Devotion, J. Laschallas. We wish that we could conjure this little picture out of its frame to have a nearer view. The drawing, expression, tone, and composition appear to us admirable.
A Scolding Wife; her Husband having spent all his Money at the Fair, L. Cossé. This is not a very pleasant subject, nor very pleasantly treated. The little child blowing the trumpet is the pretty part of the picture. There is one figure of a woman in a blue stuff gown, sitting by the fire-side, in an attitude of yawning, which both for the truth of the colouring and the action, is inimitable.
A Country Scene, by the same, has the hard brickdusty tone which there is in the faces of the other picture; but the expression is natural and good.
A Colour-Grinder, R. T. Bone, is a spirited and faithful imitation of nature.
A Study from Nature, J. Harrison, is a well-painted head. At the same time, there is something about it very unpleasant to us.
Hebe and Sunrise, by H. Howard, R.A., were, we believe, in last year’s Exhibition at Somerset-house. There is a certain grace and elegance in both of them. The fantastic, playful lightness of the figures in the last is perhaps carried to a degree of affectation. The faces of the Pleiades are very pretty and very insipid.
Conrade and Gulnare, H. Singleton. We could neither understand this picture nor the lines from Lord Byron’s Corsair, which are intended to explain the subject of it.
Brutus exhorting the Romans to revenge the Death of Lucretia. Of this composition we find we have already said quite enough.
View of Arthur’s Seat near Edinburgh, P. Nasmyth, is a very nicely painted landscape. We like all this gentleman’s landscapes, except A View of Edinburgh, which is just like a painting on a tea-board.
Breaking the Ice, by James Burnett, is a very delightful picture. It has the effect of walking out in a fine winter’s morning. Many incidental associations are very happily introduced; the pigeons collected on the thatch of a shed, and the robin-redbreast perched in a window of an out house. The pigeons are, however, too small, and the colour on the breast of the robin is on fire. Perhaps these objections are too minute. The pigeon-house looks suspended in the air, and the sky and branches of the trees seen against it are painted with admirable brilliancy. Peasants going to Market, by the same artist, is of equal merit. The skirt of the drapery of the peasant girl looks as if the sun shone directly upon it. The docks in the foreground of the picture are very highly finished, and touched with great spirit, but we never saw this kind of plant of the lightish green colour, which is here given to it.