666 
close observation and appreciation of nature. 
He has two exceedingly cleyer works this 
year, but they are not of a conspicuous cha- 
racter. Turner has a brilliant production 
from the Odyssey, “ Ulysses deriding Poly- 
phemus”’ (42). There is little of mere 
nature in it; but in its place a poetical 
power of imagination, embodied by a power 
of execution, the result of which is the next 
best thing, and, in connexion with a sub- 
ject of this kind, a better thing. 
In that department of art which is nei- 
ther historical, imaginative, nor wholly 
natural, but combining in a piquant manner 
some of the most attractive qualities of all 
these departments, we have a few agreeable 
works this year, but none that merit a par- 
ticular and detailed description. Edwin 
Landseer’s “ Illicit whiskey still in Ireland”’ 
(20) is among the best of these. It unites 
his fine observation and singular skill, in 
embodying the results of that observation, 
in a very effective manner. ‘“‘ Sir Roger de 
Coverley and the Gypsies,” by Leslie (134) 
is another of these pleasant true fictions— 
which are worth all the fictitious truth in 
the world. But the most striking and 
meritorious of them all, is Newton’s piece 
from Gil Blas. It is in many respects an 
exquisite work; and our only regret in 
recurring to it is, that we are compelled to 
pass over such a production with a few 
vague and general words of praise. When 
we can succeed in persuading the proprietors 
of this entertaining miscellany, yclept the 
Monthly Magazine, to double its attractions, 
by devoting the whole of their space every 
month to remarks on Art and its produc- 
tions, we may hope to render a due measure 
of justice to such productions as this of Mr. 
Newton. But this exquisite artist has 
-another little picture in the present exhibi- 
tion, which we prize even more highly than 
the above-named, though it is merely a 
“< portrait of a lady, in a cauchoise dress” 
(114). There is a spirit, a speaking grace, 
and an intellectual life about it, to achieve 
which is the perfection of Art. 
Society of Painters inWater Colours.— 
‘The Water Colour Painters have presented 
us with a charming exhibition this year; 
such a one as no other country has, or ever 
had, the means of equalling, or even making 
any near approaches to: for the art of 
painting in water colours is an art belonging 
to the present century almost exclusively, 
at least as practised by many of the leading 
artists of our day. At present, effects are 
attempted and produced in this way, which 
it was thought, could only be accomplished 
by the most elaborate and skilful employ- 
ment of oil. In order to illustrate our 
position in this particular, the reader has 
only to visit the Water Colour Exhibition of 
the present year, in which he will find pic- 
tures that include qualities and effects of 
the very highest class, and such as are by 
many conceived to be unattainable by the 
means here employed. 
Fine Arts’ Exhibitions. 
[Junn, 
At the head of the exhibitors, in merit 
as well as in number, stands Mr. Copley 
Fielding—an artist to whom this department 
of art, more than to any other person, pecu- 
liarly belongs. He exhibits this year, be- 
tween forty and fifty pictures, many of which 
are of first rate merit, and not one of which 
would not, a few years ago, have been looked 
upon as a masterly production in this class 
of art. Perhaps the most skilful, and cer- 
tainly the most original, of Mr. Fielding’s 
productions, are his sea pieces, in which he 
displays a power of hand, and a feeling for 
natural truth, which have rarely been sur- 
passed. His ‘‘ Vessels in Yarmouth Roads,” 
(11) is an admirable work in these respects. 
Another of his works in this class of scenery, 
but in altogether a different style, is “ Tele. 
machus going in search of Ulysses,”’ (103) 
a scene of gorgeous and poetical beauty, 
that finely contrasts with the simplicity of 
the former, yet is equally true to nature with 
that, or with any other work in the room— 
though surpassing them all in brilliance 
and poetical effect. ) 
Among the works representing merel 
external scenery, we cannot point to one of 
amore popular class, and likely to please — 
and satisfy generally, than Mr. Nash’s View 
from the Pont Neuf at Paris. Itisa high 
agreeable and characteristic work, but is 
without that originality of style which is so 
much to be admired in Fielding, because it 
is so perfectly consistent with nature. Mr. 
Robson also displays much originality in his 
numerous works this year, but, we are sorry 
to say, very little of that quality without 
which all the originality in the world is 
worthless—we mean truth of character. 
His scenes are gorgeous to look upon, and 
will assuredly attract and fix the popular 
gaze ; but they will not, generally speaking, 
satisfy those who gain their impressions of 
nature from nature herself. They are like 
portraits which present all the features of 
the original, and give to those features their 
exact form ; consequently you know the ori- 
ginal on seeing it; but they are on that 
account /ike the original, because they miss 
all the intellectwal expression of the fea- 
tures, and all their play and spirit—conse- 
quently all their peculiar character. And 
thus it is with the landscapes of Mr. Rob- 
son. They are beautiful objects to look at, 
but they leave no distinct impressionsarising _ 
out of themselves, and they recal no dis- — 
tinct recollections which may have been ga~ 
thered from real objects. There is a vague — 
look about them, like that of a summer sun- 
set, which, however beautiful, is like no- 
thing that you ever saw before, and leavés 
no image that you can recal. Not so 
with the scenes of Mr. Christall in this 
exhibition. They display great and sin- 
gular merit, and are indeed unique in 
this department of art, so far as regards 
their intellectual character. This artist 
has the singular skill to give a sort of 
antique and classical air to every figure he 
