French 

 metropolis may be mentioned the restoration 

 of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, and the com- 

 pletion of the new chapel of the Palais de 

 1'Elysee. The former is now beginning for the 

 first time in several centuries to appear to ad- 

 vantage; the latter is an unusually successful 

 attempt to revive the Byzantine style, and is 

 rich in marbles and in mosaics of saints and 

 sacred personages. The principal contribution 

 to plastic art during the year was the monu- 

 ment of Napoleon Bonaparte and his family, 

 erected in the town of Ajaccio. It consists of 

 an equestrian statue, ten feet "high, of the em- 

 peror, surrounded by statues, seven feet high, 

 of his four brothers, all cast in bronze furnished 

 from cannon taken in the Italian campaigns of 

 1859. The general arrangements were made 

 by M. Viollet le Due, and the sculptures are 

 the work respectively of MM. Barye, sen., 

 Thomas, J. Pettit, Maillet, and Dubray. A 

 statue of Dr. Jenner by Eugene Paul has been 

 erected at Boulogne, and one of Arago at Es- 

 tragel, near Perpignan, his birthplace. The 

 most remarkable and widely known effort of 

 French art produced during the year, was Gus- 

 tave Dore's series of designs for the illustrated 

 edition of tho Bible, published by M. Mame, at 

 an outlay of 600,000 francs. Of this sum 91,200 

 francs were paid to the artist for his designs, 

 two hundred and twenty-eight in number. The 

 latter, though somewhat unequal in merit, are 

 as a whole wonderfully effective, and exhibit a 

 fertility of invention which, considering tho 

 rapidity with which they were 'prepared, 1ms 

 perhaps never been excelled. The engraving 

 of each plate cost from 1,000 to 1,400 francs 

 The work was edited by M. Mame from j>uro 

 love of art, without the least expectation of 

 realizing any profit therefrom, and with the 

 hope only of recovering the money expended. 



