Dudley Gallery, first notice

Dudley gallery February 1875 first notice.

Rossetti, William M. "The Dudley Gallery." The Academy (1875): 141. Web. 21 Sept. 2011.

Rossetti calls the exhibition "a nice, average exhibition," which proves in total to be a little better than a neutral review. Early on, Rossetti advances the commonality of poetic expression in verse and painting, terming one painting by Poynter to be a "complete piece of execution, good in form, and, if not precisely poetical in spirit, still free from anything discordantly prosaic." Once again, Rossetti stresses the importance of an accompanying catalogue and quotes from one in reference to a painting that included a sonnet that inspired a particular painting that he judged to be, "well-felt in this simple poetic way."

Rossetti favors Poynter as the best of the exhibition as well as for being aware of the need to paint poetically as "one way of suggesting to the eye what the mind needs to realize."

By Rossetti examines a handful of paintings in a critical review in his usual form: analysis of the inspiration, the story, the plan, the execution and the relative merit of the completed work in comparison to artistic standard as well as other work by the artist and other artists.