DECORATIVE PICTURES FOR THE WESTERN STEAM-SHIP.
Ma, Pannis exhibited to his friends, in the early part of this week, he series of designs that he has painted to fill the pannelling round the lialoon of the great Western Steam-ship : and a very pleasing display of ornamental art it was, highly creditable to the taste and ingenuity of the artist. The compartments are long and narrow—proportions very unfavourable for pictorial purposes; but the difficulty is so well overcome that the disadvantage is not apparent at first sight. The subects are various, each consisting of a group of figures from rustic or ashionable life, occupied with some sport or recreation : here are seen a loving couple in a bower, there a gallant banding a fair dame into a carriage; in others harvesting, fishing, and such-like out-door employments, are going on. The gay colours and picturesque costumes, and the bright and glowing freshness of the landscape background, give gayety and airy lightness to the scenes, producing a pleasurable impression on the eye without taxing the mind,—which is just the point to aim at in these decorative pictures. The groups of imple- ments and emblems that form the base (so to speak) of each design, and the little Cupids that are to fill the upper range of pannelling, are pretty and fanciful, and carry out the general intention. The pictures were shown to good effect by a row of gas jets along the middle of the room near the ceiling, which shed a broad stream of light on both sides; a mode of lighting up a picture-gallery that might be advantagecusly adopted without much difficulty. Mr. PARRIS is also employed on a set of pannel-pictures, on a larger scale and more elaborately finished, for the Army and NavyClub.
We are glad to see the taste for pictorial decoration spreading in this country. No artists are so well qualified to delight the eye by their arrangements of colour and effect as those of the British school : for one who is able to paint a grand history picture we have fifty who are competent to embellish a room in a beautiful style.
Previous page
