"Tbe 6pettator," lap 3113t. 1851
(THE ROYAL ACADEMY EXHIBITION—Fourth Notice) We have already had occasion to allude to the works of Messrs. Millais and Hunt—works the principle of which it is essential to understand at the outset ; for they are among the very few in the Academy whose principle can be clearly stated and apprehended, or indeed which are animated by any, apart from the mystifying traditions or conventions of the studio. . . .
One objection to the literal rendering of a subject is advanced, and appears at first sight entitled to some respect on intellectual grounds: yet we believe that, when at all closely examined, it will be found a specious and self-refuting fallacy. It is said that no one sees the thing actually as it is, but through the medium of his own feelings ; and that therefore the strict external representation is, for the higher purposes of art, not true, but false. Accepting this assumption, we would inquire how it is possible, whether desirable or not, that the artist should produce other than an ideal, his own ideal ? Or we may take the converse of the proposition, and ask how the spectator, who cannot help idealising nature in the mere act of vision, should find the literal copy of nature more impractic- able ? Either way, the objection appears wholly untenable.
We have entered thus far on a consideration of the leading qualities of the " pre-Rapha'elite " pictures, because we think it evident that the artists have not picked up their principles at random, and that these ought not therefore to be cried down in any hasty clique spirit. We believe that, irrespectively of the mere deserts of the pictures themselves, they exercise an influence of the very kind most needed in English art, and will continue to do so at a potent rate of increase.
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