100 BIRMINGHAM SOCIETY OF ARTS. MODERN EXHIBITION. 66 In passing our opinion on the various works here assembled, we shall "extenuate nothing-nor set down aught in malice;" yet, being "nothing, if not critical," we must occasionally say things, perchance, unpalatable to some of the parties concerned; whose good sense, however, will pardon our well-meant remarks; and feel less disposed to wax wrath at the careless sallies of our light-armed badinage, than they would do if subjected to the heavy fire of more serious and strictly-disciplined troops of the line." Had we been inclined for severity, ample scope for animadversion might be found among a certain class of pictures, dis-gracing the walls of our Institution: but we have only alluded to a few of the most pretending specimens among a collection of (so called) portraits, which we should suppose were procured in the course of a pillage of ale-house signs. How much better to exclude such perpetrations; and by reducing the quantity, enhance the quality of the exhibited works. The rooms contain some gems of such peerless beauty, that we would fain exclude all such abortive attempts as only create ideas of the grotesque and absurd. The two noble pictures by Mac Clise are alone an Exhibition; and, even without the many other fine works, of which we shall endeavour, though briefly, to express our admiration, were enough to sustain the character of the present, as a good and interesting collection of modern works of art. 6. View of Clovelly, Devon.-W. Fowler. A very pretty little picture, with spirited figures in the foreground, and a morning haze over the distant landscape; which is skilfully and effectively painted. 9. The Painter's Model tired of sitting.-J. Ward, R. A. Represented by a little urchin, who may be supposed to have played either Cupid or a cherub, according to the spectator's fancy for mythology or theology. The young model has grown weary, and huddled himself up into a most uncouth position; we cannot understand the aged, puckered appearance of the face, or the raddle hue of the skin. 15. Portrait of Miss L. A. Twamley.-J. Hill. A simple, natural, and unpretending picture, bearing a strong resemblance to the original, and giving evidence of great talent and good taste in the young and highly-gifted artist. 17. Landscape.-J. M. W. Turner, R. A. This picture is highly interesting, as shewing the extraordinary change in the style of this great painter, being, it would appear, one of his early productions. Dark, sombre, and subdued in tone, heavily shadowed, and without a tint of brilliant colouring throughout. How different to his recent paintings!-where the brightest and most dazzling sunlight, making each colour like a rainbow-hue-and the dark, livid, storm cloud, create such wondrously brilliant and often startling effects. This transition from " grave to gay," we also find in Lawrence, though in a different line of art; he having begun by an imitation of Rembrandt and the old masters, and eventually become a painter of colours as they are. 28. Impudence.-G. Wallis. "Black it stood as night."-We cannot admire the fashion of thus victimising lines of our great poets, however wittily the double entendre may be made out-and here there is nothing to palliate the offence; the line being taken in vain into the service of a chimney-sweep astride upon a turnstile, through which a gaily-attired damsel is desirous of passing. 30. Going to Market.-J. Stark. A very simple, natural, and, consequently, pleasing composition. A Peasant Girl and Donkey laden for market, coming over a moor; and so faithfully representing real life, that we may imagine we have met with the very group in some of our wanderings. 35. Near Beddgelert, North Wales.-T. Creswick. A superb amphitheatre of mountains, girt with clouds, and half curtained by a light mist, through which the vale and stream below gleam softly out, form the distance and mid-ground of this beautiful picture. The wild heath from which the view is gained, and the figures in the foreground, forming a fine, though, perhaps, too sudden, contrast to the extreme delicacy and silvery softness of the far-off scene; which gives us one of the most beautiful, though most transient, expressions of these grand features on nature's ever-glorious face,— "Soaring, snow-clad, through their native sky, 39. Smithy at Whitnash, near Leamington.-H. Wyatt. It is a strange folly and weakness of our nature that we cannot be content with doing one thing well, but must attempt others, as it would seem for the express purpose of being foils to ourselves. Why does Henry Wyatt perpetrate tiled smithies, and ducks by a pond, but to shew us he is not always the great and graceful painter we are wont to find him? 43. The refractory Model.-W. Kidd. Excellent, most excellent, is this humourous little picture! An artist at his easel is painting the portrait of a Donkey, who is held in the middle of a not over large studio; and, from the progress made, we may suppose has hitherto conducted himself with becoming decorum. But a sudden fit of friskiness seems to have seized him, and, plunging out, he is making war upon plaster Apollo's and Venus's without mercy; while the unhappy painter flings up his arms in an agony of horror, and the landlady peers in at the door to discover the cause of disturbance. The figures and accessories are as well painted as they are cleverly designed. 47. Magdalen.-H. Wyatt. Very exquisitely painted: the flesh particularly clear and beautiful, and the head fine and gracefully turned. 48. Portrait of Miss Gronow.-F. Y. Hurlstone. Few pictures in the exhibition can compete with this in nature, interest, or beauty. The head of the rosy, laughing, bright-eyed, and black-haired child is exquisitely painted; and the donkey on which she is carelessly mounted, seems fairly stepping from the canvas. A young, rough, shaggy, coltish-looking creature is this same steed, painted up to nature in every point of form and character; with a spice of the hereditary obstinacy of his tribe written on his long-eared visage. The picture reminds us of Miss Mitford's writings; it is so worthy of the graphic pen with which she would beautifully sketch both child and donkey, in one of her delightful village scenes. This is the finest of Mr. Hurlstone's works we have yet seen, and we hope to greet many more of like feeling and excellence. 49. Duncan's Horses.-J. Ward, R. A. A most extraordinary illustration of a passage in Macbeth, act 2nd, scene 4th, where Rosse describes the escape of Duncan's horses, and their eating each The animals, individually, are finely designed, and in the most difficult positions; but, as a whole, the picture is monstrous. The encounters and combustions of the heavy stone-like clouds above, are full as strange as the civil war among the steeds below, who are racing, rolling, and devouring in every direction, and in such troops as give one a splendid notion of poor King Duncan's stud. The landscape is laboriously painted-but highly fantastic and absurd. 51. The Ornithologist.-H. Wyatt. Here our artist is in his element, and the grace, beauty, and interest of this little picture makes us yet more regret that Whitnash Smithy should ever have led him from his own particular path in art. 56. Portrait of a Lady.-E Coleman. White satin dress, and a red geranium by way of taking off the chill. (Had not Partridge a lovely picture in the last Exhibition, arrayed in precisely the same costume?) The head of the lady is painted with great clearness and delicacy. 57. Scene near Axminster-F. W. Watts; and 31, Heath Scene, by the same artist, are two faithful and pleasing transcripts of familiar scenes, in which, after all, lies the true pleasure of pictures. Mr. Watts's landscapes are clear, sparkling, dewy-looking scenes, with all the fresh and cheering look of nature. "So full 58. A Lady in a fancy Costume.-Mrs. Joanna Cox. of shapes is fancy, that it alone is high fantastical." The fair artist seems partial to the fancy line, for we have a "Portrait of a Turk, late tailor to the Dey of Algiers,” in a very fanciful costume indeed. But the triumph of Mrs. Joanna Cox in the temple of fancy, is " A Female weeping over the Tomb of her Lovef," whom we, very unsentimentally, mistook for a cook-maid suffering from tooth-ache, leaning on the kitchen dresser, with a blue apron over her head. 67. Portrait of a Lady, J. Hollins. We can scarcely believe this to be painted by the same hand as the lovely portraits which Mr. Hollins exhibited last year. It is harsh in colour, and utterly void of taste in arrangement. The likeness, we understand, is correct. 68. Portrait of the Rt. Hon the Earl of Aboyne, &c. &c.-J. Hollins. A much more creditable production than the former portrait; but still far off what Mr. Hollins has achieved. 69. Independent of a Vote, and 76, Soliciting a Vote.-R. W. Buss. Two pictures of election scenes, in the very broadest style of-we had almost said-caricature, which they are not, but very humourous and racy. The sly, low cunning of the lawyer's face soliciting the vote; the eager, anxious look of his companion, with hand in pocket for the bribe, if likely to be accepted; and the independent, care-for-nothing expression of the elector, who gives a sneering denial without so much as rising from his chair, are all admirably characteristic ;-and the wife, eyeing the intruders with a look of scarcely suppressed abuse, completes the story of the picThe companion, 69, represents the chairing, or rather coaching, of the member, among a motley group of boisterous and noisy constituents. The execution of these pictures is careful and spirited. ture. 72. Malvern.-Fi. H. Lines. One of the gems of the collection; and a picture we should value, were it ours, as much as if it bore the name of Gainsborough instead of Lines. The lane, opening under the noble trees near the foreground of the scene, is perfectly deceptive: after gazing for a moment on its green and shady hollow, you are thinking about strolling down it, and looking over the stile, where the children stand with their donkey, into the golden corn-field to the left; beyond which, the church tower peers over the trees, and behind it the rich, and swelling, and majestic hills rise, knoll above knoll, till they commune with the upper air,—and you wish yourself on the green summit to look around, and above, and beneath :-around, on the mountain tops and the sailing clouds; above, into the clear blue of the summer sky, where the birds are merrily flitting and circling round; and beneath, upon the busy and seemingly happy world below, whose faint hum rises like music on the ear. Stay-where are we? Oh! at Malvern-Henry Lines's Malvern. But in sooth, his pencil's magic had conveyed us in imagination to the reality-for his picture is scarcely less than real. It is the very poetry of painting; and right glad are we to greet its creator again in the Birmingham Exhibition. 73. Greek Pirates landing their Captives.-C. H. Seaforth. A fine and interesting composition; the distant view of rocks and coast to the left of the spectator, is very aërial. The figures are spirited, characteristic, and well painted. 80. Portrait of a Lady.-J. Phillips, R. A. Every part of this portrait is exquisitely finished; the head painted with a rich, yet delicate, brilliancy, and most pleasing expression; and the position of the figure perfectly simple, easy, and graceful. The several parts of the drapery are fac-similes of the materials. The blond lace and head-dress are most elaborately copied. 86. The Chivalric Vow of the Ladies and the Peacock.-D. Mac Clise. This wondrous picture is in itself an Exhibition. About eighty figures are introduced, and though forming an infinity of groups, complete in themselves, the general effect is perfect and harmonious. The scene thus nobly represented, is the ancient chi valric ceremony of the knights making a vow, at a grand festival, at which, in times of yore, the peacock performed an important part. "Between the courses of the repast, two damsels entered the hall, advancing to the sound of solemn minstrelsy, and bearing the peacock roasted in its feathers, in a golden dish, to each knight in succession, who made his vow, and sanctioned his resolution by appealing to God and the Virgin Mary, the ladies, and the peacock. The dish was then placed on the table, and the lord of the festival deputed some renowned knight to carve it in such a manner that each might partake."-See Saint Palaye and others, Histoire de Chivalrie. In the centre of the picture, stand the two fair damsels with their glittering burden: each perfectly beautiful: one dark,-the other fair-haired. The splendid plumage of the peacock, in which every feather is painted with ornithological exactness, yet grand effect, droops over the golden dish to the floor of the dais, or platform, on which the ceremony is performed. In the act of taking the vow, stands a knight, completely armed, save the helm; with his sword raised over the peacock, and the ladye of his love, leaning on his shoulder, looks down towards an attendant, who kneels to fasten on the spurs. Another fair and graceful dame, gorgeously apparelled, (as are they all) assists at the ceremony. To the right is a group of two knights and their dames, shewing well by contrast: the first, merrily laughing at the gay and sportive creature who is tying a scarf over his armour; and his companion well-nigh as sorrowful as the fair girl who is weeping on his neck. In the one corner of the picture sit the old harpers and other musicians, whose varied faces and figures are a study in themselves. Opposite to these are some fat, sleek monks, evidently enjoying the good fare which the festival gives them, and luxuriating in idleness, ease, and gluttony. Along the well-stored tables are ranged knights and ladies, the coquette, the demure, the gay, the grave, each playing her part, and looking her loveliest. Among the most pleasing is a young mother, holding her fair boy upon his father's knee, while he plays with the warrior's sword; at their feet lie the shield and helmet, in the painting of which, and of the chief knight's armour, the art seems to have excelled itself: one would almost believe that Mac Clise, together with the chivalric lore of olden times, had gained some knowledge of their “ gramoury," and had turned wizard; for such a wonder-working pencil seems to possess more than mere common cunning. Nor are the countenances of the ladies, or their brave and brilliant attire, less exquisitely delineated: and the proud war-steeds, which, with pranksome curvet and arching neck, are pacing through the castle court, are each perfect in form, and varied in position. But it is an useless task thus to catalogue, as it were, the materials of this magnificent work,-it is, indeed, "describing the indescribable.” 87 Landscape.-Composition.-Barrett. Very fine; but to our |