ART.

[FIRST NOTICE.] WE do not purpose to detain our readers with a long description .of the furnishing and architecture of this Gallery,—they are pro- tably familiar with all such details, as full accounts have been given in the daily papers. One or two remarks only need be made on the general plan which has been pursued in the decora- tion and arrangement of the pictures. This Gallery was, we understand, founded with two chief objects,—first, to enable .pictures to be seen under as favourable circumstances as would be the case in any ordinarily tasteful dwelling-house ; and second, to give the public an opportunity of seeing and the artists of showing those works which, from some cause or other, were un- fortunately excluded from the usual exhibitions of the Academy -and Water-Colour galleries. And perhaps there was a third object in view, namely, to put the work of a certain school into that prominent position which class-influence and artistic jealousy had always hitherto denied to it, and point the contrast by -exhibiting, side by side, Academic and non-Academic master- pieces.

These objects have been gained, and despite many short- comings, some of which we shall have to notice further on, the Grosvenor Gallery stands now an example of a most plucky

-enterprise successfully carried out. It would be easy enough to sneer at some of the features of this collection, such, for instance, as an undue preponderance of amateur work, and a certain silk- -cushioned style of art, of which there is a good deal ; but it seems to us that these defects are only such as were inseparable from a first attempt of this kind, and that, on the whole, the selection -and arrangement of the pictures has been done fairly and well. In any ease, Sir Coutts Lindsey deserves the thanks of the -artistic portion of the public for enabling them to see with every -advantage of light and colour the work which the more thoughtful -artists were doing. It would, we think, have been a slight im- provement if the red-silk hangings of the wall had not had such -a shiny pattern on them, and the green velvet of the dado is a little staring in colour at present ; but London smoke and dirt will soon tone down all this obtrusiveness, and in the meantime, -those people who think that it is necessary to hang pictures upon some dirty neutral shade of colour may learn a useful lesson. We propose in this first notice to mention only the West Gallery, leaving the large East room and the Water-colours to our second notice.

Undoubtedly the finest things in this room are the contribu-

tions of Watts and Burne Jones, and between these painters no -comparison should be made, for they have chosen different aides of their art, and are both right in their way. Mr. Watts has always treated his pictures with but little reference to colour, -or perhaps we should rather say that in his grave, thought- ful work, the splendour of colour would be more or less ;of a disturbing element, and as such he has always re- garded it. This is the more noticeable, as there can be but little doubt, to any one who has seen much of his work, that Mr. Watts is possessed of true feelings for colour, and that his rejection of it springs from deliberate choice, and not from incapacity. Every large picture of Mr. Watts's which we remem- ber has been painted in subdued tones of brown, and grey, and green, and within this range we should imagine him to be un- equalled; but the effect of such tints is invariably a little sombre, and consequently well suited to the class of subjects which he generally chooses. Burne Jones, on the other hand, is a colourist pure and simple, and is without doubt the second, if not the first, colourist which England possesses, the other being Holman Hunt. Of these two, we should assign the first place to the latter, because he has shown equal beauty with Thane Jones, and possesses besides greater power in rendering the natural hues of objects. Those who remember "The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple," which was exhibited in London some dozen years ago, will remember the unequalled skill with which the gorgeous hues of the dresses, the decorations of the Temple, and the bla7ing Eastern sunshine, were painted ; and though Burns Jones shows equal feeling for the harmonies of colour, he chooses his 'subjects as a rule in, or on the borders of, fairy-land or legendary tales, and throws round them lights and shadows, which are not often those of this lower earth. Both Watts and Burns Jones are great imaginative painters, but the Royal Academician finds congenial subjects in grave portraiture or Biblical history ; while the younger painter stands gladly at "the gate which is called Beautiful," and places before our dimmer eyes all the visions of his exuberant fancy clothed in the brightest hues. And so from Watts we have his famous picture of "Love and Death," and fronting it, at the other end of this west gallery, we have love triumphant over wisdom in "The Beguiling of Merlin," the picture by Burne Jones. How can we compare these two,—is it not the old contrast of youth and age over again ? What we would wish to impress upon our readers is the inestimable value of all really great imaginative power, and therefore the superiority of any pictures, such as those of Watts and Burns Jones, over any amount of imitative dexterity like that of Alma Tadema, or tours de force such as the portraits of Mr. Millais. The two styles of painting are on a totally different plane ; one but little higher than the merely mechanical art of the Indian or Chinese, while the other is the development in a high degree of the noblest faculty of our nature, that of the imagination. And what we chiefly hope for from this Grosvenor Gallery is that it will enable people who have any real taste to see the difference between painting which is clever, but which is also shallow and vulgar, and painting which is the noble result of toilsome thought, as well as manual dexterity. Compare in this respect the three paintings by Millais of the daughters of the Duke of Westminster with that of the Italian child knit- ting by Holman Hunt, and you will see easily that though the first three are ladies of the highest rank and cultivation, and the fourth is only a peasant's child, yet that there is far greater grace, refinement, and delicacy about the last than the first- named pictures. And how are we to account for this ? Do you suppose that there was so much expression and feeling in the child which Holman Hunt painted, and that there were none in the faces of the Ladies Grosvenor? Not a bit of it. But Holman Hunt painted thoughtfully all that he could find in the face before him, and so it remains instinct with all the unconscious sweetness and

vague fancies of pure childhood ; while Millais has had no other object than to produce three female half-lengths in white silk

dresses. Likenesses they may be, but they are without ex- ception the most soulless and degraded pieces of work by a first-rate artist which we have ever seen, and we can hardly believe that they were painted by the same hand as "The Huguenots."

The first pictures, in the order of the Catalogue, which we shall mention are those of Mr. Poynter, R.A., Nos. 14-21. Nearly all of these, if we mistake not, have been exhibited before, either at

the Water-colour galleries, the Academy, or the InternationaL We remember especially seeing No. 15, "Andromeda," at the

last-mentioned exhibition. This is the most thoroughly success- ful, to our mind, of all Mr. Poynter's smaller classical pictures, and has not that peculiarly cold, unpleasant colour which his flesh- painting often possesses. Nos. 16 and 20, portraits of Mrs.

Edward Poynter and Lady Wensleydale respectively, are the two best of the five female portraits which are here, and they are

quite magnificent ; for thorough, uncomprising truth, we do not think that there has been finer water-colour work than these two, though we cannot but think that the first-mentioned is a little too severe in treatment. It is a very hard trial to any lady's face to paint her in a dark blue gown, very low in the neck, and unrelieved by any spot of white whatever. The next division to that of Mr. Poynter is occupied by two large upright pictures by Mr. Watts, R.A. The first (No. 22) is a portrait of the Honourable Mrs. Percy Wyndham, and shows her at full length, standing against a background of laurel-leaves. This is a fine portrait, but we have no space to do more than mention it in passing. "Love and Death" (23), by the same artist, is one of the pictures to which we have alluded above as showing great imaginative power. It represents the struggle be- tween the adverse powers, and the painter's interpretation certainly shows Death as the victor. Death is here bereft of all the usual Death's-head and skeleton effects by which painters have usually agreed to typify him, and we are only shown the back of a man of enormous strength, draped in grayish-white robes from crown to heel. The only portion of the figure clearly visible is one out- stretched arm, of the same ghastly hue as the robes, with which be is thrusting aside Love, who stands in front of him, barring the threshold. Love is somewhat more conventionally treated, as the usual round-limbed boy with wings, but in his face and figure Mr. Watts has succeeded most wonderfully in showing the frantic struggle against the irresistible. Death is moving across the threshold, " unhasting, undelayed ;" and Love, with his withered roses and draggled wings, cannot avail for even a moment's delay. We wish we could afford the space to go into this picture more minutely, but we can only commend it to our readers as the finest work which this painter has produced, and one of the most noble figure-paintings of the English school. Next to these are the three portraits by Millais that we mentioned above, and a sketch entitled, "Stitch, stitch, stitch," intended to illus- trate Hood's "Song of a Shirt." Nos. 29-36 are all works by Alma Tadema, and as such, we know that as far as they go they must be considered of first-rate quality. But it is a pity that the most interesting and best-painted portion of that artist's picture should nearly always be the inanimate material. The worst of these is the most ambitious, No. 33, " Phidias show- ing the Frieze of the Parthenon to his Friends," where Phidias's friends and Parthenon are alike uninteresting ; and the best is a very small, upright picture, entitled "The Bath," one of the classical interiors which have made this artist famous. Then

we come to the division occupied by W. B. Richmond, of which we can only say that his large picture, No. 37, '6 Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon," seems to miss all the feeling of the scene, and were it not for some good painting of twisted tree-trunks, would be quite unworthy of notice. The centre division of this room is occupied by Sir Coutts Lindsay's portrait of Lady Lind- say, playing the violin, and several of the baronet's smaller works. There is no doubt that this is in many ways a commendable work, but the truth is that it is overweighted by the pictures round it, neither the quality nor feeling of the work being able to bear comparison with that of the professional contributors. The small pictures by the same artist are uninteresting.

Next comes Holman Hunt, Nos. 46-49, one of whose pictures has not arrived, and only shows an empty frame, with "The Plains of Esdraelon" marked upon it. The "After-glow in Egypt" was, if we mistake not, exhibited some years since, and is a won- derful piece of gorgeous colouring. But we do not think this pic- ture, as a whole, is equal to Mr. Hunt's other works, and we rather grudge such immense labour and care bestowed upon a somewhat uninteresting subject as this Egyptian woman, with her wheatsheaf on her head and pigeons at her feet. The same remark would apply to "The Lantern-maker's Courtship," a street-scene in Cairo. But Mr..Hunt sends at least one gem, and that is No. 47, "An Italian Child." We have spoken of this picture above. Albert Moore is only represented by single figures, of which by far the best is No. 52, "The End of the Story,"—a tall woman in a yellow garment, with a transparent white robe draped round her. Mr. Moore is, as far as we know, the only artist of the present day who has thoroughly mastered the folds of drapery, particularly those of thin materials, and some of his draped figures are as beautiful in this respect as ancient Greek statues. Of Mr. Spencer Stanhope we cannot speak in praise; his large picture, though showing considerable power of painting, is but a feeble imita- tion of an old master, and by far the best of his works is No. 56, an unpretending study of a maiden in a punt, entitled, 46The Mill."

No. 57, "Mrs. George Smith," by F. W. Burton, is the most powerful work of this artist which we remember. It was exhi- bited in the Water-colour room at the Royal Academy some years since. This work appears to us to have all the power of oils, with a transparency and brilliancy of flesh-painting which is scarcely ever attainable in that medium, the painting of the masses of black hair being especially fine. Mr. Burton, it may be remembered, was president of the Old Water-Colour Society, some years ago, and withdrew with Mr. Burne Jones when that gentleman's painting (the subject, if we remember right, was " Cephalus and Procris") was taken down by order of the Com- mittee. He has, we believe, ceased to paint of late years, owing to bad health, but must still be considered at the head of English water-colour art. There is a picture beneath this, by Mr. Strudwick, which shows a decided advance upon his last year's picture in the Academy. It is called "Love's Music," and is a painting in various divisions of the different phases of feeling which love excites. It is a long narrow picture, and its arrangement and general treatment seem to be imitated from an old master, but many of the figures are very graceful, the small cupids near the central figure being especially fanciful and pleasing.

We must close this first notice with the mention of the works or Mr. Burne Jones, which undoubtedly form the special feature of this exhibition. It must be nearly ten years, if we remember rightly, since this painter's work has been publicly exhibited, and he has, we have been given to understand, during that time had several of his pictures refused by the Hanging Committee of the Royal Academy. If this be the case, he has, at all events, now gained some compensation, for here, in the same room with four of the best Academicians, Watts, Poynter, Leslie, and Millais, he has the place of honour, and his pictures take an, at least, equal rank with theirs. It is hardly to be doubted that now the public have been allowed to see these works side by side, that they will re- cognise their transcendent ability, and give this artist, whose pic- tures have been ridiculed and sneered down so long, their hearty recognition. The three large pictures of Mr. Blume —we shall not mention the others—are Nos. 59 to 61, and are entitled, "The Beguiling of Merlin," "The Days of Creation," and "Venus's Mirror" respectively. All three of them have some special beauty. The first represents the scene which Tennyson has made familiar to all of us.in his idyll of "

The moment Mr. Burne Jones has taken to illustrate is the one when the hawthorn-tree is encircling Merlin, who with glassy eyes lies back against one side of the split trunk, with the flowering white hawthorn-blossom hanging round him in heavy clusters on- every side. " Vivien" is reading the charm from the magic book, and eyeing the wizard askance as she does so. There will no, doubt be many who will assert, as usual, that the figures are out of drawing, the lower limbs of Vivien seem unduly long, and the attitude is perhaps a little strained ; but on the whole, thiw picture is one of the most delicious pieces of subdued colour possible, the whole picture being painted in very quiet tones of purple, grey, white, and green. We must direct the attention of our artistic readers to the painting of the white hawthorn, which is quite unsurpassable for delicacy and truth. "Venus's Mirror" is a bright pool, into whose still face look a collection of young girls clad in bright robes ; some are kneeling, to see themselves better, some standing, and of every one the exact counterpart is seen on the surface of the pool, broken here and there by the heavy leaves of water-lilies. It should be especially noticed how the artist has contrived that the forget-me-note which border the surface of the pool should, owing to the irregularities of the bank, encircle each of the fair women's reflections.

"The Days of the Creation," which is this artist's master- piece, is a picture in six panels, representing typically, by single figures of angels with crystal globes in their hands, the six periods of the Creation. The number of angels increases in each successive panel, till the last one, where all six are assembled, with their emblematic globes ; and at their feet site a seventh angel, with a harp, singing,—intended, we suppose, to signify the rest of the seventh day. It would be worse than useless for us to attempt to describe this picture. It is one of those of which the charm can only be felt, and of which words can give but a faint idea. Nothing would be easier than to pull it to pieces, and the majority of the remarks which we have heard while standing before it (and we have been five times) have been of this kind :—" What's all this about it? Oh, angels, ah! I don't care about them ; wonderful frame, isn't it? Who is it by? Burne Jones ! Who's he ?"—and so on, ad infinitum. We may, however, point out two or three small things as deserving of some attention ; for instance, the manner in which Mr. Burne Jones has contrived to render each successive day more gorgeous in colour, till on the sixth the whole canvas seems alive with bright faces and waving wings ; and technically, we should mention, as peculiar to this artist, the use of gold throughout all six panels, and the marvellous lustre which he has managed to produce thereby on the wings and garments of the angels,