ART.
ROYAL INSTITUTE OF PAINTERS IN OIL-COLOURS.
[FIRST NOTICE.]
Tax present exhibition of the Institute of Painters in Oil-Colours is remarkable chiefly for the average merit of the works exhibited, and the absence of pictures either specially good or bad. On the whole, we should say that the more prominent members of the Institute are here represented by works somewhat less interesting than usual, while the contributions of the lesser known men show considerable improvement. In this first notice we purpose only to glance round the first gallery, to try and give our readers a general impression of that room as a whole. Taking, then, the pictures, as near as may be, in catalogue order, we find first among pictures of interest Mr. John Reid's "The Thames, Evening." Mr. Reid's work has for the last two or three years been slowly intensifying in its character, and his mannerisms are to-day more marked than ever. This picture of the Thames seems to be in rivalry of a Giorgione, so glowing are the lights, so rich and deep the shadows. The colour effect is undoubtedly fine, but it is produced by exaggeration, and the details show that curious modern fallacy which confounds coarseness with strength. Look, as an instance of this, at the drawing of the shapeless tree under which the boating-party sit, or at the red-dressed woman's hand. The flesh, indeed, of Mr. Reid's people gets dirtier and dirtier ; and in his anxiety to keep all the body of his picture in rich, sombre tints, lighted up with patches of deep scarlet or strong blue.green, he refuses to admit any one into his landscapes who has not been sunburnt to at least a deep brown. A large landscape of the old-fashioned style, with a broad road winding through gorse-bushes up to low, blue hills, and a sky of broken grey clouds, is Mr. Frank Walton's "Portions of the Waste,"— a fresh, breezy painting by a strong man, a little deficient in motive, but very true to the scene it depicts. Mr. John Burr's " Fish-Stall " should be looked at in connection with Mr. P. Graham's "Saucy Sally," both large single-figure pictures by clever men, but both rather coarse in treatment, and singularly deficient in attractiveness. They seem to us to suffer from the same defect,—i.e., that their artists did not care for their subject, did not find it either beautiful or interesting, and, in conse- quence, did not make it either in their pictures. For the rest, in
justice to Mr. Graham, we mast say that, of the two, "Saucy Sally" is the better work ; and in justice to Mr. Burr, that the present is the worst picture we have seen from his brush.
A little picture of a blue-frocked child sitting in the long grass of a meadow, with a dog on each side of her, is notable for its prettiness and cleverness of arrangement ; and there are close by, four or five mermaidens by Miss Eveleen Pickering, who take us at once to the very opposite style of modern painting. Miss Pickering's work is always interesting, its delicate skill and patience are beyond praise in these days of tricky and sloppy work ; but we fear she is wandering in one of the " no-thorough- fares " of Art, repeating, or at least founding herself on, work which is at best an echo, not of Nature, but of the personal im- pulse of a somewhat morbid mind. Mr. Marne Jones's influence is, indeed, too perceptible in all she does not to remind us that this is not the real thing, and that the master's touch, which justifies his peculiarities, is here absent. Her better picture is a fanciful single figure typifying the moon, in which we would ask our readers to look at the specially fine painting of the woman's hand and arm, one of the most delicate and yet scientific pieces of lady's work we have ever seen. Three little stage fairies (by M. Ludovici) sitting in the shadow of a great "side-scene," should be noticed for a tender little touch of mingled humour and pathos. For the rest, its execution is dexterous, but not remarkable. We confess that the large portrait of Mr. Broadley sitting in his "Egyptian Study," surrounded by all sorts of Eastern objects, many of which (as, for instance, the 'Arab' tables) look as if they had just come from "Maple's," is to us a most unpleasant picture, despite its evident ability. In the first place, the execution is hard and coarse throughout; in the second place, the colour is at once crude and hot ; in the third place, the objects surrounding the "defender of Arabi" seem to be heaped up together with an incongruity and profusion which are simply ostentatious. Indeed, the result of the whole is rather an advertisement than a portrait of Mr. Broadley. A glance at Mr. Wetherbee's "Summer-Time," which hangs close to the last-named picture, will show any of our readers the presence of the qualities in which Mr. Cecil's Round's work, just criticised, is conspicuously deficient. Mr. Wetherbee has taken a simple yet beautiful subject, and has painted it with grace and tenderness. We mean it for very high praise when we say that this picture distinctly reminds us of both Fred. Walker and Mason. There is no reason why (if Mr. Wetherbee be a young man, which we do not know) this painter should not in the future give us idylls of country life as real as the " Ploughing " by the first-named, and as graceful as the "Evening Hymn" by the last-named artist. And we are the more glad to see this work, as Mr. Wetherbee has been somewhat apt in earlier exhibitions to surrender the quieter aspects of country life for vivid effects of sunlight, and figures of somewhat exaggerated action. The present picture is of three nude boys who have been bathing, and are standing and sitting on the bank in shadow, while in front of them, across the stream, is a sunlit field with reapers. The composi- tion is good and thoroughly pleasant, and we have only two words to say about the execution. In the first place, it is so thinly painted as to be here and there feeble ; in the second place, it would have gained immensely by more delicate drawing and modelling. The haste and imperfection of modern art are visible here ; why, for instance, should the two reapers have arms resembling blocks of timber, more like the legs of a big kitchen- table than the limbs of men ? "In Swanage Bay," by Mr. E. W. Brewtnall, is a clever study of a sunset over calm water, with some boats and their sails reflected in the near water. It has that little touch of fancy in its arrangement which Mr. Brewtnall frequently shows in landscape work, and is a quaint and in- teresting, if slightly exaggerated picture. The boats are a little short, perhaps, for the height of their masts. "Just the Day for the Sand" deserves a word of mention for the brilliancy of its atmosphere ; and Mr. Millet's "Interlude" shows us that he is not entirely limited to the light and delicate key of colour in which he made his first success. Mr. Dendy Sadler is back amongst his monks once more, and sends two convent pictures, both of a convivial kind. In the smaller, the convent butler is bringing up carefully the "twins" (wicker-covered wine-flasks) under his arms ; in the other, three monks, one of whom is probably intended for the prior, sit "at fish," with various expressions of anticipated enjoyment on their faces. Both pic- tures are humorous and vivid in their delineation, and cleverly painted ; but if truth must be told, the motive in each is some- what threadbare, and we can scarcely imagine that it would be- pleasant to live with such pictorial jests. Does Mr. Sadler, we wonder, imagine that monks did nothing but eat, that he gives us only episodes of the " table " and the providing thereof ? More humorous, and less of a repetition, is Mr. Frank Dadd's "Good Old Days," a middle-aged man sitting on the shore getting ready the wheel of an arquebnss, while a bare-legged page watches the operation intently. Mr. Arthur Severn's "Waves Breaking against a Sea-Wall" has the usual deficien- cies of his work. It is rather a study than a picture, and for the- reat, is less satisfactory than urinal, the lines of the water which is pouring off the sea-wall presenting sharp and unpleasant angles, and the whole picture having a somewhat made-up look. Mr. Severn has missed the natural grandeur of the scene, and given us nothing in its place. "Arranging the Next Beat," by Mr. Heywood Hardy, is presumably a group of portraits, and as- such may have considerable interest for its possessor. As a picture, however, it falls between the stools of landscape and portraiture, and has little of the interest attaching to either ;. skilfully painted and fairly well drawn, it is nevertheless lacking' in effect, lacking in concentration, and spiritless in execution' Mr. Hardy's "Pegasus," it is evident, will not bear the restric- tions imposed in the delineation of gentlemanly sport ; he should leave that kind of art to Mr. Sydney Hall. In this first room there are two capital pig-pictures, and with the mention of these we will close our notice. One is called "Dreaming the- Happy Hours Away," and is simply a group of pink pigs, lying on their sides in strong light, and is by Mr. Dollman ; the other is by Mr. W. Weekes, and represents an old hen remonstrating with a group of sows and boars on their occupancy of her" lay?' Both are good, well drawn, and natural ; but the latter is- specially instinct with life and varied action, and there are few better bits of painting and drawing in the Gallery.
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