known orders of courses and combinations. er cut than a hundred years ago, were | tions of a bill of fare which reversed all better posted on the tonnage and speed of the Atlantic steamers than we were ourselves, and had no little knowledge of the politics of the world. Emigration seems to be chiefly caused by the high rate of taxes-in some parishes ten per cent. on the net income--and by the low wages for labor-one crown and a half-about forty cents- -a day. The proportion of cleared land to forest is very small, and the reason given for this is the expectation of a new division of land. "No one," say the farmers, "will improve his land as long as there is a prospect of a new division. Those who are badly off are always clamoring for this new division, and when it comes it will take at least fifteen or twenty years to execute it, and meanwhile everything will be in confusion." The trouble is that the farmers' sons, when they marry, receive a definite portion of the farm as their inheritance. This custom has naturally tended to a great subdivision of the land, and furthermore has brought about, after several generations, an inextricable confusion of titles. The farms of any great extent are now made up of many small parcels of land scattered all over the country. Some farmers have pasture lands adjacent; others must drive their cows a day's journey, and keep them there all summer at great inconvenience. To remedy this confusion a new division of land is sometimes resorted to. This may be decided upon by a vote of the parish; and if the grumblers carry the day, the land is re-divided, the proportion accurately fixed, and the farm boundaries properly adjusted. This primitive method of settlement of a great difficulty is not without its injustice, and a new division causes no end of disturb ance and ill feeling When we drifted around to Noret, in Leksand parish, again, after a short season among the villages and in the evergreen forests, we felt as if we had been living in the past centuries. When we left the inn on our previous visit the landlord insisted on letting the bill stand unpaid-whether a long-headed scheme on his part to secure our return, or a freak of confidence, we could not tell. But he knew far better than we how all roads out of Dalecarlia led through Leksand, and how potent are the attractions of country and people. He thought, too, perhaps, that we could not long resist the gastronomical tempta Popular excitement in Leksand is apparently gauged by the importance of the funerals on Sunday. Otherwise these holidays are repetitions of solemn assemblies under the birch-trees and devout attendance at the church service. When, as sometimes happens, only one coffin is brought to the church-yard, and that containing perhaps only a small child, the disappointment of the old women is not concealed. On such occasions they shake their heads and whisper to one another as the bier passes, “Only a small affair, after all." This entertainment was more emotional than amusing, and we found it so depressing after a while to have human mortality so constantly forced upon our consideration that we systematically forbore assisting at any assemblage of peasants on the Sabbath, sure that a funeral or something equally solemn would be the attraction. One week-day it was announced by the town-crier that an auction of household goods would be held at a certain place. At the time named there was a great collection of peasants in holiday dress around the portico of a large log building in the market-place. When we approached all was quiet, and we supposed it was the hush preceding the announcement of "third and last call—sold.” But as we reached the door we noticed the men standing with uncovered heads in the attitude of prayer. From the open windows of the house came the droning sound of the pastor's voice. We retreated as quietly as we could, convinced that they were taking advantage of the crowd to get up a funeral and enjoy some emotional excitement. We hurried away to the music of a mournful hymn. The landlady, who took a motherly interest in our study of the people, and had pointed out to us every character of note in the parish, from the peasant with an income of fifteen thousand dollars a year to the heroic father of twenty-three children, intercepted our flight, and assured us that it was really an auction, and not another funeral, declaring that parish auctions always opened with prayer and a hymn. We therefore returned to the house, and entered. On one side of the large low room sat on rude benches a multitude of women and children, and facing them in solemn ranks sat the men. At the end of the room was a large table piled up with endeared numbers of the Leksand beauties to the strangers. The absence of darkness prevented any approach to romantic social intercourse, and we had to satisfy ourselves with the privilege not granted to the youths of the parish, of speaking to any one, even in the market-place. A parting entertainment was given us in the village, at which we drank with well-concealed repugnance the sweet punch and the native spirits and water, eating inordinately, as one must do to satisfy Swedish hospitality. The gentle manners of the people and the perfect peace of their pastoral lives had made the anticipation of return to the turmoil of civilization far from agreeable, and we prepared for departure with sincere regret. When we stood on the deck of the little steamer and waved handkerchiefs to the kaleidoscopic crowd on the wharf, a soiled and crumpled bit of paper fell from my companion's pocket. I quietly picked it up and examined it. It was a leaf surreptitiously torn from a guide-book long out of date, and the last paragraph read: "The best time to visit Lake Siljan is in the height of summer, when the vegetation is in perfection, and when the younger members of the community while away the long twilight with dances around the richly decked village May-pole." IN NICAISE DE KEYSER. N the art galleries of Europe, perhaps no vestibule detains the visitor longer, and no single work inspires and instructs the artist more, than the vestibule of the Antwerp Museum, on whose walls and ceiling is painted, in a series of remarkable scenes, "L'Histoire de l'École d'Anvers," the result of ten years of the labor of the Flemish artist M. Nicaise de Keyser, who has been at the head of the Antwerp Royal Academy of Art since 1855. The actual painting of this great work, intrusted to M. De Keyser by the government and town council of Antwerp, was not begun before 1867, but M. De Keyser entered upon the preparatory historical studies, experimental sketches, examinations of types, draperies, etc., in 1862. In order to personally inform himself as to every authentic record and representation, whether of pen, pencil, or brush, of the characters and influences to be delineated in his art epic, he travelled through Europe, spending much time in La Bibliothèque Richelieu in Paris, and visiting the artists, the studios, galleries, and libraries of Amsterdam, the Hague, Dresden, Berlin, and London. The painting was completed in 1872, and in August of that year the formal unveiling of the treasures of the vestibule was made the occasion of a splendid public celebration. The eminent architect and director of art improvements in Edinburgh, Mr. John Lessels, himself a very clever water-colorist, acquainted with every aspect of art on the Continent, and accustomed to make a yearly tour of Europe for artistic purposes, attended this fête, and wrote an interesting account of it to the Edinburgh Scotsman, pronouncing "L'École d'Anvers" to be "the most important work of art completed within the last two centuries." The old low, dark, and comfortless vestibule of the Musée d'Anvers was made lofty and well lighted from the roof for the reception of M. De Keyser's work, which covers the four side walls and the coved ceilings to the roof-light; but the work in the ceiling and on the east wall, though a part of the whole, and in every respect as carefully studied and nobly finished, belongs in a supplementary sense to the main painting, which, in a continuity of groups, occupies the west (or central) and north and south walls. This supplementary work is intended to illustrate by incidents in the lives of the great masters the influences which impressed the origin and affected the progress of the school of Antwerp as these are portrayed on the three chief panels. The west panel, containing the central group, is over forty-two feet long by sixteen feet in height, and represents fiftytwo of the most important figures in Antwerp art.* The other eighty-four figures, forty-two each on the north and south panels, comprise the entire assembly of * A copy of a section of this panel-and the only copy that has ever been taken-has been furnished expressly for this article by M. De Keyser, and contains what are considered to be the best existing portraits of Rubens, Jordaens, Schut, Del Monte, Van Diepenbeck, De Vos, Teniers, Vandyck, Crayer, Quellin, Van Thulden, François, Wouters, Van Balen, and Snyders. the Antwerp masters. The beauty of the coloring, the naturalness of pose, the faithful life-likeness, of each of these one hundred and thirty-six portraits of celebrated artists-careful also to the least details of the costume of the person and time-are even less impressive to the student of art than the power by which each of these portraits is made to express the very manner and dominant characteristic of its original, not only in his individuality, but in his personal relations to the others of the school with whom he is so intimately grouped. The groups on the right hand of the Genius of Antwerp are the architects and painters of "the period of Gothic art up to the time of Quentin Matsys." Appelmans, who made the plan for the Antwerp Notre Dame, and Henry Lepas, builder of the old London Exchange, are conspicuous among the architects. Matsys appears as when engaged in sketching the picture of the "Head of Christ" in the Antwerp gallery. And a little farther on are the imitators of the Italian schools, with their leader, Frans Floris. As the picture spreads to and over the north and south walls, we have also the famous engravers who popularized the works of Rubens, the groups of genre painters and masters up to the opening of this century, and the metal-chasers and wood-carvers, all of the Antwerp school, and most appropriately grouped with that 6 emy, Paris' (1677). 'Quentin Matsys re- The consummate art of "L'École d'Anvers" must be as generally and naturally conceded as the art of Shakspeare; but in another far less ambitious and far less difficult work M. De Keyser has been signally gifted with the mightier touch that makes the whole world kin. This picture, of which also the only copy ever taken has been furnished for this paper, is, or was when I saw it on the 17th of September, 1880, in the Musée des Académiciens in Antwerp. It covers a canvas of 2.59 meters in height by 3.09 meters in width, and is entitled "Charles Quint délivrant les Esclaves chrétiens à Tunis." Just as "L'École" commands admiration and gradually excites the intellect to a powerful degree, so the "Charles Quint" stirs the heart. The one is felt as a large landscape inclosing both human and natural drama, enriched by the evening's glow; the other is felt like the touch of a warm true hand in an hour of lonely brooding. "These pictures, although of smaller dimensions than the central ones, are still very large, and here the artist, with his wonderful skill and noble aspiration, has had a magnificent field for his pencil, and has used it with equal success as in the larger works. First is shown the influence undergone by the school of Antwerp from its connection with other schools, as John van Eyck, of Bruges, conversing with Roger vander Weyden' concerning art (1420): the latter became afterward the master of Quentin Matsys (1515). 'Bernard van Orley receiving Lessons from Raphael.' Second, the influence of the school of Antwerp on foreign countries: 'Pope Gregory XIII. giving Orders to Mathew and Paul Bril,' landscape painters of Antwerp, to paint in fresco several rooms in the Vatican. 'The Emperor Rodolph II. of Vienna visiting the Studio of the Flemish Painter Bartholomew Sprang er.' 'Denis Calvart, of Antwerp,' one of the founders of the Bolognese school, teaching Guido Reni and Albani' (1601). 'Anthony Vandyck painting the Portrait of Charles the First' of England (1635). In this picture the King is standing before the artist, and the well-known equestrian portrait is in progress and well advanced. This picture, both in drawing and color, is one of the best of the series. Artus Quellin,' the celebrated carver of Antwerp, so well known by his work in the several churches of his native city, is *showing André de Graaf, Burgomaster, the Works intended for the Town-hall at Although sixty-seven years old when I Amsterdam' (1663). 'Gerard Edelinck, visited him at his residence in Antwerp, of Antwerp, receiving from the hands of De Keyser stood perfectly erect, and his Colbert the Title of Councillor of the Acad- | large head with its thick, slightly curling The grouping in this picture makes a single organism of all the figures. The writhing forms; the manacles and gloom of the dungeon; the patrician face and dress of Charles the Fifth entering with his followers in a flood of sunlight; the rack of Slavery, endured till the releasing touch of Freedom, is a shock too great to be comprehended; Liberty struck dumb at the sight of what can befall in her absence-to express these feelings and conditions all the figures and faces enter into such a combination of reflected effects as would make the picture great and its painter a master, if these were all. But the effeet which makes this work a permanent income to the memory lies in the coloring, which suffuses the whole as with emotion. |