The Sun.
London, England, 1854-05-01 00:00:00

THE ROYAL ACADEMY.

Immediately after her Majesty's visit to the royal
Academy on Friday afternoon, we were amongst the
earliest of those who passed slowly round the three prin-

cipal rooms of the Exhibition. As a reward for our punc-

tuality in attendance, we were enabled to obtain some-
thing better than a merely casual glimpse of the paintings

arranged along the walls --a rather unusual advantage
on the day of " private view," when hats, elbows, and
bonnets ordinarily occupy afterwards the chief share of
our remembrance. It is perhaps not unworthy of re-
mark just now, when the evidences of loyal enthusiasm
possess a more than customary interest, that the Queen,
both on arriving and returning, was greeted on the 28th
instant by the assembled crowd with acclamations. Her
Majesty and his Royal Highness the Prince Consort
were
accompanied on the occasion by the Prince of
Wales, the Princess Royal, and by two or three of the
younger children. During the stay of the royal family
within the walls of the .National Gallery, the concourse
outside appeared to watch with peculiar sati faction the
seven state carriages and the scarlet and gold liveries in
attendance. Directly after the Sovereign had taken her
departure, we ascended the staircase, and were rewarded,
as already intimated, with a leisurely, and what
might be called with more reason than usual, a really
".private view" of the preset year's collection. Scarcely

ally one had arrived at the time of our entrance, but
prior to our taking; leave of it, the gallery had become
tolerably well crowded with the privileged throng accus-
tomed to assemble on this annual occasion of the private

view of the Royal Academy—a throng including most
of the celebrities of the day, whether members of the
aristocracy or members of the republic of literature—
the vernal paradise of the tuft-hunter or the hero-
worshipper, where he may have the delight of rubbing

elbows with eminent statesmen, authors, peers, and

academicians.

The season of 1854 brings the Royal Academy to its
86th exhibition. So that it has long since passed its

grand climacteric.

It has survived even the three

score years and ten allotted on the average to humanity.
It has advanced yet further, and has come to be more
than an octogenarian. It is interesting to glance back,
even fbr a few hurried moments across the interval of

of those eighty-six years, from 1854 to 1768, from the
present date of its existence to that of its onginal insti-

tution. Curiously enough it is the precise interval occupied
by the life of the recently deceased Marquis of Anglesey.
When that veteran was born in 1768, the Royal Academy
was just then established. He expires, now, in 1854,
ripe in years and honours, almost simultaneously with
the opening of the academy's eighty-sixth exhibition. At
the former date, namely, in the year of our Lord 1768,
the French Revolution had not commenced. It was not

far from the eve of its breaking out. The last great
European war was, therefore, fast approaching the verge
of its dread beginning. At this moment the nations are
Somewhat similarly, nay, yet more perilously, situated.
In this still more memorable year of our Lord 1854, the

preliminary sounds of another great European war are
already becoming audible—only under rather different
circumstances —thanks be to God, under rather different

•ircumstances ! Not with England and France opposed
to each other in deadly animosity, but with a cordial

union established between their people and their Govern-
Mentg. Not a war in defence of the " right divine,"
of absolutism, of tyranny, of " legitimacy" not
war of conquest or of spoliation, but a war
against despotism, against autocracy, in behalf of
the weak, in defence of truth, in vindication of justice,
in the triple cause of peace, freedom, and civilisation.
It is a wonderful contrast altogether, that presented by
the comparison of these two notable dates in the history
of the Royal Academy, 1768 and 1854, the date of its

foundation and the date of its eighty-sixth anniversary.
sow many brilliant triumphs of the brush and of the
chisel have been achieved by its more illustrious disciples
between the time when Sir Joshua Reynolds held and that
'when Sir Charles Eastlake holds the distinction of its
presidency ! How many noble reputations have been
made within its walls between the epochs when Oliver
Goldsmith and when Henry Hallam enjoyed the hono-
rary title of the Academy's Professor of Ancient History
—between the marvellously contrasting, though after
all not such very widely separated, dates when Dr.
Johnson and when Mr. Macaulay occupied the Aca-
demy's chair of the Professorship of Ancient Literature !
A retrospective glance like this, we cannot but feel
assured, will be regarded as not altogether invaluable,
because we rest satisfied that among the mainr;«, •L-
-more reflective it will be fauna, especially at this pre-
sent moment, in many important particulars, altogether
wonderfully suggestive.
Art flourishes in the midst of War. The truth has
been often almost miraculously illustrated. Amongst
our neighbours, did not David rise into celebrity as an
historical painter, first of all through the civil agonies of
the Reign of Terror, and then afterwards through all
the sanguinary glories of the empire ? It was the same
nearly about the same time with the sister art of Sculp-
ture. Canova's fame was contemporaneous with that
of Napoleon. Art, we repeat, flourishes in the midst of
War. History has declared this, experience has proved
this, even in the continental lands which have been
ravaged by the armies of the belligerents. How much
more securely therefore in those countries which, by their
Geographical position, are secluded for the most part
from calamities of that appalling character ! As, for
example, in our own " snug little island," where, as on
Friday afternoon, the monarch could saunter through the
galleries of her Academy of Arts, at the period when her
soldiers arebeing despatched. te the Turkish frontiers to op-
pose the advancing hordes of the northern Autocrat, while
her mighty fleets have gone forth into the Baltic and
into the Euxine, to fight, side by side with those of
• Prance, the battle of civilisation.
Looking nearer home than to France and Italy—
the fatherland of David and Canova—we certainly find
amongst, ourselves at the present day, that whether art
liourishes in the midst of war or not, the rumours of
War have at any rate failed to affect it in any con-
elijouous manner prejudicially. The collection now
°l,oened to public view within the walls of the Royal
Academy affords proof of this, proof in every way satis-
factory. The season of 1854 may in this respect, indeed,
.vie with the average of its recent predecessors. The
reality of this is shown abundantly among the 1,531
Works of art, in painting and sculpture, here arranged
together for exhibition. Especially is this the case in
reference to a considerable proportion of the 628 more
• I.einarkable or more highly favoured pictures disposed
along the walls of the three principal apartments.
4- few of these, perhaps half a dozen of them, are
distinguished by their extraordinary merit scarcely less
than by their ambitious character. Several others
deserve
the praise due to uncommon excellence. A con-
. eiderable number secure approval by their evidences of
the union of skill, ability, and application. The rest are
lightly above, or are on a level with, or are a little be
low, mediocrity. Altogether, therefore, we repeat that
the collection for the season of 1854, the 86th Annual
)tliibition of the Royal. nurroeuTete 3441111
the average of ifs 'recent psedecessors.
• trliquestionably the most attractive, perhaps we should
la, the most arresting, picture in the whole exhibition
44 (379) by Daniel Maclise—an enormous painting re-
Presenting " Strong bow's Marriage with the Princess
vr's the bride being the daughter of Dermot MacMur-
-1*(101, King of Leinster, and the marriage ceremony taking
Place on the battle-field immediately after the terrible
and successful siege of the city of Waterford. Gigantic
as the canvass, it is for the most part crow.led with
• :I_, various groups introduced, and every portion of this
_t.raordinary picture, moreover, appears to have been
finished with the utmost degree of elaboration—an ela-
boration, indeed, kindred in its minuteness with that
Which delineated every petal of the May blossoms in
' • " Alfred in the Camp of the Danes,"
with that again which defined every individual
in his " Caxton's Workshop" in the sanctuary
of Wesiminster. The principal personages in the centre
nafuthe
ti are arranged with admirable ;effect—an
sfere pathos depicted on the visage of the defeated
c• , Inonarch, lovelinessin the form of the bride, valour in
the
°lett and knizletly figure of the bridegroom. Con-
:. fusedthe ample
es:7:: hoof dead and dying litter the foreground,
White fri the rear and high up along the adjacent accli-
a— - still contending belligerents fills up
ti,.aoti_ousn,phieowmeasure of the composition. A single exarni-
ever attentive, of this daring work of art,
appre-
ciation, altogether inadequate for its complete _
Mr. Maclise's large picture_ occupies a con-
ilePotteau.ous Place in the "Middle Room," and two other
raentbl. ° eonfr,ont each other—one on the
eastern, the other on the western wall of the same apart
In
colonr.poet,
P. P. • Pool( -)
"The
Song
of the Troubadours," by
whosewe hrecognise the genius of that gif, ed
our admiration_
OLOaltrlndr,!.hnagfs suopoften before commanded
of the streets revea-led by to'
interior of the. hol•C with equal facility the
Job, and the grim tragedy
. toe lurid light of the brazier
. Poole has
of Solomon Eagle during the Plague of London. Mr
seldom • revealed gr t noble production in which he haesaher power than in the'
revealed
Fo rin outsidepro.
the battlements of the Castle obese
'vte:ircue,,thone the seashore, the heroic form of Bertrand de
warrior-bard of the 12th century cha LC:Lin
themoonlight one of those glorious metrical, ror:
• the m .
843vvilatIrvs000lvge-s
~oefent hseueTroubadours.ii
.Never before on can-
moot-die-it !Itis a triumph of

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