biography. He gave us David Cox's life, some couple of years ago. He wrote that with the enthusiasm of an ardent admirer, telling in much detail the very simple story of David Cox's career and broadly extolling his work. He tells us William Müller's story, with what seems something less of personal enthusiasm. Nor is this to be wondered at; for though the life-work of Müller and of Cox have certain resemblances in energy, rapidity, decisiveness, that of Cox has an individuality, perhaps in truth greater, certainly more easily noted and loved, and the charm too, of work devoted for the most part (as in a more restricted field the not less noble work of De Wint) to bringing to us vividly the value of everyday scenes and of common hours. But what was lacking to the memoir of Cox is lacking also to the memoir of Müller. The record is an outward one: telling in full what a biographical dictionary might tell in brief, but giving us not much fresh insight into the work scarcely much, indeed, into the character. The deficiency is due to no want of pains; but rather to a want of continuity of thought. The book is not fruitful in suggestions. There is some little technical criticism; but of aesthetic criticism, next to none. It is a fairly interesting chronicle of outward life. have nothing else," he said, "they shall Supported, then, and confirmed, rather He had been, in his early manhood, to Switzerland and Italy, and later (charged with a commission from Mr. Graves, the printseller) to the towns and castles which were the cradle of the Renaissance in France: Amboise and Blois, Chambord and Chenonceaux. From this second foreign journey resulted The Age of Francis the First: a reproduction of many water-colours made by him at the places named: water-colours now scattered about various private collections. A third foreign journey, undertaken within a year or two of his death, just before middle-age, was fruitful in sketches made in the maturity of his power; and these sketches-the series made when he accompanied the expedition to Lycia-are for the most part in the hands of one collector-Mr. John Henderson, of Montagu Street, Bloomsbury. Had Müller's life been prolonged, many of them would doubtless have served as preparations for pictures of greater individual importance, but executed as they were to his own satisfaction, and at a time when he had the fullest command of his means, they are now of singular value, and will probably always be accepted Müller-since I am here in the same way to tell his story-was born in Bristol on June 28, 1812, so that there is nothing but the accident of an early death to remove his art from the side of that of men now living; for when he began to paint, in 1830, Constable's work was done, and the greatest of Turner's, Cotman's and De Wint's; and David Cox, who developed slowly, was approaching his later manner. Müller's associates in travel and study were entirely modern men. He went to Germany and Italy with Mr. George Fripp: to Lycia with Mr. Harry Johnson for a pupil. He was the child of a German, settled in Bristol, and of an Englishwoman whom the elder Müller had married, and his first work was done under the eye of J. B. Pyne-then living in Bristol, at St. Michael's Hill. The connexion with Pyne did not, however, last long, though its influence may probably be traced in many of the younger artist's works. It was the earliest of many influences by which Müller was to be in some degree swayed. In 1831 he went visiting in Norfolk, and copied drawings of John Sell Cotman, being "delighted," as Mr. Solly tells us, "with their breadth, simplicity, and ones produced in the neighbourhood of his sacrifice of details to the general effect." birthplace, though these, says his biographer, Some few years afterwards Müller met "have a quiet peaceful charm of their own Cotman at dinner in London, and Mr. George-silvery, low in tone, and broad-different Fripp, who was present, remembers his in truth from any others." telling the Norfolk painter how much he felt he owed to him. Müller fell next under the influence of Constable, or, rather, of his work; and Constable's influence, tending after all in the same direction as Cotman's, is to be traced more or less to the end of the younger artist's career. First in landscape, and then in interiors with figure subjects, in both oil and water-colour, did Müller display something of that command of chiaroscuro which Constable himself, as his often-quoted words declare, reckoned the greatest of his possessions. "Though my pictures should as more characteristic than those earlier An artist great in sentiment and imagina- [JUNE 26, 1875. interesting chapter in the volume of his "He continued gradually to fail: two attacks son's personal experience give to this pas sage a kind of interest one could hardly expect in the work of Mr. Solly. But in his work one might reasonably expect some thing of better arrangement, as well as of higher criticism. The volume, in outward appearance, is sumptuous, not tasteful, and which, like those in the Life of David Cor, the text is accompanied by illustrations The circumstance narrated and Mr. Harri will not encourage the beholder to know THE BLACK AND WHITE EXHIBITION. THE third of this series of exhibitions opened at the Dudley Gallery on June 14. It contains a considerable number of very skilful works, sent by artists of repute. In especial, those which have served as illustrations to The Graphic have a force and aplomb not a little surprising; the artists seem to conceive their subjects, and to set them before their eyes, and then put them into shape executively, with the most entire directness, and unfailing competence. We may cite as ex amples the Ploughing Match by Mr. Small; and various specimens by Mr. Herkomer-the guillotine-subject from Victor Hugo's Quatre-vingt Treize; the Salt-Mine, Bavaria, Going down; A Wirthaus, &c. The Stained-Wood Decorations by the last-named artist, painted in brown on a light-tinted wood, are also talented works. Each of the two panels represents a herdsman, with sentiment that might be appropriate to the parable of the Prodigal Son. Of severe preparatory study-the sort of material which would in the long run be the most fitting for an exhibition of this sort-there is not much here; and of ideal or exalted subject-matter scarcely anything. Prometheus bringing Mortals a Light, by Mr. H. A. Kennedy, seems to promise something in this line; but, when we note that it is "designed to surround a tobacco-jar," we perceive that the Grecian mythology is less concerned in this invention than the practices and jocosities of smokers. The loftiest subject in the collection is that of Mr. Cave Thomas, The Fate of Benefactors-a drawing in red chalk, for the name of "black-and-white" is not absolutely or without exception accurate. This represents allegorically the persecutions, obstructions, and taunts, to which a reformer, or messenger of truth" is subjected: two of his opponents are laying a cord to trip up his advancing feet; but he steps upon it, and passes on unfalteringly. The reformer is a young man, with a countenance not much unlike Shelley's, but of stronger mould: a star is above his head: he holds a pair of compasses, and a roll of paper. There is much matter in this composition, and many various actions. The most ideal of subjects, however, would be not incompatible with naturalism in feature and action, and of this quality Mr. Thomas has not given us much. Three of the leading exhibitors are Frenchmen -Lhermitte, Legros, and Bida. Lhermitte is extremely prolific in subjects of peasant-life, old streets, time-scarred buildings, and the like: a tone of sadness or of life-weariness mingles with picturesque perception in his work, which is always on a high level technically. A Corner of a Market-place, Brittany; A Brittany Beggar A Street in Dauphiné, may be particularly cited. Un Mendiant de Bruges is a fine specimen of Legros; the expression of the elderly man in the corner, and the sway in the forms of the two cloaked women kneeling, being given with simple mastery. The etching, Portrait de Thomas Carlyle, is a different likeness from the one (wearing a hat) which we noticed lately in the Bond Street Gallery; less striking, but also very good. Bida is a finished and exact executant in chalk, and he gets up his biblical scenes with considerable propriety, but falls a longish way short of inspiration. Paix à cette Maison, representing a Christian disciple or missionary entering a house, and saluting its inmates, is of his best quality. Other foreign artists represented on these walls are-Jules Jacquemart, The Holy Family, after Jordaens, and Le Liseur, after Meissonier, etching; Huiber, Encore sans Lunettes, and other studyheads of old persons of both sexes, done for the sake of being funny, and with the effect of being ignoble, yet not unsuccessful in their way; Mongin, La Partie Inégale, after Vibert, etching; Rajon, Portrait of the Rev. James Martineau, after Watts, etching; Emile Lévy, Vénus à la Ceinture, a pretty enough pencil-drawing; Bauerle, Dear Baby, charcoal; Flameng, La Ronde de Nuit, after Rembrandt, etching; Wolf, The Duel-two male swans combating, as claimants for a female, which appears further off; a fine design full of knowledge, though some of the animal-draughtsmen who have come forward of late years may have gone further in strength of hand, as especially Mr. Heywood Hardy and Mr. Briton Rivière. By the first of these artists is The Poisoned Arrow, wherewith a leopard has been struck. The raging beast, his face and limbs contracted with pain, is tugging at the missile with his teeth. Midnight Assassins, by Mr. Rivière, has a singularly strange outlandish aspect. Two lionesses, with a lion close in their wake, are attacking a giraffethree other giraffes, safe as yet, scud away in the background. Another animal-designer who shows to advantage is Mr. Elwes, author of a pen-and-ink drawing named Members of a Royal Family, Lion-cubs born in the Zoological Gardens in 1872. Nemesis, by the same artist, represents an ancient lion, at his last gasp, still prowling, and encountering a vulture: he looks at the vulture, and the vulture at him, each with a grim forecast of the immediate future. Mrs. Blackburn pourtrays The Raven: the bird has issued from Noah's ark, and is flying along over the victims of the deluge—a man, a hyaena, a horse hideously swollen. An exhibition of this kind does not greatly lend itself to detailed criticism: it lacks prime importance in subject-matter, and special novelty or seriousness in artistic form. When we have commended the skill of one exhibitor, or the tact of another, we have said the most of what needs saying. We shall therefore run rapidly through the remaining works. Brewtnall, Quavers, an old man playing the flute. F. G. Walker, Deuteronomy, ch. xxiv., v. 19-an old woman and girl gleaning; a somewhat large work, made as forcible as the artist can manage. Mrs. Edward Hopkins, Après le Diner, and other subjects of infants performing the acts of adults; this is at best a cheap sort of humour, but Mrs. Hopkins excels in it, and hits the taste of goodnatured papas and mammas in a marked manner. R. W. Macbeth, Old Friends, a milkmaid and her cow, good in tone. George M'Culloch, Pencil Sketches of models, draped and undraped, drawn on a small scale with taste and nicety. James Macbeth, Leaving the Salon, Paris, 1875, a true representation of a mob of people hurrying off in a fierce shower of rain; Arranging the SculptureGallery at the Salon. Hayllar, All the Year Round, and Once a Week; these punning titles indicate designs of an elderly mechanic working at his grindstone, and on Sunday dozing in a pew; very clever and well-completed sepia drawings, termed Jane Eyre's Flight-she is lying exhausted in a "mezzotint" in the catalogue. F. W. Lawson, swamp. Leslie, The Ferryman's Daughter, rather a silly affair, hardly vindicating the initials "A. R. A." appended to Mr. Leslie's name. in the costume of the opening years of the W. Britten, Sketch in the Hayfield, two women present century. Westlake, Cartoon after a Painting in the Church of St. Francis, Notting Hill Christ carrying his cross, and encountering the Maries; a moderately good design in the accepted religious" style-better, at any rate, than another drawing by the same gentleman of the Assumption of the Virgin. Clausen, At the Altar of our Lady. Sandys, Breydon Water, Norfolk, one of the really fine things in the gallery; a simple and beautiful drawing of a flat shore and its buildings. Ditchfield, Study of Rocks, also a truly able performance. Raven, The Monk's Walk, large and striking. Arthur Severn, Moonlight near Mitcham. T. R. Macquoid and Percy Macquoid, various studies of trees, leafy and leafless, and quoid named Watching is more particularly elegant other rural material; the one by Mr. Percy Macand complete. Colin Hunter, Shrimping—a sheeny sea-shore, with the waves advancing and receding; the sound and the hush of them are almost made perceptible to the ear through the eye. Aumonier, The Thames at Great Marlow, Evening, large and effective, the white river twisting its way amid the dark stretch of land: this view has been Longleat Park, a good pen-and-ink study of treeexecuted in colours. Alfred Parsons," Preserved," trunks. R. Farren, & Pastoral, Fen Cattle, a sepia drawing, of orange-brown tinge. THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. A PERSON who has not seen this exhibition in the Royal Albert Hall and adjacent galleries could with difficulty be convinced by words how utterly worthless it is. Upwards of a thousand works of one class and another are displayed, yet there is next to nothing to look at. Only one picture— and that an uncatalogued one-comes near to being remarkable; the Margaret in Walpurgis Night by Gabriel Max. To this work a gold medal was awarded at the Vienna Exhibition of 1873. Max is evidently (as our readers may have gathered when we lately described his Head of Christ) one of those painters who work for effect, and who, having determined to do some particular thing, care very little whether the means are "legitimate" or otherwise, but only about making their intention strongly felt. The Margaret arrests you at once by its deathly still dreadfulness, and the impression intensifies as long as you remain before it. Besides the wraith of the deserted girl, with the mark of the knife across her throat, the eye has little to rest on, save the dark dim background, three ominous ravens, and the vast shadow of a hand along a hill, presumably the hand of Mephistopheles. Here we might leave off, for there is really nothing else of a prominent kind. We will however mention as comparatively noticeableSchaefels, Sinking of the Vengeur at the Battle of Aboukir; Jundt, Young Mother surprised by a Storm; Oswald Achenbach, View between Ceprano and Sara, on the Roman Neapolitan Coast; C. II. Léon, The Conversion of St. Hubert; The Invasion, representing cattle and goods driven from a burning village; Cleynhens, An Inn in the Sixteenth Century; Junck, The Travelling Tinman; Beinke, Gathering Wild-flowers; Charles Gussow, Spectators awaiting the Return of the German Army, 1871, forcible, real, but low in its realism; Emile Lévy, L'Amour et la Folie; W. J. R. Bond, The Fishing Flat, Schevening; Weisshaus, Italian Peasant Women going to Market (water-colour); Thomas Pritchard, Valley of Rocks, Ross-shire (ditto); Teyssonnière, St. Bruno refusing the Presents of Roger, an able etching; J. de Brackeleer, A Happy Family, a pretty terra-cotta group of a mother and two children; E. Trombetta, The First Steps, a boy and a chicken, marble statuette. One of the most unsightly of modern sculptures, yet not wanting in a certain sort of cleverness, is a group of two newspaper-boys which stands thus described in the catalogue-apparently with a well-grounded conviction that low art may be made a paying concern: "Focardi, J., Italy. Plaster Group, I'm first, Sir. Reproduced in marble, same size, price 2,000l.; ditto, half-size, price 1,000l., copyright reserved." can We quit the International Exhibition with a hearty hope that its managers may be persuaded that by this time they have reached the lowest depth to which even their endeavours attain; that the art of sinking is therefore exhausted; and that the next thing to be compassed is either a very greatly improved collection, or else (and this would perhaps be now the better alternative) the relinquishment of their project. The "London Annual International Exhibition of Fine Arts" has become an annual exposure of incapacity; and will hereafter, if repeated on the like footing as in the year 1875, be a mere fatuity, a trifling with the public patience. W. M. ROSSETTI. ETRUSCAN ANTIQUITIES-TARQUINII AND CAERE. Rome: May 31. The Necropolis of Tarquinii (or Tarquinia), near Corneto, and that of Caere (the Pelasgic Agylla), both being approached by railway. Corneto and near Cervetri, may be easily visited from Rome, Cervetri lie in a region of hills and vales, pic turesque though mournful and wild-looking, which bounds the solitary Maremma north-westward from the metropolis. On a recent visit to those sites I ascertained that research and discovery have not ceased; that present authorities, amid the many archaeological claims on their attention, have not forgotten the arts and monuments of Etruscan whose distorted face and huge figure are distinctly antiquity, that much has been accomplished, the object from which the tomb is now named; a stand in different compartments on which are placed several vases, the larger painted with red and black figures, such as adorn the terra-cotta vessels of the Etruscans, often with characteristics of superior art-the domestic use of these precious vases being here illustrated. In the museum at Corneto the following objects struck me most, and may be particularised from among others of more or less intrinsic value:-Bronze: An embossed shield with an ox-head vigorously wrought in high relief at the centre of the disk, the type of that animal partaking somewhat of the human, but whether this be indicative of any mythological fantasy, or a whim of the artist, I cannot say. Terra cottas: A large vase, with figure, red on black ground, of a Genius (or warrior) conducting to Hades (or rescuing from it) perhaps Hercules and Alcestis; a veiled woman who follows has evidently more than human guides. A group of Bacchus and Sylvanus, black on a red ground, adorning a smaller vase. A vase, the largest and finest here (found in June, 1874), is adorned with red figures on a black ground in the centre of the inner side a single figure of a warrior (the Etruscan Mars?) with a shield, the device on which is a lion; on the outside, a finely conceived and well designed procession of Deities with their respective attributes and the names written above in Etruscan mixed with Greek letters-i.e., Zeus (enthroned, his eagle beside him), Athena, Hermes, Hebe, Dionysos, a Satyr, Thetis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hestia, Ganymede: all these standing, the figure of Zeus alone seated. A certain dignity, at least individuality, distinguishes all in this Olympian group. The Aphro dite is fully draped, as she appears in earlier Greek art before Praxiteles. Near the figure of Hestia is inscribed the name of him who designed, and near to this that of the practitioner who painted from the artist's original, this large and beautiful vase, the gem of the Corneto collection, and unquestionably one of the most precious in the whole countless series of such Etruscan ob jects. The Greek influence appears most distinctly in this example, and leaves (I think) no doubt as to the source from which this finest Etruscan art received its inspiration. Among mirrors with graffiti in this museum, the two most noticeable are adorned with well-designed groups of the Judgment of Paris, and a youth serving a shepherd, before whom stands a winged Goddess-some version, or episode, probably, of the competition for the prize of beauty. The cabinet of jewels and gold ornaments in this museum contains many small but precious objects; the engraved gems, of minute scale, being indeed treasures of their kind. In the wildly romantic, rock-bound glen below the little town of Cervetri, a multitude of tombs have their openings, regularly formed doorways with flat lintels, on the rocky surfaces hewn (in many instances) into some architectural form, or at least with the plain ornamentation of cornices and mouldings cut in the native tufa-stone. Here we find ourselves in the Necropolis of Caere, where the first researches, rewarded by valuable treasure-trove, were made in 1829 by the archpriest of the town (Regolini) and a general named Galassi, and where were opened several important tomb-chambers between 1836 and 1846. I was disappointed at my last visit to this place, in that nothing new to me had been added to the range of accessible antiques; but was nevertheless glad to learn that research has been pursued, and certain results obtained during late years in this necropolis, as well as at Tarquinii. The Caere tombs are less numerous, so far as hitherto made known; but the ground has been far less worked than that near Corneto. The richest ornamental objects, gold, jewellery, &c., found near the former place, are now in the Vatican Museum. A number of tumuli, almost like natural mounds, grass-grown and shaded by forest trees, add a picturesque feature to the glen below Cervetri: 66 these yet await the scavi that might reveal their funereal recesses, and their perhaps precious contents. The tombs recently opened near Cervetri have been (so far as I could ascertain) again closed, or left neglected, after the removal of their precious contents. At Corneto I secured the services of an intelligent cicerone, acquainted with and able to explain all that is of salient character in the adjacent Necropolis. But in the impoverished town (little more than a village) of Cervetri, I had only the guidance of a peasant, who just knew what doors were to be opened with the keys in his charge, and whose report as to all recently discovered sepulchres on that site was summed up in two words: aperto, riturato, opened, stopped up again." I found one among the most famous and memorable of those Caere sepulchres, the so-called "Tomb of the Bassi Rilievi," which the Marchese Campana discovered in 1850, to such extent inundated that I could only enter it barefooted, and explore it wading almost kneedeep in very cold stagnant water. The sculptured adornments of this spacious tomb consisted of numerous reliefs (all originally coloured) representing weapons, shields, greaves, implements of war and sacrifice, besides things for domestic and culinary use and certain emblems of deities-e. g., the goose of Persephone-also other animals, as the dog, the cat, the lizard, and ox-heads with wreaths between their horns. Over a sepulchral couch for two bodies is a more remarkable subject, representing a seated demon (or Pluto) holding a serpent in one hand, an implement like a steering oar in the other, with the Etruscan Cerberus crouching before him. The other sepulchral recesses are provided each with a double stone cushion for the body, which must have been laid uncoffined on the rocky bed. This extraordinary tomb has the architectural forms of a regularly constructed chamber, with two massive pilasters (or piers) supporting a roof divided into compartments and terminating like a Gothic vault. It is reached by a deep-descending staircase between high walls built of tufa blocks, and guarded by couchant lions chiselled in the same volcanic stone, one only of these figures being complete. The picturesque glen, silent and solitary, seems a suitable approach to such dark subterranean resting-places, sanctuaries of the longforgotten dead-mysterious monuments of a longvanished nationality, a once opulent civilisation, which has left so little to record its existence except the tomb. C. I. HEMANS. ART SALES. fell to Mr. Harrison for 4097. 10s. The second, Brunnen and the Schweitz Mountains; Lake of Lucerne, a fine example of Turner's later time, fell to Mr. Agnew's bid of 5041. The oil pictures sold that day included a good example of Israels, The Lonely Shepherd; it realised 2831. 10s. Falstaff's Own, by Mr. Marks, the Academician, fetched 2107. A picture of Paul Falconer Poole's, The Conspirators, realised 2417. 10s. A work by J. Holland, The Grand Canal, Venice, was fortunate enough to reach the price of 3461. 10s. And, lastly, a Frederick Goodall, Gateway at Cairo, was sold for 1741. 68. shall be prepared as soon as possible of all the art objects in the Museum. Both chambers of the Assembly also made it their request that glass painting should be included among the other subjects of education in the programme of the Academy of Fine Arts. WE have received a catalogue of "Works by George Cruikshank, produced from 1799 to 1875, Consisting of upwards of eleven hundred examples, including oil paintings, water-colour drawings, and proof etchings." This is printed by "The Executive Committee for securing the Collection to the Nation," and is preceded by list of said Or the sale of Mr. Gladstone's collection, which committee, and a circular issued by them. began on Wednesday, and continues till this after-quote from this circular :noon (Saturday), we shall give some notice in our next issue. NOTES AND NEWS. WE understand that the South Kensington Museum has recently received a valuable collection of Persian porcelain, consisting of water bottles, bowls, vases, &c., from Teheran, and that a still larger collection is now on its way to England. A LOAN exhibition of works of art is now on view at Southampton. The pictures are principally from the collections of the Earl of Portsmouth and Mr. Cowper Temple, and include examples of Rubens, Rembrandt, Vandyke, Vandervelde, and other Dutch masters. AN INTERESTING archaeological catalogue has just been published by Mr. John Brent, F.S.A., of the Egyptian, Grecian, and Anglo-Saxon antiquities preserved in the Museum at Canterbury. HERR KUSTHARDT, the German sculptor who executed the excellent copy of the Hildesheim Corona for the South Kensington Museum (see ACADEMY, Feb. 27, 1875), has recently published in the Hildesheim Sonntagsblatt an interesting account of that remarkable work. The Corona, it appears, was restored in 1818, a time when knowledge and taste in art matters were alike deficient, and many alterations, it is found, were then introduced marring the original effect. After minute examination, however, Herr Küsthardt has succeeded in distinguishing every portion of modern workmanship, and has arrived by this means at the meaning of much that has puzzled antiquarians in its peculiar arrangement of lights. He considers, moreover, that the niches in the open towers that have been supposed to have formerly held silver statuettes never really did so, for such an arrangement would have destroyed the effect of the perforated à jour ornamentation of the towers, though it is difficult to understand why, if the statues were never there, the names of certain MR. ALBERT WAY'S collection of engravings and Jewish Bride fell for 181. 2s. 6d. For 151. a good impression of the subject known as Rembrandt's Mill passed into the hands of Messrs. Goupil. ON Monday Messrs. Christie, Manson and Woods sold many things in oil and water-colour from different private collections. One of David McKewan's effective interiors, The Poet's Parlour, Knole, passed into the hands of Mr. Garrett for 197. 19s. A water-colour of Mr. Dante Rossetti's was sold for 471. 58., the purchaser being Mr. Agnew. A good Copley Fielding, Ben Lomond, was bought by the same dealer for 2521. There were two important water-colours of Turner's: one of them a subject engraved in the England and Wales series. This was the Lyme Regis, which niches. But the great French architect, M. Viollet le Duc, agrees with Herr Küsthardt in thinking that these towers must originally have been intended for lanterns rather than temples, and certainly the effect of light streaming through their open spaces into the dim cathedral would have been far more beautiful than any other mode of lighting. The seventy-two sockets for candles, barbarously fastened with wooden screws right into the beautiful ornaments of the " battlements of the heavenly Jerusalem," supposed to be symbolised by these pinnacles, evidently never formed part of the intention of the original artist. THE Bavarian Assembly in a recent sitting was occupied with several questions relating to art education, and in particular with the desirability of placing the art treasures in the national collections more within the reach of students by means of models, copies, and photographs. The Minister of the Interior has accordingly decreed(1) that the casts and other reproductions taken from the statues and pictures in the Bavarian Museum, and educational establishments, shall be offered at a much lower price than formerly; and (2) that a comprehensive descriptive catalogue We "With a view to do honour to Mr. Cruikshank two committees were lately formed. By one it was proposed to offer him a testimonial in recognition of his services as an artist, and as a social reformer; while the other contemplated the purchase of his works for the country. To secure combined action, the promoters of the two movements met and coalesced; and on conferring with Mr. Cruikshank, found that the only form in which he would accept a testimonial was It in the purchase of his collection for the nation. was accordingly resolved to adopt measures for purchasing the collection, and for that purpose the executive committee was formed. The committee find that the collection, which embraces upwards of eleven hundred specimens, may be procured for 3,000l. To raise this amount, and so to preserve the more esteemed productions of Mr. Cruikshank's genius, the committee invite the cooperation of all lovers of art, and the public generally. The collection has been produced during the long period of seventy-six years- obtaining for the artist a celebrity almost unrivalled. Mr. Cruikshank has refined his art. By his satirical sketches he has exposed pretext, and swept from society and the statute-book many revolting abuses. While promoting humour he has strongly rebuked vice. His pencil has been the handmaid of morality, and his most playful designs have imparted wisdom. His illustrated publications have cheered the old and amused the young; while his cartoons have found admission where less attractive monitors had been repelled. His One Pound Bank-Note, his Bottle, and his Worship of Bacchus, stamp him as the most philanthropic artist of his age." Admitting the full force of this praise of the veteran's labours in the cause of temperance, and agreeing quite as fully with the justice of rewarding the artist after a long and unrequited career by purchasing his collection for the nation, we will abstain from criticising the remaining portion of the circular, which speaks of Cruikshank being only second as an artist to Rembrandt! The interest of his works is the interest of contemporary delineation of manners, costumes, and passing events, these latter not always carefully depicted in his case, we fear-and the power of Cruikshank we acknowledge is the power of an acute observer and of an able satirist and humorist. The moral aspect of London life for fifty years is indelibly stamped on the woodcuts and etchings of Cruikshank. All honour to George Cruikshank! Contributions to the Art Collection Fund should be made payable to the treasurer, George William and County Bank, Oxford Street, and addressed Reid, Esq., of the British Museum, at the London to him or to the Acting Secretary, Mr. W. E. Poole, at the Committee Rooms, 11 Chandos Street, Cavendish Square, W. With regard to the works to be purchased, they include a number, especially at the early period of the life of the artist, of sketches and other original works; but the selection of mature etchings and woodcuts is not of course complete at all, even in respect to his best things. The illustrations to Jack Shepherd (Sheppard?) we have always thought, on the whole, the best series of works of that kind done by Cruikshank, and these we do not find among the proofs. Ordinary impres sions of these may be easily added, however, and also all those for Hone's works on the Prince Regent and George IV. and the later Omnibus and other comic publications. THE Prix de Salon seems again to have produced great dissatisfaction. French artists are almost unanimously of opinion that it was due to M. Georges Becker for his remarkable work representing Rizpah driving the birds of prey from the dead bodies of her sons (described in ACADEMY, June 5), but the jury have not so awarded it. In a letter addressed to M. Becker in L'Art of last week, M. Paul Leroi, however, congratulates that young artist on not having attained the Prix and been sent to Rome. "Que seriez-vous allé y faire? Vous y cristalliser dans vos défauts et n'acquérir rien de ce qui vous manque pour compléter vos remarquables qualités appuyées sur le savoir le plus sérieux." On the other hand the proprietors of L'Art have had the "happy thought" of placing every year at the disposal of any artist, who, like M. Becker, shall distinguish himself by exceptional artistic talents at the Salon, a sum of 1,000 fr. to assist him in foreign travel and study in Italy, or any other country that he may desire. This sum L'Art now offers to M. Becker. THE Künstlerhaus at Vienna has awarded its gold medal, as expected, to Hans Makart, not for his great subject of Anthony and Cleopatra on the Nile, but for a smaller work, A Siesta in the Court of the Medici. The other medals have been awarded to Victor Tilgner for his bust of Mdlle. Wolter, and to Franz Lenbach for a portrait of the Baron Lephart. A FINE picture by Domenichino, representing David with the head of Goliath, was stolen in March, 1871, from the little town of Fano, near Pesaro, on the Adriatic, of which it had been for more than two centuries the chief ornament. The Syndic of Fano, after an indefatigable search, has at last succeeded in recovering this treasure for his town, in a lamentable state it is true, but still not so far damaged as to be beyond hope of restoration. Several persons supposed to have been implicated in the theft have been examined, but have been acquitted. It will, no doubt, be extremely difficult to lay hands on the real originators of the robbery. ON June 7 the Exhibition of industrial art products at Dresden was opened in the CurlandPalace with great éclat. The variety and excellence of the collection generally has apparently exceeded the expectations of the people of Dresden, who have show a great interest in the preparation for and inauguration of the exhibition. The most celebrated schools of art from the ninth century downwards, and nearly all the best-known names in the domain of creative plastic and textile art are represented in the collection, which bids fair to prove one of the most interesting features of attraction at Dresden during the present year. THE managing committee of the Chilian International Exhibition of 1875 has announced that among many other proposed prizes, a first-class medal and a sum of 250 pesos will be awarded for the best oil-painting exhibited by a foreigner, and a similar medal and 500 pesos for the best piece of statuary by a foreigner. In addition to these official awards the Intendante of Santiago, el Señor Vicuña Markeña, offers various prizes at his own expense for the best models, plans, and descriptions of foundling, orphan, and other public asylums. THE results of the excavations made at Pompeii on June 14 in the presence of the Dowager Queen of Sweden were unusually brilliant. In the first chamber that was opened, a number of women's ornaments were found, including a gold bracelet, a pair of silver earrings, besides a few coins and various objects which had probably belonged to the toilette, as small glass, alabaster, and other vases. Near them lay the bronze lock, hasps and setting of a casket, in which they had probably been deposited. In another chamber, apparently adapted for a triclinium, a bedstead was found similar to the one now in the National Museum at Naples which excited so much attention at the time of its discovery; and in the same apartment two bronze vases were recovered in a very perfect condition. THE French papers announce the discovery of a quarry of excellent lithographic stones in the forest of Montréal, near Nantua, which bid fair to rival those of Munich. A MONUMENT to Théophile Gautier was inaugurated in the Montmartre cemetery on Thursday last. It is by M. Godebski, of the Academy of St. Petersburg, who gave his services gratuitously, and consists of a base of free-stone supporting a sarcophagus in Carrara marble, on which is seated a Muse of the purest Renaissance character, resting her arm on a medallion of the poet, which is said to be a striking likeness. THE King of Bavaria has granted a sum of 56,400 florins for the purchase of works of art, to be divided as follows:-10,000 florins for an historical painting representing a deed of arms of a Bavarian regiment in the war against France, painted by Frank Adam; 10,000 florins for a war monument, executed by the sculptor Zambusch, to be set up in Augusta, to which sum the town of Augusta will add 30,000 florins; 24,000 florins for the completion of the paintings in the Catholic Church at Chiemsir; 6,000 florins for a monument recording the union of Lutherans and Reformers, to be placed in the Protestant Church of Kaiserslautern; 6,000 florins for the restoration of the old paintings in the Catholic Church of Kerrieden; 4,000 florins for those in the Protestant Church at Nordlingen; and 18,000 florins for a monumental fountain to be erected in the Maximilian-Platz at Bamberg. A VERY important collection of works of art and art-industry belonging to the Freiherr von Minutoli, is to be sold at the end of this month in Germany. The collection formerly formed the chief part of the Museum at Liegnitz, but owing to various difficulties in its management that institution has been broken up, and Herr Minutoli now offers its contents to the public. A large number of interesting glass paintings, specimens of German and Venetian goldsmith's work, plastic works in marble, terra cotta, and bronze, antique celebrated Erfurt jug, and Oriental and other glass, specimens of old pottery, in particular the porcelain, besides many valuable paintings, are in cluded in this sale. THE Salon closed on Sunday last. During the forty-eight days it was open 139,070 persons were admitted by payment, and 371,361 gratuitously. The receipts showed a considerable falling off from last year. THE STAGE. The Ticket of Leave Man re-appeared on the Olympic stage, last Monday, after several years' absence, and it will probably be found that the piece retains a share of its old popularity. It is brought forward at the right time when London society, which delights in the class of entertainment given at the Court and the Prince of Wales's, is inclined to desist from playgoing, or at all events when the country visitors and others may be reckoned upon to support a drama which London society can hardly be expected to find amusing. The popularity of The Ticket of Leave Man is due to a wholesome moral and abundant surprises. It is, therefore, especially adapted to country tastes. There is little to say that has not been said before about the play itself. The cast has always been a strong one, and is strong now as on the first production of the piece. Mr. Henry Neville, as everybody knows, was the original hero; Mr. Horace Wigan, the original detective; and Miss Kate Saville-a niece of Miss Faucit's, then prominently before the public was the original heroine. She gave place pretty quickly to Miss Lydia Foote, who came from the East or from over the water, and made a reputation at once by her performance of her part, which she played, if our memory serves us, for a couple of hundred nights. That was about eleven years ago. Miss Foote is elsewhere; Mr. Wigan still, and permanently, a detective, but also in another place; and Mr. Neville alone is true to the Olympic and his part of Bob Brierly. All this, most people know, but few know that within a few months of the production of The Ticket of Leave Man in London it was produced at a provincial theatrethe Bristol Theatre-with a cast perhaps even stronger as a whole than the London cast, and, as was more the custom in those days, entirely different. Mr. William Rignold, whose rendering of the ruffianly brother in the Two Orphans only a little while since, at the Olympic, will not be forgotten, was Bob Brierly; he gave it an uncouthness that fitted the part though it was less pleasant than the hearty manliness of Mr. Neville. Mr. George Rignold-now, in his own line, a celebrity played the detective. Miss Henrietta Hodson, whom since then London playgoers have seen much, was the Bristol Sam Willoughby-played then as now, in London, by Miss Farren; Mr. Coghlan was Green Jones, played in town by Mr. Soutar; and the Bristol May Edwards, the heroine of the piece, was Miss Kate Terry. Not a bad castthat it will be admitted, for any theatre in town or country. It is true that the actors were not just then as famous as they were clever. But they managed, sooner or later, to become so. THE benefit of Miss Guillon le Thière, who lent excellent service in the New Magdalen and other pieces, was to take place on Thursday at the Gaiety, when the New Magdalen was to be acted, and, after it, Awaking (from the French of Marcel), with Mr. Clayton in the part played at the Royalty by Mr. Lin Rayne, and Miss Roselle in that played at the Royalty by Miss Hollingshead. A STRONG programme, thoroughly in accordance with Adelphi tastes, has been prepared for Monday at that theatre, when Mr. J. Clarke will take his benefit. at Drury Lane. It is possible that he may appear SIGNOR SALVINI's last nights are announced and Mdme. Ristori. at the Gaiety next season, along with Signor Rossi MDLLE. DELAPORTE will, we hear, give her comédies de salon at Marlborough House this evening. Round the World in Eighty Days will this evening close its career at the Princess's. Le Procès de Voradieu, by M. Hennequin, has been given successfully at the Paris Vaudeville. It is played by a stronger group of actors than the Vaudeville has often been able to muster, and is said to be bright and witty. MDLLE. BLANCHE BARETTA's début at the Français gave old playgoers nothing new to criticise. She appeared as Henriette in Les Femmes Savantes, a part in which she had previously been seen at the Odéon. Her performance at the Français was perhaps hardly as good as those she had given on the other side of the river. She will shortly appear in pieces which will be new to her, and it is then only that her qualifications for the Français can be properly judged, though the surroundings of a beginner at the Théâtre Fran |