FINE ARTS.
PAUL DELAROCHE AND THE FRENCH SCHOOL OF HISTORY PAINTING.
THE appearance in this country of two grand hiqorical pictures by a distinguished French painter, has created "a sensution " in the world of art, though they have only been privately seen here. Both paintings are by Paul. DELAROCHE. The subjects are taken from English history, which the French artists are very fond of resorting to ; and the figures are the size of life. " Strafford going to Execution" was a commission from the Duke of SUTHERLAND, and is, we believe, at York House. "Charles the First Insulted by Croinvvell's Soldiers," was purchased by Lord FRANCIS EGERTON, and is placed among the chefs.d'oeuvre at Bridgewater House ; so that it now forms part of the magnificent col- lection known as the Stafford Gallery. We believe these are the first specimens of the modern French school, termed the romantique, that have been brought to this country; and almost the only French paint- ings of any importance that have found a permanent place in any of our private collections. The circumstance indeed may be considered as marking an sera in the history of painting : the most important results may be predicted from the force of this example ; for if fol- lowed, it will produce a powerful influence on the taste of the British public and the style of our artists. A few remarks on the French school of painting, therefore, will not be out of place.
All who have observed the progress of the English and French
schools, must have remarked the gradual approximation of the two styles—heretofore, arid still to a great extent, so opposite to each other. They have now, as it were, reached the point of contact ; and the good or harm to both will depend on the nature of the amalgama- tion. The French, up to this time, have profited by their study and imitation of English painters. To our countrymen also much benefit has accrued from studying in the Parisian ateliers ; where a thorough knowledge of the anatomy of the human figure and of costume, and a facility of drawing, have been acquired by many English students, such as they could hardly have been taught in this country—to the disgrace of our Royal Academy be it said—and certainly neither so readily nor so cheaply. Beyond this, no good is to be learned in the French school : but we fear that students do not stop here, and that our young artists are becoming inoculated with the foul virus of French taste and French sentiment, than which nothing can be more baneful to themselves and the British school.
DELAROCHE, Of all the French painters, (SCHEEFERT, the EAST
LAKEof the French exhibitions, is a German,) has the least alloy of impurity in his style and feeling; and in his colouring he ap- proaches the nearest of any to the English : his works, too, are more familiar to the public at the present day, through the engrav- ings from them : therefore, in regarding him us an example of the French school, we are viewing it in the most attractive light. We have not seen the two pictures above-mentioned, but we derive our knowledge of the works of DELAROCHE from those in the Luxem- bourg—" The Death of Queen Elizabeth," and " The two young Princes in the Tower." This last is conAdered by his countrymen to be the painter's chef-d'cenvre : when we saw it, there were as many artists copying it as could get a peep of the original. The death of Elizabeth was painted ten years ago : it is gross in conception, melo- dramatic in treatment, coarse in manner, and gaudy in colour—in short, it is an example of the most vicious style of -French painting. Elizabeth is represented as a cadaverous, wrinkled hag—the galva- nized corpse of a Flemish Jezebel, rather than a dying queen — sprawling on a squab on the floor, raving and grinning with the furious gesticulations of a frantic beldame ; while the rest of the persons look as unconcerned as the supernumeraries on the stage. There is another of " Lady June Grey on the Scaffold," by the same painter, which we did not see ; but we are told that the straw and blood are not the least prominent features of the scene. We could cite numerous instances of that grossness of sentiment which actuates the French painters of history not only to choose painful subjects, but to treat them in such a manner as to lead to the supposition that they were chosen for the purpose of exhibiting the most ghastly and disgusting adjuncts of the scene. Passing them by, however, we come to the less offensive and less objectionable picture of " The two young Princes in the Tower."
The predominant feeling awakened by this incident is pity: the youth, innocence, and beauty of the two sleeping children, so simply and beautifully pictured by SHAKSPEARE.--.
" 'Fins lay the gentle hairs, girdling each other Within their alabaster innocent arms : Their lips were four red roses on a stalk, Which, in their summer beauty, kissed each other"_ overpower the sense of horror. Their royal birth—the gloomy eat, prison where they are confined—the rank and station of their murder • —and he important events that follow on their death—combine to eltr vete this feeling to the height of tragic grandeur. How has the Frentey• artist treated the subject? Instead of the lovely innocents sleeping conscious of their impending fate, we have two youths—the elder overgrown, and with a face of turgid inanity any thing but interesting sitting up, dressed, and awake, as if waiting the approach of their rn; derers ; who, by the listening start of the younger one, and a light gem through a chink of the wainscot, are at the door. The image prt. sentcd to the mind is that of the horrible death-struggle that will ensue This is contrary to the received fact, and certainly to the poetry al', subject. But the opportunity for making a melodramatic point, ahd displaying the artist's knowledge and skill in costume—the silk hose ,b7 the way, are a gross anachronism—was too tempting. Historic troth and exalted sentiment are sacrificed to a trick of art. In lookingu the picture, the elaborate painting of the bedstead and furniture and the dresses strikes the eye most prominently : the incident seems merely introduced to give interest to the representation of a piece of urniture and a couple of suits of clothes,—just as in DAVID'S picture of" Alarat Assassinated in his Bath," next to the blood, a deal.lvil imitated to illusion, was the principal object. Er into dine (mines. It); French pictures are gradually altering from the appearance of a group of painted statues to that of stage tableaux vivans—their effects of colour are advancing from wax work to " still-life "—but the material quality of the invention remains. Gross and grovelling fancy, and morbid sentiment, a theatrical and exaggerated style, and affected ex. pression, are still the characteristics of French historical painting. The French carry finish to the extreme of Dutch min:Renee in all but the faces—they can imitate any thing but flesh: this, of course, gives still greater prominence to the accessories of the picturs, The archetype of French history painting is to be found in the waxen dummies of Madame TUSSACD, or the moving figures of Sigma GAGI.IARDI. Their pictures are tin aggregation of objects, all crowding on the eye, each one rigidly defined, and imitated as if It were isolated and not seen in combination with others : the refinement of the art which consists in blending a variety of objects into grand and berme. nious masses of colour, as in the Venetian school, does not seem toile comprehended. In the highest point of excellence that the physicil part of painting is susceptible of—rich colouring and chiaroscuro, is well as in the purely intellectual and imaginative—the French school is utterly false. It is only in the mechanical part or the purely scien-
tific, which may he attained by labour and practised without thought, that the French school excels. All that knowledge of forms and fashions and facility of pencil can accomplish, is achieved : beyond that, there is nothing worthy of imitation, and but little to be admired. We are tempted to pursue this subject, but space forbids ; and the subject, moreover, is of limited interest. Enough has been said to answer our immediate object,—namely, to warn those English artists who are smitten with the dexterity and knowledge of the French, against imitating their failings ; and to caution amateurs against being led away by mechanical cleverness to admire what is vallielea
in an intellectual point of view. The very excellences of DELI. mime's works may do injury, by bringing up a fashion for French art generally, on the strength of those beauties which are not shared by others of his school. We only desire to open the eyes of our country.
men to the true merits and defects of French painting, not to depre. date its good qualities or create a prejudice against it.
Previous page
