ART.
EXHIBITION OF WORKS IN BLACK AND WHITE. AN Exhibition which opened last week at the Dudley Gallery, Egyptian Hall, supplies a want that has long been felt by artists. It is true that works in " black and white " are exhibited at the Royal Academy ; but there they are too much mixed up with oil- paintings (of which the specimens judged to be inferior are generally relegated to the engraving-room), and with architectural plans and elevations ; and altogether are treated with a want of consideration that gives but little encouragement to the study of that kind of work. An exhibition devoted to it exclusively was very much needed ; and, judging from appearances, there is little fear but that this first experiment will be so far successful as to lead to its annual repetition. The collection includes drawings in char- coal, chalk, pencil, pen-and-ink, lamp-black, and sepia, etchings, engravings, lithographs, and woodcuts, and drawings on wood for the cutter ; and it needs but a glance at the list of exhibitors to see that the committee of management had good reason for counting on the support of their brother artists. Foreign artists have shown a special alacrity in answering the call, and their contribu- tions form a very substantial ingredient in the show; and among- these, M. L'Herrnitte is one of the first that claims atten- tion. His " Dragging the Pond " and " The Funeral "- (153 and 134) tell the pitiful story of the search for a drowned child and his humble funeral. In both, but particu- larly in the latter, action and movement are rendered in a truly masterly way, the thorough training of the French draughtstnan enabling him to convey his full meaning without the least violence or exaggeration of gesture. The fine execution and perfect handling of the material furnish a rare delight to the eye, and attest the wholesomeness of the French system of education in art.. But it must be added that neither of these, nor any other drawings• by the same artist, exhibit any great knowledge how light and shade may be dealt with so as to produce the best apportionment. of masses and combination of lines, together with (what is most. important of all) the appearance of light springing from one great source, and pervading all objects, as in nature. Of these qualities Mr. 1Valter Field's "Towing Home" (142) is an almost solitary example. It hangs next to " Dragging the Pond," and in point. of execution is not comparable with the work of the French artist. But it holds its own, and is fully entitled to hang near its more dexterous neighbour, by reason of the rare truthfulness of sunlight which distinguishes it. In " Dragging the Pond," the sharply defined shadows indicate that the sun is supposed to be shining, but there is no other circumstance to support the infer- ence. In Mr. Field's drawing, on the contrary, the whole system of tones and every detail among them combine to produce an instantane- ous impression of sunshine. But chiaroscuro is a much neglected art. When the photograph displaced the engraving painters lost a strong inducement for the study of an art through which alone their pictures could, with tolerable results, be translated into black and white. The art is needed not only for this purpose of translation, but for the due perfection of every picture. Colour is not a substitute, but an addition ; and the greatest colourists have been the greatest chiaroscurists. One of the greatest benefits to be hoped for from the present experiment is the restor- ation to its due rank of this most necessary art. For the evil' consequences of neglecting it will, of course, be more easily per- ceived in the absence of the partial distraction of colour. The fine and characteristic head of " An Old Man" (131), and two picturesque landscapes (128 and 178), all in charcoal, by M. L'Ilermitte, will not fail to make themselves felt. Both their- merits and their defects are such as have already been described. His merits, however, are very much his own ; he shares his defects with a large majority of his brethren.
M. Laugee has of late become widely known in London, and' has deservedly won golden opinions. Two portraits by him in charcoal are now exhibiting at the Royal Academy. Both are admir- able ; and six others at the Dudley Gallery prove that his previous success was by no fortuitous accident or lucky hit, but was due tcr the sure working of an able and accomplished artist. All these drawings are on about the same scale, that is to say, of about one- fifth the size of nature. They all possess the high merit of frankly- accepting the features and individual character of the person portrayed, and then by treatment always simple as well as apt, by- drawing at once vigorous and delicate, representing the sitter in earnest thought, grave repose, or pleasant reverie, or in whatever- other mood the particular character may be beet expressed. In all the modelling is good, the tone rich, and the treatment broad, disdaining small tricks. Three are of especial excellence (34, 139', and 148), and the others are little behind. It is impossible to- take leave of them without hazarding the remark that in charcoal M. Laugee finds his most suitable medium, his oil-paintings (at the Royal Academy) betraying some of the least agreeable qualities- of French colouring.
Mr. E. J. Poynter contributes a cartoon in charcoal for his picture of " Perseus and Andromeda " (79), as well as a charcoal study for the figure of Andromeda (442). The latter is simply beautiful ; nor is it surprising that the same high standard of excellence is not preserved throughout the picture. In truth, the arrangement of the picture is unfortunate, first, in the devotion of
so large a space to the monster, which is more grotesque than horrible ; and next, in the want of nobility in the figure of Perseus. A single coil of the monster would have been more mysterious and terrible than the whole of him, and Perseus would have looked more heroic and not less natural if represented in a less constrained attitude. Mr. Poynter's main virtue consists in the expression of form. This virtue he possesses in a far greater degree than that of colour ; and consequently the cartoon, though less elaborate, is more pleasing than the picture ; though, on the other hand, it yields in beauty and perfectness as a work of art to the single figure of Andromeda, which is a noble as well as a beautiful drawing. A delicate charm pervades a little drawing in sepia (apparently with a pen) by the same artist, called rather enigma- tically "The Spirit" (482), and representing a youth at a harpsi- chord with three listeners in rapt attention. There is a very graceful drawing by Mr. E. Borne Jones, " Venus Concordia" (453), wherein the great beauty and originality of the figure of the sitting goddess deserves the highest praise ; and among the numerous landscapes of high merit which hang round the room must be noticed Mr. Arthur Ditchfield's pastoral (161), a small " Greenwich " (465) in sepia by Old David Cox, and a lithograph after Corot of a landscape possessing that unspeakable charm of finely-balanced proportions which, with grace of form, character- ises all that artist's work. The lithograph is by Vernier, and is of a high class never produced in this country.
Pains have been taken to group together the several classes of work. Want of space forbade a strict adherence to the principle, but it has been followed in the main with great advantage. On the left-hand wall are collected together a series of drawings made for the Graphic newspaper, and two or three seta of illus- trations for books. The names of the artists include those of Pinwell, Walker, Small, Gregory, Hamilton Macallum, G. do Maunier, and others. The drawings show that a vast amount of careful work is done for newspapers, and for books hardly less ephemeral. Their effect is often impaired by their having been touched with opaque white in order to reduce, for the engraver's guidance, the intensity of some over-dark shade. These touches have a cold, starchy appearance, and in estimating the value of the drawings allowance must be made accordingly. Illustrations of magazines and newspapers form a class of themselves. They are generally realistic in tendency, but seldom make any preten- sion to the higher qualities of fine art, and are, in fact, very similar in quality to the staple chiefly favoured at the Royal Academy.
Of far higher interest are the Etchings, of which (English and French) there is an excellent show. Foremost among them are twelve etchings by Meryon, lent by Mr. J. Anderson Rose. They are not unfamiliar to English connoisseurs, and possess the charm, superior to mere novelty, of always revealing some new excellence unperceived or not fully appreciated before. The man, with all his strange story, was certainly a genius. Whatever he touched he seized upon with a strong grasp, and imprinted on every subject a specific character : a fact which, if even for a moment in donbt, is quickly established by comparison with other men's work. The strongest of these suffer by the comparison : there is not one of them could do those solemn etchings of Notre Dame (394, 397), that lofty gallery, high up in the air among the daws, delicate in its tracery, weird in its quaintly emphasized recesses (416). See the gurgoyle (395), monstrous, mis-shapen, and mischievous, and then look at the serene palatial grandeur of No. 302 (where the mad creatures in the air must be discarded from the mind). The etchings which, after these, most easily bear in- spection are those of Mr. Seymour Haden," Studies of Trees " (216), and the Thames Ditton and Sonning, in frame (E19). He has also sent a copy of his great etching of the Agamemnon, washed with sepia for mezzotinting. He has dashed in with vigorous hand the half-stnutched glory of a metropolitan sunset, but has not carried his light through his picture sufficiently to produce a grand effect, nor sufficiently considered how impossible it would be for the eye to distinguish those dark spots close under the blazing sun. Still the idea is good. Some of Mr. Whistler's Thames-side etchings are here ; but the best of all is the interior or dark entry (227). By F. Bracquemond there is a masterly etching of teal among rushes (220), in which the lively action of the birds is to be particularly noted ; and a gamekeeper's " gibbet" (234), with kite and crow suffering for their misdeeds. The two long river views in France (283) by Maxime Lalanne are wonder- fully full of sunshine, and the church in the upper right-hand corner would leave little to be desired if Meryon were not near. Mr. Edwin Edwards has been seen to better advantage than in his two large views of London, in one of which (243) his aim
appears to have been to misrepresent London Bridge (the most beautiful of all our bridges), and in the other (228) to maltreat
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