FINE ARTS.

THE ROYAL ACADEMY EXHIBITION.

THE display of the Royal Academy this year is below the average in merit and interest, and deplorably deficient in those higher qualities, originality of idea and creative invention, that raise art above the level of merely imitative ingenuity and manual skill. The foreigners who mingled with the crowd that rushed in at the opening of the doors on

Monday noon, must have been amused at the idea of our decorating the Parliament Houses with grand frescoes by native painters ; seeing that the only figures of the life-size are portraits, the limners of which, for the most part, seem to consider a face at the top of a suit of clothes sufficient indication of the human form ; and there are but few pictures on a smaller scale where subjects of an elevated kind are treated with imaginative power and refined sentiment. But the Academy Ex- hibition is no criterion of the genius of British painters; this time next year we shall have a better opportunity of estimating their capabilities by the result of the competition for the prizes offered by the Royal Commission.

The Academicians, with the exception of MACLISE, have made no great efforts; it is hopeless to look for any advance from the majority of them ; and many are put to it to maintain a decent reputation. The sight of Cam-cores classic landscapes is most welcome after a lapse of a few years; the elegant simphcity and refinement of his style were never more needed than now, when there is little in this depart- ment between the two extremes of mechanical dexterity and per- verted genius. Enwnv LANDSEER'S return to the branch of art which his talent exalts will be hailed by every visiter. The young painters who are coming forward mostly delight in subjects of English domestic life, which they treat with a poetic feeling and true perception of na- tional character, that render works of this class the most acceptable of any; the strength of the exhibition lies with them ; and had the best pictures been put in the most conspicuous situations, instead of being thrust into holes and corners, theirs would have taken the place of bad and commonplace productions of superannuated Academicians, that ob- trude their demerits upon the attention from the line of the eye. We are glad to see that a daily contemporary, the Morning Post, has taken the field, which we have long occupied with few allies, against this flagrant abuse of power and privilege by the Royal Academy,-raising the question "whether it may not be necessary for the interests of art to commit the function of exhibiting contemporary works to other hands than those of the Academicians." The super-courteous tone and guarded censure of these articles show that this attack on the Academy is re- luctantly made, from a conviction of the necessity for some reform of the exhibition-system, now that the fine arts of the country have been taken under the patronage of the state. The grand attraction of the exhibition is Nieman's large pic- ture, The Play Scene in Hamlet, (62) ; which is so surrounded with gazers that it is difficult to get a sight of it even so early as eight o'clock in the morning. It is one of this clever artist's theatrical con- ceptions, and a fitting companion to his Macbeth. The story is well told, apart from the characters, which are not those of SHAKSPERE. The power and dexterity for which MACLISE is distinguished are shown in the painting, and it has more unity of effect than his former works ; but it is equally with them characterized by animal vigour, tending to exaggeration, and material splendour verging on gaudiness ; and while we admire the skilful execution of parts and the bold design of the whole, neither awe nor sympathy is excited. EASTLAKE has been too much engrossed by his arduous duties as Se- cretary to the Royal Commission to do more than contribute an exqui- site little group of two Sisters, (136); which in delicacy of expression, tenderness of sentiment, beauty of drawing, and harmony of colouring, attains ideal perfection.

_ Leuze has been engaged on a picture of the Royal Christening, and he therefore has only two small designs ; the Scene from Twelfth Night, (97,) where Sir Toby Belch sets on Sir Andrew Aguecheek to "accost" Maria; and the Scene from Henry the Eighth, (148,) in which Queen Katharine calls for music to solace her sorrows. Both are clever, but comedy is Lre*rv's forte: his Sir Andrew is an impersonation of imbe- cility in body and mind ; the discomfited coxcomb, with his fine fea- thers drooping and draggling, has the air of a craven crowed over on his own dunghill. Sir Toby has not the swelling port and boisterous vivacity of the roystering bully, and his physiognomy is too modern in character.

WILKIE'S name appears in the Catalogue, but his powers will scarcely be recognized in two unfinished cabinet-portraits of the Sultan Abdul Medjid and Mehemet Ali, Pasha of Egypt, (116 and 117,) which are not equal to the sketches that were sold at CHRISTIE'S last week. An exhibition of WILKIE'S works will take place next month, at the British Institution ; for which occasion we reserve our remarks on his Oriental and other sketches.

MULREADY is not successful this year; his elaborate little picture, The Ford, (91)-two peasants carrying a lass across a stream-has no- thing in its expression to compensate for the "niggling" touch and

peculiar colouring. •

Ewe's two groups of nuclides, The Dance, (33,) and The Innocent are Gay, (4370 have neither gaiety and innocence to charm the mind nor finished execution to please the eye; and his Magdalen, (6,) is as utterly destitute of sentiment as of clothes.

Aman has reduced the Battle of Preston Pans, (201,) to a mere skir- mish, of a very vulgar kind. Thus it will be seen, that the leading Academicians furnish but few and unimportant designs; nor are the Associates in greater strength. The First Introduction of Christianity into Britain, (11,) by HERBERT, LI meagre in design, wooden in style, and literal in conception : the eye is attracted to the barbarous costumes, but the mind is not impressed by the solemnity of the theme. Hymen Burning the Arrows of Cupid, (172,) by G. PATTEN, would make a tolerable transparency; his Eve, (245,) is barely decent. REDGRAVE'S Ophelia, (71,) is a failure ; but he has been successful with Cinderella, (244,) which he has treated with a homely simplicity that suits the story. Cinderella's modest glance of recognition at the glass-slipper, the sneering ill-nature of her sisters, the courtesy of the Prince, and the eager curiosity of the lookers-on, tell the tale dramatically; the painting is elaborately finished, but not over- wrought. Going to School, (251,) by WEBSTER, is one of his humor- ous scenes of schoolboy life and character. With what perfect truth be has depicted the bustle of preparation 1-the impatience of papa pulling on his boot as the coach comes in sight, mamma's grave look of concern as she stuffs her darling's pocket with sandwiches, the big boy's intense look of greedy complacency as he bites a biscuit, with his eye fixed on the cake and oranges in his box, and the crying face of his little brother, whom a kind sister vainly tries to comfort. The Departure of Charke the Second from the House of Colonel Lane, (278,) by CHARLES LAND. SEER, is a pleasing domestic version of an historical incident ; but there is nothing in the face of the King, which is not characteristic, nor in the looks of any one of the party, to indicate any thing more than a family party setting out on a journey. So much for the Associates ; let us see what the talent out of the Academy has produced. HAYDON, its strenuous opponent, seems to have taken pains to prove that their rejection of him was not unjust, by send- ing two burlesques of historical painting, Edward the Black Prince Thanking Lord James Audley for his Gallantry at the Battle of Poictiers (404,) and Mary Queen of Scots, when an infant, stripped by her Mother to convince the English Ambassador she was not a decrepid child, (256). The choice of such subjects is absurd, but Harnon's treatment of them is ludicrous exaggeration : the figures in both are bloated, and the heads vulgar. Of an opposite kind of badness is The Trial of Charles the First, (458,) by W. Flair., but equally remote from the dignity of his- tory ; as also is Alfred Dividing his last Loaf with the Pilgrim, (491,) by W. Smote.

In subjects of poetic character the young painters succeed better. Una and the Lion, (376,) by H. LE JEIINE, is a graceful and expressive design, that gives promise of greater things. Pau/ and Francesca of Rimini, (258,) by H. O'Neil., and Juliet and the County Paris at Friar Lawrence's Cell, (202,) by J. Homanes, are well-painted pictures on a large scale, though neither satisfies the demands of its subject. Meg Merrilies and the Dying Smuggler, (506,) by R. S. LAUDER, is a vigorous episode of romantic melodrama. But it is in subjects of more simple homeliness that the designers are most successful; and GOLDSMITH is the author whom they most happily illustrate. COPE has two subjects from the "Deserted Village "-The Schoolmaster, (8,) and a group of " talk- ing age" and "whispering lovers" beneath the hawthorn shade ; both conceived in the spirit of the poem, and painted with extreme care and force, in a solid unostentatious style. W. P. FRITH has treated a Scene from the Vicar of Wakefield, (4540 where Mrs. Primrose bids the squire and Olivia stand up to see which is tallest, with a mixture of the grace- ful, the grave, and the humorous, that is in keeping with the story; the colouring, too, is bright and lively, but the painting is in parts flimsy. Admonition, (321,) by F. STONE, is a harsh name for the exhortation that is addressed by a gentle girl to her friend or sister, who appears to feel the force of the kind remonstrance; regarded merely as a study of womanhood, this is a beautiful picture. The Covenanter's Marriage, (485,) by A. Jcnizisymi-a characteristic representation of one of the solemn rites that were performed by the persecuted Covenanters in the wilds while their pursuers were on their track ; and The Tired Soldier Resting at a Road-side Well, (72,) by F. GoonALL-a group of French peasants drawing water at a well and giving drink to a wayfarer, a pleasing incident depicted with graceful simplicity-are pictures of ex- cellence by two young artists of great promise. With a passing glance of admiration of P. F. POOLE'S Margaret at her Spinning-wheel, (389,) we must conclude this sketch of the contributions of designers who are not members of the Academy ; but not without mentioning the names of Messrs. E. M. Waal), C. STONHOUSE, P. Wrr.i.rAms, J. SEVERN, and E. V. RIPPINGILLE.

EDWIN LANDSEER has six pictures ; three of them portraits of pet dogs and monkies, painted for the Queen and Prince, with mar- vellous truth and power, but with dexterous handling that too often lapses into superficial imitation and smoothness : in the other three he is out of doors, and he gives us vivid glimpses of nature in his vigorously-painted sketches of Otters and Salmon, (96,) and The Sanc- tuary, (431)-a hunted deer emerging from the loch in which he has sought " sanctuary " from his pursuers, and startling a brood of water- fowl, the water dripping off his coat in streams that look golden in the mellow light of sunset. This is the poetry of the chase; his otters are alive with savage instinct. We hope to find LANDSEER often among the haunts of animals; and again in The Highland Shepherd's Home, which he has depicted with exquisite art and characteristic feeling, in No. 98.

In Scenic pictures the Exhibition is not rich. DARBY has two imagi- native scenes but his Vale of Tempe, (229,) is far inferior to his Soiree at St. Cloud in the Reign of Louis the Fourteenth, which invests with ideal grandeur a regal fête. MARTIN'S Flight into Egypt, (395,) looks more like a flight into the moon. Cieecorr's English Landscape, (10,) and Italian Landscape, (166,) are too similar in tone ; but the forms are characteristic, the composition is elegant, and Nature breathes her purest atmosphere in both : we cannot regret the feebleness of handling less because it is excused by the Ian guor of ill-health. TURNER has two lovely visions of Venice, gorgeous in line and atmo- spheric in tone-The Dogano, (52,) and Campo Santo, (73) ; and A Snow-storm at Sea, (182,) of a supernatural kind, with which the painter was overtaken in the Arid l steamer. He is as successful as ever in caricaturing himself, in two round blotches of rouge et noir, (338 and 353); in the black one, a funeral ship with crape sails is introduced, and in the red one a comical effigy of Napoleon is stuck, Colossus-like, on a sea of blood.

STANFIELD has no large landscape, but several bright little Italian views, with more atmosphere and forcible effect than of late, though still too much like scenes composed of models. Commas has:a few freshly-toned but feebly-painted views in Italy and Wales, with groups of figures; but Naples and Aberystwith are too much alike.

LEE has retrograded sadly this year ; his landscapes look all un- finished: and WITHEIUNGTON is quite losing himself.

ROBERTS exhibits several large and elaborate pictures compiled from his Eastern sketches; of which an interior of the Chapel of the Convent on Mount Sinai, (228,) Thebes, (184,) and Petra, (525,) are the most striking.

CRESWICIL has some exquisitely true and delicately pencilled scenes on the Greta and the Tees, (51 and 496); where the stream dashes among blocks of gray stone, and the summer-sun lights up the fresh green of the overhanging woods.

The Portraits are generally inferior. The most conspicuous in posi- tion, and in badness, are Mr. PARTRIDGE'S of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert; the former intended for the King of the French. BRIGGS'S of the Bishop of Durham, (105,) is the finest; and it is a masterpiece of vigorous painting and grand character. His full-length of the Duke of Argyll, (53,) is equally bad. PlIni.rDs's of Professor Faraday, (170,) is a living resem- blance. Sir MARTIN SHEE has given the Speaker of the House of Commons, (118,) the air of a lackey. PICKERSGILL'S whole-lengths are respect- able furniture-pictures. F. GRANT'S life-size equestrian portrait of the Earl of Cardigan, (59,) as Colonel of Prince Albert's Hussars, we think is the best portrait-picture of the military class that has been exhibited in the Academy : the drawing of both horse and rider is masterly, the colouring is rich without gaudiness, and the arrangement of effect con- summately skilful : there is an air of true refinement about all this painter's works, to which his original in the present instance is much indebted. WATSON GORDON'S equestrian portrait of the Duke of Buc- cletch, (345,) is a powerful picture' and a true likeness, but heavy in colour ; and the character of the face is not in accordance with the action of either horse or man. LiNNELL's male portraits are most to our mind, though his style is peculiar; his half-length of W. Coning- ham, Esq., (285) life-size, is instinct with thought and character. BOTHWELL'S female portraits are the best in the exhibition, rich and brilliant in colour, and full of life and animation; vide 323. A Pause! Two Portraits, (314,) by EDDIS, is a chaste and unaffected delineation of feminine character. Sir Frederick Pollock, (217,) by LAURENCE, Commodore Napier, (308,) by SIMPSON, and other heads of less note, by CHALON, GEDDES, MIDDLETON, Mrs. CARPENTER, KNIGHT, FAULKNER, DEANE, &c., will attract the visiter.

KNIGHT'S Waterloo Heroes, (556,) we noticed before : it does not show to such advantage in the Academy as it appeared in Messrs. GRAVES'S gallery. The Miniatures are mostly excellent ; but we have not space to enter fully into their merits. G. RICHMOND'S water-colour drawings are the perfection of portraiture : true character is expressed with graceful ease and natural simplicity, in a style of refined elegance that almost reaches the ideal: CHALON'S studies of millinery, to which they are made to give place, look fit only for a magazine of fashion. Several meagre pencil heads of Royal personages, by J. Druz, show the class of talent that is patronized at Court. The water-colour sketches of 0. OAKLEY, F. TaTHAst, and Miss F. Conneux ; the crayon heads of S. LAURENCE, C. BROCKY, and T. BRIDGFORD ; and the ivory miniatures of Messrs. Ross, THORRITHN, CARRICK, BOOTH, DURHAM, C. COUSENS,

are also meritorious.

The Architectural room contains a host of designs of merit for new churches, and some for county courts, almshouses, &c. ; but its chief attractions are two interiors of the St. Stephen's Hall, (10400 and the Royal Gallery, (1030,) in the New Houses of Parliament, show- ing the effect of the intended decorations, which will be superbly mag- nificent.

The display of Sculpture is not very striking. CHANTREY is not altogether missing : a colossal statue of Sir Charles Forbes, in marble, nearly finished, is one of his best works. There are two other colossal statues, by BALLY, of Sir Pulteney Malcolm and Sir Astley Cooper. PARK has a portrait-statue of Sadler, in coat and pantaloons, in which he has fairly met and completely overcome the difficulty of dealing with modern clothes ; and a naked figure of a Greek Warrior Crouching, that is admirably conceived and modelled. There are three exquisitely. wrought marble statues of Hyacinthus, by MACDONALD, a girl at Prayer, by MacrtowEtt, and a nymph arranging her hair at the Fountain-glass, by W. C. MARSHALL. The marble bust of the Queen, by FaaNcts, is positively disagreeable ; that of Prince Albert, by SIEVIER, is tame and commonplace. The most striking busts are CHANTREY'S of Mr. James Morrison, MP., WEEKES'S of Allan Cunningham, BETIMES'S of Sir Wil- liam Molesworth, CAMPBELL'S of the beautiful Marchioness of Douro; and last but not least, MOORE'S colossal bust of Curran, which for vigorous truth of character, animated expression, and grandeur of ef- fect, is unrivalled: and when it is borne in mind that this was modelled from recollection, assisted by prints only, the merit of the sculptor be- comes more strikingly evident.