The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-02 00:00:00

MISCELLANEOUS EXHIBITIONS.

The success which attended the American exhibition
of Mr. Banrard has had the usual effect, and various
others, upon similar or analogous principles, have
been constructed. In most cases, however, the ordi-
nary condition of rivalry has not been observable, for
the imitations have been better than the original,
talent of a very superior kind having been expended
in working out certain pictorial spectacles, with re-
sults more or less artistic. The works which this
new class of voluminous painting has generated are
several, and we believe that others are in progress to
swell the list.
The NORTH-WESTERN RAILWAY' has furnished
Mr. J. W. Allen with subjects for a series of
sketches illustrative of certain localities between
Primrose-hill and the Britannia Tubular Bridge,
comprising Wolverton, Coventry, Birmingham,
Chester, Conway-bridge, Snowdon, &c. The execu-
tion of these scenes is skilful and effective, as we have
already declared, while the oral discourse delivered
by Mr. Clarke is an informing and well-digested ac-
companiment. The building in which this panorama
is shown adjoins the Polytechnic Institution, to
which it may be considered an appendage.
Mr. Phillips's DIORAMA OF IRELAND, in the old
Chinese exhibition room, is likewise a clever work.
The entrance to the theatre fitted up for the reception
knd display of the picture, is prettily decorated with
a representation of the Mardyke at Cork, and the
inner room is liberally decorated as a reception
chamber. The diorama passes before the eye without
detention, and the spectator is regaled with views of
the Queen's progress through the Emerald Isle in the
autumn of 1849, beginning with Queenstown, and
pursuing the royal route as far as Belfast, that is, de-
picting those points of the journey the most remark-
able in themselves, and the most suitable for transcript.
Among them we have the Lakes of Killarney, Clon-
tarf, Drogheda, Armagh, Mingo-, and other places of
notoriety.
The views in NEW ZEALAND, by blr.G.C.Brees, the
late surveyor of the New Company, are still to be
found in Leicester-square. The circumstances under
which they have been produced establish their claim
to authenticity, and the scenery of these regions has
never before been so carefully and imposingly demon-
strated.

The AUSTRALIAN DIORAMA, by Mr. Front, at
the Western Literary Institution, a set of re-
flected views, illustrates the same rising and important
country.
The GALLERY or ILLUSTRATION, depicting the
route of the Overland Mail, painted by Messrs.
D. Roberts, Herring, Telbin, Grieve, and Absalon,
promises to take a very important rank as a fashion..
able haunt, for everything that can conduce to the
comfort as well as the gratification of the visitor, has
been supplied in an unsparing spirit. The fittings
up of the edifice (the south wing of the Parthenon
Club House, in Waterloo-place), are superb, the en-
trance hall and the ante-room being richly orna-
mented and furnished, while the theatre in which the
spectator finally finds himself is as commodious as it
is architecturally tasteful. The diorama moves be-
hidd a large opening, delineating the vicissitudes of
scenery which the traveller experiences when jour-
neying from England to India, commencing with
the Isle of Wight, the Bay of Biscay, the Me-
diterranean, and the Desert--with the incidents
appertaining thereto. The breaks in the rolling
canvas disclose several magnificent set scenes depict-
ing Gibraltar, Malta, the island of Ceylon, and Cal-
cutta. The finished style in which the paintings are
executed gives the diorama distinguished credit as an
exhibition, as well as a species of pre-eminence as to
scale and elaboration which merits the highest encou-
ragement. The fame of the artists who have been

associated in the prosecution of the work is a strong
credential of practical excellence, and the expectations
gentlemen.
But suggested by their names are more than realised.
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tyThe details of the journey across the Desert give
great variety to a subject in itself necessarily mono-
tonous ; the figures by Mr. Absolon, and the animals
by Mr. Herring, being drawn with the usual life-like
sentiment peculiar to the pencils p
enci
publicls o of
has t
But special instances need not
abi-
lity is so generally displayed throughout. The dio
rams is largely instructive as a levelopment of locali-
ch •
both heard and talked mu ,
1 ties respecting which
Mr. Stoqueler has the advantage of emanating from
an indvidual who is intimately acquainted with the
subject, and who has gone observantly
over the ground
describe.
he professes to ,
Mr. minvard s new PANORAMA OP THE Onto dis-
plays the same kind of crude art which was the
characteristic of the " three mile"
iree painting ; but as
portraitures of the several
places on the "great wes-
tern waters," the interest involved is far from in-
considerable.
Tim COSMORAMA having
been closed for a few days,
re-_opened yesterday with a slight infusion of new
_sulJecls, executed by the same artists as those whohave hitherto been employed by the proprietor. They
consist of the Valley of Tombs at Palmyra and the
Rope Bridge of Penope, in South America, in addi-
tion to the former views of Interlacken, Venice.
Rome, St. Peter's, the Kamschatcan Volcano, and
the Memnon statues. Half an hour may be
agreeably spent in sauntering through the room
which contains these pictures. Seen through
strong magnifying glasses, and fenestrated aper-
tures, the effect is precisely that of surveying either
a landscape or an architectural locality from u lofty
building, and certain dioramic effects, ingeniously in-
troduced here and.there, contribute much to the illu-
sion. The now paintings are worthy the attention
of the Amusement seekers.