ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2622, 15 June 1904, Page 69

ART AND ARTISTS.

--" — Picture pest cards a^e said to have originated dur.cg the Franco-Prussian War. In "the earlier part of \he conflict, during 1870, a camp of about 40,000 men was I formed in the* department of the Sartho, and in this locality theie was a bookseller and stationer, aM. Leon Besnard&an. It ' 5*P urre d to him that the soldier? encamped ' in .such number? in hi' neighbourhood would i be glad to have some method of indicating ' their surroundings to their friends at home, I which would not necessitate lengthy written ! descriptions or the addressing of em elopes, • which were often difficult to procure. He had, therefore-, a number of postcards enI graced with cannon, shells, tents, and the like, and found such a demand for the first series he issued that he furnished a secon-1 set. When the- camp broke up -the idea • was forgotten until it was revived in Getmany and Austria in the early 'nineties. I — "The death, in his eightieth year, of the ' celebrated French painter and sculptor, ' Jean Loon Gcrome, came a* a great surprise to his numerous friends, and cause-.l regret in art circles all over the world, 1 where, his name and his works _are universally known and appreciated. He made I his first appearance in the Salon- of 1847 1 with a masterpiece, which is now in the ' museum at Versailles, and was one of the [ leading masters of painting long before he was 40 years of ag-e. But he had always t\ own a decided leaning for sculpture, and his first attempts were copying antiques, . chiefly of the 1 Greek coroplasts. "He produced splendid figures of lions in action or repose in marble and in bronze, but his favourite style was to apply colour to • sculpture, aud his "Femme au Cerveau," | "Fomme de Tanagra," and other subjects were greatly admiie-d as original, striking, • and picturesque. One of the mo-fc striking jdiopos he e\er <prodticed, and which wa& i | ncier exhibited in any Salon, was a statue | i of "Doiileur" ('"Grief"), which he placed | [ over the tomb of his only son >n the ceme- . . tery of Montmartre.