The Press.
London, England, 1854-05-20 00:00:00

MAY 20, 1854.

seems to "menace strife," whereas he died with words
of piety and not of defiance on his lips. His head,
supported on the bedframe, takes from the stiffness
of death that the rest of the figure suggests, and is
hardly, we should think, true to nature. It is a fault
in composition that no part of the right arm is visible.
The heads of the conspirators, though exquisitely
painted, want expression, with the exception of that
of the King, who enters the guilty apartment
among the assassins with a countenance in which
the satisfaction of gratified vengeance gives way to
awe and terror.

No. 135, "Hunting the Moufion in Africa," by M.
Horace Vernet, Commander of the Legion of Honour.
It is painful to mark the disimprovement• and failure
of a former favourite. If this picture contains much
of the spirit of the clever painter, we miss the fine
tone of col,mring and striking effect we used to ad
mire, his artistic knowledge, and aerial perspective.
A.A., " The Patting," by the same painter. A
subject and mode of treatment entirely new from the
hands of this versatile artist. It has been surmised
that an allusion is intended to a severe domestic loss
sustained by the painter. The Genius of Death bears
the departing spirit from the mourning survivor,who,
bowed down by his grief, does not observe the signal
of hope and comfort that is implied by the finger
pointing to heaven. There is much to admire in
this conception, and something, too, to criticise. The
departed rising in bodily form from the bed is hardly
consistent with allegorical conventionality : the tenant-
less clay should surely be left to the charge of
sorrowing friends The robe of the ascending
spirit is too uniformly white : the contrast is too
violent: a little shading with•glazing colours would
have increased the effect and harmonise better with
the whole.

No. 11, " Gulliver in the Isle of Giants—Micro-
scopic Studies from Nature in the Forest of Fon-
tainebleau," by M. F. 13iard, Chevalier of the Legion
of Honour. This picture is so singular, so large, and
so overpowering, that it forces the attention which its
merits could not perhaps claim. A study of weeds
and wild flowers, amidst which wanders a man
smaller than an insect, ready to be clutched by a
gigantic hand that hovers above, is a subject so ill-
conceived and displeasing as no good execution
could excuse, but which, we must observe, there is
no good execution to bribe us to forget. No. 12,
"The Interior of a Custom house," by the same
artist, has the same defect of exaggeration. The
subject might have given scope to much dramatic
interest and great contrasts without any departure
from truth and probability. The subject is a good
one; several of the incidents are conceived with
humour; but the attitudes and expression far over-
step "the modesty of nature."
No. 45, " The Widow's Mite," by M. Dubuffe,
another Knight of the Legion of Honour ! A simple
and pretty picture, and among the best the collection
contains. The widow, and the infant in her arms,
are peculiarly happy. The two older children are
less pleasing in attitude and expression. The sub
ject is transferred to modern times : but has not
the artist misconceived the lesson intended to he
given ? The widow in the parable deprived herself
of all she possessed and gave it to the poor. The
lesson inculcated is one of self-denial. Had she
been the mother of three children it would have been
her duty to retain her contribution to supply their
wants, whose claims were paramount even to those
of the poor. Tenderness and expression are the
principal merits of the picture. It is less happy in
colour, and most deficient, we think, in breadth of
effect.

No. 117, "Lady and Lapdog;" No. 118, "The
Footpath ; " No. 119, "The Concert; " No. 222,
" Conversation ;" by M. A. E. Plassan. These
works have been received with an amount of public
approbation highly flattering to their author. One
of them, " The Footpath," has been selected by her
Majesty, and all have been purchased with a most
gratifying rapidity. All belong to the same class of
subject, all are painted with the same care and accu•
racy ; the best we think is "The Concert," but all
are deficient in strength of colouring and effect; and
even the execution, neat as it is, Rants the spirit and
freedom that Teni rs and Watteau could give to pic-
tures which they finishod like miniatures. The ex-
clusive use of opaque colours in M. Plassan's pictures
deprives them of the light and transparent effect which
constitutes the principal charm of the artists we have
named and of those of their school.

" La Blanchesseuse," and " The Young Sempstre is "
(Nos. 60 and 81), by M. Jean Fauvelet, are both pic-
tures of the same class: both possess the same artless
simplicity and the same careful execution—in neither
is effect deficient. Nos. 97, "The Young Admiral,"
98, " Fishermen on the Beach," and 09, "A Dutch
Inn Scene," by M. Eugene Le Poittevin, are all pretty
pictures, with much life, clever execution, and happy
colouring : they remind us of the works of our own
Collins, and are not perhaps inferior. "The Fisher-
men" is perhaps the best, the most agreeable in sub-
ject, and with the largest share of the peculiar
merits of the artist. No. 115, " The Prodigal Son,"