424 FINE ARTS, 



"No. 2 — The Installation of Captain Rock," by Daniel M'Clise, a 

 very young Irish artist, has, during many months past, excited a more 

 general and intense sensation than any British work of art within my 

 memory. During its exhibition in London, last year, it was the chief 

 attraction, and formed a subject of conversation in the leading circles 

 of fashion. The young artist became almost at once, hke his celebrated 

 countryman, Sheridan Knowles, one of the leading lions of the day. 

 Report, not always to be trusted, and generally mixing fiction with truth, 

 states him to be in his twenty-fourth year ; that he received his first lessons 

 in drawing in the Dublin Academy, and afterwards perfected himself as 

 a student in the Royal Academy of London. I give this as a hear-say, 

 which I have no particular reason to doubt or affirm with certainty. 

 The great size of this picture afforded a wide field for his copious inven- 

 tion, which he has displayed in an astonishing variety of incident, 

 character, attitude, and expression. An amateur, who has taken the 

 trouble of counting, has declared there are seventy-eight figures in the 

 various groups. To enter, therefore, into partial details, in this brief 

 communication, would be an injustice to the artist, as any thing like a 

 due notice would extend to a handsome octavo volume. I can, therefore, 

 only oflfer a scanty outline of the subject. 



Although it is termed "the Installation of Capt. Rock," it is also 

 " the Wake" of his predecessor in command, who has fallen in a recent 

 skirmish. The body of the deceased is laid out on a bier, with his 

 daughter's arms clasped round the neck in an action of natural and 

 forcible pathos. A "Wake" in Ireland is always a scene of festivity in 

 honour of the dead, to which the neighbours and country-people for 

 miles round flock. The widow, the daughter, sister, or any very 

 near relation, may, without offending against the settled notion of 

 decorum, give way to tears and grief; but the decency and spirit of the 

 scene are considered to consist in mirth and enjoyment of refreshments, 

 in which the glass is never forgotten. This explanation is necessary to 

 account for the merriment of some of the groups contrasted with the 

 fierce gesticulations and furious threatenings of those, who are attending 

 the installation and joining with the newly-elected Captain Rock, in an 

 oath to avenge the death of his predecessor. 



The reader will therefore j)erceive that there are two actions repre- 

 sented, •* the Wake" and '* the Installation," and with this clue for his 

 guidance he will be better able to enter into all its contrasted varieties, 

 and to understand them more clearly. But there is also an episode of 

 interest introduced. The place of meeting is in the ruins of an abbey, 

 and a group is seen descending through a high breach in the walls, 

 bearing in one of their companions supposed to be mortally wounded in an 

 attempt to begin the work of vengeance on those by whose hands their 

 yet unburied captain had fallen. 



As a work of art this picture displays not alone any one particular 

 high power, but a climax of high powers, and M'Clise may be truly 

 said to have broke forth on the world, in this and his few preceding ex- 

 hibitions, as an artist of copious invention, an able draftsman, a splendid 

 colourist, and a genius capable of undertaking any class of subject, and, 

 with due application, of succeeding in whatever he may choose to attempt. 



John King exhibits three pictures ; " 1 — Abraham and Isaac in Thanks- 

 giving after the Deliverance ;" *' 184 — Cordelia and King Lear j" and a 

 three-quarter length portrait of F. Danby, A.R. A.; the first is one of 

 his best sacred subjects ; — in 184, the head of Lear appears rather large ; 

 but this is more than atoned for by the simple grace and pathetic expression 

 of Cordelia; — the likeness of Danby is said to be very true; thg 



