The Sun.
London, England, 1852-02-19 00:00:00

THE BRITISH INSTITUTION,

The collection displayed this season upon the walls
of the British Institution is one of more than average
excellence ; and considerations of justice prompt us
to assert as much at the very outset from the pleasure
we have personally derived from wandering succes-
sively through the three apartments forming the
gallery of exhibition. Among the:contributors, will,
as usual, be found several of the most distinguished
members of the Royal Academy, of Suffolk-street,
and of the Portland Gallery. Altogether the number
of pictures supplied by those and other artists are,
this year, no less than 531, so that considerable
variety is secured to the collection. Thirteen speci-
mens of sculpture are, besides these, distributed
through the centre of the rooms on pedestals ; and
the observant visitor -will turn with curiosity, not
unrecompensed by gratification, to (No. 543) " Inno-
cence," by J. H. Foley, A.R A., already celebrated
by his exquisite recumbent statue of Ino offering a
bunch of grapes to Bacchus. Among the customary
things in the gallery will, of course, be noticed the
glossy haunches of the horse, and the vulgar features
of the human biped in attendance, invariably pour-
trayed by J. F. Herring, as in (No. 128) the
" Watering Place near Dumfries;" or those marvel-
lous bundles of pine fruit and apricots, finished even
to the twinkling dewdrop, and the scar of the bee
puncture, such as G. Lance alone can give us, as in
(No. 21), a further specimen of his skill as an artistic
votary of Pomona. It is agreeable beyond all
things in the British Institution to turn
from the tawdry paintings suspended from a little
below the ceiling to the modest pictures disposed in
some less elevated position. Almost invariably the
former are scarcely a jot more meritorious than se-
veral square feet of canvas daubed over with the
gaudiest oil colours, Whereas the latter, though
merely on a scale of as many square inches, are fre-
quently gems of art from the hand of a master. The
more moderate the capacity the greater the ambition,
would almost seem to be the rule among the majority
of the contributors. Thera is the huge picture (No.
18) for example, entitled " Peace," and produced by
a foreign gentleman with the euphonious and ma-
jestic name of Gambardella. Such a picture as it is
—8 feet 3 by 7 feet 3—with a young lady in
a demi-semi state of nudity in the centre, looking
exceedingly cold, attended by a number of stark-naked
little cupids looking colder still, the said cupids twin-
ing garlands of flowers, blue, red, and yellow, all the
colours in the rainbow, as bright in dye as if they
had been cut out of a bran-new efflorescent chintz,
while the said young lady is guarded by the oddest
lion ever seen in or out of a menagerie—a sort of
leonine Mrs. (;ramp, with a maudlin grin on her face,
masquerading in a hearth rug. As for the mystery in
the helmet we can make nothing of it. Where the
shadowy reflection in it comes from, how it comes
there, whose it is supposed to be, the artist's or
the spectator's, must remain problems incom-
prehensible even to those who have managed to ferret
out the meaning of the cuneiform hieroglyphics. Not
far from this, we turn with a sense of distaste from
(No. 2) the "Study of a Head,". in which W. Gale
has represented the most brazen-faced of women. But,
no ! the most brazen-faced, the most obtrusive, the
most intolerable is at the opposite extremity of the
suite of apartments, in the large picture (No. 461)
illustrative of a " Spanish Dance," by Newenham.
A grand and solemn effect has been produced by J.
Danby in (No. 24) his "Twilight at Sea," where
the waves crimsoned by the departing sunset seem
plashing into sluggish repose. J. Linnell shows him-
self more than usually adventurous in his national pic-
ture (No. 45) pourtraying "A Boar Hunt in England
—Olden Time." Pickersgill, the Royal Academician,
contributes (No. 50) a rather fat-faced and comely
" St. Ursula," as well as a companion head—that of
(No. 151) "A Monk of the Order of St. Francis at
his Devotions," the latter countenance being replete
with an exquisitely-mingled expression of intellectual

force and seraphic adoration. Newenham has a Moie.
pretentious and, in some respects also, a more suc-
cessful attempt in (No. 57), his huge painting of the
Princess Elizabeth, afterwards Queen regnant,
examined by Gardiner, Bonner, and others, on the
question of Transubstantiation. Clever though the
picture is in
.some particulars, it is, nevertheless,
as a whole, coarse and formal. Sir Edwin
Landseer's (No. 58) " Deer Pass" is more
remarkable for the vast, bard, solid-looking,
flinty boulder stones piled about the pass
in confusion, than for anything more deserving
admiration. Like every production of his magic
brush, however, it will be regarded with attention,
and by many, we dare say, with satisfaction. "El
Sueno" (No. 63) is a pretty oval-faced brunette—
evidently a sketch "from the life"—by H. W.
Philipps. The identity is preserved even to the
beauty-spot under the right eye—" the mole cinque-
. _ _

spotted like the crimson drop i' the bottom of a cow-
slip"—as on the bosom of Imogen. " A Gallop after
the Buffalo" in the Far West (No. 70), by J. W.
Glass, affords a capital notion (restricted though the
view is), of the exhilarating exercise of the trappers on
their mustangs, when careering over the grass prairies
of North America. For an admirable glimpse of
English scenery commend us to Ansdell's pic-
ture (No. 73) of " The Common," with
its powdery earth burrowed into holes by the
rabbits, or trampled into dust by the hoofs of the
ram scenting the air with such an aspect of inquisi-
tiveness. The most exquisite picture in the gallery
this season is F. Danby's (No. 109) " Scene from the
Vale of Tempe," fit harbour for the gods of Greece
at all hours, but more especially in that very twi-
light which has been here selected by this distin-
guished artist, this genius, whose appended initials
A.R A. always appear to us like a direct sarcasm on
the cliquerie and favouritism of the Royal Academy.
Immediately under the lovely painting by Denby,
just mentioned, is a charming little picture, bril-
liantly finished, by A. Gilbert (No. 110), represent-
jog " A River Side,"
with a storm clearing off.
6' The Drover's Halt" (No. 146),
is a .master-
piece, from the hands of T. Creswick and R. Ans-
dell. Sant's (No. 162) " The Mother's Hope"
would be more agreeable were the colouring less
crude; and J. Gilbert's (No. 221) "Charge of
Prince Rupert's Cavalry at the Battle of Naseby"
will repay examination for more reasons than the
simple but noticeable fact that it is the greatest effort
we have yet seen from the artist's easel. The work
is replete with an animation such as would have been
like cordial to the heart of Wouvermans. The Wit-
liamses are all of them this season more than usually
"in force," and one of their contributions (No. 243)
"The Gypsies Releasing their Donkeys from the
Pound," by G. A. Williams, deserves a very cordial
eulogium, as marvellously truthful to nature
and eminently characteristic of the rural scenery
of England. Frost's little study (No. 373),
though rather hard in its finsh, is deliciously
expressive of the beauty of " Galatea"- while T. F.
Marshall's picture (No. 405) of " The Shepherd's
Daughter" is in every respect a charming represen-
tation of native and rustic loveliness, such as might,
from the tame lamb caressing her feet to the holly-
hocks peeping over the paling, have been appropri-
ately sung by the verse of Tennyson. For invention,
for excitement, for comic diableric in every imagine-
ble shape of absurdity and ridiculousness, examine,
say we (No. 421) "Tam o' Shanter," as delineated by
our perennial Cruikshank. It is a wonderful aggre-
gation of humour and ugliness. Various other con-
tributions to the walls of the gallery are entitled to
particular mention, but the foregoing will be suffi-
cient to specify here, as evidence that merit and variety
are discernible in the present collection of paintings at
the British Institution.