extenuation what William Pitt once urged on a famous occasion:- "The atrocious crime of being a young man." But his work is so genuinely good that notwithstanding his modesty regarding it, he must soon become well known - just as surely as that Time will silently and gradually remove from us all the drawback of being "young.'

Van Muyden's nationality is a somewhat complicated matter. Born near Rome of Swiss parentage, he is legally a citizen of Geneva; in appearance he is quite Italian, and yet both his Christian name and surname are pure Holland Dutch; but he resides in Paris and speaks French like a Parisian.

Notwithstanding this rather intricate extraction, there is nothing indefinite or scattered in his art. Although his portrait, etched by himself, is evidence of his power in that direction, and although the accessory landscapes in several of his plates show that he understands landscape thoroughly, yet he has devoted himself definitely to the career of "Un Animalier"—as he calls himself, and among the animals his preference is for the savage wild carnivora.

His immediate predecessor in this particular line of art was the late August Lançon, who, like Van Muyden, found that he could best express himself through etching.

Lançon was an able man, but there is a certain mannerism in all his wild animals which makes them resemble each other unduly, although in nature this resemblance does not exist.

From the etching by Evert van Muyden. It is interesting to contrast this portrait with that of Félix Buhot- the one quiet, direct, reserved, the other restless and "tormented."

BULL OF THE ROMAN CAMPAGNA

Size of the original print, 12 by 16 inches.

From the etching by Evert van Muyden. Van Muyden etched several plates of these superb animals, of
which this one is usually accounted the finest. The beauty of the animal and the curve of its graceful
horns are admirably rendered. This plate is one of the best examples of the artist's masterly draughts-
manship.

Charles Jacque confined himself to such tame or gentle creatures as horses, sheep, and swine, and the English master, Sir Edwin Landseer, who deservedly enjoyed a great reputation, yet had the fault of imparting human facial expressions to his animals. This probably had much to do toward Landseer's great popularity and success; nevertheless it was false to nature.

It is high praise to compare Van Muyden's animals to those of two great French masters of the preceding generation; but while it would be absurd to claim for this artist that he is already a second Barye or a second Eugène Delacroix, yet in examining his works one is often reminded of the great sculptor and the great modern master of color-not because Van Muyden has copied them, but because all three artists went straight to nature for their models.

Those who know Barye's bronzes will bear witness to this resemblance between him and Van Muyden; and although Eugène Delacroix never could manage the technical processes of etching successfully, yet he has done some lithographs of wild animals which hold equal rank with his magnificent paintings.

Van Muyden is a studious, quiet and contented man, modest in his estimate of his own powers and very unlike the regulation type of the Paris "rapin." The witty Parisians have a nickname for everything, and very pungent slang expressions come in and go out from year to year; but the word rapin continues to describe the tribe of

alleged "artists" whose genius is loudly advertised by the wild eye, the long and untidy hair, and the general eccentricity of their attire. These gentry are very voluble and often even eloquent, but their nerves are generally in such a condition of tension and exaltation that it is a wonder they live and retain their faculties even for as long as they do.

The "rapin" has been introduced for purposes of contrast with Evert Van Muyden. It is in part the difference between the placid serious man who smokes an honest pipe (as Carlyle and as Tennyson did) and the high-strung creature who keeps himself up on cigarettes, absinthe, and black coffee. Our artist does not spend long hours daily and nightly at the Chat Noir, the Moulin Rouge, and similar nocturnal resorts where "rapins" most do congregate; but he is often to be seen in the quiet early mornings at the Jardin des Plantes or the Jardin d'Acclimatation absorbed in sketching or else in contemplating the fierce carnivora behind the bars, as they skulk from end to end of their prison or as they lie down with a far-away glare in their baleful eyes. He has even found out that these morose creatures soon learn to become attached to any one who brings them a handful of fresh grass as a sort of salad to their daily meal of horseflesh.

Van Muyden's concentration and his sureness of hand are such that some of his finest plates have been etched from these original studies after nature with very little subsequent addition or