THE APPROACHING ART SEASON.
TFCE Art season is rapidly approaching, and gives notice of its advent by the usual and unmistakable signs. With the turn of the year torpidity is replaced by movement and activity. Messrs. Foster, and Christie and Manson, begin to announce choice collections of "old masters" (the property of gentlemen going abroad) for sale by public auction, while in numberless studios our painters are quietly elaborating their thoughts for the gratification of the admirers of modern art. The Society of Female Artists, determined to be first in the field, throw open their sixth annual exhibition, on Monday next, at the gallery of the New Water-Colour Society, and the British Institution, hitherto the earliest exhibition of the year, follows suit the week after. Mr. Frith's mach talked-of "Railway Station" is rapidly approaching completion, and it is said to be superior in point of excellence to the famous "Derby Day." Mr. Maclise's large fresco of the "Meeting of Wellington and Blucher" is finished, and will be accessible to the public after the opening of Parliament. Rumour speaks very highly of this work of the accomplished painter, and it is to be hoped that the "liquid-glass" vehicle which Mr. Maclise has used for the incorporation of his colours will stand the test of time better than that employed in the earlier frescoes in the same building. It is pitiful to see these works, which are decaying and peeling away with a celerity only surpassed by the crumbling of the outside walls of the unfortunate "houses." Last, though by no means least, the International Exhibition building is rapidly. progressing—the picture galleries being entirely built and covered in. -Much tribulation has been suffered by the Committee of Taste as regards the polychromatic decoration of the interior, and it has been finally placed in the hands of Mr. Crace. One wonders that Mr. Owen Jones, whose treatment of the former building was, without exception, hailed as a signal success, should have had no hand in the present affair; but this, as is well known, is not the only mystery connected with the huge unsightly edifice now erectine. at South Kensington. That not onlyMr. Jones, but Sir Joseph Paxton and Mr. Digby Wyatt should have been completely ignored in reference to the present exhibition, is a matter of wonderment that can only be allayed by the knowledge that it is a "job" of the gentleman once known as "Felix Summerly." Sir Joseph received his knighthood solely as an acknowledgment of his great skill in adapting new constructive featureson a large scale to the peculiar exigencies of the occasion. He did not originate a new system of architecture, as was maintained at the time by some of the critics, and the most architectural feature of the building of '51, the transept which enclosed the trees, was the result of a suggestion made by Sir Charles Barry. Still no one would deny the west credit due to Sir Joseph Paxton, or that the building did not admirably answer its intended purpose. Yet Captain Fowke now steps in, and aided solely by his unassisted genius, rides over, not only Paxton, but the whole architectural profession, and produces an erection which, with its dreary, elongated facade and unmeaning domes, is unique in its utter absence of architectural fitness or beauty.
Speaking of the Exhibition naturally brings the Prince Consort to mind, and whatever decision may be ultimately arrived at in reference to the most fitting form of monument to his memory, it is to be hoped that the obelisk will not be adopted. The significance of these objects of Egyptian art is as debatable now as ever, and they have formed a mighty theme for discussion, from the time when the Danish antiquary Zoega published his ponderous folio, De Usu et
Origine Obeliscorum, down to the present day, when Mr. Bell, the sculptor, in the pages of the 13ailditig News strenuously attempted to prove that the obelisk should have no perfectly straight line from
its base to its crowning lines. As lasting records of those ancient Coptic monarchs whose names and titles were sculptured on them, they possess high historical value. Used principally in pairs, as appears from the gateway of Luxor, the remains of Heliopolis, and the two of Alexandria, they were placed on each side the propyla or great entrance to a temple. Occasionally, however, they were placed in the interior, though still in front of gateways, as at. Karnak. The form of the obelisk has a certain effect of unit': rising from its base in one unbroken line, and gradually diminishing in hulk till it culminates in the point of a quadrilateral pyramid it has an aspect of solidity without suggesting ting heaviness, but on what principle of fitness
it should be selected a memorial of the departed Prince is not easy to discover. An Egyptian sphinx, or a winged bull from Nineveh, would be an equally appropriate symbol of our admiration of the Prince, or regret at his loss. It may be all very well to erect one of these ancient monuments in a public place as a curiosity or historical relic, as the French did in the Place de la Concorde, at the somewhat heavy cost of two million francs, but to set up a granite monolith, the surface of which is sculptured with the emblems of a Pagan and forgotten creed to the memory of a Christian Prince, is absurd and meaningless, especially in a country which can boast the art of a Foley, a Maroehetti, or an Alfred Stevens : and if there were no other reason to be urged against its adoption in this instance, it might be found in the fact of the obelisk form being the bu..0.bear of our cemeteries. Vulgarized by perpetual repetition, it becomes simply hideous at Highgate or Kensal-green, where it may be seen doing duty in company with the equally objectionable truncated column and garland, or the more domestic tea-urn and dishcloth. While on the subject of public monuments, I may mention what appears to me an admirable idea for the improvement of Trafalgarsquare and Waterloo-place. The suggestion comes from a. friend, and consists in assigning to those localities the personages of heroes exclusively naval and military. Thus, in Waterloo-place, some fitting memorial to the Duke of Wellington might be placed opposite to that of the" Guards," and looking north. The space between that and the Duke of York's Column southward, and a corresponding space beyond the Guards' Memorial northward, might be devoted to the statues of military commanders of note, placed each side the roadway, and looking inwards. The statues of Napier and Havelock might be removed hence from Trafalgar-square, while ample space would be left for past or future Wolfes, Moores, or .A.bercrombies. Nelson would be in fitter company with Hawke, Rodney, and Col s-wood than with Dr. Jenner and George IV., and thus both Place and Square would more appropriately typify than they do now those services which have materially contributed to England's greatness.
A very excellent lithographic portrait of Mr. Charles Dickens has been lately published. It is executed by Mr. Lane, A.R.A., from a photograph. by Messrs. Watkins. Carefully drawn and modelled, it gives a far pleasanter, yet equally true, version of the popular novelist's features than is to be found in the stereoscopic pictures or the cartes de visite. If the drawing has a fault, it is a certain deficiency of vigour. We have had many likenesses of Mr. Dickens— the effeminate-looking, large eyed, and long-haired portrait prefixed to his earliest works, the idealized head by Mr. Maclise, the brickdust-coloured version by Henri &heifer, and the realistic portrait by Mr. Frith, exhibited a few years hack at the Academy. The last only bears any resemblance to the present print, though there was a semi-truculent look in the painting which the lithograph happily
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