Register of the Fine Arts. 



466 



tt) reduudancy, render this picture a 

 first-rate in its class. 



Clint's Scene from Lock and Key, 

 No. 273, with portraits of Knight and 

 Mundeu, are happy liiienesses and well 

 painted, but a little dry in the colour- 

 ing. — 282, Sharp's Author reading 

 his Plaii to the Performers of Drury 

 Lane Theatre in the Green-room, is a 

 picture of great merit, and ought to 

 have been injustice placed in the great 

 room. Many of these pictures, and the 

 landscapes, miniatures, architecture 

 and sculpture, will be noticed more at 

 length in our ne-at. 



The BRITISH INSTITUTION 

 opened its annual display of piclures 

 by the old masters, and Mr. West's. 

 Christ Healing the Sick, on Monday 

 the 21st inst. (May.) Our limits and 

 the late day of its opening, compel us 

 to mention but generally, that it has . 

 some works of transcendent merit, 

 which cannot but be of service to the 

 connoisseur, the amaleur, and the ar- 

 tist. Some extraordinary i>ieces by 

 Remhaudt, which he left unfinished, 

 serve to shew that eminent master's 

 mode of executing his wonderful pic- 

 tures. A grand work by Rubens, and 

 others by the greatest masters, present 

 a treat of the most splendid description. 

 West's picture shews but badly in point 

 of colouring, and the common place 

 character of the head and hands suffer 

 by its injudicious approach to the 

 mighty masters of the olden-time. 

 The engraving by C. Heath is in a 

 good state of progress, and is expected 

 to be finished in the course of the sum- 

 mer. We are sorry to find, that by a 

 too strict intei-pretatiou of a rule of the 

 society, which, to encourage artists to 

 study in their gallery, provides that 

 none but those who painted in their last 

 season shall be admitted gratis to the 

 exhibition of the old masters, that many 

 of their best students are excluded from 

 the delightful exhibition of this year, 

 unless they pay their shillings every 

 time they may visit it. 



The EXHIBITION of the WATER 

 COLOUR SOCIETY is open this year 

 at the lower room of Bullock's Museum, 

 where Le Thieres' picture of Brutus 

 was formerly exhibited, and with a 

 return to their former rule of exhibit- 

 ing none but paintings in wifer colours. 

 John Varley, the Fieldings,Wild, 

 Christall, and other members of the 

 society, take the lead, but the whole is 

 a dull monotonous repetition of former 

 years, worn-out landscapes, and a cloy- 



[Junc ]. 



ing sweetness like an entire meal of 

 pastry, or a concert of flageolets, or mu- 

 sical snuff-boxes. 



Mr. WARD'S ALLEGORY OF 

 THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO ; 

 painted by commission for the direc- 

 tors of the British Institution, exhibit- 

 ing also at Bullock's, is a tissue of pla- 

 giarism from Rubens, Otho Venius, 

 Jacob Behmen, and Baron Munchau- 

 sen. Wellington looks like a haber- 

 dasher in new uniform ; Blucher and 

 PJatoff like the best portraits of them ; 

 Britannia likeCharles Kemble in petti- 

 coats ; Religion, like a lady's maid ; (he 

 (ienius flying in the Sky like therera- 

 eious Baron flying to the Moon, and 

 numerous other etceteras of mawkish 

 common-places. Yet there is a mas- 

 tery of the pencil, a knowledge of ani- 

 mal character in the horse, and the 

 lion, and a display of colour worthy of 

 a better composition and a more judi- 

 cious sf oiy. We are sorry he has aban- 

 doned the twisted column and Ruben- 

 esque Architecture, as there would then 

 have been more copies of that great 

 colourist in existence when the origi- 

 nals are decayed and gone. 



Mr. Hofland's Exhibition of a 

 Collection of his Works at No. 

 lOG, New Bond-street, is an attractive 

 exhibition on two grounds. Principally 

 on account of the great merit of the 

 pictures, and secondly, on account of 

 the extraordinary conduct of the men 

 in office at the Royal Academy to an 

 artist who has been one of their best 

 supporters, both as an exhibitor and as 

 an advocate for all their bad measures, 

 for some years past, and which gives a 

 touch of ingratitude to the transaction. 

 Mr. Hofland sent the principal picture, 

 the beautiful and charmingly natural 

 view of Richmond, to the academy for 

 this year's exhibition, where it would 

 have formed a very striking ornament; 

 but learning through some friend that 

 it was on the doubtful list, he with 

 more decision of character than we gave 

 so humble a suitor for academic ho- 

 nours credit for, instantly withdrew it, 

 and very properly exhibited it as an 

 appeal to the public against this mani- 

 fest injustice of flie acatlemic cabal. 

 The exhibition of these works can- 

 not but raise their author in public 

 estimation. His style is so natural, so 

 formed upon actual study from nature, 

 and so opposite to cxhibitional glare 

 and tinsel, that he cannot but look 

 well in a private collection, or by him- 

 self. Jerusalem — the city by moon- 

 light, 



