EXHIBITION OF THE ART - UNION PRIZES.
THE pictures chosen by the holders of prizes in the Art-Union of London are exhibited at the Suffolk Street Gallery by free tickets, and the rooms have been crowded with visitors since Saturday last, which was the first day : no doubt the throng will be as numerous during the two or three weeks the exhibition is open ; so great is the attraction of this gratuitous display of works of art. The number of prizes is two hundred and seventy, amounting in value to 8,9001.; the addition of the money paid by individuals over and above the sums awarded them raises it to upwards of 10,000L: this large expenditure is shared among one hundred and fifty artists, but a small proportion of whom are eminent for talent. Truly, here is abundant encouragement for me- diocrity!
The selection, generally speaking, is more creditable to the discern- ment of the prize-holders than that of last year ; there being compara- tively fewer bad things, and many meritorious pictures, some of them of a high character. Still there are but too many evidences of de- feative judgment and questionable taste. The holder of the 400/. prize has flung it away on Mr. MARTIN'S monstrous daub called the Flight into Egypt; which is equally devoid of truth of representation and sublimity of conception, and has no qualities either of art or nature to entitle it to admiration. We confess to be among the number—now no longer a minority—of those who are sceptical as to the imaginative and executive powers of Mr. MARTIN; but his greatest admirers must admit that his Flight into Egypt is a failure. Mr. CHARLES LANDSEER'S De- parture of Charles the Second from the House of Colonel Lane—a tame but pleasing and carefully-painted picture—is not unworthy of the 300/. prize : Mr. M'INNEs's Money-Lender, and Mr. STONE'S Stolen Interview of Charles the First with the Infanta of Spain, also do credit to the choice of the holders of the 2001. prizes. The Microscope, by G. LANCE—a well-studied and highly-finished painting—is deserving of one of the 150/. prizes. The novelty of a white horse with a skin of flesh-coloured satin may possibly make 77ie Cavalier appear to the pur- chaser worth 1501., especially as the picture is by Mr. ABRAHAM COOPER, R. A., and occupied a conspicuous place in the Great Room at the Aca- demy: but what could induce the holder of a 150/. prize to bestow it, and 100/, to boot, on such a sign-board as Going to the Fair, by J. F. HERRING senior P—a bit of road with a stage-coach foreshortened passing a drove of pigs in the middle distance, and three horses of the toyshop breed in the fore3round !—two hundred and fifty pounds for a literal representation of a commonplace scene, without character or interest, painted in the vulgarest style of the stable, though not well enough to satisfy an ostler of discrimination, and as flat, dry, and meagre, as oils can be made to look ! Mr. HERRING has also found another prize holder to give him 501. beyond the 100/. prize for another of his performances, an historical horse-picture—The Countess of Derby's Departure from Martindale Castle. The other five 100/. prizes have been better bestowed : COPE'S Board of Guardians is worth d mble the sum, though 100 guineas only is the price ; FRITH'S Scent from the Vicar of Wakefield is also well deserving ; nor should LEE'S and SIDNEY Comma's cattle. pieces be objected to ; but we cannot bat protest against giving 1001. for Mr. PENSON'S glaring over-wrought water-colour painting of a Monument in Rouen Cathedral. Mr. ALLEN'S beautiful picture of Leith Hill was bought for 135/. by the possessor of an 80/. prize : his other landscapes have not equal merit with this, yet he has sold no fewer than ten to the Art-Union subscribers, who have shown him more encouragement than any other artist. Mr. SEVERN'S Italian Widow, we are glad to see, has found a lady capable of appre- ciating its touching sentiment and elaborate execution, notwithstanding a certain falling short of that high excellence at which the artist aims : the owner of a 701. prize has made up its modest price of log COPE'S Schoolmaster, too, has met with some one who knows how to appro- priate a 701. prize ; which cannot be said of the person who has wasted one upon the representation of a boy with guinea-pigs made of porce- lain,—a pictorial absurdity by G. STEVENS, garnished with a scrap of French by way of title. Among the few instances of good taste, we must not pass unnoticed the choice of LE JEuxes Una and Dorothea, POOLE'S Market-Girl, Mrs. CARPENTER'S Mother and Child (called a Fairy Tale); and the landscapes of A. CLINT, H. J. Boninturrox, Co) LEY FIELDING, and HARDING. Messrs. TOMKINS, PYRE, LANCASTER, SAYER, TENNANT, and other members of the Society of British Artists, are great favourites ; not altogether undeservedly, we admit : but the tastes must be peculiar which relish the styles of Messrs. WOOLMER and ZErrrza. It certainly is a remarkable circumstance that so many as ninety pictures should have been selected from one exhibition alone, that being the worst in London,—we mean the Society of British Artists : it is a number equal to that furnished by the two Water- Colour Societies or the British Institution and Royal Academy added together : and of these ninety pictures upwards of seventy are the pro- ductions of some fourteen members of the Society of British Artists. If this should arise from the exhibition of prize-pictures taking place at the Suffolk Street Gallery, the Committee ought to Interfere. It might be advisable to inquire if there are any professional proxies for country subscribers ; and if so, by whom such men of taste are re- commended. We would suggest that the Committee should, ex officio, choose for those prize-holders who do not visit London.
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