MARWOOD AND-GUSTAVE DORE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3991, 7 May 1884, Page 4

MARWOOD AND-GUSTAVE DORE.

(Pall Mail Gazette.)

It is well-known that groat as was Dore's reputation in Franco, it was immeasurably greater in England, where his .smallest works wore eagerly sought after, ami his larger pictures wore permanently exhibited. He was, therefore, naturally very fond of England, and frequently visited London for lengthened periods, occupying always the same rooms at tho Langham hotel. One morning, in the year 1876, one of tho waiters informed him that a stranger was waiting to see him. He would not give his name, but begged to assure the painter that he would not regret granting the desired iutorview. Dorc thereupon ordered his visitor to bo shown in, when a small gentleman, with somewhat disordered hair, a bristly moustache, greenish eyes, and a face wonderfully like a cat, bowed himself into the room. "Sir," he began, "lam a great admirer of your talent, and I am Tcry desirous of obtaining from you a drawing representing me in the net of performing my official duties. I only ask for a few strokes of your pencil, and I am willing to pay you £50 for them." " With great pleasure," replied the artist; "whom may I havo tho honor of addressing? " The other answered, with an air of conscious pride, "I am Mr Marwood, Her Majesty's hang-man." Lore's first movement was one of scarcely concealed disgust; but Ms curiosity to follow the matter further got the upper band, and he assured his strange visitor that he was at his disposal. "in that case," replied Marwood, "come and see me to-morrow. I am going to hang Henry Waiuwright, the man who cut a woman to pieces at Whitechapel, and whose condemnation you probably read iv the papers." A meeting was arranged for tho following morning, and with a hearty shake of the hands they separated. Dorc was punctual to his appointment, and when all was over returned vividly impressed by the terrible spectacle he had witnessed. Ho hastened to transfer the scene to paper while tho impression was still fresh in his memory, and set to work to sketch, with all his well-known verve and power, the prison yard, in the pale light of early morning, with tho fatal shed, within which was perceived the cowl and running noose awaiting its victim. From a side door the grim procession was seen approaching, at its head, Marwood, drawn up to the full height oi his diminutive stature, his eyes lighted up by an almost Satanic glare, and carrying a number of straps; behind him, a warder with a cap used to conceal the distorted features of the unhappy man at tho last moment. Then, supported by the clergyman, followed the condemned man, deathly pale, with drawn and haggard features, walking mechanically to his doom. Iv the background wero tho high walls of the prison, throwing their daric shadows on the ground. The entire scone, in fact, was portrayed with a vivid reality impossible to describe. Marwood, on coming for his sketch the next day, was delighted beyond measure with tho artist's work, and promptly drew out from his pocket tho stipulated price. Dorc, however, would not accept any money from him, and begged him to forward tho amount to the French Hospital. Marwood kept tho picture in his possession for some years. But at length, at a time when work was slack with him (?), he was induced to part with it for £75. " L'Execution a Londros " was again brought to tho hammer at Drouot's auction mart, strange to say, on the very day of Marwood's death, when it only fetched £12, and passed into unknown hands.