A BOY ARTIST.

Evening Star, Issue 12870, 20 July 1906, Page 7

A BOY ARTIST.

There is a picture of Prometheus in the ■Jalon des Artistes Francais which has i'oa.t.>d a considerable sensation in Paris. Tbe subject is Prometheus, and the painter a boy of sixteen named Tado Styka, the aon of Jan Styka, who is perhaps beet known for bis wonderful illustrations to the 'Quo Vadk?' of Sienkiewicz. When President Fallieres inaugurated the Salon h' was particularly attracted by tbe Prometheus, and asked to be introduced to tta painter. He was a little bit surprised when a boy of sixteen, small for his age. but with the repose and assurance of a man, stepped up to him, shook hands, and expressed his pleasure at the official recog nition which his work had received. "1 suppose," fiaid Tade Styka to the Presidetn if tho Republic, "that you want me U draw something under your own eves •lost people do." And when the Presiden' smiled assent, the lad produced in a fe* moments a wonderful crayon portrait of th<

'resident himself. The boy's reason for :pposing that the President would want ) see him at work was an incident which ccurred five years ago, when he was only even. His father came to Paris in 190 C . > superintend the hanging of his pictuic f the martyrdom of the Christians in the ircus of, Nero, the famous picture in vhich a small child pitied one of the lions *o " because he hadn't got a Christian." The picture made a sensation, and M. Jan Styka, finding that he should be likely to ?emain in Paris longer than he bad expected to, sent for his son Tade, whom he put to school there. Tade sent a few drawings to the children's exhibition" at the Petit Palais, and the work in these drawings appeared so mature to the Committee that they sent for the lad, and, knowing him to be the con of an artist, suggested that he might do a drawing for them from nature there and then. The boy did a picture of one of the attendants, which is a little gem of artistic expression. Two years afterwards Tade surprised his father with a picture of VitelKus, and in 1903, when lie was thirteen, he received an honorable mention at the Salon for a portrait of Tolstoi. M. Jan Styka was a great friend of Henner, and Tade was anxious to study under the master's tuition, "I should be proud to teach you," said the old painter, "for your gifts are remarkable. But there is very little, if anything, left for me to teach you." Tade Styka is in every sense a boy when the conversation turns upon anything but art, but when talk ia of pictures he gives his opinion with the calm assurance of a master. "And he really is a master," says his father. "I am a firm believer in reincarnation, and I feel certain that my boy was a great painter in a former life."

OF ANY COUNTRY.