ART.
THE INSTITUTE OF PAINTERS IN WATER-COLOURS THERE is no doubt that this gallery is rapidly losing its import-. ance as a representative one of Water-colour Art. There was a time, and that but few years ago, when each year there was a sort of friendly rivalry between this and the " Old Water- Colour," as it was fondly called by its members and adherents. Sometimes one exhibition was the best, sometimes the other, though as a rule the preference was even then, we think, to be given to the elder Society. But at any rate, these were the two- Water-colour Exhibitions of the year, and the Dudley Gallery held a totally inferior and subordinate position, was looked upon much as a promising undergraduate might be by the Master of Trinity, no thought of competition or comparison being possible. All this, however, has been rapidly changing during the last four or five years, till at the present moment the position of the three galleries with regard to water-colours would place the Dudley Gallery intermediate between the two Societies. Still the exhibi- tion has a meaning and a value to the student of art, if he will only bear in mind that it is as a warning, and not as an example,, that he is to regard the majority of the works here exhibited. Here he may see the old theories and practices of water-colour,. dating from the time when it was everything for a picture to be rugged and picturesque, or else smooth and pretty, according to whether the artist copied Cox or Harding, still rampant; and going from picture to picture throughout this gallery, he will be struck by the apparent absence from the work of any earnestness of spirit, or indeed merit of any kind, except that of technical manipulation. Of course there are several exceptions to this judgment, but of the great majority it holds good, and it is to us on that account a distinctly painful exhibition. Pictures like the set of three (No. 224), by Mr. Edward Fahey, are, in our eyes, calculated positively to degrade art to the level of the illustrations of a child's picture-book, and anything more unlike nature in every way than the works of Augustus Bouvier, Guido Bach, and F. J. Skill here exhibited we do not remember to have seen.
There are perhaps half-a-dozen pictures out of the three hundred and sixty which are good, but of all the rest we can only say that when they are not common-place they are absolutely bad, and this frequently where the artist might have done better, if he had chosen. Thus we know that Mr. Herkomer can do good work when he chooses, but of the six examples he sends here not one rises in the least above the level of contented mediocrity. There is an Israels, No. 118, a little drawing of a cottage, with a dark mass of trees behind it, which absolutely crushes the other landscapes round ; but it is not a good specimen of the master, and would hardly be noticeable elsewhere, except that any landscape painted with a definite meaning, to convey any actual feeling, noticeable if hung amongst English work, as our landscape painters, with the exception of a few amongst the followers of the pre-Raphaelite school, rarely mean anything except to make a picture. There are some nice little Venetian sketches here by Edwin
Bale, and a strong single-figure subject, by the same painter, No. 186, " Choosing the Necklace," a woman in yellow dress, leaning slightly backward, with a necklace in her hand. Two drawings for Punch, by Tenniel, Nos. 343 and p44, "The Broken Link" and "Tightening the Grip," are as good as usual, no mean praise, when applied to this artist's work, which is always conscientious, as well as clever. The first, the picture of France standing by the tomb of Thiers, forms a splendid contrast to the intense action of the second picture, which represents the Turk struggling in the grip of the Russian bear. If it be possible to draw muscle in motion, we have it in the drawing of the back of the Turk's leg in this picture. Harry Johnson and Hine, two old favourites in this gallery, send nothing worthy of their reputation, though No. 151, "Near Glynde, Sussex," is a pleasant bit of the swelling Downs, which always form Hine's most successful subject. This sketch, however, is slight, and hardly so true in feeling as his work used to be, less of the solitary grandeur about it than belongs to those long lines of gently swelling pasture. Mrs. Duffield, always a skilful painter of flowers, sends several examples, but they are all in the style of what flowers would be if painted for a young lady's album, and suggest cardboard and a palette full of bright colour, which yet is not somehow good colour. There are, indeed, in our opinion, only four pictures in this gallery which are worthy to be called really good, and only one which is quite first-rate. Of course, we are now speaking of pictures, ex- clusive of the drawings of Tenniel, and various other nice but slight works. These four are Nos. 215, 253, 238, and 256. We are glad to say that the first, which is undoubtedly the best subject- picture in the gallery, is by a lady, and one on whose ability we have before had occasion to remark. " The Convalescent," by Mary L. Gow, is a picture of decided ability, and feeling, and the work throughout is good, though somewhat slight. The subject is a child recovering from illness, resting upon a sofa, with his toys round him, while his sister reads to him,—
" Romance or fairy fable,—
Or is it some historic page, Of kings and crowns unstable ?"
There is, perhaps, a certain amount of weakness in the colouring, though probably were it less weak we should miss the delicacy, which is no small part of the charm of the picture, and the drawing of the sick child's wrist seems a little faulty ; but when every deduction is made, it is a genuinely clever picture, and what is more, an excessively pleasing and interesting one. No. 238 is "The Last of the Old Squires," by Andrew Gow, the painter of the " Relief of Leyden," in the Academy two years ago. It is a group of villagers inspecting the bill of sale affixed to the gate- posts of an old manor-house, the country lawyer amongst them having ridden up to see how his instructions have been carried out ; and in the background a long perspective of village street, with small figures and geese, reminding us a little, perhaps, of Fred Walker's picture of " Cookham," in the Grosvenor Gallery. This is not an altogether satisfactory picture, though the group- ing of the figures is clever, and the landscape portion of the drawing fairly good. There is a certain amount of strain- ing after the pathetic and not getting it which rather irritates the beholder, and the figures have an arranged look,—don't seem to be a fortuitous concourse of atoms at all. Perhaps it is over-laboured, but we incline to think that it is the unmanageability of the subject which is in a great degree answer- able for the defects we mention. The work does not impress us as a whole, except as being evidently carefully thought out, and cer- tainly well painted. Very much the same remarks will apply to Mr. Gow's second contribution, No. 87, " Doubtful Company," a highwayman riding along by the side of an elderly stranger, and conversing pleasantly with him.
No. 253, "Before the Twilight Deepens into Night," by J. Aumonier, is the landscape of the exhibition. There is a depth of feeling about it, as well as a strength of execution, which raises it to quite a different level from anything here. It is a cliff scene, with fishermen taking in their nets before night ; red roofs and smoke of the fishing village just rising above the hollow of the down ; in the distance, a gleam of sea shining in the afterglow ; above, a mass of heavy clouds, tinged rosy with the sunset,—a simple and beautiful picture, and one well worthy of Mr. Aumonier's undoubted powers.
The last picture we have to notice, No. 256, stands in the same relation to the other figure-work of this gallery as Aumonier's drawing does to the landscapes. This is Mr. E. J. Gregory's " St. George," a head and shoulders only of a man in armour. It is so far above the other work of this gallery that it is difficult quite to estimate its value, but there can be no doubt but that in any exhibition of contemporary art it would more than hold its own ; where it is, it absolutely destroys everything round it. The head is not a beautiful one, not the angelic head usually attributed to the champion of Christendom, but rather a cut-throat sort of physiognomy, full of ferocity and determina- tion. The painting is almost insolent in its careless strength, as if the artist were in a rage with the public, and had said in his mind, " Confound you, take that! That's good enough for you, isn't it?" This, however, may be fancy on our part ; in any case, we can only advice our readers to go and look at the picture for themselves.
To sum up, there are some clever sketches by Townely Green and C. Green, and one half-length figure of a trumpeter, by Mr. Linton, which deserve mention, and technically speaking, there is also plenty of good brushwork and manipulation in the gallery, and but little else.
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