The Press.
London, England, 1858-06-05 00:00:00

S,
. <l

E 5, 1658.

establishMedt, for the improvement of his histrionic
deportment.

Of the accessories, the Min en seine, dm, we
cannot speak too highly. It is quite painful to look
on all the splendid paraphernalia of this most
splendid temple of the drama, and reflect in how
short a period the all destroying atmosphere
of London will produce as pernicious an effect on it
as ►he band of time alone wou:d scarcely accomplish
in a couple of centuries. Amidst all the acknow-
ledged perfection of the scenery, however, we cannot,
in conclusion, refrain from noticing the building in-
tended to represent the Palazzo Borgia. In our
eyes, it resembles much more a country auberge
than the dwelling of the powerful but wicked
duchess.

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.—Verdi's Luisa Miller
will be produced on Tuesday next, the Bth inst.
This opera, founded on Schiller's " Cabala nod
Liebe," affords the most telling situations for vocal
and dramatic effect. Mlle. Piccolomini, who has
sustained the part with great success in Italy, is the
heroine. Beneventano, Vialetti, and Castelli have
also parts in the opera. The opera will be repeated
on Thursday next, June 10, for the benefit of Mlle.
Piccolomini. On Monday, the 7th, a grand morning
performance will be given, for which Don Giovanni
is the appointed opera. In this opera almost every
singer of note in the establishment finds a part.
lIEaR RUBINSTEIN AND HERR JOACHIM will appear
at the performance of the Vocal Association, at St.
James's-hall, on Wednesday evening next, June 9.
The Vocal Association, of 300 voices, will also per-
form some part songs, for the first time, com posed
' expressly for the Society.

Sint Iris

ROYAL ACADEMY.
(Sixth Notice.)

PORTRAIT-PAINTING is frequently spoken of as an art
unjustly depreciated. The business of the portrait-
painter, it is said, i 4 not merely to copy the figure of
a man with perfect accuracy of form and colour, just
as one would paint a rock ; a true portrait should
give the features of the mind as well as those of the
body. Where, then, can a great artist find nobler
employment than in studying the characters of those
who come to be painted, and leaving behind him not
mere pictures of bodies which have decayed and
perished, but records of souls which are still living
and acting—in oar own sphere, perhaps, for all we
know? And who, then, has grander work to do than
the popular and successful portrait-painter? All
the famous men of his time and country come
and sit to him, and he makes them known to men
of other times and other countries. Is not this
the truest historical painting ?
All this is excellent theory, but how stands the
case in reality ? Are the portraits which occupy so
mush space in the exhibition of the Academy year
by year—are even the best of them—monuments of
such truth and value ? Is it possible that they
should be—is it possible for portrait-painting, at
least as practised at present, to occupy the position
which is thus claimed for it? Can a popular artist
be an honest one ? Can he say all he thinks ? Does
he believe all he says ? We are not speaking of
vulgar flatteries, of clarified complexions and falsified
features, still less of the fopperies of dress and
attitade,—these are the faults of vulgar men.
But suppose a painter to belong to the highest
order—to have the power of looking into peo-
ple, how often has he the courage to tell us
what he sees there ? He finds in every one's cha-
racter, we cannot doubt, some vice or some passion
sufficiently prominent; does he attempt honestly to
express it, or dishonestly to contest it? Can he take
man's guineas, and in return tell him—and the
world, too—that he is silly, or brutal, or conceited ?
It is true that if portraits could be painted on the
sly, and published always as posthumous works, they
might tell us something worth knowing. We have
no better means of getting an insight into the real
characters of public men than by comparing the
remarks which their intimate friends have made upon
them in their private journals; but we do not set
stay great value upon the ooropliaten!s they reoeire

at public meetings, or cherish an entire belief in the
virtues ascribed to them in inscriptions and dedica-
tions. We ghoul,' pay no attention whatever to
the judgment of any flatterer, least of all of a hired
flatterer. Yet this is very much the position of the
whole order of portrait-painters; while men remain
what they are, artists must flatter them more or less
if they care to be popular. And if they are not
popular they have no opportunity of painting the
great men of the time. Of course, the flattery of

some is more refined than that of others : some are

content w►th suppressing what is true, others with
suggesting what is untrue ; but the boldest asser-
tion of falsehood is not too much for many. These

last are generally clumsy flatterers, who, in trimming
and paring people down to some fashiomble pattern,
cut away real beauties as well as real deformities.
They are the wretched tribe who fill the rooms of
the Academy with those waxen ladies in white satin
and lace, who seem to have about as much soul as a
doll and much less than a dog. The better class
of painters do not stoop to such arts as these, but
they paint men only on their best sides, and
obviously take no higher view of their duty than
such a practice implies. To see the whole of a man's
character and dexterously to bring forward all that
is good, gracefully concealing all that is bad, and in
doing so to preserve a likeness, to produce such a
portrait as may pass for the truth, doubtless requires
great talent; but whoever may choose to assert
that such occupation should rank among the
noblest, and such works among the most valuable,
we must beg leave to hold another opinion.

We do not propose to go through the list of por-
traits which fills so large a space in the catalogue :
there seems to us to be so little that is satisfactory
in the present condition of this branch of art that we
shall offer very few remarks on the subject. The
only attempt at novelty that we have been able to
discover is in the portraits of Mrs. Nassau Senior and
Miss Senior, exhibited by Mr. G. W. Watts under the
assumed name of F. W. George. They are chiefly
remarkable for the elaborate finish of the back •
grounds, and the rather unusual attitudes of the
figures. We are glad to welcome the slightest devia
lion from the beaten track, but we cannot find much
to commend in these two pictures beyond the care
and patience which have been bestowed upon them.
The garden shrubs, however laboriously painted, are
not at all true ; and the action and expression of the
figures, which have been much praised in some quar-
ters for simplicity, seem to us to be not a little
tainted with affectation.

Trade appears to have been as brisk as usual in
the manufactories of Mr. Grant and Sir J. Watson

Gordon, and the goods turned out are of average
quality. The former still disfigures his productions
with ill-drawn dogs and horses, and ridiculous bur-
lesques of landscapes ; and the works of the latter
are as striking as ever at a distance, and as unsatis-
factory upon a closer examination. The Countess of
Errol, the Viscountess Hardinge, Colonel Percy Her-
bert, Lord Campbell, and the Marquis of Dalhousie
are some of the celebrities wbo have been operated
upon by these two adepts. Mr. Knight sends four
portraits in his usual bold, rough style, and Mr.
Sant still paints none but the most genteel of chil-
dren. We are accustomed to look for feebleness in
Mr. H. W. Pickersgill, but in No. 281, a portrait
somewhat in the Rembrandt style, there is consider-
ably more power than he has laoly exhibited. Mr.
Desanges contributes one of his ladies by moonlight
and three pictures of children, none of which are
likely to increase his reputation ; his paintings are
this year hung very near the ceiling, and, as far as
we can judge, deservedly so. Mr. Richmond and Mr.
Thorburn have not done wisely in quitting their old
styles. It is not easy for any one to begin all at
once to paint on a largerscale than he has previously
employed, and in a medium to which he is not accus-
tomed. We are not surprised at the weakness which
Mr. Richmond displays when he works in oils ; but
no one could be prepared for the crowd of mon.
strosities with which Mr. Thorburn has astonished
all who remember his beautiful miniatures. We can
only hope that the universal dislike which has been
pretty freely expressed may induce him to abandon
his very enterprizing, but rather Quixotic attempt.
Half a sentence is enough for Mr. Bnekner's two
insipid ladies, and Mr. Boxall's one cateless half.
length ; Mr. Hart's portrait of his Highness Tons-
soun Paths, General in the Turkish army, a dusky
little boy of some seven years old, is rather clever
and very curious. The whole length picture of
Prince Albert in Highland costume, by Mr. Phillip,
has all that artist's merits, and some of his defects ;
it is rather inanimate in expression, but very rich in
eolour, and solid in drawing. And so, with a word
of half- praise; WO Ore glad to escape OM
portraits.