ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1943, 14 February 1889, Page 35

ART AND ARTISTS.

THE CZAII'S MEMORIAL TO HIS MOTHER. Ths Czar has, during the past five years, devoted a sum of at least £60,000 to the erection of a beautiful church at Jerusalem, not far from the Holy Places, as a memorial of his mother. His biothers have provided the rich fittings and furniture between them, and the church, which has been consecrated by Monsignor Nikodim, Patriarch of Jerusalem, will become a fresh gathering place for Russian pilgrims to the Holy City. ALMA TADEMA'S NEW PICTURES. Alma Tarlema has three pictures on the easel. The first is a large work representing the rites of a vintage festival. The second work shows two girls reclining in the interior of a Roman hairdresser's shop — and a sumptuous shop it is — while a young girl, seen from behind, is leaning over a marble counter to descant to ladies assembled in the street the virtue of some new cosmetic. " From a Favourite Poet " represents a blonde, attired in pink draperies, reclining on cushions piled on a marble seat, while a white-clad brunette reads from a scroll. WORK FOR IMPECUNIOUS ARTISTS. A new field for French painters, who have been rather impecunious of late, is painting panels in the sections of the exhibition. For example : The Argentine Republic will have one of the richest exhibits, and the walls of its section are to be adorned with decorative panels, which will be taken back to that country, doubtless, when the exposition is over. Thus the great millionaires of the River Plate will have the address of an artist in case he should wish to send an order to Paris. In the hope of reaching this new market artists of the very first class are offering to paint panels 20ft long for such sums as lOOOfr. A GOOD ARTIST WHO DIED POOR. Here is ,an anecdote of the late FayenPerrin, which shows that he had the right sort of spirit for an artist. Several years ago (says the Moniteur dcs Arts) he was painting a portrait of a rich American lady. She was in a hurry to take the picture away, and was very well pleased with it. " I like it very much," she said ; "it suits me just as it is." " But it does not suit me," said the artist. " I must begin it all over again." The lady was very much annoyed, and refused to sit any more. The result was that she went away in a huff, and the portrait was left on his hands. "I was not very smart," said the painter in speaking of it ; " the portrait would have brought me 3000fr as it was ; but pshaw ! it is better to make a costly error than a bad picture." He died poor. ART IN THE SERVICE OP MAN. Art has the power of bringing together the most beautiful scenes from distances, both of time and space. They not only endow us with wings which may transport us, without effort, suffering, or loss of time on our part, from our own country to the most distant regions of the globe, ard bring before us, one after the other, London, Rome, Athens, Constantinople, Cairo, Benares, Pekin, or Yokohama, the ocean in all its varied mocds, the fields and woods and rivers of England, the lakes and mountains and glaciers of Switzerland, the prairies of America, the deserts of Africa and Arabia, the snows of winter and the sunshine of summer, but they can transport back through centuries in a moment, and bring vividly before us the great personages and most interesting scenes and events in history. "The highest service, however," as Mr Haweis has well said, " that art can accomplish for man is to become at once the voice of his nobler aspirations, and the steady disciplinarian of his emotions." Bacon, in " The Advancement of Learning," points out that " the world is inferior to the soul, bj reason whereof there is agreeable to the spirit of man a more ample greatness, a more exact goodness, and a more absolute Variety" than can be found in the nature of things." — Sir John Lubbock. Poisonous Hatb Bhstobhhs and Dibs.— The public have frequently been warned in medical and other paper 3, against using hair renewerg and restorers, which being composed of poisonous and mineral ingredients have a moat detrimental effect on the hair and scalp. The only safe preparation is Rowlands' Maoabsab On., which nearly 100 years trial has proved to be perfectly harmless and most benefloial in all cases of loss of Jlair, scurf, and dandruff ; it prevents and arrests baldness and produces a luxuriant and glossy head of hair ; also sold in a golden colour. Rowlands' Kaltdob produces soft and delioate akin and removes all cutaneous ♦teaches. At* chemiato for Rowlands' articlea.