FINE ARTS.
THE ROYAL ACADEMY: PORTRAITS.
THOSE who give order for a portrait usually desire a record—the best they can have—of the person portrayed: but the picture is also a record of the artist's skill; and it would be well if some of our portrait-painters, who have an ambition beyond that of " making the pot boil," could remember that any " portrait of a gentleman," hastily dashed off at so many guineas, may hereafter be given in evidence against them. The " portrait of a gen- tleman" by Titian or Vandyk is a work of price, though the race that valued the record of the individual is extinct and the name passed into oblivion: the most illustrious fame of a Wellington, a Scott, or a Pius, will _fail to rescue many portraits which are hurried into oblivion by their in- herent worthlessness. It is a fine thing to earn so many guineas at a few sittings; but the true painter will reflect with sadness that a large part of -a good yearly income may be gained at the expense of immortality.
Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die," is the maxim of the many.
The essentials of a portrait are, resemblance, character, life, and good painting. A mere "good likeness" will please the family, and in cases of eminent persons will be useful as an historical record where the fact is well attested; but to obtain any general interest, the other three essentials are the most needful, and it is in those that the common order of portraits most fail: hence the dulness which the spectator feels in surveying a nu- merous collection of contemporary portraits. One of the happiest in depicting character is Mr. Watson Gordon; who exhibits many pictures this year. Among the more noticeable am, Mr. Rutherfurd Lord Advocate of Scotland, Mr. Adam Black Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and Dr. Lee Principal of Edinburgh University; all excellent, especially in individuality and character. They are above the average, too, in point of life; though that is diminished by a want of force and substance, which becomes more apparent towards the lower extremi- ties,—as though the artist had depended too much on the mere practice incidental to the paid occupation of portrait-painting, and was not so com- pletely master of the whole figure as of those parts usually included in a portrait. The composition and design of Mr. Gordon's pictures are con- ceived with that active exercise of the mind on which we have insisted. It is in colouring that he displays least power. The " effect " at the first view is generally good—well adapted to keep up the look of life in the principal figure—the shadows, for instance, are cleverly caught: but the painting suffers upon strict examination. What on the first hasty glance appears to be a happy match of the complexion, dark or fair, pale or florid, proves on more analytical scrutiny to be disfigured by dinu browns and murky stains that are not seen in nature. The best piece of painting by Mr. Watson Gordon this year—the one in which the sense of pigments is most lost in a skilful imitation of flesh tints—is the portrait of an elderly lady, numbered 185 in the Catalogue.
Mr. Francis Grant seems to us not to do justice to his own powers and repute. His portraits have a considerable amount of life, and that amount of surface character that may be given in a sketch; and they are rapidly degenerating to be mere sketches. We make no doubt that the picture of Mr. Pemberton Heywood is, at a very general glance, a " good likeness"; but if so, it is still no more than a tantalizing sketch. The execution is as washy as scene painting; there is not the slightest modelling in the -features; and if a friend make any attempt to discern the details of Mr. Pemberton Heywood's features, he will be grievously disappointed to find nothing but splashes of strangely-coloured oil-paints: on examination, you see that the shady side of Mr. Heywood's nose looks as if some blackguard had been throwing mud at the gentleman; and the red of the upper lip is a smear of darkish liquid. The portrait of Mr. James Farquhar, in High- land dress, is a smart picture, and the fair complexion is well hit off; but the legs are weak and ill-drawn—genteel copies from the figure of the to- bacconist's shop. " George Hudsou, Esquire," the burly Potentate of Rail- ways, is endowed with pewtery tints of face. It is a pity to see these growing weaknesses in a painter who can put forth a portrait of so much animation as the equestrian sketch of Lady Dalmeny. Mr. Horsley's portrait of the Earl of Shaftesbury—full of life and cha- racter—sober, vigorous, and effective—also fails in the colouring: it is one of the stained pictures, dyed in patches with brown and other in- human tints.
It will not be understood that we object to the use of brown in a picture: any colour of the palette may be justified—like the most anomalous in- tervals in musical harmony—by successful effect. The test of the proper use is this. For every picture there is a proper point of view, which would be determined by its linear perspective: that ought to be the point of view at which the forms are best discerned and at which the tints appear to be most harmoniously blended. When the tints are skilfully used, at a fair distance from the painting, though still near enough to discern the forms, the pigments lose their own literal inherent colour, and tell merely as the tint of the object to be painted according to position.and light. Where the ,colours are unskilfully used, you still detect the nnconcocted browns, reds, greys, &c.; and you do not lose the distinct perception of those unconcocted tints until you withdraw so far that the forms of the object become indistinct.
A very glaring instance where a tolerable effect breaks down upon scru- tiny, is Mr. Sant's Earl of Mount Edgecumbe. Half seen, there is some-
thing imposing in the effect of space and breadth: but there is mesub- stance, no truth of colouring in the flesh: go near enough to see the fea- tures, and the fatal browns or other nondescript tints dawn upon the view.
Among the painters who appear freest from these dingy then-Ions of our contemporary English school, is Mr. Linnell; whose "Morning Walk "— portrait of a middle-aged lady in a walking-dress—is clean and luminous in colouring. It wants decision of line; the forms being over softened; as they might be in a plaster cast exposed to rain.
Another of the emancipated is Mr. S. Laurence: his portrait of Sir Frede- rick Pollock—made by its ugly official costume an ungrateful subject—is executed with unusual power of colouring. The portrait of Dr. 'Whewell is forcible, and less glaring. Mr. Laurence has life, character, and powerftil colouring: he is deficient in texture, and even in colouring his pictures are heavy. They are too positive. In the Whewell portrait, for instance, there is no part which offends the eye with the unnatural stains that so many painters introduce as " neutral tint "—the light plays upon the receding forms of the brow with all the luminousness of nature; there is no raw red; but the whole effect is too emphatic in its red tinge. Compare the left hand in the Pollock portrait with the left hands in all the portraits on the same line along the wall, and all except that one look as if they had been dipped in some black liquid—that alone displays the colour of flesh by daylight.
A considerable number of portraits merit attention either for their sub- jects or their treatment. Mr. J. P. Knight has a striking portrait of Lieu- tenant Holman, the blind traveller' —a man of benevolent and energetic aspect, with a venerable white beard. Another of Mr. John Bright. Mr. E. U. Eddie has the Bishop of London, and a clever picture commemorat- ing the foundation of the Beaufoy Scholarship in the City, with portraits of Mr. Hobler, Mr. Warren Stormes Hale, Dr. Mortimer, and Mr. Thomas Brewer; Mr. Pickersgill, a portrait of Mr. Henry Hallam, Mr. John Heath- coat, M.P., and others. There are portraits of the Honourable Sidney Herbert, by Grant; Mr. Maclite, by E. M. Ward; General Wright Cheva- lier, by J. Hollins; the Marquis of Northampton, begun by Phillips the late Royal Academician and finished by H. W. Phillips; Viscountess Maid- stone, by the Honourable H. Graves; Lady Augustus Loftus, by 0. Manara ; the Dutchess of Sutherland, by R. Buchner; Father Mathew, by S. West, &v.
In the room for miniatures and drawings is a countless host. We notice several of George Richmond's clever drawings, at once delicate, character- istic, and forcible; Dartiguemare's substantial likenesses; and others that improve upon the washy sketches once in vogue.
In the miniatures a finer style is gaining ground. The paltry prettiness which prevailed a generation or two back is now fast falling into the lowest ranks of this branch. Even veterans seem to its to be advancing: Sir William Ross has several, like those of Mr. Durant, Mrs. Alfred Mont- gomery, and the Earl of Shaftesbury, which are far more sober and sub- stantial than what we remember by the same hand. Miss Margaret Gillies cultivates the broad style with success. The portrait of Mrs. Hoviitt; in- deed, is weakened by being excessively idealized; and in another there is a sentimental air, which, we suspect, belongs not to Judge Crampton: bat the portrait of Master Adam Gillies is really a fine painting. Others that deserve special mention for the treatment are the Baroness de Pfeill, by 11. P. Heideman; Mrs. Reginald Cooks, by Bastbe; for subject, King Otho of Greece, the Emperor Nicholas of Russia, the Count of Montemolin; arid many more, like Miss Burdett Coutts, whom the multitude will be glad to see—some in order to recognize familiar faces, others to see the aspect per- taining to familiar names.
But the finest portraits of the exhibition are to be found among the miniatures—those by Thorburn. Look at the Princess Charlotte of Bel- gium, the Duke of Brabant, Viscountess Maidstone, and many more,—all painted with the freedom of ails, the finish and modelling of photography, the living design, broad chiaroscuro, and firm simple line of high art. For harmonious dignity of colouring, modelling, and composition, the miniature of Lord William Beresford is one of the finest modern portraits that we have ever seen.
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