OXFORD EXHIBITION OF HISTORICAL PORTRAITS.
[To THR EDITOR OP THE -splicravi.1 SIR,—You were very kind to our first Exhibition held last year. Will you allow me through your columns to call the attention of your readers to the fact that we have just opened our second Exhibition ? It is held in the Examination Schools as before, and will be open till June 1st. It contains portraits of persons who died between 1625 and 1714. The number of portraits shown is considerably larger than that of last year, and we believe that to the student either of history or of the history of art in England it will be found of very special value and interest. It is naturally to some extent a "Stuart Exhibition." The momentous period of the Civil War, when for a short time Court and Parliament were held at Oxford and the University city was the focus of English life, is well represented. Of King Charles I. himself there are no less than seven portraits. Close to the most striking of them hangs, thanks to the great kindness of Earl Spencer, a very fine portrait of Oliver Cromwell, by Walker. Queen Henrietta, Charles II., James II. (lent by Viscount
Dillon) and his Queen Mary of Modena, William Queen Mary, Queen Anne, are all here ; and there are also two fine portraits of Prince Rupert, one known to be by the con- temporary Court painter, John Michael Wright ; and a portrait lent by Wadham College purporting to be Admiral Blake. Lely's Lady Rochester and Kneller's Barbara Villiers, both lent by Viscount Dillon, are among the most striking pictures, and relieve the monotony of male portraiture. The poets are well represented, especially the greatest, Milton, of whom there is a specially interesting painting as a very young man, showing what he was when at Cambridge he was called the "Lady of Christ's " ; this picture, for many years little seen, comes from Nuneham, being lent by Mr. Lewis Harcourt. Drummond of Hawthornden, Dryden, Shirley, Sir John Suckling, Cowley, and Creech the trans- lator will also be seen here, and the musician associated with " Harry " Lewes. Of divines, we have Archbishop Laud (five portraits), Archbishops Juxon, Sheldon, and Maher, Bishops Andrewes, Ken, and Sprat, Dr. Busby, and Jeremy Taylor. Among savants and men of science, Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood, a very interesting painting lent by the Master of University College ; Wallis, the mathematician ; the physician Sydenham, and the philosophers Locke and Hobbes. Of celebrities, one of local fame, " Joe " Pullen, and the other of world-wide notoriety, "Old Parr," painted in the yeas- aetatis suae 152 !—I am, [The historical portraits described by the President of Magdalen clearly form a most interesting collection. We trust that when the picture treasures of Oxford are exhausted, the rare books and MSS. and other artistic possessions and curiosities of the Colleges will have their turn.—ED. Spectator.]
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