ART.
THE GENERAL WATER-COLOUR EXHIBITION.
IT is said that in this, the third year of the experiment, a greater number of pictures than ever were sent for exhibition at the Egyptian Hall. Certain it is that the general standard of merit has again risen ; and although this result must have been pur- chased at the expense of much temporary disappointment to those who are excluded, yet it must on the whole be looked upon as a healthy symptom, that notwithstanding the absence of some former exhibitors, caused either by absorption into the older Societies (for whom the general Exhibition is an excellent field for choice) or by otherreasons, the strength of the undertaking has not been impaired, but only tested. In the few notes that follow no attempt is made to include a mention of all the works that deserve commendation, —space does not allow it—but rather in a desultory manner to note some salient merits or defects in a few of the pictures. Mr. A. Goodwin's pictures are remarkable, as heretofore, for the depth and richness of their colour. The luminous gloom of twilight has attracted many an artist by its mysterious solemnity, but scares almost as many from attempting its representation by the intensity of its darkness. A true colourist or a consummate chiaroscurist alone has the instinct and the resources to paint it. Mr. Goodwin has achieved a very unusual measure of success in this difficult task (67). A certain breadth and massiveness comes from the mere obliteration of detail, but these are sot necessarily a safeguard from opacity and repulsive shallowness. Mr. Good- win, however, while giving almost the full intensity of the gloom as it is in nature, adds also the more potent spell of its dimly seen spaciousness. All his pictures are this year examples of a similar effect: indeed, it is not always easy to say whether he means day or night. In " Whitby—Afternoon" (316), he has done what even Caesar could not do—hidden the sun, as it were with a blanket. In this latter picture, too, is most conspicuously seen a defect which is more or less observable in all the artist's works— bad drawing ; badness which exhibits itself not only in feebleness and inaccuracy, but occasionally in positive ugliness. Mr. Good- win should hasten to mend this fault ; he will never find it easier to bear the necessary drudgery than now.
Whitby has had many votaries of late, yet uo more than its picturesque houses, its deeply indented harbour, ite crowd of diverse fishing craft, and its ruined abbey, overlooking all, would seem to deserve. In Mr. C. Earle's "Last Gleam" (50) all these ingredients are well treated under a setting sun, the last gleam of which is swiftly followed up the hill-side by the shades of twilight, while town and harbour are left in broad shadow. There is great truthfulness in the glow of sunshine, a quality which might perhaps have appeared yet more clearly, if the shade beneath had been less pronounced in detail and more neutral in colour. Doubtless it is hard to suppress what is so picturesque, but an artist must wean himself from all affection for whatever detracts from the siugle impression he seeks to produce. Our modern habit of painting so much from nature has, among its many advantages, some disadvantages also. The most difficult thing for a landscape sketcher is to see his subject as a whole. He is for- tunate if by any means he can so see it at all, and needs all his reso- lution to preserve the original idea as he pursues his work inch by inch, probably long after the " effect" which first attracted him is past and gone. These few remarks are made in this place not
because Mr. Earle's picture offends in this respect beyond others, but because (unlike those others) this fault alone detracts from its full and just effect. That he has made progress in breadth of treatment is shown as well in this very picture as iu another Whitby drawing (261). The busy life and crowding of boats in the same narrow harbour is painted with distinct character by Mr.
H. Moore (494), whose large drawing of" Whitby, from Larpool " (214), where the Abbey is the principal object, standing away on the hill-top, is equally remarkable for its serenity. For this it is indebted to its beautiful sky and large masses. There is a trifle too much of purple-pink in the shadows. Well nigh faultless as a sketch is the same artist's " Strensall Moor" (326). This, however, were but negative praise for a picture of cloudland where vigour, daylight, and true perspective in the receding masses of cloud leave nothing to be desired. It is rare in art to find such dissimilarity of style and feeling between such near relations as Mr. H. and Mr. J. C. Moore, each with a strong love of nature, but the former reflect- ing chiefly its stir and movement, the other its repose and latent power. Of the many beautiful drawings contributed by Mr. J. C. Moore, all admirable for purity and sobriety of colour, one of
the Rmallar ones may be pointed out as combining his excellencies
in a remarkable degree. This is " The Tiber near Acqu' Acetosa " (233), firmly and feelingly drawn, grandly treated, and coloured like a gem. Yet the pigments used appear to be those which often
look dull on the palette : ochres and earths, with which too few are wholly content. His drawings are also free from " body-colour,"
against the increasing and indiscriminate abuse of which it is not too soon to protest. If, indeed, the effect produced by means of this vehicle were equally good with that got by transparent colour, it would be stupid to object to it, merely on some fancied ground of what is legitimate or not legitimate. But the essential beauty of water colour is the ground of white paper gleainiug through the
colour ; and no " body-colour " ever yet gave an equally luminous ground. There is a certain species of so-called " finish," very popular and easily attained, by the use of body-colour. Painters thus influenced must be left to choose their own broad and easy road. But when really good artists are found, as they too fre- quently are, sacrificing the best qualities of their method by over- laying their paper with an opaque vehicle, it is difficult to stand by and say nothing. It might be expected that those who paint much in oil colours would be especially prone to use an opaque vehicle in water colours. This, however, is not the fact in the cases of Mr. H. S. Marks and Mr. W. Field. Both contribute drawings that are worked almost exclusively with transparent colour. "Jack O'Lantern " (63), by Mr. Marks, is a man clean- ing lamps. Handsome and cheery, he takes keen delight in con- templating the polish he is about to lay on their old-fashioned brass mountings. The action is easy and business-like, and the flow of line and agreeable colour are particularly to be noticed. Mr. Field's pair of drawings, " July " (487) and " August " (496), the one a girl coming through the long grass and the other a boy in a corn-field, recall more of the French manner of treating rustic subjects than of the English. Not that there is any imitation of French colour or style of execution. The resemblance lies in the freedom from affectation and sentimentality which characterizes the figures, and the completeness and general harmony of the works. The sunlit backgrounds are beautiful and appropriate. Some landscape studies by Mr. Marks, modest and truthful in colour, hang on the screens, and should not be overlooked. Ano- ther artist, better known as a figure painter, makes it doubtful by what he exhibits here whether his true vocation be not that of landscape painter. This is Mr. Storey, whose " Solitude " (560) and " Long Meadow " (603) possess qualities of a high order. Look at the sensitive drawing and variety of colour in the tree stems of the first, and the dewy meadow, the truly finished bushes, and sweet repose of the second. One after another the landscape painters, finding no opening at the Academy, be- take themselves to water colour. Yet, after all, good comes out of evil. For Mr. T. Denby never painted in oil such pic- tures as he now produces in water colour, as if this were his natural medium. The warm sunny air that pervades his Welsh drawings, " Wenallt Rocks " (84) and " Llyn Dines " (232), and the fullness and delicacy of their colour mark them as on the whole the most complete and beautiful pictures in the Exhibition. Only in the latter drawing one might wish the lazy plashing of cows in the shallow lake had been indicated by ripples less coarsely bitten out, and more congenial to the general serenity of the picture. Mr. F. Talfourd, for whose smaller oil paintings a nook has some- times been found in Trafalgar Square, has made a very successful essay in a new art. " Twilight " (78) and " Coast Scene " (215) are both inspired by a true feeling for placid, almost melancholy solitude. Mr. E. J. Poynter has also put forth unusual strength. Besides some beautiful studies, such as " House-Tops after Rain " (36) and "Eton Cloisters" (532), he has painted a picture, "The West Wind" (313), which is a very striking, and narrowly misses being a very beautiful work. The lurid gleam in the sky is with the upper portion of the sea and shore a complete and beautiful picture, but the large expanse of sea whitening under the rising squall, though beautifully done, is out of all proportion with the rest. Yet, after all, the drawing is thoroughly workmanlike, and has those rarest of qualities, imagination and refinement.
Among drawings which claim special notice by the place they hold and their peculiarity, no less than their intrinsic merit, are the " Pasha's Widow " (79), an excellently painted study by Miss Spartali ; and another by the same artist of more ambitious aim, called " Korinna, the Theban Poetess " (151). This, like the other, is good in colour, but is marred by an affectation of which many who cry out loudest against conventionality are most guilty. In short, it is not studied directly from nature (else the sky would not have been painted whitey-brown), but from some original, more recondite, perhaps, and till lately less hackneyed than the general run of genre, but still not nature. The same may be said of Mr. Donaldson'a paintings, and (but that it is more skilfully and care- fully painted) of Mr. S. Solomon's " Myrtle Blossoms' (177). " Cordelia's Portion" (249), by Mr. F. M. Brown, with the part of the elder sisters performed by Mistress Overdone and Doll Tearsheet, is too theatrical and exaggerated in expression for sober criticism.
Among the more constant exhibitors should be noticed as having made perceptible progress in their art Mr. Needham, whose " Winter Sunrise, Clapham" (288), is a thoroughly artist-like work, tender in colour and natural in incident ; Mr. G. L. Hall, whose " Dunstanborough " (334), with driving clouds and air
whitened with sea scud, displays more than his usual knowledge of wave drawing ; Mr. Pilleau, whose "Elephants in a Dust Storm" (234) is as life-like as it is original, and most of whose drawings show greater vigour of handling than heretofore ; Mr. Herries, whose " Taking the Nets Ashore " (150) has a breezy sky excellently composed and painted, and is altogether a drawing which charms by its simplicity, and whose " Scarborough" (595), also well composed, possesses great fullness of tone ; Mr. F. Dillon, the truthfulness of whose " After-Glow—Egypt " (225), one must infer from its exceeding beauty ; and Mr. G. F. Glennie, whose " Thames Marshes" (152) and " Cowdray Park" (455) look fresh and sparkling from nature. Mr. Ditchfield has done what too few attempt—composed two landscapes. He has peopled them with the mythical personages of classic times, and has applied his great command of delicate tones to invest them with
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