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May 8, 1885.J THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. 293 grounds. Experiments with lighter backgrounds than at present favoured, might be worth attempting. Of Mr. Millais' charming picture of "The Lady Peggy Primrose,” it is only necessary to say that it is in his happiest vein. A. curious contrast is a companion picture of “ The Lady Sibyl Primrose,” by Sir Frederick Leighton. The doll-like prettiness of the latter and the complete naturalness of the former are very’ characteristic. One child is of wax, the other of flesh and blood. The portraits of children in this year’s exhibition are very numerous, and one tires of coming across such announcements as “ Cecil and Adela, daughters of ” this, or “ Sarah, daughter of” that. It is odd, too, that parents seem to prefer to have their girls painted rather than their boys. Mr. Sant, R. A., of course is responsible fora good many of these children’s portraits, but Mr. Sant’s work is of a past age, and is precisely of the kind that photography has done so much to improve. One of Mr. Faulkner’s photo graphs of children is worth half-a-dozen of Mr. Sant’s pictures for absence of staginess and fidelity to nature. Bat monotonous as these portraits of children become, they are not such offenders as are such huge monstrosities as Mr. John Collier’s portraits of “ Sir Thos. Boughty, Bart., and Lady Boughty.” The " Bart,” arrayed in a bran new hunting coat of the most startling red, is standing on a flight of stone steps, and a very plain lady is just within the doorway. At the feet of the “ Bart ” is a fox hound. They are all painted life-size, and the picture cannot cover less than a hundred square feet of wall space. A finer specimen of the penny plain, twopence coloured, order of art has not been seen at Burlington House. The portraits of Mr. G. F. Watts, Mr. Long, Mr. Pettie, and Mr. Orchardson exhibit the peculiarity of each master. Mr. Watts has only one picture, an exceedingly fine por trait of Miss Laura Gurney (No. 201). In Mr. Long’s eyes all flesh is of a dusky creamyness, possibly through his assiduous study of Eastern beauty ; and in his portrait of Miss Fleetwood Wilson he has not been able to rid him self of this notion. One is apt to get tired of Mr. Long’s low tones. Mr. Pettie’s prediliction is towards a bilious sallowness, and if his Mr. J. G. Orchar (No. 185), and Mr. John Garrett Martin, be truly represented, both are suffer- ing from a liver complaint. Mr. Pettie’s capital pictures “Challenged,” and two subjects from the “School for Scandal,” are free from this peculiarity. Mr. Orchardson favours a greenish-yellow tone ; the green predominates in his portrait of Mrs. Ralli, and the yellow in his picture “The Salon of Madame Recamier." Mr. Orchardson’s pictures, I fancy, would not photograph well. In some notices of the Academy “ The Salon of Madame Recamier” is placed as the picture of the year. Undoubtedly the grouping is good, and painting brilliant, but it is notable only as a collection of portraits. The artist seems to have felt this, for he has had the names of the principal person ages placed on the frame under each figure. So far from suggesting the wit and repartee associated with Madame Recamier’s assemblies, Mr. Orchardson’s picture only con veys an impression of dullness. The best pictures at the Academy are, of course, not the portraits, but the latter are challenged by photography more directly than are the landscapes and works of imagina tion. Looking round the walls with their 150 portraits, of which scarcely a dozen can be said to be really interesting, I could not help thinking of Mr. Glaisher’s lament that portraiture has been so sparsely represented at the photo graphic exhibitions of the past few years. With the efforts of the Royal Academicians before me, I felt grateful to photographers for their forbearance. Only men of the highest genius, whether painters or photographers, can make portraits acceptable, and the photographer has the advant- agof the painter, because he has a better chance of securing a correct likeness, which, after all, condones a good many faults in other directions. Mr. J. D. Linton’s “ Marriage of H. R. II. the Duke of Albany, K.G.,” painted for her Majesty, is a capital example of shortcoming in this very essential point. The painting consists entirely of portraits, and no doubt Mr. Linton has been largely assisted by photographs; but how oddly he has contrived to miss the likeness in his drawing of the Queen and the Princess of Wales, while that of the late Archbishop of Canterbury is positively absurd 1 A curious characteristic of portrait ure is, that if it be not faithful, it immediately caricatures. Dr. Tait is saying complacently, “ There, I think I’ve done this business pretty smart! ” as plainly as paint can make him. The Prince of Wales is decidedly dissatisfied, and is half inclined to insist upon the ceremony being performed again. The Duke of Cambridge is evidently tip-toeing so as to get a better look of the young couple who seem to be remarking, “ Yes, here we are, what do you think of us ? ” The rest of the crowd are hopelessly bored; while one lady who is making a curtsey is agonised by the thought that the court functionary behind her has got his foot on her train. The whole picture is intensely absurd. The rest of the paintings must be dismissed in a few lines, since they do not come within the scope of this article. Mr. Marcus Stone’s “ A Gambler’s Wife,” Mr. Yeames’ “Prisoners of War,” Mr. H. Stacy Marks’ “A Good Story,” the “ Una Limosmita por el Amor de Dios ” of Mr. J. B. Burgess, Mr. W. P. Frith’s “John Knox at Holyrood,” Mr. E. Long’s “ Love’s Labour Lost,” Mr. Alma Tadema’s “ A Reading from Homer ” (the wonder ful painting of the marble is more photographic than photography), Mr. P. Calderon’s “ Andromeda ” (never was seen such blue water as Mr. Calderon has here), Mr. H. Garland’s “ Waiting for a Breeze, South wold,” Mr. Fildes’ “Venetians,” Mr. Poynter’s “Diadumene” (a nude figure with somewhat short legs), Mr. E. Blair Leighton’s “ The Secret ” (a very powerful picture of a dying man whispering in the ear of a monk), are a few of the more notable works. Mr. Colin Hunter, by the way, should sbudy photographs of wave effects. His curly, yeasty seas, arranged in parallel lines, are becoming intolerably monotonous. To the majority of the outsiders, it can scarcely be said that justice has been done. Their pictures have either been skyed, or placed so low that they cannot be seen without going on one’s knees. In justice to the hanging committee, however, it must be said that a whole host of small pictures appear to have been hung for no other purpose than because they happened to fill a particular space, and the committee have succeeded in doing this very well. Wide-Angle. POSITIVES ON GELATINO-CHLORIDE OF SILVER. BY W. M. ASHMAN AND II. OFFORD. Fourth Article. As we have now shown the manner by which emulsions may be compounded satisfactorily, wo will crave the reader’s indulgence for a little space in the present article for the consideration of some of the strange peculiarities attending the preparation of mixed emulsions. Doubt less, the uncertainty may be attributed to the presence of chloride and citrate, or other molecules attacking the nascent silver at the same moment. In accordance with certain laws of physical chemistry, we are led to expect that the known affinity of silver nitrate for chlorine would be greatly in excess of that displayed towards many other substances of a more or less organic nature, and that by following up this mode of reasoning we should conclude that the whole of a soluble haloid would be converted into silver haloid before any organic silver salt could be formed. Were we dealing with simple aqueous solutions, it is probable that this explanation would be the true one, since it is capable of verification by means of a voltaic arrange ment. When, however, a viscous liquid of considerable density enters into the calculation, the internal resistance so