The photographic news

• Bandzählung: 35.1891
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1891
• Sprache: Englisch
• Signatur: F 135
• Vorlage: Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Digitalisat: Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Digitalisat: SLUB Dresden
• Rechtehinweis: Public Domain Mark 1.0
• URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-db-id1780948042-189100009
• PURL: http://digital.slub-dresden.de/id1780948042-18910000
• OAI: oai:de:slub-dresden:db:id-1780948042-18910000
• Sammlungen: LDP: Historische Bestände der Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Sammlungen: Fotografie
• Strukturtyp: Band

• Digitalisat: SLUB Dresden
• Strukturtyp: Ausgabe

THE EXHIBITION AT PALL MALL. [Second Notice.] We are glad to learn that the Gallery at Pall Mall attracts many visitors. There were certainly a large number there on a recent afternoon when we were there, and we noticed that, contrary to what is customary at certain other exhibi tions of pictures, those present really studied the works hung, and discussed their merits among themselves. It was the same with the apparatus ; everything was sub mitted to careful examination, and possibly, from the frequent handling, some of the cameras and other goods will at the close of the Exhibition bear a very strong resemblance to second-hand articles. But exhibitors are prepared to run this risk, and if wise will wish that the visitors, so far as is possible, will test the working of the apparatus shown.. Continuing our review of the pictures where we left them last week, we come to two picturesbyMr. A. Keighley. The first (No. 145) is entitled “ Driftwood,” and it takes us to a rock-girt shore at low tide. The sands are just in that half-dry, half-wet condition when they will yield pleasant reflections of the figures walking upon them. These are, in the picture, naturally placed, and the whole scene is very successfully photographed. In No. 151, by the same hand, some fisher children have extemporised a swing which hangs from the bowsprit of a vessel in harbour. The background of this picture, consisting of a steep path bordered by huts, is cleverly rendered, and the entire composition is a very pleasing one. Close by these two is an attractive picture by Mr. B. Alfieri (No. 146), with the title “ Against the Sky on the Sea-Wall.” A man stands by a horse amid a score of sheep, apparently upon sand dunes hard by the sea shore ; the sea is not shown, but it seems to be there all the same. The lighting of the group is admirable, while at the same time the sky is so natural that we fancy that it must have been taken on the same negative as the rest of the composition. If printed- in afterwards, the work has been beautifully done. A very good effect has been obtained by Mr. L. C. Bennett in No. 157, which, after the manner of Mr. Whistler, is called “A Nocturne.” This is a seascape with a barge, such as one can see any day running down the Thames or Medway, or coasting along the Downs, whose sail is just in front of a break in the sky, where presently the moon may be expected to peep forth. The work is too black in tone as it is, and, if it were printed more lightly and kept grey, it would be a very fine little picture. Four excellent pictures are those of Mr. F. Beasley, and we can only regret that they are exhibited in one frame. The number is 158, and the subjects are, “The Falls of Moness,” “The Lyn of Dee,” “Old Invercauld Bridge,” and “ Glen Lyon.” It seems a pity that so many photo graphers should injure their work by adopting this injudicious course ; but we are bound to say that the evil is not half so rampant now as it was in former years. We can only suppose that it is for reasons of economy that the practice is followed; but, at the best, it means that false economy to which the adjectives, “cheap and nasty,” are so often applied. Four more pictures which are allowed to rob one another of elbow room in this way are numbered 176, and they are by the same hand. Any one of them, or those whose titles have already been quoted, would be better solus, and give far more pleasure to the beholder, than as part of a quartette. As if to point out the truth of this remark, there are hung in the near neighbourhood of Mr. Beasley’s pictures a number of works by Mr. J. P. Gibson, each of which, although smaller in size than those just reviewed, has a frame allotted to its separate use. These pictures at once attract attention, not only because of their great excellence, but also because of the pleasing hue conferred upon them by platinum toning. The finest, perhaps, is No. 181, “Autumn on the Tyne,” which is quite a little gem. Here the photo grapher had a beautiful view before him ; but Mr. Gibson shows by other pictures that he can coax beauty out of very sorry surroundings. Look, for instance, at No. 206, “Deserted Lead Mills.” Here we have a few huts and ruined walls; these materials, with the help of a couple of figures, a distant hill, and a broken sky, make up a picture of which anyone might be justly proud. Those who visited the last Exhibition of the Royal Academy may remember that there was shown there a large picture by Mr. Leader representing a portion of the unfinished Manchester Ship Canal—and a very fine work it was—in which that which is picturesque was discovered in the big ditch, with its puddles, its mud, its cranes, and other mysteries of the navvy’s work. It is not, therefore, surprising that the humble photographer should follow in the footsteps of such a worthy Leader, and present us with a series of pictures showing in a most interesting manner the progress of this stupendous engineering achievement. The pictures, six in number, are by Mr. T. Birtles, of Warrington, and. excellent they are in every respect. They show us not only a part of the gigantic cutting, which presently will be filled with water and big ships, but also the huge piers, lock-gates, dredges, and other features of the undertaking. Such pictures as these will be looked upon with interest years hence when the canal is a highway for commerce, and when, let us hope, it is paying its shareholders handsomely. The London Stereoscopic Company show some large direct portraits which are of very fine quality. That of Miss Lily Hanbury (No. 180) is especially pleasing, but they all show excellent work. In No. 212 Mr. C. Reid has four pictures of horses, sheep, a deer, and a dog. The last two are exceedingly good, the dog—a fine collie—being one which would have re joiced the heart of Landseer. Mr. W. P. Marsh, in Nos. 225 and 226, exhibits two pictures of Persian kittens play ing with a straw hat, which are so much alike in subject that it would perhaps have been better if one only had been shown. As an example of really good landscape work, we may direct attention to “Sunshine after Rain, Coniston ” (No. 223), by Mr. II. Young. Here we have a carpet of bracken in the foreground relieved by masses of foliage which clothe two hills, through the opening between which is faintly seen a portion of the distant lake. The whole scene is bathed in sunlight, which not only lights up the foreground and trees, but also renders luminous the air, so that the distance is lost in haze. The central portion of this end wall of the gallery is occupied by large direct studies of children by Mr. W. J. Byrne, of Richmond. Of these, “An Eastern Beauty ” is, we think, the best. It is a difficult thing to make young children act a part satisfactorily, either on the stage or in the studio. The children upon whom Mr. Byrne has relied for his models do not come up to the ideal at which he aimed. Nos. 194, 195, and 196 are sky and sea effects of a very lovely nature from the camera of Mr. W. Clement Williams, of Halifax. This gentleman has, we remember, shown work of this kind at former ex hibitions, but on a far smaller scale. These are printed