The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-25 00:00:00

SOCIETY OF PAINTERS IN 11/ATE I?

COLOURS.

WINTER EXHIBITION OF SKETCHES.

At this gloomy season of the year the winter
exhibitions of the several societies afford a pleasant
diversion from the prevailing dulness. The annual
exhibition of the Society of Painters in Water
Colours is always one of the most attractive, and
this year it offers no exception to the rule. There
are the old names and the old subjects, though of
course with new faces. We have Mr. Britton
Willis's inimitable cattle, Mr. Nash's carefully de-
signed interiors, Mr. Jackson's exquisite landscapes,
Mr. Goodall's picturesque Pyrenean maidens, and
many another familiar friend. John Gilbert has
but, two studies, but these show that he has not
been idle. No. 26', "The Battle of the Standard,"
is a vigorous painting, with all his characteristic
firmness and boldness of design. Horse and man
are trodden down in the struggle, but peril to life
or limb is little heeded in the excitement of the
contest. No. 193, " Cardinal Wolsey," shows the
haughty priest meditating on the king's choice of
a wife. The gloom on his brow i:lustrates
Norfolk's eager comment—
" Observe, observe, he's moody ;"

and the imperious impatience of his air reflects the
arrogance of his decision--

"No, I'll no Bullens for him."

The figure pieces are lees numerous than the
landscapes or architectural sketches, but what
there are are mostly of a high order. Mr.
Walter Goodall's " Study iu Pyrenees," No. 19,
shows a girl seated thoughtfully by her spinning
wheel. There is no story to the name, but the
melancholy attitude, and the idle wheel might fitly
serve to illustrate Mrs. Browning's pathetic ballad,
whose refrain is—
" And now my spinning is all done."

Another similar subject by the same hand " Player
in Pyrenees" is well and carefully painted, and at
once attracts the eye. Very graphically and very
naturally told is " The Sexton's Story," No. 152,
by T. R. Lamont, who has several other sketches, all
full of promise. Carl Haag in his " Halt at the
Pyramids" gives us the indications of what we may
expect from the finished picture. Mr. Haag has
drawn most of his inspiration this year from Egyp-
tian ground, " Cairo" and " The Sphinx," being
among his most prominent studies. " The Akropolis
at Athens," although perhaps losing some of its
classic association on his canvas, stands out vividly
and forcibly in contrast to softer and more smil-
ing scenes. Some of John and William Callow's
landscapes are very beautiful. Four small pictures
in two frames, Nos. 190 and 191, will well repay
close examination. Mr. Jackson's views show us
real land and water, whether on "the Lock at
Twilight," No. 298 ; "At Wargrave," No.
268; in " Sunshine after Rain," No. 106 ;
or under an " Autumn Sunset," No. 319. Birket
Foster has only two small groups on the screens,
Nos. 356 and 373, but these are eminently charac-
teristic. Some of Mr. Collingwood's sketches show
very varied powers. There could scarcely be a
stronger contrast than between a tapestried cham-
ber of the middle ages and the wild scenery of Snow-
don and Penmsemuaur, but they are each very
faithfully rendered. Mr. Burgess's " Tomb of the
Cardinal d'Amboise in Rouen Cathedral," No. 144,
is one of his happiest efforts ; and Mr. Topham's
" Spanish Letter-writer," intended for a larger pic-
ture, is nicely painted and well grouped. Of course,
we could not have an exhibition without seeing
Naples and Venice on several parts of its walls, but
Mr. C. Goodall's " On the Lagoons" is a much hap-
pier effort than the same artist's more ambitious
"Venice from the Giardini Publici." " Summer
Afternoon at Rotterdam," No. 145, by Mr. G. 11.
Andrews, is good, and his "Illustrations of British
Fisheries," No. 171, is one of the notabilities of the
Exhibition. We have the fisherman's life under all
its varieties of aspect, from shrimps to cod, from
eels to whiting, and Old Billingsgate forms the ap-
propriate centre-piece. Mr. Nash seems to have
taken a particular fancy for mediaeval drawing -
rooms, though he has a few less formal sub-
jects. Mr. Brittan Willis's cattle, sheep, and
hnracq are all excellent. Ilia _Highland
Oxen's Head," No. 266 ; his "Sketch of Farm
Houses," 237 ; " Sheep's Head," 205 ; and
" Sketches of Cattle," 188, are all admirable.
Another artist, who bids fair to attain celebrity in
the same line, is Basil Bradley, whose " Accepted
Challenge," 244, would alone preserve his reputa-
tion ; but another equally successful is a horse's
head, No. 208. Mr. B. Jones has several daring
and original but scarcely satisfactory sketches. No.
358, "A Study" (certainly not a brown but a
blue one 1), gives no unfair specimens of his vigor-
ous but wayward hand. Very beautiful are some
of Mr. Valentine Bartholomew's sketches of
" Flowers from Nature," rivalled by Mr. George
Rosenberg's prints. The ladies are not without
their laurels, and in this particular department of
flower painting Miss Marion Harrison is a formid-
able competitor to the most skilful. Her " Rhodo-
dendrons," No. 82, and " Spring Flowers," No.
155, make us forget that November fogs are in the
ascendant and frost and snow close at hand. Mrs.
Criddle is a more ambitious but less pleasing artist,
while Miss Gillies is a painstaking and industrious
exhibitor. There are many other sketches of great
merit scattered throughout the Exhibition, more
especially some of the Highland and mountain land-
scapes ; and at least we may congratulate ourselves
that so far as the Water Colour Society is concerned
our artists are losing nothing in imagination or in
execution.

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, Nov. 24.

This, morning, about one o'clock, as Inspector
Burke and a constable were standing at the door
of the police-station in Sackville-lane, in this city,
a man, who had a companion, deliberately fired at
them from the corner of the laneway that opens
into Earl-street The policemen immediately pur-
sued the assassins, but they mingled with the per-
sons passing down an adjoining street, and were
lost. Search was made for the bullet, but only some
half-burnt wadding could be found. Dublin is un-
usually'quiet.
Yesterday evening mobs attacked several bakers'
shops in Belfast, and the police had to charge the
mobs and drive them away by force.
*On Friday night, when returning from the fair
of Ballymahon, county Langford, a respectable
farmer, named Waters, was barbarously murdered
by being stabbed in the chest. He was found dead
on the publie road next morning near his own house.
No motive is known for the deed, nor is there any
clue to the assassin. The deceased was a Protes-
tant, and by some his murder is attributed to
Fenianism, as ho had been heard speaking strongly
about the Manchester convicts that evening.
The news of the execution of the Fenian mur-
derers in Manchester has not elicited any demon-
stration of sympathy or indignation here. While
every person of humane and generous feeling must
.deplore the necessity of vindicating the law by so
terrible an example, yet a deep impression prevails
that no other course was left open to the authorities
after the attempts at intimidation which were made
by the friends of the prisoners. There is reason to
expect. that it will have a salutary effect upon the
disaffected classes. They have been taught by a
certain class of journals to believe that under no
circumstances would the British Government ven-
ture to enforce the extreme penalty even for the
highest crime known to the law where it can be
constructed as a political offence. They are now un-
deceived and, it is to be hoped, will profit by the
lesson. The " national" press is, of course, highly
incensed at the failure of their efforts to frighten
the Government, and speak in no measured terms
of the conduct of the jury, the Judges, and the
Crown. The Nation, which is the most able and
respectable of the popular organs, has an article on
what it calls " the tragedy at Manchester," and
another article, headed " Hypocrisy unmasked,"
and written in the same spirit, discusses at length
the evidence given at the trial, and asserts that upon
such grounds the Crown might doom three-fourths
of the population of Ireland to the fate of the con:
victs. The Irishman is published in mourning sheets:
There is no expression of repentance for the lang-
guage which it used—indiscreet, to say the least—
while the fate of its friends was trembling in the
btilatice,