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Mr. Prout's foreign views exceed our expectation, we had thought him a good artist, but too much of a mannerest to improve his views at "Strasburgh," and one or two on the Rhine, convinced us of our mistake.

Mr. G. Barrett is still nearer to truth than ever. Indeed, we think it scarcely possible to exceed the natural effect of the "Scene from Mr. Vine's Sitting-room at Puckester." Other scenes also in the Isle of Wight are admirable for their accuracy,

Mr. Christall usually gives us, not a portrait-like representation of Nature, but characteristic landscapes, or subjects of classical interest; but we regret that he has not of late exhibited any thing of this kind at all comparable to many of his earlier works. There are a few very pretty drawings of his; such as a" Portrait of a Welsh Peasant," &c.; but these are not the subjects upon which his talent should be employed.

Exhibition of the Royal Academy.

In our remarks upon Mr. Mulready's Picture of the last Year, we regretted that his time should have been expended upon a subject utterly worthless, and gave our

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opinion that his own taste would lead him to make a very different choice. His picture of the Con" valescent," in this year's exhibition, fully justifies the mark;-both in subject and execution it pleases us greatly. The wounded soldier is seated inhaling the calm breeze of a beautiful afternoon, and is evidently enjoying a return to the sights and sounds of nature. The affectionate wife appears to partake of the hope which the convalescent indulges, with the verdant prospect before him so much more readily than within the confined and whitewashed walls of the military hospital. Their children surround them; but Mr. Mulready's passion for fighting boys has led him, as we think, to disturb the quiet sentiment of the picture, by setting the two boys to wrestle; they are evidently approaching to a quarrel. An urchin grasping his father's leg is not equal to the rest of the picture.

Mr. Collins had several very clever pictures. "The Woodcutters, Buckland on the Moor, Devon," we think decidedly preferable to either of the others; and indeed, to any we have seen of his hand. He has in general repeated both subject and effect more than an artist of his talent ought to do. His skies are always beautiful and the near figures in his pictures generally well chosen and well painted; but his distances in common have not what is technically called air, and which is so beautifully exemplified in the best of Mr.

Calcott's works.

Mr. Turner's picture was oddly, but not unappropriately, designated "What you will!" If he were

often to trifle in this way, the fame

he

he has justly gained, as the first landscape painter in the world, would be shaken. It is unworthy of his great talents to give us a bad imitation of Watteau, or of any other painter. When shall we see again such exquisite classical landscapes as his" Hersé," or his first picture of Carthage? and we often recal the exquisite drawings with which he formerly adorned the council-room.

Mr. Stothard's "Sleeping Bacchante," though not faultless in the drawing, was both in sentiment and colour, more to our taste than the Cupid and Psyche of Mr. Westall.

The President never appeared to greater advantage. His portrait of the Countess of Blessington was most exquisitely painted, the neck especially. Those of the Dukes of York and Wellington equalled, perhaps surpassed, any we have Mr. Jackson's Duke of York, though a fine portrait, suffered greatly in comparison with the dignified and gentlemanly air of sir Thomas's.

seen of his.

The strictures we ventured on Mr. Howard's productions of the former year, will apply nearly as well to those of the present. We regret that in his late performances there is so little of the ideal. It is to the colour more than to the invention that we object, and should probably admire the sketches.

We have high expectations respecting Mr. E. V. Rippingille; his "Recruiting Party" is a welltold tale, the expression of the aged mother of the recruit is a very affecting incident. The funeral procession in Redcliffe Church is different in effect, but is a very clever picture.

The "Broken Fiddle" of Mr.

Allan has excellencies and defects the reverse of those of Mr. Rippingille. The execution is very good, but the story not very clearly told.

We have already remarked upon a Battle of Waterloo, by Mr. G. Jones, in the British Gallery, and what we then said must suffice for another on the same subject, and by the same artist, in this exhibition.

We think Mr. Thomson's "Miranda" much more poetically treated than Mr. Howard's subjects from Shakespeare.

It is much to the credit of Mr. Calcott that he never exhibits the hasty productions of his pencil,his pictures are faithful transcripts of nature; and if the scenery which he delineates is neither sublime nor strikingly beautiful, the chiaro-scuro and aerial perspective are managed with great skill. The sky, and distant mountains in the picture of "Smugglers alarmed," are admirable. The sea is also finely painted; but the waves breaking on the shore have, as we think, the fault into which the modern marine painters often fall, they are so large, that the next return would sweep away many of the objects in the foreground, which the artist certainly did not intend. We prefer the landscape part to the figures, which, though carefully and correctly drawn are too scattered, and those in the distance too much finished. We cannot speak very favourably of the horses.

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Mr. Phillips's Portrait of Sir Benj. Hobhouse" was his best; but he does not, if estimated by this year's exhibition, rank as he deserves to do, as the second of our English portrait painters.

Mr. Raeburn's "Portrait of a
Gentle-

Gentleman," No. 176, very fine. "The Ratcatchers" of Mr. E. Landseer, was as good as such a subject can be. Mr. A. Cooper is still very industrious and improving yearly. Of Mr. Wilkie's" Chelsea Pensioners" little need be said, every one has seen, and every one can form an opinion of it. It is a very successful address to the eye, both of the scientific and of the amateur. The detail is admirable, yet without injury to the general effect. If we may venture a remark upon the chiaro-scuro we would suggest that the shadows inclined too much to blackness or opacity, yet while using these terms, we feel that they are not applicable, it would be more definite to refer to the best pictures of Adrian Ostade, or 'to those of De Hooghe, for an illustration of what we mean by painting clearly in the shadows; yet Mr. Wilkie ranks far beyond them, or indeed beyond any master of the Dutch school, in all that is not mechanical. Rembrandt indeed must be excepted, for in those parts of the art in which he excelled, no one can compare with him. Mr. Constable had several good landscapes; they had much of the effect of Nature; but his pictures are too little varied, and his subjects are not always well selected. Mr. Arnald, in his Meleager and Atalanta," has left the line of art in which he was eminently successful, for one in which he is not equally fortunate. His wood-scenes and moon-lights are, we think, much superior to his classical landscapes. We are sorry that we cannot admire the "Death of Priam," by Mr. H. P. Bone, or its companion, the "Death of Adonis," by Mr. R. T. Bone, but we have

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seen better pictures from the hand of each of the brothers.

We are not aware that England ever possessed so many excellent sculptors as at present. Mr. Flaxman had a " St. Michael" much in the style of Raphael. The "Eve," by Mr. Baily, was a most lovely statue. The artist was most fortunate in every thing but in his choice of the block, which, though his subject required the purest marble, has unluckily many veins. of a dark colour. Mr. Westmacott had a fine "Cupid and Psyche;" and Mr. Chantry several beautiful busts.

Pictures of the Old Masters, at the British Gallery. If our remarks on this exhibition, as connected with the Fine Arts of the year 1822, should seem to be needless, we beg to inform our readers, that they are placed in this gallery professedly for the study of our young artists, that many of them are left when the exhibition closes, for the purpose of being copied by them; and that it is not difficult to discern, in their productions of the following year, the use they have made of them. At all events, a few remarks will recal individual, and perhaps favourite, pictures to the remembrance of many of our readers, will make our cursory review of the modern English school more definite, and shew that certain principles, very remote from considerations of geography or chronology, have guided us in our estimate. For instance, in our judgment of the works of the Dutch school, as of many pictures of our own time and country, we see much to admire, both in colour, in

the

the management of light and shade, and in execution, when the subject is ill chosen, the story badly told, or the picture not in good taste, where the incongruities, the blunders in costume, or defective drawing, seem nearly to counterbalance the perfection of chiaro-scuro, or of handling; but when these last predominate, with the addition of fine colour, as in many of the best pictures of Rubens, we lay our judgment asleep, and are not only content with the limited powers of the human mind, rarely rising to excellence in more than one department, but are entranced, and forced, in spite of theory, to admire. Still we could for a much greater length of time, and with more entire satisfaction, contemplate the works of painters of a higher class; such are the pictures of Domenichino,-a fine specimen, a "St. Catherine," was in the gallery; and such also are the classical landscapes of Nicolo and Gaspar Poussin. The latter had three or four very fine pictures. No. 5, "The Cascades of Tivoli," was the best both in colour and sentiment. It is a fine specimen of the painter's taste in adapting the colouring and pencilling to the subject, which is the representa

tion of a grand scene. The repose, the breadth of chiaro scuro, and the whole management of this sweet poetic picture, leaves nothing to be desired. The companion is also fine, but has lost much of its original beauty. There were also two fine Gaspars, from the Corsini palace, on a smaller scale, but equally excellent.

"The Discovery of Calisto," a copy from the beautiful Titian, in the marquis of Stafford's gallery, by Rubens, or more likely by a pupil of his, was, we think, not very fit for exhibition. In this collection were a considerable number of the pictures of Teniers, but not one of his best. Of Cuyp, the "Landscape with a grey horse" and "River scene with a castle" were the finest. There was also a fine one by Both. The picture called "Ruisdael's Gate" was, we think, the best of that master. One picture of W. Vandevelde we noticed as admirable, the property of his majesty. Of Rembrandt, we saw nothing very attractive, except a small landscape.

Karel du Jardin, of all the Dutch landscape painters, had the worst taste, he degraded his pastoral scenes by filling all his pictures with the most disgusting figures.

1822.

K

POETRY

POETRY.

HIS MAJESTY'S VISIT TO SCOTLAND.

"CARLE, NOW THE KING'S COME!"

BY SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART.

(Being new words to an auld song.)

THE news has flown frae mouth to mouth,
The North for anes has bang'd the South;
The de'il a Scotchman's die of drouth,

Carle, now the King's come!

CHORUS.

Carle, now the King's come!

Carle, now the King's come!

Thou shalt dance and I will sing,
Carle, now the King's come!

Auld England held him lang and fast;
And Ireland had a joyfu' cast;

But Scotland's turn is come at last

Carle, now the King's come!

Ald Reikie, in her rokela gray,
Thought never to have seen the day;
He's been a weary time away-

But, Carle, now the King's come !

She's skirling frae the Castle-hill:
The Carline voice is grown sae shrill,
Ye'll hear her at the Canon Mill,

Carle, now the King's come!

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