FINE ARTS.
ROYAL ACADEMY EXHIBITION.
THIRD NOTICE.
IN looking through an exhibition, there are found some pictures that repel rather than attract attention, and others of less positive qualities that leave a doubt as to their precise degree of merit : these are neces- sarily passed by in the rapid glance that seizes only on salient points ; while not a few escape notice altogether by reason of their unfavourable position, though worthy perhaps of especial regard. A more careful and deliberate survey of the display at the Royal Academy has made us acquainted with some minor beauties that escaped recognition before, owing to one or other of these causes ; though our opinion of the want of interest in the collection as a whole is not altered by subsequent discoveries.
In the great or East Room, below " the line "—on which Wsan's pitiable caricatures of bulls and horses, and the wretched inanities of Messrs. J. J. CuaLas, R. R. REINAGLE, and H. HOWARD, are con- spicuous—hang two pictures of homely subjects and unostentatious ex- cellence, that when once seen hold fast the mind by the force of their expression. One is Sickness and Health, (I28,) by T. WEBSTER ; a simple scene, the actors in which are children, whose characters this artist depicts with inimitable truth and felicity : a sick girl reclining in an easy chair in the shade outside the cottage, breathing the soft air of a bright summer's day, is watching with a look of languid pleasure— not unmixed with innocent envy—the delight of her sister, who, glowing with health and merriment, is teaching a little urchin to dance to the music of a barrel-organ ; while an earnest boy, seated on the sill of the door, looks up from his book with impatient gravity, and the old gran- dam watches the group with a faint smile. The sentiment is humble ; but the perfect manner in which the incident is portrayed, without effort or affectation, gives the picture a value beyond whatmany works of more ambitious pretensions possess. The other is The Cotter's Saturday Night, (193,) by C. W. COPE ; which is placed on the ground, and must be knelt to by those who would scan its merits : Jeanie is in the act of admitting the " neebor lad " ; "the conscious flame " sparkles in her eye and flushes her cheek ; her mother scrutinizes the visiter, and the bairns turn upon him their curious gaze. The gudenian is playing with one of the "toddling wee things" in the chimney-corner, not reading "the big ha' Bible"; ; butthat the artist could have depicted that part of the poem with equal force, is shown by his other picture, Beading the Scriptures, (292,) in which the venerable pastor's lips seem almost to move.
Naomi and her Daughter-in-law, (280,) by E. U. EDDIS ; a group of three half-length figures life-size, though far from giving due expres- sion to the passionate emotion of the scene where " Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clave unto her," is yet admirable as a re- presentation, somewhat cold in its quietude and tenderness of feeling : the contrast of character between the two sisters is not sufficiently strong, and there is a modern look about the faces ; neither is the co- louring agreeable. Jeptha's Daughter—the Last Days of Mourning, (361,) by H. O'NEIL, is another Scriptural theme, evincing an appre- ciation of the sentiment of the subject, but not happy in its concep- tion or treatment. The picture is altogether too artificial ; Jeptha's daughter forms one of a pyramidal mass of maidens, whose features and attire are more suited to the " Book of Beauty " than the Bible : their expression is theatrically larmoyante ; and the style of painting is petite and ornate almost to meretriciousness : it is boudoir sentiment in stage dress. The Sepulchre, (377,) by Mr. CLAXTON, is a good study of a dead Christ, cleverly drawn and foreshortened ; but the head has neither divine character nor that placid expression of suffering resigna- tion which should give to the countenance sublime pathos. EASTLAKE is the only living English painter who has proved himself able to em- body the profound and pure sentiment of Scripture subjects ; though his characters are distinguished for tenderness and refinement rather than grandeur, elevation, and primitive simplicity. It is in scenes of familiar life and domestic character that our artists excel : the " Vicar of Wakefield" is the best illustrated book in the language—the Bible the worst. We do not say this in disparagement of the genius of our countrymen, but only to point out wherein their strength lies. We could wish no better than that all the designs in the present exhibition were of the same stamp as LESLIE'S perfect scene from GOLDSMITH'S delightful tale : let artists only do justice to their talents by painting subjects within the scope of their imagination and the range of their experience, and they will achieve greater success individually and col- lectively than by straining at elevated themes above their reach.
There are but a very few poetical -designs in the present exhibition, and those not of a high character. The most refined and imaginative is Angelica Descending to Earth from the Flying Horse, (516,) by J. SEVERN ; which has an air of romance that renders it ideal. Florimel in the Cottage of the Witch, (557,) by F. R. ProxEnsoux, is a clever design well conceived: the " wicked woman and her wicked son " have a homely hideousness that looks perhaps too natural for the Florimel, who is rather unreal than ideal. The Supposed Death of Inwgen, (60,) by W. F. WITHERINGTON, is a commendable effort of the painter in a style very different from that he has been accustomed to—of which his pretty little rustic scene, The Hop Garland, (104,) is a specimen : but Belarius and Arviragus have no individuality of character ; nor is Imogen anything more than a sketch. More successful in illustrating SPENSER than SAKSPEARE, the designers are yet nearer fulfilling the demands of the subject in dealing with scenes from Scores novels, though less happy than in those from GOLDSMITH. The Introduction of Sir Piercie Shafton to Halbert Glendinning, (640,) by A. EGG, appears to be an admirable representation of the scene, so far as we can judge from the indistinct view of the picture in that dark hole called the Octagon Room : the contrast between the characters of the fantastic knight and the manly noble-spirited youth, is strikingly shown in the physiogonomy, dress, and attitude of each. We cannot help reiterating the recommendation we have before offered, that our artists would leave illustrating books and choose subjects from life and their own experience; treating them in such a manner that the picture should tell a complete story in itself, without need of referring to some fiction to compare the painter's conception with the poet's idea or the novelist's description. The events of history belong equally to the artist as to the author : the persons and events are real, and the painter in depicting a scene is not pinned down to certain minute details, nor forced to conceive a subject only through the mind of another: he has facts and other data to go non, is free to shape his own course, to choose any point of view or moment of time, and is altogether independent of the ideas of the historian and biographer ; whereas the illustrator of a fiction can only see as much of nature as the poet or novelist chooses. GOLDSMITH being the most simple and natural of inventors, the illustrations of his stories are like scenes from life, when painted by a LESLIE or a Mac- LISE. Such illustrations of biography as Mr. CLAxroN's Sir Joshua Reynolds and his Friends, (315,) are but rifacimenti of caricature— groups of portraits at second-hand—neither fact nor fiction. And representations of history like Mr. JOHN MARTIN'S Canute Rebuking his Courtiers, (582,) are neither real nor ideal : the scene on the sea-shore has not the truth of nature nor refinement of art, but is altogether a glaring, monstrous exaggeration.
We have reserved a few pictures, portraits more especially, for notice by way of exemplifying some remarks on the mode of painting practised in the present day, which seems to us radically defective.
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