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June 23, 1855.] THEX.EADER. ? 607
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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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French Criticism Of English Pictures. [T...
ibem into . the country , and the positive minds of . their contemporaries . In the opinion of these gentlemen , the nineteenth century is a bourgeois century : if they knew a more opprobrious epithet they would make use of it . It would be easy to refute this prejudice by the histories of the commercial republics of Greece , Italy , and the Low Countries . Art has never had more magnificent patrons than the rich merchants of Athens , of Venice , and of Antwerp ., But , not to'look for examples which are somewhat distant , I will content myself with mentioning one which is at present under all eyes and in all hands ; the catalogue of the English exhibition . Our most industrious neighbours , most commercial allies , and most positive friends , have a sufficiently original method of encouraging artists : they buy their works . With some few exceptions , all the pictures , sculpture , and drawings which England has exhibited in Paris belong to private collections , and it is said that on the other side of the Channel these small pieces of
furniture are paid twenty-five and fifty thousand francs . jNow let any one dare to traduce commerce and industry ! Every country has its customs : witness the catalogue . In France , Mr . So-and-So , a painter of talent , has obtained a third-class medal in 1810 , a second-class medal in 1820 , a first-class medal in 1830 , and the cross in 1840 . In Germany , a great artist , when one is to be found there , becomes a member of several academies , a knight of several orders , and sometimes a councillor . The highest aim of art is the Red Eagle of the third class with the knot . A good painter is not always rich , but he is always knighted : he may be in want of clothes—never of ribands . Decorations are the fruits which every cultivated German bears .
In England it is otherwise . English artists care but little for those watered ribands which prove that a man of forty has been a good boy . On the other hand they respect fortune and have a horror of dying of hunger . The public humours them and pays them in the change they prefer . They give them bank-notes instead of making honourable mention of them , and guineas instead of medals . Among the painters who have sent their works to Paris are several millionnaires . I could mention their names but will most certainly not do so : it would be to point out their works to the severity of the critics and the admiration of the Cockneys . not
Is the talent of English artists equal to their fortune ? And is there a certain amount of patriotism in the metallic enthusiasm which they awaken in their own country ? This is a question which it would have been difficult to solve a year ago . The English painters have not the habit of sending their Avorks to our exhibitions , as the Belgians have . We knew their pictures through engravings only . Now engraving , especially wood-engraving , only reproduces composition and drawing : it hardly indicates colouring . A clever idea and correct drawing suffice to make an admirable Tignette : something more is needed to make a picture . Those who , on the faith of engravings , have conceived a high idea of English painting , will feel disappointed on entering the gallery of English painters . The tirst impression is feeble . The eye , attracted by no great work , is offended by a certain number of eccentric pictures , before it discovers some twenty or thirty pictures painted with perfect carefulness and success , of ingenious composition , exact drawing and irreproachable
execution . At the second view you become convinced that English painters have abundance of wit , of knowledge , and of dexterity . Witty ideas are abundant , I should almost say , superabundant ; their technical knowledge is used with prodigious skill : if these two qualities sufficed to make a painter , the English school would be the first in the world . But in art there is something superior to wit : it is simplicity . Something superior to dexterity : it is force . Who would venture to compare Sterne ' s wit with the genius of Shakspeare ? The English school has several
Sternes ; it wants nothing but genius . The large pictures which from their dimensions rank as historical paintings , namely , " the Battle of Meanee , " ( 739 ) , by Mr . Armitage ; the ' ' Burial of Harold , " by Mr . Pickersgill ( 914 ) ; Mr . Lucy's ' Cromwell , are only to be distinguished irom more unpretending pictures by their greater number of inches . The sturdy and somewhat pimply rogue ( 880 ) whom Mr Lucy has set down upon a chair , may , with his wart , resemble the illustrious Protector of England ; but his fault lies in not bearing the least resemblance to the Cromwell of our imagination . His clownish mask Jjulruys neither Puritanical fanaticism , nor the concentrated ardour of ambition , nor the struggles of an unquiet conscience , nor tho extraordinary mind ¦ which inspired liossuet with such hatred and admiration . Ilia leather boots are well painted , Trnt the rest of his person is so trivial that , were it not for the catalogue , it would be impossible to know if he was meditating or digesting . . . . . . . „ .. „• ,, •* : e iu ,. 3 times in small painting of Mr
_ " Thereis a hundred more grandeur a . Martin ' s , representing " Belsha / zar ' Feast . " The open hall , vast enough to contain a modern city , the massive granite pillars , the outlines ol strange buildings on the horizon , the red light which envelops , ami , so to speak , sets fire to nil tho figures , recall to the mind the monstrous grandeur and fantastic brilliancy of that Babylonian civilisation , tho remains oi nrluch , scattered over Aeia , still continue objects of wonder to the traveller . The crnnd poetry oi" Oriental tradition has likewise happily inspired Air . Poolc , and if his figures were better drawn , hi * scene ol " •¦ <* with l ^ Messengers" ( 917 ) would b « a real historical painting . All Cliri « tmi « ami QricntaTs know the Arab chronicle of Job ' s nnslorUmos . Mr . l ' oolo ; 1 as chosen the moment when the patriarch , surrounded by Jus children and s wealth , learns by two successive messaged that his endues have enteiul his lands and that all his happiness is destroyed I he messengers , bro . tliless and dusty , rush in hastily , piko in hand ; the fu-Ht ih fltill speaking he he second rushes in ; whilst Job ' s daughters are squeezing prnpes into di ink ng cups , and u slave , in the centre of the picture , is quietly pouring out the
contents of an amphora . , . . ... , i . ltia , , i But tho most important work of tho English school , * ho her it is c liurcod as an historical painting , or as belmiging ^ ioJiiHtoi'ical ^^ "JH ^ l "~^ rZ 7 I ^^ rf ^ i 7 r ^ aW ^ rf ^«^« fl » toVfa ; ili » ur M . Uuizot . l / aris , ltibb . Uuuuotte et , C , liMiot } ii < iu tid < : 3 C / temitm Uc For .
which owes its greatness neither to the antiquity of the events nor to the strangeness of the costumes , nor to the light of foreign countries . It is the representation of a political and domestic drama , not celebrated in history , but very ^ j ^ opular in England , and soon to be 6 O amongst us . I mean the '' Judgment of Lord Russell , " by Sir G . Hayter , ( 821 ) . M . Guizothas told , in an admirable little . book * called : IS Amour dans le Mariage , the subject of Sir G . Hayter ' s picture . We are in the reign of Charles 1 L , as an inscription placed behind the King ' s bench , by the ' side of the sword of Justice , informs us . Charles II . conspired against the liberties and religion of his subjects . That proud , impassible man standing at the bar of the accused , Lord William Russell , has conspired against Charles II . A well-drilled tribunal is about to sentence him to lose his head . His wife loves him passionately ; after doing her utmost to prevent his conspiring , she insisted on being present at the trial .
Lord Russell asked for a pen , ink , and paper , to take notes with ; they were given him . " May I be allowed some one who can write in aid of my memory , " said he . " Yes , my lord ; one of your servants . " " My wife is here , ready to do it . " Lady Russell rose to signify her assent , and a murmur of emotion and respect ran through the audience . "If her ladyship will take the trouble , she is at liberty to do so , " said the president ; and during the whole trial Lady Russell was there , by her hus band ' s side , his only secretary and most vigilant adviser . his wife left
Lord Russell was condemned . Up to the day of execution , no means untried of saving his life : she travelled , she entreated , she offered millions , she got Louis XIV . to speak in favour of this rebel and Protestant : all in vain . One way of escape presented itself ; the condemned man was promised pardon if be would renounce his opinions . Nothing was asked of him except to declare that a free people has not the right to defend its religion and liberty . Placed between certain death and this denial of all his principles , he asked his wife ' s advice , and she counselled kim to die . His wife was his living conscience . Noble actions bear noble fruits . Lady Russell ' s heroism has produced a great book in France , a great picture in England . Sir G . Hayter's work will have with us as great and legitimate a success as M . Guizot ' s .
The picture is , so to speak , divided into two camps ; on one side , the magistrates , the king ' s name , the sword of Justice ; on-the other , Lord Russell , his wife , their love and virtue . The tribunal in red is admirably painted ; the stolid , indifferent faces of this heavy , salaried areopagus are terribly true . The draperies are treated with a masterly hand , and the light which falls on the wall is splendidly effective . Lord William Russell bears in his face that simple , quiet , almost bourgeois tranquillity , which is peculiar to the English nation . There is always a nourish of trumpets in our heroism , and we have never known how to triumph like Hampden or fall like Russell .
Lady Russell , in full dress , turns her head round to her husband that she may hear and see him ; there is a sad and loving . gracefulness in her movement . The painter has made her younger than her husband , although , she was thi-ee years older . But artistic truth is not always in accordance with historic truth . The picture would lose too much if we saw Lady Russell bending under her forty-seven years , and the love of a woman of that age would interest the public less . It is not the first time that painting has arrived at truth through fiction . Although it is pretty nearly certam that RLzzio was an old guitar-player , a secret agent from the court of Rome to Mary Stuart , no artist will ever consent to paint him without youth and beauty . If Sully is represented by the side of Henry IV ., it is always necessary for the king to be young and ihe minister old ; yet bully was younger than bis master . __ __ _ ^ „ , _ . __ , _ -. I . „ Russell in the first rankthe
If the public places the judgment of Lord , critics , the real connoisseurs , and all who value an artist in proportion to the merit of the execution and the difficulty overcome , will no doubt give the preference to a picture of " Ascot Hunt Meet , " by Mr . Grant . Never , 1 think , has a knowledge of painting surmounted more happily an insurmountable diflioulty . The problem was this : — " Given a flat country , fatty Englishmen in red coats , fifty English dogs , and fifty English hordes—to make a picture which shall be neither monotonous , criard , dull , nor ridiculous . N . B . It is important that the landscape , men , dogs and horses should be striking likenesses . '' . , On these data , Mr . Grant has painted a masterly work . I do not tninK there is another artist in the world , excepting M . Moissonwer , capable ot contesting with him on this ground ; and even M . Meissonmcr has never assembled so many living beings on one canvas . The landscape is soic , without tno
delicate , moist ; an imperceptible mist veils , concealing , uw * - ground ; tho day will be fine , and the painter has given us delight ! ul ^ j « « weather . The huntsmen , some on foot , some on horseback , are tallcig quietly , after the fashion of the country : they , are waiting or t *« ^ " £ All the faces are evidently portraits , for there is no resemblance between them but that of health and a llorid complexion : in those l ™ " *» ° ™ bred " lishman is always like another . The horses and clogs arc ^^ ^ f ' ^ fj Men and animals are painted delicately , surey , witl . in . iiuto touohos , and yet with breadth , The exactness of the details « lost in to ] , ar mony oi the whole , and Mr . Grant is , perhaps , tho first painter who hub known how to mala ) a picture with a hundred and lifly portraits „„;„« ,... has What is , perhaps , no loss admirable , is the art with which tho Ra » H . 1 «« managed nil colouring . The public does not k »|» w how dirtwult i s to SSSr ? HB # EHSSii afllrm that the co . Ua nro red , and the p . ctuie ih not so I ho pamtci as ju—led away his vermilion just as Le « ueur sometimes knew how to ju ob ic "" j ^ . Sh 'L ^ " - « c <»» j JM > . nont I riuuld wi * to Mr . Mukeady , tl » oldest and chief of ye are punters in England .
June 23, 1855.] Thex.Eader. ? 607
June 23 , 1855 . ] THEX . EADER . ? 607
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 23, 1855, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23061855/page/19/
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