ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2008, 18 August 1892, Page 46

ART AND ARTISTS.

Twelve thousand pictures were sent to tbe Royal Academy for exhibition this year. Ten or 12 years agj the numbers were irom 4000 to 5000 only.

The picture of the " Vale of Clwyd," which was bought out by Messrs Agnew at the Murrieta sale for L 4750, has been sold by them to Mr Barratt, the manager of Messrs Pears and 00.

Mr John K. Reid has obtained a gold medal for bis painting, " The Shipwrecked," in the Vienna Exhibition. Mr Reid was awarded goli medals for exhibits at Berlin in 1887, at Paris in ISB9, and at Munich in 1890.

Some curious fifteenth century paintings of " The Last Judgment," " The Crucifixion," and "St. George," have been discovered in au old chapel at Augsburg. Tbe pictures, which have been restored by Leopofd Woinmayer, the Munich master, are said to bo as valuable as they are curious.

Meissonier, the painter, was proud of his shapely and delicate hands. Ho said that his lingers were so sensitive that he could, with his eyes shut, lay on the exact amount of colour that he wanted on a given spot if somebody placed the point of the brash upon it.

The woik* of a distinguished Japanese painler ara on exhibition in London, and are greatly admired. His name is Watanbo iSeitei, and he is a native of Tokio. Horn« of his paintings have already been exhibited in Paris ami praised by the French critics. It was he who, five years ago, painted the ceiliDg panels for the Imperial Palace in Tokio.

Of all the stories of mythology few have been more frequently used by poets of old or by painters of modern times than that of Circf. Tb.3 fatal beauty of the sorceress and the merciless working of her devilish spell — whether regarded as a picturesque subject or as a pointed moral — possess an attraction irresistible to the imagination. — Magazine of Art.

Mr Mortimer Menpes has painted some very pretty pictures of Venice, which are exhibited at Dowdeswell's Galleries; but the prices be has received for them tend to confirm the conclusion that there is plenty of money about". Some ODe, for instance, has given IGOgs for a small sketch of St. Mark's in the late afternoon, and DOgs for a little work called " Humble Quarter." Mr Menpea is also to get lSOgs for " Tho High Altar— St. Mark's," a picture of some inerir, but certainly not displaying any very particular genius. Moreover, Venice has been almost painted to deaib. There are pictures rriced at 4ogs and SO^s, for which I should not like to offer 10. But Mr Menpes is the fashion, and he is quite right to ask any sum which he thinks he can get".

" The cleaner 'tis, the cosier 'tis." What is home without