New-York tribune., 1901-01-21

Anchises." with the goddess radiating life
well as beauty, and awakening the gray
earth and bare branches to blossoming as in
Shelley's verse; and at the other end In a
radiance of rose pink, is The Bath of Venus -
one OF the more recent OF the painters Aca-
deInic studies. and more successful than The
Birth Of Venus" in the adjoining room with
figures which do not float in the air with the
fneffable serenity and loveliness of the incom-
parable Botticelh in Florence These are the
central pieces, and here and there on the walls
are minor themes. Hermes fastening his winged
sandals for flight and Ulysses dying in sight of
the sea.
Sir William Richmond has lived in Italy.
Greece and Egypt and his Hammersmith resi-
dence, Beaver Lodge is well stocked with
souvenirs of his travels. Scores Of his sketches
have been transferred to the New Gallery
These are usually notes Of color or rapid i'm
pressIons Of scenes which pleased his fancy
Drawings Of the plain of Argos, from Mycene.
the Castle of Assist, the Alcazar of Seville St
Marks Venice; the Sphinx Pentiticus the levels
of Sparta and hundreds OF other scenes suggest
hours Of Incidence rather than serious prepara-
tion for artistic work. Portraiture rather than
landscape was the natural bent of his talent
and his marines are mere tranquil blue surfaces
a. match white marble columns. His picture of
Ane Snoie at SplZZla, near Via Regg1O, where
Shelley's body was found, is a more serious ef-
fort to combine the effects of barren rocks and
slittering seas. and it is shadowed by the melan-
choly which memories of the dreary spot inspire
This effect is marred in the gallery, where three
Of the Observation-Disclosures children, Cecilia
Violet Gnd Hyacinth perched above il, and
where Mrs. Rawlinson, Lady Mary Carr Glyn
and Justice Kennedy's daughter are comfortably
pos ID about it, looking bright and cheerful.
The cartoons and designs for st. Pauls are
proofs OF the enormous amount of work ex-
pended in decorative schemes, which have not
perhaps received as just an estimate as they
deserve. In the balcony the drawings and
studies of heads, hands. shoulders, feet and
draperies are reminders of the toilsome processes
of portraiture. Mr.. Sargent's brush work seems
10 be dashed of with a rapid stroke, but the
5nethods are slow and laborious. and Mr.. Shan
mon has been known to spend fortnight in
painting womans elbow; and Sir William Rich
mond's studies show how deliberate are his own
labors. His examples of sculpture include an
athlete. an Arcadian shepherd, the same shep-
herds head, and Lady Richmond in marble
His fame, however depends mainly upon his
portraits and academic pieces. In portraiture
he employs simplicity Of treatment. and inter
prets character by natural, unforced methods
Purely decorative effects are neglected. ana
minor consequence. His portraits of children
are unaffected and simple those Of Lord Archi-
bald Campbelrs son and daughter being good
examples. His men are painted with dignity
and seriousness and his women are well posed;
but these works have not the pulsating spon-
taneity, the sense OF suddenly arrested motion
and the supreme vitality of Mr.. Sargents por-
traits. The classical themes are marked out
with learning and scholarship but where is
the ideal beauty of the poems on canvas Of
Burne-Jones. who created dream world OF his
OWN; or where is the majestic Imagination of
Watts's mystical aIlegories; or where is the
modelling or coloring of Leighton's academic
studies? With all his refinement of sensibility
TO beauty. in which he is a genuine Greek, Sir
William RichmOnd's artistic powers have never
been developed beyond the point of elaborately
careful labor. Perhaps this emnently gifted
man is almost too scholarly in the completeness
of his artistic education TO be capable of strong
creative impulses of the splendid audacity of
genius. !. y. F.