FINE ARTS.
ROYAL ACADEMY EXHIBITION.
To judge of things by too high a standard, is in some sort unjust ; and to this fault we plead guilty in reference to the Academy Exhibition. We have been in the habit of assuming the high ground of its preten- sion, instead of taking the humbler one of its performances ; hence re- pealed disappointment and dissatisfaction. The experience of a few years has convinced us of our error, though against our will ; and we have learned to moderate our expectations and to lower our point of view to the level of the English school ; we can therefore speak of the present exhibition at the Academy without disgust. The show this year is at least of average merit, and, upon the whole, creditable to the exhibitors. It contains no grand works, though there are three or four very large pictures : there will be found several that interest the fancy, and many that are pleasing to the eye, with a smaller proportion than usual of what are ludicrously bad. The portraits are as numerous as ever; but, taken altogether, rather inferior than otherwise in pictorial attractions, and moreover, deficient in physiognomical character. The display of Sculpture is pretty good. The Architectural department is below the mark. Cmicorr, STANFIELD, and ROBERTS are missed; nor does Itivrox exhibit. CAm.corr and HILTON have been prevented from contributing by illness, we regret to hear ; STANFIELD has only lately returned from the Continent, and is busy on the diorama for Henry the FUlle at Covent Garden ; and ROBERTS is still abroad. We shall this week be content to take a rapid glance at the prominent points of the exhibition ; presenting a descriptive sketch of the coop dad, for the information of the general reader, and reserving detailed criticism for future opportunity. The first glance that the visiter gets while passing through the crowded rooms to the furthermost one, where are the choicest plo• tures, is any thing but promising. Above the shoal of hats and bonnets a dreary waste of portraits meets the eye on every side, re- lieved only by three large history-pieces with figures life-size, one in each of the three rooms. That in the first, or West Room, " St. Dunstan .Separating Ethel' and Elyiva," (471,) by W. DICE, is an elabo- rate production in the dry German style, the outlines of the figures and the accessories of furniture and costume so prominently marked that the attention is directed to the art more than to the scene itself: the incident, notwithstanding, is forcibly represented ; though without the dignity of history. The one in the Middle Room, "Lady Jane Grey at the Place f her Execution," (3890 by S. A. HART, attracts the eye by the glare of colour ; but we turn away from this coarse and vulgar re- presentation of a subject that if treated at all should melt the soul with pay : it looks like some pageant in dumb-show enacted on a stage be- fore a gaping crowd, and utterly devoid of impressiveness or pathos.
The large picture in the East Room, " Sir David Baird Discovering the
Body of the Sultana Tippoc, Saib, tyter having Captured Seringapatam, on the 4th of May 1709," (65,) by Sir DAVID WILKIE, might be mis-
taken for the portrait of one of the old Volunteers flourishing his sword with the air of a victorious hero, his helmet adorned with an extra plume of feathers, stuck on the top of his head to make him look taller: it only wants a figure of Fame blowing a regimental trumpet to complete the resemblance. The half-stripped corpse of Tippoo ex- amined by his followers is finely painted, and there are other redeeming points of executive skill ; but as a whole it is a failure.
Descending from these lofty heights, let us look round at the pic- tures on a smaller scale that are hung on a level with the eye. But before beginning our hasty survey, we must stop and gaze our fill of EASTLAKE'S exquisitely-beautiful cabinet Scripture-piece, in a corner of the East Room—" Christ Blessing Little Children" 003) which for delicacy and tenderness of sentiment has scarcely been surpassed by any painter of any age or country, RAFFAELLE not excepted. The head of Christ expresses the purity and gentleness of his nature, and the union of firmness and meekness in his character, with as near an approach to the divine ideality as we remember to have seen accomplished in painting : the heads of the Apostles are noble and reverend, yet simple withal, and their respective characters are finely discriminated. The Saviour is seated in the midst of a group of little children, with an infant on his knee ; he has turned towards two of the Disciples, who are gently remonstrating with an eager mother at the door, and appears as if about to utter the gracious words " Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not." The mothers seem absorbed with a feeling of devotion as they direct their little ones to worship Jesus ; and the reverential awe of the elder children con- trasts with the unconscious innocence of the infuntine portion of the group. A sacred stillness and serenity are diffused amend, as if the spirit of holiness and charity pervaded all present : the lily in the hands of an infant in the foreground, is an appropriate emblem of the .purity and beauty of the scene. We are reluctant to qualify our admiration of this refined and elevated production of art, but it must be conceded that the style of painting inclines to feebleness, and the conception is of a subdued character, with a tendency to the larmoyante : these defects, however, do not impair the touching solemnity of the scene, and but slightly lessen its loveliness.
On the line of the eye in the large East Room, are Ern's two designs, "Pluto Carrying off Prosopine," (241,) a voluptuous display of form and colour, though its beauties are of the physical kind, and its execu- tion is very unequal ; and "Diana and Endymion," (195,) which is alike unworthy of the painter and the subject. Of the two smaller designs by Maciassl—his large picture is in the next room—"Set.■:::/2:; outa-tni taus—onunt, nin'aueing Apollo disguised as a Shipherd to his Wife and Daughters," (6,) is a capital theatrical picture ; but Apollo is a failure. " The Second Adventure V Gil Bias,' (124,) " where he meets with that knowing one who slips at his expense and repays hini with flattery," is conceived in the spirit of LE SAGE: the complacent vanity of the silly youth deprecating the excessive praises of his new acquaintance, the leer of the adventurer, the sly recognition of the land- lord, and the merry smile of the wench cooking the slipper, are perfect : the painting is masterly, too, though the tone of colour is too hot and opaque. LESLIE does not exhibit his Coronation picture ; but he has two of his clever pictures of society. 57 and 82. The first incident, a se- date elderly gentleman with his young wife hanging on his arm meet- ing a gallant cavalier who bows profoundly, is explained by its motto, "Who can this be ? " and it answers the question of the second, " Who can this be from ?"—the same lady (only looking more matronly) re- ceiving a billet from her waiting-maid. The painter should proceed with the story. MULREADY has two of his little highly-wrought miniature pictures, "The Sonnet," (129)—a lover looking up into his mistress's face while she is reading his verses—quaintly designed ; and "Open your Mouth and Shut your Eyes," (143)—a boy and girl playing bob- cherry. UWINS'S sunny pictures—" Young Neapolitans Returning from the Festa of St. Antonio, (1190 "Gathering Oranges—Capo di Monk," (1_66,) "Neapolitans Dancing the Tarantella," (180,) and " The Boy V Naples—Peasants Going to the Villa Reale on the Morning qf the Fesfit Pie di Grotto," 0100 make the walls glow with their warm brightness, and transport us to the shores of Naples. COLLINS, who exhibits for the first time since his return from abroad, depicts Italian rusticity Eng- lish fashion; and the landscape wears a fresher, cooler aspect than most painters give to it. "Poor Travellers at the Door qf a Capuchin Convent, near Vico, 130y V Naples," (90,) and ";I scene near Subiaco, Roman Slates," (211,) are characteristic, doubtless, but they have not the charm of his English rustic scenes ; nor is his painting so clear and mellow. EDWIN LANDSEER'S two pictures of children playing with dogs are delightful, and the painting is masterly, of course.
"Princess Mary of Cambridge, and a favourite Neufaindland Deg, the property qf Prince George or Cambridge," (69,) is all but life the child Is making her shaggy pet balance a bit of biscuit on his nose, and we almost expect to see the dog toss it tip and catch it in his mouth. We have an objection to take to the superficial mode of painting, however, but not now. Pass we to the "Portrait V Miss Eliza Peel, with Fido," (2350 a still more charming picture of a fair girl going to put her lap- dog into the bath that she has just left, as appears by her naked feet fresh with the glow from the water, the rose floating in which makes it appear fluent. We cannot wonder that LANDSEER should paint nothing else, and can scarcely wish that he would, so charmingly does
he treat these subjects. His "Corsican, Bussion, and Fallow Deer," (222,) grouped in a park, are alive ; but the landscape is slighted. LEE does not paint animals equal to LaxosEEn, but the tone of colour of the cattle in his landscape, "Scenery in Woburn Park, with Hereford and Highland Cattle and South-down and Black-faced Highland Sheep," (203), makes the whole more satisfactory : this and his "River Scene, Devonshire," (13,) evince decided improvement in the warmer tone of the atmosphere and more yielding texture of the foliage; though the water in the foreground of the " river scene" is not fluid.
TURNER is as gorgeous and mysterious as ever; and while we regret and condemn his extravagances, it is impossible not to admire the wondrous power of his art in representing an atmosphere of light. " Ancient Rome ; Agrippina Landing with the Ashes qf Germanicus—the Triumphal Bridge and Palace of the Camas Restored," (66,) is a blaze of orange-golden sunshine, reflected from piles of architecture that must be of marble to be so steeped in the hues of light ; and "Modern Rome-- Campo Vaceino," (70,) of which we see just enough to know what it is meant for, is also immersed in a flood of radiance, with a stream of silvery light from the new-risen moon glancing across the scene. Another picture of TURNER'S in this room is real nature, and its poetry is intelligible—" The Fighting Temeraire' Tugged to her Last Berth to be broken up, 1838" (43,) is a grand image of the last days of one of Britain's bulwarks : the huge hulk—looming vast in the distance in the midst of a fbint gleam of moonlight, that invests with a halo the ghost of her former self—is towed by a steam-boat whose fiery glow and activity and small size make a line contrast with the majestic stillness of the old line-of-battle ship, like a superannuated veteran led by a sprightly boy : the sun is setting on the opposite side of the picture, in a furnace-like blaze of light, making the river glow with its effulgence, and typifying the departing glories of the old Temeraire. The colour- ing is magical, and does not " o'erstep the modesty of nature :" this picture ought to be purchased for Greenwich.
Of the Middle Room, IFIaciasies large picture, " Robin Hood," (293,) is the chief ornament; indeed it is a principal feature of the Ex- hibition itself. It represents Robin Hood and his merry men entertain- ing Richard Cceur de Lion in Sherwood Forest. Robin in boisterous glee is drinking health to the King, who laughingly holds his goblet to be filled by his Moorish attendants, and the health is going round; Little John, a stalwart fellow seven feet high, enters on one side from a glade, bringing a buck " upon his lusty shoulders home ; " and at the other, Maid Marian is seen in her bower beneath the Trysting-tree ; Friar Tuck is conspicuous in the foreground; and for the rest, some are seated on the grass, cup in hand, to do honour to the toast, and others are shooting at a target and playing quarter-staff. The picture em- bodies the descriptions of the old ballads, and realizes our idea of the life of the bold outlaws " under the greenwood tree : " the up- roarious jollity of the scene is infectious, and one may fancy the loud laughter waking the forest echoes. The masterly draw- ing, and the power and facility with which every object is repre- sented, are most admirable : in these respects MacusE is unrivalled, and the vigour of his fancy is equal to that of his pencil. No one re- presents action and expression with such animation, though it is some- times forced ; an open mouth occasionally looks as if it would not close ; but this is owing to his rigid manner, for his laughing faces are radiant with glee. This room also contains several clever and interest- ing pictures by rising painters.
The Brides qf Venice," (409,) by J. IL HERBERT, is a processional scene of striking character : the appearance of an aquatic pageant voating down tne NI ;:■,:r.y streets of Venice, the windows of its palaces hung with draperie!, rani chartled with Spectators, is beautllhlly /iv pitted: the state has an air of romance about it. The twelve uoble brides, each holding a casket containing her marriage-portion, are standing on a platform under a canopy at the stern of a barge that fol- lows the famous 13ncentaur : their various emotions are indicated by the different ways in which they hold the caskets—one with a thought- ful and downcast look, another all delight and satisfaction, a third lift- ing hers up with exultation to a friend at a window, and so on : a flotilla of gondolas follows in the wake of the vessel, with bright eyes peering from under the awnings ; but of the barge with the bridegrooms, in which the spectator is supposed to stand, only the gondolier is seen. " Othello Relating his Adventures," (394,) by D. COWPER, is a very. fine picture : Othello is too young, and hardly Moorish enough, but his look and gesture are eloquent of meaning, and the effect of his story is seen in the breathless wonder of old Brabantio, as well as in the lovely face of Desdemona, who leaning on her father's shoulder drinks in Othello's words, and with them the honey dew of love : we have never seen a more charming representative of the "gentle Desdemona :" her whole soul is absorbed in the recital. A pendant to this picture is " Quentin Matsys, the Blacksmith of Antwerp,' (377,) by R. REDGRA.VE. The blacksmith whom love made a painter of, is showing his first per- formance (the well-known picture of the " Misers," at Windsor) to the father of his inamorata, who gazes at it with surprise and admiration; while the lover steals a look at his mistress, who, however, looks rather more embarrassed than delighted at the issue : with this exception, the story is well told. " The Pillaging of a Jew's House, in the Reign of Richard the First," (327,) by CHARLES LANDSEER, is in many respects admirable : the scene of plunder is well represented, but the principal group of the Jew and his daughter fails for want of expression ; the subordinate figures are the best. EDWIN LANDSEER'S portrait of " Van Amburgh and his Animas," (3610 is in this room : but, though painted with inimitable vraisemblance, it is not a striking picture ; the figures are much smaller than life, and not the Royal party, but a line of ordinary specta- tors, is represented on the other side of the cage, and on too small a scale surely for the pespective. Here is also another of LEE'S land- scapes, an avenue of trees in "FulArd Park, October 1838, with the Portrait qf B. Hippesley Tuckfield, Esq." (382): the group of figures and game in the foreground enrich the green of the grass and foliage, and make the verdurous perspective more A fantastical land- scape by TURNER, which he calls "Pluto Carrying off Proserpine," (360,) is utterly unintelligible. In the centre of the West Room is another of TURNER'S landscapes, called " Cicero at his Villa," (463,) which, when viewed at a proper distance, opens the wall like a vision of enchantment. Close to it, but quite in the corner, is one of CHESWICK'S fresh green landscapes, " Sweet Summer-time," (441)—a grassy spot screened by tall trees from the sun, whose light only pierces through the foliage in golden spots to make the cool shade more delicious : the stems fringed with leafy sprays, and the more massy greenery of the interlacing boughs above, are most delicately pencilled : compared with TURNER'S, it is Nature in her sober reality beside a scene of Fairyland. In another corner, but close to the ground, is a smaller picture of a larger view by the same artist—" The Meeting of the Waters in the Vale of Avoca," (523) ; and its beauty merits a better place ; and over the door, almost invisible, is a glowing rustic scene by Imam., " Wood-fetchers," (514.) Gnaw's portrait-picture of " The Melton Hunt," (545,) attracts fewer gazers than his last hunting-scene, because the sportsmen are not so well known. There are several clever designs in this room, by R. S. LAUDER, E. M. WARD, H. J. TOWNSEND (names new to US), W. SIMSON, LANCE, COPE, REDGRAVE, FRASER, BEWICK, and WOOD, which we must re- serve to a future opportunity. We cannot, however, pass by the pret- tiest of all EDwIN LANDSEER'S pictures—" The Children of the Honour- able Colonel Seymour Bathurst," (548): the rabbits that the children are feeding are by far the best part of the painting, by the way. The Portraits we reserve for a separate notice, and also the Sculp- ture; directing particular attention in the meanwhile to " Love Che- rishing the Soul while Preparing to Torment it," (1,297)—a classic model of youthful beauty, by GIBSON; and "A Girl with a Goat and Tambour- ine," (1,3060 by WOLF—a figure of simple beauty and innocence animated by playful grace.
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