ART.

THE ROYAL ACADEMY.

[SECOND NOTICE.

ON entering Gallery III., one of the first things that catches the eye is Mr. Herkomer's striking likeness of Mrs. Gladstone (205), which, on the whole, we should consider the most suc- cessful of the artist's portraits this year ; the gallant Colonel hanging close by, from the same hand, appears to us, if we may venture to doubt the Professor's knowledge of anatomy, most unnaturally stumpy. In the opposite corner is Mr. Ouless's 6. Colonel North" (224), a presentation portrait to the Nitrate King; it is decidedly a meritorious work, and there is less of that stoniness of colour in the flesh which so often disfigures this painter's clever work, and the accessories are well chosen and harmonious, the eastern rug on the table being especially well painted. Near the door hangs, in our opinion, the most humorous picture in the Academy, Mr. Briton Riviere's Of a fool and his folly there is no end" (231). Mr. Riviere, who has so often succeeded in like subjects, has here surpassed himself. The idea, too, is novel. A party of knights armed cap-a-pie, riding out on a foray, whose steeds have been disagreeably startled and surprised by the sudden appearance of a fool mounted on his ass and brandishing his windbag. The mingled expressions of annoyance and amuse- ment on the knights' faces, as their ponderous " great horses" plunge and kick, are admirably given ; one rider, whose steed has started bang down-hill, is evidently thinking of his horse's knees. If we might suggest any improvement, the donkey should have been braying, a sound always par- ticularly annoying to the susceptibilities of the nobler animal. Sir John Millais' " The Old Garden " (242) is a picture. of A delightful old Scotch garden, with its clipped yew hedges and fountain ; we miss the regulation sun-dial and peacock.

We prefer it to " Murthly Water," but it appears flat, and we doubt if it would have run much chance if sent in for exhibition by one outside the pale. Next door hangs " The Young Duke" (24.3), in which pictuie are strongly presented all Mr. Orchardson's merits and defects; we confess to pre-

ferring the painter when he gives us modern subjects. It is all very well to say that the Duke and his noble army of cousins or nearer relations have been drinking hard, but that will not account for the property, or rather, old-clothes-shep• air of, all the costumes, wigs, and accessories. There is a

frowsy, second-hana about them all which, whatever were their failings, was not characteristic A 'Om seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Contemporary pictures, and the way In which Meissonier or GerOme have treated similar subjects and costumes, will illustrate our meaning. Apart from this, the table, with its luxurious adjuncts, is touched in with the prac- tised skill which so individualises and, so to speak, signs with every stroke of the brush this painter's work.

On the other hand, " King Charles Summoning Hull (260) shows all the research and care in the costume and character of the period that are so characteristic of Mr. Gow's work. The horses, too, are most carefully and well drawn. The drawback is a certain tightness and hardness in the handling which takes from the life of a picture. A little of that loose dirtiness which, in our opinion, disfigures much of Mr. Orchardson's work, would be of great advantage here, where the picture is rather over-clean.

The President's " Greek Girls Playing at Ball" (300) will hardly satisfy even his warmest admirers ; the modelling is all in bumps and unaccounted-for roundness of form, and the purple flying draperies look like some curious products of chemical works'gushing out of the factory.

Mr. Luke Fildes' An Al-Fresco Toilette " (307), is un- doubtedly a well-painted picture of a pretty girl, and as such will afford pleasure to many ; others may perchance regret that this, one of our cleverest painters, does not leave the Van Haanen business alone, and seek pastures new. The principal figure is beautifully painted, especially her arms, and head of hair of that particular tint which the aesthetes are pleased to. trace back to Mona Lisa, but which more probably, though less romantically, may be accounted for by the long Austrian occupation of the city of lagoons.

Mr. Alma Tadema's " Shrine of Venus " (313) is a capital specimen of the master, with more beauty of feature than he- often allows his personages; it is mere reiteration to point out the merits of this work, which is cleverly isolated from much surrounding coarser style of painting, by being arranged in a species of shrine with a blank panel below, giving it all the advantages of very deep framing.

Mr. Vicat Cole's " Summons to Surrender" (343) is a large, breezy canvas, with the great Spanish galleon towing on one side, and Drake's pinnace leaving his smaller vessel to go aboard ; it is a large, imposing picture, slightly theatrical, which would be in its right place in Plymouth Town Hall.

Mr. L. Fildes' Sisters " (372) is noticeable for the admirable execution of the white ball-dresses, one of the best pieces of brush-work in the exhibition. Mr. Solomon's " Gladys" (393) is certainly another ; the little face, and action of the hands holding the white stuffed rabbit, at once childlike and natural, are quite worthy of this clever young artist's reputation.

Mr. Wyllie's "Homeward-Bound Pennant" (394) is a good example of this truly English and national painter. The ship has been in commission for some time, judging from the state of her sides, and is flying her abnormally long pennant with a bladder at the end, to prevent it draggling in the water ; this signifies paying-off. The bluejackets in their whites clustering on her bows, the flash of red of the Marine sentry, as also the shore-boats, full of sweethearts and wives wel- coming her home, are all alive, and the ship looks like the great home on the water with her human freight, instead of, as so often happens in shipping subjects, seeming as if painted from a neat little model.

In Gallery V., Mr. Peppercorn has evidently been inspiring himself from Corot in " The Lane" (452). Mr. Charlton con- tributes one of the few battle-subjects from the apparently inexhaustible " Balaclava Light Brigade Charge " (458). The horses, needless to say, are well drawn, but appear of a little too good stamp for troopers. We also gather from King- lake that the sides of the valley were occupied by the Russian riflemen, who do not appear here. Mr. Tuke'a " All Hands to the Pumps !" (464) is, in our opinion, one of the most impressive pictures in the Academy ; it is an unexaggerated and realistic rendering of a stirring page in sea-life. The figures are the real stamp of men shipped in the merchant service, in opposition to the show Coastguardsman sailor so dear to marine painters ; it is as unaffectedly true to Nature as Dana's book, " Before the Mast." Poor fellows ! they are in a perilous plight, and the shattered state of the Union Jack, flying upside down as a signal of distress, shows that their suspense must have lasted for some time ; we hope the craft the man aloft seems to be signalling will bear down on them in time. The expressions of the various men pumping, and the water gushing out of the pumps, are wonderfully rendered. Notice especially the plucky mate hailing some one aloft, and the agonised expres- sion of a poor boy, who is evidently thinking that this is the end of his short sea-life. The manner of painting shows French influence, but the imagination and inspiration of the picture is English in the best sense, and we prefer this picture, with all its imperfections, to the two works of the same school in Gallery VI. which have been much more talked of and noticed.

Mr. Herkomer's portrait of Mr. Pope (495) is marred by being considerably over life-size, a fault specially emphasised when the subject is naturally as colossal as the eminent Q.C. Mr. Shannon's "Mrs. Lycett Green and Eddie" (502) has great cleverness in the execution, and the attitude of the little child, who ought by his toilet to be in bed, nestling up to his gorgeously attired mother, is effective; yet somehow the whole has a little the look of a valentine, and hardly seems a picture one -would like to live with constantly, though in that respect we should prefer it to Mr. Schmalz's " On the Banks of Allan Water" (535), which appears to us the acme of affectation. A clever little bit of modern London life is Mr. Papendrecht's " Scots Guards Pipers in Hyde Park" (546), unfortunately hung too high to be seen well. Mr. Noble, in " The Lion's Jaws " (549), is harking back to the days when Sir George Beaumont would have no landscape without at least one brown tree ; this is brown all over, and looks curiously different in tone from most of the work around. " Mrs. George Gribble " (564), by Mr. Sargent, is a clever por- trait of a lady curiously entwined with a blue-fox boa ; it is needless to dwell on the skill of execution, but it is curious how completely the artist has failed in giving that grande dame air which the older painters never seem to have missed. "School is Out" (568) is a clever little picture in which Miss Armstrong rather recalls Daignan Bouveret.

We cannot congratulate Lady Butler on her " French Cavalry Leaving a Breton Town" (578), and turn with relief to Mr. Peter Graham's " Solan-Geese Clustering on a Gray Crag" (602). One seems to hear the cry of the gulls and the tumbling of the restless surf on the crags far below.