FINE ARTS.
SOCIETY OF BRITISH ARTISTS, SUFFOLK STREET GALLERY. [cownNuED.]
IN our first notice, we omitted two or three pictures of the class of fancy subjects ; amongst which are " Sir Roger de Coverley and the Spectator in Spring Gardens ; " by T. ChATER (213). It is one of this artist's brilliant pieces of colour ; in which respect, as well as in the design, he " O'eTSIellS the modesty of nature : " the costumes are correct,
and the gay colour of the habits of the period give scope to the artist's skill, but they should not be allowed to debauch his taste. Our grave prototype, in his claret-coloured coat, is sober enough, to be sure ; he looks, with his tie-wig, as though he had stepped out of one of the plates to Cooke's Novelists. This artist's "Morning Ablution" (329) is snore chaste in colour, and is a pretty little picture. A scene from Prior's "Henry and Emma," by W. Turmas, has con siderable pictorial merit: we should have been glad of a quotation to assist our memory ; as it was, we took it for a group of portraits in
character. "The Carrier Pigeon" (255), R. EDMONSTONE, is a very pleasing female head. "Catherine Seyton " (435), H. LIVERSEEGE, is a clever sketch of character and costume, delicately treated: "Interior of a Ship's Cabin, with Smugglers playing" (383), H. P. PARKER, has great merit in regard to character and expression, though the latter is a little broad ; the painting is not so good.
C. HANCOCK has several pictures. 371, "The Poacher pursued," possesses interest ; and the incident is well expressed, though the poacher's lanky figure looks rather like that of a terrified tailor. But it is in his dogs that Mr. HANCOCK aims at excellence ; and his pictures of this class—" Ferreting " (93), "Disputing the Prize" (221), and " the Fire-side" (320)--display similar merit with his works before exhibited, but not any advance. In addition to what we have before said of this artist's dogs, we may remark, that the hair of the coats of his spaniels and terriers is similar, and all look as if wet from the water; even the rabbit, in 221, has the wet dog's-skin. We also think that they want roundness and relief, they have little more substance than the skin itself ; the colouring and texture are also too monotonous ; in "Ferreting" we hardly discern the man from the ground. We should be sorry if Mr. Hasrc ocK were satisfied with allowing his reputation to rest 011 a mere trick of technical skill.
"Exeunt Omnes," IL PIDDING (300), is forced and over-laboured, and the incident is improbable. A monkey has cut one of the strings by which a girl is supporting at her back a basket of fish, and her load is overturned. The fish are rather flying than falling, and the colouring is too strong. The picture has no merit but as a piece of still life. "Still-Life," J. Hornzs (79), is slcepy-life : it is the old incident of a tired model. Parts of the picture are well painted, and it is a pretty composition ; it does not, however, boast any refinements of art.
"Children blowing Bubbles" (74), W. Gua., is one of this artist's miniature pictures, with the accustomed deformity in the children's faces. In Landscape, we have a large picture by W. Liarroo, " Civita Castellana" (7), which has not the meretricious colouring which we have had occasion to complain of in the works of this popular artist. It is a bright and pleasing representation of a most romantic scene; but we cannot approve of the handling, nor of the trees in the foreground, and it • seems to want the poetry both of art and of nature.
R. B. Davis covers an acre of canvass with a hunting-scene, "The Chase—Portraits" (222); the display of horse-flesh and red-coats is proportioned to the space, and the hounds are running across the picture into a coppice, while Windsor towers in the distance ; it is clever, but we do not know that we should like it better if it were more finished than it is.
"Wreck of a Merchantman" (55), J. Wir.sosi, has the merit of a beautiful effect of a sunset in a storm ; but the picture, as a whole, is deficient in keeping. There is too uniformly a lowering cloud introduced into Mr. Wu.soo's pictures, which, by being over-coloured, gives an unpleasant blackness to them ; and his figures are not sufficiently relieved from the ground (or sea, as it may be), besides being feebly delineated.
J. W. ALLEN'S "Market Morning" (108) is a very clever picture, and pleasingly natural in composition and colour. The old castle on the left, the distant meads and rivulet below, and the tree relieved against the sky, are beautiful and true : we could have wished a little more force In the foreground. His " Morning" (94) is a promising sketch ; and Iris "Solitude" (54) is a beautifully brilliant bit of nature. D. ROBERTS has several of his clever pictures of Gothic ruins. "The Gaand Entrance to Rouen Cathedral" (161) is the largest. So completely similar are his effects, that if you have seen one you have seen
all, as far as regards his style of painting. We confess we think that no cathedral ever looked of this colour, and that there would be finer effects of light and shade in the building itself' than are here represented.
The dimness, also, is not natural: it is Mr. Rouunrs's way of representing nature. We are determined to attack the system of painting by recipe, wherever it is adopted ; for as it is, a painter has only to acquire some peculiar trick of art and he may go on picture-making ad infinthern, without the exercise of any other faculty than mere mechanical skill,—and that to the utter detriment of his reputation, though, perhaps, to the improvement of his fortune. We do not object to style, but to mannerism. This is the case with Mr. O'Cosisroa, who paints perpetually green rocky glens, with water below and rain above. When an artist contents himself with imitating one peculiar effect of nature, we are bound to infer that he can paint no other ; and if, in addition to this, he confines himself to one set of objects, and one mode of treatment, we think the fact is established.
" Killaloe on the Shannon" (356), G. R. STANLEY, is a pleasing and natural composition ; and the effect of wind blowing up a storm is well conveyed. In execution it is a little too much like scene-painting.
305, "Landscape," A. CLINT, is an unaffected :and true representa. tion of nature, and evinces talent of an excellent kind in a young artist,— for we do not remember the name in landscape. 304, "Italian Landscape—Morning," J. R. WALKER, arid 351, "Rocky Scene, Lymouth," Rev. T. J. JUDKIN, are clever. The clerical amateur rivals many professional landscape pain ters of considerable reputation. Miss Nasstrnt's " View" (287) evinces skill of a promising kind, and what is more, an eye for nature. There are several of Mr. WirsTaLes minute but artist. like landscapes and HorbaNn's pretty effects of lake scenery ; among others that we had marked for notice, are "View near Hertford" (102). S. J. E. JONES, a very pretty bit of nature—" Hailsham, Sussex,' (217), J. H. CAPPER—" Cattle and Figures" (234), J. DEARMAN, a beautiful effect of evening sun, the cattle well painted—Two Landscapes, by STARK (411 and 412)—" Marble Coppice, Isle of Wight" (405), W. R. EARL, which we are told was " finished on the spot :" it is true, but literal, and wants light and shade and keeping, to make it a good picture. Some of our landscape-painters treat nature as they would stilllife,—painting trees as if they were merely logs of wood, and giving botanical delineations of weeds in the foreground, leaving. the rest of the landscape to shift for itself. This is too often the case with Mr. LEE.
We must postpone the Portraits and Still-life till next week ; when we mean to conclude our account of this Exhibition.
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