Pita art5.
THE BRITISH INSTITUTION.
The Pall Mall show of 1856 is a poor one ; the only class of art whiok presents a tolerable proportion of fair pictures being that of animal life.
Of the human subjects, two are conspicuous. " The Martyrdom of Ridley and Latimer," by Sir George Hayter, is an attempt to render the event conscientiously and impressively, vitiated by feeble powers of exe- cution, and by such a defect of invention as cannot vitalize the incidents, although it can " get up" some which are probable and significant in themselves. Some of the figures—such as that of Dr. Smith, who " preached the sermon, to which Ridley was prevented from replying, his mouth having been violently stopped "—are respectable ; and the artist has not spared pains in individualizing the crowd of subordinates, as far as he was able : unfortunately, the two martyrs have nothing in them more earnest than eyes turned up and Surrey Theatre The second conspicuous picture is Mr. Haghe's " Choir of the Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence" - which is equally figure-piece and inte- rior. This, the painter's first exhibited oil-picture within our recollec- tion, possesses the merits of the interiors for which he is famed in water- colour, though the execution is net by any means so finished as in his chief works of that style. Both the treatment and the tout ensemble are aim plc and serious. ' We seldom meet Mi. Frank Stone so etuch to advantage as in his sin- gle contribution, "Ala Dumas° Pas de Calais " ; a brace of pretty French lasses setting off for the dance, brimful of simple coquetry. One walks with set arms and a kind of balanced sway in her motion : you can see that she is mentally rehearsing her steps and figures. The other is more distinct than usual from Mr. Stone's settled type ; and the whole is agreeably finished. Mr. Gale has two ambitious subjects : " Imogen and Iachimo," and " Paolo and Francesca,"—the former care- fully though not strongly characterized. In both the artist is small : still, he has done his best in honesty of purpose. The best of the domes- tic subjects is Mr. Gifford's "La cars fanciulla," spite of the foolish foreign title for an English interior. It possesses a quiet tenderness of expression; and the child, softly laid to rest on her mother's bosom, is very much asleep. The details have nicety and promise in them, though they want the force which. comes with practice. Mr. Collinson's " Son of the Soil "—a lusty labourer seated in a public-house with his pewter pot of beer before him, and behind him an advertisement for men to serve in the Army Works Corps—is an exact study from nature. For animal-painters we have in chief Messrs. Wolf, Bottomley, Ann- dell, and Weekes junior. The first sends a large picture, " The Ptarmi- gan's Haunt,"—one of those subjects of bird-life which he treats with so peculiar a knowledge and relish. The scene is high up in mountain- country, for the more remote crag-peaks appear above the clouds ; but there is a comfortable and indigenous air about the birds, rather domestic than wild. All possible care has been bestowed upon giving reality to the various details; and the timidity of handling which belongs to Mr. Wolf as a German does not spoil the value of his finish. Mr. Bottom- ley's theme, a " French Flock of Sheep—Scenery near Paris," shows that he has been staying across Channel ; and the change which has come over his style, • from the light sketchiness of the English animal-painter to the gloomy breadth of the French, witnesses to the same fact. Hellas infused a solemn spirit into his subject, without losing natural character : the seated sentry-dog is particularly good. Mr. Ansdell's " Severe Weather " and Stray Sheep," the former of which represents a Scotch herdsman finding two of his flock in the snow, do not tran- scend the range of power which the artist has hitherto exhibited ; but they are both good specimens. Mr. Woekes—an artist whose strict study and freedom from commonplace insure his doing excel- lent things—has two donkey subjects; of which one, where three of the much-enduring animals are manifesting, in their curious dim way, emotion at sight of the corpse of a foal, displays merit of an uncommon order. The driver is smoking his pipe composedly in the background. In landscape, Messrs. Dawson, Dearle, and Dell, are the three artists who appear with the most distinctive works. Others, as Messrs. Linton, Niemann, and especially Branwhite, are represented to advantage more or less decided; but the exhibition-goer, familiar with their works, will find nothing in them that might not have been looked for, nor any ex- cellence beyond a very moderate average in the landscapes generally. Mr. Dawson's picture is a large naval one, named " British Bulwarks," with a vigorous and elaborate sunset effect. The red clouds of the left side of the work, paling in the gathering dusk, form a very fine passage • but the yellow flashes of the central sky are of a crude tinge, in whing we do not recognize nature. Mr. Dearle's "Eagle's Craig" is one of the best things he has exhibited ; though here, as also in his two others, the foreground and sky are negligently studied : but the sun-tanned heath and bushes, surmounted and pierced by the purple rocks, and dotted with dimi- nished sheep, redeem minor imperfections. Mr. Dell's pictures are larger than usual ; and one, " The Dawn of Day," is altogether different and more important. On a steep hill-path, broken with fragments of crag, some wild deer face the chill early dawn, which parts with pale primrose streaks a leaden-coloured sky.. The sentiment of the time has been impressively caught. Another effect very vividly rendered is a " Sunset " at sea, by Mr. Kne11,-brilliant, brisk, and heaving, and evidently done from care- ful observation. Mr. Sant is credited with a landscape wholly out of his wonted style-" On the River Mole, Surrey,"-showing considerable detail and discrimination in the foliage, against which the soft blue sky is pleasantly in tone.
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