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EXHIBITION OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY.
FIRST NOTICE.
THE ninety-fourth annual exhibition of the Royal Academy opened to the public on Monday last. Despite the fineness of the weather the attendance was not nearly so large as on the same occasion last year, and the superior attractions of the International Exhibition have operated throughout the week in visibly thinning the ordinary number of visitors. Yet there is plenty of good work to be seen here, notwithstanding the fact that the Academicians are neither numeri- cally nor artistically strong.. Thirteen out of the forty are alto- gether absent, and many of those who do exhibit have not put forth their strength, or are represented only by works of no very important character. Thus, Mr. Frith has been occupied too closely with his "Railway Station" to permit of his doing more than a portrait of a brother-artist. Mr. Ward contributes only a water-colour replica of one of his works, and Mr. Herbert's picture is not such as might be expected from a painter of his reputation. Among the absentees may be mentioned Sir C. Raqtlake, Messrs. Dyes, Maclise, Egg, and Foley. Sir Edwin Landseer can scarcely be called a defaulter, for though he exhibits no work bearing his name, he has painted a tiny terrier in one of Mr. Grant's portraits. The chief interest of the exhibition is due to the efforts of the Associates and the " outsiders," as those painters are called who have not yet succeeded in attaining any share of academic honours. Though of course there is the usual amount of complaint against the arrange- ment of the pictures, and no end of rumours about good works being turned away to make room for bad, the hanimg seems on the whole to have been discreet and impartial. Pictures by young and in some cases almost unknown men have obtained good places on the line and elsewhere. There are few pictures which are likely to create a lasting impression—none, perhaps, which will be the talk of the season —but there are several of considerable excellence, and the exhibition must be pronounced, if not first rate, at least highly creditable for the general sincerity of purpose it evinces. In this first notice of the Royal Academy I propose to go regularly through the rooms, enumerating and briefly describing where neces- sary the principal works, reserving detailed criticism for future occa- sions. In the FAA Room the first object is the admirable group of "Portraits" (4) by Mr. Wells, a work of great artistic fulness and power. The principal figure is the painter's wife, who died last year. In the North Room will be found the "Head of an Angel" (661), a little picture completed by her but a short time before her death, and to which reference was made in a memoir of the deceased lady that appeared sonic months since in the Spectator. After glancing at Mr. Paton's " Lullaby" (7), a picture of hard and rigid execution, but with much tenderness of sentiment, we come to the "Trial of a Sorceretis" (17), by Mr. Poole; some ruffians binding the limbs of a young girl preparatory to throwing her into a stream, there to undergo the ordeal by water. The canvas is crowded with figures composed in a somewhat straggling manner; the colour, as is usual with the painter, is strong and rich, but lurid. Mr. Phillips's pictures are dexterous and powerful in handling; as subjects they present no points of novelty. There are hung in this room " A Spanish Volunteer" (24), " Doubtful Fortune" (191), and " The Water- Drinkers" (207). "Kate Nickleby" is a pretty single figure by Mr. Faed; a larger work by him will be found a little way on. " New Wars to an old Soldier" shows a girl reading the account of a battle to a blind veteran. His grandchild sits on his knee and dresses up the old man's thumb, by means of a red pocket-hand- kerchief, as a mimic soldier. Mr. Mulready's large canvas, "The. Toy Seller " (73), a work on which he has been engaged for some years, and which is even now uncompleted, requires more careful consideration than can be at present accorded to it. In "The Acre by the Sea" (81), we come across the first of Mr. Hook's genial and lovable subjects. The best will be found in another room. "The Sub-Prior and Edward Glendinning" (88) is a fdrcible picture by a fast-rising painter, Mr. Fettle, and hung underneath Mr. Cope's " Mothers" (109, 110), is one of the most charming, domestic pictures on the walls, "The Sweep" (108), by Mr. F. D. Hardy, long known as a painter of delicately-finished interiors. Above this, and a little to the right, is a true and masterly rendering of the ice-blocked Thames, " The Twenty-fifth of December, 1860" (114), by Mr. J. Whistler. " Odalisque" (120) is a voluptuously beautiful female figure, such as no one but Mr. Leighton, in this country at least, can depict. The best picture that Mr. Horsley has ever painted will be found in "Checkmate—Next Move" (126), a sun- lit interior of a room in Haddon Hall, with figures playing at chess, or making love. There are parts of this picture, such as the page and screen to the right, which might almost have been painted by Leslie. In the place of honour hangs Mr. Elmore's able and manly. "Invention of the Combing Machine" (135). Very graceful is the figure of the girl combing her hair, very pretty is the reftexion of her face in the glass, and earnest and thoughtful is the look of the inventor, Joshua Heilman, of Alsace. The subject is, however, one which painting cannot express, and Mr. Elmore has more than once shown a predilection for stories of which it is not possible for any artist to tell more than half. Mr. Andsell's "Excelsior" (136) is sure to attract attention, by its size and forcible painting. On each side of it is a work by Mr. Watts, that to the right, Sir Galahad" (141), a full-length of an armour-clad knight, is noble in feeling and quite Venetian in colour. Mr. Webster's "Roast Pig " (142), a family group awaiting the arrival of that delicacy, is broadly humorous. "Thomas Creswick, Esq., R.A." (169), is a well-painted portrait and a capital likeness of the well-known landscape painter, by Mr. Frith. Mr. Millais' "Ransom" (198), brilliant, deep, and forcible though it be, will scarcely add to the painter's reputation. Unquestionably it is the work of a genius, but it is full also of most puerile and easily-avoidable errors. The figure of the page, in a suit of white and raw blue is the weakest and, unfortunately, the most prominent of the whole. Referring merely at present to Mr. Leighton's " Star of Bethlehem" (217), and "Sisters " (237), and to Mr. Herbert's " Laborare est orare " (231), the monks of St. Bernard's Abbey, Leicestershire, gathering in the harvest, let us pass to the Middle Room, of which Mr. Calderon's ".After the Battle" (243) is one of the chief ornaments, as it is also one of the best pictures in the exhibition. Some stragglers from a regiment on its march have found their way into a cottage shattered by cannon, and discover as its sole inmate a little fellow who, unable to comprehend their talk (he being French while the soldiers are English), shrinks back, half sullenly, half abashed. Mingled humour and pathos—accurately realized gesture and expression—and firm, solid painting, are the chief characteristics of this clever work. Mrs. B. Hay shows steady progress in "The Prodigal Son" (251). "Sir Walter Raleigh" (268) is a somewhat similar figure to the " Gon- d.ornar" of last year, by Mr. Wallis. A better picture by the same painter I find I have omitted to mention. It is hung under the line in the Bast Room, and represents in an effective way the death of "Christopher Marlowe" (80). "Trust me !" will, if I mistake not, secure a larger share of admirers than any other of Mr. Millais' pic- tures this year. The female figure is replete with elegance and beauty, and the stern yet kindly countenance of the old fox-hunter as he holds out his hand for the letter his daughter would fain keep from him, is true to nature. Mr. Millais' other works will be found in this room—" Parable of the Woman seeking for a Piece of Money" (809), strong and deeply coloured in effect ; and a small portrait, ":Mrs. Charles Freeman" (356). Mr. O'Neil, in " Mary Stuart's Farewell to France" (337), returns to his early predilections for pic- turesque costume, but the scene is still a parting, and takes place on board a ship. It would seem that the success of " Eastward, ho !" had determined Mr. O'Neil never again to set foot on dry land. The present picture shows improved feeling for colour, and a pleasanter method of execution. Mr. David Roberts is an unusually large con- tributor this year. His views of London from the Thames, several of which will be found on the walls, are scarcely true to fact, and will hardly be preferred before such a capital interior as "A Chapel in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Bruges" (343). " The Trawlers" is, per- haps, the finest work that Mr. Hook exhibits this year. How true in colour, how wet and slippery are the fish that flap and flounder on the deck of the fishing-boat ! The sea, too, is wonderfully limpid and transparent. " Sea air" (378) comes next in excellence to the " Trawlers,' and completes the list of Mr. Hook's pictures this season. Mr. Goodall's " Pilgrim returning from Mecca" (372) is a large pirture with numerous figures well drawn and painted ; there is no lack of good'colour nor of wonderfully skilful workman- ship, and yet the picture fails to interest. The painter has, perhaps, been thinng more of the outside than of the heart or feelings of the beings he has represented. A little picture called " Mist on the Moors," a girl driving a couple of calves, by Mr. G. Mason (a new name), is noticeable for a truthful action and graceful arrangement of lines that suggest continental study. " The Poor Helping the Poor" (379), by Mr. J. Burr, and " The Mask," by Mr. A. Burr, are pictures not without cleverness, in which the worst peculiarities of Mr. Faed's style have been successfully imitated. To Mr. Desanges belongs the honour of having contributed the largest, canvas in the present exhibition. It is placed in the West Room, and represents the " Battle of Inkerman" (433), but after perusing the descriptive quotation (occupying fourteen lines in the catalogue), and repeatedly 'gazing at the picture, it is hard to say what it all means. This is a fault, however, not peculiar to Mr. Desanges' work, as any one who has waded through the battle pieces at Versailles, or witnessed the late Brighton Volunteer review, will be able to affirm. But it would be satisfactory to know what the painter meant by splashing the sky in the right hand corner with yolk of egg. " De Foe in the Pillory" (45) is, beyond all question, the best picture that has been painted by Mr. Crowe; it is a thoughtful, painstaking work, every detail of which has been thoroughly studied. "The Lost Found" (471), by Mr. Solomon, is a showy, and only a showy picture; "Enid hears of Geraint's Love" (176) ; and "Elijah and the Widow of Zarephah" (497), are worthy of remark. They come from the hand of an almost unknown painter, and, though miniature in many respects, give promise of much better work hereafter. "Hallo Largess" (514) is interesting as the represents- ticm of a local custom fast dying out, by Mr. Egley : the " Return of Francis Drake to Plymouth after the Expedition to Cadiz" (523), by Mr. Hodgson, though deficient in effect, is carefullyand conscientiously studied; " Unaccredited Heroes" (537) is the title given by Mr. Bar- well to an evidently truthful representation of a colliery accident. Groups of figures are gathered round the mouth of a coal-pit, in which an accident has lust occurred; some are volunteering to descend to render assistance, others endeavour to resuscitate
those who have been already brought to bank ; a doctor applies his stethoscope to the chest of a half-dead wretch, while a little child in the foreground is calmly sucking a piece of coal in utter uncon- sciousness of the danger by which she is surrounded, in otter reck- lessness of the cost at which her plaything has been secured, and in utter disregard of personal cleanhness.
I can only cite the titles of the chief pictures in the North Room. "An English Artist collecting Costumes in Brittany" (583), by Mr. E. Hughes. Mrs. E. M. Ward's "Henrietta Maria receiving the News of the Death of Charles I. (583) ; "The Bay of Tangier, Morocco" (589), one of Mr. Cooke's most interesting works ; "Arrest of Louis XVI. at Varennes" (621), by M. Schloesser ; " Umbrella Pines in the Bay of Cannes"(612), by Mr. J. M. Carrick; a very realistic landscape by Mr. J. Brett, entitled " Champery" (650); " Crusoe Visting the Spanish Wreck" (665), by Mr. II. C. Leslie,; and Mr. J. Whistler's admirable study of sea, rocks, and sandy shore—" Alone with the Tide" (670). The South or Entrance Room is chiefly occu- pied with architectural drawings. Of these the most interesting to the general public will be Mr. F. Sang's " Design for covering in the Merchants' Area at the Royal Exchange with a ventilated glass roof and ornamental transparent ceiling" (866), which seems to have been faithfully copied from a half-crown valentine; the approved de- sign for the new bridge at Blackfriars, byMr.T. Page (875); Mr. Scott's " New east window and reredos for St. George's Chapel, Windsor" (877), a memorial of the Prince Consort; two " Studies relative to the Embankment Question" (89, 90), by Mr. H. R. Newton; and Mr.. Sykes's " Sketch for decorating the panels of the International Exhibition Building with Wall Mosaics" (902). In the Sculpture Gal- lery there is the usual per-centage of Ladies in Comm, Mirandas and Sabrinas, with a fair sprinkle-v. of Joans of Arc, Briseis, and Medoras. Mr. Munro's pretty group of " The Brothers" (1001) is, however, unconventional; and Mr. Marochetti's busts of the Earl of Cardigan and Marshal Pelissier (1015, 1022) are undoubtedly well modelled and life-like. Mr. H. Weekes's "Design for the Guards' Memorial" (1031) should not be passed over ; and the statuettes by Mr. Baily (1043, 1047) are deserving of careful notice. When to these are added the six spirited bas-reliefs illustrative of the Indian mutiny (1062-1067), by H. H. Armstead, I think I have mentioned all that need detain the reader in this the least frequented portion of
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