ART.
TRH ROYAL ACADEMY.
[SECOND NOTICE.] IN our first notice, we spoke a little of the reason why the iucreased interest of the public in Art matters had not actually advanced the cause of Art, and considered one or two of the explanations of that apparent anomaly. In this notice, we intend to point out a few of the more interesting works in the present exhibition, giving, as usual, what reasons are admissible in our brief space, for the conclusions we announce. That the Academy, taken as a whole, is peculiarly uninteresting in the subject- matter of its pictures, there can be no doubt, for, to tell the plain truth, there are not half-a-dozen subject-pictures out of the thousand (we omit the architectural drawings, engrav- ings, &c.) which will arrest the public attention. Nay, more than that, looking back swiftly over the compositions which fill the line, we do not at first remember one which stands out amongst its fellows as pre-eminently good, or even pre-eminently striking. Take, for instance, the most ambitious, we had nearly said arrogant, work in the exhibition, a large canvas, full of life-size figures, and entitled " Diana or Christ ?" by Mr. Edwin Long, A. This represents a Christian maiden brought to trial at Ephesus. " Let her cast but one grain of incense, and she is free." Such is the quo- tation attached to this picture, and it sufficiently explains the subject. It seems an ungracious task to find fault with a work which shows so much patience and elaboration, so much research, and, at all events, some amount of worthy motive. But the truth is, that in looking at this composition we are reminded forcibly of King James's retort to his old Scotch nurse, when she preferred an impossible request for her son's advancement,—" I'll mak' him a baroneet, if you like, Lucky, but the Dell himsel' canna mak' him a gentleman." So we feel about Mr. Long,—that the Academy which has already created him an Associate, may go still farther and make him an Academician, but that no number of Academies could ever make him an artist, This is not so much a good picture or a bad picture, as it is not a picture at all. It is no more a picture than the largest panorama in -the world; it lacks, somehow, all
artistic feeling, though it shows so much artistic skill. No artis could have painted the row of women's faces behind the Judger with their absolute uniformity of feature and expression ; they look like repetitions of one another, seen as we sometimes see a long perspective of ourselves, by the accidental composition of two looking-glasses. Indeed, after looking at the picture for a minute or two, one becomes conscious of nothing but a row of straight, rather blunt, noses, which seem to prolong themselves. into infinity. Some wit or other—we forget whether it was in Punch or elsewhere—called this work the " Disputed Cab-fare,' and the witticism, though severe, was not uncalled for. The truth is that the sentiment of the work is false throughout. It is not; morbid, or overstrained, or painful, but simply and utterly- artificial. No man, woman, or child, with the faintest approach to artistic feeling, the slightest amount of dramatic insight,. could for a moment be taken in by this playing, this gentlemanly trifling, with the great facts of faith and martyrdom. The cackle of praise which has followed the exhibition of this composition shows more clearly than anything else could have done, the utter incom- petence of those who profess to lead the public taste, for it shows that they are incompetent to distinguish good manufacture from good art. For, as we have said before, there is no art, rightly speaking, in this picture at all ; the divine fire has never touched it, its merits and its faults alike are outside the categories of Art. There could be no greater satire upon our. English ignorance of all true Art value, than the fact that its painter is probably at the present time. the most successful' artist in England.
Turn from this to the work in the third room facing. the entrance-door, by the newly elected Associate, Mr. Frank Dicksee, entitled "The Symbol," and we find traces of the same lack of artistic feeling which rains Mr..Long's, work. " The Symbol," however, is miles ahead of the- first-named picture, both in feeling, colour, and painting,. and, indeed, only just misses being a great success. It misses- its point from a very curious cause,—that is, the over-anxiety of the painter to make his picture beautiful. To do this, he has had recourse to the introduction of a vast quantity of beautiful things; he has painted each thing with intense patience- and the most careful deliberation ; he has chosen beautiful• colours for his dresses, beautiful marbles for his architecture,. beautiful flowers and trees for his decoration, and beautiful faces and forms for his characters ; he has studied his light and shade with most careful reference to its effectiveness, and composed his lines with equal care,—and then he has some- • bow failed to do more than make every one who sees the picture say, " How beautifully it is painted !" Ali! my dear young sir, may we add to the chorus of congratus lation and praise which has welcomed, and, in one sense,. welcomed justly, your work, the warning whisper in your ear, " It won't do! Very near, indeed, to fine-art, but not the right thing, yet. You are too cold, too clear, too clever, if you like, to be a great artist, at present. Your pictures are to fine-art, what ` behaviour ' is to fine manners, a first-rate sub- stitute, and one which many people will even prefer, but not the real thing." For the execution of this picture, no words of praise. could be well too high. The painting, not to mention other portions, of the arm of the old beggar, is a marvel of patient and delicate work.
In this third room is Sir Frederick Leighton's principal picture, called " Idyll,"—two women reclining under a tree,. and a bronzed shepherd playing the flute to them ; behind, a flat landscape, with a river winding away to the sea.- This work is both refined and beautiful in its drawing, but it lacks vitality, and the composition is unfortunate. In fact, it would cut up into two fairly good pictures,— one of the reclining women, one of the piping shepherd.. As it is, the eye is attracted chiefly by the bare, brown back of the player, and has to be absolutely forced away to the, other side of the picture, before it can take in the women at all. The latter are of that preternatural, waxy transparency of skin, which Sir Frederick Leighton has accustomed us to of late. years, and are most clearly and distinctly, much " too bright and good for how .in nature's daily food." They seem to have been fed on milk and roses, never to have felt a sorrow, or struggled with a thought, or even to have experienced a joy, except a joy of that languid, tepid sweetness, which they are gaining in the picture from the soft air and the softer music.
The difficulty which prevents us and, we believe, many others• from appreciating the beauty of these pictures by the President, is that while they are clearly not natural, and not intended to be, they are still less intellectual or spiritual ; they have no trace in them of the imperious fancy which impels some artists to paint lights that "never were on sea or shore," but seem rather to be carefully - chosen and deliberately - expressed opinions on the part of the painter, that this unmoved sweetness is the thing worth aiming at in life and art. It is curious to think how, with much of the 'Greek form, this painting of Sir Frederick's is utterly at variance with the Greek spirit, and echoes only the sickly side of the old Epicurean creed. To pass for a moment from figure to architectural painting, let us have the pleasure of saying, as strongly as possible, that there is one work in the Academy of unmixed merit and beauty, and that this work is by a woman. This is No. 453, in the sixth room, and is called " St. Mark's, Veuice,—the Piazza Inundated," and is by Miss Clara Moutalba. This is a very large, upright picture, in which the great cathedral church stands, facing the spectator, at the end of the piazza. The marble pavement is slightly flooded, and somewhat in the foreground a knot of pigeons are splash- ing about in the water. The sky is of luminous white clouds, with breaks of blue sky seen between. The church stands in a glow of soft, yellow sunshine. It is difficult to believe that a subject of such intense difficulty as " St. Mark's" has always proved to artists has been thoroughly mastered for the first time by an English lady, and by one, moreover, who, though she has given many proofs of her great talent, has always hitherto found her chief subjects in pictures of water and shipping. But this is indeed the case. Speaking as we do from a thorough acquaintance with the place depicted, we can say without hesi- tation, that this work is as faithful to the general character and details of St. Mark's as even Mr. Ruskin could desire ; and that it is not only faithful, but it is executed with an amount of delicacy and artistic skill which can hardly be praised too highly. If there were no other points of merit, the manner in which the glow and richness of the old mosaics within the arches above the entrance-doors is given, without being obtruded, and is contrasted with the delicate transparency of the wet marble, would be sufficient to demand the highest praise. But from first to last, the picture is beautiful. The foreground and middle-distance of plain, wet marble, is preserved from being tame and uninteresting by its 'wonderful gradations, and by the delicate fidelity with which every little accident of colour, surface, or reflection has been dwelt upon. The sky glistens with wet sunshine (if we may use such a phrase), and the church itself lifts its marble pinna- cles into the clouds, with that strange look of fairy lightness, combined with perfect strength, that is so peculiar a character- istic of the real building. We are not aware whether Mr. Ruskin has yet seen this picture, but if he has, it must surely have done his heart good to see his favourite building so worthily painted.
Mr. Poynter, R.A., this year sends only three contributions, all of them, we believe, portraits, though one is disguised under the name of " Helen," and accompanied by an extract from Mr. Morris's " Earthly Paradise." The largest of these works is a full-length portrait of Lord Wharncliffe, iu shooting- dross, remarkable for nothing but its size, and a certain, hard clearness of painting which occasionally marks Mr. Poynter's work. The portrait Of Helen is a piece of careful but eminently unsympathetic work. The hands are well drawn and carefully painted, and so are the widely-open blue eyes, the folds, too, of the red. an d-gold mantle are very carefully drawn and patterned ;
but here all praise must cease. The skin is of that unpleasant, leathery sort of texture in which this artist rejoices, lacking all transparency and health ; the colour of the dress and background is very unlovely, and the conception of the figure and face as "Helen," is simply absurd. This is no Helen, who has sinned and suffered, and whom sin and suffering have left calm and passion- less, and a little contemptuous ; but a decent English girl, who knows nothing as yet which is not in the boarding-school curricu- lum, and whose beauty, as Mr. Poynter paints it, would certainly never set either Scamander or Thames on fire. Mr. Hook's two pictures of " The Nearest Way to School," and " Diamond Merchants, Cornwall," show him quite at his best. Both are as fresh and healthy as their subjects, and those subjects are, as usual, on the West Coast of England, with fisher-boys and girls poking about amongst the rocks, with the bluest seas and greenest of downs for a background. Let us close this notice with the mention of the noble portrait of Sir Frederick Leighton, by Mr. G. F. Watts, B.A. (484), one of the finest even of Mr. Watts's portraits, and as splendid a piece of colouring as• we know iu u.odern Art.
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