ART.
THE BLACK-AND-WHITE EXHIBITION.
Trus exhibition which is held annually at the Egyptian Hall, and chiefly contributed to by members of the Dudley Gallery, has always a special interest amongst the picture galleries of the year, for it is here only that the public in general can trace the method of working of the artists whose finished pictures are familiar to them in the Academy or Water-Colour Galleries. And there is another speciality about this collection,—namely, that it exhibits, side by side, under equal conditions, and almost in equal numbers, the works of foreign as well as British painters, and affords opportunities hardly to be met with elsewhere for com- paring the relative merits of French and English art. It is pleasant to be able to say that the average merit of the works shown this year is considerably greater than it has been since the first exhibition. It is true that there were last year two or three works which are unequalled by anything in the present exhibition—we might mention, for instance, M. Rajou's etching of "La Lecon d'Anatomie," and Legros' "Mort dun Vagabond" —but the generality of the English contributors seem to have improved in their work ; and there is more life about the exhibi- tion, and not quite such a tame acquiescence in the common-place, sentimental view of nature, as has been conspicuous in the last few years. It is not here that we can give any detailed descrip- tion of the great difference between French and English Art, interesting though such a description might be, but we may just notice that, technically speaking, if we take the work in this gallery as a fair sample of that produced by either nation, the charcoal drawing and etching of the foreign contributors, and the pen-and-ink and pencil drawing of our own artists, are respectively the best ; and our readers will
doubtless understand that the reason of this is that the two, former mediums (etching and charcoal) are chiefly fitted to ex- press effects of light and shade, and the two latter (pen and' pencil) to reproduce nature in detail. The French school of artists being always specially trained in this black-and-white drawing, naturally succeed when it is a question of suggesting in it the quiet feeling of any natural scene ; while, on the other hand, the English artist makes up for this lack of feeling by increasing- to the utmost his manipulative powers, and consequently succeeds- best when he is employing the medium which will best allow him to display his dexterity, and in which his want of breadth and feeling will be least observed. As examples of this, take Nos. 39' and 163, by Henry Holiday and H. Bennett respectively, and con- trast them with Nos. 13 and 355, by Leon Lhermitte and Richetort. The first-mentioned, a portrait and an English landscape, leave nothing to be desired on the score of delicate work,—the finish is, indeed almost painful in its minuteness; while Lhermitte's "St. Mato Street" and Richeton's "Portrait of Wagner" are comparatively rough scrawls ; and yet we fear that any honest judgment must confess that the latter are by far the most valu- able as works of art, and for this reason, if for no other,—that in. the former works the artist does not succeed in taking us any further with him than to admire the dexterity with which be has- used his pencil or his pen, while in the latter we seem to lose sight of the artist altogether, and only to be sauntering through St. Blalo in the quiet twilight, or looking at 'Wagner's sensitive, nervous face, as he stands in front of the orchestra. We have chosen our examples almost at haphazard, but if our readers will test these remarks when they visit the gallery, we think they will findo them hold good of the majority. It would be hopeless to attempt to notice any considerable proportion of these six hundred pic- tures, but we will try to direct our readers' attention to a few of the most noteworthy.
'We must first mention, no less for their delicate skill tham because they are the productions of a lady, the three sets of draw- ings in brown ink, Bent by the Hon. Mrs. Boyle. They are alb (as usual with the artist of "A Story Without an End") draw- ings of children, birds, and flowers, and are all noticeable for a certain quaint fancy and refinement of treatment, but we think their greatest charm lies in the manner in which they succeed im • seizing the unconscious grace and innocence of childhood, its large-eyed wonder and its fearless joy. There seems sometimes to be a little confusion in the artist's mind as to the relative sizes of objects, but that is a slight fault and easily corrected, and far more serious misdemeanours would be atoned for by the really beautiful drawing of leaves and flowers which is so prominent an element in all these designs. They are all intended as illus- trations to a new child's play, and have mostly some animal or bird depicted, as well as the children. Though the work is hardly carried far enough to be judged as a picture would be, yet as far as they go, there is nothing in the exhibition more delicate. and original than this of "E. V. B.'s."
This year, as last, M. Alphonse Legros carries off the chief honours of the Exhibition, though he has no work so pathetic as his "Death of a Vagabond." He contributes several fine heads (in outline etchings) of various friends and celebrities, amongst them an interesting one of Cardinal Manning, who, however, can never fail to make a good picture. In the present case, the like- ness is very striking, and the view taken is a simple profile in outline, without background. M. Legros's chief work is entitled "Les Bficherons," and is an etching in brown ink on tinted paper. This is an etching of the same kind as the one we spoke of last year, a very bold, strong work, almost wholly in outline, with the lines bitten very deeply into the copper. Altogether these landscape-etchings of M. Legros resemble far more closely the work of the ancient than that of the modern school of painting: In them nature seems always to be stern and rough, sometimes to be terrible, and there is none of the soft beauty which is a conspicuous element in modern landscape. As far removed from idealism on the one hand as they are from romanticism on the other, they seem to aim at reproducing the power of nature with- out her beauty, and are, perhaps, more akin in feeling to the work of Salvator Rosa than that of any other artist. In the pre- sent drawing of woodmen engaged in the act of felling a tree, there is magnificent drawing of violent action, both the man with the axe and those engaged in pulling the ropes being full of life ; but there seems a wilful disregard of all the natural details round them, and perhaps a slight affectation in roughness of the work throughout. Nevertheless, we cannot avoid seeing that the work is one of rare power, and is doubtless the finest original etching in the Exhibition.
Next to M. Legros's work in dignity of aim and treatment we must rank the " Admen " of Mr. Briton Riviere, No. 233, a design in charcoal and chalk. The story is too well known to need repetition here, and we need only say that the episode in the story which M. Riviere has chosen to illustrate is the final one, when the hunter pays the penalty of his reckless curiosity with his life. In this design we only see the back of Aetteon, his face being turned towards the infuriated hounds,—which, by the way, resemble more the " pariah " curs of an Eastern city than deer-houuds, if, as we presume, Mr. Riviere intends this as the study for a large picture, he would, we think, do well to alter slightly the position of Actium, who at present is standing in a very weak and uncomfortable position, with both knees bent. The ferocious eagerness of the dogs and the gloomy
quiet of the sequestered spot in the woods are very happily expressed; indeed, the animal interat is the predominant one in
the picture.
On either side of this (Nos. 221 and 243) are two seascapes of Francis Powell's, which show all his well-known delicacy of treat- ment and firm drawing. We say firm drawing, for it is quite an exception to get the form of waves as clearly and distinctly shown as Mr. Powell gives it us, as a glance at most of the sea- scapes here will show. We do not think that Mr. Powell is quite so successful in charcoal as with water-colour, or perhaps it is that we miss the charming colour of his sketches. Nos. 353 and 448, by Hubert Herkomer, are certainly amongst the most interesting, if not the best pictures in the exhibition. The first is entitled "Old Age—a Study at the Westminster Union," and is a sketch of the old women's ward at that place. This picture will be familiar, doubtless, to many of our readers from having appeared in the Graphic some time since. Here, in spite of its pathetic suggestiveness and delineation of character, it loses much of its effect, owing to the thoroughly unnatural and theatrical effects of light and shade, which seem particularly out of place in treating such a sober subject. A great deal of this is no doubt due to the fact of its having been painted with reference to the wood-engraver. The second of these drawings, called "Sound Advice," represents on old peasant-woman talking to a young girl at the village well, and is, in its unaffected treatment and thorough realisation of its subject, quite one of the most satisfactory pictures of the kind we have seen. No. 366, " Char- pentiers an Hord de la Marne," • is the finest charcoal landscape here, and will well repay careful examination. The subject is similar to that of M. Legros of the woodcutters. Next to this is another landscape, an English one this time, of which we can speak with unqualified praise, though it only-represents a sloping meadow, with a few sheep in the middle-distance, and a thatched cottage on the crest of the hill behind. This is called "Near Overton, Hants," and is by J. Aumonier, one of the most success- ful landscape painters of quiet every-day scenery that we have in England. There are not many illustrations of the Thames here, but the best are two etchings by Edwin Edwards, both of shipping and scenery "below bridge." These are Wates's hotel at Graves- end and the Thames at Hotherhithe, and are full of feeling, the second especially, No. 154. The artist shows that he can feel the beauty of confused rigging, sails, and spars, and the suggestion of the quiet evening and the river crowded with ship- ping is clever in the extreme. There is one pencil sketch of Rosa Bonheur's here (No. 376) of some sheep in a meadow, which should be noticed in passing, though it is excessively Slight, and evidently only intended for a study. No. 424, by J. E. Hodgson, entitled "Yachting Types," is the most humorous, as well as the cleverest picture of its kind which we have ever seen. Any one who has over strolled upon Hyde Pier in the month of August must have seen many replicas of this group of fair-weather sailors, whom
. Hodgson has drawn chattering on the pier-steps, prepara- tory to embarking ; boat " are as and the faces of the sailors in the " long-
characteristic and natural as those of the gentlemen. We hope this picture denotes that Mr. Hodgson is going to abandon his Eastern life, and give us for the future scenes nearer home. We think he may find as humorous themes for his pencil in Vanity Fair as he has ever done in the bazaars of Cairo and Constantinople. Near this is the most poetical of all the contributions to the exhibi- lion, a little etching by R. W. Macbeth, called, "Ca' the Gowes o the Knowes." It is an evening scene, with a stalwart Shepherdess wending her way homewards, crook in hand, and a long line of sheep winding up the meadow behind her. The figure is no picturesque or sentimental rendering of an amateur young-lady shepherdess, but a somewhat care-worn Woman, doggedly ending a hard day's work. When will artists general learn that the greatest beauty and pathos are to be found in the common-place, if only it be the common-place of real life ? It is not the holes in the knifegrinder's jacket, or the tattered bonnet of the gipsy, Which make fit subjects for paint- ing, except for the most vulgar and shallow style of art, but the tinker cheerfully fulfilling the task by which he earns his bread, or the gipsy's sturdy endurance and reckless independence.. And this truth Mr. Macbeth has grasped, and it makes all his pictures of rural life interesting, if it were necessary to point out how short a step there is from the sublime to the ridiculous, we should instance No. 426, "The Lion's Share," by J. Wolf.. This is a picture Of a lion crouching amidst jungle, with one paw upon the body of an antelope which it has slain. So far, the subject is an ordinary one enough, but the face of the lion is so excessively comical, with its air of defiance, that we doubt if any one could behold the picture without laughing. We are afraid that Mr. Wolf's experiences of lion-hunting have hardly been sufficient to enable him to paint such a subject. There are many works here of great merit, which we can only mention in sum- ming-up ; the most important of these are the contributions of Du Maurier, in illustration to Mr. Parnell's poems, and the drawings of Keen and Linley Sambourne for Punch. One of the latter's especially, No. 143, " Une Bonne Histoire," is wonderfully humorous, though we hardly think that draw- ings of this kind are of sufficient importance to be shown in such an exhibition as the present. Mr. Joseph Knight's two large. sepialandscapes, Nos. 95 and 113, are very fine, and less woolly than his work has been of late. The latter, entitled "After Sundown," is far the best. Mr. E. G. Gregory sends several drawings, all intended for engraving in the Graphic, and all clover, though suffering very much from an excessive use of body- colour, and sometimes, as in No. 132, too confused in composition. There are several etchings by Tisaot from pictures exhibited by him in the Grosvenor Gallery, which are interesting from the peculiar style of " dry-point " which that artist uses ; and lastly,. there is a really beautiful little pen-and-ink drawing by W. H. Hughes, called "St. Giles, Abbot," worked very much in the fashion of a Diirer woodcut. On the whole, the exhibition is a very good and very interesting one.
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