FINE ARTS.
ROYAL ACADEMY: GENERAL SURVEY.
THE character which marked the collection last year is sustained this year: the pictures of the high historic kind are deficient in number and interest; the portraits also are comparatively few, and not-of much interest; the landscape class is numerous, varied, and able•' but the principal interest lies in the story pictures, of which class 'Landseer's may be reckoned. Among absences, the most marked are those of Sir Martin Shee and Mr. Turner: the latter has not fulfilled the general expectation by contributing an apotheosis of parchment petitions, constables' staves, turtle soup tureens, and champagne bottles, as foreground to a mysterious vision " suggested ley the events of the 10th of April 11348." In our first survey we shall glance rapidly round the collection, in the order of the Catalogue; and shall subsequently, as 1,78,did last year, notice the pictures in class.
Passing a group of cows which bears the signature of Sidney Cooper in its sunlight, the spectators first gather round a picture by Cope, where Frost's hung last year—Cardinal Wolsey coming to die at Leicester Abbey; very carefully designed and very neatly painted. Over it is an admirable portrait of one who has frequently sat for his picture—" Mont Blanc, with the ascending road flora the Vale of Aosta"; a scene full of interest From the animated treatment, the variety, and the effect of space. The name of Etty arrests you at " Morning Prayers,"—study of a youthful head, suggesting the question whether the painter is, like Wilkie as he grew old, getting into a new and darker " manner." A large expanse of "nude" gayety, which Mr. Patten calls " Flora and Zephyrns," belongs to the ballet order of historical painting. Uwins paints an autumnal scene from the South of France—the claret vintage of the Gironde. Although a misprint in the Catalogue only gives part of the artist's name, there is no mistaking the hand that portrayed. "Pincher," by " ndseer, R.A." You have now turned the corner to-the North wall. A "Margaret of Anjou and the Robber of Heacham," by Charles Landseer, is a careful compilation, on an old subject, of which the accessories are the most effectively painted. "The Harvest Field" you recognize as Witherington's; and many more trait' s of English scenery are furnished by the same pencil. " St. John the Baptist reproving Herod" is a highly finished work, that worthily follows Herbert's Biblical picture of last year: full of expression, too inartificially marked, perhaps, in the Herodias. " The_Claivalry of the time of Henry VIII." is a very large picture of armour, &c.' by Mr. Maclise. Before you come to the " Sketch of my Father," you have recognized the venerable John Landeeer, and no less the son that painted it—Edwin. " The Broken Bridge " introduces Lee's scenes from nature. " An Italian Peasant Fa- mily on their way to a village festival—Prisoners with Banditti" is a bet- terauecuted work than Mr. Eastlake% books; which, indeed, is not saying much: the cast of the expression is not exactly what one would expect limn the circumstances of the scene- the heads belong rather to a "riposte" on the flight into Egypt—the melancholy is of a chronic character, rather than that excited by an acute attack, to which category attacks by robbers belong.
The East wall presents no immense painting like Etty's Joan of Arc; but It is again covered, as to its lower part, with many small pictures of high interest. " John Foster, Esq., in the character of Kitely"—the likeness correcting the typography of the Catalogue—you know at once for Mr. Forster, the historical and critical writer, and leading tragedian among "the amateurs." Two pictures by Mulready are remarkable. " A Gravel- pit, painted from nature in 1808 or '7," is not only a very effective tit of cabinet scene-painting, batis a curiosity: that remote and romantic-look- ing spat was painted, forty years ago, from nature as it was then on the sits-of the present Russell Square! " Shepherd Boy and Dog"—a youth succumbing to irresistible sleep—is a very small painting with the effect of nightfall; and beautifully is the drowsy darkening conveyed: the colouring is sober, forcible, transparent, rich, and chaste—in all respects more masterly than any that we have seen for many years by the same painter. Webster's "Internal Economy of Dotheboys Hall" is a whole history in the com- pass of a few square inches—a pregnant satire, with all the force of uncari- catnreci nature. In "Lady Jane Grey," at her studies, Mr. Leslie has con- veyed very sweetly the traditional character of that unfortunate lady; but he seems to have painted itin washes stolen from the house-painter. " The Butt" is one of Malready's admirable snatches of boyish life: the butt is a butcher's boy, into whose open mouth a laundress's boy is shooting cher- ries, marble-fashion, to the great amusement of two fruit-girls You will notice on the same wall the " Bridge of St. Benezet," because it is the first you meet of Stanfield's-' Redgrave's " Country Cousins "—a sketch of cha- racter; and.'" A 'Rubber" at whist, the players being rustics, by Webster. On the South wall, Mr. Etty displays some daughters of Babylon. Mr. Charles Landseer has another compilation, very conscientiously and ably executed—" Henrietta Maria Queen of England and the Prince of Wales assisting at the toilette of Mademoiselle Mootpensier." -" Alexander and Diogenes " is a true Landseerian version of the well-known visit; all the characters being dogs, with a ludicrous humanity of expression—".animal' parianti." Roberts shows you the " Ruins.of Hennonthea, in Upper Egypt," painted in his least substantial manner. " The Chancel of the Collegiate Church of St. Paul at Antwerp," further on, is more powerful and true. "Aaron, the High Priest,uf Israel"—in the study of a half figure—is appro- priately adorned by Mr. Etty with large and ponderous specimens of " mosaic" jewellery. Stanfield's " Amalfi " will arrest the glance. Buteven in the first hasty visit you will stop some minutes before Landseer's group of dogs round " An Old Cover Hack "—a set of animals painted with his wonderful variety of expression and life. Sir William Allan represents an " Incident in the life of Napoleon"— the Emperor freeing two bold English sailors who had tried to escape. A companion "Incident in the life of
Wigton," by the same hand, is in the next room.
In the tour of -the Middle room, you are first stopped by Elmore's " Deathbed of Robert King of Naples, surnamed the Wise and Good;"--e scene with much that is striking and a little that is overstrained. It is impossible to pass Mr. Francis Grant's group of sporting portraits, " Sir Richard Sutton's Hounds "—the eye getting inextricably entangled among the legs and tails: it is equally unpleasant and clever, and probably very satisfactory to sporting eyes. Mr. Lucy, who painted, if we remember rightly, the departure of the primitive Puritans, now supplies their landing in New England. Mr. Knight's " Peninsular Heroes"—a portrait pic- ture of the documentary clans—we noticed when it was exhibited at the printseller's. "Euphrosyne" is a companion to Mr. Frost's " Una": Mr. Frost seems to aspire to become a normalized Etty. l'he picture called in the Catalogue " Portrait of Mr. Charles Dickens," by Maclise, will puzzle many who know the novelist's dramatic versatility: his power of metamorphosis is so great that his friends have failed to recognize bee on the stage, and certainly they will not know him here as a buxom lady in green — though they may recognize his excellent wife; with whom Mr. Maclise has, in two senses, dealt hardly. Side by aide are two pictures of the most diverse kind, but alike in a painful truthfulness-- Frith's " Old Woman accused of having bewitched a Peasant Girl,"—e composition of many figures, and of many beauties; and Edwin Landseer's " Random Shot,"—a hind lying dead on a snowy hill, with a young fawn vainly seeking the maternal nutriment—a picture " the ti fa nodo in gols." Mr. Etty's picture designated by the quotation " Him that crieth in the wilderness" challenges notice for its size and its opaque colouring—in the second manner. Mr. Ward's " Highgate Fields during the Great Fire of London" is an animated scene. " Arlete, a peasant-girl of Falaise, first discovered by Duke Robert the Devil," is a great improvement on Mr, Poole's works—it has all his meaning, without his morbid aspect: but does not the story tell, that Arleta was challenging admiration for her well- turned leg when the Duke was passing? Mr. 'Frank Stone has ventured into the region of Biblical painting, and depicts " Christ and the Sisters of Bethany," with much delicacy of sentiment in what he has made the prin- cipal figure, the rebuked maiden. Ilarding's " High Alps as seen from be- tween Como and Lecco " has the brilliancy of the painter, but also his hardness. A view " Above the Slate Quarries on the river Og weir, North Wales," is painted jointly by Sidney Cooper and Lee; the two artists unit- ing in another production in the same room. Mr. Egg has made a decided advance in his picture of Queen Elizabeth discovering the ravages of age: the Queen, in particular, is excellent. Mr. Goodall has a serious picture— the " Departure of the Emigrants "—a family gazing after a distant ship. Mr. Frith has two pictures in this room—" A Stage-coach Adventure in 1750,"—the interior, of a stage, the passengers alarmed by the'pistol of a highwayman; and a " Scene from the Bourgeois Gentilhomme," in which M. Jourdain is asking the lady to retreat a little that he may advance for his third obeisance: both of them masterpieces. Mr. Ward's " Interview between Charles IL and Nell Gwynne, as witnessed by Evelyn," is excel- lent: the mistress is beautiful and kind,'tbe King grim and gay, the lite- rary horticulturist stern and discreet: it looks as if Mr. Ward had drawn the scene from the life. Mr. Linnell displays a large landscape composi- tion called " The Eve of the Deluge,"—a tissue of •the strangest hues and atmospheric phamomena.
In the room of Drawings and Miniatures there is the usual host: many of Thorburn's, including one of Queen Victoria with Prince Alfred and the Princess Helena; and there is none of our artists who can paint a Queen as he can—he is a very missionary of loyalty. The beautiful Mrs. Walpole finds a suitable painter in Miss Margaret Gillies.
In the Sculpture room there is little to excite interest, except busts of the Queen and two of her children; and those for the curiosity of the loyal rather than for the criticism of the learned in art.
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