276 



FINE ARTS IN 1887. 



Georges Rochegrosse contributed two pict- 

 ures, " La Curee," a large work illustrating 

 Plutarch's account of the death of Julius Caesar 

 in the Senate House, and a smaller one, "Sa- 

 lome dancing before Herod." In the former, 

 Caesar, wounded, lies at tlie base of Pom- 

 pey's statue, the center of a knot of assassins, 

 among whom Brutus is prominent, all striving 

 to stab him. In the background, which is all 

 white marble, are many figures in confusion, 

 some flying between the columns of the portico, 

 some hiding their faces, and some rushing for- 

 ward with drawn daggers. In the- smaller 

 picture, the daughter of Herodias dances to the 

 music of a band of negroes and Egyptians 

 seated on the floor in a ring, of which she is 

 the center, before Herod and his companions 

 seated on a dais. 



Benjamin-Constant is represented by two 

 pictures, "Orpheus" and "Theodora," the latter 

 a vigorous piece of melodramatic art, magnifi- 

 cent in details. The Empress Theodora, seated 

 on a throne of white marble, rests both her 

 jeweled wrists on its arms. Her robe of dark 

 silk is set with jewels and loaded with gold 

 ornaments, and on her head is a Byzantine 

 crown studded with precious stones, contrast- 

 ing strongly with the pale bronze of her face 

 and her cruel, snake-like eyes. "Orpheus" 

 represents the singer, entirely nude, advancing 

 , through a rocky, dimly lighted gorge into the 

 depths of a mysterious night. 



Henry Rachou's " How the Dauphin of 

 France entered Paris " is an illustration of 

 Henri Martin's description of the scene after 

 the revolt of Etienne Marcel. The dead bodies 

 of Marcel and his partisans are stretched upon 

 the steps of the Church of St. Catherine as a 

 long line of knights armed cap-d-pie, riding on 

 splendidly caparisoned horses, pick their way 

 among corpses. 



Henner was represented by " A Creole " and 

 " Herodias," the latter a young girl with di- 

 sheveled auburn hair, clad in bright scarlet, 

 standing against a brown wall, holding the 

 charger and head. Carolus Duran's " Androm- 

 eda" is a masterly nude figure, with a pro- 

 fusion of blonde hair, against a background of 

 grayish-green rocks. Jules Lefebvre's "Morn- 

 ing-Glory " is an idealized female figure with 

 pale -yellow locks twined with the flowers 

 which give the picture its name. 



Among the best of the genre pictures was 

 Gaston Melingue's "Moliere and his Com- 

 pany," representing the dramatist reading one 

 of his plays to a small audience. 



Of the noteworthy religious pictures, Herr 

 von Uhde's " Last Supper " is as characteristic 

 as his " Christ with the Little Children " of the 

 Salon of 1885. Deschamp's " Sleep of Jesus " 

 and Dinet's " Adoration of the Shepherds " 

 are somewhat similar attempts to excite pathos 

 and religious fervor through eccentricity of 

 treatment. 



Julian Story's " Episode of the Massacres of 

 September, 1792," is from Lamartine's " His- 



toire des Girondins." It represents Mile, de 

 Sombreuil drinking a goblet of human blood 

 at the dictation of the mob to save her father 

 from the guillotine. It is a powerful picture, 

 and was awarded honorable mention, but its 

 subject is too hideous for art. 



American art was also represented in the 

 Salon by Elizabeth Jane Gardner's " Farmer's 

 Daughter" (2d class medal) and "Innocence," 

 James Carroll Beckwith's " Portrait of William 

 Walton " (honorable mention), Charles Sprague 

 Pearce's " St. Genevieve," Frederick A. Bridg- 

 man's " On the Terraces, Algiers," Daniel 

 Ridgeway Knight's " In October," Alexander 

 Harrison's "Twilight," Walter Gay's "Petition 

 to Richelieu, 1 ' and by many others. 



The Academic des Beaux-Arts awarded the 

 biennial prize of 20,000 francs, given to the 

 author of the work most creditable to the coun- 

 try, to the sculptor Antonin Merci6 for his 

 tomb of Louis Philippe and Queen Amelie, ex- 

 hibited at the Salon of 1886. The 10,000-franc 

 prize was awarded to Emile Paladilhe, music 

 composer. 



London : Royal Academy. The eighteenth win- 

 ter exhibition was devoted, like the preceding 

 one, to works of the old masters and deceased 

 British artists, gathered from the collections 

 of Buckingham Palace, the Duke of Wellington, 

 the Earl of Normanton, Lord Leconfield, Lord 

 Carnarvon, Mr. Charles Butler, Mr. R. S. Hoi- 

 ford, and many others. Among the old mas- 

 ters represented were Velasquez, Murillo, Ra- 

 phael, Titian, Tintoretto, Rembrandt, Rubens, 

 Vandyke, Frans Hals, Hobbema, Ruysdael, 

 Cuyp, and, of the more modern schools, Greuze, 

 Sir Joshua Reynolds, Gainsborough, Hogarth, 

 Prout, William Collins, and Turner, the last by 

 a collection of more than a hundred water- 

 color drawings. 



The one hundred and nineteenth annual ex- 

 hibition opened in May, with 1,946 numbers, 

 selected from nearly 5,000 contributions, in- 

 cluding oil-paintings, water-colors, works in 

 black and white, architectural drawings, and 

 sculptures. 



Among the prominent contributions were 

 "Mariamne," by J. W. Waterhouse, represent- 

 ing the wife of Herod the Great going to exe- 

 cution after her trial for the false charges 

 brought against her by Salome and others. By 

 the side of the king, who is seated on his 

 throne at the right, stands Salome, while Mari- 

 amne stands on a marble staircase in the fore- 

 ground. In the background are seated the 

 judges. 



"The Last Watch of Hero," by Sir Frederick 

 Leighton, exhibits her, in a dark-blue mantle 

 over a rose-colored robe, gazing anxiously forth 

 from between marble columns, just tinted with 

 the sunrise. In a predella below is a smaller 

 picture in brown monochrome, showing the fate 

 of Leander. The picture goes to the Man- 

 chester Gallery. 



" The Women of Amphissa," by L. Alma- 

 Tadema, represents the market-place of that 



