The Express.
London, England, 1861-11-19 00:00:00

LONDON, IUESPAT EVENING, NOVEN PER 19 1861

FINE ARTS.

THE WINTER EXHIBITION AND COLLECTION OF

MR. WALLL.i.

There is a second "season" for musk &ring
the year, why eat also for art ? Hitherto we Indk; had no
"edger exhibition" io the metropolis of migailmg like
the proportiomate importance which might be impeded. At
length, however, a desideratum both of the public and the
artistic protossioe is adequately supplied in the excellent
and most interesting exhibition of pictures by British
artists which Nimbi this mansion at the so-coned " Frisch
Gallery," 120, Pall•raell.

The scheme of a winter exhibition was originated mice
nine years Mace by Yr. Genii:art, and continued aannally
till the pier before last. After a biennial interval, it has,
thaake to the tending of Yr. Wallis, fructified anew with
greatly increased vigour. Unlike fanner exhibitions, bow.
ever, we understand that the greater ponion of the
collection sonata of new works painted, in the
words of the catalogue, " expressly for Mr. Wallis." It is
a natural inference that the jialtpueut and good Mote which
• gentleman cannot fail to poems who, speaking pmr•lly,
bee for many jean bees the most extensive and enencesful
dealer in pictures, must be a sufilcient guarantee at • well.
miseted collection, sod the visitor will certainly sot be
disappointed. The amnia merit of the pistons is higher
asaasistaaceriottilikiiisoutilli perbstails, Ain*
exception el the Rohl Academy. The proportion of works
by young and" rising" artists is unquestionably greater,
sad on this account especially the exhibitiou has peculiar
claims upon attention,

We have ou former ocoasiose endeavoured to pant out
that toe principles of '' free trade" have of late yean
secemarity become am much adopted is the world of art se

in commerce. In the altered Masker of artist and
patron the pietas dealer is neeeseary to bring them
together. That the system works well the wonderful
and ever-increasing diffusion of a tote and demand for pic-
tures, and the consequently increasing supply, would seem
to prove conclusively. Some prejudices, however, may still
exist. It is popularly supposed, for instaace, that the
picture dealer only eaten au artist's studio to cheapen his
finished productions. Even if this were always the fact,
the dealer cannot rob the artist of his other resources.
But this is not', the case. On the contrary, the picture'
dealer frequently finds it far more to his interest to anti-
cipate the labours of an artist of whose talent be is
certain by commissioning him to paint a subject of his own
choosing (which a private patron could hardly be expected
to do), merely stipulating that the work should be of his
best, end often leaving the price, to a certain extent, for
ulterior arraanement Many of the greatest pictures of
the dey, whisk might otherwise never have been attempted,
have bees emoted in this way. Mr. Wallis, we know,
conmsoldy adopts this plan. The reputation which this
pollees& lies established generally among artists them-
selves fairly entitles him to the eaoouragement he has long
received.

In reviewing this exhibition in doted little would be
pined, the contents being so varied, by any attempt at
elamificatiou ; we may therefore consult the visitor's nave.
niece by following the order of the catalogue. Beginning,
then, at the beginuing, we have in No. 1, "On the River
Glaslyn, North Wake," one of the very finest works by
Mr. H. T. Beddington we hare seen. The clear, pale, mid.
day sunbeams break through the light summer cileuda,
twinkhogly larigh Oa oe placidly film over the transperent
wane, lush the meadow-green into gold, and sleep i• the
downy has. of the silent hills, with peat truth of sleet
Whether it is that recent adverse antiglare has
benefited this artist, or whether Mr. Boddinglon,
like some of his ointfrins,heasesidendy discovered new powers,
attain it is that, inbuilt *alas is subject, and sheest
identical in its eine* with way preceding works, Ude land.
nape haa rare truthlidases sad beauty. We may venture
to predict that whim many of the productions of the large
lamlocaps painting fandly to w►ieh Mr. Boddingtoa belongs
are fornolien, this end a few ether work', when mellowed
wit► then will secure a higher position foe the " Williams'
school" than it eves sow enjoys swag its uodiaaiminating
admirers. (8) " The Yak Ceneepoodent," by M. Meyer.
There is • reticence is the colouring of this meritorious
bide picture which might be token as • lessee by some of
mer English painters. (7) " °pixel*" by Et. T. P.
Dishese—a smell sad sweetly painted study ; pee
few other works hen previously exhibited, bat apparently
retouched and improved in the intensified expression. (8).
" Landscape—Boys Setting Eel-traps," by Percy : one of
the richly painted works of sa earlier tiros, when the artist
promised so much. (9) " Tobias pane oculos moans,"
by Mrs. J. B. Hay. This picture may now be examined to
pester advantage than was permitted by its somewhat
dhadvantegeous hanging at the bet exhibition of the Royal
Academy. We caa only repine our former remarks. In
bet e•rliest exhibited works Mrs. Hay gave us faithful
seethes of Italian landscape ; here she has ventured upon the
I highest walked art. Thiring a lengthened residence in Italy
thin lady seems to have imbued herself with the spirit of
the medieval painters, their simple child like f►ith, their
saintly purity of purpose, and their unworldly vene-
ration, and this spirit has been interpreted with
• knowledge of the matured principles and appliauces
of the Venetian masters of colour. To go to the Apocry-
, phs at all for • subject sufficiently indicates the sentiment
of the artist. The reader may possibly forget the
apocryphal story of how the benevideet Tobit, or Tobias,
cos of the faithful Jews during the Assyrian captivity, sent,
le the extremity of poverty, his only am, Tobias, on a long
jeureey to recover a debt ; how the Archangel Raphael
accompanied him, disguised es a friend; how from the
heart, liver, and gall of the famous fish (which so often
supplied the Italian painters with subjects) he obtained,
Raise the angel's direction, first a wife, and secondly
the mates of curing his father's blindness. In the
picture the see, a graceful stripling, though not to young
to be betrothed in the East, approachs to apply the
mira-
culotte flah-gall to his father's eyes while the old man sits
with apturoed head 10 calm trustfulness. The rather
shrewish wile of Old Tobias bead, over him, fumy and ex.
li pedant, The Archangel Raphael stands aside, his manes
sooomplabed. His head is surrounded by the prescriptive
celestial golden nimbus, though rather pale sod dimmed by
earthly coated, like his diapered &el.-A
-gold robe, the
symbol of sanctity sod glory. His immortally youthful face
and eyes are upturned, the soul of the divine messenger far
away among the " third hierarchy" at heaves. Through the
apertures of the cloister-hke 'patient or stanza we get a
glimpse of solemn evening landscape. It will be seen that
the subject is conceived in the purest spirit of early Italian
art, and, like the works of that period, there may be • few
minor faults of drawing, but the draperies are well disposed,
the colouring, as we have said, Voool‘o, and the execution
fearless.

(11) " Misep and Lambs on the hill-side"—an exeellant
and rather new than usually original Sydney Cooper, re.
minding us somewhat of the manner of Sir Edwin Lod-
ger. (13) "Dr. Nanette," by Mr. Maguire.—This is a
regimentation of the poor victim of tyranny in Diekeas's
"Tale of Two Cities," seated under the window
of the garret in the Quartier St. Antoine, the
light making a halo round his grey hair—seated in crazed
vae•et aketramica nursing his this hands, the few hots of
the loarobliterated intelligence contracting their network
for • stansat, the shoemaking tools with which he beguiled
Ills serntes• years' eaptivity at his side--seated just as his
lees lest dandiest found him. The head is as fine as any-
thing in t►is RCM, and it is altogether an admirable little
picture. (14) " Fetch it," by Mrs. Ward—a very bright,
highly Sniahed little work, indicating continued advisee.
niece in the accomplished wife of the Royal Academician.
(19) " Who's to blame!" by Mr. Barnes—an incident in •
village of • little girl having had her milk Jug bloke°,
apparently. frees the by-play, by a rummy boy. Not.
witlyeanding some conventionality there is goads* in the
painting. (24) "Evening on the Thames," by Mr. A.
Gilbert ; quite • little gem. (26) "The Larch," by 111.
Basilica. There le • companion to this by the use justly
celebrated Belgian painter (37) " Beschisg the Boat." Both
pictures rival Vandevalds, and we doubt whether any
Eoglith painter--even Stanfield, excepting puling in his
' skies—has equalled the delicately beautiful drawing and the
exquisite faith we have here. (27) " Green-lane, Surrey,"
by Mr. BasMisiten ; • bright, pleasing study, widest])
I frogs whim (29) " The Pet Calves,' by Mr. Anedell ;
set • very favemnble example, at least as rept& the
figure. (30) " Pak he." and (36) " Grapes, melon, 1e.,"
by Mr. NAM ; very clever, r ere all thin
' parries picker of stable. (31) " The Die-

ovary," by Mr. Roberts. This pasture is in part ands-
gums. The "discovery" is palpably the locket which the
elder woman has detected round the neck of the young
sleeping figure ; but whether, for pester effect, the artist
intended by the medicine bottles and the butterfly
(tn* of the flitting soul ?) to faintest that the
discovery was only made on the death-bal, is. not
sufficiently indicated is the recumbent figure itself. (34)
" Le Secret des Amouretu," by Mr. Calderon— a girl myna
dropping at the door of an inner apartment of a Praia
Bahaman's cabin, in which a pair of lovers are sitting ffte-d-
We. This is sot equal to the charming pictures exhibited
at the Royal Academy this year ; there is, nevertheless, fine
feeling in the lovers' heads, and other characteristic
qvalities.

(36) " How Pretty!" by Mr. Dobson—children gather*
flowers. An elderly girl has set down her basket, and placed .
her younger sister on a bank, and is playfully encoding "b•
little head In her owe cotton print neckerchief, much to their
mutual gratification. The excellent drawing, the broad,
modest colouring, and the unaffected naturalness which i
distinguish Mr. Dobson's painting, are here very weep'. I
eras. (38) " CanterburyMeadows'—paintedes Mx. S. ,
Cooper always paints the ow end sheep. (45) " A Family
Diression," by Mr. Smallish' ; the brilliant, lateral light
truthfully expressed, and upon the whole an advance ; bat
a mere futile attempt to rival Merrier, and ea such tabs
regretted. (47) " The Prayer," by Mr. Lejeune—a little boy
friffiltagills eariffg pryer 101 e the Wide Tried by. his
mother. This in a very charmlog picture; but still more
admirable is its pendant, " Kim me, Sissy"—• little boy
asousted on • bank, and coaxingly eathsacing his sister.
Biagio and rustic as this subject is, there is something
ecl arum in its gracefulness--no careful and beautiful
is drawiag ; the colour, also, is very tender, end the
fin exquisite, down to the very tips of the fingers. This
' is airtainly a great advance by this thoroughly oonscientiowe
and estimable painter. (48) " Evenine—Sereatly, Osori,.
and "In the Meadows—a brisk Day" (64), two other
beautiful little landrages by Mr. Gilbert, containing,
tiny, r they axe, all the " quantity " 4 his
large works. (49) Three very beautiful and most
masterly "bits," Stanbeld framed, triptychally. (:8) "Joy,"
and He companion, "Sorrow" (G 3), by Mr. T. F. Dicksee,
are duplicates of two pleasing and aninsing pictures exhi-
bited at the British Institution, of • little girl delighted
with her Plinth doll in the one, and bursting into tears at
its broken nor in the other. "Sunshine and Shadow" t6O),
by sr. G. Smith. This is a small work of much unaffected
sentiment, by a promising young painter. A poor widowed
mother sits with her family sadly brooding in the shadow
under a cliff by the saa-sbore, while her youngest child,
laughing in the sunlight, places the widow's orate cap
thoughtlessly round bee far. The shadow is, perhaps, •
trifle ton heavy, but there is much beauty as well as feel-
ing is this picture. And here, so many Interesting works
remaining to be noticed, we meat stop for the present.

DRAMA.

ADELPHI.

----
Last night Mr. Boucicault's long-promised and
much-talked.of drama The Orturoon was produced before
an audience which crammed the theatre from Hour to I
ceiling. The previous Monday had been announced for its
production, but at • private rehearsal on the listen's), the
author bad been so doe tilled with certain arrangements
that he determined rather to pastimes it than let it appear
before the public in what be considered an imperfect state.
and during the internl some very extensive alteratiOus,
including en Important ahaage in the east of characters, and
the repainting oi sass of the scenery, have been made.
The piece, which is in five acts, costar many features
which me entirely novel to an Foglah eadienoe. The
story of the plot 1. as follows : George Peyton
(Mr. Millington), • young man educated in Paris,
has jog arrived in Lomisiena, at the plantation of
Tetrabinne, in the Atah•pas, which has been bequeathed
to Min by lb oda, Judge Peyton, and lads that through
the mimeansgimest a two Y•uhee omessere the estate

has gone to ruin. Om of these overseer; Jacob lii'Closkey
(Mr. Emery), had dishooesely encouraged the Judge's ex-
travagance, until he had Named otielali of Terre-
haute into his possession. The second overseer,
Balm Scudder t(Mr. Boucicault), a good natured,
honest fellow, had, however, introduced new inventions
and impracticable improvements upon the plantation,
sod those having failed the estate heroine involved
stdl further. Id 'Cloakey, now a rich Ina; loves Zoe
(lbs. Boucicault), the natural child of the Judge by •
Quid/con slave. She has been emancipated in her infancy,
and brought up with Geary comfort and luxury. Zoe is as.
wetly loved by Scudder, but bet heart ia gives to George
Peyton. News arrives that the mortgagee of Terreboo•e
he. foreclosed, and that the estate will he said. There re-
mains one single hops of saving it, by the reco►ery of an old
Liverpool debt of large amount which has bora owing to the
Judge for many yearn. The probabilities are strong that it
will be paid, and • letter from Eoglaed is looked for anal.
ously by ever/ poet. WGloakey, ia examising the Judge's
papers, discovers Zoe's free papers, and detects in them
an informality, which renders them void, so that if the
estate be sold, Zue, still • slave, must be sold with it.
Knowing that in Unix anxiety the Peyton bare despatched
• negro boy Peal (Min Derma), with a companion, R'ahno•
tee, an Indian hunter, to a landing shed on the MOT,
where the stream throws ashore the mailbags destined for
the neighbourhood, M'Cloekey resolves to intercept this
letter, and by taking a short cut through the woods to
arrive at the shed in time to possess himself of the math
bap, before the negro boy and the Indian reach the spot.
At the commencement of the second act, Salem Scudder,
. . .

who has been a travelling daguerreotypes", is discovered in
the landing shed, occupied in taking a likeness of a
young southern belle, DOTS Sunuyside MISS Latimer), who
is setting her cap at George Peyton. They are interrupted
in their occupation by the announcement th►t the sheriff
has just arrived from New Orleans, and has taken posemehni
of Terreboone. Scudder and Dora beaten away to satisfy
themselves of ;the truth of the report, leaving Zoe
' with George Peyton, who confesses his love for her.
' Zoe, while avowing her own passion for aim, explains
that their union is impossible, the laws of Louisiana for-
bidding the intermaniege of a white man with an Octo-
roon, ur coloured girl. Their interview is interrupted by
M'Closkey, who omen at their position; but, when they are
gOO% boils over with jealousy and rage, aggravated by
the fact that the negro boy, Paul, had already mowed the
nod•bags, before the arrival of the overseer at the shed.
As Sreloskey retires, he observes in the distance the negro
boy quarrelling with the Indies about a bottle of rum,
which the latter has secured. As they enter, M'Closkey
conceals himself ; the negro boy, finding the shed deserted,
resolve, to have his portrait taken, and being familiar with
the operation, from having frequently observed Scudder,
he takes the plate which Scudder has left behind hint wee
in the apparatus, seats himself in position upon the mail-
bags, and bids the Indian to rains the black cloth, run
fifty yards off to a certain pine tree and return, dropping
the cloth over the instrument. The 'adieu, who looks
upon the apparatus as a species of firearm, obeys
without hesitation, and disappears. Welorikey rushes
forward, and seining the tomahawk which the Indio' has
left behind him, deals a blow with it upon the child's head.
rides the mailbags, finds the expected letter from Liverpool
enclosing a cheque fora large amount. mid reads it, standing
over the dead body of the boy, and in the focus of the
daguerreotype apparatus. The Indian enters cod throws the
black cloth over the lens, during which M'Cloekey manages
to cameo undetected. The iodian, turning, sees the boy
stretched upon the ground, rushes to him, finds him dead,
believes that it is the apparatus that has effected the mos.-
der, dashes it to pieces, mid falls weeping by the side of his
little companion.
In the third act the estate is sold, and M'Cloekey, ex-
posing the flaw in the free papers of Zoe, requires that
she should be sold with the other slaves. The law being
OD his side, opposition is useless ; she is put up for sale,
and M'Closkey, overriding all competition, becomes her
purchaser for a very large sum.
In the fourth act, the 'tamer Magnolia is seen loading at
a landing near the shed. The Indian, who has been sus-
pected of the minder el the boy Paul, is caught lurking
in the eeightmeatmod, and the deck-hands and neighbours
alma his trial by lynch law, and M'Closkey, who has
been among the first to advocate this proceeding, le called
upon to preemie. Scudder defends the redskin in a stomp
speech, 'opposing lynch law on priacipM. The broken