New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-05-08
THE FINE ARTS.
r,hibition Of the National Academy.

Nv.
Mr.. CguRcH's Wreck (l45) is one OF the
most popular pictures in the exhibition. 1t is OF
,be same size and general character as his Beacon
,f last wear and is in no manner inferior to that.
M. remarkable perception of form, and feeling
,f grandeur and gorgeous effect, rather more i'm
,ledthan expressed are very evident in this picture.
There is conscientious accuracy of DETAIL also,
which in the Home By The Lake 1850 very nearly
DESTROYS the breadth, but which the artist shows
clearly enough that he can easily master. He is
without doubt the first of our marine painters.
Indeed we do not now recall any one who at all
dispates the palm with him. But the depart
nent to which be incnes requires study and skill
ie proportion to the splendid results with which
II rewards pursuit. The realm of vapors of at
nospheric and cloud effects has had no Poet like
Turner, the man who sat upon his hOuse-top
little removed from London, studying the yellow
fog, and making it immortal. Nothing in Nature
is 30 gorgeous, nothing so dazzlingly suggestive
as the play Of light with mists and waters, and
this changeiul Pushes of the sky. 1t is region Of
artistic labor fascinating by the very evanescent
character of its eHects-a sphere in which mode
rate success is high praise.
Technical marine pictures, bsach-scenes, fish
trics, &C., treated without imagination, are the
lowst form Of this department. In Stanheld's
pictures there is always something small and
commonplace. He cngs to the wave and sands,
but does not soar and revel in the universal Jubi
lee ofNature around the sea. There is too exciu-
.ye a character Of matter Of fact in his pictures,
4 III MI infar eet ma
No. AS Mr.. CHURCH betrays genuine poetic i'm
culsc. The surf in the foreground combng over
the ledge and siding heavily up the strip of beach,
with that cool, crisp, salt complexion o.
sea water il a mastery success. The close OBJ
seryatioD, the quick appreciation and the skillfu
manipulation shown in this part of the picture,
reveal several Of the finest elements OF the Artist
Rut the highest triumph we remark in MIR. CHURCH's
marines is the soiemnity of the sea. In other pic
tures we recall certain features of ocean eharac-
ter. certain aspects of calm and Storm certain SUI
percial apd striking details of effect. But through
and above all the fine detail Of Mr.. CHURCH, which
no one surpasses, his pictures have a broad and
grave character--a meanng--a thought, which
slevatcs them from sea-peces into works of art.
Whoever has been overtaken by nightfal upon the
shore, anu, us tiit ch" rohO iOhS
Of the seas fury drifting by or lodged among the
rocks, and us he looked across the heaving waste
felt in the gathering gloom its melancholy wall
made visible, so that by sight and sound he was
alphabetically enthralled-he has had that feel
ing of pathetic solemnty in the ocean OF which
MIR. CHURCH, this year, and the last, has shown
himselft the Poet. We still find his pictures lit
tie too rigid and metalc-he has not yet mastered
the atmosphere so that there is want of richness
and flowing grace in the impression This, Of
course deprives his landscapes of that air of nfni
ty, which is the characteristic of Nature, and
especially of the ocean-and which is, in fact, the
final grace of Art, for it cannot be acquired with
out that sympathy of which Mr.. CHURCH shows
the presence.
In the Home by the Lake 1867 there is an
auistc transparency of distance, and beautiful
reality, which continually allure the eye. But it
cngs to that delicious distance. 1t will have
none of the foreground. The sail that floats ghost
like, upon the dreamy calm beyond, will not spare
attention for the more prominent boat in front.
The unity Of the picture is thus disturbed. 1t is
divided into two. But this landscape is fine Illus
tration of many of Mr.. CHURcH's best character
stics. This and his other works are pledges OF
the rnre results of that tropical tour which we
understand the artist proposes
lie Cheae and le Rosseau tiiS) by DEcAMP,
one of the most noted painters of the modern
Paris landscape school, will doubtless provoke
much meuiment and scornful criticism, but IS
nevertheless Il work well worth study. In any
case, how infinitely preferable is this to the Old
picture of Mr.. lNNEss, Rirer Ford (447,) just
below, at the left, and to the timdity of the Scene
on Saco Rirer (i46,) at its side. 1t is preferable
because the touch of master is evident all through
it. The force of the picture is very remarkable.
You think, possibly, that man who could do such
thing knows nothing of color or of the landscape.
At all events. however, tyros paint no such pic
lures. An Impractical and doubling hand is evil
dent in No, 446, and we beg You to mark not only
the difference but the character Of the difference
between the two. What do you think Of the
color or knowledge of landscape in the Stumbled
wool OF No. Az, or the sentimental weakness Of
453l In No. AS, DECAMP evidently aimed at a
single effect, and he has attained it. tree is
wrenched and eveed by tornado. which slides
over the bending grain. There are many things
which the picture has not and it is a bold and
fantastic caprice. But it is within of genuine
knowledge and power, and while it scoms all detail
and color and relies for its effect upon grim
smearing Light and dark, it is still an evidence of
intelligence and skill Of high order. The
nervous feeblenoss, which covers SO much canvas
with inadequate limitations OF the details of land
scape, is annhlated by the searching vigor Of this
picture.
Much more beautiful and pleasing than this,
however, is Suma'er Hours, Q9l by Mr.. GEo. A.
BAKER, whose contributions to the present exhi-
htio,, ,lncn hin, among the hest of our artists