arts,
GENERAL EXHIBITION OF WATER-COLOUR DRAW- INGS AT THE DUDLEY GALL'ERY, EGYPTIAN HALL, PICCADILLY.
[FIRST NoricE.]
A WANT long felt has at last been supplied. It is only one among many instances of the patient forbearance with which acknow- ledged evils are endured in England, that until the year of grace 1864 no step was taken to give to water-colour artists a wider chance of exhibiting, or to the public freer opportunity of seeing, their works than was afforded within the narrow limits of the two• societies of water-colour painters, and that in the country where alone the art has flourished, the liberty of public exhibition has in consequence been virtually confined to some 100 or 120 painters. That many good artists therefore should up to this moment either have remained unknown, or it least have been driven by pure necessity to the practice of painting in oil-colours, may well be. inferred. By their help it was hoped the present enterprise would at least be insured against failure. But the success actually achieved is little short of surprising. It is stated on trustworthy authority that more than 1,700 drawings were
for exhibition, while the hanging space accommodates only 500. Here, then, setting aside a passing shudder of apprehension lest the fate of the Roman maid who was crushed by the excessive generosity of her friends might be repeated on themselves (setting aside, too, the pain necessarily inflicted on the rejected majority), the managers had every reason to be satisfied. It remained only to make a good and just selection, and the great excellence of the drawings actually hung gives room to hope that justice was fairly done, and that what has been so auspiciously commenced will be- annually continued.
The general excellence of the drawings is not more striking than
their originality and freedom from that false gaudiness of colour which is the hardened exhibitor's besetting temptation. In the luminous sobriety of colour which pervades this exhibition lies an excellent argument why the exhibitors should continue to acknowledge nature as the only trustworthy test. Another remark- able thing is that many artists, already well known as oil painters, find a more congenial vehicle for their feelings in water-colour ; so• that although the old hand is still recognizable, it is with the added charm of more perfect realization, and of a clearer interpretation of those qualities in nature which most excite the artist's sympathy. No pictures are more remarkable in this respect than those of Mr. H. Moore. Known as he is for fresh and truthful reminiscences• of nature, there was yet in his oil paintings a prosaic literalness and' lack of suggestiveness which now appears to have been due merely- to the fetters imposed upon him by oil, turpentine, and white lead. Casting off this slough, he is at length seen in his natural form. His picture of " Loch an Eilan " (a little sheet of water lying- between the Spey and the outlying spurs of Ben Muich Dhui) quite a masterpiece of sunlight and aerial glory. Through the mysterious haze of an easterly wind the sun shines from a dappled sky, and half displays, half hides, the great mountain slopes and the multitudinous forest glades of Rothiemurchus. The foreground is of exceeding beauty and force, rock and heather are drawn and painted with consummate tenderness and truth, and the shaggy " beasts " that wind towards the loch have the rare merit of perfectly belonging to the landscape. Among many other beautiful drawings contributed by the same artist, it must suffice to refer to one (286) for its brilliant sunlight, combined with perfect tenderness and modesty of colour. Quite• unlike, but equally original, is Mr. J. C. Moore. His sym- pathies are less for the glinting splendour of a changeful sky than for the broad glow of settled and sober light ; more for the un- confined space of the open plain than for the various forms of mountain or inclosed meadow. His two drawings, one on the Arno, the other on the Tiber, are each as broad in treatment as a Girtin, while the delicacy of their drawing and colour is all his own. The artist's name is only one of many now first made known in the realm of landscape. Such another is Mr. J. Hitching, whose " Last Ray " (42) is a model of judicious restraint in the
production of a grand effect. The subject is finely and vigorously treated, the artist knowing when to substitute suggestion for definite expression. Similar praise is due to Mr. G. Mawley for his treatment of a twilight (88) somewhat more original in subject, and with more of melancholy in its sentiment. Twilight is naturally a favourite subject, and Mr. Ditchfield's versions of it (408 and 426) are equally beautiful, but yet perfectly distinct in feeling from the other two. They suggest soothing and happy thoughts; Mr. Maw- ley's the saddened yet not unpeaceful end of a gloomy day. Mr. Hitchins, again, though he actually represents respite from work, makes yet more distinct the impression of labour soon to be renewed. Allied to this in sentiment is Mr. F. Powell's picture (436) of barges crowding up to a canal lock at sunset, each with its thin, blue wreath of smoke mingling in the dewy air. This is without doubt one of the most perfect drawings in the gallery, un- surpassed for depth, brilliance, and refinement. He has another fine picture of a Highland Loch near Arran. Under a dun sky just invaded by the keen yellow of approaching sun- rise, a little fleet of herring-boats lies in a snug bay, and sets its sails to catch the first breath that has not yet stirred the mist from the level surface of the water. Here, again, is a picture filled with the very feeling of the time and place, the strong, local truth of which keeps even pace with its extreme beauty. In nowise inferior is his small, wintry, lane scene (445), bleak, sloppy, and dreary. Besides his twilight, Mr. Mawley exhibits many good drawings, among which it is difficult to make a choice. All, however, will observe the solidity and reality of his barn interior (209), and the air of sober dignity that surrounds the exterior of perhaps the same barn (460). Here, too, should be noticed the marvellous truth and delicate observation of Mr. C. F. Williams's " Afterglow " (191) seen across the muddy stretches of Southampton Water, the mists of evening stealthily spreading between earth and sky.
Mr. Arthur Severn's productions are remarkable not only for their performance, but for their promise. His " Sunset at Rome," with the Castle of St. Angelo washed by the yellow Tiber, and the mighty dome of St. Peter's looming in the distance, fit emblems of the temporal and spiritual power of centuries of Popes, is a richly- coloured and harmonious picture, and would scarcely be surpassed for the vivid rays of its slanting sun by any work in the gallery if he had not himself sent another (510), in which the sun, after heavy rain, drops below the "ragged rims of thunder," and floods the landscape with a red-burnishing splendour. It was a bold attempt, that of making a picture out of a single breaker (65), yet Mr. Severn has succeeded by earnest feeling and skilful treat- ment in doing it. The weight of water quivering under the moon- light and hurrying to the beach seems, as in nature, well-nigh too great for the earth to bear. In all this artist's works may be observed a liking for great and rare effects, and these he contrives to extract not only from the realms of unsophisticated nature, but from the lurid and smoke-shadowed atmosphere of London. Thus the temporary incidents of the Thames Embankment at West- minster have suggested to him one of his most elaborate and suc- cessful pictures (245).
Mr. Oakes, like Mr. H. Moore, seems to have greater freedom with water-colours than with oil paint. It is indeed no new thing to find landscape better painted with the first than with the second. All Turner's latter days were devoted to getting out of oil paint the effects that came to him in earlier days by means of water-colours. Of many beautiful drawings exhibited here by Mr. Oakes, " New Shoreham" (155) may be pointed to as a specimen of what he can do. It is a model English town standing on a sloping hill, and presided over by its old church tower. Below flows a river, and on this side is the shore of gravelly sand and tangled brushwood. The silvery daylight glancing amongst showery clouds is perfectly expressive of English beauty of climate, and is admirably managed so as to defeat the awkwardness of the cross-line of river. There is much in the feeling of Mr. Oakes's pictures that reminds one of Cox. See especially the foreground of his large picture (100) painted with a free- dom and mastery unfortunately not maintained throughout the picture, which is marred by some obvious but quite remediable faults.
The foregoing are but a few specimens of what the Gallery con- tains. Others, all of high, many of most unusual quality, by Messrs. C. P. Knight, Coleman, H. Poynter, Holliday, F. Walton, Earle, Aston, Chattock, F, Dillon, H. Johnson, C. E. Johnson, Scott, and others, as well as all the figure subjects (among which Mr. G. E. Thomas's, Mr. S. Simeon's, Miss Russell's, and Mr. Pelham's, hold foremost places) must be reserved for future notice.
V.
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