The Express.
London, England, 1862-05-02 00:00:00

THE, EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, MAY 2, 1862•

place--a column with an interior staircase nearly I
ninety feet high—formed a favourite peak for cer-
tain eager visitors, who climbed up it to witness
the ceremony under the eastern dome. At one time I
if was so loaded that danger was apprehended, and
the trophies generally were favourite reserved seats
amongst proprietors and visitors. Chance's revolv-
ing lighthouse in the centre of the nave accommo-
dated a select party of ladies, who showed the Bri-
tish public how much crinoline could really be
crammed at one time round a glans case. No
one climbed up the greasy poles of Canwia, or
mounted the monument, called a lighthouse,
which is raised to the memory of the Nore;
but a stout lady, whose appetite for proces-
sions divested her of all fear, planted herself
amongst the wax fruit models of the food trophy,
to the horror of the police and stewards. The
trophy drag was stormed several times in the
course of the morning by ladies in the most fault-
less dress, who are the greatest trouble to police-
men, and hundreds of workmen in the Hata over
the galleries peeped m at the pageant through
broken clerestory windows.
After the ceremony was over exhibitors and their
friends made good use of their articles and their
space, and we saw more than one jolly champagne
luncheon party seated in a railway carriage or peeping
from behind a block of hardware. The great and
little organs are at present removed from the nave,
or there is no saying what crowds would have
crowned their pinnacles. We believe the com-
missioners now intend to have these instruments
re-erected at their own expense in one of the side
galleries.
The Prince of Prussia and all the royal and dis-
tinguished personages present expressed themselves
delighted with the Exhibition, and many evidently
never expected anything half so brilliant and sue-
cessfuL To-day the Prince of Presaia„ having only
two (lays to stay m England, will go carefully over
the British collection at an early hour, attended by
those best able to explain the leading features of
the differout classes. Just as he entered the build-
ing yesterday, a telegram was received from the
Princess Royal of Prussia, at Berlin, wishing every
success to the Exhibition then about to be opened.
This little mark of thoughtfulness from one who is
the favourite daughter of him whom all present
missed from the great festival? was some reward
to the commissioners and their staff for all their
labour and anxiety during the last few months.
The following were the precise words of the
message

a long range of portraits, a large proportion of
which are the more valuable for being unfamiliar to
the general public, and which have to make a repu-
tation here as the Nelly O'Brien did at Manchester.
Poor Roily has, we regret to say, returned into
seclusion ; there is a portrait of her husband,
but it is far inferior. Then there is Gains-
borough, whom posterity has justly placed side by
side with Reynolds, if not, indeed, on a higher
pedestal as a portrait painter. By the glorious
" Blue Boy," which will match for all the qualities
of art with any portrait of any time, and numerous
female portraits of indescribable sweetness and some
Vandyke-like sketches, this estimate will be con-
firmed. His landscapes, too, here show him
as one of the greatest masters. Then follow
Romney, an almost equally great name, and
who for some time "divided the town" with
Reynolds, and a number of painters, followers
or more or less influenced by the practice of Bir
Joshua. Wilson was the contemporary of the
three great founders of die British school, and one
of the greatest masters of classical landscape. Barry
must not be estimated hate, but in the great room
of the Society of Arts, Adelphi. Benjamin West ren-
dered good service to art by setting aside classical cos-
tome in contemporary pictures, as he did iu his
"Death of General Wolfe." The" Cornish prodigy,"
Opie, finds his true level here, as does
Northeote, Sir H. Raeburn, Stothard, Callcott,
Hilton, Hayden, Fuseli, and Shee, and some other
heavy-mannered, inflated, or feeble painters. On
the other hand, Briggs, " Old Creme," Bonning-
ton, Copley, J. F. Chalon, and Newton will rise in
popular estimation. Nasmyth, the English
Hol-
hem, is not well represented. The declining repu-
tation of the over-pretty Sir Thomas Lawrence
will be rather supported than otherwise. Wilkie,
who is at the head of the great reaction from
the empti generalisations of high art to
modern English genre may be studied to
advantage. Turner, another great landmark, is
not so completely illustrated as we could have
wished. Etty in two or three pictures supports his
claims (which have been rather disputed of late) to
be considered one of the greatest modern colourists.
All the principal of the more modern artists, with
scarcely a single exception, may be studied in some
of the best examples ; as for instance Constable,
Muller, Denby Stanfield, Collins, J. Ward, F. R.
Pickeragill, Mulready in his earlier manner, as in the
" Firing the Cannon," and his later, as in " The
Bathers ;" Leslie—two or three well-known pictures
from Don Quixote, the "Merry Wives of Windsor
scene," &c. ; Frank Stone ; the three principal por-
trait painters, Sir Watson Gordon, Knight, and
Grant ; Mediae, "Caxton exhibiting a Proof Sheet
to Edward 1V.," and perhaps his finest oil picture,
" The Banquet Scene, Macbeth ;" Roberts, Sir
Charles Eastlake, Hurlstone at his prime, J. and
W. Linnel ; Paton, the admirable Scotch painter
of " Home--the Return from the Crimea ;" Sir
Edwin Landseer in several of his largest and most
impressive Highland pictures ; Leighton, the great
picture of "The Pr cession of Ciurabue ;" Hook ;
O'Neil, the "Eastward Ho !" Solomon, Lance,
John Faed (but we regret that his prin-
cipal works are not here), J. Clark, Hors-
ley, Frost, Cope, Egg, T. S. Cooper, F. Good-
all, Dobson, Phillip, Poole, E. M. Ward, "Char-
lotte Corday going to Execution," " The Fall of
Clarendon, and "The Antechamber at Whitehall ;"
J. F. Lewis, scenes in the East ; Cooke, Dyce,
"Titian's first Essay in Colouring," and " Pegwell
Bay ;" Creswick, Webster, Ansdell, Lee, Herbert,
"Two Magdalene ;" Elmore," The Tuileries 1792,"
and many other painters, about whom posterity
will be more interested than we are. The pre-
Raphaelites are well represented by Malan. Millais,
Holman Hunt, "The ht of the World," Brett,
and Hughes. There is a . Martineau, of whom
the public know scarcely anything, who will take
one of the foremost places among the pre-Raphae-
lites with a remarkably elaborated picture, entitled
"The Last Day in the Old Howie." By Watts
there is a refined but most fantastic portrait of
"Mrs. Russell," and a noticeable portrait of the
Poet Laureate.
A noble collection of water-colour drawings fills
the gallery running at right angles from the prin-
cipal gallery along the east facade of the building.

" BERLIN PALACE, MAT 1, 9 A.M.
4' FROM VICTOILIA, MOWN I " TO THE LEL Gnaw-
PIIINCIEW 01 TEUBBLIL VILLE.
"My beet wishes for the meows of to-day's mire.
loony, and of the whole undertaking.
" PRINCESS ROYAL."

THE BRINTISH PICTURRS AT THE INTER-
ATIONAL EXHIBITION.
If the success of the present Exhibition exceeds
that of its great predecessor in 1851, it will be
due in a great measure undoubtedly to the attrac-
tions of its picture galleries. Of the extreme
attractiveness of works of art we had a most
convincing proof in the 1,335,000 admissions to
the Exhibitions of Art Treasures at Manchester.
There is, of course, a much larger class in the
metropolis who have the neoessary leisure and taste
to listen to the sweet and inspiring appeal of art.
But still more conclusive is the fact we learn from
the report of Prince Napoleon on the Paris Expo-
sition, that while a little over 4,000,000 entered the
industrial part of that exhibition, as many as
1,000,000 within a fraction paid to the separate
exhibition of fine arta.
There is peculiar propriety and usefulness in thus
wedding the fine and useful arts. It is hardly pos-
sible to find now any branch of industry not
susceptible of ornament and decorative treatment.
And fine art is the fountain-head of all
decoration. One of the great lessons of the
Manchester Exhibition was this—that if fine
art be fostered ornamental art will take
care of itself. We there saw that whatever
was characteristic of painting and sculpture at any
particular period was reproduced in what are now
called art-manufactures. The artist was, indeed, in
the old time often the artificer also. There is
nothing so well calculated to carry out the pur- THE FRENCH SCHOOL
nothing
of improvement and progress of Inter- The great continental schools of painting have
national Exhibitions and the wishes of their great not responded to our invitation to the great art
founder in England as the placing the works of festival at South Kensington with such frankness
human genius and industry in juxtaposition. and alacrity ascould be wished. The works of art sent
Nothing, moreover, will tend so much to lessen from several countries convey but a very inadequate
the utilitarianism and materialism with which, as a idea of the real position of those countries in the
people, we are chargeable. We need not claim for republic of genius ; many of the pictures and
art a moral, a chastening, and ennobling influence. statues were only sent at the last moment, and some
This is conceded by all but the thoughtless. The have not yet arrived. This has arisen partly, no
old Greeks, we know, had but one word for the doubt, from apprehensions respecting the
good and the fair. difficulty and danger of transmitting works of
The visitor to the International Exhibition will art, and possibly from under-estimating the
find the British school gloriously and most com- achievements of our own school. In the
pletely represented from the time of Hogarth, nature of things the most eminent artists of
beyond which it is scarcely traceable, down to Germany, the great mural painters in fresco and
the present day. It will bear comparison with stereochrome, Overbeck, Cornelius, Keulbach,
any of and all the foreign schools combined, and Schwarz., and Hess, could not be fairly represented ;
that, too, even in the higher departments of his- but even the painters of the well-known Duasel-
tory and poetry, although in a less degree than in dorf school, for instance, many of whom could have
the lower. In various branches of genre and land- contributed works in oil, are almost entirely ab-
Escape we are, indeed, above competition. In eccie- sent
siastical art there is the least progress. It is only France herself, our neighbour and near ally, is far
in military art, the representation of battles and other from making the display which every generous
military spectacles, that the French, as might Englishman would wish to see. Nevertheless, her
be expected,surpass us. Could we have had Mr. contributions here are well deserving careful study.
Mediae's great military picture from the House of The pictures she sendamaynotmake so immediatean
Lords, we should not have been inferior even in appeal to the eye as our own, but many of them will
this. Among the foreign schools, the Belgian is bear a longer inspection. With us colour and effect is
the best represented ; and the great pictures of too often the sole end sought, with them they are too
Gallant and Leys, and Verboeckhoven and theother often despised as the means. The French pictures
modern Flemish masters, make a very im- show the results of more thorough and complete &dis-
posing show, and may compare with an tic education, an education, based upon a long and
equal number of almost any of our own. arduous study of the human figure—the great test of
The visitor will not, of course, draw hasty info- all nobledesign. French arthasanothercharacteristic
tames from the meagre display, compared with almost entirely different from our own. It is
our own, of some of the great continental schools. essentially national, and far more frequently mouu-
On the other hand foreign visitors will be im- mental. The French painter devotes himself not
mensely surprised at the rich variety of excellence to the gratification of a half-educated class,
presented by the British school—the originality, to mean, trivial, childish, or common-
the freshness, the individuality, and freedom from place subjects, but to the celebration of
conventionalisms of art so prevalent ou the coati- the great deeds of his country and themes of sacred,
neut. We shall give a description of all the poetical, or historical interest.
schools in a series of notices, leaving further corn- We must content ourselveal'on this' occasion with
parison and the lessons we derive from our hand- a mere enumeration of some of the pictures,
nation for a concluding article. which will be most interesting to the English {-ba-
ne galleries are certainly the most spacious and tor. The " Portrait of Mdlle. Rosa Bonheur, "
noble in existence, not even excepting the Pitti and by Dubufe file ; "The Banks of the Nile,"by Belly ;
Uffizi, the galleries of Munich, Dresden, and other " The dying S. Francesco d'Assisi," a most impres-
continental cities, most of which are divided into sive picture by Benouville ; " St. Augustine and
small compartments, or even the long gallery of St. Monica," his mother, the only work, we regret
the Louvre itself. The lighting, also, is as success- to say, by Ary &heifer ; "The Spring," a female
ful as could be hoped. The collection of British figure perfectly nude ; and as perfectly pure, and
art now brought together is much liner than that at the only example of the great master Ingres.
Manchester, and, what is of greater importance, " The Landing of the French Army in the
more comprehensive and truly representative. Not Crimea," and "An Incident at the Battle of the
only are there specimens of every painter of Alma," two colossal pictures by the young painter
consequence, but when, as in the case Pile, who, as the French say, is already plus fort
of Turner, Wilkie, Mulready, Poole, Hook, que Horace Vernet (there is not one work by the
Maclise, Dyoe, Philip, the painters have different latter). By Yvon there are small copies of the
manners, there are generally examples of each. great pictures at Versaillts, painted for the Em-
For this result we have to thank Messrs. Creswiek peror—" The Battle of &Unit)," "Curtain of
and Redgrave and the other managers of the exhi- the Malakoff," "Gorge of the Malakoff," and
bitiou, more than fur the care displayed in the "The Attack on the Malakoff"—all well known by
hanging. engravings—" The Landing of the French army
On entering the British Gallery, and looking in the Crimea," by Berries another colossal
naturally to the right, the eye is immediately ar- picture (from Versailles) ; "The Two Frieuils,"
rested and filled with a magnificent display of the by Bellangd, a touching picture of two comrades
works of Sir Joshua Rucnolds and Gaiusborough, lying dead on the battle-field in each other's
and under, and by the side of these, are the dark arms ; Gleyre's " Illusions perdu," badly trans-
and uninviting, but infinitely humorous, pictures lated "Illusions destroyed" (from the Luzern-
of Bogard'. To place them in the order bourg), "Lady Jane Grey," and "Henri ILL
of tune, the sequence of these names and the Duc de Guise," by Comte ; Flandrin's
should be inverted. Of Hogarth there is "The over-finished portrait of the " Prince Napoleon ;"
Harlot's Progress" and "The Rake's Progress," " The Triumph of Martyrdom," by Bongereau ;
the Election pictures, among which the "Enter- "Sisters of Charity," by Madame Henriette
tainment " is perhaps the best example of his Brown, exhibited at the French Gallery, Pall.
technical skill. "The March to Fiuchley," and mall, as "The Sick Child ;" a noble " Study" of
the " Marriage k la Mode," and many others, a nude figure seated on the edge of a precipice,
which establish his claim to be esteemed ote of the with the face buried between the knees ; and a
greatest satirists that over lived, and a painter, portrait of the Emperor, by the eminent painter
besides, whose varied powers have been under- Flandrin ; "The Environs of Damascus,' by M,
estimated. By Reynolds there is the portrait, Daunits, the French International Commissioner ;
from Dulwich, of Mrs. Siddons, as the Tragic Geroine's well-known picture of " Roman Gladiators
Muse, a good repetition of the Grosvenor pie- saluting Tiberius in the Roman Amphitheatre ;"
Lure—his greatest masterpiece, and one of the and " Rembrandt engraving a plate in aqua fortis,"
loftiest conceptions of semi-historioal and alle- "Embarkation of .Ruyter and De Wytt," by
gorical portraiture that ever flashed into life, lashery ; "The Arrival of Queen Victoria at Cher-
Minerva-like, from the brain of genius—besides bourg," by Gedin ; two Roman subjects by Eldbert ;