ART.
ROYAL SOCIETY OF PAINTERS IN WATER- COLOURS.
THE present exhibition strikes us as being neither better not- worse than the many that we have seen in former years. When one first looks round the walls, it seems difficult to believe that the pictures have been changed since the preceding year, and yet closer examination shows changes, and always brings to light a great deal of meritorious, if not ambitious work. To say that there is much work here which lays strong and lasting hold of the mind and memory, would. be saying, what is not, and we should suppose, never has been true of any exhibition. It is mere surplusage, if not pertinence, to lament over the short supply of genius, or even the rarity of that elevated aim which, where it does not very palpably fall short of its mark, so often passes =aster for genius.
Among the large mass of excellent and honest literal landscape work shown, we should select as among the most interesting, the contributions by Messrs. Poynter, Herbert Marshall, and Henry Moore. It is worth noticing how rarely we see any attempt here, such as Mr. Alfred Hunt has made, to grasp any exceptionally beautiful or impressive aspect of Nature, any- thing beyond what mere careful, leisurely, local study can enable the painter to record. As far as sentiment can be con- veyed by the literal and careful truth of a scene in itself speaking to the imagination, we shall find it embodied in the work of the before-mentioned painters, as in Mr. Poynter's two views of Whitby; we do not so much care for the view in Iffulgrave Woods (27), in which the autumnal tints are scarcely successful, and the whole treatment appears over- elaborated and hard. Mr. Hunt aims at higher qualities, with what success there may be difference of opinion ; but his "Windsor Castle" (19) appears to us the production of an elevated imagination and truthful mind, at once poetic and realistic, cultivated by constant study and unremitting labour, and taking Nature by preference in her rarer and more im- pressive moods. The view is taken from the opposite side of the river, in a calm, sunny afternoon light,—a mass of boats, with some figures scattered among them, occupy the fore- ground; they are drawn up on the side of the calm, placid river; opposite rises Royal Windsor, which now glows rose- red and gold in the setting sun, under whose irradiation the irregular rows and groups of red-tiled houses in the old town below, and the ancient pile of the castle above, are bathed in a glory of light and colour. On the ex- quisite gradations of colour, the truth of reflections and tones in the water, the admirably calculated varieties of strength in the shadows of the buildings, we have not room to expatiate. The only drawback appears to us a sandy quality in the colour, and a want of height in the castle. Such a work requires patient and careful examination to arrive at a full appreciation of its beauties ; but when arrived at, the lesson so learnt will not be without value both for student or mere spectator.
There are several specimens here of Albert Goodwin's work, scarcely, however, at his strongest ; still, his peculiar qualities are to be found in almost all of them,—he stands quite alone in his power of imparting a touch of fairy influence to his landscapes. This quality is shown in "The Fisherman and the Genii" (98), a subject taken from "The Arabian Nights." The seaweedy rocks and the magic calm of the scene are impressively given. Another very different view of sandy coast, "The Harbour Bar" (108), has a stormy sunset with masses of cloud powerfully rendered.
Mr. Po3rnter's careful landscape should prove encouraging to many young artists, in the way of showing what careful, unaffected, painstaking work an artist of his reputation still finds it worth while to do. We envy the possessors of his two Whitby landscapes, especially the small one hung on one of the screens, "Near Whitby" (205) ; the foam washes in on the coast alter the most realistic fashion, and the distance is lovely and delicate ; it exactly recalls the place, and has a refreshing and entire absence of trick, mannerism, and affectation, a fact which is vividly impressed upon us by much of the work hung around it. George Fripp shows that his hand has lost none of its cunning in his "Study of the Comiel Falls, Loch Etive" (29); the rush of water is well given, and the picture or sketch is fresh and pleasing. We prefer Mr. Henry Moore's "Breezy Morning" (128) to his other contributions. His method of procedure is very 'different from most water-colour work here,
and in its bold impasto—and, we might almost say, rocky use of flake-white—more resembles oil-colour; but no one better
succeeds with that dance of light on the waves of a tumbling swell under rolling masses of a billowy sky ; the sky seems to us a little overdone and too rocky, but it has a real fresh look of Nature, refreshing after so many emasculated and softened views of the same effects, and in these qualities faintly recalls David Cox. Herbert Marshall still continues to find never- ending matter for his facile brush in various views of London streets seen under the softening influences of gray haze and golden sunset ; one of Piccadilly is specially pleasing; he is one of those artists who have mastered the difficulty of in- dicating a great deal of detail without detracting from the unity of his compositions.
The figure subjects appear to us in this exhibition very secondary in interest to the landscape work. Sir John Gilbert is as romantic as ever, needless to say, but we do not think that his work here calls for any special comment. Carl Haag has compositions in Cairo and Damascus, giving his usual richly attired sheiks and Arabs drowsily gossiping, sipping their coffee, and enjoying their chibouks. Mr. Charles Robertson has also gone to the East for the subject of his large composition, "La Douleur du Pacha " (54). It is taken from a poem of Victor Hugo, the sorrow of the Pacha arising from the death of his Nubian tiger ; poetic license with a vengeance, as a lion would have been as effective, and true to natural history at the same time. The picture, as a figure subject, is probably the most important attempt in the Gallery; all the accessories are worked out with great care, and to us rather appear to overpower what human interest there may be in the story. To admirers of Eastern subjects, this picture will no doubt prove interesting ; others will pass it by unless for its careful work. We cannot admire Miss Montalba's work here ; a great deal of it is positively bad and blottesque ; the exhibition of such a drawing as the "Salute from the Piazzetta " (146) seems to us to be trading on a name, and an instance of the fatal results of a too easily attained success. Mr. Laurence Bulleid's work must attract notice, if merely on account of the astonishing way in which he keeps his work clean ; no sponging or scraping, and no body-colour used, yet he manages to give a good deal of the Alma Tadema quality to his accessories ; but he has also—still more than his great prototype—missed the soul of humanity, ankhis little figures, dainty as they are, do not seem to us alive.
The Society has sustained a great and 'serious loss in the almost entire absence of work by Mrs. Allingham, who is this year exhibiting upwards of seventy-nine drawings at the Fine Art Society. It is true that she has sent her largest, and in some respects most important, work to the Old Water-Colour Society ; but we would rather, in spite of the beauty of the figure of the girl in "Through the Woods" (16), have had here a specimen of that beauty of early spring and cottage life in a Southern county which she has so identified with her name. In all that comes from her hand, we find the same reconciliation of truth with refinement and tenderness which gave its special charm to the work of Frederick Walker, whose genre—but with- out ever suggesting imitation—Mrs. Allingham more than any other artist, now exhibiting, recalls. She is distinctively herself, but perhaps a trifle less so in this, her more finished drawing, than in her smaller studies. All testify to that inexplicable and exquisite sentiment of the loveliness of simple things, and the grace of peace and innocence, which gives Art its right to be, and makes it the best interpreter of the beauty and good- ness to be found in a work-a-day world. One endowed with this power has no need to go far afield for subjects, or to hark back to picturesque times for more artistic surroundings than are within the reach of all who have the gift to see, which is the first condition of the power to represent. It is hardly possible to do justice in words to the pure and sincere senti- ment of these drawings, as well as their exquisiteness of execution. They show how refined and delicate Art may deal with Nature, and find it full of suggestions of beauty without forfeiture of truth ; and are feminine in the best sense of the word, without any of the artistic weakness that pleads for consideration in the name of the sex.
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