lila Lido.
ROYAL ACADEMY.
CONCLUDING NOTICE.
MRS. B. HAT takes the first place among the female painters of the year. Her " Prodigal Son" (251) is distinguished by a largeness of style and power of colour that may be looked for in vain in many of the pictures contributed by her male rivals. The introduction of the servants bringing in the fatted calf, and the elder brother glowering angrily at the reception accorded to the Prodigal might be objected to by those who have a strict regard for the "unities," but Mrs. Hay has ample warrant in the works of the earlier painters for depicting in one canvas incidents which occurred at different periods of time. Reference has already been made to the late Mrs. Wells's "Bird of God" (661), a cherub's head, wrought with refined delicacy, though deficient, perhaps, in angelic character. Miss Solomon exhibits a vigorously-painted picture entitled " Fugitive Royalists " (482), the story of which is not clearly made out. It seems to represent a Royalist mother pleading with a Puritan lady for protection for herself and son. The fair Puritan, touched with compassion for the distresses of the other- s compassion rendered more lively by a glance at her own child, who is sick and lies sleeping close by—draws aside a sliding panel, and indicates a place of refuge or means of escape. Both in this and in the pictures of Miss Osborne may be detected a desire so strong to avoid anything like effeminacy or timidity of execution, as to occasionally betray its possessors into coarseness or exaggeration. In Miss Solomon's otherwise clever picture there is a deficiency of the tender qualities that may be found in the work of Mrs. Wells. Miss Osborne is too fond of fierce and glaring colour, and thinks more of the costume often than of the figures it clothes. Her pictures this year are all of German life and character; the beat, I think, is "Fur den Christ Garten " (509) two little children walking
through the snow and laden with evergreeps—which shows insight irr to infantine character. The children in Mrs. E. M. Ward's " Hen- rietta Maria hearing of the Death of Charles I." (583) are the most praise- worthy features of that elaborate, skilful, but somewhat theatrical picture, in which the lady has imitated with marvellous accuracy the style and manner of her husband, whose only contribution this year will be found, by the way, in an adjoining room—a replica in water-colour of his well- known " Marie Antoinette and the Dauphin" (798). Mr. F. B. Barwell contributes the "sensation" picture of the year in " Unaccredited Heroes" (537), which recals forcibly the distressing accident at Hartley Colliery. It is not matter of surprise that the painter should have been overcome with the difficulties of his subject, which is not altogether suitable for paint- ing, nor one calculated to confer pleasure on the spectator. Those groups of miners gathered round the mouth of the coal-pit are confused in arrangement—inanimate in action and expression. At the same time great improvement over former efforts is visible, as far as technical excellence is concerned—the painting is firmer, the effect is powerful, while particular commendation must be awarded to the treatment of the sky. Mr. Barwell's desire to illustrate the life of the day is very praiseworthy, but it is to be hoped he will for the future select his subjects with greater care. Mr. Lawless, happily, has given up his imitations of Meissonier, and determined to think a little more for himself " The Widow of Hogarth selling her Husband's Engravings" (543), though crude and harsh in colour, and too slight in execution in many points, is carefully composed, and shows feeling for characteristic attitude. A little less vulgarity in the faces of the con- noisseurs would have been an improvement (without the painter intended it as a satire on picture-buyers generally), and there was surely no need to represent thedaughter of Sir James Thornhill with a countenance so awfully woe-begone. "A Painter's firstWork"(502) is a speciously clever piece of genre painting by Mr. Marcus Stone, evincing some pictorial aptitude, and a certain greasy glibness of the brush. A boy is being rated by his father for chalking figures and copies of some of the family portraits on the panels of a cabinet. A well-meaning old gentleman, with a portfolio under his arm, appears to aim at appeasing the parent's wrath by discovering in these rude chalk- marks indisputable signs of future talent. In the background there is the inevitable maid-servant bringing in refreshment. Her presence is neither needed for the story nor for the composition, though it may contribute to the saleableness of the picture. One of the first maxims impressed upon a young artist by the picture-dealer is, no matter what your subject may be, you must contrive to have a pretty woman in it, and probably we are indebted to this axiom for the introduction of the little waiting-maid in the present case. Mr. E. Hughes shines conspicuously among that tribe of painters who paint flesh like wax, and impart to everything preternatural cleanliness and smoothly-polished surface. His" English Artist Collecting Costumes in Brittany" (561) is striking for petty prettiness and utter absence of hearty vigour. Not a stone in the pavement of the market- place has a sharp angle ; the wrinkles in the faces of the old people have been carefully subdued to the destruction of anything like character, while the "artist," who is exchanging new clothes for old with the inhabitants, is a placid idiot, whose imbecile look will not give those who are unwary enough to accept him as a veritable type, a very favourable opinion of the intellectual powers of painters as a body. This picture further affords a noteworthy example of the mistake so often made by artists of supposing that the public are vitally interested in the mysteries of their profession. We have already had more than enough of pictures dedicated to the glory of the "shop," which, besides offending against good taste, enjoy the additional advantage of being totally unintelligible to three-fourths of the people who look at them. Other examples of the mildly inoffensive school of painting will be found in Mr. G. Smith's "Searching for the Will" (549), where the tearful but resigned widow, with her two children, makes her five hundredth appearance (would it were her last) ; Mr. G. B. O'Neil's " Quaker and Tax-gatherer" (293), and Mr. G. E. Hkks's " Past, Present, and Future" (686)—a wedding-breakfast scene—into which the widow again thrusts herself for the sake of adding a spice of sentiment, though on this occasion she has had the good sense to leave her children at home. Mr. Rankly is tame and insipid in "The Gipsy at the Gate" (516), and "Milton's first Meeting with Mary Powell" (671). The latter picture might have been painted in illustration of the "gracious Duncan's" theory, "there's no art to find the mind's construction in the face," for it is difficult to imagine how the soft-looking youth before us could ever have written even a line of " Paradise Lost." Near to this hangs a harshly-executed but well-conceived little picture, by Mr. R. C. Leslie, " Robinson Crusoe visiting the Spanish Wreck" (665). Crusoe is paddling in his canoe towards the vessel, the forepart of which only re- mains jammed between the rocks. Sundry little thoughtful touches impart a look of truth to the scene, such as the effigy of blind Fortune which forms the figure-head of the wreck, the boarding-axes stacked round the broken foremast, and the barnacles clinging to the sides of the old-fashioned hull. Mr. Arthur Hughes's "Bird Lime" (598) is refined and tender in feeling, and delicately painted. The drawing is wilfully careless, and the determination to invest flesh, draperies, and furniture with purple tints, is, to say the least, eccentric. The same faults are observable, though in a less degree, in 129, a girl lying by a brook-side, illustrative of Tennyson's lines, " It is the little rift within the lute," &c. "Rotten-row" (409), with its crowd of gaily dressed equestrians and pedestrians and ragged urchins, Is a work of characteristic incident, hung too high for general appreciation. The painter, Mr. G. H. Thomas, has represented with great truth the sunny aspect of the ride on a fine afternoon, and happily caught the life and movement of the scene. The ragged urchins swinging on the rails are irresistibly humorous.
Mr. Creswick's " Half.way House" (821) is a thoroughly English scene, treated with elegance of taste, and freedom from meretricious clap-trap, if with little poetic or elevated feeling. The horses have been well painted by Mr. Bottomley. "The Gleaner's Return" (531), a glowing sunset picture, by Mr. W. Lirmell, is impressively treated, and rich, though too obviously forced and exaggerated in colour. The figures are classical in taste, and arranged in a pleasing conventional manner. Mr. Inchbold is elaborate and careful in his Cornish coast studies, but too anxious about botanical and other detail to secure largeness of effect. The minuteness of his style is not displayed to the best advantage when dealing with wild majestic scenery, as "Bing Arthur's Island" (572). On such a scale his touch becomes timid and hesitating. " lIntagel" (448) is broader and freer in execution, with more of the look of nature than is to be found in .Jr.1 Inchbold's larger -works. But for minuteness of detail we must look
at Mr. Brett's " Champ6ry " (650), which is simply microscopic, looking like nature seen through a diminishing glass. It is a wonderful piece of work, coldly accurate in every line, but destitute of any mental impression —a map rather than a picture. Mr. Mogford paints in a broader style. "Storm and Sunshine" (452) is treated in an effective and picturesque manner. Other landscapes, more or less meritorious, are contributed by Messrs. Oakes, Leader, Cropsey, Dillon, Dawson. Subsequent visits to the sculpture-room confirm the idea previously expressed that there is little in that department to detain the visitor any length of time. Men- tion must, however, be made of Mr. A. Munro's pretty marble group of "Brothers" (1001), which, if not all that could be desired as far as model- ling goes, is very refined and tender in execution ; of Baron di Triqueti's ably-rendered half-length figures of " Dante and Virgil " (1077), in bronze, and of Mr. Woolmer's lifelike and evidently truthful head of "William Fairbairn " (1048). The admirers of the "wondrous Leotard" will find an excellent reproduction of the features of that graceful gymnast in M. Trentanove's bust (1080); and those who have ever seen the features of Mr. W. Hunt, of the Old Water-Colour Society, will be able to testify to the accuracy of Mr. Munro's version of them in his bast of that veteran in art. On Monday evening next the Academy throws open its doors for a aeries of exhibitions at half-price. The experiment is pretty sure of success, as not only will those whose avocations during the day prevent them from sight-seeing flock to Trafalgar-square, but a fair proportion of those who have already seen the exhibition will be attracted to it in the evening by the novelty of viewing the pictures under the influence of gaslight.
DRY Porter.
Previous page
