FINE ARTS.

EXHIBITION OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY.

(Continued.)

THE' Portraits this year are at least as numerous as on former occasions, but their amount of merit is not equal to the sum of their number. This is not surprising, when, in addition to the loss of LAWRENCE, we also miss Jscssopi, for whose absence the accession of WILKIE in this de- partment does not atone, nor the improved skill of PiCKERSGILL and the President, nor the maintained reputation of PHILLIPS, nor the advance of several rising artists. There is much of excellence in portrait-paint- ing, though nothing transcendant, and a good deal that is merely re. spectable. WILKIE'S portraits of "Lady Lyndhurst" (62), and of "Viscount Melville in his robes as Chancellor of the University of St. Andrews," for which body the portrait is painted (91), display great mastery of treatment in the costumes, composition, and effect ; but the colouring of the flesh is of that brown hue which Mr. Wriaire is so partial to, and' the positions of both heads are stiff and rectilinear, while the features are rigid and ill-defined : the faces of both look like Costs dipped in trea- cle !—we can compare them to nothing else. Mr. WILKIE seems as partial to asphaltum as Mr. TURNER is to yellow ochre. We regret these defects the more, because of the grandeur of style and the power and refinement of art evinced in both pictures. The dim "cloistered. shade" which is cast over the figure of Lord Melville, as he is repre- sented seated in a Gothic hall of the University, produces a very fine effect, in keeping with the repose of his attitude. The richness of co- lour in the black and pink head-dress of Lady Lyndhurst gives great value to the costume, to which the prim attitude is appropriate. How we should have admired these pictures had the flesh tints resembled nature!

Mr. PICKERSOILI:S whole-length portraits of " Sir George Murray" (172), and "Lord Lyndhurst as Chancellor (133), evince great skill, careful study, and judicious treatment, and are executed in a masterly manner. His head of "Mr. Edward Lytton &liver," the author Of Pelham, is also a consummate piece of portraiture. The likenesses are excellent and characteristic ; and the painting is fresh and brilliant. We do not like so well that of "Lady Clanwilliam " (70) ; the flesh tints of which are rather cold and raw, and the satin drapery too coarsely treated. A little finish would remove these defects. It is this crude- ness of colouring that lends such a lugubrious, lachrymose look to his "Portrait of Charles Kemble " (363).

Mr. PHILLIPS'S portraits are painted with his accustomed care, judg- ment, and practised skill : they are always well studied, and distin- guished for propriety of style ; which we think however, occasionally, deprives them of some portion of spirit and animation. That of " Wilson. Patten, Esq." (6) seems a very accurate likeness ; it has a familiarity and meek self-complacency of look, approaching to e "Lord. Winchilsea " (24) is very like and characteristic. Those of " Lord Stowell" (87), "Dr. Sleath "(165), and "Mr. Phipson " (198), are also very good : the two former we know to be like though somewhat tame- as regards character. That of " Lady Janet Walrond " we thought ra- ther gay in the colour of the costume, &c. ; which is disadvantageous to the flesh tints.

Sir MARTIN SLIEE, the President, has three male portraits, which are the most vigorous and excellent of any that he has produced. The whole-length of "John Woolmore, Esq.," Deputy Master of the Trinity House (112), and painted for that corporation, is an admirable represen- tation of a plain sailor-like Englishman. Those of "Pascoe Grenfell, Esq." (148), add' "Sir Robert Vaughan," are also excellent for chst. racter and likeness, and painted in a bold, clear style. We only complain of a too free distribution of reds ; which are especially visible in the " Portrait of Miss Cooper" (105), the flesh of which seems entirely made up of carnation. Were the 'President to paint a marine view, he would " The multitudinous seas incarnadine ;

Making the green one red!—"

Mr. ROTILWELL'S portrait of the late Mr. Huskisson (82) is a very admirable picture, as well as a very successful resemblance ; and it is by far the best of his performances. That of " The Prince of Leiningen" .(227) represents a very pretty-looking, sweet-faced young gentleman. That of Lord Beresford (443) is not only feeble and brown in colour, as all Mr. ROTHWEI.I.'S are, but, by aiming at grandeur, he has made it affected : a group of Children (257), by this artist, is a sprawling com-

position.

Mr. HOLLINS has a very fine portrait of Colonel O'Donnell (308), painted in a grand style ; and a pretty one of a young lady (322). Mr. Damns's, of Judge Alderson (344), is painted in a broad, bold style, and is very like; but there appears a deficiency of body in the figure.

HowAno, too, is compelled to turn portrait-painter ; at which we are not so much surprised, seeing that his " Circe" (92) is a combination of the defects and peculiarities of his style, without grace or originality. His portrait of "John Scott, Esq.," seenis characteristic, and is well painted. Mr. Winn, the animal-painter, sends us from his country re- treat a portrait of himself (292) ; which is an interesting picture, and, as may be supposed, a good resemblance of the artist in his working- dress. We hope lie will paint some more of his admirable cattle-pieces.

Mrs. W. CARPENTER'S "Portraits of Mrs. Selwyn and Child" (5) is a very chaste and beautiful picture : the style is unaffectedly natural, and it has great purity of tone : the white drapery, with the delicate contrast of the child's frock, is very judiciously managed. This lady's portrait of Mr. Ord (157) is also clever, and the face is well painted, apparently without flattery. A portrait of the Honourable Edward Har- ris (150), by J. G. Munnurces, is a picture of the highest class of merit in every particular.

Mr. It. REINAGLE'S whole-length of a Lady and her Daughter (19) are In no danger of being overlooked or undervalued by the generality of visitors ; and we shall perhaps lose a portion of our influence with them by excepting to these elevations of.mamma and her darlings ; but we are alike blind to the attractions of the white hat and feathers (the painting of which will charm the heart of many a fair modiste) and to those of the red shoes: neither the blonde, nor the velvet, nor the silk, nor the swansdown, can please us—Goths that we are 1 Yet we find no fault with this picture, except that the faces are rather like wax-work ; but what of that, when we think of the millinery ? We can only say, that if Mr. REINAGLE does not find commissions pour in from all guar. ters—from Pentonville to Camberwell—it is not his fault. Sir W. REECHEY has painted a Lord Mayor, but it is for Mr. REINAGLE to paint a Lady Mayoress Had the King but dined at the City, and given poor Lady Key the opportunity of carrying that title away with her from the Mansionhouse which we fear she will now leave with the state-coach for the next corner, Mr. REINAGLE must have been chosen to paint her Ladyship ; and his room would have been thronged with the ladies of all the civic functionaries, Aldermen, Deputies, and Common Council- men, to be painted in the dresses they wore at the King's visit to Guild- hall. Mr. REINAGLE would have then been installed the LAWRENCE of the City, and Painter Extraordinary to the Corporation ; and it would only have remained for him to take Mr. Patten's shop, close to Run. dell and Bridge's on Ludgate Hill, to have made his fortune. There are other portraits by Mr. REINAGLE, and of ladies too, in silk dresses ; but we cannot speak of them after this.

Mr. PanTrunox seems a rival of Mr. REINAGLE in 218; which he call "A Portrait" par excellence,—meaning that it is a portrait not merely of " a Lady," but of her parasol, which is painted in an enviable style of

• excellence. He should paint another of "a Gentleman" with his um

brella ; and then the pair would be complete. There is Mr. SIMPSON, YOO, who exhibits a full-length portrait of "The Honourable Mountstuart

Elphinstone" (373), which is a very clever furniture picture. We are

not surprised that these upholstery-kind of pictures, fitted up for the par, lour, should become popular, since GEORGE the Fourth led the taste of his subjects in this respect: it shows that the parties value their dress as highly as their heads, and, we suppose, wish to insinuate that both are equally well furnished. We would, however, suggest an addition ; and it is, that all wealthy men should be painted with a banker's pass-hook or one of the bank-ledgers open beside them, showing the amount of their cash in hand and funded property. Eminent manufacturers should be delineated in company with their goods ; a set of polished steel fire- irons, for instance, would make a brilliant object in a picture—superior to a parasol, and would denote the taste of the party in sIss..elegant articles. This plan will obviate many inconveniences felt by painters from the want of proper accessories, and will, we feel confident, be gene- rally adopted. Mr. LANCE should paint Mr. Rundell with a brilliant display of jewels and gold and silver plate ; Mr. DERBY (who painted the beautiful piece of beef so admirably) the proprietor of the Albion Tavern, with a calf's head and a lemon in its mouth ; Mr. Pinsups, Mr. Stillz the tailor in one of his own suits. In future, we shall as soon expect to see the Marquis of Worcester painted without his whiskers, as without a pair of shearsi or Lord Londonderry without his hussar.. dress, or Sir Claudius Hunter without his white horse, or Mr. Hunt without his blacking, or the Duchess of St. Albans without her hus- band. We have suffered ourselves to be carried into a considerable digression by this interesting subject ; but we shall be pardoned by all who reflect upon the vast improvement which we have proposed in the sublime art of portrait-painting, as practised in England in the nineteenth century.

[To be continued.]