Monday and Tuesday were exciting days in the art world.
Every artist of note held a private view of his pictures at his residence on those days, previous to sending them in to the Royal Academy. The neighbourhood of that art-colony, Kensington, was alive with car- riages and pedestrians proceeding from one studio to another. Knockers were handled with a frequency that must have induced many a servant to give warning on the spot, and the artists them- selves, tired and sick of acting as showmen to each fresh comer, looked forward with longing to the evening of Tuesday when the van calls and the pictures are despatched to Trafalgar-square. From per- sonal visits and rumour I am enabled to give your readers some information as to what they may expect to see on the first Monday in May. Mr. E. M. Ward sends the "Ante-chamber of Whitehall diming the last Illness of Charles II." Mr. J. C. Horsley, a modern version of the "Prodigal Son," one of the largest works he has lately painted. Mr. Hook three admirable subjects from the coast of Corn- wall. Mr. Ansdell a large powerful picture of a combat between a fugitive slave and bloodhounds. Mr. Elmore, an incident in the life of Marie Antoinette, and a subject called "Peace, 1651," a Puritan girl disencumbering her lover of his warlike accoutrements. Mr. Dobson, departing from his usual course, has painted modern figures grouped round a drinking-fountain. Mr. Phillip and Mr. O'Neil will both be represented. Mr. Maclise and Mr. Frith will be absent ; so will Mr. Millais, who, finding himself unable to finish by the required time, gave up his work almost at the last moment. Mr. Ranldey contributes a scene from the life of George Stephenson. Mr. Wallis, a richly-coloured subject from Tennyson 's Idylls, and a smaller one of the "Spanish Ambassador watching from a Window the Execu- tion of Sir W. Raleigh." Mr. Barwell sends a Rifle Volunteer subject. The successful competitor at a shooting match bringing home his wife and children and the prize-cup in a cart. Mr. Leighton, several figure subjects and portraits. Mr McCallum, well known by his winter landscapes, a large series representing the Four Seasons. Mr. Frank Dillon, a Swiss view. Mr. H. T. Wells, together with several miniatures, has finished a life-size full-length portrait of Lord Ranelagh, and Mrs. Wells contributes an Italian female head and a mother playing bo-peep with her child. The third conversazione at Langliani Chambers took place on Saturday evening last, when many pictures, intended for exhibition at the Royal Academy, were ex- hibited. Among the more prominent were Mr. Calderon's "Libe- rating Prisoners," "Florentine Wood-sawyers," by Mr. Smallfield, one of Mr. Marks's quaint subjects—a Monk carving the portrait
i of a rustic on one of the stone waterspouts of an abbe church—and others by Messrs. Rossiter, Jeames, Storey, Cow, Hodson, &e.
Hy POINT.
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