REPORT OF MR. MILIETT.
171
ordinary formal» of praise. His pictures are models of a vigorous handling, strength of tone, and above all reproach of indecision of drawing or meagreness in any direction. A group of cattle and sheep under the trees; a simple motive, and a canvas of limited size; but no further example is needed to show the master in all his masculine strength. The tree trunks are marvels of fatness; the foliage is a wealth of tine tones ; and the broad side of the red cow in the light is as rich and varied as a Turkish carpet. In the whole department there was found scarcely an echo of the richness of color and vigorous strength of tone seen in Troy on’s pictures.
In this somewhat categorical review of French art, as seen at Vienna, I have endeavored to give an idea of the distinctive characteristics of the various classes of artists, and my opinion concerning; the school as a whole is elsewhere ex- pressed. Several well-known names will be missed from my list, no doubt. Difficulties arising between the selecting committee and the artists, analogous to those experienced in our own country, a want of harmony between these parties, induced even by political feeling, resulted in the refusal to exhibit by more than one famous painter.
The Spanish school has so many of the French elements in It, and the pictures shown in the exposition were so evidently influenced in their conception and treatment by French ideas, that this department properly follows the one just described. The general aspect of the small room that contained the Spanish pictures was unfavorable. The walls were hung high with large canvases, illustrating religious subjects, treated with the worst conventionalism, or indifferently successful attempts at historical pictures. There was, however, a rich tone of general color, an impress of a warmer sun and m °ro impulsive nature evident in most of the works. Two Portraits, by Navarre and Rodriguez respectively, both of sitters in rich costumes, and equally inspired by the lustre of the silk and the sparkle of the ornaments, more than by the character of the head, were in every way similar to the flashy canvases of Carolus Duran, and quite as meritorious. These, ^ 'th a few strong genres by Mauresa, as rich in color as a basket of Spanish fruit, complete the list of the noticeable