The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-09-14 00:00:00

not yet ready. Our remarks, therefore, must be very ge-
neral ; and our readers and the artists contribr

to the

exhibition must consider them in the light of fir
sions rather than as deliberate and fully consi

In all exhibitions of paintings

or other works of art

attention is first

to efforts o

,osing character, while modest merit, displayed in smalle
ompass, has to wait its time, to be discovered in whateve

s and great pic

;hives have, in Liverpon

redly a greater pie-eminence 'afforded ihem than grea

merit, if-unknown, can win. As an instance of this,--let
the visitor of this exhibition cast his eye over the large

picture, No. 1, in the (
door of room, No. 1. It ,
able painter of portraits, and a gentleman who might b
supposed to be capable_of producing something beyond

)gue, which is

over the

portrait. The subject is .1 Pandoii ;" but the treatment
of it is of the most bald and almost ludicrous description.
A heavy woman—a ton of naked female flesh—is seated

on a clOud, with a

face, Merzury, who is lying on the same cloud, as it sig-
nalling to some one below has his feet turned up ! Little
cherubs, with wreaths, &c., in their hands, hover above
the pair, and complete the picture. There are, of course,
some good bits of painting in the forty or fifty square feet
of canvas : but as a picture, historical, allegorical, or ima-
ginative, it is most unworthy of the painter: In No. 140,

a Portrait of David, Hodgson, by the same artist, we have
a very different picture,—an excellent likeness,. full of
character, and very clever. But Mr. Patten ought now to
be convinced, by his many failures, of the wisdom of
sticking to the line in which he possesses- undoubted
ability, and of abstaining from attempts, for success in
which he evidently does not possess the requisites.
In this room are some other large subjects of superior
merit, from amongst which will have to be selected the
prize picture. Amongst these is No. 57, " The Burial
of Charles 1.," by A. Johnston, whose picture in last
year's exhibition was 'considered as scarcely second in

1 ,
the finishing
and colouring, of which is wonderful,
although scarcely coming up' to our views of a good
painting, when viewed as a whole. The face of the
widow, upon the body of whose' murdered husband the
ordeal is being tried, is one of the most perfect pieces- of
painting we ever saw, and will bear any examination.
Most of the other figures and accessories are painted with
similar finish; but, as we have already said, the picture
wants harmonizing to render it a perfect whole. Perhaps
it would be improved if the figures in the background
were less prominent, or mellowed down.
No. 148, Quitting the Manse,'.' is another large
picture by G. Harvey, and possesses'-some merit, which
however might have been displayed in- less compass. In
fact the mbibition contains not a feve ambitious efforts
to fill a large area of canvas, in which the artists would
more have studied their advancement by confining the
size of their works, and bestowing the necessary attention
to detail, colouring, &c.
We shall, next week, devote a column- to a more parti-
cular notice of the exhibition ; and, probably, may take
first a glance at- the pictures produced by our Liverpool
artists, of which we observe several. At present we can
only find space to enumerate a few of the names of the
exhibitors ; amongst whom are—A. Hunt, Miss Jane
Naswyth, A, W. Hunt, P. Westcott, W. -G. Herdman
(the secretary), J. B. Pyne, R. C. Leslie, D. Roberts, R.A. ;
A. Carbould, E. H. Carbould (whose painting, 472—
"the Departure of St. Paul from the Shores of Great
Britain"—oaght to, attract the attention of. every lover
of high art), F Pickering, W. Linton' W. Strayer, C.
Fielding, Charliffe Nasmyth, Augustus Egg,' H. J. Bod-
dington, E. V. Kippingale, T. Clater, A. Cooper, R.A. ;
F. R. Lee, R.A. ;: W. Huggins, E. M. Ward, A.R.A.
(who has contributed a clever • picture, No. 272—" the
South Sea Bubble ; a scene in Change-alley, in 1720"),
G. E. Herring, J; F. Herring, jun., F. H. Hinshaw, W.
Havell, W. L. Windus, R. Ausdell, &c. Some of the
above have contributed largely ; and, althougb.-weobserve
a few paintings, which may fairly be set downas very bad,
the average is much above mediocrity.