The Express.
London, England, 1851-05-14 00:00:00

FINE ARTS.

TILE ROYAL ACADEMY.
Cot IKO NOTICE.)
It would almost seem as if the British painters,
after amply proving their will and ability to pro-
duce works of the highest order, had returned, ex-
}masted by the effort, to their old prejudices, and
to that happy purgatorial state which neither
partakes of the Dutch school nor of that of the
old Italians. In this respect Mr. W. P. Frith
is less happy than usual, who not only has
boldly adopted Ilogarth for his hero, but has also
made himself amenable to the charge of plagiarism.
" Hogarth brought before the governor of Calais as
a Spy" (204), bears a too marked analogy to the
" Idle Prentice brought before the Mayor; and the
adoption of the bar as a line of composition is scarce
a happy one. The lights are also too frittered. On
the whole, Mr. Frith seems to have been as infelici.
toils in the task of appropriation, and as awkward as
the position of the principal figure he has delineated.
Mr. E. M. Ward seems to have made a feint
of forgetting his favourite model, Hogarth, in
" The Royal Family of France in the Temple"
(185)' let us hope not to be attended with a
relapse. Of the many unpleasant situations and
postures given hitherto both by author and
artist, none have been so felicitously chosen as
the present one. The solemn shadows which steal
over the countenances of Louis XVI., Queen Marie
Antoinette. the Dauphin, &c., so pleasantly, might
with manifest improvement have obscured the
sanguinary-looking revolutionists in the back
ground ; the commissary, dressed Robespierre
fashion, is so awfully grotesque, that he seems
rather a demon that has strayed from a re-
presentation of " The Freyschuts" than a human
being." While on the subject of the stage, it
may be as well to dismiss that wonderful scenic
performance of Mr. T. Uwins—meant, we pre-
sume, to typify connubial bliss—" Ulysses. anxious
to return to his faithful Penelope, is unwillingly
detained in the island of Calypso" (3S). It is a
misfortune that Academicians, like actors, seldom
know when the trembling hand no longer obeys the
will ; and no sooner does one Academician—
Howard, fur instance—sink from the " line" which
he has too long occupied than the gap left in his
place must at once be filled up by another
nonentity: evidently the example set by Macready
and Turner is not gaining ground. Mr. Chalon
might take a hint in time: his water-colour dancers
don't perform their evolutions with their wonted
charm, and as for 102, 'yclept "The Seasons," it
gives one a shudder to think that they may perma-
nently assume the chilly tones and colouring given
them, scarcely pardonable in any fire-screen. This
leads us before the work of Mr. C. Landseer, who
seems to have gone over from the cavalier party to
that of the roundheads, with whom he is evidently
less at home. There was ever a certain insipidity in
his style, which accorded better with the known habits
of Charles the First, and his adherents, which is
quite amiss in representing the stern character of the
Puritan host. Cromwell, Fairfax, Skippon, and
Ireton, look as if they had been marshalled out to be
sketched by Holler, who was himself sometimes found
in these encounters; beyond the fact of mere por-
traiture, Mr. Landseer does not seem to have en-
gaged a thought, unless it be in the colouring, which
is rumbled into harmony to a fault. The same may
be said of Mr. Cope's " Sisters" (161) : accept-
able as portraits, they barely unravel the
lengthy poetical quotation which accompanies
them. The blue sky and general texture are
remarkable for a purity of feeling and touch, of which
another work by the same hand, and previously noticed,
is equally deficient. 84.) A study for " The Judg-
ment of Daniel,"by Herbert, being the centre figure
of a fresco, for the House of Lords, in every
way deserves its designation ; it is a study
and no more. With a rare exception or two,
there are none of the traditional Itcynoldsian
portraits, which generally divide their charms
during the season in the exhibition, and hence re-
treat to the print-shops. M. Desanges portrait of
Lady Manchester has the peculiar merit and beauty of
those pastels which were iu vogue during the Regency.
Whilst the old Italian masters succeeded in making
pictures of portraits, Mr. Eastlake may. be said to
make portraits of pictures. In practising fully up
to the theory so ably expounded in his volume of
" Materials for the History of Oil Painting," Mr. East-
lake, as it were, lifts ancient research from its too fre-
quent obloquy, in being barren of consequences. The
nicely balanced force of each tone, the exquisite
finish obtained without the cost of sullying the
purity of virgin tints and the lustre of the colouring,
can be traced to combined skill and science. The
amber varnish, recommended in the work on oil
painting as that used by the ancients, may not be
alien to this " quality "of tone. Mr. Mulready and
Mr. T. Webster, both the pillars of the high finish
school, contribute but small works, admirable, no
doubt, but scarcely worthy specimens of their power.
If we turn, however, to more ambitious perform-
ances, the sudden rish is that their laudable
example were more contagious.
At the time West was basking in the sunshine of
royal favour, Canova was in England; and Harlin,
anxious to vindicate the prerogative of the British
school, claimed for West the merits of good compo-
sition. The fastidious Italian replied that West did
not compose, but that ho put groups together. This
somewhat nice distinction is undeniably applicable
in many instances even at the present day. The
prodigious composition of Mr. Barker, representing
an "Incident in the Life of William Rufus" (640),
belongs to that category. The style of the painting,
though antiquated, is not devoid of ment, but it
lacks altogether any one quality which would justify
such large dimensions. Moreover, these absurd sub-
11cts should be left to the exploded illustrations of
arnard's " History of England." Far higher in the
scale may be placed the twin productions of Mr.
Cress, belonging also to the Norman era. "Ed-
ward the Confessor leaving his Crown to Harold"
and " Harold's Oath to William" (380 and 619),
seem to have only .a spark of that fling which so
strongly characterised his first success in the Bee-
thud Gourdon and Richard Coeur de Lion of West-
' minster-halL All pictures which are connected
rather with the theatrical pageant than demonstra-
tive of feeling ever obstructt;ainter, who merely
falls short of what the legend itself conveys to
the imagination. Mr. Selena, who also, if we re-
collect right, was a competitor for the honour of
cartoon draughtameaship, has appeared in the novel
character of a eakoeist. "The Secret Execution "
(611) is another of tiffs mraiberleas instances in which
a draugbismoo diamisos his filth in the power of
design firths Mere of colour. It swore
I ill for a siallisel likewthaillatnni.er C. Henley—" L'Al-
legro and Ampere" (602), when it mast of neon-
I say be sees peaked with half a page of
tee= This,
t however, in Sebes* work which has of late
from the Male of Mr. Horsley. penmen'
• maiden clad in sub raiment is well contrasted with
• that of her frolicsome sisters. The heads are wrought
with delicate shades el beauty. Mr. W. D. Ken-
, nedy, on the other head is not afraid of trifling with
the richest hues of hisgrdeo: the most brilliant are
his favourite ones. " re and Honoria," from