FINE ARTS 1885. (PARIS: SALON; MISCELLANEOUS.) 



363 



another episode of Moorish history, is also a 

 very large picture, being more than thirty feet 

 long. In a superb apartment, enriched with 

 gold, marbles, splendid tissues and embroid- 

 eries, and sparkling waters, lie the corpses of 

 seven women on the marble step of a long 

 gold - embroidered green dewan, from which 

 they have been tumbled in a heap. At the 

 foot of a black portiere stand two slaves, and 

 at the right the figure of a black warrior in 

 armor is dimly seen. 



Georges Rochegrosse's "La Jacquerie " is a 

 piece of sensational melodrama, by no means 

 as successful as his " Death of Astyanax " of 

 1883, to which was awarded the Prix du Salon. 

 A mob of howling savages, most of them 

 stained with blood, armed with scythes, pikes, 

 and hammers, and carrying the seigneur's head 

 on a hay-fork, have forced their way into a 

 chateau, where they are confronted by the 

 seigneur's mother, clad in purple velvet and 

 ermine. Behind her, terror - stricken, are 

 grouped on the floor the younger women and 

 children. 



Frangois Flameng's "Marie Antoinette," 

 one of the artist's last works, represents the 

 unfortunate queen on her way to execution, 

 surrounded by the howling crowd, on whom 

 she gazes with haughty contempt. Among 

 other historical pictures, Hippolyte Dominique 

 Berteaux's "Attempt on the Life of Hoche," 

 and Alexandre Bloch's " Defense of Rochfort- 

 en-Terre in 1793," are worthy of notice. Al- 

 bert Maignan exhibited the "Death of William- 

 the Conqueror " a chamber in disorder, and 

 a corpse lying deserted upon a bed, from the 

 drapery of which it is scarcely distinguishable. 



Perhaps the most popular picture of the Sa- 

 lon was Smile Bayard's " Bande Joyeuse," a 

 Rabelaisian subject, representing a line of dan- 

 cers of the Pantagruel company in quaint and 

 gay attire, capering arm in arm. Frederick 

 Bridgman's "Summer on the Bosporus" de- 

 picts a company of odalisques in a boat, enjoy- 

 ing its motion in a bright, sunny afternoon. 

 Paul Albert Besnard's stupendous allegory en- 

 titled " Paris," a picture fifty feet long, in- 

 tended for the mairie of the fourth arrondisse- 

 raent of Paris, is a remarkable example of 

 decorative art. In the midst of flag-bedecked 

 vessels on the Seine, with the panorama of the 

 quays glittering with life and light, the bridges, 

 the Isle St. Louis, the churches, and the monu- 

 ments, stretching into the distance, passes the 

 shallop of the city covered with flowers, bear- 

 ing a standing female figure with two sleeping 

 children in her arms. 



The " Solum Patriae " of Pierre Fritel, an- 

 other huge decorative canvas, also attracted 

 much attention. A vast host of spectral war- 

 riors, on horseback and on foot, appear like 

 storm-clouds rushing over the abandoned glebe, 

 where the plow lies idle, and the vista of a 

 long valley is devoid of life. The banners of 

 the ghostly riders exhibit the devices of France 

 from the time of Charlemagne down to that of 



Napoleon, and among them are many who bore 

 important parts in French history. 



Of the pictures of the nude, the "Grande 

 Piscine de Brousse " of Gerome, which is 

 larger than most of his canvases, is his chief 

 work of the year. Within a large Romanesque 

 building, the arcaded walls of which are fitted 

 with seats in the recesses, is the bath, lighted 

 by brilliant rays of sunlight from above, which 

 illumines the forms of many bathers, nude and 

 half-dressed, who sit on benches, swim, loiter 

 with their feet in the water, or walk on clogs 

 across the wide platform of colored marbles. 

 Bouguereau's "Byblis," representing a nude 

 figure bending in tears over a fountain, is a 

 good example of his style. Henner's " Made- 

 leine," where white flesh-painting is opposed 

 to black drapery and yellow hair; Louis Cour- 

 tat's " Bathers," two admirably painted female 

 figures reclining on a sandy beach ; Alfred 

 Philippe Roll's " Etude," a woman playing 

 with a bull in an open field ; and Henri Au- 

 guste Janet's "La Dernidre Coupe," a bac- 

 chante, are all striking examples of nude paint- 

 ing. 



Among the animal pictures Richard Friese's 

 " Brigands of the Desert " represents a lion and 

 a lioness stealthily watching from a mountain- 

 crest travelers encamped in the plain below. 

 Aim6 Morot's " Toro Colante," a bloody scene 

 in the arena, where the maddened bull is gor- 

 ing a horse ; Jules Jacques Veyressat's " Les 

 Maquignons " and "Arab Cavaliers " are brill- 

 iant horse-pictures ; Felix de Vuillefroy's " La 

 Vente des Poulains " is a fine study of horses 

 and market people in a meadow ; and Joseph 

 Melin's " Relais Volant " and "Talbot" are 

 masterly dog-pictures. The cattle-pictures of 

 MM. Barillot, Bonnefoy, Marais, Princeteau, 

 and Julien Dupre are also worthy of mention. 



Among notable landscapes are Guillemot's 

 " Paris from Meudon," Normann's " Norwe- 

 gian Fiord," C. H. Davis's " Evening Calm,' 

 Adolphe de Meckel's k< Dead Sea at Sunset,' 

 Henry Bonnefoy's " Borders of the Lake,' 

 Ernest Bouche's " Low Tide," Victor Hareux's 

 " Bords de la Creuse " and " Autumn Night,' 

 Michel de Wylie's " Souvenir of Brittany,' 

 Adrian Schulz's " November Evening," Alex- 

 andre Sege's " Vallee de la See," Jean Joseph 

 Bellel's " Approach to Biskra," and Jean Henri 

 Zuber's " September Pasturage." 



Paris : Miscellaneous. An official valuation of 

 the works of art belonging to the city of Paris 

 makes the aggregate amount 12,256,860 francs. 

 This includes the statues in the streets and on 

 public buildings, and pictures in the Hotel de 

 Ville and in the churches, but not the great 

 national collections. 



A portrait gallery of painters, after the ex- 

 ample of the celebrated one in the Uffizi Gal- 

 lery in Florence, has been begun at the Louvre. 



Four pictures by Frans Hals, which have 

 hung ever since they were painted in the hos- 

 pital at Haarlem, founded by the Beresteyn 

 family, have lately been sold, their original 



