to read a puzzled look, and preserve his visitor from committing a blunder. We are not surprised, therefore, to learn that several of our most eminent artists send no pictures this year to the Academy, and that others, who do send, have taken less pains than usual to prepare for the exhibition; but, while we are not surprised at this state of affairs, we cannot say that we like it. A good Academy exhibition, in which the best works of our best men are collected, has many advantages over a studio exhibition. It enables one to judge more readily, and, beyond a doubt, more correctly, of the progress of art and of the relative value of pictures. The coup d'œeil in a well-arranged gallery makes an impression which cannot be gained in a studio, where a single picture is displayed. If the Academy exhibitions could be seriously affected by the studio receptions, we should be sorry they were ever commenced; but of this there is very little danger. The hanging committees will probably exercise a greater amount of care in arranging pictures, when they find that eminent artists decline sending their works to the Academy.
Though some familiar names will be missed from the catalogue this year, yet there is really no falling off in the value of the spring exhibition. Colman sends an admirable picture of the Battery, painted from the water, and showing Castle Garden, the shipping, and the fortifications on Governor's Island. The work is executed in his very best style, combining delicacy and force, breadth of tone and exquisite care in the delineation of details. We understand this picture is the first of a series devoted to New York, for which Colman has been for many years collecting studies. The department of landscape is very full, as usual, comprising works from McEntee, Shattuck, Gifford, Kensett, Griswold, Gignoux, Hubbard, Whitredge, Homer Martin, William and James Hart, and other well-known artists. Portraiture is also well represented Oliver Stone's portrait of Lester Wallack, in the character of Don Felix, will attract attention as a spirited and conscientious work, well composed and carefully painted; and Ehninger's portrait of the late Professor Anthon, painted for Columbia College, is no less meritorious as a work of art than as a likeness. Le Clear contributes a very striking portrait of Parke Godwin, one of the most successful works that ever came from his studio. Of the genre pictures, there is a large number, many of them very beautiful and important. We can only direct attention this month to those of Guy (whose best work, we are sorry to say, has gone to Philadelphia), Perry, who sends two very finely-finished pictures, and J. B. Irving. The works of these artists, and, indeed, the genre pictures generally in this exhibition, show a very decided advance in skill and power of manipulation over the efforts of former years. The influence of French art is visible—perhaps too much so—in nearly all the contributions to this department of the exhibition. Hennessy exhibits several pictures, the most striking and attractive of which is a beautiful composition called "Spring," full of the breath of flowers and young leaves and grass. Edwin White exhibits a large composition, entitled "The Studio of Leonardo da Vinci," a fine work of art, but rather too remote from modern ideas to awaken much interest Far more attractive is Eastman Johnson's "Boyhood of Abraham Lincoln"—a picture which not only appeals to the art sentiment of every visitor, but to the popular sympathies. It is in every respect a noble work, worthy of the artist and of the subject
We cannot, in the present number, go further into particulars, as our knowledge of the exhibition is derived wholly from the studio receptions. But, we feel justified in saying that if one-half the good pictures we have seen in the studios be accepted by the committee, the exhibition will be fully equal to the best of former years, and will in many respects surpass them. Art culture and art sentiment in New York have received a surprising impetus within the last two years—partly from the studio receptions, and still more from the greater familiarity of our citizens with foreign art, through travel and the importation of the works of the greatest men of France and Germany. Our own artists have felt the influence of this culture. It has given them new courage and higher ambition, and its effects cannot but be salutary and permanent
