A R T.
GROSVENOR GALLERY: [FIRST NOTICE.] THE Grosvenor Gallery has not this summer, taking the aver- age of the pictures, so good an exhibition as usual; but it is a remarkable one, nevertheleasremarkable for the merit of a single picture, one which is likely to -stand in future years as the completeat expression of the character and power of pre- Raphaelite painting, as .well as the chief work of its artist. A year which produces two such works of art as this picture of Mr. Berne Jones's and Mr. Gilbert's statuette of Icarus at the Royal Academy, is certainly a memorable one in the history of modern English art ; and though the impulse which urged, and the result which has been achieved, by each artist is so different in kind, the works have this in common—that each bears the stamp not only of perfect workmanship, but of creative power.
The difference of kind between this picture and statue is indeed a strange one, and will repay a little examination ; for both artists have been largely influenced in their work by ancient art, yet they show it in very diverse ways—they "wear their rue with a difference:" Mr. Gilbert has evidently imbibed much of the spirit. of- Greek sculpture, much of early Italian art ; but in him his partialities only seem to have freed his work from limitations of later schools ; he has assimilated his knowledge so perfectly that he has made it hie own. But the painter has done otherwise. Starting with 'fervid admiration for a certain very limited and strongly. marked art, and with an equally strong prejudice against certain. moderrimork, he has from the outset drivetr his mind into a deep bat narrow channel, between whose high, steep banks he can get no sight of the fresh fields, with the children playing and men working; and the old people creeping slowly home in the twilight.
Far too much has been written here and elsewhere of the peculiar intellectual—perhaps half-spiritual—sensuousness, of this artist's work, to make it worth while to enlarge upon it again. Every one by this time knows that this painter's world is one w' hich is not such as all can see, or need desire. Its defence is the line of Morris's dedication of "The Earthly Paradise," in that it-
" Strives to rear a little isle of bliss, Midmost the beating of the steely sea."
We were only concerned in•comparing Mi. Borne Jones and Mr.. Gilbert to point out, to those few who care to think about art matters, two examples of great art, fettered, and great art, free,— of art which has every gift of accomplishment; thought, and beauty, and yet affronts or wearies the majority of men by its inherent falseness to nature and life, and art which combines- all the merits of the former, and, as it were, hammers them into immortality, with truth and simplicity. In another age of the world, folks will point to Berne Jones's pictures as men' now point to the Pyramids—with wonder for the• achieve-. ment and speculation as to its' object,—the word of the- enigma will be lost with the passing away of the national and individual feeling and life in which they were produced. - But of Gilbert's work it may be said with perfect security that it will stand for ever. Its merit does not depend upon any special phase of feeling, for sympathy, appreciation. From the time of Phidias to the present day, there is no period of the world's history, and no school which 'would not have acknow- ledged this as being great art.
But we must not dwell upon thissubject just now; let us recur to Mr. Burne Jones's picture, "King Cophetua and •the Beggar Maiden." The subject is treated with a certain amount of pomp- and circumstance ; the beggar maid is enthroned in the King's golden palace, whilst beneath her, on the steps of the throne, Cophetua -sits, crown in hand, and gazes up at her. Above the throne are two angels singing. We have spoken with perhaps almost too much insistence above, and of late.years, of Mr. Borne Jones's shortcomings ; let us here do full justice to his- merits, and admit that this is not only the grandest picture he- has ever painted, but it is the greatest picture which the pre- Raphaelite school has produced, and one of the greatest of modern times. This is, from our point of view, very high praise indeed ; for, with all its drawbacks, the pre-Raphaelite school has produced, on the whole, the most important body of English art during' the last twenty-five years. This special picture is most admirable from its combination of great technical excellence of handiwork, with that exquisite sense of beauty which was always visible in Mr. Burne Jones's- painting, even when its methods were most defective. Time and intense work have gradually developed in this artist a power of painting—(we use the word in. its technical sense)— which is at 'the present time simply unrivalled. His colour- faculty, too, after paling into greys and purples,. seems to have returned in greater force than ever ; and in the present picture the flashes of colour from gold and steel, from jewelled crown, and scattered flowers, and clinging robe, seem literally to glow and fade almost as a flame pales and glistens in the darkness. A touch of strangeness, weariness, absence of out-door life and
reality, are all here,—a touch of mysticism, be it good or evil, is here also ; let us make all deductions for these imperfections, and then, on the other- hand, say that for grace and dignity of attitude, for beauty of design, for fullness of meaning, for beauty of colour, for delicacy of drawing and painting, and for unfalter- ing and unsparing perfection of workmanship,—workmanship into which energy of heart, and brain, and hand, have all been poured, as if the artist would spend them all on this one work, for all these things the picture is without a rival here, or in any gallery of London. To-day, and while the canvas holds together, this will be a great picture ; and the really great pictures of the world are very few and very precious.
To correct all this sweetness, let us look at a work which should- never have been admitted to the Gallery—which never would have been, were it not for the name which its artist bare. This is the " Dryope Fascinated by Apollo in the Form of a Serpent," by Mr. Barrett Browning. It is a large, life-size statue of a fat Dutch vrow, modelled in the coarsest, moat insolent manner, without grace, beauty, delicacy, or mean- ing. No words can be too severe for a clever young man's work, when it .possesses such faults as these. Never, to the-best of our belief, has there been exhibited at a first-class gallery in England, a statue which combined so fully all that is coarse in the modern French school of sculpture, with all that is ugly, and heavy, and motiveless. A nude woman made love to by a serpent is not at the best of times a very attractive subject for sculpture ; but when it is treated in the way in which Mr. Browning has treated it, the result is simply—" impossible ! "
Another contrast will refresh us. Look at the portrait of Lady Archibald Campbell by Mr. Whistler, which hangs in the large east gallery,—a work which is, of its kind, excessively fine, and by far thebest example of its artist which we have ever seen. Circumstances have rendered it difficult for us to write of Mr. Whistler's work without considerable hesitation, but we shall at least here not be suspected of any undue partiality in our admiration of this portrait. We do not find it possible to take the artist's point of view,—we do not believe in his conception - of what painting and, portraiture is and should be. But if we -except this difference, if we judge this work from its own stand- point, it is difficult to see how it could have been better. The -drawing is delicious throughout, —easy and masterly as Mr. Whistler's drawing can be when he takes the trouble; the tones of the black dress, and its colour, and its relief against the dark background, are all good ; the attitude and poise of the figure are natural and graceful, and the whole picture is fresh, power- ful, and striking,—on the whole, a masterly piece of work, -complete and good, full of distinct individuality and great artistic insight.
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