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IHH 380 ^ ^ THE LEADER. [Saturday ,
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BOOKS ON OUR TABLE. A Manual of Elementa...
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THE BRITISH ARTISTS, If the picture-show...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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My Courtship And Its Consequences. My Co...
^^ present himself until some interval had passed . He expected an easy surrender ; but according to his account , he met with an adversary as keenwitted as himselfl Again he returns to the frightful design of bolting : again he receives expressions of penitence . The penitence is subsequently withdrawn , and he threatens a " rash act . '' A good part of the story is taken up with this kind of shilly-shally ; but we remember we have only the gentleman ' s narrative . A change came over the scene when the lady determined to travel . She procured a courier and a lady-companion . Mr . Wichof took advice ^ from lady friends , and pursued his object to Switzerland . He insinuated himself into the good graces of her no longer youthful companion , who discloses the fact of a secret attachment to him on the part of the younger lady ; and he tried the effect of a sudden appearance on the great St . Bernard . This reminds us of the French novelist Eugene Sue , who will make a couple in
ordinary life suddenly encounter each other at the North Pole , or meet each other on the sands of the Red Sea . Somehow , the gentleman and lady find themselves at Ouchy , a little village on the borders of Lake Lemann . At Geneva the gentleman thinks it politic to abate his ardour ; to grow taciturn and melancholy ; to make answers " in thorough bass ; " and by these means , if we may trust his report , he secures a promise that she will be his wife . Caprices bring remonstrances from Mr . Wichof . On one occasion , he tells us , he staggered out of the room " like a man with a knife in his heart , " but really unable to retain his laughter till he gets into the street . To try one ' s luck , since one sees " nothing to prevent the scheme : " to watch the lady with a lynx , eye ; to calculate her income as " sufficient for all the exigencies of a married life "—to affect indifference , or to look wretched " as long as
muscles could hold out , " are the arts through which the citizen of the model republic approaches the heart of the moneyed lady . The denoument approaches . The young lady starts for Italy ; the adventurer bribes her courier , and by a subterfuge , he obtains an interview at Genoa in an apartment of the Palace of the Russian Consul . A deed of violence is imputed to the lady at this interview , and the gentleman extorts a written promise to marry him , or to forfeit half of her income—a proceeding which he terms " an act of devotion" on his part . Next morning , through the consul at Genoa , Mr . Wichof is handed to the police , and the trial ensues . We have already stated the result of the trial ; but the volume unquestionably raises a very curious and important question— -how such a statement of the facts can set Mr . Wichof right with the British public , or prove that he is not exactly the person he has already been considered .
Ihh 380 ^ ^ The Leader. [Saturday ,
IHH ^ ^ THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
Books On Our Table. A Manual Of Elementa...
BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . A Manual of Elementary Geology : or , the Ancient Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants , as Illustrated by Geological Monuments . By Sir Charles Ly . ell , M . A ., & c . , ( Fifth Edition , greatly enlarged , and Illustrated with 750 woodcuts . ) John Murray . Brambles and Bay Leaves : Essays on the Homely and the Beauti /' ul . By Shirley Hibberd . Longman , Brown , Green , and Longmans . The , Christ of History : an Argument founded in the Facts of his Life on Earth . By John Young , M . A . Longman , Brown , Green , and Longmans . A Few Months in America : containing Remarks on some of its Industrial and Commercial Interests . By James Robertson . Longman and Co . Commentaries on the Productive Forces of Russia . By M . L . De Tegoborski , Privy
Councillor and Member of the Council of the Russian Empire , v ol . I . Longman , Brown , Green , and Longmans . Essays on the Spirit of the Inductive Philosophy , the Unity of Worlds , and the Philosophy of Creation . By the Rev . Baden Powell , M . A . _ ...,... _ ... Longman , Brown , Green , and Longmans . The Collected Works ; ofDugald Stew ^ Active and Moral Powers of Man . ( Vol I . ) To which is Prefixed Part Second of the Outlines of Moral Philosophy , with many New and Important Additions Edited by Sir William Hamilton , Bart . Thomas Constable and Co . A Short Historical Account of the Crimea , from the Earliest Ages and during the Russian Occupation , compiledfrom the best authorities . By "W . Burckhardt Barker , M . R . A . S . Trubner and Co .
British Mines considered as a means of Investment ; with Particulars of the Principal Dividend and Progressive Mines in England and Wales . ( Second Edition , Corrected and Revised . ) By J . H . Murcbison , F . G . S . Mann , Nephews . Hardwicke ' s Shilling Peerage for 1855 . Robert Hardwicke . Sir Jasper Carew , his Life and Experiences . ( Parlour Library . ") Thomas Hodgson . Chambers ^ Journal of Popular Literature , Science , and Arts . ( Part 15 . ) W . and R ., Chambers . Mensuration made Easy : or , the Decimal System for the Million , with its Application to the Daily Employments of the Artisan and Mechanic . By Charles Hoare . E ffingham Wilson . Astro-Theology ; or the Religion of Astronomy : Four Lectures , in Reference to the Controversy on the " Plurality of Worlds" as lately Sustained between Sir David Brewster and an Essayist . By Edward Higginson . E . T . Whitfield . On the Loans Raised by Mr . Pitt during the First French War , 1793-1801 ; with some Statements in Defence of the Methods of Funding Employed . By William Newmarch . * Effimrham Wilson .
The " Warnings of the War : " a Letter to the Right Hon . Lord Palmerston , Pt ' ime Minister . By " A British Commoner . " Thomas Boaworth . Parliamentary Government : or Responsible Ministries for the Australian Colonies . By II . S . Chapman . Pratt and Son . Mahometanisni in its Relation to Prophecy : or an Inquiry into the Pro 2 > 7 iecies concerning Anti- Christ , with some Reference to their Bearing on the Events of the Present Day . By Ambrose Lisle Phillips , Esq ., of Graco-Diou Manor , Leicestershire . Charles Dolman Poems . By Bessie Raynor Parkcs . ( Second Edition ) . John Chapman . Stories in Verse . By Leigh Hunt . ( Nowjirst collected , with Illustrations ) . Goorge Routledgo and Co . The Story of the Legion of Honour . By W . Blanchard Jorrold .
Gcorgo Routlcdge and Co Notes on Nurses ; Practical Suggestions addressed to English Ladies . II . BaiHiero On the Mental , Moral , and Social Progress exhibited in the Present ( half-expired ) Century : a Lecture , delivered at the Kendal Scientific and Literary Society . By Cor-1 noliua Nicholson , F . G . S . . Sampson Low and Son The Seven-mile Cabinet : or the Doleful Story of the Russian War . By Nemo . John F . Shaw , Living for Appearances : a Tale . By the Brothora Mayhow . Jamea Blackwood ,
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The British Artists, If The Picture-Show...
THE BRITISH ARTISTS , If the picture-show this year in Suffolk-street were ' really a specimen of the best that English Painters can accomplish , we should feel despondent inde ed on the subject of British Art ; and more than doubtful whether British Artists , as a body , had not made a great mistake in their choice of a vocation . It is not so much the general mediocrity of the pictures , as the general carelessness of the artists which has struck us this year in Suffolk-street . We entered the Exhibition prepared beforehand for finding few good subjects , and little genuine originality of treatment ; but we were not prepared for the evidences of daring carelessness and lazy quackery which the majority of the British Artists' pictures present this year . With hardly more than a dozen honourable exceptions , no exhibitor seems to have worked with even ordinary earnestness and care .
Smudging , dabbing , and splashing , appear to be the processes which represent the executive part of the art of painting at the Suffolk-street Exhibition . As for any proofs of study , patience , and honest reference to Nature ( with the very few exceptions already cited ) , we searched for them in vain . On entering the " Great Room , " we began by sympathising heartily with Mr . Joun Edgar Williams , who has been obliged to paint Mr . Sheriff Crosley discontentedly surveying the public in footman ' s costume , and , what is still worse , to exhibit the picture . From this very lamentable portrait we turned to Mr H J . Pidding ' s " News from the Seat of War . " The " News" is read by a
squinting old man to a drivelling old man ; and is incidentally listened to by an animal with a monkey ' face and a dog ' s body , and by a hungry-looking girl , who expresses sympathy with affairs in the Crimea by holding her hand to her bosom . Further on is an unassuming landscape by " Makgaeet Witcomb , ' which though too vividly green in effect , shows traces of careful study , and intelligent observation of nature . Mr . Clint's ¦ " Evening at Ilfracomtf' possesses neither of these qualities . It is one audacious smear of garish colours—sky , sea , and rocks are all equally false , equally unlike nature . No terms of condemnation can be too strong for the unartistic carelessness of this picture , and of another near it by Mr . Zeitter , affecting to represent Hungarians in a Snow Storm . Mr Zeitter ' s execution resembles particularly careless scene-painting on a small scale He and Mr . Woolbier ( in " The Sound in the Shell" ) , in different mechanical
ways shirk every technical difficulty of Art , and substitute systems of blotchiii" and smearing , which it is impossible to describe , but which it is nothing less ^ than exasperating to look at . Passing by the eternal " Contadina from the Campagna of Rome , " and her inevitable little boy with the grinning face and the sugar-loafjiat , as depicted for us , on this occasion , by Mr . Buckneb , we pause at Mr . Wilson ' s " Fishing Boats off Fecamp . " This picture is an imitation of Stanfield ; still it is a creditable and careful imitation , and that is much better than such sham originality as is displayed by Mr . Zeitter or Mr Clint . Mr . Gosling , too , in his " Park Scene , " has really worked , and has produced a very fair picture . Mr . Montaigne ' s " Good Samaritan , " instead of binding up the prostrate victim ' s wounds , catches him by the arm and points ferociously * straight up to the sky , with . an expression £ &«« £ he were ; saying : tumbled out of the cloudsI sir ? I ask what the deuce
" You have i list , suppose , May you mean by tumbling down hero ? " Using the same form of interrogatory , we niav ask Mr Buckner what he means by making the Duchess of Hamilton at least ' eight feet high . Estimated by the regular test of so many heads to a bodv her Grace , in this portrait , is , seriously and positively , a Giantess . Mr . Madot ' s " Sketch at Jullien ' a , " though coarse in feeling , looks as if it had been really suggested by nature , and shows a reality in the treatment which , smaU as the Picture is , makes it quite a remarkable work at Suffolk-street . Mr . Pvke 8 "Evening " at Chelsea , " and Mr . tBoudington's 'iSummer .-Morning , 'lbejongjo that eracefully-conventional class of landscapes which we look at one moment and forget the next . Mr . Outer ' s " Latest Intelligence" is another war-picture , not containing such hideous figures as Mr . Pidding ' s , but in respect of absolute imbecility , the most notable figure-picture in the Exhibition . There is a woman , In the richt-band corner of the composition , straddling ( apparently ) on a tub , squaring he r elbows , and rubbing her knuckles against the heel of a stocking , instead o mending it , who is , in a weakly-grotesque way , the most amusing perremember to have seen on canvas Mr Tennano * « 1 toad owj
sonage we ever a Heath " brings us back again to something like Art . It is rather inky and hard in effect ; but is very carefully painted , and worthy of appearing in better pfctorial society than that of Mr . IIdulstonb ' s " Columbus , ' which lm . igs not far from it . As a work of Art , this picture runs Mr . Clater rather hard . Columbus looks sea-sick and dirty , and his mutinous crew arc all making faces at . him . Mr Noblk represents an entertainment at the Countess de Lamballe s . At tins party , the catalogue informs us , " a theatre was fitted up with a grove of trees , in which a shepherd was to appear driving a flock of sheep . When thedoor * were thrown open to astonish the party , the sheep , by sonic accident , leaped over the fence amongst the company , and the rams seemg tl » e » lselv f cs r re i ^ v te 0 f ? n the ooking-glasses , dashed their heads through them , to ^ S ^ XS fy the ladies . " This is a most admirable subject for painting . We can hew wy congratulate Mr . Noble on his choice of it , but not oni his ^ eat . nc . it What a picture Mr . Leslie or Mr . Ward would have painted from this l » rto » ca once dote ! AmonK the good landscapes not yet noticed in the " Great Koom , vo may men ? o " Mr . Gosling ' s ( No . 174 ); Mr . VV . West ' s "Norway **™> ° * Mr E . LisAit ' s " Devonshire Glen "—this last work being remarkably simple ,
true , and powerful in treatment . . n i > Tin ' B Ii the "S outh-East liooni , " we have only to pnrt , cularise Mr . C . 1 M « ™ two << Vicwe of Corfo Castle . " This artist has yet to learn how to con Ie < M £ with finish , but ho is careful and conscientious ; 1 C ™ « ™™ g „ cSt hard ; and his two small pictures , whatever may bo their defect a , lwm t as a painter who evidently S respects his art . As for the mass of p * £ ^ cn and the other . imrilrooma , it would be a wearisome "n * "" gS ^ ffiiiSSily 3 Sin ^ iX ^^ i . o . r ^ f Essffi a ? gis a ^ rass , oB «~^ S 9 &?« most of the figure-pictures by gentlemen in the ^" " ^ " - ^ J ^ lL " British street , thinking it fortunate for our national complacency that tno ArtiatB" do not entirely represent Paintingin England .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 21, 1855, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21041855/page/20/
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