THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED
| The Champion.] | [February 19, 1815. |
Battle-piece, B. Barker, is a spirited sketch, harmoniously coloured. In force of drawing and expression, it is inferior to The Standard, by Ab. Cooper. There is too violent an opposition of white and black in the horses in this picture; and the eye does not immediately connect the heads of the animals with the rest of their bodies. This picture, however, displays great knowledge of the subject, and considerable strength of composition. A Study from Nature, by the same artist, Ab. Cooper, is a masterly little picture. Birds, from nature, and Plovers, from nature, by M. Chantry, are both excellent in their kind.
View of Richmond, Yorkshire, by W. Westall, A.R.A. is deficient in perspective and in other respects. The river below seems to be on a level with the high foreground from which it is seen. The representing declivities by means of aerial perspective is, we believe, one of the difficulties of the art, and we do not remember any successful instances of it, except in some of Wilson’s landscapes.
A Boy lamenting the Death of his Favourite Rabbit, W. Davison, is a very pleasing composition in the style of Gainsborough. The landscape has too much the blue greenish hue and slender execution of Gainsborough’s back-grounds. The boy is well painted. There is a picture of this kind by Murillo in the collection at Dulwich, which we would earnestly recommend to every painter of such subjects. Or we might as well, in other words, recommend them to look at nature.
Forest Scene, by J. Stark, is painted with great truth of colour and effect.
Stacking Hay, P. Dewint, has great merit.
Jacob taking charge of the Flocks and Herds of Laban, J. Glover. We have already spoken of this picture. The group of tall green trees in the foreground is excellent, but there is a leaden tone spread over the rest of the picture, which is neither gratifying to the eye, nor true to nature.
The Emperor Alexander, in his Droschi, by A. Sauerweide, is like all the other pictures, busts, &c. we have seen of him, and not at all like the descriptions we have heard of his fine person and countenance.
The Duke of Wellington attacking the Rear of Marshal Soult’s Army on the Pont de Miserali over the Great fall of Salamondi, and pursuing them through the Passes of the Sierra Morone in Portugal, 1809, from a sketch by Major-general Hawker, by Perry Nursey. This is not a good picture; but it gives one a good idea of the sport which is to be found in this sort of royal game. In looking at it we have something like ocular demonstration of the truth of what Cowper, the poet, says—
‘War is a game, which were their subjects wise,
Kings would not play at!’