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OUR PRIVATE GALLERIES.

The Belmont Collection.

This admirable gallery includes among its treasures many of the old masters and-when open for exhibition—­a bewildering collection of young nurses.  The latter are frequently inaccurate in anatomical details, but in point of brilliancy of color they far outshine the best efforts of RUBENS and TITIAN.  The flesh tints produced by many of our Fifth Avenue belles infinitely surpass the obsolete tints upon which the great Venetians used to pride themselves.

In Mr. BELMONT’S gallery there are so many original RAPHAELS and MURILLOS, painted by the very best European artists of the present day, that it would occupy far too much of our limited space were we to notice them in detail.  We will therefore pass them by, and simply call attention to some of the more noteworthy pictures, executed by contemporary painters, which hang side by side with the more smoky but hardly less valuable works of antiquity.  Prominent among these is a modest little “Fruit and Flower” piece, by that promising young artist, Miss SUSAN B. ANTHONY.  It deserves especial praise for its accurate copying of nature, the varied beauty of its coloring, and the deep longing of the heart—­the hunger of the soul—­which must have inspired the fair artist.  We give a faithful sketch of this charming picture, though, of course, the glories of its rainbow hues cannot be represented here.

[Illustration:  FRUIT AND FLOWER PIECE.]

A beautiful work, and one evidently inspired by the sound of battle, is the noble historical painting entitled “On Picket,” by Mr. C.A.  DANA, Associate Artist National Academy of Velocipedestrianism.  The artist has produced a picture that must inspire us all with the absolute truth of the story it so dramatically tells, while he has filled our hearts with deep sympathy and lofty admiration for the lovely and heroic combatant depicted on his canvas.  Our army officers—­Col.  FISK for example—­who are ignorant of the sword exercise may derive a hint from this spirited work, as to the importance of obtaining a thorough mastery of the fence.

[Illustration]

Claude’s renowned landscape of the “Ruined Mill” is familiar to all who are acquainted with it, and has been greatly admired by those who did not feel impelled to condemn its many faults.  But CLAUDE is now known to have been no artist, but a mere pretender.  There is reason to believe that he had never read RUSKIN, and was hence necessarily ignorant of the aim and method of landscape painting.  Our young friend BROWN, the spirituel and fascinating assistant Rector of a fashionable uptown church, has in this gallery a rendering of a similar subject.  How manifest is his superiority to CLAUDE!  With what truth and fidelity to nature; with what holy calm, and child-like faith, and lofty aspiration has BROWN filled his glowing canvas!  And withal, he