FINE ARTS IN 1900. 



and in nearly all lines of trade accumulating 

 stocks of goods and falling values were the fea- 

 ture. Print cloths were reduced from 3 to 3J 

 cents in May and to 2J cents in June, though 

 the price of cotton was rising, and in the last- 

 named month steel billets fell to $25 per ton 

 against $32 in May, and even at the decline con- 

 sumers refrained from buying. In July "the price 

 dropped to $19 per ton in Pittsburg, and in that 

 month the cotton manufacturing industry began 

 to feel the effect of the check to exports caused 

 by the troubles in China. The industrial depres- 

 sion was more or less marked during the presiden- 

 tial campaign. In September the print cloth mar- 

 ket was partially relieved by the purchase of 

 500,000 pieces of accumulated stocks at 2J cents. 

 The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel 

 Workers and the manufacturers settled their dif- 

 ferences, giving work to 60,000 men who had been 

 idle since July, and the American Tin Plate Com- 

 pany likewise adjusted the troubles with their 

 employees. A strike of anthracite coal operators, 

 involving 140,000 men, began in September and 

 ended in the following month, the operators acced- 

 ing to the demands of the miners. After the 

 presidential election industrial affairs rapidly im- 

 proved, iron production increased, prices of manu- 

 factured articles generally rose, and prosperous 

 conditions prevailed for the remainder of the year. 

 The woolen and silk manufacturing industries 

 were, however, notable exceptions. The woolen 

 manufacturers early in the year suffered from 

 overproduction and also from the cancellation of 

 orders, and the trade was in a state of depression 

 for the greater part of the remainder of the year, 

 and without clear indication of improvement at 

 the close. Silk manufacturers encountered a rising 

 market for the raw material early in the year, 

 and they bought freely at about the highest prices. 

 When the new crop began to arrive prices rapidly 

 declined, entailing loss upon manufacturers. Then 

 followed forced sales of goods, unmistakably indi- 

 cating overproduction. Toward the close of the 

 year, however, the industry showed improvement, 

 owing chiefly to curtailment of output. 



There was a steady gain in exports of manu- 

 factured goods during the first quarter of the year, 

 those for March amounting to $44,767,139, against 

 $35,586,940 in January. Then followed a gradual 

 decline in the value of these exports to $32,281,487 

 in November. The total for the year was, how- 

 ever, unprecedentedly large, amounting to $432,- 

 284,366, against $380,787,891 in 1899 and $307,- 

 924,994 in 1898. The falling off in the exports 

 after the middle of the year was largely due to 

 the interruption to Chinese trade in cotton goods, 

 and also to the waning movement in bicycle ex- 

 ports. 



The commercial failures for the year were 10,774 

 in number, involving $138,495,673 of liabilities. 

 Besides the strictly commercial defaults, however, 

 there were 60 financial concerns, involving $34,- 

 000,000. The above-noted failures compare with 

 9,337 in 1899, involving $90,879,889; 12,186 in 

 1898, with liabilities of $130,662,899; 13,351 in 

 1897, involving $154,332,071; and 15,088 in 1896, 

 involving $226,096,134. 



FINE ABTS IN 1900. Under this title are 

 treated the principal art events of the year ending 

 with December, 1900, including especially the great 

 exhibitions in Eiirope and the United States, sales 

 and acquisitions of works of art, and erection of 

 public statues and monuments. 



Paris. In consequence of the transformation of 

 the Galerie des Machines, where the exhibitions 

 of the two salons were held in 1898 and 1899, into 

 a Salle des Fetes for the Universal Exposition of 



1900, the annual exhibition of the Socie'tC des 

 Artistes Frangais was held in the Place de Bre- 

 teuil. The Socie'te Nationale des Beaux Arts held 

 no exhibition in 1900. 



Paris: Salon of the Artistes Frangais. The 

 Socie'te des Artistes Frangais elected the following 

 officers for the year: Honorary Presidents, L6on 

 Bonnat, Edouard Detaille; President, Jean Paul 

 Laurens; Vice-Presidents, Auguste Bartholdi,Tony 

 Robert-Fleury ; Secretaries, Georges Jehan Vibert, 

 Georges Lemaire, Jean Louis Pascal, Augustin 

 Mongin; Corresponding Secretary, Albert _Mai- 

 gnan; Treasurer, Emile Andre" Boisseau. 



The annual exhibition, opened on April 7, com- 

 prised 2,872 numbers, classified as follow: Paint- 

 ings, 1,379; cartoons, water colors, pastels, minia- 

 tures, enamels, porcelain pictures, etc., 426; sculp- 

 tures, 380; engraving on medals and precious 

 stones, 59; architecture, 99; engraving and lithog- 

 raphy, 376; decorative art, 153. 



The following are the honorary awards for 1900: 

 Section of Painting: Medal of honor, Ferdinand 

 Humbert, Portraits de Alex et Elsa Eyraud. No 

 first-class medal awarded. Second-class medals: 

 Charles Moulin, Achille Granchi-Taylor, Henry 

 Pinta, Louis Ridel, Camille Delpy, Victor Leydet, 

 Adolphe Lalire, Paul Charles Chocarne-Moreau, 

 Emile Troucy, J. Louis Verdier, Frederic Lauth, 

 Mme. Hortense Richard. Third-class medals: 

 Henri Emilien Rousseau, Laurent Jacquot-De- 

 france, Charles Sims, Jacques Roger Simon, Joseph 

 Marius Avy, Mile. Lenique, iSdouard Zier, Ludovic 

 Alleaume, Jacques Marie, Paul Legrand, Adolphe 

 Dechenaud, Mme. Frederique Vallet-Bisson, Frank 

 Russell Green, Nicolas Auguste Laurens, Henry 

 Tenr6, Dwight Frederick Boyden, Mme. Wisinger- 

 Florian, Mile. Charlotte Chauchet, Joseph Bail, 

 Richard E. Miller, Gustave Pierre, Auguste Le- 

 veque, George Inness, Rene Charles Edmond His, 

 Lucien Stoltz, Adrien Gabriel Voisard-Margerie, 

 Etienne William Cot, Paul Antin, Emmanuel 

 Fougerat. 



Section of Sculpture: Medal of honor, Raoul 

 Verlet, fountain for city of Bordeaux. First-class 

 medals: Henri Coutheillas, Henri Vidal. Second- 

 class medals: Auguste Carli, Gaston Leroux, Marie 

 Pierre Curillon, Jean Baptiste Antoine Champeil. 

 J. Henry Schmid, Athanase Theodore Fosse. 

 Third-class medals: Henri Frederic Varenne, Paul 

 Richer, Andrg Abbal, Jules Dchin, Charles Joseph 

 Michel Mathieu, Eugene Leon L'Hoest, Louis 

 Bertrand, Victorien Tournier, Pierre Robert Chris- 

 tophe, Auguste Maurice Verdier. 



Section of Architecture: Medal of honor, Albert 

 Guilbert, commemorative monument. First-class 

 medals: Desir6 Despradelle, Alfred Henri Recoura. 

 Second-class medals : Paul Bigot, Auguste Patouil- 

 lard, Marcel Dourgnon. Third-class medals: Fe"lix 

 Capron and Gaston Renevey, Gustave Dehaudt, 

 Louis Leonard Martin, Henri Victor Blanchard, 

 Emil Pierre Demur, Georges Gromort. 



Section of Engraving and Lithography: Medal 

 of honor, Auguste Boulard, Vive I'Empereur 

 (etching). First-class medal, Abel Mignon. Sec- 

 ond-class medals: Eugene Chiquet, Paul Avril, 

 Firmin Bouisset, Edmond Duplessis. Third-class 

 medals: Antonin Delzers, Charles Dupont, Edgar 

 Chahine, Gaston Rodriguez, Frederic Jacque, Gus- 

 tave Frantzen, Auguste Leroy, Jules Lerendu, 

 Leon Hodebert, Mme. Goltdammer-Dupont. 



In consequence of the Exposition Universelle, to 

 which the best works of the French painters were 

 contributed, the exhibition of the Socie'te' des 

 Artistes Frangais comprised but little more than 

 half the usual number of pictures, sculptures, and 

 other exhibits. Want of space will prevent any 

 detailed description this year. 



