FINE ARTS.
WINTER EXHIBITION OP SKETCHES AND DRAWINGS.
This exhibition has changed quarters on the present occasion, from the gallery of the Old Water-Colour Society to the room at No. 121 Pall Mall, opposite the Colonnade, where the Amateur collection was seen in the summer. Among the figure-exhibitors there are somewhat fewer names of note than in the two former seasons,—that well-known class which numbers Messrs. Frith and Egg among its coryphees making scarcely any show at all: but the aggregate merit of the gathering is much the same.
Many of the contributions are, as usual, sketches for or from pictures already known to the public. Of these the most notable is Mr. W. Hol- man Hunt's " Valentine Reproaching Proteus for his falsity." The chief point of difference from the finished work consists in the position of Julia, who is here entirely in profile, in an action scarcely so capable of expressing sharp and complicated emotion. The sketch is highly wrought in effect, and the colour gorgeously deep, brilliant, and soft. Mr. Brown sends the sketch of his "Pretty Baa-lambs," deeper-toned in the sky, and with a sweeter face for the lady ; and a "Study" for the head of the Black Prince in the great picture exhibited last year. The face, which is remarkable for fine modelling, is here perhaps even more wasted and deathlike in aspect. Another "Study" by the same artist, bearing the date 1843, represents the head of a baby in long-clothes, exceedingly fat and warm, and very wide-awake and beamy about the eyes. In its quaintness and in its pleasantness it is equally close to nature. On these walls appear also Mr. Lucy's " Reconciliation of Dora with her Uncle," Mr. Elmore's "Hotspur and the Fop," the ghosts of two or three departed pictures by Mr. "(Twins, and "The Play and the Novel" by Mr. Hannah; which last should never have emerged from the state of " sketches." This gentleman has likewise, under the name of "The Scribe," a cleverly posed study of a very fine girl. Mr. Lucy's sketch is of a darker and richer tone than the painting, and forms a nice small work of itself. Respecting Mr. Uwins, we would heartily and charitably pray, "let bygones be bygones. In a " Sketch for a Picture," Mr. D. G. Rossetti illustrates those lines from the Purgatorio of Dante where he shows the vanity of earthly fame by the waning of Cimabue's renown in painting before Giotto's, and of Guido Guinicelli's in poetry before Guido Cavalcanti's,—both, as his genius prophesies, to die out in the light of his own. An historical inci- dent is chosen to embody this subject: Giotto painting that portrait of Dante—then in his early youth—which has within these few years been discovered in a church at Florence. The words " Dantis Aligherii du- ventus--Ars, Amor, Amicitia "—written underneath the sketch, indicate that it is further designed to symbolize the youth of Dante himself in its chief threefold relation. The combination of these several elements of the theme is effected in a composition which includes, together with Dante, his gracious lady Beatrice, his friends Giotto the painter and Cavalcanti the poet, and Cimabue. Seated on a platform, while Giotto paints, Dante, who holds, as in the portrait, a pomegranate, the symbol of religious mys- tery, has just become aware of the presence of Beatrice, as she passes be- neath in a church-procession • and his gaze changes from abstraction to earnest intentness. Behind his chair stands Cavalcanti, holding a volume which the line "Al cuor gentil ripara sempre amore" shows to be the poems of Guinicelli, whose place in the subject is thus represented in the picture. At the other side, old Cimabue has got up the scaffolding to see his successor's handiwork : he looks very sad, with his worn faded face and nervous bands. There is plenty of material here for an intellectual painter to work out to effect in a picture : the principal executive quality of the sketch is its grave and oven' melancholy intensity of expression. Cavalcanti's knees appear to us placed somewhat too low, and Dante's hands are drawn rather harshly. Mr. Rossetti sends another sketch from the poet of the Divine Commedia : " Beatrice, meeting Dante at a mar- riage-feast, denies him her salutation." The space is crowded by the brides- maids, who pass inward to the marriage-feast, the bride and bridegroom coming last; Dante, with Cavalcanti, stands confusedly at the head of the stairs as his offended lady goes by him without sign of recognition; and peasants are plucking basketsful of grapes for the banquet. The anxious rebuked face of Dante is the one exception to the holyday gladness of the scene. A remarkable effect of colour—not inharmonious, we conceive, if carried out with the matured resources of a picture—is produced by the green and azure dresses of the bridal ladies. Of Mr. Rossetti's third con- tribution, "A Sketch for a Portrait, in Venetian Costume "—and in a Ve- netian style and tone of colour—we spoke in noticing a former exhibi- tion.
Two " Sketches for Pictures " appear from Mr. F. R. Pickersgill's hand ; the prettier and better of which is " Tancred sends to his Daughter Ghismonda her Lover's Heart in a golden cup" ; but the subject de- mands something far, other than prettiness. The lady's face is as bland and smooth as if the person kneeling before her were her living lover himself, sending her his heart merely in metaphor. " Desdemona Inter- ceding for the restoration of Cassio" is a scene from a melodrama, not from Shakspere's tragedy. Strong chords of music : Cando off, right wing, with sufficiently slouched hat; Iago on, left wing, looking out of the corners of his eyes. Desdemona clutches hold of Othello, and seems by her looks to say, "The deed is done" : Othello answers with a scowL One may see the scene presented after the same fashion on the stage, especially over the water • but it is not high art either on boards or on canvass. Not more Shaksperian are Mr. Cattermole's subjects from Mac- beth ; nor more equal to his own powers his other design, " Card-Players." In " A Sketch from Nature," Mr. W. Hunt gives us two of those young rustic faces in which he is so well versed, and here without a tinge of coarseness or burlesque : each head is capitally finished, with distinct and lively expression. The "Plums " (201) and "Blackberries" (218) could only be by the same inimitable master. A skilful arrangement of colour (light orange and black being the leading tints) is very skilfully treated by Mr. Naiah in his " Sketch of my Partner," remarkable for softness and relief; but his substances are of a soft-soapy consistency. His stake in this clever piece of effect should have saved him from sending such meaningless rubbish as " Prudence Listening to the Vows of Love." Mr. Glass exhibits a " Sancho Parise "—characteristic enough. The last noteworthy figure-piece--for we cannot so call any one of Mr. Absolon's three contributions—is a design in crayons of " Russian Peasants play-
ing at Dice," by M. A. Ivons ; the same gentleman, we presume, who figured under the name of " Yoon" in last year's Academy catalogue as the author of some similar drawings. Like those, this displays massive- ness of form and character. The furniture of the apartment is of the most primitive the table is just a table, innocent of " practical art," and with a big hog grunting between its legs; the luxuries are beer and a rude pipe. M. Ivens wields his pencil freely with a large hand. Noteworthy on other grounds is Mr. Gale's sketch showing the present condition of the noblest painting in the world—Leonardo's " Last Sup- per"—faithfully enough, we suppose, and only too sadly. From the sufficiently undistinguished mass of landscapes which remains there will be no difficulty in selecting three Turners,—all in water- colours, and of a high degree of finish, which grows wonderfully on the eye in looking closely into them. "A Wreck ' is the first and largest : a vessel struck on rocks, and the crew endeavouring to save themselves in boats ; shrieking, surging waves, and huge chasms of water, fiercely and grandly varied, of the brightest hues, green, golden, blue, and red ; and a drift of thick spray, athwart which the sky is discernible only by lightnings. A yet more perfect, though less striking specimen, is " On the Washburn, under Folly Hall " ; a rich landscape, but all pale and still, with an old ancestral look about it, as if removed from turmoil and innovation, and a heron haunting its water. "Plymouth" is very gay in its clear atmosphere, and in variety of all kinds—colours, sky, land, city, and water dotted with vessels, and men and women on the banks.
Mr. Linnell's " Forest Skirts " is full of fresh poetical country feeling ; but his style of painting appears to less advantage in water-colours than in oil. Mr. Martin sends three of the best landscapes he has exhibited of late years : in the " Entrance to the Harbour at Ilfracombe," especially, he produces, from grandly picturesque materials, a fine and finished work. Mr. Leitch's view of ' The Halket Head," famous in Scott's
Antiquary, is highly wrought and artistic ; the sunset threateningly re- flected on the rocks, and the strength of the rising gale perceptible in the
figures struggling forward against it. A " Study from Nature," by Mr. Armitage, belongs to the French school of landscape ; murky in colour, and speaking far too strongly of the brush, but realizing, with its monoto- nous rows of trees and reflected trees, that impression of wearisome so- lemnity produced in nature.
Other landscape and still-life painters remain in shoals : of whom, among those whose names suggest their styles, we can only stop to men-
tion such as appear with superior works; reserving our parting words for two or three artists newer to the public. The former list includes Messrs. Davidson, Duncan, Vacher, Hering, Pidgeon, A. W. Williams, Bod- dington A. Gilbert, Lake Price, F. D. Hardy, and Hart, who sends two Italian interiors, done several years ago, effective and tasteful enough.
Mr. Boyce, among the younger men, exhibits two views which rank with the most conscientiously felt and executed in the gallery. One bears considerable resemblance to the style of Mr. Davidson : the other, " An Autumn Study on the Welsh Hills," is remarkable for its brightly truthful effect. The distance particularly, a stony road to the left, with sheep sunny on the further bank, is charming. Mr. Thomas Seddon's " Scene on the River Wye" is solemn, and has a massive look with its grove of dark firs overlooking the cheerful-tinted banks : the sky, curtained towards the horizon by pure clouds, is well treated. Mr. John P. Seddon has a finely-designed and coloured study of "The Sotith-west angle of St. Mark's Church at Venice." Mr. Rolt is simple and natural; Mr. Lound, dashing; Mr. Egley, sharp, and bright with prismatic colours. Mr. P. Brown is successful quite beyond the average in that kind of still life of which none can contest the supremacy with Mr. Hunt.
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