{"id":245,"date":"2020-11-02T17:46:56","date_gmt":"2020-11-02T17:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/?page_id=245"},"modified":"2021-07-12T19:33:47","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T19:33:47","slug":"london-news-supplement","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/illustrated-london-news-supplement\/london-news-supplement\/","title":{"rendered":"Pg. 497"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"London<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

LITERATURE MUSIC FINE-ARTS DRAMA SCIENCE<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vol. xxii.] SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 1853. [Gratis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fine Arts<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE PARIS EXHIBITION.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(THIRD AND CONCLUDING ARTICLE.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2014namely, 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\u2019s Exhibition is, upon the whole, a very pleasing and interesting one. One daily more appreciates the advan\u00adtage 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 head\u00adache. This last discomfort is rather increased by the abundant light\u00adness of the rooms, which have not, however, upon any of the days I have visited them, been oppressively warm or unpleasantly crowded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A final glance at the historical and biographical features of the cata\u00adlogue, reminds me of a few more pictures of those classes worthy of a word or two. No. 387, by Doerr, shows \u201c Bailly, Mayor of Paris, led to Execution.\u201d 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 innu\u00admerable 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\u2019s \u201cHistory of the Revolution,\u201d and subsequent wars, would, surely, supply thousands. I do not particularly congratulate M. Duveau on the use he has made of a passage from Ta\u00adcitus, recording the \u201c Death of Agrippina, Nero\u2019s Mother.\u201d 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 \u201c Strike here !\u201d &c., which all will remember; and the cen\u00adturion 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 ex\u00adpression in the picture, although it is not of first-rate merit. It is by H\u04e7ckert, 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\u2019s elevation, and gives up the ghost. Barrias (a name unfamiliar to me, but a painter of merit) exhibits one picture\u2014\u201c Dante Alighieri.\u201d Passing through the streets of Ravenna, with fixed gaze and pallid aspect, the great bard of the \u201c Inferno \u201d 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 \u201c Death of Vittoria Colonna,” by Leman. \u201c When Vittoria died,\u201d Condivi says, \u201c Michael Angelo\u2019s 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.\u201d 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\u2014Vandyke, in Rubens\u2019s studio, is painting a part of the master\u2019s \u201c Descent from the Cross,\u201d which the other pupils had effaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201c Martyrdom of St. Peter,\u201d by Dumaresq; to which we greatly prefer \u201c The Kiss of Judas,\u201d by Hebert, which has fine colouring, and great expression in some of the faces. A pretty sort of picture of \u201c The Annunciation,\u201d by Jalabert (a pupil of Paul Delaroche), attracts gazers, and is remarkable for the sweet, girlish expression of the Virgin\u2019s 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 con\u00adsequently 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\u2014\u201cAn Idyl,\u201d by Gerome.; and \u201cAn Idyl: My Sister is not there,\u201d by Hamon. Both are pretty; the latter especially, which is a charming, fanciful group of children\u2014a 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\u2014the 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before proceeding to that class of pictures\u2014interiors, fanciful sub\u00adjects, illustrations of tales and fables, &c.\u2014which is best comprised under the head of genre, I will give a few lines to landscapes and animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GRAND ENTERTAINMENT TO COMMODORE VANDERBILDT, AT SOUTHAMPTON, ON MONDAY LAST.\u2014(SEE PAGE 499.)
<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LITERATURE MUSIC FINE-ARTS DRAMA SCIENCE Vol. xxii.] SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 1853. [Gratis. Fine Arts THE PARIS EXHIBITION. (THIRD AND CONCLUDING ARTICLE.) 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":659,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-245","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":744,"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/245\/revisions\/744"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}