FINE ARTS IN 1899. 



287 



through the ages. Preceded by the images of the 

 traditional patrons of Antwerp, the giant An- 

 tigonus and his wife, group after group typical of 

 all nations and ages, marched through the Grande 

 Place before the Hotel de Ville, where were gath- 

 ered the civil and military authorities and the 

 art representatives and guests from all the acade- 

 mies of Europe. Egyptians and Assyrians, Greeks 

 and Romans, were followed by the various renais- 

 sances, the crowning feature being Rubens and 

 his School and the Homage to Sir Anthony Van 

 Dyck. Besides this grand display, the opening 

 ceremonies were simple but full of dignity. 



Dresden. The National Fine Arts Exhibition 

 (April 20 to Sept. 17) was very successful. Of 

 its 1,500 entries, 550 were paintings, 350 sculp- 

 tures, and 600 drawings and engravings. 



Madrid. The third centenary of the birth of 

 Velasquez was celebrated in June by commemora- 

 tive fetes, in which all the societies of art and 

 science in Spain took part, and in an exhibition 

 of the painter's works. For this purpose all his 

 pictures in the various public galleries, in the 

 churches, and in private collections were assem- 

 bled in the National Museum. A statue of Velas- 

 quez was unveiled in the Prado. 



Venice. The third International Art Exhibi- 

 tion of specimens of contemporary art from all 

 over the world was a pronounced success, and at- 

 tracted many thousand visitors. It owed its ori- 

 gin to a former mayor of Venice, Signer Selvatico, 

 whose object is to stimulate the Venetians to 

 make their city once more a home of art. 



New York: National Academy of Design. 

 The officers for 1899-1900 are as follow: Presi- 

 dent, Frederick Dielman; Vice-President, J. G. 

 Brown; Corresponding Secretary, Harry W. 

 Watrous ; Recording Secretary, George H. Smillie ; 

 Treasurer, Lockwood De Forest; Council, B. West 

 Clinedinst, H. Bolton Jones, J. Carroll Beckwith, 

 C. D. Weldon, C. Y. Turner, and H. Siddons Mow- 

 bray. Academicians elected: Herbert Adams, 

 George Inness, Jr., and Douglas Volk; associates, 

 George H. Bogert, Louis Paul Dessar, Leonard 

 Ochtman, Edward H. Potthast, F. K. M. Rehn, and 

 Robert Vonnoh. The Academy has 98 acade- 

 micians and 58 associates. 



The seventy-fourth annual exhibition (April 3 

 to May 13) contained 344 numbers, of which 329 

 were pictures. The prizes of the year were 

 awarded as follow : The Thomas B. Clarke prize 

 ($300), for the best American figure composition, 

 to Edward Potthast for his Village Carpenter; 

 the first Julius Hallgarten prize ($300) to George 

 H. Bogert for his September Evening; the second 

 Hallgarten prize ($200) to Louis Paul Dessar for 

 his Portrait, Mrs. Ruthrauff; the third Hallgarten 

 prize ($100) to Carl J. Blenner for his The Letter; 

 and the Norman W. Dodge prize ($300), for the 

 best picture painted by a woman, to Matilda 

 Browne, for her The Last Load. Among the best 

 of the exhibits were Childe Hassam's The Sea, 

 Horatio Walker's Oxen Drinking, Cecilia Beaux's 

 double portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Anson Phelps 

 Stokes, John F. Weir's portrait of Dean Wayland, 

 of the Yale Law School, Howard Russell Butler's 

 Wave, Henry Mosler's The Coquette, and George 

 Inness, Jr.'s, The Last Shadow of the Cross. 



A sentimental interest was attached to this 

 exhibition, as it was the last annual display in 

 the Venetian building at Fourth Avenue and 

 Twenty-third Street, where the Academy has been 

 housed for the past twenty-five years. The next 

 exhibition will be held in the American Fine Arts 

 Building, in Fifty-seventh Street; after that the 

 Academy will occupy temporary quarters, now 

 building on its new site on Morningside Heights, 



until the erection of thejiew National Academy 

 of Design. 



New York: National Arts Club. The or- 

 ganization of this new association, which has its 

 first home at 37 West Thirty-fourth Street, has 

 been perfected as follows: President, George B. 

 Post; Treasurer, Spencer Trask ; Secretary and 

 Managing Director, Charles De Kay; chairman of 

 House Committee, Samuel T. Shaw; chairman of 

 Exhibition Committee, Charles R. Lamb; chair- 

 man of Library Committee, Richard Watson 

 Gilder. A fire-proof gallery for exhibitions has 

 been constructed, in connection with which are 

 the general reading and assembly rooms, for the 

 use of both women and men members. The sec- 

 ond floor is devoted to women alone, and the 

 third floor to the exclusive use of men. The club 

 gave its formal opening in October. 



New York: National Sculpture Society. 

 The Dewey Triumphal Arch, erected on Fifth 

 Avenue at Madison Square as a part of the grand 

 reception given by the city to Admiral George 

 Dewey on Sept. 30, was planned and erected by 

 the society, the members of which gave their serv- 

 ices gratuitously to its construction and decora- 

 tion. The architect of the scheme was Charles 

 R. Lamb. The arch, with a single archway north 

 and south and a transverse smaller archway east 

 and west, was approached on each facade through 

 an avenue of Corinthian columns in pairs, each 

 pair fronted by a figure of Victory, the work of 

 Herbert Adams. At the entrance of these avenues 

 the columns were in threes, each trio faced with 

 sculptured groups, those on the north symbolizing 

 respectively the East Indies, by Charles A. Lopez, 

 and the West Indies, by Isidore Konti; those on 

 the south, The Army, by F. W. Ruckstuhl, .and 

 The Navy, by George E. Bissell. Each facade 

 of the arch was ornamented with four Corinthian 

 columns supporting an entablature, above which 

 was an attic adorned with statues of naval heroes, 

 the whole surmounted by an allegorical group, 

 Naval Victory, by J. Q. A. Ward, representing 

 Victory standing in a floating chariot drawn by 

 Tritons. Between the columns, on each front, 

 were symbolical sculptured groups: To Arms, by 

 Philip Martiny; The Combat, by Karl Bitter; 

 Peace, by Daniel C. French; and The Triumphal 

 Return, by Charles H. Niehaus. The statues on 

 the attic, surmounting each column, were: Com- 

 modore Decatur, by George T. Brewster; Commo- 

 dore MacDonough, by Thomas S. Clarke,; Com- 

 modore Paul Jones, by E. C. Potter; Commodore 

 Hull, by H. K. Bush-Brown; Commodore Perry, 

 by J. S. Hartley; Lieut. Gushing, by H. A. 

 Lukeman; and Admiral Farragut, by W. O. Par- 

 tridge. In the spandrels of the arch were symbolic 

 sculptures on one face The Atlantic and The 

 Pacific, by R. H. Perry, and on the other The 

 North River and The East River, by Isidore 

 Konti. On the east and west faces of the arch 

 were bas-reliefs, The Progress of Civilization, by 

 Johannes Gellert, and Protection of Our Country, 

 by William Couper; and medallions showing the 

 heads of naval heroes: Capt. Lawrence, by Henry 

 Baerer; Commodore Preble, by C. F. Hamann; 

 Admiral Foote and Admiral Worden, by Frederick 

 Moynihan; Commodore Bainbridge, by Ralph 

 Goddard; Admiral Dahlgren, by Caspar Buberl; 

 and Commodore Barry and Admiral Davis, by 

 F. W. Kaldenberg. 



The arch and its approaches, constructed of 

 staff on a wooden superstructure, was completed 

 within six weeks. It proved so successful a part 

 of the celebration that a proposition for its per- 

 petuation in marble and bronze has met with 

 almost universal approval. 



