Brit. Artists & Watercolour Inst./Soc. Brit. Artists

British Artists and Water-Colour Institute exhibition; Society of British Artists exhibit review resumed.

Rossetti, William M. "British Artists and Water-Colour Institute: Landscapes & C." Academy (December 25, 1875): 657. Web. 21 Sept. 2011.

Rossetti combines the reviews of the remaining subjects not previously covered in other articles on these two exhibitions. He moves directly into his typical mode of descriptive critique, considering the artist's intent, scheme of execution, and relative accomplishment compared to other artwork, art standards, and in some cases, previous works by the same artist. This he does with a very small number of exhibitors and, with this essay being a sort of catch-all conclusion to other reviews, the majority of the article is simply mention of artists and their exhibited works.

Regarding landscape water-colors, it is noteworthy that Rossetti mentions an inordinately high percentage of female painters, but without the early distinction in some critical essays regarding gender as a category or even distinguishing between gender-based standards.

In this essay, a trend that begins to appear in the 1870s essays is the inclusion of literary allusions as a comparator of expressive aesthetics. In this essay, Rossetti uses lines from Shelley and a reference to Blake as the descriptive imagery held up as a comparator to some of the work.