Nature and Art, May 1, 1867.] 
MICHELET’S “ L’OISEAU.” 
157 
we have not the fully developed face which we are familiar 
with as that of the great reformer. Under the ecstacy of his 
devotions, he is reported to have swooned ; on trying to get 
to his assistance, it was found that the door was looked ; so 
that force had to be used, and the monk who came to his 
assistance, knowing Luther’s love of music, called in the 
chorister boys, and made them sing a favourite chant, which 
had an almost miraculous effect in restoring consciousness. 
This is the point taken for the picture, and it has been 
most admirably and honestly worked out. 
Mr. Faed has again been distilling sentiment out of the 
every-day life of the humbler spheres of society ; and with 
his usual success. When hung in the Boyal Academy, few 
will pass the figure of the tall blind man without a touch of 
sympathy. What the fisherman and his wife and children 
evidently feel, the spectator of the picture is also, by the 
artist’s power, made to feel. Such a result is a high 
achievement of art. 
Mr. E. M. Ward has a picture of Juliet and the Friar ; 
this with his Amy Robsart of last year would indicate that 
he has made a change in his class of subjects. It is 
right that a lady should select heroines for her pictures, and 
Mrs. Ward has selected this year Joan of Arc. Creswick 
will have a number of pictures. Ansdell has a very large 
canvas, the subject of which is “Shipwrecked Friends,” the 
friends being - a sailor and a handsome Newfoundland dog; 
there are, in this picture, some sea-gulls very finely 
rendered, which will delight all lovers of the deep. He 
will also have three small Spanish and Scottish subjects. 
Millais has a picture of Jephtha's Daughter, the fine 
qualities of which are much talked about. Mr. Maclise 
will have two subjects from Shakespeare, scenes from 
Othello and Eichard the Second. Mr. Goodall sends a 
subject picture of Eebekah, and a figure — life-size — of 
Bachel. Mr. Horsley’s principal picture will be “The 
Duenna and her Cares.” Mr. Cooke vibrates as usual 
between Yenice and Dutchland. Mr. Nicol finds a vent for 
his Irishman this season at a Eailway Station. Mr. 
Calderon has sent a large picture called “ Home after 
Victory,” from the times of the civil war. Mr. Yeames also 
sends a large contribution called “ The Dawn of the 
Eeformation.” Mr. Armitage has two pictures. Mr. 
Pettie has a subject called “ Treason,” and . Mr. Watts 
life-sized picture of Eve. The President sends full-length 
portraits of the Duchess of Sutherland and Lord Stanley. 
Eumour has it that the coming exhibition will be more 
than usually attractive. There are a great many works, not 
only of promise, but of ripe fulfilment, by the men whose 
number is too large to be included in the body of the 
Academy. 
The hanging committee for this year is composed of 
Cope, Lewis, and Bichmond. As it is generally supiposed 
that the “ hanging committee ” perform the whole of tho 
onerous duty of selection, as well as hanging, it may be 
information to state that such is not the case. There is a 
“council” of eight, with the president of the Academy as 
chairman: and all the works are submitted to them. 
They divide the pictures into three classes, “ Accepted,” 
“Doubtful,” and “Bejected,” and the initial letters of 
these potent words are chalked on the back of each. The 
hanging committee then commence their labours, and 'their 
function is the placing of each picture upon the walls. 
The council meet a second time to inspect the exhibition, 
and they have the power to affirm or to change the positions 
allotted by the hanging committee ; the “ Doubtful ” class 
being held as a reserve to fill up space or to substitute in 
case of need for subjects not acceptable to the final 
tribunal. 
MICHELET'S 
S LIOPS have their memories, as well as the woods and 
fields of our youth ; from the humble village sweet-shop 
to the pompous undertaker’s. Few who have had any deal- 
ings with the latter can ever pass his door without a shudder. 
But the memories connected with many other shops are of a 
more mixed character. A hard-faced man will sometimes 
halt at a toy-shop, not to purchase, nor yet to recall his 
own days of rocking-horses, but to stare at some sixpenny 
doll with a look that must puzzle the young woman at the 
counter. Memories, in short, are seldom gay. We have just 
brought a fit of the dumps upon ourselves, by recalling our 
first pleasant visits to Messrs. Hachette. We have to 
reckon the time back by births and deaths; and it seems 
strange that it should only be seven or eight years ago. 
We were then attracted to the window, no doubt, by the 
powerful Dantesques of Gustave Dore. But what enticed 
us up to the counter was a simpler picture book, a tale 
about the mishaps of a little girl ( Mulheurs de Sophie), by 
the Comtesse de Segur. It was a good florin’s worth, and 
helped us to make French amusing to a young scholar. Our 
nursery soon became stocked with the rose-coloured library 
(Bibliothique rose), and a volume of the Children’s Week 
(La Semaine des Enfants) twice made a happy New Year’s 
gift. The books are still on our shelves, not without their 
memories ; and, before we began to offer a formal welcome 
to another much more important issue from the same firm, 
we could not help stopping to say a word in favour of our 
old favourites. 
Let us now turn to the book immediately before us. It 
is an eighth edition of L’Oisea u, by Michelet, illustrated 
* “ L’Oiseau.” Par J. Michelet. Huitieme edition, illustree 
de 210 vignettes sur bois, dessinees par H. Giacomelli : 
Paris : Librairie de L. Hachette et Cie. 1867. 
“L’OISEAU.”* 
by H. Giacomelli. The name of this young artist is not 
entirely new to us. The pages of the great French Bible, 
now in progress, are divided into double columns by his 
ornamental designs ; and these exhibit as much invention, 
in their own way, as the cartoons of Gustave Dore himself. 
But Giacomelli is more than a bold and fanciful decorator ; 
he can do more than study leaf and flower, and arrange 
them in tasteful folds and clusters ; he can put life and 
character into living creatures. He is a sort of French 
Bewick among the birds ; and his pencil can render the 
cruel grace of a watchful falcon, or the busy bee-like flutter 
of a humming-bird. He gives us many a picturesque 
episode. Here we see a rush of herons upon a wild autumn 
wind ; there we meet a desperate owl, abroad in the daylight, 
hunted and dizzied by the clamorous crows. His favourite 
scenes are meadows, or wayside brooks, or cottage gardens, 
with their sparrows and finches ; or the coppice of the 
nightingale, or the grove of the woodpecker ; and all their 
varieties of herbage and foliage are detailed with charming 
fidelity. He has also a good eye for landscapes of broader 
effect, whether the marsh of the bittern, or the eyry of the 
eagle ; but for these we must refer our readers to the book 
itself. The whole series, we are told, will soon appear in 
a new English edition, about to be published by Messrs. 
Nelson. 
We have chosen our two larger specimens (the second of 
which will appear next month) from the scenes in the 
hedgerow ; and we may here express our thanks to Messrs. 
Hachette for kindly having placed them at our disposal. 
Master Blackcap, it will be observed, is not in his most 
impassioned mood ; he is not pealing forth those ecstatic 
strains of courtship, which have often made him called the 
lesser nightingale ; he is only cheering his mate with a 
little quiet melody, as she bends over her nest to brood 
