A - R T.
THE WATER-COLOUR SOCIETIES.
THESE Societies, which have simultaneously opened their Exhibi- tions, have each their special attractions. In the way of novelty the Inatitute outbids its elder sister ; for here we find newly asso- ciated as honorary members foreign artists of no less repute than L. Gallait, R. Bonheur, and Henriette Brown, each of whom has contributed to the Exhibition. While proceeding on its established course (a course, however, which report says is shortly to receive important modifications) the old Society has added to its roll three native artists, one at least of whom takes immediate rank with its most illustrious members. Novelty, or any fresh evidence of originality, must not always be expected from every exhibitor. The periodical exhibition sometimes finds the painter with as little fresh matter to express as the magazine does the literary author ; and it is not in all respects desirable that the members of a society of artists should be called upon to furnish two exhibitions in the year. A variety of considerations, however (not necessary to par- ticularize) disinclines or disables an artist from allowing his wits to lie fallow for a season, and so he starts his coach whether he has a passenger or no. Thus it happens that many old favourites, though giving no sign of failure in power, yet provoke no special notice or admiration, and that to give an account in detail of every picture, or even of every good picture, would savour too much of repetition.
To begin, then, with the old Society. Mr. A. Hunt seems of all his brethren to have at present the greatest activity. Lively in imagination and scrupulous in truthfulness, he advances ever nearer to the high standard set before him by the best of his fore- runners, and which, though it were flattery to say he has yet attained, seems fully within his reach. Besides a beautiful " Durham " (258) bathed in misty sunshine, and a sultry after- noon on " The Two Traeths from Llandecwyn " (211), a dream of beauty, scarcely realized with sufficient clearness, he has painted a rainbow picture which for brilliance of sunlight sur- passes all else in the gallery. The picture is not thoroughly satis- factory as a composition, the dull-blue stream that sweeps across the picture in a curved belt being singularly infelicitous. But the painting of the hill-side against which the sun strikes, especially that part which is just within the bow, is masterly ; and the bow itself is so wonderfully luminous and true that the evan- escence, which is a principal charm of the natural phenomenon, is actually suggested by the painting. Some persons have doubted whether, the sun's position with reference to a rainbow being fixed, the shadows cast by the jutting rocks on the hill-side are not incorrect. But a little consideration will show that Mr. Hunt has not fallen into this common error of rainbow-painters. The spectator is not looking directly at the bow, but across its left limb. Thus the plane of the bow is at an angle with the plane of the paper. In other words, the sun is in his left rear, and the shadows are consequently rightly represented as cast towards the right. "Happiness in the Desert" (117) is the title given to an unusually fine drawing by Mr. C. Haag. An Arab leads a camel, and makes music on a pipti for mother and child, who ride on the camel's back. The idea has already been treated by him on a small scale, and the picture is now exhibiting at Paris. Here the composition is different, and the drawing large ; and as Mr. Haag is not one of those who by enlarging their scale only aggravate their faults, and as he has lavished on this drawing all the resources of his artistic knowledge and execution, the result is a work of extraordinary power. Mr. Burton exhibits a grand female head, which he has been so audacious as to make beautiful with hair of most unfashionable black ; and Mr. Dodgson, besides new studies of his beloved Knots Park, sends a small drawing called " Morning " (216), which deserves a better place than it has got. Indeed, it may be observed in passing, no great discretion appears to have been exercised in the general arrangement of the gallery. Mr. A.
Fripp's "Sheep-Washing "(34) suffers grievously by its neighbour- hood to one or two drawings remarkable rather for the fortissimo in contrast than for the modesty of true art. It is this latter quality that especially distinguishes Mr. Fripp's work, and causes it to win its way to our lasting approval long after more obtrusive rivals have excited first, our astonishment, and next, our dislike. The serenity so often noted as the special characteristic of Mr. Boyce's landscapes, is very remarkable in his view of " Abinger Mill Pond" (224). Fringed with reeds and flags, over which the " sere woods" of autumn are reflected in the crystal calm, this little pool seems a corner of the world reclaimed from noise and tumult, and specially consecrated to silence and tranquillity. A swan (somewhat awkwardly introduced) is its only tenant. The colouring is of that sombre but luminous quality of which Mr. Boyce possesses the secret. His other drawings are less pleasing ; much that is excellent in painting, such as the sky in (120) and the red-brick houses in (208), is squandered on thankless and ill proportioned compositions ; and a lover of Thames scenery will hardly recognize in (114) one of the most beautiful spots on his favourite river. Mr. Boyce at his best charms us with a senti- ment of repose. But this is his only note, and he so often puts us off with mere studies that convey no impression at all but surprise at their author having elicited from nature so much that is unlovely, that one is tempted to doubt whether his better productions are the result of conscious aim in a specific direction, or are not the accidental upshot of a patient imitation of fixed effects. The question is not of importance except so far as it shows that Mr. Boyee's range must, as the necessary conse- quence of his method, be exceedingly limited. No one can accuse Mr. E. B. Jones of treating mere imitation of nature as the sole end and object of his art. Rather one would suppose his inten- tion was to show what he could do, without any imitation except imitation of certain bygone phases of mediEeval art. So devoted is he to those particular phases that he sees even Greek myths through the same medium, investing Cupid and Psyche with a hamper of Gothic drapery which serves only to disguise in some degree an inexcusable ignorance or disregard of the forms which it covers. Mr. Jones has a rare sense of colour, and considerable power of expression ; but both are so clouded by conventionality that a strong effort is needed for the recognition of their actual existence and value.
Puzzled and distracted by these new lights, one turns with a sense of relief to the quiet power and simple nature of Mr. T. Danby's works. Though new to this gallery, Mr. Danby is not new as a water-colourist, still less as a landscape painter. But it is rare for any artist to exhibit such sustained power throughout as many as seven pictures exhibited at one time. They are all from the Welsh hills, and vary in colour and feeling according as they represent the pure grey of the forenoon (23), the streaming sun- light of early afternoon (207), the golden glow of sunset (199), or the deeper shades of advancing twilight (41). The extreme sim- plicity and large composition of the last-named picture remind one of the great French landscapist Daubigny. But it possesses a fullness and purity of colour which the Frenchman does not approich. This one drawing, without more, would make a repu-
tation. But all may be studied with advantage ; as, for instance, the broad shadow on the left of (199), where space is admirably expressed by nicest gradations of tone and colour ; and the distant hill-side in (23), where great wealth of detail finds its proper use in unobtrusively enriching the landscape. Mr. F. Powell's name is also one not unknown to fame, as of one who has studied the sea not only from shore but from shipboard, and knows how to paint a great wave in full swing. But he deserves to be judged rather by what he has exhibited heretofore than by this year's specimens, which appear somewhat thin and flat. Mr. B. Bradley, the remaining addition to the Society, is an animal painter, toler- ably correct in his drawing, but inefficient as a colourist. Although it had already been whispered that certain French artists had commenced practising the art of painting in water colours, it was not generally known that the Institute had asso- ciated to themselves in honourable companionship artists of such eminence as those named above. A. comparison of their works lunging on the same wall with ours cannot but be of great advan- tage to British artists ; not, of course, so much with reference to the manipulation of the materials used, as to the principles of art by which the use of all materials whatever should be directed. The great Belgian has sent two drawings, repeated from two well known pictures already exhibited in this country, "The Warrant of Execution read to Counts Egmont and Horne" (49) and "The Oath of Vargas " (55). The heads in both are finely conceived, though the expression of some may be thought a little exaggerated. " A Highland Lake" (52), by R. Bonheur, shows a ferry boat crowded with sheep rowed by two Highlanders. Mdlle. Bonheur proves her appreciation for transparent washes, and has happily rendered the keen clear air of the Scotch hill-country. This drawing, again, is a repetition, but the original in oil, now exhibiting in Paris, has never (?) been seen in this country. Madame Brown has also repeated, from one of her own compositions, a sister of charity quietly engaged in measuring out medicines (291). Of the regular members, Mr. Hine, as usual, takes precedence by the truthful quality of his colour and the expressive natural-
ness of his treatment. On the Downs" (40) may be pointed to as a representative work, remarkable for its combination of sun- light with sobriety, and for its delicate gradations. Mr. J. Mog- ford has studied the sea breaking on the shore to some purpose, and in this respect has made an advance in delicacy and truth. His sides aze still apt to be heavy, and he torments his drawings with too many brush-marks. Mr. Shalders has here a luminous land- scape (46), luminous in every part more than in the sky ; and Mr. Mitchell has for once escaped from the Cornish coast, and found on Dartmoor (113) a new palette on which ink has no place. There are two fine sketches on the Yorkshire coast by Mr. Sut- cliffe (207, 210) ; some very sunny drawings by D'Egville, full of refinement, as usual ; and some excellently painted horses by Mr. Beavis (183 and 289). Mr. Leitch's " Bass Rock " (263) nar- rowly misses being a flue picture. The coarseness of its colour is
ill suited to its high imaginative qualities. V.
Previous page
