SOME SENSATIONS IN THE ART WORLD.

Otago Witness, Issue 2524, 30 July 1902, Page 65

SOME SENSATIONS IN THE ART WORLD.

(By A Wallis Myers, hi Chamber's

Journal.)

Fourteen pounds per square inch ! Such wat the price paid by the trustees of the National Gallery for what has been universally described as one of the most perfect pictures ia the world — Raphael's "An-

side; Madt.-iiu:'." B-fore It passed to th* mr>«t honourable apotheosis it could enjoy, ' the " Ansidti '" had adorned the palatial gallery at Blenheim Palace ; and it was sold under Mr Christie's hammer on 23rd July. 1886. In one wav the treasure was a tragedy : it gave silent testimony to the impoverishment of a ducal palace. When the late Duke of Marlborough's affairs came before the Court of Chancery, certain of the finest portraits — 25 in all — were put together and valued. They were estimated as worth £400,000. and were offered to the National Gallery. Of these, 11 were tentatively selected by the Director of the Gallery, Sir Frederick Burton. He valued them at £350,000, and recommended- the Government to buy them for the nation ; but the 'Government were staggered at the pS"ice, and gracefully declined. However, the Raphael " Ansidei " was bought for £70,000 more than three times ~ th° price ever paid for a work of art). and also the grand V.mdyck equestrian portrait of Charles I. Baron Alphonse de Rothschild paid £55.000 for two superb portraits of Rubens and his wife and child, painted by himself. The disposal of the Marlborough coi'ection, by which the nation gained it-s choicest and costliest masterpiece, occupied the sole attention of the whole art world for weeks ; and it was estimated that nearly half a million -pounds was realised.

The late Mr Beckett-Denison little thought when he bought "Daniel in the Lions' Den" that he would live only a very short time to enjoy its possession, and that it would then go back to its original owner for only half the amount paid by him. Tlie "Daniel," lift long and Bft high, was exhibited in 1875 by the Duke of Hamilton. The description then accompanying Rubens's great work was : "The prophet is represented sitting naked in the middle of the den, his hands clasped, and his countenance diiected upwards with expression of earnest prayer. Nine lions are prowling round him.' The picture; which was included in the Hamilton collection, formed the central object of interest for thousands at Cliristie's ; copies of the catalogue sold at lg each ; and the work was uncovered amidst applause. The picture was put up by the auctioneer at lOOOgs ; a bid of 2000gs immediately followed ; then the j>rice advanced by 500guinea leaps to 4000gs, for which bum it was secured by Mr BeckStt-Denison.

Mr Beckett-Denison, though a passionate collector, was not a connoisseur ; and death struck him down at the very zenith of his career. He came to London with ample fortune, aud set about surrounding himself with the rarest objects upon which he could lay his hands : the ''Daniel'" was one. Attending sales almost daily, 'he bought with 'reckless courage". Generally he bid for himself, but now- and then employed an agent ; yet in neither case, so long as he secured his picture, did he care what price he paid. He built himself a fine mansion, jiciur Hyde Park, and just when it was finished there occurred the* famous Hamilr ton sale, at which the collector spent nearly £250,000, and bought fully a quarter of the pictures put up for sale. When- Mr Beckett-Denison died his splendid collection came under the hammer ; and the Duke of Hamilton had the pleasure of restoring to his ancestral home one of its most glorious decorations.

There have been many curious picturefinds, among which the wholesale discovery at Welbeck Abbey must rank as sensational. Shortly after the succesoion of the fifth Duke of Portland in 1854, his Grace caused an inventory to be carefully made of all the pictures at the Abbey. Three years later no less than 196 pictures were found htowed away in the loft and wardrobe, a large storeroom ovei the coachhouses, and in a room adjoining the steward's office. It was evident they had lain in obscurity for years ; and when the Duke had had most of them relined and framed, a splendid addition to his gallery was theresult. The collection at Welbeck Abbey, by the way, covers the entire range of portrait-painters in England fiom the time of Holbein to the beginning of last centuiy, all the best -known artists being represented. The Vanderbilt mansion ;n; n New York, so new compared with Welbeck Abbey, and vet so stately in its grandeur, al&o possesses some of the finest pictures brush has e\er painted ; and one of these has a peculiar claim for attention. It is called "General De&aix and the Peasant." Recallingthe famous retreat of the army of the Rhine through Bavaria, it depicts Desaix questioning the Bavarian peasantry as to the position of the two Austrian forces, In which fie arranged that masterly march \. l.icli had all the .success of victory. The ;nti>-l who painted this fine picture, in H-67. was J. L. E. Meis-onier, of who<<; works Mr Vandcibilt Las now the finest giniip in the woild. The ""Desaix" was neatly .secured. Mr Vanderbilt beguiled the artist to tell him impartially which

he considered the most perfect picture he had ever painted. Meissonier mentioned the "Desaix," and added the name of the owner. Mr Vanderbilt instantly went out, itelegraphed to Dresden, where the owner dived, and acquired the treasure, completely surprising the famous* artist by bringing it into liis studio on the following morning. It was the beginning of a close friendship. JMeissonier afterwards painted a very lifelike portrait of the great millionaire, which ha« been placed beside the "Desaix" in the famous gallery, also containing a clever bronze statuette 'of the artist by Signer Genito, ;m Italian sculptor. The recovery of the late Sidney Coopei'< "Monarch of the Meadows" was almost a« sensational as the recapture of the famous Oainsborough "Duchess. ' This pictuie. rpaint«d in 1872, was exhibited at the Royal.Academy in the following year, and attracted considerable attention. When it was subsequently offered foi sal, 1 . Mr Alcroft outbid the Agnews by £500. The purchaser placed the picture in a disused l-oom during some building operations. A lire broke out ; and afterwards it was discovered that Cooper's canvas had been cut away from the frame in precisely the same manner as the "Duche*?.' No clue c.ime the way of the police, and the public had almost forgotten the audacious theft, when Mr Alcroft received a letter from .the self-confessed plunderer, in which he explained that he had been one of the decorators employed in the house, and had been offered a large sum to effect the robbery ; but, as the money had not been forthcoming, the "man offered to return the treasure for £500 and "no question*-.'' The police were again put on the scent, but without any tangible success ; and then a year afterwards two men were captured, on information received from a confederate, and the stolen work was discovered in their possession. The principal in the crime got seven years. "The Countess of Derby," by Sir Joshua Reynolds, remains undiscovered to this day. It disappeared mysteriously and very suddenly after it had been painted. Reward followed reward ; but in vain. Then it became whispered that the Kail of Derby, who had quarrelled with his wife, Ixad destroyed it ; but in suppoit of this theory there is no definite evidence available. The year 1875 will ever be memoiable in the annals of art sales, for in the spring of that year the Manley Hall collection came under the hammer at Christie's, and Home sensational bids were recorded. Samuel Mendel, to whom the collection belonged, was a textile merchant of Manchester, who made no pretence at being a connoisseur, gave no commissions to painters, and did not attend the £ales. He invariably consulted the Agnew«. who may /|hus be said to have created the Manley Hall collection ; small wonder, then, that the Agnews bought back most of the picItures when the collection came into the 'market. Of the Manley Hall treasures, two ttand out. For Turner's "View on the Grand Canal, Venice," Messrs Agnew paid Hhe highest price ever obtained at 'an auction for a Turner— 7ooogs. It is curious Pj mote that, as in the case of the famous Gainsborough, the "runner up" in the bidding was Loid Dudley, to whom the pieiture was subsequently sold at a figure 10 .per cent, in advance of his own price. 'I'his sale was also distinguished by the disposal of Friths "Dinner Party at Boswell's Lodgings" for £4557, the highest sum ever paid at an auction for a picture during the lifetime of the painter. This naturally reminds one of the astonishing history of one of Friths own portraits painted by himself. The celebrated R.A had entirely forgotten its existence until a friend entered "his studio one morning and asserted that a capital picture of himself was on view in a small shop in Great Portland street. "It's not a bitlike what you are now,'' observed the friend, "but it may have resembled you some years ago. Go and look at it." Air Frith "went, and found his own image after an estrangement of 45 years. He determined to buy it, though he had not the faintest recollection" of having painted it. 'Ah, a portrait !" said Frith to the woman in charge of the shop, after he had pretended to examine several othei works. ''Whose likeness is that?" 'That," said the lady, "is a portrait of the celebrated artist. Frith, painted by himself." "Why, he must b^an elderly man,"' put in the artist. The woman remarked that he was young once. "Humph!" quoth the genial W. P. F. ; "not much of a picture." To this the woman demurred, and asked £20 for the canvas. It was Fntlfs. turn to appear surprised. "Well," leplied the shopkeeper, without moving a muscle, "it cost us nearly a.s much : we shall make a very email profit. You bee, it is very valuable, because the artist is diseased !"' "Deceased?" exclaimed the astonished painter. "Dead, do you mean?" "Yes, sir ; died of drink. My husband attended the funeral." Frith bought the picture, but did not revive for some time.

Reynolds ab-o forgot the existence of one of his pictures. Burke once obtained a very early work and called on the great artist, submitting the work as that of a young student Avho sought advice from the master. Reynolds had a long look, and then asked, "Is the painter a friend of yours?" Burke replied in the affirmative. replied the great man, "I really ion't feel able to give an opinion. It's a eleventh thing ; but whether it is of sufficient promise to justify the young man in adopting art as a profession, I cannot say. ' Sir Joshua had entirely forgotten his own work.

Peih.ip<- no picture of I>. fi. Ro«=etti ever created to muck of a stir ,i* liis "Jvcce Ancilla Domini. "" after Raphael, which the National Gallery purclri^til foi the large iiim of BCogs>. It measme* 28im by 17in, tnd strikingly repiesents the Annunciation, depicting the Angel Oabnel. draped in white vevtmdii'i.- standing in flames, holding a lily ; "while the Vugm i*> rising fiom her couch, near which ib an embrouleiy frame. This beautiful early woik of Ro:--seI ti — whom experts describe as the ' head

lish poetry, and of the pre-Raphaelite movement in English painting" — was, remarkable to state, rejected by the Royal Academy !