FINE ARTS. 



JJO'J 



fifty . iter-color paintings by oontom- 



.i-.'ju-ati arti.-H, besides u few by 

 Disposed of fur about 

 i;ro price, $140, was low in 

 n with sales of previous years, a 

 fulling off being noticeable in the com- 

 ;!is by such popular artists as 

 . lirion, Plassan, Lambinet, Vcrboeck- 

 lok, Meyer von Bremen, Bou- 

 Fichel, Merle, and Wappers. But 

 ;<d over $1,000 each, in- 

 chi<liiig "An Koi," by Willeras, $3,300, and 

 "Twilight in tho Wilderness," by F. E. Church, 

 $4,300. A water-color drawing by Dore, on- 

 titled '' The Angels watching over Moses," and 

 which was originally designed by him for the 

 illustrated edition of the Bible, sold for $300. 

 This wa-i probably the first production of this 

 now celebrated artist ever offered for sale in 

 the United States. A largo picture by Baron 

 Wappers, "Italia," brought only $560, and 

 " Diogenes," by Geroine, $590. The chief sale 

 of the season occurred on March loth and 16th, 

 when a collection of one hundred and sixty- 

 tight painting, selected by Messrs. Gambart & 

 proprietors of tho French gallery in Lon- 

 don, and representing most of tho favorite con- 

 >rary European artists, was sold for over 

 $100,000. Among the names on tho catalogue 

 were those of Ary Scheffer, Meissonier, E. 

 Frere, G6rdme, and others, well known to 

 American connoisseurs, tho genuineness of 

 whose works was amply vouched for ; and tho 

 prices realized were fully up to the standard of 

 1864. The following are tho pictures which 

 eold for $1,000 and upward : 



Arab Huntinp, by Schreyer $1,20C 



" Good Morning," by E. Frero 1,000 



Sheep, by Verboeckhoven 1,750 



The Distaff, by E. Frere 1,000 



Looking after Lambs, by L'Schaygeurg 1,260 



Amalfi, by Herrine; 1,170 



Taking Home the Bride, by Hodgson 1,100 



Falcon Hunting, by Fromentin 1,100 



The Jetty, Ostend, by A. Achenbach 3,000 



Netherland Protestant Family, by Lies 1,250 



Cardinal's Carriage, by Heilbuth 1,210 



Landscape, with Cattle, by Voltz 1,050 



Tho Sick Friend, by Fidemond 1,870 



Horses Drinking, by Schreyer 1,630 



The Convalescent, by Willems 8,<X)0 



The Lady of Fashion, by Willems 2,675 



Children's Tea, by Plassan 1,050 



The Breakfast, by E. Frire 2,850 



The Introduction, by Kuipcrcz 1,950 



Youth and Innocence, by Ucrome 2,650 



Christ and the Three Marys, by Ary Scheffer. 2,950 



Arrest of John Brown, by Eastman Johnson . 1,900 



Meissoriier's "Soldiers Playing at Cards" 

 was put up at $10,000, but withdrawn, as no 

 b'uls were made. 



On March 22d and 23d a large number of 

 pictures by native and foreign artists, belonging 

 to a private collection, was sold for $30,000. 

 Among the more notable works disposed of 

 were: "Approaching Storm," by A. B. Du- 

 rand, $500 ; " Interior," by Koek-Koek, $135 ; 

 " Shorn Sheep," pencil study, by Rosa Bonheur, 

 $337; "Cosette,"by Eastman Johnson, 430; 



" Autumn in tho Adirondacks," by J. M. Hart, 

 six inches by four, $105;" "Ryndull Falls," 

 by Kensett, $320; "Tho Artist's Studio. 

 Chavet, $600; "Landscape and Cattle," by 

 Troyon, $900; "In the pool browsed the cat- 

 tle," by James Hart, $1,675; "The Sheep- 

 fuM," by Robbe, $1,010. At an auction sale, 

 hold on the 80th of March, a picture by Bier- 

 stadt, entitled "The North Branch of the 

 Platto River," and which was painted in 1861, 

 to order, for $1,500, realized the large sum of 

 $7,000, and Church's " Volcano of Cotopaxi," 

 $1,125. Other sales took place in April and 

 May, including a collection of ninety-six Amer- 

 ican pictures, which realized about $12,000; 

 but in the quality of the paintings and the prices 

 obtained for them, there was nothing approach- 

 ing the Gambart collection. One of the most 

 successful sales of the season was that of the pic- 

 tures painted by Mr. George H. HalL This col- 

 lection, which comprised seventy-five paint- 

 ings, chiefly flower and fruit pieces, produced 

 $12,000 being an average of $160 eacb. Many 

 of these pictures were of small size not more 

 than three or four inches by five or six inches. 

 During the summer and autumn of 1866 no ad- 

 ditional auction sales of pictures were reported, 

 and thosb occurring in December were too few 

 in number to afford an indication of the proba- 

 ble activity of the art market in the spring of 

 1867. Tho annual sale of pictures contributed 

 to the Artist's Fund Society took place on the 

 21st, and realized $6,400, an average of over 

 $115 per picture. At the close of December a 

 collection of less than a hundred pictures, con- 

 signed to Mr. J. P. Avery, sold for nearly 

 $20,000. " Thanatopsis," by Durand, brought 

 $1,350 ; and a " Lake Scene," by tho same ar- 

 tist, $1,400. 



The first public exhibition of note in New 

 York was that of the National Academy of De- 

 sign, which, in 1866, entered upon its forty-first 

 year. The number of pictures and drawings ex- 

 hibited was five hundred and twelve, of which 

 ninety-four were portraits, besides thirty pieces 

 of sculpture, and the exhibitors numbered two 

 hundred and seventy-five, of whom thirty-seven 

 were females. More than three-fourths of these 

 were residents of New York or its immediate 

 vicinity, which shows the firm footing art has 

 taken in that city. These figures, however, 

 afford but an inadequate idea of the numbers or 

 abilities of the artists who make their head- 

 quarters in New York, since the exhibition con- 

 tained no works by Bierstadt, Inness, the two 

 Harts, Mignot, Leutze, Page, Darley, Tait, 

 Staigg, and others of note, and can scarcely be 

 said to have been represented by Church, whose 

 sole contribution was a slight and not very 

 satisfactory sketch in oil. The most prominent 

 exhibitors of landscapes, which, as usual, formed 

 the better part of the collection, both in num- 

 bers and merit, were Kensett, Gifford, Cropsey, 

 Gignoux, Durand, Whittredge, Colman, McEn- 

 tce, and Griswold; and of portraits or figure 

 pieces, Iluntington, Eastman Johnson, Gray 



