30 
ART NOTES FROM FRANCE. 
[Nature and Art, Juno 1, 1866. 
included in the picture — her daughter, who after- 
wards became Princesse de Conti, and little Louis 
cle Bourbon, who was titular Grand Admiral of 
France at the age of two years. It is an important 
fact as regards the picture in question that the boy 
is dressed in a black velvet tunic richly decorated 
with precious stones and embroidery, which corre- 
sponds exactly with the recorded description of a 
dress worn by his sister, who was remarkable for 
her beauty, at one of the court balls. 
A very curious question has arisen between the 
authorities of the city of Paris and a painter, M. 
Lehmann. Ten years ago two pictures were ordered 
by the municipal Commission of the Fine Arts for 
the Church of Sainte Clotilde, then building; the 
painter fell ill, and was unable to complete the 
works, which were finished by one of his pupils. 
The two pictures were eventually placed in the 
church, but M. Lehmann, on seeing them there, did 
not consider them worthy of him, and requested 
that he might be allowed to return the money and 
destroy the paintings. Whether the Commission 
will accede to the request is not yet known ; but 
the incident is unusual and interesting. 
A noteworthy change is about to be made in the 
arrangements of the Luxembourg. The gallery 
is devoted to the works of living artists, and they 
remain there until five years after the death of 
the painter, when they are transferred to the 
Louvre. A special room is now to be set apart for 
those of the intermediate stage ; that is to say, for 
the works of those artists whose names have just 
become historical. 
Nor will it be out of place to note here that 
another exhibition, open to the public under 
certain restrictions, has just been formed in the 
charming gallery constructed by the late Due 
de Morny, at the residence of the President of the 
Corps Legislatif. The collection consists of a 
number of works by foreign living artists, recently 
exhibited in an ill-lighted room in the Luxem- 
bourg, and of a selection of pictures by recent 
French artists, including Ingres, Bousseau, 
Troyon, Bosa Bonheur, Isabey, Fromentin, and 
others. Those amateurs who visit Paris this 
year will be glad of the information, and will find 
little difficulty in obtaining admission. 
The amount of decorative work of all kinds 
lately executed in Paris is enormous. We hope, 
before long, to find an opportunity of point- 
ing out the most important novelties ; for the 
present we must confine ourselves to the mention of 
the new Tribunal de Commerce, opposite the 
Palais de Justice, which presents one of the best 
specimens of the time as regards interior decoration, 
including four large works by Bobert Fleury, two 
of which are in place, and a good deal of admirable 
carving ; of the fagade of the new church of Saint 
Augustin, in the Boulevard Malesherbes, decorated 
with fifty or more statues, besides paintings on lava 
and ornamental sculpture ; and the new staircase 
and foyer of the Theatre Frangais, which have just 
been completed by the placing of fine statues of 
Mars and Bachel in the vestibule. 
Strangers visiting Paris are surprised at the 
paucity of grand concerts in a city which deems 
itself intensely musical. The surprise is scarcely 
well founded. The opera public is not a concert 
public, and to say the truth, your true Parisian 
loves costume, decorations, and footlights. The 
Conservatoire is a nursery for the lyrical theatres, 
and much as it has done for singers and instrument- 
alists, it has done little for grand music. The concerts 
of the Association within the Conservatoire are 
famous all over the world, but the case is quite an 
exceptional one. M. Pasdeloup, the conductor of 
the Conservatoire band, is doing his best to induce 
a general taste for superior music through his 
popular concerts, which are well attended ; the 
Government and the municipal authorities are also 
doing all they can for musical education ; almost 
every common school in Paris has now a singing- 
class for youths attached to it, and in many of the 
schools evening classes for adults are also held ; 
the Prefecture of the Seine has lately issued invi- 
tations to composers to compete for an unlimited 
number of prizes to be given for good choral 
pieces to be used in these schools ; and the Govern- 
ment has just established classical concerts for the 
especial benefit of the pupils of the high schools. 
At the first of these concerts, the pieces performed 
were quintettes by Mozart and Beethoven, a trio 
by Haydn, and several morceaux by Bach, Men- 
delssohn, and Spohr. 
It is dangerous to predict Avhat changes may 
occur in the tastes and habits of a people. French 
critics are actually beginning to find flaws in the 
porcelain of their own society ; instead of the 
rather amusing self-laudations to which Europe 
has so long been accustomed, we have now and 
then fierce onslaughts on French art, French 
literature, and French taste. M. Henri Bochefort, 
who, by the way, had a small sword duel the other 
day with Prince Achille Murat, Avlien honour was 
declared to be satisfied by the tearing of the 
Prince’s shirt, and a slight flesh wound in the hip 
of his antagonist, has just penned a slashing 
criticism, and, as abuse of our friends and neigh- 
bours, even by one of themselves, is always more or 
less piquant, we will make a few extracts from the 
article under our hand : — “ It is understood that the 
arts flourish in France : I ask nothing better than 
to be convinced of the fact ; but good-Avill and 
patriotism have their limits, and it did not cost me 
a very long study to perceive that we were less 
artistic than any other nation, and that never, in 
any age, have we exhibited in painting, in archi- 
tecture, in music, anything more than a certain 
facility of adaptation, in Avhich originality had 
scarcely any share. The proofs of our nrasical 
impotence are superabundant. Except Herold 
. . . . we have not had a single great composer 
who did not cast himself in the mould of Bossini 
or Mozart. As judges, our most celebrated dilettanti 
are below the lowest maccaroni-seller in Naples or 
Palermo ; for each time that a chef-d'oeuvre Avas 
given for the first time before a French public, it 
fell flat, and Avas only lifted up again after our 
