artistic aspirations was the porcelain manufactory of his father, where he acquired a very fair knowledge of design. At length he determined to become a painter, and in the Salon of 1831 exhibited several landscapes. One of his best pictures was Animals Crossing a Bridge in Berry, sent to the Universal Exposition of 1867. Others painted at about the same period were: Forest of Compiègne, A Sheepfold in Berry, and The Return of the Flock. For some reason he had ceased to paint for a number of years, but when several works from his studio were sent to an exposition for the benefit of artists in 1860, Theodore Gautier, than whom no more fastidious critic ever existed, declared that it was for Dupré a sort of dazzling début, though his fame was already old. In the general opinion he rivals Theodore Rousseau as a colorist; and this is indeed high praise. A very prolific painter was C. F. Daubigny (born in Paris, 1817; died, 1878). His early studies were made under Delaroche. They were followed by the usual study of the old masters in Italy, and about 1830 Daubigny sent his first painting to the Salon, and continued to exhibit there nearly among the best. As will be seen from the titles, he is particularly adept at river scenery. Daubigny is also distinguished as an etcher. One of his plates, A Wooded Landscape, was purchased for the Louvre for about $700. Few military painters have acquired a higher reputation in France than Alphonse de Neuville. His only superiors in that line are Meissonier and possibly, Detaille. His most striking characteristics are freedom, audacity, truth of movement, of ges ALPHONSE DE NEUVILLE. every year for almost a half-century. An unfavorable criticism is, that all his landscapes lack distinctness; but, on the other hand, the general effect produces a marvelous feeling of reality. There is a breadth of coloring and massing of effect which few of the younger landscape painters have attained. Many specimens of Daubigny are to be seen in the Louvre, the Luxembourg and one or two, if we remember rightly, were in the palace of the Tuileries. We will mention but a few from the voluminous list. View on the Banks of the Seine, the Pool of Gylien, View at Dieppe, and The Seine at Dieppe are ture, of physiognomy, of color. He was born at St. Omer in 1836. It was intended that he should become a public official, but his strong taste for the army compelled his friends to allow him to enter a military school, and even there his artistic power was so evident that the professor of Design declared to him, "Whatever you may do, recollect that you will never make anything but a painter." To appease his family he began to study law, but spent most of his time at the military schools and in sketching. Though discouraged by friends and by other artists, he declared his intention to become a painter, and in 1859 exhibited at the Salon The Gervais Battery, which took a third medal. The Chasseurs of the Guard received a second medal in 1861, and the Attack of the Streets of Magenta (1864) was warmly praised. But, the pictures inspired by the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71 are those which have established De Neuville's claim to fame. The Last Cartridge (1873) was thought worthy of the Cross of the Legion of Honor. Many consider his best work to be The Attack by Fire on a Barricaded House at Villersexel (1874). In 1877 was exhibited another of his finest battle-pieces, An Episode in the Battle of Forbach. PAINTING. Like Doré, De Neuville executed a very great num- Included in the group of famous living French artists will be found the portrait of Paul Jacques Aimé Baudry, whose talent is versatile in the highest degree. He has exhibited historical, genre, and religious pictures, is one of the best of French portrait-painters; but is best known by his decoration of the ceiling of the grand foyer of the Grand Opera House in Paris. Baudry has been called a continuer of the lascivious prettiness of the Boucher coterie of the last century. He was born at La Roche sur Yon (1828); was a pupil of Sartoris; in 1828 gained the grand prix de Rome. The list of his pictures would certainly contain more than two hundred titles. tion of a Vestal, Fortune and a Child, Leda, St. John The Executhe Baptist, and Charlotte Corday are among the best. Opinions have differed greatly as to the merit of his Opera House decorative work. René Ménard asserts that it ought to give him the first place among contemporaneous painters, and Edmond About is scarcely less enthusiastic; while, on the other hand, Jarvis, in his "Art Thoughts," while praising the fascination of color and style, upbraids him for wantonness. Another military painter who has all the minuteness of his master, Meissonier, greater skill as a colorist, but not in bold and effective composition, is Jean Baptisté Edward Detaille (born 1848). His first picture at the Salon was the Halt of Infantry (1868). This was followed by Rest during the Drill, Camp St. Maur (1869), which established his fame and brought him many lucrative orders. His best picture is probably the In Retreat (1873), though several others painted at about the same time fairly rival it. One of his latest canvases is Bonaparte in Egypt (1878). The strongest criticism made on his work is, that he is too precise in details; that his soldiers look too much as if they came out of bandboxes; that they appear to be on the parade-ground when they should be on the battle-field. rather carping criticism, and it must be admitted by But this is all that Detaille is a great military painter, second if not first. Paul Alexandre Protais (born at Paris, 1826), is still another military painter of genius, and, as M. About says, "knows war to the bottom in all familiar aspects, heroic and melancholy. This he may well do as he followed the French armies through the campaigns of the Crimea and of Italy. The following are a few of his most important works: Battle of Inkerman; Taking a Battery of the Mamelukes; On the Route to Magenta; The Night of Solferino; The Grand Halt; Metz; and A Burial in the Crimea. M. Protais is quiet and simple in his methods, making no attempt to imitate the dash of Meissonier or the brilliant coloring of Detaille; but his knowledge of his subject is minute, and his effects always fitting and impressive, if not grand. He was a pupil of Desmoulins. Not so (1813-75), whose military paintings are sensational in highly to be commended is Isidore A. A. Pils composition and glaring in color. Yet Theophile simplicity, without bluster or artificial swagger. He Gautier declares that he "paints soldiers with manly puts a soul under their uniforms, and gives each one a character." His Battle of the Alma and several other pictures were purchased by the Govern ment. There are many other French painters of the modern school who deserve at least a word of commendatory notice. Prominent among them is James Tissot, a pupil of Flandrin, who has resided in England so long as generally to be considered an English artist. Two or three of his best works deal with the subject of Faust and Marguerite. BlaiseAlexandre Desgiffe is a painter of still-life of remarkable talent. One of his best pictures is A Vase, Mirror, Book, and Flowers, sent to the Salon of 1878. Vernet Lécomte, who makes a specialty of types of Oriental female beauty; Eugène Fromentin (1820-1876), who also dealt with Oriental subjects, and whose Arabs and Horses and Arabs Attacked by a Lion have never been surpassed in their way; Edward Frère, the founder of what he is pleased to call the Sympathetic School; Gavarni (1804-1866), though famous chiefly for his caricatures and woodcuts, had some success as a painter, particularly in water-colors; Lefebvre, whose Truth took a first prize at the Vienna exhibition-all these are names well and honorably known by the art-loving public. Less important, but worthy of mention, are Henri Monnier, Gustave Brion, Paul Huet, Delaplanche, Perraud, Manet (the "apostle of the impure" some call him), Renoir, Lévy, and Lépine (the last four all being represented by works at the Foreign Exhibition held in Boston in the autumn of 1883). BSCURITY shrouds the history of Painting in England until the end of the fifteenth century. It is only from about the time of Henry VIII. that an historic sketch of Painting can be comBut even then it is not of a native school-the English school did not have its origin until the eighteenth century with Hogarth and Reynoldsbut of a succession of foreign painters, who worked during more than two centuries for the court and the aristocracy. In England, as in the other countries of Europe, the Middle Ages naturally produced artists of every kind, from architects to goldsmiths, as well as painters; painters of the walls of churches, or of altar-panels, painters for glass and tapestry, painters of portraits for cabinets, for public buildings and castles, painters who illustrated missals and manuscripts. Few remains of these curiosities have been preserved; wars and conflagrations, the Reformation and Puritanism having in their turn destroyed the relics of former times. There scarcely exist more than a few traces of wall-painting in the churches and other public buildings; and a few books ornamented with miniatures. Early in the sixteenth century, in the reign of Henry VIII., Hans Holbein, of Augsburg (1497– 1543), came over to England on a visit to Sir Thomas More. The king made him a painter to the court, and gave him a small salary. Holbein, who stayed twenty-eight years in England-with the exception of a few short journeys on the Continenthas left many portraits in the Royal palaces and private galleries of this country. The Manchester Exhibition included about twenty of these masterpieces; quite as many were shown in the National Portrait Exhibition of 1866; and thirty-six in the Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters in 1880. During the same reign there also came to England a Fleming, Geraert Lucas Horebout, or Horneband (1475-1558) of Ghent, who painted portraits for the king. His daughter Susanna also painted miniatures in England; and about the time of Holbein's death another great artist came to London : Sir Anthony More (called in his own country Antonis Mor) was, like his master Jan van Schoorl, a citizen of the world; born at Utrecht, in Holland, he worked in Italy, Spain, Portugal and England, and subsequently died at Antwerp. He had a rival at the court of Queen Mary, a Fleming, Joost van Cleef, or Cleve born (ab. 1500), of Antwerp, a portrait painter of considerable talent. Another Fleming, Lucas de Heere (1534 ?-1584), of Ghent, also painted for Queen Mary, and continued to be employed during the next reign. Queen Elizabeth was not in want of artists-foreigners for the most part; a native of Gouda, Cornelius Ketel, arrived in 1573, and lived in London for eight years; an Italian, Federigo Zuccaro (1543-1609), arrived in 1574; and a Fleming, Marc Garrard, stayed many years in England, where he died in 1635. Nevertheless the influence of Holbein produced a few followers among Englishmen, especially in miniature painting. |