LITERATURE AND ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8222, 5 April 1890, Page 4 (Supplement)

LITERATURE AND ART.

Albert Biebstadt is at work on a largo painting of tho discovery of America by Columbus. Mr. Murray announces the speedy publication of tho "Speeches and Addresses" delivered in India by Lord Dufferin. The same publisher promises a translation into Latin verso, by the accomplished Bishop of St. Andrew's of tho Collects of the Prayerbook as well as of some psalms and hymns. The statue of Henry Ward Beecher, destined to be placed in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, is now being cast in bronze. It will be of heroic proportions, nine feet high, and will represent the great preecher in the familiar soft felt hat and cape. Tho cost will be £7000, and the statue will be completed in eighteen months. The women who study at the schools of the Royal Academy have petitioned for many years to be allowed living models. Tho greatest obstructionist was Mr. Horseley. ' The. latter has yielded so far as to permit partially draped models to pose for the ladies. Hitherto they have been compelled to draw from photographs of models arrayed in tights ! The issue of the next part of " Pr.-rierita' is indefinitely delayed, owing to Mr. Raskin's continued illness. It is, however, the author's intention to add, when his health permits, eight more chapters to the twentyeight already issued of these " outlines of scenes and thoughts perhaps worthy of memory in my past life." The series, as will lie remembered, began in the spring of ISSS, and at the rate of past publication it ought to be completed before tho end of isoi. Tho first canto of "The Lay of the Last Minstrel," which is to be disposed of at Sotheby's, was described by the author himself as being "in a light-horseman sort of stanza,'' and was composed under singular circumstances. Sir Walter was for some time quartermaster of the Edinburgh Light Cavalry. During a charge on L'ortobello Sands in 1802 he"received a kick from one of the horses, which confined him to his lodgings for three days. It was during this time that the first "canto of the Lay was produced.—very nearly, according to a brother officer's recollection, in the state in which it was ultimately published. A state.e of Lafayette, which has been presented to America by French citizens, will soon arrive in Washington. Naturally it should bo put in Lafayette Square, so named by General Washington in honour of his friend and fellow-soldier from Prance, but the central figure in this park is an equestrian statue of General Jackson, which has become a historical landmark. The removal of "Old Hickory, - ' and his rearing horse would be almost a sacrilege, and it, is suggested that, as there is ample room for both" statues, the old one should bo allowed to remain. The Secretory of War, the architect of the Capitol, and Senator Evarts are the members of the commission which will make the decision. The growing Meredith cult, of which Mr. R. L. Stevenson not long ago declared himself a disciple, is to find expression shortly in a booh. "Chapters on George Meredith, Novelist and Poet," is the title of ,i work by Mr. Richard Le Gallienne—who is himself the author of one or two volumes of poems—which will be published at an early date. The book will bo similar in intention to Mr. Nettleship's work on Robert Browning; but it will have the additional attraction of a complete biography—by Mr. John Lane—which will cover not only the novels, poems, and fugitive writings] but a complete list of all the essays and'reviews (English and American) which have been written on George Meredith.

Protais, the celebrated military painter, died recently, at the age of sixty-four. He began life as a post-office clerk, and remained nearly ten years in the administration. His first success was a series of battle pictures of the Crimea ; he afterward followed the French army to Italy, and there gathered the material for another series of pictures, which finally established his reputation. Severed of his paintings have been popularised by engraving and photography, notably "The Morning Before the Attack" and " The Evening After the Combat." Protais was not a strong realist painter like his successors, Do Neuville and Detaille. He excelled in portraying the poetic and .tender sides of military life, rather than its rough and rugged features.