THE GLASGOW ART-UNION.
The bulk of the pictures to be distributed by this society among its subscribers for the present year has been shown during the past week, at the gallery No. 121 Pall Mall, and will continue there till the 22d in- stant. The Glasgow Art-Union is distinguished from others by its prin- ciple of selecting the prizes by a committee, instead of each prize_ holder for himself ; certainly a principle more salutary in the abstract for art so long as subscribers are the miscellaneous lot they are at present. The instance before us, however, speaks not more than moderately well for it; as the selection, passable enough on the average, does not indicate lofty taste or originality of view. The sum of 5251/. has already been expended on the works for the year; some of which, being on exhibition in the provinces, are not included in the Pall Mall collection. The chief prize, of 4001., we cannot regard as a happy one. It is ' marked " unfinished,"—which seems to show that the Glasgow Com- mittee do not act upon the system recognized in London, and valuable for guarding against favouritism, of selecting only from works which have been publicly exhibited. The artist is Mr. Sant, and the subject a group of women " Watching the Combat "—of course, in Sant style. The second prize on the printed list, (which, however, is not complete,) is a landscape by an artist apparently German or Belgian—Mr. Koecock, and naturally much inferior in essential qualities to fair specimens of our own school. Among other works we remarked the following : Mr. Ar- thur Gilbert's " Quietude, "—a first-rate example of his rather self-repeat- ing style, which we think we had seen before; Mr. John Gilbert's " Sancho Panza sitting in state as the Governor of Barataria "; a clever " Sunny Morning," by Mr. John Mogford ; an oil " Sunset," and a water-colour " Scene on the East Lyn," by Mr. Branwhite,---both talented, though the first tends to coarseness ; Mr. Deane's picturesque " Irish Cabin-door "; a good specimen of Mr. Mole, the water-colourist ; the best we have yet seen, of some geraniums and other flowers, from Miss Mutrieadd "A Dormer-window in IN uremberg," by Mr. W. B. Scott,— a dothic window classicized, done with artistic percep- tion and relish. Mr. H. B. Willis, a pleasant landscape-painter, seems to be a favourite with the committee ; and indeed landscape generally is in the ascendant. All these are artists of names and styles known to the Londoner, though most of the individual pictures meet us here for the first time. Mr. A. P. Coles is unfamiliar to us; but his " Rydal Water" has a liquid atmospheric quality and a carefulness in form which promise more than commonly well : the tone tends to purple, without being pushed to exaggeration. Something unhackneyed comes also from Mr. R. Herdman in " Beyond the Shadow " ; which represents a bevy of angels carrying to heaven an infant soul, which is just passing the circle of shadow projected by our Earth upon the sky. The thought has a poetry in it; though it is not very well adapted to pictorial art, nor is the realization itself of special artistic elevation- , The print delivered to each subscriber for the present year is by Mr. Holl after Mr. Frith's " Coming of Age in the Olden Time,"—a fine en- graving, and certainly a more than liberal return for the guinea sub- scribed. As to the value of the work from which it is taken, Mr. Frith's thoroughgoing and his partial admirers will be equally free to confess that it is one of his leading successes.
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