Barg arts.
EXHIIIITION OF FEMALE ARTISTS.
The third Exhibition of Female Artists is exceedingly creditable to the amount of talent and culture among British women. There are no doubt many amateurs ; but upon the whole, probably, we are correct in regard- ing the exhibitors as mainly professional ; and it is small praise to say that we see little in the room in the Haymarket which descends to a level not unfamiliar to visitors at the Royal Academy, less than a hundred years back. Mrs. Elizabeth Murray's Italian peasants, Miss Florence Claxton's clever sketches of " Scenes from the Life of an Old Maid," and "from the Life of an Old Bachelor," and Mrs. Dundee Murray's landscapes, are works of art which show power as well as inven- tion and taste. Sketches of flowers " from Dreamland," by Mrs. Wilkinson—whose untutored hand, we believe, was guided by some inspiration from the "Land of Spirits,"—are interesting as odd specimens of botany from that obscure region. The most vigorous piece of realistic painting is Miss Florence Peel's "Study from Nature ": the picture of a stone, flowers, and leaves. Painted as an experiment to ascertain whether fidelity to detail is incompatible with "general effect," it most satisfactorily answers that question. It had, indeed, already been solved by William Hunt and the photograph ; and it is no slight praise to the lady artist to say, that her work challenges the comparison. The stone, slightly tinged with a roseate purple, the perspective of its varied surface indicated with the fidelity and force of the photograph,—the rich dark leaves, ranged in every variety of form and direction,—the delicate texture of the flowers,—the ceaseless variation and uniformity of the grass,—are aspects of nature beautiful in themselves, and rendered artist- ically beautiful as a picture in the handling and " general effect." The poetic work is Margaret Gillies's "Yivia Perpetua," in the prison, gaz- ing gently and hopefully at the beam of sunshine through the narrow window ; one of the most beautiful works,—indeed, the most beautiful that we remember from the same pencil; so lovely and sweet is the ex- pression that it makes happy the room in which it hangs.
Previous page
