The Express.
London, England, 1862-04-28 00:00:00

FINE ART&

EXIIIEFFION OF TIIZIOLDI !SOCIETY OP
YAINTEES IN WATER COLOURS.

The exhibition which opened to the public this
rooming is Pall-mall East is • very good one, but not so
mad beyond the avenge as we want 'mama to expect
from the pattponernont of the time of exlubitiini, and the
trauma efforts reported to he making to surprise our
foreign visitors. me society may coegratobite itself how-
ever that the eseelleace of the present display is quite as
much real as apparent ; if there are few works prominent
in excellence it is listener the average in uniformly high.
I wring the wittier the gallery has been coosiderably en-
larged, the liglitiug greatly improved, and the decorative
Pert of the alterations n ILI a style remarkably chaste, ale.
putt. and eperopriete.
Three new amends members exhibit for the first time,
viz.. Messrs. Brittan Willis, Whittaker. and Alfred Hunt.
1.11 the tint geutiermai the so...iety has made a valuable ac-
quisition. We like the watercolour pastoral and rustic
drawings by this artid mach better than his oil pictures of
similar subject.. several here have rare parity, beauty of
tone, aml power hut we may call particular attention to
tie " Early %wiling—a Scene in Suisse, with Cattle" (let),
for ito Cuyp-like luniinourans. The best of all, however,
is " sunset in Harvest Time is the South of Stumm"
(•221)). • picture remarkable for the brilliancy of the scarlet
cirrus of the sky and the forcible and truthful contrast of
the foreground and team in shadow. Mr. Alfred Hunt
scarcely equals in his drawings the delicacy and variety of
his oil picture., while they Lave lees expression of space and
mad gradation. In Mr. Whittaker's drawings there is
route molest merit, but he has yet to win a distinct
realties'.
Among the better kuown contributors there are some
curious fluctuation, Mr. Burton, who this year sends only
our Bavarian suloect, "A Orrman Interior" (312)—a girl
poring over a elate—surpasses all former efforts in
two large Oriental studies of female heads, entitled
respectively " &Idea" (33(/), and "The Wife of
Hassan Ass" (_ O), both remarkable for character
arid vitality, the latter specially for • look,
as she watches front the window, of intense anxiety and
boding fear. They owe their highest merit, however, to •
breadth yet fulness of modelline,atone yet variety of colour,
almost unexampled in the comparatively weak medium of
ester colours. Hen Carl Eason s " Remains of the Temple
of Baalbek '• (134) is rather suggestive of theatrical red fire.
la motlier view of the same city (No. 25) there is also a
melodramatic character of colour we cannot understand a
alaty foreground, bright English grass ntiddledistance, and
dusky yellow and red and deep blue, as the concomitants of
any climate or meteorological conditions. The " Bedawee "
(laid) has features tm =mire, too much of the Saracen's.
head character. to agree with the nodose we have derived
from all 3..tinti of the Arab type : the shadows and or
fected light on the face are, moreover, certainly (aloe in
colour. Carl Ileag's beat picture is that of • caravan de-
r.rting from Palmyra (No. 300). Mr. Alfred Pripp has
made • most notable advance in delicacy, truth, sod finish,
while nose of his works shows a trace of his former thin,
chalky manlier. The children, in " Spa:imam from the
Mountains of North Wales," are. it is true, • little edgy and
herd in outline, but, saving • little effeminacy of face, we
have nothing but admiration foe the young fisher lad
" Malmo( ready far Sea" (No. 141), and " Waiting fur the
Tide" (1001—a fiaker-boy seated °. galelnalag rock out in the
sunny met with his loaded !obeli, gala Mill better if
possible, more simply truthful and subtle is execution, is
the" lromerahire Shepherd Bob" (254Limilag along, whit-
tling a stick.