ART.
THE NEW GALLERY.
ROSSETTIB, old masters, and English pictures, each occupying a room, are what the New Gallery has to show this year. Each group of pictures is a good one; the no:quietus, perhaps, are the most representative, and the old masters the least so. The reason of the attractiveness of the collection of Rossetti'a works is a good deal due to the fact that so many of the pictures are early examples and water-colours. In this medium the painter was far more at his ease than he was when working in oil. Rossetti developed a water-colour technique peculiar to himself, which was strong and vigorous, a technique which he wielded with power. Never has this medium been made to yield more intense or richer colour; and although the iridescent washes which Turner used with such magical effect are left on one side, nevertheless the results Rossetti wished to attain are reached with complete success. It was different when he used oil-colour; the painter and the paint appear at variance ; the artist seems to be trying to compel his colours to work in a way foreign to their nature. Beautiful chromatic effects were often arrived at, no doubt, but generally in spite of the paint. Compare the paint surface of the Lady Lilith (No. 29) with that of the Vision of Fiammetta (No. 67), and if the observer has any sympathy with the craftsmanship of painting, he cannot fail to see the superiority of the former. Equally marked is the case of the draperies. Look at the paint surface of Proserpine's dress (No. 21), and then note the lovely changing colour used in that of Lucrezia Borgia (No. 28). When using oil-paint Rossetti generally worked on a larger scale than when he was using water-colour, and this was unfortunate on account of his limited sense of the construction of the human frame. To see that he could draw and model parts of the figure very finely we have only to look at such works as the early drawing of Gaetano Polidori (No. 9), or the many beautiful accessories introduced into the pictures. But it is wiser not to inquire too much into the proportions of Fiammetta or the Blessed Damozel (No. 63), and Dr. Johnson's legs remain wholly unexplained. This last picture is one of Rossetti's very rare excursions into real life, and the excellence of its humour and characterisation, as well as its qualities of colour, make us wish he had a little oftener left the world of romance. In Boswell's book we find the story of the two young ladies who came up from Lichfield to consult Dr. Johnson about Methodism, and how they dined together at the 'Mitre.' Boswell was not there, but gathered the detai's from Dr. Maxwell. In spite of this Rossetti has made Boswell present sipping something stronger than the tea which the sage is drinking. How admirably the painter has characterised the figures ! Boswell, with his capacity of enjoying greatly both the spiritual and the spirituous elements of the situation ; Johnson, with a face at once tenderly benevo- lent and domineering ; and the two young ladies, wholly undisconcerted,—neither the one by the fact that she is sitting on the Doctor's knee, nor both for being in a London coffee-house while the sun is rising behind the houses on the opposite side of the street.
Any one wishing for a feast of gorgeous colour will certainly find it in this room. Take the wall facing the door and glance along the pictures hung on the line. Look especially at the Leah and Rachel (No. 50), with its harmony of yellow-green, blue- green, and purple; at the knights being fed by the Sancgreal, with the fiery reds and white, and at the marriage procession (No. 54). The pictures, no doubt, are far removed from natural effect, and appeal to the eye in the same way that stained- glass windows do, but for sheer beauty of colour they would be hard to equal. Rossetti in his later years not only lost the power of producing these radiant colour harmonies, but he showed increasing mannerism in regard to form. The exaggeration of certain features became painfully marked. It was not without justice that an irreverent person exclaimed: "Take, oh, take those lips away ; " and he might have added necks and wigs, too.
In the large room in this gallery will be found a collection of Flemish and Italian pictures. The former predominate, and among them are some large and very uninteresting official pictures by Otto van Veen, in which Kings and Queens of Bohemia walk about in colonnaded halls. The largest of these, which has about a hundred square feet of canvas, makes us realise the extraordinary skill of Paul Veronese in his dealing with the same kind of material. Two portraits in this room may be compared, for the sake of contrasting the attitude of mind of an Italian and a Northern painter towards his sitter. Holbein when painting the Portrait of a Young Man (No. 111) seems to have criticised and considered every fold and mark- ing of the skin and every detail of the costume. Form and surface alike claimed his attention in every part. The result is a striking one, no doubt, but with all its great qualities we feel that we are at the culmination of a style. What was possible beyond such a treatment ? Now look at Beltraffio's Portrait of a Man (No. 135). There is nothing like the same realisation of the details; the facts are summarised and con- densed. Here is the beginning of a new epoch ; a method such as this it was possible to enlarge and to develop. Moroni and the great Renaissance portrait painters are possible successors to such painting as this, but they never could have been evolved from the art of Holbein.
Among the English pictures now to be seen at the New Gallery perhaps few are more interesting than those by Mason. This painter is seen to perfection in the lovely little picture, The Young Anglers (No. 191). In the Evening Hymn (No. 206) the sentiment is forced and the treatment is too artificiaL There is no false note in the children fishing in the stream. They are both perfectly graceful and perfectly natural, and it is with the utmost skill that the artist has arranged that in the grouping of the figures and the colour scheme, with its whites and greens, colour, line, and com- position shall be one. Walker is represented by two large oil pictures as well as by some water-colours. The Plough (No. 162) is one of his finest things, the Wayfarers (No. 183) one of his worst. Rhythmic movement in the one degenerates into affectation of pose in the other ; the solemn dignity of the eternal labour of man into washy sentiment. Among the older English pictures is a fine head of Lord North (No. 180), by Gainsborough. The painting of the head is unusually solid in its modelling for this painter, and recalls Sir Joshua both in execution and colour. The wig and the coat betray the touch of Gainsborough. Apart from these technical peculiarities the portrait is a fine one, and the colour of the warm, ruddy flesh and of the blue coat is strong and harmonious.
Those who are interested in the art of Pinwell will find here a number of his water-colours and one oil picture. The influence of Walker is strong, especially in the small water-colours. The oil, Out of Tune (No. 177), is not a work of much merit. The man and girl—wandering minstrels a--who are sitting on the steps of a village cross, fail to arouse
much interest, and the sentiment is dangerously near to that of too many of the pictures which will most likely hang on these walls next May. H. S.
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