THE INSTITUTE OF PAINTERS IN WATER-COLOURS. " THE Institute of
Painters in Water-colours, which has now been in existence more than half a century, has this year taken a new departure in its history. The exhibitions of the Institute have hitherto been confined to the works of its own elected members, the Galleries which the Institute occupied in Pall Mall having been sufficient only for that purpose. The members have, however, long felt that it was important for the interests of the art that there should be in London an exhibition open to all painters in water-colours, and with this object they have erected their present Galleries in Piccadilly. They have also organised free schools for the education of students in the art of painting in water-colours, instruction in which will be given by the members of the Institute, whose aim and endeavour are to afford the same advantages to painters in water-colours that painters in oil have derived from the Royal Academy."
The above quotation expresses, with tolerable preciseness, the nature of the change which has been made this year in the constitution of the " Institute," and it is only fair that those who have inaugurated and carried out such a much-needed reform should have the merit of their work. Let me say at once that the present exhibition bears to former " Water-colour Galleries " a similar relation to that which the Royal Academy bears to our other exhibitions of oil-paintings. It is not the collection of the work of a small clique of artists, but is, to some considerable extent, fairly representative of Watercolour Art. I cannot spare the space to dilate further upon this alteration, but with the brief assertion that this is, upon the whole, the most complete water-colour exhibition which I have seen in England, pass to the consideration of the principal pictures. I will take them as nearly as may be in the order of the catalogue, and have only to premise that since there are nearly a thousand works in the Gallery, this notice must be necessarily imperfect. I do not profess to mention all the pictures, or even all the best, but to give a note here and there, upon work which is either first-rate of its kind, high in its aim, or remarkable for its truth to nature. M. Jules Lessore's " La Grosse Horloge, Rouen," is a good example of that grey French manner in which the chief attraction is the observation of " les valeurs." It is a delicate, silvery drawing, of somewhat slight execution, but very refined and quiet in its effect ; it has, too, a certain " style," which is rare in English painting. Compare with this No. 646, by Mr. Anderson Hague, a composition in greyish-green of an English hayfield, and it will be noticed that the two pictures have exactly the same charm, and that it is in both cases due to the same cause. Carry the comparison a step further, and look at " Waiting" (746), by Joseph Israels, and it will be seen how enormously the merit of this last great painter's work depends for its effect on this same observation of " the values " which gives the sole attraction to the two former pictures. " The Rouen Clock" and "The Hayfield" have this merit alone, and it suffices to make their work interesting. Herr Israels adds this to his sense of pathos and dignity, and in so doing compensates us for his abnegation of colour.
Mr. Alfred Parsons has sent several landscapes of great interest, in which the only great defect appears to us to be the over-heavy quality of the colouring ; he affects a peculiar, dull, deep green for his meadows and foliage, and gets an unpleasant, " puddingy " sort of look into the actual painting ; it seems rather as if it had been mixed with a trowel, and had a good stirring-np before it was placed on the paper ; but when this is said, nothing remains but praise. The work is elaborate and careful, and at the same time perfectly bold ; and the way in which the artist paints the flowers in a garden, or the rushes in a stream, has very many of the pre-Raphaelite virtues, with none of the pre-Raphaelite failings. Of his four drawings here, the last, entitled, " Market-day at Lechlade," is an excessively pleasant, unaffected piece of work. The others, Which have figures by another artist named Abbey, are, we think, less interesting from that very cause; it is but rarely that two painters can work in the same picture with perfect success, and I infinitely prefer both Mr. Parson's landscapes and Mr. Abbey's figures unadulterated. A small drawing of " An Autumn Wood" (26), by Mr. W. B. Gardner, deserves notice for its fidelity. It is just a little bit overworked, and the mossy tree-trunks, which are painted with great minuteness and success, are a trifle flat, but, nevertheless, the drawing is very delicate and good.
Mr. C. E. Johnson, who has just been elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, has also become a member of the Institute, and sent two large drawings. The most important of these is called" The Black Coolins," and is a vivid sketch of a Scotch mountain scene; it is a very bold and striking study, but it has hardly enough truth in its rock-forms to give real pleasure ; indeed, it fails, from being neither a picture nor a study ; it has not enough interest for the one, or veracity for the other. A very elaborate drawing, entitled, Wanderers " (41), by Mr. Edwin Bale,. should be noticed for its almost microscopic work, but it is singularly tepid and uninteresting as a whole. Over-sweet,. over-refined, and over-laboured, the chief impression that it gives is one of wasted time and wasted skill.
Those who care sufficiently for Art to notice how the charm of the " Old Masters " can filter through to modern times, will do well to look carefully at the four drawings by Mr. Spenser Stanhope. They are all badly drawn, affectedly composed, overstrained in their meaning, and confused in their expression ; but they have, notwithstanding, defects that a Kensington student would be innocent of, a beauty of colour, a sincerity of purpose, and an appreciation of the dignity of Art, such as is powerful to vulgarise nine-tenths of the work by which they are surrounded. Compare with these the " Spring,' of Mr. Walter Crane, and one sees at once the difference between real and sham feeling for ancient art. Mr. Crane's "Spring" is almost as frankly ill-drawn as any of Mr. Stanhope's• figures, and is painted in a rough, sham-fresco sort of way, which is archaic enough in all conscience ; but I try in vain todiscover therein any of the compensating qualities of colour or meaning, such as I find in Mr. Stanhope's compositions. A certain grace of line there is in the arrangement of its draperies, and there its merits begin and end.
Perhaps Mr. Lionel Smythe's "Field of the Cloth of Gold " is the pleasantest landscape in the exhibition ; it is certainly the brightest. A half-mown field of waving corn, a long stretch cif English landscape behind it, the brightest of skies above, and the brightest-coated reapers, make up a composition as bright as one of Mr. Brett's seascapes. Mr. Smythe has possibly a little exaggerated the brilliancy of his labourers and his cornfield, but the picture is wonderfully true to atmospheric effect,. and I seldom remember to have seen the distance of a flat landscape indicated more cleverly, more simply, and more clearly. Mr. Smythe is a worker in the same school as the Wyllies, and has probably only one great defect, in which they, to a certain extent, share. He is just a little over-clever ; he gets too easily up to a certain point, and cares too little to carry his work further.
I cannot afford space in this article to describe the many fascinating sketches of water and shipping which Mr. W. L. Wyllie sends. They are eight in number, they are all bright and pleasant, and all instinct with a certain clear, fresh poetry of their own. Mr. Keeley Halswelle, who has just joined this institution, is also in great force, and his water-colour painting Is, in my opinion, immensely superior to his oil. His most important work is called " In Flood-time," a picture of stormy weather on the Thames, or some kindred stream, and is a very strong, fine drawing, not quite free from the artist's dullness of colouring, but less faulty in that respect than usual; but his finest picture is " A Wet Day at the Sea-side" (245), a very patient and beautiful little sketch in pure water-colour ; it is delicate, and rather old-fashioned in style, and greatly preferable to Mr. Halswelle's larger pictures. Worth while to note is the unaffected manner in which the reflection of the light through the bow window is indicated, and the suggestion of the wet pavement and the muddy look of the sea is full of truth, and brilliantly simple in its execution ; note, too, the knowledge with which the scraps of pure colour are introduced ; the drawing, as a whole, has all the breadth and delicacy of early water-colour work.
Mr. E. J. Gregory's little genre picture of " The Sanctum Invaded " (325) is probably the most perfect work of its kind inthe exhibition ; but I notice with great regret that this artist is, to some extent, neglecting his power of colour, and becoming as dull and domestic as most of his Academic brethren. It would be better for him to paint to the end of his days in the old, slapdash manner, than to degenerate into the chronicler of a child's stockings and a housemaid's duster; we have plenty of such painters, and Mr. Gregory can do better work.
Mr. George Clausen has a curious small picture of "A Shep'. herd with Lamb,—Early Morning" (417). The drawing has considerable pleasantness of colour, and that tinge of quiet poetry which is the artist's specialty ; though why Mr. Clausen should think it necessary to work in this scrubby manner, I cannot conceive. The paint seems to have been laid on with a hay-rake.
Mr. Andrew Gow sends a very spirited sketch for the large picture of " Montrose at Kilsyth," which was exhibited at the Academy last year. The sketch is better than the picture, and it is curious to note that Mr. Gow's work in water-colour is, as a rule, finer than his work in oil.
The most important picture in the whole exhibition, and, taking into consideration the height of its aim, the best, is "The Admonition" (481), by Mr. W. J. Linton. It is another of his scenes from mediaeval life, and represents a Bishop admonishing a young woman, who, by the extreme dejection of her attitude, must have been guilty of some heinous offence; but, whatever may be the interpretation which Mr. Linton desires us to put upon this scene, of the manner in which it is painted there can be no doubt. It is in this respect a work of the very highest merit, skilful, laborious, thorough and original in the manner of its execution, and possessing many fine qualities of colour, much observation and variety of character, and a good deal of sound drawing. The only drawback to the picture is a certain lack of spontaneity ; it is too evidently composed; it is just a trifle dull, like the German translation of a French novel; all the elements of the drama are there, the indefinable " go " of the original has somehow faded. I must here close this first notice of the Exhibition of the Institute of Painters in Water-colours, leaving for another time the mention of more
than half the most interesting work. HARRY QUILTER.
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