FINE ARTS.

OLD WATER-COLOUR SOCIETY.

THE charm of water-colour painting is its atmosphere : sunlight and storm, the shower and the breeze, the river and the clouds, are realized in the picture with a freshness that almost makes us sensible of the odour as well as the moisture of the dewy grass : the light which in oil painting is solid and opaque, in water-colours is represented by a trans- parent medium ; hence the glow of sunset and the glare of noon partake of the airiness as well as the brilliancy natural to sunshine. But all does not rest with the material ; for the limpid purity and brightness which we admire, may be attenuated into vacuum or converted into a drilling, glassy hardness : the medium is best suited, also, to that loose, sketchy, generalizing style of imitation—representing appearances and effects, not details of form—which is most suitable for delineating laud. scope (especially in a moist and variable climate like ours) and in-door scenes, vhere light is the leading feature, and in which our painters excel. A conjunction of favouring circumstances, therefore, renders the English school prOminent in this branch of art ; and the plea- sure which all successful imitations of nature give, particularly those of rural scenes, makes the Water-colour Exhibition universally popular, at once delightful to the feelings and satisfactory to the judgment. The fascination thus accounted for, we no longer svonder that the same chits of subjects, treated in the same manner by the same artists year after year, should never tire or grow uninteresting from mono- tony : it is Nature herself that we see through the bright lens of Art, and we should almost as soon grow weary of the fields and trees and shifting clouds themselves. They are great mannerists, however, these water-colour men, and paint too much by recipe, doing all their lives one thing in one way ; but they copy Nature's lineaments with living reality ; and we excuse, nay, are even pleased with their manner, ex- cept when, as in the instance of JOHN VAIILEY, HILLS, and W. il'unstsa, it interferes with the truth. COPLEY FIELDING paints the " green hill in its April shroud," the moor and mountain veiled in mist, the storm- black sea with its white crested billows ; DEwisT, the tedded grass with its gray green tints, the golden hue of the ripened harvest, the deep- toned verdure of the foliage, and the clear blue of the stream under the cloud-steeped radiance of noon, or the empurpled shades of evening; Cox, the dewy coolness of the grass on the lea, the purple heather on the mountain, and the weeds and rushes on the bank of the silver stream, the rain-clouds borne along upon the breeze, the glancing sunlight, and the falling shower ; 13AR RETT, the unclouded lustre of the sun at morn, at noon, and evening ; and so with the rest, each painting his favourite effects pretty nearly the same as he did years ago. Nor do we wish them to change their manner if they could : long may they continue to repeat themselves after this delightful fashion.

But a new method is obtaining in this style of art—opaque water- colours are used in addition to transparent ones, and in some instances so freely, that instead of lustrous brilliancy, we have an adust heaviness resembling crayon-painting. It is a new thing, and, like other novelties, pleases at first ; consequently, we sometimes see it used where it should not be. We hear it much decried ; but, so far from condemning it alto- gether, we think a judicious employment of opaque colours not only allowable, but advisable in figure subjects, interiors, and even in landscape, for the relief of solid objects iu the foreground. No one in his senses would voluntarily substitute an opaque for a transparent medium in pro- ducing atmospheric appearances ; and of course we should not prefer seeing a sun-burst represented by a red wafer stuck in the middle of a

blaze of brick-dust, instead of a focal spot of white paper in a flood of gamboge; nor a cloudy sky by a wall of papery dryness, instead of the pearly gray tones washed in with a full pencil; neither do we desire to

feel as well as see a tuft of weeds or the leaves of a bush in the fore- ground ; though we have no horror of seeing the bark of a tree, or the surface of a rock or wall, or the lichens on a fence close to the eye, imitated by touches of solid colour. It is with reference to distance, and space, and tile effects of light on objects seen through the medium of atmosphere, that the employment of opaque colours is injurious—it is their misuse, in short, not their use, that we oppose ; aud as yet we see few evidences of it. In transparent water-colour painting, the effect of solidity and relief is produced by opposition of tints rather than by

texture of surface ; and as in the generality of views the details are on so small a scale as almost to be merged in the masses and general effect,

this is quite sufficient ; but in painting objects on a larger scale and

nearer the eye, the appearance of solidity is scarcely attainable without the aid of gum, or opaque pigments ; and as it is in representing atmo- spheric effects _that transparent washes of colour are so peculiarly suc- cessful, wherever there is no depth of atmosphere (so to speak) between the eye and the object, the employment of opaque colours is advisable; and the opposition of them will tend to give a more aiirial tone to the distance.

Having been led into this technical digression, it will not be out of place to illustrate the principles here affirmed, by reference to those pictures where the opaque and transparent media are most freely used.

And this consorts with our usual order of subjects, for the most striking examples of both methods are to be found in the Designs of Figures. CATTERMOLE more than any other artist, LEWIS not excepted, (whose absence leaves a blank in the exhibition,) employs opaque, or body- colours, as they are commonly called, not merely to heighten the relief and strengthen the colouring, as LEWIS uses them, but to save time and labour ; for he might readily get an equally powerful tone with trans- parent colours. His best picture, "Wanderers Entertained," (317)— a party of humble wayfarers receiving the princely hospitality of some Italian noble—is not only the finest in the Exhibition, but his best work : it is on a smaller scale than his principal productions of late years, and so far preferable ; nor does it show those evidences of immaturity of which we have before complained—the design is well considered and completely developed, and the finish is admirable. The poor garments of the guests, and the eagerness of their hunger and homely way of feeding, contrasted with the silver plate, the lofty air of the attendants, and die magnificent state of the apartment, has a highly picturesque effect ; we are reminded of PAOLO VERONESE in the scene and its treat- ment. 'The mother feeding her infant is a sweet touch of nature. " The Taking of Wardour Castle," (334)—a party of military ruffians loading themselves with gold and silver plate, while the captive owners, bound, look on in proud and sullen mortification, is a less pleasing subject, but scarcely less cleverly treated. " Sir Walter Raleigh witnessing the Ex- ecution of the Earl of Essex in the Tower," (70,) is a fine study of armour, with an execution seen in the distance, but nothing more. " The Opening of the Letter-bag," (50), by JOHN WILLIAM WEIGHT,

is in a style totally different ; it is painted with hardly any body colour, and is as pure and powerful a piece of water-colours as we have seen : the draperies are freely handled, the flesh tints carefully stippled, the colouring is rich and brilliant, and the effect broad and massive ; and, compared with CATTEW3101.1eS, the difference of transparent and opaque colours is exemplified. The scene is one of domestic interest : the family of some old knight of Charles the First's time are assembled in the oaken parlour opening the contents of the letter-bag just brought in ; one of the daughters is reading a letter aloud, with a delightful expres- sion of pleasure and interest—her lips almost seem to move ; and the rest are listening ; all but the lover, who, ensconced in a bay-wiudow behind a curtain, (where he is pointed out in his retreat. by a waggish urchin,) is absorbed in an epistle whose tender character is evident : the light falling on the paper and across his figure, and the natural inci- dent itself so graceful! v treated, make this episode the best point in the picture : the father looks heavy and unoccupied—to be sure he is listen- ing ; and the mother, who has caught sight of the black seal of an un- opened letter that the unconscious children have just taken out, has a troubled look of permanent anxiety, not a momentary shadow crossing a serene countenance, nor does she seem eager to know the worst : it may be supposed that the old folks have had much to trouble them, but their sadness is only /ride, not touching ; in short, the effect of the black seal is not so well expressed as it might have been, but the two young readers are charming.

SEYFFAItTli and Miss SHARPE skilfully blend opaque and transparent colours, but use gam to deepen the shadows too freely. the result is an enamel-like brilliancy and vitreous hardness, only fit for ornamental purposes, and as unsuited to such subjects as " Christ Rais- ing the Widow's Son," as are Miss Suanms's powers. Even in a gay scene like that of the public garden at Charlottenburgh, near Berlin, the sacchasine style of expression becomes weak and insipid, and the ornate colouring is unnatural. There is more genuine character in an- other picture by Mrs. SEYFFARTII, a German lady with her nurse coaling from church, (115,) but the brilliancy is meretricious. In FREDERICK TA YLER'67 military, hunting, and rustic scenes, we have the sunny brightness of nature in its full lustre, without going a step beyond, and with only a judicious use of body colour. His large pic- ture, " King Charles the First conveyed a Prisoner from Newcastle to Hornby House, Northamptonshire, by the Parliamentary Army," (1600 does not realize the scene either in historic grandeur of character or pathos: the advance of a body of troopers is admirably represented, and the foreshortening of the horses is masterly ; but Charles looks more like the commander of the troop than their captive and their king. "The Vicar of Wakefield conveying his daughter Olivia home to her Family," (2840 has a simplicity and truth that is delightfully character- istic ; and if the Vicar does look like a Bishop, he was worthy to be one : the old gray horse is ambling along at a jogging pace—we almost see hint move. But it is in depicting the external appearance and general effect of a group, rather than in delineating individual character, that F. TAVLEIt succeeds so well. How characteristic is this scene, "Even- mug—Return of Sportsmen from the Moors," (336)—the party crossing a bridge, with gleaners coming from the harvest-field, the slant rays of the setting sun glimpsing the scene and catching the figures, and the tired horses and clogs turning, aside to drink at the stream ; we don't want to see the faces. The group of children listening to the Highland Fillet', the fisherwomen returning from market across the sands on the Scottish coast, a donkey party, with studies of children of Lord Howard De Walden, and other subjects of a similar kind, have all the glowing effect and picturesqueness of nature.

Hew, on the contrary, depicts individual character with an identity not always agreeable in broad humour and the power of fixing a transient expression, he is without a rival. " Juvenile Palmistry," (67) —a ploughboy- staring agape with wonder not unmixed with awe, at a cunning gipsy girl gravely telling his fortune, while another wicked lass is laughing at the elodpole's credulity—has the distinctness of a group of portraits: this, and " Interior of a Stable," (92)—a lad leaning against the window, looking up through it with a face radiant with good-humour and delight, and eloquent with persuasion (we are as sure that his sweetheart is outside, as if we saw her standing there)— are his most forcible performances : in the out-door scene with the gipsy girls, there is little body colour, comparatively, but in the "interior," where the light is thick and the objects mostly solid, it is used very freely, and its advantages in giving texture are apparent in the surface of the brick-wall. In " All Fours"—a couple of ploughboys on the ground playing cards—the exulting smile of the victor, and the chagrin of the loser, are expressed with a droll intensity. The action of " a Cricketer" aiming a blow with the bat, is indicated with a degree of knowledge of the figure that we do not often see in historical painters; and the

compressed lips of the striker (comical as is his energy) add to the force of the blow ; you wait to hear the crack of the ball and see him dart from the wicket. " A Scrub "—a boy washing his face : the tightened cheeks white with soap, the eyes fast closed, and the grasp of the towel attest the vigour of the operation. We can only indicate the " Narcotic "—a boy yawning over his lesson ; "Miss Jermma Crow r and " Panic Struck "—a man-servant conic to draw beer, scared at some- thing in the cellar. The interior of a kitchen, and a bed covered with a patch-quilt in a white-walled room full of daylight, are reality itself. All IltesT's pictures exemplify the judicious use of body-colours ; for he never employs them but to advantage, and they are only seen in the increased power of the effect. Josisen NASH exhibits two large drawings, the subjects taken from his forthcoming volume illustrating the Mansions qf England in the °Nen Time,—namely, the "Long Gallery, Haddon Hall, Derbyshire," (1700 with two little children in the costume of Charles the First walk- ing a minuet before a family party ; and the "Terrace, Bramshill, Hants," with cavaliers and dames seated and promenading, and a game of bowls being played. The union of architectural beauty and pictu- resque costume in scenes of life and character is felicitously managed; and the fresh brightness of a daylight atmosphere gives a delicious cheerfulness to the effect of space. In these drawings there is no ap- pearance of body colours, until they are closely examined, when the value of the opaque touches in the costumes, &c. is evident. Lessen Plum's interiors arc masterly, and painted with powerful effect ; though his style is too strongly tinctured with a mannerism occasionally dege- nerating into an affectation of dash and slightness absolutely ludicrous. His two designs, " The Discovery," (19.) and " The Confession," (36,) are melodrama run mad. The crimson velvet bed with its plumed pillars, in the " Bay in the State-room, Hardwicke," (14,) is gorgeous, but the figures are vapid and insubstantial. " The Long Gallery, at Hard- wicke," (26,) with its perspective of pictures, is altogether admirable ; as is " Mary Queen of Scots' Bedchamber, at Hardwicke, where she was captive sixteen years," (133.) In these drawings the introduction of body colours is of great service, but in the two designs it is sadly misemployed. Ricirrines " Gipsies," (249,) is powerful in colour, but over finished; and the it-onion, moreover, look like ladies in character. STgen.axoer's effeminate costume scenes, J. M. Winder's weak and mannered de- signs, and CRISTALL'S academic composition, may be passed over.

In Landscape, HARDING is most remarkable for force and brilliancy, though his pictures have an artificial character compared with the more sober beauty of the old school. His large view of" Cochem. on the Mo- selle," (132,) is a splendid production of' art ; but the view seems merely a background to the boat and-group of figures ; and they look like fix- tures, that, if removed, would leave very little behind them. His smaller view, " River—Lago di Garda," (1440 is more simple and natural. Another of " Oberlanstein, on the Rhine." (295,) is lovely : the surffice of the river and the tower in the distance are beautifully true; and the atmospheric effect is not lessened by the pretty free use of body colour. His view of " Snowdon," (13,) with a storm bursting, may, however, be quoted as an instance of the baneful effect of opaque colours when unsparingly employed : there is no air, and the surface is thin and brittle, like a shell. NESEIELD, who has made &rivet efforts this year, is the only other landscape-painter who uses body colour perceptibly or to any extent. In his large picture " Peat Bog. near Haskell Castle," (183,) it is employed in the distance as well as in the foreground; and it produces an arid appearance very different from the moist freshness of ('ox's skies and the lucid clearness of Hannixes. In NEssim,n's powerful drawing of " Gordale Scar," (4,) the body co- lour gives solidity to the rocks nor does its introduction in his large Alpine scene " Near the Village of St. Remi, Val d' Aosta," (62,) im- pair the effect of gloom.

EVANS'S views of Mulgrave Castle have a chaste, sweet, sober tone, that is delicious ; No. 32 especially. In his view of " Stirling Castle." (272)—a fine drawing—there arc symptoms of manntrism in the handling, which lie would do well to avoid. The sketch of" Wind- sor, from Eton Wick," (311,) is bright as day : the red jacket of the soldier in the foreground sends the Castle miles away in the distance. In his view "Near Hlverston," (52.) the tail of a shower looks as if it would whisk away in an instant.

DEWINT is quite himself this year : the deep, pure tone of the atmo- sphere, gives a repose and solidity to his landscapes that they pre- serve under the most sparkling effects of light,—as in this little view " On the Thames, near Wooburn," (329,) with the sun Outing through the dark foliage; and in its neighbour, " Stacking Barley," (335,) where a brood of poultry relieves the sober verdure of the homestead. Of his large views we prefer " Glenridding, near Ulswater," (27.) and "Bolton Abbey," (47.) " Richmond Hill, from Twickenham Ferry," (175,) is the best river scene in the room : the water looks deep, and its bright

coolness tempers the glow of a summer evening. How solemn is the beauty of this view of" Eton College—Twilight, ' (306.) with the purple streaks of departing day Who would think that the painter of these could produce such a crude, splotchy drawing, as "View in Wales," (S(I)? The trees are harsh and coarse in his " Lowther," (110); and " A Fen Mill," (1S2.) is too hard and mannered : but this " hay Field in Montgomery- shire," (85,) under a vertical sun refracted by gray clouds, is nature it- self, and makes us forget all defects.

Coemv Fiuniso's large view of " Salisbury Plain, with a view of Stonehenge," (37,) is a thilure. for it has neither space nor grandeur,

and the style is poor and petite. " Caerphilly Castle," (42.) and " Langdale Pikes," (53,) are in his best manner ;and his Scene in the Waste of Cumberland, near Newcastle," (106.) conveys a feeling of wild loneliness and bleak atmosphere that transports us to the spot. This view, and one "On the Downs, near Worthing—Cissbury Hill seen through a Shower," (294,) are scenes that no one paints like him. In his large view of" Rievaidx Abbey," (75,) the mechanism of his style it too evident. His marine scenes with storm effects are admirable as usual.

DAVID COX'S largest drawings are not so pleasing as his smaller bits, —such as "Morning" and " Evening," (156 and 1660 which for bril- liancy, glow of sunlight, and freshness of the herbage and atmosphere, are superior to BARRETT : we see the rising sun

" Kissing with golden face the meadows green. Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy." The weedy bank of a stream, or a strip of hayfield with market. people, or boys fishing, suffice Cox to open to us a peep into the world of na- ture. His more elaborate drawings, "Market-people crossing Lancaster Sands," (10,) and a mountainous scene "On the Holyhead Road, near Penmanmauer," (169,) are equally true ; and the last-mentioned is really grand.

PROUT, besides a few small architectural drawings, has sent what ap- pears to be an old drawing of an Indiaman ashore "After the Storm," (159,) which for breadth of style and grandeur of character is as fine as any thing he ever produced: the huge hulk looks like a floating castle, and the anchors, &c. in the foreground add to its greatness. GASTI- NEAU'S large drawing of a "Monastery at Newtown, near Trim, County Meath," (2020 is one of his very best productions. MACKEN- ZIE'S view of "Versailles, from the Bois de Satory," (238,) though feeble, is interesting. HOLLAND'S brilliant local colouring and sunny cloudless atmosphere, make his view of the " Ruins of the Monastery of Alcobaca," (91,) look like a scene from a Southern clime contrasted by the cool cloudy effects of our moist climate : it is rather petite in style, however. CALLOW'S foreign scenery is a monotony of brown buildings against cold gray skies, with pale green foregrounds. SCOTT'S cottages and churches are forcible and real, but have too much of the drawing-master's manner. FREDERICK NASH shows a per- ception of nature through a spotty and feeble manner. GLENNIE'S landscapes and interiors at Sandwich have something pleasing in their naturalness, but they are very weak and petite. BENTLEY is still in an unsettled state, as if he did not know what to be at, but was ambitious of doing something out of the common way : his "Garden Scene," (17,) is a plagiarism from TURNER and STOTHARD. CHAMBERS'S sea- pieces are perfection. How totally different is the calm evening effect of this river scene, "Marines going off to an Indiaman-Northfleet," (109,) from this stormy sea at " Broadstairs-Anchor-boat going off," (337,) and. both from this bright sunburst lighting up the sails of the "Dutch Passage-boat," (324); and how true is each one

We are loth to leave an exhibition where Art is so subdued to the quality of Nature in her various aspects; but this notice has already out- run its due limits.