638 



Fiiie Arts' Exhibitioni. 



[June, 



envelope, and that, always the most un- 

 couth, shapeless, and enveloping, that the 

 tailoring of the pencil can fashion. The 

 Duke of Wellington is his perpetual victim. 

 Out of the multiplicity of the invincible 

 Duke's clothings, his uniforms of Russia, 

 and every other soldier making soil of 

 Europe, his relics of rank, of diplomacy 

 and of office, he can select nothing better 

 than some disbanded blue surtout, or camp- 

 cloak, or other repellent of a rainy day, in 

 which the great Duke stands, like a watch- 

 man buttoned to tlie chin. Mr. Canning 

 is, in this picture, committed to posterity, 

 in a costume in which he would not com- 

 mit himself to anything beyond his own 

 fireside wth its appropriate easy chair and 

 slippers. He is supposed to be making a 

 speech in the House of Commons ; his 

 speech, however, by a want of compliment 

 that w^e did not think possible in tliis artist 

 when painting a great official, is presumed 

 to be spoken to empty benches. The 

 countenance is spurited and like, but it is 

 strangely diminished from the actual size ; 

 and this extraordinary custom of paring 

 away the human face divine, pervades the 

 chief part of the president's portraits in the 

 exhibition. 



Then follow the endless, nameless, and 

 indescribable products of the manufacturing 

 pencil, busily at work upon the visages of the 

 existing generation ; the ])ortraits of a " gen- 

 tleman of family," of a " noble lord," of a 

 " gentleman," of a " lady," with specimens 

 of the more ambitious and sentimental, 

 lounging at full length, in white satin, on 

 the side of a lake, or in full dress countenance 

 and curls, combing a lap-dog in an arbour ; 

 or tending sheep, or playing a colossal hai-p 

 in the centre of a meadow, or waltzing in 

 a shower bath. 



No. 23. — Battle of Boston, by Ward, 

 the horse-painter. Nothing can be more 

 tremendous, if battles were to be decided by 

 kicking and biting- Not a man could have 

 escaped from the desperate gallantry of this 

 conglomeration of cart-horses. 



No. 48. — Dorset Fellowes in the costume 

 of a Knight Templar.— V,'e had t£iken it for 

 a groom covered with a horse cloth. The 

 man seems alarmed, as if it was flung on 

 liim in some frolic of his fellow-grooms, 

 and the robe fits him as if it liad been made 

 for a quadruped seventeen hands liigh. 



No. 71. — His Most Gracious Majesty 

 George IV, — "We have not heard of any 

 ex-officio information moved on the ground 

 of this picture : but indeed, the attorney- 

 general has been busy in defending the 

 Chancery report, and we presume, no act 

 of public justice can be conveniently at- 

 tempted till next term. 



No. 97. — Sabrina. — A pretty piece of 

 varnished ])ottery and poetry by Howard. 

 The figures and faces all alike atlilctie in 

 limb, glazed in colour, and babyish in coun- 

 tenance. We hearil them compared to a 

 morning group of school gurls, with tlieir 



round faces, all fresh and shining from soap 

 and water. Howard is clever, but he 

 must be reminded that there is danger in 

 selecting his model of the human face from 

 even the most accurately carved turnip. 



No. 316. — Robert Soullwi/, by Lane. — 

 The very countenance for a laureate; we 

 could have pronounced this man worthy of 

 the laurel, ewnn if we had never read his 

 " Vision of Judgment." 



No. 374. — DestrtKtion of a City by a 

 Volcano, by Pether. — The painter has had 

 peculiar advantages for his subject among 

 the Manchester steam-engines. It looks 

 a prodigious combination of all sorts of 

 combustibles ; we are convinced that he 

 must have seen the blowing-up of a gas 

 manufactory. 



No. 't52. — Portrait of the Rev. Robert 

 Morrison, the itinerant, with as many titles 

 added to him as if he were tlie Great 

 Mogul— -(holy humility this !). He has a 

 Chinese look. 



No. 323. — Canova crowned hy the Genius 

 of Grecian Sculpture, J. P. Davis. — A fine 

 picture, hung where all but the " palpable 

 obscure" hides it from the general eye. If 

 it had been placed in the great' room, it 

 woidd have slain the effect of half the 

 glaring reds and whites, the raw blacks, 

 and the ochre yellows of even " We the 

 Royal Academicians." — The likeness of the 

 famous sculptor is perfect, and the colouring 

 is rich, deej), and remarkably Venetian. 



No. 536 — The Venetians recapturing their 

 Women, G. Jones, R. A. — A spirited picture, 

 full of figures, and well coloured ; but the 

 story is too remote for interest, and too 

 obscurely told if it were not. 



Pickersgill lias many very effective por- 

 traits, painted with his usual felicity. 



The architecture is of some merit. 



J. Gandy, (A) — .A. man of remarkable 

 genius in design, has a bold idea for a palace 

 in Hyde park, which the " satirical rogue" 

 presiunes to be erected about the year 2.300 ! 

 when taste enough, perhaps, will have come 

 into fiishion, to induce the country to build 

 palaces any where but in the marshes, 

 mokes, and common sewers of Pimlico. 

 This design is entitled " Perspective Sketch 

 of a Trophal Entrance, tjc." 



No. 878. — Is a model of another kind of 

 monument, by another kind of man, of the 

 same name, J. P. Gandy, by no means to 

 be confounded with the fine, but neglected 

 architect, whom we have just mentioned. 

 Tills is the " Waterloo Tower, as decided upon 

 by the Committee of Taste," to be erected 

 in honour of the army. If this be the actual 

 model, we wish the Committee of Taste to 

 be sent home to their night-caps and slippers 

 without loss of time. It strikes us as ab- 

 solutely nothing but an overgrown beer-bar- 

 rel, standing on a multitude of minute props. 

 It is hooped up to the height of 280 feet, 

 and woiild probably hold as much beer as 

 the great tun of Heidelberg held Hock. We 

 rejoice that the architecture of our steam- 



