The Express.
London, England, 1853-05-02 00:00:00

FINE ARTS.

ROYAL ACADEMY.
[Second Notice.]
Sir Charles Eastlake, of whom we have seen little
in the Academy exhibitions of late seasons, comes out
this year with a large painting, No. 124, of "Ruth
sleeping at the feet of Boaz." With the usual merits
and demerits of this artist's works, his tender but
somewhat superficial grace, his great softness and
delicacy, assisted by an unnatural invisibility of out-
line, his tendency to depict everything literally
cocker de rose, this picture has a peculiarity of style
about it which we do not remember to have seen in
his former works. Boaz dues not please us—few ofi
Sir C. Eastlake's men do: they are not manly
enough; but the Ruth is extremely delicately and
sweetly conceived. The position and arrangement of
the sleeping figure is very beautiful, and the face is
not the everlasting face which at its first appear-
ance delighted us in Beatniks's pictures, but of which
we must confess that we are now fairly, tired.
No. 140, "The Meeting of Jacob and Rachel," by
W. Dyce, is almost arepetition of the very beau-
tiful picture exhibited by him the year before last.
Mr. Dyce, is hie best style, which he has adopted in
the present picture, affords a model of chaste, tender,
and accurate feeling.
No. 141 represents a woodcock and newly-hatched
young ones, and is called " the Happy Mother." Mr.
Wolf is one of the very best animal painters we
have, though not, the " greatest ;" for one element
of "greatness" is fertility, and in this Landseer
has tar surpassed Wolf, whose only fault is that
he lets us see so little of him. Wolf has three small
pictures in this year's exhibition. They are all of
birds, and certainly we never before have seen birds
so purely, and at the same time imaginatively',
painted, either by ancient or modern artists. We
know not whether Mr. Wolf is a young man ; but if
he is, he promises to be the greatest of animal
painters. Mr. Wolfs other pictures are numbered
323 and 3t9.
No. 142, " A Summer Afternoon," by W. F.
Witheringtoo, is a landscape of the right kind.
English through and through. 155, "A Wild Sea
Shore, at sunset," by F. Denby, represents a very'
peculiar aspect of nature, one that requires Danby.'s
peculiar force to make it generally credible. 159 UP
a capital portrait of Walter Savage Lander, by W.
Bezel'. 170, " Children of the Mist," by Sir E.
Landseer, is not up to the mark of his other pictures
in this exhibition. The subject is merely a group of
stags seen through a mist. They have a vague,
queer look, as all things seen through a mist have ;
but we trust that neither Sir Edwin nor any other
English artist, poet, or philosopher, will ever fall
into the German mistake of confusing mist with ima-
gination. 171, by J. C. Horsley, " Lady Jane Grey
and Roger Ascham," who finds her reading Plato,
while her parents are gone a hunting, is good, but
not up to the mark of the subject, which is a high
one. The same remark holds good of No. 174, Mr.
Cope's picture of " Othello relating his adventures."
186, " Violante," by Sir Charles Eastlake' is the well-
known soft, sweet face over again. We do not
know why it is called " Violante." Any other femi-
nine name would have done as well, and no name at
all still better. 191, " Venice," by D. Roberts, ought
to be well looked at. No, 217, "The Iron
Mask," by C. Landseer, has meritorious details in it,
but it is quite a failure as a whole. The twelve
lines of antiquarian prose which this picture pro-
fesses to illustrate contains no incident or foundation
whatever for a pictorial representation. These lines
merely inform us that, "from the researches of Mr.
Delort, it has been proved beyond a doubt that the
Iron Mask was an Italian of the name of Matthioli."
We are further told of certain officials who were
" the only persons permitted to see him," end further-
more that the mask was not, as has been erro-
neously supposed, made of iron, but one of black
velvet, strengthened with whalebone and fastened,"
&a We instance this as a good example of the
mat-a-propos stuff with which the painters are al-
' lowed to fill the pages of the Academy catalogue.
There really ought to be some sort of efficient edito-
rial supervision exercised over this popular annual;
which has of late years become quite famous as a
collection of inelegant extracts. At the very least it
should be ordained by the Academical council that no
painter should make the catalogue a vehicle for the
publication of his own vile verses ; but as some of
the Academicians themselves are and have been the
chief sinners, we suppose that this just desire of ours
must be numbered with the " fallacies of hope."
No. 224 is a large picture of the Battle of Water.'
100, by G. Jones. It is of the " landscape with
figures" kind of battle-piece, in which, however,
the figures are, as usual, too minute and numerous
for the distinction and unity of a work of art, and
not numerous and minute enough for the purposes of
a plan. The faults of the picture are due to the
impracticability of the subject.
225 is a very large picture by J. Severn, of Mary
ITe buying the precious ointment, and fete
a depicted vision, the events of the Cred-
its:ion. The conception and treatment are
and novel. We decidedly object to the satrnagnet
which are of the regular claque-cents style.
We now enter the middle room. No. 243 is a
Landscape by Lee, always faithful to nature. No.
256, by A. Cooper, represents " Henry Morton
rescuing Lord Evendale from the fury of Burley, at
the skirmish of Drumclof." It is as full of action and
life as usual with this painter's representations of the
like subjects.
No. 265 is Mr.Milleis's picture, called the "Osier
of Release," a work of really extraordinary malt. In
the technical department it is as near perfection, it
not nearer, than any modern painting we remember
to have seen. The flesh painting is quite startling
for its power and beauty. Nor is the picture less re-
markable for the nobler qualities of character, vividly
comprehended incident, intense pathos, and variety
of expression in one and the same countenance. Is
this painting Mr. Millais has succeeded in producing
an amount and intensity of emotional effect which we
conceived to have been produceable only by poetry
and music. A wife, who holds in one arm her
sleepiag infant, presents with the other the order of
release, whereby her husband, one of the Scot-
tish prisoners after the battle of Culloden, is to be
restored to her. The old soldier who acts as gaoler,
is examining the order with an official tranquillity
and indifference which constitute an excellent relied
to the feeling of the other parties. The wounded
husband rests his head upon the bosom of his wife
with an expression of tearful joy in his cheek—for we
do not see more than the cheek—which is a marvel-
leas triumph of painting. The mixture of love and
exultation in the lovely face of the woman is equally
praiseworthy; and the sleeping infant, who is so
much and so unconsciously concerned in the event,
completes a group which for sweetness and pathos
we have seldom seen excelled. This is a picture
which will infallibly delight all beholders ; but let
us not bo accused of paradox and " high art" affecta-
tion, if we recommend Mr. Millais to be content
with having done this wonderful feat of art
twice, namely, in this picture and in that
II of the Huguenots of last year. That which
pleases all beholders the first time it is seen, cannot
pluses all, for one and the same high reason. In
this painting, for example, the many are pleased with
the subject, the few with the treatment; and the ad-
mirers of the one, in neither case, care much for that
which causes the pleasure of the others. Having
now sufficiently shown that it is not for want d
ability if he fails to please all, we should recommend
Mr. Millais not to lose sight of tho higher elm of
subjects with which he commenced his career, and
with which Mr. Holman Hunt, his worthy " bro-
ther," continues to exercise himself. He should
remember the famous saying, that all truly great
artists must "create the taste by which they are to
be appreciated." The "Order of Release" appeals
to no taste but such as has already been created.
"The Prescribed Royalist," Mr. Millais's other pic-
ture in this year's exhibition,is lees immedistel7attrac-
tiro than the " Order of Uwe bat /re think that