lint 361.
MR. E. M. WARD, always manly and erudite, has produced a work which amply atones for the deficiencies of his court pictures. He has never been in greater strength than in (189) " Ante-chamber at -Whitehall daring the dying Moments of Charles IL' It is doubtful whether the King will die in the Catholic or Protestant faith. The last sacrament is being.administered, but the King finds great diffi- culty in swallowing the bread. The door of the ante-chamber opens, and a hand is seen taking a glass of water from a bowing page. The English bishops stand aloof, doubtful and indignant. The mite- -chamber is crowded with courtiers, 'flirting and gossiping, combing -their periwigs, or yawning with weariness at the protracted cere- mony. In the foreground pages are occupied in feeding the royal vaniels, one of which, having escaped from its attendant, tries to ran through the open door—the only creature who cares for the -dying man within. The infamous Judge Jeffreys enters in the back- groaad, and some doctors are discussing the efficacy of a draught. Every part of this picture has been honestly and carefully thought .out. The details of architecture, costume, and ornament are all accurate, and painted with minute precision. 'The facial character of the time has been well caught, especially in the lady with the fea- thered fan to the right, and the buxom beauty who is laughing with ,the courtier in the salmon-coloured snit. The portraits of the Bishops Kerr, Compton, and Sancroft are also well preserved. No ;pains have been spared to render the illustration of a shallow, heart- less 'age -as faithful -as possible. The picture enforces its moral -strongly. The general effect may lack concentration and the com- position more universal clearness, but the amount of thought shown almost compensates for these deficiencies. The good qualities of the-picture become more apparent at every gaze, and Mr. Ward has -reason to congratulate himself on the general recognition and appre- ciation of this his latest and best work. Sir Edwin Irandseer Oyes a triumphant denial to the assertions of those critics who last year pre- dicted that his powers were on the wane. Seldom have his thoroughly -artistic qualities been better exemplified than in " The Shrew Tamed" (135). A youing lady in a riding-habit is reclining against the shoulder of a beautiful mare, whose vicious propensities she has just subdued by means of the Rarey method of horse- taming. Perfectly quiet and gentle, the onimal now turns to caress the jewelled hand which is playfully patting its nose. No longer -need of the strap which bound the refractory fore-leg—the process has been so complete that the lady's expression of complacent tri umph may be easily pardoned. A touch of humour is given by the Introduction of a King Charles spaniel squatting =the straw above. Ile sniffs the air as if in remonstrance with-his mistress for taking a new pet 'into her favour. The lines of figure and quadruped -blend and.weave into each other with a harmony of which none but the most accomplished artist could he capable. The drawing of the mare is .perfect. Bone, sinew, and muscle are marked with thorough know- ledge and just discrimination. Tts coat is, perhaps, too smooth and glossy considering that a struggle has lately -taken place. With this exception, criticism must give place to admiration. In the North Room are three drawings in pastel bySir Edwin: " The Fatal Duel" (757), and "Scenes-in the -Marquis of Breadalbanes Highland Deer Forest (758,759). 'The "Duel" has been between two stags, one of which lies stretched lifeless on the snow-covered mountain-side; the victor bellows out his triumph while his 'life-blood is fast ebbing. In all these drawings there is that .perfect intimacy with animal form, movement, and expression, which this painter possesses to so remark- able an.extent. In point of execution they are extremely interesting and consummately powefful. Not a teach could be obliterated with- out disturbing the effect Of the whole. Sir Edwin Landseer is a true painter. He discourses with equal grace and readiness to the child in art, and to its most learned, professor. Mr. O'Neil still harps on the "Eastward Ho !" theme. He proves the truth of the old saying that one can have too much of a good thing. It is possible to tire of that lachrymose woman in the dirty striped red shawl-after seeing her for the fourth time. The "Parting Cheer" (335), in point.of painting, presents marked improvement 'in many passages over former pictures, but the grief is too noisy and`turbulent. There is an agony of tears, but a dearth of pathos. Contrast and variety are needed to give it truth. One figure only, and that an unimportant one (an old sailor smoking his pipe), regards .the departing ship with any ap. proach to composure. Surelyeverybody would not be so desolate and desponding? Would not some of the women smile hopefully through their tears as they waved farewell to friend or husband'? And where is any sign of 'that tipsy joviality which, if not a main feature, -is in- variably an accompaniment of these scenes ? Ilogarth would have given it, and I do not see that Mr. O'Neil,gains anything 'by its omission.
-Mr. David -Roberts is broad and vigorous as of yore. His two pictures, "Ruins of the Temple of the Sun, Baalbek" ,(108), and "Fete Day at St. Peter's, Borne" (158), if not everything that could be desired in colour, Ally display that perfect kpowledge of •archi- tectural construction and attention to picturesque •detail which have -earned him so wide a reputation. Mr. Redgrave's best contribution is "Young 'Lady Bountiful" (109). A girl is bringing a -basket laden with charitable gifts to a poor old woman who sits at work by her cottage door, overshadowed by broad yew:trees. A break in the foliage affords a glimpse of thearden beyond, with its old well and straw-thatched beehives. The nores are somewhat weak, but the background shows much simple .loveure. Mr. gfil Creswick is honest and hearty in "The North Countrie" (11):., a homely landscape painted with unaffected truth. A larger picture, "Trent Side" (305), is equally. commendable for its freedom from meretricious trickery. Two pictures by Mr. G. Jones, "-Streets in i Geneva, 1825 (28, 37), are interesting, not only as the work of a -veteran artist, but as conveying the impression of what Geneva was like six-and-thirty years ago. Mr. Faed, like Mr. Ward, has chosen a death -scene as the mainspring of his, picture. '" From Dawn to -Sunset" (247), represents the interior of a Scotch peasant's cottage. To the left is a bed; the curtains, partially drawn, reveal an Old, wrinkled, shrivelled hand, that of the grandmother of the family, who has just died. Her son sits near the bed in an attitude of manly grief', .a very fine figure, with great intensity of expression of face and limb. The daughter's grief is more demonstrative ; she kneels -down, hiding her face in the bed-curtains. The man's wife, who holds a baby in her lap (the dawn of the picture as the dead woman is the sunset), is imposing silence on two of the children who enter the door, unconscious, apparently, of the loss that has befallen the family. Two little ones play on the floor with an " egg-boiler" (not an hour-glass, as the critics persist in calling it) and a kitten. The deathly stillness of the chamber, and the solemn grief of its occupants, are conveyed with great power, without exaggeration, and without clap-trap. The incident of the egg-boiler is too obvious and hackneyed, and the candle going out at the precise moment of death is a coincidence more frequently met with in pictures than in real life. 'The execution is stillIcrachy and spotty, but take it for all in all, this is the most manly and touching picture Mr. Teed has exhibited. From the-op- pressive atmosphere of the sick-room it is a relief to pass into the open air and sunlight, and to revel in it with Mr. Hook. He has thee pictures, all redolent of that happy joyous spirit which makes us love as well as admire his work. " Leaving Cornwall for the Whitby Fishing" shows the pier with a boat preparing to start ; the principal group is composed of a stalwart fisherman nestling his face to that of his child, while his wife, who is holding a bundle containi „" a change of clothes, looks on amusedly. Young children loll at full length upon the pier ; men are paying out rope and lowering nets into the boat ; beyond is the transparent, deeply-coloured sea, and the sunny coast. In 317, "Compassed by the Inviolate Sea," the fisherman is at leisure, stretched upon the grass and playing with his baby, who kicks and gambols as it lies on its back. The mother fondly leans on her husband's shoulder. Above the bank on which these figures are reelining appears the form of a Paok-like child who has been down to the beach to gather sea-weed. "Sea-Urchins" (622) are a couple of -young rogues on a stone buoy, fishing for garnet. Delightful are all these for their freshness and perfect freedom from convention. One can almost smell the -salt breeze and feel the warm sun as he gazes. Mr. Hook's pictures possess the remarkable faculty of making everybody wish to "get out -of town." 'Mr. Horsley vends an im- portant picture—a 'modern version of the Prodigal Son called "Lost' and Found" (286). The advent of the prodigal, who crouches by the roadside, abashed, humbled, and half-clacl, has been notified to 'the father—a farmer-like looking man, who comes towards his EGG with eager face and outstretched hands. Beyond is seen the digal's forsaken home. His sick mother comes out attend by' neighbours and watches -the meeting from afar. The .foreground is oconpied with groups of children that have been gleaning in the ad- jacent corn-fields. These are very happily conceived and painted— they look on with 'silent awe and wonder. The dog eagerly licking the prodigal's hand is a good point. The landscape of rich foliage and -undulating harvest-fields, the pale evening sky,.
i
are rendered as happily as the figures. It is a pity that the father is neither looking nor -walking in the direction of his son. Owing to this defect, and to the fact of the prodigal's body being partially concealed by the dog, the story is scarcely obvious at first 'sight. , `The First Born," by Mr. F. Goodall, is apathetic andinte- restingpieture. It represents a life-sized-seated figuretof an Egyptian mother bending over her babe. The expres-sion of the dusky face in its loving tenderness is very excellent, and its general largeness of treatment, -rich colour, and firm drawing, place this-work far before the merely pretty pictures Mr. Goodall has -been wont to exhibit. "'School of Sultan Hassan, Cairo" (2901 by the same -painter, has ranch of the same qualities, and contains some capital types of character, but for a work so small a little more 'finish would be desirable. The effects of reflected sunlight do not appear 'to have been _sufficiently studied. Mr. John Levis contributes three 'pictures of Eastern life: ." A_ BedouinSheikh, Egypt" (149) ; "Inthe Bezestein, Cairo" (266); aid Edfou, Upper Egypt" (350). It -is scarcely necessary to say that all these are elaborated with wonderful delicacy of colour and minute- ness of detail. The effect of scorching sunlight in "Edfau":is very admirable. Very different from these refined pictures is Mr. Holman Hunt's " Street Scene in Cairo : the 'Lantern-maker's Courtship" (231), a work that will rather detract from than add to his present reputation. The young lantern-maker, seated on his shop.board, is feeling the features of his future bride through the black veil which conceals the lower portion of her face, and whieh 'Cairene etiquetbe requires to be always worn by respectable women. Here is a subject' of which the subtle and delicate genius of Leslie would have made an admirable picture. In Mr. Hunt's hands it becomes coarse and verges upon caricature. The lover, instead of gentlypassing his hand over the form beneath the veil, presses his arm against the body of his inamorata with such force as to render the preservation of her equilibrium a matter of some difficulty, and claws at the veil as if his object were rather to remove it altogether. The heads are out of all proportion with the figures, and in the ungainly form and con-- strained rigid attitude of the girl, one may look in vain for that lithe suppleness of limb and voluptuous grace of movement -so charac- teristic of the women of the,East. The details, by their sharpness of form and definite colour, distract the eye from the main inci- dent. Distant objects appear as near as those in the foreground. Eastern atmosphere will do much in rendering remote details with distinctness, but it cannot violate natural laws, and Mr. Hunt would be 'troubled to tell -why a .piece of orange-peel, several feet within the picture. should be as bright in colour as one in the immediate fore- ground.
Mr. Calderon makes rapid strides towards excellence. "Liber- ating Prisoners on the Young heir's Birthday" is a very attractive and capitally-painted picture. .A count and countess with their ACM, a pretty child of some eight years of age, are grouped near a prism- door, from which tile captives are issuing. The little fellow, pleased, jet shy, and with the steadfast stare of childhood, is giving alms -to one of the dirtiest and most obtrusively. grateful prisoners that ever suffered incarceration. The countess, in white satin robe, with -bro- caded sleeves, looks down with a ,smile of maternal pride at her boy.• Her pose is graceful and her expreseion true and beautiful. The vaunt, ajovial, good-natured aristocrat, stands by her side, making, an admirable foil by his dark rich dress ,and his robust manliness., The picture is rich and broad in effect. Mr. Calderon has been' charged with caricature in the prisoners and gaoler, -but I think' without cause. Such heads may be seen any day. Many of our painters who have the power of portraying beauty, content them selves with doing nothing else. Mr. Calderon, more wise, avails
.himself of the artifices of contrast, and enhances the beauty of his females by opposing it with characteristic ugliness. The chief fault 'of the picture is its tendency to bravura in execution. The painter's facility has led him in this instance somewhat into the sin of slight- ness. This objection cannot he maintained in his other picture, "La I)emande en Matiage" (72). An old French sexton, formerly soldier, as appears by a sword hanging on the belfry wall and the ribbon of the Legion of Honour in his button-hole, is thoughtfully considering a proposal of marriage made to his pretty daughter, who sits bashfully by his side. The expectant swain is seen peeping through a door in the background. Truth-of tone, dexterous mani- pulation, and good feeling for character, render this a very able Picture. The head of the lover might have been dispensed with; -the picture would have told its story equally well.
Dar PONT.
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