New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-05-17
ART IN ENGLAND.
EXHIBITION OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY

ARE A PROTEST AGAINST THE DEGRADATION OF
ART
lyRoM THE REGULAR coRREsrorDEN OF THE rRIDUSEl
LONDON May l." Well" said, what is the
best thingr We had spent nearly all day in the
Academy. 1.-THE best thing" answered my friend,
" is for you and me to 90 and have long walk in
the Park" We went; but. even with that help it
is not easy to clear your head of confusing impress
sions after first view of some 200 pictures l
don't know why one should be expected to pro-
nounce an of-hand Judgment in print on such mass
of what are called works of art. But there is de-
mand for judgments of that sort. The Exhibition
opens TO the public on Monday, and great number
of people desire to be told beforehand what pictures
10 like and what they may safely pass without feeling
nnder any moral obligation to admire. The London
papers must crafty the desire, and do, and they
usually make better business of it than could be
expected Best of ALL when they cheerfully relin-
uuish the impossible and content themselves with
some account of the few pictures which have really
interested them, and leave the rest FOR future ar
eles.
Whether this is better OF worse exhibition than
that of last year-the stock question TO which you
are expected have stock answer ready-is not very
important The progress of British art can hardly
be judged from year to year. The state of 1t as 1t
presents itself to the public gaze in any one year
seems no reason for saying that the exhibition of
1875 is much better OF worse than that of 1874.
There are signs that the Academy has profed by the
sharp criticisms of last year its policy toward out
sders who do not follow in the traditions of the
Forty. There are landscapes, and the favorit-
ism to aeademicians and associates is less fragrant.
They have awaited themselves pretty freely of their
rights but they have not with two OF three excep-
lions, much abused them Those who exhibit aver
age about three pictures each. Mr.. Firth Is the
only one who has his fun complement of eight.
Mr. Millas and Mr.. ThOrburn come next with seven
rach and there several including the President,
Sir Francis Grant who sends six; many of them
very large canvases They do not monopolize either
the line OF the Great Gallery; nor are all the bad
pictures theirs The number offered for admission
Is said to have exceeded 5000 of which four-ffths
nearly are rejected not in all cases for want OF
ROOM since the number accepted, 1896, is 200 less
than last year.
With numbers like these it is trusm to say that
medocrity prevails. In the most hopeful period OF
English art which this certainly is not, it would
have been difficult to collect 1000 pictures, the
work of a single year, and all good or all such as
the public and the critics would agree TO be good
Nature is not prolific of genius, and even OF artistic
talent the supply in cultivated state is not album
dant Nor are all the best men represented in this
school in which D. G. Rossetti, MADDOX Brown. and
Burne jones are leading men. Mr.. Holman Hunt
sends nothing Mr. Frederick Walker is not in force
Mr. Whistler is altogether absent. Mr.. Whistler, to
be sure is an American, but the Exhibition derives
q good deal of it's luster from work which Is not
English If we limit ourselves to Judging it as dis
MAY of purely British art must shut our eyes 10
admirable pictures by Alma-Tadema and BoughtOn
and TO works Of undeniable excellence by Hennessy
and Tissot. Alma Tadema has become naturallzed
subject but neither he nor any one OF the other
three shows any sympathy with what Is called the
English school am afraid it must be said of that
school that it is before all things commercial 1t
ponts to sell The spirit of Manchester pervades
the studio There is demand for pictures as deco
rative objects and the supply is equal These rooms
the eight galleries devoted to picturesque pam
full to enter, from the mere excess OF crude cOior
Sobriety or harmohy of tints IS the exception
primitive glazing color is the rule; ana you may
almost fancy yourself reviewing a regiment OF PIC
tures in the national uniform The SUBJECTS are con-
ven+ional. the treatment conventional; decorum Is
everywhere, the nude is banished; everything is
mug. highly finished vanished, and IN frame
irreproachably gilt; and there is often as much art
in the frame as in the picture. In any one room you
ean count on your fingers the pictures in which there
the least hint of high aim, of consciousness that
art is something better than trade, OF that PIC
ture NAV do better service than-as husKln sad 100
sweepingly of Claude-assist stranded conversation
In a drawing-room. In all the rooms together there
are-I should be afraid TO say how few pictures
yvbch Indicate power of imaginative design, or
which are successful examples of the use OF that
mower Refinement of thought and method Is, nap
n;lv. a much less uncommon quality: it is in some.
There are GREAT names among the offenders great
for the moment certainly for they Overtop most Of
.ho;r ootannoraries in pOpular fame. Ii is pain
70 mention Millais among them, man capable OF
NO much and so often willfully doing bad thing.
His Fringe of the Moor, big landscape hanging In
GALLERY No l. is likely, suppose, to be one OF the
most nraised pictures of the year. 1t has technical
merits of a rare kind-rare among modern Ehgilsh
PAINTERS. / mean-there is power IN 1t when no.
body would dispute, the power to reproduce certain
facts which he saw before him at one time OF
another with hard, initiative faithfulncss-as II
reflected i'll a steel mrrOr-and even sincerity
of purpose which is entitled to respect. There
are bits of it which are charging; effects
of sunlight aud shadow. But there Is no
moro feeling in it than IN the slde Oh
house He has seen and he can paint primrose or
blue sky. or anything else but the primrose IS
yel,ow nrimrose and nothing more, and the witchery
- the soft blue sky he never elt-he has fixed his
face and hardened his heart against it. This is not
l.,dscape il is the materials of a dozen landscapes
tnubled together all gittering and cold. His Neg
lected Garden is a far less repellant picture. am
not sure but Won may there see Mllais as a land
scape PAINTER at his best, or in his best mood But
there is more tenderness In one t0uch OF COrot
brush than in the seven pictures that Millais has
painted this year. His portrait OF Miss Tenant Is
daring experiment of violently cOntrasted hues; lbs
No-the answer 10 his previous Yes or No-s thought
full and his two child portraits are as good as me-