ART.
THE WATER-COLOUR SOCIETY.
INJUDICIOUS or unfair hanging is not a monopoly of any one picture gallery, though there is usually little said about it except in the case of the Royal Academy Exhibitions. That the complaints arising out of it should be, as in fact they are, most infrequent and least pertinacious in the case of the Water-Colour Societies is very intelligible, when it is remembered that there all the exhibitors are members, and all are therefore so far interested in the public credit of the Exhibition, that if they have a grievance they keep it very much to themselves, or are content at least that their curses, however deep, should not be loud. And if the exhibitors are, or appear, satisfied with the hanging, a principal source of all pub- lished complaints on this head is wanting. Nevertheless, it is impossible not to see that this year's Exhibition of the old Society presents a notable instance of bad hanging; not the first instance, perhaps, but certainly a very remarkable one. The total absence of works by Mr. Burton and Mr. Boyce (for the single head ex- hibited by the latter can by no manner of means be allowed as a fair specimen of his art) must no doubt be set down as a serious misfortune, not to mention that Mr. E. B. Jones has contributed none of those wonders of colour which so materially tend to the enrichment of an exhibition. But some such drawbacks happen in most years, and only make it the more necessary to exercise sound judgment in disposing of the materials that may be at hand; whereas now, with a collection of pictures that would make the fortune of any other Society, the general impression of the gallery is fiat and disappointing, and almost literally justifies the remark that has been made upon it, that never were so many bad pictures so conspicuously hung. Besides, not only is great part of the line and of other central positions occupied by- frames as re- markable for their emptiness as their great size, but even when a good drawing is fairly placed in other respects, the odds are it is put out of countenance by an ill-assorted neighbour. Thus the delicacy and refinement of Mr. A. Fripp's large picture (92) lose half their due effect through the rankness and violence of Mr. Palmer's "Towered City" (93) ; the modesty of nature is con- founded by the intemperance of the paint-box ; the mildewed ear blasts his wholesome brother. And this particular instance of care- lessness is all the more provoking, that it sets one at odds with a true artist (viz., Mr. Palmer), who has often charmed, and at this very Exhibition does again in another instance (16) charm, all true lovers of art. As to the good positions usurped by bad drawings, if it be answered that in a body like the Water- Colour Society every member is entitled to an equal portion of good wall space by mere virtue of his membership, the public have nothing to reply beyond expressing their regret at the untoward necessity.
That the unsatisfactory impression made by a general survey of the gallery is not really or at least principally owing to an un- usual deficiency in the qualityof pictures exhibited must be evident to any one who will be at the pains of searching out the good things
for himself : and among these he will probably be disposed to rate very highly Mr. A. Glennie's " Claudian Aqueduct, near Rome" (72), a picture indifferently hung in a corner of the room. The long line of arches stretching endlessly away in the far dis- tance looks here like what it is, the monument of a mighty nation. The treatment is simply natural, as befits the subject, and the painting is so straightforward and void of artifice as to inspire the thought (a great test of good work) that it were an easy thing to do likewise. The attempt, however, would probably show that there were certain secrets of Mr. Glennie's palette rather difficult to fathom. His colour is indeed singularly pure and bright and finely harmonize]. A certain carelessness in painting a rain-cloud on the right of this picture scarcely mars its completeness. In fact, the mini, while admitting the imperfection, refuses to allow it any effect in passing final judgment on the picture. And so it will be generally found that when a picture has anything definite to say, small faults are winked at. Among other drawings by the Caine artist, all exhibiting like qualities variously applied, two are to be specially noticed, hanging low on a screen, both of them views of Fiume, in Istria, one in the morning (224), the other in the afternoon (204). Below the former of these, on the very floor, hangs a little drawing by another true and ever active artist, Mr. Alfred hunt, "View from a Miller's Garden on the Thames" (225). Te view is across the river to a clear western sky, some half-hour after-sunset, through a break in a grove of young ash or aspens. A vacant chair in the very eye of the view seems to imply that this particular miller is further advanced in msthetics than his fellows are generally supposed to be, and has chosen the spot for his secure hour of evening contemplation. Anyhow, his choice is well justified, and any man might well refresh his soul with that tender gold in the sky blended with those cool shadows among the trees. The colour in this drawing is thoroughly harmonious, a quality which deserves notice more particularly-, because it is the one in which Mr. Hunt, though ever less frequently failing, is least certain to be right (198). However, there is not a word to be said on this point against his very beautiful" Island Meadow" (233), brilliant in sunshine, placid in sentiment ; nor against his " Streatley "(256), bathed in the golden haze of a summer afternoon. All these abound in evidence of the keenest perception of aerial effect. So, too, does another of his Thames drawings (266), which, however, fails comparatively in the coherence of its general effect. It fails, too, in conveying that specially silvery colour which characterizes the Thames, and which no man has yet so happily hit as Mr. G. Fripp. Mr. Fripp, indeed, is one of our most unerring colourists, and is besides one of the chief among a too scanty number who practically recognize the primary value of light and shade. There is, perhaps, no new evidence of his power in the very few drawings he now exhibits ; but for combined fullness and sobriety of colour, purity of grays, and largeness of treatment they are still unsurpassed, and hardly rivalled (134, 243). Besides his Thames drawings, including one of those blue days when local colour has half fainted from the landscape (86), Mr. Hunt has a wild winter's sunset on a 1Velsh moor, with a watery gleam slanting across a pile of clouds whose tops tower up towards the cold zenith, and momentarily intensifying by the contrast the mystery of dim shadows that brood over the hill sides. He calls it "A Welsh Cromlech" (106); and in the immediate foreground there is, in fact, one of those rough structures of ominous memory which probably suggested the general treatment of the picture. Yet in itself it is no aid to the general effect ; on the contrary, a certain crudeness in its colour detracts a little from the beauty and impressiveness of a powerful and very original landscape. Welsh landscape is, besides, well represented by Mr. Denby and Mr. Whittaker. The former is all for stillness and serenity, the latter for squall and motion. Each is excellent in his way, and the pure sunshine of a calm summer morning in Mr. Danby's picture (107) is well suited to take its turn of admiration with Mr. Whittaker's "Mountain Torrent" (95), tossing and fretting over its rocky channel.
One of the more remarkable pictures of the year is Mr. F. Powell'a "Mull of Cantire " (78). About this iron headland con- tending tides are always racing, and Mr. Powell has painted with lively truth the jabble of water which thence ensues, and which, with squally sky overhead, threatens an uneasy time to the unlucky voyager. Those great purple clouds sweeping up from the west at sunset portend a rough night. The spirit of the time, the weather, and the place is seized without hesitation, and vigorously expressed with a rich palette. There are other sea pieces by other artists, but no one of them has character enough to impress itself on the memory ; and of the few bits of Scotch scenery
that have furnished others with subjects, Mr. Davidson's "Glen Lyon" (97) is almost alone in preserving the great characteristics of the country—its sweeping lines and rich colour. And the fact that they areehere so preserved is all the more noticeable because they have not generally been characteristics of Mr. Davidson's drawings. The inference, of course, is that when be goes to new ground (as Scotland is to him), he keeps his eyes open for new impressions as he ought to do. Mr. A. Newton's Ben Nevis on a "September morning" (43) is not without originality of treat- ment, and there is considerable beauty in the tender gray. of the morning mists floating clear of the mountain. But, as a vhole, the picture wants vigour and space.
Among the younger exhibitors it is gratifying to note (after Mr. Powell) a decided advance on the part of Mr. Bradley, whose team of black oxen harrowing a ploughed field on some Sussex upland (180) is the best picture he has exhibited. The oxen are capitally drawn, not only from the cold anatomical point of view, but so as to indicate life and power of motion, together with the rolling gait peculiar to the animal. Mr. Lamont is very unequal, but his best drawing, founded on a passage in the Ettrick Shep- herd, shows considerable power of imagination. His Kilmeny, spirited away and returning with a charmed and absent air, is prettily conceived and, allowing for some feebleness in drawing, as in the feet, skilfully executed. Mr. F. Walker is one of more established reputation and more equal excellence ; but, except when his subject is set for him, as in the two book illustrations (270), he seems to find it too troublesome to do more than make studies of little interest beyond their technical merits. That these are considerable is undoubted ; but even these, it may be hoped, will be further developed, and in particular freed from the draw- back at present attending his careless use of opaque vehicles. Meantime, the group of mother and child, part of the uninterest- ing " Well-Sinkers" (213), a " White Thorn in Blossom" (228), and the female figures in the otherwise badly painted "Stream in Inverness-shire" (276), and in the bed-room window (2;2), may be pointed out for commendation.
These are works of promise ; and to note a gradual advance is no small pleasure. But after all, the fullest gratification is given by the ripest art, and in passing from works like those last noticed to the drawings of a Dodgson or a Fripp, the mind is sensible of a certain relief, and its attitude is changed, so that it becomes less 'critical and more receptive ; it feels in fact the influence of a master, and surrenders itself easily to simple admiration. So it is with Dodgson's view of Sonning (244), with its lazy river and rich, overhanging woods ; Mr. Holland's fairy-like Venice (123) ; Mr. Haag's camel in the desert (110); and Mr. A. Fripp's " Girl at a Brook " (227) ; or the picture mentioned above, wherein a girl looks out anxiously to sea, and notes the signs of coming weather, while a laughing child (with no thought or cares) clings round her neck. The girl's head is painted with astonishing force and refinement, and predominates as it should over the accessories of dress, capstan, and rusty iron, which nevertheless are themselves carried as far towards reality as a painter's materials will permit. Allusion has already been made to the injudicious arrangement which has placed this picture immediately above Mr. Palmer's "Towered City." But though at first sight the damage seems to fall entirely on the more delicate picture, it is not certain that the apparent coarseness of the other is not in its turn aggravated by
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