The Zoologist— June, 1874. 4027 



and with hira the attempt is successful, because genuine, natural, 

 quiet, inoffensive humour is always beaming from his canvass; he 

 never descends to the broad grin of the clown or the uncouth 

 posturings of the elephant. English painters painfully feel their 

 shortcomings on this point as on many others; with them brilliant 

 colouring is synonymous with scarlet, or more technically pink, 

 hunting-coats, freedom of drawing with extent of canvass : all the 

 English faults remain, though the picture be painfully overflowing 

 with scarlet, and the canvass be measured by the acre instead of 

 the foot. 



Mr. Davis has three pictures, Nos. 270, 596 and 606. It is per- 

 haps as unwise as it is truthful, when I say that I never prepare to 

 look at a painting of cattle by Mr. Davis but I feel predisposed to 

 be pleased. I have received such intense gratification from gazing 

 on cattle painted by Rosa Bonheur and Mr. Davis that I cannot 

 escape the conviction that I am going to receive another instal- 

 ment of that pleasure, always accompanied by a corresponding 

 amount of instruction, when I am about to gaze on another picture 

 by either of these accomplished artists, and I have never been dis- 

 appointed ; therefore I suppose the same unfair partiality will 

 continue to the end. No. 270, which is called " A French Lane," 

 seems to me as English as the most respectable English mind 

 could desire; it is a choice "landscape with figures," photo- 

 graphed in colours. I do not know what "French" attribute this 

 lane may possess ; certainly it seems as near perfection as a land- 

 scape with figures can be : the largest figure, a brown cow, or as it 

 would be called in Herefordshire, a " red cow," is resting her nose 

 on the back of a calf in the foreground, and both figures may well 

 challenge comparison with anything Rosa has produced. 



Mr. E. Douglas (a name with which I am sorry not to be 

 familiar) has two pictures, Nos. 155 and 432, the first called "Old 

 Mother Goose," seems to call for no particular comment: it is so 

 hung as to prevent the visitor from seeing it with satisfaction, and 

 it scarcely excites a wish to see it more distinctly; the other, 

 " Mountain Shooting," No. 432, has the ring of true metal, and 

 it is impossible not to be reminded of Sir Edwin: the dogs 

 and game are equally good, but there is a softness of texture in 

 the hair of the dogs that is more fitted for the drawing-room 

 than the mountain side : this is a very venial fault, and will be sure 

 to vanish hereafter. 



