c : ifl arts.

MR. HOLMA.N HUNT AND MR. R. B. MARTINEAU. THE picture which Mr. Holman Hunt has rather curiously called "The After-glow in Egypt,, is in almost every respect the finest be has ever painted. But before completely enjoying it, one must become accustomed, as best one may, to the frame in which with singularly bad judgment it has been set—a frame which, so far -

from fulfilling the prime duty of a frame, which is to separate the after the toil and heat of a harvest day ; repose and unison picture from surrounding objects without distracting the attention throughout all nature ; man and the fowls of the air taking their to itself, is streaked and barred with dark-brown bands that cry food from the same teeming and bountiful source. Only hide out obtrusively to be looked at, and do their worst to destroy the that distracting frame !'

repose and content of mind which it is the main object of the Mr. Hunt's second and smaller work represents London Bridge picture to produce. If Mr. Hunt were a man who acted incon- as it appeared on the night of the Princess of Wales's arrival in siderately there would be more hope than may probably now be England. The flaunting banners and long line of flaring lamps

entertained that he would listen to a protest on this head. and censers, filling the air with a fiery haze, above which rides front and life-size, draped nearly to the ankles with a dark blue dense crowd of men, women, and vehicles, pickpockets, coster- serge-like robe, and having a gaily striped kerchief for head- mongers, swells, and policemen that pass and repass over the dress. On her head she carries a sheaf gleaned from the fat bridge for the special delectation, as it seems, of the gentleman wheat plains that,stretch behind, and balances the load with her and his children whose portraits are given in the red-baize left hand, while in the palm other right she holds a bright green balcony on the right, is a tour de force in colour. The red glare water-jar, filled in the pool she has just left. She is accom- of the flambeaux fading into the lurid smoke they have them- ponied and followed by a flock of pigeons that flutter and selves sent forth, and the greenish hue which the intense red strut about her, and pick up the bearded grains that have fallen gives to the pure blue moonlight, are painted with immense force from the ripe ears of wheat. One has perched on the sheaf itself, and truth. The riot and tawdry decorations of the scene, not for- and clings to it with claws and tail. They sweep after her in a getting the fussy little steamboat with fiery funnel bustling along graceful line connecting the foreground with the distant cornfield, the water-way, form a sufficiently violent contrast to the repose whose polished straws catch a faint reflection from the sky, and of the larger work, and supply irrefragable evidence of versatility

mingle its delicate blue with the prevailing gold of the crop. The in the artist.

title sufficiently indicates the time of day, but it would be diffi- Mr. R. Ifartineau's picture, " The Last Day in the Old Home," cult for the untravelled Englishman before seeing the picture to was a marked favourite at the International Exhibition of 1862, imagine the brilliance and all-pervading splendour of light which and well bears looking at again. It is needless to attempt a des.

has survived the set of sun, cription of this well-known picture. All its parts are carefully

The lithe form of the girl, unfettered by bonds of costume such Piece) oak-panel, and family portraits, of carpet, tapestry, and plate- as in the colder north seem as imperfectly adapted to comfort as armour, is at the same time delighted with the general construe- to the requirements of taste, moves easily and gracefully along. tion and arrangement which combine and reduce these details In other words, the drawing is very good ; and this quality is as (and many more) to an intelligible and harmonious purpose. perceptible in detail of baud, arm, and foot, as in the general The picture, for instance, that hangs over the door opening on outline and posture of the figure. Her loosely flowing robe is the staircase, besides being a lively imitation of the portraits thrown into grand and simple folds by her gentle gait ; and the whence we derive our ideas of our great-great-grandmothers' contrast of its dark blue and purple tones and the brighter blue outward appearance, forms, with the surrounding wall, a capital of the upturned sleeve heighten the rich glow of colour on her study of deep and sober colouring ; but does not in the least face and arms. These are beautifully modelled, the left arm being obtrude itself on the attention, or interrupt—on the con- of itself a perfect study ; and when we have succeeded (if we ever trary, it aids in due measure in producing—the main in- do) in reforming our shoemakers' lasts, we may hope thatEuropean terest of the work. This centres in the spendthrift father women will have feet as free from deformity as those which give and his little boy, on whom the founder of the house lightness to the step of this child of the desert. The placid aspect, looks from his frame on the opposite wall with grave and mute the long lustrous eye, and the subtle and speaking curves of the reproach. It was no part of the painter's purpose, any more full lip, no leas than the golden brown cheek and the chin faintly than it was his duty, to make this man anything but odious and streaked with an orange dye, impart to the picture the true contemptible, or to give in the inherited physiognomy of the son Egyptian character which is equally sustained by the limpid any promise of a return at some future day to the solid virtues sky, the villages raised on mounds above the flood which which built up the fame and fortunes of the house ; and we look in subsiding has left many a pool behind, and by the fore- for relief not to the listless wife (who but faintly objects to the ground of mud cracked by the summer heat. The pigeons boy being joined in his father's drunken joke), but to the two are studied with great care, their plumage, both in point elders in the bay window—the faithful steward who is rendering of colour and of texture, and their various movements, whether his last accounts, and his old mistress, who receives his books and of flight or march, being given with life-like reality. The artifice keys, and pays his wages with her last bank-note. This episode, used to denote the fluttering of the white pigeon's wing on the With its background of mullioned window, through which the right, namely, a faint repetition of its outline in the space through autumn-tinted trees and falling leaves are seen in the park which the wing has just passed (in fact representing two beyond, forms of itself a perfect picture. The canvass abounds images of one object that have succeeded each other on the eye with indications and allusions more or less obviously pointing so rapidly as to appear contemporaneous) may be noted as a to the fallen fortunes of the house ; but though it is pleasant to curiosity. There is no canon against such a device, though it trace these with the eye, it is intolerable to have them crammed has hitherto been applied only to indicate by indefinite multi• down one's throat by the critic. The strength of the picture lies plication of spokes the rapid revolutions of a wheel, and it needs in its colour, as is the case with most of the artist's productions. no other justification than to have succeeded without shocking It is so with the pictures he exhibits this year at the Royal the taste. The size of the birds is unusually large ; but the as- Academy, in which, however, there is repeated a fault apparent surance that this is in strict accordance with local truth may also here, namely, blackness in the flesh-shadows. The weak doubtless be depended on. The general tone of colour is not less point (weakness of a kind too frequent in the English school) is rich, though more subdued and " broken " than has heretofore undoubtedly the drawing of the principal figure, which is very been customary with the artist; with all his former light and deficient in vitality and power of motion. It is too much like a brilliance it has none of the old rawness. Simplicity in the original figure on wires, and betrays the want of method and thorough- conception and measured power in its embodiment are the cha- ness in the training of our artists which individual talent or racteristics of the piece, which, without a single symptom of care- perseverance rarely supply unaided. The picture is nevertheless lessness, is not disfigured by any excess or obtrusiveness of detail, a fine one, and its general colour promises unusually well for the and has little of the old hardness and dryness arising from over_ photographed copies that are to be made of it. It should be elaboration ; the only exception in this latter respect being the added that these three pictures are to be seen (unalloyed by a very sharp definition of the head-dress against the sky, and a con- crowd of incongruous companions) at "The New Gallery,'

sequent flatness in the head. There is still, however, the old 16 Hanover street, Regent street. V. tendency to overcrowd the canvass, and to paint objects so near

the eye that the perspective converges with a violent and die- B 0 0 -K S.

agreeable rapidity. The water, too, lacks transparency, a quality lost perhaps in the effort to express a multitude of ripples. But, on the whole, there has seldom in modern times been a IT is perhaps somewhat of a paradox to say that Dr. Newman's N.,picture which less provoked criticism, or more strongly invited to reply to Mr. Kingsley at once demonstrates the perfect simplicity

the enjoyment of its spirit—the calm and content of eveningDr. Newman mean?,

from fulfilling the prime duty of a frame, which is to separate the after the toil and heat of a harvest day ; repose and unison picture from surrounding objects without distracting the attention throughout all nature ; man and the fowls of the air taking their to itself, is streaked and barred with dark-brown bands that cry food from the same teeming and bountiful source. Only hide out obtrusively to be looked at, and do their worst to destroy the that distracting frame !'

repose and content of mind which it is the main object of the Mr. Hunt's second and smaller work represents London Bridge picture to produce. If Mr. Hunt were a man who acted incon- as it appeared on the night of the Princess of Wales's arrival in siderately there would be more hope than may probably now be England. The flaunting banners and long line of flaring lamps

entertained that he would listen to a protest on this head. and censers, filling the air with a fiery haze, above which rides The subject of the picture is a barefooted Egyptian girl, full the moon (herself almost frighted from her propriety), and the front and life-size, draped nearly to the ankles with a dark blue dense crowd of men, women, and vehicles, pickpockets, coster- serge-like robe, and having a gaily striped kerchief for head- mongers, swells, and policemen that pass and repass over the dress. On her head she carries a sheaf gleaned from the fat bridge for the special delectation, as it seems, of the gentleman wheat plains that,stretch behind, and balances the load with her and his children whose portraits are given in the red-baize left hand, while in the palm other right she holds a bright green balcony on the right, is a tour de force in colour. The red glare water-jar, filled in the pool she has just left. She is accom- of the flambeaux fading into the lurid smoke they have them- ponied and followed by a flock of pigeons that flutter and selves sent forth, and the greenish hue which the intense red strut about her, and pick up the bearded grains that have fallen gives to the pure blue moonlight, are painted with immense force from the ripe ears of wheat. One has perched on the sheaf itself, and truth. The riot and tawdry decorations of the scene, not for- and clings to it with claws and tail. They sweep after her in a getting the fussy little steamboat with fiery funnel bustling along graceful line connecting the foreground with the distant cornfield, the water-way, form a sufficiently violent contrast to the repose whose polished straws catch a faint reflection from the sky, and of the larger work, and supply irrefragable evidence of versatility

title sufficiently indicates the time of day, but it would be diffi- Mr. R. Ifartineau's picture, " The Last Day in the Old Home," cult for the untravelled Englishman before seeing the picture to was a marked favourite at the International Exhibition of 1862, imagine the brilliance and all-pervading splendour of light which and well bears looking at again. It is needless to attempt a des.

has survived the set of sun, cription of this well-known picture. All its parts are carefully

" Not as in Northern climes obscurely bright, studied without any ostentation of industry, and the eye, while But one unclouded blaze of living light." thoroughly satisfied with the various details of inlaid chimney-