ANIMAL-PAINTING AT THE ACADEMY.
IN the absence of any distinct school of animal-painting in England, such as exists in the most highly specialised form in Japan, and with very definite rules and traditions in France, the place of this most popular form of art in such a representative exhibition of pictures as that on the walls of the Academy is a little difficult to determine. The conclusion which a careful survey there suggests, is that the best work in animal-painting tends to fall into three main groups, in each of which the motive is sufficiently distinct. The first and most limited, but by no means the least successful ex- amples, are those in which animal portraits form the main motive of the picture, and in which the artist is content to base his appeal to the public on his skill in their delineation. These subjects are often aided by subsidiary landscape of high merit. The work of Paul Potter and of Sir Edwin Landaeer is perhaps the best known within these limits; and in the present exhibition, Mr. Davis, R.A., Mr. T. Sidney Cooper, Mr. Swan, and Mr. Calderon, jun., are in a sense their representatives, the two first excelling in the landscape accompaniments to their work, the latter relying mainly as yet on animal portraiture alone. A higher, perhaps the highest class of animal-painting, is that in which the animal subject is combined with human figures, and the whole arranged with a view to obtaining the maximum of effect from colour and composition. In this Mr. Briton Riviero excels ; and while he lets his consummate mastery of animal forms pre- dominate in his compositions, his "Daniel" and "Adonis," and "The Dead Hector" in the present exhibition, show sin- gular power of composition, and of painting the human figure with dignity and correctness. Lastly, the introduction of animal forms in large compositions may be for purely deco- rative purposes. Typical examples of this class are the two pythons in Sir Frederick Leighton's "Garden of the Hes- perides," and Mr. Solomon's "Orpheus," respectively. But in each ease, realism of a kind will be in a measure the standard of success or failure; for even for decorative purposes, to reproduce the natural beauty of colour and texture, and the natural forms, has, as a rule, been the obvious intention of the artist, and his success or failure may generally be measured by the degree in which this correctness has been attained.
Mr. Briton Riviere contributes four pictures to the ex- hibition. Two of these—" The Tamer of Kings" (46), and "The Dead Hector" (242)—are of exceptional merit. The first is, however, less successful as a picture than the second. A rosy Cupid is seated on a lion's back, the obvious intention being to secure the contrast between the soft flesh-colour of Cupid's limbs and the tawny hide of the old lion. The colour. effect is admirable. Titian's
"Flushed Ganymede, his rosy thigh Half buried in the eagle's down,"
perhaps suggested the idea. But Titian's soaring eagle knows very well what he is doing; while the natural and dreamy lion seems all too unconscious of the somewhat substantial Cupid who is lolling on his back. The contrast of the real and the ideal is too violent. But "The Dead Hector" is open to no such criticism. The pale and shapely body lies prone on its face upon a flat heap of drifted sand by the shore, on which grow a few tufts of sea-blite and withered shrubs. The sand and sea are coloured by the cold, bluish light of late evening, and round the body a wolf is pacing, while another howls by the margin of the sea. The motive of the picture recalls that of his "Daniel:" in both, the wild beasts are slinking round the figure of the man, and in each they are cowed by super- natural power. A third picture by the same artist, "The Haunted Temple" (38), is less pleasing, though the painting of the animal figures is perhaps even better. A bright light comes from a rock-cut temple, and two tigers crawling in front are attracted to the light. A beam which falls on the head of the leading tiger gives a strong effect of contrast with the moonlight in which the rest of the scene lies, and the forms of the creatures are full of life and movement. But the effect is a little " stagey," and we prefer Mr. Swan's lions drinking (544) for colour, if not for composition. This picture will go far to justify the high estimate which foreign critics have formed of this very clever animal-painter. The tone of the whole work, a rich tawny-orange and blue, is extremely fine. The orange light from the sky is reflected in the pool in which a lion and lioness and two cubs are drinking, their tawny skins harmonising with the dusky yellow of sand, water, and sky. Beyond, are dark-blue mountains and shadows, against which the lion stands as he raises his head from the pool. Mr. Swan has also a picture of leopards drinking. But in this the drawing is exaggerated, and the painting "sketchy." The spots on the leopards' hide have all the same value, which makes the creatures appear fiat ; and they have an appearance of exertion more to be expected from the effort of gnawing a bone than of lapping water. We question also whether leopards, or lions either, flatten themselves on the ground when drinking. Cats certainly do not : neither do those leopards and lions which we see quenching their thirst at the Zoo. Tigers are so far from being averse to wetting their feet, as these creatures appear to be, that they sit in the water in hot weather to cool them-
selves ; and Sir Samuel Baker:shot one in that position, while its head only was above water.
Mr. Davis, in his "Trespassers," has painted one of the best landscapes with cattle which has appeared in the Academy for some time. It is a scene on the high downs, on which a herd of cows have strayed from a distant upland pasture, and they are straggling into one of those lovely "flower-prairies" which appear on land which has passed out of cultivation. Such fields, after a season or two, in which they are alternately a blaze of poppies or some one other flower, produce a mixed summer crop of scabious, buttercups, yellow ranunculus, poppies, ox-eyed daisies, and red clover, over which tall reddish grass waves knee-deep. Across this the cattle are straggling, and the two foremost stand, looking excited and half-frightened, while a third pushes against them to urge them on. The distant hills are all waving with green corn ; and the whole is a true and beautiful picture of natural life on the hills. Two other pictures by Mr. Davis, in widely different setting, are of nearly equal merit. The first (191) is a scene in a water-meadow in March, when the colts- foot is just coming into flower, and the distant downs are all bare and ready for spring sowing. Four white cart-mares and their foals are standing in the rough wind, or feeding by the spring among the mole-hills where the grass has begun to grow. The whole scene, the earth, the grass, and the white mares and dun foals, is light in tone, and:a poetic and pleasing reminiscence of the bleak days of early spring. The " Summer- Time " (665) represents a long green lane, bordered by high and straggling hedges, among which lambs and ewes are feeding, or sleeping. This picture has been blamed for being "almost too pretty." But its absolute truth to Nature may perhaps excuse even its prettiness. Great bushes of elder and wild-rose in full flower border the lane, and under and among these the lambs have pushed their way, nibbling here a rose and there an elder-blossom, while others lie contentedly in little groups in the sun. Mr. Davis has taken the trouble to paint a "hedge-bottom," which most artists seem to think is made of something black, and full of shadows, to be avoided or slurred over. We may contrast with Mr. Davis's lambs and green lane, Mr. Goodall's fine picture of sheep-shearing in Egypt. The pinkish hue of the skin of the partially shorn sheep contrasts with the snowy whiteness of the back-turned fleece which the Egyptian shepherds are rapidly stripping. In front lies a fleecy pile of wool upon a brown rug, and brown children, black Nubians, and indigo-robed Egyptian fellaheen make up a richly coloured and harmonious scene. Mr. Sidney Cooper, in spite of his fourscore years, sends some of the best work which he has contributed for some time. His cattle-pieces are marked by all the merits and some of the faults which may generally be discerned in them. His realism in landscape, and minute painting of the figures, often gives a cold and hard appearance to the whole. He excels in painting the hides of animals, and nothing could be better done than the fleeces of his sheep, or the skin of the fine roan bull in his large picture, the "Farm at Noon" (238).. But his cattle are somewhat conventional and rather too sleek ; and, unlike Mr. Davis, he does not sufficiently distinguish between the shape and hides of old and young animals. His calves are little cows, his colts little horses ; whereas it is not too much to say that not a hair on the body of a young ruminant animal is like that of the adult. Mr. Peter Graham's shaggy Scotch cattle driven down a misty glen (217) are painted with greater vigour, and with more truth of anatomy and movement.
Far the best of the dog-portraits is "The Orphans," by Mr. W. Frank Calderon. A large fawn-coloured deerhound lies with two small terrier-puppies held under its fore-paw. The lines of every bone and muscle are seen, and the body is full of spring and elasticity, as the big dog draws the puppies towards it. Yet there is nothing "anatomical" in the picture, and the texture of the coat, and painting of the head and eye, are not inferior to some of Sir Edwin Landseer's best work. Mr. Philip Stretton has a capital picture of young fox-hounds in the kennel (183), "Happy Days," and Mr. Herbert Dicksee another deerhound (987) ; and Mr. Horatio Couldery a kitten (759), which should be bought and given as a prize at the neat Crystal Palace show. The audience of animals and birds who listen to Mr. Solomon's Orpheus, are so poorly drawn and painted, that we hardly care to criticise their. Perhaps the worst are the lions in the background. But his
python, which glides over the female figure in the foreground, is a careful study, though not equal to the gorgeous monster which twines round the tree in Sir Frederick Leighton's "Garden of the Hesperides." Hardly any colouring in Nature, except the tail of the peacock, is so rich and gorgeous as the skin of a python during the first few days after the old coat has been shed; and Sir Frederick Leighton has done justice to the colour of the serpent, though he has not given to the akin the wonderful "bloom," like that on the surface of a plum, which then adorns the python's scales. Bird- painting hardly appears in the exhibition, and by far the best of the few examples is a small picture of sparrows by Mrs. Bolingbroke, which is as clever as a Japanese sketch, yet wholly Western in treatment. Mr. Peter Graham has some good sea-fowl in his "Sea-Worn Rocks" (25), and Mr. William Weekes a capital study of geese (744).
Among the sculpture, animal subjects become yearly more numerous. Mr. Ma.cbeth's "Horses of Duncan" are well modelled; but lack one quality for success in sculpture, a graceful outline. The model for an equestrian statue of Edward I., by Mr. Hamo Thornycroft, is full of dignity ; the horse and his mail-clad rider are thoroughly en rapport. Equestrian statues are so often failures, that this deserves -consideration, if only to discern the qualities which make it a -success. Among the good minor examples of animal forms in the sculpture gallery, are Mr. W. Tyler's "Dachshunds at Play" (1,866), Mr. Henry Christie's statuette of an elephant, and Mr. Robert Stark's very clever bronze figure of an Indian rhinoceros, which suggests a favourable comparison with the realistic Japanese figures of that ugly though " decorative " monster. There can be no doubt that the painting and sculpture of animal forms show a steady improvement in this eountry,—a result mainly due to the care with which animal habits, as well as animal anatomy, are now studied.
Previous page
