The Book of the Fair - Chapter 21-B



Page 718

Chapter the Twenty-First Part B:
Fine Arts

Venezuela's collection, though contained in her government building, and 
to be further mentioned in that connection, belongs to the department of 
Fine Arts, and was examined by the international board. That it was not 
placed among the rest is due to the tardy application for space, which was 
not received until the entire area had been assigned. 

Portugal is not represented in the palace of Fine Arts; but Brazil, her 
republican offspring, has a small collection, appearing to better 
advantage in her government building, presently to be described. In 
statuary the only works are by Rodolpho Bernardelli, whose compositions 
include a figure of "Fortuna," neatly moulded as to face and form, and 
skillfully executed in pose. His marble group name "Christ and the 
Adulteress" is a bold conception, boldly executed, with facial expression 
of strong Hebraic type, and with no suggestion of divinity or even of 
spirituality. There are the full oriental features characteristic of 
David's race, as he pleads in impassioned tones, one arm extended with 
authoritative gesture and the other protecting the figure crouching at 
this feet. It is a spirited group, dramatic and strongly materialistic, 
differing as widely from conventional types as Beraud's "Descent from the 
Cross." A beautiful landscape scene by Boaventura is displayed in the 
Brazilian galleries, where also are canvases by Fiuza, Visconti, and 
Brocos, the last with numerous subjects ranging from the portraiture to 
marine views. From the fertile brush of Henrique Bernardelli are also many 
paintings, one of the best of which represents a mother suckling her babe. 
In still life there are studies by Frederico Raphael. Girardet has a group 
of medallions and cameos, one of them a portrait of Benjamin Constant and 
others depicting various themes from ballet girls to national symbolism. 

Turning to northern art centres, we find in this department one of the few 
in which Great Britain is represented as befits her achievements and 
capabilities; for among these scores of galleries and alcoves her 
collection is almost the only one in which has exceeded expectation. In 
former years it was said that England had no indigenous school of 
painters, and that none could exist in a country which afforded no special 
facilities for training, nor even an art academy worthy of the name. In 
the Paris Exhibition of 1855 a small collection of British paintings, hung 
in an obscure corner of the building, was somewhat of a surprise to 
foreign critics, for here was a school whose works were based on the study 
of nature, one entirely sui generis, and refusing to acknowledge the 
formulae established by academic tradition. The impression thus made was 
strengthened at later international expositions the artistic influence of 
which was felt by British painters, causing them to modify the extreme 
naturalism of their compositions, and without loss of strength, to give to 
them more of an artistic character in tone and finish. 

In portraiture the British galleries are strong, and among them may still 
be found the spirit, if not the canvases of Joshua Reynolds and Thomas 
Gainsborough. But it is in landscape and marine paintings that England 
most excels, and here it may almost be said, though other nations were 
first in the field, is the home of landscape art. To this all the 
conditions are favorable, the love of scenery and out-door life giving to 
the people a taste for such subjects and to the real artist unstinted 
patronage. To find themes for his brush the painter need not go beyond his 
native land; for in few countries is there a more diversified 
configuration of surface, a more striking contour of coast line, more 
picturesque inland waters, more wealth of verdure and forest growth, while 
above all is an ever-changing sky, seldom clear and rarely at rest, with 
moods as fickle as the ocean from whose bright and breezy surface are 
reflected its shifting hues. 

By J. G. Hodgson, a professor of painting in the Royal academy, the 
typical English landscape is thus described, and the description is one 
that applies to many of the subjects portrayed in the British section: 
"Scattered irregularly on a slope of emerald green meadows is a country 
village; its old brick and timber cottages are roofed with moss-grown 
tiles or thatched with straw; hard by stands an ancient church with a low 
square tower under the shadows of tall elms almost as ancient; a great yew 
tree spreads its gnarled branches over the mouldering tombstones in the 
churchyard, and overhead the rooks are circling in the evening sky. It is 
a scene which belongs to an old world, and lies remote from the storm and 
stress of modern life - hence perhaps its popularity as a picture. Certain 
it is that a sense of remoteness, of peacefulness and seclusion 

Page 719

are the prevailing sentiments which can be traced like a dominant chord 
running through the entire mass of British landscape art." 

In sculpture Britain finds adequate expression; though here, as in other 
countries, this art is little encouraged and its market almost restricted 
to state and municipal requirements, for homes and thoroughfares are too 
much crowded with living beings to make room for inanimate forms. Both in 
sculpture and paintings, but especially in the former, there are strong 
traces of the French school, tempering the harshness of British naturalism 
without depriving it of its distinctive character. In architecture decided 
progress is indicated, as compared with former exhibitions, though it is 
only within the last score of years that the decoration of business 
buildings and the cheaper class of residences has been tolerated, so far 
at least as to relieve their grim uniformity of outline. 

Out of more than 1,100 exhibits in the British galleries, only 50 are of 
statuary, for while fairly represented, in quality at least, sculpture is 
the least prominent feature in English art, much less so than in the 
artistic centres of the continent. Of four studies by Thornycroft, one is 
of Edward I and another of Teucer, a loan from the Chicago Art Institute. 
"Needless Alarm" and "The Sluggard" are the works of Sir Frederick 
Leighton, president of the Royal academy, chairman of the committee and a 
member of the Royal commission of Fine Arts. His oil paintings are a 
feature in the British section, as also are those of Watts, who has here a 
statue of "Clytie." From the late Thomas Woolner are busts of Tennyson, 
Carlyle, Gladstone, and Cardinal Newman. Among others worthy of note are 
Dressler's "Bacchante," MacLean's "Tragedy" and "Comedy," Bates's 
"Endymion," Ford's "Henry Irving as Hamlet;" Miss Brown's marble group of 
"The Pearl," and Miss Montalba's "Boy Catching a Crab." 

Among some 450 paintings in oil and more than 200 water colors, there are 
enough of merit to leaven the mass of mediocre compositions forwarded to 
Chicago in the hope of gaining a foothold in the markets of the United 
States, now virtually occupied by the French. While here are no 
masterpieces from the National or South Kensington galleries, and but few 
from those of private individuals, there is nevertheless an adequate 
representation of contemporary art. If Turner and Constable, Reynolds and 
Landseer are not here, there are Leighton and Watts, Poynter and Millaie, 
Riviere and John M. Swan, Herkomer, Frith, and Stanhope Forbes, Gilbert 
and Linton, and a score of others whose names are household words 
throughout the land. Here are represented all whose works are familiar in 
the Royal academy, in the Grosvenor and other galleries; but they are the 
works of living artists, or of those who have died so recently that their 
paintings belong to the modern school. 

Not least among the merits of the British galleries is that they are not 
disfigured by a redundancy of commonplace portraiture, a defect which, as 
I have said, is all too noticeable in the American section, where the 
faces that look down from every wall and corner, suggest the familiar 
apopthegm of the Latin poet: 

Spectatum veniunt; veniunt spectentur ut ipsi.

By the late Frank Holl are portraits of well-known personages, almost 
perfect in drawing, though somewhat hard in tone. Among them is one of 
John Tenniel, who since 1851 has contributed weekly to the political 
cartoons which have made the fame and fortune of the London Punch. Others 
are of Samuel Cousins, the royal academician; of Earl Spencer, one of the 
recent converts to home rule; of the late J. S. Morgan; and of General 
Rawlinson, renowned for his scientific acquirements no less than for his 
military career, and elected successor to Darwin by several hundred 
societies. 

Watts's portraits of Robert Browning and Walter Crane are in his best 
style, and this is saying much; for he has few equals in bringing out the 
more subtle traits of character. Well has he depictured the thoughtful 
features of the poet, with his broad expanse of forehead and his deep-set 
eyes, not in fine frenzy rolling but gazing inwardly as if lost in though; 
while in the painter's orbs is the expression of one who sees visions that 
others cannot see. In his "Paolo and Francesca" is the true inspiration of 
an artist, seizing and intensifying the central ideas of his theme, the 
bitterness of remorse, the quenchless flame of love, the despair 

Page 720

of doomed spirits borne on the blast through the lurid regions of Tophet. 
"A Welsh Girl" and "Rose Bradwardine" are by the late Edwin Long, the 
latter a study from Waverley, and of true Scottish type. Lavery's "An 
Equestrienne," shows a girl on horseback, with the upright figure and 
perfect seat of the English horsewoman. 

Ouless, for whose "Cardinal Manning" and "Samuel Morley" was awarded the 
legion of honor at the Paris Exposition of 1889, has only his portraits of 
Sir Donald Smith, chairman of the Hudson's Bay company, and Thomas S. 
Cooper, the academician, by whom was founded the Canterbury art gallery. 
In delineation he is at least the equal of Holl, with more versatility of 
expression and less austerity of coloring, his strong, firm touch 
commending his works to reproductive etchers. Shannon is a fashionable 
painter, but nevertheless a painter whose merits cannot be overlooked, for 
while pandering somewhat to the vanity of his patrons, he does not ignore 
the demands of legitimate art. The three portraits here displayed, none of 
them of public characters, show all the skill in composition and coloring, 
especially as to draperies, which have brought him into prominence in his 
special line. 

Among animal paintings are the works of Briton Riviere and John M. Swan, 
the former an acknowledged master in the older style of modern art, and 
the latter one of the most promising of the younger school. In Riviere's 
"Daniel" the back of the figure is portrayed; but the expression of the 
face can almost be read in the subdued and crouching attitude of the 
lions. In "The Magician's Doorway" a leopard and a tiger are chained at 
the portal of an oriental palace, with columns and floors of marble, where 
the owner practices his mysterious art, and where none may enter without 
the password. "Requiescat" has in the foreground a noble-looking dog, 
watching by the bier of his master, a knight in full armor, covered with a 
white robe richly embroidered by a woman's hands. Only the dog is there, 
awaiting with pitiful aspect some sign of recognition from one who will 
know him no more. In his "Fallen Monarch" Swan takes for his subject a 
lion slain in the midst of a desert, vast and lonesome as the wastes of 
ocean. He lies on his back, his fore-legs bound together and his head 
hanging over a ledge of rock. Around him are the weapons of his 
conquerors, none of whom are in sight, nor any living thing to relieve 
this utter solitude. It is not an attractive picture, but it is vigorous 
and original in treatment, and with no striving after effect, everything 
being held in subjection to its salient features. "Maternity" represents a 
lioness suckling her young, with a fierce and dangerous look in her 

Page 721

yellow eyes which the boldest hunter would not care to meet. 

Except for a portrait of Captain Burton, Sir Frederick Leighton's canvases 
are all descriptive of mythological subjects. His "Hercules Wrestling with 
Death for the Body of Alcestis" is a most powerful and erudite 
composition, subtle in conception and strong in execution, expressing, as 
never before was expressed on canvas, the sublimation of its theme. Though 
painted more than a score of years ago, in some respects it has never been 
surpassed by the brush of this accomplished artist. Especially fine is the 
muscular play in the stalwart figure of Hercules, his tense and massive 
frame standing forth as the very embodiment of strength and fearlessness. 
He is seizing the king of terrors by the throat, and under his tremendous 
grasp pale Death himself grows paler, his form bent backward under the 
strain. In "Perseus and Andromeda" the dragon is portrayed with its wings 
overshadowing the intended victim, the neck and head on one side and on 
the other the tail extending to the water's edge. The arrow from the bow 
of Perseus has taken effect; for the flame-breathing monster is writhing 
with pain. The figures in "Garden of the Hesperides" are superbly 
modelled, sensuous in outline and coloring, and rich with the flavor of 
classic lore. At the foot of a tree, beneath the golden apples presented 
to Juno as her marriage gift, reclines the fair daughter of Hesperus, her 
waist encircled by a snake whose head she is caressing. At first sight 
there is something repulsive in this body of a beautiful woman enfolded in 
the coils of a snake; but the latter, it should be remembered, was a 
guardian of the apples, in common with the Hesperides, and the potency of 
the siren's charm is further suggested by her subjugation of the dragon. 

"Orpheus" is the only painting from the brush of Solomon J. Solomon, a 
young and promising artist, on whom, as some critics opine, the mantle of 
Sir Frederick will descend. At present, however, his style is yet in the 
formative period, and with more warmth of treatment than is usually found 
in British home-bred art; for he has travelled and studied much and to 
better purpose than most of his brethren of the craft. Kennedy's "Perseus" 
is the work of one of the large class of artists whose ambition far 
outruns their power of execution, its crudeness of drawing and feebleness 
of expression contrasting sharply with Leighton's masterly touch. 

Dicksee's "Passing of Arthur" is one of the gems in the British 
collection. The sword Excalibur has been cast into the mere; has been 
grasped by the arm "clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful." After 
twice giving way to his longing to possess this priceless treasure, Sir 
Bedivere has at length obeyed the king's behest, awed by this threat to 
"rise and slay him with his hands." Arthur has been borne to the marge of 
the mere, and the subject is faithfully rendered after Tennyson's lines 
beginning, 

Then saw they how there hove a dusky barge,
Dark as a funeral scarf from stem to stern,
Beneath them and descending they were 'ware
That all the decks were dense with stately forms.
Black-stoled, black-hooded, like a dream - by these
Three queens with crowns of gold. 

Admirably is the mysticism of the theme suggested in these hooded figures, 
in the sorrowing queens with Arthur in their midst and in the moon-lit 
mere with the dim shore beyond. In "The Redemption of Tannhauser," Dicksee 
has chosen the moment when its subject kneels repentant and in pilgrim 
garb at the bier of Elizabeth, with Venus, his tempter, disappearing in 
the background. It is a most expressive picture, one not inferior in 
dramatic power to the "Passing of Arthur." 

Alma Tadema's "The Sculpture Gallery" is one of the largest and best of 
his pictures, and little if at all inferior to it are his "Audience at 
Agrippa's" and "A Dedication to Bacchus." The latter, a recent work, is 
remarkable for warmth and richness of coloring, and few could have 
painted, as he has done, the marble pavements of the temple where a 
procession of bacchantes are waving their garlands, and near them a group 
of barbarians, skin-clad and dusky of hue. With masterly touch are the 
fluttering garments portrayed, with their delicate folds of drapery, and 
beautiful is the play of light through the purple canopy, touching to 
amethyst the spotless robes of priest and vestal virgin. Poynter's 
Diadumene has for its subject a Greek woman binding her hair before 
stepping into the bath. It is a nude but perfectly chaste figure, without 
the least suggestion of indelicacy. Other works by this celebrated master 
are "Under the Sea Wall," "White Roses," and "On the Terrace." 

Page 722

John Collier, in his "Death of Cleopatra," depictures Egypt's queen lying 
crowned and robed near the dim statues of departed Pharaohs. Charmian is 
seated at her head with fixed and steadfast gaze, striving as it would 
seem to pierce the shades where her mistress has gone to claim the kiss of 
Antony. The setting of the picture is admirable, reproducing with historic 
faithfulness the marble floors, the costly furniture and jewelry, and all 
the well-known accessories. "Circe" is represented by Collier in the usual 
attitude, with luminous flesh tints and hair whose color almost matches 
the tawny hue of the tiger that crouches at her feet, with nothing of the 
savage glare which the classic story suggests. 

Ford Madox Brown, the acknowledged master of the preraphaelite school, has 
done himself an injustice by sending two of his feebler works, though 
worthy of a better place than was accorded them by the committee, his 
"Wicklif on Trial" being placed above the sky-line and his "Romeo and 
Juliet" hung in an obscure corner among a number of mediocre paintings. 
"The Passing Cloud," by Marcus Stone, tells its own story with sufficient 
clearness and emphasis. "The Race for Wealth" is a series of five pictures 
by W. P. Frith, showing, under titles which also tell their own tale, the 
schemings and machinations of an unscrupulous adventurer in various phases 
of his career. "Monmouth Pleading for his Life before James II," by the 
late John Pettie, is an excellent rendition of the subject, the feeble-
minded prince grovelling in the dust before the feeble-witted monarch, who 
in dooming Monmouth to the scaffold committed one of the gravest errors of 
his life, and the more so that he had granted him the interview in which 
he sued for pardon. 

Of the few religious themes which find expression in these galleries, one 
of the most striking is Hacker's "Christ and the Magdalen." The 
carpenter's son is seated at his bench, surrounded with shavings and 
implements of trade. His head is swathed in a turban; a single garment, 
and that a ragged one, enfolds his form, and his dark, pitying eyes are 
gazing on the penitent woman who kneels before him. It is an essentially 
modernized version of the subject, the features of Mary being Anglo-Saxon 
rather than Hebraic, while those of the Christ suggest rather a priest of 
Buddha, with all the Buddhist's depth of humility. In different style the 
messiah is treated in Frederick Goodall's "By the Sea of Galilee." Around 
him are persons of all ages and conditions of life gazing intently on 
these tristful features, where are fully interpreted the words of Isaiah 
inscribed on the frame; "Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our 
sorrows." 

In "Christianae ad Leones," by Herbert Schmalz, Christian maidens, dragged 
to the Roman colosseum "with ribald jest and vile indignity," are standing 
amid the brutal gaze of the populace, some in terror and some with a 
martyr's resignation, as they await the approach of the lions which soon 
will end their sufferings. Prinsep's "Broken Idol" has for its subject a 
Christian slave, who in a fit of religious zeal has broken one of his 
mistress' household gods and is brought before her to answer for his 
conduct. Deserving of mention are Topham's "Naaman's Wife," Walker's 
"Convent Garden," Rooke's "King Ahab's Coveting," Coke's "Hagar," Poole's 
"The Prodigal Son," and "The Church Door," by Burgess. Wyke Bayliss paints 
the interior of St. Peters and of Amiens cathedral; from Seymour Lucas 
comes his "St. Paul's," and from G. A. Storey, his "Padre," showing a 
Spanish interior. "Sunday Morning, Hadley Church," by Buxton Knight, 
reproduces one of the oldest of English churches, near which, at the 
battle of Barnet, in 1471, fell the great earl of Warwick, after a 
hopeless struggle against overwhelming odds. Thus came to an end the first 
of England's civil wars - 

Page 723

the so-called wars of the Roses. Finally may be noticed in this connection 
Horsley's "Hide and Seek," where children are at play in a Kentish 
churchyard, among tombs in every stage of picturesque decay. 

Then landscape paintings in the British section include some of the finest 
specimens of contemporary art; but these are two well-known to require 
much detail of description. Among them are "Halcyon Weather" and 
"Lingering Autumn," by Millais, who has also his "Ornithologist," "Last 
Rose of Summer," "Sweet Emma Morland," and the world-famous picture whose 
title is "Bubbles." Still another of his works is "Shelling Peas," where a 
blonde-face country maid of thoroughly English type is engaged at her 
task. In the gray background above her head is inscribed the dedication of 
the picture, "To my friend, Frederick Leighton, from John Everett 
Millais." "The Hamlet on the Cliff," by Peter Graham, is in his usual 
vigorous style, and even more so is this "Caledonia Stern and Wild." 
Especially fine are the sombre tints of the storm-laden clouds casting 
their dun shadows athwart the verdure-clad hills, where cattle are tossing 
their horned heads awaiting the outbreak of the tempest. The drawing of 
the figures is perfect, and perfect also is the coloring, laid on with the 
hues which nature paints and not such as the artist imagines nature to 
assume. "Storm at Harvest," with its laborers hurrying for shelter from a 
thunder shower, is one of the best studies by the late John Linnell, rich 
in tone and strong in execution. Others are Boughton's "Winter Sunrise" 
and "Dancing Down the Hay," Aumonier's "English Wood," Brett's "Highland 
Summer," Davis' "Now Came Still Evening on," Cole's "Ripening Sunbeams," 
Fabey's "Distant View of Florence," Hargitt's "Isle of Skye from the 
Mainland," Johnson's "Slopes of Ben Nevis," Huson's "Mists Hung Wide o'er 
Moor and Fell," Leader's "Conway Bay and the Carnarvonshire Coast," 
Rattray's "Golden October on the Fourth," and a sketch by J. W. North, who 
takes for his motif the Spenserian couplet: 

Seest how fresh my flowers be spread, In lily white and crimson red. 

Something more than a landscape is "The Harvest Moon," by the late G. H. 
Mason, a thoughtful and suggestive study of the season of year when work 
is over and its fruits are being garnered. Of his three other canvases the 
"Return from Ploughing" comes from the galleries of the queen. "Ploughing" 
is also the title of one of the five paintings by George Clausen, a young 
and talented artist, whose style is strongly suggestive of Millet, not as 
an imitator, but that he sets forth, as does the French artist, the true 
pathos of peasant life and invests it with pictorial harmony of theme. A 
lad is guiding the team for his father who stands at the plough, and in 
the features of the former can clearly be traced the struggle between his 
sense of duty and the irksomeness of his task. Of this his father is well 
aware; but all must work, and in his victory over himself the boy will 
pave the way for greater victories, however humble may be his sphere. 

Page 724

"Storm Brewing" and "Sunset after a Storm" are from the brush of Henry 
Moore, whose marine paintings are the strongest in the British section. In 
the former the sea is calm; but with the calmness that precedes the 
tempest. Above it the clouds are rolling in heavy masses, partially 
obscuring a sky whose color is in harmony with the greenish blue of the 
waters. In the latter is well depicted the sullen aspect of an ocean on 
which the winds have spent their fury. Overend's "Victory" has for its 
subject a British frigate from which men are putting off in boats to take 
possession of a disabled prize. In "The Wooden Walls of Queen Victoria," 
Baden-Powell shows a squadron of old-fashioned battle-ships as they lay 
off Portsmouth dockyard more than half a century ago. In "Davy Jones' 
Locker," Wyllie depicts a sunken vessel in which a single skull is all 
that remains of her crew. His "Port of London" is a loan from the Fine Art 
society, and another of his pictures represents the emperor of Germany and 
the prince of Wales inspecting the steamer Teutonic at Spithead. Tuke's 
"Sailors Playing Cards" is self-explanatory, as also are J. C. Hook's 
"Wreckage from the Fruiter," T. Graham's "Last Boat," Brangwyn's "Convent 
Ship," and Clara Montalba's "Thames Barge off Chelsea." In "A Hopeless 
Dawn," by Frank Bramley, are vividly portrayed the anguished features of 
two women who have passed the night in watching, the sea from which their 
loved ones will never return, telling its own sad story. By Stanhope 
Forbes, whose pictures of coast life have been purchased for several 
public galleries, are "Forging the Anchor" and "Soldiers and Sailors." 
Many of his themes are taken from the Cornish coast and display to good 
advantage the facile execution of this young and talented artist, who 
completed under Bounat his earlier training at the National academy. In 
Macallum's "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep," the rocking is done by a 
party of mischievous lads, and younger children are looking on in terror 
from the bow and stern of the boat. Among fishing themes are Smythe's 
"Harvest of the Sea" and "Boulogne Shrimpers," Loudan's "Fish Market, 
Cornwall," and Hunter's "Fishers of the North Sea." 

Among military themes Sir James Linton, president of the Royal institute, 
has in his "Victorious" and "The Benediction" two of a series of paintings 
illustrating the life of a soldier. "The Last Muster," by Herkomer, is one 
of the best known pictures in the British section, known, that is, by 
countless reproductions. The pensioners of the Chelsea hospital are 
attending service in chapel. One of them, with head hanging forward, has 
died in his seat, like a soldier at his post; but of this only a few are 
aware, most of them listening devoutly to what is being said, for soon 
they also will enter on their rest, as the reward for duty nobly done and 
sufferings patiently endured. The bright red of the scarlet uniforms is 
relieved by the light that comes from the windows and the brownish tints 
of the wainscoting; yet it is somewhat over-colored, a rare defect in 
England's collection, which inclines rather to sombreness and austerity of 
hue. Other of Herkomer's canvases are "Miss Katherine Grant" and 
"Entranced," whose motif is explained by the line inscribed below: 

In some diviner mood of self-oblivion solitude 

In "Sons of the Brave," by Philip R. Morris, the scene is also at Chelsea, 
at the duke of York's school for soldiers' orphan boys. Headed by their 
own band, the lads are marching forth to meet their relatives and friends, 
who are crowding around the gateway - a privilege granted only once a 
week; for they are being trained as soldiers and the strictest of 
discipline is maintained. Yeames' "Prisoners of War" is an incident of the 
Napoleonic era, and in Glazebrook's "C'est l'Empereur" we have Napoleon 
himself who, as the story goes, 

Page 725

finding one of his sentries asleep, quietly took from him his musket and 
himself stood guard until he awoke. But this is not the story that the 
picture tells; for the emperor is gazing with fixed and fateful look on 
the worn-out sentinel whom he has roused from troubled dreams. Charlton 
has an ambitious painting of the royal jubilee procession passing through 
Trafalgar square, and in another canvas depictures an incident in the 
charge of the light brigade where the riderless horses of the slain, on 
hearing the bugle call, fall into line with the heavy brigade as it 
advances to cover the retreat. 

Women are well represented in the British section, and it is somewhat 
remarkable that the best of the military paintings should be from a 
woman's brush. Lady Butler, among whose best known canvases are "Quatre 
Bras" and "Balaclava," has here "The Roll Call," first exhibited at the 
Royal academy in 1874 and now the property of the queen. After the battle 
of Inkermann, a regiment of the grenadier guards, or rather that which 
remains of it, is being inspected by its colonel, who is riding past its 
diminished ranks. It is a strong and impressive study, strong in its 
simplicity, its pathos, and its fidelity to truth. Says the London Art 
Journal, "In this line of soldiers worn out with conflict, some wounded, 
others fallen with their dying faces cleaving the snow, there is the 
terrible but passionless severity of absolute fact. The supreme merit of 
the work in an artistic sense, lies in this very quality of perfect self-
control that refuses to emphasize any further the misery which has already 
occurred." 

One of the most beautiful faces in the British section is that of Mrs. 
Jopling-Rowe's "Dear Lady Disdain." The figure is standing in profile, 
richly but simply attired, and in these proud, aristocratic features, 
somewhat of the Beatrice type, is fully expressed the title of the 
picture. As loans from their owners are three canvases by Mrs. Alma 
Tadema, whose "Blue Stockings," exhibited at the academy in 1877 and in 
the following year at Paris, first established her fame. Miss Childers 
sends her "Last Survivor of Trafalgar," who died in 1892, aged 100 years; 
Miss Cohen has her "Little Refugee from Russia," and Madame Canziani her 
"Two Little Home Rulers," the sons of the Earl of Aberdeen, to whom the 
painting belongs. Among others are "The Witch," by Mrs. Stanhope Forbes; a 
"Water Nympth," by Blanche Jenkins; "In the Reign of Terror" and "The 
Mistletoe Bough," by Miss MacGregor; "Eve," by Mrs. Anna Lea Merritt, and 
"The Card Dealer," by Mrs. Mary L. Waller. 

To describe in detail the British paintings in water colors would be a 
tiresome repetition of what has already been said, and the more so that 
they include contributions from several artists whose works have already 
been passed in review. In the engravings, etchings, and drawings also 
reappear not a few of the familiar names, as John M. Swan and W. H. 
Overend, while Tenniel has a number of sketches such as only he can limn. 

Page 727

Constructive architecture, though its proper place would have been in this 
collection, was grouped by the Exposition authorities with civil 
engineering and public works in the department of Liberal Arts. The 
designs and sketches displayed int eh gallery alcoves of the Fine Arts 
building are in many styles and for many purposes, from a parish church to 
a card and billiard room, and from a mausoleum to a Turkish bath-house. 

The Canadian exhibition, contained in the anterooms of the British 
section, consists entirely of paintings in oil and water colors, the 
latter predominating, and both of excellent quality. "The Foreclosure of 
the Mortgage," by G. A. Reid, is one of the strongest and most interesting 
works. The scene is a Canadian farm house, to the owner of which, his 
features pallid and worn with long months of suffering, the sheriff is 
reading his doom. Looking at this picture one almost seems to hear the 
harsh, legal phrases as they fall from the mouth of the bluff official in 
inflexible and yet half-pitying tones. Upon the bowed head of his young 
wife and the inquiring faces of his children, one of them still in the 
cradle, the sick man's gaze is turned with a tender but hopeless 
expression, and near by an elderly woman, bent with the infirmity of age, 
completes this sorrowful group. "The Visit of the Clockmaker," another of 
Reid's four canvases, represents a group of flaxen-haired children 
watching an old many engaged on the task which its title implies. 

In landscapes there are several excellent studies both in oil and water 
colors, among the former, Brymner's "In County Cork" and "Border of the 
Forest, Fontainebleau," with others of lake scenery in the Rocky 
mountains, all of them strongly drawn and with sober coloring. By Ede, 
Jacobi, Watts, and others are also works of merit, and in water colors 
there are Fowler, Fraser, O'Brien, and Mathews, whose pictures are too 
numerous here to be mentioned. Herring fishing in the bay of Fundy is well 
depictured by Hammond, who has also "The Frazer River, Yale" and "The 
Great Illicilliwaet Glacier, Selkirks." Knowles has a truthful sketch of 
"Perce Fishermen, Gulf of St. Lawrence." In portraiture some of the best 
canvases are by Robert Harris, E. W. Grier, Sarah B. Holden, and Mary A. 
Bell. A pleasing composition is Alexander's "Gathering Plums," where a 
young peasant girl is seated beneath a fruit-laden tree. "A Venetian 
Bather," by the late Paul Peel, is worthy of this well-known artist whose 
paintings of nude children are familiar, as reproductions, throughout the 
United States. Its subject is a slender dark-hued Italian girl, standing 
in front of a mirror and dangling a cord and tassel with which a kitten is 
playing. The lithe willowy figure of the little damsel is admirably 
modelled, and with luminous flesh-tones contrasting against a sombre 
background. 

"The Founding of Maryland," by Henry Sandham, is one of the few historic 
themes, and follows closely 

Page 728

the historian's text. Leonard Calvert and his emigrants, under orders from 
Lord Baltimore, have landed at St. Mary's in the early spring of 1634. The 
colors are flying and a salute of musketry is answered by the guns of a 
vessel anchored in the river, while a group of Indians gaze stolidly on 
the pageant, wondering what it means. Among the minor pictures there are 
many of excellent workmanship, as Brownwell's "Lamp Light" and Dyonnet's 
"Statuary," with their play of light and shade in carefully studied tones. 
The latter represents the interior of a statuary's workshop, and by J. M. 
F. Adams is a well executed painting of a studio where the soft hues of 
twilight are rendered with delicate touch. Worthy of note also are 
Forster's "Gossips," Challener's "Forty Winks on a Sunday Afternoon," and 
Morrice's "Early Morning Effect on the Conway," whose scene is the coast 
of Wales. The entire collection forms a most creditable display, and the 
more so that the public galleries refused to contribute of their 
treasures. 

In Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and elsewhere in the Australias are art 
galleries, both public and private, which would be no discredit to the art 
centres of Europe and America. Here are collections gathered by the ablest 
critics in the mother country, and by the Australians themselves, in whose 
homes will be found some of the choicest works displayed at international 
exhibitions. Local artists make a special study of the scenery of their 
own country, in whose flora and fauna are opportunities for novel and 
striking effects. Not a few of their pictures have been hung in prominent 
places in Paris salons and in the Royal academy at London, where space is 
accorded only to artistic merit. Certain it is that the Australian 
contribution of more than 200 specimens from the National art gallery 
deserved better than to be relegated to an upper gallery alcove, where 
room was found for only a score of paintings, the remainder being 
displayed in Australia house. While this was due to a misunderstanding, it 
would seem that an area sufficient for the purpose might have been spared 
from the ample limits assigned to Great Britain and her colonies. 

Of sculpture there is but a single piece, and that is a portrait bust in 
marble of Arthur Kenwick, commissioner for New South Wales, by the Italian 
artist, Simonetti. Sydney with its picturesque harbor, as viewed from the 
North Shore, is an excellent sample of colonial art by C. H. Hunt, as also 
are Lister's "After the Shower" in oil and his New England landscapes in 
water colors. "The Upper Nepean," by Piguenit, is a well executed painting 
of river scenery, especially as to its color scheme, the steep rocky shore 
with its dense growth of primeval forest being brought into strong relief 
by light and cloud effects. Here is one of the most romantic of Australian 
landscapes, and of historic interest; for through the valley of this river 
the first exploring parties penetrated far into the densely wooded ranges 
of the Blue mountains, many of them never to return. 

Page 729

Glimpses of the Shoalhaven river are well portrayed in the water colors of 
Fullwood and Ashton, the former of whom has on oil painting of "The 
Station Boundary," a typical Australian scene, and the latter one of "The 
Prospector," taking for his theme a mining episode of the Pacific coast. 
Of other canvases mention will be made in connection with the national 
exhibit, where colonial art finds adequate expression. 

The German exhibits, except for architectural models and designs, are 
included in the collective display of the German Art association, in which 
are represented all the branches included in the Fine Arts department. By 
critics the German galleries have been closely scanned, and to all classes 
of visitors are full of interest; for in art, as in music and poetry, the 
Fatherland looks back on a glorious past, and the works of its great 
masters belong not only to their won but to all civilized countries. 
Especially in plastic art has Germany exercised a powerful influence on 
other nations, and while herself adopting the best features of foreign 
schools, has treated them in independent lines, so that in the better 
class of works, whether those of ancient or modern masters, there is a 
strong individual character. 

In the opening years of the present century we find both painters and 
sculptors in close communion with the antique, such artists as Thorwaldsen 
and Rauch, Overbeck and Cornelius inclining to classical compositions, at 
times in the severest of classic style. Of more modern schools, and 
especially in their canvases, naturalism is the pervading characteristic, 
and this, it must be admitted, has been carried to excess, even to the 
rejection of the ideal and beautiful, and the exaltation of the coarse and 
commonplace. Rather than be untrue to nature, they would reproduce nature 
in her most repulsive moods, though the effect be positively hideous. But 
of comparatively recent art there are many works in other vein, as in the 
visionary subjects of Gabriel max with their richness of coloring, the 
genre paintings of Franz Defregger, and the historic depictions of Becker, 
Schrader, and Richter. So with Bocklin and Feuerbach, the former a student 
of the antique and the latter imparting a supernatural tone to his weird 
and fanciful landscapes, peopled with monsters and chimeras dire. 

In architecture the German section is especially strong, fully 
representing the progress made in this direction since the unification of 
the empire. Of late the tendency has been to depart from the Hellenism 
characteristic of the earlier half of the century, in favor of the lighter 
style of the Italian renaissance, now widely adopted in state and 
monumental architecture. Of this there are evidences in the various 
museums and military schools, in the Imperial post-office and especially 
in the German Reichstag, recently completed in the most florid style of 
the renaissance. Even in business and private buildings this tendency may 
be traced, and as it would seem is destined to become universal, except in 
ecclesiastical architecture, where preference is given to the Gothic 
order. 

Among the hundred or more pieces of statuary contained in the German 
section there are none to be preferred to Brutt's "Eve an Her Children," a 
contribution from the National gallery at Berlin. In a life size figure of 
marble the mother of the human race is represented with one of her babes 
nestling in her arms and the other clinging around her neck - the infancy 
of Cain and Abel. It is the personification of proud and contented 
matronhood, all unconscious woman, her clothing torn from her shoulder and 
her hair a tangled clinging mass. Smaller works by this sculptor, and both 
in perfect pose, are his "Bathing Girl" and "Phryne," the latter flinging 
the drapery from her form and standing forth in all the bold insolence of 
tarnished womanhood. 

Max Kruse has sent one of his most powerful studies, "The Messenger of 
Victory from Marathon," a youth running at full speed, one hand clutching 
at his heart, which soon will cease to beat, and in the other 

Page 730

a laurel branch which proclaims the issue of the fight. Uphue's "Archer" 
is a bronze figure of an athlete standing with arms uplifted as he watches 
the arrow speeding from his bow. Another reproduction of athletic manhood 
is by Franz Stuck, its subject with every muscle brought into play, with 
head thrown back and heaving chest as he slowly raises a burden almost 
greater than he can bear. Klein's "Mortal Embrace" represents a man 
struggling with a lion, and Siemering has a heroic statue of "Victory," 
armor-clad and with dragon-mounted helmet. Sommer's "The Devil Takes to 
Himself Wings" represents his sable majesty with the pinions of a bat and 
with orthodox horns and hoofs, amusing himself by catching the flies that 
settle on his legs, over which the slow-creeping hand is extended. 

Historic subjects are numerous, including portrait busts of Bismarck and 
Von Moltke, William I and William II, by Bruno Kruse, Franz Ochs, Begas, 
and others. Somewhat of a novelty is sculptural design is Max Klein's 
"Woman's Head," with brown hair and drapery around the white marble face 
and neck. Hilgers has two plaster reliefs of Christ healing the sick. 
Otto's "Vestal Maiden," a delicate conception, is a loan from the National 
gallery, as also is Eberlein's "Pulling out the Thorn." Riesch has several 
subjects, of which his "Mignon" is most admired. Epier's Gleaner" and 
Paul's "Binding on her Sandals" shows the touch of a master hand; and 
among others worthy of mention are Maison's "Negro Riding on a Mule" and 
Toberentz' "Resting Shepherd." 

In more than 400 oil paintings, with a liberal display of aquarelles, 
engravings, and etchings, all branches of graphic art are represented. 
Many of the more ambitious works relating to historic and spectacular 
subjects are of unwieldy proportions, striving after effect and falling 
short in the achievement, wanting in clearness and finish, and above all 
in atmosphere, which is often muddy and opaque. Nevertheless there are 
many excellent compositions, displayed to good advantage as to grouping 
and light. To the majority of visitors they are somewhat of a novelty; for 
while French and Italian art were familiar to all, and Dutch and English 
art were not unknown, there are few who were acquainted with the works of 
German masters. Of special interest are the pictures of domestic life, 
their subjects treated not as studio models but as living realities, with 
nothing of the commonplace or conventional treatment elsewhere displayed 
in similar themes. Many of them differ but little from the style that 
prevailed in the opening decades of the century; the composition is almost 
identical; the figures, features, postures, and accessories almost the 
same; and here also is noticed the same conscientious painstaking and 
earnest seeking after truth. 

Libermann, who hold high rank as a genre painter, sends two of his 
canvases, "Street in a Dutch Village," and "The Flax Barn," the latter a 
typical agricultural scene. Knaus has a spirited composition whose title 
is "The Duel Behind the Hedge." It is barely three feet square, but 
valued, as is said by the secretary of the German commissioner, at $15,
000. It tells its own story, the old story of schoolboys settling their 

Page 731

quarrel by a stand-up fight. Two of them are pommelling each other 
lustily, and around these central figures is a group of excited urchins 
watching the outcome and insisting on fair play. The facial expression is 
perfect, and so minute is the elaboration of detail that we wonder how 
such a wealth of meaning could be crowded into so little space. In 
Vautier's "At the Sick bed" a young husband with pained and anxious look 
is holding the hand of his wife, doubtful, as it seems, whether she will 
ever rise from her couch. Under a similar title Lessing paints a physician 
visiting a poor and friendless girl in her garret. "The Emigrant's Wife" 
and "Solitude," by Alberts, Andorff's "Village of Spessart," and 
Bachmann's "Wedding Morn" are all attractive studies. "Fishing in Norway," 
by Ekinas, or Eckenaes, tells its simple story in the neatest style of 
pictorial art. "Sabbath Rest," by Franz Defregger, is well worthy of its 
title, as also is "Before the Dance," a Tyrolean scene, with youths and 
maidens clustered in the foreground awaiting the waltz music to be 
furnished by zither players stationed in the corner, while seated at table 
in picturesque attire the older folk are enjoying themselves with pipe and 
beer-mug. The damsels are fair enough to look upon, rosy and plump, but 
somewhat too baby-faced, one would think, for German tastes. "The Great 
and the Small" is a humorous sketch by Karl Rochling, where a soldier 
belonging to one of the line regiments is drinking from the canteen of a 
guardsman. 

Portraiture is a strong feature in the German galleries, its strength 
consisting not in the number but in the theme and quality of the 
paintings. They are not overloaded as are other sections with mediocre and 
uninteresting subjects, but bring to life their most famous men in the 
canvases of their foremost artists. In "The Berlin Congress," for 
instance, Von Werner, a director of the academy of Berlin, depicts one of 
the most important conferences of the age, the peace of Europe depending 
on its issues, while each of its members was or became a statesman or 
soldier of renown. But this is something more than portraiture, and in 
their proper sense portraits are not plentiful in the German section. 
Among the best of them are Lencach's Bismarck and Leo XIII, both full of 
life and character, and with all the antithesis of feature and facial 
expression which the subject invites. Others are Heyser's picture of 
Joachim, the violinist, Hildebrand's "Queen Louis," Max' "Katharina 
Emerick," Knaus' "Helmholtz" and "Mommsen," Janssen's "Inspector 
Holthausen," and Smith's "Henrik Ibsen," the Norwegian poet, most of them 
contributions from the National gallery. 

Religious themes are more numerous than might have been expected from a 
nation which inclines so strongly to skepticism. "The Shepherds Receive 
the Tidings" is a modernized version of the subject by Fritz Von Uhde, who 
like other German students of sacred history sees nothing supernatural in 
the episodes which he portrays. To them it appears that Christ is more 
needed today in the boulevards of Paris or Berlin than he was two thousand 
years ago in the streets of Jerusalem, and hence it is not inconsistent to 
portray in modern fashion the sublimated lesson of his life. The angel is 
a reality and not a phantom, a woman angel, and costumed with due regard 
to nineteenth century notions of propriety. Her features are noble, 
dignified, and almost beatific; but as she tells her story to a group of 
shepherds attired in homespun, it is evident that 

Page 732

her message, while received with reverence, is accepted only as relates to 
one who was born to be merely a man among men. "The Holy Evening," as the 
Germans call their Christmas eve, makes no pretensions to Judean 
environment. The scene, which might be almost anywhere, represents a 
wintry landscape shrouded in twilight after a heavy fall of snow. A 
country girl, bare-headed and with a shawl wrapped close around her, is 
leaning against a straggling fence, as she carries homeward her slender 
effects. It is a pleasing study, without any striving after 
sensationalism, but inferior in coloring to its sister painting, with its 
low, soft, restful tones, and its star setting amid the gray hues of morn. 
Among other religious subjects are Bracht's "Mount Sinai" and "Before the 
Walls of Jerusalem;" Grutzner's "Cloister Kitchen" and "Monks at Supper," 
these in anything but religious mood; Papperitz' "Salome," Stockmeyer's 
"Peter Went Out and Wept Bitterly," and a study by Dettman, who takes for 
his text the passage from Genesis III in which the curse of labor, if 
curse it be, is inflicted on the human race. 

Landscape, marine, and nautical themes are plentiful in the German 
section. Among the first are Baisch's "Spring Day in Bavaria," 
Kallmorgen's "Beginning of Spring," Malchen's "North German Lanscape," Max 
Schmidt's "Landscape from the River Spree," and Berkemeier's "After the 
Shower." Normann, whose marine paintings are among the features of the 
Norwegian section, has here his "Summer Night" and "Narofjord," the latter 
showing the coast of a fjord, its stony beach in the foreground, overcast 
with shadow, contrasting with the play of sunlight on the distant cliffs. 
Excellent coast scenes are Hamacher's "Breakers" and Bohme's "Outlook from 
the Lighthous at Skomvaer," Schnars-Alquist, the German commissioner of 
Fine Arts, has a picture of the steamship, City of Paris in a heavy sea, 
and takes as the scene of his "Narrow Escape" the British channel, where, 
in the dim and misty light of the young moon, a huge steamer is bearing 
down on a tiny craft which flashes a light upon her as she crosses her 
bows. Karl Saltzmann has for his subject Emperor William II on board a 
whaler off the Norway coast. A harpoon has just been thrown from a mortar 
at a whale which is partly in sight, and the emperor is watching the 
effect of the shot. A high wind is blowing and the billows are rising 
rapidly, their height and volume expressed in hard but forcible tones. "A 
Hamburg Pilot," by Bohrdt, shows its subject rowed by a party of sailors 
toward a vessel which leems up between them and the horizon. In 
Schoenleber's "High Tide" fishing boats are lying in safety within a pier 
against which the waves are breaking angrily. "In the Lagoons of Venice" 
by this artist is an excellent study, and free from the luminosity of 
coloring that marks the conventional treatment of this well-worn subject. 
Hochhaus has a view of a navy yard where a corvette is under construction, 
and Hoecker shows a man-of-war with a group of sailors on the gun-deck, 
cleaning and polishing their rifles. "Rafting on the Isar" is by Karl 
Knabl, who has also a sketch entitled "In the Gray of Morning." 

Painters of martial subjects love to depict the kaisers and their generals 
amid the peaceful pageantry of war. One of the largest pictures in the 
German galleries is Hans Schmidt's "Parade before the Emperor," his 
majesty appearing at the head of a Uhlan regiment, with the empress on 
horseback and an imposing array of mounted officers in handsome uniforms. 
On one side is the band of the white cuirassiers, and among the spectators 
are many famous captains. "The Disaster," by Brandt, shows a group of 
Russian cavalry defending themselves as best they can in a courtyard where 
they have taken refuge. Rosen has a well executed battle scene, that of 
Stoezek, where the Poles and Russians were unequally matched. Franz Adam's 
"Battle of Orleans" is little better than a panoramic painting, with 
ambitious design falling lamentably short in technique and execution. In 
better taste are Schuch's "Parade," Becker's Vidette," and Boddien's 
"After the Battle." Rocholl's "Whom the Nurembergers Would Keep They Must 
Hang" is an interpretation on canvas of an ancient Nuremberg legend. 

History and mythology find little expression in the German galleries. 
First among the latter may be mentioned Thumann's "Psyche;" but this is 
too well known in countless reproductions to require description. Becker's 
"Feast in the Doge's Palace," a National gallery painting, is a powerful 
and elaborate composition; but in the figures and faces of the women there 
is more of the German than the Venetian type. Hildebrand has a large and 
strongly drawn picture of Tullia attempting to drive her chariot over the 
body of her murdered father. Herterich's "Saint George," in full panoply 
and on gray charger mounted, places its subject in the midst of a forest 
at early dawn, half veiled in the rising mist. It is an over fanciful 
depiction of a commonplace personage who, as Gibbon relates, made his 
fortune at the expense of his honor by swindling the Roman authorities in 
a contract for provisions. Pietschmann's "Polyphemus Fishing" represents 
this mythical monster by the sea-shore, where he is capturing youths and 
maidens who shall presently furnish forth his repast. In contrast with his 
repulsive figure are the summer sky and landscape which surround him, 
redolent with the breath of flowers. 

"The Rolling Mill," also a National gallery picture, is the only oil 
painting from Adolf Menzel, who with several others, as Dettmann, Hermann, 
Hertel, and Skarbina, appears to better advantage in the water color 
collection. In the latter Bartels has two excellent studies, whose themes 
are "Waves" and "Moonlight Night on the French Coast." In pen drawings 
Menzel is also prominent and there is a fair assortment of etchings and 
engravings. The architectural models and designs are mainly of church and 
public edifices, and include a large exhibit from the Imperial Ministry of 
public works. 

The Austrian collection bears strong traces of the German school, but 
inclines more to history, mythology, and romance, in which a few valuable 
studies are interspersed among a large number of spectacular paintings. To 
the latter class belongs, for instance, Brozik's "Fenstersturtz," showing 
how, at the city of Prague, a deputation of Bohemian protestants, whom the 
emperor's counsellors refused to treat with tolerance, settled the 
controversy by hurling them out of the window. In this incident of the 
Thirty Years' war are portrayed with ghastly realism the agony and terror 
of the doomed. A smaller and better picture is his "First Communion of the 
Hussites," where John Huss, the first martyr of the reformation, holds 
aloft a cup of consecrated wine, his followers kneeling around him, and in 
their features the ecstasy of faith and fervor which erelong would lead 
them to the stake. 

"Never Retreat," a contribution from the emperor, is by Julius Von Payer, 
who takes for his subject an episode in the Arctic expedition of 1872-4, 
of which he was one of the commanders. It is painted, as only it could be 
painted, by one who has taken part in the scene which he describes. The 
men are on the verge of 

Page 734

starvation and in mutinous temper; but to turn back is certain death; and 
as they listen to the inspiring words of their leader, they resolve to 
share his fate. The story is told as no words could tell it, so that one 
seems to be an actual spectator of this incident of twenty years ago, with 
the central figure standing erect and fearless among his dispirited 
followers. In "The Story of the Hero," where a soldier returned from the 
wars is relating his adventurers, Munkaczy does not appear at his best, 
and this is the only canvas from an artist whose pictures occupied an 
entire wall at a recent Paris exhibition. In "Christ and the Women," by 
Goltz, and in Schmid's "Suffer Little Children to Come Unto Me," the 
topics are treated in the modernized fashion, which appeals more to the 
understanding than to the heart. 

Landscapes are few in the Austrian galleries, and of such as there are the 
scenery is fanciful rather than real. Among the best are Simm's "Indian 
Summer" and those by Eugen Jettel, whose "Ramsau Scenery" is a loan from 
the gallery of Prince Liechenstein. Even the sea is idealized by Austrian 
painters, and its waters and shores made the medium of expression for 
mythological or imaginary themes. In Knuepfer's "Fight of Tritons" two 
mermen are contesting for the ownership of a mermaid, who is seated on a 
jutting ledge of rock, placidly awaiting the issue of the combat. In his 
"Eternal Siren," the sea only is painted, as the siren whose voice is 
never stilled. Both pictures are among the best marine studies in this 
section, the former being a loan from the academy of fine arts at Vienna. 
In Wertheimer's "Vision" a fair goddess of the deep stretches out her arms 
toward a sailor, who is leaning over the side of his boat. Intensely 
realistic are the tortured frame and features of Hirschl's "Prometheus," 
with vultures tearing at his vitals and ocean nymphs swimming around him 
as though in mockery. A more pleasing study by this artist is his "Wedding 
Procession" at Pompeii. "Morning on the Shore," and others are by Florian 
Wiesinger, one of the foremost of Austria's women painters. 

There are some excellent figure paintings in the collection, first among 
which may be mentioned "The Five Senses," a panel picture by Hans Makart. 
The forms are nude and beautifully modelled, with the purity of expression 
which a true artist can give to nature unadorned. Sight is personified by 
a comely maiden who is looking at herself in a mirror; hearing by one with 
head inclined in the attitude of a listener; feeling by a mother with a 
babe on her shoulder; tasting, by a woman in whose hands is the forbidden 
fruit; and smelling, by one whose face is hidden in a spray of blossoms. 
In "The Falconer," by this artist, its subject appears to be gazing on the 
spectator with eyes as piercing as those of the bird which is perched on 
his hand. In "The Master of the Hounds," by Hans Canon, a huntsman is 
standing in a richly furnished interior, with the dogs leaping around him 
eager for the chase. "God Bless You," by Franz Defregger, also represented 
in the German section, is a drinking scene, with men making merry over 
their tankards and girls looking on with roguish aspect. His "Children 
Playing with a Dog" shows a little girl caressing her pet, with bare-
footed urchins standing by. These, with Blaas' "The Good Brother," where a 
sturdy little lad is peeling an orange for his sister, are excellent 
depictions of everyday life among the poor. "Gypsy at the Hearth" is the 
best of Pettenkofen's canvases. "Adventures in the Lottery," a loan from 
the emperor, is by Joseph Gisela, who has other valuable 

Page 735

works on exhibition. Of miscellaneous themes there are Leopold Muller's 
"Market Place in Cairo," Thoren's "A Wolf!" and Schindler's "Saw-mill in 
Oberweissenbach," the two first academy paintings and the last the 
property of the emperor, as also are among others Bacher's "Mater
Dolorosa," Huber's "Fighting Cows," and Moll's "Roman Ruins in 
Schoenbrunn." 

Among the best of the portraitures are Huber's "George Washington" and 
Angeli's pictures of Stanley the explorer and of the architect Schmidt, 
the latter an academy painting. Hans Temple's sketches include on of 
William Unger. In the etchings and engravings are reproduced by Michalek 
the features of Haydn and Beethoven, and by Unger those of Rembrandt and 
the sons of Rubens. In statuary Tilgner has a zinc bust of the emperor; 
Breneck, a bronze relief of Wagner; Weigle, bronze statuettes of Mozart 
and Beethoven, these with a handful of minor works completing the 
collection. 

In the Belgian galleries is a partial reflex of the French collections, 
and to describe them in detail would be merely to repeat much of what has 
already been said. But they are not merely a reflex; for here are many 
works in original vein and of unquestionable merit, showing that the 
spirit of the Flemish masters still lives in the country of the Van Eycks, 
of Rubens and Quintin Matsys. The selection was made with the utmost care, 
only the best canvases of the best artists finding favor with the jury 
appointed by the Belgian government. 

In statuary there are several works from Paul de Vigne, who takes for his 
subjects classical and mediaeval characters. Des Enfans' statuettes "After 
the Walk" and "La Nique" are in excellent taste, as also is his marble 
bust of Manon Lescant. Van Beurden's "Forced Bath" and "Quintin Maysys' in 
Boyhood" are skillfully modelled, the former in cire perdue. Van der 
Straeten's bronzes of the seasons, from the Yerkes collection, and his 
marble bust of Worth are of excellent workmanship, as also are the bronzes 
of De Tombay and the statuettes of Albert Hambresin, the latter portraying 
fifteenth century impersonations. By Charlier, Le Roy, Joris, Willelms and 
others are treated a variety of topics ranging from the innocence of 
childhood to the ferocity of a polar bear. 

More than a hundred oil paintings and less than a score of water colors 
are contained in the Belgian section, covering the same ground as in other 
galleries, though somewhat weak in portraiture and still life subjects. In 
landscapes "Snow Effect" and "Avenue of Oaks," the scene of which is in 
the neighborhood of Antwerp, are by Francois Lamoriniere, to whom was 
awarded the great diploma at the International Exposition in Berlin. "The 
Storm" and "Setting Sun at Sea," by Adrien Le Mayeur, are the most 
powerful of the marine paintings. Farasyn's "Embarkation of Emigrants at 
Antwerp" and Jan Verhas' "The Martyrs of the Beach" and "The Walk on the 
Dyke at Heist-sur-Mer" are works of decided merit. In a panel of portraits 
Jean Van Beers reproduces the features of Henri Rochefort, Ada Rehan as 
Lady Teazle, and Mrs. Brown Potter as the Lady of Lyons. Of "Charles VI 
and Odette" it need only be said that it is from the brush of Albrecht De 
Vriendt. "Last Days of Pompeii" and "Episode of an Inundation, Dardrecht" 
are ably depicted by Ernest Slingeneyer, and among other canvases worthy 
of note are "The Holy Week in Seville," by the late Nicaise De Keyser, and 
"The Will of Christopher Columbus," by Pierre Joseph Verhaert. "Fruit," by 
Berthe Art, is the only work that the pastellists have to show; but of 
engravings, etchings, and drawings there is a fair collection, including 
studies after Van Eyck, Rubens, and Donatello. 

The Dutch and, as I have said, the British galleries, but especially the 
Dutch, are among the few sections where performance has exceeded 
anticipation. Much was of course expected from the land of Rembrandt and 
Teniers, of Terburg, Ruysdael, and Paul Potter, and here, at least, there 
were none who turned away with a sense of disappointment. Rather did they 
linger among these masterpieces, returning again and again 

Page 736

for a further realization of their manifold excellencies. If in the 
French, Italian, and perhaps in the United States galleries there may be 
more that appeals to our sense of the beautiful, we shall nowhere find 
more striking landscape and pastoral effects, more vigorous depiction of 
storm and sea, more life-like genre and figure paintings, whether of man 
or beast, more skillful blending of light and shade, more perfect symphony 
of coloring. Here is especially noticed the faculty of reproducing form in 
masses, and yet with a minuteness and accuracy of detail which is one of 
the first principles of art, while not appearing on the surface except in 
the general effect. In this and other qualities the Dutch collection 
stands in the front of contemporary schools of painting. 

In nothing perhaps does the Dutch artist appear to better advantage than 
in his descriptions of home life, the life of a people where the arts of 
domesticity have received their highest development. None know better how 
to give to home a homelike charm, how to invest the rude life of peasantry 
and fishermen with tenderness of sentiment, with the simplicity and 
earnestness which belong to the nature as to the art of the Hollander. 
Here also pathos is depicted, often with infinite depth of feeling, 
suggested rather than expressed in subdued but masterly tones. Take, for 
instance, Israels' masterpiece, "Along in the World." At a first glace the 
casual observer might see nothing in this famous picture but an aged and 
sorrow-stricken man seated near the bedside of his dead wife. But looking 
deeper, he will find in this small and dimly lighted chamber a wonderful 
intensity of expression. The man is gazing, not at the body but away from 
it, gazing with the mute and hopeless stare of one who is wounded almost 
unto death; so that we wonder whether he will ever rise from his seat, and 
if so, whither he will betake him, how that he has lost the one object 
which made life worth the living. There are none to comfort him, and there 
is no palliation of his misery, nor anything that suggests it. The 
furniture is of the plainest; on the table stand a pitcher and glass; but 
there is nothing else that shows how the last suffering hours of the 
lifeless woman were alleviated. In no picture that we call to mind has its 
title been more fully expressed. It is the incarnation of woe, and in all 
the realm of art we shall search in vain for a more pathetic subject. In 
other of Israels' canvases, and especially in his "Fisherwomen at 
Zandvoort," where a group of women are awaiting their husbands' return 
from a perilous trip, is displayed his power of suggestion amid seeming 
poverty of detail. Here also and in his "Summer Day on the Shore" is shown 
how spacious a landscape can be fashioned under his brush, and how perfect 
in low strong tones of coloring. "Type of a Fisherman" is a perfect type 
of its kind, and typical also of Israels' style of portraiture. 

Page 737

A powerful death-bed scene is depicted by Hubert Vos, but not with the 
touch of an Israels; nor are the works of this painter, though of 
unquestionable merit, in the true style of Dutch art, of which for the 
most part they have only a trace. In his "Pauvres Gens," the scene is a 
peasant's cottage, where the father of a family lies dead. His wife is 
kneeling at his side in the first agony of grief, and at the foot of the 
bed sits the aged father, his head bowed in prayer. Near by stands a 
little child, gazing sorrowfully around the chamber of death and wondering 
what it means. At the opposite side a young girl is holding an infant in 
her arms, and another child is looking on with dazed and terrified 
expression. From a small window comes a dim green light, its tone in 
keeping with this abode of sorrow. "A Room in a Brussels Almshouse" is the 
work for which Vos received his first gold medal at a Paris exhibition. To 
depict a number of old women seated at a table or standing in groups is 
not an agreeable theme; but the subject is treated for all its worth. In 
"The Angelus on the Zuyder Zee" there is more of a Dutch flavor than in 
any of his paintings here exhibited. Again the central figure is an old 
woman, who is seated in a capacious chair, none too large for her portly 
form, and on hearing the sound of the bell looks upward in prayer from the 
pan of potatoes which she is peeling in her lap. At her side a little boy 
turns from his play with bended knee, and a young girl with beautiful 
features stands in reverent attitude. It is a homelike study, with 
quaintness of environment, and yet with much tenderness of sentiment. 
Other works by this artist are "A Breton Interior," "Study of a Russian 
Peasant," and a full length portrait of Wilhelmina, the infant queen of 
Holland, attired in mourning, and standing in a marble hall with roses 
scattered at her feet. Still another delineator of cottagers and their 
affairs is Albert Neuhuys, among whose canvases are some beautiful idyls, 
especially in his "Sunlight," where a wealth of sentiment is thrown around 
the simple figures of a baby and a goat. "In the Garden," by Kever and "A 
Cook," by Maarel are simple and pleasing compositions. "Surprised," by 
Boks, shows a party of servants, feasting at their master's expense, 
suddenly disturbed by his reappearance, attended by a ferocious bull-dog. 

What Jozef Israels is as a figure painter, that is Hendrik William Mesdag 
as a painter of the sea. In all his works is shown a careful scrutiny of 
nature; and we know not whether most to admire his truthful interpretation 
of the troubled waters, or his splendid domelike skies, with low horizon 
line and massive cloud effect, swept by fierce northern gales. Nowhere is 
ocean's storm more powerfully portrayed than in his favorite canvas, the 
title of which is "In Danger." The wind is blowing dead ashore, and 
beneath a dark lowering sky, 

Page 739

on a sea almost as dark, a vessel is battling with the fury of the 
tempest. It is a striking composition, treated with a master's touch, 
though less pleasing than the more placid scenes which he knows so well 
how to paint. In his "Summer Morning at Scheveningen," a combination of 
landscape and marine, fishermen are moving toward their boats over a sea-
beach glistening in the morning sun, with background of sand-dunes dotted 
here and there with tufts of verdure. In "Ready to Sail Out" the boats 
have been pushed to the edge of the waves, with sails unfurled, and a 
moment later will be speeding on their way. Both scenes are full of 
vitality, and in both are accurate versions of the life of fisher folk. J. 
H. L. de Haas, though one of the foremost of marine painters, is 
represented only by animal studies, in one of which is also a landscape 
effect. In the United States, where for half a century has been him home, 
he is best known by his graphic depiction of "Farragut's Fleet Passing New 
Orleans." War is not a favorite subject among Dutch artists, and is here 
represented only by a few minor works, among the best of which are 
Papendrecht's "Artillery Review at Utrecht." 

Of all the pictures in Holland's galleries there are none more essentially 
Dutch than those of Jakob Maris, who life Constable has never gone far 
afield for his subjects, but finds them almost at his door. A noted 
character is Jakob, with all an artist's eccentricity, and except for his 
brother William, the only one here represented of a great family of 
painters. Says one of his brethren of the craft, "Maris will sit half a 
day on the bank of a canal. Then he will go to his studio and paint for a 
month - not what he has seen but what he thinks." Among his five oil 
paintings in this section, with one in the loan collection elsewhere 
described, his "Canal at Rotterdam" is a finished study; but "The Two 
Mills" shows to better advantage his vigor and naturalness of style. There 
is no elaboration of foreground, and no striving after external effect; he 
enters at once on the subject, the central figure of which is merely a 
couple of windmills with the ubiquitous Dutch canal. The richer tones of 
the paintings are reserved for its cloud effects, with dense gray masses 
rolling up from the Zuyder Zee, illumined with sunbeams which almost 
pierce the veil, suggesting but not revealing a blue expanse of sky 
beyond. Beautiful indeed is the play of light and shade, and perfect the 
harmony of coloring. A similar theme is chosen in the "Scene in
Amsterdam," one of Wysmuller's canvases, but less skillfully treated. 
Roelofs' "Mills near Rotterdam" are the quaintest of old-fashioned 
windmills surrounded with a landscape that is unmistakably Dutch. A more 
finished study is the "Mill at Abcoude," by this artist, a landscape 
painter whose works are freely displayed in the Amsterdam museum. So with 
Gabriel, who paints 

Page 742

with equal facility windmills, harvest fields, and scenes from village 
life. Ten Cate's blithe and bright hued sketches, hardly to be dignified 
with the name of landscapes, have been seen and admired in scores of art 
galleries. Of late he has studied much in England, and has here two 
pictures of the Thames at low and high tide. 

"Winter" is a finely executed study by Meulen, who has also on exhibition 
"A Sandy Road" and "At the River Side." De Bock's "Summer Evening" is 
perhaps the best of his three contributions. Blommers' "Fishing for 
Shrimps at Scheveningen" is a neat and pleasing picture. Apol's "Thaw on 
the River Yssel" depicts in faithful colors the dreariest of wintry 
scenes. Jansen's "In the Docks" shows a huge steamer lying in one of the 
busy waterways of Amsterdam. 

Within recent years Holland has lost three of her masters, each of whom 
excelled in his life; Mauve, as a painter of animal figures and landscape 
sketches, Bosboom, whose forte was ecclesiastical architecture, especially 
church interiors, and Artz, who knew well how to interpret the simple 
story of peasant life. But all of them live in their works, and are well 
represented in the Dutch collection. Of Mauve's four subjects, apart from 
the one in the loan collection, "Ploughing the Fields" is rich in color 
effect, while "Cows Going Home" is painted as only he can paint, and 
"Pasture Near the Dunes" is a pleasing landscape study. Artz was a pupil 
of Israels; and though not in the foremost rank, shows a keen insight into 
nature's secrets, his canvases telling their homely tale and appealing 
more to the sympathies than to the imagination, yet with sufficient 
firmness of touch. In Bosboom's studies the integrity of the architectural 
scheme is skillfully transcribed, and the lighting portrayed with masterly 
hand. Among others represented in the collection of oil paintings are Karl 
Klinkenberg, who has also two studies in water colors; Bakhuyzen, a 
landscape and animal painter; the genre artists, Gerke Henkes and Bastert, 
whose crisp and brightly colored sketches find many patrons. From the 
latter is "The Fall of the River Vecht," an excellent specimen of his 
light and facile method. 

A feature in the Dutch section is the number of contributions from women, 
all of them chosen solely on the ground of merit; for no favor was shown 
by the jury of selection; nor was there aught 

Page 744

of sentiment. "They were better than many of the male contributors," says 
the commissioner, "and were taken only for that reason." By Madame Mesdag 
Van Houten, wife of the marine painter, and by Miss Abrahams are excellent 
studies in still life and miniature landscape. Marie Bilders van Bosse 
reproduces "One of Nature's Secluded Nooks," for which her brush is 
famous. Marguerite Rosenboom's "Garlands of Roses" are painted to 
perfection, and Henriette Ronner, whose specialty is in animal figures, 
has three of her compositions. Therese Schwartze has life-like portraits 
of herself and her mother; but a more ambitious work by this artist is 
"The Orphan Girls at Amsterdam." A group of young women attired in red and 
black, with white caps and kerchiefs, is gathered around a piano, one of 
them playing and the others singing a hymn, some with bowed heads, some 
with eyes uplifted, and all in reverential attitude. Many of the faces are 
exceedingly beautiful, and in this simple, touching theme is a wonderful 
depth of expression - the sadness of bereavement, and yet with 
trustfulness and love depictured in these comely features which tell no 
tale of fear. 

The Dutch section is one of the few in which the water colors are not 
inferior to the paintings in oil, with the same truth and power of 
conception and execution, and with the effect as well sustained. Among 
their artists oils and water colors are interchangeable mediums of 
expression, the best qualities of the one being repeated in the other, 
with similar themes and modes of treatment, and without confusion or 
repetition. To describe the collection in detail would be merely to 
reiterate what has already been said; for many of the contributors appear 
to equal advantage in both departments. Take, for instance, Israels' 
"Motherly Cares" and contrast this with his "Sweet Home," the former a 
water color and the latter an oil painting; there are seen in both the 
same vigor and simplicity of technique, the same wealth of suggested 
meaning. Compare these again with "Along in the World," with "Fisherwomen 
at Zandvoort," and with others of his works in the Dutch galleries and the 
loan collection; we find in all the unmistakable touch of the great 
master, one who is perfectly at home in the lighter as in the more 
powerful method of depiction. In addition to Israels there are Mesdag, 
Maris, and Hubert Vos, De Haas, Ten Cate, and others, while as to women 
there are all who have been mentioned as among the leading painters in 
oil. In etchings the best of the original works are by Storm van 
Gravesande and De Zwart, with reproductions by Zilcken and Miss Van 
Houten. 

Page 746

In Denmark's section the best of Danish art is represented, and here, as 
in the Swedish and Norwegian collections, is unmistakable evidence of 
force and originality, too often marred by heaviness of coloring, and with 
much room for improvement in modelling and draughtsmanship. But subjects 
are rich and plentiful, most of them showing strong virility of treatment, 
and if some of the compositions are hard and stiff, they are never weak 
and seldom commonplace. Nevertheless, we could wish that in these 
galleries were less of the glow of northern skies, and of the sombre hues 
of northern forest and foliage. 

In statuary may first be mentioned Stephen Singing's plaster cast of "A 
Captive Mother," a daring but not a repulsive theme, showing the nude 
figure of a woman, her hands bound behind her back, stooping forward to 
suckle her babe. More pleasing studies in the nude are Dan's "Snake 
Charmer" and Bandgaard's "Will o' the Wisp," personified by a young lad 
holding aloft his lantern and beckoning onward with mischievous smile. 
Kroyer's portrait busts of the poets, Kjelland and Drachmann, of the 
painter, Michael Ancher, of Svendsen, the violinist, and Schjoedte, the 
zoologist, are in the best style of this celebrated master, one of the few 
who have achieved distinction both in plastic and graphic art, winning his 
first salon honors in 1881 and in 1888 receiving the legion of honor. Lady 
Macbeth in the sleep scene is well delineated by Saabye; but a more 
popular work is his "Susanna Before the Elders," a somewhat daring and 
sensuous study, but almost perfect in pose and outline. Pacht has a bronze 
statue of Christian IX, and there are other compositions in which is 
noticed a suppleness of modelling and simplicity of design, without undue 
striving after effect, except perhaps for Hasselries' "Christ and
Columbus," a design for an historic monument, representing the latter as a 
New World evangelist. 

Lauritz Tuxen's large painting of the royal family, with life-sized 
portraits of the king and queen and their two and thirty children and 
grandchildren, is noticeable rather for its subject and superficial area 
than as a work of art. A much better work is his "Susanne in the Bath," 
where, in the silvery sheen of moonlight breaking through the faint rose 
tints of a twilight sky, a shrinking woman, draped only in her long golden 
hair, confronts her gray-bearded accusers. Kroyer has but a single 
portrait, that of a comely damsel in pink satin gown, and appears to 
better advantage in a small garden scene, with figures of his wife and 
mother-in-law seated in the shade and surrounded with brightly colored 
verdure and foliage. Holten's portraits of a lady and of the painter, L. 
A. Ring, represented in the Danish section, are in excellent taste, as 
also are those of Bertha Wegmann, especially as to costuming, showing that 
this artist knows how to give dignity to a figure in plain stuff gown, 
without blaze of jewelry or shimmer of satins and silks. A pleasing study 
is Achen's "Morten," a coachmen in full livery, with round and rubicund 
features suggestive of good living and self-content. Hans Brasen has 
neatly transcribed on canvas Andersen's story of "The Woman with the 
Eggs." Julius Paulsen's "Portrait of Professor Froelich" reproduces with 
singular fidelity the features of this veteran artist, from whom are two 
of his scriptural and mythological paintings. "The Models are Waiting," is 
a somewhat commonplace depiction of three very commonplace women, 
partially disrobed and altogether wearied. A fine combination of figure 
and landscape painting is Braendekilde's "Worn Out," showing, amid a wide 
expanse of furrowed glebe, an aged man on his way from store or market, 
his packages slipped from his grasp, for the strength has departed from 
hi. At his side is a peasant woman, his wife probably, kneeling and crying 
for help. Johansen's "Christmas Eve" is full of tender sympathy and with 
skillful treatment of interior light. By the same artist are "Autumn 
Landscape" and "Sunday at Tibirke Church." 

Page 747

Landscape and marine subjects, sketches of farm and woodland, animals and 
browsing herds form the bulk of the Danish collection, with few 
mythological, genre, or still-life studies. "Autumn" is the only 
contribution from Thorvald Niss, one of the foremost of Denmark's artists, 
than whom none know better how to reveal the hidden beauties of northern 
forests and rivers. It is a subdued and profoundly restful scene, well 
worthy of a man who has been honored at the international exhibitions of 
Paris, London, and Vienna. Skovgaard the elder, also a noted painter of 
woodland scenery, is not represented; but from his son is a well executed 
picture of a Swedish forest on a windy autumn day, with russet vista of 
foliage and murky atmosphere in which "trees with aged arms are warring." 
By the same artist is a weird and elfish fantasy entitled "The Goblins' 
Forest." Paulsen, in his "View of a Plain of Denmark," has a miniature 
study of the flat country, varied only by a fringe of trees and the 
shadows of passing clouds. In this quiet and diminutive painting, so small 
as almost to be overlooked, the suggestion of distance and depth is 
conveyed with remarkable condensation of space. Another unpretentious 
canvas is Elise Konstantin-Hansen's "An Oat Field," with a flaxen-haired 
lad in the foreground, his head just rising above the grain as he watches 
a bird swooping down on his left. Worthy of note also are Bikvist's "The 
Weather Clearing After the Rain" and Mols' "Rainy Weather" and "October 
Day." 

In marine and fishing scenes the Danish section is especially strong. Carl 
Locher's "November Night on the North Sea" shows the moon shining upon 
troubled waters, through which a steamer is ploughing its way, with 
skillfully suggested movement of the laboring vessel, the drifting clouds, 
and threatening waves. His "Glacier of Oefjelds" is a bold and skillfully 
colored reproduction of Icelandic scenery. "Gale on the West Coast of 
Jutland" is a small but finely executed canvas by Oscar Matthieson, whose 
animal painting, presently to be described, is one of the treasures of the 
Danish collection. "A Storm Brewing," by Hans Dall, is one of the best of 
its class, as also is his evening landscape scene, both on the coast of 
Zealand. Still another storm is portrayed in Carstensen's picture of a 
sailing ship lurching heavily as she runs before the sea. In contrast with 
these is La Cour's "View of the Sea on a Calm Spring Day," with jutting 
headlands in the shore line, ocean and sky meeting on the gray horizon, 
and all enshrouded in mist, save where the green-tinted waves are rippling 
toward the pebbly beach. In Viggo Pedersen's canvases, one of them a 
marine sunset, are almost the 

Page 748

only traces of impressionism, which finds little favor among Danish 
artists. Thorolf Pedersen, in his "Tempest," has a boat riding at anchor 
inside a breakwater, against which the waves are dashing angrily. 
"Shipwrecked Sailors on the Sea" is a powerful but gruesome composition by 
Rasmussen, who also exhibits his "Summer Night on the Coast of Iceland." 
The former represents a boat drifting aimlessly amid tropic waters under a 
tropic sky, its sail hanging against the mast and the helmsman neglecting 
his rudder. A sailor is supporting a dying woman, and another lies dead in 
the boat, his hand hanging limp over the side. Overhead sea-birds are 
screaming, and the waters are alive with sharks, whose fins appear above 
the surface, one of them turning to seize its prey - the hand of the 
lifeless sailor. 

In fishing scenes there are none to be preferred to Ancher's "Fishermen 
Returning Home." As a figure painter, especially of fisher folk, he has 
few superiors, his plastic modelling, bold delineation, and symphony of 
coloring showing a perfect mastery of his art. In his "Winter Day at the 
Village Shopkeeper's" is a group of weather-beaten tars in oil-skins and 
tarpaulins, their faces tanned with exposure and deep potations of rum. 
Matthiesen's "Cart Horses by the Seine" is a powerful animal painting, one 
of the horses being in angry controversy with the driver, while the other 
listens with knowing look. But here is something more than an animal 
painting, reproducing, as it does, the atmosphere of Paris, with its long 
vista of bridges and reaches of river in admirable perspective. The entire 
work would appear to be an acknowledgment of the artist's obligations to 
the capital of art, where his training was largely received. Therkildsen's 
"Frightened Horses" is also an excellent picture, especially in suggestion 
of movement. Otto Haslund's "Interior of a Stable," in which are the heads 
of cows, shows vigor of delineation. 

Of historic paintings the one best worthy of note is Matthiesen's 
"Giffenfeldt as a Prisoner at Munkholm," describing how this worthy 
minister and chief-justice of Denmark, unjustly accused of treason, 
devoted to the teaching of children the weary years of his incarceration. 
Two willing pupils are at his side, and through the deep shadow cast 
athwart the dungeon walls comes a streak of yellow light from its barred 
and narrow casement, illumining the sad worn features of the unfortunate 
statesman. In mythology, Helsted's "The Judgment of Paris" is but a 
commonplace representation of this well-worn theme, one that would appear 
to have been selected merely as an excuse for a depiction of the nude. The 
three goddesses have little of beauty or grace of form; nor does it appear 
why they should be standing naked in an open field before a youth whose 

Page 749

only resemblance to the son of Priam is his pointed Phrygian cap. "The 
Deluge," by Jerndorff, is a realistic, if not an attractive composition, 
with conventional treatment adhering to the scriptural story, the ground 
work filled with writhing figures of swarthy complexion, above which 
appears the offended deity in dark blue mantle, enthroned amid the clouds. 
As the antithesis to this subject is "The Jews in the Wilderness," with 
its army of thirsting Israelites gasping under a broiling sun, while far 
in the distance the leader smites the rock whence flow the living waters. 

Scandinavian art as represented at the Fair is almost a revelation to the 
majority of visitors, most of whom for the first time compared with those 
of other nationalities the works of Swedish and Norwegian masters. As in 
the Danish galleries, there are many paintings original in conception and 
with abundant vitality of treatment, too often overbalanced by faulty 
coloring and want of taste. While inclining to impressionism there is also 
a strong individual tone, and especially in landscapes and other outdoor 
scenes. Such works are never shallow, and if harsh in composition, bear 
evidences of a healthy and progressive movement. Here, as in the Dutch 
section, genre paintings are among the best on exposition; but these we 
must judge from the Scandinavian point of view; from life as it is among 
this simple, home-loving people. Next to these perhaps are marine 
pictures, those at least contained in Norway's galleries; for of the men 
of Norway a large proportion almost live upon the sea, and especially are 
their legends rich in stories of the fjords and of the main. 

To Anders L. Zorn, the Swedish commissioner of Fine Arts, is conceded a 
foremost rank among his brethren of the craft. His training was received 
almost entirely at the Swedish academy at Stockholm, though he has lived 
much in Paris and closely studied French methods, especially those of 
Monet. In the salons his works are familiar as those of a clever and 
versatile artist, one perfectly at home in genre landscape portraiture, 
and all other subjects to which he turns his brush, treating them with 
masterly touch and strong virility of style, though somewhat opaque as to 
coloring. While his subjects are seldom new or serious, his delineation is 
strikingly original, giving even to the commonplace the wealth of 
expression characteristic of his more ambitious themes. In his "Omnibus," 
for instance, the crowded interior with its typical work-a-day passengers 
is depicted with startling realism. And so with his "Ball," with its 
whirling figures, representing only a higher stratum of the commonplace. 
The work is full of animation, with crispness of outline giving emphasis 
to the expression of features and form, and yet with due restraint. At its 
side were placed his "Forest Study" and "Sunset." The former represents an 
undraped figure which might be that of a nymph or a spirit of the woods, 
but that she appears to have 

Page 750

lost her way and stands bewildered among the luxuriant forest growth. The 
form is well modelled, after its kind, and is brought into strong relief 
by the play of sunbeams glancing through interlacing branches; but it is 
altogether too sensuous for a symbolic theme; so that we wonder what the 
young woman is doing there, posing for the nude amid classic woodland 
groves. 

The same remark applies in a measure to his "Sunset" and "Summer," in the 
former of which the figure is absolutely repulsive, marring the effect of 
what would else be a pleasing and artistic composition; for the sunlit 
waters of the fjord are painted with a master's touch. Zorn appears to 
better advantage when he drapes his figures, as is seen in his "Margrit" 
and other of his works. The "Fair in Mora," a transcript from Swedish 
life, gives full expression to his power of observation and of placing on 
canvas that which he observes. The fair is over, and farmers in their 
rough country vehicles are setting their faces homeward. Off the roadside 
lies a man in a drunken stupor, and seated near him in the foreground is 
his patient sorrowing wife. 

Among Bruno Liljefors' studies of animal life, his "Hawks' Nest" and 
"Foxes" show remarkable vigor of execution, with technical qualities not 
to be found in other schools. The nest is on the branch of a tree in the 
foreground, and at its edge the parent bird, superbly painted, with arched 
neck and gleaming yellow eyes, is holding a rabbit before his little ones, 
as they rise with eager cry and bills wide open, each intent on securing 
its share of the feast. The other is a woodland scene; and beautiful 
indeed is the effect, with the gray light silvering the aged trunks of 
trees, around which are fallen leaves suggestive of autumn tide. Over the 
top rail of a fence a fox is springing in pursuit of his prey, and another 
is crouching beneath, their dun-red fur and stealthy supple figures 
rendered with excellent effect. "Return of the Wild Geese" is a fine 
combination of bird and landscape painting, these harbingers of spring 
arriving while the snow still lingers on the ground amid the chill 
colorless light of this hyperborean clime. "A Swedish Fairy Tale," by Carl 
Larsson, is somewhat of the Jack-the-giant-killer type, showing "the boy 
who filled the ogre, married the princess, and was rewarded with half the 
kingdom," in leather apron and cap, with sword across his shoulder. The 
princess is a quaint little damsel, with a crown on her braided hair and 
the ogre's head in her lap. "Ulf in the Sunset" is a fanciful sketch by 
the same artist, who has also a finely executed portrait painting of the 
members of his family. 

Landscapes and sketches are abundant, and among them are works by Prince 
Eugen, one representing a sunny glimpse of scenery and another a gaudy 
kiosk in a setting of many-colored tints. Near by Hasselberg has a bronze 
bust of the prince, the third son of the king of Sweden. While some of the 
compositions are marked by impressionism of an aggravated type, it is for 
the most part rather the artist's impression, 

Page 751

modifying what would else appear to him as over accurate transcription of 
nature. This may be noticed, for instance, in Nordstrom's "The Yellow 
House," half concealed amid the glowing sunlight by the straggling 
branches of trees; and in his night scene, where is a white steamboat 
gliding past silent homes, its lights faintly revealing the placid motion 
of the waters. Nils Kreuger has some pleasing subjects, especially the 
"Winter Idyl," with mist-wreathed ships amid a dappled, slow-heaving sea. 
Portraiture, genre, and other themes are fairly represented, and there are 
small collections of water colors, engravings, etchings, and drawings. 

In sculpture, one of the gems of the Swedish galleries is Hasselberg's 
plaster statue of "The Snowdrop," in which the idea is symbolized in a 
form of virginal innocence, undraped, but pure as the flower whose name it 
bears. The arms are raised as though to support the drooping head; the 
lips slightly parted, and the closed eyelids tremulously uplifted toward 
the sunlight, the entire theme suggesting the motion of a snowflake, and 
its loss of identity as it nears the drift toward which it is falling. 
Eriksson's "Carl von Linne," in plaster relief, represents the great 
naturalist looking at a fresh-plucked flower, and in a niche above, a 
figure about to crown him with a wreath. The attitude is graceful, and the 
benign, intellectual features of Linnaeus are reproduced with singular 
truthfulness of expression. This work, it may here be said, was purchased 
for presentation to the Chicago Art Institute. Borjesson's bronze group of 
"The Brothers" represents two naked boys, the elder, with bat and ball, 
standing erect above the other with an air of manly self-confidence, and 
the younger, with bow and arrow, leaning against him as though for 
protection. It is a simple subject, but striking in its simplicity, and 
almost classic in dignity of treatment. 

Norway has but a small group of statuary, in which are represented only 
four of her sculptors, of whom two are women. In landscape and marine 
subjects this section is especially strong, and though some of them are 
stiff and with too much intensity of coloring, they are nearer to life 
than would appear to the casual observer; for in the "land of the midnight 
sun," with its brief summer season, nature depicts with lavish hand her 
rich but sombre hues, and in these dark fir forests are none of the 
lighter tints of our own woodland glades. "From Rondane" is the most 
finished of the group of landscapes displayed by Otto Sinding, one of a 
well-known family of artists, his sister, Johanna, having two plaster 
casts in the Norwegian galleries, and his brother, Stephen, one of the 
finest paintings in the Danish collection. "The Glacier" and "A Misty 
Morning" are also excellent compositions, the latter showing a herd of 
cattle on a hillside, over which the mist is slowly creeping. "Wreckers" 
is a realistic and finely executed painting, with its angry waves breaking 
against a rock-bound coast, and brave men 

Page 753

risking life and limb as they drag ashore the bodies and whatever else is 
left from the wreck. In lighter vein is "From Lofoden," with its summer 
sea and miraculous draught of fishes. Here, as I have said, is one of the 
most prolific of fishing-grounds, the daily catch being telegraphed all 
over the kingdom, as in the United States is recorded the visible supply 
of grain. 

By Adelsten Normann the same subject is partially treated, with the 
midnight sun playing on the waters, a yellow sky, and a shore of brown and 
gray. "North Wind," by this artist, is a graphic delineation of the 
romantic scenery of the Norwegian coast. Another "Midsummer Night" is by 
Gustav Wentzel, with figures standing at a garden gate, and in the 
background the sheen of foliage illumined by golden hues. "Leif Ericksson 
Discovers America," by Christian Krohg, is full of life and motion and in 
the main well worthy of its subject. Little of the vessel is shown, and 
that little is almost identical with the Viking, as she lay off Jackson 
Park, herself a reproduction of the craft unearthed by a sailor in 1879, 
near the port of Sandefjord. As she speeds through the troubled waters, 
the waves dashing over her, Eriksson stands surrounded by his crew, with 
one hand on the tiller and the other pointing shoreward to the rock-bound 
coast. 

Among the strongest works in portraiture are Petersen's likeness of 
Alexander Kielland, Gude's Henrik Ibsen, and Werenskiold's Bjornstjerne 
Bjornson and his mother, the former also portrayed in a bust by Skeibrok. 
"Bathing Boys" is a lively sketch by Hans Heyerdahl, among whose paintings 
is a large variety of themes. In his "Oui ou Non" are the figures of a 
young man and maiden walking along a country road, the former having put 
the momentous question and eagerly awaiting the response. It is the old 
subject, old but ever new, and here treated in a style far above the usual 
mediocrity of these depictured episodes. That the girl is about to say 
"yes" is evident to all but the bashful youth at her side. She is holding 
him well in hand, for she is an experienced coquette, and there are no 
signs of yielding in those mischievous, blue-gray, northern eyes. So at 
least it appears to her lover, whose perturbation is admirably portrayed. 
Mythological and fairy legends are well represented, the latter especially 
by Gerhard Munthe, in whose compositions is a strong element of the 
grotesque. There is "The Wicked Stepmother" turning her daughters into 
trees, with their little brother wailing at their side. Cinderella is 
here, and the wise bird that talked to the king, with the princes who were 
turned into bears and as bears remained faithful to their mistresses. And 
so with a long category of fairy tales, all of which are 

Page 754

treated with quaint and fanciful touch. In other vein is his "Evening in 
Eggedal," a romantic and yet restful landscape study. 

Arbo's "Uolkyrie" is a powerful conception, showing the daughter of Woden 
speeding earthward to clasp in her arms a warrior slain on the 
battlefield. To bear to heaven the spirits of the brave was the special 
mission of the Valkyria, and here is a goddess divinely fair, her golden 
tresses streaming in the wind as she guides her fire-breathing steed adown 
the clouds. One of the most attractive paintings in this section is 
Skredsvig's "The Son of Man," a localized version of the subject, but one 
treated with respect, and with none of the repulsive features observed in 
Jean Beraud's "The Descent from the Cross" in the French galleries. 
Nevertheless the theme is sufficiently modernized. Attired in national 
garb, Christ is entering a Norwegian village, far in the Kjolen mountains. 
It is eventide, and the people are thronging around him with tokens of 
welcome, bringing their sick to be made whole. In the centre stands the 
nineteenth century messiah, a young man with reddish beard and shabby 
workman's attire, one hand rested, as though in blessing, on the head of a 
little child and the other holding a hat much the worse for wear. In the 
foreground are the minister and two of the village functionaries, 
discussing, as it seems, his right to preach, as did the Pharisees of old. 
To the orthodox this interpretation of the Savior in common laborer's 
dress, instead of flowing robes, may be somewhat of a shock; but after all 
it was in the costume of his day that Christ was depictured by the earlier 
masters, and in the expression both of features and figure is no want of 
reverential treatment. 

To say of a collection of paintings that it is marred by excess of 
strength may appear somewhat of a paradox; yet if the truth be told, this 
is what must be said of the Russian paintings, another fault in which is 
their phenomenal dimensions, so that looking for the first time on these 
mammoth canvases, we are thankful the exhibit is a small one, for a few 
such would have exhausted the entire space at the disposal of the 
management. The best feature in the collection, most of which is from the 
Imperial academy, is that it deals largely with national subjects, and if 
only it dealt with them in a true artistic spirit would form a most 
interesting and valuable collection. From a Russian point of view it is 
doubtless of excellent quality; but art is universal, and works of art 
cannot be judged by the tenets and methods of a single school. In this 
super-abundance of energy, too often accompanied with faulty modelling and 
coloring, there is the intention rather than the embodiment of art. The 
principal merit lies in the truthful telling of the story, the absolute 
and unflinching realism which transcribes on canvas the living subject or 
the impression which the painter has 

Page 755

formed of it. With the intense vitality of treatment natural to one of his 
perfervid imagination, the Russian artist strives mainly after brilliant 
effects and cares little for more delicate shades of expression. Nor is 
there anything of the suggested meaning to be read in the works of the 
great masters. But to these remarks there are not a few exceptions, as 
will be noted in some of the pictures selected for review. 

One of the strongest paintings and an excellent illustration of the 
striking realism of the Russian school, is "The Cossack's Answer," by 
Repine, a contribution from the galleries of the tzar. The scene is a 
Cossack encampment, where the leader of a savage horde is preparing his 
reply to a demand for their immediate surrender. It is a defiant answer 
that he is making, as appears from the swart-visaged soldiery standing 
around with shouts of approval and boisterous, derisive mockery. The 
figures are skillfully grouped and not over-colored; their rude garb 
carefully detailed, and the facial expression perfect of its kind. On one 
after another of these coarse and brutal features, varied yet similar in 
type, the eye rests with a sense of unwilling fascination, but turns away 
without regret. It is a repulsive subject; but it is a masterpiece. 

Page 756

One of the most famous of Russian paintings, and one of the largest is 
Siemiradsky's "Phryne," another contribution from the tzar. But though 
with strong virility of conception and execution, it is rather a 
spectacular than an artistic composition, with lavishness, not to say 
garishness of coloring. Life-like and natural are these figures in their 
eastern drapery, especially those which are grouped in the middle and 
foreground against a deep blue sea and sky, their gaze fixed upon the 
courtesan, who appears on a sunlit terrace, partially disrobed before a 
garlanded shrine, in personation of Venus. But there is hardly a trace of 
the poetic treatment which the subject invites; merely a theme elaborated 
with patient, conscientious labor and research, stiff in sentiment and 
overwrought as to expression. That Siemiradsky can do better than this 
must be inferred from his high repute as an artist; but he has not done so 
in his "Christ in the House of Lazurus." Here also the personages are well 
delineated, with play of light and shade on the vine-clad arbor under 
which the carpenter's son is seated, while in the distance sunlit clouds 
canopy the cypress groves and the darkening hills. The eyes of the Christ 
are bent on Mary's enraptured face, as she sits at his feet, listening 
eagerly to his words, while Martha regards her sister with impatient gaze. 
But the rapture is somewhat feebly portrayed, as also is the divinity of 
aspect in the central figure. This may be a fair interpretation of Slavic 
art; but it is not art in its higher sense. 

Among historic paintings one of the best is Kivschenko's "Military Council 
at Fily in 1812," It is the eve of the battle of the Moskva; Napoleon has 
arrived in sight of the capital, and Prince Kutusof and other Russian 
generals here portrayed are carefully laying their plans; but on the 
morrow will find themselves no match for the great captain. "The Escape of 
Gregory Otrepieff," as described by Miasoiedoff, is full of life and 
action, showing how this pretender to the throne, arrested while 
travelling in disguise, saved himself by leaping out of an open window, 
after stabbing one of his captors. A similar theme is Peroff's 
"Pugatchoff, the Personator of Peter III," with a group of cringing 
figures around his throne, while others look on in doubt. Worthy of note 
are Novoskolzeff's "Last Minutes of the Metropolitan Philip," 
Tchistiakoff's "Grand Duchess Sophia Vitofftovna," and Bronnikoff's 
"Christian Martyr," where Roman mercenaries are feasting and making sport 
of the victim, who kneels in prayer at their side. A well told story on 
canvas is Willewald's "You Today, and I Tomorrow," where a soldier is 
pointing a gun at the heart of his wounded steed, as though about to end 
his sufferings. 

Columbian themes are represented in the Russian section by Aivazovsky, 
from whose fertile brush are nearly a score of paintings, most of them 
marines and none of them very remarkable, except for luminosity of hue. In 
one of the pictures Columbus is surrounded by his mutinous crew, the Santa 
Maria rolling heavily in a foam-flecked emerald sea, a color which ocean 
never wears when lashed by storm. Its best expression 

Page 757

is in the massing of the waves, their sweep and curve, their force and 
impact, tossed by the winds and uplifted by the swell into mountainous 
crests. 

Landscapes are not numerous, and among them there are none more true to 
nature than Endoguroff's "Early Spring" and "Heavy Rain," the latter 
almost painful in its realism, the subject merely a river flowing through 
a wide and level plain on which the flood-gates of heaven are unloosed. 
"The New Moon" and "A July Morning" by Kratchkovsky are faithful sketches, 
and Golumsky's "Mushroom Gatherers Taking a Rest" is a life-like 
combination of sunny landscape and peasant figures. 

In portraiture and figure paintings one of the strongest conceptions is 
Sedoff's "Vasilisa Melentievna," where Ivan the Terrible is gazing with an 
expression of tenderness and regret on the sleeping form of his mistress. 
From Kramskoy there are two academy paintings, and a pleasing sketch by 
Litovschenko is that of the Italian embassador, Calvuci, drawing the 
favorite falcons of the tzar. Of Constantin Makovsky's subjects the most 
ambitious is "The Bride's Attire," where a young woman is preparing or 
rather being prepared for her wedding. The long dark braid of hair is 
being parted and closely bound to the head as befits a matron, and around 
her stand the friends of the family, full of harmless gossip and 
garrulity. "A Bacchanal" by the same artist is one of the few mythologic 
themes in the Russian section, with Dionysus as the central figure amid a 
group of nymphs and satyrs. In his "Romeo and Juliet," though fairly 
executed, the figures are stiff and wooden, and it is at best but a sickly 
love-making. 

Scattered among the more pretentious works are pictures of home and 
everyday life, in pleasing contrast with the highly wrought and sensuous 
paintings which surround them. Never has motherly love been more truly 
expressed than in Ivan Pelevin's "The First Born." It is a woman of the 
people; but love knows no distinctions of class or condition, and these 
homely features are almost radiant with beauty, filling the room with 
light as she looks down on the babe in her arms. In Trovoshnikoff's 
"Grandmother and Granddaughter," where an aged woman is trudging through 
the snow, with a young girl slightly in advance, there is also a vein of 
pathos which has won the hearts of many admirers. Even more strongly does 
Zagorsky appeal to our sympathies in his "Broken Heart," where a daughter 
turns to her mother for comfort as she reveals her tale of sorrow. In "He 
Loves Me - He Loves Me Not," Shuravieff tells the story of a maiden 
testing the faithfulness of her lover by counting the petals of a daisy as 
a nun might count the beads on her rosary. Neatly also has he portrayed 
"The Family of a Street Musician" and "Haymakers at Rest." Under the title 
of "Easter Hallowe'en" Pimonenko shows two young maidens with eager, 
hopeful faces, watching for a signal from the unseen which shall convince 
them to the fidelity of their sweethearts. Vladimir Makovsky's "Public 
Market in Moscow," while not an inviting study is an accurate reproduction 
of its subject. Kivschenko's "Assorting Feathers," though a small canvas, 
is a large picture, with remarkable condensation of space, the rich purple 
tones not over-colored but adding rather to its attractive qualities. 
Bodarevsky's 

Page 758

"Wedding in Little Russia" represents a group of peasants in a marriage 
procession paying their respects to the landlord of the estate, and in 
other sketches there are well drawn figures of country folk. 

A noticeable feature is the air of sadness depicted in scenes of Russian 
life, even in those which portray its more cheerful phases. Thus in 
"Sunday in a Village," by Dmitrieff-Orenbursky, where peasants are trying 
to make merry, we can see that they are only trying, and with indifferent 
success. Even in scenes of revelry, it is a coarse and brutal revelry that 
is expressed, one sad to look upon, with its uncouth attitudes and bloated 
features. Such are Jacoby's "Ice Palace," where is a glimpse of the old 
time festivities of the Russian court, 

Page 760

and some where gross dissipation is more strongly portrayed. Of other 
repulsive aspects of Russian life a few illustrations will suffice. In one 
of Kuznezoff's paintings "The Justice of the Peace" is seated in his 
droschky, conversing with an officer, and gazing sternly at a group of 
abject peasantry, standing with uncovered heads as they await the decision 
which may turn them out of house and home. "The Tzar's Bounty" is being 
distributed, as Klodt Von Jurgensburg portrays it, among a number of 
prisoners, some cringing on their knees and others with feet in the stocks 
as they receive their scanty dole of bread. Bobroff, in his "Erzkus 
Herzke - A Jew from Kovna," seems to concentrate all the craft and misery 
of the race in these greedy, cunning, distressful features. "The Narva 
Roads," by Mestchersky, is a powerful tale of misery, and so with other 
subjects, where the morbid and gloomy tones of Russian life and Russian 
art are all too faithfully depicted. 

A few water colors and a couple of carvings complete the Russian 
collection, except for its statuary, of which there are less than a score 
of pieces with only four exhibitors. Gunzburg has several statuettes, of 
"The Bathing Boys," and a clever study of "The First Music" represented in 
the figure of a boy. Beklemischeff sends his "Runaway Slave," for which he 
received a gold medal at an Italian exhibition, and there are pleasing 
compositions by Maria Dillon, whose subjects are "Bliss" and "Caprice," 
the latter personified by an angry child who has thrown her doll on the 
floor and is about to hurl her slipper after it. 

In connection with Russian art may be mentioned the exhibit of the Society 
of Polish Artists, which is deserving of better treatment than it received 
at the hands of the management, scattered as it is among the galleries, 
alcoves, and stairways of the Art building. Zmurko, its most celebrated 
painter, has six of his canvases on view, all showing his facile and 
effective method of treatment, but raw and opaque in coloring, as for the 
most part are the rest of his school. "A Lady in Fur" is one of his best, 
the clear sharp outlines showing to excellent advantage his light and 
nimble touch. So also where he depicts a beautiful woman and a handsome 
youth under the influence of hasheesh, their faces radiant with beatific 
visions. "Mephistopheles' Serenade" is one of the best of the six canvases 
exhibited by Maszynski. Maleszewski's "Death of an Exiled Woman in 
Siberia" is a powerful study, but overloaded with pigments. A better color 
scheme is noticed in Kendzierski's picture of "A Rustic Astronomer," where 
a youth sits with eyes upturned toward the crescent moon. Ryszkiewicz' 
"Cossacks" is a clever composition, with mounted scouts descending a 
hillside toward a broad valley partially enveloped in shadow. Popiel's 
"After the Storm" shows a field of levelled grain, with the owner and his 
wife gazing ruefully on the scene of desolation. 

Of all the galleries in the palace of Fine Arts few were examined with 
greater interest or closer scrutiny than those of Japan, a nation of 
artists in their way, no less than the French, especially in carvings, 
tapestry, and feather work, with their marvellous elaboration of design. 
The collection was 

Page 761

installed with a view to secure the best effect, and with little attempt 
at classification, the brilliant drapery of red and white around a star-
shaped centre contrasting strangely with the sombre tones of Holland's 
adjacent section. The entranceway is guarded on one side by a large bronze 
eagle, with thousands of feathers engraved with many thousands of lines, 
and one the other by a protecting deity or warrior who might be a Japanese 
St. George. It is hung with a tapestry of silk chrysanthemums, beyond 
which is a bas-relief of dragons in clouds, and a huge gorilla carved in 
cherry-wood. In the vestibule is a model of the temple of Yasaka in Kyoto, 
one-sixtieth of the actual size and a most delicate piece of workmanship. 
Near it is the goddess of mercy, whose name is Kwannon, carved in ivory, 
richly bejewelled, and with lotus in hand. Before passing through the 
portieres may also be noticed a picture of a group of carp. It is by 
Nogchi Yukok, one of the foremost painters of the flowery land. 

Entering the chambers, which are filled but not crowded with treasures, we 
find among the tapestries a wall hanging of a Nikko festival procession 
from a Kyota artist, Jimbee Kawashima by name. In its 260 feet of 
superficial area there is not a vacant inch of space, and here is 
represented the two years' task of scores of weavers, toiling in relays by 
night and day without a moment's intermission. The scene is a temple with 
surrounding structures, approached by terraced groves from which is a long 
array of massive steps. There are more than 1,000 figures in the 
procession, all executed with wonderful precision, especially as to their 
masks and vestments, and with oriental richness of coloring. Of most 
finished workmanship are the embroideries designed as wall-hangings, 
screens, and panels, with figures of landscape scenery, festival 
processions, flowers, birds, and animals. 

Chikdo Kishi, a Kioto artist of renown, takes for one of his subjects a 
duel between a kite and a crow, with another bird looking on in placid 
indifference. The scene is portrayed in graphic tones, as also is the 
wintry chill of the atmosphere which surrounds it. His "Tiger" is also an 
excellent study, especially from a country where there are no tigers, 
Kishi, it is said, rejecting four pictures of tigers, before he could find 
one worthy of his brush, and then working at it with such a frenzy of 
inspiration that his reason became unsettled, and he imagined himself 
transformed into a beast of prey. Animal life is a favorite theme with 
Japanese painters and one in which they excel. Amon