New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-04-18

period Of their growth Their emit sion r-qaices
l.ssre which we do not possess tbey are ths fruin
Of soj sored long sgo. ana yet are on po ~
ing; tbsirs is the charm OF haling and OF repese aud
We stil always on the mach.
There causes. shch We Indicate on,y in their gao
trsl features. eIplsin why superior Grtss. born
siucng u have only been developed away from US
Educated il Europe. they must rensn thes in order
to preserve tie fertility of their geciOs They i've
at Florence, like Poser., or at Rome like era EfJrd
| or az Dusseldorf, like Lea'ze Fixed At Nsw.York
bnsfoh or Phiacephis they ~oud be Loot in Goa.
h'ctiog cur ents forgotten by the country which
now their repa'a,ion illustrates Let n. not hope
then to behold suy Of heir works 81 Tbs Exhibition Of
the Nstiop. Academy Of Design. OF Sculpture
there nothirg Of grand religious or hist ,riesl paint.
iDes, there is nothing TO praise Portraits and Land.
'c'pes nase Up Tie mvs Of tie display. OF these
We proct I'd TO touo obsefv sti0ns on the fIrrn4r.
when ve have ssen the Portraits executed By Rs
p'sel Titan Psal Verorese, Tntore,to Vantyck,
Rubers, We understand how a si,sle hu ran he,d.
Transferred TO Canvas, suffice to inmortalizea
Ian Moreover artists great as these have never
di daned to employ all tue resources Of their genus
OF ihis sort Of weFk-.nd it we're r;,t.k. To .uach
only sacoodsry importance TO this brsnch Of Art.
becsuse 1t demands less Of effort less Of skill than
tbs complex combinations of q historic canvns A
portrait car be chefoeuvre o. complete In ia
hind a. the grancest composition. Bot i. is 90 oiti
cp to srive at this Pc lection that spite Of the end
| less number tnzt nowadays are made without CO a.
| ing the are comparatively very few which attain
to the celebrity enjoyed by such portraits as those Of
julius II. Of the Fornsrina, and Of Caesar D,rgia
Nor we regret TO ssy, are my of tho portraits 10
Nstof al Academy OF Design to b. reckooed among
| tlese few for might write as the motto Of
critique on these Productions this Of tho Latin
poet
| STUNT ma. ,unt qurtsm hons suot mediocre p,au"
Some bad few sooc. END tolersbie many
Let % psss over those Of which there Is nothing to
be ssid, and those about which too much might be
said to occupy ourselves exclusively VITA some which
recommend themselves to notice by certain qualities
they possess rather than by the names which So.
pended n them.
Mr.. Henry 4. Darby Displays two pictures
which have particularly struC by their fidelity of
expression their accuracy Of color, and the method
OF once large aud intse gent With which the subject
is treated. In his portrait of DR. Condct No. 49,
Al in a smaller piece NO g. there qualities appear
With 6istuciness which at once places their author
! in the fret rank Of our portrait painters.
In this respsct we prefer the true manner Of Mr..
Darby to the talent of Mr. G l.. Elliot. who permits
hin sef to run too much into the monotony of the
Epg,ish school. No. "a resembles, in conception
and realization No So which, in its turn, resembles
! No. no. and so on. In this last WORK, the violent
contrasts OF color in the back gound evidently hurt
the relief Of the head which is otherwise well
modelled.
We confess, we never copld discover whence the
English school derived the idea Of these impossible
back GROUNDS, which some painters so fond Of re-
producing in their portraits. Tue science Of grounds
is of paramount importance to the production Of
effects in works of this kind, and the point Is TO
make them contribute forcbly to the relief of the
principal ,ubject. For this purpose there are two
mebods to pcse the subject vita landscape, drsp-
eree panels furniture arranged as to relieve aud
set it of; or to Isolate it in vague background,
graduated sufficiently to denote the kind of light,
end softencd to tore relative to the scale of colors
adopted. Between these two limits, and they are
the only rational ones, the English have invent ted
tbrd-fslse 10 nature, { which sometimes ssneeeds
that Of fantastic skies, WI incr ,dible hues,
often passing from the most somore dark to the
most glarpg bri iancy, through peme Of 10.
dls'ir eushable tinn This i, the method preferred
BY Mr. Elliott though he might ad an. ,geously have
adopted better one The ecsle Of his palette has
sore,hirg vhcb teems to proceed rather from will
full and preudiced determination than from consci
eptous study of nature Hence the lack of variety
in bis portraits in which we find repeated the same
Modelling n same COL Of tone the sorts OF
color ard almoet the same hsbtusl posture and atti
tude single portrait by Mr.. Elliott, examined by
itself produces more favorable estimate Of his abi
ities tbsn mary Of bis pictures compared together.
Mr. Thomas Hicks, a painter of talent, exhibits q
full length portrait on a grand scale, whose effect is
not adequate to VIA, nust have been his conception.
He bas not succeeded in filing sufficiently the vast
apartment in which the laiS, who forms the principal
subject, is Teen alone, and accordingly the work
lacks unity. 10 regard to the details, the observer
will essly recognize the hand of an accomplished ar
TIT and pencil familiar with the secrets Of color;
but truth to nature in every object is not here suf
cie n,y combined With view TO the general effect
The pre- domnsns gray tone not agreeable; the sofa
10 of form more American than erGcefuli aud the
b,sc;pths which decor ate the window are drawn up
in lipe whose nonotonous regularity, though often
seen In our houses is not favorable to the Of
composition in picture. To this portrait We gressy
prefer that Of Mr.. verplank, NO. 9el where the
quslities OF the artist are displayed much more
advantage ously, a. well as that OF Lucretia Mott
1901 in which the Quaker costume requires no gray
tone. In this head Mr.. Hicks produced work
marked by artistic talent and intelligence.
To have done vitt the grays, lie. US rsmIk
that the enormous full length portrait mo. 2sJ by
Mr.. George A Baker, is not even as successful
A. the Nc. 4S, of Mr. Hicks, which serves il for
a pendant; in respect OF celor 1t Is utterly want
ing. The light in il is dull and defa.e the ac
ce,eores are the reverse Of artistic The bales Of cot
ton the sbips bow and other objects, s1ggest that