New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-05-01
NETWORK DAILY TRIBUNE SATURDAY, MAY /, 1852.

eye VIII wander from the gloomy grandeur of Nor
way and rest in pleasant New-England
Early autumn in he Frane0nia Mouataias
n72) has precisely the same value. The feeling of
the hitter picture is exquisite that you perceive
it to be ono of those rare days when the Autumn
is poet, and dreams Of the Summer which was
rs youth, and sees, in dreams, that Summer trans
figured. The seams of the distant mountains
.: the Heccy clouds shcpherdcd by the slow, un-
willing wind" that move along the outline of the
hills in No. l72-the wonderful accuracy and con-
scicntousness of the rocky-mass in the left corner
of No. 4l7-the CLASSY calm of the stream-the
solitary mountan sunmit-the placid sky-all
achieve their object, and make the pictures spots
of summer upon the walls. Nos. So and g.. small
pictures of White Mountain scenery, have the
same charm and value, and No. l73, a less solitary
scene than is usual with the artist, has the charac-
teristic aerial grace.
We pass from Mr.. Kensett to another artist of
undoubtod talent, but whose works are the very
opposite of good. Mr.. IYNEs, whose name is quite
new upon the catalogue, exhibits several large
sized landscapes, which betray much profounder
regard for " old masters than for Nature. They
are not sincere pictures. He is consumed by the
old landscapes. n VIEW near Berkshire (42i)
may be as good as Casper Poussin what then
Is an artist to-day to be satisfied with doing pic
lures which might be taken for Casper Poussin's
Imitation when most perfect is then most hopeless
An artist who erects Casper Poussin, or Raphael
or Phdias, or Milton, as his model, and does not
study from their models, will never paint picture
nor write poem really worth attention. Betterb
Toniers than paint pictures which connoisseurs mis-
take lorHaphaers. 1t would not be difficult to fan
cy artist who by his superior skill i'll color shou
copy The TRANSPORTATION so that his copy woull
be TIE finest picture of the two. What then
Would the artist be the finer artist of the two
What is the great and permanent value of the
TRANSPORTATION? Its conception, its thought, it
composition. That being achieved the glory Of
the work is revealed. Any pupil may paint it
afterward. Hence Ruskin heroicay says, that
the mere sketch of picture, if it more fully
veys the idea than finished and elaborate paint
ing is the true work of art. Let Mr. iNNEs look
at the landscape and if it inspires him, paint it.
If he paint it sincerely-and without sincerity his
work is northeast will not be like Casper
Poussin or Claude, or Salvador Rosa, or Turner,
or Mulready, or anybody else, because the artist
is not any one, or ALL of those gentlemen but is Mr..
INNS. # he has looked at Berkshire scenery,
and behed what he has painted in No. 424, he has
seen what no other man ever saw in Berkshire or
in any other region in the world.
That woody, scumby, dirty efcct-those trees,
oil of the same kind, and that kind unknown to
Dendrology, that earth of the same mysterious
substance as the trees and sky and rocks, are not
Berkshire, or Summer fields and woods, or any
thing to our eye, but Renaissance of a series of
pictures by Casper Poussn in damp old church
in Rome. We ere far from asserting that the art
list in this picture has copied Poussin. We have
no means of knowing if he is even familiar with
his works but we are sure that if he can do moth
inc other than this, Nature has had that work al
ready done by sundry I" old masters" and thereby
gives him the hint that he is not an artist Glance
from this to BAKERS Forest Trees, (433,) not far
from it on the right. 1t is crude in color, you
think, not mellow, not interesting That may or
may not be- but is it not reai7 Is it not glowing
with evidence of love for Nature sincere that It
lives, and is not the ghost of anothers love
for Nature? No. 424, is the type OF the old
landscapes always to be found e" qnn"fae IN the
back rooms Of picture dealers.
Mountain Stream (40l) by the same artist, has
tie same faults, but is a more agreeable picture.
1t has the same want of quality and therefore
of locality, and bit of blue sky, which might
have been puroined from many picture of three
centuries ago, hangs over the trees. CLEAN
of Sunshine, (40) in tho first room, pleases us
most of all the pictures Mr.. lryEs exhibits
And in general there is good evidence of feeling
and power in all he does. His pictures are not
hopeless pictures. They are not those carefully
elaborated and timid mediocrties which immedi-
ately extinguish hope. The difficulty with MIR.
INsEs is that he has gone all wrong, but there is
no proof that he cannot go right If he will. We
see by the Catalogue that he is in Italy. But let
him not be mastered by the Masters. The end of
the artist in studying Raphael, Claude or Titan
is not to know Them but Nature. 1t is the eter-
nal old story, we know, but if artists will paint the
eternal " old pictures what can we do!
Mr. WoTHERsPooN falls under the same con-
demnation His Bay Of POzuOH, Naples, (l6O,)
and Tore del Greco, Naples, (465) are bad. The
latter picture is very bad. 1t has neither quality,
form nor sphere-abOve oil it is not Italian or
Neapoltan 1t belongs to that unknown region
whence Mr.. IsNEs took his Viep near BERKSHIRE.
The Ponte Rotto, Rome, t95) is much the best
of Mr.. WoTHERsPooN's contributions. 1t has
richness and good feeling, and represents an Italian
scene in an Italian atmosphere. But how far,
how very far from being his own is this picture.
The overshadowing influence of other Painters is
evident all through it.
We measure these works by high. by the high
est standard, but in doing we are sure of fol-
lowing the course which the honorable instincts
of the artists would indicate. Recall for mo-
ment Turner'S Ten'eroire, not for the purpose OF
trying other pictures by Turner'S but an Illus
tration of true landscape painting and all that it