Descamps
soon gave new life to the arts at Rouen. A public academy of painting
was formed under his auspices, to which he afforded gratuitous
instruction; and its celebrity increased so rapidly, that the number of
pupils soon amounted to three hundred; and Norman authors continued to
anticipate in fancy the creation of a Norman school, which should rival
those of Bologna and Florence, until the very moment when the revolution
dispelled this day-dream. Descamps died at the close of the last
century. To his son, who inherits his parent's taste, with no small
portion of his talent, we were indebted for much obliging attention.
The museum is open to the public on Sundays and Thursdays; but daily to
students and strangers. It contains upwards of two hundred and thirty
paintings. Of these, the great mass is undoubtedly by French artists,
comparatively little known and of small merit, imitators of Poussin and
Le Brun. Such paintings as bear the names of the old Italian masters,
are in general copies; some of them, indeed, not bad imitations.
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