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

TBR 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
thu 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
\ NestY 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 satisfaction the
seven state carriages and *lie 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 present year's collection. Scarcely
toy one had arrived at the time of our entrance, but
Prior to oar 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
viewle of the Royal Academy—a throng including most
,
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-
WQrshiPPer, where he may have the delight of rubbing
elbows
With eminent statesmen, authors, peers, and
academicians.
pThe season of 1854 brings the Royal Academy to its
I'th exhibition. So that it has long since passed its
rand climacteric. It has survived even the three
i e4.7e Years and ten allotted on the average to humanity.
It has advanced yet further, and has coins to be more
than an octogenarian. It is interesting to glance back,
"en for 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 original insti-
tctioh n• Curiously enough it is the precise interval occupied
Y the life of the recently deceased Marquis of Anglesey.
When that veteran was born in 1768, the Royal Academy
Ives •
Just then established. He expires, now, in 1854,
ape in •
the Years and honolrs, almost simultaneously with
the "veiling of the academy's eighty-sixth exhibition. At
- former date, namely, in the year of our Lord 1763,
the
French Revolution had not commenced. It was not
far from the eve of its breaking out. The last great
ofti .r°Pean war was, therefore, fast approaching the verge
dread beginning. At this moment the nations are
somewhat similarly, nay, yet more perilously, situated.
`ll this still more memorable year of our Lord 1854, the
already becoming audible—only under rather different
ready
--thanks be to God, tinder rather different
tocurestances ! Not with England and France opposed
each other in deadly animosity, but with a cordial
union established between their people and their Govern-
ments, Not a war in defence of the " right divine,"
i>' absolutism, of tyranny, of " legitimacy" not
4
War of conquest or of spoliation, but a war
the Weak,
despotism, against autocracy, in behalf of
tWeak, in defence of truth, in vindication of justice,
rat
itll() triple cause of peace, freedom, and civilisation.
i 3
a wonderful contrast altogether, that presented by
the comparison of these two notable dates in the history
°'`c the Royal Academy, 1768 and 1854, the date of its
f °undation and the date of its eighty-sixth anniversary.
li
°Ny 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 majority of the
more reflective it will be found, especially at this pre-
sent moment, in many important particulars, altogether
Wonderfully suggestive.
Art flourishes in the midst of War. The truth has
°cell often almost miraculously illustrated. Amongst
c'erm 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
thei sanguinary glories of the empire ? It was the same
hurtle, about the same time with the sister art of Sculp-
re. Canova's fame was contemporaneous with that
;I\-rapoleon. Art, we repeat, flourishes in the midst of
a'l- 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
e°gaphical position, are secluded for the most part
from calamities of that appalling character ! As, for
ample in our own " snug little island," where, as on
ridaY afternoon, the monarch could saunter through the
gitalleries of her Academy of Arts, at the period when her
;idlers are being despatched to the Turkish frontiers to op-
ii:se the advancing hordes of the northern Autocrat. while
at mighty fleets have gone forth into the Baltic and
the Euxine, to fight, side by side with those of
ranee, the battle of civilisation.
t°°king nearer home than to France and Italy—
the
()urfaisthheesrland of David and Canova—we certainly find
amongst ourselves at the present day, that whether art
Neer in the midst of. war or not, the rumours of
have at any rate failed to affect it in any con-
t..
euQus manner prejudicially. The collection now
°Allened to public view within the walls of the Royal
factoeeMY affords proof of this, proof in every way satis-
,,rei;ftryy.ofThe season of 1854 may in this respect, indeed,
With the average of its recent predecessors. The
'Werke this is shown abundantly among the 1,531
Works of art, in painting and sculpture, here arranged
r:lether for exhibition. Especially is this the case in
e t
r m-rence to a considerable proportion of the 623 more
a lo—Atkable or more highly favoured pictures disposed
tlg
the walls of the three principal apartments.
A
d tc. few of these, perhaps half a dozen of them, are
ainguished by their extraordinary merit scarcely less
it 133' their ambitious character. Several others
side Is"
the praise due to uncommon excellence. A con-
tberahle number secure approval by their evidences of
sli„bitnieu of skill, ability, and application. The rest are
°
1 '"tlY above, or are on a level with, or are a little be•
t11:' Mediocrity Altogether, therefore, we repeat that
- collection for the season of
tile ition of the Royal Academy, may compete with
average of its recent predecessors.
544 °questionably the most attractive, perhaps we should
is ':7lle most arresting, picture in the whole exhibition
( 9) by Daniel Machse—an enormous painting re-
trZ-riting " Strongbow's Marriage with the Princess
the bride being the daughter of Dermot liacMur-
Ale:iCing of Leinster, and the marriage ceremony taking
ah(t— °II the battle-field immediately after the terrible
a. 5 successful siege of the city of Waterford. Gigantic
the the canvass, it is for the most part crowded with
eetevarimis groups introduced, and every portion of this
141aorditary picture, moreover, appears to have been
44
Ilea with the utmost degree o elaboration—an ela-
e4t,i°n, indeed, kindred in its minuteness with that
1i cu. delineated every petal of the May blossoms in
or Maeliße's " Alfred in the Camp of the Danes,"
ty with that again which defined every individual
(4P‘eveitt, his " Caxton's Workshop" in the sanctuary
ail• - '4llllllSter. The principal personages in the centre
s;(' Painting are arranged with admirable effect—an
lain ere pathos depicted on the visage of the defeated
Ilarch, loveliness in the form of the bride, valour in
fug
a arrned and knightly figure of the bridegroom.
heapsCon-
of the dead and dying litter the foreground,
Vi 6 in the rear and high up along the adjacent accli-
ne% thethe melee of still contending belligerents fills up
tavample measure of the composition. A single exanu-
is ba, however attentive, of this daring work of art,
, °f course altogether inadequate equate for its complete appre-
ciaiou
epic • Mr. llaelise's large picture occupies a con-
11°Ils place in the " Middle Room," and two other
eastern,
paintinge ^onfront each other—one on the
ern, the other on the western wall of the same wont,apart
p. p ln (352) "The Song of the Troubadours," by
code ' -"elk we recognise the genius of that gifted
„ ur-poet, whose band has so often before commanded
interior
up with equal facility the
of the holy home of Job, and the grim tragedy
of the streets
cr
Solomon Eagle during the Plague of London. Mr.
t1'_°,(3.16 has seldom revealed greater power than in the
the°ule production in which be has here revealed outside
~battlements of the Castle of Haute-Fort, in Pro-
;tic% on the seashore, the heroic form of Bertrand de
4,°eru, the warrior-bard of the 12th century, chaunting in
(41 moonlight one of those glorious metrical romances—
the War eswear songs of the Troubadours. Never before on can-
haTn We seen such moonlight ! It is a triumph of

art. The whole scene is suffused with the nocturnal
splendour—the Ftar z L,re paled lvy it =sand there trails
across the sea that broad flood of the glory of the moon-
beams, which we remember one of our most popular liv-
ing writers has said, very beautifully, appeared to him
in the day dreams of his childhood, to be the veritable
pathway up to heaven. One can hear, in imagination,
on that calm summer night in Provence, under the walls
of that grey old castle, in the midst of the lustre of that
divine :ioonlight, mingled with the sound of the surges
not far off, and with the rippling strings of the lyre
played in accompaniment to the war song, the grand,
vibrant, sonorous tones of the voice of Bertrand de
Born, chaunting to the winds of night his triumph as a
troubadour. In (403) "The Last Sleep of Argyll," by
E. M. Ward, we have an affecting historical incident,
realised with all the vividness of reality. This picture,
we learn from the catalogue, is one of a series painted
for the Commons' corridor, by order of the Royal Com-
missioners. It is a work in every respect worthy of its
destination ; and cannot fail, we believe, materially to
enhance Mr. Ward's already high but still rising reputa-
tion. Unlike the majority of his productions of a similar
character—such, for example, as his representation of
the " Execution of Montrose," or of "Napoleon signing
his divorce from Josephine," or of " Louis XVI. and
kis Family in the Temple," or of "Charlotte Corday on
her way to the Scaffold," wherein Robespierre, Danton,
and Desmoulins were portrayed as almost within arm's
length of the "Angel of Assassination" —unlike those
paintings, in all of which so many contrasting figures
were introduced, the production contributed to the
Royal Academy Exhibition for the present season by
Mr. Ward contains only three figures altogether—the
form of the recumbent Argyll, that of the gaoler, and
that of the renegade privy councillor. The incident is
taken from a passage in Macaulay's "History of Eng-
land"—a touching incident here, most pathetically
treated. Sir Edwin Landseer contents himself with
two contributions to the gallery—one (360) being an-
other of his inimitable dog-portraits, " Dandie Dinmont,
the favourite old Skye terrier of her Majesty the Queen,"
and the other, the more important work of the two (63),
a large painting representing " Royal Sports on Hill
and Loch," a picture in which the Queen, the Prince
Consort, the Prince of Wales, and Viscountess Jocelyn
are cleverly introduced. Prince Albert is assist-
ing her Majesty out of a boat-- both gazing at
the same time with evident satisfaction at the
pile of slaughtered deer in the foreground, the
heir apparent on a pony to the left, and the Viscountess
unobtrusively in the background. Although Clarkson
Stanfield has three other pictures in the collection, (315)
will be regarded as the only one of an importance worthy
of his reputation—a wonderful glimpse of snowy moun-
tain scenery, being a view of the " Pic du Midi d'Ossau, '
in the Pyrenees. Mr. Webster indulges his many
admirers with three pictures—all of them small—but one
of them (85), "The Villager's Offering," capital as a
limning of rustic childhood. Mr. Roberts has contrived
to be almost as industrious as ever, though the loveliest
of his Venetian scenes cannot compensate for the lack of
another of his marvellous interior views of cathedral
architecture. Mr. Jones preserves to himself his pre-
eminence as a battle painter by his inspiriting memento
(13) of the victory of Hyderabad. There is another of
those luscious sunrises of mingled crimson and gloom, in
(34) " The Departure of Ulysses from Ithaca,"
which Mr. Denby paints as with the pencil of the
Magician of the Landscape. For all the picture tells us
to the contrary, however, the hero of it might be the
father of Gulliver quite as well as the father of Tele-
machus. The happiest product this year of the easel of
Mr. Uwino, is (79) " A Cabin in a Vineyard," a charm-
ing view, brought from the land of the giape, not a
hundred miles, we fancy, from Bordeaux. A graceful
embellishment to one of the daintiest passages in the
most delicately elaborated of all the poems of Pope, is
given, we are rejoiced to observe, by Mr. Leslie, in
(192) his well-selected scene from the " Rape of the
Lock." Sir Plume is the very perfection of empty-
headed foppishness, precisely the man in all the world
to be—

of amber snuff-box justly vain,
And the nice conduct of a clouded cane."
We venture to predict a wide popularity for Mr.
Frank Stone's (258) version of "The Old, Old Story,"
whenever it shall be reproduced in an engraving. It is
delicious. According to Mr. Charles Dickens " the old,
old story" is Death, judging from his account of little
Paul Dombey's departure. According to Mr.
Frank Stone, " the old, old story " is Love —if
we may guess from that coy maiden listening, half-
fluttered, half-delighted, to the whispered nonsense of
the comely young fisherman. In (330) every one will
recognise at the first glance the delightful mannerism of
Mr. Frost—his chef crceuvre for 1854 being a group sym-
bolical of "Chastity," as suggested by an allegoric pas-
sage of exquisite beauty occurring in Milton's masque of
" Comus." Mr. Goodall has had recourse to a more
modern poet for inspiration. A couplet in Mr. Rogers'
"Pleasures of Memory" exactly depicts the central
charm of his admirable picture of (50) " The Swing "
round which we have watched the observant faces of the
urchins wondering at the little lassie as she
" Soared in the swing half pleased, and half afraid,
Thro' sister elms that waved their summer shade."
From Mr. Goocall this season we are compelled to con-
tent ourselves with this one production. Somewhat
tantalising
But then—how many are altogether absent from the
gallery this year among our more eminent artist-con-
temporaries ! Mr. Mulready, as usual, has nothing—
resting, as he well may at last, upon the ample laurels
of his reputation. Neither has Mr. Dyce anything.
Nor has Mr. Herbert. Nor has Mr. Elmore.
And we believe we might, with a little trouble,
still further extend the list of the defaulters among the
academicians. Conspicuous, however, among all the
more notable painters who contribute nothing whatever
to the collection of 1854—conspicuous, although only an
associate—is Mr. Millais, the leader of the pre-Raphael-
ites. His absence, for once, from among the number
of competitors for public applause, is sincerely to be
regretted. For of late his unquestionably high genius
has revealed the progress of a manifest and remarkable
development. The school, or rather the revival-of-the-
school, of which he may be regarded as the chief origi-
nator, and as certainly the principal champion and
ornament—is but indifferently represented even by a
gifted disciple like Mr. Hunt, the most notable among
all the disciples of Mr. Millais—from the former of
whom we have this year (337) " The Awakened Con-
science," and (508) "The Light of the World," each in
its way astonishingly clever, but both wonderfully ex-
travagant. Although an academician, Mr. Cope, by
the way, has, particularly of late, shown himself some-
thing of a pre-Raphaelite. In testimony of which we
have simply to refer to (217) "The Friends," and to
(84) " Baby's Turn"--the latter especially fraught with
the graces of truth and tenderness.
Several humorous pictures of more than common
merit shine out through all the surrounding seriousness
of the collection. Pre-eminent among these we would
at once place (157) " Life at the Sea Side," by Mr. Frith
—an elaborate representation of the gaieties and oddities
of a watering place, pencilled with much of the fun of
Hood, and with some of the wisdom of Hogarth. Im-
mediately after this exceedingly clever performance, come
the companion paintings of Mr. Solomon—(314) " First
Class : the Meeting," and (361) " Second Class : the
Parting"—the last mentioned, however, mingling some-
what of the pensive also with the broadly humorous. As
illustrative of the manners and customs of England in
this age of railroads, love, and adventure, Mr. Solo-
mon's twin pictures of First and Second Class are drolly
and delightfully characteristic.
Several attractive works of a somewhat less pretentious
description than those already mentioned deserve,
however, to be here especially particularised. The
visitor will not fail to remark with interest
the quaint little sketch (9) of " Cinderella," by
George Cruikshank—in which the crickets, and the
rats, and the pumpkin figure very prominently.
There is some humour too in (176) "Dr- Johnson at
Cave's the publisher," by H. Wallis—at least in the
supercilious expression of the serving-maid, who brings
the plate of meat behind the screen to the poor thread-
bare scholar. Considerable sweetness of expression is
thrown into the faces of the tiny toddling "Children
in the Wood," (344) painted by J. Sant, with colours
taken from the palette of the Pre-Raphaelite. We can-
not but recognise at a glance, moreover, in (390) "The
Lady Emily" of G. Landseer, abundant promise both
in skill of hand and in liveliness of imagination. The
thought is taken from the " White Doe of Rylstone."
We shall look for still betto things from the young
artist when he goes in quest of his theme elsewhere
than to the rhythmical feebleness of Wordsworth. A
smile will, we doubt not, be provoked from the lips of
the majority of observers by R. Hannah's representa-
tion (426) of "ThepicturCeoduinstteinssguoifsiNiedithadbyalietsPperteitpioosning
ter.
there are but few in the
oGue
0:1 George
g landscapes,
s"c—agrotesquepae s x
tahgi gs e rya
et
ai o. r
Royal Academy's collection deserving of any particular
commendation. Messrs. Lee and Cooper, however,
still labour together in such wise as to command every
now and then our cordial and unaffected admiration.
As, for example, in (362) that lovely perspective of
the bough-canopied road with the flock of sheep
scattered about it iu shadow and sunshine. Mr.
[ Redgraye, (212) "An Old English Sonicstead,"