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    J 4Z2 * Ttin -& i a pjsiy ; [No. s^giTft...

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    THE WATERrCOLOTJR EXHIBITIONS. £This art...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    Patient Grissell. Griselda: A Tragedy; A...

    Tikis SrfHCtf S ? W % ^^^ ^^^^ ' ^^ 0 ^^ ^ exis ^ ce'Veiaucer ^ cations to Petrarch ; bgfMr . Arnold floe ' s __ not think it worth his while to intimate that his , p lumes areT 6 ^ weS ^* rae . ^ ovje , . it mu ? J be observed , is Wt a ^<^ iy ' ' s ^ Qffti ^ - ' :. ^* * $ ? £ rWP # ; P oin te ° f it ; he ?* P 7 » , « e ? amo , thing tfasbeej * done . ] , ...-, „ ¦ .. ; < r ,-. •; ,. . . . , ¦ . . •¦ ' .-v- V" -V ' i ' u ' i ; - - ' '" After this Jt ; ey 6 lfttion , any further- criticism on Mr . Arnold would be supers fluous . WeshftU- therefore , only r add . that he se ^ ros to Mve , a gen ^ us . fQr pla < aary . ~ - -He introduces into his drama-a Troubadour song , of which the burdeais— -. . ¦ , ¦ ; :,- „ . .. ' / - ^* ¦ ' < LA - -i V-i '' ¦ '' ' " ' • ' ¦ Better live and loye and rue it , ....... , Than not live and love . \\ Ve believe it is Ter inyson . who ha ^^ eyipusly , declared— - ,, " Tis , betterto > fc ' aye lp-frfed ; andjost , : Than never to have loved at all .

    In a " Cbngratrilary Address , recited in the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford , on the Installation of the Earl of Derby , " Mr . Arnold lays it down thalt ¦ " ¦ ' "" "" . ' ... , , . ' : ¦ . ¦; - ' -. ¦ __ . Peace hath victories of deed and word . But Milton has been before him , and has already told us , in his sonnet to Cromwell , that . .. ' " Peace hath her victories , ETo legs than war . _ There are evidences of poetical faculty all through Mr . Arnold ' s volume ; —but now obtained , ? . ' . . . ¦ ,. ¦

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    The Waterrcolotjr Exhibitions. £This Art...

    THE WATERrCOLOTJR EXHIBITIONS . £ This article wa 3 written before the opening of the Royal Academy , but has been postponed on . accouist of its . length . and the . pressure of other matter . ] The two Societies of Water'colour Painters have opened their respective galleries for the season . Following the rule of " First Qpme first served , " we give precedence to the , New Society ' s exhibition , which has taken the lead in point of time . As it is , on all occasions , a pleasantex task to approve , than to condemn , and as , within the-limits of perfect fairness and good j udgtuent , nios t works of art afford wide scope for criticism ^ we shaH , " not hesitate in choosing pleasantly where a choice is . open to us . We shall not resist-the laudable inclination to speak ; well of those pictures- in-which feeling ' s -o'bsepyatipi ) , tlioiiglit , Or' JOxnvy prevails over professional dulness ; . nature . over conventionalism ; animation of

    any kind over mere human still-life , hired to be libelled by thchitw ; the . true over the false ; the . positive over . lhe negative ; , the-good over , the bad .,. Looking individually at hundreds of pictures exhibited , this ,, year , we can often praise , with that ^ implied reservation . of the power ^ o ' ^ lanje ; can see here a beauty ; there i struggling haif-fbrmed ideaj or , there , perhaps , a free , ' original conception . But—and we say . it as much in , just ice to painters as to our judgment , liable to be called f' ^ question for abase Of laudatory adjectives—we find that the main idea which we have gained from visits to all the exhibitions opened this season is the idea of anarchy . We still hold to our opinion that the Society of British Artists , whose exhibition in Suffolk-street was recently noticed by us , is the body which shows most signs of the true spirit . Neither society of

    water-colour painters , though the very limitation of the means they work with is in itself a bond of union , comes so near as does the Suffolk-street society to the condition of a commonwealth . Much is wanting , even there ; and we can only say that the Suffolk-street—or " British "—painters are , as a body , less anarchical than the other bodies which are so national on the point of distinctive titles . Therefore let it be understood that in almost every instance where we give praise to a painter for certain' Qualities of -life ' own , we omit the just censure which would apply to hundreds in the same degree as to himself . We find it necessary to make this general reservation . It would be a tedious work to enforce it in particular cases . Yet the approval which we should give unqualified to men who are only able to present one occasional phase of merit , would have a damaging influence on the standard of criticism .

    There is less brilliant display of . individual character than we are accustomed to expect a £ the gallery of the New Society of Water-colour Painters . The striking contrasts are all among the very well-known men ; and certainly the strides from Warren ' s pictorial commentaries on Scripture to Corbouxp ' s Chaucerian expositions of Corbodld ; and again , from these or either of tljem to the gorgeous realisms of HAansvthe bright impromptu prettiness of AbsOlon , or the / lumpish creations into which Mr . WEUNfcinf sometimes manages to put intelligence and feeling , do cause us a little loss of breath . But away from this chain of unequal eminences it ia , on the whole , rather flat walking . In English landscape , an exceptional branch . ' of English art for which we omit no opportunity / of testifying our highest ,. regard , there must be a sameness of subject , if not of treatment : and the proportion of English landscape this year is greater

    than we have ever known it to . be At the New Water-colour Exhibition . In this department Mr . Bennett stands first . His " Glen Tilt , near Blair Athol , " ia »; fine dashing piece of water-colours , equal to David Cox in its rugged strength of outline and in its free atmospheric space and truth . A . true alliance of power and beauty has been'formed in the caec of English landscape-painting wiich , as we have said , is exceptional from the conditions under which art languishes in this country . After Bkhbett may be named Why infer , McKfwan , Aabon 'Pbnt . ey , rind , aB a landscape-painter no less than as a painter of peasant life , W- I < ke . To , Mr . Edmund Wahren , a 8 a young artist . wlxb has to support , the honour of a family name , we give separate ? notice , principally on account ) of his very careful work called " Nutting "—* a study in the school of CojfQTA . Bi . Bi . Mr . W-fttitEN has already attained a skill and precision oft ^ ftch by no mean s common ; , and if he has yet to learn the secret of making hJM . pifsturea like nature in the gross as much as they aid like in every petty detkib ~ -harmQntoa 6 and vraisettftlable as well as vrai—he gives promise of soon niaMi ^^ g ithaj ^ 8 eicrot > nd of turning it to good account . - % Wi & n & tfl 4 k % / 1 fiT ' Wajuwjx we have a real respect . As the president of a bodyicfi pakitew ^ . he , seta 'the example of conscientious ¦ labour and c / oiirjplote ^^^ j ^ aS ^^^ SS ^ i ^^ represqnta ^ id ' nB of Eqitern life are well known , and WgnJiy pH ^ qqt ffud ^ oj ^ thj * ground all liia > . critics concur in hearty approval . Hi * , moat ambitionsi conceptions of paored subjects are not , always rewarded wttfrtaeaeM ; butt wluexel lie fails it ; is from n # Vfthif < tf caro . The principal w ork

    by-9 M & v WAkftif *'' "tJH ** . &&& , <&¦ ' ** & « crfpeutaf stdry of ! B & BeTcatt » a Wm * ei * tilw Isaiah Theiall / gaant ; 4 or * BeMof ! 1 * ie " caniels ^^ ttkiit't ' We burning akV , and t ^ ft ) long soadovwfon the saTid , <* Te ' BiorG iiotic ^ abfepoiirti of ^ this ' pictu ^ th ^ airra tne flgureii ' bflHe " cbief '^ ersoni in'the' ' scene ; tSfri-W ^ REii ' a " Hakar th ^ Egyptian , and her 8 & toT is A leea ' elabor & te comtoo ^ iiSoh ^ but thfe ; ihterelt beinl ? concehtrated in the figures the result ii fav 6 tir ^ bTe t & tWii " WotK , eVeh whw ' oortSpar ^ a With the larger ^ and mttrcrrifrlkingpicbufe . ' - ' " '' ¦ f ' ' i : ! 3 " > > Mr Hague ' s four contributio n * includeithfee of - ^ heraosfittractive pictoresin the gallery . They are marvels of skill and finish—of skill that disdains' aU artifice , -and of -finish- that- is well bestowedj-dtrwn -to—the lateBt-touch . —«• The - Antecharftber of the-Tribunal of the Inquisition in tlie Djucal Palace , y ^ nice " shows the incident of a patrician brought before the Council of Ten . It is not however , in the action , or in the figures—certainly ! pot ; in the faces—that the merit of tb . e ; picture lies .. Mr .. Hagujb , resembles , a certain , theatrical manager who makes Ins players the abstract and brief chronicles of " the costume of the

    period . " Take away the ^ terrible Cougneil of T ^ n , or Jet thern remain but as so mahy Venetian tnagri ^ tfts jwhd have " dropped iti"' for hcv ' particular business and there would be the . same qualities-to admire in Mt . Haohe ' s work ; ' just as there are in his " Town Hall of Oudeflarde , * ' which contains a group quite as impressive as that of the' Council of Ten and their victim , though the group which gives animation and colour to the second u Interior" represents merely 4 < r the Meeting of the Corporations . " The third of Mr . Hagete ' s most imposing pictures is our old friend " II Molo-r-Venice . " / The scene is painted with Hague ' s utmost brilliancy—and that is all we ; need say about it . -On one of the screens will be . found a small work of Mr . 'Haohe ' s , called " The Scrivener /' It displays the same care in design and finish as lie "bestows on his large pictures , an , d it has | the . advantage pf-greater character . . Mr . Cokbould is himself in this exhibition—as he usually is . There is no mistake about his personality ^ whether in suit of mail , or . in doublet and hose ,

    on horseback or on foot , love-making or jousting , or ( saving your presence ) getting drunk in a knightly manner , when 'tis merry in hall , and beards wag all , over the most correct flagons , goblets , chopines , and liquor-containing vessels of every quaint , queer , form . that Wardour-street and Hanway-yard still keep for us as ipdubitably genuine relics of those jolly ; swaggering , swilling days of old . Here is a picture ihawhich-we ; have Mr . Corbould all at once—^ a grand meeting of Mr . Corbould with himself in the chair— "Ye Lymnerre hys Dreame , " to wit . The . artist ,. or . ' . ' lymnerre , " has fallen asleep in the midst of lus work—has fallen , to give his own statement of the case , " into a fitful and uneasy sleep , after , a long protracted reading of varied and antagonistic character ; " While in this condition—very capitally depicted by-tbe-by— "he dreams of patrons of Art . departing to the Crimea . ; of himself as , not having a leg left . ; of failing into the Waters of Oblivion , and vainly struggling to call for the drags of the Humane Society , whose men are gone to Greenwich Fair . "

    It would take columns , pages , threefold supplements , to tell the Cprbouldisms which Are here collected . The corporeal part of the picture is , full of . idjfiv . eriypainfceddetoils such as the books , meerschaum , anct . S . tra ^ b ^ rryVh ' digaiherings , that we ' recognise' "honest portraits of ' the' " accessories" which have been painted into sec-res of foregrounds of Mr . Cokboui . i >' s pictures . These , with the half-rrecumbeiit form of " ye lymnerre" —a thriving limner with healthful cheeks , linen as the lilies of the field , rings and chains and studs , and boots of price—occupy one corner of the view . The rest contains the dream—not & dream , strictly speaking—at least , if it be one at all , it is one in which the dreamer has it all his own way , is methodical in his lazy , conscious madness , and deliberately marshals incongruities , not to haunt and trouble our repose long after we have seen them and have gone on our way , but to be laughed over , comfortably and coolly , at our leisure . The only piece of nightmare fancy is the black pool in the foreground , on which floats the palette of the drowning

    painter ; on which , too , float hprrible bubbles—mute cries of agony—and from which two despairing hands protrude , and clutch at the vital air . All besides is pure drollery J there are pretty and humorous fancies , wide-awake fancies , which we should be glad to bargain for in the way of dreams , if certain of our old possessions in that way are likely to be useful to Mr . CoRBoni-D ; there are knights and pages ; dragons of Wantley , damsels , brigands ; a baked , potato can and its bearer , of the fourteenth century ; a young lady sketching a prae-Raphaelite picture , and attended by a vivandivre ; wild hunts of Ltjtzow , and any one else you please ; Greenwich Fair theatricals mixed up with medievalisms ; anything , in short , mixed up with everything else , not in a dreamlike way , we repeat , but in the whimsical waking mood of a graceful materialist , such as we have ever known Mr . Coiibould to be . Of his other pictures we cannot make room to write more than this—they are intensely Corbouldian .

    Finding that apace begins to run short , we must deny Mr . Augustus Bodviek the few words of hearty condemnation he has tried with all his weakness to deserve ; and must leave unsolved the problem of Mr . Absolon ' s four pictures in one frame , which four pictures being each the representation of a female form , he calls by the names of four English counties , and describes as " the property" of a gentleman who has recently entered Parliament , we believe on the literary interest . What can Mr . Absolon mean ? We will take leave of him , notj in his enigmatical mood , but as the painter of a very artificial but " very pretty" pastoral , called ' ? A Kiss ; " the picture being one of those innocent falsities wo like to persuade ourselves into believing- A red-coated squire of the last century is kissing a girl in a hay field—a fact the possibility of which we do not dispute ; only , squires were no more like dancing-masters in those days thnn they are now , or than village maids arc like ballet-girls . In taking leave of Mr . Aiisolon , we take leave of the New for the Old Water-colour Society .

    Here is a wider field to explore ; but the Old Water-colour painters , who are a week later than their brethren farther west , must accept the consequence in curtailment of criticism . We regret this ; in the first place , because the leading men have each sent -works , of special mark , and , in the second place , because wo have a great repugnance to the use of general , terms in speaking of any work ot art , good or bad . There is nothing for jt , however , > but : to say that Mr . Cam . IIaag ' s groups and figure-studies glow with' the warmth and brilliancy ot southern light , reflected from every variety of beautiful object in southern nature ; that Duncan's English pictures havo the opposite charms incidental to climate , charms that aro : enhanced by a veil , aa other charms have sometimes been ; that Richardson paints up-hill in Scotland , and down-hill in Italy , In ' old aet-drot > manner ; that Gil » e « t — But tro must give special and particular

    notice to , GifjnmWr who 1 ms filled a largo epace in the centre of the farthest win * with ^ a magnified econe from the- Illustrated London News , representative m 4 Her Mjyjeaty the Queen inspecting the Wounded Coldetrcam Guards in t' » e Wdjl bf Buckingham , XVlace . " There is matter for much thought in tn » pictorial . Chronicle of tho l > rmn . " , All the figures aro portrui «»; and (»» te " g tionally or not we are unable to flaj- ) expressions are > given to most of the lscc

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 10, 1856, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10051856/page/20/