The Sun.
London, England, 1851-06-10 00:00:00

FINE ARTS.
PYNE'S LAKE SCENERY.

Almost every week enables us to announce some
new pictorial exhibition to the lovers of art, as having
been opened somewhere or other is the metropolis.
In this manner we have successively notified the ex-
cellences or defects perceptible in the galleries
throughout London from that of the Royal Academy
downwards. Nevertheless, while we have repeatedly
found reason to eulogize the originators of these col-
lections, we have seldom had more peculiar cause than
in the present instance for felicitating them very cor-
&ally on their union of judgment and enterprise. To
the Messrs. Agnew and Sons, of Manchester, the
public are indebted not only for the display of this
noble collection of paintings at the establishment of
the Messrs. Graves, near the Opera Colonnade, but
for, what is of yet greater interest to the
mass of the community, the promise of their
ultimate re-production in the form of en-
gravings. It must surely be counted as
among the curiosities of the picturesque that, not-
withstanding the matchless beauty and celebrity of
the lake scenery of England, there has been no at-
tempt until the one here noticed at any consecutive
series of pictures by way of their illustration. For-
tunately, the task has fallen to one of the most gifted
artists of our time, one of the most brilliant among
the many noble landscape painters of our country
and generation—a worthy contemporary of Stanfield,
and the most successful among the disciples of
Turner. At any period a visit to the apartment
adorned by these five-and-twenty exquisite productions
would have proved to ourselves peculiarly agreeable,
revealing as each picture does the genius of art and
the splendour of nature as they are in England, but
our satisfaction upon both these heads is, of course,
especially enhanced by the presence of so
many intelligent foreigners in the metro-
polis, men who may here be enabled
to form something like an adequate idea of the powers
of English artists, and of the loveliness of English
landscapes. Wbat adds, moreover, very considerably
to the pleasure with chick the collection will be
viewed, is the fact that so many will be enabled to
appreciate the truthfulness with which Mr. J. B.
Pyne has delineated the magnificent scenery of Cum-
berland, as well as the poetic genius he has revealed
in the process of that same delineation. Remem-
brance will tell the majority of spectators the close
adherence to reality maintained by the artist, even at
moments when to the ignorant he would seem most to
have idealized his subject in regard to colour, to per-
spective, or to elevation. Literary as well as physical
recollections will force themselves likewise upon the
minds of most people while surveying these remark-
able drawings, representing as they do spots
of our beloved fatherland hallowed by the
residence of genius, green nooks familiar to the foot-
steps of Coleridge, sunny orchards haunted by
Hemans, woods and umbrageous coppices where
Wordsworth has so often strolled, where Southey has
meditated over dreams of oriental romance, where
Wilson has mused over the marvels of creation, De
Quincey over the wonders of intellectual speculation,
and Arnold over the miraculous truths of philosophy.
Such is the classic region whose charms have been
here pourtrayed by the luminous pencil of Pyne,
with not less faithful adroitness if regarded under
their most homely, or under their most sublime
aspects. The names merely of some of the paintings
referred to will be sufficient to remind the generality
of the beauty with which, under the hand of Pyne, they
are instinct. There is " Buttermere," for instance,
(No. 1) and this, too, under the influence of
a tempest. Then there are " Bassenthwaite"
(No. 2), with a portion of Skiddaw, and
" Derwent " (No. 3), with a perspective peeping
into Barrowdale, and " Windermere" (No. 4) as it
appears when approached from Ambleside, and " Ry-
der (No. 5), with a sombre darkness over it as if
mourning for its great departed, and " Grasmere"
(No. 6), with that wondrous gleam of light streaming
round the corner of the boulder stones in the fore-
ground, with the sheep thrown out into bright light,
while overhead in the next picture (No. 7), near "Kes-
wick," the moon floats a pale and ghostly crescent
in the watery distance of the sky. Thirlemere, Wy-
therburn, Wast Water, Lowes Water, Langdale
Pikes, Dungeon Gill Force, Ennerdale, Brothers'
Water, Crummock Water, are none of them forgotten,
each being represented with a marvellous verisimili.
tude. " Skiddaw" (No. 10) is depicted with asto-
nishing power under the appearance it assumes when
covered with autumnal snow. " Ulleswater" (No.
11) again is an exquisite composition. The
incident of the overloaded timber waggon
pausing as it descends from Gowbarrow-park, is
charmingly introduced. In (No. 14) a . view em-
bracing the vale of Keswick, Basenthwaite Lake, and
the River Greta, may be recognised one of those pe-
culiarities of colour which we have already alluded to
as observable in the Lake District, the pink clay and
pebbles lying in the left-hand corner of the fore-
ground. Another splendid painting is (No. 17), that
of the lake of Windermere, the hand of the artist
being everywhere traceable from the fleecy sinus or
mackerel sky to the men who have clambered up into
the tree tops in the frolics of the regatta. " Hawes
Water and Wallergill Force" (No. 19) are rendered
with surprising ability, the foaming cascade reminding
us in its descent of the impetuous and inspiriting
verses of Southey on the cataract. It were frivolous,
however, to attemptaaseere matter-of-fact enumeration
of the merits of this series of pictures, requiring, as
they do, more than one visit for their full
and perfect appreciation. Every one familiar with
the great and rare powers of Mr. Pyne as an artist—
and not only as an artist, but also as a poet and a
geologist, a poet in sentiment and a geologist in the
minuteness of his observation—will conjecture what
must be accomplished by him when, as in the instance
before us, he has undertaken to depict the lake scenery
of England. To such as these, and to the rest of the
public indiscriminately, we commend these five-and-
twenty most remarkable paintings, which for their
representation, not only of earth, or water, of foliage,
and of cloudland, but of airy distances and atmos-
pheric phenomena likewise, must be eulogised as no-
thing less than artistic masterpieces.

THE ART JOURNAL.
Still coupled with the Illustrated Catalogue of the
Exhibition, the Art Journal yields each month a
splendid specimen of the modern class of periodicals.
It is of itself a brilliant evidence of the progress of the
age, more especially in regard to enterprise. Wyatt's
picture of the " Fair Sleeper" is the principal engrav-
ing from the Vernon Collection in the present instal-
ment of the publication, being accompanied by
Lance's famous picture of the " Red Cap," so called
from the scarlet head gear worn by the monkey.
" Excepting Van Os," according to the Art Journal,
but excepting no one according to our own npinia„,
it may justly be said of this gifted artist, that no other
person has ever proved so successful as a fruit painter.
Foley's lovely statue of " Innocence" is the sub-
ject of the other larger engraving, a fact
which will prove agreeable to those who remember
the same artist's " Ino and Bacchus," now in the
Sculpture-room at the Crystal Palace. A. charming
portrait and biography of Claude Lorraine lend addi-
tional attractions to the number, as the seventh por-
tion of the series entitled "The Great Masters of
Art." As embellishments to it, moreover, we have
several choice woodcuts, representing some of his
most celebrated masterpieces. Among the letter-press
we must especially notice an ingenious paper on the
Guild of Art and Literature. The supplement, or
Illustrated Catalogue, we may observe, is elaborated
beyond all expectation. The researches of its con-
ductors have evidently been at once minute and com-
prehensive.

WESTMINSTER COUNTY COURT.--Yesterday, an
action was brought by Mr. Hayes, a tailor, to recover from
The O'Gorman Mahon, M.P. for Clare, the sum of 61. Bs., for
goods supplied and work and labour done. 41. 16s. had
been paid into court. The defendant said lie had paid
only that sum into court, being all he considered the plain-
tiff entitled to. These proceedings, he added, were instituted
to obtain the whole demand, it being supposed that he
would sooner pay it than expose the transaction in a public
court. In the first place he was induced to patronise the
plaintiff by seeing one of his circulars, whereinle proposed
to make a dress coat for 21. 10s., and wish—ing Ito save a
better one, he gave him an order, and was charged 3/. He
.
then gave him cloth to make a " Chesterfield" for 1/. is ,
but was charged 11. 10s. ; and on showing it to some friends
(Lau g her.) In the
at the "House," instead of a " Chesterfield" it waspro-
nounced by them to be a sack."---
next place, he supplied cloth for a pair of trotwsers, and for
spoiling the cloth plaintiff had charged 83. Gcl., besides 2s.
Gd. for altering and re-spoiling them by stitching up the
front part instead of the back.—(Laughter.) The other
items were similarly exorbitant. A witness, named Whit-
ney. thought 1/. for making the "Chesterfield" a fair charge.
Plaintiff said that the coat was a full-dress blue body coat
and a regular wedding coat.—(Laughter.) Defendant—a
wedding coat ! Plaintiff—Yee, you told me it was to at-
tend a wedding in—(Laughter)—and you wore the trowsers
for twelve months. Defendant—Why, I declare that I never
wore them in my life, for I couldn't get into them.—(Loud
laughter.) His Honour, having inspected the plaintiff's
bill, gave judgment for 30s. in addition to the money paid
into court.
THE EXHIBITION AND HOLYDAY TRAINS.—Yes-
te-day and the two preceding days every line running into
London brought monster trains filled with visitors. Oxford
contributed a large portion, as did Northampton, Rugby,
Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Manchester, Liverpool, &c.
Numbers arrived early in the day, one from the Midland line,
which was much thronged, but it was towards the evening
that the great mass came in from the long journeys. Omni-
buses, cabs, and every vehicle that could be made available
for travelling, were brought out for the accommodation and
distribution of the excursionists. The Great Northern'
brought up a fair portion of visitors from Yorkshire and the
more northern districts. Trains from Colchester, Peterbo-
rough, Ely, Norwich, and Yarmouth brought several
thousands to the metropolis. We could not learn with any
accuracy the number who arrived by the cheap trips yester-
day, no return being taken at the London end, but the num-
bers who will visit the Crystal Palace in the course of the
week will give a tolerable idea.
The accounts of the state of business in the pro-
vinces during the past week have been upon the whole more
favourable. At Birmingham there is the utmost activity in
almost all departments. The Irish linen trade shows no
alteration.