In a work like this, transient indeed is the glance which can be taken of the state of Art: if we succeed in giving some general impression of the subject, it is all we can hope to do. It is a source of proud pleasure, to perceive the high stand which the artists of this country have attained.

EXHIBITION OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY.--No. 7 (Lord Harewood) is among the President's best portraits. No. 9, (Don Quixotte in his study,) by G. S. Newton, though but a foot square, is, to our taste, nearly the best picture in the exhibition. It represents the Knight of the Woeful Countenance in the only character under which he should ever be thought of as an abstract person; namely, a perfectly serious, solemn, and even poetical one. He is seated among his books of chivalry, absorbed in meditation. There is no mixture whatever of the ludicrous in it, or of any thing that can suggest it. And this is exactly as it should be. The abstract character of Don Quixotte is a piece of pure passion and pathos from beginning to end. It is by his acts alone, and by the circumstances into which these lead him, that we have acquired ludicrous associations respecting him; and these associations should all leave him, and give way to a mixture of admiration and pity, whenever we think of himself alone.

The next work we notice is one of the very best of this year's col

lection, and among the most pleasing and poetical that Howard ever painted. It is called "The Solar System," and is most happily as well as originally conceived, and delightfully executed. The sun, and its attendant planets, together with their satellites respectively, are personified under the form of human figures. And though each occupies its place in a circle, of which the sun is the centre, yet the different distances of each are typified by the different degrees of distinctness with which their characters and attributes are made out. The green earth in particular, with her sweet moon beside her, is charmingly given.--The Dawn, by Fuseli, is less unnatural, and consequently less unpleasing, than any picture this artist has exhibited for some years.

Allan's picture on the subject.

of "John Knox admonishing Mary Queen of Scots on the day when her intention to marry Darnley had been made public," is a very unequal work. It has considerable merit in some parts, and quite as considerable defects. It is the best example of this artist's colouring that we have seen, and the character and expression of the sturdy old reformer are good. But the queen is strangely insipid and unmeaning; and the halfseen figure, skulking away behind, is in wretched taste.

Collins's picture of the "Fish Auction," is a work in exactly the same class, but full of richness, spirits,

grouping is skilful. The colouring, however, is not so good in many particulars, though it is tolerably harmonious as a whole; and the picture is far from decreasing this artist's reputation.

In passing through the other rooms of the Academy, we find scarcely any thing else of sufficient merit to justify us in overstepping the limits of these

notices.

The Model Academy exhibits nothing of surpassing merit. Westmacott's Cupid is a very pleasing companion to his last year's Psyche, but greatly beneath that statue in both grace and beauty; and Canova's Danzatrice has great life and spirit, but not much grace.

EXHIBITION OF THE SOCIETY OF PAINTERS IN WATER COLOURS. The above-named Society opened their new Gallery in Pall-Mall East, with a general selection from the works of British artists in this department, most of which have been included in their previous exhibitions during the last seventeen years.

Mr. Nash's Tomb of Louis Robsart (3)-- though too much like Prout's style without being it ---is powerful and clever. Glover's Windsor Castle (19) is charmingly natural and rich; and the next picture to it---Cristall's Boy and Child at a Cottage-door--- has great and very characteristic merit. This artist's style is no less original than it is forcible and spirited; and he succeeds in these common-life subjects equally well with the classical ones which seem more in favour with him. His picture of the Coast of Sussex, with vessels in a gale, &c. (35) is admirable.

No. 68, the Doubtful Shilling,

is very good but by far the best, is one called the Michaelmas Dinner (145), in which all the parties present are watching, with different expressions of face, the dismembering of what appears to be a last year's goose. The man who is performing the office in idea, with his compressed lips, clenched hands, &c. is capital.---79 is a charmingly clear and spirited View of Hastings, by Copley Fielding; and 94 and 95, by the same excellent artist, are scarcely inferior to any pictures in the room. The first (Chepstow) is exceedingly rich, elaborate, and glowing; but the delightful View of Brougham Castle pleases us best. In a very different style, but admirable for its brilliant and spirited effect, is 138

a distant View of Lowther Castle, by P. Dewint. Reinagle's View of Pæstum (155) is also remarkably characteristic of the scene. The two magnificent temples are standing in a sublime and gloomy loneliness, with the slant sun-rays pouring down upon them from behind a black cloud, as if the celestial traveller would not develope his full glories upon a scene of such desolation, but yet could not pass these objects by in his way without casting an admiring glance at their everlasting beauty.---We meet with two or three of Glover's delightful scenes here. In particular 166, a View of Lancaster. We have only space to notice farther, Varley's scene from the Bride of Abydos, (181). This is one of the best pictures we remember to have seen by this artist; though it is one that will not be generally pleasing. It represents a spot "within the place of thousand tombs ;" and there is a unity of effect throughout

the

the whole of it. Every thing has a tomb-like air, and assimilates itself to the tombs that are about it. The poplars seem to start up like ghosts from the tomb-the willows hang downwards, pointing their thousand fingers to the graves below---the overshadowing clouds seem to have risen like exhalations from the sick earth--and the bridge that runs across the centre of the scene, looks like the arches of a burial vault exposed to view.

The BRITISH INSTITUTION has this year some interesting and highly meritorious performances. Among these we notice the Royal Banquet, by George Jones, purchased by the Earl of Liverpool for 500gs.; Belinda at her Toilette, by H. Fradell, purchased by J. Fitzgerald, Esq. for 100gs; the Prodigal Son, by Graham, purchased by

Hurst, Robinson and Co. for 100gs; the Upper Lake of Killarney, W. Cowen, and the Lake of Lugano, W. Cowen, both purchased by Earl Fitzwilliam, at 60gs. a piece.

The collection of old masters at the British Institution is not so fine this year as in some that have preceded it, yet it is admirable. One room is filled by Sir Joshua Reynolds.---Rubens, Rembrandt, Claude, Leo. da Vinci, Paul Veronese, Guido, Nicolo Abati, and others, form the beauteous constellation.

Many other exhibitions adorn the metropolis; among them Mr. Glover's, Mr. Angerstein's, &c. some of them of singular merit : nor should the beautiful Panoramas, Cosmoramas, and still more beautiful Dioramas, (the last the invention of this year,) be forgotten.