ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1917, 17 August 1888, Page 35

ART AND ARTISTS.

Statuettes of men, women, and children, | draped and undraped, standing and seated, have been found in tombs at Tangre, Greece. " The Retreat from Moscow " was begun by Meissonier 15 years ago, and finished in April last. It was sold in Paris on' May 1 for £5800. Miss Elizabeth Strong, of £a Francisco, is the Rosa Bonheur of American painters. At present she has a studio in Paris, in the sixth storey of a house in the Rue dcs Saints-Peres, near the Seine. It was once occupied by Paul Delaroche. Miss Strong does most of her painting in the open air in the lovely country round Paris. ■ She has sent two pictures to' the salon, both of dogs. The Danish portrait painter Laiirets Tuxen has finished the large portrait gi*oup of the members of the Royal Family of England which Queen Victoria commissioned him to paint at the time of the jubilee festivities. The Queen; who herself figures in it in a- black dress, is represented in the uct of receiving a. bouquet of flowers from the daujj-htei; of the Duchess eC Albany. A lare,-e 3)atue of "Robert Burps, the. Scottish poet, will somi be cast in the foundries of Bureau Brotl'ers, of Philadelphia, and when flushed wiM be erected in Washington Park, Albany, New York. The sculptor, Charles Caverly, of New York, has represented the poet seated on a boulder in a pensive mood,; in his right hand he holds a half open book, while his " quid blue bonnet " is tightly grasped by his left. Meissonier's " 1814 " is a "small canvas, Sin by 12in in size, therefore not his most " ambitious work.." It represents Napoleon during the second day of the great battle of Leipic ; he is seated on his famous white horse t Marengo t looking gloomily at the field, where the third day's battle is to take place. The picture was sold in the Defoer sale in Paris two years ago for 120,000f. Ifc is now owned by Mr Walters, of Baltimore. It is considered Meissonier's masterpiece.