Art

For a good review of this exhibition please read Richard Dorment's essay "Exquisite art ruined by cant" in the Daily Telegraph. It is true that a lot of pious nonsense has been written about these pictures, and blindly parroted by those who quake at the word Intellectual (For instance, the left-leaning review "Pride & Prejudice" in the Independent). Dorment is equal to this, and his visual analysis is up-to-scratch too. (Unlike one Guardian reviewer who, describing J.F.Lewis's ' A Frank Encampment in the Desert of Mount Sinai' 1842, confused Viscount Castlereagh and the local sheikh -- really, Lord Castlereagh's pale face is quite unmistakable!) Another Guardian reviewer wrote: "None of these painters is a great artist, and yet the exhibition is full of great art." While agreeing with the latter sentiment, I declare of the former: 'Au contraire, monsieur', for the artist without an art is a charlatan and a fraud!
For the beauty of its pictures, and the rarity of such a display, I thoroughly recommend it. (If unsure, please leave your reading spectacles at home!) An ideal way to brighten up the Summer.