Greenwood's "Notes from over the Sea," New York Times, Sep 24, 1876

Greenwood's "Notes from over the Sea," New York Times, Sep 24, 1876

Lippincott, Sara Jane (pseudonym: Grace Greenwood), 1832-1904

Actors and Actresses--French

Arts--Sculpture

Arts--Exhibits

France

England

Criticism

Praise

Greenwood writes this note from La Celle St. Cloud on Aug 28, 1876. She reviews some of the works, ideas, and the atmospere of the French and English salons, the art exhibitions. She also mentions Julian Hawthorne and the wedding anniversary of her hosts.

Lippincott, Sara Jane (pseudonym: Grace Greenwood), 1832-1904

H.J. Raymond & Co.

1876-09-24

Reference

[...] Nothing has ever more clearly revealed to me the great, irreconcilable difference between the English and French character than a morning's contemplation of the pictures in the Academy, after having visited the Salon at Paris. I do not think the English exhibition of this season equaled that of last year, but there were in it many lovely landscapes--landscapes with a soul in them--and many pictures of sentiment, exquisite in feeling and dainty and delicate in execution. [...]
Now, as to the French Salon. It was a very brilliant exhibition--especially, rich in portraits just ready to speak the choicest French and utter the most spiritual mots, and those lovely quaint little genre pictures, in which France excels the world. [...]
The next characteristic feature of the Salon of this year was the appalling array of nude women, mostly vulgar Venuses of the Mabille and the Valentin, born of no cleaner foam than that of the Seine in flood-time--about whom never hovered a dove or a love; [...]
In sculpture I was especially interested in the work of Mlle. Bernhardt, the young French actress of the Theatre Francais, who is said to be more like Rachel than any of her successors. She toils terribly--slight, delicate creature as she is--at her two kindred arts. [...]

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1876/09/24/93907362.html?pageNumber=4. Accessed 15 Sep 2021.