The Belmont Collection.
This admirable gallery includes among its treasures many of the old
masters and-when open for exhibition--a bewildering collection of young
nurses. The latter are frequently inaccurate in anatomical details, but
in point of brilliancy of color they far outshine the best efforts of
RUBENS and TITIAN. The flesh tints produced by many of our Fifth Avenue
belles infinitely surpass the obsolete tints upon which the great
Venetians used to pride themselves.
In Mr. BELMONT'S gallery there are so many original RAPHAELS and
MURILLOS, painted by the very best European artists of the present day,
that it would occupy far too much of our limited space were we to notice
them in detail. We will therefore pass them by, and simply call
attention to some of the more noteworthy pictures, executed by
contemporary painters, which hang side by side with the more smoky but
hardly less valuable works of antiquity. Prominent among these is a
modest little "Fruit and Flower" piece, by that promising young artist,
Miss SUSAN B. ANTHONY. It deserves especial praise for its accurate
copying of nature, the varied beauty of its coloring, and the deep
longing of the heart--the hunger of the soul--which must have inspired
the fair artist. We give a faithful sketch of this charming picture,
though, of course, the glories of its rainbow hues cannot be represented
here.
[Illustration: FRUIT AND FLOWER PIECE.]
A beautiful work, and one evidently inspired by the sound of battle, is
the noble historical painting entitled "On Picket," by Mr. C.A. DANA,
Associate Artist National Academy of Velocipedestrianism. The artist has
produced a picture that must inspire us all with the absolute truth of
the story it so dramatically tells, while he has filled our hearts with
deep sympathy and lofty admiration for the lovely and heroic combatant
depicted on his canvas. Our army officers--Col. FISK for example--who
are ignorant of the sword exercise may derive a hint from this spirited
work, as to the importance of obtaining a thorough mastery of the fence.
[Illustration]
Claude's renowned landscape of the "Ruined Mill" is familiar to all who
are acquainted with it, and has been greatly admired by those who did
not feel impelled to condemn its many faults. But CLAUDE is now known to
have been no artist, but a mere pretender. There is reason to believe
that he had never read RUSKIN, and was hence necessarily ignorant of the
aim and method of landscape painting. Our young friend BROWN, the
_spirituel_ and fascinating assistant Rector of a fashionable uptown
church, has in this gallery a rendering of a similar subject. How
manifest is his superiority to CLAUDE! With what truth and fidelity to
nature; with what holy calm, and child-like faith, and lofty aspiration
has BROWN filled his glowing canvas! And withal, he does not lead us
back to the dead faith and traditions of the past, save to urge us
onward in the pathway of--in the pathway--in short, to urge us on more
or less. To those envious minds who affect to regard BROWN as a mere
amateur, an undertaker of more than he has the ability to execute, we
would deign but one reply, and that would be, "Look at his trees in the
picture called the 'Ruins of the Mill,' and then cower back into your
native insignificance."
[Illustration: RUINS OF A MILL.]
There are many other pictures which we would like to notice in this
article, but want of space will forbid us to do so this week. We have
merely room to mention, with warm approbation, the exceedingly dramatic
little _genre_ picture entitled "Shoo-fly," by the veteran Minstrel, Mr.
DANIEL BRYANT, whose recent translation of HOMER has given him so high a
rank among the best German scholars of the day.
[Illustration: SHOE FLY!]
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