ART.
THE GROSVENOR GALLERY.
[LAST NOTICE.]
IN this our final notice of the Grosvenor Gallery, we shall en- deavour to notice briefly some of those works which we have hitherto omitted, a proceeding which is the more necessary, as there is a higher average of merit in this, than in most public exhi- bitions. If we except the amateur element, there are few works here which are absolutely devoid of interest, either as experiments in comparatively little known methods of Art, or as genuine at- tempts, or good performances in the ordinary manner. And first, let us look at the one really fine sea-scape here, Mr. H. Moore's "After a Storm—Calm" (l78), which shows us an expanse of wet sands reflecting the warm afternoon sun- shine, and a rough sea beyond, the hollows of whose waves glow with a delicate, almost opalescent variety of tint ; while, above all, spreads a bright though still stormy sky. This is a work of only medium size, but we doubt whether Mr. Moore has ever painted a more attractive or a truer picture, and it is especially remarkable for possessing an amount and variation of colour such as we have hardly been accustomed to expect from this master. As in all Mr. Moore's paintings, the composition has a strain of gentle, poetic feeling, which seems to hint at what Longfellow called "the secret of the Sea." The only other sea-painter of considerable merit who exhibits here is Mr. Napier Hemy, who is rather a painter of ships and shipping than of the sea itself. He has a large com- position here, representing "Oporto from the Sandeman Wine Lodges." This is a fine, vigorous, and able painting, suffering only from the essentially panoramic character of the scene de- picted. It bears the mark of reality, the colour is deep and rich, and the drawing vigorous and roughly accurate ; but it is, if Mr. Hemy will excuse us for saying so, hardly a picture. We can scarcely look upon it in any other light than as the best possible illustration to some great illustrated geography. A picture hangs above it which forms a remarkable contrast both in subject and treatment. This is Miss Eveleen Pickering's "Christian Martyr ;" a girl tied to a stake, to drown with the rising tide. We have often spoken in these columns of artists whose work lacked meaning, because it lacked all touch of every- day nature and emotion, and moved in a world which was any- thing but the one we live in. Miss Pickering's art suffers from a somewhat similar defect; her figures and her painting both want "backbone." This young lady in her red drapery is less like a living, breathing being, than one of Cimabue's virgins ; she is pure with the purity of an ascetic, and we cannot help feeling that her proper place would be in the stained-glass window of some chapel dedicated to "Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows." Were it not that Miss Pickering is so devoted a student of Art, we should hardly call attention to this picture ; but her work is so thorough and unsparing, and her aim so high, that we cannot but recognise the effort, though it is made, we think, in a wrong direction. If this young artist would but leave for a time all study of the Old Masters, and forget all mediwvalism of feeling and treatment, and going to Nature,. paint it with cheerful as well as sympathetic eyes, she might give us some very fine work. As it is, her painting is losing in attractiveness and truth year by year. "Wholly on the other side of the moon," as Kingsley would say, is Mr. Weguelin's " Habet !" (169), a figure of a nude girl in a Roman bath, very much in the manner of Mr. Alma Ta.dema. Mr. Weguelin is a young painter, who is making rapid progress, and whose work has many of those qualities which have made Mr. Tadema famous. He suffers, perhaps more than any young painter of at all equal ability, from a coarseness and almost insolence of conception and manner. He, so to speak, vulgarises his clas- sical themes. On the other hand, be works hard, and faces with truly British pluck, problems of drawing and lighting such as few would. attempt ; and though he fails frequently, he not unfrequently succeeds. His marble and bronze is becoming almost as solid and truthful as Mr. Tadema's own,. and in this little picture of " Habet " he has caught the effect of sunlight and shadow upon the human figure with great vividness and ability. The worst of his work is that its merits are almost entirely technical ones. He does not apparently care to interest us in his pictures, as opposed to interesting us- in the skill with which he executes them. His painting is sharp. but his meaning is dull, and a gallery of his works would be un- bearable. Mr. Walter Crane's " Dunstanborough Castle, on the Coast of Northumberland," is one of the finest pictures we remember to have seen from his hand. Long ago we pointed out that, omitting his great ability in designing decoration, Mr. Crane had only one considerable artistic merit, and that that was the power of imparting to landscape a peculiar, imaginative- feeling, quite unlike that of any other painter. If we say that he paints a landscape, in which at any time a dwarf, a fairy, a dragon or a "knight errant" might not inappropriately appear, we shall put the matter as clearly as we can do, in our brief space. The- curious part of the matter is, that though be produces this effect with singular uniformity, yet he does not attain it by any straining of natural fact. This " Dunstanborough Castle," for instance, in which we look all over the scene for some imp or fairy, is in detail simply a faithful record of the place. The general impression, however, is eerie to a degree. We have mentioned Mr. Cecil Lawson's English pictures, but we must call attention to his "Scene on the Riviera" (9), a very splendid piece of colouring, full of clear air and bright sunshine. This picture deserves careful attention, and shows a vividness of impression which Mr. Lawson's work too habitually lacked,— perhaps we should rather say,-too habitually surrendered, for the sake of obtaining other qualities. It is with the greatest regret -that we have just heard of the death of this young painter. He could ill be spared from the school of English landscape. His faults were such as might well have disappeared with time, and his merits were strikingly various and eminently his own.
The interest which attaches to the manifestations of even common-place ability in exalted personages, will lead many to study, and perhaps admire, the "Portrait," by H.R.H. Princess Louise. It represents, we believe, Miss Montalba, and though a very tame and somewhat heavy production, shows an advance in technical skill upon the Princess's previous work. The ladies, amateur and professional, are in great force at the Grosvenor. and almost require a separate notice, from Mrs. Collier and Miss Pickering downwards. Many of them send clever, forcible work, which we regret we have not space to notice in detail. Mrs. Arthur Murch especially, sends some small oil landscapes which are won- .derfully like the scenes they represent, notably one of Clovelly Park, which has caught the personality of the place very cleverly. It is to be regretted that this lady does not confine herself to landscape painting, as her attempts at classical art are peculiarly unpleasant. There is, probably, nothing worse of its kind in the exhibition than her" Sleeping Girl" (102), with its awkward- ness of posture, impossible transparency of robe, ugliness of drawing, and weakness of colour. It is one of those hopeless pictures which are shamly classical, and shamly idyllic, and bear about as much likeness to real classical and idyllic work, as the" Loves of the Gods" arranged by an old governess for a young ladies' school, would bear to the true Grecian mytho- logy. A little, upright, rather French picture of George Clausen's, called " Gleaners " (49), should be noticed, if only for its impression of out-of-doors atmosphere. It is in that light key of colour that M. Bastien Lepage generally affects. Mr. Moscheles' "Algerian Boy" (109) is a pleasant little pic- ture, showing the artist at his best, as does the "Hard Study" (306) of Mr. Freak Dicey,—a young lady in pink dress, sitting on a dark-red ottoman, with a book in her hand, at -which she is not looking. Mr. Mark Fisher has two interesting landscapes, b)th small in size and poetical in feeling, called, 'A Cloudy Day" and " Evening " (119 and 117). Of these, the latter is the finer, with a better sky and more quality of colour; both are worked in the blurred manner which has now become habitual with this artist, and look as if they were re- presentations of a smalged Nature. Mr. Fisher retains all his admirable and French-like management of greys and cool greens, but is hardly so successful where he has to painta blue sky, and his mealows and trees are too evidently done with slight reference to Nature. Mr. Holloway's pic- ture of "The Evening Tide" has more colour than most of his work, and if truth must be told, less feeling. It shows a little inability to master the combination of the various hues of sea-weed and water that it attempts to present, and impresses us with the feeling that the artist had not been quite familiar enough with the scene to grasp all its details. It is, nevertheless, a quiet, interesting, and lovable picture, having much sympathy with the beauty of the scene, and failing, where it does fail, neither from arrogance nor affectation. It may be suggested to this clever young painter, that the work should either have been carried farther as a landscape-painting, or that the figures introduced should have been larger and more important. Mr. David Murray's " Spring " is a small landscape, with some really fine qualities of colour, especially noticeable in the deep greens of the field, and the manner in which they are combined and con- trasted with the purple-browns of the woodland beyond.
Mr. Frank Roll's portrait of E. H. Pember, Esq., Q.C., is a very dignified and good piece of work, brilliantly but not flashily painted, having little of that lime-light ghastliness which sometimes disfigures Mr. Roll's ability, and especially fine in its flesh tints and the solidity of its painting. As a single remark, may we say that the hand appears to us to need a little more work and careful drawing, to bring it up to the level of the rest of the picture ? Near here are two nice sketches, one of Capri and one of Perugia, by R. Corbett. Mr. Linton's " Claudio" (131), is a single figure, well painted, but dull. Mr. Munn's "Between Sunlight and Moonlight" (148), is clear and original; and Mr. Richmond's "Luke Ionides, Esq." (146), is a piece of good, straightforward portrait-painting. Probably the worst thing in this Gallery is the work, by Mr. T. Armstrong, entitled, "View near Mentone," a most preten- tious and ill-drawn picture, of three girls gathering poppies beneath some olive-trees. It would be scarcely worth while to
mention this work, were it not that Mr. Armstrong has been selected to preside over the Govermneut Art Schools. It may not be wasted time to those who take a genuine interest in Art and its progress in England, to examine this work carefully, and especially the drawing of the figures therein, and consider what chance there is for a School of Art which is presided over by a draughtsman of such a quality as Mr. Arm- strong. We cannot close this notice better than by referring to a little piece of sculpture, which is really the most delight- ful work in the exhibition. It is called "Persons Arming," and is by Mr. Alfred Gilbert, a young artist who is, we under- stand, studying at Rome, and who should do great things.
Previous page
