MAY 8, 1830 EXHIBITION OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY AT SOMERSET
HOUSE
THIS is "a sorry sight." After all the trumpet ings that ushered in this great feast of art—the parade of dishes, and the splendour of the covers—it turns out little better than Timon's banquet of hot water. . . Instead of exhibit• ing such works as many which are here dis• played, they had need rather hide them; fot they show not only a want of invention, taste, intellect, and feeling, but an absolute inability in technical skill—a want of control over their materials, and of adaptation of their art to its legitimate purposes. But it is an ungracious task to record the disappointed feelings with which we quitted the Academy after- our first glance round the rooms: suffice it to say, that the derision or disgust which many pictures excited, was turned into sorrow and regret when we considered the melancholy state in which they showed the arts of design to be at this time in England—sunk to the level of a handicraft, and degraded into a .mere trade.
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