.v . ;.. ' 



BRITISH INSTITUTION. 



~~~ 

 WHILE strolling along the sunny-side of Pall Mall, on the opening day of 



the British Institution, we amused ourselves by making a mental summary of 

 its contents. Our past experience in these matters rendered us profoundly 

 prophetic. There would, we felt sure, be a great deal of game a few deer 

 stalkers some young ladies portraits smuggled in under fancy titles a 

 brigand or so two or three cupids or seraphs and of course a Falstaff. 

 No. I, in all human probability would be a huge expanse of canvass to no 

 purpose. Such, as we found on entering, was indeed the fact. 



With the first picture in the exhibition we have this fault to find, namely, 

 that it robs the public of several feet of wall, under the false pretence of re- 

 presenting a pair of " Peasants of the Cordilleras :" and though the affair is 

 done by Hayter, the checque-taker blankly refuses to allow any discount for 

 the disappointment. The peasants are a pair of milliner's apprentices, who, 

 in the absence of their mistress, have tried on two fancy dresses, which they 

 finished half an hour ago. A demure old lady characterized them as being 

 the most forward, impudent hussies in the whole exhibition : the demure old 

 lady, however, was wiong; but to tell the truth, she had not yet seen the 

 tipsy trio (No. 85) perpetrated by Mr. Etty. 



The Fortune Teller (CLATER) is showy but not picturesque. An Old 

 Sailor, No News, and two or three other studies (GOOD) are very meritorious 

 attempts. This gentleman is making considerable progress : but we cannot 

 help noticing that in his Sea Shore with figures, the rocks look like wood ; and 

 in his Long -promised Halfpenny, the characters are but indifferently grouped. 

 No. 9- A Solicitor (H. WYATT) is tastefully arranged and tastefully co- 

 loured. No. 13. Fishing Boat coming ashore (C. FIELDING) has all the 

 freshness of nature; it is reviving to look at it ; but it is too small to be fully 

 appreciated in its present situation. JJriving a bargain (T. WEBSTER) is 

 well composed and carefully painted. Tiie Widow, by the same hand, is not 

 so good. 



No. 19. Tlie dangerous Playmate (W. ETTY). Cupid is here sporting in 

 the lap of a maiden. Mr. Etty is fond of painting poetical subjects, but he 

 does not throw upon his canvass the mind of a poet, he does not invest his 

 characters with a dignity above common life, with expressions appropriate 

 to characters moved by uncommon circumstances ; there is no invention in 

 his compositions, no refinement in his forms : what is the reason then that 

 he is the idol of artists, the magnet of academy students ? It is this he has 

 produced some extraordinary combinations of colour, and in flesh tints is 

 supposed to give more brilliancy than any other painter ; his whole mind is 

 absorbed in colour; his love is but skin deep. Cleopatra or Venus, it is all 

 the same to him, so that their flesh tints come up to the mark, and their 

 transparent forms sparkle with jewellery or repose on crimson drapery against 

 a Titianesque sky. We confess we have enjoyed a few of Etty's paintings as 

 much as any one, but we give up to the mercy of his enemies, if he have 

 any, the picture above-named, as well as No. 85. Venetian Window during 

 the Carnival, which ought, certainly, to be guarded by a lantern and a pla- 

 card. We also surrender to condemnation No. 358. Fair laughs the morn ; 

 the art by which the colours are arranged, and the figures grouped, is too 

 obtrusive, and there is no redeeming loveliness in the female heads. 



No. 26. A Sketch. No. 59. Highland Game. No. 129. Ptarmigan. No. 

 130. Pheasant. No. 148. Grouse. No. 149. Black Cock and Gray Hen 

 (E. LANDSEER). The whole of these are among the most extraordinary 

 works of art we have ever seen, the execution of the plumage of the birds 

 appears miraculous. Nature has been fairly coped with in these pictures, 

 there is no shrinking from her details, no cutting-up of her breadth, no 



