flu ado.
THE SOCIETY OF BRITISH ARTISTS.
Art in Suffolk Street is this year at its usual low level. Nothing at all important is there which can really be called good; a few nice little things, a few tolerable large things, and a swamp of rubbishy common- place.
We fear that Mr. Kennedy, who promised once to be the foremost man in a style only too alluring, has given up doing anything beyond trifles as flimsy in art as they are reprehensible in aim. Such as it is, his " Gate" equals any of his recent efforts— to apply a current term to that which re- quires no effort of either head or hand. "Le Souvenir " we had seen be- fore, and liked it better then as an evidence of capacity than now as a specimen of attainment. "La Castilians" is the misnomer of a coarse though sufficiently clever head of what appears to be an English servant- girl. The dexterous "Portrait of a Gentleman" has a soapy whiteness in the flesh-tints. Mr. Hurlstone is very slatternly and bad this year. He has laid aside Spaniards, and takes up Moors, in the most unwashed de- velopment of wrong drawing and shabby costume. However, "A Jewess of Barbary" has somewhat more of bright colour and the appearance of finish ; and the "Moorish Peasant Girl" possesses soft speaking eyes ; the "Portrait of Miss Dora Wiles" also is a nice childlike face. Of Mr. Baxter's three heads, the best is the "Portrait of a Lady," where the ne- cessities of the likeness coerce the painter into some degree of individuality. On the whole, perhaps there is nothing in the way of figure subjects more creditable than the high-hung "Meditation" of Mr. R. Fox,—a name be- fore unfamiliar to us. The firm rounded poise of the arm has that decision which indicates an eye for what is large in style and a band to render it ; the face is expressive ; and both the shade which suffuses it and the gene- rally neutral tone of colour are broad and serious. We speak with some uncertainty, however, for the picture is beyond convenient examination.
The " Night-Study" of Mr. Wallis is noticeable for careful finish and a warm tone of colour in the accessories—camphine-lamp and suchlike —rather than for anything peculiar in the head. This artist is capable of higher things ; and should leave effects of lamp-light and bits of interior, such as the "Room in Shakspere's House," to others. There is more purpose in the interiors of Mr. A. Wivell,—a second new corner. His subdued dusty sunlight in "A Sketch in a Church" has study and senti- ment in it, though the colour betrays mannerism ; that of the "Welsh Interior" is deeper and healthier. Mr. E. Crowe leaves the beaten track in his single contribution, "Going South ; a sketch from life in America. A slave-gang is represented entering the railway-waggon at Richmond, Virginia, en route for South Carolina." The painter tells his story in a matter-of-fact kind of way like a newspaper paragraph, but without a grain of art. He had shown himself more advanced in practice neretofore. The same deficiency characterizes "The Annunciation" of Miss Rain- cock : but she has something of true religious sentiment, and the want of art here results clearly not from carelessness but immaturity. "A Girl Knitting," by Mr. E. R. Smyth, is on the pattern of Anthony's studies ; an imitation not strikingly good, but respectable for breadth of light and handling.
The great attempt in the way of landscape, or rather of scenic pano- rama, is by Mr. Pettitt, "The Golden Image" that Nebuchadnezzar the King had set up. In this pretentious affair, the artist has endeavoured to revivify the Nimroud marbles on canvass in the same sort of way in which Mr. Charles Kean gave them life and motion on the stage : but the result is merely a glare of crude vulgar reds and blues, laid on with no more art or truth than those of the commonest scene-painter ; in fact, a lamentable imbecility—lamentable not only for its own extreme bad- ness, but because Mr. Pettitt is really an artist of superior powers in his lucid moments. Mr. Clint tries the imaginative landscape this year, with little or no success, save in the instance of his " Scarboro'." Mr. Pyne's " imagination " sinks into untruth—the downright swearing that black is white ; that every object in nature, indeed, is either white, yellow, or
brick-dust colour. Still, his "View of Borne" is not without beauty: Mr. West is, as usual, meritorious, though never transcending a certain grade of excellence. The two Devonshire views, "Summer Shower clearing ofV' and "Sunset," are his best. Of many other habitues of the Gallery, whether in landscape or other styles, we need say no more than that they are simply themselves. Mr. Gosling is bright and pretty, but not free from trick.
In landscape, again a new name—that of Mr. J. Dearle—ranks high as any. The blue sunset shadows and purple mountains across a stream of limpid sweet water in his "Scene in North Wales" have a real beauty and refreshment. Mr. Dearle is not an artist of highly practised expertness, although his style is a good one, having some tendency to that of Anthony : but he evidently discerns and delights in what is lovely in nature, and transfuses his perception into his canvass. Two other little works, pleasant through the same influence, are by Mr. W. J. Ferguson; an autumnal.tinted "Study from Nature on the Con- way, N. Wales," and a pretty bit of "Water-side Vegetation,"—the greens of which are, however, too monotonous. Mr. Davidson, the water-colour painter—another devotee of green—exhibits some oil pic- tures; but he appears, in this material, to have lost his laudable predi- lection.
The water-colour room contains nothing else so delicately finished as the "Wild Flowers" of Mr. Burcham, nor anything more pure and ex- quisite. With this we may name, as the only other production demand- ing special notice, Miss Seyffarth's "Lady Jane Grey, on the morning of her execution, consoling her attendant,"—which, if not possessing senti- ment of an intense order, is at least refined and quiet in that respect, as well as in colour.
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