ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1989, 10 April 1890, Page 40

ART AND ARTISTS.

"The Angelus" arrived at Chicago on Saturday, the 18th of January. It was shown privately in the evening to the press and a few notables, and has since been on exhibition with the Verestchagin collection at the exposition building. It will not be exhibited elsewhere in America, and will be sent to London, where it is likely to remain, as an offer of 150,000d0l has been made for it.

Rosa Bonheur was born in 1822, the daughter of Raymond Bonheur, a painter, who gave her her firstinstructions in art. While still a young girl she copied pictures at the Louvre, and made studies and sketches from life. She first publicly exhibited hnr work in 1841, at Bordeaux, two pictures which attracted much attention. These were followed by other pictures which gained her a world-wide recognition.

Japanese training in decorative design receives much praise fvomM. Michel, although he insists upon the superiority of the scientific method over reliance upon impulse and " inspiration." He recognises the merits o£ Japanese bronzes, carvings, lacquers and other work, but his natural hostility to the "Japanese craze" has given to his comments an air of severity. Nevertheless his view of modern art in Japan is unusually hopeful. Mr Ernest Waterlow, the new A.R.A., was born about 1852. He makes his first appearance in the Royal Academy catalogue in 1872, with an " Evening in Dovedale." Since then he has been an exhibitor at Burlington Hoaee every year, with the solitary exception, we think, of 1876. Of late his contributions have been looked for as regularly as those of the members themselves, and have usually been as well hung. Mr Waterlow's forte i 3 English or Irish landscape, with figures introduced, generally in sunlight, and his principal distinction is that he was one of the first, if not the very earliest, of those young British painters who undertook to repudiate the studio light, and paint their compositions enple*n air.

When we reflect that the " Greek Slave "— the work, by the way, of an American, and originally produced at Florence— is nearly the only statuette not produced by an Italian which has been popular in England during 40 years, our deficiencies as modellers of statuary suitable for the embellishment of our homes will be painfully palpable. " The Veiled Slave," " The Sleep of Sorrow and the Dream of Joy," " The Reading Girl," " The " Bathing Girl," and « The Dirty Boy " are all the work of Italian sculptors.- Our Engglish ceramio manufacturers may offer us small bnsts of Royalty and celebrated personages of the day, or reproductions of Kiss' " Amazon " or Danneker's •' Ariadne on the Lion," in biscuit or so-called Parian ware; but, if we sought for statuettes in marble or in alabaster, we should almost infallibly be thrown back on the work of Italian artists.— Telegraph. .