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to the entire complete sentiment; for, in truth, it is rather slightly though most effectively painted. The poor creature can scarcely move; there is extreme weariness in the limbs, indicated, too, by the turn of the neck. He is dark against the golden sky, the water dropping in glittering drops from his panting sides. The screaming wild-fowl are startled, and fly off in the direction from whence the hunted hart has come, nor is the distance he has come forgotten, the track is visible in the lake, leading away to the blue and fading mountains, as the day is closing, assuming that fabulous hue that so well assists the sentiment. It is most beautiful, an immortal work. Mr Landseer has indeed renovated his strength.

No. 113. "The Convent of Santo Cosimato, near Rome." W. Havell. Mr Havell still retains his strange colouring, which renders most of his subjects unpleasing. We well remember the scenery around San Cosimato, but cannot recognise it in the effect or colouring of Mr Havell. method unpoetizes nature.

66

46

His

No. 123. The Lesson." T. Uwins, R. A. This is in Mr Uwin's peculiar style of colouring. Why will he not paint as he can, and as he painted his Fioretta"? Raw and opposed colours are always disagreeable; the painter's business is surely to blend and mix his colours, so that though there shall be great variety in tone, they shall appear few, and none crude, for it is the judicious mixture that is the painter's work; the crude colour is given him. Violent oppositions, blues, reds, and yellows, are seldom pleasing, and never have the repose a true artist should aim at.

No. 136. This we regret to say is the only picture of Mr Eastlake in the present Exhibition. It is, however, most delicate in sentiment, and beautifully executed and coloured. It is well named the "Sisters"-for it breathes all sisterly affection and sweetness. It reminds us of Raffaele. No 146. 66 Mary Magdalen in the desert." F. Danby. We can easily imagine this picture to be injured by being hung in an exhibition where there is so much glare of vivid colouring. It appears, therefore, monstrous; yet on looking into it, we find much variety of tone. We cannot admire his No. 229, "A contest of a lyre and

pipe in the Valley of Tempe." It is quite unworthy a painter of such high genius as Mr Danby possesses. Neither in colour, effect, nor composition does it give any idea of the cool, verdant, and beautiful Vale of Tempe. How few would wish to live in such a place! it is like a poor drop-scene for a provincial theatre. His "Service at St Cloud, in the reign of Louis XIV." is clever, but has a haze over it not quite pleasing. His " Holy Family reposing during the Fight into Egypt-break of day"-No. 375, is a very beautiful and solemn scene; it might be very much improved by giving the whole foreground a little more half-light-it would concentrate the deep repose which is beyond it— the composition is very simple and good, the detail quite suitable to it. There is considerable variety in the tones and colours, not at first perceptible. It must look very different on an easel by itself. The handling in the sky is too minute. No. 159. "A Greek Girl preparing for the toilette." This is very good and well coloured. It has great sweetness.

We much admire Mr Geddes's "Hagar," No. 301. It has the great merit of expression.

No. 172. "Hymen burning the arrows of Cupid." G. Patten, A. This is quite unworthy Mr Patten's pencil. Why should poor Cupid have such fuzzy feet and limbs in general, yet with such brawny intention? What can we say of his "Eve," No. 245? The title is ambitious, but taking away the bosom there is no reason why he should not have called it Adam. It is strange indeed the womanly form should have been unattended to. Surely this is

not "

our general mother," not, as Fuseli would say, the "mould of generations." We do not in the slightest degree see the poetry of Milton in this Eve.

No. 182. "Snow Storm," &c. J. M. W. Turner, R.A. Mr Turner tells us the author was in this storm on the night the Ariel left Harwich." If so, he must have been very nearly lost then, and quite lost afterwards. His "Peace Burial at Sea," strange as it is, has yet a dash of his genius. As to his extraordinary performance, "War," we understand why it is called the "Exile;" but why the "Limpet," is a puzzle quite in accordance with every part of the practice.

We much admire No. 369, "Virginia discovered by the old man and Domingo." It is very good, too true indeed to that most pathetic tale. Mr H. J. Townsend exhibits great promise in his picture.

No. 377. The very Picture of Idleness," R. Rothwell, is very clever. Mr Rothwell is a very good colourist and portrait painter.

No. 379. Il voto, or the Convalescent." P. Williams. This represents a convalescent girl, with her family and friends, returning thanks. There is something so uncomfortable in the colouring, that we at first view passed the picture-on examination we found it full of interest, and very well painted; the grouping very good -the story well told. We find we have gone on too fast, and must return to the catalogue.

184. "Thebes, looking across the Great Hall Karnac." D. Roberts, R. A. This is very fine, the impressive grandeur perfectly preserved. Might it not be improved by a little more shade?-we are still compelled to object to its polish. We never see a picture of Mr Roberts that is not imposingly grand-we have before objected to his figures that is, the number and spottiness of his groups-as figures they are always well painted. This fault is in No. 228-the "Chapel of the Convent of St Catherine." We are most pleased with his "Remains of the Temple of Koum Ombos, Upper Egypt." No. 457. There is wonderful repose in these solemn ruins, the very sky is of an awful stillnessthe grand perspective seems laid in magic. The colour is remarkably good, and the whole effect striking; this melancholy mass, in its barren loneliness, the mystery of ages, would surely have been better with a single figure.

No. 185. "Portrait of a Lady." Gambardella. This is a narrow escape from being an exquisitely beautiful picture. There is a novelty in the style, and novelty, a rare thing, without assumption-with very high finish, nothing can be more simple than the cast of the figure. We could wish there were less of black and purple shades in the flesh-the colouring in other respects is very good. The graceful lily, is emblematical poetry, and has a very good effect. We shall look for something

very good from Mr Gambardella. He has studied Carlo Dolce.

We do not admire No. 192. "Landscape and Battle," R. R. Reignayle, R. A. We should have reasonably expected better from a man of his high talents, remembering having seen some very fine drawings from his handwhy should the material affect composition? yet it seems to do so.

No. 201. "Battle of Prestonpans," W. Allan, R. A. If this contains portraits, it must be doubly valuable; it is very striking as a whole, the confusion of the battle, and the order of arrangement which the painter must make to preserve the singleness of his subject, are kept well together. It reminds us of some of Loutherbourg's best battle-scenes.

No. 227. "Winchester Tower, Windsor, from the Thames," W. F. Witherington, R.A. is a very pleasing transcript from nature; accuracy in drawing and colour will be sure to delight, when there is an absence of every thing low and disgusting in the scene. Mr Wither. ington never offends in this way.

We wish all artists would con sider not only nature, but the nature of their subjects. Who knows the disposition of boys better than Webster? he cannot forget school, and makes all remember school days. And what are schoolboys without grandmothers? and you have the true schoolboy's grandmother in No. 142, T. Webster, A. Then how capital is his " Impenitent," No. 147! Nor less so his "Going to School." Webster knows them well, their sulks, their frolics, their going to school, their " in school," and their coming from it. If it be a happiness to remember "schoolboy days," Mr Webster must be superlatively happy. For ourselves, we confess there is something about us which tingles at the thought, not quite pleasant to flesh and blood.

No. 256. "Mary Queen of Scots when an infant, stripped by order of Mary of Guise, her mother, to convince Sadler the English Ambassador she was not a decrepid child, which had been insinuated at court." B. R. Haydon. "Insinuated at court," and more than insinuated by Mr Haydon, if it be decrepid to have unnatural limbs, that suit not each other in the jointing, or joining " de

crepta membra." This is altogether a vulgar staring picture, without good colour, good drawing, or composition. Was the subject chosen to exhibit the child after the manner of Michael Angelo, or grand art, or the queenly grace and dignity ?-if either, the purpose has been forgotten in the work. Mr Haydon has so constantly held up to public view his grand art, and the injustice of the Academy, that we should have expected something from his pencil at least in confirmation of the one great lecture of his life; and something to astound the Academicians. On the contrary, he has exhibited two pictures, as if to discredit the academicians' exhibition; by far the worst of the two is No. 404. "Edward the Black Prince, thanking Lord James Audley for his gallantry in the Battle of Poictiers." This is a most confused mass of vulgarity for a princely and gallant company. The chiaroscuro is badthere is no attention to light and shade and keeping. Surely there never was a worse-drawn, worse-coloured, or more unhero-looking, effeminate hero seen. Take the man's head with the feather on it as it is, stick on to it a capacious petticoat, and the intended princely boldness will be readily metamorphosed into effrontery that cannot be masculine, and ought not to be feminine. The Prince is a dolt, and a fool.

No. 278. "The departure of Charles II. from Bentley in Staffordshire, the house of Col. Lane." C. Landseer, A. We have never seen a picture of Mr C. Landseer's in which the grouping was not very good, and the story well told. The characters are truly represented; and, as she should be, Miss Lane is one of the sweetest of her sex. This is a very pleasing picture, clearly painted, fresh in colour, and with a very appropriate execution.

No. 285. "Portrait of William Coningham, Esq." J. Linnel. This is a very good portrait, in Mr Linnel's peculiar manner. It is most truly and charmingly lighted up. With great effect in Mr Linnel's portraits, so invisible is his method of execution, (and which is nevertheless blameless,) that we think not of the artist, but the sitter alone; nor do we ask who painted the likeness, till we think of some valued friend whose portrait we should like to possess by the same hand. His portrait of Lady Baring," 449, is

very good, as are his others; but we think No. 285 the most happy.

No. 295." An Italian widow selling all her trinkets to a Jew, except her husband's picture." J. Severn.

Her grief is proud, and scorns to show itself;

She'll easier lose her trinkets than a tear: Her children are her jewels now. Nothing can be more true to the poetry than the proud expression of the mother-proud to the world scarcely hers-deeply affectionate to the world within her own bosom. The bambino is excellent; the complexion of the mother would, perhaps, be improved by altering the tone of the sky. We are sorry to find this to be the only picture by Mr Severn in the Exhibition; and we doubt the choice of subject. It is a painful one, and the pain is scarcely mitigated by the sentiment of love; for it is a suffering one. Domestic tragedies are the least bearable. A picture should not be always painful to look at. A play or a poem passes away at a reading or representation-a picture is supposed to be always before the eye, and should be mostly agreeable, or, if not that, impress some awful or some grand truth upon the mind, upon which it can feed, and set aside the more vexatious emotion.

No. 345. The "Portrait of the Duke of Buccleuch," J. Watson Gordon, A., is very good. Why is it this artist's only picture?

No. 395. Flight into Egypt." J. Martin. "When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt." Mr Martin has evidently improved from the criticisms on his works. This is very superior to any we have seen from his pencil. The distances are finely preserved. It is well made out, and the minute detail more concealed than is generally the case in his pictures. The effect is very striking, and the purple colouring against the brilliant sky, grand, and, perhaps, in such a country true. There is a very near approach to sublimity. The horizontal lines of the town in distance (and all under one solemn hue) are well contrasted with the rugged tops of the mountains. In many pictures recently exhibited, we have observed the moon painted like a shilling showing the edge. Surely this is not true to nature in any re

gion ! We suggest to Mr Martin that he might greatly improve this picture by adapting some other story. It is not a good flight into Egypt, and the figures are not only preposterously large, so as greatly to injure the scale of the scenery, but they are badly painted; and the Virgin Mother is enveloped in an impossibly white drapery, considering the sky and landscape. The figures are indeed vile, and should not have been one quarter the size they are. It would be a good scene for an army winding round, and seen going off in the several distances. We likewise venture to remonstrate with Mr Martin for his dark brown trees, which are unnatural and heavy, and he too often glazes them into a granulated texture, so that, in that respect, they are more like granite than wood and foliage; nor do we think them happy in their forms. With these easily alterable and slight defects, this is a very, very fine picture. No. 412. "Nymph bathing." C. Duncker. Really this is too bad. Nymphs, particularly bathing nymphs, in a catalogue, so usually remind us of Titian or Albano, that we expect to see something decent, or, if not altogether decent, beautiful. But such a nymph and such water-equally unenticing-were dreamed of. It is surely a mistake that she should hold up her bosom, lest it drop into the water.

never seen nor

No. 414. "The wreck of the White Ship, &c., in which perished the son of Henry I., with others of the royal family," &c. S. Drummond, A. This is the most unhistorical historical picture in the whole Exhibition, perhaps Mr Haydon's Battle of Poictiers not excepted. If the portraits of the personages are in any respect like the unfortunate personages-in that case we are reconciled to an event which we always considered a melancholy one in our history.

No. 427. "Moses going to sell the colt at the fair-Vicar of Wakefield." C. Stonhouse. Well done, Stonhouse!-a very clear, pleasing picture, full of character. Moses is unquestionably Moses, and the sisters are lovely. It might be improved in the landscape.

No. 430. "Interior of a temple inhabited by Arabs, who sell the curiosities found in the tombs-Thebes, Egypt." W. Muller. This is very fine

VOL. LII.. No. CCCXXI,

and vigorous in colour and effect. We cannot but remark upon the difference of texture given to those buildings by two very able men, Muller and Roberts. Muller has none of that French polish with which Mr Roberts, more or less, injures all his otherwise very beautiful pictures. We notice likewise the difference in scale, as given by the figures. Does Mr Roberts exaggerate?

We must not pass, though we are apt to pass by portraits,-No. 432. "Portrait of Rev. Ralph Lyon, D.D., head-master of Sherborne School, Dorset." H. W. Pickersgill, R. A. It is a very finely-painted portrait, in which this able Academician. shows that he can and will maintain his ground.

No. 437. "The innocent are gay." W. Etty, R.A. We had omitted noticing this, when commenting upon Mr Etty's other pictures. This certainly has not the merit we should have expected from Mr Etty. It is not good in composition or colour. There is nothing to give the idea of innocence or gaiety-all look melancholy. The dirty colour of the boys is remarkable. Is Mr Etty captivated by the poet's expression of the "purple light of love," that he should thus purple the shades of his otherwise dark faces? In our eyes it is disagreeable. The boys certainly cannot dance. One appears to have a fair excuse, for his knee is out, and he seems to make it an excuse, by pointing to it. We suppose the best artists occasionally, from fatigue, see their own works less correctly, fancying that what they have intended is performed. The idea may be so strong in the mind, as to overpower the natural healthy perception of the organ. Thence it may be that we occasionally see pictures by very able men, that appear by no means indicative of their abilities.

No. 440. "Adonis-His Majesty King George the Third's favourite." J. Ward, R.A. A very singular creature-very vigorously painted-a very wicked Adonis-the very Mephistopheles of horse-flesh.

No. 454. As painters have a rage for the Vicar of Wakefield, it may be as well to notice that the vicar and his wife certainly did not sit for their portraits for this picture.

No. 506. "Meg Merrilees, and the dying smuggler." R. S. Lauder,

C

We should not have duly observed this picture, had not the catalogue given the name of Lauder. We have so vivid a recollection of his fine pic. ture last year of Effie Deans, that we were the more anxious to look at this. It is very badly hung. In a good light, we are persuaded, it would have a fine colouring, and characteristic too. It is finely and truly conceived.

No. 510. "Broeckenhaven, a fishing port of the Zuyder Zee.” E. W. Cocke. Is very clever, and delightfully fresh.

Mr S. Drummond's "Bacchante," No. 511, is very vile. He says:In climes remote cerulean skies are

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but who, before Mr D., ever thought of their being seen right through

the bodies of their visitants.

The eyes of the figure with the tambourine are exactly like the coloured glass ones in a mummy case. No. 527. R. Dadd.

"Come unto these yellow sands, And then take hands,

Curtsied when you have and kissed, (The wild waves whist,) Foot it featly here and there, And sweet sprites the burthen bear." We remember seeing at the Academy exhibition, we believe two years ago, a very beautiful little picture of Mr Dadd's, a fairy subject. There is much beauty in this, particularly in the grouping, a general lightness of the figures, which are, nevertheless, too spicular. The colour is a little too cold and murky. The going off of the figures is very good. We notice, however, that the sands are not "yellow." No. 548. "Cromwell discovering his chaplain, Jeremiah White, making love to his daughter Frances." This little ambiguous love-story of the Protector's daughter is pleasingly told, and well painted; we are not quite sure of the resemblance of Cromwell.

We cannot forbear, ere we close our remarks, expressing our delight at the drawings of G. Richmond, in the room of drawings and miniatures

a room we do hot, we confess, very strictly visit. All his drawings are

very exquisite and fine, but more parWhat can be ticularly his children.

more exquisitely natural than his No. 600,"Daughters of Samuel Hoare, Esq.?" Nor is 696, "Mrs Gurney Hoare and two children," less delightfully and exquisitely drawn.

We here conclude our remarks upon the pictures, conscious that we have omitted to mention many of great merit. It must be so in so vast a number-many must be overlooked, and after seeing such a multitude, weariness is apt to take away the judgment.

It is, after all that can be said, difficult to enjoy pictures át a public exhibition. Their very number is perplexing. Could we enter the rooms, even without encountering the confusion of the ever-moving crowd, the multiplicity of gilt frames, the glare of colours, the variety of subjects, all demanding attention, would still make exactions upon the mind and upon the eye, difficult to comply with pleasantly. Attractions may be painful, We feel a power all around, that would draw our eyes out of our heads, as the magnetic mountain did the nails out of Sinbad's ship; we feel only safe by counter distractions. It is very evident, however, that this idea arises after some hours' study of the pictures, and therefore tells us it is time to close our comments. We had intended to have noticed other exhibitions; for the present we have no space, and possibly may speak of them in another paper. We cannot congratulate the Academy on this, their exhibition, as an advance beyond their usual display; on the whole, it is, perhaps, of a less elevated character. The astonishing patronage given to art, by the increase of the subscriptions to the Art Union, must have the effect of multiplying both patrons and painters; we most sincerely hope that it will not encourage the lighter productions, at the expense of the higher and more important works which genius can alone accomplish, and which will be accom plished if the public feeling and patronage will demand them. It is true in art as in literature-" Sint Mæcenates non deerunt Marones."

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