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¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 LITERATURE MUSIC FINE-ARTS DRAMA SCIENCE

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 Vol. xxii.] SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 1853. [Gratis.

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 Fine Arts

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 THE PARIS EXHIBITION.

¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 0 (THIRD AND CONCLUDING ARTICLE.)

¶ 6 Leave a comment on paragraph 6 3 The general feeling of the public, as far as I have been able to ascertain it during the ten days that the Exposition has now been open, seems to confirm the opinion I formed upon my early visits—namely, that, although the principal living representatives of French pictorial art have kept aloof, and although there is a decided scarcity of those pictures which stand out, by their superior merit, from amidst surrounding mediocrity, yet this year’s Exhibition is, upon the whole, a very pleasing and interesting one. One daily more appreciates the advan­tage of the unusually rigid scrutiny and numerous rejections. Five hundred works of art more or less make a vast difference in the fatigue of going through an exhibition of this kind, especially when (as is most probable in this case) a very large *proportion of the excluded five hundred consisted of pictures. Through the sculpture, engravings, and architecture few persons do more than stroll; but upon the paintings they dwell longer; and, assuredly, the exclusion of some hundreds of daubs, comprising not a few ugly portraits and tea-board landscapes, has been a relief to visitors and the saving of many a head­ache. This last discomfort is rather increased by the abundant light­ness of the rooms, which have not, however, upon any of the days I have visited them, been oppressively warm or unpleasantly crowded.

¶ 7 Leave a comment on paragraph 7 3 A final glance at the historical and biographical features of the cata­logue, reminds me of a few more pictures of those classes worthy of a word or two. No. 387, by Doerr, shows “ Bailly, Mayor of Paris, led to Execution.” The subject has interest; and there are many such subjects to be found in the history of the French revolution, which I wonder have not been made available by artists of higher rank than any who have hitherto handled them. It is not necessary to exhibit horrors, to depict bloodshed, and heads upon pikes; there are innu­merable episodes in the days of the Great Revolution which would supply the artist with noble, interesting, and affecting subjects. And there is no complaint so often made by historical painters as that of the difficulty of hitting upon good subjects, not already hackneyed. Alison’s “History of the Revolution,” and subsequent wars, would, surely, supply thousands. I do not particularly congratulate M. Duveau on the use he has made of a passage from Ta­citus, recording the “ Death of Agrippina, Nero’s Mother.” A murder is not a pleasant thing to contemplate, especially when the victim is a woman. She has already received a blow on the head, and is livid with the shock, but still full of vitality and passion.. Undraping herself, she  utters the “ Strike here !” &c., which all will remember; and the cen­turion draws back his arm to deal the fatal blow. Another assassination is better handled: in the Gallery of the Stags at Fontainebleau, Monal- deschi is about to be done to death, by order of Christina of Sweden. He is on his knees; the relentless Queen, rage distending her nostrils and making her eyes to gleam, is quitting the apartment. There is ex­pression in the picture, although it is not of first-rate merit. It is by Hӧckert, a Swede. Here is the pious death of Montaigne. For three days before his death he was speechless, and wrote his wishes. The moment selected by the artist is that when mass is being said in his apartment: he witnesses with devout joy the Host’s elevation, and gives up the ghost. Barrias (a name unfamiliar to me, but a painter of merit) exhibits one picture—“ Dante Alighieri.” Passing through the streets of Ravenna, with fixed gaze and pallid aspect, the great bard of the “ Inferno ” was pursued, and curiously gazed at by children, who pointed him out to each other as the man who had returned from hell. Another interesting Italian subject is the “ Death of Vittoria Colonna,” by Leman. “ When Vittoria died,” Condivi says, “ Michael Angelo’s grief was so violent, that he at times remained like one deprived of his senses. He entered the room where lay the mortal remains of the woman he had so deeply loved, and, after gazing at her long in silence, imprinted a kiss upon her cold hand, and withdrew.” An anecdote well known to all versed in artistic lore has been chosen by Mr. Charles Marchal for the subject of his picture, No. 799—Vandyke, in Rubens’s studio, is painting a part of the master’s “ Descent from the Cross,” which the other pupils had effaced.

¶ 8 Leave a comment on paragraph 8 3 Sacred subjects are neither numerous nor strikingly good in this Exhibition. High upon the walls are several large things which one sees with difficulty, and turns from with small regret; and, in a comer, is a most disagreeable “ Martyrdom of St. Peter,” by Dumaresq; to which we greatly prefer “ The Kiss of Judas,” by Hebert, which has fine colouring, and great expression in some of the faces. A pretty sort of picture of “ The Annunciation,” by Jalabert (a pupil of Paul Delaroche), attracts gazers, and is remarkable for the sweet, girlish expression of the Virgin’s countenance. With reference to this picture, and to others by pupils of Delaroche, I am puzzled to account for the style of colouring, which is decidedly an imitation of Ingres, and con­sequently very different from, and far inferior to, that of the great painter under whom these artists studied. I will instance two cases in point, that just now occur to me—“An Idyl,” by Gerome.; and “An Idyl: My Sister is not there,” by Hamon. Both are pretty; the latter especially, which is a charming, fanciful group of children—a boy with an olive-branch in his hand, and a girl hiding behind two younger urchins; with butterflies and flowers of tender hues, and figures in the distance, making up altogether one of those fantastical, pensive pictures which one gazes at with pleasure. But the colouring in both cases is Ingres all over—the subdued tints, of peculiar choice ; and the sort of misty,  or, rather, dusty medium. I can hardly believe that even the warmest admirers of Ingres can prefer his colouring to that of Delaroche, even though they may be disposed to award him the palm in other respects.

¶ 9 Leave a comment on paragraph 9 0 Before proceeding to that class of pictures—interiors, fanciful sub­jects, illustrations of tales and fables, &c.—which is best comprised under the head of genre, I will give a few lines to landscapes and animals.

¶ 10 Leave a comment on paragraph 10 0 One of the largest pictures in the Exhibition, and which I have heard some prize as also amongst the very best, is by Mademoiselle Rosa  Bonheur, a well-known and certainly very clever artist. It is rather an

¶ 11 Leave a comment on paragraph 11 0 GRAND ENTERTAINMENT TO COMMODORE VANDERBILDT, AT SOUTHAMPTON, ON MONDAY LAST.—(SEE PAGE 499.)