FINE ARTS.
SOCIETY OF BRITISH ARTISTS.
TEE collection in the Suffolk Street Gallery, this year, has benefited by a more rigid process of selection; for we do not notice anything so flagrantly ridiculous as many that used to disfigure its walls. The general aspect of the rooms is imposing, from the well-arranged light, the warm carpeting, and the comfortable appointments. An improvement, only initiated, is the admission of pictures to " the line " which are painted by artists not belong- ing to the Society.
A scrutiny of the individual pictures is not satisfactory. The principal, in most respects, is one by Mr. Harlstone-" Mendicante of the Piazza Navona, Rome "; a fine old blind man, kneeling, with a beautiful boy soliciting alms: it reminds one of Murillo, and has the sentiment be- longing to some of that painter's most engaging pictures; but there are many crying defects in the execution, much like that of a coloured drawing. One who can conceive so well ought to execute better, and never to paint such feeble follies as the " Mazeppa." Some other sketches of Italian boys by the same hand, like the beggar's child, are pleasing and imperfect.
The strength of the Society in general lies in its landscapes. Mr. Pyne has a very prominent one; labouring, however, under the serious fault that the effect is feeble compared with the coarseness of the execution in parts: it is a view from the heights above Pallanza on the Lago Maggiore, and ought to be very effective; but when you retreat far enough to lose sight of the raw materials in the sky and foreground, you can scarcely discern the principal and most elaborated part of the picture. Mr. Tennant ex- hibits some very conscientiously and therefore well painted English scenes; Mr. Alfred Clint, one of the best attempts at painting the sun which we ever saw, flaming blood red through mist, on the craggy coast of York- shire. Mr. Prentis, Mr. Pidding, and Mr. Salter, supply meritorious figure pieces, comic and classic.
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