FINE ARTS 1885. (LONDON: GROSVENOR GALLERY; MISCELLANEOUS.) 



365 



Briton Riviere's " Vss Victis," a struggle be- 

 tween a wolf and an eagle for the carcass of a 

 lamb, is not so interesting as his " After Nase- 

 by," a large room lighted by a lofty window, 

 occupied only by a lady reading a letter, and 

 two small spaniels. 



George H. Boughton's "Milton visited by 

 Andrew Marvell," though not one of his best 

 efforts, is attractive. The blind poet is seated 

 in the porch of his house in Bunhill Fields, 

 with his third wife, Elizabeth Minshull, beside 

 him. Marvell, attended by two or three other 

 figures, is bending forward to speak, as he takes 

 his hand. 



"John Knox at Holyrood " is the title of 

 W. P. Frith's contribution. The great reformer, 

 after leaving Queen Mary, seen through an 

 open doorway, in rage and tears at his re- 

 proaches, pauses in passing through the ante- 

 chamber to administer a rebuke to the gay gal- 

 lants and ladies who are indulging in the old- 

 time game of kiss-in-the-ring. 



Luke Fildes's " Venetians " is a composition 

 in the same manner as his picture of 1884 a 

 scene on the steps of a canal, with women and 

 children prettily grouped. 



J. W. AVaterhouse's " St. Eulalia " exhibits 

 the body of the martyr lying on the pavement 

 in the forum, the limbs partly covered by a 

 purplish-red drapery. The miraculous snow- 

 storm, sent to shield the saint from irreverent 

 gaze, has slightly whitened the ground, while a 

 wintry gust blows the mantles of the men and 

 women, who in the distance kneel, or crowd 

 up the steps to gaze. 



London : Grosvenor Gallery. The Gainsborough 

 Exhibition at the Grosvenor Gallery in the 

 winter of 1884-'85 included two hundred and 

 sixteen pictures in all, or about the same num- 

 ber as the Reynoldses shown the preceding 

 winter, and comprised both portraits and land- 

 scapes. Among the former were the famous 

 " Blue Boy," lent by the Duke of Westmin- 

 ster; "Lady Sheffield," by Sir Robert Shef- 

 field, Bart. ; and the "Duchess of Devonshire," 

 by Earl Spencer ; and among the landscape 

 and figure pieces, the " Cottage Door," lent by 

 the Duke of Westminster ; the " Harvest- Wag- 

 on," by Lord T weedmouth ; the " Market-Cart," 

 by Lord Bateman ; and the " Cottage Girl," 

 by G. L. Basset, Esq. 



At the spring exhibition of the Grosvenor 

 Gallery, one of the best pictures was W. B. 

 Richmond's " Audience in Athens during the 

 Representation of the Agamemnon," a large 

 canvas about seven feet high by ten wide. The 

 scene is laid in the theatre at Athens, the spec- 

 tator being supposed to stand on the stage and 

 look out upon the audienee, who sit in three 

 rows of seats, under the shade of the velarium, 

 the archon in the center, and the chief men 

 on his right and left. Above the cavea, be- 

 tween the marble columns of the colonnade, 

 are caught glimpses of the Acropolis and its 

 temples, the fanes of Theseus and Bacchus, and 

 cypresses and pines against the summer sky. 



It has been purchased for the Birmingham 

 Art Gallery. 



George F. Watts's allegorical picture, " Love 

 and Life," is a replica of the picture exhibited 

 at the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 

 1884-'85, and a companion to the "Love and 

 Death " of the same exhibition, shown at the 

 Grosvenor Gallery in 187Y. Love, a winged 

 youth, is leading Life, a young girl, nude, up 

 the steep path of a rocky precipice, shading 

 her form from the hot rays of the sun with his 

 half-extended wings. 



"The Mirror," by C. E. Halle, illustrating 

 the invention of the looking-glass, represents 

 a youth holding up a steel mirror before a girl 

 in white and pink, who, by its aid, is binding 

 ivy in her hair. 



" Hypatia," an ambitious canvas by 0. W. 

 Mitchell, some eight by five feet, exhibits 

 Charles Kiugsley's heroine, entirely nude, save 

 her " golden locks " around her, before the 

 high altar in the church, whither her torment- 

 ors have pursued her, with her arm raised, 

 " appealing from man to God." 



Philip R. Morris's " Eve's Second Paradise " 

 shows the happy mother of mankind, half- 

 length, nude, in a flowery dell, bending over 

 two sleeping infants. 



" Freedom," an allegorical picture, by Wal- 

 ter Crane, represents a winged figure releasing 

 Humanity, a prisoner bound on the floor of a 

 prison, from political and spiritual tyranny, 

 symbolized by a soldier and a priest, who have 

 fallen asleep while sitting as guards, one on 

 each side of the captive. 



London: Miscellaneous. Holrnan Hunt's great 

 picture, " The Triumph of the Innocents," on 

 which he has worked ten years, was put on ex- 

 hibition at the rooms of the Fine Art Society 

 in March. It is properly a Flight into Egypt, 

 as it represents the journey of the Holy Fam- 

 ily after the persecution of Herod. The time 

 is twilight, the scene a broad plain with beacon-* 

 fires in the extreme background. In the fore- 

 ground Joseph, trudging wearily with the tools 

 of his craft on his back, and with his face 

 turned toward the fires, which may indicate 

 pursuit, leads by a halter the ass bearing the 

 Virgin and Child, which is followed by a foal. 

 Preceding, attending, and following the Holy 

 Family are the glorified forms of many little 

 children, each irradiated like a seraph and 

 crowned with a diadern of light, while all are 

 bound in a line by garlands, forming a re- 

 splendent company which the child recognizes 

 with glee. These children are said to be the 

 " most gloriously beautiful in art." 



Gainsborough's half-length seated portrait 

 of " Sophia, Daughter of John Boldero and Wife 

 of Thomas Hibbert," painted about 1784, and 

 exhibited at the winter exhibition of the Royal 

 Academy, was sold in June to Baron Alphonse 

 de Rothschild for 10,000 guineas. 



The Beckett-Denison collection, sold on June 

 6 and the following days, realized but poor 

 prices. Rubens's "Daniel in the Lions' Den," 



