EXHIBITION OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY. FOURTH NOTICE—SCENIC PICTURES. IN landscape
painting the British school holds a supremacy over its Continental rivals. This branch of the art is peculiarly suited to the
genius of our countrymen, which is most successfully developed in their landscapes. The rural aspect, daylight effect, and out-dour feeling all, in short, that constitutes the charm of nature—are nowhere so corn. pletely and felicitously represented in the present day as in England. The French may surpass us in the power of imitating artificial or sub. gantlet objects, and producing dioramic illusion ; but their champ* scenes are hard and cold, like nature petrified ; the German landscapes are meagre, formal, and map-like ; we nowhere see the effect of at- mosphere in harmonizing colours and blending separate objects into one great whole, melting harsh outlines, and giving the softening ap. pearance of space and distance, so beautifully represented as in English landscape painting. Their loose, free, and negligent touch, which in other subjects is a disadvantage, here becomes the source of a peculiar excellence. The moist atmosphere of England, with its gray misty distances, ever-shifting effects, and the sparkling brightness of glimpses of sunlight on a verdurous and highly-cultivated soil, affords a perpetual variety of pleasing aspects suited to the beautiful rusticity of the land- scape, where what is wanting in grandeur and elegance is made up iR picturesque fertility. The study of such congenial appearances of nature, and the perfection with which they are imitated in the grateful medium of water-colours, have given a character of rural simplicity and Oriel freshness to English landscapes, which is a national excellence. It consists mainly in the power of imitating the general appearance of nature rather than of delineating details : there are scarcely half-a. dozen painters who can paint trees with characteristic truth. LEE in oil, and HARDING in water-colours, are the most successful : in the works of others the trees are mostly of one kind, and deficient in that depth of shade which gives rotundity to the mass ; while the lesser lights and shadows which define the characteristic forms of the branches and the flexile appearance and waving motion of the foliage, are rarely indicated in a satisfactory manner. We shall look in vain for the union of elaboration, power, and free. dom of execution, and the wild grandeur and elegance of conception of SALVATOR Rosa—for the brightness, repose, and ideal beauty of CLAUDE—the umbrageous solemnity and classic dignity of POUSSIN- among our native painters. GAINSBOROUGII and WILSON, when they attempt the grand style of scenic composition, are but imitators of CLAUDE, as TURNER is. The most charming of their landscapes are their rural home scenes; such us GA INSBOROUGH'S shady nooks steeped in the golden glow of a ruddy sunset. The verdant vale with a winding stream, or a green rocky glen with a waterfall, painted by WrisoN, is far preferable to his mythological pictures, or the artificial elevation of his Italian scenes ; and TURNER shows greater power and genius in a view of a town or an old castle, with a range of country beyond, than in a " Temple of Jupiter" or the " Garden of the Hesperides." Our scenic painters, like our designers, luck the creative faculty : they portray nine)i better than they invent.
The finest example of scenic effect employed to a dramatic pur- pose—indeed the only successful picture of its class—is by a French painter, GUDIN. It is called " The Distress," (347,) nail represents a boat's crew lost at sea, dying with famine. The sickly light of the moon struggling through a thin mist, and the lurid glare of is tropical sunset on the green wave, arc imitated to perfection, and so as to con- vey a sense of unwholoame heat and drought. 'rims the truth of na. turd aids in producing a preternatural impression on the mind. The state of desperation to which the men are reduced is most vividly de. picted in their emaciated forms and wolfish looks. This is a truly ima.
ginative picture : we at first thought it had been by our countryman Damn-, who we heard had sent a picture from his place of exile: we were still more disappointed on perceiving the one that is by him— namely, an attempt to embody the sentiment in Moon: s song," Rich and rare were the gems she wore," (46) : it is unnatural and unima- ginative. The subject is too simple and familiar for his fancy. TURNER is accounted an imaginative landscape-painter ; and the four pictures he contributes to the present exhibition are all of this charac- ter. " Scene, a Street in Venice," (31,) is intended to possess a poe- tical meaning, by the quotation from the Merchant of Venice, and them- troduction, in one corner, of a tiny Shylock brandishing a pair of scales iii terrorcm over the head of Bassanio : it might with equal propriety be called the Doge Wedding the Adriatic, or the Procession of the Brides : it is only a view on the grand canal on a fi..4e-day. " The Story of Apollo and Daphne," (130,) is a compilation of the "beauties of Italian scenery :" sea and rock, vale and mountain, cataract and lake, bridge and aqueduct, tower and town, ruins and foliage, are introduced as if TURNER were Nature's property-man, and had set out a new scene in the theatre of the universe for the ballet of A polio and Daphne—only the actors would disgrace a puppet-show. " The Parting of Hero and Leander," (274,) is still more inventively treated : a stupendous castle with marble terraces and flights of steps, a weltering sea and a stormy sky, with mysterious lights, and a cloud of spirits—these are the luni- boring machinery with which the fancy of TURNER has environed his subject. In an Alpine scene, (Val d'Aost, 480,) he has introduced a " snow-storm, avalanche, and inundation : " he might have thrown in an earthquake or so into the bargain, while he was about it; though the scene could not then have looked much more like " Chaos come again." TURNER, in fact, has no imagination : his perception of beauty is intense, but it partakes of the grossness of the sensualist, who gloats over what is before him, till he becomes insatiate—" the appe- tite grows with what it feeds on." TURNER'S sensorium is in an over- excited state: he has a mania for some one colour. A while ago be had the blue cholera; then the yellow fever took hold of him ; next the scarlet fever raged—his canvas burnt with it for a season or two. Nothing would suit him but fires and furnaces. One would have thought he painted on asbestos cloth, as we never saw in the exhibi- tion a scorched frame without a picture, the wall at the back chalked "burnt out." He is as fond of red as MARTIN of black : they are the rouge et noir of art. TURNER is content with one object of a sort, and arranges his scene according to nature, with true effects of light and atmosphere, though a little overcharged in colour ; but MARTIN mag- nifies and multiplies, makes a jam of human beings, heaps mountain on mountain, and piles up Babels one on another, throwing in a sprinkling of Pyramids, by way of seasoning. His "Deluge," (403,) rs a tem- pestuous sea of blacking, with a rock covered with mortals as thick as maggots, an explosion with patent lightningTand three planets in mo- lion—as if Jove were playing the juggler with the stars. Now TUR- NER, materialist us he is in fancy, deals with the elements of nature. Ills " Apollo " landscape is admirable in the imitation of solidity, space, atmosphere, light, and warmth; and there is some of repose in it. The effect of distance, and the reality. of the representation of the various objects, are marvellous ; neither is the colouring so gaudy as usual, though the hues in the foreground are still too flaring. As a study of colour and effect too, the " Hero and Leander" is wonderful : it is a problem of painting that no one else could solve. The " Venice " is a gorgeous feast for the eye ; and there is a sense of vastness and grandeur, vague and wild as it is, in the Alpine scene. With Tuft- ent's miraculous command over his materials, it is lamentable that he should waste his power as he does. It is pitiable to see the greatest master of his art making himself a laughing-stock by the display of such consummate skill that compels the admiration P wen of those who ridi- cule. PAGANINI playing the fiddle mad or drunk, would not be to musicians a more melancholy spectacle than TURNER presents to painters. It is a relief to turn to this chaste and classical representation of the tranquil beauty of Italian scenery by CALLCOTT--11 view of " Becco, on the Coast of Genoa," (179): the cool freshness of a calm sea on a clear sunny morning, the water placid as a lake, and the buildings of
the town " All bright and glittering in the smokeless nir "-
are imitated to perfection. There is more colour in the picture, too, than in some of CALLCOTT'S landscapes ; and, perhaps because it is the only one, we thought it his best. STANFIELDS landscapes have this year one most serious defect—want of atmosphere : his marine subjects share it, though in a less degree. It arises mainly from the opacity of his colouring, that also increases the predominance of a brown hue which is a peculiatity of his pictures. In the view .of " Beilstein, on the Moselle," (78,) the rocks and moun- tains look like models ; as does the fisherman's but in a scene on the coast of Normandy, ( II.) In the scene on the Medway, (463)—which is in the finished manner of EDWARD COOKE—this defect is less appa. rent ; but in that "On the Scheldt—Squally Day," (3640 the still and fixed look of the various objects almost makes even the waves look vitrified and the scudding rain-clouds motionless. They are all studied with great care, and painted with neatness and dexterity; but this capi- tal deficiency is as fatal to the look of nature as the want of life and animation in a face.
Lea, who had a tendency to coldness of tone and hardness of texture, bus produced a picture free from these defects, and perfect of its kind .--a ferry-boat on the Thames, (40.2.) The lea on one hated, the knoll with its nestling cottages an the other, and the silver stream flowing through the middle, with its bank of trees, make up a delightful speci- men of English scenery, as the painting is of English art. 'Flee cool fresh green of the foliage and verdure, the limpid water, the daylight and distance, are beautifully true : the stem of the beech-tree is illu- sory. The only defect is in the false scale which the weeds in the fore. ground give to the other objects—but this is easily remedied. KNIGHT'S three pictures of " The English Harvest," a dream of the olden time ; Ploughing—Sunrise, (335) ; Heaping—Mid-day, (160) ; and Ifam..st-Louie— Evening, (541.) would have told better as a triad on a smaller sr:ale in one frame : there is not enough in them to cover a large canvas. The first two show a nice feeling of the subject, but the third is weak and commonplace ; and the effect of all is destroyed by the im- pertint let intrusion of the artist himself in a lackadaisical attitude in .each scene—it glaring anachronism in costume.
' The other landscapes evince no remarkable improvement on the part of their respective painters, with the exception of a view of Clifton from the Avon, (315,) by Pvtee, which shows a great advance in a right ditection. • It is a striking example of skill in treating an unpromising subject ; the principal objects being a crescent of houses, a quay with a steam-boat, and a lock in the foreground. Painted in a free yet care- ful manner, in a pure cool tone, and totally free from that affectation that at one time threatened to obscure the talent of this clever artist, this is a truly English picture, and a credit to the school.
SIDNEY COOPER exhibits another of his exquisitely-finished cattle- pieces, (375): they are all alike in excellence ; andCaliswicx, O'Cou. sea, STANLEY, ALINALD, DANIEL, J. J. CIIALON, and other familiar names, contribute specimens of their peculiar styles.
CONSTABLE'S posthumous picture, "Arundel Mill and Castle," (193,) has an interest beyond its merit, though that is not wholly obscured by his unfortunate mannerism. What a contrast to it does this sunny glade in IVindsor Forest, (430,) present : it is one of LTNNELL'S ela- borate but truthful pictures—hard and opaque in painting, but de- lightfully real : it has the glow of summer. But the most lovely glimpse of nature in the whole collection, is a terrace-scene in the South, (:321,) by T. BortniscToN, an amateur, whose talent we have had occasion to notice on former occasions. It is an Italian sunset, with two girls looking out on the golden splendour of the scene : the sun is sinking " In one unclouded blaze of living light ; " IIand never was poet's description more truly and poetically embodied. We shall next visit the Sculpture-room, an account of which will conclude this series of notices : we fear they have already extended to too great length for the patience of all but picture-seers.
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