The Express.
London, England, 1853-04-30 00:00:00

EXHIBITION OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY.
The private view of pictures in the Royal Academy
took place yesterday, and the public may be pre-
pared for a good average exhibition, although several
of the greatest names are absent from the catalogue.
Leslie, Midis., and Mulready are wholly unrepre-
sented; and if the exhibition, notwithstanding the
absence of these, and the recent losses of Etty and
Turner, is nevertheless a good average one, it fol-
lows that the rising artists must have shone forth
this year with unusual strength.
But if some of the established nameido not appear,
or appear with less conspicuousness than hitherto,
there aro others whose owners have been un-
commonly active. Sir Edwin Landseer and
Sir Charles Eastlake make more show this
year than they have done for several seasons. Land-
seer has four great pictures, two of which are, we
think, among the very finest of his productions.
C. W. Cope, a painter of deserved and increasing
popularity, has several pictures of true and unpre-
tending merit. Roberts and Stanfield adorn the
walls with several noble specimens of landscape and
architecture. E. M. Ward has two pictures that
will attract much attention. Creswick and J. Lin-
nell, are as delightful as ever in the delightful way
of simple and truly English landscape ; and there is
a fair sprinkling of pictures worth looking at by
various other artists of more or less note. The por-
trait department is not deficient several large-used
portraits, by Sir J. W. Gordon, have im-
pressed us as being conspicuous for their merits
as likenesses ; and the miniature room is not
likely to •be less attractive than usual.
The brilliant little Pravaphaelite constellation
shines with unprecedented lustre. Mr. Millais and
Mr. Holman Hunt again appear as the leaders of
the school; the latter perhaps even more diatino-
lively than the former. Mr. picture of the
" Order of Release" is probably the most perfect
thing on the walls of the Academy; but its " Free-
raphaelitism " is by no means so decided as that of
Mr. Hunt's Scene from " Measure for Measure."
Mr. Millais has met his gradually relenting critics
half-way. He has not made any sacrifice of his
principles in this compromise, but has only consented
to assume a milder shade of that artistical protes-
tantism which is the very
.essence of Prieraphael-
itism, as far as Prwraphaelitism is distinguished from
any other kind of good painting. In his exquisite
pictures of this year Mr. Millais is scarcely more
" Prxraphaelite than Leslie or Mulready.
Ho no longer attempts to strike by an
artistical novelty, except so far as general artistic
excellence is novelty. He has first fought and won
a battle on his own ground, and he now challenges
his rivals upon theirs • and it must be allowed that
there are not many living artists who would have
the hardihood to wish that their pictures should be
bung side by side with his. We reserve the detailed
notice of Mr. Milluis's paintings for another day—
meantime calling the attention of our readers to the
fact that in Mr. Holman Hunt's pictures the
protestantism of " Piteraphaelitism "is *strong
'never. The scene from Measure for Maesasure "is
perhaps the most feeling picture this artist has yet
exhibited—at the same tune that it is one of the
most uncompromisingly Pnrraphaelitc. The pos-
ture of Claudio, who is nervously holding up one of
his fettered feet, his body being entirely supported
by the other, is a stroke of real nature. lie is quail-
ing in spirit before the face of his sister Isabella,
whose honour he is ell but prepared to
have bartered for his life, and tho moral awkward-
ness of his position is rightly and artistically sha-
dowed forth in his bodily posture. It is a very
decided protest against oer:ain time-honoured acade-
mical traditions which nature herself, in her most in-
teresting aspects, is constantly guilty of violating in
the most marked manner.
Mr. Cross and Mr. Armitage, whom critics hare

e.hossu to associate with the pros-Raphaelites, for no
better reason, that we can see, than the circumstance
that they are good painters and young ones, and that
they happen, as it is understood, to be friends
of the prmraphaelites par excellence, have each
a meritorious picture in this year's exhibition. Mr.
Ikon has employed his great but quiet, because
harmoniously balanced, powers on a fine subject,
the death of Thomas ii Becket. Mr. Armitage has
chosen for his theme the escape of an unintentional
homicide into one of the ancient cities of refuge, and
has produced:a picture as remarkable for its truth-
fulness as for the strangeness of its truth. So pow-
erful and imaginative a restoration of characteristics
so foreign to all modern European notions of senti-
ment and action is not often seen ; though, when
seen, it is at once felt that such interpretations
of scriptural and other ancient and foreign his-
tory are among the most excellent fruits of art.
Mr. C. Collins this year exhibits a little picture of
singular merit, illustrating a verse from "The Chris-
tian Year." It is as simple and unaffected in its effect
as it is laborious and conscientious in the execution.
F. Stone rends his usual contribution of pretty female
faces and one large "sacred" piece, in which, as in -
others which he has of late attempted of the same ft.
kind, we cannot but think that he has somewhat —.a.
mistaken his vocation. is
Having thus thrown a hasty glance round the ,„
walls of the academy, and noted what strikes us as teal
the points of salient merit, we will proceed to speak tie
of individual pictures with more detail and order. • I
No. 9, by J. Hollins, illustrates these lines from st.
the "Merchant of Venice :" Is
so
Jessica, my girl, so
Look to my basso; l ens right loth to go; 34
There is sumo ill a-brewing towards my rest, tl
For 1 did dream of money bags to-night. IS
The expressions of the Jew and his daughter are :69
both good ; and that of the latter is an uncommonly
good example of the artistical difficulty of a mixed U
expression overcome. sost
No. 13, called, " The thorny and the flowery path," ft.
is by T. Uwins, and represents, in a sort of semi- ist
allegorical way, the struggle, common in youth, m,
between a life of austerity and one of pleasure. A ~86
monk is eagerly persuading a young man to forsake al;
" the broad way and the green ; and, as we as- M.
some, to betake himself to the neighbouring ,1 ,
monastery, which is full in view. On the other so
side of the picture, we see a party of merry vine-
dressers, and one uncommonly attractive young $.
woman is anxiously watching the effect of the 14
monk's exhortations with her sweetheart. In the ft
details, this picture is creditable enough to Mr. is
Uwins, but we must protest against the moral, and :
even more decidedly against the mode of treating it, 1.
which, as we have said, is semi-allegorical, and there- i•
tere only semi-artistical. Let us have facts or elle- it,
rubs, but not an incongruous admixture of the two. se i
No. 14 is a noteworthy "Portrait of Peter Bar- 13,
low, Esq.," by W. Boxall. 8:.
No. 22, by A. Johnston, represents Melancthon, 21
with his wife and child, anti a stranger who, on :,
entering the room, starts back on beholding the great
reformer, fulfilling the paternal office of rocking his 24
child's cradle. The face of the woman is exquisitely m
pretty and tender, somewharafter the now very re
common Eastlake type. There is nothing, however, is
in the nerd composition that would commend it to vt.
egra/e
• notice. 111
be
he next painting, in numerical order, is by A. te.
Cooper. It depict ' Wellington's first great victory 1:
—the battle of Asaave." We object to-battle pieces s
in general, and to this battle piece in particular. To ro.
battle pieces in general, because it is impossible to G
paint a battle, which is not a single act, but at
a series of acts, rather my, a series of sets of It
simultaneous acts, each set being so name- se
roue, unrelated, and elaborate, that it is im- tit.
possible to transfer them collectively to canvas. air-
possible
All battle pieces we have ever seen are either repre-
sentations of some one comparatively insignificant per- It
sonal incident, or they are " landscapes with figures," to
in which human interest becomes overwhelmed by 1944
distance, indistinctness, and infinite sub-division. Mr. s 4
Cooper's " Battle of Assye " belongs to the first class, IS
and it is not, we think, a good specimen of the class. rj
The peculiar and predominant pinkish-red hue is not 51
sufficiently accounted for, and it affects the eye tin- I
pleasantly. sf
No. 30," The Mother's Kiss," is one of C. W. Cope's ?,
pretty pieces of unaffected domesticity. The mother's ;
face is very pleasing ; the child is not so good. 1
No. 35, "The Poacher, a scene on a Highland 1
River," by F. R. Lee, is a beautiful landscape. The
lovely calm of the pool of the mountain river must
have been poetically felt before it could have been so
truthfully painted. 1
Of No. 44, W. Holman Hunt's ° Claudio and Ls- I
bells," we have already said somewhat—but not
enough. There is not a picture on the walls of the
Academy this year which will attract the cultivated
and right-seeing eye more powerfully than this.
Claudio a exclamation, " Death is a fearful thing,"
and Isabella's reply, " And shamed life a hateful,"
are echoed with surprising power in this picture.
The compound expressions of the faces and postures
of both figures constitute a rare triumph of art. The
high moral sorrow—" too deep for tears " or in-
dignation—of Isabella, set off, as it is, by
the vile fear of death in Claudio, is one of
the examples—too seldom found in modern times—
of art's Wain' g its true and divine destination as
the mod powerful of all human persessives to the
love of goodness. If there is any fault in this beau-
tiful work, it is in the drawing of the hands of Isa-
bella, which seem to us to be too long and large.
Nos. 46 and 69, called " Night" and " Morning,"
ere two noble and highly poetical works, by Sir E.
Laadseer. The first represents the battle oftwo
s, ,on the shores of a Scotch lake, which is torn
sad tossed into spray by a midnight storm, the moon
sad the fitful streams of the aurora berealis being
diseeried through the veil of a stormy mist. The
mountain-tops mix with and partake of the wildness
et the atmospheric vapours; and the whole scene
is made to sympathise with the actual warfare of the
magnificent animals. This picture strikes us more
than any other we have seen by. the same artist.
" Morning" is a worthy companion-piece. Dawn
coldly illuminates the lowlands and the dead-calm
lake, and gilds the mountain-tops with tranquil
lustre. A few streaks of creeping mist mark the
quietness of the air. The lake mirrors the fresh
morniog sky and the landscape ; and on the shore
lie the two combatants, dead, with their antlers en-
tangled, a fox cautiously approaching their gored
sides, and a bird of prey hovering above them.
No. 5T is a fine work by Stanfield, "The Victory,
with the body of Nelson on board, towed into Gib-
raltar, seven days after the battle of Trafalgar." The
literal and vividly toll truth of Stanfield is, in
this picture, combined with more of human interest
thanes usual with him. It is a grand picture, and
we should like to see it in the National Gallery, a
position for which its merit and its subject qualify it.
No. 66 is a clever portrait of Mr. Cobden, by G.
Patten. 77. A prettily conceived little piece, by A.
Cooper, called " The Gillie's Courtship." 80. A
charming " Mother and Chiid," by C. W. Cope. No.
89. " The Cathedral of St. Stephen, Vienna, by D.
Roberts, is one of the artist's best architectural pieces,
but his pictures resemble one another so closely in
style that there is little scope given by them for cri-
ticism. 94. " A Little Music," is a clever sketch by
J. J. Chalon. 95. "La Vivandiere," by A. C.:oper,
is a natural and phasing little work. 113. "A Nile
Flower," is a portrait by F. Stone, of a very pretty
English girl in an eastern costume and locality. It,
by the way, Mr. Stone's beauties looked a little less
conscious of their attractions, they would please
more than they do. An air of self-consciousness is
ruination to true beauty, though we fear that it is an
almost necessary element of what is at present the
most popular kind of prettiness.
No. 116. " A Dame's School," by T. Webster, is a
charming work. In simplicity, truth, and force of
expression, the figures are as good as Wilkie, though
a certain meagreness of colour is a drawback upon
the real merit of the work.