The Express.
London, England, 1857-04-11 00:00:00

NOTES FROM THE STUDIOS.

The Illustrated Timms certain. an account of some
of the works which will appear in the Royal Acadsray Ex-
hibition.

Mr. Millais has painted two new pictures. His
largest picture, which he calls " A Dream of the Past," Is
said to be unfortunately named, inasmuch as the title is coin-
itoaplace, and dome not sufficiently explain the subject. The
panting is thus described by our oontemporery ;—" An old
knight in heavy armour has ridden scram a ford, bear-
ing on his charger's back two pretty little children,
girl end boy, whose half-timid, half-pleased expression
forms • pluming contrast to the soldierlike bearing of the
knight. Oa the other aide of the ford lies a background of
bill end dale, and autumnal herbage end foliage, painted with
• Madmen and depth of colour wonderful to behold; indeed,
this landscape will, I ens certain, be the portion of the pic-
ture most commended, while the fault-finders will at onoe

seise arm the aniettinate horse for the display of their cri-
ticism He In indeed, a gigantic brats; a very King-
Chines' segnetne-at-Cbariareroes kind of =noel—long-

bselrad, bresd-lasoisi, _ bisck sod stolid; • Life-Gusn

man's charger, • funeral horse to harness to •
monarch's or • ghat's herr. The ether pic-
ture, to any eye but that of • predetermined adverse
critic, will be pronounced faultier. It is called the " Escape
of • Heretic," sad represents • young girl, clad in an aria
deli garment, and evidently just about to be led forth to the
stake, rescued by her young lover,who has bound and gagged
the old priest, and is hastily throwing • diagure over her
head, and leading her forth. Here is a picture in which Mr.
Millais has full scope for his stronger point, the oreentra-
tion of feeling. Looking at the girl's face, and at the young
. .

is, you road the': whole story; in has you

joy—in his detenninaiien, love, pardon,
and mixed with all, the *sling that his etherize is
not ,it direly samess6l ad that she may still be wrested
treat ltd. The espreds of the young man's lip, at the
Met glade, is abed coded; bet, after a minute's Mete-
tics, yea Meow convinced that, la • person labouring under
the today represented, the haturee would take that form.
Am epode= of painting I would all attention to the naked
feet of the girl ad youth, both 13 different and both so

natural ; end I would aim point out the tendering of the
.kin cloak banging trout the young =el shouldors—one of

the mad marykola bite of lainut; mpereentation and mini-
eve producetL"

Mr. Solomon has a new picture called ' Waiting
for the Verdict.' It represents the family of a prisoner,
consisting of his father, mother, We, and two children,
waiting in the ante-mom of the court of juetice, while the
trial of him on whom all their hopes are centred is going on.
" From first to last the picture is admirably painted ; the
expression of the wife's face, in which misery is wrought up
to the highest pitch, and every nerve is racked to
tension, while the grist lads utterance in silent
tears steeling down her cheeks--that expression has never

Left me since I Soot saw it ; it comes between my eyes and the
paper on which I am now writing, and to vividly reproduced
before my eight. Such ay:aimed, hopeless, helpless grief I
have never seen pourtrayed. All the details see excellently
mated out. The old Sather, in his high leathern gaiters sod
velveteen oast; the mother, with that high ruddy bronzed
colour peculiar to countrywomen who have peeled the meri-
dian of thsir days ; the bosh healthy child who has fallen
asleep, unconscious of its father's woes ; and the cooing in-
fant in the grandmother's mum are all typos of rustle Ills
reproduced with the greatest fidelity. I should think that Mr.
Solomon's picture will be the favourite with t e general
public, in the Exhibition."