ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2205, 4 June 1896, Page 47

ART AND ARTISTS.

*.' VereatchagiD, the famous Russian artist., at his house near Paris, has a large studio which revolve* on whsels jaafc as a locomotive engiue ie turned on the tarntable. The movement is effected by means' of a windlass oonvenlently placed beside the painter's easel, and by this ingenious contrivance he is able to painb the whole da; with the sunlight falling in one direction on models or drapery. • . • Verestohagin paints hio remarkable pJotnros with bia right hand. This statement is worth making, because i a leopard onco bit the thumb of that hand, and the thumb had to be amputated; a rifle ball onoe struck the middle finger of that hand while the artist was stadying a battlefield daring a battle, and the finger has been useless evor sinoe ; and the small bones of that hand were onoe shattered by a fall on the Russian steppe*, making it stiff ever sinoe. In the last-named acoideat the right arm was also fraotured. * . * No other painter, baa a borne of suoh artistic luiurlou^neaa as Mr Alma Tadema, R.A. Perhap* it? moat rgm^rkable featnve

Is the wall, which Is panelled with tall slir© pictures, eaoh of them by a different painter; Leighton, Boughton, Sargent, Oalderon, anS a full soore of the artist's friends each contributed to this remarkable embellishruemj Another feature is the oak and ivoiy Diano,on the lid of which, inside, are inscribed hj[ their own hands the names of the most cele» brated singers and maaioians of Europe. MINIATURE PAINTING IN ENGJiAND. In the period of negleot of the art which followed the discoveries of Talbot and] Daguerre, miniature painting well nigh perished of inanition, so that a popular belief arose that the art bad altogether ceased to be practised. Hence, as recently aa 1886, we find a leading artiole in The Time 3 apropos to the death of Robert Thorburn, A.R.A., declaring that his vocation had oollapsad, and speaking of this heir of an arb whioh had flourished for centuries as a man who found himself " stranded with a cargo of unsaleable talents " ; it likened him to an owner of a cellar of rare wines who«e friendi had with one consent turned teetotallers; and, again, compared bis fate to that of a hand -loom weaver when the new machinery was introduced. But with all respect to The Times, and with due regard to the mutability of things human, and to the ohangea of that most oapricious thing called taste, I believo ■an important art does not die quite so easily^ and this particular one which we are no* considering is deep rooted, it is nourished by some of our^ deepest-lying national characteristics ; in a word, it is onr fond* ness for home, and onr attachment to those who make it so dear to v«, that give vitality to portraiture, and perennial freshness, to every branch of it. While confessing onr faith in the future of miniature painting, It must be owned that photography put miniatures out of fashion ; their ineffectual fires paled rapidly bsneath the rays of the rifting, new, and wondrous sun painting, so that a generation which had cheerfully given its hundred guineas for a Rosb, a Newton, ok a Bone, suddenly ceased to care for snob, and disastrous indeed were the immediate results. Bat now it is seen clearly euougb that, whilst photography can claim the advantages of rapidity, of cheapness, and of ft veracity often painful, It Is as yet bat a handmaid to Art," useful, indeed, bat not a substitute for a master hand. Sir William Ros3 declared, on his deathbed that "it was all up " with future miniature painting ; but let aa regard it rather as having undergone a partial eclipne. Let us cherish this beautiful art, and let us seek to maintain a high standard of excellence, for we know that it is capable of portraying every refinement of chanoter, and, when united with technical excellence, calls op, ac Walpole ban truly said, so many collateral ideas an to fill an Intelligent mind more than any other species of painting. It is, therefore, a matUr for congratulation that, amongst other signs of a revival of taste, one notes a higher Appreciation of miniatures ; indeed, of late year* their value hag enormously increased, until it has reached a point whioh in often ia excess of their merit aa works of Art. EvU denca of this may be «een.— Mr J. J. Fosteb, in the Art Journal for April.

— The ideal ha 'bant? — some other woraan^l husband.