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

FINE ARTS.

PRIVATE VIEW OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY
EXHIBITION.—(THIS DAY.)
The Royal Academy opened their Gallery for
the customary private view to-day, and we are
thus enabled to give some account of the exhibi-
tion, which, after the annual dinner of to-
morrow, will be opened to the public on
Monday. The exhibition, on the whole, must
be pronounced a very interesting one. There are
unfortunately no pictures by the president, Sir C.
Eastlake, nor by Sir Edwin Landseer, unless we
may mention one tiny little dog introduced in a por-
trait of Mr. Higgins, by Mr. F. Grant, R. A. ;
neither do Mr. Macho; Mr. Dyce, nor Mr. Egg,
of the academicians, exhibit any work. Mr. Ward
has only one comparatively unimportant work
onal, MAri• Aetoimette's •dieu to the Dauphin
in the Prison of the Temple."
Notwithstanding, however, the interest of the
exhibition is sustained by several excellent
pictures by others of the academicians and asso-
ciates, and particularly by the works of those
artists who may be styled the probationers
of the academy. There is no grand picture of
all-absorbing interest by any one, but, as we
have hinted, there is a general level of high merit
I throughout the gallery. It is not difficult to ac-
count for this state of things by the remarkable
collection of English art at the International Exhi-
bition, which to some extent has a rival interest to
the Academy Exhibition. It has no doubt also been
felt by the painters that the best works of their life
I were to be seen at the International, and therefore
they naturally preferred to stand upon the merits of
the worksof former years than run the risk of appear-
ing to fall off. The principal room has the poets of
honour occupied by Mr. Mulready, Mr. Elmore,
and Mr. Phillip.
Mr. Mulready, A., who might fairly be called
the father of the Academy, comes out this year with
a large picture of remarkable power and truth to
nature, and finished like a miniature. It is
called " The Toyseller" (73). A negro is
offering a little drum to the fairest of
little girls, who shrinks in dread of the black man,
into her mother's arms. A sunflower, admirably
well studied, rears itself in front of this group,
and the rest of the picture is filled with landscape
—fine grey trunks and branches of beech trees with
foliage; and a blue distance.
Mr. Elmore, R.A., has gone back to one of his
early tubjects for which he seems to have a very
happy inclination—the history of invention in
manufacture, a subject which is especially felicitous
in choice in this year of international rivalry—" The
Invention of the Wool-combing Machine." In •
workman's home the father, while seated before the
fire, has turned his head accidentally, or, perhaps,
struck with admiration at his pretty daughters, one
of whom stands before the glees combing out her
long fair hair almost at arm's length ; the other—a
raven-haired beauty seated near her, as if waiting
to use the one glass which the humble house
affords. In this way he is said to have caught the
ides of the wool-combing machine he afterwards
invented. The lighting of the picture is entirely
from the window, excepting a slight glow from the
fire which strikes upwards upon the man's figure,
and is most artfully contrived to show the rich
tone of the interior and the sweet face of the girl
reflected in the glass. In a recess can just be dis-
covered the mother about to light the lamp—an
allusion of the painter to the spreading of the
light of science and invention. This will be felt as
a work of very great interest ; it is admirably
well painted, and we are disposed to give it the
very highest place amongst the artist's many able
productions.
Mr. Phillip, RA., exhibits several pictures, all
of his Spanish life and character. (19L) "Doubt-
ful fortune," bangs in the principal room ; it re-
presents a gipsy telling the fortunes of a pretty
Andalusian and her companion, from the cards in
her hand. (207.) " The Water Drinkers," is to our
taste, however, even a more happy example of this
artist's peculiar gift in rapid sketching and rich
colour. (622.) " Dolores," a study of a very
charming model is also a remarkably interesting
picture for character in the head. (24.) "The
Volunteer," shows a stout Spaniard disengaging
himself from the arms of his sweetheart, the mother
standing by holding his musket.
Above Mr. Elmore's picture hangs a very noble
work (136) by Mr. Ansdell, A.R. A. In this
Mr. Ansdell well asserts his position as the
first of our animal painters on the large scale
—the heroic of animal life—by his picture of
"Excelsior ;" telling the poem of Longfellow with
a voice quite as impressive and stirring as the
words of the poet. Two monks of St. Bernard clad
in their thick brown cloaks have just come up with
their noble dogs, who arebaying load over the body
oflthe ;knight, half buried in the snow of the ava-
lanche, still grasping his banner beside him. This, of
its kind, is one of the most striking pictures in the
rooms. It is about the same size as " The Hunted
Slaves" of last year's Exhibition, both fine lec-
turer for the walls of some noble old English hall.
Mr. Ansdell exhibits also two very pleasing pic-
tures of the ordinary pastoral style of cattle
painting.
Mr. Feed, A. R. A. , has painted larger pictures, but
never anything more thoroughly charming than his
"New Wars to an Old Soldier" (64), a picture that,
email as it is, contains a little world of sentuncut,
character, and artistic beauty. The subject is
moat happily chosen; a young and very pretty
mother is reading the news of the taking of Delhi
to her father, himself a veteran under Wellingten
at Assays, who is sitting musing while he listens,
and holds on his knee his little grandchild,
absorbed in astonishment at the doll-soldier the
old man has made by dressing up his thumb in a
red handkerchief. What with those who will be
captivated with the subject, told as it is with se
much manly feeling, and without the least weak-
ness or mawkish sentimentality, and those who
will be equally smitten with the charm of its rich
intonation and genuine study throughout, this
it
a picture that will never be without its crowd of
admirers. A charming little sketch by Mr. Faed
is a portrait of a little son of Mr. Hepworth Dixon
—a morassu of delicious qualities.
Mr. F. R. Pickeregia, RA., exhibits only one
small but elaborately-worked picture (179)—" The
Return of a Crusader" to his castle home. His faith-
ful wife had WPM thought to hear him speak

again, and looks from her embroidery work with a
start to see the well-known ring—the pledge of love

she gave him when he left her to bear his part in
the wars—on the hand of the toil-worn pilgrim,

whom, till that moment, she had failed to recognise
as her true knight and husband. The background
is an orchard within the castle walls, with an apple-

tree painted with surprising minuteness. The
head of the crusader, with his red beard grizzled
by time and hardships, has evidently occupied all
the painter's efforts, and is painted like a minia-
ture. The face of the wife is not so happily treated,

being a little stiff and deficient in expression.
Mr. O'Neil, A.R.A., has not completely for-
saken the stories of the sea, which have gained
him deservedly so much repute. His prin-
cipal picture is a large and very beautifully
finished work of some historic importance, as

well as possessing a never-failing interest in record-
ing the romantic career of Marie Stuart. The
subject is, also, one that is peculiarly well suited to
Mr. O'Neil's faculty for rendering female beauty.
It is No. 337, "Marie Stuart's Farewell to France."
The canvas is nearly filled by the stately poop of
the royal galley, and the Queen, with her four
beautiful maids of honour, all sisters, and many
attendants, is seated under a rich silken awning,
gazing sadly over the sea as she leans upon a satin
cushion, and perhaps writing her sonnet, "Adieu,
plaisant pays de France " In the immediate
foreground are two excellently-painted and charac-
teristic figures--the admiral of the fleet and the
captain of the galley, who is steering at the tiller.
These figures give great importance to the picture.
This is certsiely tho ottaf-crtIVITI•TO 4.1 Lhs paluier.

Mr. F. Goodall, A.R.A., has painted a large
and very effective picture (No. 101), in the style
of his " Eastern Mother" of last year, but alto-
gether a more matured result of the artist's
studies from the life in the East. The subject is
one of the most picturesque of the many delight-
ful episodes of the charmed Orient—the return
of a wealthy pilgrim from his journey to the
shrine of the Prophet at Mecca to Cairo. He
sits proudly on his camel, the creature looking as
haughty and magnificent as his master, in all his
gay trappings and bells. The pilgrim's purse-
bearer, a fine black of the Berber race, walks before
him, and distributes alms to a crowd of the halt,
lame, and blind, all eager for charity and bakshish.
He is giving a piece of money to a fine old Belisarius
looking man,led by an Arab boy. These foreground
figures are sheltering from the hot sun under a
piece of matting stretched overhead, and the whole
of the subject is in shadow, finely contrasted
against the glare of sunlight that strikes upon the
variegated brickwork of a mosque with tall minaret
in the middle ground. The atmosphere is com-
pletely suggestive of the East, and the figures are
thoroughly native to the place. This is a picture
that will please universally by its artistic arrange-
ment, its rich colouring in the varied oriental cos-
tumes, and the extreme neatness of the execution.
Mr. Millais, A.R.A., exhibits this year the
picture which it was understood occupied him so
fully last year as to prevent his contributing any
work to the Academy exhibition. This is called "The
Ransom of the Hostages." Two sisters, one a child,
the other verging on womanhood, are the hostages,
and are clinging affectionately to their father,
who offers his jewels for them. Standing
around are various figures of warlike mould con-
cerned in settling the price to be paid. Most
persons will be disappointed perhaps to see how
little of his pre-Raphaelite manner the artist has
given In this picture ; it is not particularly high in
finish, though the dresses are painted with great
tare, and the colouring is generally good without
any striking brilliancy.
Next in importance to this is a picture of
domestic interest, not without a touch of sen-
timent of a inure poetic kind (No. 269),
" Trust me. " An aristocratic squire has just
opened the post bag before leaving the break-
fast table for his run with the hounds, and has
given his fair daughter a letter, of which on second
thoughts he would rather have first seen the hand-
writing on the address; she, half conscious of a wish
to conceal, and yet intending to give it into the hands
of her father, holds the letter behind her, while the
papa with well-bred delicacy simply holds out his
hand, but not meaning to be absolute in his request
to see the letter. The little picture (No. 309) illua-
tratiag the parable of the woman searching for the
lost piece of silver is remarkable for the effect of
candlelight, but it has evidently not received any
very great amount of study from the painter.
The chief work of Mr. J. C. Hook, R. A., is " The
Trawlers " (357). The deck of the little boat is
heaving under the waves all wet with spray—two
men have just hauled the net and thrown the live
fish upon the deck. Nothing can exceed
the vigour and life in every part of
the picture, every fish is springing with
life, and the boy about to cast away one worthless
fish ix a figure surprisingly full of movement.
The canvas is nearly filled by the boat, and but
little of the sea view is observable—what there is,
however, is admirably well suggested.
Mr. Hook's other pictures are (81.) "The Acre
by the Sea"—a fisherman family reaping the ripe
corn on the cliffs above the sea ; and (378.) "Sea
Air," a delightfully airy scene of a Welshwoman
riding home along the coast in her putt, with a
bran new beaver hat in the cart, and her son walk-
ing beside driving.
(471) Mr. A. Solomon exhibits a work of very high
merit for its aim at expression. The subject is from
Mdme. is Girardin's "La Joie fait pour." The
lost youth has just rushed to embrace his mother,
who sinks overcome with joy at the recovery of her
son. The colouring is in the very highest key, as
the artist has chosen to light his picture by a
sudden ray of sunlight, and this effect is carried out
through an open door into the garden. The sisters
as well as the mother being in deep mourning, add
to this effect, and give much beauty and interest to
the scene.
Mr. P. F. Poole, R. A., has chosen for his sub-
ject "The Trial of the Sorceress—the ordeal by
water" (17). The canvas is nearly filled by a wild
sandy bill, at the foot of which is a deep pooL The
wretched woman is held by a strong man, and tied
by a cord, while many rough-looking figures crowd
around armed with long poles to assist the torture
of the poor victim to their superstition. A group
descends the hill bearing the bewitched invalid,
and over the hill appear two horsemen coming to
the rescue. This is a picture that will find many
admirers for its beautiful colour and well-told story.
The lady painters stand well in the exhibition.
Mrs. Ward has really taken a high position as a
painter of scenes of historical interest by her
" Despair of Henrietta Maria at first hearing of the
Death of Charles 1.--a scene at the Louvre, le
(No. 683). In expression there is no sign of any
disposition to shirk the necessary thought and
study demanded fur the pourtrayal of all subjects
where emotion forms the point of interest ; and as
to the artistic study of detail, there are few pictures,
the work of women, that can be compared with this
by Mrs. Ward. One figure alone in this respect—
the governess of Henrietta Maria, in a rich-toned

dress of dark blue satin and point lace—ia very
remarkable for the grateful pose and excellent
painting. The little princess looking up into the
Queen's face is also a very charming piece of child-
nature painting.
Mrs. Benham Hay, whose charming little pic-
ture " England and Italy," exhibited two years
ago, and her " Tobias patris oculos Curans," of last
year, are fresh in the memory, has painted another
Scripture subject, "The Reception of the Prodigal
Son" (No. 251), a common one it is true, but, as Mrs.
Hay shows us, capable of a new interest both as
to the subject and the artistic treatment. The
scriptural story is not literally followed, but the
father is seen seated in his house about to join his
hands in blessing his repentant son, who has thrown
himself at his feet and implores forgiveness, rather
by his attitude than by words, for his face is
hidden, and his arms are outstretched as if he felt
himself not good enough to touch the good old man.
The servants stand by, one holding the silken robe
and the other the ring, both looking the picture of
coarse servility, insensible and contemptuous to
li
the human weakness of charitable forgiveness. A
third servant kneels with the basin of water to
wash the wounded feet of the outcast, and at the
outside of the entrance is seen a herd-boy struggling
to bring in the fatted calf. The elder brother,
clad in fine raiment, is seen looking over the open
part of the eastern dwelling, uttering his scornful
discontent and envy at the reception of the
favourite. The background of the picture is filled
with a delightful landscape, not perhaps quite
Oriental, but rather Italian, yet deeply touched
with a froth:4 for th....lewt. beauty of the moun-
tains, and the valley wrapt in the glow of evening
light. There is the same remarkable sense
of the fine character of old Italian art
in this picture as in Mrs. Hay's " Tobias," but
the painting is more masterly and the composition
better conceived. In colouring it shows faculty of
rare promise, though perhaps with an inclination to'
indulge too much in shades of green. On the whole,
however, it is a work of noble effort, and in a style
marked by the highest refinement.
Miss Solomon is another of our lady artists of
whom we have great reason to be proud. Her
picture (No. 432)," Fugitive Royalists" Can hardly
be praised too highly for its intention, its ad-
mirable expression of a most interesting senti-
ment, and its excellent techuioal qualities. The
Royalist mother is begging a safe refuge for her child
of the Puritan, whose little girl lies ill with fever.
She would have been sternly refused had not the
mother's sympathy been made more tender by her
own sorrow, but she looks to her own child as she
draws back a panel concealing the safe hiding-
place.
Miss Osborne has no picture this year of much
importance, though she exhibits some clever studies
of German domestic life.
Mr. Leighton's pictures will certainly not fail to ex-1
cite very great interest, and in one especially (No.
292) "Michael Angelo nursing his dying servants
many will be ready to acknowledge that he has re-
deemed the pledge he gave in his first great work,
"The Cimabue Procession." There is a certain
air of Italian nobleness in the colouring and
treatment of this picture which will be thoroughly
appreciated by many who may rebel against the more
romantic fancies in sentiment and colour of worke
like his odalisque (No. 120), an Eastern Girl I
with Swan, in which, to our taste, a most
fascinating and delicate chord of colour is struck—
and his " Eastern King or Magus approaching
the sacred birthplace, under the guidance of
the Star of Bethlehem" (No. 217), a picture
■trikiugly rich in its sombre tone of colour.
Another picture of a peculiar beauty, which all
must admire if they do not accept it as of the
best in style, is "A Girl listening to the Shell, or
the Origin of Music" (No. 494). 'The model is in
this case a little too evident, though there is
abundant charm in the picture.
Mr. David Roberts, R.A., exhibits no leas than
six pictures, all remarkable for his great facility
of execution, without any loss of the accuracy and
beauty of architectural detail. Most of these belong
to a series of views in London on the River Thames,
and we could hardly point to one as more excellent
than the other. The " St. Paul's" is an admir-
able picture, and the "Embarkation of the Lord
Mayor, on the 9th of November," is wonderfully
full of life and movement. (No. 343.) "A Chapel
in Notre Dame, Bruges," is a fine example of the
artist's church interiors.
In the landscapes Mr. Creswick, R.A., Mr.
Lee, R.A., and Mr. Stanfield reign supreme. The
first seems to be surpassing all his works in elabo-
rate finish ; and Mr. Lee exhibits another
fine view of the " Rock of Gibraltar" (667),
similar to that of last year, surprising for
the fidelity and rugged truth with which. this
natural fortress is brought upon the canvas. Mr.
E. W. Cooke, A. R.A., has also some very remark-
able pictures, bright and true in colouring, and
moat carefully finished. We should especially
point out (589), "The bay of Tangier, Morocco,',
where a gaily-painted felucca lies on the sandy
shore. Mr. W. Linnell exhibits a large and extra-
ordinary work of the most gorgeous colour
(No. 131), " The Gleaner's Return."
Amongst the landscapes should be named a large
and remarkable work by Mr. Herbert, R.A.,
(231) Laborers eat orate. The Monks of St. Ber-
nard's Abbey, Leicestershire, gathering the harvest
of 1861. The whole of the painting is very highly
finished, and the figures very skilfully grouped
about in the ripe corn ; the lighting of the picture,
however, appears rather too cold for harvest time.
Some pictures will, we think, be viewed with
much interest, as the work of artists not hitherto well
known. Of these we noticed particularly 497, " Eli-
jah and the Widow of Zatephath"—an admirably
well studied work, and full of expression without
the least exaggeration or forcing. No. 216, " How
Bianca Capella tried to poison the Cardinal
di Medici," by Mr. V. C. Prinsep, struck us also
as a work evincing many points of great excellence,
though with some very evident mistakes. Mr.
Crowe's picture (No. 457), "De Foe in the Pillory
at Temple Bar," is another work of very great
ability. Mr. Mark's "The J ester Test" (643) is even
more unctuous in its humour than his " Sculptor
Monk" of last year ; the heads painted with very
great verve and careful drawing.
The architectural drawings, the chalk drawings,
and miniatures have now dwindled into so few that
they have been placed in the landing room,
and the advantage of this is that the whole of the
north room is hung with pictures, many of which
are by the academicians.
The sculpture rooms contain no work of any
importance, except the busts, of which there
is a very extended circle.
.649"