ART.
THE GENERAL EXHIBITION OF WATER COLOURS.
A PREPONDERANCE in quantity of landscapes over pictures where the human figure plays the principal part exists generally at all our water-colour exhibitions. But it is unusually great in the present Exhibition at the Dudley Gallery. The general preponderance arises partly from the peculiar aptitude of water-colour for landscape, and partly from the often noted hostility to landscape painters felt and enforced by those who hold the approaches to the most fashionable of the oil-picture exhibitions ; while, in the present instance, the uncommon disproportion is probably no more than an occasional symptom, deserving no more than a passing remark. Amongst the figure-pieces actually exhibited are a few of great merit. "On the Mussel Banks" (42), by Mr. Arthur Marsh, is a single figure with sea-shore background. A fishergirl, in weather-faded and trade-soiled garments, carries a basketload of mussels on her arm. Here is no spruce person got up for the occasion in appropriate costume, but simply one made such as she outwardly appears by the rough labour of her calling ; an object not of sentimental admiration excited by contrast between a pretty face and a toilsome trade, nor, on the other hand, of commiseration on account of penury and rags, but rather of respect for the business-like performance of a needful, if lowly, occupation. The action is natural, the colour sober but full and harmonious, the painting forcible, and the general effect real. The work denotes an advance towards completeness over Mr. Marsh's last year's picture of the helmsman in a storm, which was itself remarkable for its vigorous and unaffected expression and somewhat rugged execution. Mr. Marsh's style indicates a leaning towards French example, not necessarily reprehensible, but to be controlled lest it should lead to mannerism. Mr. A. C. H. Luxmoore exhibits three pictures which fully maintain the credit he won at this gallery a year ago. In one (81) a
graceful girl ties up her "bonny brown hair" before a mirror. It is a subject which in some hands may be, as it has often been, sufficiently odious. But Mr. Luxmoore has avoided all offence by giving us beauty without vanity or self-conceit, and has craftily referred to Tennyson's "she takes a ribband or arose" as a motive for the action. That Mr. Luxmoore is a true colourist is obvious in all his work, and in particular is proved in this picture by the subtle diversity of grays, as true as it is beautiful, in the welldrawn drapery that hangs about the feet. This portion of the picture is painted, moreover, with a "looseness" of execution that is a desideratum in other parts of Mr. Luxmoore's work. "The China-Shelf" (257) is a young woman in Puritanic coif and cape dusting china. French artists excel in this class of subject chiefly because having, in common with all their brethren, been well trained in the grammar of their art, and thinking it no extraordinary merit to paint this or that object with skill, they devote themselves wholly and singly to their subject, and succeed accordingly. There is a good deal of this French excellence (quite apart from French manner of execution, which he does not affect) in Mr. Luxmoore's pictures. He can paint the " china " so well that he is not anxious to challenge attention to it, but allows to the figure the prominence which is necessary to produce a definite and single impression. He also exhibits a " Study " (158) of an interior, with plaster walls and dark oaken wainscot and furniture, excellently painted. However, it is pitched in a very low key, and without intending anything so stupid as disparagement of the magical chiaroscuro of Rembrandt (which is seldom imitated, and is not now in question), it may be regretted that so many of our artists, especially the young ones, appear to think that tone and gradation are inconsistent with any but a low key (e.g., Mr. A. Goodwin), forgetting such masters as De Hoogh and Turner, whose constant effort it was to raise their pitch. And surely they yield to none in tone and gradation? But Mr. Luxmoore's most pressing deficiencies are, first, the "tightness " of execution already alluded to ; and, secondly, what is of more importance, imperfect modelling of his forms. In the latter respect he may well take a lesson from Mr. E. J. Poynter's "Portrait of Mrs. Baldwin" (317), a picture which, if not otherwise remarkably pleasing (except for the apparent determination in the artist to do everything right ; as if, as was said of Mulready, he were upon his oath), is a specimen of modelling (i.e., of expressing form as well by outline as by lights and shadows) worthy of all praise. Mr. Gray's " Straduarirts " (157) is very expressive of the old musician's affection for the violin, whose curves he is so intently studying. Miss Juliana Russell in her scene from the Vicar of Wakefield (175) has painted very skilfully the splendid dresses which caused the Vicar such a pang, and has without exaggeration thrown considerable character into the faces and bearing of the wearers. If the drawing is weak, it is a fault which Miss Russell shares with most of her sister artists. Her " Blackberries" (557) is noticeable for its colour. Miss L. M. Brown makes a promising first appearance (239) ; and the rustics in Mr. H. Carter's " Skittle-Shed " (277) are enjoying themselves with that somewhat vacuous air that is their wont. There is a great deal of clever expression in Mr. Muckley's "Village School" (309) ; and by Mr. Joseph Knight's Breton Peasants returning from a Fair" (271), with weary men and women trudging home under their poor weak umbrellas through the driving rain, we are invited to moralize on the fleeting nature of human amusements. This last picture is a bit of good manly work. As for the clique of painters who, leaving nature, apply themselves to the imitation of old pictures, it is useless to criticize them. Such imitation leads to nothing good. It is a dead thing quite incapable of progress, and one can only regret that artists with such a gift for colour as Mr. S. Solomon and Miss Spartali should have set themselves a task that must necessarily be barren of good results. If, indeed, they would really follow in ancient steps they must learn the elements of drawing. Mr. Solomon is open besides to further observation on account of the repulsively decadent nature of the persons (a sort of otters, as Falstaff would say) to whose glorification he devotes his brush (315). Mr. C. Livett, who once gave fair promise of excellence, has come to a standstill (if no worse) since he adopted a similar course in landscape (61). Let us refresh our spirits by a look at a very beautiful portrait (518), of a bright-eyed, fair-haired child, by Mr. H. T. Wells.
By way of Aiir. John Richardson's open-air cattle-pieces with landscape barounds, which gain annually in truth and precision (137, 149, 190), and whose principal fault is that they do not clearly enough present either cattle or landscape as their chief source of interest, we pass to landscape proper, in which undoubtedly the main strength of the Exhibition lies. Mr. C.
Richardson's " Borrowdale-Sunset " (80), is an admirable sketch, rich and transparent in colour, and most pleasant in feeling. Mr. C. Marshall, junior, has a very good moonlight with sheep (422); the best moonlight here : next to it is Mr. C. G. Holloway's "Moonlight on the Thames" (390), whose "Hazy Morning on the Thames near Greenwich" (508) is very beautiful in colour, but a little too low in tone to bear its white margin. Mr. W. Eden's Welsh views (328 and 393) are radiant with the purest sunshine : the latter of the two pictures referred to shows also a fine feeling for mountain grandeur. Mr. R. T. Pain's brilliant " Twilight " (92), Mr. Trautschold's well-drawn fir trees (206), Mr. Inehbold's dainty sketches (502, 527), the clear daylight in Mr. Bannatyne's " Tremadoc" (310), the clever views of buildings at Venice, by Mr. Henry (7), at Cambridge, by Miss Colkett (17), and in various parts of Spain, by Mr. MiQuoid, who has gained much of late in breadth and vigour (62, 72, 346) all deserve more than the passing notice for which alone there is space. Mr. Hamilton Macallum keeps steadily at work on the Highland Lochs, whose spirit he is learning to translate feelingly (5). Mr. Hollings sends a drawing from "The Thames at Goring" (209), with glinting sunshine that reminds, not unduly, of Constable ; while Mr. Matthew Hale has been studying light and shade at the feet of Turner, and in the contact has been unavoidably drawn into some imitation of his master's manner. Mr. F. Talfourd exhibits, among other things, a good study of a cloud (71) and a nicely-felt bit of distance (156), both from Guernsey ; but in both he has forgotten to give any substance to his foreground. Mr. Aston shows marked improvement in the greater freedom of his work in " Glaramara" (288), and Mr. G. Dighton's "Morning after a Storm" (278) is one of the most poetical fragments in the Exhibition. There is a forcible sketch by Mr. Yeames (642) ; and the careful landscape studies of Mr. H. S. Marks (e.g., 588, 665) are remarkable for a subtle gradation of tone. Mr. C. Potter's "Wintry Day, Langdale" (220), with the Pikes under snow, is finely conceived, and would be a notable picture in any gallery. Mr. F. Dillon's refined taste is well seen in an "Egyptian Sunset" (316). His pictures would probably be more effective if they were less anxiously finished throughout. There is much solemnity in two landscapes by Mr. A. Le Gros, but too little attention to natural truth (292, 318). The honours of flower and fruit painting rest with Miss Coleman, Miss Eastlake, and Mr. D. Williamson (298). The broken colour of Miss Field's "Fungi" (580) is both brilliant and tender. Mr. W. Beverly must be allowed to possess a large measure of cleverness. His pictures are well though too conventionally composed; his colour is never disagreeable and sometimes very pleasing, as in the pale golden light of the sky in " Morning " (495) ; his execution is free from timidity, and he treats his subjects with a breadth that may be expected of one whose ordinary practice is on the large scale of scene-painting. But this same stage practice encourages a common-place trickiness, well suited to catch the admiration of a mixed multitude, but fatal to the pretensions of any picture as a work of high art. Thus the screwing-up of his darks to an artificial pitch or focus of black in " Hungerford Bridge" (568) may perhaps startle at first, but in the end assuredly disgusts. Probably, also, it is owing to the constant demand made upon him for fairy scenes and other unrealities that his pictures are so deficient in character and individuality. His subjects appear to make but a feeble impression upon him, and the effect of his pictures upon others corresponds therewith. This is made more clear by comparing him with such an artist as Mr. Henry Moore, whose drawings once seen are not easily forgotten. Not that the subjects he chooses are of strange things or strange effects. " Clearing after Rain" (150) is common enough. Who has not seen just such a lifting of clouds, with the growing breadth of sunshine glorifying the landscape with light and with a thousand traninenthueswhich change ever as the clouds move away? Who does not recognize the fresh breezy look given in "Early Summer" (399), with its bright sky and floating cumuli? Are they few who have witnessed the towering thunder-clouds sweeping across the great level of ocean as in Mr. Moore's picture (104) ? Yet these pictures charm each as with a separate novelty, and will be remembered as distinct images long after Mr. Beverly's mild trifles are forgotten. Mr. J. C. Moore is also strong in individual character, though he has been seen in greater force than in the present year. However, Ina "Autumn Morning on the Pincio " (184) is of 113 best work. There is perfect stillness and serenity, and for a touch of true art It is to be remarked with what a perfect harmony of tone and colour the grey-green tree on the right rises against the blue-grey skY behind it. Mr. A. Goodwin's progress is for the present
effectually checked by the puerility of his drawing and his total disregard of form.
Mr. A. Severn again asserts his supremacy as painter of breakers on shore (297), overwhelming his imitators with an irresistible weight of foaming water. His treatment of angry sky and leaden waves is very powerful, and the eye scarcely sees a certain grittiness in the painting, which, however, is a drawback to the effect. "The Thames Embankmeut " (566) is also a finely treated view of the Westminster towers at twilight. The cold, gray granite of the Embankment gleams faintly in the shade, and the noble pile of the old abbey, here, as in reality, is in fine contrast with the ostentatious grandeur of the Houses of Parliament. It was a good idea of the artist to mass together the two principal towers of the latter building, thus supplying some of that concentration of design which it stands so much in need of. The water is perhaps a little too light for the sky ; at any rate, it rather prejudices the latter as the source of light. Mr. W. Severn exhibits two admirable "Studies from the Coast of Devon," excellent in the quality of their colour (262, 348).
Mr. Herries, Mr. Roget, and Mr. Glennie have each taken a long step in advance. Mr. Herries' view on the "Shore near Eastbourne " (73), looking over a wilderness of boulders and rocks to the far-receded sea, and to the rolling mass of downs terminating with Beachy Head in the distance, the whole lying in a great silence under the glow of an autumn twilight, with the evening star glistening overhead, is a little picture perfect in sentiment, and not short of masterly in treatment and execution. The " Trisselberg, in Styria" (345), is a fine craggy mass, up whose steep sides roll great wreaths and volumes of cloud, the sunward rims of which are tinged with ruddy light, and the averted sides receive a chill grey, reflected from the surrounding atmosphere. This last effect is rendered with uncommon beauty. A third picture by the same artist is Hallstadt village and lake (668), on a calm summer's morning. A thin vaporous haze hangs about the mountains, and quite a fleet of row-boats throngs towards the village. Among its other merits, the admirable drawing and action of the figures, however small, will not escape notice. Lately as he came into the field, Mr. Roget has already won sure ground. This is the fruit of steadfast industry, the signs of which are firmness in drawing, resolute pursuit of essentials in detail, together with a full control exercised over them, so that, broadly treated, they enrich the picture, not shatter it. These qualities, with a nice sense of gradation, make Mr. Roget's Swanage drawings some of the best worth looking at in the collection (143, 289, 313). The determined, workmanlike character alluded to in Mr. Poynter's portrait picture pervades also his landscapes (261). In "Boats at the Dogana, Venice" (554), he has happily caught and expressed with appropriate colour the chill appearance and fitful breezes that precede rain. His study of gold mosaic from the dome of St. Mark's has great merit (585). Mr. Mawley's " Island " (618) is a scene of charming seclusion in a Welsh valley painted with the artist's accustomed ability. The Thames has been invested by Mr. Ditchfield with romantic stateliness (112, 359), a new version of old subjects. Mr. Walton sends some reminiscences of last summer's extraordinary heat. In one the Surrey hills are clothed with the fiery splendour of a setting sun (87) ; in the other, the panting sheep take refuge from noonday heat amongst the larch stems on a thirsty common (312). Both pictures are masculine and natural. The latter in particular is in all respects admirable ; the combination of colour, harmonious black and orange (just such as one may see in a negro's head with a yellow kerchief twisted round it), is that of nature in one of her most beautiful veaure.s, and Mr. Walton has reproduced it with equal skill and truth. Mr. W. Field's pictures are distinguished as usual by their completeness. Wakeful observation of nature and a lively sense of beauty keep him equally guarded from the
worn-out conventionalities of picture-making, and from the oddities and uglinesses which are by many falsely supposed to be the only alternatives. Among his four drawings it might not be easy to make a choice ; but "Out of the Stream" (677), a quiet byway on the Thames, is a prominent example of the artist's best qualities.
Mr. T. Denby and Mr. D'Egville represent most worthily the Water-Colour Society and the Institute ; and lastly, Mr. Bottomley, that thoroughly original animal painter, exhibits some scrambling beagle-pups, here expressing their delight at "Mother's Return" to the kennel (123), and again (637) giving early proof of innate pugnacity ; and some sheep (296) that ought to please the most fastidious of Sussex farmers, if any there be who join a love for fine art to an intimate knowledge of southdowns. V.
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