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,.- » . THE FRENCH EXHIBITION . annual display of pictures by leading French artists is an experiment . at kind the exact value of which is measured by success . Is there a provawish in this country to " improve the acquaintance " of the modern l ' rench ols of art ? We arc happy to sea this question so nBrocaWy anawerod by crowda of visitors , every day , to the gallery in Pall Mall . 1 he collect on year—the third eince the scheme was inaugurated—counta about three hun"« nd thirty pictures . Of these the principal number are of a small size , belong to the achool which , in the worda of Mr . Ruskin , " seems to bo Lually constituting a species of manufacture , to supply the French nnK ^ rooms with pictures as Sevres docs with china . lirom a mild and * alI censure of this school , Mr . Rdskin excepta our old favourite , Ebouaui ) bh—at least we cannot suppose that ho moans , any other , when , with ms
usualTatality in the matter of names , he mentions Edouabd JPierre ab bpmg ' " quite unequalled in sincerityhoAI'truth of conception . " " Perhaps , " * M n MrT "RrrsKisr , ¦ ¦*• I ought to have saidrtruth of sight , rather than truth of -conception , " alluding to the fact that M . Fhbbe rambles from cottage to cottage . telling . the peasantry " never to mind him , " and recording with such historical fidelity the actual scenes , the moment of action , and the position of the minutest objects , that , being * on one opcasion requested to enrich a particular study with some piece of delf or pewter from another picture ^ he -answered ^ * No , I cannot do that ; it was-not in the same cottage . " We repeat this delightful . story to the honour of the painter , as well-as of Mr . Ruskik , who letffno opportunity slip of advocating a like conscientious course of study and labour , and who calls these little works of M . Fjkere " examples of true historical painting , " regarding which "it is quite impossible tosay what importance may , in some future day , attach to'them , as record * of the French peasant life of the-nineteenth centuTyJ "
As -we have intimated , pictures of the ^ same ealibre as those - by M . Fbere are the staple of-this-exhibition . Those artists who most nearly approach him in truth of character and circumstance , are Antigua , BrntOTTE ( whose "Breton scenes are painted with the delicacy and freshness observable in pictures of the same kind by the English artist Goodall ) , Meissonntbr , Chavet , PATKor& 'Ddtekoek , and Seignac . Of painters who affect the peculiar combination of high finish and bluntness—to use the only word that can express the very opposite effect to that of the sharp touch generally perceptible in highly finished . English works of the same class—there are also Mdlle . Henrietta Bkow « , and MM . Fichel , Chaplin , Accakd , and Plassan ; only we separate these painters from the school of which M . Frere is at the head , because , though partaking of its mannerism , they have little in common-with its spirit . We should divide the great body of French artists who pursue this method of soft , dim Wending of colours , into two classes : the artists who paint , like Frer ^ ,
Meissonier , and Billotte , from observation of living character ; and the artists who go back for character , and a certain rococo liveliness which is anything but life , toLANCRET . But even these last deservepraise for truth , if only of texture , in such matters as a ribbon , a satin slip , or a piece of cambric . The larger kind of work , calling for the larger conception and the larger handling , -rarely shows an equal power of dealing with every object . In landscape , especially , we find everything just hinted at , and no more . In M . Auguste Bonheus ' s « ' Cattle descending the Mountains , " and in the 6 ame painter ' s hunting scene in the forest of Fontainebleau , we perceive , for instance , the allusion to grass , though it would be impossible for us to do so , were the context taken away . The only painter on a large scale who is careful to preserve distinctness in the textures of all his accessory details , is Biard . To"be sure , there is the great Deuaroche ; but he is represented only by one of his early and best-known works quite useless as an instance in the present case—the " ifapoleon crossing the Alps . " _ _ - *¦ „
. . . . . . Biard ' s chief picture is " A Shipwrecked Crew Rescued by Laplanders . ' There is immense study apparent in this work , every figure in which has a distinct meaning and purpose there . In his humorous works M . Biard , whose power of varying expressions is accompanied by a singular and uniform dryness , giving the idea of a genial invention working by proxy , is not so effective . We would , however , draw attention to his " English Travellers in France , " arid "French Travellers in England , " as containing many shrewd bits of observation . One of the very best pictures in the gallery , though at first sight it appears rather staring and coarse , is " A Church Porch in Paris on Palm Sunday . * ' The painter is M . Hillemaciier . We are sorry that we missed another picture of his , the " Death of a Zouave , " because we should have liked to see how a painter so thoughtful would have dealt with a tragic incident .
The directors of this exhibition have , in their laudable anxiety to do justice to every exhibitor , fallen into a mistake . In order that a fair opportunity for inspection may be given in the case of each work , there is a constantly shifting process carried on . The numbers in the catalogue , therefore , afford little clue to the discovery of the pictures on the walls . In this difficulty the attendants are always ready to afford help ; but no one likes to cause so much trouble as would be required to point out half the works named in the catalogue .
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IUSTORI AS PIA DEI TOL . OMEI . Madame Ristori has appeared in a third character . She ha 9 played , Piw in Marenco ' s play— Pia dei Tolomei . It is to be hoped that this artist will he enabled , before slie quits the stage , to exhibit her dramatic genius in some tragedy that shall be worthy of her . The Medea had many faults , but it certainly liad the merit of giving the actress ample scope for producing startling effects . It was not tedious , for it was , in . fact , a collection of situations . But the Pia . dai Tolomei is a play in five acts—the plot is wretched—and the circumstances , are not such as to give the actress any very great opportunities . Pia is that famous lady of Dante : — Deb . quando tu sarni tomato al mondo , K riposato dclla lunga via , Seguitb ' 1 terzo apirito al sccondo : lticorditi dl ine , cue son la Pia , Siena mi fo ' , disfecemi Maiemma . Salsi colui , chc ' unanellata pria ,
l > isposando , m' avca con sua gemma . Ah . ' when thou ehalt bo returned unto the worW , And rested after the long journey , A third spirit followed the socond thus : Bcmcmber thou me , that I am Pia , Sienna , bore mo , the llaromma tindid me . This ho knows who gave mo onoo the ring With hit > own jewel when he wedded me . Her husband , Jtinaldo , prompted by unfounded doubts of her fidelity , immured her in a castle , amid the pestilential marshes—there to die alone . The story , though prolonged through five acts , is of the simplest . TiznaTao Florentines his friend deputy
Kooa to the wars against the , and leaves Ugo , , as . Uqo has long been deeply enamoured of Pia . As soon as Rmaldo is gone , < Uff 0 tempts the virtue of Pm , but is repulsed . Ugo vows vengeance . Itinaldo returns from the Avars defeated . The suspicious mind of Rmatdo had already conceived doubts of his wife ' s fidelity . This unworthy ^ feeling Ugo fosters nnd engages to confirm by exhibiting Pia conversing with an armed man That man Itinaldo takes for a paramour . The innocent Via takes him for her brother—one of the Tolomei then at enmity with liinaldo . Tut to conveyed to the fatal castle . There Itinaldo has an interview with her , in-whidrUo denounces her infidelity . He declares the proof of her guilt . Put , confidentJw l , or . innocence , laughs at his credulity , and ^ la reB . to hor huaband ^ igUho person with whom » he conversed was her brother . But that brothor , IHn * Wa
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When memory sheathes her . poisoned fangs , . And . the beating present holds its breath ; . The past is-cutaway from us , . And * tha future hides Jier face ; The . look < we see and the word we hear . Are ; the whole of time and space . Bat-enoug h of objection , even though it he made in no-captious spirit : ^ space which remains to us we will occupy with a few specimens of the luties that roay b , e found in * his ^ poem of -Gabriel . Miss iParke ' s ' s manner tften like that of the poet -whom she sings ; -sometimes it reminds us of igh Hunt ( who'is -evidently the person alluded to in the dedication , and oTis likewise obscurely hinted at in the poem itself ); and sometimes there i touch of the older masters—as in these lines ,-which are like an echo m the . tune o £ Shakspeare ' s Sonnets : — , Tho ' . I ,. ill gifted with perpetual powers ,
Should live till when the virgin forest . yields -Her untouched beauty to .-a thousand-towers , And these again their stones to lonely fields , &c . \ . nfel here -we might fancy 'we were reading a couplet irom William > wne s Pastorals -. — 'Forth "from such smile-doth that fine'influence run , As when thro' green leaves streams the westering sun . / Ve do not mention these similarities of manner in any degree as a reach , ; : in fact , it is a refreshment to our debilitated modern verse to bathe ; he clear , vigorous , early streams . The following is very felicitous : it is ken of-the poet who is cast out by the world : — He , sitting throned- upon tlie -mountain top , Shall see the purple vapours slowly drop Into- the vale below : ¦ His lot may not be cast-in pleasant lines , But he shall hear the wind among the . pines , And the free torrents fiow . The many torrents flowing to the sea , Gathering their separate waters silently , Tbenfallmsr , falKnsr , falling ,
He-shall with keen-nnfretted ear th ' scern 'As -surely as by sight , and -he shall learn Each faint etherial calling Of voice to voice , from peak to peak , which blend Prophetic utterances withouten end . nd here , is another charming piece of . natural description , written with renee to Shelley himself : — He loved the water like-some creature- nursed In it by right of nature from the first ; Whether it were the broad and placid river , Or sharp swift stream like arrow shot from quiver Of blue lakes up the fastness of the hills , Or the light foam-spray of the leaping rills , Or gray horizon of the boundless sea Streak'd . by the passing cloud perpetually . In truth there was aJbout his subtle mind A something mixt of water and of wind , A dainty colour , an aerial play , Which tingedjiis speech and touch'd his rhymes alway . 1 a poem , supposed to be written by Gabriel , there are these fine lines , xiptive of Italian scenery : — clouds
filing ana lonely sea , Mountains in . supremacy , Temples roofless on the plain , Calling their old gods in vain . Te could isolate many such passages , but must conclude with one more \ The lines in the second stanza , referring to the ghostly suggestions . utumn , arc most original and true . What sensitive mind has not expeced that indefinable feeling , in tlie still , hot dying of the year?—This is the time when tlie year ' s in its prime , And the rich honeysuckle is blent with the clover , When Nature yearns for the poet ' s rhyme , A » ¦ . A 4 i-. il LinrAnfKrifkii l \ i * nnlrti llitii iflQRftSl Jill nVOV '
When young fawns leap to the tender chime Of their mother ' s bells , and quick eyes discover How tho rabbits run and the squirrels climb , And we look at the earth with tho smile of a lover . But wait for a while till the summer is past , And woods have a rumour that j > rophesies death , A sombre foreshadowing borne on the blast , Which comes in a moment and dies at a breath , A something , a nothing , which touches the leaves , And haunts the hot meadows at noon like a ivraith , And crisps the broad cornfields just bare of their sheaves , And I'll show you my blossom and say what it aaith . (
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Leader (1850-1860), June 28, 1856, page 619, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2147/page/19/
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