FINE ARTS 1884. (PARIS: MISCELLANEOUS. LONDON: ROYAL ACADEMY.) 359 



fiiuile Bayard to a singularly expressive and 

 very Frenchy picture representing a duel with 

 swords, on a heath near a group of pines, be- 

 tween two agile cocottes stripped to the waist, 

 while a portly matron acts as umpire. 



In the " Vengeance of Urban VI," Jean Paul 

 Laurens shows the Pope, in his purple cape 

 embroidered with gold, in a dungeon or cham- 

 ber of torture, grimly gloating over the blood- 

 stained bodies of the cardinals who had plotted 

 against him (1384), which, clad in their red 

 gowns, lie in a ghastly row against the wall. 



Jean Jacques Henner's " Christ at the Tomb " 

 exhibits a life-size corpse extended in a long, 

 narrow, rocky niche, seen in profile and brought 

 into ghastly relief by strong morning light. 

 His "Weeping Nymph" is a nude damsel 

 crouched at the entrance of a pine -grove, 

 with her face hidden by her hands, her rosy- 

 pink flesh in charming contrast to the blue of 

 the evening sky. 



One of the most popular pictures was Ben- 

 jamin Constant's "Les Cherifas," a large and 

 sumptuous canvas, displaying a wealth of vel- 

 vets, satins, silks, and gold tissues, with the 

 gleam of jewels and the flash of arms. In the 

 interior of a magnificent harem, three nearly 

 nude odalisques are just aroused from sleep by 

 a black eunuch who has put aside the heavy 

 curtain and admitted a flood of light. This 

 picture went to the Museum of Carcassonne. 



Paris: Miscellaneous. Among the more im- 

 portant art events of the year was the exhibi- 

 tion in Paris of the collected works of Meis- 

 sonier, embracing one hundred and forty-seven 

 numbers, about two thirds of the pictures exe- 

 cuted by him in the fifty years since his "Les 

 Bourgeois Flamands " was shown at the Salon 

 of 1834. Although some of the painter's best 

 works were absent, notably the Stewart and 

 Vanderbilt Meissoniers in New York, the col- 

 lection was insured for 12,000,000 francs. The 

 exhibition was for the benefit of " L'Hospita- 

 lite de Nuit," a charity much favored by Paris 

 " society." 



One of the greatest pictures of the year, and 

 probably the one by which the artist will be 

 longest remembered, is the" Christ on Calvary " 

 of Munkacsy, exhibited in Paris and London. 

 On an immense canvas, nineteen feet in height 

 by twenty-five feet in length, is represented 

 the moment of the Crucifixion when Christ 

 has just expired, and the terror-stricken crowd 

 are hastening from the scene. Against a sky 

 black with clouds and illuminated with light- 

 nings, Jerusalem being just discernible on the 

 horizon, the three crosses stand out in bold re- 

 lief in the foreground. The Virgin, Mary Mag- 

 ' dalene, and John, are kneeling at the foot of 

 the cross, beside which the centurion has 

 , dropped in terror. All the remainder of the 

 1 canvas is filled with the departing spectators 

 of the scene Jewish men and women, the 

 executioners with their implements, rabbis 

 ; discussing the event, Roman cavalry, and in 

 , front Judas. 



London: Royal Academy. The one hundred 

 and sixteenth exhibition of the Royal Acad- 

 emy of Arts opened, as usual, on the first 

 Monday in May and closed on the first Mon- 

 day in August. The works exhibited num- 

 bered 1,856, classified as follows: Oil-paint- 

 ings, 1,076; water-colors, 273; architectural 

 drawings, 143 ; engravings and etchings, 125 ; 

 miniatures, 47; sculptures, 192. Among the 

 most prominent works was Sir Frederick 

 Leighton's " Cymon and Iphigenia," an illus- 

 tration of the well-known story of Boccaccio, 

 how love wrought so great a change in Cy- 

 mon, a youth of Cyprus, at sight of the sleep- 

 ing Iphigenia, as to change him from a boor 

 into a most accomplished gentleman. Sir Fred- 

 erick's Iphigenia is draped, and is therefore a 

 better representation of the original than Sir 

 Joshua Reynolds's nude maiden in Bucking- 

 ham Palace. Cymon is standing at the right, 

 gazing upon her with enraptured eyes as she lies 

 sleeping in a grove. The same subject, treated 

 by Rubens, is in the Vienna Museum. Sir Fred- 

 erick Leighton's picture has been purchased by 

 the London Fine Art Society for between 4,- 

 000 and 5,000. 



W. Q. Orchardson's "Mariage de Conve- 

 nance," another of the successful pictures of 

 the year, is almost as cruel in its satire as one 

 of Hogarth's creations. A married couple are 

 seated at table, the husband prematurely old 

 and blase, the wife young and sensual, ill at 

 ease in each other's society, while a deferential 

 butler, who affects to see nothing, pours out 

 wine for his master. 



Alma-Tadema's principal canvas, " Hadrian 

 in England," the largest he has painted, repre- 

 sents a supposed visit of the emperor to a Ro- 

 mano-British pottery. Hadrian, accompanied 

 by Lucius Verus, the Empress Sabina, and her 

 companion, Balbilla, are in a kind of gallery, 

 beneath which, through an archway, are seen 

 craftsmen at work. In the foreground, seen 

 at half-length, is a slave carrying a tray loaded 

 with specimens up the stair. 



Of Millais's several pictures, the one called 

 " An Idyll, 1745," represents a drummer-boy 

 in the English uniform of the period playing 

 the fife to an audience of three little girls, 

 seated in a wood. The name of Millais, coup- 

 led with the solid statement that it has been 

 sold for 5,000, entitles it to consideration. 



Hubert Herkomer's picture, entitled "Press- 

 ing to the West," represents a scene in Castle 

 Garden, New York, as it appeared to the art- 

 ist's eyes when in the United States in 1883. 

 It shows a long, boarded room, in which peo- 

 ple of many nationalities are crowded together 

 in the extreme of discomfort. 



Briton Riviere's " King and his Satellites," 

 one of his best works, shows a large lion, fol- 

 lowed by a group of hungry jackals, symboli- 

 cal, it is said, of Mr. Gladstone and his political 

 assailants. 



London: Grosvenor Gallery. The Reynolds 

 Exhibition at the Grosvenor Gallery in the 



