Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/950

 BISTORI— RIYIERE.

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detail. He was present as the representative of Prince Michael at the baptism of Prince Nicholas of Montenegro. While on his way back from Cettinge- he learned the news that Prince Michael had been assassinated (July 10, 1868), and had been succeeded by his grand- nephew. Prince Milan. The young Prince was then pursuing his studies at Paris, and the provisional government which had been estab- lished sent M. Ristich to that capital to escort him to Servia. On the Prince's arrival at Belgrade the Grand National Skupschkina was convoked, and nominated a Council of Regency, composed of three members, to govern the coun- try during the Prince's minority. M. Blasnavatz, M. Ristich^ and M. Gavrilovitch, formed this Council, which discharged its fimctions till 1872, when the Prince attained his majority. This Council then be- came a Ministry in which M. Ristich held the portfolio for Foreign Affairs, and on the decease of his colleague. Col. Blasnavatz, he became President of the Coimcil. He afterwards withdrew from pub- lic life for two years until the insurrection occurred in Herzego- vina, when he became Minister lor Foreign Affairs. In May, 1876, he and his friends returned to ofBce, which they had been obliged to resign eight months previously in consequence of the diplomatic pressure of the Cabinets of Vienna, Berlin, and St. Petersburg. He held the office of Foreign Minister during the disastrous war with Turkey (1877), in which the Ser- vians were thoroughly defeated. In 1878 he was sent to the Congress of Berlin.

RISTORI, Adelaide, tragic ac- tress, born at Cividale, in Friuli, in 1821, being the child of a poor actor, was trained at a very early age for the stage. She appears to have risen through a long series of strug- gles to the eminence she ultimately attained. Having accepted in 1855

an engagement in Paris, she sought the favour of a French audience as an interpreter of the tragic muse at the very time that Rachel was in the zenith of her fame. Her ap- pearance at such a period was re- garded by the French as an open challenge to contest the supremacy of their tragic queen, and they as- sembled much more disposed to criticise than to applaud. The genius of Ristori, however, triumphed, and from that moment her position has been unassailed. Her reception in England was equally enthusiastic, and she ap- peared in Spain in 1857, in Holland in 1860, in Russia in 1861, at Con- stantinople in 1864, in the United States, and other parts of the world, with success. William I. of Prussia gave her the medal in sciences and in arts in 1862. Amongst her most famous characters are those of Medea, Lady Macbeth, Fazio, Phaedra, Deborah, Judith, Fran- cesca da Riviera, and Camilla. After an absence of fifteen years, Madame Ristori again appeared in London, June 11, 1873, and on Nov. 8 in that year she took her farewell of the English stage at the Queen's Theatre, Manchester. She is mar- ried to the Marquis d61 Grille.

RIVIERE, Briton, R.A., a dis- tinguished animal painter, was born in London, Aug. 14, 1840, being the son of Mr. W. Riviere, who was head of the drawing school at Cheltenham College, and afterwards a teacher of drawing at Oxford. He found in his father an experienced and able master, under whom he studied during the nine years he was at Cheltenham and subsequently at Oxford. While studying art in the latter place the influences, other than artistic, by which he was always surrounded, prevailed to turn his attention to classical and other scholarly matters j he entered the University, took his B.A. degree in 1867, and that of M.A. in 1873. The first pictures he exhibited were home rural scenes, as " Rest from