New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-05-20
FINE ARTS.
Exhibition Of the National Academy.

v.
Whatever Mr. DURAND does is undenia-
blyexcclent. We had the pleasure asty ear, of re-
cording at some length our impression of hts char
acteristcs as painter. His position is assured
A quiet, pastoral Poet-a Thomson on canvas-al-
ways soothing, never inspiring-sure to please,
equally sure not to surprse--a careful and loving
student and mitator of the placid aspects OF Ma
turc, and a genius that breathes pastoral peace
over all his works-such was, IN general our feel
ing of Mr.. DURAND as an artist Ii has been con-
frmed from wear 10 year. There has been little
marked advance within our recollection, although
certainly no retrocession. As with Bryant in po-
etry it docs not seem that the artists experience
deepens and widens with time. What they paint
or sing to-day, they might have painted and
sung twenty years ago. Without nsinuatng that
either Painter or Poet suggests the remark, 1t Is yet
true that he who labors to prescsc reputation
will be very apt to cease to deserve it, The stern
claim made upon every artist, Of whatever depart
meut, is to leave what he has done behind him, in
his perpetual passage to greater achievements
1t is u terrible law, but all held to it. And Z
the history of llusrious ien is the story OF thei
unceasing advance.
This year Dir. DURAsD contributes three pic :
lures, landscape t374) Haystack Mountain,
Vermont (406) end COTS Judgment upon Cog,
n39) The first two seem to us hardly good
o. usual. No. 37l is rigid and panty to our
eye. The water does not ilow-the leaves do not
thrill 1t has not the easy grace which is the pro-
minent aspect of Nature. No. 400 has great
sweetness, but is feeble. While IL is easy to re-
cognize the artist in it, IT does not win and hold
the eye. Ii is delicate and tender, but lacks the
peculiar fascination that remember IN many
of Dir. DuRASDs pictures.
In No. l39 he essays a style. Deserving all
his antecedents, leaving the summer meadows and
the sunny skies, the grazing cattle and the quiet
.tr.aus be aims to depict the fierce shock and
conflict of supernatural powers, and in gloomy
mount IN gCIges, under storm clouds and whiri-
winds to show the work of the Jewish Jehovah
upon sinful Cog. The subject is evidently of great
scope. The work must be success or il is fall
ure. 1t is in vain that parts are good, that the
masters handling is seen here and there, II is not
mt jestc and tenible-ift does not smite the spec
tator with the grandeur Of the scene What, then,
is tie object sought by making this subject mat
ter of ait II is to impress the spectator with the
sense of divine justice, profoundly than he
would be impressed BY the simple narration-or in
a different way. Thus, Tor instance If artist
were to illustrate the call of Jesus to children
Suffer little children" &c, by picture Of Jesus
embracing a group Of infants, it would have no inn
portance us a work OF art unless there were such
celestial beauty and love depicted that it outranthe
similar emotions occasioned by the reading of the
pa. sage. keulbacll in the Dispersion OF Races at
the Tower of Babel and in the Destruction o. Je-
rusalem, grasps the theme with richness, va
ricty and splendor OF Imagination which II ex-
haustle-s. Very lew spectators consciously bring
TO those pictures what they sec in them. That is
their trum oh that they embody in commanding
form the vague suggestions, and the Hitting dreams
which visited the mind as il contemplated the
story. IL is in fact, the secret Of fine landscape
or portrait- painting which is simply the reyela-
tion TO the observer Of what was limited, but not
expressed by the the ace. The
is true Of the best so-called religious pictures.
The spectator could not anticipate fine Madon-
na whether OF Raphael of any other Master.
Ii VS. as fresh a. a new flower. Yet il was hui
man ace, human form, drawn, perhaps, from
always surprising. Hence in great works there is
nothing obvious or commonplace. They are as
natural as the sun and moon. But they are also
as adequate.
We find in this the primal fault Of the picture
before u. Ii is an inadequate and obvious repre-
scntation of the scene. The story rs not empha-
sized by the picture. IL gives no deeper sense Of
the wrath of Jehovah. There IL nothing subtle
and penetrant and persuasive in the treatment, so
that the mind rscurs, fascinated, startled and I'M
,,re.sed. Ii man should undertake to paint the
burning bush, or any of the awful incidents Of
Sinai, he could not pass, II he gave Us only
mountain side with flaming bush. The artist
mus, interpret Scripture a. the poet, a. tho
preacher does no, by the letter but BY the spirit.
The cry OF Imagination, Imagination" as an
objection Ia great treatment. is simply absurd.
IL is the Imagination in which Art is ioun.ied-
il Is the Imagination 10 which Art appeals, and il
is imagination which sits in judgment upon it,
achievements. Tho imagination. in this sense, Is
tho pcrcept,c spirit OF msn--the iateria eve
that Which surveys result with Thought and not