ART.
THE NEW GALLERY.
Iv has long been a complaint against the Directors of the New Gallery that they have reduced their Exhibition to little more than the anteroom of the Academy. Never was the charge more justified than it is this year. But besides the pictures which conform to a mere academic standard there are unhappily to be seen a number of works, not merely by the "old stagers" of the place, but by incom- petent amateurs. That these latter should so often occupy prominent positions reduces many walls of the present Exhibition to the level of a provincial Society's efforts to encourage art.
Considering the overpowering influence of the Academy, it is a matter of infinite regret that an institution like the New Gallery, which at one -time, at least, had a name and an independent position, should have sunk to its present level. It is impossible not to believe that a better collection could have been got together, and one more worthy of the Gallery than that which has just been opened.
Perhaps one of the most depressing things in this year's Exhibition is the contemplation of the ruins and remnants of the school which had for its founders Rossetti and Burne- Jones. Whatever we may think of the possibility of deliberately reconstructing the art of the past, at any rate we are convinced that there is no further use for a style if it can produce nothing better than Mr. Walter Crane's Breaking a Lance (No. 134), with its absence of beauty either of colour, drawing, or composition. We can realise what this style was like when the impulse was fresh by looking at the piece of Arras tapestry in the hall of The Passing of Venus (No. 320), which Messrs. Morris and Co. have executed from the last cartoon of Burne-Jones. The design is broad and finely balanced, and the fresh and harmonious colours of the tapestry have a freedom and directness which Burne-Jones's worried oil-painting never attained. The work is certainly a splendid piece of decoration, and one which is a credit to its weavers.
The beat landscape is perhaps Mr. Hughes-Stanton's important work, A Pasturage among the Dunes (No. 169). Here is a subject which is treated on broad lines, and not merely the small "landscape bit" done big. The workmanship is solid because neither over-elaborated nor wilfully chaotic. The light as it shines through the middle-distance trees is well realised, and the sober blues of the distan.e are harmonious. There is an air of dignity about this oasis of pasture bounded by line beyond line of sand-dunes, whose forms are beautiful and individual. A few years ago the same painter showed here a large work of a similar character, but his vision at that time was somewhat prosaic. If he continues to travel along the road which leads to a more romantic outlook on Nature, his work cannot but be improved thereby, for he has the solid foundation of fact on which to base his fancy. Mr. Wetherbee has painted a picture with a great deal of the charm of movement in it, called The Swing (No. 89). The trees have been treated with a fine feeling for design that has in it something classic. This picture is more successful than the same artist's Adventurers (No. 252), in which the figures are not quite worthy of the sky and sea. In spite of this drawback, we can delight in the finely painted sunset, so luminous and so restrained in colour, and in the waves, which are full of movement. The colour arrangement is one of which the painter is fond, and is as distinguished as it is individual.
Mr. Allan has gone to Japan in Tateyama (No. 146), but he has taken his colour scheme with him, and, except for the costumes and the distant Fuji, we might fancy ourselves as usual on the East Coast of Scotland. Mr. Moffat Lindner is so determined that his Golden Moon (No. 245) should glow with warm colour that he has suppressed the cooler tones, and thus produced almost the effect of monochrome. The result is harmonious, if monotonous, and there is a feeling for space and air in the picture. Among smaller landscapes may be mentioned Mr. Bartlett's picture of low headland and sea (No. 159), with its well-felt sky and horizon ; Mr. Westley Manning's Cley-next-the-Sea (No. 213); and Mr. Adrian Stokes's luminous little Hungarian Village after Sunset (No. 11). The same painter's study of sunlit rocks (No. 196) shows a scholarly realisation of form.
Mr. Brangwyn's picture called The Rajah's Birthday (No. 223) might be described as a mixture of draperies and elephants, with some strange beings hardly human thrown in. Nothing is realised, and we are left in doubt whether a form may be an elephant's trunk, or a man's turban, or, indeed, nothing at all but a flourish of the brush. No doubt it may be argued that this uncertainty does not matter, as what the artist was aiming at was decorative splendour and colour pattern. Possibly ; but then the question arises : Have these results been attained? The picture is not inharmonious, but it cannot be said to possess any very striking qualities of colour. Then. again, is this elaborate and studied attempt to give the appearance of a brilliant sketch justified by the result ? If there were any real suggestion of beauty and life, it would not matter how they were attained; but this straining after effect has resulted in the construction of monsters, for the figures cannot be called men. As we look at this attempt at gorgeous pageantry we remember the work of the great Venetian, who could make his most splendid shows alive with real men and women, and say with Gautier : " Ce n'est pas ainsi que peint Paul Veronese." Mr. Hornel works in a strange and individual manner, and his painting is in some ways as arbitrary as that of Mr. Brangwyn. But all through such a work as the Tont-Tont Players, Ceylon (No. 256), there is the evidence of beautiful and interesting vision and the search for something more than showy effect. This may especially be seen in the subtle drawing of the hands of the girls as well as in their faces. As usual, Mr. Hornel has constructed a most beautiful and unusual harmony of colour.
Is Mr. Sargent living upon a great reputation, and doing in a perfunctory manner what he once did with the zest of a discoverer ? The two portraits here make the thing seem possible. It is only by such an assumption that we can explain a piece of painting so unworthy of its author as the head of Miss Lewis (No. 125). An artist can never stand still. While he is perfecting a manner he may be inspired ; when he has reached his goal he must abandon it for new things, or he becomes a formalist. Mrs. Marianne Stokes in her Death anti the Maiden bas conceived an expressive design. The great black wings of Death are of beautiful effect, and the face is full of power and solemnity. The picture is painted with mastery, and for pure painting the accessories, such as the blossoms, are among the best things here.
Hidden away in a far corner of the balcony are two small water-colours (Nos. 364, 365) charming in sentiment and adequate in execution. In the first the artist, Lady De Vesci, shows the baby held by the mother's hand coming down from the starry sky to the outstretched hands that await it. In the second a Cupid sits on the globe breaking into it with a hammer, and the chips that fly from his blows are little hearts. In both these drawings there is a charming- Sense of design and a sentiment unforced but delightful. Mr. Ritchie shows some good portrait-drawings, the best of which is the
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