FINE ARTS.
THE world of art is in a state of unwonted activity just now : not only are the artists busy in preparing for the several exhibitions that are about to open, but several great public works are in progress, and important questions are under consideration, the results of which will materially influence the popular taste. Whichever way we turn, the arts of design, in some shape or other, challenges a share of public no- tice; whether it be a plan for teaching everybody to draw, or a plan for the improvement of the Metropolis, the selection of a sculptor for a Wellington statue, or the selection of painters for decorating the New Houses of Parliament. Let us take a glance at the various points that are already or shortly will be engaging attention.
The first meeting of the Royal Commission for Promoting the Fine Arts of the Country in connexion with the Rebuilding of the Houses of Parliament took place on Tuesday, at Gwydir House, Prince ALBERT being present ; when we have reason to believe that Mr. BARRY sub- mitted his ideas of the character and effect of the decorations for the interior. The artists are eagerly waiting for some intimation of the course to be adopted, in order to prepare for entering the lists in this new and noble field for exertion : meanwhile the nature of the subjects to be chosen, the style of treatment, and the method of execution most suitable, have been discussed ; and the claims of native artists in pre- ference to foreigners strenuously advocated by Mr. Davrri Scow, in an able pamphlet on British, French, and German Painting; by Mr. HAY- DON, in an interesting lecture on Fresco, recently delivered at the Royal Institution ; and by a writer in the last number of Blackwood's Maga- tine. The subject is too large to be entered upon here; neither would it be profitable until something more is known of the intentions of the Commissioners : but it is satisfactory to note the general interest excited.
The Society now forming for the Promotion of Metropolitan Improve- ments is receiving almost daily additions of influential names ; and the preliminary meetings already held will shortly be followed by a general public meeting, at which the intended operations of the Society will be distinctly made known. Its immediate aim is to influence Government in the preference of a more enlarged plan than the intended roadways through Leicester Square and St. Giles's; and its ultimate object is the formation of a grand scheme for the gradual improvement of the Me- tropolis; ancillary to the accomplishment of which, a complete survey of the Metropolis and its suburbs is required. In relation to the expense of this laborious undertaking, Mr. Ausnw of Hatton Garden who has lately completed an exact survey of a crowded neighbourhood, sug- gests that other accurate local plans also exist which might be made available, thus saving both time and cost.
Some portion of the three hundred works of art rejected for want of room at the British Institution, will probably find places in the Suffolk Street Gallery. As no discredit could attach to the artists from their rejection on such a ground, it would be advisable to indicate them in the catalogue, that by a comparison of their merits with those of some for which room was found, the judgment of the managers of the British Institution might be tested. We shall be curious to see also the pro- ductions of some of the unsuccessful candidates for admission to the Water- Colour Society, of which we have heard favourable mention : and we hope to find the members of the Society of British Artists more just towards other exhibiters and less obtrusive on their own part than last year. After the Suffolk Street comes the Exhibition of the New Water-Colour Society ; then follows that of the old original Water- Colour Painters, both of which open next month; and last, the grand annual exhibition of the Royal Academy, which opens to the public on the first Monday in May. The Royal Academy have done themselves the honour to elect Mr. BARRY the architect an Academician : we hope other vacancies may be as worthily filled. The Old Water-Colour Society, which has become a sort of miniature Academy, is so fastidious in its choice of members, that the election of Mr. OAKLEY, a figure-painter, is a piece of news worth mentioning. The New Water-Colour Society, though more particular than they were at first, quietly receive all artists of promise that seek admission ; and among them are many that the old Society would have done well to secure.
Mr. GEORGE HATTER'S Court picture of the Queen's marriage is completed, and shortly to be exhibited at Messrs. GRAVES'S in Pall Mall : where a much more interesting exhibition is now open, of fifty original sketches made by Mr. JOSEPH }Lisa for his Old English Mansions. We call them sketches, because they were made on the spot ; but they are finished almost as highly as pictures, and are beautiful in colour and tone. We have not space to enter fully into their merits at present ; but we recommend all persons of taste to go and see them : the admission is for a short time only, and by tickets obtainable on application at Messrs. GasvEs's.
The three equestrian statues of Wellington are now all in progress : Mr. Wyarr having got the start of his brother sculptors, the one in- tended for the triumphal arch at Hyde Park Corner will first be erected; that for the City, which CHANTREY had begun, is to be finished by his assistant Mr. WEEKES, under ALLAN CUNNINGHAM'S superintendence ; and MAROCHETTI'S supporters having triumphed over all opposition, Glasgow is to have a statue of the Duke, which we heard characterized as unlike both in face and figure. Professor WiLsos's comment on ilaaocuarri's model of the statue is too good to be lost: when asked what he thought of it, the Professor replied, "It wants keeping; for the horse is in an attitude that requires the rider to be whistling." A very fine picture, The Apotheosis of the Magdalen, has been this week added to the Italian and Flemish Gallery in Pall Mall; where two replicas by BM:MEL of the St. George and the Horrors of War, and MARTIN'S Deluge and Creation, are also exhibiting. An exhibition of Old Pictures has lately opened in Piccadilly ; and a French painting by Baron GERARD, of the DAVID school, from CANOVA'S statue of the Princess Pauline Borghese, is exhibiting at the Cosmorama Rooms, Regint Strett.
The Diorama has reopened, with two of its finest pictorial illusions— the Chapel of the Nativity, and the Village of Alagna Overwhelmed by an Avalanche. Mr. BURFORD has repainted his popular panorama of the Battle of Waterloo, which opens on Tuesday, with the Bombard- ment of Acre and a small panorama of Jerusalem. A new set of Dis- solving Views, on a large scale, are announced at the Polytechnic Insti- tution for Easter Monday.
The three Coronation prints, after LESLIE, HATTER, and PARRIS, are nearly completed ; and a triad brilliant of line-engravings, after poetic landscape compositions by TURNER, are already in the hands of Mr. GRIFFITH of Waterloo Place, for the inspection of subscribers : these, and another fine specimen of line-engraving, by GEORGE Doo, from EasmaKE's beautiful picture Pilgrims arriving in Sight of the Holy City, will receive due notice next weeL Our gossip on the news of art must close sadly, with mention of the sudden death of Mr. GEORGE CLARK the sculptor ; who is known for his bronze statue of Major Cartwright, in Burton Crescent. He was em- ployed at Birmingham in casting the foliage for the capital of the Nelson Column ; and died suddenly last Saturday, from the rupture of one of the blood-vessels of the heart. He has, we regret to add, left a family of nine children, wholly unprovided for.
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