Paris herself again in 1878-9 . d the arabesques decorating the door-jambs, painted in oil andscrupulously defended by plate-glass panels, are frequently reallyexcellent works of art. I have been told recently of the sad endof a most capable artist, who for many years had devoted himselfto the decoration of the exteriors of pork-shops. He had under-gone a thorough academical training in the studio of a distin-guished French painter, and he had once competed, albeit unsuc-cessfully, for the Grand Prix de Rome. The subject given outon the occasion when the unfortunate deceased competed for thepr
Paris herself again in 1878-9 . d the arabesques decorating the door-jambs, painted in oil andscrupulously defended by plate-glass panels, are frequently reallyexcellent works of art. I have been told recently of the sad endof a most capable artist, who for many years had devoted himselfto the decoration of the exteriors of pork-shops. He had under-gone a thorough academical training in the studio of a distin-guished French painter, and he had once competed, albeit unsuc-cessfully, for the Grand Prix de Rome. The subject given outon the occasion when the unfortunate deceased competed for theprize was Trimalcions Banquet. The poor painter made thenecessary sketches, and was then securely locked up in his logeat the Ecole des Beaux Arts to paint his picture. The commis-sion, by whom it was subsequently examined, acknowledged thatall the details of still life in the picture were admirably could be more microscopically faithful to nature than the B8 PARIS HERSELF I ^^ r - ? -iy-W .: ,-?. Ms*- f1 .?-- v crayfish and the red mullet, the boars heads and the peacocks,the oysters and the wild ducks. Ah ovo usque ad malum, all theeatables were superbly imitated ; only the human personages werevillanously drawn and vilely coloured, so the Examining Com-mission did not send the unlucky competitor to the Villa result was that he became a painter of nature morte. Hevegetated long and miserably as a picture-dealers hack, but EASILY PLEASED. 89 at length found more remunerative patronage among the pork-butchers. As a painter of charcuterie the unsuccessful competitor for theGrand Prix de Home obtained a kind of renown. His garlands ofsausages, displayed against a sky of pure azure flecked with fleecyclouds, were enthusiastically spoken of in the Rue du Bac; he hada prodigious success on the Boulevard de Strasbourg with a hurede sanglier—a boars head austerely posed on a platter of oldFaenza ware ; and the Faubourg St. Denis was in rapture
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