ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1895, 16 March 1888, Page 34

ART AND ARTISTS.

I M. Joseph Palizzi, the distinguished landscape painter, has just died in Paris, aged 7i. From 1845 onwards be was a constant exhibitor at the Salon. Like Landseer, he was a profound student of the animal creation, and being exact in form and a skilful colourist, his pictures were warmly appreciated for their faithful delineations of animal life and outward nature. It is proper to warn art collectors against purchasing any Rsmbrandts, Durers, or Raphaels which may stray into the market at present. A nevr scientific process of copying is said to have been applied to the Esterhazy Gallery (at Pesth) with startling results, and the fact has become a subject of investigation by the Hungarian Congress. The fine picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds of " The Marlborough Family," now in the Royal Academy Exhibition, has (the London correspondent of the Manchester Guardian says) been insured by the Duke of Marlborough for £40,000, which is therefore supposed to be the price the Duke puts upon it. It is, however, one of the family picture?, whiah, it is said, is out of his power to dispose of. Washington people are beginning to doubt the stability of the Washington monument. The edges of the big marble blocks at the base are splitting and crumbling, and the blocks themselves are seamed and cracked by the pressure of the shaft. Never before in. the world's history, it is said, has a foundation of any kind had to support so great a pressure. Some 30 years ago a revolution took place in the artistic world. A school arose which scorned to follow any one master, even Raphael himself, and preached the daring doctrine that true art consisted in truly representing Nature. At first the pre-Ra-phaelites excited nothing but derision, their crude greens, their orange skies, their rough, ungainly men, and ugly, sorrowful women, found very few admirers. But in time the honesty of their effort to paint what they saw interested even their detractors, and the great genius of Rosetti and Millais assured their ultimate recognition by the world of art. Yet their theory cannot altogether stand the test of criticism. They did, indeed, successfully demonstrate that it is a greater thing to try to paint Nature as she is than to depict her as she might, could, or should be ; but in one particular Nature defies the artist. No colourman has yet bottled the sunlight for us; therefore no true representation of the glory of the noonday can ever be given on canvas or on paper — any imitation o£ its brilliancy can only be rendered by the cunning contrast of white or yellow paint with dark shadow tints ; and so the pre-Raphaelite must ever fail to accomplish his highest ideal — he cannot paint exactly what he sees. — Spectator.