11 AUGUST 1855, Page 19

fiut iitto. THE ART TJRION.

The hundred and eighty-seven pictures in oils and water-colour se- lected by the Art Union prizeholders of the present year are now on view at the gallery in Suffolk Street. We do not remember to have seen a lot more demonstrative of the puny unintellectual taste which dictates the great majority of the selections, and renders Art 'Unions instruments of perhaps as much harm as good to the cause of art. The principal prize of 2501. has been bestowed upon Mr. Sant's " Fortune-teller"—a coarse and commonplaoe example of dexterous workmanship. Mr. Sidney Perey's "Autumn in the Highlands," taken for 1501., is one of his best landscapes, and would even claim to be thought very fine were it the first of its kind. Three or four of Mr. Hulme's pretty and delicate views, Mr. Hurlstone's "Dante begging his bread," Mr. Ivalrs "Market-Place at Dieppe," Mr. Wybard's " Latta Rookb," Mr. Henry Moore's "Sum- mer Evening in Borrowdale,"—a work decidedly promising in virtue of its straightforward conscientiousness,—Mr. Cassies "Scottish Interior," Mr. Hicks's "Haymaking," Mr. Buckner's "Family at Saraginesco," and Mr. A. W. Williams's "Wimbledon Common,"—a small but superior specimen,—are among the oil-pictures most conspicuous for merit or size. There are also a kw good water-soloure—by Naftel, Gilbert, H.eary

Warren, &a. ; and, in this section, the most creditable choice in the whole gallery, Mr. E. G. Warren's "Berry-Pomeroy Castle," which was secured by the holder of a 751. prize. We need not dwell on the daubs and offensive mediocrity which form the staple of the show'. The print for the current year is to be an engraving by Willmore after the "Harvest in the Highlands" of Landscer and Callcott ; respectable enough, but affording the former little scope for the exercise of his genius, and displayibg the latter in only one of his middling moods.