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PROVINCIAL EXHIBITIONS LIVERPOOL.
The stagnancy of London is the opiitW of the provinces in point of p'eture, shows. The autumn and winter months. whickusuifiA Pre", seV-othing but closed doors at the alintgexhibition• romps of therte.b- t:"..., •./.18, and which show, in this present season, buitlie.041,14ry W,,,F•tter Exhibition in Pall Mall, throw open Steles:ay bgathetings uf &tire thaprovinees, recruited in greatpariefiem the London galleries of the'elepartedsseason but also indebted • for•many,:important elements of strength to the local painters, as well as to private collectors. Of these exhibitions, some maintain a comparison with London in -more than proportionate force. No part Of England: is more -thickly sown with art-purchasers than the great manufacturing district of the North-west; and Manchester and Liverpool evecially_haye, as 'might be eipeeted, a standing of their own in art.,
The annual exhibition at Manchester last year, is stateLto have been
pretty well Swamped by the overwhelming ,attl.ti,C4onsi.', Art-trea- sures Gallery. This year we trust it may be in the way tadnding com- pensation; and we happen to know that it contains the best-of the Lon- don season's pictures—the Dead Stonebreaker of Mr. Wallis, whose Chatterton carried off' the palm of popularity at the Art-Treasures.-
Liverpool, hitherto provided fOr by its own Academy sino has two exhibitions this year. Our readers are already aware d tlitelact; and of its motive ins somewhat acrimonious controversy causeaiy" he stamp of approval which the Academy set upon its te-callqd PtteraPhaelite contributors_ If Liverpool can support two exhibitions—and We cannot but suppose, it quite able if willing to do so—matters :may go smoother henceforward; Prtraphaelites, and the large of 'artists 'who Mbscribe more or less positively to their principles, contributing to thelaideniy, and others to the 'Society." The split hasfts-yet added nothhightit strength to-the Academy's exhibition; having Set supporters ifgoai their met-
tle,"and produced' Which is acCreditedrafaivehave-zio doubt rightly, as the best -Ole'. shown th-ere. The. Aeadeirfritself is a body of uncommon ability and purpose, numbering such members as Messrs. Ro- bertson, Alfred. Hunt, Windus, Campbell, Davis Oakew and Bond, most of whom -contribute. The leading Prtrapliskitee are represented besides eoine• *miner works) • by Mr.; Millatis'et •-gergeorM k Autudin Leaves," Mr. Holnian Hunt's early " Rienzi,fc" and Pi9difted dat- plicates of the "Eve of St. Agnes;" and the "Scapegoat,." three of Mr. Rmsetti's most . characteristic water-celours, and the prize-picture the " Chaucer " of Mr. Medea Brown. To these are added the-chief paintings of Messrs. Lewis, Egg, Anthony, and Leighton, from Trafalgar Square, and a vast aniount of earliest and vigorous :Observation in, the works of young artists who are advancing to distinction, more or less rapidly, as the meed of genuine study, such es .Messrs. Mao Callum and Wil- liamson, and Mrs. Wells: Altogether the exhibition is very remarkable for the /quantity of fresh, real, and individual truth which it, contains.
The Liverpool Society have bestowed their prizes upon Mr. 'Goodall's
Oranmer taken to the Tower," and works by Messrs. Sydney Cooper, Haag, and Calder Marshall. That fact furnishes an accurate enough gauge of the general calibre of the exhibition. It is strictly of the or- ftary exhibition-room stamp; enlisting in its service a fair proportion of the more popular second-rate talent of the day, the kind of talent Which every one is able to appeciate, but displaying little' that thought- ful or original in aim, or vigorously determined in study. • Am/mg the Most striking and valuable contributions—though the prize-givers do not seem to be aware of the fact—Mr. Hook's "Coast-Boy," Sir' Edwin Landseer's "Maid and Magpie," Mr. Frank Stone's "Missing Boat," and the water-colours of Messrs. Alfred Fripp and Newton, stand pro- Minent the redueed duplicate of Rosa Bonheur's "Horse Fair" was not within the terms of prize-competition.
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