348 



FINE ARTS. 



BIRMINGHAM EXHIBITION OF MODERN ART. 



( Continued from page 2^0.J 



** 155 — Portrait of a Lady," by /. Partridge. We have here more of 

 the youthful grace of a Hebe than the majesty of Juno ; or to approach 

 nearer to the divinities of mortal mouldy more of a lovely Juliet than of 

 a Lady Macbeth. The painter could not well have chosen a fairer face 

 or more elegant model. The charming oval of her countenance, and the 

 mild and unaffected play of her features ; the delicate beauty of her 

 neck, shoulders, and bosom, her slender waist and beautifully rounded 

 arms, compose a form of no ordinary symmetry and attraction. The 

 entire of her person partakes of this delicate beauty, and the lines of her 

 taper fingers flow gracefully within each other as her hands rest gentlj 

 clasped on her lap. The beautiful form of hands is a point of high 

 excellence, on which all skilful draftsmen pride themselves. They con- 

 sider it a supreme test of their taste and ability in drawing the human 

 figure. In Vandyck's portraits and Guido's historical pictures, the hands 

 are a peculiar beauty. To paint two fair and beautiful hands clasped, 

 and to preserve their beauty of form and colour, and graceful flow of 

 outline, are still greater difficulties. Indeed, the chances of failure are 

 so great that few portrait painters have courage to make the attempt. It 

 is an action which, in a lady's picture, must be a beauty or deformity. 

 The words, "rosy-fingered morning'* — '* rosy-footed hours,*' are not 

 merely poetical expressions referring only to an imaginary colouring. 

 In Circassia, the country most celebrated for female beauty, this colouring 

 is general ; and, in our clime, the fingers of a beautiful hand combine 

 delicacy of form with a soft roseate hue. In the best works of the 

 greatest colourists this is observed ; and Partridge, in this lady's hands, 

 has blended the charms of form and colour, without ever passing ** the 

 modesty of nature.** There are many specimens of admirable execution 

 in this delicious picture, but none more beautiful than those slender 

 fingers and beautiful hands. 



Her complexion unites the nearest approach to the transparent white- 

 ness of the purest Carrera marble, with the warm carnations of youth 

 and beauty. Some idea of it may be found in a stanza of Mason's 

 Elegy on Lady Coventry, which I insert here from memory : — 



" Yes, — she was fairer than your fairest bloom, 

 This Envy owns, for now that bloom is fled, 

 Fair as the forms, that, wove in Fancy's looni, 

 Float, in light vision, round the poet's head." 



But even these lines furnish only a general idea. A truer one may be 

 formed by- those, who have ever seen any of the beautiful Madonnas 

 painted by Sasso Ferrato, whose female heads are so prized for their 

 dazzling fairness. "Tete de Vierge,** No. 129 in the Louvre, by that 

 master, is a perfect example ; and I think if that were placed beside this 

 by Partridge, the tints on the forehead of each would be found nearly 

 alike. In this portrait the delicate complexion and soft tinge of the 

 rose on the cheeks, are set oflf by the dark hair, which falls in easy 

 ringlets on either side, and is turned up in a loose tasteful plait, without 



