Mme. de Stael; one of Talma for the Theatre
Francais; the colossal statue of King Rene at Aix; monument to Fenelon
at Cambray; the statue of the great Conde at Versailles; the Gutenberg
memorial at Strasburg, which is one of his most successful works, and a
large number of other sculptures.

His chief characteristic is realism, and he carried this so far that it
frequently became coarseness. David designed the relief for the pediment
of the Pantheon. The inscription on the building declares that it is
dedicated by a grateful country to its great men, and the sculptor seems
to have had this in mind, for he represented in his group a figure of
France surrounded by those who had been great in its times of war and
days of peace. It is too realistic to be pleasing, and is far less
creditable to the sculptor than are many of his less prominent works.

If little can be said of the modern French sculpture prior to our
immediate time, there is still less to be told of that of England. There
are many public monuments there, but they do not show forth any high
artistic genius or rise above the commonplace except in very rare
instances. There is but one English sculptor of whom I shall speak. JOHN
GIBSON (1791-1866) was born near Conway, in Wales. When he was nine
years old his parents went to Liverpool with the intention of sailing
for America; but they gave up the idea, and the boy was sent to school
in Liverpool. Before this he had been in the habit of drawing and of
making sketches of anything that he saw and was pleased with; he now
studied the prints in the shop windows, and made pictures, which he sold
to his fellow-pupils. He attracted the attention of a print-seller, who
was so interested in him that he allowed him to draw from studies and
casts from the antique which he had. When fourteen years old the boy was
apprenticed to a cabinet-maker, but after a year he persuaded his
employer to allow him to leave his shop, and was then apprenticed to a
wood-carver. He did not stop at this, however, for when he became
acquainted with the Messrs. Francis, who had a marble-yard, he persuaded
his second master to release him, and was apprenticed for the third
time, and in this case to the occupation which he had determined should
be that of his life.

He was now very happy, and his improvement in drawing, modelling, and
working in marble was very rapid. After a few months he made the
acquaintance of William Roscoe, who became his f