1 MAY 1852, Page 18

EXHIBITION OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTION.

This is a melancholy spectacle. The National Institution had hitherto displayed a certain amount of endeavour which justified its existence as a separate body in art; this year there is not a single—or at best only a single—remarkable picture. Unless a decided improvement take place next year, the sole consummation we can wish the Institution is that it may merge into some of the earlier-established bodies; not to issue thence again until the mass of mere ballast-rubbish which would thus happily be sunk should be replaceable by something fit for the market, nor indeed Until the whole cargo should be greatly improved. This is the more to be desired, as no special feature now distinguishes the quondam free ex- hibition, save the dubious one that the contributors pay for a space which they cover, in the vast majority of eases, with afflictive daubs ; the prin- ciple of free admission, even for the final fortnight, being abandoned this year as " the class for whose benefit it was intended did not avail them. selves of the privilege." There is certainly some reason in the plea; at the same time that the abstinence referred to would just now be more than ever a proof of good sense. Irrespectively of landscapes, (several of which are of course good, though none is extraordinary,) there are but three pictures reasoaably worth looking at,—by Mrs. Milan, Mr. Glass, and Mr. Collinson. Of these, the lady's is the most important., and possesses the highest quali- ties. She has chosen as her subject " The Highlands, 1862" (245)—one of those scenes of wholesale eviction in the North, with the painful details of which our press has lately teemed, where the millionaire's " improve- ments " compel the dispossessed cottier to seek, in bitterness of heart, the refuge of some distant colony. The first of sixteen families is leaving the shore to the piper's wailing notes. The head of the family silently pulls his bonnet over his brow, while his young wife and child look out with withheld tears, the former gazing for the last time at what was once her home, and the old broken-hearted father cowers down in the boat with his face buried in his hands. On the shore are collected the other houseless families, bidding or looking a last adieu to the emigrants, and themselves engaged in the harrowing preparations for departure. The only unmoved spectator of the scene is the sailor who has charge of the boat. Through- out, the feeling is strong, but compressed and unexaggerated; and the re- course to a subject of serious interest of our own day is always to be ap- plauded. Mr. Glass's picture, "Free Companions," is the best he has exhibited. The arrangement is easy, and as varied as can be expected in a column of mounted troopers : there is character in the expressions, and spontaneity in the movements, and the half-tint of the group is truth- ful. Among this gentleman's other works, the female head, No. 300,15 to be remarked as his most successful piece of colour. The most finished painting of the three with whose mention we started is Mr. Collinson's Emigration Scheme,"—a pendent, though on a smaller scale, to his "Emigrant's Letter" of 1350; and to which there would be little to object were its subject more salient, and its treatment free from some plethora of objects, and a certain isolated cut-out look in the figures. A family-group is assembled in a cottage indicative of decent comfort. The husband has on his knee an open letter—received, as we infer, from a friend at the Antipodes • and the circle is listening thoughtfully to a boy who reads from the "Australian News." Truth and delicacy of expres- sion are visible in the sickly-looking little girl who has fallen asleep, with her head against her mother's lap, and in her more wakeful sister, paying wide-eyed attention to the marvellous prospects unfolded as the reader proceeds. The mother watchfully tending the slumbering child; the younger woman—an unmarried sister probably—the deep reverie of whose eyes accords with the fixed yet reposeful tension of her whole pos- ture; and the husband himself, anxiously debating of the future in his own mind—bear their parts well and individually ; the least significant figure being that of a young man, the last among the group. The colour 1 is bright, and great care has been bestowed on the object-painting. Mr. Collinson's smaller picture, "The Wreath," is conscientious but timid in working, and inexcusably ugly.

The hideous object which distresses the visitor's eye at the moment of his entrance is a " Crucifixion " by Mr. Lauder ; an attempt which cannot answer any possible good purpose : in the sky, however, there is a strong feeling for pictorial effect and the dramatic treatment of nature. "Christ teaching Humility "—a composition which has been before exhibited—is the extreme of unmeaning conventionalism ; nor do the two portraits by Mr. Lauder display any of his better qualities. Here we should notice, as the one characteristic point in the National Institu- tion of 1852, the turn-penny incompetence which has run riot in sacred subjects. If Mr. Lauder, the President, has failed egregiously, Mr. Eck. fordLauder's "Naomi and her Daughters-in-law" is yet viler; Mr. W. Underhill's " St. John in the Wilderness" more impudently inane ; and Mr. Barraud outstrips them all in a race, which to the de- vout, or even the serious, must surely seem one of profanation. Let the patrons of "We praise thee, 0 God ! " look for one moment at "Go, and sin no more," or "The Beloved Disciple," and blush to think that it is they who have made the most sacred names a byword in the babble- ment of imbecility—Who have introduced the Yahoo into the Holy of

Mr. higan's "Lord Soulis " affords evidence of original thinking in the ghastly doubles of the imp Redcap, which multiply with warning and derisive gesture before the eyes of the wicked baron, and the smoky atmosphere through which they peer is skilfully represented ; but Lord Soulis himself is merely a heavy guardsman, stretching his legs. Mr. Crabb's "Black Agnes of Dunbar" is a very spirited piece of paint- ing—the cleverest "take-off" of Etty we ever saw; moreover, there is something here and in the " Portrait " (136) which could only be got by a man of ability, and which renders the mannerism, carelessness, and imitativeness of this young artist, matter of regret. A "Head of a Bac- chante," by Mr. Armitage, is one of the best and most powerful things in the gallery—vivid in arrangement of colour, yet subdued in tone ; but the nymph looks somewhat passee. Mr. Pasmore's eccen- tricities of method get worse and worse. "Helen of Xirkonnel," by Mr. J. Z. Bell, shows forcibly (what we always feel in looking at his pictures) that there is some radical deficiency in the painter—an inability to attain force, elaboration, or meaning : he is by no means destitute of tendency towards what is good, but it is all tendency. The same is to be said of his portraits ; of which the walls have a plentiful sprinkling. The other principal portraits are by Mr. Harris, Mr. Burchett, and Mr. Houlton- whose careful modelling and texture and good purpose in colour promise well.

We had a good deal to say—mainly in praise—of the landscapes of the Williams family ; but our space does not allow. We console ourselves with the confidence that every exhibition for many years to come will afford an equally appropriate opportunity for the same comments. Asa we must limit ourselves to directing the visitor to the works of Messrs. Peale, Willis, Hulme, Thorpe, Budge, and Provisi ; from among which he must in some cases select the good ones for himself.

Mr. Dawson's "London Sunrise" is an important work of fine character ; the spreading of the sunny glitter along the dingy Thames being expressed with peculiar effectiveness. Mr. Eckford Lauder:s ruined chapel (220) is by far the best thing he exhibits. Mr. M'Callum $ symbolic and other landscapes show ambition and imaginative purOccel bat more strictness of natural aspect is required.