Page:Notes on the Royal Academy Exhibition, 1868 (IA gri 33125011175656).pdf/27

 remarkable, though bounded and monotonous, gifts of execution. The moment is when Lady Macbeth, having drugged the guards, and "laid their daggers ready" (one of these lies within the circlet of the crown), relinquishes any thought of herself assassinating the old king, who "resembles her father as he sleeps." The tragic air of crime in Lady Macbeth, her superfluous stealthinesses of action, are grandly given; though it cannot be said that her face differs much from the type so constant and familiar in Mr. Maclise's productions. Duncan and the two guards are all three fine figures. The lighting of the picture is not obvious: it would appear to be the union of soft moonshine and pale diffused grey dawn-light which comes through the loop-hole at the back; but this does not seem to account for all the light in front, as on the figures of the guards; while neither can one discern, on the other hand, that much (if any) influence of artificial light has been intended by the painter. Real the picture would, of course, never be made to look; but I think it would look considerably less unreal at one point if Duncan's head lay deeper in the silken pillows.

440. —Letters and News at the Loch-side.—A landscape with portraits and incident. I pick it out from among the contributions of its able painter, for the sake of noting the great amount of space, light, and air, which he has got into this picture, although there is no single glimpse of sky: the ground rises all round from the lake-side. This is no small thing to have managed.

449. —Acme and Septimus.—Remarkable for its elegant skill of concentrated composition. The knee of Acme's left leg—the foot of the same leg being set underneath her right thigh as she sits—appears to me to project too much laterally. This may be a convenient place for calling attention (with implied apology for not speaking of them with the detail they properly claim) to Mr. Leighton's three remaining pictures: Nos. 227, Jonathan's Token to David; 234, Mrs. Frederick P. Cockerell; 522, Actæa, the Nymph of the Shore.

453. —Chinese Ladies looking at European Curiosities—A quaint and amusing notion, and a pleasant picture. A Chinese gentleman is exhibiting to his wives and their