ABSTRACT
575 May we hope that the Turner sketches in watercolour at Marlborough House will one day assist in the formation of a collection of British water-colour art May we venture to hope that such a collection will ever be formed? In answer to such a question it can only be said, that if we have a national feature in Art, it is our school of watercolour; and the formation of such a collection is certainly due to the prestige it enjoys. But whenever such addition is made to our museums, it is earnestly to be desired that it will appear as well in the form of a progressive and circumstantial history as in that of an illustrative collection. In little more than half a century this branch has been carried from a thin raw wash, to its ultimate perfection. When the fresco question was introduced in reference to the decoration of the Houses of Parliament, foreign professors and learned amateurs were in despair that British, paiuters knew nothing of fresco-painting. But because fresco-painting was, after all, but water-colour painting, the surprise was great that mural painting was not only not diflicult to members of our school, but that they became at once so excursive in execution as to essay in fresco the various meaus of effect to which they had been accustomed in water-colour. How eccentric soever may be some of the pictures in the Poets’ Hall, there is at least one to which we can point, the greater part of which was five times cut out before the artist could satisfy himself. The earnestness of Michael Angelo, the fastidiousness of Correggio, or the severity of Haffaelle, never did more than this. But to return to our pictures on paper: whatever may be said of their origin, much of the earlier excellence of the art is due to those professors who spent their lives as teachers, and that at a time when water-colour practice was deemed only .within the extreme list of Art, and an invention cultivated only for the amusement of young people. And that is what JMr. Ruskin still considers, as he says, when he aims at teaching his pupils to paint the grandest phenomena of nature, “Make frequent memoranda of the variegations in flowers ; not painting the flower completely, but laying the ground colour of one petal, and painting the spots on it with studious precision. . . . . Be careful to get the gradated distribution of the spots well followed in the calceolarias, foxgloves, and the like,” See. This is very much the kind of instruction that the same master gives in proposing to instruct tyrones to register the grandest moods of nature, which he has elsewhere discussed eloquently but unprofitable. It is to be regretted that the watercolour exhibition at Manchester does not contain a greater variety of the begiunings of the art, showing the excellence it attained very early in miniature—some of the monochrome sketches of the great masters, and an example or two of fresco practice (which are to be had framed) ; for all these must be comprehended in any history of water-colour art. Thus it would be seen where the practice was left by foreign schools, and where our own painters found it. The degree of splendour to which it has been carried is sufficiently shown at Old Trafford. The earliest instances contained in the collection are entitled, “Man and Dogs,” by Jacob Jordaens; “A Girl leaning over a Gate,” by Rembrandt ; “Exterior of a Cottage,” by Van Ostade; Dutch Interiors, by Dusart ; “Bxterior—Garden and Portico,” by Moucheron ; “Poultry,” by Shensten-burg ; “A PemaleHead,” by Watteau; and various sketches of flowers by Van Hyysum, who died in 1749. Of the works of Paul Sandby there are sixteen, the subjects of which are views in various localities in England, Wales, and Scotland, as “Bothwell Castle, Clydesdale “Carnarvon Castle;” “View near Virginia Water;” “Hyde Park,” See. &c. It is generally considered that Sandby did much during his long life (he died at the age of eighty-four) to advance water-colour practice; and it is undoubtedly true that he did. From the dates affixed to his drawings exhibited here, we learn that they were all executed within a space of twenty-five years, commencing from 1770, when ht was forty-five years of age. We have never before seen so mauy of Satidby’S works, and though their merit is comparatively great, we are in some degree disappointed at their want of enterprise, and the crudity of their forms, especially those of the trees. Tho ineaus and appliances were not then what they are now ; but we think that instead of a thin wash, more solidity might have beeu obtained. Nothing,however, can deprive this master of the honour due to him as the father of the British school of water-colour landscape art. There are two drawings by Reyuolds, “The Triumph of Sculpture over Painting,” and a portrait of Reynolds himself; but it will he at once undersood that as figure sketches they have no reference to that particular brauch which we are considering. By Gainsborough there are four sketches—“Cattle near a Pool,” “Study,” peu-and-ink wash for Sir T. Barium’s picture; “Water Party in a Park and “Lady walking in the Park the last really an interesting work, with much of the feeling of his large oil portraits. John Cozens, who died in 1794, seems to have had opportunities of seeing continental scenery, of which he successfully availed himself. His views in Italy, especially those of Florence, the “Isola Borromeo,” and the “Villa Farnese,” are productions of great truth and earnestness. Passing Byrne, W’heatley, ‘Hamilton, and Rowlandson, we come to Girtin, to whom honour is due as one of our most distinguished pioneers : and with him worked a friend rejoicing in no less than four names, the last of which was his great patronymic, the other three 576being little known to the world—and this was Joseph IMnllardAVilliam Turner; and we would rather have seen Turner’s early works in their place by the side of Girtin’s, and the men of the last quarter of the last century, than placed apart, as if the progress of the individual were independent of that of the school. The class of subject painted by Girtin may be understood from the titles of a few of his works, which are “Interior of Exeter Cathedral;” “Ely Cathedral “Helmsley Castle, Yorkshire “Ca-rew Castle,” &c. ; and among his studies are some which will never be surpassed in natural truth. Near these works are several figure compositions, simple in subject, but highly meritorious in execution, by Thomas Heaphy, of which some of the titles are, “Quarrelling at Cards;” “The Mother ;” and “Stealing the Tarts.” At the commencement of the present century teachers of drawing multiplied rapidly, and a knowledge of water-colour execution began to be considered an elegant accomplishment. Bui in those days exhibitions were not so popular as they have become since, and the taste for, arid education in, Art, were not so extensively cultivated as in our time. Though the reputation of these artists was limited, it may be justly said that their works ought to have won for them a. higher distinction than they enjoyed during their industrious lives. There are some admirably spirited drawings by Bonington, who, such was his skill in either craft, claims to be regarded as a painter of high pretension in both oil and water. His works here are, “A Felucca;” “Coast Scene ;” “Verona;” “Venice” “On the Scheldt;” and “Sea Piece and Pier.” His manner in small works is extremely playful, yet decided, having produced, as is evident, in his sketches, precisely the effect he desired frequently with one sweep of his brush: and notwithstanding what our French neighbours may say about the characteristic points of their school, they have clearly learnt much from Richard Bunington. John Constable is another of our originators to whom the French school of laudscape is deeply indebted. For ourselves, we have gone on our way rejoicing, the good old rule, quisqi’e pro se, ever prevailing among us.
