FINE ARTS IN 1887. 



275 



Aviat, Eugene Chaperon, Luis Jimenez, Pierre 

 Louis Leger Vauthier, Julius de Payer, Ed- 

 mond Picard, Emile Cagniart, Victor Henri 

 Lesur, Jean Jacques Scherrer, Louis Auguste 

 Girardot, Jean Andre Marty, Stephen Jacob, 

 Mile. Anna Bilinska, Raoul Arus, Camille Du- 

 four, Georges Busson, Theophile Deyrolle. 



Among the " mentions honorables " are the 

 following American artists: 0. S. Reinhart, J. 

 Carroll Beckwith, George Hitchcock, and 

 Francis B. Chadwick. Elizabeth Jane Gardner 

 is the only American that received a medal. 



Section of sculpture : Medal of honor award- 

 ed to Emmanuel Fremiet. First-class medal : 

 Jules Desbois, for his marble statue of " Acis 

 changed into a Flower" (owned by William 

 Schaus, New York). Second-class medals: 

 Jean Sul-Abadie, Felix Charpentier, Henri 

 Peinte, Francois Roger, Raoul Charles Verlet, 

 Michel Leonard Beguine, Jeanne Marie Mengue. 

 Third-class medals : Edouard Charles Houssin, 

 Emile Louis Truffot, Alphonse Voisin-Dela- 



croix, Virginius Arias, Georges Gardet, 



Cadoux, Lequeult, Guillaume Charlier, 



Charles Joseph Roufosse, Paul Berthet. 



Section of engraving: Medal of honor award- 

 ed to Charles Courtry. No first-class medal 

 awarded. Second-class medals: Messrs. Bou- 

 telier (line engraving), Kcepping, Gaujean, & 

 Mathey (etching), Lepere (wood engraving), 

 Lunois, Vergnes (lithography). Third-class 

 medals : Messrs. Abot (line engraving), Ardail, 

 Kratke (etching), Huyot, Florian (wood en- 

 graving), Bahuet (lithography). 



Section of architecture: No medal of honor 

 awarded. First-class medal: Charles Wable. 

 Second-class medals: Messrs. Devienne, Deg- 

 lanne, Bonnier, Esquie, and Monnier. Third- 

 class medals: Messrs. Louzier, Joannis, De- 

 brie, Gontier, Touzet, and Balleyguier. 



The Salon receipts for the season were 323,- 

 190 francs. 



Among the noteworthy pictures was Fer- 

 nand Cormon's " Victors of Salamis," a large 

 work, commissioned by the state, and to which 

 was awarded the medal of honor. On the sea- 

 shore, with sea and ships in the distance, is a 

 throng of Greek victors, with citizens, women, 

 and children in festal attire, dancing for joy 

 or moving around in a circle, shouting and 

 singing in triumph as they wave aloft weapons 

 and palms of victory. Some hold sistrums, 

 cymbals, and timbrels, many are wounded, and 

 a few are laden with spoil. This, one of the 

 most striking pictures of the season, was al- 

 ways surrounded by admiring crowds. 



Another historical picture of large size (30 

 feet long), by Francis Tattegrain, illustrates a 

 passage in the chronicle of Jean Le Fevre, 

 "The Surrender of the Casselois to Philippe le 

 Bonn, of Burgundy, in the Marsh of Saint- 

 Omer." In the mid-distance the duke, in 

 armor, with his visor up, and mounted on a 

 handsomely caparisoned horse, is halted with 

 his attendants on a low ridge of land, while in 

 the foreground are the people of Cassel, all 



kneeling and bareheaded, with their weapons 

 and shields cast down. A group of soldiers, 

 civic dignitaries, and priests prostrate them- 

 selves before the duke's horse, while the pitiless 

 storm, hail and snow mingled with rain, beats 

 on their beads, and nearly blows away their 

 crape-dressed banners. 



Alexandre Paul Protais's " Convoy of 

 Wounded " is a fine landscape, with a long 

 line of men and vehicles passing at evening 

 along the edge of a meadow in the shadow of 

 trees, and descending into a valley, where twi- 

 light mists are mingled with the rays of the 

 setting sun. Lancers, dragoons, artillerymen, 

 and infantry move slowly along, with here and 

 there an ambulance- wagon or a group of offi- 

 cers directing the march. 



Puvis de Chavannes exhibited the cartoon 

 of an immense composition (85 feet x 20 feet), 

 intended for the decoration of the hemicycle 

 of the grand amphitheatre of the Sorbonne, 

 symbolizing the ancient Sorbonne, and Elo- 

 quence recounting the struggles and triumphs 

 of the human intellect. The left of the three 

 panels is devoted to Philosophy and History, 

 and the right to Science, 



Francois Flameng's " History of Literature," 

 intended for the decoration of the staircase of 

 the same building, is also a triptych. The first 

 panel represents Saint Louis delivering the 

 charter of the institution to Robert de Sorbon, 

 the second, Abelard and his school, and the 

 third, Jean Heynlin setting up in the cellars of 

 the Sorbonne the first printing-press estab- 

 lished in France. 



Opposite Puvis de Chavannes's huge work 

 hung another large decorative canvas, "The 

 Evening of Life," by Paul Albert Besnard, in- 

 tended for the mairie of the first arrondisse- 

 ment. On the threshold of a house are seated 

 an old couple, the wife resting her head on the 

 shoulder of her husband, who, leaning on his 

 staff, looks upward at the stars. Behind them 

 a mother and child represent the earlier stages 

 of life. It is a poetical work, nobly designed 

 and technically fine. 



Bouguereau's " L' Amour Vainqueur " shows 

 a Cupid bearing triumphantly through the air 

 a beautiful female child, who clings submissive- 

 ly to her conqueror. 



Alexandre Cabanel's "Cleopatra," illustrat- 

 ing a passage in Plutarch's " Life of Antony," 

 represents the Egyptian queen in a vast hall re- 

 clining languidly on a lion-skin, with a leopard 

 at her feet and a female slave behind her, 

 watching the effect of poisons on unfortunate 

 wretches selected for experiment. One of her 

 victims rolls in agony on the floor, while two 

 slaves bear away the body of another. 



Georges Clairin's "Funeral of Victor Hugo 

 Evening," is another huge canvas. A long line 

 of cuirassiers, sitting motionless on their horses, 

 hold torches which light up a catafalque cov- 

 ered with flowers, while above, a winged spirit, 

 apparently representing Poetry, shrouds her- 

 self in a black veil and holds a golden crown. 



