ART.
THE ACADEMY.—III.
THE pictures of sea and land this year are not of the first impor- tance, although some good things are to be found among them.
Mr. Alfred Parsons's large Herefordshire landscape (No. 326) cannot be called an unqualified success, though it has great beauties. The aim of the picture is to represent as faithfully as possible a view over wooded country. Little or no attempt at poetic revelation is attempted. Natural beauty for its own sake has been represented, and not for the sake of kindling poetic emotion. Nature seen at a favourable moment is put before us by the power of an accomplished realist. The artist stands aside and gives us little of his own beyond the choice of the particular piece of landscape he has chosen to paint. But the recognition of this limitation need not prevent us from enjoying the great beauty of the distance
of this picture. It is hard to fancy anything more true to the facts of the scene than this distant range of low wooded hills and fields, so perfectly drawn and modelled. The colour, too, is as beautiful and as natural, with its deep blues and fresh greens stretching away under the shadows of the soft grey sky. The foreground of the picture is less success- ful. The near trees are very accurately painted, but they are rather mechanical, and the prevalent brownish colour of the front cannot be called successful. The sky displays a wonder- ful knowledge of cloud forms, but there is a certain coldness of treatment that makes it look almost photographic. Despite these objections, the picture remains an impressive one from the quiet beauty of its distance. In Mr. Parsons's early work there was something besides this knowledge and accuracy, an almost passionate revelling in the glories of English fields and trees which made such works as the picture in the Chantrey collection memorable. There is a charming little canvas in the second room, A Windy Day (No. 102), by Mr. W. Tatton Winter, which is a beautiful realisation of a breezy landscape. The shadowed front, the light in the distance, and the colour of the sky are alike fresh and pleasant. The painter had a definite and clear aim, and has carried it out convincingly.
Mr. David Murray's large landscapes add nothing new to what he has already told us. There is the same air of picture- making, and the same want of feeling for colour, rising in No. 9S5 to an unpleasantly strong discord. Mr. Arthur Buckland's picture of a wood in twilight, with figures of the period of Miss Austen, has a certain charm of originality. The figures are well worked into the general shade and colour, while the little girl in the front is a delightful study of childhood. The picture would have lost nothing, but would have gained in artistic effect, if the two distant figures had not been lovers. There is plenty of sentiment in the work, without having it flung in one's face, as it were, by this obvious episode. Mr. Colin Hunter's colour studies of the Highlands are always delightful. He does not tire us with topography, but paints for us the beauties of atmospheric colour. Changing Pastures (No. 261) is a fine rendering of that wonderful plum-colour the mountains assume under an angry sky.
Mr. Alfred East has two pictures. In one, called An Evening Song (No. 872), he has borrowed a motive from Corot. The result is as may be expected. The perfection of grace, the poetic charm, and the deep science of the master are all wanting. The opposition of a massive tree and of a thin, delicate tree was no doubt a frequent practice of Corot, and its imitation is easy but useless, for the special genius of the master was intensely personal and impossible of reproduction. Much more interesting is Mr. East's other picture, Opulent Autumn (No. 930). Here the attempt has been made to give the personality of big trees in all their majesty of growth. The picture is a success, not from the glowing sunlight and golden colour, but from the way in which the individuality of the trees impresses us. The composition is of the simplest— a river, some meadows, and giant elms—but the forms are finely conceived and impressive. The painter has let his mind work untrammelled by thoughts of other men. Instead of being a cold, stylistic experiment, the picture is a iving thing.
The Sculpture Gallery, with its somewhat dingy light, is not a specially attractive place in itself, except for its freedom from visitors. This year it is not enlivened by anything
interesting among the larger works. Mr. Thornycroft has a. charming statuette in bronze, The Bather (No. 1,966). The execution of the little figure is delightful,—so large in style and yet so delicate. Smallness of scale has induced no smallness of execution. The portion of a frieze (No. 1,931), by Mr. C. Fehr, of knights in armour fighting, is full of spirit. The colour and metallic sheen greatly add to its beauty. It seems almost a pity that it was not larger, if in its destination it will be placed as high up as it is at present.
For their own sakes, one wonders that the Academy do not put pressure upon some of their own body to prevent what has happened in the present exhibition. It is not rash to say that, judging by the worst of the outsiders' work, there are pictures by members which would certainly have been rejected had they been subjected to competition. Mr. Wells should have thought twice before sending such a work as his Audrey (No. 193), which for drawing and painting is below the modest standard of the ordinary Academy portrait. Could not some one, too, have restrained Mr. Storey's excursion into the realms of Giorgione, for it is not a successful expedition ? The nymph putting on grey worsted stockings in his _Evening Shade (No. 130) can hardly be called happy. Surely the Academicians could entrust their selecting committee with some discretion to deal with the works of members. No doubt the labour of hanging such a vast collection of pictures must be, as it is, a severe tax on the judgment and vital energies of those who have to undertake the work. Nevertheless, it seems a, grave mistake to have hung Mr. Brangwyn's Golden Horn (No. 218) at such an invisible height. This painter is gifted with a highly original way of seeing things, together with a fine sense of colour and great knowledge of decorative effect, qualities which the average picture hung on the line seldom possesses. There are dozens of sleek mediocrities one would willingly banish to the sky-line to make room for such a breezy piece of shipping and great clouds as Mr. Brangwyn's picture seems to be. But this raises the question of the young lady from the suburbs. Probably, if there were many original and unfamiliar things in visible places, she would refuse to pay her shilling at the door, and what then ? To expect a powerful body to endanger ita financial position for the sake of serious art is, perhaps, to expect too much. A compromise might be effected. Could not all the babies, the pierrots, the children on donkeys, the cavaliers, the pipers of Highland regiments, and the lay figures in uniforms, civil and military, be allowed to run riot. over the greater part of the exhibition undisturbed by works of art ? These latter might be given a place somewhere in one of the furthest rooms, which the public need not weary themselves by going into. If such selection had been made this year, people who do not care for cheap sentiment and petty incident, stupid realism and meretricious display, would be satisfied. There are quite enough good things to make an imposing show if they were concentrated. Now they have to be searched for painfully amid surroundings which generally impair, and often spoil altogether, the enjoy- ment of the desired picture when it is found. If the Academy would adopt some such plan as we have sug- gested, they would earn the sincere gratitude of those, who look upon a picture gallery as something more than a variety entertainment. At a neighbouring place of enter- tainment, the managers recognise that the indiscriminate mixture of Beethoven's quartets and nigger minstrelsy would be unacceptable to either section of their audience. Why- should not the Academy exercise a like discretion F
H. S.
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