* Pus arts.
THE ROYAL ACADEMY EXHIBITION.
Yesterday, the doors of the Royal Academy opened for the private view, and displayed a gathering of works which, on the first rapid in- spection, appeared thus more than commonly satisfactory upon the whole, although not including by any means a large number of salient works by the best men. The proportion of subject-pictures struck us especially as something a good deal above the average,—leaving the portraits fewer in comparison, and the landscapes still fewer if not scanty. The Octagon. Room is closed this year : a proceeding which, however bad the room may be, appears hard to the shoal of deserving men for whose offered works the space has even hitherto been found wholly inadequate. We are limited for the present to making mention of the pictures which chiefly attract notice,—and that in the order of their numbers, by no means of their merit. We may premise that Eastlake, Mediae, Cope,. Mulready, and Herbert, do not exhibit. The East Room contains Mr. Paton'sHome " of which we have before spoken ; Mr. Ward's "Part- ing of Marie Antoinette and her Son" ; Mr. Stanfield's wreck-scene, "The Abandoned" ; a Desert-scene by Mr. Lewis who has another picture further on ; Mr. Frith's "Many Happy Returns of the Day " ;_ two Landseers ; Mr. Ehnore's "Charles V. at Yuste "' Mr. Millais's domestic scene, "Peace Concluded" ; and portraits of Dickens, David Cox, Lord Lucan, Sir Watson Gordon, Sir Colin Campbell, the French Emperor and Empress, &c. In the Middle Room are Mr. Poole's "Con- spirators"—(the Swiss liberators) ; Mr. Hunt's symbolic Scriptural study, "The Scapegoat " - a clever picture by Mr. Herbert junior ; and Mr. Millais's "Autumn Scapegoat"; his most remarkable work of colour. In the West Room, Mr. Leighton's large "Triumph of Music" in the story of Orpheus and Eurydice,—a failure but the failure of an enterprising and uncommon man ; and If;. Millais's "Enfant an Regiment" and "Blind Girl," with a rainbow in the sky. The Miniature Room is of course replete with miniatures; addi- tion to which, Mr. Dyoe's single contribution, a Scriptural crayon drawing—a powerful view from "The bottom of the Ravine of Inkerinan " by Mr. Armitage, and three water-colour landscape-subjects by Mr. Hunt—are to be found here. The North Room contains, be- sides architecture, Mr. Hughes's "Eve of St. Agnes," in three com- partments; and Mr. Anthony's "Summer Eve,"—a comparatively small picture. In the Sculpture-cellar, chilling and almost unvisited, we re- marked Marochetti's bust of the Queen ; Mr. Davis's "Rebekah,"—an imposing work at first sight; Mr. Papworth junior's "Nymph Surprised" ; and a small and very highly finished work by Mr. Woolner, a female figure named "Love."
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