is particularly strong this year—it contains to my mind the most charming picture exhibited in any gallery this season, Mr. Watts's Early Spring—an idyll so charming that one forgets the age of the artist and imagines it must be the work of a man_in the zenith of his power. Spring is typified by a small child, some three years old, with bare feet and a white frock, holding some mauve blossoms in his hand the background are green bushes, the tender green of early spring. The child's face and charming blue eyes, a dainty nose of the refrousé typo anda dear little mouth, the hair that shade of auburn which always commends itself to artists. Having a season ticket I know I shall spend many odd moments in the company of this dear little man. That is, if T can find time to do so in the hurry and bustle of this great London of ours. Mr. Watts exhibits two other pictures in this gallery. Can these Bones Live? Ezekiel, a com-Fire Gallery). Te isa picture to see only nion to his Sic Transit (now in the
when one feels particularly happy and contented, otherwise it would be most depressing. I don't think I quite grasped its meaning. Under a kind of pall of some brownish yellow substance, presumably intended for fungus, but (may I be forgiven for saying it) which looks like a horse blanket, and supported by some broken limbs of an old oak tree, lie the dead bones, evidently those of a human skeleton. The surroundings are equally strange—diee, an anvil, an empty cup, and various ornaments are strewn about, probably emblematic of worldly vices and vanities. The picture is large and might be termed a symphony in brown, as there is little other colour introduced. Lnoticed that one critic described it as "a picture to shudder at, yet to see." Personly it gave me no_pleasure even to see it, specially after Early Spring. The third work of this great master is a portrait of Mrs. Ico Bligh, a pleasing likeness of a charming subject. Mr. Sargent has Tikewise sent his best work to this gallery, -his Mfrs. Anstruther Thomson and Mrs.. Thursby being to my mind far the most successful of all his clever portraits, especially the latter which is evidently a speaking likeness. Mr. C. G. Halle has no fewer than five exhibits Fugitives, 2 man and a girl who are presumably flying from justice or escaping from some thzentened calamity. The man is sleeping and the girl watching; her face was, I thought, too calm, otherwise it was clover conception. Fur hetter, howe was The Signal, a virl of the same type holding a lamp in " easement window asa al to a lover or husband, presumably the former, as she looks very young. Another picture by the same artist is called The King's Daughter With hawk and hound, O'er dewy ground, Her swift feet race To the merry chase.
Almost chariaing work. Mr. Abbe; King Lear fame) has sent but_one bution here, The Poet. It is a powerful picture of Lith century times. A poet his verses to an admiring audience inly of women, The indivi-listeners is cleverly portrayed. "One countenance blank as though whilst wishful to do so she could not understand.. One questioning, one sympathetic, and one disdainful or enviows—no two faces bear the same expression. As in King Lew, the colouring ix, most with a plentiful use of red and blick—evidently his favourite colours. A picture I did not like, though I notice it was specially sent to Buckingham Palace last Tuesday to be examined by her Majesty, is Mr. Holman Hunt's The Beloved. It is Pre-Ruphaelite of the Pre-Raphaclites. A study of the head of Christ, life size: the eyes are said to be lost in'an ecstasy of prayer, but that did not convey itself to me. As in Briton Rivibre's Temptation, Tasked myself was it necessary to depict such hopeless suffering? to me it was almost awful in its intense misery. As in the Academy, Inndscape is very strong here. Mr. Alfred East has large telling work in The Mystic Pool, which in colouring reminds one of several of the old masters of the Italian School. Mr. Aumonier's 4 Hollow in' the Downs is charming—the hollow lit by brilliant sunlight, with willows waving on the uplands, The effective canvas,, dark intone and most Common by Me. Peppercorn is another
restful, with large shady trees and o wonderful sense of atmosphere, a place to make for on a hot August aiter-noon. There are many other fine pictures had I space to mention them. Several French artists have sent valuable contributions, notably Mf. Adrien Demont whose Temps a Eyinozs' with its double rainbow is a_very fine painting. Madame Virginie Demont-Breton, whose most forciple work is Lo Divin Apprenti, a small child being taught by an old man how to sharpen a knife ona wheel. M. Rene Bil-lotte whose Viewx Canal d& Dordrecht is beautifully painted, and M. Carolus Duran whose principal' works are sent to the Academy, where his likeness of the Countess of Warwick is much criticised. Here he has but one picture, a portrait of Fey, daughter of Lord Algernon Lennox.
a-charming subject and he has made the most of his opportunity, so the result is a dolightfal picture.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.