29 MAY 1830, Page 18

ROYAL ACADEMY EXHIBITION.

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Mr. JACKSON has not been fortunate in his sitters, if we may judge, from his portraits this year. His whole-length of the Marquis of Chan. dos is well treated, and a good picture ; but there is too much canvas " to let." His portraits of Mr. Chantrey, 325, and of Mr. Soane, 309, are very good, and will be looked at with interest. Mr. CHANTREY'S respectable physiognomy and plethoric complexion will awaken the un- initiated from their dream of "ideal character," "genius," &c., as in- separably connected with successful skill in art. Sculpture and painting, they will find, as well as architecture, have much more to do with technicality- than intellectuality, with ingenuity than imagination, and contrivance than invention. In the pursuit of art, the fingers have, of necessity, more occupation than the brain—the eye than the mind ; con. sequeutly the countenance does not partake of the quality of the under. standing—is not influenced by the workings of the intellect, so as mate. rially to alter its expression or to affect its character. But we digress.

Mr. PICKERSGILL'S portraits are uniformly excellent : those of the Duke of Norfolk, 137, J. G. Lockhart, 243, and Mrs. Haynes Bayly, 379, are ambng the best. Mr. LINNELL has a portrait of Lady Lyndhurst, which is cleverly niggled—we cannot say handled. His Family Group, 12, is execrable; --but here we are trespassing on our" Drolls." We shall reserve some of Mr. DRUMMOND'S heads -for that department. His portrait of Mr. Starr, 216, is good.

Mr. REINAGLE'S best portrait is that of his son, 11 ; which, though hard, has excellent character. The President's specimens rank among the many very respectable works of this class.

Messrs. BRIGGS, EDYIONSTONE, and HURLSTONE, are among the historical painters who exhibit portraits. A Lady, 283, by Mr. BRIGGS, is of sterling excellence. Mr. HITRLSTONE'S we do not admire.

A Lady and Child, by G. FATTEN, 348, is an extremely clever pie. ture, as regards drawing, colouring, and composition : the child is a brilliant piece of nature, pure in tone and beautiful in expression and infantile character.

The whole-length of the Countess of Jersey, by the Baron GERARD, 24, is a well-drawn but coldly-coloured picture ; and Mr. CLINT'S Lady Suffield, 6, is a good whole-length portrait ; and we will venture to say, that there is no greater trial of an artist's skill than the painting a full- length portrait the size of life.

Before descending to the Sculpture Room, we will make our remarks upon a few individual pictures of merit, Mr. EASTLAWR (the R.A. elect) has two which partake of the little manner and brown colouring of SEvERN, the other pupil whom the Academy has sent to Rome. If students front the study of the chefs d'couvres of the old masters in Italy only acquire a habit of painting brown men, heavy green trees, and yellow atmospheres, as Mr. SEVERN has done,—and what is a still greater evil, a miniature style of painting, and a wiry outline,—it must be owing to the wrong direction of their eyes and mind ; and they had better return to England. It is lamentable to see the effects of that mannerism into which Mr.

SEVERN has fallen exemplified in "The Lovers," 18; "A Warrior taking leave of his Wife," 235; and "The Fountain," 440; which are all flat, hard, and petite. Mr. EASTLAKE'S " Contadina Family" has the merit of good expression, composition, and drawing; though the latter betokens a littleness as well as neatness of hand, and the colouring, though good and appropriate as far as regards the present picture, is on the verge of mannerism, and worst of all, derived from looking at the works of the old painters with an imitative instead of an understanding eye. His "Una and the Red Cross Knight in the Cave of Despair," the sub- ject of the prize picture which Mr. SEVERN painted, is worthy. of UNWINS or CORBOULD !—if Mr. EAST LAKE IS qualifying to dente frontispieces for the booksellers, we congratulate him on his success. Mr. HOWARD'S fancy pictures are usually so much praised, that we despair of gaining any credit by noticing them. His ' Shakspeare," 92, seems to us an elaborately tasteful mistake. 80, "May Morning,” is a pleasing composition. Mr. MULREADVE " Dog of Two Minds," 115, has also been much praised. We have seen the principal figure many times before, wearing the identical shutter-flapped jacket: the boy foreshortened we can make nothing of, and we leave the ingenious to discover two minds in the

dog. 345," Returning from the Hustings," we could have wished to have wanted the R.A. to the name—except that that distinction is almost warranty for an insipid mechanical performance.

Mr. WARD'S elaborate nudities we must reserve for a leisure laugh ; his animals are as usual excellent ; and the horses in his " Fall of Phmton" evince a thorough knowledge of the anatomy of the horse— they alone constitute it a work of genius.

Mr. Bnocitznox's talent for historical design is fast "going the way of allflesh." To be assured of the truth of which, it is only neces- sary to look at 29, "Raphael introduced to the Duchess of Urbino," and 410," Galileo visited by Milton."

Mr. WOOD'S "Orphans," 197, is admirable for expression and appro- priate colouring. The mouths of the sisters are alike, but not na- tural. We regret that the pleasure we experience in looking at this clever and interesting picture is lessened by our being reminded of the "Orphans " of GAINSBOROUGH ; and that the sweetly plaintive coun- tenance of the younger sister should so closely resemble the beautiful little gem by LAWRENC e, which has been engraved in one of the An. nuals. Mr. Woon's talent is sufficient to place him above the necessity of turning plagiarist ; and in his present picture he has evinced a feeling for nature, in following up which he will earn the sure reward of origi- nality when combined with skill in art. 28, "Auld Friends," J. KNIGHT. 33, "Roman Beggar and her Child," and 285," Italian Peasants," P. Winnrams. 49, "The Spasmodic At- tack," R. W. Buss. 56, "Gil Bias discovering himself to Camilla," M. A. SHEE, jun. 73, "Lavinia," M. A. SHEE, P.RA., 113, "Italian Boys at Cards." 148," The Thte-h-Tete," H. LANE. 149, "D. 14Iorri- son," and 166, " A Honghlerchant, " G. earn NERY. 189," Castel Gan- dolfo," and 191," Bay of Beim," W. HAvEsn—rather fine, but of great merit. 199, " ROmps, ' T. CLATER. 208, "Shipwrecked 'Mariners," S. ' DRUMMOND, belongs to the class "Facetim." 227," The Disowned," W. Bo sat. s. 238, Scene in the farce of" Love, Law, and Physic," by E.0 shier —admirable. 251," The Farmer's Boy," J. LiNxenh. 307," The Black Dwarf," H. LIVERSIEGE —The Dwarf exceedingly clever. 329, " Honest Reek Walton," J. INSEIPP. 352," Jaques," E. D. LEAHY. 257, "Joseph presenting his Father and Brethren to Pharaoh," J. M. Mien—Joseph is good ; Pharaoh, a great girl ; and Jacob, a por- trait of Geerge III. just before his death. Mr. LEIGH'S efforts are meritorious, and evince considerable talent and industry ; but he never will be successful while he neglects the important study of chiaroscuro : the eye wanders over the picture, "seeking • rest and finding none," in the confusion of objects, each made of equal importance. His pictures are greatly deficient in keeping. 382, "Pallas directing Ulysses," &c., P. H. ROGERS. A classical landscape composhion of the LINTON school—the wrong one for a student to follow if- he would copy Nature. 398, "Isaac of York in the Donjon of the Castle of Reginald Frond de Bceuf," S. A. HART wants force. 399, " Griselda,''. D. J. Z. BELL. We have hopes of Le artist who can attempt such a•subject, because n-e think he must first have well understood it, though it does not appear in the picture. Griselda is a perfectly insensible being, and . little better than a natural ; and her intended bridegroom is a morose churl; the mother is good, but rather more of a housewife than is consistent with a poetical subject. Yet even with all their faults, the attempts of rising artists, like Messrs. LEIGH and BELL, deserve more to be en- couraged than the successful ones of those who emulate the Dutch school in their choice of subjects, and depend upon elect merely for the attraction of their pictures. The artists of the English School are dwarfing in their growth; they cannot descend much lower than the por- traiture of coblers and tinkers, and their pots and pans, amongst which too many of them now grovel to collect "filthy lucre."

We shall never reach the Sculpture Room if we extend our courtesy to every picture which may challenge some attention. We can but glance round the "Antique Academy" at the drawings and miniatures; the oil paintings are not visible in such a light as this room affords. The unrivalled portraits in water colours of Mr. ALFRED CHALON- the beautiful enamels of Messrs. BONE and EssEx—the exquisite mi- niatures of Mrs. J. Ilonnitr sox, the LAWRENCE of miniature-painters —the elaborately finished ones of Messrs. NEWTON and ROBERTSON, &C., and the vraisemblances of Mr. WAGEMAN—Mr. J. HATTER'S sketches, and Mr. BARTHOLOMEW'S flowers—will repay the minute attention of visitors, to whom we scarcely need point them out. In the "Library," among the models and medallions, we greet with pleasure the "capriccio," in sculpture, of our ingenious friend PIST HAT ccr, of the Mint; it is yet in an unfinished state, but since we saw it new devices have sprung into existence from this bit of marble, like flowers from the earth.

(To be concluded.)