ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1874, 21 October 1887, Page 34

ART AND ARTISTS.

The late Samuel Cousins, the great English engraver, left an estate valued at about £150,000. The pictures by Sir Joshua Reynolds of the " Three trustees of the Tenth Lord Westmoreland" has been presented to the New York Metropolitan Museum by J. S. Morgan. It cost £10,000. The statue of the Queen, in Aberdeen, is found to be deteriorating under the influence of the weather. It is proposed to remove the statue to some place under cover, and that a bronze or granite statue should be erected on the pedestal in St. Nicholas street. Turner's great picture " Antwerp," which belongs to the painter's third period, when his tendency toward brilliancy of light began to show itself clearly, recently brought £6825 in London. It was shown in the Eoyal Academy in 1833 and valued at £200, but was not sold at that price. After remaining 11 years in the painter's studio it was sold to E. Bicknell for £315. The last time it came on the market was in 1863, when it brought £3000. A statue of the Empress Sabina, wife of Hadrian, has been found at the capital city of the island of Thasos. The pedestal has this inscription from the Senate of Thasos : "To their mother, Phloueibia Sabina, the most worthy arch priestess of incomparable ancestors, the first and only woman whoever received equal honours to those who were in the Senate." Phloueibia is supposed to stand for Fulvia, an alternate name for the empress who was commonly callec Julia Sabina. Professor J. R. Ridgway, of the Smithsonian Institute, Professor Metzol, of Berlin, and Professor Geering, of Loipsic, are engaged on a series of drawings — pictures of " The Birds of North America." The undertaking is a most elaborate one ; it is anticipated that it will entail an outlay of between £3000 and £4000. The production is to be under the care of Herr H. Nehrling, the ornithologist. The work will be issued both in English and German. It is anticipated that the first instalment wiU be ready early in November. It is a fact of primary significance, both in morals and art (a fact which is sadly lost sight of just now), that the highest beauty and joy are not attainable when they occupy the first place as motives, but only when they are more orlessthe accidents of Useexercise of the manly virtue of the vision of truth. There is at fitting seasons a serene splendour and a sunny sweetness about that which is truly masculine, whether in character oi art, which women and womanly artists never attain — an innei radiance of original loveliness and joy which comes, and can only come, of the purity of motive which regards eternal beauty and delight as accidental. — St. James' Gazette, The wife of the French Prime Minister has achieved considerable distinction as a sculptor. Madame Claude Vignon —to give Madame Rouvier the name under which she won her early successes, and under which she continues to veil her artistic personality — is not a mere amateur, but an earnest and painstaking artist, who has produced several works of real merit, one, at least, of which has been thought worthy of a place in the Luxembourg. This is the v Petit Pecheur," which she exhibited at the salon of 1878, and which had the honour to be included among the works purchased by the State in that year. Another statue of hers, " Daphne," occupies a conspicuous place in the Museum oi Marseilles. The group in the Square Montholon is another of the productions of her chisel ; and she has executed a series of bas-reliefs for one of the escaliers in the Louvre, which are highly spoken of by the critics.