ART.
TWO LANDSCAPE EXHIBITIONS.
THE Burlington Fine Arts Club has done good service in bringing together a number of masterpieces in water-colour by the late Mr. Alfred William Hunt. The Exhibition is a striking one, and shows forcibly that the mind of the artist whose works are hung on the walls was a deeply poetical one. But to evoke the poetry of this painter certain conditions were wanted. The common light of day, out of which De Wint could make poems, did not stir the imagination of Hunt. He had something mystical in his temperament, and required the spells of sunset and storm, sombre nightfall, or opalescent mist, to be cast upon him before his hand could produce its finest work.
In the present Exhibition one of the finest representations of a stormy sunset over the sea is to be found in Off the Morea (No. 16). It is not only a representation of the atmospheric effect of the scene, but it gives also the mental impression produced on a poetic temperament. In this picture the artist's feeling for line is apparent to a greater degree than in many of his more complicated pictures. Here the sweep of the balf.raised curtain of cloud, the long horizon, and the lines of the ships, make an impression of rhythm which is not so noticeable in the more crowded and complex compositions. A Sullen-Looking Night at Whitby (No. 11) is a very remarkable picture. Night is here painted without blackness, and the mysterious depths of the dark are realised in a way which leaves them neither an empty chaos nor too detailed for the time of night. The same subtlety exists in the colour,—a uniform greyness is produced, not by an unnatural monochrome, but by a delicate balancing of hues. Form, value, and colour all run into one another so as to make a complete harmony. Equally beautiful though much more complicated is the Ullswater Mid- day (No. 97). The distant mountains and lake resolve them- selves into a mist of the faintest amethystine purple, making a lovely combination of Colour with the pale yellow of the misty sunshine on the grass. In no other picture here is there a better example of the peculiar power of this painter, who could make a range of mountains look solid and vast, and yet only put on the paper the faintest possible stain of colour.
Hanging on a screen are three pictures which show to per- fection Hunt's power of seizing and making permanent evanes- cent effects. He was a painter who could realise minute detail, and yet not sacrifice dreamy poetry. Thun, Evening (No. 127) is a vision of beauty. The great plain, running away from the Alps, and through which the Aar winds, is bathed in warm light ; it is wonderful that an effect so elaborately worked as this one is so full of freshness. The picture of Thun in Spring (No. 130) is even more lovely. In this the old town, with its castle and church, rise between the blossoming orchards and the eternal snows of the Oberland. The delicate contrasting of the whites of the distant glaciers and of the flowering trees, both wrapped in a hazy atmosphere, is an effect which only a poet could conceive, and an artist more than usually accomplished could carry out. The third striking picture on this screen is Durham (No. 131). In effect it re- sembles the other two described. It is again a picture in the highest tones. Earth and sky are enshrouded in a luminous haze, while in the distance, "like a stain upon the horizon," rises the great cathedral. It is in such pictures as these that the genius of Hunt is best exhibited. In them the poetic impulse has carried him away, and not allowed him to elaborate every stone and every tree. In the pictures where atmospheric effect was not the principal motive the tendency to become minutely topographical was to him irresistible. The picture is often only saved by the fact that these minute presentments of detail are by themselves so exquisitely accomplished. Ordinary daylight does not seem to have inspired this artist. Blue sky and sunshine are treated by him in a manner which suggests that his attitude towards them was that of formal acquaint- ance, and not of deep devotion, as was the case with hillside mists and stormy skies. One picture, however, of Climbing Shadows (No. 62), an afternoon effect between mid-day glare and sunset glow, is of great beauty. The effect of the sun- light spread on the upper pastures while the valley is cool with shade is in its way perfect.
The art of Hunt no doubt springs from that of Turner ; and if it has not the audacity of invention and soaring imagination of the master, it will always appeal to those who care for poetical interpretations of Nature.
The Landscape Exhibition at the Dudley Gallery, which is composed of pictures by six artists, is a decidedly pleasant change from the ordinary fortuitous collection. The excellent plan has been followed of hanging together all the picture& contributed by one painter. The first group consists of Mr.. Hope McLachlan's work. Very sombre and restrained in colour they are ; but Night on the Loch (No. 4), contains some delicate green-blues and greys in the sky and water, while the trees in front are dark and mysterious without being inky. The picture called Isles of the Sea (No. 6) is an impressive rendering of a terrible coast. The hungry waves and isolated rocks call up remembrances of Stevenson's Merry Men. Mr. E. A. Waterlow, A.R.A., contributes to this Exhibition, among other things a large picture called Golden Autumn (No 9), which was awarded a gold medal at Berlin. No doubt the picture is full of carefully considered work, and the effect is natural enough. Somehow, in the light it is now hung, it wants vigour. The sunlight is very yellow, but it hardly glows. So big a picture, too, demands more variety ; the same type of yellow, and blue, and grey are repeated to the verge of monotony. The Connemara Orchard (No. 12) by the same artist has some charming things in it, but would be more satisfactory if the best part—the blue distant mountains—were not at the extreme edge of the canvas. Some of the most interesting work here is by Mr. Leslie Thomson. His picture of Wareham (No. 1) is fresh and de- lightful, and the white clouds are of very happy effect in the composition. The same artist's Early Summer (No. 3), if sombre, is certainly harmonious, and much more successful than the work entitled Despair (No. 4). This picture contains vertical cliffs and a contorted female figure, whose emotions may be accounted for by the rock-like consistency assumed by the sky. Mr. Thomson's Holyhead Mountain (No. 5), if a little empty, has good colour in it as well as air and light. Mr; Peppercorn has saddened the walls with ten pictures. A feeling of gloom pervades them all. No doubt there is also a feeling of harmony about them, but it is the harmony of monochrome. Compare these nocturnal effects with the picture of Whitby at night by Alfred Hunt, spoken of at the beginning of this notice, and the difference between black paint and aerial darkness will be evident. The plan of a few artists who are in sympathy with each other exhibiting their work together is decidedly a welcome one. Several small collections of this kind are infinitely better, both for the effect of the pictures so exhibited and for those who go to see them, than the assortment of jarring atoms that make up.
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