fiat Irto.
ROYAL ACADEMY.
THIRD NOTICE.
Ma. "Ransom" (198) scarcely realises the expectations formed of that long-talked-of work. Beautiful as it is in many passages of colour, lovely as is the face of the girl who clings to the stalwart knight, it is sadly deficient as a work of art. The group is inartistically arranged, shown especially in the long ungainly line of arms commencing with the knight's, continued by those of the girl's, and ending with the gaoler's—and the number of figures in exact profile. The proportions of some of these figures, moreover, will not bear the eye of scrutiny, and their costumes are marked by that inattention to accuracy and want of taste so often shown by this painter in his pictures of a past age. Thus the dresses of the page and the girls are theatrical and gaudy, and the gaoler, who by the way has a most nineteenth-century looking face, is attired in a Charles IL buff coat and gorget, while the principal figure is clad in armour of the time of Henry VIII. The heads, though characteristic, are deficient in animation, and altogether there is an air of unreality about this scene, in which the actors appear to be only half in earnest. Viewed simply as a piece of richly glowing colour, the "Ransom" eclipses all rivals in the East Room. Mr. Millais deals more successfully with his own age, and "Trust Me" (269) is consequently a better representation of his ability. The same profile arrangement is again visible in the figures of the hunting squire and his aughter, but the latter is the most graceful and charming creature ever fainted by Mr. Millais, and her brown silk dress attracts the admiration of the lady visitors, as the white satin in the " Brunswicker" did two years ago. The male figure, though a little rigid in attitude, is individual in type, and the painting throughout is admirable for masterly quality. "The Parable of the Woman Seeking for a Piece of Money" (309) is nothing more than a vigorous sketch of effect of great depth And brilliancy of colour and truth to nature in the action of the woman. Mr. Phillips' pictures are all marked by power that verges on coarseness, and facility that degenerates too frequently into mere bravura. He fails to move us in "A Spanish Volunteer" (24), a parting scene less remarkable for truthful rendering of human emotion than for dexterous handling of pigment. His other subjects present nothing more suggestive than can be obtained from seeing a gipsy tell the fortunes of two girls, or a man pouring out a glass of -water for a pair of dark-eyed Spanish beauties (191, 207). Mr. Leighton is in unusual strength. " Oda- lisque " (120) and "Sea Echoes" (494) are steeped in grace and sensuous beauty, the colour of the latter being particularly pure and refined. "The Star of Bethlehem (217) is somewhat robbed of its impressiveness by the confused group of revellers at the base of the picture, whose tiny dimen- sions impart gigantic height to the wise man of the east who stands watch- ing the star from the house-top. Of Mr. Leig'hton's " Dnett" (308), though displaying in a similar degree great powers of realization and scholarly drawing, it is scarcely possible to speak in terms of praise. A highly ideal- ized peasant in an idealized smock-frock is accompanying the song of a blackbird on a tin whistle. The handsome features of the youth have never been exposed to sun or wind, and those delicately-shaped fingers can never have handled the flail or held the stilts of the plough. Poetry may be got out of peasant-boys if we set the right way about it, but not by idealizing them, but by painting them as faithfully as W. Hunt has often done. There is a crude rough power about Mr. V. C. Priusep's "Bianca Capello seeking to poison her brother-in-law the Cardinal" (216) which promises well for the future ; but it is to be hoped the painter will henceforth shun the morbid choice of subject shown in the present instance. " Laborare eat orare" (231), the monks of St. Bernard's Abbey gathering the harvest, is a very indifferent work by Mr. Herbert. There is much sym- bolism and sentimentality, and a most plentiful lack of good painting. The landscape, slight as it is, might pass, but one at least expects from a professed figure painter something better than these slop- pily executed and ill-drawn dolls in monastic habits. Mr. Calderon, who for the last few years has been steadily improving, has made a great ad- vance in "After the Battle" (243). The story is simply and plainly told, and suggests more than meets the eye. We feel no anxiety for the fate of the little orphan boy, whom these rough soldiers laden with spoil, their clothes begrimed and smeared with the effects of the recent fight, have dis- covered as the sole inmate of the shattered and deserted cottage. That hard-featured weather-beaten warrior who smilingly accosts the bashful urchin, as he sits on the overturned cradle, has a heart, and will not see him harmed. The contrast between the orphan and the drummer-boy—a dear-complexioned English lad—who watches the scene with observant in- terest, is very happily made. The whole is treated with a vivid reality that reflects credit on the painter's imaginative powers, though it may be objected that the men's uniforms and trappings look a little too new and clean, rather as if they had just come off parade in wet weather than been engaged in a hot and angry fight. "Katharine and her Women" (371), from Shakspeare's Henry VIII., is very agreeable in tone and colour, and contains some charming specimens of female prettiness. The dresses, the furniture, the vast hall, with its paved floor and tapestried hangings, are true to the period. Mr. Lee's "Pont du Gard" (250) is a large but un- interesting work, slight in painting and sadly wanting in truth of colour. "Gibraltar" (667) is better, but here, again, the clay-cold hues are op- posed to fact. "Sir Walter Raleigh" (268) is preferable to most of the works lately exhibited by Mr. Wallis, being less hard in execution, and quieter in colour. The same remark applies to the "Death of Marlowe" (80), a capital study of effect, but like Mr. Prinsep's, a subject that should never have been painted. Mr. Gale paints on a small scale with much de. licacy but little vigour of execution, and has a provoking tendency to be sentimental. In "Autumn" (259), an old man is seated in a harvest-field, by some shocks of wheat, waiting patiently for the harvest of Death. The dews of evening are falling, and it is more than probable that the veteran will at least be laid up with a severe attack of rheumatics. "The Sick Wife" (274), again, does not enlist one's sympathies, as she should, though she lies pale and thin upon the sea-beach, -wrapped in shawls, and is watched by an attentive and florid-complexioned husband. "A Flower from Paddy's Land" (283) is the title appended by Mr. Feed to a figure of a young Irish girl, painted with a smart effectiveness that recals some of Mr. Phillips' pictures: adjoining this is a pretty sketchy little portrait, "Hurled Dixon" (275), by the same artist. Mr. H. O'Neil's "Mary Stuart bidding farewell to France" (337) is one of those pictures a which so many may be found in the present Exhibition, which evidence considerable technical ability and careful elaboration, but are devoid of vital interest, and are fol-gotten almost as soon as seen. It is difficult to discover the Queen of Scots amongst this assemblage of men, women, canopies, cordage, and golden rails. The principal figure not being sufficiently con- spicuous is an error into which a painter of Mr. O'Neil's experience in picture-making should never have been betrayed. Mr. Dobson's "Mama's Birthday" (355), and "The Picture-Book" (381) call for no special remark, being exactly similar in every respect to what he has been doing for some years past ; the same may be said of Mrs. Frost, in whose " Panope " (303) -we once more recognize our old acquaintance, the semi-nude young lady, 'who always wears a dark blue drapery shot with orange, which, though never fastened to her waist, clings to it in a marvellous manner. Whether we meet this young lady as Euphrosyne, Sabrina, or a daughter of Hesperus, she is equally insipid and artificial. Mr. Goodall's "Return of a Pilgrim from Mecca" (372) is the most able work he has exhibited since he took leave of scenes of home-life, though its subject will scarcely appeal to the general public. The painting is rich and lustrous, the drawing and proportions good, the composition well arranged and balanced. It is an effectively treated scene, composed of most picturesque materials, but deficient in dramatic expressiveness. "The Poor helping the Poor" (879) by Mr. J. Burr, and "The Mask" (415) by Mr. A. Burr, are two tolerably successful imitations of that style of painting rendered po- pular by Mr. Faed. They evince considerable mechanical skill of a certain kind, shown more particularly in the cunning imitation of
drapery textures. In neither is any sense of beauty discernible, and in the former the child, in whom the chief interest of the picture centres, and who is being physicked and cossetted by a number of well-meaning folks, is positively ugly. Had the painter ever witnessed Mr. Clark's "Sick Child," now in the International Exhibition, its tender truth and homely grace might have warned him from attempting a theme somewhat beyond his strength. Mr. Crowe's name must be placed on the list of progressive painters. "De Foe in the Pillory" (457) is as conscientiously thought out and depicted as any work upon the walls. De Foe is undergoing sentence for writing "a seditious libel," entitled, "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters." The crowd drink the health of the sufferer, and pelt him, not with refuse, but with flowers, and sympathize with him in other ways, despite the rough usage they receive from the soldier guards. The back- ground, showing Temble Bar and the old houses adjoining, is well managed, and every detail has been studied with praiseworthy care. The execution is less hard and mannered than of old. Mr. Solomon's "Lost Found" (471) is a piece of clever but somewhat vulgar work, with little truth to nature in action or expression. It is a sad falling off from the days of "Waiting for the Verdict." Mr. S. Solomon's "Child Jeremiah" is not an advance. There is earnestness of feeling, and characteristic action ; but why is everything painted with a dull brown? Mr. J. E. Hodgson takes higher rank than he has heretofore merited with his sound, reflective, and honestly painted "Return of Drake to Plymouth with Prisoners and Prize after the Expedition to Cadiz in 1587" (523). The canvas is filled with a multitude of figures, some of whom are welcoming back the hero to his native shore, while the girls reclaim their old sweethearts, and one gen- tleman, surprised into generosity by the general glee, bestows three links of his broad gold chain on an importunate beggar. In the distance is the harbour, and the quaint antiquated forms of the vessels. The figures are too universally tall, and in some instances do not stand firmly, but these and other errors may well be pardoned, for the sake of the industry and research that have evidently been employed in the production of the picture.
The withdrawal of Mr. Palgrave's "Handbook to the Fine Art Collec- tions in the International Exhibition" from sale in the building has afforded satisfaction alike to the Commissioners and the public. Unmiti- gated over-praise inflicts upon a man the irony and ridicule he may expect rather from an enemy than a friend. Mr. Woolner, the sculptor, an artist capable of good, honest, though mostly laborious-looking, and so far from great, work in portraiture, -has found in Mr. F. T. Palgrave a partisan who in this way has been kind to be cruel to him with a vengeance. Instead of permitting his friend modestly to take the place due to him as one of considerable talent, Mr. Palgrave kicks aside discretion herself; and coura- geously declares him to be the living representative of the greatest geniuses the -world has yet seen. How Mr. Palgrave could suppose that this sort of thing would be read apart from smiles at his friend's expense is curiously enigmatical. Mr. Palgrave is, however, by no means prone to indiscrimi- nate laudation. His merciless word-pelting of Mr. Munro is in its way as extravagant as his flattery of Mr. Woolner. The praised and abused each possess qualities in which the other is deficient ; both have donbtless a pretty shrewd appreciation of the excess of praise in the one case as of the unmeasured virulence in the other. If, however, they should entertain an idea that Mr. Palgrave has studied this branch of the art to his own enlightenment and the profit of sculptors, let them indulge in the salutary reflection that the oracle who has "given much attention" to this subject declares Gibson to be a follower of Canova! and Wyatt of Flaxman!! Anything more closely approximating to nonsense or more fatal to the trick of critical word-spinning than this precious dictum I can scarcely conceive. Flaxman was severe and rigid—often more so even than the Greeks themselves ; Wyatt, though a skilful sculptor, devoted himself to prettiness and grace not wholly unaccompanied, perhaps, by refinement of form. Fraxman, again, trusting mainly to his noble instinct in composi- tion, discarded conspicuous finish and elaboration, the very features (ex- pressed in most facile execution) which. in Wyatt's work became chief characteristics. Two sculptors with aims more dissimilar and scopes more contrasted could not well be named. As to Gibson and Canova Mr. Pal- grave tells us that the latter's work is " waxen " and "frivolous in senti- ment," and speaks of his "Parisian airs" and "ballet-girl graces." He then immediately refers to Gibson's masterpieces "of lifeless labour and carefid coldness." These propositions sufficiently carry with them their own contradiction, and signally prove the value of criticisms made by one whose opinions are influenced by impulsive thoughtlessness and warped by
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