such objects I do not mean to prescribe what degree
exhibition worth visiting.
of attention ought to be paid to the minute parts; this it is Another painter who challenges attention this time, not only hard to settle. We are sure that it is expressing the general by the merit of her work, by also by its quantity, is Miss effect of the whole, which alone can give to objects their true Clara Montalba. And the quantity, in its somewhat mono- and touching character ; and whenever this is observed, what- tonous effect, suggests a criticism on the merit. Any one of ever else may be neglected, we acknowledge the hand of a these fifteen sketches would be welcome by itself in an exhibi- master. We may even go further, and observe that when the tion, and might pass as something actually seen; but to general effect only is presented to us by a skilful band, it appears survey so many, and to find always the same orange and olive- to express the object represented in a more lively manner than green notes, is to suspect that kind of preconceived method the minutest resemblance would do Excellence in any and mixture applied to every scene and subject, that is apt to one of those parts of art will never be acquired by an artist end by shutting a painter's eyes. And yet the merits are so unless he has the habit of looking upon objects at large, and great,—the delicacy, for instance, of the white sails in A Grey observing the effect which they have on the eye when it is Day, Venice, dark against the sky, or of the grey river-shore dilated and employed upon the whole, without seeing any one in the Friuli scene, where the women are washing—and the of the parts distinctly. It is by this that we obtain the ruling large decorative relation of parts is BO constantly borne in characteristic, and that we learn to imitate it by short and mind, that the distance between Miss Montalba's Venice and dexterous methods." It is the method of Impressionism, laid some others here is not easy to measure. The picture is kept down by the leader of English painters ; and in addressing in view, but the 'short and dexterous methods" are the result oneself to the criticism of the Old Water-Colour Society, it as much of a set palette as of a victorious tussle with fact. seems decorous to let the great President be the speaker, for So with Mr. Melville's work this time. His Sultan's Escort he is older than themselves. His views are perhaps dis- is well composed; the parts are subordinated skilfully, the credited in Pall Mall, and it is easy to riddle his philo- work is dexterous. But the performance is an encore. Mr. sophical outworks ; but as a painter he knew what he was Allan has been working in India, and comes somewhere near talking about, and he would be forced to find in most of the Mr. Melville in his Service in a Sikh Temple, which has drawings of the Society a minute attention to particulars passages of good colour. All his work is direct, but the bold without the unity and breadth and comprehension that make touch of colour, telling enough as a drawing notation, is too the particulars more than a collection, give to a scene its "true often directly wrong instead of directly right. and touching character," and permit the use of "short and dex- It is possible to be insensible to certain relations and yet to terous methods." He would find the leaves of the tree often so have merit of another kind. If one could think away the rendered that the tree itself was lost, textures so elaborated that falsity of colour and tone in Mr. Rooke's work, for instance, all but texture disappeared, local tints seen so separately that there would be pleasure remaining in his drawing of an old the larger relation of tone was never seen at all. To see in doorway at Lisieux and other subjects ; but it is necessary to large relations instead of small, is what makes the difference translate mentally into pencil. Mr. Edward Hughes, again, between a great and little artist ; to see a body at once, instead is sensitive to certain qualities of design; he has delicacy of of first a leg, then an arm, and thus to get the main facts of drawing, and, in a way, feeling for colour ; but a head tone and colour disposed rightly, is the difference between a like the child's in Dealings with the Fairies, is, with in-
painter's vision and a miniaturist's catalogue. finity of labour, wrong in the main fact of its value against The need of seeing large has been emphasised because the the light of the window. This objection does not hold of habit of seeing small is the prevailing weakness of the Old his crayon drawing of a little girl with her head leaning on Water-Colourists. This liking for prettiness and ineffective the elbow of a chair ; and the semi-architectural design of the finish no doubt saves them from the fault in the other extreme, whole thing is ingenious and pretty. Talking of drawings, exemplified elsewhere, the blatancy of short and dexterous there is a whole screen of studies by Mr. Burne-Jones, notably methods expressing nothing in particular. And the Old some plaitings and adornings of the hair.
Water-Colourists have within their own ranks a quite average Of older traditions here, the worthiest is that of Turner. number of artists, as such bodies go, who illustrate what a The youngest of the Tunaeridse is Mr. Matthew Hale. In his sensibility to the larger relations does for painting. Them Stormy Evening, indeed, he recalls rather Mr. Henry Moore ;
let us consider, but in a drawing of Bristol, dated 1874, there is a great deal The best examples in the present exhibition are the work of of Turnerian skill in composition. The other Bristol, in its Mr. Clausen. The first of his contributions, the little red- intricate chainwork of detail, and in the handling of the planks haired girl in the grass, is not altogether successful ; but and boats, has the stamp of Mr. Alfred Hunt, who does not further on are two sketches, one of clouds and corn-field, exhibit this year. A third of this company, Mr. Alfred
ART. another of a mower in a clover-meadow, and if any one will
make trial by casting his eyes rapidly round the room, he will find that these sketches tell among their neighbours, not by THE OLD WATER-COLOUR SOCIETY. any crying note in their colour, but rather by a simplicity and
" WHEN we examine with a critical view the manner of those fullness in it, and a rightness of the main relations of tone. painters whom we consider as patterns, we shall find that In so many drawings here, the parts seem to have been put in their great fame does not proceed from their works being one by one, with the rest of the sketch covered up. Look more highly finished than thsse of other artists, or from a round and compare other sketches of corn-fields with this; in more minute attention to details, but from that enlarged corn- others there is,—itent, a sheaf of corn ; item, a bit of stubble; prehension which sees the whole object at once, ad that item, another sheaf : but here the sheaves take their places in energy of art which gives its characteristic effect by adequate the whole of the field; they are subordinated to that larger expression." The words are Sir Joshua's, but the idea and relation. The result is, that the ground gives a sense the truth are as old and as new as Art. Now it is the of fullness and solidity as against the sky, and so a ambiguous theories of the grand style that they are wrapped yet wider relation is expressed. In the sky, again, there in, now the equally ambiguous of Impressionism ; but the are roughnesses of drawing in lesser matters; but the eternal difference is between them who peddle among unre- weight and volume of the cloud are so expressed that in its lated facts, and him that can grasp a total effect. The retort larger relations it affects us as a sky would do. The mower is also old, that the effect is a sum in addition of the facts, and picture is finer still. The figure of the man with the scythe, this retort will be a consolation to the peddler for ever. A beard in its simplicity, happily chosen action, and placing in the is made up of hairs : paint all the hairs, and you will have the field, allies itself to the work of Millet, of Bastien Lepage, of beard. A man is made up of nitrogen and carbon and other Mauve ; and by the general reserve of tone, the gleam on his things : make up little parcels of these, and you will have the white sleeve gains its proper value. Then in the field itself the man. Not so Sir Joshua :—"The detail of particulars, which flowers are used, not as trifling little objects made out till they does not assist the expression of the main characteristic, is worse lose all decorative relation to the whole, but as notes of colour than useless : it is mischievous, as it dissipates the attention, in a rich meadow carpet. Turn once more from this sketch to
and withdraws it from the principal point. It may be re- others on the walls, in which figures are introduced into land- marked, that the impression which is left on our mind even scape, and observe the difference between a figure stuck in of things that are familiar to us, is seldom more than their beside a bit of field, and one like this, that is in the field, and general effect ; beyond which we do not look in recognising both in atmosphere. These two sketches alone would make the
of attention ought to be paid to the minute parts; this it is Another painter who challenges attention this time, not only hard to settle. We are sure that it is expressing the general by the merit of her work, by also by its quantity, is Miss effect of the whole, which alone can give to objects their true Clara Montalba. And the quantity, in its somewhat mono- and touching character ; and whenever this is observed, what- tonous effect, suggests a criticism on the merit. Any one of ever else may be neglected, we acknowledge the hand of a these fifteen sketches would be welcome by itself in an exhibi- master. We may even go further, and observe that when the tion, and might pass as something actually seen; but to general effect only is presented to us by a skilful band, it appears survey so many, and to find always the same orange and olive- to express the object represented in a more lively manner than green notes, is to suspect that kind of preconceived method
Goodwin, runs the gamut from a Berne in the worst manner of the author of the England and Wales, through a Bye in his middling good manner, to a Bristol that just escapes being very good. The multitudinousness of the spires and streets is finely felt, the foreground group is nicely spotted in, and the effect was a paintable one,—were only the blue more subtle, and the trick of outline less obtrusive A master of Turner's range leaves many possibilities behind him. That was illustrated afresh by the work of Mr. Brabazon, referred to last week. He also leaves many pit- falls ; and a sketch like the Berne reminds us that an artist who frequently reached a classic dignity could also descend at times to be a model for the accumulation of ineffective par- ticulars. Whereby a myth may be related. It is currently reported in the books, that when Turner went to join the Masters of Painting, a seat was given to him above them all, and the old landscape people, having been plucked in geology, botany, meteorology, and political economy, were put away in another place. But the truth is, that when he was seen at the gates, some difficulty and murmur arose about his entrance. Not only was he suspected as an Academician, and little known abroad, but some who knew him, knew him as the author of vignettes and other views of a too commercial kind. Questions were framed about his dealings with sacred light, about things put in to suit with the print- seller's window and the drawing-room table, and opprobrious words were syllabled by immortal lips. At this the old man turned a shrewd and bird-like eye on certain of the company, who had in like manner served two masters, and some famous cheeks were blenched at his regard ; but that point he did not press. He had taken care to button up under his coat a sketch- book, saved from his great bequest. It was filled with notes made for his private delectation, shadowy hills and seas touched with bewildering lights, but unfurnished with local name or human interest. These he showed them, and they were mollified ; but what decided his fate was that the good Gellee (commonly known as Claude), who is a liberal-minded man, and whose favourite light reading is Modern Painters, took him by the hand and announced him as one of his most deserving pupils. Then Turner said, "Thank-ye. Mr.," and climbed to an eternal seat. His place is beside Wilson and Old Crome ; he chuckles and groans by turns at some of the things that are done here in his name, and at many of the things that are said ; and he is principally occupied at present in studying the art of Japan. and a work here and there by the people called Impressionists. D. S. M.
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