ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1994, 12 May 1892, Page 44

ART AND ARTISTS.

Miss Grant, niece of the late Sir Francis Grant, has just completed a bust of Mr Parnell, which is said to be an admirable likeness.

The French artists are making so much money in portrait painting that the exhibibitions now show a disproportionately great number of portraits. One thousand six hundred pounds for a full-length picture is said to be about the top price.

The marble statue o£ the Pope, presented to the Catholic University at Washington, represents bin seated on the throne. His right hand is raised in the act of blessing, It is 13ft high in all, and was carved from a single block. Cost, L4OOO.

The picture on which Rosa Bonheur has been working at Fontainbleau for the past three years is at last finished. It is said to be the largest animal picture ever executed. The subject is "Le Depignabe" (Threshing), and it shows the fall- sized horses trotting over a threshing floor.

The original miniature of Daniel Webster, painted by Richard M. Staigg in 1814, has been purchased from the artist's widow by Colonel Alexander Biddle, of Philadelphia, and presented to the Academy of Fine Arts in that city. It is large for that style of portrait, and is painted on ivory in oil colours.

A delightful characteristic of the art decorator and his disMples is the unanimity of of their taste in colour. One year everything must be enamelled white (which at least hag the merit of looking olean in London and ekeing out the rare beams of daylight with which we are favoured) ; another year, sealing-wax red is the only salvation, and presently gives place to its complimentary colour— water.- cress green ; but whatever the colour of the moment may be, everything follows suit. Stationery, photograph frames, purses, nick-naoka of every description, are to be seen but in the one colour, until one's spirit groans under the infliction of a .senseless repetition. — National Review. The Paris Figaro has been moved by the contemplation of the " Old Masters " at Burlington House to suggest something of the kind for France. It appears that Germany has already copied the English example, and , that the , director of the Berlin Museum organised last winter an exhibition of Dutch and Flemish piotures, to which the Emperor contributed some of the best things from his private galleries. According to the Figaro, " there are as many first-rate private collections in France as in England— as many and more." He mentions in particular the private collections of M. Groult, with its "marvels" of the English school, and the German "primitives" from the collection of M. Orombez, and declares that Paris alone could furnish a wonderful representation of Velasquez. -...Professor Silvanus Thompson, says the London Chronicle, is of opinion that the artists who lately came came to the conclusion that electric light is unsuitable for the illumination of painting rooms have not given the matter sufficient consideration. He thinks that the adverse verdict generally arrived at by painters is due to want of intelligent installations, and points out that electricity has been employed with entire success during the past 18 months in the art studios of the City and Guilds' Technical College. A visit to the studios in the Finsbury College will be of interest, and might be of profit, to the artists who are forced to remain idle during the dark days of winter. If Professor Thompson has found a satisfactory method of artificial illumination he has earned the gratitude of the profession.