FINE ARTS IN 1894. 



279 



Romney, Blake, Stothard, and the late Mr. Pet- 

 tie, and of the primitive schools of Italy and the 

 Low Countries. Among the principal attractions 

 were 54 pictures and 46 drawings by Stothard, 

 and 21 drawings by Blake. 



The one hundred and twenty-sixth summer 

 exhibition was disappointing through the ab- 

 sence of several usually prominent contributors, 

 such as Sir John Millais, Mr. T. Faed, Mr." Cal- 

 deron, and Sir John Gilbert, and the inadequate 

 representation of other of the best men. 



Of Sir Frederick Leighton's contributions, the 

 "Spirit of the Summit" represents a stately 

 virgin in voluminous white drapery seated on a 

 niii.ural throne on the highest peak of a moun- 

 tain, looking upward into the blue firmament 

 where stars glitter, while from the valleys white 

 clouds rise and climb into the azure behind her. 



" Summer Slumber " shows the nearly life- 

 size figure of a young damsel in pale-rose' drap- 

 ery extended supine on the margin of a marble 

 tank in a Greek room lined with marble and 

 adorned with statues of "Silence" and "Repose" 

 and other sculptures suggestive of peace and 

 slumber. Between two lofty columns is seen a 

 landscape in glowing twilight deepening into 

 gloom, the azure of the sky reflected in the wa- 

 ter of the tank. 



" Fatidica " represents a stately dame, in 

 ample white robes, seated on a silver throne on 

 a raised platform in a large niche in a temple, 

 the walls of which behind are covered with sil- 

 ver in which shadowy reflections seem to play. 

 At her side a silver tripod sustains a slow-burn- 

 ing fire, and at her feet lies a branch of golden 

 hmrel appropriate to the divinity whose mouth- 

 piece she is. 



" The Bracelet " depicts a Greek damsel, in 

 primrose drapery open at the side to show a 

 shapely thigh and leg, standing before a chair 

 with drapery thrown upon it against a back- 

 ground of vines and azure sky, trying on her 

 arm a bracelet at which' she looks admiringlv. 

 At her feet a little child holds a casket from 

 which the bracelet has been taken. 



Mr. Poynters "Idle Fears" represents a tall, 

 slender young girl, entirely nude, hesitating to 

 make the plunge into the cold tank in a Roman 

 bath, and clinging to her companion, a hand- 

 some adult damsel in white and purple. The 

 clear, placid water reflects the architecture and 

 the figures, who face the spectator against a 

 background of colored marbles. An opening, 

 with a purple portiere drawn back, reveals an 

 inner room, where a servant is pouring hot water 

 into a smaller bath. 



" Hora3 Serena?," by the same artist, depicts 

 six girls, whose fluttering draperies veil without 

 hiding their limbs, dancing hand in hand to the 

 music of a band of Egyptians, on a lofty garden 

 terrace overlooking the Mediterranean and dis- 

 tant purple mountains. The musicians sit under 

 a vine-clad bower on the right, and under 

 another one on the left are a handsome lady in 

 a silver chair, with a little girl leaning on her 

 knee, and behind her a maiden holding a lyre. 

 Near by is a peacock, his colors flaming in the 

 sun, and overhead doves circling through" the air. 



" After the Battle, Sedan," by Mr. J. Charl- 

 ton, depicts a furious stampede of riderless 

 chargers, whose masters have been slain or dis- 



mounted, crazed by fear or hunger, rushing 

 wildly over the plain, crushing in their purpose- 

 less charge the dead and the wounded. 



Mr. Val. Prinsep's " A Versailles ! " a large 

 picture filled with life-size figures, represents 

 the march of the women to Versailles in Octo- 

 ber, 1789. Their leader, a young virago, rides 

 on a gun-carriage which is dragged by a party 

 of ill-favored patriots, preceded by the red flag. 

 In the front a lady is forced unwillingly along 

 by the crowd. 



Mr. Briton Riviere's " Ganymede " exhibits 

 Jove's eagle soaring to the Olympian courts, 

 with its talons fixed in a red girdle bound 

 about the chest of Ganymede. His " Beyond 

 Man's Footsteps " depicts a huge white bear on 

 the sloping plateau of a floating iceberg, gazing 

 upon the sun sinking in lurid gold behind a 

 bank of gloomy purple clouds that veils the 

 edge of the sea. 



" For he had Great Possessions," by George F. 

 Watts, is the life-size, nearly full-length figure 

 of a tall, stately man, in pearly-white, gray, and 

 green Oriental drapery, standing near a window, 

 out of which he is evidently looking, though we 

 see only his shoulder and back. 



Mr. J. S. Sargent exhibited a " Lunette and 

 Portion of a Ceiling," intended for the decora- 

 tion of the Public Library, Boston. It includes 

 a large number of life-size figures drawn from 

 Egyptian mythology, and is full of vigorous 

 and able drawing and painting. 



London : New Gallery. The winter exhi- 

 bition was devoted to pictures illustrative of 

 early Italian art, and contained, besides much 

 archaic " padding," many works of a high class, 

 especially by Botticelli, Antonello da Messina, 

 Bronzino, Ghirlandaio, and Signorelli! In ad- 

 dition, was a large and comprehensive collection 

 of the art craftsmanship of 1300 to 1550, con- 

 sisting of furniture, plate, decorative bronzes, 

 armor, ceramics, ivories, embroideries, illumi- 

 nated manuscripts, engravings, etc. 



The summer exhibition, which contained more 

 than 400 numbers, had but few noteworthy pic- 

 tures. Mr. Poynter's half-length life-size figure 

 entitled "Barine," suggested by Horace's ode 

 (ii, 8), represents the coquette as a sumptuous 

 brunette, in a palla of deep-red silk shot with 

 gold slowly tearing in pieces a billet which some 

 lover has sent her. 



Sir E. Burne-Jones contributed "Vespertina 

 Quies," a sort of pendant to his "Flamma Vesta- 

 lis." It depicts a damsel in deep, rich blue, 

 standing in the gallery or balcony of a convent, 

 with the empty courtyard behind her. its nar- 

 row doors and windows bathed in the soft, 

 warm evening light that pervades the quadran- 

 gle. "Love among the Ruins "is a replica in 

 oil of a destroyed water color that was reckoned 

 among the artist's best productions. " Danae " 

 is a study for a picture of the damsel of the 

 brazen tower, much different from a picture of 

 the same name and subject previously exhibited. 



Mr. Alma-Tadema's "The Benediction" is a 

 small picture representing a bride, crowned with 

 jasmine and robed with white, pressing to her 

 bosom a silver casket, while the groom half-fur- 

 tively kisses her hand. Behind, standing on the 

 top of the steps near the altar and smoking 

 tripod, the priestess of the temple, lifting above 



