The Sun.
London, England, 1854-06-21 00:00:00

" THB VICTORY " AT GIBRALTAR.

[SECOND NOTICE.]

It was recently our gratifying duty, as among the
more humble it may be, but at any rate also among
the more watchful observers of the progress
made in the National Schools of Art, to comment
upon the varied merits of this really remarkable
masterpiece—still submitted to public examination
at 23, Cockspur-street, by the Messrs. Agnew and
Sons of Manchester. Another visit to the room
in which the original painting continues to be "on
view"has enabled us to sit in judgment, as it were,
over the assumed accuracy of our first impressions.
Those earlier opinions in regard to the picture we
are now more than ever disposed to regard as very
far, indeed, from having been crudely formed,
hastily adopted, or founded merely upon what may
be termed, for want of some better phrase, histo-
rical partialities and artistic prepossessions.
Apart from the manifold prejudices resulting
not unnaturally, and, it may have been, at
the tim3 quite unconsciously, from the inspirit-
ing associations connected with the subject
here treated with such consummate skill by
the hand of our great sea painter—apart from the
influence of those associations, we do believe that
this notable picture of " The Victory," as it ap-
pared on the evening of the 28th of October, 1805
(nearly half a century byegone), when towed, with
the body of Nelson on board, into the bay of Gib-
raltar, is a work of art in all respects eminently
worthy of Mr. Stanfield's reputation. It must be
regarded as such, we conceive, even when consi-
dered—if it can be so considered—apart from its
historical and heroical associations. Viewed, we
mean, siniply as a representation of one of
the aspects of nature, as a wonderful delinea-
tion of sea and sky—with a rocky headland
as the background, and the time selected, the
evening when a gale of wind has but very
recently
subsided. Regarded simply in this
light, the painting must, we conceive, irresistibly
command our admiration. But, embracing the
loftier associations of the picture in our examine"
tion of its beauties, that admiration for it, so to
speak, in the abstract—as a limning from the face
of Nature—is marvellously and appreciably en-
hanced. Remembering, that is to say, that the
scene is the impregnable Gibraltar—the date the
morrow of the most glorious sea-fight of England.
—the incident the towing of the " Victory" into
shelter, the battered hull of the great war-ship
bearing on board the remains (literally the remains,
shorn of an arm, 'reft of an eye, and scarred by
a hundred noble wounds) of the darling hero of
Britain—Nelson of the Nile and Trafalgar l The
promised engraving from this masterpiece has
already so far advanced under the hands of Mr.
John Cousen that an impression of the etching
may now be seen by those who visit the apartment
in which the original picture still continues on
exhibition. As an etcher, Mr. Cousen reveals in
this plate a skill in the handling of the needle truly
marvellous. The work, even as far as it has yet
proceeded, is worthy of an artist facile printers
among the line engravers of his generation. The
light and sparkle of the whole performance entitles
him to all commendation—whether it be in regard
to the drifting and scattering glories of cloud-
land, or to the undulation and transparency of
the billowing water. Scarcely anything is want-
ing to complete the illusion beyond colour,
and hero and there even that is wonderfully
implied by the magical graduations of shadow, the
fluctuations or alternations of "shine and shads"
—not less ingenious in effect than the perspective
revealed through that diaphanous atmosphere.
Everything promises, indeed, that the genius dis-
played in the original picture by the great sea
painter
will be emulated, as far as the limits of a
lesser art will admit, by that cf the distinguished.
line engraver to whom the difficult task of copying
the scene upon metal has, fortunately both for Mr.
Stanfield and for the subscribers, been most judi-
ciously entrusted.