ART.
THE NEW GALLERY.
[CONCLUDING NOTICE.]
Mn. JoHN COLLIER sends his best work of the year, a por- trait of "Mrs. Harold Roller and Joyce" (129), to the New. The picture is well drawn and composed, the manner of paint- ing unaffected and straightforward, the great drawback being a certain lea,theriness in the flesh, a fault disfiguring so much of this industrious painter's otherwise meritorious work. Mr. Collier's work, however, shows the result of a careful and thorough studio training, both at home and abroad. The young artist whose picture hangs next, a portrait of Mr. Watts (30), would benefit considerably by some experience of a similar kind. His work, of which various specimens are shown here, all shows great immaturity and a want of technical know- ledge, a fault which becomes particularly conspicuous when the painter attempts subjects like these at-home portraits, in which the accessories, occupying an important part, and not being in themselves interesting, can only be made so by skill in the manner of painting. In this portrait, the gigantic horse on which Mr. Watts is working looks like stone, and the beams and scaffolding like wood, and so far so good ; but, alas ! every- thing else in the picture, including Mr. Watts himself, is painted in just the same manner, and with just the same texture ; and the result, as may be imagined, is not lifelike. In the present exhibition, though there is so much good work as to enable one to stand a considerable amount of bad, there are undoubtedly many pictures occupying positions on the line which prompt the reflection that however much the power of that magic word " interest " may be a thing of the past with regard to the Services, it is still of the utmost importance in the profession of the painter that he should be acquainted with or related to the powers that be.
Mr. Nettleship shows a gigantic picture of a Polar bear (133) breaking into some Arctic explorers' cciche, through some very theatrical-property-looking ice. We do not understand whether any allegorical or hidden meaning is intended by the fact that the barrels are marked "H.M.S. 'Victory,'" but the painter seems to have inspired himself from Landseer's cele- brated picture of Polar bears coming on relics of the Franklin expedition. The painting is dirty, and has completely missed the subtle variety of tone in this self-coloured animal which Mr. Swan has succeeded in conveying in his picture, No. 27. Mr. Heywood Hardy's portrait of Mr. Scarth (146) gives a good idea of the hearty old hunting-man, a survival of the age John Leech so aptly illustrated, and who looks as if he meant to have many a good day yet. The whole picture is a great improvement on the work of Mr. Lewis Brown, that most high-life of French sporting painters, whose great popularity in Paris has often surprised us.
A very French-looking piece of work is Mr. Edwin Ward's "Eugene de la Penha, Esq." (147); it is a perfect specimen of the kind of work a clever student turns out after a complete art course abroad, and whose motto is,—Try to paint what you see straight off, with as little use of sable brushes as possible. Mr. Wills furnishes a portrait of himself smoking what appears to us a metal pipe (151). Asbestos pipes are bad enough, but metal is too terrible for contemplation. Near by hangs probably the cleverest, though by no means the most agreeable picture in the exhibition,—a portrait of Mrs. Tom Mitchell (154), by Mr. La Thangue. The treatment is very curious, being, according to the catalogue, "studied by lamplight in the drawing-room." The impression of the light catching on the face and dress is strikingly conveyed, and the painting of the new crisp dress a veritable tour de force of brush-work, such as could be expected only from one who, as a student, astonished the Beaux Arts school with his life-size studies from the nude model, executed under the week. Messrs. La Than gue and Shannon would seem to contend as to who should produce the most trickily painted hands and arms ; these are a masterpiece in the brilliant light manner of painting. The face is what we like least, and that has con- siderable importance in one's appreciation of a portrait. On the whole, we fancy this work will not cause many ladies to wish to be handed down to posterity by lamplight.
The next gallery contains a considerable amount of work by followers of the Burne-Jonesian school ; their pictures this year are not very strong or especially interesting, and the master himself is only represented by drawings of heads, fragments, bits of drapery, &e., to be found in the gallery upstairs. Mr. Btu.ne-Jones has not invented this style of work, though to read much written on these studies, one might be well pardoned for imagining he had. It would have been interesting to have had a few early Italian drawings hung for purposes of comparison, as well as work by Ingres and Hippolyte. Flandrin, not to mention the President and Mr._ Watts.
Professor Legros, that high-priest of ugliness, particu- larly affects silver-point, and handles it with a good deal of skill, which can be seen in the twenty-three drawings of various people and decorative subjects by him here. In the whole set there is not, except in the delicate handling of the- point, the least attempt at beauty. We fancy this artist. ignores it even where it exists; but he has reached his climax down-stairs, where his colossal sculptured head of Pan is a positive nightmare. Mr. Lehmann's drawings have a con- siderable interest from the personages represented, as well as. from their own intrinsic merits; it is curious to contrast. several of the portraits of living people with themselves in 1889. The late Emperor Frederick, taken in 1884 (371), is especially interesting. Some clever portrait-work by Mr. Lockhart Bogle should not be overlooked, as well as some good black-and-white drawings of "Surrey Farms" by Mr.. Biscombe Gardner.
Mr. Alfred East has probably his best landscape of the year, "Gay Morning" (208), here, and near him Mr. North displays his curious effects in "Winter Passing Away" (206; he is one of those artists the first effect of whose pictures upon the spectator who tries painting himself at all is, How on earth does he do it ? We do not altogether like what he generally does give in his pictures, clever as it is ; he seems to be sacrificing everything to representing that most difficult of effects, the delicate colour and mystery of ramification of late autumn and winter trees, and certainly so far he is successful his drawback is a certain unreality and vagueness which make it somewhat difficult to understand what he is aiming at Mr. E. Stott's "Nature's Mirror" (180) is a bold attempt to foist some of the worst features of French impressionism on the long-suffering British public ; one turns with relief to Mr. Henry Moore's delightful, fresh, breezy "In Sight of Sark "' (188). Mr. Henry Ford contributes a small picture, " London Garden" (195); if so, it is a successful picture of a very rare thing, a pretty London garden. Mr. Napier Hemp has several of his always delightful seascapes. We particularly liked a small one called "A Fisherman's Harbour" (247), a haven particularly to be envied during the recent tropicah weather. Miss Dorothy Tennant makes a bold bid for popular- favour with "Reading for Honours" (243),—a rather comely damsel studying in bed, in somewhat garret-like surroundings..
The most striking work amongst the sculpture, in our- opinion, is Mr. Watts's " Clytie " (403), though there are- some clever things besides, among which we must place Mr. Everett Millais' study of a typical bloodhound, " Gwynne" (417), in which all the characteristics of the bree& are well brought forward.
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