Page:Scottishartrevie01unse.djvu/363

PARIS ART CAUSERIE.

SCULPTURE will in all probability not be brilliantly represented at the Salon this year, as all the best, sculptors are engaged on orders for decorative groups or ornamental subjects for the Grand Kxhibition ; besides, the Retrospective Gallery of French Art, which will also contain the latest works of living artists, will throw the Salon exhibits quite in the shade, at all events as regards sculpture. Barrias, Chapu, Guillaume, Gauthier, Delaplanche, and other well-known masters will onlj' exhibit at the Palais des Arts, for all their time has been taken up with their decorative work at the Exhibition. This is what I have learnt in the course of recent peregrinations to the ateliers of the most celebrated Parisian sculptors. There are, however, some interesting exceptions. For instance, I found M. Falguiere at work on a marble figure, ' La Musique.' It is beautifully modelled and draped. The half-closed eyes and ecstatic expression of the face denote how deeplj' the sweet melody is woi-king its charm on the singer herself The general effect of this fine piece of .sculpture is perfect. At M. Dalou's I met with a very kindly rece))tion from that great but most modest of artists. He has not forgotten his long stay in England, nor the kind welcome he found there in the days of adversity, and he is alwa3-s jjleased to welcome an English visitor. A marble bust will be his only exhibit at the Salon, for all his time is occupied in superintending the modelling and casting of the monumental group, ' The Triumph of the Re- public," which is to be erected on the Place des Nations. He is also finishing the monument of Eugene Delacroix, which is to be placed in the garden of the Luxem- burg Palace. The monument, which presents a front- age of ten metres, will be essentially decorative, when erected in the middle of one of the tree-bordered avenues of the rose-garden, with its background of undulating green.swavd. It consists of a marble fount, elegant in design,in the midst of which stands the group, composed of Time holding Fame in his arms, while she deposits a wreath of laui'el at the base of the bust of the painter of ' The Entry of the Crusaders into Con- stantinople,' and Apollo applauds the just tribute of admiration rendered by the City of Paris to one of its greatest painters. The figures are about three metres in height. The bust of Delacroix which crowns the monument is a splendid specimen of the sculptor's art, a lifelike, characteristic likeness of the celebrated artist. But what is beyond description is the conscien- tious, masterly finish of the monument in its smallest details. M. Dalou is one of the few to whom no detail, however slight, comes amiss. It is consoling in these days, when the sole aim of artists appears to be effect and chic, to see with what care the technical part of the sculptor's art has been studied and carried out in this fine group. I was greatly struck by the tone of admiring respect with which the founder's foreman spoke of ' Monsieur Dalou,' as he explained to me the way in which the fragmentary casts which were lying about the atelier floor would be set up. His exclamation, ' Ah ! (jnel artiste ! Monsieur,' was worth all the official Mentions honorahles,

' La cigale, ayant chanti^ Tout I'ete.'

These, the well-known opening of Lafontaine's fable.