The Express.
London, England, 1852-10-27 00:00:00

FINE ARTS.

NEW PORTRAITS OF_TIIE DUKE OF

WELLINGTON.
Mr. Grandy is now exhibiting, in his rooms in
Want-street, a picture which was painted by Mr.
r. J. Barker some time before the Duke's death, but
letarest of which is now likely to be greatly
embeesed. Mr. Grundy contemplated a companion
(with a view to the issue of 'a tt uni-
engraving) to Delaroche's " Napoleon at
Peatainbleau;" and the aim of the artist was to
present, in addition to a perfect portrait, a picture
Which would, like Delaroclae's, embody an idea ap.
peeling to national sympathy and illustrate an his-
event. The work well accomplishes these
objects. Mr. Barker as oided, with good sense and
rod taste, the hackneyed associations of the Penin-
sula and Waterloo ; and, with an eye no doubt to
catching the sympathies of the later generation
which has known only „the old Duke," he has
selected an episode from the later life of the hero,
sufficiently authenticated by familiar probabilities,
and conveying a complicated interest arising out of
the recent history of our own day. The Duke is
depicted seated in his cabinet at Apsley•liouw,
reading Lord Hardinge's despatches respecting
the battles at Ferozepore in 1h45. It was the Duke's
custom to have all important despatches brought to
him at once, to Apley House ; and there is, there-
fore, nothing forced in the idea; and the art of the
artist is shown in shading the dramatic by the do-
mestic part of the picture—a conception felicitous
as regards the man and the nation of which he was
the hero. The Duke is seared in his " Water:oo
chair" (a piece of furniture made out of the
renowned elm-tree near which he rested during the
battle of Waterloo), before his desk, which is
weighty with well-ordered letters and documents,
and is poring—his glasses on—over the long de.
*patch; and the attitude and act of the head de-
note eagerness and earnestness, solemnised by the
absolute repose and silence of the chamber in which
he has shut himself up. The sumptuary uccessuiies
are carefully exact; the furniture is fac-similed ; and
the accuracy of these pints is of obvious importance,
since, supposing the picture acceptable us a pc,, trait,
those who would desire it as a memorial would nut
want the stereotyped pillar and curtains of ordinary
artistic imagination. And as a portrait of " the old
Duke" the picture is, we think, about the most suc-
cessful, though not itself absolutely saccessful, of the
many attempts to fix the perplexing features to which
oven the daguerreotype was unequal. Objection may
be taken to the spectacles, inasmuch as they were
seldom used by the Duke, and because few but
the House of Lords and his secretaries were familiar
with his face when de-heroicised by the hideous hut
indispensable aid of glasses ; yet this advantage has
at least been gained by the artist, that he has got
over much of that difficulty—the eyes—which is sup.
posed to have baffled the ambition of all the other
painters of the Duke's portrait, from Lawrence dos n-
wards—a difficulty not encLuntend by the sculptors,
whence, we suppose, the greater reliableness, as
likenesses, of the busts, such as 'k. Noble's. The
Duke never sat to Mr. Barker, which would appear
to have been overcome; for Mr. Barker followed his
" subject " about—to the Chapel 'Loyal, to the Royal
Academy—last summer, and so got various "
out of which he, with but little idealising, constructed
the face now on his canvas.

'fho picture has been teen, and, it is said, warmly
approved of by her Majesty and Prince Albert; and the
anecdote, complimenting the pain ter; is told, that w hen
the Prince of Wales, ignorant of where he was being
taken, was brought into the room where the picture
stood, he exclaimed, delightedly, " Oh, see the Luke."
The great work is now about to be engraved.
Several other portraits of the Doke hare recently
been issued exhibiting various shades of merit.
Amongst them is one published by APLean from a
painting by Hutton, in which the veteran is shown
an a mood of grave thoughtfulness. Another en-
graved by Ryall, from Claudct's daguerreotype, taken
in 1844, affords one of the very best—as well as most
favourable—of all the likenesses., The medallists
have also been busy with the popular hero—Mr.
Mitchell, of 13,3nd-street, offering a handsome medal
in bronze; and Pigott and Co., of Birmingham, sup-
plying an inferior work in white metal for those who
desire a cheap record of the aspect of the conqueror
and the date of his chief victories.

Mr. Walesby, of Waterloo-place, Pell-mall, is at
present exhibiting a bronze statuette, the last eques-
trian statuette of the Duke by D'Orsay, which is
likely, among the innumerable 'similar attempts, to
attract a large share of attention.. As a work of art
it is excellent; and there is enough of likeness to
constitute it a desirable ornamental memorial for
wealthy houses. The Duke saw the first specimen
in bronze in May last, and declared with welcome
candour that it was " very nice." .