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Rh Parrish, Piatt, and Miss Pierce. There are also several Dutch exhibitors, while the indefatigable M. Besnard, above mentioned, contributes some etchings full of weird poetry and consummate lechnique.

Cabanel died last month. He was a much abused and also much o errated artist. During the Empire, owing to the high position he held in Court society, he was nicknamed the Pcivlrc ChamhcUaii ; yet, not- withstanding his failings, he was at heart a true artist.

Mr. William Stott of Oldham exhibits at the Durand-Ruel gallery the pick of what the French would term his ceuvre, that is, the sum-total of his best work up to the present day. The collection consists of thirty-four oil paintings, twenty three water-colour and three pastel drawings. We have already seen the best of these works at the Salon of the last seven years ; many of them have also been ex- hibited in England, for instance, the clever ' Portraits of my Father and Mother,' and ' Master Dickie Butler,' in which we find a touch of Velasquez. The weird (Scotch ?) lake scene entitled ' Moonrise ' is full of nocturnal poetry. There are also other works, such as ' The Birth of Venus,' and ' Endymion,' which will probably call forth a good deal of criticism, but unfor- tunately my space is too limited to say any more on the subject. We wish Mr. Stott all success, for he is one of the small number of English artists who are bold enough to uphold the standard of English art on the Continent. At the International Congress of Architects to be held in Paris in June next there will be an ex- hibition of the portraits of cele- brated architects. Amateurs or persons wishing to lend to this pri- vate exhibition portraits, sketches, or designs of any celebrated English or Scotch architect are begged to communicate with the secretary of the ' Congres des Architectes, Hotel des Societes Savantes, ^8 rue Serpente, Paris.'

Walter Runeberg, the well-known Finland sculptor, who for some years past has been an almost constant exhibitor at the Salon, is not likely to put in an appear- ance this year, for the Finland government have given him an order for the execution of the national monu- ment which is to be erected to the memory of the late Emperor of Russia, Alexander ii. The designing and the preliminary studies which so important a piece of work entails preclude the possibility of M. Runeberg doing anything else. To judge by the small plaster- cast model of the monument, and of some of the decorative figures, I think M. Runeberg's new work will meet with the approval of all good judges of sculpture. He has been particularly happy in his rendering of the anxious, careworn expression of the late Emperor's face, which to the careful observer offered so striking a contrast to his martial appearance. I allude to the expression, if not of fear, at all events of apprehension, which would sometimes come over the late Czar's countenance as, ' in his mind's eye,' he caught a glimpse of the shadow of the Nihilist Nemesis as it flitted before him, and forewarned him of his tragical death. Looking at M. Runeberg's model of the monument, I could not help wondering to myself why it has never occurred to an artist of original talent to lay aside the conventional design always adopted for funereal or commemoration monu- ments. When will a sculptor boldly come forward with a new idea, — something more natural, something which will remind future genera- tions of the life and real life-work of the man whose face and form he is called upon to immortalise in bronze or marble ? The traditional monument erected in these modern times to emperors, kings, warriors, and other human beings of greater worth, is an object sometimes of derision, but always distressing, to the artistic mind.

M. Paul Moiiet, the most talented artist of the Impressionist school, not excepting M. Camille Pissano, exhibits at Messrs. Boussod and Valadon's Rooms a series of pictures which offer a far deeper interest to artists than is to be found at any of the numerous coleiie exhibitions now on view. M. Monet is an Independent in the full force of the term; he has escaped the teachings of Cabanel, Bouguereau, and other impeccable Academicians; he may to some extent have been influenced by Courbet, Manet, and Pissano, but he has struck out a line for himself, and his only master has been nature. It is easy to understand that under such circumstances this clever artist has not met with much encouragement from the art critics or the press ; but undisturbed by the ignorance of the one, or the laughter of the other, he has pursued his ideal. The twelve or fourteen landscapes, marines, and figures which form his present exhibition are all of them remarkable. There is a freshness, an extra-ordinary mastery of the ambient effects of light and shade, and an impression so true to nature in his plein air scenes such as it would be difficult to find in any other landscape painter of the present day. His colours are laid on boldly with thick cmpdtementu after the manner of Courbet, particularly in his sea scenes ; his trees and