The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-11 00:00:00

11.1)YAL ACADEMY EXHIBITION.
We regret, for some • reasons, that we should not
have found lei,ure and space tor an earlier notice of
this the great exhibition of. the year; but we believe
that in other respects advantages arise from the delay;
the feeling of novelty has in this lost its influence, and
our remarks should now be more deliberate and
mature : and deliberate--and mature they ought cer-
tainly to be, considering how few and limited they
necessari:y are, when compared with the extent of
the subject. We often feel" that the works of our
artists have but little justice done them by the press.
These exhibition rooms contain some of the best
results of at least & year's work of six or seven hun-
dred hard working men ; and, while not unfre-
quently in the daily papers two or three
columns are deveted to the consideration of one
literary production, a single column written after a
hasty and jostling view of the exhibition on the private
day, too often dismisses the matter. Our weekly and
even monthly contemporaries do very little more with
their better opportunities. The truth is the suhject
is overwhelming to us all ; so vast, so sudden, and so
brief in its duration ; and at a time when so many
other subjects and objects of interest are claiming
attention.
This year's exhibition probably manifests a greater
equality of merit than has' been seen in any previous
one ; there are many clever pictures, but there are
very few of great excellence. The progression of
the academy, as observable in the course of
several past ,years, seems to be towards a
general and highly respectable mediocrity. And
this would be a result quite in harmony with
the history of all academic institutions hitherto. Yet
with all its short-comings our egnibiti. n is probably
superior to what any other country in Europe could
at present produce. The number of oil pictures is
considerably below the average of late years ; partly
because there are several of very large dimensions;
and partly because the dark side of the octagon has
been left uncovered—an arrangement for which the
hanging committee deserve respect and ap-
proval, seeing that they would rather incur
the responsibility of increasing the number
of pictures necessarily rejected, than hang
any in a position in which it would be mockery to say
they could possibly be seen.
.Speaking generally, the
landscape department is that in which the nearest
approach to excellence is shown ; the subject pictures
are next best; and in portraiture, for which our
English exhibitions used to be remarkable and cele-
brated, there is a decided inferiority to former years.
The qualities which seem generally to be most in
repute and most sought after by our artists are
cleverness of handling and picturesqueness of arrange-
ment, qualities by no means to be despised, but not
to be put in comparison with the higher require-
ments of correctness of drawing and appropriateness
of conception and expression. In colour there is a
very apparent and painful deficiency : gaudiness
and crudeness, and brightness without brilliancy
are the too general characteristics. The English school
has prided itself on its colour, and in many instances
has exhibited fine arrangements of colour, but in
scarcely one has it shown a comprehension of the
highest and most difficult excellences of colour, those
of quality and tone. Even Reynolds, with his exqui-
site feeling for colour, never realised these as they
are seen in Venetian pictures, and its some of the
finest of the Flemish school. He felt and knew this,
and to the end of his life was un wearying in experi-
ment and endeavour for the mastery of them.
Maclise exhibits nothing this year, which is rather
remarkable, but all the other academicians have
contributed more or less largely ; no one, however, has
sent anything which is likely to increase his previous
reputation, or which is even worthy of it, excepting
Landseer, who maintains his high position with
admirable steadiness ; and Turner, whose best pic-
ture, however, bears internal evidence that it is no very
recent production. This picture, by Turner, No.
206, is styled " Venus and Adonis,' and the con-
ception of it, especially of the landscape background,
is very poetical and grand. It is a sketchy pro-
duction, but one manifesting much genius, a most
true and exquisite feeling for colour, and great
mastery of execution. How admirably painted is
the leash of dogs in the hand of the parting Adonis;
they are worthy of the pencil of Veronese; and the
whole picture is almost worthy Titian him-
self : it is indeed just too like Titian,
and this is a circumstance that somewhat
withholds our admiration, for the landscape
background too strikingly resembles that in Titian's
great picture of Pietro Martini, to leave us at liberty
to give Mr. Turner the full credit of its conception.
His other picture, 81, called " The Wreck Buoy,"
is in his more recent and less intelligible style. It
seems intended to represent a returning calm after a
storm at sea ; and, although when closely viewed, it
may somewhat shock our sense of resemblance to
nature, it is a very different thing when seen from
the opposite side of the room, as we had an opportu-
nity of seeing it the other afternoon. It then con-
veys some feeling of the desolate extent of the path-
less sea, and of its mighty conflict with the powers of
air, which the rainbow of hope has appeared to soothe
and to subdue. It is well worth while to endeavour
to see this picture as we have described, and it is but
justice to Turner to do so.
13. " The Dead Lion," by Landseer, a study we
believe from a lion which died not long ago at the
Zoological Gardens. It is not a very pleasing picture,
but admirably painted ; and the background repre-
sents a worthy solitude for the monarch of the
desert to die in.
196. " The Free Church," by the same, represents
a small section of a Free Church party, which seems
to have assembled in a barn, or some such rude place,
a species of accommodation to which the Free Church
has been too frequently obliged to resort. The pro-
minence of the three dogs so comfortable in the
foreground and behaving so well, may, however, be
more generally regarded as indicative of the freeness
of the church. The picture is freely, but admirably
painted, with fine subdued harmony of tone throughout.
The head of the old man is something in the manner
of Rembrandt, and the expression of devotion is
finely given.
72. " Lear disinheriting Cordelia," by Herbert, is
scarcely equal to many of his former productions. It
is very compactly and nicely grouped, and the subject
is pretty fairly expressed; but we have heard little,
commendation of the picture ; the tone of colour too
much resembles the manner of fresco, a style in which
it seems the subject is being painted in the House of
Lords.
117. A coloured study for a fresco in the House of
Lords, by Cope, is a beautiful little composition, well
conceived and composed, and very carefully studied,
although so small.
23. " Religious Controversy in the time of Louis
XIV.," by Elmer, is a fine picture, well composed,
and very carefully and well painted : in these re-
spects we think it is the best work he has hitherto
exhibited. There is also much variety of physiogno-
tnical character in the heads, but the action
of the picture is too abstract and untangible to be felt
and understood; the interest of the subject is of an li
intellectual rather than an emotional kind, and there-
fore not well adapted to the capacities of art.
8. " Henrietta Maria in distress relieved by Car-
dinal de Ritz," by Mr. Egg, is another picture very
nicely composed and well painted, and is a subject
more within the compass of art; but we do not feel
that the dignity of history has been reached, or that
the interest of the subject has been well expressed;
the picture does not rise above the class tableaux de
geure.
43. " Omnia Vanitas," by Mr. Dyce, a Magdalen,
half length figure, with her hand on a skull; it is
very little more than a study, carefully, though not
very well painted, from a rather coarse model.
60. " Amoret Chained," by W. Etty. Mr.
Et ty e
whichx show
very
exhibits onlythr ee or fourbad smalldraw ainng,
d unimportantubpaiesing
works,
and sometimes offensive conception, and but little of
imperfections of his
that excellence of colour which sometimes redeems,
e
loartleh4re4lwp. so,ltkoHar.eeldeeneam;
byth:lr.
" Alls Well
that ends Well," is only a head and bust, the text of
which seems to be— manyE a Eastlake, aikineP,ct from

_______ ._ .......
" It were all one
That I should love a bright particular star

And think to wed it," So.
It is most carefully painted, and stews some pure
nice colours, but is rather weak, as Hell in men:al ex-
pression as in other respects.
107. " Life's Illusions," " Sic transit gloria mundi,"
by G. F. Watts, is an adventurous production, of
large dimensions, and bold poetic conception, belonging
to the allegorical class, which has been from time to
time essay ed by great men, but which no one has
hitherto succeeded in rendering permanently interest-
ing. The ardent mailerknight in pursuit of the
phantom bubble, who heeds not the precipice over
which he will be hurled at the next plunge, is very
intelligible and impressive; but we cannot say su
much for the female group which is ascending on the
left. There is throughout the work a want of that
pictorial excellence which is especially essential in
works of poetic and allegoric art.
188. " Sir Guyon fighting for the Virtue of Tem-
perance," from the Faerie Queen, by u wins, is a
picture whose weak, unsatisfactory execution derogates
greatly from its other merits. It is poetically con-