On Wednesday Mr. Edward John Poynter, R.A., was elected to
succeed Sir Frederick Leighton and Sir John Millais as President of the Royal Academy. Mr. Poynter is an accomplished man and has painted many pictures which have greatly impressed the public, especially that one of "Israel in Egypt,"—Jews harnessed to the car of one of their great Egyptian rulers,—by which he first gained his celebrity, and also a remarkable picture of Atalanta's race. What is perhaps an even better qualification for the Presidency of the Royal Academy, Mr. Poynter is learned in the history of Art, an able teacher,—he was for aix years Slade Professor in University College, London,—and a man of sense and judgment. He is just sixty years of age, having been born in 1836, and has studied Art carefully in France under Gleyre, as well as in England. He cannot of course exercise the charm either of Sir Frederick Leighton, or in his different way, of Sir John Millais, but his election will be generally popular both with artists and with the public.
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