lint Arto.
THREE pictures have been added, by purchase, to the National Gallery within the last few days—a "Portrait of a Lady," by Paris Bordone ; a "Madonna and Child, with Saints," by Garofalo; and a " Salvator Munch," by Antolino da Messina. The first of these is a magnificent specimen of the Venetian school of portraiture, and a most favourable example of the master who was one of the principle scholars of Titian. It is a half-length of a robust, queenly girl, about the age of nineteen. The attitude is almost masculine ; the right arm is akimbo, the left more slightly bent, the hand holding a chain suspended from the waist. She is turned full to the spectator, the eyes slighty averted, giving an expression half expectant, half apprehensive. The dress
cut low in the neck, is of rich maroon-coloured satin, and pearls are twined in the plaits of her golden hair. The flesh tints are surprisingly brilliant and pure, the colouring being as fresh as if the work had been painted but a few months ago. The creamy tones of the flesh and the rich colour of the dress are opposed to a well-arranged architectural background, cold and grey, in which, standing under a distant arcade, is a young man, the lover, doubtless, of this majestic beauty. The whole is a masterpiece of solid, powerful painting, a model of technical skill, and a valuable acquisition to the gallery. Its merit seems enhanced by its immediate companions. The low- toned, dreamy, sensitive head of " Ariosto," by Titian, on one side, and Bellini's wonderful piece of individuality, that hard-featured, astute-looking "Doge," on the other, form admirable pendants to a gorgeous centre. It would be difficult to match these three por-
traits, differinc, alike in style and treatment, yet each possessing con- summate merit of its own. I cannot say much in praise of the Garofalo, notwithstanding it has been pronounced by a good authority to be that painter's masterpiece. The Virgin and Child are seated on a throne approached by stone steps, and placed under a canopy; a knight with spear and shield, and a nun holding an arrow to her breast, stand to the left, and two Franciscan monks to the right. The heads are neither remarkable for character nor expression, while the colour is dull, heavy, and not with- out a tendency here and there to opacity and crudeness, being much inferior in this respect to the example we already possess of the master. The specimen by Antonello da Messina is interesting rather as being the work of the man who first introduced oil painting into Italy, than from any intrinsic merit of its own. It was some- where about the year 1442 that Messina made a voyage from Naples to Bru,,ees for the purpose of acquiring the mystery of oil painting from John Van Eyck, whose fame had then spread far and wide. The " Salvator Mundi" is simply a small head of the Saviour, painted in a hard dry manner, with brown shadows. The hands rest on a stone placed in front of the figure ; to this stone is affixed a little paper label bearing an inscription, as may be seen in other works in the gallery. Mention must not be omitted of a less recent but very important addition in the shape of a portrait by Rembrandt of himself at the age of thirty or thereabouts—very sweet and harmo- nious in its colour, and of extraordinary depth and vigour of tone. I cannot quit the subject of the National Gallery without expressing the regret that its overcrowded state has not only caused many old favourites to be placed at heights where they are scarcely seen, but has rendered others totally invisible. Thus the early German pic- tures by Wiesborn and others, and the two large Guides so much improved by their late cleaning, will now be sought for in vain, being stowed away in the lower rooms not open to the public. Remon- strance must also be made against the taste of the trustees in cover- ing the walls of all the rooms, save one, with a bright red paper which jars sadly on the eye; its injurious effect is felt most palpably in the Turner room.
The directors of the National Portrait Gallery have not been idle, having lately purchased a portrait of Sir Richard Arkwright, a three- quarter, painted by Wright, of Derby, and a half-length by Hone of John Wesley at the age of sixty-three. Both are more remarkable for their historic than artistic interest. A better specimen of Wright's abilities will be found in his own portrait in the saint room —a refined, thoughtful head; in the ease of Arkwright the painter has had more difficult materials to msnage, the face, though characteristic, being coarse, puffy, and not altogether free from distortion. The portrait of Wesley is a dull, unimaginative rendering of the great preacher, carefully, but timidly painted, yet apparently with much fidelity to the sitter, who is represented preaching in the open air.
At the Graphic Society's meeting, on Wednesday evening last, the pictures and drawings exhibited were not (with few exceptions) of any great merit. The show, thinly attended as it usually is, was particularly so on this occasion. This may be in some measure owing to the want of judgment of the committee, who put their visitors to the trouble of appearing in evening dress at a place where ladies are not admitted, for the sake of seeing a few works of art and sipping a cup of tea or coffee. The necessity of putting on a dress- coat and white necktie for the purpose of meeting a few elderly gentlemen—bald-headed connoisseurs, with double eye-glasses and "mouths of taste"—and a number of hirsute artists, is surely ob- vious, and I am glad to see the rule is continually infringed, and bids fair, the ice being once broken, to become rapidly obsolete. Among the more conspicuous works exhibited were a small well- painted replica, by Mr. E. M. Ward, of his "Dr. Johnson in Chester- field's Ante-room: ' a picture with no title, by Mr. S. Solomon, repre- senting a Jewish youth praying in an erect attitude with a harp slung round his body, the head particularly good in expression; an unfinished drawing in water colour, by Mr. J. Wolf, of a number of monkeys combining to drive away a tiger from their own par- ticular jungle by making a hideous screaming and chattering. The character of the animals is very cleverly rendered, and the tiger's expression as, contemplating the impossibility of contending with so many enemies, he resolves to "make tracks," is capital. Another animal drawing was contributed by Mr. Zwecker, who, with. Mr. Wolf, has furnished most of the best illustrations to Rots/ledge's Natural History. Au oil picture by Mr. Topham, the well-known water colourist, attracted much attention—a Zouave relating his adventures to some girls. The female faces show all the painter's feeling for humble beauty, but the execution is not first-rate. A coast scene under a cool grey twilight effect, by Mr. Bridell, very good in feeling; two dexterous water colours by Mr. Mawley; and some half-dozen meretricious specimens by Mr. T. M. Richardson,
were the most noticeable features in the landscape department. Sculpture was represented by Mr. IL Westrnacott, in the shape of four medallions of the "Winds." Other contributions were from the hands of Messrs. Dillon, Holland, Hardy, G. Smith, Watson, Sleigh, Levi; and others. Those to whom Art is more than a Royal Academy show and a fashionable lounge in the rooms of the Water-Colour Societies, will not readily forget its note-worthy representative, the " Hogarth Club." The institution has, I regret to hear, suddenly collapsed, a result which will create, probably, little surprise, although some sorrow will be felt at the extinction of its charming exhibitions. At these annual displays of works by its members, opportunities, denied else- where, were afforded of seeing those splendid tokens of old-master power and poetry of colour set forth by D. G. Rosetti and his rival — perhaps more than rival — E. B. Jones. There, also, might one meet with the masterly and delightful drawings of John Ruskin, and sketches by other men, proving their skill, not always seen to such advantage in more ambitious efforts elsewhere exhibited. The works of Mr. Jones, a painter of extraordinary genius in all that relates to colour, have, I be- lieve, been shown only at these displays. Some four or five years since the society sprang into a local habitation and a name from a small circle of kindred spirits which, in. 1819, had given birth to pre- Raphaelism itself. It was sought to expand the fraternity into the dimensions and dignity of a "cub," bearing for its watchword the fair phrase, "Art and social intercourse." While art was so earnestly represented, the "social intercourse" was, in a great measure, a seductive delusion, which but ill covered a feeling of cliqueistri and exclusiveness. Under this spirit, in combat with a more liberal im- pulse evinced towards their Art-brethren generally by some of the members, the peaceful motto was belied, and the club expired in
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