ART.

THE ACADEMY.—LL THE official portrait is a form of art which has a long life. It hangs in Council Chambers, in Colleges, and in clubs. It is not, however, only an historical document, but a landmark of the art of the time of its production. Therefore it is of exceptional importance for the artistic character of this generation that its soldiers, statesmen, civic dignitaries, and also its King, should be represented in such a manner that people in the future will not have cause to deride the art of the present day. These portraits will not pass away quickly, like so many of the ephemeral pictures of the year. Their utilitarian value as commemorations of notable people will cause them to be carefully preserved. Now what does the Academy, the natural home of the presentation portrait, show us of the quality of this type of art P In the future people cannot fail to be interested by King Edward VII., as the head of the modern nation which was evolved during the momentous reign of Queen Victoria. He must always remain a great figure. But what will people in remote times think of the three representations of him here,—the State portrait by Sir

E. Poynter (No. 126), the parade portrait by Mr. Mordecai (No. 458), and the civilian portrait by Mr. Hatherell (No. 256) P The first of these unfortunately can only be described as a mountain of robes painted with complete and conscientious dullness. They cannot fail to be as wearisome to the beholder as to the wearer. Over this Sahara of satin, velvet, and ermine the head exercises no dominion. It is no more than a mask, and in the future no one will be able to deduce from it any sign of character, human or kingly. Mr. Mordecai has succeeded no better. Though he has escaped dullness, his taste is meretricious. Mr. Hatherell attempts to be actual, but only achieves the deceptive reality of the posed photograph. If the King has fared badly at the hands of his painters, many of his prominent subjects suffer the same fate. To enumerate these in detail would be wearisome to the reader; but the curious may judge for themselves of the truth of this statement by the following list : Nos. 48, 120, 122, 131, 143, 152, 163, 216, 231, 275, 334. Of course we cannot command genius, and if there is no Titian to paint Kings and Magnificos, no Hals or -Rembrandt to immortalise our Burgomasters, we must put up with lesser talent. But this only emphasises the value of tradition in art, for do we not remember scores of portraits by the lesser Dutchmen and Venetians whose energy was conserved and whose taste was guided by the example of the masters P Tradition does not hinder a genius. He starts a new one of his own, and the lesser men who follow after him derive power from its aid.

From such portraits as those we have been considering it is a pleasure to turn, by way of contrast, to the worke of Mr.

F. Craig, with their quiet and dignified style, learnt from Whistler. The lady (No. 345) seems unduly crushed against the wall, considering that she is about to play the violin. Her bowing in such a position would be impossible ; also her instrument, as is usual in pictures, is of impossible structure. The soldier (No. 709) is a sympathetic and restrained piece of work.

Last week we noted the tendency among artists to neglect structure for effects of light. This is the case in Mrs. Knight's clever work, Boys (No. 360). If the feeling shown for sunlight and effective colour had been reinforced by an equal feeling for form, the picture would have gained very greatly in strength and lasting power. When the present fashion for prismatic effect gives way to one for structure, the very in- complete drawing of the little boy bathers on the sunny beach will become painfully evident. Mrs. Knight shows real power in the manner in which she has assembled and controlled the materials of her composition and vivified them with sunshine. But she has been so much occupied with the way in which the light falls on the children that she has been content to leave them in a very imperfectly realised condition; they have bodies, but not life. A picture which impresses the mind by its vigour of painting and strong sense of pictorial design is Mr. Lambert's Holiday in Essex (No. 185). The painter has with great ability perfectly expressed the facts of the case by purely artistic means, and has also made these facts enhance the artistic scheme, and indeed seem necessary for its realisa- tion. The little boy carrying the freshlycaught fish and walking by the side of the pony on which his sister rides is finely and solidly painted, while the mother who follows is not only full of character and individuality, but takes her place inevitably in the decorative pattern of the picture. The painter has un- doubtedly come under a Spanish influence, but he has known how to use it for his own purposes. The figures are moving freely out-of-doors, though the lighting is that of the studio ; but the decorative effect is so consistent throughout that we accept the convention without question. The arrange- ment and painting of the dress of the lady are specially worthy of notice, and the severity of the style comes as a welcome relief after so much that is facile and superficial.

A picture which attracts by its quiet beauty is Mr. Stott's The Good Samaritan (No. 182). There are few things here which have in them so tender a strain of poetry. Indeed, true imaginative work is not easily found on these walls. Sir. William Richmond's Eve's .Dream (No. 135) seeks to be poetical, but fails in the realisation. Imaginative work in this style should contain better drawing than is to be found in the figures. Mr. John Collier has left dramatic anecdote and attempted poetry in The Summer Night that Paused among he• Stars (No. 239), and it is impossible to imagine anything more prosaic than the result. A model who may well have sat for one of the artist's society ladies has been posed in a black gauze veil on a rock, and that is all. There is no sense in putting a poetic label to a picture when its spirit has never risen above the commonplace. The attitude of the hands might have been appropriate to a young lady lounging in a middle-class drawing-room, but to have thus placed them in a picture which seeks to be ideal shows that the painter had better not venture upon a style with which he is not in sympathy.

The Water-Colour Room contains a large number of very uninteresting works in which feeling for largeness of design is singularly absent. There is, however, an exception to be found in Mrs. Stokes's A Magyar Horseherd (No. 970). Although it is small in size, it is broad in mass and vital in drawing, and admirably does the decorative pattern emphasise the defiant pose and keen hawklike look of the picturesquely clothed lad.

The sculpture, taken as a whole, this year is singularly disappointing. Rows of quite competent and quite unin- teresting statues and busts are to be found, but for real sculptural design we look in vain. Mr. Thornycroft's

statuette, A Bather (No. 1,860), is a most delicately carved

and searching study of form, satisfying from its complete- ness; but his large Tennyson (No. 1,909) is not interesting. A sensitive and well-modelled head is to be seen in Miss Troubridge's wax bust, Mary (No. 1,729) ; and Mr. Tweed's model for the statue of Olive (No. 1,789) is what one would have expected. The face suggests the contemporary portraits, though made younger and less emphatic, but the figure as a whole appears quite harmless, which is more than can be said for so many of the monuments erected in honour of our national heroes.

It is not necessary to discuss in detail Mr. Brangwyn's Wine (No. 213), for it does not present any new features.

Admirers of bravura painting will find in it a good example of that style; but, like all the artist's pictures, its qualities of colour are beautiful and distinguished.

The scholarly qualities of Mr. Adrian Stokes as shown in his winter landscape (No. 270) are well worthy of study, for

no landscape here is more beautifully drawn. His recent election to the Academy is fully justified by the serious nature of his art.

It has been impossible to discuss in - detail the following works, but the visitor will find in them examples of the true artistic spirit, even if they are not masterpieces : Ncs. 134,

270, 318, 374, 388, 392, 484, 550, 771. H. S.