CHAPTER XVI.

THE PALACE OF FINE ARTS.
t

A Magnificent Building Throughout — Paintings and Statuary From All Parts of the World — Private-
Collection of Painting From Many Homes — Pictures of Every Phase of Life and Nature — Ani-
mal and Portrait Paintings From All Lands— Hundreds of Beautiful Marine and Landscape
Sketches— Allegory and Mythology From Imperial Galleries — Schnidler's "Market Scene in
Cairo"— Canon's "Hunting Master"— The American Loan Association — Joe Jefferson "The Mauve"
— Hovendin's "Breaking Home Ties" — The Emperor Francis Joseph's Loan — England Surprises
With Her Beautiful Paintings and France Maintains Her Fame as an Art Center— Sketch of
Chief Ives.

HE Fine Arts Building of C. B. Atwood, with its two annexes,
is already famous for its architecture. It has even been called
"the greatest thing since Athens." It is the largest art gallery
ever constructed. There are in the building seventy-four
galleries of varying size, ranging from 30 feet square to 36
by 1 20 feet. It contains many picked pictures and statuary
and selections from nearly all the galleries of the world. The
construction is necessarily fire proof, the main walks are solid
brick covered with "staff" highly ornamented, while the roof,
floors and galleries are of iron. It is severely classic in ap-
pearance, being of the Grecian-Ionic style. The main building
is 500 by 320 feet with two annexes, each 120 by 200 feet, giving
a total floor area of 4.08 acres. The great central dome is 125 feet high, capped
with a colossal statue of Winged Victory, and is 60 feet in diameter. The building is
located in the northern portion of the park facing the lagoon on the south and the
handsomest state buildings on the north. It is surrounded with verdant lawns
which on the south are terraced down to the balustrades on the water's edge. There
is an immense flight of steps leading down from the main portal to the lagoon
where there is a convenient boat landing. It cost $735,811. The main building is
intersected by a nave and transept 100 feet wide and 70 feet high; between the
promenade and the naves are the smaller rooms devoted to private collections of
paintings and the exhibits of the various art schools. There are 145,852 square
feet of wall space, and the artists of all countries seem to vie with each other in the
delineation of figure painting; animal, child, character and portrait painting; marine
and landscape sketches, still life, Scriptural and mythological genre, allegory, in-
teriors, and pictures of every phase of life and nature.

As there are many thousands of paintings and statuary from all the art points
and galleries of Europe and America, Australia and Japan, and from other countries

HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR.

the author must content himself mentioning a few— conspicuously those in the
three rooms filled with the American loan collection. Comment on the value of
this part of the exhibition, considered both from an educational point of view and
a monetary one, is unnecessary. So large and varied a collection of paintings of
the same merit has never before been shown in this country. Even the famous
Paris collection representing a hundred years of French art does not surpass it.
Statistics in regard to the number of paintings and the various public-spirited
people who have loaned them to the Exposition can alone be of use^i emphasizing
the generosity and promptness with which Miss Sarah Hallowell's appeal for loans
was answered all over the country. Twelve Corots are in the three rooms, three

pictures by Bastien Lepage, two of Rosa
Bonheur's studies, "The Expulsion from
Paradise," "Midnight Moonlight," "The
Flight Into Egypt," and "Elsinore," by
Jean Charles Cazin, and by Millet six of
his most characteristic peasant pictures.
The first room one enters is hung entirely
with pictures representative of the im-
pressionist school. There are Raphaels,
Claude Monets, Pissaros and a Besnard,
which, although they affect the uninitiated
with a sense of rawness and incomplete-
ness, are nevertheless to be regarded with
interest if not with mixed admiration. In
the second room there is greater variety
and consequently more to please those
who do not regard art from a critical or
technical point of view. On one wall
alone there is a wonderful collection.
Alma Tadema's "Reading of Honor,"

loaned by Henry G. Marquand, hangs in the center. To the left, a little beneath
it, is Jules Dupre's masterpiece "At Sea," and to one side Corot's "Path to the
Village." A splendid piece of color is Isabey's "Fete of the Hotel de Ram-
bouillet." This hangs near a study of peasants by Joseph Israels, known as "A
Frugal Meal." Largest of all the canvases is "The Country Festival," a study in
rosy cheeks and graceful poses by Louis Knaus. Cazin's wonderful "Moonlight at
Midnight," Jan Van Beers' essentially modern "You Are Welcome," and R. C.
Bonnington's landscape complete the list on this side of the room. Scarcely less
remarkable is the wall directly opposite on which are hung Harry Thompson's
"Shepherdess," a simple peasant girl guarding her flocks on a sandy common;
Millet's "Pigkillers," two Corots— one a landscape near Ville d'Avery, a Daubigny,
and the famous Meissonier, "View Near Poisey— Reconnaissance."

The last room glows with vivid eastern coloring, Jean Leon Gerome, Tas-
saert's "Temptations of St. Hilarion," and the striking tones of Carolus-Duran's

GOLD FISH, BY FRED. W. FREER.

HISTORY. OF THE WORLD'S FAIR.

PORTRAIT OF AUGUSTUS ST. GAUDENS, BY KENYON COX.

"Odalisque" and "Por-
trait of Mme. Modjeska."
In this room, too, there
are three Corots, the "Or-
pheus," with its myste-
rious shadows, "Lot's
Wife," and a landscape.
The only Greuze in the
collection, "The Pouting
Child," and a landscape
by John Constable, the
English painter, are given
space here, and on the
north wall is a large study
by Rosa Bonheur of
sheep grazing on a hill-
side under a gray sky.
Millet's "Man With the

Hoe," "Haymaker" and "The Gleaners" are here to attract the attention of all
who have learned to know his peculiar style and choice of subjects. Two pictures
by Puvis de Chavannes, Jules Breton's "The Song of the Lark," "The Colza
Gatherers," Delacroix's "Turks Abducting a Girl," two marines by Manet, "Cat-
tle" by Troyon, and George Moreland's "Contentment" are some of the other
pictures that are conspicuous.

Among the people who have generously loaned their art treasures to the
Exposition must be counted Joseph Jefferson, who, although he parted reluctantly
with "The Mauve." the gem of his collection, is now congratulating himself that it
escaped the fire at Buzzard's Bay. Chicago connoisseurs have shown great
liberality in shar-
ing with the pub-
lic their private
collections.

Twelve paintings
from Potter Pal-
mer, eleven from