ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2258, 10 June 1897, Page 42

ART AND ARTISTS.

■ . • English landscape produced the Enpf* lish landscape painters aB surely as Nile scenery begot Egyptian architecture. If our landscape school is without a rival, to the subjects painted must be accorded a due share in the result. — Spectator. • . • The ex-Empress Eugenic, whoso artistic tastes havo been one of the causes of the lifelong sympathy and friendship between herself and the QaeeD, still finds relaxation in a little water-colour painting, formerly a favourite paetirre of hers. ■ . ' Da Maurier's drawings have the madeout correctness in comparative unessentials with which the modern art-school endows us all. But the spirit of art is not thera. A wiry cold line tells you the same dreary story again and again. Compare for a moment a little print of Rowlandson's. I have in my mind a " London Cry," the seller of cards and whey. One woman has a foot like a tobacco-pouch, but the little drama lives. There is a fine, simple rugged line, » definite effect of light and shade, one and indivisible, and the group is a gronp and not a mere collocation. The Row land son is art. There is the mystery ! It is touched with the finger of God. It has the breath of life. The other has not. — Speaker. • . • Mr T. Sidney Oooper, the oldest member of the Royal Academy, had some rather ©xciiiag experiences of revolution in his early life. He was residing in Brussels, where ho had made a reputation as a portrait painter, but had come to England on a holiday when the- Belgian Revolution of 1830 occurred. Mr Oooper and hie wife hurried back, half expecting to find their house in rump. They were soared this misfortune, but one of their friends — a young Englishman — was killed in a melee in the streets, and the artist himself had one or two narrow ©scapes from the mob. • . • Professor Herkomer recently told the story of his celebrated picture, "The Chelsea Pensioners in Ohurcb," to a Newport (Mon.l audience in the course of a lecture on '• The Art Life." The picture, he said, was painted against the advice of every friend he had. He, however, set his teeth together and worked as only a desperate man could work, with domestic sorrow and trouble to be borne whilst the work wae proceeding. Never, he paid, was a painting sent to the Acadsmy with such trepidation as this one was. But after five days' anxious waiting there came letters, not of rojeation, but of warm commendation, from Lord Lsightou (then Mr Leighton) and Mr George Richmond. He (the professor) was then waiching by a sick bed, and he was not aßhamed to state that when he received these letters he broke down and wept. The acceptance of that picture was the first striking success of his career. • . • The vagaries of picture buying and gelling are only equalled in interest by the vagarieß of buying and selling horseß ; but, unfortunately, the beßt ot these yarns must not be repeated in print. That was a great time 3ome aeasona ago when "Mr Thomas " suddenly appeared in the auction rooms with the inteution of spending £100,000 in i pictures. By chance "Mr Thomas," who proved to be Mr Holloway, of pill fame, encountered Mr Huish, and had he placed himself in Mr Huish's hands, which he at one time proposed, the Holloway collection would probably have doubled in value by to-day, as Mr Holloway was strongly advised to buy pictures by R9ynolds, Gainsborough, and Romney before the present boom* in these masters. Bat Mr Holloway could not resist the fascination of the auction room, and when he paid £5000 or £6000 apiece for several of Long's works in one afternoon, Mr Huisb, of the London Fine Art Society, felt that the pleasant task of advising towards the pnrchasß of a distinguished and representative collection could hardly have a successful issue. — Sketch. • . • The story of Millet and his pictures, one of the romances of art, will not soon become stale or unprofitable. The romance of the story lies in its pioturesquenees and in the poetic justice of its denouement. Millet's appearance— large, imposing, prophetic, hirsute ; His appropriate setting in an old rojal forest amongst peasants and artists; his Biblical speech, his attitude of retirement from life; his carelessness about show, fashion, or luxury; the simplicity of his house and habits, and the noble bsanty of more than ope of his patriarchal family of children— all' favoured ' the legend of his life and of the romantic fortunes of his pictures. Around one of these canvases — not the best painted, but the best known — public interest appears to be focussed. During the 30 years from 1859 to 1889 "The Angelas " has passed through every vicissitude of estimation, from complete neglect to an enthusiastic appreciation that looks like madness in a cold business-like epoch. Millet would have taken 2000fr for it in 1852, it was sold for 2500fr in 1860, and in 1873 for 50,000fr, to Millet's astonishment and disguet, for he expressed himself as glad that he had nothing to do with such an absurd price. What would he have said to the prices paid for " The Angelus " after his death— prices which rose by steps from 160,000r'r in 1881 to 800,000fr in 1889 7— British Rsview.

—In His Favour. — " I dunno as the prodigal son was so very bad, after all," said the farmer's wife. "He want no ■ good to his family," her husband rejoined. " That's a fact. But when he got home he didn't hey no more to say. If he'd been like most o' the men folk nowadays, the fust thing he'd done wonld 'a been to find fault with the way the fattad calf was cooked." Major C. T. Picton is manager of the State Hotel at Denison, Texas, which travelling men say is one of the best hotels in that section. In speaking of Chamberlain's Colic, Cholera, and Diarrhcea Remedy, Major Picton says : " I have used it mysolf and in my family for several years, and take pleasure in saying that I consider it an infallible cure for diarrhoea k&& dysentery. I always recommend ifc, and have frequently administered it to my guests in the hotel, and in every case it has proven itself worthy of unqualified endorsement." For sale by all leading chemisto*