ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1866, 26 August 1887, Page 34

ART AND ARTISTS.

The production of a weekly cartoon is a great strain, and the task of selecting a subject is difficult indeed. The Punch cartoon is selected at the ''Punch Dinner," which takes place once a week. Occasionally, during the period of designing and engraving the cartoon, political events have undergone a violent change, and the whole thing has had to be redrawn and entirely recast. On more than one occasion, too, different papers have produced almost identical cartoons, on the same day. French artistic production is assuming alarming dimensions. In an art journal it has been recently stated, on the authority of trustworthy estimates, that France contains 22,357 painters, and that of that number 12,000 have had opportunities of displaying their works at exhibitions. A statue of George Peabody, by W. W. Story, will soon be placed by Robert Qarrett in Mount Vernon square, Baltimore. It is a duplicate of Mr Story's London statue of the philanthropist. It is said that the cost of the pictures m the Graphic, the Illustrated London News, and the scores of smaller journals published in London and the provinces, exceeds £300,000 per annum. This includes the artists' fees, those of the engravers, and the cost of electrotyping. There is great depression among American artists in Paris at their complete exclusion from all medals and honours at the salon. Only one American (Miss Gardener, of Boston), got a second class medal. One af the reasons given why Americans are excluded is because of the duty on art in America. Munkacsy's " Christ on Calvary," is the companion and the sequel to his " Christ before Pilate." It is a larger, and, in a sense, a more melo-dramatic work. A hill rises from

the left o£ the picture, and finds its crest on the right. Crowning this crest are three crosses. On the centre cross hangs the body of Christ, and on the others those of the thieves who suffered crucifixion in his company. Overhead is a lowering sky, the gloom of which is accentuated by a rift of light which deoends upon the cross of our Saviour, At the foot of the cross is a group, one member of which is the Virgin Mary, who clasps the feet of her sen. Other figures disposed I about the foreground are a pair of rabbis, two Roman officers, an Arab sheik who rides off on a white horse, and the executioner with his ladder and axe. Beyond is a crowd who, satisfied with the spectacle, are beginning to move away. The figures in the foreground are of life-size, so that, as may be understood, the work is one of gigantic proportions. Whether it will command the attention bestowed xipon the « Christ before Pilate" remains to be seen. Certainly it shows a daring of conception and a mastery over effect such as have seldom been displayed in contemporary art. If in the " Christ on Calvary " the painter, has noc achieved greatness he has certainly deserved it. It is stated that the trustees of the Batish Museum have [called the attention of Lord Salisbury to the statue (belonging to the nation) of Rameses II at Mitrahenny, and represented to him the desirability of its removal to this country, We believe also that the committee of the Burlington Fine Arts Club has memorialised the Prime Minister to the same eff act. The latest intelligence from Mitrahenny is that Major Bagnold has- turned the statue over BOdeg., and expects soon to increase it to 90deg. It is earnestly to be desired that effectual precautions will be taken now that the front of the figure is exposed to preserve it from all damage, ard also, it should be added, from the direct action of thesun. — Athenseum.