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THE MEDAL DISTRIBUTION AT THE ROYAL • ACADEMY.

THE 10th of December, the anniversary of the foundation of the Royal Academy, is a great day for the students, as, on that occasion, premiums are given to those who have best distinguished themselves in the different branches of study. The evening of Tuesday last was looked forward to with more than usual eagerness, as the present happens to be a " gold medal year ;" medals of silver are awarded annually, but the distribution of gold is a biennial affair. The gold medals, four in number, are offered by the Academy for the best his- torical picture, the best landscape, the best group in sculpture, and the best architectural design. Departing from its usual custom of selecting subjects for the figure-painters from Scripture or classic lore, the Academy, in this instance, allowed them to choose for them- selves any scene of Shakspeare's 'Merchant of Venice for illustration. The Turner gold medal was offered for an English landscape ; the sculptors had the remorse of Adam and Eve after eating the forbidden fruit (as described by Milton) allotted to them, while the architects were to furnish original designs for an Exchange. Flow many speci- mens were sent in I am unable to say, but only two in each class were hung on the walls. The well-worn incident of Shylock giving his keys to Jessica formed the subject of one of the figure-pictures, the other was devoted to the delineation of the Trial scene. The land- scapes seemed to have been painted in a spirit of opposition, one being intensely hot and the other as intensely cold in colour. In competition for the silver medals, there were several half-length life-size paintings of a forlorn-looking female in a black dress, three of the whole nude figure on a smaller scale, a vast number of drawings and models from the life and the antique, and a solitary specimen of sciography, which called to mind the elaborate machine for drawing a cork in- vented by Hogarth's quack doctor. To cover a tolerably large surface of paper with innumerable lines, and varnishing points for the sake of accurately showing the form of the shadows cast by a ladder or a railway-truck on an irregular surface, is a task which must require considerable patience when so much simpler means could be found, and the Academy do well to reward such excessive toil with a silver medal.

The different works are hung in what is known as the Middle Room of the Academy, thus eclipsing for a time the diploma pictures which are placed there. Pictures and drawings are distinguished only by numbers, so as to avoid any suspicion of partiality on the part of the judges. There is a loud and busy hum of conversation and much gesticulation among the students as they discuss the merits of their brethren's work and speculate as to the result of the coun- cil's decision. Naturally the pictures attract the greatest share of attention, and if two R.A.s should stop for a moment in front of them, eager listeners press forward to hear any remark they may drop: The Shylock and Jessica canvas is evidently the favourite. It is painted with much facility and knowledge of pictorial effect. It strikes at the first glance ; the head of Jessica is true to the national type. Shylock and Launcelot are less successful, but there are bril- liantly coloured draperies and numberless pleasant conventionalising about the picture to atone for those deficiencies. Those who are not led away by a somewhat too evident a tendency to picture-making, prefer its more soberly coloured and, though more laboured, yet more honestly painted rival, the Trial scene, a work by a less practised hand, full of the crudities of conception inseparable from the efforts of a beginner, but showing a fair conception of character and a de-

termination to be as far as possible original. After a time, one of the porters, radiant in scarlet gown and silk stockings, summons the students to the room appropriated to the delivery of the prizes. This is the large, or East Room, but how different is its ap- pearance now to that which it presents on the first Monday in May. No acres of brilliant colour and gilding meet the eye, no smell of fresh paint or varnish assails the sensitive nostril. The boarded walls are painted a dull red, suspended on their surfaces are one or two copies of Raphael's cartoons,

Ruben's "Descent from the Cross" and Da Vinci's "Last Supper." The room is longitudinally divided into two compartments by a

wooden barrier. The floor of the lesser is covered with red baize; on a raised dais, extending the whole length of the room, are placed two rows of chairs, that in the front for the Academicians, that in the rear for the Associates. In the centre of all, there is a table covered with crimson velvet, and a gilded chair for the President : the whole forming a very imposing and stately background for the ensuing ceremony. On the other side of the barrier plain wooden benches are fixed at gradually ascending heights, and these are nearly filled with students and probationers who seek to wile away the tedium of the interval which must elapse before the arrival of the President and the . members, by strenuous endeavours to turn the place into a bear-garden. Pellets of bread and modelling-clay are thrown about, zoological imitations, more or less successful, are attempted ; some ingenious youth has brought down a cheap mouth- organ, with which he emits sounds such as those which a cow in the last stage of consumption might be expected to utter ; nor is that

method of whistling through the fingers, so successfully practised by the "bouds" of a transpoutiue theatre, altogether unheard. These

and other playful tricks are accompanied by an incessant stamping of feet and clattering of walking-sticks and umbrellas. The red- gowned porter occasionally opens a door a few inches and makes remonstrative signs, but without effect, and when he enters for the purpose of removing the centre panel of the barrier so as to allow the medallists a free passage to the presidential chair, the applause with which he is greeted is something tremendous. On one of the benches I observed four female students (the Academy has lately opened its doors to the fair sex), who crouched together, looking rather scared by their first introduction to the humours of a "gold medal night," and who must have retired from the scene with split- ting headaches. And now the folding-doors are thrown open, and in march the R.As. and Associates headed by Sir Charles Eastlake in plain evening-dress and wearing the Presidential chain and badge. Loud and long applause greets their entry, followed by a breathless silence, when, after all are duly seated, the President proceeds to make a few prefatory remarks on the character of the works submitted, and con- gratulates the students on the general advancement they have made. In two cases, he said, honours would not be awarded, neither of the landscapes being considered worthy of the Turner medal, and the paintings from the nude figure fell short of the average. Then in clear tones and measured style, Sir Charles proceeded to enumerate the successful candidates. Every ear was on the stretch, and it was not difficult from nervous trembling of the hands and facial twitch- ings to discover some who had been playing for the stake. "In historical painting, the gold medal, the discourses of Reynolds, and other books, have been awarded to Mr. Andrew Brown Donaldson."

The Trial scene, then, is successful after all, and as its painter (a son, I believe, of Professor Donaldson, the architect) emerges from the crowd, and passes up to receive the prize, given with a kindly smile, from the President, a storm of applause bursts forth from the excited students. Mr. George Slater obtains the gold medal for the best historical group in sculpture, and Mr. T. H. Watson for the best architectural design. The same ceremony is repeated some dozen times, and the decisions of the Council, judging from the enthusiastic demonstrations that accompany each announce- ment,give universal satisfaction. The list of prizes being gone through, the President lingers as if according to custom, lie were about to deliver a short address, but excuses himself on the ground of previous ill-health and his numerous and pressing duties, and so, with a few brief words of encouragement and incentive to the ex- citable audience, the proceedings terminate. The successful fly homewards to share their joy with friends or relatives, and those less fortunate will, it. is to be hoped, speedily recover their disap- pointment, and, instead of giving way to melancholy, resolve to work harder and hope for better luck next time. The following is the official list of those to whom the silver medals were awarded :

To Norman Edward Taylor, for the beak drawing from the life.

To Thomas Gray, for the next best drawing from the life.

To William Blake Richmond, for the next best drawing from the life.

To Henry Bursill, for the best model from the life.

To Joseph S. Wyon, for the next best model from the life. To John Stewart Callcott, for the best painting from the living draped model.

To George Smith, for the best drawing from the antique. To Thomas Henry Thomas, for the next best drawing from the antique. To Walter Tomlinson, for the next best drawing from the antique.

To David Davis, for the best model from the antique.

To George Augustus Scappa, for the best perspective drawing in out-

line.

To Alfred Ridge, for a specimen of sciography.

Mr. and Mrs. Howitt have published a volume entitled Ruined ribbeys and Castks of Great Britain, in a gorgeous binding of green and gold, printed on hot-pressed paper, and rejoicing in all the usual delicacies of the season. It is chiefly remarkable, however, for being Illustrated with some two dozen photographs; the object of the work being, as stated in the preface, "to present the reader with the pre- cise aspect of the places, which at the same time are commended to his notice by the pen. It appears to us a decided advance in the department of topography thus to unite to it photography. The reader is no longer left to suppose himself at the mercy of the imagination, the caprices or the deficiencies of the artist ; but to have before him the genuine presentment of the object under consideration." This is, of course, a matter of taste ; but one would have thought that few persons, with any appreciation of art what- ever, would have preferred the dull commonplace literality of the photograph to being left even to the mercy of the " imaginations" of one of Turner's vignettes. The impression from a steel plate has at least the advantage of durability and permanence to recom- mend it, which can scarcely he said for the photograph, as any one who has collected them for any length of time will be prepared to prove. The authors lay so much stress on these " splendid achieve- ments of modern art," and are altogether so satisfied with the results of photography, that it would bo useless to enter into a discussion as to whether photography is au art at all, or whether the work of a machine will even bear comparison in interest with the work of a creaturegifted with brains and heart. Regarded simply as photo- graphs, those which adorn this volume are well executed, and the point of view is, in most cases, well selected, though more might have been made of the fine ruins of Rievaux than the early English gateway which is presented. Those by Mr. Bedford, of Goodrick Castle and Marten's Tower, at Chepstow, are among the best, being brilliant and sunny in effect, and free from the blackness of shade usually characteristic of a photographic sun picture.—Dier Yourr.