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THE ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY EXHIBITION.

TO any one coming from the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, the first general impression of the Academy Galleries must be disappointing. This de- pends, no doubt, largely upon the general arrangement of the latter, which is a mere matter of old routine, and shows no decorative sense. Thus, instead of utilising the sculpture in the entrance-hall and through the rooms, this is all huddled into an auctioneer's row at the remotest end of the galleries, a treatment to which, had the sculptors any guild-feeling or capacity of acting in unison, they would not for a single year submit. Yet there are several pieces of real decorative value, each now sunk hopelessly into the row of busts, and thus completely lost and spoiled. Mr. Calder Marshall's ' Foolish Virgin,' Mr. J. Massey Rhind's forcible ' Act of Mercy,' Mr. John Rhind's graceful ' Athenian Youth,' and Mr. M'Bride's well-known ' Murmvu- of the Shell,' should all have been used to give character and contrast to a whole saloon of paintings. Nor are busts and bas- reliefs mere stones, as the Academy annually pro- claims ; they were not made to be used up in forming as compactly fitted a wall of faces as their pedestals allow ; they, too, in the hands of any one who cared for them, would have been displayed, and this not only to their own advantage, but to that of the whole gallery. At present a row of mummy-cases on end would be far more decoratively effective ; and moreover it would not serve, as the present arrange- ment does, to Increase the popular repulsion fiom sculjjture, and keep one room almost empty in con- sequence. Among these unlucky busts Mr. M'Bride's are most prominent, both in number and personal interest, as of three late Edinburgh notables — Lord Deas, Dr. Haldane, and Professor Dickson ; and all three show keen characterisation and refinement. Mr. J. Massey Rhind's ' Bust of Mr. Wallace ' lias the same qualities with ease and freshness ; but while Sir John Steell's contribution must no doubt be passed as beyond comment, protest cannot be avoided with respect to the staring mechanical coarseness of Mr. Hutchison's surel)' counterfeit presentment of Norman

Macleod. Nor does the cast of his 'Torch Racer,' the statue so well skied on the University dome, really atone for this ; it imitates the classical type without adequately seizing its idealism either of manhood or divinity, and offers us the anatomical learning of the Renaissance, with little of its freedom or its strength. Coming to pictures, however, since both the Edin- burgh and Glasgow Galleries are accustomed to depend upon London loans, the contrast to the disadvantage of the former becomes even moi-e apparent. In Glasgow, not to speak of the work of dead masters, which is of course rightly excluded here, we saw Whistler's noble portrait, Watts' and Burne Jones' picture-poems. What should we not expect in Edinburgh, with all the in- fluence of the Academy to borrow for us .^ So we have got, in the very place of conspicuous honour, Mr. Perugini's nicely tinted Christmas card of petticoats and slippers ('A Summer Shower'). It is even said that the Academy authorities went and asked for it. If so, as showmen they were doubtless right ; the picture is a most popular one, since precisely at that primitive level of seeing and thinking which doubtless corresponds to the greatest happiness of the greatest number ; only, if this is to be the M'ay, in the new charter and title let us either decently drop or honestly reverse the phrase about ' encouragement of Fine Art.' With this sort of thing upon the line, and some of tlie freshest and most interesting paintings in the galleries hoisted anywhere to make room for it, is the ' encouragement ' to the artist or to the picture-lover ? or to the cause of fine art generally ? or to the nega- tives of all three ? But enough of commination ; let us console our- selves with nature. We may put out to sea by help of one of the freshest and most delightful pictures in the Exhibition, Farquharson's ' Herring-boats leaving Aber-