ART.
THE ROYAL ACADEMY.
[SECOND NOTICE.] AT the dinner, last Saturday, of the Artists' Benevolent Institu- tion, Sir Robert Collier, in the chair, proposed the health of the Royal Academy, and undertook the defence of British artists against the recent strictures of the Quarterly Review. We cannot but think that he was a little unfortunate in two of his illustrations ; first, in bringing forward, in evidence of the success of the Academy in art education, the name of Millais, a master who, more than any other, has attained distinction by setting academic rule and teaching at defiance ; and secondly, in citing the super- ficial works of Messrs. Vicat Cole and Birket Foster to illustrate his hypothesis that the purpose of English art is " to hold the mirror up to nature." But there are two less popular painters, conspicuously represented in the present Exhibition, whose works conform with more than usual exactitude to the Shakeperian rule just quoted. We in nowise assent to the limitations set by Mr. Brett and Mr. Naish, and painters of their school, to the scope of landscape art, but we cannot withhold our admiration of the marvellous imitative power displayed in "A Morning among the Granite Boulders" (681), painted by the former, and "The Most Northerly Point of Devon" (539), painted by the latter of these artists. More perfect representations of the slaty surface of the rocks of Rillage Point, or the crystalline beach-stones and white sand and blue waves near the Land's End, it would be scarcely possible to imagine. But even in the presence of their apparently exhaustive studies, we must decline to subscribe to the theory they set up, that the whole and sole aim of landscape art is to reflect the face of nature on the canvas as in a mirror. It is surely the artist's business not only to bold the mirror up to nature, but to reflect in it something at the same time of his own mind. It so happens, however, that both these studies, Mr. Brett's and Mr. Naish's, to a certain extent arrange themselves, and they are not so complicated or extensive in subject as to require to be criticised as complete pictures. Another large coast study, which, by reason of its subject, invites comparison with these, is Mr. Cooke's view of the " Steeple Rock in Kynance Cove at the Lizard" (419). Here, if anywhere, some judicious treatment was demanded of the artist. The rock in question is just one of those conspicuous objects which writers of guide-books are sure to select as constituting the " beauties" of a district, because they arrest the eye and keep it riveted upon their singular forms, the very quality which it is one of the landscape painter's chief duties to counteract, if he would make a beautiful rather than an attractive picture. Landscape painting and portraiture have many rules in common, and every judicious portrait-painter would try to prevent the attention from dwelling on a too prominent feature. So, hard cutting forms such as we have here, are fatal to a picture. Mr. Cooke has doubtless succeeded in what he set himself to do. He has drawn his rock with a firm hand and correct modelling ; but he has omitted to tell us the moat important geological fact of the place, and one of which an artist is specially bound to take notice, namely, the marvellous variety of irridescent colour in the serpentine ; nor have we a hint of the pure light and sweet sea air of Southern Cornwall. We must not leave these coast pictures from the West Country without noticing Mr. Brett's fine sea piece, " A North-West Gale off the Longships Lighthouse" (945), a study of blue moving waves and forms of spray and clear gleams of light between the showers, quite equal in its way to his shore scene. In the same room with this is a finely-studied effect, by Mr. H. Moore, of a "Storm Coming on at Sunset" (987), as seen across a North-Wales estuary, with a foreground of gathering shades somewhat killed by the bright paint of adjoining pictures. Mr. A. W. Hunt's Welsh hill-side, studded with birch and oak and alder, sparkling in the light of day, with hay being made white the sun shines, and a running stream in the foreground, is singularly happy in the accord of all its elements to express the idea conveyed by the title, "A mountain joyous with leaves and streams" (1026) ; and there is a very lovely deli- cate light streaming down another Welsh hill-side in his "Look- ing down the River" (373), in which, however, he tries, with only partial success, to grapple with the difficulty of expressing the effect of running water seen in the direction of its motion. A confusion of movement represented thus under the eye is apt, we think, to have a dazzling effect which restrains its power of roaming at will over the canvas. We feel this even in Mr. Graham's powerful study of the turbulent effect of " Wind" (64), where we could better watch the agitation of the trees and drifting of the cloud- wreath, if the violence of the river in spate had been somewhat subdued at the lower edge of the picture. Other landscapes of merit are Mr. Raven's "The Lesser Light to Rule the Night" (518), hung too high to see all we wish of its dappled, moon-lit sky, and bonfire glowing in night-mist ; a large water-colour drawing of " Lindow Common " (728), which is a remarkably good composi- tion by Mr. Sheffield, an artist with whose name we are not familiar ; a study of " An Autumn Flood " (979), by Mr. C. E. Johnson ; three very different impressions derived from the East, namely, Mr. A. MacCallum's resplendent effect of sunrise on " The Vocal Memnon" (676); Mr. F. Goodall's well-painted and well-composed, though not very interesting landscape, " Subsiding of the Nile" (292); and a careful picture, showing considerable feeling of space and light, by an American artist, Mr. Tilton, of " Kom Ombra, Upper Egypt, early morning, spring, after the subsiding of the waters of the Nile, when they are of a greenish colour " (1016) ; a cleverly-treated and silvery view of the "Dordrecht and the Meuse " (682), by the Flemish artist, De Schampheleer ; and, lastly, Mr. Poole's poetic sketch on a large canvas, called " A Lion in the Path " (28).
The picture, which seems, both from its position and it eccen- tricity, to be the most likely of any to provoke discussion, and the least likely to receive fair judgment, either from friend or foe, is Mr. Albert Moore's string of pretty, scantily attired, sculpturesque maidens playing at " Follow my leader" (146), in a spring grove of sycamore. No one, who cares to look seriously at this picture, and who has an eye for truth and beauty, can deny the singular grace and good drawing it contains. It is probable, indeed, as is moat cases of a contest of schools, that the very skill shown by the painter has an irritant effect on those who believe such skill to be wasted in a worthless cause. We believe that a want of apprecia- tion of what is really good in this artist's works, is in a great measure due to some indefiniteness of aim on his own part, and that this is more than usually apparent in his picture of this year. It approaches more nearly than usual to the representation of a real scene, and in proportion to this approach to completeness of realisation so its deficiencies force themselves upon the mind. We — have the same sense of a falling-short of complete satisfaction that we feel in the case of Gibson's coloured statues. The imitation of nature is carried a little too far. The impression of beauty would have been more undisturbed, and consequently purer, if something more had been left to the imagination. This particular work especially suffers from being bung in the midst of strongly coloured realistic pictures of the ordinary kind ; because, having more in common with them, its unreality is the more apparent. It would have been better appreciated had it been placed in the Architecture Room, and called a decorative design for a panel. But then it would be seen that it went a little too far in the direction of imitative art to be properly applied to such a purpose. We should have liked it better with a plain background, as in an ordinary sculptured bas-relief, instead of a complication of little green leaves ; we would willingly dispense with the countless multitude of spring flowers, however lovely and true these elements may appear when looked at individually ; and, as in all Mr. Moore's draperies, we should prefer a larger massing of the folds, however subtle may be the little crinkled carves with which he breaks up with continual repetition the pure and graceful out- lines of the figures. He appears to us to fall between two stools. His painting is neither purely ornamental nor purely imitative. In our opinion, his genius would have more room for expansion if he confined himself more strictly to the former branch of art, and would, moreover, have a better chance of the appreciation which it deserves. The case is exactly the reverse with Mr. George Leslie, who, in his picture called " The Fountain" (72), has attempted to combine the two kinds of art with no better success. He is by nature a painter of young English women, of a rather limited but lovely type of pure and graceful innocence ; but he is possessed with an unfortunate longing to dress them in fancy Greek costumes, and spot them along stone terraces, or set them to play at Homer by English brooks. They were much more in their element in the trim, old-fashioned gardens that they used to inhabit in Mr. Leslie's earlier pictures. Mr. Marks is an artist who excels in both the above-mentioned branches, and is learning more and more how to adapt himself to either. In some of his mediaeval subjects, as, for example, the " Waiting for the Procession," which he exhibited last year, the suppression of atmospheric per- spective and the equal distribution of the masses have been rather more in accordance with a decorative than a pictorial treat- ment ; but it is not so in " The Ornithologist " (380), the only subject from modern life that be has painted. This is one of a little group of pictures in this year's Exhibition which are distinguished for genuine humour in the good old English sense of the word, without any approach to caricature or vul- garity. There must be a rare creative power in an artist who could confer such individuality as there is in this portrait (for it can be called nothing less than a portrait) of a retired military gentleman absorbed in the quiet pursuit of marshalling his stuffed birds on their shelves. There is a sly suggestion of sympathy with these objects of his study, in his very pose and costume, as be stands on his perch in a silk dressing-gown as of shining plumage, with a tail-like feather-brush stuck out behind him, and turns round to give directions to his old soldier-servant, who is waiting for orders in the attitude of attention with a large bird under each arm. The specimens are, of course, an essential part of the picture, and were probably the artist's first motive in its conception. There is a vast deal of quaint fun in their varied expression ; but there is a glassy look about their eyes which prevents their being mistaken for living birds, and not- withstanding their brilliancy and exquisite detail, the artist has had the tact and skill to keep them in perfect subordi- nation to the human figures. In the same class of works, remarkable for natural humour and unexaggerated expression rendered with unusual subtlety, is Mr. Hodgson's thoroughly painted and amusing picture called "Jack Ashore" (329), repre- senting a British sailor in a courtyard before a Pasha's palace, surveying the Moorish guard with characteristic self-possession, while they on their side regard him with mingled looks of curiosity and suspicion. A third picture, worthy to be ranked with these for the same quality of humour, and also remarkably well painted and composed, is Mr. Storey's " Scandal" (158), representing an afternoon tea-party of some ten or a dozen gossiping folks two centuries ago in an old-fashioned drawing-room, opening on to a garden. But why need Mr. Storey go so far back for a scene on which to employ his genial humour ? It does not seem as if the spirit of modern society could be depicted in this amusing way without a touch of caricature. M. Tissot's comic scene of a party of guests arriving much " Too Early" (914) is of quite a different order from the pictures we have just mentioned, amusing and well painted as it
undoubtedly is. The two love scenes among the white shipping of the docks, called Last Evening " (108), and " The Captain's Daughter" (121), by the same clever French painter ; and the group by Mr. Calderon, of a handsome lady saying " Good night" (44) to her child in its crib, are all much above the average of sentimental pictures of this kind. Mr. Pettie's "The Flag of Truce " (401) is less theatrical than usual, but it is not easy to say whether the three emissaries are meant to be walking or stand- ing. There are innocence and grace in Mr. Yeames's old English wedding scene, " The Path of Roses " (517) ; pathos, with too flat and scenic a background, in Mr. B. Riviere's " Ulysses" and "Argue" (464); agreeable painting of the nude and some sorrowful dignity in Mr. Elmore's figure of Eve, "After the Expulsion " (282) ; and by much the best cattle-painting of the year in " Summer Afternoon" (453), by Mr. H. W. B. Davis.
In portraiture, Messrs. Richmond, Watts, Wells, Sant, Leh- mann, and others send good contributions ; and Mr. Ouless takes a specially high rank by his characteristic likenesses, and a firm, masculine style of painting. The chalk heads by Messrs. Sandys, Lawrence, and Dickinson, and the vigorous etch- ings of Mr. Chattock, are the best things we see in the Lecture- room ; and of its kind, there is nothing in the Sculpture Gallery to be compared with M. Dalou's exquisitely graceful realistic study, in terra cotta, called " Paysanne Francaise " (540).
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