Pat Arts.
THE SYDENHAM PICTURE-GALLERY.
• The plan which has been some months in preparation of getting up a gallery of pictures in the Crystal Palace has now assumed visible shape before the public ; the gallery, so far as it is yet arranged, having opened on Saturday last. The appeal of the directors for contributions has been well responded to in paint of numbers. Four rooms on the ground-floor of the wing next the Byzantine Court are already to a certain extent ar- ranged; and heaps of pictures still remain to he hung. The idea of the exhibition is a valuable and interesting one, which deserves to be carried out with enlightened judgment. The collection is of the same nature as that of last year in the Parisian Palais des Beaux Arts, and on a scale still large, though much smaller than that. The number of pictures received must, we suppose, already rival that hung by the Royal Academy, and more are on their way. A representation of the several existing national schools is courted, each being placed in a distinct body by itself; and England, France, Belgium, and Germany, occupy as it is a decent numerical position. With this important pur- pose—and we can scarcely exaggerate the interest and usefulness of such a systematic extension of the Paris plan—are combined some obvious business advantages to the artist. The exhibition opens late enough to receive pictures declined at the Royal Academy. No charge is made on the contributors save the moderate levy of 6 per cent on purchases ; and pictures are removeable as soon as sold. The light is excellent ; the hanging was promised to be such that no works would be out of sight. The visitor to the Palace also is liberally treated. During the four months for which the gallery is to remain open, he sees it without any extra charge for admission.
Failure in the execution of such a plan will be matter for serious re- gret; but we are coinpelled to say that the execution as yet is scarcely a success. English artists have been shy of committing themselves to a support of the project; and the consequence is, that the English section consists, as a whole, of the sweepings of very shabby studios—pictures which have been hawked about from gallery to gallery, the unsold relics of the recently-closed British Institution, and daubs of fabulous demerit. The hanging by no means fulfils the fair promises that were made. There are still invisible pictures, and among them some of those which ought to be most visible. A well-known Ray, the only one in the gal- lery, is entirely out of sight over a door; and so eminent a foreigner as Courbet yields the good places to commonplace or worthless performances, and has to put up with obscure and lofty corners. This is not only ig- norance and injustice, but the worst of policy. Then the want of a ca- talogue—a want which is to be permanent, we believe—is a decided in- convenience, although to sonic extent justifiable on account of the pos- sible removal of pictures from the gallery. We presume that the title of each work and the artist's name will eventually be affixed to the frames; but this is not done as yet, and it is only a person who has a good me- mory for old acquaintances, or a quick eye for styles, that will know what he is looking at. It is very much to be hoped that any ameliora- tions yet possible will be made; or the exhibition will fall into disrepute, good men will entirely hold aloof, and a project which is both needed as a completion to the scope of the Crystal Palace and in itself admirable will fall to the ground without fair trial. In the English section, the pictures really excellent may be told on the fingers,—Ford Brown's Chaucer, Anthony's Beech-trees and Fern, Leslie's Sancho Panza at his uneaten dinner as Governor of Barataria, and perhaps one or two minor works, such as a landscape by Inchbold. Works honourable or respectable are also sent by Lucy, Cave Thomas, Knight, Dell, Gale, Severn, George Landseer, and Martineau. These are all familiar ; and generally it may be said, with scarcely any qualifi- cation, that what is worth looking at has been seen before, and what has net been seen before is not worth looking at. At least two-thirds of the English pictures were fit for nothing else than peremptory rejection. Among those that are new, the only ones we remarked with any degree of satisfaction are—a Venetian scene, by Holland; a Boadicea --xlitating vengeance, by Miss Hewitt, which, though falling short on the whole, is daring and genuine in aim; one of Mr. Marks's quaint mediceval figures; and a pic- ture by Mr. Hopley, of which we cannot fathom the subject, but which shows progress as contrasted with former performances, and has an air— perhaps a faux air—of imagination about it. The foreign works are not so stale as the English, and they maintain unquestionably a better average ; yet to those who visited Paris last year, or who have watched with moderate attention the French and German exhibitions of the past two or three seasons in London, this section also presents little new of mark We noticed, however, of the French school, three capital little studies of character by Antigna ; a curious example by Berchere of the picturesque peculiarities of Gallic landscape art—an Al- gerian evening, with buffaloes descending to a stream ; landscapes still more extraordinary by Berthoud, which might be termed skeletons of ef- fects ; clever hunting-pieces by Montpezat ; and a characteristic view by Courbet, in addition to three works that were visible at Paris. The Execution of (we suppose) Mary Queen of Scots, is a large picture by Cor- nicelius, not better than many others of its class, but worthy of attention as a typical specimen. Of the German school, the best example is one which had been seen before,—a Peasant Wedding, by Jordan of Dussel- dorf; the bridegroom pledging his father-in-law in a hearty cup. Al- lowing for certain qualities of German execution, this is a picture de- serving very high praise. The only other Teutonic work, not remembered, which we care much to look at, is an old woman reading, by Geselschap ; excellently done. Some of the better landscapes may also be new; but, as German landscape is no cherished reminiscence of ours, we may have seen them before and forgotten them. The Belgian school, besides Leys's Troopers Gambling, which was in one of our French exhibitions, con- tributes a Joseph Stevens, with two donkeys—clever, but not very re- markable; a talented and expressive schoolboy subject by Block, some- thing in the Stevens manner ; fair conversation-pieces by Mertz, and landscape by Kindermans ; a rather striking Arab Burial by Portaels ; and a singular picture, with a nun holding a parrot, and a number of other figures evidently painted with a view to the exhibition of national character, bearing some resemblance to Biard. The artist's name, if we deciphered it correctly, is Naucz. A New York subject, with thronged streets deep in snow, by Mr. Sobron, is the most noticeable American work ; unartistic enough, but evidently like the fact.
The pictures expected in addition to those already received include two studies by Ingres, possibly the Meissonnier present to the Queen by the French Emperor out of the Paris Exhibition, md some by our own artists of repute. Many, it is stated, are to be borrowed from private galleries ; which appears to be, under the circumstances, a very proper expedient for raising the tone of the collection, and increasing its attract- iveness.
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