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Leader (1850-1860), 24th April 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 20

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      The Society Of British Artists. We Have ...

      sustained . For the reason already shown this form is one that we may pretermit in the case of the Suffolk-street Society , which is not liable to important fluctuations . The cause of the British artist ' s constancy to a fixed scale of qualities may be worth knowing . The Society was formed , thirty-five years ago , by certain painters disaffected to the supreme rule of the Royal Academy , and has ever since remained in open rebellion . Banded in a desperate defiance or R . A .-dom , these mutinous artists are avoided by all who desire to stand well with the superior powers . The president of the Suffolk-street body , Mr . Hurlstone , joins officially in all attacks on Sir Charles Eastlake , 'jobbery , picturecleaning , « vandalism , ' and other established respectabilities . On the other hand , the Royal Academy does not scorn reprisals . When Mr . Anthony , a man of undoubted genius , transferred bis contributions from Suffolk-street to the great exhibition in Trafalgar-square , he was but coldly welcomed ; and he now seems to have been discouraged from any attempt to get a great picture well hung . His loss to the rebel side is immense ; but he will never be pardoned by the Academy for having , while in opposition , distinguished himself by painting welL . . .

      The first picture that calls for notice—going by the catalogue—is a ' grene wode' scene by Mr . Gosling ( 13 ) , with figures in old forester dress It is a pity that a picture so near being clever should not be something more . The first effect of the bright masses of foliage is decidedly agreeable ; but this effect loses greatly on acquaintance . Before you have stood five minutes before the picture , you will be painfully aware that the distance is only a muddle of blue , white , and green , and is no more distant than the top branches of the nearest trees . The artist ' s capacity is exhausted in the clever slap-dash of his foreground ; and here , too , we observe that he has the trick of a bad school , and ' puts in figures as carelessly as dock-leaves and nettles ; which , to be sure , ought not to be put in carelessly either . conversation in the

      " While the army -was encamped before Arded a arose tent of Sextos . " Probably the passage in Roman history may be in the reader ' s recollection and we need not continue the extract from the catalogue . Mr . Waterhottse has caught a faint tinge of the spirit of Angelica Kaufhann in his picture of * Lucius Junius Brutus' ( 34 ) , and if any Nibbuhr of art should object that the scene is utterly untrue to nature , probability , sentiment , or artistic romance , to say nothing of history , he would not in the least degree interfere with the production of such works for the future . We have not got clear yet of the most ridiculously false conventions in Art ; as witness the picture by Mr . Waterhousb , as well as those pictures ' The Moor of Venice' ( 263 ) , by Mr . Salter , the ' Cavalier and Puritan' ( 269 ) , by Mr . Hall , and « The Death of Ixjrd Marmipn' ( 97 ) , by Mr . Montaigne . Mr . Salter ' s work is quite worthy his fame . Anything more solemnly stupid in purpose difficult to The is that

      and weaker in execution it would be imagine . scene in which Othello speaks his famous apology before the Puke . Everybody who knows Mr . Salter ' s style may guess that the expressions of the faces are all absurdly wrong ; but to tell how wrong they are it will be necessary to seethe picture . The ' Cavalier and Puritan' is a joke which is repeated by certain painters with a constancy quite wonderful . A sallow and sour-faced man , in extravagantly hideous black garments , is walking in some public gardens with a damsel who , like himself , is one of the elect , and whose hand a waxy young gentleman is wickedly kissing , unseen by the sallow person . The time is that unexplored period of Charles II ., which we have often thought would furnish a good subject for a novel or a play . A Cavalier lover and a Puritan mistress would supply a great deal in the way of original incident . The Death of Lord Marmion' is simply the worst painting on a large scale that we ever saw , here or elsewhere .

      ' The Ladies' Valley' ( 109 ) is Mr . Woolmer ' s chief production this year . Vide Decameron , sixth day , in the note attached to its title in the catalogue . Mr . Woolmer hfs a certain eye for natural beauty ; but he invests it A'ith artificial graces , dressing it in the most bewitching neglige , and touching it here and there with just the slightest soupcon of rouge . A dimpled arm , a plump little coquettishly turned bit of sleek shoulders , a milk-white neck and bosom , a tiny bare foot saucily peeping forth , a face all innocence and pearlpowder , derive wonderful piquancy from the studied carelessness of rich brocade and of delicate linen . Can there he a more abrupt transition than from Woolmer to Htirlstone ? It is like turning from champagne to black draught . What grim ugliness has Mr . Hublstone set before us this season ? « The Modern Silenus' ( 196 ) is an old Italian peasant teaching a young one to play

      on a pipe , which has not , apparently , any stops . Is this painting , Mr . Huklbtone ? Had you any particular fabric in view , serge or leather , or stained wood or brown paper , when you daubed in that flat surface , which is meant to represent part of a cloak ? The ruins in the background are simply disgraceful . They are literally nothing but uncertain smudges , which a sot might have executed with his grimed fingers dipped in beer . It is an insult to common sense to show such a picture as this . Can anybody point out one redeeming feature in this mass of sheer slovenliness ? Lips like that boy ' s were never seen ; they are dots of staring red paint , as utterly without form as are other dots of the same colour , distributed over the knee—such a knee!—of the old man . There are three pictures besides by Mr . Hurlstone ; and , though neither is quite so hideous as the one we have described , they are all daringly bad specimens of painting .

      Mr . Noble should confine himself to the class of genre pictures with which his name has been creditably associated . It is not easy to guess how ho was tempted out of his depth by a prize of no greater value than the statement , in D'Aubione ' s Histoire de la Reformation , that " about this time Albert Duiier presented a fine picture to his friend Luther . " Mr . Noble ' s design ( 64 ) does not betray any peculiar inspiration or proof of a special call to paint this presentation scene . The picture which Albert Purer is showing to his friend is as unlike anything of Dukbu ' s painting as could very well be . Altogether this is the least satisfactory work of Mr . Noble ' s with which wo are acquainted . Among the landscapes , Mr . Bopdinoton ' s ' Windings of the Wyo' ( 1 K 8 ) is the most happy in selection of scenery and standing-point ; while two or three

      of Mr . SYEns ' s works aro the most indicative of painstaking , But , if wo wore asked to guess which landscape had been moat nearly brought to perfection out-of-doors ,-i \ iHl-with .. tlie . Hctualobjeet 8-bofoi'e-the-i ) ftinter ? s-eyes , —it would-be The Studio , Jfoas Twvyn , on tho Conway , North Wales' ( 139 ) , by Mr . J . 1 ' Phttitt , that wo should name as tliat oxygenic production . A few of tho details in this rocky nook of Wolsh scenery uro unsurpnssably truthful ; and in particular wo will point to tho close-fitting character of the moss which clothes the huge boulders in the foreground ; but wo arc unable quite to make out tho intention of certain red dots which aro sprinkled in several places—on tho foliage , on tho ground , and on tho water . Tho Fruit' ( 72 ) exhibited by Miss Uumlkt has less bloom thun might have been bestowed with a little extra euro and finish ; but it is very pulpy and fruitllko . There is a melon , tho rough

      rind of which is painted with much force of truth ; and ,, indeed , that is the general characteristic of the lady's work . She seems to know her way perfectl well as far as she cares to go ; and we should say it would be easy for her to er > farther , and to give her pictures the charm of refinement as well as of natural force .

      404 The I ^Jl^J^Jljk [Ff°» 422 > Ap Ril ...

      404 THE I ^ JL ^ j ^ JLJk [ ff ° » > Ap ril 24 , 1885 .

      King Lear At The Princess's Theatre. Mr....

      KING LEAR AT THE PRINCESS'S THEATRE . Mr . Charles Kean has now closed and completed the magnificent series of Shakspearean revivals which have made a dramatic epoch of his management of the Princess ' s Theatre . Hypercritical objectors have denounced the brilliant illustration of Richard IF ., Henry VIII ., and the Tempest with all the scenic accessories suggested by antiquarian research and all the mechanical ' properties' supplied by modern invention , as something base and excessive and betokening the rank luxuriance of dramatic decadence and decline . Certain enthusiastic formalists , jealous of the purity of Shakspeare's text , have attacked Mr . Charles Kean unmercifully for improving upon the stage management to the days of James I ., and for making the Elizabethan' drama attractive to the nineteenth century . These formalists insist upon Shakspeare being presented in his original simplicity without the aid of factitious ornament , and had they been Athenians of the age of Sophocles , they would have insisted

      upon the Antigone being performed from a waggon . But it is only fair to add that while demanding an anachronism with all the courage of fanatics , they would as soon go to see a play of Shakspeare ' s as to hear a sermon , unless in the one case it were a spectacle and in the other a Sporgeon . May it not be worth consideration whether Shakspeare himself , were he now living , would not be the very man of all men to approve of " the introduction of these illustrative adjuncts" in the performance of his plays , which Mr . Charles Kean believes to be " not only necessary but advantageous to the stage ? " Certainly he would not allow the drama itself , as an " exhibition of human feelings and passions , " to be submerged in canvas and upholstery , but he would tell us that if the machinist and the scene painter were too much for the actors , it must

      be the fault of the actors and not of the dramatist or the manager . Even hypercritical objectors , however , can find no fault with the manner and degree in which Mr . Charles Kean has scenically illustrated King Lear . Indeed , no scenic wonders can compete with the transcendent power of the poet in this sublime tragedy . It would be simply impossible to overlay the majestic desolation of the old king and the loving truth and tenderness of his child Cordelia The scenic representation of a chamber in King Lear ' s palace is an admirable picture from the life of our rude forefathers ; but who remembers the ingenious fidelity of the antiquary in the presence of that old man sinking on his knees in the agony of desertion , and calling on Heaven to curse a thankless child ? The storm on the heath is a marvellous illusion , but who can gaze at the cloud-rack

      and the haggard gleams of the lightning , in the sight of that awful human loneliness in the foreground of the picture ? Mr . Charles Kean , therefore , while employing upon his illustration of King Lear at his theatre all the resources of decorative and mechanical art , under the direction of his own fine taste and discrimination , and in a spirit of due reverence for the dramatist , relies on the drama itself and upon the personation of the great central figure of the drama for the success of the revival , and we are glad to record that his high ambition has been nobly justified . It is easy to perceive that Mr . Kean has bestowed upon his personation of Lear the most careful and devoted study , and that every tone , look , and gesture is the result of a strong conception , wrought out with an ardour and concentration of purpose that lends to art the semblance of instinct , and to elaboration the communicative sympathy of irrepressible impulse . Needless to say that no point was lostand that the great traditional passages brought the house down ; we

      con-, fess , however , that the profounder subtleties of the character appeared to us to be most happily seized by Mr . Kean , and most skilfully presented . Here and there , in a performance challenging not mere eulogy but positive criticism , we might have desired a different modulation , so to speak , in the actor ' s voice , a different sense in his reading ; but , such as it is , Mr . Kean ' s personation of Lear completely masters the emotions of the audience , and in its most minute details satisfies the critical by its exquisite filling-up of a majestic outline . Tho general performance of the play is careful and creditable , especially Mr . Rvi > er s Edgar , Mr . Cooper ' s Kent , and Mr . Graham ' s Gloster . We cannot say much for Miss Heath and Miss Bufton ' s Goneril and Regan , except that they present the *' strong-minded woman" in an attractive shape ; and Miss Kate Terry ' s Cordelia would bo more pleasing if she could be persuaded to renounce a spiral movement of the arms , which befits the dainty Ariel , but is tiresome in gentle ot honest

      creatures of flesh and blood . We should be false to the duty and purpose criticism if we forbore to mention Mr . Walter Lacv ' s assumption of the part of Edmund in the most unequivocal terms of condemnation . Either Mr . Walter Lacy sinks under the part , or he presumes to consider it unworthy ot ins powers . In either case he deserves censure , not unmixed with pity . Ino part of Edmund is an admirable part for an actor of spirit , grace , and impulse ; and it has been played by the best dramatic artists known to the annals ot the Kngnsii stage . It is , moreover , evidently a favourite character with Shakspeare lnnisen . Mr . Walter Lac v slurs it and drawls it as if ho either had not thq slightest notion what to do with it , or deemed it beneath his genius ; at all events , ho plays ic like a tenth-rate man about town , or perhaps liko a barber ' s apprentice aping a Talleyrand . In short , Mr . Walter Lacy ' s Edmund , instead of being spinicu and gallant , is sly , awkward , and sneaking in his air and gait , lutuousiy cunning , and cynically dull .

      Her Majesty's Theatre. . Mademoiselle Pi...

      HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE . . Mademoiselle Piccolomini reappeared for tho season as Nonna m «« Pasquale on Tuesday evening , and was received with a spoiled darling a m come . She played the coquettish widow with inflnito archness ami i"w ^ bewitching airs , and warbled like tho first bird of spring . Signor IJklaui ,, u light tenor who made so agreeable an impression at tho close of lust t > cu > u , was the Ernesto , and confirmed tho prepossession of tlio audience m Inn tuvuui .

      „_ „ „ _ «Oj2y-M Pig Sheathe.'—— ~-« R R...

      „_ „ „ _ « oj 2 y-m PIG SHEATHE . ' —— ~ - « r r-A little comedy from tho French , under tho titlo of A Uoul >(/' " " . ' tho brought out at tho Olympic , on Monday evening , and lias been plnycd ; " i l week with equal spirit and success . It is spurklingly written , but its BU ( - r may bo considered duo to tho lively and liniahod acting of Mrs . Stiiiling mi i v part of a fascinating widow , and to tho capital muka-un mid porlcct efth ,, j naturalness of Mit . UBonaia Vininu ub a bluJl" but sensitive , and slightly v » 0 DII "' £ i Colonel , and lovor of middle ago . Need wo add that it is put on tho stago «• nil tho caro and ologanco that distinguishes tho Olympic of tho proeonmu » a former ) duy .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 24, 1858, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24041858/page/20/