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FINE ARTS. 

 BIRMINGHAM EXHIBITION OF MODERN ART. 



BY WILLIAM CAREY. 



On Thursday, tlie llth instant, this annual display was opened to the 

 public at that noble edifice, the Institution of the Society of Arts or 

 Artists, in New-street, and owing to its commencement so late in 

 September, any notice of it to be in time for insertion in the allotted 

 pages of *' The Analyst," to be published on the 1st of October, can 

 include little more than a cursory glance at a few leading points, and 

 some general remarks on the character of the whole. Owing to this 

 urgency, by far the greater number of the pictures and of the exhibitors 

 must be passed in this brief outline without mention, solely through a 

 want of space and time. The candid reader and the impartial artist, will 

 not, therefore, mistake the omissions for any indication of a want of 

 inclination on my part, or of rxerit in the works so unnoticed. My will 

 may be judged of by the fact that, although not wholly recovered from 

 the sufferings of an acute illness, I have suspended my own immediate 

 avocations, and journied from a distance here, at some risk of a relapse, 

 but, fortunately, as yet, without any ill consequence, to write my notes 

 for this brief communication, from the exhibited paintings and sculpture. 

 When these things are considered, and that I have no personal interest 

 whatever in the exhibition, or in the publication in which these observa- 

 tions are intended to appear, my wish to be of service will hardly admit 

 of question, although my judgment very justly may. 



The collection includes 532 productions of the British pencil and 

 chisel, and necessarily, like all other public exhibitions in England and 

 on the Continent, it includes some inferior things, some of a better order, 

 a great majority very excellent, and many master-pieces of the highest 

 class. I may truly say it is a very splendid exhibition. The great 

 national school, the Royal Academy, has lent its powerful aid. The 

 President, Sir Martin Archer Shee, and the following Royal Academicians 

 are exhibitors: — Bailly, Calcott, A. E. Chalon, A. Cooper, Collins, 

 Constable, Daniell, Etty, H. Howard, Leslie, — Reinagle, Sir J. Soane, 

 Phillips, Turner, Westall, and J. Ward ; added to these are the associate 

 Academicians, G. Arnald, J. J. Chalon, Drummond, F. Danby, Stanfield, 

 and Witherington. These eminent artists, on this muster of British 

 genius, appear, generally, with one or two exceptions, in their strength. 

 There are also one hundred and ten additional London artists exhibitors ; 

 fifty of Birmingham and its immediate vicinity, and seventeen more 

 provincials. In the whole number, there are fifteen female artists, fair 

 candidates for public favour. 



In the great room, there are three subjects from Shakspeare ; one of 

 them, " No. 1 — Miranda entreating Prospero to allay the Storm/* by J. 

 King, is a large picture, which, from the necessity of the arrangements, 

 is hung at the top of the room too high for any detailed observation of 

 its merits. The other two, 124 and 128, are of a small cabinet size, by 

 T. P. Stephanoff, and, with the exception of Desdemona's profile, in the 

 best manner of this popular artist. There are four sacred and scriptural 

 subjects; **15 — Abraham and Isaac in thanksgiving after the deliverance 

 from the Sacrifice/' by J. King, one of the most successful efforts of his 



