ART.
THE GROSVENOR GALLERY.
[MST NOTICE]
THE picture season has at last fairly begun, and private views are as thick in Pall Mall and Bond Street as cowslips in the country meadows. There is no variety of Art unrepresented by an exhi- bition within a couple of miles of Charing Cross, and whether sight-seers wish for art romantic, art devotional, or art sensational, they can have their preference gratified with but little trouble or expense. For instance, lovers of the Romantic school may go to King Street, St. James's, and see Millais's great work of "The Bride of Lammermoor ;" religionists may attend the Pall Mall -Gallery, and see Ottoni's great picture of "The Death of Christ," or go to Bond Street. and witness one more pictorial rendering of "The Temptation, and Expulsion of Adam and Eve ;" while the sensationalists may find their special preferences gratified in dozens of different ways, in a wide range, from the deception of Gabriel Max's picture of "St. Veronica's Handkerchief" to the eccen- tricities of the msthetie Whistler. But if all varieties of taste had to be satisfied with one gallery, we should, on the whole, re- commend the one which forms the subject of the present notice. The Grosvenor Gallery, last year but an experiment, is now an established fact, and combines in itself almost every quality which a gallery should have. To most visitors, indeed, its chief merits may be summed up in a brief sentence, "Not too many pictures, and plenty of seats." Any one who has seen the looks of envious despair cast by visitors to Burlington house at the fortunate occupiers of the one ottoman in the centre of each room, will readily understand that we have not exaggerated the first merit above spoken of, and there is no doubt that two hundred good pictures are much pleasanter to look at than 1,500 indifferent ones ; and in this gallery there are but very few works of little interest, for even those which fall short in artistic skill have an interest of their own, as showing the limits of even the most intelligent and skilful of amateur work. On the whole, this year's exhibition is not quite so good as that of last summer, though in one or two cases there is a marked improvement. The colour of one of the galleries has been changed to a dark green, very suitable for the works of deep colour with which it is hung, and the pictures are more equal in merit. The amateur element is decidedly better than last season, more restrained, more skilful, and less arrogant, and there is an almost utter absence of the old, meaningless type of portrait-picture which was rather conspicuous last year, in such works as a baronet playing the fiddle, and a General "returning from the field of battle." There is, however, nothing so good in its way as either the '6 Days of Creation," by Burne Jones ; the Eastern scenes, by Holman Hunt ; the water-colour portraits by Poynter, or the "Love and Death," by Mr. Watts. Holman Hunt this year sends nothing, Poynter only landscapes, most of them inferior to his usual work, and of Burne Jones's and Watts's great pictures we speak later on. On the other hand, we have several works by Phil Morris, the Pepper's Ghost of artists ; one from R. W. Macbeth ; a first-rate Millais, far superior to anything he has painted of late ; and two gigantic landscapes by Mr. Cecil Lawson. Amongst the young artists, Ilerkomer, Mark Fisher, Gregory, and Edward Clifford are all new comers, and all fairly well represented.
In this notice we shall only mention some of the works of the West Gallery,—that is, of the less imaginative character, leaving to our second article the whole of the pre-Raphaelite element, and works like those of Mr. Spencer Stanhope, painted avowedly in imita- tion of the old masters. The first division of paintings in the West Gallery belongs to Herkomer, who sends four examples, all figures or beads. To any one who knows Herkomer's work, there is little to be said of these ; they are no better and no worse than usual. As usual, too, a sort of clever coarseness marks them all. No. 2, the portrait of Richard Wagner, is a striking likeness, but seems to have missed all the more delicate characteristics of that most nervously sensitive face ; and the flesh is not a colour to look on and be glad, except it be for dwellers in the nether regions. "Who comes here ?"—a group of Bavarians, father and children, looking out of their cottage-door—would have been well in its place as a "full-page illustration" to the Graphic, but it has hardly subject or interest enough to justify its repro- duction on such an immense scale. Nos. 6, 7, and 8, three little landscapes by Costa, are, we suppose, examples of amateur work, and as such are clever and industrious. No. 7, "Capri," is pleasant in its truthfulness to the colour of foliage and sea under the bright sun of southern Italy. No. 9, "Coming from St. Ives Market," by R. 'W. Macbeth, is hardly so good as is this painter's usual work ; and when shall we see the last of this black-browed, snaky-haired model of his, who stands six feet high, and strides heavily as a dragoon ; she had all the attraction of novelty at first, but, as the Americans say, is "pretty well played out" by this time. Clifford's portrait of the Countess Brownlow is not one of his successes, the painting of the dress alone being at all satisfactory ; the whole work is over-refined and over-laboured, and might have been done in a Catholic chapel, while clouds of incense surrounded painter and model, so little does it show of life or truth. Nos. 14, 15, and 16 are by Sir Coutts Lindsay, and there, perhaps, it is as well to stop. He has built the gallery, found the money, and collected the pictures, and he has a right to hang his own works in his own house, so that if we can do nothing else, we can men- tion them, and pass on. No. 19, "A Pastoral," by Mark Fisher,
is, perhaps, the best landscape in the gallery, though very quiet and unpretending in subject and treatment. As we noticed long ago of Mr. Fisher's work, it is thoroughly in the French method, and as far removed from realism as can well be. He has evidently studied Corot, and this picture has much of the delicate sugges- tiveness and half-melancholy quiet which were characteristics of the great French artist. We do not know exactly why a girl with sheep in a meadow should be "A Pastoral," but Mr. Fisher says it is, and he must know best. Next this is a portrait, by E. J. Gregory, of W. T. Eley, which, like all that this clever young artist does, is full of ability and power. Like most of his work, too, it is not altogether satisfactory. There is a certain amount of careless insolence in the painting which we have before remarked upon, which impresses the spec- tator with the belief that the artist did not sufficiently care for his work. As a portrait by a young man, we should say this is one of the most promising pictures in the gallery, though the flesh-painting is quite unnecessarily coarse. Nos. 21 and 58, by Cecil G. Law- son, are two gigantic landscapes, full of detail and work to a degree which makes it an ungracious task to remark upon their want of unity and meaning. They are not really pictures at all, only excessively clever panoramic delineations of nature. A pic- ture worthy of the name must have some raison d'être, and in these works we find none. It would be possible to cut off several square feet from either work without seriously damaging the remainder, and this of itself speaks most strongly with regard to the meaning of the work. We stood in front of both, and vainly sought to discover at what the artist had been aiming. By the side of this, No. 24, is an "Arrangement in Green and Brown" by James Whistler ; and a little further on, Nos. 52, tke., are various other harmonies, nocturnes, and varia- tions by the same artist. We had thought Sir Coutts Lindsay would not this year "have listened to the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely," and that we should have been allowed to remark with pleasure the absence of Mr. Whistler ; but he is here as usual, and more incomprehen- sible than ever. It may be that in these gradations of blue with a yellow lump in the middle, or these gradations of black or grey with a bit of pink for a face and four vermilion splodges for features, it may be possible, we say, that there is some fine-art hidden behind these "manifestations ;" but at present it appears to us simply in the same light as "writing on a closed slate" in the dark,—a piece of trickery, worth nothing when it is accomplished.
Nos. 25 to 30 are Alma Tademas, and with the exception of the last, all small examples. The last is a woman leaning over a couch, and picking up a handful of cherries from a table in front of her. Taken altogether, this is the very worst Alma Tadema we have ever seen, and approaches perilously near to absolute vulgarity. Of the small examples, we can only say that they are all alike exquisitely minute in work and pleasant in colour, but they do not quite approach the level of interest of this artist's general contributions, nor is there any one to rival the " Sunflowers " or the "Roman Bath" of last year. The next, Nos. 31 to 35, are Tissot's, and with one exception are single figures. The exception is No. 32, "Croquet," a very brilliant picture of a sunlit lawn, with a young girl in a black dress standing out darkly against the bright grass and dresses beyond. For mastery of light and shade and cleverness of composition, this work of M. Tissot's is quite first-rate, though it represents that style of almost fashion-plate pictures in which he and M. Heilbuth so much delight.
We must close this notice with the mention of Mr. Millais's large portrait of the Misses Hoare, entitled "Twins," which is, in our opinion, the best work we have had from his hand for some time. The twins are girls of about twenty, standing side by side in dark-green walking-dresses. The picture is a triumph over many difficulties, such, for instance, as those of position, likeness, and ordinary costume, and is, besides, painted with very much more care than has been usual of late years with this artist. Altogether, it is a work worthy of Mr. Millais's reputa- tion, and as such we are pleased to notice it.
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