beautiful in art. A handsome boy has fallen
to musing among his neglected books and toys,
and the countenance of the dreamer plainly
indicates the workings of innate thought and
fancy. This is, unquestionably, the finest
specimen of genre painting in America, and is,
in many respects, the best picture in the Hall.
It is a first-class work by one who at present
ranks as first among French artists.
No. 464, representing a Carnival in the city
of Arras, by L. Montz, is a picture that will
delight all who love precision and complete
ness of detail. Tne painting was executed
fifty years ago; but the faces and figures in it
are just what the faces and figures of persons
under the same circumstances would be A.
D. 1864. In view of “Modern improvements,”
one actor in the busy scene illustrated upon
the canvas, will attract attention and provoke
a smile. A youngster, with the implements
of his trade slung over his back, is soliciting
custom, and there is not a person who is fa
miliar with street-scenes in front of the State
House or the Continental, or in the vioinity of
the Exchange, who would not instantly put
into the mouth of the youth “Shine your
boots, sir ?” True art is for all time, simply
because it follows nature faithfully.
Among the great pictures in the collection
is Paul Weber’s “ Monastery of Maddona dell
Sasso,” on Lago Maggiore. The subject of
this grand painting is “Our Lady of the
Rock,” a group of Monastic buildings, and
a church in the town of Locarno, at the
northern extremity of the Lago Maggiore.
The town is Swiss, and one of the three
capitals of the canton Tessin. In the fore
ground are the Monastic buildings, and in the
background, towards the north, are some of
the lower spurs and ranges of the great Alpine
chain, on which the snow is lying. Between
the monastery and the lake the houses and
buildings of Locarno are imperfectly seen.
On the borders of the lake is a low plain, the
deposit of numerous mountain torrents which
here flow into the lake; and, in another part
of the picture, at the extreme northerly por
tion of the lake, a similar alluvial plain is
seen. The cluster of white buildings on the
opposite side of the lake is the town of Maga
dino, behind which rises the imposing bulk of
Monte Cenere. The scene lies in Switzerland;
but all the characteristic features of the land
scape, such as foliage, sky, &c., are Italian.
How well the artist has pictured these, crowds
of delighted visitors will abundantly testify.
Frith’s “Derby Day” is just such a picture as
a pencil-plying Dickens or a modern Hogarth
would delight to paint. There is nothing fan
ciful or fantastical about the painting, but all
is as exaot in its fidelity to nature and to life
as though it had been limned by sunlight
through the medium of the magic camera. We
have illustrated here every phase of English
metropolitan life, from the beggar to the petty
Otjb ID_a.iFare.
thief and sharper, the fortune-teller and
showman; the silly Bhop boy, the wearied
lorette, out for a holiday, the roue, the man
about-town, and so on up to the genuine lady
and gentleman. Every figure is a finished
portrait of a character in real life; each is as
perfect as art can make it, and the whole forms
a picture that can only be objected to by those
who more affect fancy than fact, and who love
sentiment better than practical reality.
A large painting by Carl Hubner, called
“The Emigrant’s Last Visit to the Family
Grave,” is a contribution to the Fair, and for
sale. It was the liberal gift of Miss S. Stevens,
of Princeton, N. J., and it ranks among the
better class of the many splendid paintings in
the collection; the quiet half-concealed grief
of the widowed Husband ard Father, at
leaving for ever the resting place of the de
parted ; the deep concern depicted in the face
of the eldest daughter, who comprehends all
that she is leaving and sacrificing, and the
semi-reasoning and wholly bewildered look of
the younger children, are all portrayed most
exquisitely upon the canvas. Like all of the
many works of this great painter, the picture
is complete in every detail, and the critio has
no drawbacks in the way of neglect or care
lessness on the part of the artist, to mar the
enjoyment of a grand and complete whole.
Preyer’s picture of fruit, whioh is numbered
123 in the catalogue, is an exquisite gem,
which deserves more than a passing notice.
The fruit is drawn and colored to the life, but
the crowning glory of the work is a goblet of
wine which stands upon the table, and the
artistic use the painter has made of it. He
has managed, with fine taste and exquisite
skill, to introduce into this goblet-picture his
own portrait, as though it was reflected from
the spectator’s stand-point, and an open win
dow, through which a street scene is wit
nessed. This “ conceit” was more than once
used by early Flemish artists, who, if we may
believe Vasari, first learned it from an Um
brian artist, but we have never seen it more
effectively employed than in this picture by
Preyer.
“The Apple of Discord” is too well known
by all who are familiar with art and artists to
need special notice at our hands. The crowds
constantly gathered about it during the hours
the gallery is open, evince the general appre
ciation of this exquisite painting.
Mr. J. Buchannan Read’s picture of Undine,
also attracts its full share of attention. The
symmetry of the limbs of the fair Spirit of the
Water, and the delioate drapery in which they
are enveloped, give abundant evidence of the
skill of the poet painter.
Unless our readers were content to have the
pages of Our Daily Fare made a mere cata
logue of the pictures in the Art Gallery, we
we must refrain from any full or detailed no
tice of its contents. We must be satisfied with
a mere reference to the names of some others
of the pictures, and of their limners, and so
dismiss the subject.
Among these fine works of art are a “Scene
from As You Like It,” by Rothermcl; the “ De
parture for the War,” by Lang; a fine Nor
wegian landscape by Herzog; an autumn
scene on the Wissahickon, by Moran; Crcis
ham creek, by the same artist; “ Spring” and
“Autumn,” by Dubufe; ‘i Petitioning the
Doge,” by Becker; “ Portrait of President
Monroe,” by Gilbert Stuart; “lohabod Crane
and Katrina Van Tassel,” by Huntingdon;
“Portrait of Madison,” by Stuart; “Hero
holding the Beacon,” by T. B. Read; an ex
quisite marine painting, by De Haas; “ Ca
nova,” by Sir Thomas Lawrence; “ Bears on
Bender,” by Beard; portrait of Garrick,” by
Pyne; “ The Convalescent Mother,” by Flug
gen; “The Nuremberg Toy Maker,” by En
houer; “The Conservative,” by George C.
Lambdin; a fine landscape (numbered 309),
by Hart; “Landing of the Northmen, Fin
land,” by Leutze; “ View in Fifeshire,” by
Harzett; “Mother and Child,” by Allston;
a Madonna, by Murillo; “Chimborazo,” by
Mignot; “ Beatitude,” by Landelle ; fine land
scapes by Gifford, Kensett, and others; “Na
poleon, Murat and Ney at Moscow;” “ Wind
sor Castle,” by Moran ; “ Prince Hal at his
Father’s Bedside;” “ The Judgment of Solo
mon,” by Rothermcl; and some exquisite pic
tures of grapes by G. H. Hall.
Among the artists whose works grace
this gallery, and whom we have been com
pelled to dismiss with little or no notice, are
Greuze, Dubufe, Leutze, Boddington, Paul
Weber, Gilbert Stuart, D. Huntington, J. F.
Kensett, L. Lang, Scbuessele, Hazeltine, G.
R. Bonfield, T. Moran, Thomas Sully, G. C.
Lambdin, A. Scheffer, Read, Connaroe, Du
rand, J. G. Brown, Sir Thomas Lawrence,
Guercino, J. F. Cropsey; E. D. Lewis, Russell
Smith, Henry Inman, Rembrandt, Lovthebcrg,
Wilson, Isabey, Edward H. May, Callcot, C. L.
Muller, E. Moran, De Haas, Washington Alls
ton, Vanloo, Horace Vernet, Wittkamp, R.
Peale, W. T. Richards, W. S. Mouut, Xanthus
Smith, J. F. Herring, Boutelle, Hicks, Lilly
M. Spencer, W. P. Frith, C. L. Blauvelt, A.
F. Tait, Thomas Birch, J. S. Audubon, Spag
noletto, Cassilear, Lawrie, Healy, T. P. Otter,
Furness, Sontag, and many more of high
merit.
There is an apartment at the eastern end of
the Art Gallery, which is set apart for water
color sketches. In this collection there are
some fine pictures from such artists as Turner,
Clarkson, Stanfield, James Hamilton, Copley
Fielding, J. B. Pyne, F. 0. C. Darley, Cor
bould, H. B. Willis, Wittkamp, Wehnert, Hen
ry Warren, Ed. D. Lewis, J. Russell Smith,
Paul Weber, A. Penley, J. A. Houston, Miss
M. L. Wagner, Louis Haghe, T. M. Richard
son, John Absolom, Birkett Foster, S. B. Ben-