ART.
THE NEW GALLERY.
THE present exhibition at the New Gallery may be pro- nounced either good or bad. The judgment depends 0E1 which we dwell most upon,—the leaven or the lamp. Some of the leaven is very good indeed, but then the lump is a very large one, and some of it so heavy that it would resist the effects of baking-powder which had the expanding power of dynamite. But with a little self-control it is possible to enjoy the good things without being too much annoyed by the bad, for here the quantity of pictures is not so overwhelming as to make the search for good things too great a task.
The first room contains two pictures which are wholly delightful. Both Mr. E. Stott's Watering Place (No. 15) and his Gleaners (No. 20) are works which yield pure pleasure. The painter is assured of his style; he is not trying experi- ments ; and the style is his own. Colour and form are both of a refined yet vigorous description. In the Watering Place Mr. Stott returns to his favourite effect of sunlight shining, through trees. Never before has he treated it quite so beauti- fully as in the present instance. This effect is always liable to the danger of spottiness, but here this possible defect is completely overcome. The picture of the little girl standing, by the drinking cows is so admirably composed that the brilliant patches of sunlight fall naturally in just the places where they were wanted for the design. Only a colourist of a high order could have worked out with such success the harmony of flesh in shadow turned purple by the contrast of its background of brilliant yellow sunlit trees. All through the picture the balance of cool and hot colour is maintained with the greatest skill, as in the white cow turned to an opalescent grey by the sunlit reflections in the water behind it. In the Gleaners this balancing of tones gives place to a broad effect of pure sunlight. The girls gleaning in the stubble-field are delightfully grouped, and are fall of life and grace. It must not be supposed that these pictures are merely problems of light and colour successfully solved; they are a great deal more than that, they have real poetic feeling as well.
To paint children well is perhaps the greatest test of accomplishment. A beautiful child is not an uncommon thing in real life, and a pretty picture of one is frequent. But between the obvious charms of most painted children and a great realisation of subtle and unconscious beauty there is a wide gulf. Mr. Watts, however, has passed this barrier with the certainty of a master. His picture called Early Spring (No. 113) has every quality that a picture of a child should have. Many painters in striving after naturalness lose that sense of mystery which seldom lasts beyond five years. This lovely little boy standing bare-footed on the grass, his face in profile, has the inscrutable expression which tells that the " visionary gleam " has not yet faded into "the light of common day." Considered apart from, although causing, these great poetical ideas, the painting itself is of the greatest beauty. The colour of the delicate shadow which hangs over the eyes, month, and nose is of wonderful subtlety; and the solid simplicity of the modelling is as delightful as. the colour. Because this picture is so fine, it is so difficult to write about it. Great painting stands outside the domain.
of words. Like all Mr. Watts's best work, it is entirely characteristic of its author, and yet wholly distinct from anything he has done before. This picture, painted within the last year, shows that no weariness has come to the hand of him who has laboured so long in the field of art.
Last year Mr. Leslie Thompson gave us a delightful vision of nymphs and blue waters, and he has returned to the same theme. In Arcadia (No. 146) the colour is deeper and the glowing sunlight tempered by the shadow of the beautiful trees which overhang the bank and river where the nymphs are congregated. In this picture the landscape element is the largest, and the figures make their effect as a group, not as individuals. The work is restful and harmonious, and one that it would be always pleasant to look at. Mr. Pepper- corn's picture, The Common (No 136), might be described as a good intention. To reduce a piece of wild Nature to its elements, and leave out trivial and irrelevant things, to sup- press the accidental and leave only the general, is a very excellent method to pursue. It is by such procedure that great landscapes have been painted, but then what is left after the selection must have some quality which is worth leaving. It is no use to dissolve trees into their elements if an amorphous bush is all that remains. Corot cleared away the small facts of his landscape so that forms of permanent beauty might appear. But what is left in the present instance is of no more value than what was sacrificed. A study of great truthfulness is exhibited in .Ruives (No. 9), by M. Rene Billotte. The realisation of the light on the house, as well as the colour of the sky and the moon, shows a keen eye for Nature and thoroughness of representation. Mrs. Swynnerton's portrait of a frank-eyed little boy of the shock- headed Peter type (No. 104) has her accustomed vigour of colour and modelling. What a pity that such a fresh bit of work should be spoilt by the exaggeration of colour in the ears, which are not only clumsy in drawing but are positively raw flesh ! The painting also breaks down in the boy's clothes, which are stiff and mannered. Nevertheless, how infinitely pleasanter it is than the tame incompetence of the portrait hanging below it (No. 103).
There is no doubt as to which is the moat amusing picture in the New Gallery ; it is Mr. Melville's Mrs. Graham Robertson (No. 207). The picture is large. In it a life-sized lady sits on a sofa so that her vast skirts may arrange them- selves like a huge balloon. Round the bottom of this skirt run a number of wonderful bows like a procession of monstrous blackbeetles. This, too, is what the lady seems to :ale them for, to judge by her expression. Whether it was expedient to paint a portrait in this style was a matter for the artist and the sitter to decide, but it would have been quite as fanny if it had been done on a small canvas. Mr. Sargent has added another to his series of ladies about to get up off his "Empire" sofa while the floor flies off at an acute angle of perspective. When it was first done, and the tour de force was fresh, there could be no possible objection, as the way in which it was executed was so extraordinarily masterly. The present instance, Mrs. Thursby (No. 200), is as well done as ever. The drawing is marvellous, and the painting eloquent to the last degree; but one cannot help wishing for a change of studio furniture. In spite of some feeling of same- ness the fact remains that this lady is a real person in a way that few pictures are, and one stands before the canvas fascinated as by a real person. Mr. Byam Shaw is a clever painter, and quite right to make his experiments. But taste and sense of humour should have prevented his doing any- thing like the portrait of a young lady (No. 192). With dress spread like a fan, this person stands against a background of clumsy heraldic patterns with a gold ground. The painting is indifferent, and in no way makes up for the failure of the general design. Mr. Harold Speed's portrait of Mr. Mileham (No. 129) is decidedly an interesting experiment. Bebind the profile of his sitter is seen the end of an Alpine valley. There is an air of the Quattrocento about the work. Here the realism does not stop with the face, but is carried on into the background. Mr. Take has painted a striking picture in the portrait of Mrs. Forbes-Brown (No. 171). From a black ground emerges the face of an old lady of strongly- marked personality. The modelling is very subtle, and the pallid flesh tones have been skilfully prevented from telling as a white spot on the large mass of black.
At the beginning of this notice the leaven and the lump were spoken of. One wonders, Will directors ever arise whe will have the courage to pat all the good things together in one room ? It would surely be worth while to make the experi- ment. But people will say that to agree on the line between good and bad would be impossible. No doubt there must be a debatable ground left, but the pictures of this uncertain kind would be few, and in the main it would be easy to distinguish between good and bad. H. B.
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