ART.
THE ACADEMY.—III.
THE experiment of placing a full-sized model of Mr. Harry Bates's equestrian statue of Lord Roberts in the Quadrangle of Burlington House is an interesting one. Sculpture of this kind wants large spaces and architectural surroundings. It is to be hoped that it may le possible to follow up this departure by creating some sort of loggia where large works could be seen under the same conditions as those for which they are destined. Mr. Bates has adorned the pedestal of his statue with two beautiful figures emblematical of India. Untrammelled in these by the limitations of portraiture, the artist has worked with freedom and success. But in the figure of Lord Roberts himself there is a discordant. element. The realism of the horse and its rider isolates them from the general decorative scheme, while the fact that they are realistic makes them look unnatural on the top of a pedestal. The n:agnifieent posturing of Colleoni makes him easily dominate his surroundings. Doubtless Lord Roberts never postured. But perhaps this makes him an unfit object to look down on the world from the top of a small mountain of bronze and sculptured stone. Possibly from the exigencies of modern art a statue has to be realistic. But then it might be better to put the emblematic figures in the crowning part of the design and make the por- trait take a subordinate place. The Albert Memorial enforces this strongly. Masses of beautiful work of architecture and mosaic enshrine a perfectly dull and commonplace figure, pro- ducing an anticlimax difficult to excel. Perhaps Stevens— England's greatest sculptor—might have solved this problem had be not been hindered by ignorant and overbearing officials, or neglected by fellow-workers in high places. But his great work was left unfinished, and his biographer has to tell, as Condivi did of Michelangelo, the "tragedy of the Monument."
Mr. Gilbert has made an artistic result of a portrait bust •
of the late Sir Richard Owen (No. 1,885). The striking features, and the lines of the enveloping cloak, are treated with the utmost skill and success. The massive effects of light and shade give great dignity to this wonderful old man's figure. Mr. Frampton has made some very beautiful panels for a door, representing heroines out of the " Morte Darthur." They are all so equal that it is difficult to choose, but the queenly figure of Guinevere is perhaps the most attractive, though for delicacy of work " The Lady of the Lake" takes a high place. Mr. Frampton is a born decorator, and these panels should make a truly splendid door.
The Water-colour Room cannot be called interesting. Con- scientious rather than inspired is the bulk of the work there. One picture, however, arrests the attention by the extra- ordinary brilliancy of its handling. In Mr. Melville's Capture of a Spy (No. 1,093) we see a fine example of the " wet-brush " style of water-colour. This method emphasises those beauties which the medium possesses distinct from other forms of paint. There is a beauty derived from the pools of liquid colour which have flowed into their proper places at once and for ever, which can never be attained by niggling and worrying the materiaL The blazing Eastern sunlight in Mr. Melville's picture is most con- vincing, and what a wealth of colour and subtle draw- ing he has put into the crowd of people in the dark shadow under the open front of the building. The Black-and-White Room is largely taken up by reproduc- tions of pictures by various forms of engraving. Among the original work is a charming drawing by Mr. T. Simeon (No. 1,524) of a girl's bead. The tree-stems of the back- ground are beautifully arranged with reference to the face. The Study of Three Cats (No. 1,482) by Mrs. W. Chance, shows an individual method of using the pencil. The masses of fur are treated broadly, and the drawing and character of the cats well expressed.
Mr. La Thangue has three pictures in the present exhibi- tion, all of which have that force and power which is so im- pressive from the fact that there is no artificial straining after effect. This year a greater amount of beauty has been added, but at no sacrifice of strength. The picture called A Little Holding (No. 57) shows a quantity of white ducks all moving in one direction. The realism of the picture Is quite astonishing; every duck seems an individual with its own movements, and yet part of the flock. The busy life of this group is heightened by the effect of the chequered sunlight which falls on them. More beautiful, though not more astonishingly real, is the same painter's Cottage Garden (No. 89). Occupying a prominent place in the front of the picture is a woman sawing a piece of wood which rests on a trestle. The upper part of the woman's dress is white, lit up by the setting sun, making a splendid riot of colour, in which glowing orange is skilfully balanced by cool reflections of the blue sky. The lower part of the dress is orange too, but being in shadow it enforces, and does not compete with the glowing colour above. The background is the cottage garden, with blue beehives away in the back. All these surroundings are delightfully painted, and are fall of air and colour, with just enough form to make them intelligible, but not enough to take the attention off the main theme of the picture,—the woman sawing. This woman is a beautiful figure, and she has that quiet dignity which so often belongs to those who live in cottages. Much more solemn is Mr. La Thangue's Man with the Scythe (No. 195). There is a note of tragedy in this figure of a mother with her sick child before a cottage. The man passing by with his scythe is unconscious of the meaning he suggests to those who look at this picture steeped in sombre twilight. Mr. La Thangue has often before painted a tragic motive, but he has sometimes erred from an almost brutal insistence on the theme, making the story too painful and obvious. But here there is a quiet pathos which lifts the picture far above his former works of this kind.
Mr. Gotoh's picture, Alleluia (No. 374), raises the question of mixed styles in art. Mrs. Pendennis described her son's novel as a " happy mixture of Shakespeare, Byron, and Walter Scott." Mr. Goich seems to have undertaken to mix together the composition of the early Florentines with the realism of the della Robbia's and the rich paint surface of the later Venetians. The disposition of this double raw of children against the gold background recalls the epoch of Fra Angelico. With this formal arrangement the pallid abstraction of the flesh colour harmonises. But the heads of these beautiful singing children are naturalistic in the extreme, both in drawing and modelling, and contrast strangely with the " primitive " elements of the work. Added to this, the dresses are gorgeously coloured, and painted with a touch that enforces their richness of material. Mr. Gotch seems to have desired to unite the gravity of abstract line, the natural beauty of children's faces, and a sensuous delight in gorgeous textures. Whether such a mixture can ever be good may be more than doubted. Each element, beautiful in itself, seems to lose rather than gain by association. Reynolds has- discussed this question in his fourth discourse, and sums up. the matter thus :—" But as the grave and majestic style would suffer by an union with the florid and gay, so also has. the Venetian ornament in some respect been injured by attempting an alliance with simplicity." Here the matter must rest, and if it is impossible to feel that in this present instance a successful union of styles has been effected, never- theless this failure need not prevent us from admiring the many and great beauties of the picture.
In the first notice of this year's exhibition a question wate asked concerning the Academy. Have they remained true to the principles of their great first President? Are they providing, the nation with " authentic models " to guide and stimulate its taste ? To answer "No" would not be fair, for among the ranks of the Academicians are to be found artists of the highest distinction. But if they have included the good, have. they not included the bad as well ? If they have hung- pictures worthy of the beat traditions of English art, have they not also hung pictures appealing to the most vulgar of popular tastes P To be worthy of the great position claimed for the Academy, its members must rise beyond merely suiting its exhibitions to the taste of all men,—a few noble works for those who appreciate them, and a wilderness of the easily understood,. the commonplace, and the ignoble, to please the crowd. If a concert consisting of an endless series of drawing-room ballads, with an occasional sonata thrown in, cannot be regarded as a classical performance, how can an exhibition, with its Trilbys (No. 166). its Trust Her Note (No. 672), its Pierots (No. 425), and its District Nurses (No. 121), advance national art, even though a few fine pictures are hidden in the gaudy crowd P How can an institution be considered national at all when it shuts its doors on all forms of the decorative arts outside easel pictures and statues, when a re- markable development in these arts is taking place in the country ? If for the carrying on of its schools and its social, functions the Academy is compelled to attract great erowde within its walls, it would be better to admit the fact frankly and allow that its exhibition is but a variety entertainment.. But if it is conscious that there is something higher than pleasing the passing taste of " the more cultivated portion of the ignorant," let it have a separate exhibition which should represent those artists whose aim at least is to produce noble work, whether by holding to the traditions of the past, or by following up those new developments without which art can- not live and flourish.
H. S.
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