646 



Fine Arts' Exhibitions. 



[JUNK, 



collected, that the greatest artists have ex- 

 hibited some of their most striking triumphs 

 in clothed figures ; Titian's Senators, Ra- 

 phael's Apostles, the rich costumes of Par- 

 megiano, and a multitude of eminent names, 

 display the resources of the pencil to their 

 fullest extent, and live to this hour in an 

 admiration altogether as lofty and universal, 

 as the most naked display that ever pro- 

 ceeded from the easel. 



The common dictum of the modern 

 artist is, that the utmost development of 

 the human figure is not indelicate ; or that 

 those to whom it is such, have the indelicacy 

 in their own minds. But we know that the 

 fact is quite on the opposite side ; that a 

 totally undraped statue, whose purpose is to 

 resemble as closely as possible a totally un- 

 draped male or female, is offensive in the 

 degree of the innocence and modesty of 

 the looker-on ; that the young and pure- 

 minded must feel the unfitness of the dis- 

 play ; and that few men, however enthu- 

 siastic they may be in the arts, can see these 

 figures, for the first time, without a conscious- 

 ness that they are not proper objects of 

 exhibition to minds and eyes which he 

 would preserve pure. The unquestionable 

 fact is, that by our habits and style of edu- 

 cation (and who in his senses would desire 

 to change them ?) nudity is indecency, 

 whether in the living form, the picture, or 

 the statue. Custom makes a certain display 

 venial; but these limits once exceeded, of- 

 fence begins ; and the artist must be re- 

 minded by the public, that not even for 

 supremacy in art, must the proprieties of 

 life be sacrificed. In France and Italy 

 those displays are more common. But long 

 may it be before the manners of France and 

 Italy are adopted by England; before the 

 allusions, which perpetually occur in foreign 

 conversation, and which are founded upon 

 those gross and habitual exhibitions, flourish 

 in English society, or the dialogues that 

 pass in foreign galleries, in the presence of 

 such pictures and statues, degrade and pol- 

 lute the English mind. In these observa- 

 tions, we speak with no particular references 

 to individual artists ; and if there be a dis- 

 tinction, least of all to the graceful and 

 accomplished power of the president's pencil. 

 But the practice must be checked, let the 

 patronage be whose it may. 



The president's finest portrait, perhaps, 

 for this year, is Lord Eldon. Nothing can 

 be truer to the original ; the face is full of 

 the acuteness and calm intensity of thinking 

 for which his lordship has been memorable. 

 The countenance might be of a graver cast 

 and complexion, without injuring the like- 

 ness; but, as an effort of the painter's skill, it 

 is equal to the finest modern performances 

 of the pencil. 



His portrait of Lord Grey is less effective. 

 The pencil is blameless, for nothing can be 

 better than the manual work ; but the ex- 

 pression, though strongly resembling the 



original, yet wants life ; the face might as 

 well have been painted from a wax model, 

 and, indeed, has much the look of one. 



Lady Lyndhurst's portrait is, if not ano- 

 ther failure, scarcely to be called a success. 

 Her ladyship is notoriously a handsome 

 person, who knows the world. The por- 

 trait before us, is that of a well looking 

 gipsey, with a professional expression of eye, 

 which, if it were put into words, as definitely 

 as it is put upon canvass, might bring the 

 gentle president, to the utter alarm of his 

 sensitive nature, guilty of, &c. &c. The pic- 

 ture is popular in the exhibition : yet it 

 shows the danger of deviating from an habi- 

 tual style ; the president's forte is grace, 

 fashion, and dignity. 



Phillips has several portraits ; but, at the 

 head of these, and indeed of every male 

 whole length in the exhibition, is the Duke 

 of Sussex. His royal highness is, by nature, 

 and by age, unquestionably one of the most 

 difficult subjects for happy pictorial effect. 

 This is no fault of his, and we say no more 

 about it. But this figure, Phillips has 

 transformed into actual majesty. The ducal 

 robes, scarcely differing from the royal, are 

 gathered round his form with the stateliest 

 effect. The visage, though retaining like, 

 ness enough to be recognized, is yet made 

 noble ; and the attitude, though not totally 

 irreconcilable with the figure of his royal 

 highness, is that of a personage of the high- 

 est distinction. 



Shee has some very clever pictures, in his 

 peculiar and forcible style. A whole crowd 

 of popular artists follow. 



Turner has two prominent landscapes, sin- 

 gularly rich in colour, and almost as sin- 

 gularly baffling description. The principal 

 one is entitled, " Dido directing the Equip- 

 ment of her Fleet," the whole a fantastic 

 and visionary grouping of wild -looking archi- 

 tecture, wild-looking galleys, and wild-look- 

 ing men, women, and water. Colour, of the 

 most rainbow kind, is lavished over the pic- 

 ture ; every thing is either rosy, or purple, 

 or emerald green, or golden yellow or all 

 mixed together. The effect is, on the whole, 

 injurious, however showy ; the trees, the 

 waves, the very pebbles on the shore, are 

 like nothing that nature ever produced ; nor, 

 perhaps, that ever existed in any fancy but 

 Mr. Turner's own. Yet, to deny the work 

 power and beauty would be idle. Both are 

 there ; but both wasted on a dream. 



Etty, whose rising merit has already 

 brought him into the Academy, has a large 

 composition, from Milton's lovely descrip- 

 tion of the " Sons of God beguiled by the 

 Daughters of Men ;" the passion of the 

 descendants of Shem, for the guilty popula- 

 tion of the rebel world : 



He looked, and saw a spacious plain, whereon 



Were tents of various hue 



Whence the sound 



Of instruments that made melodious chime, 



