THE GROSVENOR GALLERY.
THE general effect of the Grosvenor show this year cannot by the most optimistic observer be considered entirely satisfactory. One goes round the rooms, and although there are numerous works which attain to a respectable standard, yet hardly one of them will make a lasting impression upon the mind. There is not a highly remarkable picture in the exhibition. Thinking over the collection a few hours after having visited it, there seems in one's mind a somewhat blank sensation regarding it. Even the curiosities are nothing frantically original or novel. The portraits may be considered to be the most interesting and noticeable pictures to be seen. In that of Mr. Rider Haggard (3), by Mr. Pettie, the painter seems to have cho en an attitude for Mr. Haggard which ap- pears little customary to him, and which expresses some uneasiness ; this, however, if it is a mistake, is a trifling one, and does not make the portrait less than a good likeness. There seems to be something indefinable which is wanting in Mr. Shannon's large portrait of Lady Granby (17), also. While he has succeeded in posing her in a most graceful attitude, he does not seem to have made a good likeness of his model's face ; at the same time, one cannot help calling the whole work decidedly successful.
It is remarkable how popular these immense portraits are becoming; every year they grow in length and more elaborate in their taste. It may be a bold observation to make, but of all the portraits that we have seen in a long series of Galleries and collections, it is not the very large, full-length ones which may be taken, on the whole, as the most beautiful or the most pleasant to live with. No doubt a graceful figure and well-executed drapery can at times be expressed by work- manship which comes near to perfection ; yet with all the com- bined charms of attitude, dress, and surroundings, a simple and artistically painted head and shoulders, or at most a three- quarter-length portrait, which more particularly reproduces the beauty of the sitter's face, without paying so much atten- tion to clothing and "properties," will bring down the balance in its favour placed against any full-length pictures on yards of canvas. Mr. Stuart-Wortley's portrait of Miss Ella Stanier (142) is to a great extent an illustration of the foregoing remarks. The effect of this picture, as seen in the Grosvenor, is, however, sadly damaged by the gaudy oval frame in whias it is placed.
One might draw attention to various portraits which are worthy works, but most of them are more interesting to their possessors than to the general public. However, one may notice with advantage Mr. Logsdail's portrait of Frederic Villiers (171), and Miss Clare Wright (110), by W. Llewellyn. The latter is a sort of "arrangement in green," and strongly reminds one of a portrait in the recent ex- hibition of pastel pictures held at the Grosvenor. Once in a way, a vagary such as this green painting is very refreshing, but it would be dangerous to repeat it. Mr. Margetson's large and successful picture of Miss Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth (31) takes us from portraits to fancy pictures, among which Sir John Millais's "Shelling Peas" (58) is worthy of the highest position. Every part of its workman- ship is, as may be expected from the artist, remarkably powerful, and at the same time refined. On the end wall of the West Gallery, two pictures—one called " Look !" (87), by Marianne Stokes ; the other, "Child with Silver- Fish " (92), by W. R. Symonds—are both worthy of praise. The first represents a gnomish little creature who seems to look out with glistening eyes from some dark corner of its native slums. This work is quaint in effect, and makes one feel a sort of pity for the child sitting clutching a faded blossom of some kind. There is pathos in the painting. Mr. Symonds's little girl comes from much brighter surroundings, and perhaps the silver-fish in the bowl she is holding are to symbolise the happy life she has before her. At any rate, instead of pathos there is pleasure in her portrait. It would be, perhaps, an improvement if the background against which she stands were a shade darker or lighter. There is not enough con- trast as it is. " Laban," by Arthur Melville (13), a single Eastern figure standing with a flock of sheep near him, in evening light, is a bold piece of work,—a small canvas covered with powerful and large strokes of colour which, to give them their due praise, are put on with no little dexterity ; and they have a very good effect when one sees them from the proper distance, sometimes difficult to be obtained in a crowd. The very opposite extreme in execution may be seen in the little picture, almost a miniature, called "Le Prie-Dien Improvise," by Jan van Beers, which must be classed among that very rare series of paintings exemplifying the taste which arises from the refinement of luxurious vulgarity. Mr. Cotman's "Her Ladyship's First Lesson" (29), and "Darby and Joan," by W. Dendy Sadler (121), both have many good points, and the public will doubtless not pass over these works without remarking them ; but neither of them is engrossing as to subject.
The landscapes this year show us the most uncommon phases of artistic choice. Earth and air are to be seen under more remarkable circumstances than have been visible for some time at the Grosvenor. Mr. Wyllie, almost alone, sends a. simple painting of Nature as she is on the Kentish river be has chosen ; and having found a pleasant point of view, he has made a good work from it. There seems to be some rather heavy brush-work in the representation of distant water, however, which prevents the picture from being an entire success. Other well-known artists have given us some very remarkable and elaborately executed skies above their land- scapes, such as is seen in "Macbeth, Act i., Scene 3," by Keeley Halswelle, a painting which must be considered more as a land- scape than anything else, whatever its name may be. "The Weird Sisters" (8), by Mr. Mac Whirter, three old and twisted trees, are also beneath so angry a sky, that the latter makes the most important impression on the mind as one looks at the picture. At the same time, there is no small amount of spirit in the whole work. The colour in the sky may be called too violent, but it is not by any means so burning hot as the tints which seem to be always chosen by Mr. John Reid and Mr. Anderson Hague. There is a brazen glow in "The Mussel-Gatherers" (141), by Mr. Reid, which would be far too much in real life for any ordinary English fisherman or woman, even if they were provided with looser garments than they possess in picture No. 141. Mr. Alfred East's "Gentle Night" (170) has a soothing effect after these scorching canvases ; and if it is somewhat too square in its composition, and if the light in it does not strike one as being very unmistakably that of evening, it is,
withal, a picture full- of poetical sentiment. " 'Twixt Night and Day" (158), by W. Llewellyn, does give one the idea of sunset very decidedly. The little Cornish harbour seems half in shadow and half bathed in the warmest golden aim-rays, just the effect one has seen over and over again. There is a delicious sort of calm which makes one wish to know the name of the little town which possesses this quiet and pic- turesque corner, that one may go and see for oneself in real life what has been so pleasantly put in a picture.
Sculptors, like other artists, have sent to the Grosvenor various works which are not strikingly interesting, although they are not to be passed over as unsuccessful. A little bust by T. Nelson Maclean gives one the idea that it is, in the delineation of features, a capital piece of work. It is nothing more nor less than a little boy's portrait, and it is as pleasant to look at as marble likenesses can ever be.
The water-colours are never numerous here, and this year they are less so than usual. Among them are some good works by Mr. Tristram Ellis. "Lowestoft Trawlers "(317), by Norah Davison, is a clearly painted work, and shows grasp of colour and boldness of handling,—both decidedly good qualities.
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