348 



line Aria' Exhibitions. 



[MARCH, 



imagination) on some fair human bird, who 

 would, as he suspects, fain take wing from 

 her present cage in search of another. It 

 is as a piece of rich and harmonious colour- 

 ing that this picture excels ; for the ex- 

 pression, though any thing but false or 

 feeble, is yet somewhat vague. It is not so 

 with either of the other two, which, what- 

 ever they may want in warmth and depth of 

 colouring, are made up of expression. The 

 " Girl of Normandy" has that peculiar and 

 almost Minerva-like beauty of countenance 

 which is scarcely to be seen out of Nor- 

 mandy, and the great charm of which con- 

 sists in the alliance between depth of ex- 

 pression and perfect regularity and confor- 

 mity of feature. " The Duenna" is valu- 

 able only for the pretty affectation of the 

 youthful figure, which, however, has more 

 of this artist's fault, that is to say of his pe- 

 culiar manner , than of his beauties. The 

 Duenna is not so good. Mr. Newton has 

 not seen, or at least not observed, so much 

 of old women as he has of young. 



No. 32. A Study. M. A. Shee, P.R.A. 

 This picture has at this moment an ad- 

 ventitious interest, which its merits alone 

 would not give it. It may be offered as a 

 good average example of the state of 

 portrait-painting in England at the present 

 day ; but as the first and only specimen 

 here presented, of the new president's talents 

 as an artist, it will not be looked at with 

 any overweening satisfaction. 



No. 43. The Corsair. If. P. Briggs, 

 A.R.A. With the exception of a very 

 coarse and uncharacteristic portrait of Mr. 

 Kemble, (No. 176.) this is the only speci- 

 men which Mr. Briggs offers in this exhi- 

 bition; and we have no hesitation, though 

 some reluctance, in stating, that both pieces 

 detract from, rather than increase this ar- 

 tist's high and deserved reputation. As 

 good must and will, in all cases, whether we 

 seek it or not, grow out of evil, there can 

 be little doubt that the altogether unex- 

 pected loss we have just sustained, will give 

 an impetus to the progress of art which it 

 would not have received, if the admirable 

 painter, of whom we have been so suddenly 

 deprived, had continued to exercise his un- 

 questioned supremacy till what might have 

 been reasonably looked for as the natural 

 close of his brilliant career. Hopes will now 

 be excited among our artists, which nothing 

 "but the loss of Lawrence could have aroused ; 

 and one looks to Mr. Briggs as one of those 

 who possess the best foundation for such 

 hopes. 



No. 53. The Stone-breaker; No. 60. 

 Highland Music. E. Landseer, A.R.A. 

 These are doubtless very clever and meri- 

 torious productions ; but they do not (any 

 more than many other of his late pictures) 

 raise our ideas of this artist's talent, either 

 as regards extent or degree. The philoso- 

 phic gravity of the Stone-breaker is indeed 

 good : his look is as settled and inflexible 

 as that of the stones by his side. And the 



varied expressions of the dogs, who are 

 howling in concert with the sound of their 

 Highland master's bagpipe, are conceived 

 with great truth and executed with infinite 

 skill. But (to say nothing of the growing 

 faults of manner which this artist's late 

 works have included) he must really not 

 hope ever to maintain, much less to extend, 

 his reputation by such " unconsidered 

 trifles" as these. As for his " Wounded 

 Deer," ' Dead Deer," and that class of his 

 works, we look upon them as worse than of 

 no value at all, since the best they can do is 

 to shew a superfluous degree of skill. That 

 skill, the results of which do not conduce to 

 pleasure, is worse than cast away : and we 

 cannot imagine that even the keenest and 

 most remorseless of sportsmen takes any 

 pleasure in contemplating the quarry that 

 lies dead or w'ounded at his feet. In fact, 

 the sight of pain and death, as such, is uni- 

 versally abhorrent to our nature; and the 

 representation of them, therefore, for the 

 mere purpose of representing them, is in 

 all cases a mistake, to say the least of it. 



A r o. 67. Antwerp Cathedral. D. Roberts. 

 This is one of those productions of the 

 pencil which excite pleasure in every class 

 of spectator, and which are as susceptible of 

 being appreciated by the mere tyro as by 

 the most practised connoisseur. It shews 

 great knowledge of, and skill in, effect, by 

 the manner in which the figures and other 

 adjuncts are made to conduce to the impres- 

 sion of the chief object. The student may 

 do well to observe the manner in which the 

 glazing of this very clever picture adds to 

 its general effect. 



No. HI. Interior of a Painter's Study. 

 J. Hayter A very clever and spirited 

 little work, with a skilful disposition of 

 light and shade, and much ease and breadth 

 in the handling. 



No. 118. Belvidera, J. Boaden. 

 There is as little of likeness in this portrait 

 of Miss Kemble as there is force or freedom 

 in the somewhat affected style of handling, 

 or beauty in the colouring ; and we notice 

 it here only to observe that when an artist of 

 rising and real merit, like Mr. Boaden, 

 fails in an attempt to delineate a public 

 person, it may do him more serious injury 

 than any moderate degree of success could 

 possibly have done him good. "We may 

 here add, that the late President's drawing 

 of Miss Kemble is the only one which has 

 the slightest pretensions to represent a 

 single trait of her fine and highly intellec- 

 tual and characteristic countenance. 



No. 139. Don Quixote and Sancho 



Panza. W. F. Witherington This is 



a very clever little picture on a most ill- 

 chosen subject that of Sancho conveying 

 his dilapidated master, on his ass, after the 

 grievous beating which had banished chi- 

 valry from the land for the time being. 

 Sancho is full of humour, and the ass is 

 capital ; but, as a whole, the scene is in^ 



