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FINE ARTS.

SCHOOL OF PAINTING AT THE BRITISH INSTITUTION, PALL MALL.

(To the Editor of the Mirror.)

Sir,—­I have recently had the pleasure of visiting the British Institution, and hope the following remarks on a few of the best works will prove acceptable to those of your readers who are interested in the Fine Arts.

It is customary at this Institution to open, every autumn, a school for the study of painting, in which students have an opportunity of copying the best productions of the greatest masters.  The present school opened a few weeks ago, and furnishes some exquisite specimens of art, which were selected by the directors as examples for imitation.  In general the students have been very enterprising this season, and their copies, if not quite equal in every respect to the charming originals, are nevertheless very meritorious and masterly attempts.

The Holy Family, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, is a remarkably fine specimen of colour, and has been successfully copied by Messrs. Boaden, Fisk, Child, and Inskipp.  Small copies, in water colours, have also been done from it by Miss Sharpe, and Miss Fanny Corbaux.  Much praise is due to Mr. Morton, for his whole length Portrait of a Gentleman, after Vandyke; and Messrs. Simpson, Higham, and Middleton, deserve high commendation for executing the best fac similia of Rembrandt’s Portrait of a Lady.  The Landscape with Boors, is a delightful little picture by Teniers, belonging to his Majesty:  numerous attempts have been made to imitate it, but not altogether with success.  Mr. Hart’s copy, however, is extremely clever.  Poussin’s Landscape and Figures, has engaged the pencil of Mr. Burbank, who has produced a most elaborate copy in water colours.  Mr. Foster displays considerable ability in his Hobbima; and Messrs. Lee, Earl, Watts, and Dujardin, have equally excelled in their copies from the cattle piece by Cuyp.  In De Hooge’s picture, the Exterior with Figures, we are delighted with the representation of a fine summer evening:  a peculiar warmth is diffused over every object, and the lengthened shadows indicate sunset:  of this work, Mr. Novice has executed the best finished copy; Miss Dujardin’s, however, is exceedingly good, and contains much promise.  Another splendid example of art is a Large Landscape, by Gainsborough, good studies from which have been made by Messrs. Watts and Child.

Two small views on the Grand Canal at Venice, by Gwardi, have employed the talents of Miss Dujardin, Mr. E. Child, Mr. Watts, and Master Pasmore.  But it is impossible to enumerate, in this hasty notice, all the arduous undertakings of the students:  suffice it to say, that they have gained another step towards pictorial fame, and that their copies, from the works of Rubens, Wouvermans, Murillo, Canaletti, Titian, &c., are honourable testimonies of their exertion to excel.