Proceeding, with this exception, in numerical rotation, we notice
No. 6, _The Hon. Caroline Dawson_, by Dubufe. The arms are rather
flat, but it is a nice portrait, well painted, and infinitely
superior to the same artist's picture in the British Institution--a
French grisette with a Jewish face and an ugly mouth, holding a
rose; the motto "Wither one rose and let the other flourish,"--a
poor conceit and very indifferently executed. No. 52 is Mr Francis
Grant's, the first, but not the best, of seven which he exhibits. Mr
Grant is getting very careless. Such hands and clothes as he gives
his sitters are really not allowable. The only carefully finished
portrait he exhibits this year is that of Lady Elizabeth Wells,
after which that of Miss Grant is perhaps the best. The Countess
Bruce has an odd sort of resemblance, in the attitude or something,
to the same painter's picture of Mr Sidney Herbert. The Duke of
Devonshire looks vulgar. Viscount Hardinge is feeble, for Grant,
who can do so much better. We urge this artist to take a little
more pains, or his high reputation will dwindle. His portrait of
Sir George Grey, now on view at Colnaghi's, is another example of
carelessness. The face is the only finished part. Mr Watson Gordon
understands the portrait-painter's vocation after a different
fashion, and is most conscientious in his practice. Apart from their
striking resemblance, his portraits are admirable as carefully
finished works of art. His sitters this year have been, upon the
whole, less suited to make interesting or pleasing pictures than
several of the persons who have sat to Mr Grant; but Watson Gordon
has done his work far more carefully. Perhaps the best of his three
portraits is that of a lady, No. 137. The child in the same picture
pleases us rather less. No. 175, Daniel Vere, Esq. of Stonebyres, is
a striking likeness of that gentleman; and nothing can be better,
in all respects, than the portrait of the Lord Justice-General of
Scotland. Mr Buckner is, we are sorry to say, retrograding sadly.
He rose very suddenly into public favour, and if he does not take
care, he will rapidly decline. His portrait of Miss Lane Fox is
perhaps his best this year. Rachel is flattered. Lady Alfred Paget
is badly coloured, and looks in an incipient stage of blue cholera.
We do not like Mr Pickersgill's portraits this year. For those who
do, there are seven in the Exhibition, besides an ugly thing called
Nourmahal. Mr G. F. Watts has painted Miss Virginia Pattle. It is
one of the most affected pictures in the whole Exhibition. The young
lady is perched on a platform, her figure standing out against the
blue sky, and her feet completely hidden under her dress, which
latter circumstance gives her an unsteady appearance, and inspires
dread lest she should be blown from her elevation. The flesh is very
pasty, and the general effect of the picture jejune in the extreme.
No. 282, _The Duke of Aumale_, is by V. Mottez, and presents a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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