THE PARIS SALONS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1424, 15 June 1899, Page 12

THE PARIS SALONS.

The Paris correspondent of the “Morning Leader” thus refers to the French Salens. Blinding, choking dust and dazzling toilets characterised as usual the varnishing ceremony at the united salons. Through the dust and the crowd it. was possible to see that the pictures cf the year are Barbin’s colossal 'canvas representing a massacre of conspirators in the Old Palace at Florence, Anquctin’s battle-piece, Harpignie’s landscape, Roybett's portrait of Dr Laffont, Benjamin Constant's portrait of Mile, von der Wies, the daughter of the Russian railway king, and Tattegvaiu’s Saiut-Quan-tin after the pillage—a scene of sickening horror. In the department of sculpture there was a crowd round Falguiere’s “Balzac,” which is a. poor performance as compared with Rodin’s masterpiece. Rodin himself sends a bust of Falguiere, which is a most striking portrait. Saint-Gaudc-n’s equestrian statue of Gen. Sherman will attract the Americans, and is a fine piece of work. English visitors will be struck with Frappals large painting of the “Death cf Gen. Gordon,” in which the good intention is more evident than the artistic skill. A Salvation Army scene m Jersey by D.epre should be noticed, for it is full of devc-r characterisation. The. Salons are on the whole marked this year by a disappointing mediocrity in mesfc of the work, and by a return to the depictment of the frankly horrible, a taste which French painters had, I thought, abandoned. Th y. ..tore mentioned above by Barbin is ;. I .ad instance of tills, but as the composition is very confused and the colouring uniformly black the details are less distinguishable, and therefore less gruesome than in other canvases which have necu similarly inspired. The walls of the Salon positively reek with blood. Perhaps the height of tho grotesquely horrible is Veber's picture of nude women wrestling in Devonshire. Among works to be seen are an admirable poitrait of a woman by Dagan-Bouveret, the painter of the famous “Last Supper,” Friant’s eight contributions, all excellent, Motto’s “Legendes des Temps des Aieux,” Douglas Robinson’s nude study, the Gazin landscapes; Thauiow’s evening effect, and Besnard’s “Les Idees.”