ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1913, 9 October 1890, Page 31

ART AND ARTISTS.

Two unknown gentlemen have guaranteed £30,000 if the Government gives £25,000 for the purchase for the English National Gallery of three famous pictures from Lord Radnor's collection at Longford Castle. The pictures are Holbein's "Ambassador," the largest work of his in existence ; the portrait of Admiral Pareja.by Valasquez, one of the most important of his works outside of Spain ; and the portrait by Moroni, whose picture of "A Tailor" is one of the chief prizes of the National Gallery. This is an average of over £18,000 each for the three canvases. It is unique in the history of modern picture-buying, and there would have been difficulty in getting Parliament to ratify the bargain if over half of the money had not come out of private pockets. THE ERA OF FANCY PRICES. Meissonier's original picture, " 1814," generally known as the " Retreat from Moscow," has been 3Old for £34,000, which is said to be the highest price on record for a picture by a living artist. The "Retreat from Moscow " is one of a series of small oil paintings, painted with exquisite care, which represent epochs in the life of Napoleon. The first, " 1805," was said to have brought £16,000. It was brought to this country and was consumed by fire. The " 1807 " was sold to the late Alexanier T. Stewart for £12,000, and has been presented to the Metropolitan Museum of New York by Judge Hilton, who bought it at auction for £13,200. Last of the series is the " 1814," now sold to M. Cauchardfor £34,000. These pictures represent an immense amount of labour. Meissonier spent 15 years painting the " 1807," and almost as long a period on the others. The prices they bring represent the fancy values put upon great works of art that are extremely rare or cannot be duplicated. — Philadelphia Ledger. TWO SALON PICTURES. BOTH REPRESENT TRAGEDIES IN HAREMS AND ARE ATTRACTING ATTENTION. Tragedies in harems are among the excuses resorted to for painting nude figures. Bellet resorts to this pretext in his " Drame dans le Serail," in which a lovely blonde lies stretched, in the languor immeciiately following a violent death, on a Smyrna carpet and amid Turkish bric-a-brac. Lights come through a window screened with carved wood a V orientate. The dead beauty is dressed as much as the Venus of Milo. A brunette furry, no longer young, and unbecomingly undraped (veiling being most deiirable in her case) kneels near the stabbed one. She is preparing to stab another fair inmate in the harem, who has rushed to raise the lifeless favourite. The murderess is a dark Sarah Bernhardt. Rochegrosse, in his harem scene, gives the arrival of a fair Circassian fresh from the slave market, and also from the savagery of her native hills. Some of the senior wives are jealous. All of them are curious. A female Nubian removes the sordid clothing of the new-comer, while another is waiting to take her to a bath, of which she stands in need. Parrots hop about the big marblefloored room. A cat gravely surveys the scene. There are among the half-naked children some that play, others who wonder what the presence of the new acquisition can mean to occasion such a stir among the Pasha's wives and concubines. There are boys of six or seven, bold-eyed, bullet-headed little Orientals, who seem to have an instinctive knowledge of the reason why she has been brought into the harem. Had Solomon in his head such seraglio-bred urchins when he was so emphatic in prescribing flogging ? The fair Circassian has a fine figure, fine flesh, a fine head of hair, but a wild look in the eyes, and seems disappointed. Her present surroundings do not accord with her dreams of seraglio splendour. None of the ladies are elegantly dressed. They are all a vulgar, cackling lot, whom petty passion sway, and are sure to make it hot for la nouvelle if she does not make the lord and master get rid of them all. What a place to bring up a family in ! A eunuch eyes the woman askance, and not in a benevolent frame of mind. If the Pasha become the slave of the Circassian the eunuch will at once place himself on her side.— Mrs Crawford, in Truth.

I — To salute with the 'eft hand i* a deadly ' insult to Mohammedans in the East.