The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1870-08-20

not be painted though the chief offender, L. G..
Farrer, avoids the castigation of the critics by
exhibiting most of his later pictures in a private
studio. He is now absent in Europe and it is.
fair to him to say that he has recently attempted
landscape subjects of much higher pretensions
than the stumps and swamps and posies which
were his first love in art. lie does not, to be
sure, paint these subjects very well; he tell
us nothing of the gloom and the mystery of the
high Alps; all is near, hard, and sharp in his
rendering OF nature he never veil of rosy
mist or the serene OF mountain SUBMITS blended
with distant cloud. But he has at least chosen,
of late, subjects that are worth the attempt to
paint them well. And Mr.. Il. G.. Farrer's talent
such it is, has certainly this quality; that
though it does not produce remarkably beautiful.
true, even salable pictures, it yet gets itself
talked about very considerably; and the man
who is enough talked about is in the way toward
success.
R. NJ. Staigg of Boston sends perhaps the most
notable pictures of any to this exhibition. The
very tints of Titan glow in him exquisite painting
of flesh. a portrait by her in the south gallery
is of the richest and strongest pieces of color
ing that have seen for years. Another portrait
in the west gallery, Italian model, girl of
fourteen years, dressed in all I" the tiger-mOth's
deep-damasked dyes merits high praise for its
splendOr of color and sweetness of expression.
Staigg is easily the king of color in the present
exhibition. In sharp contrast with his lustrous
and nesting Aesh-tiDts stand the and meaty
reds of Amcs, who had, and lost, the opportunity
of making the finest portrait in the exhibition.
In his likeness of Miss Blance Butler lie has just
missed that opportunity. The full-length figure,
the pose. the action of the picture excellent.
Could Staigg have painted the hesh-tints, the
portrait would have been worth coming far to see.
But Ames must leave the fine face piece of
paint, and not of nature.
Carpenter displays carefully-fnished portrait
of Alice Cary, the poetess. 1t is, however, the
face of a hopeless invalid, and the likeness is
therefore painful in its truth. Hennessy depicts
William Cullen Bryant seated in the midst of a
New England landscape upon which falls lurid
"light that never Shore The
picture is wonderfully colored and true in its
details of form; but it's weird tone, an unhealthy
purple which has been manifest from the begin
ming upon Hennessy's canyases, and which has
deepened and attained its greatest virulence in
the present work, prevents proper appreciation of
thorough and careful work which has gone into
its treatment. One feels as if he were being
poisoned when he contemplates the fostering
greens that come from this artists pallet
Hennessy's eye requires 90 personal correction -
in the matter of color.
Hennessy's perennial pair of lovers punctually
re-appear, this spring, this time seated upon a
fOwery crag that overhangs the sea, but the old
familiar faces, from which every spark Of glad
ness, hope youth, and enthusiasm seem to have ut
tery died away. Hennessy lovers present, every
year, a deeper shade of deep melancholy. There |
is no sunlight in them, he can neither conceive |
nor paint a smile; the gloom of New England |
itself envelopes these hopeless countenances, that
muse upon :" dreadful time, dreadful eternity, no |
comfort anywhere The gloom of Hennessy's |
lovers is extreme that it borders upon the |
ludicrous. WinslOw Homer sends a number of |
very rough sketches and studies, which indicate |
the fertile power of this artist, but are quite |
unfinished and hasty.
Swain Clifford contributes an effective picture |
OF Mount Hood in Oregon; William Page and |
Huntington exhibit characteristic portraits; and |
a fine statue of Psyche. by the lately deceased |
Kuntze, completes the list of works which this |
column gives one room to notice.
The May anniversaries have passed without |
attracting much attention The Simmer exodus |
to the country is not yet begun, owing to the |
continued GOODNESS of the spring.