Royal Academy, third notice

The Royal Academy exhibition, third notice.

Rossetti, William M. "The Royal Academy." Academy (May 27, 1876): 517. Web. 21 Sept. 2011.

Rossetti cites the near impossibility of the critic's task in such a large exhibition. He counts forty-six domestic painters, forty-one portrait painters, and forty-five landscapists. Prominent among the works he considers the best are the familiar names Hubert von Herkomer, Macbeth, Sir John Everett Millais, Philip H. Calderon and Prinsep.

Rossetti examines the work of Small extensively, considering both quantitative and qualitative comments that comprise the largest single focus of the review. Sir John Everett Millais claims the second longest, then Havers, Ward, Philip H. Calderon, Yeames, and Chalmers.

Rossetti notes a fault in Sir John Everett Millais's "getting Better," an uncommon public notice for Rossetti. He states that the figure's head is "knocked off" rather than "rightly painted," one of the few examples of direct criticism of Sir John Everett Millais that has appeared in a Rossetti critique.

He notes that one of Mrs. Ward's paintings, though "we cannot call it a good picture," nonetheless has merit because it is "an intelligently told story, and a painted sermon."

Rossetti classifies portraits into "three broad classes," power; delicacy of design, and "works of general rather than special ability or efficiency." Foremost among the works singled out for praise are those of Sir John Everett Millais and Symons; Millais is also singled out for praise as a landscapist, as is Henry Moore. Rossetti concludes the notice with a section of brief mentions.

critical

Royal Academy, figures, portraits, landscapes

Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic standards

evaluative

Herkemer, Macbeth, Sir John Everett Millais, Philip H. Calderon, Prinsep, Havers, Yeames, Chalmers, Ward