Pictures in the Collection of P. A. B. Widener at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania British & Modern French Schools With Introduction, Descriptive and other Notes by W. Roberts. Philadelphia: Privately Printed, 1915 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I BRITISH MASTERS 1 Sir William Beechey, R.A. 2 John Constable, R.A. 3 John Constable, R.A. 4 John Constable, R.A. 5 Francis Cotes, R.A. 6 John Crome 7 Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. 8 Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. 9 Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. 10 Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. n William Hogarth 12 John Hoppner, R.A. 13 John Hoppner, R.A. 14 Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A. MODERN FRENCH 28 J. B. C. Corot 29 J. B. C. Corot 30 J. B. C. Corot 31 J. B. C. Corot 32 Gustave Courbet 33 H. G. E. Degas 15 George Morland 16 George Morland 17 Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. 18 Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. 19 Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. 20 Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. 21 George Romney 22 George Romney 23 George Romney 24 George Romney 25 J. M. W. Turner, R.A. 26 J. M. W. Turner, R.A. 27 J. M. W. Turner, R.A. II AND OTHER MASTERS 34 H. G. E. Degas 35 N. V. Diaz de la Pena 36 N. V. Diaz de la Pena 37 N. V. Diaz de la Pena 38 Jules Dupre 39 Edouard Manet CONTENTS II MODERN FRENCH AND OTHER MASTERS (CONTINUED) 40 Edouard Manet 47 Constant Troy on 41 Jacob Maris 48 Constant Troy on 42 J. F. Millet 49 Constant Troy on 43 J. F. Millet 50 Constant Troy on 44 J. F. Millet 51 Constant Troy on 45 P. C. Puvis de Chavannes 52 J. A. McNeill Whistler 46 P. C. Puvis de Chavannes I BRITISH SCHOOL I N forming his collection of British pictures, Mr. Widenerhas chosen rather to illustrate the art at its highest epoch than to demonstrate its many phases of strength and weakness. The period extending from the rise of Sir Joshua Reynolds to the death of J. M. W. Turner, to which the pictures before us belong, has a claim to be considered the greatest in the history of art since the Renaissance in Italy and the great art movement in the Low Countries during the seventeenth century. The establishment of the Royal Academy in 1768 heralded the dawn of what is now known as the Early English School of painting. Changes had been gradually taking effeCt in French art; but while in France artists were hampered by long-established traditions and official patronage, in England there were very few traditions and very little official patronage of native talent. One solitary art school in London had a flickering existence, and it is due to very little studio teaching that English artists effected their own evolution, but by constant efforts after higher attainments. If all the circumstances are taken into account, it must be admitted that English painting of the last half of the eighteenth century constitutes one of the most extraordinary forward movements in the history of art. No other country can show such a result; indeed, at that time other countries were satisfied with their achievements, and were even resting, in an artistic sense, on their oars. Early eighteenth-century art had little to be proud of; but by the time Hogarth had ceased railing at “the black masters,” English art challenged comparison with the greatest epochs of other countries. Mr. Widener has aimed at possessing examples of all the chief painters of the Golden Age of English Art. Hogarth’s portrait of Mrs. Blamire helps us to realize that if this artist had been less of a satirist of the follies of his day, and if he had had an opportunity of studying the great Italians in Rome and elsewhere, he and not Reynolds would probably have ranked as the greatest English portrait painter. Although it is not quite certain whether Hogarth ever visited Paris, it is abundantly clear that he must have seen some of Nattier’s portraits, either the original canvases or engravings of them, for Mrs. Blamire is a great advance on the somewhat wooden and conven- tional portraits made so familiar to us by Lely, Kneller, and the crowd of alien fifth-rate artists of late Stuart and Hanover periods. While the Mrs. Blamire may be regarded as one of the finest works of the last years of Hogarth’s life, the Lady Betty Hamilton, painted a year or two previously, shows us Sir Joshua Reynolds at the high-water mark of his early period. She is a fascinating little lady of high degree, too overdressed perhaps for comfort and childish games, and apparently overawed by the ordeal of sitting for her portrait; but the face is full of character and determina- tion. She developed into a beauty, and her marriage was one of the great matches of the season INTRODUCTION sixteen years later. As Lady Stanley she was again painted by Reynolds, but her married life was not happy. She was sacrificed, a contemporary tells us, to the “vanity of her mother,” and mated to a husband who, if Gillray’s caricature is not a libel, was a physical oddity, and whose gallantries were the talk of the town. But that Lady Stanley was a woman of determination is shown by the fad: that she refused to agree to anything more than a legal separation, and it was not until she died, “under the accumulated misery of a wounded fame and broken constitution,” that her husband was free to marry the beautiful aCtress Miss Farren. It is supposed that Lord Stanley, after he had become Earl of Derby, destroyed the later Reynolds portrait of his first wife, for it is now known to us only through William Dickinson’s mezzotint. But her beauty as a woman of twenty-three is preserved to us in Romney’s lovely portrait now in the colledion of Lord Glenconner. In Lady Cornewall’s portrait we have Sir Joshua at his best period. She is, with “that repose which stamps the caste of Vere de Vere,” perhaps a little too obviously sitting for her portrait, but she is graceful in her dignity, a splendid example of English patrician beauty of the eighteenth century. The scheme of the pidure — the large broad-brimmed black hat with white feathers, and the black lace shawl contrasting and yet harmonizing with the white dress — is one which Sir Joshua frequently used, but it is certain he never employed it with more signal success. Lady Cornewall’s career, so far as we know, was a happy one, and unmarred by the strife which was so conspicuous a feature in the lives of many of the society beauties of her day. Three years before she sat to Reynolds, her two children formed one of the most attradive of Romney’s many groups of child life, and to him also, at about the same time, her husband, Sir George Cornewall, sat for his portrait. In point of historic as well as artistic interest, the portrait of the Hon. Mrs. Graham may reason- ably take precedence among Mr. Widener’s four Gainsboroughs. The whole-length portrait of the same lady, painted at the same time, and now in the National Gallery at Edinburgh, is one of the most widely known examples of this master in the world. It is an undoubted masterpiece of commanding elegance. Mr. Greig, the artist’s latest biographer, speaks of its color as “a com- pound of rose-leaves, morning sky, and the pearl of sun-warmed dew.” In Mr. Widener’s smaller version the proud elegance of the whole-length is less emphasized, yet the supreme dignity of the woman is as fully manifest. It is easy to realize a portrait-painter’s difficulty in attempting to translate to canvas the subtle charm of a sitter such as Mrs. Graham. Gainsborough once declared that “nothing could equal the devilism of portrait painting,” and that “the perplexities of rendering something like a human resemblance from human blocks was a trial of patience that would have tempted holy St. Anthony to cut his throat with his palette knife.” In Mrs. Graham, at all events, we feel that Gainsborough had a sitter who did kindle his enthusiasm, and we feel also that with her he succeeded where Reynolds and Romney might have failed. Her husband’s tragic grief at her early death is a well-known story. What is not so well known is Robert Burns’s enthusiasm for “the beautiful Mrs. Graham” and her sisters the Duchess of Atholl and Miss Cathcart. “I wish I had the powers of Guido to do them justice,” he exclaimed in a letter dated December 5, 1787, when on a visit to the Duke of Atholl. Gainsborough’s second portrait, that of Mrs. Methuen, is a typical example of his conscientious work. But the difference between this and the Mrs. Graham is just the difference between enthusiasm and conscientiousness. 1 he two fine men portraits, the Marquis of Lansdowne and Lord Darnley, by the same artist, are in their different ways strong characterizations. They are both men of ancient lineage, but the elder, while maintaining all the alertness of the statesman and army officer, has had the supercil- iousness of youth toned down by contad with men and affairs with whom and in which he has not always come off triumphant. The other portrait exhibits all the proud dignity and self-confidence INTRODUCTION of the early manhood of one whose paths have hitherto been in pleasant places, and who has only had to command to be obeyed. Of George Romney, the third great rtar in the constellation of early English portraiture, Mr. Widener has been fortunate in securing some first-rate examples. They range in point of date from the Misses Mordaunt, painted soon after he settled in Cavendish Square, London, and became Sir Joshua s most serious rival, to Captain Cooper, which was one of the last portraits he painted. A quarter of a century intervened between the two pictures, and the one illustrates his art on the threshold of his brilliant career, and the other betrays a certain fatigue in handling which heralds the beginning of the end. But between these two extremes we have the superb portrait of Mrs. Blair, a portrait which helps us to understand Lord Thurlow’s didtum that “the town is divided into two faftions, the Reynolds fadtion and the Romney,” and his candid admission, “I am of the Romney fadtion.” Comparisons are especially objedlionable between the work of Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Romney, for they lead to nowhere. The three men are not in the least influenced by one another; they studied in entirely different schools and had totally different ideals; each had his own method of mixing and applying colors, and saw his sitter through his own spedfacles. Reynolds represents official dignity; Gainsborough was a man of fashion and painted his men and women as such a man would have translated them; whereas Romney was more human than either, both in his weaknesses and in his strength. We admire and even worship the women of Reynolds and Gainsborough, but the women of Romney are the more lovable. They come nearer to us as human beings. The entirely unaffeded attitude, the simplicity, and the naturalness of Mrs. Blair render hers one of the most engaging and fascinating portraits Romney ever painted. “A note from Romney to desire me to dress myself in a white satin dress before I come to him to-day,” writes Lady Newdigate to her husband in 1790; and it was probably in some such words as these that Mrs. Blair and many others wrote to their husbands and fathers when arranging for sittings to Romney , for no one painted white satin or muslin dresses so well as he. The artist has not allowed himself sufficient canvas to give full effed to the large black hat, which, in its various forms and colors, was so popular with the great ladies of the period. Introduced into French fashions by the Princesse de Lamballe, Marie Antoinette’s unfortunate friend, the big hat became immedi- ately the rage. Gainsborough, in his portrait of Mrs. Siddons in the National Gallery, London, painted in 1784, and in that of the Duchess of Devonshire, now in the Pierpont Morgan colledion, to mention only two examples, gave the hat a tremendous vogue, and it remained the fashion until the early nineties, when it passed away with many other things at the outbreak of the French Revolution. It admirably matched the low-dressed, powdered hair and the full skirts or pannier dresses of the period, a mode which was in violent contrast to the clinging skirts and the flower- pot and inverted coal-scuttle hats which immediately followed. A prominent member of society whose evening parties were extremely popular, Mrs. Blair was a woman who enjoyed life to the full. Her portrait presents a vivid contrast to that of the two Misses Mordaunt, who seem to be overburdened with the weight of their less than twenty summers. Nevertheless the group is a delightful example of Romney’s comparatively early work. The some- what varied color scheme is not usual with this artist, but he has manipulated it with great skill and success. The simple reddish robe of the younger sister harmonizes well with the white dress of the elder, and the rich autumnal setting diffuses a delicious warmth over the whole scene. Unfortunately, we know nothing of the careers of the two young ladies; the name was a fairly common one in England, and the family derived from Osbert le Mordaunt, a Norman knight who possessed Radwell, in Bedfordshire, a gift to his brother from William the Conqueror for services &&&&&& INTRODUCTION rendered in the Conquest of England. The family is now represented by Sir Osbert L’Estrange Mordaunt, of Walton Hall, Warwickshire, but in the long and ramified pedigree of Mordaunt the exad place to be given to the two ladies who sat to Romney nearly a century and a half ago is an unsolved problem. The two portraits of men by Romney both represent the governing classes. The younger man entered the army and late in life succeeded his nephew to a Scotch baronetcy conferred on his ancestor in 1638. William Petrie, whose masterly portrait was painted nearly twenty years before that of Captain Cooper, was a distinguished public servant for over half a century, playing in that time many parts. If he was not a great empire-builder such as Warren Hastings or Cecil Rhodes, he did much to consolidate what other men, with greater opportunities, had won for the Empire. Romney’s portrait reveals to us a man of strong individuality, and suggests one of a higher intel- ledtual plane than is usually associated with men of adtion. Apart from the portraits, Mr. Widener’s English pidfures are remarkable for three splendid Turners, one comparatively early and two of a much later period. " I he earliest of these three pidfures, that now known as “The Jundfion of the Thames and Medway,” is one of the many results of a sketching tour or tours in 1805-7. It was one ‘ n a ser i es of pidfures of views on the Thames which Turner finished in 1808, and invited the public to visit, free of charge, in that year at his gallery in Queen Anne Street West, London. We have had the good fortune to discover a long and interesting notice — one of the first and certainly one of the longest appreciations of Tur- ner’s work — of this exhibition. It appeared in the second number of a short-lived periodical called the Review of Publications of Art, 1808. The notice extends to nearly twenty pages, and the three Thames subjedfs below London Bridge are entitled “Purfleet and the Essex Shore as seen from Long Reach,” “Sheerness as seen from the Nore,” and the “Confluence of the Thames and Med- way.” They are evidently all large and important pidtures, and do not appear ever to have been exhibited by the artist except in his own gallery. The first does not seem to have been traced by previous writers on Turner; the second, of about the same size as Mr. Widener’s, is undoubtedly Lady Wantage’s “Sheerness”; while the third is the pidlure now before us. It may be parenthetically mentioned that the whilom owner of the third pidfure, John New- ington Hughes, was a native of Maidstone, where he was a banker, and of which town he was Mayor in 1824 and again in 1830. He eventually removed to Winchester and became the sole proprietor of the gas-works there, dying in August, 1848, at the age of seventy. Hebecameacolledtor of pidfures at an early age, and had many unique opportunities during nearly half a century. His fine taste and excellent judgment were amply vindicated at the sale of his colledtion at Christie’s in 1848, occupying two days. Hughes had two pidfures by Turner, the one in question and the “Whalley Bridge and Abbey, Lancashire,” which was in the Royal Academy of 1811, and this, like the above-named “Sheerness,” is now in Lady Wantage’s colledtion. Nothing is known of the history of these two pidtures from the time of their exhibition in 1808 and 1811, respedtively, until their appearance in Hughes’s sale in 1848, and the only inference that can be drawn is that Hughes himself purchased them diredt from the artist. An innovator who also happens to be a transcendent genius always excites violent opposition among his contemporaries, and Turner was no exception to this rule. But there were many col- ledtors as well as writers on art who appreciated his work, even in the early years of the nineteenth century. Art criticism at that period was a very perfundfory affair, but the writer of the notice of Turner’s exhibition in 1808 in the Review named above made an honest endeavor to transcribe his own thoughts, and these are of particular interest to us just now: INTRODUCTION “In treating such objects as agitated seas, the motion and conduct of Mr. Turner’s pencil eludes observation. Your eye cannot travel along the scooped edges of his waves, as it can in the works of other marine painters. You do not know that it is a pencil which he uses, as in the works of Nature herself. You cannot tell nor trace the instrument with which the work is produced. A tempestuous sea, with all its characteristic features and ever-varying forms of foam, spray, and pellucid wave, is presented to your eye, but no man shall positively say this is the work of a pencil or any known instrument. You see only the presiding mind. The hand is concealed.” Passing from the general to the particular, the critic goes on to remark: “Gloomy, deep-toned shadows sweep across the Purfleet picture, and that of the union of the Thames and Medway, with impressive effeCt, and with so much the truth of nature as awakens kindred recollections, and causes the spectator to imagine he hears the attendant gusts of wind.” In the latter of these pic- tures “the ships in ordinary, or which are taking on board their heavy stores and rigging, display considerable technical knowledge of marine affairs, and are painted with great ease, as is also the machinery for swinging in the masts and guns, and the small vessel, laden (we suppose) with hay. This knowledge is always traceable in Mr. Turner’s pictures.” Much has been written of Turner as a painter of the sea, and much more will probably be written. But few writers have denied, or will deny, that while many other English artists have painted seascapes with perhaps even greater fidelity, Turner ranks as our greatest poet of the ocean. It is stated that the wildest weather he ever saw was from the deck, and lashed to a mast, of a Harwich packet-boat in a snow-storm; but the impressions which he then and at other times received of the sea in its many moods never faded from his wonderful memory. He was a dreamer who caught the splendors of the magic of Nature rather than her verities. Ruskin has picked sundry holes in the famous “Shipwreck” in the London National Gallery, painted only two or three years before the “Junction of the Thames and Medway,” and it would not be difficult to suggest “improvements” in the latter picture; but, taken as a whole, it admirably displays the artist’s skill in composition. No one but Turner could have so successfully handled the many elements of massive scudding clouds, a boisterous sea, and the storm-tossed vessels. The dark lowering clouds are relieved from entire gloom by a warm glow of sunlight, and by the golden tone of the sails of the trawlers, while the resistless strength of the waves in the forepart of the picture is emphasized with a force and dignity which only Turner could depiCt. We can here realize Ruskin’s expression of the “exquisite curved lines of troubled waters.” The two later Turners, one of his brilliant Venetian scenes with the Dogana and S. Giorgio Maggiore, 1834, and the “Keelman heaving in Coals by Moonlight,” 1835, were painted for Mr. Henry McConnel, of Manchester, one of his many patrons, who depended entirely on his own judgment in buying pictures, and who bought pictures by Turner at a time when he was by no means accepted by everybody as a great genius. There could be no greater contrast than that between the bright and gay scene in Venice and the smoky moonlight effeCt on the Tyne, the one symbolical of pleasure and dolce far niente, and the other of the griminess of hard labor. We have found no contemporary criticism worth referring to of the Venice picture, perhaps partly because Turner’s brilliant sunshine had become an accepted faCt in art circles. The Athenaum, in its notice of the 1834 Academy, described it as “a splendid view.” It is one of the few Turners which were never seen on the walls of any public gallery in England after it was exhibited at the Royal Academy, nor indeed was it anywhere seen in public from 1834 until 1914, when it appeared at the Knoedler Galleries in New York for a few weeks. The view is taken from nearly the same point as the National Gallery picture No. 372, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy of 1842. INTRODUCTION Turner was constantly seeking after new effedts and producing new surprises. His “ Keelman heaving in Coals by Moonlight” was the surprise of the 1835 Academy, as it was the “puzzle” of the Old Masters’ Exhibition fifty-two years later. “A flood of glorious moonlight wasted upon dingy coal-whippers, instead of conducing lovers to the appointed bower,” was the half-scornful comment of the Literary Gazette in its notice of the Academy; while the New Monthly Magazine declared the pidture to be as light as day, “and the only thing that prevents the impression on the spedtator that it is day, is the positive coldness peculiar to moonlight. It is a most extraordinary piece of effedt.” Since the old coating of varnish has been carefully removed, the pidture has come out more brilliant than ever. The transition from Turner to Constable is very like jumping from one pinnacle to another, for both were supreme artists and both in their respedtive ways threw off the trammels of conven- tionalism and infused a new vigor into English art. Of Mr. Widener’s three examples of Constable two are reminiscent of better known pidtures. The “Flatford Mill” is a beautiful little sketch, full of freshness, for the more famous and larger pidture (No. 1273) which was bequeathed by Miss Isabel Constable to the National Gallery, London, in 1888, and is well known through David Lucas’s engraving. This sketch is interesting because it shows us that Constable did not always adhere stridtly to his original sketches from nature when utilizing them in his larger pidtures. The same may be said of the larger work, “The White Horse,” a variant of Mr. J. P. Morgan’s pidture, of which probably the artist had many requests for replicas. It is extremely interesting to note the several variations in the two pidtures, and some few of these will be found indicated in the text of this Catalogue. They are all of a minor charadter, but are such as the artist would naturally have made in going over the pidture after an interval of a year or two. The third Constable, “Wivenhoe Park,” painted at about the same time as “The White Horse,” would not be readily taken as a work of the same hand. Every detail is highly finished, and the whole effedt of this beautiful landscape suggests a conventionality rarely met with in Constable’s works. This pidture, which was probably painted in the summer of 1816, was exhib- ited at the Royal Academy of 1817, and is mentioned by Leslie in his “Life” of the artist, but he does not appear to have seen it. It was doubtless a commission for Major-General Rebow, in whose family it remained for nearly a century; and it is interesting to note that Constable was again visiting Wivenhoe Park in the summer of the following year, as is evidenced by two charm- ing little pencil sketches presented among many others to the South Kensington Museum in 1888 by Miss Isabel Constable, the last surviving daughter of the artist. Other landscape painters represented in Mr. Widener’s colledtion are John Crome, the founder of the Norwich School, and George Morland, who, always delightful in his scenes of open-air life in England, was a peintre de genre rather than a landscapist. “The Death of the Fox” was one of his favorite subjedts; several totally different pidtures of this title have been exhibited and engraved. Mr. Widener’s is quite as fine as any of the others, and is full of life and vigor. In the smaller pidture, “A Sportsman Relieving a Poor Family,” we have another subjedt entirely after Morland’s own heart, set in a scene of rich autumnal beauty. By nature a vagabond, if he had not been brought up in the atmosphere of art — for both his father and his grandfather were painters probably Morland would have joined a gipsy encampment. The man in the group of three seated figures in this pidture is uncommonly like Morland himself, who quite conceivably painted the pidture on one of his numerous disappearances from his haunts in London, when he varied his checkered life by fraternizing with members of the gipsy tribe. II MODERN FRENCH AND ALLIED SCHOOLS M R. WIDENER’S pi&ures by artists of the Modern French Schools, such as Barbizon and Impressionists and others which fall readily into the same group, have been selected with the same good fortune as those of the British School. With the exception of the great Manet picture, they are representative rather than great in the sense of world-famous. It does not by any means follow that an artist’s most famous work is also his greatest, and it often happens that his less renowned works are more suitable for a private gallery. The small selection at Lynnewood Hall is a series of delightful examples of the great modern development of French landscape art. They are first-rate in point of quality, and characteristic of the various masters. The great gulf which appears to exist between John Constable, the English landscape painter, and Corot, whose talents were fully appreciated in his lifetime, is not nearly so wide as it may seem. Constable was born twenty years before Corot, but the latter survived his great English forerunner by thirty-eight years. In Corot’s first Salon, 1827, and probably Constable’s last, the accident of alphabetical arrangement brought them so close together that only one other name intervened. Constable sent a “Paysage avec figures et animaux,” and Corot two pictures, the fruit of his first visit to Rome, the “Vue prise a Narni” and “Campagne de Rome.” The two artists never met, and yet there can be no doubt that Constable’s work was well known to Corot. At the historic “invasion” of English artists in the Salon of 1824, when Constable exhibited two pictures, Corot was living at Ville-d’Avray, and he must have been fully aware of the enthusiasm which the English pictures excited among French artists, more particularly among the younger men. The influence of Constable’s pictures and of those of his English coexhibitors, such as Crome, Copley Fielding, John Varley, and Prout, may not have entirely revolutionized French landscape painting, as is sometimes claimed, but it had far-reaching effeCts. It helped to break down the classicism which not even several political revolutions had entirely killed, and it helped the French artists to see nature through their own eyes and not through those of their teachers, en- trammelled as these were with the chains of tradition. Constable was an Impressionist long before Manet and the other apostles of that school, but his influence in this respeCt on the French artists of his period has been much exaggerated. As R. C. Leslie, in publishing a new edition of his father’s “Memoirs” of Constable, has well pointed out, the real gospel which the French artists were to receive and recognize from Constable was that the so-called romantic scenes or subjects go little toward making a picture interesting, compared with those of every-day life, humbly studied among an artist’s immediate surroundings. Probably the two men of the Barbizon School who most nearly approached Constable were INTRODUCTION Daubigny (who is not represented in Mr. Widener’s collection) and Courbet, by whom there is a beautiful little picture, “The Foresters,” which admirably illustrates his vigorous out-of-door art and his passion for animal life and nature in the forest; while his truth, simplicity, and careful finish will always insure his being ranked as one of the greatest artists of his time. His was a strong, passionate nature, full of moods, while Corot may be described as a man of perpetual sun- shine. “My life has been passed in pleasant places, and destiny is entitled to my gratitude, with no reservation of reproach,” were the words used by Corot at the end of his long life, and his pictures refleCt this happiness. He was not embittered, as Courbet was, by the aCtions of early detractors. Corot was the poet of landscape painting, just as Turner was the poet of the sea. He himself has said with great felicity, “Je reve mon tableau, plus tard je peindrai mon reve.” Mr. Widener’s Corots are all of a beautiful feathery limpid character, as intangible as a dreamy melody by a great violinist. The one exception is the “Atelier,” in which, painted about 1865, the artist is frankly impressionist rather than Corotesque. All Corot’s periods were good ones, as may be seen from the comparatively early “Epernon Fermier,” with its suggestion of toil and labor, to the lovely gray-toned “Retour au Logis,” painted less than three years before the artist’s death, a picture significantly emblematical of springtide and the joie de vivre. These pictures help us to realize the truth of About’s dictum when he declared that Corot was inimitable and that “he transmutes all that he touches; he appropriates all that he paints, he never copies, and even when he is working from Nature he is inventing, not copying; he could not copy one of his own pictures ! ” Curiously enough, this last declaration, a mere fa^on de parler , is borne out in connection with Mr. Widener’s “Atelier,” one of Corot’s favorite pictures, which remained with him to the last. There are several versions of this work, but they are not replicas, inasmuch as, apart from the central figure, each is different from the other in minor details and accessories, as may be readily seen from the small facsimiles in the monumental book on the artist by Robaut and Moreau- Nelaton. It is only his figure subjects, such as the “Atelier” and the “Femme en Bleu,” painted in 1874, which realized such a sensational price at the Rouart Sale in 1912 and is now in the Louvre, that link Corot with the artistic movements of his day. In these pictures he shows an affinity much more nearly approaching the Impressionists than the Barbizon men. Corot has always been classed as a painter of the Barbizon School, partly perhaps because he was on intimate terms with all the members of the band who created a new art Mecca at Barbizon; but, of a truth, and except in an abstract way, he was a school unto himself — a school in which there were no pupils. Jules Dupre and Constant Troyon, both of whom are represented in Mr. Widener’s col- lection, are typical artists of the Barbizon School. If not the aCtual founder, Dupre is generally regarded as the father of the Barbizon School, and it is a somewhat remarkable faCt that he, with several other painters of his time, such as Diaz, Cabat, and Daubigny, were in early life engaged in painting on porcelain. Some of this group, Dupre among them, first exhibited at the Salon of 1831. Five years later, Dupre, who had spent some years of his youth in England, sent to the Salon a “Vue d’Angleterre,” which a critic of the time declared to be “a true English meadow, diapered with tones as green and crude as malachite; still moistened with dew-drops, and the solitude of it is embroidered with green shadows.” Landscapes, with or without cattle, an occa- sional sea-piece, and storm effeds almost cover the range of Dupre’s outlook. Like the others, he went to nature for his inspiration, and he was happy in being able to paint humble realities in his own clear and vigorous fashion. He did not people his landscapes with dryads and mytho- INTRODUCTION logical subjects as did Corot, or with fairies in the manner of Diaz. In Mr. Widener’s “Sunset with Windmill” we have an excellent example of the rich golden halo often to be found in his piflures, and of his dexterity in imparting a poetic richness to a commonplace scene. In “The Beach, too, we have a good specimen of his firm grasp on the verities. His sincerity and conscientious industry are among the most conspicuous features of his work, and among the masters of the Barbizon School Dupre will always rank as one of the most forceful and accom- plished. His art was his life, and apart from it he took little or no interest in affairs outside. Troyon, who is represented in this colleflion by five important works, and whose early pidures showed the influence of David, at an early age became a friend of such men as Theodore Rousseau, Diaz, and Jules Dupre; and, although he first exhibited at the Salon of 1833, it was not until ten years later that he became a whole-hearted “romanticist.” And it was not until 1849 that he became almost suddenly famous as a great animal painter— the Paul Potter and Albert Cuyp of the modern French School. If it is true that he was not so correct as the former or so luminous as the latter, it is also true that he was more impressive than either. In the “Matinee d’Automne” we have a splendid example of his comparatively early time, and one of the most brilliant piflures of his which have been allowed to leave Europe, as it is also one of the first to be imported into America. He never experienced in his own day the world-wide fame and popularity of Rosa Bonheur as a painter of animals; but fame is fickle, and to-day the position of the two artists is almost reversed, and the reputation of Troyon never stood higher with artists and colleftors than it does to-day. A mere glance at Mr. Widener’s series of piflures explains this, for they represent the artist in his various aflivities. The “Matinee d’Automne” and the smaller piflure, “Cows in a Landscape,” rank among his best achievements. The aggressive-looking “Young Steer” and the “Hunting Dogs” (the latter painted during one of his last intervals of sanity) are strikingly realistic. In “The Poultry-yard,” one of several piflures all differing from one another, we have Troyon on a level with the Dutch domestic painters of the early seventeenth century, a piflure full of sunshine and charm. Diaz, who possessed a more exuberant fancy than any of his fellow-workers, and whose rich bathing scenes of nymphs and woodland fairy scenes brought him such a rich harvest, is represented in this colleflion by three works. Two of these are of a tonalite sombre which charafterized most of his landscapes when he was painting more or less as the other Barbizon men painted. But we have also one example of him in his lighter vein, a superb little nude, painted specially for his friend the famous Doftor Ricord, the interest of which is greatly enhanced by a letter to the Doftor from Diaz himself. By the side of some of his riotous color schemes this “Diana” is almost subdued. The perfeflly modelled figure is standing in a rich landscape, her auburn hair forming a strong but harmonious contrast to the marble whiteness of her skin, and the just needed touch of detachment from reality is given by the poise of the arrow which she is about to throw from her upraised right hand. Jules Dupre, referring to the death of Diaz, is reported to have said, “The sun has lost one of its most beautiful rays,” and Diaz was undoubtedly the most ver- satile and brilliant of the Barbizon painters. To pass from Diaz to J. F. Millet, intimate friends as they were, is to pass from one world to another. The former once said to the latter, “You paint stinging-nettles and I prefer roses.” The one was as deeply imbued with the sunshine and luxuriant effefls of the country of his origin — Spain —as the other was with the stern realities of his peasant origin. No one painted peasant life so faith- fully as Millet, and even in his beautiful little piflure of “The Farm at Greville” the under- lying note is the struggle for existence. The pathos of “L’Attente,” the old mother scanning the INTRODUCTION horizon for the return of the son who comes not, needs no elaborate commentary. It is one of the tragedies of existence that peasant life has few or no distractions from its cares and sorrow. “L’Attente” was painted soon after the death of the artist’s mother, whom he had been able to visit only at long and irregular intervals, and it is easy to realize how much of his own nature Millet would infuse into such a picture. His portrait of William Morris Hunt, the distinguished American artist, shows us a somewhat uncommon phase of Millet’s powers of characterization. It is clear from this that had Millet eleCted to become a portrait painter, he would have been a great one. Scarcely more than a sketch, probably done at a couple of sittings, it is almost Rem- brandtesque in effeCt. But if the contrast between Diaz and Millet is great, it is still greater between these two men and Puvis de Chavannes, who was contemporary with them, who was brought up in the same traditions, and who exhibited at the same Salons. He was like them only in that he suffered frequent rejection at the Salon, and in the adverse criticism which he received in the early part of his career. It is an evidence of Mr. Widener’s catholicity of taste that he should have chosen two examples of Puvis de Chavannes. Entirely original as is his decorative work, and admirable as it is in its natural environment, it is akin to Giotto and Fra Angelico. Like Corot, he created a school of his own, but differs from him in that he has had, and still has, many followers. His cool, fresh, delicate tones render his pictures admirable for mural decorations, as may be seen in the public buildings in many towns and cities in France, and Mr. Widener’s two examples are smaller versions of a series of four which the artist painted for Amiens. Manet and Degas form part of the group of French artists generally known as the “Ecole de Bati- gnolles,” of which Manet himself was the leader. They were frankly and aggressively Impres- sionists, and they repudiated nearly every law in art which tradition had sanCtified. As with most innovators, they were for years subjeCt to the most violent criticism and abuse — so much so, indeed, that a volume of these early criticisms would form an exhilarating book. “No one,” wrote Theodore Duret, one of their earliest and most consistent champions, “imagined that light could exist in a picture without its obligatory and correlative accompaniment of shadow. No one believed that bright colors could be introduced without intermediary half-tones.” Manet’s “Dejeuner sur l’Herbe” and “Olympia” were painted in defiance of these rules. But in spite of the opposition, and confident in their own cause, Manet and his group continued to paint, and when they could not get their pictures accepted in official quarters such as the Salon, they hired galleries of the art dealers, and, with the aid of such champions as Duret and Zola, their mission at length became recognized everywhere. Manet himself was undoubtedly influenced by Velasquez, and Mr. Widener’s “Dead Toreador” is one of the great pictures of the world in its dramatic effeCt. Chronologically it comes between the “Dejeuner sur l’Herbe,” which was exhibited the year before, and the “Olympia,” which followed in the next year’s Salon (that of 1865). It formed the more important part of a large picture which Manet subsequently cut into two. The model for the “Dead Toreador” was one of the troupe of Spanish aCtors who visited France with Lola de Valence, who was also painted by Manet, and the idea may have been suggested by the well-known “Dead Warrior” variously ascribed to Velasquez and Zurbaran, now in the National Gallery, London, and which Manet may have seen in the Pourtales Collection prior to its dispersal in Paris in 1865. By whomever or whatever inspired, the “Dead Toreador” is entirely Manet’s, and the realism of its simplicity will always rank it as one of his highest achievements. In his little panel “Aux Courses,” painted only five years before his death, we have Manet in a holiday mood. It is the impressionism of a moment, vivid in its suggestion of rapid motion. INTRODUCTION It is a kind of link between Manet and Degas, the latter of whom is also represented in Mr. Widener’s colledtion by a much more highly finished and less concentrated view of a race-course, as well as by one of his numerous scenes in the foyer of the theatre. His technique differs from that of the painters generally classed as “Impressionists,” and perhaps he was one of them only in the matter of color. With similar reservations, also, Whistler may be grouped with Manet and Degas, for Mr. Widener’s “grey and silver” view of “Chelsea Wharf” is above all an impression rather than anything else. Brief reference may be made to another painter represented in this colleftion. He is Dutch by birth but French by training. Jacob Maris, a pupil of Daubigny, and justly ranked high among the artists of his country and period, is represented by one of those beach scenes in the district of Scheveningen which have done so much to familiarize that favored spot to people in all parts of the world. In this case, and with no apparent striving after effedt, he has conveyed the loneliness and expanse of the ocean, and endowed an ugly Dutch fishing-boat with an attradlive- ness almost poetic. W. ROBERTS. ■ I BRITISH MASTERS SIR WILLIAM BEECHEY, R.A. ■■w Portrait of Mrs. Harrington SIR WILLIAM BEECHEY, R.A. 1753-1839 Born at Burford, Oxfordshire; entered Royal Academy School in 1772; began to exhibit in 1776; eledled A.R.A. in 1793 and R.A. in 1798; patronized by George III and portrait painter to Queen Charlotte; died at Hampstead. Portrait of Mrs. Harrington Nearly whole length of a young lady about twenty-two, seated in the open at the foot of a stone balustrade, direded slightly to right and looking at spedator; yellowish satin dress with plain short sleeves, scarlet shawl across back, the end twined around right arm; left arm resting on stone ledge; gold necklace; brown hair adorned with flowers; background of distant hilly landscape, trees and winding river; evening effed. Canvas : H. 50 inches ; W. 40 inches. Painted about r 8 1 8. Formerly the property of Mr. Martin H. Colnaghi, who sold it to M. Eugene Fischhof, of whom it was purchased in 1901. JOHN CONSTABLE, R. A. Flatford Mill on the Stour JOHN CONSTABLE, R.A. 1776-1837 Born at East Bergholt, Suffolk, son of a miller; entered the Royal Academy School in 1799, and first exhibited at the Academy in 1802; elected A. R.A. in 1819 and R.A. in 1829; exhibited in Paris, 1824, his landscapes causing a great sensation; died in London. Flatford Mill on the River Stour A view of Flatford and the placid river in summer-time. In the background the red brick houses are almost entirely hidden by tall graceful trees, a group of which is reflected in the river; in the middle distance is the lock; on the broad flat tow-path is a harnessed and unattended barge-horse and in the distance a cow; on the right some old and decaying oak trees are seen on the banks of a winding streamlet. Canvas: H. 13^ inches; W. 16# inches. Painted in 1817. Purchased from Messrs. Agnew about 1905. A sketch for the famous Flatford Mill in the National Gallery, London, No. 1272, but without the two barges, the horse riderless, and with a cow instead of a laborer in the distance. An interesting account of Flatford as it is to-day is given in Herbert W. Tomkins’s “In Constable’s Country,” 1906, pp. 33 et seq. - JOHN CONSTABLE, R.A. tf Wivenhoe Park, Essex JOHN CONSTABLE, R.A. 1776-1837 Wivenhoe Park, Essex A broad sun-bathed summer landscape, with the red-brick mansion on the brow of a well- wooded park and partly hidden by tall trees. The park inclines to a broad lake or river which passes through the centre of the pifture, and on which is a boat, with two men taking in a fishing-net; swans and ducks are seen swimming about; to right a thatched cottage is seen nestling among the trees, and by the water’s edge are various figures; to left a stone and iron bridge across which a donkey-chaise with figures has passed; the foreground is divided by a hurdle fence inside which four cows are grazing and watering; blue sky with masses of fleecy clouds and birds. Canvas: H. 21 % inches; W. 39^ inches. Painted in the summer of 1816, and exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1817, No. 85, as “Wivenhoe Park, the seat of Major-General Rebow.” From the Wivenhoe Park Collection, circa 1905. C. R. Leslie, “Memoirs of John Constable,” ed. C. J. Holmes, 1911, pp. 30, 58, 65, 196. Among nearly three hundred drawings by Constable presented to the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, in 1885, by Miss Isabel Constable, are two small pencil sketches, each dated 1817, one of Wivenhoe Park, and the other of Wivenhoe Park, with church. Note. — General Francis Slater-Rebow was an old friend of Constable’s father, and an early patron of the artist. He was born Slater, and added Rebow to his name when, in 1796, he married Mary Hester, eldest daughter and eventually heiress of Isaac Martin Rebow of Wivenhoe Park, Essex. John Constable painted the portraits of the general, his wife, and their only daughter, and was a frequent visitor at Wiven- hoe Park. Writing on September 6, 1812, he says: “I am going to-morrow to stay a few days at General Rebow’s, to paint his little girl, an only child, seven years old.” On August 21, 1816, he writes: “I returned from my very pleasant visit to General Rebow’s on Monday. . . . The general and Mrs. Rebow are determined to be of some service to me. I am going there again, and shall stay a week, in all proba- bility. ... I am to paint two small landscapes for the general: one in the park, of the house, and a beauti- ful wood and piece of water; and another a wood, with a little fishing house, where the young lady (who is the heroine of all these scenes) goes occasionally to angle. They wish me to take my own time about them, but the general will pay me for them when I please. ... I am next year to paint another picture of the little girl with her donkey, for their house in town.” On August 13, 1817, he writes to his friend Fisher: “I am under an engagement to paint the portraits of General and Mrs. Rebow, at Wivenhoe Park, about this time. I have written to know if it is still his wish, and when I have his answer you shall hear from me again.” That it was the general’s wish we may assume from the two charming little pencil sketches of Wivenhoe Park and church, one of which is dated August, 1817, and was bequeathed to South Kensington Museum by the artist’s last surviving daughter. Miss Isabel Constable, in 1888. There can be no doubt that the donkey-chaise seen in the distance to the left in the present picture is that of little Miss Rebow. She married, in 1824, Sir Thomas Ormsby, who died in 1833, and to whom Constable refers as his “valuable Suffolk friend.” JOHN CONSTABLE, R.A. W The White Horse JOHN CONSTABLE, R.A. 1776-1837 The White Horse A summer view of the river Stour, with barge containing two men and a white horse to left, close to a bank covered with low growing shrubs. The river, on which the sun is refle&ed, occupies the foreground of the picture; on the further bank, amid trees, are seen a red-roofed white-walled cottage and other buildings, and on the edge of the water a rustic boat-house and punt; to right a paddock with hurdle fence, through an opening of which three cows have passed to the water’s edge; gray sky with clouds. Canvas: H. 50 inches; W. 72 inches. Painted about 1819-20. Exhibited: Burlington House, London, 1872, No. 118, by Mr. John Pender; and E. F. White’s Gallery, 13, King Street, St. James’s Square, London, 1882-83. Engraved by O. Jahyer for The Magazine of Art , June, 1883, p. 333, when it was the property of Mr. E. Fox White, who obtained it direCtly or indirectly from Mr. (afterwards Sir) John Pender, and who sold it to Messrs. Wallis; The Times , January 7, 1872; Art Journal , 1872, p. 46; Magazine of Art , June, 1883, pp. 334-5 (where it is incorrectly stated that this was once Archdeacon Fisher’s picture). Note. — This is a variant of the famous picture exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1819, which passed through the collections of Archdeacon Fisher of Salisbury, B. Archer Burton (1855), and Richard Hemming (1894), and is now in the Pierpont Morgan collection. There are various minor differences: in Mr. Widener’s version the trees near the cottage are less formal, and the hurdle fencing, through which the cows have passed to the river, is absent in Mr. Morgan’s, in which the punt is close to the entrance of the boat-house, instead of being some way off. Mr. Widener possesses an interesting letter dated November 7, 1883, from G. S. Constable (son of George Constable of Arundel, an artist and friend but not a relative of John Constable, and frequently mentioned in Leslie’s “Life”) to Mr. E. F. White, in which he says: “I recolleCt your picture in the 1872 Exhibition and frequently with my father stood before it in admiration — my father remarking to me that he thought it one of the finest pictures Constable had ever painted. I was so impressed with the picture, and my father’s remarks, that I have never forgotten it, and can now remember the exaCt place it occupied in the Exhibition.” I FRANCIS COTES, R.A. Portrait of Mrs. Sawbridge FRANCIS COTES, R.A. 1726-1770 Born in London and studied under George Knapton; excelled in painting portraits in crayons; a member of the Society of Artists and one of the foundation members of the Royal Academy in 1768; died at Richmond, Surrey. Portrait of Mrs. Sawbridge Probably Anne, daughter of Sir William Stephenson, Kt.; married, as his second wife, in June, 1766, John Sawbridge of Olantigh, Kent, alderman of London and lord mayor in 1775; died September 30, 1805. Three-quarter length of a young lady, standing in the open, direded to front, looking at speculator, head slightly inclined over right shoulder; white low dress, short sleeves with gold brooches or fasteners, blue and gold waistband; left arm leaning on stone ledge, on which stands a large vase with plants; right hand holding fold of dress; landscape background with sunset effect. Canvas; H. 50 inches; W. 40 inches. Painted about 1770. Purchased from Messrs. Agnew, July 18, 1900, by M. Eugene Fischhof. In 1770 Cotes exhibited at the Royal Academy a whole-length portrait of a lady (No. 50), of which Horace Walpole wrote in his catalogue of that exhibition: “Mrs. Sawbridge, wife of the Alderman, with a palm branch and inscription Templum felicitatis .” This por- trait has the appearance of having been cut down, and may possibly be the Academy portrait of 1770. JOHN CROME Harling Gate, Near Norwich % i i i * « I » § » ft » Si §• * ft g* S m 5 » Ift a IS* ft Harling Gate, Near Norwich Canvas: H. 48^ inches; W. 39 inches. Collection: The Hon. Mrs. Byng. Exhibited: Fine Art Society, New York, February, 1893, No. 48. Bought from Wallis & Sons in 1892. JOHN CROME (“OLD CROME”) I769-I82I Founder of the “Norwich School” of painting; born in Norwich, son of a publican; patronized by Sir Wil- liam Beechey, Gurney of Earlham, Dawson Turner, and others; exhibited at the Royal Academy, and founded the Norwich Society of Artists, 1803; died at Norwich. An early autumnal landscape, with a wood gate at the entrance of a lane of tall trees; near the gate on the left is a group of two seated figures and a dog; on the right two donkeys and a clump of thistles; the foreground a bank with shallow pool at foot; bril- liantly illumined sky with golden clouds. , THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, R.A. ■w Portrait of the Earl of Darnley THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, R.A. I727-I788 Born at Sudbury, Suffolk, son of a clothier; studied art in the St. Martin’s Lane Academy under Francis Hayman, the portrait painter; settled in Bath in 1760; a foundation member of the Royal Academy in 1768; removed to London in 1774, painting portraits of many members of the royal family and aristocracy; died in London. Portrait of the Earl of Darnley John, son of the third Earl of Darnley and Mary, daughter and heiress of John Stoyte, Esq.; born June 30, 1767; educated at Eton and Christ Church College, Oxford; succeeded his father as fourth Earl of Darnley in July, 1781; D.C.L., 1793; married September 19, 1791, Elizabeth, daughter of the Right Hon. W. Brownlow; died March 17, 1831, at Cobham. Bust, in an oval, of a handsome young man about twenty, directed to left and looking at speftator, clean-shaven; plum-colored coat with high collar and partly buttoned, white lace ruffle, powdered curly wig; brownish background. Canvas: H. 30 inches; W. 25 inches. Collection: Earl of Darnley. Sir Walter Armstrong, “Gainsborough,” 1898, p. 194, and 1904, p. 263. Exhibited: Burlington House, 1877, No. 252 (Earl of Darnley); Grosvenor Gallery, 1885, No. 93 (the same); Agnew’s Gallery, 1903, No. 11; Knoedler’s Gallery, New York, 1914, No. 6. THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, R.A. Portrait of the Hon. Mrs. Graham THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, R.A. 1727-1788 Portrait of the Hon. Mrs. Graham Mary, second daughter of ninth Lord Cathcart; born March 1, 1757; married December 26, 1774, Sir Thomas Graham of Balgowan, afterwards Lord Lynedoch, one of the heroes of the Peninsular campaign; died on shipboard off Hyeres, June 26, 1792. Half figure, standing in the open, direfted slightly to right and looking to left, lilac shot- silk low dress edged with gold braid and trimmed with narrow white lace, pearl drop at centre of corsage; arms crossed, holding fold of dress in right hand; powdered hair with pearl band, strand falling over right shoulder; trees in background, blue sky with white clouds to right. Canvas: H. 35^ inches; W. 27 % inches. Painted in 1775-76. The study or sketch for the whole-length portrait which was exhibited at the British Institution in 1848 and at Manchester in 1857, now in the National Gallery of Scotland. Gainsborough’s unfinished whole-length of the same lady as “The Housemaid” was presented to the National Gallery, London, in October, 1913, by the dowager Countess of Carlisle. Collections: Lord Lynedoch, and A. G. Maxtone-Graham of Cultoquhey, Perthshire. Exhibited: British Institution, i860. No. 182 (Miss Graeme); National Portraits, South Kensington, 1867, No. 463 (the same); Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1906; Burlington House, 1907, No. 112 (A. G. Maxtone-Graham); Cent Portraits de Femmes, Paris, 1910, No. 5 (the same); Knoedler’s Gallery, New York, 1912, No. 11, and same place, 1914, No. 12. Sir Walter Armstrong, “Gainsborough,” 1898, p. 196, and 1904, p.268; James Greig, “Gainsborough,” 1909, p. 174; G. F. Waagen, “Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain,” 1857, p. 434. The Times, June 1 1, i860, and January 5, 1907; The Athenaum, June 23, i860; Armand Dayot and Claude Phillips, “Cent Portraits de Femmes,” Paris, 1910, p. 5; Catalogue of the National Gallery of Scotland, 1910, p. 13 1. Engraved by C. Tomkins in “Engravings from the Works of Thomas Gainsborough,” 1868, No. 70; re- produced in Armand Dayot and Claude Phillips’s “Cent Portraits de Femmes,” 1910, between pp. 4 and 5. This portrait and the whole-length in Edinburgh were inherited by Robert Graham of Redgorton, Lord Lynedoch’s cousin and heir. After Mrs. Graham’s death her husband had these two portraits placed in a case, which remained undisturbed in a London pan- technicon, to which he had sent them, until after Lord Lynedoch’s death, fifty years later, when the store-keeper communicated with his heir, the above Mr. Robert Graham. The whole-length was bequeathed to the Scottish National Gallery in 1859, by Mr. Graham, on the condition that it should never leave Scotland. THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, R.A. tf Portrait of the Marquess of Lansdowne *&*&*&*■&* THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, R.A. 1727-1788 Portrait of the Marquess of Lansdowne William, eldest son of the first Earl of Shelburne; born May 13, 1737; entered the army in 1757 and served in the Seven Years’ War at Minden, becoming major-general; suc- ceeded his father, 1761; held many offices, becoming prime minister in 1782; created Marquess of Lansdowne, 1784; died in London, May 7, 1805. Half figure of good-looking man about forty, directed slightly to left, looking at spec- tator nearly full face; scarlet coat and blue waistcoat edged with gold, white lace ruffle, powdered wig; black and gold cocked hat under left arm; right hand, with lace cuff, inserted in waistcoat. Canvas: H. 30 inches; W. 25 inches. Signed and dated on lower left-hand edge of spandril: “T. Gainsborough, fecit 1773.” Probably the “Portrait of the First Marquess of Lansdowne” in possession of the dealer William Cox and exhibited by him at the Suffolk Galleries, Pall Mall East, 1878, No. 148. Collection: C. W. Mansell Lewis, Stradley Castle, Llanelly. Exhibited: Burlington House, 1885, No. 49 (C. W. Mansell Lewis). Illustrated in Sedelmeyer’s “Ninth Hundred Paintings of Old Masters,” 1905, p. 99. Sir Walter Armstrong, “Gainsborough,” 1898, p. 193, and 1904, p. 272. (The engravings by Bartolozzi and Granger are not of this portrait.) THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, R.A. ■w Portrait of Mrs. Methuen THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH, R.A. 1727-1788 Portrait of Mrs. Methuen Matilda, elder daughter of Sir Thomas Gooch, third baronet of Benacre Hall, Suffolk; married April 20, 1776, Paul Cobb Methuen, Esq., of Corsham; died December 6, 1826. Her eldest son was created Baron Methuen in 1838. Half figure, direfted to left, head turned and looking to right; age about twenty-five to thirty; bluish white low dress garnished with pearl ropes and drops; powdered hair, dressed high with pearl band and white feathers and falling in curls over neck; brownish background. Canvas: H. 33 inches; W. 28 inches. Painted about 1776. From the family, purchased in 1893. G. W. Fulcher, “Life of T. Gainsborough,” 1856, p. 229; Sir Walter Armstrong, “Gainsborough,” 1898, p. 199, and 1904, p. 273. * WILLIAM HOGARTH 1697-I764 Born in London, son of a schoolmaster and author; apprenticed to a silversmith, and became famous as an engraver; married the only daughter of Sir James Thornhill, the artist, and became the leading painter of domestic scenes and portraits; serjeant-painter to the king in 1 757 » died at Chiswick, near London. Portrait of Mrs. Blamire Half figure, in an oval, age about forty, dire&ed to front and looking at spectator with smiling expression; white low dress with white satin rosettes and pearl ropes; white lace fichu fastened at neck with gold brooch; dark brown hair dressed flat, with white ribbon bow and pearl ornaments. Canvas: H. 30 inches; W. 25 inches. Painted about 1760. JOHN HOPPNER, R.A. Portrait of Frederick, Duke of York JOHN HOPPNER, R.A. 1758-1810 Portrait of Frederick, Duke of York Second son of George III. Born August 16, 1763; appointed, when an infant, Bishop of Osnabruck in Germany, and created Duke of York and Albany, November 27, 1784; entered the army and became field-marshal; Lord Warden of Windsor and the New Forest, and commander-in-chief of the army, 1795; died January 5, 1827. Half figure, middle age, direfted to front, looking to right; in scarlet military uniform, with broad green band across left shoulder and under right arm, partly covering the star of the Order of the Garter; clean-shaven face, fair hair; brownish background. Canvas: H. 30 inches: W. 25 inches. Collection: Duke of Cambridge, June u, 1904, No. 58. Hoppner painted several portraits of the Duke of York, of whom he exhibited whole-lengths at the Royal Academy of 1791 and 1792. 1 JOHN HOPPNER, R.A. 17 Portrait Group of the Hoppner Children JOHN HOPPNER, R.A. 1758-1810 Born in Whitechapel, London, of German parentage; entered the Royal Academy School in 1775, winning a silver medal in 1778 and a gold medal in 1782; first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1780; defied A.R.A. in 1793 and R.A. in 1795; almost exclusively a portrait painter, influenced chiefly by Sir Joshua Reynolds; died in London. Portrait Group of the Hoppner Children Children of John Hoppner, R.A., and godchildren of three of the artist’s patrons. (1) Cath- arine Hampden Hoppner, born April 24, 1784; educated at Eton (1796-99); a writer in the service of the Honourable East India Company, 1804; register of Diwani Adalat and assistant to magistrate at Bakargang, July 1, 1809; judge and magistrate, November 24, 1815; left the service in 1828; date of death unknown; buried in a village churchyard near Bath. (2) Henry Parkyns Hoppner, entered the royal navy, and twice accompanied Parry in his effort to effedt the Northwest Passage — first in 1821, when he was appointed to the “Hecla”; gazetted lieutenant April 16, 1822, and appointed to the command of the “Fury” in the 1824 expedition; died December 22, 1833. (3) Richard Belgrave Hoppner, educated at Eton, 1799; secretary to the commissioners in Spanish America, September 21, 1811; attache at Brussels; consul at Venice of the Austrian territories of the Adriatic from Oftober 10, 1814, to April 5, 1825; an intimate friend and correspon- dent of Lord Byron; died August 6, 1872. Group of three whole-length figures of golden-haired children by a shallow pool in an open, uneven landscape. , On the left, Richard Belgrave Hoppner, apparently the last to leave the water and entirely nude, is pulling on his stocking. The child in the centre, Henry Parkyns Hoppner, is partly dressed. The eldest boy, Catharine Hampden Hopp- ner, is standing to right and has just finished dressing; he is in a red suit with broad white collar, white socks, black shoes, and is looking at the spectator. Rich autumnal scenery forms the background; to left clouds through which the rays of the sun are piercing. ' . Canvas: H. 60 inches; W. 50 inches. This picture was left by Mrs. Hoppner, who died in 1827, to her eldest son, and it remained in the family until March 25, 1893, when it was sold by order of the Hoppner executors at Christie’s. Exhibited: Exposition Retrospe&ive, Versailles, 1881, No. 861 (General de Lamarre) — “le seul tableau de cet artiste qui existe certainement en France” ( Chronique des Arts , 1881, p. 225). The General de La- marre who exhibited the pidture at Versailles was the husband of Richard Belgrave Hoppner’s daughter. Engraved in mezzotint by James Ward, and published with the title “Children Bathing,” April r, 1799, and re-engraved for Mrs. Julia Frankau’s “William and James Ward,” 1904; in mezzotint by T. G. Appleton, Odtober 23, 1896; in photogravure, W. McKay and W. Roberts’s “John Hoppner, R.A.,” 1909, p. 128; in mezzotint, but on a small scale, by L. Edwards, 1912. W. McKay and W. Roberts, “John Hoppner, R.A.,” 1909, pp. 127-8, 336, and Supplement, 1914, p. 25; H. P. K. Skipton, “John Hoppner,” 1905, p. 58; Mrs. J. Frankau, “William Ward and James Ward,” 1904, pp. 27 and 84. SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE, P.R.A. tr Portrait of Lady Robinson SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE, P.R.A. I769-183O Born at Bristol, son of an innkeeper; painted portraits in pastels when quite a youth, and received much advice from Sir Joshua Reynolds; patronized by the king; first exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1787; ele&ed A.R.A. in 1790 and R.A. in 1794; painter in ordinary to the king, 1792; president of the Royal Academy, 1820; died in London. Portrait of Lady Robinson Emma, sixth daughter of Robert Willis Blencowe, Esq., of Hayes, Middlesex, by Penelope, youngest daughter of Sir George Robinson of Cranford Hall, Northamptonshire; married May 24, 1827, her cousin George Stamp Robinson, who succeeded his uncle as seventh baronet in 1833; died at Cranford Hall, January 20, 1874, aged seventy-two. Nearly whole length, age about twenty-three, seated in the open, at the foot of a tree, direded slightly to right, looking at spectator; white low dress with short sleeves, gold- embroidered belt; right arm resting on stone ledge on which is a yellow glove, black muslin shawl round arm, left arm hanging down by side, holding the other glove in hand; white straw high-crowned hat with gold ribbon band and aigrette of white feathers. Park with deer grazing in the distance; blue sky with gray clouds. Canvas: H. 50 inches; W. 40 inches. Painted about the time of her marriage. GEORGE MORLAND -W Sportsman Relieving a Poor Family GEORGE MORLAND 1763-1804 Sportsman Relieving a Poor Family A sportsman, in brown coat and breeches and red waistcoat, carrying a gun in his right hand and mounted on a brown horse, accompanied by two white-and-red-spotted dogs, occupies the centre of the picture; he is giving alms to a gypsy child who is holding her hat; to right two men and a woman are seated watching the movements of the man on horseback; an old tree and shrubs form the background; blue sky with clouds. Canvas: H. 26 inches; W. 20 inches. Signed in lower right-hand corner: “G. Morland.” Collection: The late Samuel Job, of Liverpool, January 27, 1893, No. 102. / GEORGE MORLAND 1763-1804 Born in London, his father and grandfather being popular artists, as was also his mother; studied under Philip Dawe, painter and engraver; exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1773, and at the Free Society of Artists in 1 775 1 ™ny of his early pidtures achieved great popularity through engravings; died in London. The Death of the Fox Group of six red-coated and other huntsmen, the whip dismounted, assembled at the death of the fox at the foot of a hillock, the fox attacked by three hounds with others running to their assistance, a peasant in smock on the right watching the scene; to left a belated huntsman is jumping a rustic fence; village and church in the distance; blue sky with clouds. Canvas: H. 56 inches; W. 74 inches. Signed to right near lower corner: “G. Morland, Pinxt.” Painted about 1794. Colledtion: John Page-Darley. Exhibited: Burlington House, London, 1882, No. 267 (J. Page-Darley). Purchased in 1893. Morland painted the same subjeft several times, and in each case differently. One of these was in Sir Walter Gilbey’s colleaion, and is reproduced in colors in “George Morland” by Sir W. Gilbey and E. D. Cuming, 1907, facing p. 206. GEORGE MORLAND 1763-1804 Born in London, his father and grandfather being popular artists, as was also his mother; studied under Philip Dawe, painter and engraver; exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1773, and at the Free Society of Artists in 1775; many of his early picftures achieved great popularity through engravings; died in London. running to their assistance, a peasant in smock on the right watching the scene; to left a belated huntsman is jumping a rustic fence; village and church in the distance; blue sky with clouds. Death Group of six red-coated and other huntsmen, the whip dismounted, assembled at the death of the fox at the foot of a hillock, the fox attacked by three hounds with others SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, P.R.A. sr Portrait of Lady Cornewall SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, P.R.A. 1723-1792 Born at Plympton, Devonshire, son of a schoolmaster; studied under Thomas Hudson, the leading portrait painter of the day, from 1740 to 1743; visited Italy and France; settled in London in 1752, and became the greatest English portrait painter; foundation member and first president of the Royal Academy, and D.C.L. of Oxford University; died in London. Portrait of Lady Cornewall Catherine, only daughter and heiress of Velters Cornewall, of Moccas Court, Hereford- shire; born in 1752; married in 1771 Sir George Amyand (whose ancestor left France at the revocation of the Edidt of Nantes), when he assumed the name and arms of Cornewall; died March 17, 1835. Three-quarter-length figure, age about twenty-five to thirty, seated on a stone bench near an open balcony, directed and looking to left; white low dress and lace neckerchief, black lace shawl across shoulders; powdered hair in curls, large broad-brimmed black felt hat with ribbon rosette and white feathers; both hands resting on lap; to right rich crimson curtain, to left trees and large sculptured vase seen through - balcony ; cloudy sky effects. Canvas: H. 50 inches; W. 40 inches. Sat in 1780, the second and finished pidture paid for June 6, 1786, ^73 I0J - The first and unfinished portrait, 1779, belonged to Miss Alice Duff Gordon in 1884. Tom Taylor, “Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds,” 1865, Vol. H> P- 2 9 7 ! Graves and Cronin, “History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A.,” 1899, p. 194; W. Cotton, “Sir Joshua Reynolds’ Notes and Observations,” etc., 1859, p. 86. Exhibited: Burlington House, London, 1 883, No. 2 1 8, by her grandson, the Rev. Sir George H. Cornewall. A large photogravure, i 6/4 inches by 15 & inches, of this portrait was published in 1884 by Messrs. Goupil & Co. SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, P.R.A Portrait of the Hon. Mrs. Gray SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, P.R.A. 1723-1792 Portrait of the Hon. Mrs. Gray Half figure, age about thirty, seated on a bank at the foot of a clump of trees, directed to front, looking to right; whitish low dress with brown ribbon bow at sleeve, and brown girdle; left hand upraised and holding spray of flowers; fair or powdered curly hair partly covering forehead and ears. Canvas: H. 30 inches; W. 25 inches. Colledtion: Philip Longmore of Stevenage, Hertfordshire. Bought from Wallis & Son in 1893. i SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, P.R.A. fS Portrait of Lady Betty Hamilton . — —« — — — ~~~ ™ — - — ~- - ■ ■ 1 ■ -- "- ~ '• ,1 " -1 iU Portrait of Lady Betty Hamilton SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, P.R.A. 1723-1792 Lady Elizabeth Hamilton, only daughter of James, sixth Duke of Hamilton and Brandon, and the beautiful Elizabeth Gunning; born January 26, 1753; married June 12, 1774, Edward Smith Stanley, Lord Strange, afterwards twelfth Earl of Derby; died March 14, 1797. Whole length, when a child, seated on a bank in an open landscape, dire&ed to front of same; cloudy blue sky. Canvas: H. 46 inches; W. 33 inches. Sat in March, 1758, as Lady Betty Hamilton. Collections: The Duke of Argyll, who sold it at Christie’s, March 17, 1855, No. 91, when it was incor- rectly catalogued as representing Lady Anne Hamilton, and described as “one of the most fascinating and perfeCt works of the great English Master.” It was purchased by Mr. King for Lord Normanton, in whose collection it remained until recently. Exhibited: Burlington House, London, 1882, No. 33, by the Earl of Normanton. W. Cotton, “A Catalogue of the Portraits Painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds,” 1857, p. 35; Graves and Cronin, “History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A.,” 1899, pp. 422-3; Tom Taylor, “Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds,” 1865, Vol. II, p. 82; Burlington Magazine, July, 1903, p. 218. Illustrated in the Burlington Magazine , July, 1903, frontispiece; and in Graves and Cronin’s “Reynolds,” facing p. 224. Note. — “Another beauty whom he had known from the cradle, and painted as a bride this year (1774) or next, was Lady Betty Hamilton, who in the same June made a splendid match with Lord Stanley. All the town rang with the splendour of the fete champetre given by the lover to his intended bride, a few days before the wedding, at The Oaks, Lord Stanley’s villa near Epsom. ‘It will cost £$ 000 ,’ says Walpole, writing the day before; ‘everybody is going in masquerade but not in mask.’ When the great people had enjoyed the fete it was served up again to the public by Garrick, in General Burgoyne’s ‘Maid of the Oaks,’ produced at Drury Lane in November.” (Tom Taylor’s “Reynolds,” Vol. I, p. 82.) Lady Betty Hamilton again sat to Sir Joshua in 1777, when Countess of Derby; this whole- and looking to left; pink-patterned low dress, with hooped skirt and short sleeves, trimmed and edged with white lace, spray of flowers in corsage, and holding with both hands a bouquet of brightly colored flowers; fair hair bound with brownish ribbon, with neckband SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, P.R.A. Portrait of Nelly O’Brien SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, P.R.A. 1723-1792 Portrait of Nelly O’Brien One of the most celebrated demi-mondaines of the eighteenth century, of whom very few biographical fads are known. Even the date of her death is uncertain; it is said to have taken place in Park Street, Grosvenor Square, London, in March, 1768, but a published report to that effed in the Public Advertiser was contradided as “premature, that lady being in perfed health.” Musgrave’s “Obituary” gives 1770 as the year of her death. She was probably born in 1736. Half figure, seated to front and looking at spedator; blue-and-white-striped low dress, black lace shawl; arms crossed on lap and holding a little white spaniel; flat crowned “Woffington” straw hat trimmed with light blue ribbon; pearl necklace; background, rustic wall, pillar with climbing plants. Canvas: H. 30 inches; W. 25 inches. Sat to Sir Joshua frequently from 1760 to 1767, “very often during the summer” of 1763. This portrait is a small version of the pidture in the Wallace collection, London, which was exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1763, and engraved by C. Phillips in 1770. Collections: William Angerstein, April 20, 1874, No. 109; William Sterling Crawford, who died in 1883, and who left it to his wife Agnes, Duchess of Montrose, at whose sale at Christie’s, July 7, 1894, No. 35, it was bought in, and again offered on May 4, 1895, No. 84, when it was purchased by McLean. Graves and Cronin, “History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A.,” 1899, pp. 705 and 1379. GEORGE ROMNEY 1734-1802 Born at Walton-in-Furness, Lancashire, son of a cabinet-maker; studied under Christopher Steele, an itinerant portrait painter; praftised at Kendal for five years and settled in London in 1762, and after a long stay in Rome became a serious rival to both Reynolds and Gainsborough, often having six sitters in a day; ceased painting in 1799 and retired to Kendal, where he died. Portrait of Mrs. Blair Mary Johnson, born in 1750; married Alexander Blair, Esq., of Castle Bromwick, War- wickshire, and Portland Place, London; died at Thames Bank House, Fulham, September 29, 1827, “relid of Alexander Blair, Esq., of Portland Place.” 1l hree-quarter length of a handsome woman, seated in a red-upholstered and carved gilt chair, directed to right and looking at spectator; white satin dress with short sleeves, edged with white muslin; large black felt hat; fair or powdered curly hair; right hand holding a sheet of music, arm resting on lap, left arm on red-covered table on which are two volumes and pad of paper; scalloped pillar and red-curtained background; cloudy sky. Canvas: H. 50 inches; W. 40 inches. Painted in 1787, the price being ^5 2 ioj., which Romney received in December, 1789. T. H. Ward and W. Roberts, “Romney,” 1904, p. 13. Etched by C. Waltner, 19 inches by 25 inches. May, 1904; reproduced inWard and Roberts’s “Romney,” Vol. II, p. 14; Sedelmeyer’s “Tenth Hundred Paintings by Old Masters,” 1906, p. 118; “Gowan’s Art Books: Romney,” 1911^.54. Colle&ions: William Beckett, Esq. (1826-1890), the banker of Leeds, in whose possession it was for many years before it was inherited by his son, Ernest W. Beckett, Esq., M.P. (afterwards Lord Grim- thorpe), who sold it at Christie’s, May 23, 1903, No. 80. Note.— Mrs. Blair was a well-known figure in the fashionable circles of London during the latter part of the eighteenth century. She was an intimate friend of Kitty, Duchess of Queensberry (who died at the age of seventy-six, in 1777). Mrs. Blair’s manuscript memoir of this eccentric duchess is still extant and forms the preface to a collection of letters written to her by the duchess. Her evening parties were famous, and invitations were much sought after; she left London to avoid being obliged to invite the Prince of Wales (George IV). She is referred to in Mrs. Delany’s “Diary,” Vol. VI, p. 376, and in Horace Walpole’s ‘Letters,” Vol. XIV, p. 417. Thames Bank House, Fulham, where she died, was pulled down in 1887 and is illustrated in C. J. Feret’s “Fulham Old and New,” 1900, Vol. Ill, p. 220. ' GEORGE ROMNEY Portrait of Captain Cooper GEORGE ROMNEY 1734-1802 Portrait of Captain Cooper Frederick Grey Cooper, second son of Sir Grey Cooper, Bart., of Gogar, Midlothian; born March 19, 1769; entered the army; gazetted colonel First Foot Guards, August 31, 1798; married January 7, 1803, Charlotte Dorothea, daughter of Sir John Honywood, Bart.; succeeded his nephew as sixth baronet in 1836; died at Burton Grange, Somerset, February 23, 1840. Three-quarter length of a young man about twenty-five, standing direfted to front, look- ing to left; military uniform (red coat embroidered with gold and with blue facings, gold epaulets, buff waistcoat and breeches); left hand resting on hilt of sword; fair curly hair; background of trees and foliage; distant view of hilly scenery to left. Canvas: H. 50 inches; W. 40 inches. Painted in June-July, 1795; paid for in October, 1799, £76 13*. T. H. Ward and W. Roberts, “Romney,” 1904, p. 33. Illustrated in Sedelmeyer’s “Fifth Hundred Paintings by Old Masters,” 1899, p. 118. Collection: Colonel Honywood. As will be seen from the biography, the Cooper and Honywood families were connected by marriage. > GEORGE ROMNEY tf Portrait Group of the Misses Mordaunt GEORGE ROMNEY 1734-1802 Portrait Group of the Misses Mordaunt Louisa Sarah and Henrietta Maria Daughters of William Mordaunt Whole-length life-size figures of two young ladies about sixteen to eighteen years of age, seated on a bank at the foot of a clump of trees, direded to front and looking at spedator! The elder, to left, in simple white robe and white satin shoes, brown hair bound with gold ribbon and adorned with flowers; right arm resting on lap, holding scroll in hand, left arm around her sister’s shoulder. The younger, in simple reddish robe and pink shoes, is leaning against her sister, with her head on the other’s shoulder and her right arm around her waist, left hand holding a lute; brown hair bound with greenish ribbon; rich autumnal tinted foliage to left, trees to right; white drifting clouds. Canvas: H. 68 inches; W. 53 inches. Painted about 1780. Purchased from the family about 1893. ' r "t r'- i r.\-"t r JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER, R. A. The Junction of the Thames and the Medway &cS*S , is JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER, R. A. 1775-1851 The Junction of the Thames and the Medway (or, Meeting of the Waters) View from the Nore buoy of a stormy sea with waves running high; to left a boat with wind-filled sails; to right a rowboat with three sailors is putting off from one of the two full-rigged fishing boats which are sailing with the wind; in the middle distance a man-of-war is seen at anchor; in the background on the horizon, Sheerness and the Isle of Sheppey; masses of black clouds overhead and to right, relieved by gray clouds and two sea-gulls. Canvas: H. 42^ inches; W. 56^ inches. Painted circa 1805-10. A pen-and-ink sketch, 1805-7, f° r this picture and the two smaller versions at the University Galleries, Oxford, and in the National Gallery, London (No. 813), is in Turner’s “Hesperides” Sketch Book, bequeathed by the artist to the British nation (A. J. Finberg, “Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest,” 1909, p. 242). Sir Walter Armstrong, “Turner,” 1902, p. 231; Walter Thornbury, “Life of J. M. W. Turner, R. A.,” 1897, p. 617; G. Redford, “Art Sales,” 1888, Vol. I, p. 185; The Times, May 12, 1894; The Athenaum, same date; The Morning Post , April 30, 1894. Engraved in line on copper by J. Fisher, nj 4 x 8>4 inches, unfinished, “possibly for the original owner of the picture” (W. G. Rawlinson, “The Engraved Work of J. M. W. Turner, R. A.,” 1908, Vol. I, p. 88) ; the copperplate is now in the possession of Messrs. J. Rimell & Son, London. Illustrated in Armstrong’s “Turner,” 1902, plate facing p. 54. Colledtions and Sales: John Newington Hughes of Winchester, April 15, 1848, No. 147; Joseph Gillott of Birmingham, April 27, 1872, No. 306; Richard Hemming, J. P., of Grosvenor Place, London, and Bentley Manor, Bromsgrove, until his death circa 1893. Exhibited: Art Treasures, Manchester, 1857, No. 288 (J. Gillott); Leeds, 1867, No. 1107 (the same); the French Gallery, 120, Pall Mall, London, 1894, No. 26. . ' JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER, R.A. Venice: Dogana and S. Giorgio Maggiore JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER R.A. 1 775 -1851 Venice. Dogana, and S. Giorgio M^aggiore A bnl .ant sun-bathed view of the entrance of the Grand Canal from a spot opposite the ep of the Salute ; on the right the Dogana, with the church and campanile of San Giorgio seen beyond it; on the left the buildings of the Riva degli Schiavoni retreating into the is ance the canal crowded with barges, sailing vessels and gondolas with people in gaily colored holiday attire; blue sky with fleecy clouds. Canvas: H. 36 inches; W. 48 inches. Painted in 1834, and exhibited at the Royal Academy of that year. No. 173. Commissioned by Mr. Henry McConnel of Manchester. Exhibited: Knoedler's Galleries, New York, 1914, No. 35. “ Turner '” I902 ' p - 234; C - R Bel1 - “ The Exhibited Works of J. M. W. Turner, Collections : H McConnel until 1849, when it was sold privately to John Naylor of Leighton Hall from whose colledhon it was recently acquired. Leignton Mall, r \ JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER, R. A. Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Moonlight JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER, R. A. 1775-1851 Born in Maiden Lane, London, son of a barber; formed an early friendship with Girtin the artist; entered the Royal Academy School in 1789, and first exhibited at the Academy in 1790; eledted A. R. A. in 1799 and R. A. in 1802; made several tours on the Continent; died in Chelsea, leaving some thousands of sketches and drawings, besides a large fortune, to the nation. Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Moonlight Extensive view of the river Tyne in the glow of moonlight; on the right colliers are fill- ing the bunkers of sailing ships from barges, a weird effedt being added to the scene by numerous flaring torches; to left full-rigged ships are going and coming; in the forepart of the pidture are a buoy and a roughly constructed raft. Canvas: H. 36 inches; W. 48 inches. Painted in 1835, and exhibited at the Royal Academy of that year, No. 24. Commissioned by Mr. Henry McConnel of Manchester. Reproduced in American Art News, March 2, 1912. Exhibited: Burlington House, London, 1887, No. 14 (John Naylor); Knoedler’s Galleries, New York, 1914, No. 36. New Monthly Magazine , June, 1835, p. 245; Literary Gazette, May 9, 1835, p. 298; The Times, January 11 and 29, 1887 (see note below); John Ruskin, “Praterita” (Works, library edition, 1908, Vol. XXXV, p. 217); Sir Walter Armstrong, “Turner,” 1902, p. 233; Walter Thornbury, “Life of J. M. W. Turner, R. A.,” 1897 edition, p. 59 7; C. F. Bell, “Exhibited Works of J. M. W. Turner, R. A.,” 1901, p. 126. Colledtions: H. McConnel of Manchester until 1849, when it was sold privately to John Naylor of Leighton Hall, from whose colledtion it was recently acquired. Note. “Mr. Henry McConnel was, I believe, one of the first gentlemen to give him commissions for his later Venetian pidtures. He was one of the earliest of the Northern Distrid who had the originality and taste to admire and purchase Turner’s works, and his colledtion became one of the best in the whole ■ region” (Thornbury’s “Turner,” 1897 edition, p. 33;), When exhibited at Burlington House in 1887 it was noticed at length in The Times of January 11 and was described as “puzzling,” but that “there can hardly be a question about the genuineness of this canvas.” This called forth a long and interesting letter from Mr. J. Callcott Horsley, R. A., published on January 29, in which he says: “Having consid- erable knowledge of circumstances connected with this great picture, I venture to ask of space in your columns for the following remarks connected with it. As you state, the pidture was painted on com- mission for Mr. Henry McConnel of Manchester, whom you rightly describe as the pioneer of art col- ledting in Manchester. It was exhibited at the Academy in 1833, where I, then a young student, per- fectly well remember admiring it with all the enthusiasm I do now. It made a great sensation in the art world, and was criticised as a new departure in style by the greatest of landscape painters. Turner was just sixty years of age when he finished the pidture, and it is to be regarded as a splendid example of his later method, many of which are to be seen in the National Gallery and elsewhere. To regard the work in any other light than as one stamped in every square inch of it with the painter’s marvellous power and poetic genius is to me impossible. In case, however, there are some who, feeling puzzled, may end in doubting, the following circumstantial evidence may aid in settling the question for them. Mr. McConnel kept the pidlure as a precious possession till 1849, when he sold it, with others, to Mr. Naylor of Leighton Hall, Montgomeryshire, and with the pidture gave as an autograph a letter which he had received from Turner dated July 23rd, 1835, in which he says: T have received the pidlure of the Moonlight from the Royal Academy Exhibition. Have the goodness to say what you wish me to do with it, before I leave town for the summer months.’ On May 28, 1861, Mr. McConnel wrote to Mr. Naylor as follows: ‘I cannot overcome my hankering after one of the Turners. I know, at least I feel pretty certain, noth- ing would tempt you to part with the Venice; but are you irresistibly determined not to part with the Moonlight ? I believe I can get other T urners, but yours, being painted at my especial suggestion, produce a yearning of the spirit which others do not.’ Mr. Naylor declined to part with the pidture, and has retained it ever since, only most kindly and liberally lending it this year for exhibition in the Academy at my earnest request.” II MODERN FRENCH AND OTHER MASTERS JEAN BAPTISTE CAMILLE COROT L’ Atelier de Corot JEAN BAPTISTE CAMILLE COROT 1796-1875 L’ Atelier de Corot Small whole-length figure of a woman, apparently an Italian model, in yellowish dress, white chemisette and green bodice, dark hair bound with red ribbon, seated on a chair in front of an easel. She is seen in profile and is gazing intently at an unframed Corot landscape, which she is holding with her left hand, and with her right a mandolin which rests on the floor; to left a dog is gazing at its mistress; in the background a French stove (foele), and on the walls various brackets with antiques and unframed piftures. Panel: H. 24 inches; W. 15^ inches. Signed in lower right-hand corner: “Corot.” Painted 1865-68. This picture hung in Corot’s salon in Paris, and was No. 134 in his sale at the Hotel Drouot, May, 1875. Alfred Robaut and Etienne Moreau-Nelaton, “L’CEuvre de Corot,” 1905, No. 1558 (two variants of this picture are recorded in this work under Nos. 1559 and 1559 bis)-, Jules Meier-Graefe, “Modern Art,” 1908, Vol. I, p. 184; A. F. Jaccaci, Art in America , April, 1913, p. 90. Reproduced: L' Arts et les Artistes , January, 1907, p. 364. Collections: Jules Paton, April 24, 1883; MM. Duz and Van den Eynde. Exhibited: Exposition Centennale Retrospective, Paris, 1889, No. 163 (M. Bernheim jeune ). Bought from Durand-Ruel, 1892. The Corot pictures on the wall have been identified: To extreme left, “La Vasque de l’Academie de France, Rome” (Robaut and Moreau-Nelaton, No. 79) ; the figure to right is “La Petite Jeannette” (No. 459 bis), and below it, “Moulins a vent jumeaux sur la Butte de Picardie, pres Versailles” (No. 861). The same model appears in many of Corot’s pictures. . JEAN BAPTISTE CAMILLE COROT Epernon Fermier a Cheval surveillant le Labourage JEAN BAPTISTE CAMILLE COROT 1796-1875 Born in Paris, of humble parentage, and began life in a draper’s shop; studied art under Michallon, Vidlor Bertin, and in Italy; first exhibited at the Salon of 1827, at which John Constable was also an exhibitor; received many medals and decorated with the cross of the Legion of Honor, 1846; died in Paris. Epernon Fermier a Cheval surveillant le Labourage An uneven view of summer landscape divided by a three-arched stone bridge, with pedestrians going towards a cluster of farm-houses and cottages on the left; in the fore- ground a team of horses ploughing and driven by a man in shirt sleeves; red-capped farmer on horseback going towards a group of feathery trees on the right; white cloudy sky. Canvas: H. 12^ inches; W. 21 inches. Signed in lower left-hand corner: “Corot.” Painted 1850-60. Alfred Robaut and Etienne Moreau-Nelaton, “L’CEuvre de Corot,” 1905, No. 946. Sales: May 3, 1876; January 29, 1877; and March 31, 1890, No. 13 (bought by M. Foinard). Purchased from Georges Petit, Paris, 1891. JEAN BAPTISTE CAMILLE COROT -W La Route au Bouleau Tordu JEAN BAPTISTE CAMILLE COROT 1796-1875 La Route au Bouleau Tordu (or, The Dunes) An uneven sandy landscape with sparsely clad wind-blown trees in the foreground ; on the left a cart with team of horses and red-waistcoated driver going towards a hamlet near which are two figures ; to right group of three peasant girls, and in the distance dense clump of trees ; blue sky with white fleecy clouds. Canvas: H. 29 inches; W. 36 inches. Signed in lower left-hand corner : “Corot.” Painted in 1874 at Ville d’Avray. This is a larger version of the pi&ure described in A. Robaut and E. Moreau-Nelaton’s “L’CEuvre de Corot,” 1905, No. 2414 (which measures 23^ x 28 Y\ inches). Bought from Herter & Co., New York, 1891. JEAN BAPTISTE CAMILLE COROT Le Retour au Logis JEAN BAPTISTE CAMILLE COROT 1796-1875 Le Retour au Logis A gray-toned pifture of a well-wooded dell with overhanging trees forming an arch over a rough pathway, a traveller on a white horse going towards the distance; on either side large, uneven blocks of stone; blue sky with fleecy clouds. Canvas : H. 3 7^ inches ; W. 30 inches. Signed and dated in centre at bottom: “Corot 1872.” Alfred Robaut and Etienne Moreau-Nelaton, “L’CEuvre de Corot,” 1905, No. 2386, “Le Cavalier a la Sortie du Bois.” Reproduced in Walther Gensel’s “Corot und Troyon,” 1906, p. 46. Collections and Sale: M. Stumpf, “Cristallerie de Pantin,” February 27, 1873, where it is called “Entree du Bois Coubron, matinee de printemps”; and M. Kann, 1878. Bought from Knoedler & Co., 1892. GUSTAVE COURBET •w The Foresters GUSTAVE COURBET 1819-1877 Born at Ornans (Doubs); studied under David d’Angers; first exhibited at the Salon of 1844, and became one of the leading realistic painters of his day ; took an adtive part in politics and died in exile in Switzerland. The Foresters An opening in a densely wooded forest, with two men securing a badger. One, in brown coat and blue blouse, is kneeling and tying up the animal’s mouth; the other, in shirt sleeves, red vest, and blue trousers, is standing and holding a string. Canvas: H. 46 inches; W. 30 inches. Signed in lower left-hand corner: “G. Courbet.” Colledfions: Emile Barre (“ancien expert”) and Baron Bethonidre. American Art Association Sale, New York, April, 1892, No. 149. HILAIRE GERMAIN EDGAR DEGAS -w The Races HILAIRE GERMAIN EDGAR DEGAS 1834- The Races View of flat racing country with a number of mounted jockeys and other horsemen wait- ing for the race at the starting-point; in the background a stretch of houses, dominated by a cathedral and tall smoking faclorv chimneys; gray sky with light clouds. Canvas: H. 10K inches; W. 13^ inches. Signed in lower right-hand corner: “Degas.” Colledtions: M. Feder and Erwin Davis, New York, March 19, 1889 (with title “Before the Race”). Bought from Cottier & Co., 1894. HILAIRE GERMAIN EDGAR DEGAS -w Le Foyer de la Danse HILAIRE GERMAIN EDGAR DEGAS Living artist, born in 1834 Born in Paris; entered the Ecole des Beaux -Arts in 1855 under Lamoche, and travelled in Italy and America; first exhibited at the Salon in 1865, ant * in the following year the first of his series of racing pi&ures. One of his many pictures of dancing girls realized the enormous sum of $87,000 plus ten per cent, at the Rowart Sale in Paris in December, 1912. Le Foyer de la Danse Group of six female dancers, all in ballerine dresses, in a room with highly polished floor; to left, four in a row against wall are pra&ising leg exercise; to right, two girls are seated, one with right leg ere&ed and adjusting her garter, the other leaning forward, her left hand resting on the floor; doorway in centre of background. Canvas: H. 15^4 inches; W. 35 inches. Signed in lower corner to left : “Degas.” Painted in 1888. Bought from Durand-Ruel’s private colle&ion. NARCISSE VIRGILE DIAZ DE LA PENA Mare a la Vallee de la Sole NARCISSE VIRGILE DIAZ DE LA PENA 1807-1876 Mare a la Vallee de la Sole An opening in the densely wooded forest, the forepart of the pidure being taken up by a pool in which a man seated on the bank is fishing; through a glade is seen the blue sky with light clouds. Canvas: H. 18 inches; W. 11^ inches. Signed and dated in the lower left-hand corner: “N. Diaz, 57.” Etched by G. Greux in D. Croal Thomson’s “The Barbizon School,” 1902, facing p. 184. Collections: Durand- Ruel, 1873; George Knight, London, 1891. NARCISSE VIRGILE DIAZ DE LA PENA •w Diana NARCISSE VIRGILE DIAZ DE LA PENA I807-I876 Born at Bordeaux of Spanish parentage; began as a painter on porcelain; first exhibited at the Salon of 1831, and became a leading landscape artist; obtained medals in 1844 and 1846; influenced Millet and Corot; died at Mentone. Diana A beautifully modelled nude small whole-length red-haired figure of a woman as Diana, back view, standing in a well-wooded dell in front of a pool, poising an arrow in upraised right hand, left foot resting on white robe, on which a toy dog is seated, watching its mistress; background, trees and dense undergrowth of shrubs. Canvas: H. 18 inches; W. inches. Signed and dated in lower right-hand corner: “N. Diaz, 66.” Collection: Mme. Ricord, 1891, widow of the celebrated French doCtor, Philippe Ricord (1800-89), f° r whom it was painted. The following interesting letter was written from Barbizon by Diaz to Dr. Ricord concerning this picture on September 8, 1866: “Cher Monsieur: Je ne fais pas toujours tout ce que je voudrais, mais je n’oublie pas, et la prescription est tout a fait inconnue de moi. Je me suis mis a l’ceuvre depuis longtemps, et votre tableau serait entre vos mains si je n’avais senti le besoin de venir me retremper aux sources fortes de la nature. Mon travail n’y perdra rien et j’espere etre assez heureux pour effacer de votre esprit le souvenir du reproche merite que vous me faites. Veuillez patienter jusqu’a la fin de Novembre. Je serai alors trop heureux de vous porter moi-meme votre tableau et de vous serrer la main comme je le fais en ce moment. N. Diaz. Chez Mde. Ganne a Barbizon, 8 8bre, 1866.” Le pere Ganne and his wife kept at Barbizon the boarding-house so famous in the art annals of this period and place. It was here, in 1849, that Millet and Jacque had pension , and here they met Rousseau and other celebrated artists. The dining-room of the Hotel Luniot-Ganne is, or was, covered by the sketches of artists who patronized the place when it was an obscure and almost unknown hamlet. \ NARCISSE VIRGILE DIAZ DE LA PENA -w After the Storm NARCISSE VIRGILE DIAZ DE LA PENA 1807-1876 After the Storm View of a hilly declivity after a heavy storm, with an irregular stream of water in the centre, and three wind-blown trees on and near the heights; to right a peasant woman in dark dress and white cap carrying a fagot of sticks; large lichen- and moss-covered boul- ders are scattered about; heavily overcast sky with white and black clouds with silver linings. Canvas: H. 31 inches; W. 39X inches. Signed and dated in lower left-hand corner: “N. Diaz, ’64.” Cohesions and sale : M. Verdier, the famous Parisian dentist; and George I. Seney, New York, February 12, 1891, No. 195. JULES DUPRE Sunset with Windmill JULES DUPRE 1811-1889 Born at Nantes, and, like Diaz, first painted on porcelain; went to Paris, exhibited three pictures in the Salon of 1831, and became an intimate friend and co-worker of the men of the School of 1830; visited London and studied the works of John Constable; obtained the cross of the Legion of Honor in 1849; died at L’ Isle- Adam. Sunset with Windmill The eftedt of a rich golden-yellow sunset over a flat marshy landscape, the principal objedt in which is an ancient windmill, while another windmill is seen in the distance; to right a cottage; the foreground is occupied by a marshy river or canal, which refledts the golden hue of the sky, and on which a boat is moored. Canvas: H. 28^ inches; W. 23^ inches. Signed in lower left-hand corner: “J. Dupre.” Colledtions : M. Schmalz and N. Herz, the diamond merchant of Paris. Bought from Durand- Ruel in 1892. Probably another version of “Un Moulin au Croty,” in the artist’s sale of January 30, 1890. , EDOUARD MANET -W The Dead Toreador EDOUARD MANET 1832-1883 Born in Paris; studied under Couture; travelled in America, England, and on the Continent; exhibited at the Salon in i860, and became the chief of the group of “Impressionists,” among whom were Degas, Monet, Fantin-Latour, Sisley, and Pissarro; at constant war with the leaders of conventional art; died in Paris. The Dead Toreador Whole-length rigid figure of a dead toreador, stretched at length on his back, and dressed in bull-fighting costume — black jacket, knee-breeches and shoes, with white stockings, waist-band, and neckcloth; head towards the foreground, right hand resting on his breast, left hand holding banderilla by the corner, hilt of sword to right; grayish background. Canvas: H. 29% inches; W. 60 ^ inches. Signed in lower right-hand corner: “Manet.” The chief portion of the picture exhibited at the Salon, 1864, No % 1282, under the title of “Episode d’une course de taureaux.” One of the Spaniards of Lola de Valence’s troupe was the model for this figure. The second portion of the original picture belongs to Baron Villa, Paris, and is described by Duret, No. 52. Refus'e at the Exposition Universelle, 1867; exhibited at the private Manet Exhibition, Avenue de l’Alma, 1867, No. 5, “L’Homme mort”; Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1884, No. 24, by M. Faure, with the title “L’Homme mort: fragment du combat de taureaux”; Exposition Centennale, 1889, No. 488, “Toreador tue.” References: E. About, “Salon de 1864,” p. 156; E. Zola, “Mes Haines: Edouard Manet,” edition 1893, p. 356; M. Chaumelin, “L’Art Contemporain: La Peinture a 1’ Exposition Universelle de 1867,” 1873, p. 137; E. Bazire, “Manet,” 1884, pp. 42, 54; Theodore Duret, “Manet and the French Impressionists,” 1912, No. 51, pp. 35, 225; G. Geffroy, “La Vie Artistique,” third series, 1894, PP- T 34» 137; Louis Hourticq, “Manet,” n. d., pp. 35-6; Camille Mauclair, “The Great French Painters,” 1903, p. 41; Etienne Moreau-Nelaton, “Manet: Graveur et Lithographe,” 1906, No. 13; Antonin Proust, “Edouard Manet,” 1913, p. 47; New York Sun, January 16,1912; Julius Meier-Graefe, “Edouard Manet,” 1912, p.61. Illustrations: Etched by Manet, in collaboration with Bracquemond, in 1874; A. Proust, “Manet,” plate 6 (from the etching); L. Hourticq, “Manet,” pp. 35-6; C. Mauclair, “The Great French Painters,” 1903, p. 38; The Studio, January, 1901, p. 236; Kunst und Kunstler , November, 1910, p. 136, with “The Dead Warrior” (“El Orlando Muerto”), ascribed to Velasquez, in the National Gallery, London. Collection: Jean Baptiste Faure, the famous singer of the Grand Opera, Paris, and friend of the artist, until about 1890, when it was sold by Durand-Ruel to Cottier & Co., New York. , r'i' 4 l S f V ‘P5 WSfwWWW^iJWi EDOUARD MANET -w Aux Courses * EDOUARD MANET 1832-1883 Aux Courses Five mounted jockeys on a green grass track, which is barricaded off on both sides, and in an almost neck-to-neck race for the goal; the densely thronged grand stand, with crowds of people looking over the palisades to right, and further crowds of sightseers to left; tall trees in the background; blue and gray sky. Panel: H. 5 inches; W. 8^ inches. Signed in lower right-hand corner: “Manet.” Painted in 1877. This is the “Races at Longchamps” described by Duret, No. 232, as belonging to M. Durand-Ruel, Paris, from whose private collection it was acquired. v \ v v H 7 -v v ¥ ! mT W tf'p? ^ ^ { i? T *2’ ^ *2? T- s i? ^*2? JACOB MARIS 1837-1899 Born at The Hague; studied at Antwerp and in the studio of Hebert in Paris; influenced by Diaz and Daubigny; exhibited at the Salon from 1862; settled at The Hague, 1872; gained gold medal at Paris in 1889; died at Carlsbad. On the Shore of Scheveningen Low tide with a beached, flat-bottomed Dutch lugger with figures on deck, flag flying from top of mast; to left sea-gulls, and cart with driver pulling in a fishing-net; gray sky with white clouds. Canvas: H. 48^ inches; W. 41 inches. Signed and dated in lower right-hand corner: “J. Maris, 1878.” A very similar picture by J. Maris of the boat alone has been engraved under the title of “De Pink,” and a variation of the cart and man in the distance has also been engraved as “De Schelpenvisscher.” Collection: Thomas McDougal of Dalhousie Castle, Midlothian, circa 1892; purchased by him in Glas- gow some years previously. >■! v- K >i l U l Z JEAN FRANQOIS MILLET •W Portrait of William Morris Hunt JEAN FRANQOIS MILLET 1814-1875 Portrait of William Morris Hunt William Morris Hunt, the eminent American artist, was born at Brattleboro, Vermont, March 31, 1824; entered the Dusseldorf Academy in 1846 to study sculpture, which he abandoned for painting. Studied under Couture, and became an intimate friend of Millet. Settled at Boston in 1862, visited Mexico in 1875, an d painted his famous picture of Niagara Falls in 1878. His portraits and other pictures are in many public and private collections in the United States, the Boston Museum being especially rich in his work. A memorial exhibition in his honor was held there in 1905. (See Scribner s Magazine, Jan- uary, 1905.) He died in 1879. Head and shoulders directed and looking to right, face seen in profile; dark coat, low waistcoat, white shirt and collar, black tie; brown hair, beard, and mustache. Age about forty-five. Canvas: H. 22 inches; W. 18 inches. Signed with initials “J. F. M.” in top right-hand corner. Collection: M. Duz, who lent many pictures to the Millet Exhibition at the Ecole des Beaux- Arts, Paris, in 1887. This is presumably the portrait which was sold at an anonymous sale in Paris on April 6, 1888, and was bought by M. Feral for 605 francs (L. Souillie, “Les Grands Peintres aux Ventes Publiques: J. F. Mil- let,” p. 70). JEAN FRANCOIS MILLET 1814-1875 The Farm at Greville View on the brow of a hill in summer-time, with masses of trees and two houses on the top; in front, small fields divided by high stone hedges; peasant walking to left, winding footpath and clump of trees to right; cloudless sky. Canvas: H. 21 inches; W. 28 inches. Signed in red in lower left-hand corner: “J. F. Millet.” Painted about 1871. Bought from T. J. Blakeslee in 1893. Millet was bom at Gruchy, a small hamlet of Greville, itself a village ten miles west of Cherbourg. He painted several piftures of the coast and the church at Greville, where a monument to his memory was eredted in September, 1898. He visited his birthplace for the last time in 1871, and made many sketches, some of which he worked up into piftures during the remaining years of his life. JEAN FRANQOIS MILLET tf L’Attente JEAN FRANgOIS MILLET l8l4-l875 Born at Gruchy, son of a peasant farmer ; studied under Langlois at Cherbourg, and under Delaroche in Paris, his fellow-pupils including Diaz and Rousseau; first exhibited at the Salon in 1840; settled at Barbizon in 1849; received medals in 1853 and 1867; in the latter year he was decorated with the Legion of Honor; died at Barbizon. L’Attente The gray walls of a cottage occupy most of the background; in the doorway a blind man, in blue coat, red waistcoat, brown cloak, yellowish breeches, white stockings and black hat, holding a long staff in right hand, is feeling his way down the stone steps, and apparently attempting to follow his wife, who is gazing intently towards a pathway between an avenue of autumnal- tinted trees; on the stone seat outside the door is an animated yellow cat; golden sunset effedh Canvas: H. 32^ inches; W. 47^ inches. Signed in lower right-hand corner: “J. F. Millet.” Salon 1861, No. 2254, with the following text: “La m re de Tobie sortait avec empressement tous les jours de sa maison, regardant de tous cotes et allant dans tous les chemins par lesquels elle esperait qu’il pourrait revenir, pour tacher de le decouvrir de loin a son retour.” (“Book of Tobit,” chapter x, verse 7.) A crayon drawing (i860) for this pidture was in the Millet Sale of 1875, No. 19. Theophile Gautier, “Abecedaire du Salon de 1861,” pp. 285-6; Maxime du Camp, “Le Salon de 1861,” pp. 1 12-13; Alfred Sensier, “Jean Francois Millet,” English translation, 1881, pp. 99, 119, 144-5; Julia Cartwright, “Jean Francois Millet,” 1896, pp. 122, 141; D. Croal Thomson, “The Barbizon School,” 1902, p. 235. Reproduced in D. Croal Thomson’s “Barbizon School,” p. 232. Colledfion: George I. Seney, New York, February 13, 1891, No. 296. . PIERRE CECILE PUVIS DE GHAVANNES sr Le Repos PIERRE CECILE PUVIS DE CHAVANNES 1824-1898 Born at Lyons, son of an engineer; studied under Henri Scheffer, Delacroix, and Couture; exhibited at the Salon from 1859 ; decorated many public buildings with frescoes, including the Pantheon, the Sorbonne, and the Boston Library; died in Paris. Le Repos Group of sixteen figures on the green bank of a river; the central figure a gray-haired old man, nude to the waist and holding a staff in his left hand, talking to a group of men in loin-cloths and women in loose draperies; to left a family group of husband, wife and two children at a repast, behind them a woman holding a reaping-hook, and near her a pollard willow from which two scythes are suspended; in the distance another group of figures; to right an anvil and hammers ; background formed of high, uneven hills ; cloudless sky. The whole scene is bordered with fruiting and flowering branches of citron. Canvas: H. 42^ inches; W. 58^ inches. Signed in lower left-hand corner: “P. Puvis de Chavannes.” Exhibited: Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1867. This and the following are smaller versions of the two pictures (each of which measures 14 feet 9 inches by 21 feet 1 inch) which the artist exhibited at the Salon of 1863 and presented to the Musee de Picardie at Amiens. They formed the pendants of “ Bellum and “Concordia,” of nearly the same size, which had been exhibited at the Salon of 1861 and are now also at Amiens. The four small versions of this series were all exhibited at the Exposition Universelle of 1867; the other two now belong to Mr. John G. Johnson of Philadelphia. M. Chaumelin, “L’Art Contemporain : La Peinture a l’Exposition Universelle de 1867,” 1873, PP- 219- 220. C. Blanc, “Les Artistes de mon Temps,” 1876, p. 476. PIERRE CECILE PUVIS DE CHAVANNES Le Travail | PIERRE CECILE PUVIS DE CHAVANNES 1824-1898 Le Travail Group of fifteen figures, chiefly men in loin-cloths, working in an open clearing on the borders of a sea- coast; five men working at an anvil occupy the centre of the picture; two figures ploughing with a team of oxen to right, and others woodcutting to left; a mother nursing a child and attended by an elderly woman to extreme right; high wooded banks and hills in background; sky with white clouds. The scene is surrounded by a border of oak branches and acorns. Canvas: H. 42^ inches; W. 58/^ inches. Signed in lower left-hand corner: “P. Puvis de Chavannes.” Exhibited: Exposition Universelle, 1867. CONSTANT TROYON •W Cows in a Landscape (L’Abreuvoir) CONSTANT TROYON "W The Young Steer CONSTANT TROYON 1810-1865 The Young Steer A meadow reflecting the golden sunlight, the foreground occupied by a young brown- and-white steer walking towards the left; background formed of a tree and a low fence of shrubs; bluish-gray sky with fleecy clouds. Canvas: H. 23 & inches; W. 30M inches. The “ Vente Troyon” stamp in right-hand corner. From the artist’s sale, probably No. 127, January 23, 1866: “Bceuf dans une prairie. (Paysage inacheve.) Haut, 60 cent.; larg., 78 cent.” CONSTANT TROYON 1810-1865 The Poultry -yard A young peasant girl, in dark dress and with white kerchief over her head, is feeding with corn from her apron a numerous brood of hens and chickens; a straw chicken-house covered with creepers is seen in the background, close to a densely foliaged tree; other trees in the distance to the right; blue sky with fleecy clouds. Panel: H. 23 inches; W. 17^ inches. Signed in lower left-hand corner: “C. Troyon.” Probably “La Provende des Poules,” exhibited at No. 26, Boulevard des Italiens, i860, No. 4, and referred to by H. Dumesnil, “Troyon: Souvenirs Intimes,” 1888, p. 188. Collection: George I. Seney, February 11, 1891, No. 57. ' CONSTANT TROYON ■w The Hunting Dogs ■ m m CONSTANT TROYON 1810-1865 Born at Sevres, where his father was employed in the porcelain factory; became a friend of Diaz, Dupre, and Rousseau; exhibited at the Salon in 1833, and from 1849 received many honors at home and abroad; at Bar- bizon he enjoyed the friendship of Millet and Charles Jacque; died in Paris. The Hunting Dogs Two massive and powerful hounds, chained together, one white with brown spots and brown ears, and the other white marked with brown, on the scent of their quarry which they have lost, in the foreground, and close to a dense coppice which, with a low edge, forms the background; blue sky. Canvas: H. 38 inches; W. 50^ inches. Signed in lower left-hand corner: “ C. Troyon,” and with the red stamp: “Vente Troyon.” Painted in 1864. From the artist s sale, Paris, January 22, 1866, No. 3, “Deux Chiens, couples par une chaine, flairent une piste dans la plaine au sortir d’un bois.” George I. Seney Sale, New York, February 13, 1891, No. 295. H. Dumesnil, “Troyon: Souvenirs Intimes,” 1888, p. 195. CONSTANT TROYON 1810-1865 Matinee d’Automne View of a picturesquely wooded autumnal landscape, divided by a winding streamlet which ends in a shallow pool, in which three cows and a young bull are standing, and which a peasant woman, accompanied by a dog, is crossing, carrying a bundle under her left arm and with the right hand holding up her skirts; on the bank to right a white horse harnessed to a cart in which are two figures; cloudless sky with golden haze. Panel: H. 27^ inches; W. 41 inches. Signed and dated in lower left-hand corner: “C. Troyon, 1856.” This is probably the “Troupeau traversant un ruisseau— Effet de matin a l’automne, 1856,” which was exhibited at No. 26, Boulevard des Italiens, Paris, i860, No. 11. Collections: John Taylor Johnston, President of the Metropolitan Museum of New York, December 20, 1876; and James Montgomery Sears of Boston, 1907 (sold privately). Henri Dumesnil, “Troyon: Souvenirs Intimes,” 1888, p. 188. . ■ JAMES ABBOTT McNEILL WHISTLER -W Chelsea Wharf: Grey and Silver % 1 I JAMES ABBOTT McNEILL WHISTLER 1834-1903 Born at Lowell, Massachusetts, son of an army officer of Anglo-Irish descent; a draughtsman in the Coast Survey at Washington; studied art in Paris in 1855 under Gleyre, but influenced by Degas, Fantin-Latour, and others; exhibited at Royal Academy, London, 1859; lived in London and Paris; died in London. Chelsea Wharf: Grey and Silver View from the artist’s studio at Chelsea, showing both sides of the river. On the Chelsea side are three indistinft figures, two in black and one in white, and another in black to left; beyond are two barges with sails furled and other craft, the mast of another barge partly seen to extreme right. Across the river is Battersea Reach, with the church tower in the centre, and on the left a large factory with two chimney-stacks. Canvas: H. 24 inches; W. 18 inches. The butterfly signature is indistinctly seen nearly midway up on the left. Painted about 1875. A more elaborate picture of the same view belongs to Miss Birnie Philip and was lent by her to the Whistler Exhibition at Colnaghi and Obach’s, London, 1915, No. 6, “Grey and Silver: The Thames.” Exhibited: Winter Exhibition of the Society of French Artists, 168 New Bond Street, November, 1875, No. 80; and Whistler Memorial Exhibition, Regent Street, London, 1905, No. 69, as “Shipping on the Thames” (P. A. B. Widener, Esq.). Collection: J. C. Potter, Esq., of Liverpool, a friend of the artist and the owner of several pictures by him, 1895. The Atherueum, November 20, 1875, p. 679; E. R. and J. Pennell, “Life of James McNeill Whistler,” 1908, Vol. I, p. 199; Vol. II, facing p. 46. r VJ mmm