Oakley Has
Some Spirited Groups Of Gipsies And Country People, And There Are Several
Of A Similar Kind By Taylor,
Who designs and executes with great force.
One of the earliest of the new school of artists in water-colors
Is Prout,
whose drawings are principally architectural, and who has shown how
admirably suited this new style of art is to the delineation of the rich
carvings of Gothic churches. Most of the finer pieces, I observed, were
marked 'sold;' they brought prices varying from thirty to fifty guineas.
There is an exhibition now open of the paintings of Etty, who stands high
in the world of art as an historical painter. The "Society of the Arts" - I
believe that is its name - every year gets up an exhibition of the works of
some eminent painter, with the proceeds of which it buys one of his
pictures, and places it in the National Gallery. This is a very effectual
plan of forming in time a various and valuable collection of the works of
British artists.
The greatest work of Etty is the series representing the Death of
Holofernes by the hand of Judith. It consists of three paintings, the
first of which shows Judith in prayer before the execution of her attempt;
in the next, and the finest, she is seen standing by the conch of the
heathen warrior, with the sword raised to heaven, to which she turns her
eyes, as if imploring supernatural assistance; and in the third, she
appears issuing from the tent, bearing the head of the ravager of her
country, which she conceals from the armed attendants who stand on guard
at the entrance, and exhibits to her astonished handmaid, who has been
waiting the result. The subject is an old one, but Etty has treated it in
a new way, and given it a moral interest, which the old painters seem not
to have thought of. In the delineation of the naked human figure, Etty is
allowed to surpass all the English living artists, and his manner of
painting flesh is thought to be next to that of Rubens. His reputation for
these qualities has influenced his choice of subjects in a remarkable
manner. The walls of the exhibition were covered writh Venuses and Eves,
Cupids and Psyches, and nymphs innocent of drapery, reclining on couches,
or admiring their own beauty reflected in clear fountains. I almost
thought myself in the midst of a collection made for the Grand Seignior.
The annual exhibition of the Royal Academy is now open. Its general
character is mediocrity, unrelieved by any works of extraordinary or
striking merit. There are some clever landscapes by the younger Danbys,
and one by the father, which is by no means among his happiest - a dark
picture, which in half a dozen years will be one mass of black paint.
Cooper, almost equal to Paul Potter as a cattle painter, contributes some
good pieces of that kind, and one of them, in which the cattle are from
his pencil, and the landscape from that of Lee, appeared to me the finest
thing in the collection. There is, however, a picture by Leslie, which his
friends insist is the best in the exhibition. It represents the chaplain
of the Duke leaving the table in a rage, after an harangue by Don Quixote
in praise of knight-errantry. The suppressed mirth of the Duke and
Duchess, the sly looks of the servants, the stormy anger of the
ecclesiastic, and the serene gravity of the knight, are well expressed;
but there is a stiffness in some of the figures which makes them look as
if copied from the wooden models in the artist's study, and a raw and
crude appearance in the handling, so that you are reminded of the brush
every time you look at the painting. To do Leslie justice, however, his
paintings ripen wonderfully, and seem to acquire a finish with years.
If one wishes to form an idea of the vast numbers of indifferent paintings
which are annually produced in England, he should visit, as I did, another
exhibition, a large gallery lighted from above, in which each artist, most
of them of the younger or obscurer class, takes a certain number of feet
on the wall and exhibits just what he pleases. Every man is his own
hanging committee, and if his pictures are not placed in the most
advantageous position, it is his own fault. Here acres of canvas are
exhibited, most of which is spoiled of course, though here and there a
good picture is to be seen, and others which give promise of future merit.
Enough of pictures. The principal subject of political discussion since I
have been in England, has been the expediency of allowing Jews to sit in
Parliament. You have seen by what a large majority Baron Rothschild has
been again returned from the city of London, after his resignation, in
spite of the zealous opposition of the conservatives. It is allowed, I
think, on all hands, that the majority of the nation are in favor of
allowing Jews to hold seats in Parliament, but the other side urge the
inconsistency of maintaining a Christian Church as a state institution,
and admitting the enemies of Christianity to a share in its
administration. Public opinion, however, is so strongly against political
disabilities on account of religious faith, that with the aid of the
ministry, it will, no doubt, triumph, and we shall see another class of
adversaries of the Establishment making war upon it in the House of
Commons. Nor will it be at all surprising if, after a little while, we
hear of Jewish barons, earls, and marquises in the House of Peers.
Rothschild himself may become the founder of a noble line, opulent beyond
the proudest of them all.
The protectionist party here are laboring to persuade the people that the
government have committed a great error, in granting such liberal
conditions to the trade of other nations, to the prejudice of British
industry.
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