Star.
London, England, 1816-05-03 00:00:00

EXHIBITION AT SOMERSET HOUSE.

- More pictures were sale to have been seat this year
o Somerset House than at any former period; and
of such excellence ;as to perpleiethe-Academicians in
their selections, who were at last obliged to send
away a great number of admirable productions for'
want of room to hang them up. Apprised of a cin.
cumstance; so highly creditable to the state of the
arts in this country, we went, full of expectation, to
Somerset Heuse ; and, if the reports above alluded
to be true, we certainly conceive that the perplexity
of the Academicians must, indeed, have been so
great as entirely to have confounded their judgments;
and that they unluckily sent away what ought to
have been retained; since we are sure they retained
weat ought to have been sent away. From the ge-
neral aspect of the exhibition we should judge that
those royal members (not unaptly called hangmen)
who had the arrangement of the picturei must have
been portrait painters, and not of the highest class;
who exercised their power to display their own pro-
ductions to advantage, without any remorse of con.
science towards others. Upon the whole, we do not
recollect an exhibition, for many years, more barren
of excellence than the present; and, with all our
willingness to give applause, we find but very few
subjects on which to exercise it. Sir Thomas Law-
rence has sent a great many portraits which, for
flimsiness and total want of all real excellence, might
vie with 11;$ imitator Mr. Harlow; who Is &bind of
key to the KaighVs defects, and must, we have no'
doubt, be very harassing to him. Had mot the
whole length picture of Lady Wigram, which is in-
deed a very admirable one, rescued him from the
abspicion, we should have been doubtful that Sir
Thomas's title had proved one of the most fatal do-
nations ever bestowed by a Prince upon an artist. Sir
Thomas will, however, do well to consider, that
though honours and reputation are very proper alp•
pendages to merit, they do not constitute merit it-
self; a truth, we are afraid, he is now and then apt
to forget.
It seems as if a little corpulency was becoming a
Mind of deadly sin ; and that to be painted and to be
lean, ought to be synonimous terms; for both our
Academical Knights have so pruned away a couple
of the Royal Dukes, that his good, honest, plump
Highness of York might gin himself with thegirdle
of his lady; and his royal brother of Sussex looks
like a strapping Highlander of eight and twenty.
In the same room is a portrait of e. Hatchet, Esq.
by Phillips, which does the highest honour to his ta-
lents—it is a perfect piece of nature. Owen has by
no means equalled his productions of last year; but
Mr. Dawe certainly has equalled his; and, it he goes
on levelling in this manner, bringing Bishops down
to beadles, he will become a very Jacobin in art, and
must be expelled the Monarchy. The term monate
chy, bye-the-bye, is rather unusual in relation to the
• arts, but appears to us very applicable to the Royal
Academy ; for the members seem to treat the este.
blishment not as a national Institution, but as an ab.
solute possession of their own ; from which they have I
a right of excluding whomsoever or whatsoever they
• please, without regard to the merit of the person or
the work, and without being called en to account for
their conduct. Nay, we understand, it was lately
very seriously debated by some of the most worthy
and liberal members, whether they should admit the
works of any artist into the great room, who was not
one of their own body. Now, against this principle,
do we enter our most decided protest. The establish.'
mint was made by the King for the general advantage
.of art, and though the Academicians are entitled to
certain benefits resulting from the profits of the Ex-
hibition, they have no more right to reject, or injure
by disadvantageouily placing, a work of merit, than
they would have to chop of the fingers of its author,
because they happened to meet him in a place where
the atrocity‘ould not be made a subject of legal pro-
secution. But to return to our remarks, ltaeburn
has several manly portraits which would be greatly
distinguished, were it not for the fatal injury he does
them by the opake unnatural skies, and the smutty
red rocks which he intends for curtains, with which
he deforms his back grounds. Lonsdale has a fine
whole length portrait of Baron Wood, in his robes,
which for dignity of character, strength of expression,
accuracy of resemblance, general force and breadth,
stands unequalled in the Exhibition. Wilkie's picture
of •• Making Rabbits" on the wall is exceedingly
beautiful, though not equal to some of his former
productions. Mulready's se Interrupted Fight" is an
exquisite picture. The various characters of the boys
are pourtrayed in a masterly manner ; the colouring is
uncommonly clear and beautiful, and the whole pro-
duction :hews him a competitor with whom Wilkie
suay be proud to contend. Calcott's 4' Entrance to
the tool of London" is an inimitable picture. If
we may venture to hint at a fault in so excellent a
work, it is that there is a little too much of a yellowish
colour in the sky. Turner's Landscapes, though
full•of talent, are sot equal to his former works.
Collins's 4f Shrimp Boys"- is a beautiful picture, and
replete with nature. Hofland's Cimon and Iphi.
genia" is a charming, ricbly coloured, picture • and
his large Landscape is beyond all question one Of the
finest in the Exhibition. The hangsmen ought to
blush at not having given this picture one of the most
distinguished situations the rooms of the Academy
afford.
We have now, we believe, touched upon all the
principal points of merit, and shall leave the oppo-
site details as a labour altogether discouraging fmm
its amplitude. We will, however, add one :stands
which is, that if the Academicians have been obliged
to reject so many pieces of merit, as reported, for want
of room, it would be it very desirable thing that these
productions should be assembled together in some
place well adapted for their exhibition: for it really
is a thing sincerely to be lamented that the very en.
eressing perplexity, ineewhich the judgments of these
worthy gentlemen weie thiev), should fall so cala.
mitously. upon the meritorious, whilst it leaves babe=
dlity to lord it so outrageously.

The birth-day cf Suaitsegaac was commemorated
on Tuesday se'unight, at Stratford.upon•Avon, by
a public breakfast, dinner, and ball, under the patro.
Ye of the Earl of GUILSORD, Lord Mmourrotr, ice.
esterday afternoon a genteel dressed young girl,
whilst amusing herself near the bacon of the Canal in
the Regency Park, the uafcetuaately fell Lao aad was
dratvaed.