Put arts,

SOCIETY OF BRITISH ARTISTS.

But for two of its pictures, there would be little to say of the exhibi- tion which opened in Suffolk Street on Monday, except that, if not worse than the average of its recent predecessors, neither is it superior. The two excepted works, however, indicate artistic attainment, and, what is still better, artistic promise, so decisively that the exhibition becomes more memorable than it would have been in-virtue of any number 4 the better. sort of mediocrities. Both of the artists, Mr. J. Campbell and Mr. IL W. Chapman, are, as far as we remember, new comers. Mr. Campbell's work is named " Eavesdroppers—the Askinge " ; and a more hopeful first appearance could hardly be cited. The subject is a simple and homely one ; in which few painters, equally determined with Mr. Campbell to stick to the downright fact, would have united so much peculiarity with so much earnestness akin to pathos, or would so well have escaped vulgarity. "The Askings " is what we more com- monly call the proposal, or "popping the question." A butcher-boy is enacting that feat to a dairy-maid in a kind of out-house or pantry : he has set down his meat-tray, and presses the ring on her acceptance ; she has her milk-pail beside her, and her apron nervously between her teeth. To the right, an elderly man and a boy are lying close, to enjoy what they deem the fun of the thing. The first notion of such a picture is that it will belong to a broad class of comedy, not without coarseness : but this is not the, case here. The great virtue of the work is its genuine manly closeness of observation, and the intensity with which the real gist of the situation is conceived and expressed. The butcher-boy pleads his cause for the dear life ; hammering away at some reiterated and pro- bably very stupid speech, with knit brows and pale lips. The girl is

quite as little at ease. You know that she means to say yes; but, at this the final irrevocable moment, she looks very glum and fearful over say- ing it. That is the unhackneyed way of seeing a subject, which shows the original and faithful artist ; it is not the convention which other men

before him have agreed upon, but it is new and true. The humorous side of the matter is enforced by the presence of the two eavesdroppers ; and although one might be disposed to spare them, they do not make the scene farcical, but forcibly grotesque with the grotesqueness of real life. The painting is excellent throughout ; the light very true and fine ; the ac-

cessories rightly introduced and rightly done; the whole having some- thing of the same qualities of execution as the works of Mr. Stirling-or the early ones of. Mr. Holman Hunt. A smaller picture of " An Inte- rior "—neither being by any means large—has symptoms of the sables merits, but in a much cruder state.

Mr. Chapman's piece de resistance is hectoring riatol, where he q=- rely with Falstaff and Doll Tearsheet, mouthing out, " What! shall we

have incision? shall we imbrue ? " This is a water-colour; and, being a single figure, the action and expression, which nothing but a previous knowledge of the drama explains, have something unsatisfactory. Neither are we sure that Mr. Chapman has caught the exact expression. Pistol had played. the braggadocio often enough to look and strut it tho- roughly ; whereas, here the cowering indecision of his eyes and the other features tell their real 'tale as plainly as needs be. But there is thoughtful intention in all this, and in the details of the action ; it is true, and delicately true, to the character, if not to the dramatic moment. In like manner, the drawing of the legs is weak; but the general quality of design is quite the reverse of weakness. The colour is rich, solid, sober, and well gradated; and the painting of accessory, such as the glass

and wicker-work of some flasks, is of the most mature finish, uniting breadth and character with minuteness. This is the more remarkable ifr as we have heard, Mr. Chapman is still an extremely young man. In fact, few works at the regular water-colour exhibitions could be fount

in a more advanced style of execution. " Punishment " is a schoolboy_ scene, also painted with care and success, but from which, if it had

stood alone, we should have augured much less highly ; and a third con-' tribution from Mr. Chapman is a still-life piece in oils—rather dim— named "The Larder."

Over other exhibitors we must pass more rapidly.. From the works of the habitues we single Mr. Hill's Hay-field" and " Galway Rustics," which, with culpable affectations, show some sense of beauty and dag-, pity ; Mr. Burk: tone's " Blanche, Daughter of Sir William Eden, Itart."—prettily childlike in its action of holding a bunch of grapes tight to the breast with both hands, as the little fair one skips forward ; and the splendid beauty which Mr. Buckner has had to treat, not without a graceful breadth, in his " Portrait of Mrs. Frederick Thietlethwayte." The same painter's Italian study, "Ursula of Velletri," is about the most

simple, =idealized, and therefore praiseworthy head, which we know from his pencil Mr.-Hayllat sends, under the name of " tine Soirée," the central group of his Academy picture of last year, either repeated- or actually cut out, together with some minor productions scarcely -up to his capabilities : and in the general dearth, Mr. Madot's " Malvolio ' Levaelt's "Scotch Interior " Mr. Hensell's coast scenes, next of 1.kt* to Mr. Hill's rural scenes, ancfa portrait by Mr. Crabb, are to be mentioned: Messrs. Fyne, Pettitt, and Gosling, are, as usual, liberal contributors of landscape. "Bathing Buffaloes in the Pontine Marshes," by the for-

mer gentleman, is clever and .spirited in couleur locale ; " Venice from the Lido "—a pretty thing to look at ; and " Alongshore People leaving the Sea "—an ambitious attempt at broad full-fronting sunshine. Mr, Pettitt's finest specimen is "A. Welsh Glen—Moonlight " ; the effect generally delicate and well caught, and the contrail of the black clear water with its intensely white current-lines and bubbles very brilliant.

On the whole, however, this artist does not make so conspicuous an

appearance as heretofore. "The Wild Wood." of Mr. Coaling is pro- bably the best work he has exhibited, as it is one-of the most important Of freedom, lightness, and certainty, he has abundance ; but the cold

blueish-green of his foliage is far from right in tint, and the shiny sur- face which he bestows on all things alike entirely spoils the more solid

material of his foregrounds. A few years more of the same dauntless dexterity, and Mr. Gosling will be another instance of cleverness run to waste. Among the older men, Messrs. West, Oakes, and Clint—among the younger, Messrs. Dearle, Rose, George Landseer, and the Honour- able CharlesHardinge--also deserve examination. Mr. Webbe has three of his nice little pieces, treated with the "still-life " feeling which dis- tinguishes him,—all of his best quality ; although his green for vegeta- tion is as unrefinedly yellow as Mr. Gosling's is inaccurately blue. The downy timid leveret "After Sunset," and the plantation of young firs in " A Cottage Garden," are both touched with great sweetness. The browsing sheep and glimpse of distance in "An lEinglish Pastoral" are yet better than either of the preceding ; but the foreground calves are out of all proportion in their under-size. Another very pretty still- life bit is Miss Hardeastle's "Peep in a Wood"—where, amid thick and various ferns, a squirrel lies dead, or possibly asleep. Mr. Got- zenberg sends the excellent interior of "The Common Room, Jesus Col- lege, Oxford," of which we ke on a former occasion ; and " Henry

the Seventh's Chapel," by . H. Williams, worthily bears it com- pany for design and tone. Still life again appears prominently in the Water-colour Room, wilfix is fairly filled in _general. Mr. Burcham's " Study in Colour of •red poppy, yellow heartsease, purple convolvulua, and other flowers, is one of his brightest and most perfect little bits, where all are refined and ex- quisite ; and a bevy of ladies, Miss F. Jolly, Mies Ashby, Miss Steedman and Miss J. Childs, have worked with taste and pleasant ability in the like direction. Miss J. C. Bell's " Leila," from The Giaour, has some more than common sweetness both in sentiment and colour.