29 MAY 1830, Page 18

FINE ARTS.

PORTRAITS BY THE LATE SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE, EXHIBITED AT THE BRITISH INSTITUTION, PALL MALL.

IT is impossible to contemplate these beautiful works without feeling that they not only reflect honour upon the English school of painting, but add to the glory of the nation. The collection consists of Portraits of the Allied Sovereigns, their Statesmen and Generals, which were painted for the King, and a variety of portraits of private individuals. The artist will find great interest in tracing the progress of the painter. His early works display a dashing boldness of style, and a crudeness of manner, indicative of the rising ge- tins, the immature mind, and the unformed hand ; while at the same time they exhibit that strong feeling for character which so eminently distinguished LAWRENCE'S portraits.. Instances of his early manner will be found in the portraits of Miss Siddons and Lord Aberdeen, but particularly in one of himself painted at the age of sixteen ; which is curious as an example of his first style, and valuable as giving an indica- tion of genius, not only in the drawing and expression of the face, but in the mind of the man. Both this and Miss Siddons afford striking evidence of power, which in his after-works was relined into subtilty. This change in the character of his style, and its pro- gressive development, are very remarkably shown in this collection of his pictures. In the second stage of the progress of' his art, we should range his whole-length of Mrs. Angerstein, the head of Mr. Hart Davis, Mrs. Harford, the Countess Cowper, and Mr. Lysons. The simplicity, . grace, and womanly character of Mrs. Augerstein, are beautiful ; and the same characteristics belong to the portrait of the Duchess of Bedford, a sweet piece of female portraiture. The two groups of portraits of the Baring family also belong to this period. In a still farther state of advancement in art, we should include the portraits of Kemble as Hamlet and Cato. The Hamlet, much as it has been eulo- gized, seems to us to be theatrical in its elegance, studied in attitude, and affected in expression. LAWRENCE has painted the actor, not the man or the dramatic character. But he had no iinagination,—as that colossal mistake " Satan" will testify. The same remarks apply to the portrait of J. Kemble as Cato; which has a familiar instead of an affected air and expression, but wants dignity and grandeur. After this period, his style seems to have become" of the court, courtly." His colouring is rich, and his effects brilliant; the simply graceful flow of the lines in his compositions becomes more elaborate and elegant ; his taste is more re- fined, his judgment more nice, and the extreme skill and subtilty of his art in portraying character to the most favourable advantage becomes sensibly apparent. The witchery of his pencil invests with all the attri- butes of feminine grace, loveliness, and fashion, his female portraits. The richly clustering ringlets, simply and naturally, yet gracefully arranged—the beautiful complexion of the women of England, and the brilliancy of eyes, bhie, hazel, or jet—all combine to- give beauty, sweetness, and elegance, to features which the eye never scans with a view to their symmetrical form or arrangement; while the pure brilliancy of the flesh, of the swan-like neck, rounded arm, and ta- pering Angers, complete the picture of loveliness. Delightful, fasci- nating art ! skilfully flattering _ painter If Lady Londoaderry should be out of humour, or the Duchess of Richmond pettish, they have Only to look upon their sembIances to be restored to self-compla- cency. Happy women, thus to triumph over time and the grave, and live in the admiring looks of their descendants the image of all delis most precious in courtly eyes. We think that Lady Jersey and the Duchess of Kent must, at sight of these two unrivalled portraits, be ready to bite off their fingers with vexation at having allowed themselves to be offended with LAWRENCE. It is indeed cold consolation for Lady Jersey to gaze upon the Baron GERARD'S whole-length portrait of her ; and the Duchess would, we think, be inconsolable, did her sensible and interestingly pretty features need a skilful flatterer. We do, however, regret that the Princess Victoria, the heiress of the crown of England, should be condemned to experience the tender mercies of Mr. WESTALL and a host of 'draughtsmen, while the little Queen of Portugal is res- cued in so splendid a manner from the clutches of Mr. Fo WLER.

Let us look round the North Room, hung with the pictures which constitute "the Waterloo Gallery." The King in his Coronation Robes, and as "the First Gentleman in England," are admirable paintings: the former heavy, by reason of the costume, but withal superb ; the latter brilliantly coloured, and valuable as the only cabinet-sized picture in oils painted by the artist. The furniture and accessaries are exceedingly rich and elaborately finished. We may here remark, that Sir THOMAS knew how to give richness and splendour to the gorgeous trappings of royalty, and also to neglect them upon occasion : he appears, however, to have revelled in these ornamental parts of his pictures, which are painted in a grand style of art, and with gusto and breadth of manner ; thus they become objects of value in the picture, while they never inter- fere with or lessen the importance and attraction of the person. The portrait of the Emperor of Austria is a remarkable instance of suc- cessful treatment in this respect. Pope Pius VII. and Cardinal Gonsalvi are the two finest portraits and most beautiful works of art in this room. The character of the countenances of both are deli- neated with consummate skill ; and the drapery, composition, and colouring of them, are inimitable. We think them the most splendidly successful of LAWRENCE'S works, both as portraits and as pictures. The Emperors of Russia and Prussia, the Archduke Charles, and the King of France, are striking contrasts to the warriors Blucher and Platoff, and form interesting studies for the physiognomist. But the

Statesmen will prove the greatest treat in this respect. The physiogno- mical characteristics of the wily Metternich, the specious Castlereagh, the reserved hauteur and scrutinous suspicion of Bathurst, the fretful energy of Canning, the hard, soldier-like coldness of Wellington, and the peculiarities of Liverpool, Croker, Nesselrode, Hardenberg, Capo

&Istria, Gentz, &c. present a wide field for speculation. These por-

traits are all admirable for character and expression, such as it is. No One ever painted princes,. diplomatists, courtiers and nobles, gentlemen

and ladies, better than LAWRENCE. There are no men of genius, speaking abstractedly, in this collection of portraits ; and we therefore see the perfection of LAWRENCE'S style of portrait-painting, for there

as scarcely one which you could wish had been painted better. Talley- rand's cold and imperturbable countenance is wanting to complete the

corps diplomatigue, and we also miss Mr. Peel. The portrait most to our mind, in this assemblage, is that of Sir William Grant ; which we think the ne plus ultra of portraiture. Prince Leopold in the Robes of the Garter makes a fine picture ; his face is decidedly Scotch in its dui. racter. Mr. Peel is fortunate in possessing the best portraits of Lord Liverpool and Mr. Canning : the latter is a bold and successful attempt of Sir THOMAS to delineate action in speaking, and it is richly coloured.

In addition to those we have already noticed, the portraits of Lord Durham, the Duke of Bedford, Mr. Soane, Benjamin West, and Sir Jeffery Wyatville, the Ladies Gower, Normanton (whole-lengths), Peel, Agar Ellis, and Mrs. flope,—Master Lambton, and the children of Mr. Calmady are among the more prominently beautiful pictures in this collection ; of which every individual one has beauties of the highest order, worthy of the admiration of the connoisseur and the emulation of the artist. The portrait of Admiral Codrington must, we think, be unfinished, being deficient in resemblance, both as regards character and expression.

There are likewise a few exquisite Drawings including a large one of the late Princess Charlotte, which shows the elaborate care with which the artist collected materials for his paintings : it is extremely beautiful ; but the idea of the composition is taken from a picture of TITIAN'S— his Daughter or Mistress. We may observe, that in his military whole-lengths, Sir THOMAS has succeeded no better than Mr. JACKSON in filling up the canvas : the smoke and clouds are very expletory in their appearance. Though this is the most difficult of the secondary points in a portrait, it is rather %lir- prising that artists of such eminence should be deficient in this particular. Sir THOMAS LAWRENCE might have taken a hint from Sir Josnua REYNOLD s, who contrived to make his out-of-door backgrounds service- able as well as subservient to the general effect of his portraits.

Not the least interesting portrait in this exhibition, is that of the great painter by himself, unfinished except the head : it has been very faithfully copied in the print which we noticed two or three weeks since.'