FINE ARTS IN 1890. 



315 



venor Gallery contained nearly 430 numbers, in- 

 cluding oil and water-color paintings, pastels, 

 and sculptures. Among the best works were Sir 

 John Millais's portrait of " Master lianken," a 

 handsome boy of eight with long brown hair, in 

 green velvet, with hat in hand, and J. M. Swan's 

 " Maternity," a life-size group of a lioness suck- 

 ling her cubs. Mrs. M. Stokes's " Light of Life," 

 a large picture with figures nearly life-size, de- 

 picts the Virgin seated on the floor of a stable by 

 the side of her Son's cradle, lost in a day-dream 

 of his future. Mr. Orchardson contributed a por- 

 trait of himself. 



London : New Gallery. The Tudor Exhibi- 

 tion in the New Gallery last winter illustrated 

 the period of English history between the acces- 

 sion of Henry VII in 1485 ana the death of Queen 

 Elizabeth in 1603. Among the 490 pictures con- 

 tributed, were 83 Holbein drawings, lent from 

 Windsor by her Majesty, and 81 selected minia- 

 tures of the time. Besides the pictures, the ex- 

 hibition included coins and medals, casts of royal 

 and ecclesiastical seals, arms and armor, plate, 

 books, etc. Among the most interesting relics 

 were the ring Elizabeth gave to Essex, the baby 

 clothes she made for Mary when an heir was 

 looked for, two cups given by her to Sir Francis 

 Drake, and the lock of hair that she gave to Sir 

 Philip Sidney. 



The third annual exhibition, opened May 1, 

 contained 436 pictures, drawings, and sculptures. 

 Burne-Jones and Legros, two of the leading sup- 

 porters of the gallery, were unrepresented in oils, 

 but paintings were contributed by Watts, Poyn- 

 ter, Alma-Tadema, G. D. Leslie, J. Waterhouse, 

 E. A. Waterlow, R. W. Macbeth, Charles Halle, 

 Albert and Henry Moore, Ernest Parton, John S. 

 Sargent, Adrian Stokes, Onslow Ford, Haynes 

 Williams, A. Gilbert, and C. Wylie. 



Alma-Tadema's " In the Rose Garden " depicts 

 two Roman damsels resting on a bench of Siena 

 marble, over one end of which a large rose bush 

 laden with blossoms spread its arms. One lies 

 with her head in the lap of her companion, who 

 shakes rose leaves upon her. " Eloquent Silence," 

 by the same artist, shows a dark-haired -Greek 

 maiden, soon to be a bride, sitting meditatively 

 3n a bench with both her hands in her lap, with 

 i soldierly young noble by her side striving to 

 mask his own emotions by pushing away the leaf 

 :>f a flower fallen near his mistress's foot. 



Poynter's " High Noon " represents a nude 

 2[irl on the seashore, who has just left the water 

 and seated herself on a rock, where she leans 

 sidewise and swings her feet over a little pool 

 [eft by the tide. 



George F. Watts's " Ariadne " shows her sit- 

 ting on the shore, sorrowful and disheveled, 

 looking seaward. She is clad in white and her 

 loosened red zone lies across her knee. 



Sir John Millais's " Dew-drenched Furze " is 

 an autumnal scene in a dense wood ending in a 

 lofty mass of ruddy beeches, russet oaks, and 

 ?ray larches, the tops of which are lost in the 

 mist that is beginning to yield to the sun's rays. 



Prof. Costa exhibited a fine group of land- 

 scapes and coast pieces. Mr. Herkomer and Mr. 

 Richmond sent portraits. 



London : Miscellaneous. The National 

 Gallery has acquired from the collection of the 

 Earl of Radnor Holbein's "Ambassadors," the 



largest known work of the painter (signed and 

 dated 1533), Velasquez's " Admiral Pulido Pare- 

 ja," one of his best works out of Spain, and a 

 portrait by Moroni. The total price of the three 

 was 55,000, of which the Government con- 

 tributed 25,000 and the remainder was guaran- 

 teed by gentlemen in London. The gallery has 

 also acquired the large picture by Tintoretto, 

 called sometimes " The Nursing of Hercules " 

 and sometimes " The Origin of the Milky Way," 

 which formerly belonged to the Orleans collec- 

 tion and later to Earl Darnley. 



Mr. Burne-Jones's series of four paintings for 

 mural decoration (each 11 feet x 5 feet), on which 

 he has worked the past seven years, called " The 

 Legend of the Brier Rose," illustrates the old 

 legend of the Sleeping Beauty. The first pict- 

 ure, " The Brier Wood," shows the prince enter- 

 ing through the thicket of blossoming brier 

 among the bodies of the knights of every age 

 who have been overcome 'by sleep in their at- 

 tempts to break through and rescue the princess 

 from her enforced slumber. In the second, 

 " The Council Room," the white-bearded king 

 nods on his bronze throne above the recumbent 

 forms of his courtiers. In " The Garden Court " 

 are sleeping girls, some beside the fountain, 

 some at the distaff and the loom, in every grace- 

 ful attitude of arrested motion. " The Rose 

 Bower " shows the princess, sleeping on a low 

 couch amid her sleeping maidens. The pictures 

 were shown at the Agnew Gallery. 



Mr. Poynter's large picture, " The Meeting of 

 Solomon and the Queen of Sheba," on exhibition 

 in London the past season at Maclean's Gallery, 

 is likely to add to the artist's reputation. The 

 sumptuously appareled figures of the Queen and 

 the King stand out from the background of 

 splendid architecture and from the ring of spec- 

 tators on the alabaster podium of the velarium- 

 shaded court with its red and golden pillars. In 

 the foreground are the Queen's beautiful slave 

 girls and attendants bearing gifts. The draper- 

 ies of the royal group are comparatively quiet, 

 but the Queen is resplendent with jeweled orna- 

 ments on bare bosom and arms. 



George Frederick Watts is to bequeath thirty- 

 seven of his pictures to the nation. Among 

 these are, of his greater compositions, " Love 

 and Life," " Love and Death," " Hope," " Time, 

 Death, and Judgment," " The Spirit of Christian- 

 ity," " The Minotaur," " The Court of Death," 

 " Death crowning Innocence," " The Messenger 

 of Death," and " The Brewer's Horses." The 

 remainder are portraits, including those of Ten- 

 nyson, Browning, Carlyle, Matthew Arnold, 

 Morris, Mill, Swinburne, 'Rossetti, Motley, Glad- 

 stone, Cardinal Manning, Lord Salisbury, and 

 the Duke of Argyle, most of which were exhib- 

 ited at the Metropolitan Museum, New York. 



One of the most important art sales of the 

 year was that of the collection of the late Will- 

 iam Wells, begun in London on May 4. The 

 104 lots brought in the aggregate 76,945, the 30 

 Landseers alone selling for 42,000. The fol- 

 lowing were some of the best prices obtained : 

 Landseer, " A Highland Interior " (1831), 2,415 ; 

 " Grouse," 1,113 ; " Black Cock and Gray Hen " 

 (1833), 1,260 ; " Teal and Snipe," 1,207 ; " Par- 

 tridges " (1833), 1,470 ; " The Shepherd's Grave," 

 1,260 ; " The Woodcutter," 2,310 ; " The Hon- 



