The annual meeting of the San Francisco Art-Association was held March 3ist. Reports from the various officers were read, showilig that the Society is in a flourishing condition. The School of Design, conducted under the auspices of the Society, is growing rapidly, and the proficiency shown by the pupils is very satisfactory to the officers. The elec tion of officers, held on the same day, resulted as follows: Presi dent, William Alvord; First Vice-President, Samuel M. Brookes; Second Vice-President, WVilliam Norris ; Secretary, Samuel Purdy; Treasurer, Ferdinand H. Rogers; Directors, Pietro Mezzara, R. S. Bush, J. C. Duncani, John T. Best, S. W. Shaw, and Silas Selleck. The San Francisco artists have mostly suspended work, and are preparing to leave their studios for their annual sketching-tours. At the Beaux-Arts” Gallery, Thomas Hill exhibits two forest scenes, which are pervaded by a delicate grey tone, and in execu tion surpass any of his previous efforts. Ford, the Chicago artist, has a woocded landscape-picture on exhibition at the same gallery; and Wandesforde is represented by a view of one of the missions of Lower California. In the studios, William Keith is engaged upon a large picture representing a scene near the head-waters of the Merced. In the distance are the snow-capped peaks of the Sierra, the middle distance showing a scene of “rifted rock and darkened gleni,” while a long sweep of upland broken with trees forms the foreground.
THE CHICAGO EXPOSITION OF I875.-Mr. John F. Stafford, a gentleman of culture and taste, has been appointed to takecharge of the Art department of the Chicago Exposition, which opens in September next. Mr. Stafford has already visited New York and other cities for the purpose of securing paintings for the display; and nearly all of the leading artists have promised to contribute to it. The exhibition last year was organised by Mr. Henry W. Derby, and was one of the largest and finest Art displays ever opened in this country. It is to be hoped that the Exposition com pany have been equally fortunate in the appointment of an agent the year, and that the cominog exhibition may combine the6attrac tive elements secured by Mr. Derby for that of last season.
ART AT HARVARD COLLEGE.-The Faculty of Harvard Col lege have under consideration the expediency of establishing next year two or more courses in Art. The History of Art it is pro posed to continue in a higher course; and a second and advanced course in the principles of drawing will be established. What is now Art I. will continue to devote an hour a week to Ruskin’s “Modern Painters” and four hours to drawing, while the higher course will adopt as text-books other works of Ruskin, probably Sir Joshua Reynolds’s “‘ Discourses,” and possibly the “1 Treatise on Art,” by Leonardo da Vinci.
PICTURE BY MERLE.-One of the most attractive works at Gou pil’s recently has been Merle’s ‘ Fairy Tales,’ in which a charming young lady appears seated in the open air, in the miclst of a group of children, reciting fairy-stories. The attitudes of the childreni are graceful, and the expression of eagerness which each little face shows to catch every word that falls from the pretty story-teller’s lips is very delightful to study. The face of the speaker, too, beams with intelligence and love, and the group altogether forms one of the most beautifuLl pictures, representing the name of Merle, in this country. In colour, finish, and harmony of expression, the work shows the highest development of nodern art.
