tantly and successfully. In 1876 he caught cold at his son's grave,
and on the 18th of November of that year he died at Mentone, whither he
had gone to recruit his health. Diaz's finest pictures are his forest
scenes and storms, and it is on these, and not on his pretty figures,
that his fame is likely to rest. There are several fairly good examples
of the master in the Louvre, and three small figure pictures in the
Wallace collection, Hertford House. Perhaps the most notable of Diaz's
works are "La Fee aux Perles" (1857), in the Louvre; "Sunset in the
Forest" (1868); "The Storm," and "The Forest of Fontainebleau" (1870)
at Leeds. Diaz had no well-known pupils, but Leon Richet followed
markedly his methods of tree-painting, and J. F. Millet at one period
painted small figures in avowed imitation of Diaz's then popular
subjects.
See A. Hustin, _Les Artistes celebres: Diaz_ (Paris); D. Croal
Thomson, _The Barbizon School of Painters_ (London, 1890); J. W.
Mollett, _Diaz_ (London, 1890); J. Claretie, _Peintres et sculpteurs
contemporains: Diaz_ (Paris, 1882); Albert Wolff, _La Capitale de
l'art: Narcisse Diaz_ (Paris, 1886); Ph. Burty, _Maitres et
petit-maitres: N. Diaz_ (Paris, 1877). (D.C.T.)
DIAZ, PORFIRIO (1830- ), president of the republic of Mexico (q.v.),
was born in the southern state of Oaxaca, on the 15th of September 1830.
His father was an innkeeper in the little capital of that province, and
died three years after the birth of Porfirio, leaving a family of seven
children. The boy, who had Indian blood in his veins, was educated for
the Catholic Church, a body having immense influence in the country at
that time and ordering and controlling revolutions by the strength of
their filled coffers. Arrived at the age of sixteen Porfirio Diaz threw
off the authority of the priests. Fired with enthusiasm by stories told
by the revolutionary soldiers continually passing through Oaxaca, and
hearing about the war with the United States, a year later he determined
to set out for Mexico city and join the National Guard. There being no
trains, and he being too poor to ride, he walked the greater part of the
250 m., but arrived there too late, as the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
(1848) had been already signed, and Texas finally ceded to the United
States. Thus his entering the army was for the time defeated. Thereupon
he returned to his native town and began studying law. He took pupils in
order to pay h
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