ART.
THE ACADEMY.—IL LANDSCAPES.
IT is melancholy, but it is a fact that landscape painting in England is in a state of decay. This is greatly to be re- gretted, considering the fact that English artists led the way, not only in the ideal and romantic style of Turner, but also in the more naturalistic manner of Constable. By the genius of such men as these the landscape art of England not only took the first place among European schools, but largely influenced the art of France. Turner's influence was, of course, much less direct in its effect upon others than was that of Constable, and until recently was scarcely felt outside England. Constable, on the contrary, influenced French landscape painters at a critical moment. Without for a moment claiming that he created, it seems reasonable to assume that he influenced largely that wonderful school of interpreters of Nature of whom Corot was the culmina- tion. If the motive force which produced the art of Turner and Constable respectively is considered, it is not difficult to see why one should have had so much wider an influence than the other. Turner worked wholly from the inside ; the " passion and the life " were in his own thought, and he made the outer world serve to materialise his vision. Constable, on the contrary, had his artistic faculty set in motion by what he saw with his eyes of external Nature. Turner clothed with form and colour the mysterious workings of the inner- most depth of the spirit. Constable interpreted with the mind of a poet the incomparable beauties of English land- scape. Turner's direct influence was small, for without his spirit his forms are useless. Constable, however, trained and developed the not uncommon class of mind which is deeply stirred by the beauty of Nature. The scientific spirit has now intervened in art, the spirit of literal acceptance of fact, and has turned landscape painting away from visionary to realistic painting.
To this realistic tendency must be ascribed the dulness of the landscapes in this year's Exhibition. The painters seem to be quite satisfied when they have transferred to their canvas a piece of Nature exactly as it is. This attitude of mind is often a disastrous one, and for this reason. A natural scene may perhaps contain a piece of distance so beautiful that the artist feels that literal transcription is all that is required. But then he is not unlikely to find that the foreground provided by Nature is not quite what his sense of picture-making tells him is required. After some modification, he finishes his work ; but then comes the ques- tion, Is it a picture, and not merely an anticipation of colour photography P These considerations should be borne in mind when looking at Mr. Yeend King's picture, The Avon by Breedon Hill (No. 550). The distance—Breedon Hill—is painted with great feeling and absolute faithfulness, and is an object of beauty. But to bring the picture down to our feet, to prevent it, in fact, from being a study of a piece of distance, the artist has added a river with a near bank of tangled water growths and some trees. Now the difficulties begin ; all these accessories to the object of the picture—the distance—are well painted, but are quite tame and dull, and painted with all the definiteness and solidity at the painter's command. This filling-up part of the picture occupies much space, and yet we feel that we do not want to look at it. It is, in fact, the long, tiresome narrative leading up to the point in an ill-told good story. But what was the artist to do P To have painted the fore- ground in a vague and dreamy way, leaving the distance enforced with all possible realism, would have been unsatis- factory. It seems that realistic painting is like lying,—the first lie entails a chain of falsehoods. So if one part of a picture is painted with realism the rest must follow. But this necessitates painting all the tiresome details and dull spaces with the same accuracy as the interesting portions. What is the remedy? In the opinion of the present writer the artist must so abstract his subject as to give the essence of its beauty, subduing as far as possible the external details. Then he must possess a feeling for style, or else his work will not live, for style is the great antiseptic that guards against the poison of time. Mr. Alfred East in his large picture of Lake Bourget (No. 544) has tried to paint a picture in the grand style, but has failed. His trees have had so much of the reality abstracted out of them that they cease to be interesting, and the straining after decorative and stylistic qualities is too apparent. Mr. David Murray shows in several large pictures an attempt to construct elaborate landscape compositions, but a certain obviousness and want of distinction, combined with a lack of appreciation for colour harmony, interfere with his success. Mr. Alfred Parsons, who ten years ago or more used to paint with such power and breadth, is now too often small in treatment and lacking in concentration. His picture, The Green, Punt (No. 43), is beautiful in all its details, but lacking in largeness of design. The trees show all the artist's old knowledge and skill, but an insistence on small forms all over the picture gives it a commonplace. everyday air. The light of common day truthfully represented, but without any strong impulse of poetry and decoration, never makes a great landscape.
A picture that has got some of the qualities that go to make a great work is Winter's Sleep (No. 538), by Mr. H. Adams. The colour of the snowy ground is admirable while, the dark, oily river reflecting the wooded banks, and the bronzed gold of the sunlight lighting up the trees here and there are of excel- lent effect. The artist, too, has known how to give the heavy winter air thick with vapour which yet does not obliterate the forms. Mr. Adams seems to have learnt without copying from M. Thanlow. This last-named artist has a beautiful picture of The Old Bridge at Verona (No. 365). It is a sombre evening effect, and without sacrificing the quiet of the lighting and the colour he has given the rush of the Adige. The drawing of the water it is needless to praise, for M. Thaulow paints moving water like no one else; the houses and the bridge are drawn and painted with equal subtlety.
Mr. Colin Hunter has deserted the Highlands in his principal work and painted London from the Tower Bridge (No. 646). Perhaps this work is the pleasantest of all the landscapes to be seen this year. It is a long, narrow canvas, with St Paul's forming the principal point of the composition. The whole picture is extremely harmonious, the sky and river being in complete sympathy. Probably the greatest compli- ment that can be paid to the work is to confess that it is most difficult to write about it, as it is impossible to single out any part to praise more than the whole. The illusive colour is very beautiful, and the pale rose and yellow sky and the opalescent water are such as only a fine colourist could achieve.
Another work of the harmonious kind is Mr. Farquharson's War News (No. 13), which is good in every way except its title, for the fishermen in the boat in harbour might just as well be reading the births, deaths, and marriages out of the newspaper as the latest telegrams from the front. Here, again, the harmony of parts is delightfully carried out, the cool, pearly tones of the evening sky being suffused over the whole. Such a picture deserved a better place, and we would willingly clear the line of dozens of staring horrors to make room for it.
Mr. Lathangue has seldom painted a picture in which the force and truth of light have been carried so far as in his work The Water plash (No. 351). In this picture a flock of geese are coming straight down towards a stream, and almost pro. duce the effect of illusion, but not the tricky illusion aimed at in Mr. Dicksee's work noticed last week. There are fine qualities in the picture, but it world not be a pleasant one to live with : it savours too much of the tour de force. Pictures should keep inside their frames.
The following pictures have not been noticed at length on account of reasons of space, but should not be missed,— Nos. 110, 135, 199, 218, 291, 332, 454, 498, 575, 1,129, 1,139. In conclusion we can only say again that although many pleasant landscapes are to be found in this year's Aca- demy, the fact remains that there is a sad lack of any- thing like really great landscape art. It is to be hoped that the deficiency is only temporary, for it would indeed be a misfortune if landscape art in England were to fall permanently from the great position it has reached in.
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