THE PORTLAND GALLERY.
The "Institution of the Fine Arts" was rather a grand name to be assumed by a few free brushes not disposed to submit to the principle of selection adopted by the Academy thirteen years ago, and we are not aware that the Institution consists of anything more than a place where artists who can paint pictures of a certain merit may send Their works, to occupy the walls upon payment of a rent per square foot. The inten- tion was direct and fair enough, and from time to time pictures of supe- rior merit have made their appearance, and artists have come into notice who might, without this opportunity, have been long doomed to blush unseen. Mr. Lander, a painter of undoubted aspirations and consider- able merit, is not seen elsewhere ; his style is peculiarly devoted to ex- pression at the sacrifice of much that is considered indispensable by the schools, but he succeeds in impressing those who can bring themselves to peer through the dark gloom of his colouring, with a solemn and sympa- thetic feeling, especially in sacred subjects. His picture in this exhi- bition of "The Saviour breaking Bread" evinces a fine feeling for the grand and noble; the expression of the head of Christ and the attitude of the hand are most impressive. We prefer this simplicity of treatment to his more venturesome effort in "Christ denied by Peter," where the composition is too evidently formal, and the accessories verge upon the melodramatic.
Landscape is the favourite walk of most of the artists in this gallery : the Williams family as usual take the lead, but we cannot say with any new ideas; indeed, their pictures this year have a tone of red throughout them which is not agreeable, and in spite of the good drawing and facile handling, they get a lurid air foreign to the freshness of nature. We no- tice in many of the pictures a disposition either to be guided by or to rival the photograph, a tendency which is to be regretted, because, it will certainly lead to an inanimate and unfeeling way of painting, quite as detestable as the conventional style. There are some instances of de- cided advance noticeable, as in the view of " St. Brelade's Bay, Jersey," by J. Peel ; and in the pictures of " Cornish Fishermen," by J. G. Naish, which are full of truthful and simple-minded study, and a view from the' French coast, with sheep on the clif, over the Dover Straits, by H. B. W. Davis. The very spirited and richly-tinted water-colour draw- ings of Mrs. Murray are also prominent among the few excellencies of the gallery.
Previous page
