New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-04-16
THE FINE ARTS.
The National Academy of Design.

The National Academy of Design
The exhibition is so rich in landscapes that our
critical notices naturally begin with them, and We
shall say all that we have to say upon this depart
ment before proceeding to that VI lisares'
Mr.. DURAsD, the President, has nine works
upon the walls OF these it strikes US that NO.
70, "a Landscape" in the second gallery, ls the
most characteristic and tho moAt satisfactory, a.
though undoubtedly it is not the one upon which
no has labored most. Bot it has in sentiment that
sweet tranquility, and in treatment that maturity
and grace Of manner, not without ieebeness, that
always mark this artist Mr. DURAND finds his
parallel in poetry, in the descriptive, pastoral
school. lie ranks with Thomson and Bloomfield
with the poets who have & deep and just feeling
ofthe commonest aspects Of Nature and faculty
Of expression whose character indicates the kind
of satisfaction il expresses. Il is an objective
school as the Germans would say-thatis, school
which is content with the portrait Of Nature, and
does not care TO penetrate its spirit Hence there
comes to be no individual character in its works
They are pleasing transcripts Of natural scenes
as such The artist Of this school has not seized
Nature and welded it es symbol to express bis
own meaning, but what We all consciously sec
and feel in Nature he puts into graceful FORM His
pictures do not smite us with the suspicion of
something yet unapprehended by u.s. folded in the
massive foliage, or gliding along the haunted hori-
zon of the moor The pictures OF this school are
sunny and soft. We like to hang them upon the
walls in rooms where we live. There they breathe
the same consolation and reireshment over the
-,edium Of the day that the original scenes in the
landscape suesest to tho man escaped from cities
"OJoy tohnu .n hs retreat,
Immsn'i To- n amsfo.ld cars.
tn, .' s" S.,.l NJ. S so' ~ a' G' ar,
But Nature no less inspires than consoles. She
tenpts every msn in the degree OF bis genius to
WOO her profounde.t secret and in the degree OF
his genius he wins il Thus Turner uses Nature
asa means. In his famous picture of the Lo-
oomotiye and Train at full speed upon the Grea.
Western Rsiway-iti is not that scene which he
primarily wishes TO show MS, but that, only ss the
indication Of something deeper, and to make us
feel and see, in contemplating his picture oil
that the artist saw and felt in contemplating
the scene. so in that remarkable picture OF
the casting Of Welingtons statue For the
Grst moment the eye is simply dazzled. There
seems to be whirlpool only Of fire: And no
wonder at the dazzle and surprise, and no won
der at the profound and astonished satisfaction
that ensues-for into that furnace the artist has
thrust the Orient, and lnds, and Spain, and the
long line of brilliant victories, that flash along
Wellingtons career The artist thereby proves
that he is an artist in revealing to the friends of
Wellington the real Significance of the statue
they had erected. In Turner's picture we are made
to see all that oceasioned the erection OF the
statue.
This illustrates the character of the demand
naturally made by the mind upon the artist. 1t
is to show US the significance Of what we see IN
Nature The artist stands by my side and looks
over the same Landscape or into the same face
and then reveals 10 me all the character Of which
was unconscious. 1t is this alone that redeems
his creation from the charge of mere imitation,
by which we mean, mere superficial resem-
blance In the last rigid analysis, OF course, a..
art is resolved into imitation, because all types
exist originally in Nature. But the highest art
is the vision of those types aud the ability to
make all men see them. This truth can be very
clearly illustrated in Poetry. Walking in June
sunset, after thunder shower every susceptible
man is conscious Of a singular glow of feeling in
the exceeding beauty OF the moment But the
emotion is very vsgue He perceiyes only that he
has some kind Of feeling, which gradually reels
away into revery, leaving 8 sadseSs quite as
much because he could not fix the feeling, as be-
cause it was essentially mourniUl. Now to all
such men, who are of the POLITICALLY sensitive ma
ture, he will be the poet who mOat fully shows
them what they saw aud felt; and this special
service IL done for them, as one instance, in the
siih poem Of Tenuysons ." In Memoriam,' to
which we refer tie reader, beginning
"swsst a;tsr showers. anSrcsAsr"-
This hind OF success is achieved 10y Turner ana
also by Claude-whose finest pictures are the ex'
preston of that peculiar spirit Of Italian life and
climate which every poetic person perceives in
Italy.
or course, in such remarks, we 40 not mean
strictly TO compare poetical descriptions WITH
paintings, nor 90 we forget that every landscapi't
has the same theme to treat and the same mate
rial to trest it with. You may say that II tue ar
list truly paints what lie sees in Nature the same
result must DO neces'Srily produced upon inc
mind That in portrait painting, also 1t the OUT
IL. II 81. f,.e - ;pstiy drawn aud the various