REPORT OF MR. MILLETT.
191
various costumes and peculiar customs, than any other country in Europe. It has yet almost unexplored fields for artistic labor as fertile as any in the world ; its history is full of incident and abounding in resources; infinite motives may he found for the genre painter, the peasant painter, the landscape or the animal painter;—and in Austrian art we find, with one or two noticeable exceptions, none of this home inspiration. There are French, German and Italian genres , historical scenes from each country and few from Austria.
The three prominent figures in the rank of artists are Mak- ai’t, Munkacsy and Matejko. Makart was not represented in the Exposition, but there were several historical pictures and portraits by Matejko, arid a good display of Munkacsy’s works. Matejko is a remarkable example of unselfish devotion to art for its own sake, and, as his pictures witness, he has a deep and serious purpose in painting. His art is the c 'hild of his patriotism, and he applies himself untiringly and constantly to the awakening of the slumbering patriotic ideas ha his unfortunate countrymen, and to the elevation of this People from the state of apathy into which they have been forced by years of oppression, and he devotes to this service his incontestable talent, illustrating the noblest and grandest incidents in the history of Poland. It is interesting to know something of the life of this painter, who joins with his wonderfully acute artistic nature such a deep and passionate patriotism. He is but thirty-three years of age, living in his dative village, Cracow, in the simplest manner, perhaps not untempted by, but yet proof against, the attractions of the honors and fortunes which await him in the Avide field open |° his talents in the outer Avorld. He lives Avith his family the most modest of cottages, almost a hut, and his studio, ^ it can be called such, is so small that he is unable to paint 011 more than a part of one of his large canvases at a time, ^ e mg obliged to roll it up as he finishes a portion. This lna y account somewhat for the occasionally remarked want °f harmony in the ensemble of his large works. It is said fdat the municipality of CracoAV have just decided to build *dm a comfortable studio out of the public funds.
His historical pictures shown in the Austrian department ' Ver e conceived by the artist Avith the idea of illustrating three