The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-07 00:00:00

Exhibition of the Art Union Prizes.

This exhibition, of which there was a private view
on Saturday, is usually a very welcome supplement
to the regular academical exhibitions of the year.
We see collected together under one roof many of
the prettiest little gems which have attracted us in
the various galleries, andare able to make closer ac-
qu'aintance with others which the eccentricities of
hanging committees had hidden from our sight be-
fore. This year's exhibition is decidely above the
average. There are close upon 120 pictures, vary-
ing from £lO to £2OO in value, and it would be hard
to point to an instance where a prize winner with
the means placed at his disposal has made a bad
choice. Still, it is remarkable that the taste of the
majority seems to run in the same line. Three-
fourths of the pictures selected are landscapes--little
corners of shady lanes, with quaint old cottages—
cool, sequestered glens—reaches of silvery river flow-
ing through green, grassy banks, golden cornfields st
falling to the sickle, mountain passes in North Wales,
sunrises in Switzerland, or sunsets in Scotland and
the Lakes. There are a few sea pieces, mostly of
considerable merit, but of historical pictures and in-
teriors the proportion is very small. The master-
work of the gallery, however, is an historical picture
Leslie's Defence of Latham-house, which represents
the heroic Charlotte de la Tremouille, Countess of
Derby, assisting to " fish" the " flagstaff" which has
been damaged by Puritan cannon. It will be re-
membered as one of the great crowd-gatherers at the
Royal Academy this year, and has been selected by
the fortunate winner of the £2OO prize, Mr. W. H.
Webb, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, for the Art Union
has members not only in all our colonies,
but in most countries of Europe. The only
other historical production is " The Princess
Elizabeth in Captivity at Hatfield"—a well-drawn
picture, though the Virgin Queen in her best days
can hardly have been so pretty as the young lady
who is gazing through the oriel window. It has been
selected from the Exhibition of the British Artists
by Mr. E. Osborne, who drew a £4O prize. The
two £l5O prizes are also from the Society of British
Artists. " The Thorn," by E. J. Cobbett, repre-
sents a group of country children among the black-
berry bushes, gathered round an unfortunate com-
panion who has pricked her finger with a thorn ; the
other, "Innocence," is a charming figure of a young
fisherwoman with a child in her arms. Mr. G.
Dadds, who drew a £lOO prize and gave £6B in ad-
dition to that for a small picture called " Eastern
Life" is, perhaps, the only winner of whose taste we
may be permitted to express a doubt. Another £lOO
prize, " The Tomb of the Mamelukes," by C.
Vacher, is the most important water-colour in the
exhibition, and of another, " Lochaber no more,"
by W. H. Paton, all lovers of Highland scenery will
say that it is the most successful attempt to trans-
fer to canvas the rugged beauties of this wild dis-
trict. The view of Arran Hills from Bute, by J.
Adam, selected from this year's Royal Academy,
is another pleasing bit of Scotch scenery, and
Mr. Toten was lucky to get it for a £25 prize.
Capt. Bamfield for a £75 prize has selected a cha-
racteristic picture of an old French fishing town, by
J. J. Wilson, with its gaunt old gables, red-legged
fisher girls, and crumbling jetty, and in the
" Dysart" on the east coast of Scotland, by Danby.
Mr. E. Lacy has decidedly the finest sea-piece in
the room. The largest interior is the "Grace before
Meat," a £75 prize, which sets before our eyes
the agricultural labourer's cottage as it ought
to be, or Mr. Henley would tell us it is—
light, clean, and comfortably furnished—the family
sitting down to a hot dinner, and the father reve-
rently asking a blessing. " B Bacio," which repre-
sents a young Italian mother fondling her child, is
one of the most highly finished of the water-colours,
and Mr. Richardson, of the Institute of Water Co-
lours, has shown us new charms even in so hack-
neyed a subject as " Bopport on the Rhine." From
the same exhibition comes another spirited water-
colour—" A Fair Wind," which apparently charmed
Mr. Wade so much that, though he only drew a £l5
prize, he added £35 to secure it. Among the other
pictures there are many which, though lower in
value, &serve commendation, particularly " A
Spanish gipsy with cards," by Lidderdale ; "A Fern
Gatherer," by F. Holl, jun. ; " Magpie Ait on the
Thames," " Cornfields near the Coast," by Percy,
aid " A Boulogne Trawler running into Havre,"
by J. J. Wilson. Of the £lO prizes perhaps the
tiniest of the little haymakers who, " quite outspent
by the sun, lies curled up by the haycock asleep"
will attract most admiration. The other prizes ex-
hibited are porcelain busts of the Prince of Wales,
from the original, by Merton Edwards, a statuette
in porcelain of " Go to sleep," reduced from the
group by Joseph Durham, chromo-lithographs of
Young England and Wild Roses, and last, though
very far from least, a series of drawings, 32 in num-
ber, engraved by Mr. Lewis Gruner, from Maclise'S
Illustrations of the Norman Conquest, which were
exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1857. Copies of
the series, bound in one volume, will be presented to
each subscriber for the coming year, and, looking to
the character of the work, the Council is no doubt
correct in the anticipation expressed in this year's
report that it will lead to a large subscription.