ART.
EXHIBITIONS OF THE SEASON.
A NUMBER of picture exhibitions are now open in London. The Portrait Painters at the New Gallery and the New English Art Club may be named as the most interesting ; but the Institute and British Artists also hold their autumn shows, and the former deserves a visit for the sake of two small land- scapes by Mr. Peppercorn. He is a painter whose quiet merits come off badly in the scrimmage of exhibitions (one of these pictures is made a sort of fcotstool this year to a Portia of the President's), and in the considerable time he has been painting he has not had anything like justice done him. He will have his revenge in time. There are also occasional exhibitions,—Dutch water-colours at Goupirs, and at the Fine Art Society pastels by Mr. Abbey, London sketches by Mr. Marshall, and Mr. Du Manner's studies for the illus- trations to Trilby.
In these various exhibitions, beyond a portrait by Mr. Watts and a study by Mr. Whistler at the New Gallery, there is little by older men of established rank to be noted. A por- trait by Mr. Sandys, at the same gallery, shows how far an ideal of neat and accurate statement in most capable hands can carry a man in painting without further feeling for his subject or a taste for paint. This, which passes with Rossetti's work under the one label Preraphaelite, is its very polar opposite. Of the Frenchmen, M. Blanche, without being very strong in his métier of painter, is happy in possess- ing the sense for a woman, for elegance and for breeding,— qualities often lacking to stronger artists. On the other hand, with an exception to be noted presently, there are no new names to be added to the roll. What we may do is to observe the advance, or temporary check, of the younger men who have done good work, and may be expected to do better.
Mr. Guthrie, of all the younger men at the Portrait Painters, impresses one as the most indubitable student, dissatisfied with a too easy success, and with the will to make himself a master. In the slighter accessories of his portraits you see how easy it would be for him to dash in a telling suggestion of a portrait and let it be. Bat his Mrs. Maelehose proves that he is not afraid to endanger his first success by the more intimate research of character. The head has been wrought upon till the technique of the rest of the canvas is almost overbalanced. But the additional work is not the lazy obliteration of the niggler which passes so often for finish ; it is
the renewed attempt to express in the same terms of style a more closely observed fact, and the reward is an extraordinary truth of lifelikeness. Mr. Guthrie is well advised to sacrifice slickness to more exacting scrutiny, for the sureness he will gain in the end, though it has the same simplicity of appear- ance as slickness, is a very different thing.
Mr. Lavery has so clear a notion of how a picture should be arranged to tell decoratively, and so brilliant a method, that one wishes he had more of Mr. Guthrie's intuition or tenacity for the pursuit of character. He is too content to rig up the sturdy scaffolding of a figure; be will not follow the difficult inflections of form that would turn the lay- figure into the living, and stamp it as an individual. When he paints a pretty woman, he seizes one or two obvious points of likeness, fixes the general allure of the figure, and makes a striking assertion of the éclat of fair flesh. But the representation is so little specialised that we are left with an impression of the same block-like form, the same white mask with black rims to the eyes, in every case. A painter who can imagine the beautiful harmony of colour in the draperies of one of those portraits, and whose appreciation of the principles of picture-making is evidently so high, owes it to his talent to try for the other virtues. Once a man stops short in mannerism, he is in danger of having taken from him even that which he bath.
Mr. Steer seems to me to be in no such danger ; but, strong and rather wilful painter that he is, he is capable of coming a very complete cropper from time to time. When he does come down, he "lays himself down with a will." The portrait of a girl at the New English is, in my judgment, such a case. It suffers from over-study. The lamplight effect has been over-elaborated till the painter has forgotten what manner Of thing he set out to do ; the human face has become that of an idol ; and the enveloping warmth of tone has separated away into ugly reds and yellows. It would probably gain by being put away for a time and com- pletely repainted. The painting of a waterfall is good study expended on a somewhat thankless subject. The portrait of Mr. Thomts, on the other hand, has all that merit of fresh- ness, of striking a flesh tone whether pale or ruddy, that Mr. Steer never misses in a sketch. His present difficulty is when he elaborates for a picture, but he is strengthening year by year his immense talent by a very real process of study, instead of abandoning himself to an easy rut.
The new painter to whom I have referred is Mr. W. J Yule. His portrait at the New English of a girl in a red cloak, her face partly shadowed by a hat, was seen about two years ago at the Glasgow Institute, but this is the first appearance of the painter in London. A single painting by a young man may seem slight evidence for judgment, but it is poor sport to hedge against one's admirations, and since the appearance of Mr. Conder's work at the Champ de Mars, I have seen nothing new that has given me so much pleasure or seemed to me to bear so much promise for the future. The tenderness of the drawing (you would say a young Orchardson), the large conception of the picture, the play of colour, the artistic alertness from corner to corner of the canvas, all seem to me qualities undeniable and of a high order. It is the kind of picture Mr. Tonks's small sketches have promised, but he sends not even a sketch this year. Mr. Conder sends only one small silk panel, an exquisite piece of decoration and fancy. Mr. Furse's portrait has gravity of expression and naturalness of pose.
Other members of the Club are making advances. Mr. Rothenstein's Portrait of Charles Con,cler is thoughtfully made, well characterised, and better painted than any previous work. Mr. George Thompson also advances, and Professor Brown is that rare case of a teacher who still studies. A new
man, Mr. Mallet, shows a good effect on rather poorly com- posed material, and Messrs. Bertram Priestman, and W.
Russell may be singled out for fresh departures. At the Portrait Painters a new name is that of Miss Blakiston, who shows promising work.
Mr. Abbey's pastels have the merits of composition and of character-drawing we are accustomed to in his pen-and-ink work, and the medium is handled with intelligence and breadth. The colour is best when least aggressive, when most aggressive it is frankly very bad. The set pieces of illustration are the beat drawings ; in others the model poses rather half-heartedly in the suggestion of natural scenery. Mr. Da Maurier's pencil. drawings are good notes for an illustrator's purpose, some excellent in their choice and statement of a pose, such as the men astride of chairs for a studio romp. These drawings often suffer when stiffened and sentimpntalised into the types that illustrate the novel. The authcr is much too fond of his terrible hero and heroine to make anything of them ; but many of those preparatory drawings are very charming. Mr. M oshall is, perhaps, too anxious to make out that London is a brightly coloured spectacle, and loses the charm of sober greys that is the real foundation of the picture; but his view is fixed, and is sedulously illustrated in tbe present collection of his sketches.
A picture by Manet is so rarely to be found in London, that all admirers of flue painting should seize the opportunity of seeing an example at Mr. Van Wisselingh's, in Brook Street. It is a large sketch of Spanish bull-fighters, a bouquet of lovely colour. This Gallery is one of the very few in London where a fine personal taste seems to determine the choice of pictures,—the enemy of vulgarity is in no way pandered to. Au exquisite little Degas, a mist-shrouded river scene by Mr. Peppercorn, and a fine Monticelli are among the pictures. It is a collection to forget bad painting in. D. S. M.
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