fine Arts.
THE BICKNELL COLLECTION OF PICTURES.
MOST people have heard of the late Mr. Bicknell's collection of pictures, but probably not many, besides his personal friends, and such few lovers of art as would be at some pains to gain admission to the sight, had till very lately seen them, or pos- sessed any distinct idea of the treasure stored in the owner's pleasant house at Herne Hill. These pictures, collected with so much care, and (rarer still) with such great taste, are now, by Mr. Bicknell's death, condemned to final dispersion. And in the large and well-lighted gallery of Messrs. Christie and Manson all the world has during the past week been at liberty (of which, judging by the crowded state of the gallery, it has largely availed itself of its permission) to feast its eyes on some of the best works of our best artists. Before sunset to-day this goodly company of pictures will be scattered ti the four winds by the auctioneer's hammer.
The collection is not strong in figure subjects. True, there are here a lord and a lady by Van Dyck, whom we know by their grand air to be a lord and a lady without help of the catalogue ; a series of illustrations to Bowed() by Stothard, full of his usual grace and richness of colour; and an Etty or two, glowing and tender, as most of his smaller pictures were. Webster, too, has here some of the naughtiest of schoolboys, and Frost some of the daintiest of damsels (in whose occupation, by the way, except, of course, that of the inevitable bathing nymph, there appears to be nothing absolutely inconsistent with a somewhat less nig- gardly supply of drapery than the artist has allowed them.) Yet these are not the principal centres of attraction.
The strength of the collection lies, undoubtedly, in the land- scapes. Beginning with Gainsborough and Wilson, both of whom, however, may be seen better represented in the National collec- tion, and whose value here rests chiefly on the contrast they afford to the landscape painting of the present day, there is not much to dwell upon until we come to men of this century—to P. Nasmyth, Turner, Callcott, Muller, Stanfield, and Roberts. These chiefs of the landscape art are here in force. Callcott's large pic- ture, "An English Landscape," with cattle "finished" by Sir E. Landseer, represents a fair expanse of sunny meadows, with tall trees overhanging a shallow stream. The water spreads in the foreground into a broad and shallow pool, where the cattle find refuge from the afternoon heat. This picture strikes me most with its refinement, but leaves, it must be confessed, a feel- ing of vacancy, caused, I think, partly by the canvass being too large in proportion to the objects painted on it. More satisfactory to my mind is the same artist's picture of "Rochester Bridge and Castle ; " and high as I am inclined to place Callcott as a land- scape painter, I know not where he has left a better than this. The castle and town are seen across the river in the full light of the afternoon sun, and the water, which is spanned in mid- distance by the picturesque old bridge (since given over to Her Majesty's Sappers to practice upon it the art of destruction, and swept away to make room for modern improvements), bears on its placid bosom a variety of small craft, with sail and without, which have this special merit—that they all look real and serviceable, all appear to mean business. The composition is good and perfectly natural, the treatment broad and forcible, without any _exaggeration or approach to blackness; and the result is that you feel you are looking at a piece of genuine nature—real land and real water, lit by real sunshine, and peopled hymen busy about their daily labour. Here and there are signs of incompleteness, as if the artist's hand had ceased from its work before the picture was quite finished (it was brought out of his studio immediately after his death); but the defects are insigni-
ficant, and do not mar the full pleasure given by the merits of the work. There is another painting by this artist, " A View near Southampton "—a quiet bit of green and gray English landscape, which has the appearance of having been sketched or studied on the spot, and reminds one a good deal of Constable. Of Miiller's two, "The Village of Gillingham," and "A Scene in Devonshire," both excellent examples of the master, firmly drawn and powerfully painted, I prefer the latter, notwithstanding some slight damage (remediable or not I do not know) in the centre of the picture. Especially pleasing is the delicate gray in the summer clouds of this picture ; it indicates the power of colouring afterwards more fully developed by the artist in his later works ; for instance, in the picture of " Rhodes" at last year's International Exhibition.
Of all landscape painters, however, it is plain to me, the more I see of his work, that Turner was the prince. Of this veritable magician Mr. Bicknell's collection boasts ten pictures, of themselves worth a subsidy. And if it be still necessary to rebut the often repeated accusation that Turner was not appreciated by his contemporaries, it may be noted in passing that all these ten pictures were bought by the late owner from the artist himself. There is the "Ivy Bridge, Devon," much faded, I suppose, and inferior, perhaps, in its present state to the water-colour "Ivy Bridge" inthe National collection, but still a scene where Jaques might have loved to lie and moralize; and "Calder Bridge, in Cumberland," a picture of the same early period, never exhibitecl,which has also suffered by the unequal fading of its colours. The rest are of a period when Turner was in the zenith of his great powers, and appear to have lost little of their original bril- liance and delicacy of colour ; at least it is not easy to imagine that even Turner's brush could have painted skies more beautiful than those of the three pictures called "Antwerp—Van Goyen looking for a Subject ;" "Helvoetslays—‘ the City of Utrecht,' 84, going to Sea;" and" Wreckers—coast of Northumberland, steam- boat assisting ship off shore." Here, at any rate, is the pearly, opal-like variety of tender grays, the very life of a landscape, which are so hard to transfer to canvass, and if realized at all, are too generally the first to change or disap- pear. Moreover, the high lights which, when (as in Turner) heavily loaded, are peculiarly liable to imbibe dirt, and to darken, have, in these pictures, escaped hitherto without sensible damage. To particularize the various beauties of these three works were an endless task, and perhaps it is only a practical sketcher who can enter into the delight which be is sure Van Goyen must have felt cruising about the harbour in search of what, as soon as he turns his head, he will surely find. But it is worth while study- ing the means by which, in the "Wreckers," the towering rollers are invested with their great size and resistless might—not certainly by painful elaboration of minute details ; rather by the careful selection of a few special characteristics ; for instance, the tossing home by the waves of the ropes still hanging to the wreck timber, which the inhospitable natives (of other days than those of Grace Darling) are busily making booty of, and the toppling crest hanging a moment, as it were, in air before it falls thundering on the beach.
" Port Ruyedael," is another coast scene, in which an effect of singular power is produced by consummate treatment of no other materials than a thundercloud blowing up from the sea over the yeasty waves, with a heavily laden cutter in mid-distance run- ning to port (indicated by a jetty-head) for shelter from the approaching hurricane. The artist here reminds us that in shoal water, near a sandy shore, the sea is not the " dark blue" sea of the poets, but, at least when stirred and driven by a great wind, has a lurid hue of reddish white, very threatening and mischievous in its aspect. I am inclined to think, that this and the " Wreckers," are the best specimens of the master in this celiac- Von, scarcely, if at all, excelled by "The Fighting Temeraire," or any other of his works. The " Palestrina," though more im- portant in subject, and in every respect a fine picture of the class to which "The Childe Harold ; or, Italy," in the National collection, belongs, is comparatively formal and, so to speak, stilted ; and "The Ehrenbreitstein " is slightly exaggerated, both in the drawing and in the colour. The two pictures of Venice—" The Campo Santo " and the " Giu- decca, &c."—are the latest specimens here of Turner's painting. They are each remarkable for their special character. Both are essentially Venetian; but though the boats are not more gaily decked, and the sky does not glitter more keenly in the one than in the other, yet the feeling inspired by them is widely different, the latter picture being as busy and gay as the former is solemn and still. How this difference is produced may, by ;study- ing the two works, be partly apprehended. Much, no doubt, is due to the difference in composition, and especially to the shapes of the masses. But, after all, there will remain an unexplained residuum for which I cannot account. I am compelled, as I am content, to say that a great genius is here whose stops I do not know, the heart of whose mystery I cannot pluck out.
There are many other pictures which, in one of our annual exhibitions, would have claimed special remark. Such are Les- lie's charming "Heiress," who, you see, by a glance, is not spoiled by her great fortune ; Nasmyth's "View near Edinburgh,' care- ful in detail yet broad in effect (a lesson for our young landscape painters) ; Jones's "Battle of Waterloo," on which the Duke pronounced his judgment, "Very good ; nottoo much smoke ; " a small "Sea-shore Sketch," by Boning-ton, as full of sunlight as it is of cracks ; Dyce's "Bing Joash " shooting the arrow of de- liverance ;—very intense in expression, but with an awkwardness about the king's posture, who would probably have drawn his bow more easily on the right knee ; Sir E. Landseer's Highland lassie, with her wilful "prize calf," which, in spite of its colour, is yet an attractive picture ; Miss Mutrie's grapes (" Fruit and Flowers '') which positively amaze you with their roundness ; and many more. I can do no more than allude to the collection of water-colour drawings which filled more than one room at Herne Hill. These are of unecial merit, but include many of Turner's best, and some solid and luminous sketches by De Wint, besides a sketch-of great interest by Count D'Orsay, representing Turner, with his big head and large features, unwieldy body and ill-fitting attire, standing and stirring his tea in the room which his draw- ings helped to adorn. This collection will follow the oil paintings
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