FINE ARTS.
NEW WATER-COLOUR SOCIETY.
THE ninth annual exhibition of this young and growing Society of Water-Colour Painters opened to the public yesterday, at the Gallery in Pall Mall. The display is altogether superior to that of last year. Several members have made an advance in a right direction ; none have retrograded ; and two or three new names are attached to works of promise. The prevalent defects of execution are imperfect drawing, crude and garish colouring, want of tone, and a straining after force of effect beyond the legitimate power of the watery medium. The ex- cellences consist chiefly in the representation of actual scenes : there are several laudable attempts at imaginative creation ; but, with one brilliant exception, these are not very successful. This is the gem of the collection : an interior with figures by Lours HAGHE, (326,) represent- ing a scene in the Town Hall of Courtray, the day after the Battle of the Spurs, when some monks came to ask permission of the victorious Flemish chiefs to seek for the body of Robert d'Artois, the founder of their convent. The incident is depicted in a natural and therefore an impressive manner ; the heads are full of character and expression ; and the pictorial treatment of the costumes and the architecture is masterly.: the colouring is rich, mellow, and harmonious, and the execution is finished without exaggeration. The other picture by this skilful artist, Cromwell and Ireton Intercepting a Letter of Charles the First, (30,) is a failure : the character and expression of Cromwell are not satis- factorily depicted; neither is the story well told, for Ireton is search- ing the saddle for the letter which Cromwell holds in his hand. The Scriptural and Historical pieces are ambitious attempts at sub- jects beyond the reach of the artists. Christ's Sermon, (106,) by HENRI WARREN, is a large and striking composition of numerous groups, cle- verly designed, carefully studied, and highly wrought : the colouring is bright, though too gay; but the grand defect is in the sentiment of the subject, which falls far short of the sublime height of the sacred theme. Jesus at the House of Simon the Pharisee, (306,) by EDWARD COR- Boum, is open to the same objection : the conception, too, is feeble and artificial, and the style mere academical mannerism. Martin Luther Reading to his Friends the Manuscript of one of his Pamphlets against the Abuses of the Church of Rome, (343,) by E. R. WEHNERT, is a bold and vigorous effort : the general idea is good, and the scene is animated and real-looking: not so the individual features ; Luther's physiognomy does not recal the great Church Refornier to mind ; and the other heads are often ill-drawn and coarsely painted. An undue force of effect is attained by sacrificing purity of tone and propriety of execution. Sir Thomas Moore and his Family, (399,) by W. H. KEARNEY, is an histo- rical portrait-picture of a very agreeable kind ; and manifests im- proved skill on the part of the artist : the figure of Sir Thomas is too small ; the likeness, however, is excellent. An illustration of a passage in the Deserted Village, by F. W. TOPHAM, (90,) re- presenting the departure of a family of emigrants from their native place, is a touching scene conceived in the spirit of the poem, and painted in a style that accords with the subject : the rustic character of the last age is portrayed with genuine feeling ; and even the looseness of style assists in carrying the mind back to the time of GommurrH. Miss F. CORBAUX'S Cinderella, (252,) is pretty enough to captivate a prince and diminutive enough to wear the tiny glass slipper, though she looks too smart for a domestic drudge ; and her sisters are not only ill-natured and selfish, but ludicrously grotesque and vulgar : this exag- geration of the physical difference between the sisters lessens the force of the moral contrast. Peace, (133,) by J. JENKINS-an old soldier bringing the news of a comrade's death, and the few valuables he left, to the widow-would have been a pathetic picture had the poor woman's grief been more simply expressed: the mans look of concern is genuine, and the slight raising of his folded hands is a true touch of nature : be is a fine study of a weather-beaten and toil-worn veteran. J. ABSALOM'S designs have some good traits ; but they fall short of the nice points of expression at which he aims; neither does ALFRED TAYLOR come up to the mark in his delineations of rustic character. Miss SETCHELL does not contribute this year : her absence is a great loss to the exhibition, and will he felt as a disappointment by all who remember her powerful picture of last season.
The Landscape painters do not improve so much as they ought in a branch of art that is so peculiarly well suited to water-colours: there is in general too much imitation of others' mannerisms and too little study of nature. The painters of city scenes far surpass the rustic sketchers in truth, as well as in skill and finish : architectural features require greater elaboration and exactness, and therefore receive more careful study than rural prospects, where details may be sacrificed to an arbitrary general effect. There are two views of London, that for local fidelity, finished execution, and fine pic- torial qualities, are unequalled. One is a scene on the Thames, Billingsgate, First Day of Oysters-Early Morning, (126,) by E. Dou- ce: the contrast between the bustle on the decks of the crowd of fishing-boats alongside the quay and the quietude of the river is very striking : the details are minutely accurate, yet breadth of effect is preserved; the composition is well massed ; and the tone of the pic- ture is in accordance with the local colours of objects. The other is St. Paul's from the Surrey Side of the Thames, looking over Blackfriar's Bridge, (234,) by G. HODGSON the throng of traffic on the bridge, the barges and steam-boats on the river, the buildings on the water-side partly obscured by smoke, and the cathedral towering in its full mag- nitude above the busy streets, form a scene at once grand and charac- teristic. Here again the utmost minuteness of detail is combined with a broad pictorial effect ; local hues subserve to the prevailing tone of colour ; and the incidental peculiarities of the scene, such as the smoke, &c., duly contribute to produce the impression on the mind. The ex- ecution is extremely elaborate ; and the forms are made out with admi- rable exactness : the outlines of the architecture are occasionally too pro- minent, giving a thin and wiry appearance to some parts ; but altogether it is a very fine work of art. A view of Edinburgh from the Calton Hill, (2030 by T. M. RICHARDSON senior, is also remarkable for elaboration and ac- curacy. G. HOWSE has greatly improved : his two large views of Rot- terdam, (298 and 392,) are imposing, and appear to possess local truth ; though there is yet too much mannerism in his execution. Mannerism is the besetting sin of several clever landscape-painters in this society : it interferes with the troth and beauty of 11. BarcHT's striking effects of moonlight and twilight ; has made J. F. D'EGVILLE an imitator of JOHN VARLEY ; and renders the bold and powerful but meretricious scene- painting of R. K. PENSON preposterous. H. MAPLESTONE, a new member, whose study of Sunset-Wimbledon Common, (182,) shows re- markable promise, appears in danger of falling into this vice; as also is H. JUTSUM, who has some pleasing studies of foliage ; and A. PENLEY, as his Scene on the Avon, (44,) glaringly testifies. W. OLIVER'S land- scapes have a sunny brightness and freshness that is very attractive to the eye ; but they want shade to give them substance and tone to mellow the tints: his Milldam and Stream, Brittany, (171,) requires massing to unite its.scattered parts, and toning to harmonize the whole and enable the eye to rest on it with satisfaction. This valuable quality, tone, is the chief merit of a Brook Scene near Rokeby, (211,) and other nice bits gleaned from the rocky bed of the Tees by J. M. YOUNGMAN ; who has made a great advance this year, but should beware of hardness. We have not space to particularize the sea-pieces of T. S. ROBINS, the architectural views of SIDNEY SHEPHERD, T. S. BOYS, D. Cox junior, W. N. HARDWICK, and the landscapes of H. P. RIVIERE, W. ROBERT- SON, J. FAHEY, T. LINDSAY, and others. Mrs. MA RGETT'S flowers have the freshness and bright hues of the parterre ; and only want a little more art to subdue the intense colour in some parts, and produce the repose and harmony of nature.
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