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A.D. 1871.]

THE MODERN SCHOOL OF ENGLISH PAINTERS.

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execution of these two pictures; the latter being chiefly remarkable for its exquisite painting of twilight glow behind the hills. In 1857 a fatal change had passed over his pictures of a "Dream of the Past" and Sir Ysumbras;" the latter yet so beautiful in conception as to fascinate in spite of its wilful departure from the laws of truth. An old knight, riding home on his war-horse in the summer twilight, the dust of work and strife on his golden armour, has taken the woodman's boy and girl and is carrying them with him across the ford, the girl looking up trustingly in his face. The purple hills marked clear against the cold sky of the solemn summer twilight; the autumn trees shedding their crimson leaves on the green river-bank; the thought of the picture carrying one on in its dim suggestiveness beyond the beautiful incident into the land of more beautiful symbolism all these things throw around the picture an inexpressible charm in spite of its bad drawing and careless painting.

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Of all the modern school of English painters, Holman Hunt is the only one who has been in any sense a religious painter, or who might have laid the foundations of a school of religious art, expressing the devotional feelings and convictions of the age. He it was, perhaps, who, beyond the other young Pre-Raphaelite leaders, gave strength and depth to the movement, and insisted most strongly on the principle that their paintings should always mean something-express some idea. Pursuing through all obstacles in early life his aim to be a painter, at the age of sixteen he began his self-education, and appeared first before the public in 1849, in his "Rienzi and “Claudio and Isabella." His "Hireling Shepherd," exhibited in 1852, was perhaps the first which attracted much attention, or was thought to show signs of great power. Then came the "Light of the World"—that picture which above all modern religious pictures has so taken possession of the hearts of English people in this generation-stigmatised at the time by a shallow Review, which claimed to represent popular opinion, as the "principal symbol of the Pre-Raphaelites," serving chiefly "to show the rapid decline of a heresy." "The Awakening Conscience," with its deep pathos and noble moral teaching, exhibited in the same year, needed Mr. Ruskin's championship in the Times, to explain its meaning, and silence the ignorant criticism which was showered on it. A girl has been singing with her seducer in the beautifully furnished rooms to which he has enticed her. Some words of the song she sings-"Oft in the stilly night"-have gone home to her with a sudden agonised remembrance of the days of her innocence, and her eyes are filling with tears and her sweet face quivering with remorse, while her lover, unconscious and careless, strikes the chords on his instrument. On the gilded tapestry behind, the birds feed on the budding corn; over the fireplace hangs the picture of the woman taken in adultery; beyond in the garden the bright flowers contrast their fairness with human sin and sorrow. Was ever a tale more perfectly told to an unheeding generation? By the time the "Finding of the Saviour in the Temple" was exhibited, Holman Hunt had won his

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way to the sympathies of his age. It has been criticised on religious grounds, because the figure of the Saviour was, in its conception, a departure from medieval tradition, and because it only formed one of a large group, all painted with equal care, and attracting equal attention. We have no sympathy with either of these objections; for to the last it may be said that it was an historical and not a symbolic representation, and therefore called for care and accuracy in all the accompanying personages and accessories; and we must think that few, first looking at the picture, could fail to be at once and principally fascinated by the noble and beautiful face of the Divine Child, with the far-off look in His deep blue eyes as He first reminded His mother of His 'Father's business." As regards the type of face, we are not aware that there is any authentic tradition as to our Lord's features-each school of painting having had, we believe, its own type; the only verbal tradition on the subject which has come down being precisely the one which, before Mr. Hunt revived it, had been well-nigh unknown-viz., that our Lord's hair was golden-auburn, and His eyes blue. It was in doubt, and difficulty, and poverty, that he painted this noble picture, unknowing whether in this, their last opportunity, the English nation would acknowledge his genius in the work of the five best years of his manhood, or whether he should be driven to seek his livelihood in a far-off country.

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The "Scape-Goat" had all the defects of a well-nigh impossible subject; yet it was a wonderful picture, and no other man could have painted it. A goat, wearing the scarlet fillet, on the shores of the doomed land sinks down weary and despairing. Attracted perhaps by the false glitter of the Dead Sea waters, he has come, parched and thirsty, to sink in its salt crust and die as the sun goes down behind the purple mountains of Abarim. Painted with unequal skill, ridiculed and misunderstood, and wondered at as only the picture of a dying goat, that picture lit up the Academy walls of 1856 with its colour, and made them solemn with its intensity of thought. We can hardly measure, we cannot value enough, the strength of soul of the manan-perhaps no other country but England could have produced him— who could thus spend his weary days amidst the dis comforts and dangers of an Eastern wilderness, alone in the awful solitude of Sodom and Gomorrah, to produce this solemn picture; who could also brave the bitter cold of an English winter night to produce the "Light of the World," and the burning heat of a meridian sun to paint the "Hireling Shepherd."

Mr. Hunt's "Shadow of Death," which he was four years in painting, was exhibited in 1874. It represents Christ in His earthly home-" the carpenter's shop"-at Nazareth, just coming from His day's toil; and the arms, outstretched in weariness, cast the shadow of a cross upon the opposite wall. It is painted with Mr. Hunt's wellknown power and mastery of even the minutest detail.

Few artists have identified themselves so exclusively with sacred subjects as M. Gustave Doré, who, though a foreigner by birth, has exhibited so many pictures in this

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Mr. Watts is a man who was born to paint great subjects on a grand scale, and it is his misfortune to have been compelled, by the conditions of his age and country, to paint easel pictures, instead of leaving his memorial behind him on frescoed walls. But whether on wall or canvas, in finished painting or dreamy sketch, all he does is marked by the same depth and beauty of thought, and bears the impress of his great genius. One of his first well-known works was the "Red Cross Knight and the Dragon," in the Palace of Westminster, now faded, we fear, beyond hope of recovery. One of his finest works is the "School of Legislation," occupying an end of the

conditions on which fresco depends were unknown or matters of experiment; and the result is, that nearly all the works on a large scale, done by the artists of this generation, are doomed to destruction. At St. James-theLess, Westminster, he has painted a "Christ in Glory;" and various private houses contain specimens of his wallpainting. He has also done some powerful pieces of sculpture, of which the "Dying Clytie," exhibited in the Academy in 1868, and now in the Kensington Museum, is one of the best known. We have indeed, as a nation, much to thank him for; much also to learn from him.

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Upper Waiting Hall at Westminster; "St. Francis before Space does not permit us to go through the long list of Innocent III.," and other figures, in St. John's Roman well-known names in the English schools of art; or Catholic Church at Islington; a memorial painting to even to notice the different groups and coteries into Crabb Robinson, in University Hall-one of his most which the artists of our age have been divided, from successful works, and in which he used a different medium, want of fixed and acknowledged principles. Calderon, composed of wax and turpentine, so that it may be hoped Leslie, Yeames, Marks, and others, have formed a school that this fine picture may be saved from the general ruin of their own, popularly termed the "St. John's Wood of London wall paintings. He is best, however, with School," from their place of residence. They are men of his oil-paintings; and the "Battle of Inkerman," the no very high aspirations, but are painters, for the most "Heavy Cavalry Charge at Balaclava," and many histori-part, of sweet home sentiment, and fresh bright humour

and healthy wit. They have also done much for domestic art, and their painted furniture has been both successful and beautiful. A cabinet designed by Mr. Marks, with grotesque decorations, was exhibited in the Exhibition of 1862, and afterwards bought by the Department of Science and Art. Simeon Solomon and Albert Moore are painters of a more delicate and refined kind of beauty. The latter has exhibited, year after year, many lovely "symphonies of colour" in his "Apricots," "Peaches," "Lilies," "Azaleas," and others. Delicate sculpturesque figures in semi-transparent garments move among soft, blossoming trees. His pictures are expressive of beauty, pure and simple, of a certain kind, and are like soothing cadences and flowing rhythms.

Mr. Solomon might, perhaps, have aspired to something more definite than pretty sentiment and the charm which surrounds graceful figures and pleasant combinations of form and colour. He began by painting scenes from the history of his own race; and might, by his national sympathies combined with his real power of expression, have occupied a more definite place in art than he attained by falling back upon Pagan allegorical compositions of vague purpose. His "Roman Gladiatorial Show" was the first and only important work which he exhibited at the Academy. His water-colour pictures exhibited in the Dudley Gallery have been his more interesting works, illustrating as they did the ritual and religion of his own and Christian Churches of the East, and bringing out his power of combining beautiful colours and painting splendid effects. Mr. Burne Jones is, perhaps, less appreciated by the public than any of our remarkable painters; partly, perhaps, from the reason that he identifies himself with the unpopular school. One of the few among our artists whose fortune it has been to have had a liberal education, he began his career as an artist just at the close of the first conflict of Pre-Raphaelitism; his first pictures being touched by that love of Christian tradition which inspired the early efforts of most of the rising school, chiefly, perhaps, because of its association with the medieval life of Italy and of all her early painters. Then he passed into the phase of Christian chivalry; then into mythical and allegorical representations, mingling classical fable and middle-age romance; Cupid and Psyche," "Spring and Autumn," "Circe," the "Chant d'Amour;" transforming everything he touched into pure and noble poetry.

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Mr. Poynter has all the popularity of a man who paints historical subjects carefully and thoroughly, making his pictures delightful and instructive by the knowledge he brings to bear upon his subject. His first brilliant success in the Academy, "Israel in Egypt," and its successor, the "Catapult," are well known to most of our readers.

won the sympathies of English people as a painter of animals; and his subjects were treated invariably with consummate skill. As regards accuracy of drawing, and breadth of colour, there is nothing to be desired in his paintings; while in several of them-such as the "Shepherd's Chief Mourner," now at South Kensington, and "Rescued"—he rose to true pathos and feeling; and in others showed great power of humour, as in “ Jack in Office," "Alexander and Diogenes," and "Uncle Tom and his Wife for Sale."

Mr. Lewis, another water-colour exhibitor, is unrivalled in his own peculiar line of representing Eastern life. His pictures are gems of exquisite colour and marvellous delicacy, and of such rare and perfect finish as is seldom combined with power of invention and expression such as Lewis possesses.

Landscape art is a subject in itself, and we have no space to do more than mention it here as having begun a career at Turner's death under conditions which never could have been possible but for him. William Turner, of Oxford, will be long and gratefully remembered by lovers of landscape art for the faithful painting of quiet English scenery; of blue sky and green fields, and golden autumn tints, at a time when grey and dust-colour were still prevailing harmonies. Of later landscape painters, there is a large school, consisting of artists of more or less power and feeling, who may help to inaugurate a new era in the future for English landscape art.

Our survey of British art from 1851 to 1871 would be incomplete without a reference to the drawings of John Leech, George Cruikshank, "Phiz" (H. K. Browne), and others of this school. Leech's drawings will probably be regarded as the freest from any marked mannerism, and they are certainly not the caricatures which many other drawings of this description are. His sense of humour was keen, and always innocent; and many of his drawings in Punch were of high purpose and aim. The drawings which "Phiz" prepared for several of Dickens' novels are, of course, well known. Their power is beyond all question, but their exaggerations are a marked defect. George Cruikshank has also done good work in the illustrations of some of the novels of Dickens and other writers.

In conclusion, we would remind our readers that the function of art is twofold-to express man's delight in all created beauty; and to be, in the words of an ancient art-guild, "a teacher to ignorant men." Into one of these two divisions all true and genuine art resolves itself. But the demand creates the supply, and what we will have the art of our age to be, that in the main it will become. If we will insist that the genius of the age shall be spent, not in recording the heroic deeds of our own and other generations, nor in showing forth God's revelation, nor in recording thoughts of purity and beauty; but in drawing-room frivolities and soulless prettinesses, these we shall have at our bidding, and minds like Millais and Landseer will be lost; at best incoherent voices, leaving no echo behind them. The mere fact of having a taste for art will not neces Landseer, throughout his long career, appealed to and sarily help in any way the art-progress of our generation;

Mr. Frith needs little notice here. The cause of his popularity is in the subjects he chooses, and in his skill in portraying scenes of English life from all ranks. He will not find much sympathy with those who believe that the follies and sins of English life are unfit subjects to immortalise; but his pictures are truly painted and often pleasant to look at.

A.D. 1871.]

OPINIONS ON ARMY REFORM.

on the contrary, if misdirected, it may hinder its growth. There are among cultivated people two classes who make art their pleasure and leisure study. One class, by far the larger of the two, value works of art as they do gold, not because they are beautiful, but because they are scarce or valuable—that is, saleable; or with that instinct for possession which belongs to human selfishness. They will cover their walls with pictures of a dead artist whose drawings are rare or of increasing value, when they might buy for half the sum, perhaps, works more akin to their sympathies, and help some young struggling artist. Or they will furnish their rooms after some "period," for which they have to scour all the curiosity shops in London; when for the same money they might encourage good industrial art, and extend the demand for it. They will give, more pitiable still, fabulous sums for bits of old china and glass, to shut up in cases, and triumphantly show to their friends as unique specimens. The only use of art, say they, folding themselves round complacently in their elegancies, is to extract a little more pleasure, a little more luxury out of life.

And there are others who use their knowledge, opportunities, and money, as so many talents for which they are accountable to God and their fellow-men. Their chief joy in possession is to give; in supremacy over others, to help them; in knowing more than others, to teach them. These work for all time, and are among the world's true philanthropists; the others, for their own little day of life, and for themselves, burying their talent in the mouldering earth of swift-passing time. It is for us to choose between the two.

CHAPTER XLII.

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it were people who could make themselves heard, never
spread widely enough to make the question of an armed
alliance a serious one. Still, it was natural and inevitable
that a demand for army reform should be loudly made
on all sides, and it became apparent that army reform
was to be the question of the session. Moreover, the
direction which the reform would take was unmistakable.
The speeches which were made throughout the country
before the meeting of Parliament and in the early months
of the year-notably the speeches of Mr. George Otto
Trevelyan, a young Cambridge man who had lately en-
tered public life as member for the Border Boroughs-all
struck one note; the note of the abolition of purchase.
Up till the year 1871, as is well known, the British Army
was officered by men who, with few exceptions, paid for
their commissions. The effect of this was that the
officers were mostly sons of rich men-for the pay of an
officer was never remunerative enough to make poor men
pay the price of the commission as an investment—and
that the style of living was artificially raised so as to
make it eminently undesirable for a poor man to enter
the army as an officer, even if he were able to raise
money enough to buy his commission. A second effect
of the purchase system was that men were admitted to
be officers without any special evidence of fitness for
the service; if they could pay the price and pass an
almost nominal examination, they were admitted without
further question. This, then, was the state of things
which many Liberals, such as Mr. Trevelyan, wished
to alter. They wished to throw open all commissions in
the army to competition; let the best-trained man, they
said, be made an officer, without any consideration of
the length of his
As will be seen, this demand

purse.

English Opinion on the Subject of Army Reform-Mr. Trevelyan's prevailed in the end, but not without great difficulty. It was not the only point on which the reformers army touched; for it was not only the officering of the English Army, but its organisation, that began to be severely criticised. Many speakers and writers thought that in the face of the enormous armies of the Continent, the principle of voluntary enlistment must be at length given up in favour of that of compulsory service. Many

a more capable militia, and for more Government encouragement to the volunteers. And all agreed that the want of union between the different branches of the service was a fatal hindrance to the efficiency of any of them.

Agitation-Speech of Sir W. Mansfield-Meeting of ParliamentMr. Cardwell's Bill-The History of Purchase-Tactics of the Opposition-The Bill in the Lords-Mr. Gladstone's coup d'étatThe Lords pass a Vote of Censure-Attitude of the Liberals in the Commons.-The Budget-The proposed Match-Tax-Changes at the Admiralty -The Epping Forest Bill-Motion for the Disestablishment of the Church of England - Abolition of Tests Bill. AT the opening of the year 1871 the German armies were still surrounding Paris, and the raw levies and beaten-less thorough-going than these-began to cry out for veterans of France were attempting a hopeless resistance in the departments of the North, the East, and the West. In England every one saw that the end of the struggle was approaching; and the public mind began uneasily to ask the question, what next? It has often been said that the feeling of England with regard to her own condition alternates between irrational self-confidence and irrational fear. It was now the turn of the latter feeling. The deadly certainty of the German successes, the exhaustion of France, drove the minds of Englishmen to consider what would be our state of preparation in the face of Moltke's tactics, supposing we had to face them on English soil. By some, indeed, the supposition of war with Germany was not held to be altogether unlikely; for, during the later months of 1870, there had been growing in some quarters a feeling of sympathy with France so intense as to give rise to a cry for war in her behalf. But this feeling, although those who entertained

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A speech addressed early in the year to some volunteers by Sir William Mansfield (afterwards Lord Sandhurst), an eminent Indian soldier and general, gave a fair account of some of the weak points of the English Army, and of one of the ways in which it was proposed to strengthen them. Some years ago," he said, "I saw, and called the attention of others to the fact, that there were in this country numerous bodies of a military character, but that they all seemed pulling different ways, instead of co-operating in one grand harmonious whole for the good of the nation. The militia had one set of interests, and the volunteers another set of interests, while what is called the line, or the regular army, had interests also of its own, differing in degree, or in kind,

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