luminous and beautiful view of the Thames from the garden of a house at Mortlake, brought 5,200 guineas. The well-known pair, 'Going to a Ball: San Martino, Venice,' and 'Returning from the Ball: St. Martha, Venice,' 24 inches by 36 inches, now realised 5,600 guineas the pair. At the Windus sale in 1853 the pair fetched 1,120 guineas; nineteen years later, at the Gillott sale, they realised 3,200 guineas.

The

The best works of that drunken but highly gifted artist George Morland have also increased in popularity during the last few years. Two or three examples alone will demonstrate this fact. charming picture in the Price sale entitled 'Mutual Confidence' sold in 1864 for 60 guineas; in 1876 for just double that amount; in June it brought 940 guineas. The refined and beautiful work known as the 'Visit to the Child at Nurse,' for which the late Mr. Huth paid a comparatively small amount, brought 1,050 guineas. The pair, 'Pheasant Shooting' and 'Partridge Shooting,' for which Mr. Huth paid less than 100l. brought at his sale over five times that sum. The authenticity of the Visit to the Child at Nurse' was much questioned at the time of its appearance in the sale-room; certainly, it is entirely different to Morland's usual style, but no doubt can be entertained as to the great beauty of the work.

6

David Cox is another artist whose work more than maintains the very high favour accorded to it by collectors during the last few years. Drawings which were positively unsaleable during the artist's lifetime now realise comfortable fortunes in a small way. For instance, the drawing of A Welsh Funeral, Bettws-y-Coed' was worked off in 1849 as an Art Union prize, of the value of 20l.; at the Craven sale on the 18th of May it brought 2,400 guineas! A somewhat smaller drawing than this, Windsor Great Park,' sold in 1867 for 177 guineas; it has now advanced to 1,350 guineas! The Craven sale included six small drawings, averaging about 24 inches by 34 inches, which produced a total of over 6,000l. For this half a dozen Cox received perhaps less than 2001., and considered himself not at all badly paid! And yet Cox, like Romney, was not deemed artist good enough to be admitted into the Royal Academy fellowship! Time does indeed play some curious tricks on the judgment of mortals; and of the first thirty-four artists' who constituted the Royal Academy at its formation in 1768, not half a dozen have survived the test of time! The nineteenth century may, at its close, be found to add another six to that number.

With a few more illustrations of the high prices paid for works by the best English artists, we will pass on to another phase of the subject. Among the three Hoppners in the Price collection, the most notable, a three-quarter-length portrait of Lady Coote, seated on a bank under trees, in a black dress with short sleeves, brought 1,800 guineas, and a half-length of Lady Gordon in a brownish-yellow dress,

1,090 guineas-unusually good prices for Hoppners. But both these figures were considerably below the amount paid for the fine portrait of Admiral Nelson, which certainly ought to pass into the possession of the nation; this work fetched 2,550 guineas on the 13th of July. The two portraits in the Price sale by Sir W. Beechey, characteristic examples of whose work rarely come into the market, were a threequarter length of Frederica Charlotte Catherine, Duchess of York, which brought 1,200 guineas, and a nearly full length of Lady Barnard, which sold for 1,180 guineas. The works of both Beechey and Hoppner are rare, although they were prolific artists; but the prices now paid for good examples are a curious contrast to those which obtained. up to quite recently. In spite of the fact that Landseer has been on the decline for some years past, an incident occurred on the 25th of May which would point to an emphatic revival of the great animal-painter's popularity. The celebrated picture of ‘Chevy'

Weel, sir, if the deer got the ball,

Sure's Deeth, Chevy will no' leave him—

which is widely known through T. Landseer's spirited engraving, on the occasion referred to realised the very high amount of 5,700 guineas. In April 1894 this same work was sold in the same place for 3,750 guineas. It is obvious that this apparently strange contingency has not arisen through any revival in the fashion for Landseers, but is simply the result of a competition between two rich men. The same rivalry doubtless accounts for the fact that John Phillips's large and decorative picture 'Early Career of Murillo' realised just exactly the same amount in 1895 as in 1886, namely, 3,800 guineas. The grand marine subject, catalogued as by J. S. Cotman, and the brilliant view of Carnarvon Castle by Müller may be mentioned as having fetched 2,200 and 2,300 guineas respectively in the Price sale. It is pleasant to know that the former is to go to the National Gallery.

Some choice examples of the Dutch school of painting have come under the hammer during the past season. The prices may be said to be well maintained, and in many instances considerably 'bettered.' For example, the important Cuyp, a portrait of [the Prince of Orange with his sons, prepared to start for the chase, fetched 530 guineas at the Sanderson sale in 1848; it realised 2,000 guineas in the Lyne-Stephens sale in May last. An excellent example of Isaac Ostade, a scene in front of an inn door, with a gentleman about to mount a grey horse, signed, and dated 1665, brought 1,660 guineas; an exceedingly beautiful combination of Rubens and Breughel, the Holy Family, surrounded by a garland of flowers, 26 inches by 20 inches, brought 555 guineas-the latter picture may be pointed out as an exception, inasmuch as it fetched 1,440l. when last sold. An admirable example of Terburg, a

gentleman paying his addresses to a lady, the engraved picture, sold with the Lyne-Stephens property for 1,950 guineas. The Clifden sale at Robinson and Fisher's, in May, included a superb Hondecoeter, a composition of poultry, ducks, peacock, peahen, &c., in an Italian garden, 4,150 guineas. A superb sea-view of Jacob Ruysdael, 'The Entrance to the Y,' from the Clewer Manor collection, realised 4,200 guineas on July 25; a perfect and beautiful view on the same river by W. Van de Velde, painted in his early time, and formerly in the collection of the Marquis of Bute at Wroxton, 16 inches by 22 inches, brought 810 guineas in the same sale as the Ruysdael; whilst a view in a canoe by Hobbema realised 1,450 guineas. The only noteworthy Rembrandt of the season was a portrait of a young man, formerly at Stowe, which sold for 1,100 guineas. There is a curious decline in the competition for pictures of Italian scenes by Dutch masters such pictures are only successful on exceedingly rare

occasions.

The Lyne-Stephens collection contained a few noteworthy Spanish pictures, the most important being a Velasquez full-length portrait of a young lady called an Infanta, with blonde crimped hair inclosed behind in a red net. This was in the Duc de Morny sale in 1867, when it fetched 51,000 francs, or rather more than 2,000l.; in twenty-eight years it has advanced to 4,300 guineas. The second was a fine and important Murillo, representing Faith presenting the Eucharist, 64 inches by 96 inches; it was originally painted for a semicircular space on the wall of the epistle nave of the church of St. Maria la Blanca, and forms a companion to the Immaculate Conception now in the Louvre, which was purchased at the sale in 1852 of Marshal Soult for 586,000 francs.3 The Lyne-Stephens picture was brought from Spain by General Faviers, but was not in his sale in 1837; in the Pourtalès sale in March 1865 it realised 67,500 francs; in May last it fetched 2,350 guineas. A very fine old copy of the three-quarter-length portrait by Velasquez, Philip IV., which realised the price of an original-71,000 francs-at the Salamanca sale of 1867, dropped to 390 guineas in May; and a frequently repeated bust by the same artist of the Infanta Maria Teresa in black and white dress brought 770 guineas. Among the late Lord Clifden's pictures a Velasquez portrait of Mariana of Austria, second wife of Philip IV. of Spain, brought 2,300 guineas; whilst of the three pictures which were withdrawn at the last moment from Clewer Manor sale in 1876, and came up again at Christie's on the 13th of July last, the well-known Murillo, 'The Holy Family,' 46 inches by 43 inches, sold for 4,000 guineas; this picture was formerly

See Le Trésor de la Curiosité tiré des Catalogues de Vente, vol. ii. p. 491. MM. Lafenestre and Eugène Richtenberger, in their admirable work on the Louvre, give the price paid for it as 615,300 francs. Commission charges would probably make up for the difference in the two amounts.

in the collection of Lord Nugent, and afterwards of Sir William Eustace, from whom the late Mr. Foster purchased it.

A good number of excellent pictures by French artists have come into the sale-room during the past season. The Lyne-Stephens collection included the portrait on panel of a lady in white muslin dress and claret-coloured jacket, by Madame Vigée le Brun, which went for 2,250 guineas; Nattier's portrait of a lady of the Court of Louis the Fifteenth, supposed to be one of his daughters, seated on clouds and holding two doves, reached 3,900 guineas; and a beautiful specimen of Watteau, the celebrated 'La Game d'Amour,' of the finest quality, and well known through the engraving by P. L. Le Bas, brought 3,350 guineas. Toqué's portrait of Marie Leczinski, Queen of Poland, fetched 1,120 guineas at the Clifden sale.

Finally the old Italian masters were en évidence in a number and variety which probably never occurred in any one season during the past half-century. A collection comprising about 1,000 'old masters' and miniatures was formed by the late Henry Doetsch, of New Burlington Street. The annals of picture sales probably cannot furnish a fiasco so deservedly complete as that which attended this sale. The collection is said to have cost the late Mr. Doetsch about 100,000l.: the total result did not amount to 13,000l.! The surprising thing is that Messrs. Christie & Co. were induced to undertake the sale of this vast assemblage of rubbish, for where the few examples may have been genuine at one time, the restorer has all but completely obliterated the traces of the master hand. The portentous catalogue of this collection occupied 126 pages, and was burdened not only with a superfluous preface from Dr. Richter, but with pedigrees which are more than doubtful, and some of which have certainly been impugned. The average result of this sale gives about 25l. to each work of art,' although very few individually reached even that amount. It is a relief to know that many of these pictures have gone to America. That so much rubbish should exist anywhere on the face of the earth is a disquieting reflection to those who are at all acquainted with the truly great works of the Italian school; and that their names and fame should be so dragged through the mud is a public scandal.

W. ROBERTS.

VOL. XXXVIII-No. 223

I I

LION HUNTING BEYOND THE HAUD

BEING a member of the profession of arms, I thought myself very lucky when I last year found myself entitled to sufficient leave to make it worth while going abroad in search of sport. A brother officer being in the same enviable position, we decided to join forces, and to 'go foreign' together to some spot where sport and economy could simultaneously be practised. Various localities, from the Zambesi to the Pamirs, came under consideration, but in the end we decided to take tickets for Aden and to try our luck in Somaliland.

I will not presume too much on any one's geographical knowledge, but will say at once that the country in question occupies the most easterly corner of Africa, and adjoins Abyssinia. Those who examine a German map will find that the sphere of British influence is depicted as being very small indeed; while those who look at an English map will notice a corresponding decrease of French, Italian, and German influence, as represented by the dabs of various colours. which are spread about the chart of this barren promontory.

We will leave the account of the journey to Aden to the guide books, and will commence with our arrival at that cheerless rock. The welcome of the Assistant Resident there (why should any one want assistance to reside anywhere?) was not encouraging, being as follows: Oh, you're here, are you? We were just going to wire to the Foreign Office to stop you. I don't know where you can go, the country is shot out.' Cheerful, this! But our discouragement was not commensurate with the poor prospect he afforded us; and, seeing we were bent on going, this gentleman afforded us every assistance in his power. After two days at Aden my companion, whom I will call V., went over to Berberah, from which place we had decided to go up country, for the purpose of buying camels and other necessaries, and of engaging men. I spent a boresome fortnight at Aden, awaiting the cargo boat with our stores, ammunition, and guns. At last she arrived, the goods were transhipped to the Tuna, a little tub plying from Aden to the Somali coast, I got on board-a proceeding materially altering her draught-and off we went.

Reaching Berberah on a Thursday evening, we passed one night there under the roof of the Political Resident, whose hospitality to