446

Fine Arts.-The Royal Academy.

tions, and affording one more pledge of peace, their great patroness and protectress as she is, of all that is most precious and most excellent among men. It becomes us all, then, most diligently to foster them. It is the duty of the government, it is the interest of the country. No station is so exalted, no fortune so splendid, as not to derive lustre from bestowing such patronage; no lot so obscure as not to participate in the benefits they diffuse. And I have, therefore, a singular satisfaction in being at liberty to announce to you upon this occasion, that a society of much influence, over which I have the honour to preside, and of which the object is the improvement of all conditions of the people, has been occupied in maturing a plan, which has been successfully completed, for extending the enjoyment of the fine arts to the humblest classes of his Majesty's subjects."

May 2. The exhibition was opened this day to the public. It affords many gratifying specimens of the steady progress of the arts in this country. Though there are few of those splendid productions of lofty genius in the present collection, which, like those of West, or the great masters of antiquity, are calculated to throw all surrounding objects into shade, still it exhibits talent of a varied and highly pleasing character. There is now an ample field for young and aspiring genius to distinguish itself, and less probability of its efforts being overlooked, in the absence of those mighty masters of the pallet and the easel, whose productions were wont to lead captive the minds of the astonished spectators, and to command almost exclusive attention. The competitors in the field are more numerous than formerly, and their productions certainly of a more general and diversified character: so that, on the whole, although the Fine Arts of the present day are not distinguished by the towering supereminency of a single individual, as in different eras of their history, we may safely conclude that they now present more numerous specimens of prolific genius and respectable talent than at any preceding period—the leading members of the Academy having produced a larger number of pictures than in most former years; and many of those pictures exhibiting talent far above mediocrity. Thus Westall, Calcott, and Phillips, have each produced eight paintings; Turner seven; Drummond and Pickersgill six each; Etty, Daniell, Jones, Beechy, and Landseer, five each; Shee four; Howard and Collins three each; and many others of minor note in proportion. Sir W. Beechy and Phillips have confined themselves to the more lucrative departments of the arts (though to the public not the most interesting)-portrait-painting. But we do not consider that Beechy has been so happy in the portraits of the King and Queen, as the public might have wished.

[May,

There is a stiffness and mannerism which are not altogether pleasing. Dignity and ease are in some degree wanting.

We shall proceed to notice a few of those works which most prominently attracted our attention, during a cursory view.

GREAT ROOM.

No. 1. Margaret at Church, tormented by the Evil One. R. Westall.-The subject of this singular composition is from a passage in Goethe's Faust, as translated by Lord F. Leveson Gower. The fantastic imagery of the poet is worthily sustained. The ghastly and livid aspect of the evil genius is fiuely contrasted with the lovely form of the swooning fair one, and the colouring is introduced with powerful effect. As we behold the ministers of the altar and the surrounding devotees at their orisons, we perceive the evil one, as it were, uttering the very language which Goëthe has adopted,-"The glorified are turning their foreheads from thee; the holy shun to join their hands in thine;-despair! despair!"

Faust preparing to dance with the young witch at the festival of the wizards and witches in the Hartz Mountain (No. 33), by the same artist, is evidently intended as a companion picture to the preceding. The fore-ground of the composition is replete with beauty. The enchanting female figure is powerfully contrasted with the horrid aspect of Mephistophiles, and the terrible concomitants of witchery, that appear ready to destroy the victim of her allure

ments.

"Remark her well,
Sileth her name, first wife of him who fell-
Your parent Adam; look that you beware
Her glancing toilet and her flowing hair;
If with that guise the sorceress lure
The passing youth, she holds him sure."

32. Lord Byron reposing in the house of a Turkish Fisherman, after having swum across the Hellespont. W. Allan.-The event which the artist has embodied in this composition took place on the 3d of May, 1810, when the noble poet, in imitation of Leander, swam across the Hellespont, from the European shore to the Asiatic, about two miles wide. "After landing (says Mr. Lake, in his Life of Byron,) he was so much exhausted, that he gladly accepted the offer of a Turkish fisherman, and reposed in his house for some time. He was very ill; and the Turk had no idea of the rank or consequence of his inmate, but paid him most marked attention. His wife was his nurse; and at the end of five days he left this asylum completely recovered."The figure of Lord Byron, who is reposing on a couch, presents an excellent likeness; and the subordinate details of the picture are in perfect keeping with the subject.

38. A first-rate going down Channel. W. Daniell, R.A.-What a splendid and imposing sight! How magnificently she

Fine Arts.-The Royal Academy.

448

Royal Academy-Gallery of Greenwich Hospital.

"sweet Ann Page," the merry wives, and several of the other characters, breathe from the canvas. It is beyond question one of the most perfect illustrations of the subject that has ever been produced. The costumes, the interior, and all the slightest details of the picture, are painted with an accuracy and effect quite of the highest order. The picture is very properly placed in the most conspicuous and favourable situation in the room.

162. Caligula's Palace and Bridge. J.M. Turner, R.A.-This is a bold specimen of Turner's peculiar genius. The design is gorgeously imposing, and full of wild and poetic daring. The picture conveys to the mind the idea of immeasurable distance, as the eye looks through the misty atmosphere of the artist into unfathomable space. The frowning ruins of the mouldering walls enveloped in mist, and the rays of the morning sun darting through the mural interstices, with the russet trees in the foreground, and the azure misty skies in the distance, present a splendid specimen of creative genius. Although we are ready to admit Turner to be one of the most poetical of landscape painters, at the same time, without aspiring to superior critical pretensions, we believe that he frequently, perhaps from mere wantonness of genius, oversteps the sober modesty of nature, and even outrages the acknowledged principles of art. He appears sometimes to mystify the subject by an erratic wildness of colouring, and, with a fullness of pencil, to introduce dabs of light and shade, that seem to set the rules of criticism and the laws of nature at defiance.

168. The Angel releasing Peter from Prison. W. Hilton, R.A.-A magnificent picture, executed on a large scale. The design is taken from Acts xii. The figure of the angel is not perhaps to be compared with many product ons of the Italian masters; but the sleeping guards and the opeuing iron gates, which are less the objects of creative genius, are evidence of Hilton's skill as a judicious and skilful artist.

169. The View of Salisbury Cathedral, by J. Constable, R. A. appears to have been taken immediately after a snow storm, although the artist professes to have embodied on canvas the description of a scene from Thomson's Summer, when "a glittering robe of joy invests the fields." The numerous patches of dead white, intended for the lights of the picture, or perhaps for drops of rain after a shower, have all the chilling coldness of a winter's morn.

178. The Vision of Medea, by J. M. Turner, presents a mixture of bold genius and monstrous absurdity. The awful legend of the burning palace, into which Medea's twin offspring are thrown, is poetically conceived; but no mortal ever beheld such

[May,

trees or human visages, or such a daub of unseemly colouring-a mere chaotic mass of pink and yellow.

SCHOOL OF PAINTING.

193. Cain. G. J. L. Noble.-A monstrously gigantic figure, only fit to be represented with effect in a room of unusually large dimensions, which would admit of a distant view. It is miserable judgment to exhibit a colossal figure in a small room, as is here the case.

241.

An Alligator attacking a Bullock, by W. Daniell, R.A. is a bold and spirited production. The ferocious tenacity of the one, and the apparent agony of the other, are powerfully depicted. The scene is on the margin of a river in the island of Ceylon. The colouring is extremely vivid, and well suited to oriental scenery.

258. Domestic Affliction, by W. E. West, is the representation of melancholy madness, the victim of which is a fine and interesting female, whose relatives and friends are grouped around, exhibiting countenances full of sympathy and melancholy interest. The composition is replete with feeling, delicacy, and spirit.

338.

ANTE-ROOM.

The Golden Age, by Danby, is a perfect scene of enchantment. Nature appears in the most lovely and captivating garb that the imagination can conceive. The poets of old never exceeded it in description. All is beauty, serenity, and delight. Soft verdure, unruffled lakes, shady groves, and woodland nymphs, with gold and azure tints of the softest hue, convey the beau-ideal of the poet's golden age, and make us sigh at the reflection of that happy period having for ever fled.

356. Landscape, at twilight, by Westall, is full of rustic nature, and is worthy of the best productions of Claude. The cattle in the foreground are cleverly executed.

(To be continued.)

The Gallery of Greenwich Hospital; comprising Portraits of celebrated Naval Com manders, and Views of their most memorable Actions; illustrated with biographical and historical Memoirs by Edward Hawke Lockyer, Esq. F.R.S. F.S.A. one of the Commissioners of the Institution.

The Royal Hospital at Greenwich is well calculated to inspire the most exalted emotions; not so much from the beauty of its design and the splendour of its lufty domes, eminent as these undoubtedly are, as from the benevolence of its objects, and the interesting groups of veterans, to be seen reposing under its protection in the evening of their days, after many a well-fought battle. These patriotic emotions, which cannot fail to strike every casual visitor, are

1831.]

Fine Arts.-Gallery of Greenwich Hospital, &c.

much increased on a more minute inspection of the Naval Gallery, to which many additional paintings have been recently transferred by the King from the Royal Collections. We hail therefore, with peculiar pleasure, a work like the present, published under the immediate patronage and sanction of His Majesty, by a gentleman so intimately connected with the naval profession, who bears the talismanic name of Hawke in addition to his own patronymic, derived from his late worthy father, the tutor of the immortal Nelson, and a brave and worthy Captain in the Royal navy, who died Lieut.Governor of this excellent institution.

This work is published in the same form and style as Mr Lodge's Portraits and Memoirs of Illustrious Persons. The first Number contains a beautiful copy of the portrait of Lord Hawke, painted by F. Cotes, one of the finest in our recollection. The memoir of Hawke is ably and spiritedly written, and the following character rests on" the authority of a very dear relation of the author, whose gallant conduct in the same profession introduced him to a long and intimate association with Lord Hawke, though even gratitude could not bias that sound judgment, and still sounder probity, under the guidance of which he formed this estimate of his patron's character:

"The character of Hawke furnishes an excellent example to every candidate for naval reputation. He possessed all the qualities necessary to form a thorough seaman, and an enterprising, intrepid commander; and he employed these with a simplicity of purpose which served his country highly and himself honourably. His gentlemanly deportment and propriety of conversation effected a salutary improvement among his officers. He steadily discountenanced that coarseness of language and demeanour which disgraced too many of the old school, and still clings to some of the present. Hawke's genius was peculiar to the profession he had chosen. In political affairs he exhibited no great talents for business. Lord Hawke was ever an upright, honourable, and pious man. His anxious attention to the health and comfort of the seamen secured to him their constant attachment; while the steady patronage of his most deserving followers surrounded him with officers zealously devoted to the King's service and to their commander's glory. He was 8 strict, but temperate disciplinarian-affable rather than familiar with his officers, reproving with sternness all approaches to ribaldry or impiety in their conduct and conversation. His mind, impressed with a devout regard for the faith in which he had been educated, loved to dwell on the many mercies he had experienced, and to ascribe every success to "the Giver of all Victory."

*His father, Lieut.-Governor Lockyer. GENT. MAG. May, 1831.

4.49

The next is an early portrait of Viscount Bridport, by Sir Joshua Reynolds. The character of this officer cannot be better expressed than by the single word 'Steady,' which he adopted for his motto. "Sir, be steady in all your resolves," was his frequent admonition to his young officers. Under a stern and reserved deportment, Lord Bridport is said to have concealed a generous and affectionate disposition.

The third portrait is of that ancient favourite of our Tars, the brave but unfortunate Admiral Benbow, "whose death, recorded in one of their most popular ballads, still cheers the middle watch of many a stormy night at sea." This portrait is by Sir Godfrey Kneller, and was presented to the Hospital by George IV. Another portrait, presented by one of his sisters, still remaining in the Town Hall of Shrewsbury, was copied in our vol. LXXXIX. ii. p. 9. from a drawing, and with a memoir, by Mr. Parkes.

The fourth portrait is that of Captain James Cook, one of the most eminent of those self-educated patriots that we delight to honour. His parents were humble peasants, at Marton, in Cleveland, who by industry and integrity contrived to rear nine children; but his powerful genius surmounted all disadvantages, and forced its way to fame. This memoir is of high in

terest.

The last print in this number is an etchiing after Loutherbourgh's painting of the Defeat of the Spamish Armada, presented to this Collection by Lord Farnborough.

Lodge's Portrails and Memoirs of Illustrious Persons.-The third Edition of this highly interesting work continues to be published in monthly numbers. Thirty have already appeared, and these contain 90 exquisite engravings. When the whole work is completed, it will embrace 60 additional subjects, completing the work to the present period. The lives of the modern eminent characters will be found to be worthy of the pen of Mr. Lodge, whose fame as a Biographer was so firmly established by the former editions of this popular work. We take this opportunity to announce, that Messrs. Harding and Lepard have again liberally opened their rooms for the exhibition of the original drawings made for the work, and this interesting exhibition has been enriched since last year by the addition of 40 new characters, chiefly of eminent Admirals, Soldiers, Philosophers, and Statesmen who flourished in the eighteenth century.

The First Volume of the English School of Painting and Sculpture is now completed, and we are glad to hear that its deserved success calls for the gratitude of its proprietors. Vo!. II. will include Barry's Pictures at the Society of Arts in the Adelphi, and Hogarth's Marriage à la Mode.

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LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.

*The Anglo-Saxon translation of Bede, Researches into the Nature and Affinity the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and the Angloof Ancient and Hindu Mythology. By Saxon Laws are to be passed by, as they all Lieut.-Col. VANS KENNEDY. will be included in the "Corpus Historicum," printed under the superintendence of Mr. Petrie and Mr. Price.