PINE ARTS IN 1898. 



267 



Another picture to command attention was a 

 large triptych, entitled " L'Ages de FOuvrier," by 

 Leon Frederic, of Brussels. In three compartments 

 the painter has pictured from birth to old age the 

 life of the mechanic. In the first panel mothers 

 with drawn, serious faces and amid poor surround- 

 ings give suck to their children. In the second 

 some gamins play on the pavement of a populous 

 street, in the back of which passes by in the crush 

 of a dense crowd a band of revolutionaries. In the 

 third carpenters are raising a scaffold in a timber 

 yard. The work is a wonderful piece of technique, 

 worthy of the traditions of the Flemish school. 



Another noteworthy triptych is " Au Pays de la 

 Mer," by G. Cottet. The central panel, " Le Repas 

 d' Adieu," represents a sailor's family seated around 

 a rustic table in a basement room illuminated by 

 the light of a lamp suspended from the ceiling. A 

 man has risen and, glass in hand, has just uttered 

 some words of farewell, to which the old grand- 

 mother listens with drooping eyelids, while a young 

 man and woman clasp hands without speaking. All 

 the faces (there are a dozen or more) and attitudes 

 reveal a restrained emotion and a meditative gravity 

 befitting the occasion. The left panel shows the 

 full sea stretching to infinity round the little boat 

 where the sailors are resting'; the right, the strand 

 on the edge of the sea where the young women 

 await the return home. 



' Le Christ et les Pelerins a Emmaus," by Dagnan- 

 Bouveret, is especially interesting to Americans 

 because it was purchased by Henry C. Frick, of 

 Pittsburgh, and has already found a home in the 



falleries of the Carnegie Institute, in that city, 

 'he artist has represented all the light as emana- 

 ting from the white-robed person of Christ, who is 

 seated at the table in the little inn, and spreading 

 thence over all the persons and the back of the 

 picture. Surprise, admiration, and the fervor of 

 prayer are all expressed in the faces of the two 

 disciples, the servant, and three other figures, espe- 

 cially in those of the young woman and the little 

 boy on their knees at the left with hands clasped. 

 The picture is one of the best of the year, and the 

 Pittsburgh gallery is to be congratulated on its 

 acquisition. 



The exhibition was marked by an unusual num- 

 ber of good portraits, and by a new irruption of 

 nudes, which during the past few years have not 

 been quite so prominent. Under many titles, such 

 as " Nue." " Eve," " Reverie," " Baigneuses," " Pres 

 de Feu," " La Toilette," " Etude de Nu," etc., the 

 various models exhibited their charms in attitudes 

 and in scenes which would have been startling in 

 the Garden of Eden. Whatever one may think of 

 the opinion of the Italian sociologist who attributes 

 the present condition of the Latin races to their 

 preoccupation of sex, it must be acknowledged that 

 their figure painting is of the best. 



Among the sculptures of the year none occasioned 

 more discussion and indignation than a plaster model 

 for a statue of Balzac by Rodin, which the admirers 

 of the great writer pronounced a caricature and re- 

 jected. A new work by Falguiere, which represents 

 Balzac sitting and writing, is to be substituted for it. 



The American sculptor St. Gaudens had a large 

 exhibit in the Salon, consisting of plaster models 

 of the monument to Col. Robert G. Shaw at Boston, 

 the statue of a Puritan at Springfield, bust por- 

 traits of Gen. Sherman and others, medallion por- 

 traits, etc. 



Paris: Miscellaneous. Mme. Meissonier, sec- 

 ond wife of the late Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier, 

 who died recently at Poissy, bequeathed to the 

 state a remarkable collection of the works of the 

 great painter, including finished pictures and nu- 

 merous studies of landscapes, figures, costumes, 



etc., and nearly all the properties of his atelier. 

 Among the pictures are the "Madonna del Baccio," 

 the portrait of Meissonier of 1872 and the more 

 famous one of 1889, the " Vue de Venise " and 

 many studies for it, " Glair de Lune a Venise," 

 " Cavaliers Louis XIII en route," " Jean Jacques 

 descendant 1'Escalier de Bois de Lausanne," " Sam- 

 son abattant les Philistins," " Les Ruines des Tui- 

 leries," and " Le Siege de Paris," one of the artist's" 

 last compositions. The collection, of great artistic 

 as well as pecuniary value, will ultimately find its 

 way into the Louvre. 



Mme. Meissonier bequeathed also to the city of 

 Lyons, where the artist was born, and to Grenoble, 

 where he passed his youth, several of his pictures 

 and a series of bronzes cast from models executed 

 by him for certain of his compositions. 



An interesting picture, sold at the rooms of 

 Georges Petit in May, was a slightly modified copy 

 of the famous " Sacre de Napoleon I er ," by David, 

 in the Louvre. The artist became dissatisfied with 

 this, his first conception, and began the picture 

 anew, preserving the original proportions. The 

 fall of Napoleon and the return of the Bourbons 

 having forced the painter into exile, he did not 

 finish this picture until 1822. One of his admirers 

 then paid him 80,000 francs for it, and it had re- 

 mained in the family of the purchaser at Mont- 

 fellier until fate brought it to the auction room. 

 t was sold for 32,000 francs to M. Singer. 



The collection of the late M. Goldschmidt, sold in 

 Paris in May, produced a total of 798,904 francs. 

 The paintings brought 594,000 francs, of which 

 393,190 francs were for modern pictures and 201.710 

 for old pictures. Among the best prices obtained 

 for modern pictures were : Corot, " Allee sous Bois," 

 43,500 ; Diaz de La Pena, " Clairiere," 37,000 : Jean 

 Francois Millet, "Les Bucherons," 54,000; Theo- 

 dore Rousseau, " Environs de Fontainebleau," 46,- 

 000, "L'Etang," 37,500; Troyon, "Le Retour du 

 Marche," 39,500. Of the old pictures, Hobbema's 

 " L'Avenue " brought 51,000. and A. Van de Velde's 

 "Vue de Hollande" 11,000 francs. 



The Alphonse de Neuville sale, May 23-25, realized 

 218.592 francs. Of his own pictures, " Le Parlia- 

 mentaire " brought 41,200 'francs, and " Hericourt " 

 28,000 : water colors" Officier d'etat-major," 6,900 : 

 " Officier Prussien," 6,900 ; " Charge de Cavalerie," 

 3,650 francs. 



The sale of the atelier of the late Mihaly Mun- 

 kacsy took place on June 2-4. Among many stud- 

 ies sold were : " Ecce Homo," 15.100 : " Mozart 

 mourant," 3,000 ; " Au Mont de Piete, 800 francs. 



At the Segond sale. June 18, Rosa Bonheur's 

 " Le Paturage " brought 15,900 francs ; Corot's 

 ' La Cueillette," 53,000 ; Theodore Rousseau's " La 

 Mare," 101,100 ; and Ziem's " Venise," 20,000 francs. 



The Collection Tabourier, sold at the Hotel Drouot, 

 June 21-22, brought in the aggregate 942,963 francs. 

 Among the best prices obtained were : Nicolas 

 Lancret, " La Ronde Champetre," 112,000 francs ; 

 J. B. J. Pater, "L'Arrivee au Camp," 28,100; " Le 

 Campement," 29,000 ; Van der Weyden, " Mater Do- 

 lorosa," 15,000; Delacroix, "Lutte de Jacob avec 

 1'Ange," 15,500 ; " Chasse du Temple par Heliodore," 

 15,500. 



A series of decorative paintings executed by 

 Fragonard for Mme. Dubarry's chateau of Louve- 

 ciennes before he fled from Paris in 1789, and after- 

 ward adapted by him to the walls of a room in the 

 Maison Malvilain at Grasse, were sold lately to an 

 English buyer for 50,000. The pictures, entitled, 

 " La Vierge et 1'Amour," " La Surprise de 1'Amour," 

 " Le Sacrifice de la Rose," " La Lettre d'Amour," and 

 " La Couronne de 1'Amour," are executed on canvas, 

 stretched on wooden frames intended to cover the 

 space between the dado and the ceiling. They were 



