The Sun.
London, England, 1847-04-26 00:00:00

EXHIBITION OF PICTURES.
(SATURDAY.)
SOCIETY OF PAINTERS IN WATER COLOURS.
Copley Fielding is decidedly the master spirit in thi 3
forty-third Exhibition of the Society of Painters in
Water Colours. His pencil has scattered exquisite
lights, and shades, and hues, and distances, and atmos-
pheric effects over the walls of the Gallery in Pall-
mall East. His genius blooming through the pigments
of his palette, Las literally sown beauties upon the
canvass. Although there are upwardS of forty distinct
compositions from the easel of Copley Fielding in this
year's collection, we have no hesitation in awarding to
him a superiority which he has never before possessed.
We are gratified and surprised at so mach indisputable
excellence, accompanied by such extraordinary industry
and apparent precipitation.
No. 31. " The Isle of Staffa," by this gifted artist, is
of a prevailing neutral tint, giving the impression of a
dull, gross day, with the Hebridian waves surging 111)
towards the Cam-shell Cave; the sullen foam upon their
ridges blearing the view of lona on the horizon.
No. 80. " Italian Landscape, with Sea Port," by the
same, is a delicious contrast; it is glittering with a more
sprightly animation, and, although the feathery cloudlets
overhead are less like the ghosts of the Sims, which we
could wish them, it is clear, from many of the other
paintings of Mr. Fielding, that he has been taking a hint
from the Oxford Graduate. So much is this perceptible
that we shall be disposed to anticipate, in 1848, a series
illustrative of Shelley's poem, beginning—
" I bring fresh show'rs for the thirsting flow'rs,
From the seas and the streams;
I bear light shade to the leaves when laid
In their noon-day dreams, &c."
The suggestion, by the way, is not to be slighted. It is im-
possible to give any adequate impression of the merits of
the entire collection on a first day's hurried survey, nor
would it be scarcely fair to dismiss any piece (except the
most execrable) with a hurried ejaculation of contempt.
For the present, therefore, we shall content ourselves
with culling a few sentences from the note book of our
memory, mentally pencilled there as we traversed the
apartment.

No. 56. " Drumadown," by W. A. Nesfield, is a
very hazardous, and (because of its boldness) a very
praiseworthy venture. Turner in a delirium could
not by possibility have produced a more phosphoric
blaze of yellow ochre and vermillion. But we cannot
induce ourselves, nevertheless, to stigmatise the picture
as an exaggeration. We have ourselves seen a land-
scape flooded with the pomp and magnificence of a sunset
almost as dazzling and gaudy : the beams flashing up
from the lea through a network of vapours, and dyeing
their extremities as with blood ; the combination of
gorgeous colours, looking indeed more like a peep into
some celestial kaleidoscope than the farewell glories of
Dan Phcebus.
No. 67. " A Day in the Forest of Atholl," by W.
Evans, of Eton, is wonderfully clever. Seen in glimpses
through the cluster of people gathered about it, tie
picture looks like a Turner—one of the great man's
least eccentric productions. The curling and gathering
up of the mists, the tawny blossoms of the heather in
the foreground, and the crouching figures of the deer-
stalkers, are the simple materials out of which the
painter has created a very charming and beautiful whole.
No. 172. " The Hallowed Relic," by Alfred Fripp, is
cer,a'n to attract much attention, for it is a picture con-

by a mind truly poetical. There is a pathos nil
merely in the kneeling virgin by the sepulchral cross,
rot merely in the sanguinary hue of the sunset, no
mealy in the dim crescent of the moon, which,

" Like a dying lady,"

looks puny a,,wn upon the mourner; it is desolate and
pPniive to the minutest adjuncts, and the colouring Is
etpu:l:y of a character.
B ~ides the foregoing, we observe I a capital little
f.k,,teh of a " Page," by the facetious and inexhaustible
W. Hunt, as well as a sort of pictorial pun from the
same huinourist, entitled " Drawing by Two Lights."
V. Bartholomew has a very brilliant and natural com-
poiition of poppies in a china bowl, with orchard-fruit
scattered over the table. The exhibition is unusually
itorious.

Amongst the nobility and other patrons present we noticed
the folhwing:—The Duke of Newcastle, the Earls of Elles-
mere, Jersey, St. Germains, Powis. &c.; Countesses Grey, St.
Germains, Jersey, Powis, and Dowagers Essex and Morley ;
-Bishops of London, Winchester, Lichfield, and Chester;
Lords Monteagle, Colborne, Charles Townshend, &c. ; Ladies
M oateagle, Charles Townshend, Grey, Clinton, &c. ; Sirs
Edward Sugden, Edmund Head, Walter James, &C. ; Ladies
Head, James, &c.; Dr. Whewell, Mr. Rogers, &c.

COWES, ISLE OF WIGHT.
(PRO3I OTIR Ow CORRESPONDENT.)
FRIDAY, APRIL 23.
DARING ATTEMPT TO BREAK INTO THE NATIONAL