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THE MUSICAL UNION of Tuesday last was a brilliant affair . Madame Pleyel and Joachim were very properly regarded , as '' immense attractions . " Of her playing it is difncult to speak in terms not feeole From their exaggeration ; ( and what is so feeble as exaggeration P ) but those who have heard . Liszt , Mendelssohn , and Mendelssohn ' s sister play , may be told that Madame Pleyel has the qualities of all three ; she is less brMant , perhaps , than Liszt , but also less mannered ; she has not the power of Mendelssohn , but more grace and delicacy . There is a peculiarly caressing delicacy in her touch , which no one has equalled ; and she is equal to all styles . Her playing of thai exquisite trio D minor ( 49 )—Mendelssohn ' s most brilliant trio to nx £ thinking—was bewitching ; and wonderfully was she seconded by Joachim and Piatti . The two compositions by Liszt served to exhibit her variety and power as an executant , but the trio was to me the most convincing proof of her immense talent . Joachim is a first-rate player—worthy to be heard after Ernst ; and thoroughly conscientious , disdaining all trick . . ' ¦ . VlVlAKT .
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EXHIBITION OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY . [ fiest notice . ] In our opening notice of the Royal Academy Exhibition we follow our usual course , and rapidly survey the prominent pictures in the order of the catalogue . ~ The first that collects around it a knot of spectators , not very easil y penetrated , is " The Battle of Meeanee , " by Mr . Gr . Jones—a composition , however , which makes far less impression on the mind than the written despatches . Probably the ground has been mapped out with some research , and there is a degree of action . No one can deny the fact of horses galloping , or of Beloochees receiving their quietus ; but , on the
wholes the effect is excessively tame . One has an idea that Mt . Jones might be able to get on better in battles if he were to go and see " life " under some fast gent , or to place himself as pupil with Mr . Michael Angelo Hayes . He must have been overlaid by " the documents" to which the catalogue alludes ; insomuch that , with a desire for literal accuracy , he has forgotten to give us General ] SFapier in characteristic career . . Above is " The Parting of Lord and Lady ( William ) Russell , " the night before the death of the noble convict—a simple subject , treated by Lacy with much good feeling , but scarcely needing the space devoted to it . In " The Woodland Mirror , " Redgrave makes a still further advance in his landscape career : an amphitheatre " of wood and tall grass encloses the
bay-like edge of a small lake or pool ; the vegetation treated in the manner which Redgrave has helped to develop ; portraying the plants separately and distinctly with surprising fidelity , not only to the individual trees , but to the harmonious effect of the whole . The relation of the distance , seen in an opening at the corner , to the foreground , is not . preserved with equal fidelity ; it is harsh , heavy , and obtrusive . In " Venice , " David Roberts brings the scene before you with his usual power and reality , but with less of the brilliancy characteristic of the place ; The visitor will like to see Mr . Swinton ' s grouped portrait of Mrs . Norton , LadyDufferin , and Lady Seymour , for the sake of the originals . Charles Landseer ' s " Death of Edward the Third" has the merit of a matter-of-fact industry in the getting up . Stanfield ' s " Bay of Baiae" has the expressiveness and beauty of the original view , but not the life : it is tame . May we not
use exactly the same expressions to Francis Grant ' s portrait of Mr . use exactly the same expressions to ± < rancis Grants portrait ot Mr . Disraej ^ P "A School Playground , " by Webster , implies an Homeric volume of vicissitude and character . " Antwerp , " with its eternal tower , never looked more majestic nor more gloomy than in Roberts ' s view . Frith paints a mother teaching her child to say its prayers . JJee and Sidney Cooper we again find associated in an evening meadow scene : both of them have several works in the Exhibition , and on the whole we think they work best apart : Lee cannot come up to Cooper's sunshine , nor does Cooper do so well without it . A little picture of Webster ' s might escape notice for its quiet and small size , but it is one of his happiest " bits "—we mean the " A B C , " " Blaekheath Park" is painted by Mulready , after the manner of the landscape in his illustration of the
Vicar of Wakcfield—a curious compromise of extreme minuteness and coarseness—a cross between Prco-Raphaelism and scene-painting . " A Scene from Cymbelino" enables Frank Stone to portray a very beautiful woman ' s countenance . " Beech-trees and Fern" is a large picture , with nothing but a view , under the trees , of trunks and ground herbage ; freed from the gloomy blackness , and also from the want of keeping , which usually , mar Anthony ' s pictures . " The Sunset Hour" is Creswick ' s best picture in the collection—a mill elevated on a bank , a smooth mill-stream , the crimson glow of the setting sun reflected in the stream and in the little pools of water that encroach on the lowland—a scene of much beauty and intense quiet . The reverse in both those respects of Macliso s " Alfred in the tent of Guthrum ; " the Danes , like " the Sonaccheribs , "
" wallowing in wantonosse , " and Alfred " egging them on by his sweeto musicko" —all as John Speed notes , and painters innumerable have painted . There are two things of which one is intensely conscious in Mr . Macliso's pictures—the outline of every figure and every object , or part of an object , and the great mastoid muscle in the neck ot every man . The colouring appoared to us , on a ; hasty view , not less startling than usual , but not so much adultcratod with black and white , chalk . Let us not , howevor , pass Harding ' s good , picture , " The Falls of the Rhino , " although the hanging committee have hung it bolow the line ; nor the interesting portrait of Mr . Thomas Vaughan , by Knight . " A
Letter from the Colonies" is a composition much like Webster ' s " Rubber of Whist ; " the figure at tho window being the village postman ; a father and , daughter appear to bo intently scanning tho direction , while the mother is more intontly awaiting tho contents , and tho postman , not less impatiently awaiting his foe . It is one of Webster's admirable bits of real life . Mr . Leslie ' s " Juliet , " whom tho catalogue represents as saying , ' What if it be a poison which tho friar , " &o ., looks more like a young lady of our own day , in delicate health ; and reluctantly preparing her soul to take " the mixture as boforo . " Let us notice the detestable portrait of Mrs . Coventry K . Patmoro after wo have seen what tho noblo painter of it can , really do . To judge by ? ' Tho Marquis of Saluce
a sea with boats and its restless waters , a * e old subjects with Stan ' field ; but one tires of theni as little as of the sea itself , and for the same reason—the ceaseless life . Mr * Hart illustrates ! an elaborate piece of bibliographic research respecting the three inventors of printine " Guttenberg , Faust , and Scheffer , " tvith that curious perversity of our present artists , that makes them bestow their greatest vigour on the niost abstract subjects . The Battle of Meeanee is reduced to an ornamental tableau , which needs not disturb a drawing-room ; while a British
coinquite himself . An amphitheatre of hills , with an old castled height marries Griselde , " we should say that Mr . Cope has had no acquaint ance eitlier with iherpyai Marquis or the patient girl . The luxuriant face and wavering attitude of the Griseldai the empty-headed weak ness of the Marquis , bely the attempt to pass them off for the black blooded tyrant or the uncohquerable woman whose patience eon quered his obstinacy . In " ODhe Port of La ; Rochelle ,- Stanfield is quite himself . An amphitheatre of hills , with . an . old castled height
positor , setting up the advertisements in- the Times newspaper , shall be represented in an ecstatic condition , wholly at variance with one ' s notions of practical business . In the middle room , " The Mountain Lake' ^ . will strike you as one of the best works that Creswiok has ever produced , being , like the one we have already mentioned , broader , and more powerful than his compositions are apt to be . " Florence Cope , at Dinner-time , " is an agreeable exercise of paternal pride—a careful and vigorous portrait of a very good model . According to the testimony of this picturej Cope appears to be among those whtf are inchnine towards the truth which" is in the half-truthnil
Prse-Raphaelite school . In ' ^ A Subject from Pepys' Diary , "—[ why will educated Englishmen break the laws that regulate the inflection of the genitive ease in Pepys's affairs P]—Elpiore sets forth the ingenious diarist singing with Mercer and Knipp , while his wife sits foir her picture—a good combination of fancy portraits founded on fact ; - Redgrave ' s "Love and Labour " - —typified by half-a-doizen mowers all of a row , and a couple whose courtship seems rather to hang on hand— -answers no particularpiirpose that we can discern . Ansdell is bucknng to faci and his " Cattle Fair" is a great advance on previous works in accuracy of execution . M . Winterof ladiesafter the of
hailer ' s " Florinde , " a graceful composition , manner the critical lower Itah ' an schools ,- —Phillips ' s " Magdalen" surveying the distant Calvary , —Rankley ' s " Eugene Aram , " in school , ^ Wehnert ' s " Elopement , the Eve of St . Agnes , " — -E . M . Ward ' s " Charlotte Corday going to Execution , " we shall pass over hastily , precisely for the reason that they wUl strike the visitor without pur help , and we shall have to notice them all again . Ward ' s picture has a weightier interest in it than any that he has yet produced— -the character is veryimpressive . Frith ' s painful scene from Lord Wharncliff ' s memoirs of Lady Mary Wortley Montague— " Pope makes love to Lady Mary" —is a triumph of storytellinff : the insolent laughter which is the beauty ' s reply , to Pope ' s
" declarationr "—the beauty so complete , so unimpaired , the laughter , so ringing , so intentional , the poet , so bodileBS , so beaten down , so writhing under the sense of the unwarrantable and unjust insolence—are expressed with a subtlety , and , at the same time , a force , not often seen together , if even apart , on the walls of the respectable and Royal Academy . " A Grazier's Place on the Marshes" is the picture that made us think how much better Sidney Cooper is alone , although we have so often admired his joint labour with Lee . Turner ' s " Lodging-house" at Chelsea , should be noted ; also Inchbold ' s " Study "—prse-Raphaelitism , among the twigs . Elmore ' s " Novice , " for much expression and sweetness , an excellent Protestant picture ; Boxall's " Portrait of General Edgar Wyatt , for its life-like character ; Roberts' " Interior of St . Stephen ' s , at Vienna , for its vast space and grandeur ; Frith ' s " Portrait of a Lady , " for its gentle and quiet , real-life grace , should not be overlooked in the hastiest «¦ '
survey . _ _ . ... . „ : _» . First in the West Room is Armitage's great picture of " Hagar , a spacious piece of mannerism inferior to the painter ' s own faculties . " Antwerp Market" we notice as the promising / work of a very young exhibitor , who is triply allied to the arts—Mrs . TL M . Ward . Ihere . is much Prse-Raphaelitish merit in Thomas ' s " Laura in Avignon . J- Ho Timber Wagon" is one of Linnell ' s most characteristic landscapes , anci therefore , to us , ' one of his most unpleasing : nature does not present every substance in the form of agglomerated particles like mouldy cheese . Millais ' s " Huguenot" declining to accept from his betrothed a Itoman Catholic badge , is the master-piece of the Exhibition ; excellent in design , brilliant enough to put out the light of every other painting in the place ,
—except Millais ' s other-Ophelia , in the " weeping brook , " whore sm > died her " muddy death , "—a most literal and a most beautiful copy or Shakespeare ' s Ophelia . More of our controversy with this chief ot mo Proo-Itaphaelito brethren hereafter . He is a strong man , and fit to t ) c a painter , which no weak man is . Hunt is worthy to be his companion , as witness " The Hireling Shepherd , " in spite of its flustered , briokdust cheeks : but Hunt has not done so well this year as he did last , in aim " Two Gentlemen of Verona ;"—there is not less of manner , there is less of idea . The visitor will not pass , as wo have , Harding ' s " W * r Palace , " next to Millais ' s Ophelia , a monument to illustrate * P ° sterl 5 tho barbarism of tho destroying Manners . Nor will he pass Macneew portrait of Douglas Jorrold—welcome once moro to tho weekly press i nor Goodall ' s " Last Load , " though it is not his niosj ; animated picture . In the Miniature , Thorburn , as usual , rules supreme ; but a better jh of niorit is appearing in tho younger men ,, amongst whom wo may n Wolls . Tho sculpture is not in any way overpowering .
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EXHIBITION OF THE AMATEUR SOCIETY . A small room contains 262 works , hung " on the walls and on _ two so ™ v . ' mostly of tho character of hasty wator-colour sketches . It ™ mtcl ? % to soo evidence that an elegant accomplishment is pursued iaJS ° ; J fl > successfully by dilettanti ladies and gentlemen of tho " easy " ^ In many of the sketches wo discern much natural power , an < * /^ naid , like Miss Blake , Mrs . Bridgman Simpson , and Mr . Thomas Macdona . can worlc as well as profossonal artists . But the Amateurs navo ^ jf" ' ^ forth their strength : there is nothing to mate with tho engravoa v which , some few have published .
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450 ' ¦ : ¦ ' ' -. ¦ ¦' . ' ¦ ¦ ' ; ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ' ¦ ¦ ^ T ; : H # ' /' : L : E A : ' t )^ E ; R ,: : ^ vr ^; . / -v ; V , ;^^ v ^^^ l ^ iii ^; - : " ¦ •
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Leader (1850-1860), May 8, 1852, page 450, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1934/page/22/
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