Sir William Allan

ALLAN, SIR WILLIAM (1782-185o), Scottish historical painter, was born in Edinburgh, and studied at the school of design in his native city. Allan spent some years in Russia be tween 1805 and 1814 and travelled extensively in Southern Russia, bringing back a portfolio of vivid sketches which pro vided material for much of his later work. In 1814 he returned to Edinburgh and in the two following years exhibited at the Royal Academy "The Circassian Captives" and "Bashkirs con ducting Convicts to Siberia." In the next 20 years he estab lished his fame by the illustration of Scottish history in a series of works which included "Archbishop Sharpe on Magus Moor"; "John Knox admonishing Mary Queen of Scots" (1823), engraved by Burnet; "Mary Queen of Scots signing her Abdication" (1824) ; and "Regent Murray shot by Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh." The last subject procured his election as A.R.A. (1825). In he visited Spain and Morocco, and in 1841 went again to St. Petersburg, when he undertook, at the request of the tsar, his "Peter the Great teaching his Subjects the Art of Shipbuilding", exhibited in London in 1845, and bought for the Winter Palace of St. Petersburg. Allan received many honours, including that of knighthood in 1842. He died on Feb. 22, 1850.

LOUISE ROSALIE (18

10 1856), French actress, was "discovered" by Talma in Brussels as a child, when she played Joas. She played children's and then ingenue parts at the Theatre Francais, and in 1831 began to play at the Gymnase. During her six years at the Gymnase sh4 made a great name. Madame Allan (she married an actor in the Gym nase company) then went to St. Petersburg, and there discovered Un Caprice by Alfred de Musset, made a success of it, and on her return to Paris chose it for her reappearance at the Theatre Fran cais. This was the beginning of Alfred de Musset's success as a dramatist. Madame Allan held her own as an actress even when she appeared by the side of Rachel. She died at the height of her success in 1856.