336 



FINE AETS IN 1888. 



Alma-Tadema's "Roses of Heliogabalus " 

 illustrates one of the boyish pranks of the 

 emperor of nineteen, who has overwhelmed 

 his guests at a banquet by a shower of roses 

 which slaves have been heaping on the vela- 

 rium overhead as the feast proceeded. Helio- 

 gabalus, his lentil-shaped eyes suggesting his 

 Syrian origin, reclines, partly covered with a 

 mantle of cloth of gold, on a silver couch, 

 holding near his lips a cylix, from which he 

 delays to drink, as he watches the struggles of 

 his guests. In technical skill and in richness 

 of color the painter has never excelled this 

 work, but its want of composition leads one to 

 regret that so much labor has been spent on 

 such a subject. 



Sir John Millais's "Cairnleeth Moss, Birnam" 

 (4J- x 7 feet), may serve as a companion-piece 

 to"" Over the Hills and Far Away." All the 

 foreground is marsh with clumps of moss and 

 rushes mirrored in tinted pools; in the mid- 

 distance is meadow-land with a dark belt of 

 pines, and in the background rugged hills. His 

 " Murthly Moss, Perthshire " (5 feet square), 

 represents Murthly Castle at Christmas-eve, 

 1887, with the warm light of late afternoon 

 on the snow, over which crows are skimming. 



Solomon J. Solomon's " Niobe," one of the 

 successes of the year, depicts the anguish- 

 stricken mother standing upon a flight of 

 steps, convulsively clinging to the dead body 

 of one of her children, with the dead and 

 dying forms of the others around her. The 

 work is full of strength and vigor, and suggest- 

 ive of a brilliant future for the artist. 



Orchardson's u Her Mother's Voice " repre- 

 sents a middle-aged widower listening to his 

 daughter as she sings, attended by her lover. 



The exhibition was strong in portraits and 

 in landscapes, but want of space will not per- 

 mit their enumeration. 



The new associates elected by the Royal 

 Academy are : W. B. Richmond, Onslow Ford, 

 and Arthur Blomfield. 



The pictures purchased for the Chantry Be- 

 quest are : Vicat Cole's " Pool of London " ; 

 W. Logsdail's "St. Martin's-in-the-Fields " ; 

 Adrian Stokes's " Upland and Sky " ; and 

 Frank Bramley's "A Hopeless Dawn." 



London : Grosvenor Gallery. The winter exhi- 

 bition, called " A Century of British Art," con- 

 sisted of pictures by British painters between 

 1737 and 1837, among them being Hogarth, 

 Reynolds, Gainsborough, Lawrence, Mulready, 

 Wilkie, Ramsay, Raeburn, Opie, Constable, 

 Callcott, Bonington, Collins, Linnell, and Wil- 

 son. Hogarth was represented by twenty-five 

 canvases, comprising "Garrick as Richard III," 

 " Garrick and his Wife," " Peg Woffington," 

 " The Lady's Last Stake," and "Monamy show- 

 ing a Picture." 



The twelfth summer exhibition of the Gros- 

 venor Gallery, opened as usual in May, was 

 chiefly noteworthy for the absence of contri- 

 butions by many artists whose names have here- 

 tofore been the fortune of the enterprise. 



Among the more conspicuous pictures were* 

 Jacomb Hood's " Triumph of Spring," John 

 Reid's " Smugglers," Arthur Hacker's "By the 

 Waters of Babylon," and W. F. Britten's "No- 

 ble Family of Huguenot Refugees shipwrecked 

 on the Suffolk Coast." One of the best por- 

 traits as well as one of the best pictures in the 

 exhibition was E. F. Gregory's " Miss Mabel 

 Galloway," a young girl in crimson, seated at 

 a table amid elaborately-painted accessories. 

 Briton Riviere's "Adonis's Farewell," is really 

 a painting of dogs. McWhirter, Philip R. Mor- 

 ris, Henry Moore, Keeley Hallswell, W. J. Hen- 

 nessey, Mark Fisher, Ernest Parton, and other 

 well-known names, were represented by land- 

 scapes and sea-pieces. 



London: New Gallery. This gallery opened in 

 May, in Regent Street, under the management 

 of Comyns Carr and C. E. Halle, was the re- 

 sult of troubles in the Grosvenor Gallery man- 

 agement, which led to the secession of a num- 

 ber of painters, among them Alma-Taderna, 

 Burne-Jones, W. B. Richmond, Hubert Her- 

 komer, Holman Hunt, George F. Watts, and 

 Prof. Legros. 



Among the most noteworthy contributions 

 are three by Burne-Jones who, though elected 

 an associate of the Royal Academy in 1885, 

 seems to prefer to exhibit elsewhere. The first 

 of these, called "The Rock of Doom," is a nude 

 full-length standing Andromeda, chained to 

 the rock in. the sea, just discovered by the 

 winged-sandaled Perseus, who is soon to de- 

 liver her. " The Doom fulfilled " is the se- 

 quel, showing the hero, encircled by the coils 

 of the slimy sea-monster, wielding his Hermes- 

 given sword with fatal effect. " The Tower of 

 Brass," a tall canvaa (7 feet 5 inches x 3 feet 

 10 inches) hanging between these two, repre- 

 sents the story of Danae, who, in a crimson 

 robe over a violet dress, stands watching the 

 building of King Acrisius's brazen tower. 



Alma-Tadema sent six works, two portraits, 

 a study, a sketch for the " Heliogabalus " in the 

 Royal Academy, a small canvas entitled " Ve- 

 nus and Mars," and another called " He loves 

 me, he loves me not," representing a girl on 

 a green couch beneath a window, picking the 

 petals of a flower, while another languidly 

 watches her. 



" The Angel of Death," by G. F. Watts, rep- 

 resents a figure with dark-gray wings, in a gray- 

 green robe and white headdress, soothing a 

 sleeping babe as she gently draws it toward 

 herself. 



Hubert Herkomer, W. B. Richmond, and 

 Frank Holl contributed portraits; Sir John 

 Everett Millais, two works, entitled "Forlorn" 

 and " The Last Rose of Summer," both female 

 figures ; Prof. Legros, a " Dead Christ " and 

 " Femmes en Priere " ; C. E. Halle, a "Paolo and 

 Francesca " ; and J. R. Weguelin, a canvas, 4x9 

 feet, representing " Bacchus and the Choir of 

 Nymphs," reclining on the seashore. 



London : Miscellaneous. At the sale of the pict- 

 ures of Charles Waring, deceased, held in Lon- 



