Nature and Art, January 1, 1867.] 
REVIEWS. 
31 
THE WINTER EXHIBITION OP THE SOCIETY OP PAINTERS 
IN WATER-COLOUR. 
I N onr last wo noticed the Fine Art Exhibitions which had 
opened their doors when we went to press. Not least 
in our regard, “The Old Water-Colour Society” now claims 
a few lines ; and it is pleasant to note that the old acquaint- 
ance, still strong and hale, shows little, if any, of the sere 
and yellow leaf. The gaps that time and secession have 
made in its ranks are worthily filled up, while veterans 
enough are on its muster-roll to constitute alone a strong 
force. 
That manual power and mental grasp still abide with the 
old fraternity none may doubt who scan the wild and tem- 
pestuous “ Deathride” by Mr. John Gilbert, or the same 
artist’s “Siege of Calais;” or James Holland’s “ Llynn 
Idwal,” a magnificent drawing-, in which the desolate 
majesty of a mountain wilderness is felicitously conveyed 
with most artistic concealment of all artifice ; or the younger 
Coxe’s “ Arenig, from Lake Crwyni,” to which the lover of 
wild nature shall turn and return ; or E. Duncan’s poetic 
“ Snailholm Tower,” gauntly frowning over a lonely Scottish 
moor ; or Alfred Fripp’s “ Ruin on the Roman Campagna 
or Branwhite’s g-rand gallery work, “An Old Lock” (this 
claims to be seen two or three yards off ) ; or, again, 
Duncan’s “Snowdon, from Lake Llydaw,” and T. M. 
Richardson’s great “ Benvenue.” 
In the class, again, who thus capture the eye and the 
intelligence by tours de force must be numbered Mr. Culling-- 
ford Smith, with his broadly-treated “ Scene at Watendlath,” 
that picturesque mountain village that is perched among 
the Borrowdale Fells, high up above the better-known 
Lodore. Mr. Alfred Newton thus arrests us by his “Cucullin 
Hills,” where the wrestle of the dawn with a sea-mist is 
surprisingly rendered : and so, perhaps, we might go on, 
until no room was left for a word about masters of another 
order. 
The men who more delicately weave their spells are many | 
in number, and withal very strong and successful. The “High 
Street of Conway,” for instance, by Mr. Collingwood Smith, 
is a wondrous piece of perspective ; and in “ The Canino 
Real, Toledo,” Mr. E. A. Goodall has succeeded in producing 
one of K the most effective bits conceivable with the fewest 
lines and the thinnest washes of colour ; and with these 
we may range the “Prague” of S. Read, who has carefully 
sketched and lightly tinted the eminently picturesque forms 
seen from the Nepomucene Bridge in that city. 
The lover of nature condemned to winter amid the fogs 
of Thames may here come and dream of country life among 
the charming *works of Mr. J. J. Jenkins, who draws his 
inspirations from the many well-loved scenes at Wargrave, 
Shiplake, and thereaway ; or with S. P. Jackson, who seems 
to work the same ground with no less truth of feeling ; and 
the “Summer Twilight” of the latter and the “ Knolo 
Park” of the former are among the many examples of their 
fascination. More sensuous — and fascinating too, in another 
way — are the high-coloured, warm-toned performances of 
Mr. G. H. Andrews, whose “Dort” and “St. Bennett’s 
Mill” are splendid examples ; the dancing- ripples and 
glistening- leaves of Naftel ; and the elegant yet forcible 
figure studies of Miss Gillies and H. P. Riviere. 
The fourth screen is a constellation in which shines 
Birket Foster, with three studies of “Skies” and three of 
“Trees,” to praise which would to us seem almost an im- 
pertinence. With him are William Callow, Joseph Nash, 
Henry Gastineau, Frederick Tayler (whose glossy-coated 
steeds are the delight of the equestrian order), and the 
masterly cattle-painter, Brittan Willis — an able recruit from 
the ranks of the oil-painters — all in fine form. They are a 
strong array ; and such favour does their elegant art now 
find with the public that the comparatively few works they 
offer for sale are very rapidly absorbed, to decorate the 
drawing-room and the boudoir. 
REVI 
Recollections of the East. By a Subaltern. Day and 
Son (Limited), London. 
T HE individual who can return from the East without 
interesting reminiscences must be remarkably devoid of 
imagination, or powers of observation and comparison. The 
religionist will have his memories of dreamy mosques and 
fanciful pagodas, sacred to the prophet of Mecca or the 
frolicsome Ivrishnu. The sentimentalist -will muse over the 
departed glories of marble and gem-bedizened palaces, and 
people them again with gorgeous Rajahs and lovely Oashme- 
rian girls. The artist will meditate upon airy pinnacles and 
delicate arabesques, upon picturesque groupings in bazaars, 
and the thousand charming combinations in form and colour 
of a life totally new to him. The naturalist will think of 
all the delights afforded him by animal and vegetable king- 
doms, so different from those of his own more temperate 
climate. But the recollections with which it is our present 
purpose particularly to deal are those of the humorist, 
returned from serving Her Majesty in British India. Ours 
shall be memories of brandy-pawnee and pig-sticking, 
cricket with the thermometer at 100°, and regimental 
messes with the punkahs swaying over the tables and the 
turbanned kitmutghars standing- behind their perspiring 
masters’ chairs. We have before us, in a handsomely bound 
book, well adapted to lie on a drawing-room table, a series 
of excellently-executed photo-lithographs, in which a number 
of striking scenes of Anglo-Indian life are represented with 
delicious humour, yet with perfect fidelity. Our military 
artist carries us through a succession of most amusing 
E WS. 
episodes in a young officer’s Indian career. They commence 
with his arrival, when he is beset by a crowd of obsequiously 
salaaming natives, who present their “characters,” and be- 
seech the sahib to take them into his service, volubly utter- 
ing the while a thousand protestations of their punctilious 
honesty and everlasting faithfulness ; and they terminate 
with his departure, when he hurries on board ship, pursued 
by the same, insisting- that their just demands upon his purse 
have not been liquidated. We have “ our station,” “ our 
bazaar,” “ our band-stand,” “ pay-day,” and numerous other 
comical, yet artistically conceived pictures. There is the 
“ frightful position of Stumpkins,” who, when out tiger- 
shooting-, without the old-fashioned but comparatively secure 
elephant, “ in a second, sees the panorama of his life pass 
before his bewildered brain ; ” and the difficulties encountered 
by Lanky, in the less perilous but still dangerous sport of 
pig-sticking. We have the battalion on parade in the misty 
morning-, and the same on the march, their solar topees 
just visible through the clouds of dust, and a few palm-trees 
towering above bayonets that glisten in the fiery sunshine. 
There is always, we may observe, in these drawings an ex- 
pression, ranging from the satirical to the merry, upon the 
sun’s countenance ; as though he was chuckling over the 
torments he was inflicting upon the intruders into his 
favoured domain. We have “ our theatricals,” too, in which 
the gentle heroine is represented by a shaven warrior ; and 
“ our ball,” whereat some two or three fair ones have to 
waltz by turns with about nine times their number of 
languid cavaliers. 
Our artist has managed to convey, with all his fun, an 
