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THE OLD AND NEW WATER-COLOUR SOCIETIES.
So rapidly does the opening of one picture exhibition follow another at this season, that it becomes a somewhat difficult task for the critic of a weakly journal, with but limited space at his command, to keep pace with the times. The picture-galleries at the International Exhibition are now claiming attention; next Monday the Royal Academy throws open its doors with a collection of great value and interest ; while the private views of the Water-colour Societies took place on Satur- day last. Bearing these claims in mind, and owing to the unusual fact of both the societies opening their exhibitions on the same day, your critic is compelled to restrict his remarks on the works displayed by them to a single article, instead of as heretofore considering their merits in separate notices. But though necessarily brief, it will not, I hope, be found in the following remake that I have failed to draw attention to any work dials worthy of remembrance.
Precedence is due to the elder society both by reason of seniority and superior merit. The gallery has been rendered more commodious by a considerable addition to its length, and other improvements in the matters of lighting and decoration have been made. At the same time the members have, in most cases, exerted themselves to do their beet to make a favourable impression on our foreign visitors, and have produced a number of works which, if not very remarkable for depth or grasp, are at least superior on the whole to the collections of previous years. Mr. W. Hunt's "Grapes and Plums," apples and other fruit, will be found i unusual number scattered about the screens. There is another wonderful "Wood Pigeon," and a "Branch of May and Birds' Nest," remarkable for masterly imitation and tenderly gradated colour. In none is there any sin of decliniea power, such as might reasonably be expected considering the long life of patient labour the painter has gone through—they are, if anything, even richer in colour and more powerful in execution than former works. Mr. Gilbert's swaggering, reckless manner 'has seldom been better exemplified than in his -version of "Peter Pant Nnbens." In "Don Quixote at Home," when the crazy knight is disputing with the priest and the barber as to whether Palmerin of England or Amadis de Gaul were the greater hero, there is all that facility of grouping and handling, and fine feeling for colour not unaccom- panied by most careless drawing, as in the hands of the figures), for which this artist's works have been long conspicuous. The figure of Don Quixote is almost humorous in its intense earnestness of expres- sion. "The Rhine Wine," a parcel of loutish boors drinking, and whose faces have little individuality though much coarseness, is the least pleasing drawing contributed by Mr. Gilbert. Mr. Smallfield is one of the few painters here who attempts anything like originality of subject. "St. Francis Preaching -to the Birds" is the completest work, whether in oil or water-colour, that he has hitherto ex- hibited. The saint, attended by a brother of his order, is holding forth to his feathered congregation on the low marshy plains in the neighbourhood of Venice. A number of small birds are perched on the branches of a leafless willow, and storks, coots, and other fowl are grouped at its base. Figures, tree, and birds relieve darkly against a pure evening sky. The drawing is good, the minipulation throughout sound and honest, with the exception of the smaller birds, which an hour's work might convert into something better than the watery blots of colour they appear at present. Several careful studies of heads, and a richly-coloured little drawing of wild flowers, called " On the Slopes of Fiesole," are also by Mr. Smallfield. Mr. Alfred Fripp contributes several figure drawings of great merit, though all are not equally.good. The two best are " Waiting for the Tide," a fisher boy withlus crab pots sitting on a seaweed covered rock ; and "A Dorsetshire Shepherd Boy" attended by his dog and whittling a stick as he tramps over the furrows of a ploughed field. Mr. F. Tayler's work presents no points of novelty worthy of remark ; it is as clever but as unsatisfactory as before, and Mr. Topham's Irish peasants, Mr. Jenkins's courtly ladies, and Mr. Oakky's Gipsies have been so often before the public that there remains nothing to be said of them but that they are as sprightly, as vivacious as ever. But Mr. E. Burton bears away the bell from all the figure painters this year, as will, I think, be readily admitted by any one who gives to his works the careful attention they deserve. They are three in number—the first, entitled "A German Interior," shows a little girl bending over her slate and working out some abstruse problem in addition or sub- traction. In one hand she holds an apple as yet unbitten, her feet are compressed together, and the whole attitude is suggestive of concen- trated attention. "Yelitza" and "The Wife of Hassan Aga" are half figures of females. The features of the latter are anxious and troubled in expression. All these drawings are remarkable for an amount of -scholarly knowledge in their rendering which is a rare quality among our water-colour painters. Moreover, they are broad, powerful, and luminous in effect ; strong, yet refined, they combine the most in- tense realism with imaginative feeling. Mr. Carl Haag, whose "Re- hearsal" was one of the most attractive features at last year's exhibi- tion, has (with the exception of a large and not very successful head of "A Bedawee") no picture that can strictly be called a figure subject. "Baalbek" and the "Remains of the Temples of Baalbek" are his most important works, and are distinguished for firm accurate drawing and force rather than delicacy of colour. Mr. E. Duncan contributes only two works, the larger, "Seaweed Gathering, Guernsey," is capital for its warm glowing tone; but "A Gale—The Longslups Lighthouse" is preferable for truth and for the power thrown in the drawing of the waves of the turbulent sea. Mr. Holland has an admirable picture of "Venice," very brilliant in colour; and another -very praiseworthy view of that oft-painted city, full of carefully drawn detail and aerial in effect, is contributed by Mr. E. GoodalL Among numberless landscapes, which aim only at reproducing the most ordinary aspects of nature, the pictures of Mr. A. P. Newton stand out with striking and peculiar prominence. Each of his four drawings has some s charm that at once interests and enchains the beholder. they are no -dull literal transcripts of actual scenes, but are invested with imagi- nation as well as truth. Very noble and grand is "Mountain 'Glory," a range of lofty snow-clad hills, the upper half of which is lit up with the rosy hues of the setting sun. The moon is rising in the calm pale sky, and the mountain forms are reflected into the placid bosom of the lake, on the margin of which stalk a pair of gaunt herons, that add by their presence to the wild and solemn solitude of the scene. Space does not permit the mention in detail of Mr. Newton's works, but I must refer the reader to a drawing, small in size, but very fine in treat- ment, called "The Coming Snow-Storm," where a heavy grey mass of sky is gradually stealing over the horizon, and allows only one faint gleam of sunshine to gleam across the desolate road in the foreground. Mr. Alfred Hunt shares with Mr. Newton the power of combining poetic -feeling with his representation of natural scenery, as " Nant- fragon—Winter Twilight," " Oberwessel—Summer Twilight," and other drawings will sufficiently prove. Mr. Hunt has lately been admitted an associate member of the society, and worthily vindicates his right to the title. Messrs. Britten, Willis, and J. W. Whittaker, the other new associates, are also well represented. The cattle pieces and landscapes of the former gentleman have been long known to the public, and Mr. Whittaker's " Harvest on the Welsh Mountains" evidences careful study of nature. I can do no more than allude to the honestly truthful 'Thames" views of Mr. Dodgson, the Norwe-
gan of Mr. Rosenberg, the daintily-executed drawings of Mr. oster, Mr. George Fripp's landscapes, and Mr. Read's architectural interiors. Mr. J. D. Harding will please all who prefer "composed' landscapes to natural ones, and those who esteem quantity before quality will be repaid by an inspection of the twenty drawings by MX. CollingwoodBmith. The new society has lost one of its most conspicuous members, in the person of Mr. Edward i Corbould, whose name is no longer to be found in the catalogue. His place s supplied in some measure by Mrs. Elizabeth Murray, whose works are marked by considerable vigour of handling and knowledge of pictorial effect ; but what is still more remarkable in a lady's work is the strong feeling for charac- teristic ugliness which she possesses. In "Spanish Charcoal Burners" and "The Belle of the Market" there are two heads which would send the mere painter of pretty faces into convulsions ; but Mrs. Murray has also a sense of beauty, and wisely contrasts her ruffians and beldams with young girls whose eyes are of the largest, and whose lashes are of the longest regulation dimensions. A little more attention to accurate drawing and proportion would materially en- hance the effect of this lady's work. Mr. E. H. Wehnert, in a large and 'pretentious drawing, makes a ghastly attempt at humour. "Fal- staff Courting Mrs. Ford" is a subject which would have tasked the genius of Leslie to render presentable. In Mr. Welinert's hands it becomes vulgar to a sickening degree. Far better is the "Interior of St. Michael's Church, Tenbury," ii modern Puseyite church— a com- mission probably from some of the clergymen whose portraits are in- .a moonlili zt evening on the water. The youth pauses from his rowing of the boat with a ruddy light that contrasts well with the moonlight — a wide expanse of beach with some figures seated on a broken mast
feeling for atmospheric effect. Messrs. Richardson and Vacher are most to the first. Still, the fact remains, that it is written on the the representatives here, as Mr. Rowbotham is at the Old Society, of -face of -various philosophies, for example, on those of Socrates, of 'the bright, the heautifully.blue" school. In efficiency and °mastery Spinoza, of Giordano Bruno, of Malebranche, of Coleridge, that they over material Mr. Vacher as not equal to Mr. Richardson, but it have originated in the hunger .and thirst after some satisfying prin- would be hard to say which of these gentlemen's seas and nvers were ciple of lire ; on others, as for instance, those of Hobbes, of Ben- d the most cerulean tint. It is pleasant to find Mr. Edmund Warren, tham, of Fourier, and many others, that they have taken their striking out a new path, and not confining himself, as helms hitherto rise in anomalous states of .social and political organization .crying done, to one set of subjeots. He-still lingers occasionally in shady. loudly for some remedy, and the belief of individual zealots that they avenues and woods, but in.several instances this year he evidences a possess that remedy; in °ahem, agaia, as those of Aristotle, of Locke, power of realizing broad effects of sunlight and extensive scenes. and of the Scotch school, that the primary impulse came from a No. us, without a title, is a case in point, where the milkmaids theoretic instinct, from a pleasure in inquiry rather than a hunger are trudging through the new -mown hay - fields, on their way for truth, from the charm which the solution of puzzles, the analysis to the farm. The declining sun casts long shadows across the meadows,' and sheds a mellow radiance over the scene. In this drawing, the of complex wholes, and the ingenious combinations of old truths into "Barley Field" and the "Farmer's Boy," the distant landscape has new, always has for speculative minds. With the two former classes been extremely well rendered, and the skies have been well studied. of philosophers Mr. Maurice has the deepest sympathy, and in deal- It is a pity the painter still adheres to a method of ,execution that ing with them he shows a very rare instinct for interpreting the cannot fail to interfere with the stability of his work; the amount of truest and deepest significance of their meaning. A certain hunger gum and body colour employed purchase present force and brilliancy for the substantial and the eternal, a craving to reach the solid at the risk of speedy decay. Mr. Tidey's large drawing, " The Last rock of all human institutions, is of the very essence of his of the Abencerrages," has evidently cost its painter some labour, and mind : and he enters into the ontological, and political, and social kis to be regretted that the result is not one of which it is possible speculations of the greater thinkers, with a fulness and delicacy to speak favourably. The figures are false and theatrical in action, of sympathy that catches intuitively the true key-note to their and the utter negation of colour is a serious defect. Mr. A. Bouvier thoughts. In dealing with the rarely intellectual school—except paints, contentedly enough, a number of ladies with the most regular in the case of Kant—we think him less fortunate : he passes features and a stereotyped absence of expression, and calls the pro- duction "The Happy Days of Mary Queen of Scots." Among, by the psychologists almost with a sort of scorn, though scorn is the members who have evinced a desire to improve, Mr. W. Lee must scarcely a proper word for any conscious act of Mr. Maurice's large not be omitted. His "Grace before Meat" and "Rustic Toilette" and genial mind. It is obvious that he does not respect them ; that show sensible progress, and are in every respect better than anything he thinks psychology, for its own sake, something not far removed be has exhibited for the last few yiears . But a far stronger instance of from amiable trifling, that he is glad of any excuse to evade the improvement will be found in M.s s Farmer's pictures, which are, all favourite controversies of psychologists without positive impoliteness. things considered, the bestigurepieces in the collection. They are true But this leaning of Mr. Maurice's has some great advantages m gesture and expression, conscientious in execution, and harmonious which far more than counterbalance the somewhat novel neglect of in colour. "Calculation' is a similar subject to Mr. Barton's "A Girl' psychological technicalities which characterizes his book. The main doing her Sum." In "the 'Strengthening Draught," a chubby, merry- advantage is that it enables him to connect the philosophy of the facet? girl is tenderly offering a cordial to a convalescent sister. The
contrasted and happily realized. heads of both are well lized. "The Fairy time much more closely with its moral and political history than Tale" is told by an old nurse to a laughing child, whose sweet limo-
cant for the subtlety and ingenuity of cent expression as she looks up into her guardian's face is charmingly special philosophic criticisms. The deeper yearnings for new life— successful. The fruit and flower pieces of Mrs. Duffield will repay the various enterprises for riveting the bonds of society and the State inspection; and Messrs. Harrison 'Weir and C. Weigell contribute a anew—these cannot but have a special relation to the condition of
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