On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (7)
-
?£§ TtfE IjEAPEB. - [No. 279/SAiftrKDAY,
-
BISTOR I AND THE ENGLISH COMPANY IN PARI...
-
We are glad indeed to note the announcem...
-
We need only mention the production at t...
-
J^Ortfflllfl. I
-
We should do our utmost to encourage the...
-
THE GOLDEN AGE. (JFrom, Tknnvbon*8 Maud....
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
• The French Exhibition. The Best Of The...
fectory in a technical point of view , is , as a piece of dramatic narrative on canvas , one of the most striking works he has produced . The scene is the deck of the pirate ship , and through the shrouds to the spectators right , tie doomed merchantman is visible under easy sail at a little distance . Huddled together on the pirate ' s deck lie a heap of armed ruffians wa »* ing out of sight until the merchant ship approaches close enough to be boarded . The vessel is being " allured" by a bearded scoundrel with a voman s Bonnet on , displaying the back of it to the merchantman , and grinning at his comrades . A worthy fellow , naked to the waist , sits close to the bulwark , showing a -woman's straw hat and parasol just above it . Two other irates a « t the part of peaceful gentlemen , and a third stands
p playing the fiddle in a tub , to assist in giving the crew of the merchantman a notion that they are only approaching a yacht with pleasureseeking passengers on board . Here is a dramatic subject treated ^ in so dramatic a manner that we almost forget the technical faults of the picture . It is most unjustly hung in one of the worst places of the room , though it assuredly deserved one of the best Can the Visiting Committee of ^ the French Exhibition have admitted to their councils the Hanging Committee for this year of the English Koyal Academy ? M . Biaki > could not have been used worse if he had exhibited during the present season in
Trafalgar-square . A third beautiful picture—very small , very unpretending , and very badlv hung—is by M . E » ooaei > Pierre Fhere . It is numbered 73 , and is called " The New Scrap-book . ' * Two little children have run away to enjoy their new scrap-book by themselves , and have taken refuge on the stairs of the house , where they sit , close to the staircase-window , poring over the first print in the scrap-book . This little domestic episode has been observed with the eye of a true poet . The chudren are painted with delicious simplicity and truth , and the lights and shades are dispersed over the whole picture with equal force , breadth , and fidelity . It was a lamentable error , to say the least of it , not to have hung this exquisite little work level with the eye . . .
__ „ . , ,, MM . Sceteffbr , Djbuaboche , and Hoback Verket are incomprehensibly misrepresented by pictures which , we will venture to say , are the very Worst they have ever painted . Except in the one case of M . Dei ^ hoche ' s old well-known , and somewhat over-estimated " Strafford Going to Execution , " the three most famous painters of the French school are also the three exhibitors of the worst works in the room at Pali-Mall . How these eminent men , who have honestly -won great reputations , can permit these reputations to be trifled with , as they are certainly trifled with , in the present French Exhibition , we are quite at a loss to conceive . . MM . Fichex and PtASSAtr , who made such a sensation last season by their tiny and delicate genre pictures , hardly do themselves justice this year . ? 1
" Bed Timeand " The First Whisper of Love" 0 which latter picture , however , the female figure is a direct plagiarism from Wbckie ' s " Meg , " in " Duncan Gray / ' } are perhaps the best works by these two artists . M . Frcrax ' s " Luncheon , " which has been purchased by the Queen ' , has not struck us particularly . It looks like a Frenchified imitation of Terberg . M . Charles Negre has two little pictures ( Nos . 155 and 156 ) which the visitor to the Exhibition will do well to look at ; and M . Lambisfet has a nice sunny landscape , called " The Bathers , " which is veiy pleasant in colour , but rather , mannered in execution . Other works of merit we must leave our readers to discover for themselves . The French Exhibition , they will find , has the great merit of not bewildering the eye by more pictures than can be comfortably seen at one visit .
?£§ Ttfe Ijeapeb. - [No. 279/Saiftrkday,
? £ § TtfE IjEAPEB . - [ No . 279 / SAiftrKDAY ,
Bistor I And The English Company In Pari...
BISTOR I AND THE ENGLISH COMPANY IN PARIS . ( From a Correspondent in Paris . " ) , . . . Some surprise has been excited among the friends of Madame Ristobi in Paris , that is to say more than half the public , not so much by a petulant letter of Mr . W . ah . ack , scolding her for not giving him her autograph , but by the manner in which that letter has been received . It surely contains no serious charge at all , and yet is calculated to produce a very unfavourable impression . The simple truth is , that Mr , Waxlack ' s company failed , perhaps , from want of taste in the public ; whilst the company that played on alternate nights , met with wonderfiil success , certainly not from want of taste in the public . . Hence a little soreness and irritability , which micrht bave been mistaken for jealousy , on one side . As for Madame
Ristori , her conduct seems to me to have been admirable throughout , especially in the very circumstance that Mr . Waiaack so unadvisedly brings against hejr . At tlie very zenith of her success she passes through the street , and beholds a variety of members of the English company , supernumaries possibly , in a state of apparent distress . Not being accustomed to the eccentric manners of our rough islanders , on the contrary , being accustomed in her own bright country to see even the candle-snuffer dressed like a gentleman off the boards , she may have mistaken for signs of destitution a certain picturesque disregard of conventionalities in which our estimable brigands one , two , and three , villagers , murderers , couriers , and so on , sometimes indulge . This is quite beside the question . The interesting fact is that , she was moved with pity ; but instead of proceeding in the theatrical manner ascribed to her , merely uttered « a few words of womanly
sympathy to the first friends she met , and shortly afterwards offered to play for the benefit of the English company . In attacking Madame Ribtoki for not choosing to answer his letter , Mr . WawiAck ought not to have forgotten to mention this circumstance , especially as although the offer was at first refused , it was subsequently accepted ; and Francesca da Rimini was actually performed for the benefit of the very persons whom she is now represented as having insulted . The report published in the Daily News of three hundred francs emptied into the laps of the English company * , has been contradicted " by authority , " and quite sufficiently in various English and ^ foreign journals ; and Mr . Waliack has himself had an opportunity of saying " it is not true , " and that Madame Bistori told him it was not true . What xnor 0 can he want ? Tie public will take hia word . It docs not require any corroboration . It is necessary , however , to add that the contradiction should not have been accompanied by such words afl " little base theatrical
nreliminarypufT , " for they evidence anger , and point to circumstances which LTnot mentioned . The fact is , that Madame Ristobi , who _ has all the snirit and the simplicity of an Italian lady , and who thought , that to write tothe press herself would really look like puffing , eagerly promoted the contradiction of the rumour , and was so afraid of hurting the feelings of a body of fellow-artists , whom she sincerely believed to be poor , that she denied with amusing energy the fact of her being charitably inclined at all ! It would have much better served her purpose to spread abroad that she had given a benefit to the English—as Mademoiselle Rachbl > as done--but she relies solely on her own genius , which must be powerful indeed if she break through all the snares l ^ d for her . I need not add that her reputation rises every week . As to the non-success of the English company , it is attributed by Mr . Waixack to " gross mismanagement . " I doubt , however , whether any
management would have ensured another result . The fact is , that except in official circles , for temporary reasons , the English are not popular here . Why should we expect to be so ? We are endeavouring to make up by our stupid Cockney enthusiasm for the silence of public opinion . We alone bellow applause in the ears of a man round all whose steps curses hiss as he goes . We alone take off our hats in the Champs-Elysdes and cheer uneasy Power as it hurries by . We ' alone provoke discussions in cafe ' s , and compliment moody Frenchmen on their glorious Emperor . We alone inanely admit that the new Rue de Rivoli is an equivalent for liberty lost , the press gagged , everything that a nation prizes taken away . Other foreigners have shameful and uffect to
the tact at any rate to conceal their predilections , imitate French sadness and humiliation . In this case , as usual , we show a certain gross straightforwardness—which is one element of our strength aa it is one chief reason of our unpopularity . For unpopular we are in France—there is no denying it ; and as to an English artiste or company succeeding there in these days , the thing \ s simply impossible . I have never seen any really honourable mention in l * arisian criticism ofnetor , singer , or musician of true British origin , except in the case of the Brothers Binfield ; and their reputation as pianists and harpists was made before the " alliance , " with all the base complaisance it has rendered necessary , turned French kindness sour . ......
We Are Glad Indeed To Note The Announcem...
We are glad indeed to note the announcement of the Prophele for Tuesday next , at the Eovax , Italian Opera , with Madame Viaudot , the original , and only , Fides , and Tamberlik , who , like Viardot , has been seen and heard far too seldom this season ( and who , we have heard with much regret , will not return to us next year ) in the great part of John of Leyden . The season is no \ r drawing to a close , and we hear it asked if the Trovatorc is finally shelved ? Has not Madlle . Bosio studied the part of Leonora ? Tiie Etoile du Nord is a success of esteem , of curiosity , and of spectacle , but it cannot be said that the magic has caught the ear of the town .
We Need Only Mention The Production At T...
We need only mention the production at the Havmakket Theatre of a new play in five acts , by Miss Heuaco , with Mrs . Edith Heraud in the part of the heroine . The play , Wife or no Wife , is in blank verse , Elizabethan in form , " legitimate" in length . There is power of more than one kind in the writing , but power unfortunately expended on five acts to a listless audience , in the dog-days . Haydon was beaten by General Tom Thumb , and Mr . Heraud may without humiliation confess the superior attraction of the Spanish dancers . Miss Edith IIeuaud has youth , feeling , intelligence , and a prepossessing simplicity and pure devotedness , to recommend her to all honest sympathies ; but the truth is , nothing can make an Elizabethan play in five acts and blank verse go down in July , a . d . 1855 .
J^Ortfflllfl. I
^ nrtfnlia .
We Should Do Our Utmost To Encourage The...
We should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful enccuragee itself . —Gobthk .
The Golden Age. (Jfrom, Tknnvbon*8 Maud....
THE GOLDEN AGE . ( JFrom , Tknnvbon * 8 Maud . ") * • • • Why do they prat © of the blessings of Peace ? we have mode them a curse , Pickpockets , each hand lusting for all that ia not its own ; And lust of gain , in the spirit of Cain , is it better or worse Than the heart of the citizen hissing in war on his own hearthstone ? But the « o are the days of advance , the works of thq men of mind , When who but a fool would have faith in a tradesman's ware or his word ? Is it peace or war ? Civil war , aa I think , and that of a kind The viler , as underhand , not openly bearing the sword . Sooner or later I too may passively take the print Of the golden age—why not ? I have neither hope nor trust ; May make my heart as a millstone , set my face as a ( lint , Cheat and be cheated , and die : who knows ? we are ashes and dust . Peace sitting under her olive , and Blurring the days gone by , When the poor are hovcll'd and hustled togethor , each sex , like swine , When only the ledger lives , and when only not all men lie ; Peace in her vineyard—yes ! — but a company forges the wino . And tho vitriol madness flushes up in the ruffian ' s head , Till the filthy by-lane rings to tho yell of the trampled wife , While chalk and alum and plaster nre sold to the poor for bread , And tho spirit of murder works in the very moans of life . And Sleep must lie down armVI , for tlte villainous centre-bits Grind on the wakeful ear in the hush of tho moonless nights , While another is cheating tho nick of a few laHt gasps , as he Bits To pestle a poison'd poison behind his crimson lights . When a Mnmmonito mother kills her babe for a burial fee , And Timour-Mammont grins on a * pile of children's bones , Is it peace or war ? better , war 1 loud war by land and by sea , War with a thousand battles , and shaking a hundred thrones . m m m m * '
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), July 28, 1855, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28071855/page/20/
-