Complete Works of Wilkie Collins (2181 page)

The contemplation of such a work of art as Mr. Herbert’s unfits us for any lengthened examination of Mr. Chalon’s picture of the “Seasons,” which hangs near it. We observe that the allegorical nymphs are gracefully and prettily painted, and pass on — after a pleasant glance at two truthful little pictures by Mr. Webster — to Mr. Charles Landseer’s “Cromwell reading an intercepted Letter of the Kings. The composition is carefully treated; the scene on the battle-field of Naseby presents itself clearly in its different aspects, and the portraits of Fairfax, Skippon, and Ireton are so introduced as to increase legitimately the historical interest of the subject.

The new President’s “Ippolita Torelli,” a female figure in a partly reclining attitude, next presents itself. The picture displays all Sir Charles Eastlake’s well known delicacy of touch and finish of execution; the refined features and gentle expression of “Ippolita,” possessing at the same time that calm poetic beauty which this painter has often before presented to us in his female heads, but never more successfully than on the present occasion.

Mr. Leslie gives us this year the scene from “Henry the Fourth,” in which Falstaff administers a mock rebuke to the Prince, in the character of the King. Always admirable in displaying on canvas that highest and truest humour which never degenerates into vul- garity or exaggeration, the painter has equalled his best efforts in impersonating the character of the Prince, to our thinking the most successful figure in the picture. We have all the mischief and recklessness of “Hal” developed in his countenance; and yet, rake as he is, his birth and breeding are expressed or rather
suggested
, with consummate ability, both in his features and bearing. We may also mention the “hang-dog” look of’ Bardolph; the hearty enjoy- ment in the face of the Hostess; and the timid glance of astonish- ment cast by the “drawer” at the Prince, as all in Mr. Leslie’s best manner, that manner which places him alone and unapproached among the artists of his age. If we might hint an objection to any part of the picture, it would be to the figure of Falstaff, which strikes us as somewhat conventional. If Mr. Leslie had trusted as thoroughly to his own genius here, as in other parts of his work, might he not have made Falstaff as complete a creation of his own on canvas as all the other figures in this delightful picture?

Never do we remember to have seen Sir Edwin Landseer to such advantage as we see him this year, in his Scene from the “Mid- summer Night’s Dream.” It is hardly too much to say of this picture, that it is in the very spirit of Shakspeare himself. The delicacy and loveliness of Titania; the dense, asinine stupidity of the transformed Bottom, we might have expected to find what we find them here; but in his manner of embodying the Fairies, we must confess that the painter has taken us by surprize, high as our estimate has always been of his abilities. The exquisite fancy, the mixture of quaint humour and poetic beauty exhibited in the impersonation of Peas-blossom, Cobweb, Moth, &c., cannot be too highly praised, as the completest realisation of the Fairies of Shakspeare ever displayed on canvas. Even in the more mechani- cal qualities of “surface” and “execution,” this picture is one of the very best the artist has produced; witness the painting of the two white rabbits in the right-hand foreground, which in our opinion carries the power of illusion as far as illusion will go.

Stopping for a moment, to admire Mr.Uwins’s charming little picture of “The Parasol,” we arrive opposite Mr.E. M. Ward’s “Royal Family of France in the Prison of the Temple.” There is real pathos, of the simplest and most impressive order, in this fine picture. We look at the beautifully-conceived sleeping figure of Louis the Sixteenth; at the expression of the Queen, who is mend- ing his coat while he slumbers; at the Dauphiness watering the lily already drooping in the glass; at the Dauphin mending his shuttle-cock, the last plaything left to him; and we acknowledge that the scene is presented to us with a touching truth to Nature, and a graphic eloquence of expression, which move our sympathies even more than our admiration. In displaying, as a contrast to the mournfulness and resignation of the royal prisoners, the group of revolutionary ruffians just seen behind them smoking and playing cards in an outer room, Mr. Ward has shown how admirably he understands the dramatic connection between the pathetic and the terrible; while, in grappling with the technical difficulties of his art, he has advanced this year to a degree of excellence, which even his heartiest admirers of former seasons can hardly have been prepared to see.

In “Hogarth brought before the Governor of Calais as a spy,” Mr. Frith gives us another of those character-pictures by which he has honestly won a high reputation. He is still as excellent as ever in the more refined subtleties of expression. In the face of Hogarth, we have all the characteristic coarseness and wit of the great painter, capitally combined with his look of reckless uncon- cern, and his malicious enjoyment of the perplexities of his military judge. The rest of the personages in the picture are not less happily hit off — the dirty, scare-crow French soldiery of the day, and the
 
courteous but rigid commanding officer seated bolt upright in his arm-chair, being especially remarkable as excellent and careful representations of national character. The more initiated among the visitors to the exhibition, will not fail to recognise in the “paint- ing” of this picture a remarkable purity and truth — a bold and most successful attempt to treat a simple daylight effect in all its simplicity, without the slightest adventitious aid from artificially bright lights or dark shadows, in any part of the canvas.

With this work, we take our leave of the figure subjects in the East Room — Mr. Redgrave’s “Flight into Egypt” (the only remain- ing Picture), being one of those commonplace attempts to be solemn by dint of dingy blue, yellow, and brown, worked into a high state of polish all over sky, earth, and figures, which proclaims its own mediocrity too palpably to need any remark whatever on our parts.

Beginning, in the Middle Room, with Mr.Poole’s “Goths in Italy” (No.344), we are forcibly impressed by a certain air of barbaric grandeur and simplicity — a striking wildness and mystery — spread over the whole picture, which is admirably in keeping with the subject. Whatever he may paint, Mr. Poole always works powerfully and originally — always produces, as in this instance, an effect which is peculiarly and distinctively his own on the mind of the spectator. Far different is the case with Mr.Hook, who has attempted the well-worn subject of the “Brides of Venice.” Here we see nothing but several pretty girls clothed in pretty dresses, disposed in pretty attitudes, and assuming pretty expressions — not the Brides of Venice, but modern young ladies personating their characters in a drawing-room “Tableau.”

Mr. Brown’s large and elabourate picture of “Chaucer reading the Legend of Custance to Edward the Third,” deserves to be mentioned by us with that respect which hard work honestly persevered in throughout, should always command. It must be confessed, how- ever, that we looked with regret at the whole composition, as a work in which the confusion of the figures, and the absence of any attention to harmony, had seriously damaged the effect of many detached parts that were individually excellent. We hope to see Mr. Brown doing more justice to his own industry and intelligence on a future occasion.

Mr. Cope’s picture (in three compartments) of “Laurence Saun- ders, the second of the Protestant Martyrs in the time of Mary,” takes rank among the noblest productions of modern art. In the first division, the wife of the martyr, with her infant child in her arms, is seen ringing at the prison door, to ask a last interview with her husband. The attitude of the figure is simple, the expression of
 
the features free from even an approach to exaggeration; and yet what unutterable woe there is in those calm, piteous eyes! what meek piety, what solemn resignation in that sad, pure face! The second compartment shows us the interior of the prison. The wife has been refused admission, but the gaoler has brought in the infant to receive its father’s farewell. The yearning fondness, mingling with saintly patience and firmness, in the martyr’s countenance — the attitude of the child stretching out its little face and arms towards its father — must be seen, and pondered over; not described — no mere words could do it justice. In the third division, we behold the martyr going out to the pile on which he is to be burnt — his courage undiminished; his trust unshaken — an impressive conclusion to the story of an impressive picture. If this work appealed less eloquently to the best and purest feelings of the spectator, we might take some exception to the manner in which it is painted — in the sense of
workmanship
. But, seeing it what it is, we feel that slight technical objections would be petty and misplaced, applied to such a picture as this — a picture of “High Art,” in the most elevated and comprehensive meaning of the term.

In “Rinaldo destroying the myrtle,” Mr. F. R. Pickersgill has not got beyond respectable mediocrity. Not even by accident does he appear to have hit on anything original, in characterising, com- posing, or colouring any one of the numerous figures in his picture. We turn with pleasure from this work, and from the execrable vulgarity of Mr. Brodie’s “May and December,” to Mr. Frost’s “Wood-Nymphs. The painter’s refined feeling for form appears here to as much advantage as ever; the faces of his nymphs are still exquisite in their pure, ideal loveliness — would we could add that the glow and richness of colour, hitherto undeveloped in his works, were apparent on the present occasion. This is all that Mr. Frost wants; and to accomplish this, he need only learn to feel clue confi- dence in the resources of his own genius.

If “Nell Gwynne” could return to life with such a face as Mr. Egg gives her in his picture of this year, could the man be found, who would not be just as anxious to kiss her, as “Mr. Pepys” him- self? The present is, in many respects, the best work the painter has produced. The greedy anxiety of Pepys to make the utmost of the kiss he is allowed to snatch from “Poor Nelly,” is a capital piece of expression; full of comedy, yet free from coarseness. Equally good is the jaded, rouged face, and arch, vagabond look of the “player-woman” who is having her shoe put on. All the other figures in the picture are simply and naturally introduced — there is nothing that looks artificial in any part of the arrangement. The painting, too, is admirably firm and forcible; and the colour- saving a little tendency to yellowness, in parts — displays a truth and richness well deserving of especial notice and praise.

We would fain delay over Mr E. M. Ward’s “John Gilpin;” but our narrowing space obliges us to leave it with a passing word of commendation, as worthy in its spirit and humour of the immortal ballad which it illustrates. Going on, round the remaining figure- pictures in the room, we do not find much to delay us. Mr. Faed’s “Cottage Piety” is nothing but a mechanical imitation of the manner of Wilkie, which we need not stop to criticise. Nor do the “Dover Hovellers,” by Mr. Hollins, incline us to make any long pause — three more intensely uninteresting men than these same “Hovellers,” we never saw on canvas. Mr. Elmore’s “Hotspur and the Fop demands, and has, our best attention. The picture is finely drawn and composed, and in many places, very well painted. The “Fop” is the conventional fop — a gentleman whom we are heartily tired of seeing represented; but the group carrying the dead body, and the expression and position of Hotspur, are full of dramatic energy. Mr. C. Collins’s “Convent-Thoughts” we intend to notice further on, with the works exhibited in the West and North Rooms, by Messrs. Hunt and Millais — the novel and strongly-marked style which these three artists have adopted alike, warranting us in reserving their pictures for special and separate remark.

Not forgetting to admire, as we go, Mr. Frith’s pretty “Gleaner,” we now pass into the West Room. Here are two Scripture-subjects, by Messrs. Dobson and O’Neil; some “Arcadians” by Mr. Patten; and a “Defeat of Shylock” by Mr. Hook, all of very ordinary merit. Mr. Goodall’s “Raising the May Pole” is a great improvement on his latter works. It is clever in design and arrangement, and pre- sents some excellent effects of colour. Mr. Kennedy, in his “Theo- dore and Honouria,” works in so blotchy and patchy a style, that his canvas looks as if it had broken out into an eruption of paint — while Mr. Horsley, in “L’Allegro and Il Penseroso” goes to the opposite extreme, and produces a surface as smooth and cleanly as a new coach panel. Mr. Stone’s “Scene from the Merchant of Venice” is, we think, destined to please very generally. The female figures are elegantly and beautifully conceived — the men are the best Mr. Stone has ever painted, showing far more of masculine character and energy than we remember in any of his former works. Mr.Johnston’s “Family Worship” gives us the old story — the family party are all trying to look pious; and the effect of colour is of the usual “dim, religious” treacle-brown hue, which seems to be a staple commodity of all domestic-devotional pictures of this class. Mr. Armitage’s “Samson,” is a work of great power and imagination — bold and original enough in conception to give goodly promise for this artist’s future career, provided he guards himself rigidly against even a tendency to extravagance and display. We have rarely seen a larger canvas covered to smaller purpose, than by Mr. Barker; whose “Incident in the life of William Rufus” would have been more fitly exhibited on the side of a caravan, than on the walls of the Academy. Mr. J. H. G. Mann — a name new to us — has painted a very nice little picture of a “Mother and Child.” Of Mr. Le Jeune’s “Sermon on the Mount,” we can only say that the artist will best show his reverence for sacred things, by never again attempting a Scripture subject.