PICTURE SALES: MR. MILLER ' S GALLERY.
As our columns for the last few weeks have witnessed, this is the thick of the art-exhibition season. But the exhibitions which charge a shil- ling admittance are not by any means always the beat: concurrently 'With them, the picture-auctions are also flourishing, ar.d the auctioneer's "two days preceding" attract, and deserve to attract, a selecter but no less eager throng to inspect works less alloyed with the merely ephe- meral
The recent sale by Messrs. Foster of Mr. Pemberton's water-colours has been among the most noted as yet of the present season ; including as it did the two exquisite Turners of Virginia Water, some adpirable specimens of Cox and Hunt, and several of Lewis's elaborate and un- matched animal studies.
Another Liverpool collector, Mr. Miller, will furnish Messrs. Christie and Manson with a three-days sale, beginning on the 20th May, re- markably extensive and interesting. Few of our collectors have evinced in their purchases so much self-reliance and sureness as Mr. Miller; whose gallery presents accordingly, with many recognized masterpieces, a firm substratum of good work, bought for its merit's sake rather than its name's. One interesting feature is the art of Liverpool itself, which numbers several names which have earned or are achieving distinction; the landscape painters William Davis, full of feeling and insight, Oakes,
and Robert Tongs; the individual domestic painter Campbell; and va- rious others. Of the five oil Turners in the sale, three more especially, the Van Tromp, Whale-ship, and Saltash, are of eminent quality ; and, there are many of his choicest water-colours, which were conspicuous in the splendid show of Manchester. A sketch by Sir Joshua, itself most highly valued, is said to have suggested his celebrated picture of the Girl and the Lamb : other great names are Etty, Linnell, Wilkie, and Con- stable. The Prwraphaelite school also is represented in force far beyond anything that has hitherto appeared in a sale-room. Some of the ex- amples have never yet met the public eye ; but, of such alone as have been exhibited, there are the glorious "Autumn Leaves" of Millais, his "Blind Girl," Anthony's Beech.trees and Fern, which won admiration in the Great Paris Exhibition as well as in London, and the noble "Burd Helen" of Windus, another of the Liverpool artists.
[The paper on the National Gallery is postponed till next week.] [For Booxs, THEATRES, MUSIC, LETTERS TO TIUE EDITOR, tree Supplement.]
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