Studio: international art (45.1909)

Studio-Talk

PARIS.—In the large rooms of the Musée
des Arts Décoratifs there has been
open all through the summer an ex-
hibition, notable on account of both the
importance and the number of works shown, de-
voted to the theatre. There were six sections
occupied by Grecian and Roman antiquities con-
nected with the history of the theatre, also por-
traits and paintings in oil, pastels, water-colours,
drawings, designs for stage settings, busts, statuettes,
and lastly marionettes, costumes and stage
properties of all kinds. This shoit list will give
some idea of the scope and importance of the
exhibition.

The paintings and portraits of famous actors and
authors were by no means the least remarkable
feature of the show. Some, it is true, were of
merely documentary interest, and the work of no
important school of painting; others, on the con-
trary, were worthy to rank as masterpieces. Among
these latter we must not fail to mention in
particular the portrait of Adrienne Lecouvreur, by

Coypel ; that of the poet Ducis, by Baron Gérard ;
of Louise Dugazon, by Vestier; that of the actor
Talma, by Riesener ; then again the singer
Fésaugiers, by Boilly ; the musician Weber, by Sir
Thomas Lawrence ; the actress Déjazet, by Devéria ;
Tamburini., by Scheffer ; Jane Margyl, by Boldini.
There were also a number of contemporary
portraits shown, the actor Monnet-Sully, by
Fournier ; the celebrated baritone Faure, by Zorn ;
Massenet, by Cavaillé ; Reichenberg, by Saintin ;
Mdlle. Roggers, by Besnard ; and Worms, by Albert
Maignan.

It was, however, especially among the sketches
and drawings that one had some delightful
surprises. Among these, attention must be drawn
to an excellent 18th century watercolour drawing,
reminding one a little of the work of Louis
Moreau, and which we here reproduce. Though
it is impossible in the reproduct'on to give any
idea of the exquisite tones of blue in this work,
one is not the less able to appreciate the masterly
disposition of the figures and the charming