New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-06-04
FINE ARTS.
THE ROYAL ACADEMY.-H.

/
| .bo Po,o1 Academy For technical skill, and for a
| certain COSMOPOLITAN spirit, the French collection
certainly hears away the palm. There are few PIC
| tures in i'll may mention those by Ioulmouche'
! Saintin. Vibert Chavet. and Zamacols-wmch carry
finish TO a point beyond which it seems as II 1t would
NOT no possible 70 90: beyond which think ii surely
would NOT he desirable TO 60 and if technical excel
lence were the same thing with greatness the pro-
ductons of these with those of some others VINO
work in larger style, would deserve to be called
great But no one who insists that there should DC
something in picture beyond and above mere work-
mansbip however excellent, will allow that there
is any picture in this years Salon that can justly DO
called great Much more, then, are we Obliged TO
render This verdict in the case of the Royal Academy
Exhibition. where we find a far lower average OF
mechanical skill than is to be met in the French gal
leries and far less notably thoughtful and poetcal
work than has been often on these walls them
selves of late years.
If the Exhibition were looked at less in the light
of picture-far or even, less in the light OF an an
nua show and more as tournament OF art, noble
game of emulation, and were held at longer inter-
walls so that Englands best men could have time 10
crow and TO produce works that would he measure
of their growth. there would be, am sure, a lar
wOrthier result than is seen under the present sys
TEN. Art. in our days, has become just as much
there are not in the world more than dozen men,
all told who are artists without any reference to
buving and selling, who practice their art for the
mere love of it, so that as there many and many
thousands of artists in the world all painting avow
edly for money. and competing for customers with
as much eagerness as if they were called tradesmen,
il is perhaps idle to wish that art exhibitions were
managed differently suppose, as things are, artists
would not sell rs many pictures they do If 1t were
not for the exhibitions, and, selling being their OBJ
ject of course so long they find this machinery
serves their ends, they will continue to employ 1t,
but nevertheless il is fact that, neither IN Franco
nor in England are the artists able to make
| a frst-rate exhibition every year. Each
exhibition depends, after all, upon a few pictures
which are much better than the average all the ex
! hbtion being, it may be said in passing, much too
large-the French one absurdly So Now, there are
| not new men enough, every year, to keep up the
average number of exceptionally good pictures, and
the public is obliged to depend upon the productions
of such groups of men of talent with and then
| man. or even more than man, of genius in them
as are developed at very uncertain intervals of time
q whole generation having sometimes to live and
die without being blessed with the sight of any such
! phenomena And when a group of men of this quail
ity does appear, their works, if they deign to show
them must take the public eye before those of in
ferior men. and there will be such eagemess TO
see them and a curiosity of the mass greater even
than the admiration of the few that it ought not to
he matter of wonder if the artists who command all
this delight are tempted they often are, to over
work themselves and to offer the public unripe fruit
If we could have exhibitions once say, every seven
years. instead Of now, every year, and If at each
of these septennial shows could see the picked
productions of each man during that time we should
| / hn1a and artt volp uT,tit lV
more
For me. Mr.. Mais might have kept all his pictures
in his studio this year though, on the whole. / am
not sorry TO have seen THE BOyhOOd of Raleigh"
The most popular of his pictures this year is A
Flood " there is getting at it after o'clock for the
Gordon of solid English mothers who stand delighted
and pitiful about this wee washed-away baby, the
rising flood {" freshet," Americans call it, in an
English river has carried out of farmhouse win
dow in its cradle. The baby, all unconscious of its
danger land the cradle is to be upset next minute
well-painted snag in the corner having quite made
M its mind to do the wicked thing. the baby is all
intent, watching two goldfnches on a branch
that bends above it. and Mr.. Mlais has
shown his profound knowledge of baby
nature by substituting a perfectly vacant
look, or as l heard it called by one enthusi-
astic mother, "a tOOsy mOOtsy' expression, for the
conventional smile that an ordinary painter would
have thought the thing in depicting such a scene
The babys face, in fact has no expression whatever
and it's eyes only drawn 10 the birds by their
ton and perhaps by their song but it is ooyoungto
| have reached the observing age and does not really
see that they are birds at all. Better than the
baby is the poor little half-drowned kitten, which
stands on the cradle-edge, too frightened by the
water to heed the birds, and uttering plain
tive cries. The picture is no doubt pretty
I IL,
think. 1t is much better worth engraving
than much of Millais's recent work in the nursery
line "My First and my Second, Sermon" for ex-
ample, which seen to-day in Mr.. Graves's handsome
window in Pall-Mall side by side with the "Opheia'
and the "HuguenOt Lovers" look insignificant
enough The pity Of it, in Mr.. Maiss case, is that
there is no other man in England, whose work is
seen of men, who is "A match for his technical
strength and skill and thus It's double unfair of him
to do less than his best-unfar to himself and unfair
| TO the public who, just as they are beginning TO
know him, are offered this disappointing fare. A
Flood is pretty, for ten fifteen minutes and It's
painted with a great deal of talent, but it is not
beautiful and it teaches nothing and was wasting
time in Mr.. Millais to paint it. The BoyhOod of
Raleigh" which shows us Raleigh and his half
brother sitting on the ground by an old bit of sea-
wall, listening to the wonderful tales of a
sailor of the Spanish main, who points far away to
the wonderland where all his wonders realities,
is picture much worthy of the artists powers
though which is of no earthly importance, the pub
lie cares much less for it than for his be-drOwned
| baby The boys are five manly little fellows with
thoughtful handsome faces looking older than their
years by reason of their old-fashiOned dress The
sailor does not help the picture particularly; his
face is not SEEM as he sits with his back to us and
there is more of his body than we can be grateful
for. What queer pass we come to, are we not