ART.
THE DUDLEY GALLERY.
-THE General Water-colour Exhibition at the Egyptian Hall this year enters upon its second decade, and may be taken to have settled down into its normal condition. The complexion it now assumes is to all appearance a healthy one. Some sensational elements which were once too prominent have been got rid of, and the system is thus to a great extent purged of unwholesome humours. If a loss of marked features is one consequence of the -clearance, it does not follow that the standard has declined ; for where aspirations are not the very highest, there may be an evenness of merit as well as of mediocrity. This, as it seems to us, is the case at the Dudley Gallery. We some- how always find that it takes us longer to form a just estimate of the contents of this than of any other gallery of the same size. And this arises chiefly from two causes. There are fewer pictures that one excludes at the first glance from further consideration, and there are fewer to which, from a previous acquaintance with the artist's works, one is able at once to assign a relative value. Cutting off from the subjects of our consideration some two or three rows of drawings near the ceiling, which, for want of an opera-glass, we make no attempt to examine, we again find the strength of the collection to consist in the many agree- able drawings, for the most part landscapes, which one dwells on or returns to with pleasure, but which are so equal in merit that to single out some for special admiration almost necessarily seems invidious towards others.
In one department, however, the Dudley Gallery has developed a distinctive feature, namely, in a successful application of the water-medium to the higher class of portraiture. Mr. Poynter was here the first to introduce us to a style of portrait which, I while it makes no pretension to compete with an oil painting either in scale or power, is beyond comparison more artistic and complete than that of the kind of vignette likenesses that were in vogue before the invention of photography, and which, with their stippled pink cheeks and fashion-book extremities, are still the most cherished memorials in many a family portrait-gallery. A very beautiful specimen of this new school is now before us, in Miss Edith Martineau's charming picture (542) of a lady with a sweet face, "where roses and white lilies blow," and a back- ground of blue china plates and vases. It is not only the best of a series of exhibited studies in which we have observed for some years past this artist's steady advance, but it is as delicately painted as the work of Mr. Poynter himself, and purer in colour. A success of this kind should encourage us to hope that more of the industry which is now expended by lady artists on meaningless studies from hack models of the costume school may yet be employed in a more valuable kind of portraiture. Mr. J. C. Moore again shows the peculiar adaptability of water- colour painting to portraits of children. But it is not given to everybody to combine with such a delicate sense of harmoni- ous colour his nice insight into the characters of children, and the artistic skill with which he marks their distinctions. Mr. Moore has evidently a happy knack of bringing out the natural expression of a child, and at the same time placing him en rapport with the spectator. These little ladies and gentlemen are neither too much absorbed in their own pursuits, nor, on the other hand, do they look conscious, or frightened, or merely stuck up to have their pictures taken. They just seem to inter- rupt what they are doing for a moment in order to look at the spectator, and their gaze is one of neither affectation nor alarm. The interesting young violinist, "Winifred Holiday" (198), and the fair "Little Agnes " (317), in her grey habit, are particu- larly charming, but the latter drawing, except in the face, is so slight that it amounts to little more than a sketch. Miss Martineau's solid but unobtrusive workmanship affords a damaging contrast in this respect. Mr. Clifford's por- traits, being of life size, compete at a disadvantage with oil paintings, but this does not prevent that of "The Lady Ida Bennett" (189) from being exceedingly graceful. Among charac- teristic portraits should be named the small head of "An Old Cornish Huntsman" (491), by H. Sandercock, whereof the truth will be recognised by many persons who know Tintagel.
We have seen a better flower-show at the Dudley, but the blue jar of yellow " Chrysanthemums" (191), which justly occupies a central position, is a choice specimen of Miss H. C. Coleman's mastery in this branch of art, and of her refined colour ; nor are "Red Currants" (513) and " Wall Flowers" (280) less taking in their way, though the latter would like the refreshment of a touch of blue in the white crockery by way of contrast. Mr. Jessop Hardwick sometimes does an injustice to his skilful painting of cut flowers, by an ill-selected assortment of colours. "Roses and Nasturtiums" (572) present two qualities of red which do not go well side by side. The juxtaposition is not altogether " guid for sair een." This, however, the mellow, grey shadows of Mrs. Gudrin's " Pompones " (5) certainly are. The "Plover" (241) is one of several excellent studies by Mr. Hough ; and see, too, as good in this department, "Dead Partridges" (121), by Miss Rose E. Stanton, and "Visitors from High Latitudes—Grey Plovers" (75), by Miss A. H. Loch. The resources of ornithology have indeed been drawn upon somewhat largely this year. Mr. Heywood Hardy illustrates a topic of the day in a study of camp-following vultures (190) sitting on a high ridge of rock, with the needful sense, whatever it may be, duly sharpened to lead them straight to the carrion which it is their mission to consume. As if under a similar inspiration, Mr. T. J. Ellis sends us a cogitative trio of "Black Vultures" (405). A sleek little kitten (182) attracts attention, haply for it is black, and is in good contrast to a yellow butterfly, whose safe motto of "Excelsior "gives the name to a clever drawing by S. E. Walker or Waller, for the name is spelt both ways in the catalogue. By the way, we wish that artists, with whose names critics cannot always be expected to be familiar, would afford us
some means of knowing by their designation whether they belong to the category of "Mr.," "Mrs.," or "Miss." A good group of dogs, entitled " Friends " (307), by Mr. Charlton, and a cari- cature of a spaniel " Bored " (366) by a Persian cat, painted by Mr. Percy Macquoid, are among the remaining animal subjects.
We have to make a long step in passing from trifles like these to Mr. Poynter's carefully studied and really fine picture on a classical subject (311). The scene is in a garden court of the dwelling of /Esculapius, to whom Venus, attended by the Graces repairs for advice, having pricked her foot with a bramble. The figures are on a small scale, but very noble in proportion and grace- fully grouped, and there is a certain fine quality in the tone and colour that strikes a chord which has before been set in vibration in drawings by Decamps and by Alma Taderna. It is instructive to compare this picture with another, in which the god of beating also figures, though in a much less dignified manner,-namely, the scene of his metamorphosis into an owl, in a maze of box-hedges and sunflowers, which represents the Elysian Fields in (422), a curious fancy by Mr. Walter Crane, the well-known and humor- ous illustrator of nursery tales.
Our school of marine painting seems to be rapidly re- ducing itself to the study of waves, pure and simple, and we have here the usual allowance of examples. Mr. Henry Moore, as he has done before, takes the lead, but not without novelty. His sunny " Calm " (303) on the blue Mediterranean is a lovely contrast to the tossing billows we are so familiar with. His "Mist rising on the Sea" (489) is painted on the principle most accordant with the look of nature, in its bold handling of the near part and greater elaboration of the distant. Mr. J. 0. Long has a careful study, "Looking out to Sea" (240), almost too careful indeed, for the waves have a chiselled appearance, which impedes the idea of motion ; while Mr. Hall lacks the needful solidity, yet gives the idea of turmoil, in the "Tide of the Solway" (184). We have no doubt that Mr. Arthur Severn tells us truly the appearance of a violent "Hail-storm at Venice" (168), but there are many aspects of nature which are not agreeable in a picture, and this, according to his report,
is one of them. Another, we are disposed to think, is the peculiar glare which sometimes comes over the face of the eatth at sunset, and which Mr. Poynter has taken so much pains to depict in "Wilden Pool" (541). A far more beautiful "Evening Light" is that (604) painted by Mr. E. A.:Waterlow. In " Vico Equense, Bay of Naples" (232), and other drawings by Mr. Aston, "Palm Trees near the Nile" (255), by Mr. Walter Severn, and "Old Shoreham "(30), by Mr. Holloway, we have other lovely and varied effects of declining day. Mr. Hamilton Macallum reconciles us again to that one boat of his -which was fast becoming tiresome, by casting around it an unwonted play of light and colour in "Catching Sprats" (124) ; Mr. Banna- tyne expresses with much power the clear air of rainy weather in " Ardchormel Castle" (141) ; Mr. Vincent gives largeness to his mountain by making it look distant in "From Sconser, Skye" (181), and the sky is excellent ; and among other landscapes above the average are a charming little drawing called "The Fishing Harbour" (90), and others of much promise by Mr. Cottnan, a descendant, we may fairly presume, of the eminent Norwich artist of the same name ; "St. Sampson, Guernsey" (462), and others by Mr. Thornely ; "A Morass" (93), by Mr. Joseph Knight ; "Sheep Asleep" (102), by Mr. Bottomley ; "The Mill at Somansed, Lower Egypt" (224), by Mr. W. P. Burton ; "Hay-field" (153), by Mr. Eddington ; "Before Breakfast" (304), and " Unwell Lane, near Swanage," by Walter Field ; "Trawlers" (368), by C. Napier Hemy ; " Summer " (576), by Tom Lloyd ; "A Quiet Anchorage" (591), by Gertrude Martineau ; "The Butler's Cross, Ludlow" (532), by A. B. Donaldson ; "London Lights" (501), by R. W. Macbeth ; and various drawings by Messrs. Mark Fisher, Walter Stocks, Frank Walton, Arthur Severn, Earle, G-. F. Glennie, Eden, Aston, Parsons, Darvall, and Pilleau, Madame Bodichon, and others. Among architectural subjects and interiors, " Laon Cathedral." (7), by R. P. Spiers ; "St Nicholas, Antwerp" (137), by T. W. 'Wilson ; "Chamber in the Prison of the Old Spanish Inquisition, Antwerp" (149), by S. Read ; "Harem of a Wealthy Arab, Cairo" (272), by Frank Dillon ; and "Side-door, Orvieto Cathedral" (407), by Matilda E. Wratislaw, are worth notice ; and more especially the fine artistic study of a mouldering farm- kitchen, called "The Deserted hearth" (108), by Mr. Henry A. Hanhart.
We should have mentioned earlier a singularly humorous little picture (585), by Mr. A. E. Emslie, of an old negro, in a courtyard overshadowed by a vine, playing the fiddle to a roguish child in a high chair, both of whom seem to overflow with mertiment. A painful but powerful head of "St. Sebastian" (559), by Miss Helen Thornycroft some bits of still life "From Japan" (544), by Agnes E. MacWhirter ; and figure studies or heads by John Scott (51), Arthur Hill (72), A. C. H. Luxmoore (109), Blanche Macarthur (188), Chartes Bellay (256), W. J. Hennessy (305), J. J. Richardson (402), F. A. Hopkins (536), and Townley Green (572), have all their various degrees of merit.
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