A CURIOUS PICTURE.

Bruce Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 1205, 21 May 1880, Page 6

A CURIOUS PICTURE.

A curious picture was sold a few weeks since at the auction rooms in Rue Drouot. [t waa purchased for eleven thousand frAiics by a weli--.kno\vn Parisian auuitcuv. The peculiarity connected with the picture was the strange fact that it is painted on human skin. Its origin is attributed to a shipwreck which occurred ou a savage coast, and which led to the capture of a number of the victim 3 tiy a party of Jndiaus. One of the shipwrecked was an artist, and us the ceremony of tatooing was being proceeded with by the Indiana, the artist, who had saved his painting utensils and colors, volunteered to paint the grand chief. The oiler was accepted, and the French artist at once painted a magnificent view of the harbor and king's palace on the breast of the savage. Towards the mid of IS7G some of the Indian tribt'3 revolted, and pursued by the Americans, several of them were billed or mtidu prisoners; one of the latter died in the hospital, and when his chest covering was withdrawn, the landscape in question in an excellent state of preservation, was discovered on the breast of the Indian. A Frenchman purchased the body, took ofi the skiu of the cheat, had it framed, and brought it to Pat-is, where it has been knocked down to the highest bidder by a tap from the auctioneer's hymruer. — 'Dan bury News.'