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dened by the stirring stroke of shade upon the green and gold of music, and passionate with love's the lady's robe—a dazzling effect, outburst. Here are lavished the of which this artist has been long gayest of colours; here arrayed the fond, here carried to consummate most picturesque of costumes; here perfection. Several other painters, shine faces bright as flowers, spark- such as Webb, Herbert junior, ling with eyes brilliant as gems. Walton, Fisk, and Goodall, have In a scene such as this, which most either visited the East in person, or travellers witness in Seville or sent as their delegate a photograGranada, Mr Phillip is triumphant. phic apparatus. With one excepMr Lewis may have portrayed Spain tion, we must pass these respective with minute detail, but no one has products by, and that exception we caught, like Mr Phillip, the very of course make in favour of F. life of these children sporting in Goodall's Messenger from Sinai the passionate south.

at the Wells of Moses.' Mr GoodThe post of honour in the large all may be quoted as the represenroom has, by an error in judgment, tative of that careful, well-balanced, been assigned to . The Courtyard and eclective style, towards which of the Coptic Patriarch, Cairo,' by our English school is now tending; J. F. Lewis—a canvass which, as a a style in which accurate drawing mirror shattered in a thousand frag- gives truth and attains expression, ments, shows the too crowded life in which close and detailed study is of Cairo in direst confusion. Mr directed to strict topographic accuLewis, to our mind, has never been racy, wherein colour is forced up able to give to his oil-pictures the to a pitch little short of decorative matchless qualities possessed by his splendour; and lastly, where comdrawings. Even the opacity of his position becomes an intricate calwater-colour pigments was redeem- culation, whereby all these several ed by a brilliancy which in oil- elements may be set off to best adpaints is lost in dead density. We vantage. It is notorious that in incline to the opinion, indeed, that art the world has arrived at an age for works within the limits of a in which everything has been in cabinet size, no medium which the generations past already attempted world has yet known attains ex- and done. The Roman school was cellencies which equal those now pre-eminent in form, the Venetian reached by the water-colour pro- resplendent in colour, the Bologcess, which is, in fact, tempera paint- nese skilful in composition, and ed on paper in lieu of the ancient perhaps in any one of these sepapanel. Therefore in the interest rate qualities it is hard for us now of art, and with the remembrance in these last days to make an adof such drawings as the 'Encamp- vance on the attainments of former ment on Mount Sinai,' we have again times. Yet a super-excellence which to question the policy of the step may be impossible in dissevered taken by Mr Lewis, when he trans- units becomes practicable in a ferred his allegiance from the Old balanced and collective whole. And Water-Colour Gallery to the Acade- this is just that eclecticism to which my in Trafalgar Square. Perhaps, our English schools, whether of however, the very best work which painting, of sculpture, or of archithis artist has yet executed in oil, tecture, are now tending-a procliis to be met with in the present vity, moreover, not limited to the doExhibition, under the title *Caged main of the arts, but extending into Doves, Cairo;' doves of two species every realm of knowledge,-found caged in a diverse sense—a winged in science, through her accumuladove, the pet of a houri, who is tive stores ; in metaphysics, by the herself caged in a harem. The lat- mass of chop-logic and seedy chaff; tice-work of the window floods a in political philosophy, by the heap sparkling light, and casts a dappled of compiled maxiins and tabulated statistics; in prose literature, ting moment back to their former through the inveterate building-up and better selves ;—why, all these of tombs to the prophets; in poetry, problems, we say, find in the preby the reiteration of approved me- sent aspect of English and Contitaphors, and the shooting down, or nental schools forcible and vivid rather the re-serving up, of whole illustration. cartloads laden with old materials. With the guidance of some such

Thus, as we have said, do we see principles as those just enunciated, on all sides, and in every direction, it were interesting to trace the pediboundless stores wberewith to con- gree and to pronounce upon the struct an elaborate eclecticism. antecedents of the styles of high And far be it from us to call in art, of domestic incident, and of question the originality which may landscape, which are now dominant remain possible notwithstanding, in our Exhibitions. It were inand even, perhaps, through the aid structive to show how the grand of, this systematic copyism. We school of Italy was carried to the believe, for example, the picture shore of Britain, how it suffered already quoted, “The Messenger at shipwreck, and then, at a moment the Wells of Moses,' is just as ori- when all might be deemed lost, how ginal as works produced in any up it rose once more into life, though prior epoch. A scrutiny into the in garb how changed, in the works history and development of art dis- of Mr Leighton and Mr Watts. In covers a slow, sure, and accumula- like manner, though with much tive progression, step by step. The more detail and precision, we should building which we worship as a

desire to set forth the causes which wonder of the world was put to- at this moment conspire towards gether stone by stone; and even the literal naturalism manifest on the original conception of the archi- the walls of every gallery in the tect, if original it ever were, will country. And then, coming to be found to be but a conglomerate specific departments, it were a task, of scattered elementary ideas, which if not tempting, at least profitable, prior men had conceived and put to trace the various styles of porinto rudimentary form. We dwell trait-painting back to their historic with emphasis upon this line of originals—to point out how Vandyke thought, because it is this eclectic and Titian formed our English cism, this compilation, and the Reynolds—how their manner, broad growth that comes from concerted in handling and senatorial or plepower, which can alone enable the beian in bearing just as the subject critic and connoisseur to adjudicate might suggest, descended upon Waton the merits, and to decide upon son Gordon, Knight, and others of the coming prospects, of our English the school — and then how, when school. Scarcely more certain are people grew perhaps a little tired of the laws which guide the planets, being painted after the good old fashthan the dynamics which impel, and ion in which their grandfathers and yet control, the cycloid movements grandmothers descended to posterof the arts. How genius repeats ity, suddenly set in a reaction; and herself, and yet is never twice the so Sandys, with the detail of Van same; how the arts retrace their Eyck and Holman Hunt, in the former steps, and yet never tread severity of Albert Durer, rise to precisely along the same path; how the zenith. The multiplication of they gather strength in their orbit, small cabinet - pictures after the and gain progressive velocity as Dutch practice demands no elaborthey approach to central nature, ate analysis. A school so simply which stands as the sun in the fir- naturalistic springs indigenous to mament; and then again, at sea- every soil; as a wayside flower it sons, how wildly they wander into blooms in all hedgerows, and dedarkness, only to return at the fit- mands little culture save such as

nature in shower and sunshine be- they do earnestly strive to get stows on her favoured children. upon canvass—the truth and the Wilkie was, we all know, one of the beauty which dwell among the hills first among us who gathered this and the woods and the streams. plant growing a little rudely and This they seek after, and not in coarsely on the flat lands of Hol- vain. land, and gave to the foundling a Having launched into general dressing more decorous. A glance dissertation, we must now, in a few into the Academy, or indeed at any supplementary notes, concentrate of our Exhibitions, will at once in- attention upon some leading works dicate what industry and aptitude which still remain without compainters, whose names are legion, ment. In portraiture we have have brought to the formation of distinguished between schools of this Anglo-Scottish or Dutch school. breadth and of detail. The porWebster, T. Faed, Hardy, Smith, trait by F. Sandys may be quotProvis, and Nicol, not to enumerate ed as a favourable example of the others, form of themselves a phalanx high finish known to Denner. Two sufficiently strong. As for our Eng- full - length figures, “Mr James lish landscape, the glory of our native Hodgson' and Mrs Stewart Hodgart, its pedigree is soon told. Sal- son,' by H. T. Wells, are commendvator Rosa and Gasper Poussin, who able for the happy combination of were still towers of strength down a detail loved by Van Eyck, with to the commencement of the pre- a colour in which a Titian might sent century, are now wholly over- glory. When we possess native thrown in their ancient dominion. artists capable of painting pictures Claude, however, is not yet quite such as these, we scarcely underforgotten. He still reigns in the stand wherefore Mr Jensen should elements of air and water; he yet, have been called upon to perpetrate through the glories of Turner, who two parodies upon ‘The Prince of was more than a Claude for England, Wales' and 'The Princess of Wales,' shines in the sunset sky and illu- —pictures which, by the prominent mines the radiant sea; and even in positions which they usurp, disfigure the present year, when a Danby en- the Exhibition. By far the most thrones the sun in mid-heaven, can felicitous rendering of Royalty we not wholly forget the tribute due comes from the easel of H. Weigall. to placid and poetic Claude, whose ‘Alexandra, Princess of Wales,' soul never found its surfeit in serene painted by this artist, is certainly sunsets. Yet in this our analysis a work of much refinement and deliof the present phasis of England's cacy. Among the products which in landscape-art, we were indeed re- balanced eclecticism happily blend miss not to mention the master to varied excellencies, we must signawhom every one of our painters is lise Mr Beccani's full-length figure alike indebted. If we cast an eye of Lady Mary Fox, which ranks to the works contributed by Cres- as one of the best portraits in the wick, Leader, the Linnells, Cole, Exhibition. Lastly, as examples of Hulme, Knight, and Brett, we can- the broad generalisation which has not fail to see that these several descended in the English school artists in their studies have thought from the time of Vandykeor of Remlittle of Salvator, Poussin,or Claude, brandt, we may enumerate the porbut in simple earnestness devote traits of ‘General Cabrera,' by J. P. their best days and years to nature. Knight; 'The Earl of Dalhousie,' by The old masters have been, for these J. Phillip; and 'John Gibson,' by modern men, dead. No resuscita. W. Boxall. In the treatment of tion or resurrection of a form or a life female heads, this manner, somewhich has passed away, is by our times sturdy, is mitigated and softpresent school of landscape-painters ened, as in the heads of the Countess desired or attempted. But one thing of Home, by G. Richmond, and of

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the Hon. Mrs J. Macdonald, by gence and the rare merit of this F. Grant. We have intentionally simple and truth - seeking artist, reserved the mention of several every student and lover of art portraits, the closing works of Sir should go to South Kensington, John Watson Gordon, in order to where the pictures, drawings, and pay a tribute to the memory of this sketches of William Mulready have great and honoured painter. In been collected. The whole course style this artist possessed the charm of a long and laborious life is here of simplicity and the vigour of illustrated, “from the first boyish truth ; few painters the world has fancy to the picture that stood unknown could model a head with a finished on the easel ” when the firmer or bolder pencil. His name artist died, a collection which will henceforth go down to posterity forms "a worthy memorial of the not only as President of the Royal great painter, who from his youth Academy of Scotland, not only to the evening before his death was through the grateful remembrance of a workman in the service of art.” the many services he conferred on “I have," said Mulready, in the art in the city of his birth, but like- evidence given before the Royal wise, as was the lot of Reynolds, Academy Commission, "from the through the illustrious men whose first moment I became a visitor in portraits will to future generations the Life School, drawn there as if testify to the rare pictorial powers I were drawing for a prize.” The of this master-hand. The annals of evidence of this untiring devotion Scotland owe to John Watson Gor- lies before us in the instructive series don the noble portraits of Wilson, of paintings and studies wherein one De Quincey, Cockburn, Chalmers, of the greatest among our British and Scott- pictures which now artists has transcribed, as it were, a more than ever will be prized for detailed autobiography. It is intwofold reasons and accumulative deed most interesting to mark how associations. John Watson Gordon the nascent thought, as it first was, even to the last days of his dawned, was jotted down in the long and active life, in the full pos- shorthand of the painter's art; how, session of that vigour of hand and at a subsequent stage of developof intellect which have ever given ment, the embryo idea grew into a to his works universal power and draughtsman's study or cartoon, till worth, Within a comparatively at length colour—and a colour how few hours of his death, he was able subtle and exquisite those who to devote to his profession his know these works most intimately wonted zeal. The Academies of will best appreciate-being added, Scotland and of England, which his the picture, thoroughly mature, beportraits have for many years adorn- came, after its kind, little short of ed, will now mourn his loss a perfect. Mulready assuredly, in all loss which falls not only on the the technical qualities of his art, public at large, but a bereavement was not surpassed by the most that cannot fail to be felt most dexterous of the Dutch masters. acutely among private friends, to And then, in forming a just estiwhom his simple, straightforward mate of his concerted powers, it must character made him very dear. not be forgotten that to the skill

This seems a fitting place to of his brush and the rich harmonrecord another loss which the Aca- ies of his palette were superadded demy has sustained. William Mul- traits of sagacious wisdom, of thought ready died in July last, full of serious and profound, and yet wont years and crowned with honours. to sparkle in sportive wit and playThe present Exhibition is bereaved ful satire upon the surface. He is of those works which for half a gone, this master who touched each century have been endeared to the note upon the gamut with a light public eye. To judge of the dili- yet pensive hand, who passed from

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grave to gay, claiming a tear for will at once indicate. There are, in pity, and winning a smile from the fact, pictures placed in positions of face of joy.

command, which, wholly beneath Two Academicians we mourn over criticism, call aloud for the reform as dead: other Academicians, who of an Academy which, strange to shall be nameless, we lament over say, is not ashamed thus to proas living. Melancholy is it that claim its incapacity and corruption. men whose brains are out, should go We must now, in rapid survey, on, year after year, painting picture again turn to individual works which proclaim little else than an which ought not to escape commenenfeebled and incoherent intellect. dation. The public has usually to Professions there are of mere me- thank Mr Millais for some startling chanical routine, which, so long as pictorial prodigy. This year, howthe wheels of life manage to rotate, ever, he relies for his effects upon however slowly, can be carried on the force of literal facts, and, like even to the very last without seri- some of the greatest painters, his ous detriment to the public weal. predecessors of old, finds the means But the practice of the artist's call- of making a simple portrait a coning is not of this lower nature. A summate piece of art. Leaving sevepicture is the very life - blood of ral such works, we at once go to the genius; and when the flood of charming little picture, in praise of manhood's prime stagnates, the which every tongue is loud. “My image cast upon the canvass shows Second Sermon ’ had been a homily, itself decrepid. We shall not, for were it not a satire. A little girl, reasons which good taste dictates, who last year listened, all attention, direct individual attention to works in this same place, to her“ first serwhich it is mercy to pass un- mon,” has now, under the infliction noticed : but in general terms we of a “second,” gone fast asleep; may denounce one of the worst and never was slumber more proabuses known to creep into institu- found in its depths, or more peacetions that after a time, it may be fulon its placid surface, unruffled by feared, are sustained, not so much breath of conscious thought or care. to promote the best interests of art, For technical qualities of colour and as for the protection of individual handling, the picture can scarcely members unable to stand without be surpassed. The works contribadventitious support. The outcry uted by Mr Millais may be taken in raised against the Academy for its illustration and in extension of the persistent maintenance of vested foregoing remarks upon schools of private rights, whatever public portraiture. Other and widely difwrongs be thereby inflicted, grows ferent productions, which we now every year louder as each succeed- proceed to mention, exemplify the ing Exhibition comes round. It is various phases of that school which certainly a grievance past tolera- we have ventured to designate the tion, that hundreds and tens of Anglo or Scottish Dutch. One of hundreds of pictures should be re- the very choicest examples of this jected altogether for want of space, popular style is T. Webster's serioand that other paintings of first-rate comic little picture, 'A Penny Peepmerit, even when admitted, should show of the Battle of Waterloo.' be thrust out of sight, simply be- Other works of a like class demand cause Academicians and Associates no stinted praise, such as 'Evening,' have the privilege of inundating by G. Hardy; Try dese Pair,' by the rooms with works of boundless F. D. Hardy; "The Banquet Scene, mediocrity. How greatly the quali- Macbeth,' by C. Hunt; 'Interior ty of the present Exhibition is dete- near Penmachno,' by Á. Provis; riorated by this flagrant injustice, and 'Among the Old Masters,' by inflicted upon the outsiders in the E. Nicol. The two brothers, Mr profession, a glance round the walls Thomas Faed and Mr John Faed,

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