1866, from 430 guineas in 1884 to 95 guineas; W. Müller's Acropolis, Athens, 1843, from 760 guineas in 1887 to 130 guineas; Sir E. Landseer's Otter and Salmon, 1842, from 1300 guineas in 1890 to 360 guineas; J. C. Hook's Mackerel Time, from 860 guineas in 1892 to 360 guineas; and J. Phillip's Gipsy's Toilet, from 525 guineas in 1867 to 520 guineas, having reached its high-water mark in 1897 at 1,700 guineas.

The old masters have made a very poor 'show' this year in the sale-room; the one 'sensation' of this section occurred in connexion with Rembrandt's portrait of his son Titus, a three-quarter length, which was in Lord Young's sale on the 29th of February. It was purchased by a firm of dealers at the modest price of 205 guineas, and early in April it was announced that, after the picture was cleaned, it turned out to be a very fine example of the master, and that it had been sold in Berlin for something like 8000l., which can hardly be regarded as a poor return for eight weeks' investment! On the other hand, the most noteworthy 'drop' of the season was in connexion with a fully documented example of Hobbema in the Holland collection, The Market Day, 17 x 21, which, bought at the Novar sale in 1878 for 700 guineas, now realised only 260 guineas. In connexion with the first entry in the following table, it should be explained that most of the pictures at Trentham Hall were submitted last year to public auction on the premises-always an unwise proceeding— and that many of them failed to reach the reserves. Those that were bought in were, with others, again offered at Christies' in February last.

Cardinal Rivarola, 39 x 30

Portrait of a Gentleman, 103 Sutherland 2100 1907, 120 gs. × 65

Rembrandt [? by Portrait of a Gentleman, 38

F. Bol]

A. and L. Le

Philosopher Writing, 53 × 5
Children's

Concert, 1629,

Portrait of a Lady, 29 × 24

1000

J. Ruysdael

The Bleaching Ground

Jas.
Knowles

920 1867, 13 gs.

In no respect have the sales of the last year or two been more noteworthy than in connexion with the Barbizon school of French

painting. Up to 1886, as may be seen from Redford's Art Sales, this group of artists can scarcely be said to have existed, so far as English auctions are concerned; and yet, according to Edward Strahan's Art Treasures of America, nearly every important collection of pictures in that country was more or less made up of works by artists who fall into this group. Judging from auction records, the tide of popularity would seem to have arisen in England in 1890; but that there were many collectors and collections before this may be seen from Mr. D. Croal Thomson's admirable book, The Barbizon School of Painters, published in 1891, of which a new edition appeared in 1902. It is only within recent years that some of these collections, which were formed or being formed when Mr. Thomson wrote his book, have, in the natural course of events, come into the auction room or have otherwise been dispersed.

The Barbizon men were prodigious workers, but most of them died, if not in poverty, at least not overburdened with this world's goods. The growth in the general appreciation of their genius was a slow one, with the natural result that when they passed away their studios were stocked with unsold pictures. From these sources and from others, up to the year 1900, over 3200 examples of Corot, about 1500 of Daubigny, and over 1000 of Diaz have been sold by public auction in Paris and elsewhere. Some of the highest prices have been paid not in Paris, but in New York and London. In the following table I am able to convey many interesting points. The second and third columns show the number of works of each artist which have been sold in New York from 1886 to 1906, and in London from 1886 to 1907; the fourth and fifth columns indicate 'record' prices in America and England respectively, with the year of sale; and the final column the French record' prices (up to 1900) of the first three on the list. I am not able, with any degree of accuracy, to give the record prices of the second three, nor to bring the figures in the last column up to a more recent date than 1900:

The importation into America of pictures by artists of the Barbizon school dates back for more than half a century. Mr. Seth Morton Vose, a dealer of Providence, Rhode Island, imported his first paintings by Corot in 1852, his first Troyons in 1854, and by 1857 he had not only pictures by these masters, but others by Daubigny, Millet, Dupré, Rousseau, Diaz and Delacroix.

2 Mauve is, of course, a Dutch artist, but his affinity to the Barbizon school-particu. larly to Daubigny-is sufficiently strong to excuse his being included in the above list.

Large as are these prices, examples of most of these artists have changed hands, à l'aimable, at far higher sums. Corot's Le Lac, for instance, formerly in the James Staats Forbes collection, was sold by one dealer to another for 18,000l., and this is by no means a solitary instance, even of its kind. To leave, however, the general for the particular, and to come back to the sales of the season just closed, I have tabulated the more important examples of the Barbizon and modern Continental schools which have reached, or very nearly reached, four figures. It will be more convenient to arrange the artists in alphabetical order:

Of the ten artists named in the foregoing list, it will be seen that ' record' prices have been obtained this season for works by seven out of that number; in another case-Israels-the two highest prices only fall 10 guineas below the previous 'record.' Had there been space

This picture was purchased from the artist's studio at The Hague, and at the W. Fenton sale in 1879 it realised 1610 gs.

to extend the list, about half a dozen other-but much smallerrecords' for pictures by artists of the modern Continental schools could be mentioned. These facts alone would lift the picture-sale season of 1908 out of the ordinary; and, taken generally, it may claim to be ranked as one of the most remarkable and most interesting seasons of the last quarter of a century.

W. ROBERTS.

THE CENSORSHIP OF FICTION

THERE is perhaps no branch of work amongst the arts so free at the present time as that of the writing of fiction. There are no official prohibitions, no embarrassing or hampering limitations, no oppressive restraints. Subject and method of treatment are both free. A writer is under no special obligation, no preliminary guarantee; he may choose his own subject and treat it in his own way. In fact, his duty to the public-to the State-appears to be nil. What one might call the cosmic police do not trouble him at all. Under these conditions, hitherto kept possible by the self-respect of authors, a branch of the art of authorship has arisen and gone on perfecting itself in mechanical excellence, until it has become an important factor of the life of the nation. To-day if the supply of fiction were to be suddenly withdrawn the effect would be felt almost as much as the failure of the supply of breadstuffs. Happily fiction is not dependent on the existence of peace, or the flourishing of trade, or indeed on any form of national well-being. War and business worries-distress in any form-are clamorous in their own ways for intellectual antidotes; so that though the nature of the output may be of every varying kind, the supply is undiminished. Herein it is that the wide scope of the art of fiction proves its excellence; as no subject and no form of treatment is barred it follows that changing needs may find settlement in suitable opposites. And so imaginative work becomes recognised in the higher statecraft as a useful product.

But in the real world all things are finally relative. There is in reality, whose existence and progress must be based on cosmic laws, no such thing as absolute freedom. The needs and necessarily recognised rights of individuals and groups must at times become so conflicting that some sort of give-and-take rules or laws are necessary to the general good. Indeed we might put it in general form that freedom contains in its very structure the germs of restraint. The measure and method of that restraint have to be ascertained by experience, and in some measure by experiment, for if we wait till experience, following a simple course of laissez faire, has learned the worst that can happen, at least a part of the protective force of common sense is thrown away.