ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1920, 4 December 1890, Page 42

ART AND ARTISTS.

Daniel Hock is reputed to be the coming painter in Vienna.. Bartholdi's monumental fountain has been bought by the city of Lyons for £4000. An exposition of Eoman art is to be established in Mexico City, to run three years. Whistler, the English artist, will give an exhibition of his pictures in flew York this fall. Bonvin's " Aye Maria " will fioon be transferred from the Luxembourg to the Louvre. The statue of Lafayette, presented by France to the United Statc-e, has arrived in New York. There seems a likelihood that the rival Paris salons will effect a compromise before next May. Harriet Hosmer, the sculptor, will be represented at the exposition in Chicago by her statue of Queen Isabella, which is expected to be one of her greatest works ; also, by a copy in gilt of the bronze gates upon which she is now at work, and of which a small copy will be exhibited next year. The gates are to be 15ft or 16ft- higb, and are expected to make a splendid show among modern works, of art. The annual report of the British National Gallery shows that out of a total expenditure of £4000 only £200 went for English pictures. The tastes of the students, it is remarked, are not those of the trustees. Out of the 17 pictures which were copied 10 times or over during the last year 11 were by English artists. They have no Imperial Institute in Russia. Lucky Russians, The Hermitage and the Anitchkoff Galleries having become overcrowded, the Czar has imported the Orrock Linton idea, and is going to build and found a new gallery, a gallery of Eussian art exclusively. To this new palace of beauty will be sent all the Russian works now to be found in the State houses and museums, throughout all the dominions of the Emperor. Thus a splendid impetus will be given to that rapidly-increasing and improving body, the artists of Russia, the men whose strength ard majesty fresh drawn from barbarism, seems to promise a future as vast and as impossible to estimate as the recesses of their own country, and certainly imposes upon the tendencies of Europe. A FAMOUS POETBAIT OF WASHINGTON. Lord Rosebery, in his dining room at Berkeley square, has given the place of honour to a portrait oE George Washington, recently acquired. It is by Gilbert Stuart, one of the only two genuine portraits now existing painted from life. This particular picture was painted by Stuart upon the commission of Lord Shelburne, and dates about the year 1796. When, in 1805, Lord Shelburne died, his pictures 'were sold by auction, and this now priceless portrait brought £540. The picture is known in art circles as the Lansdowne portrait, Lord Shelburne having become Marquis of Lansdowne before his death. The man who bought the portrait presently became bankrupt, and Washington was again in the market. How greatly it had, in a comparatively brief space of time, increased in value, is shown by the fact that ifc now brought 2000 guineas, being disposed of by lottery, for which 40 tickets were issued, at the price of 50 guineas each. It was won by Delaware Lewis, at one time member for Devonport. When, some three or four years ago, Mr Lewis died, the picture was again for sale, and Lord Rosebery bought it— but not for 2000 guineas. AMEBICAN SCULPTORS IN ITALY. The sculptor Park was interviewed some time ago by a Western journal, and made some remarks about American sculptors in Italy, of which he has been one these many years. They sell their work to Americans excluaively, so Mr Park avers ; bufc the motives which have kept them bo long abroad are no longer operative. The local committees have taken the place of the American art patron travelling in Italy. The time is coming, he thinks, when few American sculptors will be found in Italy. " They can get more work to-day by staying in their own country."

— Christmas cards first came into fashion in 1846. — An American carpet manufacturer says work has been begun on an invention by which six boys can do the work of 300 girls employed at carpet sewing.