The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-22 00:00:00

William Hunt. the Water Colourist,

"A Bunch of May," the property of Mr. Wade, which,
while each pearl-hued. petal has every tint and hue of
nature, and the most subtle foreshortening of its forms, is,
as a whole, a masterpine of composition, not only in
massing, but in chiaroscuro and, in its limited scope, in
colour. Before us also is " A Study of Hyacinths," drawn
with a purity and breadth in treatment of form, such as a
Greek painter might envy, solid as a stereoscopic photo-
graph, finished beyond the dreams of a Dutchman, and
incomparably brilliant. There is also a third drawing,
" Grapes, Peach, and Plum" (exhibited at the Water •
Colour Society's Exhibition, 1860), which glows with
Titlanesque ardours, and is as vivid, withal as sweet in
tone, as if the fruit it dealt with had ripened in the Golden
Age.
To him we owe a full recognition of the splendour of
colour in common of jects. Who else but Hunt could have
painted that " Study of Gold—a Smoked Pilchard " (No.
216, Water-Colour Exhibition, 186 D), which is now in use
in our Government Art-Schools as a triumph of colour ? or
produced the "Study of Rose-Grey—a Mushroom," which
accompanied it ? At the now-open Water-Colour Society's
Exhibition is a "Dead Humming-Bird," which glows with
turquoise blue, green and gold, and even from the furthest
side of the room sparkles marvellouslly.

When, at the Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1855, eleven
of the master's works were shown, the acclamations of the
French attested, first, the surprise of the critics, and, se-
condly, their knowledge of Art, As a humorist and deli.
neator of character, William Hunt obtained at home a
fairer recognition, and those who remember the last ex-
hibited work of this class, "The Fly-Fisher" (No. 212,
Water•Colour Exhibition, 1832), will not withhold from
the artist their high admiration. Such admiration was
given to the man who painted, with inimitable humour,
the stealthy creep of the boy's hand behind, and, as ho
thinks, away from the sight of that magnificent blue-bottle,
which, if the fisher has his way, will soon be bait irresis-
tible to certain chub. That boy's eyes, glittering with
purpose, his in-held breath, his lightly-lifted shoulders,
his cautious foot-fall and nervous grasp upon the rod, are
points of character such as Hogarth would embrace the
artist for having painted.—dithenceum.

M. SAINTON AND MADAME DOLBY have been
making a successful tour in Holland.

MR. BENEDicr has finished a new operetta, the
title of which is " The Bride of Song."

THE THEATRE AT CHAMBERY hes been destroyed

by fire.

11
BRIGHTON are aptly `
described by the Spectator as
FOUR, "LIBERAL" CANDIDATES FOR
—Mx. Fawcett,
in a man who, being respectable, could never
be popular Brighton ; Mr. Julian Goldsmid, whose chief
recommendation was his property within the borough; Mr.
Dumas, who had no recommendation at all; and a Mr.
Harper, whose claim was that he thought all Catholics
must be damned.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY NIGHT.—Mr. Whipple, of
Boston, has produced effective photographs of the fountain
on Boston Common, illuminated by the electric light. The
spray of the fountain, the leaves of the trees, and the per-
sons under them aro distinctly rendered.
HANSOM CABS have been introduced into the
island of Trinidad, in the West Indies.
THE ROMAN TUMULI SAVED.--The struggle of
our antiquaries in favour of preserving the Roman
tumuli at Bartlow has boon crowned with success. Even
railway boards are not insensible to earnest and unselfish
appeals on behalf of science, and the engineer of the Great
Eastern Railway has contrived to lay his lines so as to
avoid disturbing these Roman remains.
ARCHBISHOP WHATELY and Doctor Gregg, the
new Bishop of Cork—interlocutors at dinner I—Arch-
bishop : "Come, though you are John Cork, you mustn't
stop the bottle here." Bishop answering, not inaptly—" I
see your lordship is determined to draw me out."
A PUZZLING QUERY.— Question : If Brigham
Young, the Mormon, were to lose ono of his GO wives, would
he be a widower ? Answer ?—Not enough to hurt him,—
American paper.
KING KIKEHAMEHA, who died on the 30th of Novem-
ber, as sovereign of Hawaii, expiring of grief from the loss
of his only eon, was a man of rare physical powers, of ele-
gant tastes, keen perceptions, who could enjoy Kingsley,
Thackeray, Tennyson, and was ever quoting Shah-
spere,