The Sun.
London, England, 1857-05-04 00:00:00

MONDAY EV ENING, MAY.

THE ROYAL ACADEMY.

(FRIVATE VIEW.)

The bereavement of the r.)y:11 Family, by. the.

lamented demise on Thursday morning of the last,

of King George the Third's children, H.R.H. the

Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester, closes for

a while inexorably against the general public the
gates and doors of. the Royal Academy. The

same melancholy event even precluding the Acade-

micians on Saturday evening_ from. entertaining Her

Majesty's Ministers at the annual banquet given

by them now during ninety-eight consecutive sea-
sons to the Members of the G-avnnment and to
some among the most eminent of their contem-
poraries. Otherwise than by reason of the same
calamity—the doors of, the Academy would have
been flung wide for the first day's public Exhibi-
tion. Fortunately for ourselves during the con,
tinuance of this untoi ard. delay we can. fall back

upon our recollections of the " Private View" on
Friday morning Having consumed some two
hours most agreably on Friday, morning in
saun-
tering round thennble suite of rooms constituting
the noble gallery of our Acadamicians, we can,
even from that one day's view (ivadequat3 though
one day's view necessarily is in itself for the pur-
pose of minute criticism), speak of this " Eighty:
Ninth Exhibition of the Royal Academy of ArtS,
authoritatively so far nevertheless ! We can speak
from our instant impression, from our own vivid
remembrance=though at the. same time, of course,
from a merely " partial" and not by any means
"satisfied" experience. The Private Veiw, how-
ever, while in one respect it was little better than
to " whet the edge of appetite" for further
inspection--at the same time is, quite enough
in itself to enable a keen • observer
to arrive at a tolerably accurate estitnata of the
general merit of the whole Exhibition collectively.

And,viewing it thus; we do not hesitate for one in-

stant to declare, the impression upon our mind
by our visit to the AculeNT on Friday, is beyond
ail manner of doubt, that the " Exhibition for
MDCOCLVII. is decidedly above the Average !
There are really some few noble works of art in
the, present collection. And the general run of
pictures now hanging on those " storied walls,"
we take to be excellent.

Unfortunately, it is true, there are several very
considerable Defaulters among the Associates, and
even, be it said, among the Academicians them-
selves ! Vainly do we look this year for some
of our chief favourites ! Briefly be it said there
is no Thomas Webster, no Edward Ward, no
Frederick Lee, no Allred Elmore. The pre-
Raffaelites have nothing for once from Holman
Hunt—" The Scapegoat" of last year, we sup-
pose, being enough and to spare for two seasons
at least ! Even the President himself reposes for
once upon his laurels—as he may, well do with
perfect safety to his reputatiop, those same laurels
of his not being by any means as yet, to all ap-
pearance in ".the sear and yellow leaf." But,
while eminent names like that of Eastlake and like
those already enumerated are a-wanting—the
Gallery for' Fifty-seven is full of its consolation.
Pre-eminent above them all—there is this season
a Mulready, and such a Alulready ! A picture
worthy in every respect of that illustrious and
veteran • artist—perhaps of all men the chief
among the living glories of the English School of
Painting. This • picture is No. 138. " The
Young Brother"—a work, as the catalogue in-
forms us, painted by this clistingui lied artist
"For the Gallery of Pictures presented to the
nation by the late Robert Vernon"--in pursuance
of the will left by that munificent public bene-
factor. So that everybody can look at " The`
Toung Brother" with a, double satisfac-
tion !

It is: their own—,a pr* actually
in their own possession' The subject is full of
nature, of simplicty, and..tenderness. A flaxen-
headed infant-boy in the arms of an older sister
(herself not far
_advanced in her. teens) being
tickled. into baby-laughter upon the smooth shoul-
der of that elder sister (who stands witlyher back
-be you) the hand of an elder brother. Which
picture is rimtt in its playfulness ; and the group-
ing, the anatomy, the colouring—all appear to us
perfectly exquisite. Nothing possibly could be
better than the flesh tints, whethcir in regard to
the child, the rural bonne, or the rustic stripling !
And as to the general colouring of the picture
already alluded; to—what with the girl's brown
dress and yellow boddice, and lilac apron, and red
cloak, and the youth's blue "smock," and the
I baby's white raiment and golden locks, and the
azure sky overhead and verdant lawns in the
background, all charmingly harmonised—the effect
of the whole is literally delicious : and in so ex-
pressing ourselves, we utter the words most truth-
fully and most unaffectedly. It is a painting—
small, though comparatively it is in its dimensions
—that a nation may be well praud of. It is a
work worthy of being an example of the powers
of Mulready, and, as such, of being added
to the treasures of the Vernon Collection. Again
—besides Mulready—we find another, and a very
notable Academician, this season, redidivus ! Her-
bert, to wit, who, in No. 230, presents to our
view (opening thereby to our mind's eye a new,
phase in his genius)—at once a sea-scape and a
landscape. It is entitled, "On the Coast a
France,-in the autumn of 1853 "—and spreads
out before us a wondrous sweep of coast scenery.
Leslie has but one picture this year, but it is one
much mote prefentiouS, and much more worthy
of Leslie than. his solitary contribution o±, last sea-
son. " Sir Roger de Coverley iu Church" is the sub-
ject of it (No. 213)—a painting in which the artist
has caught the humour Of the "Spectator"—caught
it unmistakeably, and, thepfore, of course, delight-
fully. Yet, so accomplished this that the gene-
ral effect produced upon the judgment of the be-
holder is anything but satisfying. The colours
are crude and raw—the hero of the scene appears
to be deaf and blind to the progress of the prin-
cipal incident, and while several of the country
bumpkins, in their suppressed appreciation of the
fun of the thing, are undoubtedly vary humorous,
the majority 'of the rural congregation are so
many rustic pokers in dimity and emockfrocks !
Dyce's single contribution to the collection, No.
107, '• Titian Preparing to Make his First Essay
in Colouring," is at once beautiful. and marvel-
lous. It is one of the loveliest pleas we have yet
seen put forward in behalf of what has
always seemed to us absurdly called Pre-
,' Ra,phaelism ! The dreamy face of the boy-
genius, hanegligent, natural, musing attitude, the
flowers scattered about him, heldin his hand, lying
on his knees, strewn upon the green sward, the
' statuette of the Madonna, the very blades of grass
in the turf, the very twig, and bud, and leaflet
in the adjoining trees and thicket—all is wonder-
ful, all is beautiful ! How different this small
picture to the two large and absolutely hideous
exhibitions of the same extraordinary school by
the undoubted master of it now-a-daysthe
young and gifted, but fitful and eccentric Millais
Those two all but miraculous pain ted abominations,
NO. 283, "ADreaui of fast : Sir Isambras at the
Ford" [call it not a Dream, Mr. Millais, but a
Nightmare !*]---.-ind No. 408, " The Escape of
a Heretic, 1559 [wherein the pretended monk is

pouting. his lips into a ",face" that would have
been either the, fortune or the despair of Munden
the most face-making of comedians]. Danby has,
in No. 245, a delicious and go'rgeous view, upc[n
a ruddy morning ce old, of_" Thf; Court, Palace,
and Garden of Alcinous," Landseer almost
excels himself in two at least out Of his three
remarkable contributions to the present collec-
tion.
No. 77, " Scene in Braemar—Highland
Deer, &c.," with the oddest little wild
•
[ rabbit, perking up on one forefoot, the, other
1 droopedakimbo—all inquisitiveness ! And better.
still, No. 315, "Uncle Tom and his wife for
sale"—a Landseer (even while remembering that
it is really by Landseer) quite wonderful. Stan-
field, by no means equals this season his great
work of last year—" The Abalidoned." But,
then, it is true that was a masterpiece,
and masterpieces are not productions of every
day achievement. Maclise has an astonishing
collection of Pencil Drawings under the- head of
No. 1159, " The Story of the Conquest," and
one large painting No. 78—illustrating a memo-
rable incident in the life of " Peter the Great,"
when he was visited by William of Orange in the
ship builder's yard down at Doptford.. But. this,
and divers other remarkable contributions to the
Academy Exhibition we , must. speak of more at
.ength in our Subsequent dissertations.

LATEST 7'W"
U.A v

Lord Elgin, Envoy Extraordinary from the
British Government to Cnina, embarked at Mar-
seilles on the Ist inst., on board the English Post-
officr? packet Caradoe, for Malta.

Letters from Smyrna, of the 23d ult., state
that a ship belonging to Tripoli, having 45 slaves
on board, had been seized at, Tehesme on the de-
mand of the British Consul-General.

The Municipal Council of Smyrna had ordered
that.the slaves should be set at liberty.

According to the news from Constantinople, of
the 23d ult., Ismail Paella, commanding the
army of Anatolia, is removed to the command of
the army of Aiabistan.
An Imperial order has been addressed. to the
Greek. Bishops, directing them to carry out the
reforms in the administration of worship decreed.....
in 1856.

The squadron of Admiral Lyons arrived before

Malta on the 231 of April. Preparations were

making, for the 28th, to give a brilliant ovation
to the admiral, and 'to have a triumpbaL entry to

the officers and the crew,.

sEI3,NE, MAY 2.

Col. Denzler, commanding the republican troops,
and a member of the Grand Council Of Neuchatel,
has published a letter addressed by him to the
Cantonal Government, blaming the acceptance of
the Treaty without consulting the Grand Council.
The Colonel, expresses a hope that the People
and Grand. Council of Neuchatel will declare

thetpselves against the Treaty, to which he con-
siders the status quo preferable.

BERLIN; SATURDAY.

I 4 this day's sitting, the Chamber of Reprc-
senatives•rejected the law proposing a tax upon

mines.

the Upper Chamber, the first, section of the

impost on manufactures has been thrown out.

MADRID, MAY 2.

In their sitting of Friday, the Cortes proceeded.

to the formation of bureaux.

AL Martinez de la Rosa has been named Pre-
sident of Congress. MM. Maquiera, Ferreira,
Alonso, and the.. Count of Vista-Hermosa have
been elected, Vice-presidents.